Baseball and Religion by Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Earlier this week Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of NY had a splendid article in the NY Post  comparing religion and baseball.  The occasion of course was the coinciding of the start of the baseball season and with the holidays of Easter and Passover.  Let me quote it extensively with my commentary.  Here’s Cardinal Dolan.

 

For Jews and Christians, the arrival of spring allows us to observe the towering feasts of Passover and Easter, and the season of the year closely mirrors the religious seasons as well.

 

With spring comes light, warmth, the renewal of nature, fresh growth, and the end of the chill and darkness of winter. With Passover and Easter come God’s deliverance from sin, death and oppression, the promise of new life and revival. And with spring comes another potent force in our culture: baseball!

 

As Vin Scully, the boy from the Bronx and alumnus of Fordham, the legendary baseball announcer – – whose life I was just honored to celebrate with a Memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral – – used to comment, “Nothing tells us spring is here more than the sound of the crack of the bat, the ball hitting the leather of the glove, or landing with a plop on the green grass sodden with a soft April rain.”

Vin Scully is possibly the greatest announcer in baseball’s history.  Sixty-seven years he served as the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but also announced many World Series games.  He lived to Ninety-Four and was a devout Catholic throughout his entire life.  It’s not a surprise Dolan would mention him.  His Eminence continues.

 

Many have commented on the parallels between religion and baseball, which is good to recall now that our Mets and Yankees have returned, and we celebrate the “high holy days” for Jews and Christians.

 

Both have a keen sense of ritual and tradition, reminding the player, the fan, and the believer that we’re part of something beyond us, something that fascinated generations before us.

 

We hold up heroes, whose prowess was inspirational, whether Moses and David, Mary and Joseph, and the saints of Catholicism, or the Babe and Lou, the Scooter

and the Yankee Clipper, Mantle and Maris, Seaver and Koosman, Jeter and Judge: Rules are important for both baseball and religion. People of faith call this “morality,” as we too have foul lines, a strike zone, and a judgement “safe” or “out.” (Okay, you can “steal” on the field, but not in religion!) Both also count on trained and fair umpires – – read rabbis and priests – – to call “fair or foul.”

I’ve seen a number of similarities drawn between Catholicism and baseball, but I never saw anyone mention the baseball “saint” parallel.  The “Yankee Clipper” is a nickname for Joe DiMaggio, which I think is particularly apt to be referred to as a saint.  Recall the Simon and Garfunkel song, “Mrs. Robinson,” with the lyric, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio/A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”  St. Joe DiMaggio!  

The article goes on.

 

Then there’s the sense of timelessness, as neither baseball, Judaism, nor Catholicism keep a clock. It’s as if we’re part of the eternal, lifted from the hum-drum schedule of ordinary life, absorbed into an event that has no dependence upon the wristwatch. For that reason, both also require a sense of patience and anticipatory waiting, as we look

forward to an ultimate victory.

 

Team play is essential to both. In the sport, a dazzling pitcher will still confess his dependence upon stellar fielding and productive batters. So, Jews and Catholics form communities, teams, as we depend upon one another for prayer, support and encouragement when we may be in a slump, good example.

Both of those, the timelessness and the interconnected fabric, are great parallels.

 

Religion and baseball both have errors. People of belief call them sins. They hurt us and the team, and can end up in defeat.

I never thought about errors as sins!  That’s funny.

 

Judaism and Catholicism both have a start and a finish, which happen to be the same place. We Catholics, and our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, rejoice that Jesus, our Savior, has conquered death itself, as He rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday. As George Carlin famously noted in his skit comparing baseball and football, the batter starts at home plate and yearns to score by returning there; the believer comes from God and is invited to return to Him for all eternity.

 

The two – – religion and baseball – – rely on hope. For people of faith, we hold fast to God coming through, for our repentance, His mercy, and a second chance. And for baseball, well, there is always the next inning, tomorrow, the rally, or even, as Brooklyn Dodger fans famously repeated, “Wait ‘til next year!” the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus would agree with Yogi, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

 

On and on I could go – – as both baseball and religion at times do! – – but you understand: baseball, religion, springtime . . . all similar.

 

See you at Yankee Stadium or Citi field; or, even better, at the synagogue or the parish church!

Superb!  Cardinal Dolan missed one last similarity, which I think refers more specifically to Catholicism than to current Judaism or most Protestantism.  Baseball and Catholicism both have a strong sense of liturgy, a ritual which governs the life of worship and the ceremony of baseball.  The liturgy for Catholics is of course the Mass:

“At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 47).

We perform the ritual every day in devotion to our Lord, but within the Mass there are interior rituals as well: the Introductory Rite, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the dismissal.  In baseball we perform the ritual of pitching and hitting.  Each inning is a new set of rituals, each batter starts a new ritual, and each pitch is a ritual in itself.  Baseball is the most Catholic of games!