Born and raised in northern New Jersey, I became a sports fan at a young age in the early 1970's - during a classic era in the history of American sports. The NFL and AFL had just merged a few years earlier, the ABA experiment began the year I was born, divisional play in major league baseball was in its infancy, and no one had heard of a "free agent" until Curt Flood and, later, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally helped that term find a place in our national sports vocabulary.

I played organized baseball for 8 years and disorganized baseball for many more. An injured knee kept me from pursuing any serious interest in playing sports but I've always followed my favorite teams with fanatical interest.