MLB Fair Press

MLB Fair Press is a movement to force Major League Baseball to open up its press pass policy to include the world of legitimate blogging. MLB currently enforces a league-wide policy that bans local organizations from granting press credentials to any website not affiliated with a major national news distribution source, like MSN, ESPN, etc. We believe this blanket ban on websites is unfair and unfounded, especially given the expansive popularity of blogs as a preferred source of sports news.

We are by no means arguing that every Joe with a blog should be able to get access to teams, but legitimate and productive blogs which cover teams on a day-by-day basis should be given access to their teams to make their coverage better. It certainly can’t hurt baseball to have more sources to get news from, especially given the quality of many blogs compared to some local columnists who write the same column 162 times, straight from a template, and barely use their privledges. (Don’t get me wrong, I respect those like local columnist Tracy Ringolsby who love the game and put a tremendous amount of effort and good thinking into covering the sport). Our argument is simply that there should be some evaluative proccess in place that allows legitimate blogs to bypass the blanket website ban. Are we even arguing that we should be given access? We don’t know, and didn’t expect to when we looked into it. But the fact that NO websites are allowed to cover teams demonstrates the poor management of Major League Baseball in the electronic era.

As a service to the fans, who ultimately will benefit the most from opening up this policy, we believe that the MLB should open its policy to legitimate blogs. If you’re interested in helping, please see below.

How to Help

There are many ways to help. We ask that you do a couple of things that should only take a few minutes, but will have a huge impact in advancing a great cause for all of baseball.

1. Post a link to this website from your site, or on an appropriate newsgroup, blog or forum using the following address: http://denversportszone.com/index.php/mlb-fair-press/

2. If you have a blog, especially one that covers baseball, we ask you to make a short post about the policy, and let your readers know that you support the movement and would like to offer them better coverage. Encourage them to visit this website and help out as well.

3. We ask everybody; to send an e-mail or letter to Major League Baseball on the subject, and let them know that this is a bad policy. To send an e-mail, go to
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/help/contact_us.jsp and select ‘Fan Feedback.’ Some sample e-mails that you could send as a fan or an owner:

For Fans:

To Whom it May Concern:

I recently heard about your policy of banning all non-affiliated websites from receiving credentials from their local teams. As a fan, I get much of my news from local blogs, and I feel their coverage is as good or better than many “accredited” sources, which are often the same templated columns day in and day out. I urge you to reconsider this policy so that fans like me can enjoy better coverage of our favorite teams.

Sincerely,

You

For Blog Owners:

To Whom it May Concern:

I recently heard about your policy of banning all non-affiliated websites from receiving credentials from their local teams. As an owner of one of these websites, I am outraged at this policy. I feel that many blogs deserve press status, and provide valuable services to fans and to their organizations. In many cases, I prefer to read what my fellow bloggers are writing over the local coverage, which is often the same templated column every day of the season. I don’t advocate letting anyone get access to teams, but I urge you to reconsider this policy and allow legitimate and productive blogs credentials to better serve the fans and their teams.

Sincerely,

You

To send a letter, the address is:

MLB Advanced Media, L.P.
Attn: Media Relations
75 Ninth Avenue, Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10011 USA

4. Please sign the petition to eliminate this unfair policy at petitiononline.com/mlbfp.

How it Started

I [Gabe Stein co-owner, DSZ] was looking into applying for press credentials with the Rockies organization. I sent the following e-mail to Jay Alves, Rockies Director of Communications:

To: Jay Alves
From: Gabe Stein

Hi,

I’m the co-owner of a sports blog covering Denver sports (http://denversportszone.com), and we’re looking to apply for press passes with the organization. I’m wondering what official channel to go through to submit an application, and if you have a policy regarding blogs. I was told you might be the person to ask about this.

Thanks so much,

Gabe Stein
Co-Owner
DenverSportsZone.com
sports@denversportszone.com

In response, I received an e-mail telling me that the MLB had a national directive in place that does not allow local organizations to grant credentials to websites. This e-mail from Mr. Alves was very professional and timely.

Unfortunately, the e-mail is subject to an acceptable use policy, and we’re currently investigating the legality of posting it on this site.

Just to check the legitimacy of Mr. Alves’ claim, I e-mail him one more time asking him to confirm that it is in fact a national ban.

To: Jay Alves
From: Gabe Stein

Thanks for the response.

If I understood that correctly, this is a rule directed from the national organization?

Thanks,

Gabe Stein

Mr. Alves responded very certainly that it was in fact an overarching, national Major League Baseball rule.

Outraged, I quickly went to the MLB website contact form and sent the following e-mail, which I also sent via US postal mail:

To: Major League Baseball
From: Gabe Stein

To Whom it May Concern:

In contacting my local organization about getting press passes for my blog website, they informed me that there was a national rule in place that does not allow individual teams to distribute press passes to websites not affiliated with major national news sources.

I wanted to contact you expressing my outrage at this rule. First, it should be up to individual organizations as to who they grant credentials. Those organizations best understand their market and who would benifit the oranization to have access to the team. In the case of the Rockies, I don’t think it can hurt to give as many people as possible access so as to drive up excitement for what is considered an abysmal franchise.

Secondly, most major sports do not have these restrictions, and several sports which have opened the way to legitimate blogging sites have benifited greatly - including Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League.

Finally, I strongly urge you to reconsider this policy. We are no longer in an age where only national organizations and local newspapers can effectively distribute content. Many people who choose to use the internet as the sole means of distribution are legitimate and deserve the same access that local columnists have - I much prefer reading about the Rockies in blogs run by die-hard fans than I do reading the local columnists, who I would argue hardly do anything with their “credentials” besides write stock opinion in the same column that they publish 162 times a year via template. Major League Baseball as a whole would benifit by opening up this policy, because it would greatly enhance interest in internet sites, which at least in Denver are widely regarded as better sources for Rockies news than the papers.

I am by no means encouraging allowing just anyone to apply for credentials and receive a pass - but excluding blogs is a bad policy, especially as many fans increasingly get their news from these sources. There should be some sort of evaluative proccess by which legitimate and productive blogs are made exempt from the blanket ban on websites.

Sincerely, an unhappy customer,

Gabe Stein

I’m still waiting on a response, but will update this page when I know what happens. In the mean time, please do your part to help out. There are four easy steps, and it only takes a few minutes to do something very worthwhile.

Update: Media Outraged
I received a few tips from fellow bloggers about forums of “professional” journalists who have attacked this argument as terrible, and who have absolutely hacked away at me on a personal level (ironically calling me a hack, among other names) and on a professional level.

All I need to say to this is: whatever. When a blog covers politics or starts new debate about the environment, it’s celebrated by the media. But when one dares to try and challenge the exclusive privledges of the mightiest of all journalists, the sports writers, the world is falling apart. Give me a break.

1 Comment »

1. 1. The Denver Sports Zone » Jay Alves: What we’ve known all along - October 23, 2007 @ 3:12 pm

   […] readers and sports blog junkies might recall this business from last year. What you see there is that I contacted Jay Alves about MLB’s press pass […]

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