Not since “Network”‘s Howard Beale encouraged his viewers to turn off their televisions has any media figure so bravely dared his audience to fuck off. Substituting for Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio this morning, John Kincaid was in full-fledged tirade mode, opining that those concerned with “the integrity of baseball statistics….must have something missing in their lives.”

“Maybe you should get a hobby,” sneered the host. “Or a girlfriend.”

Whether or not the likes of Rob Neyer, Keith Law or Peter Gammons will take Kincaid’s advice remains to be seen. But there is something truly fantastic about a media company that makes crazy money on fantasy games, a stats-heavy website, enourages all sorts of analysis on their television programs, etc., employing some schmuck to get on the radio and disparage their clientele.

(Gammo : hobby, check. girfriend : wife might not approve)

The tastiest part is that if indeed, the scourge that is “taking America down the drain” (in Kincaid’s words) were eliminated tomorrow — the obsessive interest in the competitive pursuits of others —- the radio host in question would undoubtedly have all sorts of interesting things to fall back on.