This is the 1-year anniversary of ESPN.com shutting down all its comment boards due to my posts, and this serial is the proof. Before this event, there was never any indication to anyone that the ESPN forum boards for every sport, and all their articles would no longer display or allow reader comments. ESPN has never made a public explanation for this policy change.
The background here is that Wimbledon was obviously fixed on the Women’s side, so I blew up the ESPN/tennis comments section– and people got angry on all sides. I believe the Serena Williams camp forced ESPN to shut down all ESPN website comments because she was looking really bad in the discussions among tennis fans. I was leading those discussions, but very soon I didn’t have to. Serena Williams’ apologists were being shouted down with calm reason, objective facts & countless unanswered questions by many fans.
I mistakenly thought this censorship was a targeted ban (just me) at the time, but it was universal– to my great surprise. I shouldn’t have been, as I did the same thing to MLB.com during the “Shohei Ohtani Affair,” and the collapse of the free-agency market due to MLBPA ignorance & duplicity. The MLB online comments board which had existed for years have disappeared. They connected thousands of MLB fans with their favorite teams, and created many new friendships. All that is now gone, because of MLB censorship.
No “outsider” criticism of MLB or ESPN can be tolerated in online boards, by the powers that be. Who do these neo-fascist censors think maintains the game? Answer: it’s the interest of the fans that pays for everything. When MLB & ESPN cut fans off from each other due to politics, fans lose interest because the game has been stolen from them.
When this occurs, there is little interest for me to report its internal news anymore. Eventually others feel the same and the bottom-line suffers, which is bad business. The big issues here are clear & unambiguous. Is MLB to be run by a cartel of powerful east coast owners who dominate the commissioner & executive offices? If malfeasance is suspected and evidence shown against MLB (and/or its favored franchises), then what?
These questions cut to the heart of the game, deciding who gets the best players and who does not. When a team that is not a “traditional power” thinks & acts outside-the-box to gain a competitive edge, they are reined in with suspensions & the threat of sanctions by this MLB cartel.
This was the case with San Diego Padres GM AJ Preller, who was suspended for one dull month in August 2016 by MLB for “undisclosed anti-inflammatories” in the LHP Drew Pomeranz trade. The top-prospect the Padres received in return RHP Anderson Espinoza, has just undergone his 2nd Tommy John surgery, and will probably never reach the majors. Yet many in the Red Sox media still whine on this false narrative pushed by MLB.
The actual reason AJ Preller was suspended by MLB is because it was perceived the Padres won that trade by getting the Red Sox to overpay for a 4th-starter (Pomeranz), whom the Red Sox foolishly thought was a #2. Even though Preller lost the deal in the end, the Padres are still vilified because he made a big-wheel GM (Dave Dombrowski) look bad in his valuing of MLB talent. That is a contentious truth for Red Sox Nation, believe me.
AJ Preller was also targeted in winter 2017 when Buster Olney acted as Boston Red Sox hatchet-man using his ESPN media clout to threaten sanctions on the Padres if they didn’t give up their pursuit of prized Japanese free-agent pitcher & hitter Shohei Ohtani. That was a clear case of the Red Sox tampering to prevent a hated rival (Padres) from getting a free-agent prize. Preller had to kick Ohtani to his buddy Billy Eppler, Angels GM, to avoid the wrath of MLB.
No one at MLB.com or ESPN ever explained how Ohtani became an Angel, when it looked like the San Diego Padres had him for sure. Here was my real-time serial which is mostly wrong (in that Shohei Ohtani will not become a Padre), until it reveals a greater (& nastier) truth at the end, which is the MLB Black Hand in action.
Coincidentally, this is when MLB.com went black on it’s comment boards for a day or so, and then reset everybody anew with no old content available for viewing. A year later the comments were all gone everywhere on the MLB site, and remain so as of this publication.
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