The end for Mike & the Mad Dog?

When M&MD do interviews without an agenda and/or without fellating, they can be all right.

Good luck recalling too many interviews who qualify on both counts, though.

 

That's what I don't get. And this isn't necessarily directed at you, Corky, but why is this an either/or proposition? Why do you have to choose between FAN and Boston sports radio? That's like saying "You know, as much as getting ass raped by a hobo is going to suck, I'd much rather do that than run my dick through a meat grinder."

Are those of you who feel that way driving around with a malfunctioning 8-track in your AMC Gremlin? Do you all not have CD players, or FM radios?

 

I would've replied sooner, except that I was trying to pry my Three Dog Night 8-track out with a screwdriver.

But seriously...if there's some big sports story happening, I have those two choices. ESPN radio doesn't come in where I am (there used to be a station in Providence but that went belly-up). And, as I said before, sometimes the interactions between Francesca and Russo, or Francesca and Doris from Menlo Park or whatever, can be funny - however blowharded he might be.

 

I watched the clip someone posted earlier about them talking about Inge. A.) bonecrushingly horrible. B.) Russo sounded like "Bob" from Becker.

 

RIP, Doris from Rego Park.

 

Yeah, they repeat themselves and they take sides and they're unfair, that's all true. They're not friendly to the listeners, they suck up to interviews, all true.

But this is radio, and like it or not, the rules are different than they are for newspapers or anything else.

And I maintain that they're better than anybody else in the country at what they do. And I don't think it's close.

 

I haven't heard them in ages because I don't work anymore. Unfortunately, when I covered a team, I had to listen in case some idiot manager (Jeff Torborg) said something newsworthy on the air.

One point I'd like to make. Russo's on-air schtick was all an act, at least it was 10 years ago. He took one trip with the Mets that I was on and he was a normal person, kind of fun to be around. On the air, unlistenable, off the air, an okay dude.

Francesa? Nothing said is my best policy.

But hey, IJAG is right. If you dislike them enough, DON'T LISTEN.

 

Do the rules state that radio must suck?

 

It just indicates the broad level of standards (i. e., low) for sports-talk radio in this country, that's all.

 

Actually, they don't suck. Like I said, they might anger a lot of people around here, but they definitely don't suck. They're exceptionally good at what they do.

 

Mikey's tried to tone down the all-knowing, arrogant act, over the past 12-18 months. There's no doubt he's heard all the bitching, though I'm sure he'd deny it -- just as one would deny that a newspaper piece might have actually inspired an on-air discussion thread.

But he hasn't toned it down, nearly enough.

There's too much that Dog doesn't know. And there remains 'way too much that Mikey THINKS he's right about -- but isn't.

 

It's been almost four years since I've watched or listened to their show, and I can still hear their voices. I don't know what that says.