Yo what's up everybody, how you doing?
Good morning Friday, BT unleashed in the house.
Late night, late night, late night, but an absolutely awesome
night. The BT and South Show last night
was absolutely rocking. Oh my God.
But man, I'd say we just had an absolute blast.
I got to say a couple stories from last night.
I want to get into a report from John Heyman about School Bull
that pertains to both the Yankees and the Mets.
And today's going to be a little bit of a shorter show.
I generally try to go about an hour and 15, an hour, 30.
Today's going to be more of an hour.
And since I've got the school bull thing and it's bull thing,
Yankee and Met thing, and I'll give you picks against the
spread obviously for championship Sunday.
But I've got to get to the airport.
I've got to get ready to fly out to Cincinnati.
Hopefully I get home to Cincinnati, OH.
St. John's is playing Xavier this
weekend, which will be really cool because Pitino is getting
ready to try to win his 900th game, which, I mean, unless St.
John's has a horrendous game, which, I don't know, anticipate,
they should win pretty, pretty handily.
I would imagine it will be #900 against his son.
And it's funny, I was thinking about that.
I was, I was actually in the broadcast booth with Mink in
2015 when the Coach K won his one thousandth at the Garden.
So I'm really looking forward to it, but I've got to tighten
things up a little bit. By the way, how sick is the hat?
How sick is the hat? Shout out to Engine 163, Ladder
83, forgetting the gentleman's name because I met him.
I met so many people last night, The VIP, the pictures after
where it was just a procession of people coming up and you
know, you're really trying to have these, these, even though
it's short, these meaningful conversations because you know,
to reach into your pocket. It wasn't cheap, the VIP, but to
come out and to do that and to support me and Sal, it's, you
know, I wanted to try to give as much time as I could and I've
just got bombarded with so many names and I'm forgetting the
gentleman's name right now who gave me the hat.
So I apologize for that. But you know, I told you I was
going to wear it on the show today.
You know, I've got mad love and great respect for FDNY and NYPD
and all those people who keep us safe and healthy.
I as soon as I saw this lid, I'm like, God, this is sweet.
So anyway, it was absolutely phenomenal.
And we're in the green room, right?
Shout out to Aaron Boone, who just, he's just, he's an A+
human being. I mean, Aaron Boone came in from
Connecticut, 2 hours and 10 minutes it took him.
Now, we offered a car, you know, my guy who coordinates
everything, sets up these great events.
The gentleman Mike Martucci, who runs the jet trips that I do and
also runs the giant trips that he set the whole thing up.
And obviously we wanted to do right by Boone.
So we offered, you know, luxury car service, whatever.
He declined. But, you know, he had his, he
had his own way of getting here. He came with his buddy Chris,
who is a big WFAN fan, big BT and South fan.
So we're hanging in the green room and, you know, we're
banging back a little bit of a little shot here, a little shot
there, getting ready to hit the stage.
And I'm sitting there. I sit the salad one point of
like, dude, Can you imagine what it's like to be a musician?
Like I'm, I'm there and you know, we've got probably, I
think at one point there's a probably about 11:50 people in
the green room. My parents came back obviously,
and my wife was there, me and Sal Boonie, Boonie's buddy,
couple of sponsors that we really had a chance to get with
and, and really appreciate those guys for sure.
And when everybody left, I'm like, dude, could you imagine
being like a rock star? Like this is the lowest scale of
hanging in the green room. Get it, You know, doing shots
before you go perform. Imagine being here in the 80s or
in the 70s, like Led Zeppelin or Mötley Crüe in the 80s or the
90s. What those guys were doing.
It was, it was just amazing. The energy was incredible.
And the Vogel Theater is awesome.
I have not spent a whole lot of time in Red Bank, but the
restaurants, phenomenal. The scene absolutely phenomenal.
And you know, when you do something like this, you don't
really know what to expect right away.
You first of all, you hope the tickets going to sell.
Like that's the first thing. Like I we're putting ourselves
out there. If this thing doesn't sell well,
we're going to look like a bunch of knuckleheads.
But it's sold out and it's sold out, you know, really, really
fast. And all the seats were taken up
top as well. There was 2 levels of stuff like
Letterman. I mean, it was just absolutely
wild and everybody had a great time And and you know, funny
Boone, I started to tell you about Boone.
He he comes out and I think Sal was talking about this on his
podcast earlier today. Booty called Sal yesterday.
He was pissed. And you know, like when Aaron's
mad because I've gotten a couple of calls from Aaron, like, dude,
you know, you're off base on this.
Like whether it's a, a Volpee thing or, or Grisham thing or,
or really anything that he thinks that I'm all pace.
He will call me and say, come on, man, you want you, you, you
want to get it right. Here's really what's going on.
Now, that doesn't mean if we're talking about a player that I'm
going to take, with all due respect, everything that he says
is gospel because I've got my eyes and I've got my my
expectations for certain players.
Now, of course, he knows more of the circumstances if a guy's
hurt, whatever it might be, but I'm going to still formulate my
own opinion. And but it's good to get that,
that Intel to get that back, that background and that
backdrop, because sometimes there's things going on that we
might not know about. And he goes up, Sal and I don't
know if he was railing them, but he, you know, Sal told me like
it's, I wasn't kidding around, Like he was a little pissed off
because Sal's been all over gracious.
My guess. Oh, what it was.
Boone saw Sal on sports night the night before talking about
obviously the Yankees retained Bellinger and Sal was talking
about the rest of the lineup. And by the way, I agree.
I don't like Rich Misolito hitters at all.
And apparently Boone called him up and let him out, let him up a
little bit, call them up and lit him up a little bit.
And when Boone came out on the stage, we, you know, we sit down
and you know, we get to the whole spiel.
But before we get into anything, there's and and contentious is
strong. I'm not trying to like miss
misrepresent what happened, but Booney was clearly in public
getting his view across the saddle about Grisham.
And I'm I'm in the middle. So Aaron's to my right and Sal
is to my left and I'm in the middle and I'm looking back and
forth at this little tennis match, which to me is pretty
interesting. And I'm sitting there saying,
Hey, booty, I love you. But I, I got to agree with my,
my old partner here. I, I, I don't necessarily
disagree with the Grisham stuff. So we talked about that, you
know, we, and by the way, Aaron also said that they're not
necessarily done, which is really nice to hear.
Now, what that means is I, I, I take that as, and he's always
talked about possible trades. I take that more as a possible
trade. I don't see really, there's
nothing else really big to do free agent wise anyway.
So I think it's very, very possible that the Yankees make a
trade. I do I, as I said yesterday on
the show, I and I, I said this to Aaron last night and he
didn't necessarily disagree. I don't think there's any chance
that Dominguez and Jones are going to make the are going to
make the team. To me, Jones is more expendable.
He hasn't done anything at this level.
You know, he's not young, strikes out a lot.
And to me, I just think that the floor of Dominguez, like
Dominguez is not going to be a 190 hitter.
You know, he might not be that 3030 guy that many of us thought
we were getting a couple of years ago, but at the very least
he's proven to be a viable as a young professional hitter.
He's got to figure things out in left field and all these the
other things we've talked about. But I would not be surprised.
I wouldn't bank on it, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised
if there's a trade. And then of course, you know,
you know, we had to RIP open a couple of packs and, you know,
listen, the last thing I want to do his store begging on my guy
Booney, who I absolutely think the world up now when there's
something to criticize, I will. I will not allow that friendship
to get in the way. My targets always been more
Brian Cashman. You know that not saying Boone's
perfect, right? But it's always been more
Cashman because as a manager, you can only deal and and only,
you know, right out the lineup of the names that you've been
given. And as I've chronicled many
times, I mean, too many years where early on the Yankees
didn't have enough lefty hitters.
Now they've got too many other years the rotation was too thin,
which is not the case now they've got a great stacked
rotation, particularly when when Cole and Rodon get back in.
You know, year 2 of Cam Schlittler, he got to do a
couple of things before you get to bed.
Nor the bullpen. But think about all the
different first baseman they've had.
Think about even when Glaber was here and was playing a pretty
good second base. You know, we always wanted more
from Glaber Torres. Like, you know, there was just a
little after that one big year when he hit the 38 home runs, I
think we all thought, and I thought he was going to be the
three hitter forever and it didn't really work out that way.
And he's a little bit lazy, loafing after balls, not always
hustling out-of-the-box. So there were issues with him.
Shortstop. Shortstop's been a mess.
They haven't had a third baseman.
You know, McMahon can pick it, but Aaron Boone's probably had
three 4-5 different third baseman over the years, couple
of different center fielders. I'd be really, if you really
think about it, outside of Aaron Judge and Garrett Cole, it's
been a revolving, Then Stanton when he's healthy, a revolving
door of players. Now they're almost 2 lefty
instead of having no lefties. They've got too many.
So it's certainly not perfect here.
But I, I do think that as I said yesterday, again, I think the
Yankees right now are obviously a playoff team, but I think the
same thing of the Mets here. I put both teams in that 87 to
89 window. I saw something yesterday.
The Mets have the shortest odds. I think they're I think the Mets
are plus 180 to win the NL East and I think the Braves were plus
190. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Plus 180 + 190 and the the Phillies may have been actually
tied with with the Braves in terms of shortest odds.
So the NL E is going to be incredibly competitive.
The Nationals are awful. Marlins have some talent, but
they're not ready to win. Win it.
It's a tough division, one of the toughest ones in baseball.
And the American League East is going to be incredibly tough
because the team that almost won the World Series a year ago and
sent the Yankees pack in is still there.
Now. They lost Bichette, but they've
gained some other players. I don't think it's easy.
So even with the retention of Bellinger and a really good
staff, particularly when they get healthy, as I said, I I
think the Yankees have a chance to be really good.
I think the Mets have a chance to be really good.
The other thing too, is I want to get to the story that that
that Heyman had yesterday about the Yankees and the Mets both
checking out on the school ball in terms of the school ball
sweepstakes here. So I understand it now.
So I also get the fact that it's just a game.
You know, you can say whatever you want today and then you
could have another conversation with the Tigers and maybe they
flip a prospect that you're more willing to part with counter to
the initial proposal. And you go from checking out of
these Scubal sweepstakes to suddenly having a deal out of
nowhere and everybody's breaking news, you know, passing, Heyman,
all these guys, right? You know, breaking news, Yankees
get scubal, breaking news, Mets get scubal.
So I don't think there's any finality to it.
I really don't. But I do think it's a little
different. Like I, I look at it, if it's
true, let's let's pretend it's true for now because I do
believe it's true for now. But let's say it actually holds
up that way and somebody else gets them and we find out they
give up their first, their second, their 4th, 5th and 7th
prospect and a meaningful player or two.
Like it's going to be a bonkers package.
And when I say meaningful player, like a young pitcher
with four years of controllability who was already
done something at the Major League level or a young position
player who's obviously highly controllable multiple years, no
money, but has already shown, you know, a bit of a propensity
to do something at the Major League level, well, I will
evaluate it at that point in real time.
But right now, evaluating this, I got to tell you, I think that
if it's true and the Mets really are totally checked out of that,
I'm OK with it, even though the Mets, it's ironic because the
Mets need another pitcher more than the Yankees.
But the Yankees, to me, checking out of the schoolboy sweepstakes
and remaining checked out forever until he becomes a free
agent, to me is dumb. To me, that's the wrong move.
I would not do that. And it goes back to a simple,
basic concept. And what are the core elements
of my consternation with the New York Yankees?
How many more years left do we have of Aaron Judge's prime?
How many? I mean, if we're lucky, 3 and I
mean at the absolute apex of his Superman powers, 555760 home
runs, MVP hit 315, you know, OPS 1100, all the things that have
basically made him a right-handed Babe Ruth, right?
So you have that element. So you kind of work it against
time here, right? And the other thing too is if
the Yankees don't trade for school ball, the Yankees are not
going to sign school ball. So when the Yankees, as per the
report, check out of the school ball sweepstakes, to me that
tells me the Yankees will never get school ball because the
Yankees will not outbid. They'll dance a little bit and
they'll put up some good money and they'll put up a good fight.
And then it'll get to a point where unfortunately, how will
not be comfortable and how we'll check out and without being
Yankee. So I think the prudent thing to
do would be bite the bullet, give them what they want.
I'd have to really think long and hard about Schlittler.
That's the one guy I think I'd probably be more willing to give
up Lombard. And even that would that would
be rough. But it's schoolable.
I mean, back to backside Youngs. The guy's phenomenal.
So you know, you're not going to get him for Spencer Jones and
Will Warren. You know, no disrespect to those
guys. You're going to have to give up
a lot. But see the Yankees there.
There should be more urgency there.
There really should. Whatever the window is, as I
said, two years, three years. And by the way, next year, who
knows how much baseball we get. That's another year that just
elapses off the the the clock of the prime of of Aaron Judge.
And that's problematic to me. So I'm not messing around.
Like if I'm the Yankees, I'm going all in.
And I would have gone further all in, in terms of really
enticing Bichette to come here. And I would have gotten Bichette
and I would have gotten Bellinger as well.
Like that's what I would have. I would have maybe made a play
for Diaz and I would have put bed nor in the 8th inning.
I would have put Diaz in the night.
But that's me. It's not my money, it's not my
team. And it's easy to say that.
How's not doing it? We understand that and it's
frustrating, but you've got to understand that he's going to
make a push, but he's not going all in.
And it drives us nuts. But the more we understand that,
the I already do, the quicker you understand that.
Again, we can resist it, we can resent it, we can push back, we
can debate, we can scream, we can argue.
Doesn't mean it's going to change.
Whereas with Cohen right now, the Mets have a lot more work to
do. They were a mess last year.
They were a circus last year, 83 wins with Juan Soto after
winning almost 90 the year before and almost get into the
World Series. Like last year was embarrassing
for the New York Mets. And the steps that they've taken
to correct it are very identifiable.
And I think the Mets have had a phenomenal offseason and I think
the Yankees have had then, OK, like what?
What really, What have the Yankees done?
They brought back Bellinger and that's it.
So when you look at, and I was doing some digging this morning,
right? I was looking at some of these
names and as much as I don't want to give up Lombard back to
the school stuff, right, and as much as I don't want to give up
Cam Schlittler, I mean, it would really hurt because you watch
Schlittler do what he did and not just against the Red Sox in
the playoffs, but multiple starts.
Like he's just got top rate stuff that if he's healthy, he
is going to be what, 567 time All Star?
I know that that's really pushing it down the road, but
that's how that's how impressed I am with his stuff and his
makeup. It's the real deal.
Just like I feel about McClain as well.
Real deal. So they the name sounds, Oh,
Lombard, the next great Yankee. All right, we've heard that
before. It doesn't mean it's not going
to happen. But I was going through a list
here of the the most recent, fairly recent, going back about
10 years or so. So about a decade snapshot for
both the Yanks and the Mets, their prospects, right.
I'm going to go in descending order.
So most recent to obviously further back Volpe.
We don't know Dominguez, we don't know David Garcia, we know
it's not good. Florio didn't work out.
Jonathan Lewisiga now he was good, a lot of injuries,
whatever, but the end of the day didn't work out.
Glaber, all right, kind of worked out, but not the way we
wanted, but still worked out. They hit on that.
Jorge Mateo what Luis Severino worked out for a minute that it
didn't. Gary Sanchez worked out for a
minute that it didn't. And at the end of the day, Gary
Sanchez going to be on six Major League teams.
So he was not the star that we thought maybe he was going to be
when he had power and showed that early on as a as a power
hitting catcher by young catcher.
Then you get somewhat Mason Williams, remember that name,
the outfielder Jesus Montero and Austin Jackson are all those
guys. All those players that I just
mentioned were at one point the 1st or the second highest rated
prospect in the Yankees system. And by extension what are the
top rated prospects in all the baseball?
So 1234567891011, 1213 names in terms of legitimately hit like
Stud 0, in terms of serviceable, effective, you know, varying
degrees of success. But you know, whatever
description you want to use three guys.
I mean, you got to put Volpe in there.
He did win a Gold Glove, hit a Grand Slam in the World Series.
He's stolen some bases, hit some home runs, I mean, miles from
what we thought he would be, but certainly a Major League player.
Same with Dominguez and same with Claybur Torres and same
with Sebi for a minute. But they hit rate, or maybe more
specifically the miss rate on the Yankee prospects has been
through the roofs. Insane, incredibly frustrating.
So when I hear the report, and I do get it to an extent, I mean,
if it's going to take basically devouring the entire Yankee
system, I can see why the Yankees would at least put up
initial resistance. But when they circle back and
they they will circle back, right?
And they'll have another conversation with Detroit
because now Detroit will react to the Yankees saying we're out.
And then if they're not idiots, which I don't think that all
they they might be because then I can resign school ball.
So they are idiots in that sense.
Not to mention embarrassing the guy with a $19 million
arbitration offer when he's looking for 32.
You want to talk about disrespect?
The height of misreading the room.
I mean that is the ultimate definition right there.
The tigers are a mess. So maybe they won't go back to
the Yankees and circle back. I I don't know.
But if you're a smart team, what you do is you get 6-7 teams
bidding, bidding, bidding, bidding and if somebody checks
out, you pull them back in, you re engage them and you just have
multiple massive offers to choose from.
Now that's the Yankees, right from the Mets perspective.
Now we we still don't know about some of these players, right?
Again, going backwards, right descending order Jet Williams,
Drew Gilbert, Acuna, who's gone Alvarez.
I mean, whatever always he's hurt, you know not he was the
number one prospect in baseball. You know, you just hope that
he's here in two years. I'm not even sure that he will
be like if you told me so you went from the number one
prospect in baseball. To me, there's a greater than
50% chance that in two years he's gone, that the Mets move
on. Like if he has another year
where he's banged up and he misses 30-40, fifty games.
But at some point you've got to make a determination that this
player is not what you thought he necessarily would be.
And by the way, that's common around baseball.
It is. It's the I think it's the
hardest thing to do. It's easier in basketball.
I think it's easier in football. Quarterbacks a little dicey, but
to read prospects, whether they're from the Dominican
Republic or domestically here, you know, when you get a young
kid who's 1617 and you know his skin and bones, but he runs like
the wind. Then he's got a quick twitch arm
and he hits bombs and he's a switch hitter that he plays a
premium spot. You're like, there's no way this
kid can miss. He just can't miss.
And then you get him in the minors and he hits 212 and he
strikes out, then he hits 220, then he hits eighteen home runs,
but he's still hitting 239. Like you really, you just don't
know. Oh, it's such, it's such an
advanced projection that the hit rate is always going to be lower
than the miss rate, I think compared to all the other
sports, right. So now back to the Mets here.
And just to finish up the thought with Alvarez, he's not
been that guy so far. I like Brett Beatty, you know,
but he right now he's nothing more than slightly above average
or slightly above interesting to me.
Mauricio. I don't think much of them.
I know some of you do. I don't.
I don't think he's fast. I don't think he has a great
position and I know he can't hit a curveball.
When you miss curveballs by this much and you're that out in
front, I mean, when you're on your front foot and you can't
recognize and decipher when that secondary stuff is coming, you
can't hit period. But you can't hit because once
the I mean, the word's already out.
Hey, Mauricio, feed him stops, you know.
Bend that slider towards his ankles.
Can't lay off it, and that's a problem.
Then you get to somebody like Mark.
I'm just looking at the prospects Vientos.
I don't like him at all. I don't.
He can't run. He's got no position.
And to me, you've got no value at that point if you're 31 and
you were DH and you're a banger and you've had multiple big time
years on your red like Stanton. All right, That's a little
different when you're in your mid 20s and you have nowhere to
play. I'm not very interested in
keeping you around just the way it is.
Andres Jimenez, Ahmed Rosario, who's a utility guy for the
Yankees now, Steven Matz and Dom Smith and I can go on and on and
on and on. And all those names I gave you.
There's not one superstar of the group.
Now, that doesn't mean that a Gilbert won't be that guy or Jet
Williams or a Lombard or a, you know, certainly a slip there who
I think will be, but the evidence says more likely that
that they won't be. So if that's the case, why not
play the odds and say, yo, we got 2-3 years left the Judge,
we're going for it. Whereas with the Mets, I think
their situation is a little bit different.
I don't. I know, I know they've spent the
timeline up because they are going to be good this year and
they're going to be a playoff team, I think.
Whereas a week ago I'm sitting here thinking there were 75 win
team. But that was interesting, you
know, to bow out that early as the Yankees and the Mets
reportedly have. I find that pretty interesting.
I really do. Oh, hey, listen, so I told you I
got a short 1 today, about an hour and I know there was a a
message up on the board. I didn't read it.
Jay Rods gonna fire him in and I'm just gonna listen anything
today when we get into a Friday, you know, obviously, whether
it's something I'm talking about the content, whether it's about
something about the show from last night, whether it's
something about the show from the fan.
I mean, I'm going to open book here.
Maybe there's something I can't say legally, but for the most
part, I mean, I'm going to dive into these questions.
I'm going to really pound away. All right, let's get it going
here at Avery summit dash, UF or those dashes drive me nuts.
Avery Summit. We're going to go with that.
Hey, BT what's going on, buddy? Prospects for suspects.
I agree. Trading for storage is like
being the house in a casino. Oh, you're talking.
I love the I haven't been to a casino in a while.
Customers are the prospects. They may win here and there, but
the house always wins always trade for the study.
Well done well said tough to refute that.
I get it now to be fair, while the house always wins now you
might go to AC or Vegas for the weekend.
You might walk away. You know, 456000 if you're real
High Roller 7080. I mean whatever it's all
relative to what you have right and what you're willing to to
lose and or or or able to lose and absorb right.
But you might go out couple of nights with the boys.
You know, I know a lot of you go to casinos and and guys trips
like your fantasy football draft, you do the draft and then
you party. I've done that before as well.
It's a good way to do it. Although by the time you get
around to the draft, you like, I don't even care who I draft
here, I won't get back. Play some blackjack here anyway.
The you might have a highly successful weekend and walk away
with some loot and then you go back the next time and you lose
and then you go back the next time and you lose.
The point is, if you've ever gambled like more than once or
twice and maybe you get a little lucky, given the randomness of
the cards, you know, the advantage to the house is an
absolute real thing. And, and I like the analogy.
I think that that really fits. I I truly do.
I'll tell you when, God, it's so different with kids and, you
know, coaching every weekend and I'd rather be on the field than
in a blackjack table. But man, there was a point every
day. I'd rather do that, but there
was a point where I was going to Harrah's in ACI, had a had a
Hostess that get the free rooms, all that stuff, get something to
eat, man. I, I would play 8-9 straight
hours And I, I, when I play blackjack, I like to play two
hands again, worsening the odds, even though blackjack odds are
fine. Like there's some others, like
let it ride, I believe is one of the worst in the house, but it's
a fun game. But you know you're going to
lose, right? If you play often blackjack, all
right? It's a game of chance, like
every card game. But I feel more in control when
I'm playing blackjack, like when I'm playing craps.
I don't know what the hell is going on.
I really have no idea. I I have no clue.
I don't know how to play. So I just see that I went.
I literally would. And I played craps probably four
or five times. And for somebody who really goes
to play blackjack and win and dig in, come in with the
bankroll, playing two hands, splitting everything, doubling
down, I mean, playing blackjack the right way, you would think
that, you know I would. I'm a rookie with this crap
stuff and it's embarrassing because the dice roll, I've got
my money on the line, on the numbers.
I don't even know if I necessarily won.
I'm just waiting for the guy scooping things up.
I'm like, is he scooping up my, is he scooping put on my chips,
or is he hooking me up? I really, really don't know.
And that is not a fun way to play.
I don't know why I keep putting the hat on.
Oh, I do not because when I when I have the hat on, I can't.
I can't really throw the glasses on it.
I won't be able to read these. All right.
At Willie Laverty, 1664 without Willie or Will.
Will is in the house, new to YouTube, trying to figure out
how to sign up and avoid commercials.
Great job last night, Willie from Borrelli's in Long Beach.
Yeah. So I was at Borrelli's the
weekend before Big Saint John's watch party.
It was awesome. The football games were going
on. I've done a few things with
Barelli's, my buddy Mike Quinn out there in Long Beach, NY.
It's phenomenal. It's a great spot.
One of the few places in Long Beach that is really open year
rounds, obviously very seasonal, very Beachy town.
But Borelli's absolutely pops and we're actually doing
something. We are putting something
together for Saint John's Marquette with myself and Tyler
Kollick. So I've got a great relationship
with my friends and Borelli's. It's a good spot in terms of the
and I and I met I met we'll be there.
I met him a few times. I think that I saw him last
night too. I think I don't want to misguide
you here. I believe I think the way to
avoid some of the ads I think is to go YouTube premium.
There's certain levels to YouTube.
I'm just figuring this out man. I'm just figuring this out, by
the way, just as a quick aside. So yesterday, I'm really proud
of this, right? And some of the numbers early
were, were fairly modest, not modest for somebody who's just
starting up a, a YouTube channel, but modest in terms of
what I anticipate and why, what I expect this channel to
eventually grow into. And I look back at the analytics
and I mentioned this yesterday part of it, but I, I've got
something else to add. So nine straight days, nine
straight days, the site grew in terms of viewership.
And that was some of the numbers were low because we had the
issue with YouTube. Remember, we were only doing
the, the live on X, which, yeah, it was good to be on X, but
YouTube is where I'm at. And, and we had to rectify that
and resolve it and it took a while.
So the momentum we had early, we were banging out some really
large viewership given the amount of Subs we have and, and
just a short amount of time I've been on this platform.
So going back to last Monday, so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday of last week, literally it went like this.
It was like 8009 thousand 10:11 to 12:13.
And then this week we just started, you know, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. If not, I don't know what
today's will be yet, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
So as I said, nine straight shows and it started like 13414
nine. Yesterday's was 27.
I got to check my nose 2728 thousand just for one day.
And that is that's just that's just the start.
And and I know I say this a lot and I said it last night on
stage and I'm going to keep saying this, that, you know, I
would get no thousand if it wasn't for you guys support, no
matter how good the content might be, no matter how
interesting, I may have whatever I present, if nobody's watching
and you don't have my back and you guys aren't lifting me up
and doing this with me. It's not growing incrementally.
We're not able, I'm not able to hire a producer.
I'm not able to do the things that we've already started to do
and will continue to do. So that was really, really
exciting. And now, you know, I remember
when I was doing radio, obviously all these years, like
I couldn't wait to get the ratings.
Now I was a rating. Now some people and it's changed
because 880 now ESPN got a lot of good friends there as well.
The Greca Love Allen Hahn, Winthrop's the PD who used to be
my producer on on one of my old shows at 10:50.
I know a lot of people in the building, really good people,
right? This is a little radio geeky
background stuff, whatever. But they stopped subscribing to
Nielsen. So there was a point, as you
know, because you, you read the papers, Raisman and you know,
Martian doing his thing where the radio wars were fun, you
know, whether it was Kay and Francesa, you know, Kay actually
beat Mike once and that battle, Kayla, Greca, not just Kay.
And you know, that was chronicled daily.
Well, you've got to pay to subscribe to Nielsen.
It's not cheap. So 880 bowed out of that.
And I respect the decision. Radios change quite a bit.
Terrestrial game is very different than it used to be
and, and so myself, right when I was at 10:50 and of course at
the fan, I was a guy who wanted to know the ratings.
I want to know the ratings every day if possible like I was.
I need the daily, I need the weekly, I need the monthly.
I want to see where we're going. I want to see what the story is.
Now some PD's and I, I understand this as well.
Some PD's, not that they get annoyed, but they might do just
show sounds great, just focus on the show because in their mind
they're thinking that I can't do two things at once.
I can find out what the ratings are and I can still do a show
and hopefully do it really well. But as as bosses, I I do get
this mindset. It's not a knock, I get it.
And I might have had the same approach if I was APD.
Like if you've Got Talent asking you everyday, what's the
ratings, you might think, hey, maybe if if you have a day where
it's a little down and the meter is incredibly unpredictable,
like there's no rhyme or reason, you know, it's not like if
there's 1.1 million people literally in their cars and
streaming and listening to me and Sal on the fan back in the
day. It doesn't, doesn't say 1.1.
Like it's not a literal reading. It's an extrapolation.
It's like this little meter basically that's in a car.
And then based on the different boroughs and the different
areas, the different demographics, age and all that
other stuff, they come together with some ratings formula, which
to me is it's a rough way to get graded.
So anyway, I do now and I love this because it's a scoreboard
for me. And I like to be challenged and
I like to know if I'm winning or if I'm losing or if we're tied.
And I like to see the progress and I like to see, all right,
this pop and I'm diving deeply into it like this worked and
this didn't. And oh wow, this really worked.
I maybe we tweaked this. So when I wake up now, I'm
looking at my my analytical page on YouTube and I am going
through with a fine tooth comb and I am looking at things to
tell me what's working and what's not.
And really the last time, even before the last time, like the
first show had a a massive viewership and the first week
did as well. Then the holidays, then we hit
the snag with YouTube. But it's a way for me to see
what's going on. So I appreciate it.
And what's going on is that we're growing.
That's what's really going on. All right, let me see what's up
with this at BRAC 227. BRAC.
What's up, Mark from Clifton? Hey, that's right.
I met Mark. He did come up on the stage.
Yeah, the VIP, he said I'm the bears guy.
There he is, Mark. There he is.
Last time was great. Yeah, Yep, Yep.
That was thank you for the extremely kind words after I
told you the story about my infant son and signing the
baseball. I hear you, buddy.
That was that was definitely a real life moment.
And I know that I believe that you said your wife is 7 months
pregnant now. I think would I know you have a
baby girl? I think you said 7 and and I
remember saying God bless. I remember giving you a big hug.
I mean, that's that's dad to expecting Dad expecting dad,
whatever words you want to use. So, you know, I'm going to I'm
going to stay in my lane here. There's certain things that I
can talk about the Yankees bullpen and the Mets line up all
day and the Knicks inability to stop the three-point shot.
There's just certain things that that that I just, yeah, it's sad
to me. It's actually making me really
sad right now that I don't have an answer for.
And I'd never pretend to. Obviously you believe in what
you believe. You believe in who you believe
as I do. And the cards that Mark was were
that he and his wife were dealt were tragic.
I'll just leave it at that, Mark, so you don't have to thank
me, man. It was my pleasure to meet you,
give you a big hug and you got I know you, you watch every day.
So we're almost every day. So I can't wait to see the first
picture. Then when, when, man, when, when
you first when you become a dad for the first time.
Oh my God, it's absolutely amazing.
You can't prepare for it, man. There's just not, you know, you
get the nursery ready, you know, you think you have everything
ready. You just and then there's
another person in the world, then it's your full
responsibility. It is incredible, man.
So I as a, as a man, as a dad of 2, when that nurse hand you that
baby, all that sadness is going to go away at that moment, at
least at that moment. No question about it, buddy.
The the other thing too, all right?
Oh, Andrew. Oh, and I know Andrew.
Andrew from Bay Ridge. Andrew.
What's up, dude? Andrew would call me and Sal all
the time. Andrew from Bay Ridge.
And I love Bay Ridge by the way he used to play.
This is why I want to know where you're from.
My favorite, even more so than my home court in flat, like in
Sheepshead Bay, Saint Mark's. My favorite court to play.
CYO Hoops, St. Pat's Third Ave., Bay Ridge and
it had a Shamrock in the middle of the like I felt like I was at
the Boston Garden and Andrew's in Bay Ridge and he called a lot
and he said he was going to jump back in and here he is.
Thank you man. Really miss BT and Sal Can't
wait to call it again. Which you'll be able to do here
again without the technical mumbo jumbo.
That's J Rod's job. J Rod, you better figure this
shit out, man, because I sure as heck won't.
But we will be able to take calls so you will be able to
call me again. WFA are not the same.
You guys professional throughout work at me through the from the
live show. But Congrats on a wonderful
night. Yeah, it was awesome.
Thank you for that, Andrew. Appreciate you checking in.
It was really it was even better than I thought.
You know, there's you know I said this my last show.
Now it's a different vulnerability right.
So the last show, and I'm sure if you're watching me here, I'm
sure by now you've seen the last show and it was, you know, got
emotional. My dad called in.
My dad was there last night. I made him stand up.
I'm like, hey, you guys remember what my dad called in stand up
pops. And of course, then my dad comes
over to Aaron Boone after and he's like, oh, he's throwing
stats about his grandfather playing for the Tigers, who led
the American League in ribbies one year.
And and Boone was great. It was awesome.
My dad was geeking out for a little bit, but when, when you,
you know, when you do, and I said this last night on stage,
you know, me and Sal in the green room, we're like, how do
we want to start this? And I'll tell you, I've got to
give my wife a lot of credit because there's a fine line.
She was in the green room before with us and she told us and I, I
don't listen to everything you say.
If I listen to this, this is very wise.
She said, guys, these people are here because they love you.
These people are here to support you.
And Sam and I to be completely transparent, you know, you, you
can't live in the past forever. I mean, so the bridge that was
WFAN that I've crossed now and I'm doing this and I'm thrilled
with it and happy and I'm focused and it's all good.
And it's just, it's a success. But you just like, I don't want
to always go back to WFANI. Just don't, you know, it was
great time, but it's over, at least in terms of full time.
And and if she didn't say that because we were, we're like, do
we lean into it? Like how much do we talk about
it? You know, do we just get into
some content? We had some fun games and
obviously ripping baseball pack. We did three RQ.
We did power up all that stuff, right?
So anyway, she did say to us and and it hit home and we listened.
You know, she's like, these guys are here.
These people are here for you. They they want to hear a little
bit about WFAN. They want to hear about your
relationship. They want to hear about what you
guys went through. And when she said that, it
really resonated and and we did that.
And I just say that because I remember saying it on stage last
night. So, you know, you, even if you
don't know that you're doing it early as a broadcaster, really,
at the end of the day, you're chasing validation.
Really. That's what you're chasing.
You know? Yeah, you want to make money.
You want to buy a nice home, have a couple of cars, be able
to save money for the kids in college and those things that
matter, right, And take a vacation and have a few bucks in
the bank like you want to be able to provide clearly.
But before all that, when you starting out, you want to be
accepted. And I don't mean except they're
like, all right, he's got a job. I mean, I trust that guy.
I like that guy. I might not always agree with
that guy, but that guy knows his stuff and that guy does his
homework. And that guy sounds like
somebody that I grew up with or would love to have a beer with
or really connect with or whatever it might be.
And I remember saying last night that the validation right is, is
a, is a powerful thing. And you don't really know when
you get it. It's not like you get a note in
the mail. You've officially been or, or
text message, you've officially been validated by the audience.
They, they respect you. No, it's like you just you
grind, you roll up your sleeves, you do your homework, you jump
into it, you battle, you know, you, you argue, you present, you
debate, you do everything new. And then you know when, when,
when the dust clears and you kind of look at what, what was
left. I think that's when you
determine whether or not there's some validation and the way you
guys lifted us up our last week or so on the air, me for sure my
last week and really my last day on the air where I was getting
choked up and say I was getting choked up his as well.
There's there's from the validation, there becomes a
vulnerability. All right.
And it's like an emotional vulnerability, which which I was
not worried about sharing like I was not protective of that.
I remember my wife said before I went in the morning of my last
show, she said, you think you're going to cry today on the air?
And I said probably I said I, I don't know for sure.
I said, but probably because I know I know how I am.
And I was totally OK with that. And I think that that I think
that that that mindset, I think is part of the reason why you
guys have accepted us and why you have followed me here and
followed S to his podcast and followed us to the Vogel Theater
last night. It's all about validation, you
know, and, and, and we're, it's, it's, it's a powerful thing and
it, it's, it's OK to be vulnerable.
I know I just rambled a little bit there, but Andrew had the,
you know, brought up something about the fan, which by the way,
I'm totally cool talking about. I had no problem with that, but
it was even further validation last night and when we got on
the stage and for the first three 4-5 minutes, just kind of
shooting the shit about, you know, the fan and, and really
let you guys know how much we appreciate you.
And then getting into the show it it once again reinforced and
and I, I, I will take this one to the grave.
Our show, man, I loved it. I absolutely loved it and it
worked. I mean, I've talked to Sal a lot
of text messages since that last show.
Obviously we hung together at a rods part Alex's party right
before Christmas, but I've only seen him once and that was at
Alex's party and all the text. But you know, getting ready for
the show and just kind of BS and text about whatever my bets get
this, Yanks get this. What's going on?
Planning the show was I said, I get on the stage with the guy.
Felt like I felt like I was on air with him yesterday and like
that's a chemistry that you can't teach.
It's a chemistry that you can't buy.
And it was really fun. Tom Reed 5658 What's your
opinion on the chances of a Major League work stoppage next
year? One to 1010 nine and a half.
I mean it's it's going to happen there, Tommy, thank you very
much. Now I know that Manfred was on
with carton on the fan a week or two it whatever way I know what
he said and I know that like deep down he kind of believes
that he's going to project positively, which you should.
There's no way you get on the air and say we're cooked.
That's it. Here's the shut get the
padlocks. We're done.
You've got to, you know, you got to at least project an element
of positivity and conviction that you'll be able to plow
through these these real financial impediments that are
now destroying the game. And I'm not bitter about the
Dodgers getting all their players and doing what they do.
Dodgers spend more. Dodgers are more creative.
Dodgers are, in terms of structuring these contracts,
they're more attractive right now than the Yankees and the
Mets. Hey, suck it up.
Got to take it on the chin sometimes because all those
years when as a Yankee fan, I was in that position, I enjoyed
it. So I get it.
What goes around comes around. My answer is do something about
it. How?
At least Cohen's trying to do something about it.
He got Soto, you know, quick pivot to Pichette up.
Let's get Peralta up. Let's go out there and get a
center fielder. I mean, that's a lower level
move compared to some of the other ones.
But you know, the Yankees sat back and they did nothing.
And outside of Bellinger, and as Boone told us last night,
they're not necessarily done. But if they are, it's a very
uninspiring offseason. Now, to be fair, the Yankees
didn't have to do nearly as much as the Mets had to do.
Mets just have to do a lot more. Number one, they deconstructed
their team. And before they did that, the
team that they had was not good and certainly not consistent and
not not a winning crew, you know, in terms of consistency.
So they blew it up, which I believe is the right move.
And then the pivot wasn't a slow, methodical one.
It was an incredibly aggressive one, but also a really smart one
because they didn't tie themselves into anybody 445.
It's not like they said, it's not like they did a a Knicks
move back in the day where with Isaiah, like that's always my
point of reference on how not to build the team where they were
so desperate to become competitive that, you know, they
took on undesirable Contra. Let me trade for Stephane
Marbury, even though, and Steph was talented, but you knew he
wasn't that that next level winner.
He was going to elevate the franchise like maybe like a
Brunson, you know, or an Alvin Houston when the when the Knicks
got him that summer, you know, or spree when they got him as
well. Like he just wasn't that guy.
There was no evidence that he was that guy.
He was bouncing around and, you know, viewed to be a little bit
of a chucker, a little bit of a malcontent, incredibly talented.
Steph to me had as much game as anybody in the last 2530 years
in the back court. He could do it all, but it's got
to translate to wins. And Isaiah was always trying to
circumvent the long, arduous, painful Rd. of rebuilding and,
and, and on some level you got to respect it because he's like,
all right, let me get, let me get Stevie Francis.
Let me get kick the tires on Eddie Curry.
Let me get Jerome James, who had one good, good playoff series
and gave him $5,000,000, right? He at least he was trying.
It wasn't a lack of effort and Dolan was cutting the checks
right. Like that's the wrong way to do
it. The right way to do it is what
Stearns is doing is to straddle the line of not tying yourself
down with long contracts that will be burdensome down the
road, but it gives you a chance to win.
Now really get the Mets are a playoff team.
I firmly believe that, not a championship team, not yet.
One more pitcher that could change and they can get a little
lucky and that can change. But right now, solid playoff
team, definite wild card chance to win the division.
That's how I view the Mets this morning, right?
But they also simultaneously have preserved their future.
You listen, you gave up Sproke, you had to give up somebody.
But you got tongue, you got McClain, You still have some
players in the system, younger position players.
So that's the way to do it. I I think that that's a smart
way to do it. And the problem is, as I spin it
back to the Yankees, you know, and the question that was just
posed, I think 2027 is going to be a real problem.
I think there's going to be a lot of empty days, man, where we
are longing to flip on the Yes network, flip on S&Y, flip on
Apple, flip on Prime, whatever the hell streaming divide, flip
on Netflix. The Yankees are on opening Day
on Netflix. I'm sure many of you aware of
that, right? Playing the Giants on on opening
Day, which is a holiday in my book, sacred holiday Netflix,
that's unacceptable, but it's really not because it's
happening. So the revenue generation for
baseball is through the roof. Like baseball's not hurting for
money. The problem is, and many of you
know this and this why it will be a protracted extensive
holdout and misery for us is because it's not sustainable a
whole lot longer. It's just the gap, the schism
between those who have it and those who don't.
It's untenable. And we always knew this was
coming. Now, I'm not here to, you know,
get out the little violin for the owner of the Pirates of the
Twins. The moral of the Joe, if you
can't, if you can't afford it, then get out of the game.
Like that's really my bottom line mentality because all these
guys are and even if they're not billionaires, like, say if
they've got like a group ownership, I mean, if you're
short of a billion, you got 67800 million.
And if you don't choose to reinvest that, if you decided to
buy a team at a smaller market with a lower TV revenue stream,
that's your problem. That's not our problem.
I mean, well, let me take that back.
It's going to be our problem. It shouldn't be our problem, but
it's going to be. And you look at the health of
the NFL, you know, Buffalo small market, I mean, they got hosed
and Josh Allen played like, like played awful.
But Buffalo small market, they can win the Super Bowl and
they're in it every year. Jacksonville, one of the smaller
markets, you know, they were in it this year.
They can win the Super Bowl one of these years if they get
another player or two on each side, You know, so it's not
dependent upon where you are. It's so so baseball really does
need to recalibrate. And it's going to be such a deep
recalibration. It's not like a little tweak and
I'm going to get the wrench and tighten this up.
I, it, it feels like it's going to be a sledgehammer to the
current model and then you've got it.
So you got to demo the current model, then you got to pick up
the pieces, then you got to throw them out, and then you got
to provide a base of fairness and something that proves to be
financially solvent. And I'm not smart enough to have
the answer. I, I don't know.
I mean, that's up to them to figure things out, but I'm
certainly a student up to know that it's coming.
And yeah, I mean, it sucks that I've got to be the bearer of bad
news. I appreciate the text there.
But that is that is absolutely the deal at BRAC 2270.
I already hit BRAC. I'm sorry about that.
BRAC. Thank you very much.
What do we got here at teacher? Teacher man TF Teacher man O 428
WFM Blue with big time. What a loss for us fans.
Please be together more Love, you guys.
Yeah, I mean, listen again. And when I say this, I mean it.
It's not me saying it because I feel like I have to say it
because I think, you know by now that I'm not the kind of person
to throw platitudes out there if I don't believe it.
And I'm going to say it again every time it comes up.
I got love for WFAN. They gave me a chance to be on
the station that I always aspire to be on.
Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to beg them to come back or not
be able to deal with the curveball that I was dealt.
But there's really no animosity, you know, in a lot of ways.
And I've thought about this a lot, right?
And one of the things that I'm beginning to branch out into,
and I've got something coming up in March for Verizon, which has
been a great friend of mine. I've got something coming up in
February, cross, cross, excuse me, cross country mortgage,
where I'm speaking a lot, right? I've spoken in some athletic
banquets, Maris, journalism stuff, public speaking.
And in a lot of ways, you know, all the things that I was
saying, which I've always believed and I've always
subscribed in. And two, like this change in my
lifestyle financially, my just the way I script my day-to-day,
you know, my commute, my existence, everything's changed
and a change on a dime, man on a dime, 13 years, same commute, 13
years, same building, 13 years, same floor, same people.
And it's, it's gone. And and that's OK because that's
corporate America. So the things that I've espoused
in those motivational sessions, right?
And things I tell the kids I coach, you know, I love my coach
and you guys know that the things I certainly tell my
children like if I'm not able to adhere to that, I mean, what
kind of phony am I? You know what I mean?
So I almost look at it this way. I channel the, the, the
uprooting really in a lot of ways of, of my professional
journey. And it's been a fairly drastic
one. I look at it as a gift, I really
do. I look at it as something that
was presented to me and because I think I'm resilient and
because I take pride in being mentally tough and, and not
afraid to take chances. Granted, with kids and a
mortgage and a wife, it's a little different.
You take a chance when you're 22 like I did.
I'm going to Allentown, PA for my first job, $16,000.
If I bomb and I fail, who do I hurt me, you know?
So the stakes are obviously much higher, and I'm well aware of
that. Trust me.
You know, that's that's a burden that that I've got to carry.
And I am, and it's fine. But I just, I'm not mad at WFAM.
And I think that the quicker that you guys can really
understand that. I get it.
You're mad the show's gone. And you should, because the show
was awesome. You know, I'm always going to
keep it real with that. Yeah, always.
Like BT and South should have been on for 15 years.
I mean, instead of getting deleted, there should have been
extensions. I believe that man.
And that's not pompous or that's not arrogance.
That's just full conviction in, in what we were pumping out
everyday, you know, but you just, you can't always look in
the rear view, rear view mirror. And I've got no problem talking
about the fan. I really don't.
But I, it's important for me to impress to you and impress upon
you that there's just, there's no grudge, there's no animosity.
There's, there's, there's optimism.
I really mean that. And I think that you guys feel
bad because I say that all the time.
John's from Philly. What's going on?
Johnny John, John Horvath, 9542. Even if MLB wants to recalibrate
and help smaller markets compete, how could they even
enforce that owners can claim poverty?
Well, you can't claim poverty. I wouldn't use that word.
I would use a word. I would maybe you want to you
want to provide context as to the earning power.
Yeah, there's obviously a delineation as to what the
Yankees and the Mets and the Dodgers and the Phillies and the
Red Sox and Toronto with the Rogers group, which is I think
the first or second most affluent ownership group.
I think they've got more than Cohen.
I'm almost positive they're no well, the Dodgers, I think, I
think the Mets are two or three and the and the Blue Jays are
right there like the the Rogers group.
Their net worth is ridiculous and the Tampa will never have
that. Even when Tampa gets the new
stadium and the A's get the new stadium.
And then you look at teams like the Twins, you know, I know, I
know Chicago's a big market, but the White Sox hemorrhaging
money, empty state and Cubs are different.
It's a different energy going to Wrigley Field.
But the White Sox, it's it's it's not a great economic model
for them. I mean, the easy thing is to say
tough again, if you can't afford it, get out.
And there's a part of me that really does believe that, you
know, it's not my problem that a multi billionaire who made his
wealth in real estate or youknow.com world, whatever it
might be, that he can't figure it out.
Figure it out. Hey, if I'm figuring it out on
YouTube, you can figure it out when you've got a whole hell of
a lot more money in the bank than me figure it out.
I got no sympathy for you. The only reason I really care,
quite frankly, is because it affects the Yankees and the Mets
and it really effects my daily viewing pleasures.
That's it, you know, but you, it's going to be, it's going to
be long because it's going to be an arduous settlement.
There is no direct path to a direct answer.
And like you've got, so you've got the union protecting the
players of and that's their job. Yeah, we can say whatever we
want about Boris stringing us out and, and you know, just kind
of it's almost February. Come on Scotty, let's go.
What's Bellinger doing? I know you're playing the game,
trying to get 7 years and use the 5162 that the Yankees have
against, you know, maybe trying to get the Toronto pull them.
We get the game, all right. I don't really begrudge him
because that's his job. And it's also the job of the
union to protect the players and maximize their worth.
And so I get that as well because I'm in a union as well.
I respect unions. I'm in a union.
I am a pro union person, all right.
But then you look at the complexities of, of trying to
come up with resolution that is, I don't want to say equitable
for both sides, but acceptable because it's never going to be
5050, like the Rays are never going to be, never going to have
the same valuation of the Yankees or the Dodgers.
It's just not. And they shouldn't, but they've
at least got to have a better chance to play the game.
And however they come up with that number and those, no, those
new rules and you know, the new CBAII, God bless the man because
those negotiations are going to be painful.
They really are absolutely painful.
I get a couple of more texts in here, see what's going on.
What's up, Dante? What up, Dante?
Dante 6563, a man of WFM, but I'm going to let it go.
You should absolutely let it go. By the way, if the Aqueduct
Racetrack shuts down, Woody should buy the area.
It can fit a stadium and Parkin would bring The Jets back to
Queens. Love you BT Thank you very much,
Dante. I feel it right back to you in
terms of the love. Thank you for that, man.
Yeah, again, no reason to be AWFA.
Listen, you have choices as a listener.
Like, there were some of you who couldn't stand me and Sal.
Maybe you couldn't stand me. Maybe you couldn't stand Sal.
Maybe you couldn't stand this together.
Maybe you like me, but you hated something I said about a team
that you love, that you think that I don't like, or vice versa
with Sal. And many of you got mad at us.
And I, in hindsight, do understand this with the way the
Carl Bank situation went down. We owned it, we apologize, we
manned up, wish it didn't happen.
It did. You got choices, you got apps
that you can listen to. You've got the dial in your car,
you've got laptops. You could punch up whoever you
want. So there's no reason to be mad.
If you like shows on the fan, listen to them, you know,
listen, if you just make sure you come check me out, you know,
And by the way, it's my mission to be better than everybody.
Like somebody was, who the heck asked me the other day, did it
come up? I don't think, well, maybe it
came up last night somewhere off stage.
Someone's like, oh, look at you, you're going on at 10:00 going
against Evan and Tiki, not going up against Evan and Tiki, going
up against the world. Evan, I'm not going up against
Evan and Tiki. You know, they're like, why
don't you go on at 9:50 trying to stay?
And I, I actually, it's not a bad idea.
You know, I'm not, you know, going up against the Bay.
You can steal a couple of viewers early.
I might have to do that actually.
Right. So some people are going at 9:50
get a jumpstart on Evan and Tiki.
Whatever. All right, but that's not the
way I look at this. It's not it's not evident Tiki
or going on early and trying to steal 10 minutes from Boomer and
Geo or Rothenberg and DPH, which by the way, those guys have a
good show. I've always thought that I I
like catching those guys in the morning.
They're really good, funny, funny and they know sports.
They're good. And I don't really know either
one of those guys. I don't.
Obviously Rick is a player. Rothenberg.
Rothenberg is just an animal. Like he loves his teams.
He's nuts. I love it so, but I'm I'm not
going against them. I'm not going against Barton
Carlin or Michael Kay or Donnie and and my buddy Alan Hahn.
Don's also a good friend or Rosenberg.
I'm going up against everybody. Everybody that's got a phone or
a laptop or an outlet to produce content, they are on my radar.
That's it. That's my job.
That is my job to get sponsorship.
If they have the sponsorship and it's up, it's my job to try to
take it. It is my job.
It is my mission where if there's two shows that you love
and say this is one of them simultaneously to be better so
that when you make that choice, it's this one, not the other
one. That's how I feel it in the
simplest forms. That's how I really, truly view
it. What do we got here?
All right, another one. BT is great.
Glad you never left us. But BT and Sal must come back.
Looking forward to calling in, seeing great guests.
You are a pro. Thank you, Mr. Teacher Man.
Yeah, I mean, we were talking about that again last night.
You know, we we actually have a vision to well, I was talking to
my my guy Martucci. There's a thought that we're
going to try to do eight of these a year, you know, with
it's the last time we got the Yankee angle with Boone, get a
Met angle, get a jet angle, get a giant angle, you know, really
doing kind of crafted to a, to a specific audience.
And by the way, not just even though the Vogel Theater is
incredible, but really bounce around, maybe hit Long Island,
maybe do something up in Connecticut, maybe do something
out in Queens or near Queens with, with Rick, Rick Pitino,
little St. John's angle that I would love
to do. So there's there's so many
different things and the oh, the other thing and this will
happen. I don't have any details for
you. It was this I actually had mom.
I'm going to keep that to myself because I don't want to throw
anybody under the bus, but I'm I'm certain things I won't say.
I'm not going to say that. There's not much that I won't
say, but I'm not going to say that.
Anyway. We are going to do a spring
training trip, me and Sal and we're going to go down to Tampa
and I could, I could one name that I could give you is that
we'll do a dinner and AQ and A and a meet and greet myself, Sal
and Dwight. Good.
So it's going to be 3 of us, Doctor, KBT and Sal don't know
if it's going to be late February, early March, whatever
logistics need to be worked out. Maybe when the Yankees play the
Mets, maybe when, but whatever. We we've got to look at the
schedule, but it has already begun.
I would think that that would be the next thing that's coming and
we'll let you know about that. I've obviously got some things
in March with Saint John's, the Big East tournament, a few
motivational speaking engagements, and then obviously
the NCAA tournament. And can I ask you a question?
My wife is from Dallas, so she always like when I get mad, she
calls me Andrew Dice Clay and she thinks that bothers me.
It's a compliment. I love it.
And by the way, the dice man's coming to the Vogel Theater and
I showed her last night. There was a picture of Dice.
We, we got there really early and, you know, we're setting up
and, and she was doing some, I mean, she was, I don't know if
we could have done this without her.
She did so much work and I really appreciate it.
She's great at what she does. Sometimes a pain in the behind
with certain things like every wife and every husband, but it
is what it is. Very proud of her last night for
sure. Anyway, when she gets mad at me,
yeah, if I curse or whatever. Oh, there's the Andrew Dice Clay
coming out. Yep.
And and the Dice man is absolutely going to the Vogel
Theater. I can't wait.
That's going to be fun.
I got to go to that show. But between last night, like
last night was evidence, this goes back to what I said before
about the validation, but also the vulnerability, whether it's
my last shift on the fan that that Friday when I was upset a
little bit, that's vulnerability.
Or even last time when you put yourself out there when your
name is on a marquee and you just hope it's going to sell
out, you hope it's going to be well received.
That's being vulnerable. And and again, I think that
that's part of the that's part of the journey, man.
But now that I know last night was that was further validation
that it's going to work whenever we put one of these together.
And hopefully the venues will get bigger and even, you know,
better and a little different tweak some stuff.
Even though last night was phenomenal.
But the next thing on the radar is going to be a spring training
trip. How wild would that be?
By the way, when I'm, when I'm thinking about these spring
training trips, here's what I'm thinking Now Sal will come too.
But having played golf with Sal, Sal will just rush through the
round and can't wait to finish me.
I'm going to probably want to go out and play 36 even though I'm
going to be languishing and I've lost 17 balls and shoot a one O
1 and my back will be screaming like I don't want the round to
end. Sal can't wait for it to end
When we play with Francesa, me and JJ who are riding together
like we we were, you know, maybe just off the fairway, whatever.
Sometimes, yeah, if we dribbled or where wherever we were, Sal
and Mike were two shots ahead of us, two shots ahead of us and I
look up and I have an approach shot, sals on the green.
If he just plays quick, he wanted to get it over with.
I didn't want it to end anyway. If we do, when we do the spring
training trip, it's my vision to maybe set up and it's going to
require some coordination, but it's very doable.
Like I'm not just throwing this out.
Little golf outing. No, I don't mean of the biggest,
you know, like 100 person golf outing, but you know, let's say
we have a group of 100, which sounds about right.
That's kind of the number we were thrown out last night.
You tell me I can't find 10/12/14 golfers who want to go
out and spray it around and have a few pops.
You kidding me? And then go back to the hotel,
take a shower and then go to a sweet restaurant, hang out with
me, Sal and Doc. What?
This is better than having to go to work every day.
That's why I've been such a good mood.
I love this stuff. I mean, I'm working every day,
but you know what I mean. Let's see.
Maybe one or two more. I do have to fly out today, as I
mentioned. Hey, J Rod, what's happening,
buddy? Very quiet today.
J Rod, is he OK? Like coming up?
Hey, how we doing? J Rod, everybody.
How's my How's my connection looking right now?
I mean, you look OK, but your connection is great, all right.
Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate it. There we go.
Why? Was there something wrong?
Was something wrong technically? No, just in.
I'm in a new location I'm at. I'm at work right now, so you
know. Wait, this is work?
What do you mean here? This is work.
I'm at 2 works. I'm at 2.
Works right now. This guy, this guy is a hustler.
Now the first show, and it's it's a couple of shows ago, it
looked like you were in jail. Where the hell were you with
those lockers behind you? Where are you?
We're in the Guitar Center break room.
Fulton St. Brooklyn.
Come through. See, this guy's hustling, and I
respect that because when I was trying to break into radio, I
was tending bar. I was working on Wall Street.
I mean, I was doing construction a little bit.
I get it. You know, getting into the
business is that you got to hustle, man.
It's what you got to do. But also, I mean, it's fun.
I kind of get to keep not foot in like a music territory.
I love keep working produce and doing the editing I love.
So I mean it kind of works. Yep, Yep.
And I know that you you, I know that you, you work at the guitar
store. Are you?
You obviously play the guitar. Any other instruments?
When did you start? How old?
Were you? So I started around like five
years ago, started playing bassing guitar, did like a lot
of live music. My roommates and I actually ran
a music venue in college and we like talking like, you know,
national and also just like local acts and stuff like that.
And so yeah, I mean, been playing ever since.
Did some like touring last year with a band and stuff like that
and so. How's the group you seen?
I mean, it's good in school.
I mean, it was great, you know, running the venue, you had
people coming up, you know, after the show every time.
But yeah, it's fun. I mean, just kind of trying to
trying to get like really back into playing a bunch of shows
now that I'm out here as well. So yeah, always want to just
keep my foot in any. Basket, I can figure it out.
That's a good mentality I got. I got a quick musical story for
you see, that's why you never know where we're going to go.
And I just popped in my head. I'm going to tell you something
in a second. But do you think that you've got
the chops? Maybe as the BT and Sal live,
you know, tour begins to expand. We pop you on stage.
Can you get the crowd loose? Can you handle?
It yeah, I mean, that'd be fun. I do.
I do a bit of rapping as well, so I feel like people would love
that. Like you rap.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No.
Way big time since I was like 1413.
OK, now you got a little homework and we're going to get
37,000 inches of snow, so you're not going anywhere this weekend.
Hopefully I can get back from Cincinnati.
I don't know. You've got to.
I don't need you to track it yet.
You got to come up with a BT Unleashed rap song?
Are you kidding me? I got you.
Let's go. I got you.
It's going to be awesome. I'm telling you.
You're going to be shocked.
I'm not going to be I I can tell by the confidence that I'm not
going to be shot. J Rod in the house now, can you?
You mentioned Beastie Boys, who are some of your rapping
influence. It's got to be Eminem.
I mean, obviously. I mean, he, he was the guy, you
know, who started it all, you know, when I was a young man,
11. But I mean, I'm a big fan of
older stuff. Like I love Tribe Called Quest,
love Jay, you know, Beastie Boys was an N.W.A was kind of what my
dad put me on to when I was like a kid.
Yeah, he he's shit. He's a big, like he's a 90s rap
kind of guy. Like that is sort of, you know,
territory era. So that was it Snooped.
I mean, like that's all he was showing me.
And then, you know, obviously I love the newer guys like.
What about Big Daddy Kane? That's an old school one for.
You that's a big daddy 111 of my Co workers and I talk about him
a good amount just cuz you know he kind of really loves that era
as well. But me too, I know.
Lukumo D Yep, Yep. Even before that Grandmaster
Flash going back to really the evolution of hip hop late
actually ran not even late 70s, mid 70s up in the Bronx.
Yeah. Yeah.
Do you know like Grand Poobah? That's like some of my.
Friends, I'm impressed. Yeah, no, I that I'm a I'm a hip
hop. Historian Oh man, OK, this is
going to be exciting, right? So J Rod's going to put together
a BT Unleashed rap and it's going to be the official open to
the show. Yeah, we'll do it.
We'll do it. Let me.
Tell you my real quick. That's awesome, dude.
Tell you my real quick musical story here.
So Xavier High School, which is where I went this, as I've said
a few times, right, all boys, Jesuit JROTC now I think in the
late 70s or early 80s it became optional as so when I went there
was optional up from 1847, which is when Xavier opened up until
say 1980. It was JROTC for four years.
And a lot of people go to West Point.
I mean, it's incredibly I still don't know how the hell I got in
and I don't even know how I graduated, but it's a great
school, right? And one of the things that you
have to do and that wouldn't turn the lights up.
God, mighty look at this guy. Yeah, and this is live.
I love. It's all good.
One of the things that you it's all good.
One of the things you had to do with Xavier was play an
instrument. But in the in the ROTCJROTC, you
had to play an instrument while you were in there.
So I'm like, sure it's right, you know, and I'm not averse to
it. I just, I was never exposed to
me and I love music and I'm very eclectic.
Like, you know, I love rock, I love rap.
I like some of the disco. I love Doo wop from the I like
really I like almost a very, very eclectic, but I don't know
what instrument to pick. So I'm like I'll bang the drums
do a little motley right. So, so long story.
I did anything but motley. I'm thinking of Tommy Lee.
I wish I was Tommy in in more ways than just playing the play
the drums right. So anyway, so we one of the
great things about Xavier, you marching the parade, Saint
Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, and it's a really prestigious thing,
right. So I'm in the JROTC and then
eventually I got out. I just I couldn't hack it.
I love the military, but it wasn't for me going, you know,
wearing that on the subways. The I just, I want to play
sports. I want to get through school.
I'm done. I like.
So I finally got out, but I was in it for a while.
I was in it longer than most of my buddies anyway.
So I'm start. I like, I'm not paying attention
during music class. I have no idea what the songs
are. I have no idea how to work the
drums. Zero clue.
And we, I remember my mom, my mom was so proud.
Me and my buddy Brian, who I went to grammar school with and
was always in trouble with, He actually got kicked out of
Xavier right after this. And we're both freshmen and we
are we, we start the March on Saint Patty's day and I've got
this big ass. I don't even know what kind of
drummer was this big ass drumming for me.
And I've got the I got the not the, the sticks.
Hey, calm, whatever the wooden sticks, right?
Like the mallets or whatever. Yeah, whatever.
No, not the mallets. No, like Tommy Lee sticks the
drumsticks. The drumsticks, I don't know why
that escaped me anyway. I don't know the song, I don't
know the beat, I don't know the route.
I really just don't want to be there so and I didn't know how
to do it. So I guess like one of the first
day I just went to bang it really hard and the drumsticks
snapped in half right snapped in half.
So now I start the parade route. I've got 1 drumstick and I've
got one empty hand and then now I'm like feigning doing it and
I'm doing absolutely nothing and then the other drumstick snaps.
I will snapped. I walked down 5th Ave. and did
95% of the parade route with no drumsticks.
It was an idiot back in it with your fist.
Yeah. I mean, I was just kind of
looking around, but at one point I was going like this.
Like I was actually doing it. Oh my God.
School music was the worst, like that was what like kept me away
from it so long. Was just like when I was
younger. I played the sax lady reamed me
out one time. Kenny G.
Yep, Yep. She reamed me out one time and I
was like, I'm done, I'm done. Really.
I actually, I've got an instrument that I'm that I would
almost guess you've never tried. I would think that you've heard
of it. Most people haven't.
Have you ever heard the glockenspiel?
I've heard of it. Never played it but yeah I've
heard of. It I, I actually messed around
with that for a minute too. After the drums that like, you
can't play the drunk. You're like, you don't know
what's going on. You got to pick something else.
I'm like, I don't even want to be here.
So you pick it for me and they pick the glockenspiel?
They're like should be easy enough, no?
It was a disaster all right, man, I got I got to really wrap
it up. I got to take a quick shower.
I got to get out to the the airport, flying out with Saint
John's today to go to Xavier. So hopefully we get back without
a lot of delays in the snow. Pitino going for number 900
tomorrow against his son, which is incredible.
My God. So I'm look, I haven't really
traveled with St. John's on on their charter in in
years. You know, once I had kids and
everything, like I'll do Seton Hall, I'll drive up to
Providence, I'll drive down to Villanova.
But like the days there was a point where I went to Paul
Creighton, Marquette, old Big E's, Virginia Tech, West
Virginia, I would travel all the time.
So I'm actually looking forward to getting on the road trip.
St. John's playing much better.
They should smash Xavier tomorrow.
I'd be surprised if they don't win going away.
But I want to wish everybody and thank you for that.
J Rod start working on the rap bro start working.
It's already. It's already starting.
I am fired up for this dude. Have a good weekend.
I'll see you later man. Thank you Jay, Rod and everybody
out there. Hey, had a good time.
I told you how to bounce quickly as and I meant it.
Unfortunately, I will be back on Monday at 10, obviously.
Oh, I got to at least give you a very, very quick pick on the
games here. I got to get, by the way, I was
pretty hot with some of those picks with the spread.
Pat's at the Broncos. You know what, I understand the
quarterback situation for the Denver Broncos.
Pat's -4 1/2 in Denver. I'm going to take the four and a
half and hope for something wacky, give me Denver.
And in terms of the Rams in Seattle, man, I know it's a
rivalry. It's inside of a three-point
spread. It's 2 1/2 Seattle -2 and a
hook, not Seattle looks so good. Which tells me that we're going
to get a little bit of a different complexion this game.
I think Seattle wins. Wouldn't surprise me if it's by
a point. Give me the Rams to cover plus 2
1/2. So I'll take the Denver Broncos
plus 4 1/2. Take it a couple of dogs.
We've got a home dog and we've got a road dog.
So I've got the LA Rams with Stafford, who's going to win the
MVP, giving him almost the field goal to keep it tight, mess
around, maybe even win. All right, have an awesome
weekend. Like it, subscribe it, like
comment, let everybody know if you were at the event last
night, I cannot tell you why. I've already tried how grateful
I am and Sal is and Aaron Boone is a stand up a guy as I have
ever met. Didn't ask for a penny, did not
even ask to get paid. Got in his car 2 plus hours from
Connecticut 2 plus hours back and was as cordial and as real
and as down to earth as you can. That is a I will always have
Aaron's back Now when he messes up, I got to do my job and I'll
say it, but in terms of a good person, he's one of the best
people I've ever met. And at this point, I'm I'm, I'm
happy to call him a friend. I mean, that is a solid.
He did it for me did it for Sal had no not to do that man.
So it was just a phenomenal night.
We've got a lot of footage that'll be pumped out on social.
I've already put a couple of things up.
So has Sal is King Cohen garb. It was hysterically comes out
with that so that circulating on social.
Enjoy the weekend. Be snake, be safe.
Get the salt today. Get the sand today because
you're going to have to dig out on Sunday and I will see you
Monday unless something wacky happens over the weekend.
Have a great weekend guys appreciate you.
I got to go see you.