The Boston Red Sox, Bill Buckner and Worship
An amazing thing happened yesterday at the 2008 home opener for the World Champion Boston Red Sox. The Sox welcomed the exiled Bill Buckner back to
If you are not familiar with baseball history, specifically Red Sox history, let me set the table for you a bit.
The year was 1986 and the Red Sox were in Game 6 of the World Series and leading against the Mets. They were on the virge of wining the Championship for the first time since 1918. Many fans to that day
Then it happened.
I was a ten-year-old little
Mookie Wilson hit a routine ground ball down to first base and it found its way through the legs of the aging Buckner and into right field. This brought in Ray Knight from 2nd base and the Mets won game 6. Of course, they went on to win the 7th game and the world championship.
What followed is almost unimaginable. Red Sox fans and media made Buckner’s life miserable. In addition to being the punch line of jokes, topic of songs, reference on The Simpson’s, he and his family have received death threats for the last 20 years. I even remember a few days after ‘the play’ hearing a sports caster in
Sports fans are rabid. But speaking from personal experience,
The answer is worship.
We are a worshiping people. God made us in his image and as such has given humanity the unique privilege of attaching our affections and our all to something outside of ourselves. We crave and long to worship.
This inclination to worship is intended to ultimately terminate on the supremely glorious, infinitely beautiful, and uniquely satisfying one, God himself. God has made us to crave, pursue, and enjoy him supremely. However, as rebels, we as humanity turn from this buffet of eternal delights in God himself and find ourselves feasting in the dumpsters of this world. We are nibbling on half eaten chicken when God has given us a banquet of delights at his right hand.
Scripture explains this in terms of us exchanging God’s attributes. We steal God’s attributes and give them to other things, we “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man…” and we “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1.23 & 25 respectively)
With this deadly and perverted exchange humanity is left worshiping finite stuff. In addition to this being wholly offensive to the One who is actually deserving of supreme devotion, affection and worship, it is particularly dangerous for those who engage in such things. Our identity is bound up in our gods. And in the case of Red Sox fan, he is worshiping a team of finite men who seem to have a penchant for loosing. At the end of the day this identity with the
So then Red Sox fan cries out with a religious zeal for the vindication of their god’s honor. The one who is demonized as the villain is none other than Bill Buckner. This is a horrible and sickening display of the human heart.
So why did the Red Sox invite Buckner back yesterday?
I have no doubts that the ownership and former players want to try to encourage Buckner and his family. However, the stage was set for something else and this was a fitting way to try to get this ‘buckner off their back’. At the home opener yesterday the Red Sox were handing out the championship rings from last year’s World Series victory. The fans (many of them worshipers) were coming to the temple (Fenway) to exalt their god (Red Sox). It was during these hours leading up to and during the game that the Red Sox fan felt supreme. Their god seemed to be king and they were fine filling in and covering some historic blemishes with the current success. They were willing to forget 1986 because they have 2004 and 2007 championships.
Many are applauding the Red Sox ownership for what they did yesterday, and I join them. It was a class act and much overdue (they should have done it in 2004). However, I am not willing to pat the Sox fan on the back. When I hear the cheers I don’t hear good natured human forgiveness but rather a worshiper placated by recent illusions of supremacy. I see a tremendously vivid display of depravity, idolatry, and hopelessness as it is fixed supremely upon a baseball team. Another ‘goat’ will emerge and he will be similarly treated, perhaps not with the same venom, but no doubt with similar contempt.
Furthermore, when I see a stadium packed with people screaming with passion and excitement, sometimes even tears, I can’t help but smile with anticipation of the great multitude that will crowd around the King on the throne of David. As Zechariah saw with prophetic eyes, “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.” (Zechariah 14.9) May the Christ and his kingdom come soon. The ultimate victim in this story is not Bill Buckner and his family (though he should be pitied), instead it is God himself. He has been robbed of his rightful place of supremacy in the hearts of his creation. Therefore, may God be pleased and regenerate folks to love him supremely as the only one, as the true source of delight and satisfaction; for it is this One who has rescued sinful idolaters such as me from myself. He has taken a sinner such as me who hated his glory, found him unworthy of worship, and he has stormed my heart with grace and life so as to cause me to see him as he is, altogether lovely and deserving of worship. O’ what power and what infinite grace.
(note: I do not think that it is a sin or expressedly pagan to watch or enjoy baseball. Nor is it a sin to get excited and passionate about your team (even if that team is the Yankees). However, my focus here is on us chiefly glorying in stuff or people and what they have done at the expense of God himself and what he has done, this is idolatry.)
Possibly Related posts:
- How Gerald Ford’s death causes me to worship Jesus
- Isaac, a field, and my worship
- How my joint heir of grace drives me to worship the God of grace
- Q & A Friday :: How can you watch sports to the glory of God?
- How the Super Bowl Causes me to Long for the Kingdom
17 Responses to “The Boston Red Sox, Bill Buckner and Worship”
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Great post. I used to love baseball until the strike of 1994. I still love the game, but after that I developed a more cynical view of the pro game. So my cynical comment or actually question is this: I wonder how forgiving of Buckner the Red Sox fans would be if their team hadn’t won the World Series Championships it has in the last few years?
I hear you Barry. If I wasn’t a Sox fan it may be difficult. However, this time of year, playing with my sons, there is something special about playing the game and watching it together.
Re: ‘forgiving’ Buckner…I think all you have to do is ask Steve Bartman…the Cubs have yet to win and that guy is still in exile. And he wasn’t even a player!!
Glad to hear from you again BD
Your blog reminded of what I heard Francis Schaeffer say many years ago. He declared that the religion of America was sports, that the star players were their gods, that each stadium was a temple, the scorecard or sports page their Bible, and the team colors their vestments. He went a little further with the analogy but I can’t remember it all.
I also can remember the how devastated I was in 1986. I woke my children up in the ninth inning so that they could “see the Red Sox win the championship.” Oops. It was a Saturday night. I had to preach the next day and had to get up a 5 am to walk and pray it out of my system.
It is a precarious tightrope walk for the Christian sports fan.
I liked how he walked out with his hands in his pockets and almost undeservedly came to the mound, and no “Mr. T” starter kit around his neck. Good analogy Erik. How you can find these illustrations is uncanny.
Dave- Thanks for the note…it is encouraging to me that you have been preaching for so many years. Stay faithful!
Matt- You always go after those gold chains…just an fyi, don’t do ministry in Rochester, NY or Rhode Island. As far as the illustrations, read the Bible and read the news.
Great Post. I just stumbled upon your site and I am impressed. It is funny how we fill or time and energy (our worship) on things other than Christ. As a christian, I am shocked at how easily I allow original sin in my life to take over and allow myself to worship the creation instead of the creator. We like to think of graven images as statues ect. when most of the time they are something else (more sneaky)…sports teams, video games ect. Thank You for reminding me of my chief end to glorify Him and enjoy Him. God Bless.
My site hasnt been updated in awhile, but I linked it anyway.
I’m sorry to point out that this post depends, unwittingly, I’m sure, on revisionist Red Sox history. Bill Buckner did not need to be rehabilitated or reconciled to the Fenway crowd. This had already happened,and long before the Sox finally won one in 2004. Few people seem to remember the thunderous standing ovation he received on opening day 1987 or the fact that he came back to end his career with the Red Sox, again to thunderous applause on his first at-bat.
see: http://joyofsox.blogspot.com/2008/04/history-and-bill-buckner.html
Yep, Richard is right. It was primarily the media members, and some fans. But most Sox fans didn’t blame Billy Buck. McNamara is a different matter.
No question the media fanned the flame (namely dan shaughnessy). However, to paint the picture as one of acceptance an love is hardly accurate. “thunderous ovation”? I think that is a bit over the top…maybe I’m wrong. And what was it 20 games with the sox in ’90?
I think the steam really picked up later in the 90′s with the Yanks continually punking the Sox time after time. The animosity really increased. And how many guys have worn #6 since Buckner? In my memory I have Cerone, Pena, Berryhill-I think, and Gary Gaitti…who else?
So Cav, sure, blame the media. But you can’t say that ‘most fans’ didn’t blame Buckner. You couldn’t say the guy’s name in MA without getting a sigh, a profanity, or some curse (bambino) related comment.
[...] a friend pointed out this post about Bill Buckner of the Red Sox. Why has he been so villified by Sox fans? It’s because [...]
And then there’s this, of which I was not previously aware. In the November 10, 1986 issue of Sports Illustrated (http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1065441/index.htm) the great Peter Gamons wrote of the thunderous (yes) ovation that Buckner received a mere TWO DAYS after the fateful error. Sure, mention of Billy Buck’s name elicited sighs, but they were (mostly) sighs of sadness, not anger. In many ways Billy Buck was us. He was every New Englander, a fellow sufferer.
[Excerpt from Peter Gamon's article]
He awakened on the morning after the morning after, knowing that he had two more rivers to cross. First, there was a parade in downtown Boston. … As he started to get out of bed, he heard some mention of the Mets’ parade on the radio. “More than two and a half million people honored the world champions yesterday in New York,” said the announcer, “and the parade finished with the Mets’ team bus going through Bill Buckner’s legs.”
“Here I just experienced the best year of my life with a team, and I feel rotten,” Bill Buckner said to his wife, Jody, as they drove down Route 93 toward Boston last Wednesday morning. “This whole city hates me. Is this what I’m going to be remembered for? Is this what I’ve killed myself for all these years? Is a whole season ruined because of a bad hop? I’ve got to go through the humiliation of this parade, partly because I know I don’t deserve it. Oh well, there’ll only be two or three players and about 50 people who’ll show up to boo us.” …
It was a crystal-clear autumn morning … when the truck neared Copley Square, he saw that the street was lined with faces and banners as far as he could see. Buckner had asked not to speak at the rally at City Hall Plaza, and so he stood at the end of the stage. But when he heard the ringing one-minute ovation that followed his name, Buckner stepped forward and thanked the crowd.
HT: Joy of Sox (http://joyofsox.blogspot.com/2008/04/red-sox-fans-gave-buckner-huge-ovation.html)
I even remember a few days after ‘the play’ hearing a sports caster in Boston say with a straight face, “Bill Buckner tried to commit suicide today. He jumped in front of the train. But it went through his legs.”
Ouch! That’s harsh!
“They were willing to forget 1986 because they have 2004 and 2007 championships.”
I can certainly understand that, but in the 1968 World Series Game 7 against the Tigers, Curt Flood surprisingly missed a fly ball that cost Bob Gibson and the Cardinals the game. It wasn’t, perhaps, as dramatic as the Buckner one (though the Red Sox lived to play another game), but the Cardinals fans didn’t hold a grudge against Curt Flood until ’82 when they won it all again.
I think we’re missing the point if we look at this post (a great one, by the way) only in light of whether or not Buckner was accepted before or not. The point is not Billy Buck. The point is the idolatry so many of us are guilty of. I can’t tell you how many NC State Wolfpack games I’ve been to, or Carolina Hurricanes games, and wondered about the way we act/interact/react to our teams. It’s especially poignant when I see so many (myself included) yelling and screaming with elation and joy at the game, only to see us with frowns and yawns the next day at church. Idolatry runs in our veins, and unless it is checked by the Holy Spirit, we default to it. We will worship something, God or gods.
Truly a great post, Erik. Thanks for writing.
Bill Buckner need not be pitied. He’s a happy family man who teaches Sunday School and considers coaching his son’s little league team as his biggest baseball thrill. He knows there were a dozen other factors contributing to losing that game. His was simply the most visible and the last. For another surprising angle on this story, you might enjoy my article “Thank You, Bill Buckner” the story of how Michael O’Connor (author of Sermon on the Mound – a really great book about God and baseball) claims that play was pivotal in his becoming a Christian.
Most of us are not guilty of the sin of idolatry.
All of us are. Idolatry is what we do. No one can get past the 1st Commandment.
If we we’ver broken one commandment, then we’ve broken the first one because we’ve placd our wants and desires over God’s and replaced God with somethin else.
Hey, it’s ok. Don’t get too upset! Christ came for the ungodly! That’s us!
Thanks be to God!
Thanks.
– Steve Martin San Clemente, CA
I disagree with this article.I believe that the Red Sox fans felt bad about mistreating Buckner all these years and never appreciating his career.I think the Red Sox fans were forgiving him.Not worshipping him.
Erik, while I’m not a “Calvinist” in my theology, I find some of the best posts on the internet are by Calvinists. Loved the article and I agree whole heartedly with Tree Newts comments. Thanks for reminding me of who I should be worshipping -even in the middle of this “Madness”!