First Post: My Love of Sports

Welcome to Off the Bench! On this page I’ll be posting my commentary on the latest in sports news, statistics, trades, and activity. Don’t expect all of my posts to be your average sports posts. I want to try and share my personal relationship with professional and college athletics and give you a glimpse into my mind. I hope you enjoy everything that is to come. If you want to see my opinions on any other topics, feel free to write me a comment!

My first love of sports came with my introduction to baseball back when I was a little guy. I was a sporadic little kid who tried everything from karate to soccer to clarinet and basketball. Surprisingly, I never played baseball and that is one of my biggest regrets to this day. So how did my passion for baseball begin? It began at Busch Stadium II, the home of baseball heaven. Back before the new stadium was built around the footprint of Busch II in 2006, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Mark McGuire took their swings in the classic old stadium in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. I was fortunate enough to go to a few games there and shortly afterward Busch Stadium became my second home. Now that I am older and can’t make the trip back home to STL as much, it always warms my heart to watch the Birds play on a warm summer day. I’ll never forget watching Michael Wacha pitch is debut and having it pour down rain as the game ended. I’ll never forget David Freese hitting the game 6 home run in the 2011 World Series. So many memories have built my love for baseball and now I am more a fan of the sport as a whole than just any one team.

 My love of baseball is wonderfully complemented by my interest in football. Whether it is college, professional, or backyard football I am completely obsessed with this sport. Memories of throwing the football around with my dad in middle school and high school or going to my friend Derek’s house to play football with my friends after school are some of my fondest memories of being a kid. In the same way that I can name off almost any baseball player, the same is true about football. I have been the commissioner of my age-old fantasy football league for the past 4 years now and just love to research and watch football. To cap off this section of my bio I’ll let you in on the secret that I am a huge Alabama Football fan (Roll Tide!). I am obtaining my BS in Chemistry from the University of Alabama in the next year and have gone to nearly every single Alabama game over the past 3 years. Don’t be mistaken, this blog is going to include some serious college football commentary.


Don’t think I’m leaving you out hockey and basketball fans! I plan on including all sorts of commentary on all the sports that are out there (expect maybe soccer…sorry footballers). When the Olympics come around I will also be writing about that as well. I’m going to be adapting this blog as different sports come in and out of season and I hope you will stick around to see all of the exciting things to come!

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