You know I have much love for your site and your degree of journalistic quality. And frankly, I think a blanket rule on access is silly. I can though at least appreciate on some level where MLB is coming from. I've seen over the last few months easily a good half dozen sites that frankly I'd rather forget. Low brow to say the least. One even opened on the home page with profanity. Most blogs lack an editor, writers with any training or previous experience in writing, and no researchers. Or someone with that skill set. Surely you can appreciate that this medium is going to give folks pause. Perhaps your group might correspond with the commissioner's office directly about this. I suspect that your collective clout and reputation might be of some help.

 And for the record, what the $%@#$@#@ does it take for SB Nation to become "accredited"?

Mariotti

It seems like MLB should be able to come up with some, for lack of a better term, "nonaccredited criteria" to grant some measure of access to sites like this one.

I agree with Damen Jackson that there are plenty -- and I mean plenty -- of low-brow, fly-by-night, just-plain-silly baseball blogs out there. But there are also a number of blogs -- like this one -- run by dedicated, knowledgable, passionate fans that, quite frankly, appear to be vastly more in touch with the game than many of the so-called "accredited" journalists being paid to write about baseball.

Couldn't the MLB hire some sort of consultant to objectively evaluate a nonaccredited media entity (such as BCB) and determine whether it's serious and, more important, valuable? When you consider how long BCB has been here (hey, two years to the date), how many posts are logged daily and the depth of many of our discussions, I think we'd pass the test.

thats what gets me, and what makes a blanket policy lame

its like treating all newspapers the same, whether its the Sun Times or the Hubbadr High Gazette

there are people in the media who get it, use (and steal from blogs) and see things for what they are... but there are also alot in the over 45 set who don't and willfully won't

their savviness extends just far enough to make disparaging comments about "some internet blogger" during a broadcast

just rediculous on their part.

I DO NOT FEAR AL YELLON (nor cubbiejulie)!!!

I've read interviews with A's front office staff over there, and they even have Brad Ziegler posting a blog every two weeks.

I run a music blog that I have complete control of, and I wouldn't trade that for having to answer to someone, unless it meant I could do it as a full-time job with benefits. Clearly that ain't happening, so it's nice to have the latitude to do or say whatever I want, how I want to say it. I understand that this means I likely wouldn't ever be taken seriously by "official" media sources, and I get lumped in with every other blogger from the very worst to the very best, but I like the niche we've found and I think we do it as well as anyone out there. As someone who wanted to be a journalist, if I can satisfy my desire to write and in the process entertain and/or inform a thousand people a week, I am fine with that. I think it's enough for most people really.

Another site I used to write for was actually  getting write-ups in a few national magazines (Entertainment Weekly) and getting Best-Of awards from newspapers, and had the timing been different, I imagine we might have found one of those semi-legitimate blogging jobs through AOL or whatever. I think ultimately it would have muzzled the very thing that made us funny and we'd probably have hated it.

I imagine that most ballclubs see the aggregate quality of most baseball blogs as being below their standard, and for now they are probably right. Obviously there are a lot of rabid fans with good ideas here, but it's tough to say whether all these positives could be harnessed in a way that would dovetail with traditional media. I think that ultimately, internet-based DIY media will form a secondary layer of reporting that while not being taken in the same way as traditional outlets, will serve as a sort of counterbalance to them. Not having to answer to the pressure of various influences like advertisers and bottom-liners certainly gives a lot of freedom, but if the freedom isn't used correctly, no one will take you seriously anyway.

try to write off cubs games as a business expense.

can't I get credit on the front page as Court Fool or Town Drunk or something?

I tried to tell them, "Don't fear the Blogger", but they simply requested "more cowbell" rather than listen.