In anticipation of SportsGrid, Mediaite’s upcoming sports baby (babies having babies!), and the crazy Power Grid-related arguing which will follow that launch we’ve decided to count down our list of the top 25 most influential sports bloggers, writers, and tweeters currently shaping the online sports narrative.

For all of the punches Conan O’Brien has been taking at NBC hosts and honchos, it was only a matter of time before he caught a shot back, and it came hardest from NBCU Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol. Now, an anonymous former NBC Sports employee has taken to sports gossip blog Deadspin with a detailed retort of Ebersol’s own failures including the XFL, AFL, Universal Sports and the Olympics.

Newspapers are dying, magazines are dying: this is the story of 2009 where the media is concerned. However, the future of media, such as it is, does not look quite so dim. Or dim at all, really. Obviously, the brave new media world that we are slowly moving into (some at a quicker pace than others!) will look entirely different in twelve months’ time, likely in large part due to the efforts of the folks we listed on our online editors of the year poll. So who gets the final nod? Our picks below: feel free to add yours in the comments section.

If 2009 was a tough year for magazines and newspapers — and boy, was it ever — it was a bang-up year for the editors of the blogs listed here. Now we are asking you, our loyal, smart, and attractive readers to share your thoughts on who had the biggest year in the Online Editor category:

It’s time for a special edition of Mediaite Office Hours – our final show of 2009 – from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be Mark Knoller of CBS News, A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin.com and more:

Deadspin’s A.J. Daulerio makes a good (disturbing) case for the argument that alleged Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel was allegedly paid off not to keep her quiet over her alleged affair with Woods, but to keep quiet over all the alleged “dirty business” she does for him.

Short version: she provides the girls, she is not the girls. And there have been many, many girls. Also, this is big business. And Tiger may have ruined the party for everyone.

“A mad reader is an engaged reader!” This we know. Everyone who has ever worked in media time-out-of-mind knows this. The blogosphere is built on this model. Cable News increasingly so. Still, knowing that didn’t stop me from being angry; angrier still that it had worked. And it does work. But why does it always seems to work best when women are shown at their marginalized worst? The answer: Sexism sells.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just sensitive because last year, NYO writer Spencer Morgan featured me in a piece about how awesome it was for a 36-year-old guy to nail 23-year-old girls, until he realized that when it was time to be responsible and settle down he needed a boring old 36 year old….who was so boring that she drove him back to 23 year olds.

After Steve Phillips‘ sex scandal broke earlier this week, one of the leading sports blogs, Deadspin.com (owned by Gawker Media), felt personally slighted by the New York Post story after feeling mislead by ESPN PR the month before. So they began publishing other tips, unverified unconfirmed, about ESPN employee sex scandals.

Now the relationship between the Worldwide Leader in Sports and Deadspin seems severely damaged.

Today on Mediaite Office Hours we’re coming to you live as usual from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. We’ll be joined by Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, Deadspin.com editor A.J. Daulerio, Politico’s Patrick Gavin…and you!

A.J. Daulerio is the editor of Deadspin.com, pretty much the top sports blog around and so enjoyably written that even non-sports people are fans, perhaps because of headlines like this: Mets Third Base Coach Does Not Like My Pants And Will Not Eat My Poop Sandwich (UPDATE). (It ‘s the helpful updates that make the [...]

This past Thursday Mediaite celebrated its one month anniversary. A couple of people have since asked us if we could break down our over all traffic numbers and publish the most trafficked Power Grid pages since July 6. The answer is yes! Turns out the results are actually sort of fascinating: who knew Christopher Hitchens had so much Power Grid game! Check out our inaugural Top Ten Power Grid Players after the jump.