No Crying In Baseball... Or Is There?

Tears formed in my eyes on Sunday. It wasn’t during the morning or the evening worship services. It was during the afternoon. The last day of the Major League Baseball regular season. I watched the Brewers on television, and they won. The Mets were losing. If they lost, the Brewers would be in the playoffs for the first time since 1982, when I saw them play the Cardinals in the World Series at County Stadium. When the final out was recorded, and the Mets had lost, my eyes turned moist. The Brewers made it to the playoffs. But it wasn’t just the relief and excitement of the victory. There was something more.

I reflected on Michael Novak’s musing in The Joy of Sports: “How could I be forty years old and still care what happens to the Dodgers?” I’m forty-five, and my eyes filled with tears when the Brewers won the wild card and a place in the playoffs. Is it time to put away childish things? No, because the game made a deep connection, sounding the depth of my being.

My Dad and I loved the Brewers. During the last days I got to spend with my Dad, we watched some of the Brewers games on TV, and we moaned and grumbled because they kept losing, and we figured they’d find a way to be on the outside of the playoffs, looking in… again.

But they did it. It wasn’t pretty, but they are in the playoffs. For that moment, as the excitement of the game brought a smile to my face, I felt in my belly a joy shared with Dad. He wasn’t here to see it, but still, I somehow was enjoying it with him. And with Tyler. My son. Another Brewers fan. Another generation.

No wonder my eyes were filled with tears.

On Second Thought...

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but I hope to be back at it regularly again.

Last week the judgment on the Nicolay Davydenko tennis fixing case came in. There were some irregular betting patterns for a match that Davydenko lost in August of 2007. After a year of investigation, the ATP determined that there was no wrongdoing. Eight other players have been banned for betting on matches, and other players said that they were approached by people asking them to influence the outcome of matches.

Last week, in Frank DeFord’s article on Sports Illustrated’s website, he pointed out that match fixing has been a part of tennis for many years. Apart from the issue of betting, I’m concerned with the loss of competition. Whether it is for the sake of making money, or simply to give someone a chance to win a match and earn a few ranking points, the beauty of sport is diminished. We glorify God when we compete, when we strive together, and so perform to our best abilities. I was very disappointed in the ATP’s findings, and hope that more will be done in the future to clean up the sport.

But that also made me think more about the football game mentioned in a previous post. In a blowout, one high school football team gave a special needs player an opportunity to score a touchdown. In the context, everyone involved saw it as a good thing to do, and quite honorable. I wasn’t there, so I trust that the moment was one of joy and kindness.

However, as a friend pointed out to me, this may not be such a blessing. What happens if (when?) the special needs player learns that his touchdown was a sham? What if he is then brokenhearted because of condescension, rather than overjoyed at a (false) success?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that I cannot truly serve another person until I truly acknowledge that I am less than the other person. Otherwise I will be acting from a position of superiority, and will be condescending, not serving. Were the players on the team that was winning the blowout acting in a condescending manner, or were they serving the other player and team by enacting an unforced fumble and allowing the touchdown?

If it’s wrong for one tennis player to throw a match that doesn’t matter to him in order to give another player – a friend – a few ratings points, if that action prevents competition in the truest, God-glorifying sense, then isn’t a winning team gifting a fumble and touchdown also diminishing competition?

Again, I wasn’t there, and I don’t know the player(s) involved in the football game. It may have been a moment of true honor and blessing. But perhaps moments like these diminish the players and the honor of competition, even as they seek to offer kindness to another player and team.

Football As a Stage for Grace and Honor

The Des Moines Register today had an article highlighting a moment of great kindness and grace on the high school football field. The article describes the PCM junior-varsity football team giving up a shutout by allowing a special needs student on the opposing Albia team to score a touchdown. The PCM quarterback fumbled, allowing a sophomore safety on Albia to pick up the fumble and run for a touchdown, to the cheers of players and fans on both sides.

It was refreshing to see the teams consider the ways they could be a blessing to each other, as the Albia team gave a group cheer to honor their opponents from PCM, and the PCM team responded with a unison, "Thank you."

Both teams had played hard, to the best of their abilities, which allowed PCM to sacrifice a shutout to give joy and honor one student who might never have such an opportunity on the playing field. But even before that, the coach of Albia, Jerry Staton, made a choice that provided a blessing for the sophomore safety by giving him the opportunity to play. Coach Staton has done this before with other teams he has coached, providing the opportunity for everyone to play.

A football game served as the stage for gifts of grace and honor, reflecting the best of what high school sports can be.

No Apologies In Football?

The injury to New England Patriots’ quarterback, Tom Brady, was big news on the first week of the NFL season. On a tackle by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Bernard Pollard, Brady incurred what may be a season-ending injury. Pollard hit Brady low, and some questioned whether the hit was a “dirty” one, whether Pollard intended to try to injure Brady.

Pollard’s response to the hit was quick. He started apologizing to Brady right away. Pollard argued that if it had been intentional, he wouldn’t have apologized. According to SI.com’s Peter King, Pollard said, “It was most definitely a clean play. It was an accident. It’s tough. It’s football. I’m sorry it happened, obviously. I can’t do anything but apologize to him. I went to Herm [Chiefs coach Herman Edwards] after the play and told him how sorry I was.” He added, “I’ll pray for [Brady].”

I don’t know what Pollard’s religious faith may be, but his reasoning seems sound. He genuinely did not want Brady to be injured, the injury was an accident. He apologized, not because he was wrong for trying to tackle Brady, but because the result of the tackle was so unfortunate for Brady and for the competition.

As I understand it from a Christian perspective, competition is at its best and most God-glorifying when both sides are putting forth their best efforts. A true competitor will not want his or her opponent to be injured, but will want to participate in the contest when both players are at their best. By “striving together,” (the root meaning of the word competition), the players are able to perform in ways that reveal how “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) we are.

Pollard’s apology reminds me of the line from the movie, A League of Their Own, when the manager berates a player for her emotion, saying, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Of course there is crying, and there are apologies, in baseball, in football, and in every other competitive sport… because the games do mean something to us, and we want everyone to be at their best in order to do their best.

Athletes and the Ancient Church

I came across this quote in some reading I was doing:

The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established… brothel, sculptors of idols, charioteer, athlete, gladiator… give it up or be rejected.
Hippolytus of Rome, AD 218

Why would the early Church consider athletes to be suspect for membership in the Church? I can understand those who work in a brothel or sculpt idols would need to give up their line of work, and from the movies I’ve seen, charioteer and gladiator might not have been the most respectable careers. But why athletes? Was it because of some connection of athletics (Olympics?) to pagan gods? Was it because athletes performed nude? Was it because of corruption?

According to the books of the Maccabees (1 Macc 1:11-15; 2 Macc 4:7-17), the Jews saw athletics as pagan, and decried the priests who neglected their service in the temple to go watch the discus throwers. Josephus (Antiquities xv.8.2) noted that athletic games fell into disrepute after the Maccabean revolt (167 B.C.). But when the Church was bringing in Gentiles, Roman converts, why was it such a bad thing to be an athlete?

I guess I have a new pet research project. Anyone know why Hippolytus would have had a low view of athletes?

UPDATE (8 September 2008): Dave Timmer from Central College offered this suggestion: "The Greek and Latin words that are cognates to our word "athlete" can also have the more specific meaning of "prizefighter"; I wonder if it is that particular sport which Hippolytus intends to forbid for Christians, rather than sports in general. That wouldn't make boxing fans happy, but it would get baseball off the hook. (Not "basebrawl" fans, though.)" Dave wants to make it clear that this is just a suggestion, not a scholarly opinion. Thanks, Dave!