Traina Thoughts: Ten Things I'll Miss The Most About Mike Francesa
1. It's been a notable week on the Mike Francesa front. On Monday, the legendary New York radio host went nuts while talking about Penn State coach James Franklin icing a kicker with a 56-0 lead. On Tuesday, Francesa announced that he was officially sticking to his plan to leave WFAN on Dec. 15. There was some thought that Mike might stick around to help the station after it lost its morning host, Craig Carton, who was arrested two weeks ago.
In July, I told you that I had stopped listening to Francesa after tuning in for about 25 years. Given that Francesa was down to his final three months on the air beginning right after Labor Day, I've returned to the show. How could I not when it truly is the end of an era in New York. Given that it is now a 100 percent done deal that Mike's last show will be on Dec. 15, here are 10 things I'll miss the most about the Sports Pope.
• Making fun of the Mets: It was hard to choose between the Mets or Jets, but the Jets have always been so sad that it's almost not fun to pick on them. The Mets, however, have have sprinkled in some success over the years, but have had so many embarrassing moments, off the field as well as on the field, as a franchise that they've been a gold mine of material for Francesa.
• The annual lecture that he and Chris Russo invented Radio Row: Whenever Mike takes his show to Radio Row during Super Bowl week, he opens that Monday's broadcast by reminiscing about the time when he and his old partner, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo were the only radio hosts to take their show on the road for the Super Bowl and that after they did it, every sports talk radio station in the country copied them.
• Get lawst: Mike's signature phrase for doing away with a caller he has no use for.
• Anti-memorabilia rants: There are many things Mike has shown disdain for over the years -- talking NHL during the regular season, Craig Carton, Rex Ryan, to name a few -- but there is nothing Mike hates more than the memorabilia industry. Three or four times a year, Mike will go on an outstanding diatribe about the shady industry while
• NFL Picks: A Friday afternoon tradition in New York City. The great NFL music hits, the drama builds and Mike announces it's time his picks in "the league where they play ... ... ... ... for pay."
• Sour Shoes: Mike used to have fun with the Sour Shoes crazy calls. Sadly, that has ended and now Mike gets annoyed and hangs up on Sour. This just makes the calls even better, especially when Sour calls as characters from the Howard Stern Show.
• Handling a dopey caller: When you do a show for five-and-half-hours a day, you are going to get calls from sports fans who are off their rocker. Mike doesn't have the patience for dumb points and isn't afraid to let the caller know.
• @MikeFrancesaNY: The best parody account on all of Twitter.
• Holding out hope of a permanent Mike And The Mad Dog reunion: Anyone who was a Mike and the Mad Dog fans has help out hope every single day since they split up that they would reunite. Logistics didn't matter. Everyone wanted Mike Francesa and Chris Russo back on WFAN every single day. Mike's departure completely shuts the door on that dream.
2. To follow up on yesterday's lead item about Kevin Durant having the thinnest skin of any athlete in sports, the Warriors star did admit to having multiple social media accounts to he could fire back at people. He also revealed in an interview that after initially leaving Oklahoma City for Golden State, he had meltdown about all the flak he was getting on social media. Dude, just delete your Twitter and Instagram accounts. Seriously.
3. Stephen A. Smith does not know the date of Cinco De Mayo.
4. Nobody cares about your fantasy football team, but we have to give props to this dude who made an entire news segment to trash one of his buddies in the league.
5. My apologies for not alerting you of this when the first round was under way, but SI is conducting a very important bracket tournament to determine the best cheese and voting for Round 2 is under way, so get to it.
6. If you're a Major League pitcher, you can't be happy that something is being done to the baseballs this season.
8. RANDOM WRESTLING VIDEO OF THE DAY: We're going to feature Bobby "The Brain" Heenan videos all week. Before ESPN and FS1 gave us hot take shows, the WWE did it first on Prime Time Wrestling. And Heenan always stole the show..
The best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts. And check Jimmy Traina's weekly podcast, "Off The Board," on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher.
BONUS ITEM: Taping a new "Off The Board" podcast with Andrew Perloff from the Dan Patrick Show today. Send me any NFL questions you have via Twitter.
