I expect better, ESPN

There’s a poll on espn.com right now asking “Who has the toughest job to save his or her sport?” After about 4,000 votes the results are:

44% – Candace Parker

32% – Sidney Crosby

13% – Big Brown

10% – Danica Patrick

I’d say these results are mostly fair, although I don’t really understand the wording “save” the sport. In Candace’s case, yes, she will have a large part in “saving” the WNBA which has been viewed as a joke to most people and struggles to keep its head above water. However, the league is still expanding and I wouldn’t save its in any imminent danger – maybe it should be worded as “generating legitimate interest” in the sport. Sidney Crosby is a solid #2 because it will be difficult to raise the NHL to a sense of relevancy for the common sports fan, but does the NHL need saving? In a recent Harris Poll asking “If you could pick one sport as your favorite”, Hockey ranked higher than Pro Basketball, and the NBA is in fine shape. I believe it ranks higher because Hockey is more of a niche sport – I would guess that most NBA fans are also NFL fans or college ball fans, so because the poll only include your favorite, it ends up with a lower tally. This is not a bad thing for hockey because it means more hardcore fans – with a hardcore fan base, hockey doesn’t need “saving”. Likewise Big Brown isn’t going to “save” Horse Racing – It has its followers as it has seemingly forever and gets its share of coverage around Triple Crown time (although PETA might have other plans). Also, Danica Patrick goes under the “generating interest” column because unlike the other three on this poll, she isn’t at the top of her sport – and a sport that would be “saved” by open-wheel unification, not by one driver.

The real issue in my mind is that ESPN does not have enough respect/coverage of other sports beyond it’s “Big 3″ – football, baseball, basketball. Just because these sports aren’t given equal coverage time by ESPN, doesn’t mean they don’t have large, dedicated followings. What about the MLB? It’s embroiled in a scandal which taints the results of its games for over a decade, and by that Harris Poll has lost 8 percentage points in the last 20 years. Does it need “saving”? Probably not, because it still has a large following, but I could make a better argument for the MLB than for the NHL. Even the NBA has gone through a major “Post-Jordan depression” and has dropped from 13% to 4% in the last decade. Same argument applies.

The bottom line? As much as I love SportsCenter, its time for ESPN to stop snubbing other sports and earn the self-proclaimed title “Worldwide Leader in Sports”. Maybe better wording of polls such as these would be an easy way to get started.

Indy 500 Pole Day Approaches

Tomorrow marks the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 – Pole Day – where the first 11 starting positions are set. This caps the first full week of practice and is the first major event of the month of the Indy 500. The fastest lap recorded overall in practice was registered by Scott Dixon in the final practice – 226.968 mph, which is the average speed of the lap. This equates a top speed of over 233 mph at the end of the straights for the fastest cars.

However, before we can look forward, we have to examine the controversial and unfortunate events of the day. First, Alex Lloyd, the 2007 Indy Pro Series champion and current IndyCar rookie, crashed hard off turn 1 and was taken to the hospital complaining of neck and back pain (video). This crash will likely limit Lloyd’s ability to participate in the events leading up to the Indy 500, although the extent of his injuries are unknown. While the opportunity could be taken to criticize the somewhat dangerous Dallara chassis, I say the car held up well for the impact, which was at 220+ mph, and we hope for Lloyd’s return soon.

The major news of the day involved Danica Patrick mowing down a Dale Coyne Racing crew member on pit road (video Note: video is gruesome although ESPN has no problem replaying it thousands of times). Accidents on pit road, one of the most feared occurrences in racing, happen from time to time and usually result in injuries. However, for the media to react to this happening by immediately saying “It’s not Danica’s fault!!” rather than focusing on the crew member is ridiculous. Also, the story has been reported by saying “Danica’s car strikes crew member.” Let’s get this straight – Danica drove her car into the pit area, turned into her pitbox, and SHE hit the guy. Everybody’s arguments that “the guy shouldn’t have been there” or “he should have been more attentive” are all true and the crew member could have prevented the incident, but in the end the driver is responsible for the car and what he/she does with the car. Of course it wasn’t intentional and who knows if Danica had enough time to react, but the media should be focusing more on the injured guy than covering for Danica. Upon watching the replay, it is clear that the crew member, Charles Buckman, is fairly lucky to not have serious head/neck injuries from the back wheel and wing of Danica’s car and hopefully like Lloyd, he will recover quickly. At the very least, it’s good to see that this list has not been updated since 2003.

In the coming weeks I’ll try to post a picture of an Indy 500 car from each decade – we’ll see how far I get. First up is the Marmon Wasp, winner of the first Indy 500 in 1911. This car is famous for having the first rear-view mirror (visible above the dash). It was controversial at the time because it meant that this car was the only one in the field without a passenger mechanic – a clear advantage. The average speed for the race? About 75 miles per hour, which means the race took more than six and a half hours.