the legend of the unmuzzled ox speaks 9/11: THE THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

Back in 1999 just before the Millennium, God and Allah were in a bar up in heaven. God has always been a Yankee fan. Allah favors the Mets. “Jeez, God,” said Allah, “for like a thousand years the Yankees always win. Why don’t you make it interesting? how about giving my boys a chance?”

All right, said God, games should be fair. The Mets can win henceforward sometimes, and the Yankees accordingly will lose. And such is the All-new Divine Plan.

But Lo! The Yankees immediately in that Very Millennial Year, 2000, defied the Lord’s Plan and humiliated the Mets to win the World Series. Allah sneered. “Some God!” saith Allah, “Come October You can’t even control nine guys on a ball field.”

“Maybe they’re more afraid of Steinbrenner than Me,” saith the Lord. “You Allah may smite New York Itself


HITTING STONES WITH STICKS

Sports rivalries curiously permit people to indulge in a giddy war-like rhetoric.  I remember years ago after a playoff series ended in victory for a local team, a woman asked, “Who do we hate now?”  American sports are a mock Peloponnesian War. People enjoy the kidding. It enlivens the spirit.

Some years ago on a Thursday around 5:00pm I took the Staten Island ferry into Manhattan. Both the Mets and Yankees were in town, and fans of both clubs were decked out in their regalia and crossing for the games. When I returned to Staten Island around 11:00pm, an equal number of fans were subdued and listless. I concluded the locals had lost; -- the Yankees, tragically, to the Red Sox. However, checking the Internet (that odd fad), I discovered the Mets game had gone in fact into extra innings. I then listened to the Mets on the radio beat the Nationals on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 14th.

And what does all this mean? Nothing.