(Some of the) Best Baseball Writing of the 2012 Season
As your playoff teams get eliminated, you need something to read. This is not an exhaustive list. That’s why we have a comments section. These are the best pieces I read (thanks, Instapaper!) since January. Share yours!
(listed chronologically)
Q&A: Ben Cherington, Red Sox GM
David Laurila / FanGraphs / January 13, 2012
Will Cholesterol Kill Baseball?
Matthew Futterman / WSJ / January 27, 2012
Managing Expectations: Baseball’s Next Big Inefficiency
Ben Lindbergh / Baseball Prospectus / January 31, 2012
Game 162
Sam Fuld / Grantland / February 20, 2012
Perezence
Rany Jazayerli / Rany on the Royals / February 28, 2012
On Bill James, the writer
Kevin Arnovitz / ESPN.com / March 1, 2012
An American League Horror Story (Adam Dunn)
Bradford Doolittle / Baseball Prospectus / March 9, 2012
A Nervous Exchange of Red Sox E-mails
Bill Simmons and Michael Schur / Grantland / March 21, 2012
The Next Big Idea: Major League Teams Seek New Ways to Deconstruct Game
Tyler Kepner / The New York Times / March 31, 2012
Emancipation of the Minors: Hundreds of pro baseball players make just $1,100 per month. Where is their César Chávez?
Lily Rothman / Slate / April 3, 2012
Baseball, Finally (a story of high school baseball)
Seth Sawyers / The Millions / April 4, 2012
The Lost Founder of Baseball Video Games
Bess Kalb / Grantland / April 9, 2012
Old Fish, New Fish: The Marlins Get a Miami Makeover
Ben McGrath / The New Yorker / April 9, 2012
NPR Interview Transcript: R.A. Dickey
Fresh Air / NPR / April 12, 2012
Hell is Other People’s Fantasy Teams
Pete Beatty / The Classical / April 16, 2012
The Glory and the Pain of Pitching
Bob Ojeda / The New York Times / May 26, 2012
When History Sneaks Up On You (Johan Santana’s No-Hitter)
John Branch / New York Times / June 2, 2012
Jim Eisenreich: No Place To Hide
Bradford Doolittle / Baseball Prospectus / July 5, 2012
Baseball Coach Brings His Beautiful Calligraphy to the Dugout
John Allemang / The Globe and Mail / July 15, 2012
Nationals Manager Davey Johnson is in the midst of one of his best seasons
Thomas Boswell / The Washington Post / July 18, 2012
Royals Today: Trade Deadline Edition
Rany Jazayerli / Rany and the Royals / July 28, 2012
Who’s Really To Blame for the Red Sox Apocalypse?
Jonah Keri / Grantland / August 15, 2012
In French Baseball League, the Feel is more Minor than Major
John Oudens / The New York Times / August 28, 2012
A Wing and a Prayer
Joe Posnanski / Sports on Earth / September 10, 2012
17 Days in November (Greg Halman)
Wright Thompson / ESPN.com / September 10, 2012
Moneyball 2.0: The Pitching Whisperer
Kibby Kleiman / East Bay Express / September 12, 2012
The Playoff Push, Backwards
Mississippi Matt Smith / NotGraphs / September 13, 2012
Wanted: Jewish Ballplayers
Barry Bearak / The New York Times / September 18, 2012
Jeremy Blachman is the author of Anonymous Lawyer, a satirical novel that should make people who didn't go to law school feel good about their life choices. Read more at McSweeney's or elsewhere. He likes e-mail.
No Carson Cistulli?
Carson’s great, and there are a ton of terrific pieces he’s written (here’s one). I want to do a follow-up tomorrow with reader links from the comments, so feel more than encouraged to post your favorites. My list was mostly built from the entirely unscientific “stuff I saved to Instapaper and remembered enjoying as I scrolled through my pages and pages of archived links,” so it’s strongly biased in favor of pieces that were long enough for me to save to read at some point later than when I opened them.