It's 8:52 AM as I type this. The big sports story of the moment is Bud Selig's claim that two major league baseball teams are in danger of folding this season (perhaps they've run out of pitchers). What is the highlighted main story on espn.com right now...? Why, it's the ESPYs, ESPN's gratingly self-indulgent awards-show version of autofellatio, he contrived, pointless awards show ESPN uses to further promote itself. This is just indicative of how self-absorbed ESPN's become. I cancelled my cable, temporarily (very temporarily, as it turned out) about five weeks ago and just had it turned back on last weekend. I thought I'd come running back to ESPN after having to rely on Austin's awful local sports coverage for a month. Yet I can barely stand to watch a minute of SportsCenter. Last night, I was treated to a piece on Kenny Mayne smashing bobble-head dolls from each major league team. The piece was ostensibly about how the field of World Series contenders has been significantly narrowed, but what it was really about was Kenny Mayne auditioning for Craig Kilborn's job. ESPN used to be about Bob Ley and Roy Firestone and Dick Schaap. Now it's turned into a slightly more sophisticated version of "The Best Damned Sports Show". F ESPN.
While I think ESPN thinks itself as too high and mighty at times you also have to remember that yesterday was probably the slowest sports day of the year. There were no baseball games to report on and they had to fill an hour with something. os
i made it thru the first commercial break before tuning out the ESPYs. did it feel like a LOVE BOAT reunion movie to anyone else? (vivica a. fox AND shannon elizabeth were available? seriously? shocking...)
I love ESPN but I see what you are saying...but for the most part, all sports reporting shows. pre game shows,post game shows, etc are all like that. I dont know if your cable system gets it but give ESPN News a try. Its more to the point since the segments are 30 min long. They repaet the same segments for like 3-5 hours or so and then do another one ....although they do update games live in each segment whether it is repeated or not. Plus, the ticker at the bottom is pretty cool for fantasy baseball etc.
That's a good point, Old School, but I think the three journalists I mentioned in my post would have had different ideas on how to fill that time.
I second your emotion. Also, ESPY related last night, they turned all of their nighttime programming on ESPN Radio into an ESPY hybrid broadcast. Granted ESPN Radio, takes practically no phone calls anyway, but with people still fuming about the All Star Game and then Richard Justice's Chronicle story breaking at about Midnight. There was <b>real</b> sports news happening last night. Granted, I like Bob Valvano's Late GameNight show he usually does (ESPN Radio), but him and Shelly Smith last night Backstage at the ESPY'S!?!?!? I turned my radio off. I wish FOX would have had their head on straighter when they tried to make a go at ESPN, maybe they would have really dented them. Rob
When the first thing you think of when ESPN comes on is "Back, back, back,..." and "BOO-YAH", the channel has ceased being relevant to a serious sports fan. My 8 and 9 year old kids love it, btw. Nuff said.
The transformation sorta reminds me of what happened to MTV since the mid/late 80's and early 90's. BTW, Dan Patrick's radio show is bad...he is much better when he's doing SportsCenter.
you realize the reason "journalist" roy firestone is no longer on espn much anymore is because he's pursuing what has to be the funniest-but-for-ALL-the-wrong-reasons stand-up comedy career ever, right? yep, he officially became only the 9,465th comedian to incorporate a sammy davis, jr. impersonation into his act. astonishing. i wish i was making this up, but, sadly, i'm not. if you haven't seen his "multimedia review," you owe it to yuorself to do so (plan to be in branson anytime soon?). i swear to god, comedy gold. http://www.barberusa.com/comedy/firestone_roy.html
ESPN is not going to do a big long story on something that broke in a newspaper...I don't think they had enough time to get reaction from the Selig and whomever, imo. Again, I hate defending ESPN but I think they have a legit excuse. I guess they could have lead with LA Summer League highlights. os
hmmm.... ESPN.com news services NEW YORK -- As baseball prepared to resume labor negotiations following an All-Star break dominated by talk of strike, steroids and stalemate, commissioner Bud Selig claimed a team may not be able to make payroll Monday. Selig made the comment during an interview Wednesday in Milwaukee with the Houston Chronicle and other papers, saying during the session that a second team had so much debt that it might not finish the season. The Chicago Tribune, citing an unnamed highly placed Major League Baseball source, reported Thursday that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are one of two teams experiencing severe cash-flow problems so severe it may not be able to finish 2002 season. According to the Tribune, it is the other team, which the source did not identify, that is trying to solve an immediate crisis. That team could bounce paychecks to players on Monday, according to the source. Selig did not identify the teams he was referring to, and there was no way to corroborate his claims. The Houston Chronicle reported in Thursday's editions that Selig might have arranged to keep the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays alive financially this past winter, according to its industry sources. The commissioner didn't name which teams are in financial trouble, but said one of them "will surprise you," according to the paper.
No, apparently there was a handful of journalists that were in the meeting...he probably just wrote his faster. He said that if you listed 5 teams, it wouldn't be on that list, but you still wouldn't be surprised. I still think it's Arizona. When we trade for Schilling tomorrow, that'll just confirm it.
man, after reading what role justice played in this... your thought has a lot of merit.... although, thinking about it... payroll has remained relatively steady of late, and the 'stros just struck a major deal with minute maid, right?
And you know what he did? He LEFT ESPN to pursue that, thus it doesn't hurt our enjoyment of ESPN. Meanwhile there are other ESPN anchors pursuing a stand-up comedy career, unfortunately they're doing it on ESPN!
I used to wake up and go to sleep with ESPN on, but I cant stand it anymore. The analogy of it becoming a glorified "Best damn Sports Show" is right on the money. If I hear Stuart Scott use the phrase "Cool as the other side of the pillow" one more time I am going to puke
