Dear ESPN:
I love baseball. I pay attention to football, both pro and college. I enjoy hockey – mainly NHL, though college hockey has a grand tradition. I am passionate about NCAA basketball and accept the NBA.
But I want to see… I need to see…
- World cup skiing
- Word-class track and field
- Acapulco cliff diving
- Australian rules football
- Soccer of any kind
- Boxing of all kinds
- Gaelic football
- Ski jumping
- The very first Hawaii Ironman Triathlon
- All-Ireland hurling
- And just about every other game and sport played on earth
In short, I miss ABC’s Wide World of Sports, Jim McKay, Howard Cosell and everything they brought to sport in America. While professional sports certainly make more money, the sports world has been diminished since the demise of this amazing, wonderful program. And a disservice has been done to athletes in every corner of our earth.
Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition.
This is where we witnessed the Kentucky Derby and Eric Heiden skating at speeds no one saw before. Where we saw Greg LeMond battle up and over Alp D’Huez against Bernard Hinault – the Badger – in the Tour de France. Where Americans were first introduced to Irish hurling, Scandenavian cross country skiing and the Boston Marathon that was already the better part of a century old.
Please. Someone. Bring it all back.
