Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 16, 2008
I Guess he Didn't want to Write for Baseball Musings

Murray Chass started a blog. Of course, it's not a blog.

This is a site for baseball columns, not for baseball blogs. The proprietor of the site is not a fan of blogs. He made that abundantly clear on a radio show with Charlie Steiner when Steiner asked him what he thought of blogs and he replied, "I hate blogs." He later heartily applauded Buzz Bissinger when the best-selling author denounced bloggers on a Bob Costas HBO show.

It would be nice if Chass actually new what the term blog meant. There seems to be some confusion as to the meaning of the word blog. Blog is short for Web Log, a collection of posts usually arranged with the most recent in time first. For some reason, some people think the individual posts are each separate blogs. No, they are posts, columns, articles, whatever you like. The collection is the blog.

So Murray, like it or not, you have a blog of columns. Welcome to the new media!

Hat tip, AOL Fanhouse.

Update: Just to piss off Chass, I've added his RSS feed under "Baseball Bloggers."


Posted by David Pinto at 12:02 PM | Blogs | TrackBack (0)
Comments

David, my impression is that Mr. Chass has long wanted to blog, but has loathed blogs and bloggers because his first choice for his blog name, and his blog identity was in fact Baseball Musings. Being unable to wrest control of the site from you through skulduggery and scheming, he harbored a deep seated hatred for all things blog related. Hence his need to clarify that he is not in fact blogging, but self publishing his thoughts and columns in a online forum.

Sad really. :)

Posted by: Joe at July 16, 2008 12:39 PM

That's too funny. I wonder what he thinks he's doing differently than all the blogs he doesn't like.

Posted by: Devon Young at July 16, 2008 01:29 PM

"E-mail comments are also invited"

Gosh, if only he had left an actual e-mail address...

Posted by: NoPepperGames at July 16, 2008 01:34 PM

This is a remark, not a comment.
I hate comments.

Posted by: James at July 16, 2008 01:52 PM

His name in the copyright footer is a link to his e-mail address. Not very obvious or usable.

Posted by: Shane at July 16, 2008 01:53 PM

Devon: given the level of thought he seems to put into his columns, opinions, etc., I'm not sure there's a lot of thinking going on.

I am excited for the day when he wakes up, turns on the computer, goes to his bl.. er, columns, and suddenly, he realizes that he's a blogger. Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Posted by: Andrew C at July 16, 2008 01:55 PM

Also: I'm really kind of creeped out by the third-person past tense "About This Site" page.

Posted by: Andrew C at July 16, 2008 01:57 PM

I would just like to add that if you read the comments in his HTML, you'll find out that he's using the world famous WordPress, a blog publishing application.

Posted by: Shane at July 16, 2008 02:00 PM

Maybe I'm slow--stupid blogger-- but I'm still not getting what it is that Chass thinks he hates about blogs. What exactly is he railing against? Is it simply the fact that those writing are not "legitimate" journalist like him, or is it something specific about the format or content he takes issue with? It doesn't seem like he's tried very hard to clarify what it is he opposes about baseball blogs except for their universal focus on statistics for the purpose of ruining the joy of the game. Can anybody help clarify what Murray seems to be struggling to illuminate?

Posted by: VicD at July 16, 2008 02:22 PM

Maybe I'm slow--stupid blogger-- but I'm still not getting what it is that Chass thinks he hates about blogs. What exactly is he railing against? Is it simply the fact that those writing are not "legitimate" journalist like him, or is it something specific about the format or content he takes issue with? It doesn't seem like he's tried very hard to clarify what it is he opposes about baseball blogs except for their universal focus on statistics for the purpose of ruining the joy of the game. Can anybody help clarify what Murray seems to be struggling to illuminate?

Posted by: VicD at July 16, 2008 02:22 PM

I know the economy's bad and the newspapers business is really suffering, but I didn't realize that Murray Chass had to move back into his parents' basement recently.

Posted by: Ben K. at July 16, 2008 02:28 PM

His e-mail doesn't work. murraychass@murraychass.com returns everything sent to it (at least from gmail).

Posted by: NoPepperGames at July 16, 2008 02:49 PM

Awesome. Just because he doesn't call it a blog doesn't mean that it isn't.

Posted by: robustyoungsoul at July 16, 2008 03:28 PM

Chass is a baseball moron who refuses to acknowledge its not 1950.

Posted by: Terry at July 16, 2008 05:29 PM

Play nicely with your new playmate children!

I'm having lunch with Murray next week to catch up and see how is his post leg operation, NY Times bloodletting, etc. - I look forward to asking him about the responses listed here.

But can Fire Joe Morgan get back to really trying to get Joe Morgan fired and leave Murray alone?


Posted by: Bob Tufts at July 16, 2008 10:37 PM

Maybe he new he was creating a knew way to write....

Posted by: Zippercat at July 16, 2008 10:53 PM

I like how he writes the about section in 3rd person and quotes himself.

Posted by: John at July 17, 2008 05:39 PM
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