The Top 10 Bay Area Sports Blogs: Swimming With the Sharks

To borrow from a giant who walked before me, whoa Nellie!

When I set out to find the 10 best blogs focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area sports’ landscape, I had zero idea about the world into which I was stepping.

Let’s be clear about this.

I'm not an old hand in the blogosphere.  My eight months (and counting) on Bleacher Report encompass the entirety of my cyber-contributing life.  I had heard about the nasty trolls slouching around the Web, about the online parasites sucking the good people of the globe dry and using LANs as their straws.

But it was all hearsay.  Until now.

Good LORD—the virtual world beyond our B/R walls is terrifying.

No way will I link to examples, but—and I’m testing my limits of journalistic restraint here—there is a lot of unpolished stuff floating around the ether.  Worse, there’s a lot of hateful, vulgar venom being spewed that made me blush (so much for restraint).

That's no easy feat considering I’m a veteran of a high school locker room, a high school dugout, a college rugby bus, and a college fraternity.

Yes, it was a Stanford rugby bus and fraternity.

Trust me on this one, a Stanford or Harvard or any other super-special diploma isn't mutually exclusive with a propensity for meatheadedness.  Even if it were, individual intelligence matters very little when you put 45 men-children in one house and allow them to be their own supervision.

But back to the matter at hand.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m still an avid supporter of said blogosphere.  The offal I encountered is not indicative of bloggers so much as it is the price of freedom of expression.  The EXACT same thing would happen in print media if every yahoo with an opinion could afford to publish a newspaper or magazine.

Even in the hallowed ground of traditional journalism, lots of garbage gets through (cough, Selena Roberts) so you can’t put it on bloggers in general.

Just be careful what you Google for...

Without further ado:

10.  The Bay Area Sports Machine's blog

See kids, this is what happens when you're crass and sidle up to vulgarity for no good reason.

If the BASM could play it a little cleaner, I'd have it much higher because the writing can be damn funny at times, is usually spot on intelligent, and manages to fold some eclectic themes (like Malcolm Gladwell) into narratives based on athletics. 

The blog also enjoys several other strengths—extensive coverage of most major Bay Area sports, impressive access considering it seems to be one of the aforementioned free-lance yahoos, and a healthy dose of irreverence.

Unfortunately, the author feels the need to go a little heavy on the shock-jock treatment and hurts the overall package.

9.  Bay Area Sports Blog

This is basically just a slightly more sophisticated version of the BASM's blog.

Another site that can be funny and insightful, but tries to force itself into a Deadspin mold.  The problem is, without the novelty the original parlayed into success, these later versions just feel like cheap, wickery imitations.

There is some nice local coverage and it hits all the major attractions, but the potty humor/adolescent feel was stale before these guys picked up the mantle and ran with it.

The BASB even takes it to another level by aping Deadspin's template.  Eerie.

Only the gentler vulgarity keeps it at No. 9.

8.  Fast Break by Adam Lauridsen

Yeah, maybe I'm biased in Adam's favor because he's an attorney and I'm waiting on California Bar results.  So sue me (thank you, thank you, don't forget to tip your waitress).

Nausea-inducing puns aside, Lauridsen does a fantastic job digesting the comings and goings in the Golden State Warriors' universe, especially since he's just in it for the fun.  Although the contributions aren't as frequent as the others on this list, I'm cutting him some slack since, you know, he's got another job that can tend to drain your time.

Fast Break is also Warriors-only so No. 8 it is.

7.  The Splash by Henry Schulman

Our lone San Francisco Chronicle representative shows up at No. 7 because he limits himself to the Giants, but doesn't do as sound a job as the others who'll we'll see higher.

Perhaps I'm holding The Chron against him because, as the Bay Area's premier newspaper, I figure it should give him an advantage over his colleagues.  Consequently, when he puts out similar stuff, it looks worse since it's under a stronger microscope.

The real problem, though, is the Brian Wilson Twitter tempest in a teapot Schulman helped create speaks to an uncomfortable willingness on Henry's part to pander to the sensationalistic angle.

I'm sick of that useless tripe.

6.  McCovey Chronicles

Did I mention I was first and foremost a Giants fan?

This is another Giants-only site, but it reaches deeper into the ballclub's bag o' tricks.  Not only does it cover the fellas at the Major League Baseball level, the authors make a habit of looking closely at the farm to see how the young kids are developing.

The writing is fantastic and the Chronicles keep most of their stuff above board.  However, its ranking gets hurt by a relatively myopic view of the Bay Area sports without sufficient bells and whistles to recover.

And this seems to be the only member who relies on multiple contributors.

5.  After School by David Kiefer

This is the lone blog I ran across that paid attention to Bay Area high schoolers and wasn't sophomoric to the point of absurdity.

Kiefer is under the employ of the San Jose Mercury News and appears to be soaked in local HS lore by virtue of being a homegrown product.

I don't know squat about HS sports nor do I care to follow them.

But, if such is your thing, look no further because Kiefer's got you covered with the inside info as well as a very astute personal take on the scene (from what I could tell).  Although his reach only extends over Santa Clara County, that's a big area with some storied and strong athletic programs so there's plenty of material.

Kiefer will keep you current on which native product is going where and how he or she should stack up.  Not only that, he'll make sure you know where the best Bay Area action can be found for live viewing pleasure.

It's not for everyone, but it's Heaven if it's down your alley.

4.  Dan Dibley's blog

Another one of the establishment, for shame.

Dibley's part of the KNBR machine and, to be honest, I've never listened to talk radio of any variety so I don't know what the guy is like on air.  But this is about cyberspace not the radio waves and his written work is hilarious.

I know I'm contradicting myself a bit here because Dibley is nothing if not apocalyptic in his stance on my guys in the Orange and Black.  In fact, he seems to be a self-professed borderline hater and makes a habit of predicting abject failure for the home nine.

Hey, nobody's perfect.

And Dibley's funny enough to atone.

For instance, his bit likening an SF baseball game to a soccer match stings, but only a little because I'm laughing when the blow is delivered.  Can I really argue his overall point?  Absolutely not because SF's O is putrid (to date).

Furthermore, Dibley doesn't hide from his errors.

A little bit down the linked page, you can read him offer a mea culpa to Barry Zito for previously dogging the pricey southpaw.  That's so refreshing in the modern climate of lie-cheat-twist-turn-contort-to-avoid-admitting-a-mistake that it, alone, is good for a rung or two on this ladder.

3.  Bay Area Sports Guy's blog

I'm a little torn putting this one so high because the name is brutal.  I mean, c'mon folks, let's have just a tiny bit of creativity here.

You won't find me championing Bill Simmons too often, but my man was first to market with that name and the Bay Area version is straight coat-tailing the Boston original.  That ain't cool—not in the ethical sense and not in the James Dean one, either.

However, I really like the substance of the blog and I've always been a function over form kinda guy (plus the rest of the blog's aesthetics aren't too bad) so it gets the nod at No. 3.

Obviously, all of the reps on this list will know their sports and be well-written, effectively communicating the author's thoughts—those were the entry fees to even get into the discussion.  The ones that survived the discussion have another hook.

And the BASG is no different.

It stands out because it tackles all the San Francisco sports (sorry Oak-town) and includes the larger picture as well.  For instance, the Warriors have been eliminated, but the blog's National Basketball Association coverage continues.

I was surprised to see how many blogs simply cut off the sport once a team's season was through.

Additionally, what the BASG begs for in title novelty, he more than compensates with relevant knowledge and keen observations.  You may not disagree with his dissection of the Los Angeles Lakers/Houston Rockets matchup, but you can't say it's lacking sound logic or basketball acumen.

The same can be said for this analysis of the Giants' performance against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.

2. Talking Points by Tim Kawakami

I wish I could throw more love to some writers who are farther off the grid.  I really do.

Unfortunately, I don't make the rules of objectivity, I just try to live by them.  And that means calling 'em like I read 'em, regardless of where my underdog loyalties lie.

And Kawakami's blog is stellar, just a few hairs off the top spot.  So the fact he's another hired gun (and by that all I mean is he gets paid) for the SJ Merc can't be held against him.

All the more so because this hombre reaches across the Bay Bridge and scoops up some Oakland story lines without skipping a beat.  That puts him in rare air.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of Kawakami's approach is his affinity for equity.  He'll usually address both sides of an issue and do so sincerely before coming to a conclusion.  That's an uncommon thing in life, forget about the blogosphere or any other branch of journalism.

He's even willing to extend courtesy to unpopular or unsympathetic figures by trying to see things from their perspective, as he does when picking keepers from the current crop of Bay Area ballplayers (thusly approximating the role of a general manager and/or owner).

1.  Extra Baggs by Andrew Baggarly

There are several ways a blog made my list.  It could either be chock-full of great information, extremely well-written, or some mixture of both.

Baggarly, who is a Gents beat writer for (yet again) the Merc, manages to hit both aspects right out o' the park and earns himself the place of honor.

In his blog, Andrew manages to be funny and insightful while keeping a firm grasp on reality.

One problem a lot of the lesser examples suffered from was a bipolar tendency—a couple of good games and the team was destined for a World Series or Super Bowl or whatever, then a couple of bad games would send the author careening in the other direction.  Extra Baggs keeps an even keel.

However, the inside dope is where Baggarly really outshines the competition.

This latest example about Bill Hayes, the Giants' bullpen catcher, is a perfect example of the additional layer Extra Baggs brings to its coverage as well as its overall genius.  Baggarly uncovers a human interest angle in an obscure spot and then links it to a front page name (Buster Posey) without losing the original focus on Hayes.

All the while, he flirts with comedy, melancholy, and profundity without ever losing the thread of entertainment.  And this is a story about a bullpen catcher.

Wow.  That's No. 1 with a bullet.

So there you have it—the one and only, the definitive list of the top 10 Bay Area Sports blogs. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Nah, just messin' with you.

Top 10 lists are almost always the height of subjectivity, perhaps none more so than this one.  Further complicating matters, since cyberspace is cluttered with examples (even of blogs so focused on a particular demographic), there's a decent chance I never even read some that may be worthy of a spot in the top 10.

If that's the case, a thousand apologies and let me know about it.

Colorful language welcomed...but, remember, there are children Googling.

**www.pva.org**