All of it is tied into a wild card found yesterday upsetting a lot of people, but made me happy in my case against anything "annual awards."
On Wednesday, a local Miami sports writer and radio host who's famous because of his "hard takes" and "strong opinions," Dan LeBatard, gave his vote for the Hall of Fame to Deadspin, a sports blog which writes various stories that aren't in the traditional journalistic reporting. They don't have actual access to sporting events.
So, why did he do this, and how did he even get a vote?
Le Batard became nationally known on ESPN during his appearances on Pardon the Interruption. He's got his own show on the four-letter network featuring his dad where they give their opinions on sports right before his radio show that's now picked up nationally on ESPN Radio.
The radio host was given a vote, like many other media members, to select former MLB players to be recognized and awarded a place in the Hall of Fame. Back in the day, this was a great idea to showcase talented players who may not have been nationally known because none of the technology we currently have at our fingertips was available even 30, 40 years ago.
Now that it is, all the Hall of Fame has become is bitching and moaning about who should take the limited spots available for this year and who got snubbed. All of this opinion is further down of many opinions by baseball writers and other media members. In turn, they could be swayed or biased due to loyalism of teams, where they've grown up, or maybe what they've heard or learned about certain players when meeting them.
I don't have a problem with "baseball people" getting to vote for the Hall of Fame, but it's when we open it up to media members like Dan Le Batard. He decided to "protest" the vote by giving it to Deadspin. That's an incredibly responsible move by the Baseball Writer's Association of America to give their vote to Le Batard, who doesn't care at all about the situation.
There's no reason to be mad at Le Batard. In fact, he made my argument against the Hall of Fame, or ANYTHING involving formal recognition of players. It's a chatoic mess only there to attract the lowest common denominator of people in America. They'll call in to a sports radio show, giving their opinions on who should have been in the Hall of Fame, and they'll open up the phone lines for people to bitch. Then, apparently entertaining radio ensues.
That's garbage.
Instead of recognizing great players from the past, we've been succumbed to just comparing numbers and trying to prove who's better than the other when no one should ever care. It's the same crap that happens in the gaming industry when at the end of every calendar year, game outlets will release their "Best [insert genre] Game of the Year" articles and nothing but bitching and moaning go on in the comments section and people trying to justify their opinion as fact.
We've completely forgotten what recognizing great talent, or great projects, is. Instead of a rankings game, why can't we just showcase what's good and leave it there?
Now don't get me wrong; I love to compare and contrast and different people will have different opinions. I actually love having debates about great players and video games...with somebody who actually follows it and doesn't get so upset about what other people think.
That's what happens when we bring in everybody, especially the lower common denominator. We all know there are people smarter than others and some of the dumbest people we meet in life, for some reason, have the biggest egos. There are so many people who get mad about what others think, all of this becomes pointless - the original focus shifts to the bitching and moaning of opinion.
This is why I turn my back on everything that deals with "Hall of Fame" or "Best Game" topics. It's an absolute mess which now only exists to create awful discussion and to gain views instead of recognizing greatness.
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