“Baseball is
like church. Many attend. Few
understand.” Leo Durocher
Do baseball
and church have anything in common? Many people point tongue-in-cheek to the
first words of the Christian Bible: “In the Big Inning”. I like this possibly
photo-shopped rendition of Michaelangelo pitching baseball in the Sistine
Chapel in Rome.
Although Abner Doubleday has been given credit for the
origin of baseball, most purists know that baseball’s Genesis came long before
Abner’s time. Some date it back to the late 18th century with
references to “town ball” in early American life. Maybe it has lost some of its
luster in recent years, but baseball has long been America’s sport. In the
movie “Field of Dreams” Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) tells Ray
Kinsella (Kevin Kostner):
“The one constant
through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.
America
[Note: In the book Shoeless
Joe by W.P. Kinsella from which the movie was taken, Terence Mann was J. D.
Salinger, but Salinger was offended by the fictional portrayal of himself
in the novel, and his lawyers said that they would be “unhappy if it were
transferred to other media,” so the studio created the character of Terence
Mann.]
Just as we cannot know with 100% accuracy when
baseball arrived, neither can we know exactly when the church came to be. Both
teams trace their roots back to the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem some
2000 years ago, but disagreement arises in the definition of the “real” church.
Catholics of course claim to have the longer history, but many Protestants
refuse to legitimize or even acknowledge the Catholic claim to being the
original church.
To the question, “Did Jesus establish a church?”
almost all Protestants and Catholics agree that He did. But the next question
brings controversy. “If He did, indeed, establish a church, does it exist today
and, if so, where is it?” The Catholic squad contends that Jesus established
His church through the first Pope, Peter (which will be discussed in the second
inning), and can show an unbroken string of games played by Popes throughout
the centuries. Protestant players talk trash to the Catholic team by pointing
out unethical and even rule-breaking practices by Popes and others in the
Catholic organization. Catholics agree that there were bad Popes and bad people
doing bad things in the name of the league at times, but respond with similar
trash talk like, “So what?” and “At least we were in the game. Where were you?”
[Note: A good book on this subject is Pope
Fiction by Patrick Madrid.]
A minority of Protestant players like to call John the
Baptist the founder of the Protestant league, but referring to this as a
stretch is an understatement. That independent minor league team has as its
gospel a book called The Trail of Blood
written by J.M. Carroll. Its subtitles are Following
the Christians Down Through the Centuries and The History of Baptist Churches From the Time of Christ, Their Founder,
to the Present Day. However, the
theories presented in that writing were discounted by its own author later in
his life – as Yogi might say, “He said that before he died.”
In fact, the Protestant league was founded by Martin
Luther in the 16th century, some 1500 years after the establishment
of the Catholic league. Martin Luther actually played second base for the
Catholic squad, but he became disgruntled over Catholic league policies and
left to form his own league of teams. Today it is estimated that there are over
30,000 Protestant teams, which makes the end-of-season playoff bracket
cumbersome at best. The competition between the Catholic and Protestant teams
has continued throughout history, but even that rivalry has been overshadowed
at times by competition among Protestant teams.
[Note: The modern era Protestant team called The Baptists
was named not after John the Baptist but, in fact, after Anabaptists or
“Re-Baptizers” who came to be with the formation of the Protestant League. Many
on the Catholic team who followed Martin Luther were re-baptized in order to
join the Protestant league.]
In the modern era, 1973 was a particularly bad year
for Catholics, Protestants and baseball, in general. Two leagues had been
formed in baseball – the National League and the American League. Much like
Catholics and Protestants, both leagues espoused supremacy. The leagues existed
in relative harmony for decades before the 1973 Schism, which came in the form
of “The Designated Hitter Rule”. Much like Martin Luther had done, the American
League wrote new rules and found a strong following. The Designated Hitter Rule
stated that a team could enlist a substitute batter for its traditionally
weak-hitting pitcher, essentially adding a player to the long-standing,
God-given roster of nine players (divisible by baseball’s Trinitarian number 3).
The designated hitter does not play defense; he bats for the pitcher on offense.
Some have asked, quite rightly, why not substitute for
a weak-hitting shortstop as well, or why not have an offense and a defense like
football? (I’m not sure if anyone else has asked those questions, but I have.) Rick
Wise, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 1974 said, "The designated
hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain's free
throws." And of course, everyone knows the quote by Crash Davis (played by
Kevin Costner) in the movie “Bull Durham” (1988): “I believe there ought to be
a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter."
(He said some other things during that speech, but none of it is pertinent for
purposes of this discussion.)
[Note: In addition to this heinous baseball rule in
1973, “homosexuality” as a mental disorder was removed from The Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in direct violation of
the Catholic League Rule Book, and the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion,
incensing many Catholics and Protestants alike.]
[Note 2: AstroTurf was invented in 1965 and originally
called “ChemTurf” but was renamed after its first well-publicized use at
the Houston Astrodome stadium in 1966. The Astrodome was the world’s
first indoor baseball stadium and was nicknamed “The Eighth Wonder of the
World”. I first walked into the Astrodome through the east gate in the
spring of 1965 as an eleven-year-old boy with my dad and my grandfather. I will
never forget that day or the awesome view from centerfield or the majesty of
The Eighth Wonder of the World. I had
never seen a baseball field bigger than the Little League field I had played
on. I had been a Yankees fan through
their glory days in the early 60s with Mantle, Maris, Berra, Whitey Ford and
other greats, but my grandfather was an Astros fan, and I became one that
day. I was a die-hard fan over the years
until the Astros fell from grace and became members of the American League with
the abhorred “Designated Hitter Rule”. To me, it was like finding out that your
wife of 40 years had left you because she had become gay.]
[Note 3: Back
to AstroTurf: Tug McGraw, relief pitcher for the New York Mets, when asked if
he preferred AstroTurf or grass, responded, “I don’t know. I’ve never smoked
any AstroTurf.” Tug was credited with
coining the phrase “Ya Gotta Believe”, which became motivation for the 1973
Mets and their run to the World Series that year. They were managed by one of
my heroes, Yogi Berra, and were defeated by the Oakland Athletics in the
Series, but only in a decisive 7th game.]
[Note 4: Tug
McGraw was the biological father of famed country music singer Tim McGraw. According
to Tug’s book Ya Gotta Believe, Tim
was the result of a one-night-stand between Tug and Tim’s mother, Betty. Tim
was raised Tim Smith and believed that his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his
dad. Tim discovered his birth certificate at the age of eleven and found that
his real dad was the baseball player, Tug McGraw. Tug refused to acknowledge
his son until Tim was about eighteen, and only then because of the notable
family resemblance. In the forward to Tug’s book, Tim wrote, “I was his son,
but I never called him Dad.” However, Tim and his wife, Faith Hill, ensured
that Tug received the best medical care through his fight with brain cancer, to
which he eventually succumbed in 2004 at the age of 59.]
