Living in southern Maine, I'm a Philadelphia fan trapped in the heart of Red Sox Nation. I have loved the Phillies and all things Philadelphia ever since one fateful day in grade school when I decided that I hated the "Sawhx," Pats, Celtics, Bruins, Revolution--basically anything featured regularly on NESN--which is still true to this day. I constantly find people asking me, "Why the hell are you a Phillies fan?" and they often cite the fact that when I made this transition, the Phillies were only in year six of a ten-year rebuilding plan. My reasoning is relatively simple: my father is from Philadelphia and his parents still live there, so the Phils and co. were my number two. (In case you were wondering, my mom is from Cincinnati... not too difficult of a decision.)

While the Phillies are by far my favorite sports franchise, my real passion is the sport of baseball itself. I love talking and watching baseball, which is what I plan to do with my Bleacher Report account. I received MLB.tv as a seventeenth-birthday gift earlier this spring so that I could watch the Fightin's, but now I will put it to full use, as I will try to cover every team multiple times this summer.

I've joined this site mainly so that I could have somewhere to create a portfolio of my work (I want to become a sports journalist). I don't really expect many people to read my articles, though if you do, please comment with any criticism at all--about my writing, the game I covered, ANYTHING--so that I can try to become better.

I also post all of my articles on www.freewebs.com/hoorayforthemadness.