Where have you gone, ESPN
Mark Packer, a syndicated talk show host, calls ESPN “H-Y-P-E.”
Steve Czaban, a national radio personality on Fox Sports Radio, refers to it as “the four-letter.”
It’s usually good for a laugh, lamenting the fact that ESPN has become more concerned with being edgy than showing sports.
Kind of like the way that MTV used to play music videos before becoming a 24-hour-a-day reality show network.
What am I talking about?
Yesterday, on the most American of holidays, there were four baseball games that started at noon or 1 p.m.
WGN had the Cubs and Nationals, hardly a marquee matchup. What did ESPN, the so-called “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” have to offer?
A hot dog eating contest, followed by a repeat showing of the spelling bee, followed by four — I said four — hours of talk shows and then a SportsCenter.
Finally, at 7 p.m., ESPN, which will pay $273.5 million for the rights to MLB games in 2007, decided it might be cool to show us the Tigers and Indians.
Let’s back up a minute.
I know that there’s some sort of fascination with the whole hot dog eating thing, but hearing some idiot providing commentary proclaim that Joey Chestnut eating a world-record 66 hot dogs is “the greatest moment in the history of American sports” was almost as gross as Takeru Kobayashi’s “reversal” somewhere around hot dog No. 63.
Don’t know what a reversal is? Think it over...
If watching it live wasn’t bad enough, “NFL Live” showed highlights and added analysis during the 4-4:30 p.m. program.
I’d love to hear how those two things go together.
And they had it again on “Rome is Burning,” “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption.”
Give Michael Smith credit for bashing the fact that the network paying him to sit in for Jim Rome had it on the air instead of “some real sports.”
Amen, Mike.
Is there a more tragic commentary that some people derive patriotic pride from an American guy beating a Japanese guy in an eating contest?
America is great because we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave, not because we know how to eat on the Fourth of July.
As for the spelling bee, I’d complain about it, but it has two things going for it that elevate it above criticism — they’re kids and, ratings-wise, it outdrew the NBA Finals.
Still, not having an endless supply of the national pastime on the so-called premier sports channel on the 4th was just plain wrong.
It almost made me want to have a reversal.
Contact the writer at rcapps@hendersondispatch.com.
Steve Czaban, a national radio personality on Fox Sports Radio, refers to it as “the four-letter.”
It’s usually good for a laugh, lamenting the fact that ESPN has become more concerned with being edgy than showing sports.
Kind of like the way that MTV used to play music videos before becoming a 24-hour-a-day reality show network.
What am I talking about?
Yesterday, on the most American of holidays, there were four baseball games that started at noon or 1 p.m.
WGN had the Cubs and Nationals, hardly a marquee matchup. What did ESPN, the so-called “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” have to offer?
A hot dog eating contest, followed by a repeat showing of the spelling bee, followed by four — I said four — hours of talk shows and then a SportsCenter.
Finally, at 7 p.m., ESPN, which will pay $273.5 million for the rights to MLB games in 2007, decided it might be cool to show us the Tigers and Indians.
Let’s back up a minute.
I know that there’s some sort of fascination with the whole hot dog eating thing, but hearing some idiot providing commentary proclaim that Joey Chestnut eating a world-record 66 hot dogs is “the greatest moment in the history of American sports” was almost as gross as Takeru Kobayashi’s “reversal” somewhere around hot dog No. 63.
Don’t know what a reversal is? Think it over...
If watching it live wasn’t bad enough, “NFL Live” showed highlights and added analysis during the 4-4:30 p.m. program.
I’d love to hear how those two things go together.
And they had it again on “Rome is Burning,” “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption.”
Give Michael Smith credit for bashing the fact that the network paying him to sit in for Jim Rome had it on the air instead of “some real sports.”
Amen, Mike.
Is there a more tragic commentary that some people derive patriotic pride from an American guy beating a Japanese guy in an eating contest?
America is great because we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave, not because we know how to eat on the Fourth of July.
As for the spelling bee, I’d complain about it, but it has two things going for it that elevate it above criticism — they’re kids and, ratings-wise, it outdrew the NBA Finals.
Still, not having an endless supply of the national pastime on the so-called premier sports channel on the 4th was just plain wrong.
It almost made me want to have a reversal.
Contact the writer at rcapps@hendersondispatch.com.
posted by Randy Capps at 3:38 PM
2 Comments:
Well said. I think many sports fans had the same questions on the 4th. I'm pretty sure "H-Y-P-E" would never admit it (or maybe they would), but it's all about going after the niche market now. They know they've got the dedicated MLB, NFL, etc. fan locked in for life. They may be ticking off folks that like to watch "real" sports by showing eating and smart kids, but your - and my - surfing will still likely start and end with channel 39 (or whatever it is in your area). Essentially, ESPN is in a position where it has very little to lose by showing professional gluttony.
Signed,
Spelling Bee Champion
Lattimore Elementary, 1991
Great post. No day baseball on the 4th is absolutely ridiculous. Leagues that are struggling (in terms of TV ratings), such as the NBA and MLB, should keep this in mind the next time they sit at the bargaining table w/ the networks...
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