Off Wing Opinion

Q: Why Off Wing Opinion?
A: I've played ice hockey, with a few breaks, since just after my seventh birthday. In ice hockey, a player with a left-handed shot generally plays on the left wing side of the ice; while right-handed shots usually play on the right wing side of the ice. However, this isn't a hard and fast rule, and there are a number of situations where there's a real advantage to switching things up. When a right-handed shot plays on the left wing, and vice-versa, the player is said to be in the "off-wing" position.

Ever since a salesman at the skate shop at Skateland asked me to close my eyes and grasp my first stick the way that came naturally, I've been a left-handed shot. And, for some reason, despite being left-handed, I've usually wound up playing on the right wing side of the ice.

Q: What's a "free-market sports fan"
A: During the early days of the blog, I was trying to find a happy medium between the appalling aspects of sports fandom (rioting, burning down your campus when your team loses, etc.), and outright cynicism (players are overpaid, why root for a bunch of rich guys who don't live here anyway). I came to the conclusion that if you realize sports are a business like any other, you get a whole lot less upset about much of what goes on off the field of play and have more fun being a fan.

Q: Ok Mr. Dispassionate, who do you root for?
A: I grew up on Long Island right over the border between New York City and Nassau County on Long Island. Back when I was growing up, most kids on Long Island rooted for the Mets, Jets and Islanders. This also means I'm burderend with a seething hatred of the Yankees, Giants and Rangers -- though I admit that over time my ire has cooled. But only a little.

Basketball was big when I was very young when Long Island-native Julius Erving played for the New York Nets. But when they moved off the Island to New Jersey in the mid-70s, the air went out of the balloon for me as a pro basketball fan. I've always liked college ball, and try my best to follow St. John's and the Big East. But as the graduate of a small Division III university, I can't work up the same sort of passion for college sports.

When I moved to Washington, D.C. in 1985 I took my rooting interests with me. There was a time when I though I wouldn't be able to shake the loyalties of childhood, but living in Washington for more than 20 years has changed that, especially when it comes to ice hockey, where I've signed on with the locals who are loyal to the Capitals. Despite my other loyalties, I am a season ticket holder with the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore football fans are the best in the NFL.

Q: What's your top sports moment?
A: Close call between the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team beating the Soviets (am I the only one who remembers tape delay?) and Game Six of the 1986 World Series. I was actually there, sitting with my Dad in the upper deck of Shea Stadium on the third base line. I remember "Congratulations Red Sox" on the Diamond Vision. I remember thinking it was all over. I remember thinking about next year. Then I remember the ball squirting through Bill Buckner's legs, Ray Knight rounding third base, and then being consumed by the most incredible wave of sound I'd ever heard in my life.

I'm sure they heard us all the way back in New England.

Sometimes I wonder if historians will really give that Olympic Hockey Team its proper due. The winter of 1980 was just another in a series of low points for the U.S. in the Cold War stretching back to the late 60s. The hostages had been taken in Iran in November 1979, and the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan with seemingly nary a peep from the U.S. Everywhere you turned, there were warnings that America had lost the future, and that it now belonged, or at least was going to be made, in Japan. Unemployment, inflation, stagflation, and rising gas prices all conspired to sap our economic strength, as well as our national confidence.

It wasn't exactly a time of full throated patriotism. But over the course of a little less than 2 weeks, that changed, and it was all because of a bunch of college kids from the Midwest and New England showed the World's most powerful hockey team that it would not pass go, but instead would go directly back to the Soviet Union without the gold medal.

Q: Since you're so into the free market, what ticket gives the best entertainment value in sports today?
A: Stanley Cup playoff hockey, followed by the NFL and the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. If you can get your hands on any of those, by all means pony up. Don't get me wrong, I'll always love Baseball, but it's the one sport where enjoyment can be completely divorced from what's happening on the field.

Q: Your blog used to be much more eponymous. What happened?
A: Sports was always my first love. My fingers just race over the keyboard when I'm writing about it. I can't say the same thing when I'm dealing with other topics, much as I might enjoy them. In the Summer of 2002, I wrote a review of an Elvis Costello concert, and I actually remember feeling mentally exhausted when I was finished -- getting in touch with my artsy side was hard.

Sports are just more fun, and if your blog isn't any fun, then what's the point?

Q: How and why did you start blogging?
A: There was a time in my life when I wanted to be a journalist. While I was in college, I was editor of my school newspaper, and had a chance to work very closely with a senior editor at the Washington Post who served as our advisor. I owe much of my professional success to him and his influence.

Once the Internet boom took off in 1996, so did my career in the private sector. Working as a full-time speechwriter took care of my writing bug, and freelance work fell fallow for a while. But every boom has its bust, and the Internet bust of 2001 got me blogging. With my employer heading into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, speech writing work dried up. Part of me was afraid my writing skills were atrophying, and after stumbling across Virginia Postrel's The Dynamist, I thought I'd give blogging a try.

My first effort, The Route 7 Dispatch, came to life in June 2001, and lasted about 8 months. It was cobbled together with the help of a friend of mine, and while you'll always remember your first girlfriend, it had plenty of limitations. In February 2002 I switched over to Blogger, where the easy-to-use interface took all of the drudgery out of writing for the Web. After one too many outages, I worked with Stacy Tabb to leave Blogspot for good and strike out on my own.

Q: Forget the professional stuff, what else is there?
A: I'm single, and the rest of my family lives back on Long Island all within about a half mile of each other. My father was born in Scotland, and my mother is Brooklyn Italian. Needless to say, that made childhood interesting. In college I was a DJ, played Rugby and studied Politics (my thesis was about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). I'm a voracious reader (occupational hazard). I've got a screenplay I need to write, and a Summer home on San Juan Island I need to build.