You know what’s crazy? i’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
ESPN 50,000th sportscenter.
It’s a man’s night light. It’s the wife you want and the girlfriend yiou need.
She loves the 6-4-3 double play. She loves the hail mary. She’ll watch an Inside the Lines about jock itch.
Thank You Sportscenter.
I remember the first one. It was September 1979.
I watched it. I was like, what the hell is this cable nonsense.
It looked like it was broadcast from a broom closet with a felt bulletin board.
George Grand was sitting at a sorry ass desk, urging me to watch highlights of badminton. After 5 minutes of highlights of Asian dudes swinging at a shuttle cock, it was a race between camel jockeys, literally.
After 50,000 episodes and 33 years, the names of the anchors are iconic. Charely Steiner. Hannah Storm. Stewart Scott. Keith Oberman. Dan Patrick. Chris Berman.
18 million watch each day. Only 30,000 watched that first episode.
ESPN is now on every cable and satellite package. There are sister networks and ESPN Desportes. In the movies there is ESPN the
Ocho. I love that.
But but back in the day, you had to call and ask your cable provider for it.
Sometimes they’d say ES – What?
Back in the day, ESPN was like a sports side show at the circus.
Now it’s sunshine on a cloudy day.
Back in the day, sports was something that came on at the end of the newscast for 2 and a half minutes. If you lived in the Bay Area you got a few Niner and Raider highlights. If you were a Dallas Cowboys fan in the Bay Area, buenos noches bitch.
Sports center changed all that. Even with its prehistoric, boring, monosyllabic visual look, they knew I, the sports fan, needed more.
The show was slow to develop. It’s tough to make paint drying look exciting and some sports were just that.
But the network did some brilliant things like getting hockey and colege football and now the NFL.
They invited vernacular you hear today.
WAY DOWN TOWN BANG.
ENFUEGO.
COOLER THAN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PILLOW.
BOOHYA
BACK BACK BACK BACK GONE.
ESPN is a juggernaut. I know 4 people who either have or still work there.
It might be the best sports job in the world.
I know that its now an American staple. Go to a bar, ESPN is on. Go to someone’s house, Sportscenter is in the background.
It’s my night light, my cough syrup, my comfort food.
Da Da Da. Da Da Da.
Here’s to 50,000 more.
Good night sports wife.
And that’s crazy.™