Joe Posnanski

My father’s favorite actor, Paul Newman, died Friday. He was 83 years old. Of course, my father would insist that Paul Newman was not actually his favorite actor, even though as far as I know his two favorite movies rank like so: 1. The Hustler 2. Somebody Up There LIkes Me You will note that they are both movies which star, um, yeah, Paul Newman. My father has watched both of these movies at least 100 times apiece, no other movie is even close (third ... Read More

I know what you are wondering: How many players since the end of Deadball have had an OPS+ of 5 or less? Well, it depends on how many plate appearances you are talking about. Quickly, you know OPS represents on-base percentage plus slugging, and OPS+ measures a player against everyone else in the league (taking ballpark effects into consideration). A 100 OPS+ is precisely average. That means, generally speaking, that a 5 OPS+ represents a player who is 20 times worse than average. If ... Read More

It’s gonna be a busy book-writing week, so we probably won’t have any lengthy posts. But I’ll try to post a little a few little things, tidbits, obscure stats, jokes, whatever. We’ll start here: Four players in baseball history have put together this odd combination: 25 homers, 25 stolen bases, 40 doubles, more than 110 RBIs and 110 runs scored. They are: 1. Larry Walker in 1997. Of course, that was at Coors Field, so it’s pretty tainted, but he hit .366 with 46 ... Read More

While working on a column, I ran across this piece I did for The Kansas City Star two or three years ago about Junior Johnson. It was (I hoped) a tribute to Tom Wolfe’s remarkable 1965 Esquire essay “The Last American Hero” as well as a chance to write about NASCAR. I’m fascinated by NASCAR even as I am thoroughly uninterested in the racing. I love writing about drivers even as I despise writing about the races. Yeah, we’re talking mixed emotions. ... Read More

I’ve always been amazed at the popularity of Jared, you know, the Subway guy. I don’t mean this as a knock -- I like Jared too. I’m just not sure why. I mean, yeah, it’s great that he’s lost like 800 pounds or whatever, and I appreciate the imagination it took to do it by eating lots of Subway sandwiches*, but I mean lots of people LOVE Jared beyond reason. I mean I’ve seen people literally stop and point madly at Jared ... Read More

Congratulations go out today to Arizona’s Mark Reynolds, who became the first player in Major League history to strike out 200 times in a season. I love, love, love achievements like that. I mean, ANYONE can succeed at this game if they can, you know, hit the ball. But few have been good enough to get enough at-bats to strike out 200 times. In fact, I guess the whole point is that no one ever had before. You know how they always try ... Read More

Here’s my patented warning: The following is personal, and I suspect you won’t care. But I was thinking about what it is for me to be a sportswriter, especially a sportswriter in a town full of losers (and I’m pulling out of here to win). And so I just kind of came up with this free form essay about sportswriting and fanhood ... really, it’s a good one to skip. * * * I’ve mentioned this before, a lot. But here goes again: Tony ... Read More

Brilliant reader Brian says that he really got backed up in traffic this morning in New York. Of course, traffic gets stopped in New York all the time, but apparently this was serious: There was someone threatening to jump of the GW Bridge. Now, normally people in New York will not stop for something as non-descript as a jumper -- I can remember many times standing in Times Square and being in awe as cars whizzed by while a guy in bikini ... Read More

Here’s my theory: Most sports fans are formed by the most cataclysmic or euphoric sporting event of their childhood. I am the sports fan that I am today because four days before my 14th birthday, with the Cleveland Browns in field goal range, Sam Rutigliano called a play called Red Right 88, and Brian Sipe threw an interception against the Oakland Raiders. Then Brian put his hand in his face, and he stumbled off the field, and Rutigliano said, “I love you ... Read More

Jason Bartlett has an 83 OPS+. Jason Bartlett has a .328 on-base percentage and has struck out three times more than he has walked. Jason Bartlett has a .358 slugging percentage and has hit 1.00 home runs this season. Jason Bartlett has missed 32 baseball games, which accounts for his relatively unimpressive total of 43 runs scored and 34 runs batted in. Jason Bartlett ranks 11th among “everyday shortstops” with an .825 zone rating. Jason Bartlett ranks 12th among “everyday shortstops“ with 4.22 range factor. Jason Bartlett ... Read More