“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when all the days are all twilight when you need it the most, it stops.” – A. Bartlett Giamatti The Green Fields of the Mind. Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion.
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” — Rogers Hornsby. Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion.
THE BOYS OF SUMMER ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion.
Baseball is a tremendous sport. For starters, baseball has the most amazing and loyal fans. Look at the Chicago Cubs fans that waited 108 years for their team to win the World Series. Then there is Opening Day. It is the most phenomenal thing. There is a sold-out crowd who is cheering, smiling, and filled with such expectation for the new season. Then there are also the team mascots. Team mascots work hard to keep the fans engaged when there are breaks in the game such as pitching changes. Professional mascots make about $25,000.00 per year but the best in the field can command a six-figure salary. Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion. Check out my website
You never know what to expect with baseball. The game can change dramatically from inning to inning. You could have a pitcher’s duel, or an offensive onslaught where you can’t keep up with all the runners rounding the bases, or a nail-biting possibility of a no-hitter. If the pitcher gets it that puts him in the Baseball Hall of Fame. – Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball -Religion.
The glove pop, the whiff of the bat, the home run. There are so many aspects to the game of baseball but there are other things that run-in three’s in baseball such as 3 strikes and 3 outs. The Trinity is also composed of three: The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit. There are 108 beads in a Catholic Rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion.
This year Opening Day is July 24, 2020, because of Covid-19. Normally Baseball starts in late March or April close to Easter. Baseball has a lot to instruct us about Easter. In both Baseball and Easter, there is always a taunting crowd. We are all aware of this from Good Friday. We are also keenly aware of this in our own lives. At Easter, as with Baseball, we don’t go the course alone. We are always encircled by our team. And the Lord, he is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. – Deuteronomy 31:8. A Baseball team has 9 players on the field. Jesus, who is omnipotent is always with us, so he is on the field as well.
Baseball has its highs and lows just like our daily walk with God. In baseball, a guy can have a multiple-hit game like hitting for the cycle which is a momentous day! In our daily walk with God, we could receive a clean bill of health from our doctor after running major tests when the original diagnosis was bad. In baseball, you can strike out 3 or more consecutive times for the day and at the end of the game have a batting average below 200 which they say is batting below the Mendoza line. Mario Mendoza is a Mexican former MLB player who had a lifetime batting average of 215. He is a member of the Mexican League Hall of Fame. In your daily walk with God the promotion you were expecting to receive you didn’t get. In both situations, tomorrow is another day and you get to start again fresh and new with endless possibilities because God is with you.
“The similarities between Baseball and Religion abound. The ballpark as cathedral; saints and sinners; the curses and blessings. But then what I’m arguing is beyond that surface level, there’s a fundamental similarity between baseball and religion which goes to the capacity of baseball to cause human beings, in a context they don’t think of as religious, to break the plane of ordinary existence into the plane of extraordinary existence.” – John Sexton Former New York University President from his book Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. – Book of Proverbs – Proverbs For The Modern Day – Baseball – Religion.
