The Chronic Curmudgeon

I guess if they win a World Series it will be an act of God.

Notice that the leagues most consistent hitter now resides in Minnesota? Mauer is a hometown fav drafted out of highschool. I hope he's not a fluke, the Twins need a leader on the field, among other things.

"...Jesus(hayzoos),I like heem very much, but he no help with curveball..."
"ARE YOU SAYING JESUS CHRIST CANT HIT A CURVEBALL?!!!"

As long as it's just hoping, why not hope against mathematical probability as well and wish them 0-162. It never hurts to hope.

Hmmm... because if that happens, then you can be the one to tell them that the Baby Jesus hates them so much, he overturned statistical probability just to prove it.

I'm starting to wonder about Colorado (the state, not just the ballclub). First those "Focus on the Family" dweebs, then the Air Force Academy shenanigans, and now this. Is the entire state filled with christo-loons?

Yes, it is. We lived there for a year and couldn't get out fast enough.

I haven't read the article, however if the Rockies are attempting to build a church in their baseball team that likely bodes well for the competition. The practice falls a bit outside the scope of building a MLB team. I suppose the item that captures my attention the most is the broad brush with which Christians are painted in this post. I am a Christian - I am aware of some of the negative attitudes regarding Christians...some of this is self-inflicted and deserved but if I may, I'd request that broad brush strokes be avoided...after all the broad brush is a significant part of the problem with 'non-thinking automatons', christian or otherwise. I mean no offense, I've met some pretty unhealthy people sporting the name tag 'christian' and I understand that you all are speaking from your real experiences.

On a lighter side of baseball and religious devotion - did you hear Bert Blyleven's question to American Idol's Ace Young during Twins v. Angels game. www.deadspin.com

This isn't new, though. Back in the late 1970s-early 1980s there was a player named Danny Thomas (no, not the comic) who was one of the early visible proponents of Christian fundamentalism in baseball. He wouldn't play on Sundays, which got him dumped onto one of the independent teams pretty quickly.

And that's a fair point, Hitman. While I am speaking from my experience with self-professed "Christians," broad brush strokes are unfair -- and I'd admittedly get upset if I heard someone making such wide statements about blacks, for example, or women, or Hispanics, or fill in the blank.

Mea culpa.

Could one form of evaluation of the Rockies be in the form of how they react to being a middle of the road club?---which is probably what will happen. Like everyone else they will win some, lose some. Is the plan one of principle or something like a "Christian formula for winning"?Like the old Coca-Cola sales meetings that old man Candler would conclude with a rousing sing-a-long of "onward christian soldiers." (pushing coke with christianity you say?) Will the Rockies abandon the plan if it is non-successful in terms of winning? Winning, as Al Davis would point out, is the bottom line for sports teams. One of the obvious problems, it seems to me, with the Rockies deal is the strange mix of religion and sports-employing religion as a strategy for winning. It does sound like the winning 'formula' is part of the plan, and if so, the plan doesn't square up from either the baseball or the faith side. Other sports-religion oddities...In Green Bay, certain churches say prayers for the Packers on Sundays-not exactly the high calling of Jesus' teaching. Individually, there are the Isaac Bruce's -remember his speech after a horrific car accident when he claimed God reached in and saved him...apparently God didn't care so much for Derrick Thomas who was killed not too long before Bruce's accident. Or does God prefer wide receivers. This sort of favoritism is not really Biblical and certainly provides a valid point of criticism. The use of faith to promote a business plan (sports or what have you) seems to me to provide us with some real common ground.

Perhaps it isn't about winning, but perhaps it is marketing to their regional demographic. It may be that they figure more people will come to the parks or watch the games on tv if they have an all Christian team. I can't remember where, but I recently heard or saw a news story about the traditional church-discount night that is very popular among minor league teams was being imported up to the Majors. Apparently it is a big draw for church groups and religious folks/families in many areas. Welcome to the show!

Oh, here is the story:
NPR : Baseball Teams Woo Christian Fans to Games
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5434639

interesting article. Weird stuff. Score one for the church of the irrelevant. Thanks for the article link.