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The Arizona Diamondbacks proved a lot of people wrong with their stunning win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 7 of the NLCS on Tuesday night. But they proved one person a bit more wrong than most: Long-time New York radio host Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo was so confident that it would be the Phillies moving on to the World Series that he pledged to retire if Arizona won.
I stand by my promise! https://t.co/Yr9JpgXVnL pic.twitter.com/wAYeZihmuA
— Chris Mad Dog Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) October 24, 2023
Well, about that. Arizona once again stymied the Phillies’ fearsome bats, taking the lead for good in the fifth inning and holding on from there for a 4-2 win — and their first World Series berth since winning it all back in 2001.
As the game got into the later innings and Philly squandered chance after chance, it was clear that Russo was feeling the heat:
— Chris Mad Dog Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) October 25, 2023
And once the final out was recorded, he seemed to confirm that he’d be standing by his promise:
— Chris Mad Dog Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) October 25, 2023
Of course, it remains extremely unlikely that Russo will actually retire — this was all a great way to get everyone talking about him, after all, and he’d be crazy to turn down that sort of free publicity in the name of being a man of his word. One thing’s for sure, though: If Russo clocks into his radio show like usual on Wednesday, he’s going to have a hard time living this one down.