In this February 1984 file photo, Chicago Cubs pitcher Scott Sanderson poses for a photo during spring training. Sanderson died Thursday, April 11, 2019. He was 62. (AP Photo, File)
Former major league pitcher Scott Sanderson, who spent 19 years in the big leagues, died on Thursday. He was 62, and a cause of death was not known.
A third-round draft pick by the Montreal Expos out of Vanderbilt in 1977, Sanders made it to the majors after just 28 minor-league appearances in 1978. He stayed with the Expos for six seasons, then pitched six seasons with the Chicago Cubs (1984-89) followed by stints with the Athletics (1990), Yankees (1991-92), Angels (1993), Giants (1993), White Sox (1994) and Angels again (1995-96).
Sanderson was also a devout Christ-follower who left an impact on many.
“I don’t think we have ever met someone who has competed at such a high level for so many years and walked so humbly in his faith in Christ,” former MLB catcher Eddie Taubensee (1991-2001) told Sports Spectrum. “Scott has definitely impacted my life with so many conversations and the ultimate example of, ‘How to follow me as I follow Christ.’ My heart is heavy, and yet rejoices for Scott.”
The Cubs held a moment of silence in honor of Sanderson before Thursday night’s game.
We are saddened by the passing of former #Cubs pitcher Scott Sanderson and share our deepest condolences with his family and friends. pic.twitter.com/OcOFdMJijx
Sanderson finished his career with a 163-143 record and 3.84 ERA in 472 appearances (407 starts). He helped the Cubs end a 38-year playoff drought with an 8-5 record and 3.14 ERA in 1984, as the Cubs won the National League East. He went 11-9 in 1989, as the Cubs won their second division title in six years. Sanderson’s lone All-Star appearance came with the Yankees in 1991, when he finished 16-10 with a 3.81 ERA.
“Scotty was such a good guy,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who coached Sanderson with the Angels coaching staff. “Really thoughtful, kind, oh man, just a wonderful man.”
Sanderson became an agent upon retiring from baseball, and represented players such as Josh Beckett, Josh Hamilton and Todd Helton. He was a longtime Northbrook and Lake Forest, Ill., resident.
Auburn baseball chaplain Mason Maners prays with the team. (Photo courtesy of Mason Maners)
Auburn (42-20), the No. 4 national seed in the college baseball NCAA Tournament, is preparing to host fellow SEC foe Ole Miss (39-21) in the best-of-three super regionals this weekend for a chance to advance to the College World Series (CWS). It would be the seventh time in program history the Tigers reached college baseball’s biggest stage.
And while head coach Butch Thompson guides the Tigers toward the CWS on the diamond, it’s former star player and current chaplain Mason Maners guiding the Tigers toward a deeper relationship with Jesus during their postseason run.
As a child, Mason was given the nickname “Mustard Seed” by his parents — a reference to Matthew 17:20 and a reminder to never lose faith, even when hope is bleak. After enduring multiple failed rounds of in vitro fertilization, Martin and Allison Maners continued to hope that God would bring them a child.
Mason was already a miracle child at birth, yet Martin and Allison didn’t realize just how true that moniker would end up being. He was inches away from his athletic career — and life — being permanently altered when a football injury during his freshman year of high school nearly left him paralyzed.
Growing up in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, near Birmingham, he was inundated by Auburn Athletics from an early age. Martin took a young Mason to a Tigers football game, where he had the chance to stand on the sidelines.
“I think that just blew his mind and enamored him with it,” Martin said in the video. “So football became a real exciting part of his growing up. Baseball as well.”
Martin was a football star himself at Vestavia Hills High School in the 1980s, and Mason spent his Friday nights at the stadium watching the high school team play. He envisioned himself on that field one day.
He didn’t have to wait long for that chance, earning a spot on the field as a freshman, but that chance was soon snatched away.
He remembers it well — the last day of spring practice his freshman year. The team was playing a live scrimmage. One of the last plays of the day. Playing the outside linebacker position, Mason heard a coach bark that the play was coming to him.
“As soon as I made the tackle, I felt a tingling, burning sensation go throughout my whole entire body,” Mason said. “I lost feeling in my feet and my hands.”
Coaches did their best to stabilize him until paramedics arrived. When they did, they loaded him on a stretcher and secured his head and neck. When he arrived at the hospital, he was able to walk over to another room to get X-rays, and the doctor reassured him it was likely nothing too serious.
“Really, what I was thinking was that the new ‘Captain America’ was coming out that night and I had tickets,” Mason said in the video. “I hope we can hurry this up.”
But the appointment was beginning to take longer expected.
“Once the X-rays came back, we had the ER doctor tell us the neurosurgeon would be in here in a moment to speak to us, and that kind of rocked our world,” Martin said.
The doctor said Mason’s X-rays showed that his injury resulted in broken C-1 and C-2 vertebrae, what’s known as the “Hangman’s break.”
“Really by God’s grace and mercy, I didn’t look down or turn my head a certain way, because any minor movement or any of that could’ve caused me to be paralyzed or dead,” Mason said. “God’s hand was just over it the whole entire time.
“Apart from Him, I don’t believe that I’d be sitting here today wearing an Auburn uniform or even walking or being alive.”
After his injury, Mason found himself in neck braces for weeks on end in an attempt to heal. And it worked.
“I went back to get X-rays and the doctor was just astonished to see that the bones healed perfectly back and everything looked almost better than it did before,” he said.
Though his bones healed, doctors wouldn’t sign off for him to play football again. But baseball was still in the cards, so he joined the baseball team the following season.
“But we never imagined after that,” Martin said, “that Division-I baseball, let alone Power-5 baseball, would be in his future.”
Mason began his collegiate career at Jacksonville State in 2021 and excelled for three seasons before transferring to Auburn for the 2024 campaign. As a senior, he ranked third on the team with a .296 batting average and added seven home runs and 17 RBIs. He was also a perfect 7-for-7 on stolen base attempts.
Now that his eligibility is exhausted, Mason is the chaplain for a Tigers team that has its sight set on a CWS appearance. Current players rave about his spiritual impact in his new role.
“Mason does an unbelievable job,” sophomore pitcher Christian Chatterton said on Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast last month. “It’s kind of crazy because three years ago, he was playing for Auburn, and he was also really good here. He’s done a great job. He’s somebody that we can all go to talk about faith and other stuff.
“I think this team is also special in the way that a lot of our guys on our team are just all-in for Jesus. I think a lot of that credit has to go to Mason, for sure.”
Junior infielder Ryne Farber agreed.
“Outside of team Bible studies, [Mason will] just come up and talk to you. He wants to know how you’re doing. He wants to know how your walk is going,” Farber said. “I think community is so important, and to have people that are all wanting to be great baseball players, but more importantly, be great people and grow toward the Lord is awesome.”
Last June, Mason posted on Instagram about how grateful he is for this role in leading young athletes in their faith.
“Glory and praise to the Lord for this incredible year!” he wrote. “Serving as Chaplain for this team has been one of the greatest privileges and deepest joys. I’ve been continually overwhelmed by the goodness and grace of the One who is faithful in every season. He is truly worthy of everything. Grateful for all He’s done—excited to be back in August!”
Central Florida's DeAmez Ross, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Central Florida Baseball is back in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years, and a big reason why is center fielder DeAmez Ross. The senior is batting .281 with three home runs and 34 RBIs, but perhaps his most important asset is his speed. He leads the team with 16 stolen bases in 18 attempts.
The Knights (31-21) earned an at-large bid and the No. 2 seed in the Auburn Regional, and face North Carolina State on Friday. Ross played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Florida State, where he started 36 total games and hit .287 with 41 hits, two home runs and 17 RBIs. He ended his freshman season with a 12-game hitting streak.
But he also missed 18 games due to an injury one season. That has since become a major part of who he is as a player, as well as his personal testimony.
Rather than turn inward, he turned outward. And upward. That season helped him become less focused on himself and instead learn how to be a better teammate. If his teammate needed a glove, he’d get it for him. When someone struck out, he was the first one there to keep their spirits up.
“I realized that it opened my eyes to understanding that this game of baseball can be taken away just like that, so be grateful for every moment that you put your cleats on, for every moment you get to be in the lineup,” he said on the podcast. “That truly changed my heart and the way I thought about baseball from my freshman year to now.”
He also started attending Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings regularly, where he was encouraged to get back in the Word consistently.
“It was a process. It took a week, and I grew deeper in my faith and my love for the Lord, just understanding that through this adversity, through these trials, that I was going to grow in my faith and learn something about myself, which was not to put my identity in baseball,” he said on the podcast. “I’m so glad that happened to me because I wouldn’t change it for the world. I became a better teammate, a better person.”
“I grew deeper in my faith and my love for the Lord.”
Now at UCF, he’s experiencing a more mature faith and he’s also seen as one of the leaders on the field. With the Knights in the postseason, he said he and the team have adopted an “attitude of gratitude” and they are playing for one another.
“We’re just grateful to put on this jersey and play with each other again,” he said while speaking with media after the NCAA Tournament selections. “We say that we have so much fun at practice, so we’re going to keep playing as long as we can because we just love each other. We’re brothers for life.”
And he’s continued being involved with FCA while at UCF.
“FCA at UCF is amazing,” he said on the podcast. “It’s something that is so much fun, and being athletes — especially baseball — we play Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so Sundays are literally filled with baseball. We don’t have time to go to church in the morning or do these things, so FCA on Monday really allows everyone to get the Word in and be in that community.”
He recently spoke at an FCA event on campus, where he shared his journey and encouraged athletes that their identity is in Christ, not their sport.
“Your sport is not who you are. Your sport doesn’t define you,” he said from the stage. “Your sport fills your journey, but God is what builds your everlasting — your character, the friendships you make.”
Cleveland Guardians closer Cade Smith, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Baseball takes center stage as the calendar ticks toward summer, and the early returns are in for MLB teams with dreams of playing deep into the fall. The Cleveland Guardians are one of those teams passing with flying colors.
Behind one of the stronger pitching rotations in the majors, the Guardians sit at 32-24 and have opened up a 3.5-game lead in the American League Central through the first third of the season. A key cog in that staff has been the play of closer Cade Smith.
Smith is leading all of MLB with 18 saves so far in 2026, which is already a career high. The 27-year-old Canadian has finished 23 of his 25 appearances on the season, allowing only one home run and five walks in 25.2 innings pitched.
His most recent appearance on Sunday against the Phillies in Philadelphia ended with a strikeout to close out the 3-1 victory.
In his third year in the majors, Smith has been dominant in his role as full-time closer with the Guardians. It’s a role he took over part of the way through last season after the team lost Emmanuel Clase, and Smith performed so well (converting 13 of 17 save opportunities with a 2.79 ERA) that Cleveland stuck with him in 2026.
Smith, who contemplated a career as an eye surgeon after majoring in biology at the University of Hawaii, has earned the trust of the Guardians’ coaching staff.
“The dude’s not afraid to operate on someone’s eye,” manager Stephen Vogt told MLB.com in March. “He’s probably not going to be afraid of getting three outs at the end of a game.”
Despite now being entrenched in his role, Smith said he recognizes the gift it is to be called a MLB closer.
“I’m not taking it for granted that I’m solidified on the team,” Smith told MLB.com. “… I’m happy to step up and happy to go out and perform, knowing that the work that I’ve done has prepared me for that, and also understanding that it’s an honor to actually be asked to pitch in those situations.”
Smith’s steady demeanor is the perfect temperament for a closer who is frequently asked to perform in high-pressure situations. That steadiness, he said, is rooted in his firm foundation of faith in Christ.
“The first and most important thing is that I’m confident and certain that my identity is not based in baseball,” he said in an interview with Guardians TV last year. “My identity is based in my faith, and that’s something that can’t be taken from me and it can’t be shaped by the highs and lows of this game, whether I go out and perform or whether I fail, because I am going to fail.”
Each time he takes the field, Smith carries a piece of God’s Word with him. Last season while signing autographs for fans before a game at Progressive Field in Cleveland, he asked them about the Bible verse inscribed on his glove, 1 Corinthians 6:11.
“Does anyone know this verse off the top of their head?” Smith asked. “This is one of my favorite verses, because basically (verses) nine and 10 are a statement of universal condemnation. … It means everyone sins. No one’s good enough. You’re not getting to Heaven on your own. Verse 11 starts, ‘and that’s what you guys were, but you were washed, justified and sanctified by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’
“Regardless of how any outing goes — up or down, if I succeed or I struggle or I do really bad — I know that I’m not actually a pitcher. I’m washed. I’m justified. I’m sanctified. And those are things that no one can take from me.”
“Does anyone know this verse?” Love this from Guardians pitcher Cade Smith sharing his faith with fans.
Smith reiterated the message of 1 Corinthians 6:11 during an on-field interview following a game later in the season.
“The absolute biggest thing for me is my faith,” he said, “because I know who I am in Jesus Christ. I know my relationship with Him. I’m justified, washed and sanctified, and so what I do on the baseball field doesn’t affect that.”
Smith may be embracing and thriving in his new role as Guardians closer, but he wants everyone to know it’s a role he plays and not an identity he carries. His identity is and always will be as a beloved child in the eyes of his Heavenly Father.
With his identity secure in Christ, Smith will seek to continue to perform at an All-Star level for his teammates when they need him most. The Guardians’ next contest comes against the Washington Nationals (28-27) at home on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m. ET.
San Diego Padres player Gavin Sheets rounds the bases after hitting a home run, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
San Diego Padres slugger Gavin Sheets made Major League Baseball history last week when he became the first player to hit three go-ahead, three-run, ninth-inning home runs in the same season. What’s more, he accomplished the feat before the middle of May.
He continued his hot start to the season by following it up with three home runs over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners, including two in Sunday’s game.
“It’s a cool honor. You think of all the players in the National League, and to win that for a week is pretty exciting,” Sheets told MLB Network. “But, more importantly, we played really good baseball and had two really good series on the road.”
Since arriving in San Diego before last season on a minor-league deal, Sheets has provided much-needed spark and versatility to a Padres lineup looking to keep pace with the division-rival Los Angeles Dodgers. He made the opening-day roster last year and responded with the best season of his career: a .252 batting average, 19 home runs and 71 RBIs — all career highs. The Padres reached the postseason, but lost to the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card round.
Sheets has picked up where he left off, batting .254 this year with nine home runs and 21 RBIs in 44 games played, and he’s a key reason the Padres are sitting just a half-game behind the Dodgers in the NL West standings. He’s also considered one of the leaders in the clubhouse despite being in only his second full season with the club.
“I think it’s something that’s organically happened,” he told MLB Network. “Last year I came in and built relationships with the guys around here. It’s such a great clubhouse and such a great culture. Everybody just wants to win. I think there’s a respect factor when you go about things the right way and put in the work.”
There was a time earlier in his career when he would’ve let those numbers and that success define him. That mindset crumbled and his perspective shifted entirely during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020.
Sheets was drafted in the second round by the Chicago White Sox in 2017 out of Wake Forest and quickly began ascending the minor league system. He put together his best pro season in Double-A in 2019 and earned an invitation to major league spring training in 2020. Then the pandemic brought everything to an abrupt halt.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is OK. This isn’t the path I had. This isn’t the way my plan was going, but that’s OK. Baseball is going to come back and we’ll be fine,'” he said in a Sports Spectrum “I Once Was” video.
Later that June, baseball did resume — though in an abbreviated, 60-game season without fans. The minor league season was canceled, but some players were asked to report to what was essentially extended spring training to play intrasquad games against teammates. But not everyone would be participating. Some players in the organization would stay home without structured baseball activity for the time being.
A bunch of guys started getting calls about when to show up to the facility and getting relayed logistics about the season and their assignment. Sheets’ phone never rang.
“I had made baseball this idol in my life,” he said in the video. “All of my plans in all my mind, my relationships, everything was in this idol that I’d created, and I didn’t know what to do. It was a mix of emotions — anger and questioning. It was the first time that I’d really searched for God, in that moment.”
It was also the first time he realized baseball would go on whether he was a part of it or not. That was a hard pill to swallow.
“So, this thing that I had put my identity in, I’m sitting at home watching it go on. I’m watching these guys play and I’m not a part of it, and it’s not slowing down,” he said while speaking at a chapel event last month for Christian Unified Schools of San Diego. “I realized I’m putting my identity in something that doesn’t care for me.”
He soon thereafter received a text message from his college coach, Tom Walter, whom he hadn’t spoken to in about a year. The message included a story about a pastor and a farmer that was meant to provide comfort and remind Sheets to trust in God when things happen that we don’t understand.
The text also read: “You’ve always risen to the occasion. This will be no exception. Hang in there. Love you, brother.” Reading it made him break down in tears.
“I just thank God,” he said. “I just felt His presence for the first time where I needed Him the most, where I called out to Him. It was the first time where I felt myself giving my whole path to God, giving my whole future to God, giving my whole life to God and just saying, ‘I can’t do this on my own.'”
Later that summer, while visiting his grandparents, his grandfather fell and broke his leg. Because baseball had been put on pause, Sheets was able to stay home for several weeks and help care for him alongside his grandmother. Then his aunt — whom he described as being like a second mother to him — became ill and passed away later that same summer. He was there with her when she took her final breath.
“Being there and being with my family and realizing that God had greater plans than I could’ve ever imagined,” he said in the video. “The plans that I had for myself were not even half of what God had planned for me.”
That season made him realize he wasn’t using baseball or his platform to glorify God, and that needed to change. Sheets continued training on his own, and used the time to learn how to play outfield in an effort to make himself more valuable to a roster. He made his major-league debut the following year — at a position he had never played before, which he learned while being at home during the pandemic.
“Now I’m here to share my journey and how it all took a turn for a path that was even greater than I expected,” he said.
