Joe Sheehan vs. BBWAA

This seemed all a little loose, so I went to Bob Dutton to get some clarity around this. Below is his answer:

There is no such restriction, although that is what typically happens.

The procedure is this: BBWAA secretary/treasurer Jack O'Connell solicits a list of each chapters' voters early in the year from the chapter chairman. Unless Jack red-flags a voter for some reason, which almost never happens, that's it.

If Jack sees a problem, he contacts the chairman for further discussion.

Anticipating your next question, there is no hard-and-fast checklist (that I'm aware of) for red-flagging a recommendation. It's more a common-sensething.

I can't give you specifics of any such incident because I'm unaware of any.

I suppose it has happened at some point. I also suppose that either thepresident and/or the board would get involved if Jack and the chairman couldn't resolve an issue.

Ballots are distributed to panelists late in the season with the requirement that they be returned before postseason starts. If anyone is slow to return their ballot, Jack typically contacts the chapter chairman for assistance.

Jack counts the ballots and is the only one who knows the results until we make a formal announcement. The check in the system is we release any and all ballots upon request.

 

The bigger issue is Hall of Fame voting, which is all-inclusive to the point that guys who haven't covered baseball for 30 years (and maybe never did) have a ballot.

 

That still doesn't explain Kornheiser and others who are never seen at a ballpark. But I'm in favor of more inclusion rather than less. I just wish they would be consistent about it.

 

You're wrong. They notice and they care.

 

Some of the highest-ranking, longest-tenured members of the BBWAA have made it clear, in their own words, that reporting, rather than writing, is the bright-line test for membership.

-- Joe Sheehan

I like Joe's writing quite a bit but there's nothing wrong with this. ANYBODY can call himself a writer. The BBWAA has always been an organization of professionals who are at the ballpark on a daily basis covering clubs for established publications. I'd agree it was slow to bring in reporters who work for Internet publications but the BBWAA has done a nice job on their behalf over the years on any number of issues relating to rights and working conditions for its members at the ballparks.

I know the Internets have now exposed us to the brilliant baseball analysis of Rob Neyer and thousands of others and I understand they really, really want a HOF vote. But the board of directors of the HOF, a private museum, decides who gets to vote on enshrinement in their museum and the BBWAA decides who gets to join its organization.

Does a Web site as big as ESPN.com or Baseball Prospectus not get credentialed upon request? If Rob or Joe want BBWAA membership so bad maybe they should get to 50 or 60 games a year and request further membership consideration.

 

100% correct, cran.

Sorry, PW. They pay no attention to those things.

 

word at the winter meetings -- and this is just what i heard, not what i saw -- was that keith law said he planned on doing more on-sight stuff and hoped to be reconsidered next year, while neyer just pouted and bitched and bad-mouthed folk, stomping his feet, crossing his arms and sticking out his bottom lip. but that's just what i heard. i wouldn't know rob neyer (a glamour shot only tells so much) if he came up and kicked me in the balls. but since i'm usually at the ballpark, i don't really have to worry about that