Yankees announcer, John Sterling, among hundreds displaced by apartment complex blaze: Report

Hundreds of people were left homeless after a massive fire tore through a luxury apartment complex in New Jersey Wednesday — leaving many families out in the cold.

The "surreal" blaze, which broke out in the late afternoon and was still raging 12 hours later, engulfed The Avalon at Edgewater, located along the shores of the Hudson River directly across from Manhattan.

One of the residents who wondered what would be left of their homes was long-time New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling.

While authorities announced that, thankfully, no one was seriously injured in the inferno, Sterling, like many others watched video of the fire on the 10 o'clock news. He saw that the fire struck the side of a section where his apartment was located.

"There are two sides to the building, and unfortunately for me the fire is on my side," said Sterling, who until 10 had not been able to see video of the inferno because the hotel where he has taken shelter does not carry local cable news channels.

"I would expect there would be nothing left," he said.

Sterling, who was relieved that "they got everyone out," said he was not as concerned over the loss of his memorabilia as he was with more mundane needs such as his clothes.

"I'm not a memorabilia person, so that doesn't bother me," he said. "Even my kids' pictures; I'll get other pictures. You can say, well there's that picture of you and [Bill] Clinton and you and [George] Bush and [Rudy] Giuliani, but that's not a big thing to me. I would like to have my clothes and my passport and my bags. But what are you going to do?"

And Sterling's broadcast family kept fans up to date on Twitter:

“@drossnyy: @RealMichaelKay thanks for update. Hope He is okay.”thank goodness he is fine. He can replace things. He realizes that.
— Michael Kay (@RealMichaelKay) January 22, 2015

John Sterling, radio voice of the @Yankees, OK after devastating Edgewater blaze. We're thinking about you, John. http://t.co/mdaieL1tON
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) January 22, 2015

Sterling, who has not missed a Yankees game since 1989, called the support he received in the hours after the fire "a wonderful thing."

"I get teary when people are nice to me, so it's been a great outpouring for me," he said. "I just feel sorry for all the families with little kids, dogs. They all have to go somewhere."

Mike Francesa's show to air on Fox Sports 1: Report

It didn't take long for the Sports Pope and his ever present Diet Coke to find themselves back on TV.

Only one week after his contract with the YES Network expired, Mike Francesa struck a deal to simulcast his WFAN radio show on Fox Sports 1, according to a source. 

Francesa's 12-year simulcast run on the YES Network ended on Super Bowl Sunday.

No information was available on the terms of the contract, but Francesa said on his show last week that an announcement would be official early this week, and that New York's Numbah One was looking to be back on TV in time for March Madness.

The deal comes after a week where Francesa’s replacement on YES, Michael Kay, opened his ESPN radio show by tossing a Diet Coke in the trash, prompting Francesa to call the move “classless” and sparking a bit of a feud between the two hosts.

Since FS1 and YES are both owned by Fox, it now puts Francesa and Kay in the same TV family and should make the head-to-head competition very interesting. And those are a couple of huge noggins we're talking about.

Whether or not that means their "feud" is over remains to be seen. 

MSG had widely been considered the most logical candidate for Francesa's show after making a bid for it five years ago that YES matched. But FS1 entered the bidding, presumably in an effort to increase the new cable sports network's visibility.

Mongos rejoice.

Mike Francesa can't pronounce 'Matt McGloin' (AUDIO)

More times than not, Mike Francesa's Long Island accent lends a comical quality to his pronunciation of names and places. But during his WFAN broadcast Tuesday, A-Rod's number one fan was discussing the Raiders' quarterback situation and, on two separate occasions, stumbles on Matt McGloin's name and hilariously rambles over it.

McGlophin, McLoutin or McGlockin — let's try McLovin.

Reggie Jackson's response to question about A-Rod is nearly three minutes of silence (Podcast)

Hall of Famer and New York Yankees legend Reggie Jackson recently appeared on WFAN with hosts Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton, and naturally enough the discussion made its way to current Yankee pariah Alex Rodriguez and his ongoing Biogenesis-related suspension.

During the bizarre Q&A segment,  Carton attempted to engage Jackson on the topic of A-Rod by "leading the witness," but the otherwise outspoken Mr. October would have none of it.

 In fact, Jackson didn't merely spin the question, offer a prepared response or a terse "no comment." Instead, Jackson — who was promoting his book, Becoming Mr.October — offered up almost three minutes of almost total silence after Carton asks him, "Does it [A-Rod's scandal] bother you?"

After almost nothing but the hosts' chatter about Reggie's friend "Al", Jackson still doesn't speak for nearly three minutes until they change the subject. 

Since Jackson in the recent past has been an A-Rod ally of sorts, this silence speaks volumes. Is he worn out over addressing the matter or is it a purging of the friendship. Perhaps both.

As for Jackson, here's about all he would say regarding Rodriguez: “I'm so proud. I can't believe I shut up (about A-Rod).”

You can listen to the entire interview on a podcast here.

[CBS Sports.com]

Carl Banks: The 'scary' Giants 'don't like each other'

After what was virtually a 60-minute beat down of the New York Giants by the Carolina Panthers Sunday, one former Giants great called the team "scary."  And not in a good way.

Former Giants linebacker Carl Banks, a part of the Giants' radio broadcast team, spoke with WFAN on Monday and didn’t hold back when reflecting on what he saw while Big Blue was embarrassed in Charlotte, losing to the Panthers, 38-0.

"They were banging Giants, receivers getting knocked all over the place, and there’s not one guy that showed emotion," he said.  "And that’s scary. That really is scary."

But Banks didn't stop there and thinks New York’s problems might run deeper than just a lack of talent.

"They don’t like themselves," the two-time Super Bowl champion said. "That’s what it really comes down to. They don’t like each other. They’re not willing to fight for each other. When you have a premier quarterback in this league, and you don’t have enough self-respect — not for him, but for yourself — to protect him to do your job, I think it speaks volumes. I think these guys really do need to all stand in (front of) the mirror, and it’s gut-check time."

The Giants (0-3) have now been outscored 115-54 in the first three games of the season. It doesn’t get any easier from here, as Tom Coughlin’s squad will head to Kansas City this weekend to take on the undefeated Chiefs after the worst loss of the Coughlin era.

"I have a pretty good idea of what type of coach Tom Coughlin is, and what he expects of his guys, but he doesn’t play," Banks said. "And if they don’t have enough pride as men … And you can hate your coach, and never want to play this bad ever again. If you don’t have enough pride to stand up and do something … I don’t think I’ve seen a collective group just line up and get punched in the face, and stand up and do it again and again and again."

"I think the most disturbing aspect of it is … in all my years of being around the team, they’ve had some bad losses," Banks told WFAN co-hosts Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts. "They’ve had some highs and lows, and some good teams and bad teams. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team just not show emotion as they were just getting pummeled … I don’t advocate fighting, but show some emotion."

The final stats say it all.  The offensive line couldn’t protect Eli Manning, who completed 12 of 23 passes for 119 yards and threw an interception. He was also sacked seven times for 45 yards. The defense was equally as ineffective, surrendering 402 total yards and five touchdowns.

Not exactly Giants football — at least how Banks remembers it.

WFAN's Craig Carton gets soaked in urine during drug test gone wrong (VIDEO)

Craig Carton and WFAN morning co-host Boomer Esiason from the Boomer and Carton Show decided to do a random drug test on Tuesday after the recent PED allegations came out about Alex Rodriguez. After an employee named “White Trash” was selected, producer Al Dukes came to collect the cup from alongside Carton.

You can guess what happens next.

The best part is how long and hard Boomer cracks up at his pee-soaked co-host.

Mike Francesa misses Heisman vote, says he was confused by Army-Navy game

Mike Francesa has denied nodding off during his radio broadcasts a couple of different times— sorry Mike we have the videos to prove it — but for once, the the afternoon sports radio jockey admitted he had his eyes closed when it came to casting his vote for this year's Heisman.

The WFAN host confirmed during his show that he missed the deadline for this year's Heisman vote because the Army-Navy game is being played at a later date this year.

 "I did something this year, folks, that I have never done before in my life.  I actually messed up the Heisman date and didn't get my vote in," Francesa said.  "What screwed me up was, I usually know it's [the deadline] the Monday after the Army-Navy game; the Army-Navy game this week is later.

"They backed the Army-Navy game up this year, so I said, 'Oh, I can't have it the same day as the Army-Navy game,' so that's when I realized I was in trouble."


Actually, this is the fourth straight year Army-Navy has been played the same day as the Heisman ceremony.

Francesa, who claims he's been voting for the annual award for thirty years, said he was confused by the uncharacteristically late game this year.  It sounds like he uses the match up as his Heisman alarm clock and it just didn't go off yet.

The ballot was due a few days ago.

Lately, Francesa had been talking pretty highly of the season Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel had over the other candidates — Kansas State QB Collin Klein and Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.  Manziel is the odds-on favorite and would be the first freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy.

If Manziel loses by a single vote, Johnny Football might want to make a call to the show.  Only problem, he still wouldn't get a word in.

WFAN's Mike Francesa falls asleep on air

It looks like the only time Mike Francesa isn't screaming at some guy from Jersey's opinion while hosting his show is when he is nodding off while on it.  Here's the video to prove it.

On late Tuesday afternoon, the WFAN radio talk show host sawed some Z's during a phone report on the Yankees-Red Sox series with reporter Sweeney Murti.

We already know the Yankees have become the most boring team over the last couple of weeks but even a Yankees-Sox series has to keep the New York-based Francesa intrigued just a bit.

While Sweeney was on the phone droning on about past games between the two rivals, Francesa's chin hit his chest like grandpa in mid-day snooze.  It wasn't until he heard Murti mention the name "Mike" that the bloviating host was jarred from his slumber.



It's not the first time Francesa has nodded during his show and we know he has a busy schedule.  But maybe the only thing that keeps him awake is the sound of his own voice.

Hey Mike, switch back to caffeinated Coke.

Mike Francesa Calls Tiki Barber's NBC Career a "Failure"

 The Tiki Barber Comeback Tour keeps getting better and better.  For the most part of a thirty minute radio interview on Wed., interviewer Mike Francesa ripped the ex-New York Giants running back and called Barber's broadcast stint on NBC a "failure."

Barber, who went on the WFAN show to discuss his plans for returning to the NFL this upcoming season after a four year retirement, went on the defensive after Francesa commented on Barber's release from NBC and his presumed grooming to be the next Matt Lauer on the "Today" show. 

"I don't consider my time at NBC a failure," said Barber.

"The guys at NBC, and I know all of them, they felt you did a bad job, and they said you thought you were entitled, said Francesa.

The radio host probably knows something.  Francesa does a Sunday night show in the same NBC building where the "Today" show broadcasts from.  Word travels fast in 30 Rock.