ESPN shows its clear bias against the New York Mets with absurdly disrespectful comment during game against Los Angeles Dodgers
The ESPN Sunday Night Baseball booth has had a rough season. Play by play man Karl Ravech often stumbles through broadcasts while sounding unprepared. Analyst David Cone, who also works for YES Network (where he calls New York Yankees games), doesn't have a natural rhythm and can sound out of place in the booth. Eduardo […]
The ESPN Sunday Night Baseball booth has had a rough season.
Play by play man Karl Ravech often stumbles through broadcasts while sounding unprepared. Analyst David Cone, who also works for YES Network (where he calls New York Yankees games), doesn't have a natural rhythm and can sound out of place in the booth.
Eduardo Perez, the third member of the booth, can often provide great insight, but he's easily sidetracked and tends to meander into spaces that makes the broadcast feel like its struggling to find its way.
Field reporter Buster Olney might be the worst of them all. Olney, for example, suggested on Sunday night's broadcast that New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto was booed in his first plate appearance on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers (if you go back and watch the Fox broadcast of Saturday night's game, you'll actually hear plenty of cheers while the broadcast shows a large majority of the crowd at Citi Field on their feet clapping for Soto).
For a guy like me who grew up listening to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan narrate Sunday nights in the summer, it's tough to listen to ESPN's current MLB booth. It basically feels like covering baseball games is a chore for ESPN. The effort level ESPN puts into covering MLB games pales in comparison to the effort it gives in covering NFL games.
On top of the poor production, ESPN clearly has some bias against the Mets (or maybe bias toward the Dodgers).
In the middle innings of Sunday night's game, Cone suggested that the 41,917 fans in attendance at Citi Field in Queens were there simply because the Dodgers were in town.
"One thing we see with the Dodgers nowadays, they are a traveling show," said Cone. "There's not a seat available here tonight. It's a packed house to come see the Dodgers."
Cone, who spent six seasons (1987-1992) as a pitcher for the Mets, tried to walk his comment back a bit by noting that the Mets "have something going on this year, too".
The comment from Cone quickly drew a strong reaction from Mets fans on social media.
The Mets are currently No. 5 in MLB this season in home attendance (which is impressive considering there have been some cold and damp nights for games in Flushing early this season).
The crowds have been fantastic at Citi Field all season (the Mets drew over 34,000 fans for all three games of a Monday to Wednesday series against the Pittsburgh Pirates in early May, for example). Suggesting that fans showed up for a primetime game at Citi Field only because the Dodgers were playing is quite an insult to the Mets and their deeply passionate fan base.
Cone's comment wasn't just uninformed and non-factual, it was straight up disrespectful. But that's par for the course when it comes to ESPN.
