Adam and Eve. The account is a great account in scripture, and one of the greatest in all of literature. A couple, created by the hand of God, had it all, and yet somehow it still fell short. Well, it fell short when Satan entered the picture. Now, I'm not a scholar and cannot represent the theological side of the discussion at all, but I am someone who wonders at times. In this case, when a snake walks upright and starts talking, the first question in my mind is why they didn't call on God right then? God, too, was in their midst, being a very personable manager taking care of His creation. Why not, the minute Satan opened his mouth, did not one of them look up and say, "God, we need you. Now if you have a moment."?
Satan must have been really good for an upright snake speaking from his mouth not setting off alarms or red flags everywhere. Or he'd been around before, the inference that he was more crafty than any of the other beasts of the field, so he was a known commodity. Or Adam and Eve were just that innocent. The fact is we just don't know because God didn't interrupt perfection with posters hanging throughout creation with a picture of Satan saying, "Watch out for this one." What was it, though, about the "forbidden fruit" that made it so appealing? Who knows? is the answer. Satan puts a hook in the lure by saying it will make them like God, but the fact is we don't really know what it was about the fruit itself that gave it such broad appeal. We just know that the two of them fell for Satan's doubt-casting and stepped off that ledge ... and here we are today.
To the point from the title. My only speculation is the forbidden fruit was a baseball. The reason? In baseball, you have near perfection. The dimensions of the field, part of which literally extend to infinity (the outfield), speak of its heavenly origin. The consistency of a hand made ball to play throughout the league. The strike zone, so simple in nature yet so controversial in application. This perfect sphere that captures the imagination of all youth across the globe - from the US, to Mexico and Central America, and to Asia. I was in Mexico at a mission and pulled out a ball and glove and the next thing you know others appear and we are playing a game in the yard of the church (soccer does the same thing there).
Yet, in spite of its perfection, it falls from our graces periodically and exhibits behaviors much like Adam and Eve when they fell from theirs. Blame. Denial. Stealing. Putting self before others, including God. Lying. It's all there. "Adam, Eve, where are you? 'We were hiding God.' Why were you hiding? Did you eat of the fruit I forbade you to eat from? Adam? 'That woman you gave me made me.'" Denial, lying, blame.
We have some evidence that the sport was around at Creation because Genesis does reference it. It starts with, "In the big inning..." and goes forward from there (credit Jim Walsh for that gem). We have been lured by this sport for a long time. Perhaps God dropped a ball back in our midst in the 1800's to say, "Okay, here you go, let's see how you do now that you appear to be more 'enlightened'," and from that point forward, we have been lured by the game. But think of the disappointments over the ages. Bad trades by bad owners, Babe Ruth specifically. The Black Sox scandal. Alcohol abuse. Gambling, Cheating, parts one, two, three and four. Gambling again. Cocaine and substance abuse. The steroids era. And again, cheating. With each scandal, we swear it's worse than the last, but each generation falls from grace in their own way, and none of them are good.
How does a game with the potential for such perfection from baseball legends fall into utter chaos caused by mere mortal behavior?
In our most recent scandal, the commissioner swears he sent memos (God came looking for Adam and Eve, the commissioner sends a memo). Thirteen in fact, he sent from opening day to the middle of September. Thirteen? He must have known something. So, like anyone dealing with rich adolescent boys/men playing a game, he wrote a memo because THAT will cure the problem. Surely they will honor the game and be professionals, like all the other ballplayers before them (see above paragraph about previous heinous scandals).
In spite of all its flaws, however, we somehow miss the game. Now the fan is denied the game due to the pandemic, and the culture has collapsed. Oh sure, you could blame any number of factors, but once the season was put in suspension, you'll note it all broke loose. The baseball, the cultural "fruit," has once again been denied, and we are falling apart - questioning each other, questioning government, questioning experts, tattling on each other, tattling on businesses who are opened but shouldn't be or opened but serving too many....
Baseball has tried to remedy the season, but the same commissioner who couldn't foresee adolescents cheating the game and sent them memos has as his remedy to slap together a season. God, sitting from on high, is probably ready to take the baseball back. "I gave you perfection and you blew it," God will say, taking the ball the way a manager does in the big game, tucking it in His back pocket waiting for the reliever while shaking His head.
Like Adam and Eve, we'll hang out heads, sew together some baseball covers to cover ourselves in shame and run and hide, even deeper than the pandemic caused us to sit in confinement. The baseball, it's either a gift or a torturous item we don't deserve. It seems to be the forbidden fruit, giving joy or causing immense pain. Either way, we want it back.
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