I think this woll turn out to be very entertaining by the end. And it just may involve a whole lot of writers goinf after each other that would be really fun.

"This is one of the most despicable things I can ever think of."

Not much of an imagination or sense of history.

You are worse than 10,000 Hitlers for questioning the ultimate and undeniably intrinsic import of the baseball HOF to the priorities of humanity as a whole.

Madden's knowledge of history was good in the beginning, but he went too far.

Sweet... I love making idiots mad - I now want to win the lottery just so I can buy up a whole bunch of ballots and vote for Madden's least favorite player.

"This is one of the most despicable things I can ever think of."

Not much of an imagination or sense of history.

You guys may enjoy this piece: http://mobile.philly.com/columnists/?wss=/philly/columnists/sam_donnellon/&id=125872288

It includes a nice quote from Madden about his esteemed colleague Bill Conlin.

Just sayin'.

Well, look, when we say these guys are taking their Hall of Fame votes "too seriously", we really mean that they're imbuing HOF membership with a moral aspect that it doesn't have. I'm pretty sure we don't mean that we want the writers not to care about the responsibility they have as voters. That, in fact, we mean the exact opposite of that.

I'd sure hope we'd all think less of the voters if votes were being openly sold and none of the other voters gave a ####. What the hell would that say???

Also amusing: Madden, the guy who sees a writer selling his Hall of Fame vote as "one of the most despicable things [he] can think of," has also argued in favor of the Hall admitting Pete Rose, who broke baseball's most fundamental rule.

http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1101242

I'd sure hope we'd all think less of the voters if votes were being openly sold and none of the other voters gave a ####. What the hell would that say???

It would say that the HOF might take the vote away from the BBWAA.

"This is one of the most despicable things I can ever think of."

Not much of an imagination or sense of history.

It works better when imagined said in Daffy Duck's voice.

In the battle of Madden vs. Deadspin, I'll take meteor.

It includes a nice quote from Madden about his esteemed colleague Bill Conlin.

From July, 2011. Which was six months before the allegations against Conlin were first made public.

From July, 2011. Which was six months before the allegations against Conlin were first made public.

So what? You think he hasn't heard about what Conlin did yet? Or did he write and file today's column three years ago, before any of the acts he's describing had actually occurred, purely on spec?

If one of my close professional colleagues were outed as a serial child rapist, I'd like to believe that would help define the far edges of my moral spectrum going forward. I guess Madden feels differently.

So what? You think he hasn't heard about what Conlin did yet? Or did he write and file today's column three years ago, before any of the acts he's describing had actually occurred, purely on spec?

If one of my close professional colleagues were outed as a serial child rapist, I'd like to believe that would help define the far edges of my moral spectrum going forward. I guess Madden feels differently.

No, the article with the quote from Madden about Conlin, which wasn't written by Madden, was printed in July 2011. The quote isn't in the article or audio transcript from anything released today.

In the battle of Madden vs. Deadspin, I'll take meteor

Since Tommy Craggs has taken over editing duties I think Deadspin has, well, become very good. I know there's a lot of anti-deadspin sentiment here but I'd imagine a lot of that is connected to the Leitch-Daulerio eras. You might want to check out the site these days.

No, the article with the quote from Madden about Conlin, which wasn't written by Madden, was printed in July 2011. The quote isn't in the article or audio transcript from anything released today.

In the thing released today, Madden said that the unnamed writer selling his vote is, in his words, "one of the most despicable things I can ever think of." Presumably, if we are to take Madden at his word, then by logical extension he sees the HoF vote-selling as being just as bad as (if not worse than) the things that Conlin did to all those poor kids. As a professional in the information-gathering business and a highly decorated member in good standing of the BBWAA, he could hardly be unaware of the fall and disgrace of the man who only a short time earlier he had praised so unreservedly.

No, the article with the quote from Madden about Conlin, which wasn't written by Madden, was printed in July 2011. The quote isn't in the article or audio transcript from anything released today.

He's saying that Bill Madden calling the vote selling "one of the most despicable things I can think of" is horrible because Madden is already aware of the despicable things Bill Conlin did. Presumably he's also aware of many other despicable acts as well.

While Madden's quote is indeed over the top, it's also true that selling one's vote would be one of the most despicable acts a Hall of Famer voter can do in the narrow framework of voting for the Hall of Fame. I'm guessing that was his point, not that it's actually more despicable than child rape or genocide or rebroadcasting or retransmitting telecasts without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.

I'd sure hope we'd all think less of the voters if votes were being openly sold and none of the other voters gave a ####. What the hell would that say???

I couldn't really think much less of the voters since the steroids mess anyway. Why is selling a vote much worse than the dishonesty of treating steroids players differently from amps players?

Also amusing: Madden, the guy who sees a writer selling his Hall of Fame vote as "one of the most despicable things [he] can think of," has also argued in favor of the Hall admitting Pete Rose, who broke baseball's most fundamental rule.

Except baseball (and by extension the HoF) are part the nation's moral fabric. Thus, making the HoF less pure is like molesting every child.

Slow clap for #19.

Since Tommy Craggs has taken over editing duties I think Deadspin has, well, become very good. I know there's a lot of anti-deadspin sentiment here but I'd imagine a lot of that is connected to the Leitch-Daulerio eras.

I agree with this. Daulerio was the quintessential tabloid journalist, and the signal to noise ratio was bad during his tenure. But since then Deadspin continues to come up with some interesting stuff, and there's less #### to wade through to read it. If you just ignore everything Drew Magary vomits up the site is very good.

Listening to that sure made me feel the writers are thinking of themselves as being one heck of a lot more vital than they really are. Way past time to look at a new system for voting.