St. Rita, the patron saint of . . . baseball?
In The Rookie, devotion to St. Rita--the patron saint of the impossible--appears to result in a miracle: a middle-age man who lost a chance at the big leagues due to a youthful injury becomes a professional baseball player late in life.
Whatever one might say about its bureaucratic inefficiency, the Catholic Church has seldom missed an opportunity to capitalize on faith. Picture above: a post-Rookie St. Rita Baseball Pendant, complete with a player hitting on the back.
Of course, the guy in the film was a pitcher for Tampa Bay--and because it's in the American League, he never had an at-bat. Not even the patron saint of the impossible can overcome the designated hitter rule.
