Over the years, radio and now-podcast host Mike Francesa has become quite notable for the briefness of many of his eulogies. And in those brief eulogies, he’s often noted how he didn’t have a personal relationship with the deceased. The latest example of this is his 14 seconds of commentary on the passing of Tim Wakefield this weekend:
Mike Francesa is back with another 14-second tearjerker of a eulogy, this time for Tim Wakefield. The highlights…
• Mike didn't know him.
• Wakefield was a solid pitcher; but not great. pic.twitter.com/261zjiBrhA— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) October 5, 2023
“Wakefield I didn’t know, but you hear nice things about him. Solid pitcher, journeyman pitcher, not a great pitcher, but a solid pitcher. Had some good days.”
As Funhouse noted in another tweet, this is quite the tradition of Francesa’s. He’s done something similar with everyone from Stan Lee to Horace Clark to Hank Aaron. (And that’s before you get to the people he has prematurely declared dead.)
Here is a quick compilation of heartfelt eulogies by Mike Francesa. If you're not aware, nobody could care less if someone dies than Mike Francesa.
Thanks to the assist from @BigActionBill for providing a voice for Mike's unbelievably insensitive tweet about Horace Clarke. pic.twitter.com/V0nIGbQDdr
— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) September 9, 2020
What’s really interesting about this is that in July of this year, Francesa specifically cited missing covering “the big event,” including “when somebody dies” as a reason he misses radio versus podcasts:
“What I miss is the big event, the big story and not being able to have a real big podium, a big forum for those kinds of things. …When somebody dies. That’s where you need on the radio, somebody who saw these guys play. It’s hard for you guys when somebody dies who played in the ‘60s who was legendary, and you haven’t seen him play and you don’t have any perspective on him.”
It’s certainly good that we all got Francesa’s 14 seconds of commentary on Wakefield’s remarkable life and playing and broadcasting careers. That was definitely much better than what could have been offered by somebody who hadn’t seen him play and didn’t have any perspective on him.
[Funhouse on Twitter]
