ESPN is Biased for the Yankees
At least they are according to Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
In his article in which he basically calls Ron Villone a jerk, makes a hero out of Justin Morneau for saying that he wanted to rip Villone's head off with a comeback line drive and that the thing he wants more than anything else is for the White Sox not to make the playoffs because he hates them, and then extolls Morneau as the guy who deserves the AL MVP.
Ok, that was a helluva long sentence, but you get my drift.
He then follows up with this nonsense:
As Morneau jogged around the bases and through the rain Saturday, Twins fans chanted "M-V-P," apparently unaware that this time zone has already been brainwashed into unquestioning support of Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.
Ok wait, exactly how many Twins fans were at Yankee stadium in the pouring rain? 10? 20? And this guy heard them?
ESPN stands for Eastern Sports Promotional Network. You can't turn on a game without seeing the Yankees or hearing about Jeter's subtle brilliance.
Cease and desist. Jeter is a good player in the eye of a promotional hurricane. He has fewer doubles, homers and RBI than Michael Cuddyer, and he trails in the batting race to a player, Joe Mauer, who plays a more demanding and important position for a more needy team.
Here comes the hypocrisy. Give Mauer credit for playing a more demanding position than Jeter, but by no means give Jeter credit for playing a more demanding position than Morneau.
Oh and in case he missed it, here's this week's power ranking comments on ESPN.com (you remember, the same network and website that is still campaigning for David Ortiz for the 2005 AL MVP) for both the Yankees and White Sox:
| Yankees | 79-53 | Derek Jeter is in the top 10 in the AL in the following categories: batting avg., on-base pct., runs, hits and steals. Pretty good! |
| White Sox | 78-55 | MVP! MVP! MVP! Jermaine Dye batted .355 with 10 HR and 30 RBI in August. |
Yep, they're really pushing hard for that Jeter kid.
Jeter belongs somewhere near the bottom of the top 10 MVP candidates, and Morneau belongs right up there at the top with Jermaine Dye.
Morneau is hitting .318 with 33 homers and 114 RBI for a lineup that would be Royals-ish without him.
"The only way anyone from Minnesota is going to win an MVP is to make the playoffs, because of the market," Morneau said. "That's not whining. That's just the way it is. I'm impressed to even be talking about it."
1965 AL MVP: Zoilo Versalles, Minnesota Twins, SS. - Twins lose in World Series.
1969 AL MVP: Harmon Killebrew, Minnesota Twins, 3B - Twins lose in ALCS.
1977 AL MVP: Rod Carew, Minnesota Twins, 1B - Twins finish 4th in AL West.
The Twins have made the playoffs many times since then and have not had an MVP award. Even the unbelievably amazingly deserving first ballot Hall-of-Famer and all around incredible ballplayer Kirby Puckett didn't win one when his teams made the playoffs, but Rod Carew, your last Twins MVP, played for a 4th place team. So maybe it is whining.
Torii Hunter said: "Jeter's a good player, but not MVP. You'd have to give it to Dye or Justin. He's carried us."
VORP, 2006:
Jeter - 68.5
Morneau - 45.7
Dye - 63.0
EqA, 2006:
Jeter - .316
Morneau - .308
Dye - .329
Of course, Travis Hafner - the guy who never makes an All-Star team but has been the best hitter in baseball over the past two seasons - is leading in both categories. My guess is he'll finish somewhere around 5th or 6th in balloting.
Early guess at outcome:
1. Dye, 2. Jeter, 3. Mauer, 4. Ortiz, 5. Morneau, 6. Hafner
My ballot as of right now:
1. Hafner, 2. Jeter, 3. Dye, 4. Ramirez, 5. Mauer.
It doesn't matter though, but for this guy to be calling ESPN a Yankee shill-house, he needs to have his head examined. As of 2 weeks ago, it was the "All-Papi, All The Time" network.
posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 7:01 AM
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2 Comments:
Lets not forget how ESPN drops to their knees for Barry Bonds. If this reporter was any good, he'd be writing in a LARGE market...like NY!
The whiners from Minnesota use this argument all the time hoping no one will check the facts. First, ESPN is not in New York, it's in southern New England, and most NY writers either contribute to ESPN.com or aspire to and must tow the line. Vince Doria and Don Skwar, senior execs. at ESPN news both came from long-time careers at the Boston Globe. The whole place if not hyping the Red Sox or one of its players for a post season award is at least misleading or downplaying a deserving Yankee. According the the ESPN ombudsman report on 8/31/06, 81% of the ESPN audience resides in the Eastern or Central time zone. I'd like to know why Souhan supports the richest baseball owner of all, Carl Pohlad,
who robs the taxpayer to pay for a new stadium for himself and his family.
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