Okay, the entire world knows there is an extreme Yankees and Red Sox media bias in the world of baseball. These two teams are on every possible nationally televised time slot. And when they play each other, it is even worse. ESPN and FOX are Yanks/Sox lapdogs. You can't get any coverage without hearing many times the info on these two teams as almost all other teams combined. They're always the first scores announced. On and on.
Okay, enough about complaints from somebody who isn't a fan of either team. What I want to do is ask fans of the Yankees and Red Sox if they hate the fact that their own teams are being the target of the media bias. I have a reason for asking, by the way, and it isn't envy. I am a Giants fan and our own history with Barry Bonds gave us our own media bias. Bonds' legendary accomplishments (that kept the Giants as perennial contenders) put us on the map in a huge way. We were on the game of the week all the time, we were on ESPN all the time. Thousands of media members would flood the ballpark every day in search of some stupid, inane piece of trivia about Bonds; his shoelaces, his towel hanging in his locker, the air pressure in his tires. Usual walking routes outside the ballpark were blocked off for some media tent or something. It was never ending.
Starting times for games were constantly being changed because of dictated TV coverage start times. Tickets you bought in February now had different starting times. When the game was nationally televised, our own professional, knowledgeable announcers on our local broadcasts were replaced with ignorant network clowns who knew little more about our team than what they crammed for midterms in their hotel room the night before. They constantly got facts and ideas wrong and couldn't offer in-depth coverage due to the generic national audience. I'm sure the rest of the country hated Bonds and the Giants because of it just like we hate the Yankees and Red Sox. I know that I, and many other Giants fans I talked to, hated the media bias that was supposedly directed in our favor. It just simply wasn't to our advantage as fans.
So, how about it Yankees and Red Sox fans? Do you like the extreme bias? Do you hate it? Do you feed on it? Are you so used to the bias that you aren't even aware of it? Or are you completely clueless that there even is a bias? Do you like the 8:35pm start times on work/school nights? Do you care that the rest of the country is forced to watch you? I'd love to know.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting on this. As you know, I am neither a Yank or Sox fan and will never cheer for them, so I know you are not asking my opinion but I feel I want to share some of my thoughts.
Last night the Giants vs. Red Sox game was on national Fox Sports. I absolutely have a hard time watching the Giants play when the game is on national tv. I've tried watching the game on mute and listening to the radio but there is too much of a delay to work well. Last night was an example of how the telecast goes each time on national tv (especially if playing a team from the Eastern side of the country) for the Giants. The broadcasters talk nothing but about the other team, even when the Giants are up to bat. The other team is always the "princess" team. They are praised and highlighted like nothing else and the Giants, their team, their field, their batboys, etc. are nothing but second class. There were serious pauses last night when the Giant's came up to bat, finally one of the announcers would put the Sox up on their throne once again. Even if our boys would have won, the announcers would have talked all about the Sox and what they did right and how they just fell short. It is always, "blah, blah, blah" about the other team.
One last gripe I want to share, is about the announcers that are chosen to broadcast a game, especially in a post season game. I think it would be best if the announcers were the "regular" announcers (or at least those that are in some what of a rotation of the announcers for each of the teams actually playing in the game) for when they played at home and then when the game goes to the opposite team have their "regular" announcers do their home games. What I enjoy about the Giant's announcers is that they are knowledgable about the entire game of baseball (history, current stats, trivia, etc.) and not just about our team but they can discuss positive and negative aspects of the other team. Also, our announcers are so good about describing the game (even if you are seeing it on tv) and the happenings around the game, you are almost made to feel you are at the park watching the game live with a stat book in front of you.
Next time a game is televised on national tv, I think I will stick to listening to the game on the radio on KMBR 680.