Happy Friday! My husband tells me (Kelly) that the Pirates have probably been "mathematically eliminated from the playoffs until 2029," but Library Director Adam Pellman has happier baseball topics to discuss today as he tells us about The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski.
I used to read a lot of sports history books as a kid, especially books
about baseball. I had a massive baseball encyclopedia that I pored over
endlessly, and I even used it to teach myself how to keep score
(although I've forgotten after so many years). This book has rekindled
my interest in baseball's long and storied history. Posnanski selected
those players he feels are the 100 greatest ever, and has devoted a
chapter to each of them. This is no easy task, for sure, but Posnanski
has managed it in dazzling fashion.
He is a tremendous
writer. I appreciate the attention he gives to players from the Negro
Leagues, and even to international players like the famous Japanese
slugger Sadaharu Oh. What makes this book truly great, though, is the
way he goes beyond the statistics and standard biography to delve into
the personalities, anecdotes, legends, and sometimes intangible
qualities that have made these players such enduring figures in the
sport's history. For example, there's the legend about famously
swift-footed Negro Leagues player Cool Papa Bell, about whom it was said
that he was "so fast that he could hit a line drive up the middle and
beat the ball to second base." Or the way Posnanski frames his chapter
on Ty Cobb by writing that Cobb "works best as an extreme. That is to
say, he seems of little use to us if he wasn't the BIGGEST RACIST IN
BASEBALL HISTORY or THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD MAN EVER TO WEAR BASEBALL
SPIKES." Or the way he celebrates Stan Musial as not just one of the
greatest hitters of all time, but also as a profoundly good man who was
devoted to making people happy. I also love that Posnanski included
childhood favorites of mine like Larry Walker and Mike Mussina. It's a
long book (well over 800 pages), and I've enjoyed reading it so much
that I've paced myself in order to make it last as long as possible.
I'll be genuinely sad when I've finished it.
