Baseball, God's Favorite Sport
BY DAN KIEHL, Senior Pastor, Oakwood Presbyterian Church
I made the provocative comment in a sermon once that baseball is God’s favorite sport. Someone called me on that assertion later and suggested that I defend it, so I will attempt to do so, with my tongue only partially in cheek! So, with some fear that someone will take me too seriously, here goes…
First, I have to admit that the superiority of baseball among all sports is a truth to be discerned by natural revelation, not special revelation (Scripture). Contrary to some well-meaning but misguided expositors, there is nothing explicit in Scripture that indicates God’s preference for baseball (it doesn’t really teach that “in the big inning, Eve stole first, Adam stole second, and Cain struck out Abel”). But just as reasonable observation and experience in God’s creation show that strawberries are God’s favorite fruit, the guitar is His favorite instrument, and Pennsylvania is His favorite part of the earth, we can easily discern that baseball is His favorite sport. Consider the evidence:
1. Baseball isn’t bound by time. There is no clock ticking away the moments and opportunities of the game. My wife would say, “Baseball games are eternal,” but she doesn’t mean it as a compliment. The game continues until the outs are recorded until the opportunities are exhausted. God is outside time and therefore would most enjoy a game that is not constrained by the clock. As Bill Veeck once said, “This is a game to be savored, not gulped.”
2. Baseball is all about history and tradition. As Terrence Mann says in the movie “Field of Dreams,” “The one constant through all the years…has been baseball. America is rolled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.” Baseball has been around since the early 1800’s, and no other sport has resisted change and basks in nostalgia like baseball, as anyone who has been to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown can tell you. Our God, who never changes and is the one true constant in history, must love baseball as a reflection of His own nature.
3. Baseball is about perseverance. One hundred and sixty-two games are played every year. That’s twice as many as basketball and hockey, ten times as many as football. Baseball is much more like life in God’s design than other sports. It’s not about the quick sprints and hot streaks; it’s about who can stick it out over the long haul, game in and game out. And what other sport has so many players over 40 years of age still performing effectively?
4. Baseball is the thinking person’s sport. Unlike most other sports, baseball is contemplative. There are moments of high drama, flashes of athletic brilliance, and outbursts of exuberance, but in between are quiet, still moments – times to think, to prepare, to plan and strategize. It is a game filled with complicated statistics, details, nuances, and precision, not pyrotechnics, cheerleaders, and brutal collisions. Our Creator must be pleased.
In Revelation 21 the Apostle John describes a vision of the New Jerusalem, the center of the New Heavens and the New Earth. In verses 24 through 26 he says, “…the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it…they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” I think that this means that the best, most beautiful, and most virtuous accomplishments of the nations will be redeemed and glorified in the eternal kingdom. Professor and writer Gerald Early once said, “I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music, and baseball.” If baseball isn’t among America’s contributions to the eternal kingdom, I’ll be surprised!