WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Fastpitch Johnny. July 7, 2004: The national media and local newspaper and radio sports editors have an agenda to make sure that professional women’s fastpitch softball dies a fast death.
HOME OF THE FORGOTTEN JUGGERNAUT: Montclair State University Softball Stadium. The media are not covering the debut of the National Pro Fastpitch league, now in swing for five weeks. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
Let’s take a look.
You can’t find National Pro Fastpitch coverage on the sports electronic media.
ESPN sports does not cover the games on SportsCenter.
MSG Network does not give New York/New Jersey Juggernaut scores on their SportsDesk shows, let alone show highlights, or run their scores on the MSG “crawl.”
The local sports television shows on Channels 2,4,7 have not covered the games, with the exception (WPCNR was told) of WOR-TV, Channel 9.
New York radio stations do not give Juggernaut scores, yet they give the New York Liberty scores (women’s pro basketball).
WFAN fans on fastpitch.
WFAN Radio, the “sports authority,” has done nothing to this reporter’s knowledge on the Juggernaut debut, totally discrediting themselves as the Voice of New York Sports.
Asked why WFAN was not covering the Juggernaut, Mark Chernoff, WFAN Program Director told WPCNR he had never heard of them.
This is strange because the Juggernaut front office reports they sent press releases and schedules to WFAN before the start of the season. Apparently Chernoff has been uninformed by his staff.
Chernoff said the station has had no phone-ins about the Juggernaut and might include them in their sports 20/20 updates if the public showed more interest.
MICHELLE SMITH FIRING IN MONTCLAIR, OPENING NIGHT. June 1. UNCOVERED, except by WPCNR. Photo by WPCNR Sports
WPCNR suggests that failure to at least interview the Juggernaut owner or even Michelle Smith on any show on FAN when she came to town to pitch for the Juggernaut is just plain prejudice on the part of “the sports authority.”
Michelle Smith Signing autographs into the night, June 1. Not a big enough star to cover for ESPN or the local television stations. Are you kidding me? Photo by WPCNR Sports
When the Worldwide Wrestling Foundation floated the XFL football league two years ago, the FAN interviewed the XFL people on the Mike and the Mad Dog program. They had no stars. Did they do that with National Pro Fastpitch and the New York-New Jersey Juggernaut, when Michelle Smith came to town. No. They did not.
The Juggernaut has tried to get their scores on the FAN 20/20, but FAN, according to Program Director Chernoff has not heard of them. How hard is it to do that F-A-N? It takes 10 seconds to give a Juggernaut score on the 20/20.
Program Director pleads Nolo Know.
Chernoff said he had not received any information or press releases from the Juggernaut, or Juggernaut schedules. Chernoff reported the radio station had not received any calls about them, and therefore could not gauge the level of interest in the team.
He did say FAN covered women’s basketball, including the Liberty and the Connecticut Sun. He said if he had information on the Juggernaut he could make a more informed decision about including them in their coverage.
The Juggernaut reports they sent information to WFAN and send it regularly, which only means that WFAN deliberately is refusing to cover professional fastpitch.
Tune in SportsCenter. It comes up empty on Fastpitch Softball.
ESPN’s Dan Quinn, a spokesperson for ESPN’s SportsCenter told WPCNR that SportsCenter did not have “enough time” in an hour show to report on the National Pro Fastpitch teams because “there was not interest enough in the sport to warrant the coverage.”
He said if focus groups held by the network research department showed more interest in the fastpitch game, ESPN might add coverage in the future.
Well, focus groups are not the way to make news decisions, Mr. ESPN. If you ask a group of men about fastpitch, unless they have daughters who play, they might not know about it. Relying on focus groups is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
WPCNR suggests that ESPN just does not want to cover it. That would take work. That would take research. That would take a commitment to covering the entire America sports scene instead of the NFL, Baseball, and the nonsports, professional golf, NASCAR and horse racing. ESPN simply shills for the sports they have rights to. They do not cover the sports news and sports trends as a news organization would.
Denied the Crawl.
ESPN’s real sin against fastpitch is they do not put the scores on the ESPN Update Crawls. That is poor. We are talking three games here a night. 15 seconds of crawl time. Come on, Dan, dump some of those nobody losing pitchers on the baseball linescores and put in the NPF scores, WPCNR is calling you out on failure to crawl.
Aaron Moore, the Manager of Communications for National Pro Fastpitch in Denver, Colorado, said he has repeatedly lobbied with ESPN executives by e-mail, (he did not recall who they were) for inclusion on the ESPN crawl. He said he was not given a reason why ESPN would not put the Fastpitch games on the celebrate crawl…the most watched part of any ESPN programming.
Moore told WPNCR last week from Oklahoma City, recording his relations with ESPN and their refusal to “crawl” National Pro Fastpitch, “All you can do is put it out there and it’s up to them whether they cover it or not.”
Moore said he sent ESPN a media kit before the start of the NPF season, and “is in touch with them almost on a daily basis.” Go figure.
ESPN televising the Olympic Team and Pro Fastpitch on delay.
The failure to cover Pro Fastpitch is all the more negligent by ESPN because ESPN will televise the Olympic softball team games with the top two National Pro Fastpitch East and West All Star teams next week. But show the games a week later. How poor is that?
Why wouldn’t you show them live?
The all-star games with the Olympic team will be broadcast live on the internet on Pro Sports Radio at their website.
National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) announced this week that Pro Sports Radio has agreed to webcast the three games in Oklahoma City, live on July 13 and 14.
Bob Eres will handle the play-by-play duties for the broadcast, while Aaron Moore will handle the color commentary. Fans can listen to the games by visiting the NPF site at Pro Sports Radio (www.npf.prosportstadio.com) and clicking on the All-Star Game logo. The logo will take fans directly to the broadcast.
