Yes, frisbee is a cool sport, but what the hell can you write about playing frisbee? By a similar measure surfing is by far the coolest thing in any way resembling a sport, but it's more like an existential environmental religious cult than, you know, bowling or ping-pong.
Also, if I wrote about surfing I'd have to concede that I'm the all-time worst surfer in the world. I tried. I mean, a lot of the stylings and attitude couldn't come more naturally, it's just the standing on the board that I had the problem with. My main recollections of surfing have to do with muscles in my foot spazzing out, and me lying in the water on my back holding the board in the air trying to flatten my foot on it, and a big wave coming and I'm way underwater and wouldn't know which way is up except that I've got sand on my back. Upon surfacing the board would rubber-band back from the end of its leash and hit me in the head. Strange magic, surfing, but I like the feel of the trip from a distance. Exeter is full of surf shops, which made us feel more at home when we first got here.
BASEBALL
Baseball was my first real love in life. I was pretty good as a kid, twice I struck out 16 against Göppingen in a six inning game. I've told so many people that that tied a league record at the time that I probably believe that someone else told me so. I was a pretty good contact hitter, I hit something like .727 one year and only struck out once. The downfall was when the other kids learned to hit (slow) fastballs down the middle of the plate, and throw me curveballs.
I wrote a historical piece about one of my baseball heroes, Fleetwood Walker. Fleetwood was so inspiring that I named the protagonist in my first (pre-debut) novel after him.
I think that I must have read every baseball autobiography written between 1968 and 1977. The best, without any question, was Tug McGraw's Screwball. The chapter entitled "I'm a People and I'm Screwed Up" has served as the foundation of my approach to the human condition ever since. Tug recently passed, which means that God's bullpen got a whole lot better. A close second to Tug's book was Ken Harrelson's Hawk. The Hawk still announces Whitesox games, and I wrote a piece demanding the recognition that he deserves.
TENNIS
I've written way more about tennis than any other sport. A few years back, when I was contributing to ZoomTennis on a weekly basis, the Associated Press said that we were one of the four best places for tennis information on the internet. Sadly ZoomTennis folded, but here are some pieces from the vault on John McEnroe, Jennifer Capriati, and Richard Williams.
At the height of my career I was ranked #9 on the base in Guantanamo Bay, which means that I kicked ass on a lot of marines and navy guys and teachers. The highlight was the afternoon when me and my best friend Luis Blanco beat the Jamaicans ranked numbers 1 and 3 in a doubles tournament. I was by far the worst player on the court, which gave me the opportunity to hit winners on the first four points of the third-set tiebreaker. The Jamaicans were so cool, I think that they were as happy for us as they were astonished. We jumped into my '68 Camaro convertible without opening the doors, put on Aerosmith "Rocks" as loud as it would go, and peeled out towards the beach.
BASKETBALL
I was leading scorer on my high school basketball team.* I've been on the court with some great, great basketball players, generally getting stuffed by them or otherwise being separated from the ball. I was on several teams in Junior High with Doug McNeely, who I understand ended up scoring a lot of points for Duke. I was always best on the playground-there are no coaches or refs getting in the way. I probably reached the peak of my abilities in the early '80s, when I lived in the Government Street projects, in Baton Rouge. It was there that I had the honor of taking the court with and against Lawrence, without question the greatest player I've ever run with.
Other than that I've written a few historical pieces; one on the convergence of my two heroes (Pistol Pete and Dr. J), and another on the coolest team that ever lived. I mainly sink twenty-footers at carnivals these days, and win stuffed animals for the Newfins.
*truth is, David Beaulieu scored more points, but I left home to seek my fortune in midseason and ended up with fractionally higher points-per-game. Our achievements are only tempered by the fact that there are no other high schools on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, and that we went 0-12 against the navy and marine teams. We did have a lead with only a few minutes to go in one game, but both fouled out.
We win! Let's go home and celebrate!!