About Tom
It all started when...
In high school growing up in Corvallis, OR, I was one of the worst players on a bad basketball team. I wasn't particularly fast, I most definitely couldn't jump, and I was 165 pounds dripping wet. I spent most of my time riding the pines, and those times when I did get in the game were generally when we were down by 30 in the second half, which happened frequently. I scored a total of 22 points my senior year on a team that went 3-19.
But I loved the game and pretty much any sport that happened to be in season. I was bad at all of them, and even today consider myself marginal -- at best -- in any sport I play. But I've never lost my passion for talking about sports. writing about them and, in general, bloviating to anyone who has the patience to listen.
About the same time that I was honing my persona as a skinny, injury-prone wannabe high school basketball star, I became a serial letter writer to famous people, including Hubert Humphrey, Jack Nicklaus, Jerry West, Ann Landers, Bart Starr and any newspaper that had an op-ed page. I had my first letter to the editor published when I was in the fourth grade on the need for seat-belts on school buses. Yes, I was a nerd.
Today, I have a great job working in communications for a technology company, and when I'm not working, you're likely to find me hanging out with my family, fly fishing, golfing with buddies, skiing, swimming, traveling, watching sports or drinking beer -- though not necessarily in that order.
And when I'm not doing any of those things, I may just be working on another piece for PineWriter. I hope you enjoy my occasional treatises, and if you do -- feel free to share, or better yet, get off the bench and send me your ideas.