Joe Posnanski: Lord of Lists

Dehere

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How do you like his Hall of Fame articles? I personally think it's some of his best writing in years. Although he is a good writer overall, it is very easy to tell that his heart and soul is in baseball. The time and effort he put into each piece clearly shows.


Oh, he's been great. He's all the way back. His 100 greatest players countdown has been incredible. I do think he was in a sustained rut for some time but right now he's as good as ever. His blog is back to being a daily check-in for me.
 

JimBoSox9

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Joe just dismantled 60 Minutes and MLB today: http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/the-60-minutes-report/
 
 
 
The 60 Minutes report (Part I and Part II), in case you have not seen it yet, will make you dislike everyone more. Everyone. No matter how much you may dislike Alex Rodriguez, Tony Bosch, Bud Selig or Rob Manfred, it is guaranteed that by the end of this thing your opinions of them will have dropped substantially. You will like your dog less after seeing this thing.
Is it worth the trip?
Baseball decided: Yes. Absolutely it’s worth it. Why? Well, for an answer to that, you have to wait all the way to the end of the 60 Minutes report.
 
 
I enjoyed the hell out of it.
 
 
Edit: fcuk it
 
Mod. edit:  I fixed the formatting so people would know Jimbo is the one who enjoyed Pos's article, not that Pos's article ends with him saying he enjoyed the payoff - smas
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
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Law talk alert:
 I get all the hand-wringing about the scummy people that MLB is relying on to support its case, and even the scummy people that are MLB itself.  Such screams of scumminess resonate with the public, but, for better or worse, that's how people are prosecuted every day.   The person who takes the the deal from the prosecutors first testifies against the others. The plurality, if not the majority, of evidence against accused drug people comes from other drug people.
 
I assume that all of the scummy facts about Bosch were laid out in front of the arbitrator. He found Bosch credible enough. Obviously I dont have the benefit of a transcript to see if any of the testimony was just patently unbelievable -- "we travelled to a rest area on the planet Jupiter. .  ." or he came up with dates where ARod was indisputably elsewhere.  But otherwise, in courts, its a pretty rare credibility determination that gets overturned on appeal.  In an arbitration proceeding its even less likely.
 
All the whining about scumbags and hearsay is Arod and his lawyers capitalizing on the fact that baseball fans also watch TV.  It is not legal talk, of which he and his team have very little to talk about. and Arod post-decisional whine about a "jury" is patently bullshit. He surrendered his right to a jury when he signed (by proxy) the CBA. (Obviously he gets a jury if a Govt charges him criminally.)
 
As for the non-law stuff....yeah, MLB is seemingly out to get him, and is punishing him for being an obstinate dickhead.
 
But ultimately, the final decision in this case will be something along the lines of, "The arbitrator was entitled to rely on the evidence presented at the hearing, and his conclusion was supportable in light of that evidence."
 

JimBoSox9

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Except buried in the 'non-law stuff' is that exactly the same type of 'scummy' behavior on A-Rod's part (of which there was plenty) is a big chunk of the justification for the size of the suspension.  It adds an extra layer of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy on top of the scummy lawyer stuff.  MLB used every dirty trick they could to get A-Rod and then double-dinged him for using dirty tricks to defend himself.  A filthy rigged process can still render and objectively right decision, sure, but that 60 Minutes outro played like a punch line.
 

joe dokes

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JimBoSox9 said:
Except buried in the 'non-law stuff' is that exactly the same type of 'scummy' behavior on A-Rod's part (of which there was plenty) is a big chunk of the justification for the size of the suspension.  It adds an extra layer of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy on top of the scummy lawyer stuff.  MLB used every dirty trick they could to get A-Rod and then double-dinged him for using dirty tricks to defend himself.  A filthy rigged process can still render and objectively right decision, sure, but that 60 Minutes outro played like a punch line.
 
 
I dont know if I would call the process "rigged," where the arbitrator is at least facially neutral. I guess in the context of prosecutions, I dont see MLB as having engaged in "dirty tricks." 
Compensating (through money, legal protection, etc) a witness to testify (which is what MLB did in spades with Bosch) is information that comes out at the hearing and can be weighed in a credibiltiy determination.  Trying to compensate a witness to stay home or withhold evidence (which I understand ARod did or tried to do) is something different.  And this wasn't a courtroom.
 
There are a lot of people in prison for a really long time based on evidence from witnesses and tactics much scummier than Bosch and MLB. Arod and his mediawhore lawyer can go cry me a river. 
 

cromulence

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joe dokes said:
 
 
I dont know if I would call the process "rigged," where the arbitrator is at least facially neutral. I guess in the context of prosecutions, I dont see MLB as having engaged in "dirty tricks." 
Compensating (through money, legal protection, etc) a witness to testify (which is what MLB did in spades with Bosch) is information that comes out at the hearing and can be weighed in a credibiltiy determination.  Trying to compensate a witness to stay home or withhold evidence (which I understand ARod did or tried to do) is something different.  And this wasn't a courtroom.
 
There are a lot of people in prison for a really long time based on evidence from witnesses and tactics much scummier than Bosch and MLB. Arod and his mediawhore lawyer can go cry me a river. 
 
Come on. They purchased documents they knew were stolen. You can't say with a straight face that you "don't see MLB as having engaged in 'dirty tricks'."
 

joe dokes

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cromulence said:
 
Come on. They purchased documents they knew were stolen. You can't say with a straight face that you "don't see MLB as having engaged in 'dirty tricks'."
 
I can and I did.
 
"Dirty tricks"  (IMO) would be paying the guys *to* steal the documents; or creating fake documents. All of these things are/were relevant to the credibility issue. But they apparently weren't enough to undermine the arbitrator's belief in their authenticity.
If this were a government prosecution, the holder of the stolen documents would have little choice but to turn them over or probably face some sort of ancillary prosecution.  In this context, however (if you follow along with the narrative that ARod is a  baseball "criminal" and that MLB has the right to "prosecute") MLB has no subpoena power (as far as I know), it can't threaten anyone with an obstruction charge. It cant get tap Bosch's phone or get him to wear a wire. When someone says "I've got the evidence, you're gonna have to pay for it," MLB has only two choices....pay for it or drop the case.
 
I think this is basically how it *has* to go in any case *not* involving a failed test. (Whether such cases are fair or appropriate is another issue). I suppose its the non-criminal version of flipping a dealer and getting him to set up a deal with *his* dealer. Govt informants get all sorts of remuneration. 
 

shlincoln

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Dehere said:
Oh, he's been great. He's all the way back. His 100 greatest players countdown has been incredible. I do think he was in a sustained rut for some time but right now he's as good as ever. His blog is back to being a daily check-in for me.
His Brooks Robinson piece was amazing. Does he have the Top 100 posts tagged? I've missed a few and it would be nice to just deal with a list of them instead of poking through the complete blog archive.

Edit: to answer my own question, yes they are. I was just blind and didn't see the "100 Greatest" tag at the bottom of a post.
 

EvilEmpire

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LogansDad said:
I know none of us really want to talk about it, but his piece on Belichick was really good: http://www.nbcsports.com/football/nfl/bill-belichick-shaken-loss-broncos
Good article. I hate the Patriots with a passion, but I love Belichick -- what he gets out of his players, how he doesn't let emotion get in the way of hard choices, and the stoic way he handles both victory and defeat. Wish he was coaching my team.
 

Dehere

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I wish I worked for Bill Belichick. I really do. I think the people who rip him just haven't taken the time to read anything thoughtful about him, and I'm not a Pats fan. Strong piece.
 

Leather

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It's a good piece.
 
I just wish Joe was a little more descriptive about what, exactly, the Patriots were punished for in 2007 (it wasn't simply for "taping the other team's signals", it was for violating a memo that said not to tape signals in the spectator area.).  It's a subtle but crucial difference, and Joe is far from the only one that glosses over it, but I hoped he would clarify it better.
 

JimD

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Poz is so great.  He loves sports like we love sports, and he can put that love into words so beautifully.
 

timlinin8th

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JimD said:
Poz is so great.  He loves sports like we love sports, and he can put that love into words so beautifully.
It is a love that is ingrained since childhood, and my favorite articles of his are the ones like this that delve into that. In an ocean of sportswriters that would rather write about doom-and-gloom, his writing maintains that childlike wonder.
 

Number45forever

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Rasputin said:
 
He's doing the cast again?
Yup, its on iTunes, search Poscast.  Been 6-7 new episodes I think, all with Ken Tremendous.  Sounds like he's giving up on having other guests, but the same old format sticks.  They discuss something and then do a draft.  Genius stuff.  They drafted numbers once, and then they drafted balls another time.  I believe the baseball was a No. 1 pick, which is smart.
 

Rasputin

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Number45forever said:
Yup, its on iTunes, search Poscast.  Been 6-7 new episodes I think, all with Ken Tremendous.  Sounds like he's giving up on having other guests, but the same old format sticks.  They discuss something and then do a draft.  Genius stuff.  They drafted numbers once, and then they drafted balls another time.  I believe the baseball was a No. 1 pick, which is smart.
 
Many, many thanks.
 

JimD

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New Poscast up now, including a brief AL East discussion to start off.
 

Rasputin

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I am listening to one of the back episodes now, and they're drafting abstract concepts.
 
And it's awesome.
 

Number45forever

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Rasputin said:
I am listening to one of the back episodes now, and they're drafting abstract concepts.
 
And it's awesome.
Yes!  If I remember correctly, Poz gets destroyed in that draft just as if he was the Cleveland Browns drafting a QB.  It's pathetic.
 
Just saw the latest one was available, can't wait.
 

Reverend

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SLC Sox

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Joe wrote an article about the Cespedes throw, which he compared to a similar Bo Jackson throw in 1989, which he then wrapped into a pretty interesting take on the trade-offs of technology in our lives.  I know we do this a lot and it's not really fair, but it would have taken Simmons or any number of other pretty good writers 2,000 more words to get to the same point Joe made so succinctly, and they would have done it worse.  That's part of what makes him so great, I think.
 

DJnVa

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From the article, talking about Bo's throw, he has a sentence that could be uttered at any time, in any situation:
 
Harold Reynolds never was able to figure out what happened.
 
 

Bergs

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I think it likely he's gonna post a piece on Tony Gwynn that will make this particular grown man weep. I can't wait.
 

Boston CyberSox

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Bergs said:
I think it likely he's gonna post a piece on Tony Gwynn that will make this particular grown man weep. I can't wait.
Joe Posnanski said:
When I was very young, we went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. There, I saw a woman standing in front of a painting, and she was actually crying. I dont recall it being a sad painting. My mother leaned down to me and whispered, See, the painting is so beautiful, it breaks her heart and makes her cry.

This made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

But then, I had not yet seen Tony Gwynn hit a baseball.
http://www.nbcsports.com/joe-posnanski/gwynns-career-provides-lasting-legacy
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Deep inside Muppet Labs
DeJesus Built My Hotrod said:
 
Damn...
 
Right? This in particular got me:
 
 
One of my favorite fatherhood experiences was when Elizabeth rode in the front seat of the car for the first time, and we turned on the radio and some super fun song came on — I think it was “Call Me Maybe” — and we sang along, and she did this funny little dance, and it was so fantastic, even if it doesn’t translate to anyone else.
 
I have a 4 year old daughter, and on a whim this week I taught her "Funkytown," only substituting silly things for "Funky" whenever we wanted. And she made up this silly little dance to it, and it's great. And Joe's description here kinda matches my own experience. Amazing.