Michael N. Marcus was born in the Bronx and spent his first six years just a few miles from Yankee Stadium. Despite this, he never became a baseball fan, likely because he never received a proper explanation of the sport. It always seemed to Marcus that the hitters were the heroes. People like Mickey Mantle hit the balls that drove up the scores that won games and the World Series.
But what Marcus learned at the Stadium much later, when he was 55 years old, was that it was the pitchers and catchers-not the hitters-who were really in control. Balls―not bats―made the big difference. Throwing was more important than hitting; and it was the silent, stealthy, sneaky catchers squatting in the dirt behind home plate who signaled instructions to pitchers who caused hitters to strike out. Good hitters seldom got good hits. And if they did, balls were usually caught by good fielders. Marcus actually enjoyed baseball that day.
The parallel premise of this book is that Marcus's concept of God was based on inadequate information plus childhood images of an old guy with a long beard up on a cloud.
Marcus says, "I outgrew religion when I was 12 years old and could not get a good explanation for why the mighty Supreme Being who smote the enemies of the ancient Jewish people did not stop Attila the Hun, the Great Plague, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and the KKK. I wondered if the allegedly omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God was absent, distracted, no longer cared-or never actually existed.
I could accept the notion of a creative force but I could not make a transition from a Big Bang to a Supreme Being that should be feared and prayed to. I recognize that I don't know everything, but the possibility of there being a super-entity is so remote that I am willing to live my life as if it does not exist."
Marcus's late understanding of baseball made him appreciate the sport, but it came too late to make him a fan. Similarly, he had his first coffee on his 70th birthday. He liked it, but never became a fan.
In researching this book Marcus hoped to arrive at an 'adult' understanding of God. Will a better understanding make him a believer, or maybe even a fan?
Perhaps. The answer is ahead. This book is a spiritual and sporting journey. Enjoy the ride.
