Tank Doing It Again

It wasn't too long after ESPN's shameful coverage of the D.C. United-David Beckham...er... L.A. Galaxy game in RFK Stadium that I swore off watching the World Wide Leaders In Schlock except when they're showing an actual sporting event (and Poker does not count) between two teams I'm interested in watching.

So I couldn't tell you for certain how close these strips from Tank McNamara are to reality or satire:




All images from gocomics.com

But I wouldn't be surprised in the least to find out that they are pretty close to the truth. My Father, who is spending his retirement (among other things) in Las Vegas, tells me the biggest complaint he hears out there about ESPN is that it is the New York Network. The World Wide Leaders in Schlock already shove as much of the Yankees down our throat as possible so the odds of them covering the search for Joe Torre's replacement could very well have been handled like the coverage of the Conclave.

Though this past Sunday night I was watching the Maryland Women's Basketball team beat Oklahoma on ESPN2. I was baffled by the consistent updates of the NASCAR Race in Phoenix that kept interrupting the ESPN2 Bottom Line. I know the race was carried on the "ESPN Family of Networks" but what in the world made the people in charge of programming at ESPN think that NASCAR and Women's College Basketball share the same audience? I've never been to a NASCAR race, but I've been to plenty of Women's College Basketball games and I can assure you, I've never seen any of the fans wearing NASCAR gear at a Women's College Basketball game and I would be very surprised if I did.

Maybe these guys at the World Wide Leader in Schlock have access to data that I don't, but I do know all the ended up doing if there was a "cross-pollination" between the two fan bases is drive viewers away from ESPN2 and over to ABC. How that makes sense and makes the NCAA happy is beyond me.