ESPN's lack of Sammy Wanjiru coverage

Brian Wave wrote:

Did ESPN mention the hockey player who recently died? I don't recall mention of that situation. ESPN does not cover NHL so therefore it never happened.

This is the most correct. ESPN covers things strictly based on whether or not they have the rights to air them on tv. No marathons on ESPN? No mention of Sammy W's death.

Is this the hockey player ESPN never makes mention of? And if ESPN doesn't cover hockey, why do I have to endure Barry Melrose's ugly mug all the time. Is Melsrose covering the NBA play-offs this year.

salutdelilah wrote:

espnwtf wrote:

I know there's a ton of threads like this, and yeah I know the E stands for "entertainment,"

not the Eastern Sports and Programming Network?

It is Eastern not Entertainment. That's why they make it seem like people care about Yankees/Red Sox outside of the Boston and New York fan-bases.

espn blows wrote:

ESPN appears to me to be a toy for the ESPN executives: big 3 american sports (obviously), then they hooked into NASCAR for the market, then it's golf and tennis, which I'd imagine is just what they grew up playing in the country clubs they belong to, because the average American does not care about them as sports to follow.

You people are ridiculous. It is impossible for one network to give major coverage to every sport. Therefore it makes more sense to cover the sports that people will actually watch. Hence, as an American-only channel that means catering mostly to Americans. Also, golf and tennis are actually have similar popularity to NASCAR outside of the south.

And, seriously, Wanjiru's death was a tragedy, the mf'n logo of the MLB and a national hero dying of cancer should get more coverage than a drunk (foreign) kid pissing away his future and dying under mostly unknown circumstances.

That being said, if Wanjiru had lived like a saint, the coverage wouldn't have been much different.

Fox Sports is possibly worse than ESPN in terms of fringe sports coverage. It is sad what a monopoly the big three sports have in America.

I noticed this about the UEFA Champions League in the last few years as well. When the games were shown on ESPN 2, there was always coverage on the main ESPN home page and soccer home, and now that Fox Soccer has the TV rights, you have to dig around a little bit to find Champions League results. Interesting, although I guess they are allowed to highlight whatever they want on their website.

Come on man, tennis and golf more popular than running and soccer? 2 elitists sports vs. 2 everyman sports. Look at the participation numbers here in America. Although people look at both sports as "European," they still have huge numbers.

The sports networks may have unwarranted increased coverage for tennis and golf because of advertising, sponsorship, etc. in specific high-dollar markets, geared toward those viewers in the Northeast. Very, very few people play, never mind care about tennis, and golf is at the very least a white-collar sport, and even then a niche sport in that social class.

Unfortunately, running coverage just isn't that exciting, so not shown unless it's the Olympics. Soccer competes with football, and quite frankly could possibly be a concerted effort by the powers that be to keep in in its place (as an import sport) by not covering it.

Even ESPN news or sportcenter, whatever they want to call it, is not an objective source for sports news. It is completely subjective, and often demeaning of athletes and fringe sports. ESPN is better compared to infomercials, TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, or Access Hoolywood, than to objective news.

ESPN isn't a shabby network because they don't cover a 3rd tier sport. They are a business. The sole purpose of ESPN being on the air is to make money. Nothing else. When America starts giving a shit about anorexic Kenyans and Americans racing against each other, ESPN will cover the hell out of it because advertisers will be throwing their money at them. As it sits today, Americans like football, baseball and basketball players. They are also fascinated by one Jamaican sprinter and a few other fringe athletes. I think running is a cool sport too, but please wise up and realize how stupid it sounds to whine about ESPN not covering it.

Lighten up Francis wrote:

ESPN isn't a shabby network because they don't cover a 3rd tier sport. They are a business. The sole purpose of ESPN being on the air is to make money. Nothing else. When America starts giving a shit about anorexic Kenyans and Americans racing against each other, ESPN will cover the hell out of it because advertisers will be throwing their money at them. As it sits today, Americans like football, baseball and basketball players. They are also fascinated by one Jamaican sprinter and a few other fringe athletes. I think running is a cool sport too, but please wise up and realize how stupid it sounds to whine about ESPN not covering it.

Distance running is a fringe sport that the average joe sports fan has ZERO interest. Sammy who? Nobody gives a crap. As far as joe sports fan goes, he doesn't follow marathons or amateur wrestling or curling for that matter.

It is not ESPN's fault. Get a clue people.

Well said.

Facebook is America's REAL pastime

kiiiiiiccccccccck wrote:

Harmon Killebrew's likeness is THE LOGO for major league baseball. America's pastime.

Baseball's home is America. Kenya will not write about Killebrew. Each must be remembered.

even most runners don't care about running. I mentioned Roger Bannister in a conversation the other day with one of the guys I ran with in college. His response: "ok, I've heard that name..."

As a proponent of both running and ice hockey, i've endured this blasphemy on a whole other level. I mean come on, Wanjiru and Boogaard are relevant sports figures too, and meanwhile espn is busy talking about a bunch of classless morons who don't play any defense instead. If one of them had died, itd be on the news for weeks.

J.R. wrote:

What is ESPN?

I've never heard of them.

Its a Mickey Mouse channel.

Lets face it. Running is just not a sexy sport. However all of us who run know how hard we have to work to get the results that we want. Running is a very useful survival ability. When we are in Danger what do we do? Run! The same cant be said for Basketball,Hockey,Football,or Baseball. None of the four sports I just mentioned teaches you any survival skills. However running teaches you to endure both physically and mentally. It is alot harder to be a top tier athlete at distance running than it is to be a top baseball,basketball,football,or hockey player.

I didn't expect anything from ESPN, maybe a 15sec mention. It will be interesting to see if ESPN the magazine has any coverage. Also, what do you think Sports Illustrated will do?

I think it shows you how little respect there is for the sport for two reasons:

1. There is a complete lack of professional ethic and effort by past runners to create a sport that is entertaining to the public.

2. The sport was always intended to be a pathway to other objectives and there is a certain purity in that goal.