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Hear No Evil, Say No Evil, Speak No Evil

BBWAA members cheered the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 because the chase to break Roger Maris' home run record, in the collective minds of the industry and writers, brought interest back to the business three years after the end of the players strike (which happened after legal proceeds and a court decision by future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer). It wiped out the 1994 World Series. Somehow the writers missed the fact that McGwire, Sosa and other players began looking like superhero comic book caricatures.

The BBWAA members looked the other way. Meanwhile, Tom Boswell, the Washington Post writer who discussed steroid use with Bob Costas cannot vote. Costas himself cannot vote because he was not a scribe and therefore does not possess the necessary knowledge to a voter (or some gibberish like that). He joins the ranks of Vin Scully, John Sterling, Milo Hamilton, Tim McCarver and other long time announcers who know baseball inside out but are prevented from casting a ballot.

The writers who have been paid by teams in the past thorough program pieces or, like in Dick Young's case, promotion films by teams can vote but baseball announcers cannot because of a conflict of interest. They were paid by teams or in Costas' case, league broadcast partners. Peter Gammons who now works for baseball on the industry/cable multiple systems operators owned baseball network can vote because he was once a scribe.

By 2005, the United States Congress was delving into steroids and other performance enhancing drugs allegedly used by baseball players and eventually other professional athletes. The BBWAA members were initially stunned and then became indignant. In their collective Hall of Fame voting, the same people who cheered McGwire suddenly slammed the door on his Hall of Fame qualifications.

Those voters included an alleged child molester, a guy fired from his paper for padding expenses and others. Some were told by their newspapers that they could not participate in a Hall of Fame vote. Former Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey in 2006 boasted that he thought many voters ignored the wishes of their papers hierarchy and voted anyway. Others gave ample publicity to the daily feats of McGwire and Sosa, found religion and could not vote for cheaters. Nowhere did any of them actual point out that the players may have been violating federal law by using banned substances like steroids.

The writers thought new drug testing rules put in place by the owners and players after heavy theatrics by members of Congress during the St. Patrick's Day 2005 House Oversight Committee's hearing on baseball and banned substances occurred. The "steroids era" was over in the BBWAA's collective minds.

But Ryan Braun ruined the collective mindset by possibly failing a drug test.

Shangri-La was ruined. That dark cloud over baseball returned. Braun was the writers’ choice for Most Valuable Player in the National League.

As a public service to an editor who might be interested, here are some of the real issues that baseball writers are missing.