I don't read a lot of sportswriting, but after discovering him a couple years ago, I faithfully read Joe Posnanski. If you've read his blog, you'll know he has interests that reach far beyond sports, but sports are his bread and butter. Just recently, he landed one of the highest honors in the world of sportswriting, Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated.

Twice Joe Posnanski has been named the best sports columnist in America by The Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2007, he wrote The Soul of Baseball, an award-winning book on the life of Negro Baseball League Hall of Famer Buck O'Neil. His latest book, The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-Stopping World Series—The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, is a fast-paced, page-turner of a book depicting the magical 1975 season of the Cincinnati Reds.

I'm not old enough to have any recollections of this season in baseball, so for me, Posnanski brought to life players like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez. He documents the highs and lows of arguably one of the best seasons in modern baseball history. After a frustratingly slow start, the Reds caught fire and won 108 games that year, twenty games ahead of their closest competitor, the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Reading this book, you glimpse Hall of Famers in their young heyday. Posnanski must have scored a considerable amount of face time with most of the these players. He tells almost all of their individual stories and writes from their varying points of view. The Machine proceeds at a dizzying clip. I couldn't put it down and finished it in just a couple days. The most casual baseball fan will be pulled in by the compelling story Posnanski tells about one of the most unique and talented teams ever to take the field.

Joe Posnanski will give the Jean and Cotter Hirschberg Lecture at the library on Sunday, October 18th, 2009, and 3pm.