Bob Ryan’s target audience is the general
sports fan, especially one from Boston. As a retired Boston Globe columnist who still writes weekly as a Globe
Correspondent, Ryan provides strong, pointed and direct opinions on the most
important stories in the sports world. The New Jersey native is extremely truthful
when it comes to his writing, and he leaves all of his thoughts on the page.
His typical columns are features in which
he tackles a significant issue from the past week in sports. As evidenced by
Ryan’s guest appearances on “Pardon the Interruption,” he has tremendous
versatility with his sports knowledge. Although I chose three of his basketball
columns, he can write about all major sports stories. In the last year, he has
had columns on wins above replacement, Stan Musial, Bill Belichick, the Olympics,
badminton and figure skating.
Ryan uses a speaking voice in his
writing, which is very enjoyable to read. Whenever he wants to convey his robust
view on a subject, he designs his column to include one-word paragraphs, for
instance.
He always takes a side in each of his
columns. One of his thoughts is that the wins above replacement statistic is
absolute garbage because of its judgment of a player’s performance. Ryan also
says that he will not be voting for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Sammy Sosa in
his Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. While I do not agree with either of those opinions,
Ryan creates columns that are very enjoyable to read.
No matter the subject, I know I will be
entertained by Ryan’s writing. I find myself agreeing with more than half of
his views, but I will not throw down the newspaper or printed copy because I enjoyable
the disagreement.
When reading sports articles today, everyone
seems to try to make a mountain out of a molehill. Every “sports writer” wants
to have a strong opinion. Every sports writer forces himself or herself to take
a side and stick with it.
However, there is no force in Ryan’s columns.
He has important facts to back up each of his strong opinions. While he may not
be a statistic-hound like I am, it is great to read something that is not
number-heavy from a passionate writer.
Ryan’s passion can be seen in each of his
columns because he is such a big sports fan. It is easy to read them for
pleasure because it is as if I am having a conversation with him. He takes the
broad view of the subject, such as the lack of scoring in college basketball,
and then illustrates how the specifics are important, for instance the best
coaches all-time being able to coach their high-scoring teams without
over-coaching.
In addition, Ryan has no reservations
with his writing. For example, he will throw in colloquial statements like “Take
it away, Bill Walton” or jokes like “I’m surprised the teams playing in the
NCAA Tournament don’t take the floor wearing overcoats. We are, after all, in
an official Ice Age of college basketball.” Ryan’s ability to include those
types of conversational elements into his writing add more to his columns than
anything else could. After all, sports is entertainment.
The constant heartbreak of being a sports
fan may continue to be a frustration for most, but I have found that being a passionate
one does not have to cause stress. After having been a sports writer as a hobby
for the last few years and after taking this sports writing class, I have found
that reading columns like these from Ryan make me feel more compelled to gain
more knowledge about the ever-changing and evermore interesting world of sports.
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