BBWAA vote on MLB.com

chapter president just came to me and asked me to vote on whether mlb.com writers should be granted induction into the bbwaa -- i believe our chapter is voting unanimously no. anyone else voting? i made sure to ask if it was just mlb.com and not .coms in general. i know that's been a hot debate -- well, everyone pretty cool with it and murray chass not. but i think mlb.com is pretty much universally decided against

 

i know and respect many of people who work for mlb.com... but if you get your paycheck from the people you cover, you're in public relations, not journalism

also, heard our chapter's vote is pretty representative of the entire vote

 

Besides voting for awards and the Hall of Fame (which MLB.com writers probably shouldn't be a part of), what does the BBWAA do?

Would it make sense to create some sort of associate membership for them?

 

Serious question hoops:

Longtime BBWAA member, Hall of Fame voter, former Chapter chairman, very active in BBWAA in many, many ways, got bought out by his paper, landed job with MLB.com because that's about all that's out there and is still a very active BBWAA member as an MLB.com employee. How does this affect him?

 

I think there's something like that, isn't there? I've seen at least one MLB.com writer wearing a gold card.

Unless you've covered baseball, you have no idea how big of a golden ticket having that card hanging around your neck is. Players seriously decide whether to talk to you based on whether you have a BBWAA card or just a wimpy team-issued credential around your neck. It matters.

 

T.R. Sullivan immediately comes to mind.

 

Marty Noble in New York

 

Knute,

I don't have a BBWAA "golden ticket" and never had a problem getting players to talk to me, ranging from A-Rod to David Ortiz to Torii Hunter to Jim Edmonds, etc. I don't doubt that there are some players (uh, Barry Bonds perhaps) who do make a distinction, but if they do I think that's rather petty.

And unless I'm missing something, I don't recall ever seeing NFL writers or NHL writers wearing special "golden tickets" around their necks if they happened to be members of their respective writer's associations.

Lastly, why should a team-issued credential be called "wimpy?" A credential's a credential, either it's official or not.

Wel, that's my two cents.

 

Andy - No disrespect intended. Geez. Between this and the Gary Smith thread, there's a lot of sensitivity around here.

Good for you if you're able to get players to open up. But a BBWAA card is something that really helps with credibility. I'll include front-office people, too. It just says, "I cover baseball regularly and know the game."

As far as the NFL, NHL, NBA comparison - it's not a fair comparison. This is something particular to the baseball culture.

If the card didn't matter, the writers wouldn't display them as prominently as they do.

 

Knute,

None taken.

I do understand what you are saying as far as it pertains to the baseball culture, I just wanted to clarify for some of the younger scribes among us that not having a BBWAA card doesn't mean you won't get the interviews you are seeking.

And I know the NFL, NHL and NBA operate a little differently, but to tell you the truth, I think those three organizations are closer to doing things the right way when it comes to voting for the Hall of Fame. Qualified writers, i.e. members of the association, should have input in the voting, but not final say.

But that's an argument for a different thread.

And for the record, I have to believe members of the Pro Football Writers Association, and the NHL's and NBA's can say the same thing as far as "covering their respective sport and knowing the game" applies.

 

Oh, no doubt.

I think baseball, as a sport, is simply more hostile to perceived outsiders. I think the writers are ... how to put this ... more a part of the fabric of the game than basketball or football writers. That doesn't mean they're any less of journalists. But I think that baseball writers are more intertwined with the game than writers of other sport. It may be 162 games. It also is probably largely due to the Hall of Fame vote.