The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski

The Baseball 100 Reviews

• 
  HBalikov

  Let me pose this question: If you’re not a real “fan” of baseball, do you really want to read 800 pages of material on the sport? You might, if you want to experience good sports writing. Or, if you are interested in character development. Or, if you want to understand some of the relationship that has existed for players, fans and the country’s media with “America’s Pastime.”
  
  The Baseball 100 is not just a list of the “best” who ever played this “game.” And, there’s no doubt that Posnanski’s choices will not be the same as others might make. You may find yourself provoked at times and this his intention. “I want to make you angry,” he says, and provides several methods to debate his choices. But the writing itself takes me back to Jim Murray
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
  
  Posnanski’s time as a columnist and blogger shows through in these “mini-biographies.” He is concise, yet fascinating in his juxtaposition of facts and observations: “…the Royals were practically invisible. It isn’t just that the team was bad, though they were bad. No, they were bad and they had no money and they never, ever made any news. They were barely in Major League Baseball. They never contended, never made any newsworthy trades, never signed any free agents. Becoming a Royals player was a witness protection program option back then."
  
  And - "Bill James has talked often about how players who do one or two things well tend to be overrated while people who do many things well are always underrated. I’d add to that: People who do famous things tend to be overrated, while people who are simply good day after day but never really make headlines tend to be underrated."
  
  I don’t believe that this is just a tome to make an older fan happy. Posnanski is excellent in his use of modern statistical analysis to supplement his keen personal observations. There isn’t an extensive “comfort zone.” You may be as enthralled as I was by his commitment to the importance of the Negro Leagues.
  
  I may have to revise my rating (4.5*) as I continue through this book but I am grateful that it is now out for all to obtain. If I could, I would get each of my baseball friends a copy so that we could spend the next few years debating Posnanski’s observations. That’s my highest praise.
• 
  Chris

  4.5 stars rounded up
  
  Joe Posnanski wrote a 100 article series counting down his top 100 baseball players of all-time. This isn't a countdown, as the author states some players were assigned a number based on jersey number or a number significant to that player. He also promises there are players ranked who folks may seem are too high or too low and he is right. Tony Gwynn is far better than his number 95 ranking.
  
  Posnanski's writing style is conversational. Like he's talking to you over the beverage of your choice. He is never condescending and I liked that he explains many of the stats he cites for the novice fans, or those who are inexperienced in sabrmetrics.
  
  Further, I also liked that this list is top PLAYERS of all-time and not just Major League players, meaning there are players included who played in the Negro Leagues before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in 1947. Also, there are two different articles on the ever polarizing Barry Bonds. One for fans who love him and another for those who don't.
  
  My only complaints are that this could use some editing. The word breathless was used so many times, I lost count. Also, there was a lot of over romanticizing that could have been cut out. I understand and most definitely share Posnanski's passion for baseball, as I am a baseball historian myself. However, it made it a slog to get through at times.
  
  Overall, this book is a brick at over 800 pages, but its actually a pretty quick read for the most part. I would recommend this for hard core and new fans alike.
  
  Thank you to Avid Reader Press, author Joe Posnanski, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
• 
  Tim

  If you love baseball, you'll love this book that ranks and tells the stories of the 100 greatest baseball players. If you don't love baseball, you still might enjoy it for all the great stories and history.
  
  This book isn't about analytical arguments detailing exactly why each player received the ranking they did. The rankings are just a device to aid in the storytelling. Sometimes Posnanski does cute things with the rakings. You can guess what number Joe DiMaggio is, even though a better ranking might have been "fairer".
  
  While the point of the book is storytelling, Posnanski is very familiar with advanced statistics such as WAR, and it informs both the rankings and the storytelling. I've never seen a sportswriter so able to deftly combine advanced analytics with wonderful storytelling as Posnanski does.
  
  My favorites were the Negro League players. You'll learn about some of the great Negro League players, including the ones that never got a chance to play in MLB. While most people know something about Jackie Robinson, there are so many other great players with their own story of what they were like as players and men, how they handled discrimination, and what the paths of their careers and later lives were like. You'll learn about how Roy Campanella's sunny optimism was different from Robinson's fierce fighting mentality. You'll learn about the bitter anger Monte Irvin had for not being able to play in MLB when he was at his best, since he didn't get a chance to play MLB until he was in his 30's (though he still had several great years). They each had their own story.
  
  The Old Timers were also fascinating reads. What a bunch of characters. Some that were quite admirable like Wagner, Gehrig, and Mathewson. Some that were awful like Rogers Hornsby. Some that were mixed and complicated, like Cobb. And some that were tortured, unfortunate, and sad, like Grover Cleveland Alexander.
  
  Even for the modern day players, Posnanski is great at finding a bit of a twist on their story so you'll end up learning something new.
  
  I usually work through several books at the same time, which helps me be aware of how much a book is really captivating me. Every time I had a chance to read, this is the only one I wanted to open.
• 
  Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment)

  All baseball lovers need this! It is FULL of info on the top players of the game. This is a THICK book. I mean we are talking 870 pages of baseball's greatest. So much to learn and remember. It's so perfect for a gift!
• 
  Daniel Montague

  Coming home from school on a Thursday I knew I would be greeted by a familiar presence in the mailbox. No matter, if it was a good or bad week the ensuing pleasure I would receive from the Sports Illustrated filled my weekend with much joy. Learning about the commonplace, such as events I viewed in the comfort of my home or going to some distant land, the writing captivated. This bit of longform writing shaped me more during my formative years than any one piece of literature or even author. In saying that, I do not take the writing of this celebrated magazine as merely a form of base writing. Though it has been decimated in the ensuing years due to many reasons I still derive a sense of enjoyment if not glee from receiving the now monthly magazine. While, not admittedly a baseball fan, this book inspired the childlike feelings that are so hard to replicate and for that Joe Posnanski's love letter to baseball is worthy of 5 stars. In 100 entries over 800 plus pages, Posnanski ably conveys not only so many of the greats of baseball but the feeling of wonderment. He writes with a mixture of facts, statistics and anecdotes. This is the type of book that will not only inspire numerous debates on placement of players due to methodology but also spark conversations on social issues. As evidenced by his previous work, Mr. Posnanski is an advocate of the Negro Leagues and his inclusion of many of the forgotten greats is a wonderful history lesson. I was aware of number of them: Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell but his ability to put their abilities in context greatly aided in my appreciation of the feats. There were also many other greats who have been forgotten about in plain sight. The one that intrigued me the most was Arky Vaughan. His place in baseball history is largely forgotten. He is mostly remember for his principled stance against his coach Leo Durocher. Instead of backing down he simply folded up his uniform and told him where he could put said uniform. His stubbornness cost him 3 years but he did not return to the team until Durocher was fired. His largely unassuming manner along with dying at a young age (drowning) and strange first name, made him a man of mystery. Whether you want a book to learn about baseball players or one to enjoy random facts such as the awful biopic, "The Winning Team" is the only movie to be about someone named for a US president (Grover Cleveland Alexander) played by a future US president, Ronald Reagan, this is the book for you.
• 
  Joe

  I received an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
  
  Joe Posnanski is a writer who sits in the middle of the venn diagram for "Stats Guy" and "Traditionalist" in baseball writing. Instead of pitting one against the other, he often uses the stories and history that traditionalists love to explain some of the statistics from baseball's past. On the flip side, he also uses some stats to illuminate or poke holes in some of the stories from the past. Through it all, you can see the absolute love that Posnanski has for the game. I grew up with Posnanski and Jason Whitlock being the two main columnists for my hometown paper (The Kansas City Star). I grew to love Posnanski's writing, as his sentimental streak was balanced with a desire to have the facts and clarity about things. While he was in KC, he had the Royals to write about, and the Royals at that time were atrocious. Like, three 100 loss seasons in a span of four years atrocious. However, where most writers could become cynical and worn out with all the losing, Posnanski managed to keep an upbeat look at the game, and to recognize that yes, the Royals were terrible, but they really provided a great amount of comedy.
  
  I bring up his writing about the Royals because "The Baseball 100" deals with the complete opposite end of the spectrum. These are the best players in baseball history (and I specifically choose the word baseball, and not MLB). Originally written as a series of posts on his blog, and then transferred over to The Athletic as a series of expanded essays, they've made their final arrival in book form. Posnanski's grasp of baseball history is truly astounding. The stories that he tells in the book, in addition to all of the statistics he had to research, had to take a lifetime of sportswriting to collect. Posnanski doesn't shy away from the nastier side of the players, but he also finds a way to recognize that "these are grown men, these are heroes" (to quote a song by The Baseball Project).
  
  The rankings in the book are both serious and silly. There are some that are clearly arbitrary, such as DiMaggio ending up at 56 (for obvious reasons) and Mike Trout ending up at 27 (to match his uniform number). At the end, the rankings do end up mattering, but I found myself caring less about where someone was ranked, and more curious as to where Posnanski would take their story. The book, while long, doesn't feel that way because the chapters on each player are short and contained. I sat down and read it straight through, but it doesn't need to be that way at all. Rather, this is a book to flip through and land upon pages over the years. Even though I got a digital ARC, I'm still going to purchase hard copy, I loved it that much.
• 
  Nooilforpacifists

  Wow. What an excellent book. Thanks to baseball (and National Review) writer Dan McLaughlin for the recommendation.
  
  This book was so good I didn’t take notes or add highlights. Not that there weren’t plenty of deserving passages. It’s just that such an effort would have drained the fun from the book.
  
  Joe Posanski is a marvelous writer—I had read a few pieces of his before (although none of his sports books, including one about Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine, and a sort-of biography of Negro League legend Buck Owens). And such writing—especially about baseball—deserved to be read straight-through. Interruptions for highlighting would have broken the book’s “Field of Dreams” aura.
  
  But that means I don’t remember which Iowa father actually dug up an Iowa cornfield to build a ballpark (Bob Feller’s dad?). I do remember that—with few exceptions—it was Field of Dreams, in that Fathers encouraged their Sons to compete. Some, like Mutt Mantle, famously were overbearing. A few didn’t exist: Ted Williams grew up fatherless (twice) and channeled the resulting anger into becoming baseball’s greatest hitter.
  
  The book, as the title suggests, is a pocket bio of baseball’s 100 best players. Posanski gets in your grill about his rankings: they’re quirky, often based on a player’s uniform number, sometimes on a number associated with the man (DiMaggio is 56). The last 15 listings are designed to make you mad, or at least think (the author admits it), and clearly are more subjective. He rates Mantle Number 11; Ty Cobb Number 8; Ted Williams Number 6; then Oscar Charleston Number 5.
  
  I’m well more than a casual baseball fan and never heard of Charleston—which was Posanski’s point. Charleston played in the 1910s and 1920s, before the Negro League even was invented. So no one saw him play; no one knows his stats; no one even knows his height. “Yes, I want you to feel rage about this ranking.” As the author knows, the rage is a two way sword: partly to acknowledge that “special pleading” might be necessary to introduce Oscar Charleston; partly to think no player who we know so little about possibly could be the fifth best. Posanski, however, makes a good statistical case, even though there’s almost no “chain of custody” (current player remembers breaking in with veteran, who broke in with veteran, who in turn remembers past baseball god) for Charslton.
  
  Interesting to me was, once you read to about Number 15, anticipating the rest of the countdown. Of course I didn’t anticipate Charleston, but other than that, I had Posanski’s order fairly close. It wouldn’t have OCCURRED to be to cheat by looking at the ToC. And that might be the best part of this book: “who’s next?”
• 
  Joe

  If you're not a fan of baseball history, this book will make you one.
  
  If you're a fan of baseball and you haven't read this book... you're not a fan of baseball.
  
  I also created 100 trivia questions (one for each player ranked) if you're messing around in the trivia section.
• 
  Amanda

  I am not the hard core baseball fan that this is directed at, but found the read quite enjoyable. And it's over 800 pages! Dont underestimate this feat. I learned a lot about baseball, history, and the people who played with lots of fun stories. The stats are there, but never long enough to make my eyes glaze over enough to put the book down. Posnanski is a big proponent of WAR and sabrmetrics, but doesnt bog down the writing or eliminate the personal (asterisk to Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds' home run comparison).
  
  The things that kept it from 5 stars for me:
  
  Posnanski tries to be socially conscious, as I would expect from someone who writes about the Negro Leagues. I applaud his attempts and he does include many poignant examples. But he just misses some things, especially where it comes to the media or himself. He talks about Yogi Berra and his depiction in the media, but Bob Gibson's allusions to the media's contribution to his perception as fierce and angry gets completely dismissed. Despite Posnanski describing the intimidating pitching of other (white) players while not extending that to who they are as a person, he contradicts Gibson's calling out of the discrepancy. This comes up in another way in his piece about Joe Morgan. The last paragraph of that article, about the author's traffic stop, is incongruous and performative on Posnanski's part. Also, I'm still confused on the goal of his argument for Oscar Charleston's placement and why it should make me angry, especially when so many "rankings" seemed random, based on Posnanski's personal history/age, and many many uniform numbers.
  
  This first appeared as 100 articles, and you can tell. (If you read it straight through, try a game where something happens every time he says breathtaking.) There is some editing to put things together, but there could have been more.
  
  Overall, I'd highly recommend this to baseball fans. Expect lots of lively conversation and nostalgia.
  
  Thank you to Joe Posnanski, Avid Reader Press, and Netgalley for an advance ecopy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion.
• 
  Trevor Seigler

  Baseball is, and always will be, my favorite sport. It's the one that made me fall in love with sports, and though I've cheated on it over the years with any number of suitors (football, basketball, even tennis and various Olympics, but never golf, hockey, or racing), I've always found the sport of baseball to hold my interest at least when it comes to the literature around it. Many books have come my way over the years, and I've read so many about baseball that I feel like any more would be ridiculous. But here's the thing: there can always be more great books about the sport. And I think I just read one of the best new ones.
  
  "The Baseball 100" by Joe Posnanski is a deceptively simple premise: ranking the 100 best baseball players in history. You can already see where this is going...but hold on; Posnanski, a career sports writer and one of the people who helped build the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, is more interested in highlighting many of the lesser-known lights in baseball and some of the lesser-known stories behind some of the most iconic names in the sport. And his ranking system is a literary device, but it also isn't. But it is, definitely.
  
  Posnanski writes with verve, passion, and a sense of awe about the men he chronicles here, and he is devoted not just to ranking them but to telling you why each player is at their ranking and what it means. His essays about each player are fun to read, and many of them are quick though not rushed. The book is massive, of course, but it's never dull, and his rankings may surprise you (I know a few did for me), but in some ways the rankings aren't the point. Posnanski knows his stuff, and the book is a very good and necessary history of the sport through the hundred or so men who are profiled here.
  
  I won't spoil who Posnanski places in the top ten, but I think he nails it. I also think his inclusion at number five (and his reasons for doing so) is maybe the highlight of the book, but so much of the book is fantastic. If you love baseball, and if you love rankings, you'll love this book. I know that I did.
• 
  Jason

  Truly one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read. Posnanski here has crafted 100 mini-biographies of the greatest baseball players of all time, bringing their stories to life through thousands of anecdotes, quotes, statistical breakdowns, bits of trivia and personal interviews. It’s an incredibly fun, nostalgic and sometimes emotional tour through baseball history, filled with heroes, villains, legends and tragic figures. I can’t fathom the amount of research, experience and access that went into this — or how Posnanski pulled it off without becoming too repetitive or formulaic. But I’m thankful that he did. It’s the perfect read for summer evenings in the backyard, or with a game on in the background.
• 
  Nick Roark

  Incredible
• 
  Rebecca

  So, will I finish this book? Honestly, no as I am not the intended demographic for this book. And, have you seen my tbr pile? But, 2/2 dudes have read this and love it. And that’s pretty much all I need to know.
  
  “Rebecca doesn’t read books about baseball. But when she does, it’s this one. Rebecca will sell the pants off this book”. -Rebecca
  
  This has been a great conversation started these past few weeks. And, with them sharing their favorite passages and me reading what I can, I have truly enjoyed it. It was funny, enjoyable, and poetic. Poetic? Yes. Poetic in writing and poetic in how passionate Rodger in trying to explaining the game and players to me. So, will I finish this book? You know, it is possible. Easily digestible and readable. Joe has navigated bringing his articles to book form for hard-core baseball and casual fans.
  
  Thanks Eric for this ARC. And thanks to Avid Press for said ARCs. AND, special thank you to Joe himself for approving of my review (Twitter.) ☺️
• 
  Carol Bakker

  Joe Posnanski is a wealthy man and a winsome writer.
  
  He is rich with stories, statistics, similes, connections. An infinite fund of fun facts. And the most delightful footnotes since the advent of the printing press. Joe's essays are as far from a Wikipedia article as an Anthropologie boutique is from Walmart. His conversational writing is pitch perfect, his timing exquisite; his last sentence often a zinger. These essays convey his love of the game, his respect for the players, his pleasure in sharing all the weird and wonderful accounts.
  
  He expertly frames the narratives, examining different angles. Writing about multiple legends is challenging. How do they not all blur together? Posnanski pulls out distinguishing characteristics, situates the stories with skill. He doesn't omit the vileness and villainy of certain players, at times offering mitigating factors, at other times brooking no excuse.
  
  The scenic routes are splendid! A raconteur loves to escort his audience on bypasses and excursions. Do you know what they call a walk-off homer in Japan? A sayonara home run. Players named after Presidents, players connected with communities, origins of nicknames, all the baseball Misters in the game (of course, the best is Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks). Posnanski gained my trust with the first sentence of his introduction; I was happy to go off the path of the main bio, knowing he would bring it all together.
  
  Two themes are noteworthy: fathers and sons (the solid, the cringey, and the complicated) and the Negro Leagues. Including players from the Negro Leagues is awkward since statistics aren't available. What we do know are the evaluations and anecdotes from various sources. For instance, Olympic star Jesse Owens refused to race Cool Papa Bell, after he would race anyone. Well, now! Joe P. knows these histories (he previously wrote The Soul of Baseball about the Negro Leagues) and makes me pleased to meet and know unfamiliar players.
  
  More than once I was moved to tears. I was also rendered speechless from laughter; still I can't even think of one story about "a game called for darkness" without spasms of mirth.
• 
  Gillen Brown

  The entries that make up this book were originally published on The Athletic in the spring and early summer of 2020, and this is how I read them before they were compiled into this book. Posnanski published one each day, and they were the highlight of my day each time. While the premise of the book is a simple ranking of the 100 best baseball players of all time, it's so much more than that. Posnanski uses the players to tell the stories of how the game evolved and how baseball intersected with broader American life (particularly when discussing the Negro Leagues players). He also discusses some of the less commonly told stories that get at who the players were as people. It's a combination of a love letter to baseball, the story of America told through baseball, and stories about the people that made the game so compelling. Posnanski isn't just one of my favorite sportswriters, he's one of my favorite writers in any genre, and this book has some of his best writing. Highly recommended.
• 
  Emily

  An absolute blast. This behemoth of a baseball book is a joy ride through the history of the game, as told through the legacies of its greatest players. You don’t have to know anything about baseball, or you can be a super fan - The Baseball 100 has something for everyone. If the stats of it all are your thing, you won’t be disappointed - I for one rely largely on WAR and was able to get my fill. But the STORIES. This book had me YouTubing countless classic moments throughout baseball history and having the time of my life while doing it. Culminating in a top ten that includes some of the legends we seemingly are born knowing about and a few you’ve likely never heard of, Posnanski ends the thing by describing his #1 pick as making “kids feel like grown-ups and grown-ups feel like kids.” The same holds true for this gargantuan delight.
• 
  Kyle

  A fun read for any baseball fan looking for a bit of nostalgia. The rankings are probably not in the order that you have them, but that is one of the aspects that make rankings fun - the debate. Each player's chapter is a quick read, and is not just a rehashing of their career, but rather a a mix of their on the field excellence and some personal stories and/or quirks that will help humanize each player a bit more for the reader.
  
  I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
• 
  Kevin Halloran

  The ultimate book for fans of baseball history.
• 
  Beth Anne

  How will I ever come up with the words to describe this book?
  
  Top read for 2022, and likely a top 5 all-time favorite read.
• 
  Robert

  Many of the stories you already know if your interested in the book at all, but they are framed well, and not overburdened with details or drama for the most part.
  The book does bog down though due to the repetitious use of some literary devices, strained attempts at overarching themes, and an almost pathological resistance to criticizing any black ballplayer except Barry Bonds (and even that criticism is - literally - half-hearted. Barry gets a longer chapter than anyone and it's schizophrenically split between praise and scolding).
• 
  John Kennedy

  I generally eschew books over 400 pages, and this one is more than twice that length. Yet it's immensely readable, thought-provoking, and hard to put down. My oldest son gave me the book for my birthday — after I gave him a copy last Christmas.
  Posnanski does a good job of telling the history of baseball and America with these 100 profiles, which are longer as the march to No. 1 continues. For instance, the entry on Cool Papa Bell is as much about the struggle of Jesse Owens to find any meaningful work after his triumph at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
  Many of the stories have been seldom told. Over and over, Posnanski recounts how fathers encouraged their sons to practice for hours as kids. There also, sadly, is an abundance of driven players who sought and never received adulation from their fathers, no matter how well they performed. Some of these accounts, such as George Brett's, left me in tears.
  Posnanski includes a smattering of Negro Leagues players, some of them obscure. Because records of such games are incomplete, it's tough to make apples-to-apples comparisons.
  There is no shying away from the despicable personalities or indecent actions of some of those on the greatest list. Many were mean, bigots, and gamblers (Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Tris Speaker) all at the same time. Still, Posnanski does a tremendous job describing them as more than caricatures.
  There are several accounts of superstars of yesteryear being traded to a new team over a salary dispute involving not that much money. Before free agency, players had little choice but to accept a low offer. The press usually sided with the complaining owners.
  Posnanski has fun with the list. For instance, he places Joe DiMaggio at 56 for his famous hitting streak. Jackie Robinson is at 42, reflecting his famous uniform number that has been retired throughout MLB. It's tricky including current players, but Posnanski does. Mike Trout is there, even though he's only played eight full seasons.
  The one common thread of the Baseball 100 looks to be longevity. Most started playing in the major leagues in their early 20s and continued into their early 40s. Some stayed too long.
  Readers may disagree with some of the selections. Should Joe Morgan really be No. 21? Should Al Kaline, at 51, be there at all? Mariano Rivera appears to be too low at 91. Why is Lou Brock missing when Ozzie Smith isn't?
  But that's just quibbling. Posnanski has done a marvelous job of writing narratives that aren't just about baseball. They are about life.
  
  
• 
  Jess

  Posnanski’s Baseball 100 is a joy to read—to cheer, to argue with, and to savor. His essays on each of his 100 greatest players (in his estimation) are well done with a few truly beautiful. While there are a few clunkers and he does go to the father-son dynamic well a bit too often , this is a grand book and it can bring a smile to the heart of even a 60-something who was awkward and really couldn’t play the game but loved it anyway. As an Oriole fan, I cheered his inclusion of Cal Ripken and Brooks and Frank Robinson among his 100 while booing his overlooking Jim Palmer. I learned a great deal about some of the stars of Negro League—and thought a great deal about the dance between racism and injustice with the joy of a game for adults and kids on the paradise of a green field of dreams that too late opened to all. With Joe Morgan, I could mutter against the analytics and WAR that Posnanski loves so. I could engage my notions of fair play and honor with those of accomplishment as I thought through again ( and reaffirmed) my conviction that Bonds, Rose and Clemens should not be in the Hall of Fame. Fittingly he ends his 100 with Willie Mays as his No. 1. “Yes, Willie Mays has always made kids feel like grown-ups and grown-ups feel like kids.”(p. 827). Highly recommended for those who love the game of baseball and the sunshine of an afternoon game at a ballpark or a kids field.