Smart sports

Every once in a while, Noel gets a chance to write about sports on the A.V. Club.  And every time he does, readers who enjoy popular culture and geeky obsessions get a chance to sound off on a subject usually left to the jocks and frat guys.  They come out of the woodwork, and I wonder anew why there's so little out there for them.

Sports is a natural for people like us.  It has characters, storylines, history, taxonomy, hit points, strategy, stats, 'shippers, and endless opportunities to play "what if?"  But because it's associated with the kind of people who used to shove us into lockers -- not to mention the kind of people who despise literature and art -- we tend to turn away from it.  And if we don't, it's hard to find a community of likeminded people to discuss it with.

I'm hoping that The Classical, a new sportswriting site, will becoming such a gathering place.  It's got an impressive roster of writers lined up (if a predictable dearth of female voices), and a mission I can support.  They're looking to raise a year's budget on Kickstarter.  Every single person who commented on Noel's piece on Sunday Night Baseball should head over and kick in a few bucks.  It's just what they're looking for.