Review by Booklist Review
The 1975 Cincinnati Reds were arguably the best team in the modern era, notwithstanding their riveting, closely matched World Series against the Boston Red Sox. The team featured four legends Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez and could beat you every which way. For the baseball fan too young or too forgetful to remember, Kansas City Star sports columnist Posnanski brings the 1975 Big Red Machine to life, tracking the season from spring training through game seven of the series and profiling players and narrating key games along the way. He imparts an insider's feel for the clubhouse dynamics among the players and for the thinking of their sneaky-smart manager, Sparky Anderson. Pair this winner of a baseball book with Mark Frost's recently published Game Six (2009), which uses the sixth game of the Reds-Red Sox World Series in 1975 as a microcosm from which to view the great players on both teams and the state of the game at a watershed moment in its history.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Casey award winner and Kansas City Star columnist Posnanski writes of the Cincinnati Reds when they were the "Big Red Machine" during the 1970s. The 1975 Reds team has been called one of the greatest ever, with stars like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez. They absolutely dominated the season and then won a cliff-hanger World Series against the Red Sox. But what makes this book work is Posnanski's storytelling power; he centers many of his tales around legendary manager Sparky Anderson, wise and wily despite being a high school dropout, who used every trick to motivate and keep a team of disparate personalities working in harness. Verdict Chock-full of hilarious tales and insightful stories, this book works so much better than the many "as told to" baseball books we get. It will be enjoyed by all baseball fans, whatever their opinion of the Reds.-Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
