An interview with Trevor Williams, a Knight of Columbus, about his faith and how it guides him as a husband, father and professional ballplayer
9/1/2022
Trevor Williams pitches a wiffle ball to his son Isaac in their backyard in San Diego. Photos by Spirit Juice Studios
Every time Major League Baseball player Trevor Williams raises his hands to deliver a pitch, a small tattoo on the inside of his left wrist — AMDG — reminds him what it’s all about: Ad majorem Dei gloriam, for the greater glory of God.
Williams’ professional career, which in the past six years has taken the right-handed pitcher from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Chicago Cubs to the New York Mets, is important to him. But his Catholic faith is much more important. It guides him and gives him purpose and perspective far beyond the baseball diamond.
“When you have the goal of heaven in mind,” he says, “everything else kind of goes to the wayside.”
A father of four, Williams is a member of Catholic Athletes for Christ and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Council 9665 in his hometown of San Diego. Earlier this year, he spoke with Columbia about his faith, his family, his nonprofit work, and his favorite baseball moments.
COLUMBIA: What role does the Catholic faith play in your life and in your career as a professional baseball player?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: I was raised Catholic, but it wasn’t until I started coming into my identity as a man and as a man of God that I realized my Catholic faith is what defines me. And when I found that identity, I took it into my relationships with my friends and co-workers, into dating and now into my marriage to Jackie. You want to share it with people, and you want to tell people about it. God invites us to have this relationship with him, and we Catholics are so fortunate to have the sacraments and Mary and so many devotions and prayers to help us grow closer to him. So my faith is a constant; if something goes awry at all, it’s my bearings — go back to the Church. It’s the most important thing in my life, my wife’s life and our family’s life.
I understand that baseball is not the most important thing in the world. It’s something I take very seriously because I’ve been entrusted with this responsibility as a Catholic athlete. I am grateful for what has been given to me. But at the end of the day, does baseball matter? Not really. So it’s finding that identity as a Catholic man versus a baseball player.
My faith also reminds me to celebrate the highs with humility and accept the defeats with grace. It is God who gives us these talents. It’s my gift back to God to say, “I am going to give it my best. I am going to take everything that you’ve given me and make it flourish.” It’s a challenge to know God is still asking me to be in this role. But it will be more of a challenge once he asks me to do something else, to accept that graciously and with a humble heart.
COLUMBIA: Do you see connections between growing as an athlete and growing in your faith?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: As an athlete, I’ve always known that exercise is the way to get better at something. And when you take that into the spiritual life, you think, OK, what am I doing to become a better husband and a father and a Christian?
The way I see it, you always go back to the basics. Whenever you try a new pitch or learn a new delivery, it’s always back to the basics. Maybe today I’m going to find my balance point at the top of my delivery and just hit that 20 times. And repeat that over and over and over again.
I think sometimes in our spiritual life, we try to run before we can walk. You order 15 books and you read eight pages out of all of them. Or you start a lecture series and you only get through the first lecture. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Am I on my knees in front of a crucifix 24 hours a day? Should I do a Holy Hour right away? Maybe I should start with a holy five minutes, then move to a holy 10 minutes or a holy 15.
COLUMBIA: What are some of your favorite big-league moments so far?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: I’ve had a few favorite moments, but the one that stands out way in front of the others is my major league debut in 2016. At the time, my dad had cancer, and he was given 60 to 90 days to live at the beginning of the year. And I was thinking, “I need to get called up in April so he can see this.” But then I had this peace, this sense: “Just wait, it’ll be perfect timing.”
I finally got called up in September and my second day up, I pitched three innings, got the win. And then I got to share a moment with my dad after the game. I gave him a ball and we had a big hug. And it made every practice, every sacrifice that he made, every early morning completely worth it, even if I had no other big-league games. That was the best, bar none.
Thankfully, my dad is doing better now, and I have another favorite moment with him. He grew up in Chicago, and he’s been a huge Cubs fan his entire life. When I was a free agent [in 2021], calling to tell him that I was signing with his favorite team was a special phone call. I only spent half the season there before getting traded, but those few months being in Chicago — seeing him in the stands, seeing him like a little kid again — were incredible.
Williams is pictured with his wife, Jackie, and their four children — Isaac, Josephine, Jude Michael and baby Lucas.
COLUMBIA: You have young children of your own now — can you tell us about your family and your experience of fatherhood?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: Jackie and I got married in November 2014 and found out we were pregnant in January 2015. Our oldest, Isaac, is now 7 years old. We had always said that we want to have a big family, but it took some time for us to have another child. So we thought, maybe God is calling us to adopt right now. We went through the adoption process and found out on Divine Mercy Sunday 2019 that we were getting a baby; she was going to be born in July. Then a few days later — God has a crazy sense of humor — we found out that we were pregnant. So our daughter, Josephine, and our second son, Jude, are exactly six months apart. And we were blessed again with another child, Lucas, last year.
Being a father has taught me that I’m not the most important thing in the world. As soon as Isaac was born, it was like, “Man, I just went from the most important thing in my world to like number 9 or 10 or 11 on the list.” And it’s a test every day — of patience, of being present. I do my best to be a role model to my children; some days it works out great, some days it doesn’t. But I think it’s good to show them that we all make mistakes — and as long as we come back to the cross, as long as we ask for forgiveness, we’re going to come out better.
COLUMBIA: In addition to playing professional baseball, you co-founded a nonprofit that assists people living with spinal cord injuries. What inspired that?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: I founded Project 34 with Cory Hahn, my roommate and teammate at Arizona State University. Cory got hurt our opening weekend, when he slid head-first into second base and collided with the second baseman. It was just like any other play, any other collision, but then he wouldn’t get up. He had no feeling from the neck down. We found out later that he had a burst fracture of his C5 vertebrae.
As terrible as his injury was, Cory got lucky in a sense in that it happened on a baseball field — NCAA insurance covered a lot of his treatment and therapy. He would meet other people with spinal cord injuries at rehab, and he saw a twofold need: People need help paying for physical therapy, extra wheelchairs, home modifications, car modifications. But he also saw that some people don’t have the support they need. It’s a monotonous rehab process. Sometimes it takes three years just to scratch your nose. And the people in your corner will burn out because it’s such a long process.
Project 34 became an official charity in 2018, and to date, we’ve given out over $100,000 in grants. We’ve helped 40 to 50 families with anything from a complete home modification to building a ramp to a year of physical therapy.
COLUMBIA: What is the significance of the number 34?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: Cory’s favorite number is 32, but a senior had the number 32 at ASU. So he chose the number 34, and 34 became this rallying cry with our baseball team once he got hurt.
I promised him when I got to the big leagues that I would change my number to 34. I didn’t think that I would make it, so it was kind of an empty promise. And then when I did, someone on the Pirates had that number. But after the 2017 season, that player became a free agent, and I got permission to change to 34.
For the rest of my career, I’m going to do my best to get number 32 or 34, just as a tangible reminder that there are people who can’t play this game anymore who would love to — a reminder that my career can be done any moment. That gets me out of bed, it gets me into my workouts, it keeps me focused on being the best version of myself on the field. Every time I put the uniform on, I am reminded of [Cory]. He’s with me as well.
COLUMBIA: What inspired you to join the Knights of Columbus?
TREVOR WILLIAMS: Growing up around the Church, you were surrounded by Knights. They were men of character, men of virtue, people you looked up to as leaders in our parish. And it was something that I wanted to be a part of — the brotherhood, the camaraderie, the tradition. As a younger man, you might look at the Knights and think, “I’ll wait until I’m older and I have a family.” But what’s the point of a waiting? So I became a Knight in 2018.
With the baseball lifestyle, you’re moving around a lot. We have moved cities and parishes and I’ve moved to different councils, but I found my home, finally, in our council at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We came back here because this is where we grew up. This is where our roots are. And to get established in a council that you know you’re going to be with for a long time is something special.