Baseball in October: A Brief Theology of Sports
“The gift may last for a season. But the Giver is the only eternal love.” —F.B. Meyer
Sports have been a mercy. In the six months, one week and two days—but who’s counting?— since my Achilles adventure kicked off, World Cup Football and Brewers baseball have been a welcome gift. “No weight bearing” and “elevate” have translated to more time on the sofa than pre-injury. But I worship God watching sports on the sofa.
Don’t read that wrong.
Watching sports on TV with my foot nested high is not the main way I worship the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, the seas and everything in them. I worship him with the congregation on Sundays, with the ladies at Bible study on Thursdays, and by grace offer my body as a living sacrifice all seven days. And when I watch image bearers perform athletic feats, I marvel at their Creator.
I also thank him for happy distractions.
Blessed Distractions
Distraction isn’t always a bad thing. We distract babies from dangerous toys or foods with child-safe toys and melty fruit puffs.
And God provided World Cup soccer in summer and championship baseball in fall.
Sports helped me refocus. World Cup games began just after my second surgery in June and helped me rejoice in those non-weight bearing dog days. The Brew Crew was deep into their franchise-high, 103-win regular season when, again, I was off my foot post-third-op. These games were God-sent, shiny new toys to shift my mind from what I could not do.
The Father’s timing is always perfect. He knows when to distract.
But distraction isn’t the same as worship. So I’ll state my case.
A Brief Theology of Sports
Before I make the case for sports, I will concede the dangers.
3 Warnings for Sports Fans
1. Beware of being a lover of pleasure.
Seeing your team win big, like the Brewers did in game 2 of the NLDS with a two out walk-off in the bottom of the ninth was a rush. But to live for the pleasure of the rush at the expense of the God who is forever blessed makes us “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4).
2. Beware of being a bad sport.
Being a loyal, spirited fan brings with it the temptation to hate the enemy. “Violence of the tongue” and outright violence even break out in competitions like the World Cup. Packers vs. Bears, and Brewers vs. Cubs are the rivalries where I live. Paul’s words to Titus about being “hated by others and hating one another” is not far-fetched (Titus 3:3).
3. Beware of being an idolater.
I’m going to give this last warning extra press, as much for me as for you. Paul traces the start of man’s moral descent in Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.”
Note, Paul had just explained how God’s power and divine nature can be “clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” Newborn babies and fall colors point to the Creator. Yet somehow we can worship beauty and turn children into idols. In fact, humans have a sad propensity to turn good things into ultimate things and thus become idolaters. Health, wealth, comfort, food and sports can morph into unworthy objects of worship. Our hearts are idol factories.
Much has already been said about AAU and youth sport culture replacing church, not to mention how for months each year, we schedule our lives around football games. If we rely on a sports team—on our children making one or our team’s success—for identity or belonging or hope and joy, we set up an idol. Like Dagon, it will collapse.
3 Benefits of Fandom
1. Sports point us to an enduring storyline.
Take, for example, our Brew Crew. The Milwaukee Brewers are the smallest market team in major league baseball. Their payroll is 23rd of 30. Still the Brewers had the best regular season record in 2026, and their run isn’t over.
Who doesn’t love an underdog, a David-and-Goliath story? Christianity is the true story that the Maker of the universe humbled himself to be born of woman, laid in a manger, and then to be crucified. But Jesus Christ was raised on the third day, defeating the enemy, conquering death. Sports add oomph to this infinitely greater, eternity-altering victory.
2. Sports exalt virtue.
Examples abound. I’ll share one. In the aforementioned game two of the NLDS, between the Brewers and the Padres, Jackson Chourio swung and missed on two of the first three pitches from Mason Miller, and then barely fouled off a 103.5 mph fastball. But Jackson was patient. He waited for the right pitch. He took a low ball, then smoked a 101 mph fastball up the middle for the walk off.
Late one night in September, Christian Yelich was in the batting cage, “working things out.” Athletes show us the value of endurance and hard work. Bullpen pitchers are the model for being alert and ready for the call. Veteran players who don’t start but support from the bench model humility.
3. Sports give us a foretaste of heaven.
Fandom unites diverse people. A stadium full of fans of different backgrounds, incomes, and ages singing together, waving their rally towels in jubiliant unity, hoping and cheering and exulting all together is, I think, something like heaven.
When the Apostle John got a glimpse he saw “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9).
Palm branches are not “Win Our Way” rally towels. Here we must diverge. The great diverse and jubilant multitude in heaven will not be cheering on their team.
They will cry out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:10).
Thank God for Home Runs in October
We must not bow to sports. Nor need we abstain from them, “for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,” (1 Timothy 4:4). But we must thank God for them.
There is a way to enjoy October baseball without turning it into an idol. I can stand in awe of the God who made men who throw a little leather ball at a blazing 105 mph and men who hit a ball thrown 105 mph and other men who leap and dive to catch a ball hit with exit velocity of 110 mph.
We can thank the Giver of every good gift, including athletic gifts.
Including home runs in October.
I’d love to hear: how do you keep your love for the game from becoming an idol?
