HE DIDN'T MAKE ME HAPPY, MR. PRESIDENT

He lived in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane.

Seriously though, great article. Of course.

Great article. I've seen this story attributed to Rogers Hornsby though.

"Young man," the umpire said. "Mr. Musial will be happy to let you know when you throw a strike."

The gap between Posnanski and almost all other baseball writers is startling. I'm not saying every article Joe writes is a gem, but there are very few that can hit it out of the park like he can. Really nice article.

He sure as hell didn't make us happy!

Signed,

National League pitchers, 1941-63

Great article. I've seen this story attributed to Rogers Hornsby though.

And Williams and Cobb and . . .

Just noticed what I take to be a little shot at Poz in a recent Bill Simmons mailbag. Simmons describes six levels of "Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures", the worst of which is (my emphasis added):

Level 6: Anyone who wanted the Paterno statue to stay up; anyone who thinks that Paterno and/or Penn State's administration didn't have an inkling that something was at the very least a little off with Jerry Sandusky; anyone who rushed out a mostly flattering post-scandal biography about Paterno without waiting for the entire investigation to play out; and anyone who said the words, "Well, this may have complicated Joe's legacy, but it didn't change all the great things he did." Welcome to the highest level of Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures.

725 times he would turn those hits into doubles, 177 more he would make them triples. No one in baseball history rounded first at full speed as many times as Stan Musial.

This statement implies that he hit the most doubles plus triples in baseball history, but Cobb and Speaker come to mind as players who had more.

Sorry for the quibble. Posnanski really does write very well.

Just noticed what I take to be a little shot at Poz in a recent Bill Simmons mailbag. Simmons describes six levels of "Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures", the worst of which is (my emphasis added):

Level 6: Anyone who wanted the Paterno statue to stay up; anyone who thinks that Paterno and/or Penn State's administration didn't have an inkling that something was at the very least a little off with Jerry Sandusky; anyone who rushed out a mostly flattering post-scandal biography about Paterno without waiting for the entire investigation to play out; and anyone who said the words, "Well, this may have complicated Joe's legacy, but it didn't change all the great things he did." Welcome to the highest level of Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures.

Noticed that, oddly enough (since it was probably the first things of Simmons' I'd read in at least a year; in general, he really does need to be beaten with a blunt instrument early & often). I take a back seat to no one (well, other than Gaelan, I guess, & probably Ray, too) in thinking that Posnanski disgraced himself irredeemably over the whole Paterno mess, but in fairness any "rushing" was done by his publisher, no?