More On Fox And Manny Ramirez

I have already made my opinion of this situation known both here and at Awful Announcing, but I figured I would throw more opinions of more credible, established sports columnists and other blogs that were angered by this outrage.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

From: Ford, Bob
To: Fitzpatrick, Frank; Salisbury, James T.
Subject: Mannycam

We're renaming this "Talkin' Sense" this week since Gonzodud is on vacation (although how we will tell he's on vacation is anyone's guess).

I was appalled on Saturday when Fox kept cutting away or small-screening the Phils-Mets game to give extra-special coverage to the at-bats of Manny Ramirez, noted dope cheater just returned from suspension. I was in the press box and the Fox feed was on the monitors. You couldn't see the replays of the Phils' game because Pajama Man was all over the thing. Is "appalled" too strong a word? Your thoughts?

From: Salisbury, James T.
To: Ford, Bob; Fitzpatrick, Frank
Subject: RE: Mannycam

Cutaways should be reserved for milestone hits (500th homer; 3,000th hit) or no-hitters. Fox was trying to capitalize on this clown's controversy-driven celebrity. There's no way they would have done this if he didn't get caught taking mommy juice. Total pimping on their part.

From: Ford, Bob
To: Salisbury, James T.; Fitzpatrick, Frank
Subject: RE: Mannycam

Where's Frank? He must be listening to the game on his old crystal set. I'll send a carrier pigeon over with the message. We are in total agreement on this one, Jimmy, and that's how Talkin' Sense is going to be this week. Reasonable people making reasonable comments. Fox should be ashamed of itself, although I'm not sure that's possible. There couldn't have been one person in America who said, "I think I'll watch the Phillies-Mets game because there might be bonus coverage of Mannyball's historic second game back."

The New York Post

SATURDAY, the Fourth of July, FOX chose not to present the national anthem prior to its Mets-Phillies telecast, but it did choose to interrupt the first inning to show Manny Ramirez's first at-bat in his second game back from a drug suspension, an insert from the Dodgers-Padres game.

But it was the second part -- breaking into the telecast to show Ramirez bat -- that made Tim McCarver stew then spew. And what a magnificent spew.

"It's almost as though Manny Ramirez is being treated as if he'd been on the disabled list for 50 games. ... Why all the adulation for a guy who has served a 50-game suspension when guys like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and A-Rod served no suspensions, yet they're branded?"

McCarver wasn't done. He knew that the answer was in large part right there, surrounding him: TV. TV makes no good value judgments; it just sells anything and anyone, good or bad, worth a ratings point and a buck. Beyond that, TV desperately panders to the worst acts, its executives and voices frightened to risk being called unhip, or old-fashioned, or racist, or, heaven forbid, anything less than "edgy."

And so modern media -- not just TV -- excuse vandals as graffiti artists; the career-long selfishness of a Manny Ramirez is explained/rationalized/admired as individualism.

McCarver next noted that Dodgers-Padres wasn't originally scheduled to be shown by FOX in the New England market, but the return of Ramirez changed that. "We jumped right on the wagon, too."

Apparently, McCarver hadn't received a copy of the plan, the one ESPN and FOX have been working from: We're all supposed to love Manny Ramirez, unconditionally.

The Mets Police

What was the point of showing me Manny Ramirez at bats. It was his second game back, and good job out of McCarver on calling out Fox on hyping the return of someone from susupension.

Lehigh Valley Live

On the Fourth of July, while many Americans were sitting outside with charcoal in the air, ice cold beers in hand and burgers on the grill, Fox Sports was giving Manny Ramirez national coverage in his second game back since being suspended for violating Major League Baseball's Substance Policy.

Did I miss something or wasn't Ramirez suspended 50 games for being a cheater?

It's not like he suffered an injury and everyone was thrilled to have him back in the Dodgers' lineup.

[...]

Fox, which nationally aired the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, did in-game looks at the Dodgers-Padres game from Petco Park in San Diego showing Manny's every at-bat. Even broadcaster Tim McCarver questioned Fox's coverage to his partner Kenny Albert, with neither having an answer.

Manny wasn't one home run away from being the sport's all-time leader, nor was he playing in an unprecedented number of consecutive games, but he was just playing -- hopefully with no foreign substances in his body.

So why the different and preferential treatment in the media and from the fans compared to the others who are basically blacklisted from the sport? You tell me.

Have I made my point yet or do I need to go on even more with this? While I'm pretty sure that all of my wonderful, regular commenters have more than gotten the point, if there is just one person remotely associated with Fox Sports reading this, then it's not enough. They must know what hypocritical, biased, unthinking bastards they really are. I'm not done.

Sports Media Watch

Like so many things in baseball over the past decade, the national curiosity surrounding Manny Ramirez' return from a 50-game suspension appears to have been purely artificial.

Regional MLB coverage, featuring live, national cutaways to Dodgers/Padres during Ramirez' first at-bat, drew a mere 1.7 overnight rating on FOX Saturday afternoon, down a whopping 50% from a 3.4 for coverage on the comparable date last year.

Keep in mind that Saturday was the Fourth of July. The last time FOX aired MLB coverage on the holiday (1998), the net drew a 4.2/12 overnight.

The View from the Porch

Phillies and Mets fans were given a common cause on the Fourth of July, when millions must have blurted the same question, in unison: WHY IS MANNY RAMIREZ ON MY TELEVISION? Then, if everyone else is like me, they used the opportunity to spend a penny, pick a tomato, pull a weed, jump in the pool, get a beer, join the party, and missed not only Manny but also an inning or two and a whole bunch of sponsor commercials. Oops.

As the Philly Inquirer noted today, Fox cheated Phillies fans. And Mets fans as well. And everyone else tired of having Manny Ramirez shoved down our throats.

If there is anybody out there who works for Fox or knows someone who works for Fox Sports and ask if they are truly ashamed of their network's coverage? For what happened on Saturday, was beyond media bias, on the same day that Lou Gehrig gave his impassioned speech, Fox trumpets the return of this cheating, rule-bending, media whore. So please, ask them. And if you really want to be my hero, you can email me the results of your conversation at FireAndyReidNow@gmail.com. I promise you that you will remain anonymous. Just let me know that Tim McCarver is not the only one disgusted by Fox's outlandish, ridiculous, absurd coverage of Manny Ramirez.

This paragraph is already quoted in my below post entitled, "Thank You, Keith Olbermann", but it's the best paragraph to end with for I don't want anyone to forget this.

let's take you out to San Diego where Manny Ramirez is just back from a 50-game suspension. For cheating. For cutting corners. For breaking rules. For lying. For deception. For letting down his teammates. For contributing to suspicions against every honest player. For raising a giant middle finger to sportsmanship. For abusing the fans. For risking that for which Lou Gehrig would've given anything - his own health.

[...]

Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez and the others of the PED era did not belong in baseball today, and that they did not show the requisite awareness of their own shame, only makes it worse. Lord, send us a 'roider who has the presence of mind to say: "On this day I do my penance; I don't yet belong on the field even with just the memory of this man, I hope you'll forgive me and I can again earn your trust."

Any and all emails to those I addressed above will be greatly appreicated.

Thank You, Keith Olbermann

Everyone knows that as of late, I have been rather critical of Countdown, but today all I have to say is thank goodness for Keith Olbermann and his MLBlog. Thank you, thank you, thank you. For saying what needed to be said about the overhyped comeback of a certain undeserving, cheating jackass named Manny Ramirez.

For those that were not watching the game or have not heard by now, during the 1st inning of the Mets-Phillies game which was broadcast exclusively on Fox, they actually cutaway from that game and went to a split screen and put on the Dodgers-Padres game when Manny Ramirez was at bat. Worse yet, they made that game the larger window and they put the audio from that game. Oh yeah, the Phillies game was still going on at the time! And then to make things worse, when Ramirez launched a homerun in the 1st inning, Fox cutaway completely from the Mets-Phils game to a full-screen of the Dodgers game to show Manny Ramirez rounding the bases like the complete doofus that he is. And it's not like I was out of market either! I was watching on Fox 29, the Fox station for the city of Philadelphia! I think you get the picture of how angry all of us were watching the Phils last night! And to make matters even worse, they went to the split-screen for Manny's other 2 at-bats, of which I laughed hysterically when they resulted in a ground out and fielders choice.

Fox clearly had a hard on for Ramirez, and forget for a sentence that the reason he was out of the game for 50-games was for testing positive for a steroid masking agent, this was not even Ramirez's 1st game back! It was his second! What the fuck, Fox? What the fuck?

I will end my rant here and let Keith Olbermann write the rest of the post, because he put my anger in words better than I can ever try. Via his MLBlog.

[Lou Gehrig] has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and it will be months more of pain, and confusion, and fear, and denial, and dread, before he has even heard the phrase. And then the world will close in on him: in March, 1939, he will stagger through spring training. In May he will take himself out of the lineup. Weeks later he will be at the Mayo Clinic. In July he will be honored at Yankee Stadium and initially be asked not to speak to the heartbroken crowd, for fear that just the sound of his words, his acknowledgment of what is so terribly wrong, will reduce 60,000 people to tears. By the following spring, working for the underprivileged and troubled youth of New York City, he will pose, smiling, at an office desk. Only later will it be revealed that the pencil he holds had to be placed there, and his fist closed around it, by somebody else's hand. Barely two years after the diagnosis, exactly 16 years after his legendary streak began, it will all end.

And yet in the Bronx 70 years ago today, Lou Gehrig composed himself in such a manner, with a strength that eclipsed even what he showed on the ballfields of the '20s and '30s, that he could give one final measure of himself with such honesty, with such courage, with such a simple and direct connection to the human condition, that it is quoted, somewhere, every day.

And when those who have followed him in the game he loves, honor him, and this country, and themselves, by having those words read in every ballpark in the major leagues on this 4th of July, they emphasize all that is good and brave, despite the unbeatable odds and ultimate "bad break" we all face eventually, about the game, about the nation, about life itself.

But first, let's take you out to San Diego where Manny Ramirez is just back from a 50-game suspension. For cheating. For cutting corners. For breaking rules. For lying. For deception. For letting down his teammates. For contributing to suspicions against every honest player. For raising a giant middle finger to sportsmanship. For abusing the fans. For risking that for which Lou Gehrig would've given anything - his own health.

Ramirez, of course, homered today in his first at bat. And some people cheered. As if he were just back from an injury, or a death in the family. As if he were a hero. As if he were an honest man. As if he were somehow worthy of sharing the meaningfulness of this day with Lou Gehrig.

Credit to Fox's Tim McCarver - who has never gotten enough of it for this one quality he has shown, often at such great risk to his own security and even employment - for his honesty in pointing out the inappropriateness of the reaction to Ramirez's return. He is not making a comeback. He is out on parole and it will be years - if ever - before many of us will believe he did not do something illegal, improper, or immoral, this morning.

And shame on the broadcasters who decided to treat Ramirez's return as if it were something to be trumpeted, rather than what it is - something to be ashamed of. This trumpeting is barely about Manny Ramirez - this applies to McGwire and Bonds and Palmeiro and Rodriguez and all the rest, caught or admitted.

This is Lou Gehrig's day. The rest of the juicers may come back and play tomorrow and there will not be boycotts. The Dodgers will probably go to the World Series, carried in part by a great flaming fraud like Ramirez. And judging by the brainless response of fans who would cheer anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their team, and boo anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their opponents, there will not even be significant repercussions.

But today, there should have been. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez and the others of the PED era did not belong in baseball today, and that they did not show the requisite awareness of their own shame, only makes it worse. Lord, send us a 'roider who has the presence of mind to say: "On this day I do my penance; I don't yet belong on the field even with just the memory of this man, I hope you'll forgive me and I can again earn your trust."

Thank you, Keith Olbermann. Thank you.

It disgusts me (The Baseball Nerd)