I'd say your son has a great deal of potential. If he wants to be a writer at all -- and especially if he aspires to baseball writing -- he should read Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract, all the baseball-related musings of Stephen Jay Gould, and W.P. Kinsella's The Thrill of the Grass.

I'm sure that others at this site could make reading recommendations, as well. (The Art Of Clear Thinking, by Flesch, would actually come in really handy, too, now that I've thunk on it. And Harlan Ellison's Glass Teat essays. There, that's all the books I've read.)

Read and write, and read some more. And then some more. And always for pleasure; you get five pages into a book and don't like it...put it back on the shelf.

The blog? There's some inadvertent repetition, and a few typos (e.g. "we" instead of "he" when referring to Matheny, in a couple of spots), and a handful of slightly unclear passages. All in all, a solid B. But again: with much potential.

Hope that helps a little. ;)

Thanks for the feed back. I noticed the we instead of he also. The first time I read it I also got the feeling some things were not clear, but after re-reading it I thought it was pretty good. He wrote a 30 page paper for a class last year in one night and got a A on it, his teacher was floored, and a little ticked that he waited until the last minute. I'm sure he probably put his thoughts down in this blog in about 15 minutes. I know he's read the Bill James book and I'm not sure about the others. Again thanks for your thoughts and I'll be sure to let him see any comments that are made.

I agree with much of what BobReed said above.  It's a good start.

If he has serious aspirations as a writer, I recommend he proof his work with a fine tooth comb.  For example:

There's a word missing in the following sentence -
In his first year of managerial experience, Matheny showed many of the early qualities that made La Russa the highly-esteemed manager he retired as a year ago.

Again, your son made a good, if lengthy start.  I just hope he doesn't settle for "O.K" instead of striving for "Wow!"

Good luck to him.

Thanks Uconn... I'm not seeing the missing word in that sentence, but then again, it was all I could do to get out of high school. We actually had the discussion a few weeks ago about how news papers are cutting editors and proof readers. I read the post dispatch on line, and even with my limited education, have noticed a lot of mistakes lately. I guess it is going to be a lot more important that the writer makes sure to proof read a couple of times. The one thing I don't worry about with him, is that he settles for o.k., he is very hard on himself. thanks again.

Check out the new story on the Big Mac move to LA.

Hopefully your son is enrolled at Mizzou. I read it and it looks good to me. There is some promise there so good luck to him.Let us know f you want some more reviews. The people here are always ready to help with such things.

Good stuff. Practice, practice, practice. And even though he is writing on a blog, he should write with perfection like it is the New York Times. Practice, perfection, and patience will pay off. There are few things more precious to the sports world than a really good writer, IMO.

Thanks for checking it out. He was accepted at Mizzou's J-school but wanted to play baseball in college also, so he ended up going to a D3 school in Iowa, but he may end up going to Mizzou for grad school. I think he's finally starting to think more about writing and school more than playing. Thanks again for everyones input and taking a look at his writing.

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--- cards27 wrote:

I think he's finally starting to think more about writing and school more than playing.

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Hitting .188 can do that to a guy. Only joshing, Cards27. Your son has great promise as a writer from what I can see. Keep us posted as to how your son's career is faring. Maybe one day we here at The Cardinal Nation can say we knew him when.

Check out the kids latest blog on Stan "The Man"

I read the Stan piece, then went back and re-read the first one, posted back in October. I'm no expert to be sure, but it seems like your son is refining his craft at a remarkable rate. Hopefully, he will have time to keep the blog going once he gets out of school. Was he able to take in the Cardinals Caravan in Columbia last Saturday?

No on the cards caravan, he was home for winter break. I think the first few posts he was just kind of writing down his thoughts and didn't really try all that hard. I thought this one, on Stan, was much better but maybe that's just because I was getting some credit. haha.

What a wonderful read.  Really showed that what Cardinals fans feel for Stan goes far beyond any number on a stat sheet.

Thank him for me, will you?

Will do UConn, thanks for reading.

Where's Walt to chime in?