Respect!

OK, so I am a bit pissed off right now. Here’s the story, last night as you should hopefully know, the Rockies swept the Diamondbacks and earned their way into the World Series!! I mean did you hear me?! The freakin’ World Series!! That is incredible! It puts a smile on my face just thinking about it! But that is not the problem, no, the problem is the national media, more specifically ESPN. Now don’t get me wrong, I have loved ESPN for years and Sports Center is one of my all time favorite shows but what I heard today really bothers me. I spend a decent amount of time in my car and I usually listen to sports radio (unless the Broncos lost the day before) the whole time. A lot of that is ESPN radio and today was the same.

As I drove to work this morning I was listening and I heard what they call a “sports update” that they do like 2 or 3 times an hour to update on things that you may have missed. What did I hear, you ask? I heard a highlight from last night’s game! Great, finally some attention, some respect! But wait, it’s not that easy. The voice said “With Tod Helton’s 3 run Home Run, the Rockies clinched their trip to the World Series!” and then the actual highlight played. I will not quote the whole highlight but tell you only this, if you don’t know, it was not Tod Helton who hit that home run, it was Matt Holliday who hit the home run!! Are you kidding me? If you work for ESPN and are reporting about a pretty big event that happened in sports, you have to get it right!! But that is not all.

Later as I was in my car (yet again) I was listening to this guy named Colin Cowherd (spelling?) and he began to talk about baseball. I have listened to this guy for awhile now, and I like him, he is smart and funny, and I usually respect what he has to say. But not today. He said that the Colorado Rockies are not a story and he would not talk about it because no one outside of Denver cares about them! And then he says that he will only talk about them if they are playing the Boston Red Socks in the World Series and only because of the Red Socks. Because nobody cares outside of Denver, it is not a story!! What the *@%%@!? No respect. And that is still not all.

Later, I was listening again to a guy named Mike Turico (spelling again?) and he was talking to the Head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and they were talking about how crazy it would be when the Packers come to Denver for a Monday night game in 2 weeks if there was also a World Series game happening at the same time. And he said (and this is what really gets me) it would only happen IF the Rockies don’t get swept in 4 games by the Indians or the Red Socks!! Did you get that?! If the Rockies don’t get swept in 4 games by the Indians or the Red Socks!! What the hell?! Have they not been paying any attention? Did the Rockies not just get done sweeping through 2 teams in a row to get here? One of those teams being the top scoring offense in the National League and the other being the team with the best record in the National League! I mean COME ON!! There is no respect. And I know why.

ESPN and all the other national sports media are based out of the east coast and care only about 2 teams, the Yankees and the Red Socks. That’s it. To be honest, that is not that much to be proud of. On one hand you’ve got the Yankees who should win the World Series every single year because they spend more money than anyone in baseball on their players, but don’t win. Instead they get stories of players who don’t like their team or their manager or their owner and how they probably won’t be back next year only to stay and keep squabbling instead of winning. What is so great about that? Then on the other hand they have the Red Socks who until just about 3 years ago had not won anything for like 100 years! And this year got into a bidding war for a pitcher from Japan who was supposed to be un-hittable and paid way too much for him! OK, so yeah they are in the race for the World Series, but their not even winning in that series! But the Colorado Rockies are not a story.

Let’s look at it, shall we? Only 1 year ago the Rockies were no where near even being mentioned in the same conversation as the World Series. Not even Rockies fans could claim to think they could do it. I will admit, it did not seem possible to me until like a month and a half ago! But here we are. And how did we do it? With young talent who want nothing more than to win and play baseball. They aren’t squabbling about money or complaining about personel in the organization, they did not spend the off season in a bid war for a pitcher who no one even really knew about only to end up paying a ton of money for just a decent pitcher. NO! All they did was kept playing baseball and believing in themselves even when no one else did! And now they are in the World Series of Major League Baseball! And that is not a story.

Well, F that! It is a story! Just because we are not in New York or Boston and just because we don’t pay our players way more than anyone should ever be paid for playing a game (meteorically, I might add), and just because no one outside of Denver (and San Diego, Philadelphia, or Arizona) really knows their names is it not a story. In fact, I think it is the kind of story that should be told. It’s way better than talking about what player wants more money even though he can’t even hit in the playoffs. And it is way better than talking about a player who obviously took steroids and is breaking every record known to man. It is the kind of story that I like to watch sports for. It is positive and it puts a smile on people’s face! That’s all a good story needs.

So the national media can suck it! They have no respect for the Rockies or what they accomplished, fine! In 20 years what will people remember about this year? Will it be about how the Yankees did not advance any further into the post season (again), will it be about the Red Socks and if they came back and beat the Indians, or will it be about a young team who believed in themselves and broke records that have stood for years and years just to get to the World Series? No one cares about the Rockies? Maybe it is because of people like these radio show hosts who are supposed to be in this business because they love sports but when a great sports story is happening, they are blind to it because it isn’t about the right team.

Well anyway, I guess that is about it. I needed to get that off my chest. Now all I want to do is root for the Rockies and see them do what NOBODY thought they could. Even if they don’t win the World Series, what they did is freakin’ incredible and they deserve more respect than they will receive. But I do hope they play the Red Socks in the World Series and beat them like they already did this year just to shut those biased, east coast lovers up! Now that would be a story!