Press Row

We here at Press Row are excited to announce our first group of Access Awards contestants for August 2008.  Voting is now open on the poll on the right sidebar of the homepage.  To give voting an entire week, we will end on 12 AM, Tuesday, September 2nd.

We received many high quality submissions for this month’s Awards, which from our view, already makes this process a victory. One of the major reasons for starting the Awards was to highlight talent within the sports blogosphere, making note of quality writing and a general job well done wherever it might be.

The fact that so many solid, up-and-coming sports websites found their way to Press Row so quickly not only raises hope for the future of the Access Awards, but also shows how many great sports minds exist out there. In about three weeks, we received a bunch of great submissions. Who knows how many more are out there?

All that being said, we had to limit this month’s awards program to five sports blogs to go up for voting. If you weren’t selected, don’t worry—we’ll reconsider your blog next month. And, if you don’t win the August poll, we’ll re-submit you for September automatically. Don’t forget to submit your great sports blog for consideration.

So, without further ado, here are this month’s five entries to the Access Awards.

- Pigskin Podcast

Birthday: January 2008
Website type: Podcast, general football
In their own words: Four college buddies spread out across the Eastern part of the U.S. Most of the group with radio experience. Had an idea to put a football site together, doing a podcast a week. Instead, it’s turned into a rapidly growing site with daily blogs, links packages and two podcasts a week. Guests have included college football guru Phil Steele and bloggers from across the country, which we think is important because that’s what we are: Guys with opinions who want to be heard.
Press Pass: They boast a pretty strong cast of writers, among them, an award-winning newspaper staffer, a radio station sports director, a Class A play-by-play announcer and a former college campus radio man and a former sports information GA. They doubled their unique visitors from June to July, to about 3,200 unique visits.

- Hoops Addict

Birthday: January 2006
Website type: Blog/online magazine, general basketball
In their own words: HoopsAddict.com is an online magazine that addresses the professional basketball scene and all of the amateur ranks that make up the basketball landscape. Since its creation in 2006, the publication has evolved from an independent blog to the credentialed media outlet it is today. In the online basketball community, Hoops Addict is one of a select few fan-inspired sites that looks to marry the die-hard fan’s passion with the objective journalistic conventions necessary for legitimate access to the game at its various levels.
Press Pass: Ryan McNeill is the editor for Hoops Addict and has appeared on NBA XL and WSRQ 1220. Ryan has covered the NBA with media credentials since the 2007 season. Assistant editor Austin Kent recently conducted a very humanizing interview with Hawks F Josh Smith, right after he earned himself $58 million.

- The Bob Mantz Blitz

Birthday: around July 2008
Website type: general sports news, opinions, satire
In their own words: Extensive list of works listed here on Bleacher Report. Had over 12,000 hits in August already.
Press Pass: The man’s done well lately—Mantz was recognized in many outlets as scooping the Favre-to-NYJ elephant and has been mentioned on some of New York’s top sports radio shows.

- Sports Agent Blog

Birthday: December 2005
Website type: sports agent encyclopedia
In their own words: A detailed write-up about the many contributors from the site.
Press Pass: Very impressive. Anyone who scours Google looking for insight into the sports representation business must end up at Sports Agent Blog. A full list of agencies, a good number of agent interviews, and an internship database—among them, positions to fill for the sports agency of the site’s creator.

- SportsBiz

Birthday: January 2005
Website type: sports business news and commentary
In their own words: My blog is one of the only, if not the only, blog that focuses exclusively on the business of sports and is not written by a professional and working journalist.  That gives me a little bit freer range of topics although not necessarily as much original material.
Press Pass: An interesting site in the vein of SportsBusiness Journal, the author, Mark Ament, brings a Florio-esque background as an attorney who had worked in sports and corporate law, and it shows—his posts have a definite “economist” viewpoint to them. He signs his e-mails with the appropriate tagline of, “When it comes to sports, you know it’s all about the money.”