When Barbarians and Gatekeepers Collide

As Reason has been documenting and championing for years, the liberating power of technology continues to make life sad and uncomfortable for gatekeepers of all stripes. The process -- in which empowered amateurs mock, supplement and occasionally replace previously respected tastemakers -- has been especially advanced in Major Lague Baseball, as I wrote in December 2003. Teams (including many of the most successful ones) have been increasingly hiring the outside rabble and heeding their advice, to the great consternation of many inside experts.

That backdrop adds intriguing metaphorical context to this already-interesting Baseball America roundtable discussion, in which two members each from the Old Guard and New alternate between testiness and rapproachment as they try to answer the exact same questions. I especially enjoyed how the recently co-opted bomb-throwers climbed down from some of their more provocative earlier comments, terming them "overstatement" and "exaggeration" that were "designed to sell books." (Link via Baseball Primer.)