Baseball Toaster: The Griddle : News comes to a crawl

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Chicago Cubs	97	64	.602	C1
2	Philadelphia	92	70	.568	E1
3	Los Angeles Dodgers	84	78	.519	W1
4	Milwaukee	90	72	.556	C2
5	New York Mets	89	73	.549	E2
6	Houston	86	75	.534	C3
7	St. Louis	86	76	.531	C4
8	Florida	84	77	.522	E3
9	Arizona	82	80	.506	W2
10T	Colorado	74	88	.457	W3
10T	Cincinnati	74	88	.457	C5
12T	Atlanta	72	90	.444	E4
12T	San Francisco	72	90	.444	W4
14	Pittsburgh	67	95	.414	C6
15	San Diego	63	99	.389	W5
16	Washington	59	102	.366	E5

American League

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Los Angeles Angels	100	62	.617	W1
2	Tampa Bay	97	65	.599	E1
3	Chicago White Sox	89	74	.546	C1
4	Boston	95	67	.586	E2
5	New York Yankees	89	73	.549	E3
6	Minnesota	88	75	.540	C2
7	Toronto	86	76	.531	E4
8	Cleveland	81	81	.500	C3
9	Texas	79	83	.488	W2
10	Oakland	75	86	.466	W3
11	Kansas City	75	87	.463	C4
12	Detroit	74	88	.457	C5
13	Baltimore	68	93	.422	E5
14	Seattle	61	101	.377	W4

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News comes to a crawl

2007-12-13 18:41

by Bob Timmermann

In a sign of how information is disseminated now, ESPN is trying to summarize the Mitchell Report in a news crawl that appears underneath the action of the NCAA women's volleyball semifinals.

There's no better way to learn complex information than in crawl form. I'm going to go out and buy a newspaper tomorrow and have someone cut out each line and then paste them together horizontally and then have them pulled right to left in front of me.

Would I have learned more in college if all my textbooks had been presented to me in a similar way?

Comments

2007-12-13 18:49:17

1. Vishal

since when did the word "crawl" replace "ticker"?

2007-12-13 18:54:54

2. Bob Timmermann

I don't think that's the point.

2007-12-13 19:01:24

3. Scott Long

The crawl should exist solely for who it was initially established for. Gamblers. If there isn't a line on it, don't show me the info on the crawl, ticker, etc.

2007-12-13 19:17:54

4. Philip Michaels

3 I had the Clemens-F.P. Santangelo parlay. I really cleaned up today.

2007-12-13 19:40:27

5. Shaun P

4 My three-guy-teaser of Varitek-Nomar-Nixon, which looked like a sure winner earlier in the day, did not do so well.

In all seriousness, I hope you've sent the ombudsman at ESPN a note about this, Bob. Because you're absolutely right, and its horrible. She'll take them to task. It might not result in any changes, but she'll definitely take them to task.

2007-12-13 19:47:10

6. Bob Timmermann

I'm wondering how USC actually won the first game against Stanford. In the next two, the Cardinal wiped out USC.

2007-12-13 20:33:20

7. Bob Timmermann

That match was good enough to overcome the annoying crawl.

Stanford prevails in five games winning the last one, 16-14.

2007-12-14 00:08:16

8. joejoejoe

ESPN's ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber does an excellent job. She recently wrote how ESPN execs are always answering her questions with "That's just the way the 24/7 media is today." and Schrieber rightly said she's not the ombudsman for all of the media, just ESPN and ESPN should be accountable for their own actions as "worldwide leader".

2007-12-14 06:57:49

9. dianagramr

Hmmm .... didn't ABC speak of themselves as the "worldwide leader in sports" for a few decades? Which brings up the point that the "merger" of ABC sports and ESPN sports has degraded both.

Sigh ....

2007-12-14 07:45:00

10. bobsbrother

I find the crawl most annoying if you're watching something on a slow news day when there are few results, because then you will see the same unimportant news -- first round results from a tennis tournament in Tanzania -- running across the bottom of the screen again and again and again for two hours, followed by some suitably obscure baseball transaction. If they don't have actual results or serious breaking news, they should be able to shut the fool thing off.

Not that it bothers me.

2007-12-14 08:09:43

11. Bob Timmermann

Stanford vs. Penn State in the final for those not scoring at home.

ESPN has the info on the ticker/crawl in categories "NFL" "NCAA M" "NHL" "NCAA W" and for last night, there was a category "MITCHELL"

2007-12-14 10:15:07

12. popup

Bob, the "crawl" is just one more item of pollution on my tv screen. Thank goodness I am not a football fan. I do nontheless happen upon a NFL game at times on tv and I am as much amused as appalled at what I see: multicolored lines that make a football field look like a hockey rink, big directional arrows that I assume are for the drunks in the bars watching the game, and the "crawl" that turns my tv screen into something resembling a postage stamp. Amid all the clutter it is difficult to see the game.

Stan from Tacoma

2007-12-16 22:35:39

13. das411

YES!!!! Good lord Bob, any man would learn more in college if his textbooks were converted into crawls beneath womens' volleyball telecasts. Let's get on this right away, for the sake of all mankind!!

--replays tape of Game 5, PSU 15 - NotTheBird 8 --