Monday Musings
We've gotten a pretty strong reaction to Sunday's Chile's Corner column on NESN broadcasts. Here's a sampling of the response:
Bob writes: Nice blog article, though I do think they do an overall good job and I do think Don Orsillo does a nice job except on those stupid "announcer boy" commercials. ... After reading this article, I forgot how much I miss Sean McDonough. Much as I like Orsillo, NESN kept the wrong guy. I'm sure they were told to can Sean Mac because of his sharp opinions, which I loved hearing ... part of an apparent overall plot by Tom Werner and NESN to make the broadcasts more hip, and most of it works. Overall I do like the presentation and the pre and postgame. I suppose that it can't be perfect.
Chris (not regular correspondent Chris) writes: I completely agree with you. NESN is ruining my enjoyment of the Red Sox. What is worse is the fact that the radio broadcast on WEEI is just as bad. I can't mute the television and listen to the radio because they have just as many commercials on the radio. The game has become a background and is secondary to all the commercials. What a shame.
I think we've pretty obviously stumbled onto a vein of discontent here. And I've stumbled on it while living 3,000 miles away from Boston. Think about things for a second: When was the last time you saw a hard-hitting critique of NESN's content in The Big Conglomerate? When was the last time you saw a feature highlighting Fenway neighborhood residents' concern over Fenway Park expansion (as opposed to having their concerns buried 40 paragraphs deep)? For those of you rooting for the Boston Herald to fail, nevermind what their front page headlines look like, Boston as a one-news-source town would be a much poorer city. And my former colleagues reading this and shaking their heads know deep down I'm right. Same goes with Seattle, where the fate of the Post-Intelligencer, a lively, engaging newspaper, likely hangs in the balance of a court case.
*So Dave's World launched on Memorial Day, and now that we're up to the Fourth of July it seems like a reasonable time to sit back and take stock of where the site's headed.
From the outset, I was concerned with the direction I was going to take the site -- my interests are scattered all across the map. The past five weeks bear this out. This site's featured writing on baseball, the sports journalism business, life in Seattle, life in Boston, hockey, pro wrestling, tennis, a view of the war from a soldier's perspective, and about a hundred other things that have popped into my brain.
When I started, I told friends I'd be thrilled if I had the site reach 1,000 regular readers within a year. I'm honestly grateful that within a month, a couple hundred people are making it a point to check in every day, especially when there are so many options out there. I've already had my first 1,000-page-view day, when Stryker News posted Matt's Iraq piece and my first column went up on Boston Sports Review. Again, thank you, especially if you've passed along word about the site to others. If you're new to the site and like what you see, I'd appreciate if you pass on the link to a friend or two. Other than the fact I might eventually get a small check from Google for the ads, this is entirely a grassroots labor of love.
There's a real backlash brewing towards what's being presented in the mainstream sports media today. Just about everyone I talk to is sick of having everything reduced to simple black and white argumentative sound bytes, and they're especially sick of the excessive celebrity navel-gazing. No one cares anymore what tattoos a baseball player is getting, what tricked-out cars a basketball player is driving, or what C-level celeb is sitting behind a pole in section 19 at Fenway. Readers and viewers gripe about it openly from their couch; people in the biz grumble amongst themselves when the boss isn't around.
If I had to take a guess why people are reading my site and keep coming back, I think it is basically because I let you guys and gals drive the agenda here with your feedback -- in case you've wondered, yes, every piece of correspondence I've put up on the site is real. I really have a friend in Northern Idaho emailing me (haven't heard from him in awhile, he must have swallowed an entire pack of chew again). I really do send out pocket schedules to winners of my weekly contests. And as far as I know, Dave's World Enforcer Steve Sears really does run over kittens and puppies just for fun. I'm also not afraid to make fun of myself, and if you want to send me hate mail, go for it. I'll post that, too. If something sticks and readers respond, we continue with the topic; if not, I move on to the next thing.
Either way, while I tend to just crack bad jokes to amuse myself and my friends, by far the most response to anything on the site has been to reader contributions: yesterday's Chile's Corner obviously struck a nerve, and, I mean, I got an email from the mother of a soldier in Iraq in the Midwest saying Matt's entry made her cry because it reminded her of her kid. I certainly never expected that, when I launched the site.
So again, thanks for tuning in. I'm more having more fun writing this than anything I've done in several years.
*Oh, and since this is my site and I can get away with plugging whatever I want to plug, here's one for Dave's World's favorite indy rock band. Boston's Neptune. They're doing shows on Thursday at Space 538 in Portland, ME; Friday in Providence at Okie Street; and Saturday in Boston at Pan 9. On the 16th they play in NYC at the Glass House Gallery in Brooklyn.
*And finally, for those of you who originally checked in to read Matt's Dispatches from Iraq, Matt will be back with another entry on Sunday. In the interim, reader Linda, who has a son heading over to Mosul in the fall, wants to remind readers there are people putting their lives on the line in the desert today, so keep them in mind while you watch baseball and fireworks today. Thanks, Linda!
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