Le Batard barred from future Hall of Fame votes
NEW YORK (AP) – Dan Le Batard was kicked out of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for one year and barred from future Hall of Fame votes after he turned over his 2014 ballot to a website that allowed readers to choose the selections.
The decision was made Thursday by the BBWAA board of directors, a day after Le Batard said he let Deadspin.com cast his ballot.
“The BBWAA regards Hall of Fame voting as the ultimate privilege, and any abuse of that privilege is unacceptable,” the organization said in a statement.
Le Batard, an ESPN host and Miami Herald columnist, said Wednesday he gave his ballot to the website because he detests the “hypocrisy” in the voting process.
Deadspin had offered to pay a voter for a ballot. Le Batard said he insisted there wouldn’t be compensation.
“I didn’t ‘sell’ anything. Only conditions were that I NOT get anything,” he posted on Twitter.
Le Batard told Deadspin that “our flawed voting process needs remodeling in a new media world. Besides, every year the power is abused the way I’m going to be alleged to abuse it here.”
“And my final reason: I always like a little anarchy inside the cathedral we’ve made of sports.”