ESPN Won't Acknowledge Tigers -- Even Now
I was watching ESPN Sunday Night Baseball the other night -- Sunday, fancy that -- and the crew in the booth got field reporter Peter Gammons involved in the conversation, which was about potential personnel moves teams might make before the July 31 trade deadline.
Gammons yammered on about the usual suspects, at Jon Miller's prompting: The Red Sox. The Yankees. The White Sox. And then the Dodgers, and the Rangers, and others. He dutifully told us what those teams were interested in, and how they might acquire it -- if they chose to at all.
Not one word was mentioned about the Tigers.
The Tigers -- owners of the best record in baseball. The Tigers -- rising from the ashes, like a phoenix after 12 years of moribund slumber. The Tigers -- who would seem to need a thing or two to maintain their status as a first place team throughout the summer.
Nadda.
But I've come to expect that from -- as Big Al likes to call ESPN derisively -- The Worldwide Leader.
It's as if the network doesn't want to acknowledge that the Tigers are now players. Like this is high school again, and we're dealing with cliques.
The Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox are the "cool" people in the hallway. And ESPN seems to prefer it that way.
Take the Sunday night matchup, for example: Indians/White Sox. And, guess who was on Monday Night Baseball? White Sox/Rangers.
Yeah, yeah -- the Tigers got the Deuce when the Yankees were in town. Chris Berman even showed up for that one. Deliciously, it was the only game of the series the Tigers won -- and in walk-off fashion, to boot.
But that's a Thursday night on ESPN2. What about Sunday night on ESPN1?
Maybe The Worldwide Leader is figuring the Tigers will go away and leave the party to the cool cats once more.
Hoping might be more like it.
Come on, Jimmy Leyland! Show those network dudes a thing or two.
Gammons yammered on about the usual suspects, at Jon Miller's prompting: The Red Sox. The Yankees. The White Sox. And then the Dodgers, and the Rangers, and others. He dutifully told us what those teams were interested in, and how they might acquire it -- if they chose to at all.
Not one word was mentioned about the Tigers.
The Tigers -- owners of the best record in baseball. The Tigers -- rising from the ashes, like a phoenix after 12 years of moribund slumber. The Tigers -- who would seem to need a thing or two to maintain their status as a first place team throughout the summer.
Nadda.
But I've come to expect that from -- as Big Al likes to call ESPN derisively -- The Worldwide Leader.
It's as if the network doesn't want to acknowledge that the Tigers are now players. Like this is high school again, and we're dealing with cliques.
The Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox are the "cool" people in the hallway. And ESPN seems to prefer it that way.
Take the Sunday night matchup, for example: Indians/White Sox. And, guess who was on Monday Night Baseball? White Sox/Rangers.
Yeah, yeah -- the Tigers got the Deuce when the Yankees were in town. Chris Berman even showed up for that one. Deliciously, it was the only game of the series the Tigers won -- and in walk-off fashion, to boot.
But that's a Thursday night on ESPN2. What about Sunday night on ESPN1?
Maybe The Worldwide Leader is figuring the Tigers will go away and leave the party to the cool cats once more.
Hoping might be more like it.
Come on, Jimmy Leyland! Show those network dudes a thing or two.
posted by Greg Eno at 1:29 PM
Proud Member of DIBS
1 Comments:
Well said. Thing is, no one in Detroit is saying the Tigers are an elite team. Just that they are a good one, and barring unforseen injury, will be in the hunt all year.
But Detroit isn't part of the NYC/Boston/Chicago evil axis, so they'll be ignored. Another good example was "Ken Burns' Baseball." Don't get me going on the overwhelming east coast bias of that documaentary.
Worldwide Leader, indeed...
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