“One of my favorite kinds of sports argument is when you get two fans arguing over who has suffered more.” This is the opening to a Joe Posnanski’s sports column. Posnanski writes for the Kansas City Star.  He uses a style that sparks fans all around the country. The arguments he creates in his columns often relate to his love of teams that are suffering in some form or his love of sports issues that can establish controversy. His latest of the sort stem from the lowliness of the Miami Dolphins, the embarrassment of Kansas City Chief’s fans, and the winning paths of the Kansas Jay Hawks sports teams. Posnanski asks for confrontation many times, and usually gets it from his readers.  However, it’s why many readers love his columns.  

Posnanski is your everyday sports fan who has been fortunate enough to have a paying job in which he can follow sports all day long. The Kansas City Star has had the services of Posnanski since the fall of 1996. In that time period, he has twice been named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors.  Posnanski has worked in North Carolina, Georgia, and Ohio before his current stint in Kansas City. 

His current location in KC is unique. He grew up in Cleveland where all of his favorite hometown sports teams were, to put it softly, not that great. And now, he follows local teams that are equal in quality. The Kansas City Chiefs struggle when and if they make the playoffs, the Royals are routinely at the bottom of their division, and the Kansas Jayhawks have lost in the first round two of the last three years.

This isn’t all that bad though; after all Posnanski did say his favorite sports argument is over who suffers more. Kansas City offers him the opportunity to join in that battle. He does. His columns regularly lean towards a theme of pity towards a team, player, or another individual. 10 of his last 12 articles clearly show this trend. The other two have hints of it as well. 

It appears that Posnanski has used this to invoke emotion into his columns. The articles always seem to come from his heart. For example, his column about the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb 11, 2007, told the story as he saw it. He would love to have a hockey team, yet he would not want to see fans in Pittsburgh lose their team. Yes, the team has been struggling in more ways then one; however, that creates great sports talk for fans and non-fans alike. His Pittsburgh article showed the spark and passion that he has for sports and utilizes in his writing. 

His passion is mainly in basketball, baseball, and football.  Ninety-percent of his columns have to do with one of the three sports. This has its advantages and disadvantages as Posnanski is able to focus on those sports alone, yet his columns lack variety. 

The columns Posnanski writes are very similar to each other but with a different background. This also contributes to a lack of spontaneity. However, it allows him to break down the certain sports very well. He is then able to supply his readers with ample sports history. This adds a nice finishing touch to many of his articles.

The sports history is something that readers can rely on in each of Posnanski’s columns. Readers will often comment on something to do with the history and how Posnanski ties it into the wider story. Posnanski’s columns draw daily arguments and compliments. His readers are willing to let him know what they think. Many times he will get a comment on how they (the reader) had never thought of it the way Posnanski did.

Posnanski’s biggest strength may be that he is able to offer his readers a different view than the norm. People may not think how the Kansas Jayhawks are not necessarily a powerhouse. “How many championships have they won?” Posnanski asks. One. Getting to the NCAA tournament each year does not mean they are really good in basketball. Other teams that are not considered in the lines of Kansas have actually produced more or equal in the number of championships and professional players, Posnanski wrote. Readers wouldn’t have thought of it that way until Posnanski put the notion in their head.

Who would have thought that writing columns on the suffering of sports teams and their fans could produce great sports writing? Not many. Posnanski may have been helped growing up in Cleveland. And, in some way you have to feel sorry that he has a magnet to the poor sports teams. However, he loves the teams. He has turned his fate into great sports columns and a knack for intriguing fans. The Kansas City Royals may have losing season after losing season, but Posnanski gives fans hope by writing columns on how the team is looking better this season. And will look better the next season. And the next. Posnanski has a talent to write about the perfect sports argument and make the reader think. So when someone reads his latest column, they will be thinking, thinking hard. Don’t disturb them.