Jim Baker, WEEI, and AM 1510

[Sptseditor@aol.com]

Baker has been criticized repeatedly over the years by Ordway. Shortly after 590 went all-sports 10 years ago, and Ordway was hosting middays, Baker wrote a scathing column in the Sunday paper, effectively saying Ordway had backstabbed Johnny Most into retirement. It also included quotes attributed to Rick Weitzman, then a Celtics scout, ripping Ordway ;Weitzman subsequently denied making said statements on Ordway's show. Since then, Ordway has charged Baker with repeatedly writing columns regarding the his drive-time show without confirming facts.

But here's the real interesting news: According to the Boston Sports Guy site (www.bostonsportsguy.com), Eddie Andleman is jumping ship from WEEI's A Team to handle afternoon drive on 1510 AM (which relaunched today as Sporting News Radio) to compete with Ordway, and the newly-unemployed Baker would be his co-host. This is rather ironic, since Baker and Andleman (then at WHDH) had an all-out feud 10-12 years ago which actually ended up dominating the Herald's sports pages for a day or two. 

I really wonder whether Baker's personality can work on a modern-day talk show; IIRC, he's a soft-spoken, reserved person. I also wonder how much of an impact an Andleman/Baker show can make in afternoon drive, given that the latter half of their show will not be available in half the market from November to March and that both hosts will appeal to an older demographic on which we hear advertisers don't spend money.

In the interests of full disclosure, I worked for one year at the Herald as a high school sports reporter. I do not know Jim Baker except to see him at his desk (I also saw him in the press box at a BU football game years ago), but I hear he is supposed to be a nice guy. 

-Sean