When it comes to the world of sports, Newhouse senior Eric Berger seems to have it all. Team jerseys, posters of his favorite athletes, and other sports memorabilia populate every inch of the walls in his dorm room. He currently hosts his own sports talk show on CitrusTV, writes weekly sports columns for the Daily Orange, is currently the highest ranked player in his fantasy baseball league, and can obliterate anyone foolish enough to challenge him in a game of Madden on his Xbox 360.
However, when confronted with the task of making a layup or catching a football, Berger is at a complete loss. It would seem that he is a true champion at just about everything sports-related except for the rare occasions when he actually participates in the sports that he adores with such ardent fanaticism. Given his vast knowledge of the history of the NCAA March Madness tournament, his capacity to endure four hour long radio discussions over whether the SU basketball team’s offense is explosive or not, and his amazing ability to recite hundreds of Excel spreadsheets worth of useless sports statistics, it may come as a surprise that Eric Berger can’t hit a baseball to save his life or run a mile in under 18 minutes.
Berger’s athletic endeavors seemed to hit rock bottom after he put together an intramural wiffleball team made up of his fellow broadcast journalism majors. Their first competitors, a small group of freshman sorority pledges, were intimidated to learn that they had been matched up against some of the biggest sports fans on campus. However, after nine consecutive innings ending due to the five run mercy rule on each side, the sorority pledges finally pulled away with a 40-38 run victory as a result of an injury on Berger’s team.
Despite his habitual athletic failures, Eric Berger is not willing to let anything get in the way of accomplishing his dream: “I want to be a famous ESPN sportscaster!” the budding sports journalist declares. It’s a very competitive field, rife with other obstacles as described by his equally unathletic roommate, senior sports management major Drew McGeets. “Eric complains that his broadcast journalism classes sometimes force him to learn how to report actual news, which is stupid,” McGeets explained. “With a guy like Eric it’s either ESPN or bust. Just like how I’m going to own the Yankees one day.”
