Tyler Kepner

Tyler Kepner
Tyler Kepner
Born	John Tyler Kepner; 1975 (age 48–49); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Author; sports journalist;
Alma mater	Vanderbilt University

John Tyler Kepner (born 1975) is an American author and sports journalist who is currently a senior baseball writer for The Athletic, after spending more than 23 years writing baseball for The New York Times.^[1]

Early life

Kepner was born in Philadelphia and attended Germantown Academy and Vanderbilt University. He became interested in baseball as a child, and created a monthly baseball magazine as a teenager. While in high school, he received a press pass to cover the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1989, he was featured in Sports Illustrated Kids and The New York Times.^[2]^[3]

Writing

While in college, Kepner interned for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. He was hired by The Press-Enterprise as Angels beat writer in September 1997. He joined the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as Mariners beat writer in September 1998 and began writing for The New York Times in 2000. After two years as a Mets beat writer and eight as a Yankees beat writer, he became the newspaper's national baseball writer in 2010, moving on to The Athletic as a senior national baseball writer in September 2023.^[4]

In 2019, he published his first book K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches. The book received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was praised for its writing style and informativeness.^[5]^[6] Paul Dickson of The Washington Post called it "well-written, anecdote rich and filled with seldom-shared insights by players."^[7] Kirkus Reviews wrote that it "belongs in the first ranks of books on America's most written-about sport."^[8]

Kepner published his second book, The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series, in 2022.^[9] The book chronicles the history of the World Series and received critical praise.^[10]^[11] Olive Fellows, writing for Christian Science Monitor, called it "quirky and engrossing."^[12] Richard Crepeau, in a review for the New York Journal of Books, praised the book for its nuanced overview of history.^[13]