Enough with the bloody sock!

What is the sports world coming to?

The hoopla over a piece of soiled laundry, Curt Schilling's bloody sock, has been bloody ridiculous. The way in which the Red Sox and Curt Schilling have reacted to comments about Schilling’s bloody sock made by Orioles play-by-play man Gary Thorne (who, by the way, has the best puck-hits-the-post call in all of hockey) was completely over the top.

Who cares?

Apparently someone cares, because not only did Thorne have to apologize for his comments, ESPN has given this story the kind of coverage you would come to expect for a real sports story like an injury, contract signing or player trade.

What a sad sports world we live in.

The whole Red Sox romanticism baffles me. I do not understand curses. I do not understand why the Red Sox received so much press for their World Series drought-ending championship when the White Sox received far less for ending a longer drought. And, if you are the type that buys into curses, the White Sox actually have more of a claim at a curse with their 1919 Black Sox scandal than the Red Sox do with their poor decision making ability. I do not understand why I should feel sorry for the Red Sox when they do not get their way. I do not understand why I should care about what Daisuke Matsuzaka had for lunch, or what the going rate is for a Manny Ramirez barbecue grill.

Why all the Red Sox drama? Is it because of Fenway Park? It cannot be the result of years of sustained greatness and winning. So, yeah, it must be Fenway, right?

Actually, I think I know the answer.

The Red Sox drama lies in the economics in sports media. ESPN does not care if I do not care about the bloody sock. Why? Because the Northeast cares. Dramatic and needy New Englanders care. And they have the two most important attributes that a caring and needy fan should have if it wants to control the world: numbers and a disposable income.

The bloody sock represents all that is wrong with sports media and New England sports fans.

ESPN knows what they are doing. Red Sox fans care about the bloody sock because that is their nature; they want to romanticize anything and everything that can show the world how great and wonderful their teams are. They want our respect and our sympathy. They want us to fawn all over them like they are better than us and we need them to validate our own existence. Their teams matter and ours do not. That is why Bill Simmons can write about his hatred for the Colts. It matters to him that the Patriots always be considered a better franchise than the Colts by everyone. That is why a sock matters. The sock is a lasting symbol of their one year of greatness; the one year they beat the New York Yankees and ended their fantasy of a curse. ESPN is right there to service these needy fans by bringing justice to them and the bloody sock, and to remind the world of the greatness of the bloody sock.

How dare Gary Thorne bring into question the sacredness of The Sock? Thorne would have found himself in less hot water had he made disparaging comments against The Pope instead of the sock.

All sacrilege against the Red Sox throne aside, there is little we, as the every day non-Boston / New York fan, can do to gain equality. The Red Sox and Yankees market segment dwarfs all other potential market segments. The Colts will never have a fan base strong enough to make ESPN consider, even for a minute, that brining fair and equal coverage to balance Bill Simmons and his Colts hating ways is the right way to generate more revenue. There is no other team, or groupings of teams, that could be strong enough to draw media attention away from the Yankees and Red Sox.

(If you want more examples of Yankees / Red Sox domination, consider the 100+ articles about Alex Rodriguez and Daisuke Matsuzaka; and the 3 out of 4 nationally televised Yankee games by ESPN last week.)

There is no relief in sight for the common sports fan. Until it becomes economically viable for ESPN to feature sports writers whose commentary will represent the fans of smaller market teams, ESPN will continue to just report facts about our teams and flood our televisions, web browsers and radios with endless babble about pointless happenings with the Red Sox and Yankees.

The common sports fan has two options. One is to tune out. Although it is doubtful that will make much of a difference; otherwise, ESPN would have already offered more diversified commentary already. The other option is to blog, call into sports radio stations and send e-mails. It might not change the behaviors of ESPN, but it could fill the void left by ESPN. We could all be as good as Bill Simmons if we wanted to, so long as we have a friend called JackO and have lots of obscure movie references at our disposal (or bad, depending on your point of view).

Enough with the bloody sock and all it represents.