John Harvard's Journal our mental architecture. Some psycholo- are silently and efficiently processing infor- Person Y’s body (an American girl). Would gists play with those few remaining phi- mation and I think of The Matrix again. In sec- Person X be the same person? No, we think, losophers who say that there’s something tion, our teaching fellow produces a human and we somewhat all agree, but we’re also transcendent about us. They claim that our brain from a blue cooler box and we pass it holding a brain without a Person and hop- Selves cannot be found in our brains. Oth- among our black-gloved hands. That brain ing to find Someone there. ers like to think about people as computers: was a person once, maybe. Or not: the teach- our brain is hardware, our mind software. ing fellow asks if all we are is our brains. Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow Maybe some people think like physicists We talk about what would happen if you Tawanda Mulalu ’20 is trying to have better feelings because nature built their CPUs a certain put Person X’s brain (an African boy) into about Lamont Library. way. Maybe people from different countries had different programs installed in their heads by their parents. The brain-as-computer analogy seems SPORTS dehumanizing to me. That, or I don’t know how to process information the way I should. One night back in freshman spring I tried studying in Lamont, the main under- Play graduate library, and a familiar restlessness returned to my body. I fidgeted and walked around. I accomplished nothing. I noticed For Quinn Hoffman, is the family business. everyone else. They sat in their cubicles, in rows and rows, typing and paper-shuffling and nose-sniffling and eyebrow-furrowing uinn Hoffman, a Harvard fresh- a good swing on it,” he recalls, “and I didn’t and draining coffee cups: the small things man on a 13-game hitting streak, realize I was going to be able to it .” that all sum up to the steam of academic stepped up to home plate at Fen- The ball shot off Hoffman’s bat, over left concentration. Perhaps, inside themselves, Q way Park. field, toward Fenway’s Green Monster— they struggled, too. I could not see this. I second in the 2017 Beanpot base- and cleared the 37-foot wall for his first col- saw them sit down and just do it: whatever ball championship against Boston College, lege home . they had to do. I left Lamont thinking of he looked out at the ’s mound, where “To be in a place so special to Boston, and the red pods in The Matrix films where all his father, Trevor Hoffman, had pitched in to be able to hit a bomb there, is something of humanity is plugged in and bubbled into the 1999 All-Star Game. Beyond the mound, pretty special,” he recalls. “I was running energy for maleficent artificial intelligenc- the shortshop was standing where his uncle, around the bases with a smile on my face, es. And I thought of server-rooms in the Glenn, had played with the Red Sox from like I was in Little League again.” basements of big corporations, each little 1980 to 1987. The son and nephew of major-league computer whirling its CPU fans and hard Now, with the first , it was his turn. ballplayers earned his own reputation as a drives to become fantasy thoughts that fly “I was just able to get a good pitch, and put standout last season. Hoffman, the Crim- through the air into our little cellphones, on which we type up our own small fantasies. Psychology is a good choice for me, since I can’t seem to avoid seeing mind-body prob- lems in the form of college students work- ing in libraries. I care about people, I care about minds. Psychology is a useful way of organizing this care. It is now sophomore spring. Schoolwork still bothers me (mid- terms, deadlines; morning classes), but at least I’m now anxious and interested instead of just anxious. The psychology department decides that I need to take Science of Liv- ing Systems 20, “Introduction to Psychologi- cal Science,” before I can do anything else in William James. Our lectures on Monday afternoons are fun, though a little long. On The son and nephew of other days, we have small sections led by MLB players, Quinn teaching fellows. My first one of the semester Hoffman ’20 has played is held in Lamont. On my way to the second- the game for as long as floor classroom, I pass by the rows and rows he can remember. of other students plugged into cubicles who

30 May - June 2018 Photograph by Jim Harrison

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 son’s starting second baseman, hit .288 to fulfill the promise he across a team-high 41 games played. He showed very early, grow- Hoffman had a was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week ing up in a major-league- 14-game hitting streak last year, in March and twice made the league Hon- ball-playing family. “I was culminating in a or Roll in April. “He’s arguably one of the given a ball, and I was at the better middle in the area, in the given a bat, when I was… Beanpot final. Northeast,” says the Crimson’s coach, Bill I can’t even remember,” he Decker. “He’s got electric feet.” says. “It was handed down On first meeting, Hoffman seems quiet, to me. It’s kind of in my but that’s just because he speaks with an blood.” even tone. Soon it becomes obvious that When he was six, his he’s eager and chatty about baseball, a quick dad took him to the Pa- talker with precise thoughts about his game, dres’ , and, who acknowledges the unusual opportuni- trusting his skills, left him ties his family has given him without boast- in the during bat-

ing or self-effacement. “He’s competitive, ting practice. Someone hit COMMUNICATIONS ATHLETIC HARVARD but he doesn’t do it with a growl,” Decker a line drive that came straight toward him. He was a standout as the at says. “He’s got that little confident look, not His father “freaked out,” Hoffman recounts. Cathedral Catholic High School in San Di- overconfidence.” “I don’t remember it—he tells me the story ego. His senior year, he was team captain This January 24, from Harvard’s Bubble, about it—but I guess I caught it.” and most valuable player. With younger the winter athletic practice dome inflated Even as a kid, Hoffman knew he wanted brother Wyatt starting next to him at within the Stadium, Hoffman called his par- to play his uncle’s old position. “I’ve always second base, the team won the Califor- ents on FaceTime so he could witness a mo- wanted to be a shortstop,” he says. “I kept nia Interscholastic Federation’s San Di- ment his family had awaited for years. Trev- playing , enjoyed it, being able to get ego Section Championship, the top ac- or Hoffman, the ’ for my uniform dirty and dive.” He watched his complishment for a high-school team in 15 seasons and the first major-league pitcher dad’s teammates play short and second base, the metro area. The Padres picked him in to record 600 saves, was elected to the Na- soaking up their mechanics, their footwork, the thirty-sixth round of the 2016 draft (a tional Baseball Hall of Fame. In July, Quinn their arm action, how they turned move the San Diego Union-Tribune described will travel to Cooperstown, New York, with plays. Meanwhile, he watched his father—a as a “courtesy” to his father). “As a kid you some teammates and possibly some coach- leader famous for entering games in dream of getting drafted by a pro team,” he es, to see his father inducted into baseball’s late to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells”—lead says. “It was surreal. I was in shock. I was pantheon. “It’s everything he’s worked for,” by example with his work ethic. “[He’d be] also committed to Harvard, so I couldn’t Quinn says. “That’s the top of the game. showing guys, ‘Hey, we’re getting up early, go wrong with my decision.” That’s the peak, the pinnacle.” going to work out, going to run,” he recalls. The sophomore sociology major wants Trevor Hoffman pitched for the Padres to follow his dad and uncle into profes- A shortshop in high school, Hoffman from 1993 to 2008, then ended his career sional baseball, either on the field or off. “If switched to second base last season be- with two seasons in Milwaukee. His older I’m not able to play,” he says, “I’d like to do cause senior Drew Reid held the starting brother, Glenn, has been the Padres’ third something that involves baseball, inside the job at short. “When you’re a shortstop, base coach since 2006. While in high school, game.” you’re more fluid, and throwing the base- Quinn spent a couple of weekends a year Meanwhile, he’s been recovering from off- ball is more one motion,” he says. “As a sec- with his uncle at the Padres’ season shoulder surgery, undergoing twice- ond baseman, you have more time. You don’t in Peoria, Arizona, fly balls dur- weekly physical therapy. As of press time, he have to be as fast with your throws, so you’re ing batting practice and taking part in in- was hoping to return to the Crimson lineup able to be more relaxed.” field drills. “He gave me a couple tips here sometime this spring. When he does, he’ll The change also helped Hoffman focus and there: try to stay underneath the ball, likely become the starting shortstop. “As more on batting, which paid off in his 14- be quick with your feet, let your hands do soon as he’s healthy, we become a better game hitting streak, from April 1 to 19, cul- the work,” Hoffman recalls. ball club,” says Decker. verick trickey minating in his 2-for-2 performance at the plate in the rain-shortened Beanpot game (which Harvard lost to Boston College, 3-2, of reaching the NCAA tournament. in four and a half innings). Hoffman says his Near Misses For the men, the shot at the NCAAs timing and his mental game each played a The basketball teams fall short was literal: with five seconds left in the Ivy role. “My foot was down early. I was see- of the NCAAs. League tournament championship game ing the pitches really well. Things started and his team trailing Penn 68-65, Justin to click,” he recalls. “Midway through the They each had their shot. After a season Bassey ’20 hoisted a three-point shot that season, I was able to forget my bad at-bats that yielded some strong wins but also un- would have tied the score. It caromed off and remember the good ones.” fortunate losses for the men’s and women’s the backboard, but the Crimson grabbed Playing for Harvard, Hoffman is starting basketball teams, both came up just short the rebound, leading to a corner three-

Harvard Magazine 31

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746