FOX SPORTS, A-ROD, SCOTT BORRIS and the 2007 world series

What a Series…The Red Sox won again for the 2nd time in 4 years and like 2004 it was a come from behind win in the ALCS followed by a sweep in the World Series. Last night would have been perfect except for the fact that A-Rod, Scot Borris and Fox Sports thought there were issues more important then the World Series. Yep, 6 innings into Game 4 of a potential sweep, Fox Sport’s Ken Rosenthal broke in with late braking news that was much more important (yeah right) then the Series: A-Rod decided to Opt out of his contract with the NY Yankees. But this is Game 4 of a potential World Series sweep so who cares about A-Rod?

I understand that Fox Sports has an obligation to report sports news, but do you really think producers didn’t know this news before the game started? My cynical mind tells me they did, but chose to wait until a more appropriate time in Fox’s broadcast to announce it. In this case, the more appropriate time was the 6th inning when they knew that with the exception of New Englanders, everybody on this half of the country was going to bed and a boost in ratings was needed. Mike Golic of ESPN said this morning that Fox had an obligation to report this, that A-Rod and Scot Borris were at fault for taking the lime light away from the Series. True, but Fox wasn’t reporting the news because of journalistic integrity, if they had, they would have reported it when they really learned the news. Fox Sports reported the news at a certain time to try to draw higher ratings.

So my Point is, if Fox waited on this story till the 6th inning, then they could have waited until after the Series to announce it or put it on the crawler. Give the World Series its due. But no, A-Rod is more important and the 10 minutes spent on this “news” turned into a huge distraction and blew out any dim spark the Series had. But I guess in world where A-Rod and Scott Borris need to be bigger then the World Series and make more money then Bill Gates; A world where journalistic integrity is out the window in favor of higher profits for shareholders, then this really shouldn’t surprise us.