STEVE INSKEEP
Morning Edition (NPR)
04-20-2005
Commentary: Professional sports draft picks
Host: STEVE INSKEEP
Time: 11:00 AM-12:00 Noon
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now imagine how it might sound if commentator Frank Deford was a top draft choice.
(Soundbite of crowd cheering)
Unidentified Man #1: With its first pick, obtained in a trade with the 'Howard Stern Show,' National Public Radio selects Frank Deford of WSHU.
(Soundbite of crowd booing)
Unidentified Man #2: Well, that's a strange pick for NPR. Other networks have Deford listed as no better than late first round, maybe early second. John Feinstein and Christine Brennan are still on the board, but why would NPR even waste a pick on a commentator?
FRANK DEFORD:
Yes, the draft season has begun again: the National Football League this weekend, the National Basketball Association in two months. Draftniks, so-called, spend their whole year doing nothing but trying to figure out how the drafts will go. Invariably, all the mock drafts, which are printed in every newspaper this side of The Wall Street Journal, make little or no effort to gauge how good the prospects really are. Instead, all the experts do is try to figure out how the teams will draft, and since everybody shares much the same information, everybody makes up basically the same list.
Drafts are the ultimate triumph of conventional wisdom, the tyranny of consensus. Whenever a team dares do something out of the ordinary and actually picks a player based on its own contrary instincts, all the draftniks have a fit. Never mind, of course, that teams have made some spectacular stinkeroo selections through the years, even in picking the very first player. Meanwhile, someone like Tom Brady, who leads the New England Patriots to the championship most years, went in the sixth round. Quarterbacks, in fact, are notoriously difficult to rate because so much of their success as an NFL leader will be based on intangibles.
Often, it seems it's really not players who are drafted, just stereotypes. The draft has also taken on a reality show quality. It's a TV special, complete with live audience. And the top-rated players are brought to the draft site in New York all together. One by one, as they are chosen, the lucky ones go on stage, put on their new team cap, and the others are left behind until, at last, the cheese stands alone. You want to cry for the poor devil, but never mind. Many fans seem to like the draft better than the games the draftees will play. Nobody, you see, really loses at a draft because, well, nobody really knows. Everybody is first and 10 on draft day.
INSKEEP: Those could only be the comments of Frank Deford, and we stand by our choice. His newest book is 'The Old Ball Game' about baseball and America at the start of the 20th century. Frank joins us each Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
Content and Programming copyright 2005 National Public Radio, Inc. All rights reserved.
Morning Edition (NPR)
04-20-2005
Commentary: Professional sports draft picks
Host: STEVE INSKEEP
Time: 11:00 AM-12:00 Noon
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now imagine how it might sound if commentator Frank Deford was a top draft choice.
(Soundbite of crowd cheering)
Unidentified Man #1: With its first pick, obtained in a trade with the 'Howard Stern Show,' National Public Radio selects Frank Deford of WSHU.
(Soundbite of crowd booing)
Unidentified Man #2: Well, that's a strange pick for NPR. Other networks have Deford listed as no better than late first round, maybe early second. John Feinstein and Christine Brennan are still on the board, but why would NPR even waste a pick on a commentator?
FRANK DEFORD:
Yes, the draft season has begun again: the National Football League this weekend, the National Basketball Association in two months. Draftniks, so-called, spend their whole year doing nothing but trying to figure out how the drafts will go. Invariably, all the mock drafts, which are printed in every newspaper this side of The Wall Street Journal, make little or no effort to gauge how good the prospects really are. Instead, all the experts do is try to figure out how the teams will draft, and since everybody shares much the same information, everybody makes up basically the same list.
Drafts are the ultimate triumph of conventional wisdom, the tyranny of consensus. Whenever a team dares do something out of the ordinary and actually picks a player based on its own contrary instincts, all the draftniks have a fit. Never mind, of course, that teams have made some spectacular stinkeroo selections through the years, even in picking the very first player. Meanwhile, someone like Tom Brady, who leads the New England Patriots to the championship most years, went in the sixth round. Quarterbacks, in fact, are notoriously difficult to rate because so much of their success as an NFL leader will be based on intangibles.
Often, it seems it's really not players who are drafted, just stereotypes. The draft has also taken on a reality show quality. It's a TV special, complete with live audience. And the top-rated players are brought to the draft site in New York all together. One by one, as they are chosen, the lucky ones go on stage, put on their new team cap, and the others are left behind until, at last, the cheese stands alone. You want to cry for the poor devil, but never mind. Many fans seem to like the draft better than the games the draftees will play. Nobody, you see, really loses at a draft because, well, nobody really knows. Everybody is first and 10 on draft day.
INSKEEP: Those could only be the comments of Frank Deford, and we stand by our choice. His newest book is 'The Old Ball Game' about baseball and America at the start of the 20th century. Frank joins us each Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
Content and Programming copyright 2005 National Public Radio, Inc. All rights reserved.
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