A Best Players in Baseball Game!

A few updates, and a fun and addictive best player in baseball game...

Hi everybody,

Let’s start with a new “Best Players in Baseball” game that I just put up here. This is similar to games that I’ve put up in the past—though, I’ll admit, it has acted a bit wonkier this time around—and it goes like this: You’ll get two players. Like so:

All you have to do is choose which player you think is the better player. That’s all. There are A LOT of players in this game, basically anyone and everyone who might be considered for the top 100 list, so it should be a lot of fun.

A quick explanation: There are three basic options. You could vote for one of the two players—in this case, you could vote for Bellinger or Witt, and I’m not giving any hints or trying to sway you in any way. You could hit the “Explain” button, which would give you an AI rundown of your options; I’m not sure you’ll want to slow yourself up, but if you’re interested, that would look like this:

That’s actually not a bad rundown. So you can do that and then vote, if you like.

Or… you could click “skip.” There are probably a bunch of players in here that you either (A) Don’t know, or (B) Don’t have a strong opinion about. Skip as many questions as you want. Or answer questions based on the quality of the two names. Or check out AI on every choice. I’m totally fine with anything. The idea here is to get as many votes as we can, and then I’ll put together the JoeBlogs 100 Best Players Right Now in time for the All-Star Game.

The main point is: Have fun!

WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL is coming out in about two months, Sept. 17, and that means reviews are coming in! The latest is a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, which features this marvelous kicker:

Brimming with a fan’s enthusiasm and capturing the awe, bemusement, and thrills that the sport inspires, this is another win from Posnanski.

Another win! I now have more wins this year than Jacob deGrom. Seriously, that’s so kind, and I’m so excited for all of you to see this book. In two weeks, I’ll be narrating the audiobook, which I’m told will take six full days to do and will undoubtedly leave me both hoarse and sad about 500 different things I could have done better. But that’s how it goes for authors.

Oh, and a reminder: If you preorder the book from anywhere—obviously, I’d love for you to order from your independent bookstore, but, hey, Amazon does have a pre-order price guarantee, and you can get a signed book from Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million while supplies last*—you can sign up here to get free bonus chapters via email!

*Hopefully, supplies will last a little while, considering that I’ve spent the last month and a half signing and signing and signing books. Yikes. I will say, though, I have semi-perfected my new signature, which is quite a bit fancier than my old one.

One other WWLF note: There’s a new Goodreads contest going on; Dutton is giving away 20 galleys, which are the early paperbacks that reviewers get. So, if you want to try and get an early peek, hey, it’s totally free to enter.

Just a reminder that JoeBlogs is a reader-supported newsletter, and I’d love and appreciate your support!

I’ll be in Cleveland on July 26 at the National Card Convention, to see the premier of the new movie “The Diamond King.” I’m told the screening is sold out, but the show should be a lot of fun, and I’ll be wandering around, so it would be great to see you!

And speaking of wandering around, I’ll be in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 2, at the Fountain Pen Supershow, because, you know, I’ve lost my mind over fountain pens and notebooks, and we’re long past the point where my family has started to worry about me. But Margo is letting me go for one day, so, you know, if you happen to like fountain pens or stationery or seeing people engage with a passion you don’t understand at all, again, it would be great to see you.

A few of you have been kind enough to notice that I look thinner on video or in photos. Thank you so much for noticing that. The truth is, I’m down about 60 pounds from the beginning of 2023 (which was my nadir), and about 40 pounds since December. I’m about 10 pounds away from my pie-in-the-sky goal of weighing less than I did at our wedding 26 years ago.

All of it has been wonderful… and very weird. It is weird to have all my clothes be too big. It is weird to shop for sizes that I have not even thought about in decades. It is weird to see old photographs. All of it’s great. But, yes, all of it is weird, too.

In any case, most people do not notice. That’s certainly not a problem. I don’t expect people to notice; it’s not like I’m Shohei Ohtani or D.K. Metcalf or something. I mean, I have a long way to go. And I’m also well aware that, “Wow, you’ve lost a lot of weight” can also be taken to mean, “Wow, you really let yourself go before, didn’t you?” So, kind people might want to avoid that. But that’s why I do want to take a moment to thank all of you who have noticed. It means a lot, and is undoubtedly a huge motivator going forward.