Archive for the ‘ESPN’ Category

The Week In Sports Happiness

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Brian Burke, ESPN, Gay Rights, Golf, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, SB Nation, Skip Bayless, Soccer, Spencer Hall, Sports The Good, Tim Tebow, TWISH, Wrestling on May 01, 2013

collinssicoverSpending all day – every day – immersed in sports is a bit like working at Pizza Hut and eating nothing but pizza. If one is unburdened by such matters as personal health and waistline size, pizza is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, too much of a wonderful thing is likely to leave one no longer believing the wonderful thing to be all that wonderful.

Sports are really, really great. However, the more time you spend reading and writing about a topic, the greater the chance that its ugliness will be realized. This is why our focus often becomes embittered by all of the negative aspects present in sports. We forget why sports are so great to begin with. And so, that’s where The Week In Sports Happiness comes into play.

Every week, I’ll present the ten things that are making me happy from the world of sports. It might be a particular article, it could be a winning streak, it may even be an animated GIF. No matter what, it’s from sports, it made me feel good inside, and I hope it does the same for you.

Without further ado, sports the good:

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The Week In Sports Happiness

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Athletes Without Teeth, Brandon Knight, ESPN, Golf, Lennay Kekua, Louisville Cardinals, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Football, Sports The Good, TWISH, Twitter, University Of Nebraska, Wrestlemania on Apr 09, 2013

nebraskacancerkidSpending all day – every day – immersed in sports is a bit like working at Pizza Hut and eating nothing but pizza. If one is unburdened by such matters as personal health and waistline size, pizza is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, too much of a wonderful thing is likely to leave one no longer believing the wonderful thing to be all that wonderful.

Sports are really, really great. However, the more time you spend reading and writing about a topic, the greater the chance that its ugliness will be realized. This is why our focus often becomes embittered by all of the negative aspects present in sports. We forget why sports are so great to begin with. And so, that’s where The Sports Culture Happiness Index comes to play.

Every week, I’ll present the ten things that are making me happy from the world of sports. It might be a particular article, it could be a winning streak, it may even be an animated GIF. No matter what, it’s from sports, it made me feel good inside, and I hope it does the same for you.

Without further ado, sports the good:

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Monday Media Culpa

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Dan Shulman, ESPN, Joe Morgan, John Kruk, Jon Miller, Media Culpa, Orel Hershiser, Sunday Night Baseball on Apr 08, 2013

ESPNsnbI’m sure it’s subjective, but it’s always seemed to me that baseball, more so than other sports, possesses an aesthetic beauty that approaches the most pleasing pieces of visual art. From the unique design of a stadium to the subtle movement of the game’s participants between every pitch in the batter/pitcher conflict, it’s a very good looking sport. It’s one that benefits perhaps more than others from the accessibility of high definition broadcasts.

The standard bearer for baseball broadcasts is ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Yes, it’s highly mockable to many of us, but every sports broadcast, in its pursuit of catering to the demographic of everybody, is highly mockable. However, it’s also innovative, and it tries for something beyond what baseball fans might might receive from their local broadcasts. This translates into exceptional camera work, access to advanced metrics and graphics that actually inform an audience, rather than describe factual information that doesn’t require visual representation.

Perhaps the most impressive element of a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast is the booth that includes Dan Shulman doing play-by-play, Orel Hershiser providing analysis, and John Kruk creating an outlet for those who enjoy getting frustrated at dumb things said on television. Shulman and Hershiser were quick to form commentary cohesion when they began working together on television in 2011 after some time as partners for the radio version of the broadcast, and the strength of that bond has been tested with a different third man in the booth in each of the three seasons since the contracts of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan weren’t renewed.

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Richard Sherman To Skip Bayless: “I’m Better At Life Than You”

Posted by Dustin Parkes under ESPN, First Take, Media Culpa, Richard Sherman, Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith on Mar 08, 2013


Seattle Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman appeared on ESPN’s Under The Bridge Thursday morning to speak with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. It’s all a little bit too reminiscent of Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog clocking in and out of work, but despite the staging of what’s becoming an increasingly fictionalized program, it’s still amusing to see the most enraging heel get body slammed from time to time.

Most of the attention has been focused on this quote from Sherman:

Whenever you refer to me, whenever you speak to me, whenever you address me, address me as All-Pro Stanford graduate beacuse those are some accomplishments you will aspire to but never accomplish. You have never accomplished anything. In my 24 years of life, I’m better at life than you.

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FOX Sports 1 Intro Confirms Importance Of Live Content

Posted by Dustin Parkes under CRTC, ESPN, FOX, FS1, Media Culpa, NBC Sports Network, SPEED on Mar 06, 2013

2013 Fox Sports Media Group Upfront After PartyOn Tuesday afternoon, it was announced to the surprise of no one that FOX Sports Media Group will launch a new national sports network in the United States called Fox Sports 1. As the embedded quote in the news release from FSMG Co-President Eric Shanks indicates, the network has been introduced with the purpose of eventually competing with ESPN.

Fans are ready for an alternative to the establishment, and our goal for FS1 is to provide the best in-game  experience possible, complemented by informative news, entertaining studio shows and provocative original programming.

The order in which Shanks lists the network’s content is not an accident. Live sports has increasingly become the only reliable source of appointment viewing for television networks scrambling to compete in a shifting environment where technology, seen most notably through online and DVR viewing, has left executives to scrap their tired business models from the past.

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Monday Morning Media Culpa

Posted by Dustin Parkes under CBC, CBS, Don Cherry, ESPN, FX Canada, Keith Olbermann, Media Culpa, National Football League, National Hockey League, Rogers Sportsnet, Toronto Blue Jays on Mar 04, 2013

tabler-buck-july-16Last weekend, Rogers Sportsnet executed its plan to broadcast the first Toronto Blue Jays game of their Spring Training schedule. The response from viewers was as overwhelming as the network’s coverage, which included the full fleet of presenters, announcers and on-field reporters. More than 2-million Canadians tuned into the team’s exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers at some point during the broadcast, with an average viewership of more than 450,000.

To put that number in context, more people in Canada watched a Spring Training game involving the Blue Jays than they did Game Two of the NLCS between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, averaging 450,000 viewers would be an impressive number for a regular season game between Toronto and Detroit.

Despite a drop off at the end of last season, television ratings for Blue Jays games have been on a consistent rise over the last two seasons. Following this off-season’s roster bolstering, excitement among Canadians for the country’s only Major League product is higher than its been in some time. The addition of marketable players like R.A. Dickey and Jose Reyes has only served to add momentum to the following that Jose Bautista and Canadian Brett Lawrie garnered last season.

Shortly after the impressive Spring Training debut, Rogers Sportsnet announced that it would be broadcasting five additional Spring Training games on FX Canada. While the cynics among us immediately wondered if Rogers wasn’t once again using the lure of its baseball content to encourage increased subscriptions to additional cable tiers, doubts were quelled by the fact that Rogers cable subscribers would be enjoying a free preview of the network that represents a partnership between majority owner and managing partner, Rogers Media, and minority partner, FX Networks.

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Monday Morning Media Culpa

Posted by Dustin Parkes under CBC, Darren Rovell, Don Cherry, Erin Andrews, ESPN, FOX, Greg Bishop, Media Culpa, NASCAR, New York Times, Sports On Earth, Will Leitch, YouTube on Feb 25, 2013

Darren Rovell At The NBA Store

The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin’ at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it’s their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin’ party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours, buddy, I seen it. A mighty awesome sight.

- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

An increased hostility toward ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell has erupted during the fortnight following Will Leitch’s column for Sports On Earth, in which the former Deadspin editor likened the self-branded social media expert to sleet, a foul smell on the subway and pop-up spam (and that’s just the first paragraph). Its begun the human equivalent to a modern day hen pecking.

Leitch pointed out something that several among us felt to be true – Rovell’s commodification of the human experience in sports through corporate shilling – but perhaps couldn’t quite express in the same terms as the writer’s recent piece. This spotting of blood produced a reaction with more pecking from the public.

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