Lindy McDaniel, who remained active in teaching and preaching the Gospel nearly a half-century after his 21-season major-league pitching career, has died after battling COVID-19. He was 84.

McDaniel was an elder of the Lavon Church of Christ, a 50-member Texas congregation about 35 miles northeast of Dallas. Fellow church member Terry Summerlin confirmed McDaniel’s death and said arrangements are pending.

From 1955 to 1975, McDaniel compiled a 141-119 record with 174 saves and a 3.45 career ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.

But the devoted Christian, who served in full-time ministry after his playing days, always considered what happened off the field as more important.

“Faith is the anchor that’s going to help us in every other aspect of our life,” McDaniel told The Christian Chronicle earlier this year. “So we must put God first, and we must become familiar with the Bible.”

McDaniel grew up on a farm just north of Hollis, Okla., in the state’s southwestern corner.

The oldest son of Newell and Ada Mae McDaniel became an avid Bible reader at a young age.

When he signed with the Cardinals in 1955 — receiving a $50,000 bonus equal to $450,000 in today’s value — the can’t-miss prospect did so with a stipulation.

“I said, ‘I must go to church,’” he recalled. “They agreed to do that for me. Every organization in baseball gave me that privilege to go to church on Sunday. I knew I couldn’t survive the game unless that happened. So that was a really important piece for my signing a professional baseball contract.”

Before starting his baseball career, he attended his freshman year on a basketball scholarship at the University of Oklahoma. Later, he studied Bible for one fall semester each at two colleges associated with Churches of Christ: Abilene Christian University in Texas and Florida College in Temple Terrace, Fla.

The Associated Press featured McDaniel in an Oct. 16, 1955, profile with the headline “He Will Pitch For The Lord.”

The ACU student told the wire service he didn’t know if he’d become a minister after his playing career.

“I will definitely go into personal work, but I am preparing myself for either,” said McDaniel, then 19. “By going into Major League Baseball, I’ll get to know more people. It’ll give me a chance to take Christianity into baseball, and I can decide later about preaching.”

In 1963, McDaniel started producing a monthly publication called “Pitching for the Master,” which he kept going until his final season in 1975.

In verses such as 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Ephesians 6:13, the apostle Paul likened the Christian life to running a race and putting on the full armor of God.

Lindy McDaniel, on the second row, is shown at the Lavon Church of Christ in Texas.

“Just like Paul, I was just using sports to teach about the principles of Christianity,” McDaniel said.

Church and family keep McDaniel and Nancy, his wife of 12 years, busy.

He remarried after cancer claimed his wife, Alice. McDaniel’s family includes five children, 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“Lindy is one of the most conscientious, studious, devout people you will ever find,” Sumerlin, who preaches two Sundays a month at Lavon, said when the Chronicle profiled McDaniel this past summer. “His affections are set above. My wife, Sherry, and I love him and his dear wife.”

The Lavon church endeavors to take members through the entire Bible every four years. That intentional study program, McDaniel told the Chronicle, resulted in “people getting a lot more familiar with the whole Bible.”

“We’re all imperfect beings, and we’re saved by the grace of God,” McDaniel said. “But God asks for certain things from us as Christians, and one is obedience to him and to live a new life. So that is my main concern.”

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999. This article was originally published at The Christian Chronicle.