The Gospel of Baseball: The Dog Days of Summer

Between the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in July and the end-of-the-season pennant drives in September, there are the dog days of summer. This is the time of year when:

Teams on the verge of running away with the pennant come back to earth, allowing other teams to crawl into contention. For example, on July 19, 1978, the Boston Red Sox held a commanding lead in the AL East with a 62-28 record. The hated Yankees were a distant 4th—14 games back at 48-42. Seemingly, if any team was a concern, it was the 2nd-place Brewers who were "only" 9 games back, but the Red Sox were seemingly in command of their own destiny. However, by the end of August, the Yankees were making a race of it. Going into September, they were 6.5 games out, having won 29 of their last 41 games. While the Red Sox had not exactly tanked—going 22-20 during the same time—momentum seemed to be with the underdogs, and what came to be known as "The Boston Massacre" was just around the corner. [1]

Superhuman hitters and pitchers become mortal. During the same season, Boston’s Jim Rice, who would become the AL MVP while hitting a league-leading 46 home runs, had a power outage. Between June 27 and August 8, Rice hit only two home runs in a span of 38 games—almost a quarter of the season. By the time Rice started hitting home runs again, New York had almost cut Boston’s lead in half.

Rookie phenoms are figured out. During the same season, Yankees rookie pitcher Jim Beattie, after winning his first two decisions, lost seven straight decisions before the end of August. [2]

A popular misconception is that the term "dog days" refers to the lazy, hot part of the summer when nothing is going on and even dogs lie about. In fact, the term dates back to Roman times when the "days of the dogs" (caniculares dies) denoted the portion of the summer when the "Dog Star" (Sirius) rose at the same time as the sun. It was thought to be an evil time, "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and frensies" (Clavis Calendarium).

For baseball fans, the dog days are the times when hopes and fantasies wilt in the scorching sun.

James 1:9-11

Commentary

v9 This is one of the few places in the Bible where boasting is encouraged. A more literal translation that conveys the power of the verse is something like, "Boast, humble brother in your high position!" Boasting about riches (Psalm 49:5-9), power (Judges 7), pious worship (Amos 4), and self (1 Corinthians 4:7) is idolatry—i.e. trusting in something besides God. Rather, if you boast, boast in the Lord (Jeremiah 9:23-24) The only other "good" boasting is boasting of weakness while simultaneously counting on God for strength (e.g. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Where do you see the "good" forms of boasting in these verses?

v10 v9-10 seem oxymoronic—prideful, humble men & lowly, rich men make as much sense as jumbo shrimp or government intelligence. These verses do not say that poverty is more spiritual; rather, a humble person is better positioned to see & to do ... but see & do what?

v11 The preceding verses, v2-8, spoke of trials. The metaphor for trials here is the sun. Just as the sun tests the essence of the plant, trials test the essence of the person who trusts in the wrong stuff; he will be eviscerated even as he works to gain an advantage.

Application

The dog days can seem boring if you are just killing time in a hopeless situation. Where are you languishing? A marriage that has lost its passion? A job that is simply work, instead of a vocation? A seemingly endless adolescence, with apparent freedom still years away? The alleged "golden years"—retirement seeming like just holding pattern until whatever comes next? Or feeling unworthy of God?

Baseball is unique among major American sports—it is the only sport scheduling regular season games during the dog days. Games in late July and early August are just as important as the games in April when hope abounds. They are just as important as games in September when everything is on the line. For ballplayers in the dog days of summer, they need to get rest and tend to injuries—for the end of the season is nowhere near—but they still need to show up ready to play, because the game today is just as important as the first game and the last game.

Likewise, you need to take care of yourself during your own dog days & prepare to live each day fully: call it discipleship. It’s foolish to trust our instincts when everything seems to be going badly. Rather, we are called to invest in the world around us wherever God puts us (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6). Show up for life ready to participate, because you really don’t know how it’s going to turn out or how God is going to use you today.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
Ecclesiastes 11:6

The dog days can seem like a waste of time if you think you are in control. Where are you attempting to coast through life? Whether we feel hopeless or in control, the arenas are generally the same: marriage, work, school, family, friends, personal life, and God. If feelings of hopelessness are like the humble brother (v9) then the sense of being in control—and the pride and scorn for others that these feelings engender—is like the one who is rich but unsuspecting of the trials to come (v10).

The conventional wisdom in baseball is, "Pennants are won in September." Nothing has been clinched by the dog days of summer, and the frontrunning team that dismisses these games as meaningless will not be the frontrunner for long. The 1978 Red Sox lost 8 games on a 10-game road trip during the dog days; even one more win on the trip might have prevented the one-game playoff with the Yankees.

Likewise, you need to remain engaged with the world ... especially when you think that you have no need for it! This is discipleship as well; but this is hands-on, field education, this is the process of becoming Christlike (Philippians 2:1-16). This is loving the unlovable through our actions, forgiving the unforgivable by forswearing compensation, and raising up the lowly by lowering ourselves to meet them where they are.

Therefore, my friends ... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Philippians 2:12-13

Points to Ponder

Where are you killing time until something better comes along? Could it be that the very thing that you are so dismissive of is the very place God wants to work in your life today?

Where do you think you’ve got it all figured out? A fall may be coming where you least suspect. The 1969 Chicago Cubs led the NL East the first 155 days of the season. Certainly nobody expected anything from the New York Mets, who had finished 9th the prior season. Even on August 14th, the Cubs held a 10-game lead over the soon-to-be-crowned "Miracle Mets".

My suggestion for this week: Trust that God has you where you ought to be. Ask him to show you what you need to be doing. It may be mundane, simple work. It may be boring. It may be taxing. Most exercise is—and what we are talking about is spiritual exercise. Like most exercise, the payoff may not be evident until much later. In the meantime, are you willing to trust God to lead you? Are you willing to walk in faith without seeing results ... but believing that God’s handiwork will be evident in due time?

End Notes:

1 - Between September 7-10, the Yankees swept a 4-game series in Boston: 15-3, 13-2, 7-0, 7-4. At the conclusion of the series, a Yankees fan held up a sign showing the combined box score for the four games which read:

Mathematically eliminated!
42 – 67 – 5
9 – 21 – 12

In fact, the Sox were not eliminated, but at the end of the massacre the Yankees had moved into a tie for the lead and would later win the division in a one-game playoff against the Red Sox. FMI on the division race, go to http://www.baseballrace.com/races/MLB-1978-AL_East-Normal.asp

2 - What makes Beattie more remarkable is that he won four of his last six decisions during the Yankees’ pennant drive and then won two games in the postseason. Although Beattie pitched in the majors through 1986, this was his only playoff team, and his performances in September and August of 1978 were, perhaps, his moment in the sun.