Time for a Joe-Pourri!
OK, I’m on the very last days of the book deadline, so don’t have much time, but I did want to say hello and offer up a few thoughts before heading back into my cave. Starting Monday, I’ll be back rolling along, with a whole bunch of ideas, some sparked by our good pal Tom Tango.
I was so busy yesterday book-writing that I failed to wish all of you a Happy Hue Jackson Day! Yep, yesterday—as my friend Mark Winegardner reminded me—was 1-31, Hue’s extraordinary record after his first two seasons with the Browns.
It all feels like a dream now, looking back. Dream, nightmare, you know what I mean. It doesn’t feel real. The Browns literally lost 31 of 32 games, and then they brought Hue Jackson BACK to coach the 2018 season. Then when they finally fired him, he was pretty angry, and a couple of years ago Hue said he was writing a book. Every now and again, I go online to see if that book is out yet, because I’m dying to read it. I haven’t seen it so far but I do keep seeing this Hue Jackson-signed mini football for $84.95. Hey, I did just get a nice Amazon gift card for my birthday…
I’m hoping it will be up by the time this is posted—this week on the PosCast, Mike and I had Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as a guest. And I do not exaggerate when I tell you: It was the greatest PosCast ever. Sure, that is an extremely low bar, but Dave was absolutely hilarious, and we discussed some very important items, such as who the best huggers are on the Dodgers (there’s a big surprise coming in this one) and just how many beers Hideo Nomo could drink during one flight. I never tell anyone to listen to the PosCast because, I mean, I can’t justify asking people to listen to Mike and I babble about nonsense. But this one was really great.
Along those lines, our baseball card charity—what Mike has pithily deemed, “Joe and Mike’s Annual Offseason Sports Card Opening Podcast Marathon Extravaganza Benefiting an ALS Charity As Chosen By A Friend Of Ours Whose Family Has Been Affected by ALS 2023”—has raised more than $25,000 for Project Main Street so far. So awesome.
We’re keeping this going for at least two more podcasts, so keep those donations coming and then gmail us your receipt to PosCastRaffle to win some absolutely awesome prizes (which will only get better as donations keep rolling in).
OK, if you’re in the Cincinnati area—and, I mean, all of you are only one or two or three plane rides away, am I right?—I’ve got some details for you on the CASEY Award celebration. It’s going to be at Poor Michael’s Sports and Karaoke Bar in Springfield Township on Sunday, March 24, at 2 p.m.
Let me just say, it’s an absurd and wonderful little celebration with a bunch of baseball fans filling a bar just as spring begins… and everybody is just talking baseball. It’s goofy and fun and without any pretensions at all. You don’t dress up for the CASEY Awards, unless you want to wear your favorite jersey or something. I’ll be there to give my “acceptance speech,” which will probably just be me making predictions about the upcoming season and answering questions. A couple of the other CASEY Award finalists will be there, I’m told, and probably some other special guest stars, which is awesome (last time I won the award, DAVE PARKER was there!).
Seriously, it’s just a blast, exactly what you’d want a baseball awards thing to be. I think Mike Shannon and the CASEY people should host the actual baseball awards show—it would be so fun to see, like, Shohei Ohtani and Gerrit Cole at Poor Michael’s in a strip mall in Springfield Township, and a bunch of old baseball fans shouting out questions about Ted Kluszewski and Bobo Newsom. If you come, you’ll have the best time, I’m telling you.
Admission is $20 but includes hot dogs plus a year-long subscription to Spitball Magazine, which is more than worth your two sawbucks.
Oh, and I think I’ll be doing that postponed event at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on that Saturday night. It will be a Cincinnati party! More details on the book signing when it’s finalized.
Billionaire equity guy and philanthropist David Rubenstein buying the Baltimore Orioles is pretty much the biggest news of the baseball offseason, I think, even bigger than Shohei Ohtani signing with the Dodgers.