Baseball as a Road to G!d

4/8/2013

I recently found out that for the last 10 years, NYU president John Sexton has been teaching a course "Baseball as a Road to G!d". It's always nice to have a university president confirm something that I have sensed for the last 50 years!
I have every intention of buying his book by the same name, perhaps two, one for me and one for my baseball crazy bar mitzvah student Ben.
A few days ago I was pleasantly surprised upon opening a different book, "The Spirituality of Imperfection", to find this baseball quote:
"Baseball teaches us...how to deal with failure. We learn at an early age that failure is the norm in baseball and, precisely because we failed, we hold in high regard those who fail less often - those who hit safely in one out of three chances and become star players. I also find it fascinating that baseball, alone in sport, considers errors to be part of the game, part of its rigorous truth."
This was written by former baseball commissioner Faye Vincent, Jr. Let's call it the Torah of Baseball.
Hmmm.... maybe I'll write a proposal to teach it at American University!

2 Comments

Jennifer Nelson

4/8/2013 05:06:01 am

I similarly maintain that baseball as played is a form of meditation: the patterns, the ritual objects, the necessity of cooperation, the various designs of success and failure, the promise of innings to come...

Manny Schiffres

4/8/2013 12:23:52 pm

Thanks for posting this, Mark Novak. Baseball certainly helps you live with failure, no doubt about that. Slightly off topic, but I'm reminded of the scene in "For the Love of the Game," when Kevin Costner says something like, "Lord, I always said I would never involve you in something as trivial as a baseball game. But I would be eternally grateful if you could make the pain in my shoulder go away for the next 10 minutes."

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Baseball as a Road to G!d

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