About Us
The Blue Workhorse is an independent sports blog encompassing the four major professional leagues in North America as well as NCAA athletics.
Thus far (just over four months), it has been viewed in over 90 countries and has been translated into eleven languages other than our native American (English). It is the collaborative work effort of five, now, six sports enthusiasts, who first met while attending Maryville College together.
Combined we have:
- 100 years in sports (average of over 16 years)
- 23 high school varsity letters (baseball, basketball, football, tennis)
- 15 collegiate varsity letters in baseball
- 7 rings (4 for collegiate conference championship & 3 high school state championships)
- 6 collegiate varsity letters in football
- 4 current athletic coaches (2 collegiate baseball; 2 high school football)
- 2 journalists
- 1 aspiring MLB umpire
- 1 Emerald Youth basketball championship
If you have any questions, comments, tips, complaints, constructive criticism or are interested in advertising, please feel free to e-mail editor Shotgun Spratling (TheBlueWorkhorse AT gmail.com).
THE BW STAFF:
Shotgun Spratling (owner, CEO, writer, editor, etc.)
Shotgun Spratling is an absolute sports nut. He enjoys watching almost every sport live or on television (even non-traditional American sports like soccer, hockey, and lacrosse). He was a 3-sport letterman in high school playing baseball, basketball, and football. In college, he was a 4-year letterman for Maryville College’s baseball program concluding his collegiate career by inducing the ground ball that ended the 2007 Great South Athletic Conference and gave the Maryville Scots the GSAC championship.
Shotgun loves watching and playing baseball but when playing he prefers the intense atmosphere of the basketball court when the raucous opposing fans are practically breathing on the back of his neck. He graduated in December ‘07 with a degree in English w/ Teacher’s Licensure & Writing/Communications. He has worked with the Princeton Devil Rays minor league baseball team, written sports for the Blount Today, DailyDorm.com, Highland Echo, the Maryville College web site, and been quoted on MLB.com.
Favorite Teams: Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays, Georgia Bulldogs athletics, Florida State Seminoles football, North Carolina Tar Heels basketball
Favorite Players: Alonzo Mourning, Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones, Ilya Kovalchuk, Drew Bledsoe, Micah Owings, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Hines Ward, Tyree Hayes
DRang (savant/writer)
Derek Rang is our resident fantasy expert. In our own competitive leagues, tournament brackets, and bowl pick ‘ems, Rang has never finished outside of the top 3 in any of our competitions (much to the despise of the rest of us). His analysis is typically spot on, so much that it sometimes borders on eerie. Like each of us, Rang has been involved in sports throughout the entirety of his life. In high school, he was a member of the back-to-back-to-back state champion Maryville Rebels, starting at linebacker his final two years.
Rang also played baseball where he was twice named as an All-District and All-County selection. He continued as a two-sport athlete at Maryville College for two years. After previously being named to the GSAC All-Freshman team, Rang decided to concentrate on football his junior year. He also was an All-Conference linebacker his senior season. He graduated in May ‘07 with a degree in Mathematics w/ Teacher Licensure, which he has put to use as a high school math teacher and an assistant varsity football coach.
Favorite Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Illinois Fighting Illini athletics, Chicago Bears
The Pete (humorist/writer)
Peter Alan Herbert is awesome (by his own admission). Playing baseball since he was five (and still cute), he racked up nineteen years experience playing the nation’s pastime. A four-year college letterman pitcher, Pete thrived from atop the bump (again by his own admission). He holds a Maryville College record for strikeouts in a game, led his team in innings pitched his senior campaign, and capping a 300-pitch week, Pete earned the win in his final appearance and the team’s conference championship victory.
The Pete has worked as an assistant baseball coach, a humor columnist, a sports writer, a baseball park grounds crewman, a sports complex manager, a high school substitute teacher, and a pizzeria cook/waiter. The aspiring novelist has also already completed his first comic novel.
Along with playing baseball, Pete played tennis throughout high school (everyone experiments when their young), and one time he accidentally watched a soccer game (he was just flipping through channels, but stopped when some chick took her shirt off).
Over the years of playing, reading, and writing, he has developed quite the dubious relationship with sports. What sets Pete apart with his sports writing is that, for the most part, he thinks sports are, well, stupid.
Pete currently writes in Indiana, where he lives with a wife and two kids (whose wife and kids, he hasn’t a clue, but they have a comfy futon in the attic and as far as he knows, not a clue).
Favorite Teams: Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Bengals
Turn-ons: Fire-breathing, Warm weather, Back massages, High-fives, Smiles, Laughter, Passion, Exercise, Sports (but not really).
Turn-offs: Cold weather, Serious people, Ebola, Getting eaten by a dinosaur, shopping, X games, pina coladas and/or getting caught in the rain.
Heisman (opinionated writer)
Heisman has been a sports fan since birth, proven by his habit of waking up at 5:30 every morning to beat the newspaper to the door, just to read the sports page cover to cover. He played baseball, basketball, and football from age five up until high school. High school at Knoxville Catholic included three letterman years of football and one year of baseball.
Heisman’s sports career really took off in college where his playing time as a part of the Maryville College Fighting Scots began as mop-up duty in a 82-15 thrashing at the hands of Hampden-Sydney and ended with a single career touchdown pass in the final home game of his career against Shenandoah. These stellar numbers led to an entire campaign devoted to making him the first ever Division III Heisman trophy winner. This campaign rivaled several of those done for D1 athletes including a website and custom printed t-shirts. Due to reasons unknown to this day, Heisman did not win the trophy. Many sports experts liken this injustice to the fleecing of Peyton Manning by the voters in 1997.
After graduating in May of 2007, Heisman went to work for a private investment firm in Knoxville and also coaches football at Anderson County High School. He has become an avid golfer and enjoys watching sports and reading about US History and politics. The newest campaign Heisman will be embarking on will be the first year he is eligible to run for president in 2020. Donations are now being accepted.
Favorite Teams: University of Tennessee athletics by birth, Maryville College athletics by choice, New York Yankees, Boston Celtics, Green Bay Packers, Deadliest Catch’s Northwestern crew
Pet Peeves: Fans blinded by their team’s colors, soccer, Title IX, liberals
Rosenblogger (All-American/avid Sportscenter enthusiast/writer): To Be Updated
Junior Valentine (writer): To Be Updated
