BeliefWatch: Church-League Baseball

In the Greater Nashua (N.H.) Men's Evangelical Softball League, it doesn't matter if a base runner is safe—so much as if he's saved. Church leagues have always made up a big part of American softball; the Amateur Softball Association counts 4,200 such teams nationwide, or more than 5 percent of the total. But the Greater Nashua MESL (motto: "We play to win others") and its counterparts in Massachusetts, Illinois and elsewhere take the usual church-league practices, like prayer at home plate before and after games, to a higher plane.

Or, put another way: evangelical leagues are like church leagues, only more so. It starts with the rules. In the Cape Cod (Mass.) Evangelical Church Softball League, players become ineligible if they don't attend two Sunday services a month. In eastern Massachusetts, teams in the evangelical league are limited to three "unsaved" players each—and must turn in a roster specifically highlighting them as such before the start of the season, so that others in the congregation can pray for their salvation and mail literature to their homes. (The rulebook cautions that " 'Outreach Players' should not be selected for their athletic ability," but rather for their genuine interest in finding Christ.) The rulebook of the Stateline Evangelical Softball League in Rockford, Ill., requires long pants at all times; in especially hot weather, shorts are OK only if both managers agree—and only, the rulebook notes in red type, if they are "moderate and knee length." Needless to say, stealing is not allowed.

It all makes for unique ballplaying. "There's a difference to how we react to bad or controversial calls," says Collis Jackson, president of the Greater Nashua league. "It's competitive, but we also understand that we're to represent Jesus in what we say and what we do, and that can be hard on the softball field." Some evangelical leagues are coed, but most are men-only. "Women have a much easier time getting involved in the church. Men have more of a struggle," Jackson says. Slow-pitch lets newcomers get to know the parishioners before committing to the church. "The whole idea is not to pick up ballplayers, but reaching men for Christ, to glorify him," says Ray Kinsella (no, not that Ray Kinsella), president of the league in eastern Massachusetts. What happens if a rookie misses his two services a month? "You sit and talk to them and say, 'Apparently, you just want to play ball.' And believe it or not, they end up coming back; they realize this is what it's about. The seed's planted." As a rule, Kinsella says, one out of three "outreach players" might join the church. On the diamond, that's not a bad average.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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