Athletics Nation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Athletics Nation (popularly known as AN to its users) is a sports blog focusing on the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The blog was founded by freelance writer Tyler Bleszinski (also known as "Blez") in 2003. Currently, Athletics Nation is part of the SB Nation network of sports blogs and has one of the highest traffic volumes of any non-political blog.

1 History
2 Features
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Frustrated by a relative lack of media coverage of the Oakland A's and encouraged by Markos Moulitsas (of Daily Kos fame), Tyler Bleszinski founded Athletics Nation in November 2003. Bleszinski often viewed KNBR as a prime example of an anti-A's bias in the Northern California media. KNBR is a San Francisco radio station with a strong signal that could be heard up and down the West Coast. KNBR also happens to be a minority shareholder and radio flagship of the San Francisco Giants, the cross-bay rivals of the A's. In response to KNBR's perceived slant, he created Athletics Nation as an online bar "where everyone knows your name and where the swivel chair at your computer becomes a bar stool upon which we will pontificate and ruminate together." [1]

Athletics Nation attracted a following due to Bleszinski's ability to get interviews from many people well connected to the Athletics. He has interviewed local beat writers, players and coaches on the Athletics, General Manager Billy Beane, and team owner Lew Wolff. Due to connections made from his interviews, in March 2005 Bleszinski became the first blogger to be given press credentials to a Major League Baseball team during spring training. [2]

In January 2005, Athletics Nation became the flagship of the SB Nation network of sports blogs. SB Nation was created by Bleszinski and Moulitsas as a way for each different baseball team to have a quality blog with a means to create fan community on the internet. Started mainly as a baseball effort, SB Nation now has blogs covering all thirty teams of the MLB and has a few blogs covering the NBA, NFL, College Sports and Pro Cycling. The network also includes a pair of general baseball sites, Minor League Ball, written by former Bill James assistant John Sickels, and Beyond the Boxscore, a stats-oriented site edited by Marc Normandin. The bloggers who cover sports for the network are compensated by a revenue sharing agreement in which the blogger receives a portion of ad revenue generated by the blog.

[edit] Features

Athletics Nation is powered by the Scoop content management system. In addition to the blog, registered users can post diaries without moderation on the site. The diaries are virtually similar to the blog posts on the front page and can be promoted to the front page by the primary users. The diaries are considered a "blog within a blog" for the individual users. It is often noted that diaries posted on Athletics Nation can receive more comments in a day than most blogs do in a month. Because of the Scoop system, Athletics Nation combines the elements of a blog and message board with its diary system. The diaries cover diverse topics ranging from statistical analysis to humor, general observations on the A's and even advertisements for offline gatherings.