Change voting for Cy Young Award
As a former member of the Baseball Writers of America and a former voter for the Cy Young Award, I used to resist the efforts by members of the electronic media to have the opportunity to vote for post-season awards and the Hall of Fame.
I had joined with my counterparts, many of whom were considerably older and more seasoned than myself, in the theory that print reporters had more expertise, covered more games and had more knowledge of the game and were therefore better suited to vote.
But having been out of the business for more than a decade and having trained hundreds of baseball players through our communications program with The Speaking Specialists, I think it is time for a change.
The days when print reporters ruled the press box are over. First, there is the economic issue. Newspapers are struggling to stay alive in the battle against the internet and the recession. Secondly, many of the veterans who had seen baseball for decades are retiring and being replaced by younger reporters who often have to cover multiple beats for leaner newspapers. Finally, the credentials of other reports including radio, television, internet and new media sites have caught up with many of their print brethren.
Much of this came to light in an extremely close balloting for National League Cy Young this year. I have no quarrel with the outcome, other than two voters leaving Chris Carpenter off their ballot completely. Their rationales sounded okay but one can only wonder if personal agendas affected their thinking.
It is time for Major League Baseball to rethink the voting procedures by having a panel of play-by-play broadcasters, websites and legitimate bloggers be added to the mix. I still believe the print reporters who cover the teams on a regular basis should be in the majority as far as the voting is concerned -- they see more of the games than most other reporters. But so do those who are in the broadcast booth and cover the teams individually for MLB.com. My only worry about those folks is that people who are hired by the teams may have more of an agenda to vote for their own players than print reporters. That should be solved by making the voting private; we aren't asked to publish our votes for president, Congress or city council; why should they have to for post-season awards. Anonymity would go a long way to prevent home team bias.
We will be conducting sessions at the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis next month for front office staffs and scores of reporters will be there from new and old media alike. May be it is time for a change in the way post-season award voting is done from now on.
I had joined with my counterparts, many of whom were considerably older and more seasoned than myself, in the theory that print reporters had more expertise, covered more games and had more knowledge of the game and were therefore better suited to vote.
But having been out of the business for more than a decade and having trained hundreds of baseball players through our communications program with The Speaking Specialists, I think it is time for a change.
The days when print reporters ruled the press box are over. First, there is the economic issue. Newspapers are struggling to stay alive in the battle against the internet and the recession. Secondly, many of the veterans who had seen baseball for decades are retiring and being replaced by younger reporters who often have to cover multiple beats for leaner newspapers. Finally, the credentials of other reports including radio, television, internet and new media sites have caught up with many of their print brethren.
Much of this came to light in an extremely close balloting for National League Cy Young this year. I have no quarrel with the outcome, other than two voters leaving Chris Carpenter off their ballot completely. Their rationales sounded okay but one can only wonder if personal agendas affected their thinking.
It is time for Major League Baseball to rethink the voting procedures by having a panel of play-by-play broadcasters, websites and legitimate bloggers be added to the mix. I still believe the print reporters who cover the teams on a regular basis should be in the majority as far as the voting is concerned -- they see more of the games than most other reporters. But so do those who are in the broadcast booth and cover the teams individually for MLB.com. My only worry about those folks is that people who are hired by the teams may have more of an agenda to vote for their own players than print reporters. That should be solved by making the voting private; we aren't asked to publish our votes for president, Congress or city council; why should they have to for post-season awards. Anonymity would go a long way to prevent home team bias.
We will be conducting sessions at the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis next month for front office staffs and scores of reporters will be there from new and old media alike. May be it is time for a change in the way post-season award voting is done from now on.
Posted by Randy Minkoff at 11/20/2009 8:26 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Expand voting membership
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Expand voting membership
Comments