I couldn't care less that Tony Kornheiser has been suspended by ESPN for his "sexist" comments about Hannah Storm. I don't listen to his radio programme and the "banter" that he reads from the autocue on PTI is pretty tedious. I do however listen to Baseball Today and (in a story that's gotten virtually no coverage) I'm upset that the great Peter Pascarelli has apparently been fired for daring to suggest that a statue in honour of baseball commissioner Bud Selig in Milwaukee was a bad idea and that maybe it would look better after the pigeons went to work on it. Pascarelli made the light hearted comment on Baseball Today two weeks ago. The next day he was forced to go back on the air and issue a grovelling apology, praising Bud Selig as the greatest baseball commissioner ever. That podcast was excruciating and was like listening to Zionviev apologise to Stalin during the Show Trials, but, unfortunately, it wasn't enough and Pascarelli has now been canned. Baseball Today continued last Thursday without Pascarelli and with no mention of his fate - exactly the way Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky etc were air brushed from history by the Soviets. ...
Selig must be pretty thin skinned if he demanded Pascarelli's apology and dismissal but what would you expect from the cowardly incompetent who praised the laughable Mitchell Report and who with a nod and a wink presided over the steroid era - an era that ruined baseball stats forever.
...
ESPN is worse, though, lacking even the cojones to mention Pascarelli's name or telling us to which part of the gulag archipelago he has been shipped.
55 comments:
Very nicely put. And the show will be a shell of its former self without the wonderful Mr. Happy! ESPN pretense that its commentators and reporters are just "wild and crazy" guys and gals who "calls 'em as they sees 'em" is just that - a pretense, revealing this company to be just another hack at the trough of corporate sports groupspeak. Very sad. And Bug Selig is even more narcissistic than he is already portrayed!
Kornheiser is a well-documented asshole. Still, suspending him after apologizing personally and publicly was a bit much.
As for Pasquarelli's "transgression," ESPN likes to present itself as a journalistic operation. Now they're not even pretending to "cover" sports; they're blatant celebrity (A-Rod, Tiger, Bud) apologists.
Pasquarelli fired? I hated ESPN before...Sorry, I need a few minutes.
Winkp
I dont think the show will even make sense now. Last week they had Buster Olney on and although he's an intelligent guy there was no spark or fire there.
You're right, now they're all corporate drones trundling out the same message. Bill Hicks would have loved it.
Dana
I suppose the model for ESPN now is Entertainment Tonight. All celebrity all the time, lots of smiling and happy talk.
Matt
And fired for basically telling the truth - a statue to Bud Selig is ridiculous.
Bill Simmons had some ideas for a Bud Selig statue - Bud looking at a blank TV screen with the title ''94 World Series', or a bunch of ballplayers shooting up with steroids while Selig determinedly looks the other way. That and taking the statue away every Saturday during baseball season.
I hope all is not lost. Peter "I don't like anybody" Pascarelli is about the only reason I listen to any baseball podcast. A friend of mine accurately pointed out the other day you can find more quality comic book podcasts than sports podcasts...
Matt
I wonder if thats why Peter Gammons left ESPN - the corporate atmosphere, the forced bon homie, the constant celebrity worship etc. cannot be good for journalist integrity.
On the last Baseball Today they spend 10 minutes talking about the wonderful Baseball Tonight bus that is travelling around Florida during spring training.
...the greatest baseball commissioner ever.
Wow, who's in second place on that list?
Baseball, like hockey, must be a great game to survive the idiots who've always run it.
I'll only disagree with the steriods - they should be legalized and used properly - these bizarre prohibitions the Americans try to foist on everyone are silly.
John
I feel that permitting steroids would be a mistake (you'd get high schoolers shooting up) but I think allowing them for injury recovery under close supervision might be a way to go.
What kind of pathetic ego cripple needs a statue in their honour though? Maybe he should go off and read some Shelley.
And look at a picture of Citi Field as he reads the poem.
Matt
I was reading The Paris Review Interviews IV on my trip and one of the surprising things that turns up is the fact that PG Wodehouse was a big fan of the Mets. Who would have thunk it? Although Yogi Berra who managed the Mets at this time is a very Wodehousian figure
I understand they're planning a similar statue to Gary Bettman in Nashville.
One of Yogi Berra's fractured statements applies to ESPN: The future ain't what it used to be.
More priceless Yogi malapropisms:
If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Nobody goes to Coney Island anymore; it's too crowded.
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
All pitchers are liars or crybabies.
Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.
Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
Even Napoleon had his Watergate.
Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.
He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.
I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.
I never said most of the things I said.
I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.
I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question.
I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em.
If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
In baseball, you don't know nothing.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
It ain't over till it's over.
It ain't the heat, it's the humility.
It gets late early out there.
It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much
It's like deja-vu, all over again.
Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
Slump? I ain't in no slump... I just ain't hitting.
The future ain't what it used to be.
Other teams could make trouble for us if they win.
The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.
We have deep depth.
You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.
You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you.
Please excuse me for going to off topic above for so long but a conversation about baseball always launches Yogi Berra quotes in my mind.
Anon
Was it Bettman who was responsible for The Mighty Ducks? If so I hope they really do build a statue and I hope the pigeons are incontinent...
Holden
Yogi Berra quotes are good in any conversation.
2 facts about Yogi that few people know:
1. He was at D Day.
2. He actually has 13 World Series rings not 10.
Wow, didn't know either of those things about Yogi. The man's a national treasure. And he sure has a way with words. ;->
"I never said most of the things I said."
I've longed ranked Yogi Berra with Winston Churchill as a quote maget -- someone who made so many quotable statements that attributions flock to him, whether accurate or not.
ESPN is a gang of faux-hip, celebrity-worshiping corporate line-toers. It will be held to account in the next world for creating the monster that is Chris Berma.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
With Churchill and Shakespeare, that is.
I don't think Shakespeare and Churchill will be held to account for creating Chris Berma, whoever he is, but they will probably be held to account for a few things all the same.
Not the same order of things as Stalin though.
Yeah, most people forget about the rings Yogi won with the Yanks and Mets after he stopped playing. Too bad the Yankees didn't get him as a bench coach in the 90s, he'd have 4 or 5 more!
My favourite Yogi quote: "I don't know if it's good for baseball, but it sure beats the hell out of rooming with Phil Rizzuto." On Joe D's marriage to Marilyn.
ESPN has a well-documented history of employing jerks, and I'm sure there are many cases of harassment we'll never hear of up in Bristol. Unfortunately, they are the major cable sports network, and they don't want to tick off MLB.
Er, make that Chris Berman. I knew I should not have drunk that fourth Strongbow last night. It sent my hand-eye coordination straight down the toilet.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
It's okay, Peter. Everyone else knows who you meant, and I wouldn't have known anyway.
Peter
Chris Berman what a blowhard. The definition of blowhard if you ask me.
Holden
And the person I'd most like to meet. Either Yogi or Neil Armstrong.
Holden
Or Bill Shatner
Seana
Yeah, I exaggerate for effect. Stalin didnt silence the poets he just murdered them.
Matt
Can you imagine if Yogi had been bench coach in 1996-2004?
He wouldnt have allowed to Torre to burn out the middle relievers thats for sure.
I actually have a Yogi Berra story--wasn't sure if I could reconstruct it, but it's all come back to me. The leader of the discussion group I go to is an old friend and summer neighbor of former Yankee hitter Tony Kubek, and he's brought him to the group a couple of times over the years when he's in town. Inevitably he's asked about Yogi Berra. Here's a story he told.
He and Yogi and a couple of the other Yankees were out shopping for suits one day and they all agreed that these navy blue serge suits were mighty nice. As the others were buying theirs, Yogi said, "I'll take one too. But make mine navy brown."
Ha! I love Tony Kubek! He was a Toronto broadcaster for years, and he and Bob Costas are my favourite all-time booth team. he stepped away from baseball after the '94 fiasco, but it was nice to see him win the Ford Frick award a few years ago. Like Peter Pascarelli, he was not one to BS.
Tony Kubek and Curt Gowdy were the team I listened to on the Game of the Week in my youth.
And there's no way Pedro Martinez would have gone after the Yankees' bench coach had that coach been Yori Berra. That would hve been like an unbeliever sneaking into Mecca or an American uttering pessimistic sentiments in public.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Adrian, Berman is less a blowhard than a grate on the nerves. The worst thing about ESPN is its influence on local sportscasters, who now talk and laugh too loudly and interrupt one another because that's what the big boys at ESPN do.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Speaking of baseball here is a link to a blog where you can find find blogs on a lot of teams.
http://www.nickstwinsblog.com/
If you root around you can find a lot more. It's fun stuff if you are a baseball fan. These people make more sense than the drones on TV.
John H brings up a good point, I wonder how much good sportswriting is taking place on blogs?
Certainly it's where the best sports humour is being written
Matt, Tony Kubek was quite personable and charming on his visits out. Of course, I didn't know him from Adam. I do remember him saying that Yogi was sometimes more aware of his Yogisms than you might at first think, but that doesn't really surprise me.
Seana
Thats a great story. All Yogi lore is good.
Peter, Matt
If Yogi had been the bench coach there would have been no Curt Schilling sock either and he would have pulled Joba off the field during the fly infestation.
Its interesting that catchers make the best managers though.
John H
Yeah but I bet all the bloggers would quit it all to get on ESPN and be censored. Shame really but its the way of the world.
Fetch
The Onion stuff is always brilliant. Who says Americans cant do irony?
Idiots thats who.
Nice Adrian but the point is that they aren't on ESPN and censored. There is a very good community of baseball bloggers here in the Twin Cities with an extremely wide variety of points of view. Every thing from lipgloss&baseball to number crunchers. The writing is excellent to not so good but it is a vibrant group of writers.
John
Every day I check out the Lohud Yankees Blog for a small newspaper its got a lot of stuff (actually maybe because its a small newspaper it has to try harder).
Yeah, there is no shortage of Yankees blogs...thankfully there are a few with merit.
The Onion stuff is always brilliant. Who says Americans cant do irony?
When is the Library of America going to publish a collection of the Onion?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, they addressed the Pascarelli situation on the last first 5 minutes of the Baseball Today podcast I'll ever listen to. They said Pascarelli hasn't been canned but is pursuing other opportunities with ESPN.
I cut off Eric Karabell as he was saying "Hey, keep listen-"
Matt
I just listened. Yup he's gone. Fired for dissing Bud Selig's statue. Absolutely craven.
I too will not be listening again.
"Pursuing other opportunities."
I will also believe the next public official who says he is innocent of the charges but is resigning to spare his family.
================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
If they wanted a yes-man, corporate, feel-good, slave-mentality show, well now they have it.
I think it all started to go wrong back in the early 90's when they would ask people questions and instead of responding to the interviewer the interviewee would turn and reply into the camera.
I forgot to say "Selig sucks"
John H
Especially if he caused this...
RIGHT ON ADRIAN, I was an avid listener to Baseball Today, it was an especially good way to get through the off season withdrawals. Big Brother has spoken....god help anyone who criticizes our great commissioner. I started a small letter writing campaign to every ESPN e mail account I could find and more specifically to our local sports radio show hosts at KNBR. So far no on air host has said a word about this or returned any of my emails and all of them have been very critical of our great commissioner and have even called for his head. I think this is a really big deal and needs to be exposed. As I said I don't know an announcer out there who hasn't said worse things about Selig....he looks really bad on this one and ESPN looks even worse, now I know for sure that anything their announcers say has been filtered and approved by the big money sports Establishment.
RIGHT ON ADRIAN
I thought I was the only one who cared about this. I had a small letter writing campaign trying to get some one in the sports writer/broadcaster establishment to take notice of this... I wrote to as many ESPN e mail accounts as I could and more specifically I wrote to our local sports radio hosts at KNBR and so far no one has mentioned a thing about it on the air nor have they replied to any of my e mails. In the past I have always received replies from KNBR. Hey if they don't speak up for Peter who is going to speak up when the ax comes for them.
AR
Yeah the new guy is a corporate lackey who talks a lot but says nothing. Hopefully Peter will speak when his contract expires...
Thanks for the post. You are right about very little coverage on this topic. I was shocked and disappointed to learn about Peter P's fate. As for Tony K, his radio show is great, and very different from PTI. ESPN is plummeting, quickly. Thanks again, and I look forward to checking out some of your work. Happy St. Pat's Day - If I remember correctly from my time at Melbourne U, they celebrated adequately!
Bill from Boston
Bill
Yeah it was a pretty good celebration.
Have you noticed that there hasnt been a new Baseball Today since March 3rd? I think they realise now that people listened because of Pascarelli and now they've screwed it up.
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