O’s-Red Sox has seemingly become a “rivalry,” or at least that’s what all the big networks, who smell blood in the water, want us to believe. As an O’s fan, I’d rather just watch baseball. Press play or read below for more.
With the recent bad blood that’s been bubbling up in the O’s-Red Sox games, many outlets, both in Boston and nationally, are trying to drum up the “rivalry” that’s brewing here.
After the drama last weekend, ESPN quickly picked up one of the games this week. MLB Network has carried at least one as well, and I think they have another lined up. I don’t know – I watch on MASN, thank you very much.
Listen, I get it: As the old adage goes, “if it bleeds, it leads.” When you have the potential for professional baseball players to throw hardballs at one another at velocities in excess of 90-MPH, the potential for “bleeding” certainly exists. And that draws eyeballs.
You get people tuning in, who don’t really care about either of the teams playing, who just want to see some drama unfold. And I don’t mean 9th-inning walk-off drama, or even seventh-inning bases-juiced relief-heroics drama. I mean ejections and brawls and basically men acting like boys.
As a fan of the Orioles, one who actually does care about the game taking place within the WRITTEN rules, I’d like to say this: No thanks.
We see this same thing in football. The networks drum up Ravens-Steelers and all the “bad blood” between the two and put the games on national TV in the hopes of higher ratings. But for those of us who cheer for the teams regularly, all that extracurricular stuff does nothing to enhance our enjoyment of the game. Rather, it diminishes it.
That’s what we’re seeing now with Red Sox-O’s. Birdland just wants to watch some good baseball. If a “rivalry” involves baseballs flying at heads, umpires overreacting, and profanity-filled postgame tirades?
Leave that to the usual ESPN darlings. Count us out.
It's not even fun when the Orioles are playing the Red Sox. If this is what everyone is calling a rivalry, I think rivalries are dumb.
— Stacey Folkemer (@StaceyMFolk) May 4, 2017
(h/t to Stacey for inspiring this post)
0 Responses
I agree whole-heartedly. You mention Ravens-Steelers. I saw an article (ESPN, maybe?) that referenced the Steelers Tweeting for Todd Heap’s daughter and how significant it was given the rivalry. It was a wonderful gesture, to be sure, but to even suggest that a rivalry should interfere with real-life issues like that speaks to a warped perspective of the world. As for this current O’s-Red Sox nonsense, I’ve never seen so much coverage of the Orioles on ESPN with much of it leading their signature broadcasts. The O’s suddenly matter because the Red Sox have beef with them. You can’t complain about the behavior when you bump it to the top of your broadcast to grab viewers. Bah humbug. Let’s get back to baseball.