Extra Innings: The final inning
By Bill Kuchman
Last Updated:10:36 PM EST 4/22/08 Section: Sports
To be honest with you, I didn't really have a plan when I sat down to write the final Extra Innings. In the weeks leading up to this point, I had a couple ideas that I thought would be really creative.
One of them involved counting the number of words ever published as part of an Extra Innings column. Well, let's just say that after I hit about 160 in the very first edition, I gave up on that idea. Considering the fact that there have been (including this one) 36 editions of Extra Innings, counting every word in every column would have been quite the task.
With that idea thrown out the window, I had to start thinking about what else I could do with the final Extra Innings. The final season at Yankee Stadium has resulted in numerous YES Network specials and a Major League Baseball All-Star Game. No matter how hard I may try to tell myself that Extra Innings is on the same level as Yankee Stadium, though I just can't convince myself that it actually is. Oh well, I don't even know if they have a Collegiate Sports Columnist All-Star Game.
So what have I been doing for the past three years with this space anyways?
From what I can remember, I've talked about everything from how much Fisher's mascot needs an overhaul to how much Barry Bonds needs to disappear (for those keeping score at home, I'm 1-and-1 on those issues).
In a bout of retrospectiveness, I started asking myself whether or not a sports columnist actually matters to anyone. In all seriousness, sports themselves are made-up games played by people paid to play made-up games. What does that make the person who writes about these games … and who writes about these games for free?
Walking back to my room in Founders Hall the other day, one of the guys who was busy planting new trees next to Murray Hall spotted me and called out to me that he had read my column about Bernie Williams. I have to apologize to him since I never got his name, but the two of us proceeded to have a small conversation about Bernie and the state of the Yankees.
One of them involved counting the number of words ever published as part of an Extra Innings column. Well, let's just say that after I hit about 160 in the very first edition, I gave up on that idea. Considering the fact that there have been (including this one) 36 editions of Extra Innings, counting every word in every column would have been quite the task.
With that idea thrown out the window, I had to start thinking about what else I could do with the final Extra Innings. The final season at Yankee Stadium has resulted in numerous YES Network specials and a Major League Baseball All-Star Game. No matter how hard I may try to tell myself that Extra Innings is on the same level as Yankee Stadium, though I just can't convince myself that it actually is. Oh well, I don't even know if they have a Collegiate Sports Columnist All-Star Game.
So what have I been doing for the past three years with this space anyways?
From what I can remember, I've talked about everything from how much Fisher's mascot needs an overhaul to how much Barry Bonds needs to disappear (for those keeping score at home, I'm 1-and-1 on those issues).
In a bout of retrospectiveness, I started asking myself whether or not a sports columnist actually matters to anyone. In all seriousness, sports themselves are made-up games played by people paid to play made-up games. What does that make the person who writes about these games … and who writes about these games for free?
Walking back to my room in Founders Hall the other day, one of the guys who was busy planting new trees next to Murray Hall spotted me and called out to me that he had read my column about Bernie Williams. I have to apologize to him since I never got his name, but the two of us proceeded to have a small conversation about Bernie and the state of the Yankees.
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