I want to let all of THT’s readers know that one of our most prolific writers and favorite people, John Brattain, just passed away.
Many of us got to know John through the Baseball Think Factory, where his good humor was always on display. John joined the THT writing team more than four years ago, and he further honed his extraordinary wit, humanity and sense of fun every week on our site (and elsewhere). For a while, he even contributed twice a week. He was one of the people who made THT a truly rewarding experience for all of us.
John is survived by a wife and two teenage daughters. As information about his service becomes available, we’ll pass it along.
EDIT: What awful news. John has been a frequent visitor to this site from just about day one. All of us here very much enjoyed his good humor and wisdom. Like many of you, I’m sure, he and I shared quite a few emails and exchanges. He was always a very funny and classy gentleman, even when he disagreed with you. He will certainly be missed. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. As much as we’ll miss him, their loss certainly is a more difficult burden.—Best Regards, Jim
Just some of the bloggers that John touched…
Baseball Loses A Great Writer And Humanity A Great Person (Lisa Gray)
Goodbye Bones (Matthew/Lookout Landing)
Baseball Writer John Brattain Passed Away (Rince/Bluebird Banter)
BDD Loses One of Its Own…Farewell to Our Good Friend John Brattain (Joe Hamrahi)
John Brattain
A Death In The Family (Cliff Corcoran)
A Sad Day for Hardball Times, Baseball Fans
Death in the Blogging Family (David Pinto)
Good night, funnyman (Peter Collodoro)
The World is Less Funny (Dave Cameron)
In Honor of John Brattain (Bill Baer)
Best Regards, John: John Brattain – 1965-2009 (Maury Brown)
RIP John Brattain (Jona Keri)
John Brattain, 1965-2009 (Neil deMause)
BP Family Loses One of Its Own (Baseball Prospectus)
Best Regards (Larry Mahnken)
To John Brattain ... (Neate Sager)
RIP John Brattain (Pat Lackey)
John Brattain, 1965-2009: Best Regards (Rob Iracane)
John Brattain: I considered him a valuable colleague (Rob Neyer)
A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Away. . . (John’s wonderful Designated Hitter bit for The Baseball Analysts)
Reader Comments and Retorts
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Same here, but every once in a while he'd give a long, serious post - and those were always fantastic. Some of the most thoughtful stuff on the site.
Damn I wish the feeling had passed.
I don't know that there's ever been anyone I've never met in person whom I feel I knew as well, and liked as much, as John.
His "Best Regards" send-offs were endearing. In the back of my mind, I always contrasted that with the "Cordially, as always" used by infamous rec.sport.baseball troll Roger Maynard.
One of our running jokes in the THT email list was that John was in charge of initiating new members of the group. After announcing a new member late last week, John's response was this:
That was his last email on the THT list.
I will deeply miss the man.
All my best to you and yours John. It seems we've all lost a great one.
Best Regards to one who deserved them.
I felt the same way. From what I could gather in our e-mail exchange over the last few days, he didn't seem at all worried about it.
The last thing John wrote to me:
What was it he wrote? Something like, "Dammit, Studes, I'm a hack writer, not a magician!"
Lord he was funny. And smart, and amazingly prolific.
Rest in Peace, John. You'll be missed.
RIP.
The lack of David Samson jokes in the Marlins stadium thread should have been my first clue something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Best regards John, wherever you are.
Yep. The man always went out of his way to be engaging in all of his posts here without being combative. Always sincere, too. You would have to have a flinty heart not to have liked John.
:(
just wow.
this is really terrible.
my deepest condolences to his family and friends.
what a bummer.
He's in a box seat for Game 7 of the Expos First World Championship.
Best regards -
Timothy
My deepest condolences to his family.
As Dave mentioned with the THT initiations, I guess he gets to initiate us all when our day comes to join him. I wish I would have gotten the chance to meet him.
RB in NYC wins the John Brattain Memorial Award.
Also, to piggyback on another comment from page one, we're seeing an eerily high mortality rate among those who rail against public-financed stadia.
I know, I know. Small sample size.
Condolences. Didn't know John, but he always seemed thoughtful and cheery when posting. Always had a fresh take at THT, too.
My condolences and best wishes to his friends and family.
If that isn't motivation to live as long as humanly possible, I don't know what is ...
Best regards, John.
Why do I feel sorry for him?
I, for one, do not subscribe to what folks say is important because if being rich, gorgeous and important is all that is required for true happiness then why are there so many divorces in Hollywood with stories of drug and alcohol abuse, therapists, mental and emotional breakdowns and the like?
But I digress
missing you already John.
rip.
That does make sense, and I agree with it. But he was always so well-meaning and self-effacing that it didn't matter if any one joke was particularly funny or not. And his serious posts, as others have reflected, were uniformly excellent.
Did he have a handle I might know?
I have it:
Top 10 ways you know that you're too much into sabermetrics:
10. You don't care if your kid gets A's B's or C's on his report card, you just want to know how high he is above the class average.
9. When your wife asks "So....how was it?" You reply: "Don't know--too small a sample size."
8. You dismiss your kid's terrific report card as a "career semester."
7. When making a decision, you ask yourself "What would Bill James do?"
6. When cut off in traffic, you don't yell: "YOU S.O.B!!" You yell: "YOU E.I.B!!!"
5. You've tried to adopt Jeremy Giambi.
4. You think chicks are turned on by your BP 2003 tee-shirt.
3. Your wife doesn't threaten you with walking out. She threatens you with striking out, grounding out, or flying out.
2. You've sent a Valentine to Derek Zumsteg.
1. Your idea of sexy lingerie for your wife is a red plaid flannel shirt.
Best Regards,
(Insert name/handle)
He was a punster, so you wound up groaning instead of laughing out load in regard to many of his posts. IOW, he was an expert at them.
Shockingly, he posted under the name Steve Grant.
I wasn't aware that Steve had passed away, so I send my condolences to his family as well. Steve was a longtime poster at rsbb and I met him at the same pizza feed that I met Doug Pappas. Nice guy, both in person and on the internet.
I remember him. Condolences to his loved ones as well.
I always hoped to meet John IRL because I had a great David Samson story to tell him. And also because he obviously would have been a great person to get to know. My loss.
Condolences to his family and everyone else who knew him well.
Thanks for passing that along, David. Steve was a real good guy, and a more prolific poster on RSBB than he was here. He lived in Jersey City when I lived in Hoboken, and although we never met, we'd discuss the local news from time to time. A real shame to lose him.
My condolences to his family and friends.
Sad, sad, sad.
For all his incredibly acerbic wit, he was incredibly compassionate and a man after God's own heart. Just ran the sad obit (been having a heck of a time writing it through the admitted tears):
Best Regards, John: John Brattain – 1965-2009
Really? It's my impression that you lovable Canadians are all over this site.
Sad day, to say the least.
Best regards,
Victor
My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Deepest condolences to his family.
It does make me smile, though, thinking about our first correspondences over our beloved, sad-sack Expos, a decade ago:
http://jonahkeri.com/2009/03/24/rip-john-brattain/
We miss you already, John.
BTF won't be the same without you.
Voodoo curse that a certain J. Loria -- no, that's too obvious, Jeffrey L. -- put on him.
(Hey, if it gets Loria strung up by a bunch of angry bereft Primates, I'm sure John would have wanted it that way, not that I'm suggesting anything...)
Wow. I do remember him from quite a few Yankee threads, again, terrible news. The web is such a strange place where people who are, essentially, a part of our everyday lives can be taken from us and we don't necessarily know that they are gone.
As a longtime BTF member, I've read more of John's words than could possibly be safe. And, despite some disagreements with him, I've greatly enjoyed his presence. Whether opining here or at THT, John always managed to imbue what he wrote with both a warmth towards humanity and a slight eyeroll at our foolishness. He truly was pun of a kind, able to balance the serious with the silly (which he had a remarkable ability to find just about everywhere). He will truly be missed as one of BTF's most pure(ile) hearted members. My condolences.
I think that I met ACE this summer. Was he at the Yankees' A's game right after the ASG?
Whoa, I had no idea that was Steve Grant or that Steve had passed away also.
Prayers of God's comfort to his wife and family.
As has already been said: Best regards, John. I'm going to miss you.
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