{"id":5495,"date":"2026-08-26T08:04:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/?p=5495"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:04:56","slug":"big-fan-quick-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/?p=5495","title":{"rendered":"Big Fan: quick review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a word? Pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More funny<\/em> than anything (it’s got the Schur touch more than the Posnanski), Big Fan<\/em> 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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schur, of course, is the writer (and producer and various other titles) behind The Office<\/em>, Parks and Recreation<\/em>, and many episodes of SNL<\/em>. 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<\/a><\/em>.) So yeah, the book’s going to have some great sports stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it two guys resting on their laurels a bit, kind of mailing it in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I read every word… because I’m a fan. And that’s what fans do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em> is some great storytelling. No spoilers here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Life is boring, and fandom provides entertainment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Life is chaotic, and fandom provides order.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Life is lonely, and fandom provides community.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Yup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For me it’s been a lovely ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ain’t stoppin’ any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5497,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions\/5497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}