In the Beginning...

From time to time I get asked the question,"How did you get so into sports?" And the answer is not a quick one. I have tried to condense my answer when asked but I cut a part or two and the story does not make much sense. So today since I have some time to kill, I will share my story....

It all begins in the year 1999. I was in the fourth grade. My mother had just gotten a new job and this new job required her to start at 4 am now. And since my dad had to be at his work by 6 am and since we lived far away from my school there was a problem. How do we get me to school. So they did a trial run of taking me to my grandparents at 3:30 am and I would sleep on their couch until it was time to rise and shine. The trial went well so the move was made permanent. But there was an occasional morning where getting back to sleep was not easy. So I laid on the couch I decided to watch some tv to put me to sleep. But at 4 am, you have the option of either paid programming shows, the nanny reruns (those cause migranes), or SportsCenter. Since I had some interest in sports, I turned on the SportsCenter morning reruns. Then eventually the eyes would shut and I would sleep until 8. Upon waking up you would make the walk to the breakfast table and the newspaper would be out on the table. And there were some days i wouldn't read it at first and so my grandfather (I refer to him as my predecessor) would take the sports page and put it in front of me and go, "Here, read this. You'll find it interesting." He was the third element to my madness. He had a great mind for sports. He would sit in his usual chair at the table with talk radio on and his glass of coffe drunk and bowl of wheaties ate. His opinions were out there at some points, but he always seemed to be right. He would take me to school and we would chat on the hot topics of the sports page. And as time went on I got wiser and the conversations got better. But we never agreed on everything. There would be an occasional argument, which most times I lost. You would keep thinking how does he get it right on the nose everytime? I wish I had one last question to ask him, it would go, "How do you get it right everytime?" He made me much wiser and he got me hooked on his opinions so we believed in the same principles of sports. He. like me, was a hockey nut. He was great at teaching the game. He did it for so many years at the local rec center. He taught me the game with a remote and a bowl of ice cream. It worked pretty damn well. Anyway there it was the three phases that made me the sports maniac I am. The 4 am SportsCenter, the daily sports page columns, and my predecessor himself. It was the right combination for me. It still is, except my predecessor is no longer here with us. So to keep up with his traditions I am starting a new blog post that I will publish once a week titled, "The view from the recliner". This post will state what he thought of what was going on and how he thought things should of been handled. Be sure to check for that coming soon. So there ya go. There is my story. I cherished those days. I still cherish those days. I always will. It was in the beginning...