Will the Dark Tower of MLB.com Be All That's Left?

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - NASHVILLE, TN - Segregation is back in Major League Baseball. This time, though, it is just the reporters.

MLB.com, which is supposed to be 'independent,' has its cadre of reporters milling about the halls of the Opryland Hotel, along with about 300 other media people working the show. They have the media room in one of the mid-sized ballrooms of the convention center, with rows and rows of tables for all of us to drop our laptops upon, and while away carefree hours filing stories.

Over in the right corner of the room stands the reminder that the organization which is the news is also now the primary news source: MLB.com. Their 20-foot  high, black-curtained enclosure segregates the ultimate insider news organization from those of us in the rest of the print, broadcast, radio and electronic media.

Like most things run by baseball, the news is now proprietary.  MLB wants it first, and doesn't want its reporters mingling with the rest of us, where things could potentially leak-out in advance of .com having it.

MLB staked out its turf on the electronic sphere a couple of years ago when it issued new guidelines to discourage electronic media outlets from competing with .com. What will be most interesting to see, though, is what happens in this Brave New World when the mainstream local media from the larger cities come into the all-digital sphere, and go head-to-head with .com.  Will a free press prevail, or will the dark tower in the corner of the room become the only outlet of information on professional baseball?