Baseball Coaches

In 1st World Series, Rangers 3B coach Tony Beasley leans on God in life's hills & valleys

By Kevin Mercer Oct 31, 2023
Texas Rangers third base coach Tony Beasley high-fives members of the Rangers staff, March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

It has often been said that God is a God of both the hills and the valleys. He is sovereign over every place and every experience, and He is completely good. Tony Beasley, the Texas Rangers’ third base coach, knows this truth in his inmost being.

>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports and faith connect <<

Right now, with his team holding a 2-1 lead in the first World Series the 56-year-old has ever been a part of, Beasley only has one word to describe this “hill” of life God has him on.

“It’s exhilarating,” he told Andscape last week. “… This year, to see the team come together and put a winning group on the field, it’s just been a blessing. I’m so thankful to be here and witness it.”

The opportunity for a World Series title has certainly been a long time coming for the man affectionately known as “Bease,” who first joined the Rangers in 2015. He was retained as third base coach on two separate occasions as managers were fired, the second time only a year ago.

Beasley actually finished 2022 as the interim manager, went 17-31 and applied for the permanent position, but was passed over for Bruce Bochy. Still, Beasley, the longest-tenured Rangers coach, was asked to stick around. He agreed, and now he’s helped the team to the organization’s first World Series since 2011.

“I didn’t know [Beasley], but I heard nothing but great things from mutual friends about what a great baseball guy he is, what a positive influence he is, and how popular he is with the team,” Bochy told Andscape. “We hit it off right away. If you can’t hit it off with Bease, then you’re the problem.”

Rangers general manager Chris Young agreed.

“It’s been tremendous,” Young told FanNation in February. “I know [Bochy] has relied on him a lot. Bease has a unique ability to connect, not just with players, not just with staff, but with people through the organization. I really can’t express the value he brings to this organization.”

While Beasley is certainly grateful to God for all the on-field success he and his team have enjoyed in 2023, he’s seen God’s goodness in life’s most trying “valleys” as well.

In February 2016, Beasley was diagnosed with rectal cancer.

He missed the start of the season as he was forced to come face-to-face with his own mortality. It was during those trying days that he clung to God for peace. After receiving a clean bill of health in December of that year, he was able to look back and see many of the ways God, in all His goodness, was at work.

“My platform would not have been this great had I not went through what I went through,” Beasley told his alma mater, Liberty University, in 2018. “The test is just a testimony. … For me to tell my story, God’s included. There’s no, ‘How did you go through this?’ [where] I can exclude my faith and what I believe God did in my life. There’s no way to exclude that.

“So anyone that interviews me or gives me an opportunity to speak, God’s going to receive the glory, and I don’t want to apologize for that.”

Beasley appeared on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2020, and talked about baseball, his cancer battle and ultimately the God who sustained him through it all. He knows that, in a fallen world, trials — valleys — will sometimes befall God’s people. Nothing about that changes God’s goodness in the midst of them.

Now that he’s on the other side of perhaps the most significant trial of his life, Beasley simply wants to live in a manner which displays the glory of God to others.

“I try to be a light to those I come in contact with,” Beasley told Andscape. “If you can do that daily and consistently, then good things will happen to you.”

As Beasley seeks to let the light of Christ shine through him, perhaps more lights than ever are shining on him as a third base coach in the World Series. His Rangers have a 2-1 advantage heading into a critical Game 4 on Tuesday night in Phoenix, where they could take true command of the series with another win. First pitch is set for 8:03 p.m. ET.

RELATED STORIES:
– SS PODCAST: Tony Beasley – Texas Rangers Coach
– Texas Rangers’ Tony Beasley recounts cancer fight to give glory to God
– Rookie Evan Carter has been huge spark for Rangers as he declares ‘Jesus Won’
– Rangers’ Josh Jung wins AL Rookie of the Month while being ‘competitor for Christ’
– Christ-following pitcher Ryan Thompson key to Diamondbacks’ WS run

Tags: