Buhner Dot Com Est. 2000, which is like 1947 in Internet years.

The 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame Vote: The Aftermath

So yesterday Barry Larkin got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame partly because he was probably the best shortstop in the National League during the 90s and partly because baseball writers have a hard time saying anything bad about him. Larkin  didn't do anything that would question his character, had stats that were good enough to be impressive, were consistent through his career, but weren't so good that he'd be suspected of using steroids. He got awards, played a skill position, and played for the same team all of his career. The fact that it took him this long to get in with that resume is surprising.

But as you might have heard, that's not the big story to come out of this vote. It's the BBWAA v. bloggers debate that we thought died down recently as more paper journalists started to use the online medium. BBWAA members have made public their votes and have faced criticism for them, and in a happy non-Internet world we'd have a few carefully worded letters written in to newspapers, some of which might be reprinted in a later article with carefully worded replies, all put together by an editor, making everyone feel all warm and tingly inside.

But it's not the happy non-Internet world. It's the social media Internet world, where people on Twitter get to say whatever they think of - without a filter. Athletes are warned about doing this all the time, but sometimes it's the people who cover them that need to watch themselves. That's what happened to Randy Miller, a beat writer for the South Jersey Courier-Post who currently covers hockey. He got his credentials after years of covering the Phillies. Miller sent in a blank ballot - basically voting "NO" for every player (not the same as not sending in a ballot) - which caught him some heat from the masses (I had 8; 7 of which I still stand by). Since he's on Twitter (@RandyJMiller), people said stuff to him, some of which I'm sure was delivered without much tact. Miller defended his position for a while, then seemed to get annoyed, and look the low ground. Read more about it here.

Look - voting for no one wasn't the worst ballot that was cast here. I have a lot more respect for Miller's ballot than the 382 that felt they had to put Jack Morris on. But it always makes me feel bad to see journalists turn into ugly dinosaurs that treat bloggers like they're red-headed stepchildren that don't deserve to be spoken to like adults, even if sometimes they don't deserve it. Blogging, like it or not, is the greatly expanded "minor leagues" of journalism. Blogs, for a lot of prospective journalists, are the only way to get regular writing gigs so that they can sharpen their craft and maybe get a spot with a real-live newspaper and do what those journalists are doing. Most don't get paid, and find little inspiration to put together something on a regular basis knowing you'll likely never see a dime from it, and maybe a handful of people will see it, still fewer actually reading it.

As a former journalism student, I know what it's like to dream of writing professionally. Seeing your name in print is an awesome thing. So to those few that have that privilege, I ask you this: please try to treat amateur journalists (which is what bloggers really are) with respect. Talk to them like you would your children; if they want to listen, they will, and if they just want to insult and badger, then they're not worth your time. Grouping the good and great in with the horrid isn't fair, whether it be blogger or journalist. There are few things more disheartening for an aspiring writer than to see someone who has made it come off like an illiterate buffoon who can't use punctuation, spell properly, or seemingly compose a thought without an editor looking over his shoulder the entire time. If you really can't, stay off of Twitter and those type of things, OK? Let's not totally kill the illusion.

[thanks to abbyhasissues.com for the image]