Mike Francesa misses being on the air at WFAN

Mike Francesa knew he would miss his job at WFAN when he left in December following a 30-year run at the station. But he has missed it even more than he expected to.

“It’s been very much an adjustment,” he said Monday. “Have there been times when I wish I had a forum and I wanted to express myself? Absolutely. Many, many times that has come up.

“I have to say, I miss it more than I thought I would . . . There have been some [topics] that have gotten me. There’s no question. I don’t want to list them, but there’s been more than a few I would have loved to opine on.”

Still, Francesa acknowledged it has been healthy for him to alter his decades-long routine, especially when the weather has allowed him to feel as if he is on a break, such as at a Mets spring training game he attended in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He reunited that day with Mets personnel, and fans.

“They came up and talked to me the entire game,” he said. “They were wonderful. I have to say, wherever I’ve gone, whether it’s been to the Garden, whether it’s been a baseball game, whether it’s just been in public or events, the fans have been unbelievable, they really have.”

Soon, though, it will be time for whatever is next, a subject he said he is not permitted to address in detail until after April 1.

That does not mean there will be an announcement on April 2. Francesa said he expects to have news he can share between April 1 and May 1.

“I don’t know when or where yet, or how this is going to play out,” he said, “because there still are some things we’re working on and finalizing. But I think before the spring’s out I would say I’ll definitely be doing something.”

Francesa will not do anything as extensive as the 27 ½ hours a week he was heard on WFAN. His goal is a mixture of “some traditional presentation and some new presentation.”

“Thankfully there is some interest in [my plans], because that’s a good thing,” he said. “I do want to do some stuff. As to how much I’ll do on a regular basis, that still remains to be seen. But I do want to get back into the mix, no question.”

His only short-term plans involve his old partner, Chris Russo.

This week he and Russo will record material for a new play about George Steinbrenner in which their voices are to be heard offstage. On March 28, he will join Russo on his MLB Network show, “High Heat,” to make baseball picks.

“What you can tell New York is that I’ve missed everybody, I really have,” he said. “I miss the audience. I miss the fans. I miss every part of it.”

Francesa long has represented himself, but he is working with Mike Levine, co-head of the agency CAA Sports, on potential new ventures.

What does Francesa think of his successors at WFAN? He declined to comment.

“I promised I wouldn’t, and I don’t think it’s fair,” he said. “What I’ll say about the show is this: What anyone thinks of a show, good or bad, what it comes down to is the business side. Is it going to be successful in the ratings? Is it going to produce revenue? That’s going to define a show. Nothing else matters.

“The rest is a lot of fun, a lot of passion, a lot of debate, but it really is just conversation, because it comes down to ratings and revenue in our business. It always will. It always has . . . One of the things that I always had is I made everybody emote, which is a good thing. People were always interested, and that’s my blessing.

“People have always been interested. Whether they get angry or whether they love it, the bottom line is as long as they’re interested, I’m in business. That’s always been my gift is that they’ve always been extremely interested.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.