The Soul of Baseball: The Winds of Fenway:

I start with this story because today’s blog is about home and road, and how Fenway Park has influenced the way we have watched baseball the last 50 years or so. So right up front, I want to say that I’m not ripping Yaz or Jim Rice or Wade Boggs for putting up big numbers at Fenway Park. A good player takes advantage of his surroundings. Muhammad Ali felt the loosened ring ropes in Zaire and leaned on them. Bart Starr felt the frozen field beneath him and called the quarterback sneak.

An amazing article from Joe Posnanski on the effect of home ballparks on certain ballplayers. More well-researched and thought-out than anything I ever write. Or maybe it isn’t. Perhaps the secret to being a really good, authoritative figure is to right authoritatively with lots of numbers, percentages, and figures that look so mightily impressive, and so thoroughly researched that the mind boggles at even attempting to follow up on them yourself. That way no one ever finds out that you’re completely and utterly talking out of your a**.

That last comment is not referring to Joe, of course, but myself, should you ever see an article as thorough and impressive-looking as all that anywhere, with a byline of me.