Massive Layoffs at ESPN, With 100 On-Air "Personalities" and "Writers" Getting the Ax

CNN reports that ESPN will cut "television, radio and online personalities and a limited number of additional off-air jobs." The job cuts are effective immediately.

ESPN UPDATE: I have multiple sources at ESPN telling me they expect the number of layoffs to be closer to 100 people than 70. Awful news.
-- Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 26, 2017

Hearing now from several @espn employees who, despite advanced word, are "in shock" and "frozen." This is an awful day for all in Bristol.
-- jamesmiller (@JimMiller) April 26, 2017
...
The cuts come as ESPN loses cable subscribers to "cord-cutting" and faces increased pressure on costs.
The network has spent billions of dollars in recent years on rights deals with major sports leagues like the NFL and NBA and college conferences like the ACC, Big Ten and SEC.

Sounds like a really good time for ESPN to run an hour-long tribute to Colin Kaepernick's knee.

Meanwhile, Outkick the Coverage, which has been predicting this for a while, is gloating. OtC's point has always been that ESPN spent like a drunken sailor who doesn't understand profit and loss to secure broadcast rights for a bunch of things, without any plan of how they'd actually recoup those costs in advertising fees. I guess they thought they could just keep jacking up their automatic/no-opt-out cable fee "subscriptions."

Nope! But I'm sure that's the next shoe to drop -- Disney will play hardball with cable companies and start demanding that people be forced to pay $11 per month (or something) for ESPN or else they won't be able to carry the Disney kid's channels and the other Disney kid channel, ABC.

I'd say it's a win-win for customers if cable companies refuse.

And I think the public should start letting cable companies know that if they jack up costs to cover this shit, another cable will get cut.

BTW, why are Republicans not insisting on a la carte pricing?

I've heard it claimed before that if there's a la carte pricing, ESPN and MSNBC suffer, sure, but FoxNews would suffer too, as obviously a lot of the country would also not subscribe to that channel.

But with FoxNews apparently going in a more liberal direction, and with much more to be gained anyway from putting the big hurt on cable and TV stations, it's time for a la carte pricing, not the socialist system we have now.

But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

(And besides: a la carte pricing would kind of force the Murdochs to continue to keep Fox conservative -- you can't get people to pay extra money for a service that is exactly like the service they're already getting as part of their base package. Competition forces brand differentiation.)

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 I'm available. Will work for relevance.

Posted by: Kweef Obermann at April 26, 2017 12:16 PM (bc2Lc)

2 I'm sure some of those laid-off were just trying to make a living but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Posted by: Northernlurker at April 26, 2017 12:17 PM (hJrjt)

3 That's as cool as the other side of the pillow.

Posted by: redenzo at April 26, 2017 12:17 PM (5wSNN)

4 Maybe another tribute to another gay athlete will bring the viewers back?

Posted by: RoyalOil at April 26, 2017 12:17 PM (ZQpd0)

5 they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Even the dog learns to only be surprised.

Posted by: DaveA at April 26, 2017 12:18 PM (FhXTo)

6 Hahahahaha.

Could not happen to a bigger bunch of jerks.

Well, maybe MSNBC.

Posted by: Joe Mama at April 26, 2017 12:18 PM (M5NPS)

7 Smothering jobs, with the cool side of the pillow!

Posted by: wooga at April 26, 2017 12:19 PM (3I7wr)

8 4 Maybe another tribute to another gay athlete will bring the viewers back?
Posted by: RoyalOil at April 26, 2017 12:17 PM (ZQpd0)

Perhaps a hagiography of Caitlyn or an emergency gig for the SCOAMF.

Posted by: Northernlurker at April 26, 2017 12:19 PM (hJrjt)

9 If they get rid of the soap opera part "OMG! Did you read what he tweeted!" it would be an improvement.

But they won't get rid of that part.

Posted by: *Mikey NTH - Join the Conspiracy of the Month Club at the Outrage Outlet! Flavored Tinfoil in May! at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (hLRSq)

10 Hoo boy. If you can't get rid of SJW's because they are driving off your customers and the blowback from the lefties would be too much to bear, you can take an ax to the ENTIRE staff because of financial problems. Who gets the old pink slip will be telling. A bunch of overpaid old jocks and blabbermouths probably.

Posted by: Lester at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (LfJIn)

11 Morning all.. Has Trump been impeached yet?

Posted by: It's Me donna at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (O2RFr)

12 Was Collin Crapperdick available for comment?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (J+eG2)

13 As someone said last thread, "if ESPN were winning, they be hiring, not cutting".

Posted by: rickb223 at April 26, 2017 12:21 PM (rvtDF)

14 Got into stupid Twitter argument with ESPN fanboys over this. Their points:

1.ESPN isn't political and the only people who disapprove of ESPN's social justice lectures are bigots and racists.
2. All of cable is in decline, so it's not because of our social justice lectures.

Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:21 PM (O7MnT)

15 Can't wait for the 30 for 30 about how ESPN threw it all away

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 12:21 PM (iAxa8)

16 Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of AHs. They have been sliding downhill for a long time.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 12:21 PM (mpXpK)

17 Welcome to the party, ESPinN'rs!

Unemployment isn't terrible, if you get severance.

And you time it just right to catch the good weather, like I did!

(haha was not my choice at all, but I'm not complaining.)

Posted by: kallisto at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (kD8Fh)

18 Been trying like hell to get ScoggWife to buy into cutting cable.

Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (9anvi)

19 To draw sports fans in, they clearly more political conversations and celebrations of athletes who were born in the wrong body.

Posted by: vrf at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (baCC+)

20 ESPN announces cuts, and they are EN FUEGO!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (8rNrN)

21 So when corporate America goes left their business becomes a socialist country...a failed state.

How long before ESPN or Disney demand a government bailout? And people wonder why our so called "capitalist" corporations want big government?

Posted by: William Eaton at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (MuTTO)

22 They only laid off the white privileged though, right?

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (awqUF)

23 Maybe they'll cut the politically correct assholes and get back to just sports.

Posted by: CSMBigBird at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (jsWA8)

24 Cabel?

Six hundred channels and nothing worth watching; nothing worth paying the $1200 a year cost.

Posted by: L' Ohnoes at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (xq1gO)

25 "BTW, why are Republicans not insisting on a la carte pricing?"

_____

Because they hide behind the TruCon position that letting big companies do whatever the hell they want is the very essence of "conservatism".

Same with trade and immigration.

And don't forget the campaign checks. Which is actually laughable when you see how little it takes to bribe Senators and Congressman to screw over the population at large.

A la carte cable would be the most popular thing the GOP could possibly do, but they need that $5,000 check from Disney.

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (uvyU0)

26 10 Hoo boy. If you can't get rid of SJW's because they are driving off your customers and the blowback from the lefties would be too much to bear, you can take an ax to the ENTIRE staff because of financial problems. Who gets the old pink slip will be telling. A bunch of overpaid old jocks and blabbermouths probably.
Posted by: Lester at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (LfJIn)

==============

Cutting staff won't fix their problems, though.

The problem is that they have contracts with the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA for content where they promised a lot of money and they're just not getting nearly that much from cable fees anymore.

Staffing is a very small number in comparison.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (BjrOM)

27 Thankfully, I 'm never coming

Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back..

Posted by: Chris Berman at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (cBECC)

28 "This is an awful day for all in Bristol.
-- jamesmiller (@JimMiller) April 26, 2017"

"Bristols" is Cockney rhyming slang for boobies.

- The More You Know

Posted by: hogmartin at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (8nWyX)

29 "Been trying like hell to get ScoggWife to buy into cutting cable."

Is there a particular objection that she has?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (J+eG2)

30 Sadly, the ones laid off will not be the management douches who engineered the train wreck.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (NBHj5)

31 23 Maybe they'll cut the politically correct assholes and get back to just sports.

Posted by: CSMBigBird at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (jsWA

Doubtful. They've been long march-i-fied.

Posted by: kallisto at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (kD8Fh)

32 And ESPN's cutting like Julia Child in a room full of marinated steak and Nazis!

(She worked as an OSS agent in WWII. I think. Maybe she was in the OSS later than WWII. Whatever. That's why I'm only a Junior Catchphrase Writer.)

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (8rNrN)

33 BTW, why are Republicans not insisting on a la carte pricing?

I've heard it claimed before that if there's a la carte pricing, ESPN and MSNBC suffer, sure, but FoxNews would suffer too, as obviously a lot of the country would also not subscribe to that channel.

Yeah, really. I don't get this. It would be wildly popular, and most of the cable companies and media outlets crap on Republicans all the time anyway, so win-win.

And since when do Republicans believe in picking winners and losers in the economy? Eff Fox News. They'll either make it, or not. Their problem.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (SRKgf)

34 espn is firing the wrong people. they should have started with stephen a smith!
a la carte pricing is an idea whose time will never come, for the reasons stated in your post, ace. the cable companies hate the idea, and put very large sums of cash to be sure their hate is communicated to pols.

Posted by: mikeyslaw at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (JZJ9v)

35 And I think the public should start letting cable companies know that if
they jack up costs to cover this shit, another cable will get cut.

I killed my cable years ago. ESPN already sucked then.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (mpXpK)

36 Re: A la carte pricing - Thanks to Infinity's service offerings, I cannot get the higher-speed internet without also purchasing more cable channels. Their pricing links the two, no doubt as a way to force customers to pay for all those crappy channels that they don't want.

Yeah, I will be addressing this soon...

Posted by: Lizzy at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (NOIQH)

37 "or else they won't be able to carry the Disney kid's channels and the other Disney kid channel, ABC."

You misspelled "soft kiddie porn channel(s)."

Posted by: Country Boy at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (Jcg9Q)

38 Bring me all the finest meats and cheeses in the land, for I am KING of all I survey!!!!!!!!!

...

Which is the unemployed hack sportswriters line for bread.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (0dLxk)

39 Maybe broadcasting a MLB game in spanish on the MAIN ESPN channel will help? Or they could air another slobbering story about how upset Lebron and Curry were at Trump winning? Or perhaps they could add another lesbian softball player to their MLB broadcast team? Surely there's a way that more of the same could dig them out of this predicament?

Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (ewSN2)

40 Maybe they'll cut the politically correct assholes and get back to just sports.

Posted by: CSMBigBird at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (jsWA

They will drop the soap opera parts first before they do that.

Posted by: *Mikey NTH - Join the Conspiracy of the Month Club at the Outrage Outlet! Flavored Tinfoil in May! at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (hLRSq)

41 Da Da Da... Da Da Da...

Posted by: Reverse Polish Notation at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (qfDb3)

42 Going...going...gone!

Posted by: Chris Berman at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (bc2Lc)

43 >>>"Bristols" is Cockney rhyming slang for boobies.

- The More You Know

...

I really hate Cockney rhyming slang.

Cockney rhyming slang tries to be funny, but then -- DOINK!!!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:24 PM (8rNrN)

44 "awful news"

WTF?

100 people, which is fewer people than usually show up for church at a single morning service in Podunk, Flyover, are losing their jobs and it's "awful news"?

Posted by: Moron Robbie at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (fD1ST)

45 Oh! I know what'll help!!

An all-female announcing crew!!

I know the public has been positively desperate to hear two dykes give us the color AND play-by-play for the next Monday Night Football game.

That neither of them have played is your bigotry showing.

Posted by: RoyalOil at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (ZQpd0)

46 Cabel?

Six hundred channels and nothing worth watching; nothing worth paying the $1200 a year cost.

Posted by: L' Ohnoes
---------

I think you meant 'Cabal'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (ZO497)

47 Quick get more fantasy football coverage and WNBA games

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (iAxa8)

48 Congratulations to Ace once again being a featured columnist on Real Clear Politics. Don't know how many times now, but Ace is now almost a regular -- and under his 'own' brand, Ace of Spades. Media insiders, heh.

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (MIKMs)

49 MUNTZLAFF^10

Posted by: Tex Lovera at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (wtvvX)

50 Scaling their operations back back back back baaaaack... and gone!

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (TOk1P)

51 >>>Or perhaps they could add another lesbian softball player to their MLB broadcast team?

Those lesbians are going down on each other like Rocky and Apollo at the end of their fight!!!!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (8rNrN)

52 Is there a particular objection that she has?
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (J+eG2)

She's a friggin' TV addict. She can't miss her "shows".

If she craved cock half as much as she craves reality TV, we'd both be much happier.

Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (9anvi)

53 Republicans could put Harvey Weinstein in prison for the rest of his life on mail fraud charges based on Hollywood accounting, thus driving a stake into the heart of the propaganda machine.

But they don't.

Because this is what they want.

Posted by: Oschisms at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (70QTT)

54

Cotton McKnight: Looks like it's gonna be a two-on-one, a m�nage � trois of pain.

Pepper Brooks: Usually you pay double for that kind of action, Cotton.

Posted by: ESPN 8 - the Ocho! at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (awqUF)

55 Mostly "on-air personalities"? They must be getting rid of ESPNs 9 thru 33.

Posted by: t-bird at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (2z74n)

56 Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back back, back, back..

Posted by: Chris Berman at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (cBECC)

57 This makes me cry tears of unbridled joy.

ESPN can kiss my shiny non-cable-subscribing ass.

FUCK 'EM.

Posted by: Tex Lovera at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (wtvvX)

58 The only thing better would be if all the layoffs were right before Christmas.

Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (r/0kC)

59 52
She's a friggin' TV addict. She can't miss her "shows".

If she craved cock half as much as she craves reality TV, we'd both be much happier.
Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (9anvi)

==============

What shows?

You might be able to get by with Hulu.

At least you wouldn't be feeding ESPN, and I believe that the networks on Hulu are mostly paid through advertising dollars.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (BjrOM)

60 Maybe if Suzie Kolber would emphasize more words harder.

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (iAxa8)

61 I read somewhere yesterday that ESPN has around 1000 on-air personalities, so cutting 100 jobs is a 10% layoff. Also not all 100 jobs are on-air so it's less than 10%.

Having been laid off a few times in my life, I'm pretty meh about a bunch of very highly paid bloviators losing their gigs.

Posted by: Boots at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (EBwPV)

62 55 Mostly "on-air personalities"? They must be getting rid of ESPNs 9 thru 33.
Posted by: t-bird at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (2z74n)

=============

As long as they keep the Ocho.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:27 PM (BjrOM)

63 Why do people want a la carte pricing? I think the reasoning goes like this: I only watch 10 channels so I should only pay for ten. That's like showing up at an all u can eat buffet and then asking for a refund because you only had the steak and the lobster. That's not how it works. There are lots of cross-subsidies in cable and you have no idea if you would come out ahead or not. Chick programming is cheap but guy programming - sports - is expensive. What makes you think your cable bill wouldn't go through the roof if you wanted to watch sports?

Posted by: bjmuggs at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (fiU1S)

64 haven't watched espn in eight or nine years. never missed the. the whole of disney can burn to the ground for all i care.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (KP5rU)

65 Chris "You'll Now Be Working Ina" Berman.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (TOk1P)

66 I won't succumb to schadenfreude. I WON'T succumb to schadenfreude. I won't SUCCUMB to...

Ah to hell with it. Suck a BOD, lefty sports dicks.

Posted by: joncelli, Longbow Afficianado and Phalangist at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (RD7QR)

67 If ESPN had been hq'd in Bristol, TN instead of Bristol, CT, perhaps things might have turned out differently.

Posted by: mrp at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (Pqytn)

68 ESPN 8 featuring the national dodge ball championships!

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (6KsvZ)

69 If I cut my cable I won't get Botched.

Posted by: wth at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (HgMAr)

70 BTW, why are Republicans not insisting on a la carte pricing?

The Market will take care of that. The individual channels will start offering like HBO does or sell shows to Amazon/Netflix.

Posted by: Janir at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (Lk5qN)

71 At least Erin Andrews has a future.

Doing MILF pron.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (TOk1P)

72 That's so sad. But it's not

Posted by: SOMEASSHOLESTOLEMYPEN at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (nQHw/)

73 ESPN's balance sheets are redder than a softball team's thighs on sync day!!!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (8rNrN)

74 I was wondering about the off air people and, bluntly, I'm glad to hear that it's mainly people in front of the camera losing their jobs. The camera guys didn't have anything to do with this, why should he lose his job before those who created the disaster in the first place?

I think we're at least inching closer to a la carte with things like Amazon Channels and the like. Here's the deal though. I've been running the numbers and, at least right now, it's not actually cheaper for me to cut the cord than it is to keep cable. But it's getting close. Very close.

When you have *me* looking seriously at cord cutting, you have a problem as an industry.

Posted by: alexthechick - rrraaawwwrrr at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (mf5HN)

75 "She's a friggin' TV addict. She can't miss her "shows".

Most of the current ones are available either thru Hulu, Netflix or if you already have amazon prime.

And as I wrote last week, my latest effort to place an OTA antenna up in the attic brings us 35 stations, all in free glorious HD.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (J+eG2)

76 63: define sports.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM (KP5rU)

77 That crosses the red line! Reggie & I love ESPN!

Posted by: Preezy 44 at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (bc2Lc)

78 I'm not a sports guy, so this is glorious to me.

One of my friends basically just keeps cable for ESPN and HBO. Lots of folks like him, I suspect, who needs their sports fix.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (6KsvZ)

79 Trump is responsible for this. He's destroying good jobs.

Posted by: Nanzi Pelosi at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (ZO497)

80 Huh, my hash changed. Kooky.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (6KsvZ)

81

Cotton McKnight: It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian.

Posted by: ESPN 8 - the Ocho! at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (awqUF)

82 Cable pricing well, is corrupt.

I have FiOS. When I signed up I opted for a TV package along with internet and phone. It cost something like $60/mo. Two years later I cut the cable cord and opted to increase my internet speed. New cost (keep in mind, this is ONLY internet): $75/mo.

I couldn't figure out how internet only, even a higher speed, cost more than the whole package.

Anyway, Ala carte is long overdue. Streaming had potential but content providers applied the package pricing to their channels and pretty much short circuited it. I looked at DirecTVNOW and it's the same stupid model that their regular service uses.

Posted by: Witchdoktor, AKA VA GOP Sucks at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (PFy0L)

83 I think you meant 'Cabal'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM

One of those Freudian typos that make you go 'hmmmm'.

I'm looking for a new internet service provider and all the offers are bundles of satellite TV, internet, and phone service. All of which add up to the magical hundred bucks a month which is too much to pay for the one thing I want.

Posted by: L' Ohnoes at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (xq1gO)

84 Liberals are going to liberal, even at the expense of the bottom line.

Every TV executive knows Fox News became #1 by NOT being a typical liberal network (at least at first) and absolutely destroyed CNN in the ratings.

So you would think the floodgates would open on this as a new market to tap and other networks would follow? Of course not.

As long as the head people are liberal, the networks will reflect that until the banks repossess the office furniture.

Same with newspapers.

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (uvyU0)

85 John Nolte has a good article up about the layoffs and what more can be done to keep them coming. Cutting the cable cord to starve the left has been his battle cry for years.

http://tinyurl.com/n4xt4le

It also links to an article on how to survive without cable, for those scared of taking the plunge. Low ratings don't matter anymore, canceling a cable package does.

Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (hvf9s)

86 Or perhaps they could add another lesbian softball player to their MLB broadcast team?

She's not a lesbian. She's just not very good.

Posted by: tu3031 at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (qJhUV)

87 Test

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (BjrOM)

88 I'm hearing the vast majority of those laid off have magic white skin.

Guess the magic failed.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (ul9CR)

89 10 Hoo boy. If you can't get rid of SJW's because they are driving off your customers and the blowback from the lefties would be too much to bear, you can take an ax to the ENTIRE staff because of financial problems. Who gets the old pink slip will be telling. A bunch of overpaid old jocks and blabbermouths probably.
Posted by: Lester at April 26, 2017 12:20 PM (LfJIn)

Fire the female softball player color commentator who pontificates about MLB. God, she pisses me off.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (SRKgf)

90 As far as sports goes, most of it you can get live-streamed. And usually, without political commentary or "soap opera" background stories.

When I first cut the cord, I missed college football and hockey. Now, I just get them on the intertubes.

Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (O7MnT)

91 >>>And as I wrote last week, my latest effort to place an OTA antenna up in the attic brings us 35 stations, all in free glorious HD.

I've heard these are much improved -- and the picture quality is clearer than laid-off ESPN employee's daily schedules for the next eight months!!!!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (8rNrN)

92 I cut the cord over a year ago. I'm glad to not have the expense for something I never cared for. If this kills off cable channels I won't be hurt by it. Modern version of the buggy whip. I can be more discerning with my entertainment spending.

Posted by: USNtakim at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (hMqvx)

93 What shows?

You might be able to get by with Hulu.

Too many to count. Be easier to weigh 'em.

I'm about done negotiating the point. Considering just putting a couple hollowpoints through the DVR.

Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (9anvi)

94 Staffing is a very small number in comparison.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM

True and it makes me think this is a preliminary step to bankruptcy to get out of those contracts. Disney can afford to pay but do NOT tolerate subsidiaries who don't pull their weight. Massive and high profile layoffs are a good indicator of bankruptcy considerations or trying to sell the corpse to another network.

Posted by: Lester at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (LfJIn)

95

Cotton McKnight: Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to witness the greatest happening in sport: sudden-death LAYOFFS!

Pepper Brooks: Pepper needs new shorts!

Posted by: ESPN 8 - the Ocho! at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (awqUF)

96 Sure-fire suggestion:

Make Kate Upton your sideline reportress.

But totally NOOD.

Posted by: Tex Lovera at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (wtvvX)

97 If I could buy only TCM, that would make me happy.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (6KsvZ)

98 86 Or perhaps they could add another lesbian softball player to their MLB broadcast team?

She's not a lesbian. She's just not very good.

Posted by: tu3031 at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (qJhUV)

Just saw this.

They won't fire her. Do you have any idea how long it took them to find a softball player who is NOT a lesbian?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (SRKgf)

99 Obviously they need to give me my own show. And have me as a regular or the others.

My motto: "I cut the cable, but the spectacle of me will prevent subscribers from doing so!"

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (vRcUp)

100 90 As far as sports goes, most of it you can get live-streamed. And usually, without political commentary or "soap opera" background stories.

When I first cut the cord, I missed college football and hockey. Now, I just get them on the intertubes.
Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (O7MnT)

===================

I buy MLB.tv every year.

It's all I really need in terms of sports.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (BjrOM)

101 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Bought and paid for, every one.

And I've got my concerns about Trump, too.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (X6fMO)

102 At least Erin Andrews has a future.

Yeah. At FOX.

Posted by: tu3031 at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (qJhUV)

103 @ Tex Lovera

That might get me watching sports.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (6KsvZ)

104 93 What shows?

You might be able to get by with Hulu.

Too many to count. Be easier to weigh 'em.

I'm about done negotiating the point. Considering just putting a couple hollowpoints through the DVR.
Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (9anvi)

==============

"oops"

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:32 PM (BjrOM)

105 IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE...WELL, I'M NOT SURE WHY IT'S FUNNY.

Posted by: Ben Roethlisberger at April 26, 2017 12:32 PM (ZO497)

106 Pepper, these lay-offs are so easy they're more like lay-UPS!!!

Posted by: Cotton McKnight at April 26, 2017 12:32 PM (8rNrN)

107 STILL NOT TIRED OF WINNING

Posted by: Mega at April 26, 2017 12:32 PM (BhCYc)

108 92 I cut the cord over a year ago. I'm glad to not have the expense for something I never cared for. If this kills off cable channels I won't be hurt by it. Modern version of the buggy whip. I can be more discerning with my entertainment spending.
Posted by: USNtakim at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (hMqvx)

We have cable strictly and solely because it comes bundled with Internet access. If it weren't bundled, adios pendejos!

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:32 PM (SRKgf)

109 Breaks my could black heart! Ha!

Posted by: Killerdog at April 26, 2017 12:33 PM (a5I8h)

110
Cotton McKnight: Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to the Great Wall of China, I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt, I've even witnessed a grown man satisfy a camel. But never in all my years as a sportscaster have I witnessed something as improbable, as impossible, as what we've witnessed here today!

Posted by: ESPN 8 - the Ocho! at April 26, 2017 12:33 PM (awqUF)

111 Just think how successful they would be if they were a sports network.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at April 26, 2017 12:33 PM (7ZVPa)

112 From way downtown...BANG!!!

Posted by: SMOD Keeper at April 26, 2017 12:33 PM (onq2p)

113 >>>105 IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE...WELL, I'M NOT SURE WHY IT'S FUNNY.
Posted by: Ben Roethlisberger

ANYBODY CAN BE A CRITIC BUT NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A JUNIOR ESPN CATCHPHRASE WRITER

OH WAIT PRETTY MUCH ANYONE CAN BE

Posted by: REN BOTHLISBERGER at April 26, 2017 12:33 PM (8rNrN)

114 Both Disney and Comcast are up a lot since the election.

I looked at Disney's numbers awhile back and ESPN was still making a boat load of money

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 26, 2017 12:34 PM (SIY7D)

115 I buy MLB.tv every year.

It's all I really need in terms of sports.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:31 PM (BjrOM)

Same here. Then I time shift to burn through the dead air of commercial breaks, saving probably the better part of an hour.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:34 PM (SRKgf)

116 I'm back, bitches!

Posted by: TV Antenna at April 26, 2017 12:34 PM (bc2Lc)

117 All jokes about unemployment aside, it seems that behind the scenes types and the least traditionally offensive are being let go in favor of the strident and odious on-air SJW types.

Posted by: kallisto at April 26, 2017 12:34 PM (kD8Fh)

118 >>>Bought and paid for, every one.

And I've got my concerns about Trump, too.

...

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE THAT'S MY NEXT POST BUT I WANTED TO START OFF ON A HAPPY NOTE

Posted by: REN BOTHLISBERGER at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (8rNrN)

119 The Market will take care of that. The individual channels will start offering like HBO does or sell shows to Amazon/Netflix.
Posted by: Janir

______

Not really, when you cancel your cable, they jack up your internet to such an absurd price that it's almost free to just get cable TV.

For some reason, conservatives have decided for the last 100 years we're going to let bundling stay illegal for every industry EXCEPT the cable companies.

If we just pass on this one agreed upon regulation to the companies that wish to destroy us day and night and would be politically popular to boot, well, we will have lost our soul as free market conservatives.

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (uvyU0)

120
Fox Business just reported that Ann Coulter canceled her Berkeley speech.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (493sH)

121 Disney will play hardball with cable companies and start demanding that people be forced to pay $11 per month (or something) for ESPN or else they won't be able to carry the Disney kid's channels and the other Disney kid channel, ABC.
--

They might have a better argument if they insisted people pay $11 per month to not have to watch.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (7ZVPa)

122 Still waiting for the Trump Sports Network. Where they, you know, show sports.

Posted by: t-bird at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (2z74n)

123 "Both Disney and Comcast are up a lot since the election."

Their stock prices.

100 people getting laid off is nothing in the scheme of greater Disney

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (SIY7D)

124 The personalities showed up are were ready to play, too bad management had other ideas.

Management really took them to the mat.

Tough day for the personalities today. Tough day.

Gotta hand it to management, they really cleaned house.

Management really took it to the field and showed the personalities how it's done.

Tough day to be a personality. Really tough day.

What a fucking inane job. Fuck you, personality. Just fuck you.

Posted by: Dang at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (8b+oT)

125 @Deplorable Jay Guevara

Technically we HAVE cable, for the same reason. But never did take the cable box out of the packaging. I just wanted the internet.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM (6KsvZ)

126 IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE SO MANY ESPN EMPLOYEES ARE CURSING THEMSELVES FOR DROPPING OUT OF CLOWN COLLEGE

Posted by: REN BOTHLISBERGER at April 26, 2017 12:36 PM (8rNrN)

127 Maybe ESPN can show Jenner's actual chopadickoffame surgery, you know like they used to show on TLC? I saw a knee replacement done on TLC once - I pray I never need a knee replacement.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:36 PM (vg8iE)

128 100 people getting laid off is nothing in the scheme of greater Disney

The real crime is that laid-off talent had to train their H1B replacements.

Posted by: Witchdoktor, AKA VA GOP Sucks at April 26, 2017 12:36 PM (PFy0L)

129 This makes no sense at all, I mean, we gave ~~Bruce~~ Caitlyn Jenner an award!

Posted by: ESPN at April 26, 2017 12:36 PM (ZO497)

130 >>> Most of the current ones are available either thru Hulu, Netflix or if you already have amazon prime.

I pay for Amazon Prime, my sister pays for Netflix, and a mutual friend pays for Hulu Plus. We share our account info so we each pay for one service and get them all. That plus Youtube covers a LOT of stuff to watch.

Before Hollywood shut it down with a legal injunction, I was also using VidAngel to watch movies for $1 that weren't up on those services. Miss it.

Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 12:36 PM (hvf9s)

131 So Shep Smith is accusing the WH of a cover up regarding Flynn.... Really need that from Fox... Might as well be MSNBC

Posted by: It's Me donna at April 26, 2017 12:37 PM (O2RFr)

132 45 days until DISH contract is up. Can't wait.

Posted by: Chris Berman at April 26, 2017 12:37 PM (cBECC)

133 131 So Shep Smith is accusing the WH of a cover up regarding Flynn.... Really need that from Fox... Might as well be MSNBC

==========

Fox? Hell, Chaffetz was out saying it yesterday.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:38 PM (vg8iE)

134 This good news. Better news would be if FB,Twatter, google, MS, Tesla, and Apple were laying off people.

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 12:38 PM (UOJLJ)

135 Cable used to be the wave of the future - insert dramatic music.

Now Cable is a dead-end bypassed by the Internet.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 26, 2017 12:38 PM (e1OyG)

136 Viewers are cutting cords faster than an obstetrician with an 11 am tee-time!

Posted by: Junior ESPN Catchphrase Writer at April 26, 2017 12:38 PM (8rNrN)

137 Crossingbroad.com has a confirmed list of those who were axed. I'm surprised they're not all white boys.

#ESPNsoracist

Posted by: kallisto at April 26, 2017 12:38 PM (kD8Fh)

138 Even though I've long since lost most interest in sports other than actually engaging in them or occasionally attending live events, it's still another sad and infuriating story that this area of life, too, has been so harmed by the racist authoritarians ("politicized").

Posted by: rhomboid at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (PjWy4)

139 But, but, but, we gave CAITLYN JENNER THE COURAGE AWARD!! Why doesn't everyone love us?!

Posted by: Imbeciles at BSPN at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (RjcAj)

140 Disney will play hardball with cable companies and start demanding that people be forced to pay $11 per month (or something) for ESPN or else they won't be able to carry the Disney kid's channels and the other Disney kid channel, ABC.

Disney is militant LGBT central. They would rather go out of business than sacrifice their principle of forcing their viewers to be exposed to their perverted, libtarded propaganda.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (vRcUp)

141 I seem to have been spam filtered...

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (TOk1P)

142 Shep Smith is accusing the WH of a cover up regarding Flynn.... Really need that from Fox... Might as well be MSNBC

So, Flynn apparently left out some information on his E-QIP form for a security clearance.

I guess he should use the "careless, not criminal" defense. That seems to work.

Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (O7MnT)

143 Count of fucks given about ESPN layoffs: 0

Posted by: JEM at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (TppKb)

144 Ok, there I am. For a minute my posts were getting a spam warning, and I'm not sure why.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (TOk1P)

145 Get ready for some FUNemployment!!!

Posted by: LA Times at April 26, 2017 12:39 PM (BhCYc)

146 140; so, let it be done.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (KP5rU)

147
Fox? Hell, Chaffetz was out saying it yesterday.

Posted by: bicentennialguy

====

Shep and Chaffetz would be a cute couple. They could share mascara and eyeliner .

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (awqUF)

148 At this rate we'll never see the Ocho!

Imagine their ratings if people actually could have ala carte cable

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (39g3+)

149 The Left ruins everything.They don't just disagree with us,they hate us.Their politics must be everywhere and celebrated by everyone.

Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (r/0kC)

150 Disney Channel has sucked since the late 2000's. And it launched the career of Shai LeBeouf. Screw 'em.

Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (O7MnT)

151 Now if only we can get rid of mother effing black out zones.

Posted by: Lauren at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (FmB6k)

152 48 Congratulations to Ace once again being a featured columnist on Real Clear Politics. Don't know how many times now, but Ace is now almost a regular -- and under his 'own' brand, Ace of Spades. Media insiders, heh.
Posted by: mustbequantum at April 26, 2017 12:25 PM (MIKMs)

Awesome news! Congrats.

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (72PAC)

153 If she craved cock half as much as she craves reality TV, we'd both be much happier.

Posted by: ScoggDog at April 26, 2017 12:26 PM (9anvi)

The Paolo, he has heard no complaints.

Posted by: Paolo at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (X6fMO)

154 149 The Left ruins everything.They don't just disagree with us,they hate us.Their politics must be everywhere and celebrated by everyone.
Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 12:40 PM (r/0

Yup...

Posted by: It's Me donna at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (O2RFr)

155 This good news. Better news would be if FB,Twatter, google, MS, Tesla, and Apple were laying off people.
--------

Tip of the spear.

Posted by: Mega at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (BhCYc)

156 I have a DISH package without ESPN and a few outdoors channels, but would much prefer a la carte. (and I just noticed my plan went from $40 to $50). Many interesting low budget channels out there ... I even paid $5/month for Beck's thing till he went off the rails (further off) since I support the concept.

Newsmax might compete a little if Fox goes liberal, but some version of a Freedom Caucus right would be nice ... not sure who that would be. Ace/Sexton/??? a little variety pack that are not establishment would be a winner. But smart and hot women are a winning combo ... so Tomi and Lauren Southern type "babes". A Sharyl Attkinson type would be a strong prime time cornerstone, but those types probably prefer to get network money.

And there is bandwidth now with the over the air channels going digital. Dilute the network domination. Of course all that means fighting the globalist cabal and the deep state control mechanisms. The shadow people will fight against any "equal opportunity" for the proles.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (TmCOq)

157 90 As far as sports goes, most of it you can get live-streamed. And usually, without political commentary or "soap opera" background stories.

When I first cut the cord, I missed college football and hockey. Now, I just get them on the intertubes.
Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:30 PM (O7MnT)

Help a Moron out -- how do I get ACC sports online? I just want to watch the Hokies lose without buying cable for the privilege. Is that too much to ask?

Posted by: joncelli, Longbow Afficianado and Phalangist at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (RD7QR)

158 The only thing I watch on ESPN is the Puppy Bowl.

Posted by: The Great White Scotsman at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (le7jz)

159 If Chaffetz wants to talk aout American politicians selling out to the Russians, he should just look to the Clintons.

How many millions did Bill funnel to Moscow to ostensibly keep the old Soviet nuclear stockpile from falling into the wrong hands?

How much did Hillary get as kick-backs when she allowed the Russians to buy a major stake in US uranium production when she was Secretary of State?

When those questions are answered Chaffetz, then you can talk about Flynn. Until then just shut up.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (e1OyG)

160 Is there anything that could happen which would force businesses, such as ESPN, to stop force feeding left wing politics on their customers?

They are alienating half their customer base. In which universe does that make sense? It would be so easy for a sports network to be non-political. Or, if they felt it to be important, to have programs dedicated to politics.

Posted by: Northernlurker at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (hJrjt)

161 Goodness gracious! This is horrible news. The policies of the administration is destroying jobs for regular working folks with kids, student loans, mortgages. Keep up the good fight, history is on our side. Help is coming.

Resist!

Posted by: Chelsea Clinton at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (1BQGO)

162 Help a Moron out -- how do I get ACC sports online? I just want to watch the Hokies lose without buying cable for the privilege. Is that too much to ask?
Posted by: joncelli, Longbow Afficianado and Phalangist at April 26, 2017 12:41 PM (RD7QR)

12thplayer.com. Pretty sure they stream college football.

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (72PAC)

163 A la Carte pricing would probably hurt some of the networks I enjoy like RFD, IFC, and Smithsonian. If I can get F1 races, Archer, and Better Call Saul without cable, I'll cut the cord.

Posted by: Dax at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (r0rZG)

164 Shep Smith is accusing the WH of a cover up regarding Flynn.... Really need that from Fox... Might as well be MSNBC

So, Flynn apparently left out some information on his E-QIP form for a security clearance.

I guess he should use the "careless, not criminal" defense. That seems to work.
Posted by: V the K

____

How long are they going to keep up on Flynn, the guy was fired only a few days in when things came to light. What else are they supposed to do?

Was Trump supposed have him shot on sight?

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (uvyU0)

165 Pepper, these lay-offs are so easy they're more like lay-UPS!!!

Posted by: Cotton McKnight
===

That's a really easy shot in basketball , Cotton.

Posted by: Pepper Brooks at April 26, 2017 12:42 PM (awqUF)

166
159 If Chaffetz wants to talk aout American politicians selling out to the Russians, he should just look to the Clintons.

How many millions did Bill funnel to Moscow to ostensibly keep the old Soviet nuclear stockpile from falling into the wrong hands?

How much did Hillary get as kick-backs when she allowed the Russians to buy a major stake in US uranium production when she was Secretary of State?

When those questions are answered Chaffetz, then you can talk about Flynn. Until then just shut up.
==============

Worse is that he had Cummings out there with him, tagteaming on the subject.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:43 PM (vg8iE)

167 >>Disney is militant LGBT central. They would rather go out of business
than sacrifice their principle of forcing their viewers to be exposed to
their perverted, libtarded propaganda.

Considering Disney now owns the Star Wars franchise, that won't be going out of business anytime soon.

It's like MSNBC: NBC owns so many other channels, channels that are well-liked and watched, that they can keep their lil' DNC Propaganda Boutique MSNBC going forever.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 26, 2017 12:43 PM (NOIQH)

168
Fox Business just reported that Ann Coulter canceled her Berkeley speech.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM

Makes me root for Kim Jong-un's missile program.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 26, 2017 12:43 PM (IqV8l)

169 ESPN has been dead to me for a while. What the F is politics and social(ist) commentary doing in sports?!? People who tune in to sports channels want to, get this, watch sports (Who knew?!). They do not want to be hectored. As far as I am concerned - if you didn't hate them after the Bruce Jenner and Colin Kaepernick baloney - then there is something wrong with YOU.

And so ESPN's chickens come home to roost.

And yes - to those who mentioned it above, Dodgeball is looking particularly prescient with its takedown of ESPN (ESPN 8 "The Ocho!") which it did in 2004 (!) (was it that long ago?) and ESPN has not gotten any better since.

Posted by: Publius Redux at April 26, 2017 12:43 PM (Fb9aZ)

170 Chaffetz(spit) is deflecting attention away from his growing IRS scandal. I thought he was supposed to resign over the weekend?

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (UOJLJ)

171 >>Worse is that he had Cummings out there with him, tagteaming on the subject.

Seriously, what do the Dems have on Chaffetz?

Posted by: Lizzy at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (NOIQH)

172 If I can get F1 races, Archer, and Better Call Saul without cable, I'll cut the cord.
Posted by: Dax

________

Look up Kodi

Basically free streaming cable and they can't shut it down

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (uvyU0)

173 Cable used to be the wave of the future - insert dramatic music.

Now Cable is a dead-end bypassed by the Internet.
Posted by: Anna Puma
---------

Anna - Currently reading 'Clash of Wings', Boyne.

I'm having trouble envisioning all of the players, and do not want to do internet searches for all of the sundry aircraft mentioned. I am familiar with probably a dozen, maybe two dozen or so, but not with many others.

Is there a fairly comprehensive book (of photographs) of WWII aircraft that you would recommend?

Posted by: ESPN at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (ZO497)

174 Fox Business just reported that Ann Coulter canceled her Berkeley speech.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM
================

Lovely.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (vg8iE)

175 >>>>But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Ace you are slightly incorrect.

First they are gutless, spineless, testicleless cowards
Secondly they are corporate stooges

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at April 26, 2017 12:45 PM (voOPb)

176 120

Fox Business just reported that Ann Coulter canceled her Berkeley speech.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM

I'm glad she decided that being murdered is not a great career move.

Posted by: Lester at April 26, 2017 12:45 PM (LfJIn)

177 Everyone's doin' the Bristol Stomp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCOB5-E4P6Y

Yeah, Baby!!!

Posted by: naturalfake at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (NyJwR)

178 Who the hell are these "personalities" that ESPN claims to have? And did people actually tune in to see these "personalities" perform?

It amazes me to think that people are entertained by jocksniffers who pick their noses on the air.

Posted by: Fritz at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (2Mnv1)

179 The MTV-model of having "music television" that has no music, but rather runs a bunch of freak-show programming to highlight pregnant teens, hipsters and trannies has been slowly eating sports networks for years.

Politics aside, the only thing worse than watching a boring sport like curling, golf or a marathon is watching unathletic, glass-eyed douchebags TALK about sports. Throw in the constant lecturing on tranny issues, racism, and the "injustice" of adults being forced to play a child's game for $3 million a year instead of $4 million, and yep, I pretty much lose all interest.

If I can't turn on sports television and expect to see grown men fighting over a spherical object, well, I'm inclined to just go find a spherical object and throw it or hit it with a stick myself. Leave it to the left to ruin anything decent.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (gtQ/3)

180 Fox Business just reported that Ann Coulter canceled her Berkeley speech.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 12:35 PM
================

Lovely.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:44 PM (vg8iE)

I wonder if Ann Coulter has made a business decision, that it's better for her bottom line to have people talking about her will she/won't she on and off and on again, and now off Berkely visit is better than actually going to, you know, Berkly.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (TOk1P)

181 How long are they going to keep up on Flynn, the guy was fired only a few days in when things came to light. What else are they supposed to do?

I thought the Dem-Media Complex had gone a bit quiet on the Russia story ever since it came out that Obama was spying on Trump the whole time.

Posted by: V the K at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (O7MnT)

182 Calcio Storico, Historic Football. 2 week season, 3 games, all playoffs, amateur church league combat where the ref carries a sword. Available on YouTube. The season is in June and livestreamed on rtv38.com. Champion team wins a cow.

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (iAxa8)

183 "Do you have any idea how long it took them to find a softball player who is NOT a lesbian?"

What if they find a softball player, born with a vagina, who self identifies as a straight male, who is sexually attracted to women?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (J+eG2)

184 I think with a la carte pricing - when you're faced with channels to choose from - you might just think - well, interesting, I don't want any of these.

Posted by: Lurker primus at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (DhPrq)

185 >>>Ace you are slightly incorrect.

First they are gutless, spineless, testicleless cowards
Secondly they are corporate stooges

...

I've heard it both ways.

Posted by: Sean Spencer, Aspiring ESPN "Sports Psychic" at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (8rNrN)

186 If I can get F1 races, Archer, and Better Call Saul without cable, I'll cut the cord.
Posted by: Dax

Sling TV. It's like 10 bucks a month, and it has everything you listed. I get to watch hockey, UFC, and a handful of movie and cable networks.

Posted by: Pug Mahon of the Clan Deplorable at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (RwwCT)

187 House freedom caucus announces support for new repeal bill

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (kTF2Z)

188 Maybe ESPN can show Jenner's actual chopadickoffame surgery, you know like they used to show on TLC? I saw a knee replacement done on TLC once - I pray I never need a knee replacement.
Posted by: bicentennialguy

You're still going through with the vaginoplasty though, correct? I mean, you have two knees, but you still lack a vagina.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (vRcUp)

189
22 They only laid off the white privileged though, right?

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:22 PM (awqUF)

Hey, I'm white and a whale.
Posted by: Chris Berman

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (voOPb)

190 How long are they going to keep up on Flynn, the guy was fired only a few days in when things came to light. What else are they supposed to do?

Was Trump supposed have him shot on sight?
Posted by: Maritime
---------

They will use whatever miserable, sodden fuel they can dig up to stoke the febrile outrage of their base.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (ZO497)

191 This is only bad news for effeminate "men", that sloppy fat jackass from high school who never played sports but can site every statistic and other drama queen douche bags watching The Women Network for Alleged Men.

They ceased being a "sports" channel long ago.

And what the fuck is a "personality"? When did that cease simply being a psychological trait?

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (h5F/r)

192

Cotton McKnight: Let me tell you, a double-fault final-play elimination hasn't occurred since the Helsinki episode of 1919, and I think we all remember how THAT turned out!

Posted by: ESPN 8 - the Ocho! at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (awqUF)

193 Ivanka wants to open borders to Syrian refugees because...humanitarian crisis.

Funny because I didn't see her name on my ballot.

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (UOJLJ)

194 Some days I wish we were more like China.

http://www.weaselzippers.us/?p=336022

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (J+eG2)

195 Who the hell are these "personalities" that ESPN claims to have? And did people actually tune in to see these "personalities" perform?

It amazes me to think that people are entertained by jocksniffers who pick their noses on the air.

Posted by: Fritz at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (2Mnv1)

I know Chris Berman is the fat old guy who used to make up funny nicknames. And I know Erin Andrews had somebody spy on her nekkid in a hotel room.

That's about it, as far as I know of their "personalities."

Seriously, I don't know who does their shows, who broadcasts their games, any of it, and frankly cannot think of any reason why I should.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (TOk1P)

196 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Am I'm smelling a whiff of creative destruction in those farts?

Posted by: Shirley at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (kaCWe)

197 Coulter should announce, then cancel, about every two weeks. Keep those assholes out there worked up.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (ZO497)

198 Yeah, Sessions has lots on his plate, but that comes with the job.

Civil rights actions against entities like UC, for things like the Coulter debacle?

Or has the meaning of "civil rights" now been completely inverted to mean only ridiculous made-up "rights", so that infringement of the most basic rights like First Amendment ones are not causes of action any longer?

This is only partly a rhetorical question.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 26, 2017 12:50 PM (QDnY+)

199 What if they find a softball player, born with a vagina, who self identifies as a straight male, who is sexually attracted to women?
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (J+eG2)

Trick question, there is no such thing as 'women', all gender is imaginary. Nice try.

Posted by: hogmartin at April 26, 2017 12:50 PM (8nWyX)

200 To quote someone, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

Posted by: joe, no that other one at April 26, 2017 12:50 PM (7pOq5)

201 >>>The MTV-model of having "music television" that has no music, but rather runs a bunch of freak-show programming to highlight pregnant teens, hipsters and trannies has been slowly eating sports networks for years.

Politics aside, the only thing worse than watching a boring sport like curling, golf or a marathon is watching unathletic, glass-eyed douchebags TALK about sports.

...

interesting comparison. I think the business incentive is the same in both cases. MTV realized that anyone could play videos (and some new stations were doing just that). So to achieve "brand differentiation" or "value added" or whatever, they started their own tv shows, until the channel was entirely their own tv shows with videos running from like 3am to 5am.

ESPN is probably thinking the same stupid thing.

But the thing is -- Don't we have sports radio, and quite a few stations of it, for those who want to hear ex-jocks and current jock-sniffers bloviate endlessly about sports?

What is the advantage of being able to see their fat faces as they do so?

They play some clips, I imagine, but by the time they get around to bloviating, haven't most serious sports fans (the kind to tune into sports radio) already seen those same ten clips a hundred times already?

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (8rNrN)

202 For WWII aircraft and are you willing to spend a few quid?

Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II just might fight the bill

https://www.amazon.com/Janes-Fighting-Aircraft-World-War/dp/0517679647

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (e1OyG)

203 Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back.......

Posted by: Chris Berman at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (cBECC)

204 Time for another look at Federalizing the California National Guard to protect civil rights?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (J+eG2)

205 Almost everything the Dems do right now is fundraising, its just about fooling their supporters into believing they are active and getting things done, and scaring them into donating.

Plus, the left took absolutely all the wrong lessons from their shellacking. They think protests and stonewalling is what got Republicans into power, not outrageous extremism and arrogance from Democrats ramping things far too fast, far too left, far too in defiance to all opposition.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (39g3+)

206 So, in general the cord cutting thing, cost spiral and editorial leftward shift are results of decisions made by corporate suits who aren't being laid off.

That's too bad.

In reality, wife and I used to watch sports center all the time. Now, when ESPN got expensive, we bit the bullet and kept watching. Now that its also aggressively peeing in our faces with non stop social justice warrioring. Nah, don't need it. Have not missed it. Will not matter what rights they hold, don't care, can watch something else. There's a lot of good stuff out there to stream. No need for broadcast and no need for cable.

Bob Eiger better retire and go into politics or get rid of ESPN.

Posted by: simplemind at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (xVRrG)

207 I didn't expect Coulter to give her speech once the overt threats of riot were made public.

With this success, the progressives can shut down any public event they want to shut down just by promising a riot at the event if it is held. Especially when the city government, which controls the police department, is on the side of the rioters.

Posted by: L' Ohnoes at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (xq1gO)

208 Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 12:46 PM (gtQ/3)

***
Amen brother

And agree on the MTV thing as well - when it became a Music Television Station without music it died ( gee I wonder why) Just as McDonald's will start to phase out as well - ( A burger place that replaces its burgers with "healthy choices," vegetarian frying oil, salad and "breakfast all day" will soon no longer exists - as Seinfeld would say - "Who are the Madison Avenue geniuses who thought this up?"

Posted by: Publius Redux at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (Fb9aZ)

209 FAN radio all over the dial here. too much actually.

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (UOJLJ)

210 I'm sure there are plenty of other sports channels these funemployed people can go to and spout non sports-related crap on.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (7ZVPa)

211 Maybe ESPN can show Jenner's actual chopadickoffame surgery,

Oh Honey

Posted by: Shirley at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (kaCWe)

212 >>>For WWII aircraft and are you willing to spend a few quid?

Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II just might fight the bill

https://www.amazon.com/Janes-Fighting-Aircraft-World-War/dp/0517679647

...

one time I had an assignment where I had to do actual work-demanded research in Jane's.

I felt like James bond.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:53 PM (8rNrN)

213 "Ivanka wants to open borders to Syrian refugees because... humanitarian crisis."

All I ever needed to know about Ivanka was summed up by the fact that she donated to Kamala Harris.

Posted by: torquewrench at April 26, 2017 12:53 PM (qJjMA)

214 What if they find a softball player, born with a vagina, who self identifies as a straight male, who is sexually attracted to women?
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:47 PM (J+eG2)

A neighbor's teen-aged daughter was mad keen on softball, practicing all the time in the backyard, writing shit on the windows of the family car, the whole nine yards.

Then, suddenly, she completely lost all interest whatsoever, according to her mom.

I nodded gravely, and didn't voice my suspicions: that there was a lesbian undercurrent there that drove away this slightly boy-crazy girl.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (SRKgf)

215 Heh. Right before i read this i walked by a tv at work that had espn on. The topic was racial inequality in the NFL. Yeah cuz football players making $10m a year are super oppressed and stuff.

Posted by: #neverskankles at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (PSSDW)

216 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Well yeah, I'm scared of their farts too. Every time a Republican farts my taxes go up.

Posted by: moon_over_vermont at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (kUmUV)

217 @193 - Then Ivanka can support them and their entire extended families in perpetuity. The fruits of my labor need not pay for such a folly and the cultural destruction of this country.

Posted by: Bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (NQb50)

218 I haven't seen anything about Coulter cancelling on Fox or other news including online.

Posted by: Jen the original at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (YZ5sm)

219 Maybe someday they'll figure out that sports are an "escape" from all the Left Wing bullshit they've been peddling.

When people start throwing shit at the TV, not because a guy missed a ball or a hoop, but because your "personality" is preaching from the liberal pulpit, it's time to find a new vocation.

Maybe the people who were fired can become baristas and peddle their worldview to their customers.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (h5F/r)

220 And this is why I cut my cable last year. Winning!!

Posted by: Useta Lurk, but now who knows? at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (jVlNS)

221 Deadspin has a running list that's being updated with each confirmed layoff: http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 12:54 PM (UBzPO)

222 Finally made the plunge and cut cable to use Playstation Vue. Could not be happier. $35 compared to $105 with cable. SlingTV looks good too and even more a la carte as you can get rid of ESPN/Disney completely.

Posted by: Gman at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (VXoTW)

223 What if I told you a sports programming network had a near-monopoly in a lucrative TV niche and threw it all away to become a platform for advancing the retarded liberal social agenda?

Next on ESPN's 30 for 30: Boy, Did We Fuck Up. Premieres right now. And also you're fired.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (oZ6kz)

224 >>>And agree on the MTV thing as well - when it became a Music Television Station without music it died ( gee I wonder why)

I'm pretty sure MTV's gambit worked, though.

*WE* stopped watching it, yeah, but kids watched it, and children were always their demographic.

Besides, WE wouldn't be watching it now if they were playing videos of One Direction.

(That's my attempt to guess what's currently "popular" with the kids -- though I think One Direction broke up like four years ago.)

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (8rNrN)

225 Hubby and I cut the cable thing 10+ years ago and haven't missed it a bit. There are plenty of places to get news - VNN and J.J.'s morning report to start - with discussion to expose biases, bullshit, and fake. As far as cool shows, we haven't yet even gone the Netflix route. We find all the much talked about fun shows/movies on DVD at the library within weeks of release. Neither of us has a water-cooler job that requires up to the minute wokeness of what's hot so, we're good.

Posted by: Russkilitlover at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (FXQZq)

226 4 Maybe another tribute to another gay athlete will bring the viewers back?

Posted by: RoyalOil at April 26, 2017 12:17 PM (ZQpd0)

Gay is so pass�. Has to be trans now (and it has to be M->F, not the other way around).

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (XMDuf)

227 193 Ivanka wants to open borders to Syrian refugees because...humanitarian crisis.

Funny because I didn't see her name on my ballot.
Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 12:49 PM (UOJLJ)

Candidate Trump supported it originally also until he got the big pushback and the message was redrafted.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (m/vQu)

228 They play some clips, I imagine, but by the time they get around to bloviating, haven't most serious sports fans (the kind to tune into sports radio) already seen those same ten clips a hundred times already?

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (8rNrN)

I stopped watching the MLB/NFL networks when I got tired of their on-air shilling for gamblers (i.e. fantasy sports), but I think that's what the market is, or can be.

When not broadcasting actual, you know, sports, having the people talking to the people who are desperately looking for inside information. Not about games, but about things like... average velocity of balls coming off the bat.

I mean, what the hell is that? Who gets anything out of that? Unless it's a gambling stat.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (TOk1P)

229 Ace you are slightly incorrect.

First they are gutless, spineless, testicleless cowards
Secondly they are corporate stooges
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian

But PDT has demonstrated that the majority of the public no longer GAF about "bad press", because they are "woke". So imma going to side with ace that they are corporate stooges who don't even care about damaging their election chances because they will be on this or that board of directors as payback.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (vRcUp)

230 Yeah Ivanka is about as conservative as John McCain, she's the center left pull that Trump feels all the time. Bannon and mistreatment of the left is what pulls him to the right. We'll see who wins but I think daddy's princess has the edge.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (39g3+)

231 h/t hogmartin

Louder with Crowder : Refugee Placement

http://tinyurl.com/zht5r6h

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (awqUF)

232 And as if this isn't enough, science now reports that saturated fats are not actually doing us as much harm as thought

http://tinyurl.com/m29m6zg

Bacon and eggs, with home fries, and toast with butter.

That's some good living' right there.

Scrapple too.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (J+eG2)

233 MTV is now a pre-teen and teen porn channel.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (m/vQu)

234 Thousands of years ago worked in places that had the whole Jane's collection, but never did notice the WWII one. Too busy identifying obscure frigates in use by the Chilean navy, or boning up on tiny variations in Soviet armored vehicles, and such.

But yes, enough of a war nerd that I used to just "read" them sometimes.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (PjWy4)

235 Oh hey, my cousin is one of the layoffs! (Danny Kanell)

It's okay though, he married into the family, so no big loss.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (oZ6kz)

236 Maybe if they have the NY Mets top of the order swing their bats at that asshole from San Francisco, I might watch. Might.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (h5F/r)

237 223 What if I told you a sports programming network had a near-monopoly in a lucrative TV niche and threw it all away to become a platform for advancing the retarded liberal social agenda?

Next on ESPN's 30 for 30: Boy, Did We Fuck Up. Premieres right now. And also you're fired.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (oZ6kz)

Hope it was all worth having the JEF do his NCAA brackets on air.

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (XMDuf)

238 Soft porn channel I meant to say.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (m/vQu)

239 >>> I didn't expect Coulter to give her speech once the overt threats of riot were made public. With this success, the progressives can shut down any public event they want to shut down just by promising a riot at the event if it is held. Especially when the city government, which controls the police department, is on the side of the rioters. Posted by: L' Ohnoes at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (xq1gO)

From what I'm hearing, it sounds like the Antifa anarchists are going to riot tomorrow at Berkeley anyway, Coulter or no Coulter. She was the excuse for the violence, not the cause. Which was obvious. Hope the college republicans still plan to sue the school for violating first amendment.

Stupid of the police to be ordered to stand down, if a riot happens tomorrow there will be blood.

Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (hvf9s)

240 The question is who is getting laid off.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (LTHVh)

241 Okay, OT, but kinda funny:

Car 3 Trailer just released.

At the end, an announcer says, "[Main character's rival] has a 95.7% chance to win."

You know who else had a 95% chance to win something?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (BjrOM)

242 Oh hey, my cousin is one of the layoffs! (Danny Kanell)

It's okay though, he married into the family, so no big loss.

Posted by: broseidon
==

Seriously, sorry man.

Layoffs suck.

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (awqUF)

243 "Ivanka wants to open borders to Syrian refugees because... humanitarian crisis."

All I ever needed to know about Ivanka was summed up by the fact that she donated to Kamala Harris.
Posted by: torquewrench

____

If they push Bannon out and Ivanka starts running the show, watch out.

It's going to be liberal Republicanism, with the added bonus of someone who puts their foot in their mouth on a regular basis.

I can put up with a lot of shennanigans as long as I feel the guy is fighting for what I believe in. Once that's gone, so am I.

Posted by: Maritime at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (uvyU0)

244 Here's Ivanka in the actual. She's got to be daddy's girl or he wouldn't put up with that stuff.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/lbjd38k

Posted by: gNewt at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (kaCWe)

245 Too bad Coulter canceled, but once her sponsors dropped out it was probably the only choice. But they exposed the Berkeley fascists, and the antifa terror mayor, and her lawsuit will go on (I guess).

Sanders and Warren said "let her speak" ... but that is how the left works. They are lawless and corrupt at street level but some voices will proclaim they are still virtuous and stand for free speech, but only when things get a little heated, and never any meaningful policy change.

They are all "commie" thugs out to destroy the west. The friend of Obama that arranged violence at Trump rallies and the Soros funding for terror/leftist violence will continue unabated. They all play their little part in the subversive charade.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (TmCOq)

246 Porn stars are "personalities". People who work (once worked?) for ESPN are perennial losers.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (h5F/r)

247 "Jim Bowden Fired" is definitely a "Dog Bites Man" story, since that used to happen every other off-season when he was a crappy GM instead of a crappy analyst.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 12:59 PM (oZ6kz)

248 >>>I mean, what the hell is that? Who gets anything out of that? Unless it's a gambling stat.

baseball has a devoted subculture of fans who seem to be in it mostly for the statistics.

Strat-o-Matic and all that.

It's always been the sport most conducive to statistical tracking and analysis. I think maybe that's why a number of self-identifying intellectuals like it even though they don't generally like sports.

My first role-playing game experience wasn't Dungeons and Dragons -- it was actually Strat-O-Matic, where you basically "play" the "role" of a baseball team manager.

Lots of math, baby.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:59 PM (8rNrN)

249 205 Almost everything the Dems do right now is fundraising, its just about fooling their supporters into believing they are active and getting things done, and scaring them into donating.

Plus, the left took absolutely all the wrong lessons from their shellacking. They think protests and stonewalling is what got Republicans into power, not outrageous extremism and arrogance from Democrats ramping things far too fast, far too left, far too in defiance to all opposition.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:52 PM (39g3+)

Disagree. The dems are dictating policy. They didnt want a wall, we didnt get the wall. They are also the ones demanding all sorts of shit to avoid a shutdown. And getting all demands met.

Posted by: #neverskankles at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (PSSDW)

250 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

I fear no man's farts. Least of all my own. In fact I relish them!

Posted by: Proverbs of Joe Biden at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (vRcUp)

251 From what I'm hearing, it sounds like the Antifa anarchists are going to riot tomorrow at Berkeley anyway, Coulter or no Coulter.

Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 12:57 PM (hvf9s)

Good. Burn the whole effing place to the ground, antifa.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (SRKgf)

252
You know who else had a 95% chance to win something?

==

Hitler?

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (awqUF)

253 228 They play some clips, I imagine, but by the time they get around to bloviating, haven't most serious sports fans (the kind to tune into sports radio) already seen those same ten clips a hundred times already?

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:51 PM (8rNrN)

I stopped watching the MLB/NFL networks when I got tired of their on-air shilling for gamblers (i.e. fantasy sports), but I think that's what the market is, or can be.

When not broadcasting actual, you know, sports, having the people talking to the people who are desperately looking for inside information. Not about games, but about things like... average velocity of balls coming off the bat.

I mean, what the hell is that? Who gets anything out of that? Unless it's a gambling stat.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (TOk1P)

Because the network considers it to be "Science", and as we all know, Science proves that there's no Christian God (but there's probably still an Allah, because we <3 Islam).

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (XMDuf)

254 Looking at that list on Deadspin and can't help but wonder, were these people full time employees? Why would ESPN need a full time SEC recruiting reporter? WTF

Posted by: Timon at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (RjcAj)

255 Ohnoes, the sjw bullies don't even have to threaten riot anymore. all they have to do is spout their jargon. like Alice Goffman, the prof who is.being threatened at Pomona - they say if you hire her, you are giving her a "platform". anyone hop to the lingo knows this is a reference to No Platforming.

insidehighered.com, "past as prologue" by Colleen Flaherty, 25 Apr 2017

Posted by: Boulder terlit hobo at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (OEibW)

256 >>>It's okay though, he married into the family, so no big loss.

there's a word for a guy who sleeps with your sister: Vicious caddish seducer and despoiler of virtue.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (8rNrN)

257 The names I'm hearing are on the list aren't the ones I was hoping for.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (7ZVPa)

258 I remember actually turning on the TV, and waiting for MTV to premier on it's first day of operation.

It was awesome.

Video Killed The Radio Star.

Then we saw Boy George come simpering onto the TV with, Do you really want to hurt me.

After that....
downhill.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (J+eG2)

259 I mean, what the hell is that? Who gets anything out of that? Unless it's a gambling stat.

--------------------------
baseball has a devoted subculture of fans who seem to be in it mostly for the statistics.

Strat-o-Matic and all that.

It's always been the sport most conducive to statistical tracking and analysis. I think maybe that's why a number of self-identifying intellectuals like it even though they don't generally like sports.

My first role-playing game experience wasn't Dungeons and Dragons -- it was actually Strat-O-Matic, where you basically "play" the "role" of a baseball team manager.

Lots of math, baby.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:59 PM (8rNrN)

That's what I mean though, I think much of that (I don't know this for sure, it just looks that way to me) has morphed into fantasy baseball gambling info.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (TOk1P)

260 "Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:59 PM (8rNrN)"

Geddy Lee is a devoted Blue Jays fan and statistics freak. He sits behind home plate and can cite the most obscure stats off the top of his head.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (h5F/r)

261 ESPN has about a dozen spinoff channels. I assume the layoffs come from those channels.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:02 PM (m/vQu)

262 Welp, Coulter has again cancelled her Berkeley speech.

Just last night she was on the cables talking up the rescheduled speech.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at April 26, 2017 01:02 PM (ul9CR)

263 245 Too bad Coulter canceled, but once her sponsors dropped out it was probably the only choice. But they exposed the Berkeley fascists, and the antifa terror mayor, and her lawsuit will go on (I guess).

Sanders and Warren said "let her speak" ... but that is how the left works. They are lawless and corrupt at street level but some voices will proclaim they are still virtuous and stand for free speech, but only when things get a little heated, and never any meaningful policy change.

They are all "commie" thugs out to destroy the west. The friend of Obama that arranged violence at Trump rallies and the Soros funding for terror/leftist violence will continue unabated. They all play their little part in the subversive charade.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (TmCOq)

And the police will continue to do nothing, since Commie Mayors start saying "Nice pension you've got there, shame if anything were to happen to it..."

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 01:02 PM (XMDuf)

264 Posted by: Witchdoktor, AKA VA GOP Sucks at April 26, 2017 12:29 PM (PFy0L)

I did the same with comcast. Dropped all, but internet. My monthly high speed internet (which rarely reaches that speed) $90.65. Slowly worked it's way up from a negotiated $55.

If Comcast remains true to form, that 90 will increase to around 100 or 120 in a year's time.

Only upside, tax is low. Tax on cable is a huge chunk of the bill. They say you can get a basic bundled package, including cable and internet for $65. With taxes almost 90. It will be a cold day in hell that I ever return to cable.

Posted by: gracepc at April 26, 2017 01:02 PM (OU4q6)

265 GOP "cowards scared of their own farts"

you think way too much of the GOP.

Posted by: Joe Inaugurating 45 in DC at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (55//3)

266 "Seriously, sorry man.

Layoffs suck.

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 12:58 PM (awqUF) "

I'm sure he'll be okay, I think he played long enough to get an NFL pension.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (oZ6kz)

267 254
Looking at that list on Deadspin and can't help but wonder, were these
people full time employees? Why would ESPN need a full time SEC
recruiting reporter? WTF

Posted by: Timon at April 26, 2017 01:00 PM (RjcAj)

The SEC Network is ESPN. Two channels.

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (UBzPO)

268 https://www.amazon.com/Janes-Fighting-Aircraft-World-War/dp/0517679647

Posted by: Anna Puma
-----

*headslap*

Janes, of course.
Thanks

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (ZO497)

269 Did Mel Kiper get canned? If he did, i hope security gave him a hickory haircut on the way out the door.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (cBECC)

270 Ok I see Twitter announcements about Coulter.

Posted by: Jen the original at April 26, 2017 01:03 PM (YZ5sm)

271 MTV definitely made Duran Duran a star group. I don't know if they played any other videos.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (m/vQu)

272 So far it looks like no big names or SJW freaks going out the door.

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (72PAC)

273 248 baseball has a devoted subculture of fans who seem to be in it mostly for the statistics.

Strat-o-Matic and all that.

It's always been the sport most conducive to statistical tracking and analysis. I think maybe that's why a number of self-identifying intellectuals like it even though they don't generally like sports.

My first role-playing game experience wasn't Dungeons and Dragons -- it was actually Strat-O-Matic, where you basically "play" the "role" of a baseball team manager.

Lots of math, baby.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 12:59 PM (8rNrN)

Hockey is actually the same way now. Check out Micah Blake McCurdy (@ineffectivemath) on the Twitter Machines.

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (XMDuf)

274 Then we saw Boy George come simpering onto the TV with, Do you really want to hurt me.

I saw that video the first time and said "Frankly? Yes."

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (39g3+)

275 ...hell, I remember back in the day sitting in some dive bar, drinking cheap draft beer; praying for a Butterbean fight to stop the Australian Rules Football game. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

Posted by: pahound at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (HTLyB)

276 Are high school guidance counsellors now telling some students to consider careers as personalities/

Posted by: Northernlurker at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (hJrjt)

277 http://tinyurl.com/m29m6zg
Bacon and eggs, with home fries, and toast with butter. That's some good living' right there. Scrapple too. Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (J+eG2)

I swear I read a while back there was research that found that grass fed beef is actually good for your arteries, helps clean them out. Corn fed beef does not. I'll have to see if I can find it.

Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (hvf9s)

278 What if they find a softball player, born with a vagina, who self identifies as a straight male, who is sexually attracted to women?
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice

Chazz Bono is sexually attracted to women. Ira Beatty identifies as gay and is attracted to men. I regard Beatty as the less messed up of the two.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (vRcUp)

279 ace, you'd probably like Foto-Electric Football.

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (nFwvY)

280 >>>
That's what I mean though, I think much of that (I don't know this for sure, it just looks that way to me) has morphed into fantasy baseball gambling info.

I'm not sure if there's much of a market for betting on bat speed, though. I think a lot of baseball fans are just amateur statisticians.

Hell, they used to sell baseball statistics to kids by presenting them with that game card where they could track the game in boxes.

I think it's a Jewish Conspiracy but then I think that about everything.

But anyway, I wonder if some baseball fans wouldn't derive just as much pleasure by tracking the stats of other things, like weather or bird patterns.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN)

281 I mean, what the hell is that? Who gets anything out of that? Unless it's a gambling stat.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 12:55 PM (TOk1P)

They've got to fill the time with something, and that sort of stat is easier to generate than interviewing players, etc.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (SRKgf)

282 Ok I see Twitter announcements about Coulter.

===

Let me guess.

"Love Trumps Hate" ?

Posted by: Mortimer - Finish Her at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (awqUF)

283 All I want from ESPN is sports, and they refuse to give me that, so it's the Dodgers' MLB site and the Hawkeyes sports page for me. It's been working pretty well so far, other than Kenta Maeda needing to work on his pitch diversity.

Posted by: pookysgirl at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (ar2KI)

284 Layoffs? Are you kidding me? Layoffs? Don't talk to me about layoffs. Layoffs?

Posted by: Jim Mora at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (mvenn)

285 #SchadenbonerTears of joy

Posted by: Max Power at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (q177U)

286 Every time a Republican farts a housefly gets its wings.

Posted by: Zuzu Bailey at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (IqV8l)

287 "Admiral Suggest Hawaii Beef up its Defenses"

Lol.

This should be good. Hawaii is more anti Second Amendment than NY. Hope they have some pointy sticks or something.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (h5F/r)

288 That is just so unfair.

Posted by: Michael Sams, Kaitlyn Jenner, Israel Gutierrez and Sashay the Unknown Pickle Kisser at April 26, 2017 01:05 PM (4AVeu)

289 there's a word for a guy who sleeps with your sister: Vicious caddish seducer and despoiler of virtue.
Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:01 PM (8rNrN0

That's a word for my sister. The word for the guy who slept with her is "sucker".

Posted by: Alcoholic Asshole Shut In at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (CPk08)

290 >>>279 ace, you'd probably like Foto-Electric Football.
Posted by: Lord Sir x

I never heard of it, but I did play a football simulation by that very, very detailed and anal game company SPI, the one with the "Case" rule system that read like the Universal Commercial Code.

I played once. Too much math. Didn't feel much like football.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (8rNrN)

291 The real crime is that the laid-off workers are going to have to explain to their hollow-eyed waifs that Daddy was a victim of President Trump, who wants to punish good people for not helping him to hate other good people, and that they should try not to think about food too much when eating their stone soup, and that if they can sell matches and pencils, it would help the family very, very much.

Posted by: General Zod at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (Bdeb0)

292 Ivanka wants to open borders to Syrian refugees because... humanitarian crisis.
-----------------------

There are no "Syrian Refugees". That is a myth started by the liberals. They are muzzie freeloaders from all over the ME looking for a free lunch in the US. We have been letting in 100K of them a year under OBama and it is past time to stop.

Ivanka can eat a BODs.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (mpXpK)

293 I was surprised to learn that ESPN had over 1,000 on-air personalities on the payroll.

That new Sportcenter at 6 (SC6) is so bad my local sports bar actually changes all 11 TV's when it starts. They never change those channels.

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (UBzPO)

294 https://www.amazon.com/Janes-Fighting-Aircraft-World-War/dp/0517679647

Posted by: Anna Puma
------------

Done. And a bargain, I think. $5.08, including shipping.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (ZO497)

295 Oh, please let one of them be Dan Lebatard. Pretty please?

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (kTF2Z)

296 280 But anyway, I wonder if some baseball fans wouldn't derive just as much pleasure by tracking the stats of other things, like weather or bird patterns.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN)

================

Those aren't competitions with a human element.

Baseball was America's Pastime for a very long time, so it held a place in our cultural consciousness that made baseball synonymous with America. I think that's the hook.

The stats help to make fans feel involved, I think.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (BjrOM)

297 Who the heck still has cable in 2017? If you do, you're getting positively robbed. Trust me. Get ROKU, Sling TV, or any one of the other myriad online TV services that are popping up. With just about any one of them you'll pay less than half you did with old cable and you get to watch pretty much anything you want, without paying for anything you don't want.

I don't understand how the dinosaur cable companies even stay in business anymore, charging what they do. They'll have to fold soon if they don't change to compete with the ala carte TV services.

Posted by: Agent Cooper at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (1zARK)

298 But the thing is -- Don't we have sports radio, and quite a few stations of it, for those who want to hear ex-jocks and current jock-sniffers bloviate endlessly about sports?

...

Very true Ace.

To top it off, most fans only want to talk about their local teams. If you are a Minnesota Twins or Golden Gophers fan, why are you going to tune in to watch a show that never discusses your teams unless somebody on the team shoots somebody, rapes someone, punches a child or kneels during the anthem?

That's why local sports radio is so popular, because it's decicated to what the local fan wants to talk about. Add to that the fact the listeners can call in and satisfy their ego by listening to their own voice on air (much like how I like to pretend my content is somehow insightful when I comment here) on most local sports radio stations and you find that radio is a superior forum for "talking sports".

I grew up listening to games on AM radio that went staticy about 8:30 or 9:00 and was happy when my beloved Braves went to television. I never envisioned that sports television would morph into the modern day soap-opera for men that it has become.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (gtQ/3)

299 Heh Mike Freeman changes his tune

http://tinyurl.com/me2pdqp

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (39g3+)

300 I was concerned they were getting rid of on-screen talent, but then I realized they never had any in the first place.

Posted by: Dirks Strewn at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (kfcYC)

301 @272: "So far it looks like no big names or SJW freaks going out the door."

The big names won't be cut today.

But their contracts won't be renewed in the next year.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (3Vlkn)

302 "MTV definitely made Duran Duran a star group. I don't know if they played any other videos."

Oh yes.

Bonjovi
Def Leppard

ALL of the british techno rock bands

And clips from Miami Vice.

It was a time to be alive, and watching MTV.
And clubbing.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (J+eG2)

303 Uniform Commercial Code, I meant. (I think.)

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:08 PM (8rNrN)

304 The real crime is that the laid-off workers are going to have to explain to their hollow-eyed waifs that Daddy was a victim of President Trump,
-----------

Whitelash, obviously.

Posted by: Van Jones at April 26, 2017 01:08 PM (ZO497)

305 Football and basketball have way to much math. Soccer has too little. Hockey is just right.

Posted by: Dirks Strewn at April 26, 2017 01:08 PM (kfcYC)

306 I swear I read a while back there was research that found that grass fed beef is actually good for your arteries, helps clean them out. Corn fed beef does not. I'll have to see if I can find it.
Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (hvf9s)

Sounds like bullshit to me. I very much doubt that there's any difference. And in any case, how could you possibly make that determination experimentally?

Last, most cholesterol is not dietary, but rather synthesized by the body, so changing from corn-fed to grass-fed beef would almost certainly be a pea under a mattress in terms of effect.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (SRKgf)

307 All I ever needed to know about Ivanka was summed up by the fact that she donated to Kamala Harris.

Is it Neville Chamberlain syndrome? "If I am nice to this asshole, then they will like me".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (vRcUp)

308 "I'm not sure if there's much of a market for betting on bat speed, though. I think a lot of baseball fans are just amateur statisticians.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN) "

The guys who make a living doing daily fantasy (or at least make huge supplemental income doing it) who have large databases and algorithms and proprietary formulas probably do some projecting using bat speed, exit velocity and angle of exit - that is to say, Player X's bat speed and exit angle say he should have hit 40 HR's, but he only hit 20, so I can pick him up cheap and predict that he'll improve.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (oZ6kz)

309 >>> Ivanka can eat a BODs.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 01:06 PM (mpXpK)

I do...Kosher, with no bun IFYWIM.

Posted by: Ivanka, part Shiksa goddess, part Jewish Princess at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (hvf9s)

310 There was(maybe still are) Strat O Matic football basketball and hockey too.

Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (r/0kC)

311 >>>"MTV definitely made Duran Duran a star group. I don't know if they played any other videos."

I was going to mention that in its earliest days, MTV had instant brand differentiation not just because they were the only all-music-video channel but because only a certain type of act even made music videos, so the MTV sound was different from anything being heard on any radio format.

I don't think Animotion's "Obsession" or the various novelty pop acts would have ever been heard of except for the fact that they were among the few acts doing videos at all.

But then within two years everyone was doing videos so they lost that brand differentiation.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (8rNrN)

312 Layoffs suck. No matter ESPN says major personalities will be cut, you can bet that 99% of the cuts will be people who go to work everyday, thinking they bring value and then are told, buh-bye. It sucks. Being fired is something you can accept, if you're honest. Layoffs come out of the blue and blow you out of your comfort zone. People say, Ha! Company X deserves it! But companies are people. And when you get the layoff axe, it hurts.

Posted by: Russkilitlover at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (FXQZq)

313 Dan Lebatard

=========

What a bastard.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (vg8iE)

314 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the
first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

Of course I'm scared of my own farts. You ever smelled my farts? Especially after lunch, which usually consists of huge plates of asparagus and onions, with boiled eggs, all washed down with copious amounts of stale beer.

Posted by: Yertle the Turtle at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (dssIg)

315 Uniform Commercial Code, I meant. (I think.)
Posted by: ace
-------------

*runs shrieking from the thread as Ace triggers memories of Contract Law course*

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (ZO497)

316 And the police will continue to do nothing, since Commie Mayors start saying "Nice pension you've got there, shame if anything were to happen to it..."

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 01:02 PM (XMDuf)

Lord knows I don't want anything to happen to Coulter. And I have no idea how brave I would be in the face of a mob baying for my blood.

But this only encourages the animals on the left. Is there no one who will finally channel Captain John Parker?

"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at April 26, 2017 01:10 PM (X6fMO)

317
The stats help to make fans feel involved, I think.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (BjrOM)

It use to be called the thinking mans game

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (lKyWE)

318 306 I swear I read a while back there was research that found that grass fed beef is actually good for your arteries, helps clean them out. Corn fed beef does not. I'll have to see if I can find it.
Posted by: LizLem at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (hvf9s)

Sounds like bullshit to me. I very much doubt that there's any difference. And in any case, how could you possibly make that determination experimentally?

Last, most cholesterol is not dietary, but rather synthesized by the body, so changing from corn-fed to grass-fed beef would almost certainly be a pea under a mattress in terms of effect.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (SRKgf)

Grass-fed beef may have some heart-health benefits that other types of beef don't have. When compared with other types of beef, grass-fed beef may have:

Less total fat
More heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids
More conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fat that's thought to reduce heart disease and cancer risks
More antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin E

Afternoon all.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (2x9LM)

319 Our DVR died and my hasn't even noticed and it's been over a month.

I have a dish on my roof which might be a good thing because I will but antenna on it.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (dKiJG)

320 The big names won't be cut today.

But their contracts won't be renewed in the next year.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (3Vlkn)

They've offered 50% buyouts to all those with contracts; if they don't accept the buyout then they're told to stay home for the remainder of their contract terms (which will kill careers of on-air personalities).
Big names are coming in the next week.

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (UBzPO)

321 Baseball is a sport that goes really well on radio, its why almost all of the truly great, memorable sports announcers like Vin Scully are baseball guys. Football does well on TV, which is why its more popular now (plus, people have no patience and nobody plays baseball any more so they have no connection to the game).

What will the sport of the future be? I know the left thinks it will be soccer but I wonder if there will even BE a nationally popular sport in 25 years.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (39g3+)

322 "Hawaii is more anti Second Amendment than NY. Hope they have some pointy sticks or something."

A chain of islands which I would not miss, if they capsized.

But first, we must rescue NavyCopJoe, and his family.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (J+eG2)

323 King Kong just starting on TCM.

Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (r/0kC)

324 Layoffs suck. No matter ESPN says major personalities will be cut, you can bet that 99% of the cuts will be people who go to work everyday, thinking they bring value and then are told, buh-bye.
------------

*weeps silently*

Posted by: Best Boy at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (ZO497)

325 52 Is there a particular objection that she has?
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 12:23 PM (J+eG2)

She's a friggin' TV addict. She can't miss her "shows".

If she craved cock half as much as she craves reality TV, we'd both be much happier.
Posted by: ScoggDog

I'm pretty happy.

Posted by: Your Neighbor at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (kfcYC)

326 Wow. A few houses just went up for sale in Fairfield County.

Kinda hard to pay that salary making appearances at local football games and car dealerships.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (h5F/r)

327
It was a time to be alive, and watching MTV.
And clubbing.

Ouch!!

Posted by: Baby seals at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (IqV8l)

328 I had an electronic football game as a kid that provided you different 1x10 cards with offensive plays and defensive plays. You and your opponent would insert one on their side of the field and slide the pointer to your play. You would then activate the light under the field that would advise you the results of that play. Pretty neat pre-computer game.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (m/vQu)

329 What will the sport of the future be? I know the
left thinks it will be soccer but I wonder if there will even BE a
nationally popular sport in 25 years.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (39g3+)

ROLLERBALL!And I'm talking James Caan Rollerball, not that panty waist remake.

Posted by: Agent Cooper at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (1zARK)

330 MOAR THOTHIAL JUTHITH~!

Posted by: 30 yr old marketing geenyoos at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (GgzGa)

331 >>It was a time to be alive, and watching MTV.
And clubbing. Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:07 PM (J+eG2)

Devo's "Whip It" video is so transgressive on so many levels, it should be an exhibit somewhere. White males dressed up in black (like Nazis) with concealed identities using a whip(!) to disrobe an unwilling, crosseyed Asian woman (rape; postcolonial victimization; racism) while molesting cowgirls who resist (rape) as a white woman whips a bowl of cream. Oh, and a gun (violence) is used irresponsibly.

And the perpetrators have the nerve to wear red Energy Domes throughout.

Posted by: General Zod at April 26, 2017 01:13 PM (Bdeb0)

332 321 Baseball is a sport that goes really well on radio, its why almost all of the truly great, memorable sports announcers like Vin Scully are baseball guys. Football does well on TV, which is why its more popular now (plus, people have no patience and nobody plays baseball any more so they have no connection to the game).

What will the sport of the future be? I know the left thinks it will be soccer but I wonder if there will even BE a nationally popular sport in 25 years.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (39g3+)

==============

Balkanization, bitches.

Nothing will grab the national consciousness at that level again.

And that's not necessarily a completely bad thing. Could help to encourage a innate "live and let live" attitude among the populace. At least on some small level.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:13 PM (BjrOM)

333 More conjugated linoleic acid,
-----
Yeah, I know all about conjugation.

Posted by: Elsie the Cow at April 26, 2017 01:13 PM (ZO497)

334 The needle on my give-a-shit meter is pegged at zero.

ESPN is to be blamed for the 3-minute commercial break between half-innings.

ESAD.

Posted by: JAS at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (EX4Wr)

335 The stats help to make fans feel involved, I think.

Yeah it gives you something hard and objective to discuss when talking about the game or during the game. But they keep adding new stats (and pushing them really hard) like exit velocity and rotation, bat speed etc which only the guys who are crunching the numbers care about.

They mean nothing, its just random information like the average number of bites to eat a piece of toast or how deep the average tire's treads are.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (39g3+)

336 Last, most cholesterol is not dietary, but rather synthesized by the body, so changing from corn-fed to grass-fed beef would almost certainly be a pea under a mattress in terms of effect.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

I hid my penis under the matress, but I'm so sensitive I couldn't sleep.

Posted by: Princess Caitlyn and the penis at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (vRcUp)

337 Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:09 PM (SRKgf)

The science is settled you troglodyte.

Posted by: Your betters at the FDA who aren't really scientists but are funded by your tax dollars at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (i0ykY)

338 "MTV definitely made Duran Duran a star group. I don't know if they played any other videos."

That's not true. They had hits before they had videos. MTV might have helped them (as it did pretty much all others) but Duran Duran was a popular group before anyone started seeing their videos - which weren't all that great, anyway.

Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (zc3Db)

339 329
ROLLERBALL!And I'm talking James Caan Rollerball, not that panty waist remake.
Posted by: Agent Cooper at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (1zARK)

===============

Rollerball and The Running Man:

TV networks are evil!

I wonder what remakes of them would look like today.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (BjrOM)

340 Yeah Ivanka is about as conservative as John McCain, she's the center left pull that Trump feels all the time. Bannon and mistreatment of the left is what pulls him to the right. We'll see who wins but I think daddy's princess has the edge.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (39g3+)

Trump and the princess have been getting attacked and shit on by the left since he announced. They were booing her when she was with Merkel the other day. You'd think it would sink in that the left completely hates her but I guess giving up her fashionably left opinions is something she won't do no matter what

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (493sH)

341 I know the
left thinks it will be soccer but I wonder if there will even BE a
nationally popular sport in 25 years.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

--

I can see Christians vs. Lions making a comeback.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (7ZVPa)

342 I do love baseball stats, but they are a supplement to the game itself.

For instance, yesterday, Chris Coghlan fucking SOMERSAULTED over Yadier Molina. It was literally the scene from Major League 2 with Willie Mays Hayes jumping over Parkman. It was fucking glorious, and no one, not even the biggest slide-rule-in-his-pocket-protector seamhead, was calculating the parabola he made when he jumped or how many pounds of force he landed with. Everyone just watched that highlight 100 times with their jaws glued to the floor.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (oZ6kz)

343 Yes layoffs suck so I will preemptively vice my condolences to the employees of JC Penny's, Macy's and Sears.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (m/vQu)

344 Great, more assholes in my local job market while I'm looking for a job.

Posted by: Jaimo at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (9U1OG)

345 334 The needle on my give-a-shit meter is pegged at zero.

ESPN is to be blamed for the 3-minute commercial break between half-innings.

ESAD.
Posted by: JAS at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (EX4Wr)

================

The stuff that just shows locally has 90 second breaks.

It's nice.

I love MLB.tv.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (BjrOM)

346 328 I had an electronic football game as a kid that provided you different 1x10 cards with offensive plays and defensive plays. You and your opponent would insert one on their side of the field and slide the pointer to your play. You would then activate the light under the field that would advise you the results of that play. Pretty neat pre-computer game.
Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (m/vQu)

Foto-Electric Football.

Available on ebay

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (nFwvY)

347 When I was a kid the big electric football game was the vibrating metal field with the players that had the little plastic fins on the bottom that made them go forward.

You lined up your play and turned it on and they pushed into a wad.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (mpXpK)

348 At some point conservatives need to take their heads out of their asses and realize the left is already at war, civil war de facto, with us. Coulter caved. Now all the time the same template will be used. The left cannot be backed down to, period. You cannot just pick your battles and let them keep taking ground, reversing lawful EOs without revolutionary thinkIn and actions. Winning SCOTUS by numbers which is a temp fix ain't gonna cut it. It's us or them, and right now us is losing, even when we win the latest elections. The first step to turn it around if it ain't already too late is to stop being in denial. Campuses are encouraging thought in kids that, over ensuing years, will make modest violence threats at a Coulter look like small taters. The left is actively inseminating the culture to accept its world view to the extinction of ours. Those who thought naively we could elect a Trump to peacefully transfer power and get the left to accept any meaningful change in big deal things like admission of asylum seekers were sadly mistaken. If it goes on apace for more years, all will be moot, it will not matter who we elect.

Posted by: Info at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (sIcO8)

349 Layoffs suck. No matter ESPN says major personalities will be cut, you can bet that 99% of the cuts will be people who go to work everyday, thinking they bring value and then are told, buh-bye.
------------

*weeps silently*
Posted by: Best Boy

No shit!
Posted by: Key Grip

Posted by: rickb223 at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (rvtDF)

350 ace, you'd probably like Foto-Electric Football.

----

I still have my set from decades ago. I still remember the arguments about if the line actually touched the defender.

Posted by: auscolpyr at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (suO/a)

351 vice = give

Stupid auto corrupt

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (m/vQu)

352 >>328
I had an electronic football game as a kid that provided you different
1x10 cards with offensive plays and defensive plays. You and your
opponent would insert one on their side of the field and slide the
pointer to your play. You would then activate the light under the
field that would advise you the results of that play. Pretty neat
pre-computer game. Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:12 PM (m/vQu)

I had Coleco Football. Cotton "footballs," 22 plastic figures vibrating violently once the thing was turned on, a lever on each side to manipulate one "key" player by magnet. Loud as hell, and each "play" took about 27 hours to resolve.

In three words, fucking childhood despair.

Posted by: General Zod at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (Bdeb0)

353 Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay.

Fired.

What?

Fired?

But we're the best sports coverage around!

Posted by: The Spirit of ESPN at April 26, 2017 01:15 PM (4AVeu)

354 I'll just throw this out there. I have a bunch of kids and ALL of them would prefer to watch Youtube over TV by a huge margin. TV is gonna die in it's current form.

Posted by: Max Power at April 26, 2017 01:16 PM (q177U)

355 335 The stats help to make fans feel involved, I think.

Yeah it gives you something hard and objective to discuss when talking about the game or during the game. But they keep adding new stats (and pushing them really hard) like exit velocity and rotation, bat speed etc which only the guys who are crunching the numbers care about.

They mean nothing, its just random information like the average number of bites to eat a piece of toast or how deep the average tire's treads are.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (39g3+)

===============

Probably. But, the basics are there and will always be there.

Not many will understand the (supposed) importance of revolutions per minutes of a curve ball, but most baseball fans inherently know what ERA means in terms of a pitcher's worth.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:16 PM (BjrOM)

356 And JackSock it wasn't electronic. It was electric. It had a light bulb.

Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 01:16 PM (nFwvY)

357 I'm not sure if there's much of a market for betting on bat speed, though. I think a lot of baseball fans are just amateur statisticians.

Hell, they used to sell baseball statistics to kids by presenting them with that game card where they could track the game in boxes.

I think it's a Jewish Conspiracy but then I think that about everything.

But anyway, I wonder if some baseball fans wouldn't derive just as much pleasure by tracking the stats of other things, like weather or bird patterns.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN)

I'm a big fan of Bill James, who is kind of the godfather of modern sports statistics (although he says he's NOT a statistician).

Mostly because he's a great writer, and manages to use numbers to help explain the game in ways that others have not.

I think he got out of the business of publishing annual player/team evaluations, because he found his fan base wasn't really interested in the game the same way he was. For a while he tried to do something of a hybrid, talking about/publishing numbers, and talking about what it all means for the games.

I know he still does online stuff, but I think it got boring to him. Because his "fans" were mostly the fantasy players.

And I don't know, but I'm really not so sure bat speed is NOT a gambling stat.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (TOk1P)

358 Nashville patriots to fight Antifa on threatened Mayday riots. Hopefully they will fight them until they are dead.

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (UOJLJ)

359 Ace...

Boss, I say this with respect.

You're 29 years old.

And August 1st, 1981 was a long time ago.

And Martha Quinn was a cutie.

Ya had to be there.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (J+eG2)

360 ESPN's baseball coverage, at least their A team, is nearly unwatchable, I shut the sound off if I ever watch a game on there, which is rarely. Their B team is good, mostly because chatty Cathy the softball girl isn't there fumbling around trying to seem like she knows what she's talking about.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (39g3+)

361 340
Yeah Ivanka is about as conservative as John McCain, she's the center
left pull that Trump feels all the time. Bannon and mistreatment of the
left is what pulls him to the right. We'll see who wins but I think
daddy's princess has the edge.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 12:56 PM (39g3+)

Oh yeah, did anybody else get a robocall from John F'n McCain last night about a tele-town hall about America's Super Economy or something?

I did. I am not making this up. Not sure what it for exactly. Mostly because I lost interest after he introduced himself as John McCain. And also I figured it wouldn't be a REAL teleconference where I could tell his RINO azz to go pound salt.

Posted by: Agent Cooper at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (1zARK)

362 If it goes on apace for more years, all will be moot, it will not matter who we elect.
==========

When the next Democrat president is elected, I wonder if they'll let us pick the camp we get sent to, or if there'll even be camps at all. Maybe they will just come door to door, shoot us in the back of the head and kick us into a ditch.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (vg8iE)

363 Fear not, ESPN.

All of those gay liberals who are hardcore sports fans will tune in and save you.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (4AVeu)

364 Last, most cholesterol is not dietary, but rather synthesized by the body, so changing from corn-fed to grass-fed beef would almost certainly be a pea under a mattress in terms of effect.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

I remember some imbecile Caeser Barber suing McDonalds because he thought beef was healthy, but ate so many Big Macs, he became obese and had a heart attack. I kind of wish he won. McDonalds is evil, and not because I've eaten there more than once in the past ten years. They are just more corporate libtard fascists.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (vRcUp)

365 What percent of layoffs are non white men?

Posted by: #neverskankles at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (PSSDW)

366 357 I'm a big fan of Bill James, who is kind of the godfather of modern sports statistics (although he says he's NOT a statistician).

Mostly because he's a great writer, and manages to use numbers to help explain the game in ways that others have not.

I think he got out of the business of publishing annual player/team evaluations, because he found his fan base wasn't really interested in the game the same way he was. For a while he tried to do something of a hybrid, talking about/publishing numbers, and talking about what it all means for the games.

I know he still does online stuff, but I think it got boring to him. Because his "fans" were mostly the fantasy players.

And I don't know, but I'm really not so sure bat speed is NOT a gambling stat.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (TOk1P)

================

I bought the book Moneyball for my dad, who is a full professor of statistics, and he loved it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (BjrOM)

367 352. Heh....wrecked only a tenth as many childhoods as Tandy Corp - aka Radio Shack. It ruined more birthdays & Christmases than alcoholism & divorce, combined.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine. Glory to Kekistan! No Longer Accepting Harem Applicants at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (TwwWO)

368 I can see Christians vs. Lions making a comeback.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada
-------------

ESPN will discuss the Stats.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (ZO497)

369 When the next Democrat president is elected, I wonder if they'll let us pick the camp we get sent to, or if there'll even be camps at all. Maybe they will just come door to door, shoot us in the back of the head and kick us into a ditch.

I'll gladly let them try.

Posted by: rickb223 at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (rvtDF)

370 This may be anecdotal, and I recognize that there's a bit of the old saw about Congress- you poll people and they hate every member except their own, and that way you get 90%+ getting reelected each time- but there's a lot of comments on twitter that the people getting canned are the reporting and analysis people, not the talking heads that brought politics into it in the first place.

For one example, I've read the hockey on-air staff got fired. ESPN doesn't carry the games, but it did keep some analysts around to talk about it. I don't have any facts to back this up, but I doubt the network's limited NHL coverage allowed those people a chance to be overtly political.

They also let Ed Werder go. Werder was excellent at reporting on the NFL at large and the Cowboys specifically, and given the fact that they drive ratings, it was a key job. There's an article floating around about all the Jones family did for Werder when his daughter was ill, so it's not likely related to that. Werder had a lot to say about the Cowboys' penchant for working with athletes with issues, but it's my experience that he didn't use his ESPN or twitter platforms to promote a political agenda.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Is this really about ESPN deciding to move even further away from reporting and towards commentary?

Personally, I moved away from ESPN for a variety of reasons. I used to have time to just switch Sportscenter on and watch it every night, but not any more- kids took care of that. I used to watch the NFL more, but slowed down for a lot of reasons, including time; now I watch a lot of college football, which I still have to go to ESPN for. You can follow a baseball team, though, and almost never have to turn on ESPN.

Posted by: El Skippito Friskito at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (sPO/s)

371 Grass-fed beef may have some heart-health benefits that other types of beef don't have. When compared with other types of beef, grass-fed beef may have:

Less total fat
More heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids
More conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fat that's thought to reduce heart disease and cancer risks
More antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin E

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at April 26, 2017 01:11 PM (2x9LM)

Biomedical research, especially on nutrition, is by and large a joke. It makes climastrology look rock solid by comparison.

Look at the statements: "MAY HAVE" is a tell.

I've got more, but I'll let it go at that.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:19 PM (SRKgf)

372 And I don't know, but I'm really not so sure bat speed is NOT a gambling stat.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (TOk1P

I really don't know why it wouldn't be. People bet on everything, including the actual, you know, coin toss. Which of course is literally a flip of a coin.

So if you can be "smarter" than the next guy, and bet on Mike Trout having the best bat speed numbers for the night, because you know what the wind conditions are like in the park, and know his history with this pitcher, on Wednesdays... well, let the other guy take Josh Donaldson, and make fools of themselves.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:19 PM (TOk1P)

373 Matt Vasgersian was the play-by-play guy for the Padres before he went with the National network. It was obvious the guy had a laptop and a baseball stat app. It just plain gets tiresome listening to all the statsshit.

Vin Scully rocks.

Posted by: JAS at April 26, 2017 01:19 PM (EX4Wr)

374 Until Thunderdome is on ESPN, I won't be watching.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 01:19 PM (h5F/r)

375 356 And JackSock it wasn't electronic. It was electric. It had a light bulb.
Posted by: Lord Sir x at April 26, 2017 01:16 PM (nFwvY)

You are correct . Misuse of the word . Wait this is the internet. Screw you!

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:19 PM (m/vQu)

376 I stopped watching the MLB/NFL networks when I got tired of their on-air shilling for gamblers (i.e. fantasy sports), but I think that's what the market is, or can be.

...

In fairness, I remember Jimmy the Greek handicapping games on Sundays and Leonard's Losers on the radio most Saturday mornings.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (gtQ/3)

377
They'd rather layoff to cut costs than change their lousy programming, which is the real problem.

But The Narrative must continue.

The Big Lie must go on.

Posted by: Soothsayer at 5 years old at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (5Kf7w)

378
When compared with other types of beef, grass-fed beef may have:

May have.

I may have been a passenger of a UFO piloted by a sasquatch.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (IqV8l)

379 I think the pitch f/x style stats (rotation and drop and so-forth) will be useful when we have 20 or 30 years of it - right now there just isn't enough information.

I don't think exit velocity is very different from bat speed, and scouts have tracked bat speed for ages. The hardest hit ball this year was a grounder - exit angle means a lot more than exit velocity.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (oZ6kz)

380 The only electronic football game I ever had was this one

http://tinyurl.com/m4yzu4g

It was strangely fun, I can't even explain how addictive it was. I got really good at it, because the computer only had a few moves and once you worked them out, you could win every time.

Its like the old Nintendo baseball game, it had a flaw where if you bunted, the ball would just roll to the outfield fence and nobody could get it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (39g3+)

381 I'm not sure if there's much of a market for betting on bat speed, though. I think a lot of baseball fans are just amateur statisticians.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN)

It's not about betting. People - guys - just love speed. We love to see the fastest, the most powerful, ...

The most popular thing in a tennis match is the serve speed monitor. People just love to see how fast someone serves (even though the serves numbers are really much more complicated due to the fuzzy nature of the ball, spin, etc.).

And, just in general, people love numbers and simple lists of rankings. Remember the Book of Lists. That's all that was. It didn't matter if they were ranking the smelliness of toes or the amount of weight deadlifted. People just wanted to see it all put together in a list, preferably with numbers attached.

Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (zc3Db)

382 And besides: a la carte pricing would kind of force the Murdochs to continue to keep Fox conservative -- you can't get people to pay extra money for a service that is exactly like the service they're already getting as part of their base package.

---

...then this guy across the room yells, "Hey! I didn't order cream in my coffee!"

Posted by: Just the Punchline at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (aCcv2)

383 I assume they're not blaming the layoffs on their politics. Business as usual.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (MZcWR)

384 Layoffs suck. No matter ESPN says major personalities will be cut, you can bet that 99% of the cuts will be people who go to work everyday, thinking they bring value and then are told, buh-bye.
------------

*weeps silently*
Posted by: Best Boy

No shit!
Posted by: Key Grip
Posted by: rickb223
---------

*wonders morosely about some other career*

Posted by: Gaffer at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (ZO497)

385 I may have been a passenger of a UFO piloted by a sasquatch.

===============

And just what the fuck do have against UFO's?

Posted by: Michelle O at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (vg8iE)

386 Trump and the princess have been getting attacked and shit on by the left since he announced. They were booing her when she was with Merkel the other day. You'd think it would sink in that the left completely hates her but I guess giving up her fashionably left opinions is something she won't do no matter what
=======================
Generally speaking, (there are of course exceptions known to the horde *whistling*) females have a much greater need for in-group acceptance/social status.

Posted by: simplemind at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (xVRrG)

387 And JackSock it wasn't electronic. It was electric. It had a light bulb.>>>

EZ Bake Football?

Posted by: Buzzsaw at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (wrS2o)

388 Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (vRcUp)

I would guess more conservatives own franchises than Liberals.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (m/vQu)

389 377
They'd rather layoff to cut costs than change their lousy programming, which is the real problem.

But The Narrative must continue.

The Big Lie must go on.
Posted by: Soothsayer at 5 years old at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (5Kf7w)

================

The business model was already in the opening stages of falling apart when the network decided to go full SJW.

SJW was an attempt to save the network (don't laugh).

Cleaning up the SJW elements won't change the fact that more and more people are cutting the cord and ESPN has agreed to pay way too much for events over the next few years.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (BjrOM)

390 380 Ah yes,I remember the bunt homeruns.

Posted by: steevy at April 26, 2017 01:21 PM (r/0kC)

391 Time to revisit that whole "Native American" and "We were here first" argument?

http://tinyurl.com/kn3ubau

Liewatha hardest hit.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (J+eG2)

392 Guys - learn to use Kodi. It will end not only Hollywood, but the New Hollywood (Netflix and Hulu).

If you get the setup right - and setup is a PITA, be warned - you can cut cable, Netflix, Hulu, and never have to visit a theater again.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (Yx9SN)

393 And Martha Quinn was a cutie.

Ya had to be there.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (J+eG2)

Who would have thought Kennedy would turn out the way she did.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (2x9LM)

394 I'm a big fan of Bill James, who is kind of the godfather of modern sports statistics (although he says he's NOT a statistician).

Mostly because he's a great writer, and manages to use numbers to help explain the game in ways that others have not.

He's taken that approach and used it in conjunction with the criminal world. Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. An excellent read:

http://tinyurl.com/mhw48sg

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (X6fMO)

395 I have a Roku 4 for both the Bedroom and Living room, I can't sing the praises enough. I never thought I would say this but I will be cutting the cord when my contract is up or maybe sooner, if is a fee to leave I might pay it.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (dKiJG)

396 Funniest part? There is zero reflection going on. They are all "stunned" at this awful news.

I mean, whoa, who saw this coming?

And I don't think awful means what they think it does.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (h5F/r)

397 The hits keep rolling in at Deadspin. Jayson Stark is the latest. http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (UBzPO)

398 391 Time to revisit that whole "Native American" and "We were here first" argument?

http://tinyurl.com/kn3ubau

Liewatha hardest hit.
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (J+eG2)

==============

I've lived in America since the year I was born.

How long have you lived in America?

What? Individuals don't matter, just victim groups? How interesting...

*backs away slowly*

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (BjrOM)

399
*wonders morosely about some other career*
Posted by: Gaffer

You have to stop making mistakes.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (IqV8l)

400 If you get the setup right - and setup is a PITA, be warned - you can cut cable, Netflix, Hulu, and never have to visit a theater again.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (Yx9SN)

Yep. I need to update my Kodi. Hasn't worked right in awhile and I miss it.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (2x9LM)

401 So clearly the audience has failed ESPN

Can't they simply fire the audience?

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (J+eG2)

402 And I don't know, but I'm really not so sure bat speed is NOT a gambling stat.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (TOk1P)

================

I bought the book Moneyball for my dad, who is a full professor of statistics, and he loved it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (BjrOM)

I never read it, and don't think there's any reason why I should. But I do have Christy Mathewson's "Pitching In a Pinch," and am really looking forward to reading that.

Otherwise I pretty much leave my baseball reading to Bill James' work. If he publishes any. Which he mostly doesn't.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (TOk1P)

403 Just repeating myself because too much coffee, but Post Millennials (generation Z) will NOT pay for cable. Cable in it's entirety is totally fucked. It's all going to come crumbling down.

Posted by: Max Power at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (q177U)

404 I bought the book Moneyball for my dad, who is a full professor of statistics, and he loved it.

Great movie, but its poisoned baseball. Every owner thinks that's how to run a team now, and doesn't even understand there's more to the game than numbers and stats. It happens in every major business, the pointy haired boss reads a book or sees a show and thinks its GENIUS and has to apply that to their shop no matter how much sense it makes.

Its why we have 14-man pitching staffs with no depth on the bench any longer, strikeouts keep going up and home runs keep going up, but nobody kjnows how to bunt the ball any more and 50 stolen bases is amazing for a year.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (39g3+)

405 >>>That's not true. They had hits before they had videos. MTV might have helped them (as it did pretty much all others) but Duran Duran was a popular group before anyone started seeing their videos - which weren't all that great, anyway.

Not sure if any of Duran Duran's hits didn't have a video -- pre-MTV, Girls on Film had a video out in 1981, which was before MTV (I think).

However, that album (Duran Duran) was reissued in 1983, post-MTV's birth, and then broke in the US (it had only broke in Britain in the first go-round). MTV broke them in America, and yeah, due to the video.

BTW, in the early days, it didn't matter how good your video was because there were so few of them. MTV needed to play SOMETHING, and if you had a video, it would probably get on.

to disagree with you on one more point: Duran Duran put a lot of money into their videos and they were widely regarded as among the best. Hell, the ones they did for Seven and the Ragged Tiger were directed by the "Highlander" director. They did a lot of extensive overseas location shooting, like in Sri Lanka.

Plus the Girls on Film video was x-rated for nudity, which doesn't make it a great video, but it will get you noticed. Even if no one sees the x-rated version, kids TALK about it, and word gets out. You get publicity for the ad without people even seeing the ad.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (8rNrN)

406 Posted by: El Skippito Friskito at April 26, 2017 01:18 PM (sPO/s)

I can't speak to a lot of it, but for quite some time the only place I could see NHL games was ESPN. I subscribed to Center Ice when I got DirecTV so I stopped watching ESPN...well, that and Barry Melrose was such a pompous windbag that I gladly stopped watching it.

If the model is shifting from coverage to commentary then this is only the first round of layoffs. That stupid show with Wilbon and Kornheiser is boring and an example of what not to do, not a model to follow.

Posted by: Witchdoktor, AKA VA GOP Sucks at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (tVWQB)

407 360 ESPN's baseball coverage, at least their A team, is nearly unwatchable, I shut the sound off if I ever watch a game on there, which is rarely. Their B team is good, mostly because chatty Cathy the softball girl isn't there fumbling around trying to seem like she knows what she's talking about.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (39g3+)

I couldn't agree more. They should fire chatty Cathy, who drives me wild. ESPN couldn't find a retired MLB player with enough personality to do color? I'm sure they picked this chick to make a SJW statement.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (SRKgf)

408 MLB writer Jayson Stark cut.
Good. He was one of the assholes demanding baseball get more political.

Posted by: gewa76 at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (f4GSC)

409 If only there were a way for ESPN to survey it's audience and then change programming to suite their clients tastes.... Market forces, capitalism, blah blah blah.

Fuck ESPN.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (i0ykY)

410 So many unemployed sportscasters will arrive at the unemployment office that it will tip over and sink out of sight.

Posted by: Hank Johnson at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (0+2tr)

411 339 Rollerball and The Running Man:

TV networks are evil!

I wonder what remakes of them would look like today.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:14 PM (BjrOM)

Hell, the original book version of Running Man ended with the main character hijacking a plane and crashing it into a tower...

Posted by: Hikaru at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (XMDuf)

412 402
I never read it, and don't think there's any reason why I should. But I do have Christy Mathewson's "Pitching In a Pinch," and am really looking forward to reading that.

Otherwise I pretty much leave my baseball reading to Bill James' work. If he publishes any. Which he mostly doesn't.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (TOk1P)

=============

It's just kind of the account of the first real attempt to implement James' ideas across an organization. Seems like it could operate as a good compliment to your James reading.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (BjrOM)

413 ESPN couldn't find a retired MLB player with enough personality to do color? I'm sure they picked this chick to make a SJW statement.

They had one in Curt Schilling. They fired him for thought crimes, and deliberately replaced him with the chick.

Posted by: gewa76 at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (f4GSC)

414 UN claims repealing Ocare violates International Law.
WZ

lol

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (UOJLJ)

415 When the next Democrat president is elected, I wonder if they'll let us pick the camp we get sent to, or if there'll even be camps at all. Maybe they will just come door to door, shoot us in the back of the head and kick us into a ditch.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 01:17 PM (vg8iE)
=================

And charge the surviving family members for the cost of the expended cartridge.

Posted by: mrp at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (Pqytn)

416 I'm a big fan of Bill James, who is kind of the godfather of modern sports statistics (although he says he's NOT a statistician).

Mostly because he's a great writer, and manages to use numbers to help explain the game in ways that others have not.
-----------------------------
He's taken that approach and used it in conjunction with the criminal world. Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. An excellent read:

http://tinyurl.com/mhw48sg

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at April 26, 2017 01:23 PM (X6fMO)

Oh yes! That's a great book! He's the person who introduced to a larger audience, the notion that maybe JFK was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent in the car behind. Accidental, of course.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:26 PM (TOk1P)

417 I may have been a passenger of a UFO piloted by a sasquatch.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 26, 2017 01:20 PM (IqV8l)

Michelle Obama is a pilot?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 26, 2017 01:26 PM (+c7tK)

418
Even
Sports
Politicized
Now

Posted by: zombie at April 26, 2017 01:26 PM (DQ4Fv)

419 I loved Strat o Matic baseball growing up! The basketball version was more of a "meh", since one could choose to have Elvin Hayes take every shot if one wanted to, but I played it a lot as well. Good times!

Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:26 PM (ewSN2)

420 Sorry, no cable here. I refuse to pay for a service that supports MSNBC, ESPN, or, at this point, even Disney, which is really just a bunch of crap aimed at brainwashing kids anyway.

We just don't watch that much TV. Got better things to do. Like, commenting at AoSHQ or something.

Posted by: tcn in AK at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (NXsWM)

421 404 Great movie, but its poisoned baseball. Every owner thinks that's how to run a team now, and doesn't even understand there's more to the game than numbers and stats. It happens in every major business, the pointy haired boss reads a book or sees a show and thinks its GENIUS and has to apply that to their shop no matter how much sense it makes.

Its why we have 14-man pitching staffs with no depth on the bench any longer, strikeouts keep going up and home runs keep going up, but nobody kjnows how to bunt the ball any more and 50 stolen bases is amazing for a year.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (39g3+)

==============

Jed Lawrie had a great bunt last night against the Angels.

But yeah...the bunt is going further into oblivion.

The movie is one of my favorite movies of the last decade.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (BjrOM)

422 392 Guys - learn to use Kodi. It will end not only Hollywood, but the New Hollywood (Netflix and Hulu).

If you get the setup right - and setup is a PITA, be warned - you can cut cable, Netflix, Hulu, and never have to visit a theater again.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (Yx9SN)

Never heard of KODI, what is it

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (dKiJG)

423 And charge the surviving family members for the cost of the expended cartridge.
=================

Maybe in their unending generosity, they will pass the "Condemned Prisoner's Affordable Bullet Act." They'll make your neighbor pay for the bullet.

Posted by: Michelle O at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (vg8iE)

424 ace....................Duran Duran?

My sister liked Duran Duran

I just....I just don't know what to say......

I meean, I guess I'm a snob, but.......Duran fuckin Duran?

Posted by: Alcoholic Asshole Shut In at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (CPk08)

425 Not to sound like a fuddy-duddy, but today's overcaffeinated, logarheic "personalities" make me pine for a Pat Summerall, who (as a tv play by play man ) understood that you were WATCHING the game, and only had to add in sparse verbal play by play.

His coverage was like a laconic haiku:

Snap, hold is good.

It's up and straight.

Three points.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (8rNrN)

426 413 ESPN couldn't find a retired MLB player with enough personality to do color? I'm sure they picked this chick to make a SJW statement.

They had one in Curt Schilling. They fired him for thought crimes, and deliberately replaced him with the chick.
Posted by: gewa76 at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (f4GSC)

==============

The A's just hired Jose Conseco to do some post game stuff for them.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:28 PM (BjrOM)

427 It's hard not to see a connection between the environment Trump has created and these layoffs at ESPN.

Posted by: John Cho at April 26, 2017 01:28 PM (f4GSC)

428 ack..

Canseco

bleh

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:28 PM (BjrOM)

429 If its true as many suggest the police won't protect and the campus is playing games, we know the only way is pure force. The left is not going to let us live in peace anyway, and once they get in thought crime "hate speech" legislation is coming anyway with the filibuster for legislation removed, too, so lefties can pass what they want if the right does not do so first. Soon are giving over whether Coulter can safely appear willl be moot, since her views eventually will be banned from being allowed to exist freely under anti hate thought crime legislation the left will eventually pass and will gleefully support after enough college kid generations keep absorbing the indoctrination going on. We either fight now or lose without a whimper later.

Posted by: Info at April 26, 2017 01:28 PM (sIcO8)

430 Fox? Hell, Chaffetz was out saying it yesterday.

Posted by: bicentennialguy

At least Chaffetz will be gone next year. Shep? Not so much...

Posted by: redbanzai at April 26, 2017 01:29 PM (qf8IB)

431 425 Not to sound like a fuddy-duddy, but today's overcaffeinated, logarheic "personalities" make me pine for a Pat Summerall, who (as a tv play by play man ) understood that you were WATCHING the game, and only had to add in sparse verbal play by play.

His coverage was like a laconic haiku:

Snap, hold is good.

It's up and straight.

Three points.
Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (8rNrN)

Yeah, but he is often joined by John Madden (played by Brian Dennehy.) Who is anything but verbally spartan.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 26, 2017 01:29 PM (+c7tK)

432
Just repeating myself because too much coffee, but Post Millennials (generation Z) will NOT pay for cable.

They don't want to pay for anything.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (IqV8l)

433 At least Chaffetz will be gone next year. Shep? Not so much...

=============

Maybe Shep will get an incurable case of blue waffle.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (vg8iE)

434 I never read it, and don't think there's any reason why I should. But I do have Christy Mathewson's "Pitching In a Pinch," and am really looking forward to reading that.

Otherwise I pretty much leave my baseball reading to Bill James' work. If he publishes any. Which he mostly doesn't.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (TOk1P)

=============

It's just kind of the account of the first real attempt to implement James' ideas across an organization. Seems like it could operate as a good compliment to your James reading.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:25 PM (BjrOM)

Right, I just don't really have any interest in the inside workings of a baseball organization.

I understand why others might, but I don't. Last I heard James was still doing consulting work for the Red Sox.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (TOk1P)

435 Gentle reminder: Every day the violent left is recruiting and arming up.

Posted by: Under Fire at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (UOJLJ)

436 To this day, I have never seen, now or in the past, even one second of MTV broadcasting. The whole thing just bypassed me culturally, somehow.

That doesn't mean I've never seen a music video. But only in other settings.

For example, I used to go to Residents and Snakefinger shows, and they showed videos behind the band -- totally avant-garde concept at the time.

Posted by: zombie at April 26, 2017 01:31 PM (DQ4Fv)

437 Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (8rNrN)

I'll add Vin Scully to that list.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:31 PM (gtQ/3)

438 Kodi is a system that is available on Android OS devices (Amazon Fire TV, for example. Apple TV will not work). It connects to streaming sites - sites that stream illegal copies of movies, TV shows, etc. and the servers are based in Russia or some other shithole that doesn't enforce US copyrights.

It basically enables you to stream any content you want directly to your TV, without paying for it and with no ads.

I understand that decreasing Hollywood and US media's dominance over world culture will diminish the US overall, but I'm OK with that. Hollywood has abused its power for too long and media is doing the same.

Time to burn it down.

Get Kodi.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:31 PM (Yx9SN)

439 I have to use Comcast for my internet service. No stand alone internet available to me.

Posted by: josephistan at April 26, 2017 01:31 PM (7HtZB)

440 434 Right, I just don't really have any interest in the inside workings of a baseball organization.

I understand why others might, but I don't. Last I heard James was still doing consulting work for the Red Sox.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (TOk1P)

===============

I haven't read it, but I've heard that it's more statistically minded than narratively minded.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (BjrOM)

441 I would get cable, if there were a la carte pricing. My kids could grow up complaining that I was so cheap, they could only watch the History Channel.

Posted by: cameo_appearance at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (nb404)

442 >>>Yeah, but he is often joined by John Madden (played by Brian Dennehy.) Who is anything but verbally spartan.

yeah, that was a bother.

When Madden came in, I thought he was great. And I thought Pat Summerall was barely even doing his job.

But looking back, I think I'd rather have Pat Summerall and some color man who is quieter and less caffeinated.

I don't like the "Fill the air with mouth-noise" guys at all times.

One oddly pleasant thing on Twitter is norm macdonald's golf tweeting. It's quiet and soothing. Like Pat Summerall.

I asked him why he didn't just pitch himself as a laconic play by play guy for golf but he didn't answer. No jokes, just the straight, sparse style.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (8rNrN)

443 Its why we have 14-man pitching staffs with no depth on the bench any longer, strikeouts keep going up and home runs keep going up, but nobody kjnows how to bunt the ball any more and 50 stolen bases is amazing for a year.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (39g3+)

My man. A commentator recently said that all of the all-time strikeout leaders were from the last ten years. He attributed that to pitchers being bigger, stronger, better coached, etc., never thinking that would presumably be true of position players also.

And it didn't occur to him that there used to be a stigma attaching to striking out unless you were a Babe Ruth type. Nowadays banjo hitters swing from the heels even with two strikes, and consequently whiff, all the time. THAT'S why the strikeout leaders are of recent vintage.

As for bunting (rant mode: on), when I played competitively if you failed to get a bunt down, you got the stink eye when you returned to the dugout. And God help you, if you bunted a third strike foul. You could count on riding the pine after that.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (SRKgf)

444 Kodi is a system that is available on Android OS devices (Amazon Fire TV, for example. Apple TV will not work). It connects to streaming sites - sites that stream illegal copies of movies, TV shows, etc. and the servers are based in Russia or some other shithole that doesn't enforce US copyrights.

So you're promoting *piracy*.

Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (ewSN2)

445
The business model was already in the opening stages of falling apart when the network decided to go full SJW.

SJW was an attempt to save the network (don't laugh).

Yep, which is why they won't change. Its why Washington Post and New York Times have doubled down on the stupid; its their business model. They have decided that to survive they have to appeal to a certain small but loyal demographic to have any business at all.

Plus they know that if democrats get back in power, legislation to bail them out and subsidize their work is more likely than if they went right leaning and relied on Republicans.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:33 PM (39g3+)

446 You can't sell food a la carte, if people get food poisoning when they eat. Cable has a similar problem with its content.

Posted by: Roy at April 26, 2017 01:33 PM (7n4KQ)

447 Never visited OtC before. Read a few of the articles now. Great site, thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Thanks at April 26, 2017 01:33 PM (wx6iv)

448 I'm surprised that ESPN ever needed more than 100 on air personalities. They have 3 stations broadcasting all day/ all week. That's 840 hours or 21 FTE. You may think this to simple, but when you consider that much of the content wasn't original but repackaged, and most sporting events last 3 hours thanks to commercials. The numbers don't get so high.

Posted by: Leland at April 26, 2017 01:33 PM (vA1V9)

449 Gentle reminder: Every day the violent left is recruiting and arming up.
Posted by: Under Fire

Been waiting for them for twenty years. Getting tired of waiting....

Posted by: rickb223 at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (rvtDF)

450 441 I would get cable, if there were a la carte pricing. My kids could grow up complaining that I was so cheap, they could only watch the History Channel.
Posted by: cameo_appearance at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (nb404)

We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (gtQ/3)

451 So you're promoting *piracy*.
Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (ewSN2)

I consider it Civil Disobedience.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (Yx9SN)

452 450 441 I would get cable, if there were a la carte pricing. My kids could grow up complaining that I was so cheap, they could only watch the History Channel.
Posted by: cameo_appearance at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (nb404)

We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna.
Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (gtQ/3)

==============

"In my day, we had 1 channel, and we thanked God we could get it at all."

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (BjrOM)

453 Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:27 PM (8rNrN)

Yeah, but he is often joined by John Madden (played by Brian Dennehy.) Who is anything but verbally spartan.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 26, 2017 01:29 PM (+c7tK)

I'm watching old World Series broadcasts, with Curt Gowdy as the "lead" broadcaster. They used to bring in the announcer for the home team in World Series, so Gowdy covers half the game, and the local guy takes the lead for half the game, with Gowdy in the background.

It's a good system, at least for a World Series, so you're not subjected to Joe Buck's insipid chattering, but really, Gowdy was NOT a great baseball announcer.

Contrast him with guys like Scully and Harry Carey and... I forget the name of the Baltimore guy, he's just bleh.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (TOk1P)

454 I loved Strat o Matic baseball growing up! The basketball version was more of a "meh", since one could choose to have Elvin Hayes take every shot if one wanted to, but I played it a lot as well. Good times!

---

The Avalon Hill version had fatigue built in, though most of the '86 season had games in the 120s or 130s.

Posted by: auscolpyr at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (suO/a)

455 We cut the cable years ago the day after I was channel-surfing at 4am and watched them selling dildos on Shop at Home Network.

Nope. Not paying for that. You're fired!!!

Posted by: cicero Kaboom! kid at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (n8Jnc)

456 Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (gtQ/3)

The good old days when you had to get up to turn the channels and sometimes had to use a pair of pliers when the knob broke.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (m/vQu)

457 But Republicans won't do that because they're paid corporate stooges in the first place and they're cowards scared of their own farts.

You have no idea how horrible it is to have your head shoved under the covers and held there while your partners laugh hysterically. Trust me.

Posted by: Lindsey Graham at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (9SGUy)

458
I'm not sure if there's much of a market for betting on bat speed, though. I think a lot of baseball fans are just amateur statisticians. Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:04 PM (8rNrN)

There isn't because it's not an official stat.

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (lKyWE)

459
I consider it Civil Disobedience.

Its always instructive to observe the gymnastics one will go thru to justify theft.

Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (ewSN2)

460 Get Kodi.
Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:31 PM (Yx9SN)

I recently got Kodi on my Win 7 desktop, but it just looked like kind of an overlay that aggregated my music, Youtube subscriptions, etc. Am I missing the boat, or is the Android version different?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (SRKgf)

461 We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna.

============

Hahah! Yep. When I was a kid, if the TV station wasn't coming in, someone had to go outside and manually turn the antenna pole. Someone had to stand inside and watch the TV and yell which direction to turn it, turn it back, etc. It was real fun in the winter. The bonus challenge was going out and turning it when no one was home to watch the TV picture for you.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (vg8iE)

462 We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna.

I defer to your awesomeness! At one point, we only had two channels; but my only hardship was having to grip the clothespin around the spindle really tightly, because the dial was missing. We got the best old re-runs.

Posted by: cameo_appearance at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (nb404)

463 Just repeating myself because too much coffee, but Post Millennials (generation Z) will NOT pay for cable.

They don't want to pay for anything.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr.
-----------

We don't make any money, and what we do make has to pay for Lattes, Smart phones, and data plans..

Posted by: Millennial with a Philosophy degree at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (ZO497)

464 nood

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (mpXpK)

465 "Not to sound like a fuddy-duddy, but today's overcaffeinated, logarheic "personalities" make me pine for a Pat Summerall, who (as a tv play by play man ) understood that you were WATCHING the game, and only had to add in sparse verbal play by play."

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post used to write that the great thing about Vin Scully is that you actually felt like you at the Stadium watching the game with a friend.

Posted by: Benji Carver at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (OD2ni)

466 "We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna."

You could afford windows?

Well, aren't we just all hoity toity rich.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (J+eG2)

467 Its always instructive to observe the gymnastics one will go thru to justify theft.
Posted by: Crusader

Since when do laws matter?

Posted by: rickb223 at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (rvtDF)

468 Then we progressed to cable . Oh how I strained my eyes trying to make out scrambled porn on skinamax.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (m/vQu)

469 Right, I just don't really have any interest in the inside workings of a baseball organization.

I understand why others might, but I don't. Last I heard James was still doing consulting work for the Red Sox.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:30 PM (TOk1P)

===============

I haven't read it, but I've heard that it's more statistically minded than narratively minded.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (BjrOM)

Then it definitely would not appeal to me.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (TOk1P)

470 Trent Dilfer canned.

I haven't watched MSESPN in a long while, but he used to strike me as more of a straight shooter.

The good guys get fired and not the SJW freaks theory continues. (Assuming my memory is correct.)

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (72PAC)

471 Lots of math, baby.

Statistics aren't math they're arithmetic.

Posted by: DaveA at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (FhXTo)

472 His coverage was like a laconic haiku:

Snap, hold is good.

It's up and straight.

Three points.
Posted by: ace

This really reminds me of a very interesting philosophical experiment, in which someone is asked "what happened" at a football game.

A football fan would say "The Jets threw three interceptions" or "The Rams's defense fell apart," but another person -- a caveman, for example --who was in the same stadium witnessing the same thing might say, "My nostrils were assaulted by the pheromones of 50,000 other humanoids! I blacked out from the overstimulation."

Or any other possible alternate perception of "what happened" at a game.

The point behind the scenario is to remind ourselves that the notion of "what is important" is almost entirely a cultural "construct," and that we as a society deem this or that newsworthy solely as part of an unwitting mass fallacy that some things or some perspectives or some events have more significance than others.

Posted by: zombie at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (DQ4Fv)

473 The good old days when you had to get up to turn the channels and sometimes had to use a pair of pliers when the knob broke.
Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (m/vQu)

I was always fascinated by the massive console TVs. My grandparents had one that was this beautiful low cabinet with a radio, tv (like 15") and record player.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (+c7tK)

474
Its always instructive to observe the gymnastics one will go thru to justify theft.
=============

Don't we know it.

Posted by: 20,000 Mystery Children Going to Bed Hungry Every. Damn. Night at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (vg8iE)

475 The good old days when you had to get up to turn the channels and sometimes had to use a pair of pliers when the knob broke.

Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (m/vQu)

My sister and I used to race home from school and whoever got there first would change the channel and rip off the knob. I wanted cartoons and she wanted soap operas.

Posted by: Timon at April 26, 2017 01:38 PM (RjcAj)

476 >>>The Avalon Hill version had fatigue built in, though most of the '86 season had games in the 120s or 130s.

This is funny and a strange serendipity, because I wanted to mention this:

When I played Strat-O-Matic, I'd barely even watched baseball. Barely understood it.

Anyway, I drafted some huge pitcher. From the All Time list. Who knows -- Sandy Koufax, whatever.

Anyway, we played one game, and the next game, i announced my pitcher was... Sandy Koufax.

"You can't start Sandy Koufax again," the guy I was playing with said.

"Why not? You afraid of him?!"

"Dude, you can't start the same pitcher in back to back games."

I looked at my card. "Doesn't say that on the card."

"Dude, it's UNDERSTOOD! Pitchers pitch in a ROTATION!"

I didn't understand what that meant so I went "oh yeah, right" like I did understand and started someone else.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:39 PM (8rNrN)

477 Gentle reminder: Every day the violent left is recruiting and arming up.
---
bring it on.

Posted by: redc1c4 at April 26, 2017 01:39 PM (PNYug)

478 "Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:24 PM (39g3+) "

The teams most associated with Moneyball besides the A's are the Red Sox, Cubs and Indians. Two of those teams have won a recent WS and one won a pennant.

In essence, Moneyball just says "find what's cheaper in the market than it should be and go after that." Which isn't anything new in baseball - Branch Rickey did it. John McGraw did it.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:40 PM (oZ6kz)

479 Nood.

Posted by: andycanuck at April 26, 2017 01:41 PM (nlbfN)

480 When you have *me* looking seriously at cord cutting, you have a problem as an industry.

Posted by: alexthechick - rrraaawwwrrr at April 26, 2017 12:28 PM

Wait...you mean we'll have to watch our cable through someone else's window?

Posted by: The Squirrels at April 26, 2017 01:41 PM (p+Wdc)

481 Stark was decent - not my favorite baseball guy, but not one of the problems. He never went political to my knowledge, which confirms ESPN has learned nothing as is just flailing around.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:41 PM (oZ6kz)

482 Trent Dilfer got the ax too.

Posted by: Brian in New Orleans at April 26, 2017 01:42 PM (UBzPO)

483 Moneyball said a lot more than that. It was focused on Bill James style stat crunching, favoring strikeouts, etc.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:42 PM (39g3+)

484 I was noting the disparity in generations the other day.

I have a stripped down farm truck with crank windows. When I drive it to pick my daughter up, all the kids are amazed because they have never seen a window crank before.

Good luck explaining to them about rabbit ears, wrapping aluminum foil around the antenna, or turning the pole on the directional antenna, much less what the hell UHF and VHF are.

We are the forgotten. We are the Kaboom Kids generation.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:42 PM (gtQ/3)

485 Ace, regarding Strat-O-Matic, my dad and I got bored with the "regular" game one summer so we invented our own. We took turns drafting players until we had a 24 man roster, but OUR rules said we could only take hitters who batted .225 or less and only select pitchers with an ERA of 5.00 or higher. It made us use players we would never otherwise use, and the awful hitters facing awful pitching kept the game balanced!

Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:42 PM (ewSN2)

486 If you get the setup right - and setup is a PITA, be warned - you can cut cable, Netflix, Hulu, and never have to visit a theater again.

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:22 PM (Yx9SN)

It really is a PITA. I started to set it up, but I had a lot of other stuff to do and lost interest after a while. It's pretty user hostile.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at April 26, 2017 01:45 PM (SRKgf)

487 Cable for me is: Archer, NHL center ice, TCM, MeTV and the WWII channel (The Krauts and Japs continue to lose). That's about it.

Posted by: Strobe at April 26, 2017 01:45 PM (gbWkA)

488 we progressed to cable . Oh how I strained my eyes trying to make out scrambled porn on skinamax.
Posted by: Jack Sock at April 26, 2017 01:37 PM (m/vQu)

LOL my brother built a descrambler with parts from RadioShack.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at April 26, 2017 01:45 PM (dKiJG)

489 Ace,

Don't disagree that MTV enjoyed some limited success with its non music programming for a while - but the shine has seriously worn off that apple. kids today are not flocking to watch MTV shows - as per the following:

https://tinyurl.com/htz9pub

The MTV awards is a graphic example of the "people don't want to watch a non music music TV station" anymore. Coke figured out this stuff in a hurry when they tried to f*ck around with their flagship brand name and central raison d'etre - The "we are the not too sweet cola on the soda market." They tried to change themselves to be the "we are the sweet cola on the market" demographic thing they would keep all their "not too sweet" customers - they were wrong. They wised up immediately. MTV, ESPN and the like did NOT wise up to their base customer loyalty issues. If you are ESPN do not piss off your sports fans by trying to be SJW network. If you are MTV don't drive away your music fan base by becoming a game show "reality show" network. If you are McDonalds do not abandon your burger and fries crowd.

Had MTV found a way to continue being music related TV (more concert movies, more live events more shows about musician, perhaps movies (musicals etc.) and perhaps on demand radio or some other model they might have continued to be a music brand and a going concern - But they are going the way of the Dodo as evidenced by falling ratings an inconsequential programming. I can tell you that my kids have never watched anything MTV nor do, I think, any of their friends.

Posted by: Publius Redux at April 26, 2017 01:45 PM (Fb9aZ)

490 Stark was decent - not my favorite baseball guy, but not one of the problems. He never went political to my knowledge, which confirms ESPN has learned nothing as is just flailing around.
Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:41 PM (oZ6kz)

You're wrong about Stark. He was pushing politics in baseball. Find the article David Harsanyi wrote about him in the Denver Post.

Posted by: gewa76 at April 26, 2017 01:47 PM (f4GSC)

491 We are the forgotten. We are the Kaboom Kids generation.
And how you used to literally "dial" a phone.

Posted by: andycanuck at April 26, 2017 01:47 PM (nlbfN)

492 >>>In essence, Moneyball just says "find what's cheaper in the market than it should be and go after that." Which isn't anything new in baseball - Branch Rickey did it. John McGraw did it.

my memory of Moneyball is that I EXPECTED it to be about clever number-crunching and overlooked stats but what it was really about was just looking at the most basic topline stats, which scouts largely ignored, preferring to draft players by a homoerotic system of whether someone had an Achilles-like physique and thus a "Baseball Look."

One of the first parts of the book is about drafting this overweight college catcher who had a very good batting average was good at fielding but no scouts were interested because he didn't have a "baseball look" and also they just didn't like college players (preferring minor league recruits).

anyway they drafted him and it turned out he could hit and field, just like the most basic topline stats said he could.

So instead of being a clever innovation, it was just common sense replacing something incredibly stupid. It made the book less about a heroic intellect overturning old thinking and more a sad comedy about a guy with an average intellect telling stupid people to stop being so stupid.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:49 PM (8rNrN)

493 Fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap...

Posted by: Tilikum KAW at April 26, 2017 01:50 PM (uhftQ)

494 >>>485 Ace, regarding Strat-O-Matic, my dad and I got bored with the "regular" game one summer so we invented our own. We took turns drafting players until we had a 24 man roster, but OUR rules said we could only take hitters who batted .225 or less and only select pitchers with an ERA of 5.00 or higher. It made us use players we would never otherwise use, and the awful hitters facing awful pitching kept the game balanced!

In Dungeons and Dragons we call this the "Battle of the Bards."

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:51 PM (8rNrN)

495 "Moneyball said a lot more than that. It was focused on Bill James style stat crunching, favoring strikeouts, etc.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 26, 2017 01:42 PM (39g3+) "

Who doesn't favor strikeouts? Again, that's old - you'll always take a strike out guy over a finesse guy if all other factors are equal. OBP was a big focus of Moneyball because it was seen as a 'market inefficiency' stat - teams weren't paying big money for guys that drew walks. Nowadays, OBP is priced in, so it doesn't pay to search for OBP guys.

Every GM crunches stats - some people don't like the *types* of stats they crunch. And that's fine. But before sabermetrics, GM's crunched batting average and pitcher wins. Scouts use a subjective player rating system (20-80) and have always used hard data when they could get it - pitch speed, bat speed, running speed. And isn't that what you'd want? You don't want to bet millions on a guy because a few scouts say "Yes, he looks like he'll be good." You want some proof.

Posted by: broseidon being a capitalist pigdog (yknow, working) at April 26, 2017 01:51 PM (oZ6kz)

496 Publius -- I didn't know MTV was falling in ratings.

But.. there are a bunch of competitors. MTV2 was launched to be "The MTV that actually plays music videos" but I think MTV always demolished it in ratings.

Meanwhile there were other upstarts like Palladium or something doing the old MTV thing.

I don't know if it actually could have kept going. Music was very fragmented in market appeal, and then MTV briefly sort of overcame that by deciding for the nation what "cool" was (but they didn't really decide -- they just played the british pop acts that had videos, the only stock in trade).

But when everyone put out videos within three years, the market re-fragmented. Teenyboppers don't want to see Metallica, metal-heads don't want to see One Direction, and back then, white kids didn't want to see Grandmaster Flash (and black kids didn't want to see Rio for the hundredth time, either).

I think their original model only existed because the novelty of it MADE a market, a market of a less-fragmented "unified" playlist for the country, but that was a time-limited commodity.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 01:58 PM (8rNrN)

497 Its always instructive to observe the gymnastics one will go thru to justify theft.
Posted by: Crusader at April 26, 2017 01:36 PM (ewSN2)

I literally don't care if I'm stealing content from these companies. I'm not going through any mental gymnastics. Call it theft, I'll call myself a thief!

Totally worth it and my conscience is clear (because I legitimately don't care about stealing this).

Posted by: Tim Marchman at April 26, 2017 01:59 PM (Yx9SN)

498 I remember a period when MTV was dominated by songs the corporate culture didn't like (the Boy Bands, metal pop, etc.) and MTV started pushing MOR "sensitive artist" acts like Tracy Chapman and Lisa Lobe as "the real stuff that's cool." I think they did push this stuff and manufacture hits, but I also think their audience was annoyed that they weren't getting 'NSYNC, Getto Boyz, and Warrant.

So that's one of the evidences I present for my brief-market-unification-followed-quickly-by-re-fragmentation thing.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 02:01 PM (8rNrN)

499 MTV was briefly aided by some market unification as suburban white kids got into hip-hop, but those kids would then tend to hate 'NSYNC and Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. (Though they did not mind looking at her.)

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 02:04 PM (8rNrN)

500 The Run-DMC/Aerosmith team-up looks particularly brilliant in that light, as the song was actually a corporate gift to MTV (a song many feuding tribes in its audience could all like) and which also helped bridge the tribes. So they heavily played it. It would have been a hit anyway, but MTV probably had corporate reasons for playing the shit out of it too.

Interestingly, both Run-DMC and Aerosmith were dead-set against doing that and all mutually hated the idea. They were bullied into it by their managers and producers.

Yet that song introduced Run-DMC to white kids, and Aerosmith -- kind of forgotten and left in time by that point -- to black kids AND white kids.

Posted by: ace at April 26, 2017 02:07 PM (8rNrN)

501 Duran Duran?
-----
Did I stutter?!?!

Posted by: Dang at April 26, 2017 02:07 PM (8b+oT)

502 ESPN and MSNBC, those are the only channels I watch or need to watch. I'm informed!

Posted by: Denis the Leftist Nutjob at April 26, 2017 02:14 PM (qYCgM)

503 450 441 I would get cable, if there were a la carte
pricing. My kids could grow up complaining that I was so cheap, they
could only watch the History Channel.

Posted by: cameo_appearance at April 26, 2017 01:32 PM (nb404)

We had three channels growing up and my dad made me climb out the
window get on the second story roof to turn the directional antenna.

Posted by: Malcolm Tent at April 26, 2017 01:34 PM (gtQ/3)

==============

"In my day, we had 1 channel, and we thanked God we could get it at all."

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at April 26, 2017 01:35 PM (BjrOM)

I was the youngest so I had to stand next to the tv and hold on to the end of the foil covered coat hanger to keep the tv from fuzzing out.

Posted by: redbanzai at April 26, 2017 02:24 PM (qf8IB)

504 Fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap...

It's "Whack it!" Wednesday already?

Posted by: Blanco Basura at April 26, 2017 02:28 PM (YEelc)

505 If I bathed every time I watched ESPN , I would stink

Posted by: nsirchov at April 26, 2017 03:07 PM (sJS49)

506 If you think this is unrelated to NFL ratings thanks to the SJW crowd I have a bridge in NY to sell ya.

NFL goes down so do the networks carrying it. Reporting on it.

Keep up the BS you'll lose money. The player salaries will go down too. You think the bosses will take the hit?

Posted by: SmileyNh at April 26, 2017 03:18 PM (zJycq)

507 > But with FoxNews apparently going in a more liberal direction, and with much more to be gained anyway from putting the big hurt on cable and TV stations, it's time for a la carte pricing, not the socialist system we have now.

Big media is Socialism now?

Ace, you're getting stupid in your old age.

Posted by: Leninism at April 26, 2017 04:32 PM (qDhbG)

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