More Details On Kellerman's Departure Emerging

(h/t commenter Myth)

The Daily News is starting to fill in some of the blanks on the sudden departure of Max Kellerman from 1050 ESPN Radio (not in order of appearance):

There was major friction over the format of "The Max Kellerman Show." The format was in flux no matter the state of the show's ratings. A partner (Brian Kenny) was added but left. Other parts of Kellerman's studio crew were shuffled or jettisoned. Sources said Kellerman was particularly angered when management dumped his producer Robin Lundberg.

Kellerman had brought Lundberg along with him as an intern at Around the Horn, to a Producer on I, Max on Fox and most recently to be his producer on 1050. Lundberg provided hilarious on-air quips and one-liners, but also seemed quite competent in his role as producer, at least from a listener's perspective.

"Max wasn't happy when the show was cut back (an hour)," [1050 Executive Tim] McCarthy said. "He wanted to do other things and we just obliged him. We could have held him (to the contract) but I've never worked that way. It doesn't make sense to do that. It's not fair to Max, not fair to the other people here, not fair to our listeners."

It's sort of a dick move on Kellerman's part to force his way out, but he had already worked his was up from a two hour to a three hour slot, and saw his on-air time being cut back by the person he was brought into replace.

It was discussed in the comments of the previous post, and by Simon and myself over email, but this is worth bringing forward.

Cowherd's show has no place in New York City.

He is extremely College Football centric, which most New Yorkers (especially people native to the area) have minimal interest in. He knows next to nothing about baseball, which FJM expertly (and hilariously) took him to task for, once upon a time.

The reason Kellerman was popular here was not only because he had a completely unique perspective, it was because that perspective was highly localized. Max literally proclaimed New York City as "the center of the known Universe" and ran his show accordingly. He doted on the Yankees, Giants and Knicks, but also covered the Mets and Jets before looking out to the rest of the sports world. Cowherd isn't going to devote 1/100th of the time Max did to NY teams.

Industry sources said Kellerman's representative has already had a preliminary conversation with the FANdroids, but was told to return when he was not under contract to ESPN-1050.

Now, that's the case. When asked if there was any business going down with Kellerman, WFAN operations chief Mark Chernoff would only say: "We are looking for a partner for Mike. Mike wants a partner. If people are interested in talking to us we are interested in talking to them."

This just doesn't make sense to me. I'm not that excited to hear the two of them together. I don't like Francesa at all, and am not interested in listening to them shout each other down, Francesa with his "sauces" and Kellerman with his analytical perspective. It would take both of them toning down their style, which would make (2+2=3).

Why don't they tell Benigno & Roberts to take a hike, put Kellerman in the 10-1 slot, and steal all of Kellerman's listeners from 1050? I've sort of built my schedule around listening to the radio in the morning and then cranking down on work later in the day. Perhaps some of Kellerman's other loyal listeners have developed similar habits. I'm guessing they would be a whole lot more likely to tune the dial over to WFAN at 10:00AM, than listen to two hours of Brandon Tierney and an hour of Colin Cowherd, as opposed to waiting until 1:00 when Francesa comes on. If Max becomes Francesa's co-host, the worst part of my day is now the worst part of my day again.

Despite the fact that Michael Kay isn't all that well liked around New York City, Yankee fans can still tune in knowing that during the baseball season, he's probably going to be talking about their team. It wouldn't be total a no-brainer to listen to Francesa and Kellerman.

There's also the potential for Francesa to lose listeners because Kellerman tends to rub people, especially older people (who make up much of his listenership), the wrong way. Younger listeners are more likely to get his references to Wu-Tang and the Juggernaut (Bitch) and not necessarily mind his constantly self-congratulatory on-air presence.

WFAN, don't stack your talent to the roof in the one slot you have that's already popular. You must be hurting for the 18-34 year old male demographic in the earlier part of the day, and this is the perfect opportunity to attract some of that in a big way. I'm yours for the taking.

Bill Simmons: Kind Of A Drama Queen?

[Ed. note - 1:57PM: It has been brought to my attention that some of the assumptions I made in this post were wrong and I've corrected them in this post. However, I stand by the title and general premise of the article.]

Yesterday during the Max Kellerman Show on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York, the Sports Fella popped on. They two are excellent foils to each other as both have unique perspectives and represent New York and Boston, respectively. They would make a fantastic radio combo, but ESPN would never put them together. Simmons anti-establishment position has been well-documented, and Kellerman has clashed with executives at ESPN, as well as FOX.

So, yesterday it took Simmons all of thirty seconds to start complaining about ESPN and their restrictive policies as to which radio shows he can or can not appear on.

[Ed. Note: I had to edit out some of Kellerman's excessive verbal tics, but other than that, the transcript is basically word for word]

[around the 0:40 mark (open that link in a new window)]

Max Kellerman: ...then I was mentioning, like, how you have a standing invite to come onto this show and you have invited me onto your podcast and everything, but is it kind of like... you have a friend that you are friendly with and everything, but you are like "Come over" or "Yeah, we'll see you" but you don't really mean it...? Is that what it's like with us?

Bill Simmons: No. No, what I said was... You know, we have the rule that ESPN talent can only go on ESPN shows, which is fine, but, you know, there are some shows that I'd like to go on, and I'm not allowed to go on, but then the show that's going against that show, has never invited me on.

Max Kellerman: I see...

Bill Simmons: So, basically I'm just banned from whatever that time slot is...

Max Kellerman: Oh I see, I see, I see what you are saying...

Bill Simmons: Yeah, without getting into details...

The show that he'd "like to go on" is obviously the Max Kellerman Show, but he's obviously "allowed to go on", considering he was on it right then. The show airs from 10:00AM to 1:00PM on the New York affiliate. The show on opposite that on the national stream? The Herd with Colin Cowherd (who has never invited Simmons on). If you'll recall, there was a dust up between Simmons and Cowherd about a year and a half ago:

While we're here, my ESPN colleague Colin Cowherd mocked my seven trade scenarios for Kobe on the radio last week without reading the entire column or even attempting to understand its premise, namely, that the trade options for Kobe were limited because (A) he needed to go to a big market for a team that could contend right away, and (B) nobody pays 100 cents on the dollar for a team looking to unload an unhappy superstar.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Cowherd embarrassed himself by not understanding basic NBA trading principles like "it would be valuable for L.A. to swap Vlad Radmanovic's contract for Bobby Sura's expiring contract in a T-Mac/Kobe deal because Sura's contract expires in 2008, which would buy them some cap space down the road."

Look, I know the radio business lends itself to hosts lazily skimming other people's columns and blogs ... but seriously, Colin, in the words of Mark Jackson, you're better than that. Your show's on for three hours a day and you get four giant commercial breaks per hour. That leaves you plenty of time to research your segments so you don't come off as misinformed. No offense.

Those are all fair points, but dumping "No offense" after saying someone "embarrassed himself" and using the word "lazily" in reference to their professional work ethic is like taking a shit on their pillow and then putting a mint on top. Cowherd later retorted that his show was actually on for four hours a day (from 6-7 Pacific time is his "mysterious West Coast hour") and that Simmons was in fact the uninformed one.

It never went any further than that and both ESPNers have publicly laid the conflict to rest.

But here is the weird thing. After Simmons calls out ESPN for not letting him go on Kellerman's show, this appears on the front page of ESPN.com.

If ESPN didn't want Simmons to go on Kellerman's show, why would they give it such a prominent billing that same day? (It's still up as of 8:00AM on Tuesday). Is this just Simmons and his blogging alter ego, (still complete with a picture of Tim Robbins at his breaking point in Shawshank) whining about ESPN's policies, again?

Would ESPN put that up knowing that the podcast leads off with Simmons' trademark ESPN bashing? The segment was about 18 minutes long and Simmons congratulates Kellerman at the end for running long.

Simmons: You know what, I love the fact that you fought the man and stayed on past that 8/40, 20/20 break.

Kellerman: I'm not playing around, I'm not playing games. Let me tell you something, it was 35 break, not 40. How do you like that?

Is Simmons just being a baby or constructing this talent vs. executive conflict in his own mind? He was clearly allowed to appear on the show and it was given as high profile a link as a random radio spot ever gets. I like Simmons, but I think I have to side with ESPN on this one; he's being a drama queen.

The other outstanding issue: It would be very unESPNlike to feature something on their front page with this kind of outright anti-management rhetoric. I thought the whole segment was fantastic and perhaps the editors just thought it was good enough to feature anyway.

Your thoughts?

Kellerman! Simmons! Francesa!

Neil Best of Newsday has been on top of the Kellerman story since it broke (err, I tipped him off about it and was not attributed)

And yesterday afternoon he transcribed a portion of the B.S. Report (at the 45:09 mark) where Simmons addressed the story about Kellerman and the rumors concerning Francesa. (I'm just going to blockquote the whole thing):

Bill Simmons: "Max Kellerman left his ESPN Radio New York show today. Uh, I'm throwing our hat in the ring. Our collective hat."

(Simmons' friend) JackO: "Fantastic. He left it? Why, he just gave it up?"

Simmons: "I don't know. Details have not come out."

JackO: "There was some ugliness?"

Simmons: "Who knows? I had a reader email a month ago and say he was at a restaurant where Max and Mike Francesa were having dinner together."

JackO: "Really? Uh, oh. The new Mad Dog, do you think?"

Simmons: "Mike and the Max Dog?"

JackO: "Mike and Max. It works."

Simmons: "Mike and Max?"

JackO: "Got the alliteration down."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "We'll be back, 'Mike and Max,' after this. 'Mike and The Max,' maybe?"

JackO: "Yeah, but that's his first name, he can't become The Max."

Simmons: "Let's say, hypothetically, Francesa and Kellerman, does that show work, or not?"

JackO: "You know, I've only seen Max Kellerman on TV. I've never listened to his radio show, so I don't know what he's like. It might be a case of too many lead dogs trying to be there, you know."

Simmons: "It's like a Kobe-Shaq."

JackO: "I'm not sure how it would work. One guy's got to be the second banana and know his role."

Simmons: "2003 Kobe and Shaq, not 2000 Kobe and Shaq. It would be interesting. I could see the show being great for like three months and them like fighting to the death."

JackO: "If you've already been the star of your own show it's tough to go back now and be the supporting actor."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "Hey, Max, let me tell you something, you're in the big time now. This is my show. You are a second banana, my friend."

JackO (with a Francesa accent): "You know, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "I'm Jordan, you're Pippen, got it?"

Simmons: "But that would be interesting. Keep an eye on that."

The restaurant story is pretty interesting, but I would be curious to know if it came before or after Kellerman was notified that his air time was being cut back.

A Kellerman/Simmons show would be phenomenal, but obviously that's not going to happen because Kellerman can't go back to ESPN and Simmons can't leave. Even though I imagine he was kidding, I'd probably listen to a Simmons/JackO show. I give it a try at the very least. Too bad it would never happen because 1050 would never bring in such a personality so closely associated with Boston into the New York market, even if Simmons had JackO to balance him out.

Kellerman Will "Hopefully Be Back On-Air Soon"

For the first time since unceremoniously leaving his radio show on 1050 ESPN in New York, Max Kellerman commented publicly about the departure. He did so in an interview promoting the upcoming Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight on HBO PPV this coming Saturday former adversary Bob Raissman, whose mustache Kellerman frequently pondered the Freudian implications of.

After discussing his ascent from his cable access show "Max on Boxing" to his current role as primary analyst for the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight, Kellerman expressed regret for how he departed his radio show, saying:

Would I do certain things different? Absolutely. I don't know anybody who has made the optimal choice at every moment in their life. Some things, given the information I had at the time, well, I made what I thought was a good choice. Now, I would be more diplomatic, not so plain-spoken behind the scenes.

Loyal members of the Max Kellerman army wish it had gone down differently as well. After Kellerman left, his slots were filled by the Brandon Tierney Show and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, neither of whom provided the unique perspective on the Yankees and Giants that Max did since his show debuted in August of 2006.

He also made some opaque comments about his eventual return to the radio:

"I love the radio. I loved what I did," Kellerman said. "Now that some time has passed, yes, I was interested in (joining) Mike Francesa and WFAN. What he's done with his show, and his career, is very impressive and I was absolutely interested in that. And I think there was interest there too," Kellerman said. "There are several (radio) things we are looking at. Hopefully I will be back on the air soon."

Interesting that Kellerman talks about his interest in partnering with Francesa, something we speculated about a while back, in the past tense. Interesting also that the interview was published almost exactly six months after he left the show, when his contract was supposedly up. Given that ESPN no longer controls his rights, a return to the air is likely near.

As I said back in February, I think WFAN should slot Kellerman from 10-1, where his old show was on 1050. A pairing with Francesa would be annoying to loyal listeners of each host and they would get better ratings by spreading two big draws out over two time slots. But what do I know? I'd only been listening to Kellerman since the day his show came on the air and represent the most desirable demographic of radio listeners - males 18-34.

Either way, I'm anxiously awaiting Kellerman's return to the airwaves. Sports talk radio has been unlistenable without him. We'll keep you posted on any developments in this area.

No More Kellerman? Um, WHAT?

I haven't been listening to to The Max Kellerman Show that much since I started writing for this blog, but I had been tuning in since day one. When I first moved down here, I used to keep my car on the streets and move it twice a week for alternate side parking from 9:00 to 10:30 in the morning and at 10:00AM one day in late October of '06, Max popped on the NY Sports Talk Radio scene and had been a fixture ever since.

Then this morning, Cliff sent me this link.

1050 ESPN Radio and on-air host Max Kellerman have mutually agreed to end their relationship. Kellerman's final broadcast for the station was yesterday (March 9), 10AM - 1PM.

Tim McCarthy, the station's President and General Manager said: "Max is a highly articulate and passionate sports talk host and he brought a unique voice to our talent lineup. We wish him nothing but the best in all of his future endeavors."

Kellerman added: "I had some great times at 1050. I appreciate everything Tim McCarthy, Aaron Spielberg, and everyone there have done for me over the years."

Until a full-time replacement is selected, 1050's evening host, Brandon Tierney, will host the weekday 10AM - 1PM slot.

Um, what happened? Was anyone listening yesterday? Did he say something out of line?

Noooooooooo.

When he first came on the air, he used to talk about the episode of the Sopranos where Vito is up in New Hampshire, doing some carpentry and working a regular job for what is probably his first time. You can hear Vito having an internal dialogue, trying to guess what time it is without looking at his watch.

10:30? Gotta be. Hour and a half... lunch. The halfway fuckin' point.

Don't look at your watch. Not yet. Save it. Treat yourself.

Ten 'til eleven. Maybe five of?

Don't look. Think of those sandwices Jim made. When you've eaten that last bite, this fuckin' day is half way gone.

11:30, has to be. Look at the angle of the sun. Maybe even a quarter to 12?

Okay, look. Now.

Then he looks down at his watch, and it's only 9:55.

FUCK ME!!!

Kellerman used to say "The worst part of your day is now the best part of your day." It wasn't far from the truth. The show was originally on from 10AM-12PM, and then got extended from 10-1. Those hours flew by, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. It probably helped that Max liked all the same teams that I did, especially the Yankees and Giants, but he almost always had a unique and interesting take you weren't likely to hear anywhere else.

This sucks. I wanted to get this post up for now, but in the near future, I'll put up a real deal tribute to the show, if in fact it really is done for.

[Update: 11:49] His Wikipedia page has been updated to say:

Kellerman and ESPN radio ended their relationship on March 9, 2009. His time slot is currently being shared by Colin Cowherd and Brandon Tierney. Kellerman was forced out by new producers and managment who also forced out his mates Gordan Damer, Robin Lundberg, and Louie Gold earlier in the year. ESPN attempted to cut his hours on the radio. Max has the second largest radio following in New York, his loyal fans are waiting for his next show.

Listen To The Max Kellerman Show! (Or Just Read Our Blog)

Major takeaways from the Max Kellerman Show on 1050 ESPN radio this morning.

1. A-Rod testing positive is the Watergate of the steroids era.
2. A-Rod should admit it.
   
3. This is bad for George Mitchell because it calls he and his report (and the lack of Red Sox [coughDAVIDORTIZcough] therein) into question.

Sound familiar? Because those are three consecutive posts from Saturday afternoon. It's on 'til 1:00, listen for yourself.

The Anxiety Of Influence

The Anxiety of Influence is a theory first put forth by literary critic Harold Bloom. He contended that all poets are inspired to write by existing poets and therefore their work is weaker because it's derivative of what came before. In order to free themselves from the shadow of older works, the strongest younger poets must form their own distinct style using one of six "Revisionary Ratios". Coaching an NFL team, like writing poetry, demands uniqueness in exchange for success. To succeed, a coach, much like a poet, must expand on the styles of those he worked under, not just imitate them.

In the book, Bloom proposes a sort of "poet tree" starting with Shakespeare who begat Milton who begat Keats and so on. In the NFL the coaching tree is even more direct, with the apprentice having actually studied under the master. In this case, Shakespeare would be Bill Parcells (It would be nice to trace it all the way back to Vince Lombardi, but Parcells only coached under Ray Perkins). His coaching tree is wide, with former assistants Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, Ray Hanley, and Tony Sparano advancing to be head coaches in the NFL.

Belichick, being the strongest coach to descend from Parcells' tree, has become so strong that including college coaches, his tree is already wider than Parcells'. Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Kirk Ferentz, Nick Saban, Pat Hill, Al Groh and Charlie Weiss have all leveraged their success under Belichick into head coaching jobs.

The two pupils that landed NFL jobs certainly have not enjoyed the success expected of them after leaving the Patriots. In four years with the Browns, Romeo Crennel had a 24-40 record while Eric Mangini (23-25) was just fired by the Jets with a year left on his contract. Coincidentally, the Jets, who went from 4-12 last year to 9-7 this year fired Mangini, who has now replaced Crennel with the Browns, who went from 10-6 to 4-12, at a job that Belichick was once fired from.

Not to say that Crennel is a stronger coach, but I think Mangini is still most plagued by the Anxiety of Influence, having an almost father-son like dynamic with Belichick. There were the icy, standoffish handshakes, the SpyGate tattling, and now son is following in father's footsteps to the one job he couldn't conquer.

This concept obviously applies to writing as well. I'm not the first person to use this concept in reference to sports. I believe that would be Max Kellerman, who occasionally casts Jordan as Shakespeare on his radio show on 1050ESPN, New York. He purports that Kobe suffers from the Anxiety of Influence while LeBron has been more successful in cutting his own path by distributing the ball and involving his teammates more than Jordan ever did. Kobe wears #24, as if to signify that he is the next Jordan, while LeBron wears #23 as a tribute, but has a much different playing style than him.

The stuff I write for this blog is undoubtedly influenced by the sports bloggers, writers and analysts I read and listen to. My pieces on collusion were inspired to some extent by Shysterball. I've explicitly paid homage to FJM. The post I wrote yesterday about the Eagles (and the name of this blog, for fuck's sake) have Big Daddy Drew's fingerprints all over them. I would not have come up with the idea for this post if I didn't listen to Kellerman at work basically every day.

Part of this phenomenon that Bloom fails to mention is that by virtue of being early to the medium, those guys had more room for original thought. They were frontiersman, staking their claims and finding their niches. Unlike the finite amount of land on the frontier though, the news cycle always churns up more material. It's the specific angles (like Awful Announcing or Shysterball) and conventions (like FJM, Leitch's "royal we" or the character sketches on KSK) that get taken up, sort of like styles of poetry. The problem with both is that, the later you are to the party, the more you have to tip toe around styles and voices that have already been established.

Will Mangini be successful with the Browns? That depends if he can step out of Belichick's shadow and establish his own coaching style that takes some of the core components of his sensei, and add some unique wrinkles of his own. Being fired by the Jets and the resulting fresh start with the Browns should give him the chance to start anew.

The Fight For The Two Spot

I'm aware that assigning numerical values to the Yankee starting pitchers is largely an exercise in futility. Aside from determining the order they begin the year in (which isn't always the case), the hierarchy is largely meaningless throughout the regular season. Every team's rotation gets jumbled up based on off days and suspensions and rainouts over the course of the season, so relatively early on you're getting match ups where one team's "#1" squares off against another's "#4" and so forth.

Once the postseason nears though, the ranking takes on a whole new importance. Questions arise about the postseason rotation and who will start what game in the ALDS. Max Kellerman used to argue that Game 2 was actually the most pivotal game of a 5 game series because it always swings the series between 1-1 and 2-0, either pulling one team back to even or putting them on the brink of elimination.

Since Kellerman's theory is a bit radical, I think we can safely assume that Joe Girardi is going to attempt to line up his rotation with his best pitcher starting Game 1 and so on. Since only three games are guaranteed, it also matters who the top three pitches are. It's clear that CC Sabathia slots in at the top of the rotation and Joba Chamberlain would be their 4th starter. So the question comes down to Burnett vs. Pettitte for the number two slot.

NoMaas makes the case for Pettitte and it's hard to argue against it. Pettitte has been on a better run recently and his numbers for the season are stronger as well. Both have made 27 starts and you might be surprised to learn that Burnett has pitched only 2 1/3 more innings than Pettitte with each averaging just under 6 1/3 each time out. Pettitte has a better ERA, WHIP, FIP, K/BB, HR/9. Burnett leads in quality starts 18 to 15 (fairly significant) and has struck out more per 9 IP while allowing fewer hits, but has walked one more per 9 (which is how his WHIP is worse).

It's worth noting that on June 20th, their ERAs were almost exactly the same (4.24 and 4.26) but Burnett proceeded to go on a run that saw his drop to 3.53 at one point while Pettitte's rose as high as 4.85. Burnett's great stretch was better than anything Pettitte has done this season and the reality is that upside is always tantalizing in sports.

Burnett has never pitched in the postseason (he was injured with the 2003 Marlins) and Pettitte has thrown 218 1/3 playoff innings to a 3.98 ERA over the course of 25 series.

Moshe at the Yankees Universe introduces another interesting factor: home/road splits. Oddly, although Burnett is the righty of the two, he has better numbers at Yankee Stadium while Pettitte has done his best work on the road, with a roughly 1.3 run difference in ERA in both directions. If the Yanks hang on to win the division, Game 2 will be at home. Jason from Heartland Pinstripes would prefer to give Burnett the start if this turns out to be the case.

It will be interesting to see how heavily Joe Girardi weights September performance into the equation. With about 5 or 6 starts remaining for each, much can change. If the ALDS started five days from now, I'd probably go with Pettitte. If Burnett has a decent September I'd probably choose him. Either way, every start in the postseason is important and the Yanks are lucky to have guys as good as those two jockeying for position.

1,001

I hope you folks don't mind a little self-congratulatory navel-gazing, but I wanted to take a quick moment to acknowledge the fact that the post on Johnny Damon that went up earlier today was the 1,000th to appear on this site.

The very first post came back in the beginning of last October when for some reason, I decided to reserve this domain name and write down a half baked argument for rooting for Red Sox over the Rays in the upcoming ALCS. I didn't bother telling anyone about the site, or writing anything else until over two and a half months later. On Christmas Day, on the heels of the acquisition of Mark Teixeira, I had some more thoughts ruminating and kicked up a 1,000 word post on the implications of the signing.

I followed that with an email entitled "The Fack Youk Manifesto" to a couple of my friends that said, in part:

I realize that there is like an 85% chance that this never really goes anywhere, then dies a slow death from neglect, but there's that 15% that we can carve out this little space for our thoughts, all contribute and make it interesting/entertaining enough for some other people to check it out. I talk enough sports with you guys and hear interesting stuff worthy of a blog post and it makes me think that we could put that stuff to use and concentrate it here.

It's taken a ridiculous amount of time and commitment to keep a steady stream of content flowing into the site, but I'm quite proud that we've established a readership and have a little niche that people seem to enjoy stopping by. We're getting close to 80,000 unique visitors since we started using Google Analytics and even if there is some double counting going on, that still seems like a lot.

Thanks specifically to people like Jason at IIATM,S, Joe at River Ave. Blues, Ross at New Stadium Insider, Craig at Shysterball, Peter Abraham, Tim at The Sports Hernia in addition to Deadspin, With Leather, Big League Stew, Awful Announcing, The Big Lead, BBTF, Jorge Says No!, and countless others who have linked to the site over the past 8 months. Without links from other blogs, it's basically impossible to develop a readership, so the recommendations are much appreciated.

Anyway, if you are new to the site, here are some of Fack Youk's greatest hits from days and months gone by in case you missed them:

• The Many (Awkward) Faces Of Alex Rodriguez
  
  
• An Avalanche Falls On Notre Dame
  
  
• The Chronicles Of Doris: Parts I, II, & III
  
  
• Mets To Play 2009 Season At Javits Center
  
  
• Look At It, Dave!
  
  
• Because You Can't Put Blogs On Your Bookshelf
  
  
• Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
  
  
• The Extreme Beer Festival Diaries
  
  
• No More Max Kellerman? Um, WHAT?
  
  
• The Great Divider(s)
  
  
• He Also Picked Mickey Rourke
  
  
• Papeljerk

Hopefully these 1,001 posts are only the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned.

Jerry Reese Does Not Fear Wounded Ducks

On the heels of a very poor performance in the playoffs against the Eagles, the Daily News says that the Giants are close to signing Eli Manning to an massive extension:

Based on interviews with several agents and personnel people, Eli Manning appears to be in line for a seven or eight-year contract worth $110-$120M with $40M in guarantees. That would make the 28-year-old the eighth quarterback to top the $100M barrier, and would put him near the top with Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb (12 years, $115M), Cincinnati's Carson Palmer (nine years, $118.75M), and former Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick (10 years, $130M).

Brett Favre (10/$100M) and Big Ben (8/$102M) have inked deals at that level, while big brother Peyton signed a 7 year deal worth $98M in 2004, keeping him just on the outside that barrier, and Tom Brady took a sweetheart deal to stay with New England for six and $60M.

Still, that upper tier of the $100M QB Club looks a whole lot more like the group of MLB pitchers who have eclipsed that barrier than you'd like it to. Palmer and Vick especially have not lived up to their contracts, while McNabb has probably played to his $9.6M AAV overall, but has not won a Super Bowl and has had some terrible lows in Philly. Simarly, Mike Hampton, Kevin Brown, and Barry Zito all woefully under preformed their deals. This is excluding Johan Santana who is off to a good start, but still has six years left, and of course Sabathia has yet to earn a dollar of his mega deal.

Not everyone is a fan of Eli's. Before the Super Bowl victory last year, there was certainly a disproportionate amount of hatred, blame and venom spewed in his direction. If Asante Samuel came up with that near-interception on the final drive of the Super Bowl, that might still be the case. But because of David Tyree and the defensive line, people like Max Kellerman exault his clutchiferousness, and heap him with inordinate praise.

His current deal expires next year and I can understand the reasons the Giants have for locking him up. But what other team is willing to make a play for Manning in that financial stratosphere? There are plenty of teams with a need at QB (Lions, Vikings, 49ers, Bears, Bucs, Chiefs, Sehawks, and possibly the Jets and Rams), but what are they going to pay for him? No free agent QB has ever got $100M from a new team.

Since Eli is experienced in the Giants' system and has established himself in New York, maybe he is worth that much to the organization. He's shown steady improvement over his five years in the Meadowlands, with both increasing completion percentages and QB Ratings. Last year's playoff run was one of the most inspiring storylines I've watched unfold in my years as a sports fan. This year, he had 21 TDs to only 10 picks.

But you only really have to pay him more than he is worth to other teams. Right?

It's just an oddly timed decision. Maybe the organization wants to show some solidarity towards the face of the franchise in the aftermath of a tough loss. Is Eli really going to hold out or walk away from the Giants though? He has shown he was capable of exacting some pretty strong leverage with his demand to be traded from the Chargers when he was drafted. I guess he has a pretty damn good agent...

We Will, We Will, Sign You [Clap] Sign You [Clap]

Yesterday on the Max Kellerman Show on 1050 ESPN Radio, they had callers propose an chant for Knicks fans to serenade LeBron James with at the Garden. They settled on the above one, based on Queen's famous arena song.

The night after Kobe dumped 61 (with no rebounds and 3 assists) on the Knicks at the Garden, LeBron topped it by scoring 52 with 11 dishes and 10 boards, the most points in a triple-double since the merger.

A Question For Eric Mangini

Is it "schtill all about the processch"?

Cause this seems like it was about the results. It was interesting to hear Mangini go on and on about "the processch" in his mind numbing press conferences, and his supremely bland radio interviews with Michael Kay. In doing this, he was parroting his mentor Bill Belichick, who is also supremely bland guy to listen to in press conferences. Except there is one difference.

MANGINI'S PROCESS DOESN'T WORK.

When someone is committed to their way of doing things, it initially sounds respectable, and gives you the indication that the person is diligent, and disciplined. But the truth is, this is an extremely arrogant way of managing other people. I can think of another person who has a ton of faith in his "process", and is very inflexible. His name is George W. Bush and if America could have fired him 3/4 of the way through his presidency, I think we probably would have.

Mike Vaccarro gave a great stat on the Max Kellerman show this morning. He said the Jets outscore their opponents in the first, second, and fourth quarters, but are outscored soundly in the third quarter. His theory was that Mangini was failing to make adjustments at the half and the opposing coaches were exploiting that. When you stick to your convictions, you are predictable.

Belichick sticks to the process in terms of preparing for the game, but is possibly the best coach in the league at adjusting to the other teams' gameplan. Tom Coughlin changed his process at an insanely late stage of his career, deferring at times to veteran leaders on the team, and loosening the reigns a bit. I don't need to remind anyone where that took the Giants.

There are plenty of good times to stick to your convictions, be disciplined and adhere to a certain process. It could be a daily routine of exercise and eating. It could be the way that you accomplish a great number of simple tasks at work. Unfortunately for "ManGenius", working in an outrageously competitive business, when your competitors want nothing more than to out-strategize you, is not one of them.

Humpday Podcast Recommendations

I sort of gave up listening to ESPN Radio after the unceremonious conclusion of the Max Kellerman Show and instead have transitioned over to podcasts. They are great for a couple of reasons:

1. You can turn them on whenever you want
2. You can pause them if something comes up
3. The hosts generally aren't pompous asshats (coughColinCowherdcough)
4. They occasionally allow foul language
5. They are free
6. THERE ARE NO COMMERCIALS

Here are three podcasts that have been produced in the last day or so, that you may or may not enjoy. There's really not a whole lot of risk involved, considering all you have to lose is the time you spend listening to them. On the other hand, if you do like them, you've got a free source of entertainment and something to make you temporarily forget how much you hate your job.

Here you go:

• The Bronx View (51 mins): I've linked to these guys before and they are top notch. The production and sound quality is excellent and they represent the rational and even-keeled Yankees fan in all of us. This show features Dan LaTorraca from Pinstripes PA who writes about the Scranton-WB Yanks at the blog linked above.
  
  
• On the DL (47 mins): They transitioned to a daily podcast back in the beginning of March and have a steady stream of great guests. Today, they have Dan Shanoff and Dan Steinberg from The Sporting Blog and D.C. Sports Bog, respectively. I would recommend perusing their archives for the shows with Steve Phillips, Trey Wingo, Tony Kornheiser, Darren Rovell and Annie Duke. If you are wondering how they get all these awesome guests, I don't know either.
  
  
• The BS Report (w/Rick Reilly) (46 mins): It's just like Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer (except not at all). It's pretty congenial and obviously was arranged to quell the rumors in the blogosphere that they hated each other. [Update: More to come on this]
  
  
• Also, The River Ave. Blues Radio Show should be out tomorrow.

By my calculations, taking into account some interruptions, those should get you well into the afternoon.

-----

And just as a totally random aside: Who gets bitchslapped by an umbrella thief?

Justin Tuck For D-Coordinator

I'm only half kidding. Have you ever heard this guy talk about football? He says all the right things, works incredibly hard and is never satisfied. He was also at the Knicks game last night that we are about to do a photo retrospective about, and if we weren't in the 200 level I would have ran on the floor when they interviewed him at halftime and hugged him.

I was watching "Inside The NFL" the week after the Steelers' game and he said the following on the sidelines (the only reason I still have this is because I transcribed it and emailed it in to the Max Kellerman show but they never read it on the air... fuck them):

Before the game:

• "Everybody saying, you know, 5-1, Roethlisberger vs. Eli. You know what? F____ the quarterbacks. That ain't what's gonna win this football game."

And right before right before the drive when they got the safety, he said"

• "I just heard their snapper is out. James Harrison is their back up snapper... Let's make them punt the ball right out huurrr!"

Prescient on both counts!

Your move, Jerry Reese.

That Was Painful

[This column brought to you by the 8% of me that doesn't want to try to punch a hole through a brick wall right now]

Nothing like a home playoff loss against a divisional rival by your favorite team to ruin an otherwise unbelievably awesome weekend.

This is one of those times when you are reminded that loving a sports team can be a steaming pile of baby diapers just like all other aspects of life. It was nice to watch the GMen when they were a red giant with an 11-1 record, mowing down six teams with a winning record in a row. It was not as nice to watch them dwindle into a white dwarf in a game against a team who benched their starting QB during the season and had to hit a hot streak and got fairly lucky just to sneak into the playoffs.

I'm not going to get into the officiating because that's something that fans of losing teams like to cling to, instead of acknowledging that their team wasn't good enough for that not to matter. I'm not going to get into the play calling because Kevin Gilbride knows way fucking more about football than I ever will.

Maybe it was the wind, but Eli Manning was tossing up wounded ducks the likes of which have not been seen in quite some time. The once sanctified offensive line wasn't pancaking would-be tacklers at anywhere near the rate they were when the Giants were universally considered of the best team in, as Mark Schlereth might say, THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Derrick Ward probably gave back some of the money he made himself when he violated the Panthers to the tune of 215 yards on 15 carries.

The playoff flame-out doesn't completely take away from the awesomeness of that Panthers game, the undressing of the Ravens, or the victories IN Arizona and IN Pittsburgh. It's just that now we are left with horrific hypothetical ponderance that is... "What If".

I fucking hate "What If". "What If" sucks a bag of dicks.

Tomorrow is going to be one of the rare days where work will be a welcome break from sports. I don't want to listen to Mike & Mike state the obvious, apply some hindpsychology, and talk about Plaxico Burress. I'm sure Max Kellerman will spin his take around, so he won't be eating any humble pie after proclaiming Eli Manning as the best QB in the NFL. I'd guess what Michael Kay's take is going to be, but trying to predict what such a nimble mind would say is a rabbit hole I don't want to go down.

Maybe when I wake up tomorrow I'll forget that the one team that links me to my childhood and that I truly take pride in (sorry, Yanks), just laid an egg that next Sunday will hatch into the 8-8 Arizona Cardinals, who were 3-7 outside of their historically shitty division, hosting the all-faggy-bird-team-name NFC Championship. I hate the anticlimactic nature of the BCS, but this just goes to show that even a single elimination playoff system isn't going to tie up all the loose ends either. I'm the type of person who will watch the pretty much all of the playoffs in any sport because of the inherent do-or-die drama, but I just might have to take this one off.

In the words of Bob Seger: "No matter what you dream, or feel, or say, it ends in dust and disarray"

Hall Of Fame Triangular Table

If you aren't Hall of Famed out just yet, SportsCenter anchor and former Max Kellerman Show co-host Brain Kenny had Rob Neyer and Joe Sheehan (of Baseball Prospectus) on his radio show to discuss the results of the voting yesterday. They call it a roundtable, but there's only three of them.

It's just a quick 10 minute segment and although all of them are generally grounded in sabermetrics, there isn't any groupthink going on. Although I don't wade too deeply into the HoF discussions, I like the fact that everyone has a slightly different idea of who should be in.

Awww, Don't You Know Who The F___ I am?

Brandon Jacobs isn't going to be happy about this...

The Giants locked Brandon Jacobs up for at least the 2009 season by slapping the dreaded “franchise player” tag on him this afternoon. That decision — only the second time the Giants have ever used the “franchise” tag and the first time since they tagged Jumbo Elliott in 1993 — guarantees Jacobs a salary of $6.621 million next season, which is the average of the top five running back salaries last year. It also gives the Giants the right to match any contract offer Jacobs receives during the free-agent signing period.

Early last season, shortly after having discovered the video below, while watching a Giants game, Sampson and I dubbed Jacobs "The Juggernaut". The Max Kellerman Show later arrived at the same conclusion and still uses some two-second drops (which are only two seconds long because there is a curse word every three seconds) from the video on their show. If you like comic book-based cartoons, ebonics or just pretending Brandon Jacobs did the voiceovers for this video, enjoy the show. . .

Anatomy Of A Basebrawl

Good morning Fackers. Last Friday, Yankee Stadium - with an eye towards its boxing past and eye towards a potential boxing future - hosted a press conference promoting the Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao fight to be held November 14th in Las Vegas.

Then, on the day that we ran a post about boxing analyst and blog favorite Max Kellerman, a fight broke out in the Bronx. But before we get into the specifics of the bottom of the eighth inning, let's step back a bit.

On August 6th, a night in which former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was honored in a bizarre pre-game ceremony, in the opening game of the four game set against the Red Sox, Mark Melancon was on the mound in the eighth inning. The Yankees were ahead 13-4 and Dustin Pedroia was leading off the inning. After getting ahead 0-2, Melancon uncorked a 95 MPH four seam fastball over little Dusty's head. Four pitches later, Melancon pegged Pedroia in the back with another 95 MPH four seamer.

I didn't think it was intentional at the time. Why would the Yankees court trouble in a critical game in which they had a nine run lead? Others, particularly on the Red Sox side of things, weren't so sure. The Girardi Yankees have been far less shy than their predecessors when it comes to pitching inside, protecting their hitters, and the accompanying collateral damage. In the previous eight games against the Red Sox in 2009, the Yanks plunked nine batters, including Jason Bay by Melancon in his Major League debut on April 26th.

Regardless, nothing came of the Melancon incident against the Sox. He was sent down two days later to bring in a fresh arm after the 15 inning game and was recalled when rosters expanded on September 1st. In his first appearance after his recall, he pitched in Toronto on September 4th, where he proceeded to plunk John McDonald with a 93 MPH 1-0 four seamer. In that instance, the Yanks were down 3-0, there were runners on second and third with two outs, and the dangerous Aaron Hill was on deck. I highly doubt Melancon hit the offensively anemic McDonald to face Hill with the bases loaded.

All of this my long winded way of saying that despite excellent control in his minor league career (1.9 BB/9, 6 HBP and 5 WP in 53 AAA IP this year), Melancon has been a bit wild on the big boy mound this year, entering last night's appearance with 3 HBP, 1 WP, and 9 BB in 15 MLB IP. Deserved or not, Melancon may already have earned a reputation around the league as a bit of a head hunter.

Back to last night. Trailing 5-2 in the sixth inning, Sergio Mitre came up and in on Edwin Encarnacion, hitting him with the pitch. Nevermind that it was an 81 MPH changeup, the story will be that Encarnacion homered in his previous at bat and Mitre, getting bombed and with but one batter left to face on the night, exacted his revenge.

Two innings later, Melancon found himself on the mound again. The Yankees trailed 8-2 and there were two outs and no one on when Aaron Hill came to the plate. With his first pitch, Melancon hit Hill square in the back with a 93 MPH fastball. It may well have been intentional. However, it bears mentioning that Melancon had already thrown a wild pitch by that point, would throw another before his night was over, and would have another control challenged pitch ruled a passed ball against Jorge Posada. Immediately following the Hill HBP, Melancon threw five consecutive pitches out of the zone, before a Vernon Wells single ended his evening. On the night, just 13 of his 23 pitches (56.5%) were strikes.

Now none of what transpired in the bottom of the inning could or should be blamed on Joe Girardi. However, it was September 15th. The Yanks had a comfortable lead in all important races, were down seven runs with six outs to go, had a slew of September call-ups sitting on their bench, and had pitched Sergio Mitre, Edwar Ramirez, Melancon, and Mike Dunn on the night. That quartet of pitchers was a sure a sign as any that they weren't going all out to win this one. So why, oh why, were the full compliment of starting position players still in the game when the Yankees' win expectancy was one half of one percent?

Whatever the reason, they were all still in the game when Jorge Posada came to plate in the bottom of the eighth with no one on, one man out, the Yankees trailing by seven, and lefty Jesse Carlson on the mound. With his first pitch, Carlson threw a 90 MPH four seam fastball level with Posada's lower back, but well behind him. Posada took a step or two forward, but moved more laterally, toward the Jays dugout. He could be seen saying "You don't want to do that" a few times. The benches and bullpens needlessly emptied, both benches were warned, etc.

I certainly won't begrudge Carlson for doing what he thought was necessary to protect his teammates. It may not be civilized or pretty, but it does have a place in the game. What I do have an issue with is his throwing behind Posada. Aside from throwing at a batter's head, throwing behind a batter is the worst thing a pitcher can do. It exploits the hitter's tendency to do what he's trained to do on a pitch bearing in on him - turn and bail - and leads him right into the lion's den. Posada would likely have been less angry, and everyone better off, had Carlson just plunked him in the thigh.

Posada eventually drew a walk. That should have been the end of it. In fact, given what had transpired and the fact that Posada is both somewhat of a hot head and as slow a runner as there is on the Yankees' roster, he should have been pulled for a pinch runner. But he wasn't. Instead, he moved to second on Robinson Cano's single, then came around to score on Brett Gardner's double.

That's when things got interesting again. Carlson, who should have been backing up well behind the plate, took his sweet time getting there, taking a circuitous route down the first base line in foul territory, and pausing just before the path Posada took jogging from the plate to the dugout. Whether or not Carlson had any business even being in that spot at that time is up for debate. But Posada seized on the opportunity to foolishly throw an elbow at Carlson on his way by. Posada was immediately ejected. Words were exchanged, benches and bullpens emptied again, and this time we had an honest to goodness fight.



I'm not at all surprised that this happened. I'm not terribly upset that it did happen. But it certainly wasn't necessary. At times, these brawls can help a team come together - the Tino Martinez/Armando Benitez incident in early 1998 for example. This was not one of those times. By all accounts the Yankees have excellent team chemistry. For all intents and purposes these last 17 games serve as nothing more than getting things lined up for the post-season. Meanwhile the Blue Jays have absolutely nothing to play for at this point. The Yankees had everything to lose in this one, and the site of Posada, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Johnny Damon, CC Sabathia, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettitte all being right in the thick of the fray was a something no one associated with the Yankees wanted to see.

Thankfully no one appeared to get injured. As Jay showed in the recap, Carlson wound up with a nice raspberry on his forehead. For the Yanks, Girardi may have taken the worst of it, getting a cut on his left ear and what Michael Kay repeatedly referred to as a "mouse" around his left eye. Kay attributed Girardi's rodent to John McDonald, who replays showed inadvertently caught Girardi in the face during the fracas. Nevermind that the replay, shown repeatedly, clearly showed McDonald hitting Girardi in the right side of his face - don't let the facts get in the way of the story you want to tell, Michael.

Anyway, this one isn't over yet. These two teams play again tomorrow. Thankfully it's their last meeting this year. Though Posada and Carlson were the only players ejected, there should be some suspensions coming out of this. Posada certainly will get - and deserve - one. Home plate umpire Jim Joyce's post-game comments placed the blame squarely on Posada. That Jorge made some contact Joyce in going after Carlson will not help him at all, though it appears that Toronto catcher Rod Barajas may be just as much to blame on that count. Also not helping is the fact that third base umpire and crew chief Derryl Cousins - a 31 year veteran and one of the most respected umpires in the game - was injured as part of the melee and had to leave the game (even if a fan was at fault for his injury).

There's plenty of blame to go around on this one. And once Bob Watson rules on it, there will be plenty of discipline to go around too. Thankfully, no one appeared to be injured and Posada will likely lose some cash and get a few more days of rest than were initially planned for him. Let's just hope we get through tonight's game with less excitement.

Strasburg... "What's The Risk?"

Occassionally, I have to park my car on the streets of Manhattan, which can take a while. Once in a while I turn on sports talk radio if I'm tired of scrolling through my iPod and usually end up regretting the decision almost instantly. Yesterday, I got back to the city around noon and turned on 1050AM just in time to hear Colin Cowherd say the dumbest fucking thing you will ever hear uttered about the MLB draft.

He spends a while defending Boras' $50M request (which even Scott Boras knows is ridiculous like the first numbers he threw around when A-Rod opted out), saying that like "John Elway and LeBron James", Steven Strasburg is a "once-in-a-decade type talent" and he can throw 103MPH (which obviously isn't true). The 'Herd then goes on to explain that the Nationals have nothing to lose since the Yankees drafted Brien Taylor in the 90's and still went on to become the team of the decade.

The grand finale occurs when Cowherd compares paying three times more than any other prospect ever for Strasburg is somehow less risky than taking a QB #1 in the NFL draft. Take a look at past #1 draft picks in the MLB. Now take a look at football's and tell me where there is more risk.

Listen for yourself. It's incomprehensibly stupid. Can we have Max Kellerman back, please?PLEASE?

The Bronx View (Act Now And It's Yours For $0)

Last night I wrote a post ripping ESPN radio for the terrible commercials on their online stream. It made me wonder why I still listen to it at all...

[Infomercial voice]

• Do you find yourself wanting to strangle Colin Cowherd?
• Turned off by Max Kellerman's smarmy assertions?
• Think Cwhis Wusso's a weetawd?
• Not too confident in Mike Francesa's sauces?
• Like the Yankees, but think Michael Kay is a dummy?

We'll then you won't believe what I have in store for you!!1!!1!

[Turns off infomercial voice]


There are good alternatives to ESPN radio (or WFAN) out there, even if they don't stream all day long. The Bronx View podcast gives you about an hour of quality objective Yankee analysis roughly every two weeks during the offseason and once a week or more from April to October. Scott and Ian are two guys who can talk intelligently about all things Yankees without annoying you with the kind of ego it takes to usurp a prime-time sports talk radio slot.

The latest edition includes analysis of what Andy Pettitte means to the rotation, reactions to Joe Torre's new book, projecting the AAA rotation, and a 15 minute segment on Brad Ausmus. (One of those is not true).

The best part?

No commercials!