Does ESPN Radio actually cover on-the-field baseball anymore?

[Frobby]

With the NBA and NHL playoffs out of the way, I thought I might actually hear some coverage of what is happening in the pennant races on ESPN Radio this morning. Instead, what I got was nonstop coverage of what Alex Rodriguez tweeted, how Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi responded, and whether ARod has spent his entire career using steroids or not.

You'd think the AL East division race might be worthy of 5 minutes.

:angryfire:

[Jagwar]

On M&M, if it's not the NFL, they don't want to cover it. If they must cover something else, it's the NBA.

[backwardsk]

You can't interrupt that multi-hour commercial for some baseball talk.

[glenn__davis]

There's a reason why there is such a backlash against ESPN from a lot of sports fans, particularly from non-NFL fans. The network has been fantastic for sports as a whole, but their general coverage has been lacking for over a decade.

[Lester Freamon]

Obviously what I'm pointing out has been going on for more then a decade at ESPN radio but with so many of their on air personalities being ex-football players you just can't expect anything better when it comes to coverage of sports that aren't football. Although, I suppose they do a halfway decent job with the NBA - I can't say for sure.

What bothers me the most about ESPN radio, and I admittedly listen for maybe 15 minutes at the very most on any given day (just depending what time I'm in the car and how far I have to go), is how condescending they are to all sports they aren't football. It seems like 90% of the time when baseball is discussed it's to focus on negative aspects or to just throw out there how "no one is talking about baseball".

I don't know, but it seems to me this has clearly been a conscious effort by ESPN to focus on one sport more then others and I don't actually believe it's solely market driven. And now that it has been going on for soooo long nobody seems to question their assertion that football is the only sports Americans seem to care about.

Every. Single. Night. There are great games and story lines to talk about in MLB but, simply put, IMHO, ESPN Radio (can't speak for the TV side as I do not watch it except for specific baseball/soccer games) is not equipped to cover them and hasn't been for a long time. Choosing an ex-football player (Mike Golic) to co-head your morning radio show immediately tells you, you're not going to get really worthwhile coverage of other sports. Greenberg is just as bad, IMO. I can't remember what year it was, could be anywhere from 2000-2002 I think, but I really started paying attention to how football centric ESPN radio had become when I heard Greenberg, on the air, while whining about Chad Pennington getting injured, that football was "the only sport I really care about anymore". They even used his Pennington rant, which included that line, as a promo for the show for about a week until someone, I guess, thought the better of it and edited that statement out of the promo.

I now have the option of listening to John Finestein in the morning and it is such a welcome change. Finestein talks about sports and tells great stories. I can't stand golf but I can listen to Finestein talk golf and actually enjoy it and, BEST OF ALL, he doesn't condescend to any sports and appreciates the competition in all sports.

Thanks for letting me rant a little.

[thatbearflies]

I agree that ESPN's coverage has been very frustrating for excluding baseball. There were actually several times this year alone, where something major happened in a game (even an AL East game) or a major power shift occurred and I woke up the next morning expecting to hear or watch something that at least briefly covered it, but there was nothing. Though, if we are starved, then NHL fans died in the desert years ago.

With all that being said, be careful what you wish for. If ESPN were to give baseball more coverage, who would cover it outside of the current Baseball Tonight crew, that seems to receive mixed reviews? I remember last year even Baseball Tonight harped on run differential for the Orioles. In my opinion, they do a lot of the lazy method of coverage that is derived from just watching box scores and not ballgames. Granted there are a lot of games per night usually so, I am sure they are strapped for time, but the NFL and NBA get longer shows or multiple shows. Hell, Baseball Tonight comes on late enough, they could afford to extend it.

Will they discuss it on ESPN First Take? We all know Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith don't know a thing about baseball. There's just not that many knowledgeable baseball fans on that staff seemingly and many seem to be casual followers. And the former players that they hire are put on a script or at least scripted topics so, they can't spend as much time on maybe what they found important compared to what ESPN as a network (A-Rod) wants to cover. I think what we are actually starved for on ESPN isn't a discussion about baseball, but an intelligent discussion about baseball that gives fair attention to each division and highlights players who sometimes aren't just superstars, but players who are doing the dirty work for teams.

[Mr Snuffleupagus]

ESPN is now as bad as any national news network.

Step 1: Find the half dozen stories that have the most appeal to the largest audience

Step 2: Cycle those same half dozen stories through 8 different shows and gather the opinion of every supposed "expert" at said network.

Step 3: Ignore all other relevant news

Step 4: Repeat

It's hard to say that ESPN will ever die, but I do think they face a steep road ahead as the popularity of the networks for each of the individual sports continues to grow.

Why suffer through 45minutes of talk about Tim Tebow in route to my MLB highlights when I can simply turn on MLB network, and get better highlights and analysis?

[Tony-OH]

The MLB and NFL networks have ESPN irrelevant to me. I watch Quickpitch every morning for my baseball highlights the night before, and try to catch parts of intentional talk in the afternoon. I can't remember the last time watched an entire or even major part of sportscenter. Once they become New York-Boston centric I was looking for anything that would take me away from them and the league networks do a great job, particularly the MLB network.

[weams]

The MLB and NFL networks have ESPN irrelevant to me. I watch Quickpitch every morning for my baseball highlights the night before, and try to catch parts of intentional talk in the afternoon. I can't remember the last time watched an entire or even major part of sportscenter. Once they become New York-Boston centric I was looking for anything that would take me away from them and the league networks do a great job, particularly the MLB network.

I really enjoy MLB network.

[OriolesFaithful]

The MLB and NFL networks have ESPN irrelevant to me. I watch Quickpitch every morning for my baseball highlights the night before, and try to catch parts of intentional talk in the afternoon. I can't remember the last time watched an entire or even major part of sportscenter. Once they become New York-Boston centric I was looking for anything that would take me away from them and the league networks do a great job, particularly the MLB network.

Yeah I've really watched ESPN less and less bc of the Internet and MLB Network (which is fantastic btw).

Also, it'll be interesting to see if Fox Sports 1 can further eat up their market share. FOX can do sports (unlike NBC) and they hold the rights to a lot sports already.

[Frobby]

Bump... I turned on my radio this morning, listened to Mike & Mike for 35 minutes getting ready for work and another 30 minutes during my commute, and there wasn't one mention of the ongoing playoff race. 90% of the discussion was about Trent Richardson being traded from the Browns to the Colts.

I really need to look into getting XM radio.

[waroriole]

I don't mean to sound like one of those guys who brags about not owning a TV , BUT I just don't tune into ESPN at all unless there is a game I can't see elsewhere. They offer nothing in commentary, and it's been that way for a long time.

[PaulFolk]

I don't mean to sound like one of those guys who brags about not owning a TV , BUT I just don't tune into ESPN at all unless there is a game I can't see elsewhere. They offer nothing in commentary, and it's been that way for a long time.

Same. Ever since MLB Network came into existence, I have no reason to ever watch ESPN highlight shows.

[DrungoHazewood]

Bump... I turned on my radio this morning, listened to Mike & Mike for 35 minutes getting ready for work and another 30 minutes during my commute, and there wasn't one mention of the ongoing playoff race. 90% of the discussion was about Trent Richardson being traded from the Browns to the Colts.

I really need to look into getting XM radio.

Get XM. I've had it for about 10 years and now pretty much the most annoying thing in the world is a rental car with a regular radio.

[weams]

Bump... I turned on my radio this morning, listened to Mike & Mike for 35 minutes getting ready for work and another 30 minutes during my commute, and there wasn't one mention of the ongoing playoff race. 90% of the discussion was about Trent Richardson being traded from the Browns to the Colts.

I really need to look into getting XM radio.

Talk to my wife. She swears by hers.