The Baseball 100

by Joe Posnanski

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

“An instant sports classic.” —New York Post * “Stellar.” —The Wall Street Journal * “A true masterwork…880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.” —BookPage (starred review) * “This is a remarkable achievement.” —Publishers 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 that tells the story of the sport through the remarkable lives of its 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize–winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than 200 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?”

Baseball’s legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the game’s all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesn’t rely just on records and statistics—he lovingly retraces players’ origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball’s past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the twenty-first- 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 Ruth’s? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history?

No compendium of baseball’s 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 O’Neil 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. Chapter by chapter, Posnanski invites readers to examine common lore with brand-new eyes and learn stories that have long gone unheard. The epic and often emotional reading experience mirrors Posnanski’s personal odyssey to capture the history and glory of baseball like no one else, fueled by his boundless love for the sport.

Engrossing, surprising, and heartfelt, The Baseball 100 is a magisterial tribute to the game of baseball and the stars who have played it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982180607
Publisher:	Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	880
Sales rank:	91,676
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Joe Posnanski is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of six books, including Paterno and The Secret of Golf. He has written for The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, and The Kansas City Star and currently writes at JoePosnanski.com. He has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations and is the winner of two Emmy Awards. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his family.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/27/2021

Sportswriter Posnanski (The Soul of Baseball) knocks it out of the park with this fascinating deep dive into the careers of those he considers baseball’s 100 greatest players. By including players from every era, as well as athletes only allowed to compete in the Negro League, Posnanski ably presents the sport’s sweeping history through captivating character studies. As his introduction notes, the order of the players he includes is not a ranking; instead, he links player portraits to a significant number, as in using 56 for Joe DiMaggio, owner of the record-setting 56-consecutive-game hitting streak. Posnanski isn’t afraid to court controversy, even going to bat for some players—including pitchers Max Scherzer and Curt Schilling—who aren’t yet in baseball’s Hall of Fame. The best sections will surprise even devoted followers of the sport, such as his profile of the obscure Bullet Rogan, a Negro Leaguer who played in the 1920s and whom Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel called “the best all-around player in the world.” Detailed statistical analysis is balanced by moving personal stories, as with Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, whose best was never good enough for his demanding father. Sure to inspire heated debate, this is a remarkable achievement. Agent: David Vigliano, Vigliano Assoc. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Baseball 100 and Joe Posnanski

“I love baseball, I know baseball, and this book is baseball. It’s the whole story of baseball told through the 100 greatest players of all time . . . But what really makes me say, 'Give this to the baseball people in your life,' is that it’s a book that, when you read it, you fall in love with the game all over again. . . . Every sport needs great players, but it also needs great writers, and Joe Posnanski has done something great for the game of baseball with this book.”
—Tony Dokoupil, CBS This Morning

“Stellar . . . Always fun . . . A book for the moment but also for the bookshelf of the future, an old friend that will bring back old times and old arguments again and again. . . . The rankings were all made by Mr. Posnanski, who is contemporary sports writing’s biggest star. He writes with grace and wit, combining an old-time sense of style with the mountains of numbers and factoids and observations that can be found on the internet.”
—Leigh Montville, The Wall Street Journal

“Posnanski knocks it out of the park with this fascinating deep dive into the careers of those he considers baseball’s 100 greatest players. . . . Will surprise even devoted followers of the sport . . . This is a remarkable achievement.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Major League Baseball fans, you just won the lottery. . . . Posnanski presents 880 pages of sheer baseball bliss . . . It’s a true masterwork, and his writing is so good that it’s likely to engross even those who know nothing about the sport.”
—BookPage (starred review)

“Posnanski skillfully weaves statistics into the narrative without spilling into geekdom, and he searches baseball history for his candidate pool while combing the records for just the right datum or quote. . . . Red meat, and mighty tasty at that, for baseball fans with an appreciation for the past and power of the game.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Posnanski offers manna for baseball geeks with his selection of the 100 all-time greatest baseball players, melding the sabermetrics chops of a Bill James with the eloquence and droll humor of a Roger Angell. . . . . Posnanski also nobly, and rightly, casts a wide net, embracing Japanese legends Ichiro Suzuki and Sadaharu Oh, and, more important, long-neglected Negro leagues players, such as Oscar Charleston. . . . Most important, these selections will bring to the mind’s eye of any baseball fan a vision of how singularly great each of these athletes have played—or, in the case of the old-timers, might have played—the game. Recommended.”
—Booklist

“You can quibble with some of Joe Posnanski's judgements. And so what? That's always been part of the fun for baseball fans. And Posnanski on Baseball has always been fun. . . . This book is a baseball feast that can be consumed in small bites or large gulps. Either way, it's a book we fans will return to often. To spark or settle debates, sure. But especially for the endless pleasure of the history of our greatest game as delivered by one of its finest chroniclers.”
—Bob Costas

"Posnanski is an outstanding journalist, arguably the best pure long-form sportswriter in the land."
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Joe Posnanski is a terrific writer."
—Entertainment Weekly

"One of the best sportswriters in America."
—Washington Times

From the Publisher

★ 12/01/2021

A rich, sweeping history of American baseball told through profiles of its 100 greatest players; the contents originally appeared on the sports blog The Athletic. In the introduction, Posnanski (The Secret of Golf: The Story of Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus) writes that this volume was sparked by his love of baseball, which originated with his mother; she wasn't herself a baseball fan but helped a nine-year-old Posnanski collect and organize a complete set of 1976 Topps baseball cards. The book's 100 profiles include biographical information, career achievements, statistics, and comparisons to other players. To make a truly complete top-100 of American baseball, Posnanski covers a number of players in the Negro Leagues, who for decades couldn't play in the segregated Major Leagues. Posnanski's ranking of players within this volume isn't meant to be definitive; sometimes a player's ranking corresponds to his uniform number, but other times the reasoning is unclear (the author addresses his ranking methods in a later chapter). Posnanski acknowledges that it takes gall to rank the 100 greatest players in history, and that many will disagree with him, but he contends that these disagreements and debates are part of what makes baseball fun. His devotion to the game shines through in his poetic, inspired, and entertaining writing. The volume includes a preface by George F. Will and a glossary of baseball terms. VERDICT This thought-provoking volume is a must-have for baseball fans.—Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal

★ 2021-10-20
Longtime sports journalist Posnanski takes on a project fraught with the possibilities of controversy: ranking the 100 best baseball players of all time.

It would steal the author’s thunder to reveal his No. 1. However, writing about that player, Posnanski notes, “the greatest baseball player is the one who lifts you higher and makes you feel exactly like you did when you fell in love with this crazy game in the first place.” Working backward, his last-but-not-least place is occupied by Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, whose valiant hitting rivaled Pete Rose’s, mostly a base at a time. As for Rose, who comes in at No. 60, Posnanski writes, “here’s something people don’t often say about the young Pete Rose, but it’s true: The guy was breathtakingly fast.” Thus, in his first pro season, Rose stole 30 bases and hit 30 triples. That he was somewhat of a lout is noted but exaggerated. Posnanski skillfully weaves statistics into the narrative without spilling into geekdom, and he searches baseball history for his candidate pool while combing the records for just the right datum or quote: No. 10 Satchel Paige on No. 15 Josh Gibson: “You look for his weakness, and while you’re looking for it he’s liable to hit 45 home runs.” Several themes emerge, one being racial injustice. As Posnanski notes of “the greatest Negro Leagues players....people tend to talk about them as if there is some doubt about their greatness.” There’s not, as No. 94, Roy Campanella, among many others, illustrates. He was Sicilian, yes, but also Black, then reason enough to banish him to the minors until finally calling him up in 1948. Another significant theme is the importance of fathers in shaping players, from Mickey Mantle to Cal Ripken and even Rose. Posnanski’s account of how the Cy Young Award came about is alone worth the price of admission.

Red meat, and mighty tasty at that, for baseball fans with an appreciation for the past and power of the game.

Kirkus Reviews