{"id":4200,"date":"2024-05-12T12:06:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T16:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=4200"},"modified":"2024-05-12T12:06:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T16:06:47","slug":"joe-posnanski-baseball-and-the-charlotte-mecklenburg-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2024\/05\/12\/joe-posnanski-baseball-and-the-charlotte-mecklenburg-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Posnanski, Baseball, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As a long-time resident of Charlotte, I take civic pride in the fact that Joe Posnanski, one of America\u2019s most famous sportswriters, lives right here in Charlotte.  As an English professor at UNC Charlotte, I am especially proud that he graduated with a degree in English from UNC Charlotte in 1989.  In fact, he got his start as a sportswriter when he served as the Sports Editor for the UNC Charlotte newspaper, then called The Forty-Niner Times.  <\/em>Since his student days, he has written about sports for The Charlotte Observer, The Cincinnati Post, The Augusta Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, <\/em>and Sports Illustrated. <\/em>He has also written several bestselling sports-related books, the most recent of which is Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments<\/em> (2023). <\/p>\n\n\n

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Joe Posnanski will be the featured author at an event to be held at the SouthPark Regional Library on June 2, 2024.  In announcing this event, Jenni Gaisbauer, the Executive Director of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, tied the event to her memories of playing softball:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As another summer approaches, I find myself reminiscing about seasons past when I played competitive softball. It was the center of not just my world, but my parents\u2019 as well. We would spend an entire day at the park, my dad pacing back and forth behind the cage when I was up to bat, cheering me on. \u201cYou got this, Jenner.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s America\u2019s (and the Gaisbauer family\u2019s) favorite pastime for a reason. I have such vivid memories of those summers: the sound of my cleats on the pavement between games, the smell of real ballpark franks, the heat leaving its imprint on my bright red nose and cheeks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my parents, their social circle was made up of other parents dedicated to their child\u2019s athletic aspirations, a common thread weaving together a community that became a lot more than just softball.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why do I bring this up?<\/em><\/strong> Because we are featuring <\/em>New York Times bestselling author and sportswriter extraordinaire Joe Posnanski at our upcoming <\/em>Around the World in 21 Branches special event at SouthPark Regional Library on June 2 called <\/em>The Book of You.<\/a> He will be sharing a lot of (literal) inside baseball including stories from his latest book <\/em>Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join us for Joe (in conversation with amazing local author and Library trustee Kimmery Martin) and stay for the summer cocktails and charcuterie, pickleball games, relaxation station courtesy of Mood House, and, of course, our sponsor Lowe\u2019s will be on site and knows how to do summer right. <\/em>Tickets are on sale now.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now when my dad babysits my daughter, he\u2019ll pick her up and say \u201clook at those strong legs! She\u2019s going to be a great softball player.\u201d I am looking forward to making new moments with my daughter at the ballpark \u2026 and the Library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thank Jenni for sharing her family memories of playing softball, and I thank the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and the SouthPark Regional Library for organizing this special event.  When it comes to Storied Charlotte\u2019s sportswriters, Joe Posnanski is in a league of his own.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a long-time resident of Charlotte, I take civic pride in the fact that Joe Posnanski, one of America\u2019s most famous sportswriters, lives right here in Charlotte.  As an English professor at UNC Charlotte, I am especially proud that he graduated with a degree in English from UNC Charlotte in 1989.  In fact, he got his start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[287],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-baseball-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4208,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/4208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}