'Time' Names Two Sports Blogs Among 2011 Best

Time magazine has released its list of the best blogs of 2011 — “Our annual blog extravaganza features 25 fresh picks, from politics and pop culture to travel, tech and beyond” — and among the selections are two sports blogs: MLB Trade Rumors, which is required reading during the lead-up to the July 31 trade deadline, and The Basketball Jones, which is required reading for people who jones for basketball.

Here are the write-ups from Harry McCracken of Time:

MLB Trade Rumors: In 2008, search-engine marketer and Chicago Cubs diehard Tim Dierkes quit his day job to focus on his blog, MLB Trade Rumors. Dierkes and nine other writers now contribute, sharing scuttlebutt about trades and free-agent signings for all 30 Major League Baseball teams. It’s a rich source of relevant information on its chosen subject, and it’s admirably fat-free: almost everything is in the form of quick-hit bullet-pointed items. With tools like the Transaction Tracker, which lets you search for deals by player, team and contract value, this site can make anyone feel like a major-league insider.

The Basketball Jones: Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets and Trey Kerby operate a miniature media empire under the Basketball Jones imprimatur, including a popular video podcast and the Basketball Jones blog. The mood is mostly lighthearted and even downright silly – one post wondered if a rapper’s Twitter curse against Kevin Durant had doomed the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yet it can be surprisingly heartfelt too, like when it discussed whether Scottie Pippen had committed sacrilege by asserting that LeBron James may be a better player than Michael Jordan. The blog keeps publishing in the off-season, albeit on a reduced schedule – good news for hoops fans who need to satisfy their basketball joneses.

Congratulations to these two blogs for being fresh.