Scoop gave Dana Jacobson a big thumb’s up in A Dent in Keith’s Wallet?:
… As for what Hawaii said about Dana Jacobson…agree entirely! I would be delighted if she replaced Dan, and I can’t think of anyone else at ESPN I would say that about. I remember when she subbed for him during the holidays for a while in ‘05, back when Keith was still coming in to do the Big Show hour with the subs, and he and Dana got along great. At the time, she was on my Future Wives list for Keith. I thought she’d be perfect for him…smart, funny, attractive, great personality, Midwestern nice, knows her sports backwards and forwards, and even lived in New York just like him. My only qualm: in her early 30s, she might be a tad too young for him. (Now I say: “Too young?? Hahahahahahahahaha. Obviously, with Keith, there IS no such thing as ‘too young’…”)
Well, I’ve listened to Dana sub again, and I still like her. A lot. In fact, I’d still rather see her with Keith than…um, but I digress.
Simple fact is, I like the gal. She’s down to earth, doesn’t yell, knows her stuff, and her enthusiasm for sports is contagious. Not only that, but she’s doing her best to keep it up despite the devastation of her alma mater’s humiliating loss to App State and the way she’s getting ridiculed on the Bristol campus for it.
Personally, I also love how she gets wrenched out about small things, the same way I would, and expresses that annoyance in a way that makes me relate to her rather than want to bite her head off. I love how when she wants something out of a snack machine and she doesn’t get it because it gets stuck and the machine keeps her money while not giving her what she wanted, she gets REALLY pissed off, and says so on the air. I loved that. It reminded me of the time she was on with Keith and she was really annoyed because the Starbucks forgot the vanilla in her low-fat sugar-free latte…and what’s more, it reminded HER of that time, too, and she said so!!
And it continued to get better…she complained about how now that she’s moved back to Connecticut from New York, she had to buy a house, and then she had to go to Home Depot to buy a lot of stuff to do repairs with…and she can do it, she’s single and independent and all, but sometimes she really just wishes she had a husband!!!!
I thought “Keith, what can I tell you? This woman is practically begging, and you missed the boat.” Then I realized that, a, Dana’s moved back to Connecticut and, b, Keith has already confessed to not being at all handy.
Oh well. So dies a dream.
But she could still get Dan’s spot on the radio, couldn’t she?
Well, after that great recommendation for Dana Jacobson I had every intention to listen to the podcast for that show. But since DP left ESPN the Worldwide Leader hasn’t been very attentive to the 1-4pm ET time slot. In addition to the throwing hosts up against the wall and hoping one will stick, ESPN is spending a minimum of resources on This is ESPN Radio. For example, they’re not maintaining a show archive. A limited number of segments from each show are made available via the Web site, but only for a few days. The only plus is that since the show isn’t considered premium content, it’s not veiled behind The Insider’s $39.95 annual ($3.95 monthly) fee. So if you want to sample the ESPN smorgasbord of radio hosts for free, now’s your chance.
At any rate, by the time I went to look up that Jacobson-hosted show it was wiped from the ESPN collective conscious. My loss. (I hope they have her on this week. She’ll probably be a lot happier as Michigan pasted Notre Dame yesterday.)
What I’ve liked about Jacobson, in the little I’ve heard her, is that she’s passionate and knowledgeable about sports. And why not? After all, she’s pursued a career in sports media. But she has a favorite team and she sounds like a real fan. I like women who like sports. I mean really like sports — not just because their boyfriend or husband has a favorite team. I can’t stand the Sports Bunny type who only follows a team in the hopes of fooling some poor guy into believing that she’s a sports fan, and once they get married she spends the rest of her life nagging him to stop spending so much time on sports. It’s happened to more than one male friend of mine.
(I know, I know …. False advertising goes in the other direction, too. People who play those kinds of games deserve each other.)
At today’s Mets game there was a wedding reception in one of the private boxes. The bride said the reception at Shea was her father’s idea; she’s not a big Mets fans but the groom is. I hope she knows what she’s gotten herself into. Mr. Met made an appearance at the reception, and the bride and groom got to visit the broadcast booth and have pictures taken with Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling. Too bad Ralph Kiner wasn’t there. Today’s game was a stinker, and I hope it doesn’t set the tone for their married life.
I wonder if KO would have his wedding reception at Yankee Stadium?
Karl wrote a ways back in Dan Patrick: The Farewell For Now Tour — a post-mortem:
I tried downloading DP’s last three shows so I could have them for posterity, but I could only get one. With the others I keep getting error messages. ANyone else have a problem?
I’d meant to download DP’s last three shows right after he did them but dawdled for a few days and then I wasn’t able to get any of them. I tried off and on over the past few weeks; at least a couple of times my computer either froze and had to be rebooted or else the thing would restart by itself as I tried to get the shows to download. Spooky — it was like there was a voodoo hex on DP fans. I was about to email ESPN customer service a couple of nights ago to complain that I didn’t appreciate their Dan Patrick blackout (I imagined some ESPN intern hard at work erasing any and all mention of DP from the ESPN history books) but then lo and behold I got all the shows to download. All I can say is keep trying. DP’s page is still up; you won’t find it listed under ESPN Radio, but it is still there. It’s right here, see?
Gosh, Dan’s been off the air for a month and it feels like it’s been a year.
