In the sports world, 2007 might be remembered for its high times: the Colorado Rockies' magical run to the World Series, Boise State's statue of liberty play or Brett Favre's return to his glory days. It might be remembered for its low times: Michael Vick's federal indictment and subsequent sentencing on dog-fighting charges, Barry Bonds' rise to home run prominence amid steroid speculations or the New England Patriots' undefeated season. (That was a joke. Sorry, I'm no Jon Stewart.)
But regardless of how it'll be remembered, we can be proud we had a place to discuss every bit of it. And despite being dragged through the mud by some users, the majority of us have remained vigilant in our attempts to make this a great place for sports lovers to mingle and debate and show their pride.
I believe that if it weren't for ArmchairGM, I would not be writing nearly as much as I do. Sure, I could start my own blog, but I choose to write exclusively for AGM because 1) my articles get more readership and 2) because I believe that the site and the founders deserve it.
I also believe they deserve recognition, too, which is why I disregarded Dan's wishes (I apologize) to keep he, Rob, David and Aaron out of consideration for these awards. After all, they are users too and, above all, sports fans just like the rest of the users on the site.
When I suggested this in the Locker Room way back in October, I was half expecting someone else to take the lead on it. When nobody else did, I decided to do it, because the idea was very well received by the rest of the site. I wasn't always sure what I was doing, but, despite my extremely primitive means, I managed to reach an end.
With this in mind, I want to thank all those who participated and most of all those who thanked me for doing the project. If it weren't for your enthusiasm I probably would've let it fall by the wayside like the several other times the idea has been suggested.
So, before I bore you all to death, I'm happy to announce the 2007 ArmchairGM User Award Winners:
Previously, I announced winners for several categories already, due to the users being the only ones nominated. Here's a list of already announced winners:
In the category of Best Women's Sports Coverage:
- Manny Stiles receives the award for his passionate coverage of all things WNBA.
In the category of Best Table Sports Coverage:
- Alex Holowczak receives the award for his undying love for Snooker. And we apologize to Alex for not coming up with a better name for this category.
In the category of Best Statistical Article:
- Davis21Wylie receives this award for his article "The 100 Greatest Quarterbacks of the Modern Era, Version 1.0". I can't wait to see what Version 2.0 is like!
Congratulations again on the awards! On to the new announcements.
In the category of Homer of the Year, meaning those that exhibit the most love and pride (blind as it may be) for their teams, I present this award to:
- ArmchairGM's Boston fan users! (which probably includes half the users on the site)
- Others nominated: Christof, Rawbeezeitz (who is a Boston fan, so he won anyway), Coreyisarealboy, I am a cpcp, and Tylersalt (also a Boston fan and winner by default).
In the category of Best Humor Writing, for making us all laugh hysterically by way of this user's hilarious articles, I present this award to:
- Manny Stiles, not the first and certainly not the last for Mr. Stiles, who could not be here tonight to receive his awards due to a run-in with a Troll.
- Others nominated: LastRow, SSreporters, Tyrone Briggs.
In the category of Best Motorsports Coverage, for the user who keeps us informed on the topics of circle tracks and road courses, I present this award to:
- Alex Holowczak. Alex's love for motorsports is on display yearly when he releases his Top Auto Racing Track Ratings. His 2007 list was just recently released.
- Others nominated: Thecrookedcap, J Cunningham.
In the category of Best Soccer Coverage (or football to those that were probably nominated for this award), for excellence in providing us with constant coverage of the world of soccer, from the MLS to the Premier League and all things in between, I present this award to:
- Pittsburgh Gunny, whose quiz questions have consistently stumped me more times than not.
- Others nominated: Alex Holowczak, Thecrookedcap, Jgiuffra.
In the category of Best Collegiate Sports Coverage, to the user who best keeps us up to date on the most newsworthy student/athletes and the teams they play for, I present this award to:
- The Beast, who is proving his worthiness of this award on an almost daily basis with his Bowl Preview series.
- Others nominated: Behbigben15, Oh No Romo, SSreporters.
In the category of Best NBA Coverage, to the user who best covers the hardwood, I present this award to:
- Oneflydude, who, despite not receiving any nominations, got overwhelming support for the award throughout the voting process.
- Others nominated: None.
In the category of Best NHL Coverage, for the user who keeps us informed on happenings in the rink, I present this award to:
- FrankD, whose coverage of the Pittsburgh Penguins could very well be the best on the Internet, not just on ArmchairGM.
- Others nominated: MetsJetsDevils, Rawbeezeitz.
In the category of Best NFL Coverage, for the user with the best hits from the gridiron, I present this award to:
- Afraidofedhochuli for keeping us up to date, no matter how hostile it may be, on everything from the Seattle Seahawks to the Ed Hochuli himself.
- Others nominated: BigPPup, False Prophet, MegECass110.
In the category of Best MLB Coverage, for the user knocking us out of the park with the best the diamond has to offer, I present this award to:
- Niteowl049, who stayed with us through times tougher than most of us can even imagine to bring the site his thoughts and information on baseball.
- Others nominated: Coreyisarealboy, Davis21Wylie, Kelsdad.
In the category of Overseas User of the Year, for demonstrating the value of sports around the world and exposing us narrow-minded Americans to them, I present this award to:
- Alex Holowczak, who is probably the only Snooker expert I'll ever encounter.
- Others nominated: Romiezzo.
In the category of Most Improved Writer, for the user exhibiting fearlessness in the face of self-righteous know-it-alls and possessing the cahones to continue and improve his/her work, I present this award to:
- Behbigben15, who, despite being one of the youngest users on the site, has possessed enough knowledge to consistently hang with the "big boys."
- Others nominated: BigPPup, Coreyisarealboy, Insan, Niteowl049.
In the category of Best Beat Writer, for the user giving us the most in depth view of his/her beat in a timely manner, I present this award to:
- Kelsdad, who, no matter how often we don't want to hear about the New York Yankees, always seems to keep things interesting and has on several occasions gone above and beyond simply covering only the Yankees.
- Others nominated: Coreyisarealboy, FrankD, LMedina86, SSreporters.
In the category of Best Editor, for the user attempting to improve the encyclopedia portion of the site and keep it relevant on the site. If it weren't for this guy, your wiki links would show blank pages.
- Romiezzo, who edits everything. I know this because his fan box says so.
In the category of Best Commenter, for the user who, through his wittiness, intelligence, and prowess, give us the best debates for even the simplest articles, I present this award to:
IT'S A TIE!
- Manny Stiles, Dr. Commento himself, and Tyrone Briggs, who we're guessing won't be receiving any congratulatory emails from Jay Mariotti.
- Others nominated: JuTMSY4, Kelsdad, Rawbeezeitz.
In the category of Best Writer, for the user exhibiting the best writing skills, thought pattern, and knowledge of both sports and what it takes to be a quality sports writer, I present this award to:
- Manny Stiles, ok, a little long-winded for some. He's like the Ernest Hemingway of ArmchairGM, and still better than Bill Simmons.
- Others nominated: DNL, MegECass110, Niteowl049, Rawbeezeitz.
In the category of Best Article Series, for the user who came up with the best recurring article of the year, I present the award to:
- The Beast for his "Meet the Users" series, which also makes winners of everyone he's interviewed.
- Others nominated: Christof for his "Friday Fryer", Trizz for his "IM Convos", Tyrone Briggs for his Mariotti columns.
In the category of Article of the Year, for the article that best portrays the intentions of ArmchairGM's blog, I present this award to:
- Manny Stiles for his article "No One Has a Right To Crush Anyone's Dreams", a feature on Matt LaPorta.
- Others nominated: Bootlace for the article "Top 10 WTF NBA Moments in Recent Memory", Davis21Wylie for the article "The 100 Greatest Quarterbacks of the Modern Era, Version 1.0", Donatevo for the article "Only One NFL Team is Undefeated Against Brett Favre".
In the category of Comeback User of the Year, for the user who returned from oblivion to once again be a relevant contributor to the site, I present this award to:
- Myself, I'd like thank the Academy... (This was seriously the result. I wouldn't fack around.)
- Others nominated: DNL, I am a cpcp, Xinoph.
In the category of Rookie of the Year, for the user who joined in 2007 that exhibited the biggest overall value to the site, I present this award to:
- Romiezzo, who put himself on several of the nominations list with his contributions to the site. The guy's fourth on the all-time user list after less than a year. Need I say more?
- Others nominated: Donatevo, Falcon02520, MegECass110.
And finally, our last award. In the category of Most Valuable User, for the user who best exemplifies what it takes to be an upstanding member of the ArmchairGM community, I present this award to:
- DNL, recruiter extraordinaire.
- Others nominated: Manny Stiles, Roblefko, Romiezzo.
Congratulations!
Thank you all again for helping me do this. I couldn't have done it without your help, obviously, much like the site wouldn't be as good without all of us contributing everything we can.