Posnanski began his journalism career as a multi-use reporter and an editor at The Charlotte Observer. He worked as a columnist at The Cincinnati Post, The Augusta Chronicle, and The Kansas City Star.[3] He was a senior writer for Sports Illustrated until April 2012 when he announced that he would work for Sports on Earth, a new internet joint venture between USA Today and Major League Baseball Advanced Media.[4] His first column for Sports on Earth was published on August 26, 2012.[5] In February 2013, he became the national columnist for NBC Sports. In February 2017, he became a national columnist for MLB.com and contributor on the MLB Network.
Another book, about the Big Red Machine, titled The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, was published in 2009 and reached Number 17 on the New York Times Bestseller List.[9] Posnanski wrote a biography of longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno[10] for Simon & Schuster, which was released on August 21, 2012 and debuted at Number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.[11] Posnanski's fourth book, The Secret of Golf, details the longstanding rivalry and friendship of golfers Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. His book The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini was released on October 22, 2019.[12]
His latest book was The Baseball 100 was released on September 28,2021.[13]
In October 2007, he debuted his website at joeposnanski.com, later converted to a blog and titled Joe Blog. In 2011, his blog post on The Promise was named one of "Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism" by The Atlantic.[14] The blog was nominated for a National Magazine Award.[15]
Journalism awards
In 2002 and 2005, Posnanski was named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors.[16] In all, he has been nominated 26 times for APSE Awards,[3] and he also has won in the features and projects categories. In 2009, he won the National Headliners Award for sports column writing, and he won back-to-back National Headliners Awards in 2011 and 2012 for Online Writing. In January 2012, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) named Posnanski National Sportswriter of the Year. In 2014 and 2016, he won Sports Emmy Awards as part of NBC's Olympic coverage.
Posnanski has won many other awards, including the Missouri Press Association award for best sports columnist in Missouri ten times, and he was the first recipient of the Joe McGuff journalism award, presented by the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission.[17] In 2011, the Baseball Bloggers Alliance named Posnanski the inaugural winner of their online writer of the year award. The BBA also announced that they will rename the award "The Joe Posnanski Award."[18] At the Blogs With Balls 4 conference, he won best sportswriter in the first Untitled Sports Media Award Project (USMAP).
The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame held its 48th Annual Induction Banquet in September 2021, inducting Bronko Nagurski, J.R. Cielski, A.J. Pierzynski and Mike Krukow. Joe Posnanski was honored with the Tony Kubek Media Award.
↑"Writer Award". Baseball Bloggers Alliance. Archived from the original on April 2, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
↑Gleeman, Aaron (November 1, 2010). "Yadier Molina leads fifth annual "Fielding Bible Awards"". NBCSports.com. Retrieved November 18, 2010. Voted on by a 10-person panel that includes Bill James, Peter Gammons, Joe Posnanski, Rob Neyer, and John Dewan as well as the entire video scouting team at Baseball Info Solutions, the award sets out to recognize the best defensive player at each position, regardless of league.
