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The surprise team in baseball this year is the Cincinnati Reds. Picked by most to finish in the middle of the pack, at best, the Reds are battling the St. Louis Cardinals to win the NL central division. With few veterans on board, the Reds are winning with a lot of young ballplayers, mostly unknown outside of Cincinnati, and in the minds of ardent baseball followers. Fans are learning about Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, and Travis Wood, all potential all-stars on the Reds’ roster. They are also learning about Chris Heisey, the Cincinnati outfielder, who is making an impression on many, including manager Dusty Baker. Heisey is batting near .300, and has eight home runs, including an inside-the-park homer recently against Pittsburgh. “He was up here mostly out of necessity,” said Baker, “but he’s made the most of his chances.”
That’s not bad for a guy who was totally ignored by baseball scouts coming out of high school in Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania. “I didn’t even get any (NCAA) Division I scouts looking at me,” he said. Instead, he ended up at Messiah College, a small Christian school forty minutes from home. That was where he made his mark. He was good enough to impress the Reds, and they drafted him in the 17th round of the 2006 amateur draft, allowing him to forgo his senior year at Messiah.
Since then, he has paid dividends for the Reds, hitting at every level, and being named the Reds Minor league player of the year in 2009. This year, in May, he was called up by the Reds, and after initially having some struggles, he has been doing well. Recently, I caught up with Chris in the Reds dugout, and we had a chance to talk. The interview time was extended because a thunderstorm coming toward Great America Ball Park had shortened batting practice. With the thunder and lightning in the background, Chris talked about his faith, and his background in the Mennonite church, a conservative denomination prevalent in Pennsylvania. Chris grew up going to church every week, but he points to a camp experience at the age of 13 that changed his life. The camp was called Circle K, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and that is where he accepted Christ as his Savior.
As the interview continued, the hail came. It was like a metaphor for Chris, who ignored the chaos around, including second baseman Brandon Phillips yelling in his microphone, and focused instead on talking about his faith. “When you have God at the center of your life,” he said as ice pellets gathered near our feet, “it makes it easy to deal with adversity and pressure because you know at the end of the day, you’re a child of God, and baseball is not the most important thing.” Heisey also knows that the tempations of being a young ballplayer won’t go away. He has a support group that includes his wife, and other Christian ballplayers on the Reds team like Micah Owings. He also hasn’t forgotten his church roots. He hears regularly from his home Mennonite church in Mt. Joy, and his adopted Brethren in Christ church that he and his wife attend regularly in Mechanicsburg, PA, his current home.
Home is important to Heisey, and he carries the legacy of his father. Though he grew up with Mike Schmidt posters on his wall, it was his dad who was his hero. The close-knit family was hit hard when Frank Heisey was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease in the summer of 2004. He died on Oct. 5, 2007. Now Chris sees himself as the family leader. “The bitterness has turned to thankfulness,” he told a reporter recently. Indeed, all storms soon pass. The sun came out at Great America Ball Park, and the Reds went backto getting ready for their game. Chris Heisey sat on the bench as the Reds beat the Colorado Rockies. But as I watched from the press box, more words I had with the young outfielder came to mind. “Sometimes, you have to step back, you know, and say, ‘God is the final authority.’ I have Jesus in my heart.”
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