Today the Free Press had a story about the the muting of the Singing Hot Dog Vendor. I only bring this up because TigerBlog wrote about this 3 weeks ago. In fact to the best of my knowledge, Brian’s story combined with a post on the Motown Sports message board are what started this ground swell of support.
I bring this up because there is quite a bit of quality Tiger commentary and analysis being produced, and the majority isn’t coming from the major media outlets. In addition to the two sites I’ve already mentioned, there is Tigers Central which just celebrated it’s third year of existence. And if I may be so bold, I’m pretty proud of some of the work I do on this site.
None of us are journalists in the true sense of the word, we’re all fans of the Tigers and we’re passionate about what we write. We all provide different voices and styles. We’re also not constrained by a certain number of inches to fill (although some of my readers probably wish that I was a little less verbose). As a result we aren’t bound by the conventional rules of journalism, although I think we are all responsible in what we write. Also, we can go more in depth in our analysis than the beat writers can.
Other newspapers in other cities have recognized the bloggers of local teams. While well established in the baseball blogging community, we haven’t been acknowledged by by local media. I don’t know if it’s a lack of awareness, a lack of respect, or maybe we’re just not as valuable as I think we are. However, I like to think that we complement the local beat writers and columnists. We’ll never have the access to the players and team officials that the newspaper writers do so if you want quotes, and want to know why Tram made a decision that is still the place to go. Plus, I really enjoy some of the local writers. I always look forward to Lynn Henning’s pieces, and Danny Knobler is solid as well. While Pat Caputo is anti-stat which is the polar opposite of me, he still provides the toolsy information that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
I can’t speak for the other independent writers as to their motivation for writing. For me, I write first and foremost because I enjoy it. I love coming up with a new way to look at something and then sharing it with others. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care what other people thought. I do care. I enjoy when people leave comments or send me emails about something I posted because it means that someone else found it interesting. However, I’m not doing this for fame or fortune. I don’t make a dime on this site and that’s not my goal.
I don’t mean to be whining, that’s not my intention. And maybe a story about a hot dog vendor isn’t the best way to illustrate the power of blogging. However, this was a pretty clear example where the non-professionals were way ahead of the paid writers.
Although I don’t have the Article link, I do remember when Tigerblog.net had a short thing written about them somewhere on ESPN.com.
As an aside, I do not live in Michigan so I am exposed only to what is posted on-line at the Free Press site and the Detroit News site, as regards Tigers info.
Having said that, I personally get more out of sites like yours and MotownSports. Better analysis, better commentary, and more relevant information than the tired old Triple-Crown-stats-and-Win-Loss-Record pablum that you get from the “established” sources.
Keep up the good work, billfer. You are an inspiration to another starving writer.
Well said Billfer. At some point the blogging community will be recognized like it has elsewhere. The Tigers have always been an organization that is slow to react to change. As a transplant living in SoCal I get the most useful info from this site, from Tigerscentral, and from the blog at MiLive. The official website has some good stuff although a lot of it is fluff. I don’t see much of use on the Freep’s site. The News has better coverage, better analysis and better statistical coverage. I enjoy Henning and Gage and Gage a lot. But I also find lots of insightful analysis at the other sites. Eventually the bloggers and website contributors will get their due. You should be first in line Billfer.
The more sites like yours out there, the better. You say whats on your mind, as apparent in this post, and thats what fans react to and then state their opinion. Newspapers have advertisers and traditionalist to worry about, we dont. All we can do is continue to write, and let the world know what we thing.
Keep up the good work, Bill.
Ryan
More love for the independent sportswriters! I had a short-lived Detroit sports website that I ran for a while, but it’s a huge commitment. Just look at the sportswriters we’re stuck with in Detroit — dinosaurs like Joe Falls, know-nothing nincompoops like Rob Parker and Drew Sharp who will say anything to stir up controversy (but who just end up looking stupid as a result!), and Mitch Albom, who’s too busy working on his next fairy tale to write an informed sports column. Give me Wojo, then the indie websites. Oh yeah, and I’m a transplant to Madison, WI as well.
Personally, my favorite is detroitsportsrag.com, but for the Tigers this site is tremendous!