Archive for February 26th, 2007

Feb 26

The St. Pete Times And The Tampa Tribune Would Like Rays Fans To Drink Their Kool-Aid

B. S., Chicago Tribune, ESPN, Kool Aid, NASCAR, New York Times, SportsCenter, St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune Cork Gaines No Comments »

Late last season the Tampa Bay Devil Rays signed a sponsorship agreement with the St. Pete Times, in which the local newspaper would be designated “The official newspaper of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays”. In addition, the Times became the main sponsor of devilrays.com, the first such agreement between a Major League team and a sponsor .

While this deal is a source of revenue for the team, which ultimately decides the product on the field, in the long run it has direct negative impact on the fans. As a news organization, the St. Pete Times is supposed to be unbiased in their coverage of any news story. But now the success of the St. Pete Times is affected by the success of the Rays. If the Rays do well, more fans go to the games and the team’s website. More fans at the games means more people will be drawn to the St. Pete Times kiosks that will be found throughout the Trop and more fans on the team’s website means more traffic to the St. Pete Times website. In essence, the Times is banking on the hope that associating the newspaper with the Rays will mean more customers and more revenue for the newspaper. The problem is that it is no longer in the Times best interest to be unbiased. In fact, it is more beneficial to their business to only report positively on the Rays. This hurts the average fan that looks to the local newspaper as a source of unbiased information.

This association of the St. Pete Times with the Rays is felt elsewhere also. As a direct competitor, it is no longer in the best interest of the Tampa Tribune to support the Rays. In fact, a look at local coverage of Spring Training and you will see far more coverage of the New York Yankees in the Tribune than you will see in the Times. A rough count shows that the Tribune has run nine stories on the Yankees in the past seven days. This cannot be due solely to the Yankees having their spring training home in Tampa, as the area is considered part of the St. Pete Times market. Of course it may also be due to the sponsorship deal between the New York Yankees and The Tampa Tribune (as seen in this list of Yankees spring training promotions).

In addition to the bias in coverage and writing, there is now likely to be unbalanced access for the local papers. Is it too much to assume that the team will grant more access to the St. Pete Times from whom they have received millions of dollars? It is not unthinkable that the team would also grant special privileges to the Times such as first access to breaking news by leaking stories to the Times prior to other news sources, especially the Tribune. So while other sources may not have biased coverage, they may in fact have no coverage at all.

This is not an issue that is restricted to the Tampa Bay Rays. This has been a long-standing and more serious problem with many other professional sports clubs . Ask any White Sox fan about the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the local baseball teams. The Tribune owns the Cubs and has a direct interest in the promotion of the team. There is even a website dedicated to this bias, The Chicago Cubune. In New York, there is considerable contention from Yankees fans concerning the lack of coverage of their beloved Bombers in the New York Times especially as compared to the Boston Red Sox. The Times would probably tell you it is because a lot of Bostonians have relocated to the Big Apple and that Yankees fans are always interested in what is happening with their arch rival. Still, many fans complain that there is actually more coverage of the Sox than the Yankees. Silly? Not when you realize that the New York Times is a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox.

This is not an issue restricted to newsprint either. Tune into Sportscenter on ESPN since they acquired the broadcast rights to NASCAR and you would suddenly think you were watching NASCARCenter. In addition, it was four days before ESPN.com ran a story on the PacMan Jones shooting in Las V
egas during the recent NBA All-Star game weekend. An oversight from the “Worldwide Leader”? Or was ESPN hesitant to report on a what would be perceived as a black eye for two leagues that they have a lot of money invested in through broadcast rights?

Is this bias real or just perceived by the fans? Does it matter? From Chicago Cubune website we would like to direct the management of the St. Pete Times and the Tampa Tribune to two quotes:

Journalists must avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety as well as any conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict. — from the American Society of Newspaper Editors Code of Ethics

Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived, remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility, disclose unavoidable conflicts… deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage. — from the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

Is the St. Pete Times ordering its writers to only publish positive articles about the Rays or to minimize the negative articles? Is the Tampa Tribune purposefully avoiding coverage of the Rays and directing it towards the Yankees? Is there bias in their writing and their publishing? There is no way to be certain and they would never admit it, but there is a perceived bias at this point. We understand the nature of the beast. It is the natural flow of an economy. As fans we want revenue streams for the team. Ultimately it will mean a better product on the field, but can we ever trust what we read again? Now that the St. Petersburg Times is in bed with the Rays, we will still read the articles and columns, but we will now be forced to seek a balanced opinion elsewhere. This bias will likely push more fans to sites like this one or DRays Bay or Rays of Light, where we attempt to read through the B. S. and present to you a (somewhat) unbiased dissection of the news that is presented in other forums. OK, we are biased, but at least the Rays aren’t controlling our content.

St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune, this Kool-Aid smells funny. Thanks, but no thanks.

Feb 26

The Hangover: Gettin’ A Delmon

BJ Upton, Delmon Young, Gettin' A Delmon, Joel Guzman, Josh Hamilton, Prospects, Rainbow Warriors Cork Gaines No Comments »
  • A lot has been made about the Rays farm system and most agree that it is the best in baseball right now. Well, apparently the Rays rank first in overrated prospects also. D. A. Humber: Baseball Central decided to rank the most overrated prospects in baseball. At the top of the list as the most overrated of the overrated? Our very own B.J. “Don’t call me Melvin” Upton. They point to how high he was drafted and his struggles in the field and his lack of production at the plate. They do concede that he is young enough and athletic enough to still develop into a solid major leaguer, but they are skeptical. In addition to Upton, Joel Guzman comes in at #4. There biggest point (and a valid one) is that despite his size (6’6″, 252 lbs.) he does not hit for a lot of power. We have never seen Guzman play, but we have been around baseball long enough to know that when a kid that big can’t hit for power it is usually because they have zero bat speed.
  • D. A. Humber then countered with another post defending B.J. Upton and why he is not overrated. The main argument is that he is young and he was the second pick in a weak draft.
  • Nate Silver at Baseball Prospectus wonders if B. J. Upton could be a Gary Sheffield in the making. Nate, stop teasing us. They test for steroids now. At this point we are still hoping for Jose Reyes but will settle for Mike Cameron.
  • Josh Hamilton’s progress so far has been labeled “OK” by Reds manager Jerry Narron. Still, the Cincinnati Enquirer speculates that he will make the 25-man roster for the Reds, but worry his development may be stumped much the same way former Red Wily Mo Pena was. The Reds may also try to work out a trade with the Rays so they can send Hamilton to the minors.
  • When the season starts, the Rays have a good shot at being the youngest team in the majors, but the two oldest players, Dan Miceli (36) and Greg Norton (34) let it be known that the youngins need grow up or things aren’t going to be any better in 2007.
  • This has been out there for a while, but we had forgotten about it. If Delmon Young has any success this season, we need to prepare ourselves for more “bat tossing” jokes or as The Dugout likes to call it…Gettin’ A Delmon.
  • DRays Bay has landed a couple of solid interviews in the past month and want you to know it by patting themselves on the back Ricky Henderson-style, over and over. Pretty soon they will start referring to themselves in the third person.
  • Yet another write up on the Rays top 10 prospects.
  • Do you remember the Turn Ahead The Clock promotion that Major League Baseball ran back in 1999. We remember, but strangely had forgotten that the Rays had participated, which is probably for the better. Well, for only $14.99 you can relive that night by owning your very own Rays Turn Ahead The Clock jersey!
  • What would it take to make someone blog about the Rays all year?