Elizabeth turns 17 today. And I’m a mess. I’m sitting here in tears, looking at old photos, thinking way too much about where the time went. She’s an adult in so many ways. She drives. She can go see R-rated movies without us. She speaks a language that I don’t understand. Today she was explaining…
Author: Joe Posnanski
Joe Posnanski writes about sports for a living, particularly baseball. Here, he writes about sports and also Springsteen, Hamilton, Harry Potter, iPads, infomercials, his idolization of Duane Kuiper, his family and magic. He lives in Charlotte with his wife Margo, two daughters Elizabeth and Katie, and their dog Westley. Joe is currently working on a book about Harry Houdini in today's world.
Baseball 98: Carlton Fisk
Cecil Fisk was one of those hardscrabble Depression Era men who inspire stories. He was an archetype that you’ll immediately recognize — a New Hampshire machinist and farmer who believed in those familiar pillars of hard work, plain values and the possibilities of America. He was tough. Obviously. Cecil died when he was 98 years…
Shadowball 99: Cap Anson and Fleet Walker
This is a free preview for JoeBlogs. This is part of the Shadowball 100, which will include 100 of the most fascinating, awesome, real and fictional players in baseball history. This series corresponds with the Baseball 100, a rundown of the 100 greatest Major League Baseball players ever. To sign up for JoeBlogs, you can…
The HP Diet, Week 4: Chocolate
Fourth installment of weekly “Harry Potter Diet” series. Someone is going to have to come to a consensus on chocolate — I can’t have my heart played with like this. I lived the vast majority of my life understanding that chocolate is both: A. The most delicious food on planet Earth and B. Terrible for…
1914: The End of the Intentional Walk (Almost)
The rabbit hole takes us to 1914, a great American sports year. Wrigley Field opened. Babe Ruth pitched in his first game. A baseball prospect who could switch-hit AND switch-throw put the sport aside for a week to play in the U.S. Open golf tournament — Walter Hagen won that Open to launch one of…
Is Patreon Fixed? (Take 2)
Update: I had this post up for about five minutes when Oz, the tech guru, tried something else to make things even better — that something else didn’t work. I took down the post. Now we’re back to the original fix, which seems good. * * * Could it be true that WordPress and Patreon are…
Baseball 99: Charlie Gehringer
Sportswriters teed off on Charlie Gehringer when he did not come to own his Hall of Fame ceremony in June of 1949. It’s funny if you think about it. Gehringer had long been celebrated by those same sportswriters, and everyone else, as the man of few words, Baseball’s silent hero. They called him “The Mechanical…
The power of one
Small sample sizes, obviously, but look at this: Bryce Harper, March 30-April 16: .315/.487/.778 Hit eight homers in 17 games, scored 17 runs, drove in 17 runs. Team record: 8-9 * * * Bryce Harper, April 17-July 6: .189/.332/.402 Dreadful, 79 strikeouts in 68 games, poor defense, roughly replacement-level play. Team record: 36-33 * *…
A break for these messages …
To join JoeBlogs, click here. A lot has been happening, and I’m not just talking about the news or my never-ending quest to get this blog and Patreon to play nice together. I want to catch you up with what’s going on in my life. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking and overwhelming. Mostly exciting. I think….
Shadowball 100: Duane Kuiper
The Shadowball 100 is an eclectic list of amazing baseball people that will run in conjunction with the Baseball 100. For those of you who would like to join JoeBlogs and come along for the ride, the membership link is here. A strange and rather embarrassing thing happened to me a few years ago. I…