In which I yet again take Faux Sprots out behind the woodshed and beat it with a stick

Last Saturday, the Dodgers (they of Los Angeles, which is on the Left Coast, which is where I and my teevee are located) had a 12:55 PDT game for the Faux Sprots broadcast. Instead, we saw Boston and Cincinnati, neither of which are anywhere near Kollyforniya.

Today, the very same Dodgers again started at 12:55 p.m. Faux, however, apparently trying to out-do itself for sheer stupidity in marketing, brings us Boston and St. Louis, neither of which are still anywhere near Kollyforniya, unless I slept through a continental tectonic shift.

I've gone beyond anger at Faux Sprots to utter befuddlement as to WHAT THE FUCK THEY'RE THINKING. What's with the national sports media's love affair with all things Boston?

As I recall, the Dodgers don't usually sell-out...more do to the size of the stadium than poor attendance. No sell-out equals local blackout on national telecasts. Bos./St.L. beats the heck out of the "black screen of lameness."

I feel your pain...I live in a TV market that goes about 60% for an NHL team located 900 miles away...and I get the two local universally-despised teams instead on regional telecasts.

That'd be a helluva big blackout area.



And, no, the Dodgers don't typically sell out. They just average about 48,000 per game.

It's called winning.

It's good to be king!

It's called "douchebaggery."

:hi:

Massholes. (Or in this case, adjacent quasi-Massholes.) *sigh*

:hi:

The Sox have an official cheese doodle and the A's and Giants don't. Ha.

We win.

Fail.

Bonds is unemployed and all traces of his existence have been erased from AT&T Park.

:eyes:

:P

I turned on the teevee at 12:55 for just long enough to see a Boston uniform, as I've come to expect, then turned it off and turned on the XM.



:P

Why do you hate Easterners? Why do you hate America?


:cry:

with fuck-headed programming strategies.

If people in Lowell, Mass. were seeing the Dodgers-Cleveland game, I'd still be going :wtf:



I wouldn't care, but I'd still be all :wtf:

I'm just bein' all silly-like.

(who unfortunately are losing quite badly right now)

Personally, I think it's ratings.

Seriously, nobody here cares about teams west of the mississippi, except transplants, at least until the playoffs.

to show a particular game at this particular time on this particular day, universally (subject to blackouts, I suppose). They show the one they think more folks will watch nationally.

I don't know, I'm just guessing.

On edit: huh. Strike that. I see Fox IS showing the Dodgers game in select markets.

Hmm, that is dumb that you guys are getting the Sox game. Really dumb.

And if they have a national game, they can sell more subscriptions to the regional channel, push more people to cable, etc.

See my edit above? Some markets ARE getting the LA game on Fox. Must be blacked out in CA.

He's far enough north that open Dodger/Laker/whatever fandom is enough of a threat to his health to raise his insurance rate.

I gotta go check my TV now, for kicks. BRB.

Edit: Sox game here too. Eight hours drive from Dodger stadium- why on earth would the game be blacked out up here?

...Formula One fans. Normally, our races are tucked safely away on "Speed TV," where the seven or eight viewers in the continental US know to look for it. Coverage on Speed is great, with some very knowledgeable commentators like Peter Windsor and Steve Matchet, showing their passion for the sport in everything they say. There's a big pre-race program, with news and technical briefings, and equally good post-race coverage, including complete coverage of the winning drivers' interviews.

Unfortunately, Speed is owned by Fox and, whenever the F1 season involves a race in a city some American might actually have heard of (which usually means Indianapolis or Montreal), Fox Sports hijacks the broadcast. Presumably, these races attract double-digit audiences, so Fox figures that justifies a move to the "big boy's channel."

When Fox Sports broadcasts F1, however, it's like an Early Learning version of the sport. The commentators are the same, but they've clearly been instructed to pitch their delivery at the level of small children. For example, on Speed a typical comment might be, "Fernando Alonso is coming into the pits early. It looks like he may be going for a one-stop strategy and, with the first drops of rain beginning to fall, seems to be switching to intermediate tires. Remember, traction control is no longer allowed in these cars, so tire choice has become very important." When commentary switches to Fox, this becomes "See the shiny thing? That's a car. Can you say 'car'? Nice try."

Also, there's no pre-race program, no parade lap, no starting grid walk. The program begins just as the race starts. Even the driver interviews at the end are shortened to only cover the winner (not the top three). Finally, there are about 100% more ads on Fox Sports. Half the time, the real on-track action has happened while Fox was busily trying to sell me razor blades and barbecue sauce.

If the F1 coverage is any indication of Fox's ability to cover a sport, you have my sympathy.

if Faux interviewed a driver while he or she was driving.

...to ask what the driver thought about Jamie Lynn Spears' new baby.

"Teo, as you approach Turn 6 and 6A, which those familiar with Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca (see your Mazda dealer today for a great deal on the new MX-5) call 'the corkscrew,' would you explain to our viewers why you aren't wearing a flag pin?"