Saturday, January 17, 2009

Game Within The Game: Mission Statement

There is this part of me that wishes I could get paid to write about sports. Before I chose to go into education, I did want to pursue journalism. I never pulled that trigger. I wouldn't call it a regret, but if I lived my life over again knowing what I know now, I just might have tried that route. So I am going to take this opportunity to "play" sports journalist. I can pretend to be something I always wanted to be but lacked the confidence to try.

In this vain I have started my second blog which is devoted to sports. It is off and running. If you haven't noticed or taken a look, click the link to the right. But this post is about my objective and intent with that blog.

I have had a number of ideas and directions in which I wanted to go with it but finally settled on this: A forum. Instead of going solo which I originally was thinking, I acquired the help of a fellow sports fan who shares team allegiances but differs in opinion enough to make his partnership interesting. I also have asked numerous friends around the country to "contribute" through comments or posts of their own (still working that out). I figured this would help achieve my goals of creating a forum vibe or style.

We are only a week into this thing, but I like the direction it seems to be going. My hopes were that the dialogue on the blog would be much like that of a conversation you would have sitting at a bar watching a game, gathering around the water cooler Monday morning with your work colleagues, emailing friends of yours regarding the big game, spending time with your extended family at gatherings and holiday celebrations, at a cookout around the grill, tailgating outside the stadium before a game or while sitting in the stands watching the games and talking to your partners and/or fellow fans sitting in your row or section.

I figured that would best happen if I gathered up those people with whom I have these types of conversations on a regular basis and get them to contribute. That would hopefully create a critical mass of people creating and continuing discussion and debate and good natured trash talking. We can commiserate about losses and bad calls together. We can celebrate victories and glorious plays! We can predict and assess. We can analyze and breakdown and share what "should" have happened.

With this as the fundamental objective of the blog, I hope to gain more viewers and readers. Ideally, this blog would be circulated around more circles than just my own. More people would join in and comment and extend the conversation. After all, what do guys (and many girls) love more than talking sports? Well, drinking beer and watching sports...but I'm not stopping them from cracking a cold one while reading our blog. Assuming they are 21 and not driving anywhere afterwards.

The blog is already generating good stuff. Where it goes is yet to be seen. It is and always will be a work in progress. Baddeley and I have a good mindset for this baby. We both want to take our hallway conversations and share them with you. We know some people who share our passion and look forward to sharing this with them too.

Check it out!

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