With the regular season coming to a close this weekend, Major League Baseball is headed into the playoffs. It’s hard to believe that bats started cracking way back in April, when we were still shaking off winter. The long haul of the season is one of the things that makes baseball great. Players might have slumps or hot streaks, but over the course of the long season, the truth about their abilities comes out. It also means that the teams who win their pennants have been practicing excellence day-in and day-out for 162 games. It’s an unrelenting grind.Many players and support staff look to their faith to give them strength and hope through such a long season. Here’s a story about how the ball clubs in Chicago — the Cubs and White Sox — are meeting that need with chaplains who offer Mass in their respective stadiums on Sunday game days. And they’re not the only ones — did you know there’s an organization that coordinates Masses for Catholic players and staff for MLB and National Football League teams across the country?Life, like baseball, can be a long grind. We all need sustenance for the everyday effort it takes to be good and work hard and strive for excellence. If you’re Catholic, there’s no better place to find what you need than at Mass. As Cubs manager Joe Maddon said, it changes things.
