Sports betting has taken off like a rocket in the state of Massachusetts. Not only are bets being placed at a record pace, but advertising for the newly legal mobile books is everywhere. That annoys Dan Shaughnessy, and his frustration is to the delight of Toucher & Rich.

“Shaughnessy’s got a pretty funny article,” Fred Toucher said Tuesday morning on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. “He’s sick of the commercials for sports gambling and Rich and I are talking about it off the air like ‘What do you want? More Burger King commercials?’”.

“It’s not like if they took all that off, we’d get to see more of the game,” Rich Shertenlieb added.

In a column published on Tuesday, Shaughnessy wrote that the state could use a break from the relentless television advertising, which he says makes gambling look like a carefree, fun endeavor.

Shertenlieb began to riff on what commercials showing the bad side of gambling could look like and how it may lead to commercials for other industries showing the worst possible outcome of using their products.

“Every fast food commercial shows somebody puking in a toilet and then Brendan Frasier from The Whale,” he said.

He also noted that Shaughnessy turned to some fairly out-of-touch experts for their opinion on the matter. One of them was Faye Vincent, the octogenarian former commissioner of Major League Baseball, who complained about legalized gambling leading to fixing games.

Toucher and Rich mocked how out of touch with the realities of sports gambling in 2023 all of the concerns expressed in the column are. Fred Toucher joked that every complaint and concern in the piece was said while old men were shouting at clouds.

“He’s sick of the commercial and the commercials make it seem like the product’s fun,” he said of Shaughnessy’s complaint. “As opposed to every other commercial? That’s why they did the Schlitz Gay commercial on SNL with Sandler and Farley. I mean, Spuds McKenzie was always with chicks.”

Craig Carton would love to interview NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, but the problem is that Carton isn’t going to play by the league’s rules for shaping the conversation.

On Monday’s edition of Carton & Roberts, Carton mentioned the fact that Goodell hadn’t appeared on WFAN airwaves in over a decade. Co-host Evan Roberts pointed out that the league usually limits what media appearances the commissioner makes.

“He doesn’t do a lot of interviews unless it’s NFL related, where you can kind of control what you’re being pushed on,” Roberts said.

Carton figured that Goodell typically will do a sit-down interview with each of the league’s media partners, but Roberts said the commissioner’s office wants to make sure Goodell is not caught off guard.

“There’s always gonna be restrictions on him. There just always is,” he said. “The league is partners with those networks. So they’re not gonna put Roger Goodell in a spot in which he’s getting pummeled with tough questions. He doesn’t put himself in that spot.”

Carton mentioned doing a commissioner’s summit with Gary Bettman, Adam Silver and Rob Manfred. He said he requested Goodell, and he was turned down because the preseason had already started and generally the NFL doesn’t want the commissioner in the spotlight when the focus should be on the games and the players.

Roberts responded that the league was just being protective of Goodell knowing full well that Carton would likely ask him some tough questions.

“It’s because you aren’t going to climb in his derriere and make sure you don’t push him on anything,” he said. “I’ve never seen Goodell pushed on anything. So when he does do these interviews, it’s usually like NFL Network’s putting him on.”

“Maybe if I start a podcast he’ll come on that,” Carton said.

Craig added that he wouldn’t agree to tipping his questions for the commissioner ahead of time or only sticking to certain topics. Evan said the unpredictability of a free-flowing interview wouldn’t be a good thing optically for Goodell.

“You also don’t know what it’s gonna lead to,” he said. “You don’t know what he says that’s gonna lead to a topic you never even thought that you’d talk about.”

Carton responded saying that’s why so many people are terrible at interviewing others, because they generate their list of questions and don’t actually listen to the conversation.

The Detroit Tigers have added another voice for their radio broadcasts this season in Cameron Maybin.

Maybin will be behind the microphone for around 30 Tigers games on 97.1 The Ticket in 2023.

Maybin is a former Tiger himself and will also do some TV work on team broadcasts on Bally Sports Detroit. Cameron has also contributed to Yankees broadcasts on YES Network and MLB Network.

Dan Dickerson will be on play-by-play for games on the radio this season.