YOU read it here first: ESPN 1050 Radio has signed Billy Wagner to a weekly say-for-pay spot on Michael Kay’s late-afternoon show, and that, by no later than Aug. 15, is going to cause a problem. Or two.
Wagner is a terrific interview. Ask him a question and he answers it candidly and almost always in some detail. He can’t help himself. Those kinds of answers made issues when he pitched for the Phillies and they’ve caused some heat in his two years with the Mets.
Wagner’s pre-game sessions with Ed Coleman on WFAN have been special. Coleman asks him a question – any question – and Coleman could leave to do his taxes and get back before Wagner’s done. It’s like when a disc jockey plays the FM version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
This season, during his 1050 segment, Wagner will say something that causes anything from a stir to a calamity. It’s a virtual lock.
Wagner pitches hard, dies hard. The Mets have some players who don’t always play hard. The guess here is that when asked about something like that, he’ll eschew the politically evasive answer to say what he thinks. And it’ll make for headlines and talk show chow. Just wait; you’ll see.
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Keeps getting better for Ron Darling. Not only did he sign an extension with SNY, he’ll spend 10 of his SNY off-days calling TBS’s new, non-exclusive Sunday afternoon Games of the Week.
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OK, so ESPN couldn’t resist the temptation to hire Bobby Knight for its NCAA postseason studio show. Understood. Why would anyone, including ESPN staffers who were done senseless dirt by Knight over the years, expect different?
But what has Knight delivered in exchange for ESPN’s promotion, pandering and fee? Thus far, mostly cut-and-paste platitudes. According to Knight, the officiating in Tournament games is important. OK. And, among other wisdoms commonly found in fortune cookies, better teams can defeat better talent.
If more specific, team-by-team, game-by-game insights are what you tuned in for, Knight hasn’t provided many. The General has spoken so many generalities he could be working the Stanley Cup playoffs. He seems to have taken ESPN on a bit of a ride.
On the other hand, had ESPN rejected Knight on higher moral grounds – and let that word slip – ESPN might have come off looking noble instead of easy; ESPN might have made some good noise, for a change.
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At the start of Nets’ home games, a video is played for all patrons, a video encouraging all to civil comportment, to behave like right-headed humans.
But Wednesday, when the Pacers’ Danny Granger fouled out, the Nets’ P.A. system delivered the opposite message; it mocked Granger by blaring, “Hey, hey, goodbye!” Sure, nothing new, but it’s still a kick-him-when-he’s-down, bush-league bit, as if sports-minded kids need any more prompts to act like creeps.
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So it’s Opening Day, top of the 10th, and Manny Ramirez poses a triple into a double. And as I watched this mindless, recidivist garbage, all I could hear were the words of ESPN studio analyst Orestes Destrade, when last October he called Ramirez “the consummate professional.”
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Once again, you have to admire Mike Francesa’s nerve. Who else would pay scant attention to college basketball until the NCAA Tournament then present himself as an expert? And then think we’re too stupid to know better?
At least Chris Russo occasionally admits that he doesn’t know what he’s screaming about. This week, Russo tried to pronounce the name of Red Sox pitcher Hideki Okajima, but it came out sounding like Iwo Jima. From others, you’d think that the work of an insensitive wise guy, but not necessarily from Russo. Russo thinks a thesaurus is a dinosaur.