The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski https://amzn.to/46EEbM5 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller WALL STREET JOURNAL bestseller #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.About the author Joe Posnanski is the New York Times bestselling author of Paterno, The Machine, and The Secret of Golf. He is currently the founder and editor of Joe Blogs at JoePosnanski.com as well as co-host of "The PosCast" podcast with television producer Michael Schur. Joe served as Senior Writer for The Athletic, MLB, NBC Sports, and Sports Illustrated, and co-founder of Passions in America. He was named national Sportswriter of the Year by the Sports Media Hall of Fame and was twice named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He is a two-time Emmy winner as part of NBC Sports Olympic coverage, and his first book "The Soul of Baseball," won The Casey Award as best baseball book. He was recently honored with the Tony Kubek Award by the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame, and he was given the Buck O'Neil Award by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He is the author of six books and has been anthologized widely. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Margo, daughters Elizabeth and Katie, and standard poodle Westley.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate it, which is kind of interesting because today we'll actually be talking about what some people call the big show, baseball. And we'll be getting into that here in a second.

But as always, please refer the show to your family, friends, or relatives. This gives us five-star reviews we love over on iTunes. It gives us that glowing, warm, loving sort of feeling. And I sit at night and read them and cry with a box of tissues and cookies and milk. So there you go. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss, youtube.com, Fortress Chris Voss, linkedin.com, Fortress Chris Voss, and Chris Voss one on the tickety-tockety where those kids are over there doing all those weird dances and stuff. We're trying to be cool, but it's not working because we're not cool anymore. Evidently. I don't know. What can I say? We have an amazing author on the show. And for 15 years,

we've been bringing you the most amazing people on the show, the brilliant minds, the billionaires, the astronauts, the Pulitzer Prize winners, the newsmakers, all the hottest book authors. And God, who do we forget? White House advisors, everything else, and little old moi, me. I'm just some guy with a mic who's been doing this, and we thought we'd show up every day and do something for fun. We have an amazing gentleman on the show. He's written a multitude of books. Joe Posnasky is on the show with us today.

His hottest new book has just come out September 5th, 2023, Why We Love Baseball, A History in 50 Moments. And you're going to love this. Whether you like baseball or not, maybe you rediscover baseball if you've fallen away from it. There's been a lot of great changes in sport as it's gone on. Joe is the number one New York Times bestselling author of six books. I believe this is the seventh, including Paterno and The Secret of Golf, and has been named National Sports Writer of the Year by five different organizations.

He writes at his website and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his family. And I should add, this is a New York Times bestseller and a Wall Street Journal bestseller, so he's hitting home runs here. Welcome to the show, Joe. How are you? I am great. I'm great. I'm intimidated by the, not the intro, but the lead in, all of those incredible people

you've had on this show. This is a big step down from the astronauts and Pulitzer Prize winners. Oh, no. No. I mean, Wall Street Journal and a New York Times bestseller. Come on, man. You're raking it in there, buddy. You're a big star in our books.

And so tell us a 30,000 overview of this book and what's inside. Yeah, I mean, this book is, the weird thing for this one is, you know, and you mentioned this was my seventh book, is I had the title first, and which I never do with my books. I just knew after my last book, which was called The Baseball 100, which was a countdown of the greatest players ever, I just knew that I wanted to write a book about why we love baseball and what it is that still captures our minds about this game that's been around for 150, 200 years. And I really wanted to do that by sharing with the moments of the game, really talking about the different moments of the game, why they capture our imaginations, why they continue to resonate with us.

And so that's what this is. It is a countdown of sorts of the 50 greatest moments or 50 most magical moments in baseball history, along with a whole bunch of other moments that I squeeze in throughout the book in various different ways. So it's, you know, I feel like no no matter what nobody's going to come to me and say hey man i didn't get my money's worth out of this book because it promises 50 moments but they're actually 108 moments in here oh are they really double the price yeah yeah exactly all over the place but but they're funny moments and and uh silly moments but also of course incredibly inspiring moments and

emotional things. And that's, to me, what it is that I think we love about baseball is that it really captures us in so many different ways. And so I wanted to try to do that, to tell that story through all of these incredible moments of the game there you go uh so uh so basically it's a two-for-one where uh you buy the book for 50 moments and you get uh 108 or something yeah yeah no maybe that should have been the byline a two-for-one on there what i wanted to put in there yeah history of 50 moments and below it like but there's so much more like bonus material in here you know so there you go why did you feel like these moments were and how did you pick them and were the were the most important and and are you gonna have are you gonna have

people coming up to you and go hey you forgot that one time at the one thing oh i've had that happen already yeah i've definitely had people say oh oh, where was my moment? Starting an argument. Exactly, which is fun, which is another part of the fun. This was really cool to me because none of these moments, what I was thinking about when I picked the moments was not, is this the most important moment or is this the most dramatic moment? All I was thinking of is this why we love baseball. That was my that was the entire thought process. So every single moment came in. So there's a, there's a, there's a very famous

moment, which you might remember. I mean, I don't know how famous it is, but there is a great moment of a few years ago where the New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon hit a home run. and Bartolo was very famously a terrible hitter he was uh he was listed at something like 245 which I'm sure he was at some point in his life but was not when he hit the home run and it took him so long to run around the bases that literally he it took him longer there there's there's another very famous moment about Kirk Gibson hitting the home run that won a World Series game on one leg. Essentially, he wasn't supposed to play, and he hit the home run on one leg. It took Bartolo Colon, a fully healthy Bartolo Colon, longer to run around the bases than it took Kirk Gibson on one leg. And that moment is absolutely in my book. Absolutely. Because it's why we love

baseball. And if it was the 100 most important moments or the 100 most dramatic or anything inspirational, most awesome, that moment doesn't go in there. but when you're guided by this principle of like what this what really this is about is does this moment explain in some way why i love baseball and by me by i i mean anybody um then it's in here so a ball hitting jose conseco on the head and bouncing over the fence for a home run that's in here you know that's in here and so people come up to me all the time and go I hope you live out you know this moment from the 1967 world series and I'm like because the ball hit Jose Canseco in the head and bounced over the fence for a home run right so yeah I mean it really really, that was my favorite part. I tell people all the time that in many ways, this was the most personal book that I've written since my first book.

And it's personal in ways that are hard to describe, but the main thing is every single moment I thought about with this book revolves around why we love baseball. There you go. And, you know, if anybody says you missed any moments, just say, uh, that's in book two. Yeah, that's the next one. Exactly. We've got several more coming.

I mean, come on. Just keep going. We'll just say, just everyone contribute to the book that way. And you don't have to, you don't have to do the research or anything, but, uh, so tell us a little bit about your history and, uh, how'd you grow up and how did you fall in love with baseball? So I grew up in Cleveland and I am a first generation American. My parents moved to the United States just a couple of years before I was born.

And my father, and I try to explain this all the time, and I think people whose parents or grandparents came to this country really relate to this. It was very important for my father to raise his sons as Americans. That was just very important to him. He wanted to be an American, and he wanted his sons to be Americans. I mean, just like my father is one of those people who his favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. And on 4th of July, he loves driving around and seeing all the fireworks like in people's backyards. I mean, he is as American as they come with this incredibly thick accent, right? And for him, raising a son as an American meant teaching him baseball. And of course, my father didn't grow up with baseball.

I didn't know the game at all, but he learned it. He learned baseball so that he could teach his son how to play, teach him about some of the great players of the game. So I grew up with this sort of this sense that baseball meant something even more than just the game. I loved it. I loved playing baseball. I loved watching it. I loved going to the games, you know, on the rare times that we could go. My father worked in a factory. So he would come home from the factory and we'd play catch and it felt like important somehow. So I grew up a big sports fan across the board. I'm writing a football book now. I love football.

I grew up with it and basketball and hockey and all the others, but there was something special about baseball because I think of its connection to, to what America is, you know? And I think, isn't the game kind of, it, it, you, it seems like it's a little bit more about personalities because there's time to watch the personalities and there's time to, you know, it's, it's,

it's, it's more than just, you know, football's a very fast game. Basketball's very fast game. Very fast. And I'm sure there's, you know,

lots of great classic moments in there, but, but, but most of it's probably on the field. You know, you might catch some, you know, I don't know, Tom Brady yelling at somebody you know on the sideline or something but even then i don't think that really stands out as all that memorable he did it quite often actually

but uh but i mean it doesn't seem like one of those things but there's something about baseball that where it's a slow enough game where uh and they've they've done stuff to speed it up but it's a sort of game where it's kind of the personalities, I think, maybe are more impacted. You know, watching the coach go out and yell at the, you know, work it out on the mound and the pitcher and yell at the umpires. And, you know, there's a whole lot bigger dynamic and chess game that's going on there.

I totally, totally agree with you and i love that you're saying that because this was as i was thinking about this book and how to write it these are exactly the thoughts i was having i think it's it is a much slower game and it's a much slower game in the sense of when you're in the stands you have time to talk to your friends you have time to talk to people strangers who are around you you have time to talk to your friends. You have time to talk to people, strangers who are around you. You have time to reminisce about things that you've seen before. You look at this player and go, oh, this player kind of reminds me of this player that I grew up watching. Or this day reminds me of a game that I saw five years ago or 10 years ago or 50 years ago. Right. And there isn't that time in football.

There isn't. You're so focused right on the next play. Like, oh my gosh, we're down three. And this is like, nothing else matters except for what you're there right now. But in baseball,

you can really stretch out and, and feel all of these different things. And you're right about the personalities. What I have found, having written, being a longtime sports writer, I wrote for newspapers for many years and, of course, wrote about the baseball team, wrote about the football team, wrote about the basketball team. And what you find is in baseball, fans, and this is very,

very generally speaking, but in a general sense fans really care about the backgrounds of the players i mean they really want to know their story how how did this person grow up how did this person learn to love baseball like like what is their you know what do they care about this and in football it's significantly less so i I mean, they're behind helmets. There's so many of them on the field. And, you know, sometimes I would say, you know, I'm trying to tell the story of how some football player grew up. And I would get people who would respond like, I don't care. All I care about is like what they deliver on Sundays.

I mean, that was the kind of response I would get. And I think baseball is different in exactly the ways that you're talking about. There you go. And maybe it's more endeared to people with baseball, you know, growing up because you can play kind of baseball and catch with your dad,

but it's a little harder to play football with your dad. I mean, especially if he tries to talk to you when you're 12. Yeah. I mean, there is certainly a family element to football. with your dad i mean especially if he tries to talk to you when you're 12 you know uh yeah yeah i mean there is it's there is certainly a family element to football and the the family element that i keep running across is you know we've had giant season tickets for 50 years right my grandfather passed them along to my father best my mother whatever so i mean there's there's there is that but in baseball baseball, it's,

it's definitely like when I was writing the baseball 100 about all of these great players, I couldn't believe how many of them kind of learned the game from their, their dad, learned their game from, from their, you know, and it's true in football too, but a lot of times in football, it's true because their dad happened to be the high school coach, right? Like there's a different feeling of like a lot of times, yeah, I learned the game from my dad because my dad was teaching everybody. Rather than sort of the way like my dad taught me baseball, my dad was, you know, he didn't know how to play baseball. Like he had taught himself how to play baseball, but he still taught me because, you know, that's sort of the way it was. So I think that there is a family element, but it is, it's, it's really pronounced in baseball.

I think unlike other sports, I can really see that with your book that gave me the epiphany about how, you know, there's a, there's a difference to the game. You know, I grew up a Dodgers fan as a kid back in the sort of days and Steve Garvey. And you watch the game. Watching Thomas sort of go out and yell at somebody or do whatever he's doing. He doesn't play the game. I mean, he doesn't play the game as a player. So you're not – but if you're watching a football game you know maybe you know a lot of people focus on bill belichick was a little darth vader thing going on

sure uh you know or you know sometimes they'll they'll talk about the coaches a little bit but you're really not that much into whatever and you know the coach isn't running on the field i don't think you can on the nfl um yeah they'll absolutely throw a flag on you there there's there's some really cool uh things that that i think about all the time with baseball there are these various sort of on the field little sort of plays that happen like a pitcher is you know going to get pulled out of a game it doesn't just happen the way it does in football where they just run off the field. The manager goes out, takes the ball away from them, points to the bullpen.

The bullpen has to, you know, that guy runs in. Everybody's watching. You take a pause for that guy to warm up. It's like a whole thing. It's like, you know, it's a whole dramatic thing. And I think that adds like some sort of like, I don't know, it's a whole dramatic thing. And, and, and I think that adds like some sort of like, I don't know, resonance to the moment and football in and out, in and out basketball, you know, you just sit at the scorer's table and wait for them to call your name. And then you're,

you're in the game. I mean, there's, there's not the same level of like uh interaction i think between the fans and the moments um you know but football of course has so many other charms uh that that are you know like nothing is more fun than watching them yank the stupid chains out to tell you whether it's a first down or not you know like so i mean it it has its own things but it not, baseball has so many more. And I just think that's because it's so much older a game, I think. There you go. And I mean, I'm a Raiders fan. So, you know, I'm a seventies sort of kid. So, you know, I used to be knocking people's teeth out and hurting them.

But sadly they changed that. But, you know, I mean, still you look for the great plays, but yeah, if you blink in the NFL, you miss the play. That's right. You know, even when I sit and watch it on TV, you know, I'll be maybe working. And if I look aside for a second, I'm like, I'll miss some great play. I'm like, oh, damn. But, yeah, there's so much anticipation, I think.

Maybe anticipation is a great word for it. And the art of the game the the chess play of the game of you know throwing the balls throwing the strikes what is what you know it's it's the mano a mano sort of sun uh meet me on the you know that way west thing the meet me at sun sunset and we're gonna go guns oh guns ablaze and one-on-one and it's kind of that face-off between those two individuals on the mound and on the plate. And maybe that's really an aspect that makes it different and unique and,

and have a little bit more of that anticipation and, and the play end of it where you're like, what's he going to do? What were some moments that you can tease out in the books that maybe surprised you or maybe some of your favorite tidbits? There are a bunch of them that I really love. And, you know, what you talk about is 100% right in the sense of these duels. I've got a whole section in the book called Five Great Duels where I talk about, you know, very specific. Because baseball is, it's a team game, but it's,

but it's an individual game more, more than like they blend that individual and team game much more than any other sport. I mean, in football, ultimate team game, nobody can do anything by themselves. I mean, you can't even, you know, somebody's got to snap the ball to you to get the play started. Right. So, and in basketball, you can do a little bit more one-on-one stuff, but, but so much of it is still, you know, you it's, it's so much about a team and baseball. It's a team game, but when you step up to the plate, I, you know, Derek Jeter talks about this. When you step up to the plate, it's just you and me.

That's it. I mean, you know, there are fielders out there to help you as a pitcher,, it's just you and me. That's it. I mean, there are fielders out there to help you as a pitcher, but it's just you and me. And it's your brain and your pitches and your strategy against my brain and my strategy and my sense of what's going to happen. So I write about great duels. Some of those are one of my all-time favorite duels is the one between Reggie Jackson and bob welch in the

1977 world series 78 world series i think uh because it was the year after he hit the three home runs uh where he faced this young you know bob welch who would later on you know win a cy young and become a very good pitcher but at that stage he was just a kid just out of the minor leagues reggie was already this this larger than life figure they face each other and it was like at sunset you know the the way the television cameras sort of covered it like back to his brow you know he's he's he's sweating and then to reggie kind of with that big like i got you now moment i mean just if there's a there's a wonderful, wonderful interplay between the two, which I think is a great, great part of baseball. So I write about great duels like that.

There are very famous moments in here. I think hopefully all of the truly, truly famous moments, Babe Ruth hitting his called shot home run where he pointed to center field or did he, nobody, you know, the, the argument goes on. Um, the shot heard around the world, the 1951 giants, uh, you know, on the last day, uh, having been given up for dead, coming back and, and hitting the home run that Bobby Thompson hitting the home run that one, thompson hitting the home run that won uh that sent them to the world series and uh kirk gibson's home run we already mentioned

willie mays is great over the shoulder uh catch and and so like they're all of these great famous moments in here and and what i tried to do with those moments is find something different about them because those are very famous and people will know a lot about them. And, and I want to be able to, to tell them like the shot heard around the world. I want to be able to tell them about the first base coach who, who, if you watch, if you watch the, the film of it, it, he's going absolutely crazy. It's actually, once you notice him, it's like you'll never forget it because he's just losing his mind. And he had a great story. So I was able to tell his story.

So for famous moments like that, I wanted to do that. But then there are a lot of moments in here that nobody knows or very, very few people. Really? Wow. Yeah, yeah. lot of moments in here uh that nobody knows or very very few people yeah yeah i mean moments like the story of chelsea baker who is a a young uh she's still a young woman but she was a girl 11 years old who threw two perfect games in little league oh wow and and super cool story because her story is that when she was six years old she she joined her little league team she was the only girl on the team begged the coach to teach her how to throw a knuckleball

and the coach kind of kept saying no no but she was persistent and the coach taught her how to throw a knuckleball and that coach was joe negro who won more than 200 games in the major leagues with his, yeah. And brother of Phil Necro, uh, one of the, you know, maybe the greatest knuckleball pitcher ever.

Um, and he taught her the knuckleball and she threw two perfect games, throwing that knuckleball against 11 year olds who had no idea what was coming. And so stories like that, I, there are a bunch of those in this book that are, that are,

you know, it was just a joy for me. Like, this is the, I would say, you're always excited for a book to come out. But this was different. When this book, for the weeks leading up to the book coming out, I mean, I was just like so anxious and excited. I just wanted people to see some of these cool little moments that I had discovered or found along the way that I didn't know about as a pretty big baseball fan.

And so I was really excited to sort of share, share those moments with people. There you go. And, and kind of a dear people back to the game. I mean, remind people of how great this game is. I mean, this game at one time was, you know, American as they come. Apple pie and, I don't know, Coca-Cola. Chevrolet, yeah.

Chevrolet. And somewhere it got lost in all the things. I grew up loving the game. Reggie Jackson was my second favorite player next to Steve Garvey. And I'm still a Dodgers fan um and uh but I I do miss Tom in sort of it was so fun to watch oh sure it's just a blast I'll tell you who you have to miss you have to miss Vin Scully there's there's a there's a wonderful uh I think a wonderful my one of my favorite chapters in the book is the story not only of Sandy Koufax throwing his perfect game, but of Vin Scully calling that game, announcing that game from the booth.

I believe it to be the greatest announcer call in the history of sports. And I always used to be so jealous of people who grew up Dodger fans because they would listen to Vin Scully. I only got to hear him when he was on the broadcast on Saturdays. He was iconic. But, yeah, iconic. Just every night getting to hear Vin. Lived a long time, too. Oh, gosh, yeah.

Yeah, so awesome. I mean, some of the baseball announcers have always been iconic. I'm trying to think of a few that I can hear the voices in my head. Oh, Jack Bach, for sure. Yeah. Guys like that, like Ernie Harwell in Detroit. Everybody had one. Every town seemed to have like this iconic announcer.

And that's different than football, too. I mean, they're a great, great football announcer. You're a Raiders fan, so you know Bill King, who's obviously one of the all-time greats. But mostly it's baseball announcers and i think that also speaks to what you're saying which is football is very very i mean you can listen to it on the radio because if you can't watch it on tv but it's a visual game and and you really you it's frustrating to listen to the radio because they're like what a great catch and you're like what did that catch look like i want to know right but baseball is like just as good on the radio in a different way

than it is you know because it sparks your imagination and you get stories and and so so yeah there are tremendous iconic announcers in baseball and there's that anticipation he's stepping up to the bat and the play yes the pitcher is winding up yes you know you you have that anticipation we're in football it's like you threw the damn thing i think i caught it you know he's running down the field exactly right well in football it's the play which you have to rush through um and to me it's very funny that i mean i think al michaels is probably the greatest football announcer on TV, but I love Pat Summerall and Pat Summerall's calls were always like Montana rice touchdown. That's it. Like there was no, there was no description, you know, cause you don't need it.

You don't need it in football, but in baseball, the like the way Vin would be poetic and the way Jack Buck would just leave his heart out there. And Harry Carey, of course, and Harry Carey, that's some of the other, some of the other greats. I mean,

it is, you know, it's, it's, it's wonderful. I still miss Madden NFL, even though Madden would just say the most obvious shit that it's just, it's so true.

It's so true. At the end, he'd be like, that's a flag, which means that's a penalty. Like he would do that. It's so true. It's so true. At the end, he'd be like, that's a flag, which means that's a penalty. Like, he would do that. But I think it's only because he was so transformational when he started.

Like, there had never been anybody like him. But then when you hear him for 30 years, I mean, like, there's only so much that any of us can say without repeating ourselves. So after a while, it started to get a little repetitive but you know he's for color commentators not only is he the best there's ever been nobody's even close yeah i miss him i miss i miss hearing it it was it was like the i kind of lost a little bit for from the nfl it started to fade with me after he left because there was just something level about his stuff. Maybe I'm just a Raiders fan. I don't know.

But, uh, you know, a diehard Raiders fan from the seventies and, uh, Ken Stabler and all that stuff. So it was just incredible. I'm old. No, no, but that's an incredible thing. I've actually, uh, you know, I'm trying to do this football book and I'm thinking about doing it in, in ways that are similar to the baseball book baseball book, which would mean including all of these other bonus moments. And I was like, I think I'm going to have to have a category just for the Raiders. I think

because there were so many Ken Stabler moment, the Holy Roller and the Holy Ghost and the Sea of Hands and all these other plays that the Raiders were, you know, famously did. But yeah, I mean, not to turn this around on you, but that kind of had to break your heart when they went to Las Vegas. No. Oh yeah. No, hold on. I live in Las Vegas.

Oh, so it was good. I was, I was very happy. I've hated that stupid Oakland field because I've been to the games and I watched, you know, people hurt and trip themselves in that stupid dirt. Oh, yeah. And I've been angry about that for years. So, yeah, when they moved to Vegas, I was actually happy because I live in Vegas. And I'm like, you guys moved to where I live.

That's great. Way to go. I saw a bunch of games in Oakland because I was the columnist in Kansas City for years. And so I saw a bunch of games and I had beer thrown on me all over the place. I mean, just like, just, just, you know, wear a suit to a football game in Oakland and good luck. That's not going to work. And you don't go on 49ers versus Oakland.

Oh gosh. It's like a prison yard. It's when you go there that for the thing but uh back to baseball the uh uh so this is awesome and uh i think it will dear people to the game and remind people why it's so great in fact you give me epiphany as to as to really you know what the real difference is between there and why it's valued so much and why it's it's uh it's kind of connects us you know i always love that old line from billy crystal and i'll probably butcher it here but something about how he could never talk to his dad i think it's from a movie uh and he's like i can never talk to my dad but the one thing we could always talk about was baseball yeah

yeah from uh city slickers yeah there you go it's a it's a it's so true well what i got back i don't know if i mentioned this earlier from Baseball 100 were all of these people saying all of these, telling me all these stories, right? And in the early stage of this book, that's been even more true. And it's incredibly, I mean, it just makes my heart glow to think about all of these people who come up to me who will say, you know what? I wasn't a big baseball fan. I used to be a huge baseball fan, then I kind of lost interest. I've read your book and it's kind of brought me back to baseball or even cooler. I mean, not that that's, it can be a whole lot cooler than that. Even cooler, they'd be like, I kind of lost touch with baseball but my daughter read your book

and oh wow now we talk about baseball all the time you know and and that's that's awesome i mean to me that's sort of what the game is and should be and and so yeah i mean look i i fully understand people who have sort of moved on from the game but there are a lot of people who loved it when they were growing up. And, and when you, if you love it, when you're growing up, there's always a little party that stays a baseball fan,

I think. Yeah. I've been loving the, the new, is it called the hit box? What is it called? Where they, where they show where the ball is.

Yeah. You can sit there and you can be like, yeah, I'm part of got it wrong. You know, because you know, you used to fight about stuff. I remember back when the NFL was having an issue. You mentioned the young daughter who got interested in the game.

You know, women love the background, the personalities, the things. And of course, men do, too, because, you know, we'd be like, you know, this guy came up from the juniors and leagues and stuff. And I remember when the NFL, they made some changes or did some of their announcers to try and drum that sort of business up of getting women interested in football too. And he's married to so-and-so and that sort of story thing. But yeah, reminding us of the greatness of the game and how long it's been around and and uh bringing people back to it and right people hey yeah i should go watch you remind me i need to go watch some more uh baseball

games and stuff and see how the dodgers doing i certainly like the dodgers now that they got rid of the that old owner guy who was charging 50 for hot dogs and and uh you did still does he really oh yeah Still owns the parking lot. I remember, son of a gun, I went years ago, and it was when he still owned it, and I went. It was like 50 bucks or something or 75 bucks to park. I'm like, what the hell? I bought the tickets, and I got to buy the parking?

I'm like, what the hell is this? And then the hot dogs were like, you know, I ended up mortgaging my house for a hot dog and a drink. But he still owns the parking lot. Darn it. But, yeah, good stuff. Final thoughts as we go out and pitch out to the audience on the book yeah i mean look i i loved the book has been so such an incredible experience already and you know when you write a baseball book any kind of book, I don't think you expect it to sort of get

into the, into the sort of pop culture world the way that this book has. And so it's, it's something I'm incredibly honored by and surprised by and all of that. But it's been so cool for me to see people reconnect with baseball, see people who have always connected with baseball, people who have new connections to baseball, kids that have come up to me, and there have been a lot of young kids who have come up to me about this. And all of that is just, I mean, it blows my mind, honestly.

You write a book and you have, you have hopes, obviously. Uh, but for you, you don't necessarily think, oh, this is going to be, you know, uh, the bestseller and this is gonna, you know, stay on the list for weeks and it's going to do this. I mean, none of those things come to mind when you're writing a baseball book. But it does show, I think, the strength of baseball fanhood. I think there are a lot of people who just love the game and want something happy. I mean, that's the other thing. I mean, this book is nothing but, there's no controversy in it. I mean, other than people who are going to argue with me about what should have been in there. Um, but it's nothing but happy. I mean, that's, that's what it is. There's, this is, there's no, no politics. There's no, uh, um, you know, any sense of, of anger about

the country. It's just happy baseball stories. And, and, uh, um, I i think i think that's maybe why it's it's it's doing so well i think that's maybe why people are really relating to it and and i love it i absolutely love it there you go it's resonating with a lot of people and endearing them and and reminding of their memories you know like i've been talking we've been talking here about memories that i haven't talked about for a long time and thought about. I might go watch some old games of Tommy Lasorda. There you go. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Go watch Tommy Lasorda beat up the Philly Fanatic again. That was one of my favorite little moments. The Fanatic was kind of making fun of him, and he wasn't having it. Tommy Lasorda was not having it. I think I remember that vaguely. I've got to go pull that up. It's on YouTube. Just pop it on YouTube.

There you go. Tommy Lasorda and Philly Fanatic, and it'll that up. Just pop it on YouTube. Fabulous Orda and Philly Fanatic and it'll pop up. He was such a character. So thank you very much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it, Joe. Thank you very much and it's been fun. Absolutely. Thank you. There you go. Folks, order up the book where refined

books are sold. You can find it. It's out now, but stay away from alleyway bookstores. You might get mugged. The book is called Why We Love Baseball, A History in 50 Moments, September 5th, 2023. And remember, we're coming into the holidays. It might be a great gift to give to your father for Christmas and all that good stuff you can sit and reminisce about the past.

Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe, everyone, and we'll see you guys next time. That should have a sound show.