Backwards Through The Telescope — Sports

by A.J. Coltrane

CheapSeatEats is almost five years old (February 18). I thought I’d post about where I’m at personally with the three Pillars Of Leisure that form the foundation for writing here, starting with Sports.

You may have noticed that I haven’t written many posts about sports lately — July through October saw two or three each month, and none since November 12. Three months and no posts about sports.

I don’t think that I’m burned out on sports posts so much that the ecosystem around the blog has changed. Even over the last five years there has been a massive proliferation of sports writing on the internet. Large conglomerate sites compete for clicks with mostly unpaid content that to mind my isn’t original, and the writing often would benefit from some serious editing. Much of the writing is about as informative as is the average caller to the local radio sports talk show. I’ve never had any use for any it.

At the opposite end there are the highly researched sites like Fangraphs, Football Outsiders, Kenpom, and so on. If there’s a way to skin a cat they’re doing it. Those sites can provide excellent analysis of what’s really going on. And if breaking down trades and acquisitions is your thing… such as a math based article focused on the trade of Big Bat Billy for League Average Larry and a Package Of Prospects — they’ve got it covered. Those articles almost write themselves.

[Aside:  At some point in the not too distant future a lot of sports writing, or a least the reporting on games will be done by a computer. I know it’s being worked on. Realistically, game summaries are basically just Mad Libs with sports verbiage and a few quotes to fill in the blanks. Just run your spider program over ESPN and away you go. Free content.]

Sort of like this:

I’ve also found that I’m not going back and looking at my sports posts from some time in the distant past. Sports writing is like taking a picture of a river, and the water in the photograph is now long gone.

What I’ve found I am doing is using the blog as a diary to track how I’m approaching baking, cooking, and growing things. I get value out of the old posts on those subjects, even if it’s been awhile. A written record, often with pictures, is very helpful to have around. That even applies to the gaming posts — I look at those strategy posts and wonder “What was I thinking?!?”

So.. I have no real desire to add to the endless Garbage Content pile. I’m frankly not educated and/or informed enough to add to the Excellent Content pile. I’ve absolutely established that I’m not a Unique Snowflake, at least when it comes to writing about sports.

What falls closer to Unique Snowflake status is me writing about me, and what I think I’ve learned while attempting new things. At the very least, having a record about what I did, or what I was thinking about the process of doing it has value to me. I know I learn a lot on the internet from watching people try, and sometimes fail. Just taking an aggregate of what worked means that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

There’s often no better teacher than negative stimulus:

I try to avoid being the captain of that ship, but when it happens, then hopefully someone else will learn from it.

TL;DR —  Going forward, I’ll still be doing sports posts. I’m guessing many of them will come about because I’m convinced the world is wrong and I’m right. Or they’ll be gambling related somehow. Which is sort of the same thing, isn’t it?