The former New York Yankee outfielder and YES Network analyst Paul O’Neill was scheduled to do a promotional interview of his new book, “Swing and a Hit,” on WFAN on Monday. Instead, show host Brandon Tierney of Tiki & Tierney cancelled on O’Neill while the slugger was on hold.
The issue stemmed over a hot topic over the weekend concerning the New York Yankees’ Josh Donaldson feud with Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox. Donaldson referred to Anderson as “Jackie.” O’Neill revealed to producers just before coming on to the air that he was not interested in discussing the issue when the show brought him on. Tiki and Tierney had spent the majority of their first two hours discussing the debate and when Tierney head that O’Neill was opting out of the discussion, he dropped the interview.
Tierney revealed his decision on-air. The audio explanation begins around the 27:55 mark of the podcast version of their program and in it.
“We were supposed to have him on right now and he is on hold, OK,” said Tierney.
“He has a new book coming out, called, ‘Swing and a Hit.’ And Jack Curry wrote it, along with Paul. We were told and Tiki, you don’t even know this because I was going through this while you were finishing up your thought on the air. We were told we can not ask anything about Donaldson and Anderson.
And I I said, ‘We can’t do the interview if that is the case.’ I said, ‘Please tell Paul, we will navigate this responsibly. We will not belabor it. But I can’t have Paul O’Neill on the show after we spent an hour and 35 minutes talking about Tim Anderson and Josh Donaldson and not ask him about what transpired. That sucks. No disrespect to Paul. I love him. Truly, my second all-time favorite Yankee. We have a responsibility to the show. That’s the way it’s got to be.”
Tierney has been with Tiki Barber for nearly nine years and together they know the New York market well. This was clearly a decision made for the continuity of the show and making a content decision like that on the fly is tough one to make.
Tierney tweeted later: My #1 priority is the show. The audience. That will never change. When we accept dictated terms of what we can/cannot ask–and we accept–all credibility is lost. That will never happen. To avoid the biggest topic of the weekend, simply cannot have it. No disrespect at all.”
