Welcome to my world...

By Brendan Hall

Fan Fanatic Sports

Friends, Romans...

As the newest member of Fan Fanatic Sports, I would like to formally introduce myself. For intents and purposes of this blog, my name is Brendan Hall. But once you get to know me, you can just call me "Red", or "Big Red". Least, that's what everyone else calls me these days. I also contribute to a blog that me and my good friend from Manhattan started a while ago, bhallbigred.blogspot.com. It's pretty primitive, but the only rule we have is "No politics", so chances are you'll get a good kick.

Anyways, I'm a UMass grad hailing from Westminster (the best Minster), and a T&G colleague of Chad Garner, so you know I'm a bit peculiar. My primary focus on this blog is covering the NBA/Celtics, college basketball and college football; but I hope to provide you, the reader, with more than just the same nuts-and-bolts perspective you'll see on your mainstream media outlets and ESPN gabfests.

I'll try to be more Ralph Wiley than Skip Bayless on this blog, but I'm not going to get on any soapbox in the process. That's a promise.

One of my former sports editors in college, who now covers the Celtics, taught me that the goal of a column should be to educate your reader. Henceforth, my goal is to provide you with something unique, and convey a message that not only stimulates conversation, but sticks. Granted, that's a hard thing to do on a daily basis ... but hey, I'm going to try.

I'd like to lay out a few ground rules for understanding just where I come from. In no particular order:

-- If you don't understand a reference I've made, there's a 75 percent chance I'm alluding to an internet meme, indie film or rap lyric. Sometimes, all three.

-- Not everything in my entries are meant to be taken to heart. Please use judgment and decipher what's a joke and what's not, so I don't have to spell it out.

-- I've been fooling around a bit with this concept I use on my other blog, where I use links to reinforce certain adjectives. A few examples:

The Cavaliers are overrated.

The Yankees are obnoxious.

ESPN is really really full of itself, which makes SportsCenter ugly to watch.

-- Having grown up a good five-minute drive from the Wachusett Brewery, I can confidently say Blueberry and Green Monsta are neck-and-neck. Seriously.

They say the internet is both frightening and brilliant all at once. Hopefully, I'll be much more of the latter.

I'll have some Celtics stuff in the AM.

Until then, go cleanse yourselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

Mahalo.