ESPN
With Baseball season upon us, isn’t it nice to watch Sportscenter and see some news about the national pastime? You would think so…… I submit that ESPN has become unbelievably lazy. Is there really no actual baseball news? I have seen most of the episodes from the past week, and the “baseball” content has been littered by stories more appropriate for the E! network.
Does anyone (including Jeter/AROD) care about the relationship between the two of them? How is this a story? More importantly, how is it a featured story that lasts multiple days? And then, not only do they air the fluff piece, ESPN also decides to kiss Jeter’s A** by distorting the stats. They reported that Jeter is clearly the superior post season player and AROD is only productive in meaningless regular season games. The facts utilized are that Jeter went 8-16 against DET last year, while AROD struggled to go 1-14. Could they use a smaller sample size to make the point? Its not like this was the only postseason either of them had played, but the point was to show Jeter’s dominance over AROD in the playoffs. Career postseason numbers: AROD 860 OPS, Jeter 862 OPS….Hmmmm.
The other story revolves around Barry Bonds. Is it really a story to see what the mood is of Giants camp the day BEFORE Bonds arrives? Do you really think that Bonds is going to say anything that is newsworthy? If it is anything relating to his contract or the trial, or his failed amphetamenes test, his answer will undoubtably be no comment, so who cares… move on and do some real reporting.
There are plenty of items worth reporting? Obviously the RedSox signing of DMat is a huge story, and worthy of reporting, but wouldn’t it be nice if they actually reported something new/interesting? I was interested to learn that he does long-toss from 220 feet (150 feet is typical) but of course, I didn’t learn that from Sportscenter.
Would be possible to do a story that didn’t relate to the Red Sox/Yankees/Bonds? I would be interested in features of players coming back from injuries like Jason Isringhausen or Bartolo Colon, or even a feature about what the heck happened to Zack Greinke last year???? I would think that ESPN has a budget large enough to have a reported cover more teams than BOS/NYY/SFO?
February 21st, 2007 at 5:18 pm
You do realize you are playing with fate, by speaking even remotely against the illustrious Mr. Jeter? He is the best player to ever play the game - just ask any post 1996 Yankee fan
February 21st, 2007 at 6:52 pm
It could be argued that ESPN is only reporting the stories that the majority of sports fans are interested in. I don’t buy that argument, but it could be argued (as in, “I’m not saying I *am* your accountant… I’m saying if I *were* your accountant). That said, there is a segment of the population that actually does care about those things - so the only issue is how major or minor it is.
We are focusing on sports in our little society here - but look at the Britney Spears shaved head thing last weekend. CNN was following that story. CNN. Yes… CNN. I mean - I’d be annoyed if the network news actually gave it five seconds of their time, but perhaps not totally surprised. But CNN?
Given that, can we really be surprised that so much coverage is given to whether or not a team’s SS and 3B are the best of friends (as if it actually had any bearing on anything)? I deride Jeter often (if only to offset the obnoxious level of buttkissing that you refer to) - but I agree with him 100% on this. His basic comment yesterday was, “Why are we spending time on this?” He’s right. (Course, there’s a two-part answer: (a) cuz the media and fans are making it a story, and (b) cuz *ARod* is making it a story… and I’m not sure what’s more pathetic, to be perfectly honest.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:35 am
And how about the coerage that Anna Nicole SMith’s death is getting???? Yikes….
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 am
Did you see the footage of the judge announcing his decision today that Smith would be buried in the Bahamas? He was crying like Dick Vermeil after a Super Bowl. I was waiting for him to get up and start pointing…
“I love you guys. All of you! I wouldn’t be here without you. I’ll never forget this day, or this group - for as long as I live. Howard K. Stern! You are *the* Howard Stern in my book. Thank you. I love you. And Anna’s mom… *none* of this would be possible without *you*! How can I *ever* thank you enough? I love you all.
And I’m glad I can let out my feelings! I feel so alive!”