Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments - Hardcover

Posnanski, Joe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593472675 ISBN 13: 9780593472675

Verlag: Dutton, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller

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

National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year 

An NPR "Book of the Day"

#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.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

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.

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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...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Dutton
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593472675
• ISBN 13: 9780593472675
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Dutton; https://www.penguin.com/dutton-childrens-overview/; ; Im Mittelfeld 25; K?ln; Deutschland; 51105; Deutschland