{ "id": "1997-november-world-wide-sports", "slug": "1997-november-world-wide-sports", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-november-world-wide-sports.html", "year": 1997, "month": "November", "monthNum": 11, "headline": "World Wide Sports", "kicker": "On the Internet", "author_name": "Nora Paul", "author_title": "Training Instructor", "affiliation": "The Poynter Institute", "summary": "Nora Paul from Poynter Institute provides a guide to sports websites and resources for journalists, recommending link pages and mega-sports sites to help reporters and editors verify information and cover sports stories that extend beyond the sports section.", "keywords": [ "sports", "journalism", "internet" ], "topics": [ "Journalism & Newsroom", "Technology" ], "technologies": [ "Internet", "World Wide Web" ], "full_text": "World Wide Sports\n\nBy Nora Paul The Poynter Institute\n\nIn the interest of full disclosure, I'm not much of a sports fan. I have no special teams I loyally root for. But I am a dedicated fan of Uplink so when the assignment for the column was changed to sports, I didn't try to punt it back.\n\nAfter \"adult entertainment\" sites, there are probably more Internet sites dedicated to sports topics than anything else. I don't go to them. In fact, a friend who runs a big sports server called to tell me all about his new venture when he was starting it up and I said, \"Oh great, just what the Internet needs, another damn sports site.\" I haven't heard much from him lately.\n\nBut then, as often happens, life made me face something that I had avoided. I had to train sports copy editors and reporters at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on how to use the Internet. I had to explore sports sites. And I came away with an appreciation of some of the services and their meticulous arrangement and wide scope of sports information. I also realized that sports stories aren't just for the sports section, as a big story in Minneapolis, and in a number of other communities, has revealed. The hostage taking of communities by major league sports teams insisting they need a new stadium or they'll leave town is a business story, a community story and a government story.\n\nSo, whether you are a copy editor needing some verification of names and statistics, a reporter covering a big game or the investigative reporter needing to background some rich sport franchises' dealing, here are some sports links that can help.\n\nHope they help you pitch a field goal, or some such thing.\n\nLinks pages\n\nSometimes, finding the site that has the best collection of links is your first, best bet in searching.\n\nRely on \"Web scouts\" who go out and locate good sites rather than wading through the vast listings in large search engine sites. Here are a couple of good ones:\n\nWorld Wide Web of Sports\nhttp://www.tns.lcs.mit.edu/cgi-bin/sports\nA sort of Yahoo of sports sites, compiled by students at MIT. The first page will link you to the listings for specific sports or click the \"Sports Search\" link to get a search box and look for specific items.\n\nHandilinks\nhttp://www.ahandyguide.com/\nCheck out this guide to Internet resources - categorized in broad subject areas. Click on sports and get a wonderful listing by sport, from back-packing to wrestling, with sub-categories for teams and other topics.\n\nA great way to find the specific Web sites of particular sports teams, but be careful that you are looking at the \"official\" Web site, not just a fan's ravings.\n\nTip for finding sports link pages:\n\nGo to the Infoseek search site (www.infoseek.com) and put in the search box: +title:links +title: