At First, ESPN Was Just a Tiny Station in a Field in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere
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----, §�ase:"th ravingsentered of an ESPN addict \ I\ fhlch Sportscenter do you Foo'tball, Sunday Night Football. birthday, my mind harked bac:k to a V V watch? Tueiooay Night Football, Thursday simpler day; a day when I didn't Uh, all of them. A�+moon at 3:52 p.m. Football, know rn0te than 50 people who A few weeks ago, the and Dic:kVitale, is a c:ontinually could name more than ono c:ontes Entenainment and Spom Network. groWtng monster. The public's tant. lei alone any, ,n the World's the sell-proclaimed Worldwide apdet;ie for eports programming Strongest Man Competition. Leader In Sportamore c:ommonly naJgrown so large ii seems Iha Forbes Cowan and Riku l<iri, thank known as ESPN. celebrated ita on sporting evenu not televised you very much. twentieth blnhday with a special ann,verserv show. To this columnist. the paHing of At first, ESPN was just a thic,milestone repr858nted e chance to ,ot back and reflect on all tiny station in a field in that has c:omeand gone rn the wort<I of sports televisionsince ESPN debuted hvo from Bnstol, The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Connecticut In September of 1979 onnecticut. Now they are Private eyes During tho past two sumrnet$, I a nine-building, five-TV worked at Fox Sports and ESPN, respectively. Through my lnt11m· eh,ps I was able to see first hand network, one-radio net the Ins and oun of modern sports broadcasting I found out what work, one-magazine, four exac1ly sot. bump, Infinite " and y and chic:lett are. I learned the off air personas of the on-a,r talent. I website, gargantuan con learned that Steve Lyons reaUy is psyc:ho, that Stuart Scott's ey11$ glomerate, ruling the lives really do look that way, that Chris Barman is a very large, loud man, of 18-35-year-old men and that there is nothing to do ln Bristol, Connecticut. at night, but there is • whole lot to do in Los everywhere. Angeles. As if I didn't know the last one alfeady. tht!"I days are the ones hem at ThWIJWlwenl I have -n from tile ,nside and Bcbwn Wilen ESPN burst onto the the outSJde what modem sports Being an avid Ian and a c:om· scene. (well, burst isn't quite the television is about. The behemoth m ntator-of-sorts on the radio, I right word-rt was more like a that has brought us ESPN, eapn2, a � es big a fan as anyone of this plop,) oh so tong ago, I was but a ESPNews, ESPN Classic (nee m rket saturation. ESPN is the lirst young boy of one. and sportsTV Classie Sports Netw0rkl, ESPN channel I tum to when I get home. es we know n did not exist Cooking, ESPN Sewing, CNN/SI, Thie second fs Classic Sports. Yet. It was a simpler time, when the Fox SponsNat, the X-Gemes, the helilring that my summer employ Bucc:aneers,Astros and Broncos GravityGames. Monday Night er•were having !heir twentieth still wore orange. and Kareem Abdul-JabberatJII hltd hair; • time when more people watched Big Bird and Snuffalupagus than Oen Patric:k and Kenny Mavne. A young man wanting to follow sportSactu ally had 10 open the newspaper, and was forced to rNd Ring Lardner and Clair Bee for sports nostalgia. There wn no ESPN.c:om or Classic Sports Network. There was only Howard Cosell telling ii like it was Then 1ham wat a balding, aht· foot.four, booming young man who had graduated from Brown In 1977 w11h a degree in Ec:onomil:s and had c:alled Brown sporting events on Brown Student Radio. This loud gentleman wea known as Boomer and would become the ,con of ell that represents ESPN. This was, or coul"IO, Chrb Berman, who. along with Bob Ley. am the only tw0 original on-air talents still at the Worldwide Leader. Of coureo Berman and ESPN weren't always tho be-all-end-all of sports. At fim. they were just a rlny station in a field m The Middle-Of•Nowhere, Connecticut. ..C Now they are a ninll-building, five- 111111'SPIIITSIDTER" r, .. 20 18 • lHf COOBlE HIIL oNOEf'ENDLSEPTEMBER • 23, 1999 SPORTSCENTER frlm pge 18 TV network. one-radio netwo� Ainge coming off a pick to drain onds of highlight. It is not. as they coming from the television ••. da one-magazine, four-website, gar the fifteen foot jumper? say at the network, good video. da duh, da da duh . and I think gantuan conglomerate, ruling the A friend of mine was cutting to myself, 'I wonder if Jose hit lives of 18·35-year-old men every Video killed tbe basketball star the highlight for a Devil Rays another one where. In the desire to get on game this summer, a game in Then I realize ..• life before Yet as I sit down to watch my Sportscenter. players keep coming which the D'Rays lost 7-1. Sportscenter? third Sportscenter of the day, I up with new ways to create the However, that one run was a Jose Are you crazy? How did they wonder, am I really better off? Do spectacular, astounding or down Canseco home run. The game ever survive? I really need to be able to tum to right amazing. Yet in so doing, was allocated a one-play high ESPNews 24 hours a day and see many young athletes have light. Guess what that one play Casey Shearer 8'00 was a produc Ian Paige, Suzy Kolber, Dave neglected the fundamentals, all was? Canseco's homer tionintern (i.e. coffee boy) at ESPN Feldman. Kevin Corke, John for the sake of good television. So as I sit on my couch, pina this summer Buccigross or, god forbid, Melissa This summer as I watched stains on my lip and popcorn on Stark giving me the latest in sack baseball games in the screening my shirt, I wonder weather it Just dances, slam dunks and home room in Bristol and decided what might have been better back runs? Do we need catcher cam or plays would be in the Brewers before ESPN. before the fireman's helmet cam? What about jock Diamondbacks highlight on olympics. badminton, or the nine strap cam7 Sportscenter or Baseball Tonight, I ball billiards championships were What happened to Vin Scully got caught up in this mentality as televised. Perhaps then Brown telling me about Mike Scoscia well. Viewers do not want to see would have a point guard who mov,ng the runner over. or sacrifice flies or run-scoring field could hit a jump shot. Johnny Most describing Danny er's choices in their forty-five sec· Then I hear a familiar sound .