More Kansas City Sportswriter, Bloggish Business

It comes as no surprise that Joe Posnanski's blog is crammed full of good writing on a regular basis. What I really appreciate about what the guy's doing -- beyond pumping out thousands of quality words a day -- is that he just plain gets it. He's like that elderly sage that can offer worldly advice about Roth IRAs, gardening tips, and tell stories of Shoeless Joe Jackson while eating a slice of pizza and dominating a game of Super Mario Kart.

Seriously. Posnanski, in the last couple of days, has shared with his readership, tales of his formative years as a sportswriter, what it's like to get heavy criticism from Bob Costas, his take on the sports bloggery/journalism/Bissinger debate, all while doing the same clever things us under-to-not-at-all paid, uncredentialed bloggers do, i.e. make references to our own laziness, drop GoreTubes one-liners, and offer the bring-it-back-to-reality opinion that everyone's made too much of the Leinart photos on Deadspin, all of which I appreciate.

I haven't bought his latest book yet. I'm eager to read it, but I think I'm even more eager for the book he's working on about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. I love this paragraph, largely because it could absolutely have been written by me, except for the fact that I wouldn't have written it as well:

I am entirely fascinated by the people and teams that have haunted my sports experiences. I’ve always thought, in a modest way, that I could write a good John Elway book because I cannot stand that son of a gun. He has stuck so many knives in me through the years that my blood has gone orange. I believe my own fan relationship with Elway — the guy who broke my heart over and over again — could be more interesting than the view of some big John Elway fan. Anyway, it would be to me.

(Editor's Note: It should be noted that Posnanski grew up in Cleveland, which makes him a huge Browns fan. He has lived in Kansas City for some time now, with his wife and children, and he writes about sports for a living, which makes him, to some degree, a Chiefs fan. Though I've never seen any solid evidence to back this up, I'm told that this Elway character notched a victory or two over one or both of these teams at some point in the past.)

I also love the fact that Posnanski has an affinity for Pete Rose, even today. That's two things we have in common. Actually, there're a lot more than that, but whatever. Another thing about the guy, though, is that he has no shame in promoting his own book on his own Web site. And he can do so in one sentence while throwing links to his colleagues' sites in the next. Speaking of which, here's Aaron Barnhart's recent interview with Costas regarding the nature of things, which links to Richard Sandomir's The New York Times piece, and Sam Mellinger's take on the same subject.

And that is a ton of reading, most of which is good, all of which has been covered to depths I'd never imagined possible.