RIVETING PAPAL ADDRESS
Coronavirus talk is bringing out the best in the Sports Pope
The common reaction following Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa’s Rage Cage rants criticizing local, state and federal suits on their handling of the coronavirus pandemic had the veteran Gasbag turning on President Trump, who he has favored in the past.
Yet his Holiness’ soliloquies provide evidence that multiple politicians are on his hook, including Trump, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio. That’s not surprising, coming from someone who has made a living second guessing coaches, players and front office executives.
Not surprising for someone who has, for over three decades, portrayed himself as a man with all the answers. Sure wish he had one for the mess we are all in now!
Not even the Pope is arrogant enough to say he has a solution to this life-and-death crisis. Instead, Francesa sometimes sounds like he’s criticizing a team on the wrong end of a lopsided loss.
“We sat back and watched this [virus] beat our brains in,” Francesa said, on the air, Thursday.
Kind of sounds like: “We sat back and let their edge rushers beat the hell out of our quarterback.”
By no means is Francesa trivializing this crisis. He has devoted most of his daily minutes to talking about the coronavirus, and not just how it impacts the world of sports. He has covered the health issue, its economic impact, and how the pandemic could lead to social unrest.
“Talking about sports seems frivolous,” Francesa solemnly said Wednesday on Radio.com.
Considering his tone and attitude since he left FAN’s afternoon drive spot for his Radio.com show, Francesa was not exactly fired up to talk sports. He was detached. Francesa treated sports talk like a tedious chore. If anything, discussing the coronavirus pandemic has restored much of his passion. His emotions volley between anger, sadness and anxiety.
“It’s reached a point now where our leaders are trying to placate us,” Francesa said Wednesday. “We just sit and wait and watch the numbers [of people dying] go up every day.”
Francesa is a longshot to ever win a Mr. Sincerity award, but his coronavirus commentaries are often riveting. This is the most high-energy work Francesa has produced in quite a while.
Pretty good for a Gasbag whose career was supposed to be winding down.
A TOAST TO THE MINKMAN
When it came to UpDorks (aka sportstalk update yakkers), John Minko was the king.
Known as The MinkMan, Minko walked into Astoria’s WFAN bunker when the joint opened in the summer of 1987 and stayed until Friday, when he took a buyout and split into the great wide open.
In an environment filled with ego maniacs and wan is nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate venabees looking for the big break, Minko was the ultimate straight man, the loveable nebish. MinkMan had a vanilla, self-deprecating sense of humor. He could be counted on to provide a laugh track for a host’s bad joke.
Minko rolled with the punches — and barbs — making the Gasbags he worked with better.
He didn’t just deliver updates; he was available when a host wanted to take a shot at him. Minko always played right along. Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa and Chris (Mad
Dog) Russo, who he worked with throughout their years together, jumped ugly with him. Minko never buckled. He simply engaged in the banter and kept on working.
John Minko accomplished the near impossible. With minimum airtime he created a distinct personality. One that was an integral part of WFAN’s sound that won’t be forgotten.
THE JORDAN RULES
Here’s something they won’t be discussing on any of ESPN’s opinion programming.
Instead of running an advertisement, or highlighting it on program listings, ESPN decided to treat the upcoming Michael Jordan 10-part documentary as hard news. On a recent edition of ESPN Radio’s “Freddie & Fitzsimmons” show, the announcement of the debut of the documentary was made during a sports news update.
In ESPN’s world of hype-obabble, this might be legitimate news, but to the company only. No one listening, who heard stories about how the coronavirus had led to the cancelation of Wimbledon, was expecting to hear the Jordan documentary hype treated as a straight news story.
It would have been different if someone found some news inside the Jordan piece to report, but this was straight propaganda — no news.
AROUND THE DIAL
Here’s a fix for those missing Yankees’ baseball. Buy a copy of “The Big 50: New York Yankees (Triumph Books)” by my former Daily News colleague, and veteran baseball scribe (he’s really a sports section’s Swiss Army knife), Peter Botte. Readers will get a look at the stories of the Yanks — on and off the field — through an accomplished veteran reporter’s eyes. Babe, Mickey, Yogi and many other greats are there. My favorites are the chapters on the all-time Yankee announcers and Dave Righetti’s no-hitter, which I attended. Through his words and interviews, Botte brought that thrilling moment back to life. There’s pinstriped gold in this book. … As we said last week in this space: “Don’t be surprised if they [Entercom] start cutting the salaries of your favorite [WFAN] Gasbags.” Well it happened, with FAN’s contract players all getting a haircut. Now, don’t be surprised if these trimmings last quite a while. The biz is THAT bad.