Press Row

In every news industry besides sports, blogs and websites are increasingly considered among the elite sources for information. In tech, some of the most influential outlets and journalists are bloggers or web-only, like Gizmodo, Engadget, and TechCrunch, to name a few of Technorati’s most popular blogs. The Huffington Post is one of the most read [...]

To the casual fan, the world of sports media looks stronger than ever.
Networks like ESPN/ABC and FOX offer unprecedented levels of coverage, both online and on television. (Just look at NBC’s projected coverage of the Olympics–a great read from The Globe and Mail in Canada.) The blogging realm gains more and more steam, with thousands [...]

I’ll be doing more with this in the next few days, but for now, I suppose I’m just out to prove a point.
What ESPN’s NFL Blog Network has done right now is, masterfully, duplicated the strategy that has made so many other blogs successful in recent time:
1) Take people with relative clout in the industry.
2) [...]

- The prolonged march of death for the newspaper industry continued today as the LA Times laid off 150 (!!!) of their staffers, all part of a greater plan of eventually cutting the cord on 250 employees (!!?!??!), or 17% of their staff.

The mass genocide coincided with the resignation of Ann Marie Lipinski, [...]

What Are Abbott Lines?
I remember Packer taking notes at one of those sessions, walking out late one night and saying essentially, “I’m not going to be guilty of this anymore.” And very quickly the language that so offended many of us was eliminated from his analysis. Not reduced, not lessened . . . gone. More [...]

What Are Abbott Lines?
After the legendary Boston Garden closed in 1995, auctioneers looking for salvageable memorabilia found highly valuable pieces in out-of-the-way places: An abandoned darkroom was inches deep in vintage photos of Hall of Famers, while the arena’s original blueprints were stashed in a wooden trunk near the roof. It seems safe to say [...]

What Are Abbott Lines?

So, in tribute to the Entire Internet’s Dedication to Cruelty, I give you the Chicago Tribune’s Fred Mitchell (above), who is here to compare the Cubs’ recent deal for Rich Harden to…the trade of Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio. Because this guy is also speedy, just like Lou Brock. Same/same, seen? [...]

No Abbott Lines yesterday, but I was working on one of those cool new features that I said would land this week.
And, without further ado, I present…the Press Box!
As you can see, things are still under construction and building up. But, the groundwork is there, so I wanted to unveil it.
The purpose of the Press [...]

What Are Abbott Lines?
So here’s what you do, Dolphins: You do what Green Bay isn’t doing. You welcome Favre back to football. You trade lame-duck Jason Taylor (whom the Packers have coveted) to get him. You put McCown up for sale. And then you let Beck and Henne develop for a year under the unhurried [...]

What Are Abbott Lines?
“The most illuminating thing about the book is the fact that, by and large, most football players can’t stand their fucking jobs. … There’s no job security unless you’re an All-Pro, and 99% of guys aren’t that. Most of the players can’t even figure out why they do it. They’re constantly being [...]