Murray Chass: you’re no blogger

Everyone tells me to ignore Murray Chass and most of the time I do. But this time of year it’s good to remember that the people in charge of such things continue to think it’s a grand idea that this relatively unread crackpot gets to keep voting for the Hall of Fame. Yes, he gets to be a part of history making, and he does so on the power of logic and integrity displayed thusly:

I voted for Bagwell on his first appearance on the ballot, when he received 41.7 percent of the votes. After several people told me that he had been heavily involved in steroids, I left him off my ballot the second year . . . Biggio will almost certainly be elected this time. He was only two votes short of election in the last election and should clear the threshold, even though a reporter friend told me that a dozen or more players told him that Biggio used steroids.

And he revisits his Mike Piazza back acne fixation once again. Which, yes, Chass is gonna Chass, so it’s not like I’m surprised at his unhinged PED stuff.

But I am surprised at is the fact that Chass seems happy to rely on secondhand hearsay like he does with Biggio. I mean, whatever you can say about the guy, he was never anything less than an assiduous reporter on other topics. He’s from the “If your mother says she loves you, check it out” school of journalism. Yet “a guy told a friend of mine who told me” is good enough for him here.

We jokingly call Chass a “blogger” because he bristles at that title and thinks bloggers are awful. But I think we owe it to Chass to retire that little bit of name-calling. Because, as a guy who runs a blog, I can assure you, I’d never allow one of my bloggers to accuse someone of something on as little evidence as Chass does here. I’d probably fire him, actually.

Murray Chass: you’re no blogger.