Joe Posnanski
American sportswriter, formerly a columnist at the Kansas City Star, Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports. Author of The Baseball 100 and Why We Love Baseball. Writes JoeBlogs, a newsletter mostly about baseball, with essays on other sports.
Joe Posnanski did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThis is because we always think we know more about the world than we do, about the universe than we do, about OURSELVES than we do. That's the human experience.
↗We Don't Really Know Baseballjoeposnanski.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe RBI is a wildly overrated individual statistic because it's context-driven.
↗We Don't Really Know Baseballjoeposnanski.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut it's worth remembering that we probably don't have baseball figured out, that 25 years from now we might look back and laugh at the idea that anyone ever thought launch angles and swinging for the fences and playing station to station baseball was the way to win.
↗We Don't Really Know Baseballjoeposnanski.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 months earlier
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Our reading
Major League Baseball has lost the sense of joy that the World Baseball Classic possesses.
Their wordsI think there's something the WBC has unlocked that Major League Baseball, mostly, has not. It's that three-letter word again: Joy.
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Their wordsYou could argue, I suppose, that this is an archaic design that no longer matches the American attention span (or the durability of pitchers' elbows), but 70-plus million people attend the games annually, and baseball is the No. 1 show on television in many local markets throughout the summer, so it's working for a lot of people and, anyway, the format ain't changing.
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Their wordsA lot has been written about the militaristic vibe this team disseminated (undoubtedly WITH the express written consent of Major League Baseball), but one thing that really struck me was how wrong they got it.
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsI suppose if that question has an answer, it would be that human beings can embrace what my favorite chess content creator, Levy Rozman, calls "superseding concepts." That is to say that an umpire can take into account the situation, the conditions, the flow of the game, the importance of the moment, the spirit of the rule, and make a call based on all of it, rather than just embracing the microscopic difference between safe and out, strike and ball.
↗Losing the Humanity of Umpiringjoeposnanski.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsBut, of course, human umpires WILL NOT call the runner safe because they are bound by instant replay. So the humanity of umpiring has already been taken out of the game ... except for ball-strike calls. And with the Automated Ball Strike challenge system coming in 2026, that last bit of humanity will begin to disappear.
↗Losing the Humanity of Umpiringjoeposnanski.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Our reading
The Super Bowl halftime show by Bad Bunny was the best in history, even better than Prince's.
Their wordsThat was the best Super Bowl Halftime Show ever, better even than Prince's Halftime Show, which I was in the stadium to see.
↗The Ubiquity (and Wonder) of Hot Takesjoeposnanski.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsI hate them for many reasons, but mostly because they make us dumber. They flatten thought into emotion. They turn curiosity into bland certainty. They take things that are worth thinking about, worth talking about, worth arguing about, and reduce them to two screaming sides and zero listening.
↗The Ubiquity (and Wonder) of Hot Takesjoeposnanski.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Baseball is more unfair than other sports due to extreme franchise valuation disparities.
Their wordsYou will notice right away that the structure is so much more extreme than any other sport. The top franchise in baseball is worth 381% - essentially four times more - than the median. And the least valuable franchise is worth 57% (a little more than half) of the median. This is why baseball feels unfair. Because baseball IS unfair.
↗Why Baseball Just Doesn't Feel Fairjoeposnanski.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsFor another, I believe that baseball - like soccer - offers teams with less talent a better opportunity to win on any given day than the other American team sports.
↗Why Baseball Just Doesn't Feel Fairjoeposnanski.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsI believe that the writers - well, the sizable majority of writers - given enough time and freedom, would shape the Baseball Hall of Fame to be about baseball. They would like the Baseball Hall of Fame to feature all the greatest players, no matter their flaws, no matter their transgressions, no matter their crimes or misdemeanors.
↗Weighing Morality in the Hall of Famejoeposnanski.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe Hall of Fame wants the plaque room to reflect the romance and sanctity of baseball.
↗Weighing Morality in the Hall of Famejoeposnanski.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
The vast majority of baseball writers do not want the Hall of Fame to serve as a morality play.
Their wordsI feel confident in saying that the vast majority of writers don't want the Hall of Fame plaque room to be the morality play that it has become. They want it to be a hall of the best baseball players who ever lived.
↗Weighing Morality in the Hall of Famejoeposnanski.com 3rd of 3 in this piece