\n<\/p>\n
The Yankees aren\u2019t in the World Series. And I\u2019m mad. And I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
So, I got to thinking about the most depressing moment of my baseball life, the 2001 World Series\u2013and don\u2019t stop reading because this is going somewhere.<\/p>\n
2001, of course, was the year of 9\/11. NYC was in shock and everything was put on hold, including the MLB post-season, which ended that year in November. The Yankees wound up losing, and it\u2019s been 14 years and I still clearly haven\u2019t gotten over the shame and sense of divine injustice. Psalm 89 became my favorite that year.<\/p>\n
This is the year the Yankees should have won the series. It would have been just. NY \u201cdeserved it.\u201d A small reminder that, despite tragedy, maybe there is a glimmer of hope nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Tha Yanks lost the first two games in Arizona\u2013that wretched, godless, desolate, wilderness, a place only worthy of spring training games for west coast teams. But back in the Bronx\u2013which if geography (real or ideal) serves me right, is on a hill\u2013the Yanks took game 3, which sets up game 4, the only World Series game I ever attended.<\/p>\n
It was October 31. The Yanks were down 3-1 until the bottom of the 9th. With 1 on and 2 out, Tino Martinez hit a centerfield home run to tie the game. In the 1oth, a young Derek Jeter hit a home run to right to win the game. The clock had just struck midnight, on cue. Jeter became Mr. November. If God is not a Yankee fan, well\u2026then there is no God.<\/p>\n
Game 5. Again. With 2 out, 1 on, and down 2 runs in the 9th, Scott Brosius hit a home run to tie it,\u00a0and Chuck \u201chelp, I can\u2019t throw anymore\u201d Knoblauch won\u00a0it in the 1oth with a single.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no way God isn\u2019t in this.<\/p>\n
Back to Arizona and the Yanks get slaughtered in game 6, which only made me think that God likes drama. Game 7 is in the bag. Which it was, when Alfonzo Soriano hit a home run in the 8th off of Curt \u201cI am a Baal worshipper\u201d Schilling, giving the chosen team\u00a0a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n
And then Mariano Rivera fell apart in the bottom of the 9th inning, and the Yanks lost\u2013which I believe God promised us would never happen. But it did. And I still can\u2019t watch the highlights.<\/p>\n
Had the Yankees won, it would have fit my theology like a glove. God is fighting for us, the enemy has been defeated, and all is well. But they lost. That didn\u2019t mean, however, that God is dead or weakened, only that there must be some other\u00a0meaning for this defeat. It seemed to me that the Yankees\u2019s defeat was simply a metaphor for recent events\u2013shocking tragedy, stunning defeat.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think God actually cares at all about sports. But I am emotionally invested in my particular sport and my particular team\u2013and those sorts of things can be pathways God uses in us to\u00a0reflect a bit.<\/p>\n
Adapting one\u2019s theology to experience is common, dare I say normal. That sounds like bad idea at first, but I wonder\u2026is it even avoidable? We do it all the time\u2013if such and such works out that we prayed for, it\u2019s a God thing; if it doesn\u2019t work out, it\u2019s still a God thing, just a different\u00a0kind of God thing.<\/p>\n
We read about this in biblical times, too. If the king and his army suffer defeat, it means the deity is angry for some reason. If victorious, the nation is clearly favored in God\u2019s eyes. How you explain divine action depends on the circumstances.<\/p>\n