There comes a time in everyone's life when the uncomfortable realization, that you're both loud and wrong at the same time, hits you like Mike Tyson.

One of my greatest hits (or in this case, misses): making fun of all things television.

Twas I, the guy who would mock all their makeup, Biff Barnes voices, insights about as deep as a Harlequin romance, insistence on taking over events, blah, blah, blah. TV: all glory, no guts.

Twas I, in all my self-congratulatory disdain at being the sweat-stained newspaper guy who has a way harder job.

And then we started webcasting high school games here at America's most underrated media outlet.

Note to all my TV folks: Deepest apologies. I never knew. I never knew the pressure of being live. The details behind the scenes. The technology required.

Or the complete exhilaration of it all.

Technically, we're not doing television here. It's livestreaming. But the concepts of a live broadcast are the same. Newfound respect for every aspect.

We begin tonight with the New London-Waterford boys' basketball game on theday.com. Can't wait. The Francis X. Sweeney Fieldhouse, to quote my pal Katt Young at Ledyard, ought to be "lit." Should be a great game. Time-honored New London against one of the best sports stories around here in a while: a moribund basketball program at Waterford turned into contender thanks to coach Greg Gwudz.

We'll have three cameras, a graphics package, scorebox, two announcers (Casey O'Neill and Michael Guerrera), sideline reporter (Keith O'Brien), pregame show with video features on several players, halftime show and postgame show.

All produced and directed by resident Emmy winner Peter Huoppi, The Day's Director of Multimedia/all around genius.

Here is what I've learned: When I am pecking away at the keyboard and hit the wrong key, write a stupid sentence (or in many cases an entire paragraph) there's always the columnist's best friend: the delete button. You start over. But when you are live, you are live. You make a mistake, there are no mulligans.

Case in point: The time on SportsCenter when anchor Steve Levy meant to say "slipped disc," got tongue tied and came out with a variation of "disc." Use your imagination. Keith Olbermann was laughing so hard he had to shield his face with a legal pad.

That's the power of live. And so we are live tonight. A great challenge and responsibility. Ultimately, though, it's the most rewarding thing I've ever been part of here.

The ability to show you high school games in different ways than you've ever seen them - and hear, "geez, it's just like to see on ESPN" - is the ultimate compliment. Two years ago, we were fortunate enough to webcast the New London-Middletown football game that ended on Garrett Burdick's last-second field goal. It got nominated for a regional Emmy. The other three finalists: the Red Sox and Bruins on NESN and the Celtics on Comcast New England.

Fancy that: NESN, Comcast … and The Day Paper. Normally, that would be fodder for the old Imus skit, "Which Doesn't Belong And Why?"

We've had a blast. Peter had the idea of filming the open to the Stonington-Fitch football game last year on the Mystic River Bridge. The Fitch kids were on the Groton side, Stonington kids on the Stonington side, walking toward each other. The idea was to have them meet in the middle with these serious, "it's on, tonight" facial expressions. Except that they kept laughing. Bet it took an hour.

We've gotten to know kids and coaches in better and more meaningful ways, too. There's a delicate line between covering high school events and inflating their relative importance versus conveying the idea that they really are important. Which they are. High school sports faithfully bring communities together.

We're particularly excited about next week's basketball game between Ledyard and New London. This just in: They can't stand each other. The game will be played in Ledyard's small gym, meaning that patrons who want to see the game live better get there early. Great for us, though. If you get shut out, you can always go home and watch the game on theday.com.

And if you have one of those gizmos that can link the computer to the television, you can watch the game on your 52-inch living room monstrosity. My guess is that the viewership for that game will be high.

Hope you enjoy watching the games as much as we do webcasting them. Sometimes, modern technology isn't so bad.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius