MLB to ESPN: Drop dead

[JayFarrar]

It is so much more painful that you know ... well, I guess you could've worked in TV too. Those people are the most annoying ****s out there. KUNT-TV stole that from us. Yeah, nevermind you both stole it from Podunk Press.

Nice call-sign. That for the PBS station at the University of North Texas?

That would be KNTU, sir. The Credit Union of North Texas wouldn't give up their initials ....

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union says please be quiet.

 

[D-3 Fan]

But if ESPN agreed to an embargo with MLB to make nice due to its contracts to show the home run derby or other events, then MLB may have some solid ground.

That's what it sounds like. From the link that started the thread ...

The brouhaha started late Sunday afternoon when MLB had unveiled the All-Star selections in an hourlong show that was scheduled by contract to be exclusive to new rights-holder Turner Broadcasting. Other media, including ESPN, were prevented from disclosing the names until after the Turner show. Sources familiar with the situation said that ESPN had asked for permission to do a special All-Star selection show but was told that as in the past when it was ESPN's under the rights deal this was an exclusive.

Novelist hit it on the head, there was a problem because the game ran late. The Braves-Marlins games ran late into extra innings, on top of a rain delay, thus making TBS to announce the starters several minutes before ESPN and SC came on to announce the starters. If the game ended like it should, TBS would have made the announcement around 5pm EDT, and not 5:45pm EDT as they ended up doing. That's the story that hasn't been brought up.

MLB can't ***** too much about it because it was about timing. They should have told the Fish and the Braves to hurry the **** up and play the game or postpone it and get off the t.v. screen.

 

[Oz]

MLB can't ***** too much about it because it was about timing. They should have told the Fish and the Braves to hurry the **** up and play the game or postpone it and get off the t.v. screen.

Are you saying they should forget about the baseball game so TBS can run its show, and so ESPN can have the rosters in time for SC? Sorry, that's lame. When games run long (think October baseball), TV adjusts. Happens all the time.

Just because things were supposed to run at a certain time, that doesn't mean what ESPN did was right.

 

[westcoastvol]

That being said, this is a HUGE error by MLB. They lose a lot of attention to the game.

How do you figure? TBS has the peripheral crap instead of ESPN anyway, so people who tune to ESPN for that won't be there.
And ESPN is still committed to the highlight show...

TBS is doing programming from San Fran?

And Craig Sager can't wait to go shopping!

 

[D-3 Fan]

MLB can't ***** too much about it because it was about timing. They should have told the Fish and the Braves to hurry the **** up and play the game or postpone it and get off the t.v. screen.

Are you saying they should forget about the baseball game so TBS can run its show, and so ESPN can have the rosters in time for SC? Sorry, that's lame. When games run long (think October baseball), TV adjusts. Happens all the time.

Just because things were supposed to run at a certain time, that doesn't mean what ESPN did was right.

It was tongue-in-cheek, Oz. You want me to put that in blue? Things like that (extra inning games) always happen. If MLB is going whine, that's their problem.

 

[Oz]

Sorry, I've always had a miserable sarcasm detector here. :-[

MLB still has a right to whine, though. A partner went against a previously made agreement.

 

[D-3 Fan]

Apology accepted, Oz.

Common sense would have told the WWL to hold off until TBS was done, but given their history of being cocky and doing whatever makes them happy, they released them anyway, without waiting for a while.

Ernie Johnson is somewhere at home laughing as Barkley gives his two cents worth about this faux pas.

 

[sportshack06]

Should MLB start a war with ESPN, I'll take the Worldwide Leader and the points.

I'd join you.

MLB was steamed after ESPN's "SportsCenter" reported the National League rosters on Associated Press report and the entire NL and AL rosters a few minutes after they were unveiled on TBS.

If I read that correctly, the Associated Press reported the National League roster and ESPN reported it on SC, and then both rosters shortly after TBS. Once all the selections were announced, no doubt AP would have them on the wire.

If it's been reported, it's fair game. Right? If there's an embargo or agreement between TV networks but AP does not agree and reports the news, why should anyone else be bound to the embargo?

In that case, **** MLB and good for ESPN.


But if ESPN agreed to an embargo with MLB to make nice due to its contracts to show the home run derby or other events, then MLB may have some solid ground.

If the roles were reversed, ESPN's brass would be going nuts about TBS doing the same.

TV people ... ::)

TBS actually partially did this to ESPN last year.

I doubt its on YouTube...but Skip Caray was doing the Sunday afternoon telecast on TBS on the Selection Sunday. The rosters came down at 3 pm that day, but were embargoed, of course, until ESPN's Special Show at 7 PM leading into Sunday Night Baseball.

Prior to a commerical break just around 3 PM....Skip announces the rosters are in and he'll inform fans who the Braves picks are, because after all Skip is Skip and "if I was the commissioner of baseball" we all know how he'd run the show.

After the commercial, Skip proceeded to tell fans that if the Braves were going on a fishing trip over the All-Star Break that "Brian McCann, Edgar Renteria, and Andruw Jones should not board the boat"

 

[spnited]

And if ESPN didn't have baseball during the summer what would it do... air a few hundred more poker repeats?
Or maybe it could break down the fifth round of the NFL draft.
ESPN doesn't have enough decent programming now with baseball. if it were to lose MLB, it would suffer a whole lot more than the sport would.

ESPN needs MLB more than MLB needs ESPN.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Rightsholders NEVER lose these disputes. ESPN gives MLB money. Ergo, MLB will wind up forgiving ESPN. Baseball's not afraid of losing ESPN, it's afraid of what ESPN will put up against baseball if it loses it.
Pro football seven nights a week in October? It could happen.

Pro football, no. College and pro, maybe.
But MLB is in the right here and ESPN deserved to get its knuckles cracked.

How is it right?

What did I miss here?

How was even the "spirit" of the agreement violated.

TBS had the full exclusivity.

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

 

[slappy4428]

NBC?

 

[Songbird]

Indeed, spptnnidd.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

NBC?

They gave some info at 5:46 p.m.

 

[Oz]

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

Just curious, how did ESPN not violate this?

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

Just curious, how did ESPN not violate this?

The released the info after TBS did in its entirety.

 

[Oz]

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

Just curious, how did ESPN not violate this?

The released the info after TBS did in its entirety.

But not after the show went off the air, so it's still a violation of the agreement.

 

[markvid]

But the show started almost an hour late.
It was a mistake on ESPN's part, but frankly one MLB should have chalked up to it happens.
Notice TBS ain't yelling about it?

 

[wickedwritah]

I doubt anyone on SportsCenter's staff beyond the top rungs knew about the all-star embargo. No one probably figured the TBS game was going to get delayed for two hours.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

Just curious, how did ESPN not violate this?

The released the info after TBS did in its entirety.

But not after the show went off the air, so it's still a violation of the agreement.

**** that.

 

[markvid]

The only one who violated it may have been NBC.

Just curious, how did ESPN not violate this?

The released the info after TBS did in its entirety.

But not after the show went off the air, so it's still a violation of the agreement.

Yes, it is, but you can say with 99.999999999999999999999% certainty it wasn't malicious or intentional.