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Cover story Baseball is religion without the
mischief
Compiled by NCR Staff
Now one of the halves or hemispheres used to make the baseball can
represent Yang, and the other Yin, and their union around the spirit or core
creates a life within Life, a force within Forces, the tao within the Tao,
imbued with the possibilities of expression in terms of the fundamental laws of
Yin and Yang. And like all of creation, no two baseballs are alike, both in
their form and in their history, pitchers will discard some because of their
feel, others they will scuff to modify their function; some will be historic
and occupy Cooperstown, others will be delegated as practice balls; some will
be autographed souvenirs, some will be in use at this moment. Baseballs are not
capable of awareness, although in a very strange way they are alive since we
have created them. They are extensions of ourselves and of our world uniquely
held together in the Tao of man against man in the game we call baseball.
--Go, The TAO of Baseball, 1991
* * *
True, there are differences between baseball and religion, no way
around it. Religions have at least one god. Baseball only has demigods.
Religions know the Truth. Baseball only has statistics. Still, nit-picking
aside ... theyre about the same. Baseball is religion without the
mischief.
--Thomas Boswell, Author, How Life Imitates the World
Series, Washington Post columnist
* * *
Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on
American life than any other institution.
--Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. president, 1874-1964
* * *
The diamonds and rituals of baseball create an elegant, trivial
enchanted grid on which our suffering shapeless sinful day leans for the
momentary grace of order.
--Donald Hall, American poet, Baseball and the Meaning
of Life, 1985
* * *
At a ballgame, as in a place of worship, no one is alone in the
crowd.
--John Thorn, The Game for All America, 1988
* * *
I believe in the church of baseball. Ive tried all the major
religions, and most of the minor ones. Ive worshiped Buddha, Allah,
Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For
instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholics rosary and there are 108
stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just
didnt work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer
metaphysics to theology. You see, theres no guilt in baseball. And
its never boring. ... Its a long season, and you gotta trust it.
Ive tried em all, I really have, and the only church that truly
feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball.
--Annie Savoy, in Bull Durham
* * *
There are days when you know that God invented baseball to give us
all a concept of eternity. ...
--Michael Olesker, American journalist, 1983
* * *
Baseball? Just a game, as simple as a ball and a bat. And yet as
complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, business and sometimes
almost even a religion.
--Ernie Harwell, baseball announcer, Tuned to Baseball,
1985
* * *
Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand.
-- Wes Westrum, major league baseball player/manager
* * *
I felt like I was part of something there, you know, like a church
except it was more real than any church, and I joined in the score keeping,
hollering, the eating of hot dogs and drinking of Cokes and beer, and for a
while I even had the idea that ball stadiums, and not churches, were the real
American holy places.
--Robert Coover, American author
* * *
Kids dont learn the fundamentals of baseball at the games
any more. You should enter the ballpark the way you enter a church.
--Bill Lee, American baseball player
National Catholic Reporter, September 18,
1998
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