PASADENA, Calif. — An Episcopal priest led those gathered in the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during this past Sunday’s services, according to a video posted to social media and blog post about “Dodger Blue Sunday.”
The video was shared to the All Saints Episcopal Church Pasadena page by attendee Rick Murphy, who wrote, “[T]hought he has seen everything. Thank you, Mike, for leading us in the following song.”
“Take me out to the ball game/Take me out with the crowd,” Rector Mike Kinman sang out, wearing a Dodgers baseball cap to boot. “Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks/ I don’t care if I never get back.”
The choir behind Kinman also joined in the song, some likewise wearing baseball caps and swinging their arms happily back and forth.
“Let me root, root, root/For the Dodgers/If they don’t win it’s a shame/For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out/At the old ball game,” those in attendance sang along, some holding their hands up in the air to count, one, two and three.
At the end of the song, the room erupted in applause and cheers.
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was sung during the offertory at the 9 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 1 p.m. services, according to a blog post on the matter and information provided by Director of Communications Susan Russell.
“It was a day to celebrate the gift of moments of respite, of recreation, of joy and of plain old entertainment—and the fact that our home team was in the World Series for the first time in 29 years!” the post reads.
A photo shared under the Facebook video also shows a group of all ages gathered outside All Saints Episcopal, with most dressed in blue and some holding banners to show their support for the Dodgers.
According to Mike Kinman’s biography on the All Saints Episcopal website, Kinman held a short stint as a sports writer and worked at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis prior to being elected in 2016 as rector in Pasadena, California.
“As the dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis (2009-2016) Mike had a particular interest in the Cathedral’s role in dismantling systemic misogyny and homophobia and promoting racial and economic reconciliation in St. Louis—and with Christ Church Cathedral was active in the new civil rights movement that was ignited in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri,” it reads.
“Mike had a previous brief career as a sports writer and loves major league baseball and college basketball, especially the St. Louis Cardinals and the University of Arizona Wildcats (from his hometown of Tucson, Arizona),” it continues. “He loves listening to U2 and the blues, is a voracious reader and loves everything Aaron Sorkin has ever written for the large and small screen.”
As previously reported, the late Leonard Ravenhill, a respected preacher and author who often mourned the state of American churches, once said, “People say we have no king and queen in America. I say we have a king in America. His name is ‘sport,’ and his wife’s name is ‘entertainment.’ And I’m convinced … that entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy.”
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