Happy New Year, everybody!
One of the “resolutions” I’m making this year is to challenge myself more. This mans doing things outside my comfort zone and pushing a bit more. This will include a return to the Podcast edition on a regular basis” and more “intellectual” pursuits than I might have considered in the past. So I thought I’d star off with an one that might have slipped under the general radar back in the 1990s.
When I was working on the manuscript for my 501 Baseball Books the Literate Fan Must Read (due out in 2013 from the University of Nebraska Press, unless the world ends on Dec. 21, in which case all bets are off), I had the opportunity to revisit books I had not glanced upon in many years. In some cases, it was like finding a $20 bill in a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a long time. Bonus! This is one of those forgotten treasures.
There are volumes upon volumes about new metrics the authors claim they will change the way we perceive the game and how we will judge the players, but those are pikers compared with Tao of Baseball: Entertaining & Thought-Provoking Commentaries on the National Pastime
I have never been into Eastern philosophy, but this 1991 publication might just be the thing to make a believer out of me.
According to Go (actually spelled with a long vowel symbol over the “o”, which I can’t replicate; if someone could tell me how, I’d appreciate it), the Tao in general consists of Yang, the strong, dominant, aggressive force; and Yin, weaker, subservient, and docile. In fact, the traditional symbol for Yin and Yang practically is a baseball when viewed at a certain angle.
The overriding principle of Ying and Yan is simple: one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. You can’t have light without darkness; noise without silence; love without marriage (“You can’t have one without the other”). That’s the idea Go is trying to get across. The closer a baserunner is to home in rounding the bases, the stronger the offense’s Yang and the defense’s Yin. Likewise, a count favorable for the pitcher boosts his Yang and the batter’s Yin. In a way, it’s a zero-sum game.
The discussions in The Tao of Baseball consider such aspects of the game as the construction of a batting order, the defensive positions, at-bat confrontations between the batter and pitcher, and many other minute processes that make up the game. Reading the book is one of those “aha” experiences; it explains a lot and makes the reader think how simple the game really is when viewed from a perspective that many would definitely see as outside the (batter’s) box.
With so many baseball titles out there, I generally do not like to re-read, but this one is special and almost a comfort to which I will return on a regular basis.
is available on Amazon.com,
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Interesting. In my book STRIKE THREE! I mention a Cleveland NABF 17-18 y/o team, a perennial national tournament team, named “GO”, which I assumed at the time represented an aggressive, fast style of play. They were coached by a mathematics professor from Arizona State U. named Rich Liskovec. They used symbol cards for signs to hitters and pitchers. I remember my team uniform shirt to have the long-vowel symbol over the “O” but I could be victim of the yin and yang of more forgotten than more remembered.. Coincidence? Does Go mention “GO”?
Ron, probably the easest thing to do is find one and then copy and paste it into what you need to write. Here’s one for you from the Unicode Entity Codes for Phonetic Diacritics page at Penn State: Gō.
No. This is strictly a “philosophical” book. No sats, no history, just the “purity of the game.”
Thanks, Mark. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
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