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.        

To Spoil or Not To Spoil

The biggest controversy from the first few days of the 2012 London Summer Olympics has been the tape delayed coverage given to Americans by NBC. NBC has chosen not to show some of the bigger events (mostly swimming and gymnastics) live on any of its television networks and instead hold them until primetime when there’s a bigger audience.

This decision by NBC, which almost everybody seems to agree is poor, has led to many viewers finding out the results of these events prior to the airing on television through news outlets like ESPN and social media outlets like Twitter.

You really can’t blame news outlets like ESPN because one of the biggest goals and responsibilities of journalists are to break the news when the news breaks. So, if Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte win swimming medals in London when it’s early or mid-morning in the United States the news will report it when it happens, as they should. It’s not the American media’s responsibility to wait until Americans have had the chance to see it to announce the results. However, NBC News giving the results before its own broadcast is another story.

This poses a major issue for me that I struggled with for the first few days of the Olympics. What should I do about my Facebook fanpage for my sports podcast Basement Sports?

Typically when sports news breaks I publish it immediately upon seeing or hearing it on the podcast’s fanpage (because I view it as a form of media). However, some of these updates are a few hours old before I get the chance to post them, because of my day job that does not include access to a computer throughout the afternoon hours five days a week.

The 2012 London Summer Olympics are the first Olympic games during my podcast’s tenure and so I found myself having to deal with something new in attempting to cover a sporting event (the largest one at that) on such a time difference.

My journalistic experience and instincts tell me to publish the results of the events when they occur or at least when I see or hear about them. However, I’ve refrained from doing that thus far and have made the decision to keep doing so until the events have completed on American television. Here’s why …

I’ve long believed and told people that I didn’t think spoilers affected my feelings about movies or television shows and I honestly believe that to be the case. Does knowing Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father prior to watching the “Star Wars” trilogy affect the movie’s greatness? No. Knowing a surprise twist or ending to a film or TV show ultimately doesn’t change whether or not a movie is good and it shouldn’t have any result on whether or not you enjoy it either.

However, when it comes to sports spoilers are everything. Because the sole intention of sports is to win or lose knowing the outcome of the event really takes all of the fun and excitement out of watching it. Sure, many people will still watch the event despite knowing the results just to see exactly how it happened, as NBC’s Olympic ratings have suggested, but it just isn’t the same.

Unfortunately I’ve known almost every single major result before it aired on primetime. I just can’t manage to stay unplugged long enough not to find out the results even accidentally. For this reason the Olympics simply haven’t been nearly as fun or exciting as I anticipated.

I know that my not posting Olympics results until after they air on NBC on the Basement Sports podcast fanpage is likely not going to make a whole lot of difference for most sports fans, who like me probably already know the results anyway. But, I don’t want to spoil the fun and the excitement of the Olympics for those intentionally staying away from the results, because I know how much that sucks.