Belmont Blowdown

Well, I'm not going to say I told you so cause I am disappointed. But when I heard the guarantee for a win by Big Brown's trainer my heart totally sank. And no matter how many times they trot out Rick Detrow's "lover and mother of his child was a crackhead who was murdered and his dad didn't love him and he once lived on the backside" story my heart is not going to get warmed. I still think the guy's an asshole. And after watching the coverage all day, besides getting sick of the same commercials over and over, I also got tired of ESPN's effort at manufacturing a heartwarming story where there was none. (The Kent Desormeux son story was another matter entirely.)

I realize 7 hours is a lot of coverage to fill, especially when it seems there's not much competition and everyone is pretty lightly raced, but I think they can do better. (Though Bob Baffert calling Kenny Mayne a prick was classic sports television.) It seems they think the viewers won't simply care about the achievement itself, it now must be packaged with a carefully vetted appealing backstory. Reading some of the ESPN blogs last night, which were filled with misgivings about Big Brown's lack of previous challenges and how uncaptured the nation seemed (especially compared with the Smarty Party of 2004) the question became who are they trying to convince?

It also seemed ironic to me to be watching this kind of coverage on the day of Jim McKay's death, he who pioneered the heartwarming backstory that made you care about all the crazy stuff they used to show on "Wide World of Sports". I have to say they should have watched him more closely cause he did it right.