December 6, 2001

2:32 PM

Once upon a time, SPORTSJONES was an up-and-coming website. Major media sources hailed it: "original, offbeat, and thought-provoking," a site "that could shake the world," "cerebral sports journalism," "the thinking fan's sports site." Then one day ESPN/Disney bought it, the site died, and the writers joined the ESPN staff. I've yet to find a replacement. Where can I turn for substantial writing on sports and sports culture?
posted by jacknose (12 comments total)

Well, for insightful, stats-oriented writing on baseball, Baseball Primer is home to several good weblogs and articles.
posted by argybarg at 2:34 PM on December 6, 2001

Okay, try this Baseball Primer instead.
posted by argybarg at 2:36 PM on December 6, 2001

Aren't there any good Weblogs out there about sports?
posted by Iberaband at 4:32 PM on December 6, 2001

Baseball America is a good website for minor league and college baseball, though they have moved to a subscription model in the past year. Baseball Prospectus is also a really good resource on baseball, heavily geared toward statistical analysis; their "Transaction Analysis" reports by Chris Karl are fucking hysterical, and really highlight the utter stupidity of (many) baseball organizations.
posted by moz at 4:34 PM on December 6, 2001

We need to start a Sportsfilter.
posted by jacknose at 4:41 PM on December 6, 2001 [1 favorite]

as of right now, sportsfilter.com is available! get it while its hot! you crazy impulse shoppers.
posted by howa2396 at 4:47 PM on December 6, 2001

I understand that ESPN dumbs things down quite a bit, but does anyone here ever look at their "Page 2" section? I feel it's their way of apologizing for a lot of the crap that their, erm, senior columnists pass off as journalism.

Scat Mel Kiper Jr.! Get out Mortensen! For my money, it's Brian Murphy all the way, baby (hehheh).
posted by Bixby23 at 5:14 PM on December 6, 2001

WOW! I just followed moz' path (did i get that ' right?) to Baseball Prospectus and read some of Transaction Analysis...how does he do that?
posted by vito90 at 5:40 PM on December 6, 2001

vit:

kahrl goes through nearly every transaction that is announced via MLB and writes about its organizational impact. through Transaction Analysis i learned not to pity pittsburgh, cincinatti, boston, tampa bay and others because they suck, but because they suck all over.

Rob Neyer is a pretty good columnist as well; his ESPN columns are always well researched and well thought. i wish that football and basketball had grass roots resources the way that baseball seems to...
posted by moz at 5:59 PM on December 6, 2001

moz: the thing with baseball (and the reason it has baseball prospectus and the like) is just that it is so much more amenable to reasoned analysis that the 'grass roots' stuff can differentiate itself from mainstream journalism. Semi-amateur basketball and football analysis sounds just like the 'pros'- i.e, mainly pretty bad- because there is no way to differentiate- what are you going to say that hasn't already been said?
As far as sportsjones... I really wanted to like sportsjones. I found the signal-to-noise there pretty poor, though. I'd definitely kill for a high-quality sportafilter, though... <puts on long sleeve shirt to cover up the track marks of online sports discussion> Definitely not an addict.
posted by louie at 7:07 PM on December 6, 2001

I wish I knew of Sportsjones, from what you say, jackn. Another alternative is Village Voice: for instance their Uni (uniform) Watch isn't something you can find most places. I dig the sports writing by Mark Anthony Jarman and (the late) Mordecai Richler.
posted by philfromhavelock at 8:32 PM on December 6, 2001

Gregg Easterbrook's column is the best football column on Earth. For Redskins-related ranting and pouting you could always read my site :)

And yes, we need a Sportsfilter.
posted by owillis at 10:21 PM on December 6, 2001