Islanders Talk

Where else are you going to hear Islanders Talk over the New York airwaves but on Sports Talk, right?

The other night, the only newspaper reporter covering the Isles on a a day-in, day-out basis--namely, Newsday's Greg Logan, joined us live

The audio is up at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

Special Thanks to Dan Graziano for Joining Us on Tuesday Night

Just want to extend a big "Thank You" to Dan Graziano, the National Baseball Columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger for joining us the other night.

Dan is also the President of the New York Chapter of the BBWAA. And, not only that, he has authored 2 novels.

Giants Talk and Eli Talk

Ralph Vacchiano joined us last night to talk Giants with us. But, perhaps more importantly, as he's a very good friend of the show, we're more than happy to mention that he's got a brand new book out called The Making of a Quarterback about Eli Manning. It features a foreword by Ernie Accorsi.

Our interview with Ralph went for 50+ commercial-free minutes of nothing but Giants talk and can be found at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

And, for those in the listening area, Ralph will be doing a book signing at the Book Revue in Huntington on Wednesday September 24th at 7PM.

Neil Best Joins Us Tonight at 10PM

Neil Best, Newsday's Media Watchdog Extraordinaire, joins us tonight to talk all things Sports Media. But, first, we'd like to award him a Victory Lap for breaking--and then sticking with--the Mike & The Mad Dog divorce story.

We'll also delve into Newsday now being owned by Cablevision, the NFL Network, the Olympics and a ton of other relevant topics.

Of course, now that our new co-host is named Mike, we can safely say that we're the only Mike & Chris still working as a team in New York Sports Radio--albeit in a completely commercial-free, no one making a dime from it capacity, that is.

Thanks to All of Our August Guests

Before we get too deep into September, I just want to publicly thank the following for joining us during the month of August:

Bob Nightengale, National Baseball Writer for USA Today
Kat O'Brien, Yankees Beat Reporter for Newsday
Will Carroll of The Baseball Prospectus
Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog
Matt Cerrone of Mets Blog

Jets Season Preview with Erik Boland Tonight

Tonight at 9PM on Long Island's 90.3FM, Newsday's Jets beat reporter Erik Boland will be speaking with new co-host Mike Ewald.

Erik was kind enough to join us for both a Jets Draft Preview and a Jets Draft Review in the Spring. Tonight, he joins us for a Jets Season Preview.

While we're not yet webcast, we'll get the audio up at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg
as soon as humanly possible.

Jet Favre and Mets Talk

Hey, did you hear that Brett Favre is a Jet?!?!?!?! :)

Join us tonight--and each and every Tuesday and Thursday night from 9PM to 11PM on Long Island's 90.3FM--for 2 commercial-free hours of Sports Talk.

Tonight's Live Guests
9:10PM Adam Rubin, METS beat reporter from the New York Daily News

10:00PM Brian Bassett, proprietor of The Jets Blog (http://www.thejetsblog.com/) and SNY contributor

We'll be giving out the call-in number during the show. Call in and give your thoughts on
--Jet Favre
--Joba's injury
--Heilman as a closer?
etc., etc.

If you miss any of the interviews, catch them at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

Thanks, and please tell some friends about us!

More Baseball (and Football) Talk Tonight

Join us tonight from 9PM to 11PM on Long Island's 90.3FM, as we'll be joined live by:

9:05PM Matt Cerrone from MetsBlog.com and SNY. Matt created the very, very popular Mets Blog and its assorted sister (brother?) Blogs. Check them out!

10:00PM Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus. It's a book, it's a website, it's more than just baseball. Will has also written 2 books: The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems and Saving the Pitcher.

While we're not yet webcast, we'll get the interviews up on our Audio site as soon as humanly possible.

Musing on a Deadline Afternoon, Tonight!

In order to further break down the Non-Waiver Deadline Deals, we'll be joined live tonight by David Pinto at 9:30PM tonight on Long Island's 90.3FM.

David runs the consistently excellent Baseball Musings website, and is also a regular contributor to The Sporting News.

While we're not yet webcast, we will have the audio of the interview (for all of David's fans from his site) up on Our Audio Site, immediately after the show.

We'll Be Posting More, We Promise

While we haven't posted here lately, that will be changing soon. Throughout July, we've been joined live by the likes of Ken Davidoff, Mike Vaccaro, Alan Hahn, Anthony Rieber and Mark Healey.

Pretty soon, we'll create a site for just the interviews, too.

Thanks!

Baseball Talk + Knicks Talk = Tonight's Show

Because baseball's regular season is now halfway done, now would be a good time to bring on Newsday's national baseball writer Ken Davidoff--and to update this website, while I'm at it.

Ken will join us tonight at 9:30PM.

And, keeping it an all-Newsday affair tonight, Newsday's Knicks beat reporter Alan Hahn will be joining us at 10:30PM.

Speaking of Newsday and affairs, Linda Kozlowski played a Newsday reporter in Crocodile Dundee. Paul Hogan would later divorce his wife to marry Ms. Kozlowski. They are still married today.

Jets/Giants Draft Reviews Tonight

Well, last week, we did our Draft Preview show. So, that means that tonight is our Draft Review show.

At 9:15PM, we'll be joined live by Newsday's Jets beat reporter Erik Boland

At 10:00PM, we'll be joined live by Daily News Giants beat reporter Ralph Vacchiano

In between interviews, call us at 516-572-7440 to discuss Yankees, Mets, Rangers, etc.

The audio of the interviews will go to http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

Draft Pick Value Charts

More often than not, NFL teams seem beholden to the Draft Pick Value Charts when contemplating trades.

Here are 2 links to the charts:

http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/features/valuechart.html

http://www.theredzone.org/2006/draft/draftvaluechart.asp

Jets and Giants Draft Previews

We were lucky enough to be joined by Erik Boland and Mike Garafolo the other night.

For 44+ commercial-free minutes of Jets talk with Newsday's Erik Boland and 27+ commercial-free minutes of Giants talk with Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger, please go to:

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

The interviews are in MP3 format

OUR ANNUAL NFL DRAFT PREVIEW SHOW TONIGHT

At 9:10PM, Jets beat reporter Erik Boland from Newsday joins us.

At 10:00PM, Giants beat reporter Mike Garafolo from the Newark Star-Ledger joins us.

Tune in!

Ralph Vacchiano from the NFL Combine

Daily News Giants beat reporter Ralph Vacchiano joined us live from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis to discuss the Super Bowl Champion New York Football Giants.

Take a listen at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg or just click here.

Ralph always makes himself available to our little show, and we appreciate all that he does for us.

Andy a "Petty" Thief?

According to Bill Madden's article in today's Daily News, Hank Steinbrenner is expressing a fair amount of displeasure with the $16 Million contract given to Andy Pettitte, due in no small part to Andy's reluctance to fully disclose the extent of his involvement in the Mitchell Report.

But if feeling betrayed by one of the cornerstones of the Yankee dynasty of the 90's isn't bad enough, the biggest blow to Hank and Yankee fans has to be the new revelation that the Pettitte contract put the Yankees out of the bidding for Johan Santana. In fact Madden describes a clear decision that was made among Yankee brass between Pettitte and Santana, a decision that no doubt would have had a different outcome had Andy been completely honest.

Many people around baseball have expected Pettitte to retire in the wake of the Clemens controversy, but from where I am standing it looks like Andy has a controversy of his very own, and it could be the Yankees being the first to act on it.

Then again, according Mark Feinsand's article from just one day before, the Yankees would seem to be "doubling down" on their Pettitte gamble by sticking with him and hoping that his performance on the mound can make up for the damage that has been done. Personally I think it's a moot point either way, because unless Andy wins the AL Cy Young on the way to becoming the ALCS AND World Series MVP's, I don't see how you could ever measure ONE year of Pettitte against SEVEN years of Santana. And that's not even taking into account all the HGH, and lying about HGH and hearings on HGH and then coming clean about HGH and getting HGH from your dad and...well you get the point.

Houston, New York, Washington, Baseball, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY


That is all.


Well, except this....

Adam Rubin from Port St. Lucie

While he usually comes down to talk Mets with us in person, New York Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin joins us from Port St. Lucie to discuss the Santana trade, evaluate the off season, give a preview of what to expect from camp and brag about the beautiful Florida weather. Listen to the full hour long interview right here. If you'd like to download an MP3 of this interview CLICK HERE.




In addition to covering the Mets, Adam is also the author of Pedro, Carlos (and Carlos) and Omar: The Rebirth of the New York Mets which is available wherever books are sold, including the provided link. I am currently busy working on the sequel, entitled Pedro, Carlos, Carlos, David, Jose, Johan, Oliver, John and Omar: A Guide to Fitting as Many Names as Possible into the Title of a Book.

We Love Johnny Cakes, Too

Giants SuperFan Joe Gannascoli, aka Joey G, aka Vito from The Sopranos, joins us live tonight from 9PM to 11PM on Long Island's 90.3FM.

To call in and speak with him (and us), please dial 516-572-7440 during the show.

Check out Joe's website at joesoup.com. And, be sure to pick up his book A Meal To Die For.

New York Celebrates Giants' "Perfect Imperfection"

GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!

On the walk from my sister's apartment back to Penn Station I became a makeshift field correspondent as I got caught up in the single largest communal outpouring of joy and elation I will probably ever be a part of.


These pictures were taken in the heart of Times Square, but believe it or not the craziest celebration I encountered was on 2nd Avenue in the 80's, where all vehicular traffic was stopped by the mob. Taxis that tried to pass through were doused in "Kool-Aid" as the passengers laughed, and the cab drivers moaned. Men hopped on passing cars like the grizzly bears did to John Candy's truck in "The Great Outdoors."

When I actually was walking and not participating, everyone I passed wanted to shout, cheer or high five--and as you can guess I was more than happy to reciprocate.

I felt it was the perfect moment to exit Times Square when I saw some of New York's finest extending their batons, and so I finally made my way towards Penn for the ride home.


18-1

All That Needs to be Said

Credit goes to Chris for thinking to find this gem online:

Say it Ain't So, Joe

"Super" Joe McEwing has retired.

It's hard to believe that he only played 9 seasons in the big leagues, 5 of them with the Mets.

If you ask me, now would be a good time to offer him a coaching job. We know David Wright would be happy, and maybe he's just the guy to keep Jose on the straight and narrow too.

If not, so long Joe.

Mr. Met Has a Gambling Problem

Hold all the Johan Santana talk!

Fred Wilpon may not have any money left to pay the world's greatest pitcher if someone doesn't cut off "Double-Zero's" credit real soon.

I just happened to be at the Trop last night and luckily there was enough money in my pocket to sit the kind of limits the big guy was playing. Mr. Met played fast and drank even faster, but the women he had with him were by far the fastest.






Actually these are pictures from my Dad's surprise 60th birthday party, at which Mr. Met was a huge hit.

We have been and always will be commercial free, but as a friend let me recommend looking into booking him for your next event. I know Chris would agree with me.

We'll get some photos from both of our parties up real soon.

Giants Playoff Talk with Mike Garafolo

Last night, we had Giants beat reporter Mike Garafolo from the Newark Star-Ledger as our live guest.

The very first time Mike joined us was from the side of the road in the Bronx 2 years ago, so he's always been most accommodating, to say the least.

We had a good time on the call and even used some James Lipton questions at the end.

I've put the interview up at
http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

or you can just click here

(I hope to have it up on Switchpod, as well)

It's 33+ commercial-free minutes of nothing but Giants talk, and is in MP3 format.

As always, thanks!

Missed It By That Much

It's been a good week for me on the Newsday Blogs. First, I made the Sunday edition with my "Methinks that B12 is the new poppy seed bagel" You see, for the last 20 or so years, everybody I know has been warned that poppy seed bagels could make you fail a drug test. So, reflexively, people have been filling out "poppy seed bagels" on the drug test forms to cover all bases.

Then, Neil Best almost gave me Comment of the Week. After Neil wrote that he took an elevator with Gisele Bundchen the night of the Giants/Pats game, I opined that "As a reporter, you should have asked her if she was coming back from Gate D." Unfortunately, in siding with political correctness, Mr. Best could not give me the honor, as it would "give the impression I find the abuse women have taken from drunk Jets fans at that location to be funny, which I definitely do not." Instead, it went to Bob Glauber.

Here was my response:

Sportscaster Cliche Coming in 3,2,
Talk about snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory!
I did give you the Out with the "As a reporter" preface. You could have been asking her for her thoughts on the subject, as a New Yorker and as a woman. Heck, she used to date DiCaprio--you could have even asked her about Global Warming!
I'd also like to point her that one of her nicknames is "The Body" and she's been well paid to do in pictures what the Gate D'ers do for free/when most inappropriately coerced. So, with apologies to George Bernard Shaw, we're really just haggling over the price.
But, it's nice to see the Watch Dog take the High Road. Well-deserved Congratulations to Mr. Glauber. Perhaps, someday, we can get a live phoner out of him.

That last line about the phone interview is true. Unless it's a paid interview, Bob will not cut into family time to do a media interview, so it would have to be pre-taped. Because we're not paid, my wife won't let me down to the station for any pre-taping. So, we'll probably never get around to having him on.