Settling the Score on the All-Time Teams (Based on Number of Teams)

Are the Lifers really the best? Strat-O provides the answer. Plus, the latest on all the playoff races.

Fun one today—remember how a few weeks ago we imagined what a matchup would look like between:

— Players who have been on one team

— Players who have been on two teams

— Players who have been on three teams

— Players who have been on four-plus teams

Well, the good folks at Strat-O-Matic played the things out! Thanks to Jerry Milani and the gang there, we’ll tell you how it went today, along with a few random sports thoughts.

First, we’re on Day, uh, 49,382,940 of the WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL tour—had an absolutely fantastic night on Tuesday at BookShop West Portal. Was lucky enough to do the event with the marvelous Ann Killion; it was a blast.

And now, yes, I’m at the San Francisco airport. Tonight we’re in Chicago—well, technically, Winnetka—for an awesome event at the Book Stall. We’ll be there tonight with Jeff Garlin! I mean, it doesn’t get better than that.*

*I’m told that there’s some road construction that’s causing fairly significant delays—this is Chicago, after all—so, you know, the earlier you can get there, the better!

Couple other quick book things: Today, before hitting the stage with Jeff, I’m going to be part of Barnes & Noble’s Instagram Live Football Trivia contest at 5 p.m. Eastern. I’ll be “battling” the much more nimble Mike Greenberg and Paul “Hembo” Hembekides, authors of the book, The 100 Greatest Sports Arguments Settled. I put “battling” in quotes because it’s going to be an absolute bloodbath; you might not guess it, but I’m absolutely terrible at trivia. Awful. It’s been a curse my whole life; people THINK I must be good at trivia because I seem to know a lot of sports stuff.

Then they have me on their teams, and as the horror show goes on, you can see their faces just fall as they realize that I’m much more of a handicap than a benefit. The reality is that I’m hopeless at recalling things quickly; my family will tell you that under time pressure I can’t recall even the most basic names. (“You know her, um, she’s our oldest daughter, uh, starts with an E or an L maybe?”) So this is going to be a fiasco. But, hopefully, it will be entertaining in a car crash sort of way.

In brighter news, The book continues to get reviews that make me blush—the latest is from The Atlanta Constitution, which includes this:

He ultimately proves that football “takes us fans to the mountaintop, and it tears our hearts out. It lifts us and crushes us, thrills us and revolts us, leaves us empty and leaves us wanting and leaves us breathless.” Football is family, it is religion. Football “illustrates life at its most exuberant and most passionate.” And Joe Posnanski’s “Why We Love Football” is a joyful journey through the best of it.

Amazing stuff.

Hope to see you tonight in Chicago, and hope to see you tomorrow in Pittsburgh!

Just as a reminder: A little while ago, I wrote something comparing MLB players who had spent their entire careers on one team, on two teams, on three teams and on four teams or more… and my question was, which team was the best? You would think it would be the players who spent their whole careers on one team, but there were an astonishing number of awesome players on each of the teams. So, Strat-O-Matic had the four teams play out a best-of-seven playoff series. Let’s see how it went: