I've been meaning to post something along these lines for some time and I apologize up front for taking editorial liberties, but the issue or maybe it's the media world I subscribe to has seemingly taken what I consider to be a sporting activity to something one needs a Masters Degree of Mathematics to understand.
I'm completely behind sabermetrics and other performance analysis systems, but for Chris' sake, how far can they take it? Batters hit 4 points higher after eating a Milky Way as opposed to a Mars Bar? Please! Give me a break!
We all grew up playing sports. (at least most of us) Baseball, football, BB, and even track and field wasn't complicated. You knew what you had to do. And in fact, as kids, the biggest, strongest, and fastest usually won. But it wasn't because of saber-f**king-metrics.
I was listening to ESPN radio the other day as I usually do when in the car and it came to me that this sports media industry has grown so frickin' large they have to write about any and everything.
For those of you under 40 years of age, sports and sports coverage was a simple proposition. You posted the box scores and maybe a few post-game interviews with the guys who performed well. But in 1995, O.J. Simpson murdered his wife and we were all held captive to the white Bronco ride up the 405 freeway. At this point everything changed. For the first time in history, hundreds of TV and radio vans were parked outside the L.A. Superior Court. This was huge, bigger than huge, it was humongous! Hundreds, then thousands of news people were hired and a new news industry was born. Jon Benet Ramsey followed shortly thereafter and then Princess Diana's death. We now had an industry that need celebrity tabloid crap to report on. It got right down to minutia. And it's grown from there.
I guess my point in all of this is: beware of who and what you're listening too. It's well known, although most viewers refuse to believe it; but rule #1 in television and radio is to sell advertising first, deliver the content second, deliver accurate content third. Whether the content is true or not really doesn't matter as long as the viewer doesn't change channels. We like to think ESPN is on our side, but ESPN's sole goal is to make money anyway they can.
Sports media has become a caricature of itself. It's ridiculous. I'm not saying that all of it is without merit, but the broadcasters know we will forgive the 90% of crap we get as long as there's 10% semi-truth.
Sorry to rant, but I'm so fed up with all of the NFL analysis that's on ESPN and we're still 4 or 5 weeks away from an actual game.
Please respond with your opinion. I'd like to know if anyone else shares my view and if not, what is your view?