Is ESPN Evil?
For as long as I can remember, Red Sox Opening Day has been…well, in the DAYTIME. But now, ESPN has chosen it to be the Sunday night game of the week, and therefore, will be aired on Sunday, April 4, at 8PM.
I do not like this one little bit. It’s messing with TRADITION, the way I see it. Opening Day should be a day game, and it needs to be covered not by ESPN announcers, but NESN’s own Don & Jerry.
For one thing, Sunday night games are stupid. Most people have to get up to go to work the next day. A game that starts at 8PM, likely later because the annoying announcers have to talk about it for half an hour before first pitch, will likely end past midnight…too late for most people. Especially if you’re older and sick with an illness like rheumatoid arthritis; you need to get your sleep!
I’m personally pissed off, because it messes with MY tradition. As you may know, we do not have cable. So what I do every year is go someplace to watch the Opening Day game. For the past few years, I’ve gone to the Boston Beer Works to watch it, the one near North Station. Sorry, but the location near Fenway Park just gets too crowded, as does pretty much every other place in that immediate area. The North Station location is not crowded during the day, with the exception of the lunch hour, when a lot of the Boston yuppies come in for lunch, but it’s pretty peaceful beyond that. It’s a safe place for a woman alone to sit, have lunch and a few beers, and watch the game. The clientele is upscale, no one bothers me or tries to hit on me or anything. At dive bars, I get hit on by skeevy old men. The Beer Works is too expensive for that ilk, and they probably don’t have cheap mass-produced swill, anyway.
Sunday has the advantage of Mike not working, so I can go somewhere with him…but not into Boston, not on a Sunday night on the T. T service sucks on Sundays, as a general rule. So we’ll probably just end up going to our local TGI Friday’s, which is about ten minutes away. But we won’t be able to stay for the whole game, due to the late hour, and Mike’s having to work the next day. Also, I don’t even think this place stays open late enough to see the whole game.
Opening Day…I mean, NIGHT, happens to fall on my birthday this year. It would be a nice birthday present to see the Sox kick some serious Y***** ass, but I probably won’t get to. Best case scenario is watching part of the game at Friday’s, and listening to the rest on the radio in the car on the way home, and then at home. If we can even stay awake that long!
Do you think that ESPN is evil for messing with tradition? Take this poll at The Remy Report. So far, it looks like most people agree that it’s evil to mess with tradition. GOOD.
Your right. . espn is being a little evil about it. . i loved going to a sox game when its all bright and a sunny daiy out. . now turning it into a night time game. . not cool with that at all tradition is getting messed up here
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Yes, I agree with you. On the other hand, we are a victim of our own success.
When there were only a few of us interested in the Red Sox in the 50’s, by that I mean that the ball park would be nearly empty on some day games, no one would have thought to do a night opening.
Now, when the park has been sold out for the past four seasons at home, almost no one can get into the park who wants to see a game.
I wouldn’t dare take our son to the park without advance reservations.
We used to be able to just decide on the spur of the moment to “let’s take in a Red Sox game. Now, we nearly have to plan the landing at Normandy to get that done.
So, the Sox are probably having sympathy on us in Leominster. I haven’t been able to get into the park in years on a day that I was available, and I for one will appreciate being able to see the sox after dinner in the den.
But, again, I agree with you. It is breaking with tradition.