Of Books and Baseball

by John Wilson

In his inaugural First Things web column, John Wilson shares his favorite books about baseball.  Continue Reading »

13 Apr 2018

The Importance of Jackie Robinson

by George Weigel

Jackie Robinson’s accomplishments should rank as high as anyone’s in the pantheon of civil rights heroes. Continue Reading »

19 Apr 2017

Choreography and Improv

by Peter J. Leithart

Despite appearances, jazz and baseball are historically intertwined. Baseball players and jazz musicians both strive for a perfect balance between disciplined practice and spontaneity. Continue Reading »

24 Feb 2017

Golden Memories of a Golden Anniversary

by George Weigel

In my mind’s eye, what I see on East 33rd Street is the old brick horseshoe where I learned baseball from my grandfather Weigel in the late 1950s—and where, a half-century ago, I had a foretaste of the joy of the Kingdom. Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2016

Baseball: Practices for Coming Home

by Jeffrey Bilbro

The American pastime offers a balm for our restless, competitive, and often militaristic culture. Continue Reading »

30 Aug 2016

Two Catholics and the Catholic Game

by George Weigel

Baseball is by far the most Catholic of the sports on which we lavish such attention and passion. Because it’s played without a clock, baseball is like the liturgy: a foretaste of the time-beyond-time, which is God’s time, which is eternity. Baseball is also spatially eschatological or infinite: . . . . Continue Reading »

15 Jun 2016

Inhuman Baseball

by Greg Hillis

Unfortunately, the scene is now familiar to us. The runner on first breaks for second as the pitcher delivers the ball to home. The catcher jumps to his feet, throws a rocket to the second baseman as the runner slides into the base. The play is close, as are so many plays in this game of inches, but . . . . Continue Reading »

29 Apr 2016

Derek Jeter’s Enduring Legacy

by William Doino Jr.

As the World Series comes to an end, and with it another post-season, there was one noticeable absence: Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter. During the last two decades, Jeter, the Yankee captain, has been a constant, larger-than-life presence in the playoffs and World Series, thrilling fans everywhere. But not this year. The usually proficient New York Yankees failed to even qualify for the playoffs, let alone the World Series, making the 2014 season-Jeter’s last-especially poignant.
When Jeter played in his final games in September, Gatorade Continue Reading »

26 Oct 2014

Life Under Instant Replay

by Drew Denton

When taking stock of how far we haven’t come, I find myself reliving the early morning hours of July 27, 2011. Late-night comics have relinquished the airwaves to diet pill peddlers, city buses have ceased running here in Atlanta, and even Manuel’s Tavern is turning out the last of its regulars. South of downtown the Braves and Pirates play on, sweating through the nineteenth inning on a field approaching dewpoint. A journeyman Braves reliever, batting for lack of other options, hits a routine grounder to third. Breaking on contact, a baserunner pushing forty—also playing for lack of other options—sprints toward the plate, a kamikaze attempt at the winning run. Continue Reading »

25 Jul 2014

Unbelievable!

by George Weigel

Moral theologians have long disputed the point at which a child reaches the “age of reason.” But surely, in these United States, the answer is clear: one reaches the “age of reason” when one can read the box scores (the baseball box scores, of course) in the morning paper. For to grasp the . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Aug 1993