Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

NPR's Book of the Day

New York Times bestselling authors Mike Schur and Joe Posnanski travel the world in a hilarious and heartwarming celebration of fans and the things they love: baseball, basketball, chess, darts, football, futbol, Indigenous North American stickball, pickleball, WWE, Taylor Swift, Star Wars, and more.

Two great friends. Lots of frequent flyer miles. And a bottomless appetite for experiencing sports. That’s what BIG FAN is all about.

Bestselling authors and podcast hosts Joe Posnanski and Mike Schur love games—almost any game!—and they bring readers to the front row (and sometimes even right onto the field). Whether ringside at WrestleMania in Las Vegas, singing along with the maniacs at the World Darts Championships in London, or just watching eight straight hours of football at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Dallas, they bring us to the very heart of what it means to love something so much it hurts.

Through crushing defeats and glorious wins, whether cheering penalty kicks with 65,000 fans in Liverpool or beholding a chess master castling in dead silence, BIG FAN is about why we love what we love and how fandom connects us in a time when so much else pulls us apart.

Michael Schur is an Emmy Award–winning American television producer and writer. He created or co-created the comedy series Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, and A Man on the Inside, after getting his start on Saturday Night Live and The Office. Schur lives in California with his wife, Jennifer Philbin, and their children.

Joe Posnanski is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including Why We Love Baseball, Why We Love Football, and The Baseball 100. He has won two Sports Emmys, been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations, and, most proudly, was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. For this book, Mike challenged him to watch and participate in a pickleball tournament, a sport he loathes. Posnanski lives in Charlotte, N.C. with his wife Margo.