Is Major League Baseball Spiritual?

Everything is spiritual.  Or, we should say rather, everything can be spiritual.  :- ) 

If we proceed beyond the Wonder bread of "values" (that is, our preferences) to the hearty loaf of "morals" (that is, what we believe to be right), we will find that our principles apply in every realm of life.

As you probably know, I write on several sports blogs.  At seattlesportsinsider.com, you can find a blogroll of them, if you're interested in both Christianity and sports.  Here's one take on the way that Christianity speaks to the big business of sports.

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The more complex societies get and the more complex the networks of interdependence within and beyond community and national borders get, the more people are forced in their own interests to find non-zero-sum solutions. That is, win-win solutions instead of win-lose solutions…. Because we find as our interdependence increases that, on the whole, we do better when other people do better as well - so we have to find ways that we can all win, we have to accommodate each other - Bill Clinton, Wired interview, December 2000

Chess is a zero-sum game:  whatever is good for your opponent is bad for you.  This is true in absolute terms.  Whether you limit the activity of your opponent's pieces, or activate your own, it's all the same to the chessmaster.  If your opponent gets his way, that's bad.

Dungeons & Dragons is a non-zero-sum game:  you seek your own level advancement, but not necessarily at the expense of others.  Almost always, you are interdependent with the other characters in your party, and their benefit overlaps yours.  Seeking their benefit often benefits you, and even when it does not in the short term, a spirit of cooperation has rewards associated.

There are many people who see life as a gigantic chess game, people who do not care in the least whether you benefit from their gain.  They have not the least preference that you benefit in association with their benefit.  Scott Boras exemplifies the Win / Lose orientation.

It is important to understand that Win / Lose politicians, and businessmen, and supervisors, and player agents, and CEO's, and husbands and wives, are not malicious.  

If there is a hell, it is not (primarily) filled with beings who are sadistic.  Hell is not based on malice.  Hell is based on selfishness – on unconcern for the benefit of others.  Earth becomes parallel to hell precisely to that extent to which it becomes devoid of caring and love, and to that extent to which it becomes occupied with the Self.

Of course, as I become grimly and exclusively obsessed with my own desires, this naturally (not intentionally) creates conflict with others' desires.  Win / lose attitudes create conflict and then frustration and then anger and then battle and then bitterness and finally war.  One of us, my friend, is going to wind up dead.

Jam 4:1  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jam 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jam 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Jam 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 

Yes, Virginia, it is possible to become rich without climbing to the top over dead bodies.  It is possible to achieve one's goals by playing Dungeons and Dragons, rather than by playing chess.

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You can rent a house out and you can rent it for less than market value because the family is kind of poor, and when they pay their rent on time you can give them a month's rent off just because it makes both of you happy.  And then when you have to renovate and sell, you just might find them hustling to buy it from you at a win / win price — you saving the cost of renovation — because your relationship is healthy.  But even if that doesn't happen, you still have made money and made others happy.  Both.  At the same time.

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Alex Rodriguez could have become an extremely rich man in Seattle — plus he could have been a team captain, could have been beloved by his city, could have had a real partnership with his baseball team, had a real baseball home, could have had good karma in addition to uncountable millions of dollars. 

Instead, he called Scott Boras to his side and played chess with the entire rest of the world.  Every team he joined got worse, and every team he left got better.  Wishing desperately to be admired and loved, he became one of the most disliked, un-admired men in sports, and to this day walks around assuming the world is crazy.

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Kenji Johjima was interested in being rich.  But he was also interested in a place to live where he liked the environment and liked the people.  He was interested in finding an MLB team with whom he could be partners.  He admired the Mariners' values, including the way in which the Mariners value Japanese players, and the resources the M's provide for Japanese players. 

Johjima was not grimly focused on beating an MLB team out of every penny he could get.  He was thinking win / win, trying to find a situation that was mutually beneficial.

Johjima wanted a partner he found to be sincere and respectful, and when he found that partner, he accepted responsibility for helping work out that mutually-beneficial arrangement. 

Ichiro, and Johjima, now enjoy the benefits of their decisions.  They know that they will not be traded without their consent.  They know their fans love them.  They know that the Seattle management structure will treat them with great respect.  They know that Japanese-speaking assistants are available to them.  They work in an environment of relative cooperation and harmony.

Even when they lose, they can feel at peace with a decision that was sincere. 

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Daisuke Matsuzaka has told you very clearly:  he has not the slightest interest in mutual benefit with the MLB team that signs him.  Like all win / lose practitioners, he regards his very presence as all the benefit that his partners deserve. 

Looking at the final goal from a team-oriented perspective, accepting responsibility for working his contract into the needs of his teammates', that doesn't matter to him, because nobody matters to Matsuzaka but Matsuzaka.

The Japanese are appalled at Matsuzaka's unconcern for finding business partners who are sincere and respectful.  The only Japanese MLB team (the Mariners) stood ready to show Matsuzaka the utmost sincerity and respect, as they have shown Ichiro and Johjima, and Matsuzaka told them in no uncertain terms that this means nothing to him.

Matsuzaka will pitch for whichever team pays him the most, period.  That is what he cares about, and like ARod, that is all he will have.

It's okay to think win / win, and then to negotiate hard and fair.  It is not okay to tell everybody around you that you have no preference towards their succeeding with you.  It is not okay to announce To Whom It May Concern that you seek nobody's mutual benefit:  you seek only your own benefit.

Scott Boras does not play Dungeons and Dragons.  He plays chess.  At least he's honest about it.  Boras is a win / lose type of human being.  That's his call. 

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Hiroki Kuroda is a man loyal to his current NPB team and torn about leaving for America.  By all accounts he is a typical Japanese player.  That means he is hardworking, sincere, skilled, and admirable.  If he decides to carry his country's flag over to America, we'd love to have him. 

Yamauchi-san turns and points his finger at Kuroda, saying, "THAT one," because Kuroda represents the kind of win / win business partner that the Japanese have built their culture on.

Yamauchi-san was not interested in selling children a game title for $49 and then having them disappointed in the game.  He was interested in selling them a game title and then having them absolutely delighted with its quality.  Like so many other Japanese companies, Nintendo sought to delight its customers and business partners — and they found that there was plenty of wealth to go around.

When it comes to baseball, Yamauchi-san craves business partners whom he can respect.  Kuroda may become such a partner.

Into the bargain, the Mariners might gain a near-Matsuzaka — with several barrels of cash left over. 

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As a Christian, I believe that business victories are hollow if they are achieved without Love.  No business victory is satisfying to me if it comes at the expense of somebody else.  Making fifty bucks, and my partner being happy, is infinitely more rewarding than making a hundred bucks as my partner walks away in stifled tears.  Too often I've lost sight of this, but that does not diminish the truth of it.

As a reductio ad absurdum, the universe itself is no more, and no less, than Hell — if it functions without Love.

But you don't have to believe in Love to believe in win / win thinking.  You only have to understand the principle of interdependence.

George Steinbrenner is not quite clear about the fact that the New York Yankees need other AL teams.  Scott Boras seems not quite clear about the fact that he is dependent on the rest of the world.  Alex Rodriguez seems not quite clear about the fact that his massive skills and wonderful work ethic are interdependent with his ballclub and city for success. 

Pro athletes are notoriously narcissistic and greedy, though some of them retain some modicum of proportion.

You and I certainly can try to avoid the same trap.  We can reach our own goals via the mutual benefit of ourselves and others. 

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The Mariners can't afford to limit themselves to only those players who beg to play in Seattle.

But they certainly can limit themselves to business partners who have some interest in win / win thinking.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a great pitcher.  Scott Boras is an incredibly effective lawyer.

Who needs them.

Peace,

Jeff