And the Nominees Are...

It's no secret that the Oscars is only watched by women and homosexual men.

For the sake of our readership, we have decided to break down the Best Picture nominees for the average sports fan in terms they can relate to.

Mad Dog Millionaire

Synopsis: The story of the life of an preppy tennis fan with a speech impediment who becomes host of a millionaire drive-time radio sports talk show in the world's largest market, and is then suspected of foul play since everyone agrees he knows little about his daily subject matter.

Milk

Synopsis: The story of the NBA's first openly gay player, John "Milk" Amaechi.

Trot/Nixon

Synopsis: A dramatic retelling of the investigation of how a player to go from World Series hero to bouncing around looking for a minor league deal.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Wallace

Synopsis: Life isn't measured in points, but in rebounds.

The Reader

Synopsis: After his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, a ballplayer Alex Rodriguez re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a custody trial.

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'Mad Dog' Russo joins Sirius Radio

Well, that didn't take very long Mikey...not long at all...

Probably the worst kept secret in sports radio.

NEW YORK, Aug 19, 2008 -SIRIUS XM Radio announced today that it has signed renowned sports talk personality Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, the former star of the Mike and the Mad Dog show, to a five-year contract to headline a new sports talk channel exclusively available on SIRIUS and XM.

SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144 will relaunch as Mad Dog Radio, a reformatted channel that will cover the spectrum of sports with engaging talk, high profile interviews, up-to-the-moment news and live remote broadcasts from the biggest sporting events.

24-hours of Chris Russo? Know I know really will know how Mrs. Russo feels.

You knew he had something cooking if he left the #1 sports radio show in New York, and it was bigger than the MSNBC Mad Dog Minute. As a subscriber of Sirius, I'll give it a listen the day he starts. Whether this will sell any more subscriptions is doubtful.

Mad Dog Addresses Newsday Breakup Rumors

Quote courtesy of user softmacho82 at mikefrancesa.com:

Quote:

All right, let me get this out of the way, quickly, because if we’re going to dwell on this for the next 5½ hours, we can’t do that. Not enough people care. It’s not that important. In the middle of making sure a 2-year-old doesn’t walk into the deep end of the New Canaan Field Club pool and trying to make sure [my son] ate his chicken nuggets and [my daughter] had her grilled cheese, and I try to lament me losing a tennis match 3-3 in the third set, missing overhead after overhead against [my opponent], Neil Best gives me a call on Saturday night, quarter to six.

First thing he tells me, "I hear the show is breaking up, can you comment?" It was the first I’ve ever heard of that, and Neil, who I like, nice guy, although he did trash my book, which drives me nuts, the "Mad Dog Hall of Fame" book, killed it, killed it, after he didn’t praise the first one. Killed it. But that’s neither here nor there.

I said, "Neil, that’s news to me," and I basically gave Neil Best of Newsday the quote that you’ve read and it still sticks, and that’s the basis of these four or five minutes here, and that’s the fact that I have a contract here at WFAN that runs for an extended period of time. It’s not up on July 2. It’s not up on Labor Day. And it’s not up on my birthday, it’s not up Christmas time, it’s not up at the Super Bowl. It’s not even up at the Final Four.

So this idea that somehow our program that we’ve had fun having done it for 19, 20 years, is on the verge of being dismantled caught me totally by surprise, totally by surprise. Now obviously when you are in this position you have negotiations that have to take place for both sides, Mike included, and sometimes there’s always a hiccup along the way, so people start to think, oh, boy, Chris isn’t rushing to do this or Mike’s not rushing to do that, and then everybody jumps to conclusions, looking to find issues between the two of us as the trigger point of why the show no longer will be the case.

And in this case that trigger point happens to be the quote unquote deteriorating relationship that supposedly Mike and I have been undergoing here for the better part of three or four months, which is not entirely accurate, and let me set the record straight on that. From Easter through May 9, Friday, Molly Russo’s birthday, Easter, right around that period, to May 9, Mike and I were having a lot of issues. If you’re a listener, I don’t have to tell you. Whether it’s Yankee Stadium, good or bad, whether it was David Ortiz-Manny Ramirez, whether it was Don Nelson Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, Shaq with Phoenix, Yunel Escobar with the Braves, you name it, we were fighting like cats and dogs.

Hey, our show, I have to take a good part of that responsibility. We were fighting like cats and dogs. The tolerance level of each other, Mike to me, me to Mike, was low. When that tolerance level is low like it is with your wife or your kids, you’re going to have some issues. So from that period to May 9, issues. After I took Sal LaCotta to Lake Compounce on that Sunday, Mother’s Day, with four little kids, Mark Chernoff, our program director calls me up and says, "Listen, can we talk tomorrow? Let’s get this straightened out."

After some initial balking by yours truly, I said, you know what, absolutely. We came down the next day, Mark brought us into his office, Mike and I. I apologized for acting like an idiot at times, Mike did the same thing. Next thing you know we’re back on the same page. So, although we had the occasional skirmish since, I can think of that show at the Belmont with the Manny Ramirez-Youkilis fight, and all those kinds of things, although we’ve had the occasional skirmishes – Spurs, we had a lot of fights on the Spurs – although we had occasional skirmishes, from May 11 or 12 to last Wednesday, I don’t think there was really any problem.

Now was it as good as it may have been in the heyday as far as relationships are concerned? No, because we were killing each other for six weeks. It’s going to take a little while to get back to the same page. So that’s No. 1. Deteriorating relationship? I don’t feel that. Maybe before May 12 I did, but I certainly didn’t feel that from May 12 on. So this theory that, ah, now I know why! They’re leaving! They hate each other! I don’t buy that. Nineteen, 20 years, you’re going to have your issues occasionally. You have to get through those issues.

Now listen, I mean, does that mean Mike’s going to sign a 20-year contract extension with WFAN? Probably not. Does that mean that Christopher Russo is going to sign a 20-year contract extension with WFAN? Probably not. Do I want to work 20 more years doing this? Probably not, probably not. But does that mean that last Wednesday was our last ever show together? That’s a little strong. That’s a little strong. That’s taking a big leap.

And, you know, Neil Best thinks he has something and he’s a good reporter and I like Neil. Again, I would never talk to him about anything like this because for whatever the reason, this is a guy who killed my book. That’s sensitive to authors, and don’t forget, I’m John Grisham. That’s sensitive.

I’ve talked to him about it, but I don’t forget that. He went out of his way to bury that book, same day I was on the Today show. C’mon. But listen, Neil thinks he has something, so he’s going to track me down in the middle of a weekend and he’s going to track Mike down in the middle of a weekend and he’s going to write something. But unless WFAN is going to pull the plug on yours truly, and that’s their right, you are renting their equipment, I don’t see how in the world this show is up by July 10. What’s the date I’m hearing now? July 11 or 12? I don’t see where that’s coming from.

Again, we are under contract. WFAN and Mike and Chris are not stupid. WFAN needs us. You know, everyone is replaceable. We’ve learned that. But they’d like to have us on. We have been doing it for 19, 20 years, and I’m not stupid. This is a great job. I need FAN. Again, that doesn’t mean tomorrow or the next day or whenever that I’m going to put my signature or Mike on a 20-year contract extension. You play it out and see what happens. But I have been here for 20 years. Twenty years. I’ve signed a million contracts with the radio station and I’ve never had an issue of walking out before one was completed.

And this one has a long way to go on it. OK. Can I get my parking spot back now, please? Can I get that back? And Neil is in a tough spot now because Neil is trying to come up with something and he’s put himself out there and I don’t know what he’s going to come up with exactly. He can write all the stories he wants, he can call me 30,000 times. And again, I like him. Good man. Good worker. Works hard. But I don’t know what he’s got exactly. What? That Mike and I are splitting up. Says who? Tell FAN that.

Contracts. Contracts. Contracts. You abide by contracts. Mine’s got a long, long way to go, not to mention that quote unquote non-compete clause following it. You’re never going to get rid of me here. OK, we get that out of the way.

The Doggy pees anywhere he wants

It's obvious the staff of HHR are huge Mike and the Mad Dog fans. We like them a lot. 

A lot. 

I won't say we like them because of their opinions, more for their back and forth banter, Russo screaming like a lunatic at the drop of a flash (with Minko) and Mike 'ugggghhhs' 'ummmmmsss' and 'uuuuuuuuuu' when pondering any question or recalling nuggets of useless information from the past. 

A lot

In the eight plus years I have been listening, today's conversation has to rank in the top five funniest arguments of the show's history. The discussion was the new Yankee Stadium. Mike arguing it's well past due, the Dog saying 'the current stadium is fine and doesn't need any type of change.' Now, right there, I realize the Dog is in one of his 'let's fire up the Yankee fans' moods, because anyone who has stepped foot in Babe's house in the past decade knows the place is a dump. Field gorgeous, everything else looks like the NY/NJ Port Authority. 

 The argument soon turned to the bathroom situation in some of today's most popular ballparks.  Apparently both Mike and the Dog go pee. A lot.  

Are they still talking about bathrooms, or just GOING to the bathroom. These are older gentlemen, so the need to urinate comes more frequently and with greater urgency.

Like the commercial says, it seems Mike and the Dogs' going problem, is a growing problem.

Mike and Doggy Take Shot at Boomer & Carton

It sounds like WFAN's afternoon blowhards are implying that their morning drive counterparts aren't a "pimple on their fanny."

Here's the gist: Someone called in to Fat Mike and Chris regarding Clark Kellogg's refusal to interview the day after brackets are announced. Boomer & Carton had attempted to get him on the air at that time, and CBS refused. When CBS then offered Kellogg the following day, the morning guys refused him in a form of turn around being fair play.

Mike and Fat Chris, being Mike and Fat Chris, implied that Carton and Boomer (who works CBS television with Kellogg), basically were a couple of ham and eggers.

Mr. Tennis & Mr. Diet Coke jabbed that the Carton and Boomer had only been on "the air for 13 minutes." And probably don't know who Clark Kellogg is. Needless to say the morning guys had a nice little laugh about this.

Mad Dog "Shaken" by Billy Crystal Stunt

Fat Mike and Chris spent an eternity arguing the Yankees' Billy Crystal stunt. While Mike essentially shrugged it off, Chris was vocally peeved by the whole thing. While people tried to argue that Russo would have no qualms getting on the court with Federer, and Willard pointed out he would likely jump at the chance to suit up for his beloved SF Giants, Chris was in full denial mode.

Let's just say the whole idea is "shaky" at best. Listen to the Doggy yelp.

Pags Plays Homer, Falsely Credits Yankee Kindness towards Children

Image: twinscards.com

We've teased Pags before for his Joe Morgan-esq aversion to the Moneyball philosophy. but, he is reasonably interested and for a group of guys growing up in the Yankees media market during his playing days, we take interest in the where-are-they-now aspect of the players we grew up watching the Scooter hoot and holla about.

As such, we check out his Dugout Central website to see what sort of knowledge he cares to drop on the world.

Apparently, we aren't the only ones who check it out as evidenced by his mailbag feature.

This weekend, Sam G asked:

Which spring training parks are best/worst for fans who want autographs?

Pags: In Fort Myers, FL at City of Palms park, home of the Red Sox, fans are very close to the field. Seats along the 3B line provide access to players walking to and from the dugout. One of the most difficult places to get autographs is in Tampa at Legends Field. There is a lot of security, so it’s tough to get close to the players. However, the Yankees players accommodate fans often by signing a ton.

This stuck out to me because last week on Fat Mike and Chris' radio show, a caller bitched about how unaccommodating Yankee players were.

Note the last two sentences in Pags' response as you listen to the audio below.

1. "There is a lot of security, so it’s tough to get close to the players."

Then listen as the caller talks of how accessible Phillies players were.

2. "However, the Yankees players accommodate fans often by signing a ton."

Maybe Pags meant "none" rather than "a ton."

I don't often agree with Mike and the Doggy, but they actually put into perspective the point about not caring whether people make money off a guy who's making millions of dollars' autograph. Not like their livelihood depends on it.

Looks like Pags is trying to stay in favor of his old team. Or he just lies to his readers.