Le Batard, Deadspin, the HOF vote

They're not going to fire DLB. I wouldn't be stunned if he gets suspended, probably a slap on the wrist.

ESPN is known for being hypersensitive to criticism. The fact that one of their employees is working with Deadspin is not going to fly very well. Since DLB didn't criticize ESPN directly, I think he survives this.

 

Permanently banned by the BBWAA:

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/421371246094204930

 

LOL, they better be banning more than just him then.

 

Mike Greenberg is editor of the ESPN employee news letter. The Mike and Mike Show is the arbiter of middle of the road, general consensus and prevailing opinion of the uninformed. They are defenders of the faith. If ESPN suspends DLB, Mike will say that ESPN did the right thing. If they decline to suspend him, Mike will say ESPN did the right thing. That's their show, an uncritical look at sports, where Herm Edwards is promoted as if he were Vince Lombardi.

 

Direct quote from Greenberg this morning: "Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine were elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday, but the only thing America is talking about today is Dan LeBatard."

 

Le Batard also tweeted that he got a one-year ban from attending MLB games as credentialed media:

https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/421371472607588352

 

As a side benefit to all of this, LeBatard -- who has written more mawkish and mock-worthy material in the last 15 years than anyone this side of Mitch Albom -- gets himself a free pass from the cool kids on the Internet who would otherwise be doing the mocking.

 

Also this, and I couldn't agree more:

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/421372022384381952

 

Underqualified is a most subjective term. The Hall of Fame voting process will be improved by expanding the number of stakeholders in the electorate, not by establishing some sort of baseball snobbery competition for qualification. LeBatard trashed the process. That's a lot different than casting votes with which others disagree.

 

BBWAA really showed LeBatard!

 

What else were they supposed to do?

 

I'd still like to know how he exposed what a mockery the system is, a goal which Mike Greenberg emphatically declared that he succeeded at.