Sports in Storytelling

Watching the baseball World Series recently, reminded me of my daughter’s childhood dream to become the first girl shortstop in the major leagues. Growing up, she played every ball-related sport she could get her hands or feet on, and she loved to watch Oakland A’s games on TV and at the ballpark. Unsurprisingly, sports stories would hook her every time, especially those that featured a girl baseball star.

If your kid is half as into sports as mine was (and as my grandkids are now), then stories that involve kids and sports will undoubtedly be popular. And your kids won’t care if the story is realistic—it can easily be about something as wild as the first girl shortstop in the Majors, who not only hits too, but on one occasion substitutes for the pitcher and pitches a perfect game. Similarly, if a boy remarkably like your son is somehow called up to be the star kicker for the Dallas Cowboys, or the kid who made the winning free-throw in the NBA finals, your boy will be happy to suspend his disbelief.

The key to a good sports story is to build the tension by throwing in some adversity. Perhaps after a horrendous string of injuries, the Boston Red Sox have to call up Melinda from the Minors, just before game seven of the World Series. But in the third inning with no score, Melinda nervously makes a silly error that costs her team a run. They are down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs when Melinda comes to bat…you get the picture.