NOT to be overly defensive, but I do not tune to WFAN predisposed to spend the afternoon trying to catch Mike Francesa in an act of overt arrogance.
It never takes an afternoon; three minutes will do it. And even if you’ve vowed to yourself not to write another word about Francesa – at least for a while – you can still innocently bump into him speaking something so mind-blowingly pompous that you’re compelled to share it with those who might have missed it or those who crave confirmation that someone else heard it, too.
Monday, I stopped at WFAN, no malice aforethought, so help me. Within moments, Francesa said CBS’s Jim Nantz, author of his just-out memoirs, would be on the next day. OK.
Then Francesa, on behalf of Chris Russo and himself, added, “We’ll see what we can do to make it [Nantz’s book] No. 1 on the bestseller list.”
This, at first, seemed like a funny line. And a rare moment, too. Since when did Francesa engage in self-deprecating humor?
But then Francesa made it clear that he was serious! He wasn’t kidding!
Russo sensed it, offering a brief protest in response to what Francesa had just said, but by then it was too late; Francesa was off to that grand place (or is it palace?) in his head, that elite club into which only king-makers and holy emperors may enter.
Francesa next said that it would be difficult to push Nantz’s book to the top given that Barbara Walters’ book is being released at the same time, a book, Francesa noted, that had already received a ton of publicity. Darn the timing, the best Francesa could do for Nantz was grant him the No. 2 spot on the bestseller list.
And although Nantz’s book has nothing to do with Mike Francesa, Mike Francesa let listeners know that it has everything to do with Mike Francesa. Yup, now he thinks he’s Oprah Winfrey.
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Speaking of WFAN hosts, Craig Carton apparently works off the same plan as Francesa and Russo: Rip trash ’em when they’re not there, make nice to them when they are.
As several readers pointed out in March after David Paterson, as New York’s new governor, revealed that he, too, had engaged in an extramarital relationship, Carton mercilessly stomped him, even called for his resignation to quickly follow Eliot Spitzer‘s.
But last Friday, when Carton and Boomer Esiason conducted a lengthy interview with Paterson, there was none of that from Carton. Quite the contrary. It was just warm, cozy stuff, with Carton reminding us that people in the highest offices are mere mortals, too. “We forget they’re regular human beings.” Hmmm.
Carton added that Paterson unilaterally confessed his transgressions rather than allow his private life to become headlines “on the front page of newspapers.” On most other days, Carton eagerly seizes such headlines on which to build his radio show.
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If only David Cone could shake off a bit of monotone, we wouldn’t be left to wonder whether his best stuff is lost to it.
Tuesday, after David Dellucci hit an eighth-inning, three-run homer off Joba Chamberlain to give Cleveland the lead, YES showed a forlorn Chamberlain in the dugout. Michael Kay asked Cone if he recalls the first big homer he allowed.
Cone said it was his rookie year with the Mets (1987), a Barry Bonds grand slam. Cone said he sulked in the clubhouse until veterans scolded him, told him to grow up and get over it.
Cone then volunteered that such firm, unsolicited advice now is rare; few dare get into anyone else’s baseball business. “It was a different era . . . you really had to pay your dues. You had to play that rookie role. Veterans let you know they didn’t like your act.”
By the way, why the big deal on YES yesterday about Chamberlain shaking off Jose Molina on Tuesday? Last August, in his big league debut, Chamberlain repeatedly shook off Jorge Posada.
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With 20 horses going in the Derby on Saturday, surely NBC, at all times, would provide a bottom-of-the-screen crawl showing the latest odds. But NBC, as is its horseracing habit, posted the odds only now and then. Even with post-time nearing and odds changing, NBC kept tens of thousands – viewers who would be checking the board every few minutes had they been at Churchill Downs – in the dark.
The next day, however, over live action in Game 5 of Rangers-Pens, NBC repeatedly threw up meaningless, distracting graphics, the kind useful to no one.