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So Many Ways to Lose
- The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets—the Best Worst Team in Sports
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
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So Many Ways to Lose
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Publisher's Summary
“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.
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leaf Al-Salaq
- 2022-03-11
Best Team History Book
This book, alongside Rich Cohen's book on the Chicago Cubs, may be the best team history book I've ever stumbled on. Even if you have no personal connection to the Mets (like me, for example) it's hard not to become completely entangled in the story.
The book gets into more or less anything you might want to know about the Mets. The highs and lows of their history on the field and the story of teams from all over their history are described almost like a sports podcast, I learned it as if it's happening and relatable even though most of it happened decades before I was born.
It's a great way of understanding not only the Mets history but what the Mets mean to the city of New York, why some people choose the Mets over the Yankees. It also gives a great history lesson over what happened to New York in the period after the Dodgers and Giants left town and before the Mets came to be.
The humour is my personal favourite aspect. It gives the book a real personality, and makes it easier to understand Gordon's take on what the Mets are and what Mets fans are like. The narration by Jeremy Arthur does not fail this aspect of the book.
Overall I cannot recommend this enough. I can see myself relistening to this full book many times over, it's that well made.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Fred Gwynn
- 2021-06-16
Woke mob
The book is blah. The reader was fantastic. Don’t waste your money.
Mocking Mariano Rivera because of his support of Trump? This was supposed to be a book about the Mets, not the whinings of self hating progressive white guy. I wanted to get a sports book to get away from politics, but apparently this author needs to interject his politics where they shouldn’t be. Conservatives don’t give this asshat your money.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lee Brock
- 2021-07-27
A book that earns two opposite reviews
This book is strange in the way that it really deserves two different reviews.
Concerning only the baseball / Mets part of this book, it's great. The material is well researched, in depth, entertaining, and even a die hard Mets fan will learn things about the franchise that they never knew before. It's interesting from beginning to end and always keeps you wanting to listen just a little longer.
The downside, at least for me, is the book has far too much "other stuff" in it which isn't tied to the subject of the book in any way and which really takes away from the intent of the book. The author has added many references to politics, religion, etc, The ramblings on these subjects aren't tied in any way to baseball or the Mets, they just seem to be the angry opinions of the author randomly sprinkled through the chapters. The author also uses the reasoning of "racism" pretty regularly for just about any situation that doesn't go well for a player of color...... drug convictions = racism, a player of color getting addicted to cocaine = racism, player getting benched = racism, player getting released after several seasons of declining performance = you guessed it, racism.
In summary, I got the book because I love baseball and the Mets. The parts of the book relating to baseball, the Mets, and the intricate history of the team/stadium/etc was all very interesting and very well done. The other roughly 1/3 of the book dealing with the authors opinions of political figures, religion, etc nearly ruined the entire book.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James Gonzalez
- 2022-07-14
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.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-07-16
cool listen, narrator made it pretty funny
As a baseball fan it was good, but the yankee hating got a little much. I'm a NY baseball due hard, 1st team yanks but i love the mets and always want a subway series but wow Mets fans really love to hate the Yankees instead of hating the Braves, Phillies and other rivals like that geez sorry the Yankees have been better for longer
1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- James H
- 2021-06-26
baseball has evolved
the author has some cringey comments comparing the 1969 Mets to today. back then pitcher pitched longer into games so no shit the 1969 Mets had a bunch more complete games than the current Mets.
decent book but the author tries to insert himself into the story constantly which is annoying inches
1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-04-28
Good enough to dream
A really good read that could have been even better if the author had left out his anti conservatism pro left wing ideological comments out of it
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adam H. Garcia
- 2021-10-20
So Damn Good!!
A legitimately funny and sincere book, perfectly read. There's love in it, and also an honesty that any fan will appreciate. A gem!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bozobob
- 2021-07-03
Good Book but Beware of Technological Glitches
I really enjoyed this book. It is informative and frequently hilarious. The reader is excellent. All that being said, there are a number of annoying glitches whereby the narrative "skips" as if it has been transferred from a damaged CD. This was a normal situation when I was borrowing books on CD from the library, but I thought it should be eliminated via Audible. I don't really know how much was actually missed in the book - my guess is not that much, but still.... Regardless, without skips, this would be a 5-star overall book in my opinion.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andreas Lawrence
- 2021-06-14
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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- DaveBagdade
- 2021-05-04
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?