Dan Le Batard was Deadspin’s Hall of Fame voter
By Mike Dyce
The initial vote they bought fell through but they were able to acquire another vote. Now that the voting results have been announced, Deadspin revealed their voter and it might come as a surprise to some. It is ESPN personality and longtime Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard. He also hosts the “Highly Questionable” show on ESPN 2. Deadspin noted that Le Batard took no money for the ballot.
I expected it to be some lesser known person and not such a prominent figure in journalism.
Le Batard’s explanation, via Deadspin:
"I feel like my vote has gotten pretty worthless in the avalanche of sanctimony that has swallowed it.I have no earthly idea if Jeff Bagwell or Frank Thomas did or didn’t use steroids.I think I understand why the steroid guys were the steroid guys in thiscompetition-aholic culture.I hate all the moralizing we do in sports in general, but I especially hate the hypocrisy in this: Many of the gatekeeper voters denying Barry Bonds Hall Of Fame entry would have they themselves taken a magical, healing, not-tested-for-in-their-workplace elixir if it made them better at their jobs, especially if lesser talents were getting the glory and money. Lord knows I’d take the elixir for our ESPN2 TV show if I could.I don’t think I’m any more qualified to determine who is Hall of Fame-worthy than a fan who cares about and really knows baseball. In fact, many people analyzing baseball with advanced metrics outside of mainstream media are doing a better job than mainstream media, and have taught us some things in recent years when we were behind. In other words, just because we went to journalism school and covered a few games, just because accepted outlets gave us their platform and power, I don’t think we should have the pulpit to ourselves in 2014 that way we did in 1936."
Le Batard’s explanation goes on for a bit longer, go over to Deadspin to check the rest of it out. You can also see who was on the Deadspin ballot cast by Le Batard.
Le Batard also added that he liked “a little anarchy inside the cathedral we’ve made of sports.”
See the Deadspin ballot he cast below:
