Back to Bidness

I could make a lot of excuses as to why I haven't gotten around to updating this blog in eight months, but the truth is...I needed a break.

Not from the busy world of blogging (I'm not *that* lazy) but from sports. I know there are many sports fans who would shake their fingers at me for such a comment, but the truth is--no matter how much you love the sports world, it can become overwhelming. Especially when you're going to school for sports (I just finished my master's in sports management) and working in sports (I was working as a graduate assistant in FSU's media relations department).

I got burned out, but I'm ready to get back in the race.

Spring training is underway, which means I'm gearing up for eight months of heartbreaking disappointment at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. I took last season off from the Braves--I know, I know. You're shaking your head and telling me that real fans don't take breaks, but I think in order to maintain a *healthy* relationship with your sports team of choice, sometimes it's important to have your space.

As soon as I saw the Braves' starting rotation last year with Smoltz and Glavine I knew I would be pulling my hair out of my head by the end of the season if I followed the team with my usual zeal. I just didn't think I could stomach the inevitable collapse that would surely befall a team with two starting pitchers over the age of 40.

A year later, I still think it was a good decision on my part. I'm ready to enter into this season with fresh eyes and without the jaded disappointments of last season still fresh in my mind (though I can't really say the same for the 23 seasons prior to that which I've had to endure).

Okay maybe I'm already rolling my eyes at Derek Lowe, but come on...

I am, in fact, such an advocate of sports relationship breaks, that I've recently advised my friend Alicia to take a year off from her devotion to the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not only did the Bucs ever so rudely snip Chuckie's cord, they also had the nerve to drop longtime Bucs (and more importantly, former Seminoles) Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks. THEN they had to go and pick up Kellen Winslow. As a Florida State fan, I view Kellen Winslow as the poster child for everything I hate about the University of Miami.

Knowing that my fellow alum Alicia feels the same about Winslow (and Brooks and Dunn...haha, not to be confused with the country duo) I listened to her panicked phone call last Friday with patience, then suggested that perhaps she needed to take a break.

Of course, she said no.

But I think that once she sees the full scope of the massive restructuring the Bucs are going to go through over the next few months, she might come around. It's not that you should kick your team to the curb every time they do a little offseason shuffling, but when they suddenly and inexplicably dismiss the coaches and players you love and are most attached to while also picking up one of your known sports enemies, I think maybe it would be in everyone's best interests to take a step back.

Well, that's all the advice this doctor can offer for now. I'm glad to be back and I *promise* you'll be hearing from me more in the future (unless of course you feel the need to take a break from me because of what I just said...hmm...maybe I should reconsider).

Later days,
Shannon