Why the awe over Posnanski?

Sorry, but I won't be baited into that. Just remarking on how unremarkable that piece was.

 

I've always liked his style. I find his writing to be funny, witty and touching. The column he did back in 02, 03, or thereabouts about the lunacy of the St. Louis baseball fan remains one of my favorites.

I'm glad he wrote (and still continues to write about) the teams I care about. His column was always a must-read... a trait that was only strengthened by appearing next to Whitlock for so long.

 

But you'll categorize his entire body of work based on one piece?

 

Anyone who can write about the Kansas City Royals for decades and make it indispensable reading is a god amongst men in my eyes. He has what I consider to be the best blog in the industry.

To echo what someone else said, he is to me the opposite of what I dislike about so many columnists. Posnanski doesn't yell or preen. He instructs, he writes, he reports, he cajoles, he laughs with his reader, but he rarely yells, moralizes or evangelizes. He's cynical in all the right ways and hardly ever in the wrong ways.

His longform is packed with information in easily digested form. I don't think he's the best sportswriter in America style-wise, but he's good enough and he makes up for it in countless other ways.

The man made me care about what Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke do, hundreds of miles from KC. I think that's a testament to how well he can write about baseball.

 

His love for and breadth of knowledge about his subject permeates everything he writes. Like Boswell, or even Will, he doesn't have to spell out that enthusiasm. As weak writers will often try to do. You can sense it.

 

Whatever. Goalmouth didn't like one of his pieces. That's condemnation enough for me.

 

YES! My annual chance to trot this classic out.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/1235048/

And I'd link it, but it's been a few years since it was live online.

 

Please. The takeover of the sport by the eggheads remains one of the worst seminal moments in baseball history. I'd sooner use "Men at Work" as a doorstop.

 

Men at Work is a superb book.

Saying that as someone who would like to see Will given the Humpty Dumpty treatment.

Sure, there are eggheads out the ass. His writing has soul. Theirs often does not. There's a distinction to be made.

 

I should add that I liked the piece I linked before in part because I have an unnatural obsession with Vegas.

 

MB, thanks.

You're man, the.