ANOTHER REASON TO HATE “DREAM JOB”: Since Tony Kornheiser is one of the judges for the entire six-week run of the show, he is required to be in Bristol for it and is thus out of the “Pardon the Interruption” studio every Monday and Friday. Therefore, the best show on ESPN must now make do with such substandard co-hosts as Norman Chad and Dan LeBatard.
This is just another in my litany of reasons why “SportsCenter,” and the network itself, has gone down the tubes lately: they struck gold with PTI two years ago, and then proceeded to completely misunderstand its appeal: rather than the chemistry and rapport between Kornheiser and Wilbon, the network’s execs apparently believed it was arguments and yelling that people wanted to see, and as a result greenlighted the abysmal “Around the Horn” and turned “SportsCenter” into all-arguments, all-the-time. In bits like “Fact or Fiction” and especially that vile John Clayton/Sean Salisbury segment, ESPN presents mean-spirited insult-fests, which are light-years away from the competitive but respectful camaraderie of PTI. And with Kornheiser now missing shows in order to feed ESPN’s latest horrible new venture, the network has even further cooked its golden goose.
One more complaint: walking by the ESPN Zone restaurant in Times Square last week, I saw a T-shirt for sale featuring the catchphrases of all the current anchors- and they’re all lame as hell. Now granted, had I seen the same shirt in 1996 with “en fuego,” “he hit the ball real hard,” and “drooling the drool of regret into the pillow of remorse,” I probably would have bought it. But can anyone other than the most ardent fan tell you what Scott Van Pelt’s home run call is?