Take me out to the ballgame...

Third Blog Entry--Week of July 13th
I look forward to this starting again every November -- February and revel in it’s excitement and strategy every March – October. It’s baseball. I feel a loss at the end of every season and yet…despite the fact that it’s not in the news every day, I still have to get my fill of this God – forsaken necessity. Luckily, I have found a number of ways to inundate myself with this passion, 24/7/365.

First of all, there is every sport lovers tried and true, ESPN.com. This site is basically the Cliff Notes for all sports stories. Though I am a sports fan, tried and true, baseball is my first love. When I log on, I always go for the baseball page link. There are always numerous articles to read, blogs to follow, and headlines to capture my eye. However, ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, CT. For this reason, like all reporting agents, it has a bias. In this case it is for New York and Boston. If you’re looking for news about the Bronx Bombers, the Amazin’s or Red Sox Nation, this is the site for you.

For those with taste and a sense of humor, there are sites for the Chicagoans too. CSNChicago.com, the home site for Comcast SportsNet in Chicago, is the Midwest’s version of ESPN. With everything Cubs, Blackhawks, Bulls, Bears, and Sox, this has everything you can hear on sports radio and more. There are clips, articles by reporters whose job it is to follow those teams specifically (Mecca of the occupational world), box scores, shopping opportunities for the Chicago sports fan in you, “This week’s schedule,” poll questions to get the reader involved and right in the action, standings, and more.

Thought there are other good sites, my favorite by far is MLBTraderumors.com. This is a bipartisan view of rumors, trades, and articles/news going on in baseball, year round. This site has reporters and editors from newspapers and radio from around the nation. It also reports on international rumblings. The reasons that I like this site is the fact that it also is a blog of sorts. Reporters and others hired by MLBTR, scour the new wires and comment on each other’s articles. There are live chat room sessions where readers can log in to ask questions and state opinions and thoughts, and posts are made as they happen. Along these same lines, multiple postings are made on previously posted articles which means that as one specific topic may be covered in one posting, as more information is learned about that happening, another post relating to that same topic may be made an hour later. Another fact that makes this site so comprehensive is that links to the reporters actual articles are also included. This allows me to really synch into the news from multiple perspectives.

Finally, for those truly ensconced in all things baseball, there are countless rotisserie baseball leagues where participants can become General Managers of teams. This requires a “league” to be formed where fellow GMs hold mock drafts, operate budgets, make trades, line ups, deal with injured players, roam the minor leagues for talent, and occupy every waking moment with…BASEBALL!