Pope a big FAN of FrancesaCon

IF THE STANDING room-only crowd at Saloon NYC and the over $1,500 raised for charity wasn’t evidence enough that FrancesaCon was an enormous hit, the blessing from the Sports Pope himself last week was further confirmation of a job well done.

When Mike Francesa took time out of his Sunday NFL show on WFAN — on Super Bowl Sunday, no less — to talk about FrancesaCon and say he’d be willing to attend next year’s event, organizers Ron Haraka and Michael Leboff were listening.

While they’d like to make FrancesaCon a Super Bowl Saturday tradition, the pair is open to shifting the date to accommodate New York’s Numbah One.

“We are going to try to work with him on a date and location that works best for him,” Leboff told The Score.

Both Leboff and Haraka, who run Handsome Wolf Creative, said they haven’t heard one negative word from Mongo Nation about the event.

“I was walking through Saloon and a guy stopped me and gave me a big hug and said, ‘I’ve never had more fun in my entire life. Thanks,’” Leboff said.

Maybe next year, they’ll be hugging Francesa himself. That is if the Pope can move heaven and earth.

SUPER TROUBLE

Americans apparently prefer that their children brave packs of stray dogs, tainted drinking water and unheated hotel rooms than traumatic brain injuries.

Most Americans say they would rather have their sons participate in the Olympic Games instead of the Super Bowl, according to a recent Seton Hall Sports Poll.

Fifty-three percent of the respondents to the poll conducted from Feb. 4-6 said they would prefer to see their boys — if they had sons — compete for Olympic gold, while 33% said they would rather have their kids play in the NFL’s championship game.

“This certainly feels like a referendum on the much-discussed football concussion issue,” says Rick Gentile, the director of the poll, which is sponsored by The Sharkey Institute.

The poll also showed that 77% of Americans intend to watch the Winter Games in Sochi; an overwhelming number (91%) said they would watch the Olympics on good-old fashioned television. Five percent said they would watch the Games online and 2% said they would watch with mobile devices.

MAS HYSTERIA AT YES

Hey, Yankee fans, want a sneak peek at your latest big-dollar free agent? On Monday, YES will broadcast Masa

hiro Tanaka’s June 9, 2013 Nippon Professional League outing against the Yomiuri Giants.

Tanaka started the game for the Rakuten Golden Eagles and threw seven shutout innings for his eighth win of the season. The Yankees’ $155 million man went a mind-blowing 24-0 last season.

“His fastball looks like it has a little more movement than I heard it did,” says YES analyst John Flaherty. “It sinks a bit on right-handed hitters; not enough to call it a sinker, but enough that the hitter will pay attention. He threw a lot of sliders-cutters in this game. It looks like he has a lot of confidence in it and he threw it for strikes when he was behind in the count. That tells me that this is his off-speed pitch that a catcher can call anytime and have confidence that it will be a strike.”

Here’s Al Leiter’s view: “I really like his mound presence and disposition. He pitches with a fire in his belly and is emotionally involved. “I think Tanaka can be a front-end starter once he gets acclimated to the routine of American baseball,” Leiter adds.

HAVE A BOWL

The Brooklyn Nets, who may have had some difficulty knocking down jumpers in their 111-95 loss at Detroit Friday night (they were just 36% from the field), hope to have better luck knocking down some pins next month when they host Basketbowl, the team’s annual fundraising event, at Lucky Strike on West 42nd Street. On March 29 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., the entire Nets team will be in attendance for the event, along with several Brooklynettes, including Liz (below), who was selected to represent the dancers at the upcoming NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans as part of the 2014 All-Star Dance Team. Basketbowl guests can purchase bowling packages and general admission tickets to support the Nets Foundation, the non-profit, philanthropic arm of the Nets. The Nets Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the metropolitan area by supporting programs and initiatives that focus on youth, education, and strengthening communities. For more information go to brooklynnets. com.