HEY, TAKE A LOOK AT ESPN.COM Do it, right now.
It's been less than 24 hours since the Giants won the pennant and there's NOT a thing about SF's Game 5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. They're going to the effing World Series! And ESPN doesn't have a thing, you have to go to their baseball page to get some information.
I find this both amusing and sad. I know Major League Baseball isn't the sports nirvana it once was and that both basketball, pro football and college football especially kicks baseball's butt this time of the year but we're talking about the pennant -wait, The PENNANT!
I'm surprised.
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Many hardcore baseball fans are people with time on their hands, retired folks who have the time to follow their team's every game, and there are a lot of games. Sure their are young fans too, just like other sports, but I think the older demographic makes it less appealing to ESPN, plus MLB has their own network which can pretty much lock up availability of games for broadcast. It's simply that ESPN doesn't want to do much that would drive audience away from watching ESPN. They're just into promoting mostly what they offer themselves, that's the way the world works.
ReplyDeleteThat pretty much sums it up. Fox has all of the WS games this year. If ESPN had them you would be seeing much more about it on their shows.
DeleteI can't wait for ala carte cable. 55% of your cable bill is paying for Espn rights....a channel I never watch. Take away all of those customers and all of that money and so much will change.
DeleteUmm we are half these retired folks age and we are hardcore baseball fans. Went to 34 A's games this season. Oh and the 11 year old knows more about baseball than 90% of the pathetic bandwagon giant's fans who can't name 3 players!
DeleteBy the way suck it, the house was long paid off!
Well they have time to cover the Jeter farewell. He's an ok player, but Craig Biggio was a better player and person and he didn't get the media giving him a year-long BJ during his farewell season.
DeleteWell apparently KNBR 1050 doesn't care about anything, as they were off the air for at least an hour this morning. I was listening to the John Feinstein show on 1050 and then at about 7:30 they were gone. Maybe it was the power of Krukow on 680 and the transmitter couldn't handle it. But I switched over to 1050 around 8:30 and they were still off. Any info to share?
ReplyDeleteIt was the lead story...ummm...all of five minutes.
ReplyDeleteUnless it's the Red Sox, Yanks or LeBron, ESPN--as well as other sports media--have little interest. And by now, it's probably obvious to the Giants organization that the team could win 3 more pennants and never receive the universal respect it very much deserves.
This sort of thing is precisely why I never bother with the national sports media. If it doesn't involve a team in the Eastern time zone they don't give a shit.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Niners' Super Bowl wins ( I think it was the 2nd ), went wholly unmentioned on The Today Show, on Monday. It stunned me. What national program, with a considerable news component, wouldn't report the outcome of the Super Bowl??? Moreover, that was during the time that the show was co-hosted by Bryant Gumbel ... whose on-air focus was mainly sports !
ReplyDeleteGO GIANTS !!
I'm NOT SURPRISED AT ALL. This has been happening for the past 4 years especially on ESPN. Both ESPN & even MLB Network give more coverage on the A's than the Giants. MLB Network has to cover the Giants now since they're in the WS.
ReplyDeleteThe A's are inherently a more likable team with better players. They have the best record in baseball over the last 3 years. The Giants just get hot at the right time which proves that the MLB playoffs these days are nothing more than what over-rated Billy Beane said they were "A Crap Shoot"
DeleteJust because Giants fans are hoodwinked into buying panda hats and other over-priced junk, they think the team is a factor in the national discussion. Few people outside of the 415 and the "sellout" crowds at the yard care about that team. The bandwagon may be the biggest in the League but that ain't headline worthy.
-A Mariners fan
9:16,
DeleteBest record in the regular season doesn't mean diddly squat. We NHL Sharks fans know that, as should you (given that big ALCS ouch the M's suffered in 2001). The primary objective is to win championships, period.
Jew fro is going to make millions and millions more off overpriced food and beer, animal hats and bandwagon fans.
ReplyDelete12:35 As obnoxious as your nickname is, I absolutely agree. There is no one phonier than LB. And he'll make a grip.
DeleteIt's Football Season! Who CARES about baseball??
ReplyDeleteEspecially if it's West Coast...and especially from the Liberal Bay Area!
I'm a former San Francicso resident now living in Dallas...out of the TV news biz but now travel extensively in the south due to my new job...and I can tell you, it's nothing but Football-Football-FOOTBALL here in the South.
And I'm OK with this!
PS--Thanks for the blog, Rich. I just found out about it a few weeks ago. This keeps me in in-the-know about the former biz I left behind...and my former co-workers!
And we in the Liberal Bay Area are OK with your move to Dallas. Don't come back now, 'ya hear!
DeleteI watched this morning and they featured it pretty highly as far as I could tell. As stated above, the Series is a Fox thing and ESPN is all about college and NFL football during this time of year.
ReplyDelete1:25 has a good point. The network that carries the WS will trumpet all pertinent results. However, ESPN will likely have something on to compete with the WS, so they're going to downplay it.
DeleteESPN is for dumb sports fans who just want to be spoon-fed whatever crap their lineup of networks has broadcasting rights to.
ReplyDeleteESPN used to be the worst, but now that mantle is held by Fox Sports One/1/Two/2/Whatever
Given the Regional nature of Baseball, wondering when the 'networks' will come to their senses and program their schedules to tailor toward Regional needs. Net-net, wouldn't it make more sense to have the Giants-Cardinals game start at 7:00 pm PDT and be broadcast on Fox (channel 2) in the Bay Area and St. Louis, but have it on FS1 for the rest of the nation? I'd think the ratings in aggregate could be a lot stronger even with the late start time due to the increase in people in the Bay Area watching. It's possible the Bay Area increase in viewers could offset the national drop off of a late start.
ReplyDeletegreat point 1:37...Fox Sports 1 alienated lots of us by not giving us these games BUT the good thing is that it drove some of us to our local bars or other big screen venues to rub elbows with fellow fans.
DeleteFUC# the East Coasters!
ReplyDeleteOh come on....don't you know that Tom Brady and the Pats beat the hapless Jets last night in a regular season game?
Oh and NBA has it's pre-season games going and Kobe and LeBron said something to a reporter.
It's just the SAN FRAN-friggin-CISCO GIANTS beating the ratings darlings, Dodgers aka The Bubblers, into the World Series.
The hapless raiders almost beat the jets and patriots.
DeleteThere is no column in the standings for almost!
DeleteIt particularly makes no sense for ESPN to ignore the Giants win since ESPN Radio has exclusive national radio rights to MLB postseason games and its nightly program Baseball Tonight airs on the Deuce.
ReplyDeleteGood point
DeleteESPN does not [care] that the SF Giants won the pennant.
ReplyDeleteBoo Hoo.
ESPN woulf rather show highlights of the awful NY Jets almost upsetting New England in a meaningless Thursday night game than talk about the Giants winning the pennant. I'm not at all surprised!
ReplyDeleteRich, did you hear the Adam Meyer segment today with Rod Brooks? I know in the past, Giggles and the stuttering wonder would gush and kiss this guy's ass to no end, but today Rod was completely rude and curt, any inside info on this? Also, the segment got abtuptly cut in med sentence
ReplyDeleteI heard it and I was amazed. At first I thought Brooks was kidding around, but he was seriously raking that guy over the coals. You could tell that Meyer was surprised by the treatment, because after every Brooks sentence there would be a pause, then Meyer would try to move on, but Brooks would let him have it again. It was great! The fact that KNBR lets a gambling tout on the air is shameful. If Meyer pays for those spots he is probably pissed.
DeleteI can't stand Brooks but hate Fat Fitz even more...however I gotta say my respect grew for Brooks after he hammered that scamdicapper Adam Meyer...Lee Hammer should know better than to allow on air talent to be associated with people attempting to rip off their listeners.
DeleteIt's old news already and the World Series is 4 days off. Nobody cares about SF or KC. They'll give it lip service as the series progresses but they want major market, young eyeballs for ratings.
ReplyDeleteIs ESPN headquartered in New York? If so, that can explain it. After all, as far as the East Coast media moguls are concerned, there's no news west of the Hudson River.
ReplyDeleteTo add insult to injury, their current cover story on the 49ers' pass defense refers to them as "San Fran."
ReplyDeleteUuugghh.
Connecticut.
ReplyDeleteESPN execs in NYC. ESPN studio bristol.
ReplyDeleteSF Giants on cover of App all day.
Football king. ESPN rules football.
ESPN is mainly interested in sports it is broadcasting. It makes no sense for them to promote a World Series they won't be showing. Same deal with the Stanley Cup. Their website is about getting people to watch ESPN. In case you missed it, the network is HEAVILY invested in the college football playoff.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the problem is the way MLB hides its playoffs on low visibility cable channels. Out of sight, out of mind. Baseball ratings have been dropping for years because of this.
ReplyDeleteUnless SF or Oakland are in the playoffs, I wouldn't be paying attention to baseball's postseason either.
The rest of the nation couldn't give a shit less about Mexifornia unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, why should they? This state has become a laughing stock.
Deleteanon at 4:25......no need to call it Mexifornia.....your ignorance is showing....
DeleteThe name California originates from the Spanish conquistadors, taken from "Las Serges de Esplandian," a Spanish romance written about 1510 which describes an imaginary island; an earthly paradise
@3:53
DeleteDon't expect a wingnut who responds to his own posts to comprehend this.
Ahhh, the "tolerant" left, on display at 8:42.
DeleteWho's the friggin idiot who decided to start the WS on Tuesday? Out of sight, out of mind. Game should Saturday. By next week this will be old news
ReplyDeleteMLB has Tuesday and Wednesday to themselves plus championship games could end up being Saturday or Sunday nights. If it goes past that they have Tuesday and Wednesday to themselves again.
DeleteI think it's pretty good.
No one, except for the few hardcore baseball fans who really follow all of this stuff will pay the slightest attention to the Giants/Royals World Series. I imagine MLB officials are really upset that it's not the Dodgers and Baltimore, or Washington and Detroit, because those markets have more fans. Anyone east of the Mississippi will play little attention. The lowest TV ratings ever for a World Series game in recent years happened for game four of the 2012 fall classic, when the Giants finished off the Tigers in Detroit with final of a four game sweep,. Too bad, because these two teams are the hottest in baseball, there are a lot of good sidebar type stories, and the Royals/Giants should provide the fans with some great drama. But ESPN and almost everyone who leaves back east are more interested in week 7 of the NFL. Americans prefer the violent sport of football, an activity more attuned to a rapidly growing attention-deficit oriented society, than the pastoral game of baseball, which has been around forever and requires a little more patience to watch.
ReplyDeleteThis is old news. ESPN quit covering baseball as a major sport years ago. It's all football and basketball with an east coast bias. ESPN radio is even worse. I like football, but, in baseball season they still are talking football.
ReplyDeleteGo to the MLB network. Great baseball coverage.
Go to MLB they do a great job covering baseball.
Who Cares? I sure don't.
ReplyDeleteLet the WS play, play ball!
A lot to do about nothing. ala RL
If you can escape the reach of Larry Baer's KNBR, you quickly learn that the world doesn't revolve around Panda Hats, Champion's Blood, Pagan's Hair or Particles. Follow me to freedom!
ReplyDeleteESPN would rather have Mel Kiper and his phony hyper-intensive behsvior, breaking down some meaningless mid-season college or NFL football game, than talking about the most exciting time in our National Pastime. Typical for a TV network in this day and age to sell out to the NFL fans, as if baseball fans don't exist. I guess it reflects what America is all about these days; coveting a violent and brutal sport that cripples people both mentally and physically while enriching fat cat owners and NFL execs. Those guys could give a rat's ass about the players, who are disposable as potato chips. You think the fans really care either? Most of them are drunk or frustrated and want to release some anger and tension that built up over the course of a week from dead end and disappearing jobs and a tightening economy. Football is a mere sideshow, a distraction and the fans make a big deal about their home teams, but how many of the players stick around for more than a few years, and how many of them are even from that area they represent? The NFL needs to clean up its house and work better with its players, as many are becoming thugs and worse. But as long as these clueless fans tune out the rest of the world by watching the games on Sunday, league and TV execs will stay happy as the money continues to roll in. Isn't that unfortunately what America and American pro sports is all about these days anyway?
ReplyDeleteESPN eastern sports programming network
ReplyDeleteThey only give a shit about the Yankees and Red Sox.
Football they only give a shit about the Patriots!
Fuck the Giants.
Go KC
Let's get real. Baseball like tennis in the USA is on a downward spiral in popularity. This is not an east coast vs west coast situation. It's a nobody gives a sh*t situation. The other day at a local park I counted 60 kids playing soccer meanwhile the baseball diamond and the tennis courts remained empty. It doesn't help that the morons put the games on FS1. What the hell!!??
ReplyDeleteESPN2 showed "The Day the Series Stopped", a "30 for 30" documentary about the '89 series, at least as an olive branch I suppose.
ReplyDeleteESPN = Eastern Seaboard Programming Network..
ReplyDeleteHaving lived on the East Coast for a few years, the bias is sickening. There's a reason why I always root for an all West Coast playoff and championship whenever possible. I don't like the LA teams, but still when it comes down to it there's a real perception about the West Coast. I always cheer for any team in the Pacific Time Zone to go to New York, Philadelphia, Washington or Boston and to kick the daylights out of the home team.
ReplyDeleteThe East Coast folks think their teams are the greatest in the universe. They think those of us on the West Coast are fair-weather fans and that our teams are soft and finesse. We have no loyalty and don't really follow sports. Also since our night games tend to start at 10PM their time, they only read about what happens. With football there isn't that problem, but they still perceive all fans "out here" as bandwagoners whose teams are weak pushovers.
Granted if one of the LA teams does something they'll get coverage but the rest of the teams might as well not exist. I love sticking it to the East Coast. It's too bad the Angels, Dodgers, and A's screwed up. An all West Coast LCS would have made MLB crap a brick. So hate the Seahawks, Raiders, 49ers, Chargers all you want. But in the end having them playing for a championship is giving the East Coast and ESPN a big middle finger.
"ESPN doesn't give shit that SF Giants won the Pennant"
ReplyDeleteA lot of people don't. Also, the Giants don't resonate on a national level. Their previous 2 World Series victories have been the lowest rated (TV) in history.
I give a shit about the Giants, but couldn't care less about who else does.
ReplyDeleteMe too. Who cares if 49er or Raider or east coast fans aren't interested in the Giants. I could care less. They're missing something special and that's their loss. Glad they're not paying attention because they'd just probably add to the annoying number of bandwagon jumping fans who wear those ridiculous Panda hats or call themselves: "Gamer Babes!' What a joke. A's fans may be a little zany, but at least they're not frontrunners.
ReplyDeleteA's fans not front runners? Which team's attendance goes way up (for them) when the team is hot?
DeleteYeah buddy, nice try or do you just whitewash the Candlestick years?
Deleteyes biggio was better which is why he had more at bats, fewer hits, fewer rbis, lower batting average, slugging, obp and ended up at an easier position to play.
ReplyDelete#nailedit
More on FOX fucks up sports: As Papa was calling the Card's 4th down play on radio FM?, On TV it was still FIRST DOWN!. An incredible delay of how many minutes?
ReplyDeleteIts like FOX searches for ways to disrespect the bay area..liberals no doubt the target.