The Great Debate

Posted on by Joe Posnanski

 

 

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We start with the T-shirt link.

Sometimes people ask how Mike Schur and I started the PosCast. OK, not often. But sometimes. And the truth is, the PosCast began as a debate about fruit. Mike and I were at a spring training baseball game in Bradenton, Fla. (or it might have been Lakeland, actually, I can’t remember which — sheesh, this was almost 10 years ago), when for no apparent reason at all we began drafting fruit.

If you want to know what it’s like to hang out with the brilliant creator of Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, well, that’s pretty much what it’s like.

That was the first time that Mike told me about his aversion to pie and hot fruit.

(Cue the T-shirt link)

We have done, well, I haven’t counted, but I guess it’s roughly 17 million PosCasts since then, and we have wildly disagreed about many things from Butterfingers (I say gross, he says great) to pretzels as snacks (I say delicious, he says an abomination) to the correct side to put the jelly in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (he says peanut butter side, I say he’s an insane person). This week, on the bonus PosCast, we draft Thanksgiving things, meaning we just argue about Thanksgiving. I think it’s the best holiday. He’s thinks it’s among the worst.

But the fruit argument remains at the core of our lifelong feud.

This holiday season, we decided to do something about it. At the top of this post, you will see two T-shirts. I should say up front that these are just two of several available styles — you can get these two shirts in light and dark colors. But at the center of them is the crux of things.

My shirt says: Fruit pie is delicious

Mike’s shirt says: Hot fruit is disgusting

And, in the end, you decide who is right and who is Michael Schur.

Actually, you can’t go wrong, because proceeds go to charity. Proceeds for my shirt go to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, a very personal charity for us because, as you might know, our daughter Elizabeth has Crohn’s Disease. So close to developing a cure.

Proceeds for Mike’s shirt will go to the International Rescue Committee, an extraordinary organization that rescues lives in some of the world’s most devastating crises. Absolutely incredible.

And, of course, Mike and I have a wager on it as well. We’re counting shirts sold, and the loser will donate a nice sum to the charity of the winner. We have not come up with an official total yet, though Mike has suggested $50 million. We’ll negotiate on that.

Anyway, we’re just trying this merch thing out, seeing if we can do a little good in the world while, much more importantly, finally settling this fruit pie/hot fruit argument once and for all. And they’re really cool shirts. The Cotton Bureau does some great work.

Here again is the link for both shirts. The shirts will only be available until Dec. 4 — this is a special holiday thing. I can’t imagine a greater gift than a Fruit Pie is Delicious T-shirt (or the other one, I guess). Think of the joy you could bring someone this holiday season!

Oh, one more thing. The way this works, when more shirts get sold, we get some free codes to give shirts away. So, after Thanksgiving, we will have some contests going along with this as well. We don’t know what those contests will be, but if you have any ideas on that front, please feel free to add them in the comments.

Remember, fruit pie really is delicious! Or if you happen to be The Grinch, hot fruit is disgusting.

Either way, it’s a message the world needs to hear.

20 thoughts on “The Great Debate”

  1. Fresh fruit is my favorite food, so your fruit draft has long been my favorite. I am curious how the official fruit draft compared to your initial spring training argument. I fear the results of that debate may be forever lost.

  2. I love cooked fruit. This time of year I can buy strawberries that are about to go bad for really cheap, and I roast them in the oven and then eat them with yogurt. The pie crust is the worst part of the pie, and crisps are way better in part because they maximize the amount of cooked fruit. Muffins taste better than cupcakes because they’re cooked fruit held together by batter. Also roasted bananas and stewed fruit. Best way to use overripe apples. I’ve actually had to cut down on the amount of cooked fruit I eat because of calories. In conclusion, Mike Schur would never like me but I still want to donate to his charity, which I hadn’t heard of before.

  3. Fruit can be excellent raw or cooked. Both positions are both valid and wrong. I think I need both shirts…

    Also, has Mike ever reconciled his anti-fruit-cooking dogma with the fact that his rightfully heralded PBJ sandwich cannot be produced without jelly (which is cooked fruit)?

  4. I love fruit pie but I am drawn to the arrogant nonsensicality of wearing “Hot fruit is disgusting” on my chest.

    Joe, I hope you can manually adjust the scoring to account for an artificial tally in Mike’s favor. I do think you are right.

  5. I don’t know if Cotton Bureau lets you plot sales of each item over time, but I would live a line graph that plotted how close (?) this race was and how it changed over time. Sort of like the “current win probability” thing they do during baseball games, only much more meaningful.

  9. Hmmmm…..don’t mean to nit pick but “hot” and “cooked” aren’t the same thing.

    Consider jam for example: cooked but not hot…and a delicious vehicle for fesh fruit flavour.

    Are we just talking pie? If so Mike’s shirt should specifically reference pie. Yet in the comments we see references to muffins and

    Otherwise you have a theoretic advantage because all sorts of spreads, baked goods, candies, and even beverages were at one point, at least partially, fruit that was hot.

    And those things are quite popular.

    So is pie for that matter. Restaurants and diners haven’t sold pie ubiquitously for decades beacuse it is widely held as disgusting. And so another theory supporting your advantage.

    Now, that having been said, theory is nice but shirt sales is something else altogether.

    Let’s not forget negative messaging seems to garner a lot of votes these days.

    Good luck.

  10. Mike Schur is also the guy who picked sweaters (itchy, stifling, constricting, impossible to remove w/out struggle, dorky) over jackets (ease of use, adjustable warmth levels, dashing). The man is smart and funny but his non-sports takes are nearly all terrible.

    1. Disagree with you on your sweater take. Some of the most comfortable articles of clothing I have worn are sweaters, especially ones made of merino wool (which is typically very soft.) Jackets can be great, but many times they are just overkill and sometimes too bulky to carry around. Sweaters on the other hand are much more versatile, and even typically have a nicer yet more casual look.

      Jackets have a time and place, obviously. But for most times, whether indoors or outdoors, with moderate temperates, sweaters are usually my go-to for my 2nd layer.

  11. Sadly, both shirts are incorrect, which is a fun twist in this contest.

    “Fruit Pie is Delicious” – wrong, because standard pie crust is the worst. The only good pie crusts are made out of graham crackers or crushed Oreos, and neither of those would generally be used for fruit pies.

    “Hot Fruit is Disgusting” – also wrong, because with the exception of chocolate cake, apple crisp is the greatest dessert.

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