In a move that could help the electoral chances of some popular baseball Hall of Fame candidates, the Board of Directors of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) has moved to disenfranchise writers (and voters) who have moved on, whether to cover other sports or simply to retire. Critics of the prior practice argued that even if they were familiar with the players they covered who remain candidates, they were not as much in touch with the current game and developments in the way players are analyzed This is fully covered in an article in Sports Illustrated by Jay Jaffe dated July 29, 2015. See: http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/07/29/hall-fame-new-rule-change-transparency
According to a release:
?BBWAA members previously holding Hall of Fame voting privileges who are no longer active in the game and are more than 10 years removed from active status will have the opportunity for annual reinstatement, based on their coverage of the game in the preceding year. [This seems highly lenient to me]
??A voter registration system and survey will determine each individual member?s eligibility.?
This comes after a change was put into place last year that was designed to enhance accountability and transparency and in which eligible voters are now required to register online and to sign a code of conduct that specifically states that their ballot is non-transferrable, and that their names will be publicized as having voted?though not for whom they voted, unless they volunteer that information for the BBWAA?s own site once the election results have been announced.
The issue of transparency has been somewhat offset by the practice of active writers publishing their ballots either before or after the annual election. Many Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) members publish their ballots In this manner as well. And so do other non-member voters who have this privilege.
However, a response from the BWAA indicates that it might have been doing the same thing though I don?t know the details or degree of certainty. At any rate, I?ll assume they are on the case and that?s a good thing.
