Thanks to Howard Stern and many more outlets as of late, Shourshoes has become the “other” king of all media.
The King of All Media
It’s not often that listening to the Howard Stern radio show will inspire me to write a sports column, but that’s exactly what happened to me last week.Howard is not a sports fan and rarely ever talks about the subject on his program. However, sports will be brought up from time to time and Howard will reluctantly weigh in if pressed. One long time caller to the show is wack packer Sourshoes.
Thankfully, Sourshoes brings sports to the forefront on a fairly regular basis.
For those not familiar with the show. Sourshoes is a savant at impressions, music and sports trivia. A child-like, unemployed man in his 40s, Sourshoes has been calling into the Howard Stern show for decades entertaining listeners with spot-on imitations of everyone from Bill Clinton to Stern himself.
It was his perfect impression of legendary NY sports radio host Christopher Russo that first linked the two distinctly separate worlds of sports and shock radio for me.
Check out this slideshow that moves from one personality to the next in the world of the great Sourshoes.
The Mad Dog
Christopher Mad Dog Russo left the Mike and the Mad Dog show, which he co-hosted with longtime radio partner Mike Francesa at WFAN, in 2008 for an opportunity to run his own station at Sirius. Howard Stern, a Sirius broadcaster as well, welcomed the NY personality into his studio to discuss the move.
Russo’s distinctive voice and speech pattern were the perfect muse for Sourshoes and he was able to replicate them easily. The impression is hysterical. It has been heard fairly regularly on the Stern show ever since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39fhXfYfg3o
Sourshoes has recently become known to the wider NY sports radio audience. He has called into Russo’s Sirius show, Francesa on the FAN and both Michael Kay and Dan Patrick.
Baba Booey
One of Sourshoes’ most famous impressions is that of Stern show producer Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate. Gary has a very distinct Long Island NY accent which Sourshoes has down pat.
In every appearance I’ve ever heard him make on the Radio Sourshoes has launched into his Baba Booey impression. With that impression comes the accentuation of the word “nine.” Baba Booey made a love tape to an ex-girlfriend years and years ago. On that tape, he rated his own professional life at a nine or as he pronounced it a “noine.” Sourshoes has been using that pronunciation of that word when imitating Gary ever since.
So, last week I listened to Sourshoes imitate Gary and repeat the word noine noine noine noice noine over and over again. In between laughs, I began to think of who the noine best noines are in the history of New York sports. Here’s that list:
