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Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game
A love letter to America's most beloved sport and an exploration of the deeper dimensions it reveals
For more than a decade, New York University President John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using some of the great works of baseball fiction as well as the actual game's fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals—from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb, to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son—Sexton teachers that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimension of life.
Baseball as a Road to God is about the elements of our lives that lie beyond what can be captured in words alone—ineffable truths that we know by experience rather than by logic or analysis. Applying to the secular activity of baseball a form of inquiry usually reserved for the study of religion, Sexton reveals a surprising amount of common ground between the game and what we all recognize as religion: sacred places and time, faith and doubt, blessings and curses, and more.
In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, this book elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to a deeper and more meaningful life.
For more than a decade, New York University President John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using some of the great works of baseball fiction as well as the actual game's fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals—from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb, to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son—Sexton teachers that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimension of life.
Baseball as a Road to God is about the elements of our lives that lie beyond what can be captured in words alone—ineffable truths that we know by experience rather than by logic or analysis. Applying to the secular activity of baseball a form of inquiry usually reserved for the study of religion, Sexton reveals a surprising amount of common ground between the game and what we all recognize as religion: sacred places and time, faith and doubt, blessings and curses, and more.
In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, this book elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to a deeper and more meaningful life.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
January 27, 2023
Just rereading this review (Jan. 2023) and realize I didn't name my home team, the Cincinnati Reds. Our town has a long and significant history as the first team in professional baseball, the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.
Over the years I've developed a major dislike for the Yankees. The Reds had nearly their worst season start in 2022. We were a national joke. But on the road in NYC, we SWEPT the Yankees. For me, that made up for any other poor performance that season. No disrespect to the author, we all have "our" team.
I do think of our ballpark as a type of cathedral. And leaving games before the last out is a type of blasphemy. My dad and I spent a lot of time together watching our amazing team and going to games in our new park (I'll admit to feeling a strong connection to him there. He died in 2011 the day after our tickets for the season had arrived.). One of my early memories is watching the Big Red Machine win the World Series on TV with Dad and jumping up and down before giving him a big hug. I was the only girl I knew who collected cards. So we'll see where this book fits in.
I'm surprised I haven't read this book yet; I guess I am kind of saving it for when I really need a fix. The year is nearly over, and I'm not going to Spring Training as I had hoped for this year, so it might be time. I could use some spiritual direction as well. 12/29/13
So comforting reading this. Reminds me of the good parts of Catholic school.
Believe, because in baseball, anything can happen!!
Over the years I've developed a major dislike for the Yankees. The Reds had nearly their worst season start in 2022. We were a national joke. But on the road in NYC, we SWEPT the Yankees. For me, that made up for any other poor performance that season. No disrespect to the author, we all have "our" team.
I do think of our ballpark as a type of cathedral. And leaving games before the last out is a type of blasphemy. My dad and I spent a lot of time together watching our amazing team and going to games in our new park (I'll admit to feeling a strong connection to him there. He died in 2011 the day after our tickets for the season had arrived.). One of my early memories is watching the Big Red Machine win the World Series on TV with Dad and jumping up and down before giving him a big hug. I was the only girl I knew who collected cards. So we'll see where this book fits in.
I'm surprised I haven't read this book yet; I guess I am kind of saving it for when I really need a fix. The year is nearly over, and I'm not going to Spring Training as I had hoped for this year, so it might be time. I could use some spiritual direction as well. 12/29/13
So comforting reading this. Reminds me of the good parts of Catholic school.
Believe, because in baseball, anything can happen!!
May 18, 2014
I just finished this little gem of a book. If you like baseball history, this one’s for you. The author, John Sexton, also cleverly overlays the game of baseball with modern religion. It’s amazing how much they have in common.
While I’m not going to give a full blown book review, I had to point out one little fact that had me laughing harder than I’ve laughed in a long time. It has to do with the theory of creation—a topic that seems to generate endless debate, all the way from the battle at the Scopes trial (involving my favorite lawyer Clarence Darrow) to the movie, Noah.
Sexton made a very interesting discovery about baseball. It turns out that if you take a look at every major league player who as earned the MVP award in back to back seasons, there are only nine of them—the same number of players in a lineup. Even more miraculous is that these nine players each played a different position. So, if you put together this MVP group of players, you’d have a perfectly fielded team. A super-duper All Star team. Now that can’t be coincidence. What are the odds that in the history of baseball there are exactly nine players, each playing a different position, who have won the most prestigious award in two consecutive seasons? It must be an act of creation.
Of course, that sounds ludicrous, as if some kind of supreme being is orchestrating the management of major league baseball. But Sexton, while tongue in cheek, does state his point rather forcefully.
If you have a few spare hours, this book is definitely worth the read. Kind of makes you want to go to a ball park this summer.
While I’m not going to give a full blown book review, I had to point out one little fact that had me laughing harder than I’ve laughed in a long time. It has to do with the theory of creation—a topic that seems to generate endless debate, all the way from the battle at the Scopes trial (involving my favorite lawyer Clarence Darrow) to the movie, Noah.
Sexton made a very interesting discovery about baseball. It turns out that if you take a look at every major league player who as earned the MVP award in back to back seasons, there are only nine of them—the same number of players in a lineup. Even more miraculous is that these nine players each played a different position. So, if you put together this MVP group of players, you’d have a perfectly fielded team. A super-duper All Star team. Now that can’t be coincidence. What are the odds that in the history of baseball there are exactly nine players, each playing a different position, who have won the most prestigious award in two consecutive seasons? It must be an act of creation.
Of course, that sounds ludicrous, as if some kind of supreme being is orchestrating the management of major league baseball. But Sexton, while tongue in cheek, does state his point rather forcefully.
If you have a few spare hours, this book is definitely worth the read. Kind of makes you want to go to a ball park this summer.
April 22, 2013
This is a really wonderful book. I was actually skeptical as to how much I'd like it, but it really surprised me.
The author shows how many of the elements found in baseball - faith, doubt, conversion, accursedness, blessings - are elements associated with the religious experience.
He uses many classic moments from baseball and examples from various religions to accomplish this.
Baseball might not prove to be your road to God, but it should definitely open your eyes to the beauty of baseball and how it calls us to live slowly and notice the world around us.
i highly recommend this book for anyone who loves baseball or wonders how it evokes such passion from it's fans. It might even lead you to rethink your perspective on life a bit. In classrooms, you can use this book for a fun activity for example; maybe do some out door activity with baseball and have students write something they are passionate of and write a story why.
The author shows how many of the elements found in baseball - faith, doubt, conversion, accursedness, blessings - are elements associated with the religious experience.
He uses many classic moments from baseball and examples from various religions to accomplish this.
Baseball might not prove to be your road to God, but it should definitely open your eyes to the beauty of baseball and how it calls us to live slowly and notice the world around us.
i highly recommend this book for anyone who loves baseball or wonders how it evokes such passion from it's fans. It might even lead you to rethink your perspective on life a bit. In classrooms, you can use this book for a fun activity for example; maybe do some out door activity with baseball and have students write something they are passionate of and write a story why.
February 24, 2013
This is a really wonderful book. I was actually skeptical as to how much I'd like it, but it really surprised me.
The author shows how many of the elements found in baseball - faith, doubt, conversion, accursedness, blessings - are elements associated with the religious experience.
He uses many classic moments from baseball and examples from various religions to accomplish this.
Baseball might not prove to be your road to God, but it should definitely open your eyes to the beauty of baseball and how it calls us to live slowly and notice the world around us.
i highly recommend this book for anyone who loves baseball or wonders how it evokes such passion from it's fans. It might even lead you to rethink your perspective on life a bit.
The author shows how many of the elements found in baseball - faith, doubt, conversion, accursedness, blessings - are elements associated with the religious experience.
He uses many classic moments from baseball and examples from various religions to accomplish this.
Baseball might not prove to be your road to God, but it should definitely open your eyes to the beauty of baseball and how it calls us to live slowly and notice the world around us.
i highly recommend this book for anyone who loves baseball or wonders how it evokes such passion from it's fans. It might even lead you to rethink your perspective on life a bit.
September 26, 2013
Bookstore called; my copy has arrived and I can pick up tomorrow. Actually, I'm going to give it to someone but first I need to vet this one!
...Vetting turned out to be an enjoyable task. The author wants to show how the American game of baseball can be a portal to the sacred--as in sublime and holy, and as opposed to the everyday, mundane. He explains and draws in a lot of texts that don't usually go together with sports--Eliade, Heschel, Tillich, William James.
He also tells a lot of stories. He could make me laugh, as when the poor lady got beaned in the nose (back in 1957) by a prodigious foul; then, after the medics worked on her and got her loaded onto a stretcher and she was on the way out, play resumed--and the same batter hit another foul that slammed into her knee! Well, funny in retrospect, and the player visited her and they became friends. There are many more stories that are touching and brought a tear to my eye, as when the fans spontaneously rise to honor a former star who is finishing his career with another team and comes home as an opponent. Or at the description of black fathers bringing sons to greet trains bringing teams into town (in the old days) and catch a glimpse of Jackie Robinson. Or when former players, now decrepit in wheelchairs are honored by their teams. And many more of those--I'm easy.
The main author is no slouch. He's the president of NYU; has a Ph.D. in History of American Religion, a JD from Harvard Law School, has clerked for Supreme Court justices, is past chairman of the American Council on Education, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has been chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and so on--and also teaches four full academic courses, including the one called Baseball as a Road to God that led to his writing this book.
He maintains that one doesn't have to be compartmentalized into being either a religious person or a scientist (or intellectual), that is, that they aren't two opposing camps as we often are told. I like that, since it resists those attempts at polarization and defining people as "either-or." Also he analogizes baseball to a civil religion that unites us, which is pleasant for a change since there is so much that does the opposite.
I myself followed the religion of baseball for a decade. It was the '90s, and I caught "Braves fever." Unlike the males around me I had no natural defenses, having had no prior interest in sports whatsoever except the obligatory high school football fandom of my youth. So whereas a man would have clicked off the TV in disgust I had to watch every pitch every game until the bitter end. And after the excruciating '91 loss, in '92 I actually hid under the covers during the last couple of World Series games. And was there and participated in the ecstasy of the 1995 championship. Then the losing began again, and there weren't the same players anymore, and my fever burnt itself out. So one could say I wasn't a real fan.
But the book could be a gateway drug. Under its stimulation, I read the sports page this morning.
Here's the link to the E.J. Dionne column that alerted me to this book. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...
Afterthoughts
I forgot to say this is my favorite kind of memoir--not one that is straight autobiography but looking at one's life and experience through a specific lens, in this case baseball.
Also, as inexplicably happens so often, it ties in with current areas of exploration. The book practically starts with a quote from Thomas Nagel's new book, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, which I haven't read but nevertheless had occasion to reference elsewhere. Here is part of what Sexton quotes from Nagel:
There is a description from Mircea Eliade of a Romanian myth that existed alongside a historical--and recent--series of events and a still-living protagonist.
There is discussion of perception of the miraculous coincident with understanding the statistics of the "hot bat."
There is discussion of what truth is when numerous eyewitnesses can't arrive at the same conclusion. There is discussion of ethics, as when "the story" picks up and sacralizes the sinners (like Ty Cobb) along with the saints.
This book is not a way into religious literalism. It doesn't insult the intelligence.
Ethics, moral dilemmas, perfidy, tradition, relics, community....
Update, 9/26/2013:
The Sept. 9 issue of The New Yorker has a lengthy article on this author, which unfortunately is locked, so I'm including the link as a reference only. When I was reading this book, I saw from other reviews that there was some controversy about John Sexton, which, for some readers was affecting how they thought of the book. For anyone who's interested, this is a very thorough article covering all sides of the issue. It seems to me the author is an outsized personality, very endearing, really, but a mover and shaker who has at times become a lightning rod for hostilities which, however, aren't specific to his situation alone. It was a vote of no confidence from some of the schools that make up NYU, and it seems that has become quite common at colleges, sometimes for the opposite reason, that is, acting too slowly or indecisively. Since I seem to remember seeing more of the negative fallout, I'll include a positive comment from the article, by the chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU, Martin Lipton:
The proximal issue was his initiative in opening branches of NYU all over the world. Some tenured faculty resented change and, also, it's implied, felt financially unappreciated. The Faculty of Arts and Science voted against, but Law and Medical voted to support him. ...Well, that's enough detail for here. It's an interesting article, though.
...Vetting turned out to be an enjoyable task. The author wants to show how the American game of baseball can be a portal to the sacred--as in sublime and holy, and as opposed to the everyday, mundane. He explains and draws in a lot of texts that don't usually go together with sports--Eliade, Heschel, Tillich, William James.
He also tells a lot of stories. He could make me laugh, as when the poor lady got beaned in the nose (back in 1957) by a prodigious foul; then, after the medics worked on her and got her loaded onto a stretcher and she was on the way out, play resumed--and the same batter hit another foul that slammed into her knee! Well, funny in retrospect, and the player visited her and they became friends. There are many more stories that are touching and brought a tear to my eye, as when the fans spontaneously rise to honor a former star who is finishing his career with another team and comes home as an opponent. Or at the description of black fathers bringing sons to greet trains bringing teams into town (in the old days) and catch a glimpse of Jackie Robinson. Or when former players, now decrepit in wheelchairs are honored by their teams. And many more of those--I'm easy.
The main author is no slouch. He's the president of NYU; has a Ph.D. in History of American Religion, a JD from Harvard Law School, has clerked for Supreme Court justices, is past chairman of the American Council on Education, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has been chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and so on--and also teaches four full academic courses, including the one called Baseball as a Road to God that led to his writing this book.
He maintains that one doesn't have to be compartmentalized into being either a religious person or a scientist (or intellectual), that is, that they aren't two opposing camps as we often are told. I like that, since it resists those attempts at polarization and defining people as "either-or." Also he analogizes baseball to a civil religion that unites us, which is pleasant for a change since there is so much that does the opposite.
I myself followed the religion of baseball for a decade. It was the '90s, and I caught "Braves fever." Unlike the males around me I had no natural defenses, having had no prior interest in sports whatsoever except the obligatory high school football fandom of my youth. So whereas a man would have clicked off the TV in disgust I had to watch every pitch every game until the bitter end. And after the excruciating '91 loss, in '92 I actually hid under the covers during the last couple of World Series games. And was there and participated in the ecstasy of the 1995 championship. Then the losing began again, and there weren't the same players anymore, and my fever burnt itself out. So one could say I wasn't a real fan.
But the book could be a gateway drug. Under its stimulation, I read the sports page this morning.
Here's the link to the E.J. Dionne column that alerted me to this book. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...
Afterthoughts
I forgot to say this is my favorite kind of memoir--not one that is straight autobiography but looking at one's life and experience through a specific lens, in this case baseball.
Also, as inexplicably happens so often, it ties in with current areas of exploration. The book practically starts with a quote from Thomas Nagel's new book, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, which I haven't read but nevertheless had occasion to reference elsewhere. Here is part of what Sexton quotes from Nagel:
I have argued patiently against the prevailing form of naturalism, a reductive materialism that purports to capture life and mind through its neo-Darwinian extension.... I find this view antecedently unbelievable--a heroic triumph of ideological theory over common sense. The empirical evidence can be interpreted to accommodate different comprehensive theories, but in this case the cost in conceptual and probabilistic contortions is prohibitive....
There is a description from Mircea Eliade of a Romanian myth that existed alongside a historical--and recent--series of events and a still-living protagonist.
There is discussion of perception of the miraculous coincident with understanding the statistics of the "hot bat."
There is discussion of what truth is when numerous eyewitnesses can't arrive at the same conclusion. There is discussion of ethics, as when "the story" picks up and sacralizes the sinners (like Ty Cobb) along with the saints.
This book is not a way into religious literalism. It doesn't insult the intelligence.
Ethics, moral dilemmas, perfidy, tradition, relics, community....
Update, 9/26/2013:
The Sept. 9 issue of The New Yorker has a lengthy article on this author, which unfortunately is locked, so I'm including the link as a reference only. When I was reading this book, I saw from other reviews that there was some controversy about John Sexton, which, for some readers was affecting how they thought of the book. For anyone who's interested, this is a very thorough article covering all sides of the issue. It seems to me the author is an outsized personality, very endearing, really, but a mover and shaker who has at times become a lightning rod for hostilities which, however, aren't specific to his situation alone. It was a vote of no confidence from some of the schools that make up NYU, and it seems that has become quite common at colleges, sometimes for the opposite reason, that is, acting too slowly or indecisively. Since I seem to remember seeing more of the negative fallout, I'll include a positive comment from the article, by the chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU, Martin Lipton:
"I was flabbergasted, frankly (by the no-confidence vote).... What would our nineteenth-century forefathers think about the unwarranted calumnies thrown at him? What would they think about the attempts to derail the most important innovation in university education in the last two centuries?"
The proximal issue was his initiative in opening branches of NYU all over the world. Some tenured faculty resented change and, also, it's implied, felt financially unappreciated. The Faculty of Arts and Science voted against, but Law and Medical voted to support him. ...Well, that's enough detail for here. It's an interesting article, though.
December 24, 2024
Would probably be fire if I was a simpleton in a very specific way
June 6, 2016
I think my friend Missy recommended this book to me, although I'd not take that information to the bank. I do know that it sat on my shelf for at least a year, started once then never finished because life and other interests got in the way.
The book by former NYU president John Sexton is a reader based on a class he taught by the same name as the book, "Baseball as a Road to God." He goes through great pains to emphasis the article "a" road to God not "the" road to God. The book has signs of that great academic semantic breakdown which can make normal, moderately intelligent people scream "We get it already!" (Although thanks to cable political news coverage this type of semantic breakdown, argument and explanation is no longer the province solely of the ivory tower.)
But I digress. As does the book at times. Overall. I really enjoyed the read and examining baseball through a different lens, a religious lens if you will, of sacred space, faith, doubt, miracles, blessings, community, etc. One of my takeaways from the book was that the division between "sacred"and "secular" is largely our own invention. Whatever brings you meaning, bring you meaning. For instance sacred space "deeply personal to each individual, may seem quite ordinary to others."
My one distraction with the book was that at times it felt like merely an excuse to write about favorite baseball moments of the author. Yes, we get how much you grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and how you converted to the Yankees. And arguably the Dodgers and Yankees provide much depth for examples. But even when other teams are used, it felt like reading baseball history instead of drawing out the connection between baseball and community.
It is clear that Sexton loves the game and the allure of the game can lie beyond the numbers/science (analytic lovers beware: this is not a book for you) to what it can bring your daily life.
"Baseball calls us to live slow and notice," Sexton writes. Later he adds that "unrestrained by time, baseball encourages, almost requires in its most meaningful moments, an appreciation of living slowly and in the moment; the kind of differentiated experience that separates the sacred life from the profane."
Amen.
The book by former NYU president John Sexton is a reader based on a class he taught by the same name as the book, "Baseball as a Road to God." He goes through great pains to emphasis the article "a" road to God not "the" road to God. The book has signs of that great academic semantic breakdown which can make normal, moderately intelligent people scream "We get it already!" (Although thanks to cable political news coverage this type of semantic breakdown, argument and explanation is no longer the province solely of the ivory tower.)
But I digress. As does the book at times. Overall. I really enjoyed the read and examining baseball through a different lens, a religious lens if you will, of sacred space, faith, doubt, miracles, blessings, community, etc. One of my takeaways from the book was that the division between "sacred"and "secular" is largely our own invention. Whatever brings you meaning, bring you meaning. For instance sacred space "deeply personal to each individual, may seem quite ordinary to others."
My one distraction with the book was that at times it felt like merely an excuse to write about favorite baseball moments of the author. Yes, we get how much you grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and how you converted to the Yankees. And arguably the Dodgers and Yankees provide much depth for examples. But even when other teams are used, it felt like reading baseball history instead of drawing out the connection between baseball and community.
It is clear that Sexton loves the game and the allure of the game can lie beyond the numbers/science (analytic lovers beware: this is not a book for you) to what it can bring your daily life.
"Baseball calls us to live slow and notice," Sexton writes. Later he adds that "unrestrained by time, baseball encourages, almost requires in its most meaningful moments, an appreciation of living slowly and in the moment; the kind of differentiated experience that separates the sacred life from the profane."
Amen.
June 8, 2013
As both a pastor and a huge baseball fan, I was very interested in reading this book. I'd seen an interview with the author and was very intrigued by the class.
Alas, the book was somewhat disappointing. I think this was due to the fact that there was very little that was new to me. I had already heard most of the baseball stories many times before and I'd already thought through a number of the theological connections the author makes to the sport.
That said, I can see how this would be a helpful book to someone needing some framework for their spiritual explorations.
The author has produced a helpful work and I would enjoy taking the course from him, primarily because that would allow the discussion of his points that I couldn't have in reading the book.
Alas, the book was somewhat disappointing. I think this was due to the fact that there was very little that was new to me. I had already heard most of the baseball stories many times before and I'd already thought through a number of the theological connections the author makes to the sport.
That said, I can see how this would be a helpful book to someone needing some framework for their spiritual explorations.
The author has produced a helpful work and I would enjoy taking the course from him, primarily because that would allow the discussion of his points that I couldn't have in reading the book.
August 31, 2013
If, like me, you view baseball as a mystical, religious experience, you must read this. Simply a glorious book.
February 19, 2018
Baseball as a Road to God - February 14
I am neither a religious person nor an avid baseball fan (although I do usually get caught up in the pennant races and the World Series), but this book was recommended by a friend, so I bought a copy. The author John Sexton, who is president of New York University and also a full time professor there, said he wrote the book as a vehicle to show his deep love of the game as well as to advance the idea that “many of the elements we find in baseball… are elements associated with the religious experience.” Some of the parallels between the two are straightforward, such as the co-existence of faith and its partner doubt and the feeling of community that is created by being part of a religious group or by being a fan of a particular team. The book is full of baseball lore, describing some of the miraculous games, the shrine-like settings of the ballparks, and the “sinners and saints” among the players, managers, and owners. Sexton is a masterful and precise storyteller so I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. I found his discussions of the religious experience to be more obscure, but I suppose that is part and parcel of that subject matter. As I write this review, the Winter Olympics are taking place and, having read this book, I am recognizing that this fortnight of events contains many of the aspects that Sexton ascribes to both religion and baseball; while watching the Olympics we also experience faith and doubt as we cheer on our athletes; we are enthralled by the miraculous moments that fill us with awe and wonder; and we are brought together as a community (in this case, a national one), united in our support for our team. It seems to me that the name of this book is misleading; Sexton doesn’t show us that baseball leads us to God. Rather he encourages us to be more careful to pay attention to those moments in life that fill us with joy, that inspire us, or that create a sense of community because doing so will surely enrich our experience.
I am neither a religious person nor an avid baseball fan (although I do usually get caught up in the pennant races and the World Series), but this book was recommended by a friend, so I bought a copy. The author John Sexton, who is president of New York University and also a full time professor there, said he wrote the book as a vehicle to show his deep love of the game as well as to advance the idea that “many of the elements we find in baseball… are elements associated with the religious experience.” Some of the parallels between the two are straightforward, such as the co-existence of faith and its partner doubt and the feeling of community that is created by being part of a religious group or by being a fan of a particular team. The book is full of baseball lore, describing some of the miraculous games, the shrine-like settings of the ballparks, and the “sinners and saints” among the players, managers, and owners. Sexton is a masterful and precise storyteller so I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. I found his discussions of the religious experience to be more obscure, but I suppose that is part and parcel of that subject matter. As I write this review, the Winter Olympics are taking place and, having read this book, I am recognizing that this fortnight of events contains many of the aspects that Sexton ascribes to both religion and baseball; while watching the Olympics we also experience faith and doubt as we cheer on our athletes; we are enthralled by the miraculous moments that fill us with awe and wonder; and we are brought together as a community (in this case, a national one), united in our support for our team. It seems to me that the name of this book is misleading; Sexton doesn’t show us that baseball leads us to God. Rather he encourages us to be more careful to pay attention to those moments in life that fill us with joy, that inspire us, or that create a sense of community because doing so will surely enrich our experience.
June 8, 2025
I think I liked the movie a little bit more. Interesting book for me especially as someone who’s at the intersection of finding faith and loving baseball. Inspired me to go to more comes, about to see the yankees for the second time in two nights.
June 12, 2023
Philosophy of Religion meets Baseball. A book tailor-made for me but also a book with a penchant to meander.
June 29, 2024
Man what a book of beautiful nostalgia and imagination of old school baseball. Hearing names and remembering childhood memories of star players, and hearing the stories of legends I had grown up knowing. This book takes you on a journey of seeing the depths of life, baseball, and the ways these connect with God. There were a couple points that were constantly brought up that made it slightly mundane. Overall a solid and beautiful book!
November 26, 2024
For a girl who loves God and baseball, this book was perfection.
March 17, 2013
http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-baseball-as-road-to-god-by-joh...
John Sexton is in the news a lot lately, and not for some good things.
While I have a variety of opinions on the globalization (and commercialization) of American higher education and the use (and abuse) of adjuncts and graduate assistants as teachers at the university level, those thoughts will have to wait.
Sexton's tome should not be confused with light reading. While plenty of baseball books probe the spiritual side of our attachment to the national pastime (for me, most memorably in the recently departed Richard Ben Cramer's Joe Dimaggio and in Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer), Sexton probes the history of humanities spiritual quests through the lens of baseball.
From Aristotle to Sarte, the citations and reference points come thick and fast. My background is in literature, and while I've spent a fair amount of time with the deconstructionists, most of Sexton's arguments were too heavy for me to consider them enjoyable.
I had an especially challenging time with Sexton's personal allegiances: a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who became a Los Angeles Dodgers fan when his family moved to Southern California who became a Yankee fan while raising his son to love baseball back in New York City. My trouble wasn't Sexton's shifting loyalties (while I am first a Yankee fan, my National League attention has shifted from the Expos/Nationals to the Marlins to the Braves and back to the Nationals again), but with the argument Sexton built around those loyalties, an argument that speaks to his core purpose.
Is there a spiritual reason we love baseball? Do the intricacies of the game connect us to something ineffable that we find lacking in modern life?
Before reading Sexton's book, I would have said perhaps for some but not for me. Having read Baseball as a Road to God, my answer remains the same.
I love baseball for many reasons, but not (I think) because it connects me to the unknown. The game surprises me, delights and mystifies and confuses and disappoints and enthralls me. But always in a way that pushes me to know more: how could that have happened? what were the chances?
And Sexton seems to dislike or at least feel disappointed in fans like me. The magic of the ballpark is not unique for me. I can find the same feelings on a summer night at the lakeshore with the breeze blowing in, or gathered around a table with friends in the heart of winter, or in my seat at a theatre. Maybe I am not fan enough- but I sincerely doubt it.
To paraphrase Art Hill's I Don't Care if I Never Come Back:
With those who can only enjoy baseball in one way I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them.
John Sexton is in the news a lot lately, and not for some good things.
While I have a variety of opinions on the globalization (and commercialization) of American higher education and the use (and abuse) of adjuncts and graduate assistants as teachers at the university level, those thoughts will have to wait.
Sexton's tome should not be confused with light reading. While plenty of baseball books probe the spiritual side of our attachment to the national pastime (for me, most memorably in the recently departed Richard Ben Cramer's Joe Dimaggio and in Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer), Sexton probes the history of humanities spiritual quests through the lens of baseball.
From Aristotle to Sarte, the citations and reference points come thick and fast. My background is in literature, and while I've spent a fair amount of time with the deconstructionists, most of Sexton's arguments were too heavy for me to consider them enjoyable.
I had an especially challenging time with Sexton's personal allegiances: a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who became a Los Angeles Dodgers fan when his family moved to Southern California who became a Yankee fan while raising his son to love baseball back in New York City. My trouble wasn't Sexton's shifting loyalties (while I am first a Yankee fan, my National League attention has shifted from the Expos/Nationals to the Marlins to the Braves and back to the Nationals again), but with the argument Sexton built around those loyalties, an argument that speaks to his core purpose.
Is there a spiritual reason we love baseball? Do the intricacies of the game connect us to something ineffable that we find lacking in modern life?
Before reading Sexton's book, I would have said perhaps for some but not for me. Having read Baseball as a Road to God, my answer remains the same.
I love baseball for many reasons, but not (I think) because it connects me to the unknown. The game surprises me, delights and mystifies and confuses and disappoints and enthralls me. But always in a way that pushes me to know more: how could that have happened? what were the chances?
And Sexton seems to dislike or at least feel disappointed in fans like me. The magic of the ballpark is not unique for me. I can find the same feelings on a summer night at the lakeshore with the breeze blowing in, or gathered around a table with friends in the heart of winter, or in my seat at a theatre. Maybe I am not fan enough- but I sincerely doubt it.
To paraphrase Art Hill's I Don't Care if I Never Come Back:
With those who can only enjoy baseball in one way I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them.
December 27, 2012
*I received an advance uncorrected proof of the book from Penguin; that is the edition I am reviewing.*
John Sexton is the president and a professor at NYU. He teaches a class on baseball, its history, and its being a road to God--not the road, but a road to God.
The book is interesting in that he looks at baseball and its liturgy and spiritual implications the same way James K.A. Smith does with football in his book, Desiring the Kingdom. The difference is that Smith sees football as a liturgy that competes with the Church's liturgy. Sexton sees baseball as a liturgy that leads people to potentially desire the Church's liturgy.
Through a collection of stories, statistics, and experiences, Sexton shows how baseball has its own variations of sacred space and time, faith, doubt, conversion, rest, miracles, blessings and curses, saints and sinners, and community. Every step of the way, he shows you faith and baseball and that compares, analogously, to religion.
The introduction is helpful too, because he takes the time to discuss knowledge as we receive it: empirically (science) and experientially (religion). In doing so, he prepares the read to desire to discover the ineffable, indescribable, experientially--first through baseball, then through religion.
His perspective is as a Roman Catholic (and as a Brooklyn Dodgers and later New York Yankees fan), but he definitely--for better or worse--sees non-Christian religions as their own paths to God. This is the reason for the four star rating, rather than the five. His attempt to be ecumenical comes across as just that, ecumenism for the sake of ecumenism.
Nonetheless, his analagous approach to baseball and faith is insightful, and renewed in this reader a love for the game.
John Sexton is the president and a professor at NYU. He teaches a class on baseball, its history, and its being a road to God--not the road, but a road to God.
The book is interesting in that he looks at baseball and its liturgy and spiritual implications the same way James K.A. Smith does with football in his book, Desiring the Kingdom. The difference is that Smith sees football as a liturgy that competes with the Church's liturgy. Sexton sees baseball as a liturgy that leads people to potentially desire the Church's liturgy.
Through a collection of stories, statistics, and experiences, Sexton shows how baseball has its own variations of sacred space and time, faith, doubt, conversion, rest, miracles, blessings and curses, saints and sinners, and community. Every step of the way, he shows you faith and baseball and that compares, analogously, to religion.
The introduction is helpful too, because he takes the time to discuss knowledge as we receive it: empirically (science) and experientially (religion). In doing so, he prepares the read to desire to discover the ineffable, indescribable, experientially--first through baseball, then through religion.
His perspective is as a Roman Catholic (and as a Brooklyn Dodgers and later New York Yankees fan), but he definitely--for better or worse--sees non-Christian religions as their own paths to God. This is the reason for the four star rating, rather than the five. His attempt to be ecumenical comes across as just that, ecumenism for the sake of ecumenism.
Nonetheless, his analagous approach to baseball and faith is insightful, and renewed in this reader a love for the game.
May 16, 2013
This is an excellent book for anyone who loves baseball or for who has a spiritual bent outlook on life.
I found it to be a charming philosophical view into baseball. Forcing me to look at the game I have loved all of my life from a completely different perspective.
Sexton approaches the issue though from a ecumenical "spiritual" point of view, rather than a "religious" on invoking only human spirituality in all of its forms in his discussion on "Baseball as A Road to God".
This book is highly theological at times and at other times reads as a fascinating collection of baseball myths. In the form of the Greek myth, which Sexton explains as a "truth that is experienced, an awareness that lies beyond words".
If you've no interest in either of those subjects, than don't read this book as it will most likely bore you to tears.
If, however, you are one who valiantly defends baseball against the hordes of uninformed who complain at the slowness of the sport and how boring it is, all the while trying to explain the intricacies of the game being played behind the scene of the game, then this book is right up your alley.
All in all, an excellent little book that has given me a "new pair of glasses" in response to my favorite sport and made my enjoyment of the game that much more sublime.
I found it to be a charming philosophical view into baseball. Forcing me to look at the game I have loved all of my life from a completely different perspective.
Sexton approaches the issue though from a ecumenical "spiritual" point of view, rather than a "religious" on invoking only human spirituality in all of its forms in his discussion on "Baseball as A Road to God".
This book is highly theological at times and at other times reads as a fascinating collection of baseball myths. In the form of the Greek myth, which Sexton explains as a "truth that is experienced, an awareness that lies beyond words".
If you've no interest in either of those subjects, than don't read this book as it will most likely bore you to tears.
If, however, you are one who valiantly defends baseball against the hordes of uninformed who complain at the slowness of the sport and how boring it is, all the while trying to explain the intricacies of the game being played behind the scene of the game, then this book is right up your alley.
All in all, an excellent little book that has given me a "new pair of glasses" in response to my favorite sport and made my enjoyment of the game that much more sublime.
September 19, 2016
It seemed appropriate to read this when the Cubs were on the verge of clinching a division title and one of their pitchers took a no-hitter into the 9th inning. The day I finished reading this W. P. Kinsella who Sexton quotes throughout this book died. In nine chapters, Sexton and his co-authors explore religious themes such as faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, community and more.
At the end of the book Sexton acknowledges that baseball "is not the road to God, - indeed, it is not even a road to God." But as he writes numerous times during the course of the book explains that baseball can help "to experience life more deeply."
Growing up baseball was fun to play, but watching the Cubs Sunday afternoons during the 1960's-70's with Jack Brickhouse was painful. We moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1980 just in time to get caught up in World Series fever with the Philles. During our time there I rocked our kids to the mellow sounds of Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn, painted while listening to the exploits of Mike Schmidt, Garry Maddox, Larry Bowa, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw who always seemed to come into save the game, but would walk the bases full before striking out the side. In short I became a fan.
So put the smart phone and computer away, read this book and watch a game.
At the end of the book Sexton acknowledges that baseball "is not the road to God, - indeed, it is not even a road to God." But as he writes numerous times during the course of the book explains that baseball can help "to experience life more deeply."
Growing up baseball was fun to play, but watching the Cubs Sunday afternoons during the 1960's-70's with Jack Brickhouse was painful. We moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1980 just in time to get caught up in World Series fever with the Philles. During our time there I rocked our kids to the mellow sounds of Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn, painted while listening to the exploits of Mike Schmidt, Garry Maddox, Larry Bowa, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw who always seemed to come into save the game, but would walk the bases full before striking out the side. In short I became a fan.
So put the smart phone and computer away, read this book and watch a game.
May 13, 2013
If I was a Catholic man, in my sixties, and a Yankees fan, I probably would have given this book four stars. If I was taking the university course that the author teaches based on his text I may have even given it five. If these elements would be the icing on the cake, then I have to say that the cake itself is pretty darn good.
I love baseball because I find it to be a 'deep' sport. There is much more to it than meets the casual eye. I was thrilled to find someone who has so finely articulated the appeal of baseball in a deeper sense; in fact, drawling parallels between it and faith in God.
Sexton talks about faith and hope (Boston fans during the famous 86 year-old drought), why people feel connected to a particular team (usually because of family ties or a special experience in that particular city) and forgiveness (the unbelievably good sportsmanship pitcher Armando Galarraga showed MLB umpire Jim Joyce after the ump blew the call on the final out of Galarraga's perfect game, ruining the pitcher's chances of making history).
There are examinations of doubt, curses, conversion, and miracles; all tied to the philosophy and reality of baseball. John Sexton is my kind of guy.
I love baseball because I find it to be a 'deep' sport. There is much more to it than meets the casual eye. I was thrilled to find someone who has so finely articulated the appeal of baseball in a deeper sense; in fact, drawling parallels between it and faith in God.
Sexton talks about faith and hope (Boston fans during the famous 86 year-old drought), why people feel connected to a particular team (usually because of family ties or a special experience in that particular city) and forgiveness (the unbelievably good sportsmanship pitcher Armando Galarraga showed MLB umpire Jim Joyce after the ump blew the call on the final out of Galarraga's perfect game, ruining the pitcher's chances of making history).
There are examinations of doubt, curses, conversion, and miracles; all tied to the philosophy and reality of baseball. John Sexton is my kind of guy.
March 12, 2015
This is a pleasant enough book. A trip through baseball stories is always worth taking. A trip through them exploring the nature of the ineffable, with regular references to Heschel and quotes from God in Search of Man? Well, that's required reading, even if, in the end, it's not actually all that deep a trip.
Rangers fans, be warned: he keeps bringing up Game 6 from 2011 and views it as a sacred moment to celebrate. I dare say even Cardinals fans are less brazen, more attuned to the suffering of others, than to so heartlessly celebrate Nellie Cruz's fall from grace. The author's a Yankees fan -- there's simply no other explanation for such cruelty.
Rangers fans, be warned: he keeps bringing up Game 6 from 2011 and views it as a sacred moment to celebrate. I dare say even Cardinals fans are less brazen, more attuned to the suffering of others, than to so heartlessly celebrate Nellie Cruz's fall from grace. The author's a Yankees fan -- there's simply no other explanation for such cruelty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2013
I was disappointed in this book as I had great expectations, but found it to be very superficial. The author was a Brooklyn Dodger fan until they went to LA and then became, at first, a reluctant and then very enthusiastic Yankees fan (that tells you a lot right there). It may help to be Roman Catholic to appreciate his approach to God. Really though, does God care who wins the World Series...seriously?
Want to read
February 20, 2013I have recently received this book. I am reading it now. So far I have found it enjoyable. I am not far into it and I can really relate to a lot of things about going to a baseball game. I am anxious to read more.
May 11, 2013
This is a fantastic book for a baseball fan. I'm still getting my mind around Sexton's premise of baseball being a road to God. He makes a great case for it, and non-baseball people should notice that he claims it is "a" road and not THE road to God.
March 3, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. The intro was a great start for I laughed right along with the book. Inspiring and insightful. :)
December 8, 2015
A nice warm-up for opening day. Sexton provides some thought provoking insights woven thru an anecdotal history of the American pastime.
January 4, 2019
This was a very interesting read. Some of the topics worked better than others, but I came away with a lot to think about.
February 8, 2014
The theology of baseball as religion. Read it. It's good. I wish baseball today was as interesting and fascinating as it used to be... but I love the book.
July 6, 2016
A great book, especially for baseball history nuts.
April 5, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “INEFFABLE… INEFFABLE… YES… INEFFABLE… LINK OF BASEBALL TO G-D”
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The author John Sexton is not only the president of New York University (NYU), but he also still teaches a full schedule which is almost unheard of. “More” importantly… he has an absolute lifelong love affair with baseball… as many of us do. Like the author, I was a kid in New York who grew up loving the Brooklyn Dodgers… though for both of us “loving” would not be a strong enough description. After a forward by another Brooklyn Dodger loving child from that exact time frame, Doris Kearns Goodwin, sets the stage for the premise of this book… the reader is transported back in time to the most beautiful… magical… exalted day… in the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers… October 4, 1955… the day in infamy when it was no longer “WAIT-TILL-NEXT-YEAR” for Brooklyn’s beloved “Bums” and their fans. The author shares a personal, humorous story of how he and his friend “Dougie” “knelt and prayed with all the intensity we could muster, grasping between us in dynamic tension each end of a twelve-inch crucifix we had removed from the wall.” When young Johnny Podres got the last Yankee batter out and the unattainable “NEXT-YEAR” was the here and now… Dougie let go of the crucifix to throw his arms up in victory… “the laws of physics drove the head of Christ into the author’s mouth chipping his front tooth”…
And thus starts the author’s literary quest to link in every way imaginable… baseball and religion. Though the baseball stories throughout time… are lovingly shared by the author… and any old-time fan like me… will applaud the telling…but a believable broad brush bridge between the two is never effectively made in this reader’s opinion.
Baseball miracles that range everywhere from the 1914 “miracle” Braves… to Willie Mays’ miracle catch in the 1954 World Series… to Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off 1960 World Series clinching homerun… to myriad other baseball “miracles” before during and after… and then the author tries to link them to the same platform as religious miracles… just doesn’t hold credence. Additionally the author uses fictional writings and movies as “proof” such as the all-time classic movie “Field Of Dreams”… which is as much poetry as it is film. If you’re really, sincerely, trying to prove something as important and spiritual as religion… I don’t see the impact to the average reader in using fiction to cement a point.
One humorous sub-topic of religion that the author links… and it is quite amusing is *conversion*. On the baseball side I was raised in a family that loved the Dodgers like they were an actual part of our family… and you would rather go to your grave than ever root for the Giants or Yankees. The author felt the same way until after the Dodgers (and the Giants) left New York for California… then the author says he had to make a decision for the benefit of his son… so they could share the love and fraternity of a team together. So the author “converted” to being a Yankee fan for the sake of his son. (Note: four generations of my family would turn over in their graves… and the two most recent generations are still alive) What’s hilarious… to the gentile author… as well as the reader… is that his baptized son converted to Judaism and was Bar Mitzvahed, “he is Jewish today, the faith of my wife, our daughter, our daughter-in-law, and our three granddaughters.”
Despite my “belief” that the goal stated in the title wasn’t met… I still want to recommend this book highly to anyone that loves the game AND the history of baseball. The author lovingly and with the wide sweeping literary flair that you’d expect from the learned president of such a prestigious university as NYU will definitely entertain you.
One final note: I would venture to bet that there has never been a book written in history that uses the word *ineffable* more than this book. I am not joking. In fact this book uses *ineffable* so many times… that this book is probably also the book with the second most uses of this word.
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The author John Sexton is not only the president of New York University (NYU), but he also still teaches a full schedule which is almost unheard of. “More” importantly… he has an absolute lifelong love affair with baseball… as many of us do. Like the author, I was a kid in New York who grew up loving the Brooklyn Dodgers… though for both of us “loving” would not be a strong enough description. After a forward by another Brooklyn Dodger loving child from that exact time frame, Doris Kearns Goodwin, sets the stage for the premise of this book… the reader is transported back in time to the most beautiful… magical… exalted day… in the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers… October 4, 1955… the day in infamy when it was no longer “WAIT-TILL-NEXT-YEAR” for Brooklyn’s beloved “Bums” and their fans. The author shares a personal, humorous story of how he and his friend “Dougie” “knelt and prayed with all the intensity we could muster, grasping between us in dynamic tension each end of a twelve-inch crucifix we had removed from the wall.” When young Johnny Podres got the last Yankee batter out and the unattainable “NEXT-YEAR” was the here and now… Dougie let go of the crucifix to throw his arms up in victory… “the laws of physics drove the head of Christ into the author’s mouth chipping his front tooth”…
And thus starts the author’s literary quest to link in every way imaginable… baseball and religion. Though the baseball stories throughout time… are lovingly shared by the author… and any old-time fan like me… will applaud the telling…but a believable broad brush bridge between the two is never effectively made in this reader’s opinion.
Baseball miracles that range everywhere from the 1914 “miracle” Braves… to Willie Mays’ miracle catch in the 1954 World Series… to Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off 1960 World Series clinching homerun… to myriad other baseball “miracles” before during and after… and then the author tries to link them to the same platform as religious miracles… just doesn’t hold credence. Additionally the author uses fictional writings and movies as “proof” such as the all-time classic movie “Field Of Dreams”… which is as much poetry as it is film. If you’re really, sincerely, trying to prove something as important and spiritual as religion… I don’t see the impact to the average reader in using fiction to cement a point.
One humorous sub-topic of religion that the author links… and it is quite amusing is *conversion*. On the baseball side I was raised in a family that loved the Dodgers like they were an actual part of our family… and you would rather go to your grave than ever root for the Giants or Yankees. The author felt the same way until after the Dodgers (and the Giants) left New York for California… then the author says he had to make a decision for the benefit of his son… so they could share the love and fraternity of a team together. So the author “converted” to being a Yankee fan for the sake of his son. (Note: four generations of my family would turn over in their graves… and the two most recent generations are still alive) What’s hilarious… to the gentile author… as well as the reader… is that his baptized son converted to Judaism and was Bar Mitzvahed, “he is Jewish today, the faith of my wife, our daughter, our daughter-in-law, and our three granddaughters.”
Despite my “belief” that the goal stated in the title wasn’t met… I still want to recommend this book highly to anyone that loves the game AND the history of baseball. The author lovingly and with the wide sweeping literary flair that you’d expect from the learned president of such a prestigious university as NYU will definitely entertain you.
One final note: I would venture to bet that there has never been a book written in history that uses the word *ineffable* more than this book. I am not joking. In fact this book uses *ineffable* so many times… that this book is probably also the book with the second most uses of this word.
August 26, 2019
Sexton, the president of New York University, has written a wonderful book that shares his enthusiasm for baseball while weaving in thoughts drawn from his academic background as a philosopher and student of religion. The book’s chapters are divided into innings, each exploring a particular aspect of faith: “sacred space and time, faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, blessings and curses, saints and sinners, community, and nostalgia (and the myth of the eternal return).” He also throws in three extra chapters focusing on baseball: “the Knot-hole Gang (Brooklyn Dodger’s pregame show), “the seventh inning stretch” and “the clubhouse.” He highlights the parallels between the game and faith, and notes how the small details of a baseball game encourages us to slow down and enjoy life and to find meaning and beauty in small things.
Sexton is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and while he generally writes from a Christian perspective, he also draws on religious teachers from a variety of faiths: Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim. This is not a book about orthodox Christianity, although when he writes about the Christian faith, his theology is orthodox. Having grown up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, he was a Dodger fan. In the 70s, he became a Yankee fan (this is where his orthodoxy breaks down). He felt he needed to give his son a baseball team (by then the Dodgers had long moved to Los Angeles). Discussing team allegiances allows him to explore the meaning and process of conversion.
Baseball is a game that places great hopes on what might happen next year. No one knew this better than the Brooklyn Dodger fans who encouraged one another, year after year, with the saying, “Wait till next year.” Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Presidential historian and another Brooklynite who wrote the introduction to this book, has a memoir that uses this phrase filled with Brooklyn’s hope. Of course, the Dodgers did finally win the World Series just before moving to the West Coast. Baseball, like religion, has its own eschatological vision of the future!
In the chapter of sacred time, Sexton links baseball to religion’s cycles (baseball starts just before Easter and Passover, and the regular season ends around Yom Kippur. Like all religions, baseball has a cycle of life). Drawing on the writing of Marceau Eliade, he shows the importance of specific places and times which ground our religious traditions, Sexton muses also how ballparks serve a similar function. Discussing miracles, he relives Willie Mays’ fabulous 1954 catch that turned around the last World Series played in the Polo Ground as the Giants beat the Indians. But with miracles, there is always some doubt, as he illustrates with the 1951 Giants coming from a 13 ½ game deficit behind the Brooklyn Dodgers with six weeks left in the season. But then the miraculous happened and the Giants were able to catch up and with the “shot heard around the world,” beat the Dodgers to take the pennant. Years later, it was revealed that during the last ten weeks of the season, when the Giants won 80% of their home games, the team was given an advantage with a telescope deep in a clubhouse behind center field. The Giants had been stealing the opposing team’s signals and then quickly relaying them to the batter. This wasn’t against the rule in 1951, but in 1961, it was banned by Major League Baseball. As Sexton notes, sometimes miracles just seem miraculous.
In the chapter on blessings and curses, we relive the curses of the Cub’s “bill goat” and the Red Sox’s suffering revenge for trading a failing pitcher, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees. In the chapter on saints and sinners, we travel to the shrine of the “saints” at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Saints also play a major role in religion, from those canonized within Roman Catholic Christianity, to the prophets of Judaism, to the “Friends of Allah” in Islam, to the swami of Hinduism. Of course, as with many saints, parts of their lives are overlooked as it was with Babe Ruth whose monument reads: “A GREAT BALL PLAYER, A GREAT MAN, A GREAT AMERICAN.” As Sexton reminds us, Babe wasn’t always “saintly” off the field. As for sinners, there’s Ty Cobb, who still has many records in the book, and others only broken by another “sinner,” Pete Rose. And don’t forget the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal with its conflicting tales.
If there is one thing that Sexton left out, it was purgatory. As a Protestant, I find such a concept lacking in Scripture and doctrine and it’s not a part of my faith, but as a Pirate fan, I sometimes feel stuck in purgatory. Perhaps Sexton could have added an extra inning for this concept that I find more support for at the ballpark than within doctrines of my faith.
I should also note that his book is primarily about Major League baseball. The minor leagues, little leagues and other leagues are not the focus of Sexton’s work. The is room on the shelf for other books about the religious-like hope of the minor player at making the majors, or the high school standout hoping to catch the eye of a big league scout. And, of course, every little league player and kid on a sandlot has dreamed of one day playing in the world series.
On the last page, Sexton humorously muses that maybe baseball isn’t a road to God after all, but it can help awaken us to what’s important around us while providing an example of how to merge together the life of faith and the mind. The reader has been treated to two hundred pages or baseball stories, mixed in with teachings of the great religions. This book is a delight for any baseball player. For the serious student of world culture, the book might help them learn to pay attention to life and not take things too seriously. I recommend this book, but maybe you’ll want to catch a few games as the season moves into its final stretch toward October. By November, when the ballparks are all shuttered for winter, pull out this book and remember when, or (especially if you’re a Pirate fan), “wait for next season!”
Sexton is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and while he generally writes from a Christian perspective, he also draws on religious teachers from a variety of faiths: Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim. This is not a book about orthodox Christianity, although when he writes about the Christian faith, his theology is orthodox. Having grown up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, he was a Dodger fan. In the 70s, he became a Yankee fan (this is where his orthodoxy breaks down). He felt he needed to give his son a baseball team (by then the Dodgers had long moved to Los Angeles). Discussing team allegiances allows him to explore the meaning and process of conversion.
Baseball is a game that places great hopes on what might happen next year. No one knew this better than the Brooklyn Dodger fans who encouraged one another, year after year, with the saying, “Wait till next year.” Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Presidential historian and another Brooklynite who wrote the introduction to this book, has a memoir that uses this phrase filled with Brooklyn’s hope. Of course, the Dodgers did finally win the World Series just before moving to the West Coast. Baseball, like religion, has its own eschatological vision of the future!
In the chapter of sacred time, Sexton links baseball to religion’s cycles (baseball starts just before Easter and Passover, and the regular season ends around Yom Kippur. Like all religions, baseball has a cycle of life). Drawing on the writing of Marceau Eliade, he shows the importance of specific places and times which ground our religious traditions, Sexton muses also how ballparks serve a similar function. Discussing miracles, he relives Willie Mays’ fabulous 1954 catch that turned around the last World Series played in the Polo Ground as the Giants beat the Indians. But with miracles, there is always some doubt, as he illustrates with the 1951 Giants coming from a 13 ½ game deficit behind the Brooklyn Dodgers with six weeks left in the season. But then the miraculous happened and the Giants were able to catch up and with the “shot heard around the world,” beat the Dodgers to take the pennant. Years later, it was revealed that during the last ten weeks of the season, when the Giants won 80% of their home games, the team was given an advantage with a telescope deep in a clubhouse behind center field. The Giants had been stealing the opposing team’s signals and then quickly relaying them to the batter. This wasn’t against the rule in 1951, but in 1961, it was banned by Major League Baseball. As Sexton notes, sometimes miracles just seem miraculous.
In the chapter on blessings and curses, we relive the curses of the Cub’s “bill goat” and the Red Sox’s suffering revenge for trading a failing pitcher, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees. In the chapter on saints and sinners, we travel to the shrine of the “saints” at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Saints also play a major role in religion, from those canonized within Roman Catholic Christianity, to the prophets of Judaism, to the “Friends of Allah” in Islam, to the swami of Hinduism. Of course, as with many saints, parts of their lives are overlooked as it was with Babe Ruth whose monument reads: “A GREAT BALL PLAYER, A GREAT MAN, A GREAT AMERICAN.” As Sexton reminds us, Babe wasn’t always “saintly” off the field. As for sinners, there’s Ty Cobb, who still has many records in the book, and others only broken by another “sinner,” Pete Rose. And don’t forget the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal with its conflicting tales.
If there is one thing that Sexton left out, it was purgatory. As a Protestant, I find such a concept lacking in Scripture and doctrine and it’s not a part of my faith, but as a Pirate fan, I sometimes feel stuck in purgatory. Perhaps Sexton could have added an extra inning for this concept that I find more support for at the ballpark than within doctrines of my faith.
I should also note that his book is primarily about Major League baseball. The minor leagues, little leagues and other leagues are not the focus of Sexton’s work. The is room on the shelf for other books about the religious-like hope of the minor player at making the majors, or the high school standout hoping to catch the eye of a big league scout. And, of course, every little league player and kid on a sandlot has dreamed of one day playing in the world series.
On the last page, Sexton humorously muses that maybe baseball isn’t a road to God after all, but it can help awaken us to what’s important around us while providing an example of how to merge together the life of faith and the mind. The reader has been treated to two hundred pages or baseball stories, mixed in with teachings of the great religions. This book is a delight for any baseball player. For the serious student of world culture, the book might help them learn to pay attention to life and not take things too seriously. I recommend this book, but maybe you’ll want to catch a few games as the season moves into its final stretch toward October. By November, when the ballparks are all shuttered for winter, pull out this book and remember when, or (especially if you’re a Pirate fan), “wait for next season!”
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