This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? This is on.
Leash. Are.
You listening? Well, I know everybody's worked
up over the Yankees. Yankees state.
Well, everybody relax about the Yankees.
Please just relax. What's going on?
Everybody beats unleashed in the house on this Tuesday.
Let's go. J Rod is here.
We got a big show for you little housekeeping before we jump into
it. Lot of Yankees, a little Mets, a
little Pistons, Cavs, a lot of NFL schedule stuff and something
on LeBron as well. Now tomorrow, first up, Yankees
manager Aaron Boone will come by tomorrow.
It's going to be a blast to 10th or why Hope it's a blast.
I know he's coming by. Maybe I shouldn't say it's going
to be a blast. I mean, can you get can you bag
a win before Booney comes on the show?
I mean, come on, man. I mean, listen, Boone's going to
answer the questions no matter what, whether they win five
straight or they lose five straight.
But can you mix into West? So he's not the ornery Boone
that is tomorrow. Can't wait for that.
So we'll do a little early State of the Yankees, kind of like I
did with Michael K about a week or a week and 1/2 or so ago,
only we'll do this with the Yankees manager.
So that's tomorrow. And then Thursday, obviously the
NFL schedule is going to drop. And we'll do this on the on The
Jets collective as soon as it goes live.
We will jump right on YouTube. Of course, myself and Jake and
Rich Samini and we'll break it all down and you know, listen.
Do they open up in Tennessee? I don't know.
I I that that's kind of the conventional thought.
But either way, we will get into The Jets schedule.
We're not going to necessarily do the old Mike and Chris thing,
you know, win, loss, win, but we'll just kind of spin you
around and give you our initial reactions to it.
The good matchups, whatever is prime time.
I don't know how many prime time games they will get.
My hope is that it's not many because like I've always said,
when my team has been, you know, I do think The Jets will be
better this year. Jeez, if they're not better this
year, then it's probably hopeless.
But you know, when, when my team is building, when my team trying
to rise from the dead, I prefer to do it in anonymity.
Let's just get, you know, But 1:00, we don't need Jim Nance
and Romo. Give us the C team.
Give us the D team. Let us just find our way when
most of the NFL world is not watching.
So we got a lot of great things coming up on the show.
Hopefully everybody's having a great day.
J Rod, What's cooking, brother? How are you today?
Good, good, good. How are you today?
You. Know.
I got to say, I know we'll we'll get to it later, but I got to
say I was, I was off with my Pistons Cavs prediction
yesterday. I was way off, you know, I
called the Harden game, I guess the next game.
But now listen, the rest of my series prediction is absolutely
scrambled. I mean, listen, these
predictions are worth a dime a dozen.
What do they really mean at the end of the day?
But it does obviously help out the Knicks, so we'll get to that
a little bit later. Rough night for Kate Cunningham.
What the Cavs were doing defensively, trapping them,
giving up the butt. He was sloppy.
He's had some high turnover games.
Last night was another one. And he didn't shoot the ball
well. So we'll get to that.
All right, let's start with the Yankees here.
I mean, listen, guys. So when when you don't hit and
you squander leads like they did over the weekend, certainly last
night with Ryan Weathers and the Gen. that Cam Schlittler threw
in Milwaukee, when you squander leads like that and you don't
kid, it really just looks bad. I mean, let's face it, the
Yankees would have lost 65 last night.
You know, not that you'd be thrilled with the loss there,
but when when you're not kidding.
I mean, really, outside of Ben Rice's two were on bomb the
other way. Nice to have Benny ball game
back in the house as well. It's it's just going to seem a
little worse than it really is. Listen, I'm not worried about
the Yankees. Yankees have a couple of things
that they obviously need to rectify and things that we need
to get into. But I mean, it's it's a little
bit early. It's a little bit early for
everybody to start striking up the same old Yankees.
Yankees don't have it. Yankees aren't going to get
anything done. I don't believe that.
I believe that this Yankees pitching rotation is going to be
the best in baseball. Now when Cole and rolled down
come back and when when well, I should say when Cole comes back,
I don't know what the bullpens going to look like.
They're going to have to obviously mess that mess around
with that. If you asked me and this one of
the reasons for my optimism here coming into the season, Although
to be fair, once the season started, I got a look at
weathers and I knew the Cam Schlitzler wasn't going to go
through a sophomore slump. I I elevated even you know what
what I thought the Yankees could be and I didn't love the Yankees
lineup. You knew that, right, But see
what you see now is is not what you're going to see in October.
It's just not. I believe what it's all and I'll
ask Boone this tomorrow. I don't know what he'll say, but
I'll ask him. I think we're all said and done.
I think that Bednar is going to be the setup man for this team
and I do I I think that that's going to happen.
I don't like him as the closer. He's fine, but you can't be fine
if you try to win a championship.
OK, I'm not saying he's the main issue, but you need you need
more lockdown there on the back end.
And and Bednar just walks that tightrope too much.
You watch him, I watch and we know the deal with Bednar.
He's fine and sometimes he's really good.
I think he'd be great as a setup man.
So listen, I don't know, I actually tweeted something
yesterday about Weathers. I'm like, you know, maybe maybe
this guy who has not been a consistent strike throwers.
He had he had injuries in Miami and he didn't know he's pound
the zone now. He's he's pounding the zone now
when he's healthy as well. Knock on wood with the Yankees.
Look at Weathers as a possible closer option.
I, I don't know, Clark Schmidt will be back by the end of the
season. And then obviously, whether it's
a will Warren going to the bullpen or whatever it might be,
some sort of variation is going to, I think fairly radically
change the the back end of the Yankee bullpen.
And I also think the Yankees will go out and get an electric
high leverage arm. So listen, I understand that
last night was very, I mean, you got a no hitter, you got a no
hitter. You sit down, I come back from
my son and my daughter's game. I'm like, wow, then listen to
the game on the radio a little bit.
And I, I knew that Rice hit the two run bomb and I'm like, I got
a no, no here. And of course, as soon as I sit
down, basically get the base hit the other way.
But that's a game you got to win.
Obviously, Yankees are dragging their feet a little bit here.
But like, it just big picture it.
It really, it's so predictable. You know, you just knew that
this was coming. You kind of sensed it a little
bit over the weekend, you know, from some of the Yankees.
And that's fine. I'm not calling you guys out
because the Yankees have not won since 2009.
Understood. So there's a lot of angst and
there's a lot of energy and there's a lot of frustration
that this team's been built the same way.
I don't think it's the same team now.
We still have a lot of baseball people to go and you know, I
don't, I don't know what's going to happen with Volpe.
I don't know what's going to happen with Caballero.
I don't know what's going to happen with Lombard, who's
hitting into some very bad luck in the minors.
He's absolutely stinging the ball.
And you know, you lift up the the hood underneath the hood,
the numbers are really good. I'm not talking about batting
averages, but like expected batting average and expected OPS
balls in play. Like he's been penalized.
He's hit a lot of rockets at people and I'm fine with that.
And you know that Lombard could come up tonight and handle
second base shortstop or third base defensively.
I don't know if he's going to be on the Yankees this year at some
point. I believe that he will, but I
don't know that for sure. You got to earn it.
You don't want to rush him. But there's options here.
Guys. You have to understand that the
biggest problem with the Yankees right now is the 2nd in baseman
and to a much lesser extent the catcher.
Now get to Austin Wells in a minute.
How the Yankees don't have a right-handed catcher on the
roster. I mean, that's a Cashman thing
here. But let let's get to let's get
to Jazz Chisholm, who is just incredibly frustrating.
And I remember he said it on February 19th.
He starts talking about 50 home runs and 50 steals and a $300
million contract. That was on the 19th.
And J Rod, can you pop that tweet up for me please on that?
Look at him. He's on top of it today, baby,
on the 20th the next day. Here's what I wrote.
Jazz already strikes out too much.
What's that number going to turn into chasing 50 bombs all year?
Well, I'll give you the short answer.
Now, there's a lot of baseball to go, and he's not going to hit
2:04 this year and he's going to run into some home runs.
I understand that. And he's already got a ton of
stolen bases. But the strikeouts, he's on pace
for his career high. He's on pace for about 185 right
now. I mean, yeah, it's just it's
unacceptable. And and the thing about Jazz
Chisholm, which is why I want nothing to do with Jazz
Chisholm, I really don't want him on this team.
I've told you going back over a year when I was still on WFAN
that I was told by the Yankees that there's no way he's going
to get contract extension. There's no way.
I remember we're talking to Alex Rodriguez about Jazz and you
know, a couple of times and he's like, he's incredibly gifted,
but he's just not reliable. And he's not, I mean, he's just
he's in space. He's either in space on the on
defense, he's on space on the bases.
And the problem with, and I, you knew this was going to happen as
soon as he said what he said about 50 home runs.
His entire mindset shifts when you're chasing 50 and you're not
a natural, you know, 354040 plus home run guy like a judge, like
an Alonzo, guys like an Otani. Well, what do you do now?
You got to kind of get gearing up a little bit and when you
gear up a little bit and try to do something that is not within
your natural skill set, your mechanics just collapse.
When your mechanics collapse, that leads to empty at bats and
looking at fastballs right down the middle and swinging like
you're a skinny Babe Ruth or Reggie Jackson and it's just not
going to work out. So, you know, I don't know, I'll
give you a couple of options here.
Like if you asked me right now, if you said OK, would you rather
have Caballero with sure, I know he's got the finger now, but
he's going to be fine. Would I rather have Caballero
with shortstop and Volpe at second base over Caballero and
Jazz at second base? My answer would be yes.
I could see why you would push back on that because Volpez a
low on base got we we know Volpe's track record and he's
got he's not even hitting in the minors right now.
So that's a little ambitious, but at least I know that Volpe
would be locked in. He's not a space cadet like
Jazz. He's he's emotionally
unreliable. All right, So that would be one
option. Another option would be, you
know, if Lombard really these balls start falling and the
numbers get to a point where I think that they might in the
minors. Triple AI don't mean in a week,
but maybe in a month or two. Can I envision a situation where
Lombard's at shortstop and Caballeros at second base?
Yup, and I would prefer that over having Jazz Chisholm play
every night. Can I envision a situation where
maybe, but make listen back to Volpe for a second?
It's probably not realistic to think that the Yankees would
mess around with a position change during the season when
this guy's trying to figure it out as a hitter.
And I get that that that might be a little bit dangerous, might
be a little bit reckless. So maybe the move would be Volpe
at shortstop and Caballero at 2nd.
And you know, maybe, you know, Lombard at at at 3rd or maybe
Volpe at short and Lombard at second was played a little bit
of second in the minors. And you stick with McMahon at
third base, maybe except against tough lefties.
Rosario plays McMahon swinging the bat a lot better.
I think it's just you. You can't.
You can't have this guy in the middle of what it's supposed to
be. I'm not saying it's a
championship lineup. It's a championship rotation and
they've got a couple of superstars in the lineup.
But I'm going to stop sure of saying it's a championship
lineup. But the more that this guy
plays, the more he's exposed and the deeper the season gets and
the average hovers around 200 and he starts to internalize.
I'm chasing big money. I got to get the bag.
I said that I was going to hit fifty home runs.
I got to really start selling out even more once you start
doing that as a golfer, pardon me, as a as what, as a as a
baseball player, as a golfer, what in the world was that?
As a baseball player, you are cooked.
You are mentally broken. You are physically broken.
And by the way, the reason why I did say the golfers, because
it's kind of like somebody who is a golfer who just you know,
you just know like and he knows more importantly, that is
putter. There's just something off and,
you know, doesn't roll balls, not rolling, not lagging it
well, not reading the greens well, not seeing things the way
you need to see things in a major to compete on the back
nine on a Sunday. And when you have that, and I
don't care what great golfer we're talking about, at some
point that's going to infiltrate their mindset because it's a
very, you know, up and down kind of a sport and it's a field
sport. And baseball is very up and down
and baseball is very much a field sport as well.
The problem with Jazz, though, is that he shows no inclination
to want to change. And I'll give you a good
example. So last night, last night, like
the Yanks are up to zip Ben Rice apple two run bomb weathers
looked phenomenal again, right? So Judge has a double, Judge
leads off the double, Bellinger hits a ground ball, the first
base productive out. Judge goes over to third base.
Now, these are the tack on runs that we talked about.
These are the things that define teams that are, you know, really
going to ultimately win championships.
And there's other components, of course.
You need the starting pitching. You need the bullpen.
Got to catch the ball, got to run.
I know that. But those extra tack on runs are
paramount to any team that's trying to do something of
significance. And what does Jazz Chisholm do?
Well, he does what he always does.
He abandons the situation and he just worries about himself and
he's swinging from the heels and he's letting good pitches go and
he's expanding the zone and he's just his front shoulders flying
out because he's trying to Jack one.
And it's a big problem. It is a big, big problem.
He's hitting 200. He's got a 600 OPS and he's on
pace for the most strikeouts he's ever had in his career.
So you know, to me, when I tell the Yankee fans you got to relax
a little bit, I mean it. I it's too early.
They've looked too good at at most points outside of that when
they lost five straight and the Mets had lost five straight,
that was. And then the Yankees quickly
course corrected. The Mets did not.
And then the Yankees went on this crazy role.
And you know, I did a couple of shows where I, and I stand by
this like, I believe that the Yankees have the DNA to win big.
I believe that this group of players, they they detest
losing, which is a characteristic all great teams
have to have. I was not saying they're going
to win the World Series, but I'm just saying relax.
Like, everybody's got to just tap the brakes a little bit.
But what can't be tapped is the unless you're tapping the gas.
To move on from Jazz, the Yankees are going to have to
look themselves in the mirror at some point.
But today, not next week, maybe not even month, next month.
How far do they want to run this thing out with Jazz Chisholm
being a focal point of this team?
I'll tell you something else. I don't know how long he's here
talking about Spencer Jones. I don't know, you know, when
Stanton's going to start running again.
I don't really know what the Ming is.
I know he's on the 10 day IL, but I'm not really sure when
he's going to come back. Whatever.
Nor do I know what the Yankees plans would be for Jack for for
Dominguez. What he does come back.
But you it's it's a small sample, but you watch Spencer
Jones play center field and you watch Trent Grisham play center
field. Don't tell me that Trent Grisham
is a better defensive center fielder.
I don't think that he is. Now, I'm not saying that you
just banish him as well. I'm not, you know, getting on
the air today saying get rid of Jazz, get rid of Trent.
Although I did say that during the offseason, so it would be
consistent with my thought process about the Yankees.
So they've lost four straight. They have taken absolute
starting gems and flushed them down the chute.
And not just this is the point, not just because of the bullpen,
because of their inability to tack on with situational
hitting. I mean, I, I know, I know that
it there's no real glory in lofting a little, you know,
moderately shallow fly bolt to center field or left field.
But to do that, you've got to commit to keep as a lefty that
front shoulder in and not selling out because you said
you're going to hit fifty home runs.
And that is a byproduct of a couple of things.
He put incredible, incredible pressure on himself by saying
that. And it's one thing to be
confident and, and I do like jazz's confidence and and I do
like the the like, let's not get this twisted because one thing,
I'm just going to be honest with you guys.
I don't know if it's a race thing.
I don't know what it is, but I feel like a lot of the times
that we talk about jazz, people kind of hear different stuff,
understand what I'm saying. I actually love the the, the,
the, the edge, the swag that he brings to the team.
And I've said for many years, I think the Yankees have been far
too corporate. You know, I mean, when I wear my
hat that way, no, But I'm also not, you know, 26 years old.
So I get it. And CC had the tilt and some
other, you know, Dodge rail. Willis, Hey, swag out.
Do what you got to do. But the production's got to be
there and the night tonight, reliability's got to be there.
And I don't care if you run like Ricky Henderson, if you're not
reliably on bass, you know, and I don't care if you wind up
hitting 30 something home runs and, and blow by 3030, which if
he hits thirty home runs, he absolutely would blow by 30, you
know, steals cuz he's probably gonna have 40 already has about
14, whatever it might be. I don't care about that.
I care about when you were in that when it's time to win, when
it's time to take that that final nail and stick it in the
coffin and hammer them and put another team in the ground.
Whether it's an early ish mid-May or late October against
the Dodgers or whomever else you might be facing if you get to
the World Series or whomever you would face in the postseason,
the American League. You just can't flush those at
bats down the shoot. And you really think that
there's going to be some sudden and I'm going to ask Aaron Boot
about like I am going to really get into Jazz Chisholm tomorrow.
Like I think it's going to be really interesting.
What is the plan for Volpe? I mean, if, if he hits 240 and
for the next month if they going to call him up.
I, I doubt it. I mean, are they waiting for him
to get hot? I I don't know, I, I how willing
are they to to and this would be an organizational things.
I don't know how much Aaron would really be able to answer
this. But because it's going to be a
group thing and it should be when you talking about your top
prospect, at what point if he continues to barrel the ball
because we know he could defend and run.
Is Lombard getting a look up here?
Like there are variables here that that I think will will
ultimately favorably alter the Yankee trajectory.
But I get it. You know, this is baseball in
New York, Susan, and you know, we we want to go nuts.
Now. You want to go nuts, go nuts
about the Mets, who are 15 and 25 and look like absolute trash.
I mean, that's a team that you can you want to let it RIP.
It's not too early to you know, whether you want to bury the
Mets or crush the Mets that. But let's let's have at least a
little perspective, just a little bit, guys, a little bit
little perspective here where we all know the Yankees will be a
playoff team. And you should know by now that
the team that you see in May is not going to be the team that
you see with certain spots in October.
And if you can compartmentalize that, you could probably deal
with a loss like last night and even what transpired over the
weekend in Milwaukee with a little bit more clarity and a
little bit more calmness, right? If you don't see that and you
get, you know that well, then you going to be a little
irrational. And that's fine.
Like Yankee fans up. You know, I I said, I told
everybody to relax. But you do what you want to do.
You do you be you. I'm just telling we've seen this
enough. We have seen enough baseball to
understand that a three or a four or even A5 game losing
streak in May is not the end of the world.
OK, Ben Rice didn't get in a bat in Milwaukee.
Ben Rice comes back boom two run off O laser.
So you got your stud hitter back along with Judge and Beldy's
been on a heater. Yankees offense will be fine.
They're going to blast home runs.
They're starting pitching is phenomenal and they're going to
make tweaks. Now, do I love the way Boone use
the bullpen over the weekend? Nope, I don't.
I said that yesterday. I'll bring up some questions
tomorrow that I have about about usage here.
But I just don't think Bednar is the closer and some of these
studs who were throwing really quality starts, start after
start after start are going to be in the bullpen, which is
going to rearrange and not just like, you know.
So moving a chair on the Titanic, I think it's going to
be effective. So I'm good, Like, I'm fine
where the Yankees are. I don't like losing and I don't
like losing the way they lost last night.
But it's a long season. They're not perfect.
Nobody is relaxed. All right, J Rod, today's show.
As always, let's give a shout out to the sponsors here for BT
Unleashed, of course, brought to you by my friends at Sullivan
Propane. Find
sullivanonline@triallaw1.com, Straw law1.com, Remember the
name Sullivan Propane and buy premium sausage, sausage the way
it should be. Find them at premiumfoods.com or
in your local grocery store. I mean, but Jazz is the one that
just drives me nuts. He does.
And depending upon when you watch Jazz, right, you've got
you've got conflicting opinions. Nobody doubts the talent.
But one thing that I've said, especially about a baseball
player, right, when you are, you know, X amount of years, and I
mean, two or three. That's why, you know, I'll give
a little glimmer of hope that Volpe can expand this game a
little bit. Same with Dominguez, you know,
ironically, you know, he can't catch a fly ball in the
outfield. He makes a great play.
He gets hurt. Like that's why I never buried
Dominguez. I never fully buried Anthony
Volpe. But a guy like Jazz Chisholm is
not going to change. He's just not going to change.
A guy like John Carr and you know, all respect to Big G, but
he's not going to change. Even the great average judge is
not going to change. You are what you are.
Now, Ryan McMahon has changed a little bit, but Ryan McMahon
also had a couple of good early seasons in Colorado.
And you're not, you're not relying on on Ryan McMahon like
you're relying on Jazz Chisholm. Like Jazz going to hit fifth,
Jazz going to hit 6, McMahon's going to hit ninth.
He's going hit 8th or 9th. So it's a different level of
responsibility and I, I just, again, I'm, I'm just a staunch
believer when there's X amount of it bats, when there's enough
evidence as a hitter. Now, I think as a pitcher, I
think it's a little different. You can discover a new pitch.
You can come back with a cutter like you can just, you know, and
if this happens a lot, you could just be throwing during the
offseason. You alter your grip and all of a
sudden you got 789 more inches, vertical break, horizontal
break, whatever it might be. And now you incorporate this
into the repertoire and it makes the other stuff which was
getting hit little bit more effective, which could lead to a
more effective pitcher. But if you're a hitter and you
have a propensity to always swing from the heels, you're not
like Jazz does. You're not going to change your
approach. It's not going to happen.
Yes, you're going to have a hot streak because you're incredibly
talented. But when you need him, you know,
man on 3rd down a run, lift the fly ball of the outfield.
Stop selling out to try to be a hero with A2 run Jack to the
moon. Just put the bat on the ball,
roll, you know, roll it over to second base, little ground ball,
get him in, move the like. These are things that you must
do and these are things that he doesn't do.
So the Yankees have a Jazz Chism problem.
Austin Wells is he's I mean, it's a little different here.
He too is relied less upon then, you know, somebody like like
Jazz. So if he's at the bottom of the
order and he's got five RBI's, which is ridiculous.
I mean, it's got three home runs, He's got five RBI's, dude,
wow. You know, and he's always been a
lower average hitter. I think he's a a terrific
defensive catcher. He receives the and I know that
some people don't, you know, really care about this, but it
doesn't matter because there's got to be a familiarity and a
comfort level with starting pitch like that matters.
That relationship matters. If there's any position that I'm
willing to sacrifice little offense, it's behind the plate
and it's a shortstop. Now, it's not like it was in the
80s with guys like Ozzy Smith and all those who was great, you
know, catching the ball. But all those 80s and early 90s
shortstops hitting 2:30 with six home runs and just bumping.
I don't I don't you can't really have too many of those guys
because it's the modern game is about offense and it's about
launch angle and it's about home runs and it's about outscoring
the opposition. And if you have, you know, two
or three dead spots in the order like too often the Yankees do in
the bottom third, you got some problems there.
But I I think if you were to go through, maybe this will make
maybe maybe this will make you feel better.
Maybe you don't need to feel better about the Yankees today,
right? Let me do what you want.
Process it how you will. But you could go through every
single team, including the Dodgers and even including the
Braves, who look terrific and the Rays, who are leading the
American League East right now. And if you would have
microdissect their roster, like just parachute, not that they're
really, you know, no disrespect to Tampa radio.
They've got some good hosts down there, but they're not, they're
not, they're not doing what we do do with not that this is
radio either, but you know what I mean with the Yankees and the
Mets, like the level is absurd. Like the, the again, the micro
analysis, it is over the top, but that's the way it's always
going to be because we're a baseball town, right?
And, and I, I really don't think if the Dodgers lose four or five
in a row or the Padres lose four or five in a row, that out West
in, in the beautiful city of San Diego or out in LA that you're
going to have, you know, the phone lines and all the other
content, we're going to have lunatics.
I mean, get fired. This guy, trade that guy.
We can't win this level of fatality that sets in with the
Yankees and the Mets. Now the Mets have earned a lot
of that and I'm not pronouncing them dead yet.
And I'll get to you in a minute. But you know, I it's just, if I
can impress one thing upon you today, understand that there's
one of the first things I said. This version of the Yankees is
not going to be the version that they run out in October.
And if it is, they will not win the World Series.
I've got no problem saying that. It's that simple.
And if it is and they wanted to play the team like the Rays, who
were buttoned up and they catch it and they run, you know, I
mean, hold on. It's not like the Rays have
never beaten the Yankees in the postseason.
I don't care what I don't care what the payrolls are, what the
disparity might be. Yankees got some work to do.
And that was part of the issue coming into the season.
We knew the Yankees had work to do because you look at the
final, you know, 334 hitters in a lineup, and it's kind of like
automatic out, automatic out, automatic out.
Jazz is not an automatic out, but he's incredibly confounding
and frustrating, and they rely on him to be one of the big
dogs. And it's just not statistically
reliable enough, not let alone emotionally reliable enough.
So, you know, I mean, I just think that and I was, I really,
I was looking at this before the start of the show and it's not a
hot take. It's just me like closing my
eyes and envisioning a Yankee team with Rice hitting and Judge
hitting and Bellinger hitting. Those three guys carrying the
mail for the offense. Obviously Stanton maybe a little
bit against Lefty's when he if and when he comes back,
whatever, you know he's going to hit some big home runs this
year. We know the deal with him.
But Caballero and Volpe up the middle, Caballero and Lombard up
the middle or Caballero and Jazz or Volpe and Jazz.
Like to me, the least appealing option ironically right now
would be Volpe at short and Jazz at 2nd.
The more Fender and all the numbers backed us up.
I don't care what Volbe did with the Gold Glove back in the day.
Caballeros is the more electric defensive player, better arm,
better range. He's better right.
So Caballero with short and then maybe Lombard at second.
Like there there are things that you can do.
You got to find a right-handed hitting catcher just to kind of
mix things up. You got to hope that McMahon's
going to, you know what, whatever he's on to now, he's
been swinging the bat real well. Almost went deep last night off
the bat. I thought that was run and he's
been on a nice three-week run where you know, and they talk
about this, one of the reasons why he's doing better is because
he's letting the ball travel deeper.
And as a hitter, when you do that, you're not jumpy when
you'd like. Jazz is jumpy all right.
When you are jumpy, you're trying to crank it.
You're trying to just yam 1 as a lefty down the right field line,
right. When you let it travel deep,
you're less susceptible to this. You know, your shoulders not
flaring out. You go the other way and, you
know, whether it's a hard hit ball the other way or making
more contact, which could keep the carousel going on the bases,
like that's the way the game works.
And Jazz Chisholm has never gotten the memo.
You know, there's a reason why now I'm not saying it was the
healthiest clubhouse ever when he was in Miami.
You know, I know they gave him a rough time, but I and I do like
Jazz and I think that the Yankees, the players, I think
that they like Jazz, but you know, he's a hot dog and and
that plays if you're Ricky Henderson that don't play when
you're, you know, a little sloppy on in in the field, at
least intermittently sloppy and not really reliable.
You know, sometimes, even though you're electric on the bases,
you fall asleep with with the oven Mitt, whatever it might be
last year at the pop up down in Miami on first base.
I mean, it's just been so many examples with the World Series
blowing bubbles, the balls in the infield.
I don't trust the guy and I really don't know why the
Yankees do. I know they don't trust him
enough to give him that contract.
Like nobody told you that before me.
I was the first one to say he will not get a contract
extension with the Yankees and he will not.
Now, the next question is do the Yankees have the the appetite
and I don't know the answer to this this I don't know.
I I mean I could I could give you a theory and I will I'll
give you a thought. Do the Yankees have the appetite
to roll with this the rest of the year when there seems to be
so much more urgency everywhere you look?
Louis Hill baddest to the minors.
Volpe Nope, you didn't do well in AA.
All right, your your 20 day rehab stint is up.
Not now caballeros playing better.
You could stay in the minors up. You know what, McMahon?
Early you're not hitting. You're not hit against righties.
We'll go against the data, we'll go against the numbers, and
we're going to have Rosario play against a couple of righties
rather than just lefties. Like the things that they've
done have been. I mean, maybe impressive is the
wrong word because that's what you should do.
I mean, that that's what I would do.
I'm not sitting here saying I'm popping champagne for the
Yankees, doing things that I've always wanted them to do.
But there is much more an aversion to like running it back
like and and and and being OK and putting up with either with
either a substandard performance statistically or an an emotional
unreliable. I know I've used that word too
much like unreliability. And that's the problem.
That is the problem with the Yankees.
Jay, Do you hear what I'm selling out there?
Jay? You know what?
I'm saying yeah, big time, man. No, the chats are the chats are
popping. I've got, I've got one.
I want to, I want to see you respond to.
Yeah. Let's get it up, man.
Let's go. What are we waiting for here?
All right, I act like Jazz Chisholm is a no, I don't act
like he's a scrub. I never once said he was a
scrub. See, the difference is they I
appreciate that, But no, I I don't think he's a scrub, But he
unfortunately, he's not what you need, you know, if you really
want to be a championship type of team.
All right, if Jazz was playing with Bernie and Tino and Derek
and Posada, you know, and those cats, Ambrosius, sure, I can run
him out. I can hide him in there a little
bit and maybe the other stuff would rub off on him, you know,
but let's let's not get it twisted.
I never once said they see, the problem is, if I didn't think
that Jazz Chisholm had immense talent, I don't think I'd waste
a whole lot of time on Jazz Chisholm.
The frustration and, and, and what's up for I think constant
dissection and evaluation is that we know he has as much
talent as anybody on the team really out outside of Aaron
Judge. You know, he run.
He's probably the fastest Yankee.
He's got a good arm, you know, played a little outfield with
the Marlins, played a little third base here.
Obviously he's made some great plays at second.
When he hits him, they go, I mean, it just fly off his bat
like he's playing wiffle ball. And if you watch the Jazz
Chisholm highlight reel, you are utterly impressed.
You're like, Yep, wow, how many All Star teams this guy been on?
I mean, how many top five MVPS has this guy had?
What is he more? He's like a more athletic Robbie
Canoe? No, he's not because Robinson
canoe actually understood how to hit.
He understood getting it a favorable count.
He understood. I just think Robbie, I think
Robbie Cano's now defensively, even though he made great plays,
too, maybe defensively there was a little bit of an indifference
there, or a little flighty, a little Spacey.
Robinson Cano's offensive aptitude and IQ runs laps around
Jazz Chisholm. I mean, he can't even figure out
the ABS challenge system. I mean, come on, you're in the
batter's box. It's right down the middle,
tapping your head. What, so he doesn't even know
the strike zone and I don't think he's got much of A plan
because when you see, when you have a plan, right?
And I know, I know it all depends on who you're facing and
what's in their repertoire and their pitch dependency like,
and, and I know that they have the scatter report and all that
stuff. So I know it's not always the
same pitcher to pitcher. Obviously some guy might have a
a sinker that's going to bear it on righties, you know, which is,
which is really tough to hit. You know, I've never seen last
series with the Orioles. Pete Alonzo had a real rough
time with that. So it's a nasty pitch to hit.
That thing's running towards your ankles and it it presents
itself as a fastball and it's 9790 and it's that hard sinker
with late action. You either have to take it, you
taking a check swing or you're banging one off your ankle or
you're going to tap one in the third base dugout.
So you, you, you understand what everybody has and, and what
their go to pitch is. But I, I feel like every game
Jazz Chisholm goes up there and like he's swinging, you know,
from the heels trying to hit one to outer space on a first pitch
curveball that he misses by a mile.
Like, dude, just sit back and and react to Dead Red early in
the count. I mean, that's basic stuff.
So I am not a Jazz believer. I'm not and I have never been a
jazz Chism believer. Now the irony here, this where
it gets a little interesting. And I'll be fair, there are
times when I am a fan and that's that's kind of split in the
difference. But, and it almost seems like a
contradiction like, well, if you're not a believer, why would
you be a fan? Well, because I am a fan of his
talents and I am a fan of his energy, but I am not a believer
in how he presents himself as a buttoned up night tonight
reliable baseball player because he's just not that.
And he's never going to be that. He's going to suddenly change
now. You don't think Judge has tried
everything in the world to get him to get, you know, more of a
plan, more urgency? No, it's not going to work.
Trade Spencer Jones. Yeah.
Well, I don't think the A's are giving him up.
I don't think that's going to happen there.
And Wells, I mean, guys here, first of all, Langoliers is
really good. I think they gave him a little
contract, too. He's really good.
Why would they want, you know, I mean, Spencer Jones might be,
might wind up being a career minor leaguer.
He just might be. And Austin Wells is a 210
hitter. I mean, I grant he's got some
pop and he does receive the ball well, but it's amazing you guys
present these trades. You know, to get something you
got to give up something. If you want to get Langoliers
from the A's, you got to give up like AI don't know, like a will
Warren and you know, and it's something of value.
I'm not saying Jones and Wells have 0 value, but you know what
I mean. Some of these trades are insane.
You know, you just think about a 21 sided So the Yankees boy J
Rod I just I, I really hope that the Yankees get a win tonight,
man. Otherwise, me and my boy Boone
are going to be getting after it tomorrow.
It's going to be rough. I mean, you know, maybe listen,
depending on how it goes, I think another loss could be
better for the pop tomorrow. So hang on, hang on, let's see
what's going on. Let me just put a little.
That's how he takes it, really. Yeah, let me just put a little
order into the next room. I'm I'm in the mood for.
I'm going to have a second cup of coffee today.
Let me just put the text in here.
Can you please make me a cup of coffee and bring it in?
Thank you. Let's see how long that takes.
If there's a long line there to here at over at Tierney Bucks.
Are you a Starbucks guy or no? No, I'm not a coffee guy.
I've got like a dude. I've got like a rough stomach.
So OK, OK. And it's not really like it's
not old dairy things, but like caffeine just really messes me
up. Yeah, yeah.
I'm not a big, I'm not a big caffeine guy.
Like I very rarely drink soda. We very rarely have soda in the
house, honestly even more than we should.
And, and we don't have it much. But if it was up to me, I have
none, you know, 0. But you know, sometimes it is
good. Like if you know late game, you
have a little McDonald's, I bet it's good or a little BK or you
know, I will have a ginger ale as I've told you on football
Sundays. You know, a little roast beef,
you know, a little roast beef, extra mutts, all that stuff.
Roasted red Peppers pizza it you know it, there's a time and a
place for a little bit of soda kids birthday parties.
But you know, even if I'm drinking decaf and like I once
the show's over, I won't have a sip of coffee even if the fan,
even if the fan my entire career, right.
But I'm most recently WFAN doing the 10:00 show with tiki and
then Sal. I would sip a cup of coffee on
the way in. So I would drive in right And
then I would make one more during the show and I would
never finish it. It's more like it's more like a
companion. It's there.
I take a little sip right, But even if it's decaf, like I find
it therapeutic. It's just part of the process.
Like if I've got a lot of work to do, like I've got AI had a
lot of notes here today. Not that I mean, listen, it's my
job. I'm not looking for bonus points
is what I do, but had a lot of notes today because I want to
get to a lot of stuff. Wait till I get to the NFL
international schedule. I'm going to destroy the NFL
today. But the there's something to be
said. It's part of my process.
Like I just enjoy knowing it's there, a little sip there, even
if it's decap, as I said. And I never drank coffee until,
matter of fact, the first time I ever had coffee.
I'll never forget my buddy Andy Monfried, who's the best.
I love Andy. So I graduated from college
trying to get into it. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. No, not once until after
college. And I was working.
I had a sales job in, in New York City and I was trying to
break into the industry, right? So I was doing a little bit on
Wall Street over at, at Fidelity.
I was doing at, at this other company before that construction
like just, you know, mixing and matching before I could get a
break. It's not easy, you know, And I
remember we went out one night and and I think I was still
living at home because I was just out, yeah, I was just out
of school and man, I got rocked, man.
I went out with a bunch of the older sale and like I could
handle myself, you know, because I had fun in college.
But I went, went a little bit too deep, right?
And I show up for the sales meeting the next day and my
buddy Andy's like, dude, he and I was, I was out with him for a
while. I was like, let's go get a cup
of coffee. Maybe I'm like, I don't he's
like, you need some. That was the first time I had it
and it gave me a little jolt. I'm like, oh, OK.
So even now, like driving to play golf or even coaching, if
if I'm coaching an early morning game, I'll have a cup of coffee
in the dugout. I'll kind of sip it after we go
through Winfield outfield. But yeah, I, I, I where's my
coffee? I'm starting to certainly not
going to get a tip here. We got to respond.
You will have it in five. There we go.
OK, I appreciate that. Yes, very much.
All right, so we'll get to something.
What does that say about the Yankees there?
Hold on, put the shades on. Let me put the shades on.
J Rod Warren or Weathers to stay in the rotation.
Now, this is something that I really can't wait to talk to
Aaron Boone about like this again.
It's going to be a big organizational decision.
I don't know the answer. I don't know his answer.
I'll give you mine. Now, I did tweet last night,
maybe Weathers to the bullpen. And I said this, you know, 1520
minutes ago. He's more of a reliable.
I mean, he's thrown some gems where he's he's untouchable.
And the Yankees really did have a good read on him.
He's controllable, he's cheap, but he was a little bit injury
prone in the wrong situation and they had to refine his his
stuff. And the Yankees are really good
at that organizationally, some of these pitching reclamation
projects, they're actually outstanding at it, right?
And I want to give him credit there.
So to me, the only way that I can possibly let me get a little
get blank piece of paper, the only way that I can answer this
right, I've got to assume full health.
And like, if it's up to me, let's push this thing forward.
Let's go to like August, right? All right, let's go to August
Here you got freed one. And again, the order is somewhat
insignificant. You can always manipulate the
rotations off days, whatever, but just to kind of push it
forward and keep it moving. Freed 1.
Garrett Cole 2. I mean, Cam schlittner #1 Cam
Schlittner is one of the best pitchers in baseball, period.
If Cam is your two, he's absolutely the best 2.
And if Cam Schlittner is your three, he might actually be the
best three of all time. I mean, maybe a little bit of a
prisoner of the moment, but I, I don't know.
Anyway, Freed 1, Colt 2, Schlittler 3.
They're going to keep Rodan 4I. I can be coaxed into maybe Rodan
5, whatever. But and and I I think Rodan
deserves more respect than he's gotten.
The first year was a mess and then he really started to right
the ship and he was really good last year, playoffs aside, and
he was awful as well against Toronto.
Either way, Rodan 4 see the thing with with the Weathers
right weather, I'm going to say Weathers 5.
So if that's the case, see, but here's the problem, and this is
what I want to talk to with Boone.
Maybe they don't care about this right At that .60% of your
rotations lefties. Freed's a lefty, obviously
Rodana's a lefty and Weathers is a lefty.
If you have Warren as your 5 and Weathers to the pen, well, now
it's, you know, lefty, righty, righty left and again, you can
manipulate that. If Warren's that number 5 and if
Warren's the number 5, well, now you get a bullpen where you've
got weathers where you I still like Cruz.
I still with that splitter. I I love his energy.
He's got to be used in the right spot.
I'm a Cruz fan. I mean, Duvall get lost by
Bednar is going to be the the 8th inning man, in my opinion.
Weathers Clark Schmidt. They're going to make a trade
and I think it's going to be a big one for an electric arm who
will wind up being the closer and then Bednar and like, I'm
not really banking on heel, but then LeBron Hey, and you know,
Elmo Rodriguez looked a little bit overwhelmed, but he too has
great stuff. And maybe maybe like a Ramiro
Mendoza role, if you're old enough to remember that, like,
you know, 5th inning, 6th inning, I could I could see him
being before the high leverage point.
So that's that's my answer. I don't know what their answer
is. I don't even know if they know
their answer right now. I don't know.
I mean, it's all depending upon those Weathers.
Keep this up. What does will Warren look like?
You know, I'd have to. I'd have to investigate further.
Not that it really matters because Clay Holmes was a
starter with the Pirates, then a reliever, now a starter again.
Did Warren get any, you know, relief?
Look in the I don't think he did.
Weathers did. So there's a lot of factors at
play, but the good news is they've got a lot of options,
which gives me comfort. I think Dominguez is done, Wells
is done. Just like Alvarez, Vientos and
Beatty. We know what they are and
they're supplemental role players at best.
I'm definitely not trying to make this a Yankee meth and keep
that up there. I, I, I'm just not a big Alvarez
fan. I'm just not, I know he's got a
little bit of pop. Not a fan.
I'm just now, I don't think I ever will be.
I probably overrated Beatty a little bit coming into the
season, you know, like defensive versatility, hit some home runs
last year, basically took him a month to get a walk there.
That was surprising. But I'm not giving up on Beatty.
You know, Beatty batting 7th or 8th on a good team is fine.
What else we got there. I'm not going to give up on
Dominguez and I'm not going to give up.
I guess the only one. I guess I'm not giving instead
of Vientos guy. You know that because of his
limited role, all they can do is there's the coffee.
Thank you very much. To any tip.
Do I owe you anything? Is that good?
It's free. Yeah.
You hear what you just said? I can't tell you.
So I think that. Look at the.
What does the. What does the mug say?
Hope. There you go.
I think that there's a lot of players up on the board there.
I don't think any of them will be stars.
And I think that, you know, obviously, you know, a year from
now and certainly 2, you know, you might have 4060, maybe 80%
of those guys gone. But I'm not going to give up on
Dominguez because of the speed ratio and he's got a little pop.
Wells does enough defensively where I'm not going to give up
on him. I don't love him and he's just
not becoming the player that I thought he could.
But you know, I mean, how many, how many teams have catchers
that are going to hit 20 something home runs?
He's got to get going a little bit, but he's already done it.
So I already know he's a 20 plus home run guy.
He's cheap and he's a good receiver of the ball.
So there's a lot there. It's a good chat or good
message. I appreciate that.
Now very quickly here on on what the Mets are doing.
Listen, the Mets are a bad week. And you know, maybe the Yankees
can complicate things for the Mets coming up at the Subway
Series, the first Subway Series here.
I don't know what they're going to do during the six game
homestand and playing a couple of good teams.
You know, I feel like they're going to be two and four.
Who knows? I mean, baseball's wacky.
Maybe split the difference three and three.
Maybe they shocked the world. They go 5 and one.
Things change. I don't know.
I obviously don't know. Nobody knows here.
But I am not seeing any evidence that the Mets are ready to go on
some sort of role. So I'm certainly not going to
say that I like the call up of Ewing and I like the call up,
but I'm looking forward to watching him play.
See, it's one thing like when the Yankees called up Spencer
Jones, even though he can run and he I think he's going to be
maybe not here, but I think you could be certainly competent and
maybe slightly closer to a plus defensive center fielder, unlike
Dominguez. But a guy like Ewing is is going
to baby. And and I thought this way a
bench as well coming into the season, a guy like Ewing is
going to be able to impact the game, even if he's OO for four
or one for four, the blue base head, because when he's on base,
he runs like the wind. He's going to have the green
light. He's a high energy guy.
And I think I think AJ is going to bring a little juicier, some
much needed juice. So I'm looking forward to
watching him play. You know, and obviously this
year he's hitting the he's hitting the heck out of he's
hitting 339. And then last year at 3 levels
of the minors, he had 365 apt 315.
So you know, he's a huge on base guy, almost 400 for his minor
league career. I believe it's 395 and he's
already got 17 steals. He had 70, 71 last year.
So, you know, he he's probably running a 6460.
He absolutely flies. And he's the kind of energy and
infusion of of youthful exuberance and juice and, you
know, scoring from first on a double that not everybody is or,
you know, make it a play in the gap defensively that not
everybody could. And I think, you know, we're not
there yet because it's still fairly early.
But if you're a Mets fan right now, I know you still holding
out hope that the Mets will get, you know, hot and they'll
rectify this a bit. I think that there's a better
chance that the Mets sell people off.
I think there's a good chance that that's going to happen
rather than getting back into any sort of legitimate, like
high level playoff baseball conversation.
Like if the Mets make the playoffs, they're going to be
the last team in. And it's not they're not going
to suddenly jump over the Braves and, you know, find a way to win
93 games. The Mets will be in the 80s if
they're lucky, the high 80s, most probably more like the high
70s, and if they're not careful, lower than that.
Like there's just not a lot about the doors, nowhere near
coming back. And they've just got a lot of
issues. I mean, Menai is a disaster.
They got problems, right? Peralta's not quite been what
he's been fine, but you need more if you know you're looking
for that kind of money. Peralta, you got to be a little
bit better, got to go a little deeper in games, which he just
doesn't. And he didn't do that with
Milwaukee either. So maybe that was an unrealistic
expectation. The point is, you know, if the
Mets start to sell off some pieces, right?
And even if they don't yet, I, I think you're beginning to see
the future of the Mets now. I don't know if that future is
going to actually work because, you know, a couple of years ago
all we heard about was Alvarez #1 prospect in baseball stinks.
You know, the Beaties, the Mauricio's, the Vientos's, the
great Mets farm system. Cohen bought a minor league
system by you know what he did what he did with Scherzer and
the, the aging veteran pitchers eating the which by the way, was
a good move by Cohen. I applauded him for that.
But you still got to get some players who actually come up
here and play before you say, wow, it was an amazing move.
Like there's 2 levels of grading that out.
I gave him a world of credit. I'm like, now that's a guy who
is willing to to push his money. Mets had a bad form system and
based on the willingness to eat money, Mets went from one of the
worst form systems, at least on paper, to one of the better
ones. They've got some pitching,
they've got some young, fast position players, but they got
to play well and, and hopefully somebody like Ewing will.
And I like Bench. I do.
He's a kid, man. And it's, it's hard.
It's hard. Baseball's tough, dude.
You know, it's not like you're a rookie in the NBA and you're,
you know, if you get drafted to a bad team, you're going to have
a low efficiency rate because there's nothing around you,
whatever. But like, think about somebody
like Deuce McBride when he was drafted, second round pick.
You know, he can get some time on the court and he can just
kind of ease his way in because you had some veterans, you had
some good players, you had a stable situation, you had a good
coach in Tom Thibodeau. And the runway to contribute and
not be overwhelmed by being asked to do too much is simply
not there. And it's just a much better way
for a young player to enter the any situation.
These poor Mets players are getting called up.
And they're kind of thought to like, come save us, you know,
come save us. Just like when they brought up
Alvarez for the Miners a couple of years ago in that Atlanta
series in 2022. And I mean, oh, bases loaded
with pretty, pretty big game. Go pinch hit, buddy.
I mean, could you ease the kid in?
Could he get in that bat against the Marlins, you know, or the
Nationals? Yeah.
Geez. So I don't know what Ewing's
going to do, but I'm looking forward to watching him play.
And, you know, when I close my eyes and I think about the Mets
outfield, if everything goes well in, you know, maybe this
year, next year, certainly the year after, you start to
envision, all right, you got Soto, you got bench and you got
Ewing. Like that would be your
outfield. And I want to see Ryan Clifford
get a look this year, too, at first base.
Want to see him play. Now, I know he's a higher
strikeout guy, but he's got easy power.
He's a first baseman. He's the highest rated first
basement in the system. You know, he's been, you know,
he's he's got some seasoning like this where the Mets are the
Mets are another week or two away from really, if they're not
already crafting a possible shifting in philosophy here.
We're going to be trading guys off.
I mean that that's that's where all the that's all there is to
it. You're just not going to run
this thing out there all year. You're going to have to make
some changes here. It's going to have to be a a
massive course correction, a massive recalibration.
And if that happens, right, and they start selling off some of
these pieces, like say if they get rid of Peralta and they get
rid of not that you would really miss Peterson, but I mean, and
nobody wants Banaya for that money.
So the Mets would have to eat the money.
But if like Peralta's gone and if they trade a Bichette, you
know, like stuff like that, I'm not I'd have to even see if
Bichette has a no try. I don't even know if he does.
But if they get rid of some of the few names, veteran names,
yeah. I mean, I, I know we all enjoy
watching young kids play. It's it's pretty exciting.
It's galvanizing as a fan. But that place is going to be
empty soon. So like, it's it's goal time for
the Mets. I mean, you can't just keep
pushing the bats early. And Met fans aren't saying that
to their credit. To your credit, if you're a Met
fan, I think you guys have had a real, real fair read on the
year. You know, maybe coming into the
year, you were ready to bite you.
You, you your fists were cleansed.
Your teeth were like, because you, you lost Pete, you lost
Nimmo. The Mets messed up.
Yeah, I know he's heard, so maybe it wouldn't matter.
But the Mets messed up the Diaz situation just by a couple of
$1,000,000. They messed that up.
Now, they did not want Nimmo. They did not want Pete.
They want the Diaz. They just messed that up.
That's on Sterns, right? But I thought they had a pretty
viable Plan B trying to get Tucker.
Tucker goes to LA. All right, boom, we get Bichette
basically like the next day kind of.
And you know, you got you got Juan Soto, you got Bichette, you
got Lindor, you know you got Peralta.
And everybody's thinking, including me, that the Mets
would be pretty competitive this year.
And instead, I mean, everybody's hurt and it's an absolute
lifeless sad sack situation. So that's where the Mets are.
All right, let me get a couple of No, well, no, I'm not, I'm
not insulting Cano. I was pointing out the
differences. Jazz Chisholm can't shine his
shoes. I mean, listen, somebody, it's
funny because Robinson Cano, I mean, I almost wish I'd labor
Torres at this point. I feel I know that that's nuts.
I think Labor Torres was at least more a little bit more
reliable in some of these situational spots.
Robinson Cano, right? Man, I know this. the PE DS and
all that stuff, and he left and went to Seattle.
But Robinson Cano, I mean, talk about, I don't know if we ever
took a player for granted more than we did Robinson Cano.
And I know that like the true devout Yankee fans were in all
of his hitting and did appreciate him.
But you know, there was a little bit of laziness where the game
came easy. You remember the points of
frustration and the points of contention.
But Robinson Cano, I mean, I'm just looking at this 3 jeez hit
342 his first full year in the bigs.
I really a second full year 342 Then he hit 306-323-1930 two
313314314I mean big RB is big home runs 48 double S, 41 double
S, 46 double S, 48 double S, 41 double S absolutely astounding.
I mean what Cano did, but see the difference with Cano.
I think Robinson Cano was penalized by what was around
him. Like we were so used to the
Yankee royalty and the Yankees winning that when they didn't
win is that of course he won an O 9 and think about that Yankee
infield in O9 Mark to share a Cano Jeter a rod What you know,
just come on. I mean one of the best ever,
right. But because the Yankees won so
much before Cano got there and there was a trace of from him,
body language not always busted out-of-the-box.
And those were real things and I would get on them.
I remember I was on 1050 ESPN Radio at that point and I loved,
I was a big Keno fan, but I just, I have no patience for
somebody that doesn't play the game hard all the time.
I, and I understand that it's 162.
I'm not asking you to, to Sprint after a walk like Pete Rose or
Nimmo. You know, I'm not I'm not asking
you even on a on a, you know, hard hit 90 plus exit Velo 2
hopper to second base to haul ass and Sprint down the first
baseline, But you got to at least present it in a way that
is, are they doing right by the game?
You know, and and listen, the thing I'll just personalize it
for very briefly for a moment. The reason why that's part of
the reason why I've gotten on cat not recently, but you know,
when cat would would lay back at the other end and bark at the
refs and just jog up the court. What players who who show that
to me, it is just inherently unacceptable to me because I was
not I just was not a great athlete.
I just wasn't I was a good baseball player, but I I I
wasn't I wasn't fast, you know, couldn't jump when I played
basketball, you know, defensively, come right at me,
you know, on the basketball court.
All right, go with him. You know, that's a problem kind
of like to go with Brunson. Not that I was playing point
guard, but the point is and not to equate myself to somebody
like Brunson. It's ridiculous, but because,
you know, I, I worked so hard to almost become an average
athlete, jumping rope, sprints, running up the hills, all the
stuff I would do when I was younger and still playing
competitively. When I see guys like Jazz or
like Cano, it's just, I, I can't take it.
It drives me insane because you've been given so much and
like the, you know, it's hard enough to hit, but it's not hard
to run like I would. And I've told told my son this
who's faster than me, Thank God. I mean, it's hard not to be, but
you know, when we were running sprints at the end of practice
in college, like I remember in the gym before we would go and
start our season 20 something guys on the team 2324.
And like, I would have to give it literally everything that I
had run as hard as I could to finish like 11th, 12th, you
know, you know, and that that was always my mindset.
It was just always you, you got, you got to run hard because if
you don't, you basically look like you're running backwards.
And if you followed my career, any problem that I've had,
usually the first issue is born out of a lack of effort.
You know, receivers half assed across the middle pulling their
arms back. You know, just I can't take it.
I just I'm never going to take it.
And I watched Jazz back to that for a minute and I'm like, man,
oh man, God has given you every physical trait, every athletic
trait in the book. Like I've, I've said this before
and I've used tiki as an example, right.
So, I mean, I, I, I don't really quite look at it this way, but
the imagery, I think you'll appreciate J Rod to me when
you're born, right? When an athlete's born, yeah.
And you go through the assembly line like the conveyor belt, and
you get stamped with the different athletic
characteristics, strength, speed, dexterity, size, you
know, all those different things right now, Tiki wasn't tall, but
somebody like Tiki was literally given, you know, stamp, stamp,
stamp, stamp, stamp. And then he comes out and he had
to work his behind off to, you know, to maximize what he was
given athletically by God. But to me, I mean, they bypassed
me 3 or 4 different. They gave me good size six, 2
1/2. They gave me decent strength,
was given good hand eye coordination, could really catch
and shoot, couldn't run a leg. So I didn't I didn't get that.
Or the other way to look at it is when, when, when, when a
young athletic baby is born, those who have everything you're
touched by 10 fingers of God. You know, I probably got 6 in
terms of like the professional scale and Jazz was given 10 and
you know, Robinson Cano was basically given, you know, Jazz
is a little bit faster, but 9 1/2 and guys like that, that dog
it or that don't always give you that full bore burst.
I just I will never accept that and I don't want a lot of guys
like that on my team. I just don't, you know?
Yeah, no big time. All right, so I like this little
like 10 fingers of God thing. So in your in your kind of
theory here, is every person at least touched by 1?
Oh my God. Because like, I'm thinking about
myself. Here, that's a good question.
Too, not to diminish my athletic prowess and my rec basketball
prowess here. Yep.
But listen, I'm 58, you know my
game. I'm not, I'm not the fastest
dude. I had asthma growing up.
My, you know, so my athletic ability was a little stunted.
But you know, there may have been one finger.
He was like you. Know here's here's the big
range, here's the finger that you got to be a good shooter,
you need good depth perception to me, like, and, and that's
something that that I always had, like I went out, we were
shooting in the yard the other day and you know, I don't think
some of these kids today I made 3-4 shots in a row.
I'm like, and I'm like, when you make a shake, get the ball back,
dude, my hands are up. My son's dribble.
I'm like, dude, I make, let's go make it.
You make it, you get it again. And I drill like 13 in a row
now. It's a soft rim and it's
legitimately 10 feet high. Yeah.
Then I was just splashing and not even jumping, just flicking,
flicking, flicking, flicking. Like that's a depth perception
thing. You know, that's a connectivity
like the hands, the maybe the feet when you're actually
playing and jumping and shooting.
I would say that you got if you're as good a mid range
shooter as you profess to. Be I don't, I don't think I'm
Shaun Livingston or anything here, but but you know, I'm
pretty in terms of in terms of a a person who never played any
sort of school basketball whatsoever, I'm pretty decent.
OK. I would say you got at least a
couple now. Also, listen, there's a lot of
kids who are really fast. Oh no, whose parents just didn't
really, because maybe they, they didn't play and they didn't
emphasize sports weren't introduced to whatever game it
might be. And that speed and maybe
potentially strength ratio as they, as they hit puberty and as
they as they become more physically built and
well-rounded, it never really had a chance to shine.
So you might look at a kid who plays no sports.
He may have been he may have been touched by 5 or 6 fingers,
but. You just never know.
Never got a chance to tap into the well, all right, let me get
into this here, let me get into this.
So every time I do this, and I'm going to preface it with I
understand how I sound and I'm also going to say I don't care
how I sound when it comes to this, right?
The NFL international schedule is an absolute joke.
And listen, the reason it's a joke is because each year, and
I'm going to document all this in a minute, but just the
initial premise, each year they just screw you more and more and
more. So we are getting ready with the
schedule release. By the way, Jay, just get that
Jets collected thing back. No, I'm sorry, that's my jets
collect. There you go.
Look quick. Nice.
So that's the schedule drop for The Jets coming up Thursday.
We're right around eight O 5 myself, Jake and Rich.
We'll we'll hit The Jets stuff. But big picture, all right, we
are getting ready for a record setting 9 games on the
international circuit with the NFL this year.
Seven countries and four continents.
Football is becoming soccer and that's not good See, the problem
is nobody says it. People just accept it.
Oh wow, that's cool. There's a game in Australia.
How is that cool? And I love Australia.
I love it. Like this is not a knock on the
different countries. Please understand that.
But why in the world is this good?
And don't tell me it's about making money.
Don't you think that I know that I understand that's part of the
reason why this draws my ire because it's become all about
money. So this year, J Rod, they're
playing get this up on the map. Can you on the on the screen,
the map here. Look at this guys.
Now cool graphic by the way, look at the international games.
We're going to Melbourne, Australia.
We're going to Paris, France. We're going to Rio de Janeiro.
Great. If you want to hit the beach.
I don't know if you really want to watch football in Brazil,
I've got I'd like the London Games.
Actually, I thought that was good.
So that's not a knock on my man SD out there.
No, I I think that that works out very well.
Going to Munich, Germany, going to Madrid, Spain, going to keep
this up, going to Mexico City. Now understand this.
The NFL is becoming more and more and more brazen and
comfortable with doing whatever they want to you, whether it's
up Thursday night, Hey, we got a big match up on Thursday.
You want to watch the game, got to stream it up.
We got a big match up Christmas Day to bed, you know, you better
wrap up Christmas morning with Santa or Christmas brunch.
We got football to watch up here comes late in the season.
We got some Saturday games for you as well.
All the kids have basketball games.
All the kids have a dance. Kid has a recital.
Too bad your team's playing on Saturday.
We got Sunday night, we got Monday night.
We got Thursday night. We got all day Saturday late in
the year. We got all Sunday, which is
awesome. And then of course Sunday night,
which is equally awesome. But the way this is, go just
look at that map. What are we talking about here?
We're talking about soccer. Or is this the NFL?
And think about what we you, you, you, you don't know it, but
I'm telling you are the experimental lab rat when it
comes to the NFL. So the international games were
born back in 2005. All right, let's stick our toe
in the pool, throw a little line out there, see if we get a
little nibble. And it worked out pretty well.
They had one back in O5 and for I don't even remember the
reason, but in 2006 they had none.
OK, then they went back. 2 and 2007 they had one.
Then IN200089101112 there were two.
So they went from one to two. Oh, we can make money.
Oh, people aren't really resisting it.
Oh, look at this. Then in 2013, fourteen and 15
they went to three, so there's more.
And then 2016 there were four international games.
And then guess what? In 2017 they stuck 5 down your
throat. And then for I don't even know
the reasons, then they went back to three and three.
And then of course, 2020 was COVID.
And then in 2021, you know, the slow crawl out of COVID, there
was only two. And then they jumped right back
into it. In 2022, they were four.
In 2023 they were five. In 2024, they were five.
In 2025 last year they were seven.
And now there are 9, there are 99.
So who is this helping? It's not helping you if you're
an American football fan, just not matter of fact, it's hurting
you. And I'll tell you why.
And when I use the word brazen, and this is what's really
bothering me. Like I understand part part of
the motivation to send the Jaguars to London is and all
respect to Duval Duvalle, right? You guys going to be good this
year. I'm not knocking the Jaguars,
but the the London Jaguars experiment was based on #1 the
situation of the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was fairly dire
#2 the international business interests of their owner, but
also the intense motivation to globalize the sport and what do
you know, make more money, All right?
We all know that, right? But it worked out.
It worked out and I did. I do like the London Games
because it's there for you. You know, you get up early.
The game was 9:00. Nine.
Yeah, we'll be at, or is it 10? I think it's nine either way.
You know, if you want to get up and watch it, I don't mean if
your team's playing, you want to watch it, get a little scratch
on the game. You got a couple of guys going
fantasy. It's cool.
It's there if you want it. You know, the kids are running
around, you got stuff to do, you go to church.
Whatever it is, it's there if you want it.
And I like that cup of coffee. Watch the game if it's a decent
game. But we're where they're going
now is just an embarrassment. And it's further evidence that
they just couldn't care less about you And like zombies
walking off the plank with our arms out.
We just keep, you know, the expression boot to ask when you
beat somebody in basketball mix dropped a lot of a lot of belts
to ask right. A lot of BT as the last couple
of weeks here. This is BT as a football fan,
because the more they do now, what's it going to look like in
10 years? There's nine international
games. Do you suddenly think that
they're going to recalibrate and say, you know what?
I think we have enough despite the fact that we've made, you
know, 1.9 trillion more dollars as we expand the game.
Let's pull back. Nope.
There's going to be 18 or 20. the Super Bowl, at some point,
book, book it, mark my words, going to be an international
affair. Now, it's one thing when the
entire world watches the game, but it's on our soil.
It's another when it's not, you know, and that's coming.
That is just a matter of time. You can take that to the bank.
I promise you the Super Bowl will be played on non domestic
soil a lot sooner than you think.
And here's what's happening too, right?
So in 2024, the Packers, the Packers, Eagles were in Brazil.
Last year, the Chargers and the Chiefs were in Brazil.
This year, week one in Australia, you've got the Rams
and the Niners. Now think of it's one thing to
have games, you know, internationally, which which I'm
OK with in a limited dose. What they're doing now is taking
rivalries and putting them there.
Dude, it doesn't matter who plays in Australia.
You can send The Jets who are awful and the Browns who are
equally awful. They're going to sell out.
Do you have to take going back the last couple of years, the
Packers who lost the home game, Think about what the NFL did.
They willingly took a home game from fabled Lamb.
And I've been Lambeau and it is amazing from fable.
Lambeau Field and gave it to Brazil.
Why why? And they took AI.
Think it was a chiefs game. I could be wrong so if so.
I mean I don't want to be unfair but I thought it was a chiefs
home game. I thought they took one from
Arrowhead last year when the Chiefs and the Chargers may have
been LA. Either way it's a rivalry.
It's a divisional matchup, meaning you only get X amount of
you get 6. So you, I mean, if you want to
do this, don't do so many. If you want to do this, don't
deprive some of the fans of some of the best venues and and
traditions in the NFL. And if you're going to do this,
certainly don't take it a rivalry game and throw it on
foreign soil where you got it. You got to deal with different.
I mean, Australia, think about the different time zone, think
about the logistics to go play in Australia.
You know, think about that this week.
We Rams Niners that game. Now this might seem a little
hyperbolic, but it's not big picture.
That game very well could determine, you know, home field
advantage or who wins the division in the NFC West.
And it's going to Australia. Why?
Somebody explained, well, the answer is money, which goes back
to what I've always said, greed. What is the limit?
How long are we going to be suckers?
You know, where's the game tonight?
I I don't know. Is it on even with the NBA?
Is it on Yankees opening day? Netflix, Yankees Giants, welcome
to opening day on Netflix. And I love Netflix.
Not a knock on Netflix. It's just, it's just a
commentary on the stripping away of fundamental traditions that
are happening more and more and more.
Let me just say that again, the Rams and the Niners, not the
Rams and the the Rams and the Raiders or The Jets and the
Niners or, you know, take some other team that is, you know,
not very good late. You know, we all know the bad,
the the Cardinals, not the Cardinals and the Browns in
Australia. If you're going to give them
something, give them something bad or give them our best stuff.
And then you talk about a competitive disadvantage where
you literally lose a home game. You lose a home game.
So logistically it's an issue. And, you know, residually
downstream, it could really alter and impact the pecking
order of the NFL. And don't tell me that I'm
overreacting. Like, if you want to be just
some sort of zombie who accepts all this, well, that's on you.
That's never been me. Like, somebody's got to stand up
for the fan. Somebody's got to stand up for
the the the consumer who built the NFL.
We did. Maybe I didn't, but my ancestors
did and so did yours. You know, and I understand
things change, but just the limits of what they are willing
to do to you and us, it's off the charts unacceptable. 9
International games 9 and then you don't even know if the and I
promise you, because we've heard this before, all the conditions
aren't great. The feel was slippery all I
wonder why? Because they're not used to
doing this and they don't care. They don't care not at all.
They are just giving you, you know, which finger bang, they're
shoving it right down your throat.
Here, here's more. Here.
How much you going to take? Here's more.
Oh yeah, more up, sucker. Keep swiping that card.
Get the New Jersey. Get the new, the 4th jersey, the
alternate jersey. Pay 100 bucks for parking.
Spend $7000 to go to. Now, some of these countries are
beautiful. And again, it's not a knock on
the countries. It's really not.
But I don't know why the NFL is so fixated on turning their
sport into soccer. Somebody explain this to me.
Why, it is patently offensive at this point, at least for me or
kids even playing American football in Europe, it's grown a
little bit. You know, I mean, even listen,
even when the Yankees and the Red Sox went to London and the
Mets and the Phillies and I, I do think personally that Japan's
different because baseball thrives in Japan.
And when the, when, when Major League Baseball goes to Japan,
they're usually sending somebody like a Hideki Matsui or Shohei
Otani. You know, you're connecting the
thread of, of cultures and the game, even though the languages
and they play a little bit differently, you know, in terms
of style and, you know, put the bat on the ball.
You know, definitely a broad brush statement, but more
fundamentally buttoned up in Japan than here.
Everybody's swinging for the moon.
Like back in Japan still, you strike out, you walk back to the
dugout in shame like we used to. I just struck out.
Wow. I remember when I would strike
out, which was a lot in college, Like I felt like I wanted to
crawl in a hole. Now these guys strike out, take
off the elbow guard, flip the helmet, take off the gloves, let
the bat boy come get it. First base coach, flip the bat,
No big deal. I struck out 193 times this
year, struck out 177 times this year.
My K rates 33. You know, and not to get into
baseball again because this is about football, but it's really
a great commentary about sport. The NBA does it now.
I really don't care. I don't care when the NBA does
it as much. I don't know why.
Maybe because homecourt advantage is, is less important.
Although NFL home field advantage, it's a little
misstated how beneficial it is. You know, over the year, like
the stats have dropped a little bit favoring the home team.
It's, it's a, it's, it's a little bit more even a little
bit. But I'm talking about traditions
like so you get with a 17 game season, you either get 9 home
games or you get 8. Now, why in the world should the
Packer fans or the Chief fans? I'm thinking about some of the
great fan bases, the Bills fans, the Niner fans, Giant fans,
Eagle fans, Cowboy fans. Why should they be deprived of
their normal routine, getting in their car, going to the stadium,
tailgating for three hours, wearing their gear and walking
into their stadium. They got to get on a plane and
they got to go to, to, to Brazil.
You got to go to Australia. What in the world is going on
with this? I don't know.
I got to ask Jay Rod's opinion on this here, because Jay, you
have grown up in a world where this is kind of all, you know,
international game. So I I highly doubt that you've
got as much of it of an issue as as I do with this because I've
got a massive issue. But I'm curious what your take
is with. This well, I I think you're
right and I think, you know, the reason it doesn't matter as much
for basketball as well is obviously because the season is
just so much longer, you know, or not so much longer, but
there's so many games played. So, you know, you play one game
versus the 76ers in London and it doesn't really impact, you
know, your team's record or anything like that.
Meanwhile, with the NFL, NFL obviously much shorter season.
So it really does matter. And I think that's where my
thought lies is is very similar to yours where it's like, you
know, for the NFL, maybe they shouldn't be doing these things
because, you know, it really impacts the the home fan base.
And yeah, while there are obviously international fans, I
mean, you can see from our boy St., like people do love it.
Absolutely. Overseas.
And I, I like the, I do like the London experience, I do, but
it's just too much. I mean, we're just dotting the
entire world now with the with NFL.
I saw a good comment from our boy F your couch.
He said, like, what if they did like an international week, you
know, so where they kind of consolidate it into one week
where it's not real, you know, where it doesn't nominate a
spread of the season, but maybe you have a bunch of games in
different countries still, but it's over one week rather than
that's actually dispersed. So I thought that was a smart
idea. I agree because yeah, I mean, I
think, you know, and I think for baseball, you know.
Do they? Do they?
Not to ask a silly question here, yeah.
Do they play international MLB games?
Or yeah, yeah, I know you were looking something up.
So obviously they go to Japan, they go to London, they've done
Australia. I remember when they went to
Australia. That is the plane flight where
Clayton Kershaw really where his back.
This Dodger fans will remember this giant.
I mean every baseball fan, if you're a big baseball fan, you
remember it where they may have been playing the D backs.
But the flight to Australia, that's when he started to really
complain about his back issue. And the back issue was a real, I
mean, Clayton Kershaw still one of the best lefties of all time.
He probably left fifty wins on the table because he missed so
much time. And a lot of people look at that
flight to Australia. So yeah, the, the MLB's messed
around with it. But when you play 162 or 82 in
the NBA or the NHL, and I'm not averse to like an exhibition
contest, I know that you want to plant roots and grow the game.
I I get it. And then when they do this, they
do do a lot of good things around it where they'll have NFL
alums go and do like, clinics and showcases.
And then, you know, when down down the road, you know, kids
start playing a little bit, they start watching.
The world has become smaller by the year.
I understand all this. I'm not resistant to, you know,
expanding a little bit. But I got to have my limits here
because, you know, this is also preemptively trying to at least
address because I can't prevent it.
I could just tell you what I think about what is going to
happen down the road. Just look at the trends.
This started in 2005. There was one, and then it went
up to five in 2017. Then it went up to seven last
year. Now it's 9.
I mean, does anybody, I mean, if you think that it's going to
remain at 9 for the for perpetuity, you're.
I feel it more than that it's. Going to be 15 before you look
up. I mean, every, there's going to
be a certain point where every team has one easy, yeah,
something like that. But in the Super Bowl take, the
Super Bowl take, I mean, you're so right.
Like it's definitely going to happen.
It's coming within maybe the next 10 years.
I, I mean, I don't know if that's too ridiculous to state,
but I think a Mexico City one, I think a lot.
London's rough. I don't know that's rough.
I, I think they could do it, but I don't know if it, if it has
that much European boom as much as like, you know, I think
Mexico City is South America, there's still little America's
kind of familiarity with the sport.
So I think maybe in one of those countries would be better.
But here's here's my luck. Watch this, this, this.
What's going to happen, right, is what's going to happen to me,
Jets going to make the Super Bowl and going to be in fucking
Australia and I can't even go. Jets will finally make the Super
Bowl and instead of playing like an Indianapolis or out in
Scottsdale, AZ, or, you know, the the rest of the rotation,
I'm going to have to go to Australia, which means I
probably won't go. That would be horrible.
I mean, that's what's going to happen.
You think Joe B is going to get on a plane to go to to go to
Brazil? No, no shot.
Give me a break with this man.
And really, I, I, I need to re re reinforce one thing here,
like there's a couple of issues at play #1 is just the sheer
amount, the mass volume. Of international games, problem
number one problem #2 and to me this is beginning to usurp
problem #1 is now they are taking rivalry games and putting
them there. Think about this now, all right,
You want to tell me that the Packers and the Eagles are on a
rivalry, not in the same debates like the Giants and the Cowboys
or the Cowboys and the Eagles, All right, the Commanders in
Dallas, I understand that. But the Packers and the Eagles
have as rich tradition as anybody in the NFL, right?
You put them in Brazil to open the season.
So Eagle fans, Packer fans, going through the draft and
going through OTAs and all the other stuff and following free
agency and going through training camp.
Hey, Week 1, let's get you sit down.
The game's in fucking Brazil. The game's in Brazil, right?
And then the next year you got the Chargers and the Chiefs.
Now, maybe the Chiefs and the Chiefs and the Raiders has a
little bit more static, you know, a little bit more
whatever, a little more friction, little more historical
context there. Well, I mean, the Chargers been
around forever in the AFL, so maybe not.
But the point is last year it's the Chargers and the Chiefs.
It's not even the Chargers and the Browns or the Chargers and
the Arizona Cardinals. It's the Cardinals and the
Chiefs. Now this year it's the Rams in
the 49ers, the two best teams in the NFC.
Oh, I mean Seattle actually won the won the Super Bowl, but you
know what I mean? I mean, two of the best teams in
football and two teams that deserve this to be played on
American soil. You take in one of those two
games, you play twice, you play twice.
It's like the old days in baseball where you play
everybody 19 times. You know, Yanks play the Orioles
19 times, Yankees, Red Sox 19 times.
Like they've kind of mixed up with schedule now, but you get 2
match ups. 1 is in Australia. This is ridiculous.
It is absolutely ridiculous. I really guys, I got to be
honest with you here. I don't understand why more of
you aren't bothered by this. How big of a sucker are you?
And I say that coming from a friendly place.
I'm not trying to antagonize you and I'm certainly not trying to
diss our international friends. I'm really not.
And I, I know that I said that at the top of this, but like,
that's important. Or I'd love to go to Australia
on a safari. Like on the Outback trip, you
know, I'd love to go to Rio de Janeiro, you know, and walk
around. Well, I'm not going to walk
around in a banana in a banana hammock.
But like those those bikinis that are like the width of a
Bento floss, sure, I'd go to Rio named Nana.
Now I'm married, man. But you know, back in.
Yeah. Love to go to Rio de Janeiro.
Where do we go? And bachelor's party.
Let's go, boys, trip. Let's go to Brazil.
Love to do that. Love to go to Munich, Germany,
Right. I love one of my favorite
countries in Epcot. I love Epcot.
I love Disney that much, but I love Epcot.
And is Germany like get to Stein a beer.
You take the little boat ride. Love to go to Munich, Germany a
little Oktoberfest. Be great.
Knock back some good beer, be awesome.
You know I've been to Mexico many times.
Beautiful. Stayed at some amazing resorts,
spent New Year's Eve there. Rang of the new year at in in
Mexico once, right? Awesome.
Been there 2-3 times. Great.
Almost went this funny story Madrid now I always Jay, I
always talk about my very unimpressive scholastic record.
For whatever reason, I was really good in Spanish.
I was like, it rolled off the tongue and it, it just made
sense to my brain. And, you know, obviously once
you learn how to conjugate all the, all, the, all the verbs and
you just know the words, I mean, it's, but then you've got to be
able to do it somewhat fluently. And I mean, I was, you know, my,
my grades, they were what they were.
But my junior year in high school, I was actually asked to
go abroad to Madrid. Holy, did you go?
No, it's during baseball season. I couldn't.
There's no way I was gonna, you know, but I'd love to go.
Like if I wasn't an athlete, I would have loved to have gone to
Madrid all those years ago. I'd love to go to Madrid now.
My mom's got probably it's called the yadro LLADRO.
You got to make the L sound like the Y, you know how it is.
Got to accent the the proper yadro, right?
Got to roll the R and like the it's yadro is it's like a is it
like a ceramic? It's like a collectible company.
It's Oh yeah, my mom's got a ton.
Very valuable, beautiful. I love to go to Madrid, bring a
couple of yadros back for my mom.
I don't want to go to Madrid to watch a football game.
No, no way. Running with the bulls.
Get the sword, get it out. Let's see who's going to win.
Is the bull going to win? Or is the other guy the, the
whatever you call that guy the, the the matador, right?
Who's going to win? Is he going to get spiked?
And is the bull going to win or is he just going to keep shoving
that sword in his side until he dies a slow death, which by the
way, is really my sister did the running of the bulls.
No way. Like you're insane.
So this is where I stand on this stuff, man.
And I'm not trying to come across as the the narrow minded,
like the American lout who just doesn't see the big picture.
I think that I'm fairly sophisticated, fairly, not
overly, but fairly just enough to pass to get by.
And I certainly think that I understand business and I know I
understand how the fans think because I am 1 and I I just
there was the the lack of resistance to this is just
incredibly disappointing. I I don't get it getting worked
up here. I dropped my glasses all right,
don't want to best don't want to burst this this date and time
2379 don't want to burst The Jets bubbles.
But dude, you can't, you can't, no matter what you say, the
bubbles been burst. All right, The Jets will move to
get the hell out of here long term bed.
All right, I mean, I wonder what the odds are.
I mean, you say you throw it a little future.
I mean, listen, if it's plus 7000, I might throw 100 bucks on
that. I mean, listen, if they're not
winning by then, I won't give a shit where they go.
Not really. I don't think I'll care.
So maybe you're not crazy. And there has been a little bit
of thought of that. Woody, you know, obviously under
the the first Trump administration was out there.
I who the hell knows what his other business.
I just hope Woody doesn't own the team by then.
So hopefully the whomever, maybe Cohen owns it and Cohen just
wants to build some more casinos around MetLife and The Jets are
here to stay. Or maybe they actually move The
Jets back to Queens around EI. Don't know.
I can't start getting wrapped up and that Jet's going to move to
London, but somebody is, I mean, or just going to be an expansion
team, you know? Oh man, old man.
Man, Yeah, man, that would just stink.
You're a player. And it's like, no, not that.
You know, I studied for London abroad for like a month, dude.
It's like, I think that's the best city, the best city on
earth. But I dude, it is incredible out
there. I know, I know.
But to be an NFL player, like if all your families like in
America and all of a sudden you got traded to London, you would
just be like. Well, think about this now.
This is down the road. I don't want to get too wrapped
up with this now, but yeah, I mean, the residual impact of
that when it does happen, because it will happen, whether
it's The Jets or the Jags or expansion team, it's going to
happen. Think about, think about, I
would say a competitive disadvantage for those teams
when it comes to free agency. Oh my gosh, I mean you.
Almost have to have a built in concession or maybe those
international teams get a different salary cap to adhere
to based on the depending upon where you are and the
translation of the dollar. There's so much shit to get
into. I don't want to get into it now,
but it's just, yeah, man. It bothers me to my core.
It's happening more and more and more and more and more and like
suckers and like zombies. Too many of you take it.
So I'm done with my spiel on
that. I knew I was going to air the
tank, empty the tank on that a little bit.
How to empty the chamber Every time this comes up, I don't care
what. Even when I was doing this now,
Tiki didn't care as much, right? Tiki was thinking about it from
business and I'm like I I get the business point.
Tiki, I got an idiot I. Get it, I get the business, but
whenever this comes up and I started digging my heels in on
this, you can go find some stuff doing the, doing the national
stuff with T probably about a decade or not, not quite with
this, this fervent pushback, but I was always a little resistant
to it, whether it was a logistical disadvantage or
whatever it might be. It's just too much the gluttony
in sports. I don't need to keep going.
You guys know where I stand. You know what I said.
And by the way, if you disagree, I, I, I'm open to a little
dialogue here. I mean, I, I, I'm not saying
that my way's got to be right for everybody, but I'm telling
you unequivocally my way is right for me.
That is for damn sure, especially with this, you know,
Jay and. Your big Tom all.
Right, So what else we got? Thank you to the Cavaliers last
night as they can. Yeah, let's go.
Stretch it out, baby, Stretch it.
Out yeah, it's nice. It is nice.
I mean especially, you know, now it you know now it really opens
up the the impossibility for it to really go 7.
You know, not the, the probability, the likelihood of
this series going 7. And I, I mean, what are, I guess
you said it kind of yesterday if OG was fully healthy, maybe you
don't like it as much, but the fact that he's a little banged
up, you'll like the extra rest that they're getting.
I do I I love it. I mean, first of all, OG, you
know, listen, if St. the Knicks would have lost Game 4, I think
I'm not saying I would have. I think there was a chance that
we're going to run them out there in game five.
Hopefully prudence would have won out.
So I don't I don't know what we'll never know because they
just broomed them and we never got a chance to know, which is a
good thing. There wasn't dude.
But I listen, OG should be fine. I mean, he's had a lot of say.
It was not a severe, it was not the IT was like the so the
lowest grade spread the grade. I always get confused.
Grade 1. I know there's three grades.
Three is a complete tear. Three's the worst or one's the
worst. I think 3's the worst.
So you had a Grade 1, the level of severity goes up 1 basically
not a big deal too. You know, you're going to be out
maybe a month or so, maybe a couple of weeks.
And then week grade three you, you got massive problems where
you're out for multiple months because it's basically a full
rupture or a full disconnect with the where the hamstring
becomes disconnected there. So then that didn't happen,
thank God. But it pretty much did happen to
him a couple of years ago against the Pacers.
You know, even though we came back and he played that Game 7
and stuck at 3:00 to start the game from the corner, this now
to me, the way it sets up a series obviously tied up at 2.
Game 5 is on Wednesday. That's going to be in Detroit.
I think the Pistons win that game.
Game six Friday at the Cavs. I think the Cavaliers win that
game. I believe there's going to be 7
games if necessary Sunday in Detroit either way.
Now, I believe and and it's a little convoluted here because
there's still so many possibilities.
I don't know if it was updated today, but if let's just say,
let's say it's over Friday, let's say either one of the two
teams. It's amazing that we're giving
the Cavs now a chance to actually win the series.
I know, I know, right? So say if the Cavs or the
Pistons, I still think it'll be the Pistons, but the Pistons win
two of the next two games. Well, the next game, that would
be Friday night. Would they play Monday?
Obviously not playing Saturday. I don't think you're playing
Sunday. And I think it would be Monday.
Like I had one version, but I've I've got to update it because
this is now a little wrinkle, which is great.
Either way, massive advantage for the Knicks.
And you know, I thought, listen, just to stick to this series for
a minute here. Really rough night again,
related to start Tuesday no matter what.
Yeah, no matter what. No matter what.
So if game seven, No, no even. No.
OK, even if there's a game seven I.
Believe so, because that would end Sunday, right?
That would end Sunday. Oh man, that would be.
That's kind of like what? That would be disastrous for
whoever wins. Oh my God, for me.
It wouldn't be it. Would be it would be incredible
for the Knicks. Well.
That that would Jay that would basically be be what happened to
the Sixers in the Celtic series where you almost have to flush
game now game one down the chute.
I think the Pistons are better than the Sixers.
I think the Cavs are better than the Sixers.
Whatever they don't have the injury issue like Embiid and
then he's obviously a different physical situation.
But man, if that's if you're positive that even if there's a
Game 7, which would be Sunday in Detroit, that game two, no
matter what starts on, pardon me, game one starts in for the
Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday with one off day slash
travel. Yeah.
I mean it says May 19th is the day, but if it ended earlier
there would be the expedited day.
That's what I thought. Look what, like it's going to
happen on May 17th. OK, you know, that's definitely
not going to happen there. So there you go.
And, you know, now Justin J just going to be back up on the one
shot real quick, buddy there if now you got to start looking
here at, you know, can the Cavaliers actually win the
series? And you know, I love Kate
Cunningham. He's one of the next absolute
true superstars in the NBA. But you know, he's not there
yet. We know that.
I don't think the Pistons were there yet in terms of being the
championship team, neither of the Cavs, but the way they
defended Kate Cunningham last night made him very, very
uncomfortable. Firstly, didn't shoot well, I
think he was like 7 for 19 low percentage.
But when they kept rolling the double and they were trapped and
where they were trapping him, you know, along like near the
opponent's bench where their bench where he just had nowhere
to go. It wasn't necessarily in the
middle of the court. It really limited what they
could do. Like once he crosses midcourt
inside the half court set, they were very opportunistic and very
on point running that second defender at him.
AI don't think he recognized it quickly enough.
This is something Brunson deals with and but at 6566 Cunningham
could grow, throw over the top on like Jalen.
So you know, he had five more turnovers.
Mitchell was great. I mean Mitchell 40 plus points,
whatever it was. And I thought Mobley was really,
really good. Five block shots.
You don't see that too much outside of Wembe and you know,
maybe and that's pretty much it. I mean, five block shots, even
Mitch doesn't really swat five. That is a massive number.
That's like Hakeem Olajuwon. That's like young Patrick Ewing.
That's like Shaq. So I'm not saying Mobley's like
that, but they are an interesting team and they've
always been an interesting team. Now to me at this point, any
team with James Harden on that team is going nowhere.
I'm not a James Harden believer. I'm not a James Harden fan.
He has been incredibly low efficient.
His efficiency has been very low.
I should say this series and the other day, I don't understand
why they were talking about, you know, and and listen, I love, I
love their coach, Long Island guy.
I absolutely love them. They got hosed by the Nets too.
But and I know why he was doing it, taking the bullet that would
have been after. Is that after game one?
Maybe it was game one. Let me see.
Or maybe it was game three. Maybe it was game three.
Either way, he was taking the bullets for Harden saying, you
know, he only took three shots in the second-half.
We got to do a better job. Hey, Harden's got to do a better
job. I understand what you're doing,
coach. I respect that.
And that's the mark of, you know, a man trying to shield one
of the star players. But does anybody trust James
Harden? I mean, certainly at this age.
I mean, just go back to when he was still in his prime.
I mean, the guy was was terrified to take shots against
the Warriors if you watch those series, but he was just passing
up open looks. I'm just not a hardened guy, Not
not great skill, great pure score, great pure three level
score, can shoot from, you know, from range, can get to the rim.
And obviously, you know, you got some mid range work as well.
But you know, I mean, if it's the Cavaliers, I I prefer to
play the Cavaliers myself. And I just think that the Knicks
bigs would would push around their bigs.
We're still a little bit young. Certainly Mobley Allen's been
around a while. Yeah.
Great respect for Donovan Mitchell and Mitchell in the
Garden and we saw it on Christmas is a little bit
worrisome, you know, New York kid coming home and, OK, like,
you know, you really want to mess around with that potential
magic from him. But I'd rather play the
Cavaliers. I I think every Knick fan would
and should, but I don't know. I mean, you flip a coin if you
tell me at this point the Cavaliers going to win.
I don't even know what the odds are.
Jay, do me a favor. You know, I could do this.
I'll do probably get this quicker.
I would say I have not looked at the odds for the rest of the
series. I would say that the Pistons are
-170 if I had to take a guess, Pistons, cabs, remaining odds.
I'm going to say about 170. -125.
Oh, that's it. Wow.
No, I'm see, all right -160 I'm seeing different books,
different numbers. Yeah, bad on mine.
And I'm usually good with those numbers there.
Wow. And now what are the by?
By contrast, what would the Cavaliers be on the plus side?
Well, they. Said one O 5.
Cavaliers are plus one O 5. That's what it says.
From Win the series. Easy central.
Really. Yeah.
All right, all right. Interesting.
Nobody really knows what's going on with that series.
So you got to protect the vig. You got to keep it kind of
close. Yeah, BAE.
I mean what? Else we got here.
We may have watched Lebron's last game.
Not that I watched it last night.
Maybe I didn't want. Do you, what do you think on
that? Like, it's tough because, you
know, and I've heard it from Lakers fans and I've heard it
from Warriors fans a little bit with, you know, Stephen Draymond
now where it's just like it's tough because you keep LeBron.
And obviously, even if you're not giving him supermax
$67,000,000 a season, whatever, you know you still got to give
him a a sizable chunk of change to keep him on your team.
No you don't. He could take the mid level.
Why not? Do you think he would?
I, I, I don't know, but he could.
I mean, if he really wants to keep playing, really wants to
win, he certainly could see to, to me, I I don't know if he
will, but he could. I mean he could take the mid
level exception can absolutely do that.
I don't, you know, and I listen, I this guy's like my favorite
player ever, but like I, I, I'm from, I'm from 2002.
I know, I know I'm just teasing dude.
I get it, I get it, I get you, but I just don't see him as the
kind of guy that take less money than like $30 million like that.
Never. That just doesn't hit me as a
LeBron move. And I don't, I don't necessarily
think it's because he's full of himself or something like that.
I just, it doesn't, he doesn't hit me as the guy currently
who's going to compromise money in hopes of winning.
I think he's past winning. I I don't think he cares at all
about winning. I don't you to make me defend
LeBron. I think that that's unfair.
Really listen, I know he's still pad in the stats and I think
that in his mind, every time he, you know, establishes a new
record and the more he plays, the more records he's busting in
his mind. That's the way he justifies the
go conversation because now that you know what I mean, there's
tangible numbers and you know, you grew up, you're a LeBron
guy. I grew up, I'm an MJ guy, right?
And I think that the next generation and certainly the
generation after that where they will and they'll, there's always
somebody else that's going to come along the way that's going
to at least insert themselves into the conversation.
We all know that no matter what the sport is, but down the road,
multiple generations down the road, there's going to be
tangible evidence if to easily support that.
Lebron's the greatest of all time.
Now, I don't think he is. I don't think I've said that
many times. I think it's mji think Kareem's
better. Lebron's in my top five.
You know, I would look at Magic and Bird as well.
You want to look at a Russell. You want to look at a will.
Whatever. I'm not to even get to that list
right now, but the The thing is when you open up the NBA record
books digitally. If you could do it now, but
especially down the road, I mean, if you never saw LeBron
play where you're young now and you saw him at the end of his
career, like I saw the end of Kareem and the end of the end of
Doctor J, very end of Doctor J, you know, Well, now you're going
to lean on some numbers to support your case because you
never saw Jordan. And if you didn't see Jordan,
Jordan's not the all time leading scorer.
Jordan doesn't have the playoff Marks and records and
accumulation of minutes and stats and triple, double S and
all the things Lebron's done. Now, that's been a product of a
few things. Number one, Lebron's great #2
LeBron has been incredibly durable and #3 he's played.
He's played more than anybody. I mean, what, 23 years, 2223
years? He's 40 he's got the body of a
of a 29 year old that's absolutely amazing and he could
still play and here Jay, here's why here's why I think that
there's a chance that he does take the mid level.
Actually, let me let me roll through this here.
I want to get into this right now.
So to me, I look at this, that just get me up on the sing.
I want, I want to be able to, you get to say, yeah, thank you,
buddy, Not to get rid of Jay, but I want to, you know, got to
pump out the content later on, you know, you know what I'm
saying, Jay, you know, I love you, buddy.
I got you. I, I think, yeah.
I think there's a couple of ways to look at it.
There's three basic questions and I'll try to, I'll try to
walk through this. Number one, will he play #2 can
he still play #3 where should he play?
Will he play? Now, I did watch his press
conference this morning after last night's game.
I didn't watch the game. I wasn't even on my radar, quite
frankly. I was watching the Yankees fall
apart in a bullpen. Both of my kids had games.
So I really didn't care about LeBron.
I knew they were they get a little series over.
So but I wanted to hear what he said after the game and he
talked and this this I get. He talked about the process.
He talked about the commitment. See, I think that, you know,
some of you probably think that LeBron, you know, works out in
the offseason that does a little stretching, you know, comes to
the arena, plays ball, and he's just a superhero.
It's not the case. You know, LeBron, now maybe this
is a bit of an embellishment, but he said, hey, we have an
11:00 practice. I'm at the building at 8:00 in
the morning, basically getting my body ready.
You know, it's, it's like the old Camaro in the the garage.
Like it needs a lot of tune ups, man.
It might look good, but you got to make sure that that thing's
got everything. I'm not a big car guy, so I'm
not sure. Proper oil, whatever.
Even though it's much deeper than that, you know, the fan
belts still work, you know, and to get those fan belts working,
you know, you got to get those wrenches out earlier.
And it's a deep, it's a, it's an intense stretching routine.
It's an it's an intense workout routine and I'm beginning to see
signs. So the first question, will he
play? I think, I'm sorry, I could be
wrong. I think I'm starting to see
signs that I think LeBron right now is leaning more toward not
playing. And, and I get it, like you're
starting to see LeBron play a lot of golf and you just got to
wonder like it didn't you know, he got to play with his son.
Didn't really work out, not to take a shot of Bronny, but that
happened. Check.
He's got all his championships checked, he's got all the
records checked. So, you know, legacy secured.
No matter what he does, no matter where he goes, he's never
going to be the GOAT in the eyes of many, including me.
So he doesn't need to chase that I, I don't think, although I'm
going to throw down 1 little asterisk here.
And, and where he could be goaded by some who could be
converted. Not me, not me.
I'll get to that in a minute. So will he play?
Man, the physical investment that it takes to prepare for a
season and the maintenance throughout a season, I think
he's probably on the other side. I think he's getting to a point
where he's ready to check out of that.
I'm not mad at you, man. He has been his body's been a
temple and to keep it looking like that and humming like that
and producing like that, you're doing stuff that it's just not
many people at this age do anymore, especially in the sport
like basketball. I mean, it's one thing to be,
you know, like in your late 40s, you're a golfer.
You can still crank it off the team, even like Freddie Couple
showing up at the Masters day one.
I know he, yeah, I think he took an 8 on one of the holes this
year. But even in the 60s, I mean,
over the last 10 years, Freddie Couple shows up, Boom, boom's on
the first page of the leaderboard dropping to 65.
And that is the weekend goes on. You know, he stalls out, he
fades out because he's older, you know, and he just, his body
can't quite do it. You could do it in golf.
You could even be a quarterback, you know, and the way the rules
are set up and you know, if you're a pocket guy, you know
you're not going to get hit. If you've got the right
coaching, you got a good old line, you're going to run the
ball a little bit. You know, you have some windows
to throw. You could still do that, like
Brady and Peyton and many others as well.
And Drew Brees played for a long time.
Tough to do that in the NBAI think even in hockey you can
probably get away with it. Like Ray Bourke played forever.
How about that? Impressed with the hockey
knowledge there, Jay, in hockey, you could do it.
I think in baseball, if you were a Leaf pitcher like Mariano or
even a starter like Clement, although Clemens was, you know,
doing some other stuff. But Nolan Ryan, you know, if
you're a if you're a baseball position player and you know,
you're a middle of the diamond, shortstop, center field kind of
guy, maybe move to a corner, maybe move to third, maybe move
to first, maybe you just ADH. It is hard to hide in the NBA
now. Now he's not playing defense
with any sort of purpose at this point.
You know, he's just not. But he's still running, you
know, a ton of miles a night. They track this stuff.
And his top rate of speed is still really good.
And he could still finish at the rim, man, He still could.
And to be able to do that, what you're asking your body to do,
how realistic is it? How much?
And it's realistic if he does what he always does in
preparation and the maintenance throughout.
But back to the first question, will he play?
I'm kind of leaning toward no. All right, but let's suspend
that for a moment. Let's have the conversation.
What if my answer was yes? Well, now the question is number
2, can he still play? And the answer is absolutely,
undeniably yes. And he talked about this last
night where he's turned into the third option.
And you know, I always thought there was a a second and a third
act for LeBron where the offense isn't running through him.
It's going to run through Luca, going to run through Reeves.
So he's had a lot even though Lucas banged up, but he's had
time this year. He's been the third option.
And he said it was, he welcomed it.
It was a nice change and I respect that, right?
I don't think LeBron needs to take 30 shots.
I don't think he needs to be the man.
I'm going to defend him a little bit here.
I think his IQ and his commitment to the sport has
always been great and I think he's a great team player.
I don't know what I'm going to say.
He's a great teammate because I think he's got a lot of guys run
out of town. He's got a lot of coaches fired.
There's been a lot of manipulation behind the scenes.
But I think if you're good in Lebron's book, I think he's a
great teammate. That's what I would say.
All right, so can he still plays?
Obviously, yes, you can put him, he can play.
He can play the four, you know, if you want to be small and and
with the right situation, he can play the five against certain
teams. So yes, he could still play.
Now if I think he's going to play, which I don't, but for now
I'm going to say that he is and I already told you that he
absolutely could play if he wants to.
Where should he play is the third and final question.
You know, I jotted down a couple of teams for you.
Cavaliers to me would be a great story.
I think that would be awesome. I really do go back home, finish
up at home, you know, the hometown kid, the kid from
Akron, be phenomenal story. You already won the championship
there. So the pressure, it's just not
quite as intense. Go out at the adulation and the
like. The symmetry in the full circle
moment would be. I mean, it would be it would be
all time and I'm not even a big LeBron fan.
It would be great. Like if LeBron comes back and is
on the Cavs next year when he's introduced, you would imagine he
played home next year, like the home opener.
Oh my God. And then like the retirement
tour is when he checks out of the game, his last game.
And like, it would be it would just be all time stuff.
So I would be up for that. Maybe mess around and go to
Golden State. They're past, you know, that
that that's kind of shut now. Does he open their window?
Yeah, he does. Certainly opens it more.
Maybe there's another power move that they can make.
I don't know, maybe Giannis, who the hell knows?
I mean, if Giannis and LeBron go to Golden State, that would be
interesting, right? I'm going to get to the Knicks
in a moment. I think he's gone from the
Lakers. I think that that ship has
sailed. I think he's done.
I think they're done with him. And you know, I heard some
people say yesterday, I don't see this as much.
It would be interesting. Denver, you know, you pair him
with Yokich, who's a great passer, great big, you know,
that two game in a two man game, the way that they could play off
of each other would be in the basketball sense, really
appealing. Now, does he want to play 41
games in the altitude, which is a real thing?
Probably not. Does you know, and Colorado's a
beautiful state and Denver's a great city, great sports city.
Does he want to go to Denver? I don't know.
All right, so that that brings us to the Knicks here.
And he's always wax poetic about the Knicks.
We know this, right? But also, like many, didn't have
the guts to come to the Knicks when the Knicks needed help.
So I got no interest in LeBron coming to the Knicks.
I'm not even going to dance around this.
I've said this before, I don't want them on the Knicks, right?
Don't want them. The only way that I would be
even remotely open to it is if the Knicks win the championship
this year and then LeBron wants to join the party.
Oh, now you are. Now you want to take the mid
level exception. You want to take a little bit
more nap, That's fine, we'll figure it out.
You can come in. But if the Knicks don't win the
championship, let's say they win the Eastern Conference finals
against whomever they play, and let's say they lose in five or
six to the Thunder, right with T.
Well, whatever. Yeah, but they don't win.
I don't need LeBron coming at the side door.
You know, the glory hound. And then somehow the Knicks win
the championship with LeBron. And then I am beholden to LeBron
James for the rest of my basketball existence.
I want no part of that. I would rather lose.
You will not believe me when I tell you this.
I promise you I would rather lose with my dignity.
And. And I've been all over Cat this
year, this year, not the last month or two, but this year and
last year been all over. I'd rather go now firing with
Cat and obviously Brunson and even Bridges and obviously OG
and all those dudes. Next year, maybe a slight
alteration to the bench right? Then have LeBron James come to
the Knicks and they win their first championship since 1973.
I got to see the powder. I got to see LeBron, everybody
kissing his ass. Not interested, do not want it.
I would rather be championship list than have LeBron come and
save the Knicks. And if you don't believe me,
then you don't know me. I promise you that is how I
feel. Because, you know, I went
through this song and dance not once, twice maybe.
LeBron coming to the Knicks. The antennas are up.
I'm all excited. Knicks suck, let's go.
LeBron. And I was a huge LeBron James
fan. He turned me off.
He turned me off with some certain stuff the last decade or
so. I'm not going to get into it and
I do respect him. I do.
I don't hate LeBron, but I don't want him coming in to be the
savior. If we're going to win, we're
going to win with Brunson. We're going to win with Jalen,
and he's going to be on that float and the rest of the dudes
lining up behind them, right? That's what I want to happen.
And if listen, I really, really, really, really don't think that
you believe me when I say that I would rather lose with dignity
than win with him. I'm not saying he has no
dignity, but I just don't want him swooping in as the last
second hero and forever, forever having to say, oh thank God the
almighty basketball king LeBron James has come to the Garden.
He has saved us. I'd rather lose in Round 2.
I would rather lose around too. I'm think I'm in the minority on
that. I know Nick fans are desperate.
Beningo saw 69 and 73. I would love to know what he
thought about like what, what his opinion on this would be.
I don't know. I'm not that I really care in
terms of changing my opinion, but I am curious how the Nick
fans, and I don't mean the front runners or you know, the guy,
just get parachuted. I mean, those of us who were in
the trenches with the Nicks, even when they're shit like I've
been OK, that's what I want. That's what I feel.
So number one, will he play? I'm leaning no.
I'm going to say give you a little percentage here, J Rod,
I'm going to say right now I would say 6535% no.
Can he play 100%? No doubt.
Respect there. Of course.
Where should he play? Go back to the Cavs.
Second best situation, Golden State.
You know, I'll tell you like I can.
I can throw other teams on the board too.
Like, not that I really want this because, well.
I don't. Golden State would be horrific.
Well, think about this, think about this.
We were talking about this yesterday.
Like, you know, what do the Sixers do?
And beat is on the books for big money next year, the year after
and the year after that for $64.5 million.
So there's only and you got Maxi.
Obviously, you know, he's very you got edge.
Comb was a young buck, love him. George is getting old.
We know their team right? No bench.
I mean, imagine if Lebron's like, I'll go there for the
middle level exception. Now that would be a problem like
that would be, but I'd rather deal with that problem than have
him swoop in and win and forever have to bow down and kiss the
night. Yeah, big time.
James Wears not interested in doing that.
And even if you went to the Golden State Warriors, I, I
don't foresee anything. I think that franchise is
cooked. I, I, you know, I even, I guess
I understand why you bring Steve Kerr back.
And I think that two year contract extension really
signifies a lot for that franchise because it shows Steph
Kerr, he's likely got two years left.
Draymond Green's likely got two years left.
Obviously Steve Kerr's got two years left.
And then it's likely raps. Oh yeah, for sure.
Draymond's just about on the way out.
Did you see? Draymond at the interesting one,
but the team's just not good enough.
Dallas. Nah.
City wise, it would maybe work out, but great city, yeah, team
wise, I mean, LeBron and Cooper flag, that's not getting you
anything. No, no, no, you.
Know the did you see the mention Draymond, you see Draymond and
and the Rose to Kevin Hart the other day.
Yeah, that was. Did you watch the whole thing?
I didn't watch the whole thing. I've seen bits and pieces, man.
They go, they go hard at those things.
I mean, obviously I watch it, but like some of the jokes, I
mean, I've, I've, I've, you know, the crazier you get, the
funnier I think it is. But some of it is actually like,
whoa, like you could joke about that and people are alright with
it. Yeah, no, I I, I don't know.
I mean, I've got thick skin, Really.
At the end of the day, I really just don't give a shit what
people say about me. I think I did at one point.
I've said that before. I haven't for a long time.
Except the people that I really care about and people who really
know my character. Right.
Everybody else from a dime a dozen, Your opinion, whatever.
But to me, I don't know if I would be able to sit there and
be the subject of a roast. I I don't I.
Don't know if I can do that easy.
Oh man, I don't know, I think. I'd be a good roaster.
Oh man, I think I'd be able to roast.
People couldn't take it. That's.
What the kids say they go roasted, whatever like that.
That's what the young kids say now.
And they do this with their hand roasted.
No, I mean, I'm just staying there for two hours and get shit
on. I don't know if I'm sure if I'm
not. I would love it.
If I do.
I would love it if I knew people were going to go that hard.
Don't give me some whack jab weak jabs like that.
No, I would rather I want the weak.
Jabs. No, I want to be eviscerated.
Like when I get roasted. Tear me, tear me to bits bro.
Really. Maybe that's a little sadistic
of a thing, but like. I respect.
It I always, I, I guess that and that's kind of maybe part of the
humor of our generation, but I feel like I always like like
maybe this is bad, but like at camp when I was a kid, like I
always like the visceral creating someone and then having
them, you know, come back at. You as really, really big time.
Nah, man. I mean, back then it was the
Mama jokes and we had a million mother jokes in our back pocket.
Also led to a lot of fights. Oh my God, no.
I don't think I could sit there. I don't know if I've got thick
skin. I don't know if I've got
thinking up to get eviscerated. No, man, you know, and listen,
these rose like I watched the Brady rose.
I've seen clips of the heart rose I've got to watch.
And Draymond's line about Chelsea Handler was good.
She was laughing. There was a good one.
I've got to I do want to watch the whole thing, but I got to
make sure the kids asleep and it's filthy.
I got to put it on at the right time.
I got to find the time. But like some of the stuff like
when you get into this is just where I get really
uncomfortable. I don't find any humor in like
anything that is Epstein laden. I just I can't I can't hear it.
I, you know, and I could never deliver anything like that.
Anything like Charlie Kirk. There was something that was
just reprehensible, man. It just whether or not you agree
with this politics or not, or what he would say.
I just, I can't like when human life is is demeaned to the
degree sometimes these roasts go.
It's it's not a roast, it's just it's uncomfortable and I'm not
even trying to get married, but I've got my I love a good roast
man. Like if you've been married five
times, you want to fuck around and talk about it like that or,
you know, you got whatever. But like, I don't know.
I mean, you and I definitely differ here.
The one, the joke line that I thought was maybe too crazy.
I mean, we don't even have the like, did you hear the jokes
about the comedian's husband? Who tragically passed away
quote. On quote.
They were like roasting a comedian's husband.
Who? A female comedian a.
Female comedian whose husband took his own life like 3 years
prior and they were going at her and I was like this is a wild it
was and she was. I mean granted she was cracking
up, she was rolling, but it was just insane dude.
No, that's not. That's definitely not for me.
That's that's humor. And then?
That was the thing that for me, I was like, that's, that's like
a little too far 'cause it's like the lady's there.
I mean, I was like, like, to me, I was like, the lady's literally
right there like this is. Like, I mean, here, listen,
we're also not comedians. Yeah, and, and, and I think the
Hollywood aspect of it changes everything.
I think the fact that it's on camera changes your reactions
and the perception to everything where it's like, oh, this is the
big blow out. It's not like I'm going to take
deep offense. You know what?
I know. Yeah.
No, that's true. You're going in with a different
mindset. I just I don't think I think I'm
I'm not built for that that level of of degrading.
I I think I go, man. Now that's I don't want any part
of that Jay. I don't so roasted.
All right, man, let me get let me get bouncing out of here so
real quick. Aaron Boone, let's pop that up.
If you can't get that up once more there J Rod for tomorrow,
Yankees skip. Come on, Boone.
You get a win tonight, buddy. I don't want to have to talk to
you when you lose 5 or 6 in a row.
Let's go. Hopefully the Yankees win today.
Either way, Boone and the early state of the Yankees tomorrow on
the show. It's going to be great at 10:30
and then give you guys a little heads up the day after that.
The Jets collective as the NFL schedules will drop.
That'll be right around eight O 5.
I know, I know we'll have the schedules by 8, but Rich has to
file something for ESPN. He's got to finish writing
something. So maybe Jake and I will start
early and then Rich will come in and then we'll go through all
the games and you know, the prime time games and what we
expected. I was reading something
yesterday. The Jets are expected to have
the 5th easiest schedule just based on strength of schedule.
So I mean, hey, that, that helps.
So at least on paper, we're getting an easy schedule.
But you know, when, when you're 5 miles behind the Pats and the
Bills in your own division, it's it's really not easy.
No matter who you play. You can only play the Cardinals
and the Browns and the Raiders so many times.
I mean, eventually you're going to have to get better and I
think The Jets will be better this year, which is part of the
reason why I am actually excited about the schedule drop.
So that's coming up on Thursday. All right, Jay, have an
absolutely outstanding rest of your Tuesday.
I want everybody to check out the rest of the channel, by the
way, like it, subscribe it. We've got a lot of stuff up
there, whether it's old interviews, if you're new to the
show. Appreciate you guys hopping in
and we'll get the 25,000 Subs within certainly by the end of
the month. So we continue to grow.
I've got a conference call today about some potential new
business endeavors for the show. We didn't take any calls today,
but we do. So that's just something.
I just had a lot of things I had to get to and I didn't.
And I love the calls. I've always said that to me that
the show wasn't complete until I was able to interact with you
guys and you've been great on the phones.
It was just a day. I had a lot of things out of
roll through. So we'll get back to the calls
tomorrow, although it'll be. That'll be a little condensed as
well because we'll have Boone. So what we'll do is I'll start
the show, go from 10:00 to 10:30 and then probably react to the
Yankees, react to the Mets a little bit there.
And then I'll have Boonie on hopefully, hopefully for a good,
you know, 45 minutes, maybe a little bit more.
I've got to see a schedule. And then after that, we can
obviously react to the calls and some of the stuff that he said.
So that's coming up tomorrow. Check it out, Instagram, Twitter
and all that stuff. Social media follow like it,
subscribe it, get that algorithm traction going and I will catch
you guys tomorrow at 10 right here on Unleashed Base.