Poz Leaving Star for His Dream Job
by Freneau on Aug 5, 2009 2:00 AM EDT
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PrintJoe Po/Poz is headed to Sports Illustrated, full-time, calling it his "dream job" and the best job in the business.
Good for him. I feel happy that one of the good guys, one of the smart guys, has been rewarded with what he wants.
I have been offered what I honestly believe is the best job in American sports writing. I’ve been offered the role of Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated.
I’ve been offered the job, the chance at Carnegie Hall, the opportunity to write at the magazine I grew up reading, the place where my heroes worked — where Frank Deford and Dan Jenkins wrote, where Roy Blount and George Plimpton wrote, where Steve Rushin and Rick Reilly wrote, where S.L. Price and Gary Smith and a brilliantly talented staff still write.
I can't help wondering however, is SI today really the SI of years past that Poz feels like he's joining? I wonder if someone half a generation younger would feel the same way.
I grew up reading Sports Illustrated, including old back issues my dad had lying around, reaching back into the early '80s. Still, I haven't really sought out an issue or an article in Sports Illustrated in years. Like, since the mid-90s. I've had contact with it via the internet and random copies read at the in-laws, or in the doctor's office, or at the car dealership, but that's it. Maybe it's just me, but something tells me, it's not just me.
I don't know what Sports Illustrated should be these days. If I had to imagine the perfect sports magazine in a writerly sense -- essentially the one Poz talks about -- I guess I'd want a New Yorker for sports. Instead, SI seems to be following the ESPN model, which is a People for sports. Aside from the issues right after championships have been awarded, it's another week, another hero of the moment on the cover. Only, athletes really aren't interesting people most of the time. Lebron, Kobe, Tiger, Kiffin, Tebow and on and on, year after year. Same story, different unique details.
I know SI is pushing an "ideas" angle, but the ideas seem tired and generic, dull, cliched. Oh wow, Joe Mauer is a normal, down-to-earth guy (never heard that about an athlete before), but also, doesn't use steroids. Wow! I find this to be a fresh topic and hope to learn more about it.
The sad truth is that the most interesting ideas in sports this decade have come from outside of sports. It took an odd combination of guys from Wall Street, academics, and amateur hobbyists to inject life into the way we think about baseball, which was nearly intellectually dead by the end of the Yankee dynasty. This was the intellectual universe of baseball talk in the late 1990s: winners win and clutch is clutch, Derek Jeter, new stadiums are great for teams and even better for cities, Derek Jeter, juiced balls and greedy free agent players have destroyed our national innocence, good pitching beats good hitting, Derek Jeter.
What makes Poz so special is that he can write like he's Plimpton, or he can write like he's Bill James. He's a word man and an idea man. Maybe he can save Sports Illustrated.
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I was just about to post this.
Good for him, not too bad for us since he said he’d still write occasionally for The Star. And with regard to a younger generation reading SI, I’ll be a freshmen in college this fall, and still read it, but definitely not cover to cover. There’s way too much fluff that takes up about the first half of each issue. If there’s a story that looks interesting I’ll take the time to read it, but I won’t read a story I’m not really interested in before hand (ex. most NASCAR, NHL, NBA stories). A “New Yorker” type model would be a definite step up in my opinion. I’ll read anything Malcolm Gladwell has to say about anything, and I feel the same way about Posnanski.
outside of all this dream job stuff....
you’ve gotta figure that he’s gonna get a pretty substantial pay raise as well….hard to turn that down, especially when that huge money is to do your ‘dream job’.
i’ve been amazed that we’ve kept whitlock and Pos around for as long as we have.
Fire Everyone
Yeah, I don't see this as a step "up"
so much, but since it’s always been his dream job, MoPo to him. I’m happy for Joe.
Thing is, there was a time when I was a kid when SI was really important, because we weren’t deluged with sports journalism from every conceivable angle, and most certainly not on a national level. In 1982, if you wanted an in-depth profile of the Harvey’s Wallbanger Brewers, SI was the only place you were going to get it unless you lived in Milwaukee, or maybe Chicago.
But their importance started eroding with USA Today’s launch, and cratered with the move of the mainstream media to the internet. Our ability to educate ourselves on sports outside our own local reading area has bypassed SI’s reach now, and the only real reason to read the magazine in this day and age is because you want to read it.
So you’re exactly right, Will; for SI to truly be relevant, it has to be the New Yorker of sportswriting. I hope Joe’s not blind to this, and if his presence as a full-time staffer contributes to that sort of renaissance I’m all for it.
This space for rent.
I think the local coverage of teams is also much better
aren’t sports sections on the whole a relatively new phenomena? there’s just so much more info available out there, including reams of material on sports/angles that were nearly nonexistent just 10 years ago, such as recruiting/draft/minor leagues
There's more info in some respects
but of the three you mention, back in say 1979, the minor league coverage was actually more extensive; the Times and Star would each run a profile story every day during the season in addition to the (early edition) game story in the Times and the (later, more in-depth) game story in the Star. Usually it was a story about a current or former Royal or a player for the current opponent, but often that profile story would be about some kid on the farm, and it wasn’t necessarily about a kid who was ever going to appear in the show. I don’t think you see that much anymore unless the kid in question is a hot-shit prospect we’re just waiting on.
The baseball draft wasn’t covered much, but the NFL and NBA drafts were covered in depth as it pertained to the Chiefs and Kings.
Recruiting, you’re correct; there wasn’t too much info in that respect in the paper, although college coverage in the main was robust. In fact, I think as far as local breadth, college coverage was more extensive; it was common — common enough for me to be comfortable in using the word “frequent” — to see a story about something going on at William Jewell or Baker or Missouri Western or Central Missouri or Emporia State or You Get The Idea. The impression I get nowadays is that you’re lucky to get a graf on local small college game results.
More to the point, back in those days the sports section wasn’t really smaller than it is now; the key difference is that nowadays the sports section is more heavily weighted toward wire reports and columnists, whereas 30 years ago it was much heavier on actual reporting and had much more locally-generated content. Obviously, the troubles the newspaper business in general is suffering explains this; 30 years ago, the Star could afford a lot more reporters. Hell, they’d have someone onsite at numerous high school games back then.
This space for rent.
I think 95% of SI subscriptions are from
drunk fans who order the championship package a couple days after a big win. The whole lithograph, championship book, and some throwaway toy like a mini football with a logo, all packaged with a lifetime subscription to that mag.
by wildthang on Aug 5, 2009 4:35 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I like Posnanski a lot
and hope this turns out well for him, but I have to agree with the majority, that SI has little relevance anymore. It’s literally been decades since it had a big impact on the current sports scene. If he cuts back substantially at the KC Star however, it is a huge loss for that paper.
Figured it would happen sooner or later
He was getting way too much national heat to stick around.
And SI may have little relevance anymore, but newspapers have even less.
"I know SI is pushing an "ideas" angle, but the ideas seem tired and generic, dull, cliched. O"
It has been like this ever since I was a kid. Maybe before that George Plimpton and Frank DeFord were writing eloquent pieces on the ennui of an Indians/Rangers game in late August, but in the 80s it was all fluff pieces on superstar athletes mixed with a serious piece on some controversy, but not exactly high-brow prose.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
You forgot about the story of [Johnny][Susie] Superstar. [He] [She] was one of the best high school [golfers][swimmers][Tennis][football][baseball][insert other] [players] of [his][her] generation. Growing up in [Littletown, Wisconsin][inner city Detroit] many thought [he][she] could have been the next [Tiger Woods][Venus Williams][Jerry Rice][insert other]. Then came that fateful day when [he][she] was tragically injured in a [car wreck][hunting accident][drive by shooting] effectively ending [his][her] career. [He][She] is not bitter, though…
We always did feel the same, We just saw it from a different point of view, Tangled up in blue.
-Bob Dylan
by Royal Kingdom on Aug 5, 2009 10:36 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
yup
I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.
Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.
by Matt Klaassen on Aug 5, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
and the humors come out, rec'd
soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"
by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Aug 5, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Best of luck to Joe
This is a big hit for the Star, and I am now beginning to wonder if they are going to weather this economic storm. From what I have read, they are still doing okay, its the massive debt of their parent company (McClatchy) dragging them down. I picked up the Star on Sunday, and noticed the sports page was just a few pages long, and most of it was AP stories. It is sad. I don’t see a reason to pick it up if that is all it is going to provide. Even the “Local” section (which is now folded into the main section, rather than having its own section) seemed to be only a few stories about the mayor’s controversies, nothing really substantive.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
I agree with that
Which is why its so troubling that a lot of it has been pared back. I think Bradford Doolittle does a good job, Sam Mellinger does a decent job, David Boyce does a good job covering the NBA and college sports, Mike DeArmond is pretty good. I just wonder how long all of them will be employed there.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Man Jumps From Burning Ship Onto Sinking Lifeboat
…is how I might write the headline to a story about someone leaving a newspaper job for a magazine job.
Baseball's that swingy stick game, right?
by royalsroyalsroyals on Aug 5, 2009 10:38 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I like Sports Illustrated
I don’t subscribe because I’m cheap, but I generally find that they will have well-written feature articles on off-beat subjects. I like their annual mid-summer “Where Are They Now” issue, that was a great idea.
I do think their annual Baseball Preview issue used to be better than it is now.
The important thing here is, can Poz now get SI to jinx the rest of baseball like he/they jinxed the Royals earlier this year, thus levelling the playing field?
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
+1
I just finished the “Where Are they Now”. Enjoyed the Earl Weaver piece.
Their baseball coverage aside from Pos is pretty crappy overall IMO.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Tom Verducci does a good job, IMHO
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
Hard to take SI too seriously
when Jenn Sterger wrote for them. Maybe she still writes for them? Either way, come on.
I’m happy for JoPo. I’m sure SI will be around in some form for a while, and it will be nice to have a KC guy on the inside.
I never understood the appeal of Rick Reilly.
Did she write badly?
I don’t know, I haven’t ever encountered her articles. At the very least, I know she has a college education. Just because she makes broad use of her sex appeal doesn’t mean she can’t be a decent writer.
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
Judge for yourself!
http://jennifersterger.blogspot.com/
I’m not sure if technically a degree from Florida State constitutes a “college education.”
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
There are words on that web page?
More seriously…I don’t see what the problem is. She certainly writes like a literate adult, not like some texting teen tweeter. The content is a bit vapid, but few personal blogs aren’t, because what are they other than talking about one’s self?
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
doubt she wrote it herself....more along the lines of
OMG, I went to this school, they have a dorky what’s those things called? Oh yeah Mascot, some duck or something. It looked like I was at like Disney World or something like that. Then this cute guy came up and talked about sports or something I don’t know he was in my space, and that like just creeps me out. Then I interviewed that one guy you sent me here to interview, it’s on tape, thanks for giving me those questions to ask. Man it’s gotta be like so hard to think of questions to ask these guys, I would just like blank because I know that they’re only just hitting on me. Oh yeah , so then we went to a party with all the players, don’t remember the rest and woke up in the hotel. Yeah I guess University of…where are we? Oregon? Where the hell is that? Yeah Oregon is like a pretty good school, nothing like Florida State though.
soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"
by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Aug 5, 2009 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions
50/50 chance the Star goes under
Which makes SI even more attractive to a guy like Poz. I like the notion of a New Yorker type sports mag, but it ain’t going to happen, unfortunately. If I were Poz I would do the same thing, for the same reason David Brooks couldn’t turn down a column for the Times. Let’s hope Poz doesn’t turn into another Brooks, i.e., a butt sniffer hoping to be accepted by the intelligentsia, and hoping in vain.
StonewallPDS
Posnanski leaving is simply sad
I understand that he has this as his dream job, one that I’m sure pays better than his current gig for the Star. But I get the very same feeling about SI, that it is older, a fading medium. While it’s still a big deal to be on the cover (see Greinke madness), the writing simply isn’t fresh anymore. The only time I’ll make a point to read are for the preview issues, and I’ll read several other previews from far less reputable papers and magazines, so this is hardly unique. Hopefully this job does get Poz the national recognition he deserves, but it just hurts to think it may come at the expense of Kansas City sportswriting, the Star, his blog, and Royals coverage in general.
Farnsworth's imitation tight-pants now on sale at Dick's!
by kcisbetterthanstlateverything on Aug 5, 2009 11:35 AM EDT reply actions
Just to be clear
He will still contribute columns to the Star.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
but will we have Bani and Yuni watch?
"The life of a (Royals) fan must be lived forward but can only be understood backward" -- Kierkegaard (more or less)
answering my own sarcastic question
from his blog entry, with an awkward ending to his paragraph
The Star people have asked me to still write for the paper, and I, of course, will do that. And, I will still write this blog … which just naturally leans toward Yuni and Banny. Kansas City, somehow, got inside me. The place is special like that.
"The life of a (Royals) fan must be lived forward but can only be understood backward" -- Kierkegaard (more or less)
When you get the opportunity to go from AAA to the majors, you have to take it
Of course SI right now isn’t exactly like going to the Yankees or Red Sox. But it is still a big step up from the KC Star (which might not even be in business in a few years).
The immoderate moderator
more like AA to AAA
not that I would do any differently than Pos is doing
"The life of a (Royals) fan must be lived forward but can only be understood backward" -- Kierkegaard (more or less)
If SI isn't "the majors" then what is?
ESPN? Certainly not for a sportswriter.
The immoderate moderator
by Scott McKinney on Aug 5, 2009 11:23 PM EDT up reply actions
so, you're saying Bill Simmons is Calvin Pickering?
Dallas McPherson?
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Aug 6, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions
I'll have to take exception to that
unless you’re merely referring to the financial situation or market size.
The Star’s a well-respected paper, and the sports section is one of the most-respected in the business as evidenced by the national awards it racks up on a near-annual basis. It’s on the same level of respect as the Dallas Morning News and its ludicrously large sports page (which is sometimes as thick as the A section), and that’s without having the benefit of an NBA team, and NHL team, and no fewer than ten NCAA D-I schools in its regional market to generate content.
This space for rent.
I would say that writing for the newspaper of a smallish city is “the minors” in comparison to a the country’s preeminent national sports magazine. Sure the Star has a good sports section. But it is just a small city paper and newspapers (the KC Star included) are dying.
The immoderate moderator
by Scott McKinney on Aug 5, 2009 11:26 PM EDT up reply actions
My "tweet" from a few minutes ago:
@JPosnanski Congratulations and good luck, Joe. Your gain is our loss.This is the same thing I tweeted Jack Z. a couple weeks back. #royals
I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.
Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.
was this a "tweetable" event?
I’m not sure of the ethics involved in all of that.
StonewallPDS
"You will remember this day for the rest of your life."
I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.
Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.
by Matt Klaassen on Aug 5, 2009 12:52 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Goodbye JoePo
I’ll miss the optimistic pre-season Royals stories you wrote for the Star
Phase 1: Assemble expensive, below average players
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: CHAMPIONSHIP!
-RoyalsRetro
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