Interesting take from Dodgers' beat writer

Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Shaikin, one of the more respected baseball writers in America, has covered the L.A. Dodgers for some time now. He has been through some tought times with the Dodgers, as they sturggle with managment and payroll, but he does not seem annoyed by the growing number of baseball blogs that are popping up around the country.
In an article written by Shaikin on all-baseball.com, he says the baseball blogs "fill a niche, serving an audience in a way that general interest newspapers cannot."
He says, "The baseball writers at the Times have argued to editors that baseball coverage (notes in particular) deserves more space in the newspaper. The editors don’t disagree, but our section probably won’t be adding pages any time soon, so space becomes a zero-sum game. Baseball fans might argue that the Times could add space for Dodger coverage by cutting some Laker coverage, for instance, but the basketball fans would disagree.
"The strength of baseball blogging, then, is that it expands a fan’s options beyond moaning about the newspaper coverage or calling a talk show and waiting on hold to deliver a 30-second opinion. Write your own analysis." Strong words from a guy who makes his living based on his writing.
Shaikin goes on to talk about the basics of what goes into a game story for the paper saying, " Newspapers today tend to start with the assumption that most fans will know who won the game - from radio, local TV, ESPN, FSN or the Internet - before they read the story. So we try to provide a story that tells who won and includes pertinent game details but also offers analysis and clubhouse reaction. We also try to put the daily result into the context of a 162-game season."
This is where bloggers can take things a step beyond that. Since newspaper reports are told what amount of space they have for their story, bloggers are free to write however long they want. This gives them an advantage and an opportunity to add different details to their story than say, Skaikin would not be able to. Things such as the weather, how the crowd was; unless these things may have played a role in the outcome of the game, they are likely not going to be mentioned in a newspaper story.
Shaikin says he likes reading baseball blogs. While I am just picking up on these blogs, I am sure I will as well.

Technorati tag: Baseball blogs.