With roughly 7,000 to 10,000 unique readers a day, my guess is that there are 'journalists' in the locker room of Shea who have smaller readerships at their respective papers than I. Yet, I'm not allowed...

The thing with a union, is that we only pose a 'potential' threat to the team's we write about. In many cases, the team's are completly unaware of the type of impact we can have...

What is our leverage to warrant being unionized...

Matthew Cerrone
MetsBlog.com

You have to be proactive--I know, easier said than done; and I readily admit that I'm probably talking out of my ass at this point--so I hope you lead the charge and do everything to make it happen. Everyone else seems to be biding their time.

The reason that they can prosecute this guy is because (if the allegations are true) he's been getting free admission to ballgames under fraudulent pretenses. Given that he's gotten the equivalent of season tickets to all the sports leagues in the NYC area, for the past seven years, and gone to postseason games during that time, that's equivalent to a con scheme defrauding these teams of tens of thousands of dollars.

In other words, if they can prosecute someone for jumping a subway turnstile, they can prosecute a guy for jumping the a stadium turnstile.

Also, the Writer's Union concept that's being discussed isn't so much a Union as an industry association (since many Internet Baseball Writers are self-employed in that capacity, or small business owners). The idea is that by banding together, internet baseball writers could lobby MLB and be taken more seriously than they would be individually.

As Sabia's story shows, a lot of what it takes to be accepted by MLB is just assertiveness and a willingness not to back down when challenged.

I'm a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers' Association, but it's still relatively new, and really only serves to benefit those who write about fantasy sports. But many of those who sit on the FSWA "board of directors" come from organizations like ESPN and the Sporting News. So even in a group that represents fantasy writers, you still have a "print" media group that has no trouble getting access, while someone like myself, who writes exclusively on the Web, can't get access to a major-league clubhouse.

I'd love to see an Internet counterpart to the BBWAA. To follow up on Matthew's comments, it's a shame when someone like Jamey Newberg can't get a press pass, when he's doing a better job covering the Rangers than the "accredited" writers of the Dallas Morning News, all because of the medium he chooses to write in. It's a very arbitrary and unfair distinction in my mind; I'm glad to know I'm not alone in thinking this way.

Rob Cook
Senior Beat Writer, Rotojunkie.com

Most sports, particularly professional, benefit from the abundance of "free" advertising the sports writer shills deliver, daily.

Does anyone remember reading the James article? If so, where?

Thanks,
Steve

coming soon: savingthepitcher.com

That comment must have been made several years ago. Have you read the business section lately? The WSJ?