Thanks SML; I will indeed touch on some of those topics. I'm definitely intrigued by the growth of sports blogs because of Deadspin. Going back to 2004, there were plenty of free blog sites available through Xanga, Live Journal, and Blogger. Why didn't more people get the sports blogging itch then? And don't tell me there weren't commenters back then; I shuffled through an old blog of mine, and it wasn't hard to get 15-20 comments on a post. I'd be ridiculously happy with those numbers today.

Anyway, Deadspin's influence on sports blogging, in the end, might be how many blogs and styles it launched as a direct result of people coming in contact with the site. That would be a cool legacy. I blogged before Deadspin, but my experience with Deadspin made me finally open up an all-sports blog.

Wow. Great stuff guys. Cool summary for a book someday. And to think it was Jenn Sterger's blog that made me say, hey I used to write, maybe I can do this blogging thing. Oh, and Gottleib mentioning Deadspin one night on ESPN radio, one the few times I ever listened to sports radio.

But anyway, you guys are doing great work.

excellent, excellent, excellent

For some reaosn I've always found people who write blogs calling themselves "editor" incorrect and slightly pretentious.

Indian Playa firmly believes he doesn't get enough mentions here, but he appreciates this one!

Yeah, good shit SML. I am pretty sure that I got the most out of this amongst your readers. Before May this year, i barely knew what a blog was if you could believe that. My brother told me it was very easy to start, so that influenced me. Like you said that has probably influenced a lot of others.

But I'm wondering, could one of the reasons there are so many people are inspired to start sports blogs today because there has been a steady decline in the competency of mainstream sports coverage? it was never great, but the last few years have been simply awful... led by ESPN of course.

Finally, true Hoop was a great pick-up by ESPN...

Hey guys, thanks for the positive feedback.

On to the comments: MC Bias, you are correct. It was easier to get comments back then, but I don´t think Deadspin is to blame. It´s the money in general. Back then guys had time to comment on other people´s blogs - Skeets, Henry Abbott, Caveman, D-Wil (used to comment at FD a bit), Joey from Straight Bangin´, etc.

Now they all have their own sites that they have to constantly update, and it´s harder to find time to comment on other people´s sites. Also a possible factor: back then you could post sporadically and not lose your audience... MJD posted at night, like three posts, and then disappeared for two or three days before posting again. Skeets posted sporadically. I guess now a days people have to keep updating their sites to keep the audience coming back. That´s also a reason why you have so many blogs that just take a headline and add very little to it, just because they want to put something new out there for people to read.

Brian: also a pet peeve of mine, though I use it, too. I´ll stop being a hypocrite, and take editor out of my vocab. In fact, anyone who refuses to just called themselves a blogger, thinking that they are a journalist or reporter or something... I don´t think so. For the most part, bloggers don´t "create" news. And that´s fine - that´s not why people go to blogs in the first place.

Indian Playa: how did does stock options turn out? ;)

Modi: Chicken or egg? Great question... a discussion for another time, but some would argue that ESPN and their ilk have become more vicious and opinated in their coverage to compete with blogs. Of course, they shouldn´t be competing with lowly blogs, but if they did take these blogs as a legit threat... and some of these websites get more hits than ESPN´s page 2, by far... then you could make that connection that blogs influenced ESPN to change it´s style for the worse. I haven´t done enough research into that topic to present anything as a definite opinion just yet, but I will probably try to tackle that at some point....

I don't get any love with a response to my comment? Was it the "Jenn Sterger inspired me" line? Am I blacklisted now?

Oh and by the way, I will continue to call myself "writer/editor" of The Serious Tip. Here's why: most of my posts are written out on scrap paper at work, brought home, typed up, then peered over for an hour or two, read and re-read, corrected a few times, then finally posted. That's the way I have always done things. Hence writing and editing.

Awesome post. Great to learn about some of the amazing writers who predated my original attempt to start a blog in December 31, 2005.

I am wondering how many specific "niche" blogs there are out there that cover sports topics other than the major sports.

I know of mine, Sports Law Blog, Darren Rovell's blog, and a few others. Maybe one day, ESPN will try to buy up one of our "other" type of sports blogs. :)

I'm done with part 1, SML. Tiring work, and probably wrong, but it's the best I can remember.

I think a major reason why blogs don't inspire much confidence is exactly the thing you mentioned - we tend to pop up, post furiously for a few months, and then get bored and move on.

I'm saying this because I am struggling with that very problem myself - writing a "general sports" blog is a bit tiring, and it's more difficult to get readers interested if they don't know what to expect. My one-year anniversary is coming up, and I feel like it's been twice that long.

Just wanted to say thanks for the post. As I mentioned on MC Bias, this is really interesting stuff to me, since I haven't kept up with all the "insider trading" of the sports blog world up to this point.

Thanks for the kind words about my old Monday Morning Noter column/blog. I'm still alive. :-)