Watchdog

Tuesday's appearance by Chris Russo on "Late Show with David Letterman" was among the more entertaining (and lengthy) for Mr. Mad Dog, I thought. (His lead-in was Helen Hunt.)

There were the usual goofy, awkward moments, and at times Dave seemed genuinely afraid as Chris yelled at him and waved his arms. (Here is some video from the event.)

What I don't get is how Dave can justify extremely local sports talk on a national, non-sports talk show. Even Dog seemed confused when Dave asked about the Mets' and Yankees' radio play-by-play men.

Did anyone in Boise have any idea what they were talking about regarding Howie Rose and John Sterling? Dave even threw in a John Minko reference!

Dave has been on a sports bender of late. Danica Patrick is scheduled for Wednesday and Brett Favre for Thursday.

Please give me a call so I can ask you about all this, Mr. Letterman. I have been watching your show since the month before Danica was born.

Mike Francesa was on the radio with Sid Rosenberg.

Here's Part I of Mike and Chris discussing baseball peeing strategy Wednesday.

Sorry, Chris, I'm with Mike on this one. During the ALDS last year I was amazed at the lengths of the men's room lines at Yankee Stadium and happy to be one of the cool kids who gets to duck into the one in the press box.

I have not yet run into Mike there. Maybe Monday.

I missed the already infamous argument between Mike Francesa and Chris Russo Wednesday regarding peeing logistics at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. What can I say? I'm a STIF (spending time interacting with family). But multiple sources are planning to have it posted on YouTube by sunset, so it's all good.

The NBA Store has revealed its 10 best-selling jerseys over the 10 years since it opened. Neither Stephon Marbury nor Frederic Weis made the list. Here it is: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Tim Duncan.

How can Chris Webber be retired? And Jalen Rose be an analyst? Gee whiz. I covered those guys' entire Fab Five run in 1992. And I was there when Webber called timeout in New Orleans in '93. They used to be so young.

Predictably, some have made fun of ESPN for hiring Justin Timberlake to host the ESPYs in July. I say: Bravo! This is not an event for serious sports fans, so why not Justin Timberlake? And there always is the chance he'll bring along his old friend Janet Jackson.

ESPN 1050 made an excellent hire by adding the Mets' Billy Wagner to its regular guest roster; he'll appear with Michael Kay in the afternoon throughout the season. This is a big sacrifice for Billy, who is certain to miss his weird, sometimes contentious sessions with the other New York sports station's afternoon team.

The ESPN Zone in Chicago is hosting a free lunch April 13 for Cubs fans interested in watching the team face the Phillies that afternoon. One catch: You have to be 100 years old, and thus have been around the last time the Cubbies won it all. Or you have to be related to said 100-year-old. Each is allowed to bring three guests. Of course, you could be 99 right now and still have been born by the time the Cubs actually won the title in October. I assume that counts.

Good luck to Chuck Gerber, who grew up in East Meadow, graduated from Adelphi in 1965 and as of April 11 is retiring from ESPN after most recently serving as its executive VP for college sports programming. He's headed for the SEC, according to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand. Burke Magnus, who has been running ESPNU, will assume many of Gerber's responsibilities.

In advance of the April 4 International Fight League event at the Izod Center, there will be a mixed martial arts demonstration and autograph signing session in the Amtrak Rotunda of Penn Station from 7 to 10 a.m. Friday. In attendance will be MMA experts from the Renzo Gracie Academy, including Renzo Gracie, Wagnney Fabiano and Jim Miller.

That's all for now. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a STIF. Enjoy the Sweet 16.

I'm not positive where I first saw this very amusing clip referenced. I'm going to assume it was Awful Announcing. I know how annoyed the blogosphere gets when credit is not properly given for being first on these things.

Anyway, I'm hoping this clip isn't somehow doctored, because as presented it is difficult to believe.

On the other hand, as I always tell people, whatever you might think about Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, filling 27.5 hours of week by blabbing about sports is much more difficult than it appears.

Thus, on occasion, Mike, um, might tend to repeat himself. Just a little.

Happy (54th) Birthday, Mr. Francesa, sir.

OK, I'm out for the week. But before I go I will leave you with a link to get you through a long weekend of mostly meaningless college hoops:

It's a montage of clips from Thursday's Big East basketball call by Chris Russo and Mike Francesa.

Awful Announcing has it. Just scroll down several posts to find it.

Enjoy.

(By the way, in fairness, I thought Mike and Chris did a good job on that Mets game in May of 2006. Doing a basketball game is much trickier, though.)

OK, I'll stop now and focus on my Friday newspaper column.

That is, assuming I can pull myself away from listening to Chris Russo do college hoops play-by-play. One highlight so far: Calling the ball a "pumpkin."

(I liked him better on Mets play-by-play, but that's just me.)

Busy day.

At 1 p.m. I'll check out Billy Crystal's swing.

At 2 p.m. I'll check whether Stephen A. Smith still is on the radio.

Congrats to Suzy Kolber on the birth of her daughter Wednesday.

Speaking of sideline reporters . . . I am writing about Erin Andrews and Doris Burke and am way, way behind.

Have a nice day.

Enjoy the rest of Mike and Chris interviewing Rick DiPietro. (Chris just said good-bye to Rick and mispronounced his name. I need a new job.)

I poked fun at Mike and Chris earlier today regarding their musings on past Best Picture winners.

But to be fair and balanced, I completely agreed with their take on Dick Vitale's performance during the exciting Memphis-Tennessee tilt Saturday night.

Dickie V.'s attention seemed to strangely wander at times.

During a key late-game play, he was talking about the Duke-North Carolina rivalry instead of the game in front of him that ESPN had spent all week hyping.

Weird.

Mike and Chris are talking movies, specifically Best Picture winners.

Uh, oh.

Mike just said he thought "Gentleman's Agreement" was about Quakers.

I have no idea where that came from, but I found it very amusing.

And Chris just called Emile Zola "Emily" Zola.

I love this job.

Did I mention I've seen all 80 Best Picture winners?

I am going to go back to my boring newspaper column now.

(UPDATE: I think they just mixed up "Three Faces of Eve" and "All About Eve" and a movie that doesn't exist called "Five Faces of Eve" but I just don't know anymore. It's all a blur now. I have to stop.)

(ANOTHER UPDATE: Chris called "Patton" a George C. Scott "farce" and "Gone With the Wind" a Vivien Leigh "farce." Did he mean "tour de force?" I don't know.)

Here is the video of Chris Russo on CBS this morning.

Today's Sign of the Apocalypse:

Chris Russo debating a United States Representative on CBS' morning show - that's national television! - on the subject of Wednesday's Clemens/McNamee hearing.

Click below for the entire transcript.

Sports Illustrated is so busy raking in its annual dough from the swimsuit issue that it might not have time to come up with a "Sign of the Apocalypse" for next week's issue.

So here is a free suggestion from WatchDog.

It's a welcome to "Mike and the Mad Dog" listeners on the Web site of Jim Himes, a candidate for Congress from the district currently represented by Christopher Shays, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo have targeted Shays for removal based on his performance today in questioning Brian McNamee, and began openly campaigning for Himes on the air. (Mr. Russo lives in Shays' district.)

WatchDog is apolitical and thus will not be taking an official position on any Connecticut Congressional races, but I will say this:

I was around Rep. Shays both inside and outside the hearing room during the NFL portion of the 2005 steroid probe and have watched him during the current "investigation" by Congress and have the following advice for him and his staff:

In the future, keep this guy as far away from talking sports as possible. He does not speak the language, and ends up embarrassing himself in front of whatever sports-fan constituents he has.

As always, I was honored to be mentioned on WFAN's afternoon show Tuesday, when the hosts credited me with noticing that the station ran an ad for the Grammy Awards on Monday, the day after the show aired.

Chris Russo: "Neil caught him nicely."

Mike Francesa: "Nice job."

Russo: "It's amazing what Best can pick up, I tell ya."

Francesa: "No life. He's got no life. He lets the big things go flying past him. He's got the minutiae down pat; the big things go right by him."

Russo: "He did not pick up the Chris Carlin/Kim Jones shenanigans, which surprised me, because that's been all over the place. He did not pick that up."

Francesa: "Where was that all over the place?"

Russo: "Not in the newspapers, but at the station it's been all over the place."

Two things:

1. Francesa is right on about my skewed perception of realty, but he's way late. Fellow Giants beat writer Kevin Manahan of the Star-Ledger dubbed me "Mr. Minutiae" almost a decade ago.

2. After accusing me of focusing on minutiae, Mike and Chris spent 20 minutes dissecting the alleged Carlin/Jones feud.

But enough about that. Roger is giving his opening statement. He sounds angry . . . !

Doggone it, I was going to tell a story about Mike Francesa's adventures on his "Mike'd Up" show last night, and I forgot to do it before he went on the air, and now it appears he already told the story, only I couldn't hear it even though he's sitting 100 feet away from me because the speaker on my eight-year-old laptop is busted so I can't listen to the live stream and now apparently I am going to have to go the entire week without listening to WFAN, which given my job is really, really disturbing. And meanwhile, our Web editor is waiting for more material to post, which I promise to get him by 3 p.m EST, because I have an interview scheduled at 2. Sorry.

I HATE it when Mike and Chris beat me to their own stories. Anyway, here it is, as relayed to me by Mike's producer, Doug Safchik, who asked me to mention that it was a great team effort by all involved:

Francesa was scheduled to do the show from the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, but at about 11 p.m. ET the satellite truck lost power. Fortunately, Bruce Beck was at the stadium doing a live shot for the 11 o'clock news on Ch. 4 so Mike grabbed a cab at 11:07, and said cab likely exceeded the speed limit to get him there at 11:33, two minutes before the show airs.

Lauren Spencer, executive producer of WNBC sports, sweet-talked the as yet uncredentialed Francesa past security. Beck began the show while Francesa got set up, and then Mike proceeded to wing it, having no idea what was being shown on TV other than what Safchik was whispering in his ear.

That's it. I'm sure Mike told it better than that on the air. At least I hope so. I'm getting a new laptop when I get home if this one makes it that far.

Mike Francesa has agreed to terms on a lucrative, long-term extension of his deal with CBS Radio/WFAN, which was set to expire this year.

Two people with knowledge of the deal told me this, but WFAN operations manager Mark Chernoff declined to comment on the matter and Francesa did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Even with the new morning show of Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton showing early ratings strength, Francesa is the most powerful and important personality on the station's roster in the post-Don Imus era.

I am told Francesa represented himself in the negotiations.

Last spring, Francesa and partner Chris Russo were harshly critical of CBS Radio management after Imus was fired.

Another milestone in WatchDog history: Mike Francesa and Chris Russo made fun of me at 5 p.m. Tuesday based solely on something written in the blog, not the paper.

I am humbled and honored.

After learning of their latest No. 1 finish among men ages 25-54, the boys recalled a Dec. 21 post in which I snarkily wrote they are "in no danger of running out of people over 45 to listen to their show any time soon" but might want to consider some "programming gimmicks" just to keep things fresh.

Honestly, it mostly was a throwaway item on the Friday before Christmas that I didn't put all that much thought into. But apparently Mike and Chris didn't think much of it, and Tuesday they had their chance to gloat. Fine by me.

Ronde had to take it Sunday, and I'll take it today, even though their strong ratings don't surprise me. As I wrote, they are in no danger of being toppled from their perch anytime soon.

I felt even better about getting ripped when I got prominent company an hour later.

The boys went after their old pal Imus for having Tim Russert on his show last week, calling it "weak" and a "disgrace."

Considering how they lambasted Russert in the spring in support of Imus, Francesa and Russo had a right to feel let down by Imus rolling over and inviting Russert back into the fold.

Mike and Chris haven't been reading my blog again! At 3:30 they told their listeners that people in New York won't get to see the Cowboys-Redskins game Sunday.

Then their producer corrected them.

You, guys, you need to read hourly to keep up with this stuff! I'm here to help.

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo continue to generate substantial revenue for WFAN and are in no danger of running out of people over 45 to listen to their show any time soon.

Plus, the novelty of having those guys mad at me has worn off, so I'm not looking to pick a fight during this festive, goodwill-toward-sports-talk-hosts time of year.

But . . . after listening to Chris Carlin and Kim Jones bring a younger, fresher, more energetic take to afternoon drive time Thursday - a chemistry they developed over the summer as well as mornings from 5 to 6 a.m. (not that I've been listening to the latter) - this became clearer to me than ever:

Mike and Chris need to do something to keep the show healthy and themselves wealthy for another decade or more.

I'm not sure what, exactly, whether it be more programming gimmicks or expanded kibbitzing with update people or a supporting cast member or two willing to disagree with them. Maybe Craig Carton could call in and get into arguments with them every hour.

There aren't many shows of any kind in any medium that can go 20 years without stirring things up now and then. The boys should consider it in 2008.

Back in October, Mike Francesa raised eyebrows (including mine) with a bold assertion: That in 2000 he was among three finalists for a spot in the “Monday Night Football’’ booth.

The others: Billy Crystal and Dennis Miller.

A few days later, I reported that while Francesa did audition and might well have been led to believe by producer Don Ohlmeyer that he was a finalist, he never came close to the job.

I since have talked to another half-dozen people with direct knowledge of that process and all confirmed the gist of my original report. (Crystal wasn’t a “finalist’’ either; he quickly rejected the idea.)

Why write this now? Because in fairness I kept at it until I finally could track down Ohlmeyer himself Tuesday at the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

He couldn’t recall what he did or did not say at the time. He did call Francesa “extraordinarily talented’’ and said he has “a great deal of respect for him.’’

So, was he in the final three? “I’ve never publicly gotten into who the finalists were, who anybody was. Michael was one of the people seriously considered; that’s all I’ve ever said and all I ever will say.’’

It's starting to bum me out that Chris Russo and Mike Francesa keep going on the air without having read WatchDog first.

They just spent five minutes speculating about which game would be in prime time Dec. 23, a good 30 minutes after I posted the answer here.

Now they are debating in detail why the league didn't pick the Packers-Bears game, even though that game was off the table because Fox protected it two months ago.

Sigh.

(Update: At 1:50, someone told the boys Packers-Bears was off the table. Thanks for reading.)

Tuesday's newspaper column about the media reaction to Sean Taylor's death predictably generated a huge response in e-mails and comments on the Web version of the column.

There are no more reliable lightning rods in local sports media than Mike Francesa/Chris Russo and Suzyn Waldman.

Among the reactions I have gotten to the piece was that while Mike and Chris deserved the criticism, I was too easy on WFAN's morning team, especially Craig Carton.

Perhaps so. Carton got into an on-air spat with Chris Carlin when he insisted on discussing how Taylor's death would affect the Redskins' point spread. He also apparently had some harsh words for Taylor when disagreeing with the plan for moments of silence in his memory before NFL games.

So why didn't I go into detail on all that? Partly because I learned it all second-hand, and I always am reluctant to critique stuff I haven't seen or heard myself.

Francesa and Russo are victims of their own success in one respect: Because their show is simulcast on YES, it allows people like me to go to the DVR to document exactly what they said, and it allows listeners/viewers to post unfortunate discussions such as last Tuesday's on YouTube.

Anyway, as I wrote, there is plenty of media blame to go around on this subject and others.

And one more thing by way of clarification: Even though some of the early conclusions drawn by media members currently look to be inaccurate, there could well be more to this story than yet is widely known.

The important issue is not that people with microphones and keyboards were right or wrong, the issue is that jumping to conclusions too quickly is dangerous regardless of what turn out to be the facts.

I finally got around to writing in the newspaper today what I wrote in the blog last week: That Mike Francesa and Chris Russo made a huge boo-boo in publicly jumping to conclusions about Sean Taylor hours after his death.

As I also wrote, though, they were far from the only ones in the latest unfortunate example of a media environment in which instant analysis and incomplete reporting have overtaken the notion of responsible patience.

One interesting aspect of the media reaction to Taylor's death was that most prominent sports blogs showed vastly more restraint that did their "mainstream" counterparts, and the bloggers had a field day pointing out the missteps of their old media pals.

It might have something to do with bloggers being younger and more open-minded and less cynical, and thus less apt to stereotype and make assumptions. Or not. I don't know.

It's a big, complicated sports media world out there, and I'm just trying to sort out small portions of it as best I can.

Well, well, well. Turns out some members of the news media screwed up yet again by jumping to conclusions that turned out to be premature and/or wildly off-base.

Despite the criticism I aimed at them Tuesday, WFAN's Mike Francesa and Chris Russo were far from the only ones.

I'm sure I'll have something profound to say about all this in the newspaper next week. For now I only will say this: Sigh.

I'm too lazy to go back on my DVR and find it, so I'm going to take the word of Sports Business Daily on this:

Seems Mike Francesa said on WFAN this afternoon that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cancelled a scheduled appearance on the station. Why? Apparently because Francesa and co-host Chris Russo have taken the side of cable operators against the NFL Network in their ongoing tiff.

The Daily quotes Francesa saying that Cowboys public relations man Rich Dalrymple “listens to the show, and he’s smart and he knows what we were saying, and he’s not going to put Jerry Jones in a position where he’s going to get argued with."

This job would be a lot more fun if I could do these blog posts all day and not continually get distracted by my actual job, which is writing a newspaper column, which I now will attempt to do once again.

Good night. Go Rutgers!

I forgot to mention in my newspaper column today that Joe Girardi's new deal with WCBS/WFAN covers three years, at what I have been told is about $350,000 per annum.

I don't know what WFAN paid Jon Heyman to pry him away from ESPN 1050, but I'd be willing to bet $350,000 that it's less than $350,000.

Still, it was nice to see Newsday.com's headline writers keep things in perspective in writing the head for my column.

Way to give a former Newsday writer priority:

"WFAN lands Heyman, Girardi''

A thought occurred to me during Mike Francesa's on-air argument this afternoon with NFL officiating boss Mike Pereira. Here it is:

You could argue that it's wrong for Francesa and Chris Russo to call regular guests of theirs liars on a 50,000-watt radio station and otherwise engage in shouting matches disguised as interviews.

I would argue this: It's a credit to Francesa and Russo that they can engage in such behavior and yet have these guys continue to come on with them, an excellent example of that being the general manager of the Yankees.

It's a good thing I don't write about that show anymore. It's a certain path to mental illness for a media critic. After this post, I mean. No more! I'm serious this time!

Someone please take away my radio. I'm begging you.

I was going to include this item in my newspaper column. Then I remembered blogs were made for self-indulgent musings and have endless space.

So I am putting it here instead:

In the SportsWatch of Feb. 6, I described a disturbing addiction to listening to WFAN’s afternoon show – and far worse, to writing about it too often.

I complained, among other things, that the show had “turned my mind to sticky, marshmallow goo.’’

The column was very well received; Mike Francesa even said on the air that his wife agreed with it.

Alas, as loyal readers know, in recent weeks I have fallen off the wagon – hard. And unlike in February, I now have a blog, which has made things worse.

I would now like to apologize sincerely to everyone who believed in me and enjoyed my first column. And make this announcement: It is time to try again.

The epiphany came last week when I listened to, then wrote about, a conspiracy theory that put columnist Ian O’Connor in cahoots with Yankees president Randy Levine in an attempt to bring down Joe Torre.

As usual, it was entertaining. As usual, it was inane.

So this time I really mean it. I mean . . . I’ll try. (For example, notice how I haven't mentioned the fact the boys started their Tuesday show with another round of Levine/YES Network talk.)

Please post tips for getting me through this if you have them. I need help.

Click below for the text of the original February column.

OK, WatchDog fans: I've been checking for this every few hours over the past two days and now the big moment has arrived.

Here it is: Chris Russo's first official take on Joe Torre leaving the Yankees, delivered not on WFAN, where he left Mike Francesa to fly solo Thursday afternoon, but on David Letterman's late night show.

I'm not blaming Chris. He had no way of knowing the Torre story would come to a head at the precise moment he was leaving for a scheduled appearance with Dave.

Anyway, Letterman shows impressive poise not being intimidated by the scary flailing of Russo's arms and the pounding of one hand into the other palm.

There was more to his appearance than this. This clip is just the Torre part.

I should have gone to dental school. Dentists don't spend their Saturdays this way.

I just got back from hanging out in downtown Newark with the Devils' owner - no, really - and am catching up on stuff while I wait for YouTube to get some Chris Russo on Letterman video from last night.

Two observations:

1. This Torre guy seems poised and classy and smart and conducts a nice press conference. The Yankees should consider him for their managerial opening.

2. Say what you will about my old pals Russo and Mike Francesa, but you have to give the boys credit for their guts for colorfully ripping Yankees president Randy Levine - even spreading unsourced rumors about him! - while being simulcast on the YES Network.

Levine has been known to offer his input bluntly when it comes to Yankees coverage, so steam surely is rising from his ears listening to this. (Mike just called Levine "clueless.'' He called me that last week!)

Russo and Francesa also didn't hold back in ripping CBS Radio, which owns WFAN, during the Imus Affair.

Wow. I've never ripped the editor or publisher of Newsday in public. Yet.

UPDATE: Now Ian O'Connor is on with Mike and Chris to defend his journalistic credibility after an afternoon of unsubstantiated speculation from the WFAN boys regarding O'Connor's recent interview with George Steinbrenner. Incredibly strange stuff. Ian has been swearing on various stacks of bibles defending himself. Good radio, but also disturbing. I should have been a shoe salesman.

I heard from one reader who misinterpreted an item I wrote today on Mike Francesa and his candidacy for the "Monday Night Football'' booth in 2000. If one person read it that way, others might as well. So let me clarify:

An executive familiar with the process did not doubt that producer Don Ohlmeyer told Francesa at the time he was one of the top three candidates, along with Billy Crystal and Dennis Miller. So no one is accusing Mike of lying about any of this.

The executive merely said that it was not uncommon for candidates to be given somewhat rosier impressions of their chances for the job than existed in reality.

The fact Francesa was a serious enough candidate to have an audition is kind of cool, actually. Which is why I'm bothering with this story seven years after the fact.

I'm still looking for Ohlmeyer himself . . .

Oh, man.

I just listened to Mike Francesa call me "clueless'' and Chris Russo call me "stupid'' in reference to my column Wednesday on Suzyn Waldman's now infamous crying episode on the Yankees' postgame Monday night.

In the past I've always been honored to be ripped by the boys, but in this case . . .

Guys: I never suggested that Suzyn was being unprofessional for crying over the loss itself; I understood it was a sentimental reaction to the apparent end of the Torre era, and told Suzyn directly when we spoke Wednesday that I agreed many had misinterpreted the reason for her emotional reaction.

Also: Suzyn didn't call me to vent. I called her.

And I did listen to the entire post-game, not just the sound bite of her crying.

Sigh.