The Machine: A Sizzling Crew, a Legendary Season, and a Coronary heart-stopping World Sequence: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds

Great trip down memory lane…Best Baseball Book of the Year !!
Joe Posnanski’s new book, “The Machine” might be the best baseball book of the year. Like the author, I grew up idolizing the Big Red Machine as a youngster. As a nine year old, I remember listening to Marty and Joe call the Reds games on WLW nearly every night from my small southern Indiana town. The team was unbelievable and Posnanski’s book captures the excitement of the Reds 1975 championship quest. It is clear that the author used in-depth interviews with many member of the Machine. He gives the reader fascinating insights into the lives of Sparky Anderson, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, and Pete Rose at the height of their professional success. I found Sparky Anderson’s class system interesting – his stars (Bench, Rose, Morgan, and Perez) had their own set of clubhouse and training rules. The rest of the players, who Sparky called his turds, answered to another set of rules (Anderson’s) while all the time trying to claw their way into Anderson’s favored elite class. The system worked because the four Reds superstars would not allow anyone, including themselves, an overly inflated ego. Pranks, jokes, and razzing kept the Reds a loose bunch of superstars. No one’s ego got too carried away.Posnanski correctly describes the team’s slow start in ’75 and the desperate lineup adjustment by Anderson – moving Rose from left field to third base, thus free up LF for a young, blossoming George Foster – that sparked the Reds amazing summer run. There has been no team as talented or good as the Reds since 1975 and Posnanski does a masterful job telling the entire season’s story. Including a great job describing the infamous ’75 World Series. Others may criticize his writing style as too simplistic, but from my perspective, the book reads as smoothly as any baseball book I have ever read. I could not put it down.Finally, perhaps the most interesting part of the book is Posnanski’s insights and discussions with Pete Rose. We all know about Pete’s troubled past: the gambling on baseball, the lies, the tax evasion, the time in federal prison. I struggle with my feeling about Rose. One day I hate him for what he has turned into. Other days, (and as I read this book) I remember what an incredible ball player he was. Rose is truly a bigger than life character, possibly the most competitive person to ever play the game. Pete Rose is truly an American tragedy, but Posnanski allowed me to once again see Rose through the eyes of an unspoiled, awe-struck, nine year old. Pete Rose will always be one of the heroes of my youth. Thanks Joe for a great book.

The Spark that ignites the Fire!
This is not Shakespeare that’s for sure. I can read Shakespeare and enjoy it but I’d rather read a good story about real people and baseball. This book brings the “Gods of Baseball” down to Earth for us mortals to meet. How many managers have won a championship? How about two? I enjoyed the stories within this book, especially the story about the man called Sparky.I admire PASSION! Joe Posnanski’s passion for writing and baseball allow the subjects in his book to showcase their passions. This book is about the passion of all the members of a great baseball team, the 1975 Reds. You will read about management and its passions for winning and being stingy. You will read about the manager and his passion for winning, at whatever cost. You will read about stars and their passion for personal fame, money and winning. And you will read about “turds” and their passion to be a bigger “cog” in “the machine”!Some reviewer criticize Posnanski’s style as being simplistic and shallow. But, I thnk they just don’t get it. They are just like the people who say that baseball is boring. Those people are looking for action just like those reviewers are looking for literary perfection or a classic in every book they read. Baseball is beautiful because there is so much going on, but most of it is in the minds of the players, coaches and spectators. This book may seem simple or boring on the surface but if you love baseball you will love the simple stories of the members of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. The author allows you to enter a world very few have entered and (mentally) explore it as you please.I was taken back to a time when I was very young. I was taken back to 1975 and I enjoyed the journey. I was also taken into the professional lives of coaches and athletes. And I was even taken into their personal lives. These guys had personal lives? Sure they did!! But how many baseball fans or even Reds fans considered the personal lives of these “Gods of Baseball”? This book is refreshing because it reminds us that baseball players are not role models. Although we have ever-increasingly demanded them to be(because they make so much money). They can be heroes and not be role models.In this book you will also get a look at our country, from sports standpoint, at a crossroad. Things were going on, things were changing, and all those things affected baseball and the Reds. There is a sub-plot regarding Sparky and his son that symbolizes the acute gap between the generations during this time in America. It reminds us that there will always be this gap and that gap CAN be bridged!! Baseball can bridge that gap! Baseball has bridged that gap! Baseball will continue to bridge that gap!Joe Posnanski doesn’t have a lot of experience writing books and that’s OK. He is a sportswriter, columnist and blogger. He knows sports and especially baseball. He knows how to write baseball. He knows baseball words and baseball writing style. Although he is not an accomplished author he is an accomplished sportswriter (prize-winning). Don’t let his lack of experience as an author fool you into thinking that he is not a great WRITER. He is a great writer and I expect his future books to be even better. But, don’t come looking for his early books after you “discover” him later, as a prize-winning AUTHOR! You have your chance now! Buy this book! Enjoy it and pass it on! Buy “The Soul of Baseball” and do the same with that book!Go back in time and rediscover America’s national pasttime!!

Great Baseball Read from The FUN 1970’s!!
Joe Posnanki is truly a stellar baseball & life writer! He is my favorite baseball writer from the late part of the 20th Century, and into the 21st Century. Reading His Baseball & Sports Books are simply and enjoyable experience, for This Baseball Lifer!!FAMGuyer (Baseball Lifer & FAMDaddy)

This was a terrific story about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. This was a team that started slowly but eventually hit its stride, blowing away their NL West divisional rivals with 108 wins in the regular season. The Reds swept the Pittsurgh Pirates in the NLCS, and, in the unforgettable 1975 World Series, were taken to the brink by the Boston Red Sox. The author does an excellent job discussing the personalities that made the team click: Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey, Johnny Bench, George Foster, and the rest. I highly recommend it for any baseball buff.