The Midsummer Lull: the slowest sports day in America
It is no wonder that ESPN moved the annual ESPY Awards show to the day after the MLB All-Star Game: it — today — is, I think, the slowest sports day in the United States every year.
Nothing is going on. Sure, I guess there were WNBA games. And the buzz is building for the British Open. But other than that there really is not much else happening on the playing fields and courts of America’s most popular sports leagues — at least in terms of something that has highlights worth relaying over and over on 14 hours of SportsCenter.
There are no baseball games (except the Triple-A All-Star Game). The next seasons of college and pro football are tantalizingly close, but oh so far away yet. (I guess the SEC is holding media days right now. The Arena Football League is winding down its 2014 regular season, but who the hell cares about arena football?) The World Cup is over; only a handful of northern European soccer leagues are in session, but none of the major networks seem to care about Norway’s Tippeligaen or Sweden’s Allsvenskan. (Unfortunately. I have always liked watching the EPL, but I miss the days when I could see Dutch Eredivisie and German Bundesliga games on Fox Sports World. A little more variety would be nice. How about some lower division stuff from the UK?)
Let’s see. What else? Not much — which is why The ESPYs are being simulcast on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN just gave up. Instead of showing trickshot pool, reruns of the World Series of Poker, professional bowling, Danish professional badminton, or whatever else The Leader keeps in its back pocket for just this kind of lull, ESPN moved The ESPYs from February to the day after the ASG or a few days after in (according to Wikipedia) 2002.
But, much like ESPN, we have survived the midsummer sports lull. Tomorrow essentially begins the second half of the sporting calendar.
(So I was going to say that I wish ESPN would broadcast Aussie rules football, but I just learned that Fox has the rights to the Australian Football League in the US. Apparently, four games are shown on Fox Sports 2 per week. Starting in 2015, Fox Sports 1 and 2 will apparently be the home of Bundesliga games, too. Sweet!)
Nothing is going on. Sure, I guess there were WNBA games. And the buzz is building for the British Open. But other than that there really is not much else happening on the playing fields and courts of America’s most popular sports leagues — at least in terms of something that has highlights worth relaying over and over on 14 hours of SportsCenter.
There are no baseball games (except the Triple-A All-Star Game). The next seasons of college and pro football are tantalizingly close, but oh so far away yet. (I guess the SEC is holding media days right now. The Arena Football League is winding down its 2014 regular season, but who the hell cares about arena football?) The World Cup is over; only a handful of northern European soccer leagues are in session, but none of the major networks seem to care about Norway’s Tippeligaen or Sweden’s Allsvenskan. (Unfortunately. I have always liked watching the EPL, but I miss the days when I could see Dutch Eredivisie and German Bundesliga games on Fox Sports World. A little more variety would be nice. How about some lower division stuff from the UK?)
Let’s see. What else? Not much — which is why The ESPYs are being simulcast on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN just gave up. Instead of showing trickshot pool, reruns of the World Series of Poker, professional bowling, Danish professional badminton, or whatever else The Leader keeps in its back pocket for just this kind of lull, ESPN moved The ESPYs from February to the day after the ASG or a few days after in (according to Wikipedia) 2002.
But, much like ESPN, we have survived the midsummer sports lull. Tomorrow essentially begins the second half of the sporting calendar.
(So I was going to say that I wish ESPN would broadcast Aussie rules football, but I just learned that Fox has the rights to the Australian Football League in the US. Apparently, four games are shown on Fox Sports 2 per week. Starting in 2015, Fox Sports 1 and 2 will apparently be the home of Bundesliga games, too. Sweet!)
