The PFB Sports Survey: Travis Prinzi
March 25, 2008 – 11:26 am | by bryanIf you're new here, and you're into sports and/or the Christian faith, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The PFB Sports Survey is a weekly feature here at Prayers For Blowouts where we throw a few sports related questions at some of the most notable voices among Christian authors, pastors, musicians, and ticket scalpers to see if they like sports as much as we do.
Today’s spotlight is on Travis Prinzi, who, unlike half the people at your church, does not think Harry Potter is of the devil.
Travis, a resident of Rochester, NY, has a wife (Tricia), a daughter (Sophia), and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Northeastern Seminary (unnamed). He is the author of a forthcoming book on the Harry Potter series (also unnamed at the moment) which will be published by Zossima Press. He also runs the ship at a few faith-related websites: The Hog’s Head and Restless Reformer . You can subscribe to his podcasat, The Hog’s Head Pubcast, on iTunes.
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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?
TP: I’ll call it a 7. It’d be a 4 or 5 if not for hockey. Last year, I actually live-blogged the day of the trade deadline. On a theological blog. I hadn’t written much of anything for ages, but suddenly Buffalo Sabres news was taking over my blog, and the day of the trade deadline I started worrying about myself…It’s not normal to liveblog a trade deadline on your theology site.
2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports.
TP: 1. Pro Hockey - We used to do whatever we could to pull in Hockey Night in Canada while we were kids. The picture was blurry and fuzzy, but we watched it anyway. I played youth hockey and street hockey (in organized leagues for both) growing up. It’s the scoring, the hitting, the talent demanded (they play the whole game on two thin metal blades!).
2. Pro Football - Well, let me put it to you this way: I lived through four Buffalo Bills Super Bowl attempts, and I’m still a fan. We were even at the AFC championship game for that fourth year. We chanted, “Four! Four! Four! Four!” Sadly, we were simply chanting the number of Super Bowls we choked in. But I keep watching.
3. Baseball - My sports insanity begins to calm a bit after Hockey and Football. I grew up a fan of the Evil Empire, and a fan of the Evil Empire I shall remain until I die. Go Yankees. Though, in reality, I don’t pay much attention to anything, and usually don’t even watch a full game, until the playoffs. I do enjoy a night out at Frontier Field here in Rochester, watching the minor league Red Wings.
3. What is the one team that you root for more passionately than any other, and is there a team that you hate, maybe a little too much?
TP: I root for the Sabres more than any other. I was at the 1999 triple overtime game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Buffalo, when Brett Hull scored that illegal goal to NOT win the Cup that year, NOT eliminating the Sabres, though the records books would take out both NOTs. We had stayed overnight in the parking lot of a local Tickets.com site to make sure we got Stanley Cup playoff tickets. The site was located at a grocery story service desk, so we spent all night playing hockey in the parking lot, tipping the shopping carts over for goals. We even brought down a little grill and had hot dogs. We were eighth in a line of a few hundred people, and the last ones to get tickets.
I really hate the Ottawa Senators. And the Toronto Maple Leafs. And the New England Patriots. And the Dallas Cowboys. And, of course, the Red Sox. I really, really hate all of those teams. They all need to just go and … how clean do you want to keep your website? I should probably stop right there.
4. Do you play fantasy sports?
TP: I play Fantasy Football regularly. I had two teams this past season, and I won the championship in both leagues. I tried playing Fantasy Hockey twice, but it doesn’t work as well as football. I did win the second time I play fantasy hockey, but that was mostly because all the other teams had quit paying attention halfway through the season.
5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?
TP: Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup finals, Buffalo vs. Dallas (see above), and the 1993-94 AFC championship game, Bills vs. Chiefs.
6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?
TP: Highlight - Scoring a goal in my PeeWee championship game, which we won, and which would turn out to be the last ice hockey game I’d ever play.
Lowlight - Being lied to a bout the MVP award in my street hockey league. My coach had been told by the league commissioner that I’d be awarded the league MVP after the championship game. But we won the game, and the league disliked our team, so they gave it to someone else, last minute. The other lowlight would be when my junior high basketball coach told me, “You should just stick with hockey.”
7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?
TP: Well, since Fox did wisely get rid of the glow-puck shortly after they foolishly invented it, I don’t have to mention that, so…
I’d want Congress to get the hell out of sports. They think they own everything these days.
Oh, and Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, should be fired.
8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?
TP: Just try not to sound too dumb, ok? Mr. Atheist Quarterback threw some great passes, too, and he didn’t pray at all.
9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?
TP: Depended on what sport we were playing. Hockey, softball, handball, great. Wrestling, no thanks.
10. Sports are often the whipping boy of pastors and clergy because so much passion, money, time, and energy is poured into them. Do you think this criticism is valid, or are sports okay as a diversion from the stresses of life.
TP: Alistair Begg says Christians should be leading the pack when it comes to sports. We should be playing them, and we should be playing them the best. I think he’s right on the mark.
11. If you had to compete against other writers, in which of these 5 competitions would you have the best chance of winning? 5-mile run, 18 holes of golf, free throw shooting contest, arm wrestling match, or a game of bowling.
TP: I’d lose them all, but if I had to choose one, it’d probably be the free throw shooting contest. I was starting to get decent at basketball, despite my junior high coach’s disparagement of my skills before I got distracted by an entirely contrived crisis of unexplained teenage angst and started writing poetry and music instead.
12. What is your favorite sports movie of all-time?
TP: Can’t just pick one: Field of Dreams, Necessary Roughness, The Natural, Rudy
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You can click here for an exhaustive (but not exhausting) list of everyone who’s been featured as a PFB Sports Survey participant.
If you’d like to be considered for the PFB Sports Survey, or know someone who should be, send along a name and email address to prayersforblowouts(at)gmail(dot)com.
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