So Many Ways to Lose, Devin Gordon
So Many Ways to Lose, Devin Gordon
1 Rating(s)
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

So Many Ways to Lose
The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets—the Best Worst Team in Sports

Author: Devin Gordon

Narrator: Jeremy Arthur

Unabridged: 12 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 03/16/2021


Synopsis

“This is a weird, wonderful, and essential book about both America and its pastime. It’s about a place as vast as New York City and as intimate as the human heart. Fred Exley meets Richard Ben Cramer—a funny, wild, heartfelt, and keenly observed portrait of yearning itself.”—Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Cost of These Dreams“Mr. Gordon’s ability to explain the Sisyphean plight of all Mets fans is truly remarkable. Bravo!”—Ron Darling, New York Times bestselling author of Game 7, 1986The Mets lose when they should win. They win when they should lose. And when it comes to being the worst, no team in sports has ever done it better than the Mets. In So Many Ways to Lose, author and lifelong Mets fan Devin Gordon sifts through the detritus of Queens for a baseball history like no other. Remember the time the Mets lost an All-Star after he got charged by a wild boar? Or the time they blew a six-run ninth-inning lead at the peak of a pennant race? Or the time they fired their manager before he ever managed a game? Sure you do. It was only two years ago, and it was all in the same season. The Mets have an unrivaled gift for getting it backward, doing the impossible, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and then snatching defeat right back again. And yet, just ask any Mets fan: amazing and/or miraculous postseason runs are as much a part of our team's identity as losing 120 games in 1962. The DNA of seasons like 1969, the original Miracle Mets, and the 1973 “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets, who went from last place to Game 7 of the World Series in two months, and the powerhouse 1986 Mets, has encoded in us this hapless instinct that a reversal of fortune is always possible. It’s happened before. It’s kind of our thing. And now we've got Steve Cohen's hedge-fund billions to play with! What could go wrong?In this hilarious history of the Mets and love letter to the art of disaster, Devin Gordon presents baseball the way it really is, not in the wistful sepia tones we've come to expect from other sportswriters. Along the way, he explains the difference between being bad and being gifted at losing, and why this distinction holds the key to understanding the true amazin’ magic of the New York Mets.

About Devin Gordon

Devin Gordon is a contributing writer for a number of publications, including the The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, and ESPN the Magazine. He has served as executive editor at GQ Magazine and was a writer and editor at Newsweek. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife, two kids and their dog.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bookreporter.com on March 21, 2021

New York is unique in that it has two Major League teams. Back in the day when there were just 16 teams, this was not uncommon, with dual clubs in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis. In fact, prior to 1957, New York supported three teams. The Mets were only born out of necessity after the B......more

Goodreads review by Cook Memorial on May 10, 2021

Recommended by Jean. Read her review on the Cook Memorial Public Library blog, Shelf Life: [URL not allowed] Check our catalog: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Meg on August 09, 2021

This author captures what it means to be a tortured Mets fan and puts it into a hilariously funny book, if you are a Mets fan. Other baseball fans might enjoy reading about the history of the team but they won’t ever truly understand the roller coaster ride it is to be a Mets fan. Highly recommend f......more

Goodreads review by Jack on May 13, 2023

Even if you’re a life-long Mets fan who has heard these stories in one form or another during your life of pain, So Many Ways To Lose presents them in such a way that it’s still an engaging way to read them. And you’re sure to hear some stories you weren’t aware of, too, at least in the details. And......more

Goodreads review by Mike on August 02, 2021

If you like baseball (and I do), and especially if you’re masochistic enough to root for the NY Metropolitans (and I am), this book is a must read. With love & humor, the author chronicles the many, mostly self inflicted failures of the #LOLMets. He also hits the highlights, the moments of joy - the......more