Down By The Shul Yard

Someone taught Danny Saunders to hit a ball, run the bases, and come home. Chaim Potok‘s adolescent character in The Chosen emerges from a culture steeped in tradition, education, learning and study. While his family’s primary focus may have been the Torah and the Talmud, someone took responsibility for extending Danny’s learning to the ball […]

Give Me That Baseball Religion

Who knew that the MIT professor responsible for econometric studies of modern politics and health care reform would show up in Pray4Mets, justifying the coming together of baseball fans? Being a Mets fan is akin to being part of a spiritual community. There are shared values, traditions, rites. There are hymns. There’s a shrine, and a place of […]

Every Seven Days

A friend who has read the Jewish bible & the New Testament three times tells me that everything one needs to know is in these books. Is the weekly cycle – six days of creation, followed by the day of rest – described in Genesis more important than many of today’s men and women know? Man’s ancient […]

Smoke That, Jay

Jay Bruce’s first-of-the-2017-Mets-season home run (which was followed on by another, last night, in Game 6) will be an easy one to remember. Whether you say ‘he’s smokin,’ or ‘what was he smokin’?,’ Bruce’s smooth, early-season performance extends the past two years of Mets’ rolling out unexpected delights for the fans. The existence of entheogens, which, according […]

Mets Vespers Sunday, April 2 7:30 pm

PRAY4METS, 2015 to now: who would have known? With two post-season appearances since our inception, Citi Field is sold out for the Mets home opener on Monday, April 3. Fans are smiling. My husband is happy. Life is good. As Mets fans prepare for the 2017 season, you are cordially invited to come together in community […]

…And Sinners

Former Met Daniel Murphy was centered about his religious beliefs and spirituality. These worked for him and the Mets during the 2015 season, but his out-there voice did not appear to fit with management vision. When it was announced that the team would decline his request for a multi-year contract, my husband and I, just coming off six months of […]

Forging Spiritual Connections

Mets folks came to Montclair last year to check out Pray4Mets’ weekly gathering at Tierney’s Temple — I mean Tavern. This year, strengthening our bonds, Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson penned a lovely thank-you note to us after our attendance on Opening Day (7-2). Pray4Mets and Citi Field have a stronger connection in 2016 than in 2015. Is it […]

The Old Ball Game

Following the Mets’ sweep of the Cubs last week, The New York Times’ Dan Barry prepared a clever page one (sports section) story written in old-school, 1908 prose style. Can you imagine Barry (and his headline writer) using a calculus to come up with key concepts that reflect a century-distant past? ‘What words and phrases were popular in […]

Stealing Signals from Faith Communities

There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. Bruce Lee Mets’ management’s masterful progression of the team through the 2015 baseball season – the trades in late July; Wright’s return in late August, the NL East title in late September – gives confidence that […]

Days of Awe

Has everyone around you awakened to the Mets’ new day? If you have any Mets friends still in slumber since October 28, 1986, borrow a shofar at this holiday time and give a toot — jar them out of crankiness or complacency and help them embrace this very new year. Successful faith and community traditions like Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur (Days […]