Is it true they relieved Marcus Hayes of his baseball-covering duties following his immature remarks about Sabermetrics and bloggers?

Conlin's words were way worse, so, if Hayes gets canned for what he did, then I can't see a way out for Conlin.

Thanks for the support, by the way. I would feel bad about costing the guy his job if he does get canned, but then again, he did imply that if Hitler was still alive, he'd have me killed, so...

I've read lots of those tracts. Most aren't Paine's Common Sense.

Dear Mr. Conlin,

My name is Alon Gur, and I am the Editor-in-Chief of my school newspaper, the Germantown Friends School Earthquake.

I do not pretend to know more than you about journalism or sports or history. I give you this information not to sound pretentious or overly knowledgeable, but only to give you the sense that A) I am Jewish and B) I have some measure of experience in producing a newspaper.

Let me also state that I agree with you in that Rollins should have won his MVP award.

However, given all this, I still can't help but feel deeply hurt, deeply betrayed by your Hitler commentary in that now infamous email. Sir, there is no reason to be so militant towards bloggers. Newspapers and bloggers can and should coexist to provide for their common goal -- wealth of knowledge and beauteous application of the very first of declarations on the Bill of Rights. Mr. Conlin, you cannot in one hand tout Freedom of Speech and the Press, while in the other hand flaunt the man who stood not only against the very concept, but attempted to subdue it forcibly. Some bloggers, just like some readers and some columnists, are pretentious assholes and it is not reprehensible to treat them as such. But as a representative of your paper (which is already, like all printed papers (my own included) teetering on the brink in terms of profitability and printability), it is your prerogative to be careful with what you say. To the average reader of your emails, it seems like you're basically saying:
"So what if he killed your ancestors!? He woulda gotten rid of bloggers, too! Ain't that a darn great thing!?"

Your stated goal is sarcasm. Who on earth is sarcastic about Hitler outside of comedians? Unless you make your living with racy, offensive, eye-popping jokes about the Holocaust / slavery / etc, just... don't do it in any forum except one in which you're surrounded by those who love you and are aware of all that you did in the 60s without you needing to submit your resume.

As for bloggers being equated to pamphleteers, I think they would take this as a compliment. Pamphlets resulted in Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," a forum for John & Sam Adams' sensationalizing of events (including the Boston Massacre, which helped catalyze the States), and even widespread knowledge of just what our Self-Evident Truths are, and just what We the People of the United States hold as the supreme law of the land.

I guess the goal of my email would be to elicit, firstly, an apology to those whom you have offended. Probably the best forum would be in your next column. Secondly, I would hope that you realize that the journalism community (and blogging, make no mistake, is a new form of journalism) can be successfully symbiotic. You were once on the cutting edge, when you called out and bashed bigots and anti-Semites. Your words have contributed to the fight against anti-Semitism and racism. Your words carry weight. Use that weight like you once did -- to build bridges. Not to burn them down. Blogging can be a wonderful way of exercising our primary freedom. Why not attempt to use it as such, as opposed to trying to fight what is now apparently an unstoppable wave?

Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom,
Alon Gur
Grade 12, Germantown Friends School

Just so there's no confusion (I see this being flung about on the thread at BSG), I have every legal right to post the E-mail correspondence between myself and Conlin.

Once he clicks "Send," he forfeits any rights he has to his E-mail message.

Think of it as if it was paper mail. The message was intended only for my eyes, but what if I show other people? The only time it's illegal -- with paper mail -- is if I open or otherwise tamper with someone else's mail. The same goes for E-mail: it's illegal if I access his E-mail account, for instance, and look through or tamper with his messages.

The similar aspect to it is the moral aspect. Morals are neither right nor wrong, they are subjective. So, if you think my publicizing of our conversation was in poor taste, you have every right to have that opinion. I personally do not think it is immoral, but I welcome the disagreement and, if you think you have an aspect about it you think I am missing, please let me know.

If you haven't seen it, I addressed some other misconceptions about this issue:

http://crashburnalley.com/?p=49

Thanks.

This comment was posted on bleedcubbieblue.com, which was linked by jonk above.

IMO, It pretty much says it all about Bill Conlin:

"Yes, it's horribly pretentious...

...for common people! to think that their opinions on baseball have any merit! Why, you have to have a newspaper column or a TV gig to make your opinions on baseball noteworthy! How dare these bloggers act this way!

What a maroon.

The simple fact of the matter is that guys like him are suddenly operating in a much different environment than they were just a decade or two ago. I'm sure when Conlin started writing, most of his readers at best had newspaper box scores, radio casts and maybe a Saturday game-of-the-week on TV. If I wanted to know something about baseball, Conlin and his ilk were the only source of information.

Nowadays, absent blackout rules I can watch any ballgame I want, I can go to MLB's website and watch highlights and full innings of any game I please, and have access to more stats and play-by-play data than even I know what to do with. And I can very cheaply publish my views to as many people as Conlin can, and it's stupid easy. Guys like him have gone from being the town crier to a voice in the crowd; they no longer control the flow of information, and this frightens them because we don't need them anymore, and unless you have the massive Rolodex and connections of guys like Gammons, Olney and Rosenthal you have very little value to add above and beyond what a passionate and knowlegable fan has to say.

It's an awful lot like watching buggy drivers protesting the advent of the automobile, or ice delivery services railing against the advent of the refridgerator -- or the record companies fighting against Internet downloading. The popular sporting press is coming upon an "adapt-or-die" moment, and a lot of them are stubbornly chosing to die. It's pathetic, and more than a little sad to watch, really."

   This is insane! Calm down a second here, take a deep breath, is anybody really offended? What did Conlin really say here? Like it or not, bloggers really are nothing but junior cub reporters, no different than an 8th grader with a school paper. Conlin probably gets 100s of emails a day from 27 year olds attempting to explain the game of baseball to him from the desk of the insurance agency where they work. Conlin has fun with the fans and occasionally banters back and forth. Are you trying to punish him for communicating back? Believe me 80% of journalists don't even bother and now you know why.
   Let's get real, just because you collect stamps doesn't make you the Postmaster. Emailing Conlin's bosses with this nonsense? Do you bloggers think you are Bob Woodward trying to take down Nixon? To try to trap a 70 year old baseball man in todays PC gone amuck gottcha game is a joke.  
   I have a suggestion, let's try to cool down by getting back and concentrating on whoever is paying our salaries for a few days. Stop pretending that your offended that Conlin insulted some know it all who cried about it on his "blog". Get back to work and try not to forget to put the cover on your TPS reports.