A lot of stuff has been happening in the sports world recently. A lot worth blogging about. That made it difficult to pick just one topic. I could've done one of those bullet-pointed ones where I tackle several topics and put in my two cents on each. But I decided not to do that because I had a feeling if I tried, I'd end up missing something. So I'm sticking with one, but which one?
Well, it's a couple weeks until ESPN's convergence of sports and entertainment. We all know that the ESPYs are incredibly stupid and the show is terrible. It's two and a half hours of ESPN congratulating itself for being so great and the winners acting like the award is actually important. Yet we still all sit there and watch a glorified three-hour "This Is SportsCenter" commercial.
This year's ESPYs have already created more preshow buzz than we usually see, due mainly to the fact that they announced a few weeks ago that Caitlyn Jenner will be receiving the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. While I agree that Lauryn Hill would've been a great selection, and I thought it was a foregone conclusion the award would go to Hill, I didn't join in the public outrage in the selection of Jenner. And, as many people noted on social media, a lot of the "outrage" came from people who didn't even know the ESPYs were a thing. As one of my friends put it, "Now we can all go back to not caring about the ESPYs."
I don't care that the Arthur Ashe Award is going to Caitlyn Jenner either, but for different reasons. I can see where the powers that be were coming from with the selection. And so what if they did it just because transgenderism is the hot topic in the news right now or they wanted to cash in on the Jenner/Kardashian celebrity? It didn't make Lauryn Hill's story any less courageous or inspirational. (I have a feeling they'll find some way to honor Hill anyway.) Frankly, it makes no difference whether or not that was strictly a headline grab. On ESPY night, I'm sure Caitlyn's going to kill it just like Jimmy V himself at the first-ever ESPYs just weeks before his death or Stuart Scott did last year a few months before his.
The one thing about the ESPYs that is cool, though, is that it brings together all the best players in every sport. Sure, a lot don't show up, and they include a lot of niche sports that aren't familiar to a majority of the audience (I think the only reason they have the "Action Sports Athlete of the Year" category is because ESPN owns the X Games).
Today the nominees came out and they exposed a lot of the things that make the ESPYs so stupid. First of all, you can tell which sports ESPN likes the best. The four finalists for Best Male Athlete, for example, are two NFL players and two NBA players. They also eliminated the Best Team category, which I don't really agree with. Worst of all, though, is that the winners are chosen strictly by fan voting. So, after ESPN whittles down the candidates to only the four sports it cares about, the people who are fans of said sport end up giving every award to the same handful of players/teams, even if there are clearly more-deserving candidates. The vote should really be a mix of the fans and people who actually know what they're talking about. (Seriously, is anybody who casts a vote really qualified to choose the "Bowler of the Year?")
Despite all of this criticism I've levied against ESPN and the ESPYs here, it's still worth taking a look at the nominees in some of the major categories. For "Best Male Athlete," it's Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers and J.J. Watt. I'm sure they included LeBron just so he shows up at the ceremony. Because he doesn't deserve to be a finalist over Madison Bumgarner or Clayton Kershaw. Or Carey Price. Or even Novak Djokovic. It's a stretch to include Watt in there, too. So really, this is a showdown between Curry and Rodgers. I voted for Rodgers, but since the NBA tends to dominate the voting in these things, Curry will probably win, which I'd be fine with.
Female Athlete of the Year is always tougher because there are far fewer high-profile female athletes. And it was made tougher this year because there wasn't an Olympics/World Cup to include. I think this should be a runaway Serena Williams win. She's won the last three Grand Slams in dominating fashion. But I have a feeling it's going to be Ronda Rousey simply because she's one of their newest obsessions. Breanna Stewart is a worthy finalist, while Lindsey Vonn's chances on taking home an ESPY lie in the "Best Comeback Athlete" category.
Going against Vonn for "Best Comeback Athlete" are Rob Gronkowski, A-Rod and Derrick Rose. We all know who's going to win here. ESPN considers Rob Gronkowski to be the Second Coming. (It's probably because he plays for the Patriots, but I just can't embrace the guy. I really don't see the appeal.) Whether or not he actually wins, they'll probably rig the results to say he did, just so they can have him go up on stage and act like a frat boy.
"Best Championship Performance" is probably the hardest category to pick. For some reason, they also included LeBron here, even though his team lost the NBA Finals (not sure how you can have a championship performance if you don't win the championship). Florida softball pitcher Lauren Haeger is also nominated, but this is between Madison Bumgarner for single-handedly winning the World Series and American Pharoah for obvious reasons. It's really a toss-up, and neither choice would be wrong. But American Pharoah is fresh in everyone's minds and it's something a majority of us have never seen, so I'm figuring the Triple Crown winner (or at least the people associated) will also win the ESPY.
ESPN's bias is shown very clearly in the "Best Coach/Manager" finalists. Where's Bruce Bochy, who won his third World Series in five years with the team that had the fifth-best record in the National League! He's not even nominated! Yet Steve Kerr (NBA), Urban Meyer (college football) and Bill Belichick (NFL) all are, along with Coach K and Geno Auriemma. I really wouldn't pick any of these five over Bochy, so it really makes no difference to me who wins.
For "Best Breakthrough Performance," it's Odell Beckham, Mo'ne Davis, some guy from the Ohio State football team and Jordan Spieth. Beckham is also the No. 1 seed in the "Best Play" bracket, and I don't see how he doesn't win there. I also voted for him here, but that's much less of a guarantee. ESPN loves Mo'ne Davis and you know they'll be all over the fact that she's there and she's nominated. Spieth, meanwhile, is another name that's hot right now after his Masters and U.S. Open wins. His 2015 so far certainly qualifies as a great "breakthrough performance."
It's not even worth getting into "Best Record-Breaking Performance" because it's so obvious Peyton Manning is going to win for his 509th career touchdown pass. And he should.
Two last categories I want to look at are the closely-related "Best Upset" and "Best Game." The "Best Upset" nominees are Georgia State over Baylor in the NCAA Tournament, the Ole Miss football team's win over Alabama and the Royals' run to the AL pennant. Be careful ESPN. You've seen what can happen when you give Kansas City Royals fans the chance to vote for something. (Although I did vote for the Royals here.)
In "Best Game," I also voted for the Royals and the game that got it all started, that extra-inning classic against the A's in the AL Wild Card Game. The other two nominees are pretty good, too. Game 7 of the Spurs-Clippers playoff series, which, by all accounts from what I've heard, was a classic series, not just a classic game. They also nominated the Super Bowl, which I didn't think was overly exciting. Sure it was close and it was a good game, but I remember the Seahawks blowing it at the end and Katy Perry. That's really about it.
So there you have it. This is probably the most time anyone has ever spent breaking down the ESPY nominees. And I know I say I won't every year, but I always end up watching them. That's why they hold the ceremony on the day after the All*Star Game. There's nothing else going on, so people end up watching the ESPYs by default. And, with Caitlyn Jenner and the move from ESPN to ABC, I'm sure the viewing public will watch the ESPYs more than ever before this year.
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