2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

With MLB.tv or Extra Innings,why would you watch a full game?

 

The good game stories have analysis and subtle-occasionally-strong commentary. (And yes I say "good" not "best" because it doesn't have those things, it's not really any good.)

You would read them. Most beat writers do not care to work that hard at it, or they do not know how, and their editors are not willing to let them anyhow.

 

Some of them are very good writers, many of whom would turn to reporting mush the minute they had to account for that work in front of the very coaches and players they cover. If journalists made a consistent point of that -- which they should -- those couch voices wouldn't sound so sexy.

Your other point about couch guys being good writers and using new methods and data to attack the same subject is very fair. And a lot of journalists, frankly, don't bother. They're lazy. Or apathetic. Or not challenged enough. Or institutionalized. You're not going to see me defending them.

But your notion that what print really needs are written versions of Jay Glazer. If all you do is chase around the tail of the deal, you're not doing your readers a bit of justice on the sport itself.

Is it hard for writers to resist going down the path of being fully Twitterized or falling prey to the talk radio culture? Yes. That's why I don't think it's smart for writers to be on the radio too much, wasting their energy on saying all the things they ought to be writing down (and often doing that for free).

 

Which is not good, because speaking as a hardcore fan, they fucking suck at this part of it.

 

Derrick Goold, for one, works his ass off on the St. Louis Cardinals beat, during the season and during the offseason.

 

I'm going to be curious as to what the anti-PED voters will do with Pudge.

 

I watch about 190 a year.

 

You must be single.

 

He has all the time in the world up there in the clouds. He's dead.

 

No, I'm happily married. Thanks.

Just retired and can watch a lot of games.

 

It's why I put him on his second ballot. If Piazza can get almost 60 percent on his first ballot, Pudge will be a little higher. He's got no issues about his defense and his offensive career numbers are on par with/surpass Piazza in a lot of categories, plus he has an MVP. I think he gets dinged by PED talk but the ballot won't be as strong by then.

 

fixed it for you.