Book Talk: ‘The Baseball 100’

By Dan De Neve

Written in 2021, The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski, is a ranking of the best 100 baseball players of all time. I highly recommend this book, especially for baseball fans. 

As with most rankings, Posnanski has a few that might surprise you and others with whom you’d disagree. Nonetheless, he does an outstanding job, and most of the greats you expect to be ranked here are. 

He integrates the great Negro Leaguers, who in some cases were equal, if not better, than their Major League Baseball counterparts. In addition, Posnanski finds a spot for one who experts consider the greatest player in Japanese baseball history. 

Even the 1800s are represented. As to be expected, pitchers are heavily outnumbered. One of the quirks of the book is that he ranks some of the players in a way that corresponds with a number that made them famous.

At first glance, the book can look intimidating as it is more than 800 pages. However, readers are rewarded with biographical sketches of 100 players that can be read in any order and at one’s own pace. 

Providing more than just dry statistics, Posnanski gives us colorful insights into the players and the history of the game. In this era of easy, instant access to massive amounts of information, Posnanski still manages to unearth gems of new information for these greats who have had so much written about them.

George Will leads off the book with an introduction. Posnanski follows with his own introduction, followed by a short glossary of terms. Then he gets down to the ranking, beginning with Ichiro Suzuki at No. 100—and, no, Ichiro is not the Japanese player I mentioned earlier. 

Pitcher Mike Mussina follows at No. 99. Another pitcher, Nolan Ryan, completes the first half of the book, checking in at No. 50.

There is no table of contents, so you can’t cheat by using it to find out the ranking order. Of course, you can flip to the end of the book. With 100 players, Posnanski has given himself enough space to please even the hardened old-timer who thinks no player after a certain date measures up to the players of a bygone era. 

On the other hand, there are more than enough modern players to keep younger fans interested. With a list this long, Posnanski obviously missed some Hall of Famers. However, he ranked a few players who are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. When warranted, he uses statistics, including sabermetrics.

If you are a baseball fan, read this book. You can’t read all this without learning something while having a good time traveling down Memory Lane. 

So, as the late, great Vin Scully would say: “Pull up a chair.” Only in this case, it’s for more than just Dodger baseball.

The book is available at the Dana Point Library. For more information, please call 949.496.5517. The library also hosts two book groups, including the Seaside Book Group, which meets on the fourth Monday of the month at 10:30 a.m.

Dan De Neve is a longtime employee of the Orange County Public Library. He currently works at the Dana Point Library as the Adult Services Librarian. He is an avid reader of history, biographies and sports.