Talk about a hard act to follow!
Sort of like Didi Gregorius with Derek Jeter, John Jastremski was tasked with “following” Joe Benigno, taking the WFAN airwaves immediately after the final Benigno & Roberts Show went off the air after a four-hour tribute to the retiring Joe.
And there’s no other way JJ could’ve started off Friday’s Odds on Sports than by betting on the biggest winner of the day: Joe Benigno.
“Before we get into it, I gotta send my love to one of the station icons. Hats off to Joe B.! What a legend. Listening in the car, guest after guest and the montage with the callers…that was brilliant stuff. Ernie, Sugar Ray, Evan, you guys sent off Joe, a station icon, so well.”
Chalk up JJ as another one who grew up listening to, and idolizing, Joe from Saddle River.
“I too grew up listening to Joe, and I’ll never forget the first time I heard him. It was Christmas Eve 2000 and I was giddy because the Dolphins won the AFC East, they beat the Patriots and the Jets lost a brutal game to the Ravens. I had the whole family over, and I had just discovered WFAN; I remember hearing this guy yelling and screaming, oozing passion, and I was like, ‘that guy is damn good, I kinda wanna do what that guy is doing!’ I think that’s the legacy in so many ways for Joe: that passion and raw emotion for his teams, being one of us. It led to all the success he’s had, and I wouldn’t be doing this without him. The ultimate winner for Week 9, and the last 25 years, is the great Joe B.”
JJ hopes to see him on the golf course someday soon, but the bet memory Jastremski will ever have will be the week he filled in for Evan Roberts as Joe’s partner.
“I’ll tell you this: I’m glad I got to do that one week of radio with him. I’ll be telling people about that for a long time! The Astros cheating scandal…to quite Joe: OH THE PAIN!”
Follow John Jastremski on Twitter: @John_Jastremski
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