Tricks & Treats from Yankees front office, Halloween Fits, Giants JJ McCarthy Steps up

It's the Kicking and Screaming Podcast, with your host, the grouchiest sports podcaster on the Upper East Side, Lou Albanese. We are here, listen, we're about a week and a half away from Halloween, guys, and Halloween is known for one thing, tricks and treats, okay? Not costumes, tricks or treats, or trick-or-treating, whatever it is. The bottom line is, for every Yankee fan out there, Halloween came early yesterday, there was no treats coming out of Yankee Stadium only tricks because Hal Steinbrenner the owner said I love Aaron Boone, I love me Brian Cashman, I'm going to extend Brian Cashman's contract and all the Yankee fans threw out their costumes and said I am not doing Halloween we're done with me now is one of those those Yankee fans who threw away his costume and said he's done he's angry he's upset angrier than I was angry how angry are you of what happened yesterday afternoon I think when the Yankees postseason dreams ended so abruptly uh you know the shock factor was wow you know here we go again um you know there won't be any changes but maybe there's a glimmer of hope that we'll see something from the Yankee front office however we saw nothing and we saw exactly what the Yankees have done every year that they are eliminated from the postseason they do those for lack of a better word stupid press conferences the two days before the World Series I mean it's just so the fact that Tampa Bay gets to go to the World Series the team that swept them at least Cleveland put up a fight the team that swept them three games and then the Yankees go into their little press conference room and talk to the media, and they sit there with... Oh, there we are. And they sit there with... First, Hal comes out with Brian Cashman, and like we said, Brian Cashman sits there like he's, you know, being held hostage. The body language says it all. And Hal sits there and puts the blame on the players and says they did not show up. Before you say that, okay, let's take a listen. Am I jumping ahead of myself? Matt, we've got... We have that sound from Hal Steinbrenner about the players and how he blames the players. Take a listen to what he had to say. Make sure the audience can see it, and then I'm going to ask you on the back end of his comments. Take a listen to Hal. I don't think you can pin the season and the unacceptable end to it on Aaron. I don't think you can pin it on him based on the roster he put together. Again, the offense, not the pitching, but the offense had a big part of why we, in my opinion, why we didn't get, and I don't mind saying it, why we didn't get where we you know strive to get every year and we're certainly striving to get this year and that was during the whole the whole year you know in the postseason if you look at their performance against the two starting Boston pitchers and their performance against probably all the Rays pitchers uh it was it was just it was just not good not good now before i ask your opinion on that all i want to say is does anybody ever look more uptight in a press conference than Brian Cashman did that. He's drinking water. He was just staring. He was fidgety. He's moving around. Because he knows what the answer is. He looked like he didn't want to be anywhere but here. Anywhere but in Yankee Stadium yesterday in front of that media. He didn't want any part of it. I cannot believe that Hal Steinbrenner, who I've said it before and I've said it again, who is not his father. He's the furthest thing from his father. Although he doesn't look like his father more. I noticed that around his face. He looks a little more like George. You're saying he gained weight? He gained a little weight. He looks a little more like George. maybe but he doesn't have the fire in his belly he's the anti-george so the fact that he's because like george would never from what i recall or have read about really i trust you could you could say it better than i can would he ever sit there Aaron Boone would have been gone decades ago how about brian cashman oh cashman would have been he loved the thing about cashman is brian uh brian george loved brian brian was a kid you know he worked his way through and george really loved him there was something about him there was a connection there and he listened to brian and brian survived you know a lot of losses also don't forget they won uh four out of six i believe so they they won in in 96 that wasn't his team that was bob watson 97 he took over so they won 98 99 and 2000 correct okay and then of course they lost in the world series in 2001 and they didn't win again to oh nine and where George was basically unfortunately at that point he was like a year away from death so there was a lot of losses yet i never heard once where George was going to fire Cashman he was always attacking Tory he was older at that point though he was but he was still a monster don't anybody kid you you know people want to make it sound like oh George was so cuddly like no he wasn't even a jackass no he definitely was not cuddly no he was he was he was out of control i just want to because back to the point of what Cashman sitting there and him saying you know can't blame this guy well before you say that i'm gonna get you to it but i think it's going back real fast what i was trying to say was i think how because of how much the father loved Cashman i think is the reason why Hal loves Cashman go ahead maybe but how Brian Cashman and his scouts go and look at these players and meet with these players before they are signed and they look at the analytics they look at the metrics they say okay this is going to work on the field and this is going this person here is going to be the next New York Yankees all-star that's i guess how they make their decisions it would be like i'm going to bring it to this business it would be like if we had scouts here who went to go scout on-air talent and they brought that on-air talent here and the on-air talent went on air and did not perform well and the ratings went down and the ratings went down well see i don't know because the fans still go to the games but the ratings so it doesn't really in this case the ratings are the win-loss comment okay yeah win-loss okay perfect perfect analogy then we'll go with that okay you may do well when it meant like say the ratings it doesn't work this way as much as it used to in TV for people don't know used to be sweeps so february may november were big sweep months we used to always build up for those months so the yankees are made for april and march and january and october and then when sweeps hit the big ones the ones that mattered they would have failed and that would have been the equivalent of that so let's say we hire all these all these reporters or anchors and they didn't do well and the rating slipped or whatever and corporate says well we're going to keep management in place year after year after year with no changes and it keep it's the same result every year the ratings keep going down there's there's no change there's no turnover it's the same faces even more faces come in that are worse than before that's what's happening with the yankees organization they can't find that all-star and they failed with so many players jazz being one of them it's funny aaron boo okay even aaron boone he's keeping aaron boone letting him wait they didn't offer him an extension i guess no so they're letting him go. They've done that before. They've done it before. I believe the year they went to the World Series, he was on his last year of contract Don't kid yourself, Yankee fans. If after next season the Yankees don't make it again, that they won't offer him another contract No doubt about it. It wouldn't surprise me. They love him. Look, he went through that, and he took him to the World Series that year, the year he was playing it out. Our friend Stevie House of Collectibles said it best. Yanks are sweep-prone during sweep months, and that's exactly what it is. They're sweep-prone, and that's what they went through. And the problem is, the problem is is that you keep building the team in a certain way we talk about analytics right and you keep doing it the same way well and you keep getting the same results so that means your your whole building process should change so when he's when Hal says it's not his fault well he's the one who's bringing in these type of offensive players who don't come through when it matters so it has to be his fault he built the team it is his fault it is his fault and the fact that he's putting no blame i'm like did he just say to him brian i'm gonna go out there and i'm not gonna blame you and we're gonna go out there and we're gonna put all the blame on the players who promised that they were gonna perform but decided not to like they did that on purpose like they said ah you know we don't care we're not gonna play yeah i mean there were plenty of players in that lineup but it's the lineup that was built it was the lineup that that we were given as yankee fans to root for these these players uh many of them who were booed off the field um at least a couple of them uh during the ALDS so i don't know i just feel like this is typical yankees it's the same old story i'm not really surprised that there's no accountability but it kind of hurts a little more when we're two days out from the World Series now one day and we get to watch Tampa Bay make it all the way i don't think they have a shot against Milwaukee but even that they're there in that full classic part of Foxtoberfest well Foxtoberfest for everyone knows that that's what talking about. It's the World Series. Starts on our air tomorrow, 8 o'clock. Game 1. What's it called? Fox toberfest. Why do you have to stop when you say it? Because if I don't stop when I say it, I can say something completely wrong. We don't want to do that. Lou has a mouth. The point is, though, the World Series... Look at your word of the day, Lou. There it is. I wish I could... That's a lot of words. Come on, say it. Say it all at once. Foxtoberfest. Now, listen, the thing is with the World Series is that you've got two teams there who play the game right. Yeah. And they use analytics. Tampa Bay was like one of the first places to do analytics like David Stearns who the Mets manager uh general uh president or whatever the hell he is is also from Milwaukee so they built an analytical base but they use it as a base that is not the end with all okay that's not the whole that's it the problem with Cashman he's like an old man on the computer he only knows how to hit certain buttons and doesn't know how to expand those buttons so he's still doing old school Well, find the players that play with heart or that have some kind of guts about them who really want to be Yankees. I use that because, again, I have to be careful what I say, but did Jazz Chisholm really take being a Yankee seriously? I don't think he takes anything seriously. Listen, and I'm old school. I'm not an old man, but I'm old school. And I remember when the Yankees prided themselves on, I remember the no facial hair. I remember wearing your baseball cap the way you're supposed to wear your cap. and not sucking a lollipop when you're on the field or anything else, tobacco in your mouth, sunflower seeds when you're on the field. What you do in the dugout is fine. It's the presentation of who you're supposed to be as a New York Yankee. That's gone out the window. Clubhouse, right? And it makes total sense what you just said there because we've heard now Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, so many former Yankees come out and crush these players and crush the team talking about culture and all. Another guy who said some things about the Yankees was a man by the name of Aaron Judge, who's still there. And he said, it's time for ownership to go all in. Something that Hal was not happy about. Because Aaron Judge stays away from that, too, like Jeter did. Hal made sure to say yesterday that him and Aaron have great relationship. They speak all the time. They'll discuss decisions. It sounds like Aaron Judge is involved with decisions. But just listen to what Hal had to say when he was asked about, was he upset by Aaron Judge's comments? Take a listen. Was I upset about it? No. If I was a player, I would have expectations that my ownership group would do everything in their power every offseason to field a team that could win a championship. There's nothing wrong with expectations. We did that this year. We had the highest payroll in the history of the organization. We got to a point later in the offseason where we still felt we weren't good enough. So we went out and signed Bellinger to a huge contract. Glad we did. He's a good player. So I definitely think we went all in this season. I definitely think we had a team that was every bit capable of winning a championship. No, it did not work out. It did not work out. By the way, before I ask you the opinion, did you notice that Brian Cashman was in the same position as he was and those bites were like 10 minutes apart? But honestly, though, that is true. That was like 10 minutes apart and he didn't move. He literally sat that way the entire press conference. Why is Hal so, like, uncomfortable, too? Do you notice that? I know that's just his way. Well, first of all, Hal's not exactly a media extravaganza. he's not his father when it comes to that he doesn't like the limelight i don't think he likes even i i question whether he even likes owning the yankees i don't i have i agree with i have my doubts on that but but even in that answer there when he asked about judge and he brought up bellinger okay he said bellinger we put and we we hit our most ever and then we signed bellinger on top of it which by the way he makes more than aaron judge uh and then later on says i blame the offense uh last i heard cody bellinger is part of the offense and a major part of it and And the person I think that jumps out to me on the offense is Cody Bellinger because he's upset that he laid out that kind of money for Cody Bellinger. He tried to cover himself by saying, no, it was a good signing. You know, later on, but he didn't do crap. But he doesn't go all in. He's a liar. He didn't do anything in the playoffs. He did nothing. Listen, Hallie, you're not fooling us. Can we read this? Go ahead. Oh, is this Moses? Go ahead. Wow. Hot take, Richard. Heart, guts, Yankee pride. How many Yankee-ographies did you pull that from? No. I didn't pull it from any Yankee-ographies. Oh, John, he's blaming you to be a John Sterling. Yes, I know. You're ripping on John Sterling. This is Yankee-ography. Ooh, go play the music. I did that because I think that that's what the Yankee standard is. Because I think he's a Mets fan, and I will tell you, there's no heart, no guts, and no pride in being a Mets player or a fan. Okay, there, I said it. All right. How about that, Matt? Wow. Okay, so. Go Red Sox. Oh, yeah. We're going to go to break. We're going to go to break. But before we go to break, I'm going to make one point here real quickly. Hal Steinbrenner is very much on the ownership committee that's coming up with the whole lockouts, plans, the whole thing about the salary cap. You know, he's very big on these things. He wants the cap. He's part of the whole committee that, you know, the Labor Board or whatever they call themselves that came up with all this. You've got to wonder how much of his complaints yesterday, This is conspiracy theory, but I'm very good at it. Leans towards, he's trying to, it's a quick point, but then we're going to break. How much of it leans towards his argument that we need a cap because so many times we pay a guy $40 million like Cody Bellinger and they don't perform, and we need to get their numbers down. So he was saying it without saying it? He's ripping the players who say they're worth all this money, keep flowing. I'm just making a point there. That's an interesting point. How much does that do with the salary cap coming up or whether or not it happens? We always forget. Oh, yeah, okay, so we're going to talk Giants when we come back. But Lou's prediction still stands. He thinks the Giants are going to make the postseason. And when we come back, right before we go, we're going to show Lou in his Halloween best. Talk about trick-or-treating. We're going to take you trick-or-treating. Talk about tricks. All right, we're back. Talking about Rich's schedule here. We're at daytime here. This is a beautiful time of year. The fall, the leaves are falling. It's pumpkins everywhere. We love it. And it's football season. The World Series starts tomorrow on Fox. and unfortunately World Series game one tomorrow eight o'clock do you think it'll be a high-rated World Series i think it'll be probably around the same kind of number that Texas and Arizona did i feel like what excitement is that i mean i think it's gonna be really good baseball i think you really really really should watch it because i'm telling you point blank this is the way baseball should be played stop with all the bs about superstars and all that garbage look it's about playing the game right. I have a very difficult time watching the World Series when the Yankees are not in it. I have more of a difficult time watching it when the team that beat them goes all the way like that. So I really can't. I just can't watch it. I'm sorry. I know it's on our air. And I encourage you. You're not doing a good job promoting it here, by the way. I'm sorry. I, on the other hand, love baseball, love the World Series. I don't care who's in it. All right, if you love baseball, go ahead and watch it. And I love the game itself. I'm a sore loser. I love football. And I got to say this about John Harbaugh. We were talking about you. Yeah, let's get into the Giants. I like the move to J.J. McCarthy. And this is the difference between the Yankees and the Giants. Aaron Boone and somebody like Chaz, you know, he messes up. He might say something. And then Aaron Boone gives him a hug. John Harbaugh, you got to perform. He loves Jameis Winston. Jameis Winston's a very likable guy. He yanked him. He yanked him off the field and said, you're a bum. I love you. Give you a hug. Now get the hell sit down. And he put J.J. in because he feels J.J. is a better chance of winning with J.J. Can he manage baseball? Okay. Coach baseball. And that's what this is all about. Cam Scadaboo. Everyone loves Cam. Great guy. Panks his head on the wall. Think he's exciting. Does commercials. Fumbles, fumbles, fumbles, and guess what? You're out. You're out. You're on the bench. And wait, wait, wait. I'm not going to bench you. I'm going to play you six plays, but I'm not going to hand you the ball. You're going to see what life is like when it's not football. And that's what it's all about. There's no coddling. There's no coddling. You earn the position. He's a football guy. And by the way, you bring in J.J. McCarthy. Oh, my God, what's going to happen next year with Jackson Dodd? John Harbaugh doesn't care. He wants to win today. Oh, hold off. Houston's a tough defense. Maybe you should wait until after the break. That's what I hear. He's like, I'm not giving up on Houston. I think McCarthy can win. He can run the ball. He can pass. That's what John Harbaugh does. That's what leaders do. Leaders do that. Leaders. Leaders do that. All right? I don't know. That's what leaders do. What's the word? What's the word? You sound like me. Leaders. Oh, whatever. The point is this. All right? Look, we've got our little Halloween outfits here, and we have a little Halloween situation. This isn't kids' games, guys. This is the NFL. This is Major League Baseball. Stop coddling them like they're children. What's Hal going to do next? Hand out little bags for them so they can go trick-or-treating the Yankees? Well, Aaron Boone might. Yeah, Aaron Boone will do it. It's just his style. And everybody has their style. and if your style works good for you I have style Lou is deceiving I am not the biggest fan of Halloween when I first came to Fox 5 there were two people who I was deathly afraid of here, you were one of them and there was a certain editor who shall remain nameless, who I will not say I was, but I will say you had to say she, how many she's are there but I will say that in the end and this goes for her too you made me a better reporter slash anchor slash on-air talent because it was a tough love in a way and that's the way you said this is how you have to do it you know it should be with curse words that i'm going to leave out I'm Italian but but that's how they both did it you even more so right and if i think people respond to that and that's the way should be and it may hurt in the beginning and it may cause you to be like whoa i don't want to go near that person but would you rather just be mediocre or do you want to be i have people and my people right i said i raised my kids now my kids loved halloween speaking of one thing i don't do in halloween is i don't wear costumes i'm not a costume huh i don't do it you really wanted to tee me up all right so we're gonna do viewer discretion is advised and there's a sensitivity warning for anyone who is going to see this. So thanks to our magical powers here in our creative services department, we were able to take Lou, who hates wearing Halloween costumes, but we're able to transform him into something or a few things that you never thought you'd see. So you may not believe your eyes when you see it. Matt, do the first one. There you go. This is Scooby-Lou. I'm a big fan of Scooby. This is Scooby-Lou at your favorite Halloween party. And Matt, I can imagine that would be the favorite. How is it that I'm wearing an outfit and everybody behind me is not. And I'm the only guy walking around in a Scooby-Doo outfit. Obviously, you got the theme wrong, and you're holding a dog bone, and you got your little Scooby Snacks. Look at that. Little Scooby Snacks look good. I've heard that. Just put Chipotle in his hand. This is the Lou father. Hold on. Is that really me in there? No. Yeah, that's you. The AI version of you is the dog bone. I've got to be honest with you. I kind of look like Marlon Brando there. Yeah, I mean, Lou, this is like on your best, best day if you had, like, hair transplants. There I am. I'm ready to call me in. What did you say, Jackson? Jackson, don't. Jackson, don't. Well, Jackson, don't. I'm ready to go in. Look at me. I got the hard black on. Honestly, that was my favorite look. That's a good look. Because that's a trimmed down you. You look a little muscular with your shoulder pads. I look a little muscular, and I'm sure I'm drinking a beer. And how come everybody's over there, and you're all alone? I'm working out. What do you expect? And you got a hamburger. Oh, this is you in the Odyssey. Oh, look at that. This is the Ludacy. I don't know. I can't think of anything else. I'm not quite sure on that one either. There I am. Oh, that's you as, you know what that is? That's me on a Friday night. I'm not familiar with the character, but I know the movie. This is Disney, actually. I know the movie's Avatar, but I don't know the character. We're going to go put you on a banshee. A banshee, wow. And you're going to fly away. Again, nobody's dressed up behind you, only you. That's amazing. I'm the only guy dressed up at these parties. What's going on? It's funny because there's spiderwebs there. Here's the viral one. Here's the viral one. There I am. Oh, we call this. That's almost as ugly as I looked last year when I wore a dress. Elizabeth Holmes. As ugly as I looked last year when I wore the dress. And that's the scariest one of all. Oh, my God. No, we got more scary. All right. Oh, Dolly Parton. Wow. Look at the eye shadow and the lipstick. Oh, my God. Sing a little Here You Come Again, Lou. I wish I had hair like that. And my ukulele. Oh, my God. First of all, why do you have a ukulele? I know, really. She doesn't work. Oh, look at Daniel Root. He said the Odyssey would be the odd scene. Very odd. You are odd. Very odd. So what's your favorite, Lou? The Godfather. That was good. Yeah, because you looked the best in that. That didn't even look like you. That didn't look like me. That was it. That was The Godfather. Although Scooby-Doo, that's it. That's my favorite shot. So have you ever grown out a mustache? I tried, but it doesn't work. That's actually... I like Scooby. I like your facial expression, Scooby-Doo. Actually, the Scooby look is pretty good. You look frightened. You look like an actual dog there. Now I'm going to go trick-or-treating. You don't want to do anything. Holy Velma. Oh, that's one of my boys' TV guys. Holy Velma, Scooby. There you go. So, Lou, give me your favorite Halloween memory with your kids. Halloween memories. I don't have to worry about it. Did I touch anything? That was not a good one. No, I mean, I enjoyed trick-or-treating with my kids. Yeah. That was probably the best is when I used to take my kids. We lived in Bayside, and we used to walk around. And you never got dressed up? Not with my kids, no. I always got dressed up with my kids. I mean, when I was a kid, I dressed up. When I was a kid, you did. You'd go to parties and all, but very rare. I was never big on the dress-up routine. and then we used to make up things we'd put an outfit on say we're all pirate, we'd have like a who knows, some ridiculous stupid outfit it keeps you innocent I'm not innocent, I've never been innocent in my life maybe at one point well I love Halloween's my favorite time of the year my son loves Halloween one minute left your favorite Halloween story memory you know what my favorite memory was I should have brought it in, I have it on my phone but it was me dressing up as Herman Munster. Wow. And I did it all myself. You look like Eddie Munster. I do look like Eddie Munster. My son looks more like Eddie Munster now. But I got, like, the head flat. I put the bolts in. I painted myself green. I painted my fingers black. And I got these giant, giant boots and put them on with a little lunchbox. And I went out and just went, throughout the whole neighborhood, and people knew who I was. Yeah, they knew. They've seen you do that on a Tuesday. Without the costume You do the same thing Going around So I love being Herman Was my favorite I also dressed up As Jackie Gleason For Ralph Kramden once too That would be fun I would like to be Jackie Gleason You could be Jackie Gleason I got the belly for it Give us a bang zoom Bang zoom Alice And we're leaving Bang zoom We're goodbye Thanks for watching guys Bye And we'll be back next week With Alex Day Talking a little Oh he loves us Alex Day And we're all serious We do And I gotta keep it up Because I got a good looking guy here First of all I brought him here