ESPN East Coast Bias

Alright everyone.  Now, for years people have accused ESPN of having an East Coast bias when televising sporting events, in particular baseball games.  I will first present an argument why this makes sense.  For the East Coast baseball fan, a game will start at, say, 6:40 PM.  Now assuming this game doesn't get crazy out of hand, like the score is 15-14 or something, it will complete in about 3 hours.  So all those East Coast fans can get to bed at a reasonable hour, between 10 and 11 PM.  That same game begins at 6:40 on the West Coast, well that's 9:40 for the East Coast fan.  Now despite this argument, let me be clear that I am not defending the decision, in fact I am 100% against it and tonight is a prime example of that.


As a San Francisco Giants fan I will admit that I am biased in this matter.  But here are the facts.  Tonight the Los Angeles Dodgers play against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, CA.  First, let's state the obvious.  The Giants and Dodgers have a fierce and historical rivalry.  This is right up there with Yankees-Red Sox, if not even more heated.  I can't recall a game where a Yankees or Red Sox player went after an opposing player with a bat.  Guess what?  It HAS happened in the Giants-Dodgers rivalry (see Juan Marichal vs. John Roseboro, August 22, 1965).  Even if you still think Yankees-Red Sox is the #1 rivalry in baseball, Giants-Dodgers has to at the very least rate a close 2nd.  So that's the obvious.


Now for the not so obvious, the pitching matchup this evening.  Pitching for the Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw who, despite being off to a slow start in his first 3 starts, was the National League Cy Young Award winner as well as the NL MVP (which has only happened 10 times in HISTORY).  Pitching for the Giants is Madison Bumgarner who was the National League Championship Series MVP AND the World Series MVP.  So you have arguably the 2 best pitchers in the National League facing each other tonight.  And where is ESPN?  Why, they're in Washington, DC televising the Cardinals at the the Nationals of course.  East Coast bias is in tact.


Let me also go one step further to defend the National League game.  In football they constantly talk about Quarterbacks head to head.  Take Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady.  But the reality is the Quarterbacks aren't really facing each other.  They're never on the field at the same time, so a head to head record is really meaningless.  In the American League pitchers never have to face each other due to the Designated Hitter.  But in the National League the pitchers do hit.  So yes we would actually get to see Madison Bumgarner face Clayton Kershaw, both as a pitcher and as a hitter.  All the more intrigue to this game, and all the more reason that this game should be televised, but the heads at ESPN apparently feel the bedtimes of people on the East Coast are more important.