Last week, a Royals fan podcast ended a nine-year run. The Kansas City Baseball Vault was a program that I appeared on and helped produce for five of those years, but the boys that remained finally called it quits after this season.
This made me wonder how long the median age is of a hobby? I remember trying to put together model starships and model Navy bombers when I was little. You’d get the kid, the paint and the glue (and they wonder why all our brain cells are gone now.) And then you’d spend an afternoon without the Internet snapping the model pieces together, applying glue, then getting your fingers all pruny trying to apply those little decals onto the wing of the plane.
The list of hobbies I’ve had is as long as my arm. The list of hobbies that I’ve actually stuck to for more than a few months is incredibly short.
I wanted to learn guitar. I wanted to be the Paul McCartney version of a paperback writer. I wanted to cycle, then run, then walk. I entertained the idea of making short films for a while.
I’ve always had admiration for people who have stuck to a single hobby for large swaths of time. You can see it at a model store, or an antique car show, or a BBQ contest – people who have real jobs and real lives devoting any and all free time to a single thread. These are the folks I’ve always wanted to be.
But the Internet has fractured my brain. I lose interest after a few days, weeks, or months. Even if I make it a year or two, the passion seems to drain out and I either take a few years off, or quit the hobby altogether.
The benefit of my hobby OCD is that I’ve tried a LOT of things. I have smoked meats. I’ve done video and audio productions. I’ve broadcasted games through a single laptop and a cell phone. I have some old model kits in my basement somewhere.
But secretly, I’ve always held envy for folks who only repair Model-T Fords or build model train sets out of bamboo or build a YouTube channel dedicated to old western movie reviews. And I’ve got all kinds of admiration for a couple of guys who spent an hour recording, and then several more hours editing a podcast on a weekly basis dedicated to a terrible baseball team week after week.
I’d invite you to check out the final show which included a lot of laughing, a lot of memories, a lot of baseball, and a lot of fun. You can find it linked off their Twitter at twitter.com/kcbaseballvault.
That is… if you’re not too busy picking up a podcast hobby of your own.
(Get up to date with all of Chris Kamler’s hobbies by following him on Twitter, where he is known as @TheFakeNed. You can also find his stuff on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube)