Athletes vs. Media War Heats Up

For years athletes and the media have butted heads. Athletes resent media members who criticize them especially when said media member has not played professional sports. Saturday night a battle brewed between David Price and TBS.

Price had a rough outing in game two of the ALDS against the Red Sox Saturday night allowing seven runs in seven innings. After the game the TBS postgame analysts said that Price should have been pulled from the game sooner. Former major league pitcher Dirk Hayhurst said regarding Price, “This is the playoffs, you can’t take any chances. He was out there past his prime. He should have come out sooner.”

Pretty harmless statement. Hayhurst is paid to analyze the game and he expressed his opinions and did not attack Price personally. MLB analyst Tom Verducci echoed Hayhurst’s opinion and Price took to Twitter to voice his displeasure.

"Dirk Hayhurst...COULDNT hack it... Tom Verducci wasn't even a water boy in high school... but yet they can still bash a player... SAVE IT NERDS"

I understand why athletes get frustrated by media criticism. They bust their ass and have worked very hard to get where they are in their careers. Major League Baseball players are the top .2% of baseball players in the world. It must be condescending to get criticized by someone who has not played the game in their life.

But this is just a microcosm of the struggle between athletes and the media particularly in baseball. Baseball is the most stat-driven sport by far. There are numbers to quantify every aspect of performance in baseball. Numbers in baseball more often than not tell the story thus making it easier for people or “nerds” who have never played the game to analyze it.

An example of this tension is earlier this season MLB Network analyst Brian Kenney suggested that Cincinnatti Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips was not a top ten second baseman in baseball. Kenney, a well-respected baseball analyst used various statistics to back up his opinion and compare Phillips to other second baseman in the league. Harold Reynolds, an old school MLB Network analyst, took exception to Kenney’s opinion. On the show “MLB Now” the guest was Detroit Tiger Torii Hunter. Hunter and Reynolds laughed at Kenney’s analyst and Hunter even said “Have you ever played major league baseball before?” Former players and current ones are now using the “you haven’t played so your opinion isn’t as valid as mine” excuse to laugh off the rest of the media.

MLB players are frightened by the emergence of the advanced metrics community. Their game is being picked apart by more numbers and statistics than ever before. Plays that may seem insignificant before can now be quantified by advanced statistics and it scares baseball players.

The tension between players and the media will not end any time soon. There is even tension between advanced metrics baseball analysts and former player analysts. Many analysts who used to play or manage in the league don’t take advanced metrics seriously and laugh off the “nerds” who look at the numbers.

David Price was wrong for going after Hayhurst and Verducci on Twitter and he apologized for it. Baseball and all professional sports are heading in a dangerous territory where the media and players will clash for years to come. Players are understandably frustrated that people overanalyze their game. But fans enjoy overanalyzing baseball and listening to new school analysts debate old school analysts. And professional sports is and always will be about the fans who pay to watch.