Baseball and Faith: Beauty and Baseball
Editor’s Note: This article is a special edition of the Baseball and Faith column for the Major League Baseball All-Star game.
Everyone is talking about Shohei Ohtani. He is both a starting pitcher and an excellent hitter at the Major League level. He does it all.
Shohei Ohtani is 28 years old, Japanese, and plays for the Los Angeles Angels. He bats left while hitting massive home runs. He throws right-handed with his 100+ mph fastball.
Sports Illustrated last year had a story entitled “Shohei Ohtani Isn’t Babe Ruth - He’s Better.” Fox Sports mentioned, “Los Angeles Angels’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani giving Babe Ruth a run for his money.”
Why the connection to Babe Ruth?
Babe Ruth is remembered as the greatest baseball player of all time. Ruth ended his career with 714 home runs, over 2,800 hits, and 7 World Series rings. He even called his shot and hit a home run at Wrigley Field in Chicago during the third game of the 1932 World Series. Ruth was not human in the eyes of many Americans - he was something more. And, as the movie The Sandlot so clearly emphasized, “Heroes get remembered but legends never die.” Ruth became a legend.
Like Shohei Ohtani, Babe Ruth was also a pitcher at the Major League level. Ruth finished with a 94-46 record on the mound, a 2.28 career ERA, 17 shutouts, two different seasons with 20+ wins, and was excellent in the World Series. In fact, he pitched in both the 1916 and 1918 World Series going 3-0 with an ERA below 0.90.
So, why this connection to Babe Ruth? Baseball has not seen anything like Ohtani in over 100 years.
What is it about Americans’ wonder and awe at athletes who can “do-it-all” like Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani? It actually has to do with beauty.
Hans Urs von Balthasar noted that beauty stops us in our tracks and then sends us on mission. What he meant is that we as humans love to see beauty and then tell everyone about it. We never tire of seeing beauty. Beauty knocks us out of ourselves.
This desire of beauty is not limited to sports though - we see this desire toward people, nature, art, movies, food, clothing, architecture, and much more.
St. Thomas Aquinas noted three aspects of beauty: wholeness, harmony, and radiance. In other words, that which lacks wholeness, harmony, and radiance also lacks beauty.
Consider Shohei Ohtani’s swing - all three parts of beauty are clearly on display.
Wholeness - all the parts of a remarkable swing are there (balance, precision, focus, his batting stance and posture, his confidence). Harmony - everything is working in one fluid motion (it is eloquent, everything is in proper alignment, and is poetry in motion). Radiance - Shohei’s swing captures one’s attention, it is remarkable the moment it is seen, and people hold their breath in awe as Ohtani swings.
Despite the fact that Babe Ruth began playing Major League Baseball during World War I (1914) and Shohei Ohtani now plays over 100 years later, the human person has not changed in terms of desiring beauty. We cannot resist wholeness, harmony, and radiance.
Lastly, the truth of Christianity is often most effectively proclaimed through beauty. Consider the cathedrals and basilicas throughout Europe: St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome or Chartres Cathedral in France. Consider Michaelangelo’s statues and paintings: the Sistine Chapel or the statue of King David or The Creation of Adam fresco painting or the Pietà statue. They stop people in their tracks and send them on mission to tell everyone about it. This is evangelization at its finest.
Fr. Ben Daghir is a priest for the Diocese of Erie from St. Marys, PA. He played pitcher for the Elk Catholic Crusaders in 2010-2011 and coached SM Little League for 4 years. Ben was a pitcher for the 2009 St. Marys Senior League State Championship team. His favorite team is the Pittsburgh Pirates and favorite baseball player is Tim Lincecum.