The shortest radio interview in history

The clip is 2:09, but the interview is actually over before the 40-second mark.

I follow a good number of MLB beat writers on Twitter, but I'd never heard of John Maffei. So I looked up his page at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

John Maffei

Turns out he's mostly a high school writer. How does he have a Cy Young vote?

 

I've probably mentioned this on the board before, but one day about 10 years ago, Mrs. W and I are driving and the Schmooze is doing one of his opening monologues. After he finishes, Mrs. W says, "that's really nice that the station would do that".

Me -- "do what?"

Mrs. W -- "let this man with special needs be able to have a show on the radio"

 

Five years ago there would have been one vote for deGrom and whoever didn't vote for Scherzer would have been the fool.

 

Two things spring to mind …

1) What the hell did this guy think the interview was going to be about? That he "showed courage to vote that way"? It was going to be an interview where he was clowned from start to finish, so if you're going to agree to it, then finish it out.

2) What would his reaction be to an interview he does where the subject takes one question, then says, "This interview is over"?

 

It's *possible* the writer didn't know what kind of guy Steve Somers is. It's one thing to get clowned. It's another thing to spend 15 minutes getting clowned at syrup speed.

 

I don't think voting for Scherzer is all that outrageous, though I would have voted for deGrom. I'm more interested in how a preps writer got a Cy Young vote.

It's not like the Heisman, where 900-something people vote. There are 30 Cy Young votes in each league, two for each city with a team.

There's really no one else more qualified to do it in San Diego?

 

BBWAA members who are classified as beat writers vote for league MVP, Cy, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. Nobody gets to vote for more than one category per year and the assignments rotate. San Diego's a one-paper town. It's quite possible this dude got a card just to keep the chapter's numbers up and covers enough Padres games as a sidebar guy to qualify for membership.

 

You don't introduce your guest by editorially ripping him. Before he even asked a pertinent question, the radio guy said, "How do you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning."
It is quite possible Maffei doesn't know Somers. I haven't been aware of Somers for a couple of decades. He was run out of L.A. a long time ago because he was a goofball clown who brought nothing to the table.
That said, I don't know Maffei and I have no idea of his qualifications.

 

There’s lots of room for that interview to be even shorter. And I’m surprised it wasn’t.

Click.

 

Sommers has long been a cheapshot douche who brings nothing to the table in the biggest radio market. Remember, he was dynamism personified when he actually put Ray Malavasi to sleep DURING an on-air interview.

 

I never covered more than 10-15 Diamondbacks home games in my brief baseball days, but I did get to vote for NL Rookie of the Year once. Was a BBWAA member for six years, which was a nice resume item, I suppose.

 

Full disclosure: I worked with Maffei when I was a part-time with the North County Times in the '90s (he got absorbed into the U-T when the paper was bought out) and always liked and respected him. He'd already been at the NCT for a long time when I was there and, while mainly a preps guy even then, he would fill in on the Padres beat when needed. And, while generally a nice guy, he didn't suffer fools, so I can see him just signing off when he realized what this interview was all about.
As for Somers, my only real experience listening to him was when he was the KNBC weekend sports anchor back in the late '70s (IIRC, Bryant Gumbel was the weekday sports guy, to show how long ago that was). Even back then, as pre-teen kid just starting to follow sports, I recognized that Somers was pretty much a bozo.
And finally, I don't get the whole outrage about a player winning an award, but one or two voters not giving him the first-place vote. It's just like when Shaquille O'Neal won MVP, but it wasn't unanimous because Fred Hickman voted for Iverson, and people made a big fuss over it. I was a Lakers fan, but, though I disagreed with Hickman's vote, it was defensible, and O'Neal won the award, anyway. I feel the same about Maffei and his vote for Scherzer.