#FireJimBowden is Real, and It’s (Un)spectacular
I’ve been here in my little corner of the internet shouting, pontificating, and postulating about (mostly) baseball things for about 5 years now. One of the things that I genuinely shouted (or at least raised my normally steady tone) about was that Jim Bowden was not a particularly good baseball analyst. For the uninformed, here is a quick rundown of my history not-so-earnestly trying to get Jim Bowden fired:
- I first called Bowden an idiot in 2013, when he spent 1,500 words crafting trades of Matt Weiters in an alter-universe wherein the Orioles had just signed Brian McCann.
- I followed that up a week later when Bowden prematurely gave out offseason grades. The highlight of my attack was that Shin-Soo Choo remained unsigned. (Choo has been mostly bad since.)
- In February, 2014, I hated Bowden’s analysis of the Braves moves to lock up their young stars.
- July, 2014: Bowden comes up with five stupid trades involving David Price. Price was traded to the Tigers, who he rejected out of hand.
- November, 2014: Bowden talks at length about Cole Hamels and the Red Sox, a deal that never materialized.
- Last year, Bowden and I sparred on Twitter. I wrote about it in a post titled #FireJimBowden Takes a Serious Turn.
Well today, #FireJimBowden took the most serious of turns. Bowden, along with approximately 100 of his ESPN colleagues was let go by the struggling network. I received multiple texts. I guess I won, but it didn’t feel right to gloat that a man had just lost his job. I’ve spent more time calling for this man to be fired than I have on just about anything else for this website. What was I trying to accomplish? Why was I taking internet shots at Bowden?
In my last post, I summed it like this:
Sure, my general loathing of Bowden is grounded in jealousy knowing that he’s made his career working in baseball. I think I’m a better analyst and I’m jealous that his full time job is to churn out content written with the apparent breadth of knowledge equivalent to a set of incompetent interns.
But I hate that Bowden has that [working experience in a baseball front office] over me. He’s right.
I still don’t think that’s right. There are plenty of guys out there who worked in front offices, but would be bad at baseball analysis. Why was I so critical of Bowden?
Today, I realize that #FireJimBowden came from a place of dissatisfaction with ESPN as a whole. I was a fan of ESPN. I didn’t just view their shows, SportsCenter was a part of my childhood and facilitated my interactions with peers. But over the years, I have transitioned from the well-rounded sports fan that I once was to a baseball fan disinterested in football and unable to hold an NBA conversation beyond LeBron James. As ESPN transitioned to its current form, I specialized. So did others; viewership is down drastically in recent years.
With Jim Bowden, ESPN had a former GM with 15 years of experience running MLB organizations. They relegated him to churning out offseason grades, rather than providing insight that only a guy with his resume might have. MLB Network and Fox have recognized that their best segments are those when great former players simply talk about the game. Those other organizations are less prescriptive and somehow more pure. There’s more on this theme: today ESPN also canned Jayson Stark, one of the most joyous MLB writers on the planet. His love of the game and of writing about the game could only be described as pure.
So I took out my frustration with ESPN on Jim Bowden. Just as my frustration manifested on a single staff member, ESPN leadership was forced to pluck individuals from a ship that was moving awry.
The shouting that I do here becomes far more real when people’s livelihoods are involved. I may pick on a writer, or criticize a player, but ultimately I want people to succeed. I want what’s best for individuals; suffering sucks. I’ve lost my favorite punching bag and the way that I lost him makes it so unsatisfying. Best of luck to the people who lost their jobs today. Even if I disdained your analysis, sports should bring us back together even if ESPN never will.
