They don’t call him “Mad Dog” for nothing.
Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo was so argumentative while interviewing lawyer John Dowd about the latest Pete Rose allegations that Dowd hung up on Russo, leaving Sirius satellite radio listeners to wonder if he’d been inadvertently cut off.
When one of Russo’s producers called back, “I told him, ‘I hung up on him because he’s an a - - hole,’ ” Dowd told me.
Dowd, a former federal prosecutor, prepared the 1989 report that detailed Rose’s betting on ballgames, and resulted in Rose being banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Russo, a supporter of baseball’s all-time hit leader, kept badgering Dowd saying there was no evidence that Rose ever bet against his own team, the Cincinnati Reds.
Dowd patiently tried to explain that the issue wasn’t relevant. Rose wasn’t allowed to bet on baseball period. But Russo interrupted him and wouldn’t let him speak.
“He was so rude. I’ve never encountered anything like it,” Dowd told me. “I don’t know how he keeps his job.”
Russo wouldn’t have liked what Dowd, who isn’t involved with the latest Rose allegations, has to say about Rose, who has lied about his gambling for 26 years.
“He’s just a gambling bum out there pouting, and feeling sorry for himself,” said Dowd, who also called Rose a “street criminal.”