Bummer Esiason | Bob's Blitz

Bummer Esiason

Last week Cubs / Pirates was delayed 23 minutes after a female fan was knocked out by a foul ball behind home plate as she was shown her seats. Boomer Esiason, who hadn't seen the tape at the time, commented on it anyhow.

Phil Mushnick? Killed him for it in Boomer and Carton stoop to heinous LOLs over injured fan.

But the next morning, on one of those drive-time radio shows where distinctions between being a wise man and a wiseguy are indistinguishable, hosts Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton had a cruel take followed by cruel fun.

“Weekday” Boomer, who acknowledged he had not seen the video, nevertheless passed his full, unmerciful, judgment: The woman caused her own head injury by not paying unyielding attention to the game.

From this we could surmise that Esiason, 1) walks backward when heading to the men’s room, food stands or when leaving games early, and, 2) had no idea of the circumstances of the woman taking her seat behind a protective screen.

Even before this woman’s condition was determined, WFAN/CBS Sports Net’s hosts applied the Nelson Muntz, “hah-hah!” treatment. Carton, in a high voice, pretended to quote the woman as she returned from fetching her husband a beer. Hah, hah and hah.

And this was the same “Weekend” Boomer who on CBS’ NFL studio shows speaks with great circumspection and concern about football’s health issues, including career- and life-shortening concussions.

Esiason also is extremely sensitive to the misfortune that afflicts his family, but dismisses and even ridicules the bad hands dealt to others. His empathy for the deserving seems a matter of selfish selectivity.

Their response to a split-second episode that anyone with an ounce of common and public decency would have gasped at, then been grateful hadn’t happened to anyone they cherish, was, well, you tell me.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Look, we know the score. We know the wink-and-nod rules of drive-time radio, how the sounds of gastric flatulence can be confused with clever and how vulgarities are spoken as cheap evidence of courage. We get all that.

But Tuesday morning, that poor woman who was brained by a baseball the night before gave Esiason and Carton a grand opportunity to show that they know and practice the difference between wise and wiseguy. They could have demonstrated that for all their stomping around in mud puddles, they know when and where to stop.

But they blew it.

Not for a minute do I believe Esiason and Carton would have been, or eventually were, any less horrified by the video of that woman being brained than anyone else. But they had to stay in character, blame the victim, use her as comedy prop. Good work if you can get it.

But even in 2015, when going low doesn’t pay as well as going even lower, what kind of job is that?

Bummer Esiason

Follow us on Twitter for exclusive stories, Subscribe by Email, or Return home for Top sports news.