Books
The Machine
National award-winning columnist Joe Posnanski takes readers inside the 1975 World Series-winning season of one of baseball's greatest teams in THE MACHINE A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series — The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.)
On sale in bookstores on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. (ISBN: 9780061582561. Retails for $25.99.) Sure you can buy it online and on Kindle, too, but make your dollars count and pick up a copy or two at your local independent bookseller. Check out ALL the buying options HERE!
Okay, since you've not purchased a book yet (or thank you if you already have) we'll take this space to tell you a little bit more about THE MACHINE.
From 1972-1976, the Reds, known as the Big Red Machine, dominated the National League, winning four division crowns, three league pennants and two World Series titles. But it's the 1975 season that became the stuff of sports legend.
Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson put together the great lineup (a Who's Who of baseball greats) with: Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Sr., Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster, Cesar Geronimo, and Dave Concepcion. Although the Reds ended the regular season with an unusual and commanding 108 wins and finished 20 games ahead of their closest division competitor, it was still a season filled with controversy — from feuds to fights to run-ins with fans.
It's a colorful portrait of these incredibly talented athletes whose personalities were (and are) as big as their bats. And their defacto leader is Pete Rose, a player whose legacy has been overshadowed by his involvement in gambling, but who emerges in this narrative as one of the sport's all-time best and an integral part of a team the likes of which we have rarely seen.