The BBWAA and internet writers

by Adam J. Morris on Dec 7, 2007 1:50 PM CST in News

The BBWAA has decided to admit internet baseball writers, something that was a long time coming...

Of course, when you look through the list of the 16 writers admitted, there are a lot of folks like Gammons, Olney, Kurkjian, Rosenthal, and Verducci...newspaper writers who have migrated to the internet...

16 admitted out of 18 nominated...and the two guys who didn't make it in were Rob Neyer and Keith Law. Which I think is indicative of the fact that there's change, and then there's change...this is a nice first step, but it is a baby step...

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BBWAA

Sooooo exclusive o_O

T.R. -- enough is enough.

by inactive lsb user on Dec 7, 2007 2:49 PM CST reply actions

A take on Andruw Jones' contract

In case anyone is curious.

http://vegaswatch.blogspot.com/2007/12/dodgers-are-smart.html

"He says we're going the wrong way." "Oh, he's drunk. How would he know where we're going?" "Yeah. How would he know?"

by WyoRanger on Dec 7, 2007 2:55 PM CST reply actions

off the top of my head

i don't think keith law and rob neyer actually have writer's backgrounds (like journalism or english)

i wonder if those other guys that were selected do...

by ab03 on Dec 7, 2007 2:57 PM CST reply actions

based on that

i wonder if he would have accepted the third year if the rangers offered it to him

by ab03 on Dec 7, 2007 2:59 PM CST up reply actions

wrong thread

by ab03 on Dec 7, 2007 3:11 PM CST up reply actions

BBWAA response

The offical BBWAA response has been posted in a couple of places including in the comment to the link in the original story.

Basically, the decision was based on who needs a BBWAA card to gain access to cover games. Rob Neyer and Keith Law were not classified by ESPN as not needing regular game access, so BBWAA did not admit them, but seem willing to review them next year if their "sponsor" says they need access.

The problem is the same, thought, how does the BBWAA determine who legit "sponsors" or employers are? Before it was basically newspapers, now it is apparently including monster internet media (Yahoo, CBSSportsline, FoxSports, ESPN). I fully accept the reason for now granting Law and Neyer, but do not understand why BaseballProspectus for example was not contacted by BBWAA (as ESPN clearly was) to submit a list of "reporters" that require access to do their job.

by Brandon Wilson on Dec 7, 2007 3:54 PM CST up reply actions

Well

I wouldn't guess it requires a pure journalism background (many actual journo jobs don't).

Got to admit, I think that Keith Law is a super writer, even his blog stuff. Neyer I've lost familiarity with since his disappearance behind the Insider veil.

by hightowersmith on Dec 7, 2007 3:55 PM CST up reply actions