Athletes have now gone to the blogoshpere to increase the PR value and connect with their fans. Some, like Curt Schilling, have their own domain names and get hundreds of comments on all of their posts. Most have theirs hosted on a popular sports site like ESPN, or more likely, Yardbarker. I thought I’d list my top 19. Maybe you find someone new you like. (By the way, if any athletes want to blog here, it would be my pleasure to have you. Send me an email. …I’m still waiting.)

Anyway, Gilbert Arenas took first place on my list. Go on for the next 18:

1.) Gilbert Arenas Agent Zero’s is widely considered one of best athlete blogs. Agent Zero won the Weblog’s award for best celebrity blogger of 2007. His blog offers extremely indepth (and long) posts on the NBA, the Wizards, and what’s happening in his life. Some recent excerpts:

“Varejao, he asked for $60 million and ends up with three years for $17 million. You could have got that contract last summer! You done missed 20 games of the season getting paid the same money you could have got last summer.”

(*-Arenas doesn’t actually write his blog himself, but he tells his writers what to write.)

2.) Curt Schilling He updates more often–about three times a week–but his posts are often not as interesting. He posts less about sports than Arenas and more about whatever he is thinking. However his posts about the steroid scandal have been extremely interesting. As a harsh critic of steroid use, he offer candor that you don’t hear from other players:
His Thoughts on the Mitchell Report

3.) Curtis Granderson Granderson only posts during the baseball season, but his posts are very informative and entertaining. They are mostly just about the Tigers. They give more info on what fans might want to know about what’s happening, for example detail on the hot prospects or insight on a series.

4.) Bryon Friedman You don’t know who Bryon Friedman is because he’s a ski racer. His blog is an interesting look at a sport that Americans don’t know enough about. Also, it has cool videos of ski races and crashes.

5.) Pat Neshek Neshek plays for the Twins. He has a lot of interesting posts (year-long, not only during the season), like his series on what it’s like to be drafted. His site software is pretty weird, so I can’t link directly to any of those posts. That’s the one problem. He has black writing on a red background, which is interesting, I guess, but not optimal for a web page.

6.) David Wright Like Granderson, he only posts during the MLB season, but his posts are entertaining and include good pix.

7.) Etan Thomas Warning: This blog is not about sports. Thomas blogs for the Huffington Posts about politics. Yes, his views are wrong, but how many athletes blog about politics?

8.) Ian Crocker The US swimmer’s posts are almost as long as Arenas’, but he posts less often (though I’m sure he posts himself). They aren’t always about swimming.

9.) Moritz Voltz Certainly a well-writen blog, but I’m not into soccer.

10.) Donovan McNabb Short and to the point, his posts are mostly about football.

11.) Ben Roethlisberger Unfortunately, he doesn’t post about motorcycling.

12.) Greg Oden His posts are even shorter than McNabb’s posts, but he has an interesting feature where he answers fan questions.

13.) Rod Benson After playing ball at Cal, Benson is trying to play his way onto the Nets. Along the way, his honest, though unfrequently updated, blog posts entertain. He also took the time to make an obnoxious title with photoshopped pictures of himself, like a real blogger.

14.) Evan Tanner UFC Fighter. It’s not a lot for words, but it has some cool pictures. (Which make it take a while to load.)

15.) Jeff Samardzija Sample post: “Glad I graduated Notre Dame last year…”

16.) Mike Conley, Jr In Conley’s defense, Oden has a lot more time to blog now that he isn’t playing.

17.) Carmelo Anthony Just learn 2 read txt msg language b4 tackling his.

18.) Dontrelle Willis Willis started his after getting traded.

19.) Diana Taurasi From the WNBA…

20.) Rajon Rondo The 2nd year point guard for the Celtics, who has been assigned the position of taking the Celtics down in the playoff with his inexperience, talks about what it’s like to be expected to take the Celtics down in the playoffs with his inexperience.

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