Release Date:- 2021-09-28
Reviews Counts:- 87
User Average Rating:- 4.5
Availability:- In Stock
Kind:- ebook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
āAn instant sports classic.ā āNew York Post * āStellar.ā āThe Wall Street Journal * āA true masterworkā¦880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.ā āBookPage (starred review) * āThis is a remarkable achievement.ā āPublishers Weekly (starred review)
A magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of the 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will.
Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious, The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski. In the bookās introduction, Pulitzer Prizeāwinning commentator George F. Will marvels, āPosnanski must already have lived more than two hundred years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?ā
Baseballās legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the gameās all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesnāt rely just on records and statisticsāhe lovingly retraces playersā origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseballās past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the 21st-century game compared to Greg Maddux dueling with the juiced hitters of the nineties? How do the career and influence of Hank Aaron compare to Babe Ruthās? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history?
No compendium of baseballās legendary geniuses could be complete without the players of the segregated Negro Leagues, men whose extraordinary careers were largely overlooked by sportswriters at the time and unjustly lost to history. Posnanski writes about the efforts of former Negro Leaguers to restore sidelined Black athletes to their due honor and draws upon the deep troves of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and extensive interviews with the likes of Buck OāNeil to illuminate the accomplishments of players such as pitchers Satchel Paige and Smokey Joe Williams; outfielders Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cool Papa Bell; first baseman Buck Leonard; shortstop Pop Lloyd; catcher Josh Gibson; and many, many more.
The Baseball 100 treats readers to the whole rich pageant of baseball history in a single volume. Engrossing, surprising, and heartfelt, it is a magisterial tribute to the game of baseball and the stars who have played it.