ESPN Is Pathetic

Marciano490

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I enjoyed SportsCenter back in the 90s when the shtick was genuine. Then it became a victim of its own success and the sausage factory started cranking out all these cheap facsimiles. It all became noticeably manufactured and lost its appeal.

That and ESPN shifted from talking about sports stories to trying to be the story with the worthless hot takez and bombastic debates. It took awhile but they finally ran it into the ground. I won't shed a tear for the demise of a worthless network but I do feel for the regular folks working behind the scenes who are affected.
It wasn't the shtick being genuine, it was that they had very talented, very funny people - Mayne, Patrick, etc. Now they have very pretty, very dull people testing catch phrases.
 

Cesar Crespo

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It wasn't the shtick being genuine, it was that they had very talented, very funny people - Mayne, Patrick, etc. Now they have very pretty, very dull people testing catch phrases.
Were they funny or was it just fresh? Up until then, sportscasting was nothing but scores and results.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Were they funny or was it just fresh? Up until then, sportscasting was nothing but scores and results.
They were legitimately funny. Keith Olberman and Dan Patrick were appointment TV. Craig Kilborn made it worthwhile to watch the 2 am SportsCenter -- there was a funny bit where he became obsessed with the Clippers Pooh Richardson. In the middle of one of the highlights he yelled out, "Pooh spelled backwards is Hoop!" It was hilarious.

I know this sounds dumb now, but Chris Berman was pretty good back in the day. Charlie Steiner was dry. Rich Eisen. Even Jack Edwards or John Saunders were good for a laugh now and then. But they were funny because they were knowledgable and they knew that their audience was knowledgable. Once it started pandering to the LCD, it became unfunny.

But the one anchor who was always unfunny was Linda Cohen. She was the worst.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I just think it became stale but to each their own. Stuart Scott, Chris Berman and the like had their 4-5 catchphrases and never evolved beyond that.

It got much worse when it because "what's current" "what's hip" "what's fresh?" sometime in the aughts... or as you put it, they started pandering to the LCD. I thought it was already unfunny at that point but it went from unfunny to obnoxious.
 

Marciano490

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Nov 4, 2007
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They were legitimately funny. Keith Olberman and Dan Patrick were appointment TV. Craig Kilborn made it worthwhile to watch the 2 am SportsCenter -- there was a funny bit where he became obsessed with the Clippers Pooh Richardson. In the middle of one of the highlights he yelled out, "Pooh spelled backwards is Hoop!" It was hilarious.

I know this sounds dumb now, but Chris Berman was pretty good back in the day. Charlie Steiner was dry. Rich Eisen. Even Jack Edwards or John Saunders were good for a laugh now and then. But they were funny because they were knowledgable and they knew that their audience was knowledgable. Once it started pandering to the LCD, it became unfunny.

But the one anchor who was always unfunny was Linda Cohen. She was the worst.
Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt they were legitimately funny and still are. Patrick and Eisen crack me up to this day whenever I watch them.

I remember watching SportsCenter way back when with Eisen as the anchor and they were showing a highlight of a double that bounced of the 'G' in a GAP sign on the outfield wall and Eisen makes this very dry crack about the ball hitting the wall's g spot that was just so perfectly delivered even now it makes me laugh.
 

allstonite

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Does anyone think they could benefit from going backwards and having a SportsCenter that just shows highlights and news with little to no commentary? ESPNNews was the last gasp of this 5-10 years ago but now it's mostly reruns of their other shows. I'm not going anywhere near SportsCenter these days

I'm not going to seek out a Bucks-Nuggets game from January and watch a video package but I wish they could be presented to me in some way. I had no idea how good Giannis was until I watched him vs the Celtics last month and in the playoffs. I had seen out of context dunks or passes on Twitter but I didn't know how well rounded he was.

I feel like I had a better grasp on the rest of the leagues (outside of Boston/Northeast teams) when there was a highlight show that could give me quick 30-60 second recaps of all or most of the games from the night before. I'm not sure I would watch regularly but I wish something like that existed. Yes I know the highlights are all online but they're usually not that well done and you have to find them in the NBA.com or NHL.com recap stories. Even if they put a daily wrap up on the web that included all the major sports stories it could be helpful. They have the rights for the highlights anyway. Hire some young likable kids out of college and have them recap the videos.
 

tims4wins

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Does anyone think they could benefit from going backwards and having a SportsCenter that just shows highlights and news with little to no commentary? ESPNNews was the last gasp of this 5-10 years ago but now it's mostly reruns of their other shows. I'm not going anywhere near SportsCenter these days

I'm not going to seek out a Bucks-Nuggets game from January and watch a video package but I wish they could be presented to me in some way. I had no idea how good Giannis was until I watched him vs the Celtics last month and in the playoffs. I had seen out of context dunks or passes on Twitter but I didn't know how well rounded he was.

I feel like I had a better grasp on the rest of the leagues (outside of Boston/Northeast teams) when there was a highlight show that could give me quick 30-60 second recaps of all or most of the games from the night before. I'm not sure I would watch regularly but I wish something like that existed. Yes I know the highlights are all online but they're usually not that well done and you have to find them in the NBA.com or NHL.com recap stories. Even if they put a daily wrap up on the web that included all the major sports stories it could be helpful. They have the rights for the highlights anyway. Hire some young likable kids out of college and have them recap the videos.
For MLB or the NFL, this is easy. MLB Quick Pitch is perfect in this regard. For the NFL, the NFL Network Sunday night recap shows are also perfect. The NBA and NHL may have similar shows, but I don't subscribe to their networks.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt they were legitimately funny and still are. Patrick and Eisen crack me up to this day whenever I watch them.

I remember watching SportsCenter way back when with Eisen as the anchor and they were showing a highlight of a double that bounced of the 'G' in a GAP sign on the outfield wall and Eisen makes this very dry crack about the ball hitting the wall's g spot that was just so perfectly delivered even now it makes me laugh.
Back then they had legit competition because the CNN Sports show with Nick Charles had that "Play of the Day" clip that was extremely popular. I remember liking ESPN and having to argue in the dorm to get guys to watch SC because they didn't want to miss the play of the day. Yes, I'm aging myself, but ESPN was forced to be creative back then and the talent on air was evidence of that. They pounced when cable tiers were a growing industry and they fell asleep when the cycle switched.
 

E5 Yaz

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soxhop411

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“@richarddeitsch: Baseball Tonight has essentially been gutted. Only regular weekly spot: as a Sunday Night Baseball preview show.”

This is pathetic. Utterly pathetic.
 

Captaincoop

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ESPN was awesome in the 80's/early 90's, but I was thinking about it and here is an example of why the product can never be what it was:

I lived in CT growing up during that time, and wanted to follow Boston College sports. If BC was in the top 25 in any given week, then its scores would appear in my local Connecticut newspaper, in the back of the sports page under "Top 25 scores". If BC was not in the Top 25, no scores.

So BC would play Syracuse in hoops on Tuesday night, and I would have no idea if they won that game until Sunday, when I could get the Sunday Boston Globe and see what their record was.

The local news stations would have 2 minutes of sports each night, and that would not include a score crawler, or really anything outside of NY and BOS pro sports, the Whalers, and UConn. Maybe if someone nationally broke a record, or a championship series was going on, we would get 5 seconds on that.

Then I got cable, and SportsCenter had highlights from all over the country, Michael Jordan's big dunk from a regular season game against the Clippers...clips from all the top 25 hoops games, maybe a score crawler that showed ALL the Division I scores from last night. And I could watch it while I ate breakfast before school.

Mind blown.

Does any of that sound mindblowing today? Is there any need at all for what ESPN used to provide?
 

E5 Yaz

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Exactly. Those who want the Baseball Tonight experience can go to MLB Network and watch MLB Tonight and/or Quick Pitch. And they do it better, in general.
They do, but for some of us it's not an option. For instance, I'd have to pay $100 or so more a month to add MLB Network to my options. I can't afford that.
 

richgedman'sghost

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Maybe, Ms. McHenry could apply for a job as a parking lot attendant. Regarding the rest of ESPN programming, they have 15 hrs of "NFL Live!" and "NFL insiders" which are basically the same show with different talking heads. Yet they cannot spare one hour for a baseball show besides the idiotic. Intentional Talk. Why not broadcast the Brian Kenny show? At least that one has intelligent talk and analysis.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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Then I got cable, and SportsCenter had highlights from all over the country, Michael Jordan's big dunk from a regular season game against the Clippers...clips from all the top 25 hoops games, maybe a score crawler that showed ALL the Division I scores from last night. And I could watch it while I ate breakfast before school.

Mind blown.

Does any of that sound mindblowing today? Is there any need at all for what ESPN used to provide?
I'd watch ESPN a lot more if they had more straightforward highlights. Other than live programming, all I'm looking for from a sports station is highlights. I don't give shit about talking heads and opinions.

I admit I'm probably not the demographic ESPN covets, but then again, they just had to lay off 100 people because whatever it is they're doing hasn't been working.
 

Captaincoop

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I would watch more, as well. But apparently there is a huge segment of the population that would rather seek out their own highlights and watch them on the phone? Or something else millennial that I don't understand.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Then I got cable, and SportsCenter had highlights from all over the country, Michael Jordan's big dunk from a regular season game against the Clippers...clips from all the top 25 hoops games, maybe a score crawler that showed ALL the Division I scores from last night. And I could watch it while I ate breakfast before school.
That was the same thing with Sports Illustrated.

When I was a kid (around the same time you were, it sounds like) I didn't have cable in my room and my dad (who controlled the TV) wasn't much a sports fan. But I was a fanatic of all things sports, but especially baseball. So I wasn't able to watch SportsCenter every night, but I did have a subscription to Sports Illustrated. That means I could keep up with a team like the Padres or the Giants or the Dodgers and learn about why they're doing well.

Gammons moved his Baseball Notebook to SI at the time and it was awesome. Their other coverage was excellent too.

Now if I, or anyone else, wants to know about the Padres there are a million outlets to do so. But back in the day, you sorta felt a bit smarter if you knew that Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark were hitting the crap out of the ball. Or what the Blazers did the previous week to the Lakers. Or why the Kings weren't the Oilers, despite having Gretzky. And even if it was week-old news, not everyone knew what you knew.

I'm in the tech world, so I like the way things are today; any bit of information immediately at my fingertips. But there was something kind of romantic (? probably the wrong word) about finding out about those games on the West Coast that happened long after everyone back East was asleep. It was like being in a club, I guess. And SportsCenter and Sports Illustrated provided you with the secret knock to get in that club.
 

Captaincoop

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But there was something kind of romantic (? probably the wrong word) about finding out about those games on the West Coast that happened long after everyone back East was asleep. It was like being in a club, I guess. And SportsCenter and Sports Illustrated provided you with the secret knock to get in that club.
Really well put. That's exactly right. And it's just a different world now. I live on the West Coast, and my son watches every Red Sox game, and thinks nothing of it. I lived less than two hours from the Garden when I was a kid and I could only watch the Celtics' road games.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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Maybe, Ms. McHenry could apply for a job as a parking lot attendant. Regarding the rest of ESPN programming, they have 15 hrs of "NFL Live!" and "NFL insiders" which are basically the same show with different talking heads. Yet they cannot spare one hour for a baseball show besides the idiotic. Intentional Talk. Why not broadcast the Brian Kenny show? At least that one has intelligent talk and analysis.
Because football = ratings

It is arguably the only "main four" sport that consistently generates ad revenue, fan interest, high Nielsen numbers, and pretty much every eye there is to get 24/7 at this point. ESPN and the NFL are married to one another at this point and college football isn't far behind. People care more about football, on average, than any other sport and the ratings back it up. They're just following the money.
 

axx

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I admit I'm probably not the demographic ESPN covets, but then again, they just had to lay off 100 people because whatever it is they're doing hasn't been working.
Basically this is just making the numbers look better. There's not much else they can do though; with the way cord cutting is accelerating you have to figure that this is only the beginning.
 

kenneycb

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Basically this is just making the numbers look better. There's not much else they can do though; with the way cord cutting is accelerating you have to figure that this is only the beginning.
That's partly true but I have to imagine a corporation as large as ESPN has a bunch of fat and they are using this as a means to trim a bunch of it as it looks to respond to cord cutting. Some degree of nuance there.
 

doldmoose34

impregnated Melissa Theuriau
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They were legitimately funny. Keith Olberman and Dan Patrick were appointment TV. Craig Kilborn made it worthwhile to watch the 2 am SportsCenter -- there was a funny bit where he became obsessed with the Clippers Pooh Richardson. In the middle of one of the highlights he yelled out, "Pooh spelled backwards is Hoop!" It was hilarious.

I know this sounds dumb now, but Chris Berman was pretty good back in the day. Charlie Steiner was dry. Rich Eisen. Even Jack Edwards or John Saunders were good for a laugh now and then. But they were funny because they were knowledgable and they knew that their audience was knowledgable. Once it started pandering to the LCD, it became unfunny.

But the one anchor who was always unfunny was Linda Cohen. She was the worst.
Got my first HDTV back in '03. When the guys from Tweeter set it up and asked what to put on I said ESPN, Linda Cohn was the first person I saw in HD, scary then scary now
 

Granite Sox

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Britt McHenry
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Staying on the NFL Draft as my last assignment. Grateful for 3 years at ESPN. My colleagues became best friends & I'll cherish that the most.
Maybe, Ms. McHenry could apply for a job as a parking lot attendant...
Maybe the towing employee she talked down to in summer 2015 can give her a reference for a job at the garage.
I feel badly for virtually all the folks let go yesterday, save her. You might say karma's a Britt McHenry.
 

johnmd20

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Yay sanctimony!
Wasn't that garage notorious for screwing over their customers and also wasn't that taped exchange edited to exclude the parts that specifically set Britt off?

But, YES, sanctimony, many here have never had a bad moment, ever. They handle every situation with grace, honesty, and virtue. Human perfection.
 

kenneycb

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Wasn't that garage notorious for screwing over their customers and also wasn't that taped exchange edited to exclude the parts that specifically set Britt off?

But, YES, sanctimony, many here have never had a bad moment, ever. They handle every situation with grace, honesty, and virtue. Human perfection.
I remember members in here mentioning the first part based on their own personal experience. I assume it was a TMZ find so I wouldn't be surprised on the second.
 

Flynn4ever

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Can someone confirm that Jason Stark is a casualty? He was part of the baseball section just this week (power rankings according to the byline.) I would miss him, his style is a little grating for me personally (of course it is,) but his topic choices and obscure stats are always interesting to me. He seems to get why so many of us love this oldest of American sports (except lacrosse) in that at least twice a week something happens that never happened before.
 

JimD

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The decimation of Baseball Tonight is not surprising given the rise of MLB Network. It's fairly common these days to go into a bar or restaurant and find one of the big TV's tuned in to MLBN.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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When I was a kid (around the same time you were, it sounds like) I didn't have cable in my room and my dad (who controlled the TV) wasn't much a sports fan. But I was a fanatic of all things sports, but especially baseball. So I wasn't able to watch SportsCenter every night, but I did have a subscription to Sports Illustrated. That means I could keep up with a team like the Padres or the Giants or the Dodgers and learn about why they're doing well.
Ditto on the well put. Given the landscape of sports today, it's hard to imagine (or even remember) how different things were when SC started.

SC wasn't just part of the national sports conversation - it was the national sports conversation. When SC started, I had to scout bookstores across the country to see who would carry the Sunday Globe so I could learn something from Gammo about Calvin Shiraldi and Wes Gardner. The All-Star games were big deals because that was one of the only times you'd be able to see players from the other league. And if you didn't live in a major league sports town, you'd be lucky to get any highlights of other games.

And the reason that Olbermann, Berman, Kilborn etc. were so good is because they weren't doing it for the fame at that point. They just did it because they loved it. They worked hard at it and had no idea where it was going.

Also, the one thing that really put ESPN on the map was to put the NCAA tournament on TV. To do that, they had to agree to put the rest of the NCAA sports on TV. I've done some searching and if ESPN paid NCAA anything for those games, it was paltry (they were a start-up without any money and in 1981, NBC paid the NCAA $9.9 million to broadcast the later rounds of the tournament). That's never going to happen again.

ESPN was fun when they were the innovators. But now, people can digest sports a hundred different way at any time they want. ESPN has been disrupted.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Also, the one thing that really put ESPN on the map was to put the NCAA tournament on TV. To do that, they had to agree to put the rest of the NCAA sports on TV. I've done some searching and if ESPN paid NCAA anything for those games, it was paltry (they were a start-up without any money and in 1981, NBC paid the NCAA $9.9 million to broadcast the later rounds of the tournament). That's never going to happen again.
If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out "These Guys Have All the Fun" by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales*. It's an oral history that goes into great (some, like me, might say excruciating) detail about ESPN from beginning to early 2010s. It was an okay book, some of it was very dry and repetitive, but there was a lot of fun anecdotes and stories.

* Shales and Miller also wrote the fantastic "Live From New York" oral history about Saturday Night Live. That's excellent.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out "These Guys Have All the Fun" by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales*. It's an oral history that goes into great (some, like me, might say excruciating) detail about ESPN from beginning to early 2010s. It was an okay book, some of it was very dry and repetitive, but there was a lot of fun anecdotes and stories.

* Shales and Miller also wrote the fantastic "Live From New York" oral history about Saturday Night Live. That's excellent.
Thanks. If anyone is interested, there's a pretty lengthy excerpt on the Barnes and Noble site that includes the first years and the NCAA negotiations (but if you buy it, go through the SOSH Amazon link!)