Mike'd Up: The Mike Francesa Show

ifmanis5

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You were expecting something cogent and thoughtful out of Billy Packer? Why?
Ha! Well, played.

In the 10 previous years or so that he appeared on the show around tournament time, he actually added some news and analysis that had some intrinsic value. Not this time. He didn't even know when or where his own show was airing or which instrument Wayman Tisdale played, despite the fact he was hyping him up as a big time guest. Hey Billy, he plays 5-string Jazz bass, which is not an easy thing to do.

If Mike's ratings are as good as Mike previous disclosed on air a few weeks ago, then why would they seek out a full time afternoon co-host? Esp in these tough economic times, it doesn't make any sense. As for Max, he would be a great fit on 'FAN as a morning host, either by himself or with Boomer. Max and Mike are a terrible fit, IMO.
 

OCST

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To say that Sid has burned his bridges in New York would be an understatement. He's not coming back. He'd be a better bet in someone's Death Pool.
 

ifmanis5

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Mike breaking down the AL East at the top of the show today. Talking about the Sox, "they got Varitek to catch sometimes, the kid Bard will back him up."


Uhhhhh, Mike.
 

Worst Trade Evah

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Mike breaking down the AL East at the top of the show today. Talking about the Sox, "they got Varitek to catch sometimes, the kid Bard will back him up."
Uhhhhh, Mike.
I don't really understand why you're so down on Francesca. Sports talk radio is a smoking ruin of a wasteland for the most part, and he's clearly one of the bright spots.

He talks sports, and mostly only sports. Once in a while he talks movies or restaurants, and very rarely politics, but mostly it's just sports. He never does any of the stupid guy talk schtick a lot of hosts like.

And he actually does know a lot, and is willing to be educated. When callers propose silly lineups with some fast guy at the top, Mike's the guy who says that nope, that can't work because he just doesn't get on base enough, that his OBP is too low.

Just yesterday, he spent a little time talking about Schilling, Pedro Martinez, and Nolan Ryan. He mentioned Schilling's BB-K ratio, and how important that was. He offered a very sensible comparison of Pedro and Ryan, pointing out that Ryan is very over-rated, and that Pedro was on a different plane as a pitcher, going back to citing Pedro's 1999 stats and comparing them to Ryan ca. 1974. He compared their ERA records to their league averages, and even mentioned ERA+ in talking about Pedro. Of course, idiot callers call up defending Ryan, and Francesca explains pretty coherently why Pedro is much greater than Nolan Ryan.

He can be pompous and he's not always right, but he's right more than almost anyone else on the radio, does a great job with the interviews, and is a fairly calm and sensible guy who pretty much just straightforwardly talks sports.

Who's better than Francesca? No one at all on WEEI probably. Dale and Holley are inoffensive I guess, but not that interesting. Pretty much everyone else is a joke. On WFAN there's really no one. Boomer and Carton are fun, but not at all comparable. Roberts and Benigno are no good. Schmoozer is hit or miss and lately mostly miss. Malousis is awful. Mike and Mike, eh, not so much for me. There's Mad Dog, who's fun, but he's on Sirius which I don't get, and honestly I think as a single host Mike is probably better.
 

ifmanis5

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I'm not "down" on Mike, except that he KILLS other people in the media for making mistakes so it's only fair that someone should point out his.

Russo solo is a much better listen then Mike alone, IMO.
 

Worst Trade Evah

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I'm not "down" on Mike, except that he KILLS other people in the media for making mistakes so it's only fair that someone should point out his.

Russo solo is a much better listen then Mike alone, IMO.
You aren't down on Mike? Don't you have like 20 posts in this thread killing him from all kinds of different angles, including ratings, basketball picks, and any random mistake he makes?
 

CzarAlexander

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I'm not "down" on Mike, except that he KILLS other people in the media for making mistakes so it's only fair that someone should point out his.

Russo solo is a much better listen then Mike alone, IMO.
Mike's UConn ballwashing is sickening. He likes the program because it's successful, no other reason. He's a typical media starfucker. He doesn't even do this for his own school because they're not any good. And does he do this with any other tri-state area school, big or small? No, of course not. He blows UConn because they're big and it Mike likes being around success.
I don't blame Calhoun or UConn- any school would love this kind of publicity, it's just so predictable of bandwagon Mike.
If a Dope is reading this, can we get a "Single White Francesa"or "Obfrancesed" tagline for Ifmanis5?
 

JBill

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What happened with Kellerman?

I again mourn the loss of Mike and Dog now that we've started with baseball. Yesterday would have been a perfect day to tune in to hear Dog gloat over Sabathia and Teixeira, and listen to Mike laugh it off but really silently rage. And then Dog would go from euphoric to despondent, watching Lincecum's bad start, and Mike would get in his digs. Really the two might have killed each other.

Baseball season is when I miss this show the most. They both cared about baseball more than any other sport.
 

Worst Trade Evah

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Mike on with Heyman. I think he is leaving his mike open while Heyman is talking, because it sounds like he's eating/drinking. You can hear him smacking away. Great radio. In the old days, I guess Dog would have handled the interview while Mike finished his sandwich. He needs someone to step in and give him calzone breaks.
 
Mike on with Heyman. I think he is leaving his mike open while Heyman is talking, because it sounds like he's eating/drinking. You can hear him smacking away. Great radio. In the old days, I guess Dog would have handled the interview while Mike finished his sandwich. He needs someone to step in and give him calzone breaks.
It's funny that you say that. I heard the same thing so I switched on YES to see. He actually wasn't eating or drinking. He must have had a sore throat becuase he was sucking on a lozenge or cough drop through the entire interview and actually continued it for a few calls after that. I was hoping to see him sucking on a giant ham and pouring diet cokes down his throat.
 
Mike just played the clip of Joba talking about his DUI and he's ripping him. The arrest video came out this week and the officer's report came to light in which Joba remarked about Yogi Berra's height. Joba said he phoned Yogi to apologize because "I wanted to be a man and do it myself".

Joba said all things are fine now and then went 3rd person with, "Yogi is Yogi and Joba is Joba".

Mike comes back with, "Yogi is Yogi and Joba is Joba? More like Yogi is Yogi and Joba is nothing at this point."
 
I'm listening now. The last half hour was dedicated strictly to callers trying to come up with a sterling HR call for swisher. Hilarious.


EDIT:
The one's Mike liked were:

A Swisher sweet
Swisher didnt miss her
Nicky nailed it
A Nick knockout
Swisher Goodbye
A wish from Swish


Some of the ones he hated that were funny were:
The Swisher picker upper
In the kisser from swisher
and last but not least, An A-Bomb From swisher.
 

JohntheBaptist

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Francesa very fired up about the Stadium- say he's "incensed," makes baseball "basically a joke."

"Yankee Stadium used to be about good, legitimate baseball. This isn't legitimate baseball. Fix it."

edit- on his late Sunday night week-wrap up show on NBC.
 

JBill

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"Yankee Stadium used to be about good, legitimate baseball. This isn't legitimate baseball. Fix it."
Did he make any suggestions about how to fix it? And does he know nothing can really be done until after the season...

I guess we're getting five hours of "stadium is a bandbox" talk tomorrow on the FAN. Should be entertaining. And if Mike really is that angry, then we'll probably hear from some Yankee officials too.
 

JohntheBaptist

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He mentioned something about a theory on how the open-air vents along the back wall of the upper deck were something changed from the old stadium and possibly introducing new wind currents to the situation. They're also hoping that when the old structure is torn down, it will mystically tip back in their favor. Made a point to mention they are "basically the same dimensions."

He really loved the the look of the park, but he seemed really hot. In fact, it seemed to piss him off for the whole show. He was bitchy about everything, it was hilarious.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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Remember how the ball flew out of the new park in Minnesota in the first few games there, instantly cementing its reputation as the "Homer Dome." Turned out, the park actually didn't favor home runs that much, but once that notion got established, it was never going to be dislodged.

Good to see that we've learned from our past errors...
 

ifmanis5

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Was just about to mention Mike killing Der Neu Terlet.

"Let other parks be a carnival, you should have to earn a home run. Something is wrong, someone has to get to the bottom of it and the Yankees didn't build this place to be a freak show. This cannot stand. Something is amiss, this is NOT what you want. This isn't about personality, this is about a monster that just devours. This is not what anybody wanted, figure it out and fix it."
 

JBill

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Big man is not happy. It's a "sideshow", "freakshow", "amusement park." He wants the team to look into this immediately and "fix it", as soon as the team leaves for it's next road trip.
 

JohntheBaptist

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I'm sure this conversation is being had all over the board in different permutations, but just as a side note- I totally get freaking out about this. I mean, it could end up meaning nothing. But Cody Ransom yesterday broke his bat in half and got the ball (which Choo lost in the sun with the bases loaded and killed the Indians for the day) all the way to the warning track. It was a surreal weekend over there.

If it's a legitimate issue going forward- it really does change everything about how you run your franchise. I'd be freaking out if I had to worry about watching the Sox play in an Arlington, Jr.
 

AlNipper49

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I'm sure this conversation is being had all over the board in different permutations, but just as a side note- I totally get freaking out about this. I mean, it could end up meaning nothing. But Cody Ransom yesterday broke his bat in half and got the ball (which Choo lost in the sun with the bases loaded and killed the Indians for the day) all the way to the warning track. It was a surreal weekend over there.

If it's a legitimate issue going forward- it really does change everything about how you run your franchise. I'd be freaking out if I had to worry about watching the Sox play in an Arlington, Jr.
And to add some sand to the shit sandwich, their sinker baller can't pitch anymore. (of course cc and Burnett are decent GB pitchers). Halladay is going to be about as effective as it gets there
 

Hendu for Kutch

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I haven't been able to watch a game at the new stadium yet, but is it really that much worse than the old right field? I've been to one game at the Stadium. The Sox lost in extra innings when two pop flies to right somehow were HRs. Paul O'Neill actually slammed his bat in disgust after hitting the game-winning "homer".
 

gars finnvold

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Since his Monday show on WFAN usually echoes his Sunday night Mike'd Up TV program, you should try to tune in to the show today.

Last night, Francesa ran through the litany of issues surrounding this year's Yankees, contrasted each of them with the status of the Red Sox and concluded that the Red Sox, as an organization, have outclassed the Yankees. He ran it down from the front office through the rosters (including the benches) and through the player development system. In his opinion, from top to bottom, the Red Sox have been better than the Yankees since 2004.

It should be a great listen this afternoon.
 

bankshot1

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Since his Monday show on WFAN usually echoes his Sunday night Mike'd Up TV program, you should try to tune in to the show today.

Last night, Francesa ran through the litany of issues surrounding this year's Yankees, contrasted each of them with the status of the Red Sox and concluded that the Red Sox, as an organization, have outclassed the Yankees. He ran it down from the front office through the rosters (including the benches) and through the player development system. In his opinion, from top to bottom, the Red Sox have been better than the Yankees since 2004.

It should be a great listen this afternoon.
This is dead-on.
Francesa spent the first segment of his show entirely on an April series and raked the Ys over the coals pretty thoroughly last night.
 

RedOctober3829

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Mike is absolutely fuming right now. Turn it on.

He wants Cano in the cleanup spot instead of Swisher. He is raking the Yankees over the coals from the front-office right on down to the manager. The Red Sox have so many arms and the Yankees can't even use Joba correctly(ruining his career). The Sox have a plan from start to finish. It wasn't 3 games; it was 3 years. He is all over Berroa. You go from hugging Melky on Thursday to having everyone on the DL and they can't pitch. Girardi can't do anything right. If he pitches to Bay Lowell hits it out of the park. That was a month's worth of stuff in 3 days. How come the Red Sox can bring up these young pitchers and the Yankees can't? They have out-manuevered the Yankees. Yes, they have gotten lucky with the bidding process for Dice-K and if they are wrong they come up looking like roses. They could have had A-Rod, Teixeira but still are winning. How come the Yankees can't find good young pitchers? They have taken all the toughness out of Joba.

Rant over.
 

ifmanis5

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Mike is indeed laying into the Yanks and praising the Sox at 1:05.. "they (the Sox) were laughing at them at the end."

"The Sox are tight, they know what they're doing, they're better than them at every spot- front office, on the mound, manager, everywhere, Youkilis. Yankees don't have a Youkilis. That wasn't 3 games, that was 3 years. They're smarter, they have a better plan, Yankees don't know what to do. Did it hurt? It hurt a lot!"

And on and on. Good stuff.
 

Clears Cleaver

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this is fucking great. "This is why they are a better organization. They have kids coming out of the minors that the Yankees cannot touch."
 

JBill

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Girardi can't do anything right. He pitches to Bay, Bay hits it out. He walks Bay, Lowell hits it out...They (Sox) didn't want Lowell, they wanted Teixeira, they wanted ARod. They came in second to the Yankees (in the transactions), but they still keep winning...That wasn't three days, that felt like a month's worth of games.
 

ifmanis5

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He's just SCREAMING at Steve from Bayside right now- "They don't have Bruney, they don't have anybody! They brought guys in from the minor leagues last night! They have no bullpen. All they've done is ruin Joba, he can't hit 95 on the gun anymore. The Yankees have not developed anything and since 2004 the Red Sox have eaten the Yankees lunch if you look at it. They're flat better than the Yankees."
 

Wade Boggs Hair

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"Where's Masterson for the Yankees? Where's their Lester that they've developed? All they've done is bring up Joba and ruin him."

"The Red Sox bring up Jones, he gets everybody out. Bowden is going back to PAWTUCKET today - HE got everybody out."

EDIT: thanks for the tip on this...great listening so far.
 

Wade Boggs Hair

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"All the Yankees have done is throw money at it [the pitching staff]. That was on display last night."
 

JBill

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Just imagine how much more delicious this would be to listen to if the Dog were still doing the show with him.
Mike is harder to get worked up, but once Mike gets this angry at the Yankees, even Dog would back off and let him go for it. No goading necessary.

"They were LAUGHING at the Yankees last night." My favorite line.