Wright on WFAN next Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Awesome, but will he wear a silly hat?

‘Mike and the Fast Latino Man’ [Image]

If Mike Francesa is still looking for a cohost, I think
Jose Reyes might be the perfect candidate.

Seriously though, I think Reyes did a fantastic job with the interview.  He was happy, energetic and from what he said, healthy.  Everything the Mets weren’t last year. 

He was smiling his usual smile and reminded every Mets fan watching or listening how much they missed him as a player and a member of the team last year.

Howie Rose to call Saturday’s game on FOX

According to Neil Best, WFAN’s Howie Rose will switch to television to call Saturday’s Mets / Phillies game with Tim McCarver.

I like when the Mets broadcasters get picked for these things.  It shows you how lucky we are to have such talented and passionate people both on TV and the radio calling games for us night in and night out.

I’ll be watching.

Live Blog: Boomer & Carton simulcast on SNY

WFAN and SNY teaming up to kick off Subway Series

WFAN press release:

This Friday, Join WFAN, The Mets Flagship Radio Station As They Team Up With SNY, Television Home Of The Mets To Kick Off The 2009 Subway Series

Stations To Hold Fan Activities And Competitions For Subway Series Tickets

WFAN’s Boomer and Carton Morning Program To Be Simulcast On SNY;

Midday Program To Broadcast Live From SNY

Host: WFAN and SNY

What: WFAN and SNY are joining forces for the 2009 Mets versus Yankees Subway Series by offering a fan contest and an abundance of baseball programming in honor of the series. The event will include an obstacle course for both teams fans to compete in for a chance to win tickets to one of the Subway Series games at Citi Field, in addition to a live broadcast and SNY simulcast of WFAN’s Boomer and Carton morning program from 6-10AM and a live broadcast of the Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts’ midday show from 10AM-1PM.

When: This Friday, June 12

6:00AM-1:00PM

· 6-10AM- Live Simulcast of WFAN’s Boomer & Carton program on SNY

· 10AM-1PM- Live Broadcast of WFAN’s midday show, Joe & Evan, with live streaming video available on www.wfan.com

· 11:30-1PM- SNY Fan Competition

Where: SNY Studio Plaza

6^th Ave. at 51^st St.

Listen to WFAN (www.wfan.com) to pre-qualify for the competition, as spots are limited

Boomer & Carton on SNY?

My second favorite WFAN personalities (behind Steve Somers, of course) may be coming to a TV near you!

Neil Best reveals that Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason will have their morning radio show simulcast on SNY next Friday, possibly hinting at a future program.

Here’s what Best has to say:

Nothing is remotely imminent, but with Esiason's contract with MSG soon to expire, and with Esiason and Carton both Mets fans and friendly with Jeff Wilpon, and with Ca-Boom having explored the idea of a simulcast before, and with SNY always looking for New York-centric programming ...

Makes sense, no?

I’d watch!

Make it happen, SNY.

Livan Hernandez and Steve Somers: A match made in heaven

Thanks to Jeremy for this link.

If you are in need of a chuckle, go listen to Steve Somers chat with likely fifth starter Livan Hernandez.

Listen for the insertion of random syllables and grumbles on Livan's part. It made me laugh.

Steve Somers reading Green Eggs and Ham

In honor of Dr. Seuss' 105th birthday, which would have been today, I wanted to re-post this audio of Steve "The Shmooze" Somers reading the classic "Green Eggs and Ham."

Click here for the audio. It's well worth it.

How to listen to WFAN and watch the Mets on the TV, without a delay

Yesterday, it was reported that Steve Phillips will join the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. As if Jon Miller and Joe Morgan weren't bad enough.

There was a bit of a hubbub about having to listen these three discussing any game, especially the Mets. Well, I have your solution.

It's called "Delay Play" and it's a device that will delay the radio broadcast so it will sync up with the images on your television. Most digital broadcasts (HD or otherwise) are usually much slower than the radio feed.

This product came out of the same frustration we now encounter. It syncs to your radio, and allows you to delay it long enough so that what you see and what you hear are together.

Unfortunately, the device is out of stock at the moment. If you e-mail them, you can get on their mailing list for when the device is again available.

Delay Play, the answer to all our prayers.

Craig Carton is hilarious

Just got this from WFAN:

WFAN’S CRAIG CARTON TO LEAD A FREE AGENT RALLY FROM CITI FIELD

New York, NY – Craig Carton, co-host of the Boomer and Carton show on Sports Radio 66, WFAN is taking Hot Stove Baseball to the streets as he leads a free agent rally live from the New York Mets new home, Citi Field.

The Rally will begin at 11am this Friday, November 14th in front of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Carton is not new to rallies as this past summer he blitzed the Jets training camp at Hofstra with a bullhorn leading a “Let’s get Brett” chant, in hopes of swaying Jets brass to sign hall of fame Quarterback Brett Favre.

This time Carton hopes to encourage the Mets to be very active in the 2008 Major league Baseball free agent pool and look to sign some of the top free agents available beginning this Saturday. Among the players he hopes to convince Mets management to go after are: Francisco Rodriguez, C.C. Sabathia, and slugger Manny Ramirez.

I love Craig Carton. What a character. Oh, and he prefers it to be "CC," without the periods.

If anyone attends, please take pictures.

What is 92.3 HD3?

As you may have heard, the Mets have re-upped with WFAN to broadcast their games in 2009, and beyond. Part of the deal will have the Mets pre- and post-game segments, along with the full game, simulcast on 92.3 HD3.

Now you're probably asking: What the heck is that??

Here's the gist: WXRX, or as you probably know it, 92.3 K-Rock, has been through a lot of changes over the past few years. I grew up knowing it as an alternative rock station, with Howard Stern on in the morning.

A few years ago, they tried to go a new direction, and switched their name and programming to 92.3 WFNY, Free FM, a completely talk radio station. That failed, and they brought back K-Rock.

As part of the programming change, and as technology changed, they added HD Stations. A HD-FM station can only be recieved on a HD-FM capable reciever.

What happens is that you tune to the particular channel, in this case 92.3 FM, but there are also substations to that frequency. K-Rock would be on HD1, the Mets will be on HD3. HD3 was primarily used to simulcast all WFAN.com broadcasting, meaning the Mets games were left out.

They say the broadcast is CD quality, so that will be a definite upgrade from an AM channel, even if there is up to a minute delay between HD3 and 660 WFAN.

If you're lucky enough to have an HD radio in your car, you'll be able to listen to a much better quality broadcast of the Mets in 2009.

Mets officially stick with WFAN, going FM too

Somebody was listening! The Mets are sticking with WFAN, and will also broadcast on an FM station!

From the press release (via David Lennon):

WFAN will produce exclusive Mets programming with players and coaches, daily highlights packages, and pre-game and post-game reports both on-air on WFAN-AM 660 and on the station’s online audio stream at www.wfan.com. For the first time, all of the station’s Mets content, including game broadcasts, will be available on FM radio at 92.3 HD3.

The agreement keeps the Mets on WFAN (and HD3) for 2009 "and beyond."

Well how about that! First of all, I'm excited for Feb. 2009 because baseball will be starting again, but now I can listen on 92.3 for non-whining and screeching broadcast of the team. Thank goodness.

Update from commenter Adam:
You can only listen on 92.3 if you have a HD radio- that's what the HD3 means - they'll be on an HD substation. You won't get any Mets on your "regular" FM radio

Well, shucks. There goes that.

Mets to stick with WFAN

There goes my hope for the jump to FM radio.

According to Neil Best, the Mets are "likely to remain on WFAN" past this season.

From Best:

If the Mets had left, WFAN simply would have inherited the Yankees from its CBS Radio sister station, WCBS-AM. It is not clear where the Mets would have landed if they had left the FAN.

Maybe someone with the Mets is reading my blog. Maybe they were exploring their FM options. Maybe I'm crazy.

I love WFAN, so I can't complain too much. But this does mean I have to listen to more Wayne Hagin. Great.

Vintage Steve Somers [Video]

First off, it looks almost nothing like him. I dig the little fro there, Shmooze.

Also, his voice is so different. I guess he didn't really find that magical, mythical drone until he hit WFAN. Around 2:45 you catch a glimpse of the voice we've come to know and love as Mets fans.

The Shmooze reads Green Eggs & Ham; Free Peanuts

It's an off-day. Can you tell?

Go here to listen to the one and only Steve Somers read the Dr. Suess classic "Green Eggs & Ham."

Honestly, I've never laughed so hard in my life. Amazing.

Another thing to note, is the show "Playing For Peanuts" is now available for download.

I'm sure you caught a moment or two on SNY when you were waiting for Mets games, or something to that effects. Well, the director has made all the episodes available for free download on his site. This is a must-watch. A great documentary about an awesome subject. Please, if you love baseball and Wally Backman, check it out.

Below are the instructions:
1.) Go to playingforpeanuts.com/free

2.) Enter the Access Code: 6CJS9Z6GT2

3.) Enter your email address

4.) You will see 8 files. The first 5 files are video files from the first episode of Playing for Peanuts:

Episode #1 - Part 1
Episode #1 - Part 2
Episode #1 - Part 3
Episode #1 - Part 4
Episode #1 - Entire Episode

As you can see, Episode #1 is available in four video segments. If you prefer, you can also download the entire episode (note: it is a large file and will normally take 20 minutes or more to download).

The remaining 3 files are different versions of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" that you've probably never heard before.

Ballgame Music - Loud
Ballgame Music - Acoustic Guitar
Ballgame Music - Irish

Enjoy!

So long, Mike and the Mad Dog

According to the incomparable Neil Best, the WFAN drive time show will be no more.

Best is reporting that Chris Russo has left WFAN and Mike Francessa. This means Francessa will be flying solo now.

I can see Russo moving to ESPN 1050, or even just sticking on YES and ditching radio entirely. Should be interesting to see how it plays out, if one cares about it.

The Marquis...is no more.

Maybe there is hope for sports radio in New York and his name is Craig Carton

Joe Beningno, stinks. Mike Francessa, hack. Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, fool. Craig Carton...

While a case probably could be made that Carton belongs on the above list, I rather like him. He's a lifelong New York Mets fan, so I know he's a smart man. Some of the things he's said have been pretty dumb, like when he "divorced" the Mets in early June.

After the sweep at the hands of the Padres, Carton began proceedings and took out paperwork to divorce himself from the team. Obviously, he looks like a fool now, but something he said today proved that some people in mainstream media are starting to get with the program.

During a segment this morning Carton started talking about Jason Giambi and his All Star weekend festivities. Carton referenced a photo of Giambi drinking straight from a bottle of Jack Daniels at a club in Las Vegas. Carton then told listeners where to find the photo, and to my shock, it was a blog.

Sure, Deadspin is probably the most popular sports blog, but it's a start. It gives hope to all those lowly bloggers out there that yes, you too might have a chance at greatness. And that greatness is being mentioned by a host on an AM sports radio station.

The biggest non-story in a long time

When Jerry Manuel said “It's very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It's fertile ground for a team's growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer," I immediately knew it would be blown entirely out of proportion.

Just as I predicted, the NY Post took this story and ran with it. Here is the classic example of “taking the quote out of context.” When you look that term up in the dictionary, you see an issue of the New York Post. (Please don’t fire me, News Corp.)

If they wanted to be correct, they would have noted that Manuel said this, laughed, and then continued. He was smart enough to attempt to clarify, simply because he knows how some media outlets work.

It worked on one radio host, Mr. Craig Carton of WFAN. Hopefully, he was doing it for the ratings because I simply cannot believe that anyone who is sane and of clear mind would actually thing a new manager would come out and say the fans are akin to cow manure.

Of course, as I walked to Penn Station today, people were scooping up issues of the NY Post to see what Manuel had said. Obviously they’re doing something right, but I wish some of the editors had just the tiniest bit of discretion when it comes to using quotes out of context.

Can the Mets make the jump to FM?

With the Mets contract with WFAN ending this year, I've been wondering if it was remotely possible, plausible, or even smart for the Mets to abandon ship and move to an FM radio station.

Let me begin by saying that in my 1996 Infiniti G20, I might have the worst radio receiver in the world. If I am listening to WFAN, (which I do very often (Boomer & Carton in the mornings, because it's refreshing to hear Mets fans on the radio)) and I press on the gas pedal to get going, the radio starts to wheeze and squeal as I pick up speed. When I start to coast, I usually get an ear-piercing screech, making the station nearly unlistenable. My favorite event is during a thunder storm, as the station completely fuzzes out as lightning strikes in an estimated 50 mile radius.

And of course, I have terrible "dead zones" by my house. Almost without fail, during a critical moment during a Mets game, I drive into one of these "dead zones" and am treated to the loudest, most miserable static any man has ever encountered. I can't move my finger to the CD button quick enough.

But back to the subject at hand: If the Mets were ever to leave WFAN, I would be deeply saddened by losing the wonderful ditty of "LET'S GO METSF-A-N (da-da-DAH!)," and of course, the irreplaceable Steve Somers and Howie Rose. I could do without Wayne Hagin, that's for sure. At this point, I think I'm willing to make the trade and hear the game in her entirety (if need be) than me treated to those awful, awful sounds of static, screeches, whale calls, and howling.

I remember a few years ago when the New York Giants were featured on 102.7 FM for some, if not all of their games. It was refreshing to finally get a squeal-free broadcast, in much higher quality. If only the Mets could transition to that point.

If it's at all possible, I would hope the Mets would look into some sort of move. Fans deserve to hear their team in better quality than AM radio can provide. We have high definition TV's, and though WFAN claims "HD AM" I just don't hear it. HD AM radio seems like the oxymoron of all oxymoron's, with "jumbo shrimp" as the number two in that list.

I'd love to see WFAN make the jump to the FM band, but that's probably impossible. The Mets can move, and making the shift to a better quality FM radio station would be a treat to Mets fans, and especially my ears.