Why We Love Baseball

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

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: 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.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WALL STREET JOURNAL BETSELLER
NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year 

Named One of the Best Baseball Books of 2023 by Sports Collectors’ Digest

One of AARP’s “Books to Give and Get”

Kirkus’ Best Nonfiction Book Out This Week

A Kirkus Most Anticipated Book of the Fall

“Mr. Posnanski is a bit like the guy telling baseball stories at a bar—if that guy is clever, funny, not averse to hyperbole, sentiment or numerology, willing to go to great lengths to track down a fact and possessed of a way with words…if you were that kid who felt a surge of gladness when Baseball Digest turned up in the mailbox, and if the game has continued to hold a place in your heart, well, I’ve got just the book for you.” —Wall Street Journal

“Joe Posnanski is baseball’s greatest modern-day storyteller, and his passion and expertise leap through every page of this book.” —Jonathan Abrams, NYT Editors Recommendations

“Reading Why We Love Baseball is a joy beyond description. Read it, treasure it and share it with your baseball fan friends. It’s what baseball was meant to be.” —Illinois Times

“The greatest living sportswriter…[WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL] brings the magic back…You deserve a plaque in Cooperstown.”—CBS This Morning

“Despite its title, Why We Love Baseball isn’t intended solely for readers who love baseball. It obviously caters to the die-hard fan who has fond memories of, say, Kirk Gibson hitting a game-winning home run in the 1988 World Series on two injured legs. But there are also stories that will engage the more casual fan or even nonfan, written in the informative-but-conversational style that Posnanski is known for.” —Today.com

“An homage to America’s pastime.”—AARP, “What to Read in September”

“Speaking of musts: My pal Joe Posnanski’s newest, ‘Why We Love Baseball.’ If you do—and even if you only like it—you’ll love this book.” —Mike Vaccaro, New York Post

“Joe Posnanski’s new book plumbs the depths of history for baseball’s touchstone moments… ‘Diving in’ is what Posnanski does best. He takes a topic—usually baseball, though he’s also written books about Joe Paterno and Harry Houdini—and plumbs its depths until the reader is prepared to write their own graduate thesis.” —J.P. Hoornstra, The Orange County Register

“Joe Posnanski rummages through the archives of our most storied sport, finding and retelling the narratives that grab your heart and squeeze — from familiar tearjerks like David Ortiz rallying the crowd just after the 2013 Marathon bombing to lesser-known stories of forgotten heroes and long-gone ballparks.” —Boston Globe

“[A] delightful smorgasbord of stories.” —Lincoln Journal Star

“Here’s the thing about this book… One of the things that happens with sports writers and especially with baseball writers, is that it can get very purple. It can get very romantic. So what I love about this is a potential, like, weakness in sports writing is turned around to be a strength and to be something where you can just allow yourself the sentiment of loving a sport and loving to watch it and kind of this sense that, oh, my God, I love baseball so much. I have choked up multiple times while listening to this book.” —Linda Holmes, NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour

“For those looking to share the magic of the past and the star power of today with a young baseball fan in their life – or an older one- Mr. Posnanski’s book would be a can’t-gift.” —Wall Street Journal, Holiday Gift Guide

“Posnanski shares in barstool-banter style the little things (real and fictional) and the big moments that show why baseball still matters to the people it matters to.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Holiday Gift Guide

“Journalist Posnanski (The Baseball 100) hits it out of the park in this rousing celebration of baseball. With the colorful banter of a play-by-play announcer…Posnanski recounts the ’50 most magical baseball moments’ from across all levels of the game. This will have readers cheering from their seats.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“The celebrated sportswriter circles the bases, calling out exceptional moments in the history of the game…One of Posnanski’s winning ploys is to dig into the archives to find such hidden gems and especially to celebrate the mediocre players who, for one of those magical moments, pulled something out of their caps and hit a surprise homer… A book for any baseball fan to cherish.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“A winning collection of baseball moments both inside and outside the lines.”—Booklist (starred)

“This work will likely enlighten even the most knowledgeable and die-hard baseball fans.”—Library Journal (starred)Joe Posnanski is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including Why We Love Baseball, The Baseball 100, Paterno, and The Secret of Golf, and has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations. He writes at JoePosnanski.com and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his family.Five Unlikely Homers

The Gaylord Perry Moon Shot moment that leads off this book may be my favorite unlikely homer. It’s my go-to whenever someone asks for a baseball story. There are few things more thrilling in the game than the unlikely home run.

You know about Gaylord. Here are four more:

Rick Camp (July 4, 1985)

“People thought Rick couldn’t hit,” Dale Murphy is saying. “But they didn’t see Rick the way we teammates did. They didn’t see him take batting practice. They didn’t see him swing in the cage.”

Dale, a two-time most valuable player, smiled.

“They thought he couldn’t hit,” he continued. “But we knew he couldn’t hit.”

Rick Camp was a multi-use pitcher for the Braves between 1976 and 1985. Sometimes he started. Sometimes he relieved. He threw a heavy sinker that could be quite effective.

But as a hitter-no.

Flash to one of the wildest games in baseball history, an Independence Day extravaganza between the Braves and the New York Mets in Atlanta. Forty-four thousand fans showed up, mostly to catch fireworks after the game. None of them knew that the fireworks would not go off until four or so the next morning.

The game was delayed by rain, and then the game jumped around like microwave popcorn. The Mets led, the Braves led, the Mets led, the Braves led; then in the top of the ninth the Mets tied the game off future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter. Extra innings. The Mets scored two in the 13th. The Braves also scored two in the 13th. On it went.

Finally in the 18th inning-at about three the morning of July 5-the Mets scored off Rick Camp and it finally looked like the game would end. The first two Atlanta batters in the ninth inning made outs and that brought up Camp. Under any other circumstances, the Braves would have pinch-hit for him. Camp was a lifetime .059 hitter. He’d not had a hit all year.

The Mets’ Tom Gorman was pitching. Catcher Gary Carter waved the outfielders in . . . and he just kept on waving even as they got closer and closer. Mets pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre jogged to the mound and Gorman expected some scouting advice or a pep talk. Instead Stottlemyre said, “You better get him out.” Then he jogged back to the dugout.

Up in the Atlanta Braves’ broadcasting booth, John Sterling said to his partner Ernie Johnson Sr.: “Ernie, if he hits a home run to tie this game, this game will be certified as absolutely the nuttiest in the history of baseball.”

Gorman got ahead in the count 0-2. He then threw a pitch up and Camp swung as hard as he could . . . and he connected. He hit his first big-league home run in the 18th inning of a meaningless game between Atlanta and New York . . . and no one in Atlanta will ever forget it.

“That,” Atlanta catcher Bruce Benedict would say, “was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

There’s one more fun part to this: The Braves lost anyway in the very next inning. The last batter of the game was, yes, Rick Camp. He struck out. Then the Braves shot off more fireworks for the few fans who remained at the end, sparking hundreds of complaints to the Atlanta police department.

Tom Lawless (October 21, 1987)

In his career as a utility infielder and pinch runner, Tom Lawless hit three big-league home runs. He was such a mediocre hitter that once a Phillies relief pitcher named Tom Hume walked him . . . and Hume was released two days later.

One of Lawless’s three homers came in the 1987 World Series.

He hit it off Minnesota ace Frank Viola, who would later call his pitch a “brutal, brutal fastball.” The improbability of the home run was trumped by Lawless’s even more improbable reaction. After he hit the ball, he walked slowly up the first-base line with the bat still in his hand. He just stared at the ball as it flew, the sort of thing Barry Bonds or Reggie Jackson might have done after hitting a 500-foot blast.

Was this a 500-foot blast? No, not even close.

“I think it hit about 1 foot over the fence,” Cardinals’ manager Whitey Herzog would say.

But even the strut was not the best part. No, the best part was that after the ball barely cleared the fence, and only then, Lawless flung the bat high in the air, like a cap thrown on graduation day, one of the more demonstrative celebrations in baseball history. If we were ranking top bat flips, this one would be in the top five. It broke at least a half dozen unwritten rules of baseball etiquette. “That was something strange to do, seeing that he’s hit two home runs in his career,” his teammate Gary Gaetti would say. “If I was pitching, I wouldn’t forget it.”

Lawless pleaded insanity. “I didn’t mean anything, I just kind of blanked out there for a second,” he said. “This never happened to me before.”

Al Weis (October 16, 1969)

By the time Al Weis came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning on a Thursday afternoon in New York-Game 5 of the 1969 World Series-he was already an unlikely hometown hero. He grew up 23 miles from Shea Stadium. He had been in the big leagues for seven years, an impressive accomplishment considering he could not hit. What he did was play excellent defense wherever needed, bunt upon request, and never complain.

“The best gag about Weis,” Milton Gross wrote, “is that if he were hit on the elbow with a fastball, he wouldn’t even say ‘Ouch.'”

Weis’s bat played a wildly unlikely role in the 1969 Miracle Mets run to the World Series. He hit only two home runs all season, but he hit them in back-to-back games against the league-leading Chicago Cubs. The Mets went on to catch the Cubs and win the pennant.

Then, in the World Series, Weis hit like he never had before. He singled off Baltimore’s Dave McNally to drive in the winning run in Game 2. He got two more hits and drew a walk in Game 4. The Orioles couldn’t get him out. Then came Game 5, and the Orioles led by a run going into the seventh inning. McNally was pitching again, and he missed his spot. Weis turned on it and hit the ball out to tie the game. The Mets completed the comeback and won one of the most surprising and wonderful World Series titles of them all.

After the game, Weis was asked how he did it. Naturally, he didn’t say anything. But his teammate Bud Harrelson did:

“When Al hit that home run,” Harrelson said, “I knew we had ’em.”

Bartolo Colón (May 7, 2016)

“He drives one! Deep left field! Back goes Upton. Back near the wall! It’s outta here! Bartolo has done it. The impossible has happened. . . . The team vacates the dugout as Bartolo takes the long trot. His first career home run. . . . This is one of the great moments in the history of baseball. Bartolo Colón has gone deep.”

-Mets’ broadcaster Gary Cohen

OK, look, a big part of the joy is how four-time All-Star pitcher Bartolo Colón looked. He looked like me. He looked like you. He was 42 years old, and the media guide charitably listed him at 285 pounds. Ah, if only we all had a media guide to underestimate our true weight. Bartolo was shaped like a rectangle, and if you saw him walking around in the mall, you’d think, That guy’s probably the high school history teacher everybody at school likes. The notion of his being a baseball player would never enter your mind.

It goes without saying he was an atrocious hitter; goes without saying he’d never hit a home run or come close. He was hitting .088 for his career and had struck out one of every two times he came to the plate. He had not gotten a hit all season.

James Shields was pitching for San Diego. He threw a fastball. Colón swung as hard as he could. The ball left the park. The moment was so intoxicating that even Shields himself got caught up in it.

“I’m happy for him,” Shields said.

There are two things I love most about the home run. First is that his home run trot took him 30.5 seconds. That is longer than it took the injured Kirk Gibson to limp around the bases after his 1988 World Series home run.

“I want to say,” Mets’ announcer Ron Darling said, “that was one of the longest home run trots I’ve ever seen. But I think that’s how fast he runs.”

Second is the quote that Colon gave after the game when he explained his hitting approach. “Anytime I see a fastball, I swing hard,” he said, “because I’m not a curveball hitter.”

No. 50:
The Real Duane Kuiper

August 29, 1977, Cleveland

Baseball is the best it has been and the best it will ever be when you’re 10 years old.

I was 10 years old in the summer of 1977 when Duane Kuiper hit his one home run.

Kuip was my hero. He was second baseman for my hometown Cleveland ballclub at the same time that I was second baseman for Reno, my South Euclid Youth Baseball Team. Oddly, our team did not have a nickname. We were just Reno. We were either named after the Biggest Little City in the World or Reno Browne, a 1940s B-movie actress who was married to the famous cowboy Lash LaRue.

Duane Kuiper and I shared more than just a position. I loved the way he played. He dived for every ball . . . and I do mean, every ball. If you hit the ball straight at him, he dived for it. If you played catch in your backyard anywhere in America in 1977, Kuip probably dived for that ball too. He played the game with verve and love, and OK, maybe he didn’t hit with a lot of power and maybe he wasn’t the fastest guy out there, but he exuded joy, and my grandest dream was to be just like him.

He hit his one home run on a Monday night. Cleveland was playing the Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, a mausoleum that smelled of stale beer and and broken dreams. Cleveland Municipal was strategically constructed to place steel beams in front of every fan in the ballpark.

I was not at the game-there were 6,236 people there, a sizeable crowd for Cleveland baseball in those days-so I listened to the broadcast on WWWE, 1100 on your AM radio dial. I listened while sitting on the beige carpeting in our so-called living room-we were rarely even allowed in there-and leaning against the speaker of the enormous Zenith music console my parents had bought on payments. That console was a dark wood, and it was the size of a coffin, and it looked like a coffin. The muffled voices of Cleveland broadcasters Herb Score and Joe Tait sounded like they might be trapped inside.

Herb Score was one of the greatest young pitchers in baseball history until he got hit in the eye by a Gil McDougald line drive, but I didn’t know this until much later. Herb was much too modest to ever talk about his playing days. I’d describe Herb’s announcing style as cheerful and just slightly confused, sort of like your grandfather calling a game. He began every broadcast by saying, “It’s a beautiful day for baseball.” Then, he’d go on, doing the best he could.

“Hey, Herb,” a partner said, “that hit makes Cecil Cooper 19 for 42 against Tribe pitching.”

“I’m not good at math,” Herb replied. “But even I know that’s over .500.”

South Euclid’s own Steve Stone was pitching for the White Sox. Kuip was the second batter of the game. On the second pitch, Stone threw a pitch he would call “a slider that did not slide.” Duane Kuiper did something entirely out of character. He turned on it.

“That’s headed for the wall,” Herb’s broadcast partner, Joe Tait, shouted, and then with a magnificent blend of shock and awe he added: “It’s gone! Duane Kuiper has just hit his first Major League home run! How about that!”

“Hey,” Herb said, “look at Duane running those bases!”

“Oh, is he one happy ballplayer!” Tait said.

I didn’t hear that last part because I, too, was running around the bases, imaginary ones in the living room, and I shouted and howled until my mother told me to quiet down because she was watching the ABC comedy special McNamara’s Band with John Byner.

“Did you know it was gone when you hit it?” reporters asked Kuip after the game.

“No,” he said. “I don’t think any ball I hit is gone.”

That was it. After Duane hit the homer, he came up another 2,371 more times but he never hit another one. One home run in 3,754 plate appearances. Much later, after he had become a beloved broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants, the team held a special Duane Kuiper day. And they gave the fans a bobblehead of Kuip hitting the home run.

I have to tell something else even though it’s not directly related to the homer. As mentioned, Kuip did become an adored broadcaster in San Francisco.

Along the way, Kuip found out that I was his biggest fan. I mean, it was no secret-I wrote about him all the time. So, one day he found my wife Margo’s email-she was writing a parenting blog at the time-and explained that he wanted to send me something. Margo is a casual baseball fan; all she knew about Duane Kuiper was that he was my hero.

“I’m assuming that you’re the real Duane Kuiper,” she wrote back to him, “though in today’s internet age, it’s not always so easy to tell.”

Kuip loved that so much. He was not expecting anyone to ever think he was pretending to be Duane Kuiper.

“It’s hard for me to say, with a straight face, that I’m the real Duane Kuiper,” he wrote. “So, I’ll say it with a smile. I’m the real Duane Kuiper.”

Anyway, not long after, I got a package in the mail with an authentic game-used Duane Kuiper bat, an authentic game-used Duane Kuiper cap, and various other priceless items.

“I’ve come to realize that my family doesn’t think this stuff is as cool as I think it is,” he wrote.

My friends, almost all of them, had childhood baseball heroes who were better players than my Duane Kuiper. They idolized Tom Seaver and George Brett and Reggie Jackson and Wade Boggs and Frank Thomas and players like that.

I wouldn’t trade my hero for all of them put together. 

Why do I love baseball? I’m going to go and swing my Duane Kuiper bat and think about it.US

Additional information

Weight	21.4 oz
Dimensions	1.3300 × 6.2900 × 9.2900 in
Imprint	Dutton
ISBN-13	09780593472675
ISBN-10	0593472675
Author	Joe Posnanski
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	SPO066000, SPO003020
Subjects	baseball books for adults, dad gifts, books best sellers, dad books, new york times best sellers, nonfiction books best sellers, baseball books, baseball book, baseball gifts, SPO003020, history of baseball, baseball gifts for men, baseball gift, history lovers gift ideas, baseball trivia book, baseball history book, baseball trivia, history, sports biographies, baseball history, gifts for him, sport, history books, SPO066000, best sellers, sports book, baseball, gifts, books for dad, sports books, Sports, Sports books for men, gifts for dad
Format	General Trade