FanHouse Is Awesome, Award Winning

You know, in the long, illustrious history of Foul Balls, this little Chicago sports blog has never had the honor of winning any awards. This doesn't bother me or anything, I just figure that what I do here is so innovative and mind-bending that most people just can't grasp the brilliance my fingers pound out every day.

Still, that doesn't mean I don't like getting awards, because trophies are shiny, and shiny things are always fun.

Luckily, I also work for FanHouse, and we win awards over there.

We at FanHouse are proud to let you know that we won the title of Best Sports Blog today at the ceremony recognizing the 2008 EPpy Awards. The EPpys are given out by Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek magazines to recognize excellence in online content. The other nominees in the Best Sports Blog category were the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Brewers Blog, the Chicago Tribune's RosenBlog and the Memphis Commercial Appeal's The Memphis Edge.

Suck on that, Deadspin! Eat it, Sporting Blog! Uncomfortably crap that one out, Kissing Suzy Kolber! I'm better than all of you! Or at least, the guys I work with are.

I'd go the humble route and say we don't really deserve it, and that all of the other nominees are just as deserving, but that would be a bunch of bullshit. Everybody knows it's not true, and I'm not going to lie to you about it.

We rule!

Now whether or not this means I get a raise, I don't know, but you can be damn sure my bosses will be hearing my case.

Foul Balls Is Now Respected Around the World!

During my power outage hiatus, Panger wrote a post on Andy Rooney, in which she gently referred to the elderly commentator as "a senile idiot" for his latest rant about the prevalence of Hispanic names in major league baseball. It's just another example of Panger's subtle methods when it comes to getting her point across.

Anyway, Rooney noticed all the backlash he was getting and quickly issued a statement saying he regretted making any racist comments. He didn't apologize for them, he just said he regretted saying it. Whatever, I don't care.

What I do care about is that this whole incident has brought Foul Balls to the big time. That's right, we got mentioned in the New York Times.

The column drew immediate criticism in the blogosphere. One sports blog, http://www.foulballs.net/, called Mr. Rooney a “senile idiot,” while another, firejoemorgan.com, blasted both “the racism” and “the wrong-ness” of what he wrote. Mary Elson, managing editor for Tribune Media Services, said Mr. Rooney’s editor did not think the comment touched Imus territory. “We try to give our columnists a great deal of latitude. This just wasn’t considered going over the line,” she said.

Now all Panger and I have to do is sit back and wait for all the money to pour in. That's how it works, right? We're serious reporters now!

I even went to the store this morning and got one of those old-time hats with the white slip of paper sticking out that says "Press." I look fantastic!