Joe Posnanski and The Machine

[Blue_Tires]

Happy Greinke Day, and hopefully we'll have some more Greinke-ganda up this afternoon after Zack's start.

With that in mind, something a little different this morning. Joe Posnanski, my journalism idol, friend, and now semi-colleague, took some e-mail time to talk about The Machine, his book about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, which is officially available and doing very well.

Amazon is predicting an early-next-week arrival for my copy, so for a more inside-the-book Q&A, try Rob Neyer's.

Anyway, as always, my jibberish is in bold, answers in normal type.

First, congratulations on the release of a book getting predictably terrific reviews. It's been said many times that publishing a book is a lot like a band coming out with a song they've practiced and tweaked and rewritten a million times, until it becomes an old song to them, at which point it's released and they have to play it a million more times. Can you describe what this process is like?

Well, for me, the process of writing a book is a lot of fun because I really try -- in small ways -- to enter the world of the book. Sure, it's weird, but it's fun. For instance, while writing this book about the 1975 Reds, I generally listened only to music from 1975. I put together a fairly long iTunes list of 1975 songs -- Jackie Blue, Shining Star, Sister Golden Hair, Love Will Keep Us Together, Rhinestone Cowboy, Only Women Bleed, on and on and on -- and I would listen to that stuff every day.

I tried to find old 1975 TV shows to watch -- Happy Days, the Dean Martin celebrity roasts, the old Hollywood Squares, M*A*S*H and so on. And, of course, I read newspapers, a million newspapers, from that time. I tried to play little electronic handheld football games and make a Slinky go down the the stairs -- though I do that stuff anyway.

more at the link:

http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=node/453

[chieftain]

1. I lived in Cicinnati during this period and Posnanski

captures the team, the time and the season perfectly. This is a great read about a magnificent nine written by one of the best sportswriter in the business.