Baseball and the internet, friends forever?

June 29, 2005 11:39 AM

BaseFi: I'm a lifelong baseball fan and, hey, I can use this here intarwebbie thing. These two great tastes should taste great together, so where are the best baseball sites?

The difficult part of all this is that I'm not particularly interested in MLB day-to-day operations. (A strike-disgruntled, steroid-hating, sell-out-repelled fan)

I enjoy minor league and amateur teams. I like baseball statistics and 'baseball roadtrips'. I enjoy baseball books and movies. I dig playing it too.

Unfortunately, MLB has infested the Googs to such a point that I cannot find a good site for discussion that isn't a rabid "NOMAHHHHH" or "Tig3rZ suXXX0Rz!" wasteland.

Oh, mighty Filters of the Meta, I beseech thee!

posted by unixrat to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (20 answers total)

Fan blogs are slowly taking over the day-to-day discussions of the game from the media giants. Here in Minnesota, I start at Twins Territory and go from there. That site links to a whole host of blogs about the Twins, which in turn, link to other blogs about other baseball teams (major and minor league).

Also, for baseball books, be sure to check out Mudville Magazine
posted by Steve Simpson at 11:47 AM on June 29, 2005

Best answer: Hardball Times (general)
Sabernomics ("economic thinking about baseball"; a bit Braves-centric)
All-Baseball (general)
Baseball Prospectus (general)

For good individual team fanblogs, click the appropriate logo on the Black Table's Baseball Preview.
posted by mookieproof at 12:03 PM on June 29, 2005

Baseball Zeitgeist is a cool fan blog about the Red Sox and New England minor league ball.
posted by xmutex at 12:23 PM on June 29, 2005

Oh, and Baseball DIY.
posted by xmutex at 12:24 PM on June 29, 2005

There's USS Mariner (fan) for Mariners stuff.
posted by xmutex at 12:31 PM on June 29, 2005

Baseball Think Factory is a great all around site for baseball discussion and articles. They have a blog, Baseball Primer, that post links to and comment on the latest MLB news. Definitely worth checking out daily.
posted by bawanaal at 12:40 PM on June 29, 2005

Best answer: There's also a site called SportsFilter that does a pretty good job of keeping the discussion civil and informed.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 12:45 PM on June 29, 2005

For the obsessive-compulsive baseball statistics fan, there's none better than Baseball Reference.
posted by zsazsa at 12:48 PM on June 29, 2005

For Dodger Fans, Dodger Thoughts is a godsend. Jon Weisman may be the only sane man in Los Angeles covering the Dodgers. The commentary is usually pretty sound as well.

For the broader view of baseball, major and minor, analysis and story telling, the Baseball Analysts is a pretty good one stop shop.

And, if I may give a small plug, Sportsfilter. Its like MeFi. With Balls.
posted by lilnemo at 12:48 PM on June 29, 2005

What lilnemo said. With Balls.

Seriously, SpoFi is good for all "interllectural" sports discussion.
posted by squealy at 1:03 PM on June 29, 2005

Baseball Primer is one of the best, I certainly second that. Can't Stop the Bleeding is my favourite baseball blog, it's very well-written, updated regularly and finds some good links.

Other than those, Baseball Toaster has some excellent individual sites on its roster. I follow various "fan" blogs - they're better written and a lot more engaging than a lot of the professional stuff out there. Blue Jays site Batters Box is great, Giants site Only Baseball Matters is good. I live in NYC, so I love Bronx Banter , Mets Geek, and Yanksfan v Soxfan .
posted by jamesonandwater at 1:05 PM on June 29, 2005

Hardball Times seconded.
Sons of Sam Horn is a Red Sox fan board; it's pretty much the king of the baseball fan boards. Very high signal-to-noise ratio; very well-informed posters. A great read, even if you don't follow the Sox Rouge. Myself, I've been known to loiter aboutt The Crane Pool Forum.
posted by willpie at 1:12 PM on June 29, 2005

Best answer: At The Yard is a decent web site/magazine dedicated to the minors. They have some player blogs there (some more active than others), and a radio show/blog.
posted by cgk at 1:46 PM on June 29, 2005

Best answer: Retrosheet is stat heaven: boxscores of every game ever played!
posted by sixpack at 2:01 PM on June 29, 2005

Best answer: Not to toot my own horn, but I know a little something about this. However, checking out the links above, it would seem that my fellow MeFites have excellent taste.

For my money, the best baseball places on the net are:

Baseball Prospectus
Baseball America
Baseball HQ
Baseball Primer (now "Think Factory" i think).
Minor League Baseball dot Com

Now, if you have a specific team rooting interest, there are other sites worth mentioning as well.

Looking forward to the Marlins-Angels World Series...
posted by herc at 2:03 PM on June 29, 2005

Rob Neyer has some non-ESPN-stuff at robneyer.com. Pretty good, IMO.
posted by Kwantsar at 3:33 PM on June 29, 2005

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious - www.mlb.com.

They not only have all of the "official" news, but also a very cool Flash ap that allows you to follow any game in almost-real time (it tends to be a few seconds behind). You not only get the box score, but a diagram of the diamond showing each position player, as well as runners on base and where the hits were. You also get to see a diagram of the batter and the position of each pitch during an at-bat. You can hover over any player and get in-game stats, and there's a roster on the left that links to the player's page. Particularly cool for following out-of-market games. Best of all, it's free.

On the same site, you can also sign up for MLB.radio, where for a fee ($15 for the season) you can listen to any game, and even choose your broadcaster, so if you're a fan of the visiting team, you can listen to their play-by-play instead. For an extra fee, you can also sign up for MLB.tv, where you can actually watch any game on your computer.
posted by robhuddles at 5:02 PM on June 29, 2005

Also, for fans of another pro league, Japanese Professional Baseball.
posted by greasepig at 11:28 PM on June 29, 2005

I third SportsFilter. Something for everyone. Not just baseball.
posted by terrapin at 6:38 AM on June 30, 2005

There is a great collection of blogs for different teams off a site called SportsBlog Nation. The Cardinals blog is called Viva El Birdos, which seems like a strange title but the commentary is pretty good. All of their blogs have diaries which is nice.
posted by ontic at 7:46 PM on June 30, 2005