What is the best Sports Magazine?

[ISiddiqui]

Inspired by the the 'Computer Games Magazine' thread, I decided to start this thread.

I'm in the market for a baseball magazine, whether it be in print (preferable) or online. What is your opinion?

[cthomer5000]

I almost started a simliar football thread about 1 week ago. I'm a football junkie, and this is the time of year I bury myself in magazines, awaiting the beginning of the regular season.

Isiddiqui: If you're a football/baseball fan I would suggest picking up SportsWeekly. It only covers those 2 sports, and is 1.50 a week at the newstand. I just subscirbed, because the price is great. I got 26 weeks for $14.58. I found it worth subscribing to even though I don't follow baseball, and almost never read even a single article on the baseball side of the paper.


Anyone got any suggestions for Pro or College Football mags?

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, I'm looking for stuff with good football/baseball stuff. Though hockey stuff would be a nice bonus (but I don't care about basketball).

edit: Anything with European soccer news with be a VERY nice bonus though ;).

[Critch]

If you're looking for soccer news, then World Soccer is the magazine. It has a small section on most national leagues in each continent, but concentrates on the big ones (england, Italy, Germany, Spain mainly). Great magazine.

No idea about American sports magazines. I did have a free subscription to Sports Illustrated last year and it was crap. Got Sporting News subscription for free this year and it's better, but still not brilliant.

[FBPro]

Sports Weekly is the best for baseball/football, The Sporting News is probably 2nd.

[Ksyrup]

People really read magazines still? I get ESPN the Mag, but only because I keep racking up an inconsequential number of points with one of my credit cards, so I use those points to keep subscribing to it for free. Everything is on the net, so by the time it hits the stands, it's outdated. I just read what I can on the net, and save my reading for books.

I remember way back when, I used to get baseball digest. I don't know if it's even still around, but I couldn't deal with a monthly digest in this day and age. Articles about guys' batting averages in May, when it's July, etc. But even weekly mags are nothing more than a "week in review," and I don't really need that. I'm already on to the next week.

*shrug*

[Craptacular]

I've gotten ESPN the Mag since the beginning, but I think I may be cancelling soon. Lately, I've been getting the Mag more than a WEEK after it hits the newsstands, and consequently, less than a week from the end date of the cycle (it's a bi-weekly). Whatever happened to subscribers getting the mag before it hits the stands, or at least at nearly the same time?

[Godzilla Blitz]

ESPN is really cheap, like, um, three dollars for a zillion issues, or something like that, so I get that. I probably lose half of them before I read them, and don't get around to 80% of the other half, and I'll only read 10% of the stuff in the one in ten issues that I actually look at, but usually that's enough to make me think "This is a pretty good magazine, I should read it more often," which I never do, because mainly I read magazines in the bathroom, and lately I've been reading Uncle John's bathroom reader, which rocks, and is like, um, a zillion pages long, which is about five years worth of pooping, and so the ESPN magazines just pile up in various places around the house, until the one day a month when I get around to putting out the recycling stuff, and whoosh, there they go, with all the Time magazines (I hate it but I get it free) and Economist magazines (I actually read that one) and Smart Money magazines, and MacAddict magazines. And every time I do that I think, "Man, I gotta stop getting all these friggin' magazines," but then I get some mailing that says I can use up airline miles for free magazine subscriptions, and I sign up again for a zillion magazines, thinking that...well, who the hell knows why I do that, unless it's because it's "FREE" and I think, well, how can I go wrong if it's "FREE"?

Man, I gotta cut out the coffee after 10 PM.

[Airhog]

^^^ Best Post Ever ^^^

[andy m]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
I'm in the market for a baseball magazine, whether it be in print (preferable) or online. What is your opinion?

if you go for online one, you should subscribe to baseball prospectus. (http://www.baseballprospectus.com)

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
People really read magazines still? I get ESPN the Mag, but only because I keep racking up an inconsequential number of points with one of my credit cards, so I use those points to keep subscribing to it for free. Everything is on the net, so by the time it hits the stands, it's outdated. I just read what I can on the net, and save my reading for books.

I disagree. A good magazine or paper will have plenty of content you simply can't find online. Not to mention articles you certainly won't find online. Beyond that, I can read what is basically the inside scoop on 32 NFL teams - to find that same info I'd really have to dig around the internet a lot. I don't feel you can ever really find the "local beat reporter" angle online. Reading news from a national website versus stuff from a local writer who gets inside dirt is totally different.

[Blackadar]

I like the news on individual teams, so the Sporting News is the mag I prefer.

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by cthomer5000
I disagree. A good magazine or paper will have plenty of content you simply can't find online. Not to mention articles you certainly won't find online. Beyond that, I can read what is basically the inside scoop on 32 NFL teams - to find that same info I'd really have to dig around the internet a lot. I don't feel you can ever really find the "local beat reporter" angle online. Reading news from a national website versus stuff from a local writer who gets inside dirt is totally different.

If there were a good magazine this might make some sense.

How can you not find the 'local beat reporter' online? Go to sportspages.com and it links to every sportspage in the country. If you'd rather read 2 week old paraphrased analysis of those same articles you could read this morning, get the Sporting News.

[condors]

i am not sure i would be able to take a dump without an issue of the sporting news or soccer digest

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by lynchjm24
If there were a good magazine this might make some sense.

How can you not find the 'local beat reporter' online? Go to sportspages.com and it links to every sportspage in the country. If you'd rather read 2 week old paraphrased analysis of those same articles you could read this morning, get the Sporting News.

I agree. I have no problem finding the info I want. And quite a few of the articles in mags ARE online, either at the time the mag is released or within a few days after. I don't need to over-saturate myself with a zillion articles on the same subject, so if I find a couple, I'm done with the topic. So there might be some that I couldn't get to without a subscription, but once I've gotten it from somewhere else, I have no use for it anyway.

[Subby]

I currently subscribe to Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, and ESPN Insider. The first two are for Saturday and Sunday mornings, while ESPN Insider (along with WashingotnPost Online) are what I read everyday during the week.

The writing in Sports Illustrated is still without peer, and what they miss from a statistical/insder perspective I can get from TSN.

If push ever came to shove I would cancel all of my magazine subscriptions and just subscribe to on-line content...

[Cards4ever]

Originally posted by condors
i am not sure i would be able to take a dump without an issue of the sporting news or soccer digest

That is the key point, it's hard to take the computer in the bathroom!

For soccer, get Four Four Two, it's the best soccer magazine out there.

[tucker342]

I actually really like SI. I don't understand why people don't like it very much

[ice4277]

For the big four here in the States, go with Sporting News.

If you're looking for a soccer magazine, as said before, World Soccer is very good but also very pricey. Four Four Two is an excellent magazine and you can get it much cheaper.

[BigDPW]

I much prefer The Sporting news...

I gave up on ESPN Mag about 2 years ago...

I still take Sports Illustrated but I am getting it free - otherwise I would only take The Sporting News

[Leonidas]

I like TSN. I stopped getting SI when they started doing heavy golf coverage and were really doing some off the wall stories that had nothing to do with sports as far as I could tell.

TSN is great because it covers the major sports, period.

[Anrhydeddu]

When I subscribed a few years, I picked TSN. I really liked it's even handed recaps and analysis on all of the teams. This was esp. beneficial during the NFL off-season.

[Karim]

The Hockey News for uh... hockey. I had a subscription for a while but by the time the magazine got to me, most of the non-profile articles were old news.

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by tucker342
I actually really like SI. I don't understand why people don't like it very much

Wild guess here - you are younger then 20?