I went to a baseball game the other night. It wasn’t pretty. The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers 15-9. But it gave me time to think; and one of the things that crossed my mind is that there are a lot of similarities between baseball and life.
Now I’m not suggesting that Abner Doubleday intended to make a theological statement when he invented the sport. But in a sense, the game of baseball dramatizes something that we all struggle with—namely, trying to measure up. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes, “All have fallen short”—and baseball puts that truth on display for everyone to see!
Consider hitting, for example. If your batting average is .400, chances are that you’re heading to the All Star Game, because you are having a phenomenal season. However, it also means that six out of every ten times that you went to the plate, you failed to get on base. In other words, you fell short more often than you succeeded. Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?
But there is another theological truth at work in baseball. As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Baseball is a game that has no clock. Unless it rains and the game is called off, there is always a chance for redemption … always the opportunity that your team can come back. You could be down by a hundred runs, but you’re never entirely out of it … until the final out.
Take the case of Bob Brenley, for instance. In 1986 he was playing third base for the San Francisco Giants. In the fourth inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves, Brenley made an error on a routine ground ball. Four batters later, he kicked away another grounder and then, while trying to get the runner, threw wildly past home plate. During the next at bat, he muffed yet another play—becoming the only player in the history of baseball to make four errors in one inning!
However, in the fifth, Brenley hit a home run. In the seventh, he hit a bases loaded single, driving in two runs and tying the game. And then, in the bottom of the ninth, when the Giants were down to their last out and Brenley was down to his last strike, he hit a massive home run to the left field seats to win the game.
No one gets on base every time they walk to the plate. That’s why we have a Confession of Sin. But there’s always another chance with the next at bat. And that’s why we have an Assurance of Pardon.
Now I’m not suggesting that Abner Doubleday intended to make a theological statement when he invented the sport. But in a sense, the game of baseball dramatizes something that we all struggle with—namely, trying to measure up. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes, “All have fallen short”—and baseball puts that truth on display for everyone to see!
Consider hitting, for example. If your batting average is .400, chances are that you’re heading to the All Star Game, because you are having a phenomenal season. However, it also means that six out of every ten times that you went to the plate, you failed to get on base. In other words, you fell short more often than you succeeded. Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?
But there is another theological truth at work in baseball. As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Baseball is a game that has no clock. Unless it rains and the game is called off, there is always a chance for redemption … always the opportunity that your team can come back. You could be down by a hundred runs, but you’re never entirely out of it … until the final out.
Take the case of Bob Brenley, for instance. In 1986 he was playing third base for the San Francisco Giants. In the fourth inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves, Brenley made an error on a routine ground ball. Four batters later, he kicked away another grounder and then, while trying to get the runner, threw wildly past home plate. During the next at bat, he muffed yet another play—becoming the only player in the history of baseball to make four errors in one inning!
However, in the fifth, Brenley hit a home run. In the seventh, he hit a bases loaded single, driving in two runs and tying the game. And then, in the bottom of the ninth, when the Giants were down to their last out and Brenley was down to his last strike, he hit a massive home run to the left field seats to win the game.
No one gets on base every time they walk to the plate. That’s why we have a Confession of Sin. But there’s always another chance with the next at bat. And that’s why we have an Assurance of Pardon.
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
10:06 PM
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