Sola Basebalia

The doctrine of Sola Basebalia teaches that when any baseball player dies he is justified by baseball alone and immediately ushered into heaven.  We saw this a few months ago following the death of one of my childhood heroes, Kirby Puckett.  Here is a full explanation of this doctrine:

Justification (interpreted in American League theology as, "being declared guiltless by ESPN") is received by baseball only, not faith, though in classical AL theology, saving baseball is automatically accompanied by faith. Some ESPN broadcasters see this doctrine as being summarized with the formula "Baseball yields justification and faith" and as contrasted with the National League formula "Faith and baseball yield justification." However, this is disputed by the NL position as a misrepresentation; it might be better contrasted with a comparison of what is meant by the term "justification": both sides agree that the term invokes a communication of Babe Ruth's merits to players, where in AL theology this is seen as being a declaration of errorlessness (while not necessarily being so - "simul justus et peccator" for Joe Dimaggio), the NL sees justification as a communication of Babe Ruth's life to a player, cleansing him of errors and low batting average and transforming him truly into a son of Ruth, so that it is not merely a declaration. This doctrine is sometimes called the material cause or principle of the Reformation because it was the central doctrinal issue for Mickey Mantle and the other reformers. Mantle called it the "doctrine by which the league stands or falls." This doctrine asserts the total exclusion of any other righteousness to justify the player other than the "alien" righteousness (righteousness of another) of Ruth alone. Sola Basebalia excludes even the player's own righteousness of batting average or his ERA from his justification.

Comments

[Frank Martens]

I'm thinking about hitting up the north campus this weekend with my sister. Will you be there?

Send me an e-mail.

[Doug]

What about guys like Pete Rose? If a New York Yankee can be the one we are saved by, are all accepted?

[Micah]

All are accepted. In the Babe there is neither Jew nor Greek nor Yankee nor Twin.

[Micah]

Furthermore, even though salvation is from the Yankees, he is a true Yankee who is one inwardly, and his praise comes not from George Steinbrenner, but from ESPN.

[Micah]

In other words, pin stripes are of no value here, for ESPN looks at the pin stripes of the heart.

But pin stripes are indeed of value if you keep the law, but if you don't hit at least .400 in the post-season (A-Rod) your pin stripes have no value.

[darren]

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Hilarious!

[Lynn]

My son, the world's most devout Yankee fan, is currently studying John Calvin. Your post is the icing on the cake!!!