Hi there, my name is Brian.  How's everyone doing tonight?

For some time now, I have toyed around with the idea of starting a blog, with two purposes in mind: one, as a means of sharpening my writing skills and two, to put forth some personal thoughts on the world of sports.  Before I get started, however, it seemed like a good idea to tell a little about myself and my interest in sports.

I still remember the day I fell in love with the game of baseball: Saturday, July 16, 1988.  I was eight years old.  The Boston Red Sox were playing the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.  With the game tied at six, little used outfielder Kevin Romine, who had only entered the game as a pinch-runner in the sixth inning, led off the bottom of the ninth with a homerun over the Green Monster in left-field to win it for the home team.  I was only watching on TV, but the game, the situation and the player have all stuck in my head for nearly twenty years (many thanks to retrosheet.org for filling in the rest of the details).

Since that day, many amazing things have happened in my own personal world of sports: David Gordon of Boston College's last second kick to beat top ranked Notre Dame in 1993; BC's basketball upset of top ranked North Carolina the following spring; the heroics of one David Ortiz in the 2004 playoffs; and James Lofton's walk-off homerun in the 2003 Atlantic League playoffs.  But the joy that I derive from sports in general can be traced directly back to that July day in 1988.

Those are the type of things I want to write about in this space and I look forward to doing so.  The focus won't rest solely on any one sport (although as you can tell, baseball will always be my first love and greatest interest), but will cover a wide range depending on what strikes me as interesting at a given day or time.

You have fun reading, and I'll do my best to have fun writing.

Leave your thoughts in the comments.