r/baseball • u/jonahkeri Senior sportswriter • Mar 25 '14

Feature Hi Reddit, I'm Jonah Keri. AMA.

Howdy hey!

My name is Jonah Keri, I'm a baseball writer for Grantland and author of the book, "Up, Up, & Away", a really fun (and occasionally autobiographical) look at the history of the Montreal Expos, told via ~130 interviews with ex-players (Pedro Martinez! Andre Dawson! Tim Raines! Rusty Staub!), managers, owners, and many more.

The book comes out today and is available at bookstores near you, online (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307361357/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307361357&linkCode=as2&tag=jonahkericom-20), as an e-book (https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/up-up-and-away/id707326028?mt=11), and in various other places.

Though baseball is my vocation, I'm also a native Montrealer with strong opinions about everything from bagels to standing desks. So go nuts. I'm excited to chat.

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u/bigleaguechyut Arizona Diamondbacks Mar 25 '14 edited Mar 25 '14

Hi Jonah, big fan of yours here.

What has been the toughest job of covering baseball as a living?

I bet a bunch of us who don't do that as a job may envy you, but I'm sure it's not so easy.

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u/jonahkeri Senior sportswriter Mar 25 '14

Oh geez, I have the best job in America. If you ever hear me complain, smack me in the face.

I'd just look at it in terms of fun challenges, not that it's tough per se. For me the biggest challenge is coming up with different ideas for stories that will entertain and possibly educate people. Being a J-school guy who came up in a newsroom, I do have some of the typical journalist skills, so I try to leverage those when possible. One of my favorite pieces was a story I did last spring in which I interviewed Coco Crisp at length about the art of basestealing:

http://grantland.com/features/jonah-keri-art-stealing-bases/

Really Coco deserves most of the credit for the piece turning out well - he was very generous with his time, and so insightful. But anyway, that was a case of trying to cover the sport in a slightly different way, and I think it worked pretty well.