Minnesota Reporters

[mplsbadger]

Why is our sports coverage so poor in this town. It isn't just print or just radio either. Listen to AM 670 and sometimes you'll get the SCORE from Chicago. The Bears talk there is 100% different than the conversation up here. It's a little weird. I don't get it. Will it change when Ruesse and Barriero retire?

 

[Bisker82]

Why is our sports coverage so poor in this town. It isn't just print or just radio either. Listen to AM 670 and sometimes you'll get the SCORE from Chicago. The Bears talk there is 100% different than the conversation up here. It's a little weird. I don't get it. Will it change when Ruesse and Barriero retire?

Because we have a bunch of smug pricks like Ruesse & Barriero who like to pretend they're oh so clever but only know how to denegrate people (especially anything related to gopher sports).

Truth is, as others have previously mentioned, they are way too insecure about being labeled as "homers" to ever be supportive or even moderately objective.

 

[mplsbadger]

Because we have a bunch of smug pricks like Ruesse & Barriero who like to pretend they're oh so clever but only know how to denegrate people (especially anything related to gopher sports).

Truth is, as others have previously mentioned, they are way too insecure about being labeled as "homers" to ever be supportive or even moderately objective.

The weird thing is that you'd think the market would take care of this. Are we asking for this?

 

[Bisker82]

The weird thing is that you'd think the market would take care of this. Are we asking for this?

There's a reason why the Strib is in the financial situation it is and it's not all internet related.

IMO, KFAN is definitley on the slide also. Not much to listen to from any of the shows & they canned their so-called franchise personality in Hartman (notoriously over the top as a Gopher football hater). I for one rarely tune in to KFAN because I can't handle their smugness and lack of objectivity (I used to listen quite a bit).

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

There's a reason why the Strib is in the financial situation it is and it's not all internet related.

IMO, KFAN is definitley on the slide also. Not much to listen to from any of the shows & they canned their so-called franchise personality in Hartman (notoriously over the top as a Gopher football hater). I for one rarely tune in to KFAN because I can't handle their smugness and lack of objectivity (I used to listen quite a bit).

I don't listen to KFAN at all anymore, except i'll occasionally tune into Common Man, but that isn't sports.

PA knows absolutely nothing about any college sports. He follows the NBA and the NFL, but if it is anything college related, no chance.

Hi-Fi is obsessed with being clever, and I never really thought of him as a great sports mind. His expectations are incredibly unrealistic and he holds to those expectations by some sort of grandeusse "we should demand excellance" mantra. Well Danny Boy, that is impossible, if Iowa demanded excellance at his level, Ferentz would have been canned, JoePa would have been canned, heck if he was in Oklahoma, he'd probably be calling Bob Stoops head.

The Morning Show is pretty much garbage. The only one that knows a thing about sports is sludgy.

 

[50PoundHead]

I quit listening to KFAN this summer and now only tune in for the occasional Wolves' game. It got to where the only thing I could hack for more than five minutes was the Common Man. I quit listening to Barreiro when Joe Anderson left the show.

I actually think Chris Hawkey is a funny guy, but he's not a sports guy.

If KFAN loses the Vikes, it's going to be the end over there.

 

[minibeaver]

"How do you stop it?"

Stop listening, watching, and reading the garbage they dispense, this way you will not even know what bs they are saying and you can't come back here to spread the godda%@ negativity even further. Not YOU in specific, just anyone. People stop listening and things will change.

 

[Honyocker]

Bingo!

Because we have a bunch of smug pricks like Ruesse & Barriero who like to pretend they're oh so clever but only know how to denegrate people (especially anything related to gopher sports).

Truth is, as others have previously mentioned, they are way too insecure about being labeled as "homers" to ever be supportive or even moderately objective.

Exactly. Could not have said it better. The disturbing part is that there are enough people who respond to their cynicism and biting sarcasm to keep them around. There is something in many Minnesotans that goes for this kind of stuff. I don't want complete homers as sports journalists, but I want them to be objective, knowledgable, thoughtful and give the benefit of the doubt to our home teams. Is that asking too much? Why all this Minnesota self-loathing from the local press? It makes you want to take a shower after reading their trash.

 

[67frosh]

Move away from MN and you will see a totally different attitude - down here in FL people actually understand college football...

 

[minibeaver]

Move away from MN and you will see a totally different attitude - down here in FL people actually understand college football...

So that explains why your up here on the Minnesota boards? Tryin to fit in with the ignorant country bumpkins?

 

[Honyocker]

Agree

Move away from MN and you will see a totally different attitude - down here in FL people actually understand college football...

Same feeling I have living in Texas during the season. There can be such a defeatist approach in MN and a negativity when things don't go the way some had hoped.

 

[Schnoodler]

The weird thing is that you'd think the market would take care of this. Are we asking for this?

I think it is. Unfortunately the inmates are running the asylum so the papers and the radio aren't adjusting accordingly. Unfortunately we don't really have a counter example that can make this all apparent and get some response. These freaks are all too cozy with one another. If they were competing industrialists they'd all be in jail for anti-trust.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

I think it is. Unfortunately the inmates are running the asylum so the papers and the radio aren't adjusting accordingly. Unfortunately we don't really have a counter example that can make this all apparent and get some response. These freaks are all too cozy with one another. If they were competing industrialists they'd all be in jail for anti-trust.

ain't that the truth!

schnoodler - your takes are almost always spot on. there are about four radio stations and two newspapers in this town looking for a guy like you to cover sports. send em' a resume!

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

I quit listening to KFAN this summer and now only tune in for the occasional Wolves' game. It got to where the only thing I could hack for more than five minutes was the Common Man. I quit listening to Barreiro when Joe Anderson left the show.

I actually think Chris Hawkey is a funny guy, but he's not a sports guy.

If KFAN loses the Vikes, it's going to be the end over there.

man, would that be a wonderful christmas present! i know WCCO has expressed great interest in getting the vikes on their air waves, but the problem they might have is if the vikings contract is not "opened up" for bidding and it is just KFAN competing against themselves.

 

[highwayman]

I think it is. Unfortunately the inmates are running the asylum so the papers and the radio aren't adjusting accordingly. Unfortunately we don't really have a counter example that can make this all apparent and get some response. These freaks are all too cozy with one another. If they were competing industrialists they'd all be in jail for anti-trust.

The Strib is near collapse and KFAN doesn't make the top 15 in this market in ANY time slot. Why do you think that is...hmm...I wonder...

 

[Goldmember]

Why is our sports coverage so poor in this town. It isn't just print or just radio either. Listen to AM 670 and sometimes you'll get the SCORE from Chicago. The Bears talk there is 100% different than the conversation up here. It's a little weird. I don't get it. Will it change when Ruesse and Barriero retire?

There is a noticeable difference between the TC and other major media markets I have spent time in. You wouldn't even need to compare sports coverage between the TC and larger markets like Chicago and NY. There is even a huge divide between much smaller markets like Charlotte/ Oklahoma City and the Twin Cities. The personalities trusted to these positions, even in these much smaller markets, are just far more knowledgeable about sports.

I have found that I might actually learn something listening/ reading about sports in other markets. In Minnesota there is usually just a spewing of opinions based on a fundamental lack of understanding. These media outlets then count on a strong (ouraged) reaction by the informed people to generate interest.

 

[Big Ten Mind]

Exactly. Could not have said it better. The disturbing part is that there are enough people who respond to their cynicism and biting sarcasm to keep them around. There is something in many Minnesotans that goes for this kind of stuff. I don't want complete homers as sports journalists, but I want them to be objective, knowledgable, thoughtful and give the benefit of the doubt to our home teams. Is that asking too much? Why all this Minnesota self-loathing from the local press? It makes you want to take a shower after reading their trash.

Huh? To suggest this press is hard on the teams, players, coaches, owners etc. is a real stretch...I travel quite a bit and other cities media is much more objective/critical than these homers

www.homersota.com pretty much sums it up

 

[Iceland12]

Huh? To suggest this press is hard on the teams, players, coaches, owners etc. is a real stretch...I travel quite a bit and other cities media is much more objective/critical than these homers

www.homersota.com pretty much sums it up

I'm assuming you stumbled upon that blighted site. Oh it certainly DOES sum it up.

One month they had to give their Homer Award to BARRIERO. A REAL homer all right! They had to quit publishing from 2007 until a month ago because they couldn't find anybody who was enough of a homer to give the award to or anybody besides media members who'd read the damn thing.

Oh, they had a point, 20 years late but they HAD a point!

Maybe the complete lack of knowledge about anything except Pro Football and Baseball is confused with lack of objectivity. KFAN the other day was launching into their anti-BCS rant, so far not a problem. Then they couldn't name all the Bowls until a fan called-in and mentioned the Cotton Bowl!

Please, nobody click on that link. The *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#bags don't need it.

 

[50PoundHead]

Not sure what you're saying Iceland. I think Dick Bremer is an unbelieveable homer. I always wanted to e-mail him and ask him what Gardenhire's jockstrap (and TK's before him) smelled like.

Paul Allen is insufferable, both during the Viking broadcasts and during his daily show. At least Senser is off the air, as I've never heard a color commentator (except maybe for the old chucklehead who does Notre Dame football when Pinkett's not around) more biased. Vince Lombardi used to say "We didn't lose. We ran out of time." Joe Senser's revision would be, "We didn't lose. We ran out of time, got jobbed on every call, were victims of cheapshots by the other team, and let's not forget the weather was against us as well."

One thing I've noticed in the past couple of decades is that teams are much more discerning about putting "homers" in the booth. Probably has something to do with not wanting the players feeling a negative vibe. Of course, that doesn't pertain to print media. But this ain't the old days when Skip Caray was doing the Braves on TBS. He really let them have it, especially when they were basically a AAAA team in the mid-to-late 1980s.

 

[Iceland12]

Not sure what you're saying Iceland. I think Dick Bremer is an unbelieveable homer. I always wanted to e-mail him and ask him what Gardenhire's jockstrap (and TK's before him) smelled like.

Paul Allen is insufferable, both during the Viking broadcasts and during his daily show. At least Senser is off the air, as I've never heard a color commentator (except maybe for the old chucklehead who does Notre Dame football when Pinkett's not around) more biased. Vince Lombardi used to say "We didn't lose. We ran out of time." Joe Senser's revision would be, "We didn't lose. We ran out of time, got jobbed on every call, were victims of cheapshots by the other team, and let's not forget the weather was against us as well."

One thing I've noticed in the past couple of decades is that teams are much more discerning about putting "homers" in the booth. Probably has something to do with not wanting the players feeling a negative vibe. Of course, that doesn't pertain to print media. But this ain't the old days when Skip Caray was doing the Braves on TBS. He really let them have it, especially when they were basically a AAAA team in the mid-to-late 1980s.

I can't disagree with that assessment. I was giving a pass to team announcers. If I'm not mistaken all the local teams either own their broadcast rights or have veto power on that talent.

 

[Iceland12]

I also really hate that website. They will pick out a quote from a guy who often goes after the Gophers but slips-up and says something positive, so they nail him for it.

Not exactly accurate or even positive reinforcement.