What The Hell Is Wrong With ESPN? They made the Angels/Red Sox game their early game, so it was blacked out on both MLB.TV and Extra Innings. But then because they are waiting for a press conference about Kobe Bryant, they don't show the top of the first inning.

The network finally gives up and switches to the baseball game, but keeps warning us they will cut away when the conference begins. ... And with impeccable timing, right after Bellhorn's double in the 4th gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead, we got left in the dark. ESPN stayed away long enough to miss three batters (Manny, Ortiz, Varitek) and an Anaheim pitching change. The broadcast resumed with the bottom of the 4th.

Doesn't the ESPN-News channel exist solely to show this kind of shit? (By the way, ESPN2 showed the 2004 World Cup of Hockey through all of this.) Plus, with all the lead-up blather from HQ in Bristol, we knew exactly what would be said at the news conference.

If ESPN doesn't want to show baseball, that's fine. But it should show the game it agreed to show on another channel or lift the blackout.