The 1978 Giants Had Nine Born-Again Christians and a Media Storm

Matt Sieger spent years researching the 1978 San Francisco Giants, a team that nobody remembers winning anything but everybody in the city that year remembers. They increased their attendance by one million fans in a single season. They had nine to ten born-again Christians on a 25-man roster. They started thanking God in post-game interviews. And then the Dodgers overtook them in mid-August, the wins stopped, and the San Francisco media turned on them in a way that followed some of those players for the rest of their careers.

A fake quote, a satirical column proposing one player sell his soul to the devil, death threats sent to a pitcher, and a national media pile-on built on myths: Matt walks through what the God Squad actually said, what the press reported they said, and why a story about pitcher Bob Knepper telling his manager a home run was God’s will, a story Knepper flatly denies, ended up in national columns from coast to coast. He also makes the case that the abuse this group absorbed in San Francisco is precisely why today’s athletes can thank Jesus on national television without a second thought.

Highlights

• How reliever Gary Lavelle came to faith in winter ball in 1976 and quietly led teammates to Jesus over the next two seasons
• Why the San Francisco media was fine with the God Squad in 1978 when the Giants were winning and turned hostile when they started losing
• The columnist who proposed one player sell his soul to the devil in a piece called Can Satan Save the Giants
• The fake Bob Knepper quote about God’s will, which he denies ever saying, that national columnists repeated as fact for years
• How Gary Lavelle received death threats after a New York Times column stripped the context from his statements about homosexuality
• Why the God Squad’s experience in San Francisco educated the national media that this kind of openness from athletes was going to become a permanent thing
• The moment Bob Costas was visibly taken aback when Gary Carter thanked Jesus live on national television after the 1986 World Series
• How organizations like Baseball Chapel and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes built on what the God Squad started

Resources / Links / CTA

• 📖 Book: The God Squad: The Born Again San Francisco Giants of 1978 by Matt Sieger
• 🌐 Follow, share, and explore more of Crosswalk Talk
• 👉 Follow, share, and subscribe for more faith-driven conversations on Lifeaudio

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