Around the Sphere

Wanted to welcome a few new Major League players to the MLBlogosphere:

Curtis Granderson, Tigers center fielder
CJ Wilson, Rangers reliever
JA Happ, Phillies pitching prospect

All three are in their respective camps at Spring Training and posting the occasional blog. Please be sure to leave them lots of comment love. Grandy (pictured above) is going to answer a couple of fan questions for each post, and click the email link at the bottom of his post to get one asked (as opposed to a comment question). Only the emailed questions might be answered.

Be sure to read CJ’s post about why he blogs. Hope other players read that.

Big Nate Chew said he’s about ready to crank his MLBlog up again as well. J-Rod was the first player to resume blogging from camp. We’ll have lots more this season…

For something special, see Curt Smith’s new blog post that he just saved today. He has been writing the definitive Mel Allen book, and there are a lot of Yankee fans as well as baseball fans in general who should read Curt’s latest blog entry in Voices of the Game. We’re very proud to have Curt as part of this community; he’s known to a lot of NPR listeners, has been a presidential speechwriter, has written lots of great baseball books, and gets the blogging thing….

Our own Corey Brock didn’t have to go far for his new MLBlogging gig. He covered the Seattle Mariners last season. They share the same Spring Training area as the San Diego Padres, and that’s his new beat. So all we had to do was tweak his template and links, delete the old Mariner posts, and voila, he’s now in business as our latest Padres blogger….

James T. Russell didn’t understand what it meant when a ball rolled between Bill Buckner’s legs in 1986. But he does now. Catch his new MLBlog, A Mets Fan’s Perspective. Nice intro. Lots more new MLBlogs in general, as again it is heating up for peak signup time. Everyone is blogging about a world champion, everyone has a team full of All-Stars and MVP/Cy Young candidates. Even those Cub fans, and our man Jesse Sanchez says they will fall in love with Cesar Izturis (pictured).

Spread the word about MLBlogs to all your fellow baseball fans. It’s a community linked in from the main navbar on MLB.com and 30 MLB club sites, not to mention mlbplayers.com, which we operate at MLBAM — so unmatched distribution of potential audience. It’s a chance to put legal MLB marks on your Internet space without being flagged! It’s a chance to blog alongside Grandy and Tommy and broadcasters and the MLB.com Fantasy 411 guys and so many diverse fans who all share a passion for the greatest game on Earth. This is what blogs were made for!!!

Think no one could top The Baseball Collector? Well, a mighty MLBlogs welcome to The Ultimate Baseball Collector! Chris is off to a great start.

Remember to post updates here as comments whenever you want and make sure to include your MLBlog’s URL. That’ll prompt more people to discover or rediscover you. I don’t know about you, but it was awesome to see basic news out of Spring Training today such as Phil Garner talking about how hitters seemed to have an approach and how Brad Lidge looked good. We’re talking baseball again! Now let’s bring on some games.