We're onto Beetle and Zolak: The Midday Thread

TheRealness

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I stopped listening to TSH at night not long after he took over for DA.  He was the ultimate "look at the box scores and then make up the rest" analyst.  His Bruins discussions were awful, and his negative trolling was obnoxiously transparent.  Felger is a brilliant troll.  Jones is no Felger.
 
PLUS what I really hate.. IS his cadence... WHEN he talks.  The weird emphasis ON prepositional phrases specifically IS really off-putting.  Not everything.. HAS to be so declarative.
 
He's also extremely sarcastic, grating, and is always incredulous when people don't agree with him. Felger at least listens and then asks questions what challenge the person's positions in a meaningful way.  Jones just says things like, "OH! So, we're supposed to think that Brady is infallible? Like he's some god that can't lie! YEAH! OK! RIGHT!"
 
He's terrible. Even when he's making valid points he's annoying. It's like Felger and Mazz had a baby, only he got Mazz's analytical skills and Felger's DB condescending attitude. Worst of both of them. 
 

NortheasternPJ

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Kraft took a shot at Goodell by calling him a sleazy lawyer! Which he repeated 10 times.

I wonder what law school he thinks Goodell went to?
 

jsinger121

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NortheasternPJ said:
Kraft took a shot at Goodell by calling him a sleazy lawyer! Which he repeated 10 times.

I wonder what law school he thinks Goodell went to?
I believe that shot was to NFL attorney Jeff Pash not to Goodell.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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JohnnyTheBone said:
I tuned in today and Rob "Hardy" Poole, the WBCN castoff, is filling in for Beetle.  Lord have mercy, he sucks.
 
Where have you been? He's been on the station since it went on the air. He hosts a weekend show with Jerry Trupiano, he has his own golf show, does headlines and fills in occasionally. 
 

soxfan121

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
 
Where have you been? He's been on the station since it went on the air. He hosts a weekend show with Jerry Trupiano, he has his own golf show, does headlines and fills in occasionally. 
 
Also produces most of the bits (Squeaky Mazz, etc.) for the F&M program. 
 

JohnnyTheBone

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
 
Where have you been? He's been on the station since it went on the air. He hosts a weekend show with Jerry Trupiano, he has his own golf show, does headlines and fills in occasionally. 
 
I've been on the WEEI train because I detest the daily trolling over at the Sports Hub.  However, Tanguay was on their midday show, and that's an immediate dial-changer.  Hardy may suck, but Tanguay suuuuuuuucks.
 

BS_SoxFan

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I don't get the Hardy hate at all.  He's certainly not the best radio host, but he's a very good producer, a serviceable fill-in host, and seems like a pretty good guy and a good sport who gets along with basically all of the personalities at the station.  He'd probably be exposed hosting a daily show but I'll take him over Adam Jones every time. 
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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BS_SoxFan said:
I don't get the Hardy hate at all.  He's certainly not the best radio host, but he's a very good producer, a serviceable fill-in host, and seems like a pretty good guy and a good sport who gets along with basically all of the personalities at the station.  He'd probably be exposed hosting a daily show but I'll take him over Adam Jones every time. 
 
Word to that. 
 

Granite Sox

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I actually like him with Trupe on the weekends.  Not necessarily the time for hard core sports talk, so he takes a pretty light approach to things.  Fine for mowing the lawn, hanging out by the pool, background  on the deck while grilling, etc.  Perfectly pleasant.  
 
As the occasional weekday fill-in, he's actually a nice break from all the manufactured drama on both stations in the afternoon...
 

JohnnyTheBone

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Perhaps Hardy just had a bad day at the office.  I'm willing to give the brother another chance, especially if he's on opposite the execrable Tanguay.
 

Rusty13

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Did something happen to Zolak yesterday?  I caught the end of him calling in to the show, and they were all wishing him well and "thankful" he's ok. 
 

NortheasternPJ

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They were mocking him endlessly for banging out sick before a travel day. "I'm sure he'll be just fine in New Orleans on Friday"  etc. 
 

soxfan121

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It spawned some entertaining twitter stuff with @scottzolak replacing Ferris Bueller. 
 

allstonite

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NortheasternPJ said:
Of course, Adam Jones is on today. Bad timing.
 
He interrupted Zolak's victory lap to cut in with a "well he would have taken one game!" He's so terrible
 

soxfan121

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NortheasternPJ said:
Of course, Adam Jones is on today. Bad timing.
 
TSH management feels the same - Felger & Mazz start at 1 PM instead of the usual 2 PM. 
 

edmunddantes

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the1andonly3003 said:
can someone post?
Yes. Can anyone link to a site or place that has the montage? 
 
I haven't been able to find it on their podcast site. Maybe looking in wrong place. 
 

Harry Hooper

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Odd comment from Beetle today regarding the Manning-HGH hubbub. He noted how it would be hard now to investigate the goings-on back in 2011. Why should we believe those shipments happened only in 2011, or even that they ever stopped?
 
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NDame616

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I noticed that as well. And he's a "pro PED" guy in terms of he doesn't care if athletes take it, and thinks all athletes over a certain age should take it. It was a strange take, but I think if Zo or a caller brought it up he probably would've refined that a little....
 

Harry Hooper

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True morass of negativity today as they're depressed that Clay pitched so well. They were hoping he'd be released with a couple more clunkers. Click
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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At this point, I think "be negative" is a station dictum. Every show is like that now, even T&R with Fred moping around all the time lately. They know it drives mouth-breathing callers who want an open forum to spew their own brand of sports wisdom and that, in turn, drives ratings. They're just copying EEI at this point. Amazing that persists in a city/state/region where a professional sports title eluded all four teams for the better part of 15 years and then saw four won at least one (some thrice over) in the same span of time.
 

JohnnyTheBone

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Is it too much to ask, for local sports fans, to tune into local sports radio after a really uplifting victory by the local nine, and revel in a little positivity for one day? If you piss and moan after a great win like that, what's the freaking point?
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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Positivity doesn't equal ratings, otherwise D&C and The Big O Show wouldn't have topped the charts for so long during the height of the Patriots Dynasty Era.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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This is a specious argument. WEEI was number one because they were the only sports station in a sports-mad city.
Yes and no. Satellite radio was a thing even then, but your point stands. Still, there's a reason everyone keeps going negative and that it keeps getting good numbers.
 

NickEsasky

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Beetle has hated Buchholz for a long time.
 

NDame616

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Beetle has bothered me because on F&M he used to be the voice of reason.

Outside of football, Zo is like Mazz...not following the teams or actually watching the games but catching clips and reading the box score, and it really shows in the spring and summer. He just piles on the latest hotsportstake and that's that
 

Maximus

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Beetle has bothered me because on F&M he used to be the voice of reason.

Outside of football, Zo is like Mazz...not following the teams or actually watching the games but catching clips and reading the box score, and it really shows in the spring and summer. He just piles on the latest hotsportstake and that's that
Zo is full of himself for no reason. Mazz is a clown show when coupled with Felger.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Beetle has bothered me because on F&M he used to be the voice of reason.

Outside of football, Zo is like Mazz...not following the teams or actually watching the games but catching clips and reading the box score, and it really shows in the spring and summer. He just piles on the latest hotsportstake and that's that
Beetle is getting way worse by the week. It's like he's got his invitation to The Lodge and now is a mini-Felger. He used to be the voice of reason, now he's another contrarian. His railing on Price is the main reason for this post. Someone was on today on the expert hotline, not sure who it was, and they asked him if he'd bring Price out for the 8th next time and it was a "are you going to stop beating your wife" moment.

If he answered Yes, I'd bring him out the response was "So he can blow it again!?" if he didn't want to bring him out "He's not an ace!" which the 'expert' called them out on. It's a shame because I loved Gasper & Bertrand and liked him a lot on F&M. He's so negative and brutal lately. I wonder if he even realizes what he's become or if he's just enjoying the ratings and is going to be Felger 3.0?

He got his job for a reason, I don't need Felger 3.0 from 10-2, Felger 1.0 from 2-6 and Felger 2.0 from 6-whenever.

Spending 9 hours in the car over the last two days was too much apparently.
 

soxfan121

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I agree, and disagree. He has become more Felger-like as he has grown into the role, which I would argue is a good thing. When the Zo & Beetle show started, Zo had to do all the heavy lifting of listener interaction and call generation. A four hour show cannot survive without fans calling in, even Jim Rome has had to acknowledge this. Sports radio requires callers to bring content/opinions that the hosts can then discuss.

I listen to sports radio. I have never called any show. I laugh at callers. I often question whether the kind of people who call sports radio are the same species. And the regular callers? Carlton in Norwell? Danny in Quincy? Steve in Fall River? Dakota in Braintree? These people are circus freaks. They are WEEI's version of a Whack Pack.

But a show like Zo & Beetle has to cultivate them. They have to find those fans who are not freaks to call in regularly. And you do that with a specific formula. Being "the voice of reason" doesn't make the phone ring. Doesn't build the show.

Having a firm, somewhat-negative opinion on everything is the Felger way. And it works. Both shows have loyal, strong listener bases and get callers.

The reason Mike Mutnansky flamed out at WEEI in the midday slot was because he could not grow out of "the voice of reason" and was boring to listen to. No one called. The show got poor ratings, the hosts had less to talk about without callers bringing anything to the table, they had to rely on "celebrity" callers. The show sucked and they had to bring in Fauria (who is terrible) and bring back Ordway (who is an old pro, but a tired, worn out old pro).

9 hours in the car over two days listening to sports radio sounds like it sucks, dude. I hope you don't have to do that again today. Because it's gonna suck some more.
 

NortheasternPJ

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i'd rather spend 9 hours in a car listening to the radio than 2 hours sitting in a cube personally.

I get they have to generate callers, but the David Price stuff is so transparent. It's like whoever posted in the T&R thread about Wallach, same thing. "He gave up a home run in the 8th! A true ace doesn't do that!" Then go look at the Schilling thread and it's the same thing.

The Hot Take Police should go visit Quincy.
 

NDame616

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I hate the new Beetle. Actually criticizing the Red Sox for starting Ortiz at first base.

"How desperate are the Sox now that we have to actualyl PLAY David Ortiz at first base, risking another injury? How can they play him in the field?!"

If Ortiz didn't play this weekend at all everyone on TSH would be hammering him for not being a team player, how 1B is such an easy position and if he can't even play that once or twice a season he shouldn't even play, etc

And Dombroski was dumb for signing Price. "David Price was far from sure thing and it was a mistake and desperate move to sign him" according to Beetle (and we all know the conversations if we DIDN'T sign a big FA pitcher. David Price has been consistently one of the best pitchers in baseball for 6 or 7 years. He was as much of a sure thing as you could get, out of a big FA pitcher. And yes, he's sucked this year.

And, not that it's hard, but boy did Zo look stupid during on exchange regarding ARod
Zo: I don't think he'll do broadcasting. They can't pay him enough
Beetle and whoever the producer was: he did it last year and he was AWESOME at it
Zo then silent for a few seconds then goes into a 3 minute dialogue about how great ARod is in the booth because of how well he speaks about baseball to the masses, and doesn't make it complicated to follow
 

NDame616

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I guess Beetle stormed out the other day than got sick. Hardy and Zo were wondering today if he was suspended, but they both said he wasn't.

Also Zo was sick the past few days

I guess they got into a heated exchange the other day. I haven't heard it but a few shows (including their fill ins) mentioned it
 

NortheasternPJ

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There's some nasty stuff going around now. I know multiple people who've been out of work over a week due to the bug that's going around.
 

the1andonly3003

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I guess Beetle stormed out the other day than got sick. Hardy and Zo were wondering today if he was suspended, but they both said he wasn't.

Also Zo was sick the past few days

I guess they got into a heated exchange the other day. I haven't heard it but a few shows (including their fill ins) mentioned it
is there a clip of the exchange? TSH on-demand audio is woeful compared to WEEI
 

Patriot_Reign

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In today's podcast minihane alluded to problems at 98.5, including someone holding out by claiming to be sick
 

steveluck7

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In today's podcast minihane alluded to problems at 98.5, including someone holding out by claiming to be sick
No agenda there or anything! I don't know about conflict or whatever but Beetle left early on Monday because he was sick, it was brought up a few times over the past few days. Zolak was at Gillette to record for TV but was sent home after her got sick