Oh, how wrong I was. Not only is the media often irresponsible, it has become so redundant in this country-with TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet all covering the same territory-that it regularly overreports and destroys whatever newsworthiness and interest an issue may have had.
Enter Major League Baseball; our national pastime, the sport we all watched or played as children. A seemingly incorruptible three hours (or four hours for American League games) where good plays are not only seen but felt, stunning individual and team performances are equally respected, and great games are compared to those played by legends like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle-repeated 162 times per season. To explain the magic of baseball, I exhibit the fan: baseball fans rarely have a reason for liking one team over another-and if they do it probably doesn't hold water. My two best friends are a perfect example: each is a Mets fan and neither can offer any explanation other than "because my dad" or more often "just because." They just are and can't possibly imagine it being appropriate for any other team. That's one of the incorruptible spells of baseball: you root and cheer for a team and can't imagine it any other way.
Until last week I would have cited baseball as an example of the media not being all that bad. True, I don't like the commercials or the incessantly babbling announcers that tarnish the majesty of the game. But if you've ever watched a game on mute you quickly conclude that the announcers aren't all that bad, and I imagine it would be extremely painful to watch a game without commercials-the time between half-innings would be unbearable. But with this year's Subway Series, everything bad (some might say evil) about the media and our overly commercial society exploded in my face.
The Mets clinched a World Series berth first and the Yankees were one game away from assuring the first Subway Series since 1956. While watching game six of the American League Championship Series on NBC the hype was beginning to build. Crafted by the words of über-announcer Bob Costas, the prospect of an all New York final series was subtly transformed into the most important thing about that game-or as it seemed any other.
Personally, I was enraptured by the thought. It was everything I-a lifetime Yankee fan-had wanted since both the Mets and Yankees built up good franchises. My friends wanted to prove to me their guys were better and I wanted to show that the Yankees are the best, period. IMs of "you're going down" and "Mets in 6" (and some more colorful ones) were flying between me and everyone from home. Even my grandma was getting into this virtual brawl.
But that initial euphoria soon began to wilt. The Subway Series was quickly tainted. The Yankees clinched and all anyone could hear about was the Yankees-Mets aspect of the World Series. There was little discussion as to how the Mariners were worthy opponents, or how the Yankees were going to the final series for the fourth time in five years-it was Mets, Mets, Mets. One of the first questions asked to Yankee manager Joe Torre wasn't how does it fell, but rather "what's the rotation going to be" and "what's going to happen between Clemens and Piazza". I signed onto ESPN.com and there was an article about how Seattle's team had missed its chance "to save the world" because a "Subway series would be too much for the rest of the country to bear." New Yorkers would hurt themselves in fits of self-congratulation.
Granted some humor about the surely inflated egos of New Yorkers was fun the first couple of times, but as articles began to pop up speaking about how the World Series was somehow less important to the rest of the nation because it was New York-dominated, the celebration started to become tainted. Apparently many sports writers outside the New York area felt that this New Yorkness somehow invalidated the World Series and that people on the west coast shouldn't care about it, asserting that it all would have been different if it were a Mariners-Mets series or a Cardinal-Yankees series. Hinting that those would have been good series where this was sure not to be.
But, in my mind, where the media began to dig its own grave was in the New York papers. The bastion of journalism that is The New York Times last Thursday ran a front page article-one of the lead articles-entitled "Subway Series: It's Root, Root, Root, But for Which Team?" which seemed to have potential in a cute-personal-interest-piece-about-the-big-series kind of way. Unfortunately it was nothing more than irresponsible journalism crudely thrown together in order to cash in on the baseball mania that currently possesses New York. The article focuses on stereotypes and quotes Mets and Yankees fans trash talking about each other: "'Yankee fans are much more highly educated'" on the one side and "'All Yankee fans are just flat out stupid'" on the other.
The desire to cash in on the New York baseball euphoria prompted some TV station to cut short some coverage of events in the Middle East and reports on the investigation of the bombing of the USS Cole were preempted or shortened in order to run human interest stories on the media circus that has become-not World Series 2000, but-Subway Series 2000. It's become so extreme that during Fox's broadcast of game one they panned in on the bases each of which was adorned with little Subway Series plaques.
The media has covered this to the point of ridiculousness-and I don't want it to seem like The New York Times is the only offender. (It's just the only New York paper I get.) But not all coverage of the events has been offensive. In fact, Fox opened last night's game with an authentically interesting tribute to the 14 Subway Series. Sunday morning on ESPN there was a round table discussion about game one, where four nationally known sports writers classily discussed the merits and pitfalls of the game and the series in general.
But overall the media, specifically the New York media, dropped the ball on this one. With the Times running articles about how the series is affecting the economics of local bars outside Yankee Stadium and human interest pieces about panhandlers in the tunnels where the 4 train (subway to Yankee Stadium) and the 7 train (to Shea Stadium) meet; and with ESPN.com running the opining of jaded, angry Seattle writers diminishing the importance of the World Series simply because it is NY vs. NY.
Let the games speak for themselves. Game one of the series is already a classic. Whether the media had hyped it up or not the game still would have been a 12 inning battle royale-the longest game in World Series history. Game two would still have featured one of the most dominating starting pitching performances of the year by Clemens, one of the strangest moments of the year involving Clemens and Piazza and one of the greatest comeback that wasn't but the Mets in the ninth inning. I just want everyone to shut up and let me, my fellow fans, and others all around the world watch the two best teams in Major League Baseball fight tooth and nail for the season's ultimate prize. Like the days of the last Subway Series in 1956 when Don Larsen threw that legendary perfect game, let the history books be written and let us enjoy it in some peace and quiet without commercializing it to the point of absurdity.
Lawrence Baum '03 is an opinion editor for The Amherst Student.