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Rachel Crader
Rachel Crader is the editor of semoball.com. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in May of 2009 before spending the summer covering the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Highlights from Rachel's days in college include having a class down the hall from Chase Daniel and having NCAA wrestling champion Ben Askren hold the door open for her at Brady Commons, Mizzou's student center. She spent time covering Mizzou basketball, softball and baseball while working for the Columbia Missourian and is excited to return home to Southeast Missouri to cover local sports for semoball.com.

Rachel has covered three Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournaments for the Southeast Missourian and semoball.com, and she'll see you courtside again this year.
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Column: Love and hate in sports

Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2012, at 1:18 AM

Choosing the right person to fall in love with is not easy.

It's hard to tell who's being fake and who is being real, who you can rely on and who will go away in the important moments, and who really loves you back and who just wants your attention.

As far as I can tell, this applies to everyday life. But I am certain it applies to being a sports fan.

Love and hate are strong words that get thrown around a lot in conversations about athletes and sports, and that's fine by me. I think we all understand what it means when someone says he or she loves the Cardinals or hates the Lakers. It's not romantic, it's sports.

I've loved many athletes in that way during my life, and I'm sure many of you have, too. I think the line between like and love is crossed when you realize that reason no longer plays a role in how you feel.

Here's something someone who loves the Cardinals might say:

"So what if the Cardinals are six games behind the Reds. We're way better than Cincinnati! The Reds are just a bunch of Cardinals retreads. Have you seen our offensive numbers! Donšt you remember last year's comeback? Also, Dusty Baker is a chump."

(Note: Another sign that you love a team -- you say "we" when talking about it, as if you were on the roster.)

My list of loves includes Southeast Missouri State basketball standout Bud Eley, who was perhaps the first athlete I fell for, former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew, soccer player Landon Donovan, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel and, most recently and most ardently, tennis player Novak Djokovic.

This is not a comprehensive list, but it's a good sample of my favorites through the years.

Some of these relationships worked out, others didn't. Some of them continue today, while other faded after a while to make way for new players.

Bud Eley's name will always bring a smile to my face. For those of you who don't remember, Eley played for the Southeast Indians (now Redhawks, of course) in the late '90s.

I've written before about how much I marveled at his game as a young kid who saw Eley purely as basketball superstar and never as a 20-something college student.

My perspective changed drastically over the years, of course. I advise and work alongside Southeast students as they cover the Redhawks these days. The magic that used to come from watching Southeast games as a fan has worn away, but I still enjoy being in the crowd.

J.D. Drew is perhaps the biggest disappointment of my sports fan lifetime. I decided I would love him long before I laid eyes on him after listening to Cardinals fans, management and beat writers tout him as the greatest player

since the last greatest player as he made his way through the minor leagues.

Turns out, we didn't have much in common, from his chill attitude to his belief that a goatee was a good look. But I still held on to the idea of this player he could become for a few years.

He was replaced by new favorite Cardinals, including Albert Pujols, who ripped my heart out over the winter, and Yadier Molina, who I hope never will.

I've kept up with Donovan, Nowitzki and Daniel through the years, but I'd by lying if I claimed to be a diehard fan of any of them.

It's easy to explain why I fell for Daniel. I actually never had a class with him, but he was my classmate at Mizzou. We entered and left Columbia at the same time, and I spent Saturdays in the fall screaming at Faurot Field or at my television, cheering on him and the rest of the Tigers.

I can't tell you how I came to love Donovan and Nowitzki. I just did. Sometimes love's like that, right?

There are more than I care to list that didn't work. My brain has tried to scrub them from my memory, but at one point I really loved Andy Roddick, a player I have grown to dislike, and I was a big fan of Kevin Garnett during his Minnesota Timberwolves days for reasons I can't remember anymore. There likely are others.

I don't love as many athletes or love them as much as I used to. The only athlete I love the way I did the others on my list when I was younger is Djokovic, an athlete the overwhelming majority of you don't care about at all.

I'm not sure if this is a natural thing that happens as you get older or if it's a side effect of covering sports for a living. Maybe it's both, but the result is seeing athletes more as humans than heroes. And humans are harder to love.

Who is the first athlete you remember loving? Do you still love them?

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