There’s nothing better than writing and watching the stories unfold

If you could do something for four years, what would it be? Perhaps you would spend the time surfing. Maybe you’d go to Disneyland and ride Splash Mountain over and over. Four years in the Bahamas? Sounds intriguing. But not for me.

I’d write. Sure, it’s not as sexy as a sun-splashed beach party with the ocean waves crashing in the background and all the martinis you can drink, but alas, life rarely is. Instead, I’d like to put up with four years of hand cramps, broken voice recorders, smashed keyboards and just-made-it deadlines.

There’s something therapeutic that I’ve always found in writing. There is a lot that you can write in words that you can’t quite say, just as there is a lot you can say that you can’t put into words (swear words being a prominent one ““ at least for esteemed publications like this one).

Words are a beautiful invention, a masterpiece of human mind and craft, that can be tailored just so to express exactly what you want them to. I love that kind of power. The pen is mightier than the sword, and all that. I could do that for four years.

And so I have.

If you could watch anything for that same amount of time, what would it be? Classic Hollywood movies? Rock concerts?

Too predictable. Too loud.

I would watch all of the sports I could fit into my head. Baseball, especially, but also some hoops, football, hockey, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and a little field, swimming, diving, bobsled. Hell, even a little curling would be cool (no pun intended). I’d watch them all, and probably do it live, if I had my own way.

Why?

Because there is nothing, I tell you, nothing, predictable about sporting events. I was about to revise that statement by saying that you can be sure of a winner and loser, and then I remembered soccer and the foreign concept of ties. Every day you go to a game, you just might see something that you have never seen before. Sure, you will have some idea about who should win the game, but how often are we right?

In the words of my father, “That’s why God invented upsets.” Sports don’t bore me because there is no way I can tire of unpredictability. The storylines are endless, and I love to watch them develop.

And so I have.

I have had the rare opportunity to combine two things I love to do and turn them into a craft. Each piece I write is carefully constructed to be both effective in telling a story and interesting to the reader. I hope that more often than not, I have succeeded in both respects.

Salter was a Sports reporter from 2006-2010. He was an assistant Sports editor in summer 2008.