Have you always been a fan of sports?
So many little boys and girls grow up loving sports. American families live for their Sunday Night Football, Opening Day memories and the madness of March. However, my family just didn't watch sports. My mother, straight off the boat from Germany, didn't care about sports, and still doesn't (although she sometimes pretends to). When I tell her we are throwing a shindig for a sporting event, whether that is a playoff game or the gosh darn SuperBowl, she asks perkily every single time, "Oh! What teams are playing?"If it isn't funny enough that she doesn't know what teams are competing, I am willing to bet she wouldn't be able to name a single active NBA, NFL or MLB player... pretty sure she would simply say "Michael Jordan" if forced to answer. (I say all of this is good fun!) Then there is my father. He was in the military my whole life, and is now a farmer/ amateur wine enthusiast. Sounds like the perfect combination of manliness to love his sports, right? Well, not quite.
The point of me sharing all of this is to reveal the fact that I actually didn't watch sports, let alone know anything about sports until I was in college. When I moved in with my boyfriend four years ago, I learned about the heartbreak that is the Mets, fell in love with the view from Sir Charles Barkley's eyes, looked for the matching Sharpie highlighter and tie, cried for the crushed boy who called time out with none left, and became obsessed with ESPN (you know it is bad when my boyfriend asks me if we can watch something else...).
I can say, my love for sports, is pure. It is not something that was instilled upon me. When I figured out how much I enjoyed watching sports and then talking about sports, I felt as though I truly discovered my own playbook.
Why did you start Into The Stands?
Simply put, I crave the simple activity of discussions about sports.
The less abbreviated version: After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 2009, I began the next year and a half of my life as a graduate student at Pace University studying Publishing Communications. Working full-time and being a full-time grad student commuting from Hartford to NYC three times a week by train was not glamorous, but this was the way I saw I could get closer to reaching my goals.
At the beginning of 2011, with a graduate degree and internships galore in my pocket, the empty interviews came and went like the Metro-North train I knew so well. And by the Fall I found myself in the position I am in currently. A position that really has nothing to do with publishing. A position I really like and enjoy. A position that is in Bristol, CT... and it is not at ESPN.
So the reason I find myself starting this blog is so I can write about something that intrigues me. Something that I believe in. And that is not one team (though at times I may be biased), it is not one player, it is not one storyline... rather, it is the comprehensible package of sports.
So what teams do you root for?
I root for sports for the sake of sports. I love watching athletes compete. I am intrigued by the dynamics that exist in teams and the discipline of those who compete.
With that being said, I have a lot of respect for so many teams. However, I do tend to stalk UConn men's basketball, the Baltimore Ravens and the NY Mets.
