Hi Everyone —
Today is September 11th, and today, like countless Americans, I think about what we lost. And, like always, I think of Christina-Taylor Green. She would have been 24 today, the same age as our oldest daughter, Elizabeth. Christina was born on 9/11. She was killed in Tucson a few months before her 10th birthday by a 22-year-old with a Glock 19 semi-automatic. I went to Tucson the next morning. All that was left was police tape, blood, and a pile of stuffed animals left in front of Christina’s school.
Christina loved stuffed animals, math, and she wanted to change the world.
Our Elizabeth, born 11 days earlier, isn’t crazy about math.
I think a lot about what her father, John, said. John Green is the son of baseball icon Dallas Green, and baseball was his life, too. He was working as a scout for the Dodgers when Christina was killed. He slept in her bed the night of the shooting, and then at the funeral, he said this:
“Everybody’s going to be OK. She’d want that.”
Are we OK? That’s too big a question for a little sports newsletter. All I know is I never met Christina-Taylor Green, and I miss her dearly.
Here are a whole bunch of rambling sports thoughts that I’ve scribbled down in my notebook over the last few days. Here we go — fast and loose:
First, thanks to all of you who dived in on the first day (!) and preordered BIG FAN: Two Friends, 81,589 Miles and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. I’m so proud of this book, Mike is too, and I really think you’ll love it. And we’ll have that special preorder offer with Joseph-Beth going for a while.
Two quick book things I want to mention.
First: I deeply (deeply) love the cover, but my one reservation about it is that it suggests this book is only a mad romp around the world chasing sports. It’s that, of course, but there’s so much more, so many beautiful little stories about fans who love things irrationally and unconditionally and how we are all connected.
Second: Mike made me play in a pickleball tournament. I have not and will never forgive him.
It will be hard to wait eight months to show it all to you. But I can’t wait.
There is no Browns Diary this week because I was in Mexico City wolfing down amazing food, and I didn’t need any more heartburn. Suffice it to say that my Brown bingo card was filled …
Browns Bingo, Bucs Bedlam, Belichick Brooding
From Flacco’s time machine to Mookie’s revival to the Pirates’ vendetta against Paul Skenes, read on for another wild JoeBlogs ride.
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