On blogging and bashing the Leafs

My Friday column was all about sports blogs, since I forgot that I needed to write something for the paper. Whoops. I guess it's true what they say - "neccessity is the mother of invention and slapped-together articles." Or something like that...

But during my, ahem, "research," I came across some really interesting blogs - like Michael Lyon's.

(Click on the banner).
This guy was an embedded journalist and has some amazing stories from Iraq, like this one. My kind of journalist . . . although he is definitely pro-American. Not pro-war or pro-bush, but he identifies and supports the soldiers he lived with. He also took one of the most moving pictures of the year - Time magazine ranked it No. 1 (see HERE) during his time over there. If you have some time, read all about it.

Anyways, here's the crappy story I wrote for Friday's paper. I have a long way to go before I'm in shootouts with terrorists in Iraq.

On blogging and bashing the Leafs

Q: So why do they drink out of glasses in Toronto?
A: Because all the Cups are in Montreal.
Ba-dump-pa! Try the veal . . . I’m here all week, folks.
Right about now, as you are reading this, my managing editor is cursing a mean blue streak and devising ways to send me on assignment to Kazakhstan.
Not that the first paragraph was an example of amateurish journalism (it is) or, at the very least, was a bad joke (it most definitely is). But the aforementioned Mr. John Harding, a long-suffering Maple Leafs fan, didn’t find the joke very amusing when I told it to him last night. And I know it’ll have even less appeal while he’s drinking his morning coffee.
Yep, I hear Kazakhstan is nice this time of year.
It used to be that, as a columnist, I had near sole propriety of the domain of public opinion. I had a forum where I could voice my views, such as the perennial suckiness of the Leafs, and broadcast it to a large audience.
But the advent of the popularity of blogging has created a whole new breed of pseudo-sports journalists, to the point where CNN even has a segment where anchors read various blogs.
(Blogging, for those of you old enough to wear bifocals, is an online journal — a “web-log,” so to speak. It gained popularity about five years ago, but the number of blogs in the “blogosphere” has exploded in recent years.)
There are blogs from soldiers in Iraq, news blogs, gardening blogs, first-baby blogs, cooking blogs, and personal blogs that are just ways for friends and family to keep in touch.
Sports blogs are probably the most popular and well-read sites on the Net, full of humour, rumours and tidbits that most pro athletes wouldn’t want as public knowledge.
Every morning, after I’m done scanning the headlines in the paper — and reading the comics, of course — I usually grab my coffee and spend an hour or so cruising my favourite blogs.
Here’s just a few:
Badjocks.com: Always good for digging up dirt. Where else can you read about what actually happened on the Vikings’ infamous boat cruise? Plus stories about goats and cheerleaders. Really.
TheHaterNation.com: As loath as I am to promote a site that boastfully admits of its disdain for my Oakland Raiders, this is one of the best football blogs around.
Hockeyfan.blogspot.com: Mike, a 28-year-old broadcaster from Pennsylvania, has a pretty insightful blog, despite his somewhat disturbing crush on Team USA hockey player Kathleen Kauth.
Redmile.blogspot.com: The Okanagan is full of transplanted Calgary Flames fans. Greg, from Victoria, has a photo-filled site, but has a somewhat disturbing crush on the Flames.
Blogmaverick.com: It makes sense that the only billionaire who made his money off the internet and owns an NBA team has a blog. Mark Cuban is very accessible — even personally
answering fans’ e-mails — and his exchanges with Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley are classic.
The two best blogs are best left for last.
TheMightyMJD.com: “Slangin’ knowledge since 2003.” One of the funniest and well-written blogs out there, covering every major sport. His take on Donovan McNabb’s feud with the NAACP had me snorting hot coffee through my nose. Which ain’t fun, lemme tell ya.
Deadspin.com: Arguably the most popular general sports blog on the Net. One comment on the Vikings’ latest woes, with four players charged with misdemeanours Thursday: “The good news is that there were no federal charges filed. The bad news is that next year’s rookie party is going to be at a playground, with Grimace, the Hamburgler and a smattering of very nervous minimum wage McDonald’s workers.”
Or, of course, you can start your own, (Blogger.com is a good place to begin) and tell the world just how the Canadiens are a way better team than the Leafs.
I did.