Father 10th Man and his holy water

I’ve seen a lot of wonderful and magical things happen on a baseball field over the years, but I saw something last weekend that I had never before seen at a baseball game: A priest in a wheelchair was pushed around the infield where he blessed each of the bases and then home plate with holy water taken from the River Jordan in West Asia, where Jesus was baptized.
Very cool.
The pre-game ceremony was held in conjunction with the opening of St. Joseph’s University’s new baseball/softball complex. It was the first home baseball game played on campus since 1958.
Father James Moore, escorted around the bases by St. Joe’s players Kevin Taylor and Drew Stoll, did the honors with the holy water. (The photo that accompanies this post was taken by Jim McWilliams.) Father Moore even mentioned in his pre-game prayer that the St. Joe’s faithful have forgiven God for making them wait so long to play another baseball game on campus.
The opponent for the historical tilt was Iona College, in New Rochelle, N.Y. (A baseball trivia sidebar: New York Yankees Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig lived in New Rochelle, N.Y.)
Hey, if I’m on the Iona squad, I’m thinking the holy water blessing stacks the deck against my squad and provides quite a home field advantage for the St. Joe’s nine.
Which is apparently exactly what happened. St. Joe’s – off to a disappointing 1-11 start up to that point – got a stellar pitching performance from junior right-hander Kyle Mullen – the pitching may indeed have had more of an impact on the outcome of the game than did the holy water – to defeat Iona 5-1 and christen the new ballpark accordingly.
The reason I was there is that my father-in-law, Walt Wiesenhutter, was a pitcher for the Hawks in the 1960s. In addition, The Blonde Accountant is a graduate of St. Joe’s, so we’ve got some family history there.
And it’s a nice ballpark. It’s got some charm and character. I’m not crazy about the Astroturf surface, but in the northeast, weather usually is a factor for baseball teams, so the synthetic surface makes sense from a field maintenance perspective.
But knowing how superstitious ballplayers can be, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Father Moore will be asked to bless each base with holy water from The River Jordan before each home game, at least for the rest of the season.