It’s been, oh, at least a few weeks since I last blogged about a baseball book…what can I say? Whenever I’m feeling a bit uninspired by the next book in my reading stack, I find myself gravitating toward the baseball section. I’m sure it’s possible to write a bad baseball book (I’ve seen them and know they exist), but I find the baseball section to be comparatively dense with great books.
This time I ended up with a book because of the author – Joe Posnanski. I remember seeing his book The Machine when it was released, and while I appreciated the fantastic cover photo of Pete Rose, neither the subject (the 1975 Cincinnati Reds) nor its author sparked any particular interest in me. I recognized Joe Posnanski’s name from Sports Illustrated, but otherwise was only tangentially familiar with his work.
Since then, I’ve become a fan of his writing through Posnanski’s online columns. Something about his writing resonated with me – his columns for the print edition of SI are a bit tighter, but in his online columns, he’s free to pursue the occasional digression or delve into the minutiae of a subject if there’s good reason to. Even in his ramblier moments, though, he is able to cut through the distractions and capture the most compelling angle (to me) on a subject. Now I’m subscribed to his RSS feed so I am sure never to miss one of his columns.
I did mention The Machine in an earlier blog, but only in passing, and I felt it deserved to be revisited. What’s amazing to me is that there are at least four or five storylines that could be developed into separate books – Sparky Anderson’s unconventional relationship with his players (he openly categorized players into “superstars” and “turds”), Joe Morgan’s development from being a “good little hitter” into the most complete player in the game, Pete Rose’s intense need to demonstrate his greatness, Dave Concepcion’s desire to be considered a superstar and not a turd – but to treat each story separately would de-emphasize how they all interact. Sparky Anderson’s caste system fed Morgan’s arrogance and Concepcion’s insecurity. Rose’s need to validate his own greatness was encouraged by Morgan’s constant reminders that he (Morgan) was the better player. Concepion would tell anyone who would listen that he was a superstar and not, in fact, a turd, but if Morgan or Rose happened to overhear, they would shout him down.
I’ll try to find some non-baseball books to blog about soon, but I make no promises. If you have a nearly insatiable appetite for baseball books like I do, be sure to add The Machine to your reading pile.
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