Yankees Early Season Performance and Outlook

It's the Mike Francesa Podcast on the Bat Rivers Network. Hello again, everybody, and welcome to the Mike Francesa Podcast, part of the Bet Rivers Network. We come to you after Game When. Well, game one hasn't even wrapped up yet, but it wrapped up a long time ago. Uh as the Knicks draw first blood against the Sixers. And I didn't do a preview on the series because um I thought this game would be a very hard game for the Sixers to win. Um and I thought the Knicks were gonna win the series like everybody else. The Knicks were very, very heavy favorites in the series. Um it was gonna be hard for the Sixers who have really a six-man team and have a very, very talented but very brittle and fragile center. Uh to give a big effort in game one. I doubt the coaching staff turned the screws between their celebratory game in Boston and game one , uh, figuring that if they could give a good effort in game two, maybe something good could happen and then they'll head down to Philly and see if they can make a series of it. Um the Knicks what you like about the Knicks right now is and tonight obviously the shots fell. Brunson got hot early. He had the flurry before the half. That really put the game away. Um they made their shots. Uh it was a very lazy i if you've watched Philly, it's a very lazy , listless game. Um and Bede looked like he was having trouble moving all night. Um they threw you know other than George, they they just really were off their game. Maxie was off his game. They were all off their game and uh it showed right from the start. But the one thing to say about this Knicks team is the Knicks turned the corner in the Atlanta series and they are bringing it defensively in these g ames. And the other teams are having trouble dealing with that right now. And then when you couple that with the way OG's playing and how confident he is offensively, okay. Um now again when you're playing a game that's really over at halftime, stats are a little tough to look at. I mean, I know Brunson scores 35, but OG , he missed one shot tonight. Okay, he has been playing utterly brilliantly. I mean, he didn't go to the re to the board tonight. He'd been going to the board very well. He didn't have to do anything tonight. I mean, they didn't have to do anything tonight after the second quarter because the game was already over. And obviously the Knicks are going on to somewhere around a 35 or 38 point win in this game tonight. Um uh they're playing very cohesively . They're playing very well . They're getting uh a lot out of towns. Bridges looks more like he has rejoined the fold . Uh Hart's doing what you expect Hart to do. Anything you get from him offensively is gravy. Uh and you're getting really good offensive play out of obviously Brunson, obviously OG, obviously Towns , uh, and getting two way play from a lot of guys and right now they are playing very, very well. Um The Knicks right now should be heavily favored to get to the finals. I do not think they'll win the finals. I've said that all along. I don't think anybody thinks you know, I'm not saying the diehard Nick fan doesn't think they have a chance, but it's gonna be a long shot. They're gonna be a very uh decisive underdog, but that's fine. Forget that. The idea this year is to get to the finals and then take your best shot. And I think things set up very well for them . Cleveland is a puzzle to me. They should be better. But I'm not a Harden guy. If if you've listened to me through years, you know I'm I I am not a Harden guy in any way . Um but Cleveland is just a puzzle. They really are. Detroit will try hard. They'll bang, they'll play defense. Cunningham is really good. But and I thought uh Harris played really well in the Orlando series, and Orlando gave that series away. I mean, gave it away, but in game six, but they don't have a legitimate bona fide guy they can count on to score other than their star. And it's not enough. It's just not enough. Against a good team, it's really not enough . And I would think Cleveland would beat them, but I don't know what to make of Cleveland right now. And I'm talking about Mitchell, I'm talking about Harden, I'm talking about, you know, Allen was enthusiastic last night, uh, really enthusiastic last night, but not always the case. Uh just so puzzling . The Knicks are without question the best team in the East. I mean, it's not even an issue anymore. Um will Philly have its moments in the series? They might. It'll depend on Embiid. They'll get good games out of Maxie . George will do what George does. Edgum will have some good games shooting the basketball. But it's gonna be whether Embiid can play like Embi id . And you know, it seems like every other trip down the court is it is hold your breath. He looks like he's going to keel over half the time. It's his knee, it's his side, it's his back, it's this. He's a wonderfully talented player. He's really an unstoppable offensive player because he can make the outside shot and he can get fouls and nobody can really handle him. He's a very big man and he's a very talented man, but he's also an incredibly brittle player . And it's hard to see him doing it game in and game out. Now, tonight he got a you know a game where he didn't have to do much . They called the dogs off early. Uh he got some rest . I'm sure it'll be different in game two . Uh, but the bottom line is without him playing to the level of where he's scoring 30 points and getting 10 rebounds and uh and fouling out towns and fouling out Robinson . Philly's not gonna beat the Knicks. That's all there is to it. And now the Knicks are one game up and it listen, you take it one game at a time . And I know a lot of people were bailing out early in the Atlanta series. And Atlanta posed a couple of problems they weren't ready for, but they adjusted to it and they did what they had to do to Atlanta and they completely took over the series and dominated it. And right now they continue to play that kind of dominating basketball. I mean, these kind of playoff games are no fun, let's be honest. This game's over with the half. There's no intensity. The fourth quarter's all going when you're when you're going to a playoff game and the entire fourth quarter is garbage time, I mean it's not very exciting, but hey, a win's a win. That's all you you know, that's the only way you can look at it. In the West, I would be very surprised if we don't get the OKC San Antonio matchup that we expect to get . I look forward to that series. I think everybody who likes basketball will look forward to that series. Hopefully, Wemby's healthy. Hopefully OK C is healthy, and we get a a a series played on a very high level there. And they are two very talented teams, there's no question. And obviously , OKC , you know, if they had one team that gave them any trouble, it obviously San Antonio. So we'll see how that unfolds. But I expect to see OKC in the final. And anything ex cept the final for the Knicks will be a bitter disappointment. I think having a final in this town will be a very big deal. A very big deal. And you know, the one thing you know historically is you get to a final and you just don't know so many times through the years, an injury , a weird injury, you know, a sprained ankle, a collision, somebody goes down, or whatever, a shoulder, this, that. The bottom line is it can change the face of a series dramatically. So you just never know . And that's why you got to get there. And right now the Knicks took their first step to get there in in an effort where there's really not much to analyze tonight. I mean, let's be honest. I mean uh thirty-five points in thirty minutes for Brunson, OG continues his incredibly efficient scoring . Towns , you know, again, you're talking about towns tonight playing 20 minutes. You're talking about these guys basically all playing half the game tonight. So there's not really anything to discuss. Uh, as the Knicks roll up big numbers and put up game number one. A couple things here now . I Obviously the story of the day, I didn't come on and do anything about it because I think that it was handled so uh so well in so many places and it really is a baseball thing because that's where John Silling lived, uh and very much a Yankee thing. Uh I did go on with Dog today to discuss John who you know we knew I knew John. I knew John before I did the fan . Um I talked today about how I listened to him when I was a little boy. He used to do a talk show on WMCA. I listened to it when I was in grammar school . I listened to it a lot . There's no question. And I was like, wow, you know, and I that's was more than anybody else in town. That was really my foray into sports talk radio was Sterling Show. I still remember, you know, and mimicked the commercial, you know, La Vergolant. You know, if you go back with the show, you understand what that means. Um what I said about him today was, you know, I knew him through a lot of his broadcasting jobs and he had a lot of them. He was an accomplished play-by-play guy. He had great pipes. Uh he had a lot of jobs . And then he landed the job or wound up in the job. And I think for a long time he had his on television, but you know what? The radio job for the Yankees was the spot because the play-by-play guy, as you know, gets completely cut out in the postseason. And that's what this is about. And that's what really made him. He was there for all those years. He was there with all those winning teams. He was there with all those wonderful players. And he got to do dramatic game after dramatic game after winning game after winning game and be there for eight World Series. Do you have any broadcasters dream of being a part of eight World Series ? And winning five World Series and think of all the rounds of the playoffs as that has become part of modern baseball. Think of all the dramatic moments that led up, that led up to those trips to the World Series. And he was there for every one of them. He never missed a game. He would miss a game under any circumstances. Most years he did nine innings. A couple times he had broadcasters in the booth with him who would do a couple innings. But for the most part, it was a sterling broadcast . And he found his home in that booth because it was it was the perfect stage for his kind of broadcasting. And he broadcast in a different way. The way I would describe it is and a lot of people criticized how he did it, because he did he wasn't the techno broadcaster, the you know, the very technical, very precise broadcaster that a Gary Cohn would be, who's flawless, or Howie Rose would be. He was a guy who looked big picture. He didn't follow the ball. He didn't tell you who was doing what. He didn't where the ball was half the time, but he gave you the big picture and he was there for the big moment. He was a big moment guy. And then obviously the home run, which I've said many times , dog had a big part of cause he was the first one who really started playing the Sterling highlights. And I know the highlight that it started with, it wasn't even a home run, ironically. It was Bernie goes boom. And I was so enamored with the triple Bernie hit that night against Tampa and the call that we played it over and over and over again that day. And John was a talk show guy. He loved doing talk shows. He wanted to always do talk shows on FN. He was a huge Mike and the Mare dog follower. And he loved if when he was driving to the ballpark, we were talking about him or playing his highlights. Well then off the Bernie goes boom, triple . Dog started really playing his highlights a lot , his home run highlights, and then I think he started crafting those because of the response he was getting. And then later all the shows picked it up. And then obviously it became part and parcel of his signature to create one for every player. And what was the one going to be for the new player, for the new star, for this, for that. And that became his cottage industry . As was the trademark the Yankees win. And the Yankees won a lot when he was behind the microphone as the legitimate voice of the Yankees . He was there forever. He did every game. He did almost every inning of every game . And he was for a lot of Yankee fans who forgave him some of his different ways of broadcasting and really got into the drum the drama and the entertainment and all the excitement that he brought. And remember, he was blessed with an incredibly good voice. So this became his life. And this became his legacy . And that's what everybody is honoring today. And I think from what I've seen they've done from the Yankees to Major League Baseball to other broadcasters to everybody in town who's in the media, I think everybody has done a very nice job in being very And uh doing a very nice job in in really honoring him . Now it's a sad day when anybody goes, obviously. Uh he had been very sick lately, he had suffered a heart attack, I knew that. Um It's never enough years no matter how many years it is for anyb ody. He was 87 years old. He worked up until the last couple of years when physically things started to deteriorate. He had some other issues even before the heart attack . Um, to where he physically couldn't do it anymore. Because it was going to take that for him to leave. He was never going to leave otherwise. His voice was never going to fail him. Even if his eyesight was failing him, his voice was never going to fail him. And he leaves a legacy. There's no question. And a legion of Yankee fans who loved , loved those calls and cherished those calls on a cold winter night when there was no baseball. But and and a way to look back on all those great Yankee games and all those great Yankee uh wins and all the dramatic moments , all the big h ome runs, all the things that we lived through. And let's be honest . From 95, which was a heartbreaking year , through the early years of the 2000 s really changing with that crushing loss to the Red Sox in 04. Yes, they won a championship in 09, and that was a very important championship on a lot of levels. But fromrom 9 6 to 04, they were an incredible show . They won all the time. They were in it all the time . They were the team. And he was not only a part of that, he was the soundtrack of that . And that was a great time here. I mean, I think back to 9 6, the pink Cadillac, the Incredible Ride. I think back to what went on in 9 8 and 99, and even 2000, where the Subway series left us high and dry . It was not as it was not as impressive or as exciting as we thought it would be . But we still had that moment. And then everything that went on in 2001 , both in New York and around New York and everything else, through the disappointments , well, the positive then the negative of O three, the The crushing collapse in 04 . Still , he was there for every bit of this. And Yankee fans grew up with him . He's what they knew. He's what they listened to, whether they were in their cars , had the radio under their pillow, in the backyard , at the beach, at the game, whatever it would be, or just reliving the moments of the game it was with a sterling call . So he created an enormous legacy legacy for the for himself and that's what everybody honors today . So rest in peace. He had a terrific life. I'm sure and he should be and his family should be and his kids should be very proud of . And you know the best thing they can say about you in this business if you're a broadcaster is that you brought a unique quality . You were different. There was nobody like you. And I think that's true, John . John was different. There was nobody like John . He was eccentric, he was dramatic, he had a flair. He was very colourful in his life. I mean just I laughed because knowing him personally you you would you would laugh at some of the stuff but um the impact he had was clearly illustrated very , very poignantly today and very well today in the in our city and throughout baseball. I saw it on the Met game with uh with Gary and Keith who came back from his back surgery and I'm glad to see Keith back and healthy um or getting healthy um through major league baseball through what dog did through what the Yankees did for the game through what everybody did. So may he rest in peace. Um I can tell that the Yankee fan is starting to develop a smugness about this team . And they are off to a very nice thought. Power and pitching. Power and pitching. How many times have we been down this road? Power and pitching. And they are just overwhelming these overmatched teams when they come to Yankee Stadium, whether it's Kansas City or Baltimore or whatever. They just you know, they just they overwhelm these teams. Their starting pitching is so much better, their power is so much more poignant, and then they later in the game they get the bullpen and just beat the hell out of it and blow the game wide open. We've seen it time and time again. But does it mean they're gonna have a big summer? Yes. Does it mean you Yankee fans are gonna be there in August and July at a sunny Yankee Stadium on a Thursday afternoon or a Saturday afternoon or a or a Sunday afternoon or a Friday night and you know, be just having a ball as they pound on some poor team. Yes. Are they going to go to the postseason? Yes. And then we're going to find out if they can do what they haven't been able to do for a long time. And that is win the big one. And beat the good team . They can't prove that now. They can't prove that to us now . They are winning and things have fallen into place and they have reinforcements on the way . Okay, judges off to another I know his batting averages and what people like, but still his power and what he's doing is judge. Rice has become one of the top left-handed hitters in baseball. He doesn't have a position , but he well really, but he has become just an a impressive dynamic offensive player. There's no question about it . And obviously what they've gotten out of their starting pitching and what they have and what they will get back Makes you very, very happy and you look at the American League and say, where's the threat coming from? There might be a threat by the end of the season . There might be one. There's not gonna be a lot of them, but they might be one . And then the question is can they win it all? Because that's what it takes for this to be successful. I think if they have a season where they win a hundred and three games or a hundred and two games and then go in the postseason and don't win the whole thing. The Yankee fan will be disappointed again . He's gonna take this season along the way for granted. He's watching right now as they continue just to pound and pound and pound on these teams day after day, day after day. You know , let's be honest. Baltimore comes in and has no chance against them. Kansas City comes in and has no chance against them. I mean, that's just the way it is . And Tampa has put together an incredible season right now so far. Really uh give them credit, but Tampa's taken this road before. And I think Seattle, which has gotten off to a slow start, will get better as the season progresses. And they'd be the one that I would think would provide the biggest threat. I don't know what Toronto's going to be able to put together this year. They got some issu es . But it's going to be a post-season question while cross-town . It's going to be life and death. And I understand that you've won a couple of games here, but the Angels are awful and Colorado you had to return the favor . This is a trip that should be successful . And there's a lot of ground, a lot of ground to make up and a lot of things that have to get better in a hurry before anyone can get excited about what's going on over there . So you take I take that all with a grain of salt until I see a lot more. A lot more . But this town over the next six weeks is going to be owned by one team . Every step they make, every game they play. And right now they are on the fast track to the NBA finals, which is something I know Nick fans have dreamed about for a very, very long time. We'll see you later. Thanks for listening to the Mike Francesa Podcast on the Bet Rivers Network.