I always liked ESPN2; while the original ESPN was always catering to the testosterone-crazy with football and baseball and SportsCenter, the sad ESPN bastard child was showing semi-sports like log rolling and billiards. I watched... well, I wouldn't say "voraciously," but I would've watched voraciously had there not been school, masturbation, and other wastes of time in my life. I felt a kindred spirit with those overlooked sports — not that I actually wanted to be part of, say, the National Spelling Bee or Westminster Kennel Club subcultures, but unlike a lot of my peers, I just appreciated them enough to want to see them thrive, to provide a niche for the people who actually do want to be a part of those subcultures.

So, right now, there's the 2004 National Scrabble Championship on ESPN2, which highlights another nice trend as ESPN2's programming turns more and more towards the cerebral (while the Game Show Network's programming — excuse me, GSN's programming; apparently "Game Show Network" is too long and confusing for some viewers — turns more and more towards the moronic). As an amateur bootleg Scrabble player myself, I've gotta say that I'm pretty proud of ESPN2, even if the Scrabble grand prize ("the better part of twenty-five thousand dollars") pales in comparison to the World Series of Poker grand prize. Disappointing. But not quite as disappointing as the fact that "awa" and "ree" turn out to be actual Scrabble words.