Sinking Ship

Okay, I found something worse than having major dental work. NBC's coverage of Wimbledon. I think it would actually be better to just not cover it at all. There is a real channel that covers this event, which used to be HBO, but I fear those days are over. I think now it is ESPN2, or another sports mega channel. NBC, for some reason, continues to broadcast tape delayed junk, or at least attempts to do it, but ONLY on the weekends.
Coupled with this alarming style of coverage is their incessant need to seemingly ONLY show American players, who in most situations, are NOT the best players in the game. If you are talking hardcourt, US Open, I can see trying to focus on the American players, but anytime you leave this tournament, head across the pond and find yourself on a "natural" surface, you can bet there are other players that should be being featured.
So, when I see NBC is "ramping up their coverage" I know it will be a two day old Serena match, where she is pounding someone. Or, Roddick, playing his baseball style, game, which is about a serve an brute force. Occassionally, they will give you a taste of Federer or Nadal, just because they HAVE TO, seeing as they are head and shoulders above anyone else playing the game.
I'm not saying that supporting the US players shouldnt' be done, not by a long shot, but you have to decide who you are targeting, tennis fans or the "casual" fan, an elusive bugger who has popped up in recent years and is demanding much attention.
So get with it NBC, take a stand. The Tour de France is coming up, and the networks here do the same thing. Painful, organ music, coffee filters over the lens and talk of "destiny" and "man vs mountain." If you want to know what is happening, real time, you gotta go to Verses where instead of buying coffee filters and organs they put a guy on a motorcycle with a camera.