Sports

BIG-TIME DISGRACE

CRUEL world, continued. Bruce Johnson is not simply a victim, he’s a symptom.

Johnson was good enough to serve Rutgers when Rutgers was the big state school on the edge of a village. But now that Rutgers has become a national sports brand . . . well.

The radio voice of Rutgers football and basketball since 1985, Johnson, in 2001, lost the football gig. It eventually went to WFAN’s Chris Carlin. Rutgers Network basketball and football are heard here over WOR (710 AM).

Last week, RU regretted to inform Johnson, 54, that his run as the voice of Scarlet Knights basketball, after 23 years, also is over. That job, too, has been assigned to Carlin.

So it’s clear that RU has entrusted its jewels to Carlin, who, when not calling games, is to further lend Rutgers a daily “Big Apple buzz” through his FAN and now SNY gigs, something that Johnson, as the sports director of a village radio station, WCTC in New Brunswick, couldn’t.

Oddly, though, Carlin isn’t yet the kind of play-by-player who inspires savvy Big Apple (or West Orange) audiences to sustained listening. He’s a screamer. First-downs – those made by Rutgers – cause him delirium. Other times, he recites misleading or irrelevant stats. For now, he’s more style and New York presence than substance. And that, apparently, is worth plenty to Rutgers, the brand.

Anyway, while Rutgers might have trouble this winter finding the money to heat its dorms and classrooms, it continues to pour millions into its football and basketball facilities. There’s no better way for the taxpayer-funded state school to impress out-of-state recruits, many of whom, if not for football or basketball, would be far too academically deficient to be accepted to Rutgers.

But that’s what brand-name universities do. They spend a fortune on those least likely to graduate. Sick, ain’t it? And if the recruits are good enough, they might only stick around for a year or two.

And so what that Rutgers, in order to better financially serve football and basketball, eliminated far less expensive sports – crew, fencing, swimming and diving – that not only produced All-Americans, but superior students, the kind colleges are supposed to attract and then graduate.

Yep, Bruce Johnson, the village voice of Rutgers since 1985, was no longer a good fit, not for the modern brand. He’s out for the same reason the Scarlet Knights now wear black uniforms.

*

The Mets’ fundamental flaw continues to be that they’re fundamentally flawed. Saturday, when Andy Pettitte picked Jose Reyes off second, FOX’s Tim McCarver called it inexcusable. It was worse than that. If the Mets were unaware of Pettitte’s pick-off prowess, they were provided a show-and-tell on May 17, when he picked off Moises Alou.

During Thursday’s Yanks-Pirates, John Sterling shouted, “[Alex] Rodriguez steals third!” Then he added that Jason Giambi pops it up and Rodriguez is doubled off second. Oh. That a fellow who has delivered such calls for 20 years can still talk down to his audience is remarkable.

Yesterday, Sterling excitedly reported that Rodriguez’s monster shot in the fourth was very nearly a homer, landing just foul in the upper deck in left. In fact, it was foul by plenty and it landed in the mezzanine. That’s the best thing about Yanks-Mets games – Yankees fans stuck in cars who want to know what’s actually going on have Howie Rose.

With the Yanks-Pirates in a rain delay, Thursday, WCBS-AM returned to its news format. At 8:10 p.m., the anchorwoman had this baseball-hopeful question for station meteorologist Josh Nagelberg: “When can we expect the sun to come back out in Pittsburgh?”

“Tomorrow morning,” he said.

*

Dottie Pepper, on NBC’s Women’s U.S. Open coverage, continued to impress. Both her reporting and analysis are concise and alert; her opinions are spoken firmly and reek of credibility.

WFAN’s Craig Carton is another insult/put-down artist who can’t take a jab, let alone a punch. When it’s time to pay for his insensitivity, his sensitive side emerges. Incidentally, Regis Philbin, a recent guest, as seen yesterday on Boomer Esiason‘s MSG show, volunteered that Esiason’s low-brow radio partner will get Esiason in trouble. Esiason changed the subject.

It gets confusing. Wednesday, after Bobby Abreu hustled out an infield hit, YES showed Abreu busting it out of the box. Ken Singleton said that everyone should similarly run to first. Three seasons ago, when the Yanks were in Anaheim, Singleton noted that locals were getting on Garret Anderson for failing to run to first. He next said that hitters as good as Anderson are entitled not to run.

phil.mushnick@nypost.com