Bally Sports Ohio makes another crucial error
Cleveland’s loss to Miami should be all that’s on our minds...
This newsletter probably should be about Cleveland’s 107-104 heartbreaker of a loss to Miami on Wednesday. If not that, it should at least be about Shaker Heights native Terry Rozier and his always-insane play in Cleveland. Rozier had a game-tying four-point play and the game-winning three with fifteen seconds left on Wednesday. Or perhaps we should focus on Jarrett Allen’s 25-point and 20-rebound performance. Or J.B. Bickerstaff’s revealing comments about the danger sports gambling poses to the league and its personnel. Or maybe even Marcus Morris Sr.’s fantastic presser, where he talked about the Cavs being too nice, and how his presence “gives them a little more comfortability to talk some s**t, and get rowdy… cuz that’s what the playoffs consist of.”
But I can’t stop thinking about “The Diff.”
For those who aren’t familiar, “The Diff” is a feature that has graced Cleveland’s scoreboard since 2006. It does quick maths on behalf of fans who don’t want to expend the mental energy of 104-107 = -3.
Steve Kerr hates it. Here he is mocking “The Diff” in 2017.
Cleveland.com mocked him back.
But if “The Diff” has been a Cleveland mainstay for almost 20 years, why am I bugging you about it only now?
It’s because on Wednesday “The Diff,” made the shameful descent from the big screen to the small one, appearing on the Bally Sports Ohio TV broadcast.
Now, I don’t want to be condescending. I’m no savant. In fact, the only math I can do at all involves either cribbage, or figuring out how many points the Cavs need to score when Austin Carr’s says to “just get it within 10.”
And it seems wrong to me that a handful of Diamond Sports Group (Bally’s parent company) executives feel empowered to rob thousands of basketball fans of their only consistent chance to do some simple subtraction.
Plus, it’s another distracting pop up in a broadcast that already force feeds us Wendy’s and Ken Ganley Kia ads during every trip to the free throw line.
So let’s protest “The Diff,” and defend our right to do a little math every now and then. Call your local representatives! Take to the streets! And if we fail, and “The Diff,” is back tonight at 8pm ET against the Timberwolves, let’s at least hope it’s in the positive when the final buzzer sounds.
Cheers, and go Cavs.
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