Murray Chass is a blogger now.

He can say he hates them and wave his Spink Award (deserved) all he wants, but he's just a blogger.

He can call himself a columnist, but the Times let him go, a cost-saving move that hurt them as much as it hurt him. The New York Times can't just find another Murray Chass and can't afford him, but Chass can get a Blogger account and pow, he's back on Ballbug. I bet Murray's a bit chapped that he's being found via Ballbug, Google, Primer, and other newfangled ways. I bet somewhere in Brooklyn, he's got a kid in a "Newsies" outfit yelling out his URL.

I'd welcome Chass to the 'net if he'd welcome it, but he won't. Will he link to Alex Belth, a better writer in the medium than Chass will be? Will he limit his thoughts to days gone by the same way he'll limit sharing time with ex-writers, the Bitter Old Ink-Stained Wretches Club?

The saddest thing to me is that Chass could be a leader. He could do what T.R. Sullivan, Peter Gammons, and Richard Justice have done and embraced a new way to connect with people that love the game and want to read the best writers and best information. Instead, he'll work his grumpy, bitter, get-off-my-lawn routine until he's irrelevant. It's baseball's loss, but it's Chass' choice.