The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski
Product details
Web ID: 13393086A Book For The Thinking Fan
Many books have been written about the greatest players in major league baseball. I remember as a boy of 13 or 14 reading one that was published in the early 1950s and concentrated on men who played in the dead ball and pre-World War II eras. (It was a little skewed; the author didn't include any third basemen!) Many of them narrowed their focus to 25 players, the number that for many years made up a team's roster. Joe Posnanski took a more expansive view in The Baseball 100, selecting a century of both active, modern, and old-time luminaries and including some of the black players who were shamefully excluded from the major leagues until 1947. His sketches of the group he included personal portraits including warts and blemishes plus statistical and historical reasons that he felt qualified them for inclusion. Understandably he leaned toward those who played after baseball was integrated. Posnanski admitted even narrowing the list to a hundred was difficult. I really can't fault his choice after reading his reasoning. I'm sure some may wonder why he included players tainted by steroids or those who were blatant racists, but athletic talent and unsavory character sometimes co-exist in the same individual. One of Posnanski's goals was to make the reader think, and he certainly succeeded at that. I would have liked an appendix of statistics for the players who were in big league baseball. but that would have made the book even bulkier. I guess that's what the Internet is for. Four stars.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A bit too detailed
To say that it's shameful that he included "cheaters" like Rodriguez and Clemens in the top 20 says it all. He goes into a lot of rabbit trails before writing about each player, which makes a life-long baseball fan flip through the e-book that I reserved from the library. Some of the players I'd never heard of, even after watching Ken Burns' DVDs many times. He literally disrespected Albert Pujols, which is inexcusable. I'm glad I borrowed the e-book from the library. Don't waste money on the paper book.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Is this a mistake?
I received this book as a gift. I loved the book and all the historical insights regarding the 100 players. I’m just curious if anyone else noticed the picture of Bob Gibson showing him with a lefthanders glove even though he was a righthanded pitcher. Am I missing something?
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
THE Definitive Baseball List Book
Posnanski takes the idea of creating a list of the top 100 players in baseball (note, it is baseball, not just MLB), and pushes it to the next level. Each player gets an essay, with none getting less than 1,000 words, with some much longer. There is the usual stats and awards and titles that are put into consideration, but Posnanski goes deeper, delving into great, and oftentimes rare, stories that show the player as a person, or that shows an underrated portion of their game. For example, in the Yogi Berra essay, he divides up the section with scenarios of Yogi Berra striking out, and sums it all up by explaining that those were the only strikeouts that Berra had all year. This book will give the big baseball fan in your life hours of enjoyment and is sure to stir up controversy over the picks. (Curt Schilling is in the top 100? Ridiculous) Pair this book with Now Taking the Field by Tom Stone for the perfect holiday/birthday/father's day gift.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Who is the G.O.A.T.?
What a great read! This will certainly cause great discussion among baseball aficionados. As a kid I used to compare my Mays and Mantle baseball cards to figure out who was better. The hard part is how one should judge the outliers on your list. Where do you put Shoeless Joe, Pete, Barry, Mark, and Roger? Joe and Pete did not alter the totality of their lifetime stats with their issues, so they should be judged equally. However, Barry, Mark, and Roger did, making it impossible to include them fairly. See what I mean about a great book for discussion. By the way, in the first 12 years of their careers, Mantle was better. As a totality of their careers, Mays was better.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com