Last night I finished reading Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski’s Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love.
In a word? Pretty good.
More funny than anything (it’s got the Schur touch more than the Posnanski), Big Fan takes the reader far beyond the court/field/pitch to disparate worlds of music, crossword puzzles, and Buffalo Wild Wings. (Don’t worry, it all makes sense in context. Sort of.)
Schur, of course, is the writer (and producer and various other titles) behind The Office, Parks and Recreation, and many episodes of SNL. So yeah, the book is going to be funny. Posnanski’s got at least half a dozen books and hundreds of articles about baseball (and lesser sports) and has won pretty much every athletic writing award in existence. (I even give him a shoutout in From Box Scores to Test Scores.) So yeah, the book’s going to have some great sports stories.
Is it two guys resting on their laurels a bit, kind of mailing it in?
A little.
But I read every word… because I’m a fan. And that’s what fans do.
Highlights for me included a chapter on Mike’s seeing Dead & Company at (the) Sphere in Las Vegas–not really about sports but touching on another interest of mine–and Joe’s chapter entitled “A Most Improbable Love: How a Boy in England Found a Lost Ballplayer.” This one is some great storytelling. No spoilers here.
In the end it’s a story of friendship, of camaraderie, of being part of something bigger than yourself… all those cliches that really are sometimes apt. And there’s the constant reminder of why we’re fans:
- Life is boring, and fandom provides entertainment.
- Life is chaotic, and fandom provides order.
- Life is lonely, and fandom provides community.
Yup.
For me it’s been a lovely ride.
Ain’t stoppin’ any time soon.