Do Your Job

Los Angeles is full of storied franchises.  There is an awful lot to talk about when it comes to sports in Los Angeles.  It seems though, that the media is blackballing the Kings.

The Lakers are the greatest basketball organization on the planet.  A trip to Dodger stadium on a summer evening is one filled with a tradition of greatness, unmatched loyalty, and if you sit in the Reserve section, a view that simply can't be matched in all of sport.  The Rams, well they belong in L.A., even if Raider Nation still outnumbers them.  I don't begrudge the sports media for wanting to talk about these teams, though they would be smart to include the Raiders a bit more.

This town loves sports so much, it even keeps spare teams lying around.  On off nights, if one has the fortitude, they could stomach the Clippers, or maybe even the sixteenth most popular football team in town, the Chargers, as they pretend they actually belong here.  Speaking of pretending they belong here, The Angels and Ducks hang out down in Orange County.  For those that don't know, mistaking Orange County for Los Angeles, is tantamount to mistaking Philly for New York.  But they are relatively close and have some fairly loyal fans.  LA even has a pair of pretty good soccer clubs.  I know it's not the EPL, but it is better than nothing.  I can even understand why the sports media would talk about these teams occasionally.  

Uniquely, outside of the soccer teams that are fairly new organizations, the Kings, unlike every other team on that list, were born in Los Angeles, and have never left.  

While the fan base was small when I was growing up, with the landmark arrival of The Great One, the team developed a reasonably large and very dedicated fan base.  This fan base has grown exponentially as the team brought home its two Stanley Cups.  What's more, is that L.A .has seen a tremendous growth in youth hockey thanks to more rinks, and the Learn To Play program.  There are now at least twenty one youth hockey clubs, which is a 350% growth since the mid eighties.  Hockey is a real part of Los Angeles.

Yet, despite that, the sports media can't even spare a few minutes an hour to talk hockey.  Frankly, I don't expect Keyshawn Johnson to talk hockey, though he would actually dig the game if he would show up to a couple games (present circumstances aside).  John Ireland's hair is just way to perfect to know anything about hockey.  Petros Papadakis, while he was growing up in Palos Verdes was probably too elite to wander down to Harbor City and visit the rink (I still miss his dad's restaurant, even if it was in Pedro).  I don't even know what to say about Fred Rogan, except that he's been around long enough to be better than that.  Being a softball player should preclude Ramona Shelbourne from learning something about hockey. I guess she is too busy becoming a big wig with ESPN to bother.  Maybe I expect too much from these folks.

I have to save a special chastise for Money.  I can remember taking surf trips with my friends, and making sure to tune in to KROQ to catch Money's sports report.  That seems like a lifetime ago.  Apparently these days, he is more interested in putting on funny pants to parade around Old Ranch.  Maybe he's just too busy with the Chargers job.  Congratulations on that gig by the way, and when they finally come to their senses and move to San Diego, at lease consider going with them.  It's a great town, sports teams aside. 

The NHL network is no better than local media.  They don't even watch games out west as was evidenced by the Laughlin/Johnson show.  For the first time in weeks, I finally heard something about the Kings, and they tried to create a goaltender controversy out of thin air.  These meatheads don't even understand what is happening here.  

I don't know if the Kings organization did something to deserve to get treated like the Rodney Dangerfield of L.A. sports.  Maybe we are too far away from Toronto to matter the Hockey elitists (When was the last time Toronto won the cup?), but the people in sports media are definitely in the wrong.  I don't ever expect the Kings to dominate the media, but the fans deserve at least a few minutes an hour, a couple days a week.  Frankly anything would be better than complete silence.  It's time for the sports media to get real.  Do your job.


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