Let’s get the obvious out of the way: TSN‘s annual has pretty much the same team information — rosters, schedules, transactions, farm reports, impact rookies, and projected lineups — as every other magazine, as well as regional covers.
A personal favorite feature is the statistical targets: Omar Vizquel is closest to 3,000 hits among active players with 2,598; the team-less Barry Bonds is just four ribbies away from 2,000, behind only Aaron and Ruth; Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield can join the 500 home run clubs if they follow form. On the pitching side, John Smoltz is 25 strikeouts away from 3,000; Randy Johnson and Billy Wagner will have to put in great seasons to reach 300 wins and 400 saves, respectively.
As far as the predictions go, TSN picks the Red Sox, Tigers, and Angels for AL division winners (Indians as the wild card), and the Braves, Cubs, and Diamondbacks (Phillies) in the senior circuit. Hell freezes over as the Cubs appear in the fall classic against the Red Sox. Typically, they’ll lose again.
What separates TSN from the rest of the glossies, however, is in its abundant and well-done feature stories. As should be expected from a publication historically known as “the Bible of baseball,” TSN prides itself on hard-hitting journalism (relatively speaking. This is just sports, remember).
A two-part examination of steroids includes an interview with Lance Williams, co-author of the seminal Game of Shadows, which brought the whole problem out of the “shadows” and into the light. The second story is a profile of former Orioles Brady Anderson, who smashed 50 home runs and drove in 100 runs in 1996. The closest he came to those numbers were 24/81 in 1999. Needless to say, he raised some eyebrows with his career year.
Another issue seldom raised in baseball is the pressure on teenagers to decide whether to sign with the pros or enter college. Mike Giglio weighs the options in “The Road Taken.”
Cubs fans don’t have to be reminded that it’s been 100 years since their team last won a World Championship, but Scot Gregor does so anyway in “100 Years of Despair.”
Other features include a critical look at game-winning celebrations, “The evolution of the Ejection,”and the turnover in general managers during the off-season.
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TSN2008 is a joke, after the recent buyout it’s just Street & Smith’s with a different name on the cover. Last year’s TSN preview had scouting reports on 750+ players, which was incredible, and filled a niche in the market. This year, though? No scouting. Nothing but the same kind of by-the-numbers summary you’d see in any preview. Talk about a one-year decline! TSN’s annuals had been far superior to S&S’s for years, but because of the merger I expect the overall quality of the TSN brand to sink to S&S’s level rather than improving upon TSN’s previously high standard of quality. The end result is a loss for us sports fans who want a high-quality, innovative preview mag that they can refer to all season long. It’s sad, really.
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