THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

A Sober Buzz Bizz

Some sobering thoughts from Buzz Bizzinger following his meltdown on HBO v Deadspin.  Sober being the key word, as his HBO appearance sounded exactly what a drunk would sound like in a bar.  (I quite enjoyed and appreciated that he at least decided to lay down his arms, as it’s not necessary to continue to use your weapon, especially since it doesn’t have any bullets in it.)

All these are just mediums, be it a bar, the ballpark, a two-way phone call, a sports radio show, a TV show, a newspaper, reader’s letters to editor, a magazine, a book, an online blog, online discussion forum, or online comments area.  Someone has an opinion, it’s going to be heard.  We’re not going to moderate (with an editor) each of these mediums necessarily, are we?  Those that are moderated, certainly they have a better percentage of quality.  But, they don’t have the volume of quality.  At the same time, they certainly don’t have the volume of crap either.

Certainly the biggest volume of crap is at a bar, but we’re not going to call all bar patrons drunk blowhards that need to be muzzled are we?  The next biggest volume of crap is at a ballpark, but we’re not going to forbid fans from going to a game, are we?

The difference is the posterity of the opinion: no one remembers any opinion uttered in a bar.  But, for eternity, someone’s ramblings will be forever immortalized on the web.  Such is the value and the curse of the web.

As for Deadspin itself, it’s the sports equivalent of TMZ and In Touch.  It is what it is.  But, Leitch’s recaps in The Hardball Times are quite entertaining.