Finding reasons to believe in reincarnation

Skeptics dismiss reincarnation as superstitious poppycock, but believing that upon the death of a human body its soul comes back to Earth in another body or form is a central tenet of Sikhism and Hinduism, and the idea of rebirth is central to Buddhism as well.

Many individuals of other faiths believe in (and in some cases look forward to) a next life, hoping it will be happier and/or more fulfilling than their current one. And while not everyone adheres to a theology encouraging belief in reincarnation’s legitimacy, certain groups unaffiliated with any particular faith, like manufacturers of pay telephones, Pittsburgh Pirate fans, and moderate Republicans, have good reason to hope that Earthly life after death is indeed fact rather than fancy.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting the possibility that reincarnation exists. Renowned American poet Amy Lowell passed away on May 12, 1925, the very same day Yogi Berra was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Could the chunky, cigar-smoking, Pulitzer Prize-winning imagist who wrote several memorable poems about drinking (“Vintage” and “Absence,” to name just two) have been reborn as the stocky, cigarette-smoking, Yoo-Hoo chugging Baseball Hall-of-Fame catcher/philosopher? The ideas of both are widely known, though hers were generally written while his were primarily spoken.

Jesse Owens was undoubtedly considered America’s greatest athlete in 1936, when he won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics and in the process debunked Adolf Hitler’s “Master Race” theory. Owens died on March 31, 1980, the same day that saw the birth of Chien-Ming Wang in Tainan City, Taiwan. A quarter of a century later, Wang was recognized by many as his nation’s best athlete. Reincarnations doubters take note: Is this, too, mere happenstance?

Superstar entertainer Marilyn Monroe died on Aug. 5, 1962, the same day basketball superstar Patrick Ewing made his earthly debut. Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery, whose Anne of Green Gables stories entertained millions, died on April 24, 1942, the day Barbra Streisand, whose voice entertained millions, was born. Comedienne Janeane Garofalo was born the same day comedian Harpo Marx died, Sept. 28, 1964. Can these all be eerie coincidences?

Those truly wanting to believe in reincarnation might be tempted to cite two nominally independent events that occurred 63 years ago today. George Herman “Babe” Ruth, who prior to the introduction of night games, non-Caucasian players, performance-enhancing drugs and ESPN was by acclimation the greatest player in American professional baseball history, died on Aug. 16, 1948 after 53 very memorable years on the planet.

The birth of Michael Jorgensen in Passaic, N.J. that day was greeted with considerably less fanfare than was the Bambino’s death. But the Garden State native turned out to be quite an athlete in his own right, and just 20 years later debuted as a major league player for the New York Mets. Could Jorgensen have been the reincarnation of Ruth?

Both men spent time with New York-based teams. Each batted and threw left-handed, played some outfield, and was taller than average (Ruth 6’2”, Jorgensen 6’0”). Both had long major league careers. Hair splitters might point out the Babe hit .342 with 714 homers over 22 major league seasons while Jorgensen managed just 95 round trippers and a .243 average during his 17 big league campaigns. But consider this: Each man once hit 11 home runs in a season, and Jorgensen did it in just 287 at-bats in 1974, while it took the Babe 317 at-bats to accomplish the same thing in 1918. This could be more than coincidence.

Baseball-Reference.com not only provides complete statistics for anyone who ever played major league baseball, it even lists the 10 players to whom any hitter was statistically most comparable to at various stages of his career. How good was Babe Ruth? The 10 major league players whose offensive numbers are most similar to his are Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Manny Ramirez. Seven of those men are in the Hall of Fame, Griffey will be in five years, and the other two will make it if and when Major League Baseball officially admits that virtually every outstanding hitter who played during the 10 years beginning in the mid-1990s was pharmaceutically enhanced.

Baseball-Reference.com lists the most statistically comparable players to Mike Jorgensen as Mike Lum, Dave May, Tom McCraw, Greg Brock, John Milner, Randy Bush, John Lowenstein, Lee Thomas, Dan Meyer and Ed Kirkpatrick, all solid, left-handed hitting journeymen. Like Mike Jorgensen.

So maybe there’s no such thing as reincarnation. But it’s probably worth mentioning that Ichiro Suzuki, a true artist with a baseball bat and arguably his sport’s most skilled hitter of the last decade, was born Oct. 22, 1973, the day another world-renowned virtuoso, cellist Pablo Casals, breathed his last.

Sign In: