Online Archives

BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

“We’ve lucked out,” said Bishop John Schol as he greeted about 70 clergy and their families at a sweltering Nationals Stadium June 23 for the Clergy Day Apart. Rookie pitching sensation Stephen Strasburg was on the mound.

But before the game started, Bishop Schol introduced the Rev. Shaun Casey, professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Seminary, who delivered a message on one of his favorite topics, “Theology and Baseball.”

Casey told stories of two innovators in the traditional environment of baseball and lessons that could be learned from them.

Branch Rickey, a Methodist layman who “took discipleship seriously,” was Ohio Wesleyan’s head baseball coach in the early 1900s, Casey said. When the team traveled, he shared a hotel room with Charles Thomas, Rickey’s star catcher, and the lone black player on the baseball team. “Rickey was a moral teacher.”

Rickey went on to become the Brooklyn Dodgers' General Manager and risked hiring colored baseball players, knowing that in doing so, baseball would be transformed.

“He was the one who broke the code of baseball and hired Jackie Robinson (in 1947),” Casey said. “Robinson was really good at baseball and at dealing with racism.” Robinson’s widow credits Rickey with her husband’s success, because of Rickey’s respect and protection of her husband.

Billy Beane, a contemporary innovator in baseball, the pivotal character in Michael Lewis’ “Money Ball,” went from being a not-great pitcher in Jackson, Miss., to the manager of the Oakland Athletics.

“He was smart and his new owners were cheap,” Casey said. They instructed him to “win as cheaply as possible.” And Beane did.

Through the study of statistics, he discovered a lot of wasted money in baseball, subsequently instituting evaluations based not on the norm of how good a potential player looked, but on performance, such as how many walks a player took.

“That meant they knew the strike zones,” Casey said.

So Beane would draft them. He based performance on the ability to get on base a lot and the ability to take more pitches. Oakland began winning.

“Beane was an innovator, willing to push back against the owners, and to take risks,” Casey said as he summarized Beane’s career. “He had an amazing innovative ripple effect because he was willing to take risks and willing to achieve by using his wisdom.”

What has this to do with ministry, one might ask. There are four points, at least, Casey said:

1. These innovators show that one has to look for and develop the right skills – not just your own as a pastor, but with the laity.
2. Clergy have to be teachers, not just preachers or pastors.
3. It matters how we hold ourselves and our congregations accountable.
4. Study best practices, as did these baseball leaders. Ask yourself what ministerial practices can you learn from that will make your ministry better.

On the field, in spite of Strasburg’s “sparkling, dominating performance” as the Washington Post said, of nine strike-outs and allowing only one run, the Nats lost to Kansas City Royals 1-0 in the oppressive heat and humidity.