It should be said that I come from a family rooted in old media, so every time I post something on the Internet, it constitutes a small betrayal on my part.
My father was a journalist for 30 years, and when he was hired by his paper to build its Web site from scratch, he had inkling he was contributing to an institution's demise. It is that thought that fills me with trepidation whenever I contribute to new media's growth.
But the other 90 percent of my brain is infatuated with the Internet's singular power to both galvanize and refine the active sports fan. While 10 percent of my brain bemoans the end of the Taleses and Halberstams of the world, the other 90 percent is aware that it was these men, who wrote beautifully and lyrically about sports (among other things), that forced their generation to be passive in their fandom. Those fans had no ability to project themselves, and their knowledge and sports intellect suffered.
I've heard the theory that the Internet is degrading sports by diluting not only the partition between athlete and fan, but also traditional sports journalism. It's true that the Internet has dissolved...
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