If JoePos Says It, It Must Be Right

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
(212) 931-3800

Dear Mr. Commissioner:

Joe Posnanski of The Kansas City Star wrote an (surprise) excellent column for today’s paper. It’s about the difference between football stats and baseball stats. And it’s about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Donnie Edwards.


Posnanski talks about the incredible inner workings of Edwards’ mind and his undying desire to understand things and to do them right. As a Chiefs fan, I couldn’t be happier to have Edwards back in Kansas City. He’d always been a tremendous, underrated player; his contributions to both the Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers were phenomenal.


It’s the way in which Posnanski starts the piece, though, that got me thinking of our friend. He writes:

“…but you probably do not know off the top of your head, say, what is the exact
record for most career touchdowns or Jerry Rice’s total yards from scrimmage.

“You probably do know, on the other hand, how many home runs Hank Aaron
hit or Pete Rose’s hit total.”

And he’s right. Seven hundred fifty-five and 4,256, respectively. Four thousand, two hundred fifty-six and the man’s banned from baseball. I realize that you didn’t make that decision yourself. You can undo it, though. If Posnanski’s right, and most sports fans have that number rolling around in their head, doesn’t that imply that the figure is uber-important? I think it does. Let’s get the ball rolling and take the first step towards getting Rose in the hall.