The PFB Sports Survey: Marcia Ford
June 24, 2008 – 10:51 am Posted by bryan in » The PFB Sports Survey
If you're new here, and you're into sports and/or the Christian faith, subscribe to our 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 zoologists to see if they like sports as much as we do.
Today’s spotlight is on Marcia Ford, who once dated a major league baseball player (and no, she’s not telling who).
Marcia Ford is an author, an editor, and an independent voter who was independent when independent wasn’t cool. Her most recent book is We the Purple: Faith, Politics and the Independent Voter. She claims she is married to the kindest man on the planet, with whom she shares an utterly blissful life in the mountains of Colorado. You can find her online on her author blog, her independent voter blog, or at MarciaFord.com.
——————————
1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?
MF: I’d say 5: If the weather is just right, and the price of gas is on the way down, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, going to a minor league game would be just ducky.
2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports, college or pro.
MF: 1. Baseball. But these days, only live and in person. And I’m gradually becoming more fond of minor league play over major league. Too many production elements with televised games, and too many jerks in the stands at major league games. That’s it. No second choice, no third. Although I suspect that if I should find myself at a pro hockey game, that would become my second choice.
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?
MF: It’s a toss-up. These days, it’s the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and the Colorado Rockies, though I’ll always feel an allegiance to the Phillies and the Yankees.
4. Do you play fantasy sports?
MF: Nope. Never had the time or the interest.
5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?
MF: My first pro baseball game, at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia in 1965. I could hardly believe that the same sport that put me to sleep when my uncle listened to it on the car radio could be so exciting in person. I’ve loved baseball ever since.
6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?
MF: A bad call by my tennis coach in high school. It was an intramural match, and to this day the call she made smarts whenever I think of it.
7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?
MF: I’d change two things: the DH and the horrible over-production of televised sports. I’d be much more inclined to watch sports on TV if they’d lay off the annoying pop-up graphics every 30 seconds, the constant whooshes and spangles and replays of replays, the chatty announcers who get so caught up in their non-sports-related stories that they miss what’s going on in the game, the repeated promos for the latest and greatest show on that network, and so much more that I fear for my sanity should I continue thinking about this.
8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?
MF: I wish they’d stop thanking God for their team’s victory and start thanking God for an injury-free game for both teams — or asking God for the healing of an athlete who was injured, regardless which team he or she was on.
9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?
MF: I loved gymnastics, especially things like the parallel bars, but I hated any activity that involved choosing teams. I know that’s become such a common complaint that it’s almost a cliche, but it’s a valid complaint.
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.
MF: Of course sports are an acceptable diversion. Any pastor who rails against sports is probably just wishing he or she could generate a fraction of the passion, money, time, and energy that sports generate.
11. If you had to compete against other authors, 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.
MF: Oh my. Probably a free-throw contest, but only if all the other authors were total nerds.
12. What is your favorite sports movie of all-time?
MF: “Field of Dreams.”
——————————
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.
