John would appreciate this, I know he would. 

As his longtime friend and co-worker Dan Steinberg said Friday on X, “Just about every piece he wrote about a retiring or dead sports great flashed back to a tale involving John Feinstein, by like the fifth graf. It was a running joke: how many grafs in this John Feinstein appreciation until we find the word ‘I.’ It was never very many.” 

So, yes, I think John would like that it took me only five words to get to “I” here, in this John Feinstein appreciation that, horribly, is a tribute to his extraordinary life and not just his brilliant career. 

John died Thursday at 69, and it was news that hit a lot of people especially hard: Readers, certainly, who put 23 of his books on the bestseller list, all the way back to “A Season on the Brink” in 1986.