Kranepool Society :: A New York Mets Blog
A daily account of the trials and tribulations of the New York Mets. Contact me at sinymets@aol.com
Last night on THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN, Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest was my guest and we spoke about the state of disrepair of NY Sportstalk radio. Mike mentioned a piece we was going to run on his NYBD site and today it’s up and it really scorches the sports radio earth. I hope Mark Chernoff has asbestos boxers on today.
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I guess it’s tough for Mike Francesa to come to the realization that he is no longer relevant in this town when it comes to sports talk radio. Sure his ratings are as solid as they were when he was teamed with Chris Russo (it’s hard to fault a guy for taking more cash and the freedom to do his own show but Chris Russo right now is a non-entity in the sports talkie world) as that is more out of habit than getting anything newsworthy from the show as the man is so out of touch with the modern media world and what we have seen since the Mike and the Mad Dog breakup is Russo while off the mark many times, is 1,000 times for entertaining than Mike. Francesa’ ego will not allow him to have another co-host and the ones who were brought in all had to bow to the altar of the Sports Pope. Worship is not what’s needed from 1-6 Monday to Friday they need someone to tweak the Tank and have some real sports talk debate.
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The problem is, Francesa is so set in his way he would never allow that. Mike can not comprehend that his listeners are as informed of not more informed than he is and his slip is showing. Last week he had some political hack on discussing President Obama’ address to Congress. Are you kidding me? Where was Mark Chernoff with the white towel? I know what you’re saying “why listen to the show then� And you’re right. I was a die hard Mike and the Mad Dog fan as my desk radio would be on the whole 5 hours but now I usually tune in and out while listening to music most of the day. I bring all this up because Francesa has been very underhanded in his treatment of David Wright and Ryan Church. By not concededing that Wright is one of the top 10 players in the game today, just showed Francesa’ ignorance and his nastiness. Make no mistake Mike Francesa is one nasty fuck and both Wright and Church gave him their ass to kiss and rightly so. Francesa can not get the big name NY athlete to do his show because of his piss poor personality, I mean for David Wright not to agree to come on his show, that’s all you need to know that Francesa either needs to get a personality transplant –a la Tom Coughlin-or he needs to pack it in as no one is tuning in to here his political views or reviews of movies made 60 years ago.  Check out Mike Silva’s NYBD as he posts about Francesa talking about he and Wright meeting in St Lonesome.
I tuned in more than usual to the show this week because Mike was in St Lonesome. It would have helped if Francesa did a little homework before he did his interviews. His one on one with Fernando Martinez was embarrassing as he really had no clue on the kids accomplishments, his age or what he has accomplished as a 20 year old playing in the Double A while most kids his age are Juniors in college and eligible to be drafted to a big league team come June. No all Francesa could talk about was the injury factor, not taking into account that maybe the young man was still transforming from a kid to a man. The best interview was with Oliver Perez who blew Francesa off after two questions. Of course there is the Wright/ Church matter that both players who made it known to Jay Horowitz that no way in hell were they going on with Francesa. So WFAN wasted all that money to send Mike down there just to wear those hideous sunglasses andto model his collection of black shirts.
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Hey Mark Chernoff it’s TIME FOR A CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Â
If anything came up as a positive last night that the Phelatios won the NL Pennant it’s that the flame that was close to Omar Minaya ass to make his team better just turned into a blow torch. I ‘ve read a lot about who should go, who should come back and who the Mets should go after but as much as we Mets fans want to see some movement immediately nothing will happen until after the World Series and after the free agency grace period. As far as the bullpen I would say you won’t see any action on that until December to see what players are offered arbitration and who doesn’t as the non-tendered list should bring something of substance to the beleaguered pen. This process will be take a while to play out and I’d say to all Mets fans to be patient but I know better than to go that route.
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I am staring to fee bad for Mike Francesa. Here was a guy who was on top of the sports talk food chain and now has become as relevant as a rotary telephone. It’s hard to get mad at his Anti-David Wright rant yesterday as I feel more embarrassed for him than pissed. To say that David Wright is not a five tool player and that “every team in baseball has a David Wright “ is so over the top stupid it was like listening to a drunk at a dinner party slur his words and spit his food. WFAN has tried to do everything to save Mike’d Up as they see that Francesa by himself can not carry a show (just like Derek Jeter can’t carry a team by himself) and Program Director Mark Chernoff has trotted in just about all of the talent the station has to find a match. So far Joe Beningno has been the best of the lot with surprisingly Evan Roberts putting up a good showing as well. Kim Jones was good to but Mike was treating her like it was his sister and not a colleague and the biggest disappointment was Chris Carlin who was dreadful but I digress, it seems most of the callers and posters on MikeFrancesa.com feel that this attack on Wright is personal. A caller brought this up to Francesa and he acted in his typical rude way. For Francesa to diss Wright as he has in belittling his ability not only in the field but at bat (at one point in the day, Francesca said that Wright’s 33 HR’s and 124 RBI meant nothing and that Wright was an awful 3rd baseman which if a blogger wrote that they would be laughed at and their site never heard from again) .
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It sad because as much as I would bitch about how out of touch Francesa is I listen every day at work and I’ve always found his analysis spot on for the most part, but now I see a guy who looks ready for a nervous breakdown and who misses his partner more than he will ever let on.Â
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Mike Silva has a post on this Francesa Fiasco at his always informitive NY Baseball Digest siteÂ
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R.I.P. Tom Tresh. I remember getting one of his bats at bat day at Highlander Stadium as a little kid and having my friends beg me for it looking to trade me a Ron Woods bat for a Tresh bat and when I wouldn’t budge on the deal being called a “stupid fucking Mets fan†which is funny because those same friends still call me that to this day. Â
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Joel Sherman in his Hardball Blog writes on how Larry Bowa enjoyed working with Manny Ramirez and how Bowa is rumored to be headed back to the Highlanders. If Bowa is looking to leave LA why doesn’t Omar grab him to coach 3rd base? A Bowa type is sorely needed and Bowa did play for the Mets. Okay that one was a stretch but I would love to see Bowa waving home runners at third for the Mets.
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Here’s what I took from last night’s Presidential debate. If you were going to jump off a building, Barrack Obama would talk you out of leaping to your death. John Mc Cain on the other hand seems like he would yell “Will you fucking jump already!!!
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