Mr. Book just finished The Machine: A Hot Team, A Legendary Season And A Heart Stopping World Series: The Story Of The 1975 Cincinnati Reds, by Joe Posnanski.

This book is filled with great stories about the 1975 Reds and all of their great players. All of the stars, like Rose, Morgan, Perez and Bench are covered, but also just about everyone else who played for the team. And, of course, plenty of good Sparky Anderson stories too.

Posnanski focuses on particular moments in the season and then tells the story about that, but also works in all of the back stories into the book too.

Mr. Book originally read this on December 26, 2019. He had previously decided to add it to the reread list, in order to be able to write a review. Then, after the death of Pete Rose this week, it was promoted in the queue to be read now. Mr. Book finished rereading this on October 2, 2024.

I had originally given this book an A, but when rereading it, I realized that was a mistake. This isn’t an A, it’s an A+. So, the book has also been inducted into the Hall of Fame, just like several others by Posnanski (The Baseball 100, Why We Love Baseball and Why We Love Football). Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.