The Schilling Rule

The BWAA has created a rule which says that players who have monetary bonuses in their contracts based upon MVP, ROY or Cy Young Award voting will not longer be eligible for those awards starting in 2013. This is commonly being referred to as the Schilling Rule after Curt Schilling's latest contract which has a $1 million bonus if he receives a single Cy Young Award vote in 2008.

Curt Schilling addresses the new rule in his latest posting on 38Pitches.com.

Schilling makes a number of good points but he misses the main point of this new BWAA rule. This new rule is an admission that journalistic integrity is a myth and the sports writers themselves recognize that as a whole - they are not to be trusted to act in a fair and unbiased manner.

When Schilling's Cy Young clause was announced many sports writers wrote that it would in no way effect their voting. This new rule loudly states that all those people who said that sports writers would go into the bag to vote for Schilling were right. The BWAA is not to be trusted - they have said so themselves with this new rule.

One of the reasons why the votes for these awards has become bastardized to the point that a Schilling rule is necessary is because the BWAA votes are not public. Many writers write one thing but then vote another way. Have the votes made public so that writers have to stand behind how they vote and have them explain why. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

With this new rule - the BWAA has skipped over disinfection and gone directly to amputation. Probably for the best though - they aren't to be trusted. They've said so themselves.