Mike and the Mad Dog and the Jews

The other day we talked about listening to Mike and the Mad Dog on the 2nd 9/11 anniversary.

Readers from outside the NY metro area should understand that host Mike Francesa and Chris Russo were sports-talk gods in New York. Their top rated radio show had the absolute final say on what was happening in NY Sports. They changed policies and even engineered trades on air.

Fate put Mike and Chris on the radio during the terrorist attacks and after. 

Their remarks vis-à-vis 9/11 and Jews were controversial and what they actually say remained unclear and controversial.

ESPN's 30 for 30 has a good summary:

There's no audio recording of the pair calling for a Jewish loyalty oath, but people said they heard it.

We didn't, though days after we did listen to a lengthy on air discussion and argument they had on the matter. Mike and Chris insisted over and over again that their remarks were misunderstood.

Can we agree that a couple of sports guys might be a little tongue tied after a terrorist attack, and their thoughts not fully fleshed out?

Also, Mike's right.

Thoughts on the Retirement of Francesa

For those of you outside of the New York Metro area, Mike Francesa was the lead host from 1-6:30 on 66 WFAN.

Over 30 years or so he came to be known as the 'sports pope' around here.

He first entered our own consciousness in the mid-90s when he would go on Imus in the Morning, a show to which we were fanatically loyal at the time.

Francesa had lovers and haters, just look up NY Post columnist Phil Mushnik, yikes.

Here is a great parody of him, I mean spot on:

The name dropping here is perfect.

Mike had a lot of faults but he was always prepared and always knew what he was talking about.

There were some ugly and Googleable incidents and in recent years he got grumpy and short with callers. It happens.

For several years we had to make due with crappy Washington DC sports talk; Andy Polin, Steve Czabin....uck.

In June of 2001 Mrs. Stroock and I bought a new car about two weeks before we were moving to New Jersey. Vividly we recall that night, sitting in a parking lot in front of CVS and programming stations. We were programming the DC stations and then remembered that soon we wouldn't need them anymore.

66 went in first and a few weeks later it felt good to be back.


Francesa actually makes a cameo here: