Mike Francesa roasts ESPN broadcast that featured Keith Olbermann on play-by-play
ESPN’s decision to allow Keith Olbermann to call Monday’s New York Yankees-New York Mets game was met with mostly negative reactions. Many of those complaints were due to Olbermann’s former role at MSNBC, where he gave political commentary. Given the divisive nature of that subject these days, there were some who were going to hate the move no matter what.
There were, however, some who simply did not enjoy Olbermann on the broadcast because they disliked his performance. You can count legendary radio host Mike Francesa among that group. Francesa fired off a biting tweet directed at ESPN and Olbermann while the game was going on.
What did Mike Francesa say about ESPN and Keith Olbermann?
He said the ESPN broadcast was a gift to local radio in New York.
The broadcast team on ESPN tonight was obviously the network’s annual gift to local radio.
— Mike Francesa (@MikeFrancesa) August 14, 2018
Ouch. That one hurts. In case you don’t get the joke, Francesa is saying viewers will be so turned off by the ESPN broadcast that they will switch to the radio broadcast of the game. Francesa calls out ESPN, but doesn’t mention Olbermann by name. He does say, “the broadcast team,” which gives you a pretty big hint about who Francesa is criticizing.
Mike Francesa works for the same network that broadcasts Yankees games
While Francesa probably enjoyed taking a swipe at Olbermann, he may have had another reason for sending that tweet. Francesa works for WFAN, which is the same network that has the rights to Yankees radio broadcasts. By tweeting that out, he was also supporting his employer.
Keith Olbermann did get some support from fans watching the game
The nature of Twitter is to be hateful and negative, so the majority of comments about Olbermann were not great — and many were ones we can’t share here. But some people thought he did a good job in the booth.
I try to limit positive comments about ESPN but am enjoying this broadcast trio
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 14, 2018
Admit it, if you didn't know who Keith Olbermann was, you'd think Keith Olbermann was doing a good job at PBP
— Roehl Sybing (@roehlteacher) August 14, 2018
I think Keith Olbermann is doing a good job tonight. He’s conversational and the trio is having some really interesting discussions. I kinda like how his announcing just sounds like he’s talking about baseball on one of his shows. I think it’s a nice change of pace
— Tommy Stats (@AquilinaTommy) August 14, 2018
See, Olbermann did have his supporters.
And yet, Francesa roasting Olbermann is still pretty brutal. There’s a reason he’s considered the king of New York radio.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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