Guest post: The Hootie vs. The Media
Posted on July 15th, 2008 – 11:59 AMBy Michael Rand
Frequent RandBall commenter The Hootie takes exception with the way many live sporting events are covered these days, using last night’s home run derby as a launching pad. While it’s not quite as epic as Lifter Puller vs. The End Of The Evening, The Hootie vs. The Media does offer a fan’s perspective on viewing. But what does he know; he just pays the bills. The Hootie?
ESPNs coverage of the Home Run Derby was ridiculous. I think it was a perfect example of why so many fans are getting sick of the way ESPN and many other networks cover sports.
There were at least seven announcers/analysts last night. Why the [redacted] do we need almost one announcer per contestant?? It wouldn’t have been so bad if those people were talented or interesting to listen to, but they weren’t. ESPN has almost no talented personalities — only guys whose shtick was old a decade ago (Berman), former players who can’t stop talking about their glory days (Morgan), and straight-up tools (Reilly).
Then there was the coverage of the event itself. I read a week ago that FOX knows they needed to strike a balance between the All-Star Game and the fact that it’s the last year of Yankee Stadium. ESPN apparently didn’t get the memo. Some players went through their entire rounds with barely more than their name mentioned before the broadcast team went back to reminiscing about the stadium or interviewing someone. Shouldn’t the focus of the Home Run Derby broadcast be, you know, the Home Run Derby? (And maybe we could interview the guy who won before the runner up? And get his name right? Maybe??)
The handling of the whole Josh Hamilton story gets special mention. Yes, I understand that he’s made a remarkable turn around in his life. I’m sure he’s a great role model for recovering addicts everywhere. We’ve been hearing about it all season, though. Did it need to become the focus of the Home Run Derby? There were seven other guys competing — talented young players who’ve never ruined themselves with drugs and could actually be role models children. I don’t know how anyone couldn’t be sick of hearing about Josh Hamilton’s story after last night. He put on an amazing display during the derby — why can’t that be the story? This is my biggest problem with how sports are covered today: so much focus on off-field drama, so little focus on the actual events.
So, for discussion: RandBallers, what is your biggest complaint about the way sports are covered today?
41 Responses to "Guest post: The Hootie vs. The Media"
The on-field drama just isn’t enough anymore. Which is why I’m already upset about the Olympics before they even begin. I’m willing to bet half the olympic athletes had their dogs die when they were 12 but then they went on to work hard despite not being able to read and being cut from 12 teams because everyone thought they were retarded growing up. At least that’s the story I imagine NBC or whomever will tell us. It’s no longer good enough to just be good at sports. Just ask Brett Farvay.
Amen Brother.
My biggest complaint is the combination of jackass commentators and awful awful former athlete color guys.
(I’m looking at you Buck and Aikman)
Whoops, I commented a post too early -
To repeat myself:
Can ESPN ever just cover a story the correct amount?
I mean, really, they don’t need to talk about everything until everyone hates it. If they were the “Worldwide Leader” they claim to be, there are plenty of sports to talk about without having four different analysis segments on Brett Favre’s ego maniacal interview, Josh Hamilton’s comeback from a blow habit, or A-Rod’s divorce and how Madonna kept him from participating in the HR Derby (Seriously, the last one should be saved for Entertainment Tonight or Extra).
They’re losing sight of sports like MTV started losing sight of music with the advent of “The Real World”
Oh yeah, and Poker isn’t a damn sport, so stop showing it all the time. (NASCAR, TimberSports, World’s Strongest Man, billiards, bowling, high school/collegiate dance, high school/collegiate cheerleading, cricket, curling, rugby, and on and on are “sports”, pick one and run with it instead)
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=3485712
The only person who makes any sense at that cesspool of the television world called ESPN.
Love is like a battle of the bands/
Crank up your amps, man
(/singing this all day now)
Just to clarify, you all heard that Josh Hamilton was out of baseball for three years because he was a heroin addict and now he wears armbands to cover up the tattoos because apparently he doesn’t like needles anymore? Right?
Who won that thing last night anyway?
SCH: I heard he covered up his tattoos because he was ashamed of the fact that he was high when he got them. Actually, I didn’t really “hear” it. I had it beaten into my brain like a persistent drumbeat for three hours last night.
My head is similarly dented today. It’s like wholesome propaganda. Though on the road back to wholesome, Josh Hamilton couldn’t make it if he wasn’t embarrassed of all those (whispered) tattoos. He even tried to have them removed! But it was too painful. Awww…
ESPN does the same thing with sports news that cable news networks do with “current events”/politics: takes a metaphorical gigantic blunt object, and Gallagher’s the crap out of whatever topic they’re talking about. When they’re done, you can’t decide if you’re frustrated because they made you more confused about said topic, or frustrated because you just totally wasted your time.
the Daily Show makes their living off of pointing this out about cable news, I think there’s probably a small market(Sklar-less, hopefully) share available for someone to do this for sports news.
I’m still appalled at how this guy, who admittedly screwed up his own life, is being glorified as some kind of role model. Yes, he’s a role model to all of the addicts that watch ESPN.
However, for all of the kids and young athletes I think glorifying any of the other contestants (Really, pick one) would have been a slightly better idea.
“Look kids, you too can get a $4 million dollar signing bonus which you can proceed to spend on heroin and alcohol addictions, taking you away from the sport that you love. But you can find Jesus, come back, and hit dingers in Yankee Stadium! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t ‘try drugs’. In fact, if you don’t ‘try drugs’ Joe Morgan will not be impressed by you at all.”
Someone who defeats an addiction to realize potential and beat the odds in the process is a heartwarming story… To adults. Kids cannot appreciate in the same way, nor should they.
I think I’m just frustrated by the fact that they basically ignored Morneau all night despite the fact that he won the freakin’ event, and hasn’t screwed up his life.
Agreed. And it’s predictable enough now that it’s one of those things you just watch for to be able to shake your head. “Here goes Erin Andrews, sure she’s just going to talk to Hamilton.” Sure enough, the derby champion doesn’t get to say anything until he’s already been called Jason and had his last name mispronounced twice in different ways.
How much do we really know about Morneau? Anyone could spend 3 years in Canada as a dirty, incoherent drug addict and blend right in.
The “it’s not a good night to be an atheist!” was a priceless moment. Yet another new low for ESPN.
Dave- Didn’t you find the interview with Reggie Jackson far more interesting than Morneau hitting homers, though?
/still angry
Dave- Didn’t you find the interview with Reggie Jackson far more interesting than Morneau hitting homers, though?
Yes, especially since they were talking about Hamilton during said interview…
The “it’s not a good night to be an atheist!” was a priceless moment. Yet another new low for ESPN.
Rick Reilly can shove his pompous under-1000 word “articles” up his overpaid endzone.
I’m starting to think there’s a checkbox on the ESPN application that reads “I’m a self-righteous bastard who will never admit that I’m wrong and will scream my opinion so loudly and repeatedly that you can’t ignore me. Check Yes or No”
Those who check “No” are not invited back.
ESPN Producer: “OK, now zoom in on Reggie… Good. Now, cut to Camera 3 for the ‘Mr. October’ plaque. Slowly pan over to Babe Ruth… Someone compare Hamilton to the Babe. Now, cut to that guy with ‘The Great Hambino’ sign. Good, good… Someone say how much Ruth would enjoy this display. Who’s up? Marnow? He’s got three outs left, show him when he’s done.”
The Rick had several memorable quips:
“Who needs steroids!?”
“Put McGwire’s before and after pictures together and he looks like the No. 10.”
“Another white guy?”
If the WWL and SI traded Patrick for The Rick straight up the WWL got hosed.
I agree with the Hootie. ESPN made Morneau’s win feel like a caution flag win, or a tie in a baseball game (which would never happen.) Sure he did what he needed to to win (which is the point) but the best guy didn’t win. Hamilton goes out there with an old man throwing a hundred pitches (I don’t recall how old his pitcher was, did they even say!!!) and hits 28 home runs in 10 minutes, of course you may not have enough left to hit 6 more an hour later after all of the advertising.
Rick Reilly and Joe Morgan seemed [redacted] upset this didn’t work out perfectly for them. Especially considering they should have had Howard or Vlad in the derby instead of Morneau. Shame on you MLB!
This event needs to be put on broadcast cable so everyone can enjoy it and put those wonderful FOX guys on… what are their names? Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Good for you Hootie, finally someone on the internet is voicing their displeasure of ESPN.
newbie: I believe they said the pitcher Claybon was 71. I wish I had a name like Claybon.
oh Buck and Aikman…just seeing Buck’s pompous face makes me want to punt a baby. (note: the punting of babies is not an acceptable practice).
Whoever put the ESPN Ombudsman story up earlier, hit it head on. She is always right and apparently no one at the WWL listens. It’s ridiculous.
Also, if you can dig up Bill Simmons’ archives, he jokes in an artice on how NFL pre game shows are growing more and more people. It’s ludacris.
Another strong annoyance of mine is Baseball Tonight. What happened to the set 3 to 4 guys each night. Now they rotate like the T’Wolves [redacted] Summer League team.
If I were Rick Reilly right now I’d say, “Jesus Christ help us.” But I’m not so I will just say, Mother [redacted]
Rick Reilly and Joe Morgan seemed [redacted] upset this didn’t work out perfectly for them. Especially considering they should have had Howard or Vlad in the derby instead of Morneau. Shame on you MLB!
“Not only is Morneau white and from Canada, but he plays for Minnesota! Can we dislike this guy any more here at the World Wide Leader. Oh wait, he actually said something nice when they gave the Boys and Girls club check out?! And he didn’t correct anyone on mispronouncing his last name or not knowing his first name?! Hasn’t he killed someone, taken drugs, cheated on his wife, a girlfriend, something? Are there any pictures of him in a hot tub with Mauer that we can misconstrue? I mean, come on, we don’t believe sports are entertaining on their own, do we?!”
I agree that in many (most?) instances, there is an East Coast-bias, an over-dramatization, and a “forced down your throat” aspect to today’s sports media coverage (everywhere, not just ESPN).
I am a die hard Minnesota sports fan, and have been living on the East Coast for the past 9 years (New York for the last 5), so I can tell you how painful the East Coast bias is from first hand experience. However, last night was not one of those cases.
The HR derby is an EXHIBITION, the point of which is to promote individual displays of home run hitting prowess. The “contest” rules and rounds were created to try and generate some sense of drama so that all of the TV viewers do not tune out after one good round. Hamilton’s first round was the best display of individual home run hitting talent, not only last night, but arguably in the entire history of the event. Not only did he hit 28 HRs, including 13 in a row, he KILLED the balls! There were several times where I thought that he might actually hit one out of the stadium.
While Morneau was able to consistently hit between 5 and 9 home runs three rounds in a row and “win” the contest, people considering that more topical and relevant than what Josh Hamilton did are missing the point of the event.
When you throw in the other components to Hamilton’s night: his personal struggles (regardless of how you view addiction, he continues to deal with a life and death struggle to stay sober every day and will for the rest of his life - there is no such thing as a casual heroin user, eventually you die); his 71 year old batting practice pitcher; his dream of two years ago; 3 home runs over 500 feet; the entire 55,000 of Yankee stadium chanting his name and standing; representing a post-steroids future of home runs…the list goes on and on. It was his night and I think the media coverage accurately reflected the reality of the situation.
To Morneau’s credit, he was humble, handled himself very well, deferred to the magnitude of the moment, and also hit some good bombs himself - as we would expect from our Minnesota Twins rep. No, he was not the sexy pick, and he did not have the “story” aspects to his outing last night, and yes, perhaps he deserved more media attention (or at least the proper name from State Farm). But the fact remains that Hamilton achieved, in amazing fashion, exactly what the HR derby is designed to promote - individual displays of HR hitting excellence. His personal story makes his accomplishments even more impressive, and I think the media coverage reflected just how amazing the confluence of all the factors really was.
Apologies. That post got a little longer than anticipated…
To be fair Deacon, all the story lines you mentioned about Hamilton are valid and did make last night what it was. And that’s why they talked non-stop about it for the entirety of the broadcast. Morneau was aware of it, too, and in my mind, that’s why he at least deserves the courtesy of Erin Andrews approaching him first. If she goes to him and says, How do you feel?, he’s going to answer, I am just amazed at everything Hamilton did, it’s his night… blah blah blah.. And it gives her and all of the talking heads a logical segue to go to Hamilton. How many times did they mention Vlad Guerrero winning it last year? It may be exhibition, but it’s still a competition, and one that underneath the rules, Morneau won.
This is true: between 5:50pm and 7:05 pm, Karl Ravech asked John Kruk for his Derby prediction THREE TIMES - once at the end of SportsCenter, once on Baseball Tonight, and once on the Derby telecast.
This says a lot about where ESPN is at right now.
For the record, I had no problem with the fact that they talked about Hamilton’s story, or that they went on about his homers. My problem is that they went on and on and on and ON about them, rarely focusing on much else. The horse was obviously dead, yet the whipping continued…
Also, Dave MN- dead on about the non-sports ESPN continues to shovel out there. Red flags should have gone up when they showed the Magic: The Gathering world tourney on ESPN2 a few years ago.
Deacon,
I understand and agree with what you say, but I think a lot of people watching were turned off by ESPN’s coverage long before Hamilton took his first swing. ESPN has become so over the top in their quest to make sports more dramatic that they lost sight of what they were covering.
Instead of focusing on the person hitting, the commentators were blabbing about the grandness of the event and the moment instead of covering the derby. ESPN always does that. It seems like they get bored with the actual sporting event and revert to reminiscing about past moments. They could talk about the remarkable season Lance Berkman is having, but instead we hear Reggie Jackson ramble for 10 minutes about nonsense.
If ESPN had their way, we would live in a world of perpetual game 7’s at Fenway in the ALCS against the Yankees, with the score tied 0-0, David Ortiz at the plate, and the Sox bullpen playing spoons. They live for that drama, and the derby was lacking in drama until their savior Hamilton started hitting bombs. At that point, they had their drama, they had their story, and they could care less about the event.
It was terrible coverage, but no more terrible than everything else on that network.
“he won the freakin’ event, and hasn’t screwed up his life.”
…yet. He’s from Canada. Just give him time.
I’m glad there are others who felt the same way about last night’s broadcast. Hamilton is an interesting sports figure and his story should be discussed, but not for the whole damn event!
ESPN’s coverage of events has become a mockery of sports. They seem to think it’s better to be outrageous than insightful when it comes to commentary. I watch most of their broadcasts on mute because listening to Berman just makes me madder and stupider.
A fe-male Good Sports?
In a dramatic display of athletic ability, quite tall person Nicole Ohlde manages to knock down pin after pin after pin despite not being able to reach the ground as easily as not-so-tall Michael Rand.
Nicole showed poise and determination in overcoming her height affliction, never once shying away from lowering that bowling ball all the way to the lane and rolling it towards the pins. At one time she knocked down at least one pin in 9 consecutive throws. NINE, people. And this is a woman who has been away from the game of bowling for up to 4 months and or days. To just come back like that, and just light up the bowling alley that way, why, it’s unheard of.
I’d like to reiterate that Nicole, a superb athlete playing for the Lynx, does NOT bowl more regularly than she brushes her teeth. And yet, AND YET, here she was. Bowling. Against some guy who may or may not have inconsequentially scored more points than she did and maybe won the event not that that’s important.
Our sincerest congratulations go out to Nicole, who probably never did any drugs but may have read about them in a newspaper in the past, and who may or may not be religious. It’s a bad day to be a sports-journalist!
(Sincere apologies to Nicole, as well, for involving her in this little joke and associating her in any way with espn. It was, as usual, a good “Good Sports” and I think she went easy on Rand.)
Joker-
He also got engaged this winter…
Most wives will drive you to drink, but not to shoot heroin, so he still won’t be good enough.
Apparently I caught the home run derby from the best place - a restaurant with the sound turned down.
+1, ESPN, whoever you are
I would like to know who’s using the pseudonym “ESPN”. They deserve a +1.
I would guess, based on discussion, that it’s either The Hootie or Straight Cash Homey. Whoever it was, nicely done.
And I will not negate the dramatic, impressive, and worthwhile aspects of telling Hamilton’s story, nor will I say that I wasn’t absolutely [redacted] awestruck at the bombs he was hitting. The coverage is what the problem is. Josh Hamilton deserves attention for what he is doing this year (even without the backstory). I’m just frustrated with ESPN’s apparent belief that the drama on the field is not enough in and of itself. As Steve B. said, “it seems like they get bored with the actual sporting event”. For a place that I, unfortunately, have to go for sports news (because no other real competition has come along) that’s depressing.
Who was it (Phillips or Reilly) who went on that crazy rant about not enough African-Americans and Hispanics in the Home Run Derby?
Why? Because they all turned it down my man! Nothing about Morneau agreeing to join at the last minute in order to make it happen - and then winning. Nothing about Morneau being a Canadian. (And his love for the Vancouver Canucks.) Nothing about Ryan Braun’s father immigrating from Israel. No. Simply a rant about the HR Derby being racist.
Surprised they didn’t go into another rant about the Twins doing better than expected because the Dome is unfair to every other team.
That was Reilly. Phillips spent the entire derby talking about the contestant’s powerful legs.
Figured as much. I knew it wasn’t Joe Morgan because I didn’t fall asleep.
I suspect Morneau would have been called safe there even if he was out by 5 feet. Everyone wanted to go home.
