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I’m not necessarily a Dan Le Betard fan, but I thought what he did was pretty cool, and for all intents and purposes seems to uphold the letter of the law as defined by the BBWAA constitution. For those trying to catch up, Le Betard anonymously (until yesterday) turned his MLB Hall of Fame vote over to Deadspin — requiring nothing in return (not even a sizeable donation to a charity) — for a variety of reasons. Most notably (Deadspin):
I feel like my vote has gotten pretty worthless in the avalanche of sanctimony that has swallowed it.
I have no earthly idea if Jeff Bagwell or Frank Thomas did or didn’t use steroids.
I think I understand why the steroid guys were the steroid guys in this competition-aholic culture.
I hate all the moralizing we do in sports in general, but I especially hate the hypocrisy in this…
I don’t think I’m any more qualified to determine who is Hall of Fame-worthy than a fan who cares about and really knows baseball…
Baseball is always reticent to change, but our flawed voting process needs remodeling in a new media world…
And my final reason: I always like a little anarchy inside the cathedral we’ve made of sports.
As most folks expected, today the BBWAA stripped Le Betard of his HOF vote and revoked his BBWWA membership for one year, which means he can’t attend any MLB game as part of the credentialed media (Deadspin):
The BBWAA Board of Directors has decided to remove Dan Le Batard’s membership for one year, for transferring his Hall of Fame ballot to an entity that has not earned voting status. The punishment is allowed under the organization’s constitution.
In addition, Le Batard will not be allowed to vote on Hall of Fame candidates from this point on.
The BBWAA regards Hall of Fame voting as the ultimate privilege, and any abuse of that privilege is unacceptable.
As Deadspin points out, there is inherent hypocrisy in the BBWAA HOF voting (read the last paragraph of that last link).
Think of it this way: Le Betard submitted (albeit via proxy) a logical HOF ballot and has been stripped of his vote forever and suspended from the BBWAA for one year, while multiple voters left off Maddux — indisputably one of the top pitchers in baseball history — and others put J.T. Snow and Armando Benitez on their ballots and will keep their voting privileges.
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