I can't stand ESPN.  From their east coast bias to their smug and silly anchors, I stopped watching Sportscenter about 10 years ago at the height of the Stuart Scott era.  Boo-ya my left buttock.

One of the things I especially despise about them is their hype machine.   Take knife, insert, twist.   Unless your name is Roethlisberger, you are not immune to the hype and spin that ESPN puts on stories.

As in the real world, many sports fans are sheep and just lap it up.  Those that don't read or dig for a deeper meaning are often convinced that if it is on ESPN, it must be true, not realizing, that like any other electronic media entity, they are going for ratings first and the truth second.

Take the recent deal with Ozzie Guillen going off on the team after yesterday's one hit, ten run loss to the Yankees.  If you are a Sox fan who has followed this team all year, your first response was "Where the hell were you last week when they lost two out of three to Baltimore?  It's about damned time, Ozzie!"

But if you are ESPN, all you see is that the crazy Latin man has lost his mind again and you want to help make him look like he's having a meltdown.  Jim Mora was a meltdown.  Mike Gundy was a meltdown.  Bob Knight at the NCAA tournament, a meltdown. Lee Elia, outstanding meltdown. This was not in any way, shape or form a meltdown.  Except if ESPN tells you it is.

The first thing you noticed on the web page is under the video it says "Ozzie Guillen Rant."  Yet, if you listen to the actual audio, this was no rant.  No voices were raised, no reporters were told "that's a stupid question" followed by Ozzie storming out of the room.  Ozzie very calmly and candidly evaluated  his team, which is his right since he is the manager.  He did it in terms that were plain:

"I'm embarrassed, and everybody in that room should be embarrassed," "If they're not embarrassed, they got the wrong job or they're stealing money from baseball.

"I feel like I'm stealing money from Jerry, and that's a shame. When you have more errors than hits, you better look yourself in the mirror and second-guess yourself. I'm second-guessing myself right now, making the wrong lineup every day. I watched Little League this morning ... they were playing better than we did. At least it was more fun. This is not major-league baseball, sorry."

"If they don't feel the way I feel right now, they're full of [expletive]," Guillen continued. "There's no doubt in my mind we're better than this. But you get to a point where it is what it is. And my hope is getting less and less. It's a long mountain, and the mountain is getting higher and higher every night. And if we're going to climb to the top, maybe they need a cable car to get up there. But they're not going to walk up there.

"I'm not a loser or a negative guy, but I'm real realistic. That's my problem in the past when I'm so realistic and people get mad at me and they don't like the way I do stuff or the way I talk. Well, if you don't want me to talk that way, [expletive] play better.

This is much different than if he would have done it in coach speak:

 "Well, certainly we are concerned about the way we're going right now, but there's a lot of baseball left to be played, we have several games with teams in our division and if this team can play the way that we all know they can, I still believe that we have a shot at making the playoffs.." 

But since Ozzie told the truth, ESPN has decided it's news.  So, they get Gonzo from the Trib on and start asking questions.  Questions that you as a Sox fan could easily answer.  The anchor wanted to know who Ozzie was talking about.  Well, moron, his team just got beat 10-0 and was one hit by Sergio Mitre.  I think it's safe to say, he was talking about everybody.

Then, Ron Burgundy Jr. starts pressing Gonzo on Ozzie's job security.  Does this douchebag actually think someone is going to fire Ozzie over this?  Over giving a frank and honest assessment of a train wreck of a game and a horrible stretch of baseball that has taken the Sox from being one game out to third place in three weeks?  Is this guy insane?  Does this guy understand baseball at all?  Does he understand Ozzie at all?  Does he understand Ozzie's boss is probably twice as harsh in his assessment of this team?

What's next? An "Outside the Lines" special on the mental health of Ozzie Guillen?  It's going to be bad enough that this will be passed around the table for the empty suits to comment on.  The one guy that will defend Ozzie will be John Kruk who played with Ozzie and who, as Ozzie has often said, taught Ozzie how to speak English, colorful language and all. 

As for me, I won't be watching any of it.  I be watching the MLB Network instead.