Ben Reiter

The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball premieres tonight on @PBS at 10/9c. I’m the correspondent on, and a producer of, this FRONTLINE film. It’s the culmination of nine years of reporting on the team that’s defined this era – for better and for worse.

Here’s my 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. I continue to think starting pitchers haven’t received enough recognition in recent years.

@BenCrellin Ben, thank you for sharing this. I’ve followed you on here for years. It’s clear that you’re a brilliant and caring person. Your FPL acumen is just the start of it. I’m glad this process has been so positive for you. You have many admirers across the globe. Keep on being you!

I've had an emotionally overwhelming and potentially life-changing week, and I want to share what I've gone through. I'm autistic. I'd never properly considered it before. I've always felt different, but I had very little knowledge of what the autism spectrum entails. Writing this tweet has been therapeutic. I'm going to share a lot about my life. I feel free to do this because I no longer feel so much shame. I obviously have Level 1 autism (the mildest form). When I was 13, my dad used to talk to me about his experiences when working for a charity that cared for adults with level 2 and 3 autism. I did once ask him if I was autistic, but he said I wasn't; people didn't know as much about autism back then and I didn't behave anything like the adults that he was working with. I saw a YT video by someone who got an autism diagnosis in their 30s last week, and that made me seriously consider that I might have autism - maybe a 50% chance, and then I went down a rabbit hole and every day it increased by 10-15%. It's at 100% today. Discovering that I have autism has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. I no longer feel guilty about all the painful things that happened to me as a kid. I'm understanding that I was traumatised by some it, and that's normal for autistic people. Last year I tested positive for the Motor Neurone Disease gene that killed my Dad & Gran (whom I never knew). I'll likely get the disease by my late 60s, and I'm now way more worried about it because I feel like I've got a life to live. I now know that the constant anxiety and spells of depression that I've had are real. I used to think that my anxiety and depression were insignificant compared to other people who had real mental health problems. I've never had counselling. I actually suffer from crippling anxiety and it's all related to autism. Thankfully I'm no longer depressed. I was depressed during my 20s and I was super depressed at school. I was bullied so badly. I have big memory gaps in those years - I think it's known as dissociative amnesia. My parents fostered a challenging 9-year-old boy for a year when I was 14. He knew how to wind me up, which aggravated my anxiety. I only have one memory of that year: playing monopoly on the day he left us. I'm so grateful to FPL and the FPL community. The niche that I've found here is incredible, and autism has certainly allowed me to find it, but autism has also led me to become reclusive. I'm nearly 35 now. I have a comfortable but fairly unfulfilling life. Most days I only interact with my mum. I have no good friends locally. I rely on podcasts and social media interactions to fill the gap. My life is designed to minimise anxiety. I like being alone but I know this isn't sustainable. I knew that I had to try and improve my life - I just didn't know how to. I even considered getting a life coach a few months ago, but that would have been a waste of time if neither of us knew I had autism. I now have an idea of how I'm going to improve my life. I see a path forward. I'll start by going to a weekly meet-up for people with autism in my nearest town. I'll obviously continue to do what I've always done in the FPL community, but I'll use it as a foundation to build on. I'll give some other examples of how autism affects me: - In case it wasn't obvious, social interactions with neurotypical strangers cause me anxiety (but I do enjoy meeting people from the FPL community) - I have difficulty engaging in back-and-forth conversations - I find it hard to express myself - I talk in paragraphs instead of sentences - I struggle to make and maintain friendships - I like to plan things carefully before doing them - I'm hyper sensitive to certain sounds, smells, loud noises, materials and bright lights. I absolutely hate busy indoor spaces where people have to speak loudly to make their voices heard over loud background noise. - I'm emotionally sensitive - I take things literally. e.g I struggle when people exaggerate by using superlatives. - I'm clumsy - I always have cuts and bruises - I have a rigid routine in areas of my life and I have OCD tendencies - I really struggle to transition from one task to another e.g getting out of bed, getting out of the shower, getting ready for bed - I have very keen interests in certain subjects. My interests aren't particularly unusual but they are extreme - I notice patterns in things that other people don't - I've always been extremely fidgety, and I now realise this is called stimming. I've noticed that my stims are weirder when I'm alone. In public I just scrunch my toes. I've learned to try and fit in and hide my weirdness. I'm sharing all this partly in the hope that other people might realise that they're also autistic and get the help that they need. Here are links to YouTube videos/channels that I've found helpful. youtube.com/watch?v=YnU01H… @imautisticnowwhat" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@imautisticnow… @MomontheSpectrum" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@MomontheSpect… @autismfromtheInside" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@autismfromthe… @YoSamdySam" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@YoSamdySam And this one I discovered last night which has resonated the most with me youtube.com/watch?v=StLrjs… Finally, here's The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) Test, which I've done a few times. I scored 40 on it last time I tried it. psychology-tools.com/test/autism-sp… I'm going to try getting an official diagnosis via the NHS soon, but I don't feel I desperately need it. ♥️🌈♾️

Here’s my 2025 Hall of Fame ballot. In my opinion, the era’s starting pitchers are significantly undervalued.

Kris Kristofferson lived an extraordinary life, which included this March 1958 appearance in Faces in the Crowd in @SInow when he was a rugby player for Pomona College and soon to go to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. RIP.

10 years ago this week, a Sports Illustrated cover with a then-preposterous prediction came out. It's since become an inflection point in the Astros' golden era. Thanks to @jluhnow, @robertreidryan and @BenReiter for sharing their memories and insights. houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-n…

@adamduerson @richarddeitsch @MarkMravic As an SI Players staffer at the time, quite certain it was @CharlesLeerhsen and/or @KostyaKennedy. An all-timer to be sure.

@richarddeitsch @MarkMravic 100%. But! June 20, 2005… That was Bechtel and Cannella editing Scorecard; almost certainly one of them wrote it. Money’s on Bechtel

I missed this by two days, sorry. In punning, @SInow at its nerdy peak was unbeatable

@RamSoddy @MarkWardlaw97 @schadjoe I'd be happy to!

To be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, or to have your favorite player or team featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was a really, really big deal.

@MikeyDiLullo Thanks for posting this, Mikey. Really nice. Remember that story well.

When I was 13 growing up in MA, I read a Sports Illustrated story by @BenReiter about Adam Dunn, and that was the moment I knew I didn't want to do anything else.

I feel like reading Sports Illustrated every week was a rite of passage for every sports-obsessed kid growing up. It sure was for me. This is terrible.

@tseides @NotMrTibbs Yes, would’ve been

@BenReiter @NotMrTibbs Wow - no Mauer? Or maybe he’s #11

Here’s my 2024 Hall of Fame ballot. I would’ve voted for 11 players if I could.

Jennifer Lawrence's R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings” landed Oct. 22 on Netflix and immediately topped the Nielsen Streaming Top 10. It logged 1.1 billion minutes watched during the week of Oct. 23-29. variety.com/2023/tv/news/n…

Thanks to all those who watched our @frontlinepbs film THE ASTROS EDGE last night. Special thanks to the crew: @jonclas, @KIDNAMEDQ, @MadelineRuthJ, and Dave Waldron. The doc is now available to stream on the FRONTLINE website, the PBS app, and YouTube youtube.com/watch?v=TNU64B…

I imagine this will be my last work of journalism about the Astros – the owners of a now seven-year playoff streak, and of the biggest baseball scandal in a generation. But I didn’t expect to cover them beyond my initial @SInow cover story in 2014. So … you never know.

The Astros Edge will also be available to watch starting tonight on pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS app, as well as on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball premieres tonight on @PBS at 10/9c. I’m the correspondent on, and a producer of, this FRONTLINE film. It’s the culmination of nine years of reporting on the team that’s defined this era – for better and for worse.

No one knows feet like @RockPositano. Any Yankees fan who wants to know what’s going on with their main man should listen to this. “Surgery would be an absolute disaster for a guy like Judge.”