"A sandlot school of virtues." The narrator describes baseball that way in Champions of Faith, an impressive new documentary featuring Catholic big leaguers. The gripping hour that follows demonstrates his point.
Produced by Catholic Exchange in association with American Family Media and directed by Tom Allen, Champions of Faith looks to be a terrific catechetical tool and discussion-starter with young people, men's groups, and sports fans of all ages, sizes, shapes, and religious backgrounds. Furthermore, it is — praise be — consistently entertaining and frequently moving.
If baseball is a school of virtue, it is also — as we've often been reminded to our chagrin — a recurring source of scandal. Truth to tell, sports scandals in general are a sorry fact of American life. In this context, Champions of Faith is a healthy reminder that men of character do still play the game.
Champions could easily have fallen into either of two traps — preachy-smarmy on the one hand, a routine 'Great Moments in Sports' smorgasbord on the other. Instead, it blends from-the-heart interviews with men of simple eloquence with skillfully edited footage of what is, hands-down, America's most breathtakingly beautiful game.
It's the ballplayers — plus a manager and a coach — who supply the message here, speaking unaffectedly but with great impact in their own words. Names like Mike Piazza, David Eckstein, Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeney, Jack McKeon, Rich Donnelly, and others who appear more briefly in the film will be familiar to fans. Less well known perhaps is that these are genuine men of faith.
"Lord, humble me," Sweeney, a five-time All Star first baseman, recalls praying several years after tangling with a pitcher who he thought was deliberately throwing at him. Gathering the courage to call his supposed nemesis, he asked forgiveness and the two men reconciled.
"God gives us these tests to test our faith," explains Piazza, a 12-time All Star catcher, of his own run-in with Roger Clemens, who once sent a fastball crashing into his helmet.
"There are two kinds of people in the world — those who are humble, those who are about to be," says veteran coach Donnelly. He was riding high when he got a call from his teenaged daughter saying she'd been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her death helped bring her father back to the faith.
"God will never give you anything you can't handle," asserts Eckstein, another All Star. The diminutive shortstop tells how he bounced back from a serious injury to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a world championship. "He allowed God to work through him," pitcher Jeff Suppan, a teammate and friend, remarks.
McKeon, dropped as a manager by the team he'd led, prayed to St. Therese of Lisieux for "one more chance." The Florida Marlins offered him a job, and McKeon guided what had been a sub-.500 club to the world championship. When a writer asked him who was MVP, McKeon replied, "No doubt in my mind — St. Therese."
Don't expect complex theology from these men. Their testimonies are straightforward declarations of faith delivered with unblushing conviction.
Now, as so often before, the media are full of lurid tales about athletes, movie stars, and celebrities of all sorts busy giving bad example. "Why, oh why, can't you write about someone who isn't courting publicity by behaving badly," pleads a newspaper letter-writer, speaking for many others. Champions of Faith is an answer and an antidote to the tidal wave of scandal.
The 65-minute film can be ordered at www.championsoffaith.com or by calling (877) 263-1263. A Spanish-subtitle version is available.
