"To Kyle, the next great second baseman. The Dodgers need him!"
The late Jim Murray, one of the greatest sports wordsmiths of all time, wrote those words in my copy of his autobiography.
I was 11 years old.
My dream of turning the double play in Dodger blue has long since fallen by the wayside, but my love of sports has only grown stronger over the years.
My arrival at Penn marked the first time in more than 12 years that I wasn't playing a competitive sport.
To make matters worse, during my first semester, I only managed to drag my sorry ass to a lone football game and a pair of hoops contests.
The itch to get near sports again led me to show up at a DP sports info session in January 2000.
Former senior sports editor Rick Haggerty asked at the meeting if anyone would like to cover the men's squash team.
"I will! But... what is squash?" These illustrious words sparked my tenure as a DPOSTM [Daily Pennsylvanian's Only Staff That Matters] staffer.
Green as could be, without ever having a word of mine run in print, I found myself at the Ringe Squash Courts.
Luckily, with a little help from the coach and players, the bewildered kid from California started to figure out what squash was.
With a lot of help from Haggerty and his partners in crime -- Jesse Spector and Will Ulrich -- I started to figure out how to be a beat reporter.
In my time at the DP, I have had the pleasure of covering a football championship and men's hoops' back-to-back Ivy titles.
I also have had the unique thrill and anxiety of seeing my picture printed above columns that were based solely on my opinions.
However, as I reflect on my time covering the Red and Blue, I can't help but feel like a bit of a relic.
Haggerty's crew was the first of four editorial staffs that I wrote for.
That didn't make me feel old until I realized that two of my current editors were juniors in high school when I was cutting my teeth as a reporter.
I am also reminded of how long I've been with the paper when I think of current DP Executive Editor Amy Potter as an eager freshman sports writer from New Mexico.
From a healthy crop of writers in our freshman class, only David Zeitlin, Jeremy Dubert and I remain.
Zeitlin took his turn burning the midnight oil as an editor at 4015 Walnut Street. He did one hell of a job and put in a ton of work, and for that I respect but don't envy him.
Jeremy and I never made that commitment, although "Boss Junior" Dubert and I were certainly encouraged to take our turns. We both avoided a year of living at the DP.
I had made it clear from day one that sports journalism was a hobby for me, not a job. That's the way I liked it.
With a full Wharton course load and group meetings coming out of my ears most of the time, I sometimes had trouble finding the time to give the DP my full attention.
But all the time that I put into it was well-spent. I was able to cover some great teams and hone my writing skills under some tremendous editors.
I had a chance to recapture a little gridiron glory on a small scale by quarterbacking DPOSTM to three straight Kamin Cup victories over the News "Weenies."
I also made two unforgettable trips to New Hampshire's hidden gem, the Chicken Hutch.
The first trip I made as one of the younger members of the staff. I had the pleasure of riding in a car with DPOSTM luminaries Spector and Sebastian "Sub" Stockman.
Following the trip, I had a new nickname courtesy of Sub and a newfound appreciation for the kinship shared by DPOSTM writers.
The second trip I made as a grizzled senior with several freshman writers that I, frankly, had barely spoken to.
However, that odd trip led to a connection with the younger writers, especially after the proprietor inadvertently exposed his genitals and plumber's crack to us while we waited for our food.
Finally, I don't believe that I will ever forget the day I realized that every computer in the newsroom had a Web page I had made for my girlfriend set as the homepage.
At least that prank made my face -- albeit a bit red -- more recognizable around the office.
I'll never be a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist like Jim Murray, just as I'll never be an MLB player.
And my time at the DP will be the only time in my life that I have the pleasure of writing about sports.
I'll always love sports, though, and I'll always be grateful for my time as a member of DPOSTM.
