Why is God so Busy on the Gridiron? Perhaps because he forgot to send Jesus Back on Oct. 22nd?

Another October 22 has come and gone, and still no Jesus (more on that, and Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought, in the next post). I'm guessing he's going to be busy DVD-Ring Game I of the World Series on my behalf (sigh -- I'm in class tonight, so no game for me). It's a good thing this year, since it's game on for the Rockies in the World Series -- click here for the Washington Post's take on baseball, superstition, and the spirituality of the Rockies.

And Slate asks "Why is God so Busy on the Gridiron," and comments,

It wasn't so long ago that sports fields were the devil's playground. Babe Ruth could commit five of the seven deadly sins before noon and hit three home runs by dinner. In Damn Yankees, it was Satan, not God, who offered the Washington Senators a pennant in exchange for a player's soul. (Lesson: Offense wins games. Demons win championships.) But today there are Angels in the Outfield, and God seems to be following pro sports more intently than any Vegas bookie.

The article concludes: Emotional, highly personal, nondenominational Protestantism has supplanted Catholicism as America's dominant sports religion. Perhaps that helps to explain the fate of the Fighting Irish this year.

If it works . . . But Big Papi and Man-Ram, who don't strike me as overtly religious, may have something to say about all this yet. [Thanks to John Wilson for correcting my spelling of "Papi"].

If God Doesn't Exist, then Everything is Permissible; Oh, Ok, Never Mind, There Is a God

Did Dostoevsky have the Rockies in Mind? 4-0 sweep of Diamondbacks, fair enough, but c'mon -- 21 out of 22 victories, miraculous come-from-behind victory in bottom 13th just to make the playoffs, one weird lucky break after another, sweep Phillies (3-0) and sweep Dbacks? No way. No. Way.

Yes, it must be God's will. No other explanation for the muffed ground ball that led to the Rockies' 6-run inning that won the game. Agnostics, come to the altar at (ahem) Coors Field.

God's on a Rocky Mountain High.