Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur wrote a book together. It’s called Big Fan: Two Frieends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. If you have listened to their podcast, or read their writing, you know exactly what this book is going to be like. Reading it was like listening to a six-hour conversation between the two of them with occasional guest stars. I am also probably in the innermost circle of their target audience, not least because I know both of these knuckleheads, to the point where I am, in one paragraph, one of those guest stars. (They identify many of those one-graf guests by first name and occupation, which sometimes works to obscure who it is, but sometimes you get “Patton is a Comedian.”)
The general premise of Big Fan, which is the tiny bit of glue holding together a bunch of comical dialogues between these guys and a few of those guests, is that they’re exploring what it means to be a real fan of something, while also taking some of the longest and weirdest road trips possible. There’s a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, for the Midnight Sun Game, which I have actually never attended in 25 years in the industry. They go to a darts championship, which sounds a lot more fun than I imagined. They have a pretty incredible experience going to an Unrivaled game. Joe makes Mike go to a WWE event that ropes in Jen Statsky, co-creator of Hacks, maybe my wife’s favorite show ever. Mike makes Joe play pickleball, which Joe (like my friend Will Leitch) claims to hate with the fire of ten thousand suns, something I don’t understand because pickleball is very fun and also good exercise for old people, which all four of us are. Dink. Dink. Whoops, you’re in the kitchen.
There’s a good bit of a lot of sports in there, obviously, and if there were nothing in the book but these two guys’ observations on sports, it would be great. I would gladly watch any real sporting event – not professional wrestling, sorry, that is pretend – with those two guys just to hear them riff. Maybe they could offer a real-time alternate feed to the World Series so I don’t have to listen to John Smoltz. I don’t need analysis of the game; I need to hear two people who are enjoying the game, and who let that come across in their chatter. They would be the anti-Smoltz. (Or anti-Lalas, as I was just exposed to that guy’s vapidity again today. He makes an inflatable doll seem like an intellectual giant.)
They also know a lot of people – I mean, a lot of people – and there are a couple of fantastic cameos in the book, not including mine. Tom Hanks wrote the intro, and I could probably just stop there. Linda Holmes explains her rebirth as a Phillies fan because of the likability (and success) of the current roster. Joe gets on the ice with the Shibutanis. They leverage knowing people into hugging Mookie Betts. Brandon McCarthy appears in transcripts of a group chat the three of them have. And those interstitials with the first name/vocation include a lot of famous and not-famous people talking about what they’re fans of and why.
It is a hoot, and I’m not just saying that because 1) they sent me a copy of the book and 2) I know both of them, and would at least like to remain on good terms with them, lest Mike create a character named Leith Kaw and make him a serial killer or, worse, a private equity bro in a future series. Big Fan is good fun, and it was just what I needed in the weeks leading up to the draft.
Joe’s chapter on Pickleball is the most enjoyable piece of writing from him I’ve ever experienced, and that’s saying a lot because I’ve probably read more than half the words he’s published since the first column of his I read back in 2001.
I don’t know why but I’m still surprised that seemingly respectable people still associate with Posnanski. Being a rape apologist vastly outweighs my appetite for Kansas City Royals anecdotes. It’s disappointing to see Schur, someone who I really admire and consider(ed) to be quite smart, legitimizing this buffoon.
Clearly I’m behind the times (I didn’t know they had a podcast; I don’t listen to podcasts) but I’ll be sure to miss the next iteration of the Parks & Rec formula that he gets on air.
Words matter. Calling Posnanski a rape apologist is ridiculous, dangerous, nonsensical, and offensive to victims. Have an opinion about the book, what Joe’s role could or should have been in Paterno’s legacy, what direction the book went or should have went. But calling him a rape apologist is slanderous.
I don’t even know why I’m falling into this slop by responding. I’m sure I’ll immediately regret it when you respond with more nonsense.
Brian makes a good point.
Which one?
I think that’s the joke.
FTR, I don’t agree with how Joe handled the Paterno book or immediate aftermath, but I have a much higher bar for cancelling people than that.
That indeed was the joke. FWIW, I don’t personally know Joe, but it seems like everyone who does loves the guy. He was probably the wrong person to be writing that book when the shit hit the fan, and he didn’t rise to the occasion. I understand why some people would not forgive him for that, while others would.
I closed the book on Poz, which wasn’t too difficult. He’s an engaging writer, but there was always too much boosterism in his style for my taste. To me it spoke of a willful donning of blinders in that way that most Optimists have — he was not the man for the moment at Penn State, that’s for sure, and he cashed his journalist credentials for good AFAIC. But everyone needs a little lightness in their lives, so if he’s that for some people I guess it’s okay.
I used to enjoy Posnanski, but was absolutely appalled at the way he handled the fallout from the Penn State/Paterno situation. Yes, he was in a bad position, given that he had written the book and the shit hitting the fan just as the book hit the shelves. But that doesn’t justify his defense of Paterno – he should have just kept his mouth shut. I haven’t read anything by Paterno since, and I won’t read anything by him in the future.
I don’t think Paterno will be writing anything in the future.
Wrapped this book up a few minutes ago…one of those reads that I would have been fine with being about twice as long as it ended up being.
Keith – I love your suggestion of the alternative World Series feed with Mike and Joe. ESPN did that a few years back with Mike Petriello, Eduardo Perez, and Jason Benetti (Saber-cast, or something) and I really enjoyed it. Informative without being pedantic. Those two would be great.