All-Time Teams! Rivalries! Tiafoe! Royals!
Two weeks left until WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL, and I’m just trying to keep up.
Two weeks to go before the release of WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL, and I’ve got a half million half-written things that I’ve been scribbling down as I prepare for the launch and the tour and all the excitement that comes with my eighth book coming out!
So we’ll throw a whole bunch at you today, lots of thoughts, lots of half-baked ideas, lots of stats, and I’ll start by saying that if you preorder WWLF in any form (audiobook, e-book, signed hardcover, regular hardcover), from anywhere…
25% off at Barnes & Noble with the code FOOTBALL25
…you’re eligible to receive bonus “Writer’s Cut” chapters that are not in the book. All you have to do is fill out this form.
Also—I promise, we’re getting to a bunch of sports thoughts, you can skip ahead if you like—tour tickets are now available for the first two-plus weeks.
Tuesday, Sept. 17, Barnes & Noble in Clifton, N.J., with Alexis Gay. This one is free.
Wednesday, Sept. 18, Smithsonian, with an incredible panel, including former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Hall of Famer Darrell Green. Tickets here.
Thursday, Sept. 19, Parnassus Books in Nashville, with Andrew Maraniss. Tickets here.
Friday, Sept. 20, Unity Temple in in the Plaza, for our friends at Rainy Day Books in Kansas City, with Chiefs announcer Mitch Holthus and my great pal, one of America’s great journalists, David Von Drehle! Arrive early, this will be a fantastic night. Tickets here.
Monday, Sept. 23, The Stellar Hog, for Left Banks Books in St. Louis. This will be a whole different kind of event, complete with barbecue and personal time and all kinds of fun. Tickets here.
Tuesday, Sept. 24, Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco, with columnist Ann Killion. This one is free.
Wednesday, Sept. 25, The Book Stall in Winnetka, Ill., just outside of Chicago, with Jeff Garlin. I didn’t make it to Chicago for WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL, so bring all the books you’ve got; heck, Jeff might sign some, too! Tickets here.
Thursday, Sept. 26, Riverstone Books in Pittsburgh (this is the one in McCandless), with Jonathan Mayo. The book has a VERY Pittsburgh slant to it, so this night should be a lot of fun. Tickets here.
Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27-28, Bookmarks Festival in Winston-Salem. Still waiting on final scheduling, but it looks like I’ll be doing at least one panel at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday. This one is free.
Tuesday, Oct. 1, Park Road Books in Charlotte, with Gavin Edwards. This one is free.
Wednesday, Oct, 9, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. I love this place. Tickets here.
Whew. OK, thanks for getting through that if you did! Now a bunch of sports things:
Another Look at Baseball-Reference Pitching WAR
Got a couple great emails over the weekend from Tom Tango, one which I’ll save for another day. But today, let’s talk a little bit more about Baseball-Reference pitching WAR, because, at least as a one-year analytical tool, its quirks are getting too funky to ignore.
I mentioned in a post last week that it’s hard to understand how Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene could have a (slightly) higher WAR this year than Atlanta’s Chris Sale, when Sale has pitched 10 more innings with a lower ERA, a much better strikeout-to-walk (especially when you throw in Greene’s league-leading 19 hit-by-pitches), a lower FIP, fewer homers allowed, etc.
Well, Tango does the math… but instead of doing the Greene math, he does the math on an even more bizarre quirk: