I guess y'all never thought that we would be talking about sports on this blog, but ... here we are at the beginning of March Madness, 2012, and ... here we are talking about sports -- particularly, about college basketball, and more particularly about the vast majority of poorly educated and only semi-literate group of people who spend virtually no time researching the background for a piece, and then write about an event for national publication (i.e., "sportswriters").
Let me say at the outset that the only sports commentator whom I consider to be a truly well-educated and well-spoken individual is Jay Bilas. However, I want to hasten to add that I have no qualms with Greg Anthony. He is certainly well-spoken, and he gives the on-air impression of being well-educated -- not a characteristic most would expect from someone who went to UNLV. There are other well-spoken sportswriters and sports commentators who give the appearance of having meaningfully looked into the subjects about which they speak -- Clark Kellogg and Hubert Davis come to mind -- but they are by far the minority. There are LOTS of sportswriters on the other end of the spectrum. My grandmother used to tell me: "If you can't say something nice about someone, just don't say anything about him at all." Ergo ... no further comments here - at least not by name - about "the other end of the spectrum".
Now ... what has brought on this datribe about this subject, you ask. It's so minor I'm almost embarrassed myself to bring it up, but ... since I attended Western Kentucky University myself, and since I spent 55 years living in southern Kentucky, the statement that is the subject of this screed just aggravated the hell out of me.
Anybody who watches college basketball knows that on Tuesday night Western Kentucky University came from 16 points behind with fewer than 6 minutes to play to beat Mississippi Valley State by one point. The point of this post arose in the AP's "recap" of that game. After pointing out that WKU will play the University of Kentucky on Thursday night, the AP writer wrote: "A smaller school from a corner of the commonwealth became the star of the First Four." Of course, the problem is that Western Kentucky University does not lie in "a corner of the Commonwealth". Rather, WKU has been in Bowling Green, Kentucky for over 100 years. Bowling Green is about 22 miles from the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, right on I-65, which runs, inter alia, from Louisville, KY to Nashville, TN. It is 175 miles from Bowling Green to Hickman, KY, which is the westernmost county seat in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. On the other hand, it is 207 miles from Bowling Green to Middlesboro, KY, which is the easternmost county seat of a county that borders Tennessee. The point is that Bowling Green, KY -- home of Western Kentucky University -- is actually located virtually in the middle of Kentucky, from east to west. The reference to "a smaller school from a corner of the commonwealth" would be apt if it were a reference to Murray State University, which is only 52 miles from Hickman, KY, but is 330 miles from Middlesboro, KY.
Now, in the whole scheme of things, does this matter. Probably not. But it's a classic example of a lazy sportswriter presuming that because the name of the school is WESTERN Kentucky University the school must be in the western "corner of the commonwealth". It's a classic example of a lazy sportswriter doing a half-assed job for a full salary. It's people like this, who consistently produce an inferior product with no diminution in their earnings, who are much of what is wrong with our country today. If no one ever calls them out over it, sorry sportswriting in particular, and the state of the country in general, will only get worse.
Best to all.
Lucian
