⚾️ Rituals, Miracles, Sacred Days: New Film Delves Into The Religion Of Baseball 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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PHILADELPHIA — For me, heaven on earth is a ballpark.
I love God, my family and the Texas Rangers — mostly in that order.
I’m on a journey — a “Field of Dreams” pilgrimage, if you will — to experience all 30 current Major League Baseball stadiums.
I checked ballpark No. 23 — Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia — off my bucket list this past weekend.
My son Brady and 7-year-old grandson, Bennett, joined me in donning Rangers’ blue as we rubbed elbows with the Phillies’ faithful — 40,000 strong, clad in red and white — on a windy, 45-degree Saturday afternoon.
Bobby, Bennett and Brady Ross enjoy a Rangers-Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. (Photo by Brady Ross)
To our delight, the Rangers prevailed, 5-4, in extra innings. But the journey is about so much more than wins and losses. It’s deeper than enjoying a Dodger Dog in Los Angeles or a Fenway Frank in Boston, both of which I absolutely made it a point to do, by the way.
I can’t help but identify with the new documentary film “Baseball: Beyond Belief,” which “explores how baseball and faith intertwine in powerful and surprising ways.”
Based on the 2013 book “Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game” by former New York University President John Sexton, it’s set to air nationally on Fox Sports 1 at 4 p.m. Eastern and 1 p.m. Pacific on Easter Sunday.
“I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball,” Susan Sarandon’s character in the 1988 movie “Bull Durham” declares in a clip played at the documentary’s opening.
• • •
THE WORLD’S LEADING religions have holidays such as Christmas, Passover and Ramadan, notes the Paulist Productions film, written and directed by John Scheinfeld and narrated by Joe Mantegna,
Baseball has Opening Day.
“It’s like a flower blooming,” says Joe Torre, a nine-time All-Star player and manager who led the New York Yankees to four World Series championships. “All of a sudden, it’s, ‘Here we go.’
“Everybody starts fresh,” the Hall of Famer explains in the film. “Everybody has the same record, and now let’s see how good we are.”
Adds Chip Caray, the St. Louis Cardinals’ TV play-by-play announcer and grandson of the late legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray: “It’s rebirth. It’s renewal. It’s hope. It’s optimism. It’s a new start.”
Religion has prayers and sacred texts.
Baseball has ceremonial first pitches and seventh-inning stretches where everyone stands and sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” It also has mascots such as the Phillie Phanatic, a lovable creature with bright green fur that we got to see.
“Baseball: Beyond Belief” delves into the game’s rituals, its miracles, its saints and sinners, its blessings and curses, its deep family ties, its conversions, its nostalgia and, yes, its pursuit of the Promised Land.
“The goal in baseball is to make it home,” says Willie Alfonso, the Yankees’ chaplain. “The goal in my walk with the Lord is to make it home.”
The Phillies’ faithful cheer for their team at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
Says Rebecca Alpert, a rabbi: “If you think of church as an idea of community, I think baseball really does create community and a sense of belonging and connection.”
Baseball “offers miracles in real time,” says Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California.
The sport “brings people together around shared values,” Soni adds later in the film. “It offers them a place in the world. It makes them realize that there is a reality that’s bigger than you.”.
In baseball, the Promised Land is the World Series.
“Making it to the World Series means that one’s faith and hope have been rewarded,” Mantegna tells the audience. “Winning the World Series means that one’s dreams have come true.”
Can I get an amen?
Here’s what I wrote after my Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 fall classic:
ARLINGTON, Texas — I lived to see it.
The Texas Rangers just won the World Series.
Forty-one years after I first walked into the old Arlington Stadium and became a Rangers fan at age 14, my team achieved the ultimate baseball glory.
• • •
I TALKED to Tom Gibbons, a Catholic priest who serves as president of Paulist Productions, about “Baseball: Beyond Belief.”
For over 65 years, Paulist Productions has focused on creating films “that advance the conversation between the sacred and the secular,” Gibbons said.
“Baseball: Beyond Belief” took about seven years to develop, said Gibbons, who lives at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Community in Los Angeles.
“I think it’s a film that really helps deepen appreciation of the spiritual side of life,” said Gibbons, one of the executive producers. “What’s exciting about it is that it uses a common language that so many people have — baseball — to gain a deeper appreciation of religion.
“I think it kind of works both ways,” he added. “If you’re a religious person, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of baseball. If you’re a baseball person, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of religion.”
Tom Gibbons visits with Religion Unplugged about the new documentary film “Baseball: Beyond Belief.” (Video screenshot)
The one-hour, 41-minute production highlights interviews with experts such as Shawn Green, a Jewish former major-leaguer who sat out games on Yom Kippur and says “having beliefs, having faith is crucial in life and baseball as well”; and Kavitha Davidson, a sportswriter who got a Yankees tattoo after dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder that followed a sexual assault.
“The Yankees winning the World Series in 2009 felt like a win for me,” she says. “And I can’t explain that. I know it’s super irrational. But it felt like this was something that was given to me to show me that something good could happen in my life and that good things could still happen in my life after that.”
“Baseball: Beyond Belief” mixes real-life baseball history — such as Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Kirk Gibson hitting an unforgettable pinch-hit home run in the 1988 World Series and former President George W. Bush throwing out a ceremonial first pitch after 9/11 — with scenes from movies such as “The Natural” and “Eight Men Out.”
Gibbons, 54, who grew up in northern New Jersey, wore a clerical collar and a Yankees cap during our video interview.
I asked if he puts on that cap when he celebrates Mass — as he did three times last season — for Catholic employees at Dodger Stadium.
“I do not wear my Yankees hat,” he said with a chuckle. “I am an agnostic minister of the Lord when I am (there) — agnostic in terms of sports anyway.”
• • •
“BASEBALL: BEYOND BELIEF” reminded me of the famous speech by James Earl Jones’ character in “Field of Dreams”:
“People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person.
“They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it, for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers, sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.
“The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: It's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
I didn’t dip myself in magic waters at Citizens Bank Park.
But I did fork over $40 for a Phillies blanket — just as I did a similar amount for a Cubs blanket when Brady, Bennett, my son Keaton and I visited Wrigley Field on a chilly spring day in 2023.
Those are memories that will stick with us long after new incisors fill in my grandson’s gap-toothed smile.
So, too, will the image of Laura Stickells, a reporter for the Rangers Sports Network, spotting Bennett by the Phillies’ children’s play area and asking him for an on-camera interview.
“What advice would you give to Major League Baseball players?” Stickells asked Bennett and other kids.
“Keep my eye on the ball like big-leaguers do,” responded Bennett, sporting a kid-sized Texas jersey and a knit Rangers cap.
Rangers Sports Network reporter Laura Stickells interviews 7-year-old Bennett Ross at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
“I think that’s great advice,” Stickells replied with a smile. “I think you’re a big-leaguer in the making.”
My grandson thought about it for just a second.
“Yeah, maybe I am,” he said.
Inside The Godbeat
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably a baseball fan.
In case you missed it, I wrote a column last year on combining my love for baseball and religion reporting.
Also, I traveled to San Diego and Los Angeles in 2024 and Detroit and Arlington, Texas, last year to cover the trend of MLB teams hosting special faith days.
Fans pray during Home Plate Detroit, an annual Christian outreach event at Comerica Park. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
The Final Plug
What ballparks remain on my bucket list?
These are the seven: Yankee Stadium in New York, Rogers Centre in Toronto, loanDepot Park in Miami, Chase Field in Phoenix and Truist Park in Atlanta, plus the future new homes of the A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays, now playing in minor league facilities.
I’ve got a ticket to see the Braves during the Religion News Association annual meeting in Atlanta later this month.
My favorite ballparks that I’ve visited? I ranked them after my first time at Target Field in Minneapolis in 2024. I’d add the Phillies’ stadium to my list of All-Star parks.
T.C. Bear, the Minnesota Twins’ mascot, strolls atop the team’s dugout at Target Field in Minneapolis. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy cheering for your team this weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.