And now..the end is here.....

By JC De La Torre

Folks, this will be the last update of this blog, we're moving on to MVN for our blogging future.

I like to thank all of our subscribers and regular followers, I sincerely hope you guys will follow me over to our new location. Bare with me as they'll like be some growing pains as I figure out how to use everything.

We are now live on http://tbsportsblog.com


Hopefully, you guys will dig the new lay out

Thanks to Blogger for all of the tools and gadgets that helped make JC De La Torre's Tampa Bay Sports Blog a fun and interesting place to check out.

Movin' On Up....Movin' On Up...to the Deluxe Apartment in the Sky!

By JC De La Torre

Please excuse our dust and lack of activity the next few days on the blog as we are transitioning into a strategic partnership with MVN - the Most Valuable Network. We'll be moving to a new URL - tbsportsblog.com with fancy smancy new layout and we'll also be participating in many MVN activities.

If you're not familiar with MVN - here's what their media kit describes it as -
The Most Valuable Network was created by accident on December 31, 2003 when friends began blogging together about their favorite baseball teams. Years later, it is no accident what MVN has become: A large sports media entity that strives to bring the most informed opinion and analysis to a community of passionate fans.

While we'll definitely miss our little home here at blogger, we're definitely excited about the opportunity and exposure that MVN provides.

For the next couple of days you may see some weird things on the blog like the formatting all screwed up or no recent posts. Once we're live on tbsportsblog.com we'll post here again to let you know to update your weblinks. In fact, if you have us linked on your site, you may want to go ahead and make the change.

We likely won't have any new content on this site or the new site until the weekend - we sincerely apologize for that but we'll be sure to make it up.

If you'd be interested in joining JC De La Torre's Tampa Bay Sports Blog as a writer, feel free to drop me a line - you can reach me via the contact me feature on my website at jcdelatorre.com

There is no pay (sorry, we're not getting paid for this either) but if you want to blog about Tampa Bay sports and have your stuff read on a site that gets up to 800,000 page views it may be worth it. We're looking obviously for bloggers with a good writing style, humorous, with a love for Tampa Bay and Florida College sports.

Let us know if you're interested in teaming up.

A message to other Bloggers

By JC De La Torre

I don't pretend to be god's gift to blogging. In fact, I'm a newb nobody that is just trying to get my readership up and trying to establish a following. I like that there are some out there who dig my work and want to reference it on their own sites. I welcome that with one little caveat.

If you are going to use any of my work - you MUST link back to the original article. Not only is it blogging etiquette, its the right thing to do. Whenever I use someone else's info or work - I've ALWAYS linked back. I take time in crafting the way I want to say things, sometimes I'm a little to rough on our local teams, sometimes I try to be funny (occassionally I succeed), sometimes I can be very opinionated and provide that to you, sometimes I do hours of research on a topic and try to provide you some good analysis, other times its just straight news reporting from the wires or the local papers.

Whatever it is, if I use someone else's work - I post a link back to the source. Now, there's been a lot of folks who have done that in the past and I thank you for reading and for caring enough to link back to me. There have been other bloggers who blatantly have stolen my work and for that I cannot stand idly by. At the bottom of this blog there's a copyright and I will defend my copyright. If I find that you have used my work on your blog with out a link back or my expressed permission to do so - your ISP will be contacted and you better starting looking for a good attorney.

While I don't make a lot of money doing this - and honestly its not a money making venture for me, its more of a fun diversion from the everyday - its still MY intellectual property we're playing with here.

Please - save us both some grief. If you dig something I write - cool, I'm thrilled about that. Just link back. It takes two seconds to post a linkback, its not brain surgery and I'd do it for you.

Blogger Kicked Out by the Edmonton Oilers

By JC De La Torre


One of my fellow bloggers in the blogosphere suffered a great injustice last month as he was tossed out by the Edmonton Oilers because he was blogging live during a game in the press box. Basically, no one explained to him that he wasn't allowed to blog from the press box, he was confronted by Oilers staff who threaten him with expulsion from the game and told him he would never be invited to the press box again for "inappropriate use of his press pass".

You can read the entire story here - Covered in Oil: It Ends

Frankly, it's just a demonstration on how some franchises in professional sports just don't get it when it comes to the internet. I mean, we bloggers are offering FREE PUBLICITY to the franchises. We are like mini-PR guys who talk up the team and create interest. The Oilers behavior is tantamount to kicking out their own fans because they're screaming "Let's Go Oilers" too loudly or booing when the power play fails to score.

Its ridiculous. The blogger in question is so hurt by the experience that he doesn't want to blog about the Oilers any more - and his site has become one of the most popular Oiler blogs in the "Oilogosphere".

Hopefully, the Lightning, Bucs, Rays, and the other teams I cover in this blog can see that while it can at times be critical, blogging in essence is GOOD for your organization.

Good luck to Dave the Blogger, I hope he can find some peace in knowing that other bloggers stand behind him.