Especially when it comes to three baseball teams. As San Diego Padres pitcher (and ex-New York Met) Heath Bell recently told The San Diego Union-Tribune: "I truly believe ESPN only cares about promoting the (Boston) Red Sox and (New York) Yankees and Mets — and nobody else."

That can't be totally true. Even if Connecticut-based ESPN — headquartered between Boston and New York — were smitten with those teams, it can't show them all the time. MLB teams have limits on their national TV games. On Sunday nights last season, the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox got the maximum five games — as did the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. On Monday and Wednesdays, the big three — who, with the Cubs, have MLB's biggest payrolls — maxed out.

Last season, Red Sox-Yankees drew ESPN's three highest game ratings — a Mets-Yankees game was fourth. Vince Doria, ESPN senior vice president, notes the Yankees and Red Sox outrate West Coast teams even in West Coast TV markets: "It's not a question of bias. It's trying to discern what most of our viewers are interested in."

Bell, who was on ESPN after his criticism, said he likes the new MLB Network "because they promote everybody." MLBN and ESPN don't have complete 2009 schedules, but MLBN so far includes smaller-market teams such as the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays.

And if ESPN has a Northeast bias, it doesn't extend to its NBA games: This season, the Boston Celtics maxed out on ESPN (10 games) and ABC (five). But so did the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs on at least one of the networks, suggesting, perhaps, a Texas bias.