The Annoyance that is Mike Francesa

I have grown up listening to WFAN in New York. I love the station and it's always the #1 spot on my car radio. However, I can't stand Mike Francesa.

When it was Mike & the Mad Dog (or the Jerk & the Fatman as Imus used to call them), I could deal with them. Chris Russo was good for a crazy rant and Mike would call him down. Both were total anti-Mets personalities so I did find it annoying that the most listened to drive time sports program in New York had guys that were totally against my favorite team.

But it's gotten worse.

With the Mad Dog off on satellite radio, Francesa has for the last few years been the lone voice during the largest block of sports programming on radio. The Mets hating continues and the "pope of sports" is left repeating himself for 5 hours a day, yet he continues to dominate sports radio. There really isn't an alternative

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just Mets fans that get annoyed by Mike "I Repeat Everything I Say 20 Times" Francesa. So I headed over to Facebook and asked my Yankee fan friends to chime in. Turns out they can't stand Francesa either.

Here are some of the comments I got when I asked if they found Francesa annoying & repetitive:

-Yes I do. Yes. He is anoying. Yes. He's repetitive. Yes I agree with you. Annoying. Yes.

-He is a nightmare - maddog was very valuable - he took up half of the broadcast whic was better than a whole broadcast of francesa...... He thinks he is the "all knowing" of sports...

-I think he's annoying, and his callers are bumbling morons!

-I just remember listening to him growing up and wanting to punch myself in the face

-yes, he's annoying... i used to think maddog was annoying, but i agree w Gary that he somehow made it bearable bc it wasn't just francesa droning on and on. As yankee fans, we have few options... Sterling and Waldman are the worst! i guess Kay is the lesser evil? sad.

So it's not just me and it's not just Mets fans. I will say this about Francesa - he does a good job with covering the NFL. But do we have to listen to him the other 8 months out of the year. Why isn't someone doing something about this?

Don't even get me started with that Mike'd up theme song...

P.S. I've loving Joe & Evan as his replacements while he's on vacation.

Worst Mets Lineup Scores 10, Shows Clutch

The Mets just enjoy messing with me.

Just a few short hours after I declared Thursday's Mets lineup as potentially one of the worst lineups I've seen in my 30 year existence, that same lineup goes out and puts up a 10 spot on the Marlins.

Sure even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, but this Mets lineup scored 9 of their 10 runs with 2 outs.

What?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Yup.I couldn't believe it either and in fact I didn't even realize until a comment was made about it this morning on WFAN. Tatis didn't even hit into a double play if you can believe that.

Maybe it was pent up anger or the stars aligned or whatever, but the key is the Mets finally won a game and Tim Redding looks like a guy who's pitching for his life. I like that. Only took him 6 months to do it, but what position are we in to be picky?

An afternoon delight at Wrigley today at 2 pm.

Be Thankful for Our Broadcasters

I know that we rip on the snooze quality of Wayne Hagin's WFAN broadcasts, but honestly we have some of the best broadcasting teams working for the Mets. Over the weekend I was down at the Jersey shore and listened to parts of the Mets games via XM radio which forces you to listen to the home team's broadcast.

The Reds radio announcers are possibly some of the worst in the business. First off they alternate between two one man teams. So there's no banter, no commentary, just one guy making the calls. There were at least a dozen times I thought XM lost its signal on because there was nothing but dead air coming through the speakers for 30 seconds at a time. All this on top of the fact that you couldn't tell if a guy just hit a home run or into fielder's choice because the inflexion in the announcer's voice was the same for 9 straight painful innings.

Now Hagin is easily the weaker broadcaster on the radio, but the Reds guys make Hagin look like the Vin Scully of radio.

Of course, our SNY team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are a Mets Lifer's dream broadcasting team, but even industry people applaud the way they call a game. Their unbiased and unabased in their commentary and that's what makes them great.

Even Kevin Burkhardt is a great asset to the SNY team. For a young sideline reporter he asks tough questions in the post game interviews and does a great job in the mid-game cutaway segments. Newsday is even following around Kevin to do special piece on him in the upcoming weeks. In fact today our own Kevin Burkhardt speaking at a local sports broadcasting camp run by Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle, talking to kids about the in's and out's of broadcasting. Who knows maybe he's even speaking to one of his future replacements?

So don't take what we have for granted. We easily have the best broadcasting team in New York and I'm sure we outshine much of the other MLB teams as well. Enjoy what we have while it lasts.

And if you're in Cincinnati, don't operate heavy machinery and listen to the Reds game.

Gets By Buckner Ringtone

So I'm listening to Boomer & Carton on the way to work and Craig Carton starts talking about how he downloaded the 1986 "Gets by Buckner" ringtone off of Mets.com. The only thing is it's the Vin Scully call from TV not the Bob Murphy call from WFAN. He asked why he couldn't get the Bob Murphy call.

I called up the station and mentioned that since the Mets site is owned by MLB, they are only offerring the official MLB version of the call. The Bob Murphy call was on WFAN, an official team radio station, so MLB uses their official broadcast of the call to sell on their website.

I totally understand Craig Carton's beef with this and as a Mets Lifer of course we want the Bob Murphy call. The Vin Scully call of that play is great, but come on. You can't compete with the Murph.

So I figured it was my duty to all Mets Lifers to offer you an MP3 version of the 1986 Mets "Gets by Buckner" call by Bob Murphy. Craig Carton, if you still want the Bob Murphy version of the ringtone, here it is.

Click here to download the Bob Murphy call of the "Gets By Buckner" play from Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

My Mets Vacation

So this weekend I head down the Jersey shore for a much needed vacation from the Mets. You see this team is unwatchable, but every night I find myself right there turning to SNY or WFAN in the car.

I'm a Mets Lifer. I'm a glutton for punishment. I can't get enough of it. Sure it's 8-1, but the Mets get a few hits, score a run and all of a sudden I'm thinking if Delgado homers this could get interesting.

One inning with Scott Schoenweiss later and I've missed out on an hour of my life. Although if you watched George Michael's performance on American Idol last night then you lost a solid hour of your life too.

But this weekend there's no SNY down the shore. WFAN coverage is spotty at best so I'll be in Met exile surrounded by obnoxious Phillies' fans.

You know what I'll be doing. Watching the gameday tracker on my Blackberry.

I'm sick and I need help, but not as much help as this Mets team.

P.S. Thanks for the apology Willie, but a win in Atlanta would have sufficed.

The Next Mets Radio Announcer

In case you haven't heard Tom McCarthy will be leaving the WFAN Mets radio broadcasting booth next year to return to his previous employer, the Philadelphia Phillies (commence booing). It's too bad because I like McCarthy and he eerily sounds exactly like Gary Cohen so it was quite nostalgic having him in the booth with Howie Rose.

So this opens the door for a new announcer to become one of the voices of the Mets on radio. For once, Mike & the Mad Dog had an intelligent and interesting discussion yesterday afternoon regarding who should be the replacement. Here were some of their recommendations, with my thoughts on the nominee.

1) Gary Cohen - Forget it. Cohen, Hernandez & Darling are a Mets fans' dream team on TV. Don't mess that up.

2) Ed Coleman - He'd be good, but to me Ed C is the Ahmad Rahsad of the Mets. A guy you want in the locker room, giving you interviews and inside news but not necessarily in the booth.

3) Chris Carlin - A Mets fan, but too brash to be an every day radio guy.

4) Sean McDonough - Good voice and capable broadcaster, but without Bill Raferty next to him it just won't feel right.

5) Dave Popkin - Who, you ask? Let me explain why this is the guy you want on the radio

Dave Popkin is an up and coming young broadcaster with a great voice and is extremely knowledgeable. He's been working side-by-side with Gary Cohen doing Seton Hall basketball games on the radio, so he's been learning at the feet of the master. Popkin has done minor league baseball games on CN8 as well as a ton of other sporting events as broadcaster for ESPN affiliated sporting events.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Dave Popkin on a few occasions and I can tell first hand that he is a class act guy. Popkin is someone who the Mets can have in their broadcast booth for the next 25 years. I grew up listening to Gary Cohen, and Popkin is someone who a new generation of Mets fans can grow up with. He's a young guy who can bring some fresh perspective and commentary. And he'll be working alongside Howie Rose who is a consummate professional to balance the broadcast.

Pretty soon we'll be in a new stadium, hopefully have a new pitcher named Santana, and I think it would be perfect to have a fresh new voice in the broadcast booth. Dave Popkin is the next Mets radio announcer.

If you want to take a listen check out his website at www.davepopkin.com and you can hear some of his commentary. I'm hopeful that MetsLifer.com will be able to get an interview with Dave Popkin in the coming weeks as he becomes a candidate to be the next Mets radio announcer.

Good luck, Dave. We'll be pulling for you.

Mike and the Mad Dog are the Ultimate Anti-Mets

I can't even talk about last night's loss because it's not even worth typing about it. But something else that got me aggravated last night was listening to Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN on my way home from work.

I turned on the radio just as they were playing back Howie Rose's call of Delgado's 3-run homer on Sunday. Howie Rose was obviously psyched to see Delgado hit one which gave the Mets the lead. But the thing that bothered me is how Mike Francesa and Chris Russo just started railing on Howie Rose for being that excited about a call. They were talking about how it wasn't a big deal and that this Mets win didn't mean anything because the Phillies had already lost.

Have these guys even been following the Mets? (probably not) What do you mean this win didn't mean anything? These guys get paid for this? Of course it was a big win. It gave us that 2 game cushion we so desperately needed. If we didn't win that game we'd now be looking at a 1 game lead. Morons.

Then they went on to further show their ignorance by talking about how Willie Randolph has done a great job this year managing the team. Whaaaaaaaaat? These are the same guys who question Randolph's move pretty much every other week and now they want to crown him manager of the year? Have they seen the substitutions Randolph has made. The bad double switches. The reliance on Guillermo Mota. The refusal to play Milledge at first.

That's it. I can't listen to the "Jerk and the Fatman" (as Imus used to call them) any more. As much as it pains me to say this, but Michael Kay is actually a more unbiased talk show host when it comes to the Mets. Now Michael Kay is a guy I've detested for a long time, but I got to tell you that Mike and the Mad Dog have lost all credibility when it comes to Mets baseball.

Top 20 Moments in 20 Years on WFAN

If you’re like me, an avid listener of the FAN, today is a show you’ll undoubtedly appreciate. Mike and the Mad Dog are counting down the top 20 sports moments in 20 years of WFAN, as voted by the fans. Some of those moments include the Mark Messier trade, Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson and Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gerigh’s consecutive games played record. Throughout the day, they have been interviewing some of the athletes involved in those moments.

Great Mets moments include Robin Ventura’s “Grand Single”, Endy Chavez’s catch as well as a few with Mike Piazza, including the Clemens bat throwing incident in the World Series, and the trade from Florida, which was voted #10.

During the show, Mike and the Mad Dog talked to Piazza about some of those moments. One of the funnier anecdotes he shared was when he was on the plane flying to New York from Florida, after getting traded, a guy sitting next to him was telling him how he was going to the Mets game to see some new player they picked up in a trade. He told Mike that apparently the Mets just picked up some big catcher and that his wife had gotten tickets to the game. Mike told the guy, “I’ll be there,” and the guy said, “You’re going to the game too?” and Mike replied, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll be playing in it.”

Classic.

"Bring Bobby V Back"

The throes of a losing streak almost inevitably conjure up some of the best recommendations on how to improve the team. And Mets fans haven’t disappointed. I’ve heard someone say, ‘Sit Beltran, put Gomez in Center, play Ben Johnson in left’ (absolutely); And another, ‘trade Milledge for Roy Oswalt’ (simple enough). Some have even called for the return of Bobby Valentine. My favorite came from a caller on WFAN the other night. “I know what the Mets need to do…they need to bring Bobby Valentine back, this team needs a spark and Bobby Valentine can do that.” (brilliant!).

Bring Bobby V. back. Sure, I miss going to those Saturday afternoon games in July when Alfonzo, Olerud and Piazza were all getting the day off, and Jay Payton batted third, Benny Agbayani hit cleanup. This decision was so absurd you wonder if Valentine was just doing it so the beat reporters would write about his quirky style of managing. I also miss the days when Bobby V, sitting in the dugout, would disguise himself in sunglasses and a fake mustache. Those were good times.

Look, Bobby Valentine was a decent manager, a good strategist and did bring us to a World Series, but let’s be honest, he’s not better than Willie Randolph. If he was, then why isn’t he managing in the Major Leagues now, rather than being idolized (true story) in Japan?

Say what you want about Randolph, the guy is a leader. He commands respect from his players and they love him. Take a look at Pedro Martinez. A perennial club house cancer in Boston, Martinez comes to NY and is one of the best guys around. Can you question some of his in-game decision making? Of course, but you can do that with every manager. Heck, one move I was really annoyed with and to this day still makes no sense to me, was when he removed Mike Piazza in his last game as a Met, in between innings when he was due to bat in the bottom half of the inning. Fans at the game didn’t even realize there was a new catcher behind the plate.

Still, the Mets are much better with him than without him. I truly believe this organization, with Omar’s guidance, is building a tradition here. The foundation is in place and Randolph is the quintessential building block.

That Milledege for Oswalt deal sounds pretty good.

Quote of the Day

Comes from a caller (Lisa) on WFAN's, Mike & the Mad Dog Show: Someone needs to give Beltran some cheeze for that 'whine'