Shyam Das fired by MLB

[JohnBriggs12]

To be fair ESPN was completely irresponsible in the way they handled the Braun news in the first place so people are a bit more jaded about them than normal. They openly bashed him constantly in the first few weeks of the story.

 

Exactly. Mike Greenberg called for a re-vote of the MVP award the first time he was on the air after the initial story broke. While they initially reported that Braun was facing a 50 game suspension subject to a hearing, they later reported that the arbitrator had overturned a suspension. In actuality no suspension was ever handed down from MLB. But that's how it was reported and repeated on ESPN. Since they were also the recipient of the leak, they never examined the ramifications for Braun's reputation that was entirely the result of the leak and the subsequent reporting of it in light of the fact that the arbitrator ruled in his favor. In effect, they were no longer an impartial news source, but they had become part of it, yet never acknowledged that in any reports.

[RockCoCougars]

ESPN is garbage, and any bashing or hatred of them is warranted in my opinion. It's been this way since the Disney takeover in the mid 90's. They create a story and then interject themselves into it, creating controversies to fill the hours of gabathons on their 'networks'. Their 'personalities' are hack wannabe comedians who appeal to the most casual of sports fans. I won't even mention the East Coast bias. The only thing that I will watch on those networks are live sporting events, and even those are nauseating a good amount of the time

 

Back on topic, looks like MLB is taking the hard line here. I'm still unsure of why they would throw one of their most marketable stars under the bus if they weren't positive that he was in violation of the drug policy. What do they have to gain by this?

[brwrsfan]

Does MLB have to cite a reason for firing Das?

 

I doubt they plan on citing a reason, which is where a good reporter would press them on it. Since most sports networks are more interested in finding a person who can come up with a cool saying and look good while reading a teleprompter then they are interested in finding someone who knows anything about reporting, I doubt anyone will press MLB on why they would fire Das. It certainly looks like they are only firing him because he disagreed with them, and that makes the whole system look pretty bad.

 

It would sure seem that they fired him because the disagreed with their stance and followed protocol as he is supposed to do as an independant party. I mean, the NFL didn't fire Das, he's hearing the "bounty gate" stuff. So he's still good enough for NFL, but not MLB? If anything I would say that this showed just how good Das was at his job, that he went against the grain and ruled to what he believes is the right way, despite the obvious pressure from MLB to do otherwise.

 

I just can't get over how bad MLB is making themselves look here. They lost their first case ever. They whined and whined about it how they disagreed, but the fact is, he is an independant party doing his job. They then wait a few months and promptly fire him.

[burnzy24]

If you need more excuses to hate ESPN I present this videohttp://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7932478/second-juror-dismissed-roger-clemens-trial-falling-asleep-jury-includes-8-females-4-males TJ Quinn somehow is able to transition from a discussion about a juror dismissed from the Clemens case to more Braun bashing, naming anonymous MLB players who are still angry that the "got off", and basically supporting the decision of MLB to fire Das. Seriously TJ, its over, Braun won, give it up. I know you were hoping for him to get suspended so you could pat yourself on the back even more about the big story you broke but you sound like a tool for continually rehashing this story.

[HiAndTight]

"Seriously, I worked there... still know guys..who honestly don't who Tyler Thornburg is..."

 

What does Bill Schroeder have to do with a discussion of the relative merits of ESPN?

 

 

That's a good one. My point..though I'm sure you got it, is that most baseball fans aren't even close as to informed as those of us on here are, so this story wouldn't bring in many viewers. And it's an entertainment network.

[bani1717]

There very well could be more to this story than we know. On the surface, it looks like MLB fired Das because they're angry he ruled against them. But remember, back in December it looked like Braun had just become another athlete to use a banned substance. We don't know everything behind either of these stories, and we probably never will.

[pebadger]

I'm still unsure of why they would throw one of their most marketable stars under the bus if they weren't positive that he was in violation of the drug policy. What do they have to gain by this?

 

No individual is bigger than their concern over a certain view of "the integrity of the game". There is NOBODY who won't get thrown under the bus to "protect the shield" (to borrow a term that the NFL loves to throw around).

 

Players are 100% expendable to protect the brand. You can argue about whether the league has lost perspective on how to handle this particular issue (in my view it's a toxic blend of overreaction mixed with a fair degree of ignorance), but their chief focus is protecting the MLB brand. Pro sports leagues in the US have the money and clout to really take a fresh look at how to build better systems for doping control and adjudication processes, but they simply don't want to get involved. That is so, in my opinion, because if they actually did do anything procedurally to even the playing field they'd take a huge amount of flak about "caving" to the dopers.

 

MLB's chief concern is putting on a convincing enough show that they care about doping control, so as to keep Congress and USADA out of the picture. If you start imposing two-year bans on players for first offenses (as would be the norm under a USADA regime), or if you create a system in which guys can inform on other guys to get leniency for thier own transgressions (as would also be the norm), you would have an unmitigated disaster on your hands as MLB. So they adopt the broad framework of international standards, adopt the "if we say you're guilty, you're guilty" mindset and say the right things publicly to appear "tough on crime". This provides them with political cover and allows them to run their own show. Whoever ends up in the way of that train is collateral damage in the larger battle of MLB retaining its autonomy in this area.

[HiAndTight]

That's obviously a very good point badger. Take out Braun and just how much does MLB lose? He's a great guy to be the face of the Brewers, but there are so many stories every year and so many superstars, I don't think the loss of Braun's reputation would or has cost MLB.

 

You still have a ton of great stories this year.

[pete]

In addition to what pebadger said as to motivation, Selig is in his 80s and to me looks to be on cruise control.

I've heard Manfred cited as a likely successor before the whole Braun thing. Getting a "scalp" may have made him more powerful and now rather than be embarrassed at the whole thing, he can use the anonymous sources to define the story and make himself look better. So much depends on what the facts of the case are and now with no report, I'd hope there is information in some book a couple decades from now. As Prince says, "it is what it is."

[1992casey]

Bud will be 78 in July.

[Thurston Fluff]

Bud will be 78 in July.

 

Of what year?

[endaround]

Bud will be 78 in July.

Only another decade until his daughter takes over...

[1992casey]

And it's an entertainment network.

 

News media really took a tumble around the time of the O.J. Simpson trial. At that time, the traditional and tabloid media started to converge, and it's been tough to tell the difference since then. News outlets don't bother with facts; it's much more important to entertain with what's sensational.

 

When Walter Cronkite died, it was mentioned that he had his interns make phone calls to ensure that he pronounced names right. The anchor who heard this actually laughed.

[topper09er]

Ive heard the quote that ESPN is the E channel for men, which is exactly what it is. ESPN knows they have a monopoly on sports TV and all the sports fans that come with that. If you like sports enough that you would prefer to watch Sportcenter instead of the news then you are going to watch Sportscenter because there are no other options. ESPN has no reason to show programming that you will like because they already have you. So they don't, they show things that really are unrelated to sports but just make sure the stories are somehow related to some athlete. Their goal is to get the average "sports fan" to watch ESPN by making them think they are being cool and manly by watching sports related programming but actually giving them celebrity gossip and over sensationalized stories which keeps their attention. ESPN does care about the people on this forum because we are in the extremely small minority compared to the typical guy who "likes sports"

 

They also have realized that the vast majority of "sports fans" don't really know anything about sports besides playing little league when they were kids. The problem is these people think they are hardcore sports fans who are obsessed with their favorite teams but in reality they are mostly bandwagon fans who don't know anything about sports besides all of the token cliches. Any opinion they have on anything about sports they are told from some ESPN anchor or sportswriter, they don't actually know enough about sports to make opinions on their own.

 

Their model is to start with the Yankees-Red Sox game which was say 10-7, show the biggest star hit a HR and the final out in about 20 seconds, then go to some big name ex athlete "analyst" (who the average sports fan think is credible because he was a good player and they have heard of him) who will talk for 5 minutes about if the season is over for the team that lost and then say something juicy and over the top like some guy is playing poorly because he was out late the night before with his celebrity girlfriend. If instead they showed you how each run was scored and other important plays and then had some no-name, well spoken, very knowledgeable ex player discuss whether or not he would have called for a 2-1 slider or fastball in a key at bat with runners on in the 6th inning, the average "sports fan" would lose interest and not watch ESPN as often.

 

The greatest show in the history of the network, Edge NFL Matchup, which featured relative no names Jaws (pre MNF) and Merril Hodge breaking down the Xs and Os of plays in the passing and running game, was aired at 2:30 in the morning because the average sports fan is totally bored by these things...even though they "love" sports.

 

And as mentioned above none of this addressed their East Coast bias.

[dlk9s]

What I hate about ESPN is how they have gone from reporting the news and showing highlights to almost entirely creating and being the news themselves. I'm cool with opinion, debate, and "entertainment," but that's pretty much all ESPN is now. I haven't watched any ESPN today, but I assume that the talk on every show (which are all the same) is whether or not Kobe should've gotten the ball at the end of the game last night. I'm sure it's just arguing in circles, creating controversy where there is none.

 

The absolute worst was when First Take devoted almost an entire show to Skip Bayless and Jalen Rose talking to each other about how the other hurt his feelings the day before. They literally created "news" and blew it up into something we were supposed to think was important.

 

Also, Bayless' cheerleading for Tim Tebow is completely out of control. He has inserted himself into the stories to the point where sports fans cannot separate Tebow from Bayless. I mean, Skip offered to pay for Tebow to go to some throwing guru. I know he's an entertainer at this point and not a reporter, but that's just crazy. The personalities make themselves the story.

 

Doug Glanville is one of the few analysts on ESPN who is good and doesn't feel the need to be the center of attention.

[MJLiverock]

I have never enjoyed the "listen to me shout" shows on ESPN so I just flat out don't watch any of them. I rarely watch anything on ESPN anymore except a live sporting event and even then it usually has to be one of my teams or a marquee big time match up. Once MLB network started I stopped watching Baseball tonight completely. I watch the NFL Network for draft coverage and breakdown shows, as mentioned ESPN put the great shows like NFL Match Up so late I had to remember to DVR it. College basketball is avoided when Dickie V does the games, he completely ruins the game for me. I don't mind the college football games, the in game announcers are usually decent enough. I never liked Craig James but you don't see him much anymore. College GameDay is fun, sure they have SEC love affair but they at least cover the other big conferences and Mark May keeps the ND love affair from Lou Holtz in check in the after game shows. Really ESPN has become just as topper and dlk9 have said, more E than S in their title, trying to create controversy or spending way to much on opinions and arguing in circles.

 

Think of how much they could do if they just devoted an hour a day to hardcore fans or educating fans on things like in depth stats in baseball, breaking down NFL offenses defenses schemes etc. It might alienate some fans as being too in depth but a lot would find it interesting, some people do like to learn new things, and really can it be any more expensive or hurt ratings when they repeat SportCenter 20x or have multiple "listen to me shout" shows?