I have been a sports fan since I could talk, practically, largely because my older brother -- he of the 4 sisters, 3 of them older, LOL -- did his best to turn me into a little brother instead. Dad helped. LOL

One of my earliest memories is of my brother saving his allowance for weeks and using one of my sisters' discounts at Sears to buy me a complete Chiefs uniform (grew up in KC): helmet, pads, the works. He used to dress me up in it before every Chiefs game. I remember this mostly because I once fell down the basement steps wearing the helmet.

My dad took me to my first Royals game when I was 8 or so. As we walked to the parking lot after it was over, I said, "so when can we go again?" The next morning at breakfast he handed me the sports page and I had an epiphany, that it was possible to go to baseball games and get paid to write about them, writing already being my very favorite thing. I determined then and there I was going to be a sportswriter. I pursued that through college, when it stopped being fun (exactly because of the big salaries, etc). I'm still a journalist, just not one covering sports.

I'm not too big of a basketball (except for my college teams) or hockey fan, but I looooooooove baseball and football. My Brewers are sucking eggs right now, but it's almost football season -- GO PACK!