Introduction

            I’m a baseball fan and a theologian.  When I try to imagine what Heaven or the New Creation will be like, I assume that somehow baseball will be part of the wonders to be revealed.  In Revelation, God says he will make all things new, and the eternal kingdom will be an earthly, physical realm.  Certainly baseball will be part of it, right?

            But that puzzled me for a long time because every highlight for one player or team is a lowlight for the opposition.  For every jubilant hitter who slugs the ball over the fence, there’s a dejected hurler.  For every cunning pitcher who notches a strike out, there’s a downhearted batter trudging back to the dugout.  For years I imagined that baseball would have to take the form of a game of catch in Heaven.  You know, fathers playing catch with sons, those moments when all is peace and wonder as the ball arcs back and forth – no winners, but no losers either.

            Then I read an article by Dr. Ethan Brue, “Base Running as an Obedient Art.”  In the article, Brue argues that when we compete we provide the opportunity for our fellow athletes to use their skills to glorify God.  He offers the illustration of a softball game, bottom of the last inning, two outs, your team down by seven runs.  You hit a dribbler to their gold glove second baseman, an easy out.  You are tempted to turn and head to the dugout, but you resist the temptation and act as a servant by hustling to first base.  Then the second baseman slips, the ball takes a strange hop, and the fielder makes a dazzling recovery to stop the ball and flip it to the first baseman.  It’s a split-second, bang-bang play.  You’re out.  Was it worth the effort to hustle down the line?  Yes, because you have given the fielder “an adequate canvas to display his athletic creativity.”  Even though you are out and your team lost, “you delight in the extemporaneous skill of the second baseman, as though you had done it yourself.  And you actually did.  There are never winners and losers when Christians engage in sport, only obedient or disobedient artists.”

            And so I discovered that there is a place for baseball in the kingdom of God and the New Creation.  Wins and losses aren’t important, only obedient artistry in the field of play.  In that we can rejoice and, as Brue concludes, “Who knows, maybe even God himself likes a ballgame like that.”

            This blog, then, combines my love of sports and theology, and will, hopefully, address a variety of sports topics theologically.  I invite your comments and insights, as I seek to consider sports as obedient art.