[Drake]

If the first series celebrated ESPN's first 30 years, then the second series will celebrate the storytelling form — not just with 30 new sports documentaries from 30 filmmakers (which won't just be confined to that 1979-2009 time frame this time, by the way), but our new "30 for 30 Shorts" web series that premieres monthly on Grantland starting today.

Why expand the series with short films? Because "30 for 30" needed its own Mini-Me. Because live streaming has gotten so reliably fast that we felt like we could pull this off. Because there are stories out there that we loved for four to 12 minutes, but maybe not for a full hour. Because talented filmmakers are usually juggling multiple projects, so sometimes it's easier for them to take on a shorter project than a bigger one.

And most important, because we felt like there was a creative void sitting there for this specific form of storytelling. As you'll see with our first short film, you might not want to spend an hour in Pete Rose's world at this point of his life. But eight minutes? Absolutely.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-our-attention