{"id":330,"date":"2010-06-13T10:49:05","date_gmt":"2010-06-13T17:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegatheringcincinnati.org\/?p=330"},"modified":"2010-06-13T10:49:05","modified_gmt":"2010-06-13T17:49:05","slug":"june-13-2010-baseball-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/13\/june-13-2010-baseball-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"June 13, 2010, Baseball Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Message 23, Baseball Spirituality, 6-13-10\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

download program: Service Program, 6-13-10<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All rights reserved<\/p>\n

Ernie Harwell, the author of the book on baseball entitled The Game for all America<\/span> said, \u201cBaseball?\u00a0 It’s just a game – as simple as a ball and a bat.\u00a0 Yet, it is as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes.\u00a0 It’s a sport, a business – and sometimes even a religion.\u201d<\/strong> <\/strong>And another baseball commentator once said, \u201cA baseball park is the one place where a man’s wife doesn’t mind him getting excited over somebody else’s curves!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Such quotes capture what it is about baseball that is so enduring and why it is that we love the game.\u00a0 Continuing this month\u2019s theme of Summer Fun, our look today at the game of baseball is a way to remind ourselves that ballparks are also symbolic churches in that they showcase many spiritual qualities we all profess and admire.\u00a0 Baseball might begin in the spring and end in the fall but it is most identified with summer.\u00a0 Indeed, I don\u2019t believe we can fully experience summer if we have not, at least once during the season, spent a hot summer afternoon or evening playing softball or sitting at the ballpark.\u00a0 We might watch it on TV, but that is not what I have in mind.\u00a0 I hope we can each experience \u2013 either as a participant or as a spectator \u2013 a sweltering summer day at a baseball diamond, the flies buzzing, the dusty heat all around, a pitcher winding up to throw a fastball and hear the quick thump as the ball smacks the catcher\u2019s glove or, perhaps, a solid thwack as the batter connects and launches a ball over the shortstop\u2019s head.\u00a0 This is summer fun in all its glory \u2013 the heat, the fans pressed close, beer, peanuts, a rundown field with a chain link backstop or a gleaming ballpark with red, white and blue pennants – all spent on a long, lazy afternoon.<\/p>\n

Just as we considered last week our goal to spend time in the great outdoors and worship in nature\u2019s church this summer, we can also worship the great institution of baseball.\u00a0 It is not a perfect game nor is it necessarily the best.\u00a0 But it symbolizes summer.\u00a0 It evokes qualities and ideals that have universal and spiritual significance.\u00a0 By examining something that has meaning for us as a culture, I believe we learn things about ourselves and what truths are important to us.\u00a0 Baseball is an enduring cultural summer pastime for us because of its basic simplicity, its relative non-violence, its slow pace and its continuing message of hope and getting another chance.<\/p>\n

To start us off, I want to invite up front with me \u2013 and I hope I don\u2019t put him on the spot \u2013 one of our congregation\u2019s experts on baseball \u2013 Elijah Miller-Cox.<\/strong> To all of you who don\u2019t know this, Elijah is our church youth group!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 INTERVIEW ELIJAH\u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baseball, in my mind, has spirituality and the Divine written all over it.\u00a0 For me it is the most optimistic of sports and pastimes.\u00a0\u00a0 There seems to be, in the game, always one more pitch, one more out, one more inning, one more game and one more season.\u00a0 Even in losing, with baseball there is always the next day or \u201cwait until next year!\u201d<\/strong> We can see that this is a spiritual ideal that resonates in our lives.\u00a0 There is always a second chance for redemption, for correction and for turning over a new leaf.\u00a0 This is a value we embrace here at the Gathering \u2013 we continue to seek each Sunday greater insight and a better understanding of what is Truth.\u00a0 We do not claim to have certain knowledge of the Divine or of life itself.\u00a0 We are ever growing, ever learning, ever being resurrected and ever going up to bat and seeking the elusive keys to life that will teach us how to throw the perfect curveball, hit the slider or avoid an error.\u00a0 We may often strike out but there is always the next Book Club or the next Sunday to come together and reflect and grow anew.\u00a0 In us \u2013 as in baseball – is the stuff of forgiveness and redemption.<\/p>\n

Baseball also tells us that there is a rhythm and a dance to our lives.\u00a0 Seasons begin in hope and end in hope.\u00a0 Games begin and end without any set time frame.\u00a0 An inning may be over quickly or one may drag out indefinitely.\u00a0 As much as we are a culture that is fast paced and frenetic, baseball calls us to slow down, to think and pursue a goal no matter the clock.\u00a0 Our lives have no set time limit \u2013 just like baseball – but we ever stride up to bat, ever seek a hit and ever seek that elusive way home.\u00a0 It is interesting that in baseball, a batter begins his quest at home while seeking to end it there too.\u00a0 How much of life is about a cycle of running the bases, getting hits, often striking out but always learning new strategies and new ways to hit the ball?\u00a0 And all of that is done while pursuing the goal of returning home again.\u00a0 As T.S. Elliot once wrote, \u201c<\/strong>In my beginning is my end\u2026<\/strong>home is where one starts from\u2026In my end is my beginning<\/strong>.\u201d <\/strong>I <\/strong>don\u2019t believe it is stretch to assert that in the rhythm of baseball are the elements of why we love it and why it has meaning for us.\u00a0 We see in it the game of our lives \u2013 a journey for meaning and purpose and value so that when we do make it home we realize we are just beginning \u2013 one more pitch to throw, one more time at bat, one more season to play \u2013 one more chance to get it right.<\/p>\n

And a baseball game is also one of the great celebrations we can experience.\u00a0 From the opening singing of the National Anthem, to cheers at every hit, to the seventh inning stretch, to the final out and the fireworks that often follow, a game is not so much a contest or a battle as it is a time to celebrate.\u00a0 As fans, we celebrate the unifying aspects of being in a cheering crowd.\u00a0 As players, we celebrate the possibilities of the game \u2013 of testing one\u2019s skills and one\u2019s wits against another.\u00a0 As an event, baseball celebrates fun<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 relaxing and talking with others in the crowd, being outdoors on a sunny day or balmy night, drinking a beer \u2013 or several beers, enjoying a picnic like meal \u2013 hot dogs, mustard, popcorn.\u00a0 As a game, we celebrate players earning what they achieve \u2013 hits, strike outs, double plays, runs batted in.\u00a0 All of these echo the magic moments of life \u2013 the expectation, the striving, the coming together as one to share food, to play, to be outside, to yell, to gaze at fireworks and to cheer great effort or achievement.<\/p>\n

Baseball thus calls its players to do their best.\u00a0 Runs are earned and are rarely given.\u00a0 Even with a bad pitch, the batter must still hit the ball to the right place and successfully run the bases.\u00a0 David Ogilvy, a retired player, said once in advice to young players \u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t bunt.\u00a0 Aim out of the ballpark!\u201d<\/strong> And that is an ethos we all try to follow in life \u2013 to do our best, to work, to strive and to succeed not for the sake of the prize but for the satisfaction of great effort. \u00a0The love of the game motivates players to strive for success.\u00a0 Leo Durocher, a famous team manager, once said, \u201cWhat do we play ball for except to win?\u00a0 If I were to play against my mother, I’d trip her.\u00a0 I’d help her up, brush her off, and tell her I’m sorry.\u00a0 But, darn it mom, you aren’t going to make it to third base!\u201d <\/strong>Such an attitude is said in jest and it evokes a certain streak of unwholesome competiveness.\u00a0 But, I believe Durocher spoke to the fun streak inherent in baseball and in life.\u00a0 We seek, we strive, we work.\u00a0 In the process, we are thrilled to be in the game, thrilled to be playing, thrilled at our efforts and our work \u2013 and all of that combines fun, personal satisfaction and a strong work ethic.\u00a0 Playing baseball \u2013 just like living life – is fun work.<\/p>\n

Finally, I believe baseball historically has reflected much of what is good in the human spirit.\u00a0 As I have said many times \u2013 almost like a broken record \u2013 humanity is influenced by the supernatural force of moral imagination.\u00a0 The story of human culture is marked by tragedy, warfare, brutality and injustice.\u00a0 But history\u2019s clear and consistent pattern is one of slow but steady progress towards justice and towards mutual respect and cooperation.\u00a0 This is for our own survival as a species.\u00a0 We see that conflict and inequality are zero sum games.\u00a0 Nobody wins.\u00a0 If the story of life is the survival of the fittest, then at the end, only one species or one person still stands.\u00a0 And what kind of victory is that?\u00a0 The winner finds that, instead, he or she has lost.\u00a0 This unconscious ethic is a supernatural force at work deep within us and it is perfectly reflected in the game of baseball as individual players act out the moral imagination of cooperation instead of personal interest.<\/p>\n

Players understand that what might be good for themselves individually may not necessarily be good for the team.\u00a0 It takes a joint effort to win \u2013 nine persons all working in tandem to score runs and prevent the other team from scoring.\u00a0 As with many team sports, collective efforts win the game.\u00a0 Even more so with baseball, however, players often sacrifice themselves and their individual interests for the sake of the team.\u00a0 Bunts and suicide squeezes are executed in order to move a base runner into scoring position.\u00a0 Sacrifice flies are hit to allow a runner to score from third.\u00a0 Pitchers and base runners allow themselves to be replaced by another \u2013 in the interest of the team.\u00a0 And, players will often sacrifice their bodies by sliding into second base in order to prevent a double play throw to first or a successful throw to home plate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to stretch this analogy too far but such acts are common in baseball.\u00a0 They reflect the ideal that we must cooperate and, indeed, even sacrifice our self interest for the sake of the whole.\u00a0 Without an inherent moral imagination to work for the common good, a baseball team will rarely be successful.<\/p>\n

And this ethic to work for what is best competitively has also historically been at work in the game.\u00a0 Despite the stain of segregation in baseball that gave rise to the Negro league of the early twentieth century, baseball soon moved to the cultural forefront through integration.\u00a0 At a time when African-Americans still rode at the back of buses, ate at separate lunch counters and went to separate and unequal schools, Jackie Robinson in 1947 became a hero to many by showing quiet grace and skill as he integrated major league baseball.\u00a0 He was better than most white players – winning rookie of the year, most valuable player and joining the All-Star team numerous times \u2013 all while maintaining a quiet dignity and basic spirit of humility.<\/p>\n

By signing Robinson, the Dodgers and baseball showed the nation that decency, equality and full celebration of all people based on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, can move humanity forward.\u00a0 Twenty years <\/span><\/strong>before Martin Luther King\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream speech\u201d, baseball and Jackie Robinson lived out<\/span><\/strong> the dream by making America and baseball better in the process.<\/p>\n

While the African-American comedian Dick Gregory can still say, only half in jest, that \u201cBaseball has been very good to my people. \u00a0It figures.\u00a0 It\u2019s the only way we can shake a big stick at a white man without starting a riot\u201d, <\/strong>the words of Lou Gehrig ring just as true when he said, \u201cThere is no room in baseball for discrimination.\u00a0 It is our national pastime and a game for all.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

And Gehrig himself, like Jackie Robinson, stands still today as a hero for the ages.\u00a0 Suffering from a terminal illness which today bears his name, Lou Gehrig upon his retirement spoke with the grace and moral imagination that is so often a hallmark of baseball.\u00a0 \u00a0On June 21, 1939, Gehrig poignantly retired from baseball instead of dragging down his beloved Yankees as he progressively became paralyzed.\u00a0 Having played in over 2100 consecutive games and having a .341 career batting average \u2013 higher than his teammate Babe Ruth – Gehrig tearfully called himself \u201cthe luckiest man on the face of the earth\u201d<\/strong> as he retired and replaced himself midseason \u2013 a sacrifice for the game and for the fans.<\/p>\n

I spoke last week of finding the time this season \u2013 as a part of fun experiences this summer \u2013 to venture into the great outdoors to worship in nature\u2019s church.\u00a0 In those places of supernatural beauty with mountains, forests, lakes and animals, we can see the Divine creative hand at work.<\/p>\n

Echoing my appeal from last week, I commend us to the game of baseball this summer.\u00a0\u00a0 I can think of only a few other pastimes that so fully represent this season to us.\u00a0 And, in so many ways, ballparks across the country are churches too.\u00a0 They evoke the timeless aspects of life \u2013 of finding meaning in the hope, patience and perseverance of the game.\u00a0 Of sacrifice and fun, of earning your success in life to the quiet dignity of cooperation, baseball is, as Walt Whitman said, the people\u2019s game.\u00a0 In this vision of mine, at a ballpark later this afternoon when Elijah Miller will take to the field to play another of his games or when the Reds continue their winning season today, we are reminded of words from the Bible describing a great cloud of witnesses.\u00a0 In this summer fun pastime of baseball, there is a cloud of witnesses finding companionship, sharing a meal, drinking a beer, cheering and watching a game that knows no time limits, champions cooperation, exalts the best of humanity and daily calls each of us \u2013 whether we are players or spectators \u2013 to live according to its Divine traditions and to simply, \u201cPlay Ball!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message 23, Baseball Spirituality, 6-13-10 download program: Service Program, 6-13-10 \u00a9 Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All rights reserved Ernie Harwell, the author of the book on baseball entitled The Game for all America said, \u201cBaseball?\u00a0 It’s just a game – as simple as a ball and a bat.\u00a0 Yet, it is as complex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}