Editor in Chief Spencer Gleason writes his final sports column and ends with some wise words
By: SPENCER GLEASON
Editor in Chief
I have struggled with how I wanted to write this. I wanted my final “For the love of the game” column to have merit — but not be too over the top with “words of wisdom” or the sappiness of my time covering Meramec and STLCC athletics coming to a close. 
There have been twists and turns influencing my journey toward sports journalism. So for a column titled “For the love of the game,” why not finish by telling how the story began.
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It started out as a joke. But for me, the joke was the only way I knew of to stay around the game of baseball. The writing was on the wall that I would not be playing the game much longer.
My 15-year-old self was serious about wanting to be the public address (PA) announcer for our home high school baseball games, but I was not sure if people would take me seriously. Nobody had ever done that for baseball games at Webster Groves High School before.
Basketball and football games — yes. Not baseball. This was a first.
Since before I was 10-years-old, I remember turning the TV volume off and doing play-by-play for my make-believe Nintendo baseball games in the basement of the house I grew up in. Typically, nobody else would be around. The play-by-play was just for me. But it was from there, the PA announcer idea originated.
After I was cut from the Statesmen team my freshman year in high school, the creative way to stay around the game — and my friends — was born. I did make the club and hit .444 my sophomore year. But I was back behind the mic as a junior. And it was during that year, that the story caught the eye of Channel Five’s Mike Bush and I was featured on his “Sports Plus” program.
After graduating, Webster Groves High School continued what began when I was a 15-year-old. And, speakers atop the backstop fencing play music — something that was integrated into Statesman baseball since my days there.
My PA days eventually switched toward sports journalism and through “The Montage”, doors have been opened that I never thought possible.
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Whether your “game” is athletics, cooking, teaching or writing, follow it. Follow the passion that drives you to wake up every day. And from there, your “love for the game” will open up doors that you never thought possible.
