Simmons on Mike & The Mad Dog

Bill Simmons did a running diary of a Mike and the Mad Dog program from last week. Too bad he didn't do yesterday's show.

Simmons hit on many of the things that make Mike and the Mad Dog so hard to listen to at times and many of the things that make their show great and have made it an institution and a trail blazer in sports talk radio. To wit:

"With Mike and the Dog, radio doesn't feel contrived or forced, you don't have to listen to guys screaming and fake-laughing at each other's jokes."

[they do have a great chemistry and it doesn't seem forced but Mad Dog has adopted a new gimmick in which he laughs hysterically, then says "say something funny, Mike" or "make me laugh, Mike" then he cackles uncontrollably, no matter what Mike says.]

"Dog starts the show off the same way every day: "AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHH ... good aftahnoon ev-wee-buddy!" Never gets old for some reason."

[Love it, usually the show goes downhill after that.]

"if you love this show and you haven't spent at least 100 hours imitating their voices ... I don't believe you."

[This is so true. Nothing better than screeching like the Mad Dog. One day I took Diesel for a particularly long walk at the same time as my friend Adam was on a long car ride. This was a monumental show because Mike and the Mad Dog spent two hours ridiculing the male off-air staff at WFAN. For weeks afterwards, Adam and I were imitating that show as if we were quoting lines from "Pulp Fiction." "You're 30 years old, you got a job, get an apartment." "Yeah Dog, they take a girl out and bring her home, and they sit on couch watching Letterman with his parents." "You got 4 guys, sitting in a hotel room in Vegas in their boxer shorts. No way at 30 years of age am I sharing a bed with another man." "Continent still owes me $1,000 Dog."]

"One of my favorite running segments: The boys replay John Sterling's over-the-top home run calls and "The Yankees win ... thhhhhhhhh Yankees win!" finishing call from the previous night's game, with Dog giggling after each sound bite and Mike fighting off a smile."

[Robby Cano, doncha know. The Gee-am-bee-no. Hate John Sterling. Love this segment.]

"Sports radio, 66 ... THE FAN! W... F-A-N!" Nobody has better jingles than this show. My favorite is the prolonged one at the start of the hour that goes, "They're going at it as hard as they can! Mike and the Mad Dog, on the FAN. Nothing can get by 'em, turn it on and try 'em... Mike and the Mad Dog! W-F-A-N!!!!!"

[great jingle, he's right about the one at the start of the show.]

"Dog asking Mike what he'd give Mussina for his next contract. Mike mulls it over, glances down, glances up, then definitively rules, "I'd give him 39 [million dollars] over three years," as if there was no other possible answer."

[Most annoying thing about the show. Mike says everything as if there is no other possible answer and never accepts anyone else's point of view.]

"John from Philly tries to play the "it's the owners fault that Philly baseball fans don't care" card, followed by Mike and Dog massacring the argument, as Mike emphatically adds, "It's not a good baseball town ... it is NOT a good baseball town."
That's a Mike specialty -- making a point once, then repeating the same point by slowing down the sentence and emphasizing the word "not." For some reason, this has not gotten old in 15 years. This has ... NOT gotten old ... in 15 years."

"Mike cracks Dog up for the second time today. Dog might have the most infectious radio laugh ever -- he sounds like an absolute lunatic when he gets going."

"On the phone right now: Boxing historian Bert Sugar discusses the career of Floyd Patterson, who died Thursday. We're at the 25-minute mark with Bert Sugar."

[One thing they do very well, they don't care so they will talk about what they wanted to talk about. 30 minutes on Floyd Patterson, 2 hours on Sal LaCotta and Meloussis sharing a bed in Vegas, 3 hours on Roberto Clemente.]

In closing, Mike and the Mad Dog are incredibly riveting at times but drive me to distraction sometimes. Recently, I've gone over to Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann because they have similar on-air chemistry without the penchant to be so damn annoying.