National Networks Show Understandable, But Still Irritating Bias Toward Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

I’ve had a theory about Major League Baseball telecasts for a while. The theory states that every single time the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, likely the most storied rivalry in the history of the game (and sports in general), play each other the game will be nationally televised.

I’ve long theorized that every single Yankees vs. Red Sox game in at least the last decade has likely been televised. Unfortunately, I have no way of finding out whether or not this is indeed a fact. What games have appeared on which networks over the last few seasons is not something you can easily find anywhere, probably because few people honestly give a damn.

However, for the last few seasons I’ve heard a good many people give a damn. These people are, of course, not fans of the Yankees or Red Sox as those fans (and there’s a good many of them sprinkled throughout the entire United States) seem thrilled that many of their favorite team’s games (and every time they play their heated rival) are broadcast nationally. It’s not hard to be a Yankees or Red Sox fan in say Arkansas (where I’m from) because you know your favorite team will have as many as a third of their games all season broadcast. But, if you’re a fan of say the Cleveland Indians or Oakland A’s or Milwaukee Brewers in Arkansas or Nebraska or West Virginia you’re going to have trouble ever seeing your favorite team on television unless you want to shell out major bucks for the baseball television package or MLB.tv online (which many people simply cannot afford). This is a feeling that sucks for a good many a baseball fan in this country, especially when they keep getting the same old teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and other teams like the St. Louis Cardinals crammed down their throats.

There are four networks that currently air MLB games nationally: ESPN, Fox (games are regional, but there’s a small enough selection (unlike say NFL on Fox/CBS) to really matter), TBS and MLB Network – all of these networks are shown on most cable or satellite providers. Almost every day of the week there will be at least one nationally televised baseball game. That’s actually a lot of baseball available to baseball fans around the country, but if you’re not a fan of the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, etc. it can become pretty fatiguing. This is why every Yankees vs. Red Sox game being broadcast nationally can become irritating to non-fans of those teams.

Let’s get this obvious point out of the way. Yes, it makes complete sense for networks to want to show as many Yankees vs. Red Sox games as they can (and those two teams individual games along with Cardinals games) because these fanbases are the largest (and by a good margin) in the country and the network wants viewers, ratings and the advertising dollars that come from them. Baseball, unlike the NFL and NBA, is not a sport that is watched all that much anymore by the casual sports fan. If you’re a Cardinals fan how often would you watch a game involving a team other than the Cardinals in the regular season? Probably, not very often, especially if you have a busy life. This is partially why the networks search for the big fanbases for their games, because a Yankees or Red Sox or Cardinals game will pull in fans from all around the country, whereas a Pittsburgh Pirates or Colorado Rockies game likely would not.

It makes a lot of sense why networks do this, but it also comes off as bothersome to baseball fans because there are a lot of nationally televised games to go around and there are also a lot of other good baseball teams in the country than just the few that are constantly shown on television.

I don’t have the numbers of televised games for the entire 2013 MLB season, because I unfortunately only thought to keep a tally of nationally televised games for the second half of the season. The second half of a baseball season’s nationally televised games are more likely to be skewed than the first half of the season by team records and the playoff hunt, which would’ve made an entire season sample slightly better than just the second half sample. For example, the incredibly hyped before the season Toronto Blue Jays probably had a handful of first half nationally televised games, but didn’t have a single nationally televised game during the second half of the season. In fact, the Blue Jays were one of only four MLB teams to not have a single nationally televised game during the season’s second half with the other three teams understandably being the Houston Astros, Miami Marlins and Milwaukee Brewers – all teams with losing records and few, if any, bankable stars.      

The team with the most nationally televised baseball games during the second half of the season was also understandably the best team in baseball when the season ended, the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox had 31 nationally televised games during the second half of the season (16 on MLB Network [which televises many more games a week than the other three networks], eight on ESPN, four on Fox and three on TBS). The National League leading St. Louis Cardinals at the season’s end had the second most nationally televised games with 25 (15 on MLB Network, seven on ESPN, two on Fox and one on TBS). The only issue with these numbers is that the Red Sox were only the best team in baseball, record-wise, for the last two-to-three weeks of the regular season and the Cardinals were only the best team in the National League, record-wise, for the very last day of the regular season.

Which team was the best team in the game, record-wise, for most of the season’s second half in both the N.L. and baseball as a whole?

The Atlanta Braves.

Despite leading baseball for most of the season, including the second half of the season, the Braves only appeared on national television 10 times (five times on MLB Network, twice each on ESPN and Fox and once on TBS). Ten MLB teams appeared on national television more during that span (Red Sox, Cardinals, Yankees, Dodgers, Orioles, Rays, Reds, Pirates, Rangers and Tigers). The Braves do have a pretty good sized following, mostly from the days when they were shown exclusively on TBS, but it’s not near of a following the likes that the Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals have. So, they could be the best team in baseball, but if they aren’t bringing eyes to the networks the networks don’t care. It’s a business. It leads to biases. It’s not really right, but nothing’s ever going to come of it. But, the fans are still going to grow fatigued and complain. Both sides are understandable.

The New York Yankees, by the way, appeared nationally on television the third most of any team in the sport during the second half of the season with 24 appearances (11 times on MLB Network, five times on ESPN and four times each on Fox and TBS) despite not making the playoffs. You can thank their national following for that.  

That’s right; the Yankees appeared in 14 more nationally televised games than the Braves. They appeared in more nationally televised games than seven other 2013 playoff teams, as well. The Yankees were broadcast nationally seven more times than the Tampa Bay Rays (who appeared on TV more because they played both the Yankees and Red Sox a lot during the season’s second half), seven more times than the Cincinnati Reds (who benefited from many games against the Cardinals), 10 more times than the Pirates (baseball’s best story of the year), 11 more times than the Dodgers, 12 more times than the Detroit Tigers,  18 more times than the Oakland A’s and a whopping 21 more times than the Cleveland Indians.

Sure, many people will be saying those lesser featured teams need to grow larger fanbases so that they can compete for TV time with the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox and Cardinals. But, to them I ask the question: How does a team build a larger fanbase? The answer: appear more times on national television.

But, now that we’ve seen that the Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals ride their large fanbases to more nationally televised games than other franchises, some with better records/teams, it’s time to go back to my initial theory. All of those damn Yankees vs. Red Sox matchups are broadcast nationally aren’t they? Some people haven’t believed me when I’ve said this in the past, but here’s the proof. During the second half of this MLB season the Yankees and Red Sox faced each other 10 times … all 10 of those games were broadcast either on ESPN, Fox, TBS or MLB Network.

Man, it sure must be good to be a Yankees or Red Sox fan. The rest of us might want to find a job that pays better so we can invest in MLB.tv or move to a region that shows are favorite teams locally, because that’s the only way we’re ever going to see them play.

ESPN Blatantly Stumping for Yasiel Puig to Make All Star Game is Wrong

Media are supposed to be objective. They aren’t supposed to take sides on news stories or events when giving straightforward news. There, of course, are editorials in which media can give informed opinions on such topics. Sometimes the line between being objective and editorializing is crossed though by media.

ESPN, the nation’s biggest sports medium, has crossed the line lately by appearing completely subjective in its attempts to get Los Angeles Dodgers phenom rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig into next week’s Major League Baseball All Star Game.

Last Saturday the All Star Game rosters were announced and Puig was left off of the initial National League roster, but was selected as one of five players in the Final Five vote by N.L. skipper Bruce Bochy. Despite playing in only 34 games this season, even less at the time of the roster announcement, it seemed like Puig would be a lock to win the Final Five vote over arguably more deserving players like Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond and San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. However, after the first few voting totals came in Puig was ranked second in the voting behind Freeman.

Puig has quite possibly been the best player in all of baseball since he entered the league just over a month ago. He’s hit a whopping .407 with eight home runs and 19 RBI. He would probably be mesmerizing to watch play in the midsummer classic, but does a small sample size of 34 major league games warrant him being an all star over someone like Freeman who has more experience, not only this season but career-wise, and has all star worthy numbers in his own right with a .305 average, nine homers and 56 RBI, which is good enough for ninth in the National League ahead of all stars like Pedro Alvarez, Troy Tulowitzki, Buster Posey, Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, David Wright and many more.

Do to Puig only playing in about half the games that guys like Freeman have and to the fact that the MLB All Star Game is merely an exhibition game the question of which one of these players should make the game really is a subjective one. However, it should be a subjective one made by the fans. They should be the ones deciding whether or not they think Puig should make the game or should not, because he may not have enough time in the league in their opinion. Thankfully, they get to choose.

However, the media shouldn’t be trying to influence their opinion on shows like “SportsCenter,” ESPN’s answer to the nightly news, which should remain objective for the most part. On editorial shows like “Pardon the Interruption,” “Around the Horn” and many others on the ESPN networks trying to influence opinion isn’t really wrong, but the way the network/shows sometimes go about it, especially of late, is somewhat infuriating and biased.

However, there is a difference between editorial shows showing bias and straight news outlets like “SportsCenter” showing bias. When “SportsCenter” stumps to get Puig into the All Star Game as they’ve blatantly been trying to do for some reason (most likely ratings) much of this week it truly borders on journalistic malpractice. “SportsCenter” shouldn’t have a rooting interest in who wins the National League Final Vote, and notice they only care about the National League vote and where Puig is in relation to the leading vote getter in the category. The show shouldn’t care if the winner is Puig or Freeman or any one of the other three players in the category. It’s the show’s duty to report the winner of the vote, not influence it.

The Final Five vote will come to an end later this afternoon and it wouldn’t surprise me if Puig has surpassed Freeman in the voting by then to take the final slot on the National League roster. If he does ESPN should pat themselves on the back, because they would have played a big role in getting Puig on the team, after all, all we’ve heard about for half a week now is how Puig should be on this team and not Freeman, Gonzalez, Desmond or Pence.