Writing and stuff

This was my favorite part of an excellent exit column by Michael Rosenberg, who is leaving the Detroit Free Press to join Sports Illustrated –

But for so many of us, sports give us a seat at a communal table. They provide stimuli. We enter the arena or turn on the TV knowing only that something will happen.

The games seem like they should be meaningless, but instead they can be the most solid thing we know. They make us feel as alive as we can feel. And that is true whether you are the best pitcher in baseball challenging yourself to improve, a longtime season-ticket holder whose heart is racing in the final minutes, a hockey defenseman determined to make the right play on every single shift for two decades, the least talented girl on your junior-varsity team staying after practice to work on your game, or even a writer trying to capture it all.

– but you should totally read the whole thing. 

That really addresses why we watch sports, but he also did a wonderful job explaining the whole “sports columnist” thing. 

Such as: 

I will tell them that writing gives me a chance to take the world apart and reassemble it in a way that makes sense to me.

Well done.