Baseball is a strange sport: it consists of long periods in which little seems to be happening, punctuated by high-energy outbursts of rapid fire activity.
Throughout, Noe\'s observations are surprising a.
The book ranges from the nature of umpiring and the role of instant replay, to the nature of the strike zone, from the rampant use of surgery to controversy surrounding performance enhancing drugs.
Noe\'s wide-ranging, thoughtful observations show that, to the contrary, baseball is not only a window on language, culture, and the nature of human action, but is intertwined with deep and fundamental human truths.
Some argue that baseball is fundamentally a game about numbers.
Baseball requires that true fans try to tell the story of the game, in real time, as it unfolds, and thus actively participate in its creation.
Noe also explains the curious activity of keeping score: a score card is not merely a record of the game, like a video recording; it is an account of the game.
To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened.
For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame.
In this deeply entertaining book, Philosopher and baseball fan Alva No explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game.
If baseball is boring, it\'s boring the way philosophy is boring: not because there isn\'t a lot going on, but because the challenge baseball poses is making sense of it all.
It\'s superficially slow-pace is an opportunity to participate in the distinctive thinking practice that defines the game.
But for the true fan, baseball is always compelling to watch -and intellectually fascinating.
Because of this, despite ever greater profits, Major League Baseball is bent on finding ways to shorten games, and to tailor baseball to today\'s shorter attention spans.
Baseball is a strange sport: it consists of long periods in which little seems to be happening, punctuated by high-energy outbursts of rapid fire activity
