Today should be an interesting day for CBS Radio Boston’s Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti with a lot of extra tune-in. The hosts are being criticized by quite a few print publications after blaming former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay for his own death.
Halladay died in a plane crash this week off the coast of The Gulf of Mexico. Here’s a taste of what Felger and Maz said on the air yesterday that have people up in arms…
Felger: “That guy’s like the bad guy to me. You’ve got a family! And you’re going to screw around in a little toy plane?”
Felger: “You’re a multimillionaire with a loving family, and to you, you have to go get that thing where you can divebomb from 100 feet to five above the water with your single-engine plane with your hand out the window. ‘Wheee! Wheee! Yeah, man, look at the G-force on this! I’m Maverick! Pew pew pew! Yeah, man, look at this, this is so cool.’ And you die! Splat!”
Felger: “He’s not a militarily-trained pilot, he’s not a professionally-trained pilot, he’s a Joe Q. Citizen who buys a plane that folds up and you can put in your garage and that’s amphibious, ‘Wheee! Oh look, I just landed on the water, everybody! I’m going to tweet it!’ Splat. You’re dead. With two kids. Moron.”
Massarotti: “What bugs me about a story like this is when they use the word ‘tragedy.’ A tragedy is what happened at that church in Texas this past weekend, or an orphanage burning down. This? You know what the risks are! …If you’re a thrill-seeker and you die this way, you know the risks. It’s an unfortunate circumstance, not a tragedy
Read more at Yahoo Sports, The New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Deadspin.
Have to say, I think they’re right! We’re (WINT 101.5fm & 1330am in Cleveland) not a sports talk format, so in my morning drive show we just noted the sad event; but if we were sports-talk, I would have taken the conversation in the same direction. Professionals in dangerous sports get killed every once in a while engaging in their profession, but as professionals, they understand the risks and know how to minimize them. When a race car driver dies in a racing accident, it’s the same thing–not a tragedy, but a sad event. Pro sports athletes who have achieved success in one field, too often think that because they have a mastered skill that allows them to excel at one thing, they can be just as good at anything and everything else. So, having money to buy expensive but potentially lethal toys all too often leads to stories with bad endings–like this. His wife was justified (and prophetic) in her concerns but because she loved him and wanted him to be happy, so she gave in. Prayers and heartfelt sympathy to her and the kids.
Top speed for the Icon A-5 is just over 120 mph. Racing across the pond at 5-10 feet above the water at that rate is a circumstances that elevates a disaster to almost a sure thing. Even a cruise speed of 85-90 mph does not allow for the necessary reactions at that altitude to avoid burying the nose and coming to an instant stop.
As to the comments of the WBZ presenters: Yeah. So?
It’s a calculated stunt. Beasley is taking over this CBS station, contracts are being renegotiated and Felger is sending a message about how he’s a publicity magnet.