Lack of Analysis, Cliches and An Amazing Theory!

I tuned in to Mike while tooling around this afternoon. Got to hear his first three segments. I would classify them as poor, expected and decent, respectively.

The Opening: Mike spouted every possible cliche about the upcoming football contest on Sunday. One QB thrives in a system, needs the players around him to play well, blah blah, quick release, WR's with gamebreaking ability and great hands, blah, blah, blah. According to Mike, the other QB is the antithesis of the aforementioned QB. I suppose that means his players must play badly for him to succeed. Really though, he did say Big Ben was at his best when things are at their worst. Goodness, that's just terrible and it furthers public perception. Which is also terrible. Bottom line, if you need analysis or a unique opinion, look elsewhere.

2nd Segment: Back to "The Book". More damning quotes are emerging. Mike detailed Torre's schedule in the coming week and mentioned how hard it is to get folks to come to Queens. Boo hoo. He's been even-handed about Torre but he's buried Wells, Cash etc.

3rd Segment: Interview with Archie Manning. This was pretty good because Mike was consistent in his remarks about Peyton and Eli and Archie is objective in his analysis of them too. He's a pretty good interview and Mike did well here.

Oh yeah, Mike was able to work, "Big spot" into the opening. Well done.

I want to re-post a great comment from yesterday. Gabagool said this:

Mike will NEVER rag at Torre for this book.....ANd NOT because he likes Torre but BECAUSE (bank on this)Mike will, within the next 5 years write a tell all book about the M and MD show, all the dirty laundry.....you know...Maddog insanely jealousmaddog dumb as a box of rocksMike was hit on by every female employee at the station, but he turned them all downParcells and torre used to call him on a regular basis for stratagy tips.the chairs in the FAN studio were INCREDIBLY small, showing how cheap the station was.ANd because they were so cheap, he was VASTLY underpaid even though he turned down more national posts than he could rememberIt wasn't him who got the mike all greasy ever day, people just loved to make him the scapegoat.....envy, you know.

I thought it was genius and I didn't want it to get buried. Good looking gabagool.

***another guest post. Don't blame the hosts.

Mike's Book Review

I am pretty sure Mike will spend a lot of time with football guests today but he opened with his review of the Verducci/Torre book. Personally, I think this is a great NY story and I am glad that's how he decided to open. Anyway, according to the Big Fella, the book is excellent. Specifically for NYY fans. He went through some key points:

- Cashman and Torre at odds on players
- Big stars; not clutch
- Torre wanting to keep Bernie; Cashman concerned with stats, not heartbeat of game
- Moose calling out Mo; surprisingly states the points are fair about blown saves in '01 and '04

So far, Mike thinks book is bad for Cashman but has not yet called out Torre. I wonder if he'll continue to ignore what a classless move this appears to be by the ex-manager. I am sure that Mike will wind up defending Torre throughout all this, especially after Torre completes his book tour and reveals his "side" to the discussion. Plus, Torre seems to not be about the "numbahs", like Mike and that kind of baseball thinking must be defended.

For my part, I think Mike would gain some credibility by acknowledging that Torre used poor judgment and deserves the criticism he's receiving. It's doubtful, though, and the legend of St. Joe will persevere.

***Excuse the real authors of this blog. This is a guest post.

HAL WHO?

I'll admit it. I had no idea who Hal Steinbrenner was when Mike Francesa brought him on his show today. I had to look him up. I thought Hank was the man. But apparently he has a brother. And that brother owns the Yankees.

Anywho, I don't have much to say because I found it to be an incredibly boring interview. Francesa wasn't kowtowing to or challenging him. He sounded very matter of fact. Like he talks with him every day. I also noticed that there were a lot of deep breaths from Mike. Like he had just hustled into the chair or maybe he is on the brink of death. Either way, he sounded large. You know how Tony Soprano would breath through his nose? Like that, sort of.

YOU WANT ANSWERS?

So there have been a lot of comments recently about the inactivity of this blog. As Tom Cruise told the transvestite hooker in Risky Business, "Fair Enough." I don't have answers yet, but I will tell you that we hear you. We are looking into your suggestions.

But to answer Gene and Ryan T...Gene, we take your comment as a compliment and a challenge to write more. Ryan T, I quote you..."This site lucked out and got rolling right when the breakup was happening". Wrong. To quote Col. Jessup, "Check the tower logs." And the tower logs say that we started this thing a couple of months before there were even whispers about the breakup. The breakup definitely energized us and the denouement had the opposite effect. But the recent inactivity is more about real life intersecting with ambition. So lay off the polemics, please.

I'll quote another comment. This from one of the many anonymi...."Even on the day of Mike and the Marquis we can't get a post?" I found this slightly amusing as it was written one hour before our new president was inaugurated. I guess this is a testament to the impact of Mike and Chris.

We have enjoyed writing content for this site and the interaction with the people who read and contribute to it. Your contribution is definitely appreciated considering, you, the commenters, have kept this site alive for the last month or so. We'd like to keep it going but let's see where the day takes us. Thanks for all the support that you provide.

Let's keep this post as the current message board for now. We are keeping current by reading your updates.

Government 101

I just finished listening to Mike interview Yankee President Randy Levine and NY State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky(Don't fret Dog lovers. I already listened to Dog talk about how he liked the Eagles a lot. But his reasoning was based on 'karma' and 'momentum'. Not any actual matchup analysis. And people accuse him of not knowing anything about sports?). Well, after 40 minutes, my head is swimming.

Mike fancies himself an expert an all business dealings. So he acted like Mike Wallace and challenged both Levine and Brodsky on their arguments. But just like when he is talking sports, when in doubt, Mike talks over people. So when these two gentlemen got into the technical minutia about the Yankee Stadium deal that Mike can't possibly understand, Mike would try to talk to them as if he did. And when he got confused? Mike interrupted them to ask a new question. Either way, it was very confusing for everyone involved.

WE HAVE OFFICIALLY ENTERED OVERTIME ON THE OVERTIME DISCUSSION

Today, to me, is an example of sports radio gone wrong.

We briefly interupt this blog post with the news that Mickey Rourke is in talks to star in Iron Man 2. You think him and Robert Downey Jr could have some discussions about a thing or two? Is that somehow unsafe or disrespectful to each of their shots at sober living to put them on the same movie set?

Back to overtime. Look, everyone, we will still see Peyton Manning in every other commercial during the playoffs and Super Bowl. He and Eli got that whole matchup against the Williams sisters coming up. Peyton is going to be alright. We do not have to change the entire overtime rules because his Colts didn't win. It's really ok.

For some reason throughout the show fans have been calling with their suggestions on how this overtime issue can be fixed. Someone just called and talked about the teams placing blind bids in what seemed like a take off on Name That Tune.
Eli Manning: We can score starting at the 50 yard line
Kurt Warner: We can score starting at our 40 yard line
Eli Manning: We can score starting at our 30 yard line
Kurt Warner: We can score starting at our 20 yard line
Eli Manning: Kurt, go for it.

Someone else suggested that they decide it based on which team has the best offensive stats. Someone else suggested they line up the girls that each quarterback slept with that night and then the fans vote on which girl is the hottest and that team gets the ball (i actually completely made that up).

How about this? The Colts defense stops the Chargers and gets Peyton Manning back on the field and he wins the game? Or he converts the 3rd and 2 late in the game that would've iced it. How about one of those things happens and we keep flipping the coin? Or do the QB hot chick thing, either one is cool by me.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

So Dog got a lot of mileage yesterday from taking Mark Teixeira to task for claiming to remember Don Mattingly at age 8. Whatdoyouhave astutely commented that Russo was simply using this harmless anecdote to needle the Yankees. I would also add that Russo and Francesa over the years have had a hard time understanding things that they have never experienced. They are very sheltered individuals whose lives probably look something like this:

Francesa - Watch Sports on TV, Sleep, eat, handicap Aqueduct, drive to the Fan, talk about sports.
Russo - Watch Sports on TV, Sleep, eat, play tennis, drive to Sirius XM listening to Bruce, talk about sports.

Both of them can't fathom that athletes can go out to clubs and have fun. Remember when Oliver Perez got hurt in a taxi cab at 1am in the morning? They were mortified, "I mean, could ya please. What is Perez doing out that late?" I called into the show a long time ago to protect Keith Traylor and the other Wolverines who flipped the SUV while at Michigan. They couldn't grasp college students partying at 5am in the morning. Probably because they never did it.

Which goes back to Teixeira and Mattingly. Can an 8-year old actually have the cognitive ability to discern that Donnie Baseball is a great player and that he likes him? I believe so. I lived in Baltimore from 1975-1978 and I would go to Orioles games regularly from age 5-8. I had a stuffed otter that I nicknamed Tippy, in honor of Oriole reliever Tippy Martinez. Would Russo take me task? "Cmon Gman, Tippy joined the Orioles in '76 and only had 14 saves by the time you left Baltimore. And you're naming otters after him?!" So my question is do you believe in scientist Russo and his knowledge of the human brain. Let us know if you've had any similar experiences to Mark Teixeira or do you not remember a single thing before the age of 10.

(btw, Russo is doing a great interview with Brent Musburger right now as I write this.)

TIME WITH DOGGIE

So I called into Mad Dog today. I was driving in my car listening to Sirius XM and saw 888-MADDOG6 on the screen. There could have been other calls to Chris, but it is difficult to figure out the letters and the numbers on the Blackberry.

Why did I call? Fox's atrocious broadcast of the Fiesta Bowl last night, of course. I got through pretty easily and there wasn't much of a screening process. But the wait was around 20 minutes because Russo couldn't get off of the Texeira press conference remarks. He used some lame argument that Texeira couldn't have seen Eddie Murray or Don Mattingly play in 1988(as he claimed) because they were gone. 'Texeira was 8! He's in diapers! His parents are wiping his fanny!' I was tempted to ask if the Russo kids were still soiling themselves at age 8, but decided to stick to the topic.

I thought we had a pretty good call. I was like Caffee ripping into Kendrick when I went over Matt Vasgersian's blown call of Texas' fake punt. I mildly knocked Brad Nessler which didn't work because apparently Doggie loves Nessler and thinks he should be ahead of Brent Musburger in pecking order. But Doggie and I shared some enthusiasm about ABC/ESPN getting the BCS back. Although we were both unsure when that was going to happen.

On another interesting note, around this same time, Russo went out of his way to praise Michael Kay and his handling of an interview(Teixeira?). Obviously he wouldn't have done that when he was at the Fan. And apparently he must listen to Kay on his drive into the city from New Canaan.

CHALK TALK

Coach Mike is in the house today. And he's got the chalkboard out and he's talking X's and O's. We've all commented about how Mike thinks he knows a lot about football strategy and gameplanning. And since he has never been employed by an actual football team in any capacity, it would be fair to say that he doesn't know much as he thinks he does. But that isn't stopping him today. He is in coaching overdrive. He's already gameplanned what Eagles D Coordinator Jimmy Johnson will do..."He'll go man to man on the Giants receivers and walk up the safeties to the line to stop the run." And he's also had some thoughts for 'Spags'..."I don't want a linebacker on Westbrook. I want a safety on him."

Usually this type of banter happens when Mike is trying to impress a person who actually knows about football, such as a coach or player. But today he has basically opened up the phone lines to all callers to discuss the 3-4, mike linebackers, cover 2, throws in the flat, etc, etc.

The hilarity of this all is that Mike Francesa just questioned Matt Millen's credibility as a TV analyst because Millen was associated with an 0-16 team. Millen could forget more than Francesa will ever know about football, but yet he doesn't pass muster as analyst.