So Many Ways to Lose
The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets—the Best Worst Team in Sports
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Narrated by:
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Jeremy Arthur
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By:
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Devin Gordon
About this listen
“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, 1986
The 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.
©2020 Devin Gordon (P)2020 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
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-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick". The Dodgers never expected him to play for them - or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League Rookie of the Year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star 12 times. Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story.
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I only thought i knew the Mike Piazza story
- By James on 03-24-13
By: Mike Piazza, and others
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The Grandest Stage
- A History of the World Series
- By: Tyler Kepner
- Narrated by: Tyler Kepner
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It’s the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman’s glove. And there’s no one better to bring this rich history to life than New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner, whose bestselling book about pitching, K, was lauded as “Michelangelo explaining the brush strokes on the Sistine Chapel” by Newsday.
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Excellent!
- By DavidF on 09-09-24
By: Tyler Kepner
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Our Team
- The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball
- By: Luke Epplin
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The riveting story of four men - Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige - whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.
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Who will like this book?
- By Brian L. Quarton on 04-03-21
By: Luke Epplin
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Seasons in Hell
- With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers
- By: Mike Shropshire
- Narrated by: Peter Powlus
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-'70s.
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If you followed MLB in the 70's or 80's !!!!
- By Eric on 03-09-16
By: Mike Shropshire
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Big Hair and Plastic Grass
- A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
- By: Dan Epstein
- Narrated by: Dan Epstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Bronx Is Burning meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade. The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes in the 70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. For the millions of fans who grew up during this time, Big Hair and Plastic Grass serves up a delicious trip down memory lane.
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Excellent but biased
- By Andy on 02-25-21
By: Dan Epstein
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The Best Team Money Can Buy
- The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse
- By: Molly Knight
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 2012 the Los Angeles Dodgers were bought out of bankruptcy in the most expensive sale in sports history. Los Angeles icon Magic Johnson and his partners hoped to put together a team worthy of Hollywood. By most accounts they have succeeded, if not always in the way they might have imagined.
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BOTH BOOK AND TEAM NEED TO BE BETTER
- By Ray on 09-06-15
By: Molly Knight
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The Last Innocents
- The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers
- By: Michael Leahy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players - friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies - and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.
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Reliving my youth
- By PJ on 05-24-17
By: Michael Leahy
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Bums
- An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
- By: Peter Golenbock
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans.
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A MUST for the true Dodgers or Giants fan!!
- By Karen on 02-25-07
By: Peter Golenbock
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Game Six
- Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America's Pastime
- By: Mark Frost
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Best-selling author Mark Frost takes listeners back to the 1975 World Series in this thrilling account of the greatest baseball game ever played. The Reds and Red Sox endured three soggy days of inactivity to reach game six. But all that downtime could not prepare them for what happened when the skies finally cleared.
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For the love of Baseball
- By Al on 03-23-10
By: Mark Frost
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A Band of Misfits
- Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants
- By: Andrew Baggarly
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For 53 years, San Francisco waited. Waited for a team like the 2010 Giants to come along. Waited for a team that could end a title drought that started in New York and carried on for more than five decades after a move to the West Coast. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash more than a half-century of pent-up frustration. At long last, the 2010 Giants hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen. San Jose Mercury News beat reporter Andrew Baggarly captured the 2010 Giants' incredible run through the regular season, playoffs and World Series in his new book.
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Relived that season!
- By jeff olson on 12-20-18
By: Andrew Baggarly
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The Captain
- The Journey of Derek Jeter
- By: Ian O'Connor
- Narrated by: Nick Pollifrone
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.
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Great book, terrible narrator.
- By Butter on 05-09-14
By: Ian O'Connor
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Summer of '68
- The Season That Changed Baseball - and America - Forever
- By: Tim Wendel
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the beginning, ’68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing ’68 as “The Year of the Pitcher".
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Detroit Upsets St. Louis in 1968 World Series.
- By Matthew Tsien on 05-01-18
By: Tim Wendel
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The Bad Guys Won
- A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform - and Maybe the Best
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Jeff Pearlman
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
It was 1986, and the New York Mets won 108 regular-season games and the World Series, capturing the hearts (and other assorted body parts) of fans everywhere. But their greatness on the field was nearly eclipsed by how bad they were off it. Led by the indomitable Keith Hernandez and the young dynamic duo of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, along with the gallant Scum Bunch, the Amazin's left a wide trail of wreckage in their wake-hotel rooms, charter planes, a bar in Houston, and most famously Bill Buckner and the hated Boston Red Sox.
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Maybe 3.5
- By Lifeisshort on 02-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
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1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
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Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
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The Baseball 100
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 30 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski that tells the story of the sport through the remarkable lives of its 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than 200 years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?”
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Just OK. Too Tangential & Distracting
- By Matthew R. on 01-21-23
By: Joe Posnanski
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The Key Man
- The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale
- By: Simon Clark, Will Louch
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Arif Naqvi was charismatic, inspiring, and self-made—all the qualities of a successful business leader. The founder of Abraaj, a Dubai-based private-equity firm, Naqvi was the Key Man to the global elite searching for impact investments to make money and do good. In 2018, Simon Clark and Will Louch were contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who said Naqvi had swindled investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and offered bribes to sustain his billionaire lifestyle. In April 2019—months after their exposé broke—Naqvi was arrested on charges of fraud and racketeering.
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A great take on one of the greatest swindleds
- By Amer on 05-05-23
By: Simon Clark, and others
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Iron, Fire and Ice
- The Real History That Inspired Game of Thrones
- By: Ed West
- Narrated by: Rory Barnett
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Learning of his father’s death, the adolescent, dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the North, vows to avenge him. He is supported in this war by his mother, who has spirited away her two younger sons to safety. Against them is the queen, passionate, proud, and strong-willed and with more of the masculine virtues of the time than most men. She too is battling for the inheritance of her young son, not yet fully grown but already a sadist who takes delight in watching executions.
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Fun history for all -not just Game of Thrones fans
- By Annabells on 06-14-19
By: Ed West
What listeners say about So Many Ways to Lose
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. Gillian Hanson
- 04-16-21
Amazin’
This book was amazing, and really captured what it feels like to be a Mets fan. It’s funny and it’s got heart which is really what it’s all about.
My only... let’s not say complaint, but head-scratcher— how can you write a book about the Mets, with so many insightful stories about so many bit players, and somehow not include even a mention of Murphy, Wilmer, or Santana’s no-hitter??
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- Kevin MacCary
- 09-03-24
Unexpectedly Amazing
A fun read about a hapless expansion team that won 4 straight games from the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles to win the Wotld Series
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- Dennis Etman
- 04-15-21
A MUST FOR METS FANS!
Full of great Mets stories and a ton of baseball history in general. Absolutely loved this book!
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- Gigi
- 01-06-24
Brilliant, Entertaining and Enlightening!
I’m a lifelong, cradle Mets fan. It’s not easy. Disappointment, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, long waits for a winning season… When the girding of loins is called for my standard line is always “Hey, I’m a Mets fan, you can’t scare me”! As I listened to “So Many Ways To Lose” I was alternately laughing, crying and shaking my head as the memories came flooding back! This beautifully flowing, magnificently narrated story is the all too true, at times hysterical, at time poignant, at times painful to remember story of the team that will forever be a part of my soul. Along the way I learned a few things about “my guys”, gaining a whole new appreciation for a few, a ton of respect for some, and for a few, well my mother always said if you have nothing good to say … so I just leave off here! If you, like me, love the Mets, THIS is the story you need! Five star fantastic from the first words to the last! I am so glad I listened, and I’m sure this one will be a frequent repeat! It’s that good!
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- Andreas Lawrence
- 06-14-21
Even if you’re not a Mets fan…
Even though I am a diehard Red Sox fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is well written, well research, with excellent narration. Anyone who has loved baseball over the last 50 years will get a kick out of this book.
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- DaveBagdade
- 05-04-21
A must for Mets fans
I love this book. Devin Gordon is a true Mets lifer, and he provides a beautifully comic and tragic look at the fan experience. he goes back to the beginning, before he even was alive, and provides a well researched review of the origins of the Mets, A topic near and dear to me, with wonderful comic timing. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to any Met fan, whether true blue or casual. Did I mention that I love this book?
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- Dan Harris
- 04-21-21
MARV THRONEBERRY
I’m a Yankee fan. I’d like to think I have a valid case for fandom, and the author apparently agrees. I inherited my fandom, and it was strengthened by my mother being invited to the the White House when the Yanks visited after the ‘98 WS win, where she got me balls signed by a bunch of the guys and Torre (and Clinton but who cares).
Anyways, coming from this elitist position of coming of age during the dynasty years, I never paid much mind to the Mets. I watched their games on off nights (no idea why but I loved Robin Ventura), but felt little for the team.
That changed a few years ago when I became really interested in the Mets pitching staff. I became Mets-curious you could say. Thus when I saw this book I knew I needed to get it.
For a team I didn’t grow up loving, I’m amazed what a good job the author did getting me to buy emotionally to the Mets’ history. I learned a ton, found out I’ve been living without Marv Throneberry in my life for way too long, and gained a knew appreciation for the franchise and their fans.
You don’t need to love the Mets to love this book. I didn’t love them. But now I kind of do. Even if they will never quite take the place of the team of my childhood, they’ve become special to me now. This book had a ton to do with it. And even if you aren’t looking for a new team to support in the other league, you can still have a lot of fun with a great baseball book.
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- jpendergast31
- 03-18-24
Mets Fan Must Read...
If you are a diehard Mets fan or not, this is a must read. You can learn about the early years up to Polar Bear.
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- DilligentReader
- 11-06-24
SportsTalk Fan Fare
Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it engaging. The author gets the history right but speaks with the first-person snark echoes the tone of NYC’s WFAN/New York Post-driven sports media.
I was expecting something more along the lines of Lawerence S. Ritter or Roger Kahn, but that’s my personal preference. The narration was very professional and polished but dead-paned in a way that could’ve just as easily fit a true-crime podcast. Perhaps a different reading could’ve brought some light-heartedness to the text.
(Bonus points for making me aware of the unintentionally hilarious 1986 rap song “Get Metsmerized” though.)
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- James Gonzalez
- 07-14-22
Leave the liberal politics out
This story is great. It’s a fun book. It’s accurate.
BUT, the writer could’ve left the liberal bullshat politics out of it. He comes off as lame when he did that.
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2 people found this helpful