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Feb
3
Midwinter (Random) Musings on Baseball
Posted by Greg | Filed Under News |
Super Bowl Sunday is a day of absolute joy for me. Sure, I am mildly interested in the outcome of the NFL’s championship (Giants over Pats), but I am wildly enthusiastic about the end of football season and the start of baseball. Pre-season trades continue, pitchers and catchers will soon report to MLB’s training camps and major college baseball games will start at the end of this month.
Even my son’s travel team has started to train.
Baseball America’s pre-season rankings has four Pac-10 teams in the top-10. I will get to see several of these teams by just driving across the bridge to the University of Washington. Speaking of West Coast college baseball, Hall of Famer George Brett and his brothers purchased the Bellingham affiliate of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League this past week. Summer college ball continues to heat up out here in the Pacific Northwest.
A couple of posts I look forward to this month are:
- Our next CodBall Conversation will be with Cape Cod Baseball League President Judy Scarafile. I have obviously followed Judy’s enormous contributions to the league over the past several decades. But nothing prepared me for what an impressive human being she is. We look forward to bringing you another WCAI/NPR conversation and podcast with Judy Scarafile.
- Andrew and I have never published rules or anything close to rules for this blog. But last season a few heated arguments erupted on CodBall and so I’ve had a draft, “Note to Readers” in the works for several months. We pride ourselves on civil discourse on this blog. I want this to be a place where folks can express themselves, but without name-calling. So we’ll try to get this note published in February — way ahead of the season. If you have any suggestions on how to make this a great space for talking baseball please let me know and we’ll get it into the note.
- This morning I watched with my son the 2004 movie Mickie starring Harry Connick Jr. Man, this a complex baseball film. It is basically a movie about a boy’s bid to make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport. In this age of steroid investigations and recriminations, this movie explains a lot. No, there are no steroids in this movie, but there is greed, lying, cheating…and in the final seconds, justice. This movie is billed as a family film. Like all family films, be sure to watch it with your child. Hollywood ethics need to be kept in check.
Hey Guys…unless you edited out some comments, I don’t recall any name calling on the blog. I think it is great reading opposing points of view and if gets a little heated, that is not necessarily a bad thing. You definately need to take responsibility when managing a blog but my suggestion is to not appear to be overly “censoring” in your “blog rules”.
Hey CapeMan, glad to hear you didn’t see anything offensive. We actually approve comments as they come in the first time people post. We had some questionable comments last season mixed with some good discussion. I am all for free speech on the Internet, but we have to draw the line somewhere. The bottom line is that we need to respect the players, staff, fans, and volunteers that make this league so much fun every summer.
I agree that you definately need to draw the line somewhere since it is ultimately your reputation on the line. At the same time, I don’t think you are necessarily doing this blog FOR the league but ABOUT the league and in general, I think it benefits all when controversial topics are openly discussed and this is a great place; if not the only place, where that occurs. Keep up the good work!
I think CapeMan said it perfectly when he said that CodBall will hopefully be about the league and not for the league. The CCBL already has a pretty smooth Public Relations operation and I hope CodBall doesn’t ever get to the point where dissenting opinions can’t be shared. I know I have been on the receiving end of a couple of opposing views, but that’s OK. The last time someone took offense to what I said was in regard to a simple comment to the effect of “I wish other teams took the time to update their websites and provide team and league information like the Wareham organization does.” Someone took offense to that ! My reaction ? Too bad. I mean, really, if you can’t make a casual comment like that without upsetting someone, well, you’re probably not going to say anything that will please that person. I was surprised that anyone would get so worked up over an innocent comment like that but I was more upset that my comments were edited to appease that person. They don’t have to like what I say but they’re entitled to share their opposing opinion. Recently, I have found myself sticking to basic “news,” such as noting when a team posts their roster, rather than getting into anything close to sharing an opinion.
I enjoy CodBall. I check for new postings and comments regularly. I just hope it doesn’t become another public relations arm of the CCBL. I would love to see more people visit and contribute to the site. I would really like to see more folks within the league sharing their views and, yes, correcting us when we are wrong.
I think there are times when we all have to think about what we want to say before we say it. OK, maybe not “we”, but certainly me. Sometimes the filter doesn’t work like it should ! Obviously, there should never be a personal attack directed toward anyone. We should realize that the people involved with the operation of the league are volunteers and the players are amateurs. I think those are key points to keep in mind. Having said that, I don’t think it’s inappropriate to ask why other organizations can’t update their sites a couple times during the offseason. And if I want to have a bit of fun and ask why Orleans’ mascot looks more like a rooster than a cardinal, well hopefully that won’t ruffle any feathers. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
There are 129 days until the season begins and I can’t wait !
Well said Dave….and obviously, I agree with your points. I remember your post about the Wareham website but didn’t realize it got edited. There couldn’t be a more “real-time” example of what we are talking about because those are EXACTLY the types of opinions that are certainly not offensive and if that “ruffled feathers”, that is just ridiculous. It is a simple fact that certain league sites are updated more frequently than others and that is all you said. I think there are two things at work here and I’d like the CodBall guys to address them if they would:
1. Some of the folks commenting on the site are from the league. Dan Dunn from Falmouth comes to mind as does the Bourne play-by-play person. (I apologize for not remembering his name.) Is it possible that the CodBall guys are trying to edit comments because they don’t want to offend some of the league volunteers that are participating on the site. In short, does the unoffical “editing filter” include what league participants of CodBall might think?
2. To Codball’s credit, they are slowly getting the attention of the league’s executives such as interviews with John Garner, John Wylde and I think I just saw Judy Walden Scarafile. Does CodBall fear losing those connections; therefore editing content with this in mind?
I apologize if we are stepping into territory that perhaps we you didn’t expect but as regular participants and watchers of your great website and based on the fact that participants like ourselves is what makes this site an interactive and informative source of CCBL information, I hope that you appreciate the candid feedback.
I think that we are all in agreement. In terms of editing/screening comments, I think that we just want to try to maintain a positive or constructive climate that avoids personal attacks (not pleasing anyone in particular). Keep in mind that all of the CodBall writers are also CodBall readers. That will never change.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. This is the discussion I was hoping to have. I will eventually get around to posting my note to readers but this is helpful as a prelude.
There are 400 or more regular readers of CodBall on any given day during the offseason and a lot more during the season. I agree with the comment that we would like to see more folks — from the league and elsewhere — comment on this blog. We’ve been grateful to everyone who has commented and hope you will keep it up. The best posts have been those that have aroused passions and emotions. Isn’t that part of baseball?
Capeman, we only edit a post when it’s inaccurate (I’ve made a few of those myself) or when the language being used is offensive. There have been less than a handful of comments in the past two years that I would say were unnecessarily abusive in tone and so we edited them and explained why to the writer. I want this to be a passionate place where there are lots of differing opinions shared on all sides, but I don’t like mean name-calling. Thankfully there has been very little of that.
We were quite intentional about calling this an unofficial blog because we are not interested in having posts reviewed and edited by anyone, including the league. I don’t worry about what anyone thinks of my writing or opinions. They are mine and I am proud to have a forum to share them. We try to be responsible and respectful and so far think we’ve done pretty well.
I don’t think anyone out here would disagree with your last statement…that you’ve “done pretty well”. This is a lot of fun and a great source for baseball junkies.
This discussion is very healthy and it is great to see all sides of the issue. My ONLY concern is what Dave brings up earlier specific to his comments about comparing the league sites. Perhaps I don’t recall or don’t know all of the details but if he simply stated that he wished other franchises updated their sites like Wareham, that would be a concern and also inconsistant with your last post. Perhaps it was the response back to Dave that was edited and his original comment got caught up in that…I don’t know.
Different topic….I just saw a note on the Bourne website that they will have lights for 2008.
After reading Greg’s comment, I wasn’t going to say anything more about this, but now that CapeMan has asked the question, I feel I must answer his concern. It was my original message that was edited. It was edited in such a way that it was barely recognizable to me. I was told that there was a response to my comment that was “awaiting moderation” and that the person (”mike”, I believe) was not too happy with what I had said. Soon after that, my comment was edited and the other person’s reply was posted. His response was also edited from what I had seen in its original version.
My original comment was very innocent. It was a simple statement that I wish other teams would update their websites like Wareham does. Someone took great offense to that and pointed out in a not so nice way that all teams are managed by volunteers (agreed) and not everyone has the time to update their websites to fill “my needs.” This person also took me to task for a comment I made about the Yawkey Grant money in which they felt I was continuing the “myth that the Orleans and Chatham organizations are better off financially than the other teams.” I had not said that. I asked about the grant money and wondered if it was handed out on a rotating basis because, if that is the case, Orleans and Chatham were the two teams who had not received this money. It is true that the person who responded did not do so in a “nice” way, and he had some choice words for me, but I was still OK with him expressing his opinion - even though I wondered how he could have interpreted what I said in the way that he did.
I did not say anything to Greg or Andrew at the time, but I was quite surprised at the editing that was done. If this topic did not come up now, I still would not have said anything about it. I simply made a decision to see how things go concerning what is posted and what my thoughts are at that time. I decided it would be better - at least for awhile - to only chime in with news or “facts,” rather than sharing an “opinion.”
Right, I do remember that. It was the weekend I made a trip to the Yankees game and was a little preoccupied. We had to make a judgement call. This feedback is helpful and we’ll take it heart. As I said before there have been less than a handful of cases (2-3) where any sort of moderation was needed. And like even a good ump we will miss a few calls and we’ll argue over others.
Fair enough…less than 4 full months until opening day!!
I couldn’t agree with you more. “Pitchers and Catchers reporting day” is on my list of top 5 days of the year. Being in Atlanta I get to keep track of Georgia and GA Tech players that will be spending summer in the CCCBL. We also have Rick Robinson coaching at Young Harris College about 2 hours away as he prepares to take over Hyannis. He’s a great coach and should do well in the CCBL. He has built a great juco program. Not sure what will happen in the future as YHC is changing from a JUCO to a 4 year college which will impact his ability to get some of the hot prospects that just want to play two years and move to MLB.