Editor’s note: Before I provide this week’s links, there are a few things to say. First, I apologize for missing this link post last week. I have gotten behind in my writing schedule and will work to ensure I don’t miss posts in the future. In that vein, this week’s edition of “Any player/Any era” should go live sometime Saturday. Thanks, and enjoy the links.
- It’s been an awesome week for Joe Posnanski who, since Saturday, has written a fantastic rebuttal to some idiocy, come out with a massive Sports Illustrated piece on the 32 best players for 2011, and been named Sportswriter of the Year by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (I definitely voted for him.) The BBA is planning to name the award after Posnanski starting next year– I’ll be honored if I ever win anything named for Poz.
- One of my favorite baseball writers, Josh Wilker offers a starting lineup of his favorite authors. Good to see Anton Chekhov and Denis Johnson in there, though I’m surprised Wilker didn’t include Tobias Wolff, who he said helped influence his 2010 memoir, Cardboard Gods. Wolff bats third and capably handles third base on my team. I’ll provide a full lineup for Monday.
- Rory Paap offers a breakdown on Tim Lincecum’s Opening Day Velocity.
- Last June, I wrote about an obscure Negro League and semi-pro great named John Donaldson. One of the people I interviewed for the post, a scout named John Klima has written a far more expansive feature about Donaldson for Yahoo.com which, as we speak, has gotten over 700 comments. It’s good to see Donaldson getting some much-deserved mass exposure, and Klima offers an impressive amount of detail, as always.
- Pretty sure this is an April Fool’s joke