Fifty-one days until pitchers and catchers … and here’s your daily splash of joy.
Why do you love baseball?
Brilliant Reader Mark: “I watched the original Washington Senators in a very small and half-empty Griffith Stadium. Whenever Roy Sievers came up, the noise in the park quieted a bit. You could almost hear people sliding to the front of their seats. That was what one baseball player meant to an entire city. “
Brilliant Reader Dan: “You wanna see a thing of rarified beauty? Check out the back of Hank Aaron’s baseball cards. Balanced and consistent… symmetry personified.”
Brilliant Reader Doug: “Rally caps, inning after inning, whether they work or not.”
Brilliant Reader Tom: October 2, 1968, my Dad showed up at school and told the office we had to go. Family matter. Dad had scored standing-room-only tickets to see the magnificent World Series record 17-strikeout performance by Bob Gibson.
Joe: Let me give you another image to make you happy on this Saturday before Christmas. Here’s Mickey Mantle hitting snowballs in joy after signing his large ($60,000!) 1957 contract:
Getty Images
If you would like to send in the reason why you love baseball, we’d love to hear it. And in that spirit, we’re also now collecting photos and artwork too — old snapshots, ballpark scenes, favorite scorecards, kids’ drawings, ticket stubs, whatever captures the joy of the game for you. Some people are sending song lyrics. Some are sending poems. It’s utterly wonderful. Just send along your baseball joy to [email protected].
This week, I got emails that truly touched my heart. All the emails I get from Brilliant Readers — even the angry ones — touch my heart in some way because you don’t have to care about anything I say. It constantly blows my mind that you do. I feel like the guy from “Eddie and the Cruisers” — “We ain’t great, we’re just some guys from Jersey.”
Only “Jersey” is “Cleveland,” and “guys” is “guy,” and, OK, maybe you get the point.
By the way, here are five semi-obscure movie quotes from 1980s cable movies that have stuck in my head for way too long. I’ll bet a bunch of you my age can name the movie:
“All balls itch.”
“That Barney Rubble, what an actor.”
“No, there’s not much call for a 5-10 white cornerback in the NFL.”
“Where you been all your lives, at an orgy? Listening to Mick Jagger music and bad-mouthing your country, I'll bet.”
“Surfing’s not a sport. It’s a way of life.”
Back to the point: I got particularly beautiful and personal emails from BRs that touched my heart. I won’t go into the details. As we approach Christmas, the end of Hanukkah, and the end of the year, I just want to say: I hear you. I see you. I joke about my little place in the big world a lot, but I want JoeBlogs to be more than just a silly sports newsletter. I mean, it needs to be silly, too. But I love this community, and I want this place to feel special for you. I want it to make you happier in 2026. I spend most of my waking hours thinking about how to do that.
And when I get emails that say how much my work means to you, well, just know that it humbles me beyond words. Well, one word that comes to mind: “reverence.” That’s how I feel when you tell me your stories, share with me your dreams, tell me how you overcome pain and how you do good when it’s hard to do good, and how this place, in the smallest ways, helps.
Happy holidays for however you celebrate this time of year … even if you don’t celebrate at all. Pitchers and catchers report in 52 days. We’ll make it.
By the way:
Just One of the Guys
Night Shift
All The Right Moves
An Officer and a Gentleman
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
