Sam Walton



Sports

Stupid

When i was young I thought sports were stupid. I wanted to read books and change the world. I couldn’t understand why people wasted their time watching other people exercise.

I couldn’t throw or catch and I didn’t care about winning and losing. Then I got older and I realised I wasn’t going to change the world. I realised that watching sports was fun and I was wrong.

Baseball

The first sport I was interested in watching was baseball. That is unusual for someone who lives in England. I am not sure why I started watching baseball but i really enjoy it.

I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox. I remember watching the Red Sox win the World Series in 2013. It was very exciting. Big Papi and Dustin Pedroia were my favourite players that season. I really enjoyed Koji Uehara’s pick off play during the World Series.

People say that baseball is boring but they are wrong. It can be slow and there are times when nothing happens but there are also intense bursts of action and excitement and disappointment. It is like life really. Nothing happens until it happens. Sometimes the thing that happens is good and sometimes the thing that happens is bad.

There is a lot of data surrounding baseball. It is interesting to think about statistics and what we can learn about the game from them. I like thinking about tactics and how the teams can get an advantage over each other.

Football

I used to think football was particularly stupid but now I have changed my mind.

I like watching Forest Green Rovers play football. They make strange decisions off the pitch and they struggle on the pitch sometimes but their ethos is good.

Watching football in person is much better than watching football on TV. I enjoy shouting at players and the referee and the away fans. It is a safe environment to express emotions in. It is also exciting when the team you support scores a goal. If I can’t watch games in person I like to listen to them on the radio.

I think the game in your imagination is often more exciting than the game in reality.

I can not stand conversations about tactics or statistics in football. They are boring. Football should be about kicking the ball and running about and being aggressive. It is much simpler than baseball and it is exciting in different ways.