You’ll have to excuse us for a moment as we drift a bit away from baseball.  And in honor of the man who inspired this piece, we’ll be using his trademark royal “we.”  If we’ve appeared to hijack his tone, we apologize.

There are only two mediums in which blogs can truly thrive: sports and politics.  This is because these are the only two large mediums in which opinions are central.  Sure, you could have blogs dedicated to coup d’états and natural disasters (and we would not be surprised if these existed) – but those are inherently fact-based situations.  Either the president of Turkey was overthrown or he wasn’t.  Either an earthquake struck Chile or it didn’t.  It’s hard to have a compelling opinion one way or the other.  But politics and sports are different.  Obama opted out of public financing – this is a fact.  But is this a good idea or a bad idea?  How do we think McCain will react?  Lloyd Carr called a screen on 3rd and 11 – did it cost the Wolverines the game?  Should he have called a slant-route to Manningham?  Politics and sports are ripe for debate and discussion – and thus their respective blogospheres were born.

The odd part is that each medium responded in completely different manners.  Politics embraced the world of blogs where they have slowly integrated themselves into the everyday process.  The original Wonkette made the move Will is making years ago.  DailyKos is regularly cited and referenced in political pieces.  Politics – if you’ll excuse us – “got it.”  It didn’t fight the incoming surge of the everyman’s opinion, but instead worked its niche into the larger structure of political discourse.  Ironically, politics understood the power of this newfangled series of tubes.

Sports has not.  One, of course, need look no further than the Buzz Bissinger incident.  Sports journalists are clearly terrified of our opinions (though I imagine we can all agree that Ed Wade is an idiot) and have predictably reacted by retreating to their ivory towers and dumping burning pots of verbal tar on our heads.  Bloggers have returned fire by excoriating main stream media’s inability to embrace the future while simultaneously distancing themselves by emphasizing that blogs are simply entertaining opinions.  Thus is each side entrenched: journalists calling blogs bastions of crass, uncensored, unintelligible idiocy and bloggers calling MSM backasswards ludittes, who have left a void of quality that blogs help to fill.

We’re not entirely sure why these divergent approaches took place.  Perhaps it’s because politics is inherently based on the notion that everyone has an opinion – we all have a vote, right?  Whereas sports originated as a means of entertainment that left the discussions of its larger significance and subtle intricacies to those who were fortunate enough to follow it for a living.  Obviously, sports were discussed at the bar or the water-cooler, but no one’s opinion really mattered.  And more importantly – no one had a larger outlet than his or her circle of friends.

(We are sympathetic to the argument that an event such as the “doocing” of Christmas Ape runs counter to our point about politics and sports – but in general we believe politics has integrated/embraced blogs infinitely better.  Of course, if Ape had been blogging about liberalism, who’s to say the Post wouldn’t have promoted him to chief White House correspondent?)

We realize this is a lengthy introduction to our ultimate thesis, and we appreciate it if you are still with us.

Leitch’s move has simultaneously proven each side correct.  One the one hand, his move proves that there is talent and credibility to be found in the blogosphere.  If New York Magazine finds his work to be compelling and insightful, how can journalists continue to retort that all bloggers are GED-less recluses writing in their mom’s basement?  This isn’t Sports Illustrated hiring Leitch to head up their new SIBlog.  This is a magazine in existence since 1968 plucking pure writing talent from the internet.  All the more impressive because it is not a sports-first publication.

On the other hand, arguably the most famous and prominent sports blogger is leaving his work behind to take a job in MSM – with no direct ties to his origins (obviously he will still pop up at Deadspin from time to time).  Doesn’t this lend credence to the argument that credibility and “acceptance” is still generally found in traditional media?  That, of course, is premised on the concept that a blogger actually gives a shit about “acceptance,” but the point remains.  Leitch’s move shows MSM still has the allure and the prestige so many bloggers like to argue no longer exists.

We realize sports blogging talent has been raided before.  Orson Swindle of the truly divine Every Day Should Be Saturday picked up a fulltime gig at the Sporting News, and the Mighty MJD has shown up at Yahoo!, but both of their moves are basically blogging for more “mainstream” outlets.  Leitch is moving entirely away from sports and into print journalism.  It is, we would argue, a more significant move amplified by Leitch’s place in sports blogdome.

The irony, we feel, is that Leitch’s move not only proves each side right – but proves that there isn’t really an argument at all.  Sports blogs and MSM exist in a tangential sense – both sides happen to be writing about sports.  Sometimes writers move from one side to the other.  Sometimes writers straddle both worlds quite successfully (Dan Steinberg).  Sometimes MSM will pick up a story that originated on a blog.  Sometimes (er… a LOT of the time) blogs will gather material from stories first found in print.

But ultimately neither side really threatens the other.  If you want some Texans insight mixed with a joke about Cthulhu, you’ll pop by DGDB&D.  If you want Astros notes from the farm system and the clubhouse, you’ll go read Brian McTaggart.  Richard Justice will not lose his job because Tim has created BRB - he’ll lose it because he sucks at his chosen craft.  The point is, as long as each side is producing the quality expected of their respective purposes – there is nothing to argue about.  (The argument over whether that quality currently exists is an entirely different forum.)

We realize this was long, and we’re truly appreciative if you’ve come this far.  Perhaps we’re merely preaching into a void, though we hope a kind soul at another blog will find this intelligible and link it (even if only to build traffic at his secondary site).  But we feel there is a vein of discussion this story taps into – and we just felt like giving our two cents.  Besides, we know no one actually reads this blog.  If you do, however, please share your thoughts below.