Baseball's Archaic Access Rules

I came across a really fine column by Tim Marchman in today's New York Sun. The general point Marchman makes is that Major League Baseball is going to have to take action, and soon, to revamp their rules for providing press credentials and access to reporters from online publications. This issue is an adjunct to the BBWAA's archaic rule about allowing non-print journalists to join their fine organization.

It seems both organizations need a lesson in why they exist in the first place.

As far as the BBWAA goes, that group needs to recognize that they don't really exist to vote on awards or have some special cachet that allows them to appear on radio talk shows and "The Sports Reporters" . They exist to make sure that the people who write about baseball are qualified to do so. Sure, it may have started as a labor organization, but I don't really hear a lot of sob stories about what terrible working conditions baseball writers suffer under. (In fact, one of the primary reasons they sought to organize was to force the club owners to build press boxes and grant access to clubhouses, the very things now denied to online writers. My, how quickly memories fade.) Nowadays, the BBWAA should represent the best in baseball writing, but instead they have chosen to foster chronyism in an effort to protect their precious voting rights and front row press box seats. (Check out Joe Posnanski's incredible story on that one. Scroll down to the Tom Glavine entry.) That's yet another abuse of the power they've been granted. To claim that they, and only they, can provide good, insightful writing about the sport we all love, to the exclusion of anyone who isn't paid by a print publication, is the height of arrogance.

(Note: In case you're wondering, I have no desire to join the BBWAA. I would very much like to vote for the various awards and the Hall of Fame, because I honestly think I'm more qualified to do so than most of these guys are. But I don't particularly care to be a full-time baseball writer because, frankly, I make more money than about 95% of those guys, and I really don't want to take a pay cut.)

In the case of MLB, it seems obvious that they're in the business of making money. Anyone suffering under the delusion that they powers who control the sport are in it for the thrill of competition or the love of the game probably needs to seek professional help. The owners, both individually and as a collective entity, are all about cold, hard cash. The more they make, the happier they are. If they happen to actually win baseball games in the bargain, well that's just gravy.

For this group of otherwise savvy businessmen to be shortsighted about online publications is one of the dumber business decisions you'll see them make. They know firsthand the power of online access to their product. They created this Winter's crisis over the MLB Extra Innings package in part to drive up subscriptions to their online service for watching ballgames, MLB.tv. Revenue from ticket sales has been greatly enhanced by online sales, and the memorabilia sold by each club has much greater reach now that they all have online stores for their goods. More All-Star ballots are cast now that voting can be done online, with the final slot on each team being determined entirely by an online vote. Marketing revenues from MLB.com have brought millions of dollars to each club. Take a look at the MLB.com homepage. This morning's ever-shifting version included the following:

• One-click access to the All-Star ballots
• A summary of the recent 2007 Draft
• Links to watch or listen to every game scheduled, or follow it through MLB's proprietary Gameday software
• Advertisements for team-branded travel mugs and All-Star game t-shirts
• A link to MLB's online auction center, where they partner with a variety of memorabilia companies
• A link to their online ticketing center
• A link to their MLB Mobile service that allows users to access MLB.com content, including scores, video highlights, and alerts through their mobile phone or PDA.

Move to any of those pages and you'll find a good portion of the space dedicated to advertising. The one I chose had a full side banner advertising Bacardi, on the right-hand side, and a smaller ad for DHL on the left. Other pages show the All-Star ballot, sponsored by Monster.

Clearly, these guys understand that the Internet is a gold mine of new revenue streams if it's exploited correctly. They know the power of blogs. Hell, they tried to start their own blogging center, with mixed results, so they must know that people are looking for online content that's not limited to their daily newspaper or the bigger online outlets like ESPN. And yet, in the case of online writers, MLB just doesn't seem to get it. This subject, like their archane blackout rules, seems to fall into MLB's blindspot. No matter how obvious it is to most of the world, it seems that the owners, in instances like this, just don't grasp the lost opportunity.

Why not partner with reputable bloggers and online baseball sites? Set a few standards around minimum site traffic, vulgar content, copyright concerns, etc., and give these guys the access they deserve. Take a site like The Hardball Times, run by people who are clearly smart and clearly love baseball, people smart enough about business that they've attracted advertisers and sell their own branded merchandise, and give them a standing press pass. Make them part of the empire, so to speak, another outlet to reach customers.

That's what it's all about, after all; Bringing baseball to the people who want it. Why make that task harder than it should be?