Hi everyone —

All right, it’s time for the second JoeBlogs Book of the Month! We kicked things off in June with Tommy Tomlinson’s Dogland, and now we’re back with another great nonfiction pick.

We’ve handed this over to you Brilliant Readers, and this month’s choice was made by our Boys of Summer sports panel.

And you chose a great one: Luke Epplin’s “Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball.”

I couldn’t be happier with the pick — “Our Team” is terrific. Luke and I did a panel together at the Tucson Book Festival a couple of years ago, and I read the book to prepare. It’s absolutely wonderful. One of its many virtues is how fully it honors the first African American player in the American League, Larry Doby. The book powerfully reminds us that Doby not only faced many of the same challenges as Jackie Robinson, but in some ways, he had it even harder.

You’ll love it. Buy it immediately.

Now, I’ll hand it over to JoeBlogs Book of the Month editor Talia.

From Talia

It’s our first Book of the Month chosen by one of you! This pick comes to us from Brilliant Reader and Boys of Summer panel member Paul White. You’ll hear a little about why he submitted this book a bit further down.

But first, a brief(ish) word on this thing we call “sports.”

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Truth bomb: I’m not really a sports fan. I know that’s basically blasphemy coming from a friend of Joe, but bear with me here! It’s not that I was raised NOT to be. I grew up in Kansas City in a family of passionate Royals and Chiefs fans (my uncle can tell you the jersey number of any Royal, past or present), and with a dad whose blood runs black and gold for his Mizzou Tigers.

Sports just never really worked for me. When the Royals made their triumphant return in 2014/2015, and the Chiefs a handful of years later, I was excited, sure! I tuned in. I cheered when we won, felt sad when we lost. But still, that spark wasn’t there—not like when I sat down for my first Broadway show or heard the orchestra tuning for a performance of Giselle.

And yet, when I look back on sticky summer days in the stands at Kauffman Stadium, gazing across a sea of blue and white, the condensation of a frosty malt managing to break through the suffocating midwest humidity; or Super Bowls spent with my family at home, my dad and I crafting the finest nachos known to humankind in preparation for a slew of over-the-top advertisements with brief breaks every now and then for some football (and my mom rushing out of the room whenever things looked tense, because as long as she wasn’t watching, good things would happen); or Sundays spent with my boyfriend’s family, football on the TV, me falling asleep to the voices of the announcers…

… I realize that memories tied to sports are some of the fondest I have.

I should say, I’ve always had the softest spot for baseball. Kansas City made that easy. Between attending Royals games, taking school field trips to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and playing catch with my dad growing up (“throw me a pop fly!”), baseball feels like an old friend.

Speaking of old friends, reading a special little title called Why We Love Baseball deepened my appreciation for the sport even more, and really enhanced my experience reading Our Team. All the moments in Joe’s book come together into a sort of impressionist painting. Look up close to see the ittle details—the bat-splitting swings, the miracle plays, the records set, the records broken—and then step back to see the picture that’s made as everything comes together: the magic of baseball.

I think you’ll feel some of that same magic with our Book of the Month!

Now, onto that Book of the Month! Our Team tells the story of the 1948 Cleveland Indians, shining a spotlight on four men—Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, and Bill Veeck—and the roles they played in the integration of the American League as they led the team to the World Series.

Here’s a little of what Paul White had to say about his pick:

“They were all complex men, with widely varying experiences and views on integration and race relations. Epplin does a good job providing us with the backgrounds for each, so it’s not merely a retelling of that single season. I have a bias for this book because it was a great source when I was writing my own, but I’m primarily recommending it because it’s just a good tale well told, covering what can be an uncomfortable subject in a very accessible way, even for people who aren’t the biggest baseball fans.”

Paul hits the nail right on the head. Our Team feels as much about U.S. History as it is about baseball—if not more so. And that makes it really special.

Now, why did we choose this book? I’ll walk you through it.

First, it’s baseball! I have to imagine that the sport most universally enjoyed by the highest percentage of Joe fans is baseball. So we have inherent appeal. We’re probably not going to do another sports book for a little while — we have to spread things around! — but we should start with a baseball book.
Second, it’s not JUST baseball. Or, it’s not just baseball for baseball’s sake. Baseball is the through line, the commonality that centers the book’s figures (and its readers) across years of extremely tumultuous socio-political conditions in the U.S., from internal racial tensions and constant struggles for equality to external threats faced during and after World War II. Basically, it caters to history buffs, too.
Third, it’s about Satchel Paige! I mean, that immediately drew my attention. I honestly didn’t know as much about Doby, Feller, and Veeck, but I came for the Satchel Paige and left with the incredible stories of those other remarkable men.

How can someone be larger than life and simultaneously humanized in the same book? That’s the magic trick Luke Epplin pulls off in this book.

I know you baseball fans — and pretty much all of you are baseball fans — will love this. But for someone like me who doesn’t love sports quite that way but loves well-told stories of history, fascinating people, myths, heroes, and family, well, Our Team is a reader’s dream.

👉 Buy Our Team at Bookshop

👉 Buy Our Team at Amazon

👉 Buy Our Team at Barnes & Noble