I enjoyed the baseball songs! But I remain convinced that the greatest baseball song ever is Jonathan Coulton's "Kenesaw Mountain Landis", the legend of a man Joe himself mentions in this post:
My favorite recent baseball song is probably Too Much Joy's "Curse of the Bobblehead", but I can't find a YouTube or Bandcamp link. Paid streaming services mostly seem to have it, though.
Joe, I love your writing. I’ve been reading since you wrote for the Kansas City paper. Probably one of the very few things that could get me to unsubscribe would be if you take gambling money to advertise for them.
A comment on the Yankees. As I royals fan, I also greatly dislike (I really couldn’t find or use strong enough language) the yanks. What I found interesting is how many people around the country really hate them. About 25 years ago I took my youngest son to a game in Boston and 10 minutes before first pitch a rousing “Yankees suck” cheer erupted and the entire fandom was reveling in the cheer. About the third inning a fight broke out close by and the ushers broke up the fight an hauled out a bloodied fan. I asked someone nearby what the fight was about and the guy said the bloodied guy “was a f-ing yankee fan”. Weird thing was the Sox were playing the jays.
First, yes, Ken is protecting his sources. I get it. I did that when I was a reporter, and so do others. But let's be a little less silly about it, ok?
Now to seasons. Joe, a thought: The greatest season any baseball broadcaster ever had was Red Barber in 1947: Jackie Robinson and the World Series calls, not to mention the oft-forgotten Durocher suspension.
As a diehard Yankee fan since '64 a couple of observations. The first being that the Yankee fans who populate Joe Blogs are also true baseball fans who get it and understand what a large sect of Yankee fans don't. That sect think it is their divine right for the Yankees to be world champions and anything less is failure (a thought perpetrated by George and Jeter). I of course want them to win it all, but am pleased that as an entertainment outlet they are there every season. I also loathe the ones who saw losing the WS in '24 as failure
Second, I totally get the disdain for the Yankees while watching Duke basketball and always rooting for them to lose.
I do wonder if the disdain for the Yankees existed in the '49-'64 dynasty years? Or was it a reaction to Steinbrenner?
Mike Marshall's 1974 feels like it needs to be in the book. 106 games pitched, 208 1/3 innings pitched .. in relief. 27 decisions and 21 saves, 2.42 ERA, 141 ERA+. Somehow, that is only calculated to be 3.1 bWAR.
Seasons - Carl Yastrzemski HAS to be an all-timer - triple crown, leader of the Impossible Dream that made the Red Sox the beloved Red SAWX then and forevermore.
Love the premise of Seasons and I’m looking forward to it. As a Cardinal fan, there are two recent ones I think warrant consideration. The first is David Freese’s 2011. I know Joe wrote about this “Why We Love Baseball” but the idea a hometown boy (Freese is from STL) playing SUCH a pivotal role in winning a World Series … it’s the stuff of dreams. Living in STL, any time his name comes up, people smile.
The second is Albert Pujols’ 2022 season. Albert had many amazing seasons but his last one was so improbable. Over the first 87 games, he was hitting .198 with four homers and 18 RBIs. He thought about quitting. But from that point on, he was “El Hombre” again, hitting .320 with 20 homers and 50 RBIs. He had a 1.086 OPS. I’ve told my son, who was too young to remember prime Albert, that I was so happy he got to see that last half-season. THAT was Albert Pujols, not the guy who looked so washed up the first half of the year. How many players come back to the city of their glory days and get a send-off like that? It was truly magical!
We have a foul ball hit by Pujols in his last game at Wrigley from 2022. It actually landed by the guys behind us in the crowd... but my then-seven-year-old was with me, and so they handed it to him. It was a really nice gesture! But it's a really, really cool souvenir from my son's first-ever MLB game... even though he, at the time, had NO context for who Albert Pujols was, or why he was important.
I probably cribbed this from a Joe Pos article but I copied to a note on my phone so I could show people how great John Olerud was in college. In 1988, Olerud went 15-0, struck out 113 batters and posted a 2.49 ERA. And he was, like, way better at the plate. The stats: .464 batting average, 23 homers, 81 RBI, .876 slugging percentage. He was a consensus All-American as both a first baseman and pitcher. I don’t know if college seasons count but I’d love a deep dive on this one in the new book.
I'm guessing that Joe won't just go for the obvious in his "Seasons" book. He mentioned the new book when writing about Wilbur Wood the other day... which I'm guessing has to do with Wood's 376-inning season in 1972. So I'm kinda hoping, honestly, for more of THAT absurdity. Rob Deer's 1991, where his strikeouts (175) and batting average (.179) JUST missed matching; Khris "don't call him Chris" Davis' four matching batting average seasons (particularly the last two, which were eerily similar in a lot of other categories, too); the absurdity of Trea Turner's 24-0 SB/CS in 2023; Mark McGwire's absurd final year, in which he had more HR (29) than non-HR hits (27); Jimmy Rollins' and Curtis Granderson's 20/20/20 season... occurring in the same season in 2007... any weird stuff, really. Because yeah... I'll buy and read the book whenever it comes out. But... do I REALLY need another book about Pedro's '99 or Ruth's '27 or Bonds' 2001 or Yaz's 1967? No, not really. But I would LOVE a book about Eric Davis' 1987... so I'm hoping that's what we'll get.
The 1993 season, where the Giants finished with 103 wins - and missed the playoffs because the Braves had 104...... MLB would expand the playoffs the next time there was a full season.
Alex Rodriguez was the #1 draft pick, Reggie Jackson was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Blue Jays repeated as WS Champions.....
I really hope one of the Seasons is about Mark Fidrych. I wasn't old enough to experience it in the moment. But I'm old enough to remember people talking about it years later. The documentary on him was good, but it left me wanting much more. Please include The Bird in your book.
The 1978 Topps set is one of my favorites because that is when I really got into collecting. Last year I got into doing deep dives on lesser known players to see what they did after their baseball careers ended. That ended up in me finding an almost connection between two of my favorite 1978 Topps cards. The first is the 1978 card of Skip Jutze of the Mariners. I love it because he looks like he has no idea what he is doing or why anyone would want to take his picture. It's fantastic. What few people know is that Skip hit the first "Grand Slammer" (it says this on the back of this card) in Mariners history. This led me down a rabbit hole to find out who had the distinction of giving up the most important of Skip Jutze's three career homers. ChatGPT told me it was none other than one of my other 1978 Topps favorite, Ross Grimsley! Grimsley's hair is just glorious. What are the odds that two of my favorite cards would be linked in such a way??? Unfortunately, ChatGPT was wrong. It was actually Dyar Miller who gave up the aforementioned "Grand Slammer". Miller's card isn't without it's charms as he looks like Harris from Major League, but he's certainly no Ross Grimsley. Never trust AI if something sounds too good to be true.
"MLB [doesn't] need the Polymarket money. They just want it"
This. This, this, this, THIS.
I enjoyed the baseball songs! But I remain convinced that the greatest baseball song ever is Jonathan Coulton's "Kenesaw Mountain Landis", the legend of a man Joe himself mentions in this post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DveU_n1HUb0
My favorite recent baseball song is probably Too Much Joy's "Curse of the Bobblehead", but I can't find a YouTube or Bandcamp link. Paid streaming services mostly seem to have it, though.
Joe, I love your writing. I’ve been reading since you wrote for the Kansas City paper. Probably one of the very few things that could get me to unsubscribe would be if you take gambling money to advertise for them.
A comment on the Yankees. As I royals fan, I also greatly dislike (I really couldn’t find or use strong enough language) the yanks. What I found interesting is how many people around the country really hate them. About 25 years ago I took my youngest son to a game in Boston and 10 minutes before first pitch a rousing “Yankees suck” cheer erupted and the entire fandom was reveling in the cheer. About the third inning a fight broke out close by and the ushers broke up the fight an hauled out a bloodied fan. I asked someone nearby what the fight was about and the guy said the bloodied guy “was a f-ing yankee fan”. Weird thing was the Sox were playing the jays.
First, yes, Ken is protecting his sources. I get it. I did that when I was a reporter, and so do others. But let's be a little less silly about it, ok?
Now to seasons. Joe, a thought: The greatest season any baseball broadcaster ever had was Red Barber in 1947: Jackie Robinson and the World Series calls, not to mention the oft-forgotten Durocher suspension.
As a diehard Yankee fan since '64 a couple of observations. The first being that the Yankee fans who populate Joe Blogs are also true baseball fans who get it and understand what a large sect of Yankee fans don't. That sect think it is their divine right for the Yankees to be world champions and anything less is failure (a thought perpetrated by George and Jeter). I of course want them to win it all, but am pleased that as an entertainment outlet they are there every season. I also loathe the ones who saw losing the WS in '24 as failure
Second, I totally get the disdain for the Yankees while watching Duke basketball and always rooting for them to lose.
I do wonder if the disdain for the Yankees existed in the '49-'64 dynasty years? Or was it a reaction to Steinbrenner?
Mike Marshall's 1974 feels like it needs to be in the book. 106 games pitched, 208 1/3 innings pitched .. in relief. 27 decisions and 21 saves, 2.42 ERA, 141 ERA+. Somehow, that is only calculated to be 3.1 bWAR.
I want to see Yuniesky's 2010 Kansas City Royals analyzed and dissected. The purest out making hitter I ever saw.
Seasons - Carl Yastrzemski HAS to be an all-timer - triple crown, leader of the Impossible Dream that made the Red Sox the beloved Red SAWX then and forevermore.
Love the premise of Seasons and I’m looking forward to it. As a Cardinal fan, there are two recent ones I think warrant consideration. The first is David Freese’s 2011. I know Joe wrote about this “Why We Love Baseball” but the idea a hometown boy (Freese is from STL) playing SUCH a pivotal role in winning a World Series … it’s the stuff of dreams. Living in STL, any time his name comes up, people smile.
The second is Albert Pujols’ 2022 season. Albert had many amazing seasons but his last one was so improbable. Over the first 87 games, he was hitting .198 with four homers and 18 RBIs. He thought about quitting. But from that point on, he was “El Hombre” again, hitting .320 with 20 homers and 50 RBIs. He had a 1.086 OPS. I’ve told my son, who was too young to remember prime Albert, that I was so happy he got to see that last half-season. THAT was Albert Pujols, not the guy who looked so washed up the first half of the year. How many players come back to the city of their glory days and get a send-off like that? It was truly magical!
Bob Gibson would like a word
We have a foul ball hit by Pujols in his last game at Wrigley from 2022. It actually landed by the guys behind us in the crowd... but my then-seven-year-old was with me, and so they handed it to him. It was a really nice gesture! But it's a really, really cool souvenir from my son's first-ever MLB game... even though he, at the time, had NO context for who Albert Pujols was, or why he was important.
I probably cribbed this from a Joe Pos article but I copied to a note on my phone so I could show people how great John Olerud was in college. In 1988, Olerud went 15-0, struck out 113 batters and posted a 2.49 ERA. And he was, like, way better at the plate. The stats: .464 batting average, 23 homers, 81 RBI, .876 slugging percentage. He was a consensus All-American as both a first baseman and pitcher. I don’t know if college seasons count but I’d love a deep dive on this one in the new book.
I'm guessing that Joe won't just go for the obvious in his "Seasons" book. He mentioned the new book when writing about Wilbur Wood the other day... which I'm guessing has to do with Wood's 376-inning season in 1972. So I'm kinda hoping, honestly, for more of THAT absurdity. Rob Deer's 1991, where his strikeouts (175) and batting average (.179) JUST missed matching; Khris "don't call him Chris" Davis' four matching batting average seasons (particularly the last two, which were eerily similar in a lot of other categories, too); the absurdity of Trea Turner's 24-0 SB/CS in 2023; Mark McGwire's absurd final year, in which he had more HR (29) than non-HR hits (27); Jimmy Rollins' and Curtis Granderson's 20/20/20 season... occurring in the same season in 2007... any weird stuff, really. Because yeah... I'll buy and read the book whenever it comes out. But... do I REALLY need another book about Pedro's '99 or Ruth's '27 or Bonds' 2001 or Yaz's 1967? No, not really. But I would LOVE a book about Eric Davis' 1987... so I'm hoping that's what we'll get.
The 1993 season, where the Giants finished with 103 wins - and missed the playoffs because the Braves had 104...... MLB would expand the playoffs the next time there was a full season.
Alex Rodriguez was the #1 draft pick, Reggie Jackson was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Blue Jays repeated as WS Champions.....
I really hope one of the Seasons is about Mark Fidrych. I wasn't old enough to experience it in the moment. But I'm old enough to remember people talking about it years later. The documentary on him was good, but it left me wanting much more. Please include The Bird in your book.
The 1978 Topps set is one of my favorites because that is when I really got into collecting. Last year I got into doing deep dives on lesser known players to see what they did after their baseball careers ended. That ended up in me finding an almost connection between two of my favorite 1978 Topps cards. The first is the 1978 card of Skip Jutze of the Mariners. I love it because he looks like he has no idea what he is doing or why anyone would want to take his picture. It's fantastic. What few people know is that Skip hit the first "Grand Slammer" (it says this on the back of this card) in Mariners history. This led me down a rabbit hole to find out who had the distinction of giving up the most important of Skip Jutze's three career homers. ChatGPT told me it was none other than one of my other 1978 Topps favorite, Ross Grimsley! Grimsley's hair is just glorious. What are the odds that two of my favorite cards would be linked in such a way??? Unfortunately, ChatGPT was wrong. It was actually Dyar Miller who gave up the aforementioned "Grand Slammer". Miller's card isn't without it's charms as he looks like Harris from Major League, but he's certainly no Ross Grimsley. Never trust AI if something sounds too good to be true.
Joe, so you don't come to Cleveland anymore on your book tours? All those other places and no Cleveland....hmmm.
I tell you what, you come to Cleveland on your book tour and I will buy you lunch at the Rowley.
Oh, and when you do finally make it here, I suggest League Park as the venue to host your book signing.
You know, I was going to comment the other day, but got distracted. What is a Polish boy sandwich?