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I'm failing to see how Grantland is anything other than a revamped Page 2 but with Simmons in editorial control. In fact links to Page 2 are getting more and more scarce on the ESPN main page, which makes me wonder if they'll phase it out completely as Grantland gets in gear.
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May 3, 2011 17:19
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hcreight posted:I'm failing to see how Grantland is anything other than a revamped Page 2 but with Simmons in editorial control. In fact links to Page 2 are getting more and more scarce on the ESPN main page, which makes me wonder if they'll phase it out completely as Grantland gets in gear. Page 2 tried to be funnier and more quirky and badly failed in most instances while Grantland appears to be more of a throwback to the time when sports writing existed in essay form and personal opinions/experiences/views were called in to play. It has a niche carved out between E-Ticket features (more strictly reporting ventures) and regular features on the ESPN website. That said, I couldn't get more than halfway through the Knicks' piece because I can't stand to read about them, and I hope their content doesn't become romanticizing over the few teams with mainstream identities.
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May 3, 2011 17:49
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LARGE THE HEAD posted:Page 2 tried to be funnier and more quirky and badly failed in most instances while Grantland appears to be more of a throwback to the time when sports writing existed in essay form and personal opinions/experiences/views were called in to play. It has a niche carved out between E-Ticket features (more strictly reporting ventures) and regular features on the ESPN website. Yeah, I like that kind of long-form writing, but Katie Baker's piece didn't hook me. And I don't think I've ever said this before, but the summer-movie preview was probably better suited for one of those dumb slideshow articles.
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May 3, 2011 17:52
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That summer preview article was one of the worst things I've read in a while, even considering the vein it was produced in. My over under on Grantland folding is 8 months.
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May 3, 2011 18:23
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Seriously, did they need to do every single movie being released this summer?
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May 3, 2011 18:24
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Halal to the Chief posted:That summer preview article was one of the worst things I've read in a while, even considering the vein it was produced in. Simmons' fanbase alone will probably make it fairly successful, especially if they link to it on the front page of ESPN for awhile. I'm not a huge fan, but he's almost certainly the most popular sports writer working right now.
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May 3, 2011 18:27
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MorningView posted:Simmons' fanbase alone will probably make it fairly successful, especially if they link to it on the front page of ESPN for awhile. I'm not a huge fan, but he's almost certainly the most popular sports writer working right now. I agree with Simmons' popularity, but considering the number of writers they are talking about using, it will get expensive quick. If it doesn't get the hits (which no article except for ones featuring Simmons or Klosterman will) the plug is likely to get pulled. Disney is super tightfisted when it comes to stuff like this.
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May 3, 2011 18:32
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My old college professor, Lynn Hoppes, took over Page2 a couple of years ago and it's slowly died under him. It gets almost no front-page coverage outside of TMQ anymore.
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May 3, 2011 18:41
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Simmons and Klosterman will probably get enough hits to make up for everyone else initially (and some of the other guys like Barnwell are coming in with their own established readership too), and I'm sure plenty of people will start checking out the other writers just because of their association with the site and Simmons. I don't know if it will actually be good, but I would bet that a lot of people will at least visit the site on a regular basis. If some people aren't generating hits, then they can cut some of that dead weight down the road, but it doesn't mean they'll shut down the whole site. Also I think they're going to give it quite a bit of time to sink or swim just because it seems like a huge deal to Simmons and they don't want to risk pissing him off and losing him, which I could see happening considering how thin skinned he is.
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May 3, 2011 18:46
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True, Simmons is a gigantic baby and draws a lot of water.
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May 3, 2011 18:47
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Simmons is kind of a douche, and his shtick has gotten stale for me personally, but I don't get why people are being overly pessimistic about Grantland. The previews have just been so-so, but there's some legitimate talent being brought in. A regular forum for long-form, feature-style sportswriting seems like a nice step for ESPN. Just like E-Ticket, it'll probably be hit or miss, but at least it's an attempt to break out of their normal rut. People were more than eager to poo poo on 30 For 30 before that came out, too, and it produced some pretty stellar hours of television.
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May 3, 2011 19:07
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I'm not going to prejudge the site. I am generally all for long-form journalism (New or otherwise) without regard to genre provided that you have something interesting to say because otherwise it's unreadable florid bullshit. It'll be a step in the right direction for sports journalism provided that the writers are talented (and I'm not familiar with all of them). The Katie Baker piece isn't that bad, it's just not that good and the prose a little excessive and the last thing I want to read is material by writers that think they're more Norman Mailer than Dick Schaap. Not saying that this will be the case. My position is that sports are somewhat low-brow (sorry if that offends) and adding a Harper's-level layer of pretension to sports writing could very well lead to Grantland being unenjoyable for me personally.
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May 3, 2011 19:28
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Why is Simmons so popular? Is it a Boston thing?
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May 3, 2011 20:19
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:Why is Simmons so popular? Is it a Boston thing? It's definitely not. I know plenty of people who like him even though they don't care about Boston sports. I think it's mostly because he hit on a type of sportswriting that seemed really fresh and new at the time. He's grown increasingly stale, but when he started out his style of writing genuinely was pretty different for what was being done (especially because it was before the explosion of sports blogs and guys trying to write like Simmons). He wrote purely from the perspective of a fan, tended to frame sports in terms of what they meant to him personally, mixed in tons of pop culture reference (which I think tend to be mostly awkward and unfunny, but it was unique and lots of people like it), and tried to be funny. For lot of people I think it was like what would happen if one of their friends got a national sports column, and there was something appealing about that.
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May 3, 2011 20:39
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MorningView posted:For lot of people I think it was like what would happen if one of their friends got a national sports column, and there was something appealing about that. Exactly this. People see Simmons as someone literally writing to them, as though in a letter or an e-mail. It's almost like Simmons has woken up to the power he now holds in the past several years, and he has two books, a critically successful documentary project and a new sportswriting project on top of that. It's commendable, really.
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May 3, 2011 20:53
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MorningView posted:It's definitely not. I know plenty of people who like him even though they don't care about Boston sports. I think it's mostly because he hit on a type of sportswriting that seemed really fresh and new at the time. This is pretty much it. He nailed the "common man" writing perfectly, before blogging was really a huge thing, and he had the excess Boston baggage to add the sports-fan-as-torture angle. 2001, man! A long drat time ago. Since then, his favorite teams have won like seven championships and what once was cute pop culture sadomasochism is now a really rich dude that is a fan of successful sports teams making Entourage references and talking about his friend Jimmy Kimmel.
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May 3, 2011 20:56
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:Why is Simmons so popular? Is it a Boston thing? I hate all the teams he likes except for the Patriots and I like him. I don't really read his columns that much though, I just like the BS Report.
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May 3, 2011 22:05
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That Simmons article comparing the NBA playoffs to The Wire has got to be his worse poo poo yet.
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May 3, 2011 23:07
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I don't know, it reminded me that I hadn't watched The Wire in a real long time so now I'm re-watching it as I study. So that's something.
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May 3, 2011 23:16
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When you get to season 4 where the kids are coming to terms of how hosed up their life in the neighborhood is cause of all the death around them, remember to picture Zach Randolph dunking over Tim Duncan. *watches Wallace start crying, pissing himself and then being shot by his best friends* "Melo......" Man-In-Madden fucked around with this message at 23:28 on May 3, 2011 |
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May 3, 2011 23:25
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Simmons isn't bad and I really love good long-form journalism but there's probably not a writer that they could get that could outdo Posnanski and Smith for SI unless they dredge up John Updike and tell him to write purely sports articles, so I'll probably go to the SI Vault or Joe's blog more. That said, I hope it does well enough to continue because that preview article is probably in the 90th percentile of sports journalism, as sad as that is.
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May 3, 2011 23:38
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Man-In-Madden posted:That Simmons article comparing the NBA playoffs to The Wire has got to be his worse poo poo yet. i dunno, i thought that was pretty drat good and is one of the main reasons why i read Simmons.
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May 3, 2011 23:47
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Just gonna go ahead and cross-post this from the N/V thread http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110503&content_id=18575184&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
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May 4, 2011 00:15
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Ugh when did MLB hire Terrence Moore 
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May 4, 2011 00:41
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So Gehrig is a confirmed pixie dust user? Explains the steep drop off when MLB started testing now doesn't it? 
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May 4, 2011 01:11
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AlleyViper posted:Just gonna go ahead and cross-post this from the N/V thread Ah back to the old "A Rod only hits dingers when it doesn't matter" fallacy. I wonder how many of Barry Bonds' home runs won World Series. Hint, none. By the way the grand slam isn't some mythical mark to set when Travis Hafner has 11 or 12 of them.
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May 4, 2011 01:30
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Man-In-Madden posted:That Simmons article comparing the NBA playoffs to The Wire has got to be his worse poo poo yet. Agreed, though mostly because I haven't watched the wire and am looking forward to doing so. An article based entirely off spoilers. gently caress you Simmons. Yes I bitched about this in the NBA thread already.
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May 4, 2011 08:41
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Halal to the Chief posted:Agreed, though mostly because I haven't watched the wire and am looking forward to doing so. The series finale was three years ago. How long does someone have to wait before referencing major events from a series after it's off the air?
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May 4, 2011 11:30
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While I'm sure it is a true struggle to not read Bill Simmons, it's not like he's not telling you upfront what the article is. Plus, yeah, at some point the statute of limitations on spoilers has to run. Do you get mad when people talk about how Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's dad too?
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May 4, 2011 12:35
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MorningView posted:While I'm sure it is a true struggle to not read Bill Simmons, it's not like he's not telling you upfront what the article is. Plus, yeah, at some point the statute of limitations on spoilers has to run. Do you get mad when people talk about how Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's dad too? Yeah, my point is more that I want to read the article, because I normally enjoy is basketball pieces (not so much recently though) but can't because it's filled with spoilers. And comparing Star Wars and a show that is still pretty obscure to most of the population is dumb. edit: Though since it's obscure it's dumb to argue that too.
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May 4, 2011 12:49
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Halal to the Chief posted:Yeah, my point is more that I want to read the article, because I normally enjoy is basketball pieces (not so much recently though) but can't because it's filled with spoilers. Bah, ignore me, I had a bad day and am cranky and saying dumb things, sorry.
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May 4, 2011 13:38
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Halal to the Chief posted:Bah, ignore me, I had a bad day and am cranky and saying dumb things, sorry. considering how popular The Wire is on SA, i was wondering if someone was actually going to complain about the spoilers in that article.
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May 4, 2011 17:17
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is there like a sub-genre of "let's compare things from The Wire to this set of things" articles on the internet because I've read a ton I particularly liked the one about comparing characters from The Wire to beer (Prez is Newcastle)
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May 4, 2011 23:28
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Fag Boy Jim posted:is there like a sub-genre of "let's compare things from The Wire to this set of things" articles on the internet because I've read a ton Hahaha link this please tia
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May 5, 2011 01:21
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LARGE THE HEAD posted:Hahaha link this please tia Here http://tinyurl.com/3katf58
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May 5, 2011 01:37
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Fag Boy Jim posted:Here Fantastic, thanks again. Audibly laughing at many of these.
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May 5, 2011 03:00
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Yeah this Wire::Beer article is awesome.
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May 5, 2011 03:20
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I had the unfortunate experience of coming across this Steve Rushin piece today. He really gets paid to write this stuff?Steve Rushin posted:Nearly all of those guys we remember playing into senility -- Gaylord Perry, Warren Spahn, Rickey Henderson, Tony Perez -- were 44 when they retired. 
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May 5, 2011 18:11
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I haven't heard of this writer/blogger before, Paul Liebowitz, but he publishes an annual MLB guide and seems to be fairly prolific blogger. In any event, he's just flat out tired of "stat people" and MLB organizations being so darn mean to players. On a tweet from Rob Neyer about Jeter's performance so far this season: quote:There’s a meanness that emanates from some stat people like Neyer and Keith Law that’s off-putting; perhaps it’s from never having played the game of baseball; perhaps it’s a bitterness that comes from writing about an activity and longing so desperately to have their way seen as correct; or maybe they’re just obnoxious jerks. And from a few days ago, an article about how the Rangers have the audacity to put the best interests of the organization and winning ballgames as priorities over making Michael Young and Neftali Feliz "happy": quote:Rangers closer Neftali Feliz, currently on the disabled list with a sore shoulder, has stated his desire to be a closer for the rest of his career.
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May 5, 2011 20:50
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quote:I would dearly love for these writers, bolstered by their perceived untouchability stemming from being on the internet (internet muscularity and courage) to have to confront the player against whom they utter this idiocy. I too would love to see sportswriters tell Jeter to his face that he's washed up and should be benched. If only to watch the frantic efforts of the media to give a positive spin to him responding like a selfish baby, as he has for his whole career.
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May 5, 2011 22:58
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