Big Mike

As long as I can remember I have listened to -and got my sports-opinions from- Mike Francesa.   During his prime while partnered with Chris 'MadDog' Russo, the show was can't-miss-radio for those of us who lived for good opinionated local coverage.   When the Knicks were great they took the Garden to task, when the Yankees were on top you'd have to be tuned to 660 on your AM dial at 1:05 because you had to know what the pulse of NY felt.   There were far from perfect as there were too many days when they delved into the minutia of historical baseball facts  on they'd spend hours changing their 'local' feel to some concocted fantasy that anybody cared about Leyton Hewitt or Kim Clijsters and of course their vacations were legendary as they seemed to be away from June through August and all of February to boot.   But even despite these flaws they were wildly entertaining, somehow the combination of one opinionated-blowhard matched with one in-the-closet psychopath made for must-listen-to-radio.

A few years ago the formula changed when the crazy one took his talents to the vast wastelands of satellite radio and left the fat one the honor of hosting the coveted afternoon drive slot.   Although I can only claim to have listened to Russo's show a handful of times, I have tried to stay loyal to Fatso and the rest of WFAN.  But the decline of WFAN's quality is so incredible for those of us who have listened for years.  First they failed to cultivate new talent and have never been able to pry any goods ones away from competitors but even this is better than the fact that they have steadily refused to sheppard out the old guard whose shtick had run dry a decade ago.     But throughout their quality decline the rating stayed good.  They are still tops in their most important demographics even as upstart (weird to think of anything coming out of Bristol as an upstart) ESPN radio started to make headway in the market.    I have moved all my sports-talk listening over to ESPN over the years yet stayed loyal to Francesa but slowly even I am bowing out of my undevoted love for the show.  

Mike's lost any of the fire he used to have, now content with waving off fans or playing footsies with Jim Nantz.   He so desperately needs a sidekick to keep him interested which is the only way he can remain interesting but his oversized ego will just not allow it.  

Just yesterday I get into the car and turn on WFAN and there I hear what sounds like I'm listening to an old man dying.  There is no energy in the studio, no back and forth and even when a caller comes on he gets dismissed so quickly that he doesn't even have a chance to leave an impression…It sounds like Mike is hosting over a funeral, but compare this to ESPN Radio and it sounds like Michael Kay and Don LaGreca are having an orgy.  There is music, banter, jokes, interviews and conversation about Big Ben getting drunk without anybody being obnoxious.  

Now let me be perfectly clear:  I don't like Michael Kay and the verbal felatio he performs on every person (not named Joe Torre) who has ever worn the Pinstripes.  I have never had a desire to turn on his radio show but Francesa has thrown in the towel so I'm forced to do something.