While not a “shotgun wedding,” moments after saying, “I do,” a pistol landed Turner Ward in handcuffs.
Before boarding a plane for his honeymoon in Denver, Ward went through a metal detector and was cuffed immediately. Returning from the rest room, his wife, Donna, was shocked by what she saw. His brother Wade had slipped a 2-inch derringer inside his carry-on luggage.
“That was pretty serious at the time, but we look back at how funny that was. My brother got me pretty good,” said Ward, who was named manager of the Mobile BayBears, a Southern League affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in December. Ward, a former youth minister for First Baptist Church, Satsuma, is a member of First Baptist Church, North Mobile, in Saraland, where he also served a short stint as youth minister.
The pistol incident took place about the same time his professional baseball career was just taking off.
Drafted out of the University of South Alabama in Mobile in 1986 by the New York Yankees, Ward played in the Yankees’ minor league organization before making his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1990.
Although he completed his playing career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2001, Ward started as a manager in 2006 with the Bradenton (Fla.) Pirates in the Gulf Coast League. In 2007, he became manager for the State College (Pa.) Spikes in the New York-Penn League and was inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.
Ward came to the BayBears as the team’s hitting coach in 2008 and was in that position until his recent move to manager.
In 626 MLB games with six teams — the Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Diamondbacks and Phillies — Ward had 389 hits, 39 home runs (nine as pinch-hit home runs), 219 RBIs (runs batted in) and a .251 batting average.
A few of his highlights include
• winning two World Series championships with the Blue Jays (1992 and 1993) as an outfielder and
• running through the right field wall at Three Rivers Stadium chasing a fly ball while playing for the Pirates in 1998.
But what happened in the early to mid-1990s while playing for the Brewers became Ward’s most precious highlight — he surrendered his life to Christ.
About 30 at the time, Ward said he thought he had accepted Christ at 15 but he didn’t truly understand what salvation meant.
“There is no turning point greater in anyone’s life than when they accept Christ,” Ward said. “It changed who I was as a baseball player, who I was as a husband, who I was as a father.”
He and his wife have been married for 22 years and have three children. “Anytime I start thinking about my plans or what direction I want in my life, I am reminded of [Jeremiah 29:11],” Ward said. “God knows the plans and I want to follow just as much as I can.
“The biggest thing is understanding Christ and what He did in my life, not just knowing who He is but trying to have that personal relationship and getting good direction.”
He added the guidelines Christ gives through Scripture are “pretty black and white.”
“It is a tough standard to live up to, but it is a great challenge, and that is a challenge I want,” Ward said. “It is a struggle. As a hitter, you struggle. It’s no different as a coach, as a husband, as a father.”
But he has learned from where his help comes.
“God has given me the gift of athleticism, but for a long time, I glorified myself for what I was able to accomplish. I put baseball so high on a pedestal in my life,” Ward said. “When I learned these gifts were to glorify Him, that was when I got a true blessing and understood I can give God all the praise.”
Ward, who teams with BayBears pitching coach Dan Carlson to keep each other accountable and lead team Bible studies and chapel, said baseball is his ministry.
“I feel like I am supposed to lead as a man of faith,” Ward said. “Being the face of the team, the direction, I am excited to bring a kind of atmosphere to the field and clubhouse. … We share with these guys our experiences of the game, but what is really most important is our relationship with Christ.”
Carlson said Ward motivates the team through competition, laughter and seriousness (when needed).
“He encourages me the way he is steady every single day,” Carlson said. “When there is an opportunity to share (his faith), he jumps right on it. He is solid all-around. He is firm in his faith. Everybody on the team knows it.”
BayBears second baseman Jake Elmore agreed. “I know that he is a man of faith, and that is important to him. He is very patient with everybody and tries to lead by example,” Elmore said. “He is unbelievably positive no matter what goes on. He believes in you. He believes in every guy on the team, which is awesome. He is a guy that has got your back no matter what every day.”
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