There are times — too many times — when I’m left to despise ESPN. I despise what it has chosen to become rather than what it was designed to be and remain.
I despise how it has chosen to destroy sports for no sensible reason rather than protect and sustain them.
Sunday evening, I despised ESPN seconds after turning it on to watch — to try to watch — the Tigers-Yankees game from the Little League World Series complex in Williamsport, Pa.
It opened with a collection of fancy moving images of big leaguers in all form of immodest displays — bat-flipping, check-me-out posing and self-smitten, post-play acts, not one even close to an image of actually playing baseball — that melted into moving images of Little Leaguers copying the conceited actions of their MLB mentors.
Japan pitcher Taiyo Honryo (25) reacts after being walked to force home a run against Latin America Region in the fourth inning at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
It was revolting yet not surprising given that ESPN has so assiduously tried to devalue and diminish the LLWS since it first aimed a speed gun at 12-year-old pitchers after asking them to name their favorite Disney movie.
Was/is ESPN unaware that youth league baseball, coast to coast, has been suffering an umpiring shortage — a crisis — as schooled umps are bolting to avoid further clashes with ESPN-era obnoxious kids, and vulgar, threatening and often violent parents, coaches and spectators?
Does ESPN even care? Clearly, repetitively, it doesn’t.
People who once were rarely seen or heard trying to destroy kids’ games and their sense of sports are now a dime a bushel, and ESPN has always been demonstrably beside them to fan their fires.
Those umps can now find better things to do rather than be abused in the free time they once devoted to kids. I’ve heard from dozens of them, and all have pointed to the antisocial messages delivered to kids and carried by TV, with ESPN listed first.
Latin America Region outfielder Beier Zarraga (8) reacts after hitting an RBI triple against Japan in the fourth inning at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
Southeast Region infielder Hunter Alexander (10) reacts with teammates after the game against West Region at Lamade Stadium. Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
Monday, it was back to the LLWS, where ESPN’s voices still spoke as if the games were being played by professionals, and kids flashing Superman poses for reaching first base were rewarded with slow-motion replays.
And let’s not forget Rob Manfred — the man at the top who has allowed MLB games to disappear behind hide-and-seek paywalls, allowed Nike to buy out fabulous traditions by adding garish, ugly, on-sale-now street-centric uniforms and tuned extra-inning games into scratch-off lotteries — was all-in on ad campaigns that sold MLB to kids through videos of big leaguers acting like pro wrestlers.
Greatest sport of them all, and it has been destroyed from the inside out.
SNY pokes fun at tasteless Camp Day first-pitch call
So a week later, and still not a word of contrition from the Mets or MLB for honoring a young female oral sex TikTok instructor before tens of thousands of kids at an afternoon Camp Day game.
Not even one of those “if we offended anyone … ” boilerplate jobs.
Thus, it never happened!
The only team-attached reference to it came in veiled, sarcastic form from SNY’s booth.
Viral internet star Haliey Welch throws out a ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Mets and the Athletics at Citi Field. Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Monday, O’s first baseman Ryan Mountcastle was seen picking up a tissue that had blown by, then jamming into a back pocket.
Keith Hernandez: “Oh, I would not touch that Kleenex! Oh, he put it in his back pocket! What is he, nuts?!”
Gary Cohen: “You don’t know where that Kleenex has been. … I mean, you know, with some of the personages who have been on the field during this homestand, you just don’t know.”
Anyway, Wednesday the Mets were back at it after Jesse Winker’s game-ending home run.
Winker, even by excessive standards, went too far, stopping to pose, stare into the Mets’ dugout and throw his helmet well before reaching first, then, long after it was time he calmed himself, cursing into SNY’s Steve Gelbs’ crowd mic.
Not that shouting or demonstrating vulgarities in their most public form (see: Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s recent second base salute in Yankee Stadium) is condemned under commissioner Rob Manfred. Hey, if what the Mets did to Camp Day didn’t move MLB to demand teams take a shower using plenty of soap, it stinks from the head down.
Jesse Winker reacts after he hits a walk off home run during the 9th inning. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Tuesday on YES’ Yankees pregame, Aaron Boone delivered his latest repetitive pregame take on his bullpen, referencing “matchups,” as if he has a copy of the script. He has often spoken of his relievers as “lined up” — as in ready to go in order — one inning each regardless of effectiveness or circumstances.
That has long driven Yankees fans into the arms of a straitjacket. Boone is always more concerned with his next pitcher to the neglect of his current one. Thus before games even begin, Boone has them “lined up” in order, as if they’ll all be at the top of their game, in order, every game.
And he, among many MLB managers the past 10 years, commit their games to wishful fantasy rather than here-and-now reality.
Bunch of fluff: Deion mad at CBS
Perhaps I’m easily fascinated by the suspicious, or suspicious of the fascinating, but Deion Sanders’ singling out of CBS for dismissal from his news conference because of his vague accusation of abandoning his “project” reminded me to never trust TV or Division I college coaches.
It was CBS’ “60 Minutes” that last season granted Sanders two full-length, no-tough-questions-asked, song-and-dance sessions for Sanders to proclaim himself a direct recipient of the words of God in order to win football games. God finished 4-8.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders speaks during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. AP
So why would Sanders single out CBS for his displeasure rather than his gratitude? And who investigates the investigative news shows that give a proven flim-flammer such as Sanders two palsy-walsy national TV profiles in a matter of months?
Reader Joe Nicoletti — after hearing Steve Kerr’s DNC speech stressing integrity, civility and leadership — asks if Kerr is familiar with Draymond Green, one of his Golden State players the past 10 years.
Not only is it now legal to bribe athletes to attend colleges via NIL rulings — the college part is an inside joke — fans and alum can now establish a 501(c) collective in order to make the “donated” bribe money tax deductible.
It’s all a con, continued: Late in Sunday’s PGA Memphis Classic on NBC, Ch. 4 ran a news alert scroll: “From WNBC Storm Team 4.” The report noted the expected severity of a storm headed here as per “the NWS” — National Weather Service. Thus, beyond cheap, dishonest promotion, Ch. 4’s Storm Team had zero to do with it.
Reader Guy Kipp: “Why do directors think for even one second that viewers are interested in seeing what food announcers are eating during a game?” And why waste a camera and perhaps a tape machine on such?
As an occasional plug-in on Mets telecasts this season, Daniel Murphy has been pretty good. Laid back, alert, amusing and brief. Still recall Mike “Lost Tapes” Francesa’s expert declarations that Murphy will never hit big league pitching. He hit a career .296.
