Hi Everyone —
A few catch-up things before getting to today’s very special (?) post.
I might have mentioned that BIG FAN, the book Mike Schur and I wrote about fandom, comes out on May 19. Even though the book isn’t out for another six months — authors LOATHE those weeks and months between finishing a book and it coming out — things are definitely beginning to heat up.
I’ve already been asked a million times: “So is there pickleball in there?”
Answer: Yes, alas, there’s pickleball in there.
Mike and I are about to start signing many thousands of books. Like … many. I estimated the other day that I’ve probably signed 15-20,000 books in my life. We might double that just with BIG FAN. But that means there are opportunities galore for you to get a signed book before we even hit the road!
Our main hub is Joseph Beth Books in Cincinnati, a favorite bookstore of mine since the great Chuck Culpepper and I used to hang out there in the early 1990s. If you order from JB, you are guaranteed to get a book signed by both of us. BUT you also have a chance to get a limited-edition book with a special message, a guest star signature, a little dirt from Cooperstown or whatever else we dream up. 👉🏼 Preorder from Joseph Beth.
If you prefer buying from the good folks at Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million, yes, they have signed copies to preorder as well.
If you are in Canada and have recovered from the Blue Jays’ loss, our publisher, Dutton worked out a great deal with Indigo so you can get a signed edition.
If you are a goodreads kind of person, Dutton is giving away 20 advanced reader copies of the book — you can read it before anyone else! Heck, you might get your advanced reader copy before Mike and I do. Entry is free.
Yes, Mike and I will be narrating the audiobook. I don’t know exactly how that’s going to work yet — I’m hoping to take the verbs and let Mike read out the nouns — but we’ll figure it out.
Yes, Mike and I will be going on a tour. We’re a little ways off before announcing any dates, but we’ll have all that stuff here as it happens.
OK, I think that catches us up. Let’s get to today’s love letter to baseball.
I woke up this morning and thought, “I should write 100 things I love about baseball after all these years.” The only reason I can do something that madcap is because of our brilliant readers in The Clubhouse. They support our mission for keeping JoeBlogs free, ad-free and joyful. And they get some stuff too, like weekly exclusive posts, special invitations, a direct line to JoeBlogs Central, etc. If you’d like to join The Clubhouse, we’d love to give you the secret password.
Winter is coming. You can already feel the chill in the air. But baseball will get us through. Baseball always gets us through.
Here are the first 50 things I love about baseball, even after all these years. The second 50 tomorrow!
No. 100: Triples.
No. 99: Full counts
No. 98: Bobby Witt Jr. gliding to his right to backhand a ground ball.
No. 97: That I wake up some mornings, like I did this chilly morning, thinking about Al Rosen’s 1953 season. Only in baseball would I ever think about a pretty obscure long-ago season from a player many years before my time. I don’t ever wake up thinking about John Henry Johnson’s 1962 season or Bob Petit’s 1958-59 campaign. But I woke up today thinking about Al Rosen, who defiantly stood up to antisemitism, played like a Hall of Famer for five years, and in 1953 came within a batting average point of Mickey Vernon … and the Triple Crown.
No. 96: Beautifully inscribed baseballs. I don’t know how ballplayers do it.
No. 95: 4-6-3 double plays. They’re the most beautiful double plays, right? The second baseman’s flip. The shortstop skimming over the bag like a jet ski. The rocket throw to first base.
No. 94: Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble
Making a Giant hit into a double
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
— Franklin Pierce Adams
No. 93: I always thought the poem should have read Evers to Tinker to Chance — only because of what I said about 4-6-3 double plays being the most beautiful.
No. 92: A gonfalon, by the way, is a banner or, in this case, a pennant. I am ready to make “gonfalon” our official word for the pennant, but you decide.
Should JoeBlogs officially use "gonfalon" instead of pennant, e.g. "The Blue Jays won the gonfalon" or "We've got one heck of a gonfalon race brewing in the National League."
No. 91: The 20-80 scouting system. So much fun.
No. 90: Here is the 20-80 scouting system on hitting ability:
20: Me
30: Nick Allen
40: Jacob Young
45: Masyn Winn
50: Salvador Perez
55: Julio Rodriguez
60: Kyle Tucker
70: Shohei Ohtani
80: Aaron Judge
No. 89: The MB Brewers hat that shapes into a glove.
No. 88: Trea Turner on the bases.
No. 87: That I wake up some mornings thinking about the fierce and complicated rivalry between Dizzy Dean and Satchel Paige.
No. 86: Well played balls off the wall that hold batters to singles.
No. 85: Max Scherzer’s unquenchable fire.
No. 84: That the league hit .163 off Kenley Jansen’s cutter, which is basically the only pitch he’s been throwing since 1949.
No. 83: The game in the early innings shadows.
No. 82: Every single shot of Sandy Koufax in the stands. When we lose Sandy — and I hope that’s not for another 100 years — we will lose so much.
No. 81: Boog Sciambi on the call.
No. 80: Jason Benetti on the call.
No. 79: Duane Kuiper on the call.
No. 78: Every single dumb rally cap. I love them all.
No. 77: The fact they still don’t let pitchers catch pop-ups.
No. 76: The lottery ticket that is Oneil Cruz. Total it all up, he had, at best, a so-so season. He hit .200. By some defensive measures, he was way below average. But at any given moment, Cruz — perhaps more than any other player in the game — can do something that will make your heart jump out of your chest.
No. 75: The clanging sound of a baseball hitting the foul pole.
No. 74: Defensive indifference. What a term.
No. 73: See, the people who have baseball have never been content with the pure numbers. They had to put their own judgmental spin on it. Is that an at-bat? Nope, walks don’t count as at-bats. Was that a hit? Nope, that third baseman should have fielded it! Is that an earned run? Nope, it’s a run, we can’t help that, but they didn’t really earn it! Is that an RBI? Nope, they hit into a double play so we’re taking that RBI away from. Is that a stolen base? Are you kidding, the defensive team didn’t even try. I’d call that defensive indifference.
No. 72: It’s all so silly. But it’s silly in the most wonderful baseball ways.
No. 71: The fact that Mookie Betts, at age 32, started playing shortstop for pretty much the first time in his life … and he almost immediately became one of the best in the world at it.
No. 70: The infinitesimal gap between a slider and a cutter. The guy who invented the slider — whether it was George Uhle or George Blaeholder or someone else — was maybe throwing a cutter. Nobody knows who invented the cut fastball, but that person was probably trying to throw a slider. The pitches are different but the same.
No. 69: Mariano Rivera on how he learned to throw his unhittable cutter: “Nobody teach me that pitch but God.”
No. 68: The fact that they take the ball away from the pitcher being pulled and give that baseball to the reliever entering. I’ve written about the Ceremony of the Ball before, but never enough. I think I will probably write a 3,000-word bit about it sometime during this long, cold offseason. Maybe I’ll ask a few ballplayers about it.
No. 67: The all-around splendor of José Ramírez. He just does everything. What a wonder! I suspect that because of Shohei and Judge and some of the kids emerging, he will never end up winning an MVP award. I also think he might end up, statistically, with the highest MVP share to never win one.
Here’s how that list looks now:
Al Simmons, 3.53
Billy Terry, 3.45
Eddie Murray, 3.33
Mike Piazza, 3.16
Jose Ramirez, 3.08
I would guess that after this year’s MVP race — he’ll probably finish Top 5? Top 3? — he will shoot past Piazza and probably Murray too — he might even make it all the way to Terry. What a player.
No. 66: Plays at the plate.
No. 65: The Dodgers’ dominance. I know that’s a weird thing to love; I’ve gotten SO many emails and texts from people who are so sick of the Dodgers and all their stars and all their money. But, I have to say, I kind of like it when there’s a team on top to loathe. And this Dodgers team is such a perfect team to loathe because, individually, they’re so darned likable. I mean, Shohei? Freddie? Yoshi? Mookie, for crying out loud? They’re delights! But they’ve now won too much, and the backlash grows, and it should grow, and I think it gives the baseball season a riveting plot and rhythm. Can anyone beat these Dodgers?
No. 64. Neat scorecards.
No. 63: Sloppy scorecards.
No. 62: The Green Monster.
No. 61: The fact that the Braves hired Walt Weiss as manager … and Walt Weiss is older than me. I’m always happy when teams hire managers older than I am.
No. 60: OK, well, not ALWAYS.
No. 59: The fact that nobody actually meets at the Winter Meetings, just like no pitcher actually “pitches” the ball like horseshoes, just like the baseball clubhouse is not a private club, just like nobody talks about baseball over a hot stove, just like the pitching rubber is not made of rubber, just like you don’t “steal” signs, you decrypt them, just like the hit and run should always have been the run and hit, just like every pregame has multiple first pitches.
Ah, the glorious language of this sport I love.
No. 58: The fact that Luis Arráez, who had a pretty brutal year for the most part, still finished fourth in the NL batting race. That guy will be finishing top five in batting average when he’s a grandfather.
No. 57: That instant when you’re not sure if a foul ball will reach the stands or not … and the frustration or relief that comes when you figure it out.
No. 56: A long fly ball hit at Wrigley Field with Pete Crow-Armstrong in center.
No. 55: The bullpen phone. It might be the only time anyone under 35 will ever see an actual phone. (If they ever get rid of the bullpen phone the way the NFL got rid of measuring first downs with chains, I will lead a march upon the MLB offices in New York).
No. 54: That commercial where you see kids breaking gloves a dozen different ways. I use the “put it under the mattress and sleep on it” technique.
No. 53: Matt Waldron and my desperate but hopeful hope that will see another knuckleball pitcher someday.
No. 52: “The game of ball is glorious.” — Walt Whitman.
No. 51: “Pitchers and catchers reporting.” — All of us. Soon. But not soon enough.
Fifty more tomorrow. Want to join in? Email me your absolute favorite thing about baseball — I just might add it to the list.
