The Score: Fake Francesa Twitter account lampoons host

Mike Francesa has made it perfectly clear: he wants nothing to do with Tweetuh, or Twitter, as the rest of us would say.

?You?re never going to catch me tweeting, I promise you,? the WFAN host said during an uninformed rant against the ultra-popular service back in March. ?If I do, you?ve got a scoop. It?ll never happen.?

That?s OK, Mike. We?ll give you the same handwave you use to dismiss so many of your callers (Mongos) and move on to @MikeFrancesaNY, which is, at times, better than the real thing.

?We are just bored guys at work that love Mike for some inexplicable reason,? the anonymous duo behind the account says. ?And we have fun making fun of him but we actually love the guy.?

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If they love him, they sure have a funny way of showing it, lampooning the yakker at all hours of the day, not just weekdays from 1 to 6:30 p.m. And if you?re wondering why they?re anonymous, it?s not for fear of retribution from WFAN, it?s for fear of their bosses. These guys aren?t doing the tweeting from their mom?s basement; they have white-collar jobs and don?t want their bosses to know that they spend their afternoons listening to Francesa on the Internet.

?When you think about who it is, Mike Francesa is a guy that?ll never be on Twitter,? says Jimmy Traina, a lifelong Francesa fan who often references him in his Hot Clicks column on SI.com. ?That?s what makes (@MikeFrancesaNY) so fun.?
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They launched the account back in 2009, but their history with Francesa goes back much further. They?ve been listening to WFAN, and Francesa and his old partner, Chris ?Mad Dog? Russo, since they were 12-years-old. They bonded at summer camp over their shared love for the afternoon drive show and poking fun at their fellow campers.

So fast-forward from summer camp to today. They now have over 16,000 followers ? more than Francesa?s official, YES Network-run account ? and offer a running dialogue of the show with Francesa?s over-the-top New York accent serving as the jumping off point for all of their commentary, which includes plenty of contempt for the Jets and Mets.

?A lot of it is pretty easy,? they say about translating Francesa?s talk (tawk) for the 140-character medium. ?If a word ends in ER you make it A. We put lots of random Ws into words. It?s almost a second language at this point.?

So when Francesa says ?They give up points, they can?t get off the field on third down, and they stink against the run,? when dissecting the Jets? defense, followers of the account get ?Dey give up points, dey can?t get awf da field on third down and dey STINK against da run.?

But the full Francesa Twitter experience isn?t complete without the names. Newly-minted Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey is Arway Dickey; Mark Teixeira is Mock Tecks Sherar; Albert Pujols is Pull Holes; J.R. Smith is J.R.?s Myth; Yankees manager Joe Girardi is Georgia Roddy.

?I remember the first time I saw them say Georgia Roddy, I had tears in my eyes,? Traina says.
?Someone was watching Mike with closed caption on, and instead of Joe Girardi, it said ?Georgia Roddy? on the screen,? they say in explaining how one of their best names fell right into their laps. ?After that we decided to spell stuff as ridiculously as possible.?

One of Francesa?s most memorable fumbling of a name, the Alberto Jose Albuquerque (Al B. Quirky) fiasco during the Yankees? 2011 ALDS series against the Tigers, was a huge (yuge) moment for the account, with their Tweets being retweeted 50 and 100 times. It?s moments like that ? his infamous Darrelle Revis interview, his recent on-air nap and the fallout from Superstorm Sandy (he got the Marathon cancelled, you know) ? where they see their followers jump.

But while they take liberties with what Francesa says, and are due their fair share of credit for the account?s success, credit must still be given to the source material provided by Francesa himself.

?The fact that he believes he is never wrong really helps,? they say about the Diet Coke-addicted host. ?It makes him lose his cool very easily. I think it?s his arrogance, his lack of preparation but know-it-all attitude, that makes it easy to spoof him.?

?Bob Raissman likes to call him the Sports Pope and I think he really believes that he is the Sports Pope,? Traina adds. ?When he wants to get something done, he really thinks that he can do it.?

?He has done a lot of things for the city,? they say. ?He brought Mike Piazza to the Mets, won Super Bowl rings with Bill Parcells and brought us the NFL Network.?

And if you?re wondering how WFAN feels about all of this, you?re not alone. We called to find out what they think of the pontiff being prodded and they claim that the account is off their radar (though the guys behind @MikeFrancesaNY state that they?ve heard through the grapevine that Francesa himself has asked about getting them shut down).

?I don?t really have a feel for it,? WFAN operations manager Mark Chernoff said. ?You can?t stop people from doing what they do ? as long they?re not doing anything illegal, and I?m not saying they are.

?People do parodies all the time for different things. You just hope that people are doing things that are good-natured.?

That?s what these guys say they?re doing, taking a larger-than-life radio persona and introducing him to a whole new audience on Twitter. But what would happen if it all goes away? Francesa?s contract with WFAN expires in March 2014 and it?s possible that he could turn off his mic for good after that.

?Mike said he will be in the chair until he?s 120 and we fully expect him to honor his word,? they say. ?It never crossed our minds that Mike won?t be on the air because he has always been on the air. We would have to have serious discussions if we would continue the account.
?Out of respect to the great one.?

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In his rant against Twitter, Francesa said, ?Why do I want to hear what people have to say about the game? What do I care??

The irony in that statement is obvious ? the same could be said about Francesa?s own show.

Even still, we don?t want to see either of them go away anytime soon.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nydnrss/sports/~3/y4qlUtfVbmI/story01.htm

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