What's going on, everybody BT unleashed on this Monday?
Pretty much a little something for everybody today.
Just a good sports weekend, man. A lot of stuff to get to.
Obviously baseball's on their way.
We'll get to the Johnnies. Oh my God, we'll get to the
Johnnies. My God, I'm sitting there.
I'm saying here we go. We, we, we're going to the Elite
8. I really thought they were going
to do it. We'll obviously talk about that
Final four. Little Nick's OK See, we got a
lot of stuff going on. All right, So let me let me at
least let you know about a couple things coming up this
week. Number one.
So episode number 2 of The Jets collective coming up on Tuesday
of this week, probably Wednesday.
Last week was Tuesday. This week is Wednesday going to
be absolutely phenomenal. So it's myself and it's Jake and
it is Rich Simini and we banged out the first episode a week
ago. Can't wait to get back into with
the guys this week as we get a little closer to the draft, like
the first episode was largely about, you know, bigger ticket
issues, you know, more macro, you know, Mooji, Aaron Glenn,
the roster, the free agency. Now we will be stored Donald in
on. All right, What are the even
though we got into some of the Ty Simpson stuff as well.
What are The Jets going to do with the draft?
So that's coming up on Wednesday.
Can't wait. And by the way, we got something
else big coming up this week. Now, I believe, I believe it's
going to be Wednesday, but lock it in this week.
You know who's coming on the show?
Yeah, you know who it is? J Rod, J Rod's idol.
And my boy, this act, that lunatic, that guy you want to
talk about somebody who is always in a media feud.
I don't know how he's got the energy to do it.
I mean, keeping up with Whitlock and Michelle Beadle and I mean
everybody, he is always embroiled in something.
The man, the absolute legend, Stephen A will be on unleashed
this week. Can't wait.
And I really think Jay, I think it's going to be a really
different conversation because you know that I because you know
that I know Steven for a long time.
We go back a long ways, right? And there's just so much to get
into because you know what I'm going to be able to do that A
lot of people that that talk to Steven really aren't able to do
was kind of trace like, well, I guess they could, but it's not
nearly as intimate because they didn't know him when, you know,
when I first met Steve, he was just his star was just taking
off there. So yeah, we'll do a Little Mix.
We'll talk about some other stuff.
But I just it's going to be an awesome conversation.
And I know that you were jacked up for this because J Rod was
telling me he's basically one of your idols.
Like what are the he's on the short list.
Like you love Steven? Yeah, I mean, when I was a kid,
dude, this guy was the man. Literally.
I used to spend my entire day just with him up on my YouTube,
just sitting like this, sitting back, listening to this guy go
wild. So yeah, wait.
I mean, I remember doing impressions of him with my boys
like. Really.
You got a Stephen? A impression of this is
preposterous. You know, we'll work on it
before. But we'll work on that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll work on that a little bit.
Well, but I got to correct You said that when you were growing
up, Stephen A was the legend. He's still the man.
Nobody surpassed him. He's still the guy.
I mean, Mcafee's kind of, you know, narrowing the race a
little bit in terms of the top dog in the media.
But Stephen A is. Still in the race.
It's like Stephen A is still up here, and he's like that because
it's just Stephen A just has such A, I forget who described
it well, I think it's Don Le Greco.
It's so the personality is killer.
Oh my God, it cuts through. Stephen A could talk about the
most mundane, benign, boring thing and it just seems like
it's the most important topic in the world.
I mean, it is that that that's that's part of the conversation.
So Stephen A's going to join me this week and I cannot wait.
I told you guys, we get a little deeper into this.
We'll start rolling out the guest.
And if you guys are new to the show, what's going on?
Welcome to Unleashed. Hope everybody's doing well.
If you're if you've been around the show, but you don't know
about some of the interviews we've had and you want to go
catch up, We had Michael Kay on, We had Don the Greco on.
We've got Stephen A coming on. We had Rick Pitino on and, and
speaking to Rick Pitino. Let's get into this, man.
I, I, yeah, I got, I got to tell you, Jay, I, I don't know, like
I'm trying to think about the moments of heartbreak in my
sports career. And this is like my sports
broadcast and really even just my fandom because there there's
a couple that certainly jump out for me.
I, I always look back at the 1998 AFC championship game with
The Jets and the Broncos. Jets rolled into Denver.
I thought they had a better team.
Elway was obviously older. He wound up cracking through
getting 2 championships in a row.
But The Jets were up that game. They blocked a punt right before
the half that was Blake Spence. And then Curtis ran one in from
1 yard. I believe it was 10.
Nothing at the half now Benny came out slinging hit like his
first day passes and I remember my parents were, I believe they
were, I'm still living at home. I was just out of school.
I believe they were down in Florida at a wedding.
They were definitely away and I hadn't yet had my own first
apartment. So I had a bunch of people in my
parents basement and I remember actually going online like dial
up my, my, my mom and dad's computer in the back of the
basement and I started like a complete knucklehead mush.
Yeah, put me in the bathroom, put me in there.
I probably deserve it. I'm looking at airline prices.
I'm like hotel. I work for the Super Bowl.
You know, I, I jumped in a little bit hurt because I had, I
had gotten this funny, I had gotten, I may have told this
before. So I'll make it real quick.
I you know, when you go to these games, I don't know if they
still do it, but there was a minute where a good five or six
years span you'd go to games, you'd sign up for credit card,
you'd get the credit card eventually with that team's logo
on the credit card and they would give you AT shirt for
signing up for the credit card. Remember that stuff?
I'm not at all OK, So it is. So it's been a it.
Might be it might be a little prior to my like sports fandom.
Gotcha, gotcha. And that was, and anyway, I used
to when I had season tickets for The Jets.
And so I I guess I got it that year in 1998 when The Jets went
12 and four. And I, I made a promise to
myself. I said, I am not using this on
any like the first purchase is my first credit card.
My first purchase will be to go and watch The Jets in the Super
Bowl because I knew they were really good that year and I knew
they had a chance. Anyway, that was just torment.
That was heartbreaking. I don't mean like the years
where The Jets are irrelevant or the Yankees get knocked out in
like the first or the same like a wild card game with, you know,
Dallas Keickel or Gerrit Cole. The Red Sox couple of years.
I'm talking about that hurt, that deep pain that just
pulsates through your body and almost sucks the life out of
you. That was your boy on Friday
night. Yeah.
I can only imagine. Oh, God.
I don't know that you can, man, that that was your boy Friday
night. First of all, the atmosphere was
phenomenal. Like the St.
John's contingent that showed up.
It was loud, it was red. It was discernible, and it was
optimistic. I mean, now Duke jumped on him
early 11/4. And I'm like, I'm saying to
myself, oh, boy. Like you, you need to stabilize
this quick. And I think Zooby, somebody hit
a three. I think it may have been Zooby.
And I'm like, OK, you know, just kind of just hang around here
before before you get to sink your teeth into them
defensively, which I thought St. John's would do a better job.
They they got pushed around by Cam Boozer.
But as the games developing, I remember saying to make it one
point during the broadcast, I'm like this, this live on the air,
I'm like Mink time is going backwards right now.
It was going so painfully slow when St.
John's took a 10, I believe it was 5343 with like 15 O1 to go.
Ian Jackson hit a pull up jump shot and at that point I'm
sitting there. Now.
They don't want to necessarily do this on the air, but
internally you don't think that My mind is somewhat like,
players can't do this and coaches can't do this, but but
broadcasters can do this. And I'm sitting there right next
to Maine courtside, like Picaro's there, Ian O'Connor's
there. The five people, you know, who
write and cover about St. John's every game is there.
Mickey's there from S&YI, mean Perry's there from Channel 11.
You've got people now. They've been there all year, but
you've got people that really got like Picaro, who I love, who
kind of jumped in, you know, like the Big East tournament,
the big events. Everybody that has a laptop and
a voice in in college sports who are a columnist is there.
And like we're Rook MM Ropoli is right behind me.
The Saint John's, basically the Saint John's owner, if you want
to look at it that way, who's cutting all the big checks.
And like every time there's a bit literally right behind me.
They've been like five of his boys.
He's got a St. John's starter jacket on.
And every time something big happens, like I kind of look at
him like where he was. He was literally close.
We could DAP up. Like I felt it.
I'm sitting there saying they're going to go to the Elite 8.
I actually thought I'll get to the Duke.
What? Wow.
I mean, the UConn win, yes, I'll get to that as well.
But I actually thought that Michigan State was going to beat
UConn. That's what I thought.
Yeah. I did myself.
I did. I was surprised at that how how
UConn wound up winning that game.
So, you know, and and I really didn't know how in my again, in
my mind, this is just transpiring.
I didn't really know how St. John's would stack up with
Michigan State. I've obviously seen the play a
little bit this year, but much more entrenched in the Big East.
It was it was heartbreak, dude. I got I got to tell you, man,
when and again I started telling you about like The Jets game in
98, the Yankees in 2001, broken back base hit off Mariano game
seven against the Diamondbacks. Like that was a crusher for a
different reason, because that was 911.
And I really, I mean, of course I wanted the Yankees to win
because I'm a Yankee fan, but I like I really wanted that for
New York, man President President Bush came out through
a strike. You know, everything that
happened that just the the sheer destruction of lives.
I I thought it would have been at least the temporary respite
for those who who lost, you know, family members who were
Yankee fans and just kind of uplift the city is the smoke was
still smoldering from the from the World Trade Center.
That was different. That's a next level hurt.
That's a deeper hurt. That's a much more meaningful
hurt. But in terms of any game that
I've ever watched or any game that I've ever been a part of,
it was inconsolable strong because you got to pick yourself
up and you got to keep it moving.
But I, I got to tell you, Jared, when I went into that locker
room. Now understand, like I call the
games. I'm not a St.
John's reporter. Like I, I'm, I'm really part of
the program. If you think about it, like, I
mean, on a, on a very distant level.
But you know, I'm not there to like break news or start
controversy. I call the games.
I do the TV show with Rick. There's a lot of things that I
know that I don't that I don't say.
Like it broke yesterday that that Rick signed his
restructured contract. Yeah.
I just saw that as. Well, yeah, you saw that.
I actually knew that in San Diego because Mike Ropoli told
me having breakfast. But now if I wanted to go out
there and break some news and be get a few more clicks like that
would have been very easy for me to do.
But I I don't operate that with Saint John's.
They tell me things in in in trust and and you know, I keep
it here, you know, but it was when I walked into that locker
room, man, I mean, everybody had tears in their eyes and I was
just kind of watching because I don't really have a role post
game. I'm not there to ask questions.
You know, that's like Bruce Beck and and that's Nikki with SNY
and and all the writers. So I did go to the to a couple
of the scrums here and and Bryce Hopkins was I mean, it was it
was next level pain. It was it was next level hurt.
It was, you know, it's, it's really hard to describe.
And this applies to Saint John's and this applies to, to any team
that, that you root for, that you truly love and that you
truly dedicate a lot of time to. And, and your, you know, your
fandom and, and not to mention money and all that stuff.
But it's, it's so even though it's, even though it should
never usurp real life, it's such a deviation from real life that
if it almost takes on a higher importance, which it's, it's
clearly not, but on some level it does.
Because, you know, as I've always said, life is hard.
You know, life is tricky. There's a lot of things your
parents and then, you know, if your dad, if your mom, if your,
your kids have issues, you know, real life mortgages and car
payments. And, you know, I mean, it's
hard. So when you get to deviate and
kind of shut that part of your brain off and, and immerse
yourself in something that you love for so long and then it, it
just ends. And like, that's the hard thing
about certainly college athletics is that you're saying
goodbye to these young men. And once, once everybody was
done with Bryce and, and he was emotional, man.
Yeah, I gave him AI, gave him a really big hug.
And, and, and I've got to, I've got to know Bryce pretty well.
Matter of fact, I spent about an hour and a half with his dad in
the restaurant on. Let's see, the game was on
Friday, on Thursday, on Thursday night with a few St.
John's boosters and his dad's name is Clyde played basketball.
Believe you said Tennessee Tech. What a great dude, What a great
man, what a great family. Just you know, you get to know
these people on on on a more interpersonal level.
And then it just abruptly ends and and the plug is pulled out
of the wall. Like there's no like I, I, I
remember texting my son. I'm like, it's crazy.
He was heartbroken. My God, it's crazy to think that
Zooby will never take another shot for St.
John's. Like when the Yankees end or
when, you know, if the Knicks don't win the championship this
year and I'll get to the Knicks OKC later.
Do a lot of baseball, a lot of stuff today, obviously starting
with St. John's, 'cause I was there.
And it's it's a big part of my of what I do.
But to think that, you know, if the Knicks were to lose in the
Eastern Conference finals or the NBA Finals, you know that Jaylen
Brunson's back on the team that like, you might have a new
coach, you might make a trade and something, but the core is
still going to be there in college basketball.
You're all in. And then and not just Saint
John's, all these teams, it's a basically a, it's a complete
reset of the roster. It was absolutely crushing to
watch these young men. I mean, they comported
themselves with such class in the post game, Dylan Mitchell
and Zooby and Rick and the tear, their eyes were red.
And I told you I got a chance to talk to Bryce.
And you know, I remember I went up to Dylan darling was was with
Steve Surby from the post and some others.
And I was waiting for everybody to leave and and and again, I
got to know Dylan pretty well too, interviewed him a bunch,
got to had a chance to talk to him a lot this year.
And you know, it's funny. He had tears in his eyes and,
and I, I didn't think I was gonna get choked up.
I, I did a little bit with him because I said, I said man.
I said, I, I, what do you say to somebody who, even though he's
gonna be back next year, what do you say in the moment except to
let them know that you really appreciate them and that, that
that's really my, that was my only agenda.
Not looking for a story, not looking for a sound bite, just,
you know, heart to heart, you know, grown man to young man,
you know, thanks for the ride. And and I remember as as he, as
I could see, his eyes were really red.
And I said to him, I said, man as well.
I got choked up a little bit. I'm like, wow.
I said, I just want to tell you, I said thank you for, you know,
the like the memories that you've created from my family,
like my son loves watching you play.
And I, and as that was coming out, I could actually feel
myself getting a little choked up.
So it was an amazing run. Incredibly sad that it's over.
I think St. John's would have beat UConn
yesterday, but you don't know, it doesn't matter.
Tip of the cap to the Huskies. They are a tremendous program.
That shot by Mullins was ridiculous.
I mean, all time shot. You want to talk about Keith
Smart? Obvious that's a national
championship. But Keith Smart and 87 against
Syracuse for the baseline jump shot for Bobby Knight's Hoosier.
Some other shots, of course, but later.
The Jordan Pool, Michigan and go.
This is right there. I mean, yeah, you know.
You know, no, it's not the championship, it's not the Final
Four, but the degree of difficulty and the sequence that
that first of all, they were down by 15 points.
You think it's a wrap, you think it's done.
And listen, I the respect that I have for UConn and Calby is a
Danny Hurley fan. I know he's out of his mind.
I know he's nuts. I know some people have an issue
with it. I love Danny Hurley because he's
one of the few throwbacks and he represents a time where, you
know, you can show emotion and and not really care where people
think. Like people chastise him all the
time. That's now.
He is out of pocket sometimes, to be fair, But that's more
because I think society's change.
There's been a shift in how people, you know what, what
people are willing to accept in terms of discipline and energy.
But give me a guy like Danny Hurley, give me a guy like Rick
Pitino any day of the week. But the point is, I really
thought that the way St. John's played against UConn, two
of the three games, the way they built the run that they were on.
Remember, going into that game against Duke, St.
John's had played 200, 200 post season minutes.
The three games in the Big East, Providence, Cede Hole, Yukon,
Northern Iowa, Kansas, they led for 196 minutes and 25 seconds
of the two of the 200 minutes that they played.
So I'm not saying that I went into that game expecting to be
Duke. I did think that they would win.
I said that on the show. I was wrong.
I'll take the L there. I did say that I thought the
point spread was disrespect. Not that I would ever gamble on
St. John's.
I do the games. But yeah, I'll give you guys
know. Some of you do.
I thought it was disrespectful. John's did cover.
I was surprised it opened at 6 1/2.
I didn't think that that was a real accurate reflection of, of
what was going to happen. And listen, the one thing I got
to say, and I'm not one of these guys who gets I don't, I don't
hate Duke. Like I understand why a lot of
people have resentment, resentment for Duke over the
years. Like, you know, the, the, you
know, the, the Country Club atmosphere, you know, Leitner
with the floppy hair looking like AJ crew model, you know, JJ
Redick, you know, Grayson Allen like that.
It's almost like, and not almost like, there is a perception that
it is it. You know, many of the great Duke
players are spoiled white kids who have been handed everything,
which I think is so patently offensive and so freaking
unfair. Yeah, OK, I know.
So they. Christian, they have Kong
Knipple. Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
It's an absolute joke, though, like the way Duke has been
perceived and, and listen, a lot of it is that it is.
And it's a great academic school and it's incredibly expensive
and it is the 1%. And, and I, I, I get all that.
Like I relate much more to an inner city school like St.
John's. And I do Duke #1 Duke, I mean,
if I ever sent my high school resume #1 is a baseball player
or as a student Duke, they wouldn't even get to the point
of laughing at me. Like it wouldn't even go that
far. Whatever steps before that,
that's what would have happened if I applied to Duke.
Now, my sister actually got in or no, she didn't apply.
She would have. But like me, no, they don't.
They don't want me a Duke, and that's fine.
And I don't really want Duke. But I do think that a lot of the
you know, the, the, the, the, the way that they are perceived
and the way that they are knocked around by many, it's
it's really unfair because those guys are killers.
I mean, those those players that I just I'm Christian later is
one of the best all time college players of all time.
Bobby Hurley might be the best point guard in the history of
college basketball. I mean, you know, it just go on.
And Reddick very well might be the best shooter, Steph Curry
and some others in the history of college basketball.
But it is what it is. And and they move on and it's
past St. John's and then they to lose to
to U Conn And I was in a very rough spot there because while I
don't have, I don't project that energy toward Duke like medi do.
I don't hate, I don't have a visceral reaction to Duke.
I I don't and I can't fake it and I won't fake it.
So I'm sitting there saying and my son even says, like, who you
rooting for? I'm like, who the hell am I
rooting for? Like, you know what I mean?
Like Jared, one thing and some people do this.
I I have never done this. Like once my team gets knocked
out, I will watch because you know, I love sports, but I'll
never, unless it's just a good storyline that I can get behind
and root for. I will never sit there and say,
well, well, this team knocked me out.
Therefore I want this team to win the championship because
then it would further validate my team.
Like when a team knocks out the Yankees, I'm not sitting there
saying I hope this team wins the World Series because then it
makes the Yankees look better. Once the Yankees seasons a wrap,
it's a wrap. Once Saint John seasons a wrap
to wrap once the jet. Not that they ever get to the
Pope to the playoffs, but like when they get knocked out.
A few times they go to rap. I'll just watch the rest of the
games. The football fan.
But last night was unique because that UConn St.
John's energy is palpable. It really is.
It is a real rivalry, man, Rick and and and Hurley, you know,
they, they respect each other, but God in, in terms of the
sporting sense, they detest each other because they want to RIP
each other's hearts out because how that's how fiercely they
compete against each other. And that guy's, you know, Rick
is in his way and Hurley's in his way.
And when you have that, like that's how you have a rivalry.
So many rivalries. I know I'm branching out now,
but so many robberies in sports are contrived, you know?
Yeah, you do a little video montage rivalries.
Let me tell you how rivalries start.
A rivalry begins when you are in my way and I'm trying to get
from point X to point Y, right? And I can't get there because
you keep sending me home. And then now the team that keeps
sending you home, you're less of a rival because they own you.
Like for all those years, like, all right, Yankees, Red Sox was
a rival from I'm saying for my seat, for the Yankees fan seat,
but it wasn't really a it was very one side.
It was a rivalry that I love because you always won.
And then of course, then the massive collapse happened.
The Yankees fall apart 2004 Red Sox win a couple of the
championships. And in the last 25 years, the
Red Sox have been a better franchise than the Yankees.
Now they've been a little lean the last couple, but now that's
more of a rivalry that I can invest real non contrived energy
toward because now I want to jump back past them because now
they're in front of me theoretically.
So when I, when I'm, when he asked me, who do you want to
win? I, you know, I'm like, oh man, I
do love having representation for the Big East.
You know, the ACC bothers me because so many former Big East
teams jump there for the football paycheck.
I don't hate Duke. I don't despise Duke, but I have
been jealous of Duke over the years, honestly, and Saint
John's fans might have an issue with me saying this.
I'm happy that you con won. I really am because it validated
so many things that were said about certainly Saint John's
being A5 seat, which was unfair. And I'm not going to reset that.
You play who you play. But the one thing that I I will
say, if St. John's wasn't a five seed,
they're not playing the number one seed with the right to go to
the Elite 8. So all that residual downstream,
you know, repercussion that happened because the the idiots
who run the NCAA, those dopes who have no idea what they're
doing with the NCAA committee on Sunday when they seat everybody
and send them wherever they send them and do what they do.
You know, in a lot of ways that really probably prevented St.
John's from playing more. Having said off, Jay, let me get
on the screen having said all that, right, Having said all
that, Saint John, if you and I said this to make if you told me
that St. John's would have hit 13
three-point shots, they're not a good shooting team, right?
They're a little streaky, but they're nobody would say they're
a good shooting team either from threes, mid range twos or from
the foul line. And the numbers bear that out.
But if you told me they would have shot over 40% from
downtown. And it's not like I don't mean
like all you know, 2 for 5:00. But when you hit 13 threes and
you're 41 or 42% and you only turned the basketball over six
times, which is what they did. If you told me that walking to
the arena, I would have said St. John's is playing on Sunday
through the Elite 8. And there would not have been a
doubt in my mind because number one, I thought St.
John's was going to do a better job on the backboard.
St. John's got destroyed.
They, I think they were Midas 13 or -14 St.
John's was abused on the backboard.
Duke just owned them. Fact.
You got to own that. They got pummeled on the
backboard. Now, here's the other thing,
right? That alright that last play,
would you like to see darling kick it back to Zubi?
Sure you know last gasp effort. All right, I got it.
There was a situation and Rick lit him up where Osiah Sellers
could have fouled one of Duke's bigs who was a bad free throw
shooter. He didn't do it.
That would have maybe extended the game, but really as as much
as St. John's lost because of Cam
Boozer, who in in I got to tell you in person, he is even bigger
than I thought. Bryce Hopkins is a well put
together man. He's a young man, but he's a
man. He's been around college this
what year five with the red shirt, all that stuff.
He's in his he's 22 years old, he's going to be 23.
Bryce Hopkins is put together and when they were standing next
to each other, I could not believe the disparity in size
between Cam Boozer and Bryce Hopkins.
Same with Zooby. It, it was really amazing and
the referees allowed this. And here's the one thing that
does bother me about Duke, and it's not even Duke's fault.
It's the referee's fault. Now, I'm not, I'm not squawking
about this, but it is a point of contention that needs to be
raised here. They can, you know, and Rick
said this after the game. What they've done is they've
really kind of deleted. They've rest out, if you will,
the charge in college basketball because there were multiple
times where Cam Boozer went flying into a St.
John's defender initiating contact either with an arm
that's an offensive value. Cannot do that.
They never called it once. They never called it once.
Now, again, Duke is really good. This is not like a Duke team
from back in the day. It's just not because they're
very young, you know, and Caden Boozer's OK.
But St. John's lost because number one,
they could not stop Evans. Evans.
Evans crushed him. Evans is really, I think the
reason why St. John's lost.
Obviously, Caleb Foster coming back, shout out to this young
man. He gets hurt, breaks a bone in
his foot in his leg on March 7th and he comes out and he played
and he had 11 points and he played gave them real meaningful
minutes. That's a warrior right there.
So even though I wanted St. John's to win, you've got to
respect that. But here's the issue. 24 to 8
free throw advantage in terms of attempts favoring Duke.
That's just ridiculous That and that is like that's a great that
I believe is real. And so much of that was because
of coach K. You when you have a coach K when
you have when you have a Dean Smith, when you have a Roy Wood
Williams, usually when you have a Rick Pitino, when you have a
Jimmy Calhoun, usually when you have a Danny Hurley, though
every you know, the refs game Stan Danny whatever.
When you have a Baeheim, you know, when you have a coach like
that with that kind of equity, right, Rowley, back of the date,
Louis, back in the day, right. And you know, you are constant
Tom Izzo. When you're constantly in a
position of winning a lot of games and and and and going far,
you generally just get the whistle because even though the
refs are human and they have no, they have no bias.
Like I don't believe that referees go into game saying,
OK, you know, Tom Izzo's a legend or, you know, Jim
Calhoun's a legend. I'm going to favorably give him
the whistle. That's not how it works.
They don't unless, you know, you Donna, you cheating, you know,
back in the day, but you go to jail for that and you know, if
you're doing what he did, But I don't think that that's the
case. I don't think that there's this,
you know, preemptive or, or, or forethought of, if you will, it
from a referee's point of view to, to overtly favored Duke.
That's not what happens. But you know, residually all
these decades of Duke dominance, it plays into the deepest
recesses of your mind. And you know, these these reps
have have been around for a long time.
So they were there when Coach K was there for 35 years, with the
40 years, whatever it was. And there's just a little more
favorable whistle. There just is.
I did not think they officiated a good game.
I'm sorry. Now listen, St.
John's, did they deserve to lose?
I mean, the things that you can control, like you can't always
control the ball going in the hole.
You can control how you box out. And there were too many times
and they this happened even against Kansas and they got
lucky and it even happened against Northern Iowa.
But it didn't matter because they blew him out.
Saint John's gave up too many weak side tip insurance where
they just didn't seal out. They didn't box out.
I don't want to, you know, start throwing coach speak at you
here. But Saint John's did not box out
well enough to win the game. So that's the thing that they
can control because that's an element of physicality and they
are a very physical team. So I'm surprised they got
thumped on the backboards by 13 the way they did.
But 24 to 8 Saints like Zubi, who's a physical player, Dylan
Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins, these are physical players.
You get 8 free throw attempts. That's a joke.
But you know, you got to take it on the chin.
You got to take it like a man It's crazy.
They shot 41% from behind the arc, They hit 13 threes, they
turned it over six times and they lost the game.
So just a real gut wrenching finish and awesome season.
Saint John's fans, you guys are awesome, thrilled.
And again, I knew about this before it hit the news, but
thrilled that Rick Pitino, they tacked on the extra year.
He's now as he should be the second highest paid coach in the
Big East. There's a big jump in money, I
believe. And he said this, as long as
he's healthy, he would love to now pursue 1000 wins.
And then that would allow, you know, that would allow Saint
John's now for for the this new culture to root even deeper
because that's what it's all about.
Like he can't just be all right. Rick's here for four years and
you know, they get to 1 Elite 81, Sweet 16, and then Rick goes
away and St. John's goes back to being a 17
and 15 program, You know, playing no disrespect, Wagner's
and Maryland East and Shore and teams that you get to thump by
50 points. You know that you're paying
money to come to Cordaseca to beat.
That's not the way it's going to go down.
Ripoli's not going to let it. Eddie Cole's not going to let
it. And St.
John's Father Shanley, who is that Providence who believes and
knows the power of basketball, Father Shanley's not going to
let it happen. So this is clearly a new day for
St. John's, and it's awesome.
Everything about it is awesome. But in some ways, you know,
would it have been easier if Duke jumps on them 23 to 7 and
it's one of those nights where nothing's dropping?
You know, like, you kind of one point was 2 for 18 from behind
the arc yesterday. Then I think they had four or
five in a row, like if St. John's would have shot 2 for 18
and they lost, you know, by 1314, it's easier to walk away
saying, all right, their Achilles heel was shooting.
Rick knows what he's got to do with the portal this year.
They got to get some more shooters, which they which they
absolutely have to do. And really, guys, if if you want
the, the most honest assessment of what killed St.
John's this year is that their guards just weren't good enough
period. Their guards didn't shoot
consistently enough. I thought too many times like
sellers just doesn't get to the rim enough.
Saddened. Just a very awkward, everybody
tells me I got it, I got it. Listen, I, I, I've always got
Saint John's back, but I, I got to say one thing about about
Saturn here. Everybody tells me how great a
player he's going to be. I don't see it.
I see somebody who's got a young man all right, who's got an
incredibly loose handle, a young man who's, you know, calling
card is shooting, who is woefully inconsistent, shooting
the ball. And a young man who when he
drives to the basket, just really has no clear vision of
what he's going to do. Like I can't tell you how many
times I saw like these awkward double pumps where the ball got
stripped. He, you know, and I'm if, if he
sticks around that I think he will.
I'm very curious to see what a year of another year of player
development does for him. But I don't see it the way some
of you see it. And the other thing, and I love
him. I have incredible respect for
him. I don't know how Reuben Prey
doesn't get back in that basketball game.
I just don't know. I don't understand it.
It's one of those things that I will never know, and I was.
Sorry, sorry for jumping in Go. Go go dude, Hit the. 3 pointer
with the block right before halftime and you don't put them.
I'm ridiculous. I was stunned by that.
Yeah. Now, listen, if it was somebody
like Lefty left left topless or, you know, maybe somebody else
who didn't really play a whole lot this year and they just had
a little bit of a moment, but you worry about them
defensively. All right, I can see that there
is such a thing as getting, you know, unexpected or like
statistical overachievement. And you're like, all right,
eventually the odds and things going to even out a little bit
here. And listen, I I don't think that
Ruben Prey's going 6 for six from downtown, but he's one of
the better defenders on the team.
You know, he's not Dylan Mitchell, but he's such a
versatile defender. Give it his length and he can
step out. He can guard the one.
You know, he's very good on the switch.
You know, he's very good recovering if he's up top and
he's got to recover down low because you're a good athlete.
He's got long strides. I was absolutely stunned and
incredibly disappointed that Ruben Pray didn't get a couple
of more minutes. Really.
I just, I don't, I don't understand that and the crazy.
And listen, I said at the start of this, it's not my job.
I'll talk to him at some point about it.
It's not my job to go in there when you get knocked out of the
Sweet 16 in the matter in which they got knocked out and asked
Rick Pitino why Ruben prayed didn't get in that game after
that 4-3. And that's the that's the job of
people who cover the team. And I was very to my knowledge,
nobody asked them. And I was very surprised about
that. Like that's something that's got
to be asked with all due respect, and and it wasn't.
But I mean, even even even if it was, it wouldn't have changed
the like. I don't think that there's a
satisfactory answer there A Reuben praise should have been
given two or three more minutes to see if this is one of those
magical all time nights that unexpectedly would have
continued. He stuck 4 threes.
He didn't miss one. And there was one sequence.
It was right in front of me too, where there was a loose ball and
he dope. And I, I actually described it
like somebody charging from first base on a, on a, on a
gapper, you know, diving head first into home plate, you know,
and kind of like Lindor, if Lindor would have got, you know,
if Lindor would have got head 1st, I'm going to get to that as
well. Probably a little baseball here,
but it was such an, an energized play.
And man, I'm, I'm surprised he didn't get, I'm surprised he
didn't get back in that game. But again, you know, this is
this is the tough part about being a fan for whoever you root
for. Hey, UConn can get, but you
could be a massive Huskies fan. Now you've got some
championships and a lot of Final Four equity.
So maybe the hurt will be a little bit less for you.
Like St. John's fans, they haven't been
to the Final Four since 85. So when you're up by 10 points
and you think I will going to the Elite 8 and we already beat
UConn and hey, why can't we beat Michigan State?
Like when the mind begins to wander, that's when the pain
really hits next level. But it was a phenomenal season.
And the rebirth of Saint John's is palpable.
Monetarily, nobody's going to commit more money than Mike
Roppoli did, did he Just not. They just started building a $50
million building. They just started construction
basketball only for the men's and I believe women, sure.
But men's and women's basketball team, that's going to be
incredible. So, you know, it's funny, for a
while it used to be about facilities, right?
And obviously who's coaching me, what conference we're in, who,
you know, you got to get me to the NBA, all that stuff.
Sure. But for about, you know, 2530
years, it was like, all right, what are the facilities?
There was like an arms race. Same in college football for
facilities, right? I've gone, sometimes I'll wander
on YouTube because I, I especially with baseball, you
don't see it that much. I'll just do a, a random YouTube
search. I know UConn ironically just put
out like a couple of years ago, like a $30 million baseball
facility and, and I, yeah, I could get lost in that for an
hour or so that a bunch of rabbit holes.
So baseball's doing it. And now obviously basketball and
football has always been doing it.
So it's but it's less about the arms race and it's all about the
NIL. And, you know, the guy that's
coaching you, is he going to give me my best chance to make
the NBA and, and get generational wealth and change
my my entire family's future? Right.
And Rick Pitino obviously is that guy.
Saint John's obviously is incredibly competitive in the
NIL space. And now, and it's going to open
in 2027, you know, now they're going to have the the
accommodations that basketball players do look for.
It doesn't usurp the NIL. But now they got all three and
they've got an AD and A and a president, Father Shanley and a
head coach that they're all, they're all, they're all line.
So, you know, all those years, I just want, you know, yeah, I
would have loved to call. It's going to sound weird.
I would have loved to have called an Elite Eight.
I would have loved to have gone on a plane and gone out to
India. I've been to Indy three times
for the Final Four, couple times with Tiki, you know, all those
years doing the national stuff. So I've been to a lot of Final
Four, Three in Indianapolis. I think I've been to about 7:00
or 8:00, but I would have loved that for me again, clearly, but
I really wanted it for the Saint John's fan.
So, you know, it's been an awesome season.
And I say I said this on social media as well, but it's been an
honor being able to you know, be a small, very small, very small
piece of, of the puzzle A a liaison from the program, you
know, to bring you some contents and stuff.
But they did lose and season's over and you got to keep moving
here. So we get the final four and you
get the final four. I'll keep that up there.
Hang on. Get the final four.
You get the three seat Illinois. Illinois favored by the way -1
1/2. That's small, but who knows
where the money goes. But initial line, the final
line, I -1 1/2 UConn the two seed, Illinois the three seed,
that's the first game. And then Michigan, I mean
Michigan, Arizona should be the championship game.
Like I think whoever wins that game, I'm not going to say that
UConn would get blown out. Got too much respect for early.
Then Illinois is very worthy, but whoever wins that Michigan,
Arizona game is going to be the champion.
That too is a 1 1/2 point spread.
Michigan laying the 1 1/2, one seed Michigan, one seed Arizona.
So there you go. Duke 80, Saint John 75, Sweet 16
run. So you get to add a little
something else to the banner. And it was a great year.
But the Reuben pray thing was baffling.
And really St. John's needs to get more
shooters and they know that. All right, what does that say
there? Man, it's crazy.
It's it just ends so abruptly. It ends all right.
Carlos, Carlos. Carlos.
Carlos Boozer is the Taylor Swift, the Duke.
We did see him a lot. Now, I don't see him in real
time. I'm doing the games, but I see
all the stuff on social. And he was like waving people
goodbye. Now, listen, I don't know what
people were saying to him. If now, if it was anything like
rude, then him waving like below board, him waving goodbye, Yeah,
it would have been entitled to say a lot more.
But that was a little corny. Like, just watch the game, man.
I mean, obviously, root for your sons.
Of course, root for root for Duke.
You're a Duke, man. But like, waving goodbye, like
if St. John's fans weren't up in your
grill, and I don't think that they were, then you know that
that was a little bit below board.
I thought, by the way, he was a he was a better than average NBA
player. Carlos Boozer was pretty good.
He was an above average NBA player, not a superstar, but in
a couple of years Carlos Boozer was a star in the NBA.
Hell of a player. And, you know, Cam is going to
be ridiculous, but you know, they let him get away with the
Bully Bowl and you know, it, it, it really, it was obvious that
the whistle wasn't going Saint John's way.
And really, I think of all the, of all the foul calls, even the
ones, even the non calls where they didn't get Boozer for the
push off, for the initiating the contact.
I thought the one I thought #2 the second foul on Bryce Hopkins
was by far the most egregious call of the night.
That absolutely changed the complexion of this game because
Bryce Hopkins went to the bench with 7 minutes to go in the, in
the first half there. And, you know, I remember Mink,
you know, Mink just doing his job.
He's like, yeah, you have to wonder if we'll see, you know,
Bryce Hopkins. The rest of the I'm like,
there's no way we're going to see him.
There's no, and we didn't. And you shouldn't.
Like that's the right move by Pitino.
There's no way, especially the way it was being officiated with
a phantom call for #2 You're going to run the risk in a tight
game of throwing Hopkins out there and getting his third foul
before halftime. You only get 5 in college.
You don't get 6. No way. 100% right move by Rick
there. And I knew we weren't going to
see him until the second-half. So, you know, and that's when
Ruben Praise started doing his thing and I did.
Dylan Mitchell even hit a three, But to me that was the one, even
though there were other moments for sure that you can cherry
pick and say bad cold or you got to hit that layup or bad job
boxing out by Saint John's or Sellers had this open look from
the corner. How do you not stick it?
Whatever it might be, not the optimal shot at the end with
Darling from about 37 feet. You know, there's a lot of
things you never really lose on one play.
I do believe that this is just so many things that happened
before that. But that second fell on Hopkins.
That was a killer, absolute killer.
All right. Oh my God, Jesus.
What we going to do here, J Rob? What are we going to do?
What are we going to do?
All right, What you got? A couple of questions here.
What do we got? Yeah.
He's he's just say what you got for.
You all right, Ty? What up there?
Ty? How you doing, buddy?
Ty, what's up? BT?
Apologies if this is a known sentiment, just came across you,
but is this just a New York show?
No, it's not, as I see the Angels logo.
Thank you for that. Appreciate it, Ty.
Thank you. Shout out to Ty Jenks 85 good
stuff. No, by the way, Mike Trout
looking pretty good so far. I love it.
No, this is not just a New York show.
This is a show that and I said this a few times I'll I'll reset
it very briefly. Then I'll get to 3 birdie
questions. We'll do some baseball stuff
Knicks in OK C now, like pertaining to say the NFL draft.
I'll probably always store Jets and Giants, but you know, unless
it's just a massive trade that doesn't evolve either.
Like that'll be my first, my first take.
NFL draft National, NBANBA National a little initial slant
toward the Knicks, clearly, but National anything with the golf,
Obviously that's I'm going to talk a lot of golf when I can.
Tiger Woods, what are you doing? Tiger Woods, what are you what
are you doing? Tiger?
It is so clear. You know, I know that he's
already checked himself into rehab and Tiger Woods has had
about, I think, 11 surgeries, multiple surgeries on his back,
which is not fun. I had that.
He had even more invasive procedures on his back.
I just had the one that's called the microbiscectomy, which is
really not that invasive, but it's still back surgery.
He had a bunch, all right, bunch on his knees, bunches on several
on his Achilles like he is just like when he crashed and flipped
his car a few years ago and got almost died, like his knee was
shattered. I mean, that man physically has
been put through the meat grinder, some his own doing,
others not. But Tiger Woods forget about,
you know, is he ever gonna come back and and try to play
Augusta? Can he ever win again, you know,
on the PGA Tour, you know, I know he was entered for an over
50 event on the seniors tour. Doesn't matter.
Tiger Woods needs to get control of his life because he's going
to kill somebody. God forbid if he doesn't kill
himself, God forbid he's going to ruin somebody else's family
and their life. And these mug shots are
worrisome. Just like the puffy eyes.
Yeah, dude, it just it doesn't even look like it.
It looks like obviously not to the same level, but like when
you look at like the pixel, like Delante W post NBA, not to that
level, No, no, no, but you know, to a level of Dang, like this
guy looks unrecognizable facially from himself as like
when he was a star, like how you remember it, how you want to
remember. Well said.
And it's nuts too, because physically, even with the
surgeries, he looks, I mean, he looks like A2 guard, like a
retired NBA2 guard, like he is absolutely yoked.
But facially, you know, the, the puffy eye, it just doesn't look
like he sleeps a lot. And he's even said he'll sleep
like 3 or 4 hours and then just get up and start grinding at the
gym still at like 4:00 AM. And, and you know, I want to
stay in my lane here. I know, I know he blew a 0.0.
So it wasn't alcohol, but you know, driving at high rates of
speed and losing control and, and, and flipping cars over and
over like there's, there's got a there's I would think I want to,
I want to protect myself. I would think it's my guess that
he is, you know, either reliant on stuff that he can't get
control of and he needs to he was already in in rehab once.
I hope he figures this out, if not for himself, for other
people, if he doesn't have the common decency to go in and and
attack this head on and finally fix this, whatever, whatever
he's relying on to get through life, he's got to do it for the
rest of society because he is now becoming a detriment to
those on the road where he lives.
And when he's behind the wheel of a car, said thankfully he
didn't kill somebody. Thankfully he didn't kill
himself, but he's got to wake up.
Like enough of the nonsense, Tiger.
Let's get control of yourself here, buddy.
Come on, all right, it is a Monday, which means, you know,
time. It is Jay Rod little Bernie
questions time and it's going to be Major League Baseball as we
jump around here. So Ty just asked me, is this
just a New York show? Well, as based on you'll hear
from the Bernie questions. The answer is no.
And of course, Bernie questions brought you by Sullivan.
But pain. What are New York best personal
injury law firms? According to U.S. news and
World's report, as general counsel to the New York City
Firefighters Union for more than 4 decades and the proud law firm
partner of St. John's Athletic, Sullivan
Propane is New York's team fighting for New Yorkers for
more than 100 years. You can find
sullivanpropaneonline@triallaw1.com. Trial law one dot com Remember
the name Sullivan Papane. All right, first up, question
number one, what was the biggest surprise of the opening weekend
of Major League Baseball? Well, I'll tell ya and I I went
through, you know, the things that I just, you know, saw and
the things that I knew top of mind, but also literally went
through every game this weekend going back to even, you know,
Thursday, Friday, what happened over the weekend to me, the
biggest surprise of the opening week at a Major League Baseball
season actually occurred within the 1st 30 minutes of the Mets
Pirates game. Paul schemes doesn't get out of
the first inning. Are you kidding me?
That's a stunner. I mean, if if you told me the
Mets tagged them for five runs over, you know, 4 innings and he
walked a couple of guys didn't have pinpoint control, that
alone would have been a stunner. 2/3 of an inning, four hits,
five runs, all learned, two walks.
What is a guy who had a 1.97 ERA in 2025 with a sub 1 ERA with a
WAR of 7.6 with 200 and strike with 216 strikeouts in less than
190 innings? And by the way, last year,
there's a wild step. All the years of baseball going
back to the dead dead ball era, multiple turns of the century
three right, because obviously multiple centuries have been
involved here. The first pitcher ever in the
history of baseball to that's the national and the America
League here to have 175 strikeouts with a sub two ER Ray
in his first 25 starts as a major leaguer.
So what was the biggest surprise of the opening weekend of the
season? It's Paul Skein, sit in the
shower basically 17 minutes after he let the bullpen.
What? All right #2 #2 how this, I love
this and I didn't. I'm like, how's this going to be
with a color? Well, how has a B, A/B S
impacted baseball so far? I got to tell you, I think it's
impacted baseball pretty favorably.
Number one, I think they're getting stuff right now.
I think it's been great. I do think there's going to be a
time where unless it's like a massive moment where, you know,
like the third inning, some innocuous challenge, you know,
the Rockies against the Padres, you know, the Braves against the
Marlins, Yeah, you're not gonna have 35,000 start cheering
because you and you have seen that because it's new and it and
it and it's yeah, anytime there's something new people,
the people that dig in it. But I think it's been really
good so far. I think it's created some more
interest, number one. I think the crowd enjoys it so
far, as I said. Now, let me give you some math
here real quick. All right, well, the other thing
too, is that they process it very quickly.
All right, tap the helmet. Here's the challenge.
Nope, ball. Reverse.
Nope. Sticking good.
Boom, play ball. So it's not it's not like an
impediment to the flow of the game, which obviously matters.
You've had 175 challenges so far, all right, 54% have been
overturned. Oh, your boy.
He's doing some digging here. And you know, I love the stats
here. J Rod Right, 175 total
challenges, a little bit more than 50% of an overturned 94% of
the attempted challenges of of not attempted.
Of all the challenges, 94 were by the 94 were overturned, 81
were confirmed and a little deeper, you know, dig here into
the numbers. Of the 54% that were overturned,
7878 attempts were of the batters and 97 were by either
the, you know, the catcher or the pitcher.
So those are some of the numbers.
And if you wanted an even deeper dive, which nobody probably
cares about yet, but I'll give it to you anyway, the Reds, they
appear to be the best ABS team in baseball.
They are 6 and O in the ABS challenges, whereas the Braves O
and 4:00, they have yet to get a favorable positive ABS overturn.
All right #3 which three and O team is a mirage?
Very simple. Well, to find out which three
and O team that I think is a mirage, let me first let you
know how many three and O teams there are.
There are 5. The Yankees, Yanks look good.
Yankees pitching. Listen, I'll talk about them in
a minute a little bit more, but I told you I love the Yankees
pitching and I know it's early and I don't think the Giants are
very good at all. I think these third games with
the Seattle series going to be tough.
Seattle pitches. They're they're almost in the
World Series a year ago. They're good.
They're a good team, very good. So I don't think the Yankees
sweep Seattle. Who knows how that goes, but the
Yankees are throwing the heck out of the baseball.
Yankees are three and O Toronto obviously very good.
They're three and O. The Brewers are three and O, as
are the Dodgers and the Marlins. So let me get this straight.
Which three and O teams playing above their head?
Which teams are mirage Yankees, No Yanks will be a playoff team
Toronto, no Toronto will be a playoff team Brewers no, they'll
be a playoff team. Dodgers will win 130 games.
Maybe they'll obviously be a playoff team and have the best
record of baseball. So the answer is obviously the
Marlins, but like I'm not just trying to dump on the Marlins
The Marlins were pretty competitive a year ago now they
were almost 500. They finished up 79 and 83.
They've got some young players now the reason why I first of
all, like if there were other teams that were three and O that
I didn't think were really viable.
You know, because you see this, it's baseball's random.
It's not like the NFL where you get some like The Jets or the
Browns starting three and O. Those teams always start out O
and 3:00 or 1:00 and 4:00 because they stink.
Baseball's different, right? As we know.
Here's the reason #1 the Marlins aren't quite ready yet to swim
in the deep waters. And that's not being
disrespectful. It's calling, calling for what
it is. But think about who they beat.
They beat the decrepit Rockies. The Rockies are just atrocious
and they beat them by one run every game that the first game
they beat them two to one, then they beat them four to three,
then they beat them four to three.
So when you're 3 and O and you have a + 3 run differential,
there's an element of maybe luck is a little strong, but how
about circumstances that apply there?
And then obviously the Marlins are not yet ready to, as I said,
swim with the big dogs here. You know the Sharks, so I would
have to say that the answer would be the Marlins.
All right, there it is. 3 burning questions every week,
every Monday here on BT Unleash. Brought to you by my friends,
the great people at Sullivan Papane.
Find sullivanonline@trialo1.com. That's trial O one.com.
Remember the name Sullivan Papane.
Yeah, I listen. The baseball stuff's amazing.
Now can I tell you too, I think the Mets pitching stands going
to be really good. I said that coming into the air.
I like the Mets to win. Low 90s.
Mets will be a playoff team and I do like this new look to the
Mets lineup now Beau Bichette. But I mean, Beau Bichette's
having a rough start. You know, his throws across the
diamond and little iffy whatever.
Hopefully he figures that out. One thing that I could promise
you is that Beau Bichette's going to hit.
I mean, I wouldn't worry about Beau Bichette striking out.
I think it's 7 whips and 11 at bats.
But see, this is a guy who number one is incredibly clutch
and when you're clutch and you know, you have, you know,
whether it's OPS or batting average, you know, after the 7th
inning, high leverage situations, whatever my oldest
statistical columns that Beau Bouchet checks from a clutch
board of checks from a clutch point of view, which he
obviously does. And and Mets fans know that.
Toronto fans know that. And you know, just dyed the
wool. Baseball fans know that.
If you follow the stats here, if you can do that in pressurized
situations, I could promise you that Beau Bouchet's going to
have no problem eventually figuring things out with the New
York Mets. I could take that one to the
bank, like and, and even more evidence.
I thought his answer, I didn't think his answer was good
because he was booed yesterday and getting out of a little bit.
That's kind of a rite of passage.
I'll get back to that in a minute.
But he was booed and it was, you know, there's boos that are
barely audible, and then there are those boos that are a little
bit more vociferous. And that was a little bit more
of the vociferous variety that's gonna dissipate.
Fans, Met fans are gonna love this cat.
Absolutely love Beau Bouchet. I love him.
I love him as a ball player. Right.
But his answer tells me gets it. He gets it.
You know, he was asked, hey, you know, Bo, what you think about
the the booing there for the Mets fans.
And he said something along the lines of, yeah, I mean, I I'd do
louder or I, I would, I would bring more or I deserve more.
Something like that. Totally disarms it.
No story to write. Let's keep it moving.
Like, imagine, imagine it not. I haven't listened to the
station, to any of the radio today locally.
But, you know, imagine if Beau Bouchette would have said
something along the lines of wow, yeah.
I didn't, I didn't expect this. I mean, you know, a couple of
games into the season and they're already jumping on me.
Wow, I didn't hear that in Toronto.
Like that would be that would be the the entire story all day on
on the stations and and rightfully so, you know, because
he would have added some fuel to the fire now takes all the
oxygen out of it snuffs out the fire.
Keep it about baseball hell of a ball player.
Slow heartbeat going to be awesome.
Now the play with Lindor all right getting thrown out at the
plate on on Soto's double to left center the and when by the
way, when Polanco hit that for the final out, I didn't think he
got it. You know, I could see why you
know, obviously he jumped out of his seat like I didn't get it.
I I was watching that live. I didn't think he got it right
up, you know perfect barrel and and to the warning track in
right field. I don't know what the wind was
doing. I know it was windy more so the
day before. Yes, it was pretty nice, but I
do like this Mets lineup. I really do I mean Ben's going
yard his first game was a great moment.
You could see Soto and Ben, you know, Soto's taking them under
his wing. The you know, I you know, I like
Beatty, I I like Polanco. I thought Louise Robert Obvious
had the walk off home run and we know we can field in all that
stuff. But I thought he had a really
good at bat. Was it it was earlier in the
game on Saturday where I forget was it Soto?
It may have been Soto at was it Soto, not Juan Soto Soto for the
pirates pitcher man No, no, it wasn't it wasn't a lefty.
It was a righty and he kept throwing him some sliders
outside outside and ulcers and he no, he grounded out to 1st
right. It was like a check swing, but
he got the runner over. If I remember that believe there
was a man on 2nd, but the at bat and the quality of the at bat.
He kind of did that on opening day as well.
And it's early. So I'm not going to overreact to
anything from a baseball point of view.
But you know, maybe a new locked in Luis Robert obviously being
in the same lineup as Soto, you know, being around Soto
day-to-day and his teen eye at the plate certainly can't hurt
you. I do think the Mets are going to
be a lot of fun to watch this year and I I have no problem
with the play at the plate. You could look at it two ways.
Obviously he was out. They got it right.
Otherwise you could have you could have reviewed it Now, you
know, I don't know. It would have been interesting
if because the throw wasn't it it, it was almost like the
catcher kind of caught it and he was almost like in foul
territory going towards the third base dugout, not not that
far back, but just a little. So we had to kind of come back
to the plate. I don't know if Lindor goes head
first there and just tries to swipe the, the outer part of the
plate with his right hand, if that's, if he's safe.
I don't know. I also know, you know, based on
the surgery, you don't really need Francisco Lindor in March
going head 1st and maybe colliding into a catcher's shin
guard and then, you know, having that thing act up and, and flare
up and be worse and be an issue maybe for the rest of the year.
So what he ran into and out at the plate would have been nice.
I, I, I thought he got a pretty good jump.
He said that he didn't take the best route.
They've got analytics and stat cast for that, but I didn't see
it. But, you know, I appreciate his
honesty. And if he said he kind of
rounded a bag a little bit too wide, which leads to an extra
step or two. He's a very good base runner, so
I'll believe him. But I had no issue with the
send. And I, I know a lot of Mets fans
did. But the reason why I didn't is
because the Mets, and this was I, I like the transparency by
Mendoza here. The Mets remained married to
what they said going into the series.
They identified. Remember when the Dodgers took a
shit all over the Yankees defense?
Remember that after the World Series?
Well, I mean, the the Mets didn't blatantly diss the
Pirates going into the series. But what they did say after the
series, when Mendoza was asked about it, he said, you know, the
Pirates were team that we identified that we would be able
to, you know, be a little aggressive on and put the onus
on them defensively, put some stress on them.
That was a good play. It was a great play by the
shortstop as well 'cause he had a short hop bat.
You know, I actually thought, well, I look back, I don't like
it's just geeking out as a baseball guy.
But I thought that the outfielder kind of took an extra
step. The left fielder, you know, got
it off the wall. You know, Soto bangs it in
there. Obviously the first run score.
I think that was Alvarez and when he when he actually
retrieves the ball, you can see, I don't know if it was a pump
fake or an extra step. The left fielder.
So that's a half a tick that's favorable to the Mets there.
And then the throw was low and the shortstop short hopped it
and then he threw a throw that wasn't great to the catcher, as
I just detailed before, a little bit, little bit of foul ground.
Again, maybe an opening if you go ahead first, but you don't
need that from Lindor. But I like that because again,
when you identify a weakness of a team, I'm going to put the
onus on you to show that you're better than we think that you
are. And I like that that show that
the Mets are connected. They talked about this going
into the series and the the players do it from a base
running perspective. I'm sure that Lindor wasn't
shocked when he got the wave, you know, when he got the arm at
third base, third base coach obviously knew what the deal
was. You know, everybody's arm
strength, you know, everybody's positioning, you know, all that
stuff. So, you know, I, I think that
that that's, that's just a good baseball play that happens
sometimes. And you know, when you have it
with I, I personally, I don't think there's enough, enough
relays in baseball. I think it's one of the most
exciting things in baseball. I really do.
I think it's fun. You know, when you have a gap or
somebody goes for three, you got to cut it off.
And, you know, whether it's a shortstop or a second second
baseman going out, you know, or try to cut somebody down at the
plate. Like that's awesome.
Like that is that is where baseball goes from very
methodical, very slow to incredibly explosive
instantaneously, Instantaneously, really.
That's why baseball when when kids say, and I get it, you
know, I've already seen some kids not really well, yeah, a
couple kids already beginning to transition away from baseball,
kids that I know and kids that I coach and getting into lacrosse.
And those kids generally play football as well.
Some of them play basketball. Like I think one of the things
that dissuades kids from playing baseball, young kids, is that
number one, it's very hard and it's hard to hit.
And I think first of all, there are there's a small percentage
of kids and I get it, or just inherently afraid of the
baseball. And, and when you stand in the
batter's box when you're, you know, 6-7 years old, some some
kids even 8. And if that front foot is
bailing, you know, you just, you never going to be a hitter like
you, if you can't stand in there and understand that you're going
to get hit once in a while, you're never going to be a good
hitter. You're never going to command
the strike zone. You just never going to place
any fear in the opposing pitcher, right?
So that's one aspect of it. But also, you know, the game is,
is, is slower and not a ton of contact unless there's like a
boom, boom, taking somebody out of second base, whatever.
Even that's been policed out of the game, collisions at the
plate, policed out of the game. So younger kids who enjoy
contact and higher energy, they might find baseball boring.
And and I remember doing a show on this when I first launched
the station or the the channel here.
If you guys want to go and find it, do's and don'ts, I'll give
you some youth content as well. Not now, but just a circle back
to something like do's and don'ts about youth baseball.
And I said one of the mistakes. This is just a little minute.
Whatever think you think you'll enjoy this.
But I think one of the things that happens with young baseball
players is that, you know, they're like so many parents are
fixated on on having their kids be good hitters right away,
which obviously matters. I mean, everybody wants to sit
in the stands and watch their kids get three hits, you know, a
game when they're 78910 years old.
And then if you play high level comp, those three hits start to
dwindle because it's just hard. But the point is that too many
people ignore defense, too many. And I think what happens is a
lot of those kids who where there's no, no real emphasis on
catching the ball, throwing the ball.
Usually you go out on, you know, 70 year old kid, you know, yeah,
who, who can catch the ball. If by a miracle somebody catches
a ground ball and throws a miracle decent throw to first
base, can we who's going to be the kid at first base?
We even catch the ball to get an out.
Like there's not many kids who can make those plays.
So I say that because those kids who are in the infield when
they're young, many of them will eventually, you know, move to
the outfield as they become, you know, deeper and deeper
entrenched in the game. If they play, you know, high
level, you know, club, high school, college beyond.
But a lot of the players who can't do anything defensively
because they didn't really practice, it's not their fault.
They never developed those skills.
They sit in the outfield and especially in the Northeast,
it's 39°. You're not getting any balls out
there when you're 7-8 years old. It's freezing.
You know, you don't really want the ball hit to you because you
don't, you're not really confident.
And then those players that that's the point, those players
generally move on to other fast-paced sports.
But like I've always said, baseball is just like a lull
that's kind of a very slow in the bank.
There's just a very quick explosive series of events.
And that's why I love the relay. That's why I'm always a
proponent. Yeah.
I mean, like, unless you're down among them and they, you know,
they they were. But unless you get down a run
or, or, or you have Aaron Judge coming up or you have Juan Soto
coming up and you're like, I let's, let's you know, nobody
out. Let's not run into an out here
foolishly. I could see why some people
would push back on that because the Mets were in a position to
set up to win the game. I get that.
But if that's going to be the Mets mentality this year, if
that's going to be their mantra, which was clearly communicated
to the team in the meetings before they started the series
with the Pirates, I love it because that's going to play
over the course of 162. It really is.
So no issue with that myself, myself.
Jade, you watch a lot of baseball or no?
Did you watch some baseball this weekend?
Come on now, Of course I, I, I got a lock in.
Listen, as you can see from my my stats reading game, I got a
lock in desperately. So yeah, I.
Walked out that game. Great game and I feel like from
that I ascertained a lot, I gained a lot from that game,
learned, learned a lot of the insurance and outs and it was
super fun. I mean, the skiing stuff was
wild. Crazy like I've never seen.
Sorry, no. I mean like, even from a guy
who's gaining baseball knowledge, so to speak, I could
tell that was a God awful inning.
I mean holy. Yeah, that's the kind of thing
that sets you up to win a couple of the game.
It would have been nice to get the sweep from the Mets point of
view because you got no more. The Pirates aren't that good,
but you got into their bullpen right away.
You know you stick an L on skeins because he went 2/3 of an
inning. You knew that their bullpen will
be a little bit. Then he had extra innings like 2
days in a row. So that was a fun weekend out
there in Queens. My fans were great.
I can't wait till the Yankees come back home and, or come home
to start the year. It you know, San Francisco's
great ballpark Giants just I, I just don't like their lineup at
all. I think their lineup stinks.
I, I, Giants are doing nothing this year.
That's a two team division right there.
The what else did I want to say? Oh, I wanted to pop this up
because this is something I said before.
I'm if I missed it. OK, Anthony Botton 1364 and
what's going on? Did you see the video where Rick
explained why prey didn't get back in?
He said he OK, he said he blew a few defensive assignments and he
didn't know the plays for the four, so he had to choose
between Zubi and him. Well, I mean, if that I didn't,
I didn't see that. And if you're choosing between
Zubi and Ruben, pray. I mean, it's Zubi 1,000,000 out
of 1,000,000 times. But you know, I mean, who the
hell am I to push back on anything with Rick Pitino?
He guy's forgotten more basketball than my entire family
tree nose combined. Every generation of my family
combined. You know what He's forgotten in
one day exceeds what everybody that's ever existed and walked
the earth with with, you know, DNA of my family tree knows
combined, you know, but I I I I do think that even and I and
I've said I've said this on the show many times.
I think Rick is the greatest college basketball coach of all
time. He doesn't have the most wins,
doesn't have the most championships, doesn't have the
most final fours. That's coach K that's wooden.
You know, I I get it understood Adel for up I know.
But in terms of going from, you know, one spot, whether it's BU
to Providence to Kentucky, who's a step away of the death penalty
to Louisville, to St. John's, which was a dead, dead
dead. The only thing that they didn't
do in terms of dying, you know, killing St.
John's basketball, was that little teeny last Pebble of dirt
that was still on the shovel as they were getting ready to throw
it on the grave. And then obviously then they
would have been dead. There was a Pebble and A1 little
grain of dirt. And Rick came and took the
shovel and said, no, we're gonna, we're not gonna let that
happen. So I do think Rick is the
greatest for the reasons I've chronicled many times.
But you could be the greatest at whatever you do and still make a
mistake. And now is it a mistake or is it
a mistake or is it is it the wrong choice or is a
miscalculation? Those are two different things.
I myself think it was. I just think it was the wrong
choice. I didn't hear him talk about the
calculus behind, you know, the four, which would be the five.
And obviously, you know, Hopkins had a couple of fouls early.
Yeah, I, I, I don't know. But still, I don't know, you
know, a St. John's fan that that didn't text
me, that didn't that pretty much was the first thing that they
said. Why didn't Ruben Pray get back
in the game? Like there was a point where I
actually, you know, because the game's going on and you wrapped
up what's in front of you, you calling the game.
And Ruben Pray's not a central figure for this team.
You know, he's not Zoobie, he's not Hopkins, he's not Dylan
Mitchell. You know, he's just not, you
know, Dylan darling, the last couple of months has been
phenomenal. You know, you know, Sellers, I
think was way too quiet the last month or so.
And that was a big problem for for Saint John's.
But the, you know, Reuben Pray was guy.
I don't even know how many minutes he averaged.
If I had to guess, maybe 13 minutes a game, something like
that. So when you have a non central
figure, have an all time moment and then he goes back to the
bench and Saint John still has control of the game as they were
up by 10. I think it was 5343.
I think that's what it was with 15-O3 to go in the game, right
in that neighborhood. I'd be lied if I said, you know,
where's Ruben, Pray? Like I would have been saying,
where's Zubi? Where's Zubi?
Why is Zubi not bad? Like if that was Zubi.
But I did say at one point, you know, I eventually I'm like,
well, you know, wow, Ruben hasn't gotten back in since he
hit that 43, that 43 point shot. And I was surprised at that.
That really was, I was surprised at that.
Let's see here. What do we got here at the
Pinstripe Bugle? I've seen them like some of my
stuff. I don't know what kind of, you
know, what kind of how long they've been.
Yeah. Good.
Content. He, he does a lot of stuff.
I mean, obviously I've now recently begun following him as
just a result of him, you know, commenting and being a member of
the community. But yeah, great stuff.
He does like a lot of collabs with other New York pages as
well. Look at you making it all
official as a member of the community here as a as a member
of the YouTube very very well well said.
I like the verbiage there. I gotta learn some of these new
buzzwords too collabs the you know the the platforms, the
community and 11 big family right.
So what is he saying there anyway?
Would I ever collab with a smaller content creator make
Yankees content following them every day.
If you ever need somebody to talk Yankees ball listen, I am
in the space here's what I believe all right, I am a
believer in interesting discussions.
All right, so I'll give you an example like Wednesday, Steve,
Stephen A is coming on this week.
He is the he's the modern Howard Cosell.
Like nobody's got more followers.
Nobody makes more money. Nobody's got more of an imprint.
Nobody's got, you know, like the legacy of Stephen A, the and the
shadow. The specter of Stephen A is he's
a he's an absolute Titan and giant of industry period.
That's one guy that I'm looking forward to conversing with.
Same with Michael Kay, you know, same with Donnie from a New
York, Don Le Greco, New York Radio New York, you know,
content point of view. But I don't need somebody with a
million followers or a couple of 100,000 followers to, you know,
have a good segment. So my answer to that pinch
drive, Mr. Pinch drive Bugle will be yes, I think anything
that that I find interesting I've got on smaller channels
I've got on, I've got on the Mets pod and that, that that
they do a good job there. It's like they've got, you know,
79,000 Subs like they're growing and they're hustling much like I
am growing and hustling. We'll hit 20,000 Subs.
We're knocking on the door. We are right there a couple of a
couple of ways. So let's go spread that word,
get the likes up. Last week, You know, last week
was a really interesting week with all the all the digital
traction. One of those shorts that I put
up on Instagram, it's like 167,000 views.
Yeah, it's 167,000 views. It's crazy.
I think it's what's so funny is just like that they're still and
they might be AI generated. So like who do I know?
But there's still like these like articles coming out from
like random news audiences on it.
And it's like, yo, you're a little, you're like 6 days too
late. They they said what?
So they're jumping in now. They won't be I.
It'd be like, it'd be like msn.com like.
Oh, really? Yeah.
What do they aggregate? Do they do they just aggregate
stuff? I don't even know how that
works. I'm not sure how it works
either, but I have a feeling just each of like these e-mail
sites or whatever, whatever, New York Sports Daily News, like a
random site, they just kind of take probably the information
from other sites, have it like some kind of bot reword it and
just got it out real. Quick, got it, got it.
Yeah, that was that was a fun week.
A lot was going on. Everybody wants a piece of the
pie. Now that you know these
aggregators out there, let me see if I can get a few clicks.
That stuff took off there, but I'm not gonna get into that
today. Like I said, if I'm not pulled
into stuff, I don't start stuff. I'll never be that guy.
I have no interest doing that. I have said many times over I
just, I'm a content guy. I love talking sports.
If I get pulled into stuff, depending upon what said, who
says it, then I will respond to that in turn, but I don't go
looking for that. Last week was a little
different, though, obviously. But we move.
We move past that. All right.
BT what are your thoughts on Mendoza keeping in Lovelady?
Yeah. Yeah.
And not having 3 righty, 3 relief pitchers available to
pitch in the last game of the Series.
Overblown. Well, first of all, yeah.
I mean, he said that that Devin Williams was not available.
And who else was not available? He said the two of them were
not. No, I listen, I don't.
I don't think that that's a massive deal.
I'm not a big love lady fan. I you know, for it just, I don't
know, just the first of all, the name just looks it's it's like a
parody account. Like, I don't know, like if the
Mets were like the Mets used to be back in the day, like the
Wilpons and you know, like 75 win teams and you know, 15,000
people there on a Tuesday night. Instead of all this juice and
this energy. Now they gotta get a bit.
Didn't make the playoffs last year, but they've got to they're
they're obviously, you know, taking many steps forward and I
think the Mets will definitely be a playoff team this year.
But you know, like I love ladies the kind of name I don't know
like he should be out there on the mound where the Mets are
losing to the Marlins 81 in front of 11,000 people in on a
on a Tuesday night in September and the Mets are 15 games behind
the Braves and the Phillies. I I don't know that just that's
weird every time I see it every single time I see that.
But no, I mean I not a really big deal.
I wouldn't overreact to that. Let me say one thing too about
see, this is the problem with baseball.
That's why I think Rob Manfred is is a little less than his
commissioner. I think he's I think he's a good
guy. But you know, and I think
Silver's a worse commissioner. As I've said many times, I don't
think Adam Silver's good at all. Many times I've talked about
that. But Mike, this is something you
you want real evidence how the baseball fans impacted by their
greed. I'm going to give it to you.
All right, so everybody was complaining about Netflix
Opening day for the Yankees, and I get it.
Opening day for the Mets on Peacock.
I get it. I know.
Hey, listen, it's 2026. The the rights, the the the
revenue through the roof. Yeah, You know, I spent some
time on it on Friday. Like I thought the post game
with the varsity jackets and Jameis Winston slinging hot
dogs. I mean, he was out of his mind.
He was ridiculously. He like what I I he would just
he was just too, he was just too hyper.
It was just a weird delivery. But I thought everything else
was pretty good. I thought Sabathia was good,
although the game sounds good, Netflix's camera angles are
phenomenal, so I didn't waste a lot of time on that.
There was a lot of, you know, low from the time, excuse me,
from the time it started to the time, like the coverage to the
actual first pitch. You know, you get the WWE, you
know, announcement, the energy there.
Yeah, you get every go. All right, A lot of bells and
whistles. Just let's go, let's play
baseball already. So I'm not saying that that
didn't bother me, but I didn't really go in deep because I
understand it and I've got Netflix and you know, I try to
stand up for the older generation that doesn't have it,
but it's it's an unwinnable battle because it's not going to
change, right? But here's where they really do
mess up. And this is where we the
consumers get screwed. So yesterday was a gorgeous day.
All right. The Saturday was chilly.
Yesterday was I got a little little color, a little little
early, early look on the tan J Rod.
No, it's. It's beautiful.
All right, now it is Nice. Nice.
Today, too. They're actually cutting the
grass already. All those guys.
No, you give these guys an inch, they'll take a yard.
You don't have to cut the grass. The grass hasn't grown yet.
But if they can bang me out for next year, what is it, 50 bucks
a week? Whatever the hell it is, of
course they're gonna do it. I hear the lawn mower this
morning. I'm like, it hasn't grown yet.
What are you doing? Either way, I get it.
Trying to make a buck. We all are.
So yesterday was gorgeous. My son had ten o'clock 10:00
baseball game out in Flemington, NJ, this place called Diamond
Nation, which is absolutely gorgeous.
What an amazing what an it was just taken over by Cal Ripken.
It's gorgeous. It's so good.
It's so good, right? So that was at 10:00 and then he
had a game at two more local, right.
So I was outside watching neither of these teams I coach.
I was just in my chair spitting seats, hanging out with some
dads. Absolutely gorgeous.
I get home, I watch the end of the Met Game.
Gangster on the West Coast. Can I get Yankees baseball on
the 1st Sunday in in in the Major League season?
No, you can't. Because you know, these these
these filthy, greedy slobs who, you know, run these sports, they
don't give a rat's ass about you.
They don't care about me. They don't keep like, and this
is the problem. Like, and I understand you got
to make money that drives every single engine.
Everything is about money. I could do the best show in the
world. If I don't keep getting sponsors
and I don't keep growing this thing in, you know, guess what,
it's not going to be successful. Just the bottom line.
So there is to it. Of course, I'll blame J Rod for
anything and that that's the business.
That's that's the way of the world.
The world spins based on the strength of the dollar.
If you've got money, it enables you to do more stuff.
If you don't have money, you're desperate, you're locked out.
You know, you're, you're, you're borrowing money, which then
hurts you down the road as you have to pay back with a
percentage like you need money. You need money to do anything.
I get it. That's why I don't rail on
opening day. I didn't love it, but I didn't
go nuts on the Yankees playing the Yankees playing Netflix
opening day to come home after watching 2 fun baseball games,
young kids getting after it, you know, it's one of my favorite
thing to do, right? And then, you know, plop down on
the. I hadn't gotten a good sandwich
in a while because it's not football.
So I went yeah, I got a little eggplant, right?
A little fresh mutts and a little roasted red pepper and a.
Last Yeah, yeah, that's a goat. That's a goat.
Little little teeny tiny trace of Mayo.
Nice Italian hero. I even got a bag of chips right
because I've been eating pretty healthy.
I'm like, I'm going to treat myself here.
And I knew that the Yankees weren't playing.
I wasn't surprised, but I'm watching the Mets and then I'm
like, obviously getting ready. UConn, Duke.
I'm like, I would just love to watch the Yankees play baseball
today, the first weekend in the Major League season, and the
Yankees didn't play. I understand.
Like if you open up on a Thursday, depending upon where
you are now, Yankees could have played in succession because
they're out West. You know, like if you're opening
up in Philly and Baltimore and New York and Cincinnati and
Cleveland and Detroit, yeah, maybe a few other spots, you
know, you, you want to have that built in next day in case you
get snowed out or rained out or it's just, you know, 6° out,
whatever it might be, because the weather does fluctuate a lot
at this stage. You could be like, Saturday was
really cold, freezing, and then yesterday was gorgeous.
So you had a 15. No, not 15.
You had about a 11:50, maybe 15° hike depending upon where you
were. And that was from one day to the
next. So that that's common.
So I, I get it. Certain spots you want to build
out. All right, Yankees play
Thursday, don't play Friday, don't play Friday.
I mean play. Wait, sit, wait, hold.
Now, now I'm getting confused. Wait, Yankees.
Oh, Yankees opened up on when I've been dating.
Yankees opened up on Wednesday off day Thursday by by Friday,
Friday, nothing Sunday. Like I just don't understand
that it's it's not a conventional move and it's a
move that just tells us again, like they don't have to get to
the top of the mountaintop and scream, we don't care about you.
Hey fans, F you. We don't we got you.
We got your money, we got your emotions suckers.
Like they could literally go to the top of a mountain and yelled
at and it will be applicable, but they don't need to because
everything that they do tells us that.
I'm not talking I'm not talking about the money generation.
I'm not not talking about ref generation with Netflix and
Peacock, whatever. I'm talking about Sunday, first
weekend of the season and there's no Yankee baseball.
So acceptable. That's just unacceptable.
Like I wanted to watch baseball. How about this, J Rod?
Now, by the time, by the time you get married at this stage, I
mean, it's going to be $100. You'll see what I mean in a
second. So you want to talk about a
racket? Just a little side turn here.
So any of you who have girls as well?
My daughter Sopo Santa brought it so the softball bat was Santa
took care of that. But I know that's not cheap
right. So baseball bats in particular
like they're they're 400 bucks a pop 400 each.
Yeah, they're not 400, dude. And you outgrow them, right?
Think about this. Some people that's all relative.
If you if you have money, you don't complain, but some people
complain about the price of drivers like you want to get a
nice tailor made the new Callaway tailor made what a ping
really souped up driver. No, now those are probably more
like 500, but and you can conceivably play with a user
driver for two years, three years.
You can use it for a long time. You can get it reshafted, you
can get it re gripped. If something breaks, most of
these companies do the right thing.
You send it, they fix it, whatever.
So but these kids and you don't outgrow.
I don't outgrow my tailor made driver.
Unfortunately, I've never grown into it because I hit the ball
like shit. I know I'm not going to suddenly
put on you know what you can always put weight on, but I'm
not going to grow, you know, become three inches taller and
this thing doesn't fit. You know, I had it made
individually, like, you know, personally to my spec.
So I've got a club that fits me. So if you if you're going to
spend 500 bucks for a Golf Club, it's justified.
If you love golf, if you have the money to do it, boom.
But baseball, these kids outgrow bad every year.
So it's literally 7 U 408. U-409-U410U400400 Then you get
to this BB core stuff that I'm not even near yet, but that's
coming down the Pike as well. Whatever, if you play baseball,
you know, I know the the, the lacrosse sticks are not cheap
either. It's a racket, man.
So like you was snacking. How much is sneakers 170 bucks
for? Everything's expensive.
I understand that. But here's the thing that I
think bothers me even more. And it was a measly $11.00 right
now, like in New Jersey. And they'll travel a little bit
sometimes out of state, but generally if you play
competitive club baseball and and even very competitive travel
baseball, you will go to one of two facilities in the Northeast.
Well, actually I know that there's one, so maybe three.
I know that there's one out East Lasorda, but we've never played
there. We don't we haven't gone to Long
Island. Maybe we will at some point.
But I know that that's out there as well.
There is Diamond Nation, which which I just mentioned in
Flemington and awesome. And then there is adventure
sports in Jackson, NJ right by Great Adventure.
OK. Got it, got it.
Got. It yeah, that's a long hike.
I mean, jeez, you know, but it's it's awesome.
Great ball. It's fun.
I love it, Right? Well organized, awesome, great,
great snack stands, tremendous stuff for the kids were in
between games, video games. It's fun.
And do you know that when I went to watch my son plays, I'm not a
coach on this team that I had to pay him and I'm not, I'm not
calling out Diamond Nation because it's, it's the best
facility. I haven't been to Ripken yet and
I know Ripken just took over Diamond.
It's the best facility I've been to.
It is awesome. I love it, right?
They charged me $11.00 to go and sit and watch my son play a
game. 11 you baseball 11 bucks. Oh that's common dude.
Every parent has to pay. Yo, yeah, that's crazy.
I mean, I guess, you know, I mean, you probably are as well.
Like, you probably live in a small, relatively smallish
suburban. I've never heard of that.
Like going to my brother's games.
You just pulled up a little folding chair.
You pull up to the park. Yeah, yeah, I mean, back to the
day, you know, their dad's Hammerback Budweisers, you know
that, You know, now they just can smoke a cigarette a little
bit more than parents are still drinking, but they hide it
better. Yeah. 11 bucks.
And like, it's funny, like, I guess up, right?
I don't know why. I've got an SUV, 890 bucks,
whatever the hell it is to fill it up, right.
You know, the bat, 400 bucks, you know, sneakers for the kids,
cleats, this that. I never bat it.
Go to dinner, you know, depending upon if you have a
glass of wine or a bottle of wine with your wife, couple of
100 bucks. I am not cheap.
OK. Now, I'm also not independently
wealthy. I am not cheap.
I am always that guy and I because my dad's this guy.
I am always the guy if I'm at a bar, if I'm out with my friends,
if I'm on the golf course and the car girl comes up right.
It's just instinctual for me to say and I don't I don't drink
much when I play golf. I'm driving.
I might have a beer I'm getting, you know, I'm generally driving
2030 miles. So certainly not going to get
rocked unless I'm on my boys trip and like we're Ubering and
we're away for three or four nights.
That's different. Then there's then there's no
rules. Do whatever we want that point
of golf course, but I don't drink much on the golf course.
But even if I want a Gatorade, right, Gatorade, bottled water,
I don't know, a protein bar if I'm feeling tired making the
turn, I'm always the guy who said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, sure. Like just kind of wave her flag
her down and. Hey, guys, what do you want?
Dan, what do you need? Frank, what do you want?
Scott, what do you want? Bravo, What do you need, Maddie,
what do you like, guys? I usually play with what do you
want? And generally none of us really
drink when we're playing so it might be a gate.
Nothing. I'm always that guy.
I I if I'm at a bar and there's an ad, there's a function and,
you know, it's not like a prepaid and you're just tipping.
Hey, I got Mike. What do you drink?
What do you need, buddy? Yeah, good.
What do you got? We need vodka.
Vodka on the rock. Yep, we need.
And of course, my wife, you know, that's just how I am.
So I am not cheap, but it doesn't it seem inherently
wrong. Now I know you got to be the the
fields are magnificent. That was my.
Question was like what kind of facility are they up keeping
where they need a ticket to be sold to a?
Game, it's the best it it, it's a I'm going to describe it for
you. So now there are other events
like when we go to Staten Island, Great Kills, which is an
I don't think you have to pay. No, you don't pay there Great
kills, there's a lot of perfect game games there.
Great kills shout out Staten Island, old school.
I was there probably 7 times last summer.
We'll be back a lot this year. Love them best best snack stand
that I've ever seen. The food's amazing.
People are amazing. Lot of love for Staten Island,
lot of love for great kills Little League, right?
That's freak that's old school. You got to feel like there's
some turf fields, but you kind of feel like you're going into
the 80s and 90s in a, in a good way, right?
And they up keep it nice, but it's just, it's like in the
middle of a neighborhood. It's kind of like Wriggly Field
in the middle of houses. It's just it's awesome, right?
The ones that I'm talking about are these monstrosity complexes
now, right? Right now there's like I think
yesterday there was at least 6 fields because he was on Diamond
Six for his for his game. And they've got a really nice
scoreboard. And these games at this level,
like you can't start an inning, I think after an hour and 45
minutes. So as soon as the first pitch is
thrown right, there's got a clock and it'll countdown, you
know, minute and 12 minute, one hour and 12 minutes left of the
game, you know, 42 minutes. So, so you know that they had a
radar gun up yesterday. So kid throws a pitch 5758 miles
an hour. That's amazing.
The dugouts are brick and beautiful.
The turf is brand new. The batting cages are sublime.
Plenty of parking. Not a knock on the facility at
all, but just doesn't it seem UN American.
I have to reach into your pocket and pay.
And then I couldn't. Like I had a sign up.
I couldn't. It's bad enough that I very
rarely have cash on me, but I did have a you know, I had like
a 20 spot from maybe from Washington DC, like tipping out,
you know, the the bellhop and and the cars and stuff to get
the whatever. I just had a few bucks on me.
So I'm like, Hey, you got 11 bucks.
I'm like, all right, I was like 11 bucks.
They'll I go to hand over 20. She's like no cash.
I'm like, all right, I'm like, you guys do Venmo.
They're like, well, yeah, but you, you got to register.
I'm like, like, let me put my glasses on.
I wasn't getting mad at her. It's not her fault.
But inwardly I'm like, well, this is just a pain in the ass.
And like there's 77 minutes from from the first pitch and I you
know, I know he's going to be batting at the top of the order.
I'm like, and I know I got to walk across the whole freaking
complex. I don't want Mrs. First step
batting me like old, old man eyes.
I'm like looking down at my phone, you know, because I
couldn't find my like glasses for a SEC because I don't need
glasses to watch them play. Just if I look at the phone, I'm
like, oh, will you go to this link?
Oh, here's the waiver you got to do this.
Do you want to get notifications?
No, I don't want notifications. I just want to watch my son play
baseball. That's really all I want to do,
you know, and I didn't say it with that tone because she was
young. High school, you know, 3 like 3
high school girls, tremendous young ladies, really, really
good. But is that insane?
11 bucks. Yeah, it's crazy.
It's, I mean, listen, unless they're, unless they're giving
you a halftime performance, I don't see where this is with
where this is worth it. No, no, it well, it is because
the baseball is great and the kids love it, but, you know,
hey, all right, Read this for me at Now this is easy at VL Dash.
Is Dash here to stay? All right, Yeah.
I didn't see this till this morning.
To be fair. Did you see a boy, Jason
Dominguez drop that pop up in triple AI?
Did it looked like he was on skates.
You still think he's better than Jones?
Well, I mean I know he's a better hitter than Spencer Jones
because Spencer Jones strikes out basically 40% of the time
against AA pitching. You know, let's see how he does.
You know, this year. Let's see if he gets a call.
Let's call up. I don't listen.
Maybe he gets a couple coffee in September.
If he hits forty home runs in the Miners.
I don't think Spencer Jones factors into the Yankees future
at all. I don't unless there is a
radical and it would have to be a radical.
And you won't even know this until you know, you have to get
a couple of months of evidence here.
A radical overhaul to his approach in the battles box.
He swings and misses too much. And when you do that in AA, and
I don't care how far you hit a baseball, when you strike out
3830 nine, 40% of the time it's untenable.
You cannot play Major League Baseball.
If you get up 10 times and you strike out 4/4 and 1/2, he can't
have it. They might even be 5 because as
you get to the majors, the pitching is better.
So listen, he hits bombs. I know that he can run.
He's a better center fielder. I've also said that the the
Yankees view him as a centerfielder more than
Dominguez. He might even have a better arm.
Maybe. You know, he's a pitcher of
Vanderbilt for a little bit early.
I think he threw. I think he got clocked in 9495
because I looked on his perfect game profile like a lunatic to
see how good he was when he was young.
No, I don't think that. Spencer Jones, forget about.
I know you're kidding. Spencer Jones to me has no
correlation right now to Jason Dominguez.
I think that Jason Dominguez should have made the Major
League team. That bothered me.
I told booty and want to hear it.
You know, I told you you guys didn't want to hear it.
Like I knew I knew that Jones was not making this team.
And I told you that in February. And I also said I didn't know
it. But I strongly surmise, and I
communicated to you on this show, on the show, on the
channel, that I really didn't think Dominguez was making the
team neither. And it bothered me inherently.
I thought that that was, there's something wrong with that.
Now, it's not like he hit three O 3, but Jason Dominguez proved
to be at the very least a competent Major League player.
He can run. He didn't hit two O 9.
He didn't strike out 37% of the time.
His walk in contact rate was pretty good.
Stole 20 bases. I thought there'd be more power.
I've said that, but I think it'll come.
When you play every day, you know, his bugaboo is the
outfield. He's horrendous.
I don't know what happened to him.
I I I don't understand. Yes, I did see it.
He was turning around. Like in circle.
Was it windy? I guess that's the only out I
didn't even see. Was it a It doesn't matter.
You can't, you can't, you know it doesn't matter.
You can't look that bad, you know, as a as a the Martian like
touted as some Uber prospect. You can't look.
I'm not saying you can't like boot a ball, you know, sinking
the liner, take a step in it goes over your head.
That was a pop up that was pretty, pretty deep.
But and if the winds are swirling, was it off a lefty
bat? I don't know and I don't even
care. But I just say that because if
it was a lefty bat, you got that reverse spin and going to the
line. Who the hell knows what I what I
what I don't know. I don't no like even kids that I
watch now, like at you know, at at this age, like ten, 11-12
years old, if you're an 11 year old shortstop, right?
This is the one of the most this is the most forget about from
the right side hitting. This is the most confounding
thing to me about Jason Dominguez.
This is what I don't get. If you are an 11 year old, 1011
years old and you play shortstop, right and you're I'm
not saying you're Ozzie Smith, but you're wit, but you're good,
right? You're a good short.
You catch the ball, you make all the plays right.
If you take that kid and you put him in the outfield or you put
him in second base or you put him anywhere really behind the
plate, put him in first base. If he's tall enough, put him in
3rd for sure. The kids going to look
functional. He's going to look fine.
I don't understand for the life of me how a guy who was touted
as a center fielder like this great defensive center fielder
who looks like Todd Hundley in left field.
I don't understand that. The erosion of his defensive
game is beyond alarming. I got to blame the Yankee
organization on that because that speaks to development.
Now, obviously, at the end of the day, it's Dominguez.
He's the one who's in control of, you know, throws and getting
proper reads and angles and catching pop ups.
But that is mystifying to me. Like it's one thing, right?
If you're thought to be a a great defensive outfielder and
you've got immense power, like basically Dominguez the scouting
report, run like the wind. You may run like heads, but you
hit like shit, you know, run like the wind rocket for an arm
go get it in the outfield power from both sides of the plate 5
tool. Prospect #1 prospect in the
franchise nickname, which I never get into nicknames.
I can't stand it. But he had one the next Mickey
Mantle. All that me and Sal were talking
about this back in the day, and even then I didn't buy into.
I'm like, you know, I like I'm interested, I like them, but the
stocks enough with the Martian nonsense, right.
How do you go from that to be perceived to be that kind of a
player to immediately being deemed not good enough to play
center field where they don't even give you a shot?
You don't even get a look to now.
You literally look like an inept, incapable over your head
train wreck in left field That I don't understand.
And I think I know baseball pretty well.
Like I think I understand the game decent enough.
You know, you take a you want to tell me we're talking about a
shortstop going to 3rd like say if a rod was awful early or you
know, Bechette's having some issues throwing the ball.
All right, it's a different position.
No different spin third base balls on you quicker, longer
throw. He doesn't have a great,
although I did see you threw one ball across the diamond.
I think it was like 95.6 stat cast had him either way, like
that's different or you want to tell me like Ben Rice?
All right, who how about that ball he rocked off the right
field wall? He's going to I think he's going
to be an All Star this year. I've said that.
I've said that I think Ben Rice is going to be awesome this
year. Awesome.
Like you tell me, like Ben Rice, who didn't get to play much in
college. Remember, he was a catcher in
the in the I, I think it was Dartmouth in the Ivy League,
right? Then one of his years got
cancelled because of COVID and now he's trying to learn to play
first base. All right, like that's going to
take, you'll be fine. I think I think it'll be
functional. But like, you know, if he shits
the bed the first week and he's awful in the first month, he's
defensively deficient. You're like, all right, let's
give him a little bit of time here.
He's pretty much been a catcher up until last year where he's
trying to make this transition. Like there's certain things I
can understand. Even I mentioned Todd Hundley.
Todd Hundley going from behind the plate where everything's in
front of you and you see the whole diamond to a completely
different vantage point, going to play left field.
No, I just he could have been out there for five years.
He was never going to be remotely competent.
But at least there's a transition.
It's a different read. It's a different reactions,
different timing mechanism falls on you later than when it is
behind the plate. You know, I just don't
understand for the life of me what in the world is going on
with Jason Dominguez in the outfield.
Good God. All right, his mental state's
broken. Avery.
You might be right. It very well might be a mental
thing. Well, the Yankees haven't done
him any favors by basically telling us not Not good enough
to play center field. The team's being wishy washy on
him. Sure, it hasn't helped with
that. He'll only only succeed with the
change of scenery or a team that truly believes in him.
Maybe. Maybe hashtag be real.
I mean, maybe super encouraged by the Yankees pitching so far.
So far, You know, I see Bird as a Nelly type reliever.
Bird looked really good. BK Liner or B Kleiner, however
you want to say thank you, BK Yeah, Yankees pitching's going
to be phenomenal. I mean, Tam Schlitz, there's
going to be an absolute beast. You know, Will Warren was
laboring his pitch count, got up there, had some issue with two
outs. You know, that was a little
problematic there. But you got a chance to get into
the Yankee bullpen. The Yankee and and Boone even
said this post game, like the Yankee bullpen roles are still
being defined. So that's gonna be a work in
progress. But everything that I've said
about the Yankees, we know they're gonna score a lot of
runs. Will they hit?
When it matters, we'll fight. I can't answer that now.
I don't know the answer to that. They're gonna hit 200 plus home
runs, probably League Baseball in runs or you know, top three,
you know, whatever. The Judge already has two and
offensively they'll be among the elite, you know, OPS, all the
measurements, run scored, home runs, all that stuff on base
percentage. I think the Yankees will be an
elite offensive team. Will they will they hit elite
pitching? Well, they haven't for years.
So why would I say that? They will, but I won't say that
they won't. I'm just going to say let let me
see if they make any changes and let me see what some of these
younger guys look like. Let me see what happens at short
blah blah blah. But I am incredibly confident if
Garrett Cole comes back and is Garrett Cole that the Yankees
will have the best. And I know there's others.
The Dodgers rotation sick Red Sox.
I know there's others. Mets rotation is pretty good, I
know, but I think that the Yankees rotation is the thing
that's going to give them a chance to win the World Series
this year. If if Garrett Cole now, if
Garrett Cole comes back and he's batting practice, then well,
that that that kind of changes my opinion.
Obviously, this is all prefaced by the thought that, you know,
people talking to Boone, watching him and others around
baseball, that Garrett Cole, you know, after a couple of starts,
whatever shake the rust that they really believe he's going
to be back to being Garrett Cole, if anything, may be better
because he's had a chance to regenerate physically.
It's been a workhorse. So you get a chance to kind of,
you know, let your let your body ice up a bit.
I, I just think, I think he's going to be this Yankee rotation
is going to be fun, man. And then he get Clark Schmidt
back. You know, I'm not a big Louise
Hill fan at this point. Who knows where he'll factor in.
I'm curious how Weathers pitches against Seattle.
But no, the Yankees rotation looks really good.
Yanks A3 and O Mets rotation looks really good.
I like that. I just like the way the Mets
lineup. See Yankees lineup is pretty
much the same. Caballero, Volpe, whatever, a
little little tweak here and there.
McMahon to start the year. I just watched the Mets lineup
and I just like it better than I like last year's lineup.
I just do. There's more well-rounded
approaches. There's more professional
hitters, there's more guys that can run and Bichette hasn't done
a damn thing. Wait till Bichette starts
raking, which he will. And if you just tuned in, I love
what he said. You know when when when the Mets
fan booed him. And it's like, listen, Tino got
booed in 96. Soto heard it last year from
from Mets fans when he wasn't clutch early on, didn't run out
of ball or two. It's a rite of passage.
You know what I mean? You come here, Coral, Anthony
Towns, he got booed. He's been booed.
You know those. You know, when those boots stop,
when you perform and the team does well, that's it.
And I have no doubt. Yeah.
I don't even have time to get to the Knicks today.
I'm going to do a little bit more of the Knicks tomorrow.
So I got to get bouncing here. We'll start wrap it up, Jay, But
I think that you know what what what Bichette said tells you
this this dude is built for New York, man.
You know what? I.
Mean it was like a fun little quote like you see, man, he's
he's got the sauce. Yeah, he does.
He's got the swag and more importantly, he's got the
talent, he's got the heartbeat. I think he's going to be an
absolute dog for the Mets and I think he's going to be
phenomenal for the Mets. So New York baseball's off to a
good start. Wrapped up the St.
John's stuff. Obviously, if you guys just
tuned in, did a lot on that. We'll do some Final Four stuff
later in the week a little bit. Illinois, UConn start moving to
the draft as well. Of course, Michigan, Arizona
after that baseball is on their way.
Was a very interesting, you know, biggish regular season
game for the Knicks last night. But I but I got to run do some
other stuff. I'll do a little Knicks
tomorrow. There's really nothing that can
happen. That's why I was so into last
night's game. That's going to give me either
confidence or jolt my confidence in the Knicks moving forward.
The bottom line is the seven games that they won in a row,
they'd be pretty shitty teams. You know, they did the last two
games that they've lost. It's been against two good
teams. Yep, and and yes, and even
preceding the seven game win streak when they lost to the
Lakers on that Sunday and the Clippers out West, they didn't
play well. Both of those, not that they're
great like you know, but they're good.
They're better than the Wizards who they beat couple of games
ago. Some of these, some of these
teams that that really aren't going anywhere.
So, you know, once the Knicks really start your boys all over
it, I can't wait. I will say this.
What do they have? 40, the Knicks 48 wins?
Yeah, they're 48 and 27. They got 7 to go.
Like if the Knicks go, let's say the Knicks go five and two and
four and three now go up five and two, then you're a 53 win
team. Well, I feel like that's what I
thought they would be. I actually said 54, but I
thought I'd feel better about the 54.
I'm not as I'm not as down as I was a while ago.
Like I think there's Cat's role has been, you know, streamline
here, he's bought into it a little bit more.
You know, you didn't get much for the bench last night, which
is interesting. And I got to see if big brides
okay because he came back and it looks like he got.
His first game. He got hurt again.
It looked like he got hurt again, and it looked like it may
have been the same spot. You know about, you know,
Alvarado, obviously Jordan Clarkson.
He had a good first week. He did, he did.
He did hit a couple threes last night, but not a ton more than
that. So I'll just about wrap it up,
man. Appreciate you guys.
Jay Rod, good show today. He's going to get those shorts
out. Hey, one more time, get it up on
the screen Wednesday, The Jets. Let's get The Jets thing up.
It'll be episode number 2 with myself and Jake Asman and Rich
Simini. Awesome crew.
First episode was a blast. We already have over 2000 Subs.
I think it's like, you know, 10,000 views on the first
episode, which will be nothing. As we get deeper and deeper and
deeper into this all year. I mean, into the draft, into the
OTAs, into training camp during the season, I think there'll be
a point where we wind up doing more than one show a week.
So that's going to be a blast with that crew.
Episode number 2, The Jets Collective.
Go sub it, go like it, go support it. 7:00 PM on YouTube
on Wednesday. And let's get it up.
Look at this guy. Look at it, look at it.
Look at him and one thing and I can clown him on this and don't
think for a second I'm not going to.
I am going to clown him on that haircut that he's still rocking.
I remember saying to him and he used to make fun of my head.
He's like, yeah, you got this big box head like Popeye, right?
I'm like, all right, well, I mean, what do you want me to do?
I'm like, are you going to keep like, are you going to keep
going with that? Like whatever that thing is?
Are we going fade? Are we going like, what are what
are we doing with this? Like it's beginning to now the
hairline is it's now getting further and further.
And I remember saying to him, this was in 2005.
I'm like, dude, why don't you tighten up the sides, man?
Give it a little, go a little one clip, fade it in.
Let's go. You look younger.
You look like an absolute badass.
He's like, Nah, BT come on, man. He goes look at this little
peanut head man. He says, he says that's his
word. I guarantee that he'll use that
term again on Wednesday. I got API, got a peanut head.
That peanut head don't look good like that.
I need the hair to hide. I need the hair.
I need what he's saying. I need the hair to hide that
peanut head man, man, come on BT everybody's got a box head like
you. So I am curious where my boy is
on the hair because he has not changed his hairstyle in a long.
He's like one of those one of those O GS who still rocking and
not wrong with him because they came back, but like one of the O
GS who's still wearing the Adidas shell tops.
You know what I mean? I was still rocking.
I don't mean just because they're retro.
I mean, because he never changed out of them.
Yeah, I. Mean the dudes who are still in
the Puma jumpsuit. Like exactly.
You know what I'm saying? But listen, here's one thing I
got to say when it comes to style, like in terms of what his
wardrobe he's. Got it on.
He's that guy. Nobody touches Stephen AI mean
nobody, so be a lot of fun and a lot of stuff to hit with him.
That's going to be an interview. That's going to be a
conversation with my guy blessed and honor.
He's coming on the show. It's going to be great.
So that's Wednesday jets collected Wednesday like it sub
it, get it out there, share all the stuff comment.
All right, it's been a very busy week or so haven't had as much
of a chance to jump into the comments.
I'm going to carve out some time today to do that.
So J Rod, great work. I'm happy you're feeling better
and that's it. So I'm going to get out of here,
have a great Monday, enjoy what's left of your day.
If something breaks something wild, I'll you know, I'll jump
on. I'm going to do a couple of live
watches at some point, not with the gangster on the West Coast,
but at some point within the first month of the season, I'm
going to bust out some of that, do a couple of live nick watch
parties and obviously a ton of draft stuff coming, ton of draft
content coming, not just for The Jets and the Giants, the entire
NFL. So have an awesome Monday catch
you tomorrow unleashed out. See ya.
listening?