Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments

Joe Posnanski

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

A masterful ode to the a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again.   Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player—these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth.   Posnanski’s previous book, The Baseball 100 , portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers’ duels to breaking the sport’s color line in the ’40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski’s illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love—and thought we knew.   Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.


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  • joyhope
    Mar 18, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I'm trying to pepper in more nonfiction into my reading to change things up a bit and this was perfect. Of course, I didn't know many of the moments in this book, but there was a decent mix of more recent ones that I did know, as well as, the HUGE ones from way back when that I knew the broad strokes for. Anyways, even the ones I didn't know at all, Posnanski's writing gave them so much life that I enjoyed them just as much. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys baseball and stories that scratch at the surface to find the humanity underneath. Warning: you will probably come away from this book as a believer in the magic of baseball!

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