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Thread: Best books about the Reds?

  1. #16
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Don't forget Jim Brosnsn's first book either, 'The Long Season'. For an interesting biography on Brosnan: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b15e9d74

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  3. #17
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by remdog View Post
    Don't forget Jim Brosnsn's first book either, 'The Long Season'. For an interesting biography on Brosnan: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b15e9d74

    Rem
    I read both of Brosnan's books a long time ago. I checked them out at the library. Both were good as I remember. I wish they were on Kindle and I would purchase them to read again.
    Reds Fan Since 1971

  4. #18
    Member cumberlandreds's Avatar
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Reds Fan Since 1971

  5. #19
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    The Cincinnati Game is a good one.

  6. #20
    Big Red Machine RedsBaron's Avatar
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    The first two books I thought of have already been mentioned: Greg Rhodes's "Big Red Dynasty" and Joe Posnanski's "The Machine." Both are terrific.
    Someone also mentioned Sparky Anderson's "The Main Spark." It is a good read about the BRM near the end of its run, after the 1977 season. Pete's Rose's 1974 season diary, "Charlie Hustle" is also interesting, giving an account of the BRM just before it reached its peak (yes, both books had a ghost writer). Joe Morgan's autobiography, "A Life In Baseball" is also of interest.
    For a somewhat different perspective on the BRM, you could try "The Long Ball" by Tom Adelman. Adelman lives in New Jersey and his sympathies in this book about the 1975 season clearly are with the Red Sox, but it is worth a read.
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  7. #21
    Member cumberlandreds's Avatar
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by RedsBaron View Post
    The first two books I thought of have already been mentioned: Greg Rhodes's "Big Red Dynasty" and Joe Posnanski's "The Machine." Both are terrific.
    Someone also mentioned Sparky Anderson's "The Main Spark." It is a good read about the BRM near the end of its run, after the 1977 season. Pete's Rose's 1974 season diary, "Charlie Hustle" is also interesting, giving an account of the BRM just before it reached its peak (yes, both books had a ghost writer). Joe Morgan's autobiography, "A Life In Baseball" is also of interest.
    For a somewhat different perspective on the BRM, you could try "The Long Ball" by Tom Adelman. Adelman lives in New Jersey and his sympathies in this book about the 1975 season clearly are with the Red Sox, but it is worth a read.
    Amazon has a special on this one too. You can get it free with a trial membership in audible.com.

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Ball-...=the+long+ball
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  8. #22
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    First, I think whenever you are looking for a historical recommendation or perspective you ask WOY and that principle is correct here. Allen's "The Cincinnati Reds" is a glorious, florid, colorful look at the earliest days of the game and is just completely packed with great anecdotes and profiles. Allen rambles like a hilarious (and perhaps slightly tipsy) uncle, and focuses just as much on the Corky Millers of the pre WWII-world as the Joey Vottos. That book was fantastic.

    I have to register a dissenting opinion on Posnanski's "The Machine." After reading "The Soul of Baseball" and his online work over a period of years, I really enjoy Posnanski's work.* Yeah, he tends to hagiography and doesn't seem to approach (or want to approach) his subjects with a critical eye, but he's an expressive writer and his enthusiasm shines through.

    That said, "The Machine" was a big disappointment for me. With the exception of Sparky Anderson, I didn't feel like I learned a bit about the personalities on the team. Other than the fact that they were all hyper-competitive and liked to bust balls, there didn't seem to be a lick of depth about the personalities of guys like Rose, Perez, Morgan, and Bench. Maybe that's because there isn't much there (although you would think Rose, just himself, has enough demons to fill a bookshelf), maybe the guys themselves were so canny and stage-managed that they didn't produce any good material, maybe they've been so over-exposed in the intervening decades that all the stories are old hat, I don't know. The narrative seemed to be - hey, this team is really good, they won a billion games, every time they got in a jam someone would hit a "long home run" (Poz used this phrase dozens of times and it became really obnoxious) and get out of it, I don't know.

    The sad thing is that there was a truly compelling side story about the 1975 Reds that was absolutely begging for exposition. This was a team that had dominated the National League West since 1970 and had repeatedly fallen short in the playoffs. Losing to a truly great Baltimore team in 1970 was no shame, but they stumbled in 1971, then lost to a very beatable Oakland team in 1972, stumbled to a relatively poor Mets team in 1973, and then missed the playoffs in 1974. I wasn't alive at that time, and it was before the ESPN age of constant overanalysis, but there's an argument to be made that the Reds had a history of choking on the big stage. In that context, the 1975 team (especially in the playoffs) had a huge amount of pressure. Poz talks about this but he doesn't really get to a point where you appreciate the context.

    I guess it's a nice book and serves as a basic introduction to the team, and the description of the individual World Series games is very cool, but I felt like it was a missed opportunity. Given the combination of subject and Posnanski's Cincinnati ties and contacts, I expected something special and "The Machine" was just okay.

    * I haven't read Paterno but Poz didn't exactly cover himself in glory with his public comments during the scandal so this may need to be recalibrated.

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  10. #23
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Base Ball in Cincinnati focuses mainly on the Red Stockings/Reds but gives a history of how baseball began in the city of Cincinnati. The author's father came up with the idea to have the - then amateur - Cincinnati Base Ball Club to wear red stockings in a game. It's a bit hard to follow at points since it's not strictly in chronological order.

    http://www.amazon.com/Base-Ball-Cinc...+in+cincinnati
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  11. #24
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Expanding this thread from books to movies, I'm just about to buy "Hustle" - the ESPN movie about Rose - on Amazon. It's only $4. Is it even worth that?

    And other than the Reds Memories DVD (which I've watched more times than I can count), any other Reds-related DVD recommendations?

  12. #25
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by NebraskaRed View Post
    Expanding this thread from books to movies, I'm just about to buy "Hustle" - the ESPN movie about Rose - on Amazon. It's only $4. Is it even worth that?

    And other than the Reds Memories DVD (which I've watched more times than I can count), any other Reds-related DVD recommendations?
    Depends, do you pay them $4 or do they pay you? 'course if you were required to watch it, even the latter wouldn't be a deal.
    It is on the whole probable that we continually dream, but that consciousness makes such a noise that we do not hear it. Carl Jung.

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  14. #26
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Our Game by Charles Alexander and Lawrence Ritter's magnificent Glory of Their Times often include or allude to the Reds but aren't strictly Reds-centric, still I d consider both must books for fans of any team.

  15. #27
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    A fun fictional readis If I Never Get Back by Daryl Brock about a guy who goes thru a time warp and ends up traveling and playing with the 1869 Redlegs. Fun and interesting. Pretty far out but once you swallow the premise it has some fun and interesting speculation about that team its players and their personalities and the lifestyle of that time.

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  17. #28
    nothing more than a fan Always Red's Avatar
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by RedlegJake View Post
    A fun fictional readis If I Never Get Back by Daryl Brock about a guy who goes thru a time warp and ends up traveling and playing with the 1869 Redlegs. Fun and interesting. Pretty far out but once you swallow the premise it has some fun and interesting speculation about that team its players and their personalities and the lifestyle of that time.
    I read that last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it.

    Baseball travelogue through time and space.

  18. #29
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by NebraskaRed View Post
    Expanding this thread from books to movies, I'm just about to buy "Hustle" - the ESPN movie about Rose - on Amazon. It's only $4. Is it even worth that?

    And other than the Reds Memories DVD (which I've watched more times than I can count), any other Reds-related DVD recommendations?
    Depends on your income

    I am not a fan of baseball movies, my film school background plays into that I know, but often they are empty IMO

    Now baseball books is a different story, I currently own about 300 baseball books and there are a lot of gems out there. I can recommend plenty that are non Reds because I live in a world that baseball is not defined only by the Reds

  19. #30
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    Re: Best books about the Reds?

    Quote Originally Posted by NebraskaRed View Post
    Expanding this thread from books to movies, I'm just about to buy "Hustle" - the ESPN movie about Rose - on Amazon. It's only $4. Is it even worth that?

    And other than the Reds Memories DVD (which I've watched more times than I can count), any other Reds-related DVD recommendations?
    If you want to see Tom Sizemore in a bad toupee...this is your movie.

    A good book about 70's baseball which is my favorite time.... Big Hair and Plastic Grass.


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