As I See It
by Jay Scott
Some random thoughts on sports, and other things:
What a fall it was for football. While the Carroll College Fighting Saints wish they were still playing, and so do we, the run they had for the past few years has been amazing, especially considering where the program was when Mike Van Diest arrived. Capital won the state, and Helena High beat them during the season. Helena calls itself "the best small arts town in America" (which should be "the best small town for arts," but I digress), and it could also be called the best football town in Montana. What a future Matt Hustad may have. There's also that Miller kid for Capital-a freshman-what's he going to be when he grows up and learns about the game?
The TV ratings for the recent World Series were in the tank, the worst in years. Major League Baseball is finding out what the National Football League has discovered already: that all the money from the Fox Network does not bring viewers. Fox has repeatedly outbid NBC, CBS, and ABC for baseball and football, but the extra cash does not make up for a substandard network, and substandard local stations. The problem is NOT with the games: Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and the NFL crews do a good job (as long as McCarver doesn't try to explain rules, or umpiring), but there is a disconnect between viewers and programming. Simply put, baseball needs to get back to a real network (I would prefer NBC, and bring back either Vin Scully or Bob Costas). The empty heads who watch the shows on Fox don't have the brains to care about baseball or football, and the sports viewers find the shows on Fox "dumb and dumber." Fox is a joke in the journalistic world. Baseball needs the prestige of a real network. Moving back would put the games on larger stations, and more of them. Won't happen for a while though-they just renewed the Fox contract. Gee, more promos for the cartoon shows-I can hardly wait.
Is it a coincidence that there was no broadcast radio coverage of the World Series, and the ratings on TV took a dive? I don't think so.
You do notice that the NFL is moving more games off Fox to other networks-Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football. Could we be looking at NFL six or seven days a week in the next 10 years? That should cause domestic bliss in a lot of households around the country. Talk about scheduling nightmares.
We can hope that this year's edition of the BCS mess will move college football to a playoff, but I doubt it. As I have written previously in this space, the established bowl games would rather have one national championship game every 4-5 years then become quarterfinal games. Bowl games generate a lot of money, which they throw around, to maintain the status quo. Why do you think there are so many? 14 in 7 days (something like that). There are some 6-6 teams being looked at for bowl games. Even my alma mater, Northwestern (also our beloved Editor Signer's, but I digress), has been to some bowl games recently. Lost them all. That should tell you something. Years ago, there were four major bowls, and everyone paid attention to all of them. Now, they put on the Cotton Bowl in Dallas every year, and it isn't even considered a top-level game anymore. Sad.
Back in the 1930's, way before the NFL had gained any prominence, the college writers and The Associated Press (no, that's not a misprint, capital T on The Associated Press is correct) invented the idea of having a football poll on Monday, to give them something to write about for two days (wrap up Saturday's game on Sunday, poll on Monday and Tuesday, start looking ahead to next Saturday on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, game Saturday) . I guess it worked. Now, they spend 5 days a week on the polls, and two on the games. The tail is wagging the dog.
I had a chance to spend Thanksgiving afternoon and evening with three of the Helena Bighorns hockey team. Unlike some other hockey players, and high-school age athletes I have known, they were perfect gentlemen, and a credit to the program. I don't get to see them on the ice very much, with my schedule, but off the ice, they were most impressive.
Leaving sports for a while: there has got to be a better way to schedule stuff around here: on a recent Thursday, we had IT Productions with a Neil Simon play, one of Kelly Cline's very popular lectures on astronomy, journalist Clay Scott lecturing on Lebanon, a Festival of Trees event, and I am sure several other things that I am forgetting. Grandstreet and the Nutcracker season is coming up, plus the Symphony, Helena Youth Choir, and high school basketball. Most frustrating. I am scheduling stuff a year in advance now-Great Conversations next November.
Someone who is a lot smarter then I am will make a fortune if she/he can come up with a working spam filter for e-mail. Our web-site at KBLL (kbllam@cherrycreekradio.com) gets 50 spams a day, mostly from Korea and China. We also get a lot of fan mail, thanks to you-all, so shutting it down is not an option.
Our web-streaming of the football games has generated a lot of that mail-we heard from fans in Saudi Arabia, Houston, New York, Oregon, Washington, California, and a lot from here. We will be adding basketball and baseball to the mix. As the commercial used to go: thanks for your support. |
