Exclusionary Baseball

I'm not much of a baseball fan (not one at all, really), but this announcement by our very own Rockies team is just too much. They are apparently looking for "players with character", which in translation means: players who have "accepted jesus as their personal savior".

Oh, goody. They are going to be an overt "christian" team. They're going to issue "special vouchers" to christian fans for special concerts after games and testimonials by their god-blessed players. The team is quite sure that god has something to do with their winning record and will continue to give them an advantage over other teams because they have "more character."

I can't decide if this is insulting to everyone who is not christian, or just sad. From the author of The Nation's article,

The Rockies right now are a noxious reflection of a time in US history when generals speak of crusades and the President recounts his personal conversations with Yahweh. ("You're doing a heckuva job, Goddy!")

If Monfort, O'Dowd and Hurdle want to pray on their own time, more power to them. But the ballpark isn't a church. Smoltz isn't a preacher. And fans aren't a flock. Instead of using their position of commercial power to field a God Squad, the Rockies might want to think about getting some decent players. There was once this guy named Babe Ruth. Not too much for the religion, and his character was less than sterling. But I hear he could play some decent ball.

I wonder how this will really affect their attendance nunbers. I never went to a game, so losing me isn't even noticeable, but there are a lot of people here who are not so excited about the predominance of religion in public life. How difficult is it to understand that not everyone believes the same things, and that fact is a Good Thing?