A Decade of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball: Is It Really Always Red Sox/Yankees?

[RockaFowler]

http://www.baseballessential.com/news/2015/02/16/a-decade-of-espn-sunday-night-baseball-is-it-really-always-red-soxyankees/





Let’s take a look at the bottom of this nationally televised barrel. Two teams, Seattle and Toronto, have not appeared once on Sunday Night in the last decade. Seattle’s drought is about a month longer than Toronto’s, with the Mariners’ last Sunday night appearance coming on June 6th, 2004 at home against the Chicago White Sox. Some fun facts about that game:

• 41-year-old Jamie Moyer got the start for the M’s
• Esteban Loaiza started for Chicago
• Bob Melvin was managing the Mariners
• Miguel Olivo started at catcher…for the White Sox. Three weeks later, he was traded to the Mariners with Michael Morse and Jeremy Reed for Ben Davis and Freddy Garcia
• Edgar Martinez pinch-hit in the 7th inning
• Three White Sox relievers — Damaso Marte, Shingo Takatsu, and someone named Michael Jackson (?!) — were credited with holds, before Billy Koch blew the save

The Marlins’ only SNB appearance over the last decade was on September 18th, 2005 at home against the Philadelphia Phillies, a game in which 38-year-old Kenny Lofton batted 2nd for the Phillies and 38-year-old Jeff Conine went 3-3 with three walks for the Fish (note: this was the only time in Conine’s 17-year career that he reached base six times in one game). Other notable SNB droughts include…

•The Diamondbacks: last appearance was on August 31st, 2008 at home against the Dodgers
•The Twins: last appearance was on August 22nd, 2010 at home against the Angels
•The Rockies: last appearance was on August 14th, 2011 on the road against the Cardinals

[Jamaal510]

1. What's interesting

is that the two teams fighting for the final playoff AL spot barely got any ESPN airtime. The A's, for example, had won 2 consecutive division titles, but never got as much love from ESPN as the struggling Cubs in those 2 years. Also Seattle and Toronto were up and coming last year (unlike New York and Boston), yet they never got airtime on ESPN at all. There seems to be a trend here--not necessarily about how good teams are--but more towards how big their market is. This is why I miss MLBTV whenever I'm away from home; they do a better job of giving all 30 teams a more equal amount of airtime. ESPN has a big market bias and is like the FOX News of sports.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. On That

Not sure the team's in season success is any criteria. If it were, the Mets wouldn't be so far up the list. At least the Cubs were building it over. They weren't that much different than the Mets.

ESPN is going to target games they know people watch. There are Yankee, Met, Red Sox, Cubs, Braves fans all over the United States. Oakland not so much.

And, this is coming from a Chicago guy who, back in the 60's, picked the A's as my favorite American League Team. (Not a White Sox hater. Just wasn't acceptable to be both a Sox and Cub fan.) Besides, they had the cool white shoes and colorful unis. But, i think i'm a rarity as an A's fan who lives nowhere near the bay area, and never has.

[joeybee12]

3. It isn't...

But it should be!