ESPN had previous success poaching another's property--the YES Network's

If MLB, Inc. follows through denying ESPN a special set-up at the All Star game, I'll be a little impressed. ESPN's alleged transgression was the premature airing of All Star selections--an infringement on the privilege negotiated by TBS. ESPN did a similar thing to the YES Network last October and got away with it without a complaint. According to the NY Post account, noted here Oct. 11,2006,

• ESPN broadcast the dialogue of a Joe Torre press interview WHICH YES ITSELF HAD NOT EVEN BEGUN TO AIR. ESPN's Vince Doria basically said this is what we do, see you around, and YES and the Yankees said--fine.

From Andrew Marchand's 10/11/06 NY Post article:

• "Joe Torre's live press conference Tuesday was officially barred from broadcast coverage until its conclusion. But ESPN began running a crawl of its contents 15 minutes into it, with 30 minutes still to go."

"It wasn't intended to be live programming," (then Yankee Media Relations Director Rick) Cerrone said. "It was meant to be Joe's end-of-season wrap, which is normally done in Joe's office."

• Approximately 15 minutes after the press conference began, ESPN in its eyes honoring Cerrone's request - was showing tape of Torre confirming The Post story. YES waited about an hour before airing Torre on its WFAN simulcast of "Mike and the Mad Dog."

YES felt it didn't get beat on the story, but instead lived up to an agreement by not showing any of the press conference on tape until Torre had finished."

• (How can you not know you're getting beat--and so easily)? sm

"YES spokesman Eric Handler said ESPN had Torre's comments so much earlier "because we played by the rules and they didn't.""

• (The transmitter may be on at the YES Network or their studios conveniently located in Connecticut, but they're not tuned to Yankee interests). sm

"Vince Doria, ESPN's managing editor (now Senior VP News), said the network didn't violate any agreements.

• "As far as I'm concerned, this is revisionist history by Cerrone, and I don't know where [YES programming/production president John] Filipelli comes out on it," Doria said. "They knew that our charge here is to get breaking news on the air as quickly as possible.

"This certainly was breaking news. There never was any agreement that we would hold on to the tape that was hot until the press conference was over.""

From article by Andrew Marchand, NY Post, 10/11/06

• While the Yankee fan twists slowly in the wind.

My post's title was, "YES Network Shows ESPN is their Daddy," posted 10/11/06

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