In early February Kansas City Star sportswriter Martin Manley posted this ominous note in his popular “Upon Further Review” blog column:
“BTW: After 3.3 years, almost 2,000 articles and at least one story every day for 653 days in a row, this may be my last post on UFR.”
Sadly, it was, in fact, his final column at the McClatchy-owned newspaper. Shortly thereafter he and the Star parted ways after seven years.
But, “Upon Further Review” is again alive and well these days as Manley now operates his own blog where he analyzes sports statistics that would please any stats freak. He calls his new blog an “analytical commentary and insight on Kansas City Sports.”
“I have been a “stats freak” my whole life, with no apologies to the anti-geek crowd,” says Manley, who particularly focuses on basketball statistics.
A disciple of renowned baseball statistics legend Bill James, Manley has written three books titled “Martin Manley’s Basketball Heaven” (Doubleday). During his career Manley has written for “Basketball Digest,” “Beckett Basketball,” “Sports Card Collector” and others.
“Almost all of my sports related writing has been with respect to basketball because that was the under-served niche,” he says. “However, I have as much interest (statistically) in baseball (Royals) and football (Chiefs) as I do basketball, though basketball is my favorite sport.”
Stats freaks rejoice.