ED/BC Podcast
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ED/BC Podcast
Remembering John Sterling, the Voice of the New York Yankees
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Erik and Brian remember the legendary broadcaster John Sterling, who passed away this week. Erik shares his personal story of conversations he had with Sterling. Later, it’s the NBA Finals or bust for the New York Knicks.
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The ED/BC Podcast. You think you hate it now, but wait until you listen to it.
Welcome back to another edition of the EDBC podcast. Yes, we're starting off with some sad news. Brian, you heard some calls there from John Sterling at the top of the show there. Uh longtime radio broadcaster John Sterling. We're taping this on uh, I don't know, what is it, Monday night? And uh passed away uh earlier this morning and uh you know sent waves for shock uh shock waves through social media, Brian. And um my first thoughts were, man, just like anything else, you know, too many of these things are happening now at our age where people that were really the voices of our youth are passing away, and it's sad, man.
SPEAKER_02Really is. Yeah, and uh but John, you know, John 87 years old, so this is a guy who who lived the the life out of life, had a good life. Um and I mean you think about it, Eric, he just retired, what was it, a year ago, a year and change. So he really will he lived his life in the booth because what he wanted to do. That sounds like a great way to make a life. It's a great thing to do for life for your life, is just to be able to be in that sports booth for all those years. And uh, yeah, it was sad, but uh uh you just sort of even though you know he was older and he was having health issues, it's still you're still you don't you can't expect, even if it's not a shock, it was still so so sad to hear surprise.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and listen, he wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and get that right out of the way. I mean, he John had his uh mistakes over the years, obviously, but um you know the thing I liked about him with Brian is he didn't care. Like he was who he was, he didn't change for anybody. Uh uh Susan Wallman did some interviews today, and uh uh I heard some other people say Michael Kay, uh, you know, he did not hate criticism. He didn't like to be criticized by the Phil Mushnics of the world and all that. But then when he saw people on the streets, told them they loved him and were doing his home run calls, that made it all worth it. I mean, he was a homer's homer, man. And someone else mentioned this, I thought was a great point. He was the perfect transition from Phil Rozuto. He really was.
SPEAKER_02That's a great point. And I never thought of it that way because you know, when I was growing up, when I was a kid, uh, and I didn't live like right next to Yankee, it wasn't right in the Yankee area, but yeah, I mean, Phil Rizzuto was like, oh, that's the money store guy, that's the Yankee guy. And that's like sort of, and not that John wasn't one of those endorsement guys like Phil was, you know, it wasn't working for me. He was known for play. Like that's like, okay, that's that's that's he's that generation's Phil Rizzuto. You know, and you know, I'm sure, you know, I'm forgetting who the who the the back in the 60s, the play by play guy. But like every generation, if you're a sports fan, do you have one or two of those guys? And they mean a lot to you because you listen to them all the time. And if you're especially if you listen listen to them in your younger years, you're growing up, that stuff never leaves you. You might forget what you did last week or who you talked to last week, but you won't remember those moments and those listening to those guys and do what they did best.
SPEAKER_03And listen, man, I can remember listening to Jim Carvallis, who was doing the Knicks games back in the day, you know, Bullseye when they hit a shot. I mean, uh, those were just the voices, those are the people I wanted to be. You know, and I just I think I've told you just for a quick anecdote. I said this on the air today. You know, when I was graduating UConn, Brian, one of my college advisors in the journalism department said, before you leave here, send a letter or two out to people that you you know you want to be in this industry. I sent a letter and an email, uh, uh an email, a letter into my resume to John Sterling, care of Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York. Two weeks later, got a phone call on a Saturday afternoon at four o'clock, as John Sterling spent 35 minutes on the phone with me talking about career choices and giving me some advice. And I was actually the one who ended the phone call, Brian, because I said, uh, John, don't you have a seven o'clock game time? Oh my God, I lost track of time talking to you. I gotta get going. You know, and that was John. Like he just he was a giving guy. I mean, Susan Wallman said it today. The guy did not have uh was not mean spirited, like did not have a mean bone in his body, no, no guile. Like he just he didn't know how to be mean. And he just he lived life. He was a bachelor's bachelor, he was married for a while, had four kids, but you know, got divorced. And he was your prototypical go out on the town, you know, the Bill Raftery type, Brian. Sure, because you know, close the bars at three o'clock in the morning, sleep till noon. Pick up the check, yeah. Yeah. So and I know people that you know socialized with him and said that he liked to have a couple of cocktails, loved going to a he was the type that loved to go to that old steakhouse in New York. You know, he wanted to go have a big piece of steak, probably medium rare. Medium rare. He liked to have a couple of martinis, yeah, Manhattan or something. Yeah, and then they said the other thing, Brian, on the way home, he'd smoke a joint. That's right. Right up until the very end. That was his life.
SPEAKER_02You know, and he was again, you know, he was a New York guy through and through, born born in New York, born on July 4th. I didn't know that. July 4th, night uh uh in New York. Um same birthday as Steinbrenner. Same birthday as Steinbrenner. Uh, you know, uh that was that's a great point by you. And a New York guy, of course, he uh, you know, let's he did the we're we're talking about him because he was the voice of the Yankees for the last 30 something years. Uh I guess yeah, like 89, 89, 90 was it? I'm looking at the 35 years, yeah. Yeah, so um, but before that, he was in the 70s. He he was one of those guys in the 70s. And if you go, folks, remember the 70s? I don't know if you know this, and like Eric and I were a little young for this, but I remember some of it. They were looking at harder than 37 major leagues in the 70s. You had like world log soccer, you had uh the ABA, the NBA, you had the you know, the Wolf. Yeah, yeah. Uh and and John was uh, you know, John did the old ABA New Joe New York Nets games.
SPEAKER_01Yep, Dr.
SPEAKER_02Bullets, young Dr. J, Baltimore Bullets, you know, NBA team there, yeah. Um the Islanders did the lot of Islanders games, yeah. Uh so he had his and then again, people forget the. Graves and the Hawks. There was a great yeah, the Hawks, there's two great clips today, one of which I heard before, one uh two both of which I heard before, and they both involved my teams. The Rick Camp home run in July, I think that was it, I believe was a July July 4th came, John's birthday. 3 30 in the morning, Rick Camp, who had a batting average of lifetime average of 067. And John says, if they hit a home run, if Rick Camp hits a home run and ties this game, this will be the most, this will be legitimately the most game I've ever seen ever. Craziest game you've ever seen. And he hits still and he has a great call. I'm not gonna name John Sterling. He had a great call. And then he did the um did the Hawks, and they were playing the clip of Larry Bird's uh 60-point game against the Atlanta Hawks, where it was so Larry Bird was so on fire, the Hawks were like laughing on the bench because they couldn't believe this guy was this hot, and John had a couple great calls. So, but I mean at the end of the day, he's his first on his tombstone, obviously, and I hate to talk about it, but it's like, hey man, this guy was the voice of the the most iconic franchise in North American sports for what generation. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it's funny, one of the other things that I saw was um, you know, when he got to the Yankees, they were bad. I listen to all those games, Brian. You you you go through with your team, and there when your team is bad and there's really no reason to listen, if you got a broadcaster that's gonna keep you into it, and that's what John had to do in those early days. I mean, he had Jay Johnstone as a partner, I think, when he first started. Then obviously Michael Kay. But uh there was, I think it was 1992, he told a story that on the air he said something about the Yankee players, like they gotta they the players gotta play better, like blah, blah, blah. It's on them. Like, Kim, don't blame you know, whoever. It's the players. They stink. And Steinbrenner saw him the next day and said, as long as I own this team, you'll be the voice of the Yankees. If anybody tries to get rid of you, I'll veto it. And he liked that he was honest with the team of all things, George, you know. But um, yeah, he had a great run when they got better. I mean, talk about a couple years of bad, and then just you know, they're in the playoffs every year. That's all you want as an announcer is a chance. That's all you want.
SPEAKER_02Well, you're right. He me he sort of had that first eight or nine years where they were um really within their worst stretch, late 80s, early 90s, four four years.
SPEAKER_03Like four years.
SPEAKER_02And then, yeah, so early nineties, and then around mid-90s, you get uh, you know, the buck show alternates when those kids start prospering, you know, and he that had to be fun too, because you're coming, you saw it from both ends. You saw sort of like you had to sit through the garbage, the garbage. Yeah, but you get to see these the what was turned out really to be in an era of free agency when George would spend, you know, by any free agent. It's actually a homegrown team for the most part, that he got to watch it sort of share with the fans, so that had to be pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03No coincidence that was only because of George was not with the team because he had been uh banished from the sport for getting in trouble for a couple years, so he couldn't trade away all the prospects, et cetera. But yeah, listen, he uh, you know, uh funny, we talked about on the air today. Ann Nyberg asked me, why was he so successful? Like, why did he last so long? And I just said to her, because he was good at it. Like he was entertaining. Like Aaron Judge said it tonight, he brought Broadway to baseball. He was a theater guy. And and I don't know if you knew this, Brian, but the guy during in between innings would read books. He had a book on his desk. In between innings, he was reading books. Can you blame him? It's a long season. Some of these baseball games get tiresome. Uh he just was, and I'll I'll never forget too. We met him a couple times at the stadium, and I told him the story I told you about him calling me. And and then I he would just like I remember sitting in the Bob Shepherd dining hall upstairs a few years back, and he just comes kind of moseying in, always dressed to the nines, always had a suit on, and just kind of humming like a show tune to himself, just kind of bouncing around, putting getting some food, getting his cup of coffee and going back to the booth. But everyone just kind of was in awe of him as he walked around because he just was such a quirky, I don't want to say eccentric, but just kind of a different guy. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02I mean you you're you you wolf him down stakes, you'd you're you're smoking a dube on the way back to your apartment. That's okay. That's okay to be nothing wrong with being a little eccentric.
SPEAKER_03So And he loved New York. He just loved New York, he loved everything about it, he loved the action, and you know, it just uh listen, you know what? It's a celebration of life, guys. You know, both of us would have signed up for that life in a heartbeat. You know what I mean? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, so uh it doesn't go away. So he's gone and but you know, that doesn't go away, it'll be around forever. Um it's one of those cool things about being, you know, in that position. You're you're always gonna your legacy goes nowhere, it lives forever.
SPEAKER_03100%. And we'll segue real quick. Uh I know you were gonna we'll talk about the NBA and stuff in a second, but the Yankees did do a nice thing tonight. They put flowers on home plate. Uh Michael Kay and Susan Waldman, his two radio partners, put flowers at home plate. They had a long moment of sil uh moment of silence for him. And then, of course, Aaron Drudge hits a two-run homer in the first inning, and Michael Kay gives it the it is high, it is far, it is go on home run call, a judgy and blast, all rise, you know, the whole thing. So, and I think you heard it too. A lot of uh baseball announcers are doing it. And I told you this in a uh text earlier. I'm I'm going to an event tonight and I'm listening to the Mets, and I don't know which one it was, Keith Rad is Keith Rad. But Mark Fianto Mark Fientos hit a bomb. It actually worked out. Mark Fientos had a bomb to left, and he gave it to his highest far as caught at the wall. And you heard a lot of those over the years, Brian. You heard a lot of those.
SPEAKER_02I give, you know, Keith Radd is, and God bless him, because this is a kid. I mean, I call him a kid because he's like 27 years old and he's already called Major League Baseball Games in New York and New York. And uh I mean, uh now you would think he would, and I'm not saying like all 26 year olds are in their input, a lot of them are, but like obviously he knew some history there. Maybe Keith, maybe Harry Rose knows it. Maybe Keith is just the loves that loves baseball. But the fact that the one of the younger announcers just sort of stepped into it, I gotta give him credit. And you know what? You think about a guy like that, a young guy like that, 30, 40 years from now, somebody might be talking about a Keith Rat or somebody else, the way you and I are talking about sterling. I'll listen to him like somebody'll somebody's kid if they're still kids are still paying attention to baseball. But I listened to that guy all the time when I was growing up. It's kind of the cool part about baseball. You have it, you know.
SPEAKER_03You just hope radio exists for 20 years. You know, that's the problem. It's gonna be all it'll be streaming somewhere. You'll be listening, you know. And listen, Brian, how long is AM radio gonna be in our cars? I mean, there's a next generation of cars that probably don't even have a radio in it. It's just gonna be you plugging your iPhone into it and listening to whatever you want off of that. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02If it wasn't for old guys like us, I if you know, if I uh I wouldn't even know where to find the AM if it wasn't for the Mets games. And I don't know what that says about me, but there's a lot of guys like us still like still out there. I mean, we are old. I mean, you you you you sort of mentioned it earlier on. You sent a letter when you got out of college to John's job. Yeah, because you couldn't send a damn email.
SPEAKER_03Well, and listen, and John was not a tech savvy guy either. I mean, he he just did not have any interest in technology, had a flip phone cell phone to the day he died. Susan Weldman said she bought him an iPad a few years ago. It was still in the box at the booth. Uh the Yankees bought him like a 70-inch TV for his goal one of his going away presence so he can watch the game. And uh Susan said it was still at the stadium. He never brought it home. You know, that's just that's just John. But he was a big sports fan, man. They I think Michael Skay said the same thing. You know, if John was home tonight, he'd have the Yankee game on, the Met game on, and the Nick game on. That's what he'd be doing, you know. So and the other thing I wanted to mention real quick too, Brian, just because you know, life can be cruel too at times, you know. Guy had a heart attack in January, was not doing well, was going through rehab, um had kind of lost the use of his legs, he'd been bedridden, and he'd been going to rehab. And Kay told a great story too. I don't know if you saw it, but um sterling him and working hard in rehab because he wanted to have the ability to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle this summer. His oldest his oldest daughter was getting married this summer, and he said, I have to make it for my daughter's wedding because I need I need to walk her down the aisle. So and Kay lost it on the air. It was very a really nice moving tribute, but it was just like kind of says who John is, and unfortunately he won't get to do that.
SPEAKER_02But um if you're a girl dadd, I am. That that that hits home, that hits way too close to home.
SPEAKER_03I'm that's too bad. Yeah, so anyway, but John Sterling, 87 years young. Uh again, a great life, saw some great, some great baseball over the last 25-30 years, and uh he will certainly be missed. Uh as for the state of the current teams, Brian, the Red Sox kind of spinning their wheels. Uh the Mets are surging a little bit. Uh you knew that. Three out of four, baby. We are back. Yes. You knew they weren't going to play this bad forever. Um some of these guys were gonna start to hit. Uh the pitching's still a little bit of a problem. You hope that Christian Scott gives you a shot in the arm. You hope that Clay Holmes keeps doing what he's doing. You just you you you kind of want small victories, Brian, is the I was what I would say with your team. Um the one misstep I will tell you that uh listen, I'm not trying to pile on, but but David Stearns is a is a jackass. He really is a jackass. I mean, the idea that What do you mean, you got an argument from me? The idea, well, just a small little it's inside baseball. But like the idea that he he gives MLB.com a scoop about hiring Mendoza back, I really pissed off all the writers. And I don't blame him, man. Like he he he gives it to one guy that Mendoza's gonna be coming back, like his job's not in jeopardy. And several of the beat guys were really pissed off about that. And they just thought it was another way of Stern's show, and he's small and doesn't know how it works in the in in a big market like New York City. I was nitpicking. I'm nitpicking, but am I overreacting? Probably, but it pissed a lot of people off in the New York City media that he picked MLB.com to give that to.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't think it's wrong at all. I think, and again, I'm you know, just and I I grew up I live in the New York area, I grew up in Boston, which are huge sports media towns, and there are certain people you sort of should be taking care of. Uh and it doesn't have to be just big-time columnists. For a guy like David Stearns, the people he should be taking care of are the beat writers that are in the damn locker room every damn day and are traveling with this stupid team every damn road trip. So, you know, that's who you should be building relationships with.
SPEAKER_03This isn't like a it's not rocket science. Make the trip west, do a press conference in the dugout, say Carlos Mendoza's the manager. We're not playing well, but it's not his fault. He's gonna have his job for the rest of the season. Then everyone gets it at the same time, but instead you you know you do a phone call at 7 o'clock in the morning with mlb.com and give it to them instead. So again, a nitpick, but the Mets are playing better, that's the most important thing. Mark Fientos is swinging a hot bat. He's still a butcher at first base. Oh my god, he had a rough weekend.
SPEAKER_02He was born to be a DH, which always bums me out when baseball players can't do half of half of what's required baseball players to do.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, and I like go ahead. No, and again, I was gonna say if he keeps swinging a hot bat and the Mets are kind of hovering on 500, he'd be somebody you'd have to make a decision about the trade deadline. He would be very easy.
SPEAKER_02If David if David uh if David Stearns was replaced by me tomorrow, I would have no problem. That'd be a very easy decision, Brian Coleman, the general manager to make. But I'm a dumbass emotional fan, which is a good thing. I don't have Steve Cohn's FU money and I can't buy a team. Meanwhile, I'm lucky the Yankees tonight, you know, 3-0 against Baltimore. And Eric, I'm enjoying this take from the weekend that I I mean, listen, I'm now you're gonna think I'm trolling here, but the Anthony Volpe sent down after spending a long time on the D on the I. L and they sent him down. And you would have thought the Yankees brought Jesus Christ himself back to life to throw out the first pitch. The Yankees have made a bold decision. This is not the Yankees of old. They are not fooling around, they are not being sentimental. This is not business as usual. Anthony Volpe is going down because uh Carabello, if I'm saying his name right, has earned the right to be up here and the Yankees are making the right decisions. This is not the same old Yankees. Well, hallelujah. They sent down an underperforming uh borderline MLB player who, like at the Brett Bates of the world, have had one or two good months in the major leagues. Crush you, what if they you know that they brought back Cy Young?
SPEAKER_03Listen, uh, my only pushback would be it's 100% right, though. All of our general managers, I mean, how many times are we gonna you screamed about it for year for when Daniel Volgaback cut the guy? Um you're right, you're right. Your your starting pitcher there, whose name just gave me the Japanese import. Send him, cut him, just get rid of these guys. Like and you're and I I did like the fact like Dominguez is up, he's swinging a hot bat. Like, keep him up here. Cut Randall Greechuk. They did, like they did cut Reach. Yeah, as I saw. Okay. Finally, like start doing things that we all know you should be doing. They're just so stubborn, and again, uh think they know everything, man. So, like, yeah, yeah, Brian, that was not a hard decision. Volpe, why upset the Apple cart? Caballer's playing great. He has the best defensive metrics in Major League Baseball right now. He's minus.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03No, he leads the major leagues in stolen bases and leads the major leagues in defensive uh run prevention at minus six at shortstop. I don't know shit about that, but sounds good to me.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's for 230 something. He's got four taters. Four taters ain't nothing for a shortstop at the beginning of May. So he's giving a little he gives a little something, something at the plate.
SPEAKER_03And he's fielding, and and prep people forget Volpe butchered the ball at shortstop last year. He had routine plays all the time he was kicking around the infield. So, God, don't tell me like that's an easy decision. Jeez, and Boone trying to deflect and make the kid, and then I guess Judge had like a 40-minute phone call with him last night to tell him, like, listen, go down there, shut up, and just play hard. That's it. Good for him. Good for him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good for Judge, because that's what Volpe should do. This could be, you know, you don't know, Eric. I mean, this could be he's got a chance to like right, go down to Scranton or wherever the hell it is. Yeah, just chill it, chill the F out, just play the ball every goddamn day. You're gonna play every day, every inning. Just play a ball and just do your best down there. And it might be the best, a couple years from now, it might turn out be the best thing that ever happened to him.
SPEAKER_03You know what? Go down there, tear it up. Then the Yankees may trade you at the deadline for a reliever. Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Make the Yankees have to make a tough decision.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right now it's not a hard one at all. So right, you just said to me where it'd be a tough decision of Ventos. Uh the Eentos has to make it tough for them. And Volta 2. 100%.
SPEAKER_03All right, we're gonna take a time out here, Brian. We're gonna talk about some NBA playoffs. We'll rehash your Celtics a little bit. Knicks are playing a game one right now versus uh the 76ers, believe it or not. The rejuvenated uh Joel Embiid. We'll talk about all that more on the EDBC podcast. All right, let me tell you something, folks.
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SPEAKER_03Did you like the idea that Pete Alonzo was hitting home runs at Yankee Stadium this weekend? He hit a couple home runs on. Yeah, I like the idea. I actually felt good for him because he was a bit of a homecoming for him. And he had a great bite on Friday. Was he talking about, yeah, I knew I was back in New York and we were sitting in horrific traffic trying to get to the ballpark. Welcome back, Pete. Uh anyway, NBA playoffs, Brian. Uh the Knicks uh beat up on Atlanta last week. I don't recall. We did the pod before Game Six, I believe.
SPEAKER_02We did before game, yeah. Nothing had been clinched when we had talked last week.
SPEAKER_03So they absolutely took care of business, destroyed the Hawks. Not I mean, I've never seen anything like it. It reminded me of Yukon, Illinois in the Elite Eight a few years ago when Yukon was up a 30-nothing run. I mean, the idea the Knicks were up 50 in the second quarter, Brian, like uh, that's tough to comprehend.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, that's just you don't see that in a I mean, you don't see that in a lot of col like early season college games when you know uh when you know when dude's playing the sisters of the of the of the meek, you still don't see that to see that in an NBA game. Yeah, not even a lot of Tuesday night February regularly season game, a freaking NBA playoff game. I don't remember that ever seen. I don't remember seeing something like that. I mean, I've seen blowouts. I mean I've lots of blowouts, but that's beyond a blowout. That's fifty points at halftime. Oof.
SPEAKER_03Your favorite coach there, Quinn Snyder, didn't have any answers on uh that night coach, but I might take him I might take him if he's available right now. Well, let's talk about your Celtics, Brian. It was funny listening to um sports radio on Friday, like Or excuse me, Saturday, Friday and Saturday. I think Celtic fans really didn't know what to expect from their team. I mean, not having Tatum, uh, I I thought the idea that he didn't play, Brian, first of all, I mean, you gotta really, I mean, uh, we saw Kevin McHale play with broken foot, Larry Burke could barely walk, and this guy's got a sore left knee. I mean, I I was listening to uh Boston podcast today, and they were actually blaming the Celtics for playing him way too many minutes in this series, playing him 42 minutes, 40 minutes, like not using their bench, and really they were kind of insinuating that they brought it on themselves and they did bring them on themselves. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02By playing them way too many minutes. It takes a lot for me to agree with Boston Sports radio host believing air, just perks me to say that. But they're 100% right. And I can't push back on the Tatum thing only because, again, things up Mikhail. First of all, the Celtics, there's a way around this. The Celtics didn't tell Kevin McHale that he was playing on a broken foot back in 1987. He had to find out from an independent doctor then screamed at the Celtics. Uh, but he just he kept playing. But I don't know. Listen, here's the thing. I don't know what's going on in the knee. And if you're telling me he's playing, but there's a chance if he that he could like do something that would knock him out for days or weeks, you gotta sit him. But you're 100% right. He couldn't play could have taken more time off the regular season. He did not need to be playing 40 minutes a game in this series. Absolutely no reason. And I listen, I I had to vote for if I had to vote for the guy at the end of the year, regular season, I would have had to give Joe Mazzola a vote, but I've never been a big Missoula guy. You know that I've talked about this because I mean this just this let me put it this way, too. I was thinking about the Celtics because I didn't think they'd win game seven. I was not looking forward to watching that game. I didn't enjoy watching it. I flipped away a few times because it was going just as bad as I thought it would go. It made me think of Rory when I thought about Rory then the Friday, the second day of the Masters this year, where he and then Saturday when he started to collapse. So I was thinking, you know, I said, uh good thing Rory won this thing last year. This would be a major thing hanging over his head for his entire career. So good thing the Celtics won an NBA title in 2024. Otherwise, this story would have would be much, much larger. Because this ain't the first time they've lost uh a playoff series against a Leicester team and getting there and lost it at home. It's it's embarrassing. And I've only I put a lot of it on the coach.
SPEAKER_03Well, listen, all year long I heard about this super bench from the Celtics and how the bench mob, you know, and then all of a sudden he went away from that. Uh one of the Boston guys was saying it was almost like was he testing the waters for round two to see, you know, what he had. And I think the biggest indictment, too, Brian, I really I I like him as a player, but the best quarter they played in the game was the second quarter, and Jalen Brown barely played in that quarter. It was all the subs bringing it back. It was Pritchard, it was uh Derek White getting hot. But I don't know, man. Like going forward with this team, you got Tatum and Brown, but uh, you know, would you move on from Jalen Brown to maybe get another another superstar type player? I mean Giannis.
SPEAKER_02That's the one that's been floated around because it works money-wise, because they both have super super max deals. And listen.
SPEAKER_03I would make that trade if I was Milwaukee, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_02I would.
SPEAKER_03You would? I big men with big men with leg problems, Brian. You mean Giannis, he's gonna have to worry about his legs now for the rest of his career. Had an Achilles just like Tatum did, and that's the other thing. You want two guys on the team who's had major leg injuries over the last couple years?
SPEAKER_02You'd almost do it also because if people say, why would you well that keeps Milwaukee stuck in neutral? That'd almost be like a gift to Giannis, who's probably like the second greatest player in if you want to count Kareem, probably the great second greatest player of that whole franchise. So you'd sort of be like, all right, like when Durant, when KD got traded, like, okay, we've been here forever. You're the face of the franchise. You want to go try and win a title, godspeed. We'll see if we can make this work for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But the other thing, and I just gotta say this because when the you know Celtics lose, and you know, the same thing at the Knicks collapse in a series. You break it down to so much minutiae, and boo, we need to trade this guy, like you said. Do we need to do this? You know what they need to do? It's very simple. Stop shooting so many goddamn threes. It's as simple as that. I mean, this team will not go to the basket. You want to get Paul George, who's the candidate who's a lousy defender nowadays, or do you want to be in trouble? You don't you know and you just don't drive to the basket? I mean, you're in the I mean they just live and die by the three to the extreme. It's just not you're it's a fifth it mean it makes a matchup 50-50. If you're the better team and you should be uh an 80-20 favorite in this, if you that's your offensive philosophy, you've dipped it into 50-50. Because now it's anybody because it depending on you shoot that night, it's who knows if you're gonna win or not. No matter the opponent. Because most of these teams are at least decent.
SPEAKER_03They're put they're playoff teams. To me, it's similar to the Yankee offense, Brian, all these years. They they'll mash the bad pitching, hit three run home runs during the regular season, you get to the playoffs, you're not gonna hit the home runs. Well, in the playoffs in the NBA, you're gonna have a little better defense. They maybe might be a little tightened up during the playoffs, you know. Game slows down for sure. The thing that bothered me the most, Brian, and I didn't have a dog in the fight. I didn't care as a Knicks fan. I would it I really didn't matter who we played, I don't care. Um, but like you started the game off, and you're like, I think you were 0 for five from three. Like your first four or five shots from the field were threes. And then down the stretch, Brian, when you cut it to two, I think it was 99-97. Pritchard had a three from the corner, which I thought he was gonna make that shot. I thought that was the biggest shot of the game that he missed right there. Yeah, if he made that shot, you're gonna get a timeout for Philadelphia. The place is gonna go nuts, and it would have changed everything. But man, down the stretch, again, the the last five minutes, Brian, I think they scored two points.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It was 99-97, I think, with five minutes to go. And they and Maxie is a good player. I said that two years ago. He's a great player. He is so underrated, he's got a lot of moxie. He just something about his game is not he doesn't shy away from the big moment. He scares me as a Knicks fan. And so does Embiid. If Embiid's healthy, Brian, he looked great. He threw his body all over the floor. He still flops a little bit too much for me. I think he exaggerates a little bit, but you can't question his talent. I mean, he is so talented, he really is.
SPEAKER_02No, he's an amazing player when he's healthy. Um, and good for him. He was the best player in that series once he started playing. And just, you know, you mentioned Jalen Brown. You can't do Jalen Brown today today. When you go on social media and you say it's been this flopping is bad for the league, and and and bead flops, and that was bad for the playoff series. Like you pissed away, no Celtics teams ever pissed away a three-win league. And the Celtics have played more playoff series than any team in the NBA in NBA history, and they've ever done this. And you were the face of that. So you got you gotta you can't be doing that, man. I mean, if I was the owner of the GM, I'd be calling them up going, what the hell are you doing? Shut up. So I just just end that on that sour note.
SPEAKER_03Uh NHL playoffs, Brian. I don't know if you saw the Montreal Tampa Bay game last night. It was a great game. Definitely. I mean, the guy throws it off the back of Vasilevsky to win the game is incredible. So if you want to, I don't know if you watched Colorado and Minnesota, a couple goals scored in that game.
SPEAKER_02I did not see that, but I saw the score, yeah. Um I saw the Montreal Tampa Bay game. That was a fun game, and uh it reminds me that I put this on social media. A game seven in playoff hockey is the best thing going, as long as you don't have a really strong eluding interest either way. Because you know that you sat there as a Ranger fan, and we would have been you I would have been sweating bullets during that game, a one goal game with like five minutes left in the uh and the third co in the third period. But it was a great game. And listen, the NBA has had a lot of dead playoff games so far. Hopefully, it gets better in the second round. Can't match up the NHL when it comes to excitement. Just that's the way it is.
SPEAKER_03Uh, you know, I think the NBA playoffs have been a little better than we anticipated, to be honest. I thought they have been a little better. There's been some good series. Detroit. Yeah, you're right. Detroit Orlando. But the problem with the Detroit Orlando is no one cared about it. That's the problem. It was a game seven, but nobody cared. I mean, nobody cares about those teams.
SPEAKER_02You know what I mean? No, I mean I I watched some of it just because I I'm a basketball fan. I'll watch most of them. But yeah, that's not like, and you know, let's put it this way: the end the networks are glad that wasn't an Eastern that it's a first-round series and not an Eastern Conference Finals series.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So, real quick here, do you uh Knicks Sixers, who are you rooting for? Are you rooting against the Knicks? What is your thought process here?
SPEAKER_02I'm so disgusted I don't want to watch either of this series because I can't believe my stupid team isn't in this. It's fun, I'm having a fun sports pig. I would have to give the advantage to the Knicks. And listen, there's a lot of pressure on the Knicks now because they are the the number two seed is out Boston. The number one seed looks like they were a little bit they were too. And I like Detroit, I like Bickerstaff, but they were a little bit of an overachieving number one seed. So, I mean, the Knicks have got zero excuses um for getting for not getting the finals. Having said that, I think you're right. I'm a Mac big maxi guy. Paul George has played better than I thought he would. And if it meets healthy, this is gonna be a really hard series that I think goes to seven games. But the Knicks gotta win it. Seven, but they gotta win it.
SPEAKER_03No, I agree with you. Uh, did you want to take a break here, Brian? Any one more last segment? We have a few more minutes here. Did you want to uh go on the road? Yeah, let's take a quick break. We'll get it, we'll get it done real quickly.
SPEAKER_02All right, sounds good. All right, also I believe it's the power of a good night's sleep. Remember, that's the reason they have hybrid mattress technology. That means every mattress has memory phone. Oh, love that memory phone, and uh uh those individually wrapped coils. That sounds good too. Sounds delightful. You know what else is delightful? Getting 15% off your total order. How do you do that? Click on the link on any one of the EDBC podcast episodes, like this one. I'm sure you and your family are enjoying right now. Click on that link, takes you to oswellhome.com. Shop for all your betting needs. When you're done, 15% off. So thank you very much. Sleep well and save well with Oswell.
SPEAKER_03What are we watching these days, Brian? I wanted to start this segment off by telling you that I watched the Hulk Hogan documentary last week on the Netflix. Did you?
SPEAKER_02I it I am going to watch that. I'm surprised you did because you were as I don't think you were quite the 80s wrestling nerd that I was, but uh I was into the Hulk Hogan Iron Sheik thing, you know, the Andrew the Giant, the Jimmy Superfly Snooker.
SPEAKER_03And I'll tell you what, Brian, uh listen, it it was it was a fun watch for the nostalgia piece of it. They didn't get into some of the stuff that was more controversial later in Hogan's life. Part of it was I think he he died before they finished making it. Um but man, it was fun to see those old clips. It was fun to see the Jake the Snakes, the uh I think they saw Jesse Ventura was at it. Jesse Ventura was terrific.
SPEAKER_02And those guys had a complicated relationship, yeah. That must have been.
SPEAKER_03But just listening them talk, hacksaw Jim Dugan, all them, and and they all palled around, Brian. Like they all paled around, they partied together, lots of drugs and alcohol partying, as you can imagine in the 80s, of what that was like. Uh, but watch it for sure. Don't watch it with your kids, but watch it with your wife.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna watch it. But you know, it's a funny mistake because I remember um I think it was like I think after I stopped wrestling when I got to high school lunch and moved on to more mature things like you know, video games. And uh the Iron Sheik and Hack's talk Jim Dugan got busted, like speeding, and they pulled him over and they had a ton of beer and a bunch of weed in the car, and they're like, the WWF at the time was trying to figure out how why are a good guy and a villain traveling in the same car? We've got to somehow keep this hidden so we don't screw up the storylines. Yeah, meanwhile, the Iron Sheik was like, when we passed, I think we said this, he was like everyone, he was the he was the nicest guy in the world. But 45 two years ago, Hulk is beating him in Madison Square Garden and then throwing beer cans at the guy. Meaning backstage, everyone loves him. So I can't wrestling babe.
SPEAKER_03His name was like Steve Johnson, he was from Albuquerque.
SPEAKER_02He really was. No, he really was from Tehran, and he was an Iranian Olympic wrestler at the side of Well as well. I was like, oh, here's a way I can actually make money doing this, so good for him.
SPEAKER_03But I never watched that. Some of those storylines and Sergeant Slaughter be, you know, Turncoat became uh from uh Hyrack, you know, in the early 90s. And you know, just it was funny. It was just again, good nostalgia held my interest. I watched it the whole thing, so I didn't know. How about you? Anything you've been watching lately?
SPEAKER_02Last night I was a little annoyed with uh all the sports after Saturday's fiasco, uh, Saturday night's fiasco. I did watch this episode. I know you're not quite the draft nerd I am, but I did watch something in ESPN called The Pick Is In, which is about a two-hour documentary they did with just the various teams and all this stuff. And it was kind of like it was like one of those things like it kind of reminded me of the last dance. Like I know this is all propaganda and all these teams are supposed to be looking really good, like look really good and all this, you know, like the Jordan Bulls. And yet somehow it was it was a very if you're a football fan, it was like very entertaining to watch. But I kind of you know like, oh, everyone's a genius, of course. This is a great trade and all that. But it so it had a little bit of that last dance vibe where like everyone's gonna come out smelling like roses, that's the idea. But because again, probably because I'm a football nerd and I I'm gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_03Cowboys fans, the Cowboys. Cowboys from what's that? How did Cleveland not take that draft trade that they made them for the ninth pick overall? How did Cleveland turn that down? I don't understand that. That's Cleveland Cleveland. That they were gonna give them the 12th and the 20th pick in a fifth round pick. Yeah, I would have done that in two seconds. Stupid.
SPEAKER_02The Cowboys said I know I know you don't even humanly say this, but it worked anyway. They got the guy they wanted anyway.
SPEAKER_03So they did. I watched a little something about the whole thing, it was like a four-minute thing on Twitter the other day. I retweeted if you want if you get a chance, talking about the whole Bernie Kosar thing, how that went down about being a supplementary pick versus a real draft pick.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03It's literally four minutes long. It's Ernie Accorzy, who's terrific. It's all the people, it's just this little mashed up thing, and it's so I like Kozar. He's been going through a lot of health problems for him, Miami guy, obviously. But it's a four-minute clip on Twitter. It's on my profile. You should check it out, it's pretty good. Um other than that, I've been watching a lot of just basket playoffs basketball, you know, a little bit of baseball here and there. It is a good time to be a sports fan. It's a good time to be a sports fan, man. It really is. Gino Oriema met the media today for the first time since the Final Four. I don't know if you saw that on Twitter. Um, did was asked about the handshake dust up after the game. Uh, didn't like the question at first, and then came around to it. It's just basically said, look, we're all human beings, and I felt like a dumbass afterwards, and sometimes human beings do dumb shit. That was a quote.
SPEAKER_02So Eric Dobratz asked the question?
SPEAKER_03Uh John Pearson was there, but I we we ran that on the air tonight. So um it was funny. Someone else had asked him the question. He tried to kind of shoo away from it. And then John, three questions later, doubled back. And John's a familiar face for Gino, so he gave John what everyone wanted, and then of course it was running on all the TV shows tonight.
SPEAKER_02So see David Stearns, treat the local guys, you know, don't forget about the national guys, treat the local guys who are there every damn week. Treat them right. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. So nips up eight with the eight minutes left in the second quarter.
SPEAKER_03Again, this scares me a little bit, Brian. They gotta win tonight. I mean, you get the Sixers team is coming off a huge emotional high. You gotta beat that guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you you could survive losing game on your home, but with the Knicks' recent history, you know, speaking of bad home games and the playoffs recently.
SPEAKER_03In the first two home games, if you ask me, win them both. Don't give them anything. Win them both and then go win one on the road. Put the pressure around. Don't fool around. So all right, Brian. The pollen Brian is killing me right now. My voice is very bad everywhere in the Northeast, folks. Keep me up all night. Right now, I'm going through a little bit of a spell. So we're gonna wrap it up here on the EDBC podcast. Again, great to reminisce about John Sterling. He really was uh a baseball lifer. Um again, soundtrack of our summer. We'd be doing the same thing if it was you know Bob Murphy years ago if we've been doing this.
SPEAKER_02That was my guy growing up, Bob Murphy. You know what I mean? You know, yeah, got it. And uh so great life. Yeah, it was good it was good. And especially to learn some of the stuff about John and come against so many people, it's good to hear. Good stuff.
SPEAKER_03All right, that'll do it for this edition of the EDBC podcast. I'm gonna go wash my throat down with whatever the hell this pollen is. Uh we'll be back next week, talk more playoffs, see how the Knicks are doing, see how the Mets are doing, if they've got a little winning streak going, then uh we'll talk about show back. Yeah, they're back, man. All right, for the EDBC podcast, I'm Eric Keys Brian. Until the next time, Brian. Say goodbye. See ya.
