Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
ESPN announced their broadcast teams for the 2011 season today.
They are:
Wednesday Night Baseball
Dave OāBrien (PBP) and Nomar Garciaparra
Monday Night Baseball
Sean McDonough (PBP), Aaron Boone and Rick Sutcliffe
Sunday Night Baseball
Dan Schulman (PBP), Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine (Jon Sciambi (PBP) Chris Singleton on ESPN Radio)
ESPN Baseball will sound a whole lot different in 2011ā¦ from what Iām hearing from a lot of fans, for the better.
The jist of it: Joe Morganās contract will not be renewed and Jon Miller will be relegated to radio only.
A buddy of mine had the best perspective on the situation and one many could empathize with:
Good riddance to Joe Morgan. You can take him, McCarver and Harrelson and lock them in a room and seal the windows, doors and vents for all I care. Although, it would have to be a very large room to fit their egos.
I liked Miller.
Harsh.
And yes, I do like Miller. He just had the misfortune to be paired up with Morgan.
Sports Illustratedās Richard Deitch interviews Peter Gammons mostly on the topic of his transition from ESPN to the MLB Network and his relationship with ARod.
ESPN ranks all 27 of the New York Yankee champion teams.
Their #1 isnāt the most widely known of the Bronx Bomber squads but they make a good case for it.
This yearās team came in 10th.
ESPN has now issued new guidelines to its employees on how they will interact on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Essentially, the guidelines are two-pronged. First, they prohibit discussing (on any social network forum) internal policies or how stories are āreported, written or producedā.
Second (and more open-ended), they prohibit employees from having sports-related blogs or websites. Further, they require a supervisorās approval before discussing sports matters on a social networking forum. If employees violates the new policy, they are subject to dismissal or suspension.
To the first point, I agree with ESPNās point. Internal matters stay within the business. To not do so would open up a whole can of messy legal worms.
As to the second point, I feel ESPN is going down the wrong road. They are missing the whole point of social networking. I donāt want to subscribe to Rob Neyerās twitter stream so I can hear about his vacation.
Will ESPN abandon Twitter and Facebook altogether? Iām sure they wonāt. They will have ESPN-sanctioned accounts in which the content will be very factual indeed but come off as stilted and will smack of the ācompany lineā.
Should ESPN have come out with guidelines on how to deal with these new-fangled social networking sites? Of course! Employ new guidelines to encourage responsible online behavior. Encourage employees to interact with the public and put a good face forward.
But to totally ban discussing the very topic that they are in the business to report seems so backwards to me. And to threaten dismissal as a punishmentā¦ the mind reels.
Get with the times, ESPN. Itās a brand new world out here.
I love Baseball Prospectus. I think they put out a first rate podcast which I listen to without fail. Their annual publication which comes out near the beginning of the baseball season not only has a wealth of baseball information but does it with a sense of humor.
I don’t need to tell those who have been to BP’s web site that their staff of writers is one of the best in the business. And yes, some of their stuff is subscription only but if put up the green, what you get back is pretty amazing.
You know the one thing that might drive me away from it?
For those Cub fans who enjoy fluff pieces about their team, ESPN has assembled a pretty cool multimedia ensemble called "No Love Lost" which profiles ten Cub fans who were born in each decade since the Cubs last won the World Series.
It’s rather cool in a bittersweet way for a Cub fan. Some of those profiled are well-known in their own right such as David Diaz (light welterweight boxer) and Billy Corgan (former Smashing Pumpkins singer) and others are known purely for their love of the Cubs such as Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers and 100-year old Richard Savage representing the 1908 season.
Savage has some pretty humorous quotes, in my opinion:
On Fukudome: "He’s always spinning around with this whirling nonsense. They have a batting coach. Why the hell can’t they teach him to stop that?"
On Soriano: "He’s had some big hits, he’s a pretty good hitter, but he plays the field like a grammar school student."
Funny, I’ve thought the same thing about Fukudome.
Link (thanks, B & T!)
In a new deal between ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, ESPN will have the right to digitally stream baseball games live. No financial details have been announced and what the impact for us, the fan, will be is still up in the air.
That said, I can assure you this will be a money maker for ESPN any way you look at it. The technology to stream live games to mobile devices such as mobile phones and iPods (even gaming consoles) has been here. The only stumbling block was a legal and financial one. For ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, this is the first step to breaking down that barrier.
Interestingly, the rights are worldwide but do not extend to some Asian or Pacific Rim countries.
Skipper acknowledged that there was some revenue sharing in the last deal. “This deal we’re paying cash for valuable rights.” Bowman wasn’t talking financial details either, saying only, “we believe in our content and we’re grateful that ESPN does, too.”
Or maybe not.
Chris Berman has made a public response to the online videos that were released a few weeks ago. The Miami Herald conducted a phone interview with him.
Now I’ve never ever been a Berman fan but after watching a few of the few of videos, I started wondering what the fuss was all about. Certainly, we didn’t expect a famous baseball analyst to let his hair down and act like the rest of us, did we?
To Berman’s credit, he didn’t apologize for his actions on the videos nor did he try to spin it to his advantage.
”It’s almost as if what we would fight against as a country — the Soviets spying — it’s almost like that’s what everyone is doing,” Berman said by phone Wednesday. “What’s said in the huddle, which is what I did, should be in the huddle.
“I’m disappointed people would think I’m not really good with the people I work with, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Do I wish I didn’t say a few things nine years ago? Yes. But if that’s the worst thing I ever did, I can live with it.”
Now the Soviet reference is a tired cliche but otherwise, it’s a solid statement. I think we as baseball people need to not fall into the trap of thinking that if something that doesn’t follow the company line needs to be apologized for.
I still don’t care for Chris Berman as an analyst or sportscaster but let’s not bring him down because of this.
By the way, ESPN has requested You Tube to remove the videos which they did. Now that’s a totally different issue.