As heard on today’s “Mike & The Mad Dog Show” on WFAN and the YES Network :
caller : (after discussing the Kris Benson trade) Are they gonna change the name of the team to the New York Hispanics instead of the New York Mets?
Francesca : They’re the New York Mets.
Russo : I wouldn’t go that crazy with it. If they win, I don’t think anyone cares. I do think that if Omar has a choice, he leans in that direction.
Francesca : Do the Angels have 14 players of Hispanic…
Russo : Imus told me 14. We’d have to go count who is on the major league roster. They have a hispanic owner.
Francesca : Omar isn’t going to pass up a better player…
Russo : No, he’s going to bring up Lo Duca. Over Bengie Molina. Or Ramon Hernandez.
Glad we’ve resolved that, then. Mike and Chris seem in agreement that the Mets are not changing the name of the team, however Russo suspects that Omar Minaya has a personal bias towards hispanic players. Not such a pronounced bias, though, that the broadcaster can cite anything besides an example to the contrary.
Yeah, I mean it’s totally rare to see baseball teams have Hispanic players on their rosters these days. Russo’s right though, as long as the Mets win no one in Queens will care about all the Latin players. But if they lose then get ready for the huge backlash against the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Considering that Russo’s job is to know stuff about sports, you’d have to wonder why he’s getting his baseball news — about the Angels — from Don Imus, who is most expert on facelifts and vitriol.
And of course all students of the game know what happened when Jewish GMs started stocking up on Jewish ballplayers. I’m not saying that’s why Theo Epstein added Gabe Kapler and Kevin Youkilis in 2004, but I think if given a choice he leans in that direction. But the Red Sox won, so no one minded. How depressing is it when Francesa is so clearly the voice of reason?
Those two windbags should be set out to sea on a burning canoe. They could discuss the New Canaan Girls Soccer for a few minutes before receiving their Viking funeral.
Of course Mad Perro y Francesspool started this anti-Spanish crusade yesterday when…when Senior Droopydraws Francessa said that Shawn Chacon counted as one of “them” and poochy added that yes, Chacon counts because he comes from one of those countries down there.
Shawn Chacon was born Anchorage, Alaska.
latent racism in the sports radio universe, who knew?
thanks, Repoz. Since I don’t listen to Mike & The Mad Dog everyday, I am sure I missed the program(s) in which they suggested that Drayton McLane has a racial agenda everytime the Astros fielded an all-white starting 9.