Joe Strauss, a relentless reporter and feisty writer who earned respect throughout baseball for his distinctive and revealing coverage of historic moments, died at approximately 3:30 a.m. Sunday from complications related to leukemia. He was 54.
Before becoming a sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2012 and flexing his knowledge beyond the ballpark, Strauss spent nearly three decades covering baseball. His was the voice that chronicled, day by day, how Cal Ripken Jr.’s historic Iron Man streak came to an end, that brought context to the beginning of the Atlanta Braves’ dynasty, and was among the first to capture the peerless beginning of Albert Pujols’ career with the Cardinals.