By the way, true story…one of the guys I work with came into my office today and said “You know, I don’t like either Chicago baseball team, but if I had to pick one, I’d go with the White Sox. There is just something about the greatness of Ozzie Guillen.” To which I replied, in typical Lester Burnham-like fashion, “I think you just because my new personal hero.”

Thank you Jake, I appreciate it. I know that there were a few initial reactions that were skeptical, but clearly Blog Buzz is a positive for the sports blogging community. There is a lot of hard work and great writing that defines the sports blogosphere everyday (not always here, but certainly many places elsewhere) and it is not only nice to ESPN paying attention and providing some recognition, but it’s necessary. So many serious sports fans write or read blogs every day. They are becoming weaved into the fabric of how we consume sports news. What you guys and ESPN are doing, I believe, is just a natural manifestation of that fact.

No seriously, Hannah is exactly right on the point of Blog Buzz and Jerod’s efforts in the Raul Ibanez story. Sports bloggers have narrowed the gap between sports journalists. The big names like Deadspin, Sports by Brooks, The Big Lead, Awful Announcing and others have more visitors on a daily basis than some major traditional sports outlets. Ballhype, Yardbarker and others are created a community of educated, passionate fans that goes beyond what many traditional outlets can offer.

We’re all proud of what the sports blogosphere can produce in terms of insight, community, content and entertainment. We sincerely hope that Blog Buzz illuminates all of that as much as possible to people that are otherwise unaware of what sports bloggers can offer.

Jerod, I’ve said this on Twitter, but you, Don from Hugging Harold Reynolds, Will Leitch, Jason McIntyre, the Mottram borthers, Alana G and many others are great ambassadors of the community.