WHAT MIKE SAYS GOES

A short while ago, a caller complained to Mike about the end to the Redskins/Seattle game this past week and about the play calling by Skins coach Jim Zorn. The caller pointed out that Seattle had no timeouts left, thus Washington should have just kneeled down, which would have avoided them fumbling, which happened. Mike and the caller disagreed about how many timeouts Seattle had left:

Mike: I was doing the math...

Caller: No, that’s not right.

Mike: They had the timeout (Seattle had one left).

Caller: No, they didn’t!

Mike: Yeah, they had one.

Caller: Seattle had NO timeouts left!

Mike: They had one. I’m telling you Stash, they had one.

Caller: I’ll bet you anything they had ZERO timeouts.

Mike: I’m telling you they had one (left).

Caller: NO they did NOT. Mike, I’m telling you I watched the game closer than anyone.

Mike: I’m telling you they had one. I went and looked.

Caller: They didn’t have one Mike.

Mike: They had one.

Caller: 100% they did NOT have one. With a minute and 40 seconds, he could have ran...(mike interrupts)

Mike: Stash, he could have taken a knee then if he didn’t have any. He wouldn’t have had to run the play.

Caller: He ran a play like an idiot.

Mike: No. No. No. I disagree with you. I think he ran the play because he had one (seattle timeout left). And I did the math because I was watching the game.

After this exchange, there was a commercial break. Now I knew if Mike was right, that he would start off the following segment scolding the caller for being wrong. However, Mike made no mention of the timeout fiasco. So I decided to check myself and it appears that...wait for it...Mike was wrong and the caller was right. Here's a link to the play-by-play (http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/playbyplay?gameId=281123026&period=4), which shows that Seattle called their final timeout with 1:39 left. The following play, Washington fumbled on a running play...the play Mike said they had to run because Seattle still had a timeout left. What time should we expect the apology from Mikey?

MIKE'S F, MARRY, KILL LIST

Mike opened the show pretty much previewing the Giants/Jets Super Bowl that we are all in store for. But then he talked a little about his favorite NFL player...Peyton Manning:

"The Colts now seem to be headed in the right direction because of the brilliance of Peyton Manning, who was brilliant last night. Brilliant. That 4th down play he made on the goal line - Hall of Fame. The 4th and inches play he made - Hall of Fame. I mean, utter brilliance."

Peyton is one of those athletes that Mike Francesa loves. If he could divorce Roe and marry Peyton, that would suit him just fine. That brings me to the "Mike Francesa F, Marry, Kill" Game. Those who were longtime listeners of Howard Stern know this game. Essentially, pick one person that you think Francesa would love to "F_ _ _" (trying to keep things clean here)...one person he would love to "Marry" and one person he would love to "Kill." Here's my list:

Despite his utter praise for Peyton today, I would say that Mike would "F" Manny Ramirez. It's probably a tough call between Manny, Peyton and Tim Duncan. But I think the allure of the dreadlocks would sway Mike to Manny.

I have no doubt that Mikey would Marry Bill Parcells. That's a no-brainer.

And lastly, Mike would Kill Bill Belichick. On Death Row would be Greg Schiano.

So who makes your "Francesa F-Marry-Kill" List?

THE KNICKS MADE A TRADE, MIKE IS ON AN NFL TIRADE

ESPN.com just reported, which means they took credit for something someone else had reported before them that the Knicks have traded Jamal Crawford for Al Harrington and there is the possiblity that Zach Randolph is also getting moved which if it happened would be a HUGE deal for the New York Knicks. It would get them remarkably close to being under the salary cap for 2010 when there are top flight free agents like a guy named Lebron James.

For me, a guy who is a New York fan, a New York Knicks fan, this is a big deal. This is the kind of move that will help wash away the Isiah Thomas years, and when i say wash away, i mean like how you would wash down being fired and out of a job and sent to Europe to scout no one with a bottle of sleeping pills and then try to put it off on your daughter kind of wash it away. This deal, especially if Randolph is included, would get the Knicks over a big contract hurdle.

I was excited. I was pumped. The Knicks are making solid moves. Donnie Walsh doesn't appear to be a liar, he is following up on what he has said. The team isn't trying to be good now. That's terrific! I tuned in to Channel 53, wanting to get an update on the rumors, wanting to hear what else Mike had to say, maybe he has an NBA writer in the know on the line, maybe that guy that co-hosted for one day but didn't speak at all but who writes NBA stuff.. maybe him. Anyone.. I tune in, i'm psyched, i'm putting the fact that watching Mike hurts my insides and that he stills doesn't have a jingle, a partner or a good show. I am putting all that aside... the Knicks are doing good things.. TALK TO ME MIKEY.. TALK TO ME...

Channel 53 blazes up on my tv screen and i hear.. N.. and then it's followed by F and then followed by L and all hope is lost...

Mike is talking about the NFL game last night that was played I believe between the Steelers and the Bengals. They are not New York teams. They are not the teams in the deal with the Knicks. THEY PLAY IN THE NFL! COME ON, give me a break. So the games are fixed, who cares. The refs are all being paid. Ok. Super. There is a NEW YORK STORY going on. One that affects one of the prominent NEW YORK teams. TALK ABOUT IT!

At 1:48, Mike is opening his mail, reads a brief piece of mail and then makes a passing statement about the trade and that's it. COME ON!

Mike here ya go, here's a jingle for today...
"We are New York and we love basketball, we're gonna take it all, we are the NEW YORK Knicks."

How about this one
"Go New York Go" (that's used for the Knicks too)

TALK ABOUT NEW YORK. TALK ABOUT THE KNICKS. I get it, the NFL is king, but it's the only thing you discuss all week. Here's an actual New York story. You can go all CSI and solve the NFL gambling scandal like you did with Sean Taylor later on...

TALK ABOUT THE KNICKS!

(by the way, if Chris Russo still had a radio show he would certainly be talking about the Knicks)

WHOSE PORN WAS IT?: WEDNESDAY SHOW OPEN

I sat down wondering how Mike would begin the show today. There really isn't much happening. The "opening salvo" hasn't been tossed out in the free agent world, football is a few days away. What would Mike begin with? Of course, a screensaver.

Mike began the show with yelling at Eddie Erickson to come into the studio because someone had left a screensaver with a naked woman on it. Mike's show is broadcast throughout the country, throughout the world, perhaps to the astronauts in space right now, they cannot see this filth. THEY CANNOT. Mike claimed not to know who put this screensaver on the computer but I say we take a guess.

Here are the options
Joe B: he is the favorite to me
Evan: doesn't feel right
Minko: could it be a passive aggressive "salvo" against Mike?
Carton and Boomer: a very strong option
Christopher Russo: could he perhaps sneak into the studios of WFAN at 4am and put this on Mike's computer? It is not likely since Russo does not know how to use a computer and his idea of a hot girl would be a Tim Lincecum life size poster.

Who could it be?

(a side note, Mike needs to be aware that we can find out all sorts of stuff on the internet. He talks about how none of us really know what other teams are thinking, but that's not really true. Go to www.mlbtraderumors.com and you can see plenty of what is being talked about. The information is everywhere, it's not hard to find. It's actually amazing how little Mike and also Chris have embraced the internet as a source for information. Wouldn't that be helpful?)

BATTLE OF THE MIKES: Round 3

For those that missed this early in the program, Mike from Montclair went toe-to-toe with Mike Francesa yet again. Here was the call:

MIKE ADMITS HE MADE WRONG PICK

Or not. Yesterday Mike picked Buffalo to beat the Browns at home. As we know, the opposite happened. So instead of coming on the air today and admitting he got the pick wrong, that in fact his word is not gold, Francesa instead lumped all the blame on the awful quaterback play of one Trent Edwards. Francesa moaned about the fact that "Edwards performance set quaterbacking back 10 years."

Ever notice that when a Francesa prediction goes awry, instead of admitting his error in judgement, he instead blames others? I have pointed this out before that when Mike gets a pick wrong, he usually laments that "everyone thought that would happen" but when he gets something right it's "I picked that." But today, Trent Edwards "stinks" and is to blame for Mike's incorrect pick. And Breaking News: Mike does not think this Jets game this week will be an "easy game." Wow. They are playing the only undefeated team in the NFL and Mike does not think this will be an easy game for Gang Green. Great call Mike. Great call.

FRANCESA'D UP

Mike spent the entire beginning of the show on the controversial non-touchdown by the Steelers defense at the end of yesterday's game versus the Chargers. Essentially Mike believes two things:

MIKE BELIEF #1: "This game looks bad..." Mike went on to say that something was fishy about the way that game ended and that there was no way that touchdown should have been taken off the board. Something was not right here.

MIKE BELIEF #2: "I do not think for one second there is any corruption here (with the NFL)."

So Mike, which is it? If something is "fishy" as you stated, then aren't you in fact claiming the NFL was up to something corrupt here? Mike then went on to say this about the NFL: "When they get to these coverups like this, they talk out of both sides of their mouth."

Someone else appears to be talking out of both sides of their mouth...

Chris and Mike Talk

A kind commenter here has provided this link of a Chris Russo interview with WEEI in Boston. Russo mentions that he saw and spoke with Mike Francesa for a while on Friday night. Here is a link to the Russo interview:

http://audio.weei.com/m/audio/21415153/chris_mad_dog_russo.htm

And here is my best bet on how the conversation went down:

Chris: Anndddd Goooddd Eveningggg Mike, on this Friday November 7th. And how are you tonight??

Mike: Fine.

Chris: Lots to talk about in the world. You got this Pats/Jets game on Thursday. The Phillies proved to be a pretty feisty team. You got the politics...And one more thing, you have those 2 months that you and I haven't spoken to each other since I bolted from FAN. Where do you wanna start?

Mike: Wherever.

Chris: Okay, lets go with Jets/Pats...This idea that the Jets could be a Super Bowl team is...

Mike: (interrupting) Dog, we gotta start with us.

Chris: Excellent point Mike. Excellent point.

Mike: Dog, the fact of the matter is that I still have the number 1 ranked sports talk radio show in the country.

Chris: Now hold on a minute there Mike. Let's be fair here. You've had more people in there for auditions trying to fill my spot than that Osama guy had at his presidential rallies. (LAUGHING) Say something funny Mike.

Mike: Dog, my show still gets better ratings than yours. And you've got Raismann and all your friends defending you left and right, and taking shots at me everyday, but I still outrate you every week.

Chris: Ahhh Mike...CMON!! Could ya please!! That show of yours isn't a patch on Lincecum's fanny! You have done a TERRIBLE job without me.

Mike: I'm still Number One Dog.

Chris: OHH CMON!! would ya please!!! You've got Mike from Montclair and I've got Butch from Biloxi. Who's got the bigger audience now? Now you wanna say hold on a minute there Dog, some truck driver in Mississippi doesn't count? Okay, you could say that...

Mike: (interrupting)..Dog, Have you asked Mel what your stock's at right now? You might wanna see where that number is at..I know where ours is - it's #1.

Chris: PIPE DOWN!!! And another thing, I never had to wait on line to use the bathroom at Yankee Stadium. They DO NOT need a new Stadium. They need a new Stadium like Jeanne needs another diamond ring...

Mike: Dog, I don't know where you've gone to the bathrooms, but those lines were TERRIBLE. They need the new Stadium. That Stadium was not the old Yankee Stadium...It wasn't. I once missed an entire at-bat when Andy was on the mound waiting for the bathroom...

Chris: OH COME ON!!!! The bathrooms were fine!!!! That is an ATROCIOUS argument by you!

Mike: Dog, the fact of the matter is I still have the number 1 ranked sports talk show...

Coach Francesa Calls for the ATQ

Coach Francesa offered up his gameplan for the Jets this week against the Pats:

"I wanna see them put pressure on the quarterback. I'll even give up a big play to Moss. I want them early on to attack the quaterback. In recent games, they've been doing a lot of blitzing...they've been throwing some Cowboy blitzes in there, they're shooting guys off the corners, they've been timing their blitzes well. ATTACK THE QUATERBACK. A-T-Q. That's the way to play this game. Put this kid on his rear end. Knock him down early. Make him play tough. I'd rather see Moss get a 90 yarder then for him not to take hits early in the game. Take your chances. Go get him. I'll tell ya - I'll even single Moss and run my risk at times early in the game until he beats me once. Make the kid throw the deep ball...ATTACK THE QUARTERBACK."

Nothing like some X's and O's with the Coach...

The Hall of Fame Game

Mike opened the show today praising Kurt Warner:

"when you look at his statistics, realize he won a Super Bowl and lost a Super Bowl, you know that's all Brett Favre's ever done. Win a Super Bowl and lose a Super Bowl. Peyton Manning's only won a Super Bowl. Kurt Warner, who's won an MVP, Kurt Warner is probably a Hall of Fame quaterback. I mean, that's hard to...when you think about it, if I was gonna name guys, you probably wouldn't think of (him) but he is probably close to being a Hall of Fame quaterback...his career numbers are getting to be staggering."

Now, in the past when one Chris Mad Dog Russo was part of this show, a statement like that by Francesa would open up the show to what I call the "Hall of Fame" game...Dog would throw out a player and Mike would hold court like he was a judge listening to the evidence...then callers would flood the phone lines all day asking Judge Francesa if Player A or Player B was a Hall of Famer. But here's my question. Will the Hall of Fame game work without Russo? In the past, this would have easily occupied 2-3 hours of the show, but I am very interested to see what happens today. In yesteryear, Dog would have reached for that Football Encyclopedia and started to fire off names left and right. But as we know, the Dog was left unleashed and now the blind man must navigate a once sure-fire gimmick all by himself...

Francesa Vs Florida

First it was the Tampa Rays. Now it's the Miami Dolphins. What is it that Francesa has against the Sunshine State? Is Mike angry that they went blue this election year? Mike is not ready to talk Miami Dolphins football:

"I don't take them seriously yet. I watched them yesterday. They were very lucky to win that game against Seattle. Very fortunate...I didn't think the Dolphins were very good yesterday..They have a very easy schedule at 5-4, but maybe it's me, I just don't take them seriously yet. I just don't. I just don't think they're that good yet."

This sounds strangely familiar to what Francesa said for months about a certain baseball team based in Florida. Now, the Dolphins are not the Rays. But you would think Mike would learn that anything can happen in sports. I mean, he did say last week that there was "NO CHANCE" Penn State loses to Iowa this past weekend and well, we all know how that turned out...

ROUND MOUNDS

As I glance at the Fan website, it states that Charles Barkley will be Mike Francesa's guest at 2:30. Although I have listened to MMD over the years, I can't recall Mike and Chris' opinion of the Round Mound of Rebound. Considering Barks is known for running his mouth, I can't imagine they had much nice to say. Mike and Chris usually don't like people who talk as much as them...

"Could ya please Charles, just pipe down and stick to basketball. The whole idea that the people of Alabama are going to vote for him as Governor..."
"Dog, I'm not a big believer in athletes running for political office. I'll give you Gerald Ford, Reagan and Largent but Sir Charles..."

...I'm wondering what exactly has prompted this visit by Barkley. Is this about politics? Is Charles selling a grill? Either way, it should make for appointment listening. Speaking of which, I have an appointment at 2:30, so I will miss this. Enjoy.

YES OR MSG: THURSDAY IS D DAY

You thought the biggest decision you had to make was on election day, but the reality is that there is a way bigger decision out there for Mr Mike Francesa, YES or MSG? The decision really isn't even his, it's up to YES to match the offer.
You can see why MSG would choose to make an offer, it fills five hours of air time where currently repeats of MSG NY and Knicks and Rangers repeats sit. For the same reason you can see why YES would want to keep it, it fills five and a half hours of time that otherwise would be filled with the Alvaro Espinoza Yankeeography.
The rumor is that YES would like to expand it's original programming and that's what would fill the void left by Francesa taking his keg of Diet Cola to MSG.
Given the World's Most Famous Arena's sensitivity to criticism, the big question is if Francesa takes his multi titled no jingle or partner having show to MSG will he be able to let loose on the Knicks and Rangers without seeing the name James Dolan on his caller id?

With Neil Best on vacation we are simply going to have to wait for the big man himself to make the announcement. I am sure that he will be taking the air pump to his ego and blowing it up beyond capacity as he discusses the bidding war for his top rated show.

CHANGE WE DON'T NEED

As Francesa lovers/haters, we always get a little gleeful when a horse Mike backs, loses. So I'm sure some of you were sort of anticipating Mike's take on the Presidential election this afternoon. Would he eat a little crow? Would he do a reversal and back Obama? Would he try to minimalize Obama's victory with a little, 'This thing's been over for awhile. I mean, George Bush basically handed the election to Obama. It's not like he did anything special...' He didn't do any of the above. Instead, he basically ignored the most significant election in our lifetime. His brevity given to the subject spoke volumes. He opened the show with 'Does is feel like a different America today?' And then, in one of the most absurd transitions, he opined that people weren't worried about politics anymore. They were worried about baseball.

Bravo, Mike. Bravo.

Now I really didn't think Francesa was going to give any credit to Obama. But here is a history buff whose hero is JFK. How many times has Obama and his campaign been compared to Kennedy. Uh, a lot. But Mike wasn't having any of it. He does what he wants and gosh darnit if anyone tells him otherwise. So Mike crawled back into his dinosaur skin and After spending approximately :25 on Obama he proclaimed, "Today, it's about November. And it's about building baseball teams."

Maybe we've all had a little too much change in the last 24 hours. It's good to see some things stay the same.

Mike and Chris Analyze the Election

Chris: Andddd Gooood Afternooon Everybodyyy on this Wednesday November 5th...the GOP in D.C. is piggybacking. And how are you today Mike?

Mike: Fine.

Chris: Lots to talk about today. We got this whole Marbury thing. The President..where do you wanna start Mike?

Mike: Wherever.

Chris: Well I just don't know know what the Knicks are doing. This idea that Marbury is just gonna sit on the bench the whole...

Mike (interrupting): We can't start with the Knicks..We got to start with the election.

Chris: Excellent point Mike. Excellent point.

Mike: Dog, it was ovuh before it even started. There was no drama. No excitement. Roe and I were actually a bit bored watching it.

Chris: Mike, that was a terrible job by the McCain campaign with this election. A TERRIBLE job.

Mike: Dog, what did you want them to do? The man is a war hero. But he couldn't come through in a big spot.

Chis: Ahhh listen Mike. You just can't lose the election that quickly last night. You gotta be a little more feisty than that.

Mike: Dog, I talked to someone close to the McCain campaign yesterday and they said they knew this was going to be the outcome all day.

Chris: Oh really??!!

Mike: Yeah my source said they were expecting this and this election was pretty much gonna be a no-brainer.

Chris: But Mike, now America is in a tricky spot..You got Ojama as the new President.

Mike: Obama.

Chris. Right, Obama. But you got the country in a tricky spot. I can't go too crazy about this Obama guy. He's got about as much political experience as Timmy.

Mike: Dog, it's a historic day. But you gotta give a lot of credit to McCain and his speech last night.

Chris: Excellent point Mike. Let's be fair here. That was a TERRIFIC speech by McCain.

Mike: And that Palin, she's a gamer.

Chris: She sure is. And one more thing Mike, do I need to see Jesse Jackson crying every other second? Did I need to see that last night? Did I? I mean pipe down.

Mike: It's a historic day Dog...but that Sarah Palin sure is charming...

PETTYSBURG ADDRESS

In honor of Election Day, I'll intone a great president to shed light on all things sports radio and blog:

Four days and seven weeks ago our fathers brought forth, upon this market, a new radio landscape, conceived in ego and pettiness, and dedicated to the proposition that "all talk show hosts are not created equal"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that landscape, or any landscape so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the radio shows might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this blog -- The brave men who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract by various commenters. The world will little note, nor long remember what we write here; while it can never forget what they did here.

MIKE'D UP, FRANCESA ON THE FAN, MEET THE PRESS: ALL IN ONE ELECTION EXTRAVAGANZA

There are many choices to be made today. Who to vote for President, Senate, Congressman? Whether you are for or against proposition 48 (i have no idea what that is, i just picked a number and put the word proposition in front of it).

Then there are more important decisions to be made like where you will be getting your election day information from. There are many more choices than the ones you have for the highest office in the land. You can go everywhere from CNN to MSNBC, to Fox News, to Headline News, to the Daily Show to WFAN. What, WFAN is an all sports station isn't it? It's the home of the 20/20 flash and Evan Roberts and Mike Francesa and they don't know anything about politics, do they?

Well, Mike Francesa has read a lot of books about John F Kennedy. There you have it, he is a political expert.

It is actually the perfect situation for Mike'd Up/Francesa on the Fan to become Meet the Press with your host Mike Francesa. There is nothing going on in the world of sports, the Jets are in first, the Giants are in first, the Knicks are terrible, no one cares about hockey, it's a perfect opening for him to spend the entire day talking about the election. With all that said...

We here at Mike and the Mad Blog are officially announcing our support for Mike Francesa as the host to take us through this monumental day in the history of our country. He will make predictions on electoral votes, he will use sports analogies, he will have Jim Nantz take you through the battleground states and Jon Heyman give insight on Obama's cabinet picks.

660 WFAN, Mike'd Up, Francesa on the Fan, the one stop shopping for Jets analysis and election coverage!

Be Careful

We here at the Mike and the Mad Blog have something to say...BE CAREFUL about writing us off just yet. Are we down? Sure. Are we out? Absolutely not. We know we have dropped the ball in recent days. It's been a combination of work issues and Francesa issues (his completely uninteresting show). But be careful about ringing the bell on this blog...Imagine if Rocky had been counted out against Apollo Creed in their rematch. We're just like the Italian Stallion. We've been hit hard. We're a bit dazed. We're slightly woozy..but we're reaching for that rope. We think we'll make it before the 10 count.

TODAY'S POST

what happened on either show today?