Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski: A Sports Fan's Review

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I’m a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings. And Minnesota Twins. And Minnesota Timberwolves. And South Dakota State University Jackrabbits. I’m a big fan of sports. And I’m a big fan of reading. And now I’m a big fan of reading about being a big fan of sports (and other things.)

Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski logged 82,490 miles going wherever fans were losing their minds. Then they wrote a whole book about it: Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love.

I listened to this one on audio, which turned out to be the correct move. The authors read most of it themselves. The cast also includes Nick Offerman, and Tom Hanks does the intro — indication Schur and Posnanski are pretty big deals.

Big Fan is part of my 100 book reading goal for 2026 (Book #41)

My Big Fan Book Review

Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski — I’m a big fan of Big Fan

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Where to Get It

Available in multiple formats, depending on how you like to read (or listen).

🎧 Audiobook (Indie Option): Listen on Libro.fm
🎧 Audiobook (Amazon Option): Listen on Audible
📚 Support Local Bookstores: Buy from Bookshop.org
📦 Amazon (Paperback/Kindle): View on Amazon

Big Fan Summary

Schur and Posnanski co-host a sports podcast together and have been friends for years. This book is basically the two of them going wherever fans are passionate and writing down what they find. It is mostly sports, but not only sports. (Is chess a sport?)

They go ringside at WrestleMania. They sing along at a darts championship in London. They sit in silence watching chess. They cover pickleball, stickball, the Grateful Dead, Star Wars, Victor Wembanyama, hockey, the Masters, and pretty much anything where rabid fandom exists.

The big idea underneath all of it is why we love what we love. Why a grown adult will wear the same unwashed shirt week after week because his team is undefeated since it was last washed. Why fandom still pulls strangers together when so much else is pulling everyone apart. It is funny, informative and deeply validating as someone who gets way too invested in the Minnesota Vikings, among other things (me).

Who Are Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski?

Two guys with very different resumes who happen to love the same dumb, wonderful things.

📺 Schur, the TV guy: Created or co-created Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place, and worked on The Office and SNL.
⚾ Also a sports lifer: He co-founded the legendary baseball blog Fire Joe Morgan.
✍️ Posnanski, the writer: A number one New York Times bestselling sportswriter and author of The Baseball 100, Why We Love Baseball, and Why We Love Football.
🏆 Decorated: Named National Sportswriter of the Year by multiple organizations.
🎙️ The PosCast: They host it together, which is where a lot of this friendship and book energy comes from.

Big fan of sports? Me too. Get my audiobook, “Essays Out of Left Field: Life Lessons from a Midwestern Dad Who Talks About Sports Too Much” for FREE. 👇

Now onto the rating! Big Fan Book Review:

My innovative system for rating humor books is explained here

Overall Book Awesomeness Score: 5/5

Fan-tastic from start to finish. Funny, enlightening, and weirdly comforting. It made me feel normal about my own fandom.

Things I liked:

The audiobook. Loved hearing Joe Posnanski’s familiar voice talk about sports. And Michael Shur too.
It covers sports I love and sports I have never thought about for one second (darts? stickball?) And somehow both work.
Attempting to hug Mookie Betts. Did they? Didn’t they? (I won’t give away any spoilers.)
Schur and Posnanski clearly like each other, and that friendship carries the whole thing.

Things I didn’t like:

It gave me ideas. I now want to drive across the country to sporting events I have no business attending. And that is a financial and marital concern.

Conclusion: Big Fan Book Review

One of my favorite books of the year. It is for sports fans, but also for anyone who has ever cared way, way, way too much about something. (Swifties??) Which is everyone. We all have our team, or our band, or our show, or our Little Free Libraries. This book reassures us it’s OK to be a Big Fan.