The Voice Behind the Swing Kings
Jared Diamond has spent more than a decade chronicling the rhythms of Major League Baseball, bringing the nuances of the game to the pages of The Wall Street Journal.
His 2023 bestseller Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution captures a generation defined by power and analytics.
Speaking at a recent forum, Diamond noted that artificial intelligence is reshaping both sports and journalism, not by replacing reporters but by freeing them to dig deeper.
Human Stories in a Data‑Driven Era
He warned that the explosion of sports gambling, exemplified by platforms such as FanDuel, threatens the integrity of the narratives he seeks to tell.
For Diamond, the heart of his work lies in human stories — players’ struggles, the behind‑the‑scenes decisions that statistics can’t capture.
A graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, he credits the campus newspaper, The Daily Orange, with honing his investigative instincts.
While he remains skeptical of being the first to break trade rumors, he believes the ability to uncover unseen information will become even more valuable as AI tools proliferate.