umpire woes
by BernadetteP on Jul 8, 2009 1:55 PM PDT
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Hey guys.... I know broxton had a bad day last week, but am I the only one who thought the ump tried to give the game to the padres? it didnt matter what he threw, the ump called EVERYTHING a ball....I got some more dodger gear... our 4yr old now has dodger p.j.s and mommy is wearing #55 today... :) and did you all vote for andre for that pepsi clutch player of the month? how come we have the best record but hardly anyone on the all-starts? hubby says it's because the papers/news etc are big fans of the east coast teams...?
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All-Stars
It’s because fans in other cities have nothing better to do than register free e-mail addresses and spend countless hours stuffing the ballot box for their all-star starters, while we southern California have all this beautiful spring/summer weather to enjoy at our innumerable entertainment/recreation options. ;)
I think the western teams spend a lot of time playing past the bedtimes of the eastern time zone citizens and so the national media coverage, which tends to be east-coast dominated because a heckuva lotta people live there, tends to get skewed, but really because of logistics more than anything else. And having more coverage of the Bosox, Yanks and Mets, targets the entire region from North New Jersey to Maine, which is a giant TV market, so it’s not exactly bad business for ESPN et al to do that.
Per Wikipedia
The “New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA” has a population of 19MM people.
The “Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA” has a population of 13MM people. But you also have to add in the “Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA” of another 4MM.
So yeah, New York has a more populated metro area, but its pretty close.
You also added in the Boston Area and points north. But to make it “apples to apples” you could just as easilty add in the “San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA” which is again smaller, but the difference is pretty marginal. So ESPN could just as easily focus on Dodgers, Giants and A’s instead of the Red Sox, Yanks, Mets.
While it no doubt does make for good business to pump Red Sox, Yanks, Mets 24/7 (if it wasn’t they wouldn’t do it I guess) I wonder if we don’t get into a chicken or the egg argument. Are those teams always on ESPN because they are popular, or are they popular because they’re always on ESPN?
by Michael White on Jul 8, 2009 4:07 PM PDT up reply actions
OTOH
Population in millions:
California minus San Diego County = 33.7
NY + NJ + CT + RI + Mass. + N.H. + VT + Maine = 42.4, or about 25% more.
I also suspect that the % of baseball fans in the northeast population is greater than in California, at least those likely to watch baseball on TV.
Also, the east coast teams were popular long before there was ESPN, the Yankees in particular – all those World Series teams through the Mantle years sure helped.
Not to nitpick, but I’m assuming you subtracted San Diego County because it would be the Padres market and my argument above centered around Dodgers/Giants/A’s compared to Yanks/Mets/Red Sox. On the same note, you can’t count the entire population of NJ, as most of South Jersey would be Phillies fans so a similar adjustment would have to be made. The point is well taken though.
Regarding the Yankees, true enough. The Red Sox and Yankees have been popular much longer than ESPN has been around. But the Mets? As I said, I’m sure it works for ESPN, or else they wouldn’t do it. But as a baseball fan, I’d much rather watch highlights of a meaningful Tigers/White Sox game then I would a meaningless Yankees/ Blue Jay game. Which is why I appreciate the new MLB channel, its a step in the right direction.
by Michael White on Jul 9, 2009 7:34 AM PDT up reply actions
Something like 70% of the US population is east of the Mississippi River. I really think it is a bedtime issue for many fans. And since TV is based on ratings, its only natural that they feature teams where the most people are. This is just a generality of course, but look at this map
Its pretty shocking to see the difference in population densty.
by Eric Stephen on Jul 9, 2009 10:46 AM PDT up reply actions
Well ya
But that’s mostly because they’re lazy. Analyzing players on the west coast requires staying up past midnight on the East Coast which they won’t do. It’s more of a problem in college football, where people who vote (and therefore essentially choose a national champion) don’t bother to watch teams in the Pac 10 not named USC. In baseball, I don’t really care. At the end of the day, guys like Kemp get to prove it on the field, in the postseason.
by Michael White on Jul 8, 2009 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions
umpire
so, what about the umpire the other day? was he really making some bad calls or have i completely lost sight of reason? :)
Here is
Broxton’s strike zone plot from brooksbaseball.net. This seems to show two balls that could have been called strikes, but nothing too egregious.
brookbaseball.net
wow that chart is cool.. so, ok… maybe im just not objective as i thought lol :) thanks guys
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