{"id":4,"date":"2021-09-25T20:28:32","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T20:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/?p=4"},"modified":"2021-09-26T15:46:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T15:46:58","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/front-matter\/introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction","rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"At grandson #2\u2019s birthday party several years ago, in the course of a friendly discussion between my current wife and my ex-wife, the ex-wife mentioned that one of her new husband\u2019s virtues was the fact he was not a sports fan.\r\n\r\nA mild rebuke to myself, but it did not bother me\u2014sadly, being a sports fan was one of the lesser sins I committed against the sacred contract of matrimony while married to her--and one my present wife must also endure (which she does mostly with tolerance, although there are occasional grumblings about being a football widow on fall weekends).\r\n\r\nOn the drive back home, I thought about fandom and came to the realization that being a fan was one of my defining characteristics, perhaps the most prominent after the standard ones: family, occupation, life events and associations.\r\n\r\nI possess no great skills, cannot boast of any major achievement. I am, instead, a fan\u2014of other people\u2019s great skill and achievement; of acts of physical and moral courage; artistic endeavors; the written word; noble gestures, physical grace, and manual skills. Joe DiMaggio was my first idol; jazz musicians have been a major source of inspiration throughout my life since my teens. In recent years, I have taken pleasure in watching Mike Holmes fix a house and Lidia Bastianich create a meal.\r\n\r\nBut first, I was a sports fan, like many an American boy before and since, and, with the events surrounding my arrival, how could it have been otherwise?","rendered":"<p>At grandson #2\u2019s birthday party several years ago, in the course of a friendly discussion between my current wife and my ex-wife, the ex-wife mentioned that one of her new husband\u2019s virtues was the fact he was not a sports fan.<\/p>\n<p>A mild rebuke to myself, but it did not bother me\u2014sadly, being a sports fan was one of the lesser sins I committed against the sacred contract of matrimony while married to her&#8211;and one my present wife must also endure (which she does mostly with tolerance, although there are occasional grumblings about being a football widow on fall weekends).<\/p>\n<p>On the drive back home, I thought about fandom and came to the realization that being a fan was one of my defining characteristics, perhaps the most prominent after the standard ones: family, occupation, life events and associations.<\/p>\n<p>I possess no great skills, cannot boast of any major achievement. I am, instead, a fan\u2014of other people\u2019s great skill and achievement; of acts of physical and moral courage; artistic endeavors; the written word; noble gestures, physical grace, and manual skills. Joe DiMaggio was my first idol; jazz musicians have been a major source of inspiration throughout my life since my teens. In recent years, I have taken pleasure in watching Mike Holmes fix a house and Lidia Bastianich create a meal.<\/p>\n<p>But first, I was a sports fan, like many an American boy before and since, and, with the events surrounding my arrival, how could it have been otherwise?<\/p>\n","protected":false,"block_version":0},"author":126109,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"front-matter-type":[12],"contributor":[],"license":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126109"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions\/31"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elevengames.pressbooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}