As selected by Canadian Blog Award voters, here are the rankings for:
1. The Joy of Sox with 318 votes (42.91%)
2. From The Rink with 207 votes (27.94%)
3. Beijing 2008: A Dual Perspective with 109 votes (14.71%)
4. Food Court Lunch with 55 votes (7.42%)
5. Out Of Left Field with 52 votes (7.02%)
Total votes: 741
This year’s winner won by a solid margin, but a very good showing with close to 750 votes in total for the entire category. Of 15 nominees, the above were considered the top 5 in Canadian sports blogging. Congratulations to the winners. Of interest, Cynthia Long finishes third after writing her blog based on the Chinese-Canadian experience. Cynthia is herself Chinese, but has adopted Canada as her second home, and she returned to China during the Olympics to document the unique perspective of having ties to both countries. Last year’s second place finalist now takes first, The Joy of Sox, while James Mirtle’s third place last year has translated to second place.
Canadian Blog Awards 
Yay Joy!
And congratulations to all the finalists.
Yes, also them.
I said it directly over at Joy of Sox and at Out of Left Field, where I contribute. So, I don’t feel bad about saying it here as well.
Should a blog that has literally no Canadian content really be held up as Canada’s best sports blog? I don’t mean this as a dig against JoS. I really don’t. Nor, is it sour grapes (in my opinion, James Mirtle is probably who deserves to win this category. We’re a little too niche). But, I *do* think it’s a topic that needs to be discussed.
We have no shortage of big American sports spoon feed to us by the MSM in Canada. It’s an issue that is getting worse with cutbacks in the industry. In that climate, the blogosphere should be place where Canadian sports fans can turn to find our stories — our under reported stories — written.
Sports is part of our shared culture. For a blog that’s entire focus is on an American team playing in an American league and mostly followed by American fans to be held up as the best example of a Canadian sports blog is sad to me. And, wrong. We struggle enough in this country to get noticed above the noise to the south of us. We don’t need to contribute to that difficulty.
In the science category you had people take issue with “pseudo-science” blogs being nominated. To me, this is the same issue here. Moving forward this category should have a requirement that the content be “significantly Canadian.” No all Canadian. Just significantly.
Just writing it in Canada shouldn’t be enough. After all, if Radiohead recorded an album in Canada should it be eligible to win the Juno for best Canadian album? Would you give a Giller to an Australian author because they set their book in Saskatchewan?
To be clear, JoS does what he does well. He won this award fairly based on the criteria that’s set. I just don’t think the criteria set does justice to the award.
An interesting observation. I, for one, agree with you. Stricter criteria need to be used for next year’s awards. One lesson we have learned from doing these awards, and I speak for myself as a judge, is that we cannot wait until the end of the nominations process to assess entrants because that leads to error. Next time, depending on who is involved, I suggest the judges check nominations daily in order to ensure they are legitimately Canadian, consisting of Canadian content. I rejected several blogs because I didn’t think they had enough Canadian content, but some of the ones I rejected showed up on other categories because we had a variety of judges.
[…] Mike Silva . Excerpt: Should a blog that has literally no Canadian content really be held up as Canada’s best sports blog? I don’t mean this as a dig against JoS. I really don’t. Nor, is it sour grapes (in my opinion, James Mirtle is probably who deserves to … […]
And I disagree, since the author is Canadian (or living in Canada), and cheering for the Red Sox is not strictly a pastime for Bostonians, or Americans. Therefore, the content of the winning blog is Canadian. With the current voting structure, the blogs with topics that appeal to a worldwide audience are more likely to finish at the top, and that perhaps is unfortunate for completely Canadian-centric blogs.
No, Radiohead wouldn’t and shouldn’t win an award for Best Canadian album. But someone reporting on Radiohead, and other overrated British music, should be eligible for a CAJ or OCNA Award for best feature by a Canadian reporter. These awards, it seems to me, are about Canadian bloggers and the content we create. Not about the percentage of airtime we give to CANCON.
“With the current voting structure, the blogs with topics that appeal to a worldwide audience are more likely to finish at the top, and that perhaps is unfortunate for completely Canadian-centric blogs.”
Then I’m going make a semantic argument. These aren’t Canadian blog awards. They are Canadian blogger awards. People’s choice blogger awards. It may seem pedantic, but make the award “Best Canadian sports blogger” and I don’t have an argument. But, if you claim that Joy of Sox is the best Canadian sports blog, which is what the award is currently for, then I’m going to assert my position that it isn’t a Canadian sports blog.
There would be ways that JoS could be a more Canadian blog. He could seek out stories about Red Sox fans in Canada (there are many in the Maritimes). He could add some general baseball content to the site that looks at Canadian players. Something, anyway.
But to go back to my main point…what’s the point in having Canadian specific awards if there is so little requirement to actually have Canadian content. Otherwise, as you say, Canadian-centric blogs are kinda pissing in the wind.
Without stricter Canadian requirements I don’t understand what we’re accomplishing here.
Argued that way, and personally as a fan of Canadian Content (CANCON) I’m inclined to agree that we could do better to find more Canadian focused blogs. However, the solution, as it often is to critiques such as yours, is to make sure more Canadian blogs you like get nominated for 2009, so there are more strictly Canadian blog reader/voters deciding the outcome of the rankings. That way we’ll be including more Canadian content, without excluding those that exist as a part of both the Canadian and greater blogosphere.
As a side note, the CBAs exist mostly to create a useful list of Canadian blogs, ranked by popularity, and categorized into as many genres as is feasible for volunteer staff. The result is a blog site that helps introduce people interested in Canadian blogs, to more Canadian blogs.
I appreciate that this job is a bit thankless and that there is likely no perfect way to go about it. I wonder, however, whether it’s time to take the next step in the evolution of these awards — whether it isn’t time to find a selection criteria that combines quality with popularity.
(understanding that it’s a volunteer effort)
There is power in having that banner that says “best” on it. It gives the writer credibility. To me, if we are to continue using the title “best” then there should be more vetting and quality control.
What complete nonsense. First you denigrate the JoS author by calling him “Canadian (or living in Canada)” — what will you do when he receives his Canadian citizenship? Then you question the very basis of the awards you define.
Meanwhile, the NHL remains an American corporation that actively works to avoid further Canadian franchises — that’ll take out your second-place finisher, unless you want to take some national hockey myth as having meaning in the CBA awards.
Then there’s a sporting event that took place entirely in China, and whose participants were predominantly non-Canadian — your third-place finisher’s subject.
Your fourth- and fifth-place finishers are roundups of sports in general; only OOLF even mentions CFL or Lacrosse, but there’s at least an even amount of content about American sports, including the NFL and NBA.
It seems that the winner is not much different from the second- through fourth-place finishers. The exceptionalism of the fifth-place finisher, therefore, seems to disqualify everyone but, surprise surprise, the fifth-place finisher.
As for “vetting and quality control”, you’d better sort out your feminist and science categories before you use these excuses to disqualify Canadian bloggers from other categories.
“First you denigrate the JoS author by calling him “Canadian (or living in Canada)” ”
Hope that wasn’t directed at me. If it was, it was inaccurate.
The Food Court Lunch team are actually an Albanian sleeper cell. I am as shocked as you are, but now all of their Nadia Comaneci-related posts are starting to make sense.
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[…] folks at Food Court Lunch seem a tad disappointed that they finished out of the medals in the Best Sports Blog category. But they aren’t letting their mood prevent them from bringing important news to the […]
As the only nominated sports blog that includes regular posts about sexy curlers, CFL fight songs, deux deux deuxs, rouges, Nickelback, Joey Jeremiah and marauding grizzly bears, we consider it a travesty of democracy that Food Court Lunch did not win this category. We call upon JoS to hand over its “Best Sports Blog” trophy immediately, failing which we are prepared to write a sternly-worded letter to whatever commissioner is in charge of sports blogs expressing our displeasure. Also, we want the gift basket you got for winning as well.
Could you e-mail me those sexy curler pics? I missed them.
Thanks. I need them for, um, research.
Blue Menu, ixnay on the iftgay asketbay!
I like to visit the sports blog and share my thoughts. I love the football and tennis. Rogger Federa and Ronaldo are my favorite players. I can not miss any game of both players. Both game depends upon on tricks and energy of players.