On the late Alvin Dark, atheism and NA's annual mayor's prayer breakfast.

There is a brief but real connection between baseball lifer Alvin Dark, "a Southern Baptist known throughout baseball as a devout Christian," and the city of New Albany.

I will explain. First, his obituary in the New York Times.

Alvin Dark, 92, Is Dead; Led Giants to 3 Pennants

... Amid the triumphs and the turbulent times in his long baseball career, the epic 1951 season stood out for Dark. He looked back on the Giants’ memorable pennant run in the light of his religious faith.

In an interview for the book “The Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff” (1975), by Thomas Kiernan, Dark said, “I kind of perceive a scheme in the whole thing.”

“You don’t believe it was the Lord’s plan?” he added. “How could it have been otherwise?”

Dark died only days before the renewal of a longstanding New Albany civic institution, the Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast.

46th Annual Mayor’s Community Prayer Breakfast
New Albany High School Cafeteria
Saturday, November 15th 8:30 AM
Tickets are $8 in advance or $9 at the door.

The Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast is a long-standing tradition held at the beginning of the holiday season that gives our community the opportunity to unite citizens of all ages and faiths. We come together to celebrate the diversity within God's family and to give thanks for the blessings of our community and its people.

It will not surprise regular readers when I say that as an atheist, such an openly religious event sponsored by government on public school property is superfluous at best, and probably violates any reasonable tenet of church-state separation. However, so long as tax dollars are not used in support of it ... they're not, are they?

Here's the unexpected punch line: Once I actually attended a mayor's prayer breakfast, circa 1977 or thereabouts, for the sole purpose of meeting Alvin Dark and thanking him for managing the Oakland A's to two division titles and a World Series championship. My recollection is that the breakfast was held at Scribner (then) Junior High School.

I shook his hand, accomplished my aim, and that was that.

Admittedly, these convergences -- religion, irreligion and proper bunting technique -- prompt speculation on my part. Forget for a moment whether an independent candidate might ever be elected mayor of New Albany. Can an atheist? If so, what would become of the mayor's prayer breakfast with a non-believer at the helm? Would atheism be woven into the rote routine, as with the Huntsville (AL) City Council's newly inclusionary prayer policies?

A name change might suffice, as in the Mayor's Community Reflection Breakfast.

If a politically independent atheist became mayor of New Albany, there'd be many such occasions requiring the parsing of protocol. Perhaps the best way to cope with these would be the retention of a former Democrat, turned Republican, church-going staff member. It would be like having a multilingual translator available at all times, suitable to convey culturally sensitive messages like this one:

"Excuse me, Bill/Billie ... could you send John Rosenbarger in, please? This toilet desperately needs scrubbing."