The Marshall Sports Bureau: Introduction

After giving it much thought (about ten minutes, I'd guess), I decided to start a sports blog. Yes, it's true that most of the posts on my other blog, A Small Pop Hypothesis, already dealt with sports, but I wanted one that was sports-only. If I ever have thoughts about anything else, which seems unlikely at this point, I'll use that one. And yes, I'll probably still keep spamming Facebook with statuses related to sports. But sometimes I get the urge to do more long-form writing, and this seems like a perfect outlet for that, dear Imaginary Reader.

I've been a sports fan for a very long time now. I realized with some degree of horror recently that I can now remember sporting events that happened over twenty years ago, particularly the incredible 1991 World Series between the Braves and Twins. But at the same time, I watch/keep up with sports somewhat differently than most of my friends who are into it. I'm not the type to pay attention to college recruiting or the intricacies of players' contract negotiations. I prefer the games themselves, and in particular, I like numbers. Unusual and/or unprecedented stats, for whatever reason, are my favorite part of the viewing experience. There are two exceptions to this rule, though. My love of the Steelers and Roger Federer is all-encompassing, and I readily admit it jades my ability to view the NFL or men's tennis impartially.

With that caveat in mind, I'm otherwise a quite dispassionate spectator. I like interesting storylines--not in the human interest sense, but storylines related to the sport itself. I cheer for Tiger Woods not out of any particular interest in the man himself, but rather because I enjoy the chase against history, knowing that if he ever reaches 19 major titles (which looks unlikely these days), I will have seen something unprecedented happen.

Most sports stories are more mundane, but they still capture my curiosity. When I realized today that UCLA and Illinois will go into (and, by definition, finish) the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl with a combined losing record, that fascinated me; I couldn't think of any other historical precedent for it. In a nutshell, these will be things I write about most often. Still, I'll tackle the "big issues" every now and then--my first post with actual sports content in it will be why I think LSU-Alabama is the correct match-up for the BCS Championship--but my main concerns lie with the small, day-to-day stuff. Let's hope for greatness.