There are far too many times when I cannot help but despise ESPN, more for what it has chosen to be than for what it is and will continue to be.
I despise that instead of protecting and preserving the sport, they choose to destroy it for no reason at all.
I hated ESPN within seconds of turning it on Sunday evening to watch the Tigers vs. Yankees game at the Little League World Series site in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The show opened with a collection of flashy videos of major leaguers brandishing bats, striking attention-grabbing poses, and postgame swaggering — all manner of immodest behavior unrelated to actual baseball — before segueing into videos of Little Leaguers imitating the vain antics of their MLB coaches.
Japan pitcher Taiyo Honryo (25) reacts after reaching base on a walk and scoring a run in the top of the fourth inning during the Latin America Region match at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross – USA TODAY Sports
This was jarring but unsurprising, considering ESPN has worked hard to devalue and trivialize LLWS ever since it pointed a speed gun at a 12-year-old pitcher after asking him to name his favorite Disney movie.
Didn't ESPN realize that youth league baseball across the country is facing a crisis of umpire shortages, with trained umpires leaving to avoid further conflict with the obnoxious kids of the ESPN era and the vulgar, threatening and violent parents, coaches and spectators?
Does ESPN care? Again, they clearly don't.
Where once you rarely saw or heard of anyone trying to destroy kids' sports viewing or sports sensations, now there are plenty of them and ESPN is always on their side, adding fuel to their fire.
The umpires can find better employment than being abused, using the free time they once spent with their children. I spoke to dozens of umpires, and they all pointed to the antisocial messages that television, especially ESPN, sends to kids.
Latin America outfielder Beyer Zarragha (8) reacts after hitting an RBI triple in the fourth inning against Japan at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross – USA TODAY Sports Southeast infielder Hunter Alexander (10) reacts with teammates after a game against the West at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross – USA TODAY Sports
On Monday, the LLWS aired again, with ESPN audio playing as if the pros were playing the game, and slow-motion replays of kids striking Superman poses as they reached first base.
And let's not forget that Rob Manfred, the man in charge who hid MLB games behind pay-per-play hideouts, got Nike to buy off our great heritage by adding gaudy, ugly, on-sale-now, street-centric uniforms, and turned extra-inning games into scratch-off lottery tickets, has gone all-in on an ad campaign selling MLB to kids through videos of big leaguers acting like professional wrestlers.
The greatest sport has been destroyed from within.
SNY pokes fun at Camp Day's insensitive opening remarks
A week later, there has still been no apology from the Mets or MLB for praising a young female oral sex TikTok instructor in front of tens of thousands of kids during a camp day afternoon game.
There is not a single job where the cliche is, “If I offend anyone…”
In other words, it never happened!
The only mention of this from the team came in a roundabout, sarcastic remark from the SNY booth.
Harry Welch, the internet star
Mets vs. Athletics at Citi Field. Brad Penner – USA TODAY Sports
On Monday, Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle was spotted picking up a flying tissue and tucking it into his back pocket.
Keith Hernandez: “Oh man, I'm not touching that tissue! Oh man, he put it in his back pocket! What is he, is he crazy?”
Gary Cohen: “I don't know where those tissues were. … I mean, I just don't know about some of the guys that were on the field this homestand.”
Either way, the Mets found momentum again on Wednesday after Jesse Winker's game-ending home run.
Winker went too far, even by his standards: He paused to pose, stared into the Mets dugout, tossed his helmet long before reaching first base and yelled curse words into SNY's Steve Gelbs' crowd microphone long after he'd had time to settle.
It's not like yelling or being vulgar in public (see Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s recent second base salute at Yankee Stadium) is frowned upon under Commissioner Rob Manfred, and if MLB didn't require teams to shower with copious amounts of soap because of what the Mets did on camp day, then it's stinking up your head.
Jesse Winker reacts after hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jason Senes of the New York Post
On Tuesday's YES Yankees pregame show, pitcher Aaron Boone offered his latest iteration of pregame thoughts on his relief pitchers, referring to “matchups” as if he had a copy of a script. He often talks about relief pitchers being “lined up” in the sense that they're ready to pitch an inning at a time, regardless of effectiveness or situation.
This has put Yankees fans in a straitjacket for a long time: Boone is always concerned with the next pitcher and ignores the current one, so before the game even starts, Boone “lines up” the pitchers, as if they'll all perform at their best in that order every game.
And he, like many MLB managers over the past decade, is approaching the game based on wishful thinking rather than reality.
Silly story: Dion rages at CBS
Maybe I'm easily attracted to the questionable, or perhaps I'm skeptical of the attractive, but when Deion Sanders was booted from a press conference by CBS over vague accusations that he had abandoned “the project,” I was reminded never to trust television or a Division I college coach.
Last season, it was CBS's “60 Minutes” that gave Sanders two full song-and-dance sessions, no hard questions asked, to declare that he had received God's direct word to help him win football games. God finished 4-8.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders speaks during Big 12 NCAA college football media day in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. AP
So why would Sanders direct his displeasure, rather than gratitude, at CBS? And who would investigate an investigative news program that would give a proven con man like Sanders two mediocre national television profiles in just a few months?
After listening to Steve Kerr's Democratic National Convention speech, in which he emphasized honesty, civility and leadership, reader Joe Nicoletti asked if Kerr knew Draymond Green, who played for the Golden State Warriors for the past decade.
The NIL ruling not only made it legal to bribe athletes to get into college (the college part was an inside joke), but it also allowed fans and alumni to set up 501(c) organizations to take tax-deductible money from the money they “donated” as bribes.
It's all a scam, continued: Late in NBC's PGA Memphis Classic on Sunday, Channel 4 ran a breaking news scroll: “From WNBC Storm Team 4.” The report stated that according to the National Weather Service (NWS), a storm was expected to hit the area. So, other than some cheap and dishonest advertising, Channel 4's Storm Team has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Reader Guy Kipp: “Why would a manager think for a second that the audience would be interested in what the announcer is eating during the game?” And why waste cameras and tape recorders on something like that?
Daniel Murphy, who has appeared occasionally on Mets TV this season, is pretty good: laid-back, snappy, funny, terse. I still remember Mike “Lost Tapes” Francesa declaring to the pundits that Murphy would never be hit by a major league pitcher. His career batting average was .296.
