This is on leash Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me?
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me?
This is on leash Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me?
This is on leash Are you listening?
Can you hear me? What's up everybody, BT
unleashed with you on a Tuesday. Everybody's doing all right.
I hope certainly ready to have a little fun today here as we got
the WBC championship. I'm fired up about that tonight.
John Fanta. I love this guy.
This guy is a is a rising made not even a rising star.
He's a rising mega star. We'll do some college hoops.
John's going to join me today at 10:30.
Obviously tomorrow. I got to be honest, where the J
rod my mind is mushed here in the sense that I'm trying to
figure out how I'm going to how I'm going to do these shows here
in San Diego. And I'm like, it's, it's, it's a
little overwhelming. So what I think I might just do
is just, I don't know, just maybe sit on a beach bench and
just open up my phone and go live from.
Kicking I think that'd be great that I think that'd be awesome I
mean you're able to kind of go to the stream yard from your
phone. So there you go.
I have to wait do. I have to do the stream yard or
can I just go right to YouTube? Oh yeah, wait, you're right.
You probably could just go straight to YouTube and do it
easy. I got to figure that out, man.
So I'm looking forward to that. So John's going to join me in a
little bit tomorrow. I know you guys know her from
S&Y and the great another rising star, Nikki Ladarullo is going
to join us here, by the way, Get this picture up.
So she covers. Look at this.
Is that amazing or what? Nikki's going to join us
tomorrow at 10, right around 10. And Nikki is on the, the St.
John's Big East beat. She's obviously one of the, one
of the talents at SNY and local, local girl who is, who is
starting to climb fast. She's from Bergen County.
So I just, you know, I saw that picture on social media and I'm
like, I, I got a, and I got to know her a little bit, see her
at the garden quite a bit. She's, she's absolutely awesome.
You know, all that, all that energy and that youthful
exuberance. It's great to see the next wave
of broadcaster. So we're going to have her on
tomorrow. Looking forward to that and
we'll hit it all. We'll we'll hit it.
We'll have a lot of fun with Nicky.
That'll be at least an hour. I would say so.
All right, let's get the now. Yesterday, J Rod, you remember
right? So it came up and I was informed
about, I think somebody had it in the text.
Yeah, my my boy sent the text at the end.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. About what Aaron Judge said
about the WBC in the World Series.
That's all right. I got to make sure that I'm fair
to my guy here. So let me and it was kind of
toward the end of the show. So I'm like, well, if I think
it's a big story or if I've got anything to say about it, which
I obviously do, I'll just jump into it today.
I said that yesterday, so let's get there.
I got something on soda as well. Let's get this up here.
So it is exactly all right. So there's no misinterpretation,
no hijacking this what Aaron Judge said, quote all the West.
Now keep in mind guys, this is not about what's your
preference, a WBC championship or a World Series ring like that
is kind of important. You know, it's a little bit of a
detail anyway, judging on the WBC atmosphere, quote, I'll say
it. It's been bigger.
The World Series I was in versus the crowd here and the one we
had against Mexico, it's bigger and better than the World
Series. OK, He's just being honest.
So let me get this straight. When somebody's honest, we're
going to take issue with it. He's saying the atmosphere is
better and he's not wrong, but I'll get back to that.
The passion that these fans have representing their country,
representing some of their favorite players is nothing like
it. That's what you dream of As a
kid, I was batting in my backyard playing wiffle ball.
These are the moments you dream of.
All right, that's, that's a little bit of a stretch #1 when
Aaron Judge was a little monster in his backyard, there was no
WBC and it, well, was there? No, no, no, there was none.
So you know, you're not thinking about the WBC.
But I get the point. He's talking about like the big
spot, the big situation. Gives me chills right now
thinking about how special that is.
Quote, I try to take the moment, every game that moment, look
around, appreciate the crowd and appreciate the moment.
So who the hell has a problem with that?
I mean, I honestly I don't understand who has an issue with
that. See the issue that people should
have really is the way sports is gone where the the average, you
know, truly the fan who helped elevate all these sports, who
who's reached into his or her pocket forever.
You know, going to the stadiums when the stadiums were like the
cookie cutters in the 70s and the 80s.
And you can walk up and get a ticket for 9 or 10 bucks and all
the games are on local TV pre streaming services.
You want to get a jersey, you know, 1920 bucks, 2530 bucks.
It's not going to it's not going to knock you for a loop
financially. Like everything's changed so
much so that I don't think that I don't think that Aaron's wrong
at all. I don't think that he's off
base. But Aaron Judd says that this
atmosphere is better than the World Series.
I absolutely agree with him. It it is, it's not a knock on
the Yankee crowd. It's not a it's not an elevation
of the importance of the WBC compared to what, you know, what
he would feel if and when he ever wins a World Series ring.
But he's just talking about being on the field and playing
against Dominican Republic and Mexico and having that that pad
that that pent. And of course, tonight
Venezuela, that palpable like electricity that is just
constant that just it never dissipates.
It never really goes away. It's really, it's like a soccer
match or, you know, it's like a big, it's like a big wrestling
match, like a big, you know, one of those big like WrestleMania
where it's just a supercharge that's going through the crowd
from the moment, you know, whomever comes out and from
behind the curtain hits the ring.
And it's really one of those great matches where every,
there's always an oh and an ah, somebody hits the rope, somebody
does a flip, somebody's outside, somebody does whatever.
They go to some of these crazy moves they do today.
It's insane, but it's just, it's awesome.
And I, I, I think that he's absolutely right.
I was at the World Series game when Anthony Volpe hit the Grand
Slam against the Dodgers. It was amazing like that, like
that, the peak moment, you know, when, when that happened or, you
know, I'm sure in LA when Cortez gave up that that bomb to
Freddie Friedman, like what it sounded in the moment at Dodger
Stadium and, you know, a couple of moments at Yankee Stadium.
Yeah, that's that. That's very hard to replicate.
But you're not going to have that constant buzz because it
just doesn't. I don't want to say it doesn't
mean as much. It does.
It's a World Series, but it's a different clientele in the
building. It's just this so people can
take an issue with that. I don't, I don't really know
what the problem is. And by the way, I saw some
numbers yesterday. This is pretty good.
So, you know, the WBCI don't have the TV ratings there.
I didn't get too wrapped up into that, but when it was first
introduced, right. So you go back to 2006 and the
attendance in in total. So about the growth here of this
event, which to me is getting better and better and better.
And it's like, it's becoming like a signature event.
And I admit I've gone from tepid interest to all right, like
almost like curiosity, like, all right, what do we have here?
You know, you see the USA uniforms, you see teammates who
are on Major League teams and then they're on opposite teams
facing each other. Like I'm like, I, I, oh, I never
thought it was awful, but I'm, I'm all in.
I think the WBC has transformed itself into a phenomenal event.
And I just don't understand all the hate.
I really don't, I don't know the, listen, I've said this a
lot. Like one thing I don't get, I
know we've got to fill their time and all that stuff, but
the, the amount of energy that people now spend on stuff that
they don't like, it's amazing to me.
Like if you don't like it, don't talk about it.
Like that's, that's the other day.
I don't know if you guys might. We spent a lot on on Joe B's
comments yesterday. As expected, that got a lot of
traction what he said about WF and if you guys missed it, go go
check it out on the channel. But you know, like how, how
things have changed a lot. And one of the things that I
said was I don't think that we should do 4 hour radio shows
anymore. And I don't, you know, I know
yesterday I was pretty long and went about two 2 1/2 hours,
which was the long, I think was 2 1/2 hours, which is the
longest one I've done since I launched the YouTube show.
What do you think? 4 hours is too long because you
get repetitive and you start looking for things to, to kind
of prop up and, and, and, and, and, you know, tee off on
because that's exciting radio. There's energy and there's like
that, that good emotion that, that anger, that reaction, that
fire, you know, but, and when, if you got 4 hours, you've
almost got to do that. And I'm not calling anybody out.
I'm just saying the way it is. I, I don't, I don't know why so
many people who oppose the WBC have to go on these tirades and
these rants about the WBC. Don't watch it, don't watch it.
I I don't get it anyway. So the attendance growth here J
Rod, check this out. So in 2006 nominal growth to
start, but curious where this goes moving forward. 737,000
people watching the game 730 I rounded it up 737,000 then the
next one which was O 9 you went up to 801,000 so got a 60,000
uptick. OK, nominal game.
There you go. Now in 2013, I don't know why,
maybe different venues smaller, I don't know why, but in 2013 it
went down a little bit to 781, which was still 50,000 more than
the first one. But check this out.
So you go from 781,000 in 2013 up to 973.
So we're ticking towards a million in 2017 and then in 2023
it was 1.12. And then this year, you know, so
far it's been 1.37 million. So there you go.
Yeah. So that that that's growth here.
I don't know about the TV ratings.
I'm watching tonight. I can't wait to see McClain
pitch. I know McClain got knocked
around a little bit by, by some who when they talked about his
last game, I thought he threw the ball very well.
We just gave up a couple of home runs.
But I've got full faith in McLean tonight.
I think that the United States wins and I'm excited about this.
So I don't know. I, I understand that you'll not
everybody is, is up to their necks in March Madness.
Not everybody knows all the teams and all the conferences.
And you're not going to get overly wrapped up in the Yankees
spring training and the Mets spring training.
And, you know, if the NFL draft is kind of quieted down just a
little bit post combine, you know, there's, you know, are you
going to really go nuts at this point with 15 or 16 games to go
in the NBA regular season? We're not yet at the Masters,
you know what I mean? So it's kind of a a bit of a
treadmill of sports talk. There's not a ton to do, but so
and I, I, I, I think I've always found this, that when people
don't have a lot to say, the easy default is to just lamp a,
something like it. It's natural.
You know what I mean? It's a natural reaction.
I love it. I've I've really come to enjoy
it myself. Yeah, no, I mean WBCS fun
getting people into it. I I just don't see.
So the controversy is like what? Like people don't like it
because it, oh, it's not that serious.
So it's kind of fun. It's almost like they look at it
like a Pro Bowl type thing or like I don't.
No, no, no, it's not that. If anything, I think it's the
opposite. I think, listen, I think there's
two schools of thought here. I think some people and this
part I certainly understand. Like I was reading this morning
before I, before I came on the air, Mendoza was talking about
McClain starting tonight. Great.
And, you know, I'm excited for him.
It's a different, you know, it's a totally different monster.
It's like it's it's like unlike anything you've seen in the in
the major leagues. But you know, we're sitting here
holding our breath and praying that he's OK and we know what
happened that that I think some of it is certainly derived from
that. And we all know what happened
with Edwin Diaz a couple of years ago with the celebration
with the knee, with the knee injury Patella.
I get it. Like, you know, I see Aaron
Judge on Corker throw from right field to gun down.
Was that Tatis? I think it may have been Tatis,
whomever it was. Yeah. 1/3 from a fairly short
right. I'm like, all right, you know,
do you really need to unleash 90 mph going before Saint Patty's
Day? Which by the way, happy Saint
Patty's Day, everybody, you know, do you really need to do
that? But he came out unscathed and
and that's the price of business.
And no, like, I think that some of the criticisms, like for the
NBA All Star game, whatever the hell the NFL does, the NHL All
Star game, it's because it really doesn't replicate the
competitive tone that these sports have during the regular
season. This is the complete antithesis
of anything. It's it's jacked up.
There's so much patriotism and so much, you know, love for
everybody's country and the different countries, you know,
the different ethnicities really approach this differently.
Some people celebrate differently.
There's just a different vibe depending on the country.
And nobody's complaining about that.
It's like benign and boring and nobody's playing hard.
I I I I don't know. I I just think that some people,
number one, Jared, and as you get older, you're going to learn
this, man. Unfortunately, it's a way of
life. As you get older, you are, if
you haven't already learned this.
There are far too many people in this world who are predisposed
to be negative to be angry. Yeah, I mean, right.
What what what's the fucking problem?
It's incredibly, it's incredibly competitive baseball.
All the stars in the Galaxy of Major League Baseball, basically
all of them. You had Judge, you got Tatish,
you had Soto, you got Guerrero, you got you got Otani.
What's the problem? You got schemes, you got you had
school ball for a minute. You got McClain tonight.
And people are complaining about this.
I think it's a gift from the baseball gods.
It's phenomenal. I don't really, I don't want it
to end. I want to keep going.
Let's go. Yes, Sir.
Yes, Sir, I'm fired. Up today, J Rod.
Yeah, no, going to be a going to be a great game tonight.
I'm excited, excited to TuneIn. This was interesting though.
Now, now, now, now before we get to the Soto comments, I think
back to judge's comments for a second.
I think that, and this is just this is really just either being
some people might believe this and if they really do, then then
I respect that. But I think a lot of the
negativity it can back on judge's comments.
I have no problem with what he said at all.
I matter of fact, I agree with him because there is a
difference. Yet remember, man, I was in the
building in 1996 when the Yankees won their first
championship since 1978. I was in the upper deck, as high
as you could go behind home plate with one of my best
friends who I grew up with, who I played high, a little bit of
college ball. He wound up transferring, right?
And we got, there were two in the afternoon and we hit all the
bars. The game didn't start till late.
You can imagine what kind of shape we were, right?
It was it we were in. It was ridiculous, right?
And the clientele, the energy, it was did.
Now the stadium was built different, the overhanging right
feel like you had that intimidating overhang.
The acoustics rule different. The tunnels, like the tunnels
were really tight, like it's like you were walking into a
mosh pit if you were the opposition.
It really was intimidating. And back then the price points,
while they were certainly getting high for 1996 in, in
retrospect, like the percentage of increase was not commensurate
with what we have now. It's just not, it's not even
close. So you basically had more blue
collar fans. You just did it.
So Judge is right. What I think some people took
and then hijacked is that they are trying to equate what he
said, which is not true at all, by the way.
He didn't say that where they're they're they're hijacking.
They're putting words in his mouth saying, wow, Aaron Judge
basically believes that winning the WBC championship would be
the same as winning a World Series for the Yankees.
Does anybody really think that that's what Aaron Judge means?
I mean, if you think that, then you just you lost.
I don't know what to tell you. How do you possibly extrapolate
that? Let's get that back up on the
board there. Jay, please.
How do you take away that message from this?
He's asked, he was directly asked about the atmosphere,
which is phenomenal at the WBC asked about it.
Hey, Aaron, what is it like? You know, can you can you tell
us what it's like being on the field with this WBC atmosphere
and you know, how it may be compares to Major League
Baseball and maybe the World Series and some other stuff?
Quote, I'll say it's been bigger.
The World Series I was in versus the crowd here in the one we had
against Mexico, it's bigger and better than the World Series.
He's talking about the crowd, not necessarily the prestige or
the honor or the ultimate achievement of winning the WBC
versus maybe someday winning a World Series.
By no means is even remotely implying that.
And if that's what you deduce from these words, I don't know
what to tell you. Quote, the passion that these
fans have representing their country.
This is undeniable representing some of their favorite players.
There's nothing like it. That's what you dream that he
gets a little mushy here and again I bat in the backyard.
You know, wiffle ball thinking about this moment.
No, but I know what he means. He's basically saying because we
all did this, whether and I would pretend that I was in the
World Series. I, I, I obviously would.
We all did that, you know, try to smack a tennis ball over the,
you know, over the little fence and the wiffle ball.
You take your buddy deep, you trotting around the bases, you
pretend you're Mattingly in the World Series.
Not the WBC. Big spot, though.
That's the point. Big spot, big situation.
It gives me chills right now thinking about how special that
was. And I try to take that moment
every game, look around, appreciate the crowd and
appreciate the moment. The Hell's wrong with that?
That is just one of the high characters, greatest players of
all time giving you an honest assessment about a pretty cool
event. Enjoy it.
Oh, J Rod, Listen, quick, Long story short with BT time, you're
right. We got a little bit of graphic
for that. Then we got to get a graphic for
that. You know, maybe like a little
violin. A little short.
Stretch. Nobody stretches out a short
story like your boy. At least I own it, you know?
I know that. So this is funny.
It's funny what triggers my triggers my mind and some of
these vivid memories from when I was a kid.
You know, I was talking about like hitting the ball over the
fence. And obviously now as I got a
little bit older, we would play on the street and we had like,
you know, the streets in Brooklyn are fairly narrow and
it's like car, car, car, car, car, car, car, fairly modest
house, house, not not much driveway.
House, house, house, house, house, right?
So we would play long ways, which was, which was great
because then you had like the telephone pole and that was only
like 2 kids on the street, me and Tommy who would hit it over.
It was like self hitting and it was, it was a shot dude.
You had to get high and far and like, but it was a bigger field
right? Then there was a little tiny
field where we would just kind of almost manipulate the space.
And now we were going, it's hard to describe, but we basically
had two fields right on the same St.
That's as we got older, when I was really young before, you
know, I had a lot of friends on the street and I didn't really
know anybody yet, you know, like 5 years old, whatever 6 I
remember. And my parents still have it,
this massive walnut tree in the backyard, massive walnut tree.
I mean, it's got to be over 100 years old really.
It's, it's awesome. And I would take once, well, I
started out by taking the walnuts and then like trying to
throw them like I was Greg Meadows or Ozzie Smith at the
tree, right? And then I'm like, I think that
I can hit these things. So I started hitting them at
like some of the houses behind me.
I don't know what I was thinking.
And then I, I discovered, let's see.
So we had 1-2, three, wait, 1234 houses down in, in.
So I'm in my backyard 4 houses down there was this family,
really, really nice, no kids my age.
I didn't really know them that well.
And they had this old school, you know, if you're like an
Italian, you know, Brooklyn, you can totally see this is like a
metal overhang shed just so you can have like BBQ whatever.
All right. And I would take these walnuts
dude and I would fire them up in the air because I could easily
reach 44 houses down. I would fire them up in the air
and like. And I would wait for that dude.
The noise that it made don't. Want to hit the shed?
God, it sounded like World War Three.
It was my boom and they never knew where it was coming from.
And then of course I would run and I would hide anyway.
That's so funny. Dude, I just thought about that
like I think about now, right? It is funny because a lot of
people complain like kids today, they don't mix it up in the
streets and they don't play like they used to.
And everything's organized and there's an element that's that's
certainly true. And you got the horseshit phones
and the stupid digital stuff. And luckily we have a pretty
good balance in our house and in our home.
Both of our kids play a lot of sports.
And my son got a phone for his 11th birthday, but he's not nuts
with it. He's really not.
We monitor it, well, all that stuff.
But it, it, it is kind of true where there's a lot of like you
got to drop off and when they were young, oh, let's have a
play date. I remember my wife saying so and
so's coming over for a play date or he's got invited to a pop
like play date that just sounds play date.
He says he's going over to his friend's house to hang out.
Yeah, like, I don't know. I would, but I I wonder how I
would react if I had a walnut tree in our yard now.
And someone was just bombing them onto a shed and you're at
your place. No, no, no.
Well, that's one. I was thinking the other, if my
son was taking the walnut and he located a house, you know, 3 or
4 homes. And now the homes are bigger
here and there's more space, whatever, more trees you can
hide. It's easier to get away with
stuff, I guess. But I wonder how I would react
to that. I'd probably laugh, yeah.
It's the kind of thing you get them in trouble for but you're
secretly proud of, I think. I would agree with that.
I would absolutely agree with that.
Hey, we can't be doing that. Meanwhile, you give him a wink,
give him a little hat on the ass.
Hat a boy. All right, let's get this up.
This. Let me actually, Yeah.
What is? Why would he say this?
Why would Juan Soto say this? I'm not really sure why Juan
Soto would say this. Quote, we show the world who's
the best team in baseball. That's all I got to say.
And quote, you lost. You lost the game.
I understand there were some bad calls.
There's no doubt that the Dr. got hosed.
I mean that that last one was 2 1/2 inches out of the zone.
I get it. And you know, for the next WBC,
there should be the ABS automated ball strike system,
which will be good and provided. And there was some other calls
too. I get it that if the Dominican
had their challenges, they could have utilized them at that point
and things would have been reversed.
And maybe it's a different outcome, but nobody wants to
hear that. I mean, you, you didn't win the
game. You lost.
Now, I will say I've never seen a line up like that in my life.
I mean, trotting out that murder's row of, of, of killers,
I don't know how the hell any pitcher, I mean, Skeens did it.
How any pitcher navigates that and and just doesn't give up
bomb after bomb. I mean, it tells you how how
special Skeens is really. And they set the WBC record for
home runs. I get it.
It's I love watching them play. They're phenomenal that for Juan
Soto that that's just I don't I don't want to hear it like it's
not. Again, I'm not equating the two
here. But if Aaron and I have to go
back and really look at what Aaron Judge said, like if Aaron
Judge said put that up there again, please.
Can you do that, Jay? So no, no, not the judge.
I'm sorry. My bad.
Yeah. Thank you on point.
Look at the hitting those buttons fast.
So imagine after now the Dominican Republic wasn't
dropping pop ups like the Yankees did in the World Series
or failing to cover first base with Garrett Cole, blah blah
blah. But imagine after the World
Series, Aaron Judge is at his locker and they lost.
They lost. So the Dodgers were crowned
champions as they were, and Aaron Judge said we showed the
world who's the best team in baseball.
That's all I got to say. And quote, I'm I'm not saying
it's apples to apples because there really were no calls in
that Yankees Dodgers series where as a Yankee fan, I look
back and and lament and say Yankees got hosed.
Yankees lost to a better team. Dodgers were better.
Now you can make the case and I was old.
I love boom. But I crushed them the next day
that no go to Cortez was was was ridiculous in that spot.
You know, giving up that moon shot granny to Freeman.
What are we doing? But the Yankees were not better
than the Dodgers, and the Dodgers won.
Now you do I think that top to bottom that the Dominican team
is better than the United States team?
I mean, you could very easily make that case.
But it it just seems petty when you actually say that when you
lost. I think there's a better way to
say it. And I also read that the
Dominican team walked out without doing any interviews.
Come on, you know, I don't know. I it's maybe it's different
because if there's not like you're not playing for the
Dodgers and the LA Times isn't waiting at your locker or the
Yankees and the New York Post and those guys, right?
Or, you know, the Detroit Free Press or whatever it might be,
you know, school bull pitches a playoff game for the Tigers and
you got the Free Press waiting for you.
I know that's why I say it's not apples to apples, but there's
still probably a bit of a responsibility to express
yourself to the media. I mean, I'm, I'm of the, you
know, what happened, You know, even if you complain about the
calls, that's fine. You definitely had the right to
do that because there were some shitty calls that went against
the DRI. Don't blame him, you pissed.
But again I I don't I don't. I didn't see this myself.
All I did, I read this part was that to a man, the Dominican
team walked out and did not communicate with the media.
And to me, that's a little small.
You know, if you want to feel the adulation when you're
smacking 15 bombs or I think even 16, they finished with and
establish a new WBC record for, you know, home run prowess.
Don't you think you got to kind of stick around then take it on
the other end that things don't go your way?
Just thought it was a little bit petty.
It didn't really like that. And you know, I'm not even
looking at crush Soto. If anybody said that, if an
American said that, and let's say, you know, Team USA lost 54
and they're out there saying, you know, we proved to the world
we're the best team. Well, no, you didn't.
You lost. Now, what I'm sure Soto's
talking about is the, the overwhelming amount of run
production. I mean, it was clear like their
offense was second to none. I we, everybody knows that.
But just, you know, not not the best look there, not the best
look there. J Rod, you think that I'm I'm
not. I don't think I'm being unfair.
Do you think it's a big? No, I mean it's.
I actually have more of an issue with what Soto said than what
what what Judge said. Yeah, of course you, yeah, yeah.
Because how can you lose? How can you say how can you lose
and then say you're the best team?
I mean, that just doesn't compute in any sort of, I don't
know, kind of thing like. To me it just.
Some sore losers. Like it's a petty, you know, if
you get a flex and you get a dance and you get a just, you
know, do your thing and trust me, their thing is is impressive
as hell. Well, there's another part of
being a pro or, you know, comporting yourself the right
way. And that's a responsibility,
even if it's just to the Dominican Republic, you know, to
do your own people about what happened, you know, bad coal or
hey, tip the cap and listen, I'm sure you know, when they see
each other batting practice, the season starts like they bump it.
Hey, that was a hell of a game. And I'm sure some of the
American players because I even see or I even saw that that
Armstrong said, yeah, I could see that was a couple of inches
off. And we got away with caught.
And I think even said I'm happy there was there's no ABS to go
and challenge that because it probably would have been a would
have been a ball. Like, again, it's not the
biggest deal in the world, but I don't know what is it.
Is it is it emblematic? All right, maybe this is a
bigger issue down the road because let's face it, as great
as he is and a lot of this, actually all of it really
predated Juan Soto's arrival with the Mets.
There was a lot of whispers. Then it got louder and louder
and louder that, you know, the leadership and the chemistry was
not not great with the Mets. And that's why Stearns decided
to blow it up and, you know, not give Pete five years and get rid
of Nimmo and change things. Or I think Diaz was different.
As I said, that was just a miscalculation on the Mets part.
I think they wanted them. I don't think they wanted Nimmo
because they traded them and I don't think they want to Pete
for those terms. And I agree with that.
They knew they had to change things up.
But you know, I'm, I'm just trying to think like, how's
that, that that's going to kind of get hidden a little bit
because it's the WBC and the Mets fans, even the great
Dominican Mets fans, and there's a ton of them.
Like I don't think the Dominican Mets fans, they're not going to
use that against Soto as like from a Mets point of view.
But like, if Juan Soto and the Mets say they lose to the
Phillies or they lose to the Braves or they lose the World
Series to whomever, and Juan Soto drops that quote, you know,
a very, it's not going to be a pleasant reaction.
You know you lose. I mean, and you say that because
you didn't prove anything. We know how great you are.
We know how great your lineup is.
We also know you lost. So take it on the chin, absorb
the L and keep it moving. There we go.
You know what I'm saying? You just got it.
Come on. As I said before, you just got a
Derek Jeter it tip the cap, hit him with a little respect, a
little RE2I. Love that guy at opening day
breaks here. Is that the game?
Not sure if they showed it on TV, but they show the average
fastball speed of pitchers versus Dr. compared to Skeens.
Skeens was was throwing 98 and they faced a lot of guys
throwing under 90. Yeah.
I mean, yeah, they have it up on the TV screen.
I got you. I mean, well, I can tell you who
wasn't throwing 90. That was the guy who started the
game. That was Severino, who was
hitting 99. He was touching 99.
And they even made the observation.
They're like because they gave you the numbers like what his
average four team fastball was during the like last year and it
was 3 mph faster during the WBC. So you know, I mean, I I don't I
don't know if that's accurate. I mean, I know he wasn't
throwing 90. Some of the other guys sure, you
know, and I think there's an advantage with the pitching.
I think I think the Dominican lineup is second to none.
I don't I don't know that they've got the best pitching
staff. Yeah, Bednar definitely
impressed there. He's listen, Bednar is a guy who
you look at him and you're like, God, you do you fully trust this
guy And I do, you know, he's proven that he can acclimate
himself to New York and he's one of these dudes.
He's got to get used to it. He's going to be a tightrope
kind of a guy. Like he's not going to come out
and mow you down here. Strike one, strike two, I'm
eating. You're not touching it.
It's over. It is going to dance.
And even though he throws hard, he's going to walk a guy, he's
going to give up a bloop. He's going to come back, strike
somebody out. He's going to, he's got, but I
but I like his bulldog presence. Bednor to me was a guy who
assimilated very well to New York.
And you could tell, even though Devin Williams did respond
nicely after an awful April. And I think he'll be fine for
the Mets. Not as good as Diaz, but he'll
be fine for the Mets. You know, there's just certain
guys going back to like Whitson and even Carl Pavano, just some
some a couple of Japanese pitchers certainly that didn't
that you could tell right away they were a little bit
overwhelmed by that New York stage.
Now you don't get that from bed nor.
So if he's out there tonight with A1 run lead, do I think
it's a twelve pitch, you know, strike three, strike three,
little broken bat and number back.
No, I think it's probably going to be a little dicey, but but
that's that's who he is and that's generally how he gets the
gets the job done. All right, This guy gets the job
done. This guy.
There are, as I, and I take great pleasure in saying this
because I've been doing this for a long time.
There are certain people that you watch.
There are certain people that you see and they speak and they
cover what they cover with such great joy and such great depth
and, and precision. And it's a very unique
combination. And then when you really meet
them to get to know him a little bit, you sense how humble they
are and what they appreciate and how they appreciate what was
before them. And I'm talking about my guest
here, the great John Fanther, who was on our lease.
We welcome big Johnny Boy in and he is that awesome combination
of love for the game and he's a humble young man and he's earned
everything he's gotten and some people saying he's the next
Dickie V. I'm saying he's the he's the
first John Fanta John, welcome to unleash brother.
How you doing, man? What's cooking?
Brandon, it is great to be with you.
Happy madness to you and and everybody that's watching,
listening out there and best of luck as you fill out that
bracket. I don't I don't know about you.
I I'm assuming you're of this faint to you.
Do you just fill out one? I do.
I think this goes bad. Remember.
Do you remember the mic and the mics that Mike and Mike and Mike
on ESPN, the sheets of integrity?
Do you remember that? Yeah.
Where I think Goldwick would always try to do more than one.
I'd like to do 1 because if I start doing more than one, I
start contradicting everything that I think I know.
John. Correct, correct.
You just got to do 1 sheet, but that means a lot from you and
and you're doing a fantastic job over this show.
I I enjoy listening. People don't know I'm a like I'm
a huge baseball guy. So I'm I'm excited for the
season and this this has been pumped for tonight.
But and and can't wait to hear you you know this week.
I think you would you can attest to this.
You know better than anybody in the moment is that there's
really nothing like, you know, the, the Big East tournament is
special. The roar of the crowd, the the
feeling that you also get when you sit down, when you sit down
in San Diego and the NCAA, they've got a signature theme.
They have a signature song that they play right before it's been
around for a long. Time.
Right before the tournament game and they show images of people
winning tournament games and championships.
And when you sit down, you put that headset on to call the
game. Just think like anytime you sit
down and you're like, OK, here we go.
Knowing that the next two hours determines whether you stay
alive or whether you're flying home.
It's it's really wild. It's the best, John.
Yeah, You know, it's wild, too. You know, obviously I'm older
than you. You just bursting on the scene.
Seton Hall grad. By the way, shout out to the
pirates there. A lot of respect for Shaheen
Holloway, what they're doing. I got a couple of questions
about them after, but the first year that I ever did St.
John's was 2003, 2004. My first year was when Mike
Jarvis got fired during the season, which really never
happened in the Big East. Coaches never got fired during
the season ever. Right.
So I remember we went to Duke and and Mike was still coaching
and I think he got fired maybe a week or so.
But they got destroyed. And that first year they went 6
and 21. And that was my first year.
Now, you know, I was, I was watching Mullen in that Final
four team. So I don't take it for granted.
Like all I wanted was to call an NCAA tournament game, but I
finally got that. What was that?
In 2015? I guess it would have been
against San Diego State down in Charlotte and they lost.
So it's, it's been a great ride. It's, it's been a lot of fun.
And you know, I, I, I don't understand.
I need you here. And I'm not going to whine about
it because, hey, integrity and toughness and defense, get on
the plane, go to go to San Diego and shut up everybody who said
that you got hosed with a bad seed.
But why are they going out to San Diego?
Why is it happening, John? What happened here, John?
Well, it's interesting. There's a couple of things to
unpack. And, and so #1 is when you
looked at the at the bracket and you looked at the the potential
of movement, there wasn't a lot of great chances for Saint
John's to move up in the bracket, despite the fact that
they were winning and that they've won 19 of 20.
We'll we'll get to that in a second.
But like when I looked at last week, when the week began, I'm
like, all right, Kansas is probably on the four line.
So is Nebraska. The committee's not going to
move Nebraska at this point, regardless of what happens.
Just based on their body of work and the start of the season,
They got off to Arkansas. Arkansas could move, they could
move up, they could move down. Of course, John Calipari had,
you know, indirectly wasn't trying to, but indirectly it
impacts Rick Pitino in Saint John's that Arkansas wins the
SEC tournament and that they are the four seat.
For a second I thought we'd get an Arkansas St.
John's in the second round and then Alabama and Alabama.
To me, that's probably the one that that I would say Saint
John's had a had an opportunity to get over Alabama.
Why? OK, Alabama is below St.
John's in the metric that the, that the selection committee
said mattered more. Now the WAB, the WAB, and if you
go folks, the WAB is wins above bubble mean, meaning your total
wins above what the average bubble is.
St. John's is ahead of Alabama in
that, oh, wait a minute, St. John's is ahead of Kansas in
that metric. So committee, this team's won 19
of 20. They're ahead of those teams.
I'm not giving opinion here. We're stating facts.
I agree. And and you did not put them in
or above them on the four line. OK, well, let's let's keep
looking. OK, Kempom, St.
John's is ahead of both Alabama and Kansas.
They're even ahead of Texas Tech.
So I think that when when you look at the different items,
there are legitimate numbers, Brandon, that say St.
John's is ahead of these teams in them.
But committee, you didn't put them there because why?
Because you were watching marquee games in November and
December. And I'm not blaming you for it,
but you, you then, I think sometimes let certain narratives
carry how you think about a team.
And the fact is this St. John's team would beat Auburn.
They would beat Kentucky right now.
They didn't, though. I credit them for scheduling.
If they hadn't scheduled, they're probably a six.
Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely, 100%.
But this is This is why you schedule.
I just think there should be more reward.
We often say there's no harm when you lose to a big dog in
November and December. And I feel like the committee
did harm them with where they put them.
That's interesting. Now we both know the Big East
was better. You would have had more
opportunities to get more quad ones, blah, blah, blah.
We don't need to, you know, bore everybody with that.
We know that the Big East is down.
There's been some people, John, I can't prove this, but
obviously there's history. You think it's personal with
Rick where they're like, you know what, we're going to ship
them out even though they got the two seat last year.
So it wasn't personal there. We're going to ship them out to
San Diego. So no Saint John's fans could
go. We're going to give him a tough
matchup with Kansas and Duke and and you know, like and U Conn,
like that's a brutal region. You think they've got a personal
agenda against Rick? Look, I'm sure that some people
do. We, we know for a fact that some
people probably do. I mean that that that's just,
that's not. Well, then they shouldn't be in
the committee room, John, and that's horrible.
Yeah, and the words of Ed Cooley, Stevie Wonder could see
that, you know, like, like there's there's got to be some
some people who who just are not for Rick Pitino.
But it shouldn't impact like this impacts players.
This impacts of school. I I thought, I thought it was a
really difficult straw, but if there's anybody who can get his
dudes playing hard and showing people why they're wrong, it's
Ricky P. I'm with you.
He's he's got this group saying they don't think anything of
you. They think you're going to lose.
They gave this to Kansas so that Kansas has the advantage.
And Brandon, I will say this, OK, San Diego may stink, but you
know what would not stink? Being in Washington DC in the
second weekend and having St. John's fans had the opportunity
to travel down and let and let me tell you, I'm going to tell
you a very, very quick story here.
I went to Chicago for Providence, Kansas in the Sweet
16. This is now 4 years ago,
Brandon, I got into Chicago. I thought Kansas fans would have
70% of the building. Providence fans made-up at least
50%. And there were Kansas fans
training me saying we don't battle with fan bases like this.
In other words, if it's Duke and St.
John's, I think I think a lot of people are going to be like
Duke. They'll have the advantage.
But St. John's fans have the hunger
factor. They're they're going to fill up
Capital One. You know, and, and, and could
have, could have them. New York City will be in
Washington, DC, and I think that's where Saint John's will
be because I got them beating Kansas in the second round of
Boy Northern Iowa. Attaboy Fanta, I know you do
because and now you can branch this out with without going like
nuts with every game. Just more of a I'm curious how
you do this because I was watching some video and you
filled out the entire bracket in 13 minutes.
All right. And you know, listen, you know
this stuff like the back of your hand, but there's certain
schools like, you know, you probably have to do a little
research, but in 13 minutes, you, you don't.
So as you as you're clicking and pecking away and advancing teams
and bouncing teams, is it just the first thing you think of?
Like is it all gut? Is, is, is it all knowledge?
Is it part gut? 13 minutes is kind of quick for,
for, you know, I do this, but I also do general sports talk.
You are known as one of the college basketball guys.
So you want to get this right. 13 minutes is quick bro.
More about delivery, like I like, I like to break things
down a little bit more in depth. You just have to go.
And you know, what I didn't realize is that was off the
cuff. I, I said to one of our
producers, I said, why don't we try this?
I saw someone do this in like 10:00-ish minutes and it did
really, really well. And you know, you don't always,
you know, like we speak our minds, we say what we think.
But like for that, like, I wasn't able to speak my mind a
whole lot. We just filled out a bracket.
And it just goes to show you why this tournament is the best.
People don't know everything about Santa Clara.
They don't know everything about South Florida.
They don't know everything about high point They and you know
they they certainly don't know everything about Northern Iowa.
But what they do know is that those types of schools have come
up big and that there that there is to the people out there who
say an upset will never happen again or those days are over.
Is it harder? Yes, yes, it is the the
difference in between the top and the mid major is large and
money has a lot to do with that. But BT it's basketball, you
know, it's similar like football.
College football can't have this.
The games in the trenches, they're decided an offensive
lineman is £100 bigger than a defensive lineman for a or even.
A Tulane, I know what you're saying.
In basketball, it's make or miss.
So how did I do it? You you look at consistencies of
some teams, Kentucky's been inconsistent all year.
Santa Clara knows we're going to slow down or take away.
We're going to make other people beat us.
And Kentucky's a little bit soft down low.
So guess what? Santa Clara's got a garden
Christian Ham News playing at a very high level.
Elijah Mahi is a senior who does a lot of different things for
them. And I said, I think the Broncos
can do it with Coach Sendak. I think he's an excellent coach.
USF Louisville's had a roller coaster ride.
Mikel Brown, I don't know what they're going to get from them.
I don't know. And that's the other side.
You know why upsets will happen? Because some of these teams got
some players who either one, even on good teams, are
auditioning for other teams. For next year.
Or Saint John's fans know a thing or two about about about
last year at the end, OK, there, there were some issues there.
We all have them with RJ Lewis or they got locker room issues.
We can't forecast that. I don't know what's going on in
all those. Louisville's had a roller
coaster ride of a season. You know who's not having a
roller coaster ride? The South Florida Bulls.
They score, they run, they're going to beat Louisville.
OK, First, that's a good prediction right there.
Where are you going? Are you traveling?
What are you? Going to be doing I'm going to
watch, you know, I've done it all different ways I've flown to
I've flown to the site. It's been fun to do it.
I love doing it brand. What I do find is when you just,
when you're, when you're observing the sport nationally
and you go to one site, you can't, it's very, you can't
accurately talk about other teams that are playing.
If you do, you're looking at a box score.
I agree with that, yeah. I'm just being real.
So what I will do is what I've in, in my world, you know, NBC
does not have the rights to the tournament.
Obviously it's CBS and Turner. So I'm going to watch from afar,
get some family time to the to the to.
It's funny because like a lot of the CBS Turner guys, Turner had
more Big East games this year, but but set a couple of them.
They don't have the regular season weeknights that some of
some of like the ESPN, FS1, NBC Peacock people do.
So for us, the term is actually a chance to like the first week
is a chance to catch our breath because we just got done with
the championship. And I don't I, I never really
want to, but I will watch from afar and check things out and
then next week TBD. And then I I always go to
Indianapolis Zombie at the Final Four.
This is one of the things that that that I love about you.
So and I have a question how you do it?
I think it's very interesting. So those of you who watch John
follow John and and and many of you do the the way you wrap it's
it's pretty cool. Like you see a blank court and
then oversee you see, you see John Mosey on into the court and
you don't just give about a 30 minute take on what went down.
You do about a three minute essay and, and I'm curious cause
I've got my method like I'm somebody just give me one or two
words, I'll write them down. That transforms the thought,
which becomes a paragraph, which becomes a segment.
How do you do that? I think it's a lot harder than
people think you. You very rarely stumble and it's
very cohesive and it's very organized.
How do you do that? That's pretty good, dude.
God-given talent. I truly believe in my faith and
it is a God-given talent. And you've got to prepare,
you've got to watch. And I think there's a humility
aspect, Brandon. Like, look, somebody once told
me, you know, you can't. There's one eye and eagle.
All right, There's one eye and eagle.
He has a he is, he does a fantastic job.
He is a he is a legend. One of my really good friends is
no eagle. You know who's who's at NBC?
There's one no eagle. And Noah's outstanding at his
craft. There's one Mike Tirico.
There was one Marv Albert. You know, there's you.
You have to be comfortable in your own skin.
And so for me, in that moment, it's it starts from, I could
think of the age of 5 or 6. And you struck A chord with me
because I can. I can remember sitting, you
know, at Saint Patrick's Day parties in Cleveland.
It's a huge deal in Cleveland. Oh, yeah, pound shuts down.
There's a rich Irish Catholic. And I can remember sitting at
family parties while everybody's drinking Guinness and I'm like 6
or 7 and the tournament and the tournament's on.
I remember Saint Patrick's Day. I don't know, 07 or so or Mike
Conley and Ron Lewis. Lewis has been awesome.
Let's it go. Hates it home, our buddy Gus.
And it was it was Ohio State. Xavier, do you remember that
tournament game in Lexington? Ohio State was terrific for all
the for many years at that point, yeah.
Which shout out to that model. We wish him the best in
retirement. You know, it's it's he's had a
great career. And you know, for Butler, it's
good for but like I can, I can remember growing up and and and
watching digesting when you say you appreciate the history, like
that's my childhood. So you harken back to that now
at your age, like how do I deliver it?
I, I take a step back and I say, don't just analyze the game,
provide perspective of what it means.
And so the other night, what I thought of was it impressed me
to this day that when we were walking into Rick Pitino's
opening press conference that a guy that had accomplished the
the degree that Luke hard a second accomplished was by
himself in the front row. The first person that was in the
room for that guy to get introduced fully knowing that
the marks that he had accomplished we're about to be
matched with what Rick would accomplish and he he you know
that says you love the place Lou loves Saint John's.
So I want to make sure that people knew like this is this
was written in the stars and now it's reality.
There you go, there you go. And I heard you talk about that,
where what you just said about when you walked in, you did see
Lou and you incorporated that to the is it an essay?
Do we call it? Is that?
Is that a? Is that an?
Essay. Yeah, it's an essay and there's
no prompter. I don't use a teleprompter.
I rarely use it when I'm in. I helped out NBC with some
college football over the fall. I rarely use it when I'm in the
studio. You know, I'll use a shot sheet
just to be able to follow different shots.
But that is the growing up in Cleveland, you'll appreciate
this. Look, I've got it right here.
The voice of the Cavaliers is a guy by the name of Joe Tate who
would say Wham with the right hand with LeBron James.
Tom Hamilton's the voice of the Guardians.
You as a Yankee fan know a little bit like Hammy is a if
you're ever folks, if you're ever driving a car, just listen
to a Guardians game, a Tribe game.
Always be the, you know, the, the, the, the tribe.
You need listen to a game on the radio on Sirius and and you'll
hear Tom Hamilton and then Jim Donovan, who we lost a few years
back. Jimmy is the voice of the
Browns. Those guys, they didn't use
prompters, they didn't use scripts.
They used passion. That's people want passion.
Yeah, yes, they do. I almost feel though, John.
And you graduated Seton Hall in what, 2017?
17, right? OK. 1717, yeah.
OK, so you've obviously been doing this for a little bit.
You're you're not just starting, you're you're definitely, you
know, you're more on the younger side for sure.
And that's a great thing because you need the tarmac.
There's there's a lot of miles for you to cover.
Man, I'm really excited to see where you go.
Any pressure though to you know, you know, whatever you say,
whatever call a great punctuation or a stumble, it's
going to be all over social media.
And those guys he just mentioned and not to mention the Marv's
and the other ones, even even Ian when he was coming up, they
didn't have to worry about that like it was they weren't going
to get mocked. Even though a lot of people
really do like you and try to elevate you.
If you had a really bad moment, you know the people are going to
clown you. Is is that part of you Ever
think about that? Well, you do because it's, it's,
it's reality. You'd be lying if you said that
you didn't. But you got to listen to your
bosses and you got and you got to listen.
And you got to listen to your audience too.
You know, I often talk to my friends and family.
I'm like, how'd that come off? What do you think?
And you know, Brandon, they'll
be honest with you. You're real friends.
You're real friends of people close to you.
They'll be honest with you on things we live in.
I've been very fortunate to have some people who have who have
given me real time feedback that that hired me.
You know, it helps when you're younger and you're just getting
your start and you got to be receptive to it.
You know, I, I still am to this day.
And, you know, recently called called an NBA game for the first
time. And that was a privilege and
something I was very humbled to do.
And I have no problem saying it's you on on your show before
the game. There's some coaching happening.
Hey, you have not called an NBA regular season game.
You know, here. This is what we would like.
This is what we're looking for. Brandon, That's a very that's
OK. Like I want to get, I want to
get told I work for and I want to give NBC Sports credit
because not every place is willing to tell their people
like this is what we're looking for.
If they don't say anything, what is it?
They don't care. That means they don't care or
they're not they're and they do I, I love working for them
because they, they, they are awesome with the feedback and
the, the thought process and it's helped make me better.
It helps make me better. But in terms of the noise,
nobody's perfect, you know, and we you try your best, but you're
never going to have like you keep doing shows you keep doing
different things because you can always strive to raise raise the
bar of what we're doing. That's kind of the fun of doing
this as a job is you never you really feel like you pitched the
perfect game. You look at different ways that
you can continue to get better. So I've been in the couple weeks
ago, you might have seen it, you might not have.
I'm not going to, not going to get it, get into it.
Oh wait, wait, it's just the Saint John's thing where you
exploded on the guy. Is that the thing when you had?
That happen that no, I was actually going to bring
something else up so. Good, good, good.
We'll. Get that done.
That did happen a couple weeks ago.
I made an announcement, you know, on, on a, on a, a, a
partnership that I'm doing and I'm very proud to be and I'm
very proud to be doing that partnership.
OK. And you know, people instantly,
people that don't agree with it, what what happens?
They go crazy. You know you've gotten the
negative tweets when you announce something or do
something and or you or you say something about a team and then
the 1st 60 replies are hater. You know you stink.
Whatever it is, sometimes it's a lot more vulgar.
Than that I wish it was that basic.
It was that benign. It's not, it's not, but you
can't, you can't let that you, you got to, you got to just do
your you got to live your life and you got to understand like
what what you're doing is for your family.
It's it's also, you know, the better, the better yourself.
And so it's it's a long answer to your question because it's a
great question. I try to get better every single
day. You have to have the humility
that says I'm not Bob Costas, I'm not Marv Albert, I'm not Al
Michaels. I just got to be, I just got to
get on. I just got to be on this this
fan to train and just keep the stops going.
That a boy. How do you How do you juggle
fatherhood? With an unbelievable wife.
First time. So my wife Vicki is, I mean,
she's downstairs with the baby as we speak.
And you know, we're juggling it as best we can.
I try to shut down when I'm when I'm not with him.
One of the things that I did and my first career opportunities
with Fox and I love working for them.
They were great people, you know from, from Steve Shearer, who
who you know, and Barty Shaw Reyes and and Jordy Wimmer and
Brad Sager and Jordan Bazon. That whole group was great to
work with. But but I, I was writing as well
for them. I enjoyed it, Brandon.
I couldn't keep doing it. I couldn't keep doing the on
air. And if I was writing right now,
there just wouldn't be enough hours in the day.
I respect writers the hell out of them.
I really do. They work tirelessly to deliver
engaging stories and getting anecdotes from coaches and
players on things. Saint John's has a terrific beat
of people who do that, that's for sure.
But I couldn't keep. I couldn't juggle it all.
So I took a step back. NBC now Sam Flood and and Rick
Cordella and company, they were so good about like, OK, this we
want to bring in for this. And I didn't have to I didn't
have to continue the writing. So you know, when I get done
with a couple of these on air things, I'm going to spend some
some time with my kid because I've been gone for the last two
or three weeks from championship week and went on.
So for us, as you know, sometimes there is a weekday
during the spring or summer time when that's like our weekend
because there's so many sporting events on the weekends that
we're consumed with. So you juggle it to your best of
your abilities. But you have to have an
understanding wife. But I love my son.
He came to the Big East tournament.
My son's name is Andrew. And you know, he, he just is,
he's, he's the absolute best. And it changes perspective on
life there. There's nothing better than
being a dad. That's that's that's the truth.
How old is Andrew? Is he 2 or not even yet?
Andrew is Andrew is 10 months old.
Oh my God, man, I missed that age, bro.
You know what's crazy about that age, too?
And it goes fast. My son's 11, my daughter's nine,
Right? And I actually think that that's
why I asked you how you juggle in fatherhood.
At this point. It's easy for you because
there's only so much a dad, even the most proactive dad can do
when a baby's that little, you can get up in the middle of the
night and support your wife and change the diapers.
I don't, you know, I don't know if she breastfeeds it.
I don't need to know. But like, there's just certain
things we can't do, you know, where the real juggle comes And
I, I, and it gets tough is when they start playing games.
That's where you're like, all right, I want to be a practice
and I, I've had a schedule that's afforded to me.
I coach, you know, not every team they're on, but I coach a
lot of them. That's to me, that's the, that's
the like you have to be a magician to hit that perfect
balance of being there sitting in the chair watching that first
T-ball game or coaching on third base or sitting in the stands
for that first bow shot. And also being as immersed as I
know you want to and will be as you continue to grow in this
business. That's going to be the tough
part, and not now. It's coming, though.
Oh, it's coming. And how you encounter that
challenge, you know, you rely on the people closest to you.
And I'll ask those people for different forms of advice and
what would you do? You know, I mean, I'll give you
the very real story. When I got hired by NBC, they're
like, hey, we want to bring in for college football.
You're going to be doing game breaks and Brandon, I, I had, I
had not done college football. I, I'm a college football fan.
You're, we're sports fans. We could dive into.
You're, you're you, you, I know you enough to say that if
someone called you and said, hey, we need you on the Olympics
and you're going to be doing downhill skiing, the two of us
would say, all right, we'll figure it out.
It's the best of our. Ability to figure it out, man.
We'll. Figure it out.
But we'll we'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll find a way.
So, you know, I knew college. I knew enough about college
football, obviously. But like, my point is one of the
first things I said back to them is, hey, I can work every
Saturday. We booked my son's baptism for
this Saturday, though. And I feel bad.
I just side with you. And they're like, are you
kidding? They they said you're you're
being serious, right? I go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They go. Your son comes first.
That that's There you go. There you go.
Your family comes first. That's you hope you know you
have to pick, but as you know, you got to pick your spots.
You have to, you have to be as judicious as as possible and
pick your spots. There's holidays when you wish
you could be there. You know something and I'm not
talking about Christmas even I'm talking about Mother's Day.
I'm talking about, you know, different things that come up.
So you bet that's the work life balance of our industry and
hopefully it comes with enough reward that your kids can come
to a big game or can see the garden here or there so.
Exactly the things that we miss and I, I, I, thankfully I did
really, I, I don't miss anything, especially now because
I'm sitting in my home doing this.
But even all the years, the national stuff with Tiki, the,
the WFAN, living in San Francisco, like everything I've
done, I've been very lucky where, you know, for some
Amazing Grace of God, I'm done by like 3 o'clock 3:30 kids are
off the bus, kids are home. All right, get the practice.
Let's go, let's go coach and all that.
So I haven't missed anything. And, and, and there's, there's
nothing, John, there's there's nothing like it.
Like when you see their first basket, dude, or their first
hit, I remember, you know, my son's probably more.
I mean, he's very serious. You know, sometimes he's too
serious. I'm like, dude, calm down.
You just turned 11. It's not game seven of the World
Series. Relax.
That's how I was though. Me too.
I get it. Whereas with my daughter, you
know, she's she's she's 9 and she stopped doing it this year.
But last year she scored basket with doing, you know, cartwheels
down the court. It's totally different.
Those those things are amazing. But if you do miss something,
the ability to say, hey, you know, Andrew, I'd like you to be
Coach Pitino or whomever it is, you know, 567 years from now
when he's old enough to really know what's going on, You get to
give them things that the average dad can't give them,
even if you have to miss a couple things along the way.
So that's the trade off, man. That's life.
And you know, I, I, I had the reality of and, and your show is
real. You know, I got a phone call on
a Tuesday or on a Monday morning two years ago and my my dad had
passed away at the age of 56. Wow.
And. You know that?
Sorry. No, no, no.
I didn't know that Like that. OK.
No, no. And you know, it was 6.
You know, God has a way of doing things because Brandon, I
ironically, you know, it's just I didn't have any games that
week. It was so weird because when I
was looking at my schedule, I'm like, this is to begin with,
this is odd. Normally, you know, Wednesday or
there's at least a game. It could be a women's game, It
could be something. Sure.
It wasn't anything that week. And so you know.
But relation but so but I learned so much from my dad.
My dad was a business owner in Northeast Ohio.
You know, I love the stuff when with you and your dad, you know,
as on your on your last show at FAN.
That's what matters more than any show, any game and I had no
regrets. My father was a was a great man.
He taught me how to work hard and taught me how to be kind to
people, no matter who you encountered.
He was the same way with the janitor as he was with the
executive. And and so then when the gift of
my son comes last May, I just thought this is the full circle
of life. In a year and a half, I've
experienced one ending. And you can dwell on it or you
can do what your dad would want. And he would want me to live and
be the best father to my son. And he's looking down.
He, there's no question he's looking down, but that's, that
then puts perspective into how you are as a parent because you
know, you know, nothing is nothing is promised, nothing is
given. And, and we have to live each
day, you know, with, with, with the utmost just just got to got
to live each day like it's your last in terms of how you, how
you go about it. So I never try to go to bed
angry. But that was a that's something
that's part of my journey too. Of like, I look, I look at that.
I look at how life changed in one phone call.
Got to fly home to Cleveland. No other game mattered.
No other thing mattered than that.
That's where your family means everything.
Did he have a heart attack? Had was.
It was. Yeah, he had a heart.
He had a heart attack. He, he, he owned his own
business. Yep.
And you know, I, I mean, yeah, he, he had a heart attack and
gone at 56. He owned his own.
He had his own business and he worked himself very hard.
I could not do what he was doing, metal plating and
finishing. And you know, he was, it's a
great example too. And I say this to people, you
know, get yourself checked out and, and, and look at things
and, you know, take care of yourself because it's, it's
important folks, especially in, in, in, in these times when life
is chaotic and whatnot. And you know, if you, you always
say, like if you had gotten checked out maybe a week prior,
maybe they fixed some of the issues.
But you know, he, I saw a lot through my dad.
I saw a hard he worked. I saw the kind of person he was.
He was a recovered alcoholic. He did recover.
Now, did that, did that hurt his
health? Of course it did.
It's a terrible thing. But I saw him make it through
that battle. And that taught me a lot too, of
how you of how you have to fight.
None of us are perfect. And who of us is if somebody
comes with me and says Hey, I went through this, I will say BT
like I've seen a lot in the 1st 30 years to say hey, you know
this happens and guess. What?
Maybe I haven't lived your exact scenario, but I get it.
I get where you're coming from that I think that builds
humility of like you just life. Everybody's got a different
cross, a different burden that they deal with, that they deal
with in life. And whether or not you relate to
it, but at least you can, you can understand that people deal
with that. So that that was something that
I dealt with, but it I think it I live my life for my dad every
day. I can tell that you're
religious. They could tell.
I could just tell, right? You have to have faith.
No. Question about it.
And if you don't, that's OK. I'm not here to be like, you
know, I'm not sure to come out and be a preacher.
I'm just saying it's if you don't have your faith, and then
it's kind of why the Big East has been a match for me too,
because of all these Catholic school.
I'm with you by the way. Catholic school myself 1st
through 8th grade Catholic school back then there's a while
ago had nuns then I went to a Jesuit high school so I get it
man. Jesuit high school here too.
I not St. Ignatius in Cleveland, yeah.
Saint Ignatius. First MET game I ever went to,
you know, first MET game I ever went to, there's a guy down the
third baseline holding the rosary.
I'm just like, OK, I can, you know, being a Clevelander, I can
relate with these people a little bit.
I came into, I came into the metropolitan area for College in
13. Yeah, I haven't seen anybody win
a title yet. I'm just waiting.
For I haven't seen anybody hold the rosary bead since my
grandma. I mean, that's been a minute,
John. Usually the old Italians would
hold the rosary beads. You said a guy was holding it in
the state. Hey, do what you got to do.
It's going to be Knick fans, Knick fans with rosaries this
spring. Knicks aren't winning anything
this year. They're not winning the
championship. They just, but I, I have one, I
have one serious question for you on on the heels of what we
were just discussing. Do you feel not a
responsibility? Are you comfortable talking
about religion outwardly? Because a lot of people aren't
and they suppress it. And when they do try to speak, I
don't mean shove it down people's throat.
I know you're not that kind of guy.
Neither am I, but I believe what I believe.
I, I espouse it more as I've gotten older, it's become more
even though I, it's been a part of my whole life.
I got away from it a little bit. My wife back in she's a Dallas,
TX girl. Christianity strong.
It means a lot to me. I pray more than I used to do.
I love going to church. Probably not, I'll be honest
with you. I mean, you know, I'd rather
probably sit on the couch on a Sunday if I have an hour.
But we go a little bit more than we used to.
Or are you comfortable projecting that knowing that you
have prominent role and voice in sports?
Do you do that a little bit? I probably don't do it enough
and I, I don't get asked about it.
But yeah, I, I, I believe in my faith and, and I don't believe
that just because you go to church on Sunday that makes you
a great or not great human being.
I, I do get to church, but some of the people who will go and I,
we all know somebody, I mean, I do, you know, I'm not, and I'm
not throwing stones at glass houses.
But you, you know, somebody who goes and then they during the
week from Monday to Saturday, they're, they're not a positive
person towards other people. And you say, wait a minute, but
then you go, so does that justify?
Like is your way of justify for that that you go to into church
on Sunday? I don't, you know, I think
religion is different for everybody.
But I believe in a higher power and I believe in things.
There are things that have happened on this journey that
coincidence doesn't explain how and why and where and what
happened. You know, when my dad passed
away, we were at the church. The outpouring of flowers, see,
because it was in the middle of the season of college basketball
season, Brandon, you know, coaches and administrators and
people who are very good friends of mine could not make it
because they had game days. St.
John's. St.
John's was playing Connecticut this Saturday, that Saturday,
and I was supposed to be at the Garden for that game.
And it just didn't happen. And it was a noon game, huge
game at the Garden. Yeah, I did it, Yeah.
You did it. And a couple years back, I
remember being in the back of the church ahead of the Mass and
the Funeral Home director came out and now we're in Cleveland.
Funeral Home director came out to me and said, hey, we just had
one more flower, set of flowers get delivered.
Are you OK with us putting them on the altar?
And I said, of course, absolutely.
And you know, he, I said, well, where are they from?
And this was at, you know, 1010 o'clock funeral Mass and Yukon
St. John's was at noon and funeral
director looked back at me and Saint Johns had sent prior that
week. Funeral director looked back at
me and said the card says here Coach Hurley and UConn men's
basketball. And I'm like the in that moment,
it was like life will be a life. Life will never be the same when
you lose your parent, but you know that you've got your, you
know that there's people out there who are supportive and who
understand and, and, and the only thing they could do there
was that, but that that resonated with me of like that's
dad's way of saying remember, keep doing what you're doing
because people, people unders they, they enjoy that and you've
got to keep going here. You do have to get.
I call the game that following week.
I didn't know how it was going to go.
I didn't make it the story. I just kind of did the job and
it it was, it was good for me to get back into the rotation of
things. But I don't talk outwardly a ton
about faith because I it, it feels like people have all
different feelings about it. But if asked about, I will say
this. Yes, I believe in God.
I rely on my faith to help me through ups and downs of life.
And I understand that man, I am not perfect.
And guess what? I can get fired up, you know,
or, or, or have a tough day at home too, or I'm like, hey, you
know, where are we going? We got I got work, I got life.
Yeah, man, you're a human being. We're.
Human, we're human beings. And so I I say to myself, if if
I don't have God look to look up to and say, please help me, you
know, beat, please help me in this time, then who am I going
to go? To yeah, I do know.
I do know to me. I don't know where I'd be.
It's it's you know, and it's hard to do that like where you
know, as the provider, especially when I lost my job,
right and for some reason at the fan was very natural and easy
for me to make this transition. I don't mean like doing I'm not
saying the show's great. I mean to just move on with my
life and and and and just plow ahead.
It was like a calm, right, But I think when I was younger it was
hard. Like I think I had to control
everything. Like you don't control anything.
Like you can control your work ethic and how you treat people
and how engaged you are and how you know immersed you are in the
job and what following up with emails and calls and being ready
for A-Z. Call it a game and doing a show
and having notes and being buttoned up and but there's just
certain things you can't control.
And it's crazy, John, But when I think when you learn that, I
think there's a piece and it seems like you learned it at an
earlier age than I did. Good for you figuring this out
quicker than me, man. I'm I'm almost envious of you.
Good job dude. Well, you know what a mentor by
the name of Rick Genteel, who produced the Olympics for a
number of years for CBS Sports. Rick said to me, John, you got
to remember something. I was, I was picked over some
someone for a for an FS1 assignment that I was hoping
for. I didn't get it.
And and he said you got to remember something.
Only one person is the TV play by play announcer on a game.
The same way that only one person is the head coach of that
basketball team for a game, the same way that that one person is
the only one that is producing the game, the the color analyst
on the game. Yes, there are other people who
would love to have that job. And and he said someday you'll
probably hear your name called for that job.
But how you handle the quote defeat is is what is what people
will really appreciate. And so I had AI mean Brandon,
like there's there's times where, you know, I was calling
something that probably, you know, 1000 people were watching
on television as opposed to 400,000.
You don't treat the job any differently.
You do your job the way that you've been taught to do your
job. You don't look at viewership.
Of course we all want to call. Everybody wants to call the
Super Bowl. If we talked to 50 high school
kids right now and I said how many of you would want to call
the Super Bowl one day? I would assume.
Yeah, and raise their hand, everybody.
But, but you have to realize there's only one Mike Tirico,
you know, And oh, by the way, there was a time when Mike was
like 6th or 7th on the roster and you got to someone said to
me once a guy by the name of Bardia Shaw Reyes at Fox said
you have to know where you are on the ladder.
Understand that you're you're, you're just not.
You're just not going to get the assignment that a Gus Johnson
gets. You're not there yet.
You're not there yet At that point, sure, But you?
Deliver the because if you don't deliver the best at where you
are on the ladder, you can easily get removed from that
ladder because there's a bunch of other people who who would
like it. So I think that that and the
journey knowing there's only one guy who gets that call and if
you ever do get that call, that's a.
Privilege. There you go.
To get that call at the end of the day, you know, Yeah, you and
Mink, I I look at it from my bench, why I say it is a
privilege to call an NCAA Tournament.
Game I agree with that I. Don't care who you're calling.
It I agree it's an honor. I can't wait.
I really. It means the world to me.
Let me ask you this. So, but nine year old, 10 year
old John Fanto, Ohio, I mean, I know you played sport.
Were you a decent athlete or were you always like call them
the games? Like, could you play anything?
Anything. OK, so I once had a 28 point
game in Gradesville, Yeah. What CYO?
Like what grade are we talking about?
8th grade, last game. It's Saint Bernadette's gym.
Yeah, So hopefully there's some college classmate in your chat
that can attest this. And if not, I'm going to make
them get in. But I could, I could shoot the
ball. You know, I could play some
hoops. Not when when I was.
Yeah. Not.
I mean, I'm, we're not talking about like intramurals and all
that. Like Co and I played high school
football. I played it for two years.
I was a left guard. I was a turnstile as a left
guard. You know, think of your worst
Who's the Giants offensive lineman I was?
Going to say actually The Jets old line's actually pretty good.
Who was the old lineman that got like 3 penalties?
How about Evan Neal? Yeah, back-to-back to back to
start the game that first I think I was in, but that may
have been against the Saints, I think when it was like 3 in a
row to start the game back. Yeah, I.
Need to my quarterbacks needed Saints to help protect them when
I was in the game. Because the fact of the matter
is this when I was in the game, I got called for back-to-back
holding penalties and I said to my offensive line coach, do you
want me to come out? And he goes, no, I want to see
how long survive. It's good, but did you take it
seriously? Like, were you in the way?
You were? You were, you know, killed.
The champion, No, locked in. I mean, look, I just wasn't very
good. Yeah, yeah.
And then baseball, I pitched. I pitched till about 8th grade.
I pitched during a time like when I was in 4th, 5th, 6th
grade when pitching is starting to become a thing when the coach
pitch goes away. Yeah.
Oh yeah. I was very valuable to my team
because Brandon, because you and I are watching baseball growing
up, I realized it's not about velocity.
Just find the strike zone. You got throw strikes, man, Got
it. So I did and so at that age I
was and then when things started to get serious and I wasn't able
to like get it to that, get into that number started to tee off
and that was that was the end of that.
But but yeah, I did play a little bit of sports and then
after my sophomore year a football.
I said, you know what, I'm going to go for this play by play job
at Ignatius. Saint Ignatius has a great
broadcasting network. You know, it's dozens and dozens
of kids. I felt like I was in a
quarterback competition. I felt like I was in a
quarterback competition trying to get the play by play job for
football. And with three other guys, three
other students in my high school, we were at Fawcett
Stadium, the home of the Pro Football Hall.
Ignatius was scrimmaging a school called Ken McKinley.
And each of us, each of the candidates got a quarter.
You get 1/4 to show off your skills.
Wow. Got the call that Monday.
You, you won the job. I called the state championship
game. I went from the bench to the
broadcast booth and call got to call the state championship
game. That's sick, dude.
That's that's and you won the game too.
That's wait, wait, so you but you didn't get a ring?
If you were still on the team, even if you were horrendous, you
would have got a ring. They gave me a ring.
They gave you one. So that's kind of like since a
little like when Tony Romo transition, he still knew the
league so well because he had just played.
You had a you had a you had all the Intel on the team.
So probably gave you an advantage because you were
playing. Big advantage.
No question. You're absolutely right.
And that that kind of helped me get started.
You know, it was like by being the end of bench, kid was able
to just take that and try for football.
So, so let's say Johnny Fantas in the car, kisses the wife,
kisses the little boy Andrew on the cheek.
All right, Daddy's got to go to work and you're not flying,
you're driving. You got a 5 hour drive and
rather than fly, you're driving. What kind of music is John
listening to? What are you pumping?
Billy Joel. My favorite, I love it.
I love like there's different Joel songs.
I love Matter of Trust. Phenomenal Stiletto.
I like stiletto. Not one of my favorites, but I
mean Billy's my all time. Favorite, but then all of, but
then all of the hits. I mean state of mind.
Of course, yeah. And moving out and my life.
There you go. Big shot.
I've seen Joel four or five times.
I me too. I hope he comes back.
Yeah, I think it was. I thought, I thought he's read
something from his daughter, a quote from his daughter the
other day that he had some sort of procedure and she was like,
she was saying he was doing well.
I hope he's OK. I'll tell you a really, you
know, all the stuff with Billy, like in the 70s way before your
time, even though you you just mentioned a bunch of the songs.
I think that to me, when he got to River of Dreams, I'm like,
yeah, I'm not really feeling that stuff.
You know, I like River of Dreams as a song, but not the whole
thing. Yeah, no, I don't even really
love this song. It's just to me, it's a little
duopy, which Billy obviously has that That's that's that was his
inspiration. But to me, down East or Alexa,
you're talking Stormfront, like you're talking some of that
stuff after, you know, glass houses.
I think that's some of his best work.
And the crazy thing, did you see the Billy Joel?
Was it on Netflix or Apple? OK, you saw you.
So by the way. Don't ask me why another one.
Don't ask me why. So the crazy thing about that,
he was broke. You know, his manager stole $30
million from him. It's one thing to try to pump
out a great song when he just tried to be a great musician.
It's another thing when you've got to construct songs because
you're piss poor, broke, and you got to get back on even footing.
I mean, imagine the pressure of being Billy Joel and knowing the
expectation of what people think you're going to put out there.
You got nothing in the bank. You just got $30 million taken
from you and you've got to write music and you've got to hit a
home run. That's pressure.
Pressure. And he did pressure and hit.
A Grand Slam love pressure I'm I got my playlist on my Spotify
playlist so other other bands that I've got on here Fleetwood
Mac. I love Fleetwood Mac.
Steely Dan. I like Steely Dan.
Eagles. Loved.
I saw him in concert. Love him.
Jackson Browne. Loved a couple of good songs.
I like Jackson. Browne, Bachman.
Turner OverDrive. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Dan, Dan, Dan. Yeah, yeah.
Doobie Brothers, One of my favorites.
I I really do like doobies. Little Phil Collins.
OK, I like Phil. Elton John, Dave Matthews, Band
Boss, Skag, Stevie Wonder, Lionel.
Boss Skaggs. That that's under the radar one
Boss Skaggs. One of my dad's favorites was
Bob Seger. I.
So I got a funny story for you about Bob Seger, by the way.
Very you are. You're an old soul.
Very much so. Yeah, that's a good thing, man.
Given you said what are you, 30? How old are you now, 30?
30 But that's why I grew up with Hey City of Cleveland
Rock'n'roll. I know, I know.
I get it. I am.
This was my second or third job and I'm working.
I'm doing sports radio in Detroit and I live in Troy,
which is about, it's about, it's actually 16 miles from where the
Lions and and everybody plays downtown right on 75.
I'm in a nice suburb. I'm not like in the heart of
this. I'm not below 8 mile, put it
that way. And I'm, I'm going there was an
indoor bubble toward Pontiac and it's so cold up there as you
know where you can go and hit golf balls, right?
And you know, I'm hitting golf balls.
It's like a, it's like a just a massive monstrosity of a golf
bubble. I'm ripping away trying to RIP
and RIP and I see this guy next to him.
I'm like he's got such a pure swing and and John, all I hear
is Flack, Flack, Flack, like pure and five iron, right.
It's Bob Seger. Come on, it's Bob Seger.
I love Bob Seger and and I said and I didn't want to bother him.
I'm like and finally I'm like Mr. Seger how I don't he doesn't
know I'm I'm nobody now. He certainly doesn't know me.
Then I'm like Mr. Seger. I just wanted to say hi.
I'm a huge fan. Yeah.
I said, you know, hey. And I was out of college a
couple of years before that. I said I think the highest
compliment that I could pay you as a musician is that we used to
listen to music in college. And even though a lot of your
stuff is older, I said we, we love you.
He was so genuinely taken back and receptive of hearing that
from a younger fan of his at that point, younger fan of his
music. What a great guy.
Very affable. Very.
And then he wound up being a great conversationalist.
I felt like I was intruding on his time.
He talked to me for like 15 minutes, kept bullshit and I'm
like, this guy's the best. Did he?
Yeah. Oh, God.
And he's really good. I mean, yes, he is.
You, you think? You know we've got tonight comes
to mind. Oh yeah, we got tonight, Yeah.
Night moves. Oh, that's a great.
Hollywood Nights. Hollywood Nights a little bit
later, Sure. Yeah, that's what I'm.
That's what I'm talking about. Like what?
Give me a group that you haven't seen in concert that you'd want
to. Who?
I've seen Hall and Oates. Did you really hold an oats?
Man, yeah, you. Are an old soul.
PNC, Yeah. Man either.
Yeah, right. Man either.
Yeah, she's gone. Yeah, Yeah, that's a good
question. I mean, look, you know, doobies,
I have appreciation for earth, wind and fire I've never seen.
And I I think it would be I would just like to see them
before I got to saw see Lionel Richie at the Final Four last
year. I thought he was still
excellent. So he's a legend, man.
Lionel Richie had some banging dancing on the ceiling.
I. Mean.
Not to mention The Commodores before that, Lionel.
Richie was dancing on the ceiling.
Hopefully the Johnnies are this weekend.
Man, I'm going to let you. I'm going to get you out of here
in a minute or so. I want to make sure I I didn't
miss anything. Let's see.
Hit the soldier. Are you going to hit anywhere in
San Diego? I don't know what here's the
problem, John. So I don't have anxieties about
anything like, you know, I don't, I thank you know,
nothing. I mean, I got enough things
going around this, this brain of mine, right?
But I'm really not that anxious about much in life.
I'm not, but I'm a little bit anxious about this because #1.
So we were going to leave today. Initially the university said
they're going to leave Tuesday, but it's, you know, dependent
upon the NCAA with the charters. Blah.
Get out there, get used to the time difference, get some shots
up, whatever. So if that's the case, I would
have gone. They're going tomorrow.
We're leaving tomorrow chartering and I think 10:00 AM.
So we'll be out out there whenever we get out there.
But the problem is it's still kind of cold here.
I don't know where my shorts are.
I don't know where my golf shirts are.
It's like, and I'm not like I don't get overwhelmed by
packing. I don't, you know, I don't need
to pack like 9 pairs of shoes like my wife.
But I'm a little like, what do I bring?
Where do I go? And I'm going to be there
Wednesday, Thursday, provided they win Friday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, even if they win or lose against Kansas,
whatever, probably come back Monday.
Like I'm going to be gone a while.
So I don't really know what the hell I'm going to do because now
I got to figure out about how I'm going to do this show and
I'm going to figure it out without my microphone, which is
drilled into my desk and my camera.
I, I, I got to figure. You got any advice here, Dude?
I got to figure this out, John. Well, you got some radio guys
there, so you got. It's not like you don't.
You can't, you know, maybe get creative a little bit, but but
you've got yeah, I mean, I've I've tried the Amazon and you
could always get into the hotel like a like a little portable
that then you could put either through your laptop or with your
phone. I've got that equipment and it's
pretty easy to use. And then you've got that to to
number one, number one, have through your computer.
But I've had the there's a microphone you could get it off
Amazon where you can use and it USB sees right into your phone.
OK. Is it the?
Is it a clip on clip on type? Pretty easy.
And then St. John's beats, you know, Northern
Iowa and you're in the back and maybe you get the quick combo
with coach or or a player or whoever, like, yeah, it's it's
now technology's never been better.
But you're right. Like when you don't have your
full studio set up, yes, it might be a hotel.
Maybe it's a San Diego park or something.
You have to have a little bit of fun out in the mouth.
I'll. Figure it.
Out I think you'll have a nice if as long as they win Friday,
you might have a nice weekend weekend diary of what's of
what's going on out there. The the the curious thing is, I
mean, or not curious, but the crazy thing is, you know, you
get back from San Diego and then it's like, OK, if they're in DC,
here we go. I know the tournaments
exhausting and I I'm not AI am not.
I hate when people complain. I I don't like it, but I will
say the tournament turn around, it's something that it, it does
not stop. It's a lot.
So all the work you do, you come
back then and little Andrew's sleeping tucked away, 10 months
old, God bless him. You sit down with your wife and
you want to have a drink. Do you have a or or do you not
drink because of your dad? No, no, no, I do drink.
Yeah, well. What are we doing?
Beer. Glass of wine?
What is Fanta sitting down to kick back and have a?
Perfect drink for me would be a glass of cab OK, if I have a
beer, it's a Miller Lite. You know, there's my there's or
Great Lakes, you know, like love Great Lakes brewing.
They do sell it in in different liquor stores across New York,
New Jersey. If you've never had Great Lakes
Christmas sale folks, your life will be.
Changed. I love it.
It is fantastic. Browns, Tribe, Cavs, One team
can win a championship in the next 5 years.
What would make you feel better? Oh man, I mean, I'll cry if the
Browns if they freaking win a home playoff game, because
that's why we haven't even hosted a playoff game in my time
is in my in my 30 years of life, we've never had a home playoff
game. So.
It's I get it. When Jet fans complain, I get
it. I'll be emotional with the
Guardians. And I do think I, I pray to the
heavens, I do think someday we will do it.
We came so close in 2016. I think they're so Brandon.
They are so well run. Yes, they are.
Antonetti and churn off what they've built.
Yep, Stephen Vogt was an ace higher.
You know, if you if you put together teams that were like,
OK, they're cheaper, but they'd be on the list of teams that
like, man, they just you know, those play that playoff series
with the Yankees now the year before last.
It was still a great series. The Yankees, they took it, but
every game went down to the wire and John Carlos Stanton said.
I'm not losing. I know.
Oh, and Judge hit one too as well, but Stanton hit that bomb.
So what was your dad's favorite team?
Which team was his favorite? Like the one.
That brown guy, it's a football town.
It's a football town. It's a piece of brown sky.
But the, the Tribe, that place is rocking and rolling all
throughout the summer. It's a fun weekend vibe.
They've done a great job with that ballpark.
You know, look, I was 7 when LeBron got drafted.
The Cavaliers have a lot of interest and when they went to
the Finals in O7, I can remember people out in the streets when
they won the championship. That was unbelievable.
Brandon, make no mistake about if the Cleveland Browns ever get
good, it will be the wildest scene, as wildest scene as
you've seen in football. I believe it.
I didn't. They do something years.
Didn't they do something? I think it was actually when
they beat The Jets on that Thursday night this year.
Didn't they have like beers that they unlocked fridge?
Unlocked. Fridges.
Something like that, right? Unlocked fridges.
It was unbelievable. The Jets should have won that
game. No, Todd Bowles, you know.
John, John. Wait, is that the game where
Baker came in? Baker's debut.
It was, it was, it was the week two of the season, I believe.
That was Baker's debut, and then it all linked downhill from
there. I thought so.
Well, listen, man, you've been generous with your time.
I'm really happy for you. I'm proud of you.
I think your messages are great. I think your talent speaks for
itself. I think your commitment to your
your craft is, is undeniable and I'm looking forward to seeing
where this takes you, man. I think it's it's going to be,
it's already been an amazing journey.
Enjoy the early stage of the fatherhood.
It goes fast. Dude.
You seem like you have a great work life balance and really
good to have you on the show. I appreciate it today, John.
Well, Brandon, anytime I I respect your work, love your
work you you do a a phenomenal job and you've got a fan it with
BT unleashed and and it's certainly listening to you on
the radio this week and anytime well love talking it up with
you. Can't wait to do it again.
Thank. You, you got it.
Enjoy the hoops, baby. I'll see you soon, dude.
There he is all right so Jay Rod oh man he is he is AI wouldn't
say a rising star he's past that point he and you see how humble
he is that him too yeah get that you see how humble he is he's
just a good guy I. Mean this is what I'll say it's
rare when you see interviews that really like sit with you,
like, you know, and really kind of give you a change your
perspective on things like that really touched me right there.
Obviously the stuff with his father's faith, but also just
like he's a he's a young man who's wise behind it beyond his
years. I think that's what's insane to
me is he's a you know, he's a young dude, but he carries such
wisdom when he speaks and such, you know, fortitude and I just I
thought that was easily the best interview we've had thus far on
this show. I thought they just keep
getting. I thought that was incredible.
That's awesome, man. I love him.
I knew it was going to be good. And listen, it's, it's different
than different. Nikki is good.
Nikki Lauderulo is going to join me tomorrow.
That's going to be different than John.
Yeah, he does have a a sageness. He's got a perspective like I
just, I had a very different style and a very different
delivery and I still do. I didn't have that.
I don't think I had that clarity at the age of 30.
I was, you know what I mean? I just, I didn't have that.
I didn't have that clarity. He's, he's a really grounded
young man. And, and that's I'm, I'm just,
I'm a big fan there. I'm a big fan.
What's this from? What do we got?
Telly lot 77. What's up telly?
John Fanton, Kim Adams are quickly becoming one of the best
duos in the business. I enjoyed their coverage of the
women's Big East tournament. UConn is an avalanche.
Yeah. He's got some wild calls, man.
Lol. Thank you.
Very UConn #13 very, very generous.
Dude. Thank you for weighing in with
that awesome stuff. Yeah.
I, you know, listen, what are the things about this show?
Listen, there's going to be days during the season like, I don't
know, just throw out a name. Like, you know, I'll get I'm
sure she'll do it. I don't want to speak for her,
but like I'll get Susan Waldman on, maybe get like and ask her
like actual Yankee questions. You know, one of the things that
I really enjoy about being able to do this, it's a free flowing
conversation and I've obviously got some notes.
So I got a couple things I know I want to tap into.
But to me, you know, the best conversations are the one where
you're just not married to a lot of questions.
Like he says something I'm like, that was interesting about his
dad or about his dad with alcoholism or how his dad passed
away so suddenly or his fatherhood, like just down,
like, we're going to go with this man.
Yeah. Hopefully everybody enjoyed
that. That was good.
I, I, I think what really at least not to get too mad or
behind the scenes. I think just what really set
that one apart, you know, from the other ones is it, it really
felt like a deep dive into the man himself, you know?
Yeah, really got a new perspective on who he he he is
as a person. Amen.
No doubt. Just awesome that a boy.
Jay Ron. I love how.
Fired up you are man at. Gerndog, try not to be so.
Fired up when Nikki comes on tomorrow.
Take it easy buddy. Gerndog nine O 1 fantas
personality is great. You can tell he's a genuinely
great guy. Wishing him the best.
I, I, I agree, you know, and listen, there's a lot of really
good people in our business, John, but there's also a lot of
assholes in our business. They just are, I mean, I'm not
going to start naming them, but trust me, there are a lot of
jerks in this business. And I get the sense that I, I
get the sense that, you know, he's, he's not going to change
much. Like, and he's going to only
climb higher and higher and higher and make more money and
become more successful and become the face of ultimately of
a network. Maybe call the Super Bowl, NBA
Finals. Who knows what's in John's
future. I mean I'm not going to put a
limit on it, but I I feel like you know, his his he's going to
be rooted in that blue collar Ohio, you know, background that
his dad passed on. Just a good dude, man.
So I saw him at the biggies tortoise.
I'm like, dude, I got to get John.
He's like absolutely. And I thought that he I thought
that I had his number. He's like, you still got my
number, right. So I opened up my phone.
I'm like, I guess I don't have it at all.
So I'm like, here, shoot me a number.
And I wasn't going to do it right away.
I'm like, I'll do it at some point.
Then I'm like, you know, why wouldn't I get him on, you know,
and perfect time. Say John.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, we could have
talked more basketball, now that you think about it.
Oh, definitely. You know, most definitely.
But I also just. Yeah, just that was too good.
That was, too. Good.
Any other comments before we I got to go pack here?
Good. Let's see.
I mean, everyone's kind of. Let's see, I mean, you can tell
me how breaking this. Is all right and trade Jalen
Waddle to Broncos. Broncos get Waddle and Dolphins
fourth round pick. Fins get Broncos first round
pick third. Wow, they're all along with
their late 3rd and fourth round picks.
Hold on, keep this up there. Hold on.
Is this is this real? Is this real all right?
The So the Fins trade waddle and.
But I'm not surprised to. Denver Denver gets Waddle and
the fourth round pick, so they get that coming from Miami.
Miami gets from Denver a first round, their first round pick,
30th overall, along with their late 3rd and fourth round picks,
30th in each round. That's a very interesting,
that's not like a little, you know, nickel and dime NFL trade
right now. That's interesting #1 Jalen
Waddles good #2 you got first round capital #2 or #3 you got a
third round pick and a fourth round pick.
Certainly 3rd is a very premium pick even though it's at the
back end of the third round. Wow, You have Waddell's numbers
from last year and yeah, just just just pop them up there.
Give me, what is it? What have you been around now?
I don't know 4. Years, whatever it's been
something like that. I'm, I'm throwing it out there,
you know, some quarterback issues to I'm, I'm not a huge
fan. Obviously Kyla Murray's there
now. I think Jalen Waddell's really,
really good. Last season he had 64
receptions, 910 yards, 6 touchdowns.
How many? Games.
Did he play all the games? I thought he missed a little bit
with the Amy or something. Played.
Thought he missed a little time. How many games was ESPN annoying
me? Oh I'm stuck.
Reason why dude. This is so annoying.
OK, it's not it it. Doesn't show games played for
some reason at the top of the let me.
Come on, we we we got to get J Rod a little bit better on these
stats here. I notice every time he's looking
at they need to, they need they. Need to design a website where
it goes full stats game. Played percentage boom.
Not this fucking sorry, not this BS where I'm scrolling through 9
million different things sweating going oh man was BT
about was BT? About to get on me.
Hey, have I really gotten on? You.
I have a guy with you I'm messing with.
You so but dude, here's what you got to do He played 15 games he
played 15 so he. Missed 2 All right, so we.
Had 60 something catches. Not so if he would have played.
17 It would have been over 1000. Yards, 6 touchdowns.
I'm I'm. I'm a little hesitant to ask,
what did he do the year before? Oh man, no, we're going back.
I got you. As you're looking this up, what
is your process to look up a stat?
Cuz I just. If I want to look it up, I would
just type in. I'd go to Google Jalen Waddle
stats. That's what I do.
I did Jalen waddle the hell popped up stats and then but
then I go into ESPN itself like the app.
All right, this is a little easier now.
I got a better kind of lineup. What do you want?
Football Reference. Yeah, Football Reference.
Let's see. Last season, he had 58
receptions. He had 744 yards, 2 touchdowns.
Was his really He played 15 games.
What was his really big year? He had over 90 catches 1.
Year what? What year was that?
Let me. Go back to 23.
Yeah, 23. He had 104.
Yeah, I thought so. All right, it's a good move
there. That's a good move that J Rod
used Pro Football. Reference.
Yeah, That's from Avery Summit. Everybody's giving you advice.
Oh, my God, that's funny. Yeah.
Listen, thank you, boys. I got Rod.
Yeah, J Rod used that. BT and fans of both guys.
You want to grab a beer with to watch some sports with that.
That's what makes both of you guys so special.
That's a great compliment. You know, that's funny.
We would always talk about that. Like when I remember when I was
at ESPN back in the days of obviously 2003 was when I
started there, radio did some TV too.
But I'm talking about the radio component where, you know, a lot
of the things that they would preach about radio I didn't
necessarily agree with because it was people, no disrespect,
but people coming in from Bristol trying to tell.
And we talked about this when I had Greca on people try to come
in from Connecticut from a national point of view, and they
were very good nationally at their job.
But we're like, it doesn't fly in New York, man.
You know, it's got to it's got to have energy, it's got to
bite. It's got to have flavor.
It's got to be cold. It's got to be passion.
We got to get after it, you know, and they're with the
teases coming up next. I'll tell you why.
Like do some of those things I didn't fundamentally agree with,
even though they were good people and they were good at
their job. But like I, I remember one thing
that they did say, and this always resonated with guys.
At the end of the day, when you doing a show, you want to come
across as somebody that's in their car.
This is obviously, you know, in the car, you know, it's a little
different now. You just want to be one of those
people where people listen and saying, I want to have a beer
with that dude. I want to sit back and watch a
game with that guy, shoot the shit, play around the golf with
that guy, have a beer, you know, have a little pizza and a pizza,
have a dinner, sit down, have dinner with wings, whatever,
watch a game. So I've always kind of #1 I
think I've just, I've just always been that person.
Like, I've just always enjoyed doing that stuff.
And John seems like the same kind of guy.
So that to me, that's a great compliment.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
How about his musical taste? Wait.
Yeah. I, I I I can't believe it had,
like, lapsed in my mind. It was awesome.
One you got Billy Joel game, you're breaking out albums.
I've never. Even conceived of Billy's my
favorite. Of all time, he's my favorite
artist of all time. Billy Joel.
Come on. When I don't do a lot of karaoke
when I do, I mean, it's been a little bit of minute.
Big Shot, you know, Big Shot is my song.
You know, that's, you know, with your fine Paul.
Kevin, you Chloe woes. Oh, man.
Yeah. Give it that mic.
He had serious game. Yeah, I mean, definitely like
interesting. Like, you know, all his taste
was very much like for a dude who's closer to, you know, my
age for sure, you know, he's got, he's got a very, a very
refined. Taste so to.
Speak, he said he got it from his pops.
Hold on. I'm trying to pop up something
for me here where is my music? Hold on.
Also if. He if he's still, if he's still
listening, or if he checks out, the end.
Yeah, he's got to see Earth, Wind and Fire.
Best concert I've ever seen. Where did you when?
Where'd you see them? My mom, my friend, and my
brother and I. We saw him in Bridgeport, CT.
Two years ago in the summer, it was incredible.
It was really sick. It was sick.
I think their lead singers passed on.
But I was going to say, every other member of the band is
still there, still rocking. It was just sick.
It was such a good time. I love it, dude.
All right, so look. So now I don't know why it took
so freaking long to figure. This out, but I've got I'll give
you guys a little treat. I can't play the music with
talking like copyright stuff, so I can't I've got I'm looking at
my phone. I got my music here.
I'm going to give you I'll give you the 1st 15.
I want you to count. All right, It's in alphabetical
order. I'm going to give you the 1st 15
groups or individual artists in my in my phone, by the way,
check that out. You got to love that.
I know I showed you the ready ACDC.
When I say it, just give me the number ACDC one Aerosmith 2.
Bad Company 3. Beastie Boys 4.
Billy Joel 5. Bon Jovi 6.
Boss Skaggs 7. He said that Bruce 8 Bryan Adams
9. Busta Rhymes 10 Cat Stevens 11,
The The Charlie Daniels Band. Haven't heard of them, I'll
check them. Out all right.
County Crows. Yep. 13 Creed.
Cypress Hill. Oh my gosh.
Hits from the. Bong Yeah, yeah.
Yep. Doctor Dre.
And then I got a little Digital Underground, do you know?
Anything about Yeah, that's pop, right?
That's Pop. The second package.
Yeah. Yep, Yep, Yep.
That was some. We used to bump that in college,
man, That was good, dude. I mean you.
You got some real. Heaters, right?
And not just the Humpty dance, which is like the the.
Mainstream. Yeah, I remember that track
Well, no. Definitely there were some beats
on the back end. I knew every single word.
Oh my God, that was that was a great album.
The Digital Underground, my God, you're something interesting for
me. For Selman, maybe this is like a
little psychoanalysis. He might be right, though.
He's an an old soul, which is increasingly rare this these
days, which is why J Rod appreciates him so much.
He's not used to seeing one. You're probably right.
Like I think this is something I've I've certainly grown to
learn since becoming a podcast producer is that I think a lot
of the people I do really respect aren't these kind of
older soul kind of dudes who come at it from, you know, a
blunt, maybe just because of my father kind of deal, like a
blood blue collar perspective sort of deal.
I just like, I think, you know, obviously growing up as a young
dude, like you're kind of you're molding yourself, but you're in
a lot of different things. But now that like my career has
been me interacting with a lot of these former athletes, guys
like this dudes in the sports industry, like, yeah, it has
really shown me a kind of kind of man that I do really enjoy
listening to speak, listening to interviews from and just like
really respect, like nice dude. Yeah, Like I, I feel like, like,
yeah, like Fanta, I mean, all these.
Guys, you get. Pitino K Greco like I love these
just raw dudes. What about me?
I mean, come on you that, but that's blanket.
That's obvious. I'm working like, that's
obvious. That's awesome, yeah.
I mean to me, there's no other way to be.
I mean to me, and it's a tough. Balance, but to be like you can
be blunt and you can be aggressive and you can be
assertive and you can take no prisoners and you can be
unapologetic, but you could also show respect.
Like it's not hard to do all those things which, which, which
I think that I do, I'm not saying I'm perfect by any
stretch, but I always really do try to show respect.
And that to me is definitely an older, an older generation
rollback. And I'm not saying that the
young generation doesn't show respect.
I don't mean that at all, but I, I just think that there there's
such a freedom by a lot of people.
Generally those who are younger. I, I hate to paint with such a
broad brush, but generally because the younger generation
can can say whatever they want and for the most part, they're
not getting their fucking face beat in by somebody's fist.
Whereas if you would have said something like that back in
there, like if some of the things that I wasn't, I mean, I
was no, I was not. I'm not saying I was Johnny
tough guy at all. I had a couple scraps.
I probably lost one more than I won.
Maybe. I mean, you know, I was
basically a tomato can't fit, you know, and the last real one
that I had was in college. But you know, and and I won that
one. Thank you against a football
player. But but as a long time ago, but
I I knew that if I popped off and I said the wrong thing to
somebody in my neighborhood, I was I was getting drilled.
I'll tell you. I'll actually tell you that this
was this true? Oh no, they tweet and how they.
Talk to people, there's no repercussions.
It's all faceless. It's all.
Anonymous and let me Peck away and let me.
That's why I don't get involved and I never have and I never
will. I don't get involved in like
radio wars and radio beeps and talking shit online.
I don't do that. But I remember, remember I told
you we had the backyard hoop in my in my backyard, like the
little death by little concrete slab.
You couldn't take jump shots. You had a dunk.
It was all God anyway, we're playing back there one day and
my best friend Brian at at this point was tough like karate and
and play football, but not a basketball player, right, and
not even a good baseball player, not a like just not a good ball
player, but a good athlete. So anyway, his brother, right,
who I knew because my dad coached him, they, they were
like, there's like 7 of them big Irish family, tough, right?
I was there every day. I saw this guy, his name is Pat,
saw him every day. This is my best friend's older
brother who I play baseball with.
OK. And I, I, I guess I, I actually
do remember saying this. I was in probably the 5th grade
and his girlfriend, I was walking on the other side of the
street and we were, you know, we're young, not even, I hadn't
even hit puberty yet. But like, you know, I'm like, I
said something like, yeah, crass.
I think I said something like nice ass.
It's just stupid. I did.
That's exactly what I yelled at. I'm like, hey, nice ass, right?
And then we went back and we were playing.
I thought I was cool and everything.
And like 30 minutes later, Pat, who really never was in my
backyard, he wasn't a basketball player.
He was a football player and a fighter and a little baseball.
Pat was tough as nails. And I, I see him walking into my
backyard, I'm like, hey, what's going on, Pat?
You know, he didn't even say hello.
He wound up and he clocked me right in the fucking nose as
hard as he could and he walked out of my yard.
That's crazy. Yep, at 10:10.
No, I was in the 5th grade. So I was, I was 11, he was. 12
he was, he was definitely a year older and he was a tough kid
And, and I, I was, I did not go down.
Somehow. I don't know how it didn't go
down. There we go.
But I didn't throw a punch back. I was actually scared.
Like it was like literally my best friend by a mile.
And I was at their house all the time.
I think that's why I was so stunned because I'm like, even
though he was never in my backyard, I'm like, hey, what's
going Pat? And it wasn't like, hey, what's
up? It was just walk straight to me
and I should have probably detected that he would get a
different look in his eyes. Bang right right here, dude,
right in the face. His brother didn't help me out
either. His brother knows his brother
was gay to him too. Everybody was kind of scared of
him and he just made AU turn. He walked out of my didn't care
if my mom was home, my dad was home, anybody was out.
So didn't care. Came in message delivered.
Don't ever say that I'm in the 5th grade.
Don't ever say that to my girlfriend friend again.
So when that happens to you, you learn.
You learn and that's why you don't feel like you've got the
latitude and the license to just anonymously diss people and say
whatever you want. And, and I do, I do think again,
I know it's a broad brush, but I do think that that is a virtue
and a characteristic of the older generation that is kind of
so I'm still, I'm still waiting on the first dude to punch me in
the face and, and teach me not to.
Talk shit. It was different back then.
It was different. We got super.
Game and chill bro 6643 So how does.
That Jalen Waddle trade affect the AFC East and now Miami feels
like they are in tear down mode too.
How do you feel about that crazy free agency?
So it it has been pretty crazy and the Super, super gay man
chill Bros. Appreciate that and good job
reading that handle 6640, you keep it up a little bit for the
Super chat, give a little bit of love there with the handle.
Appreciate. Yeah, when we get the Super
chats, keep them up a little bit more.
Yeah, I mean, it's listen, I I think it's, you know, I think
it's, it's interesting. And in terms of the AFC East,
it's it's the it's the Bills and the Patriots and everybody else.
I mean, so I don't think it changes energy.
I don't know that Miami stripping down.
I mean, they got to get their finances straight.
Obviously 2 is gone. You have a new quarterback.
I think he's going to play pretty well, you know.
But you know, they're they're they're not going to go up to
up. They're not the kind of team
that, in my opinion, that's going to go up to Buffalo in
December or the playoff game, like if they're a wild card or
go up to Gillette, Foxboro beat Drake, may beat Vrabel, beat
that running attack. It's just that they're not built
for that yet. And The Jets are nowhere near
that either. I think that, you know, I, I
think there's a clear pecking order of supremacy in the AF.
CS has no. Doubt about that.
I I, I think that there's a chance that The Jets could be
slightly better than Miami within all line and, you know,
better quarterback play with Gino.
Certainly not that he's a star, but he's better than what
they've had. You know, and you know, maybe
you draft the receiver at 16. You brought in a lot of
defenders, which they needed to you probably you're definitely
going edge at #2 whether it's Reese from Ohio State, whether
it's a kid from Texas Tech, I think it's going to be more
Reese could be styles. They could trade down.
You can take Caleb down to the the safety.
I can't wait for the draft talk. Like I've kind of suspended that
a little bit, but and not just for The Jets and the giants.
Let let me address this here. Some of you have said, Hey, I
love what you do. You know, it's, it's a little
local heavy. It's it's always going to slant
a little bit more local. But I promise you guys like NFL
draft, NFL season, NBA playoffs. It's going to have much more of
a national feel. It's going to be a lot more for
everybody. Just understand that and know
that I'm not trying to replicate exactly what I did on WFAN.
I'm evolving and I'm changing. And I did national stuff for 10
years with Tiki and I, I really enjoyed it.
And I did drive time in San Francisco.
I was at a different market. I worked in Detroit, you know, I
worked in Pennsylvania. So I'm, I'm going to, I'm going
to bring other stuff to you. It's not just going to be me
shove and judge and Soto and Schlittler and McClain down your
throat. And, you know, Jackson Thornton
and Gino, we're going to do more and more as we, as we build this
thing out. You know what I'm saying?
Get ready for some, get ready for some cricket.
Yeah, get ready for some some world cricket talk.
I don't know about that. Have you ever played?
I got a couple of a couple of quick.
Ones for you talking about sports off the off the just give
me a quick yes or no. Have you ever played tennis?
Yeah. Do you like it?
Yes. OK me too.
I ever play racquetball? No.
Oh, I got a funny I'm going to tell you a funny racquetball
story in a second Racquetball story.
Las Vegas. OK have you ever played ping
pong? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I don't know, We we started playing ping pong
competitively in our. Home like we love it.
We got a net that we set up on the dining room table.
It's great. I've had like a couple games
over the past year where I've tried to get into it a little.
More, it's great. You know what I can't do?
I admit. Like of course I can serve if
I'm serving. Easy.
I'm a very good volleyer, but I don't have spin on the serve
like I can't. Yeah, it's tough and keep it in,
you know, if I could get that down, when I get that down, I'm
going to be tough to beat. All right, the racquetball
story, so I remember we used to I'm living in Vegas.
This is early, you know, again, 2000 whatever, just starting out
and I I live with a bunch of dudes and we had we rented a
house in Henderson, NV and I'm sorry, this before we went into
the house I was at AI was in an apartment like I I got the job
and there was a guy Steve Cofield, who, if anybody knows
Steve, he's he's a big wig out in in Las Vegas doing radio UNLV
stuff, Raider stuff. Great guy, awesome dude.
Steve's got I got to get Steve on the show.
Steve's got some stories from Vegas that I mean, I have to
tell him a couple things he can't tell, but there are some
things he could tell. We were at we went nuts
together. All right, so before we went
into the moved into the house and basically turned it into
entourage without the money. That's how I might describe it.
We were entourage, but we were piss poor, he and I, he he had
an extra bedroom and because I got the job and he was higher up
at the network, like I was just starting out, He's like, dude,
just, you know, my boss is like, hey, there's a Jersey guy, you
might connect him and went to Rutgers and we know you're from
New York. So anyway, I started living with
him and we had a blast, right? And we will play racquetball.
So we were in like when you live in like Arizona or Nevada or out
there, dude, you got the community pool that you got the
racquetball, you got the workout room, you got the palm trees.
It's just phenomenal little BBQ. So I'm living like, I'm living
like Melrose Place lifestyle. I mean, I'm having a good time,
man. And me and Steve every and he
was good every day we would play racquetball, death matches, I
mean death matches. And to the point where not only
did you just talk shit when somebody was vulnerable, like
maybe like if they're up on the wall and you're coming in, you
basically would take your fucking eye out like you would
just, you would smash it. And we were young, like we were
aggressive. And I remember we kept playing
and I think we played best of three and it was the third game.
I won the first, he won the 2nd. And now it's like point match,
point match, point match, point, match, point match.
And we just kept going. I remember diving for it and I,
I flicked it, but and I saved it from hitting it twice.
I died full extension parallel to the ground.
But now I'm facing the wall and he just smashes at me and I
lose, right. I'd say it was a good friend of
mine. I really great guy, man.
I lived with him and I hung out with him every day.
I got so pissed I didn't say anything.
I walk. It was a it was a glass.
So imagine we're playing racquetball and you have to
enter through a glass door and the entire, so if you, if
anybody who plays racquetball, generally that whole wall is
glass, you can kind of see people playing.
You know what I mean? Can you get that visual?
Yeah, Yeah, of course, of course.
So I'm. So I'm fucking heated and I walk
out. And.
I, I didn't mean to do this and I.
Like I slammed the. Door open, right?
And as the door opened, this is all glass.
Keep in mind, it cracks the hinge cracks.
Whatever the hell happened, the entire wall of the wall from,
yes, from ceiling to floor falls on me.
Right on me. Yeah, Yep.
Falls on me. And I've got glass all over me.
What an idiot. And I go and he, he, he looks at
me and I go, dude, you got to take me to the hospital.
He's like, all right, let's go, let's, let's, let's go.
And I remember I probably shouldn't tell this bar, but
whatever bit I remember there was like a camera and I'm like,
oh shit, I'm going to get in trouble because I didn't, I
didn't mean to break it. So I remember like this is like
my Brooklyn mind like trying to do limitations.
You're good. I know this is like my Brooklyn
mind trying to cover my tracks. I take the.
Towel that I would wipe my head off with.
And I just, I remember placing it over the camera and walking
out to go to the hospital. I wasn't really sick, but I had
to get some stitches in my arm. I had to get some glass out,
whatever. Actually, not in my eyes.
I'm like, imagine like committing a crime, which it
wasn't a crime, it was just an act of idiocy and immaturity. 30
and I would never do that again. It was just 25, four years old
and a raving lunatic who hated losing.
Imagine at the age of of at that age, like doing something a
crime, right, because it wasn't cheap.
Like if they actually found out that would have been thousands
of it was thick glass, thousands upon thousands.
I was making $3000. I was pissed poor and then
committing a crime again quote and putting a towel over the
camera and thinking that that's going to prevent you from
coming. And I remember Jared, I remember
because it was this. It really was like Melrose
Place. It was like this gorgeous again,
palm trees, pool, Jacuzzi, a clubhouse, the whole spiel.
And I, I like every time the bell would ring, I'm like, is
that the cops? I thought that they were going
to find out that I broke the window the the wall by accident.
Too funny. Oh my gosh, I'm scared shitless.
And then we're like we. Actually, as we were looking for
the. House because we then had two
other guys that we hung out at the station with all the time
that we knew we wanted to find a bigger house with a backyard,
which we did. That kind of accelerated the
move. We're like, let's get out of
here, man. Let's let's find the home and
let's get out of here. Let's get out of the complex,
dude. Oh, man, yeah, that was wild.
Living in Las Vegas was absolutely crazy.
So at the time you. Lived with people who you were
also doing radio with, yes. Yes, yes, that's interesting
because that's like that almost ties into like the content
creators of today. We're like, you'll be in like a
YouTube video house with the people you're making like
YouTube vids with and stuff like that.
Dude thank God there was no they got there was no YouTube or
cameras back then. I.
Mean, it's funny. I remember because, you know,
talking about Billy Joel myself, John Fanta, I may have told the
story. So this one will be a short
story short, I promise. Like this particular night, I
just didn't want to go out. Like we're going out every
night. I'm like, I'm exhausted and I
had I had a girlfriend at the time, so I had the downstairs
bedroom and those because it had like a shower and privacy for
her. And those three guys had their
bedrooms upstairs, right. So I don't know, maybe we went
to the movies, whatever we heard I did.
And I wake up the next morning and I just see on the on the
grease board. You missed an epic night.
Like because like we'd write stuff about Joel at the casino.
New York, NY, right? It's on the strip.
New York, NY is right near the the Excalibur.
It's near it's across the street from The MGM Grand.
If you guys know Vegas, you can you can see what I'm saying
here. It's near the Luxor right?
The Pyramid 1. New York, NY just got the big
roller coaster. They're like.
Billy Joel showed up. At New York, NY Casino and
jumped on a piano and I was not there the one night I didn't go
out. I'm tired, guys.
I'm tired. I missed Billy Joel.
That's just hammering out the piano.
Yeah. Like that's like just your luck.
Like that's just the kind of stuff that happens, like.
You skip out on a night and then Oh my God.
And then Billy Joel sits out of piano.
Yep. And he's my favorite all time.
I mean, I've seen. Him many times I saw.
I saw his final play at Shay when?
When Tony Bennett came out, I saw Oh my God.
I mean, I've seen him at the garden.
I mean, I've seen him. I actually saw Billy.
I wasn't a big Elton John fan growing up.
I just, I don't know, I just wasn't a big fan, but Elton
John's. Amazing and I.
Saw Elton John and at the time I saw him in 1996 at the old
Meadowlands, it was John and Billy Joy.
I have AI have a T-shirt. I think I may have sold it.
I'll try to pull up. A picture of it.
I have a T-shirt from that tour or I had for a while.
It got a little small on me. Where'd you get that?
Like some vintage? Yeah.
Online.
Like eBay? But it was cool, and it was from
and it was. One of the concerts they did in
Syracuse. Hold on, I found OH up in
Syracuse. OK at the carrier.
Oh, look at this Elton and Belly.
Face to face. That's awesome.
Now what year is that from about?
This one was 2000. 2 so actually different tour if yours was 96.
Later and how they did multiple times together though I guess
they did. I remember, you know Billy.
Playing some of Elton's stuff and Elton.
Playing a couple of Billy saw it was it was great.
It was, it was it was a really good concert.
Yeah, yeah. But I missed him.
I miss him at the casino that night.
All right, let me get another, maybe another tweet here or
another read here. Anything else that pops out
before we get rolling here? Yeah, I'd definitely say this
one if Judge Captain's USA to a championship tonight.
What does that do for his legacy and anything at all?
To me, nothing. That this is where I'm going to
keep it 100% real nothing. I want Team USA to win.
I wanted to win the other night. I want to win every game.
I want to be Venezuela. You know, I am not wrestling
with all. I just don't know.
I don't think this way myself. Like, well, Mcclain's pitching
and he's a Met. I'm about the United States.
Let's go. So I think that I think we will
win now. I'd love to see Judge pop a home
run instead of, you know, striking out with a couple of
guys on base like he did the other night.
Even though he's got a couple of home runs, he's played good
defense. I'd love to see.
I'd like for Aaron Judge, I would like to see him have a
clutch moment because there's still some people who don't
think he's clutch and you listen up until last year in the play
offs, he he wasn't incredibly clutch.
I that's not a manufacturer of it's not manufacturing lies.
He hasn't been incredibly clutch over the years.
Leo. It's changing now.
So maybe if he goes deep, it'll be some people get off his back
a little bit. But you will never, let's put it
this way, say 10 years, whatever, and Judge retires Hall
of Fame, obviously first ballot, probably every vote, 596 home
runs because he started late. And whatever he has the five
MVPS. You're not getting it.
If he's without a World Series championship as a Yankee,
you'll, I promise you, you will not hear me say yeah, that WBC,
It won't even I won't. I will not even be a point of
reference. I clearly and distinctly
separate the two. It's fun.
It's incredibly competitive. It's a great look for baseball.
It's energized me even more for the start of the real baseball
season. I've leaned into it more and
more and more from its infancy. I gave you guys the attendance
numbers before. I'll give you this before I
bounce. So I'm going to just read it
kind of quick in succession O9. Let's see here I'm going to go
2013 2017 20232026 total attendance, not viewership
781,973 thousand 1.1 million 1.4 million so nice little
incremental bump each year and the coverage seems to be getting
better and the energy is real and palpable.
So it's been terrific. But no if if even if Aaron judge
hits a walk off Grand Slam down 3.
All I will say tomorrow is, you know, is he's.
Still the best. Player I've ever seen but legacy
now that I that will not no same with like like Brunson wins the
MVP and the All Star game or the shootout with Kat and Alan
Houston or an Olympic gold medal.
That's I I can't end on that. That's one thing that used to
drive me nuts about Carmelo Anthony's resume.
What did they say? He's a gold medalist.
He's a great.
He's a I know. I know, and I'm a Syracuse guy,
but I will admit that. That is the biggest farce of an
argument. Ever.
I couldn't take it. I couldn't take it anymore.
It was like almost in lieu of an.
NBA championship. I'm like, no, you can win 6
Olympic gold medals and if you have no championships, you're
in, you're not an NBA champion. And in that sport, as well as if
you're a quarterback in the NFL, there's a price and a penalty
that comes with that, whether it's right or wrong, justified
or not. And I know that there's a lot of
circumstances that get ignored over time.
Like you'll hear, oh, Barkley never won.
Oh, Ewing never won. Oh, Stockton never won.
Oh, Karl Malone never won. Yeah.
But like, they were on the Dream team.
No, I know, I know. But I feel like some of the
details that that I. Know that maybe some other.
NBA fans don't know like you know like Kobe had Shaq and
Magic had Kareem and Larry Bird had Kevin McHale.
No bits. Patrick Ewing had John Starks
who was ABAB minus BB type of player.
He just was was it made what, 1 All Star team?
You know, I love OAK tough. They weren't stars.
He never had that secondary star.
So people say Pat wasn't a champion and they're right.
He was not an NBA champion, but it really wasn't his fault.
All right. And you know, there, there's
some of that that would also support Carmelo, but Carmelo
Anthony was on way too many Knick teams that were 2325,
thirty wins going nowhere and just wretched and doormats and
just dumpster fires that I don't care.
You know, if he likes the Olympic flame every single time,
every single Olympic moving forward and he coaches Team USA
to five more gold medals, it doesn't matter to me.
Like I separate the two. I'm not trying to diss him.
I just separate the two. I love for Carmelo.
Great score, good guy. They're vastly different.
Similar thing, although much less because I think a lot.
Of his other career stats speak more, but like Chris Paul a
little bit as well with this, but definitely not as much.
All right, homie, let me get out.
Let me get out here. So tomorrow.
Good show today. By the way, John was great.
We're going to get that up, chop that up separately obviously
from the other stuff that we do here is going to get the ports
out, do a great job with that. The shorts took off the shorts
yesterday and some of the stuff with Beningo, I mean one of our
higher short number. So you guys are doing a good job
with the likes and, and, and the sharing and the subscriptions.
We got to get all that up tomorrow.
Now we're flying out at 10 AM St.
John's and this is when I go on the air at 10.
So I'm going to have Nikki on. I'm, I'm just going to tell I
recorded it. I'm not going to try to lie to
anybody. You know, some people try to,
oh, present this live. I recorded it last night.
She's phenomenal. I mean, it's really good, right?
I mean, it's right up there with the Fanta.
Right here, like that one very different, great, super
different from the Fanta. Really gives you a unique
perspective from a young person in the industry.
I had a young woman, young. Yeah, especially young woman.
I thought, yeah, like you get a super fresh perspective.
Nice. I thought that was cool.
And it's over an hour, so that'll be on tomorrow.
And then what I'll do is and I'll.
Let you guys know about this on X on Instagram and and obviously
on the YouTube channel, there's a post tab where I'll let you
guys know. I don't know, some of you know
this because some of you chime in like I'll alert you with a
guest or whatever might be going on.
I will also use that to let you know.
I'm sure I'll go live a few times in San Diego.
Obviously I'll be doing the game, but make what I'd love to
really do. I just got to figure out when
we'll do it. I know Mink will do it. him and
I will go and, you know, sit somewhere and and have a drink
and just put the phone up, honestly, and just go live.
Really just like put the phone like that.
But we're gone. Just have a, that'd be great.
That'd be great. I'll do such and.
I'll bring you obviously the NCAA tournament to you,
obviously focusing on St. John's, but some other cool
stuff. Tomorrow I'll find some time to
at least hit up what happens tonight, the WBC.
So it's going to be a little different, but they'll be plenty
of content, I promise. Nikki tomorrow, if you guys
missed anything, go check it out, like it, subscribe, share
it, get it all out there. J Rod, you and I will be doing
our thing connecting, so I'll talk to you down line and I'll
text and all that stuff. Yeah.
Have a safe trip. Thank you, man.
Thank you. I appreciate it, Jay.
Thanks brother and everybody else man, I'll.
Check you guys from the. Road and Nikki tomorrow, Nikki
Ladarullo, 10 AM from SNY, covers St.
John's. We'll have a little fun with her
and we'll do the rest of the stuff from San Diego, hopefully
for two wins. Hopefully St.
John's gets to the Sweet 16 and takes another step compared to a
year ago. So I got to go.
I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have an awesome, awesome rest of
you Tuesday. Peace.