ESPN said Joba Chamberlain should be the AL Cy frontrunner

[badnews]

Have they hit an all-time low? I don't know who the [expletive] was, I had it on as background noise while I was working, my mistake, and this anchor was badgering Steve Phillips about how Joba Chamberlain should be the Cy frontrunner and he seemed legitimately stunned when Phillips didn't back him up.

 

Phillips basically said Chamberlain wouldn't get enough innings to qualify since you need to do something exceptional as a closer all season and have all the starters to fall flat to win usually. Then the ESPN anchor said something like "Yeah, but Chamberlain's ERA is a run better than anyone else's, doesn't that make up for the fewer innings?" And Steve Phillips said no, and that Cliff Lee had a good track on the AL Cy Young Award and his ERA was nearly as good in double the innings and the guy gave some phony ass laugh and said "Hey, throw me a line here, I'm dying!"

 

And I wondering, why the hell do I put this crap on in the first place?

[TruffleShuffle]

he's #10 in american league pitchers in VORP... that screams "cy young" to me.

[badnews]

He's #1 in ESPN News coverage though, and according to them that's a legitimate statistic.

 

I don't remember them campaigning for Pedro to win the AL Cy Young Award in 2003 over Halladay if innings pitched doesn't matter to them to all.

 

After that conversation on ESPN, Chamberlain left his start with some kind of shoulder problem, so now they're faced with the problem as to how to give us insignificant updates on his status if he's out for a while while still devoting 98% of their coverage to pictures of Brett Favre's airplane.

[Jehrico]

ESPN - The Eastcoast SPorts Network.

[Guest]

ESPN - The Eastcoast SPorts Network.

 

Green Bay isn't on the East Coast.

[kjfoster 1553]

Jason Marquis for Cy Young!

[SouthSideRyan]

And Steve Phillips said no, and that Cliff Lee had a good track on the AL Cy Young Award and his ERA was nearly as good in double the innings and the guy gave some phony ass laugh and said "Hey, throw me a line here, I'm dying!"

 

ESPN forces their guys to take opposing positions for argument's sake. I'm guessing that's what the throw me a line here part was about.

[NCCubFan]

ESPN - The Eastcoast Sports Propoganda Network.

Fixed.

[TruffleShuffle]

ESPN - The Eastcoast Sports Propoganda Network.

Fixed.

 

well that certainly explains why the cubs are on espn all the time. must be that east coast bias.

[radarluv1]

jeter got a webgem yesterday on a play in which 1) no outs were recorded, and 2) was not a remarkable play. there werent many games to chose from, though.

i did enjoy all the bonus coverage yesterday during the delay.

[Handlebar McSkullet]

ESPN - The Eastcoast Sports Propoganda Network.

Fixed.

 

well that certainly explains why the cubs are on espn all the time. must be that east coast bias.

 

hahaha no kidding. Not that i mind.

[chuckywang]

jeter got a webgem yesterday on a play in which 1) no outs were recorded, and 2) was not a remarkable play. there werent many games to chose from, though.

i did enjoy all the bonus coverage yesterday during the delay.

 

But it saved a run.

[Ball And Glove]

Brian Kenney (the anchor in question) seems to be a big Yankees fan. I seem to remember him badgering one of the Baseball Tonight analysts (Olney/Kurkjian/Gammons...don't remember which) about Jason Giambi not being named to the AL All-Star team and Evan Longoria winning the Last Vote instead. The other SportsCenter anchor even chimed in off-camera by joking "Yeah, but what's Giambi's VORP?" in a mocking manner.

 

While it's been confirmed by several of ESPN's baseball "analysts" that the producers force them to come up with bogus viewpoints to create discussion, they also hire a lot of anchors that break rule #1 when it comes to sports journalism -- they openly root for "their" teams. Kenney and others openly tout the Yankees, other anchors actually refer to themselves on the air as Red Sox fans, John Anderson acknowledges that he's a lifelong Packer fan, and Greenberg and Wilbon openly root for the Cubs.

 

In many ways, ESPN is turning into the WWE of sports journalism -- it's more "sports entertainment" than it is "sports journalism."

[javy knows my name]

Mike Greenberg is a Cubs fan?

[rrudd2]

In many ways, ESPN is turning into the WWE of sports journalism -- it's more "sports entertainment" than it is "sports journalism."

 

Never forget that ESPN is an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

 

Entertainment comes first. Always has, always will. Sports is secondary.

[Derwood]

Mike Greenberg is a Cubs fan?

 

i'm not so sure. he tends to get painted this way because he grew up in the burbs and went to Northwestern

[Ball And Glove]

Mike Greenberg is a Cubs fan?

 

Like Derwood said, he went to Northwestern. He often talks about becoming attached to the Cubs during his college years after going to a lot of games at Wrigley with his buddies. I guess I shouldn't call him a "real" fan since he's not a natural Cub fan, but he does pull for them to win.

[RynoRules]

Mike Greenberg is a Cubs fan?

 

i'm not so sure. he tends to get painted this way because he grew up in the burbs and went to Northwestern

 

I am pretty sure he grew up in NY; he was certainly born there.

 

In 1985, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School.

 

Stuyvesant is a prominent private school located in Manhattan. My stepfather attended in the 60's.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Greenberg

 

Thus he is a Jets fan. He covered the Bulls and to a lesser extent the Cubs while working here back in the early and mid 90's following his graduation from Northwestern. I doubt he grew up loving Chicago baseball, but he doesn't seem to mention it on-air.

[Derwood]

either way, he doesn't seem to pull for teams much (besides lamenting the Jets). Golic is more of a homer with his ND ties

[ELCABALLO45]

Yeah Greeny is a Cub fan, he covered them for awhile as well.

 

One morning after the Brewers finished off sweeping the Cards he even said..

 

"As you know, I bleed cubbie blue with all my buddies in Chicago...."

[Bruno7481]

I don't know what is more annoying, the idiotic things said on ESPN or the constant complaining about it.

[CubinNY]

Mike Greenberg is a Cubs fan?

 

i'm not so sure. he tends to get painted this way because he grew up in the burbs and went to Northwestern

 

I am pretty sure he grew up in NY; he was certainly born there.

 

In 1985, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School.

 

Stuyvesant is a prominent private school located in Manhattan. My stepfather attended in the 60's.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Greenberg

 

Thus he is a Jets fan. He covered the Bulls and to a lesser extent the Cubs while working here back in the early and mid 90's following his graduation from Northwestern. I doubt he grew up loving Chicago baseball, but he doesn't seem to mention it on-air.

Stuyvesant is not a private school, but it might as well be. It's one of the best public high schools in the country. It is supposedly a "math" and "science" high school but almost every kid that goes to that school has some serious brain power.

 

You might be thinking of Horace Mann, which is a very expensive and very private high school in Westchester County.

[evv98]

Brian Kenney (the anchor in question) seems to be a big Yankees fan. I seem to remember him badgering one of the Baseball Tonight analysts (Olney/Kurkjian/Gammons...don't remember which) about Jason Giambi not being named to the AL All-Star team and Evan Longoria winning the Last Vote instead. The other SportsCenter anchor even chimed in off-camera by joking "Yeah, but what's Giambi's VORP?" in a mocking manner.

 

While it's been confirmed by several of ESPN's baseball "analysts" that the producers force them to come up with bogus viewpoints to create discussion, they also hire a lot of anchors that break rule #1 when it comes to sports journalism -- they openly root for "their" teams. Kenney and others openly tout the Yankees, other anchors actually refer to themselves on the air as Red Sox fans, John Anderson acknowledges that he's a lifelong Packer fan, and Greenberg and Wilbon openly root for the Cubs.

 

In many ways, ESPN is turning into the WWE of sports journalism -- it's more "sports entertainment" than it is "sports journalism."

 

It was Kenney who was questioning Steve Phillips about Chamberlain's Cy Young chances if he continued to pitch the way he has for the rest of the season. Phillips dismissed him and basically called him nuts. Kenney finally let it go, saying that he didn't think Joba should win the award, but that he just wanted to start a discussion about it.

 

I was thinking that they should let him start more than 12-15 games before crowning him the best in the league. There have been plenty of very good pitchers (a few have been Cubs) that had Cy Young stuff and arms of fluff. A couple of hours later Chamberlain left his start against Texas with a shoulder ailment. I guess that Cy Young talk is now on hold...until after his next start of 1 ER and 8 K in 6 IP.

[jersey cubs fan]

Kenney and Kellerman have a show on espn radio in NY and they were going off on this story this morning. They are huge Yankees fans who think everything Yankee is a success/great because it is a Yankee.

[CubinNY]

Kenney and Kellerman have a show on espn radio in NY and they were going off on this story this morning. They are huge Yankees fans who think everything Yankee is a success/great because it is a Yankee.

That show must be great to listen to. Max Kellerman is tough to take seriously.