Saturday, August 2, 1997

Like baseball, Christianity requires faith, endurance, celebration

By Lauren R. Stanley / Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Two weeks ago, people in this town were in a funk. Nothing was going right in the world - not the weather (hot and oppressive, just like always in the summer around here), not the politics (lots of hot air, just like always in the summer around here), not even the baseball team.

The Baltimore Orioles lost several games in a row, and the word in this town was simple: The team stank. The hitting was on vacation, the pitching was only so-so, and frankly, the players didn't have any spunk.

DO SOMETHING! the fans fairly screamed. FIX IT! TRADE FOR SOMEONE!

You would have thought the Orioles had sunk into last place, there was so much gloom-and-doom around here.

Now, mind you, the Orioles were still in first place in the American League East, the same spot they had occupied since Opening Day. Their lead never fell below 3 1/2 games. They were still the second-best team in ALL of baseball, having finally conceded the No. 1 spot to the Atlanta Braves.

But a little bit of adversity, a little mid-summer slump, and boom! Everyone's ready to abandon ship.

Whatever happened to enduring? To fighting the good fight? To suffering through bad times as well as celebrating through the good times?

Of course, as soon as the Orioles started to win again, as soon as their lead was back to 5 1/2 games over the New York Yankees, all the gloom-and-doom disappeared. THOSE are the real Orioles, the fans said. The ones who beat everyone, who smash hits right and left, whose pitchers bedazzle the opposition, whose infield is one of the best in the game.

Gloom-and-doom? HAH! the fans roared. We weren't really worried (heh-heh).

And these are the folks who call themselves fans of the game of baseball.

But baseball isn't about winning all the time. It's about winning SOME of the times, hopefully more often than losing. It's about winning streaks and losing streaks, hitting streaks and hitting slumps. It's about 162 games spread out from the beginning of April to the early part of October.

It's about fighting the good fight, day in and day out. It's about running the good race for a long, long time. And for those who follow the game, it's about keeping the faith.

Sort of like Christianity.

Indeed, baseball is very much a metaphor for Christianity. There are good times and bad, great years and lousy years. There is the early excitement of spring games, followed by the long, dry months of summer. For some, there is the wondrous excitement of the pennant race, while for others, there's always next year.

Yes, baseball and Christianity are very much alike, for both are built on hope. For baseball, it's the hope of a pennant. For Christians, it's the hope of the resurrection.

And for both baseball fans and faithful Christians, there is the knowledge that it isn't the short-term that counts, but the long-term. Keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the prize is something both fans and Christians have in common.

The Apostle Paul knew that. He taught it to his followers, one of whom probably wrote the second letter to Timothy, where he exhorted Christians: "Always be sober, endure the suffering, ... carry out your ministry fully." (2 Tim. 4:5)

All Christians are called to do that: Always be serious about your faith; be prepared for those bad days when things don't seem to be going right; be fully devoted to your ministry.

Baseball fans follow the same instructions: always serious about their faith in the game; enduring the slumps that happen to every team every summer; being devoted to the game.

It may seem somewhat blasphemous to compare baseball and Christianity, but for me, the former is the best metaphor for the latter that I know. To follow either requires a great deal of faith, not in ourselves but in others. Both call for endurance as well as celebration. Both know the wisdom of keeping our eyes on the prize, no matter how distant that may seem some days.

So for me, when the Orioles go into a mini-slump during the long summer months, I simply shrug my shoulders and say, "That's baseball. Have faith. Everyone goes through slumps. But it's a long season, and the O's have a lot of fight left in them."

Like the summation of Paul's life in that second letter to Timothy, at the end of the season and of my life, I want to be able to say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

In baseball and in Christ.

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(The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley, a former assistant news editor for the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, is a deacon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Va. Readers may write to Stanley care of Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 790 National Press Building, Washington, D.C., 20045.)

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(c) 1997, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.