Results tagged “eastern bias” from The Sports Desk

East Coast bias: It's now available in the Midwest.

We've complained before about how eastern-based media such as ESPN always refer to the starting times of sports events in eastern time, even when the events themselves are being played in the Pacific zone or are of interest largely to people in the West.

So how about this story on mlb.com, major league baseball's Web site?

Headline says, "Dodgers-Cubs worthy of prime time."

Story, by a writer Matthew Leach (who appears to be based in St. Louis), says that given the appeal of Dodgers-Cubs, "it's no wonder that all of these games will be played in prime time."

I'm in Woodland Hills, watching game 1. If "prime time" refers as usual to the 8-11 p.m. TV slots, then this ain't prime time. Maybe in New York, maybe in a little while in Chicago, but not here.

The clock says 4:28 p.m. as they play in the fourth inning. The sun is shining outside. L.A. people are still at work.

OK, game 2 (first pitch scheduled for 8:37 p.m. Chicago time, 6:37 PDT) will be played mostly in prime time all over the continental United States.

But if this still is the national pastime, not the eastern and midwestern pastime, that mlb.com story should say all of these games will be played in prime time except for the only one played so far.

More and more sports media types acknowledge the eastern bias that's most noticeable on ESPN and most annoying in the network's overcoverage of New York and Boston teams.

The latest? The media type who, to many people, inspired ESPN's Red Sox obsession: Peter Gammons, the Boston Globe baseball writer turned ESPN baseball oracle.

I didn't hear it myself, but the Daily News' Vinny Bonsignore says ESPN radio talk-show host Colin Cowherd complained today that NBA Finals games start too late. Yet another example of ESPN's eastern-time-zone bias.

Having written recently about ESPN's East Coast bias -- all those Red Sox-Yankees games and so forth -- I was happy to hear TV's Gary Miller's take.

Click here to watch Miller's video commentary.

Do you agree?

We're publishing Art Spander's columns from the Masters this week. Art, the veteran San Francisco Bay Area columnist, has covered more than 40 Masters in a row. Which is nothin' compared to the fact the L.A. native has attended more than 50 Rose Bowls in a row.

With all that experience at Augusta to inform him, Art writes about the difference between past years and this year in the column he filed today: "The Masters was different from the rest, a place of excitement, a place where boldness was rewarded and the responding cheers bounded down the 10th fairway or along the 14th like a big drive from Tiger or in other years Jack or Arnie. Now, as Tiger Woods said, it’s U.S. Open light, or British Open West, golfers playing with care, golfers worrying the next shot might be the one which ruins their chances instead of raising their hopes."

Read the whole column on Friday to see why Art thinks the roar is gone from the Masters.

-- More recommended reading Friday: The Dodgers off-day feature about hot-hitting James Loney by our own Tony Jackson. You've got to like a story that mentions Elisabeth Shue (pictured, above right) before it mentions a baseball player (not pictured).

-- The Daily News' Rich Hammond points out a weird example of East Coast bias: The website for baseball's California League presents game schedules in eastern time. Tonight: Lake Elsinore Storm at Lancaster JetHawks, 10 p.m.

I wrote a column recently about ESPN's eastern bias. The network seems to think the sports world revolves around its Bristol, Conn., HQ. New York and Boston stories get bigger play, and fans waaaay over here in California get short shrift.

Unfortunately it's not just my pet peeve. I'm getting e-mail agreeing with me, including one today from a reader who says ESPN's eastern slant is "so unsetting that I refuse to listen or watch" and one from a man in radio marketing who wonders why ESPN isn't "blowing up the LA/SF rivalry" as it does New York-Boston.

Latest example of all this: Sunday night's SportsCenter, right after the White Sox-Tigers game on ESPN. First story: White Sox-Tigers, of course -- extended highlights of the game you just watched, a huge game because it was on ESPN. Second: Red Sox game. Third: Yankees game. Commercial break. Then: Mets game.

At least they're consistent.