 If a baseball game ends at 2:30 in the morning, and nobody is awake
to see it, did it really happen? Well, that all depends on which
newspaper you ask.
Last night’s – or, really, this morning’s – dramatic
conclusion is obviously something close to the nightmare scenario for
newspaper editors around the country, who would obviously much prefer
these things to wrap themselves up by 9:15 or so.
These kinds of things are hard to quantify. How do you count moments of non-coverage? It's not like Geoff Blum isn't the current lead at every major sports media website. But suffice to say, except for the Sun-Times,
the sheer usual torrent of columnists and opinions, celebrations of the
"instant classic"-ness of the game, the exhortations to greatness --
basically, all the same copiousness we saw Monday
after the Podsednik homer -- well, it's all gone. Jayson Stark has only
written one column, and that's gotta be two or three under par.
The Sun-Times obviously stayed up late: it's got topical columns from Mariotti, Greg Couch, and Rick Telander
-- thrown in with half a dozen other columns whose writing occurred
well before bedtime. So if sheer quantity of mindless chatter is to be
our goal -- and SMW by no means necessary endorses this kind of
behavior -- then those Chicago boys are sittin' pretty.
In Houston, their counterparts
aren't exactly sleeping on the job -- though one hopes that Richard
Justice might have gotten a nap since posting his column at three this
morning (eastern? central?). The tone: a bit more subdued. But it's
still coverage, and it's more than SMW can say for the Post or the Globe, who don't manage to produce any analysis or commentary in time for today's print editions. Instead, we get columns like today's offering from Boswell at the Post
-- it pretends to be about the Series, but was obviously written before
last night's game, and tries to end-run the obvious by talking about
the "controversey that surrounded last night's game" without that game
having yet happened. Sneaky. Effective, but sneaky.
When games end at 2:30 in the morning, fans tend not to be watching.
ESPN.com's morning SportsNation poll reported that an excess of 70% of
responders were not awake at the end of the game. Despite the drama of
the series, these kind of numbers contribute to anxiety about
plummeting ratings for Fox's broadcasts. On PTI yesterday,
Kornheiser confronted Wilbon with the sad truth: the Yanks and Sox help
ratings, and we miss having them around. King Kauffman agrees, trying to make a case for the inherent drama of the games themselves, but knowing full well that without Boston and New York, baseball's national fan base turns to CSI instead.
This kind of "shame-on-you-for-not-watching" commentary fails on several levels.
First: the Red Sox and Yankees have soaring Q-ratings in large part
due to excessive media coverage of their rampant shenanigans. If
journalists don't want the public to be sucked into that little cosmic
tango, talk to your editors. Media-sharing is just as important as
revenue-sharing; if we want to diversify public interest across the
total spectrum of the league, media coverage needs to flex
appropriately.
Second: since when is there some sort of civic duty to watch?
There's a difference between "you're missing out on great baseball" and
"you're doing our sport a disservice by not tuning in." Yes, ratings
are down. But Fox has plenty of money, and networks will bid strongly
for postseason contracts as long as there is the potential for ratings events like last year's ALCS (Game 7 was the highest-rated broadcast of the week -- take that, Petersen!) So tell the whiny sportswriters to get over themselves, and watch what you want.
Afterthoughts
Observations to take you through Wednesday: on PTI, Wilbon
called Comiskey (sic) the "most drunken venue in American sports." Say
again? This is possibly true, but certainly difficult to verify, and
almost certain to arouse the ire of (among others) Cubs, Eagles, and
Raiders fans, plus the sum total of college football. Why, it was just
a few days ago that SouthSiders were accusing Wrigley of being nothing but a big saloon! Ah, the pot drunk-dialing the kettle, black all around.
At halftime of Monday's Falcons/Jets game, Jimmy Kimmel did a brief stint with Blitz: League spokesthug Lawrence Taylor. SMW was shocked by this development; as we have previously noted,
ESPN provided some very negative -- and extremely hypocritical -- press
for the EA Sports competitor. So why is he pitching the product on a
Disney network? All is not what it seems.
Meanwhile, Kimmel got a chance to promo his interview later that
night with ESPN Radio nutcase Jim Rome, who did on the couch what he
usually does on the air: insult his fans with all the slick demeanor of
a used car salesman stereotype. Here's the question. Rome insults his
fans -- the "clones" -- all the time. But they're always listening when
he does it. He's insulting them to their faces, which somehow doesn't
seem as bad as going and doing it behind their backs. Meanwhile, SMW
almost felt sorry for him: taking interview compliments from Jimmy
Kimmel might be something of a mixed blessing.
Tomorrow: The Astros are done -- or -- the Astros begin their miraculous comeback. Plus, we all get some sleep. |
Daily Digest 
