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July 11, 2005
The Three (3) Slowest Days Of Summer
Lauding and lamenting the three slowest Sportscenter days of the year
Despite the fact that I am most certainly a regular Sportscenter viewer, I can’t remember the last time I uttered the phrase, “I really need to be home for Sportscenter tonight.” There are a lot of reasons why I (and I would guess most viewers) can be rather relaxed about not keeping our appointments with Sportscenter: the show is replayed a half dozen times after its initial broadcast, you can get all the highlights on ESPN News anyway, the Internet is a ton more efficient for checking scores, and so on. This is not destination television. You don’t need to record it or check the episode guide on the web site to keep up.
Nope, Sportscenter is filler TV. If I’m in front of a television during a Sportscenter timeslot (6-7 pm, 11pm-1am, all morning) and I’m flipping channels, Sportscenter will be in the rotation. I do not maintain a committed relationship with Sportscenter; but if we see each other at a party, there’s no reason we can’t hang out. And that’s cool. We know where we stand. I get my kicks from following Sports, and Sportcenter is a big part of that.
Which leaves me with absolutely no excuse for the fact that I’m already dreading the next three days; that is, The Three Slowest Sportscenter Days of the Year; that is, the MLB All-Star Break. Through a confluence of factors unique to these three days (and literally no others), the Major League Baseball All-Star Break is literally the slowest sports news period of the year, rendering this annual Mon-Tues-Wed trifecta the worst three days of Sportscenter on the calendar:
Batting .250 w/r/t American Pro Sports: with apologies to Major League Soccer, the PGA and pro tennis, the summer sports calendar belongs to baseball. In fact, July (between the end of the NBA season and the start of NFL training camp) is the most barren month of the sports year. If you’re looking for highlights, all you get is baseball (with a little golf and the occasional tennis or soccer moment on the weekends). Oh sure, you can try to get a fix from NBA free agency or coaching changes, a bored 90 seconds from some schlub at the Tour De France, chitchat about the British Open, or even lengthy reports in re: potential NFL training camp holdouts, but it’s all filler. And you know it.
No, No, Tell Us More About The Home Run Derby: in lieu of actual sports news and/ or highlights, nothing is more insulting than the extended coverage/ hype about the non-events like the Home Run Derby, the announcement of the All-Star Game batting orders, and this nonsense about Kenny Rogers. (Note to sports media: the only people who remotely care about this Kenny Rogers thing are the sports media. Seriously. No one else cares.)
One More Goofy Soccer Marketing Idea: if there's one TV show that America really really really gets behind, it's Monday Night Football. Major League Soccer, why not hijack this idea for summer? MLS Presents Monday Night Futbol! (At least there'd be something on tonight.)
I Can't Even Fake It With Channel 124: mid-July, ironically enough, is essentially the one month out of the year where big-time soccer really isn't being played (save for the out-of-phase leagues). Most leagues go August to May, with June and maybe the first week of July reserved for international competitions. Even the second leg of the Libertadores isn’t until Thursday. The best I can hope is a moment of Copa Oro highlights tomorrow night. I mean. Okay. It’s something. It’ll make Sportscenter. (I hope.)
Where Will Larry Brown Coach?: since I end up watching anyway, allow me to complain in advance about how the absence of actual news allows non-stories to become headlines. Thus, we have to listen to the latest rumor about Larry Brown's impending decision to maybe choose what option he might investigate over the next few weeks. I haven’t heard what Phil Jackson thinks about anything in a few weeks. Oh wait, was that Drew Rosenhaus profiled for ten minutes last night? If the hockey guys were smart, they could have hijacked this entire week with an announcement about the upcoming season this afternoon. Unfortunately, the hockey guys have long since proven the opposite. Sigh.
(I've been listening to too much sports-talk radio this past week, haven't I.)
Posted by thatkid at July 11, 2005 7:16 PM under
Sports
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