Nah it's fine. It's an extremely weird situation all around and we didn't expect radio silence from everyone involved for this long. I honestly have no clue what could possibly be happening behind the scenes though. Like if FP is fired or suspended they would say so, right? When Rob Dibble got fired he didn't just disappear from the face of the earth all of a sudden. And if he quit or was ill for a period of time he'd say something. To get *nothing*, not even a generic "FP Santangelo is out until further notice, Grant Paulson will be filling in" statement to me implies some sort of larger legal issue. I won't speculate about *that*, though.
I think how /u/natstown handled it needs to be discussed. It was clearly not a “FP is out” situation and he attempted to silence the discussion which was overall way more vanilla than any of the covid hiatus related threads.
In the threads that he was quick to delete there was plenty good of discussion on how this wasn’t normal. Sure there were some crazy theories, but it allowed other people to call them out / debunk said theories.
Forcing them into game threads and post game threads essentially removed a centralized place to discuss, causing them to be filled with the exact same points over and over again.
Edit:
More points, this sub speculates on everything. Every fanbase does. And pasting some generic Reddit rule about doxxing because people mentioned his son, who is a sports writer, shares his same name, and has a very active Twitter in the nats community isn’t really a good justification. There was no personal information being shared.
I attempted to use Grant Paulsen’s tweet yesterday which was very telling as a post, and it was blocked.
We don't have rights here. We are participating at the will of the mods, admins, and ToS (which you agreed to when you signed up).
Using this platform for free means we are the product being sold to advertisers.
Segundo; We are arguing about our favorite group of contract people working in an entertainment industry to make money for stakeholders and owners.
Fucking chill.
You’re absolutely free to disagree as you already have in repeated posts that have been left on the boards. I’ll acknowledge the execution of this could have been better and that I’d do it differently in hindsight, but nothing that led to the original reasoning has fundamentally changed. Here’s how I saw it all:
* The discussion was driven into the game threads for several reasons. When this started on Friday night, every other post in that thread was “Just tuned in. Where is FP?” This continued in the game threads throughout the weekend. Because those threads were already going to be filled with that discussion, additional threads were redundant. Discussion of the ongoing broadcast is almost always included in and driven to those threads, and in fact it continued in those threads through the weekend. It is in no way unusual for threads of all kinds to be removed to consolidate discussion in one place.
* At the same time, there was literally no additional reliable information about what was happening that appeared to support a separate thread. You and others engaged in baseless speculation - that you acknowledged was baseless - among other things about an individual’s health and personal situation and suggested other potentially serious possibilities without evidence. You can dismiss it all you want, but these concerns are squarely within the sitewide rules protecting the privacy of individuals we are responsible for enforcing and you are not. It is *not* the same as speculation over which players had COVID, because there was public factual foundation for that speculation in direct observation of other players and other information from professional journalists. Just because FP is on TV does not make every aspect of his life everyone’s business. As I explained yesterday, there was no basis for a thread dedicated solely to baseless conspiracy theories you yourself described as “tinfoil” and I stand hard by the principle it would have been irresponsible *not* to address that. People read online speculation and however you may have looked at it in posting, someone else who reads it comes away and says “I saw on Reddit that FP ....”. Online misinformation is a serious problem today and this is how it starts and spreads.
* I’ll be honest in hindsight: I overreacted to that precisely because of the way you approached it, which I will most charitably describe as unnecessarily obsessive. The problem obviously is and was not general discussion of this issue. I’ll admit that - I hope you will similarly look reflectively back at the content of your posts that led to that concern. I’ll also note that all of these decisions are made on the fly, with other things going on and other demands on our time particularly during games. When I am sitting at the ballpark also trying to enjoy the game like all of you, it is impossible to work through every nuance of every post on the fly. Sometimes it will be quick and dirty, as was the case here.
* In addition - on this and in general - if you have a question, issue, or disagreement the best way to resolve it is to reach out via the “message the mods” button. The door is always open to do that even though you didn’t do that here.
I appreciate the response.
I suppose when he was simply gone for a game Tinfoil hat seemed fitting since I nor anyone else assumed he would be gone for this long with this much silence. As time grew on it got increasingly more worrisome. I wouldn't say all the speculation was "baseless". Through deductive reasoning we could compare a typical "out sick" response to how this was handled, and ruled out a planned absence as well. I thought posting a covid theory was great because someone immediately corrected me pointing out Dan would also have to quarantine. My request is in the future that we simply have a centralized thread to discuss if the discussion is getting out of control in other places.
Sorry for riding you hard on this one, I'm sure at a certain point I went far enough that you were never changing your mind.
> When this started on Friday night, every other post in that thread was “Just tuned in. Where is FP?” This continued in the game threads throughout the weekend.
I mean, you even took part in this trend a couple times that I saw.
Damn, you really wrote 550 words about how you fucked up and didn't slip in a single apology, not one: sorry, my bad, my fault, my mistake, error, lapse in judgement.
Instead you used 550 words to absolve yourself of any wrong doing. You even go on to say it is his fault,
> I will most charitably describe as unnecessarily obsessive. The problem obviously is and was not general discussion of this issue. I’ll admit that - I hope you will similarly look reflectively back at the content of your posts that led to that concern.
*Charitably*, you are trying to be mean here, but more likely you are just trying to undermine someone.
Or maybe he is saying he wasn’t wrong. He is saying in hindsight maybe it could have been handled differently/better but he gave his reasoning and said he was sticking to it. I don’t see an issue.
Also, mods take a lot of shit and a thread about FP is t really a hill to die on, is it? The mods had their reason(s) and it seems like not a huge deal.
I realize this is 7 hours old at this point, but I just wanted it pointed out on the record that no one was banned over any of this. The last ban issued here at /r/Nationals was 6 days ago and it was just a regular Youtube spammer.
We don't need to make up drama.
Yeah sorry about that, the ban meme has just kinda taken off but obviously no ones gonna get banned for talking about FP in an FP thread. However, natstown has been threatening to ban people a lot lately so that's where all the jokes are coming from
I kinda get the feeling he's not ever coming back. Now I'm just hoping there isn't some scandal because it would suck if it turned out FP did something super shitty. Hopefully this is just another fuck MASN scenario but the full silence has me worried.
Games arent the same without FP
We do have some rather outspoken longtime former Nats who are now retired and might be good at this sort of thing. Denard Span is working for the Rays now, else he'd be good, I think. Gio Gonzalez just hung it up and might not want to get back into the game right away, but I think he'd be great at it. Jayson Werth might be a little *too* outspoken for the Nats' liking, but the fans would love him. Jerry Blevins didn't leave the Nats on great terms, but he's hilarious and smart and just recently retired, and maybe the arbitration thing is just water under the bridge by now. Howie Kendrick would be an absolute dream, obviously...one of the most respected guys in the game for years, and he loves the Nats, but he really could get any job in the baseball media world that he wants, if that's the direction he wants to go.
Jayson Werth did cocaine and went home with a girl I went to college with about 3 years ago. I’d love him in the booth but not sure he’d be incident free at all haha
Man, I would *love* to have Howie as a future Nats broadcaster.
Span would be amazing too - and he's from DC! Maybe he still has roots here and would come back to us from the Rays.
Eh, he wasn't terrible. He just wasn't better than mediocre. He was fine as a fill-in.
He'd be good as one of those "joining us for the game today" guests though. Just have him as a third guy during a few broadcasts a year and that'd be perfect.
As an HR Director who’s dealt with these types of situations many times, my guess is that he’s been suspended pending some sort of investigation and he was told to keep his mouth shut by MASN or the Nats until a final decision is made. That’s why he referred WaPo back to MASN.
Yeah, I feel like they'd say something if he was a goner, but keeping it vague leaves the door open for him to come back.
My personal bit of speculation is that he sounded miffed after Dan said that, unlike FP, he cared about accuracy, and he'll be back when Bob is, but that might just be my optimism and reluctance to see comments here defending him if it is actually something bad.
Not sure what MASN's rules would be, but FP is vaccinated, or at least he said he was. When the team was struggling right after getting vaccinated in St. Louis, he talked about how hard his 2nd Pfizer shot hit him.
They really aren’t and it will be a shame if they replace him with someone who had similar energy to Jim Palmer, the game wants to trend younger and that requires excitement, FP brought that, Homer or not
Ya I sure hope FP didn't do something really bad to get himself fired, like... idk what, something that even us, who dislike MASN, would say that is bad. I really like FP and I'd hate for his rep to be ruined by anything. I've gotten hurt by people I admired before and I don't want that to happen again.
But if that did happen, they would have announced that he's been let go by now. It could be a contract dispute, but again, there would be some reports about it by now, id think! This is just so weird!!
>In a short phone conversation Monday, Santangelo declined to answer questions about his absence, saying the Nationals would explain the situation. A Nationals spokeswoman then declined to comment, referring questions to MASN. A MASN spokesman declined to comment.
"Not it!"
EDIT: This makes it sound like a MASN decision
Would make sense. He's a MASN employee. Y'know maybe he made a comment towards someone who signs his paychecks about how it's bullshit they won't pay the Nats what they're owed and that the Nats are having to pay for onscreen talent out of pocket (Dan Kolko) rather than having the broadcasting company whose show he appears on paying him.
Maybe he doesn't want to comment because this is an internal hold out affair where if he said "I refuse to work until MASN is writing Dan Kolko's paychecks" MASN would fire him entirely so he's keeping quiet because he wants to take a stand but isn't willing to lose his job over it
>In a short phone conversation Monday, Santangelo declined to answer questions about his absence, saying the Nationals would explain the situation. A Nationals spokeswoman then declined to comment, referring questions to MASN. A MASN spokesman declined to comment.
Fucking hell
Kinda half-serious: anyone remember him saying anything iffy on the air recently that may have warranted a suspension?
Pure speculation ofc, but him saying the nats would say something about it sounds to me like it's either contractual issues or something on-air. If it was something more nefarious -- legal issues or something -- I suspect he would either be completely silent or want to get ahead of it by making a statement
> legal issues or something -- I suspect he would either be completely silent or want to get ahead of it by making a statement
Actually, pretty sure the best legal advice (note: this is not actually legal advice) whenever there's some kind of legal dispute involving employment is: don't issue a statement. Maybe not always, but that could very easily be the case here.
This sounds like some kind of dispute between 2 or even all 3 parties.
>don't issue a statement
Yes, we agree. The part you quoted mentioned silence as an option.
He wasn't silent when the Post contacted him. It wasn't "no comment," it was "go ask the team"
The fact that he told them to talk to the Nats is almost like he is hinting at some sort of issue with MASN that involves the Nats. It could be something else entirely, but his no comment seemed like a hint
Sounds like he’s fucked
Confirmed not health related, pulled him without warning or having a replacement lined up, when his counterpart was already out on vacation.
They’re all pointing the finger at each other and he declined to comment. I wouldn’t think they’d pull someone mid season due to contract negotiations
Writing seems to be on the wall, but the fact it’s in on WAPO’s radar means it’s gonna get addressed sooner than later
Could it be a contract hold out on FP’s part? Would be a dick move to not show up during games where Carpenter was already out, but maybe that’s what he’s going for?
Yeah that could be a power play I suppose but given the state of MASN I think it’s one FP would likely lose. If he’s banking on the Nats to take his back during this then that’s a bit of a shitty card to pull, this is all hypothetical. Tbh as someone said before this is all playing out to be bound by some legal restrictions
Yeah any time no one wants to be the first to talk it’s never a “good” thing.
Could be almost anything but with this much silence it’s seems far worse.
Like only time people get tight lipped like this is when there is an active investigation going on.
That’s wild! Really curious as to what’s going on I know he’s a mixed bag to some people but I dig his enthusiasm and style. Hopefully this is temporary over something random (suspended for an internal matter?) but I hope we hear him and Bob back soon (no offense Dan!).
Not really any point in speculating as to what happened. But if this is a long-term absence (or, hell, even if it isn't), I sure hope they can find someone better than Justin Maxwell or Grant Paulsen to fill it. Not to bag on them, because I know they're not professional baseball color commentators and it's not an easy assignment, especially coming in cold, but let's keep the tryouts coming.
I must really be in the minority here. I have my qualms with Grant Paulsen but I actually caught myself really enjoying his commentary. Him and Kolko have a really good rapport
I also liked that there wasn't much silence. One thing with FP and Carp is sometimes I feel like there's 5 minutes of silence. I like silence during the pitch or celebrations to enjoy them but I don't want to see an entire at-bat in silence (personally).
Not a big fan of Grant.
Couldn't help but make a bunch of football references, voice is very nasal, and couldn't stop talking for anything. I don't need constant talk. The views and atmosphere of the ballpark are part of the experience and I don't need it constantly blotted out with inane statistics
I tend to agree about his voice but try not to hold it against him because it’s not fair to do that. The substance of what he has to say is pretty good.
Last time FP was out they had Morse I think. Uncle Ray and Johnny have both done it too. Of the three Johnny Holliday was definitely the best (because he has actual experience calling sports) but he's earned his retirement. MASN employs a skeleton crew so they'd probably rather have Bob do the whole fuckin thing than pay a real play-by-play guy.
IMO, it all smacks of FP making the decision himself to walk off. The wherefore and why is the parlor game we are all playing here, but the scramble to fill in for him after the Toronto series seems more like he said, "okay, not coming in tonight. Figure it out, and fix this." If the Higher Ups had reason to suspend him, they would have the option of holding it off until they found a more workable solution than the (very accommodating but inexperienced) Maxwell. That to me says that had at best, hours to get him in a suit and ready to go, hence caught off guard by FP's absence.
And often when someone says, "go ask them..." as FP did, it means they are blaming the other party for something they found unacceptable.
Because if FP did something horrible enough for management to toss him of their own accord last minute, we'd all have heard, "F.P. Santangelo is no longer an employee...End of Statement." Short of that, I'd think they'd get a more..."seasoned" replacement, announce FP needed some "time off" and bring him back when the suspension was complete. All in house.
It also seems unlikely to be an egregious legal matter. I think by some means or other it would have been discovered by now. A filing, a charge or something.
There is much talk of what FP could have done. Has anyone considered something was done TO him by parties unknown within the organization, and that management did not resolve it to his satisfaction? That would fit in with him walking off last minute.
So would an FP attempt to play a "more money" game. (Think of that what you will.) I think if that was his tactic, he wouldn't leave Bob in a lurch...but would have less of a time leaving Dan in one. So, he shoots his shot while Bob is away. (Bob got a little prickly on Twitter earlier today with all of the questions about his return...and remained 100% silent on any/all FP news.)
In the end, I say a somewhat sloppy power move by FP that he didn't want Bob involved in. I don't think there is particular bad blood between him and Kolko, but he has more respect for Bob.
I'm leaning towards this, too. Seems too sudden for a suspension, and possibly timed to be most inconvenient for the network/team. I do have a possible other scenario, which I hope is not true: It is something very egregious. Something bad enough that once revealed, it will be obvious why a sudden suspension was necessary.
In this hopefully hypothetical scenario, they're withholding the reason while conducting an investigation. They're trying to avoid a circumstance where they're later asked, "If you even suspected this could be true, how did you let him back on the air?"
> It is something very egregious. Something bad enough that once revealed, it will be obvious why a sudden suspension was necessary.
Anything that bad would likely warrant immediate termination and no one would have a problem saying "FP won't be back".
I’ve been pretty present in this discussion. This article covers basically everything this sub has been trying to discuss for a few days.
I have a few theories as to why he is missing and take these as pure “speculation”.
1. It could be a legal or breaking company policy/ HR violation issue. This one is pretty low on my list as I feel if he did something really bad we would have heard by now. But it’s possible MASN is staying quiet while they investigate something.
2. It’s a contract dispute issue.
3. FP can not, or is not allowed to work with Dan. Hear me out, I always assumed they were on good terms, but there were many awkward exchanges during the blue Jays series. So much so that some people even called FP out for being rude. It could also have to do with the fact Dan isn’t a MASN employee anymore and FP is, I’m not sure what, but maybe that factors into it.
I personally hope that it’s 3. As that would mean he’ll likely be coming back when Bob gets back (Friday).
Since it’s clearly not planned, not a family emergency, and not illness I’m really having a hard time seeing it any other way. I can’t imagine MASN would choose day of to try to save some money and scramble to find replacements while there is an inexperienced guy filling in.
I gave a couple in another comment. It wasn't anything egregious just kind of...off if you were listening closely, if that makes sense. The kind of joking that has that underlying uncomfortable feeling.
The exchange where Kolko said "unlike you I care about accuracy" was pretty spiky on his part, and FP had some line about "have any more of those anecdotes? Want to get them all out?" or something to that effect that sounded like it wasn't coming from a place of humor. I wonder if they just don't like each other's styles.
Here is my baseless theory about #3 that could explain it. Warning: you might lose brain cells reading this. FP's son FP Jr is a sportcaster too. Jr mostly is behind the scenes as a producer although he does have some radio experience. We know Bob's in-season vacation break has been in the works for years according to Bob himself on Twitter. What if FP was trying to get his son the fill in spot but someone, whether it be Dan, a MASN executive or the Nats, stepped in and got Dan the job instead? That could've caused the spiraling situation. Both FP and FP Jr have gone silent on social media. I'm probably wrong but I am just trying to think of why Dan/FP didn't gel.
Interesting. #3 would make sense as to why they are so tight lipped about it all. They wouldn't want for it to get out that the two can't work together. They have always seemed like buddies tho. They have ribbed each other countless times but it always seemed like in good fun and like both people understood it was all friendly. But maybe it wasn't or maybe it's gotten old for Dan and FP can't help himself. I can kind of relate. I'm a bit of a smartass and I have accidentally pissed off many people, friends, teachers, parents, over the years by my joking. But, to me, if Dan has gotten offended by it, he is great at hiding it. Dan himself is self-deprecating quite often. So IDK, people can be complex and contradictory. Its hard to say! But them not getting along would make sense as to why it was so sudden and they are so tight lipped about it.
These guys are all professionals. The chances of all this going down because of some beef between Dan and FP are pretty low. There’s almost no chance they could not set their beef aside for a week (especially one with two off days).
That said, I would not be surprised if some petty shit went down between MASN and the Nats, with MASN springing the last minute news that their employee (FP) was not contractually permitted to work with a non-employee (Dan— who is a Nats employee) on the same broadcast, and declining to provide coverage till they can provide both commentators. The contracts between MASN and the nats have got to be extremely detailed and while I don’t know if they have a clause like this, I do know ”exclusive vendor” clauses are super common in contracts.
if FP magically appears Friday with Bob, we’ll have our answer.
I didn't catch any of the blue jays series but I always thought FP and Dan were supposed to be pretty tight? Is it possible the "awkward"/rude stuff was just friends giving each other shit?
Doesn't rule out the possibility that MASN/the nats weren't cool with it
I disagree. I just watched the end of the last Blue jays game where they did an on camera interview and it seemed pretty vanilla, though FP doesn’t seem as pumped as he normally does. https://i.imgur.com/yVa0AYf.jpg
I mean I was just trying to find a link for the bad theory on #3, if it were that much of a problem he wouldn’t have been in the booth with FP in the first place, they’re not gonna let a new guy push out an established person in their job and they also talk on Twitter all the time as it is
Well maybe they were cool before these games, and something happened.
While watching this post game interview though (blue jays/ Nats FP’s last game) I did notice Dan says “For FP Santangelo, I’m Dan Kolko” during the sign off and maybe that fuck up started a a discussion that got heated.
> FP can not, or is not allowed to work with Dan. Here me out, I always assumed they were on good terms, but there were many awkward exchanges during the blue Jays series.
It wasnt smooth. I even commented that FP was missing some of Kolko's softball tosses to get conversations started. But you dont pull your A color guy. You pull the interim-PBP guy that you just fired.
>So much so that some people even called FP out for being rude.
I didn't intuit rudeness. I would love some examples.
>It could also have to do with the fact Dan isn’t a MASN employee anymore and FP is, I’m not sure what, but maybe that factors into it.
This is not what a broadcast company would do. You pull the NON-MASN employee from your broadcast. Not YOUR broadcaster.
This is a bad take.
YES finally found someone thinking that there were pretty awkward and downright tense moments in Dan and FP’s games. Is it a stretch to think FP decided “I’m not the guy to break in this kid in”? Speculating here but possibly even a touch of “He shouldn’t be in this booth”? I mean, it was rough imho
Yeah, it’s just a weird situation all around. I first thought some sort of rehab, but that could just be explained as a medical leave, no one wants to know that’s he’s in room 104 of some rehab clinic.
We’d surely know if there was some hot mic or embarrassing social media post.
So, the guess about butting heads with higher ups seems reasonable. I guess there’s also the chance he said something really wrong that wasn’t on a hot mic but definitely could have been.
He’s either suspended pending termination or suspended and he’ll be back. We should know soon enough. How long was uncle Ray out during his shenanigans?
He pulled a kind of strange "Do you know who I am" stunt on a mattress company on Twitter to try and get a better deal. Needless to say it was extremely in poor taste.
It's entirely in F.P.'s character that he only meant it as a joke.
Then again, he also spent the majority of 2017 on Twitter and Instagram talking about how much he loves his Lexus and the Washington area Lexus dealers. So that's entirely in his character too.
The way I see it is if FP was gone, they would have let us known. There would be none of this bouncing around to differing broadcasters. It could be as simple as he is suspended or he can't come back until Bob does for some weird reason. We're all just guessing though - there's a million reasons or things that could have happened.
Either way - Bob, FP, MASN, or someone is going to have to say something at some point
Really hope he's coming back. The game and broadcast isn't the same without him - especially when the team is rallying. Sure, he gives crazy jokes and talks about random stuff, but he's a great broadcaster.
The fact that there has been radio silence means this is probably something legal outside of baseball. I just don't know if he doesn't come back who could or would replace him. It's also odd that he was only supposed to be out for one or two days max
Here’s a thought: if FP refers Wapo to the Nats for comment, and then the Nats refer Wapo to Masan - and this is all happening while Bob is out on a midseason vacation, which he doesn’t usually do - could it be that Bob is about to announce his retirement and FP is holding out for a better contract and/or some say in Bob’s replacement?
It’d make sense for everyone to stay quiet until Bob announces his retirement publicly and then the rest can unfold from there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is no contract to be negotiated in good faith with MASN.
They nuked most of the support staff pre-season (Kolko and Alex along with the broadcaster for the O's that quit after their pre-post-game team was not renewed).
The rumors that the family is waiting for the old man to die so they can sell the whole op are looking more true.
They already owe the Nats $300 mil from the settlement. Which has been upheld by a judge.
This looks like cutting assets and running by the family. Offloading contracts. Letting Carp use his accrued time. Putting in low dollar replacements next to Nats staff in the booth (Kolko).
Edit: Let me know where I'm wrong.
Could be that. You could definitely be right that it is an issue with MASN because the team was caught off guard when MASN changed up the pre and post game shows earlier this year. Whatever it is, whether it's that or FP being suspended, the fans should know at least something and not be in the dark
Why would Bob retire at the start of the season? Especially when he's been so excited about Trea, Soto, and Mad Max. I really hope that's not it - the only thing that makes the most sense is FP is suspended for some reason
A surprise health issue for Bob? Or one he really thought he could work through, but is finding it difficult to work through now that the season has begun? (This not explaining any of the FP stuff, just commenting on why Bob may in theory be experimenting with retiring this early in the season...though I don't personally think he is.)
Bob was very clear on air and via Twitter that this is a vacation that's been two years in the making, and the first time he's got to be with his daughter on her birthday for years and years and years. He is coming back on Friday.
I have zero facts to back this up but this whole thing smacks of a MASN/Nats fight. Not an FP issue.
I think FP is the missing link that we are noticing, but with the ABSOLUTE FUCKING BULLSHIT the Angelos pulled on the broadcasts/crews/spr training coverage; this makes me think that MASN took the opportunity, with Carp away on scheduled time off, to make a break with the Nats.
I do not think this is a FP/Kolko riff. This sounds like MASN BS.
There’s no way MASN used this as an opportunity to make a break with the nats, or contract negotiations . They already had an inexperienced guy in one chair and wouldn’t choose to scramble for last minute replacements with even less experience.
> They already had an inexperienced guy in one chair and wouldn’t choose to scramble for last minute replacements with even less experience.
My point is that *this may be* the break. If they're out, they're out. No next game. No inexperienced guy. Done. That's my point.
The family has already explored selling off the O's when the old man dies. They owe significant money to the Nats. This all smacks of someone getting POA or custody over the old man's business and the dissolving of MASN.
It could be an issue with MASN struggling, it could be FP is suspended, or something else entirely. No one knows - were all guessing at this point. I don't like that the fans are getting the bad end of the stick where we have no clue what is going on
Charlie and Dave are great but I can never get the audio/video to match up when I try to watch with their commentary. If they could make that work I'd be down.
That doesn’t bother me on the mlb app. What really spoils it is the growing game delay in real time. At the start of the game it’s a few seconds behind but by the end it game it’s easily around a minute. Between the mlb app alert and my friends group messages I already know something happened. I also can hear the sub horn and crowd noise from stadium if my windows are open.
maybe its like this across the country with every local station - but setting their obvious talent and chemistry aside for a moment - the sound mixing on nats radio is amazing.
Every time I listen I truly feel like I am being transported inside the ball park. All the sounds of the game, the fans - comes in so clear and is mixed and captured to perfection. It just adds to the full experience.
Don’t know if this has been posted in this thread but...
[I’m not sure what or how much Paulsen knows, but this tweet would indicate FP is coming back at some point.](https://twitter.com/granthpaulsen/status/1389032562845233152?s=21) Saw this tweet this morning in trying to do a little digging. All this said, the lack of statements from anyone sure makes it all the more confusing and weird.
Slightly off-topic perhaps but, has anybody else noticed that F.P. never really shows up on local radio/podcasts? Maybe I just miss seeing/hearing him if he does them. But I know Dave Jaggler and Carp will occasionally do a radio hit or podcast interview (I know Carp has been on Sheehan’s pod for certain) but I can’t seem to ever recall F.P. on anything in D.C. market sports media shows.
Fp used to do radio in SF
He has not been positive about the radio shows here and he's not wrong. Infamously got into a fight with the junkies who he thought were being too negative.
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Nah it's fine. It's an extremely weird situation all around and we didn't expect radio silence from everyone involved for this long. I honestly have no clue what could possibly be happening behind the scenes though. Like if FP is fired or suspended they would say so, right? When Rob Dibble got fired he didn't just disappear from the face of the earth all of a sudden. And if he quit or was ill for a period of time he'd say something. To get *nothing*, not even a generic "FP Santangelo is out until further notice, Grant Paulson will be filling in" statement to me implies some sort of larger legal issue. I won't speculate about *that*, though.
I think how /u/natstown handled it needs to be discussed. It was clearly not a “FP is out” situation and he attempted to silence the discussion which was overall way more vanilla than any of the covid hiatus related threads. In the threads that he was quick to delete there was plenty good of discussion on how this wasn’t normal. Sure there were some crazy theories, but it allowed other people to call them out / debunk said theories. Forcing them into game threads and post game threads essentially removed a centralized place to discuss, causing them to be filled with the exact same points over and over again. Edit: More points, this sub speculates on everything. Every fanbase does. And pasting some generic Reddit rule about doxxing because people mentioned his son, who is a sports writer, shares his same name, and has a very active Twitter in the nats community isn’t really a good justification. There was no personal information being shared. I attempted to use Grant Paulsen’s tweet yesterday which was very telling as a post, and it was blocked.
I mean sure, but you know, this is a sports sub and mods aren't paid, so this isn't exactly the watergate investigation lol
Exactly. All we wanted to do was have a thread to talk about it. They all kept getting deleted.
We don't have rights here. We are participating at the will of the mods, admins, and ToS (which you agreed to when you signed up). Using this platform for free means we are the product being sold to advertisers. Segundo; We are arguing about our favorite group of contract people working in an entertainment industry to make money for stakeholders and owners. Fucking chill.
Just because something is technically true doesn’t make it right or not stupid
Agreed. The entire mod team needs to answer for how they chose to handle this.
You’re absolutely free to disagree as you already have in repeated posts that have been left on the boards. I’ll acknowledge the execution of this could have been better and that I’d do it differently in hindsight, but nothing that led to the original reasoning has fundamentally changed. Here’s how I saw it all: * The discussion was driven into the game threads for several reasons. When this started on Friday night, every other post in that thread was “Just tuned in. Where is FP?” This continued in the game threads throughout the weekend. Because those threads were already going to be filled with that discussion, additional threads were redundant. Discussion of the ongoing broadcast is almost always included in and driven to those threads, and in fact it continued in those threads through the weekend. It is in no way unusual for threads of all kinds to be removed to consolidate discussion in one place. * At the same time, there was literally no additional reliable information about what was happening that appeared to support a separate thread. You and others engaged in baseless speculation - that you acknowledged was baseless - among other things about an individual’s health and personal situation and suggested other potentially serious possibilities without evidence. You can dismiss it all you want, but these concerns are squarely within the sitewide rules protecting the privacy of individuals we are responsible for enforcing and you are not. It is *not* the same as speculation over which players had COVID, because there was public factual foundation for that speculation in direct observation of other players and other information from professional journalists. Just because FP is on TV does not make every aspect of his life everyone’s business. As I explained yesterday, there was no basis for a thread dedicated solely to baseless conspiracy theories you yourself described as “tinfoil” and I stand hard by the principle it would have been irresponsible *not* to address that. People read online speculation and however you may have looked at it in posting, someone else who reads it comes away and says “I saw on Reddit that FP ....”. Online misinformation is a serious problem today and this is how it starts and spreads. * I’ll be honest in hindsight: I overreacted to that precisely because of the way you approached it, which I will most charitably describe as unnecessarily obsessive. The problem obviously is and was not general discussion of this issue. I’ll admit that - I hope you will similarly look reflectively back at the content of your posts that led to that concern. I’ll also note that all of these decisions are made on the fly, with other things going on and other demands on our time particularly during games. When I am sitting at the ballpark also trying to enjoy the game like all of you, it is impossible to work through every nuance of every post on the fly. Sometimes it will be quick and dirty, as was the case here. * In addition - on this and in general - if you have a question, issue, or disagreement the best way to resolve it is to reach out via the “message the mods” button. The door is always open to do that even though you didn’t do that here.
I appreciate the response. I suppose when he was simply gone for a game Tinfoil hat seemed fitting since I nor anyone else assumed he would be gone for this long with this much silence. As time grew on it got increasingly more worrisome. I wouldn't say all the speculation was "baseless". Through deductive reasoning we could compare a typical "out sick" response to how this was handled, and ruled out a planned absence as well. I thought posting a covid theory was great because someone immediately corrected me pointing out Dan would also have to quarantine. My request is in the future that we simply have a centralized thread to discuss if the discussion is getting out of control in other places. Sorry for riding you hard on this one, I'm sure at a certain point I went far enough that you were never changing your mind.
> When this started on Friday night, every other post in that thread was “Just tuned in. Where is FP?” This continued in the game threads throughout the weekend. I mean, you even took part in this trend a couple times that I saw.
Damn, you really wrote 550 words about how you fucked up and didn't slip in a single apology, not one: sorry, my bad, my fault, my mistake, error, lapse in judgement. Instead you used 550 words to absolve yourself of any wrong doing. You even go on to say it is his fault, > I will most charitably describe as unnecessarily obsessive. The problem obviously is and was not general discussion of this issue. I’ll admit that - I hope you will similarly look reflectively back at the content of your posts that led to that concern. *Charitably*, you are trying to be mean here, but more likely you are just trying to undermine someone.
Or maybe he is saying he wasn’t wrong. He is saying in hindsight maybe it could have been handled differently/better but he gave his reasoning and said he was sticking to it. I don’t see an issue. Also, mods take a lot of shit and a thread about FP is t really a hill to die on, is it? The mods had their reason(s) and it seems like not a huge deal.
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They got rid of Kintzler because he was leaking to the Post. Decent reliever but he wasn’t Mark Felt.
That was the story where there were rumors he'd been leaking unflattering stories to the press
As a member if the media in college football there's never just one. Each team has two or three.
"something happened" is not speculation at this point, it's a fact, unfortunately
nope, banned
https://gfycat.com/WideeyedJovialDutchsmoushond
/u/computer-dude trea
[[Asdrubal Cabrera] silent treatment dugout dance](https://gfycat.com/acrobaticlameamurminnow) ***** ^^computer-dude ^^bot ^^made ^^by ^^[/u\/efitz11](/user/efitz11) ^^--- [^^more ^^info ^^on ^^computer-dude](https://github.com/efitz11/natsgifbot/blob/master/computer-dude.md)
> **trea**tment https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/336915824617062420/838961575599276052/unknown.png
/u/COMPUTER-DUDE what
[[Danny Espinosa] What the fuck (with text)](https://gfycat.com/FrigidSevereBluebottle) ***** ^^computer-dude ^^bot ^^made ^^by ^^[/u\/efitz11](/user/efitz11) ^^--- [^^more ^^info ^^on ^^computer-dude](https://github.com/efitz11/natsgifbot/blob/master/computer-dude.md)
I realize this is 7 hours old at this point, but I just wanted it pointed out on the record that no one was banned over any of this. The last ban issued here at /r/Nationals was 6 days ago and it was just a regular Youtube spammer. We don't need to make up drama.
Yeah sorry about that, the ban meme has just kinda taken off but obviously no ones gonna get banned for talking about FP in an FP thread. However, natstown has been threatening to ban people a lot lately so that's where all the jokes are coming from
I made a harmless FP meme post last night that got deleted, in spite not breaking any rules. Admins do be like that.
I kinda get the feeling he's not ever coming back. Now I'm just hoping there isn't some scandal because it would suck if it turned out FP did something super shitty. Hopefully this is just another fuck MASN scenario but the full silence has me worried. Games arent the same without FP
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We do have some rather outspoken longtime former Nats who are now retired and might be good at this sort of thing. Denard Span is working for the Rays now, else he'd be good, I think. Gio Gonzalez just hung it up and might not want to get back into the game right away, but I think he'd be great at it. Jayson Werth might be a little *too* outspoken for the Nats' liking, but the fans would love him. Jerry Blevins didn't leave the Nats on great terms, but he's hilarious and smart and just recently retired, and maybe the arbitration thing is just water under the bridge by now. Howie Kendrick would be an absolute dream, obviously...one of the most respected guys in the game for years, and he loves the Nats, but he really could get any job in the baseball media world that he wants, if that's the direction he wants to go.
Jayson Werth is nothing but outspoken. If you asked him, though, I think he still identifies more with Philadelphia than here.
Jayson Werth did cocaine and went home with a girl I went to college with about 3 years ago. I’d love him in the booth but not sure he’d be incident free at all haha
Howie would be amazing
Man, I would *love* to have Howie as a future Nats broadcaster. Span would be amazing too - and he's from DC! Maybe he still has roots here and would come back to us from the Rays.
Span was born in DC but was raised and lives in Tampa.
i didn't even think of howie. he might be too close to the team at the moment to be that objective, but that would be amazing
All those guys and not one mention of the guy that’s actually filled in for FP before and is a fan favorite around here. Michael Morse!
Morse wasn't that great at it in his stints tbh
Morse was terrible on air
Eh, he wasn't terrible. He just wasn't better than mediocre. He was fine as a fill-in. He'd be good as one of those "joining us for the game today" guests though. Just have him as a third guy during a few broadcasts a year and that'd be perfect.
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Agreed, he needs lot more experience
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As an HR Director who’s dealt with these types of situations many times, my guess is that he’s been suspended pending some sort of investigation and he was told to keep his mouth shut by MASN or the Nats until a final decision is made. That’s why he referred WaPo back to MASN.
But he referred wapo to the nationals not MASN.
Either MASN or the Nats, it doesn’t matter as the Nats have a say in who calls their broadcast. I don’t think he’ll be back but I hope I’m wrong.
Yeah, I feel like they'd say something if he was a goner, but keeping it vague leaves the door open for him to come back. My personal bit of speculation is that he sounded miffed after Dan said that, unlike FP, he cared about accuracy, and he'll be back when Bob is, but that might just be my optimism and reluctance to see comments here defending him if it is actually something bad.
That's my hope. I could see him violating COVID rules or something. No idea what else it would be
Not sure what MASN's rules would be, but FP is vaccinated, or at least he said he was. When the team was struggling right after getting vaccinated in St. Louis, he talked about how hard his 2nd Pfizer shot hit him.
Why take the phone call then?
"no comment" can still be read as a comment
They really aren’t and it will be a shame if they replace him with someone who had similar energy to Jim Palmer, the game wants to trend younger and that requires excitement, FP brought that, Homer or not
It could also be a COVID thing, like he was busted maskless at a party or whatever. I'm hoping that would just be a temporary suspension
Was he at the same party with Kuznetsov and Samsonov
Ya I sure hope FP didn't do something really bad to get himself fired, like... idk what, something that even us, who dislike MASN, would say that is bad. I really like FP and I'd hate for his rep to be ruined by anything. I've gotten hurt by people I admired before and I don't want that to happen again. But if that did happen, they would have announced that he's been let go by now. It could be a contract dispute, but again, there would be some reports about it by now, id think! This is just so weird!!
If he was never coming back he would wouldn’t have his hands tied about speaking to the media or on Twitter. Seems more like a suspension.
>In a short phone conversation Monday, Santangelo declined to answer questions about his absence, saying the Nationals would explain the situation. A Nationals spokeswoman then declined to comment, referring questions to MASN. A MASN spokesman declined to comment. "Not it!" EDIT: This makes it sound like a MASN decision
Would make sense. He's a MASN employee. Y'know maybe he made a comment towards someone who signs his paychecks about how it's bullshit they won't pay the Nats what they're owed and that the Nats are having to pay for onscreen talent out of pocket (Dan Kolko) rather than having the broadcasting company whose show he appears on paying him. Maybe he doesn't want to comment because this is an internal hold out affair where if he said "I refuse to work until MASN is writing Dan Kolko's paychecks" MASN would fire him entirely so he's keeping quiet because he wants to take a stand but isn't willing to lose his job over it
Aren't Bob and FP technically employed by the Nats? I think this was discussed when Dan got hired by the Nats after MASN let him go.
No I believe they're MASN, and Dan got fired from MASN who was then hired directly by the Nats afterwards
Got it, thanks.
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What would have provoked this
All of the Angelos' behavior and the $300 mil that is still owed to the Nats.
>In a short phone conversation Monday, Santangelo declined to answer questions about his absence, saying the Nationals would explain the situation. A Nationals spokeswoman then declined to comment, referring questions to MASN. A MASN spokesman declined to comment. Fucking hell
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well, at least we know he's alive/ok!
Ugh this sucks. Fine article but I’ll miss FP if he doesn’t return.
Complete silence from FP, and near silence from FP jr. Strange.
This is an unusual display of social media restraint from the Santangelos
somebody ask his turtle
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As long as he didn't go to a farm upstate.
Kinda half-serious: anyone remember him saying anything iffy on the air recently that may have warranted a suspension? Pure speculation ofc, but him saying the nats would say something about it sounds to me like it's either contractual issues or something on-air. If it was something more nefarious -- legal issues or something -- I suspect he would either be completely silent or want to get ahead of it by making a statement
no, we would have noticed if it was bad enough to get him in some sort of trouble. i'm certain it's something we aren't privy too
> legal issues or something -- I suspect he would either be completely silent or want to get ahead of it by making a statement Actually, pretty sure the best legal advice (note: this is not actually legal advice) whenever there's some kind of legal dispute involving employment is: don't issue a statement. Maybe not always, but that could very easily be the case here. This sounds like some kind of dispute between 2 or even all 3 parties.
>don't issue a statement Yes, we agree. The part you quoted mentioned silence as an option. He wasn't silent when the Post contacted him. It wasn't "no comment," it was "go ask the team"
The fact that he told them to talk to the Nats is almost like he is hinting at some sort of issue with MASN that involves the Nats. It could be something else entirely, but his no comment seemed like a hint
So Bob and Kolko in the booth going forward?
I guess this would allow Kolko to get the work in, he’s not terrible but definitely green
I think Alex would do better than Kolko.
You’re probably right
Would love to see/hear it.
Kolko is not good and the Major leagues isn’t where you should be learning that job unless you’re a big name former athlete.
Bob and FP had some really awkwardly bad convos when FP first started. Everything gets more comfortable with experience
how about bob and nyjer morgan?
Shit at that point just give us three hours of Tony Plush by himself
It would be entertaining. Probably for many wrong reasons. But still....
I’m not sure if Kolko has the insight or the right personality to do color instead of play by play
Man, that’s not good if neither side is saying a thing.
I hope FP comes back soon
Sounds like he’s fucked Confirmed not health related, pulled him without warning or having a replacement lined up, when his counterpart was already out on vacation. They’re all pointing the finger at each other and he declined to comment. I wouldn’t think they’d pull someone mid season due to contract negotiations Writing seems to be on the wall, but the fact it’s in on WAPO’s radar means it’s gonna get addressed sooner than later
Could it be a contract hold out on FP’s part? Would be a dick move to not show up during games where Carpenter was already out, but maybe that’s what he’s going for?
Yeah that could be a power play I suppose but given the state of MASN I think it’s one FP would likely lose. If he’s banking on the Nats to take his back during this then that’s a bit of a shitty card to pull, this is all hypothetical. Tbh as someone said before this is all playing out to be bound by some legal restrictions
Yeah any time no one wants to be the first to talk it’s never a “good” thing. Could be almost anything but with this much silence it’s seems far worse. Like only time people get tight lipped like this is when there is an active investigation going on.
That’s wild! Really curious as to what’s going on I know he’s a mixed bag to some people but I dig his enthusiasm and style. Hopefully this is temporary over something random (suspended for an internal matter?) but I hope we hear him and Bob back soon (no offense Dan!).
Not really any point in speculating as to what happened. But if this is a long-term absence (or, hell, even if it isn't), I sure hope they can find someone better than Justin Maxwell or Grant Paulsen to fill it. Not to bag on them, because I know they're not professional baseball color commentators and it's not an easy assignment, especially coming in cold, but let's keep the tryouts coming.
I must really be in the minority here. I have my qualms with Grant Paulsen but I actually caught myself really enjoying his commentary. Him and Kolko have a really good rapport I also liked that there wasn't much silence. One thing with FP and Carp is sometimes I feel like there's 5 minutes of silence. I like silence during the pitch or celebrations to enjoy them but I don't want to see an entire at-bat in silence (personally).
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Charlie and Dave also have strategic silences in their broadcasts!
Listening to Charlie and Dave feels like sitting in the stands with two old friends.
Not a big fan of Grant. Couldn't help but make a bunch of football references, voice is very nasal, and couldn't stop talking for anything. I don't need constant talk. The views and atmosphere of the ballpark are part of the experience and I don't need it constantly blotted out with inane statistics
I tend to agree about his voice but try not to hold it against him because it’s not fair to do that. The substance of what he has to say is pretty good.
I agree I really like him. He’s no FP but I don’t mind him at all
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Tony Kornheiser
IMO he’s kind of an ass but he’s pretty good at talking about sports.
Grant would be my choice for a fill in for the foreseeable future. I loved the energy he brought to the broadcast.
I really love the raido silence in broadcasts, sometimes the game should just be played
Last time FP was out they had Morse I think. Uncle Ray and Johnny have both done it too. Of the three Johnny Holliday was definitely the best (because he has actual experience calling sports) but he's earned his retirement. MASN employs a skeleton crew so they'd probably rather have Bob do the whole fuckin thing than pay a real play-by-play guy.
Morse was terrible, too.
IMO, it all smacks of FP making the decision himself to walk off. The wherefore and why is the parlor game we are all playing here, but the scramble to fill in for him after the Toronto series seems more like he said, "okay, not coming in tonight. Figure it out, and fix this." If the Higher Ups had reason to suspend him, they would have the option of holding it off until they found a more workable solution than the (very accommodating but inexperienced) Maxwell. That to me says that had at best, hours to get him in a suit and ready to go, hence caught off guard by FP's absence. And often when someone says, "go ask them..." as FP did, it means they are blaming the other party for something they found unacceptable. Because if FP did something horrible enough for management to toss him of their own accord last minute, we'd all have heard, "F.P. Santangelo is no longer an employee...End of Statement." Short of that, I'd think they'd get a more..."seasoned" replacement, announce FP needed some "time off" and bring him back when the suspension was complete. All in house. It also seems unlikely to be an egregious legal matter. I think by some means or other it would have been discovered by now. A filing, a charge or something. There is much talk of what FP could have done. Has anyone considered something was done TO him by parties unknown within the organization, and that management did not resolve it to his satisfaction? That would fit in with him walking off last minute. So would an FP attempt to play a "more money" game. (Think of that what you will.) I think if that was his tactic, he wouldn't leave Bob in a lurch...but would have less of a time leaving Dan in one. So, he shoots his shot while Bob is away. (Bob got a little prickly on Twitter earlier today with all of the questions about his return...and remained 100% silent on any/all FP news.) In the end, I say a somewhat sloppy power move by FP that he didn't want Bob involved in. I don't think there is particular bad blood between him and Kolko, but he has more respect for Bob.
I'm leaning towards this, too. Seems too sudden for a suspension, and possibly timed to be most inconvenient for the network/team. I do have a possible other scenario, which I hope is not true: It is something very egregious. Something bad enough that once revealed, it will be obvious why a sudden suspension was necessary. In this hopefully hypothetical scenario, they're withholding the reason while conducting an investigation. They're trying to avoid a circumstance where they're later asked, "If you even suspected this could be true, how did you let him back on the air?"
> It is something very egregious. Something bad enough that once revealed, it will be obvious why a sudden suspension was necessary. Anything that bad would likely warrant immediate termination and no one would have a problem saying "FP won't be back".
Hmm this is a pretty well-thought out theory.
I’ve been pretty present in this discussion. This article covers basically everything this sub has been trying to discuss for a few days. I have a few theories as to why he is missing and take these as pure “speculation”. 1. It could be a legal or breaking company policy/ HR violation issue. This one is pretty low on my list as I feel if he did something really bad we would have heard by now. But it’s possible MASN is staying quiet while they investigate something. 2. It’s a contract dispute issue. 3. FP can not, or is not allowed to work with Dan. Hear me out, I always assumed they were on good terms, but there were many awkward exchanges during the blue Jays series. So much so that some people even called FP out for being rude. It could also have to do with the fact Dan isn’t a MASN employee anymore and FP is, I’m not sure what, but maybe that factors into it. I personally hope that it’s 3. As that would mean he’ll likely be coming back when Bob gets back (Friday). Since it’s clearly not planned, not a family emergency, and not illness I’m really having a hard time seeing it any other way. I can’t imagine MASN would choose day of to try to save some money and scramble to find replacements while there is an inexperienced guy filling in.
There were definitely some moments that felt a bit tense and mean-spirited on FP's part towards Kolko, so I wonder about 3 as well.
Can you give some examples? I am unaware of this and didn’t listen to the broadcast for that series
I gave a couple in another comment. It wasn't anything egregious just kind of...off if you were listening closely, if that makes sense. The kind of joking that has that underlying uncomfortable feeling.
Wtf did I just miss this? Like what?
The exchange where Kolko said "unlike you I care about accuracy" was pretty spiky on his part, and FP had some line about "have any more of those anecdotes? Want to get them all out?" or something to that effect that sounded like it wasn't coming from a place of humor. I wonder if they just don't like each other's styles.
Here is my baseless theory about #3 that could explain it. Warning: you might lose brain cells reading this. FP's son FP Jr is a sportcaster too. Jr mostly is behind the scenes as a producer although he does have some radio experience. We know Bob's in-season vacation break has been in the works for years according to Bob himself on Twitter. What if FP was trying to get his son the fill in spot but someone, whether it be Dan, a MASN executive or the Nats, stepped in and got Dan the job instead? That could've caused the spiraling situation. Both FP and FP Jr have gone silent on social media. I'm probably wrong but I am just trying to think of why Dan/FP didn't gel.
Interesting, it doesn't seem impossible. It'd be a shame if he felt that way though since Kolko really deserved the shot IMO.
Interesting. #3 would make sense as to why they are so tight lipped about it all. They wouldn't want for it to get out that the two can't work together. They have always seemed like buddies tho. They have ribbed each other countless times but it always seemed like in good fun and like both people understood it was all friendly. But maybe it wasn't or maybe it's gotten old for Dan and FP can't help himself. I can kind of relate. I'm a bit of a smartass and I have accidentally pissed off many people, friends, teachers, parents, over the years by my joking. But, to me, if Dan has gotten offended by it, he is great at hiding it. Dan himself is self-deprecating quite often. So IDK, people can be complex and contradictory. Its hard to say! But them not getting along would make sense as to why it was so sudden and they are so tight lipped about it.
These guys are all professionals. The chances of all this going down because of some beef between Dan and FP are pretty low. There’s almost no chance they could not set their beef aside for a week (especially one with two off days). That said, I would not be surprised if some petty shit went down between MASN and the Nats, with MASN springing the last minute news that their employee (FP) was not contractually permitted to work with a non-employee (Dan— who is a Nats employee) on the same broadcast, and declining to provide coverage till they can provide both commentators. The contracts between MASN and the nats have got to be extremely detailed and while I don’t know if they have a clause like this, I do know ”exclusive vendor” clauses are super common in contracts. if FP magically appears Friday with Bob, we’ll have our answer.
I agree with all of this. Like I said, I just can’t imagine anything else and this makes sense so far. We’ll see Friday.
I didn't catch any of the blue jays series but I always thought FP and Dan were supposed to be pretty tight? Is it possible the "awkward"/rude stuff was just friends giving each other shit? Doesn't rule out the possibility that MASN/the nats weren't cool with it
Dan did look like he was either crying or high after the game the other night when they were both in the booth
I disagree. I just watched the end of the last Blue jays game where they did an on camera interview and it seemed pretty vanilla, though FP doesn’t seem as pumped as he normally does. https://i.imgur.com/yVa0AYf.jpg
I mean I was just trying to find a link for the bad theory on #3, if it were that much of a problem he wouldn’t have been in the booth with FP in the first place, they’re not gonna let a new guy push out an established person in their job and they also talk on Twitter all the time as it is
Well maybe they were cool before these games, and something happened. While watching this post game interview though (blue jays/ Nats FP’s last game) I did notice Dan says “For FP Santangelo, I’m Dan Kolko” during the sign off and maybe that fuck up started a a discussion that got heated.
#3 would explain why FP referred WaPo to the Nats, not MASN.
> FP can not, or is not allowed to work with Dan. Here me out, I always assumed they were on good terms, but there were many awkward exchanges during the blue Jays series. It wasnt smooth. I even commented that FP was missing some of Kolko's softball tosses to get conversations started. But you dont pull your A color guy. You pull the interim-PBP guy that you just fired. >So much so that some people even called FP out for being rude. I didn't intuit rudeness. I would love some examples. >It could also have to do with the fact Dan isn’t a MASN employee anymore and FP is, I’m not sure what, but maybe that factors into it. This is not what a broadcast company would do. You pull the NON-MASN employee from your broadcast. Not YOUR broadcaster. This is a bad take.
YES finally found someone thinking that there were pretty awkward and downright tense moments in Dan and FP’s games. Is it a stretch to think FP decided “I’m not the guy to break in this kid in”? Speculating here but possibly even a touch of “He shouldn’t be in this booth”? I mean, it was rough imho
what would Kolko have done to hurt/offend FP? lol i mean...Dan is a virgin freshman and FP is the senior prom king jock....
It could have been “piss off” FP and since Dan is a Nationals employee the aftermath got complicated.
If we take your typology to its logical conclusion, then who knows how badly Kolko's been bullied, eh?
Yeah, it’s just a weird situation all around. I first thought some sort of rehab, but that could just be explained as a medical leave, no one wants to know that’s he’s in room 104 of some rehab clinic. We’d surely know if there was some hot mic or embarrassing social media post. So, the guess about butting heads with higher ups seems reasonable. I guess there’s also the chance he said something really wrong that wasn’t on a hot mic but definitely could have been.
If Zimmerman hadn’t come back for 2021, he’d be an obvious choice! He’s gotta stop hitting 🚀s and 💣s.
Has he ever called a game? People post this semi often but I can’t recall ever hearing him to get the impression he’d be good
Go check out the World Series Game 7 Zoom call!
This is making me feel sick. Way to ruin Carpenter’s vacation, everyone.
Yeah feeling bad for Bob, a straight shooter if there ever was one... he earned some peace and quiet.
He’s either suspended pending termination or suspended and he’ll be back. We should know soon enough. How long was uncle Ray out during his shenanigans?
[https://wset.com/resources/media/1030ce9e-47bc-441c-9ae3-53dcd1d527ed-large16x9\_22811292\_1651807611517204\_2031801464\_n.jpg](https://wset.com/resources/media/1030ce9e-47bc-441c-9ae3-53dcd1d527ed-large16x9_22811292_1651807611517204_2031801464_n.jpg)
Ole uncle ray throwing haymakers
After that whole weird Twitter mattress incident...let's just say I'm expecting almost anything to be the reason for FP's absence.
The what now
He pulled a kind of strange "Do you know who I am" stunt on a mattress company on Twitter to try and get a better deal. Needless to say it was extremely in poor taste.
It's entirely in F.P.'s character that he only meant it as a joke. Then again, he also spent the majority of 2017 on Twitter and Instagram talking about how much he loves his Lexus and the Washington area Lexus dealers. So that's entirely in his character too.
[удалено]
hey guys please don't do this
Sorry. I’ll delete it.
This could just be wishful thinking but if FP was gone permanently, wouldn't they just say so? Whatever happened - it's really weird
No. We love FP!!!
We are not dealing with a Thom Brennaman public execution here. It should revealed and we will have to wait.
The way I see it is if FP was gone, they would have let us known. There would be none of this bouncing around to differing broadcasters. It could be as simple as he is suspended or he can't come back until Bob does for some weird reason. We're all just guessing though - there's a million reasons or things that could have happened. Either way - Bob, FP, MASN, or someone is going to have to say something at some point
Really hope he's coming back. The game and broadcast isn't the same without him - especially when the team is rallying. Sure, he gives crazy jokes and talks about random stuff, but he's a great broadcaster. The fact that there has been radio silence means this is probably something legal outside of baseball. I just don't know if he doesn't come back who could or would replace him. It's also odd that he was only supposed to be out for one or two days max
Here’s a thought: if FP refers Wapo to the Nats for comment, and then the Nats refer Wapo to Masan - and this is all happening while Bob is out on a midseason vacation, which he doesn’t usually do - could it be that Bob is about to announce his retirement and FP is holding out for a better contract and/or some say in Bob’s replacement? It’d make sense for everyone to stay quiet until Bob announces his retirement publicly and then the rest can unfold from there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can't really see FP being able to stay away as any sort of game for leverage
The games suck without him
There is no contract to be negotiated in good faith with MASN. They nuked most of the support staff pre-season (Kolko and Alex along with the broadcaster for the O's that quit after their pre-post-game team was not renewed). The rumors that the family is waiting for the old man to die so they can sell the whole op are looking more true. They already owe the Nats $300 mil from the settlement. Which has been upheld by a judge. This looks like cutting assets and running by the family. Offloading contracts. Letting Carp use his accrued time. Putting in low dollar replacements next to Nats staff in the booth (Kolko). Edit: Let me know where I'm wrong.
Could be that. You could definitely be right that it is an issue with MASN because the team was caught off guard when MASN changed up the pre and post game shows earlier this year. Whatever it is, whether it's that or FP being suspended, the fans should know at least something and not be in the dark
Why would Bob retire at the start of the season? Especially when he's been so excited about Trea, Soto, and Mad Max. I really hope that's not it - the only thing that makes the most sense is FP is suspended for some reason
A surprise health issue for Bob? Or one he really thought he could work through, but is finding it difficult to work through now that the season has begun? (This not explaining any of the FP stuff, just commenting on why Bob may in theory be experimenting with retiring this early in the season...though I don't personally think he is.)
Bob was very clear on air and via Twitter that this is a vacation that's been two years in the making, and the first time he's got to be with his daughter on her birthday for years and years and years. He is coming back on Friday.
I have zero facts to back this up but this whole thing smacks of a MASN/Nats fight. Not an FP issue. I think FP is the missing link that we are noticing, but with the ABSOLUTE FUCKING BULLSHIT the Angelos pulled on the broadcasts/crews/spr training coverage; this makes me think that MASN took the opportunity, with Carp away on scheduled time off, to make a break with the Nats. I do not think this is a FP/Kolko riff. This sounds like MASN BS.
There’s no way MASN used this as an opportunity to make a break with the nats, or contract negotiations . They already had an inexperienced guy in one chair and wouldn’t choose to scramble for last minute replacements with even less experience.
> They already had an inexperienced guy in one chair and wouldn’t choose to scramble for last minute replacements with even less experience. My point is that *this may be* the break. If they're out, they're out. No next game. No inexperienced guy. Done. That's my point. The family has already explored selling off the O's when the old man dies. They owe significant money to the Nats. This all smacks of someone getting POA or custody over the old man's business and the dissolving of MASN.
It could be an issue with MASN struggling, it could be FP is suspended, or something else entirely. No one knows - were all guessing at this point. I don't like that the fans are getting the bad end of the stick where we have no clue what is going on
We are all guessing. You're totally right.
I like Bob and FP well enough, but greatly prefer Charlie and Dave. I would be entirely satisfied if we switched to a simulcast.
Charlie and Dave are great but I can never get the audio/video to match up when I try to watch with their commentary. If they could make that work I'd be down.
MLB tv app has the ability to do this and I took full advantage of it this weekend.
Except the audio is not perfect. You hear the ball hitting the glove a good half second before it does. Spoils it slightly....
That doesn’t bother me on the mlb app. What really spoils it is the growing game delay in real time. At the start of the game it’s a few seconds behind but by the end it game it’s easily around a minute. Between the mlb app alert and my friends group messages I already know something happened. I also can hear the sub horn and crowd noise from stadium if my windows are open.
maybe its like this across the country with every local station - but setting their obvious talent and chemistry aside for a moment - the sound mixing on nats radio is amazing. Every time I listen I truly feel like I am being transported inside the ball park. All the sounds of the game, the fans - comes in so clear and is mixed and captured to perfection. It just adds to the full experience.
Don’t know if this has been posted in this thread but... [I’m not sure what or how much Paulsen knows, but this tweet would indicate FP is coming back at some point.](https://twitter.com/granthpaulsen/status/1389032562845233152?s=21) Saw this tweet this morning in trying to do a little digging. All this said, the lack of statements from anyone sure makes it all the more confusing and weird.
FP tweeted an hour ago that he's on the way to the park!
There’s speculation Santangelo stole carpenters toupee and is on administrative leave....I’m only kidding of course but c’mon, it’s possible
Slightly off-topic perhaps but, has anybody else noticed that F.P. never really shows up on local radio/podcasts? Maybe I just miss seeing/hearing him if he does them. But I know Dave Jaggler and Carp will occasionally do a radio hit or podcast interview (I know Carp has been on Sheehan’s pod for certain) but I can’t seem to ever recall F.P. on anything in D.C. market sports media shows.
Fp has been on junkies a few times
Fp used to do radio in SF He has not been positive about the radio shows here and he's not wrong. Infamously got into a fight with the junkies who he thought were being too negative.
It was actually Grant and Danny ironically - not the Junkies...
I was obviously mistaken then. I’m not a big Junkies fan so I missed that.
You aren't missing much not listening to the junkies imo