Best sports blogs

A lot of sports writers are blogging, but sometimes I think they're blogging for the sake of blogging. I see a million blogs with no comments or responses. If people aren't reading the things, what's the point?

We have a handful of blogs going at our paper. I've spent a lot of time looking at blogs in an attempt to find some really good ones in hopes of stealing some ideas to make ours better. I've seen a lot more bad ones than good ones.

My question: What are the best sports blogs out there? What makes them so great? If possible, please focus on blogs at small or mid-sized dailies. Doesn't help me and my staff of five to point me toward ESPN's site. Thanks.

 

Fixed.

 

No way this ends well.

 

That describes my situation perfectly.

 

Here's a few. As an Indiana University grad, I enjoy reading Terry Hutchens' blog on IU athletics for the Indianapolis Star. Hutchens discusses numerous items in his blogs and does it in a conversational manner. He also tells me things in his blog that he can't get in his story or can't get into as much depth. That's part of what a blog should do -- don't repeat what you've written in print but go into greater detail on something or tell me something new. Hopefully, some people think I do that with my NASCAR blog. On the NASCAR beat, David Poole of The Charlotte Observer does a nice job. I like how he can take a look at the big picture and put it into perspective. I also enjoy reading Shawn Courchesne's racing blog for the Hartford Courant. Shawn doesn't hold back. His attitude comes through and some of his blogs will make you react one way or the other and that keeps me coming back. One other blog I enjoy is Kellis Robinett's musings in the Idaho State Journal (I used to work there) about Idaho State athletics. Again, he's similar to Hutchens in that he goes into greater detail on things and tells me more than he can in his articles.

 

Yeah, I totally get that. Management hears that blogs are our future, so they tell everyone to blog and then never bother to check to see whether the blogs are any good or whether anyone is reading them. That is all too common.

I've been reading a bunch of them from other papers in hopes of seeing some good ones so we can improve. I'm just having a hard time finding many that I would call successful.

dustin_long, thanks for your post. I'll check those out.

 

And then you run into the issue of a sports blog that attracts a ton of traffic and comments, mainly because it is focused on a pro team where the fans are eager to read about anything and every transaction down to the new trainers, yet the blog is poorly written, isn't well-reported and fails to convey complete thoughts. It's interesting to view the measuring stick that us as journalists have for a successful blog versus what the average joe fan thinks is a successful blog.

 

Joe Posnanski's blog. I'll paraphrase IJAG and say he puts more effort into his blog posts than a lot of writers put into their stories/columns.

 

Yeah, JoePa's blog stuff is great.

One of these days, someone at a newspaper will realize he/she should hire actual successful bloggers.

 

Best blog in the business:

http://www.1530homer.com/pages/ctrent.html

Formerly of the Cincy Post (RIP :'(), Rosecrans (and his wildly successful blog) moved over to a radio station after that paper went defunct. He's got a huge audience, and it's not just because he blogs about a wildly successful major league baseball team.

 

I'm not sure if this is the type of blog you're looking for but I think the LA Times Lakers Blog is one of the best blogs out there.

lakersblog.latimes.com

 

This site and page aren't 'blogs' but this is the most useful NBA page on the web:

http://www.insidehoops.com/nba_rumors.shtml