THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Friday, January 08, 2010

The Holy Writer removes his halo

Thank you Buster Olney:

First and foremost, it’s a clear conflict of interest. As a writer, I should be reporting on the news and not making it. It’s Journalism 101 (I assume, since I was a history major). It’s not my place, as a reporter, to determine whether Andre Dawson is inducted into the Hall of Fame, no more than it would be for a Capitol Hill reporter to cast a vote on health-care legislation while reporting on it.

The Baseball Writers Association hands out annual awards for the MVPs and for the top pitchers, top managers and top rookies. But there is a subtle difference between those votes and that for the Hall of Fame, because while those elections have blossomed into something very important, the awards are the property of the association. This really is no different from Time magazine’s picking its Person of the Year.

The Hall of Fame voting, on the other hand, is done at the behest of the Hall of Fame, naturally; the writers are providing a service for the Hall.

Perhaps we can all write to Bob Dutton, president of the BBWAA (and Poz’s former boss I believe) and ask him if we can get his membership to vote on other things, and also report on them.  Let’s see: vote on the Most Outstanding Player for Tangotiger.net, and then report that.  What’s that?  They already vote for the MVP for their own awards that they report?  So?  They can vote for the MOP for my site, I’ll give out an award, but the BBWAA better report on it.  If they can report on their own award, they can report on my award that they voted for. 

Should I pay you Bob Dutton?  What that make it better or worse? I’m confused with all these different ethical scenarios.  Tell you what, why don’t you explain to everyone how it works.  I love to see the cherry-picked argument wherein the prosecutor, defense, and judge are all the same people.

Your hole is almost six feet deep, BBWAA.  Report on that.