The Bookshelf Conversations: Joe Posnanski

The Baseball 100 by [Joe Posnanski] Followers of this blog know my feelings about the use of the words “best,” “greatest,” and other superlatives in the title.

So I was hooked from the start when I saw the cover of Joe Posnanski’s latest book, The Baseball 100. The the jacket design itself is simple yet elegant.

There are so many things right with this book: the literacy, the humor, the ironies, the lack of a table of contents to avoid looking at the rankings. His methodology — for lack of a better word — comes deep into this 880-page tome, but like a good storyteller, Posnanski doesn’t give too much away too soon.

Posnanski is a busy guy. In addition to his regular sportswriting, he is the author of several books, including The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, winner of the coveted Casey Award from Spitball Magazine in 2007, and The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-Stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. He also blogs and co-hosts The PosCast with TV super producer Michael Schur. (Quick aside: While recovering from the accident, I put my time to good use by binging his show The Office, which I had previously dismissed as too cringe-worthy. Shur is also the genius behind other great series such as The Good Place, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Hacks, just to name a few.)

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America by Joe Posnanski, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds by Joe Posnanski, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® The Baseball 100 was an immediate bestseller even before it was actually released late last month. And since the season is over for most of us, it’s a great time to start savoring what is sure to be a popular book for the holiday season.