What does a sports obsessed family do during a Pandemic?
If you are the Rothstein Family (Andrew (51), Stuart (54), Josh (21), Matt (18) and Ben (15)) you commit to a daily research/writing exercise chronicling the careers of over 300 athletes and counting.
As the Covid-19 Pandemic began impacting daily life, work and school, the brilliant and creative mind of Jericho, New York resident, Andrew Rothstein, with some help from sons, Josh and Matt, decided they would spend a few minutes each day writing about one of their favorite athletes. The exercise would serve many purposes. Most importantly, fostering daily dialogue amongst the family around the history of sports and the careers of great or notable players. This passion project created from a place of cabin fever provided the Rothstein family an invaluable opportunity to increase their already impressive knowledge of sports, relive great moments, appreciate great careers, and discover underappreciated or unknown players. They have fully embraced the opportunity and their writings serve to further educate one another and to highlight their individual wit and sense of humor.
The rules of the road were simple. Starting on April 1st, you would find an athlete whose jersey number matched the day of the month (e.g. on April 1, Andrew chose Ed Giacomin former NY Rangers goalie who wore jersey number 1) and prepare your entry to be shared via group text. This pattern would continue until the end of April (hence the phrase “30 for 30” with all appropriate respect to ESPN). Entries were expected to be a few sentences of interesting information, statistics and, perhaps some color on why the author chose a certain individual. 30 seemed an appropriate number, for who could have foreseen a longer shelter in place. For this great endeavor it is worth noting that a player is eligible even if they only wore a specific number for just a brief time.
After four days, Andrew shared the idea with his brother Stuart and nephews, Ben and Sam, residents of Chappaqua, NY. Stuart and Ben loved the idea and joined in with the April 5th entry and to their credit, both Stuart and Ben doubled back to catch up with the team providing entries for numbers 1-4. For the record, Sam is a 13yr old who would much rather play sports than watch or write about them, so he took himself out of the draft, deciding to spend his free time away from the pad and paper and rather devote his efforts to the driveway working on his hoops game.
As the days rolled by, everyone started investing more time in their respective entries. Sentences turned into paragraphs and postings were often accompanied with links to pictures or videos of the highlighted player. Adding to the fun and enjoyment was that on most days one or two postings would lead to some good-natured banter along the line of - How did that player make or not make the HOF? – How could you pick that player; do you have no morals? – etc.…There was also a nightly exercise in each respective household trying to predict who certain people would write about the next day. Moms, Lisa and Michele even became active in the predictions.
As the end of April neared, with social distancing and sheltering at home still firmly in place and the original 30-day goal about to expire, the group decided to press on with the following calendar adjustment. May 1st was declared a wild card day – pick any number you want. Starting on May 2nd the relevant number would be the day of the month plus 30 (e.g. On May 2nd entries are about those that wore #32 and so on) with a plan to circle back to #31 on May 31st.
At the time of this writing, we have virtually crossed May’s finish line and we have further modified the rules allowing us to press on. Given that numbers higher than 60 most often lead only to NFL lineman, we have created some flexibility and variety. June 1 brings with it the hint of summer and the ability to choose any player that wore 1, 31, 61 with this new pattern continuing through the end of the month.
Before reading the attached entries, a map to the game plan and the bios of our current roster of writers follow. As will be clear, the athlete entries presented most definitely reflect the backgrounds and biases of the authors.
The entries are in no way meant to summarize the greatest players for a specific number. Many all-time greats are included, but so are many “ordinary” players that were chosen for a variety of reasons. The goal of each author was to pick a player that was (i) for some reason interesting or meaningful to them and/or (ii) someone the author felt the group should learn more about or (iii) it was a tough number and the author just dug deep for someone.
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Who knows if anyone other than the original five authors and family will ever read these entries?
But I can tell you that this whole exercise has been a great way for fathers/sons/uncles/cousins to connect with one another – to find ways to make one another laugh – to continue the family tradition of always being ready to argue or debate a sports topic. It has been an absolute pleasure reliving some wonderful personal memories, remembering great athletic careers and achievements and learning about new players through our younger aspiring sports writers. An act borne out of sheltering in place and bringing with it so much passion and emotion.
Finally, one added benefit of this entire exercise has been the way in which it connects of all the authors to the memory of Mel Rothstein (1932-2017). The love of sports, the knowledge and fascination with sports history, trivia and statistics and the connection to certain players or moments all comes from Mel Rothstein and his ability to use intelligence, humor and love to share and transfer his passion to his sons and grandsons.
For anyone looking for a fun exercise with your crew of sports devotees, jump in and see where your inner sports almanac takes you!
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Head over to the table of contents tab to visit each of the entries.