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Friday, July 27, 2012
Sports on Earth. I could not be more thrilled about it. We will obviously be developing as we go, but the idea is to build an all-sports site around compelling, funny, thoughtful, ridiculous and sublime sportswriting. We have an amazing lineup of staff writers right at the start—Tommy Tomlinson, Gwen Knapp, Shaun Powell, Mike Tanier just as a starting point.
” cols=“100” rows=“20”> Sports on five years’ probation? Yes, I’ve been away for a little while. I know there are a lot of questions about my book about Joe Paterno, and I will do my best to answer them in a few weeks when the book is published. For now, I’ve been working like crazy on the the new Web site we will be launching, in conjunction with USA Today and MLB Advanced Media, called Sports on Earth. I could not be more thrilled about it. We will obviously be developing as we go, but the idea is to build an all-sports site around compelling, funny, thoughtful, ridiculous and sublime sportswriting. We have an amazing lineup of staff writers right at the start—Tommy Tomlinson, Gwen Knapp, Shaun Powell, Mike Tanier just as a starting point.
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1. Don MalcolmIt sounds like Posnanski just wrote the wrong book. Of course, maybe all the advance press is wrong and this will be a book people want to read.
The Soul of Track.
As for Poz' new project... Shaun Powell seems to just be a guy who moves around between various beat writer jobs. Calling him "amazing" is like calling Geoff Blum amazing. I believe Tommy Tomlinson was the Governor of Wisconsin. I don't know these other guys. Of course, that doesn't mean they're no good.
Poz > Simmons, so you'd figure his Grantland would be better than Simmons'. There's a disadvantage, though, in being second to market. I also get the impression that ESPN is very hands-off with respect to letting Simmons run Grantland. I dunno if USA Today and MLB Advanced Media (BTW, really?) will be the same.
Tanier might be my favorite writer working right now. His farewell piece at FO was wonderful.
I am looking forward to SoE.
Yeah, but it will be judged very harshly because the tone in which Poz wrote is probably about 180 from the tenor of public opinion at the moment, and there will be piling on - even if the news cycle/controversy help it sell. It would be best for the book to let Poz work with the material for longer in light of recent revelations and to let the surreal shock and outrage of this moment pass - they really are putting his head on the chopping block to advance their own interests here.
But the publisher's goal is not to make the book as thoughtful and factually correct as possible. The publisher's goal is to maximize revenue from the book. The publisher is probably, at least in the narrow, correct in its belief that publishing the book now will get the most revenue from it.
It's not "his Grantland." Simmons is the editor in chief of Grantland, Posnanski is just a full time writer for SoE.
While there are always going to be obvious and notorious exceptions, in general it's smart money to assume that professional specialists working in an industry know what they're doing.
True, but the smartest money finds industries whose professional specialists, for all their sound and fury, haven't a clue what they're doing. They're certainly around to be found, if you know where and how to look. (Baseball up until about fifteen years ago, for instance, and lingering in some places to this day.)
What's the evidence that the people who publish high-profile titles at Simon & Schuster haven't a clue what they're doing?
or maybe joe gets the boot and mike is the lead name on the masthead. that works
on a side note i am really disappointed jim had to accept these ads pimping females. if he needs more donations just say so for crissakes.
Therefore LOOK WITHIN, MY FRIEND. :-)
give me a break
and yes i have seen all the political ads but figured that was a given in an election year
There is none and I don't suggest there is any. I was changing the subject.
Google once decided that I needed to marry a virtuous muslim girl and hounded me with ads for matchmaking services for a month. I'd really like to know what triggered that.
I realize that a lot of people seem to like Tanier, but I don't get it. He makes a lot of lame jokes and offers relatively boring analysis. He's also a bit of a fanboy.
OK, got it. My bad.
It's the total vacuum-like absence of informative and entertaining football commentary in the world. YMMV but I think Tanier's humor and style hit more than they miss, and the analysis is usually at least worth reading. It could be done better, perhaps... but it's not. Not to my knowledge.
Not sure how it works for BBTF but awhile back I was getting condom ads on BBRef that were not particularly ideal for work. I submitted a request and they were able to get those ads removed. Not sure if Jim has that ability with his ad provider here or how easy a process that is.
I agree with most of this. Much of the humor, like any humor, is taste-driven, as well.
Personally, I enjoy his analysis and general NFL commentary because he's the most level-headed, yet opinionated, writer I've ever read. By that, I mean he doesn't take stances without first putting a great deal of thought behind them, but he's also not too hesitant to call something good or bad, or right or wrong.
A good example is his thoughts on Mike Smith's decisions to go for it on fourth down in last year's wild card game against the Giants.
Tanier wrote the "Walkthrough" column weekly, and also wrote matchup columns (and other miscellaneous columns) for the New York Times.
Barnwell's not bad; but yes, he has rubbed me the wrong way at times. I get the impression he tries to write like Bill Simmons, so he makes too many snarky comments that aren't really backed up by facts. And he does this too often in his harder analysis columns.
its one of the downsides of the internet age. but like all things this too shall pass.
I don't see how having the person who inflicted Deadspin, a site with questionable (or non-existent) journalistic ethics that's basically US Weekly for sports, on the internet as ombudsman is something to make you optimistic.
Agreed. I'd add that football commentary, at least from what I have seen, is much more compartmentalized. Which makes sense since football is much more sectional: you can devote an entire blog just to rushing offense out of the spread, another entirely to pass defense, etc. (Additionally, football fans are much more parochial, reading about their favorite team is much preferred over reading about the league in general.) For example Chris Brown at Smart Football is highly informative, but is light on the humor and creative writing and is heavy on spread offense, because that's who he is. (Why he added Chase Stuart is beyond me, I never thought highly of him at PF-R.) Ditto Blitzology, which is heavy on the 4-2-5 formation, or Advanced NFL Stats, who can have a bug up their ass from time to time. They're really good reads--if you are very interested in the subject. If you're just looking for something to give you the edge in fantasy football, you're probably better off elsewhere. But fantasy football is so popular that if you want to get noticed, being worth your salt in fantasy is a good way to get there.
I have his book on reserve from the library. I like his site and I am an NFL fan, not a college one. If Blitzology is similar, I may check it out.
I can't vouch for all their work, but they had a pretty good breakdown leading into the Super Bowl of why the Patriots defense centers around Vince Wilfork by showing how on one side of Wilfork they play 3-4 and on the other side they play 4-3. Really good read.
excuse you dude
i am getting the stupid sexy asian ladies ad and I AM NOT GAY. i do not wanna see no sexy females of ANY kind!!!
no matter WHAT i look at i never get any ads for hot sexy asian GUYS or hot sexy Black guys or hot sexy White guys or hot sexy males of ANY persuasion. seriously WTF all this sexism. i don't get it - it's not like we don't like looking. or, um, dating
What's interesting is that I have found not matter what I am actually looking at if the site is housed under a more general adult-website or domain I am likely to get ads aimed at straight males. I've been at gay male sites but since they were part of a general adult site all the ads were about how ugly girls need to get laid too and there were some in your area then needed your loving and they could hook you up for free.
As for this website, no girlie ones for me but frozen-food and high-speed internet happens a lot. Although if they are trying to guess what ads to show you by your cookies or something, then a lot more then adult-sites would trigger those ads. I mean anytime I go to a gaming video site, or streaming T.V site I get lots of "get laid" ads.
EDIT: According to the static ads, I am interested in consuming crates of red wine alongside my single Asian friends. Hmmm.
Silly BBC. Everybody knows there are no women on the Internet.
i am getting the stupid sexy asian ladies ad and I AM NOT GAY. i do not wanna see no sexy females of ANY kind!!!
Hubby been on your computer again? :)
He is responsible for his fate here.
If only.
I'm not... I'm jealous. I want the sexy asian ladies ad. Better than the boring charter ads.
bbc, I get those in the offseason, when I spend time on NPBTracker.com and YakyuBaka.com to see who is signed to play in Japan and what Japanese players might be coming to MLB.
Swedish Chef, Do you read Al Jazeera? It leads to similar results.
I've started getting spam emails from senior dating services, which I guess stems from my acbl membership.
I get those too, but since I spend a lot of time looking at Japanese baseball, music, and anime sites, it's not that surprizing.
it's sex discrimination that's what it is
Seriously, I presume it's because my browsing record, due to being heavy on sports, causes the spam producers to peg me as a 15-to-55-year-old male.
EDIT: who am I kidding with the age ranges, "male" is sufficient cause for the spambot to assign a person SEXY ASIAN LADIES ads.
might could be why i get all these ads and spam about how i could grow 3 inches which would be great because i'm so short but unfortunately the bone they talk bout growing won't help me get no taller
I AM NOT GAY AND HAVE NOT BEEN INTERESTED IN BOOBS IN OVER 30 YEARS!!!! YOU STUPID ADS!!!!!!!
So over 30 years ago you were?
Jeez, even I got the joke and I'm a complete dimbulb.
Over 30 years ago she was a baby. Babies are interested in boobs because of the milk.
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