Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Happy Birthday, Blog

Yep, that's right. A year ago today, I entered the rarified world of blogging. I tried to figure out how many posts are on this thing--250 is my best guess. That's pretty damn good, considering. Well, not that all 250 are well-written, scintillating bits of intellect...still...at least I've kept it up. Not bad for a person who sucks at commitment.

So, now that I've made it past the one-year mark, and given that some of my readers are new and have more important things to do than browse the archives, my "birthday gift" to myself is that on days when I'm too busy...or just plain brain-dead (yeah, I know--this happens a lot)...I'll do a "best of the blog" post.

Okay, right. I may run out of those real quick. All the more reason to press onward with new material.

Having said that, here's one of my early favorites, posted last year on February 23.

Confessions of a Former Sports Fan

I liked it better when athletes didn’t have entourages
I liked it better when Chick Hearn broadcast for the Lakers
I liked it better when tennis players had personalities
I liked it better when rivalry was about respect instead of trash talk
I liked it better when performance-enhancing drugs didn’t explain a player’s sudden improvement in stats
I liked it better when teams stayed together and players spent their entire careers in one city
I liked it better when they didn’t televise every game, so you had to listen on the radio and use your imagination
I liked it better when you didn’t have to mortgage your house to take a family of four to a game
I liked it better when Jim Murray wrote for the L.A. Times
I liked it better when I could pronounce basketball players’ names—not because I object to foreigners, but because they’d be better off playing in their home countries
I liked it better when it was about winning, not money
I liked it better when basketball stars didn’t have record deals
I liked it better when winning was about team work instead of ego
I liked it better when tennis players wore all white
I liked it better when there was an even playing field for baseball players
I liked it better when the U.S. basketball team won the gold at the Olympics
I liked it better when basketball players’ shorts didn’t hang to their knees
I liked it better when they didn’t have to put asterisks next to sports records
I liked it better when medals didn’t have to be returned
I liked it better when kids finished college before entering professional sports
I liked it better when stadiums didn’t have sky boxes and fast food chains

I liked it better when kids played without interference from parents…and maybe that’s where it all went wrong.

Okay, take your best shot. What have I missed?

1 comment:

John said...

I liked it better when the refs were calling games instead of playing games.