ELItorial: Peering into the athlete's world

By Carl Bialik

I'm not an athlete. That's my dirty secret as a sports reporter. Sure, I play many sports recreationally, but I've never suited up for an intercollegiate match. Nor did I play against other schools in any sport in high school. I tried out for my high school tennis team all four years, and all four years, I didn't make the cut. I didn't even play little league.

Last year, as a freshman, I almost broke this dry spell. A remarkable thing about being a freshman is the opportunity one has to fashion an entirely new identity for the college years. I first realized this at frosh bazaar. When I came across the ultimate Frisbee team's booth, I decided that I wanted to join. I had decent disc skills and could run reasonably fast. The next Tuesday afternoon, I was on the bus to the IM fields.

There, I was hit with the reality of how hard taking up ultimate would be. I would have to improve my throwing, running, and overall fitness. Becoming good would not be an easy process--it would take more than 10 hours a week of practice, only a small part of which would be spent scrimmaging. Still, practices were great fun, the guys on the team were very encouraging, and there were many other freshmen in the same position that I was in. I did not, however, want to dedicate extensive amounts of time to the sport, only to find out I didn't have the right stuff. So I prematurely quit and started to write about sports instead of playing them.

My lack of competitive experience does not necessarily mean that I can't serve adequately as a sports journalist. Having played just about every sport casually, I can appreciate both the tortuous, cerebral strategy of baseball and the elegant simplicity of soccer. As a spectator and participant in frequent pick-up games, I enjoy the drama, intensity, and thrill of competition. And as a reporter, I've learned to look for the human element of sports--recognizing that athletes have a life off the field, and that this life should be just as important in sports reporting as the game itself.

Still, there is a definite separation between athletes and non-athlete sports reporters. When I ask a linebacker about the difficulty of sacrificing other pursuits for the sake of his sport, I don't really understand what that means. I wasn't able to make that sacrifice. When I ask a softball player why her team lost the big game, I am failing to acknowledge how impressive it is that she was able to gather the will power to dedicate herself to a sport, something I could not do.

This tension became very evident this year in professional sports. When a reporter would ask Mark McGwire to defend his use of androstenedione, a supplement that some health experts consider to be a steroid, McGwire became angry, as if to say, "I do everything possible to play well and help my team, and you're criticizing me for it?" When a reporter suggested to Cal Ripken that he sit out a game because of his poor offensive production, Ripken's undertones were, "I bust my butt to play every day because the team needs me at third base, and you have a problem with that when you sit at a computer all day?"

While I've never had to ask such hard questions and have never faced angry responses, I've felt the effects of my lack of shared experience with athletes. I've had trouble conducting successful inter-views because I can't fully understand players' situations, and I feel that it is not exactly my place, as a non-athlete, to question them. In turn, I've felt that some athletes view me as an outsider, and don't fully open up to me as a result.

This barrier between athlete and reporter may not be entirely disadvantageous. Outsiders may be better situated to look for connections between sports and other parts of the University, or to convey the human side of sports stories. Accordingly, in my time as a sportswriter, I've tried to make the best of my position as an outsider.

But a part of me still hopes that I'll someday go to ultimate practice and be able to gather the will to go back the next day, and the day after that, and the next week--and eventually to a real game. Then I might understand what it takes to be an athlete. This goal is important to me as a sportswriter and as a person.

For now, though, I can't go play because I'm in my room, finishing up this article. Maybe next year.

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