ESPN has managed to hack me off once again. I know, I know, you're all shocked to hear that, but it's true.
As I often do when I start in on a rant about some aspect of media coverage, I have to open with a disclaimer. My critique of the media handling of this situation does not, in any way, constitute a defense of the actions of the athlete involved. I just happen to believe that bad behavior never justifies more bad behavior.
One of the big stories in the sports world yesterday was the revelation that Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejeda is actually 2 years older than he had previously claimed. It's not been a good couple months for Tejada, who is also under investigation for lying to Congress about his use of performance enhancing drugs.
Now, clearly, I don't have any problem with this fact being uncovered. While I understand why a teenage kid from the Dominican Republic would lie about his age in an effort to make himself more attractive to MLB scouts, that still doesn't make it right, and he'd been continuing to supply MLB teams with false information for the past 14 years. We can debate the significance of that particular lie, but the simple fact is that a lie is a lie, and it was the wrong thing for Tejada to do. While it didn't give him a literal performance advantage,it did give him a competitive edge against actual 19 year olds he might have been competing with for a contract back then. As I mentioned yesterday, younger is better when evaluating prospects.
However, despite that fact, I have some serious objections with how this story was brought to light. ESPN has recently launched a show called E:60, which is basically a sports news magazine show, supposedly cast in the mold of 60 Minutes. Tejada was brought in for an interview for the show with correspondent Tom Farrey. I'm not precisely sure what the premise of the interview was, but he most certainly wasn't brought in to talk about his age. Anyhow, in the midst of the interview, Farrey questioned Tejada on his age, and when Tejada, as expected, replied that he was 31, Farrey produced a copy of his birth certificate. He asked Tejada if that was his real birth certificate, to which Tejada replied "Probably", and then got up and left. He, for obvious reasons, promptly came clean with the Astros.
I'm sure ESPN is feeling all proud of themselves for this story, but in my mind, it's an absolute joke the way they handled it, especially if they have designs on presenting themselves as actual journalists in this endeavor. I mean, seriously, getting a copy of Tejada's birth certificate that proves he's 2 years older than he says is a nice grab, and a good story. What additional journalistic value is gleaned by bringing Tejada in under false pretense, getting him to repeat a lie he's been telling for 14 years, and then blindsiding him with it? The answer is none, but it does make for good TV, supposedly. It reeks of Springer/Cheaters/many other shows of that ilk much more than it resembles serious journalism. The term "Ambush journalism" is much more about the first word than the 2nd.
Seriously ESPN, run the report, bring the guy in to answer questions, whatever. Break the story in the traditional means. This kind of behavior is just gratuitous, and it's also extremely short-sighted, in my opinion. For a show like E:60 to have any real merit, they are going to constantly be needing cooperation from a number of groups, chief among them being athletes. What does this kind of tactic say to the next athlete they want to bring in for an interview? I'm not a fan of athletes who duck certain media members because they don't want to answer certain tough questions, but I'd have zero trouble backing up any athlete who told E;60 what they could do with their interview request in the future.
Unfortunately this is just another example of ESPN providing an excessive blurring to the line between sports journalism and sports-related entertainment programming. It's just not a positive development from where I sit.
2 months ago
4 comments:
It does seen kinda shady of ESPN to do it that way. It puts them in the same camp as the liar that they uncovered.
I always wondered if teams could sue players for fraud for lying about their age. I think of Rafael Furcal. When he came up in 2000, he was supposedly 19. He hit .295 that year and won the Rookie of the Year. My evaluation of him was "future superstar." Then I found out he was actually 22. Not only does that mean he's no longer a future superstar, now he's just a decent player.
Three years difference in age may not seem like a lot to a layman, but it's an absolutely huge difference in evaluating a ballplayer. There are a lot of 22 year olds who can hit .295 (with no power) in the majors. The number of 19 year olds who can do that is absolutely tiny and consists almost entirely of great future players (barring injury or other career derailment).
My guess would be that they certainly could, but I think there'd have to be a convergance of a number of circumstances that would make a team decide they wanted to fight that battle.
Certainly Houston wouldn't want to do something like that in Tejada's case, although you might think that Baltimore, who signed him to the long term deal in the first place, would also have grounds.
I actually never expect a team to actually sue for that. If there were provisions for it in arbitration, that would be different. A lawsuit would be a bad idea for all sorts of reasons.
I also agree that the difference in Tejada's age is no longer that big a deal. There is a difference between a 31 year old and a 33 year old, but the difference is much smaller than between an 18 year old and a 20 year old or a 20 year old and a 22 year old.
You're quite right in questioning ESPN's tactics here, by the way. That sort of thing is ambush journalism at its worst. There's no reason to humiliate Tejada face to face like that. Moreover, I'm guessing that professional athletes, are going to think twice before agreeing to be interviewed by ESPN in future.
Post a Comment