Article #5 - Fifth Series - July 23rd, 2023 by Fr. Ben Daghir

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One Thing, Jesus Christ - Article #5 -  Fifth Series - July 24th, 2023 by Fr. Ben Daghir

Article:

There is no doubt that baseball is a team sport: uniforms, a batting order, specific positions to cover territory that one player couldn’t possibly manage to cover on his own, relying on teammates to make a play, communication among players and coaches, etc. Simply put, baseball demands teamwork. 

Just think for a second about a batter who hits a double and records an RBI (run batted in). His swing alone did not record the RBI. Rather, his teammate who successfully reached base in a previous at-bat coupled with the third base coach who analyzed the field and waved the runner home provided the opportunity for such a statistic to occur. 

Yet, baseball also has players who just do not seem to understand the team aspect of the game. 

Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest from the 20th century, drew a distinction which clearly articulates a choice that both baseball players and Christians always have before them. Balthasar noted that there are two dramas by which we can choose to live: the ego-drama or the theo-drama.  

The ego-drama is the story that I tell, I run the show, it is about me, all the lights on the baseball field shine on me, all the light through the stained-glass windows in the Church shine on me, we are successful because of me, I brought so and so to the faith, etc. The theo-drama, on the other hand, is the story of one’s role in a much larger drama than the self. The theo-drama demands that one finds his role in relation to the director - God. 

In baseball terms - the theo-drama (or one might say the “team-drama”)  listens to the coach, supports teammates, accepts one’s role on the field, does the little things well, and cares much more about the success of the team than personal statistics. The only statistic that the theo-drama is concerned with is the scoreboard. In other words, the lights on the field shine on the game - not on me. Also, the team is successful because of a group effort - not because of me. 

Notice that a baseball player wears a uniform which has the team’s name on the front and his last name on the back. The message could not be clearer: the ego drama needs to be left behind and the theo-drama must always be placed at the forefront. In other words, the player’s decisions, dreams, concerns, and wants must be fundamentally directed to the team. Both baseball and faith are clear that the team-drama and the theo-drama are more important than the ego-drama.
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Fr. Ben Daghir is a priest for the Diocese of Erie. He is a graduate of Elk County Catholic High School in Saint Marys, Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, and St. Mary's Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland. He considers writing one of his favorite hobbies.