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Suppose I told you the Mets are 2-15 in their last 17 home games. Hi, Buzz Kellington, Esquire. Nice to meet you. The Mets are back home, but can they, in the words of Ace Fraley, get back in the New York roof?
We shall do some exploring on that topic, and we've got a long-form Part 2 interview with the wonderful Gary Cohen. So, as Waylon Jennings used to say before the commercials on Dutes of Hazard, y'all better not go to the refrigerator now. The Daily Mets Podcast. Here it is.
It's your Daily Mets Podcast. It's your Daily Mets Podcast. Where you gonna find out what the Mets are doing. It's your Daily Mets Podcast.
It's your Daily Mets Podcast. Oh, it's your Daily Mets Podcast. And here's your host, Josh Newman. 34-49 is the Mets record.
As they get back home after a 2-3 road trip, the Marlins are a little bit worse. They've been outscored by 52 more runs than the Mets. That's some good news, I suppose. Anybody in a run differential, I'm really not.
Except I think what the Astros are doing is really impressive. They're at plus 173. Seattle's next in that AL West at plus 22. And they're only a game out.
How does that work? That's why I don't like run differential very much. Anyway, the Mets, speaking of things not to like, 15 games under .500. But here's something you might enjoy.
Washington is also under .500. And the Nationals have lost 15 out of 19. At least they had into Thursday. I'm recording this on Thursday for you or listening to it on a Friday.
Yeah, the Mets have 34 wins right now. That's about 10 courts low from what we figured about now. Even at the tough end, you figured 44 wins anyway by now. 34 instead.
But that's okay. They're back from the Chris Bosh road trip, Toronto, then Miami. Now, yes, back home where hopefully we'll hear a little New York groove playing after the fact. The Mets starting up an 11-game in 10-day thing leading up to the All-Star break.
And after that, their only road trip for a week and a half is to the Bronx to play the Yankees. So this would be a really nice time to start playing better or at least start to showcase some of the trade chips the Mets still have. There are A-listers like the Grom and Syndergaard if the Mets want to go that route. Or just the B-listers like Cabrera and Familia, who unfortunately is now B-side instead of A-side.
After all this time, what about Wilmer Flores? Wouldn't it be something if Flores finally did get traded while Carlos Gomez is in town? He's on the Tampa Bay Rays now. You might remember that was supposed to be the deal.
Gomez coming in. That Wheeler and that Flores are supposed to be shipped out to Milwaukee. Oh my god, if that deal would have gone down, Carlos Gomez's stock has dropped severely over the last few years. Mets ended up with Cespedes instead, yada yada yada.
They went to a World Series and now nobody knows when Cespedes will ever play again. I did mention Noah Syndergaard and he's looking like he's going to be back pretty soon. If all goes well, he's going to make a rehab start Sunday for the Brooklyn Cyclones. Yeah, so might want to get to MCU Park and check that out.
That could be pretty cool. Taking on the Staten Island Yankees. That's a team that actually used to be managed by current Mets assistant hitting coach Tom Slater. Vidal Nuno was the star of that team.
Now he's on the Tampa Bay Rays, so everything's in a big circle. We're going to talk about the Rays here a little bit more in depth later in the podcast. They are 43-43. And it's a weird thing.
They just lost a three-game series in Miami. And we mentioned earlier, the Marlins are terrible. This is after winning series against the Yankees, the Nationals, and Astros. The Nationals are supposed to be very good.
The Yankees and Astros are very good. Kevin Cash and McCalloway will get reacquainted. And as Cash told the media in Tampa Bay, I'm sure we'll have a lot of inside jokes and smiles and smirks. Smiles and smirks, that's what we got.
That's the hashtag. And the Rays will do that wacky thing they've been doing at least in game one of the series, where they go with an opener. Kind of the opposite of a closer. Instead of having a pitcher ready for the ninth inning, they have a guy ready in the first inning.
Kind of turn your lineup inside out. And whenever they decide they're ready, they just go to a bunch of other pitchers. And it's unconventional, but it's working. Ryan Stanek will make the start and go at least one inning.
Could be two. We don't know. And some weird things are starting to happen because of this MO that TB is all about. Anybody else disturbed they got TB on their heads, by the way?
I thought that's good for tuberculosis. But Ryan Stanek, we are told, is the first pitcher since 1908 to record seven consecutive scoreless starts. That sounds great, but he's an opener. So all that means is it's seven straight, one inning since, where he hasn't given up a run.
I mean, there's a million relievers that have done that. So, sorry, buddy. Not that impressive. Carlos Gomez, also not that impressive.
A 198 batting average, and he just obliterated a Gatorade cooler Wednesday, and the Rays lost to Miami. Of course, he used to be a Met Farm hand. It was supposed to be a big deal. And we'll get more into the Rays again in just a bit.
But first, here's the meat on the bone. Here's the stuff that you guys have come for, I hope. Way back when, podcast number 10, matter of fact, I did a part one interview with Gary Cohen, who I've known for a really long time. I was a little 15-year-old pissant, and now I'm a 49-year-old pissant.
But when I was a 15-year-older, I was in Rochester, New York. I was interning for my hometown, Rochester Red Wing, trying to get to know as many broadcasters as I possibly could, because I wanted to do that for a living someday. Gary was one of the nicest of the broadcasters to pass through. He was looking for Red Sox.
He took an interest in my very young career, kind of a zygote of a career at that point. And he was fabulous to me. He was super kind. He listened to my tapes and gave me all kinds of advice.
We stayed in touch once he got the Met's job years later, and now we get to work together. So we did part one, kind of behind the music version of Gary Cohen. We did that way back in April. If you want to scroll down through all these podcasts that come up when you punch them up, I believe it's number 10.
And now we're number 100, by the way. This is our centennial celebration. This is big. This is our big 100.
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We appreciate them very much. Without any further ado, or at least with minimal further ado, let's get you to part two. Part two of the Gary Cohen interview. Here you go.
Well, welcome to part two of the Gary Cohen experience. That we did with Gary Cohen back in March. It still lives. And if you need context, then we would direct you there.
You can jump in, though, here on part two. I don't think you're going to miss all that much. All you miss is, I guess, Gary from about age 1 to age 32, 33-ish. Where did we leave off?
You were just arriving in New York as a broadcast. I'd just like to back up a little bit. Yeah. Okay, the opening salvo is, I guess, number 10.
Yeah. Do we know what number this is going to be? No idea. Because numerology could be, you know, very important.
Would you like it to be number 100 just to make it nice and even? Not necessarily. It could be number 47. I just kind of like to run these things in my brain.
My guess is it's going to be somewhere between about number 98 and 113. Is that okay? Well, I know that there's been a 99 in that history. There's never been a number 113.
You know what, though? If somehow, cryogenically, we keep you alive and you're doing games in the year 2200, don't you think? I mean, I know the Mets don't retire a lot of uniform numbers, but by then, we're going to have to go triple digits. If we get 99, then we can have Ruben Tejada and Turk Wendel on both sides of the ledge.
Well, and, you know, it's funny. We're actually recording this in Denver during a ring delay. Shocking. Ring delay in Denver.
And Turk Wendel actually still lives in this area. He'd be a fascinating podcast guest, don't you think? Sure, especially with the laws out here now. Well, before we even go there, maybe we'll get back there eventually because it's going to be a long ring delay.
And there's one of them places right down the street, you know. I think where we left off here was talking about you getting to New York, getting the job. I do remember you telling me you were ready to do a basketball game at Holy Cross when you put a quarter in the payphone. I remember the dime then.
Oh, boy. Was it a shiny nickel? A buffalo-hitting nickel? But, yeah, you called and I guess we turned a phone call, right?
And it was a Met saying congratulations, you're a Met. I think that's where we left off? Perhaps. I had to go back and listen to episode 10.
Well, good. We used all the downloads we could get. So you get to New York, and I guess my question, picking it up from here, is how daunting was it for you to be part of the Bob Murphy booth? I mean, this is a guy you grew up listening to, and now he's live and in the flesh.
Just curious what that initial first step or two was like. Well, what helped in terms of my indoctrination and my comfort level is that my first year with the Mets, 1989, in March that year, that was the last spring before Mike and the Mad Dog happened on WFAN, which meant that on weekdays in spring training, WFAN still needed good programming, which meant Mets baseball. In the following years, we did very limited numbers of weeks after new games because Mike and the Mad Dog became such a phenomenon. And that year, we did 23 spring training games, and it was all me and Murph, and so we got a chance to know each other pretty well, starting with the first car ride to the first exhibition game we did together in Miami, back when the Orioles trained there.
So it was about a two-hour drive from Port St. Lucie to Miami, and Murph and I really got to know each other right after the first moments we were in the car, Murph was driving, and he turned to me and he said, So, David, what do they call you for a nickname? Oh, no. Gary is a nickname.
That's how it started, but we got to know each other much better after that. And, you know, so by the time we got to opening day, we had a pretty good idea where we were going. Do you want to call me David Dan? No, no.
Well, he would occasionally call me Gary Thorne because we replaced Gary Thorne. We'd been there for four years, so it was a natural transition for him. But, you know, little by little, we figured out each other's names, ranks, and so on. All right, so I'm going to play off of the word transition that you just used.
You then added to make a transition from radio to television, and I know you well enough to know that you miss radio. How could you not? I think in this business, it's what we all want to do. It's the most creative forum that you can have, I guess, in the sportscasting world.
So how difficult was that when, I mean, I'm sure the money was better, and that's a plus, but to realize, wow, I don't really get to paint a picture the way I used to anymore. Well, there were a lot of pieces to it. I mean, first of all, yes, I was a tremendous radio chauvinist. I never had any interest in doing television.
I would tell people that repeatedly. I turned out a lot of chances to do television because it really didn't interest me so much. But the other piece of that, going from my last two years on radio in 2004 and 2005 to the advent of SNY in 2006, is those last two years, I got to work full-time with Howie. And I had never had an experience like that in my entire broadcasting career, to be able to sit alongside such a kindred spirit day after day, and we had so much fun those two years.
The team wasn't particularly good, but the broadcast was the most fun I've ever had in the business. So it was, I guess, that backdrop as well that I made the decision to hitch my wagon to SNY. Why did I do it? It was a chance to get on the ground floor with something that was just starting with a bunch of really talented people.
I didn't know when I first signed up that I was going to be working with Ronnie. I did know that Keith was already on board. I also didn't know at that point that we were going to have Greg Picker for a producer who is odds-on the greatest baseball producer in the world. So in that respect, I got extremely fortunate.
But I just thought if I was ever going to do it, this was the time. I had a bunch of kids going to college, so that worked out from that standpoint as well. And I figured if I was ever going to go to television, it was good to do it in a place where I knew the subject matter, and I didn't introduce myself to people that they already kind of knew who I was. So there was a lot that went into deciding to do it.
It means you talk less, you dress better, and you have to play well with others. I mean, that's really what it is. In baseball, even though you have a partner, you know, instead of TV where you're a spoke in the wheel, you're the wheel, or at least half the wheel, two of the four-wheel drive. You know, in TV, it's a very collaborative effort, and you have to, at least I found that I had to really find a way to not feel as though I could control everything because you can't.
There are a lot of different people, dozens and dozens of people, who have to do their jobs, and they have to do it to the best of their ability, and you have to do your job to the best of your ability. So to me, that was the hardest part of the transition, just giving up that control that you naturally have on radio where your voice is the sole product. I do want to go back to the wardrobe concept and just paint a picture here. Again, we're in a rain delay.
Gary's going to put his SNY gear back on. But right now, I've got to tell you, it looks like you just mugged Fred Rogers. Khakis, comfortable shoes, and a terrific-looking sweater. Not a cardigan, not completely from the Mr.
Rogers collection, but normally you are like a really cool-looking Justin Timberlake-style suit-and-tie guy. And, I mean, knowing who you were coming up through the minor leagues, your wardrobe budget now must be insane. Well, I was a t-shirt and jeans guy on radio, and I owned one tie and one suit. So I would say that my closet has gotten a lot fuller since I made the transition.
But, yeah, it's part of the deal, right? Is there a line of delineation to where you guys go suit-and-tie versus the more comfortable polo? Is there, like, a 90-degree rule or something? Yeah, it's based on the weather.
We try to wear a jacket and tie as much as possible because, you know, it's kind of a nice look and our producer likes us to wear. But, you know, when it gets to be summertime and it gets warmer, we don't want to be uncomfortable, so we go to the polo route instead. A little bit of talking shop, if you don't mind. Do you find yourself, even now, I mean, you're a future Baseball Hall of Fame announcer, I mean, current Mr.
Everything with the Mets, all that's wonderful. Do you still find yourself listening to other announcers and comparing, not necessarily talent, but just comparing, huh, I've never heard it that way or I would have done it this way? How much of that do you still do? Yeah, I'd say very little at this point.
I mean, I do tune in every now and again, but that's, you know, that's really not what I'm listening for. It's more information's sake about, you know, the games that I'm watching or listening to. I would say, you know, really in my life, I certainly drew influence from a lot of people. I think we talked about that in episode 10.
Thank you for the drop there. I refer you back to that. But, you know, I think it's natural when you're first starting out to feel a little insecure and want to know what the other guys are doing and whether you measure off and that stuff. But I think I got to that that a long time ago.
You mentioned information in general, and I know you are an absolute thirsty man when it comes to having information. You never know what you're going to need on a broadcast. Just in the little bit of time we got left, because it looks like our rainbow is about to come to an end. You've got to actually get to work, and so do I.
But what's the process? I know it's changed a lot from the days when you first came up, and we all still carry around a who's who in baseball, that little red book. And, you know, there was the green book, you know, for one league. I mean, now everything's online, and it's almost like it's a contest.
Who's got the best information? Where do you get it? How do I have the biggest, best updates on everything I need to know? So what's your process to get there?
Yeah, I found that as the amount of information available expands, I actually try to do less. You know, when I was first starting out, the daily quest was for a copy of USA Today, because it had all those team-by-team notes that, you know, you weren't going to get anywhere else unless you started calling around. That's great. I think you know what, that's exactly right.
And the fact that it was maybe two notes on the team, that was mine from heaven, right? Not just one note, but two. Now, obviously, you go online, there's a thousand notes on the team. Right.
So I try to strip it down. What I do is I make sure I know at least a couple of details about what happened in every other game the night before. And if we're playing on the West Coast, I try to keep up while the game's going on with what's going on elsewhere as well. Because, you know, we try to take a global view on it, but I guess I'm pretty sure you guys do the same yourself.
It's not just what the Mets are doing, it's what's happening in baseball. And, you know, there's always interesting things to talk about from that standpoint. I think what's really substantially changed for the last few years is the information available about players. players in terms of not just their statistics, but the way they get there, you know, and that's particularly true with pitchers.
You know, I used to keep a mental book on pitchers and what they threw and how hard they threw and all that. Now that's all available for you when you come into a game knowing a pitcher's repertoire and knowing how often he throws a particular pitch, knowing what the velocity is expected to be, which you can then play off. You're not going to necessarily, well, he throws his fastball 72% of the time and he throws it 93.7 miles an hour, but if he comes out through a 97, you say, well, he still knows his fastball and says, well, it's a juice today. And that helps you in the course of the broadcast in terms of a pitcher you may not have had as much familiarity with going into a game in years past.
You know, and I think like everything else, you still have the ability to use the knowledge that you've accumulated over the years, which, you know, and I know especially working with guys like Keith and Ron, they have such a stockpile of that in their brain. I have it from another perspective, but they've actually been in the war, and I think you trust that. The more that you've seen, the more you trust what you see. I mean, when somebody told me yesterday that Nolan Arenado has negative runs saved this year, what does that say to me?
It says to me that the numbers can't be trusted, because you and I both know from six years of watching the guy now that he is hands down the best third base in the game. There's nobody else even close. And if there's a metric that shows that he's otherwise, well, then it's not that I don't trust Nolan Arenado, it's that I don't trust the metric, so I'm going to trust my eyes first. I'll use the metric to potentially back up what I see, but, you know, I think that people who use the numbers as a crutch to tell a story without their eyes are doing themselves a disservice.
Last one for you before we get back to work here. The other component of information in this day and age now is Twitter. And I know you don't tweet, but you'd be silly. I would think as a broadcaster not to avail yourself by the instantaneous information you can get during a game on Twitter.
Yes, I lurk, and I follow, you know, B-Riders for all the major teams and, you know, some other folks who provide good information. I try not to use it cold because I have trust issues. I try to confirm before I dive right in. But I think it's imperative because, you know, any news that's five minutes old now is old news.
So, you know, I try to keep up with what's going on without being obsessed by it. I think that's the best way to put it. All right, listen to this, everybody. This is going to be good.
Hang on. So, Gare, if people want to find you on Twitter, your handle is? And that's been Gary Cohen. I knew that wouldn't work.
Thank you, buddy. Whatever number this was, it'll be a highly rated podcast, five stars, with an Uber rating or whatever they do. By the way, if I gave out my Twitter handle, it would be of no value to anybody since I don't tweet anything. That's a good point.
So it's kind of a... Yeah, I just want people tweeting at you. You know what? I'll send out one or two a day.
You know what? It's like if you watch Lost, it's like having punch in those numbers, that code, just so the island doesn't sink. You feel like once or twice a day you just have to feed a pellet into the machine just to kind of keep that by-play going. And by you not ever engaging in that, I think you've done yourself a nice service.
I'm thinking it's more like Kimmy Schmidt cranking a bumper. It really doesn't do much. Well, yeah, with a Kimmy Schmidt reference. Not Michael Jackson, Kimmy Schmidt.
Thank you, buddy. That's Gary Cohen and his beautiful blue sweater. The man we all now know as Gare. Fantastic.
Thank you again to Gary Cohen. And by the way, a little bit later in this month, as we're going to have to fill some holes, all these off days coming up, all-star break, we're going to hear a lot from other broadcasters. We've got Howie Rose. We've got Wayne Randazzo.
We've got the great Chris Majkowski. We'll do a little behind the curtain with Chris Majkowski. We'll do Ronnie Darling, figuratively. Keith Hernandez will make a return appearance.
And I'm going to see if I can get Wayne to interview me, too, because I should not be immune if we're going to shine a light on all the broadcasters. I guess I've got to jump in there, too. So be on the lookout for that. On the off days, we'll continue to try to do this.
Brought to you by our friends at Ridgewood Savings Bank. So with Tampa Bay in town, I thought we'd do something that we did once before this year. And I think I might have been with the San Francisco Giants. Is that possible?
Did we even play the Giants yet this year? I guess it wasn't with the Giants. I can't remember who we did this with. But we went through the media guide and all our notes and tried to figure out who are the top 10 most interesting people on the team coming in, in no particular order.
Actually, I do have an order. I've alphabetized it, so it's not to tip my hand on who's more interesting than the other. Normally, Chris Archer would go first, not just alphabetically. He is a fascinating guy.
A really, really good dude with great takes on the world, almost like a Colin Kaepernick-y kind of thing with him. I know that's controversial. That's kind of a hot take. But he's very, very concerned about the social consciousness of the universe.
And I kind of like that. There's not a lot of athletes that will get right out there. But alas, Archer's on the DL. He doesn't qualify for our top 10.
So let's do this instead. I'm going to walk you through here. The top 10 most interesting men on the Tampa Bay race, so that when you come out to see them, you will know exactly who to root for or boo, if you don't like what I'm about to tell you. All right.
In alphabetical order, let's start with Jose Alvarado. Jose Antonio Alvarado Lizar Sabal. There's two Zs in that last name that he doesn't even use. He prefers to be called La Flecha.
That means the arrow. And I think that's a pretty cool nickname, actually. We are told that in his spare time, this is a guy that enjoys hunting iguanas and paca. That's a large rodent town in Central and South America.
Three-foot iguanas is what this guy hunts in his spare time. And he says they taste like everybody all together. Right, chicken. So that's Jose Alvarado.
Number nine is Christian Arroyo, infielder. Christian Israel Arroyo. He's from Tampa. And in fact, his Fernando High School team was a state semifinalist.
They lost to Jesuit, led by Lance McCulloch. Want one? He grew up an actual Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan back then. He was born two months after Tampa Bay was awarded a franchise back in March of 95.
Big Rock of Ball Deli fan. He had Ball Deli jerseys growing up. And a guy that was raised by a single mother and was basically the first hitting coach that he ever had. His mom.
And you've got to give it up to Mrs. Arroyo. She rented Williams the Science of Hitting. She attended local hitting clinics because she wanted to be able to bond with her son.
So, I mean, I think that's really, really cool. Christian Arroyo. Be on the lookout for him. A guy that came out of high school in 2013, debuting one day before Cody Bellinger did.
When he finally got to the big leagues. There you go. Number eight, we're going to give you Matt Duffy, the Duff Man. Actually, they called him Duff Man at Lakewood High School back in California where Travis Darnow used to go as well.
Remember the Simpsons character for Duff Beard, Duff Man. This guy's mom is a travel agent. So, who knows? Maybe she's arranged for all the Duffys to come in and see New York.
Another guy that goes to big books on hitting. Not the Ted Williams book. But this is a guy that swears by the Harvey Dorfman mental keys to hitting. And, of course, Harvey also did the mental ADCs of pitching.
Really, really good stuff. If you've never seen that library, I would recommend it. Harvey Dorfman served as an instructor, kind of a psychologist for a lot of teams. Sandy Alderson was the first to get him involved, by the way.
He passed away, unfortunately, in 2011, I believe it was. Let's go next to Kevin Kiermaier, the fantastic outfielder. He's a defensively gifted and got married this offseason. Again, it's kind of People Magazine kind of stuff that we're doing here.
He and his brothers, they all got married within six weeks of each other. So, that was a big expense for the Kiermaiers, I'm sure. Their wedding was held down in Tampa St. Pete at the lovely Benoit Hotel where all the teams usually stay.
The other weddings were held back in Indiana where he's from. And for the bachelor party, pole fishing. Yeah, three days of pole fishing. That's what he chose.
The best out of Kevin, who's an Indianan, big Purdue guy, that is Kevin Puecki. Kevin Kiermaier puts the Puecki fandom to shame. This is a guy, Kiermaier, who for whatever reason, even though he didn't go to Purdue, he calls himself the biggest Purdue fan in America. So, we've got that going for him, which is nice.
Next, alphabetically, we look for Austin Pruitt, P-R-U-I-T-T. Another guy that just got married this offseason. I bring this up because he chose Stonegate Mansion in Fort Worth for the wedding. And that's because I used to live there.
I can tell you, there's not in the actual mansion, but I used to live right by Fort Worth. This is a very interesting choice for where to have your wedding. This was a home that was built by the oil magnate T. Cullen Davis in the 70s, but was also the site of a really grisly unsolved double homicide.
And that is a detail that somehow alluded to the Pruitts until after the wedding. There's a reason that that mansion is available so often for weddings. And that was it. Austin Pruitt, next on our list.
Chaz Rowe. Yeah, Chaz. Seriously, C-H-A-Z is on our list of top 10 Rays to keep an eye on. Great uncle is Bill Masarossi.
That's number one. I mean, so right there that qualifies. His dad was a football player at the University of Kentucky. And once made a solo tackle against Herschel Walker, Kentucky against Georgia.
So that's good. And Chaz Rowe is a guy who actually made his big league debut against the Mets years ago when he was with Arizona. But this is a fellow that had to go to Laredo in very deep in the heart of Texas to play independent ball just to keep that flickering hope of a big league career alive. He was a Laredo lemur in 2012.
And now he has a Tampa Bay Rays. So good on him. Got to mention Sergio Romo on our list of most interesting Rays. Former Giants and a guy.
You probably know a little bit of his story. His dad was born to a Mexican farm laborer who immigrated to the U.S. when Frank Romo was just a baby. Sergio Romo really deep into that Mexican culture while living in Brawley, California.
And that's a tough way to go. I mean, there's a lot of gang stuff going on there that he'd somehow stayed away from. And as a high school sophomore, was a star DMX bike rider. Saved up 400 bucks from his paper route to buy a bike.
But then he crashed it, landed on his head, had a concussion. Doctors thought he was paralyzed. So the fact that he's even playing baseball and has done it very well for many years is kind of a cool thing. He, of course, used to be a closer for the Giants and heavily tattooed.
Kind of been there, done that, been through it all guy. Tough guy not to root for. Sergio Romo. One of those tattoos is a melting face.
It's really disturbing. He says it represents his fear of letting his life go to waste. So every time he looks at the melting face on his bicep, he remembers he should probably read the book. Mentioned that Ryan Stanek is going to be making the start at least for one inning on the game tonight.
He qualifies. Ryan Stanek was named for Ryan Sandberg, which if he was born into a family of Cubs fans makes a lot of sense. He was actually born into a family of Cardinals fans in St. Louis.
That is really, really weird. I mean, that would be like a Mets fan naming a firstborn Hutley or something like that. This is a guy who has this. This is a New York connection.
I'm going to throw this out there and you guys can decide if this is a thing or not. But in his college days back at the University of Arkansas, apparently he and his teammates were eating breakfast at the Huddle House on the Ole Miss campus and then they realized they were seated across from Eli Manning. Eli Manning and his whole family. So he's kind of a New Yorker, I guess.
You know, tie in Eli. Two to go on our Tampa Bay list of most interesting. Jesus Sucre, the backup catcher. Nothing super interesting about him except the name, which directly translated is, are you with me on this?
Sweet Jesus. I mean, I'm not trying to be weird. That's it. If you translate the name, that's what it is.
Finally, let's go to Hunter Wood. Long-haired reliever, kind of a Robert Guzelman look-alike, and a guy that is big on training English Springer Spaniels and other waterfowl hunting dogs. That's his off-season thing. He works with a small number of dogs every day.
Heavily tattooed, just like Guzelman. I just don't think that Guzelman's really into breeding and training English Springer Spaniels. So I don't know if you guys like this segment or not. I just figure every once in a while when there's a team we haven't seen in forever, and the Mets and Rays obviously play only every other, what, every three years, just a little something you can elbow your buddy about when you're in the stands this weekend and hopefully remember some of that and say, oh yeah, that guy.
Sweet Jesus. So the Rays, as we continue to peruse their stats here for you, I guess we'll make that what's brewing for today. It's brought to you by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, making a big-time comeback later this year, returning to your neighborhood under new ownership, but still, as always, serving the finest premium coffees from around the world, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It is going to be a cast of thousands in this opener, but then Blake Snell, 11-4, with a 2.24 ERA, very DeGrom-ian at that point.
And let's talk about DeGrom, who will be up against that Tampa Bay mish-mash. This has always been, of course, the Mets have been a franchise built around pitching, and DeGrom has been performing like a killer in that history here. The question becomes, do you keep him? And by keep, I mean renew, give him a big contract going forward, or do you trade him while the stock is really, really high?
Mickey Calloway was pitching coach for the Indians when they extended Corey Kluber for five years. He was 29 then. DeGrom just turned 30. They gave Kluber five years, 38.5 million.
Now, I would think Mickey Calloway knows the value of a Cy Young pitcher. Mickey has said, having Jacob DeGrom on your staff is essential to you winning. So why trade him? He would be very hard to replace.
If you get five really, really good players, you still wouldn't be able to replace what DeGrom does every day. That's what Mickey said a couple weeks ago, saying, this guy's irreplaceable. Let's see if the Mets new brain trust agrees with that. If you're going out of market to see the Mets, and actually that's not going to be for a while, because we mentioned the Mets are home for the next 11 games, but at some point you're going to need a hotel room.
Make sure you've got a hotel tonight as the app on your phone. That is what to do and where to go, and how you do it is very simple. You just trace the letter H that they give you on the phone, and it's pretty much bing, bang, boom. You book a room in 10 seconds.
Three taps, a swipe, you're done. Perfect thing if you're busy, you don't want to overthink things, you can trust you're getting a great deal at a great place. That is Hotel Tonight Super Invention. We thank them for their support.
So the Mets, again, entertaining a 43-43 outfit tonight, Saturday, which is a DeGrom giveaway, by the way. First 25,000, get a Jacob DeGrom bobblehead, we should mention that. And then the Mets and Rays again on Sunday with Stephen S. on the mound, and then the Mets will get ready to welcome in the Phillies.
Maybe we'll do a top 10 Phillies, too. I think Gabe Kapler's probably one through eight all by himself, the manager. But if you guys like this segment, let me know. If you hate this segment, let me know that, too, and we'll, you know, I like doing what you guys want to do.
It's a podcast for all of us. I just happen to be driving the car. Drive safely, be well. Thanks for listening.
Hope you enjoyed the Gare interview. And again, as promised, we'll have a little bit more from the broadcasters later this month. The ramblings are over. The podcast is over.
This is Josh Lewin. Have a wonderful day. See you tonight. Bye-bye.
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