Jesus put my life on right track
Baseball had been Joey Hauck’s life virtually from the day he could walk.
But when his dreams began to crumble, the gifted Californian outfielder sank into drink, drugs and despair.
Raised in a loving Christian home in Menifee, Joey earned two Golden Glove awards at high school before playing for Mt San Jacinto College and California State University, Stanislaus.
Yet behind his spectacular catches and blistering speed, he was struggling.
“Baseball was my god in a sense,” he admitted.
His ambition to turn professional became all-consuming, while alcohol and smoking fuelled a dangerous double life.
On 12 November 2022, aged 22, Joey lay across railway tracks near his university in Turlock.
For two weeks, a train had passed that spot at 2am.
That night, it never came.
A friend’s telephone call finally drew him away.
Joey later said: “The train not showing that night could have only been from God.”
The next morning, everything changed.
Looking skywards with his arms outstretched, he surrendered completely to Christ.
“I was like, ‘Jesus, I’m all yours – 100 per cent – arms open wide,’” he recalled.
“You saved me.”
Joey telephoned his Christian coach, left university and walked away from competitive baseball.
It was a painful goodbye – but the beginning of a transformed life, he told Sports Spectrum.
Now 26 and married to Mickelle, Joey shared his testimony at their wedding in June this year, declaring that God had rescued him and given him a future far greater than the sporting dream he once worshipped.
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