“But I’m a substitute for another guy; I look pretty tall, but my heels are high.”

The Who, “Substitute,” 1965

In case you are unfamiliar, I spent nearly a decade as the Southern Standard sports editor just after – as much as it makes my back hurt to say it – the turn of the century.

After nearly 15 years away from the basement down here on College St., I agreed to come back to serve as your friendly neighborhood news editor, on one condition: No ball games.

A couple weeks ago, when Jeff Simmons announced he was leaving the newsroom, I almost immediately began fielding questions such as, “so are you going to start doing sports now?”

Short answer: No. Long answer: Not as a general rule.

Sports is a young man’s game in the newspaper business, you see. A 6 p.m. baseball game may run until 10:30, or a scheduled 4:30 soccer match may actually be at 6 p.m. because they added the junior varsity to the schedule.

So when you’re “middle-aged,” and need to get to the house by a certain time because you turn into a pumpkin at 9:15, sports reporting may not be the best gig you can take. However, I’m more than willing to dip a toe into that pool for the next few days while we work through the transition between Jeff and his successor, Sam Griffin.

With that being said, you may see me out at a game over the next few days, flexing the old muscles that kept me fed and – at the risk of bragging – brought more than a few accolades over the years back in the early 2000s. But I’m just filling pages. I’m not “the authority” on local sports, and I never claimed to be. I’m just hoping I can help get our local athletes in the paper when I can, and once Sam fully takes the reins I hope I can provide a small bit of advice to help as he gets his feet wet in local sports coverage.

Don’t quote me on this, but if I’m being honest it’s been pretty fun to dust off the old legal pad and get out to the fields I wandered so regularly over 15 years ago. Even soccer – which, I’ll admit, has never been my favorite sport to cover – was pretty fun the few times I was able to do it in my fill-in role. So don’t be surprised if you see me “on the clock” at a baseball or softball game or two this spring. You never lose your taste for it, after all.

In the meantime, I’ll give Jeff his flowers for doing a great job over his years at the sports desk. And while we wait for Sam to get entrenched, I’ll be here to help. Any additional assistance you fans and readers can offer me in this very busy transition will certainly be appreciated.

Standard News Editor Rob Nunley can be contacted at rnunley@southernstandard.com