Ever tell a friend to check out a Web site? It happens in thenewsroom all the time. Ever have that friend come back and say,"Great Web site. I can't believe I didn't know about it."
That happens here, too.
In the interest of Internet sharing, we've decided to pass onsome of our favorite sports-related dot.coms. (Assuming they haven'tbeen spiked into cyberspace heaven.)
For starters, check out sportsTALK.com.
What makes this site so entertaining and valuable to the sportsjunkie?
Rumors. SportsTALK.com is the place. From the Lakers showing Kobethe door to Chris Spielman interviewing for the Ohio State footballjob, sportsTALK.com is all over it.
"But we don't put out crazy stuff," sportsTALK.com co-founderJason Peery said in a telephone interview from the company's PaloAlto, Calif., office. "We spike about 90 percent of the rumors."
The one rumor-turned-reality that put the Web site on theinformation superhighway map happened when Peery and partner ChadFord were new to the dot.com world. SportsTALK.com reported theIndianapolis Colts would pick Edgerrin James as the fourth overallpick in the '99 NFL draft, passing on Heisman Trophy winner RickyWilliams.
"From then, there was a real perception that we had anunderground of information," Peery said. "The Colts are stillconfident that we have a mole that communicated with us, even thoughit's not true."
But sportsTALK.com is much more than a 24-7 rumor mill. Its maincategories are NFLtalk, NBAtalk, MLBtalk, NHLtalk and NCAAtalk.
"Aside from the scores and standings, we like to look ahead tothe next games," Peery said.
Its game-day previews are more detailed than a James Michenernovel (OK, so the guys went a collective 3-21 in their NFL divisionplayoff predictions). Its columnists range from full-time staffersto national favorites through media links such as Frank Deford andRick Reilly of Sports Illustrated (see Writers Block).
About 50 percent of the Web site's information is original whilethe other half is picked up.
Sports agents, said Peery, also serve as contributing columnists.And those who aren't writing are reading it religiously. Same goesfor teams, media and the psycho sports fans.
"We've been called a spouse's nightmare," Peery said.
We'll just call it the napster.com of sports - only legal.
Started in November 1998, by Peery and BYU-Hawaii college buddyFord, who are both 29 years old, sportsTALK.com received about 200-300 page views a day. The Web site is up to 10 full-time staffersand gets as many as 500,000 page views on weekdays. "Our goal wasto get 250,000 page views the first year," Peery said. "Now we getthat around noon on any given weekday. It's insane."
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