I’ve heard baseball is a “religion” to some people, but I never thought it was meant LITERALLY! I saw the Orioles, Opening Day, April 5, 2013, defeat the Minnesota Twins 9-5. But… I cannot understand why the Orioles had to turn the 7th inning stretch into a religious observance. The club hired a tenor to sing “God Bless America,” demanded that we all stand up and listen (I didn’t), then played a recording of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” -- all to riotous applause.

This is nuts! Not only is God irrelevant to baseball, the show of piety makes atheist nonparticipants like me conspicuous and trivializes the faith it purports to celebrate.

On the walk back to my car, I saw this sign outside the old Otterbein UM Church...

To hear an audio version of this Rant, click on this link: Religion Of Baseball