Detroit Tigers baseball prospect Gage Workman faced a dilemma that the most athletically gifted Latter-day Saints face. Should he go on the transformational, 2-year mission experience some of his peers choose when they complete high school, or should he pursue his sport?
After prayers and deliberation, Workman stuck with baseball and finished out his collegiate career at Arizona State University. The Tigers drafted Workman in the fourteen h round.
Part of what helped him choose was a personal commitment to be a missionary in pinstripes, trying to use a platform as a pro athlete to share his faith.
He told Detroit Free Press sports columnist Jeff Seidel that baseball means “a lot of uncertainty. You got COVID. You got a new environment of pro ball. But I feel like my religion gives me certainty, gives me a foundation, gives me a sense of peace …”
His faith is “who I am … “I mean, it’s top on my priority list. I’ve lived it my whole life and my plan to keep living it. It’s blessed me and I think it’s really helped me along the way. So I guess you can say it’s pretty much everything to me.”
And what about the missions? Workman’s father, Widd, made a different decision but followed a similar path. Widd Workman played baseball at Brigham Young University and then went on a two-year mission in Iowa. He finished his collegiate career at Arizona State University, as his son had, and played minor league baseball.
“100 Questions and Answers About The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” is available from Amazon or the Front Edge Publishing bookstore.
