One Season: A new take on fantasy

On my daily stops for blogs, especially this time of year, is MLBTradeRumors.com. This  time went I visited the site there was no new blog post, but there was an interesting advertisement. Usually, I’m quick to ignore these things, but when an advertisement brings up fantasy, gambling and free, it officially has my attention.

After a few basic registration questions, I was set-up, and it really is a unique game. No one can deny the impact the Internet has had on fantasy sports, and One Season takes it to a whole new and different level. One Season takes players from all sports, current and retired and treats them as if they were stocks.

Like I said before, it was free to sign up and they even gave me $10 to use to begin trading players. I haven’t spent enough time on the site to know how everything works, if it’s worth putting more money on, or even how they find a way to track the stock of retired players. But, it is a really interesting site, especially how it looks. The site looks similar to a number of real stock trading sites, like TD Ameritrade. There is a running ticker with the most recent updates, and the players are treated and accumulated just like stocks. They are bought and sold, they can even split. Like The New York Times says on the One Season site, it is “An ironically appropriate Web startup for today’s calamitous economic times.”

Sports video clips on the Internet

The first program that fully established sports media in the national spotlight was SportsCenter, and its video highlights. While SportsCenter has shifted from highlights to more featury segments, like the unforgettable Who’s Now?, the Internet has continued into a develop to find good, interesting sports videos.

Personally, I think these videos can be broken down into three segments.

In a traditional sense, ESPN takes its short highlight clips and embeds them on their Web site. The obvious benefit to this is that it allows you to skip much of the hour SportsCenter show and focus only on the teams you care about.

Sports media has also grown along with the rest of the Internet, and with the help of YouTube, gives viewers a chance to look at different, weird videos. Many blogs use YouTube to show unique videos of broadcast mistakes or bloopers. Some of this stuff isn’t appropriate to go on ESPN, or isn’t newsworthy, but a lot of them are entertaining.

Lastly, and this has been a recent update, has been the growth of video blogs. Once again this is just sports media growing with the rest of the Internet. Many news outlets are creating brief recap videos to give the day’s news, or combining other clips into one brief video to embed on their Web site. In sports, one of the best video blog Web sites is the Basketball Jones. On this site, there are two anchors who go through the previous day’s NBA action. Most of the video is them at a desk, but they add brief clips and still shots from the game to make the video more interesting.

The SlingBox

I know this doesn’t perfectly relate with sports media on the Internet, but it does go through the Internet in a way. One of my favorite newer technologies is the SlingBox. The SlingBox is a small cable-like box you connect to your home cable box or satellite dish, and it transmits the signal to your laptop, no matter how far away you are.

As a Chicago sports fan this has been a valuable purchase for me living in Missouri. It is hooked up to my home box in Chicago and I’m able to watch almost all of the games I would as if I were home. The greatest thing about this, is that is shows how much you can watch or cover any team no matter where you live. I can live anywhere, watch Chicago sports, read Chicago newspapers and listen to Chicago newspapers.

These kinds of technological advancements, in my mind, demonstrate how bloggers can be effective. Other then being in the locker room, they can get all the information that people living in the city can.

Paid sites

The Internet has given everyone access to all kinds of information, especially sports information. Everyone is able to look at national stories, newspapers from every part of the country, millions of fans blogs and also more in-depth statistical analysis. One problem with all of these sites is that many of the in-depth statistical analysis sites are paid subscription sites. Not only do they cost money, but they can be pretty expensive.

Sites like FootballOutsiders.com and BaseballProspectus.com are really valuable for sports fans, because of all their information, but not everyone is willing to pay for them. I think these leads to a lot of really good opportunities for sports writers. People who are writing, and have jobs, should be able to pay for these sites to get a lot of valuable information to help their readers and bring a lot of these new statistics to the mainstream.

Also, people who are looking into ways to get into the business, I think there is an opportunity to get into sports writing by creating or dissecting this information for a free site.

Internet gives different people a voice

It is cliche to say the Internet gives everyone a voice and that everyone can have their opinion heard simply by starting a blog, bu of course it is true. And, while it’s great to know that the common fan can start a blog and write about their favorite teams and debate with others, but it also allows for more professional sites a chance to offer people with experience in the sports world another job. For example, Michael Lombardi at the National Football Post.

The National Football Post is one of the best collections of news, blog and analysis for the NFL on the Internet. One of the reasons for its great information is the fact that Lombardi has spent 23 years in the NFL, and now has a forum to give his honest opinion and analysis. Before working as a journalist, Lombardi worked in the personnel department for two NFL teams, and therefore has access to the circles of NFL sources.

The National Football Post gives Lombardi, and others, a different outlet for the information. Not to say everyone on ESPN is jaded, but the fact that they air NFL games, without a doubt influences the things they can say about the NFL and its teams. The Internet gives Lombardi a chance to voice his opinion and a less formalized outlet for him to give it.

ESPN.com Beta

Right now, for ESPN Insiders, ESPN.com’s soon-to-be new look is on display. In my opinion, it looks similar to the new looks of other publications, like the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune, the new ESPN.com, and more have all tried to give photos and graphics a more prominent place on the page. It is clear ESPN is doing this with the new Web site.

First, there is a dominant image, surrounded by other smaller images. All of the headlines and text on the front page are set inside of the pictures. On the page that is currently on the Web site, I think this looks good, but I think there is potential for a cluttered front page.

Overall, I think it is a good look and I think it is important for Web sites to change their look every once in a while. Newspapers and magazines benefit from normalization and similar looks more than online news sources. As a consumer if you are walking a newsstand, you are probably more comfortable buying the paper you are familiar with. So, I understand why print publications rarely change their format. But, online you are likely to check out specific sites regardless and a new look will only capture the reader’s attention more.

Online sports journalism starter

Probably the most overdone topic on all of the sports blogs, or media blogs, is Bill Simmons, ESPN’s Sports Guy. Simmons is one of the first writers, who knew how the Internet worked and how he could use it as a platform. Now, he has been around for so long, most blogs have commented on his work, his different writing style and his numerous fights with his employer, but I think its worth noting how well he has used the Internet.

Love or hate his writing. Some people like his fan friendly style, over the top pop culture references, crazy theories and his topics that usually focus on the NBA and Boston, but others can’t stand his writing. Either way,  Simmons has perfectly used the Internet to his advantage, and in one way or another, I think he’s opened the door or motivated many other online sports writers and bloggers.

One thing we’ve talked a lot about in class, is how people want to use the Internet to establish an online community. This is probably one of things Simmons did best. Many of his readers have become familiar with his writing style, and feel like they know him and the people he often writes about. Also, once a month or so, Simmons writes a column which he answers numerous readers emails. All of this only adds to the community feeling his writing portrays.

Best sports blog going

Now, I just want to take the time to give credit to my favorite sports blog to read right now. MLBtraderumors.com is run by Tim Dierkes, and it is basically a collection site for all “legitimate” baseball rumors. I say “legitimate” because each post is not only filled with rumors, but they are filled with links connecting to newspapers or other sites that do most of the reporting.

According to a story about Dierkes in the Chicago Tribune this summer, Dierkes doesn’t do much of his own reporting. But, besides constantly checking the Internet and newspapers around the country, he talks with other baseball beat reporters to get inside information and check rumors.

Other than the abundance of information, this is such a great blog because I don’t think Dierkes goes out of his way to draw attention or collect hits. There aren’t a lot of pictures, or exaggerated headlines, but it is a great way to find all kinds of information. A lot of the rumors on the site don’t come true, but Dierkes and the other writers let the reader judge the legitimacy for themselves.

I like hearing people’s opinions, but it is better when it is distinctly separated from the news. In busy times like this Dierkes doesn’t inject his own opinino until the end of the week, when he does a weekly recap post. Then, on top of just giving his opinion he adds even more posts of statistics and other analysts to back him up.

This site is everything good about the Internet and blogs.

Civic Meeting

I had intended to go to the Columbia Ski Club meeting last Monday, but I was unable to attend. Instead, I got up extra early and went to the Sunrise Optimist Club meeting on Thursday. I wasn’t there long, but I got a good idea about some of the work the group does.

One thing I found interesting about the group is that there are four other mid-Missouri optimist clubs, including another one in Columbia. And even though they meet separately, they all encourage the same ideals and want to help develop young people in the area. At the Sunrise Optimist Club, everyone who wants  to help local children is invited to attend meetings, but there is still an extensive application process to become a true member.

At this particular meeting, the group spent most of their time talking about the upcoming event for the month. Because they only have formal meetings once a month, it is important to plan ahead and make sure everyone knows what to expect for the month. This month, on November 22, the Sunrise Optimist Club is running a Breakfast with Santa. The pancake breakfast is intended for the youth in Boone County, but members are also encourage to bring their children to eat breakfast, watch movies and visit with Santa.

Mainstream media blogs

As blogs have increased dramatically in popularity, the Web sites of mainstream media newspapers, television stations and magazines have all added a variety of blogs to their Web sites. I assume these blogs are held to the same journalistic standards as the articles and videos on their site and in their publication, but blogs give them a quicker way to get news to their consumers. While all of these news publications have added blogs, I think there are numerous sports sites that have used blogs very effectively.

One example is TrueHoop at ESPN.com. Henry Abbott wrote TrueHoop on his own, until ESPN.com asked him to move his site to ESPN. STill, Abbott does a lot of the same stuff. He goes over blogs and local newspapers to give readers links and more in-depth analysis to different teams. Abbott takes a lot of benefits of the Internet and uses them to his advantage. Unlike other blogs on mainstream media sites, a lot of the information you read in TrueHoop isn’t available in other places on ESPN.com

Blogs on a lot of mainstream media sites don’t have a good reputation because they don’t do so many of the things other, popular blogs do. Other mainstream media blogs are usually intended to be quick stories for online readers to check out before they go to the more in-depth article. TrueHoop is one instance where the mainstream media does it right.