A New Salvo in the War of the MSM vs. Blogs

By now, you've no doubt seen stories from the mainstream sports media besmirching blogs. So far, however, most of the ire I've seen has been directed toward sports fans with their own blogs, with the mainstream media most often portraying bloggers as losers living in their mother's basement who know nothing about what they write, whereas the mainstream media has the credentials and expertise required to write about sports. Never mind that numerous blogs routinely point out idiotic and unfounded things that these credentialed "experts" write and say, the most famous including Deadspin, The Big Lead, and Fire Joe Morgan.

Never mind that people whom the mainstream sports media would consider bloggers publish some of the most interesting analysis on professional baseball, such as the folks at Baseball Prospectus, Hardball Times, and Baseball Analysts. Never mind that these "bloggers" are conducting cutting-edge research, including work based on the results of PITCHf/x that could advance by dramatic margins our understanding of baseball. I'd be shocked if even one person reading this knows what PITCHf/x is, and how cool it is for the study of pitching and hitting. PITCHf/x is the name of the system that MLB started using in every park last season to track each pitched ball's speed and trajectory. All this data is available for free. So, you can study with precision what makes a Josh Beckett fastball so different from a Kyle Farnsworth fastball (both are thrown in the mid- to upper-90s, but Beckett's is eminently more difficult to hit). You can study with precision which pitches by speed, by location, and by trajectory are hit more often, are hit for more home runs, are swung on and missed more often, etc., etc. This is exciting stuff. Do you think the mainstream sports media writes about this? Nope.

Never mind that another great baseball blog is Sabernomics, which happens to be written by a professor of economics at Kennesaw State University. I wonder if Kennesaw State knows they've tenured a man who still lives in his mom's basement? Why pay attention to idiots like that? Why give credence to a yahoo like that who has no credentials and has no expertise.

The latest salvo in this war between the mainstream media and bloggers appeared today on Slate. Pat Jordan, a former minor league pitcher in the 1960s (I believe) and sports journalists since the 1970s, wrote a piece trying to explain why modern professional athletes no longer trust journalists, detailing some of his experiences writing profiles of the leading stars in the big three professional sports in the 1970s versus today. He has some interesting anecdotes about Tom Seaver, Deion Sanders, and the aforementioned Josh Beckett, and I'd recommend taking a look at the story just for those tidbits alone.

However, the section of his article that inspired my post tonight was when Jordan offered his complaints about pro athletes who have their own blogs. Jordan wrote:

Oh, sure, some celebrity athletes make a feeble stab at letting their fans know them through their blogs (Schilling, Bonds). But those blogs are essentially self-aggrandizing and masturbatory. They reveal nothing genuine about the writer, as an objective magazine profile would.

I have no idea what Bonds' blog is like, because I've never read it. But, I have read Schilling's blog several times. And while it may be self-aggrandizing, it certainly isn't feeble. After nearly every game in which he pitched last season, Schilling wrote a detailed post describing which pitches he threw in key situations and why he threw such pitches. Prior to the advent of blogging and athletes having their own websites, this type of insight was unavailable to fans. Also, Schilling used his blog to explain in detail the shoulder problems that have left him shelved for the entire baseball season so far. He has used his blog to explain why he supports John McCain for President. He has used his blog to answer questions from fans as well, some of which focused on baseball matters, others on his ownership of a video game software development company. In sum, they have given his readers direct access to Schilling and his thoughts. So to say that his blog reveals nothing genuine is just ridiculous.