The World Revolves Around New England

With another Yankees-Red Sox series upon us I have a few things on my mind (and I'm not alone) that need to be said.

There is far too much attention, especially media coverage, focused on the Yankees and Red Sox, particularly their rivalry. The reason? The world obviously revolves around New England. Think about it. Everyone knows about this rivalry, but how many people know about the Cards-Cubs rivalry? Maybe half as many that know about the New England one. I will refer, once again, to an excerpt from 3 Nights in August, which I think truly describes the Yanks-Red Sox rivalry.

"The rivalry between the cubs and the Cardinals is probably the oldest and perhaps the best in baseball, no matter how the Red Sox and Yankees spit and spite at each other. That's a tabloid-fueled soap opera about money and ego and sound bites. That's a pair of bratty high-priced supermodels trying to trip each other in their stilettos on the runway. But the Cards-Cubs epic is about roots and geography and territorial rights. It's entwined in the Midwestern blood and therefore refreshing and honest and even heroic. It isn't simply two teams throwing tantrums at each other but two feudal city-states with eternal fans far beyond their own walls, spread throughout not only the Midwest but also deep into the South and the West."

ESPN is a huge culprit of spotlighting not only the New England rivalry, but each team individually as well. Every week there is a "new" soundbite from George Steinbrenner about Joe Torre and his future with the Yankees. It's such a huge deal, but why? I hate to say it, but the reigning World Series champs are currently 3-7 in the last 10 games, and 16-25 (.390) overall. Do you hear a new soundbite every week from Bill DeWitt talking about possibly firing Tony LaRussa? NO! That would be ridiculous. I don't give a shit what Steinbrenner has to say about about Torre this week. If you ask me, someone needs to fire Steinbrenner (not sure if that's possible unfortunately). The whole Yankee system is messed up...the Yankees are just under .500 with a record of 20-23 (second in their division to the Red Sox) and they're talking about firing their manager?! The only thing that's a constant in that organization is their money spending, which brings us to Clemens, but I'm not even going to touch that subject.

In all, ESPN spends a majority of its time covering East Coast sports, even though that's maybe 1/5 of the entire country. No ESPN, I do not give a shit about the New England Patriots, or Duke, or Syracuse, or Connecticut, or the Mets, and I especially don't give a rat's ass about the Yankees and Red Sox when they play each other. If it's legitimate news (and I have a degree in Journalism so I think I can tell the difference between news and fluff), then that's fine, but when it comes to the East Coast that doesn't seem to usually be the case.

To further my case, the ESPN.com Sports"Nation" poll today was: How will the Yankees fare this year?

It seems like every Yankees-Red Sox series is covered on ESPN, so I took a look at the confirmed numbers. Keep in mind more games will probably be added as the season progresses. The figures below include Spring Training. Individual team figures do not include the series figures (ex., Yanks have 12 games on ESPN against teams other than the Red Sox). Here are a few ESPN coverage numbers to think about, maybe you'll notice a little bias, too...

• Yankees= 12
• Red Sox= 6 (+1 ESPN2)
• Yanks/Red Sox Series= 6 (they play each other 19 times this year)*
  

*When one of the games wasn't picked up by ESPN, FOX usually covered it

• Cards= 6 (+2 ESPN2...both from Mets season opener series)
• Cubs (not that they really deserve any either)= 4 (+1 ESPN2)
• Cards/Cubs Series= 0! (they play each other 16 times this year)**

** FOX usually picked up 1 game from each series

Bottom line is the Cardinals just won the World Series for the first time in a generation. Why can't they get the respect and recognition they deserve for once?