MLB Network Good, Not Great

I have to admit the new MLB Network is my favorite channel. I love baseball so a channel devoted to it is heaven. I actually watch it more than ESPN now, which I never thought could happen.

I love watching the old baseball games from the 60's, 70's & 80's (The Golden Age) and seeing Ken Burns "Baseball" series on Sunday nights is a nice touch (Although it coincides with ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball...Thank goodness for DVR). The live look-in's each night during the week are good too, as well as the extensive coverage of the World Baseball Classic.

There is one problem with MLB though. The guys in the studio just aren't that good. I know they're mostly former players but, to be honest, most of them suck as analysts. Too many of them are from the John Kruk School of Analysis: "Say something funny and nobody will notice that you don't know what the hell you're talking about."

With John Kruk, of ESPN, his shenanigans are acceptable because he's surrounded by Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Jayson Stark and Tim Kurkjian. So, if Kruk says something outrageous, those guys are there to counter-balance it with actual research & reporting.

But then, maybe MLB is trying to emulate Fox Sports as opposed to ESPN. "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Fox is as much about gossip, music, Hollywood, and pop culture as it is about sports. I never watch it for that reason. But I'm sure it has it's share of viewers. The only problem is baseball in this country is not as popular with the mainstream as football and basketball is. The kind of people who will watch the MLB Network are people like me...baseball fanatics. We're sports nerds who spend our time writing blogs and looking up stats all day. We don't want comedy relief, we want facts, or at least, well thought out opinions.

For example, yesterday, the question was asked in the MLB studio why Jeter was back to hitting lead-off after hitting second the last couple games. Mitch Williams says it's because Jeter is a better 2 hole hitter. But then, a graphic is shown that says Jeter, in his career hits .315 leading off and .316 batting second. Instead of Williams just shutting up, he then says it's because Girardi is still testing things out and doesn't know what he wants to do yet. The actual reason was that Johnny Damon, the #2 hitter, had not played the last two days because of the flu. No one in the studio mentioned this. They, instead chose to agree with Mitch Williams. If any of them had picked up a NY paper or read a blog they would have known the real reason.

Back in the spring, Harold Reynolds who used to fit in nicely at ESPN, said that the Yankees bullpen last year was a weakness. This, of course, was untrue. The Yanks bullpen last year was one of the few strengths of the team, even after Joba left to go to the rotation. What made it worse, the network chose to run this statement in their promos as a sign of the type of in depth commentary you could expect from their studio analysts.

Harold Reynolds, Barry Larkin, Mitch Williams, Joe McGraine, Sean Casey...they all pretty much try to outdo each other in hyperbole, comedy & bullshit. The only guys who give it to you straight, with facts to back up what they're saying are John Hart (maybe because he's a former front office guy), Al Leiter, & Billy Ripken.

All this being said, I love having a full time Baseball network. And it's hard to expect them to be as good as ESPN right off the bat. But hopefully they'll understand it's the purists that keep the game alive and it's mostly us who are watching and judging.