ESPN, The Yankees And You

Thursday, March 06, 2008


Trying to capitalize on the last year of Yankee Stadium's ESPN plans to air a bunch of "vignettes" on the history of the park according to Newsday's Neil Best. Here are the details....

The series, called "Remembering the House that Ruth Built,'' will feature 10 episodes (one each day) starting March 22 and leading up to Opening Day, another 10 before the All-Star Game and another 10 before the regular-season finale.

Here are the first 10 subjects:

April 18, 1923 – first game at Stadium; Babe homers, Bosox lose
Sept. 30, 1927 – Babe hits his record 60th home run of the season
Nov. 10, 1928 – Knute Rockne urges a win for Gipper; Irish respond
June 19, 1936/June 22, 1938 – Schmeling upsets Louis; Louis KOs Schmeling
July 4, 1939 – Lou Gehrig considers himself lucky
Nov. 9, 1946 – Army and Notre Dame play to a scoreless tie
June 13, 1948 – Babe Ruth makes his final public appearance in a Yankees uniform
Aug. 17, 1948 – Ruth lays in state for two days
June 25, 1952 – Sugar Ray Robinson loses to Joe Maxim
Oct. 4, 1955 – Johnny Podres tosses a shutout; Dodgers win Series
Not that ESPN cares, but Yankee Stadium isn't the only park in NYC that's shutting down. There are actually TWO teams in the city. Crazy I know.

ESPN vignettes to celebrate Stadium in Bronx (Watchdog)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 4:03 PM

20 Comments:

Oh come on. Shea is a dump. Yankee Stadium is just a wee bit more memorable.

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 4:42:00 PM  

You can't be serious. Just when I think it can't get worse, and that it has to get better, it does.

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 4:58:00 PM  

I hope my wife doesn't ask why we need cable again the year Fenway shuts down -- I may agree with her.

/myenslxa

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 5:01:00 PM  

Anybody in the 60+ demographic that cares?

Did Yankee Stadium go dark once the cold war started or something?

Matt said...
Mar 6, 2008, 5:17:00 PM  

This is actually a pretty cool idea. We tend to forget that this place hosted football games and memorable fights. If done right, this could be pretty good. Just pelase leave Chris Berman on the pine for these vignettes please.

GMoney said...
Mar 6, 2008, 5:21:00 PM  

That is a good point. The Louis-Schemling fight was pretty groundbreaking. I think they sold those tickets for $60 back 1938 if I remember the HBO Special right.

Mar 6, 2008, 5:25:00 PM  

it's cool if your a yankee fan or an espn employee (90% crossover) - the rest of the country sighs as espn moves closer to becoming YES2 and the MTV of sports. at least it may take away from time devoted to 3 months of wall to wall "can they get out of 3rd place" "coverage" espn focused on last season.

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 6:43:00 PM  

There going to cover Yankee Stadium the way they're covering Brett Favre now. Wow, that's overkill.

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 7:01:00 PM  

There's a second team in New York? Oh you must mean the Staten Island Yankees. I did not know their stadium was closing. There is another team, but they haven't been relevant for the last twenty years.

Anonymous said...
Mar 6, 2008, 9:30:00 PM  

I always laugh when people act like ESPN is Yankee biased. Really? Yesterday I watched the highlights of the Yankees-Twins game on ESPNews. What three clips did they show? Kennedy giving up a HR, Joba giving up a HR, and for NO reason, A-Rod striking out. That's it. But clearly, ESPN looooooves the Yankees.

The DC bias is strong here. And I know it when I see it, I've lived in MD for over ten years. PS. I'm only anon because I am WAY too lazy to sign up or anything like that.

Anonymous said...
Mar 7, 2008, 12:05:00 AM  

Yeah, one day showing some low-lights pretty much proves that there is no east coast bias. And I am sure that the deskjocks at ESPN wont be visibly salivating weeks before the first, second, or twentieth yankees-sox game.
I am rolling my eyes so hard right now.

Wade Word said...
Mar 7, 2008, 9:01:00 AM  

i think theres a lot more boston/new england bias. they do talk about the yankees all the time but they fucking love whenever bad stuff is happening. the yankees and notre dame both get a ton of press there (omg who wouldve thought the teams would the most history would????????) but they look for any chance to knock them down

all the while they just chuckle about 'manny being manny' OH THOSE ZANY RED SOX

BackBergtt said...
Mar 7, 2008, 9:38:00 AM  

mike georger is right on anon's points. They show the Yankees low-lights so that they can set up all of their debates. You know Skip and Stepneh A. can now talk about "Is Joba overrated?" "Should he start or be in the pen?" "Did they do the right thing resigning ARod?" And we're still subjected to more Yankee bullshit.

This whole thing is like the Brett Favre thing. He's the only person who retired this week. What--Warren Sapp retired too? So Favre gets three days dedicated and Sapp gets a brief mention at the end of SportsCenter. Sapp isn't as great as Favre, but the disparity isn't as great as three days to five seconds either.

J.J. said...
Mar 7, 2008, 10:10:00 AM  

And there's one more point to bring up. We're talking spring training baseball here, not regular season, and the Yankees are still high on the highlight list. Fricking spring training baseball. The game was even televised on ESPN for Christ's sake. I didn't watch SportsCenter that night, but tell me: did they have highlights from the Rockies/Royals game?

J.J. said...
Mar 7, 2008, 10:20:00 AM  

One last point. Don't tell me that Shea Stadium doesn't have memories. Hmmm, what can I think of off the top of my head:

The Beatles
O.J.'s 2000 yard game
Game Six
The Amazin' Mets

Hey, we're only six away from ten already

J.J. said...
Mar 7, 2008, 10:22:00 AM  

OJ had 2000 yards in one game? That must be some kind of a record.

GMoney said...
Mar 7, 2008, 10:51:00 AM  

Ugh, you guys are ridiculous (yeah it's the same anon). It was ESPNNews, I'm pretty sure they show every spring training game, and either way, the highlights lasted about 20 seconds. The Yankees do get a lot of coverage but if there's an opportunity for it to be negative ESPN takes it.

Wanna know WHY ESPN has an East Coast Bias for baseball? Because East Coast Baseball is where it's at. The West Coast sucks when it comes to baseball fandom. Over here we're way more dedicated.

Anonymous said...
Mar 7, 2008, 2:08:00 PM  

Awful Announcing ... are you seriously trying to say Shea > Yankee Stadium ???

Nobody gives a rats ass about the Mets outside of Queens. The Yankees are a global icon.

Mar 7, 2008, 2:26:00 PM  

@clutch is everything:

typical arrogant Yankee fan. It's true, Yankee Stadium has had a lot more great moments than Shea, but give the old stadium its due.

Anonymous said...
Mar 8, 2008, 4:57:00 PM  

That's funny, because I always laugh when Yankee fans actually believe ESPN views their heroes in anything less than a heroic fashion.

And, Manny being Manny is viewed upon with complete and total mockery by ESPN, not via the form of gentle, good humor.

Anonymous said...
Mar 10, 2008, 2:16:00 AM  

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