A pair of Brewers fans wearing team gear sat in the back of St. Peter Catholic Church in Pittsburgh one Sunday morning, a short

Lane Grindle (Submitted Photo)

walk from PNC Park.

After Mass, a man with a familiar voice walked up, shook their hands and talked faith and baseball for a few minutes. The friendly voice belonged to Lane Grindle, the Brewers Radio Network announcer and a convert to the Catholic faith who regularly makes it a point to dive deeper into his journey with God while on the road five months out of the year.

Grindle says he does it because he understands his faith life is a continual work in progress.

“I’m still a very imperfect person. I’m still somebody that is very much, as [manager Pat Murphy] would say, ‘under construction,’” Grindle admits. “I will continue to be for a very, very long time, but I’ve tried to really use my faith as my foundation.”

The foundation began with an upbringing in Malvern, Iowa, just outside Omaha with Lutheran parents whom he credits with giving him a solid foundation in faith and strong moral values. He also spent time as a Methodist while in high school but had been exposed to the Catholic faith through his childhood best friend.

Then came Ali, the woman whom he would eventually marry.

“Her father was a deacon in Sioux City, Iowa, and she was very dedicated to her faith,” he said. “I went to a lot of Catholic Mass as a kid. I was familiar with Catholicism, and I always liked it.”

Ali’s father accompanied Grindle through RCIA, and Grindle entered the Catholic Church during the couple’s engagement. They moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2006, where he spent a decade as the voice of Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball while also hosting football and basketball shows.

They had four children and bought a house in Lincoln. Then came the opportunity to work alongside Bob Uecker on Brewers broadcasts.

“He made you smile every day. He made you laugh every day. You never, ever drove to work and took anything for granted,” he said. “It was joy.”

On the road, Grindle often spends his evenings reading the Bible, praying the Rosary or engaging in other forms of prayer. He also spent countless hours with Uecker before the legendary broadcaster’s death in 2025. He sees God’s fingerprints in both his time with Uecker and the experience of losing him.

“He had such a huge impact on every single one of us: myself, my wife, my children, my broadcast partners, our other friends at the ballpark that were in his circle,” Grindle said. He said while his Brewers family felt incredible loss, their closeness revealed itself and revealed God’s comforting presence.

“We all felt the same things and understood that the person next to you was feeling what you were feeling. It brought everybody closer together, even though it was already a very tight-knit group,” he said. “I consider that a gift from God.”

Grindle attends Mass every Sunday while on the road, often at the stadium through chaplains provided by Catholic Athletes for Christ. Brewers players and staff sometimes attend alongside members of the opposing team — competitors on the field who, for an hour before a Sunday game, worship together as brothers in Christ. “It’s a hard life at times. They have to work very hard. They put in a lot of time. They spend time away from their families, too. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but it’s a good lifestyle. And yet they still stay grounded with their faith. That’s a really neat thing to see.”

Grindle acknowledges the difficulty of spending so much time on the road while Ali manages the demands of raising their four children at home. She has taught at Catholic schools since marrying Lane, including St. Robert in Shorewood and St. Dominic in Brookfield. In many ways, she teaches him continual lessons of God’s presence and love.

“In her goodness, in her morality, in her clarity,” he said. “It is not easy. We have four [kids] and they’re active and involved in a lot of different things, and she manages to make it all work.”

Grindle sees his faith as a continuing process of growth and a reminder of what matters most. “I utilize time on the road to go to confession when it is available and to occasionally go to a weekday Mass because I have a little bit of time,” he said. “You can … almost use it as a mini-retreat.”

Through it all, Grindle tries to keep God, rather than baseball, at the center of a life that remains “under construction.”

“I don’t think,” he admits, “I’ve even scratched the surface.”