Background

So if I'm going to do this thing, I should have a page about my sports background, as a sort of introduction to myself.

I grew up in a suburb of Huntsville, Alabama. Despite what you might think, I did have indoor plumbing, and why yes, we do have computers. (As evidenced by this post.)

At any rate, this had two important effects. Due to the total saturation of the Braves by TBS, their success during my formative years in the early 90's, and their relative geographic proximity, I became a staunch fan. There are probably few people that watch more innings per year than I do, or at least did, because my time in Barcelona the past couple of months for a study abroad program sort of made it difficult to watch them.

Also during this time I became aware of the Iron Bowl and the trappings of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry. Since my 3rd grade teacher was an Auburn fan, I became an Auburn fan, and remained so until my junior and senior years of high school when I was looking at college and found Georgia Tech.

This means I cared mostly for baseball and football. The only strong loyalty either of my parents had at the time was to the Redskins via my Dad, so I picked that up for the NFL. I remain a 'Skins fan to this day, but my interest in the NFL waned with the 'Skins with the late 90's and as my interest in college football picked up in high school. It also doesn't help that it's really hard to Redskins games here in the south.

I don't care much for the NHL, and I almost dislike the NBA. I started to become interested in college basketball late in my high school years, but thanks to Georgia Tech's 2003-2004 campaign during my freshman year I became hooked. (Funny how that works.)

Otherwise, I tend to root for underdogs in games. I'll also root for colleges some of my friends go to, like UAB and Vandy, but I wouldn't say I'm a fan of them. Teams I dislike: Notre Dame, New York Mets, surely others. Teams I hate: New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, the Alabama Crimson Tide (despite not really being a huge Auburn fan anymore, my dislike of the Tide still lingers), probably others. And, of course, to Hell with Georgia.