Pray Ball!

Pray Ball! is a book by Rabbi James Gordon published in 1999. It utilizes sports events and personalities, primarily from the mid-to-late 1990s (when the book was written), to deliver religious messages. Some of the examples seem like they would not be used if rewritten now; for instance, talking about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as examples of joy, when they were later disgraced by revelations of steroid use. This drives home Rabbi Gordon's final point, though, that our true heroes should be spiritual ones like Moses, Rambam and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, for instance, not sports ones, even if athletes can sometimes exemplify certain characteristics to emulate.

Further Reading

• Rabbi James Gordon: Pray Ball! The Spiritual Insights of a Jewish Sports Fan, Gefen Publishing House, New York, NY, 1999. ISBN 978-9652292193