Population of J's World grows

March 20, 2005

J's World/Jeremiah Bartz

I love sports. That's all there is to it. I love participating in sports, covering and writing about sports, watching sports.

I love sports.

That's why I am in the business I am in.

There are events I hardly miss - Major League Baseball opening day, March Madness or just the opportunity to play a round of golf. And there are the events I usually never miss, like the Super Bowl.

Let me stress usually. I usually never miss the Super Bowl. I even nearly missed my own Holy Communion in favor of Super Bowl XX.

But I missed the Super Bowl this year.

You may, or may not, have noticed the absence of my name in the Frontiersman as of late - no bylines, no J's World. That's because the population of J's World recently grew. On Friday, Feb. 4 my daughter Alyson was welcomed into my world.

As I stood in our hospital room just minutes before the arrival, waiting to not only venture into the delivery room, but ultimately into fatherhood, I had the first draft of this column basically written in my head. You may know the style, a little tongue in cheek, a lot sarcastic- a timetable of my thoughts and emotions during my last few minutes before fatherhood.

I am sure I am no different than any first-time father in the fact, the days before the birth of my child my thoughts and feelings were completely controlled by emotion and anxiety - emotions and anxiety fueled by insecurities. It is amazing the things that go through your head during the days leading up to fatherhood. Everything from wondering how I am going to feed, burp and change her to praying to God the doctors don't keep her mother and send me home alone with her. To fully understand my neurosis, you have to realize before Alyson I had absolutely zero experience with a child, let alone a newborn. The most time I have spent with a young child has been with Casey Ressler's 4-year-old daughter Madison and Madison is not exactly your average 4-year-old. Find me another who will tell me, "J.B. you know what I a want to be when I grow up? An anthropologist."

And then turn around and say, "J.B., ya mess with the bull and you'll get the horns."

And then there is the anxiety that completely revolves around being a father to a daughter. How am I going to relate to a little girl? How is a person, with a life that more often than not has revolved around the sporting world, relate to a little girl?

Plus I can't deny, I was worried about missing the Super Bowl, a game just two days after my daughter's birth.

But it's amazing how some anxieties and fears just disappear, and even seem a little idiotic.

It is cliché, but true. It's something I could not even fathom until going through myself.

With all of the intensity, and insanity, surrounding my daughter's first weekend in J's World, honestly the last thing on my mind was the Super Bowl. That is amazing. I guess it would take the end of one's world or the beginning of another to keep from my spot right in front of the tube on Super Bowl Day. I was not concerned with missing the 2005 Super Bowl, but am looking forward to future Super Bowls with Alyson around.

And everybody is reminding me, girls can like sports too.

Jeremiah Bartz (aka Big Daddy Bartz) has returned to his position of Frontiersman sports editor. J.B. is already trying to turn his new daughter into a little sports fan. Alyson and J.B. can be found every night at home this week in the recliner watching some college basketball on TV.