Full House by Stephen Jay Gould

Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307420770
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

11

A Philosophical Conclusion

Some people regard this explanation as a sad story. One can scarcely decry a general improvement in play, but the increasing standardization thus engendered does seem to remove much of the fun and drama from sports. The "play" in play diminishes as activities become ever more "scientific" in the pejorative sense of operating like optimized clockwork. Perhaps no giants inhabited the earth during baseball’s early days, but the best then soared so far above the norm that their numbers seemed truly heroic and otherworldly, while our current champions cannot rise nearly so far above the vastly improved average.

But I suggest that we should rejoice in the shrinkage of variation and consequent elimination of 0.400 hitting. Yes, excellence in play does imply increasing precision and standardization, but what complaint can we lodge against repeated maximal beauty? I have now been a fan for fifty years. I have seen hundreds of perfectly executed double plays and brilliant pegs from outfield to home (that may or may not have beaten the runner charging from third)—the kind of beautifully orchestrated precision that probably occurred only rarely in baseball’s early years. I do not thrill any less with each repetition. The pinnacle of excellence is so rare, its productions so exquisite. Did we ever get bored with Caruso or Pavarotti in their prime? I would much rather have my expectation of excellence affirmed when I go to the ballpark or the opera house than to take potluck and hope for a rare glimpse of glory in a sea of mediocrity.

Moreover, the rise in general excellence and consequent shrinkage of variation does not remove the possibility of transcendence. In fact, I would argue that transcendence becomes all the more intriguing and exciting for the smaller space now allocated to such a possibility, and for the consequently greater struggle that must attend the achievement. When the norm stood miles from the right wall, records could be broken with relative ease. But when the average player can almost touch the wall, then transcendence of the mean marks a true outer limit for conceivable human achievement. (Again, I would make an analogy to musical performance. Do we not rejoice when every string in a symphony orchestra plays with exquisite beauty and consummate professionalism? And do we not thrill all the more when, in this context of superb general performance, a great soloist does something so special that only angels in heaven could have contemplated the possibility?) I would carry the argument even further and point out that a norm near the right wall pushes the very best to seek levels of greater accomplishment that otherwise might never have been conceptualized. I will speak in the final chapter about the heroic efforts, often with attendant accident and loss of life, that such "pushing of the envelope" imposes in the almost holy mania that infects the greatest performers in the circus arts and other dangerous activities. Call it foolish (and swear up and down that you would never so

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