Despite all of this, I enjoy working with other sportswriters as an editor at Blogcritics. I appreciate the craft of writing about sports. It takes not only knowledge of the game itself, but also the ability to put it into the right words, capturing motion on paper. The sportswriter also understands that everyone else thinks he or she is an expert analyst; therefore, that must be kept in mind as well as the fan's allegiance to the team he or she loves. It's emotional and personal and that has to be understood and respected.
It isn't easy being a writer, no matter what others think. Hemingway said only heavy lifting was harder work than writing, so let us consider sportswriting the heavy lifting. Still, if you watch sports enough, you see the literary in it, the artistic stroke of the ball thrown by the quarterback; the poetry of the basketball as it swooshes through the net at the buzzer. This is why people write about sports, and there will always be those who will read what is written because they appreciate that someone loved what they love enough to write about it.
Now, someday I just might go up, unlock the attic, and take down my dusty sports book and start working on it again. I was going to wait until the Mets won another World Series, but the way things are going I won't be around in 2100, so I guess I better get to it.
Photo Credits: Matthau-watchinmovies.info; Hemingway-biblioklept.com
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