Good morning!
There was no such beast as sports talk radio in America until Cleveland’s Pete Franklin came along in 1967. Sports was relegated to two minutes on the half hour for a niche audience, the beer drinking crowd. “Franklin was the first to make a street fight out of radio,” wrote the Plain Dealer’s Bob Dolgan, “using a mix of egomania, hokum and cruelty.”
In New England, WBZ’s “Calling All Sports” with Guy Mainella began a couple of years later, and that show begat “The Sports Huddle” with Eddie Andelman.
Chris Russo’s first gig was at a Jacksonville station in 1983 after he graduated from nearby Rollins College. “I got fired and went to Orlando,” said Russo. “I did ‘Stump the Host.’ If you could stump me I’d take you to lunch.”
It took him five years to jump from the 32nd largest radio market to Imus in the Morning in New York. Program director Michael Chernoff gave him his own show and then “They called Mike Francesca and me and said they wanted us to do the afternoon drive. Three years. They gave me $150,000 a year. And the rest as they say…”
Indeed, the rest is history and next month Russo will be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago, together with Yankees analyst Suzyn Waldman and seven others.
Imus liked Russo’s hyped-up, over-caffeinated delivery and nicknamed him Mad Dog. The name stuck and today callers simply address him as Doggie. “What’s going on, Doggie?” asked Scott in Tampa on Tuesday.
“Not well because the Guardians stink,” answered Russo, who’s hated the Yankees since the day Bobby Richardson snagged Willie McCovey’s line drive in the ninth inning to beat his beloved San Francisco Giants.
He parted ways with Francesca in 2008 when SiriusXM offered him a deal worth between $2.5-$3 million a year according to the Daily News. The show’s time slot has never changed, he’s on 3-6 p.m. weekdays with his sidekick Steve Torre.
Russo was born in Syosset on Long Island, attended the Darrow School in upstate New York and was an only child. “Sports was always my friend,” he told Bedford & New Canaan Magazine. “I grew up constantly talking sports to myself; It sounds cocky but God put me on this earth to do what I’m doing.”
Russo turned 64 on Tuesday and lives in New Canaan with his wife of 28 years, Jeanne Lavelle, and their four children.
Upbeat and passionate, he’s Joe Fan with a megaphone. He mispronounces names, uses the wrong words and cackles when he’s amused. He’s the guy or gal next to you at the bar ripping the ref or cursing the cleanup hitter — except he doesn’t swear and that’s uncommon these days.
Basically what Russo does is debrief the fans. Here’s a sampler from the baseball playoffs. He ripped Bob Costas for his Yankees play-by-play on TNT: “We’re not doing a museum tour today. I don’t need photos of DiMaggio and Gehrig.”
“Can we stop with the analytics!” he added. “I don’t care about every line drive that’s 109 miles an hour off the bat. I know when the ball is hit hard! I don’t need it!”
The Cleveland Guardians, said Russo, are champions of the mid-majors. “They are Wichita State. They are Butler. They can’t compete with the big boys.”
As for pitcher Max Scherzer who signed a $130 million contract with the Mets: “Max Scherzer is a mercenary. He’s worn nine million jerseys [and] would go play for a team in Korea if they gave him more money.”
Cards skipper Oliver Marmol “is not John McGraw,” Mets manager Buck Showalter “wasn’t exactly Miller Huggins over the weekend” and Cleveland outfielder Josh Naylor earned a special dose of vitriol for claiming to be the Yankees’ daddy: “You got this dope running the bases rocking a baby? This is a playoff game! C’mon son, really? This is not a game in July against the Oakland Athletics.”
After his induction was announced, Russo said he’d be out of bed at 4 a.m. to buy every newspaper in town. “Let’s get on with the show! This is a Hall of Famer you’re talking to!”
****
The UMass hockey team put a crimp in Denver’s plan to be the first D-1 team to reach 10 wins this season. The Minutemen swept the defending champs last weekend in front of a combined 14,103 fans at the Mullins Center. In so doing they moved from 13th to sixth in the national polls while Denver dropped from first to fourth.
Kudos to the event staff for creating a better fan experience. Gone are the days when Sunderland’s Don Spearance had his nail clippers confiscated by security. A hot dog, chips and soda cost 10 bucks, the pep band entertained the crowd and line sheets were on a table next to the chuck-a-pucks. “Oh my God they have these?” said a woman who grabbed one off the stack.
“New this year,” said a staffer.
“Nice!” she said.
Deerfield native Matt Lindsay was at the game. Lindsay coached last season at UMass but decided to take a break after stints at Princeton, Robert Morris and a decade at Penn State. “It’s nice watching hockey without having to stress out before or after the game,” said Lindsay, who’s living in Amherst with his wife C.C., daughter Josephine and their two golden retrievers Gordie and Hobbes.
****
In August the Calgary Sun reported that Cale Makar joined his Colorado Avalanche teammate Logan O’Connor for a ride on the Bow River with the Stanley Cup. A Calgary native, Makar took the Cup to Alberta Children’s Hospital and spent almost three hours posing for photos and signing autographs at Crowchild Twin Arena where he played youth hockey. “I’m glad he stayed humble,” one parent told the Sun.
****
Bogey Man: Golf pro Kevin Kennedy is scheduled to go to trial in March for embezzling hundreds of thousands from the Franconia Golf Club. The city-owned course is ranked one of the best public courses in the state. Kennedy’s accused of using the money to build a house on Cape Cod.
Dream big as they say, but beware: “When the feds come after you, they’ve built a pretty strong case,” said Springfield City Councilor Justin Hurst to New England Public Media.
****
SQUIBBERS: Sour grapes on the Denver blogsite letsgodu.com included a shot at “East Coast officiating bias” and a reference to “Soviet era campus architecture.” …. Locals in the UMass hockey crowd included Bill Wardwell, Bill Luippold, Steve Lovett, and Denver alum Robbie Cohn and his wife Mary who were back from a grand tour of Croatia and the Dalmatia coast. … According to spotrac.com, the Yankees have the third highest payroll this year ($265 million), followed by the Phils ($255 million), Padres ($237 million) and Astros ($193 million) who were fourth, fifth and ninth respectively. … Something’s wrong when two teams combine for one run in 18 innings like last week’s Astros-Mariners game. Outlawing the shift next year will help get more hits through the infield. … Mookie Betts was 2-for-14 against San Diego. … Red Sox attendance was off almost 300,000 from before the pandemic in 2019. … Just as well Cleveland lost to the Yankees. They would’ve been no match against the grizzled Astros, nor are the Yankees without D.J. LeMahieu and Andrew Benintendi. … SI picks the Warriors over the Bucks for the NBA title. Yawn. … Sitting in for Dan Patrick on Monday, Ross Tucker said that Robert Kraft’s wedding during high school football season wouldn’t have gone over well in the town where he grew up. “If you tried to schedule a wedding on a Friday night in central Pennsylvania, you’d get punched in the face.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com