Joe Posnanski

When I was 13 years old, I had my bicycle stolen. I went into a Revco Drug Store at Cedar Center in Cleveland for only a minute -- a minute, that’s why I didn’t lock up my bike -- and when I came out my bike was gone. I had saved up everything for that bicycle. It was my life. I’m pretty sure that was the last time that I ever violently cried. I hated the world. I’ve always understood how a ... Read More

Well, since my last FTN item was such a big hit (yikes), here’s another one -- a pointless and formless thought for the day. * * * I’m never surprised when I see business corruption. To me, it’s pretty simple. We were all raised to be corrupt business moguls. We were all raised playing Monopoly. There’s nothing discreet about Monopoly. It is called MONOPOLY. The name pretty much gives away the premise. Your singular goal is to destroy other business leaders and build Monopolies so ... Read More

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Gee, I’ll bet Joe spent three-plus hours Sunday night putting together the Play Wonder Kitchen Set for his youngest daughter’s birthday.” Yeah, that’s right, I did that ... you know, it’s never a good sign when you open up a “some assembly required box,” and the instructions fall out, and the first thing you see on them is, no joke, “Step 27.” My feeling on it is this: Nothing in this world with the possible ... Read More

All the heroes of my early childhood wore capes. Funny. There was Superman, of course, the cartoon, the comic books, mostly the George Reeves’* character on weekday afternoon television, a not-so-muscular Superman who would stand at full attention, hands on his hips, smug look on his face while the villain unloaded his revolver (and then, as the comedians have pointed out, duck when the villain threw the gun his way). There was Batman and Robin, sliding down the poles, to the Batcave, into ... Read More

This is an excessively (excessively) long post about one of my favorite all-time athletes, someone I have spent way too much time thinking about. Recently, my friend Michael MacCambridge, on behalf of ESPN, asked me to rank my Top 5 college football players ever. It was hard, almost impossible, and I spent way too many hours thinking about it, and even after all that work I never felt good about my list. The only thing I felt good about, the only thing ... Read More

So this is how the news of Alex Rodriguez opting out of his contract was reported in the English version of the Asahi Shimbun here in Japan. It was just a four paragraph mention, but you know, you can squeeze a lot of information into four paragraphs. -- The first paragraph says he opted out of his $252 million deal (or, as reported here, 28.9 million yen, which sounds much more reasonable -- they actually meant 28.9 billion yen). -- The second points out ... Read More

The Indians are one game away from the World Series, there's mayhem and excitement and so much to write about. But for some reason, I'm motivated tonight to write about Chief Wahoo. I wouldn't blame you for skipping this one ... not many people seem to agree with me about how it's past time to get rid of this racist logo of my childhood. * * * Cleveland has had an odd and somewhat comical history when it comes to sports nicknames. The football ... Read More

This is a brutally long blog about my history as a Cleveland sports fan. It is self-absorbed, certainly, and I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you skipped over it. But it’s also thousands of words (footnotes and all), and I have to do something with it. (I have added a few footnotes to clarify some of the Cleveland heartbreaks). * * * Things have changed in Cleveland. Things have changed all over. When I was kid growing up in on the East side ... Read More