Tag Archives: espn

ESPN’s disjointed approach to social media

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The right and left hands are not talking to each other at ESPN when it comes to social media forays. While everyone’s busy rubbernecking at the bizarreness that is the Worldwide Leader’s entrance into the Tumblr world, the folks trying to coordinate excitement about ESPN.com’s NCAA tournament contest on Twitter have come up with a veeerrrryyyyy creative suggestion:

untitledAs Kenny Mayne would tweet, hash mark bracket.

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Related
ALDLAND’s 2d Annual Mad as a March Hare March Madness Challenge
ALDLAND Podcast (March Madness edition)

We have reached Peak ESPN SportsNation, implosion imminent

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sporstnationbannerESPN’s SportsNation is a fan-feedback show. Whenever you vote in that poll in the bottom-middle of ESPN.com or waste an afternoon in their mega PollCenter, you’re giving SportsNation content to mull about while the network kills time (on the air) until the evening’s games begin.

Their polling would seem to be endless, but today I found evidence that SportsNation has peaked hard, and a rapid collapse appears to be forthcoming:

sportsnationultimatepollThis is it. It’s been real, Bristol, and never has it been more real than it really is right now.

(If you’re curious what America and the world thinks about this ultimate question, live results should be available here.)

The Weekend Interview: Charlie Warzel

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deadspin strippers daulerio leitch

The subject of the 2013 debut of the Weekend Interview is Charlie Warzel. After we featured his recent piece for Adweek’s Sports Issue, “Deadspin: An Oral History: How an irreverent sports site made the big leagues” earlier this week, Charlie graciously agreed to share his behind-the-scenes experiences and thoughts regarding the article and the state of online sports media.

Be sure to read the article, which opens with, “It all goes back to Ron Mexico,” and closes with, “Strip Club photos: courtesy of Deadspin.” Then check out our conversation, below.

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Richard Ben Cramer: A hero missed (via ESPN)

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I did not want to work with Richard Ben Cramer.

OK, I did. I adored him as a writer and journalist. I’d devoured his works, from “Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life” to “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?” to “What It Takes: The Way To The White House.” The latter had been assigned reading, widely considered one of the greatest political books of the 20th century. The other two I’d bought for permanent placement in my office bookcase.

So yes, of course, I wanted to work with the Pulitzer winner. I had dreamed of working with him on some project at some point in my career. I just didn’t want to work with him on this particular project at this particular time. This one was mine.

What an idiot I was. … Read More

(via ESPN)

ALDLAND Podcast

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So the holidays are over.  The BCS games were mostly boring.  The NFL wild card games were also mostly boring.  You are probably sitting around pondering if life is even worth it any more.  Don’t fear, loyal listener(s), it is.  There’s a new ALDLAND podcast for you to listen to in which we discuss all that boring stuff and make sense of it.  As the great philosopher John L. Smith once said, “SMILE!”

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Download the ALDLAND podcast at our Podcasts Page or stream it right here:

ESPN’s “Sources,” explained

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It’s hard for the average sports fan to get worked up about the squabbles inside the sports media world. If you have ever wondered what’s going on with all of ESPN’s “Sources,” though, we finally have a substantive, authoritative development on that issue, courtesy of Steve Peresman, the news editor and coordinating producer of ESPN Los Angeles, via some forceful prodding by Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer and Dan Patrick Show producer Paul Pabst. If this is the sort of thing that interests you, Awful Announcing sets up the whole exchange here. (Take special note of what they call “a nuanced point, but a significant one.” I’d also say it’s the main point, the central theme to this everlasting spoof.)

The Clippers are on a winning streak that’s impossible to ignore

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It’s true. Lob City has won fifteen straight games, and they haven’t even been close. The biggest consequence? NBA analysts are running out of things to write about them. Everyone worked through the novelty of LAC being good last season, along with every criticism and critique of Donald Sterling, Clipper Darrell, and Vincent “Vinny” Del Degro. After the fifteenth-consecutive noncompetitive win, what’s there to say?

ESPN’s J.A. Adande has an idea: winning easy actually is a bad thing for the Clippers. I mean cheese and potatoes you guise! What are these guys supposed to do?? They tried not winning for, oh, forty years or so, and that didn’t work out. Then they decided to draft Blake Griffin, had Chris Paul thrust upon them, and tried winning for a change, and now you’re saying that’s bad too? These guys just can’t win. Err…

But don’t worry, because Adonde’s found a silver lining to this dark cloud of endless, dominating victories:

But for every flaw the Clippers have, it’s easy to point out areas in which they can get even better.

Really easy, in fact. He later noted that the first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club.