Opening day for the Detroit Tigers falls on Good Friday. The Rev. Harry Cook, rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Clawson, MI, writes on the conflict for Christian baseball fans. He reports on Hank Greenberg who sat out of a game that fell on Yom Kippur.
…Christians who divide their loyalties between religion and baseball will just have to make a choice: Opening Day or the solemnity of Good Friday? It poses a similar dilemma for Jews, who will be celebrating the second day of the Jewish feast of Passover.
Game time on April 10 is set for 1 p.m., and some claim that Jesus hung from a cross on Good Friday from noon until 3 p.m.
Read the article here.
ESPN tells of other decisions to play or not play on Holy Days.
Edgar Guest wrote a poem on the event:
Came Yom Kippur — holy fast day world wide over to the Jew,
And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true
Spent the day among his people and he didn’t come to play.
Said Murphy to Mulrooney, ‘We shall lose the game today!
We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat
But he’s true to his religion — and I honor him for that!
What is your opinion?
h/t to epiScope.