Sports Media Analysis Thread

[Guest Pizza Hut's Game Face]

Let's put an end to "reasons why ESPN sucks," and use this thread for discussing all sports media, whether in print, radio, television, or Internet, and not just ESPN, because after all, there is more out there. Discussing the Booyahs should still be fair game, because they are what they are, but the hope is that it'll be better discussion than "Around the Horn made me butthurt today" or something, where everything is framed within "I hate ESPN" without offering much more. I think that's why Al hates it. Maybe Al can better explain his gripe.

 

Anyway, if the new Booyah-free Dan Patrick show hasn't started yet, it kicks off in Chicago on Monday night, where it'll be airing tape-delayed on 670 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., though its content will be referenced during live programming that day. ("You do all the hard work, and then we'll make penis jokes for four hours.") I'll check it out once or twice, maybe, but I heard a lot of Patrick (and even more of his fill-ins) this summer, and I'm not particularly enamored with his pregnant pauses and dull rambling, not to mention Not Edward Murrow sitting in. (I'm pretty sure he's not part of this production, though.) My hope is that freeing himself from the shackles of the Bristol marketing machine will make him a little more compelling, but I think what we hear is what we get, pretty much: longform interviews, dead air, and dull musings about Wilco and the Arcade Fire every now and then. Also,

 

The Deutsch Bank championship.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Around the Horn made me butthurt today.

[JaMarcus Russell's #1 Caucasian Fan 0]

Let's put an end to "reasons why ESPN sucks," and use this thread for discussing all sports media, whether in print, radio, television, or Internet, and not just ESPN, because after all, there is more out there. Discussing the Booyahs should still be fair game, because they are what they are, but the hope is that it'll be better discussion than "Around the Horn made me butthurt today" or something, where everything is framed within "I hate ESPN" without offering much more. I think that's why Al hates it. Maybe Al can better explain his gripe.

 

Anyway, if the new Booyah-free Dan Patrick show hasn't started yet, it kicks off in Chicago on Monday night, where it'll be airing tape-delayed on 670 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., though its content will be referenced during live programming that day. ("You do all the hard work, and then we'll make penis jokes for four hours.") I'll check it out once or twice, maybe, but I heard a lot of Patrick (and even more of his fill-ins) this summer, and I'm not particularly enamored with his pregnant pauses and dull rambling, not to mention Not Edward Murrow sitting in. (I'm pretty sure he's not part of this production, though.) My hope is that freeing himself from the shackles of the Bristol marketing machine will make him a little more compelling, but I think what we hear is what we get, pretty much: longform interviews, dead air, and dull musings about Wilco and the Arcade Fire every now and then. Also,

 

The Deutsch Bank championship.

 

The "new" Dan Patrick show has been in the Los Angeles market for about the last month and a half. Its really the same as his ESPN show without the ESPN of course. However his kind of insider info about ESPN make it enough to catch the show once in a while. I listen to him in my commute really only because our ESPN station runs Colin Cowherd in the morning.

 

Speaking of Cowherd and his ilk, to me, is one of the reasons I'm starting to hate all of the Sports Media. Cowherd, like many other sports "journalists" are loud, contary for sake of being contary, and aren't really knowlegable about anything. I mean more than half of sports journalists haven't played any type of pro or college sport. Its not just just Cowherd either. Jim Rome, Bill Simmons and others are all guilty of being more style than substance. I mean, all I ask is for a sports journalist that isnt vapid and inane. Is that too much to ask. I guess we are seeing the ESPN-izing of sports journalism. Shame too, because there was a time in this country where we got some compelling stuff from sports journalists.

[MrRant 0]

Cowherd is ok with college football but other than that... not much else.

[Guest Pizza Hut's Game Face]

I mean more than half of sports journalists haven't played any type of pro or college sport.

This is in no way a requirement for a career in sports. Look at baseball's general managers: the only two former players holding GM positions are Billy Beane and Kenny Williams; Beane was a bad player and is now a good GM, Kenny Williams was a bad player and is now a bad GM as well.

[Brett Favre 0]

This is off-topic but maybe we should try getting into being GMs if that's the case. I'd update you guys under Cena's Writer, and they won't know what's going on.

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Cowherd used to be a local sports guy up in Portland, and he was much easier to deal with then. Now that hes national hes too cocky for my tastes, he really gets on my nerves.

 

I love Dan Patrick...

 

 

Even the pregnant...

 

 

Pauses.

 

It was mentioned before, hes been on in the LA market (which I now reside within) for a while, and its more or less the same song and dance. I think LA's got a pretty good sports radio market. I can't listen to music when I'm stuck in traffic, so I get a whole lot of sports radio and NPR in most days.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

I am amazed at the sheer lack of homework done by hosts and station staffs on the radio, especially when they have a staff that can do the legwork for them.

 

Quick example, this summer Orlando Hernandez was starting for the Mets against the Yankees. On 1050 ESPN Radio in New York the host for a quick local show before the game, who I believe just came back to the area from Austrailia, first pondered, then stated it as if it was a fact that it was Hernandez' first apperance ever versus the New York Yankees.

 

Now, it would be one thing a generation or two ago when you had media guides and other press books that might not have what you need readily available, but today all your staff working in the shop needs to do is to log onto baseball-reference.com since they have splits and game logs now. And the guy would have seen that Hernandez faced the Yankees 3 times eariler, twice in 2005 as a White Sox, and even the year before as a Met!

 

What makes it even more incredible are two things, I actually placed a call, I didn't want to go on the air but I told the call screener that Hernandez had faced the Yankees before, and where to find the info and to tell the host, he never did. Then someone called in and described a game Alex Rodriguez had versus Hernandez when ARod was on the Rangers. So now the "fact" was that El Duque had not only never pitched against the Yankees, but only Alex Rodriguez had faced him in the Yankee lineup!

 

Again, lets look at B-R's game log page on Hernandez, and compare the Yankee box score from the game...

Johnny Damon

Derek Jeter

Bobby Abreu

Alex Rodriguez

Jorge Posada

Hideki Matsui

Robinson Cano

Melky Cabrera

Miguel Cairo

 

Bascially everyone who played for the Yankees that night except for pitchers Wang and Meyers had faced Hernandez at some point.

 

Did it take long to get all that info? No, so why couldn't anyone during that 3 hour show just quickly get it and put it out onto the air so that the host could stop repeating the false information?