Interesting article by John Ourand in this week's Sports Business Journal about Ron Darling, the former Mets pitcher who served as an analyst for MASN during the network's debut season in 2005. If you recall, Darling was skewered by fans and local media for his performance and was dropped from the network after just one season.

Darling is now an analyst for Mets games on SportsNet New York, and he seems content now. But his comments about his MASN experience make for a great read.

Some tidbits from the article:

-Darling had a mere two hours to decide whether to join MASN. He was sitting at his home in Lake Tahoe when he got a call from his agent just two days before the season started. He never auditioned for the job or even sent tapes of his in-booth performance. He met play-by-play man Mel Procter for the first time just three hours before the game.

-The first production meeting took place in a rented Toyota Corrolla three hours before the first pitch of the Nats' first game. Then-GM Bob Whitelaw was behind the wheel and got lost, resulting in a drive from the Four Seasons Hotel to the stadium that took more than an hour.

"We were like the Keystone Cops, with heads hanging out of windows. Our production meeting was held in a rent-a-car. What can I say?" said Darling.

-Darling admits to being so inexperienced that he often said nothing, even when Procter fed him lines.

-At one point, there were so many technical difficulties that Darling had to comment on a replay he wasn't even able to see.

-"I was on an island," Darling said. "I never had one meeting with the powers that be at MASN over my inability to express myself. Because I was getting such criticism, I thought at some point I'd either be fired or they'd tell me to start doing something differently. That just didn't happen."

Sorry for the lack of link, folks. SBJ's site is subscription only.