ESPN Reports What Another Reporter Reports

Part of the reason I created this blog was because how disappointed I’ve been in the lack of college baseball coverage. ESPN has been is neglectful as anyone but this time of year they usually like to pretend they’re the worldwide leader in college baseball and actually bother to write a few stories online. Their coverage has steadily increased over the years and this year they’ve actually written a few pre-Regionals columns.

Sadly, it looks like their lack of caring about the game led them to half-ass it with these columns and just ask a real college baseball reporter what he’d write.

From "Robbi Pickeral's" Martin, Fox chasing elusive CWS title:

"There's no doubt that both of these teams have what it takes to go back to Omaha, and I don't know if I'd bet against either one of them," said Baseball America national writer Aaron Fitt. "Is this the season we see Mike Martin or Mike Fox win it all? I think that's a question -- especially when it comes to Mike Martin -- that we all have in the back of our minds every time they make it to the College World Series."

Another piece "written by" Pickeral, Turner a real steal for the Wolkpack:

"He's electrifying; he's the most exciting player in college baseball,'' Fitt said. "… They [the Wolfpack] would be a good team without him. But I don't know if they would be hosting a regional. He makes that offense go."

[sic]

"There are a lot of teams out there wishing they had found him, had talked to him," Fitt said. "This was a huge get for NC State."

So ESPN's means of informing the audience is to call a guy that has weekly chats and frequently replies to fan e-mails? Why do I get the feeling someone was just scanning the Baseball America podcasts when they found these "quotes"? ESPN, why not just hire Fitt away from BA and expand your coverage? If it's too cost prohibitive, then next story just spare your resources and simply post a link to BaseballAmerica.com.

Sorry, this tangent has changed my plans for what my first post was going to be: this exclusive sneak peak at my upcoming 10,000 word piece on how I would solve the unrest in Syria:

"The problem is not with the merits of arming or helping the opposition in Syria but with the international community's approach," said Henri J. Barkey of the Los Angeles Times. "Incremental policymaking in response to events on the ground will lead the world down an unwanted path."

"For the international community to think the (Kofi Annan) peace plan would work simply showed how detached it was from the reality in Syria," added Haitham Maleh from the New York Times.

"If Obama wants to stay out of Syria, fine. Make the case that it’s none of our business. That it’s too hard. That we have no security/national interests there." In Washington Post columnist's Charles Krauthammer's view "the evidence argues against that, but at least a coherent case for hands-off could be made. That would be an honest, straightforward policy. Instead, the president, basking in the sanctity of the Holocaust Museum, proclaims his solemn allegiance to a doctrine of responsibility — even as he stands by and watches Syria burn."