Not much the sports mafia that is ESPN does surprises me. Look at other sports; if everything's quiet their talking heads will create a controversy out of some obscure sound byte to give themselves something to talk about. Seems to me they've tried to turn BASS into some kind of cross between NASCAR and WWF.

The ill fated boat racing was the first lead balloon. Then they broke up the federation after they found BASS didn't own it, and they couldn't make us do whatever they pleased. Now regular guys like Ike and Swindle have turned themselves into clowns with an attitude right out of the 'hood because that get's em ESPN camera time and supposedly attracts a younger following.

To their credit they've kept the Casting Kids program alive, but if there isn't a major infusion of young people as result of their strategy BASS will be sold off soon enough. I quit BASS during the Federation debacle, and almost never watch on Saturday mornings. In general if I have 4 hours available on the weekend I'd rather go fishing than watch it on TV.

I will say the times I've watched their fishing coverage it's been pretty darned good though. I saw Denny's 'Schooled' once and it was OK, but he criticized the anglers for doing the same things he does in tournaments and that turned me off a little. Did watch a Charlie Moore re-run of him fishing with Van Zant from Skynrd, and liked it.