From ESPN Review by Dre Coble in SRM 334 (section 2)
Our current event presentation will be on the 2013 World Baseball Classic and one major event that happen during the tournament that sent the media into frenzy. If you extreme baseball fan you know what this event is all about. The world baseball classic is something similar to the world cup but baseball style. It’s a baseball tournament with 16 different countries trying to win a championship. The teams are made up of individuals who are either living in that country now or from that country. In America we have the MLB (Major League Baseball) which is our own professional league. A lot of our professionals in the MLB are from different countries such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, China etc. With that being said players that play in America play for their native country in this tournament. The tournament is also similar to the Olympics when it comes to that aspect. The games are hosted in different locations around the world.
The world baseball is meant to bring together all these different countries in friendly competition to see who is considered the best in the world. Players take these games seriously because they aren’t only representing themselves they are representing their country. The world baseball classic is broadcasted on national TV in America but doesn’t receive a lot of media attention. This is a question that needs to be asked and answered. It seems like the tournament isn’t a big thing to America and a lot of Americans who aren’t baseball fanatics don’t even bother to watch it. This is where the tournament isn’t like the world cup or like the Olympics. Both of those events are highly talked about in media either on TV or social networks, constant stories are being released about them. The tournament wasn’t receiving barley any attention until the countries of Canada and Mexico played each other. In the ninth inning Mexico pitcher hit a Canadian batter and all hell broke loose as the batter charged the mound and the benches cleared starting an all-out brawl between the two teams. After the teams were separated no one was suspended for the fight but the media went crazy. The video of the fight was all over the news, ESPN, and internet. It took a fight to bring some attention to the tournament and the question is why did it take all that just for the tournament to receive all this coverage? In America do we love seeing violence especially when it comes to sports? --- Review by Reuben Alarico in SRM 334 (section 2)
Andre and I decided to do our current events presentation on the recent fight between Team Canada and Team Mexico during the opening rounds of the World Baseball Classic. The fight was caused because Canada decided to bunt in the top of the 9th inning while leading 9-3. This sparked Mexican 3rd baseman Luis Cruz to tell his pitcher, Arnold Leon, to hit the next batter. The first pitch was very inside but nothing was said of it. The next pitch would have hit the batter’s thigh had he not moved. This led to both teams getting warned by the umpire. The next and last pitch was the “finishing blow”. A fastball clocked at 93 mph hit Canadian Rene Tosoni in the back. After being hit, he started walking towards the mound which led to benches being cleared and a couple of fights breaking out. After everything settled, no one ended up getting suspended.
Viewing the fight from an analytical standpoint, I believe Luis Cruz felt like Canada should not have been bunting due to the run differential and also because of an “unwritten” which considers that to be disrespectful. But at the same time, what does hitting a batter prove to anyone? I think they should have stayed professional and tried to have been the “bigger men”. I’m sure sports bloggers and sports analysts would have talked about the lack of sportsmanship displayed by Team Canada had Mexico kept their composure. Lastly I wanted to include how this event is relevant to our class. It relates to our class because it involves sports media because this fight was a trending topic on twitter and it also involves event management because the World Baseball Classic is a tournament that takes place on an international stage and occurs only every four years.
On March 25th Nike posted and shared an advertisement on Facebook and Twitter of Tiger Woods with the text “Winning takes care of everything.” This was posted after Tiger reclaimed the #1 golfer in the world ranking on March 24th. There has been a lot of criticism towards Nike with this ad due to the scandal of Tiger cheating on his former wife. It is also sort of ironic that he is back at the #1 spot after recently revealing that he is dating skier Lindsey Vonn.
I think the ad is just Nike being Nike. This is not the first controversial ad or athlete that they have chosen to endorse. Nike usually shows a flare or arrogance with everything that they do. Cockiness is always in their repertoire it is what sets them above and apart from their rivals Under Armour, Adidas, and Reebok. Nike thrives off of this type of advertisement and the athletes that Nike markets to do the same. The main uproar from this ad is more of the family type and liberal minded people. I’ve seen the majority of complaints from mothers and non-athlete males (who aren’t in Nikes target audience). Most athletes that see this ad just laugh and shrug it off.
This was only portrayed over social media. The ad couldn’t have cost more than cost of labor to make and went viral relatively fast. It is the new era of marketing and in the future I feel like these ads that push the envelope will become more and more dominant in the media world. I feel as if the world of huge costly marketing campaigns will soon find a rival in the small viral pictures and ads posted over social media outlets. --- Review by Dale Robins-Bailey in SRM 334 (section 3)
In the past couple of days Nike released an ad with a picture of Tiger Woods lining up a putt, including his slogan “Winning Takes Care of Everything.” The picture was released on Facebook and Twitter in light of Tigers recent return to form and with it the coveted title of number one golfer in the world.
There has been an outstanding response already to the ad with over 8000 likes and 2000 shares on Facebook alone creating a huge social twitter storm. Although many have been quick to congratulate Tiger on his return to the pinnacle of golf, many have been dissatisfied with Nike’s ad claiming it to be controversial and bordering on unethical.
After his sordid love affairs that lead to the end of his 5 year marriage with Elin Nordegren, Woods hit an all-time low which lead to loss of millions in sponsorship deals along with a slip down the rankings. It is because of this many are labeling the ad highly inappropriate because it suggests that his past mistakes are all forgotten in comparison to his golfing accolades.
Whether Nike’s ambiguity is a totally ballsy move or stupidly ignorant it remains to be seen, but they are sticking to the story that the meaning behind their publication is strictly in regards to Woods’athletic performance.
The sheer volume of the social media response has forced Nike into explaining itself.
"Tiger has always said he competes to win," Nike spokesman Beth Gast said in a statement. "When asked about his goals such as getting back to No. 1, he has said consistently winning is the way to get there. The statement references that sentiment and is a salute to his athletic performance."
Despite the bad press an poll by ESPN business reporter Darren Rovell 84% said the ad was ‘No Big Deal’ with only 16% calling it ‘Offensive’. ESPN’s very own Stephen A. Smith publicly supported the Ad live on First Take saying “I absolutely loved it!” Many people seem to think just the sheer number of people talking about it through the various media avenues, will only help bolster Tigers image and Nike’s revenue streams.
Nike has always supported Woods unlike two of their last high profile ambassadors; Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius whose ties have been severed after recent controversies. They have now realized it is time to move forward now Woods is on the up.
Chris and I decided for our current event to be the Miami Heat winning streak creeping up on the previous Lakers winning streak. We decided to focus mainly on how the coverage of the streak is slightly taking away from other presenting topics that are relevant right now like the NCAA tournament and March Madness. We decided to outline both the statistics of the 71’-72’ Lakers and the 12’-13’ Heat to show what kind of skill both teams had and now possess to have a streak like the record is. We also decided to show a critique video of the Heat’s streak and which teams they are going to have to face to continue the streak, I strongly believe they will beat the Laker’s previous record. For the slideshow I wanted to make sure we weren’t just reading off a slide but just have bullets and elaborate on the point we are trying to make. I believe the topic we chose correlates to the class because we are so focused on good media, can too much media be bad? We introduced a few discussion questions that the class can answer with their opinions. Obviously the attention the Heat is getting has increased their fan base greatly and will continue to as the streak continues. What we are trying to achieve by presenting this topic is for the class to understand that when one topic achieves a great amount of hype it leaves the other topics out to dry in a sense that something that could have been a great headliner is now just a sub-topic. --- Review by Chris Moffett in SRM 334 (section 2) The Miami Heat are currently sitting on a 26 game winning streak, the 2nd highest in NBA history and just 8 games shy of breaking the record of 33 straight wins set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Miami, already one of the most popular team in the league is generating even more press by the day due to their streak. Because of this, one may wonder whether the streak is good or bad for the NBA.
In an article by Frankie Hobbs of HoopsHabit.com, he describes that the streak is good for the NBA because March is typically a down month in the popularity of the league. One reason for this is because of March Madness, and the average basketball fan is more likely to watch the NCAA Tournament than the NBA regular season. Miami’s streak has given fans something to watch for in the NBA. Hobbs also says that the fact that at this point in the season many teams are already out of playoff contention and are now just “going through the motions”, making watching their games rather boring.
In some aspects, I agree with Hobbs that the streak is good for the League. The problem I have with the win streak is the incredible amount of media coverage the Heat get, on top of already being one of the most talked about teams in the NBA. I think that sports media has a habit of taking a story and completely running it into the ground, such as Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, and the struggles of the LA Lakers earlier this season. I think that the Heat getting this much coverage is resulting in a lack of coverage for other teams, specifically the Denver Nuggets, who are on a win streak of their own of 15 games, a franchise record. The media needs to better diversify the material they cover.
