Comments on: Comments on 12941

Post number 12941

jacknose — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 14:32:09 -0800

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?

By: argybarg

argybarg — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 14:34:49 -0800

Well, for insightful, stats-oriented writing on baseball, Baseball Primer is home to several good weblogs and articles.

By: argybarg

argybarg — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 14:36:08 -0800

Okay, try this Baseball Primer instead.

By: Iberaband

Iberaband — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 16:32:12 -0800

Aren't there any good Weblogs out there about sports?

By: moz

moz — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 16:34:30 -0800

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.

By: jacknose

jacknose — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 16:41:24 -0800

We need to start a Sportsfilter.

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 16:47:27 -0800

as of right now, sportsfilter.com is available! get it while its hot! you crazy impulse shoppers.

By: Bixby23

Bixby23 — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 17:14:22 -0800

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).

By: vito90

vito90 — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 17:40:13 -0800

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?

By: moz

moz — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 17:59:31 -0800

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...

By: louie

louie — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 19:07:59 -0800

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.

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 20:32:49 -0800

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.

By: owillis

owillis — Thu, 06 Dec 2001 22:21:39 -0800

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.