More Than a Game: Finding Ritual, Belonging, and Hope at the Ballpark

Every year, my husband and I, along with our dear friends, travel to a different baseball stadium. It has been an incredible way to see this country while also enjoying America’s favorite pastime.

Truth be told, I don’t really love baseball. I do, however, love the experience of sitting in a stadium, meeting the people next to me, and becoming a fan of the home team for the day.

I recently reread Baseball as a Road to God by John Sexton. Sexton writes about baseball as a spiritual experience. He explores faith, miracles, blessings and curses, doubts, and saints and sinners through the lens of baseball. While I may not encounter all of those during every game, I do find ritual, a sense of belonging, and joy at the ballpark.

The ritual begins at the stadium gates. You can sense the excitement of the fans as you wait in the security line. Before we find our seats, we make sure to buy a home-team T-shirt or hat. Once we are seated, we usually speak with the people next to us and learn a little about their history as fans. Then, cued by the announcer, everyone removes their hats and stands for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” There is also the ritual of the first pitch and the seventh-inning stretch. In stadium after stadium, these familiar moments create a rhythm that brings all of us - thousands of people- together.  

Wearing our new T-shirts and hats, we become temporary members of the home-team community. We join the crowd in cheering, groaning over bad calls, and celebrating impossible plays or home runs with high fives and fist bumps with the people around us. In those moments, belonging needs no explanation.

Here is what I have come to understand: it is not necessarily baseball that keeps me wanting to explore the next stadium. It is the connection with the people around me- people who were strangers before the first inning but who somehow feel familiar by the end of the game. It is the communal joy, and sometimes awe, we share when we witness a great catch, play, or a home run. And it is the sense of hope that emerges as our ordinary worries slip away and we root for something bigger than ourselves.

Maybe that is what makes a ballpark feel spiritual- for a few hours, strangers become a community, united by ritual, joy, and hope.