Quote from Sanibel Flats

Came across this piece in my recent reading:

"I'm surprised a Zen Buddhist could get upset about a game."
"The Buddha would have been a baseball fan, believe me."
"Ah"
"Baseball is more than a game man. It's a ceremony."
"Oh."
"All of the people who have ever played baseball are linked by virtue of having dealt with predictable game situations in unpredictable ways, each person trying to resolve random events within an orderly sphere of balls, strikes, and outs - "
"Boy oh boy."
"Plus there is the scorebook: a historical document more accurate and succinct than, say, the Old Testament. All these thousands and thousands of scorebooks all over the world forming an unbroken ceremonial chronicle far more detailed than, say, Ireland's Book of Kells - "
"Tomlinson, all we want to do is finish the damn game without offending Rivera. He's a baseball fanatic. He takes it very seriously."
"Well I'll try .. but I'll feel like a heretic."

- From the novel Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White