This book is both entertaining and educational, fanciful and inspirational. It draws from the lives of Jesus Christ and Yogi Berra. Joseph of Nazareth and Joe DiMaggio. Moses and Hank Aaron, St. Peter and Jackie Robinson. And God said, "Play Ball! makes the Bible more approachable by relating it to a game loved by both children and adults. It also shows that baseball is not only a game, but a never-ending series of lessons about life. as well. The book is divided into 18 chapters, each representing one half inning of a baseball game. In each half inning, a topic is explored with parallels being drawn from both the Bible and the game. For example, in the Top of the First the origins of life and baseball are considered. Both have creation myths that have come to be believed by many as fact. From scripture we learn of the two stories of Adam and Eve, from baseball, the legend of Abner Doubleday. What we learn is that love of the game is not any less because Doubleday didn't invent it. Nor is our awe of the cosmos diminished because it was created in a split second and not six days, or vice versa. Our joy comes when we marvel that both creation and baseball have been allowed to be in the first place. Traditionally, during a baseball game, fans take a break during the seventh inning stretch. Likewise in Play Ball, the tone becomes lighter with a look at how the Spirit works in mysterious ways, especially through comments made by Yogi Berra, Satchel Paige and Casey Stengel, three of the games most colorful characters. As the book, like a game, comes to a close in the eighth and ninth innings, time is spent with the concepts of forgiveness, redemption, the Promised Land and resurrection. Frombaseball we learn of the many resurrections that take place in our day-to-day lives. From the Bible we learn of the resurrection that took place that overcame death.
