Winter Meetings Day 3 – Report #3 – BBWAA Admits Law, Carroll, Neyer, and Karhl

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Winter Meetings Day 3 – Report #3 – BBWAA Admits Law, Carroll, Neyer, and Karhl

Written by Maury Brown

Wednesday, 10 December 2008 16:21

BBWAA Wed., 1:30pm (Las Vegas)

Another step for alternative media was reached today when the Baseball Writers Association of America included Rob Neyer and Keith Law of ESPN, as well as Will Carroll and Christina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus onto their rolls.

It is well known that many questioned the non-inclusion of Neyer and Law last year, and seeing the BBWAA select them this year certainly is good news for the increased visibility of those that use the Internet as their main platform to write from.

As for Will Carroll, well... I had lunch with him yesterday here in Las Vegas and spent a good deal of time chatting. Will's a heck of a guy, but the fact that he never once mentioned that was up for consideration either shows that he knows not to let the cat out of the bag, or he's really worried I might have written something on it.

As for Christina, she is an outstanding managing editor for BP, and one heck of a great writer, as well.

Once again, good news for those that enjoy content from both print and Internet sources.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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baseball fan
written by jayanthi, December 11, 2008

Is this what it has really come to? Writing about useless hacks (the BBWAA) and who they have put into their antiquated club? The BBWAA is about ready to lose most of its members thanks to people like Sam Zell. You think people fretting over their futures at the Rocky Mountain News really give a fig about the BBWAA? Ignorance is bliss. Newsday is laying off writers including BBWAA members. Think the photographers at Newsday who have to reapply for their jobs care about the BBWAA. Maury, write about real stuff, not useless things like the BBWAA.

-1

BBWAA
written by Maury Brown, December 11, 2008

Well, first off, the notion that the BBWAA is going to dwindle away seems more than far off. The rolls could dwindle on the print side, but as we've been seeing, there continues to be growth on the internet side.

As a sidebar, I talked at length to someone -- maybe that same someone being referenced here -- from the Rocky Mountain News yesterday about the entire process and how internet writers fall into the mix. He talked at length about how he pushed for two members last year that did not get in.

I would take exception into whether the BBWAA has lost its sense of relevance. There seems to be a focus placed on those within its ranks as opposed to its main purpose. I take issue with how the awards are framed (what is "valuable" to you and I may be totally different things), but as it was mentioned to me yesterday, the MLBPA has their awards, The AP has theirs... the BBWAA has theirs. Why one set of awards has risen above another can be a matter of debate.

Finally, it's important to write about the BBWAA because it is a large part of baseball as business. The army of media that descended upon Las Vegas this week is a big part of the BofB, so this news is, in my opinion, worth covering.

hate to disagree with you but
written by jayanthi, December 11, 2008

The BBWAA should not be voting on ANY awards, from MVP to Hall of Fame, there seems to be a major conflict of interest here, journalists (and frankly most baseball writers are fans first and really the only difference between them and fans is that some of them can put together a sentence). Can you imagine a political writer handing out an award to a politician and the pol gets a raise because it is written into his contract. The pre-Zell LA Times along with other papers in Atrlanta and New York barred writers from voting for awards, of course Dale Petrosky, you know Dale who left the BB Hall of Fame under somewhat cloudy citcumstances, laughed and said he knew writers from those papers who voted anyway. Newspapers have lost their relevancy, most 30-year-old and under don't pick up a paper although they do get info from the web and cellphones. Baseball writers are people who think that they really are a part of baseball and I guess there are according to Whitey Herzog who referred to them as "real" baseball men, of course when Peter Ueberroth was there and when Jack Lang, Maury Allen and Milton Richmond retired, Lang was looking for a baseball job and Ueberroth wished him luck, baseball did not take care of "their" baseball men. The Rocky Mountain News may not be in business by spring training (see its sibling the Albuquerque Tribune), the Miami Herald (McClatchy, you know the Pirates guy) is hanging on by a thread. The BBWAA is useless, their members are obnoxious, loud, arrogant and feel they are important. Of course, Ueberroth understood that, i. e. Lang, the Hall of Fame man. They think they are bigger than radio people, TV people and frankly they are unimportant. What happens when the baseball beat writer doesn't hit the road, Zell already showed that beat writers are unimportant, when Maryland played basketball in Central Florida, the Baltimore Sun's Maryland basketball beat writer stayed home and the game was covered by an Orlando Sentinel writer. This is what is going on, the Newsday baseball writer is supposed to be cut. How many writers can mlb.com take on? There is a shift going on, the BBWAA is up there with the Chalmers Award.