Tag Archives: ESPN

Taking a Break from NY Sports News

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It’s time to take a break from watching, listening, or reading any news related to New York Sports, until at least a few days after the Knicks are eliminated from the playoffs. This includes ESPN, New York Post, New York Newsday, and New York Daily News (although I never read this newspaper anyway). This also include Colin Cowherd and Doug Gotlieb, who predominately do sports radio, but does not include removing them from my Twitter feed, at least not yet. I’d also like to give up on TNT broadcasts of Knicks games, but can’t fathom watching a game without sound. I’m going to limit my news intake to the following sources: CNN and CNET (and other tech sites).

Why such a harsh stance, you ask?

Well, it’s a revelation I just came to earlier today. It’s taking an opinion I had regarding computers to the sports media world. I sort of get it now… I think.

In the past I’ve attempted to explain to friends why Apple computers are more secure than Windows computers. A lot of it has nothing to do with the operating system itself. It really just comes down to simple numbers. To do the most damage go after computers with the largest install base, Windows. Taking this same argument to the sports media world has the same affect. To infuriate the most fans go after teams with the largest fan base, predominately New York area teams.

A lot of this frustration culminated last night while watching the TNT broadcast of the Knicks game. This whole concept of having former players as analysts has to stop, because they’re really no good at it and bring very little to the table. Here’s a few snippets from last night:

I can not root for that team! – Kenny Smith speaking of the Knicks.

I must have missed the part where analysts started rooting for or against specific teams. It’s an embarrassment to your field when you make these types of statements. Even worse, he said multiple times.

“That was a vet (veteran) move” – one of the in-game announcers.

When Garnet injures a player (Carmelo) by pulling / holding his arm, that does not qualify as a veteran move. That, along with the countless moving picks, just goes to show the Celtics can’t actually keep up with he Knicks without stretching the rules of the game and getting a little help from the men with whistles. Really, the only way the Celtics keep up with the Knicks is by yucking up the game of basketball. It’s sad really. The same can be said about the Bulls without Derek Rose.

Those analyst comments don’t even take into account Charles Barkley, who might be the least interesting man in the world. His analysis is much like his golf swing. If you haven’t seen his golf swing, search for it on YouTube. Although, I have this idea he’s a closet Knicks fanatic, because he’s always “kicking them in the shins” like a 7-year old.

I bet there are a lot of people that are a glutton for punishment and, until today, I was one of those people. But it’s time to take a step back from the madness… at least for a little while.

ESPN 30 for 30 – Once Brothers

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The past few years I’ve given ESPN a lot of crap for the things they do, one of which is constantly showing poker on the flagship channel. But I don’t want to always point out the negatives, so here’s one thing I am impressed with… ESPN 30 for 30, which is a documentary series featuring thirty films based on sports from 1979 to 2009.

About a week ago I watched the episode “Four Days in October” which tells the story of the Boston Red Sox coming back to beat the Yankees after being in a 3 games to none hole in the 2004 American League Championship series. I’m sure baseball, and specifically Red Sox fans, enjoyed the episode. Yankees fans… probably not so much.

Tonight I watched the episode “Once Brothers” which tells the story of Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac. Those of you that are either basketball fans or fans of the Los Angeles Lakers probably recognize Vlade Divac. On the other hand, Drazen Petrovic isn’t as recognizable, mostly because he died in a car crash in his late 20′s, just as he was starting to make his mark on the NBA in the early 90′s. I remember trying to mimic his jump shot playing high school basketball and attempting to go by the same moniker, Petro. Of course, I could mimic his shot all I wanted, that didn’t mean the ball was going to go in. It was an interesting episode, which brought up the friendship between the two players in Yugoslavia and the end of their friendship as a result of the civil war in Yugoslavia. Check it out the next time it’s on TV. The episode is scheduled to show again on Halloween at 9 PM, in the event you have no other plans that night… or you can just set it to record on the DVR.

ESPN Gets It Right

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There have been times in the past where I’ve called out ESPN for the stupid things they do, like showing a bit too much poker and putting the Westminster Dog Show as one of their top stories on ESPN.com.  At one point way back when I also called them out for having too many links to ESPN INsider stories, but not actually saying so as part of the link.  However, with all that said, I have to give them credit where credit is due.  They will be showing each and every game of the World Cup live on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC.  Impressive how they can do this with the World Cup in South Africa, a mere 9 hours ahead of PDT, yet somehow NBC couldn’t figure out how to show the Olympics live on the west coast with all their networks… and the Olympics were ON the west coast.  Yeah, I know, I’m a bitter man.  I can’t possible give credit to ESPN with without taking someone else down, it’s just how it works.  :-)

I'm wondering if Ian O'Conner at ESPN Ne…

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I’m wondering if Ian O’Conner at ESPN New York is going to write a similar, but opposite, article as this one written earlier this month – Mets humiliated by Philly — again – after the Mets humiliated the Phillies during the past 3 games. Way to go Philly, you scored ZERO runs in a three game series. It’s history making. You should be proud. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

That last part was for you TW. Enjoy.

Two months after Newsday.com decided to …

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Two months after Newsday.com decided to go to a pay model I’ve finally removed links to their site from the sports news pages. I stopped reading ESPN.com many years ago when all the good articles required me to sign-in / pay, Newsday.com is now in the same boat. I’ve also deactivated the IntenseDebate plugin. The concept behind ID is solid, but it’s a bit buggy for my taste. Also, the amount of spam on my site greatly decreased once it was deactivated.

Slow Week

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Things have been going a bit slow this week. I’m looking forward to things picking up this Labor Day weekend and early next week. From what I understand, one of my buddies from Denver will be in the area this weekend, so we’ll probably get together for a few drinks. From a media perspective, there hasn’t been a whole lot that has gotten me riled up. Earlier this week ESPN made public news of a 9 year old boy that was told he can’t pitch anymore because… get this, he’s too good! Check out the article here. One commenter on the site got me to laugh based on how true the comment is:

It’s the antithesis to excellence, promoting mediocrity, everybody gets a feel-good trophy regardless of whether they suck or not.

I just find the whole concept sad. So what if your boy isn’t good enough, we’ll make him look like a superstar by removing the better players. This way, when he grows up, he won’t understand the concept of people being better than him at certain things. And, instead of letting this one kid be great, let’s make sure he doesn’t do things he’s good at. How are kids supposed to figure out what they’re good at and truly enjoy if we trick them into thinking they’re better than they really are? What’s so wrong with not being good at something?

Although not as bad, I’m almost positive I heard Rick Sutcliff comment on TV that he could hear the boo birds at Yankee stadium from the US Open site in Flushing. Does he realize how far it is from the Bronx to Flushing in Queens? Or, does he think anyone geographically challenged would believe him? Or, maybe he was kidding and I’m taking life a little too seriously. Yeah, that’s probably it. As punishment, I’m going to the bar for a few drinks. :-)

SI and WDS

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About a year and a half ago I wrote a post about ESPN and their attempt to be the sports version of MTV (here). That is, base their channel on sports and then switch to producing TV shows based on sports. Case in point, last year they produced a mini-series called “The Bronx is Burning.” Actually, the show wasn’t half bad, it just should have been on a different channel. This isn’t exactly the reason for this post. Actually, it’s a bit off topic.

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What did strike me today was a bit of information on si.com. Check out the Top Stories from SI.com today.  Beagle among favorites at 132nd Westminster?! You’ve got to be kidding me! The dog show is one of the top stories in sports today! I know the period between the Super Bowl and the start of Spring Training is slow, but really, that’s just sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. If I had a backyard and wasn’t so lazy, I’d probably get a dog of my own. I don’t even mind the show being on TV, as long as it stays with a non-sports channel like USA. But Sports Illustrated, you can do better than that. Don’t worry though, you’re not even close to becoming the next ESPN or MTV.