MANY PEOPLE HAVE helped to bring this book into existence. Let me start by mentioning some old friends with whom I have discussed sporting issues over more years than I care to remember: Andy Hislop, Zach Leader, Jo Shallis, Cathy and Darius Brubeck. My three siblings have exerted a similar long-standing influence on my sporting thoughts: Ric, Sarah, and Jacob Papineau.
I have also benefitted from the inexhaustible flow of ideas from the regular Saturday morning D’Auria Café post-tennis colloquium held by the members of PHART (Parliament Hill Area Recreational Tennis): Sandy Balfour, Ralph Goodstone, Roy Griffins, Marina Kerdemeledi, Bill McAlister, Nick Norden, Tom Schuller, Mark Sinclair, Anthony Tomei, Howard Tumber, Ardashir Vakil, and Paul Williams.
Special thanks are due to my philosophical colleagues in King’s College London and the City University of New York. All have been remarkably tolerant of my insistence that sport is philosophically interesting, and some have been generous enough to engage with my often half-baked ideas: in London, Peter Adamson, Bill Brewer, John Callanan, Silvia Camporesi, Sarah Fine, Ellen Fridland, Sacha Golob, David Owens, Matthew Parrott, John Tasioulas, Mark Textor, Shaul Tor, and Robyn Waller; and in New York, Samir Chopra, Michael Devitt, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Barbara Montero, Stephen Neale, and David Rosenthal.
When I was first thinking of writing a book combining sport and philosophy, I benefitted from advice and encouragement from Juliet Annan, Robbie Cottrell, David Edmonds, Ed Lake, Kenan Malik, Suresh Menon, Peter Momtchiloff, Adrian Sington, Rory Sutherland, John Sutton, Matthew Syed, and Nigel Warburton. Bruce Berglund at the excellent website theallrounder.co allowed me to try out thoughts, as did the cricket enthusiasts at Test Match Sofa and its later incarnation Guerilla Cricket: Nigel Henderson, Gary Naylor, Daniel Norcross, Nigel Walker, and especially Katie Walker.
Philosophical and non-philosophical friends who have given me ideas for the book include: Mitch Berman, Peter Breen, Tim Crane, John William Devine, Victor Dura Vila, Yuval Eylon, Chris Fagg, Kati Farkas, Tamara Glenny, Chris Henley, Marcela Herdova, Rik Hine, Amir Horowitz, Tom Hurka, Andrew Jarvis, Joanna Kennedy, Daniel Kostic, Robert Kowalenko, Uriah Kriegel, Martin Leeburn, Tim Lewens, Graham Macdonald, Denis MacShane, Antonella Mallozzi, David Mann, Tony Marcel, Marsh Marshall, Owen Marshall, Lucy O’Brien, Tuomas Pernu, Andrew Porter, Diego Rios Pozzi, Ed Schneider, Ed Schwitzer, Nick Shea, Katrina Sifferd, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Hannes Smit, Barry C. Smith, David Sosa, David Spurrett, George Starkey-Midha, Laurie Taylor, Michael M. Thomas, Jon Weber, Jamie Whyte, Charles Wild, Jake Wojtowicz, Jo Wolff, and Stewart Wood.
Some friends have been kind enough to help weed out mistakes. Josh Shepherd checked the whole book for un-Americanisms; Totte Harinen vetted the cycling sections; Rishi Modha made sure I understood soccer administration; Natalie Gold inspected me on team reasoning; Boris Ayala did some valuable fact-checking.
Chaim Tannenbaum is owed special thanks for accompanying me to Citi Field and Yankee Stadium and gently conveying how much there is to know about baseball.
The philosophy of sport community has responded with remarkable generosity to my riding rough-shod over their territory. I have benefitted from their invitations and advice, especially from Steffen Borge, Helen Cawood, Alun Hardman, Scott Kretchmar, Mike McNamee, John Russell, Emily Ryall, and Angela Schneider.
I can remember other useful comments in seminars, discussions, or on my website from: Fritz Allhoff, Alexander Bird, Jim Brown, Tony Bruce, Tayor Carman, Chris Cook, Jon Crowcroft, Trudi Darby, John Doris, Jamie Dow, John Dupré, Philip Ebert, Jonathan Evans, Simon Glendinning, Chris Grimes, Ian Hislop, Miroslav Imbrisevic, Stephen Mumford, Bence Nanay, Robert Northcutt, Samir Okasha, Wally Orchard, Katharine O’Reilly, Eylem Özaltun, Michael Ridge, Don Ross, Declan Smithies, Alistair Sponsel, Galen Strawson, Mauricio Suarez, Joerg Tuske, and Robin Luke Varghese.
This book would not exist were it not for my agent Tim Bates, who first suggested the idea and showed me how to carry it through. I am hugely grateful to him and his colleagues at Peters Fraser and Dunlop, especially Laura McNeill, for combining exceptional professionalism with a welcoming friendliness.
I have been very lucky with my two editors, Andreas Campomar at Constable in London, and Lara Heimert at Basic Books in New York. Both have been wonderful sources of enthusiasm, wit, and much helpful advice.
The production people on both sides of the Atlantic have been exemplary in their precision and efficiency. From Basic Books, I have benefitted from assistance by Alia Massoud, line editing by Leah Stecher, and copyediting by Cynthia Buck; I am especially grateful to my project editor, Shena Redmond. At Constable the production has been looked after by Claire Chesser, and the copyediting by Howard Watson, who as a bonus proved exceptionally knowledgeable about sport.
I am pleased to acknowledge that versions of some of the material in this book have previously been published: “Runs in the Family,” Aeon (September 15, 2014); “Foul Play,” The Philosophers Magazine (January 30, 2015); “Code of the ‘Cheaters’,” Wisden India Almanack (2016). The extract from The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship by Stephen Potter is reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Stephen Potter.
Finally I would like to thank my family, Rose Wild, Katy Papineau, and Louis Papineau. They have responded to my obsessive interest in sport with patience, and to my attempts to write about it with affection and encouragement. Come to think of it, this mirrors their attitude to nearly all my idiosyncrasies. I couldn’t wish for a more supportive family. Not a day goes past without my thinking how lucky I am.
November 2016
Bradwell, Essex, England