Everybody knows that there is only one Baseball Hall of Fame and that it is located in the tiny but beautiful 228-year-old community of Cooperstown, New York – population 1,833. Everybody also knows that the voting body that elects those enshrined in the Hall of Fame is the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) and has been since the Hall of Fame first opened its doors in 1936. But a little over four years ago, a second group of writers began voting for Hall of Fame inductees, not in an official capacity nor with any influence whatsoever on who actually gets enshrined into the sacred Halls of Cooperstown, but a respectable (and growing) group of writers nonetheless – the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA).

A trip to Cooperstown is like traveling back in time a hundred years – well… except for the cars, of course.
(Ron Cervenka – ThinkBlueLA.com)

As its name implies, the IBWAA is comprised of bloggers, sportswriters, columnists and other social media types who present their work via the Internet which, as you might imagine, encompasses a lot of writers – certainly a lot more than the BBWAA. Granted, not all members of the IBWAA are big-name or well-known sports writers or journalists, but some of them are – including a few card-carrying members of the BBWAA.

IBWAA.com

The IBWAA is the brainchild of longtime Los Angeles area blogger Howard Cole who, like many, became disenchanted with many of the Hall of Fame and other annual baseball awards selected by the BBWAA. And while the membership of the IBWAA is growing annually, it will never replace the BBWAA – or will it?

“The IBWAA seeks neither to replace nor disparage the BBWAA but does offer distinctions,” says Cole about the IBWAA. “While the BBWAA requires ten years and hundreds of dollars of paid membership for writers to earn a Hall of Fame vote, the IBWAA has no waiting period, with a $10 annual membership fee ($20 lifetime).

Cole points out another very significant difference between the two associations.

“In the vast majority of cases, the BBWAA requires the tying of a writer’s online work to a print publication for admission; the IBWAA does not,” adds Cole. “The IBWAA believes that the hoops an applying writer has to jump through to join the older organization are too many and too narrow (whereas the IBWAA) welcomes all Internet baseball writers. Those with his or her own baseball website of any kind or scope are invited to join, as are those who contribute the written word anywhere within the baseball blogosphere.”

IBWAA founder Howard Cole (left) with longtime LA Times Dodgers beat reporter (and BBWAA member) Steve Dilbeck. (Ron Cervenka – ThinkBlueLA.com)

Although Cole’s IBWAA membership criteria may sound rather broad and vague, he scrutinizes and verifies every potential new member to confirm that they are, in fact, actual Internet writers. Those who merely comment or reply to blog or forum articles do not qualify for membership. One need look no further than the IBWAA Directory to see that its membership rolls include a number of well established and respected writers and journalists.

For its Hall of Fame voting the IBWAA follows the basic guidelines used by the BBWAA. In fact, the IBWAA uses the exact same ballot – with one huge difference: In the event that a player is voted into the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA but not the IBWAA (such as Barry Larkin in 2012), that player’s name remains on the IBWAA ballot even after enshrinement into Cooperstown. By the same token, if a player is voted into the Hall of Fame by the IBWAA but not by the BBWAA (such as Mike Piazza was last year), his name is permanently removed from the IBWAA ballot and is an IBWAA Hall of Famer forever – regardless of his standing with the BBWAA.

Cole said that the IBWAA Hall of Fame Class of 2014 will be announced on Monday, January 6, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. (PT).

So who did two of ThinkBlueLA.com’s staff writers chose for the 2014 IBWAA Hall of Fame?

Ron Cervenka:

• Craig Biggio
• Tom Glavine
• Barry Larkin (voted into the BBWAA HOF in 2012 but not the IBWAA HOF)
• Greg Maddux
• Edgar Martinez
• Jack Morris
• Tim Raines
• Lee Smith
• Frank Thomas
• Alan Trammell

Harold Uhlman:

• Jeff Bagwell
• Craig Biggio
• Tom Glavine
• Jeff Kent
• Barry Larkin
• Greg Maddux
• Tim Raines
• Lee Smith
• Frank Thomas
• Larry Walker