Foul Territory
A sports blog with no specific focus, though I like wrestling and baseball
2.15.2005
The Write Way
If you read as much sports journalism as I do, a theme starts to become evident. That theme is the fact that there are two main groups involved in the reporting and analysis of athletics, be it baseball, football, hockey, ice dancing, whatever. Roughly, those two groups are the mainstream media (MSM) and bloggers. Now, it's not really that simple, but let me explain.
The MSM are the writers generally on the payroll of a newspaper, magazine, or television channel (and their assorted web sites). These are the men who have access. They can get time on the phone or in person with the players, coaches, general managers, and owners of professional sports teams. They can call Lance Armstrong, and he'll call back. More than that, they even have his phone number. The value of these men and women is that they can write stories with actual quotes from the players and coaches, and they attend a lot of athletic events. There are good and bad writers in this group. The good include Peter King and Peter Gammons, guys who are widely read, can get a good story, and will take a poliete shot at someone if the situation demands it. These two specifically have the advantage of being so widely read that if they tick someone off, the team or player can't just ignore them forever unless they want their coverage to go down. Other, less known, writers don't necessarily have that luxury, which is why a lot of MSM reporting can come across as sugar coating the truth, at least for that writers home beat. We need the MSM because someone has to go to all the games and tell us what happened, and guys like King and Gammons have a lot of connections developed from years of work so they can bring information to the masses that would otherwise go unreported, since you and I don't have Mark Shapiro's cell on speed dial. There are a lot of local writers that fall into this category as well. They follow a team every day for the whole season and build up familiarity with the players, coaches, and front office so that they can report the goings on to their readers. Often, a good local writer will catch the attention of one of the big boys (SI, ESPN) and get a feature or two or a longer stint writing for a national audience. Jason Whitlock of ESPN and the Kansas City star is an example of a local columnist who hit it big and now is known nationally.
On the other side, there are the bloggers. I'm lumping a lot of people in with the bloggers (like Baseball Prospectus), and it doesn't mean everyone in this group writes for free or even writes in blog format, though many that write articles also have a blog on the side. The main difference between these groups in my mind is access (again). Most of the people I'm calling bloggers do not have access to the players and coaches on anything like a regular basis, if even at all. They focus more on analyzing what goes on in the world of sports. The biggest breakthroughs in statistical analysis have come from the bloggers, as they spend most of their time analyzing data as opposed to trying to track down Luke McCown for a quote. These are the guys that come up with Win Shares, VORP, and DVOA. The men and women (they're mostly men, but not all) who come up with and analyze this stuff are very smart and care a lot about what they cover, but they don't necessarily have the ability to get Phil Garner on the phone to ask him about his lineup. An advantage these writers have is that they have no affiliation or personal relationship with a team, so they don't have to worry about offending anyone, as long as they practice responsible journalism. No one can retaliate by restricting access that they don't have.
Several writers muddy the waters a bit. First, Bill James all but invented advanced statistical analysis in baseball by trying to find answers to questions that no one thought were answerable. He's written a ton of baseball books since he self-published his first Baseball Abstract, and he now works for the Boston Red Sox. He did most of his work without a lot of access to players and coaches. He only had the statistics and operated strictly outside the mainstream, which I think he liked. However, his is so well known and now employed by the Red Sox that he is somewhat in between the two groups. On the other side is Rob Neyer. Rob works for ESPN, and his work isn't even free on ESPN.com, yet he seems to rarely speak to the players (unless they're retired) or executives. Occasionally he'll have an interview with a team exec, but this is rare. He makes his living as the resident sabermatician at ESPN. His work seems to mirror that of the bloggers more than the MSM, but there he is, entrenched in the mainstream. Perhaps it's no surprise that he got his start as a research assistant for Bill James, and that they have since collaborated on The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers.
Perhaps in a future post I will analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of individual authors, though this will be tough for the bloggers, as they only survive as long as they are good. For the MSM, once dug in, bad writers are rarely dismissed (Tracy Ringolsby, anyone?). They achieve credibility not by their ability, but by title. This is how we end up with monsters like Productive Outs.
The MSM are the writers generally on the payroll of a newspaper, magazine, or television channel (and their assorted web sites). These are the men who have access. They can get time on the phone or in person with the players, coaches, general managers, and owners of professional sports teams. They can call Lance Armstrong, and he'll call back. More than that, they even have his phone number. The value of these men and women is that they can write stories with actual quotes from the players and coaches, and they attend a lot of athletic events. There are good and bad writers in this group. The good include Peter King and Peter Gammons, guys who are widely read, can get a good story, and will take a poliete shot at someone if the situation demands it. These two specifically have the advantage of being so widely read that if they tick someone off, the team or player can't just ignore them forever unless they want their coverage to go down. Other, less known, writers don't necessarily have that luxury, which is why a lot of MSM reporting can come across as sugar coating the truth, at least for that writers home beat. We need the MSM because someone has to go to all the games and tell us what happened, and guys like King and Gammons have a lot of connections developed from years of work so they can bring information to the masses that would otherwise go unreported, since you and I don't have Mark Shapiro's cell on speed dial. There are a lot of local writers that fall into this category as well. They follow a team every day for the whole season and build up familiarity with the players, coaches, and front office so that they can report the goings on to their readers. Often, a good local writer will catch the attention of one of the big boys (SI, ESPN) and get a feature or two or a longer stint writing for a national audience. Jason Whitlock of ESPN and the Kansas City star is an example of a local columnist who hit it big and now is known nationally.
On the other side, there are the bloggers. I'm lumping a lot of people in with the bloggers (like Baseball Prospectus), and it doesn't mean everyone in this group writes for free or even writes in blog format, though many that write articles also have a blog on the side. The main difference between these groups in my mind is access (again). Most of the people I'm calling bloggers do not have access to the players and coaches on anything like a regular basis, if even at all. They focus more on analyzing what goes on in the world of sports. The biggest breakthroughs in statistical analysis have come from the bloggers, as they spend most of their time analyzing data as opposed to trying to track down Luke McCown for a quote. These are the guys that come up with Win Shares, VORP, and DVOA. The men and women (they're mostly men, but not all) who come up with and analyze this stuff are very smart and care a lot about what they cover, but they don't necessarily have the ability to get Phil Garner on the phone to ask him about his lineup. An advantage these writers have is that they have no affiliation or personal relationship with a team, so they don't have to worry about offending anyone, as long as they practice responsible journalism. No one can retaliate by restricting access that they don't have.
Several writers muddy the waters a bit. First, Bill James all but invented advanced statistical analysis in baseball by trying to find answers to questions that no one thought were answerable. He's written a ton of baseball books since he self-published his first Baseball Abstract, and he now works for the Boston Red Sox. He did most of his work without a lot of access to players and coaches. He only had the statistics and operated strictly outside the mainstream, which I think he liked. However, his is so well known and now employed by the Red Sox that he is somewhat in between the two groups. On the other side is Rob Neyer. Rob works for ESPN, and his work isn't even free on ESPN.com, yet he seems to rarely speak to the players (unless they're retired) or executives. Occasionally he'll have an interview with a team exec, but this is rare. He makes his living as the resident sabermatician at ESPN. His work seems to mirror that of the bloggers more than the MSM, but there he is, entrenched in the mainstream. Perhaps it's no surprise that he got his start as a research assistant for Bill James, and that they have since collaborated on The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers.
Perhaps in a future post I will analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of individual authors, though this will be tough for the bloggers, as they only survive as long as they are good. For the MSM, once dug in, bad writers are rarely dismissed (Tracy Ringolsby, anyone?). They achieve credibility not by their ability, but by title. This is how we end up with monsters like Productive Outs.
Andy, 4:49 PM
