Baseball is written and spoken of in modes nostalgic, heroic, analytic, patriotic, elegiac, and eulogistic, not to say tragical-comical-historical-pastoral. Much of that musing makes Alva Noë, a member of Berkeley’s philosophy department and lifelong baseball fan, “almost cringe.” Whatever mythos or virtues we might discover in a sport, it’s most likely that we love that sport by accident. We love what we grew up with.
Noë is fine with that. His short, engaging book Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark consists of brief topical essays grouped thematically into sections such as “Baseball Memories” and “In Praise of Being Bored.” Most were written for the now-defunct npr blog 13.7: Cosmos and Culture.
A two-page preface offers some ideas about the game that are, he thinks, fresh and that tie the essays together; a newly written introduction, by far the longest chapter in the book, defends them. The essays need not be read in any particular order, though it would make sense to read the preface first. Those grouped in each chapter are not always consistent with one another, but the root meaning of “essay” is “attempt.” People are entitled to refine their arguments and/or change their minds.
Noë’s big idea is that baseball is “a normative game, for its main concern is who deserves credit or blame for what” (italics in the original). Set aside the debatable word “main.” He rightly says that it’s impossible to wrap one’s head around what’s
