F.P. gets his kicks with KNBR show

F.P. Santangelo brings more passion than polish to his work as host of KNBR Sportsphone 680.

F.P. Santangelo has been spared. The host of KNBR Sportsphone 680 host will not have to talk about soccer until the United States plays its next meaningful match. And who knows when that will be.

Santangelo will not be counting the days. He has had enough of soccer after putting his foot in his mouth last Thursday by knocking Landon Donovan in particular and soccer players in general.

Soccer fans responded by calling KNBR and defending the sport. At least Santangelo was nice enough to give them a 50,000-watt forum. That was all the generosity he could muster for them, however.

Donovan drew Santangelo’s wrath for crying after the Americans’ 1-0 victory over Algeria last Wednesday. Santangelo asked producer Joe Hughes to find the sound bite and play it right off the bat.

Hughes played it again after a commercial break and added Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.” And just like a river, calls flowed from angry soccer fans for the rest of Santangelo’s two-hour show.

Santangelo led off his show by talking about his ATM card and the Giants’ habit of hitting into double plays after their 7-5 loss in Houston. He figured one of those two topics would fuel a few calls.

 The former major-leaguer said he rarely carries cash and that can cause problems with tipping. A cab driver called to say he has come across more people like Santangelo than he cares to count.

Santangelo gets a kick out of soccer fans.

 “I’ve got alligator arms,” Santangelo said. “When it comes to tipping, they don’t go all the way down to my pockets. I’ve always afraid that someone’s going to recognize me and say I’m a bad tipper.”

When one caller said he keeps his cash in a large binder clip, Santangelo replied,” You’re not rolling that thick.”

Santangelo had no interest in talking about  soccer a day after the dramatic victory over Algeria, admitting he “didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” but Donovan was too tempting a target after his sobbing and sniffling.

“If he had watched ‘Old Yeller’ between the end of the game and the press conference, it would have been OK for him to cry,” Santangelo joked. “Soccer players are not the most macho guys in the world. Then Donovan starts crying and that just sums it up for me with soccer. I rest my case.”

Hughes jumped into the act by playing Tom Hanks’ “There’s no crying in baseball” line from “A League of Their Own.”

Santangelo is a baseball guy, having played with the Giants, A’s, Dodgers and Expos from 1995 to 2001. He signs off each of his KNBR shows with the line,” Swing hard in case you hit it.”

“That applies to baseball players and single guys,” said Santangelo, who will become a husband for the second time when he marries ex-Playboy playmate Michelle McCaughlin (February 2008).

Radio and television work comes naturally for Santangelo, who is also an analyst with Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He takes his second career seriously even though he can be “silly and goofy.”

“It’s not a hobby for me. I’m as passionate about this as I was about baseball,” he said. “I’m not radio guy. This is who I am. I’m like any other fan. I just happen to have a microphone in front of me.”