A thank you from press row

Believe it or not the tradition of these sports desk farewell columns goes back a ways.

To give you an idea one of my journalism professors — who dates back to the Stone Age — was even in our office the other day rehashing that self-importance-laced final column he penned here back in the 1980s.

And I've read more than enough of them during my time at the DTH to get a few ideas for material.

I could tell you that it's extremely hard going to this university and being objective about covering its athletic teams. That having to tell your friends over and over that NO I SERIOUSLY DON'T CARE WHO WINS can drive you up a wall.

 And it is tough in case you're wondering. But it's more than worth it to be treated as a professional by the athletic department while covering the major sports — which is something I'll always remember.

Or I could tell you how you're missing out on something special if you don't pay attention to Olympic sports and the athletes/coaches who are perhaps just slightly more in tune with the regular student body. And you are if you didn't know.

My favorite interview of all time is wresting coach C.D. Mock. The man will literally answer any question without one second of trying to BS you or holding back his opinion because it's not PC. (You can physically feel the athletic department cringe sometimes.)

But those columns have all been written by the seniors that came before me. Truth is I don't really know what to write.

The Sports Desk has always been something of a different animal at the DTH. Other editors don't always like it but we've insisted on clinging to that uniqueness and originality that sets us apart — often in an arrogant way if we care to admit it.

Maybe it's because some of the best pure creative writers out there today delve into the sporting world.

Maybe it's because sports writing allows for a freedom of style and structure that other types of news often do not.

Or maybe it's because we know and most people on this campus know (and whether they'd like to admit it or not most other editors know) that what happens on that 94-foot court is almost without fail the most important news on the entire campus on that particular day.

But truth be told we're not that amazing.

Oh we like to think we are. We scribble down our finely tuned prose often describing rather routine sporting events in a manner that would make one think they were reading about the Olympic Games or other such epic events.

We act like we're cool but in reality we're kinda full of ourselves. We exaggerate too much we use adjectives that really don't make any sense sometimes and overwriting is our middle name.

A story you saw in the paper was absurdly over the top? Yeah that was us.

Sure once in a while we finally get it right. A perfect anecdote a flowing descriptive paragraph or — if we're really lucky — maybe even a feature that someone will remember down the road.

After all why else would we keep writing down all of that pompous hyperbole?

So perhaps this is a thank you.

A thanks for putting up with us for four years. For sitting through that story I wrote as a freshman about a tennis match that came off sounding like an overtime Super Bowl game. I can only hope that we were a little better this year when this past March Madness rolled around.

Maybe you'll remember something we wrote.

Probably you won't.

But thanks for reading anyway. It's been fun.



Contact Jesse Baumgartner at Jesse.Baum@gmail.com.