Pros Return and Prose Returns

"There are only three sports:  bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."
- Ernest Hemingway

"There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed."

- Ernest Hemingway

Obviously, Hemingway never played his hometown's greatest game.  If he had played, I am sure he would have bestowed 16" softball with a "preeminent sport" honor.  And then upon the game's conclusion he would have hemorrhaged all over his typewriter while writing the contest's narrative.

At the outset of the blogging and softball season, the blogger/athlete faces the formidable task of simultaneously conquering the white page and the white field.

Drawing parallels and hitting perpendicularly can drive writers and athletes to intoxicants.  This, of course, explains why our postgame celebrations are so exceptional.

Hemingway was known for his spare, tightly written text.  If he was captain of the Cougars, his annual inaugural letter would have plainly queried, "In or out?"

In contrast, your captain is known for his long-winded, meandering and never-get-to-the-point stories.  Heck, the last two opening statements covered the 1978 Tuesday night ABC lineup as well as  unemployment and sterilization.

We do have one thing in common.  Hemingway referred to his craftsmanship as the "iceberg theory," which is also referred to as the "theory of omission."  We all know that occasionally Cougar game summaries never even mention the actual game.

Fellow Cougars, as we begin the fourth chapter of our opus, will we say hello or farewell to your arms?