9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great trip down memory lane...Best Baseball Book of the Year !!, October 13, 2009
This review is from: The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (Hardcover)
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.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy Reading, Lots to Like, But Lacks Meat, October 16, 2009
This review is from: The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (Hardcover)
The Big Red Machine was my team from the moment in 1974 when I realized that I couldn't stand Steve Garvey, and loved Johnny Bench. Part of this was due to my older brother being a Dodger fan, and me wanting to root against that brother.
This book brings back many fond memories of 1975, when I had my initiation into the world of baseball nuthood. The writing is user-friendly, but overly simplistic at times, and the pages turn rapidly because the book spends little time dwelling on any topic, and barely goes into any details that haven't been heard before. The reason this book rates only three-stars is that it feels like an appetizer. There's not much meat, and I'm hungry for more details.
This was a very entertaining read, but I was hoping for more.
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to the Machine, September 15, 2009
This review is from: The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (Hardcover)
"Bunch of losers," (Pete) Rose shouted. "We can't lose this game. We will not lose this game!"
It was the top of the sixth inning in the seventh game of the 1975 World Series, and the "Big Red Machine" was running on fumes in Fenway Park. Trailing 3-0 to the Boston Red Sox, the club was lucky to still be batting, since Pete Rose broke up a possible double play by sliding hard into second base. With Johnny Bench on first, Tony Perez stepped into the batter's box to face Bill "Spaceman" Lee; the same Perez who - months earlier - was nearly traded to Kansas City, Boston, Oakland or the Yankees.
"Pete turned from his yelling to watch Tony Perez hit," writes Joe Posnanski, in The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (September 15, 2009; William Morrow: An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers). "Bill Lee began his windup, and then unleashed it one more time, his slow curveball, and Perez saw it, his eyes widened, and he did something funny in his swing. He buckled like a car trying to jump into second gear."
And as the batted ball arced into the sky, a World Series for the ages was poised to take yet another dramatic turn, which already included "The Armbrister Incident" in Game Three, the iconic pose of Red Sox star catcher Carlton Fisk as he watched his Game Six winning homer in the 12th inning at 12:34 a.m. in Fenway Park and three days of rain that only created more intrigue and excitement as both clubs stood toe-to-toe and landed incredible haymakers from October 11 to 22.
Posnanski goes into the clubhouse, dugout and executive offices, while covering each base on the diamond, to tell a story of fun, feuds and friends, with a neat dose of drama that could have torn average teams apart. Though the Reds ultimately dominated the National League - winning the West Division by 20 games, while notching an incredible 108-54 record, and besting the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 for the NL crown - the team was muddling along at 12-11 on May 2 when manager Sparky Anderson asked Rose to move from left field to third base.
Posnanski writes: "More than thirty years later, Pete Rose thought back with wonder to that moment. `Who else would just agree to play third base in the middle of the season?' he asked. `Just like that. Who else? You name one star who would do that. I was an All-Star in left field.'"
On June 8, the Reds had a 32-22 record and a slim 1½ game lead in the division. The club pushed the advantage to seven games on June 30 - 48-28 - and turned the race into a solo victory march by August 25; upping the advantage to 16½ games, while sporting a record of 84-44. And there were changes happening in other aspects of the game as the team was being paced by NL Most Valuable Player Joe Morgan, Rose, Bench and pitchers Don Gullett, Gary Nolan and Clay Carroll.
"Baseball players - most of them anyway - did not lift weights in 1975," writes Posnanski. "Still, the Reds had one of the first Nautilus pullover machines. It was a gift from Arthur Jones, the inventor. Jones had this idea that he could create a machine that would help everyday people build up their muscles without going to a dark gym and lifting enormous barbells for hours.
"He wanted to say that his machine pumped up the Big Red Machine. Of course, none of the players used the thing except to hang jockstraps on it."
And the heavy weight of free agency was about to be hoisted by each player: "The baseball players' union (after the 1975 season) would use a couple of pitchers - Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally - to challenge baseball's `reserve clause,'" writes Posnanski. "The clause basically came down to one sentence that stated if the player and team could not come to terms, then the `club shall have the right by written notice to the Player to renew this contract for the period of one year on the same terms.'"
But none of that mattered as the ball hit by Perez refused to stay inside the field of play. "And it was a home run, a long home run that sailed over the Green Monster, into the black of night, and nobody ever saw it land," Posnanski writes. "After (Perez) hit his home run, the Reds trailed by a run (3-2), but the Machine arrogance had returned."
The Reds tied it in the seventh when Ken Griffey, Sr., walked, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Rose, who would be named World Series MVP. It was a bloop single by Morgan in the ninth that scored Griffey, Sr., from second which gave the Reds a 4-3 win. After reliever Will McEnaney got the final out in the bottom of the inning - Carl Yastrzemski flying out to centerfielder Cesar Geronimo - a wild celebration ensued on the field, but it was missing perhaps the most crucial member of the club; a shrewd strategist who had been with the franchise since 1970.
"(Sparky) walked back into the clubhouse," writes Posnanski. "He did not want to be on the field - that was for the players. He wanted his moment alone. There were tears in his eyes. The Reds were what he had always hoped. Winners."
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