Every year, I seem to watch the Red Sox and Yankees more than any other team. Actually, it's a fact, I do. It's not really that big of a deal to me, because they are the two teams with the biggest fanbase and two premier teams. But I've always begged someone to answer me the question: "Why are these two teams the most popular?" One could point to the 26 Championships, a very valid point. There are probably equally as many people who like the Red Sox simply because they don't like the Yankees.
I blame ESPN for this evil. The evil of seeing and hearing about these teams more than any other. Why do you think kids choose these teams? When you're forcefed two teams more than any other in baseball, they're going to take over. I think it's a terrible thing for baseball that teams like the Royals and Pirates are never shown. These teams can become better without huge fanbases, but the owner needs some kind of monetary motivation. The Bucs don't garner any interest from fans and the owner is unwilling to lose some money to field a better team. If the team isn't any good, young kids aren't going to bother and they won't get any national attention. It's a neve ending cycle for that team.
After this season, I will have proof that the teams shown the most on ESPN are the teams that are the most popular. I'm keeping a tally of the number of times each team has been shown. Here are the standings as of April 3rd, I will update here after the second week of the season.
0 - Arizona Diamondbacks
1 - Atlanta Braves
0 - Baltimore Orioles
2 - Boston Red Sox
1 - Chicago Cubs
0 - Chicago White Sox
0 - Cincinnati Reds
0 - Cleveland Indians
0 - Colorado Rockies
0 - Detroit Tigers
0 - Florida Marlins
1 - Houston Astros
0 - Kansas City Royals
1 - LA Angels of Anaheim
1 - Los Angeles Dodgers
1 - Milwaukee Brewers
1 - Minnesota Twins
0 - New York Mets
2 - New York Yankees
2 - Oakland Athletics
0 - Philadelphia Phillies
0 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1 - San Diego Padres
1 - San Francisco Giants
0 - Seattle Mariners
0 - St. Louis Cardinals
0 - Tampa Bay Rays
0 - Texas Rangers
2 - Toronto Blue Jays
1 - Washington Nationals
As you see, the perennial favorites are already off to a good start.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
ESPN MLB Airtime
Posted by BlackOps at 7:26 PM
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3 comments:
Yeah, the Yanks and Sox do get a lot of air time. But what ESPN does is take major rivalries and put them on TV. Like two weeks from now is Mets/Phillies, and I guarentee you that we'll be seeing Cubs/Cardinals and Dodgers/Giants on a Sunday Night.
Sunday Night Baseball is irrelevant until we get into the later parts of the season and these games truly mean something.
Until then, most people can get by the occasional national broadcast and their local game.
These games all show up in the standings, the same as the games in September do.
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