When you think of your average baseball player or fan, what kind of music do you picture them listening to? For me, the first genres that come to mind are country and folk music for older fans and modern rap or pop for younger fans. Now think of your average pop-punk music fan or emo/scene kid. Do you think of them playing or enjoying any sports? I know I don’t. The cultures of baseball and emo seem to fly in each other’s faces, directly contradicting each other with their ideologies. Baseball is seen as a sport for macho boys and all-American girls, a perfect wholesome slice of good ol’ red-blooded Americana. Pop punk and emo music, on the other hand, is seen as an outlet for the outcasts and misfits, the kids who were bullied in school and went on to reject the straightlaced, “normal” lifestyle along with the activities that represent it. You wouldn’t think there would be major crossover in the fanbases of the two industries. I, however, may be among the most pronounced of those crossover fans. Allow me to explain.

I’ve always thought of myself as a half-nerd, half-jock hybrid. I got into baseball and memorizing facts about it at a really young age, but I was also really into memorizing stuff about the U.S. presidents (I even demonstrated this in my first-grade talent show). I was bullied in middle school and felt like an outcast, and my summer baseball team felt like an outlet, a place where I could fit in. In high school, I was on the school baseball team and fit in decently with those guys, but also decently with the more studious crowd in my advanced classes. Socially, I never felt like I 100% fit in with either group, as my combination of interests left me caught in between.

In college, I didn’t play baseball, and I started to branch out more with my life experiences and the types of people I hung out with. It wasn’t until my senior year that I really got into pop punk, but I met several amazing friends with whom I shared that interest as well as others. Now, as a regular, fairly well-adjusted young adult, I play baseball again in a rec league, and I listen primarily to music that could be considered “emo.” These are two of my biggest passions. I work my ass off to get better at baseball, and I love watching it as well as diving into deep cuts and lore. I also love learning about the ‘90s and 2000s pop-punk artists that I love, karaoking their music in my car, and being inspired by them creatively. I love the guys on my baseball team, but I can’t imagine many of them share my music taste. I know none of my friends who do share my music taste are into baseball. Although I’m much happier than I used to be, I still feel like a unicorn at times, a square peg in a round hole with my bizarre juxtaposition of passions.

So let’s start a blog for those halfway kids, for the baseball players who feel they can’t enjoy emo music because their team might laugh at them, and for the scene kids who are afraid their alternative friends will get on them for enjoying the mainstream culture of sports. The half-nerd, half-jock is not a common stereotype, but it’s a real breed of human and we’re out there. Let’s celebrate well-roundedness and diversified interests, and let’s enjoy both the Americana of baseball and the rebelliousness of pop-punk music simultaneously in all their glory. Who’s with me?