The Red Sox and Philosophy: Green Monster Meditations

by Michael Macomber (Editor)

Overview

This volume in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series delves into the tragic and redemptive history of the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. Drawing on philosophers from Aristotle to Sartre, chapters range from issues of faith and spirituality to tragedy, irony, existentialism, Sabermetrics, and the infamous "curse of the Bambino." With an emphasis on "Red Sox Nation" — the community of Red Sox fans across the globe — the book connects important philosophical ideas with one of the most storied teams in the history of Major League Baseball. The chapters make complex philosophical arguments easy to understand while providing an insider’s knowledge of the hometown team. All but one of the authors in this volume are all Red Sox fans who comment on their team philosophically. There's even a Yankee fan’s perspective! With a foreword by Dick Bresciani, vice president and official historian of the Boston Red Sox, this book provides a unique philosophical experience for the die-hard Red Sox fan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812696776
Publisher:	Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Series:	Popular Culture and Philosophy , #48
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Macomber is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Dick Bresciani

1. Are the Red Sox the Greatest Conceivable Baseball Team?
Joseph Ulatowski

2. Confessions of a Yankee Fan
Matthew Konig

3. Breaking the Mold: From Ruth to Ramirez
Weaver Santaniello

4. Red Sox and the Philosophy of Bill James: Quine and Sabermetrics
Jonah Goldwater

5. What Really Offends Fans about Red Sox Ticket Resellers
Stephen Mathis

6. One with the Team: Why Being a Member of Red Sox Nation Moves us Toward a Confucian Self-Concept
Chelsea Harry

7. Wicked Faithful Bahston Believahs
Patrick Tiernan

8. On The Genealogy of a Rivalry: Nietzsche on Why the Nation is Good and the Empire is Evil
Nolen Gertz

9. “It Gets Through Buckner!”: Forgiveness, Virtue and the Red Sox Nation
Rory Kraft

10. The True Red Sox Fan
Corey McCall

11. The Dao of Ted Williams
Jung Lee

12. Abrahams in the Bleachers: Why Red Sox fans are Moral Heroes
Orla Richardson and Karolina Lewestam

13. Grady Little, the Impartial Spectator and My Short Fuse
John McHugh

14. Billy Buck Had No Moral Luck
Bryan Pilington

15. Supererogation in Kant and Jon Lester’s No Hitter
Kevin Maguire

16. Blursed: An Assessment of the Curse of the Bambino
Erin Flynn

17. Yaz and Philosophy
Randall E. Auxier

18. Why Are They Our Red Sox?
Sander Lee

19. Tragedy and Fisk: How the Red Sox Reveal the Deeper Meaning of Being and Time or Only an Ortiz can Save Us
James Pontuso

20. What We Talk about When We Talk about Lowe
Fred Ablondi

21. Thou Shalt Steal: How the 2004 Boston Red Sox Reconciled Faith and Reason to Reverse the Curse and Win the World Series
Joel Cade

22. The Art of Losing
David Roochnik

23. Red Sox Good, Yankees Evil
Bill Puka

24. Sacred Sox
Marcus Giamatti

25. Pink Hats and Feminism
Stephanie St. Martin

26. The Legacy of Retired Numbers
Michael Macomber

27. The Romance of Fenway Park
Randall E. Auxier

28. Red Sox as Primitive Mystics
Peter Kreeft