Tampa Tribune sports writer fired for manipulating local football award ballot

On Friday, a 10-year sports reporter at the Tampa Tribune was fired after admitting to manipulating a local sports award ballot. She said, "When you want a desired outcome, you are going to eliminate the closest opponent to that desired outcome." She gave her lowest rating to a leading player to make it more likely the player she favored would win. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has recently prohibited all its sports reporters from voting on awards, including Cy Young, MVP, & HOF. One of their reporters, Juan Rodriguez, was on XM's The Beat discussing this matter today. In the article about the Tampa Tribune writer's firing, it mentions the paper will reconsider allowing its writers to vote on any sports awards. This recalled to me the statement of Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan on his recent HOF ballot. On January 10, 2006 on XM he said the following---"I KEPT MY VOTE DOWN FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING JIM RICE." Ryan only voted for 3 people--Rice, Sutter, & Dave Concepcion. Ryan also said the current voting system is criminal & should be disbanded immediately. Anyhow, he openly said he manipulated his ballot. And no one said a word.

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