Here at MLJ, we love Guest Posts. We love providing an opportunity for our loyalist of readers (the ones with the MLJ tattoos) to have an opportunity to express their long winded opinions. Up today, pkiguy, telling us why MLB Network’s baseball coverage is better than ESPN’s. All words are his, but all neat effects are mine–bolding is hard work.
1. The game look-ins. ESPN does this every now and then, but MLB Network (from now on, they will be MLBN) just jumps in at key moments and hopes something happens. Last night they looked in on the Cards/Dbacks game and in the bottom of the 8th with 2 men on and the Dbacks down by 2, Conner Jackson hits a homerun. The coolest thing about this was that MLBN didn’t know that Jackson would hit a dinger, but they went to the game because it was a key moment and something like this could happen. ESPN only shows you what happened AFTER the fact, but MLBN actually has the balls to interrupt what they are talking about to watch a potential big play.
2. Random Discussions. During the short season, MLBN has had some random discussions regarding baseball that you would never hear discussed on ESPN’s show. These are discussions that I know my friends and I have had about this wonderful game. Topics like the DH, neutral field for the WS, Pitchers in the AL vs. the NL, are just a few of the things that they have talked about on the show. Now these are not the type like on Fox or ESPN baseball, where the host lobs a dumb question to the “experts”, these are actual discussions/arguments that the guys on MLBN have about baseball on a nightly basis.
3. Equal Coverage. This one is pretty cut and dry. ESPN’s version does cover all the games on the nightly show, but 99%, the conversations all start and end with Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Sawxs, and that cute little team that they are all shocked about because they were not picked by them to go very far. You watch MLBN, and you will get insight analysis on some Braves pitcher no one has ever heard of and why he is doing better this year because of his arm action or release point on his curveball.
4. Commercialism. I am really getting sick of The Budweiser Hot Seat, The Coors Lite Cold Reliever, The Home Depot Scoreboard, The Shamwow Bullpen Report*. Maybe it is because MLBN is just new and sponsors haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, but MLBN hasn’t sold out yet and it is nice. When you sell out to commercialism, you essentially are abiding by their rules and they have a say in what you attach to their name. This is partially the reason ESPN only covers and talks about the big market teams, they have a group of people they need to sell the sponsors product to and so they play it safe.
5. Player interviews. Every night, you are guaranteed to hear at least 4 discussions with players about the last game. Most of the questions are pretty fluff ones, but every interview has at least one or two questions that are serious in depth ones that actually mean something and provide much more insight than you ever would get elsewhere.
6. Fantasy Baseball. If you watch MLBN every evening, you will win your fantasy league. It is not a scientific fact yet, but as soon as that grant money comes in, I will prove it.
7. The Crew. ESPN has 4 main guys and 2 reporters (Tim K, and Peter Gammons). MLB Network has 14. Now granted, this is also because of the extended coverage, but the biased homerism isn’t as prevelent and it allows them to cover all of the teams and get better insight into the game. ESPN has MORE people covering the NFL than the NFL network does, so the fact that they only have 6 people is pretty pathetic.
8. 30 Min. That is the average length of ESPN’s show. MLBN has 2 hours worth of coverage. Now I know that ESPN has much much more in the sports world to cover, but if you want to put up a show recapping all the MLB games of the evening, you have to be at least an hour long. Throw it on ESPN2 if you have to, but this is not enough time to cover all the games AND give some analysis and player updates.
9. Huggie Bear VS. The horrible GM. I pick the Mariner guy every time.
10. No Berman. Nuff Said
At the end of the day, it really isn’t fair to compare a network that claims to be the WWL in everything sports to a channel devoted completely to one sport, but if ESPN had spent half as much money on baseball as they do the NFL, MLBN would have some competition.
*The Shamwow Bullpen report may or may not exist.
Kruk sucks.
Without reading this, I would hope that a network soley dedicated to the league would do a better job covering it than a network dedicated to many leagues.
Kruk sucks hard.
After reading this, glad you at least addressed my above point.
Why were Kruk and Gammons wearing sunglasses at night in New York on Monday? Did it have to do with their Star Trek crap?
One of them had a stroke. The other’s a jackass.
Nice get, MLJ
/
nice job pki
Baseball tonight rocked last night. They had Volstad and Burnett on the phone.
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mytheir eyesgood ob pki
good job pki
Good ob pki.
Goo ob ki
i wish the jackass would have a stroke.
g j p
I jerked it many times to Wheel of Fortune.
/mrejr
at least vanna is of age you sexual deviant.
goob jobe ikp
Goop jib pkd
First!
very nice PKI.
Loyalist.
I don’t think that word means what Hef thinks it does.
/princess bride’d
//goof job jpki
I enjoy Kruk because his comments are like a puzzle.
He never actually makes a coherent point. But, you get little tidbits you can piece together to figure out what he was trying to verbalize but didn’t.
Sounds like your boss, ty.
Thanks guys. I was out looking for a real job when this was posted, so it is pretty cool to see all the accolades.
The season is still very young, but it has just blown me away at how much better the MLBN baseball show is. The fact that they go and talk to players like Volstad (ESPN wouldn’t talk to him unless he threw a no hitter against the Mets or Dodgers on 24 hours rest) and haven’t sold out to the commercial sponsors yet makes them so much more enjoyable for me to watch.
To give credit where credit is due, the live look-ins idea came from the NHL Network.
the final sentence says it all.
u cannot compare a network devoted to baseball to an all sports network
You can’t compare a bean burrito to a burrito supreme either.
Not to be sexist, but Hazel Mae needs to go. I noticed she just does weekends but she doesn’t seem to know that an error is NOT a double just because the batter ends up on second.
I saw your link on More Hardball. Good stuff.
its a pleasure watching& listening to the intelligent & knowledgeable discussions of your panelists without the screaming mindless buffoonery which is a constant on espn & others. keep up the good work.