ESPN becomes butt of phone joke ("Steve Bartman" call was a Howard Stern prank. Baba Booey!)

Associated Press ^ | October 16, 2003

[Timesink]

ESPN BECOMES BUTT OF PHONE JOKE

Associated Press
Oct. 16, 2003 9:11 p.m.

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — A man pretending to be infamous Cubs fan Steve Bartman tricked ESPN into putting him on the air for a live phone interview Thursday.

The prank, on the 6 p.m. edition of "SportsCenter," was discovered shortly into the interview when the man referred to radio shock jock Howard Stern. The interview was stopped, and anchor Dan Patrick said, "We've been had. That was not Steve Bartman."

"We made a mistake," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said. "We have a process in place to prevent these type of situations. In more than 24 years it hasn't happened on 'SportsCenter' before. In this instance we should have been more thorough. Once it became clear, we communicated to viewers immediately that it wasn't a real interview."

Bartman became part of the Cubs' long, sad history Tuesday night when he played a key role in the team's collapse.

With the Cubs just five outs away from returning to the World Series for the first time since 1945, he deflected a foul ball and prevented left fielder Moises Alou from catching it. The Marlins went on to rally for a victory and the next night advanced to the World Series.

Later in "SportsCenter," there were several references to the prank. When introducing a segment about the backlash against Bartman, anchor Matt Winer said the fan was so infamous he has his own impersonator.

During an on-camera interview with former major league manager Jeff Torborg, Patrick asked, "Are you really Jeff Torborg?"

Later, when an interview with Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti was cut short by technical difficulties, Patrick said, "That was Jay Mariotti."

"We've had better nights," fellow anchor Mike Greenberg replied.

[Timesink]

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times ESPN Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

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[leadpenny]

Unless my son is here I almost never watch Sports Center. For some reason I had that edition on and the guy had me completely convinced.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

would like to hear it. Nothing beats the phoney call Peter Jennings got from a Stern listener during the O.J. car chase. It went on a long time and even after the guy yelled "Baba Booey" at the end, it took Al Michaels to tell Jennings, on air, that he had been had. Couldn't of happened to a better guy.

[Timesink]

Nothing beats the phoney call Peter Jennings got from a Stern listener during the O.J. car chase.

Maury from Brooklyn! The best EVER! How Jennings could have fallen for that Stepin Fetchit accent, I'll never understand. "Ah be in de back of a NEWS VAN!"

ABC deserved every ounce of embarrassment they got for allowing Maury on the air without making even the tiniest attempt to check his credentials. And Maury deserved a medal for showing up the nonexistent credibility of the "mainstream" media.

Maury also did the infamous LIRR Massacre call to Bill Beutel (of WABC, unsurprisingly).

[Moose4]

I would have loved to have seen Dan Patrick's face when they realized that they'd been Sterned. Boy, I'll bet the interns working the phones got the treatment for THAT little foulup. Patrick looks like one of those big-ego prima-donna talking heads that has a temper a mile wide when something makes him look bad.

}:-)4

[PianoMan]

You can re-hear Maury from Brooklyn here.

[AmericaUnited]

Because Stern is in radio, him or his crew must have the private numbers and names that enable these people to get through.

[FreedomPoster]

Once upon a time, I played around with a voice PRI line (Primary Rate Interface, the ISDN equivalent of a voice T1 line), connected to an Adtran Atlas 800, which in turn was connected to a phone system, a LAN, and some videoconfencing gear. IIRC, you could configure the Adtran box to present caller ID info that you configured to the telco switch. I wonder if Stern doesn't have some techies around using this function.

[dennisw]

Stren doesn't make those prank calls. But he is the inspiration of those who do.

[PJ-Comix]

The absolute FUNNIEST phony phone call I ever heard on the Stern show wasn't done by Janks. It was done by some guy who did a good impersonation of Bill Clinton. Anyway, the Clinton impersonator called an old woman in Harlem in her 70s, convinced her that he was really Bill Clinton, and then got her to do phone sex with him. It was HILARIOUS!!!

[Wolfie]

That was Benjy, one of Stern's writers.

[Space Wrangler]

Don't forget the call that "Commander Janks of the US Coast Guard" made to Dan Rather during the JFK, Jr. plane crash. He was desribing the the wreckage of the plane and sounding very official, when he made a reference to debris he was looking at and among the debris was Baba Booey's teeth!! LOL Hilarious funny!!!

[george wythe]

Every time there is a breaking story that the media wants to cover incessantly, the Howard Stern fans do this.

All major media outlets have been had by phony phone calls, but they will never learn.

[HenryLeeII]

I...I see OJ! He in da back o' da Bronco. He sayin' sumthin'...He be sayin' "Babba Booey Babba Booey!

[PJ-Comix]

Do you know where I can find the Bill Clinton phony phone call to the Harlem lady online? That was absolutely the FUNNIEST phony phone call I ever heard. I heard it on my car radio and I was laughing so hard I had to pull off the road. I actually had tears running down my face. NOTHING beats that particular phony phone call. And that 70+ woman really got into that phone sex because she was convinced it was for her "hero," Bill Clinton.

[HIDEK6]

it took Al Michaels to tell Jennings, on air, that he had been had. Couldn't of happened to a better guy.

Wasn't Jennings also the guy that thought the phrase was, "Lettuce roll"?

[Wolfie]

Never seen it posted anywhere. By the way, he's been pranking that lady for awhile. Quite a few calls before the Clinton one. I'm pretty sure the woman just plays along at this point.

[Semper Paratus]

Rather also took a call that went like this:

Caller "You are an idiot"
Rather "I am an idiot"

[Benrand]

Uh Peter, that was a totally farcical call.

Bababooey Howard Stern bababooey Howard Stern