Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Sports Savant Bio

If I am going to have a blog readership, I should probably tell you a little bit about me and give you a good reason why you should care about what I have to say about sports.

My name is Forrest Doran.  I was born in Gainseville, FL but moved to Daytona Beach, FL when I was an infant and was raised there through high school.  I made my way through community college and eventually The Florida State University where I received a bachelors in English with specialization in Creative Writing and a minor in Law and Society.  I've since worked as a freelance writer and photographer while also having other gainful employment working as a photographer for Bob Knight Photo and worked as a Project Manager at a law firm.  Daytona Beach is now where I currently reside(unfortunately).

I now only work on freelance writing mostly(I've been published in several local and national magazines and newsletters) but am most proud of a feature article I wrote for TPC Challenge Magazine on the life and career of  pro golfer, Phil Mickelson.  It's the most widely published sports magazine article I've written to date and circulates throughout the east coast of the U.S.


I became a fan of sports at age 8 when I first picked up a baseball glove and bat.  It would start a love affair with baseball that would go unrequited.  I played the sport through the end of high school, ten years, but would not go on to play for a college team.  I later had a stint as an outfielder and leadoff hitter with an independent league team at age 25 and at age 27 attended a professional baseball free agent camp headed by the former director of scouting for the Seattle Mariners.  After I was not formally offered a contract, I decided at 27, it was definitely time to call it quits on a career playing sports.  Even though I no longer play, I use that same passion I had for playing towards following and covering sports.

So enough about my personal life...  It's time to answer the real question.  Why should you, the reader, believe what I have to say has any relevance or expertise in the world of sports?  What qualifies me to give you a fresh take on sports perspectives, stories and controversies?

What qualifies me to write and operate this blog to satisfy its mission for expert analysis and fresh, perspective sports journalism to it's full intent is that I have been an avid fan and staunch critic of professional and collegiate sports since 1993.  I have been a premium, platinum viewer of ESPN programming for the last fifteen years, hardly missing a day of ESPN programming in that 15 year stretch.  I've been reading, watching or listening to sports experts on a variety of sports since the mid 90's and over that time have developed into not just a fan of their analysis over the years, but have become their sports analytical peer.

I've viewed more than 1,500 episodes of ESPN's SportsCenter and many hundreds of episodes of other ESPN programming like Around the Horn, Jim Rome is Burning, NFL Live, Pardon the Interruption, The Sports Reporters, Outside the Lines, Mike and Mike in the morning and more, to date.  When I'm not watching the worldwide leader in sports television programming, I'm typically perusing the web for sports write-ups, breaking news on espn.com or simply watching the sporting events themselves.  I get a fix of sports on a daily basis and have the knowledge and resources to share sports news and perspectives on a daily basis.  This blog is the perfect way for me to do that and the perfect way for you to stay informed and learn something about sports you may not have known or learn something you can impress your friends with like the obscure but important statistics I find interesting and relevant to a team or individual's success that I'll be sharing in my write-ups.

In addition to all of this, I have also been an avid fantasy sports player.  I specialize mostly in football, but having played fantasy sports for the last ten years makes you know every little thing going on with every team in the league of the sport in which you are playing fantasy sports, if you want to be successful. When you are as competitive as me and wanting to win the fantasy leagues I participate in, it creates an environment of constantly obtaining new knowledge on player personnel and player/team performance on a daily/weekly basis.  I can honestly say, playing fantasy leagues has greatly contributed to my wealth of knowledge in sports in addition to viewing countless hours of sports programming and reading sports journals.

So my resume is a bit less than overwhelming, at least for a sports writer, but this blog will show, a doctorate in sports journalism and performance analysis can be obtained from a decade and a half of closely following sports and listening to experts talk about sports and reading sports columns online and in newspapers.

Now you know a little about me and what qualifies me to be a trusted source of fresh sports perspective and analysis.  Don't forget to subscribe to this blog so you can check out what I'm talking about on a daily basis in the world of sports!

-Forrest Doran
The Sports Savant

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