Dan Bickley used a portion of his interview with Arizona Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall on Thursday morning to make it clear that Chris “Mad Dog” Russo did not deserve a media credential for the World Series after he threatened to retire after Arizona’s surprise victory in the NLCS.
The Diamondbacks leaned into the underdog identity all postseason, and fans turned quickly on Russo after his stunt. Hall even busted out his best impression of the Dog during an interview on High Heat earlier this week.
“Thank you for not letting that guy off the hook,” Bickley said on Bickley & Marotta. “I wish you would have revoked the credential and not let him in the building, but that’s okay. You handle things a little differently than I do.”
Russo was in town all week for MLB Network. In his usual fashion, Russo leaned into the bit as well.
The New York radio legend got hammered all week by the likes of Howard Stern, Don La Greca and Stephen A. Smith for the silly pledge.
However, Arizona was hapless in all three home games of the World Series and lost 4-1 to the Texas Rangers.
Despite the Ls, Hall told Bickley & Marotta the fans were giving it to Russo all series long.
“You know what?,” Hall said. “He deserved it, and boy, our fans got him the entire three days. He was getting destroyed by our fans up there in center field, and he knew it.”
But revoking a credential? Unlikely for an MLB Network broadcaster, unfortunately for Bickley.
Mad Dog may have crossed a line with such a bald-faced gimmick and reduced a World Series team to a joke, but it’s going to take more than that to topple Russo.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.