Dianah does not like baseball and, apparently, neither should you!

At 41 years old, i have probably never loved professional sports more in my life than i do now.

I used to be one of those people who somehow considered myself better than because i did not really care for sports. I was someone like the Powell's Books employee who wrote a staff book review of "The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach with this: "Baseball? No thanks! But have no fear -- it's not really a book about baseball." As if baseball is some evil that no one should ever write about or care to read about. Ever. 

For those of you not familiar, Powell's Books is a family-owned, independent bookstore in Portland, OR. It is a pretty incredible bookstore, it takes up an entire City block and is a wonderful place to spend hours and hours on a rainy Portland day (we have a lot of those between November and July). The fact that it has continued to stay relevant and even to flourish in the digital age makes it even more impressive. Portlanders love and take great ownership of it and it is a place that many of us frequent and show off to our out-of-town guests like it is part of our cultural history, which arguably it is. Some of us probably think that having Powell's in our great city somehow makes us better than other cities -- or at least smarter. The Powell's employee who wrote the review quoted above may be one of those people, too.

But, i digress. This is not a story about Powell's or Portland. In fact, it is not really a story about sports or baseball either. It is a story about judgment. So let's get back to that.

Being from New England, i come from a place that has representation in every major league sport: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer. And New Englanders LOVE their sports teams. Perhaps you have heard the term "Red Sox Nation". There are actually fans all over the U.S. and the world who love the Red Sox, not just people who hail from New England. (In fact, the times that I have seen the Red Sox play all the way across the country in Seattle, there are more Red Sox fans in attendance than Mariners fans.) And, if you don't know about the Curse of the Bambino, the Red Sox did not win a World Series for 86 years! And yet people still loved them and continue to love them. So, it is not just about winning.

Personally, I was not really a baseball fan growing up. My dad's company had season tickets to the Boston Celtics (basketball for those non-sports fans). So, I was fortunate to go to Celtics games in the 80s and see what is one of the top 10 winningest teams in NBA history. Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson. Boston legends. And I remember more than one occasion shivering in the cold behind the Boston Garden waiting for the players to exit with hopes of getting an autograph. (Thanks Dad, those experiences are part of my childhood memory that I will always cherish and never forget.) 

As a soccer player and later a swimmer -- and perhaps even more so as a young woman -- i never developed a strong desire to follow professional sports. Maybe because my sports were not in the mainstream or maybe because i did not understand the games or maybe just because i thought that they were boring. Whatever the reason, i thought that following professional sports was a waste of time and something enjoyed only by jocks. (And i most certainly did not want to be categorized as a jock.) And i will admit that i carried that judgement around with me for a number of years.

Fortunately, in time, i learned how short sighted my thinking was. I met people from all walks of life who love sports -- intellectuals, hippies, nerds, jocks (of course), women, men, loud people, quiet people, the 99%, the 1%, and even hipsters. What i realized is that passion for sports was not usually only about a singular love of the sport itself, but also often about a sense of identity -- of where you were from or childhood experiences and the like. I started to see how the love of sports united people of all backgrounds, in the same way that music like the Grateful Dead did for me in my life. I was really struck by this and quickly started to appreciate professional sports in a different way. A way that has continued to grow for me over the years.

I have learned to understand the rules of the games (well, mostly). I have learned to enjoy the down time of watching a game on TV or attending in person. I have made new friends over a love of a common sports team and gathered with old friends to watch a game. I have attended and hosted Super Bowl parties with people who don't even care about sports. But most of all, i stopped judging sports -- and the people who enjoy them -- as being a waste of time and somehow less than.

So look, Dianah (that is her name, the Powell's employee I quoted above), some people actually like baseball and would not mind if a book actually contained a story about baseball, despite your clear disdain for America's national pastime. I know that it is probably hard to wrap your brain around the fact that someone who shops at Powell's -- someone who is potentially as smart or smarter than even you, Dianah -- could actually also like sports, but guess what sister, it's a fact, there are smart people who like to read who also like baseball (and other sports). I know that i do -- and i am smart and have varied interests and live in Portland, just like you. So please, do us all a favor and leave your judgement out of your next review because it actually makes you sound like an elitist d*****bag! 

GO SOX!