{"id":150,"date":"2012-02-23T20:03:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T01:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=150"},"modified":"2012-02-23T20:03:18","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T01:03:18","slug":"150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The technological surprise promised by Francesa five months ago has arrived and it\u2019s kind of a let-down.<\/p>\n

Mike announced last fall that WFAN\u2019s parent company CBS Radio was developing something \u201cvery innovative and very different\u201d in conjunction with his long-running daily program.\u00a0 At the time, he said \u201ceveryone will copy (it) once we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, what was unveiled last week is your basic free cell phone app.\u00a0 It\u2019s nothing special.\u00a0 The big roll-out was limited to I-Phone users.\u00a0 Those with android phones are being told to wait six weeks.<\/p>\n

The only element of the app that appears to be \u201cinnovative\u201d is a feature that\u2019s known as \u201cten seconds of glory.\u201d\u00a0 Listeners can record 10-second voice clips of themselves commenting on a topic and submit them to a Francesa show producer with the press of a button.\u00a0 Mike is playing a few of the cuts daily.\u00a0 Francesa has said the basic framework of his five and a half hour program won\u2019t be altered in any way by the new app.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just another way to participate in the show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Francesa completely rejects Twitter as a tool of immediate expression and doesn\u2019t seem to embrace incorporating the \u201cglory\u201d sound bites into his show.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine.\u00a0 He\u2019s been doing sports talk radio as good or better than anybody for 25 years without bells and whistles.\u00a0 He watches the games and breaks \u2019em down the next day.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need an app for that.\u00a0 If the lone form of audience participation is the old fashioned phone call, so be it.<\/p>\n

-There will be a new number two man in the Mets radio booth when the Amazins start playing spring training games in Port St. Lucie a week from Monday.\u00a0 Out is Wayne Hagin and in is 43-year-old Josh Lewin.\u00a0 Howie Rose remains the main play-by-play guy.\u00a0 Lewin is Rose\u2019s third new partner in six years.\u00a0 At the end of the 2010 season, Lewin was let go by the Texas Rangers after nearly a decade in that team\u2018s television booth.\u00a0 In the meantime, Lewin\u2019s been doing sports talk radio in Dallas.\u00a0 He\u2019s the primary radio voice of the San Diego Chargers and also does spot duty on FOX baseball broadcasts.\u00a0 Hagin was cut loose by the Mets after four seasons.\u00a0 It was slow to develop, but I believe Hagin\u2019s chemistry with Rose had improved noticeably in 2011.\u00a0 Apparently the Mets and flagship station WFAN didn\u2019t think so.\u00a0 I know lots of Met fans didn\u2019t think much of Hagin.\u00a0 Both Hagin and Lewin have front-man personas and have been miscast in their Met jobs.\u00a0 Lewin\u2019s new responsibilities with the Mets don\u2018t match his style.\u00a0 As Howie\u2019s number two, Lewin will describe middle innings and play a supporting role to perhaps the best current play-by-play man in baseball.\u00a0 I\u2019d prefer an ex-player or a guy like Ed Coleman in the booth with Howie rather than a second voice of authority.\u00a0 Perhaps Lewin will adapt.\u00a0 WFAN will carry 10 spring games on the radio.\u00a0\u00a0 Lewin says he grew up rooting for the Mets as a youth in upstate Rochester<\/p>\n

-I won\u2019t claim to be a true New York hockey Rangers fan but I watch a lot of their games and I firmly believe they have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup this season.\u00a0 What concerns me the last week or so is a flurry of reports saying Rangers General Manager Glen Sather is readying an offer for Columbus sniper Rick Nash.\u00a0 The price in both personnel and future salary cap space to acquire Nash would be enormous.\u00a0 The Rangers could use another goal scorer, sure, but there\u2019s no way I\u2019d mess with this team\u2019s chemistry.\u00a0 The Rangers have great balance, great personalities and lots of young talent.\u00a0 I\u2019m convinced a trade for Nash would do great harm to the morale of the current squad (not to mention future teams) given who might depart (Brandon Dubinsky for starters).\u00a0\u00a0 I hope next week\u2019s trade deadline passes without a Blueshirt move of any significance.\u00a0 Leave this team alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The technological surprise promised by Francesa five months ago has arrived and it\u2019s kind of a let-down. Mike announced last fall that WFAN\u2019s parent company CBS Radio was developing something \u201cvery innovative and very different\u201d in conjunction with his long-running … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,21,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-150","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}