Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 05, 2006
Will He Be Voted Off the Island?

ESPN is producing what some call a reality show but is officially a documentary on Barry Bonds' season:

For the 2006 season, Bonds may well supplement his $20 million salary from the Giants with earnings from appearing on a reality show that ESPN expects to begin airing during spring training, which starts in two weeks.

The network would air the show as part of its "entertainment" programming, not its news coverage. While ESPN isn't expected to announce the show officially until later this month, ESPN.com's ombudsman already has written about potential conflicts of interest, and all sides say a deal is in the works.

For the show, a new set of cameras and microphones would follow Bonds on and off the field through the season as he pursues Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron on the all-time home-run list. With 708 homers, he needs seven more to pass Ruth. Aaron's record is 755, which Bonds is not expected to reach this year.

The conflicts of interest come as ESPN will also have a news crew following Bonds (as they did last year).

What interests me more is this question: Is ESPN going the way of MTV? There was a time when MTV played music videos. It was the World Wide Leader in music videos. Then, at some point, the introduced The Real World, and morphed into TV.

At some point, does ESPN decide it's cheaper to produce entertainment than sports? Why pay MLB hundreds of million of dollars when you can produce the following show for much less:

  • Numbers: A baseball GM asks his younger, math genius brother to help run the team with sabermetrics.
  • CSI:NFL: Forensic experts use the latest science to decide if the runners knee hit the ground before the fumble.
  • ClubHouse Every week a cranky team physician fixes a key player's injury just in time for the big game.
  • My Name is Joey: Albert Belle travels the country making up for all the bad things he did as a player.
  • Last: The Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are stranded on a desert island.
  • American Idle: Contestants see how long they can last on the track with Simon as a backseat driver.

Update: Fixed a typo.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:11 AM | Broadcasts | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Kemp Family: Shawn Kemp starts a choir with his children and tours the country in a lavishly-blinged bus (much like the Partridges lavishly blinged theirs). Special Guest Star Paul Westphal as Reuben.

The Isaiah Show: A remake of the Magic Show with Isaiah investing too much in undertalented half-stars, holding bizarre grudges, and ruining everything he touches.
(Quite Frankly is still on? Never mind.)

Temptation Island: Groupies! Groupies! Groupies!

Having said all this, I'd love to watch a special on Drs. Andrews and Kremchek, a mini-series on Branch Rickey, and a documentary about the Iranian wrestling team (just to name a few). I don't think ESPN Original Entertainment has the same wish list as me, though.

Posted by: Dennis at February 5, 2006 01:21 PM

Well, I e-mailed the espn ombudsman with this point:

If Bonds is generally not cooperative with the press, but gives ESPN access for cash, what is to prevent any player from charging for his post-game interviews? Somebody would pay Matt Hasselback $50,000 for exclusive in-depth discussion of his performance after tonight's game.

Posted by: PVM at February 5, 2006 03:50 PM

PVM: Or, more likely, what if a player makes announcements on his subscription-based Web site?

Posted by: Dennis at February 5, 2006 04:27 PM

they should call it COPS, opps they already have a show by that name. bonds is a punk and he won't break Hank Aarons record. 8 days till baseball's pitchers and catchers report. very excited.

Posted by: Colin at February 6, 2006 12:38 AM

Guess they need the extra few days warm-up to try and figure out how in the hell they're going to keep Bonds from passing Aaron.

Posted by: ed at February 6, 2006 04:05 PM

Is the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION about WHETHER Bonds EVER USED steriods over? Interestingly, if a PLAYER GAMBLES professionally they won't stop hounding him, but it's a whole different bALL GAME when it comes to steroids! It seems to depend mostly, on WHO it is! Do you like my analogy?

Posted by: carol at February 13, 2006 02:50 PM
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