General

Making Sense of Raul Ibanez vs. Bloggers

Jun 11, 2009, 1:20 PM UTC

Even if you don’t follow sports blogs as a whole very closely, you’ve probably heard some part of the fallout from a blog post Jerod Morris made over at Midwest Sports Fans speculating about possible steroid use by Raul Ibanez. â†µ
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â†µThe whole story went all mushroom cloud yesterday with Morris joining FOX’s Ken Rosenthal and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Gonzalez, who called the blog post “a cheap shot.”â†µâ†µThere are a lot of angles to examine when breaking down where this thing went incredibly sideways and Morris became the latest person having to defend himself in the tired Blogs vs. MSM debate. Here’s my first question: Why did Gonzalez decide to highlight Morris’ blog post if he thought so little of it to begin with? I realize BallHype is not the all-seeing eye of the internet, but it does give you a good idea of how many people link to a story from most blogs. Go take a look at the original post from Morris. You back? OK, good. By my count, I’m seeing a whopping two blogs who linked to the piece before Gonzalez decided to pen his column about Morris’ “cheap shot.”â†µ

â†µâ†µIt was hardly the “blog post du roar,” as Gonzalez describes it. And I say this next thing as respectfully as possible: Morris’ site is not exactly huge. It’s a fine site, but it’s not driving tens of thousands of page views on a daily basis, and by all accounts the initial posting was but a faint blip on the blogosphere’s radar. â†µ

â†µâ†µUPDATE: I initially missed Gonzalez’s explanation of how he stumbled upon the blog post. “Not long after the Ibanez post went up, Hugging Harold Reynolds - aâ†µpopular national blog - linked to it on its Twitter feed. And just likeâ†µthat, we were off. Less than an hour later, I had several e-mails in myâ†µinbox asking if I read the MSF story and whether I believe Ibanez isâ†µchemically enhanced.”
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â†µIndeed, HHR is a name-type sports blog, but looking at their SiteMeter, at least based on numbers, they are not a high volume national blog. So I don’t necessarily agree with the assertion that “we were off” as far as the whole thing goes. â†µ

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â†µPoint being, I'm not sure Morris "put a megaphone to the whispers" about PED use, as Joe Posnaski says today. If anyone did that, I'd argue it was Gonzalez.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut I’m getting sort of off the point. Was Morris in the wrong in some way for what he posted? Knowing how people consume things, I’d be shocked if most people took the time to actually, you know, read what Morris wrote. It’s a long post with a lot of thoughtful analysis actually looking at a lot of factors that could potentially dispute the claim from someone else in a fantasy league that Ibanez is using PEDs. But when those factors don’t absolve Ibanez, or at least clarify/explain the quick start, then you’re left with reasonable speculation.â†µ

â†µâ†µI’m not even going to drag Ibanez himself into this discussion. He has no idea who Morris is, but I think in general if someone presents a case that might suggest you’re cheating, you’re within your rights to get a little bit fired up about it. (Assuming you haven’t cheated, that is.) The line about bloggers in basements is tired, but I’ll give him a pass on that because it was sort of in the heat of the moment.â†µ

â†µâ†µIf anything, bloggers should take Morris’ experience to heart. People are watching you now more than ever, and that’s a good thing.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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