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Joe Sheehan vs. BBWAA

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by TheSportsPredictor, Dec 29, 2007.

  1. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I've found that it usually isn't the beat guys who have the problem (OK, with some it is).
    It's the guys who have their 10 in and are still stuck in 1989 and want to keep others at arms length from getting the same privleges they had. I can think of two off the top of my head -- and one is the biggest slob PITA in metro Detroit. I am not surprised when he's living in a van, down by the river...
     
  2. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    BBWAA member (and chapter officer) chiming in here...

    First, all complaints about Hall of Fame voting should be directed to the Hall of Fame, not the BBWAA. The Hall decides who votes, and as of now, the Hall has decided it should be the BBWAA. The Hall, and not the BBWAA, could decide at the drop of a hat that they wanted to include Vin Scully or Keith Law or whoever it wanted, as I understand.

    Second, the BBWAA awards are property of the BBWAA, not major league baseball. Bud Selig doesn't hand out an MVP plaque. A member of the BBWAA does. There is nothing stopping any other group from giving out its own awards (like the Player's Choice or the ESPYs).

    Finally, I think the main purpose of the BBWAA is to protect the working conditions for those who are covering games at the ballpark. They deal with issues like press box seating, clubhouse access, etc. That is why the BBWAA admits beat writers and not people who sit at home and watch games on TV and muse about them in their blogs. I don't think anyone is saying members of the BBWAA are better than those people or that they don't have a place, it's just that they don't need the protections of the BBWAA to do their job. (It is for this reason that I was in the minority who felt that mlb.com beat writers could have been admitted, because they are in the same boat as us when it comes to most issues we face.)

    As for the other exclusionary practices of the BBWAA, I can say that my chapter lets in just about anybody whose name is submitted by his or her paper, whether they go to 10 games or 162. I know it's not right, but that's just the way it's evolved here. Other chapters are different.
     
  3. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    BBWAA would be fine if it really concerned itself with issues like working conditions and access. But it doesn't. It exists mostly to hand out awards, which is about 50 years behind the times.

    BBWAA's sense of "exclusivity" predates blog issues by decades. I worked in a market where BBWAA excluded a guy who was stringing every game for a fairly significant suburban paper. Reason? He wasn't a full-time employee of the paper (nor did he want to be). So he was on the outside looking in, while guys who hadn't been near a ballpark since divisional play started were full members.

    It probably doesn't matter that much. BBWAA tends to be less of an issue outside of NY, and its influence is diminishing. Most people don't stay on the beat that long these days, so fewer people are going to be attached to the whole concept.
     
  4. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    I don't know. Is it that much to ask for someone who calls himself a baseball journalist to actually show up at a game once in a while?
    Do people really think you can get the entire picture watching on TV?
     
  5. The case for excluding internet writers or others who don't cover the beat for a print outlet would be much better if the membership didn't include dozens of "active" members who are now editors and columnists who cover other sports.

    Many of the names on the badge list don't belong if you go by the standards mentioned when ESPN and Prospectus types were excluded:

    http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1765&Itemid=111
     
  6. Joe Pos: Now categorized by Pulitzer Wannabe as "blogger."
     
  7. Explain please.
     
  8. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    Having been to a handful of national BBWAA meetings, I can say this is simply not true.

    We talk about stuff like teams that don't open the clubhouses early enough, or whose press boxes don't provide reliable internet service, or whose new press boxes are down the right-field line or on the roof with no air conditioning.

    One of the only award-related issues I've heard discussed actually concerned the fact that more and more of our newspapers didn't want us to vote, so we were getting low on qualified voters.

    The reason outsiders think our only purpose is to give out awards is because that's all we mean to them. They don't care if the A's aren't opening their clubhouse after batting practice, but it's a big deal to us.
     
  9. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    Interesting list. I see my papers' former sports and current managing editor on there, I'll need to see if he's still a member.
     
  10. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    And what's been accomplished by any of those discussions? Nothing.

    In the meantime, BBWAA continues to hand out awards to players who make its members' jobs more difficult.
     
  11. RedSmithClone

    RedSmithClone Active Member

    I don't care who votes, but if Jim Rice doesn't make it with this group of rejects and never-weres, he ain't making it into the hall at all.
     
  12. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Guess you missed the six-page Hall thread on Sports and News?
     
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