TV Sports coverage thread

[DanOregon]

Thought we might start a generic TV sports coverage thread. Likes, dislikes, of ESPN and other networks.

Find it kind of sad that ABC no longer programs weekend sports at all. They'll show golf majors, college football, the NBA as they come up on the schedule but now they're showing movies and TV shows on the weekends, all the product of ESPN taking over the sports department and not wanting to split viewers. I'd really like to see Wide World of Sports back. Heck, World's Strongest Man reruns would be okay.

Looking forward to the Hall of Fame game tonight, don't know if NBC's studio crew will be part of it.

 

[BYH]

Joe Morgan still sucks.

 

[imjustagirl]

I heart ESPN. [/suckup]

 

[BYH]

Dan's initial post reminds me of watching bowling on Saturday afternoons with my Dad. Does anyone remember when no one had bowled a perfect game on national TV? Seemed like once a month my Dad would call me in from the backyard to tell me someone was working on a perfect game. Never happened, at least during my childhood.

It was also very cool when the PBA made its stop in Connecticut. The local alley was owned by someone on our street and we always saw him sitting in the first or second row. Made me feel like I knew a celeb or something.

 

[imjustagirl]

Dan's initial post reminds me of watching bowling on Saturday afternoons with my Dad. Does anyone remember when no one had bowled a perfect game on national TV? Seemed like once a month my Dad would call me in from the backyard to tell me someone was working on a perfect game. Never happened, at least during my childhood.

It was also very cool when the PBA made its stop in Connecticut. The local alley was owned by someone on our street and we always saw him sitting in the first or second row. Made me feel like I knew a celeb or something.

Hon, I used to watch bowling on TV. When I'd flip past. But I NEVER would have called someone in to tell them about a possible 300 game.

 

[BYH]

LAY OFF MY DAD!!!!

 

[mustangj17]

I missed the football game tonight. I needed a dose of football. Even it was preseason. Now the only sporting event that is on is the Yankees Red Sox game. I could not hate two teams anymore if I tried.

 

[crimsonace]

Find it kind of sad that ABC no longer programs weekend sports at all. They'll show golf majors, college football, the NBA as they come up on the schedule but now they're showing movies and TV shows on the weekends, all the product of ESPN taking over the sports department and not wanting to split viewers. I'd really like to see Wide World of Sports back. Heck, World's Strongest Man reruns would be okay.

You'll see less and less sports on ABC, too, other than what the leagues they carry contractually require (e.g., The Mouse's contract with the Big Ten requires a minimum number of games on ABC). When ESPN gets the rights to the BCS from Fox in a couple of years, the games will be on the cable channel.

Part of this is ratings-driven. As the audience gets more and more fractured (and we are more saturated with sports), what nets expect of ratings is different. A 6.0 rating is very good for a sports event on TV. It's horrible for a network show, especially in prime time.

The death of sports on regular TV really came in the mid-1990s when ESPN realized it could get away with a per-viewer charge for carrying its programming (that also led to the explosion of cable prices). Some cable companies tried to play hardball, but they all relented and eventually paid the fee (and to try to force more subscribers to pick up cable, they began to move their marquee events off regular TV and onto cable).

However, the rest of the sports world took notice, and began to pull more and more games off regular TV and onto cable channels they have ownership interest in. As recently as 20 years ago, MLB teams syndicated their broadcasts, and I could watch 30+ Cubs, White Sox and Reds games on local TV in Indianapolis, plus most of the Pacers' road games (naturally, home games were not televised), and all Indiana & Purdue college basketball games. Now, the only MLB or NBA games on local TV are the network Games of the Week and you can only get the Hoosiers & Boilers when the CBS Game of the Week shows them. I have 25 over-the-air channels now, but about 10% of the televised sports options than what I had 25 years ago when we had 5 channels.

To me, this is a greater fleecing of the consumer than the hyperinflationary ticket prices of the last few years, and it hits everybody -- even those who don't follow sports. Those of us who do not have cable/satellite (because we've been priced out of the market) are essentially shut out from watching sports because of a money grab by the networks.

 

[da man]

I missed the football game tonight. I needed a dose of football. Even it was preseason. Now the only sporting event that is on is the Yankees Red Sox game. I could not hate two teams anymore if I tried.

It was worth sitting through a preseason game just to watch that fake punt.

 

[DanOregon]

Between TO, Vince Young, Collinsworth, Mortensen's soon to be cut kid, the unis and the HOFers, and Dungy, it was pretty good.

 

[Birdscribe]

Dan's initial post reminds me of watching bowling on Saturday afternoons with my Dad. Does anyone remember when no one had bowled a perfect game on national TV? Seemed like once a month my Dad would call me in from the backyard to tell me someone was working on a perfect game. Never happened, at least during my childhood.

It was also very cool when the PBA made its stop in Connecticut. The local alley was owned by someone on our street and we always saw him sitting in the first or second row. Made me feel like I knew a celeb or something.

Hon, I used to watch bowling on TV. When I'd flip past. But I NEVER would have called someone in to tell them about a possible 300 game.

This is a good idea for a thread, DannO.

My dad was a Schenkel-Burton-Saturday afternoon fanatic. Whatever we were doing on Saturday -- and bowling was usually a part of it -- we HAD to be home by 3:30, when bowling would come on. And when the Tip of the Week came on, I had to STFU, so my dad could hear it.

Good times.

Later, when I was writing sports, I got to cover the then-summer PBA event in Riverside. Told my dad Marshall Holman bought me a beer during an interview and you'd of thought I won the Pulitzer.

 

[spnited]

Between TO, Vince Young, Collinsworth, Mortensen's soon to be cut kid, the unis and the HOFers, and Dungy, it was pretty good.

It was a totally meanignless, useless NFL exhibiton game.
Not even close to watching a baseball game that meant someting.

 

[BYH]

Tip of the Week!!!! Oh man. Good times.

 

[Den1983]

Between TO, Vince Young, Collinsworth, Mortensen's soon to be cut kid, the unis and the HOFers, and Dungy, it was pretty good.

It was a totally meanignless, useless NFL exhibiton game.
Not even close to watching a baseball game that meant someting.

I missed both. I watched some of the NFL game, but I just can't get interested enough in exhibition football. And like mustang17 said, I loathe the Yankees and Red Sox. I don't care what's on the line.

 

[Bristol Whipped]

I watched the Cardinals-Pirates game Sunday afternoon, which started like this:

ANNOUNCER A: And welcome to PNC Park, where the Cardinals and Pirates are about to meet on the hottest day of the year in Pittsburgh.

ANNOUNCER B: The Cardinals are almost as hot as the weather as they look to complete the series sweep, and the Pirates are just as hot.

ANNOUNCER B: ... But not as a team, Announcer B, because they've lost seven in a row.

 

[CitizenTino]

What the hell was with the CBS coverage of the Bridgestone yesterday? I admit, I watch five tournaments a year: the majors and the Bridgestone (local interest), but I was appalled by the number of commercials.

Watch Tiger hit. Watch Padraig hit. Watch one other guy in the field hit. Go to commercial. Lather, rinse, repeat for four hours (Excuse me... four hours and five minutes... those guys in the last group were too damn slow [/tournament officials]).

I'm not expecting the Masters "56 minutes of golf every hour" treatment, but geeeeez.

 

[mustangj17]

I watched the Cardinals-Pirates game Sunday afternoon, which started like this:

ANNOUNCER A: And welcome to PNC Park, where the Cardinals and Pirates are about to meet on the hottest day of the year in Pittsburgh.

ANNOUNCER B: The Cardinals are almost as hot as the weather as they look to complete the series sweep, and the Pirates are just as hot.

ANNOUNCER B: ... But not as a team, Announcer B, because they've lost seven in a row.

My favorite will always be this exchange between the Braves announcers years ago when they were in town playing the Tigers.

Announcer A: Albert Pujols with another game winning home run this afternoon to beat (insert team). He's on pace for (insert number) of home runs.
Announcer B: And I'm on pace to live forever.

 

[Batman]

I watched the Cardinals-Pirates game Sunday afternoon, which started like this:

ANNOUNCER A: And welcome to PNC Park, where the Cardinals and Pirates are about to meet on the hottest day of the year in Pittsburgh.

ANNOUNCER B: The Cardinals are almost as hot as the weather as they look to complete the series sweep, and the Pirates are just as hot.

ANNOUNCER B: ... But not as a team, Announcer B, because they've lost seven in a row.

My favorite will always be this exchange between the Braves announcers years ago when they were in town playing the Tigers.

Announcer A: Albert Pujols with another game winning home run this afternoon to beat (insert team). He's on pace for (insert number) of home runs.
Announcer B: And I'm on pace to live forever.

My favorite was an exchange between Simms and Gumbel during a Packers-Browns preseason game in Cleveland a few years ago. It was right after the huge blackout in the northeast, and they got off on some tangent about whether or not they would be able to play the game.

Gumbel: They could play by candlelight. It'd be like church.
Simms: That's kind of romantic.
(An awkward 5-second pause follows)
Gumbel: ... and the Browns have first-and-10 on the 35-yard line...

 

[huntsie]

Joe Morgan is terrible. He makes the same three points, ad nauseum, all night. I like Steve Phillips...some good insight. Luis Tiant's third inning visit on the broadcast last night should have come with subtitles.

 

[Birdscribe]

Joe Morgan is terrible. He makes the same three points, ad nauseum, all night. I like Steve Phillips...some good insight. Luis Tiant's third inning visit on the broadcast last night should have come with subtitles.

It should also have come with a table of contents, since it was one of the longest in-game/in-booth interviews I've ever seen at a baseball game. Even Jon Miller put doing p-b-p on hold to chat with Luis.

I did, however, like the highlight reel of Tiant blowing away Morgan in the '75 Series. You'd think that would temper Joe's the-game-was-better-when-I-played attitude. But you'd think wrong.