Peter Gammons devoted several paragraphs to saluting the new online media. Specifically he mentions the Hardball Times, Baseball Musings, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball Think Factory, and “countless blogs.” Now unfortunately it is Insider content, and the sites aren’t linked, but the recognition is tremendous.
Gammons is a Hall of Famer, and as prominent a journalist as baseball has. For him to not only admit to reading blogs and other online sources, but to embrace the medium is a huge step forward.
We’ve seen a couple instances where bloggers have turned their writing into books. However this time we have a book prompting a blog. Bob Sikes was the trainer on the 1986 Mets team. He has an unpublished book with a working title of “Getting paid to watch” and recently launched a blog by the same name.
Baseball Musings has decided to forego Google Adsense in light of the announcement that Google will censor search results in China. The ensuing discussion (I think this might be a record number of comments at Baseball Musings) is supporting David’s move.
This is a pretty big step for Pinto, who is a professional blogger. This isn’t someone looking to make a couple bucks on the side, it is a part of his living income.
adsense, google, censorship
Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts had this exciting announcement today:
It comes almost as a footnote that I have begun to freelance for SI.com, a semi-fulfillment of a dream I had two decades ago. Back in college, I had set my career goal as being a columnist for Sports Illustrated, the magazine. And while this isn’t that, while this isn’t 81 points in a game, while it might not even be an 18-foot Nerf swish, it’s somewhat rewarding for me, and I hope you don’t mind the egotism of me pointing it out.
You can find Jon’s first effort here.
Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus and The Juice Blog has launched a new blog endeavor: The Year of Living Chemically. Caroll will be blogging his efforts to get into top physical condition – using legal and generally accepted methods:
So I’ve decided to do what I should have been doing all along and combining it with my quest to bring out the truth – the real truth – about steroids and supplements. I would spend a year using the most advanced legal technology to bring my weight down, my strength up, my cardio to a solid level, and most importantly, prove that steroids aren’t needed to make the type of gains that we’ve all secretly wondered about.
I’m curious to find out if Carroll will use super jock dietician Sari Mellman in his experiment.
From a blogging standpoint, it is interesting that Carroll is doing this on MLBlogs. He already has a couple outlets available to him which have a higher profile.
I acutally find the whole MLBlogs concept curious. While I applaud MLB for embracing blogging, this just seems like an attempt to embrace it and control it at the same time. Also, mixing paid bloggers (Tommy Lasorda among other “celebs”) alongside general fans who need to pay to blog is odd – at least to me. Also, given the number of free and low cost blogging options available I’m not sure why people would choose to pay $50 a year for the right to blog about a singular topic and have little control over layout or design.
mlblogs
Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog has written a letter to his readers, a kind of “state of the blog” if you will. For sports bloggers this should be a “must read.” There are so many interesting topics, questions, and issues touched on, it is tough to sum up in a single post, so I’ll hit the highlights and leave you to read it on your own.
The dangers of breaking news
I have no interest in pro-actively breaking stories, and I don’t typically care for rumors. Actually, I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by trying to be this type of writer, especially in the blog format…
For instance, if I break an accurate story the mainstream media will not give me credit for it directly. If they do, I will at best be described as an ‘Internet report,’ which does me no good in terms of publicity. On the other hand, if I break a false story I will be mocked and potentially lose readers. Therefore, breaking stories and trying to be ahead of the curve is a high-risk-no-reward situation for me, which is not something I enjoy taking part in…
Excellent points about something that can be way too tempting. I know in the rare cases where people with certain connections have provided me information, it has taken restraint to show restraint. While it might be fun to break the story, and if you’re right you might get a little bit of credibility, if you’re wrong regaining credibility could be near impossible. Quite frankly, most bloggers don’t have the resources or contacts to confirm information (or the training to know what to believe).
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Today David Pinto’s Baseball Musings had it’s 2,00,000th visitor. Congratulations to David on a pretty remarkable accomplishment and a great blog!
Nomianations have been taken, and voting is now open for the Sports Blog Awards. JD’s doing a great job with this, and has even registered www.sportsblogawards.com for next year.
Will Carroll has a post about the baseball blogosphere. I wont’ try to characterize the post in a single sentence because it, and the ensuing comments hit a number of issues. However one of the elements that at least got my wheels turning was in defining quality and success in a blog/blogger.
First in terms of defining success Will points out that all bloggers are looking for feedback. That feedback could be in terms of visits, comments, money, and praise. I’d also include additional opportunities as another feedback component, but I like the definition as a starting point. At this point in terms of defining success it becomes a matter of magnitude. Caroll points out that with the exception of David Pinto, nobody is making a living blogging about baseball. Also, he notes that no blogs have the followship that mainstream media has. Again, I can’t argue with the assertion. However, I’m not sure that the lack of the above means blogs aren’t succeeding. As a blogger, I’m satisified that several hundred people care enough about what I think to visit on a regular basis. I consider it a success that the voice of the Detroit Tigers lists my blog among his regular reads. I understand that I probably won’t make a career out of this, but I’m satisfied considering this is a hobby and a passion. The income is just a bonus.
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JD Arney at the Red Reporter is organizing the 2005 Sports Blog Awards. According to JD:
Sports blogs are one of the strongest niches in the blogosphere and have received a great deal of publicity and notice from the mainstream media. Sports bloggers deserve some respect and gratification for the work they do, and that’s what I hope this will accomplish.
This is a great idea by JD, and I commend him for taking the wheel with this. Nominations can be made through December 19th. Voting will take place between December 20th and January 1st.
