Former Yankees pitcher says failed suicide attempt led him to a true relationship with Jesus

By Jeannie Ortega Law, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, March 18, 2023

Former Major League Baseball relief pitcher Jason Grimsley says a failed suicide attempt led to him dedicating his life to Jesus Christ.

Grimsley, 55, who pitched for six major league teams from 1989 to 2006, released his debut memoir Cross Stitched: One Man's Journey From Ruin to Restoration, which provides a glimpse of his early life, his 15-year career as a pro baseball player and his full redemption in God.

"I was saved in 1999, the first year I joined the New York Yankees, and one the best years of my life," Grimsley shared in a video interview with The Christian Post. "I was really on fire. In fact, my wife even said, 'Honey, you're spending too much time with God and not enough time with me.' I was just reading; I was into it. I was living it."

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

Subscribe

The athlete said he was so full of faith at the time that "it was an explosion of fire" inside of him. That year, he also had an incredible season with the Yankees as they won the World Series.

"All of a sudden, it started being, 'Oh look what I did,' It became me," he recalled.

"Pride, ego started creeping back into my life, and that began the slow fall away, getting back into being selfish, being about me," Grimsley continued.

He fell back into the dangerous lifestyle habits that came with fame and success until it all came to a head in 2015.

"It all culminated in 2015," Grimsley explained. "l ended up out in the woods with a gun to my head, pulling the trigger, and it not going off." 

The story of his life up until that point and how his career ended up was not what he envisioned. Hopelessness led him to want to die.

"Basically walking away from something that I dearly love added to the demons that I was battling," Grimsley revealed. "In the book, I describe it as being both the prodigal son, and I was the son that felt like he had earned everything and he had done everything right." 

"2015/2016, instead of being on fire for God, I feel God took me by the hand and said, 'OK, I'm going to walk you through this at my pace. And I'm going to show you there's nothing you can do to earn my love. I love you. And this is a relationship, and we're just going to walk this together.'"

The Texas native said the grace his wife showed him through it all displayed God's love for him.

"My wife, the grace she showed me in coming to me and saying, 'Hey, I love you; I forgive you, God forgives you, now you've got to forgive yourself. And that grace opened up the grace that the Lord has for me," he testified. 

That is what inspired him to dedicate his life fully to Christ. Cross Stitched shares Grimsley's entire journey and is available everywhere books are sold.  

Proceeds from the book will benefit Emerging Grace Ministries in their ongoing efforts to help eradicate adolescent sex trafficking.