SOX BEAT WRITER CUTS THE STATIC
Herald’s Drellich bats back at ’EEI duo
“The craziest 40 minutes in K& C history,” WEEI cohost Gerry Callahan tweeted out following a rollicking segment with Herald Red Sox writer Evan Drellich on his “Kirk and Callahan” show yesterday.
The loud, bombastic steel cage match that typifies sports talk radio collided with the deliberative world of newspaper sportswriting in the person of Drellich, who joined Callahan and cohost Kirk Minihane at Red Sox camp in Fort Myers, Fla.
The invitation was sparked by a tweet from Drellich mocking the two for what he thought was their softball interview of Red Sox manager John Farrell the previous morning.
It didn’t take long for Drellich to get under his hosts’ skins again yesterday.
“I just wanted to be treated like John Farrell, right,” he jibed, “ya know, you guys are the real inquisitors, you go after him real tough and hard.”
Soon the three were talking over one another in an endless game of one-up-manship.
Minihane, at one point, asked Drellich to name the worst Red Sox beat writer.
“What the hell does that have to do with you being critical of me?” Drellich said.
“I’ll tell you,” Minihane retorted. “I’ll call people out. People on my station, people on other stations.”
Minihane has famously feuded on-air with other ’EEI personalities like Glenn Ordway and Christian Fauria. He’s also called out their morning drive rivals, Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb of 98.5 The Sports Hub. Those encounters make for great, entertaining radio because they’re all about conflict. Baseball writing is about credibility in covering a team. The last thing a smart beat writer wants to do is to get pulled into a manufactured beef just to spike someone else’s ratings.
“Why have you guys made this a reality show?” Drellich asked. “‘Oh, I don’t like the midday host. Oh, I don’t like this producer. I don’t like that producer.’ Who cares?”
“Say it slowly,” Callahan responded. “Ratings, ratings.”
“This is self-important,” Drellich shot back.
Minihane chimed in, “We enjoy it. It’s fun.” “Whatever,” said Drellich. Despite the testy exchanges — or rather because of them — the segment was great radio and drew mostly rave reviews on Twitter, among them, “In about 45 minutes or so, @kirkmin and @GerryCallahan had the best radio in Boston that I’ve heard in years, going at it w/ @EvanDrellich” @FFRadioHelk. Of course, not everyone was amused by the show. @TimGriffin02061 tweeted, “was terrible radio. like seven year olds yelling at each on the playground.”
Spring training games haven’t even started but give Drellich credit for stepping into the batter’s box and facing high, hard chin music from the Bob Gibsons of Hub sports talk radio. Drellich never wavered. In the end, even Callahan acknowledged that a star was born and he’d love to invite Drellich to step up to the plate again. Can’t wait.