Inspiration

Honestly, I started this blog in an effort to legitimize all of the time that others thought I wasted watching sports. Yes, I watch sports, all the time. It has been something I have warned nearly every girlfriend of mine about. In some distant memory, sports has always been the lost regret of my high school career, always wishing I had played. But when I started this blog, it was something different inspiring me. There was another pull beside my time-wasting and my regrets of my past: it was the brilliance of writers who evoke an experience of sports.

The other day I watched the interview between Buster Olney from espn.com and Cliff Lee after Game 3 of the ALCS, and I was struck by the admiration Buster had for Lee's performance. After his first question, you'll notice that Buster cracks an immense smile. Some might consider this a lack of journalistic integrity. I call it an appreciation for the beauty of the game. Buster clearly grasped the tremendous accomplishment of Lee's postseason, and recognized how it glorified the sport he loved. After all, isn't a no-hitter, 14 K's, and multiple shutouts the essence of complete dominance in pitching! Buster understood not only that this was the year of the pitcher, but that with every great postseason pitching performance, this postseason becomes more magical. Not only do I not consider this a biased perspective from Olney, I consider it a refreshing reminder of the beauty of America's greatest game. (The interview can be found by searching Buster Olney on espn.com)

Tonight, I read Joe Posnanski's blog post about Cliff Lee's game (Labeled "Natural Lee" at joeposnanski.blogspot.com), and was again struck by the brilliance of Posnanski's words. Joe, unlike any other sportswriter right now, makes you believe in the glory and goodness of baseball. I hate the Yankees more than any other team in baseball, and yet when Joe writes about Mariano Rivera's brilliance, I can't help but appreciate how much Rivera has accomplished in his career. When I read Joe's columns or blogposts, I absolutely forget all my preconceived notions of baseball. I get lost in the beauty of the world that he describes, whether I love or hate the player or team Joe is talking about. Joe has an ability to transform your understanding as a reader. He enables you to see your mistakes and provide you with new information without making you feel like you are trading in all of your feelings. When I reflect on what it means to make sports important, to make them mean something, I look at the writers I admire most.

I don't know what it is about sportswriting, but there is an ability in a good sports journalist to evoke an experience out of the reader. When I read Joe Posnanski's column on the 32 Greatest Calls in History, I didn't just admire his retelling of these stories, I loved that Joe enabled me to better experience each call. When I hear Joe talk about Vin Scully's calls, I gain an appreciation for the artistry of Scully as well as Posnanski. I will never understand this gift of great sportswriters, but I will certainly always cherish it.

And I think the most important influence of mine has been seeing what the "little guys" can do in sportswriting. To this day, one of my favorite sports columns is my best friend and ex-roommate Blake's article about a Truman basketball player (http://www.trumanindex.com/2.10112/from-cameroon-to-kirksville-1.1461402). The thing I love about this article is the way it inspires the reader. I can honestly say that if I had had 20 negative experiences with Patrick Fandja before that column, I think that column would have erased that resentment. There is something about good sportswriting that can inspire a person to think better of someone after reading about that person.

When people ask me why I have a blog about sports, the easy answer is to say that it is my way of legitimizing all of the time I spend watching sports. But the truth is, it is my small attempt at emulating the sportswriters who I have read and admired so immensely. And it is important to make it clear that my goal has never been to provide others with my experience of the sports world, but to allow them to have their own experience with that world, just like the sportswrters I admire have allowed me to do.