Sunday Night Moanin'

I'm hoping this post won't be entirely ranting on my part, but I've got to get a few things off my chest.

* I have to start with my annual complaint about ESPN's coverage of the Little League World Series. I'm sorry, but it's wrong for these games to be on television. I'll retreat from that statement just a bit. I guess it would be alright for them to be on some cable access channel with video courtesy of some parent's video recorder. It should not, however, be on the world's primary sports station and it most certainly should not be on in primetime.

There are a number of reasons that ESPN's expanded coverage of this and the girls LLWS is wrong, but my primary concern is that it simply puts too much pressure on these kids. These kids just don't need to have these contests made more important than what they are. Everytime we increase the coverage of these events, we increase their perceived place in sports' hierarchy.

Everyday we hear about parents, and children, who have gone off the deep end because of their involvement in amateur sports. These people tend to lose sight of the fact that these games, while important to the very young participants, is not all that significant in the big picture. However, that's a much tougher sell when ESPN and their primary baseball announce teams show up at your regional LLWS venue.

This expanded coverage should stop yesterday, but it won't. Neither will my complaining about it.

* What does it say when ESPN is willing to broadcast LLWS regional games in primetime, but simply refused to broadcast the NHL?

* By the way, I like the NHL/OLN TV deal. I think the network will throw all their attention on hockey, something no other network probably would. As for those concerned about not seeing the games on OLN, because the network is in fewer households than ESPN, let's keep something in mind--No one was watching before.

The NHL is a regional sport, for the most part. People here, for example, really only watch the Red Wings. Sure, they might catch some Hockey Night in Canada, but they can still do that. The odds of them watching an Atlanta-Calgary or Minnesota-Columbus game on Tuesday night are pretty small regardless of what network is showing them.

* An interesting note from the NHL/OLN deal, the commitment to Monday Night Hockey. Now, unless I've gone plain crazy, wouldn't that mean we would get a Monday Night NFL game on ABC and a Monday Night NHL game on OLN from October through December? I wonder how they picked Monday night over the other days of the week? I wonder what the ratings will be?

* It pains me to see the Kansas City Royals this horrible. Growing up in the Seventies, the Royals were the model franchise. A consistent contender playing in a great ballpark with some great players. I know they are in the Tigers division, have beaten our guys far too often and have had some altercations with the Tigs, but the Royals shouldn't be this bad.

* Who died and made Kyle Farnsworth the second coming of Dennis Eckersely? Look, Farns was having a great season here, I'm with you on that. However, let's get some perspective. His career has been up-and-down at best. The way fans in Tigertown talk about Farnsworth you would think the team parted with Rollie Fingers. He might be a late bloomer, but let's ease up on the Farnsworth hype.

* I was at the old ballpark this past Monday night. I ventured over to the Little Caesar's stand to find that the $5 pizza was something closer to $10 inside the yard. I think it was $12.50. That's criminal. Or, at least, it should be.

* I went to the dentist this week. Three days later, my mouth is still occasionally swollen, my teeth hurt worse than when I first arrived there and I'm on about 2,000mg of antibiotics a day. I had a filling done. I just love dentists.

* Hey, has anyone heard anything from Terrell Owens? Seems mighty quiet, doesn't he?

* I tried to sit through the Lions pre-season tilt with Cleveland. I made it until the second quarter. I flipped the channel for good when Jeff Garcia launched that deep pass, that looked more a like a punt, into nowhere-in-particular. Well, that's not right, either. Specifically, the ball fell right into a Browns' DB's hands. Not a Honolulu Blue shirt around. No, kids, Garcia ain't the answer.

* Just wondering, but is it too early to be officially worried about the Lions defense?

* Is there anyone more frustrating than Carlos Pena? Two games played since his return from Toledo and the guy cranks out three homers. Carlos, Carlos, Carlos. If you want to be a star, that's fine. Just play like one from April through September. Not just August and September.

Pena falls into the "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" category. I don't care if Pena hits fifteen homers between now and the end of the campaign, the Tigers cannot count on him in 2006. If that means letting him go, that's fine. And this is coming from a fan that likes the guy.

* Have you ever had a surprise job interview? I'm serious. I had a surprise interview. I applied for a job with my current employer and found out about five hours before that I was going to be interviewed that day. I've been to surprise birthday, anniversary and retirement parites, but this was the first surprise interview I've been invited to.

* I was watching the CBC coverage of the Edmonton vs. Toronto CFL game last night. I noticed the network went without announcers for the game. The little bit of halftime I saw was even without the traditional studio show. I remember one U.S. network doing that years ago, NBC, I believe. It was fine, but I feared the CBC may have axed their CFL crew in a cost-cutting move. (Eskimos played lousy and ended up losing, by the way. Stinking Argos.)

Thanks for joining me in my latest little rant. I've got to go now. I have to take my next round of medication.