Midwest Sports Fans

AbOUT Midwest Sports Fans

Midwest Sports Fans was launched by Jerod Morris in August of 2008 with the tagline “a sports blog by and for Midwest sports fans.” The original goal of Midwest Sports Fans was to be inclusive and provide a forum for any and all sports fans to voice their sports opinions. To date, over 30 individual authors have posted articles on Midwest Sports Fans.

In addition to its many amateur bloggers, the author list for Midwest Sports Fans includes professional sports anchors Scott Reister (KNDU-TV in Yakima, WA) and Candice Crawford (KOMU-TV in Columbia, MO). Reister writes a regular column called “The Anchor’s Desk”, while Crawford regularly contributes her article, "From the Sideline."

Controversy

In June of 2009, Morris and the site became involved in a controversial story that made national headlines. In a post titled, “The Curious Case of Raul Ibanez: Steroid Speculation Perhaps Unfair, but Great Start in 2009 Raising Eyebrows,” Morris outlined a variety of possible statistical explanations for the impressive beginning Raul Ibanez got off to in 2009, his first year with the Philadelphia Phillies. In the post, Morris argues that because of Major League Baseball’s sordid recent history with performance-enhancing [...] (PED) use, it is reasonable to speculate and impossible to rule out that Ibanez’s could be steroid enhanced.

In the post, Morris specifically states that he is withholding judgment on the issue and never accuses Ibanez of steroid use. In numerous posts since the original article was published, Morris has said that he does not, in fact, believe Ibanez is using steroids, only that such speculation is warranted for any Major League Baseball Player.

The post on Midwest Sports Fans created a firestorm of controversy when it was mentioned by John Gonzalez in a "Philadelphia Inquirer" article entitled “A cheap shot at Ibanez". Morris claims, as have many others, that Gonzalez mischaracterizes the post to suggest that it was accusatory towards Ibanez. Once informed of the Philadelphia Inquirer article by Gonzalez that discussed the post by Morris, Raul Ibanez lashed out at Morris publicly, though not referring to him by name, saying he considered the post “pathetic” and “cowardly” and vowing that he would go to any measure to prove that he is clean.

On the same day that Ibanez’s comments became public, Morris, Gonzalez, and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports appeared on the ESPN show, "Outside the Lines," hosted by Steve Bunin. This appearance became the subject of hundreds of articles discussing the relationship between bloggers and the mainstream sports media, as well as the validity of speculating about individual players possibly using steroids or PEDs.