Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box

Popular Culture and Philosophy #6

by Eric Bronson (Editor), William Irwin, Bill Littlefield (Foreword by)

Baseball and Philosophy brings together two high-powered pastimes: the sport of baseball and the academic discipline of philosophy. Eric Bronson asked eighteen young professors to provide their profound analysis of some aspect of baseball. The result offers surprisingly deep insights into this most American of games.

The contributors include many of the leading voices in the burgeoning new field of philosophy of sport, plus a few other talented philosophers with a personal interest in baseball. A few of the contributors are also drawn from academic areas outside philosophy: statistics, law, and history.

This volume gives the thoughtful baseball fan substantial material to think more deeply about. What moral issues are raised by the Intentional Walk? Do teams sometimes benefit from the self-interested behavior of their individual members? How can Zen be applied to hitting? Is it ethical to employ deception in sports? Can a game be defined by its written rules or are there also other constraints? What can the U.S. Supreme Court learn from umpiring? Why should baseball be the only industry exempt from antitrust laws? What part does luck play in any game of skill?

There's no place like home! / Joe Kraus --
Minnesota's Homer Hanky jurisprudence / Paul Horan and Jason Solomon --
Should cubs fans be committed? / Thomas D. Senor --
Taking one for the team / Willie Young --
There are no ties at first base / Ted Cohen --
Taking umpiring seriously / J.S. Russell --
Baseball, cheating, and tradition / Randolph Feezell --
There's no lying in baseball (wink, wink) / Mark J. Hamilton --
Democracy and dissent / Eric Bronson --
Baseball and the search for an American moral identity / William J. Morgan --
Negro leagues and the contradictions of social Darwinism / Alex Ruck and Rob Ruck --
We're American too / Pellom McDaniels --
Zen of hitting / Gregory Bassham --
Japanese baseball and its warrior ways / Michael Brannigan --
Numbers game / Jay Bennett and Aryn Martin --
Women playing hardball / Leslie Heaphy --
Walking Barry Bonds / R. Scott Kretchhmar --
Socrates at the ballpark / Heather L. Reid

Genres: Baseball, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sports, Pop Culture

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2004

About the author

Eric Bronson is the author or editor of seven books. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and currently teaches in the Humanities Department at York University in Toronto. His classes on Modern Life focus on anxiety, creativity, and happiness.

His most recent book, Enchanted Wisdom, takes readers through the ancient religious roots of enchanting activities from around the world like cooking Chinese food, climbing Mt. Everest, and dancing to gospel music. His most recent work of historical fiction, King of Rags, explores Scott Joplin's tragic quest to write the music of civil rights fifty years before America was ready to listen.

The Chicago Sun Times noted that Bronson's "Baseball and Philosophy makes you realize just how fun thinking about baseball really is."

Reviews

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Baseball, like philosophy itself, is wisdom loving and knowledge seeking, an activity that aims not just for information but also for understanding. The game will answer questions about individual performances, season standings, and the effect of new grass in the outfield, but these answers are only partial and temporal resolutions of the initial uncertainty. Bigger questions loom.”

Baseball and Philosophy asks and answers many important questions, such as, “who would make the better shortstop, Aristotle or Martin Heidegger?” or “Was Ted Williams a Zen master?” and most puzzling, “Why do Chicago Cubs fans climb out of bed day after day?” Also, “should women be allowed to play?” and “should Barry Bonds be intentionally walked?” and most puzzling still, “Should Barry Bonds dressed as a woman be allowed to play – and by extension intentionally walked?’’

The American pastime also gets plenty of face time with the game as a uniquely American experience. Although the writing is superb and the subjects fascinating, I must concede that the target audience may be small: do you like Baseball and do you like philosophy? Do you like both? If not, it may seem long and drawn out (maybe even unapproachable), but the multiple essays do allow for compartmentalized doses, between innings breaks and a seventh inning stretch.

One thing is for sure, if we can play in the afterlife, it would be unwise to pick Immanuel Kant as a catcher and Nietchze most assuredly would be a problem in the clubhouse.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about baseball. I say that because it may appear to really be about philosophy, but the baseball is key. I'm reading it as part of a book club and it was better than I expected, but to be fair, I'm not and never have been a baseball fan. That being said, I actually did find myself enjoying the book more than I thought, though I scanned several chapters that weren't as interesting. The chapters on Japan, Buddhism, women and baseball, and the Negro Leagues were my favorites. What brought the book down in rating for me was the chapter on rules. It had a superior tone and no matter how many times I read the example, I could not figure out what the rule violation described was about.

[Caleb Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated this book with some bias because I like baseball. I don’t care for philosophy much, however this book is an exception. This book has lead me to like philosophy. I like the ideas, the ideas of how things work. It can on and on about a topic, but this can be a problem for me. It often goes too deep on some ideas. I like things that are fast and quick to the point so this is not the book for me. If you can tolerate what seems to be babble for an extra 2 pages of why home is considered home then this is the book for you.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a -bad- anthology of essays on baseball and philosophy.... just.... eh. It took me a lot longer to read this than expected (also a busy time for me, with work, kids, starting up the gardens, etc), but it just seemed more drier and not as truly philosophical as some of the other pop culture and philosophy books (Seinfeld and Philosophy, Lord of the Rings and philosophy, etc). Some of the essays were more or less just essays and not even linking baseball to philosophy at all. Hit or miss articles makes it not a bad anthology but not a great one either.

[Sean Asbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought that this was going to be a very good book about baseball, morals and strategy. While it had a few good quotes and ideas, most of the book was jumbled garble. The authors for every section were different and all had different writing styles so there wasn't a clear voice nor direction.

Some of the chapters on Japanese baseball and how their morals impact the game were bright spots but most were just weak.

[Diana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a feeling that this is a good book and I'm just missing the point. I had a heck of a time staying awake! But what's fun is seeing the emails from the guy in our book club who chose it and who will lead the discussion Saturday evening. He is pumped! ⚾ Plus, we're all bringing baseball game foods. So for those reasons, I give it 5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book mainly because of the title. I couldn't pass up a book that promised to deal with two things I love...baseball and philosophy. It turned out to be quite entertaining, a fresh way to look at the sport I follow. (This is the second time I read this book.)

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nah.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much of a good thing. A few were interesting, but serious overkill rules the day in this series.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. Some interesting connections between baseball and our culture.

[Felicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some very intersting essays and musings, but also a lot of verbose philosophizing that wasn't all that connected to baseball.

[Ron Kaplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

philosophy

[Josiah Zahina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that reignited a love for baseball through a romantic philosophical approach to the game

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some really good essays here and some really boring ones.

Some of the notably good ones: the essay about baseball + statistics, the one about the negro leagues, the one about feminism, softball and baseball and the essay about umpiring and ties at first base. The baseball and statistics essay is something I've been curious about recently, moreso in relation to football. Baseball is obviously the most statistic-friendly sport insofar as it's easier to isolate individual players. However, it is obviously difficult to separate luck from actual ability. Football especially struggles with this as the best stats have a year-to-year correlation of <0.5 with the next year's estimated points added, and a year-to-year stability of roughly the same. This is still acknowledging that it is impossibly difficult to account for things like scheme, surrounding talent and opponent strength. In light of this, I found the essay on statistics awesome.

Some of the notable bad ones: the various essays about whether cheating is unethical and whether intentional walks are unethical. The latter question is obviously so banal and clear as to the answer that it was a waste of time to read. The former question is about, if at all, a moral fault so minor as to be irrelevant to any person's moral considerations.

The rest of the essays ranged from mediocre to just okay, but in all, I would recommend the read as I find the philosophy of sport to be a neglected area of philsophy.

[Hannah Spadafora · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I am a little surprised at myself for reading this, and perhaps even more that I enjoyed it a good bit--but every now and again, I like to dive into something I don't know at much about. I was dragged to baseball games when I was younger due to a sporty sibling/family who liked it a lot, but outside of when I was little, mostly kept my nose in a book during games. I stumbled on this book at a thrift store and decided to see what the fuss was about/what the hell kinda spurious connection the authors were going to make between a sport that jocks play and my beloved nerdy philosophy. I finished feeling the connections were actually fairly well merited (only a slim bit we're a stretch, or represented philosophical notions a little off from my own understanding), and that there is more to the game than previously realized- yet another realm where ethics, in particular, can be debated and applied (there is deception in baseball plays? What? I thought it was just hit the damn ball, run the damn bases, American apple pie?). I do feel like I walked away from this book having learned a lot, which is always a win. Would definitely recommend for fans and curious people alike.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like an actual baseball game, this anthology of essays is a series of highs and lows. But unlike a game, the mixed quality of the work doesn’t make an entertaining experience. Many of the works included herein – such as the lead-off entry by Joe Kraus – are reasonably good reading. But more common are the stinkers. For example, Ted Cohen’s “There are no ties at first base” left me wondering if the author was really a supercilious jerk or merely making ironic pretense at being a supercilious jerk for reasons left unclear. And Vincent Toscano actually managed to talk me out of wanting to see The Natural. Overall the set does a good job of achieving its apparent goal: briefly employing philosophical concepts to analyze Our National Pastime. However, this “golden mean” approach creates something that is satisfactory neither as a serious consideration of philosophy or a meaningful analysis of baseball.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here are two good quotes from an otherwise cringeworthy book:

"The softball alternative thereby became a convenient means for American society to postpone answering some hard questions about perceived gender differences.”

"Winning is only possible if you are able to risk losing, just as wisdom is only possible if you are able to admit ignorance."

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this was the best from a series of books that merged pop culture and philosophy.