I Thought Baseball Was A Religion

January 26th, 2010 by cbwilkins | Posted in Picture blog |

This blog shouldn’t really be about sports, but the only one who ever writes on it is me and I like sports. So, this past week one of the more unprecedented actions in, well, probably the history of sports happened. Grant Desme is an outfield prospect with the Oakland Athletics; he just finished his first professional season, where he was the only player in the Minor Leagues to hit more than thirty home runs and steal more than thirty bases (he actually stole forty), a season that he followed up by winning the MVP award in the offseason Arizona Fall League, which is a huge deal since the league is reserved for the best of the best. Desme was about month away from heading to Arizona for Spring Training, and there was a very real chance that by the end of 2010 he could have found himself in the Major Leagues, playing for the Athletics. But, that won’t happen, since this week Desme announced his retirement from baseball so that he could pursue another life goal, becoming a Catholic priest.

Now, as a baseball fan, my initial reaction was shock. I’m a huge Braves fan and last year’s Arizona Fall League MVP was the Braves’ Tommy Hanson, who ended up spending most of 2009 with the Braves, nearly winning Rookie of the Year. I couldn’t imagine how I would have felt last September if he all of the sudden retired. My second reaction was again of shock, because of Desme’s choice of profession. A priest? A…Catholic priest?

I have to preface all this by saying that I am about the least religious person out there. I’m not even one of those people who would say “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual,” I’m not any of that. Attempts were made to raise me Catholic, attempts that had failed before I was even ten, but that doesn’t mean I have any kind of special vehemence toward the Catholic Church, I don’t care for any religions, I don’t see the point in picking one out to dislike more than the others. Despite all this, I completely understand people who are all about their religion. I don’t agree with them, but I get it. Actually, I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who truly gives themself to their faith rather than just paying lip-service to it, acting religious rather than saying you’re religious, being good and treating others well rather than using your belief system to judge others, these are things I admire.

So, with that in mind, I absolutely respect Grant Desme’s decision. I don’t agree with it, I don’t fully understand it, even though it makes sense from one perspective, but I respect it, and I certainly wish him well. But, at the same time, I’m baffled by it. The amount of work it takes to become a professional baseball player is astounding; just getting signed by a Major League team and playing in the Minor Leagues is about as rare as winning the lottery. The amount of work it takes to excel, to be the MVP of a prestigious league and be on the cusp of the highest level is even more astounding. So the idea that someone could just walk away from that is nearly unbelievable to me. I go to games and I see players without an ounce of natural talent and guys who are so far past their prime nobody can even remember when they were good, and they refuse to give the game up. They fight day after day to keep their job; you’d literally have to rip the jersey off their back to get them to walk away from baseball, but this guy just gave it up. That’s hard to swallow.

I’ve seen plenty of people write about how noble it is that Desme was willing to walk away from baseball to focus on his faith, but even that seems misguided to me. I’m not saying his faith is misguided, his faith is his own and not for me to judge him on, even if I don’t agree with it. It just seems to me that if he really wanted to do well within his religion, if he really wanted to get the message of his faith out there, then staying in the game of baseball is a great way to do that. First, as a baseball player, he is a role model. Some players don’t want to hear that, but it’s the absolute truth, people look up to athletes. If he’s out there as a prominent, positive example of a member of his faith, that can only help get his religious message out there. The number of avenues and venues and arenas that open up to a high profile professional athlete are tremendous. Even as a Minor Leaguer, he can talk to people at the games each night; even as a fringe Major Leauger, people will still listen because of who he is. If he’s a star, it’s even better. Albert Pujols is the best player of his generation and he’s very religious and everyone knows it, because he talks about it and acts in a way that is consistent with his beliefs. I hate to be blunt, but Albert Pujols probably does more for Christianity than any priest ever has.

This is the side of the coin that I don’t think Grant Desme has looked at. I’ve known a number of players who talk religion with anyone they can. Paul Bryd, who played for the Mets, Braves, Phillies, Indians, and Red Sox, usued to put a different Bible verse next to every signature he wrote. He knew the Bible backwards and forwards and was eager to talk about it. Joe Winkelsas, who played for the Braves and Brewers, used to regularly begin conversations with the question, “Have you met Jesus?” These guys believed in their faith and saw the opportunity that being a professional baseball player afforded them in spreading that faith.

Again, I’m not a religious guy, if anything, baseball is as close to a religion as I get. Nothing has been more central and important in my life as the game of baseball, nothing has taught me more about the way to act properly in this world, and nothing has filled me with joy and hope more than baseball, so maybe that’s why I’m unable to properly digest Desme’s decision. But, I do with him luck, even if I think he could have done more to help his faith by staying where he was.