The switch to the new JoeBlogs is going pretty well. About 60% of you have come over, which is great. My big concern in making this switch to Substack was that I was asking all of you to do the pain-in-the-neck thing of signing up with a new service and canceling your Patreon account. But…
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.
To Break in a Glove
In the next couple of weeks, this site will automatically redirect (or some similar action) to my new blog over at Substack. As I’ve written about at some length on Patreon, I think this will be way better for many different reasons. It will (I hope) be a better reading experience, a better posting experience,…
Baseball 75: Larry Walker
This is probably a good time to very briefly explain how I ranked these players. Together with Tom Tango (though he might not want credit), I developed a WAR ranking system that is adjusted by era and the quality of competition. I don’t want to get into the weeds here because the system is not…
Forfeits For You
This week marks the 45th anniversary of 10 Cent Beer Night in Cleveland, one of the banner moments of my childhood. I was only 7, but it left an enormous imprint on my life. And as my anniversary gift to you, here is a rundown of the five baseball forfeits of the last 50 years…
In Defense of OPS
On Twitter, pals and co-authors Tom Tango and Mitchel Lichtman had a fun little argument about two interesting baseball statistics, OPS (On Base Plus Slugging Percentage) and wOBA (Weighted On Base Average). Tango made the solid argument that OPS is a mathematical crime — you are adding together fractions that do not have the same…
The Tony Peña Story
Tony Peña turns 62 today. And this, from 2003, is one of my all-time favorite stories. * * * On the road to Villa Vasquez, Tony Peña cried, not for the first time that day and not for the last. “No,” he said. “Not that story. I will not tell that story.” His Mercedes raced…
Baseball Things, June 3
Baseball Thing 1: Baseball’s Newest Star San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic is one of the most famous baseball cities in the world. The population is a little less than 200,000 — roughly the same as Huntsville or Akron — and yet, over the years, more than 100 major league players were born…
Soto, So Young, So Good
Juan Soto played his 162nd game on Wednesday … that’s one full season’s worth. His numbers through 162: .292/.402/.519, 36 doubles, 2 triples, 31 home runs, 107 RBIs, 107 runs. That’s pretty special, particularly for someone who won’t turn 21 until after THIS season. How does it compare? Well, you can look at this guy….
Three years ago: Hamilton
Brilliant reader Pete reminds me that exactly three years ago, I wrote this story about Hamilton. Every week, someone mentions it to me. It’s one of the most personal stories I’ve ever written and — with Eliza my daughter about to become a senior in high school — I look back at and again I…
Baseball 76: Ferguson Jenkins
Of the 17 pitchers in baseball history who have struck out 3,000 batters in their careers, only four have also walked fewer than 1,000. Three of them — Curt Schilling, Greg Maddux, and Pedro Martinez — are of recent vintage. They pitched in a new game when hitters struck out unapologetically and ferociously. The fourth…