NEW YORK TIMES bestseller

Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year

An NPR “Book of the Day”

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseballs history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again.

Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It’s Willie Mayss catch, Babe Ruths called shot, and Kirk Gibsons limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing playerthese are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth.

Posnanskis previous book, The Baseball 100, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers duels to breaking the sports color line in the 40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanskis illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we loveand thought we knew.

Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.