Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

chucktownbtown t1_j9gfpdh wrote

Reply to comment by chisel_jockey in Tony Massarotti of ‘Felger and Mazz' Apologizes After ‘Insensitive,' ‘Hurtful' Comments During Broadcast by Freaky713

This guy gets it. Felger and Mazz are personalities that play a certain character on the show. They stick to it because they have strong ratings (very strong). Both very likely pull in north of $1M annually from the show + endorsements.

Why would you change if that’s what brings home the bacon?

22

doctor-rumack t1_j9gp8ok wrote

This is why I can't stand Mazz, but I understand why he does it. When he was the beat writer for the Red Sox while working for the Herald in the late 90's/early 00's, he was an occasional guest on Ordway's show on 'EEI, but eventually worked his way into regular appearances along with with other Herald, ProJo, and Ledger guys (Globe banned their writers from appearing on WEEI for a long time, not sure if they still do).

Massarotti was actually a kind and humble guy in the beginning of his radio career. He was a baseball encyclopedia and his opinions were always balanced and well-spoken. Then he started getting more aggressive with callers and his opinions (Ordway called this his Angry Tony persona), and it was clear he was taking advice to be more controversial to secure a more lucrative future in radio. Obviously he succeeded, hence why I understand his reason for acting like an asshole.

I do think it's an act, and that he's not as bad of a guy as he comes off as, but it comes at a price. I couldn't listen to him on Red Sox broadcasts because I just associated his awful radio persona with what I saw watching the team. I have no sympathy for Tony at this point, and I'd be fine with his career going in the direction of two other loser scumbags formerly at 'EEI, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan.

12

nhf1918 t1_j9hkezr wrote

I just really don’t think he deserves to be compared to Dennis and Callahan. Those guys were undoubtedly racist bastards. They said questionable things almost daily. Tony totally deserves criticism and punishment for what he said but the guy talks on air for thousands of hours a year and just fucked up.

12

CJRLW t1_j9mletc wrote

Yea Dennis & Callahan were on a whole nother level compared to Mazz. I don't get the impression that Mazz is a bad dude, whereas D & C are actual human garbage (moreso C).

3

Constructestimator83 t1_j9h65iq wrote

Felger usually has good hockey takes. He can troll like the best of them (never came close to Adam Jones though) but it’s good background noise when I’m working either way.

6

pccb123 t1_j9h4m2w wrote

Agreed. I was starved for Boston sport content when I was living out of state and started listening to felger and mazz for Murray, who was a classic cranky but funny Boston fanboy, until he became a caricature of himself with the "grumpy old man yells constantly about woke youths" character. Now I dislike him as much (maybe more at this point) than the other two.

I didnt mind Mazz as much as the other two tbh but mostly just tune into some guests (mostly just Gasper and Bedard for pats stuff) but its become just another outrage ratings grab so I quit listening.

2