Meet the Users: InterMat
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This is the eighth edition of the popular Meet the Users series, where The Beast will be interviewing a particular ArmchairGM user. The goal for the series is to allow all users to know each other better. The eighth edition goes to InterMat
1. How did you learn about ArmchairGM.
I was posting some general sports junk on one of my other blogs and got an IM from Dan Lewis explaining the ArmChairGM thing. It was fledgling and while I didn't contribute immediately, Dan and I talked for a short time and I liked the idea of it, but I wasn't too familiar with the entire wiki concept. I posted a story initially, which while it was well-received in my arena, wasn't exactly the thing the people at The Chair would comment on mightily. So I bookmarked the site, but a few months ago, I decided to start posting my stuff again.
2. If Dan Lewis only allowed you to do one thing at ArmchairGM what would it be?
This seems somewhat self-serving, but get people to read a story (all the way through, no quick scroll perusement) on a topic they don't know much about before they can read and vote on another Yankees or BoSox gamer, for example. I realize it's based on getting more people exposed to thes sport I cover, but I've read things that I didn't have much interest in, found them well-written and interesting, and now I read those guys' stuff regularly. I don't really know or care about Snooker, but I read those stories because it gives me something I'm not normally exposed to in my realm.
3. Your profile says that you never lived in SoCal, how did you get to be an Angels fan?
My older sister initially went to Old Dominion University (my alma mater), but halfway through, she got engaged and moved to SoCal and eventually graduated from Long Beach State. She's 18 years older than I am, so I would get all sorts of LA sports gear on birthdays and Christmas. Well, she worked at a YMCA with kids and they always had professional athletes coming in. One was an Angels outfielder (circa 1984-85), and I got some autographed Angels gear, a full team set of Topps baseball cards (which I had just started collecting) and it was something that just stuck. I find my teams for odd reasons since I'm from an area devoid of professional sports. But I knew I was set up for heartbreak when Dave Henderson stepped to the plate in 1986.
4. Arte Moreno has said that the Angels will not pursue Alex Rodriguez. Are you upset by this?
Not at all. I actually prefer teams that I root for not to be in the spotlight. Granted, I'm on the east coast, so the Philly papers (I'm 90 minutes away) could care less about Angels coverage, but they still push any major team out east. While A-Rod is a tremendous player, I like the core of youth and experience the Angels have built around. Tim Salmon was my favorite player for the longest time. I was screaming when Jim Edmonds was traded, Garrett Anderson's been underrated for years. I hated to see Troy Glaus go. I loved the Vlad pickup, but A-Rod, as much as I admire him as a ballplayer, I don't think he'd fit into the system and would ultimately put more undue pressure on the ballclub.
5. I see you have an interest in wrestling. How did you get to be such a big fan?
Always been a sports fan, since I was little, but I moved from Newport News, Va. to a place called Poquoson, Va. (only 10 miles away), but that changed a lot of my perspective on sports and my career goals. Ironically, I knew we had a good wrestling team at Poquoson High, but didn't know much about the sport. I grew up watching "the fake stuff" on Saturday Mornings, went to the house shows the NWA would put in Hampton, but I was a sophomore in high school when I saw my first match. I was hooked. It's the true form of hand-to-hand and one-on-one combat. Better man wins, better man gets his hand raised at the end. No judges, no passing to a teammate, no calling timeout. The next year, we got a new coach, I was already announcing seven sports after I had to give up football my sophomore year, then ended up coming out for the team towards the tail end of my junior year. Kids these days need to get their ass beat once and a while to show them some humility and give them something to shoot for. I was that kid. I got roughed up by state champions and state placewinners and my friends that had wrestled since they were kids. Something about the sport called to me. I started watching, studying, wrestling ... I just took to it immediately and that snowballed to a radio show, a web site and now I'm managing the top college and high school wrestling news source in the nation.
6. Could you beat Manny on the mat?
I haven't gotten into many (if any) verbal scuffles with Manny. If Manny actually wrestled in his day, or had any MMA/Jui-Jitsu training experience, it could be troublesome. I'm not going to call anyone out on beating them, because to be quite honest, I wasn't the best wrestler to start with (although by comparison, we were ranked 24th in the nation my senior year -- I'd have started at nearly any other school in the area). Verbally, I think he's got me beat, but I'd have to give myself a slight edge. I've witnessed some of the greatest wrestlers of all-time in action, you pick things up.
"The eighth edition"
"The seventh edition goes to InterMat"