Another World Premiere
Posted: March 31st, 2009 | Filed under: Media, Pop Culture | 78 Comments »
Got several posts backing up but I have to get through the next few days before I can post those.
So, just three quick points:
1. If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch, you should now get a specially designed version of this blog just for you. Technology … it’s an incredible thing. I am working to see if I can create a mobile version of the blog that works for all phones but, hey, let me enjoy the iPhone achievement.
2. Yes, I am going to California on Wednesday to see Bruce Springsteen open his tour. Well, that’s not the only reason I’m going to California … but it is a good reason. So, for those of you who are only now recovering from the Bruce-o-mania that hit this blog around the Super Bowl, get ready, another post is coming.
3. Are you ready for this? Are you sure you are ready? Are you sure?
This is the Amazon link to The Machine.
This is the Barnes and Noble link to The Machine
And this, ladies and gents, is the World Premier of the book cover.
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Congrats! The cover looks great.
Nice cover. Hey when is that book coming out?
Love the cover! Thanks for the iPhone technology. It looks great.
Awesome Joe! Looks great. I think you should not just suggest people buy the book here at the Blog. You should kick people out that don’t buy it. Trust me people love this blog.
Is it intentional for there to be the possibility that those seeing the cover might think that it’s Pete Rose being referred to as The Machine?
And that’s quite a larger number of tiny players about to be blindsided by Charlie Hustle should he over slide the bag.
But will “The Machine” text, which appears to be between Rose and the bag, save them!?
In other words, I hate the cover. Sorry, Joe. But what’s that saying about books and their covers?
So don’t worry, I’m still going to buy it!
Nice iPhone look, but how do we get to the rest of the site? All I can see is the list of posts. Nothing in the sidebar.
I think I was at that game – saw the Reds a few times in Chicago in that era.
Good picture. Rose showing how he got the Charlie Hustle nickname from Whitey Ford. Doesn’t exactly look like there’s a play at third unless the throw was really horrible.
Hate the top blurb.
Love the picture of Rose.
Where you sitting for the Bruce show? Are you going for the pit? If you’re in Section 113, say hi.
Congrats on the cover!
When designing the mobile interface, please keep in mind that many mobile users prefer accessing the full site. Opere Mini, for instance, is designed to view the full web and the first thing I do on mobile-layout sites is look for a link (or URL hack) to get “classic” or “desktop” view.
So tell me what’s worse, the fact that when I saw the pic of Pete Rose on the cover the first thing I thought was, thank God it’s not that retina scarring pic of him in the underwear ad with the baseball bats…or that most of you know the picture I’m talking about?
For those of you that don’t know the pic I’m talking about, just know that it’s not an ad for boxers and be happy you don’t what pic I’m talking about.
So who else immediately thought “Arrested Development” after looking at that cover?
Beyond that, I’m excited for the book, Joe.
The blog looks great on an iPhone. Can’t wait for the book.
Count me in the “love the cover, will absolutely buy the book, but hate the subtitle” group. Stupendously long subtitles are a pet peeve of mine, sorry. Wouldn’t “The Machine: The 1975 Cincinnati Reds” still get the point across? Anyone who might actually buy a book about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds pretty much already knows they were a hot team that had a legendary season topped off by a heart-stopping World Series, don’t they?
Great shot for the cover!
Great looking cover! The challenge now is to figure out which game that is. Looks like its the Reds at Wrigley field…I’ll say it’s the June 14th game, top of the fourth inning.
Looks great, Joe. Can’t wait to pick it up. Although, probably not until around 10/10/09.
My dad grew up in West Tampa, a baseball addict (Cuban family so… it’s pretty much predetermined) and a huge fan of The Big Red Machine. Spring training happened not far from his house so he had alot of baseballs and other memorabilia signed by the team. Somewhere, I think I have a ball with autographs from Rose, Bench, Concepcion, etc. He even had several conversations with the players and formed a bit of a relationship with some of them over the course of many springs.
I can finally go ahead and buy the book and print out the Amazon page out. This will be a great Father’s Day gift. Thanks for that.
Methinks we must start referring to your ventures as “the Posnanski Empire” (the Posnanski-verse?)… The KC Star (hopefully forever), SI, the Blog, The Books, the Newspaper Blog. Quite a collection!
oh, and my ipod touch is very happy.
Great cover, Joe!
Ben B., that’s exactly what I thought of. So though I love Arrested Development, I’ll add myself to the anti-cover ranks. No one really wants their book associated with (fake) cousin groping, do they?
Great cover Joe!
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone. Here is the greatest April Fool’s Day hoax of all time in case you missed it. A lot of people thought this was real. Great story. In fact, Plimpton later made a full book out of it and its a good read. I also like how the first letters of the words in the title spell out “Happy April Fools Day.”
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazin e/MAG1119283/index.htm
For those who don’t like the cover or the subtitle, tell Joe’s publisher, not Joe (well, you can tell him; I just mean that he really has little control over it if his publisher is like most publishers–and I’m sure it is). Usually I would say “vote with your wallet,” but in this case, we’re all going to buy the book, so that’s right out. But contact the publisher, tell them you’re buying the book because of the author, but you really think the overdetermined effort to hype what’s already a dramatic situation weakens the book. They might even listen!
I kind of like the cover. It’s ominous.
Oh my god, look out! He’s coming right at us!
Glad to see I’m not the only one with an iPhone that despises mobile sites.
Joe, I do think having a mobile feature is a good idea but as others have mentioned, you NEED to have a link to the ‘Classic’ layout that non-mobile users are accustomed to. There is just no point to having a phone that is capable of browsing real web pages with the kind of ease the iPhone provides, just to keep getting locked into mobile sites that don’t have anywhere near the same features or feel.
Love the blog and I’ve got my copy of The Machine on preorder. The cover looks good.
After posting my last comment, I noticed the Mobile Theme On/Off switch and it works fantastic.
Thanks.
Immediate reaction to the cover:
Pete Rose sells books. I hate the publishing industry even more than I hate the music industry.
Delayed reaction to the cover:
When I think of The Machine, I think of one of the most awesome collections of talent ever to come together on the same baseball team. Then I consider how many of those talented players had peak level seasons in The Machine era.
So I love the photo of the entire team in the lower section, and the photo of Rose on the top makes me wonder if the angle you are pursuing is The Machine was a mix of 24 teammates + 1.
[...] • The cover to Joe Posnanski’s new book about the 1970s Big Red Machine is about the greatest book cover I’ve ever seen. I’ve been wanting to buy that Pete Rose photo and get it framed forever. [JoeBlog] [...]
Pre-ordered the book at Amazon.
The publisher’s gambling that the cover will attract more readers than it repulses. I’ll read it in spite of the cover. In fact I’m hoping that Pete’s only on the dust jacket and the binding will be Rose-free.
Don’t know why but the picture makes me think the book will be huge in size. Love the picture but not convinced on the subtitle at the top. It gives off a library book vibe if you get what I mean.
Looks like he’s diving helmetless back into first base from right field.
Joe:
Will the book be available on Kindle? (I hope so.)
You mentioned you weren’t a fan of the song “Outlaw Pete” but, it looks like it will lead off the show.
Count me amongst the “Arrested Development” ranks – it’s the exact same shot they use. It should be called “The Machine: Les Cousins Dangereux”
In all seriousness, the cover looks great.
Very good – “gambling on the cover”, Kevin. At least they showed a little restraint by not having Pete’s hair on fire. Morgan’s flapping arm or Bench holding a slew of baseballs in his hand probably wouldn’t have startled someone walking by the book shelf.
My birthday is a few days after the book’s release date, so I know what SOMEONE is getting me
You can also buy the book at your local bookstore. if you want to pre-order it from your local bookstore and support local businesses go to indiebound.org.
Will the book be available in the Kindle version?
I love the baseball cards question. Being born in Holland means I never grew up with the whole baseball cards thing, simply because we didn’t have any over there and I wouldn’t have known who all these guys were anyways.
We got to watch the World Series, and that was it. Every year in the 1980s was a revelation for me, because I saw two completely new teams in the WS every year. (until 85 when the Cards were the first repeat team I saw.)
Once I moved here, I was too old to bother with cards and anyways, it seemed silly to buy cards that you couldn’t even play a cool card game with.
Being a big fan of the Cardinals (mostly because they were the first team I saw in the 82 world series, I liked their uniforms better than the Brewers’), I absolutely DESPISED their signing of Juan “I hate breaking a sweat” Encarnacion. For two years, I ranted and raved about encarnacion on cardinals’ message boards.
Then my brother in law cleaned out his baseball cards, and what did he find but a mint condition Juan E rookie card? Which he promptly gifted to me. I thought it was so funny that I kept it. So I am the proud owner of one baseball card. The rookie card of a player I absolutely loathe. (though I was not happy when he got injured, simply because nobody deserves such a horrific injury).
/tangent.
CONGRATS JOE!!!
By the way, I was wondering, since you so good at math and writing, and you seem to have many more hours in the day than the 24 I get, and since (big assumption as I have never met you) you seem to be a the type of person who wouldn’t mind helping out another human, could you, by say 4 pm today cst, maybe write a business case and explanation for our board of directors for this project I have been tasked with launching? I am sure it wouldn’t take you over 10 or 15 minutes, as I have learned that a Poz hour is roughly the equivalent to 5 normal human hours.
Also wondering, since you will be going to the concert, if you could keep the blog posts under 4 this week. My buddies and I have started a weekly pool on how many times you post a week. The over/under for this week is obviously 4 and I took the under (as I have been doing for the last month since you announced you would have fewer postings as you were trying to complete this book). So far you have cost me $25. I am either going to have to stop participating in this prop bet or give up lunch 3 days a week. Thanks for you consideration.
Joe,
I pass along these comments from some of my baseball friends because I’m a fan.
Several folks that saw the cover think it looks like Pete is “stealing first from rightfield” or that “he likes like Gulliver and is about to bowl over a bunch of Lilliputians lined up along first base.”
I can see both of those points. Perhaps it looks that way because the two photos blend together?
We’re all looking forward to the book.
Love the cover, Love the blurb, Love the title.
When are you going to get this blog to work on the Kindle, now that you have one?
Why was Rose in right field? Why is he diving back into first base? When no one is defending first base? Is that Wrigley?
Just taking some pot-shots. Hope the book is better than the cover.
Pete sure looks like he’ll end up like Willie Mays Hayes and end his slide well short of the actual base.
I think it looks more like he’s diving into 2B from CF.
Great iPhone mobile theme – I’m even posting this comment from my iPhone.
Those who don’t like the theme can scroll to the very bottom of the page in Mobile Safari and turn it off.
Wierd-looking cover, sure it’s a great book, of course I’ll buy it, yada yada yada. Now get to the important, earth-shattering, life changing news of the week: the Royals traded Ross Gload! Deliverance at last!
Get the blog working on V-Cast!! I just got firewalled at work because this blog is apparently filed under “Personal Pages.” * I tried reaching it from my new cell, but all I get is comments, not the actual posts.
* It’s better than getting firewalled for “Peovocative Attire,” which is what the Vanity Fair website is firewalled for. Why am I going to the Vanity Fair website? Let’s just say, it should be firewalled for “Naked Giselle.”
And I’m one-upping you on the Bruce, Joe. Hold Steady @ the Picador in ICIA next Tuesday…Holla…
I think the cover looks great, but I’m more excited to read what you put on the inside. I actually don’t know @#%( about the ‘75 Cincinnati Reds, but hey, The Soul of Baseball convinced me to make a stop in Kansas City during my six-week cross country road trip, so I’m clearly deep into the Kool-Aid already.
Cheers!
Nice cover.
I haven’t pre-ordered yet, but I did “Tell the publisher I’d like to read this book on Kindle”, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice…
I love that it kinda looks like Rose is about to plow over an entire squadron of army-men-sized teammates. Including, quite possibly, himself.
The perils of Photoshop. The base looks too big and it looks like it is lopsided, there is no baseline on either side of the bag, Rose appears to be sliding into third base from right-center, it looks odd that there are no other players on the field, and I wouldn’t characterize the Big Red Machine as “hot” so much as “great”.
All that said, I am still going to buy the book.
Soooo happy you had the juice to pick the Cardinals in the NL Central. If Carp’s healthy I think they’ll be in good shape to go back to the World Series. If he’s not it will be a trying summer.
Joe you could have had Ed Armbrister on the cover and I’d buy it.
That said, it’s amazing to me that Rose is on the cover of what will no doubt be the definitive volume on that amazing season and that incredible team. When you think about some of the greatest teams in the history of the game you have to count the Big Red Machine as one of the elite. Certainly worthy of a great writer’s time, like your own.
But to me it seems… Unfair? I don’t know what the word is. Baseball has shunned the man. True, he shamed himself and the game but Pete Rose the player IS baseball. This cover just rubs in the hurt of his post playing days when the competitive fire just couldn’t die. But how could it die?
Look at this cover and tell me how this guy stays clear of the action. Like Michael Jordan. They feed on it. More than the big names with steroids this one hurts because I was a 10 year old Boston Red Sox fan that summer and a die hard baseball fan. Because of that, Pete Rose was an awesome and evil God.
Michael in NYC is correct; authors have very little input into covers — so don’t blame Joe. In my experience as a book editor, authors didn’t even get to choose the title, beyond having the right of veto. These things are generally put together by the art department and the marketing people. The title is decided on over the course of the book’s gestation.
Had I been on this cover committee — brought in late as the wordsmith — I’d have argued for “and” to be dropped from the first line; for a space to be inserted between “Series” and the em rule; and, if they had to have all those capital letters (which I don’t like), put one on “stopping”.
I’d have also put forward the view, while acknowledging that I’m not an expert in graphics, that combination photos don’t work. Make a decision, pick your best and most relevant picture, and run with it.
Apart from that, it’s splendid.
12 years-old. Supposed to be in bed. I saw Fisk’s home run. It broke my heart. But there was still Game 7.
Joe, whatever they pay you, it’s not enough.
Subtitles, ugh. Would today’s publishers have insisted on subtitles for “War and Peace” and “A Tale Of Two Cities” had they been around back then?
I like all of your suggestions, Graphite.
Thanks Damon. The response from that committee would have been “You’re just here for the words . . . leave the design to the experts. And are you sure about ’stopping’?”
Hey, Graphite, what kind of publisher are you wordsmithing for? I’m in the exciting, fast-paced world of nonprofit academic publishing!
Why does the book show a giant Pete Rose about to crush the 1975 Reds beneath his mighty bulk?
Th top Blurb is terrible. The picture is mediocre. Love your blog, so I will buy the book anyway.
Looking forward to reading the book.
Joe:
Count me among those who think the cover is mediocre. But I have happily pre-ordered the book from a local (campus) bookstore and will most likely give some as gifts this year. I’ll just remove the dust jacket.
Long subtitles: yuk.
The more I look at the cover the more I don’t like it. Is there anyway you can change it? The part about Pete sliding into the little players is what bothers me the most.
Man, you’d think if you’re a 3″ (8″? I can’t tell) baseball player you should know better than to get in they way of Charlie Hustle.
That photo is one of my favorites.
Sorry, just the one of Rose. Not the “Look out Tiny Red Machine!” mish-mash.
Joe –
You have a book coming out? Why didn’t you ever mention it before? What’s the release date? Have you ever mentioned that? You know, I’ll bet a lot of your blog readers would like to know these things. /snark
Seriously, can’t wait to get it, even though that is truly one of the worst covers ever, both for the text and the graphics.
Way to go, Joe!
I’m glad I’m not the only who commented about Giant Rose crushing Tiny Big Red Machiners.
And the book is about the -team- right? Seeing Rose prominently displayed on the cover is an insult to the rest of those guys, and it’s really starting to upset me. Of course I would not care except that the Reds are my favorite team. The Reds. Not Rose. To hell with Rose.
Michael in NYC.
First up, I’m in New Zealand — the destination chosen by the Scrubs writers when they wanted to send blonde doctor’s boyfriend to the ends of the Earth and also by Rush Limbaugh when his despair at America’s shift to the left had him on the brink of suicide but apparently lacking the courage to take the final step.
Luckily for me, a misspent youth, which saw me rack up time on pretty much every one of NZ’s 67 racecourses, eventually led to my rubbing shoulders with the producers of sporting books. Down here, if you can spell marmalade you’re considered well educated and having the added asset of knowing where the apostrophe goes puts you in PhD class. Somehow, I’d picked up those skills and so, in a company built by a salesman and staffed by his family, I became the resident intellectual — even though the only time I’d been to university was to deliver some pies.
Unfortunately, the company grew, expanded its list into gardening, nostalgia, travel and business, so I jumped ship. I now live in Hiding, on Credit, hoping for the occasional piece of remittance from a fast horse and waiting for the Old Age Pension to kick in.
Michael in NYC.
Ignore the above — slow afternoon down here.
Short answer: sport — mainly rugby, cricket, horse racing.
Semi-retired now.
Graphite,
Either way, thanks for the info! Is it thoroughbred racing in N.Z.? Do the horses have to run clockwise since it’s the Southern Hemisphere? I find that I spend a lot of time assiduously *ignoring* Belmont so that I don’t go down the road my father did and start spending way too much time there . . .
M(iNYC)
I follow the thoroughbreds. Harness racing is also big, especially in the South Island, with most of the leading stallions sourced from the US . . . New Jersey, I guess.
Horses run both ways; no discrimination here.
Subtitles, ugh. Would today’s publishers have insisted on subtitles for “War and Peace†and “A Tale Of Two Cities†had they been around back then?
Probably.
The book generally accepted to be the first modern English novel has the title “The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself.”
Add me to the list of folks who would love to have this on the Kindle. The moment it is I’m buying.