They are having the ESPN talking heads pick their favorite sports team in history and compare them to a baseball team today. examples, 70's Cowboys and Yankees today, 80's Celtics and Cardinals today, etc, etc.
They are having the ESPN talking heads pick their favorite sports team in history and compare them to a baseball team today. examples, 70's Cowboys and Yankees today, 80's Celtics and Cardinals today, etc, etc.
A not too exaggerated example of how this segment went:
"Larry Bird was the best player on the Celtics, and well, Pujols is the best player on Cardinals. There's a match right there. And yeah, I think there was some other guy on the Celtics who used to dive a lot for loose balls and well, Jim Edmonds dives a lot too. That's another match."
It's like stool softener.Originally Posted by The Baumer
“And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith
The two worst decisions ESPN has made in it's history, IMO, were 1.) To eschew the "recap show" format and move to a more hybrid "information/entertainment" format for most of it's shows. There's a place for that, to be sure, but when you want to see highlights, get scores, player stats, and key plays it's absolutely infuriating to have to wade through crap and filler material. Outside of "ESPNews," which just offers glimpses of what's going on, you'll be hard pressed to watch any ESPN show and see more than 2 consecutive segments of highlights.
Secondly, and related tangentially, was the mandate (that I presume went out following the enormous success of Pardon the Interruption's format) that the talking heads on these shows all get opinionated, disagree with one another, and fight on the set over different points. Suddenly every jock that can string a sentence together is trying to be contrversial and every "analyst" has stopped doing analysis and inserted bold generalizations about things instead.
If you're lookng to be informed about sports, ESPN is by far the LAST place to go. They cater to the absolute lowest common denominator of sports fans.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Nicely said. ESPN is where you go for entertainment, but certainly not enlightenment.
I should say, however, that I've noticed the one person keeping ESPN afloat in my eyes for the past year or so is ex-MTV guy Chris Connelly. His weekly human interest stories are fantastic. I didn't realize how great of a journalist he was while he was at MTV. I'm happy he's doing what he's doing now. I always admire people who can do one thing better than everybody else.
The trick is to find your niche, excel like no other...and leave it at that. That means you Kornheiser. Stick to radio. You're the best. Sitcoms and Monday Night Football will only drag you down.
I don't know. There's very little sports actually discussed on Fox' Best Damn Sports Show. I think that takes the prize especially with folks like Dibble on there
The only problem with his human interest stories is that his producer needs to find different background music. While this may seem to nit pick, recycling the music leads me to believe that it may be a recycled story, as usually is the case with the Sunday Morning Sportscenter since they have an ungodly amount of time to fill/kill. The story about the junior girl golfer and her mother this week, the story about the kid that wanted to call a play in the Notre Dame game and died from IIRC cancer, even the story about the autistic kid from NY all had the same damn music in the background and it's like a Pavlovian response with me where I hear that same background music and I want to change the channel.
While ESPN isn't perfect in the content it offers, does anyone know of a better solution/alternative? I know I don't. Feel free to show me the light if something better out there exists.
The biggest problem is the "need" to make things flashy or different on these shows, and quite often not for the better. The best segments are often the ones that recap the best plays (Touch em All, Web Gems, etc). However, there's an unfortunate giant ego problem with more than a few producers here, so everyone wants to have something they can say they contributed to the show. It's the unfortunate part of becoming as huge as it has.
One of the most amusing ESPN stats I can recall of recent memory was when Sportscenter went on the air, HD ready in a new studio two years ago. They asked a sample of focus groups what they thought about the new look and new studio, and more than 70% of those viewers didn't even notice. These shows will always be about the highlights, with the analysis an added plus.
At least the Reds got some analysis time tonight when Krukker did about 45 seconds about Freel and Lopez getting on base and being aggressive on the basepaths for the 10 PM BBTN. Let's hope they keep kickin tail and force them to do it some more!
How long have you worked at ESPN?
I turn the volume off now during Stuart Scott's and the other guys take on the games of the day.Too many played out lines and not enough commentary on the games.These nuts need to go to Hollywood if they wanna be actors.
Couldn't agree more.
Especially the nerdy dude in glasses who attempts to speak Ebonics.
About 3 years. It's pretty remarkable how much it's changed in that short amount of time; I can only imagine what the people who have been here since the beginning have gone through.
Do you know John Marvel? Used to be one of the Vice-presidents at ESPN, teaches at UF now. One of the advantages of having a former Vice-pres of ESPN teaching at your school is the guest speakers he brings in, last month he brought Andy Katz in to talk. Seemed like a great guy, and not at all interested in the entertainment side of ESPN. He said the only thing he really enjoys on ESPN these days is Outside the Lines.
ESPN News is now what ESPN used to be. The same way MTV-2 plays all the music videos. Personally, I think both channels reached the perfect equilibrium of content in the early-mid 90's and have gone downhill since.
Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
Wasn't that fake GM thing pretty much the gold standard? That was embarrassing.
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