The Baseball 100
eBook - ePub

The Baseball 100

  1. 848 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Baseball 100

About this book

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. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize–winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski 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?”

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

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Information

Publisher
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Year
2021
Print ISBN
9781982180591
eBook ISBN
9781982180607

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Foreword by George F. Will
  5. Introduction
  6. A Short Glossary of Terms
  7. No. 100 Ichiro Suzuki
  8. No. 99 Mike Mussina
  9. No. 98 Carlos Beltrán
  10. No. 97 Roberto Alomar
  11. No. 96 Larry Walker
  12. No. 95 Tony Gwynn
  13. No. 94 Roy Campanella
  14. No. 93 Ozzie Smith
  15. No. 92 Bullet Rogan
  16. No. 91 Mariano Rivera
  17. No. 90 Max Scherzer
  18. No. 89 Mike Piazza
  19. No. 88 Curt Schilling
  20. No. 87 Charlie Gehringer
  21. No. 86 Gary Carter
  22. No. 85 Sadaharu Oh
  23. No. 84 Cool Papa Bell
  24. No. 83 Phil Niekro
  25. No. 82 Kid Nichols
  26. No. 81 Ferguson Jenkins
  27. No. 80 Carlton Fisk
  28. No. 79 Derek Jeter
  29. No. 78 Clayton Kershaw
  30. No. 77 Miguel Cabrera
  31. No. 76 Willie McCovey
  32. No. 75 Justin Verlander
  33. No. 74 Frank Thomas
  34. No. 73 Brooks Robinson
  35. No. 72 Robin Roberts
  36. No. 71 Bert Blyleven
  37. No. 70 Sandy Koufax
  38. No. 69 Monte Irvin
  39. No. 68 Gaylord Perry
  40. No. 67 Hank Greenberg
  41. No. 66 Robin Yount
  42. No. 65 Ernie Banks
  43. No. 64 Johnny Mize
  44. No. 63 Steve Carlton
  45. No. 62 Smokey Joe Williams
  46. No. 61 Arky Vaughan
  47. No. 60 Pete Rose
  48. No. 59 Reggie Jackson
  49. No. 58 Jeff Bagwell
  50. No. 57 Rod Carew
  51. No. 56 Joe DiMaggio
  52. No. 55 Bob Feller
  53. No. 54 Chipper Jones
  54. No. 53 Buck Leonard
  55. No. 52 Adrián Beltré
  56. No. 51 Al Kaline
  57. No. 50 Nolan Ryan
  58. No. 49 Warren Spahn
  59. No. 48 Ken Griffey Jr.
  60. No. 47 Wade Boggs
  61. No. 46 Eddie Mathews
  62. No. 45 Bob Gibson
  63. No. 44 Cal Ripken Jr.
  64. No. 43 Yogi Berra
  65. No. 42 Jackie Robinson
  66. No. 41 Tom Seaver
  67. No. 40 Roberto Clemente
  68. No. 39 Nap Lajoie
  69. No. 38 Carl Yastrzemski
  70. No. 37 Pedro Martínez
  71. No. 36 Christy Mathewson
  72. No. 35 George Brett
  73. No. 34 Cy Young
  74. No. 33 Jimmie Foxx
  75. No. 32 Mel Ott
  76. No. 31 Greg Maddux
  77. No. 30 Johnny Bench
  78. No. 29 Eddie Collins
  79. No. 28 Randy Johnson
  80. No. 27 Mike Trout
  81. No. 26 Grover Cleveland Alexander
  82. No. 25 Pop Lloyd
  83. No. 24 Rickey Henderson
  84. No. 23 Albert Pujols
  85. No. 22 Lefty Grove
  86. No. 21 Joe Morgan
  87. No. 20 Frank Robinson
  88. No. 20 (tie) Mike Schmidt
  89. No. 18 Tris Speaker
  90. No. 17 Rogers Hornsby
  91. No. 16 Alex Rodriguez
  92. No. 15 Josh Gibson
  93. No. 14 Lou Gehrig
  94. No. 13 Roger Clemens
  95. No. 12 Honus Wagner
  96. No. 11 Mickey Mantle
  97. No. 10 Satchel Paige
  98. No. 9 Stan Musial
  99. No. 8 Ty Cobb
  100. No. 7 Walter Johnson
  101. No. 6 Ted Williams
  102. No. 5 Oscar Charleston
  103. No. 4 Henry Aaron
  104. No. 3 Barry Bonds
  105. No. 2 Babe Ruth
  106. No. 1 Willie Mays
  107. Acknowledgments
  108. About the Author
  109. Index
  110. Photo Credits
  111. Copyright