Fine, I’ll be the old, grumpy, out-of-touch conservative who yells from his lawn and still reads the print newspaper every day, and just say the quiet part out loud …
ESPN’s opening day – and opening few days, for that matter – of Major League Baseball coverage is pathetic, insulting, and, frankly, embarrassing. Baseball may not matter to that insufferable network anymore (it doesn’t), but it still matters to a ton of the country.
Especially today. Opening Day. MLB opening day is right up there with the GOATs on the sports-calendar.
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Obviously, Week 1 in the NFL is undefeated, and it’s so far ahead of everything else, it’s not even close. The first Saturday of college football ain’t too shabby, either.
But I’d wager that baseball’s opening day certainly has a case to slot in third. Maybe fourth, if you count the first Thursday of March Madness. It’s a toss-up.
Anyway, this used to be such a great day. You’d have baseball games on both ESPN and ESPN2, from 1 p.m. to midnight, with a little Baseball Tonight sandwiched in-between. It was awesome. It’s when you knew winter was finally over, and spring was officially here.
Now, I won’t fault ESPN for today’s slate of games. Why Major League Baseball decided to wait until 3 p.m. for the first game today – and then slot 90% of the schedule at either 4:05 or 4:10 – is beyond me. It’s mind-numbingly stupid.
That’s not ESPN’s fault. That’s a Rob Manfred issue. Fair is fair.
What is ESPN’s fault, though, is what they’ve deemed worthy of attention. There are two games on ESPN today. TWO. Brace yourselves for the teams …
Brewers-Yankees at 3, and Tigers-Dodgers at 7.
That’s it. Two games, both on ESPN. Nothing on ESPN2. Nothing after they wrap up out west around 10.
Come on.
This is why MLB is leaving ESPN
Again, credit where it’s due – Joe Buck being on the call for the first game is an elite move by ESPN. A rare win. He’s the best.
But it’s not just today’s pathetic slate that annoys me. It’s the rest of the week. ESPN and MLB have been together for 36 years. Nearly four decades. If you’re wondering why Rob Manfred opted out of the contract after this season, look no further than this:
There are 23 games between today and tomorrow. Two of them are on an ESPN network.
On ESPN2 today, instead of one single baseball game – on OPENING DAY – we have NBA Today at 3 p.m. so they can talk about LeBron’s tip-in last night for the 478th time, followed by NFL Live at 4 and PTI at 5:30.
After the Dodgers game ends around 10 tonight on ESPN, they’ll slide over to some Kings-Avalanche coverage. Yes, I know ESPN also has NHL rights, but come on. The NHL has been on since October. You can’t pass up Kings-Avalanche for, say, Cubs-Diamondbacks at 10:10?
Just this once? Just for Opening Day? I mean, what are we doing here?
Rob Manfred, by the way, saw the writing on the wall years ago. It’s why he yanked Major League Baseball out of the contract last month.
I said it last month when the news broke, and I’ll say it again today. Good for Manfred. People give him a lot of crap, but he was 100% right on this one.
ESPN has disrespected baseball for years now. Years. There is no more Baseball Tonight, unless you count the – *checks notes* – ONE-HOUR time slot later today at 6 p.m.
Not to worry, though! You can catch another episode of the once-beloved show again at 6 p.m. … Sunday. After that, we’ll get our first Sunday Night Baseball game of ESPN’s final season – Braves-Padres.
That’s it for Opening Week. Three games. Two episodes of Baseball Tonight. And a BS press release about how excited ESPN is that “baseball is back!”
Yeah, OK. Seems like it!
Play ball.
