Wednesday 10 August 2011

ESPN Lowering Journalistic Standards Everywhere.

Never before have I seen such a fucking ridiculous slam piece on one of the teams I support. I am a Jays, Raptors, Packers fan, so that might not say much, but still.  For years now ESPN has been known as a Joke between their blatant support of Derek Jeters 3000th hit over Jim Thome's 600th homerun to attemting to sell the world that Derek Jeter does indeed play gold glove worthy defense.  The article is a maniacal hate piece spurred by the Yankee loving ESPN's accusations of sign stealing from Joe Girardi and Russell Martin (Canada's least favourite son).  Lets look at the article.

First off, how can you have more of a hearsay based attack.  "Oh I saw this, and so did 4 of my team-mates". "Yeah, we saw it too!"  "This man always in a white shirt at a game was raising his hands in the air at a game!"   How much more ridiculous can it be to make accusations on this ground.  ITS CALLED A FUCKING SEASON TICKET HOLDER!  And I don't know, maybe raising his arms over his head is called FUCKING CHEERING.  Are baseball players actually that fucking stupid, I would ask the same of ESPN writers, but we all know that outside of Buster Olney and Steve Berthiaume everyone there has proven it. 


The enraged player and his teammates could hardly believe what they had seen in the previous inning. As they sat on the perch above the right-field bullpen at Rogers, they caught sight of a man dressed in white about 25 yards to their right, out among the blue center-field seats. And while the players watched, the man in white seemingly signaled the pitches the visiting pitcher was throwing against the Jays, according to four sources in the bullpen that day.
The players weren't exactly sure how the man in white knew what was coming -- maybe, they thought, he was receiving messages via his Bluetooth from an ally elsewhere in the stadium who had binoculars or access to the stadium feed. But they quickly picked up the wavelength of his transmissions: He was raising his arms over his head for curveballs, sliders and changeups. In other words, anything besides fastballs.

Could this been any awfuller of a section of writing in history?  I mean 340 plus yards isn't that far, but my fucking word, that isn't going to be fucking easy to see in a crowd. Someone doing it from a hotel room would be much more noticeable for Jays, and less so for opponents.   On to the next point.  Someone is supposed to use binoculars to figure out the pitch, quickly send a fucking text and have it go through, and have the other person read it and make a signal.  How is that supposed to happen in the 2-4 seconds between a pitcher getting the signal and throwing the fucking pitch.  I mean Rogers does have decently quick service when you text (I am a customer!), but that is fucking ridiculous.  I mean did any god damn logic at all get used in this piece?  I've seen snapping turtles with better common sense.


"We know what you're doing," he said, referring to the man in white, according to the player and two witnesses. "If you do it again, I'm going to hit you in the [f------] head."
I'm curious, who is this player?  I mean try to have some rational thought.  You are going to beam a player in the head off of the fact that you think someone is stealing signs?  You should beam every single player in MLB then, because every team has tales of assuming someone is stealing signs. 

To the final point, the absolute worst point about it.  The fucking statistics.  From 2004-2009 homerun growth went up .002% at home.  Then over the last two years it goes up .011?  That has nothing to do with the team getting better at all does it?  I mean really.  From 2004-2009 the Jays were all about pitching, and had a neglected offense with such offensive stalwarts as Russ Adams, Reed Johnson, Frank The Cat, Lyle Overbay, John MacDonald, Corey Koskie, Gregg Zaun.  All of those names no doubt frightning. I guess none of it can be attributed to the fact that Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy are two of the best hitting minds in recent baseball history.  Then they go on to talk about Home and Road Splits for 2009, how about the fact that as a team the Jays OPS was 9 points HIGHER on the road.  I mean, but really it has nothing to do with the fact that the Rogers center is a launching pad for right handed hitters, for both teams. In the article they mention that the Jays hit 4% HR on the road while the average is 3.6%  How about mentioning how road teams did last year at the Rogers center.  *Pulls out Bill James Bible*

From 2008-2010, the blue Jays have a higher AVG, more doubles, fewer 3B, 60 more HR at home while scoring an equal number of runs on the road as at home.  For 2010 alone, The Jays had 9 fewer extra base hits on the road.  With the fact that Rogers Center has and always will be a hitters park, that number is negligable as fuck.  At home the Blue Jays out homered their opposition 146-81.  On the road they out homered them 111-69.  With the fact that most players play better at home. Its a ridiculous accusation.

ESPN with more slam journalism, its a shame that a broadcast corporation once so highly thought of has devolved into Sports Illustrated.

They are just scared and butthurt that AA keeps ripping off American teams and that the Jays are coming.  Basically @ESPN





Peace out homies.

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