Welcome to The Drum

Or, to be specific, the next stage in whatever passes for a sportswriting career these days.

Truth be told, this is not my first thrust at blogging. Past Baltimore Sun readers (maybe a few current ones, too) might remember the roughly two-year exercise that eventually was named "Steele Press.'' That expired rather abruptly in March 2008. A little over a year later, my tenure at the Sun ended even more abruptly. To my everlasting gratitude, the creators of World Sports Blogs have thrown me this lifeline. I don't think this will be the only writing outlet I'll have, but for now it's a great one to have, one that I've plotted ever so slowly and carefully for way too long. When other ventures present themselves to me, you'll find out about it here.

(A few have over the course of the summer - in The Huffington Post and in TheGrio.com within the last few weeks.)

If you've followed my work in the Sun - and before that, as a columnist, with the San Francisco Chronicle, and my NBA writing for the Chronicle, Newsday, the late and lamented National Sports Daily and the New York Post - you have a good idea of what you're getting. Even if that's not much of a comfort to you (and judging by some of my email from the Sun days, it wasn't for everybody), I hope you stay with it. As you've noticed either from reading me before, from checking out my online-writing favorites, or from coming across my name on Amazon.com, this is not for the types who want to escape into the sports pages and hide from the real world.

What makes this a unique journey for me is the vehicle I'm now using, after 20-plus years in a different kind. Now that I've passed from what's perceived as one side of the mass media world (the old, mainstream, gasping-for-air, near-death side) to the other (the fresh, sparkling, inventive, criminally-lowly-paid side), I get to be in on exactly how those without voices, or who have had their voices taken or silenced or drowned out, make themselves heard.

For example, how huge stories like Usain Bolt's can get completely smothered for an entire year. But that's for another post. The next one, actually.