Mike Tirico Doesn't Hold Back On His Problem With ESPN

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“I grew up going to Mets games, like a couple hundred games,” Tirico explained on The Orange Zone. “Shea Stadium — the building before Citi Field — was truly five miles from the house I grew up in. So, I would get on the bus or subway and go. My grandfather worked there as a security guard, so I would go to a ton of games. I grew up a Mets fan. I irrationally could not watch the last out of the Mets winning the World Series over the Red Sox. I was here on [Syracuse’s] campus… Could not watch that with everybody. I had to watch the last out by myself because I was completely irrational.”

“You start covering it nationally, and realize you can’t have fandom seep in,” Tirico said. “Now, people do now, and it bothers me. I don’t like watching SportsCenter or other shows on ESPN where the anchors are talking about who they’re fans of. Like, who cares? I don’t care. I would much rather know the 20 seconds about something related to that team that I don’t know, as opposed to your fandom.

“Now, generationally, people kind of like it because they can relate to the anchors a bit more, so I get it. I’m just saying my personal choice is — that’s the way I was brought up as a journalist. I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t care if you’re a Phillies fan or a 49ers fan. Your job is to tell me the news. And in sports talk, that’s a different world. But when you’re doing the facts, and you’re in the middle of a game, I don’t want to hear.”

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