In the wake of the furor over the qualifications of several Hall of Fame voters in the BBWAA, I received a note from Howard Cole.
Cole is the founder of the Internet Baseball Writers Association. He believes his association fills a void and gives a voice to many baseball writers on the Internet who can’t get into the BBWAA.
Like the BBWAA, it recently did its own version of a Hall of Fame vote. Too bad for Craig Biggio that Cooperstown didn’t use the IBWAA tally this year. He would have got in along with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas.
Unaware that such an association existed, I invited Cole to do a Q/A.
Please tell me about you and your experience as a baseball reporter.
I started BaseballSavvy.com in March of 2000, column writing until I landed a job as the Dodgers blogger for the Orange County Register in 2011. I have a similar position with LA Weekly now, and covered the Padres for a season at the Voice of San Diego.
Why did you feel the need to form this association?
While my frustration over the Hall of Fame candidacy of players like Jim Rice and Bert Blyleven was part of it (I wasn’t crazy about the work of various incarnations of the Veterans Committee either), I dreamed of a say in the matter. The public angst from writers with a vote that’s going around bugs me no end. I’d give a body part to science for the privilege some are complaining about now. And it’s not that difficult to fill out a ballot. A little appreciation of the vote is in order, it seems to me.
As a blogger “only,” I couldn’t get a sniff from the BBWAA, much less a credential, to save my life. I wanted a vote, even if it was a symbolic one. I’d been writing about baseball for 10 years at the time and lived for baseball since I could reach Vin Scully on the radio dial. I was tired of the references to bloggers as pajama-wearing low-lifes living in their parents’ basement, and knew plenty of Internet baseball writers — knowledgeable, dedicated, creative guys — who I imagined felt the same way.
Have you ever been part of the BBWAA? If not, have you ever applied to try to be part of the BBWAA?
I never applied because I knew, based on the BBWAA’s constitution, I had no chance. I did apply for MLB credentials — you have to start there — and was turned down. I have them now.
What is your view of the BBWAA?
It’s posted on our website that “The IBWAA seeks neither to replace nor disparage the BBWAA, but does offer distinctions,” and we will have fun at the BBWAA’s expense. C’mon, a paper ballot, snail mail, and a fax machine for last-minute voting? Spend a couple thousand bucks on a website and hire an intern to keep it live on the busiest days of the year. Oh, and do something about the extraneous “B” in your acroynym. Is it “Base Ball” or “Baseball”?
But look, in no way do I question the BBWAA’s best of intentions. I don’t question their love or understanding of the game, nor would I ever.
Why should the BBWAA expand its roll to include more Internet writers?
Well, there’s talk of actually reducing the Hall of Fame electorate, and I certainly get that. But this idea of tying a writer’s work to a print publication and requiring a certain number of games be covered in person doesn’t fly anymore.There are too many wonderful Internet baseball writers to even name in one sitting, and while I would never say that the IBWAA as a group is more qualified than the BBWAA, there’s no question in my mind that some of our members are more vote-worthy than some of theirs.
Who are some of the people in your association?
Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, Mark A. Simon and David Schoenfield of ESPN.com; Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports Hardball Talk, Bill Chuck of GammonsDaily.com, Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, King Kaufman, Bleacher Report, Jonah Keri, Grantland, Will Leitch, Sports on Earth, Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times, Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com, Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News, Wendy Thurm, FanGraphs, Eric Stephen, True Blue LA; Tom Hoffarth, J.P. Hoornstra and Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register, Vince Gennaro, Kevin Kennedy, Ross Newhan and Joe Posnanski.
What is your view of what happened to the BBWAA with the recent last Hall of Fame vote?
I think they did well given the circumstances. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas are great choices, each of whom was selected by the IBWAA as well. We had Craig Biggio this year too, and Mike Piazza in 2013, but we haven’t elected Barry Larkin, so we’re nowhere near perfect either. A BBWAA writer voted for Armando Benitez, one of ours voted for Mike Timlin, but to be fair the Timlin voter was a high school student.
The Dan Le Batard thing was unfortunate, and the 10-candidate limit was a problem for some writers, but more than that I just think it’s increasingly difficult to get people to agree on things in this country. And a 75% consensus poses an even greater challenge.
What do you see as the future for your association?
An AFL-NFL-like result, perhaps, or maybe we just continue independently and advocate for a better idea. We decide things as a group, so I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Lastly, there are certain guys I’ve encouraged to join, Keith Olbermann foremost among them, and I wished they’d cave already, but I’m done recruiting.