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The Conversation
The Conversation
Rebecca T. Alpert, Professor of Religion Emerita, Temple University

Babe Ruth, patron saint of the home run, turned the ball field into a church – and lived his own Catholic faith in the spotlight

The Sultan of Swat turned every stadium into a cathedral, and home runs into a sacrament. Bettmann via Getty Images

“I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have,” Susan Sarandon’s character Annie Savoy says in the movie “Bull Durham.” But “the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”

If your beliefs look anything like Annie’s, then you surely know that October is the equivalent of the Jewish High Holy Days, Christianity’s Holy Week and the Muslim month of Ramadan rolled into one, because you are eating and breathing the MLB playoffs and World Series.

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