Heidi gave me Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville, a book on baseball by the late Stephen Jay Gould. Triumph is a collection of essays by Gould, some new for the book and some that have appeared in newspapers and other books. The book has been a fascinating read so far, as he is able to convey what it is to be a baseball fan. Worth a read if you love baseball or want to understand what it is to love baseball.

The book is an easy read in part because they are essays. It’s easy to read an essay and put it down because they are self-contained. The variety also keeps things fresh. One essay might be about Mantle (did you know he had an on-base percentage of .512 in 1957?!) while the next will talk about steroids in baseball. Another talks about variations of stickball in 50’s New York. The next might talk about batting averages over time. Triumph is a great mix of the human, the mundane, and the geeky.

This is Gould on watching Game 7 of the 1986 World Series with his son, Ethan.

The finale was too typical — an early Sox lead, eroded near the end; a late Sox surge, almost but not quite enough. Ethan cried when it was all over — and this was only his first time. I tried to console him, but ended up joining him. It’s a puzzle, isn’t it? I don’t know why grown men care so deeply about something that neither kills, nor starves, nor maims, nor even scratches in our world of woe. I don’t know why we care so much, but I’m mighty glad that we do.

Another semi-baseball related quote:

Mantle also taught me something very special: the universality of excellence. We intellectuals, in our crass parochialism, often imagine that scholars succeed only by a struggle of long years devoted to study but that athletes triumph by untutored skill — the pain of brain versus the gift of brawn. But if I have learned anything from studying the lives of great ballplayers, Mantle’s in particular, I have come to understand the common denominator of human excellence. The potential must be present (and we do not all possess it), but the universal agents of realization are passion to the point of obsession combined with hard, unrelenting work. All achievers are kinsmen in a tough and crowded world.

I do not seek moral lessons from my sports heroes. The thrill of witnessing rare excellence will suffice.

Great stuff.