frenetix t1_j9g1i9w wrote
Reply to comment by theliontamer37 in Tony Massarotti of ‘Felger and Mazz' Apologizes After ‘Insensitive,' ‘Hurtful' Comments During Broadcast by Freaky713
Mazz used to be an actually knowledgeable baseball writer. He gets a vote for who enters the Hall of Fame. I don't know if radio broke him, or maybe he's always been an idiot and radio lets that come to the forefront.
chisel_jockey t1_j9g4tav wrote
What’s infuriating is that it’s an act/character he puts on for the evening drive show with Felger. I haven’t listened to either their show or WEEI in years, but it used to be very apparent when the baseball writers show was on immediately after Felger and Mazz; he completely dropped the schtick and actually had decent insights on the Red Sox and baseball in general. Felger and Mazz are just total bozos trying to take controversial stances for the ratings. And it’s annoying as hell when you just want some decent discussion on local teams instead of “entertainment”
chucktownbtown t1_j9gfpdh wrote
This guy gets it. Felger and Mazz are personalities that play a certain character on the show. They stick to it because they have strong ratings (very strong). Both very likely pull in north of $1M annually from the show + endorsements.
Why would you change if that’s what brings home the bacon?
doctor-rumack t1_j9gp8ok wrote
This is why I can't stand Mazz, but I understand why he does it. When he was the beat writer for the Red Sox while working for the Herald in the late 90's/early 00's, he was an occasional guest on Ordway's show on 'EEI, but eventually worked his way into regular appearances along with with other Herald, ProJo, and Ledger guys (Globe banned their writers from appearing on WEEI for a long time, not sure if they still do).
Massarotti was actually a kind and humble guy in the beginning of his radio career. He was a baseball encyclopedia and his opinions were always balanced and well-spoken. Then he started getting more aggressive with callers and his opinions (Ordway called this his Angry Tony persona), and it was clear he was taking advice to be more controversial to secure a more lucrative future in radio. Obviously he succeeded, hence why I understand his reason for acting like an asshole.
I do think it's an act, and that he's not as bad of a guy as he comes off as, but it comes at a price. I couldn't listen to him on Red Sox broadcasts because I just associated his awful radio persona with what I saw watching the team. I have no sympathy for Tony at this point, and I'd be fine with his career going in the direction of two other loser scumbags formerly at 'EEI, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan.
nhf1918 t1_j9hkezr wrote
I just really don’t think he deserves to be compared to Dennis and Callahan. Those guys were undoubtedly racist bastards. They said questionable things almost daily. Tony totally deserves criticism and punishment for what he said but the guy talks on air for thousands of hours a year and just fucked up.
CJRLW t1_j9mletc wrote
Yea Dennis & Callahan were on a whole nother level compared to Mazz. I don't get the impression that Mazz is a bad dude, whereas D & C are actual human garbage (moreso C).
Constructestimator83 t1_j9h65iq wrote
Felger usually has good hockey takes. He can troll like the best of them (never came close to Adam Jones though) but it’s good background noise when I’m working either way.
pccb123 t1_j9h4m2w wrote
Agreed. I was starved for Boston sport content when I was living out of state and started listening to felger and mazz for Murray, who was a classic cranky but funny Boston fanboy, until he became a caricature of himself with the "grumpy old man yells constantly about woke youths" character. Now I dislike him as much (maybe more at this point) than the other two.
I didnt mind Mazz as much as the other two tbh but mostly just tune into some guests (mostly just Gasper and Bedard for pats stuff) but its become just another outrage ratings grab so I quit listening.
theliontamer37 t1_j9g2uka wrote
He was a good writer. Radio got to his head. He just loves to hear himself talk, and it’s usually nonsense. He was one of the more vocal local ppl who said we should trade Brady in ‘14, and sticked with it for the next 5 years. If that doesn’t show ppl how much a moron he is idk what will.
Quiddity131 t1_j9hc05r wrote
> He was one of the more vocal local ppl who said we should trade Brady in ‘14, and sticked with it for the next 5 years.
Felger was also big on pushing Brady out of town. Among other things he claimed Brady used steroids, claimed Brady was putting in hardly any effort, claimed Brady had illegal dealings going on with Kraft surrounding Alex Guerrero, took any opportunity he could to bash the TB12 stuff, claimed Brady would completely fall off a cliff like Favre did, and has pushed his chips in probably more than anyone in the local media that Brady is a cheater over Deflategate (when pretty much anyone these days knows it was just the weather).
...the second Brady leaves for Tampa? Felger bashing Belichick and the Patriots endlessly for "running Brady out of town".
[deleted] t1_j9gd6q1 wrote
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DRZ36 t1_j9g7ha6 wrote
It’s pretty clear to me what happened. Talk radio only works if you piss people off. Felger knows nothing about sports, but he knows how to rile up a fan base and get people calling in, yelling at him and engaging with the show.
You can see Mazz try to be more like Felger, and it’s always transparently flat.
Reddit_User_Loser t1_j9gscfn wrote
Their whole shtick is to be condescending douche bags and give vague hot takes to get people to call in angrily and say stupid things so they can say “Oh but I didn’t actually say that, what I said was…”. It’s the radio version of garbage reality TV. They’re only on the air because it works.
It’s like the 2nd date update on 96.9. It’s all scripted fake phone calls to elicit reactions or keep people listening through the commercial breaks.
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