The Mets and the Messiah
By Esther D. Kustanowitz
I would have loved it if the New York Mets had won the National League title. I have always been a Mets fan. The now-epic Game Five made all things, even a subway series, seem possible. My fan's tension yielded to concern. As a fan, I was concerned for my team‹having come so far, I worried about them pushing themselves too hard and not being able to win Game Six. However, my main concern‹which became anxiety, increasing exponentially over the 48 hours between Games Five and Six‹was related to the messianic implication of a Mets win.
Over the past few years, Mets fans have been urged by ad campaigns to "BELIEVE." Fandom is spiritual, and each disciple has his or her own perspectives on how this spirituality affects their lives. I have long believed that a Mets World Series win would usher in an era of peace, happiness and Eden-like tranquility, not unlike the messianic times described in the Bible. As I considered the possibility of a Yankees-Mets World Series rivalry, however, the potential of another Biblical scenario began to emerge.
As described in apocalyptic literature, the messianic era is preceded by a time of great pain, suffering and war. A Biblical legend features a pre-apocalyptic war between two superpowers, Gog and Magog. When World Wars I and II ended without bringing about the end of days, apocalyptic theorists revised their hypotheses. There would be a third world war between superpowers, this one marked by massive destruction of a range heretofore unseen. Before the lifting of the Iron Curtain, some historians were certain that the allegorical battle would become real in a showdown between Russia and the United States. Scientists predicted that annihilation as complete as the one the text describes could only come via nuclear methods.
With this cheery perspective in psychological tow, I re-read Ezekiel 38-39, where the text reveals that God will cause Gog, a nation that dwells in the land of Magog, to make war with Israel. Maybe the war is actually between Gog and Magog. Maybe Gog is from a land called Gog (therefore, "megog" in Hebrew). The text states that it will take seven months to bury those who die in the destruction. Additional men would have to be employed specially for the task of searching out undetected bodies or body parts. (I am unhappily reminded of the orange-suited men who appeared on the streets of modern Israel to "clean up" in the aftermath of terrorism.) The essence of the story is chilling: one war, two powers, serious devastation.
When will this great destruction transpire? Some Christian theologians predict it will be the end of the century; others sense it will be the beginning of the next millennium. Some people say that the "war of Gog and Magog", as most refer to it, is different than what is commonly known as "Armageddon"; others say the two events are one. One verse from Ezekiel keeps reverberating in my brain: "Every man's sword shall be against his brother." Bearing this in mind, it seems to me that a World Series showdown between the Mets and the Yankees could be one of the warning signs of a coming apocalypse.
New York is a city where fans become fanatics. I saw the Mets play a few years ago, shortly after interleague play had been announced. In the fourth inning as the Mets came to bat, a master of wit and repartee seated in the upper deck yelled, "Mets suck, Yankees rule!" With the obvious lyricism of this statement and the gravity of its implications for a game in which the Yankees were not even playing, a fight broke out instantly. Both parties were ejected from the stadium, but not before the Yankee fan received a verbal and physical thrashing. Brothers fighting against one another, New Yorker against New Yorker, lox from Zabar's against lox from Fairway. The more I pondered it, the more convinced I became that interleague play, while good for Major League Baseball, was probably not a spiritually sound idea for New York unity, and might not be "good for the Jews" either.
Just a few months ago, Jews of all denominations went to their respective places of worship and read the story of Noah and the flood. The account of the deluge is preceded by the statement that the land was filled with chamas, corruption. Jewish communities in the tri-state area, already in conflict over issues like assimilation, intermarriage, the Israeli peace process and Jewish pluralism, stand on a dangerous fault line. Like two tectonic plates abrasively rubbing against each other, irritation can lead to erosion, or to the collapse of the very ground upon which we stand. So too, enthusiasm for one team can so easily become contempt for another; and from there, how easily we could move to the darker side of sports fandom‹hatred for fans of the opposing team.
Until this year, I never considered the possibility of a New York-New York World Series. For a tense period between Sunday and Tuesday night, I thought about it queasily. If a subway series were to occur, would New York implode with resentment and fraternal strife? Would lightning strike Yankee Stadium? Would brimstone decimate Shea? Would the indigenous pigeons who rule the New York skyline fulfill their Biblical prophecy in a contemporary and gruesome manner, becoming "ravenous", feasting on fans and their hot dogs indiscriminately? And if so, would it be aired on network television?
When pitcher Kenny Rogers walked Andruw Jones ending marathon Game Six of the series and giving the division title to the Atlanta Braves, I breathed a sigh that was perfectly audible in my tiny apartment. The sigh held exhaustion and disappointment‹that the elongated game ended in defeat‹but also a measure of defined relief. In my mind, Rogers is a hero, not just for his pitching efforts, but for possibly staving off the coming of the apocalypse and the collapse of the New York Jewish community.
Potential crisis averted. For now, we can beat our swords into baseball bats and wait for the promise and potential of spring training. But the year 2000 could be another story, for baseball and for the Jewish community. I guess we will all just have to "believe."
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