Beyond The Box Score Nominated For Best Sports Blog Of 2008

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 5, 2009 5:20 PM EST Comment 15 comments

Our humble blog has been nominated as one of the best sports blogs of 2008 by The 2008 Weblog Awards folks. Click on the badge below to go vote, if that's your sort of thing. (Update: you can vote once every 24 hours through January 13th.)

Of all the finalists, I've heard of less than half and read only a couple with any sort of regularity. I should probably check more of them out. Any faves from you readers?

If we limit the discussion to just baseball, I honestly don't believe we belong on the list. My nominations would include The Hardball Times, Fangraphs, Baseball Musings, Baseball Prospectus, The Book Blog, and USSMariner.

The Hardball Times, especially, is taken for granted more than it should be. There is some amazing stuff over there on a high-frequency basis, they led the charge on public defensive metrics (via RZR), they have some great stats (xFIP, OF arm ratings), and it's completely free (thanks, studes, et al). In fact, let's turn this BtB-pimpage into a plea for our readers to buy the Hardball Times Annual. Do it!

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Comments

Really?

These are the best?
I’d strongly disagree.
I don’t think LoHud is even the best Yankee blog. PeteAbe’s reporting is phenomenal, but his analysis – like Jon Heyman, is lacking – did you see Heyman’s top 20 remaining FA and top 20 FA contracts of all time? He had Okajima at 19 for top 20 contracts! No way. They are reporters in the purest sense.

With all due respect, River Ave. Blues is the top Yankee blog, and should be up there.

"I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science." - Ron Burgundy

by J-Gao on Jan 5, 2009 5:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Defining "blog" is also tough.

LoHud gets a TON of commenters and is a main source for Yankee reporting. But is Pete a blogger?

Hardball Times has awesome analysis, but next to zero commenters and is more like an online magazine than a blog. (Although they have Shyster Ball and a fantasy “blog”.) And do you count the stats pages? Probably not on their own, but as part of the package?

And should pure traffic and number of commenters matter? There are some REALLY popular blogs that have a REALLY dumb fan base.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 5, 2009 5:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

With Leather and Kissing Suzy Kolber are both hilarious blogs.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. - Emo Philips

Neglectful father of David Quinowski

by marcello on Jan 5, 2009 5:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

by chilibean_3 on Jan 5, 2009 7:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

How in the world did we get in, but not USSM?

by R.J. Anderson on Jan 5, 2009 5:54 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

From the FAQ

“To understand how 10 finalists are picked in each category you first have to understand how they were nominated. There was a call for nominations early in October for all of the categories. There will be thousdands of nominations overall for the various categories. The list of nominees will be pared down by myself and a team volunteers.”

USSM only had a couple of nominations – but so did Awful Announcing, so I dunno.

by Dan Turkenkopf on Jan 5, 2009 6:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm guessing team-specific blogs might have been ignored.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 5, 2009 7:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

How to explain MetsGrrrl then?

Weird criteria.

by James Kannengieser on Jan 6, 2009 11:18 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Who knows what a "blog " is anymore

but, as new guy here, I can say I’ve been a fan of BtB, HTH and BP. ALl are different types of sites/blogs, and BtB certainly deserves the nomination. Sure, others may have deserved it to and didn’t get it, but the work I’ve seen here is worthy. I hope I’m not going to ruin it :-)

by Harry Pavlidis on Jan 5, 2009 6:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Kissing Suzy Kolber is running away with it

Over 50% of the vote so far

by Dan Turkenkopf on Jan 5, 2009 6:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Just took a perusal through all the sites

Seems to an extremely high snark/humor/entertainment/hot chicks factor at most sites. Some are really only athlete-related subsections of sites like collegehumor, wwtdd, and cosmo. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 5, 2009 6:19 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

you guys deserve it

Hey Sky, thanks a lot for the THT recommendation. But you guys deserve recognition, too. You’ve been on a real roll lately. Keep up the great work.

by studes on Jan 5, 2009 6:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks.

And you, too. We’ll dedicate our win to THT. Now just let me go find my collection of photographs of athletes’ wives in their swimsuits…

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 5, 2009 7:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You all are great

but I’m pretty sure that one of the general sports ~~paprazzi~~ blogs are going to win.

Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all.

by baetown415 on Jan 5, 2009 6:41 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Congratulations

Of all the blogs up for consideration, this is the only one I read regularly. I don’t know which blog is really the best one but this one certainly belongs in the top 10 with fangraphs, hardballtimes, etc.

by LPanas on Jan 6, 2009 11:13 AM EST reply actions 0 recs