It's Baseball Season

Two items.

(1) George Wright sends along this new course offered at NYU and taught by former law school dean and current president John Sexton: "Baseball as a Road to God." Here's the description:

Baseball As a Road to God aims to link literature about our national pastime with the study of philosophy and theology. This seminar aims to blend ideas contained in classic baseball novels such as Coover's Universal Baseball Association , Kinsella's Iowa Baseball Confederation , and Malamud's The Natural with those found in such philosophical/theological works as Eliade's Sacred and Profane , Heschel's God in Search of Man , and James' Varieties of Religious Experience . It discusses such themes as the metaphysics of sports, baseball as a civil religion, the nature of sacred time and space, and the ineffability of the divine. Not for the faint-hearted, this course requires students to read over two dozen works of varying lengths in addition to supplemental readings as they might arise. The course also requires weekly papers. As with any serious commitment of one's time, the rewards of taking a seminar such as this can be great.

(2) On a personal note, after the yearly parade and an early night (no smokes, no booze, no women -- coach's orders), my son Thomas's 2d grade little league team, 'The Infernos' (I had nothing to do with that outstanding name), came out swinging on a beautiful opening spring day today.  There's nothing like early season baseball.