Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I Stand Corrected

Earlier today, I wrote a post detailing The Sports Guy's on-air complaints about ESPN's policy regarding what radio shows he was allowed to appear on. I was wrong about what he was referring to in his cloaked bitching to ESPN management.


Awful Announcing
now has the audio:



I thought ESPN didn't want him to go on with Max Kellerman in favor of Colin Cowherd's National show. He has never been on The Herd, in no small part due to the feud that I brought up in the previous post.

I did some more in-depth research and here is an except from one of Simmons' chats:

Kevin (Chappaqua, NY): Bill, with the Mike and the Maddog show no longer on the airways and the classic radio 1, 2 combo having gone their separate ways, What do you think there interactions will be at their first Super Bowl apart? I'm sure they will be fighting for guests, giving evil snickers and stares across radio row, while Mike sips on his Diet Coke and Dog fidgets uncontrollably in his chair. My questionthough is if you were asked to go on both shows and only had time for one, who you going with?

Bill Simmons: I would go on Mike's show. There's a 85% chance that Dog has never read a single thing I've written. Mike and I have a love-hate relationship (mostly love) but at least he reads me... the last time I was on, they grabbed me on Media Row and I was sick... I want a second chance... sadly it can never happen because I am not allowed to go on non-ESPN shows ... even though the show that goes against Mike's (Michael Kay) has never asked me to come on. Yup, this is my company.

So as commenter JJV first pointed out, the show that he was talking about wanting to appear on was Mike Francesa's (Mike'd Up) and the show that hadn't invited him on was the Michael Kay Show on 1050, which is up against Mike'd Up.

I think my overall point still stands. Simmons is a bit of a drama queen and never misses an opportunity to publicly slam ESPN for any policy that he disagrees with. I find it hard to believe he's really that upset about not being ask to go on Michael Kay's show.

As The Big Lead pointed out, it's not a great match, seeing that Michael Kay is predominantly a Yankees guy and bringing Simmons on wouldn't really appeal to his audience. Has there been a good reason to bring him on? It's not like TSG has been promoting anything recently.

I would tend to think that Simmons is just bitching because he can't go on Francesa's show and is just using the fact that Michael Kay hasn't asked him to come on (without any incentive to do so) as an excuse to whine about ESPN management (again).

I respect what Simmons does, but ESPN pays him close to $1M, and I don't think anyone held a gun to his head when he agreed to the terms of the contract. He has a job that every blogger would trade for in a second, even if you had to take his annoying nasally voice and were consigned to writing 90% of your columns about Boston teams for the rest of your career. I just get the feeling that no matter what happens, he's going to be a malcontent.

Still, I was wrong, and thought the record should be set straight. An anonymous commenter on the last post really summed it up, though:
Anonymous said...
Yeah dont be a dipshit, the show he wants to go on is Mike'd Up on WFAN (Formerly Mike and the Mad Dog)but he is not allowed by ESPN and he is not invited on the ESPN--1050 Michael Kay Show. Dont just spill diarhea [sic] from your mouth.
Buzz Bissinger, is that you? I believe in this case the "diarhea" would have been flowing from the tips of my fingers since these are the interwebnets and I actually had to type all of that up. Also, apostrophes are your friends, don't be afraid to use them. Thanks for your input, though. Feel free to share your sage and flawlessly written insights anytime, whoever the fuck you are.

7 comments:

  1. Way to cherry pick that quote from Best's blog. That posting had absolutely nothing to do with Bill Simmons. Kay was commenting on the feud between Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo. Get a fucking clue with what you're doing

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  2. You are correct Anon. It's been removed.

    It was done of out haste and I didn't read Best's post it carefully enough.

    I stand corrected again.

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  3. Jay,
    You are a fucking disgrace. How dare you cherry pick quotes to fit into your story. Try reading the NYT, Post, Daily News, or any news website anywhere and you can clearly see that this NEVER happens. NEVER EVER!

    I fucking hate you and I hope Doris throws a malaria stricken cat at you.

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  4. Jay --

    Is that short for Jayson Blair? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayson_Blair for the forgetful...)

    Not sure which hack reporting job is more egregious (or, to quote the indomitable Mad Dog, "gregarious") -- thinking Simmons was talking about that a$$hat Cowherd or getting the Kay quote wrong.

    I also find it amusing that in calling out that anonymous commenter on his typos, you made one of your own. ("you sage" s/b "your sage")

    You are the poster boy for the bloggers that Buzz Bissinger foams at the mouth over.

    Two hands for beginners, pal.

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  5. The best jokes are the ones you have to link to!

    A blog is a living document and I've done my best to set the record straight, so I don't really think that the Jayson Blair reference is even appropriate (or funny).

    My mistakes had nothing to do with plagarism or fabrication. The transcription was accurate and the reason that everyone can jump on the fact I was wrong is because Simmons' words were there for you to read. TSG made an intentionally vague statement and I mis-read the tea leaves.

    Despite the fact that my story contained some errors that were obvious to others, I got linked by Awful Announcing, The Big Lead and Neil Best himself, so there was still some valuable information in there.

    Feel free to judge a book by it's cover, but believe it or not, these aren't the only two posts I've ever written.

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  6. I'm just reading these articles ... and 'Jay' ... you give bloggers a bad name. Bad conclusions, faulty assumptions, and then you get defensive with juvenile profanity only making you look like more of a hack.

    Nice work. Sounds to me like you're whining that a guy like TSG can write and get paid a shitload for it.

    Maybe best to find another hobby ... like model airplanes. Cause you suck at this one.

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  7. Maybe you should read some other posts...

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