Way back in 1994, Tom Callahan and Dave Kindred - two veteran sportswriters - had an idea. They would travel the world playing its best golf courses, and then writing a book about their experiences. If you'll notice, the beauty of the plan was that someone else - the publisher at the beginning, the readers at the back end - would be picking up the tab. It worked. They enjoyed the golf, and the readers enjoyed the book.
Thirty-two years later, Michael Schut and Joe Posnanski came up with a similar idea. Schur is a comedy writer who has worked on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Office" (he also was a performer on the latter). Posnanski has been one of America's top sports writers in his career, with some fine books to his credit. It seems they are friends and both devoted to the idea of having as many good sports experiences as possible. At some point a light bulb went on and they said, we could do a book like this.
In other words, a good idea is still a good idea - especially if someone else is paying for the experience.
Schur and Posnanski got to work, figuring out events to see and ways to get there. The resulting book is called "Big Fan," and it's a fun exploration of the wide, wide world of sports.
Michael and Joe find a university professor who is an expert at the peculiarities of being a big fan of something - teams, players, groups, etc. They come up with a few rules:
1. Life is boring, and sports provide entertainment.
2. Life is chaotic, and sports provide order.
3. Life is lonely, and sports provide community.
4. Life is uniform, and sports provide an opportunity for individuality.
There's something to be said about that. Sports offer a unique spot in the entertainment world in that the outcome isn't pre-planned, like a movie, play or TV show. Think that couple on the Hallmark Channel will get together before the top of the hour? Of course the two of them will. In sports, we don't know what might happen at a given moment, and that's part of the fun. If the outcome isn't what people like, well, it's still not a death in the family in spite of what people might say. Meanwhile, the list of things that can bring an entire region together is pretty short. A sports team can be a common bond that crosses all demographic lines. That's worth something.
Armed with all of that, Schur and Posnanski take that information and essentially throw it away. They are in the business of having some fun, and they get to work by starting at the World Darts Championship in London. The World Chess Championship (which answers the question, where did the Chess Hall of Fame go when it left Miami - the answer is St. Louis). A pickleball tournament. A NASCAR race, where they run into a woman who loves motorsports despite being blind. Wrestlemania. A Liverpool soccer game. A warehouse full of sports cards. Wemby (I don't need to add "San Antonio Spurts center" to that.) Taylor Swift.
The episodes are occasionally interrupted by a short contributions from people who are fans of one thing for another. Almost anything is fair game - puzzles, cars, mascots, bands, actors, board games, needlepoint, candy bars, etc. One "anonymous" contributor is a sports writer from New York who lives and dies with all things St. Bonaventure athletes. Mike Vaccaro, come on down. Your devotion to all things Bona is appreciated here in Western New York.
Don't like a particular subject? You could jump ahead a bit. But don't. Schur and Posnanski are good enough tour guides that they can make any of the experiences reasonably interesting. One of my favorites along the way came in a chapter on crossword puzzles, which introduced us to another comedy writer who is unbelievably good at word play. At one point she was called on to come up with punning restaurant titles for a project, and her list of suggestions is downright breathtaking. (Then again, I like such wordplay.)
I'm not familiar with Schur's work, although he clearly knows his way around a well-constructed one-liner. Posnanski's touch is tailor-made for this sort of assignment. His articles and books are usually good-natured and friendly without any malice. A little anger sometimes can be useful in the journalism business, but we don't have to consume it every day.
"Big Fan" doesn't completely come together into a whole, but that's fine. This is the story of two guys inviting people along while they have fun. If you've ever gone to a new stadium or arena and taken a long walk around the building to see what it's like, you'd probably enjoy this trip.
Four stars
Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money from qualifying purchases.)
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