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

by Michael Schur (Author & Narrator), Joe Posnanski (Author & Narrator), Tom Hanks - foreword

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 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.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Baseball, Audiobook, Travel, Humor, Football

Audible Audio

Published May 19, 2026

About the author

Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer, writer, and character actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series The Office, and co-created Parks and Recreation with Office producer Greg Daniels. He created The Good Place, co-created the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and was a producer on the series Master of None. He also played Mose Schrute in The Office. In 2021, he co-created the comedy series Rutherford Falls.

Reviews

[LPosse1 Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Good Sports Conversation That Didn’t Quite Stick
★★★☆☆ (3/5 Stars) Audiobook

Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love is a heartfelt and often humorous exploration of why we invest so much of ourselves in sports, pop culture, and the communities they create. Co-authored by veteran sportswriter Joe Posnanski and television writer and producer Michael Schur, the book had all the ingredients I thought I would love.

One of my oldest buddies is a huge Joe Posnanski fan, while I’ve long admired Michael Schur. The Office and Parks and Recreation are two of my all-time favorite television series. I originally bought a signed copy of Big Fan as a birthday gift for my friend Dan. As it sat on my desk waiting for his birthday, I found myself paging through it, which led me to the accompanying podcast. I enjoyed the podcast enough that I spent an Audible credit on the audiobook.

As a whole, the book feels like spending time with two friends talking sports, fandom, and all the wonderfully trivial things that come with being a fan. There is certainly charm in that. My biggest disappointment, however, is that much of the material felt like a reheated version of the podcast. I’ve been burned by the “podcast turned book” formula before, and unfortunately this one reminded me why. I kept hoping the book would offer something substantially deeper or different than what I’d already heard.

That said, there are some genuinely delightful moments. I loved the challenges the authors assigned one another. Michael Schur’s adventures attending both a Dead & Company concert and WrestleMania in Las Vegas—events he expected to dislike but ultimately enjoyed—were among the funniest and most insightful chapters in the book. Their trip to the World Darts Championship was equally entertaining. Those fish-out-of-water experiences captured the joy of discovering why other people love the things they love.

Unfortunately, for me, those standout moments were too few and far between. Too much of the book settled into casual sports banter that never quite rose above what I’d already heard on the podcast.

In the end, Big Fan isn’t a bad book. If you enjoy sports conversations between friends, you’ll probably have a pleasant time. I certainly don’t regret listening to it.

What I love most is writing that can be heartwarming, intelligent, and genuinely funny—writing that makes you laugh out loud while also giving you something meaningful to think about. Knowing Joe Posnanski’s reputation and Michael Schur’s remarkable body of work, I expected more of that blend here. There are flashes of it throughout the book, but not nearly enough for my taste.

I finished Big Fan feeling entertained, but not especially moved. For two seasoned and exceptionally talented storytellers, I came away hoping for something just a little more memorable.

https://substack.com/@lposse1

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine running around to games and competitions with two of your close buddies, discussing sports and other fun topics, sharing anecdotes of your experiences while making new ones, all while laughing until your ribs hurt because you're having so much fun.

That my friends is this book.

Embarrassingly, I'll admit I'm not a big sports fan, yet I still loved this book. There are the traditional sports here of course, and they even cover darts and pickle ball. Anything and everything you could possibly want to know about fandom is in here, all the while enjoying the journey.

A great and interesting read for sports fans yes, but also for anyone who simply enjoys reading a fun and interesting book.
Highly recommended!!


*As always this is just my opinion.
You may have a different experience/point of view, with any book I review. Please judge for yourself.
Thank you for reading!

*I gratefully received this book from the publisher and author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

[John Schorg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here is navel gazing of a particularly infuriating type. We are asked to believe this is a look at what it means to be a fan from two gentlemen who have the wherewithal to do the types of things that few readers would have the chance to experience.

Posnanski is too good a writer not to provide some depth to his work, and his chapters offer many examples of quality, particularly his visit to a hockey match in Montreal and his stories about Hank Thompson and a blind woman who learns to love NASCAR by listening to the radio.

Schur's contributions are almost completely worthless, filled with the kind of condescension that will remind you of his days running Fire Joe Morgan. Perhaps it says something that his most memorable contribution is a few short paragraphs about Amy Poehler meeting a young fan. The rest is more about his wealth and privilege and genius.

There are many things here to drive you nuts... the incessant footnotes come to mind... but the two worst examples are the account of Mike Schur getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the effort by the two authors to hug Mookie Betts. How either of these two things represent the fan experience is beyond me.

How one becomes a fan is usually keyed on certain things that happen when at a game or watching it on TV. The memory of those times is far more worthwhile than what you can find here.

[Patrick Bowlby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun read. Super cool to see how passionate Mike and Joe both are about things.

[Marcus Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and light. I read my signed copy.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only book I’ve ever finished and then immediately went back through to mark my favorite chapters and read them again. So much joy on every page. This is required reading for anyone who loves sports (and everyone else too).

[Stephen Latalardo · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're a Yankees fan don't bother, the author's Yankee hatred is akin to TDS which I'm sure he also hasIronically I'm reading the chapter on Wendy a week after Knicks in 5 and Wendy proved himself to be a truly dirty player. Mike Schur is very suspect in his opinions because he also gushes over Othani who was sheltered from prosecution and suspension because he's MLB's golden goose . Thank God for the public library. Saved myself 40.00

[Steven P Engel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was afraid that I might not like this book as much as I would want, and also that I would be envious because of all the fun things I got to do. I was a little envious, but that’s OK. That part mostly made me inspired to do those things involving sports that I want to do one day. I did listen to the audiobook and had made it just like listening to their podcast, which is enjoyable. I would recommend this book to anyone because more than just a sports book. It’s about humans and what we love and why we love it, and there is a lot of beauty in these stories. One high point of the book was hearing the daughters of the authors read their essays about why they love Taylor Swift. Also, there are some beautiful thoughts about why baseball is the best sport.

[Rebecca Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book about how being a fan brings joy to life and can create community. The authors write about attending the World Dart Championship in England, attending a Liverpool soccer game, playing in a pickleball tournament, and much more. It was joyful to read, and I appreciated their enthusiasm and friendship as I read about their adventures.

[Jill]

Great road trip book with sports obsessed kids

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this book went on forever. Stand up if you love the darts.

[Chris S · Rating 5 out of 5]

In April 2024, my son and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing my absolute favorite writer, Joe Posnanski, in person, while he was doing a book tour for his (also excellent) book "Why We Love Baseball".

Joe answered questions from the crowd, talked baseball, sports, life, etc. Afterward, he signed books, took pictures, and chatted with fans individually. Chatting with Joe and getting pictures with him for even just a minute was a personal highlight for me.

During the Q&A portion of the evening, Joe was asked what he was working on. He was finishing up his "Why We Love Football" book, but also getting ready for another project. After swearing us to secrecy, he told us that Mike had recently suggested a book idea that would involve them traveling the world to research what it means to be a fan. They didn't have (or couldn't share) the details just yet, but I was ecstatic about the possibility of these two writing a book together. I am an avid listener of Joe and Mike's podcast, The Poscast. The unofficial tagline of The Poscast is "Sports and Nonsense" and while it fits that tagline sometimes, these guys bring you so much more than nonsense. It's a celebration of sports and fandom from two guys who love sports and obviously love spending time together. And this book is the full-blown exploration of that love. It's incredible.

I love this book. It's the most excited I've ever been about a book and it actually outperformed my wildly, impossibly high expectations.

I've rarely read a book twice in one year. I just finished reading this for the second time in 6 weeks. I recommend it as much or more than anything I've ever read.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable examination of what it is to be a fan.

First, it should be said that these guys are truly, legitimately funny, and the humor they bring to this subject goes a long way in propelling the reader through the chapters about things in which they might have less interest.

I’m a former sports analyst and a huge baseball fan, so I was thrilled to see so much of this dedicated to baseball, but found myself laughing and engaged even with segments on subjects that aren’t normally of particular interest to me, like darts and professional wrestling.

As a fellow former Clevelander and Guardians fan now living in Boston, it was a particular treat to get a book like this from the perspective of a Guardians fan and a Red Sox fan. I love that these guys don’t apologize for their fandom of particular teams and sports, but still display genuine respect and curiosity for teams and fandoms which aren’t their particular bailiwick.

And of course I’m now convinced that any good literary travelogue on fandom should end with a quest to hug Mookie Betts, who (I thoroughly agree with the authors) is probably our best human.

I thought I was completely burned out on sports and sports related books, but this one brought me a lot of joy.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Tom Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book more than five stars, I’d do it in a heartbeat. There is so much humanity and truth in these pages, that I just didn’t want it to end. Well, well worth a read!

[mckenna]

My ONLY note is: more Ivy commentary next time pls !

[Jim Flucke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Joe's other books. This feels like someone printed out a podcast.

[Alex Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm already a big fan of both Mike and Joe and I even listen to every episode of their nonsense podcast (appropriately titled The Poscast). Joe wrote about the Royals for years and still writes so much about baseball. Mike has written for and created many of my favorite TV shows. So yes, I already knew I would like this book. But I didn't know how much I'd be invested in a silly midnight game in Alaska or in any of these other little stories. Being a fan of something is so much more fun than not participating. My only frustration was near the beginning when Joe called the Argentine soccer team River Pla-tay instead of River Plate (almost exactly like the English words) like how they say it in Argentina.

[Meg C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly as described - a fun bunch of essays about liking and enjoying things (mostly sports). Perfect dad book!

[Gary Anderson]

What happens when a television comedy writer and a best-selling sportswriter team up to discover what it means to be a fan? Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski revel in shenanigans galore as they seek to understand why we love what we love so passionately, even beyond the parameters of what might be considered good sense.

Much of Big Fan is sports-centric, but the authors also delve into other areas of fandom–Taylor Swift, horses, board games, Pokemon Go, and fountain pens, for example–to learn exactly what it is about our chosen fixations that makes us spend time, money, and energy collecting, pursuing, and obsessing about them.

One of my favorite chapters involves Schur and Posnanski attempting to conjure fandom around a random team. They chose a random sport from a random college and sincerely tried to become a fan of that group of athletes by learning everything they could, purchasing the team’s merch, and traveling to their games. Hilarious. They also challenged each other to experience something they don’t like that other people find thrilling. For this, Joe endured pickleball hell. Meanwhile, Mike was immersed in a Dead and Company concert in Las Vegas that led into a professional wrestling convention.

Schur and Posnanski eventually realize that being a fan usually has something to do with geography but more importantly fandom provides fun, order, and community when much of life is actually kind of boring, chaotic, and isolated.

Because of its humor, conversational tone, and relatable observations, Big Fan might be the right book for those who don’t see themselves as readers. I loved it. Keep Big Fan in mind when gift-giving opportunities roll around.

[DPW · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to start this review by saying that I’m a big fan of “Big Fan”. It’s a perfect summer vacation book that has laugh-out-loud moments amid fabulous storytelling.

I was expecting for the book to be exclusively about sports, but it was enhanced by showcasing fandom in other topics including music (Taylor Swift, Grateful Dead), puzzles/games (chess, NY Times crossword) and non-traditional sports (darts, WWE wrestling, and Indigenous Stickball). Each chapter with differing topic was a meal unto itself.

As the authors say about why we become fans:
1. Life is boring, and fandom provides entertainment.
2. Life is chaotic, and fandom provides order.
3. Life is lonely, and fandom provides community.

The other big positive for the book is that friendship between the coauthors radiates through the pages. Pure fun. Highly entertaining.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, I oscillated between loving this concept and being very bored. Listening on audio is sometimes rewarding and sometimes infuriating due to the number of footnotes. I really love the premise that fandom makes us less lonely, celebrate our humanness, give us structure and I felt a lot of joy coming through in the book. might be better to read so you can skip past footnotes and hone in on the chapters that interest you.

[Jay Zwelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book, unfortunately they weren't met, in fact I feel like I was duped. Let’s be clear this really isn’t a sports book at all, it's a fandom book?, whatever that means. Sure, they talk some about sports, but they also talk about pickleball, and darts and chess and I knew I was in trouble after a long exchange about Star Wars with their waiter which they thought was amazing, spoiler alert it wasn't. 25 pages about hugging Mookie Betts? 25 PAGES!!! Also 5 chapters of fan mail? Also, chess and magic and pens? WTF? This book was all over the place. Very disjointed. You quickly realize this book was an idea of how the authors could milk their publisher (and us) to get this project paid for and not do any work for a year. They even admit it up front. And you quickly realize we are the suckers. The cover is the best part, but don’t be fooled by it, there is no road trip in a classic convertible Mustang, it’s all a ruse. That book would have been cool. This one about Taylor Swift and WrestleMania is not. It’s way too long you get the feeling they were paid by the page? This could have easily been less than 200 pages and not over 400! And don’t get me started the superfluous stupid foot notes. If you like dumb Dad jokes you may like it, I didn’t get it. 2 stars is being generous. Don't buy this book, don't waste your money, Luckily, I didn't, I got it from the library and returned it happily when I was finished. Needless to say, I am NOT a BIG FAN of this book.

[Kellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, co-written by awesome sports writer Joe Posnanski and your favorite sitcom writer of the 21st century, Michael Schur, is ostensibly (they use the word ostensibly a lot in this book and it seeped into my vocabulary (they also have a lot of footnotes)) a buddy road trip comedy through fandom in all its weird and wonderful forms. They’re hosts of what is mostly a baseball podcast, so it’s a lot of baseball. But it covers, World Championship Darts, Taylor Swift, the Dead Heads, Star Wars, College Football, Hockey, Magic, WWE, and so much more.

Posnanski and Schur see more incredible fan experiences in the year or so they wrote this book than many of us will see in our lifetime. They’ve also seen an incalculable amount of insane sporting moments in their lives and met more famous celebrities and athletes than random fans will ever hope for. But, the beauty of this book, is that they’re such genuine guys, they treat every moment and event with joy (except for Pickleball, Joe really hates pickleball).

There a lot of stories in this book about how people fell in love with sports or re-fell in love with sports. When I listened to Posnanski’s books “Why We Love Baseball” and “Why We Love Football”, I fell in love with my favorite sports all over again. These guys, and my other favorite podcast, Casuals with Katie Nolan which I skipped for like 3 weeks listening to this book, are must listens for anyone who is casual fan of sports. Also, Mike and Joe are guests on the day this review is being written on. Both are a breath of fresh air in a sports landscape that wants you to yell hot takes, ignore women’s sports, and gamble your house away.

I am sure the book in physical or digital is great, but the audiobook is incredible. Check it out.

[Ed Schmauder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book written by two friends (Joe Posnanski is a sportswriter, Michael Schur is Ken Tremendous) who experience some sports adventures, usually together. They go to watch darts championship in England, Joe plays in a pickleball tournament, they go to a Liverpool soccer game during a downpour, etc.

[Ben Ertel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a total palette cleanser, such a fun book

[Jaelen Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book perfectly describes my daily life

[Andrew]

Just delightful. I could have read this book for twice as long if they had kept going.

[Jay Larbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Super fun and feel good read. Got a little slow in the second half but that’s okay.

Really enjoyed the chapters about the darts, sports on radio, pickleball, Liverpool, crosswords, Grateful Dead, wrestlemania, the masters, hockey, mookie betts, and Alaska.

Always have a high appreciation for Posnanski.

[Sabrina Romano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great audiobook for a road trip!

[Graham T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book as authors go on a journey to find the essence of fandom. Covers everything from World Darts championship to hugging Mookie Betts.