10-25-87 Sunday. It’s over: not only today’s game, but the baseball season. I hate to report it, but Minnesota [the Twins] is the new World Champion. It’s the team’s first World Series title. In 1965, Minnesota made it to the World Series, but was beaten by Los Angeles [the Dodgers] (I think). As for today’s game, it was close throughout. The score was tied at two in the middle innings when Minnesota scored a run on an infield hit by Greg Gagne. The team scored another run later and won, 4-2. Overall, Minnesota outscored St Louis, 38-26. There were lots of runs scored, plenty of home runs, and even some well-pitched games in St Louis. This was the first time that the home team has won every game of a World Series. Minnesota is just awesome in the Metrodome. In large part, I think, it’s psychological. The Twins have come to think of themselves as invincible there, and it affects their play. The most valuable player of the Series was Frank Viola, who started and won two games for the Twins, including today’s. Poor Whitey Herzog! He has now lost two seven-game series in three years: 1985 [to the Kansas City Royals] and 1987. He won a seven-game series in 1982 [over the Milwaukee Brewers].

As I watched the game, I had a brainstorm. Why not write a book entitled “Baseball and Philosophy”? It would be a book in philosophy, but it would use baseball as the point of departure. For instance, I could discuss the nature and function of rules by focusing on the rules of baseball. Other subjects include judgment (umpires), roles (leadoff hitter, cleanup hitter), the concepts of necessary and sufficient condition (touching the ball with your glove is not necessary for getting an error), counterfactuals (in computing earned-run average), sacrifices, excellence, desert and entitlement, and the difference between risky behavior and good outcomes. In short, it would be a book of conceptual analysis that used baseball as an example. This should make it attractive to sports fans. So far, all I’ve done is compile a list of subjects. Once I’m settled in as a professor somewhere, I’ll give the topic more thought. I could probably write the book in a matter of months, if not weeks.