Bobby Keppel is a man on a mission. He put his pitching skills to work for 14 years in professional baseball, a career that included stints with the Kansas City Royals (2006), Colorado Rockies (2007) and Minnesota Twins (2009). Two years ago, he and his wife, Suzanne, took up the call to go to bat against inauthentic manhood. They began a men’s magazine based in St. Louis called The 9s. Its mission: to make men better men.

The St. Louis native and lifelong Catholic recently spoke with the Register about the magazine and how men need to reclaim their God-given role in today’s society.

 

Why would a successful professional baseball pitcher get into the magazine business?

I was approached by a friend about a business he was doing, and I liked the idea but not the appeal. There was no mission behind it. I said, “If I get behind this, I would like it to be different than any other magazine for men. We would talk about men’s stuff, but keep it clean. It would be a real magazine without having to sell sex and ads.”

 

The magazine is not Catholic by design. Is there some “stealth evangelization” going on here?

We are faithful to the Church in our content. I think that a message that looks to help men to be good men or fathers is a universal thing. In that same vein, the importance of respecting women or how you carry yourself as a man are both good messages. The wisdom of the Church is that the beauty of nature comes out whether you say Christ’s name or not. This is a marketing tool to soften people’s hearts to hear the Gospel.

 

Have you had any stories so far that have struck a chord with readers?

Yes, one of our biggest stories was last October; it was our parent issue. We had multiple stories on adoption and miscarriage. Miscarriage is a silent killer among men. We usually only hear from women on this issue. Men do grieve. We got a huge response from that article from men who could identify with this. A common response among the men was, “I didn’t know to how act or what to do.”

Personally, my wife and I experienced a miscarriage before we even printed this, and I learned how to grieve better and how to support my wife from my own magazine.

 

What do you think men can do these days to step up to the plate and be better fathers and husbands?

In that reading which we hear so often at weddings from Ephesians [5:22-33], there is that line for wives to be submissive to their husbands. The key word there is “sub-mission.” Wives should be, then, under the “mission” of the husbands. So the question becomes: What is our mission as men? What is our main goal? We need to be men of mission. That is a problem: A lot of men don’t know what mission is. We need mission statements as men. Write it down if you have to. It helps us to organize ourselves. We have lost our role as husbands [as a society]. [We must ask ourselves:] Am I here to lead my wife and kids to heaven? That is really pressing on my heart.

 

In our culture, sports stars and celebrities are hailed as role models. What is wrong with that picture?

We as men are giving away our identity as role models to these people on TV just because they look cool and have money. As husbands and fathers, we need to take seriously our job of being role models in our homes.

 

What is the key to sharing the faith with other men?

It is all about building relationships. It is then that we can share our faith as it relates to our day-to-day life. One day, I had this great conversation with a teammate while shagging fly balls in the outfield. He grew up Catholic, but when he got married to his wife, he started to go to her church. It was more “alive” [to him]. So I was telling him about what the Catholic Church teaches and refuted some of the misconceptions about the Church; and he left saying that he had never thought about it in that light. Those talks happen when it is the right opportunity.

 

Was there a moment in your life when your faith came alive?

My faith came alive during marriage prep. My wife and I are very passionate about that. Marriage is a commitment. We shouldn’t get married just because “it’s time.”

We are involved now in Engaged Encounter weekends. We try to get out and speak about natural family planning (NFP) and to talk about how it is not this “crazy thing” to have chastity in marriage. It is much harder to be chaste in marriage than outside of marriage.

 

You are one of the original members of Catholic Athletes for Christ. How is that going?

Our big event each year is our annual meeting, which takes place in November. We talk about how we can share the faith within our own spheres of influence.

At this last one, the question was posed: Where are the huge cathedral churches; why aren’t those being built anymore? The answer was: They are. They are the stadiums. These are the new cathedrals. I thought, “That is so true. These arenas are being built for athletes. But life is not about us as athletes. Thank you for doing this, but we need to turn this limelight around and use it for good.”

 

So just because professional athletes have a built-in platform to be an influence in our culture, it should not discourage the rest of us, right?

Correct. Whether we play sports or are writers or actors, we’ve all received talents. We need to realize our talents and use them; instead of dwelling on “He got this, and I got that,” use your talents and be better.

Register correspondent Eddie O’Neill writes from Rolla, Missouri.