Marty’s Better

I’ve owned Marty’s Better for close to two years now.  Before the 2007/08 season there was a lot of shit floating around about who was going where as far as free agency.  The amount of “locks,” “just about done’s,” and “E5’s” that I saw led me to finally get this site off the ground.  And I have Seldom Scoreay Sheldon Souray to thank for it.  Seriously, I really felt that the Devils needed to add a top tier blue liner to their team.  Since that wasn’t available, Sheldon seemed like the most likely candidate.  He also, in my opinion, is somewhere right in the middle of the second tier of NHL defensemen.  Countless sites had him as a virtual lock to sign in New Jersey.  The main culprit, a site that talks about buzz, assigns “e” ratings to things, and has a main blogger who goes by the name of a Swedish has-been NHL pivot, once posted that Souray was only a few hours from signing in New Jersey.  At that point, I was getting fed up with hockey on the internet.  The major sites didn’t do enough in-depth analysis, unless it dealt with Sidney Crosby.  Twice a year, the rumor sites turned into cable news stations circa the 2000 Presidential Election.  They tried so hard to beat each other to be the first to announce a signing/deal that they started making stuff up based on stuff they got from a friend of a guy who wroks at the ticket booth for the Red Wings.  Unfortunately, this was also when they got most of their traffic.  In the end, it seemed like their philosophy was to keep pushing bullshit, but if they landed one rumor correctly, someone would see them as credible.  So go to the rumor sites, major sites, and official sites.  When something gets announced, something big happens, or just for standard NHL water cooler talk, come to Marty’s Better.  You won’t find better hockey talk anywhere from guys who know the game inside and out.

When you visit the site, you’ll get honest, in your face writing about the greatest sport in the world.  No one’s going to float rumors.   There’s nothing wrong with speculation, but we’re not going to get anyone’s hopes up.  Sure, we’lls peculate as to “wouldn’t it be great if team A got player X?”  But no rumors.  You can go to your rumor sites for rumors, but honestly, we’re not even going to touch that stuff.  There’s a reason they’re called rumors.  Most of them are untrue.

We’re also not going to take ourselves all that seriously.  We have a female writer who’s going to be covering hockey hunks, and another writer covering hockey collectibles, mostly cards.  We’ll report on the league, we’ll argue about things that couldn’t possibly have a concrete answer, and we’ll do crazy stuff like try to determine the 10 greatest Minnesota Wild in history.  We’re also going to be starting a column on jersey etiquette, a huge pet peeve of mine.

Finally, we’re going to give our readers a voice.  Registered users can post comments.  We’ll moderate them, but it’s going to take something pretty ridiculous or malicious to get deleted/banned.  If commenters are asking for something to be covered, we’re going to do our best to give it to them.

In the coming weeks/months/years? you’ll see more writers come on board with expertise based on certain teams.   We’re trying to build our army every day.  As we march along, hopefully we’ll be able to lock in some guys/gals who will provide great insight and analysis on your favorite teams.  Until then, you’ll see certain teams covered more than others, but most of all, the most important things in the league will be touched on regardless of who the writer’s favorite team is.  Enjoy the site.  Contact us if you have any suggestions.  And if you’re a writer and a fan of a certain team, or just have a great idea for the site, contact us and we’ll be happy to hear what you have to say and consider it.  Until then, always stay on-sides.

-Dish

Trackback URI |