The Baseball Writers Association of America has received a major upgrade to its website. For years, the BBWAA site has been the target of jokes and snark for its amateurish look that looked as if it was created in a beginner’s web design course or playing around with some software.
At one point, the site was truly hideous. Not only was it bare bones in terms of content and links, but its lime green background would set your retinas on fire.
Anytime someone mentions the BBWAA, I remember this was their website up until about *2010* pic.twitter.com/gzaE6oXy9m
— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) August 12, 2015
For many years, the running joke every October, when baseball would announce its major awards — determined by BBWAA vote — was that the BBWAA website was created with a GeoCities account, a popular web-hosting service in the mid-1990s.
If you want to see what a website looked like in the 1990s, just visit the BBWAA site: http://t.co/rXYtrTj2. #geocities
— Michael Berger (@MichaelSBerger) November 15, 2012
I feel like the fact that the BBWAA web site (http://t.co/oob4Y977) looks like it lives on geocities is a metaphor for … something.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 16, 2012
https://twitter.com/Bradcalhoun/status/289394609690406913
Why aren't we talking about how amateur the #BBWAA website is? #Geocities #HallofFame
— Joe (@thejoehansen) January 8, 2014
Just went to the BBWAA site for the first time in nearly a year and was again shocked at how Geocities-esque it is.
— Bill Baer (@Baer_Bill) November 15, 2015
About two years ago, the BBWAA site did improve, but it was still far below what was expected for a basic website. Design and navigation were poor, even though the necessary information was provided. (That is, when the BBWAA site’s servers didn’t crash, another target of snark and derision among baseball writers and fans.)
The BBWAA's Geocities website is as glorious as ever pic.twitter.com/xkrMn8DhCm
— Kevin (@Kevin_Agee) January 18, 2017
But in February 2017, the BBWAA website has finally entered the 21st century, providing a outlet and resource appropriate for one of the most influential and powerful groups of sportswriters in the country.
As you can see from the image above, articles and releases are now clearly indicated on the home page, making MLB award announcements and Baseball Hall of Fame balloting results far easier to find, divided by section. And photos! Never has a website needed photos more. Show the sport and figures that your organization covers!
The site also makes space for other BBWAA-related news, such as the Spink Award winner and highlights from the group’s annual awards dinner. Another nice touch is a sidebar which has a running timeline of tweets from official BBWAA members. That could be fun to monitor throughout the MLB season, but especially during awards season and Hall of Fame announcements when many writers make their votes public.
Most importantly, the BBWAA site now looks like a professional website, not something cobbled together on weekends and off-days (of which there are very few during baseball season). It’s a destination people might actually visit throughout the year, not just in October and January, because it’s pleasant to look at now.
About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.