The shortest radio interview in history

[Azrael]

The entirety of this thread makes one of my pet arguments: journalists should never vote for awards or Halls of Fame.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The entirety of this thread makes one of my pet arguments: journalists should never vote for awards or Halls of Fame.

In an ideal universe where there was some other informed body of men and women who were as impartial as possible, yes. But we don't live in that universe and you run up against the question, "if not journalists, who?" Current players and coaches? Ex-players (nobody would ever win anything if it was them)? Management? Fan vote? Just as there are no good ways to travel between Boston and New York but Amtrak is the least worst, journalists voting for sports awards is the least worst method of selecting them.

 

[Azrael]

In an ideal universe where there was some other informed body of men and women who were as impartial as possible, yes. But we don't live in that universe and you run up against the question, "if not journalists, who?" Current players and coaches? Ex-players (nobody would ever win anything if it was them)? Management? Fan vote? Just as there are no good ways to travel between Boston and New York but Amtrak is the least worst, journalists voting for sports awards is the least worst method of selecting them.

I get it. And I argue all this as someone with a vote for a Hall of Fame, but

if you dolly back a little farther, the wide shot of this issue is: who cares? Why does it matter that some "impartial" panel of men and women decide who gets the Cy Young or the MVP?

The Rawlings' Gold Glove is voted on by coaches and managers, is it not? And you can't vote for anyone on your own team. So it's possible to leave "honors" like these to the participants rather than to some make-believe set of "disinterested" observers. Let pitchers vote the Cy Young. Let players vote the MVP. Or not.

If you want to appeal to nextgen fans, have SABR run the numbers and just unspool the whole thing on a spreadsheet.

It's a vanity trap for journalists to participate in stuff like this.

 

[playthrough]

Some of the Gold Glove/Silver Slugger winners are outrageous. (As a Reds fan I'm trying to figure out how Michael Lorenzen didn't win Silver Slugger as a pitcher with four home runs and a .290 BA.) I agree, journalist votes are the least-worst. We're still only talking about one guy who made an iffy vote that didn't change the outcome in a Cy Young race.

 

[MTM]

 

[SnarkShark]

Here's a beauty of a thread from 10 years ago about wins and losses.

AL Cy Young

No shock that Devil was a flat-earther.

 

[billchristine]

Tim Conway Jr. has a talk show on Los Angeles radio--it's 640, I'm useless on call letters. Friday night, he had a phone interview with Louie Anderson, a standup comic/actor whom I'm not familiar with. Conway, with Anderson waiting at his end, began to introduce the guest by citing some of his credits. Then he said, "Hi, Lou, welcome, it's good to hear that you're not eating and gambling yourself to death anymore."

Anderson: "Who booked this interview?"

Click.

 

[ChrisLong]

Tim Conway Jr. has a talk show on Los Angeles radio--it's 640, I'm useless on call letters. Friday night, he had a phone interview with Louie Anderson, a standup comic/actor whom I'm not familiar with. Conway, with Anderson waiting at his end, began to introduce the guest by citing some of his credits. Then he said, "Hi, Lou, welcome, it's good to hear that you're not eating and gambling yourself to death anymore."

Anderson: "Who booked this interview?"

Click.

Two comedians cracking jokes and one gets pissed??

 

[Doc Holliday]

Great times in which we live. If an award, which is all about judgment of voters, isn't unanimous and only one or two voters strayed from the pack, they must be pilloried for daring to hold a different opinion. Same crap goes on with other awards and in other walks of life, the inability to tolerate a view that differs. Speaks to small-mindedness on the part of those so bothered. It's not about considering in full someone else's case. It's allowing that someone else might actually have a case, like it or not.

Let's just have statistical thresholds that candidates must hit. Then, when we have the pool of those who qualified, let's pull the names out of a hat.

This speaks volumes on so many levels. Wish I had penned it myself. Well done JW.