Some new ventures in sports media

With sports writing and blogging pursuits filling my days (among other things), I found a few links worth sharing and explaining here as I try to practice what I’m preaching about finding new ways to do the news. Or in this case, sports.

Today the Boston Globe launched a weekly print sports tabloid it calls “OT” for “Our Town, Our Teams.” The focus is on local pro sports teams, and that’s certainly one of the best sports towns in America with the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins.

With sports fans increasingly getting their daily fix from TV, radio and the Web, the focus here is to offer one all-encompassing print read as the weekend approaches. It features the work of Charles Pierce, for my money one of the best and most entertaining writers of sports and other subjects (Disclaimer: He’s also an acquaintance, as we previously wrote for the same basketball magazine).

Sportsline.com founder Mike Levy has started a new fan-oriented venture called OpenSports.com, in which fans can create their own web pages. The heavy thrust here is toward fantasy sports, which Levy is pegging as a potential major source of revenue. He figures he will invest between $40 million to $50 million with a target of turning a profit in three years.

If you think the fantasy realm has been tapped dry, think again. Levy’s goal: to have the best sports site on the web.

While the National Hockey League continues to struggle for exposure in most of the U.S., it’s making big strides toward becoming more fan-friendly on the web. A fantasy partnership with Yahoo is one of key features. Here’s a sneak preview of the revamped league homepage.

And a sports media reporter who recently left his newspaper has begun a blog devoted in part to that topic.

A former colleague explains what’s ahead for him, and how he’s warmed up to blogging.

The death of a sportswriting pioneer

I never met Mary Garber, and can’t say that she influenced my decision to get into sportswriting because I hadn’t heard of her when I got started. But she earned some belated and deserved attention in her later years.

Garber has died at the age of 92. She was forced to retire from full-time work at the age of 70, but didn’t stop writing altogether until 2002. Garber is the only woman to receive the Red Smith Award, the highest honor for sportswriters.

For me that kind of work was the most satisfying and relevant I’ve ever done, despite sneers in the profession that sports was nothing more than the “Toy Department.”

There is still a stunning lack of women covering games and the whole business of sports, although I’m attempting a bit of a comeback these days. The shrinking newsrooms aren’t helping, either. Two other women who took the buyout with me from my paper also were veteran sportswriters.

So the variety of voices covering sports remains rather limited — generally young, brash, male and rather self-indulgent — and the sports media culture reflects that.

Leaping lizards! Can you jump like Knowshon?

Here’s one of college football’s brightest young stars doing like Michael Johnson in the Olympic hurdles:

I post this not to be a gratuitous homer in the heart of Bulldog Nation, but as a public service to alert you to some more free live streaming as CBS Sports kicks off its SEC slate Saturday with UGA’s clash at South Carolina. In this corner of the universe, it’s feudin’ time, with the Ol’ Ball Coach smarting from a loss to — ahem — Vanderbilt.

As I posted yesterday, the Tiffany Netork live-streamed the men’s U.S. Open final as something of a bonus in keeping with its trend of making its broadcasts available free on the Web. NBC is gradually — OK, grudgingly — coming around to serving up free prime content on the Internet, save the Olympics.

CBS appears to be leading the way, now expanding to one of its most lucrative associations behind the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten isn’t going quite that far, but is wading in live-streaming waters for selected basketball games and very minor sports. Just a bit though. C’mon, folks, dip more than just a couple of toes!

I started this blog to tackle digital media topics, and I find myself getting a bit hooked on this whole emerging subject of sports streaming and video. So expect more of the same.

And if you like SEC football, check out this new blog by a former colleague of mine. Sportswriting hacks are popping up everywhere on the Web, and they didn’t need any prodding from Jay Mariotti. Could be be rejoining the ranks of Ink-Stained Wretches?