Baseball Life After the Mitchell Report (A  Blog by Bobby  Reyes in Fox Sports)

Rob Neyer said, “It’s often said that baseball is life, or is like life, or that going to a baseball game is like going to church. Piffle. Baseball is like baseball, and that’s plenty good enough because nothing else is quite like baseball.” (Mr. Neyer is an ESPN.com baseball columnist and co-author of “The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers.”)

“Amen,” therefore, to the above-quoted statement of Rob Neyer. If so, then we can argue that a baseball stadium is not merely a field of dreams but it is the sporting world’s equivalent of a cathedral.

But essentially, a cathedral or a church or even a simple chapel—as the living embodiment of a religion—is actually more for the sinners than for the saints. Yes, even Jesus Christ came down to earth to redeem mankind, especially the many sinful human beings. Ergo, baseball’s equivalent of the cathedral can also be the personification of forgiveness.

But forgiveness in any religion or even in baseball requires not only acceptance of guilt or repentance but also restitution. In a court of law, a thief – even a white-collared Enronized kind – is forced to compensate the victims. In fact, the fruits of the crime are confiscated and distributed to the victims. More so, in the Court of Public Opinion (CPO). The 86 baseball players cited in the Mitchell Report not only harmed baseball but insulted the fans who are actually bankrolling the game. Without the fans, would commercial companies become corporate sponsors of the baseball industry and advertisers of the games’ broadcasts?

To read this article in its entirety at the Bobby Reyes’ blog at Fox Sports, please click on this hyperlink http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/mediabcla.