Curt Schilling, star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, has begun writing his own blog. The blog, entitled "38 pitches," gives Schilling the oppurtunity to respond to fan questions, critics, and offer members of the Red Sox nation a personal look at their ace like they had never seen before.
Schilling has had his disputes with the media, one of the many topics discussed on his new site:
For any of you newbs that didn’t get it, “The Media Sucks” was tongue in cheek. I assumed that went without saying, but obviously that was a mistaken assumption. While I certainly have issues with some, there are some pretty cool people in the sports media. Like any profession there are bad eggs but there are more good ones than bad ones in my opinion."
But what does this mean for the future of sports journalism? Why read what some news reporter is saying about the game when you can hear it directly from the player at his personal website? While many athletes lack the capacity to put together congitive sentences let alone an entire blog post, Schilling's posts seem well-written. (Although internet speak can be found throughout, and he doesn't seem particularly tied up on gramatical errors.)
While Curt Schilling having his own blog is amazing enough, the larger issue is whether or not other athletes will follow his lead. This will offer readers an entirely new form of journalism- while many readers will prefer to hear the actual sports news from trained journalists- the fact that some athletes will post their own thoughts will spark interest in both fans and sports writers.
Sports athletes, who are generally "media-controlled" by the owners of the team, will be given the chance to speak out in ways that they had not been able to before. And while many of their points will be made with prying eyes considered, there is the off chance that some of these posts will be controversial.
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