This would NEVER happen in Boston

So the local SF sports talk station (KNBR) is your fairly typical sports station. They do run some syndicated stuff at time (Jim Rome, Chris Meyes), but they generally have decent hosts and the talk is very, very evenly distributed among different sports and local vs national (as opposed to Boston where it is 95% Red Sox and Pats). But I digress.

This week, their regular morning host has been on vacation and Eric Byrnes has been filling in. Solo. And he has done a great job. He was decent (even if he is a bit goofy looking) during the post season work he did this year. But he has nailed this radio gig. The guy is smart and funny and does not say the stupid things that athletes tend to say all the time (like Damon saying Mienkieviwcz saves 2-3 runs per game.) When he does say things from an athlete’s perspective, he is the first to say “I know I am saying this from the perspective on a player, but the owners….” He has had a few of the beat writers for the A’s and Giants on this week and he has totally just called a spade a spade when addressing certain of the writers – saying which ones you can talk off the record to, which ones are the best to get information out accurately, which ones to avoid. And he gave examples. Plus he had Zito on, asked him some pretty direct questions about contracts, Boras, TEX, NY. And Zito answered them. And you know a guy like Ordway would never ask smart questions that weren’t self serving, get the trust of a player to actually answer them, or even someone that is not his suck up crony take over the show for a week.

It has been extremely refreshing.