RIP Toucher and Rich Show ... It was fun while it lasted
- Thread starter HomeBrew1901
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I don't mind Burton either, but Butch Sterns is the emptiest suit in the Boston sports media. Not a huge fan of DeOssie, but he was far better than Smerlas. The only time I remember being interested in something Smerlas said it was about the technical details of playing on the defensive line in the NFL. Not great when you have a long career as a good NFL player and only had something interesting to say that a fan finds interesting only once.
Shit. That's what it was. I knew that Ted didn't sound right. It's been a long time.
It wasn't so much that Burton was bad, but he was sooooooooo boring. I don't think that he ever brought anything of substance to the table, ever.
Which was the line the Original Sports Huddle used to use when it was Eddie, Mark and Jim. And that was much more organic than the crap Ordway had on.
I dont believe Burton has ever asked a question that had any words like "who, what, where, when, how, or why" in it or even ended with a question mark.
You might have had Ted Sarandis on the brain. 10pm-2am WEEI in the early 80s. Before all-sports-talk all -the-time. I think he theoretically took callers, but my drives home from a late night newspaper gig -- in a car with no FM radio -- often involved silent phones and Ted reading the results from Suffolk Downs, and other similarly dramatic segments.
Wasn't that their origin story? Maybe it was apocryphal, but I remember the story being that Eddie, Mark and Jim were actually talking sports in a bar when a radio exec heard them and thought they'd be great on air.
Somewhere I may have my autographed copy of
If I find it I'll give it a reread and let you know
This was in a Time magazine article from 1973...
It all comes naturally to Attorney Witkin, 33, Insurance Executive McCarthy, 44, and Real Estate Broker Andelman, 36. They were “discovered” four years ago when an executive from station WUNR overheard their loud banter in a Boston bar and invited them to sound off at a microphone.
Sarandis had two passions: college sports and a domed stadium for the Sox. I don't think that the latter is the worst idea in the world right this second (it's cold and rainy in the Hub and has been for weeks). When I first started listening to EEI, I liked Sarandis a lot because he seemed to treat sports with a dignity that you couldn't find anywhere else on that channel. But then he started to morph into Andy Rooney and the way he discussed sports turned into real drudgery. He always sounded angry and exasperated about everything that it became a chore to listen to him.
"Why won't people talk about Boston College athletics, Rene?"
Short answer Ted, people don't give a shit. Longer answer, there's like 200 colleges and universities in New England. This isn't Kansas where people went to one of two state universities and pledged their loyalties forever. If you went to Harvard or Boston University or UMass or UNH or Bentley or Merrimack or UConn why should you give a crap about how BC does? Chances are your school is playing them in something. He never seemed to get that fact through his skull.
I didn’t dislike Ted but the bolded always drove me nuts. Most of us didn’t go to BC, and many of us went to schools that directly competed with BC in one sport or another. Why would I root for them? Because Uncle Ted wants me to? And my god he wouldn’t let this go.
Don’t forget his “brilliant” theory from about late 2003 to early 2005: If the 2004 Red Sox don’t win the World Series, John Henry might look to trade ownerships with Frank McCourt. He discussed this so many times I just wanted someone to call in and tell him what an idiotic idea this was. Of course I’m sure some people did and he just dumped the calls. He was so dull and disinteresting!
In law school, I ended up being friends with a fair number of people who went to UNC Chapel Hill. Met some on a fall Sunday for some hair of the dog and football, and one of them comes up to me with a, “Hey man, sorry about yesterday. Tough break.”
I’m sitting there racking my brain, trying to figure out whatever memories I had suppressed from the boozy night before. I got nothing.
“Thanks, Nic. I really appreciate it. Uh, what exactly are we talking about?”
“Oh, BC football lost yesterday.”
I smile at my charming southern friend’s concern for my sports fandom wellbeing.
“Thanks buddy. But I’m from a pro sports town. Nobody gives a fuck about BC.”
Visited Chapel Hill with him later that year. Fucking everything, including the interior of McDonalds and the exterior of the fire engines, was Carolina blue. And I was reminded of our earlier conversation.
Growing up the only New England college team I ever gave a shit about was the Camby UMass team. Then going to Northeastern, fuck BC, BU and the rest of them in Hockey. I'll never root for BC. I've got nothing against UConn, but couldn't give a shit about them because it's not part of New England.
That's awesome. Well done, sir.
You guys are just jealous you never matriculated at the Harvard of the East, Merrimack College. It's okay, us Merrimack men (and women) are used to seeing folks green with envy around town.
Ha! I had some friends from Merrimack and, obviously, it's just up river from UML. Surprisingly, MC is the only other Hockey East school I didn't grow to despise.
Oh! You’re a Tri-Stater!Still not quite following you...(also I grew up in northwestern CT
Yeah, I’m fine with people excluding Fairfield County, where I live. But the rest of CT is New England.
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr4IB49gb2M/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
An apology from Fred to Rich and the crew, including an admission that Rich did reach out to him and even offered his contacts at Dana Farber. I hope Fred pulls through this and then also gets some help for the other stuff that is obviously troubling him.
An apology from Fred to Rich and the crew, including an admission that Rich did reach out to him and even offered his contacts at Dana Farber. I hope Fred pulls through this and then also gets some help for the other stuff that is obviously troubling him.
So Fred is now backtracking on basically everything he talked about for like the past 2 weeks.
Things are definitely goin good for that dude.
View: https://twitter.com/FredToucher/status/1654585398553608194
Things are definitely goin good for that dude.
View: https://twitter.com/FredToucher/status/1654585398553608194
Seems pretty clear he was either drunk or on something when he was posting those rants about Rich not reaching out. Really sad.
Substance abuse is a hell of a thing, that's really all you can say. Can't say for sure if Fred fell off the wagon or anything but yeah.
The fact their official insta posted it as a "statement from Fred Toucher" does make it seem like this statement was forced by someone. Whatever the truth is about what happened I don't know. From what I've gleened about Rich, Mike and Wallach I'd be FLOORED if they didn't reach out to Fred constantly during this whole time
This tweet pretty much confirms it. I mean he went on IG live just a couple days ago (and seemed completely sober to me) to reaffirm his tweets and digs at Rich. This is obviously an ultimatum situation. What a mess.
View: https://twitter.com/fredtoucher/status/1654633075291160582?s=46&t=xxvZTMezWkaSiYKGpP6ffg
I didn’t even catch this. He’s taking inferential shots at Rich through his Twitter bio.
View: https://twitter.com/bostonradio/status/1654641843139760129?s=46&t=xxvZTMezWkaSiYKGpP6ffg
View: https://twitter.com/bostonradio/status/1654641843139760129?s=46&t=xxvZTMezWkaSiYKGpP6ffg
