Happy Day
Posted: August 26th, 2009 | Filed under: Media | 37 Comments »
Exciting times. The Machine excerpt is now online. And it’s also in the Sports Illustrated you got in the mail today. Although we don’t get our SI until Thursdays. How do you get it on Wednesdays?
Also, I got my very own hardover copy of The Machine in the mail today. Two copies, in fact. Proud moment.
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Hey Joe–
Happened to see SI issue at the barber shop today and had a thoroughly enjoyable read. Can not wait for the whole book to come out. Great, great excerpts I thought. A wholly enticing tease.
I read the excerpt today. I think it’s really cruel that it was published. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to 09/09/09. I really don’t.
Congrats, Joe.
btw, small nitpick from your SI post about Pete Rose: it was George Bernard Shaw, not Churchill who had the line about “we know what kind of woman you are, we’re now just haggling about price”…
I pre-ordered it on Amazon today based on that excerpt.
“The rest of you,” Sparky said, “are turds.”
Now that’s beautiful writing, Joe.
One objection. In saying there has never been a lineup quite like it, take a look at the 1936 Yankees. I remember reading a great article in the old Sport Magazine which suggested that was the greatest team of all time.
The lineup had 4 Hall of Famers – Gehrig (at the height of his powers), DiMaggio (his rookie year), Dickey and Lazzieri. There were two Hall of Famers in their pitching staff too – Ruffing and Grove. They hit .300 and slugged .483 as a team, and scored over 7 runs per game. 7 guys had double digit homers and 5 had over 100 RBIs. They finished 102-51, 19.5 games ahead of the 2nd place team.
Maybe that was a different era, but that was one hell of a team. Interesting that nobody remembers them.
Looking forward to reading the rest of it. And awfully nice to see you in SI.
Hey Joe, I am going to see the Royals play at Seattle tomorrow night (pretty dumb, yes I know). I got a copy of your Soul of Baseball for the plane ride, can’t wait to read it… Looking forward to The Machine coming out
Congratulation Joe – I check this site for updates every single day for your witty and entertaining blogs, I wish you the best of luck with your book! Unfortunately I don’t believe you can buy it in UK shops, unless you know of somewhere…?
I bought three copies. I sure hope Barnes & Noble doesn’t mess up, since I am going to be eager to read the entire book.
And it’s hard to argue about lineups, especially the 75 Reds, but almost any Yankee lineup with Gehrig in it (Ruth at the front end, DiMaggio at the tail end) is a contender for best lineup of all time.
Wednesday? Thursday? I don’t see it until Friday, and sometimes Monday, which is really useless when I read the “what to watch” section. Joe, in your new job do you have the power to improve Canadian delivery times?
Got SI today; can’t wait to read the full book.
Congrats, Joe! I can’t wait to read it!
Congrats Joe. If it’s half as good as your previous book, we’re in for a treat.
[...] the whole story here: Joe Posnanski aggregated by [...]
Congratulations Mr. Posnanski.
May you have many reprints.
Weirdly, I always get mine on Thursday but received this week’s issue today.
Just placed my order, Joe – I’m an avid reader of your blog and am pretty excited to read The Machine.
Interesting breaking news: a federal judge ruled yesterday that the fed’s seizure of all the drug testing results from MLB in 2003 was unconstitutional. The example cited was that information not specifically covered in a search warrant cannot be taken from a computer hard drive, else cops could get a warrant for anything on Google’s hard drive and find all kinds of unrelated info.
This probably destroys the case against Barry Bonds, and it would not surprise me if it supports his collusion case against MLB. I mean, in his final season Bonds had an OPS+ of 170, and did NOT want to retire. That would be leading the AL, at least amongst those with enough PA to qualify (I’m hoping Mauer gets there, he’s 2 for 4 tonight as of this writing). The only better final season I know of was Ted Williams 190. But I think Williams wanted to retire on a high note. Keep in mind, Bonds had 18 straight seasons with an OPS+ above 150 when he was forced out, and there’s no evidence he couldn’t still be an effective DH.
It also clouds the HOF arguments that will be coming along. Maybe not that much, but if there was no right to release names like Sammy, Ortiz, Manny, ARod, and Bonds, then why is there a right to deny them HOF membership? But that’s another argument.
Me, I’m gonna ignore the online excerpt and grade, like I’m supposed to. But I have “The Soul of Baseball” to read this weekend, assuming I get all my grading done first.
I don’t have any horses in the race (from South Jersey and Phillies fan), but those indians were pretty good with thome, alomar, ramirez, belle, lofton, justice, vizquel. that list doesnt even end. it could continue with brian giles, eddie murray… yawwwwn….. jeromy burnitz, travis fryman, richie sexson,…..
Hey, I wear the same size hat that Ty Cobb wore.
Congrats, Pos.
Absolutely loved the spring training speech. “The rest of you guys are turds.” Classic!
I am a life long Dodger fan. I grew up hating the Giants, and still do. I was a young teenager in the 70’s and our biggest rival was the Reds. But it was different than with the Giants. The Reds had guys you could actually respect. And I did. Starting w/Sparky. Go into battle, kick the crap out of each other, then tip your cap to each other and come back tomorrow.
And I would like to point out that as good as the Reds were, the Dodgers were in the WS 3 out of 5 years from 1974-1978.
Try living on the West Coast, where I don’t get my SI until Friday!
Congrats on the book, I’m really looking forward to it.
Joe – Fantastic. As good as The Soul of Baseball is, it felt like your newspaper work, your ‘I’m gonna tell you a story about a guy I know’ voice. Perfect for that context, the story of a friend who had an amazing story that needed to be told.
This leaves me with a different impression – a little more formal, a little more momentous, but no less personal. I’m really eager to get the full book.
Congratulations Joe. Can’t wait to pick it up.
I know that new book feeling. When I worked fulltime in publishing, our books were printed in Taiwan, Hong Kong or South Korea and an advance boxful would be airmailed straight off the press. Everyone would gather round as the box was opened, take in that new-book smell, then grab a copy and start leafing through. There’d be a bit of checking to see if the pages were in their correct order and the photos had reproduced clearly but mostly it was a backslapping occasion.
One opening was spoiled, though, when a philistine from marketing picked up a copy, hefted in his hand and declared, “Wow. That’s a fair weight of book there. The buyers are getting value for their money with this one.”
I think I get my SI on Wednesdays because I don’t complain when my postman always filches the Swimsuit Issue and the college football preview issue. Perhaps you should workout something similar with your postal worker; see who wants which parts of the subscription.
He takes anything with baseball on the cover, though, he will catch it.
Awesome, Joe, awesome … as a 41-year-old lifelong Reds fan I have read every book I could get my hands on about the Big Red Machine. I thought I had heard all the same old stories, read all the same old quotes. But almost everything in this excerpt was completely new to me. It got dusty here in my cubicle several times, especially in the part where Rose is shouting in the dugout in Game 7 when they were down 3-0. That was quite possibly the biggest win in franchise history — that team was incredible, but after the upset losses to the A’s in ‘72 and the Mets in ‘73 they needed to get over that hump and win a Series. I cannot wait to read the rest of this book.
Alex,
I’ve bought lots of UK books from amazon.co.uk and had them shipped to the US for a reasonable rate; I imagine amazon.com will work for you in the other direction. Easy peasy, as you guys say.
Congratulations Joe! I have been trying to require my kids to read you for some time and now it appears at least one of them will at school. At Gardner-Edgerton HS a teacher is dropping your name in his “Sports Lit” class (yes, there is), so again, congrats, you are also being officially “taught”.
Finally, my desire for a zip-up hooded SI logo performance fleece (free, with your paid subscription to Sports Illustrated!!) pays off!!
Congrats, Joe! I’m ready to order as soon as a Kindle edition is available.
pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease
Grats Joe!
One reason that I decided to quit subscribing to SI just last month (right before Joe’s SI announcement) was after moving to a new address (in same city) 2+ years ago I was too often getting my SI in the mail on Monday (or, on the occasional 3-day federal holiday weekends on Tuesday!). But, once in a while it would be delivered on Friday (hardly ever on Thursday – when I would have normally received it at the old address.
I never could/or can get a straight answer from the Post Office. I always got each issue – just much too late to enjoy the timely stuff in each week’s issue. Thank God for SI website!
Joe,
Read the excerpt. Damn good stuff. I will buy this book, and will buy the Soul of Baseball when I have any time to read. You will be known as one of the masters of your craft.
Look forward to reading it.
The ‘75-’76 Reds were great offensive baseball teams. But their pitching was nowhere near all time great; in fact it was ordinary. They lost in 1973 and 1974 exactly because they faced postseason opponents with vastly better pitching. You look at the ‘73 Mets and the ‘73 Reds respective lineups and know right away that for all their hitting prowess the Reds were not a balanced team.
The Reds also sported some very odd ducks-Rose, Morgan and Foster come to mind. Aslo, anyone know if the book addresses some issues about Bench’s personal life? You hear things, leave it at that.
Good news! Will you be coming to Connecticut for your book tour?
I want the book, but there’s no way that we should let that guy Rose in the hall. At least until Buck Weaver is exonerated for his role in the Black Sox scandal.
You might want to update this on your ‘books’ page:
‘Start saving up for The Machine, about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, due to come out March of 2009.’