You know, that whole thing was done for you young’uns.
I’m with you. I hate how ESPN is whore-central. It’s less and less about presenting sports and the news and a story, it’s about advertising.
I didn’t mention the late start times, because I was under the impression that MLB is just as much to blame as the networks. Pretty much all of the other professional sports are guilty of late start times too. It’s more proof of just how out-of-touch the TV execs are with everyone. True, the west coast gets to see the game right on time, but anyone east of the Rockies has to make a choice between missing the end of the game, or being tired the next day. It doesn’t help that the networks don’t want big games on Friday or Saturday nights, because you’re forced to stay up late on a work/school night. Wouldn’t it make more sense to allow the west coast to miss the beginning of the game instead of the east coast missing the end? You’re going to lose a lot of the audience anyway if it’s a bad game, if it’s late, that’s only going to exacerbate the situation. Usually the west coast isn’t as “into” sports as the east and the midwest.
I am not a fan of Joe Buck at all. If it wasn’t for W. he’d be the country’s poster child for why nepotism is a bad thing. He’s full of himself (and I’m not sure why, because it certainly isn’t justified), and I can’t forget how he flipped out at Randy Moss in the playoff game against Green Bay. It’s only worse that he announces everything for Fox, and he’s moving into all sorts of things (commercials, late night show).
I’m not sure the commercial argument holds, as sports have been held up as one of the last events that is “appointment viewing”. Along with game and “reality” shows, there is a value with seeing the event/show as it happens. There’s not as much value, except for maybe the die-hard fan, in watching the game after it has happened. The ad creep is just a way for Fox to try to milk one more dollar out of the broadcast, and the sleazy Yum COO to mug for his crummy fast food chain.
I agree that ESPN continues to get worse. As far as I can tell, SportsCenter’s primary purpose is to run ads for the awful ESPN produced movies, push other ESPN goods (the magazine, other programming), and give untalented anchors an opportunity to make a name for themselves. The other 18 hours that SportsCenter isn’t on is to run replays of poker. (Of course I’m exaggerating, but you get my point. I brought up ESPN’s downfall a few years ago: Where did ESPN go wrong? )
It is important as far as where it was called, in that a generous strike zone will affect pitcher/batter strategy significantly, as pitchers learn what will and won’t be called strikes and the hitters then have to adjust to that. I for one would like to know that, but the 2D representation sucks, as it is a 3-dimensional interaction between the ball and the pentagonal prism which defines the strike zone. Remember too that if any part of the ball crosses any part of the plate, it’s a strike.
Do I then want to see a true 3D representation of the strike zone on the screen after every pitch? In an online setting, such as MLB’s Gamecasts, maybe (they’ve been showing the break of the pitches over there this season)-on TV probably not if it gets overused.
I think it’s only MLB and the NBA that have a problem with late start times.
You wouldn’t by chance be getting that impression from ESPN, whose headquarters are in Connecticut?
I agree it’s better for us to miss the beginning than for the east to miss the end, but not because we care less.
I believe there was a survey taken showing MLB umpires called better games when the strike-tracking systems were being used. So at least there’s that.
I can figure out the down and distance just fine, but the arrow graphic is fine by me. What irks me is the incessant “First-down line brought to you by Overstock dot com” with a giant graphic for the company instead of a useful graphic. That’s a college football thing.
I’ve said it before, I’d like to have user-level control over what graphics and commentary are seen and heard, including the glowing puck in hockey (although hig-def makes finding the puck much, much easier).
Seems like the solution to this is to fire those umpires. They already learned how disposable they are.