SKIP TO IT!
Bayless leaves ESPN on full blast
Sometime this fall, Skip Bayless will enter talking, offering filiblusters and such, on a new Fox Sports 1 gabfest. It would be an exercise in futility predicting how many eyeballs he will attract. Yet it’s not a reach to suggest many of those tuning in will be Bayless’ former classmates at Bristol Clown Community College.
These ESPN mouths are obsessed with Bayless. Concrete evidence of this was offered when he finally parted ways with his Brother Blabbermouth, Stephen A. Smith, and left “First Take” for keeps after the Cavs won the NBA title.
Bayless was torched on Twitter, and other media precincts, by his now former colleagues who — get this — were actually outraged over him — once again — trashing LeBron James, despite the King’s memorable performance against Golden State. Scott Van Pelt, Danny Kanell, Mark Schlereth, Keith Law and other ESPN performers took Bayless to task.
Their righteous indignation (even former ESPN mouth Rich Eisen stuck his beak in) was totally misplaced. Seems to me Bayless was following the mission statement of a high profile Gasbag: Whatever you say never marginalize, make sure it gets a reaction. A simple philosophy, but one Bayless has always adhered too. And if the reports are true, the Foxies are so impressed with Bayless’ Reaction Ratio, they are throwing thoroughly stupid money — millions of dollars — at him.
Instead of trashing Bayless, his former “teammates” should have saluted him.
No one, including his ESPN critics, should have been surprised to hear Bayless verbally kick LeBron in the ass on the way out the door. When it comes to James, Bayless can’t help himself. He can never deliver enough diss. What kind of reaction would Bayless have received if he kissed it rather then kicked it?
Bayless did his now former employer a big favor. On his final day on the job, he didn’t reminisce,sce, shedding tears with Smith while le “The Way We Were” played in the background. He didn’t mail it in. n. Bayless went out stirring things up by continuing his tradition of sticking ng it to James, no matter how the Kinging perfforms. performs.
If his detractors ors at ESPN had problems with Bayless’ayless’ take on James, or any other subjectect for that matter, why did they wait until ntil he was out the door to lower thee boom? Perhaps they feared d the Faculty would ban them from the cafeafeteria. On ESPN Radio Ryen Russillo o claimed “you’re e not allowed” to “disag ree w it h Skip” because he “gets mad at you about it.”
Was Bayless that i nsa ne? Was his wrath t hat i nten se itt actually prevent- ed his colleagues s from taking is- sue with him? Was as this a lack of onions ons thing? Were they hey scared of this brute? te?
W hatever. In n his ESPN end, despitespite how his colleagues gues characterized him, Skip Bayless went out in style.
Pissing everyone off.
SORRY SPORTS POPE
Was Terry Collins actually following Mike ( Sports Pope) Francesa’s blueprint when he called out Jay Horwitz, snidely referring to him as a “puppy dog” after the Mets PR boss urged the manager to share injury info about Noah Syndergaard at the end of a press conference in Atlanta? Not according to the Pope. “Why would you then embarrass a PR guy — and Jay H Horwitz ... who has been there 40 years,” His Holiness said d during a recent WFAN convers conversation with his Cabana Boy, MikeM From Montclair. “Why w would you treat him like that?” The same could be asked about Francesa. He must have forgotten (or actua actually enjoys playing the role of hypocrite)h about his long histo history of publicly bullying and berating colco leag ues whilewh embarrassingba them.th Guys whow could notn verbally fire back, likeli former producersp Bob Gelb, E dd ie E ricksonic and ( Sugar)S Ray Martel.Ma Anyone remember Francesa’s dumpingdum on Jim t he Eng ineer duringdu a remote b broadcast? The list goesg on. A nd unlike Collins,Collins Francesa neverneve publicly apologizedapologi for the outbursts.
NOT A-STAR
All the speculation concerning Alex Rodriguez’s future with the Yankees will not accelerate his transition to television.
Fox Sports suits have no plans to use ARod on their July 12 All-Star Game pregame show in San Diego. Nor, industry sources said, did Rodriguez reach out to be a part of the telecast. That said, the Foxies, impressed with Rodriguez’s postseason performance, have not ruled out using him again in the Fall if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs.
So, A-Rod can watch the All-Star pregame on Fox and take notes on the performances of the cast, which will include Kevin Burkhardt, Pete Rose, Frank Thomas and Tom Verducci.
BREATHE OF ZEILE
A temporary breeze of change hits the Mets SNY studio Tuesday.
Todd Zeile, who played with 11 different teams during his major league career (including two stints with the Mets) will be working both the upcoming Marlins and Nationals series’ filling in for Nelson Figueroa.
Figueroa will be in Taiwan, where he pitched in 2007 for the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Figgie will be working as part of a partnership between the Mets and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Zeile has always leaned toward the outspoken side. His studio appearances could be very interesting.
SMELLING LIKE A ...
There was a troubling omen, very troubling, that presented itself Thursday night on, of all places, your ultimate home of Knicks propaganda — the MSGulag Network. The show, “Knicks Night,” featuring Al ( Wiggie) Trautwig, Wally Szczerbiak and Alan Hahn was running on the straight and narrow.
Then a feature on Derrick Rose, and his well documented past of season ending operations, aired.
When the Rose segment ended, Trautwig proudly alerted the unwashed masses that it was sponsored by “the Hospital For Special Surgery.”