Baseball and the end times - by Jim Wallis  

There are certain Christians (of the religious right variety) who sincerely believe the apocalypse (the coming of Christ and the unfolding of the end times) will be prompted by events in the Middle East. In order to create the right conditions for the Second Coming, these believers take a one-sided political stance (pro-whatever Israel does and ignoring all the consequences for everybody else - even ignoring the existence of Palestinian Christians, for example). This is not only bad biblical theology (as revealed in the recent Sojourners article, "Short Fuse to Apocalypse?"), it perhaps more importantly misses other events that might truly prompt the eschaton. Of course, I am referring to a possible match-up between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox in baseball's World Series. A World Series with truly eschatological implications is now possible after the surprise play-off victories of two of the most long-standing underdogs in baseball - or maybe in all of sports. I went to seminary in Chicago, and, as a part-time job, was a school bus driver who sometimes took groups of school kids to Wrigley Field to watch the hapless Cubs play. And I must admit, sitting (for free) in the bus driver's section for many a summer afternoon game instilled in me real warmth for the north-side team, whose fan motto has always been "Wait 'til next year." Knowing more dogged Cubs fans than I, who were born and raised in the Windy City, I have always sensed the clear theological meaning to their motto. Indeed, I know the general secretary of a mainline Christian denomination (who will remain unnamed because there is no reason to single out the Reformed Church in America) who believes that being a lifelong Cubs fan develops a deep sense of eschatology. Justice may not come in this vale of tears, but vindication of all worthy but hopeless causes will come in the end times. Sammy Sosa's homeruns are extraordinary to behold, but what if the Cubs actually get to the big series and (dare we imagine?) even win it - for the first time since 1908? The Cubs hadn't even won a playoff series since then (almost 100 years) until they beat the mighty Atlanta Braves and put themselves in the National League Championship series with the Florida Marlins. Could the Cubs finally win? And could such an outcome be the catalyst for the end of history as we know it - the hope that many Christians have always longed for? Then there are the Red Sox, not a hope-against-all-the-evidence team that won't ever give up, but rather the epitome of tragedy on an almost Shakespearean scale in sports, and the bearers of the heaviest burden in baseball. After winning the World Series in 1918, they sold the famed Babe Ruth to the hated New York Yankees in 1920, starting a new dynasty. Since then, the Yankees have won 26 championships, while the Red Sox, laboring under the "Curse of the Bambino," have none. Boston fans are the great fatalists of sports, always sure that something will happen (and always does) to ruin their hopes and shatter their dreams. This is a whole city that lives with the excruciating memory of that soft ground ball in the 1986 World Series that somehow trickled between the legs of first baseman Bill Buckner, losing the easy out and giving the game, unbelievably, to the miracle Mets. But this year it was the Red Sox that performed the miracle, coming back against the Oakland Athletics in three straight games, having been down 2-0. And now the Red Sox face the Yankees, the richest and most powerful team in baseball, in the American League Championship series. How sweet would that victory be? Could the cursed find redemption? Could the defeated and despairing find victory? Might the eschaton be upon us? Ultimate, cosmic, and eschatological justice will clearly be on the side of either the Cubs or the Red Sox as they face their opponents. But what if they face each other in the World Series? Many baseball fans would respond with rapturous delight to such a World Series, no matter what the outcome, as the whole creation groans for righteousness to finally prevail. And given the events in Iraq, the White House, the CIA, the Middle East, and the California recall (any of which I might have otherwise written this column about), a little justice would be a wonderfully welcome thing just now.