 Ken let's go back in time for a second here though The Yankees right now. They're not doing too much with what's going on in the world today But we could talk about the past and America's pastime is Chock full of great baseball players at every position And we just want to pick your brain about your era and who you think now look You are a great hitter of that era as well, but I if I know you you're not gonna bring up yourself I will though You were a great hitter, but what about the best hitters of your era? Where do you start that list, you know? I went back and I looked to see some of the names and of course There's a lot of Hall of Famers from that issue from that era that have been since gone into the Hall of Fame But I broke down the hitters in different categories. Okay, okay? I went with the power intimidators, you know the guys who are really the power hitters This is my first group. Okay, of course, I put Reggie's name in there right at the top I think Reggie of course everybody knew that you're gonna get a lot of home runs You're gonna get a lot of strike ads, but every time he came up to the plate. It was exciting Now there were other hitters that fit into that category as well And most of these guys are in the Hall of Fame not all of them are but these are some of the guys I thought of you know, Willie McCovey, you know He was around when I first came up to the big leagues And he was the guy that I watched while I was in the minors and when I was a kid And when I first saw him on the field, he was very intimidating The first time I played against him. I believe it was at Shea Stadium and He had a bad knee so he came out and took like six swings in batting practice He didn't take in field practice and hit like four amount of park went back into the clubhouse Two during the game got pinch run for late in the ballgame and you know, he was on his way to a Hall of Fame career Willie Stardew falls into that category. Absolutely longest homeruns ever hit In those days and those cookie cutter stadiums like Free Rivers and Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia They always had sort of like a star up in the upper deck where Stardew hit a ball. Mm-hmm Look up there and you save yourself. Can anybody hit a ball that far, but Dave Kingman of course Yes, not not as accomplished a hitter as these guys because you struck out a lot But he had he hit him a long way too. That's in vogue now Kenny. He could be Exactly right Bob Robertson, I don't know if you remember him with Pittsburgh. I don't teammate of Stardews and You know, Al Oliver guys like that. He could hit him a long way Mike Schmidt Greg Lozinski Michael Jack Schmidt. Yep. Yeah, great power hitter Hall of Famer Lozinski could hit him as far as anybody And then I went to another category. I would say the more all-around hitters Okay, the power and also hit for average. Can I can I guess who's at the top of your list? Ron Karoo No, he's down a little further For me. All right These guys had power and they also could hit for I'm sorry. I rushed a bit by all means go ahead You're one step ahead of me, but Willie Mays there you go George Brett Cal Ripken Eddie Murray Roberto Plemany Joe Morgan Winfield Dave Winfield Ricky Henderson Carly Strensky Jim Rice All of those guys are in the Hall of Fame and All them I would say not only could hit for power, but they could hit for batting average, you know You saw Dave Winfield almost won a title from Don Mattingly years ago Absolutely George Brett hit nearly 400 one year and still he could hit home runs. You get it close to 30 home runs Willie Mays to me was the all-time greatest player. He did everything on the field So I would almost put him in a different category as the world's best living baseball player Less power but these are the guys to me Who were a batting title waiting to happen and you met I've you mentioned Rybe Karoo I think he won seven titles. So I'm not believable. Yeah, he hit 388 one year I think I told you I finished third that you're in the league and I was 60 points behind them Off the top of my head Kenny I could think of two songs immediately where they mentioned him the Beastie boys had one because I got mad Hits like I was Rod Karoo and Adam Sandler in his Hanukkah song. He had him in there too. So I mean Right Rod Karoo was a I Played against him in the Bronx League. He was born in Panama, but he grew up in the Bronx, right? And I played against him in the Bronx Federation League He was a couple years older than me and one thing I remembered about this guy I said name a skinny kid could really hit and and number two the next thing I knew He's playing second base for the Minnesota twins and you know a couple years later I was in the big leagues. So we got to play against each other once I got to the American League Let me ask you one more thing about him because when when you have guys like Karoo Kenny You always hear about sweet swing like the ones that come to my mind immediately From you know from me watching baseball Barry Bonds Junior Don Mattingly before he heard his back, of course, but they just had that Mechanical baseball sweet swing the Karoo when you saw him swing the bat was it just was it poetry in motion? Like the guys I just mentioned. Yeah, he was a magician I mean he could hit the ball anywhere on the field He could he was sort of like the American League version of Tony Quinn Tony Quinn did it nationally But Rodney could also bunt he would never have like an 0 for 9 or no for he laid down a button beat it out before that would happen He He's great hitter great hitter. Oh, he played second base later on in his career he moved to first base and You get on first and all you want to do was talk, you know need to talk about the old days in the Braille It's your ride, you know, I'm not gonna be here long Eddie Murray They really quick what about Ricky Ricky Henderson, yeah, I had him in the all-around category, okay You know he could hit 300 and he could hit home runs hit over 300 homers and plus. He's the greatest base dealer and Of all time. He's an intimidator once he got to first base and also he had a high on base percentage I think I mentioned to you Chris that one year he played the year he played for the Yankees one of the years He was injured for the first month of the year and only played in a hundred and forty three games He scored a hundred and forty six runs Let's be honest, let's be honest for a second If you're an opposing pitcher, I mean this is a guy, you know lead-off home run after lead-off home run So you have to respect this power you have to respect his hitting capabilities to all fields Yeah, if you walk this guy Ken It could be a triple Exactly, I read a story about Ricky the other day and that's one thing I've been doing lately I finished Nelson de Mille Book the other day, you know, I'm always reading baseball stuff right the story about Ricky He got on first base and looked across the diamond at the third baseman and Ricky held up two fingers And two pitchers later. He was on third base Let's go back to the future. So let's let's let's use the flux capacitor and get back to today's day Um, who do you think could represent those those same categories that you just went through? Who who's on your list there? You know, you mean players from now. Yes players from now. Okay. I would say Different errors and there's different type of players The players now are almost all power hitters, you know, they're all power hitters like out home run Yeah, well, that's true. But some of these guys are above the others And uh, my number one guy above all the others is my trap. Absolutely He is He's a wonder to watch. I love watching this guy play baseball I kind of wish he wasn't on the west coast so so we could see more of them I kind of wished that Somehow the Yankees had gotten them if they had one more one more slot in the draft They would have gotten them. They were gonna pick it and the angels took it. Um I just think that not only does he have power. It's 40. He had 45 home runs last year I think that was his career hot He also gets on base and you know, there's different ways of quantifying hitters than that were back in the 70s I I can remember chris I led the league an on base percentage one year when I was playing for Montreal It wasn't even a negotiating point. It didn't matter Did I did I got on base 43% of the time? It didn't matter Uh, didn't even we didn't bring it up and certainly, uh, you know, the the gm wasn't going to bring it up But nowadays if you lead the league at on base percentage like my trout did last year I mean that's that could be worth a million dollars to me. Yeah Yeah, um, great Christian Yellich I this this guy Unfortunately the marlins got rid of him and traded him and he just blossomed in Milwaukee to where he's one of the best players in the game I love watching. I love watching. He's such a great beautiful swing beautiful swing another world's sweet swings, Kenny Oh, yeah, uh, I don't know if you remember a hitter named billy williams from back of the day of former cubby I do. Yeah. He's a hall of famer They used to call him sweet swinging billy williams and Yellich's swing kind of reminds me of billy williams. Okay. It doesn't look like there's much effort there, but there's a lot of power Don't I I can't stand I mean these guys who make it look so easy Yeah, well, there's the hardest thing to do and it looks like it's child's play sometimes But chris these guys are so strong and that's the difference between nowadays and then People didn't work out like 12 months a year like they do now, you know, that that's a big that's a big deal now I mean training methods are so much better Nutrition is so much better. Somebody's guys had their personal chefs chefs What about but what about you kenny did did you you were a specimen did you work out all season or no? I kind of relied on being a strong guy to begin with I didn't work out all year But once we started getting close to spring training I would hit the treadmill to keep my legs strong It wasn't so much about weightlifting in those days and you know all these type of training methods They have now the ropes and all that sort of thing that that wasn't even around that wasn't even thought of Back at my day a lot of guys use spring training to get into shape. They would come a little heavy The that that wasn't that's they don't do that anymore There's too much on the line now as far as how much money you can make So guys come to spring training ready to go That's why in in our day It took more time to ramp up to get ready for the Exhibition games than they then they do now Because the guys are more or less They're ready to play all they have to do is get their timing down a little bit And their pictures or get their throw and get a few reps in in the bullpans And then they're ready to go and start the exhibition games. We we have to start to wrap this up I didn't mean to interrupt your list, but I like having a conversation with you because it's fun So if you have any other guys if you could just rattle them off really quick There's a lot of guys now that I like to watch uh rindone Of course the Yankees judge in stanton Yes specimens these guys are strong. They're good hitters and they have power Devers bregman aeronado altuvia Mookie bets. I love anthrae rizzo or the cubs bellinger uh Jose abrael the white sock springer akunya jr Uh glaber torres. I think he's gonna be super I don't know the pirates these these are all guys that if I couldn't get in free I would pay to see these guys. Wow Well, I'll I'll add a couple dj lemay. He was a machine and also yeah, and michael branley He's on my list too michael branley. I gotta add him because I love what he's a tactician kenny I just love watching his at bats because you could see the wheels turning As in the box it's his father was a major league hitting coach. So, you know, he's been tutored his whole life There you go. And and one more thing. I just have to say this I've I've seen those yankees classics I remember a little bit when you played and if I was on the hill It would be a lot of nibbling on the outside corner and just see if you if you could offer Chris you couldn't nibble too much because eddie murray was up next, you know, that's true. That's true I'm done. You know what? I throw my two seamer to him and and he can hit that in the park I'm not facing you though. Uh, that's that's gonna do it for here one In case you missed this or any of these interviews look out for the yes We're here show on the yes network check yes network com for a complete schedule Mr. Singleton, it is always a pleasure to talk ball with you. It's just so easy and the conversations as you said earlier They're just great. Thank you, sir. Chris sit right back at you buddy