Posted by basebal5 on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 11:34 pm

Well, circumstances were such that it wasn’t viable to do a write up about my Friday radio spot.

Ah well.

However, that does leave an opening to finally tackle the whole Buzz Bissinger, Bob Costas, Will Leitch deal on HBO. Once again, I feel proud to be a blogger and of my blogging past/present. As you may have noted, I cite the Bible frequently in my writing. Leaving my spiritual beliefs at the roadside for the moment, I do find it a useful book in understanding humanity. The thing is–people never change. We have more gadgets and whatnot but the attitudes today differ little from points of view from times of antiquity.

Once again, we see people obsess over a person’s credentials over their abilities. Tell me if this isn’t what Bissinger did to Will Leitch…

“At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him”–Acts 7:57

Stephen was defending himself to the Jewish high court. Stephen was an uneducated young man whereas his audience had all the credentials in the world. While Bissinger didn’t cover his ears he sure made sure that Leitch couldn’t say a whole lot. In Bissinger’s eyes–he was the only one that deserved to publicly espouse an opinion … he had the credentials and that was enough. He went on to verbally stone Leitch.

A once blind beggar whom Jesus healed was brought before the Jewish authorities trying to get him to renounce the man that healed him. He refused–indeed he used simple logic to explain his point of view:

“The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”–John 9:30-32   

Simple straightforward logic; however, he should know his place and defer to those with credentials–for his audacity in presenting a logical opinion without an accepted degree he was excommunicated from the synagogue.

When Jesus was wowing the crowds with his teaching what did some say? “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” (John 7:49) Didn’t he know he was supposed to have a degree before opening his mouth? The nerve!

Back then, the cognoscenti of Jewish society referred to the common ’uneducated’ people as amah-arets or “people of the land”–back then, it meant they were dirt, or as they once famously put it “No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” (John 7:15) Substitute “mob” with blogger and “law” with degree and that would almost sum up what Bissinger said to Leitch.    

Bottom line, history is littered with Buzz Bissingers.

The thing is, his accusing Leitch of dumbing down American is a slur–it’s an attack without merit. It’s like player salaries and ticket prices. Ticket prices don’t rise because of player salaries–player salaries rise when revenues rise … including ticket sales. To use Will as an example (nothing more), were Deadspin everything Bissinger claimed the fact is this–it isn’t succeeding in dumbing down America, it succeeds because America has been dumbed down already. Every generation something becomes the scapegoat for dumbing down America–one decade it’s comic books, the next it’s TV, the next it’s talk shows like “Geraldo” and now it’s reality TV and blogs.

Bissinger was using Deadspin (and blogs)–something he hates regardless of quality and merit–as a scapegoat for something that was already there. The thing is, the media’s history has proven time and again that it makes colossal blunders, doesn’t do its homework and promotes outright fallacy. Again, let’s review baseball history and see what educated journalists claimed were factual…

• Free agency would end the game of baseball.
• That indentured servants making anywhere from $6000-$10,000 a year were pampered, spoiled, ungrateful malcontents that should be willing to play for free for the privilege of playing in the major leagues.
• Many teams were on the verge of bankruptcy.
• The commissioner of baseball is neutral respecting the labour management issues of the game.
• People of African-American descent couldn’t succeed in the big leagues.
• Publicly financed stadiums are a huge boon to a local economy.
• What cities like Pittsburgh need to have a competitive club is a publicly financed stadium and teams like the Marlins cannot compete without one.
• This is [insert city of choice] absolute, last, final opportunity to keep MLB in their community.  
• That baseball doesn’t suffer with a problem regarding performance-enhancing drugs–it‘s just a few isolated bad apples.
• There was no collusion in the 1980’s–every team just discovered fiscal responsibility at the same time.
• Player salaries were pricing the common fan out of the game.
• Eight credentialed, educated journalists covering baseball thought the career of a player who was (at the time) first all time in home runs, RBI, total bases and extra-base hits, second all-time in hits, third in runs and intentional walks, with two batting titles, three Gold Gloves, league MVP, batted .305 in just under 3,300 games, was a 20-time All Star and hit .362/.405/.710 in the post season (.364/.417/.600 in World Series) didn’t have a Hall of Fame career.

    Now who is guilty of dumbing down America?

The thing is, now when the media spouts these ill-informed lies they are no longer swallowed as gospel by the masses. They are exposed as lies, those that print them are exposed as lazy buffoons who clearly didn’t do their homework and research–by bloggers. Instead of knowing their place and writing a letter to the editor (that may not be run) or calling in to a radio show (where you may be disconnected) they have the audacity to criticize publicly the educated class without the media being allowed to filter the opinion first!

That is the root of the problem–they just won’t admit it. Yes, there are bad blogs but as the above proves–there is a lot of bad journalism out there. Do we throw out the media in its entirety due to these many bad examples? Of course not–you can be ignorant, too lazy to do research, vapid, loud, belligerent and obnoxious provided you have a degree.

This is called a double standard. As I said once before and I address this to Mr. Bissinger–had the (sporting) press done its job and provided readers with correct information in sufficient quantity and quality the blogosphere may well not exist as it does today. Here’s what happened–you screwed your readers with careless work and didn’t take the time to protect your turf (by learning what the sports fan craves and providing it) and you inadvertently sired a bastard child that was later named “the blogosphere.” Now that Junior is hitting you up for support payments you’re crying because you’re finally being held responsible for your screwing around for years on end.

Your problem is–you wish to keep screwing around without being held responsible for what it creates.

The media is a deadbeat dad–we are their children. Well “Dad” maybe if you were responsible and set a better example maybe we wouldn’t be knocking on your door right now. Guess what Pop? We’re home and we’re all yours and the more you screw around the more of us will keep showing up.

A final scriptural thought: “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit … Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” –Matthew 7:18,20

Well, if what passes for sports journalism today is the fruitage produced from having a degree–then clearly a degree isn’t that important to write intelligently about the game. I don’t write for pay because I have a degree–I write for pay because I have a brain, I do my homework and research and I learn from people with brains regardless if they have a piece of parchment on their walls or not. I’ve learned far more about the game from my fellow amah-arets  than I have from most of the mainstream. I’m grateful for the Tom Boswells, the Peter Gammons, the Tracy Ringolsbys, the Steven Brunts and the Joe Posnanskis because they are so rare and provide me with role models. I’m happy to see the Jeff Passans the Tom Verduccis, the Rob Neyers the Jayson Starks and the Ken Rosenthals (and those like them) following their lead–I just wish the rest would do so as well. 

Best Regards

John