Article:An Open Letter To ESPN

July 3, 2008 3:37 pm

Dear Mr. Big Wig,

Do you like sports? I’d hope you do, considering you run a sports network and all. I love sports. You know what I love also? Arguing about sports (and you can listen to me do just that on 4th Down!) The sports realm provide so many opportunities for great arguments. Who’s better Brady or Manning? Should Joba Chamberlain be a starter? And now most recently, Are the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays legit?

Of course I’d assume you’d agree with me that sports arguments are entertaining, considering the plethora of argument based television on ESPN. We have First and Ten (which is not as cool as 4th and Twan), Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. These shows are successful because people love sports arguments. Theres two sides to every story and as long both hosts can make educated opinions it’s fun to watch.

This brings me to this point of this letter. I find more and more than ESPN personalities are becoming less and less knowledgeable and accurate with their information.

Last year around the MLB trade deadline I was incensed when watching Around The Horn when Jay Marotti suggested the Yankees should trade Joba Chamberlain for Eric Gagne. Marotti, a writer in CHICAGO, brushed off Chamberlain as if he weren’t a legit prospect (how’s that working out for you know Jay?) I can’t blame him for his ignorance, he’s a CHICAGO writer. The hell does he know about Yankee farmhands? Secondidly, The Rangers never even were asking for Chamberlain in a trade. Guess no one at ESPN took the time to pass him a fact sheet.

Than during football season we had the many atrocities committed by Chris Mortensen. So Eli Manning wasn’t out for the season after all? Hm..who knew. Adam Scheffler, of the NFL Network, is light years ahead of Mortensen at this point. ESPN again proved to not be a reliable source of information.

Moments ago I was watching First and 10. I generally try to avoid it because of Skip Bayless who is not only annoying but more importantly a terrible analyst of sports information. Alas I happened to catch todays episode and again find myself appalled at the terrible information ESPN lets get passed along their airwaves. Scoop Jackson told viewers that “the Rays are not legitimate because they don’t have an ace starting pitcher.”

Wait what? So Scott Kazmir isn’t an ace? Either is James Shields? In fact the strength of the Rays is their pitching. Scoop said “They don’t have a ten game winner their best pitcher is 9-4″ to back up his sentiment. Which is great except, only 6 pitcher have 10 or more wins. And only two of them are pitching on teams currently winning their division. Once again, guess no one bothered making a fact sheet.

Of course how could you expect Scoop Jackson to be an expert on the Rays. Scoop Jackson has written for basketball and hip hop magazines for over 15 years. Guess baseball isn’t his strong point.

And that’s the point of this letter to you ESPN Big Wig. Let the basketball experts cover basketball, the baseball experts cover baseball and the hip hop experts cover hip hop.

I guess in the end money is all that matters. You get ratings, advertising money and a bazillion website hits a month. All at the cost of breeding ignorant sports fans. I know what I’m doing and that’s turning off the channel.

Sincerly,

Jason Comack

P.S. Since I can’t remember the last time I actually found a relevant or newsbreaking article on ESPN.com here are some websites where you can find real sports news and analysis.

ProFootballTalk.com » Rumor Mill

MLB Trade Rumors

NFL Draft Countdown

Fantasy Baseball - Football, Basketball, Hockey, forums, rankings, draft guide - Rotoworld.com

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Football analysis and NFL stats for the Moneyball era

HoopsHype - The NBA Basketball Web Site

MLB Trade Rumors

Baseball Prospectus

The 3rd String Safety

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