Spiritual Lessons from Baseball

Even if you are not a sports fan, there are reasons to bring up baseball at this time of year.

First, the baseball season is winding down, and World Series fever is really in the air. It really has been very close this year in many Major League Baseball divisions.

Second, at Spiritual Life Center we have been conducting a multi-week series based on Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey’s wonderful book, Building Your Field of Dreams. All of this is based on one of my all-time favorite movies — FIELD OF DREAMS — which came out in 1989 and starred Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones.

In the movie, an Iowa farmer named Ray, played by Costner, hears a Charlton Heston-like voice while he is in his cornfields. The God-like voice is saying, “Build it and he will come.” Ray believes that what this Spirit-like voice wants him to do is to build a baseball diamond near his cornfield. If he does this, then Ray believes that the legendary baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson, will return.

In the movie this does happen. Not only does Shoeless Joe return to play on Ray’s baseball diamond, but the entire 1919 Chicago White Sox team returns. People from all over the country come to this Iowa baseball diamond to experience the magic.

Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey uses his story to show us how we can turn our dreams and goals into a reality. Each Sunday we have been looking at one aspect of this process. 

But right now, I would like to take various aspects of the game of baseball and apply them to life in general — and to specific spiritual principles. Let’s get started:

You Don't Get On Base Every Time You Go to Bat

Many people would look at Ted Williams as the greatest hitter of all time. During one season, Williams had a batting average of 400. This means that 40% of the time when he went up to the plate to bat he got at least a single or better. 

But that means that even Ted Williams — the greatest hitter of all time — during his greatest season failed to get a hit many times. There were more times that Williams failed than he succeeded.

In his day, Babe Ruth was the all-time champion home run slugger. Yet in the year that he hit his most home runs, the Babe also had his record amount of strikeouts. Swing for the fences and you will often strike out.

There is a big reason to learn this lesson. Often times so many of us 'step up to the plate' of life and we do not 'get on base'. We don’t get the job or the promotion. The person we really think we love turns us down. The health diagnosis doesn’t go the way we would like. Not everybody thinks that we are 'the greatest thing since sliced bread'.

This also happened to the spiritual masters. Jesus and the Buddha’s lives are filled with many times when things did not go the way they hoped they would. In fact, I would add if every time we step up to the plate, we are getting a hit, then maybe we should be playing in a better and more challenging league.

That great Unity teacher, Eric Butterworth, insisted that often times we learn more from our striking out then from our home runs. Learning to stay spiritually centered and taking things in stride is a key lesson that we need to learn for real spiritual growth.

Life is a Team Sport

You can have one or two fantastic All-Star players on your team and still be in last place. Baseball is really a team sport. It requires moving beyond one’s ego and being part of a harmonious 'band of Brothers' (or Sisters).

It is Important to Know When to Switch Pitchers or Batters

In modern baseball, it is very unusual for one pitcher to pitch for all nine innings of the game. A good coach knows when to make the switch. It is also important to know when to put a pinch hitter into the game.

— And speaking of pitchers, it is important to have more than one pitch.

To be a 'little Johnny one note' doesn’t get you too far as a major league pitcher. It is interesting to see a pitcher who ages. As a young man this pitcher might have had an incredible fast ball. He could strike almost everybody out. But as he gets a little older, this pitcher loses some of the speed on his fast ball. He can’t overpower batters to get them out. Now this older pitcher has a wide range of pitches that he can use. Often he gets a batter out by outsmarting him. 

In a similar way, and in so many different endeavors, we need a wide range of  “pitches.” In our prayer life it is important for us to have many different forms of prayer. Yes, I believe that affirmative prayer is very important, but there are times when we may need to turn to other forms of prayer as well.

I look forward to us building our fields of dreams both on a personal level and at the SLC level. But to do this, I believe that all of us could learn a few lessons from baseball.

“Batter up, and play ball.”

Many blessings,

Rev Rick