Tweet
I've read a couple of interesting stories this week regarding "new" media and MLB teams. It seems to me that this whole arena still has a lot of shaking out to do.
First, the Yankees. (Trying to stick to facts... you can read the articles at the links below)
![]()
![]()
When news of Rafael Soriano’s signing filtered onto Twitter on the evening of January 13th, many Yankees fans were aghast at the length of the deal and the fact that the club had sacrificed a draft pick to obtain an 8th inning man. A number of those fans used their platforms as bloggers to criticize the signing. In particular, Mike Axisa and Joe Pawlikowski expressed displeasure with the move over at River Avenue Blues (RAB), while Steve Goldman penned a critical column entitled, “What the Heck Are the Yankees Doing?” that ran at his Pinstriped Bible blog. What happened next reeks of censorship and raises questions about the degree of journalistic integrity required by a sports network that is owned by the team that it purports to cover.
Pinstriped Bible is directly affiliated with the YES Network, as the site is designed to look like the YES homepage and is frequently featured on the YES front page. A few hours after being posted, Steve Goldman’s post was suddenly pulled, only to reappear a number of hours later with a new title (Soriano Strengthens the Pen, But Do Dominoes Fall?) and a softened stance. A visit to the page shows the altered title and article, but the URL still contains the original title. I have the original article saved (available upon request), and the primary differences are a few sentences added in support of the deal, as well as the moving of a positive paragraph to the beginning of the article. When asked about the incident, Goldman declined to comment.
So, basically, there was a blog that had a tight affiliation with YES and the Yankees asked them to rewrite their content to be less critical of the organization.
Then, the Pirates:
When Ogden Newspapers, the newspaper conglomerate owned by the Nutting family that also owns the Pirates, re-started The Pirates Report last year after the newsletter had spent a few years in oblivion, it looked like they were really doing a huge service for Pirate fans.
[...]
Paul Ladewski (who covered baseball in Chicago for a long time and has a Hall of Fame vote) [was hired] to take over his beat and PiratesReport.com
[...]
Then, Ladewski wrote a blog entry yesterday comparing the Penguins unfavorably to the Pirates, arguing that they hadn't accomplished much, comparing Marc-Andre Fleury to Brian Bullington, and perhaps worst of all, arguing that the Penguins failure to win a Stanley Cup every year would make Mario Lemieux a bad owner of the Pirates
So, a little background... there was a rumor that Mario's group was looking at buying the Pirates, and a lot of people thought that would be a great idea, since the Pens are great and the Nuttings/Pirates are horrible. So, it's possible that the Nuttings' hatchet man wrote this criticism at their behest to make people think that wouldn't be an attractive idea.
Also, the Nuttings had originally hired someone that excited a lot of fans (John Perrotto) and then fired him and replaced him with this Ladewski guy without a lot of explanation. But it was speculated that they wanted someone they could control to be in charge of the PiratesReport.
====
Now, this might be a case of seeing conspiracies where they aren't there. But I think the next year or two will be an interesting test to see what happens with the baseball blogosphere as teams want to get more involved.
(Also, on a semi-related note, one of the things that Sandy Alderson did when he became GM of the Mets was reach out to their blog community, invite some of their heavy hitters to the Christmas party and try to get them more incorporated into the team. Not in a controlling way - I don't think - but in a "we need to get a handle on this and understand it" kind if way)
First, the Yankees. (Trying to stick to facts... you can read the articles at the links below)
When news of Rafael Soriano’s signing filtered onto Twitter on the evening of January 13th, many Yankees fans were aghast at the length of the deal and the fact that the club had sacrificed a draft pick to obtain an 8th inning man. A number of those fans used their platforms as bloggers to criticize the signing. In particular, Mike Axisa and Joe Pawlikowski expressed displeasure with the move over at River Avenue Blues (RAB), while Steve Goldman penned a critical column entitled, “What the Heck Are the Yankees Doing?” that ran at his Pinstriped Bible blog. What happened next reeks of censorship and raises questions about the degree of journalistic integrity required by a sports network that is owned by the team that it purports to cover.
Pinstriped Bible is directly affiliated with the YES Network, as the site is designed to look like the YES homepage and is frequently featured on the YES front page. A few hours after being posted, Steve Goldman’s post was suddenly pulled, only to reappear a number of hours later with a new title (Soriano Strengthens the Pen, But Do Dominoes Fall?) and a softened stance. A visit to the page shows the altered title and article, but the URL still contains the original title. I have the original article saved (available upon request), and the primary differences are a few sentences added in support of the deal, as well as the moving of a positive paragraph to the beginning of the article. When asked about the incident, Goldman declined to comment.
So, basically, there was a blog that had a tight affiliation with YES and the Yankees asked them to rewrite their content to be less critical of the organization.
Then, the Pirates:
When Ogden Newspapers, the newspaper conglomerate owned by the Nutting family that also owns the Pirates, re-started The Pirates Report last year after the newsletter had spent a few years in oblivion, it looked like they were really doing a huge service for Pirate fans.
[...]
Paul Ladewski (who covered baseball in Chicago for a long time and has a Hall of Fame vote) [was hired] to take over his beat and PiratesReport.com
[...]
Then, Ladewski wrote a blog entry yesterday comparing the Penguins unfavorably to the Pirates, arguing that they hadn't accomplished much, comparing Marc-Andre Fleury to Brian Bullington, and perhaps worst of all, arguing that the Penguins failure to win a Stanley Cup every year would make Mario Lemieux a bad owner of the Pirates
So, a little background... there was a rumor that Mario's group was looking at buying the Pirates, and a lot of people thought that would be a great idea, since the Pens are great and the Nuttings/Pirates are horrible. So, it's possible that the Nuttings' hatchet man wrote this criticism at their behest to make people think that wouldn't be an attractive idea.
Also, the Nuttings had originally hired someone that excited a lot of fans (John Perrotto) and then fired him and replaced him with this Ladewski guy without a lot of explanation. But it was speculated that they wanted someone they could control to be in charge of the PiratesReport.
====
Now, this might be a case of seeing conspiracies where they aren't there. But I think the next year or two will be an interesting test to see what happens with the baseball blogosphere as teams want to get more involved.
(Also, on a semi-related note, one of the things that Sandy Alderson did when he became GM of the Mets was reach out to their blog community, invite some of their heavy hitters to the Christmas party and try to get them more incorporated into the team. Not in a controlling way - I don't think - but in a "we need to get a handle on this and understand it" kind if way)
Comment