Great article. It brings back memories of waiting in the library when the bus ride ended after school. I too have been reading the Baseball 100 each night before bed to usher me through the long winter months. Every chapter contains something I didn't know about the player. Can't wait for the new book.
Can't wait! I read a Chapter of the Baseball 100 every night before bed. Such a treat. Hoping to see The Football 100 next. I mean, you've already written it pretty much.
This is the best teaser for an as yet unpublished book, period! I will be buying multiple copies and giving them to my many baseball friends who share the same passions that you do, Joe.
Thank you for THIS ode to libraries and the gift upon gift they offered/offer us! Can't wait for YOUR latest! I am so grateful that you are in the Baseball World!
I’m looking forward to giving my brother-in-law, who played college baseball and loves the game, your 100 Best book. Then next February, God willing, I’ll give him this new book. He’s going to like me
Oh Joe, can you even believe you've been able to have a career that lets you feel such joy so often? So glad for you.
I still use 796357 when I need a six-digit PIN for something not too secure. My library was in the back room of the police station when I was little, until they opened a big glorious place of their very own (well, their own unit in the strip mall, anyway). I hear tell that after I left they expanded even more and got all three units in the building for their own! Sometimes my parents would take me on a special trip to a bigger town (we're not talking Chicago, here, but over 50,000 people) and I could explore a library with *multiple floors* that had an inter-library loan with ours. It was heaven. I devoured Jay Johnstone's memoirs, and Ron Luciano's, and multiple books on crazy rules scenarios and unusual baseball feats, and you could read Sporting News and Sports Illustrated while you were there even if you couldn't check them out, and eventually a copy of Total Baseball that changed my life.
I loved my library too, would average 1 book a day, especially during the Summer, I went to the library after it was remodeled a few years ago, and there were about 10%of the books there, i doubt they had more then 40 sports total, I feel sad for today’s kids, they won’t be able to do what we did, as for what I read as a teenager, it was pretty much everything I could get my hands on
i was that little boy in the sports section of the library too - it was 15 years before you - and in NYC, so the books were more plentiful, but, not as good (reading Koppett in NYT helped offset that). still, i devoured dozens of "The (Insert athlete usually, but not always baseball player name here) Story" - taught me much of what I knew about sports and the people who played them.
When I saw the cover the first thing I thought was “I wonder if I know anyone who would want to have a catch.” (I have 2 daughters who never played baseball or softball.)
Joe that’s the kind of teaser you write when we can order and read it now, not 7 months later!! But I can’t wait.
I have a thought on why this is your favorite book. First of all, it had to be a baseball book because baseball is your jam, so any non-baseball book wouldn’t be the top one. But when you wrote the Baseball 100, and the book about Buck, you wrote about some players that were great on the field, but frankly, pretty miserable humans. And as awesome as Buck was, he played and lived through some pretty terrible times and situations. Of course we haven’t read it, but it sounds like everything in this book is all good. Can’t wait. 
What an amazing revelation, Joe. I'm so happy for you. Not many people get to create their childhood dream.
Great article. It brings back memories of waiting in the library when the bus ride ended after school. I too have been reading the Baseball 100 each night before bed to usher me through the long winter months. Every chapter contains something I didn't know about the player. Can't wait for the new book.
Can't wait! I read a Chapter of the Baseball 100 every night before bed. Such a treat. Hoping to see The Football 100 next. I mean, you've already written it pretty much.
"a cavalry of Clevelanders would bum-rush this little public library branch..."
I love it.
This is the best teaser for an as yet unpublished book, period! I will be buying multiple copies and giving them to my many baseball friends who share the same passions that you do, Joe.
Thank you for THIS ode to libraries and the gift upon gift they offered/offer us! Can't wait for YOUR latest! I am so grateful that you are in the Baseball World!
Seven and a half months? I know what I'm asking for as a birthday present!
Congratulations!!! But 7.5 months? I want it NOW!!!!!
I’m looking forward to giving my brother-in-law, who played college baseball and loves the game, your 100 Best book. Then next February, God willing, I’ll give him this new book. He’s going to like me
Prediction: Helton gets into the HOF with 75.2%, Wags nets 73%, and Rolen gets 72.5%.
Oh Joe, can you even believe you've been able to have a career that lets you feel such joy so often? So glad for you.
I still use 796357 when I need a six-digit PIN for something not too secure. My library was in the back room of the police station when I was little, until they opened a big glorious place of their very own (well, their own unit in the strip mall, anyway). I hear tell that after I left they expanded even more and got all three units in the building for their own! Sometimes my parents would take me on a special trip to a bigger town (we're not talking Chicago, here, but over 50,000 people) and I could explore a library with *multiple floors* that had an inter-library loan with ours. It was heaven. I devoured Jay Johnstone's memoirs, and Ron Luciano's, and multiple books on crazy rules scenarios and unusual baseball feats, and you could read Sporting News and Sports Illustrated while you were there even if you couldn't check them out, and eventually a copy of Total Baseball that changed my life.
I loved my library too, would average 1 book a day, especially during the Summer, I went to the library after it was remodeled a few years ago, and there were about 10%of the books there, i doubt they had more then 40 sports total, I feel sad for today’s kids, they won’t be able to do what we did, as for what I read as a teenager, it was pretty much everything I could get my hands on
i was that little boy in the sports section of the library too - it was 15 years before you - and in NYC, so the books were more plentiful, but, not as good (reading Koppett in NYT helped offset that). still, i devoured dozens of "The (Insert athlete usually, but not always baseball player name here) Story" - taught me much of what I knew about sports and the people who played them.
When I saw the cover the first thing I thought was “I wonder if I know anyone who would want to have a catch.” (I have 2 daughters who never played baseball or softball.)
Joe that’s the kind of teaser you write when we can order and read it now, not 7 months later!! But I can’t wait.
I have a thought on why this is your favorite book. First of all, it had to be a baseball book because baseball is your jam, so any non-baseball book wouldn’t be the top one. But when you wrote the Baseball 100, and the book about Buck, you wrote about some players that were great on the field, but frankly, pretty miserable humans. And as awesome as Buck was, he played and lived through some pretty terrible times and situations. Of course we haven’t read it, but it sounds like everything in this book is all good. Can’t wait. 
Great Job Joe. I know I’ll love reading it as much as you loved writing it. Your the best!