I wanted to get to this yesterday but the blog was FUBAR all morning and then there was more timely stuff – but anyways….
Who does ESPN think the audience for Sunday Night Baseball is?
For this post I won’t get into start times and where the US Population lives (and to be fair, the opponent was the Dodgers so 8p was sort of defendable – whereas I don’t know who on the West Coast is going to care about Nationals-Mets).
So the first thing I question is the strike zone box. I get it. It probably seemed like a cool idea, in the same way that the Fox glowing puck did twenty years ago.
In practice it’s distracting. I found that every time I looked up all I could see was the box and I couldn’t pick up the ball the way I normally do. And it seems to me to be one size fits all. I get it but I don’t get it.
Then at some point they cut away to some interview that would make even Gelbs wonder when the hell they would get back to the game. Who is this for? I am sure the Dodger fans knew everything, us Mets fans didn’t care….so who is this for? Some casual fan in Omaha?
And manager interviews. What’s the point? It’s the same generic stuff that you always get. Mike up Wally Backman after something bad happens and maybe that would be interesting. Have today’s non-Earl Weaver crew say generic stuff….who cares.
I think baseball needs to focus on not losing the ME crowd. Dance with who brung ya. The next generation has moved on to the NBA and soccer. Mrs. Mets Police wouldn’t watch if I were playing. I don’t believe in these casual drive by fans who are going to start watching games because of a manager interview or a rectangle.
While not ESPN’s fault, the thing MLB should be trying to solve ASAP is pace of game. I bailed on Sunday night’s game not because it was 9:30, not because the Mets were losing but because the game was boring. That was the same reason I turned the game off Friday night. YOUR SPORT HAS BECOME BORING.
It wasn’t always this way. Games were 2.5 hours long and it took two maybe three pitchers to get to the end. Now….we’re treated to Terry Collins using five pitchers to lose 8-0. Who would watch that?
Back to ESPN – this is very simple. Just. Show. The. Game. The rest of it adds nothing. See the glowing puck and how popular hockey didn’t become.
