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I am the associate editor of Storming the Floor, a blog with a strict focus on college basketball. Our goal is to provide information, analysis, and humor on a daily basis. During the NCAA season, we hope to be every serious hoops fan's daily destination for those three things.
We were honored to be selected as participants in Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters series in March of 2009. Gelf writer Joseph Ax interviewed Marco and I before the live event, and this article is the result.
[Storming the Web's College Basketball Corner]
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My other blog is called Bus Leagues Baseball. It focuses on the minor leagues, with a focus on tracking prospects as they rise toward the majors, as well as some of the fun aspects of the smaller teams, like mascots, promotional giveaways, etc.
This is a sample post from the site:
That guy who calls your kids' Tee-ball games? He might be in the majors some day. The Rocktown Weekly out of Harrisonburg, VA interviewed a minor-league ump and found that these guys have big league aspirations. But you don't just apply to MLB, an official has to work his way up just like any other prospect.
Here's how it worked for Minor League ump Tom Honec:
Honec heeded the call and headed to Jim Evans' Academy of Professional Umpiring in Kissimmee, Fla., for a five-week training course. Every morning, a hundred ump-wannabes packed into a classroom to study the rulebook. Then they headed out under the hot Florida sun for on-field demonstrations, situations and positions.
Both schools - the other is Harry Wendelstedt School for Umpires in Ormond Beach, Fla. - send 20 potential umps to a one-week evaluation course in Cocoa Beach, Fla. The Minor Leagues offered jobs to 15 of those.
Honec, "one of the lucky 15," went pro last spring as a rookie league umpire, and moved up to short A in July.
[Rocktown Weekly]
The article does not reveal when the ritual blinding takes place, but we think it's safe to assume that a true prospect couldn't get past AA with full sight.
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Reflection: I began blogging in late 2006 as a way to practice writing coherently and frequently. My sports posts became fairly popular, and I began to meet professional writers who introduced me to more high-profile writing opportunities. Each new article added to my portfolio led to another possibility. The "new media" has really democratized the process of getting published. Writers need not have access to a handful of high-profile internships in order to make a name for themselves. A website and a voice are all it takes.
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