DD 066-070.999 (Tony) ESPN25 : 25 mind-bending, eye-popping, culture-morphing years of highlights (070.4497 Hir)
Okay, time for a pop quiz. Which of the following statements is true:
A. Video Killed the Radio Star
B. Oswald Killed JFK
C. ESPN Killed the dignity and sportsmanship of College and Pro Sports.
The answer should be B, but it is in fact C.
I used to be a sports fanatic. I eat, slept, and breathed Sports especially Duke Basketball, Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco, and of course Hockey. Go Leafs, Go!, Mario-Fever, and throw them squid! Being from the South, it's rare to find a born and breed hockey fan. My first game I remember seeing on TV was the Miracle on Ice, in Lake Placid 1980. I grew up watching the Islanders on 5W. And my aunt and uncle and their kids were Pens fans.
Then something happened, in 2004-2005, the NHL (National Hockey League) went on strike and the season never happened. Just what was a puck-head to do? I went out for coffee , I watched TV, I read books, went to Jazz concerts, and feel back in love with my wife. I started to become less angry, less worried about missing a game or having to own all 31 hockey jerseys. I felt for the first time I was actually doing something productive.
Then the strike ended, Hockey starts having training camps, and then exposisition games, them real games, and you know what I did? -I went out for coffee , I watched TV, I read books, went to Jazz concerts, and feel even more in love with my wife.
This new philosophy has even affected me to stop being a sports fan all together- except for some weird reason Pro-football, which as a teen I hated to watch. So when it came time to read this categories book (multi-media and trends), I jumped at a chance to read the 25th anniversary book of ESPN.
ESPN has changed to face of sports in the last 30 years, no longer do you have to wait until 1-4 times a year to see your favorite team play on TV or scrounge the Sports section to find stats on your favorite player. ESPN has changed all-that with dazzling high-lights, round the clock sports news coverage and it multitude of cable stations (which includes ESPN2 and ESPN classic).
The book exaimines the early days of sports and covers every major era of technological advancement, Boxing on the Nickelodeons,the advent of TV, the introduction of the box score, to origin the Ballgame of the week on Saturday or Sunday,to Monday Night football and the birth of Glitz. Yet, until the coming of ESPN, athletes were icons, seen on the occasional sitcom or Panty hose commerical. Nowadays as the public gets to see their favorite stars from evolve their early days in high school tournament, through College , to their draft day, athletes are no longer strangers to us, but household names, superstars, icons, and worse IDOLS.
Being an Athlete is no longer a job, is a parttime gig to bigger and better things, look at Shaq, first B-Ball, then Rap, TV, and in his future he hopes to be a county sheriff in Florida when he retires. Athletes use their God-given talents to later become actors, politicians, or worse media whores.
Yet, is ESPN to blame, according to their book, they admit "Yes- with a but..."
ESPN admits they control what is seen and heard in the world of sports and the more controversal,the better. So while ratings is important, the big E has caused a generation to grow up thinking a flashy touchdown victory dance which involves taking out a Sharpie and autographing the football for later sale on EBay (Terrell Owens) is more important that the 3 guys who busted their butts to knock the defense out of your way so you can sign that ball.
True, like ESPN claims they did wrong to show the highlight 25 times in an hour, but they didn't make the guy do the autograph dance. Or DID They?
ESPN also examines how highlights that involve blunders have villified some truly great athletes. Case in point: Bill Buckner, who despite about 2179 career hits, dropped one routine ground ball and was laughed and death threatened out of town.
For those of you not from Boston, try thinking of when Lucy ruined her movie career when she accidentally stained her body with grape juice and you'll understand.Yet, to see such mistakes cause up in comers to cower in fear of mistake. Thus, this is when a good victory dance comes in.
ESPN25 is an insightful, daring approach to how it change American sports. And the bonus DVD of Classic Commericals that comes with the book, show how they changed the Sports reporting industry. ESPN is not the cause of all that is bad with sports, we need only to look at Soccer Moms and Dads beating each other senseless because Littly Billy got benched. We were all born with the ability to play sports, but few are blessed with the talent to perform. Seeing a highlight is just that, it's a pinnacle or a lowpoint of a task perfomed.It makes you jealious as sin to see Michael Jordan score a game winner, while feeling so good that Jeff Gordon hit the wall on lap 19.
The answer is not less sports of less ESPN. The answer to society's problem with sports-superstardom being the Ultimate peak to achievement is less high lights for winning homerun's or 4 minute miles being run, it's the people behind the camera and 4 blocks to the right who never get thanked or praised.
If only there was a TSPN for teachers or a EMTSPN for firefighters, paramedics, and nurses,there might be an overabundant quality teahers, and rescue workers. There may no longer be a national nuring shortage. As the little guys gains importance, menial jobs would no longer be viewed as worthless. And maybe, just maybe, the world could enjoy another side to life, like I got to do during the season that never was.
posted by J at 5:54 PM
