Chris "Mad Dog" Russo On His SiriusXM and MLB Talk Shows

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo to discuss his SiriusXM channel, Mad Dog Sports Radio, his MLB Network show, “High Heat.” Russo explains how his legendary years hosting “Mike and the Mad Dog” sports talk show on WFAN paved the way for the future of sports talk radio.

3/26/18 #2121

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Aaaaaaand... good afternoon everybody! High Heat time! Welcome to World Series 2017. And welcome to Dodger Stadium. Welcome to the Minute Maid Park! Welcome to Miami! An All-Star game! This is straight from what I think, nobody's telling me what to say, how to say it, or anything like that. I am a guy making $30 million dollars a year! Anybody who gives him more, you need your head examined. Dusty, get off the mound! They don't need you, for crying out loud! You're a championship baseball team, you want to be part of that? We're trying to help you! And you let this ball drop? Dive! Dive! Dive! [laughter] You gotta be kidding me! Finally... finally... Chris "Mad Dog" Russo has come! Steve! Good to see you big guy! So public television... How you doing? I am great. This is Chris "Mad Dog" Russo. You just saw him on MLB Network High Heat, that's his show, but you also can check him out on Sirius XM, host of Mad Dog Unleashed on the Mad Dog Sports Channel every day from 3 to 6? Love it. Got the radio and a TV, so I fly, I can do the TV everyday at 1, same studio, run down, two doors down, same building, and I start the radio at 3 o'clock, so it's a good scenario for me. Chris, was this the career you envisioned? You know I didn't... Steve I thought I was gonna be a play-by-play guy in baseball. So I went to the Winter Meetings in 1982, right out of college, Rollins College in Florida, and I went to the Winter Meetings baseball that year, and they were in Hawaii. Hmm. So I went out to Hawaii in December of '82 thinking that I was gonna get a job at Major League Baseball as a play-by-play guy, start in the Minor Leagues, and the job I ended up getting was in Jacksonville for the old Jacksonville Suns baseball team Double-A, Tom Seaver pitched there once, you know Henry Aaron used to play in the ballpark, so I ended up in Jacksonville in early '83. To make a long story short, I ended up in radio shortly thereafter, but I thought I was gonna be the next Vin Scully, and I wasn't. When does...? The timing on this, I'm trying get this right, so you're in radio all that time? Right. FAN happens...? Oh yeah, FAN in '89 for me. '89? Right, I was in Jacksonville and Orlando between '83 and '87. Trying to get to New York? Dare I say? No, not necessarily, no. No? Really? I was doing talk radio. I loved Orlando, Florida. I..."