Who cares about the Rangers/Mariners?

I went with my wife, brother and a friend to the Mariners/Rangers game last night at Safeco field. As Randy Jackson might say on American Idol, it was just alright for me, dawg.

The Mariners are mediocre and the Rangers aren't much better. Slammin' Sammy is just So-So, and Eric Gagne's stuff seemed to be Gone (topping out at 94 m.p.h. on the radar gun isn't bad, but it isn't 98-99, either) in his return to the Bigs.

Now forgive me for a moment while I wax philosophical.

There we were at a beautiful stadium -- which was fortunate, because it was a less than beautiful evening -- watching the greatest game there is. (Sorry, jai alai.) The company wasn't bad, either.

But between innings, we were absolutely inundated with entertainment. There was the dancing field crew, a digital boat race, a digital car race, a trivia contest and a lot more. Basically, we were fed a steady diet of noise, which left very little time to talk baseball and soak in the atmosphere.

The experience was indicative of the state of our culture, I think. The more noise and entertainment we soak ourselves in, the less we are confronted with matters of greater significance. You know, things like faith, life purpose, and relationships. Those things are easily pushed to the background while we try and track which flying and swiveling hat the digital baseball is under.

What I love about the game of baseball is that it moves at such a pace that there is room for pure enjoyment of the game and space for thought and relationships in between. Somehow, though, we've grown uncomfortable with that and it looks like there's no turning back.