ESPN Classic. Exactly what it sounds like, a channel which shows old sporting events.
Now this concept seems pretty cool when you think about it. You may be able to watch your favorite team win, over and over again.

Or far worse, you will be subjected to commercials which show the ball roll through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. You will be able to relive that day where you collapsed on the floor in front of the TV and cried out, WHY GOD? WHY????

ESPN Classic is actually a very good idea, who doesn't want to see some of their favorite sports memories again? I'd like to watch some. Sports are rarely ever rerun, I miss a lot and I'd love to watch the old days of NASCAR. I'd love to see the Chevrolet Lumina in action again, not just in Days of Thunder. I think it is great to see Umpires who will call strikes, and enforce the strike zone.

ESPN Classic has many different style programs, they have the standard old games, they have old interviews, documentaries and even features on some themes. You may also go to ESPN.com and vote on what you want to see every now and then.

ESPN seems to be realizing ESPN Classic is a weakening channel. They have just begun to have "Instant Classics". These are events which have very recently occurred, replayed for us only a month or two after they have happened. I think this is a strength of the channel. They need more of this. Not so the same people can watch it over and over, but for those who missed the event for one reason or another. ESPN Classic is a well intentioned idea.

However, ESPN Classic ruins our memories.

ESPN Classic shows us in vivid color, and black and white, that our heroes were not as good as we remember them. In fact, by today's' standards, they are all downright average.

Every year professional Athletes get bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled. Face it, athletes have gotten better, the fitness programs, the workouts, all planned and performed to work the athlete into the finest sports machine he or she can be.

Someone may remember the MacEnroe vs. Borg, Wimbeldon match as one of Tennis' greatest matches, but watch them. They use outdated wooden racquets, and the ball is hit at what seems an incredibly slow pace.
Watch one of today's Tennis matches, and then watch the classic rerun. It will become painfully obvious, these players are not even in the same class as today's'.

You can watch and be greatly amused at the hairstyles, the giant Afro's of the early 80's and late 70's or the handlebar mustache, and the lamb chop side burns. You can be revolted by how horrible the Houston Astros Uniforms once were. You'll be able to see places that perhaps you once visited for sporting events, which are no longer there. It will be sad when Fenway Park is only visible on ESPN Classic, and even then, we will only see Bucky Dent hit the Homerun over the screen in Left Field to win the one game playoff, or Carlton Fisk trying to wave his homerun fair. ESPN Classic is The History Channel of sports.

Perhaps you remember how great certain baseball games were. Well, it is true that baseball hasn't changed all that much. But the athletes again are slower and less agile. A grounder to the hole may be a game winning hit back then, today, it would be a routine out. You may even be left frustrated, wondering, why couldn't he get that ball?
But, you know all along, the outcome of the game. There is no suspense at all.

ESPN Classic does us a great disservice, while trying to do us a great service. It blows holes in all our memories, in all our heroes. In the stories our relatives told us, of the good old days, of the baseball legends, of the miracles performed at some Olympic game. We know the miracle on ice will always end with the U.S.A. always beating the U.S.S.R. team. It will be no surprise.

ESPN Classic is like sneaking into the very end of a movie, then watching it again from the beginning. We always know what will happen.

Buckner will never field that grounder.




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