MLB’s greed is naked — and has a complicit partner
To hell with fans, especially in NYC, the nation’s largest TV market in which fans are mistaken for dollar signs. Source link #MLBs #greed #naked #complicit #partner
equal time
They don’t make ‘em like Howie Rose anymore — and his retirement is a loss for broadcasting sanity
Not that individual tastes should serve as a scientific meter, but for years I’ve received missives from Yankees fans who wished that Howie Rose was theirs. Rose, who will pack it in after this season at age 72 — and after a serious health issue two years ago — had a natural or conditioned sense … Read more
Sports are reaching once-unthinkable levels of insanity
Being a beneficent fellow, I to declare this Benefit of the Doubt Sunday. So let’s say that Adam Silver was blindsided by this; he had no idea that the NBA’s Hawks had declared March 16 a “cultural” salute game to an “iconic” strip joint in Atlanta, replete with a vulgar, N-word chanting rapper and the … Read more
Yankees retiring CC Sabathia’s number shows the sad state of our standard for greatness
If we listen closely, we can hear the grandfather, a lifelong Yankees fan, speaking to his grandson: “Oh, yeah, so many memorable moments. Did I ever tell you that I was in Yankee Stadium the day they retired CC Sabathia’s number? Yeah, what a special moment! “What was his number? Darned if I remember. It … Read more
A new baseball season brings the same old insufferable viewer experience
Farmers Almanac spring forecast: “A deep, dark and foreboding sky lingers in the approaching MLB atmosphere. Fans are advised to be prepared to take cover and shelter in basements or whatever room is closest to the ground to discourage jumping from windows to escape the scene.” Another season of telecasts — free TV, cable TV, … Read more
Tupac Shakur being honored with Orioles bobblehead another example of MLB’s misguidedness
When I pause to consider what the desperate state of Rob Manfred’s MLB would be had it not instituted Gay Pride Games, I shudder at the consequences. Many have been the times when gay friends and loved ones threatened to never spend another dime to attend a big league game and/or cancel their expensive cable … Read more
Sports broadcasting’s parroting problem is bordering on the shameful
OK, time’s up. After 30 or so years, it’s time to end the Idiots’ Picnic, time to go home, time to remove the rehearsed-then-parroted nonsense from sports telecasts. First one that must go is “transfer portal.” That’s a crock. Those are, in fact, mostly NIL price-tagged signings of college athletes without academic credentials. They are … Read more
It’s time to stop the pandering as our sports sink to more ridiculous lows
I’m not calling Troy Aikman a liar. Not entirely. Just because I didn’t believe what he claimed he enjoyed — “loved” — doesn’t mean he was lying; it was more another case of a broadcaster pandering; telling us that he and we should favor acts laying our sports so low as to be unrecognizable. Monday … Read more
ESPN’s Ryan Clark is delusional with race-baiting Sherrone Moore take
Once again, we’re left to remind the double-dealers, race hustlers and the ignorantly wishful that the successful pursuit of equality is a fool’s mission if one chooses inequality as their path. And, outside of The Rev. Al Sharpton’s amen-reliant but diminishing numbers of protesters who remain confident in the come-hither presence of TV news cameras … Read more
The week in sports news is shocking — but only if you ignore the obvious
Do me a favor. The minute you find out where we report to surrender, let me know. Well, it’s only Friday, and already another week of warped wonder. With Pete Alonso off to Baltimore — it’s now LFGO! — Mets fans will still be more than welcomed to bet on Alonso’s No. 20 in Steve … Read more
Crude Craig Carton is back on WFAN — now he can return to being what he really is
With his return to the vast radio wasteland that is WFAN, Craig Carton has been released from a prison for a second time, having left the bright lights of his Fox Sports show from which he faded from view and his ill-gained fame. Now he can again return to being a crude, name-calling, excrement-reliant junk-talker … Read more
Professional morons broadcasting football games keep flaunting useless numbers
I suspect there’s a reason they don’t manufacture brass knuckles for fish, but I just can’t put my finger on it. Source link #Professional #morons #broadcasting #football #games #flaunting #useless #numbers
Sports broadcasts are steadfast in their refusal to just let us enjoy the game
Don’t know if nearly 50 years on this job qualifies me as a sportscasting historian, but I do know this: There has never been a time in my life when televised sports have been worse, more excessively senseless and for no good reason other than negligent or dopey execs who think that we neither want … Read more
MLB would be much better served showcasing fundamentals over worthless self-aggrandizement
Why continue to treat baseball fans — or try to attract new ones — with images of rank public immodesty rather than with genuinely skillful baseball? Source link #MLB #served #showcasing #fundamentals #worthless #selfaggrandizement
Here’s how ESPN rewards its rare dalliance with honest analysis
And here I thought that Bad Bunny was Bill Belichick’s pet name for his, er, girlfriend. It figures that the best things presented by ESPN/ABC are a matter of accident. Thus it stands to reason that its best MLB postseason telecasts have been the Tigers-Guardians games anchored by Sean McDonough, whose calm, knowledgeable and hype-free … Read more
‘60 Minutes’ has history of cozy interviews and self-promotion
Beware of those who publicly declare that their stuff doesn’t stink. Recently, CBS newsman and “60 Minutes” regular Scott Pelley made news and noise when he seized the close of the venerable program to deliver an appeal, threat or whatever, depending on how one heard it, to CBS News parent Paramount, as it was reportedly … Read more
WFAN losing its last voice of sanity with Richard Neer’s exit
There used to be a ballpark … I suppose he lasted years longer than the game plan allowed, a split-T formation vs. an empty backfield world, but there will be no Richard Neer starting tomorrow morning at WFAN. The last reliable stop to enjoy thoughtful, calm, topical and clean adult-oriented sports talk radio — and … Read more
Copycat sports networks are spreading an ugly epidemic
As all sports-attached TV networks are conspicuously working off the same plan to remove the sport from our sports, we wonder: Who came up with the plan? Where was the research and surveys that told network execs that the sports-minded public prefers the worst images from games, the worst acts and actors in their sports, … Read more
MLB’s arrogant ‘gift’ to fans is costly in more ways than one
Having missed two columns to my annual formaldehyde blood spins, let’s not waste time writing the pithy. Catch-up formation on “Hut.” (Hmm, wonder where “hut” came from.) Hut! It’s all a con continued: When MLB introduced interleague play, thus further homogenizing the two leagues, “Bottom Line” Bud Selig proudly boasted that “it’s a gift to … Read more
Perennially underused March Madness voice offers rare example of quality broadcasting
There are exceptions to most every rule. As long as they’re exceptional. For all my whining about game-casters who talk too much, there are two who would only minimize their value if they chose — or were able — to speak less. One was now-retired hockey play-by-player Doc Emrick whose charm, knowledge, wordsmanship and overall … Read more