The Captain’s Blog has uncovered secret video of an ESPN staff meeting that helps shed some light on the curious unanimity of the network’s baseball predictions.
When ESPN’s 2011 season forecasts were first revealed on its website, many in the industry were surprised to see that all 45 “experts” picked the Red Sox to win the American League East. Since that time, several allegations of wrong doing have emerged. According to one unidentified source, although ESPN employees were permitted to pick against the Red Sox in the World Series, choosing another AL East leader was strictly prohibited. Despite the New England-based network’s widely perceived Boston bias, most media watchdogs dismissed these early claims of coercion. However, the following video, which was given to The Captain’s Blog by a confidential informant, tells a different story.
As evident in the video, at least two ESPN employees wanted to select the Yankees as AL East champion, but their refusal to toe the company line resulted in severe repercussions. The Captain’s Blog has not received confirmation about other similar methods of coercion, but at least one unidentified source confirmed that the hard line stance taken by higher ups had a chilling effect on the predictions of others.
Just saw this one. Beautiful!
Like the 2-0 start, A-Rod and Tex hitting, Coltrane Martin with the great Yankee debut as well. I’m smelling a pennant..
[…] 17, 2011 by williamnyy23 The Captain’s Blog has once again received a leaked video tape, this time of a secret meeting between an undisclosed baseball team and an […]
[…] One season after averaging a 6.4-win divergence per team, my predictions deviated from the actual by 8.4 wins. In addition, the combination of exact predictions and “near misses” (defined as being within five wins of the actual total) plummeted all the way from 20 to 12. Meanwhile, projections that were “off the mark” (defined as a prediction 10 games or more from the actual total) increased from eight to 12. What’s more, the magnitude of those significant misses also increased. Whereas in 2010 my worst prediction was a 20-win divergence from the Padres’ final total, this year, two teams digressed from my forecast by at least 24 wins. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on ESPN? […]
[…] job he did this year. Not only did the Yankees exceed their own deflated pre-season expectations (ESPN’s experts were unanimous in selecting the Red Sox to win the division), but they did so because of contributions from […]
[…] job he did this year. Not only did the Yankees exceed their own deflated pre-season expectations (ESPN’s experts were unanimous in selecting the Red Sox to win the division), but they did so because of contributions from […]