Mr. Top 10

Issue: How well does ESPN do in compiling their nightly top 10 plays list?

Short Answer: Not well at all.

Reasoning: I watch ESPN all the time.  I mean, it has to be the best channel ever.  Seriously.  Sports 24 hours a day?  Yes, please.  However, just because a channel plays sports and sports highlights all day, every day, doesn't mean the people running the channel actually know anything about sports.  And, no where is this any more obvious than in SportsCenter's nightly segment - "top 10."  Don't get me wrong, the plays I see during this segment are fantastic, often times jaw-dropping.  But, what really grinds my gears (kudos if you know where I stole that from*) is how grossly out of order the plays are, especially the baseball plays (ok, maybe not "especially" (because all of the plays are out of order) but since I played baseball I can speak to how difficult, or not, the play actually was).

Most of the time, particularly in the summer (when baseball dominates the national sports landscape - except for losers who can't wait for the summer X-games), baseball plays make up most of the top 10.  And, most of the time, the #1 play is a diving catch in the outfield - and that shouldn't be.  I played outfield in college, and, believe it or not, I made a few diving plays in my day.  That alone should tell you that making a diving play in the outfield really isn't that hard.  It looks impressive, but it isn't difficult.  Did you see Jonny Gomes make three diving catches, in the same game, in left field, against the Dodgers last weekend (if not, you can check them out here)?  See, told you it isn't hard.  The point is, infield highlights should always be ranked ahead of outfield highlights.  Infield plays are harder to make.  The problem is, most MLB infielders make the difficult play look so easy, that it fools the novice viewer (i.e., ESPN employees) into thinking the play wasn't really that hard in the first place.  Wrong.  I am often shocked at how easy major leaguers make impossible plays look.  Especially DatDudeBP.  For those of you not hip to the Twitter (which includes me - because Twitter is stupid) DatDudeBP is Brandon Phillips, a.k.a., the best defensive second baseman in the game.  That's a fact, not opinion (ok, it's an opinion, but it should be a fact).

Brandon Phillips has made a bevy of unreal highlights already this year.  There was this one:

And, this one:

This one too:

And, of course this one:

As you can see, he is pretty good, and he makes it look really, really easy.  So, last night he made this unreal play (sorry I couldn't post the actual video, but MLB.com won't let you embed their newest videos).  Where does ESPN put this in their top 10 plays?  Number 4.  There were not four plays made yesterday that were better, I promise.  Brandon Phillips makes it look so easy, that ESPN can't put it #1 because it's not "cool" enough.  See, ESPN puts 10 plays together that they think are "cool."  That is why you see diving catches in the outfield and dunks in NBA basketball games.  How hard is it for an NBA player to dunk a basketball?  It is only a top 10 play because it looks cool (unless it is Blake Griffin posterizing someone - then it is top 10 worthy).  Based on skill alone, every time Brandon Phillips makes one of the plays you see above, it should be #1, period.  The plays he makes are ridiculous, and I would argue there is only one second baseman on the planet that could make the plays he makes.  For the record, MLB.com had Brandon's play last night as the #1 play of the night.  Weird that the people at that website would understand how awesome of a play that was, while people at ESPN would not.  Glad Dat Dude is on my team.

*It's from the Family Guy episode where Peter gets a job ranting on the local news in a segment called "Grinds my Gears."