 Every single week I look forward to talking to Mark to share because he's the delight, but I've got incredible things I want to ask him that I'm curious to see what a big league ball player says because what we say We've never been in the arena like that. So he's gonna give us the real take so mark welcome to the show I'm looking forward to this. Thank you, Michael. I'm always always happy to be here. All right Would you want Manny Machado as a teammate? If Manny Machado Rakes and plays hard. Yes, I don't mind some of his other antics every now and then nobody's perfect I don't mind it but if you have a teammate who admits that he's not gonna play hard all the time and You know, he has some good seasons has some okay seasons takes weeks off at a time, you know Just disappears for for a month during a season. I don't want that Manny Machado I want the guy who's an all-star that plays hard and and wants to be a winner But you don't know which one you're getting exactly and you're gonna have to put 40 million dollars a year into it Exactly, I would be very cautious if I'm any team that wants to win a world series or once Manny Machado to be the Face of my franchise. I would be very cautious before I make that type of investment Now what's so unique about it is we've seen guys not hustle before and usually they'll either say listen I'm not busting it down the line in a game in April when we're up for nothing I don't want to get hurt on a meaningless play where I know I'm gonna be out Or they'll fight that they actually did hustle and you just looked at it wrong I've never heard a guy like Machado say I know I should do it. I know it's a bad optic. I just can't I've never heard that before and Don in the playoffs. This is insane. Yeah, this is I cannot believe what I've seen This playoff run for Manny Machado Here's a guy on a team that's got a chance to win a world series for the first time since 1988 He's playing in a huge market He's playing for a 300 plus million dollar contract and he admits that he's not hustling and he's not really a hustling kind of guy That's insane to me you would You would think that his agent would have prepared him to just say you know what for a year Just give me one year and then you go back to what you are But you one thing that you got to give him credit for he's being honest. You nobody could say he hoodwinked us I Guess Michael. I mean you're being very kind and listen. I don't want to beat up on Manny Machado everyone listen We're all emotional human beings. We all go through some stuff You know, it's difficult being traded in the middle of a pennant race And he's probably got a lot of things on his mind right now that being said if if he's going to be the centerpiece of your franchise Your franchise type player. I don't know if I want young players coming up and looking at Manny Machado as You know my leader as the guy that is supposed to be the flag bearer of my franchise And I hear all these comparisons to Alex Rodriguez and all he's the next house right here Rodriguez No, he's not Alex is much better was a much better player at this point in his career Look at the numbers Alex never one time dogged it on the field Alex You never talked about Alex being a dirty player or a guy who who didn't hustle or didn't play hard I didn't want to win and so what type of player are you getting if you sign him to a huge eight to ten year type contract? All right now this is this is will be a tough question for you to answer you had a similar player That was your teammate An otherworldly talented player Robinson can know who did not run hard to first base a lot Did that bother the team? Did you guys ever address it? Was it an issue within that room? No, it was never an issue with Robbie because Robbie always played hard when it mattered and and that's why I say we're all human beings in a in a nine-to-one game in May and You you hit a routine ground or the second base. That's a left-handed hitter Yeah, sometimes you dog it down the line, but if the game was on the line or it was the playoffs or it was you know You know a situation where Robbie could beat out a double play. He ran hard every single time We never I mean we noticed it now and then but it was never a Big deal in the clubhouse or never something that we had to address Because we knew when push came to shove Robbie came to play and he was prepared and he was gonna hustle when it mattered I thought I've mentioned this a lot this week, and I don't want to tip my hand of You know give somebody a clue of who it is But it's it's a coach and or manager that that you know a former coach manager Who said it's a lot more difficult to? Police these sort of things because players don't police themselves anymore in the past They did now it's up to the manager of the coach and there's very little respect for the manager of the coach because the big money guy knows he's gonna be there longer than the manager of the coach and has more leverage Do you believe that the day is done when a player can police a room and go up to a guy like Madi and go this has to Stop You know and Michael we're getting close. I don't disagree with that statement at all You know we watch these games together here at ESPN at baseball tonight and you know we have were ex-players were ex-managers and we're and we're You know guys that have been doing you know baseball coverage for 20 30 years and all of us shake our heads It's some of the things that we're seeing and I don't want to be I've only been out of the game for two years So I saw the last few years of my career. I saw Players you know whether the the veteran players or managers or coaches losing control over the the Habits of young talent that come up and everyone kind of said hey This is how he prepares or this is how he performs leave him alone And we've just been told for the last few years to leave young talented players alone no matter how much they don't You know work hard how much they don't hustle What you know what they do on social media today just leave him alone because that's who he is And I don't know if it's the right thing for baseball right now How would you have reacted mark on the play at first base if Machado kicked you did you think it was a dirty play? How would you have reacted? Absolutely, I've never had one time in my entire career that I thought somebody You know maybe kind of put a spike into me at first base And there was a player coming back on a tag up and as soon as he did it He knew we should have done it and apologized and so you know no big deal We kind of you know bump fists whatever was all good never in my career Did I have anybody do it? Manny Machado did if if I'm on first base there? There's you know, I've never really a fighter, but out of it Reacted exactly how Aguilar reacted like what in the heck are you doing there is zero reason for that And I thought Manny Machado should be suspended like why is that allowed? I mean we've talked about you know headhunting from pitchers and why is this stuff allowed that that was completely egregious and And in a playoff game, I thought a message should have been sent All right, let's stay in that series counsel takes out Wade Miley after five pitches Did he violate any unwritten rules by messing up the lineup for the Dodgers by doing that? No, I actually liked it I really when it when it first happened we were all saying what is going on here But then me and John Farrell were talking about it like hey I actually like the gamesmanship here because you got counsel that is you're getting matched up left and right with With the Dodgers lineup and Dave Roberts is playing a certain lineup against lefties and a certain lineup against righties And he is sticking to his book so counsel saying you know, let me try to flip a little bit of an advantage With you know, I think the Dodgers have a better team, you know for a seven game series let me try to flip the script here and and throw out my lefty and Let so they can stack righties in their lineup And then I'm just going to take them out after one batter and bring in a right-handed pitcher for the next four innings now didn't work So, you know the reason they won the game that I just won the game is because Clayton Kershaw dominated But I didn't mind the move at all. I actually thought it was pretty clever on counsel's part. All right, let's um Let's move on to the last night's game red Sox and the Astros and I admitted this at the beginning You knew around me for all the years with me. I love baseball. It's not just my job I love to watch it and I had to go to bed in the top of the eighth inning I'm sorry I did and now this is somebody who loves it. I'm not a casual fan. So what exactly is the answer? You know what? I've actually talked to Rob Manfred about this and there's no good answer So so you say okay? Well, let's make the games earlier so kids can watch it. Okay Well, you make the games earlier so kids can watch it. They can't watch it on the West Coast You know and and who's to say that kids during a school week? Anyway, I mean my kids I know my kids have sports and my kids have homework Who's to say if you had a you have five o'clock East Coast game on? You know a Wednesday night that kids would watch it anyway, but how about a seven o'clock start? I mean you can forget about kids a 57 year old adult with a job It's gonna be hard for him to stay up. I hear you Michael, but there's there's really no good answers here I mean you you Are at the mercy of the TV ratings and the TV ratings are gonna show you when the game is supposed to start And it's just the way it is See I wonder if it's about the pregame because they invest so much money in the pregame show They don't want to air it at 6 30 where it's gonna be 3 30 in California and lose an audience because I'll tell you I'd rather sacrifice a big baseball fan like I am I'll sacrifice the Latin the first three innings for the last three You know if I got to why and I stayed up and it's costing me now because I'm exhausted I stayed up the 1 15 in the morning to watch that game because I love baseball and was very intriguing I'd sacrifice the first five innings of that game to be able to watch the end of it So why are we why are we sacrificing the end the compelling the things that people are gonna remember? For for the first three innings that may not be nearly as intriguing I'd rather watch the end in the beginning you're right Don and I agree a hundred percent with you I mean I enjoy playing golf and what I'll do a lot You know during this playoff run if I'm not working at ESPN I'll go play golf in the afternoon and I might miss a few innings of one of these games But I'm home by the six or seventh and then I can watch if it's a nine-to-one game who cares I mean that you know that's that's really not gonna be a story and someone probably hit a bunch of home runs early in The game and and not you're not really gonna cover it that much anyway But if I come home into six or seventh inning and it's three to two and you're into the bullpens And you're matching up and you have these you know guys throwing a hundred miles an hour and trying to scratch a hit here And there that's compelling baseball. So maybe that is the answer Don Maybe the answer is start the games early so people can watch the ends of them because that's when you really want to be locked in What do you think about the L2 they call I could see that call both ways? I mean up and down the the the spectrum of Arguments I've heard 20 arguments that I agree with on one side 20 arguments I agree on the other side the fact of the matter is and this is what I go back to as a baseball player I believe that Mookie Betts was going to catch that ball and so As they just strip away the rules strip away Joe West and replay and all of the technicalities I thought Mookie Betts made an unbelievable play to get to that ball I thought he was going to catch it so in the end for me It was the right call and it's the one thing that I take exception to I see I thought it was a home run But I can't kill Joe West on this now I don't think Joe West is a great umpire, but I think he made the best call he could possibly make in real time I do too that we put our umpires in a very difficult situation right now with replay and that Listen, there are umpires that are going to miss calls even if they're right on top of the play And when you're out in right field, you're not gonna be on top of a play I mean it's you kind of have a weird angle from the right field line and and someone's jump in and There's there's you know fans reaching in and even if Joe West was right there on top of it It was gonna be tough to make this call and then we slow it down into these like micro seconds on High-definition TV and say oh look there you go. Of course of course. There you go. How did Joe West miss that? It's not easy. There's there's a reason we have replay and you know, I think overall our umpires do a great job I really do now Angel Hernandez last series had a terrible game. It happens, right? But overall Joe West, I'm not gonna beat him up either He made the call that he thought he saw it in the end, you know, it's a toss-up anyway Now this is a shame, but it's a fact is that Joe West is 65 years old And nobody's gonna confuse him with Jacqueline and he's got to run all the way out there to the outfield to make a call I mean are we putting these umpires in the best situations is is it asking too much? To have a guy that age being able to to make that kind of call trying to charge down the mound to charge down the line like that Yeah, I don't I don't know the answer to that That's I think there's a lot of politics that go into who you know Who is an umpire in big games or a big series? Whatever it might be, but I do not like the fact that if there's not irrefutable evidence You can't overturn a call like why don't we just go to replay and make the call that we think happened Like replay should be should stand on its own. It shouldn't be oh well the call in the field was this so if there's not Indisputable evidence we can't overturn it. I don't I don't think that's right I think that the the replay system is much better than our naked eye in real time And so we might as well just rely on the replay and say okay based on the replay This is the call and I'm gonna stick with it. All right. Let me give you a couple of text messages Joshua Campatello Says he's from beautiful Genesee beer brewing Rochester, New York Tech strong name to if Yankees let CC go and only add one elite frontline starter without adding Machado or Harper Can they win the division or a championship in 2019 with the lineup as is? Yes, they can but what I feel better about that the team adding a few pieces absolutely I still believe if the Yankees got hot in that Red Sox series they could have easily beaten Boston But you know what wins in a one-month-long playoff marathon is good teams top-to-bottom Look at the Boston Red Sox right now up three games to one against the defending world champion Houston Astros Starting pitching solid middle relief solid. I mean Kimbrough hasn't been that great But he's he's you know finding a way to get it done They're not hitting a ton of home runs, but they're getting on base getting big hits. Their defense is Spectacular so top-to-bottom everything that you need from a team They're executing and what I what I what worries me about the Yankees as they are currently Constructed is they rely so heavily on the long ball. They don't have a ton of great starting pitching So they rely very heavily on their relievers, and they don't play good defense So you put all of those factors into a month-long You know playoff series or or at least you know even the regular season you put all that together I think there's some holes in the team still so I think Brian Cashman is gonna be very busy this offseason Let's see Chris Lucas from Clifton goes. What is your favorite place to travel during the offseason? Oh? I got to go I go to the Bahamas. I have a house In in the Abacos it's cold up here in Connecticut in the winters as you guys know I like to get out on the warm weather guy try to get out of the cold weather as much as I can and Go down in the sun and play some golf and hang out on the beach with my kids All right now there was an interesting story by Kevin Kern in the post today that the Dodgers have Have gotten away from they're trying to hit home runs Because they're shortening up they're going up against the shift just to get base runners because it's a short series Seems like the Yankees don't do that and I haven't done that for a couple of years You think the Dodgers are doing the right thing? I'm a Dodgers doing the right thing and whether it's a conscious effort or not They realize that against some really good Milwaukee relievers. They have to shorten up That's the one thing you know when you throw in 95 to 100 miles an hour long home run swings Don't play what plays is short contact swings and whether it's hitting the ball the other way That's irregardless of where you're hitting the ball. You got to shorten up and make contact And I think that's one thing that the Yankees You probably can get better at is that hey, you know the game plan has to be with with their their big home run hitters Hey, listen guys, you know, this may not be the night to go to swing for the fences Let's shorten up just a little bit Let's hit some line drives around the yard and see if we can score some runs that way Good stuff mark as always we'll talk to you next thursday All right guys, enjoy the game tonight. All right, that is marked to sure