DBU grad wants to play ball for the glory of God

JACKSON, Tenn.—Brandon Bantz is not out to make a name for himself in professional baseball. He wants to be a hit for another reason.

“I try to make God’s name famous through my play on the field. I am playing for the glory of God and not my own. I would love to be in the big leagues to have that platform to reach people for Christ. But my goal is to draw as close to God as I can, so I can follow his will—wherever it is,” Bantz said.

“Whether that is baseball in the big leagues or another avenue in life, my goal is to become more and more like Christ every day.”

Drafted in the 30th round by the Seattle Mariners in 2009, Bantz was a catcher this season for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx in Jackson, Tenn., the Mariners’ affiliate in the Class AA Southern League.

As a student athlete at Dallas Baptist University, Brandon Bantz participated in a mission trip to Guatemala in 2007.

In 24 games with the Jaxx, who earned the wild-card berth for the playoffs, Bantz had 19 hits, including a home run, triple and six doubles while batting .241. He also played for Clinton, Iowa, in the Class A Midwest League in 2010. He leaves in November for Australia to play in a Mariners’ winter league.

A native of Mansfield and a 2009 graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Bantz led the Patriots to the 2008 regionals at College Station.

He grew up around the game. Both his mother, Melinda, and father, Ronnie, who retired as an Arlington policeman, worked for the Texas Rangers.

What sets Bantz apart from most players in pro baseball is the reason he plays.

“For the man of God I am trying to become, my faith gives me focus and is why I play. It puts the game in the right place. My faith gives me perspective. Baseball isn’t everything in my life. This game doesn’t define me. It helps me deal with the very thing this game brings,” he said.

“My relationship with God has become no longer a head knowledge. It’s a heart knowledge. It’s an action. My faith has become real, alive. There is a joy in my life that I never had before. Now I have a passion and spirit that a walk with God brings.”

That wasn’t always the case.

Immorality caused him to hit rock bottom he said. He struggled with loneliness; the divorce of his parents when he was in high school; the death of his grandfather, Norman Bantz, a Disciples of Christ pastor for 40 years in Mineral Wells; and the death of his best friend, Austin Phillips. After pitching on a Thursday, Phillips died of spinal meningitis on a Saturday. He was 19.

Bantz has learned how difficult a Christian walk is in baseball. “Your flesh always arises,” he said. Women, nightlife and the game itself bring temptations. If I depend on me, I would fall.”

He tries to rise above temptations through Scripture memorization, writing out prayers, listening to Christian music—especially Christian rap—and reading daily from the Bible he received from DBU when the Patriots went to the 2008 regional finals.

“The game has taught me how prideful I am and how essential the word of God is to my life. It impacts your faith. My strength is through God. If you are not grounded in the knowledge of the word of God, you will never make it. You will sink,” he said.

“I have meaning and purpose for my life. I understand where I am going and who I am going to become.”

Bantz, 23, became a Christian at a church camp when he was in the eighth grade. He attended thinking it was a sports camp.

For six years, he has been a volunteer youth minister at Stonegate Church in Midlothian .

While playing for the Everett AquaSox in Everett, Wash., he won the Ellis Award for the most community service among players in the Mariners’ minor league organization.

“Love on people was all I did,” he said. He led baseball camps, read to children at libraries and visited children in hospitals.

While Bantz wants his teammates to think of him as a “good teammate” and a hard worker, he would want them to say,  “Above all, he exemplified Jesus.”

His role model and mentor is Dan Heefner, DBU head baseball coach. Bantz helps with the Patriots during off-season.

Bantz has invested himself spiritually into DBU players said Heefner, a member of Matthew Road Baptist Church in Grand Prairie.

“I see him pouring his life into others and thinking about them before he thinks of himself. He has got a vision for living to the glory of God and not self, and that is his goal and his platform for being a professional baseball player. He genuinely loves the Lord. He’s humble. He has an incredible faith. God is sovereign over his life. He trusts him.”

An “outstanding catcher” with aggressive defense, Heener noted, Bantz was captain on the field because of his position.

“He did a great job handling our pitchers,” said Heefner, who also saw Bantz grow off the field while at DBU. “He was a guy who led by example as well as in words.”

Bantz cultivates his different view of baseball.

“I don’t look at baseball as baseball. I look at it as my ministry,” said Bantz. “I don’t look at baseball as a long season. I look at it as another day to go about my ministry.”