Hi Everyone —
Happy England-Norway Day! We’re all torn up here at the Posnanski household because everybody loves Norway’s Erling Haaland, who seems to be an utter delight, and everybody loves England’s Jude Bellingham, who seems to be pretty much the nicest and coolest person in the world, and we desperately want them both to win.
The love for Haaland goes without saying. Who doesn’t love this guy?
I think my favorite moment in the whirlwind of joyful moments at this World Cup came when Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi was beyond incredible against England. After he made another impossible save on a Bellingham header, this happened:
That’s Jude going over and hugging Mpasi.
I mean, this is the stuff that makes me cry happy tears.
Also, I want to make a quick announcement and start up a fun little contest: On July 23, that’s 12 days, I’m going to reveal the cover for FIFTY SEASONS: Stories of the Baseball Years That Echo. So excited for you to see it. This one — for the first time since The Machine some seventeen years ago — will feature a baseball player.
That player was, of course, Pete Rose.
Now it’s up to you to guess the baseball player batting on the cover of FIFTY SEASONS.
I’ll reveal a clue with each JoeBlogs leading up to the big reveal. And the first five people who get it right will win a prize from the JoeBlogs store (and, I’m thinking, maybe even an early look at the table of contents for FIFTY SEASONS, which will tell you what seasons made the list).
But, and we’re working on the honor system here, you can only guess once each day.
Today’s clue is only this: You’re not just going to guess this player.
Duane Kuiper
It’s a trick question. It’s actually a platoon of Rance Mulliniks and Garth Iorg.