SB Nation - Login for mobile commenting

Halos Heaven

ESPN is The Worldwide Loser

Did you ever wonder what ESPN has in common with an annoying homeless person? Did you ever stop to think if the Worldwide Leader is interested in any team besides the Red Sox and the Yankees? Oh sure, there is always a Brett Favre moment, but does the Bristol, Connecticut-based media giant have any self-awareness? They surely have lost all self-respect. Is ESPN as annoying as a homeless guy asking for money? The following video has the answer for you...

1 recs  |  80 comments

Comments

Boycott Bristol...

Classic.

That was one scary homeless man.

Halos Heaven and the MLB network have obliterated my time commitments to esspinn on the boob tube.

Now that the Mariners...

…are about to “pop” (or so it says on the cover of ESPN Magazine, Home Edition) maybe, just maybe their myopia will “broaden” to Seattle.

For a week.

Okay…a day.

What does it say when I can claim I used to own a shirt just like the one you’re wearing in the video?

I have 1 that I still wear
Have you no sympathy for Mark Teixeira and his bruised elbow?
my daughter asked why that crazy homeless man kept asking for a dollar

Reactment:
Jillian: “Why is that crazy homeless man kept asking for a dollar?”
Me: “He is making fun of ESPN”
Jill: “Who?”
Me: “People who love the Yankees and Red Sox”
Jill: “BOOOOooooooo, Red sox and Yankees”
Me: “That is why i love you. Give your dad a Hug”
Jill & Me: (Father daughter embrace)

Thank you for bring my family together

haha nice
It warms the heart, doesn't it?

The things that bring a family together—a RevHalofan video….

how tough was it to wear a Red Sux hat Rev?
Can we have a video of you burning that hat, Rev?
i tried to do a video fo my dogs chewing it up

they were repulsed and did not want to have anything to do with it.

and if they ate it

it might give them chowdah-rhea
(But you as a crazied shaman torching in the night would be awesome)

opening day still seems so friggin far away...
yep, blogs in due time will

 kill off the biased national media coverage

a classic example of the east coast bias

was last yr when both the Angels and the Dodgers made the LCS when most “experts” outside of SoCal thought they’d both fall in the first round and they got hardly any love on ESPN for beating both those teams. Damn pricks…

That hat looks wicked retaahded

Please tell me it’s a trophy taken off the unconscious body of a Roid Sox fan that had been beaten senseless at the Big A. That’s the only time a Halos fan should ever have one in his possession.

Actually

homeless people asking for money bother me a lot less than ESPN.

I have to say the same!
That's one scary hat.
after being a HH member here for years, for the first and only time

i really wanted to punch you.

great job!! that’s sure to make its way though MLB blogdom. at least 28/30 teams.

my bad

on closer look, it was really Buster Olney in the video – how did you get him to film this piece?

When a man with .45 meets a man with a rifle, you said, the man with a pistol’s a dead man. Let’s see if that’s true. Go ahead, load up and shoot.
The limp is looking kinda painful there Rev,

You doing any better?

better tonight than the past week. thanks for asking.

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist."
Only reasonable need for ESPN is college sports

NFL Network and MLB Network have way better coverage. Only if CSTV was as good and then I’d never need the WWL.

You know, as much as I too HATE EPSN...

…you must begrudgingly give them some credit (thought it won’t happen by most West Coasters).

Until they showed the viability of basically 24/7 sports, we might not be in the position to enjoy so many 24/7 sports-oriented radio programs (FoxSports, ESPN, and even AM 830). Ok, so AM 830 has the daily colon cleansing and how-to-get-rich infomercials but one day I hope it’s 24/7 sports too.

That said, just like other giant monopolies, they got fat sitting on their asses due to no real competition (read: Microsoft). And as a result, have turned into complete shyte and a glariing East Coast bias, albeit their own recognition of it I think and the creation of entities like ESPNLA.

But in the absense of a company like ESPN trying what they did, no one can say what the sports media landscape would be like today. We could hope it would be the same, larger, better, etc. but who knows.

Anyway, I know my opinion isn’t a popular one but just thought I’d throw it out.

Rev, so where is the backstory on how you came into the possession of a Sux cap? Do we need to launch an undercover operation?

$4 bootleg

You want a bootleg anything you came to the right barrio when you came to mi barrio.

I'm trying to Google Street Map that alley right now...

…so I can be the first HH stalker.

BTW, when I first saw the video (on a small display device), I wasn’t sure it was Favre without much shaving or you.

Brett and I are both Libras

2554 e 55th 90255 – the google street view cameras did not go up the alley, the pussies.

haha! Brilliant, Rev.

It’s kind of scary how good you were.

Comment

The Angels get coverage, don’t fool yourself. Why are the Yankees and Red Sox covered more? They make more money for ESPN. Not everyone in the country thinks the Angels are as absolutely amazing as Angels fans do, and honestly, they haven’t proven themselves any better over the last 8 years than a handful of American League team, Yankees and Red Sox included. The fact is, the Angels act like a “small market” team, letting there premiere players leave via free agency, and rarely making impact trade deadline trades. The ONE world series they won EIGHT years ago has worn off for everyone outside of Orange County.

MTV

Do you know that in 1984, MTV refused to play the videos form Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album initially, saying that they were more interested in having a classic rock format. CBS threatened to pull all of their videos in disgust. MTV capitulated and the rest is history.

This video was not about the Angels, but you are a piece of shit, Shitalissush, so I don’t expect a human turd to have comprehensions skills, but for the rest of you, if ESPN were to cover more teams more regularly, they would make more money. The cowardly slime that roots for the Yankees are the leaders of the whiner pack and their boyfriends in Boston are not far behind.

The Angels do not act like a small market team at all

The Angels made smart business decisions this year. Signing Lackey would have prevented us from signing Matsui, Pineiro, or Rodney. Since Tony Reagins was hired we HAVE made impact trades. Texiera and Kazmir trades ring a bell? Go back to sucking off Swisher, asshole.

swishalicious???

OMG!!! This has to be…like…the most AWESOME screen name EVER. OMG!!! I wish I had though of this myself! So special! It makes me so…giddy. Goosebumps!!!

 -Justin Beiber

tsk tsk Rev you forgot about Tim Tebow

this is at least the third time i have mentioned it on HalosHeaven but when Mark Burhlie (I know I butchered his name) pitched a PERFECT GAME last season, the 10 am eastern SportsCenter led with Tim Tebow not getting the PRE-season unanimous all SEC. They villified Steve Spurrier for not voting for him (really, that is the reason you villify him?). It took them over TEN F’N!!%!%$%@#! (i’m at work so you do the math) MINUTES to talk about it. As Seth Myers would say “Really”…

Really, you don’t cover a no hitter in the heart of the summer, really? you care more about pre-pre-season football, really? wait it was a perfect game, yeah only 27 batters came to the plate really? but tim tebow, who is also a virigin which you reported on is more important really? and that incredible catch the Darren Wyse who just entered the game had to wait ten minutes for mr. tebow? but really espn if a red sox or yankee threw the perfect game who would you lead in with? or would really bristol just implode on itself?

that felt good to rant

This picture should be taken down...

It’s pretty offensive

The picture is

not offensive enough. I need a burning nun or a baby being punted.

I’m offended at the depiction of Roid Suck fans as homeless, pathetic losers

you forgot to mention their love for LeBron James
ESPN playing to the audience

I would too. The ratings on the West Coast just aren’t close to rating in the mid-west and east. Why put on an Angels game when 1/10th of the people will watch in comparison to a Red Sox or Yankees game?

Until Angels games stop finishing at 1 am EST we will not have the national appeal that a East/Central team does.

Do they 'play to' that 'audience'...

…or create it?

exactly

if they gave the pirates and royals nonstop daily coverage of all the nuanced interworkings of the front office and team decisions… a year later there would be an underdog nation with attitude popping up in stadia all across the country. ESPN manufactured “The Rivalry” and are too unadventurous to realize that they already have the reach, it is in their purview to be kingmaker at any time.

have they Rev?

i think they have exacerbated it yes – but created it, no. it has been there forever.

then you can include fox and tbs for doing it as well…it drives ratings:

Friday night special on espn: bos vs ny
Saturday game: bos vs ny
sunday game: bos vs ny
monday night game: bos vs ny

Since moving to an area without a major league baseball team

I have found that most of the baseball fans here in Utah are Yankee fans, Red Sox fans, Cubs fans or Brave fans. This, I believe is due to the way the national media has covered baseball over the years. Casual fans don’t subscribe to Extra Innings or MLB.TV so they get what the national media shows. TBS, for years would show all their games on cable and now the Braves have a national following. If our local Fox network has a choice of airing a game involving the Cubs, Yankees or Red Sox for their game of the week verses another team 99% of the time they opt for one of those three teams. The same is true of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. If the Yankees are playing the Red Sox, guess which game they will show. Of course we know that Sports Center and Baseball Tonight do not show any good highlights from the games on the west coast because they haven’t happened until after prime time and they won’t show them the next evening either. The same is true of the print media. I complained to our local paper back a few years ago when Vlad had his 9 RBI game against the Red Sox because he wasn’t listed the next morning as a “top performer” in the box scores. In fact the box score for the west coast games aren’t even published in the local papers.

You need to ask yourselves, If the other teams all got equal coverage by the media, how long would it take to start to see more fans of other teams?

^ Bingo! ^

And I think we need to further ask ourselves “Is the status quo good for baseball long-term?”

To a certain extent they created a lot of the buzz when it comes to the BoSox

but the Yankees are the Lakers or the Cowboys of the MLB. They are just the superior, most watched franchise of the sport and its been that way for a while.

The Red Sox do not come close to the Yankees exposure world wide in merch, ratings, or appeal. Nor do the Angels, nor do any other baseball team. “The Rivalry” works because it already has the titan of the sport working for it. Trying to create a showcase out of losing franchises or teams most people dont watch because of the air-time (any west coast team that starts games at 7:00 PST) would not work due to either lack of interest or lack of viewership.

Could you generate it with exhausting coverage? Maybe, but there is only so many ways you can break down Andrew McCutchen before everyone realizes they are going to lose 90 games anyway.

Yanks/Red Sox are the perfect storm. Location, Money, Star Power, Drama. Until the Angels start games at 5, actually start signing big name free agents, and win a few rings in a row they are just not going to be viewed in the same light. Its a logical conclusion focused around money, and there is really no argument.

WGN made the Cubs a national team

because of national exposure in the 80s.

TBS too with the Braves.

If the West Coast is so minimal to the ratings, they would start postseason games at 7 Eastern. But they don’t, they start them at 8:30 – 8:55 Eastern because they are desperate for west coast viewers.

The Postseason is obviously different

You wouldn’t watch a regular season baseball game with two teams you don’t know very well if it started at 10pm and ended at 1am.

"To a certain extent..."?!?!? Really?

Even Colin Cowherd has come right out and admitted, numerous times, that the ENTIRE reason for the BoSux phenomenon is ESPN. And he lays out a pretty strong case. He makes no excuses. EPSN needed content, and a buttload of ESPN employees with access to programming decisions were Red Sox fans. Cowherd was there to see it happen, from the inside. And he was honest enough to recognize it and study it and speaks openly about it.

I have made the point here in the past that ESPN should be taken to task for failing to promote teams in each sport that are NOT the cash cows. It is their fiduciary duty, as a publicly held company, to grow their revenue and their market share at every opportunity. They do this by BUILDING markets, not by sitting back and sucking on the teats of those markets large enough to be settled law. So they need to BUILD national interest in regional stories. And the Red Sox story is (self-admitted, remember) proof that it can be done, and has economic value to ESPN.

So you are a baseball fan, and out there in baseball land there exists a franchise that has won more games this decade than any other, delivering what is recognized as the finest fan experience in sports, has one of the most quotable players in the sport, has been home of one the most feared hitters in history, has created the most marketable mascot in modern sports, and was one World Series win away from being called the Team Of The Decade, and reside smack in the middle of the second largest media market in the country. What possible excuse could ESPN have for not doing everything in their power to keep you connected to that ongoing story, whether you are a supporter or not? When they know they CAN?

Its significantly easier to add a second element

to an already enormous story like the Yankees.

Yes ESPN is a bunch of Red Sox fans, no they do not need to “BUILD national interest in regional stories”.

At the end of the day they are going to do what makes them the most money. Pimping a rival to the most storied, successful, popular franchise in baseball history is a lot easier than trying to kindle a fire up under a Angels/Texas rivalry.

I agree with Cowherd, I agree with you actually.

Unfortunately when it comes down to it, the millions of people on the east coast dont and wont care about the Angels no matter how many games they win. Period.

i don't care about them coveirng the Angels

I care about them NOT covering baseball

Its not MLB.com

Its a corporation designed to make money. They do so by catering to the populous and following the trends.

ESPN doesnt need to cover anything.

All they need to do is ensure that they all drive the new BMW in 2011.

With the creation of MLB Network I could honestly care less about ESPN baseball coverage. I appreciate the production values they output during events they cover, and things look pretty in ESPN HD, but other than that I go to MLBn and MLB.com for all my baseball needs and haven’t looked back.

I think we need to get away from what ESPN SHOULD and SHOULDNT be doing. F ESPN. Who the hell cares.

Can I have a dollar?
..... fine but promise me you will spend it on food.
agree

but i do care when all i see is “whoever is playing the” cubs, yankees, red sox, and now phillies (this coming from a phillies fan)

the latter mainly because then the local broadcast is cut – gotta appreciate people who know the team the best

Let's not get carried away with praise for Cowherd.

The guy is a corporate lackey (no pun intended) who thinks he’s a sociologist !

He’s also a self-absorbed jackass. And he certainly wasn’t the first media commentator to paint ESPN as the Pygmalion of Red Sox Nation.

surprise he wasn't canned for saying that

but Cowherd is pretty controversial in general (like a mini-Skip Balis)

If by "controversial" you mean his unceasing ass-kissing of the NFL,

the NBA and the NCAA then I definitely don’t agree with you Halos. The fact that he was critical of ESPN in this particular case doesn’t change who he really is and what his function is. His is a mouthpiece for the major American sportsleagues and corporate powerstructure in sports. And you don’t have to listen to him all that much to figure that out.

no

he just says some odd things on Fan Nation.

why i stopped watching
Can I have a dollar?

Only 4 teams play on MLB’s opening day, Sunday, April 4th. Guess who two of them are? Uh-huh. Bankee’s @ Red Bux.

Can I have a dollar?

Guess which of the (only) two games played on that day will be broadcast nationally, live, during Eastern prime-time? Uh-huh.

Can I have a dollar?

Guess which game is on Eastern Sports Programming Network – representing the ‘kick-off’ of their MLB broadcast season? Uh-huh.

Can I has a dollar?

The West does get thrown a bone®. One of the two games that day does highlight West-coast teams: Mariners vs. Giants – a couple of also-rans in 2009.
Not in primetime, not national, not on ESPN.

i hate to disagree

but the reason Yankees are the “kick-off” team is because they won the World Series – something football also does.

granted why the other game isn’t on national tv is beyond me, i thought espn is known for putting as many games as possible on the first few days of hte season

And it is just a comedy of coincidence

that the team they are playing is from Boston?

blame mlb - they make the schedules

and with unbalanced schedules you play your divisional rivals the first 2 and last 2 months of the season

A prostitute

and a special request.

i cannot begrudge them for having highly rated teams

i can begrudge them for manufacturing these teams with exposure that has added to their bottom line quite handsomely and allowed them to break away from the pack revenue-wise.

My point exactly

If the MLB front office is REALLY interested in boot-strapping the smaller market teams, they have boundless ability to do it.

Have not seen it…. Where is the leadership with foresight? Why do they push want allow Little Leaguers in Kansas to become Yankee and Red Sox fans?

because not many kids want to follow a losing team

i got so many deals being an angels fan growing up in the mid 90s

So Minnesota is in the AL West now?

I seem to recall my opening day ticket saying “Angels/Minnesota”

So if I go look it up,

were the Halos the “kick-off” team of 2003 for ESPN? The White Sox in 2006? The Marlins in 2004?

no. no. no.
'twas a rhetorical question
really? i just assumed

phillies lead it off last season, and yankees this season

that and i don’t remember one game being singled out, i thought it used to be opening day with games at 1, 4, 7, and 10

The Yankees have been the "kick-off " team plenty of times when they

didn’t win the Series the previous season. But that’s not even the key point. The greater issue is what Rev. alluded to, namely that other coverage worthy teams are being almost totally neglected. For example, the Marlins didn’t kick-off the 2004 season on ESPN after they won it all in 2003.

I don't have anything important to say here

(what else is new…), but I do think we should strive to leave Wally’s World’s comment [below]
as the last comment on this post

i don't even remember what Wally was talking too

but Wally is your username in reference to Wally Joyner or Vacation

Wow that was annoying.

You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Halos Heaven to post a comment.