Mike Francesa’s Master of the Universe Complex has become too profound to any longer be regarded as funny. He’s becoming sad, pathetic. And unless he gets hold of himself — as unlikely as that is — he’ll remain a clear and present danger to himself, the last to take him seriously.
Francesa, still the top sports radio listen here — aided in large part by a lack of competition — has sustained and confused his popularity, unaware that car wrecks draw crowds.
Two weeks ago, there was that brazenly dishonest Al Alburquerque episode, transparent to all except Francesa. Although he presents himself as a baseball expert, he’d never heard of the Tigers’ third-year reliever — who just had pitched against the Yankees in the ALDS — thus, when a caller brought up Alburquerque’s name, Francesa slam-dunked the phone, as if a prank caller had slipped through.
Later, after learning off-air Al Alburquerque is for real, he might have apologized to that caller and admitted his mistake. Instead, he lied his way in deeper, claiming he knows Alburquerque as Alberto Jose Alburquerque, likely meaning Francesa and Alburquerque’s mother are the only two.
Last week, same thing. Although he regards himself as an unparalleled NFL expert, a widely reported story escaped him: Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall, extremely talented but just as troubled — his presence and participation in felonious street crime and domestic violence has been steady — months ago was clinically diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.
Although such diagnoses often lead to cynicism (Don’t we all have such lines that we border?), that’s not the point. The professional diagnosis was BPD.
So when Marshall, with tonight’s Dolphins-Jets game on his fragile mind, spewed delusional inanities, both his words and disorder made more news. Except Francesa, the condescending, conceited, big-talking expert on all matters was the last to know.
Thus, when a caller matter-of-factly stated that Marshall has BPD, Francesa stopped him cold, belittled him, hollered at him, indignantly demanded to know — without allowing the caller to answer — if he’s a psychiatrist, if he examined Marshall, if he has any idea what he’s talking about. And then, bully that he is, Francesa slam-dunked the phone.
Minutes later, clearly having been informed off-air that Marshall in fact has been clinically declared to have BPD, Francesa returned to the issue — not to apologize to that abused, ridiculed and bullied caller, nor to admit his error — but to again perform his transparent liar’s dance, the Megalomaniac’s Waltz, as if he, of course, was well aware of Marshall’s BPD (Who isn’t?), but regards that as no excuse for Marshall’s antisocial behavior.
But what of Francesa’s now ceaseless antisocial behavior? The Emperor’s same old new clothes. For his sake, before whatever corpuscle of credibility he may still have is destroyed from the inside, out, it’s time for a new wardrobe.
Anchors way off this time
Rutgers’ football radio voices, Chris Carlin and Ray Lucas, missed a chance to tell a hopeful and perhaps important story on Saturday.
Early in the game between Navy and Rutgers, an injured Midshipman was assisted to his feet to respectful applause. That was a big change from what went on throughout the game between the teams four years ago, when Rutgers fans, loaded on school spirits and eager to embrace a big-time college football attitude, abused Navy players and accosted Navy personnel with profane chants and assorted rotten conduct, so much so that the story made national news. Rutgers sent a letter of apology to the Naval Academy.
It would have been worth noting that day’s crowd behavior compared to Saturday’s.
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Aaargh! ESPN Classic, on Saturday afternoon, aired a wonder-filled documentary on that forever fantastic 1968 game, “Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29.” But why (oh why, oh why) place it against live college games?
Speaking of the Ivy League, it seemed silly for Versus to have scheduled Penn, winners of 16 straight league games, at Columbia, losers of 16 straight in the Ivy, on Saturday. But darned if Columbia didn’t nearly pull a colossal upset. Hindsight: Great pick, Versus!
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I know, I know; Michigan State’s colors are green and white — and have been for more than 100 years. I know; Saturday for their ESPN game against Michigan, the Spartans wore green and gold and black. Big recruiting game, ya know?
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Division II Slippery Rock (Pa.) beat California (Pa.), 17-3, Saturday. Both starting quarterbacks, Slippery Rock’s Cody Endres and California’s Peter Lalich, were former Division I players — Endres at Connecticut, Lalich at Oregon State — who were thrown off their teams for misconduct.
Going too easy on dumb play
Found last week in a fortune cookie: “A difference, to be a difference, must make a difference.”
To that end, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms seem to be the only NFL TV team not to ignore or pander to senseless, me-first behavior. Yesterday they wondered about the style-over-sense conduct of Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks, who, in traffic, ran toward the end zone with the ball held out in one hand.
Simms likened it to baseball players who don’t run hard to first until it’s too late. He added that what Nicks did is “frowned upon by coaches.” So why do coaches allow it?
Nantz and Simms, while admirably far different, were still too soft. Such play is inexcusably foolish, and there are already backfires and calamities to prove it.
If football were a beauty pageant, they wouldn’t be wearing helmets. Hit it harder, men; make a difference.
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There is no network more shamelessly self-promotional and cross-promotional than Disney’s ESPN.
Its news crawl yesterday told of a fiery, catastrophic 15-car Indy racing crackup in Las Vegas — adding that the telecast is “Now on ABC [ESPN]” and that it’s “Presented by Sunoco.”
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With 1:32 left and the Bills down three, facing first-and-15 from their own 15, Giants radio analyst Carl Banks: “They’ve gotta look at this as if they’re in a real two-minute offense.”
Hmmm.
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Orel Hershiser, the Rangers’ pitching coach for three years (he knows the nuances of their stadium) was extra helpful throughout ESPN Radio’s coverage the ALCS.
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If it’s the one-percent mega-wealthy and unduly enriched whom these protesters protest, why not an Occupy Yankee Stadium movement?