Why write about that team? Here’s the story.
About four years ago, I retired from writing sports for The Reporter, a daily newspaper in Vacaville, California. Not long after, I was driving to my local library in Martinez, California, and I thought to myself, I’d like to write a book. What could I write about? Immediately, an idea came to me: I could write about the 1978 San Francisco Giants.
Graphic courtesy St. John’s Anglican Church, Petaluma, CA
Why? There’s a personal story about why that team and that year.
I am Jewish, and, through a series of providential events, came to believe in Jesus in August 1978. Gaining a new appreciation for my Jewish heritage after coming to believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, I joined a group called Jews for Jesus and in 1980 relocated 3,000 miles from my previous home to work with them at their San Francisco headquarters.
Almost immediately after relocating, I began reading the local sports pages in the Chronicle and the Examiner, the two leading San Francisco newspapers. The Chronicle had two controversial sports columnists, Glenn Dickey and Lowell Cohn. Both were excellent wordsmiths. Cohn was a master of satire. Dickey was blunt, a sledgehammer.
In 1978, nine or ten born-again Christians on the Giants began to speak out about Jesus in post-game interviews, thanking him for the abilities they had. The Giants, who had been mired in mediocrity for most of the 1970s, came to life that year and led the division until mid-August before a September swoon landed them in third place behind the Dodgers and Reds.
The press didn’t trouble the born-again Giants when they talked about Jesus, as they were winning. But the next year, when the Giants reverted to their losing ways, the media dubbed the Christians the “God Squad” and began to take potshots at them.
Lowell Cohn (photo courtesy X)
Dickey called Christianity a crutch and called for the Giants’ ownership to break up the God Squad, which he called a clique. Cohen, ever the satirist, wrote a column in 1980 called Can Satan Save the Giants? in which he suggested that since God wasn’t helping the Giants very much, one of them should sell his soul to the devil! A year later, Cohn wrote another column called Lavelle and the Fiend, in which he said that pitcher Gary Lavelle was intolerant because he had called San Francisco a satanic region, in part because the Church of Satan was founded there by Anton LaVey in 1966.
Glenn Dickey (photo courtesy Sports Business Simulations)
As I was reading these columns in the Chronicle, they irritated me. Of course, Cohn and Dickey intentionally provoke a reaction. But as a Jesus believer, I felt that they were unfairly picking on the God Squadders.
Then, in late 1982, the pastor of my church in South San Francisco asked if I could pinch-hit for him and deliver a message to the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). So I found myself in the home of two brothers, Keith and Drew Petiti (Drew later became my brother-in-law), talking to some college-aged kids about Jesus. After the meeting, Keith told me that their next guest speaker would be Gary Lavelle.
I attended that meeting and afterwards approached Gary to see if I could interview him for an article for the Fellowship’s magazine. During the interview, I referred to the treatment he was getting from Cohn and Dickey and mentioned that I thought the God Squad controversy would make for a good book. Lavelle agreed. But reality set in, and we soon realized that neither of us had the time necessary to devote to a book project.
Fast forward 40 years, and I had the time. Are any of those guys still around? What about Cohn and Dickey? If so, would they be willing to talk with me?
Gary Lavelle (photo Fine Art Storehouse)
I attempted to reach several God Squad “members,” including pitchers Lavelle and Bob Knepper, utility infielder Rob Andrews, shortstop Johnnie LeMaster, outfielder Jack Clark, and first baseman Mike Ivie. I couldn’t reach some, others declined, but two said yes – Lavelle and Knepper. Lavelle was willing because he already knew me. Knepper was reluctant at first because the media had treated him so poorly during his years with the Giants. But he eventually agreed, and we have become very good friends.
I was also interested in including comments from the two San Francisco sportswriters from back in the day, Lowell Cohn and Glenn Dickey. I was wary of approaching Cohn for two reasons. I assumed his personality matched the acerbic tones of his column. Also, Cohn is Jewish. How would he respond to a Jew who believes in Jesus? However, I found that he was very willing to help a fellow writer, and we spoke on the phone for about 40 minutes. He was gracious, even encouraging, and it was one of the best interviews of my career. We, too, have become good friends. Dickey was unable to participate because of a debilitating illness.
With interviews complete, I began writing in spring 2023, and it came together quickly, written in three months, from May to July, while I spent time with our daughter in her apartment as she recuperated from back surgery. One reason writing went quickly is that I was able to find an abundance of newspaper articles about the God Squad. It was a welcome change from my days in journalism school when I had to plow through library microfilm to locate source material.
Finding a publisher was harder than writing my book. However, my pastor here at Creekside Church in Martinez informed me that we have a book publisher in our congregation –– Alive Book Publishing — run by Eric and Peggy Johnson. They were great to work with, and my book, The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978, was published in November 2023.
Maybe you have a book in you as well!
