First Sporticulation question for ya

I imagine sometime we're going to stop with "inaugural" posts but for now allow us to be unreasonable with "firsts" for the blog. This is Patrick typing and I've decided that the first appropriate sporticulation debate will deal with your favorite outlets of information. Here's the deal, if you're reading this--reply with your favorite sources of information and be detailed about it. If you put "ESPN" and nothing more, you are a homer and will be made fun of by at least 2 self-proclaimed sports fans (Eric and myself). So, here goes.

Radio:

Hans Olsen and Kyle Gunther on 1280 The Zone radio based out of Utah. These guys are hilarious because they can make fun of anything and anyone in any situation. Laugh out loud humor while being able to provide contextual information for anything dealing with local Utah sports.

Sportingnews radio is decent, but I don't love it. They mainly only rehash common news stories without providing further context.

Magazine:

I used to have a regular subscription to Sports Illustrated but it's since been cancelled and I'm not too ecstatic about renewing one. I've read ESPN the Magazine before and don't love it, but don't hate it. I've only read a few SportingNews and from the small sample size I read, I liked it the best. I'd be interested in your comments about why you like the magazine you like. In my opinion, SI is good for behind the scenes stories, ESPNtheMAG is good for player profiles, and SportingNews is good for in-depth analysis for fantasy purposes.

Websites:

As far as national websites go, I frequent SI.com, ESPN.com, Foxsports.com, yahoo fantasy page, and cbssports.com the most in that respective order. I think SI.com has the best writers and featured stories, ESPN has the best coverage (though the Insider option annoys me), Foxsports has the most interesting articles yet provides the least amount of coverage, Yahoo has the best fantasy coverage, and cbssports is just good all around.

Writers:

Let me rattle off the guys I esteem and follow the most: Ken Rosenthal, Jason Whitlock, Joe Posnaski, Peter King, Jayson Starks, Jerry Crasnick, Rick Reilly, Tom Verducci, Jon Heyman, Stewart Mandel, Pete Prisco, and Steve Rushin among others.

In my opinion, SI.com has the best writers (tallying 5 of my favorites). I don't like Jason Whitlock's articles that much, but I'll read anything he has to say due to his being controversial.

To me, the most important aspects of a good article are humor, thought-provoking, knowledge, ability to include historical context, and lack of biasness.

Announcers:

I love the Joe Morgan/Jon Miller baseball tonight combination and I'll miss them when they stop. Harold Baines is another one of my faves along with Chip Carey (Skip, you're missed).

Dick Vitale is absolutely my favorite. He's the best at providing unashamed enthusiasm for the sport he loves. I'll watch any game he announces. He makes everything fun.

Jon Gruden is good for providing thoughtful analysis of the game. John Madden was a great guy but for the sports dummy. Not thought provoking at all, but a good announcer. I made fun of him when he announced but now he's missed.

I love the college football gameday announcers: Corso, Herbstreit, Fowler, and co. are awesome.

**Interesting note, is it just me or does the NBA provide the least quality coverage? I can't think of any announcer or writer that I particularly like? (Barkley doesn't count; he is a joke).

Is anyone else falling out of love with ESPN? I don't love their coverage that much anymore. The stuff that you can get for free is too mainstream and not thought-provoking at all.

Alright peeps, what're your thoughts? Agree, disagree? Am I off-base? Let me know!

Inaugural Post

Well, if I was the slightest bit responsible I would be working on a paper or something right now, but I've been compelled to at least make an inaugural post. I'm Eric, the one whom Patrick dubbed as a fellow contributor to the blog. I must say that I did coin the phrases sporticulation, sportification and sportificating, nevertheless he is the driving force in this conquest to fill minds with gobs of useless yet enthralling sports opinion and information. So here's the deal, we want to hear your thoughts, feelings and ideas on anything sports. If you don't agree with Patrick or myself feel free to go postal on our comments... Caution: Any rebuttal to our comments will undergo through analysis. Legitimate and logical responses will be acknowledged, homer weak-sauce contributions will be subject to an all out beat down so please do your homework. See ya.

A Thorough Introduction to Our Blog

This blog is headed up by 2 moderators: (1) Eric and (2) Patrick. We'll withhold last names and personal information for obvious reasons. We are avid sports fans who frequently talk, theorize, philosophize, text, and email sports. We'd discuss it over a loud speaker if it wouldn't earn us a "disturbing the peace" citation.

We specialize in anything mainstream (baseball, basketball, football) on both collegiate and professional levels. We're also interested in everything else sports related; including Olympics, steroids, fantasy sports, soccer, UFC, boxing, underwater basket weaving, etc.

You'll figure out our favorite sports and sports teams as we post and I imagine that at the beginning, it'll mostly be just us two reading our posts. If you like what we have to write then let us know, tell your friends to follow us, and participate in what we write. We hope this can get somewhat big and all can have fun letting us know what's on their sports' minds.

PS: Just so you know, we have lives outside of sports so excuse us if we don't post everyday. We also have other interests, one such being movies, everything is fair game for our blog. Thanks all!