The Rev. Matthew Stewart. The Herald News, Fall River, MA, reflects on “The spirituality of the 2013 Red Sox:”
Back in 2004, I was still in seminary studying to become an Episcopal priest. Even though I’m from Massachusetts originally, I decided to try something new and so went to the Episcopal seminary in New York City.
And so, I was living in Manhattan when the 2004 Red Sox did their thing. The bloody sock. Dave Roberts’ steal. Manny. Papi. Pedro. Curt. The rest of The Idiots. The incomprehensible comeback over the Yankees. The four-game sweep of the Cardinals. The first Red Sox World Series championship in years and years, and the end of the Curse. Writing it all down still gives me chills. It was unreal. The morning after the Red Sox won that last game in St. Louis, when my seminary classmates went down to chapel for worship in the heart of Yankees territory, the 15-foot statue of Jesus has a Red Sox cap on. To this day, no one has admitted to being the perpetrator of that act of nonviolent resistance…
As many are noting, this year’s championship was different. Decidedly less star power. Fewer dramatic moments, Ortiz’s grand slam notwithstanding. The storyline this time around was one of good guys, average joes with an excess of facial hair, working hard and playing as a team. Now the sabermetricians would probably suggest it was good pitching not good chemistry that was the crucial component to this year’s championship. But nevertheless there was a strategic decision made by the Red Sox this year to attract a wider array of solid performers than the most expensive free agents. This was also Jesus’s MO. The women and men Jesus called to be disciples weren’t the elite of his day. (And, for the record, while women weren’t part of the “Twelve,” he did call women, too.)
Read more of 2013 Red Sox and Jesus followers here