The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame...

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The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... was a sports series that debuted in 2005 on ESPN2 and is now televised on ESPN Classic. Hosted by Brian Kenny, the series examines controversial figures and events in the history of sports that featured figure(s) involved in the event later being labeled as a scapegoat. In each episode, the show defends the accused by presenting evidence to separate fact from fiction, and then explaining why the accused cannot be held accountable from experts and witnesses.

Several reasons that didn't make the list (called "The Best of the Rest") are discussed first, followed by the actual top five reasons.

The first episode aired in April 2005 and examined The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Steve Bartman for the Cubs' 2003 playoff collapse. Bartman was excoriated by Cubs fans as the reason for the Cubs' 8th inning collapse against the Florida Marlins in the sixth game of the 2003 National League Championship Series. He unwittingly became the focus of the derision of long-suffering Cubs fans and the butt of many jokes.

Contents

[edit] Brief schedule history

When the show moved to ESPN Classic late in 2005, the show debuted at 9 p.m. Eastern time. The following year, it was moved back to 10 p.m. In both cases, new episodes debuted on Tuesday and were repeated on Thursday. In late 2006, The Top 5 Reasons... was pulled back to Thursdays only, with the RM Classic Car Auction shown on Tuesdays, at least temporarily.

[edit] Season 1

After the first episode, there were other notable topics in the 1st season on The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... like:

[edit] Season 2

In September 2005 a new line-up of episodes was created. Season 2 examines The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame...

[edit] Season 3

[edit] Season 4


Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/classic/news/story?page=classic_top5

[edit] Pre-empted episodes

Initially, the "Top 5 Reasons" series also had three episodes that were later pre-empted. These episodes would have examined The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame...

  • Muhammad Ali for avoiding the Vietnam War. (This episode was replaced by The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Mike Tyson for Losing to Buster Douglas.)
  • Sandy Koufax for retiring at age 31. (This episode was replaced by The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Marvin Hagler for Losing to Sugar Ray Leonard.)
  • Ricky Williams for temporarily leaving football. (This episode was added midway into the season, then replaced by The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Grady Little for the Red Sox losing the 2003 ALCS.)

All these changes were documented on the ESPN Classic program guide at http://www.espntv.com.

[edit] Missing footage

On all but one episode (Michael Jordan tries to play baseball), no footage of National Basketball Association games appears. Shows with NBA themes generally look more like slide shows than television programs. The NBA's embargo on moving pictures resembles the prohibition the National Football League placed on ESPN during its original ESPN25 series. As with the NFL/ESPN25 ban, neither the NBA nor ESPN will explain the omission.

[edit] External links

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