When the biggest stars in professional sports showcase their Christian faith, we rightly pronounce it a big deal.
In the world of Major League Baseball, stars come no bigger than New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
During Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, Georgia, Judge will use a custom bat featuring a variety of blue artwork, including a paraphrased version of what the slugger has called one of his favorite Bible verses.
The Yankees account on the social media platform X posted a photo of the bat.
Near the end of the bat, in small-yet-visible print, one finds the words “II Cor 5:7, Faith, not sight.”
“[F]or we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Closer to the barrel, the bat features another important word: “Nora.”
According to People, Judge and his wife Samantha welcomed their first child, daughter Nora, on Jan. 27.
“.@TheJudge44’s 1st ASG as a Dad,” the Yankees’ X account noted.
.@TheJudge44‘s 1st ASG as a Dad 💙 pic.twitter.com/Gq9rUXDsCE
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 14, 2025
In other words, even if you choose not to root for the Yankees, you should still root for Judge.
“I feel they kind of picked me,” the 33-year-old slugger said of his adoptive parents, Wayne and Patty, per the family-focused Daily Citizen. “I feel that God was the one that matched us together.”
As for 2 Corinthians 5:7, Judge picked that verse for a reason.
“It’s one of my favorite Bible verses,” he said in 2022, per the Daily Citizen. “[I] try to live my life by it, and always trust the Man above and what He’s got in store for us. We never know what’s around the corner, but if we have faith in Him, He will lead us in the right direction.”
One rarely encounters such faith and humility from a celebrity of Judge’s stature.
Indeed, at 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds, and having won the American League MVP award in 2022 and 2024, the Yankees slugger stands, both literally and figuratively, as one of the two or three biggest stars in baseball.
At the 2025 All-Star Break, Judge has already hit 35 home runs and amassed a stratospheric OPS of 1.195.
Judge, of course, is not the only high-profile professional athlete to publicly proclaim his Christian faith.
Last month, for instance, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a future Hall-of-Famer, wrote a Bible verse on his team’s official “pride” hat.
Likewise, 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud, quarterback of the Houston Texans, has regularly praised Jesus Christ following his games.
Perhaps the most courageous example of all, however, came from the NBA. During the Black Lives Matter madness of 2020, Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac refused to kneel for the national anthem, citing his Christian faith.
Are more athletes willing to speak about their Christian faith?
Since then, Isaac has launched a Christian-themed apparel company, Unitus.
Speaking of which, there must be something about professional athletes and 2 Corinthians, for Isaac has worn basketball shoes featuring a verse from that letter of the Apostle Paul: “persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9).
Of course, none of this should surprise us. After all, the majority of Americans still identify as Christians.
But it does surprise us, and the reason it does is that mainstream culture treats Christianity as fringe. Thus, in a way, we can almost experience life in the Roman Empire, where professing one’s faith in Christ amounted to an act of subversion.
How else can we explain why Judge and other prominent Christians strike us as courageous rebels?
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