What, no votes for Bill Plaschke? 
Obviously not currently writing but Hunter S. Thompson had a column on espn.com Page 2. I know you could hunt out the old columns for a while, don’t know if they are still there. His columns were only peripherally about sports but pretty entertaining.
He was a sports writer for" Rolling Stone" and absolutely the best.
I’ve got a few: Frank De Ford, George Vecsey, Dave Anderson, Tom Verducci. I wish I had the chance to read Jim Murray.
Me too.
It was stale 20 years ago.
I was going to nominate him for the worst.
Third/fourth/fifth/whatevered.
Not as long as Murray Chass is still alive.
And I’m putting in a negative vote for Rick Reilly. That guy’s a total hack. He digs around for smaller town stories already written, and highlights them. There’s not a single original thought in that man’s head.
I liked Red Smith as a kid (me, not him).
I opened this thread specifically to fight with anyone who nominated him. FireJoeMorgan.com really handed it to that hack, and has poisoned me against Plaschke forever.
I enjoy Posnanski a lot, and George Vecsey for the New York Times. I like Bill Simmons. He does overplay his hand sometimes and his Boston angst can get painful at times, but he’s a funny sportswriter (which is very rare) and I enjoy what he does. I did admire Dr. Z’s knowledge a great deal and it’s too bad he’s not able to write these days. Peter King gets a lot of insider access but I thought Brett Favre played him. I read his column every week but he’s just not a very good writer, and it grates on me sometimes. I don’t care if he’s not a poet, but there are just too many sentence fragments and other bits of weak style and it makes it a less enjoyable read for me. And I don’t need to hear his opinions on TV, coffee, and other stuff.
Wasn’t he the guy that pulled that pathetic stunt with Sammy Sosa about steroids?
Yes. Although I don’t see what was pathetic about it. Sosa made an empty bluff about how he’d take a steroid test if anyone gave him the chance, and Reilly offered to take him up on it.
I like Michael Silver at Yahoo sports. His Trippin’ Tuesdays column gets surreal at times.
But I think everybody at ESPN the magazine is cool. I like KC Joyner, but his articles are hit or miss.
Lame grandstanding that oozed self-righteousness. He’s a douche.
Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders (and occasionally the New York Times). Smart jokes, and he really knows his stuff. The last section of this article (“The Development Secret”) might change the way you look at rookie prospects.
I also like Bill Simmons; you can pretty much disregard any serious analysis coming from him (except perhaps in basketball), but he’s usually a fun read, which is the most important thing. He had Al Michaels on his podcast the other day (8/30), I could listen to Al Michaels shoot the shit about sports and broadcasting for a month.
Rick Reilly is buffoon.
Stephen Brunt of The Globe And Mail.
‘I’ll take a drug test if someone offers one’ is grandstanding self-righteousness. It seems like a reasonable turn of the screw to me.
Sosa’s douchbagginess doesn’t absolve Reilly of his douchebagginess. But since this thread is about sportswriters, Reilly is a douchebag.
greg easterman - tuesday morning quarterback.
gives me something to look forward to on tuesday while i am eating my breakfast tacos.
plus there are cheerleader pics that are sfw.
I’ll second Lebowski on DeFord. He understands that sports are part of the greater culture, which gives him a level of perspective that your average sports columnist - who has to deliver on a series of set tropes and platitudes - can’t afford to have.