Introduction
Scrabble is a game using words, in which players normally score points merely by placing tile, each baring a specific letter, onto a playing / game board which is standard divided into a 15 by 5 grid of squares. Much less is known of the exact number of players of scrabble there are in the world, majorly because it lacks a big enough body in the world, compared to FIFA for instance in the case of football, which can organize its various functions and tournaments all over the world and help in making even an estimate. On top of that, the estimated number of scrabble fans cannot be guessed, even in one city. This is because most of those who play scrabble do it in their homes, indoors, and mostly in very odd hours, as late in the night, thus making it hard for even would be fans to attend and spectate the game. To compound the challenges, the devoted scrabble players can barely make a living out of playing the game, which makes it less attractive in the eyes of would be players and even the fans, it any. Despite this challenges facing the game, over the years there are borne scrabble lovers, fanatics, whose main dream is to further the game to the level of its ‘contemporaries’ as chess and golf. Joel Sherman, famously nicknamed G.I. Joe is one of the game masters and has been portrayed in Stefan Fatsis’s book as a relentless lover and devotee of the game. But, how much does he understand about the game and to what extent has he devoted his efforts to further it? The following essay seeks to elucidate on this.
Joel Sherman, as presented is a middle aged man, currently staying with his father and brother, his mother is long dead. He has had an eventful youth life. He went to school, and despite him not being enthusiastic about reading or going to school at all, he was an excellent student, having made it to Queens College. This is a credit to him despite the fact that he quit the college after only two years. He is very hard working and industrious, evident by the fact that after getting a job with a bank at the age of 19, he was able, through his hard work, to move up the ladder to the level of being head of 8 other employees. However, he is shown to be rather resentful at being given more responsibilities. This is because he quit the job at the bank, with his only claim being that he had been given too many responsibilities because of his ability in doing the job very well, which, according to him, made it hard to finish even his personal tasks. He is equally, resentful of his life as a teenager. He says that he picked many of his allergies as a teenager. He is also suspicious of some of the people around him, having an opinion that they, in one way, or another, have contributed to his problems. One such unlucky a person is a dentist, whom he says has contributed in making him poor because he has had many dental works done there; meaning has paid a lot of cash. Nevertheless, he is a very devoted man, as seen in his utter devotion to perfecting his skills in chess. He stays up, late into the night, as long as he is doing something related to scrabble. For instance, it is his nature to analyze his games for the day before sleeping, as well as giving a free lesson to his roommate on how one can easily beat an opponent in his game. The sad thing is that he is a sickling, having been diagnosed with a myriad of allergies, from food to weather, which has made him hopeless. His hopelessness is seen through the fact that he does not think he holds any job, and thus he has resolved, as his father and brother, to live on the meager amount of money that their late mother (or wife for the case of the father) left them. Finally, he is an indoor person, described as not meeting many people, outside the game, apart from his dad and brother. This means that his social circle is the way far small than the average person. His eating habits are also worrying, in addition to the lack of exercise, which can predispose him to more health problems on top of his allergies.
In terms of his relationship to the game, he is a devout player doubling as a real fanatic. It is worth taking note of the fact that he started playing the game when he was six, very tender age for anyone to start playing a competitive game like scrabble. This is unusual, given the fact that he would not have developed his vocabulary that much to be a player like other kids his age then. He spends all his time playing games, teaching his roommate on how to play best, promoting the game be writing reviews and sending them to club members ion New York and also complaining through the media on why scrabble has been ‘despised’ unlike its contemporary games. Above all, he is a master in the game, having played more than 4000 scrabble tournament games, worn more than 40 tournaments in the process and having been crowned world champion three times. Having realized that he cannot work comfortably in any other profession, he decided to dedicate his life to chess, saying that it is the only thing he enjoys doing. His love for this game has led to resentment on how the general public sees the game. He wonders why people never find it fun going to watch a scrabble game, which, according to him, is great fun since they will see how the players ‘utilize resources’, a term he uses when referring to the ability of a player to arrange letters in order to get the maximum possible number of points.
In general, Joel Sherman is a prototype of a game fanatic, as seen through his detached nature concerning anything apart from the scrabble game. In him, one sees a person ready to go to any lengths to promote the game he loves, which can keep him awake the whole night as long as he is playing. The lack of social contact with anybody outside his family is a sure sign that his fanaticism has made him antisocial, save for his interaction with others who also are players and lovers of the game. But his enthusiasm and devotion to anything he is doing; be it working in a bank or playing a game of scrabble makes him a good teacher on the need to give all in anything someone chooses to do in life.
Conclusion
It is thus clear that despite scrabble as a game being less known, it still has people who are devoted to promote it and who like playing it. They have given their lives to the game, and Joel Sherman is the prototype, both master and fanatic. It does not matters how popular the game is or how much money they can make out of playing the game, but still, they are die-hard fans and players of their beloved game.
