Sabermetrics, the use of statistical analysis in baseball to evaluate the performance of players, had been around since the end of the 20^th Century.  It was in the summer of 2027 that Billy Crudesky, a sports writer for Weasel Sports, applied Sabermetrics to demonstrative displays of faith in professional baseball.  He sought to find out how players who crossed themselves before batting, pointed to the sky after getting a hit, said prayers before taking the mound, or other obvious displays of their religious beliefs actually performed relative to those players who did not.  What he found was startling.  Those players who publicly demonstrated their faith did far worse than other players.  Batters were found to hit, on an average, a full forty points lower than those players who did nothing more than warm up.  Base runners were thrown out more often, and were less likely to score.  Pitchers had a higher ERA, walked more batters, and lost, on an average, five more games per season.  And fielders averaged more errors and made fewer marginal plays than those who simply did nothing.  By the end of the 2027 baseball season, Crudesky reported that demonstrative displays of faith had completely disappeared from professional baseball.