It's ironic that BASS/ESPN has such difficulty communicating with most people it's in business with. Whether the problem is with the Professional Anglers Association (PAA), The Bass Federation Inc. (TBF Inc.) or the fishing public, the communications company can't seem to get its message across without provoking some kind of animosity.

This Disney-owned media/promotions company should understand how image affects its relationships. In spite of its best efforts, most everyone's perception of Mickey Bass-ESPN is as a corporation that doesn't care about anglers and one that can't be trusted.

If BASS/ESPN can't manage how it's viewed by the pros and fishing public, it could be because it's not very good at what it does, or it really could be that it's given people reason to be wary. Whatever the reason, ESPN has a big problem – one it hasn't been able to get a grip on from the moment it bought BASS.

Right or wrong, BASS/ESPN is viewed as the bad guy. This is a big problem. The only way this perception will change is through the efforts of BASS/ESPN. But this is business, of course, and ESPN is free to run it anyway it wants, even aground, if it chooses.

ESPN can dismiss the PAA and TBF if it likes. As athletes and investors, the PAA will be fine with or without BASS. They'll find a gig, though BASS/ESPN would be out of business, and this necessitates ESPN's need to deal with the PAA. Still, ESPN could tell us all to step off the boat if we don't like the ride.

Of course, right now, TBF needs ESPN, if for no other reason than to hold onto its prestige and its tie into the Bassmaster Classic. If the problem is, as Ray Scott claims, that TBF leadership is rank with corruption, then he should provide the evidence so that the Federation membership can clean house.

Honestly, whether ESPN knows it or not, it needs TBF and the rest of us who pay our money to wear the little blue patch. BASS is different from all the rest, because at its core and heart are the ordinary yucks like me who represent BASS every day. ESPN can no longer afford to appear to us as hostile toward our organization.

Like ESPN, Ray Scott and his successors were in a business to make a buck off of us. The difference is, Ray Scott and company made us happy to part with our money, whereas ESPN makes us resent it. We knew Ray Scott was a salesman, a hustler even, yet he still made us feel like a key part of something much bigger than us all. ESPN makes us feel like just a cog.

There is no other professional sport that has a participatory grassroots support group (except maybe golf) like BASS. No other sport, or fishing tour, has such a widespread, built-in, financially diverse and active group of fans. This is why BASS licensing is so much more valuable than FLW licensing.

This is what is so aggravating about ESPN. It saw the value of the BASS brand as such a strong starting point due to the numbers of people who have personal investment in BASS, but it can’t seem to see the people for the numbers. If ESPN can see the people, then it seems it's misread what the people value and how to treat them.

If ESPN does really appreciate all of us who have been personally committed to BASS, through memberships, Federation participation and the pros (who plunk down huge chunks of cash every year to compete), then it just doesn't know how to show it. Sensitivity training classes, anyone? How about sending me big BASS balloons for my birthday?

So, come on ESPN, buy me a drink and tell me a lie. At least pretend that you’re listening. Make me think that you love me.

The perception of FLW is one that is simply a cold, bottom-line business. Kind of like Wal-Mart. And ESPN. Did you know that if you take letters from Wal-Mart and ESPN, you can spell SataN?

Here’s a bottom-line consideration. Money can buy you an electric blanket, but it can’t buy you love. Which is why, in spite of all the flash and glitter, FLW hasn't yet hooked – and may never hook – a hardcore base such as the members of BASS.

I was born in the South and have lived there most of my life, and it seems a day doesn’t go by when I don’t see a blue BASS sticker on a truck or car. Not counting mine, of course. I’ve yet to see an FLW sticker.

Maybe the PAA and TBF need to sit down and talk about their mutual problems (with ESPN) and see if they can’t find a meaningful solution for all of them. I’ll provide the Cokes.

I can only wonder what would go through the minds of the Mickey Bass folks and those people at FLW if the PAA and TBF went into business with each other. This could be an ingenius idea.

Should ESPN continue to show itself as a company that doesn't really need us, the people who make up the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society and the Federation may decide they don’t really need ESPN. I don’t think you’ll then see a resulting bloom of FLW stickers on the road, but you may instead see a bumper crop of pretty PAA stickers.

John Agel is a former golf pro and current golf-industry consultant who for some reason loves bass fishing.