BringJoy

Pinstriped Passion: From World Series Heartbreak to New Season Hope

• Joy Nulisch • Season 5 • Episode 48

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Nothing captures the essence of baseball fandom quite like Cookie Charres's description of emerging from the dark subway tunnel to see Yankee Stadium gleaming in the sunlight. This episode delves deep into the heart of Yankee fandom through the eyes of a lifelong supporter who witnessed the glory days of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra firsthand.

Cookie takes us back to his childhood in the Bronx, sharing stories of Sunday family trips to the ballpark in the 1950s. We then shift to dissect last season's World Series heartbreak against the Dodgers, analyzing the pivotal Game 5 momentum shift that ultimately cost the Yankees their 28th championship. The conversation doesn't shy away from frustrations - continuing to pitch to Freddie Freeman and watching the Dodgers celebrate on hallowed Yankee ground.

Looking ahead to 2025, we examine the Yankees' offseason moves with critical eyes. From Juan Soto's departure to the Mets (a betrayal that still stings) to promising acquisitions like Cody Bellinger, Devin Williams, and Max Fried. The discussion covers the full roster with particular excitement about prospects George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones, who might represent the next generation of Yankee greatness. We debate positional battles, injury concerns including Luis Gil shoulder and Giancarlo Stanton's ongoing health issues, and Cookie shares predictions for the upcoming season with his trademark Bronx confidence.

The episode concludes with reflections on baseball's evolving rules and Cookie's poetic description of taking the subway to Yankee Stadium - a memory that encapsulates why baseball matters beyond just wins and losses. Whether you're a Yankees devotee or simply appreciate authentic sports passion, this conversation captures the cultural significance, personal attachment, and generational bonds that make baseball America's enduring pastime. Subscribe for more baseball conversations throughout Season 5!

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Joy:

Thanks for tuning in to the Bring Joy podcast. We're in season five and it's all about baseball. I'm talking big leagues to the little leagues, yankees to the Conks and everything in between. I'll share my joy for the game with you and, whether you're a fan of baseball or good storytelling, trust me you'll be entertained and each episode will bring a little joy to your day. So sit back and relax. Let's do this thing. I've got a guest on the show today, my friend Cookie Charres. You're a Lifelong Yankee fan. Served 35 years with the us navy, that's correct, including seven years in vietnam, yep, and well, a little bit more.

Cookie:

Well, yeah, it's seven years, that's 1968, 69 to 1975. You're absolutely correct. Thank you for your service, sir.

Joy:

It's okay, I'd rather be a yankee fan you're a father, a grandfather yeah a good friend of mine and a good friend of many yeah, that's that's.

Cookie:

That's, that's unique. You like that. Yeah, I like that a lot. What I miss no, that's good, I like that.

Joy:

You should use that constantly so let's do a background check okay what do you know about baseball?

Cookie:

well, I know I know nothing about baseball. Everything I know about baseball yogi brother taught me because I listened to his little poems. Now I know about baseball because basically at a very young age my first game at Yankee Stadium was in 1954, 53, 54. That's the beginning of Mickey's dominance of the MLB. And being you know the funny thing about that, I'm going gonna jump around because old men do that. Going on 76.

Joy:

22nd of this month oh, we're gonna have a birthday party, we're gonna have a birthday party.

Cookie:

But I want a birthday party because you know how I kind of birthday party. I want the Yankees to be for the first that I want them just, I want them to just be brilliant this year. That would be a great gift for me.

Joy:

All right, I'll call and talk to the captain and see if he can make it happen for you.

Cookie:

Yeah, I was talking about Mickey. The years that I started in the background with the Yankees, my uncles were. My grandfather was an avid. I mean, my whole family was avid Yankee fans, you know. I mean my father was the only one that was a giant fan when they were playing in the polo grounds, you know. But the rest of my family was Yankee fans and the reason why was because my grandfather was a bookie and he used to take bets from everybody in the neighborhood. He ran the bolita, he ran the numbers racket in Harlem neighborhood. He ran the bolita, he ran the numbers racket in harlem and uh, but anyway, to get to the point, uh is that every ball my uncles would take me to the ball game and uh, you know it was a common.

Cookie:

Every sunday we go to a ball game. You know we just pack up. You know a lunch, you know a couple of beers, and those days you can bring a bag of. You know a little. We didn't have coolers. You know a lunch, you know a couple of beers. In those days you can bring a bag of. You know a little. We didn't have coolers. You know we did what we could. You know we all piled up in a checkered cab, you know, with those flip seats in the back, and we'd go over from my aunt's house, 138th Street in the Bronx, and we'd go up to all the way up to just take the side streets all the way up to Yankee Stadium. You know, right out of Hunts Point, right there at the market, turn left on the concourse, head down to 161st Street and Riverside and we're right there, let's go.

Joy:

You know that's our backyard man. That was our backyard. You dropped Yogi Berra's name already.

Cookie:

Mickey Mantle, tell me some of the players that you those days we had people like I came in at the tail end of last year of phobias, you know very pseudo. And then. But we have people like Tom Trash, cleet boy on third Trash was a utility play that could play second and short excellent. Bobby richardson playing the second most of the time. And you had um. First base was a guy by the name of um. We had a couple of them.

Joy:

You know we always been kind of weak at first base yeah, we got an issue with uh well, we got first base covered this year, but third base yeah, we're goldie, uh, we but.

Cookie:

But back then, after Luke Garrick left, we really didn't have a good first baseman.

Joy:

Let's fast forward a little bit right.

Cookie:

Yeah.

Joy:

So you've been on the show before.

Cookie:

Yes, ma'am.

Joy:

Season four. We did a great episode. If you haven't heard it you need to go listen to it. We called it Echoes of Yankee Stadium and Cookie goes back and tells us all about those legendary Yankee teams that he's been so fortunate to grow up seeing play. And when we did that episode it was August and the Yankees had started the season on fire, on fire. And then we had a terrible summer.

Cookie:

Oh yeah, Remember they started to dive. They took a nosedive.

Joy:

Exactly, it was looking bad and you and I, we were frustrated, we were making jokes.

Cookie:

And we had soda too, but the thing wasn't clicking. For some reason it wasn't clicking. Maybe it was a sign of things to come with regards to the bad taste of soda leaves in the Bronx. Wait to get back here. He's coming back to visit us and we're going to let him have it a little bit. We're going to pull his coat, like they're saying about it. We're going to pull his coat.

Joy:

Yeah. So we were cracking jokes, we weren't even thinking about the playoffs. But you know, we get out of the summer, we start playing good ball again. Next thing, you know we win the East, right, yeah, so we walk into the playoffs. And who do we face? We face the Royals and Cleveland Guardians. Right, right, a lot of critics, yankee haters, saying we had an easy road to the World Series. Whatever we get to the World Series, we're facing the Los Angeles Dodgers. Right?

Cookie:

I can't stand them Sorry.

Joy:

We've been there and done that right.

Cookie:

Don't like the Dodgers. I don't like them when we're in Brooklyn.

Joy:

Yeah, that's exactly. We go way back, the rivalry goes way back.

Cookie:

Way back. We didn't like them then. We don't like them now.

Joy:

The Dodgers left and the Yankees stayed. That's what I'm going to say, right?

Cookie:

We have a home. They never had a home. Besides, our home was built by Ruth. Nobody's tearing that down. You know, we have legacy, didn't? Their legacy is one guy by the name of robinson, you know? Other than that, what do they have, duke snyder? Oh my god, come on, give me a break. He ain't no mickey mantel right?

Joy:

well, they got that and they got a 2024 world series championship.

Cookie:

So I think no no, no no, no, you're right about that. I uh, let me show a little bit of humility here. I think they have the best team that money can buy. Okay, let's put it that way. And you know, we were accused of that many years ago with the yankees, because, you know, big george the boss used to buy. If he wanted to get you, he'll get you. You know he'll buy you. And that's why we had those outrageous, outrageous dynasties, those year after year after year. But I tell you one thing though it was built around a core. We had a core, the core four, and they're all homegrown talent. And they're all homegrown talent. You know Dieter, you know Pettit, bernie Williams, mariano Rivera I can go on a little bit more. I think it was more than and we had our man who, I think, is really going to be a great, great manager and I hope it's with the Yankees by the name of Jorge Posada.

Joy:

Yeah, I think his time's going to come, but let's do our therapists a favor and let's go ahead and talk about the World Series last year.

Joy:

We're avoiding it, right yeah it's a stain yeah, there's probably a name for that, a condition for that. We're avoiding the truth, so let's go ahead. We're going to get it over with. I don't want to go too far down the well, but people want to hear us talk about it. So we get to the world series. Right? Los angeles has home field advantage, so the first two games they get us. I don't think there's a whole lot to say there, but we should have won a second game.

Cookie:

That was it says. We came back from behind and tied it and went ahead and then and then we went to the bullpen.

Joy:

Yeah and Nester, they bring Nester out.

Cookie:

That was a big mistake right there because he just got off the aisle.

Joy:

Right, he hadn't pitched for several months. Yeah, not any during the playoffs. Okay, and here we go.

Cookie:

I would have wanted to be, you know, our man. You know they got to. Took what's his name's? Face Holmes', face Weaver. The Dream Weaver, yeah, dream Weaver.

Joy:

I would have went right to the Weaver man you know Right, but you don't get that call Boone did, and we'll talk about Aaron Boone too, but anyway, so Boone, yeah, so yeah, we leave Los Angeles down 0-2. Yeah, we come back home and we lose game three.

Cookie:

That's right.

Joy:

And all I can think in my head is Freddie freaking Freeman. Yeah, yeah, why did we keep pitching to him? I don't know.

Cookie:

I would have walked him every time out, every single time.

Joy:

I just would have said you know, put out four fingers and then leave the middle one so anyway, there again, you and I don't get the call right, boom gets to make that call and we've got feelings about boom, which maybe we'll get into here in a minute, but but we get to um game four, we win. Game four right, our bats come alive, we got, uh, I think.

Cookie:

Juan Soto hit a home run. Everybody, everybody, was clicking that name. Everybody. Volpe, volpe, volpe went wild. Even what's his name. Who's on the way? He's with Detroit now. Glaber, glaber. Yeah, we had a couple of Glaber days that day.

Joy:

Yeah.

Cookie:

You know he was hot. He was hot for anything. His defense really lacked a lot, but he was hot for anything. His defense really lacked a lot, but his offense was good during the playoffs in the World Series.

Joy:

Yeah, and now he's with the Tigers, like you said. So we get game four and then we're back at game five and we're looking good, we're looking good.

Cookie:

man, we're looking real good.

Joy:

We're hitting the ball good, we're scoring runs and we're like, okay, we're back, we're going to take the series right here and then we get to the fifth inning, and then the air came out of the balloon. Yeah, so you get a fly ball to the captain.

Cookie:

Right to center field. It was funny because it died. You know it was. It was like almost like you were watching somebody fish, put a net on a string and pulled the ball. It just died. I think it was a little bit of the yips that you know a captain got. It could happen to anybody. I'm they're gonna make excuses for the guy because in this day and age I'm going to be frank with the public here you get paid that much money. Okay, you make that catch. There's no effort, and I'm pretty sure that judge is still kicking his butt, he's still pulling his hair up because of that.

Joy:

Yeah, he'll never forget that, as many home runs, as many records as he sent and as many rings as he gets, because you know, I'm an optimist forever and that's why they call you joy. Yeah, there you go. Right, you know my mama named me right, but he's gonna walk out the Hall of Fame with rings on both hands. You know you're right, you know I hope you're right.

Cookie:

I hope he takes away the. Well, I hope he can equal at least what G this guy. He G this got five rings yeah that would be something. Now, the only, the only one that has more rings than him is who?

Joy:

Tell me.

Cookie:

The man with the big eight in the back, yogi.

Joy:

Oh, Yogi yeah.

Cookie:

He has ten rings.

Joy:

imagine why does that happen? Like Yogi's not, he's not the first name that people talk about, right? We talk about Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig Joe DiMaggio. Why do we go blank when we need to know that's Yogi Berra, and I love catches right, I'm for catches all day, but anyway. So Judge fumbles the ball, drops the ball and then it's not bad enough. We get another ground ball. We could get a guy out at the bad toss over there picture freezes.

Cookie:

You got the first baseman that doesn't know what the hell he's doing yeah, we got reasonably cold point on each other.

Joy:

It's got.

Cookie:

It's just the bad and you know folks, you know what it is. Look, momentum is the big witch in the ballpark. Okay, If you're on a good swing and you got the right stuff that day, because you know, I'm telling you, I think sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I just think, basically, I really do, guys, I think that you've got to be lucky than good. There was times, and we'll go back later, but I'm going to continue with this.

Cookie:

First, the thing is that that day, for some reason, one little error takes the momentum away from your soul. You know, it's like, all of a sudden, you think you've got somebody. It's like your boxer. You've got a guy against the ropes and all of a sudden he hits you with a jab and you're saying to yourself uh-oh, wait a minute now, let me back off a little bit. And then you lose your momentum. Before you know it, you're on your ass, you know. So I think that's what happened. I think that all of a sudden and you know the Dodgers, when they got you on a rope, they're not going to let you go until they step on your neck.

Joy:

They had a great team, and that's what good teams do and sealed the deal. Yes, and that's where I say we got out coached oh, there's no question about it.

Cookie:

I don't care what anybody says. Now, I'm not an expert, I'm not a sabermetrics kind of guy. I'm old school. I'm the type of guys that if you bring a knife to a fight, I'm bringing a gun. You begin a gun, I'm bringing a bazooka. You know, that's the way we think in the bronx. But the thing is that you would just let it get away and the Dodgers with that team from top to bottom. There's no weak links in that lineup. I mean, they got Mookie Betts, they got the Wiz kids from Japan. Come on, man. It's like there's no let up on that team. And then, on top of that, when they get you weak and they know they got you on a rope, they're going to really hit you with everything they got. And that's what they did to us.

Joy:

Yeah, they did.

Cookie:

And our manager couldn't react to Dave Roberts' moves. He couldn't.

Joy:

No, no, and they kept pitching to Freddie Freeman. I mentioned that already right Freddie freaking Freeman. Freddie freaking Freeman. So, like you said, they knocked us on our ass and we're looking at them celebrate and do the dog pile right there in Yankee Stadium. Couldn't have been any worse Like sick to my stomach, my heart's in my throat. And then I see Juan Soto be interviewed, oh God. And he turns a Yankee hat backwards, right. I don't know, maybe that was a sign of things to come. I don't know.

Joy:

But then he proceeds to say, yeah, he's available to any team. All right, it's all about the money. So so here we are, let's so the world series is over. Right, we've um admitted our loss and I tipped our hats to the dodgers. Now we're headed into the 2025 2025 season. We just, you know, brought up the you know, don't say his name Juan Soto.

Cookie:

I look at it this way Look, I think the guy did what he had to do for his family. Does he have any character? Is he a character yet? Does he have any?

Joy:

No, I don't want to do. Yeah, we got feelings. We got feelings.

Cookie:

The guy did what he had to do, right, he did what he had to do for his family.

Joy:

He's talking about the richest contract in sports history $765 million Million dollars for 14 years, 15 years Right. I read something today Babe Ruth signed in 1922. He signed the richest contract and he was making like a hundred thousand or something yeah, like 55, yeah, it was like, yeah, you know, not even six figures.

Cookie:

They asked him in the dugout. Now I know a little bit of history about this one, not that I was living at the time, guys, I ain't that old, but I am old. The thing is that they asked in the newspaper. I asked them the post I think was the daily news how do you feel that you're making more money than the president of the united states? And the guy said ray blue said yeah, but he ain't betting 320 that's a good one.

Joy:

so, yeah, the mets, the, the offseason, the mets right off the bat. They signed juan soto and we had a good time. He was a good player, he was a lot of fun to watch and let's see what he does. We'll see him again. Like I mentioned in my last podcast, we don't have to wait until the regular season. We're going to see him before spring training is over and, yeah, we'll welcome him, right.

Cookie:

By the way, we're going to go visit him at his house. We're sending a couple of boys to his house.

Joy:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Cookie:

Yeah, we're going to pay him a visit already.

Joy:

He comes from a long line of gangsters. No, no, I do not.

Cookie:

I come from a long line of Yankee-loving family members. We just do what we need to do to keep it straight. He needs to be straightened out a little bit, and we can do that, but no, no, out a little bit, and we can do that, but no, no. All kidding aside, okay, I mean I give all the props to the mets. First the dodgers for beating us, because they really put a hell of a team together. I'm sorry they're, they're the whole, their whole, uh, their whole entire organization just did a phenomenal job. We we got lost in the source. I thought to be honest with you. I can say this with all honesty I think Joy and I agreed on this that neither one of us really thought we were going to make the World Series to the moon, and we made it. So I gave us a little bit of props, but not enough. Once we get our foot in the door, you know, I want to win it all.

Joy:

Yeah.

Cookie:

You know it's like tasting. You know it's like putting your finger in your mom's sauce in the pot on the stove and all of a sudden you can't eat. But you got to be satisfied by just having your finger in the pot. No, that's not the way we roll here.

Joy:

Exactly, exactly. So we're coming into the 2025 season with new players, new faces. Besides Juan Soto, we went ahead and we picked up some good players there Cody Bellinger, we got Cody Bellinger.

Cookie:

He's a three-time gold glove center fielder, outfielder. He can play all. He is a what do you call it? A top-notch defensive player in the outfield. Hang on one second.

Joy:

We got an airplane crashing. I got construction going on.

Cookie:

I got airplanes flying over here. That's Soto's private jet going to spring me.

Joy:

He heard you. He heard you All right. So yeah, bellinger go ahead, he can play all fields, basically.

Cookie:

Yeah, he's a gold glove, platinum glover, in the outfield, you know, and we got him out there so he can roam around. He can do both. In fact, today he's playing right field, not center, because center's going to be you know what, I can't put it. Anyway, he's playing right field to show you, and I believe Judge is DH-ing today at this game against Minnesota.

Joy:

Well, let's talk about the new guys for a minute. Talk about getting lost in the sauce. We're getting lost in the sauce here. So we got Bellinger, we got Devin Williams.

Cookie:

Devin Williams is a hell of a closer Right. Think about this, guys we got Weaver and then leading up to Williams, like having a what was? Why was the name of the elite elite a lead into?

Joy:

a Mariano Rivera coming.

Cookie:

What, uh, what one, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, what, when John wetland coming in and he would lead into once what the came in, you know the game. Then you'd hand it over to my man, you know what? Oh yeah, no, mo big bow, and it was over. It was, you know, eliano, mo Big Mo, and it was over, it was done. You know. You put Portland in the sixth inning. It's done, it's finished.

Joy:

So I say, Devin Williams and you go right to talking about Mariano Rivera, we're not doing a comparison yet but we need a closer and I think he's. Devin, he was we're getting excited about talking about a closer, a Yankee closer again when we got this guy. So we agree it's a good pick from the Brewers. We'll see what happens. Also on the mound, we got Max Fried and he threw yesterday and looked good.

Cookie:

He was awesome. He was wicked. He was throwing high cutters at 96. Okay, the guy's a beast. You can't hear what you can't see. 96. Okay, the guy's a beast.

Joy:

You can't hit what you can't see. You can't.

Cookie:

No, it's coming in at 96, 97, 98, and it's around here and it just and the guys swing through it because they're doing a defensive swing, because it's being crowded. You know, you don't want to get hit by that.

Joy:

Yeah, and I hear that he's a lot of fun in the dugout too. They say he's got a lot of personality.

Cookie:

Yeah, now he's going to grow. Now, with the facial hair restrictions taken off, he's going to grow his beard. He was kind of a little pissed off a little bit that he had to shave off his.

Joy:

Well, Devin Williams you're talking about? Yeah, yeah.

Cookie:

And then Max Sweet too. Well, he likes sporting a mustache. He looks good in a mustache.

Joy:

We'll talk about the facial hair thing. But a couple more players real quick. Also, on pitches, we got Fernando Cruz from the Reds, along with Alex Jackson, a catcher, because we gave them Trevino. So those are the most notable players that we got Along with. Saying goodbye to, juan Soto, cortez went to the Brewers and the Debra Williams, gleyber Torres to the Tigers. Verdugo and Rizzo were not on the roster anywhere, not in New York or anywhere.

Cookie:

No well, Rizzo announced his retirement.

Joy:

Did he? Yeah, I missed that. Yeah, okay, we're back. We had some technical difficulties.

Cookie:

So I think we were picking up. That was Risotto was messing with our equipment.

Joy:

Yeah, right, you heard the airplane fly over and everything got a little bit crazy. Right Now he knows people, but anyway. So yeah, we were talking about that. We lost Verdugo and Rizzo and I was saying that they haven't been picked up by another team and then you shared with me that Rizzo is going ahead and retiring.

Cookie:

Yeah, he announces his retirement last, if I'm not mistaken, last Friday.

Joy:

So will he retire as a Cub or a Yankee?

Cookie:

A Cub yeah.

Joy:

I can see why he spent most of his career there. Yeah, good on them.

Cookie:

So I think he didn't say but all the how can I say all the pro announcers in baseball and MLB and ESPN said he would most likely retire as a Cub.

Joy:

Yeah, that's fair. That's not a bad way to go up Because he won a World Series there.

Cookie:

Yeah, Remember he won his World Series there in Chicago.

Joy:

I'm sure the Cubs fans will be happy. Yeah, he was a fan favorite in Chicago and New York.

Cookie:

He was loved in Chicago, yeah, yeah, and he was loved there in New York too.

Joy:

Yeah.

Cookie:

We didn't get his best years.

Joy:

Hey, listen, he did good for us. I think he did. He did better than Gallo. You know, I got some baseball cards sitting on the table there just to you know, make it kind of scenic. And there was a Joey Gallo in the stack and I threw it back in the box.

Cookie:

Only Joey could do that. He got away with it, you know.

Joy:

But yeah. So let's look at the lineup you already mentioned um the outfield. We got cody bellinger. He can play anywhere um center field, for sure, but we've got a situation because we got the young kid dominguez. Yeah, we got the martian the martian right and he, he's a power hitter at least that's what he's been um down in the farm system. He's a natural center fielder. So what do we do? Because he's looked terrible in left field, so what are we doing there?

Cookie:

Right there, you know it's a conundrum. Right now, I look at it this way. By the way, Puerto Ricans know how to say big words. Okay, we know how to use big words.

Joy:

You said conundrum, I said conundrum okay, that means it's a.

Cookie:

It's a. It's a hard thing to figure out, uh, the thing is right, right now he's offensively, he's doing okay. I wouldn't light up the board on him right now because he's hitting. At least he's hitting from both sides of the plate. He hit a home run from the uh, from the right side, the other right, he's a switch hitting power hitter. So he's got, he's got, he's got.

Joy:

You know light tower power right so I'd rather him be comfortable at the plate than worrying about if he's catching a fly ball in the corner there in left field. So for me, I think I'm convinced now I'd rather put him in center field.

Cookie:

Let bellinger play left, put judging right or vice versa and then they're talking about discussing there's been a big discussion about, because what they can do is that they can also DH Jason Dominguez and then put in Grisham in center, because Grisham has been a, I mean, the top, one of the top. People don't know this guy and if you look at his credentials, he's been a gold glove center outfielder for years. I mean for years. That's what he's known as. He's fielder outfielder for years. I mean for years. That's what he's known as. He's not known for hitting, he's known for his defense yeah, my brother-in-law's a a fan of grisham.

Joy:

He likes, he likes the way he just goes. Boop, he makes it look easy out there. That's a thought. I'm just thinking. The future is dominguez, not grisham. But uh, you know, I stole that a little bit from Michael Caine, but we'll see. So we've got that. Grisham is the stopgap right now. We've got that covered, so let's go around. We mentioned Paul Goldsman. We got him from the Cardinals. He's going to take over first base, moving Jazz Chisholm to second.

Cookie:

Jazz Chisholm. Right now his defensive skills are through the roof. What an athlete. I saw him. I saw the other day the highlights of him turning with Volpe turning a double play, 6-4-3 double play. It was sensational, I mean. And he's got a bazooka for an arm and he picked up the—he back-grabbed it because when Volpe shovel shoveled it over to chisholm he was already coming in for the ball. So he shoveled it to to my man, jazz, and he grabs it with his, with his bare hand, and he throws it underneath his armpit like he's still going that way. He's going to to uh, to the dugout, and he it, and it goes underneath his armpit, past him and goes to Goldie and he's out. Double play. I mean, it was sensational, bing bam boom, that's it.

Cookie:

The Jazz was really dancing that day.

Joy:

He said that him and Volpe will lead the league and put out.

Cookie:

So I'm good with it. I like that. I can't argue with that, because right now those are the best one-two combination I've seen so far this spring.

Joy:

Right and Volpe had a good postseason, so you know if he can be consistent at the plate. I mean he's our shortstop. He put on 20 pounds. He's a New York kid 20 pounds.

Cookie:

So did I.

Joy:

He put on 20 pounds of muscle Muscle. Yeah, oh, okay.

Cookie:

The guy he's ripped. You should see him. He looks like the Hulk man and it's not affecting his bat swing, he is dealing at the plate.

Joy:

I love it. I love it. I know he's going to have a good season. I want him to be a Yankee forever. I love his whole story.

Cookie:

And it was announced today, by the way, by Boone that Oswaldo Cabrera was going to be the starting third baseman.

Joy:

We all love the kid.

Cookie:

We all love the kid, but following on Cabrera, Talk to me.

Joy:

Can I say this, please do? I'm going to mute my mics.

Cookie:

All right, we got a kid by the name of George Lombard Jr. This guy here has got baseball MLB DNA in his blood, everywhere in his body. His father used to play for the Atlanta Braves and now his father is a bench coach for the Detroit Tigers, so he grew up in baseball. This guy is a beast Talking about life, power, power. This guy is a screamer. He hit a screamer the other day from the right side 445 feet that hit the scoreboard and it's still going.

Joy:

You said light tower power.

Cookie:

The only one that I knew that had light tower power before Judge came along was Mickey Mantle, when he did hit the lights at Yankee Stadium. You know it's yeah, this kid is something else, and guess what?

Joy:

But he's 19 years old. 19 years old, so we're not going to see him for a while.

Cookie:

We're not going to see him for at least one more year, because they're going to him. He's in A, in single A, and they want him to go to at least triple A, so they're going to skip double A, okay, aaa, okay. But you know what I mean? What's his name? Volpe skipped it. He went from single A to AAA. He came to the Yankees. Same thing, dominguez too.

Joy:

Yeah, they were the exceptions. Traditionally we leave the guys sitting there forever and then we get rid of them.

Cookie:

We don't even bring them up, but then we lose them for rule five. Yeah, yeah, but they think he's a natural third baseman too. This guy is not. Everybody in the league thinks that he's a plus plus defensive player. He's a 5'2 player right now.

Joy:

The Lombard kid.

Cookie:

The Lombard junior. Is they already equal? He's better, by the way, he plays third short and second. And the guy? Can they say that he's equal to Volpe in defense and Volpe is a gold glove. So think about what they're saying.

Joy:

Yeah, the future's bright for the Yankees.

Cookie:

For the infield. You can't touch that infield.

Joy:

So right now, we got Oswaldo Cabrera playing third that's been announced by Boone and we got Peraza as a backup. Are we okay without having a big name third baseman? Are we going to be patient as Yankee fans?

Cookie:

Joy, I think that's probably the best question of the year. I'm totally certain of this. You knocked it out of the ballpark with that question Because, first of all, either way you go, you're going to be questioned by your choices. You know how the Yankee fans are. You know how I am. You go, you're going to be questioned by your choices. You know how the Yankee fans are. You know how I am. Yeah, I'm brutal. Okay, how many times did I quit watching the Yankees?

Joy:

How many times did we not talk last season? Because?

Cookie:

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you something. She was my therapist. I would turn to text and she would say just chill out.

Joy:

Go watch a movie His passion, chill out. Go watch a movie, his passion lets him. It sucks the joy out of baseball. He gets so wound up.

Cookie:

I don't even think we talked during the world series. No, we didn't. We think we texted each other, yeah yeah, but any but anyhow.

Joy:

Yeah, that's the thing. Yankee fans are hard on each other. We're hard on our players because we have high expectations. We've got 27 world championships. Of course we have high expectations. We're champions, we want to championships. Of course we have high expectations, we're champions, we want to be champions all the time. It's harder than we make it look all right, but anyway. Third base we're going to be patient. We have to be patient with the kid Dominguez too, right.

Cookie:

We have to be patient, but I think that with Dominguez see, this is where I give credit to not to Bloom, but managers You've got to be a good manager and also a GM, because what happens? You've got a kid that's developing, and what do you do If they start having doubts about their defensive prowess? It's going to affect their offense. They're not thinking about hitting when they're at the plate, they're thinking about their defense if they made an error. The poor kid made like three errors in one game last week, so you know he's already doubting himself. You know, you remember.

Joy:

Chuck.

Cookie:

Knoblauch. Oh my God, the guy couldn't even throw it straight, he bounced the ball.

Joy:

But that's why I started thinking of him. When Dominguez continues to make the same kind of errors, he can't even see the ball out of the sun and it's like the same thing over and over. And he's an athlete, he's a top-notch athlete, but I think he's in his head at this point, much like Knobloch.

Cookie:

There's no doubt about it. No doubt about it.

Joy:

But there's no doubt about it, no doubt about it, but it's too early in his career for him to get in his head and so, as fans, he's got to play through it. He's got to play through it right, and we need to welcome him.

Cookie:

He has to play through it, but this is important when you have a cohesive team, and this is where a good manager like a Joe Torre used to do. I mean, look what Joe Torre did for Derek.

Joy:

Jeter, and this is where Aaron Judge and these guys need to lead.

Cookie:

They got to step up.

Joy:

And be there for this young team or young players that are coming up. Let's talk a little bit about the pitching staff. We talked about the new guys coming in, but Garrett Cole's our guy. He's an ace, he's pitching today. So we got Cole and our rookie of the year.

Cookie:

Luis Hill, okay, he must be. He finished third or fourth in the Cy Young race last year.

Joy:

But he won rookie of the year and unfortunately he's got a bum shoulder.

Cookie:

Well, he's got a strained tendon, so they're going to treat it with some steroids and they're not going to operate. They don't think that's necessary.

Joy:

That's good news.

Cookie:

So he's going to be out for at least six weeks.

Joy:

Right. So we're not going to start this season with him, which means that Stroman, who I was barking at you last week about, let's get rid of him. He's got a bad attitude.

Cookie:

Well, I wasn't the only one that wanted to get rid of it. No, no, I'm saying I, we both, you're going to have to swallow for a minute, unless, see my biggest contention. Now, guys, ladies and gentlemen, we have a guy by the name of Will Warren. Now, last year his ERA was a 10. This year, you know what his ERA right now is. The guy's a beast. This year he tweaked his pitches. Is he already right now? Is a?

Cookie:

uh, a zero, uh, as one one three, one point, one three might as well be a zero the guy, the guy, the guy, the guy's a beast and he and he just throws and he's a. He's a cancer survivor on top of that. The guy's a beast. He just doesn't want to lose and his whip right now is like he went from a 9.82 to a 1.13. Think about that, guys. And he's perfect for this, because I think he's a much better pitcher than Stroman. Now, stroman doesn't want to pitch out of the bullpen.

Joy:

Well, no, I'm thinking that Stroman's got a starting spot now that he lives now.

Cookie:

I would not put Stroman got. He got swamped the other day. He got really. He kicked around the other day. He doesn't have an ace plus stuff anymore.

Joy:

Well, I think he's got a chip on his shoulder because he knows that we wanted to get rid of him. We were kind of stuck with the contract $18 million.

Cookie:

Nobody was jumping up and down for him, but he doesn't have a whip of 0.50 like my man.

Joy:

No, he doesn't, but he's got more experience. I think so I. I think he finds a place in that starting lineup. We'll see, we'll see what happens I?

Cookie:

I think he's gonna have to pitch, because they own 18 million dollars right.

Joy:

I mean he's 18 million. He might. If he's not gonna pitch now with hill down, when is he gonna pitch?

Cookie:

I mean, I like to send him to the mets yeah, yeah, let's not talk about the Mets again.

Joy:

Who else we got started? We got Rodon Rodon and we got the new guy Freed.

Cookie:

Freed, Max Freed, he's a beast. I put my money on him, man, he's just going to be a winner. I think he could win the Cy Young this year. Right now he's 2-0. Freed Freed is no Warren is I take that back guys. But anyway, Freed is a beast too. He's smooth as silk. He'll remind you a lot of the Louisiana from Louisiana, our picture in the glory years before when Matt only was at first base Louisiana Lightning. Ron Guidry Ooh, that's a good one and he looks like him. Yeah, yeah, but he's taller.

Joy:

He's got that tall lanky.

Cookie:

Yeah, but he's taller than Guidry. Guidry was like 5'10" 5'11". This guy here is like 6'2".

Joy:

Well, he came out of Atlanta and Atlanta always has good pitching, yeah, and he came out from a good school.

Cookie:

You know the baseball capital of college, which is how many guys out there. Come on, call us up and tell us what's the name of that school that has the best players come out of there. Anyway, that's not important. What's important is that he also fills the spot. Remember we got now talking about pitches. Joy Scott Effers is on the aisle. We lost a couple of guys to the aisle so far. We got Clayton Beter's on the aisle and Chase Hampton is gone for the year with Tommy John.

Joy:

Yeah, we're beat up.

Cookie:

And Brubaker just went on the aisle too.

Joy:

We've got back to, you know, so we'll see. And defense wins championships, which starts with the guy on the mound. So we've got to get that pitching staff right and, you know, see if we can get some wins there with who we have until the kid gets back. And hopefully Cole's going to stay strong. All season he showed a lot of heart and passion that I didn't really know he had, to be honest. But in the postseason, especially the World Series, he dug down and I really became a fan of his even more after seeing him battle like that. So I think, with him as our ace, that's a good place to start and hopefully everybody else will follow suit. We've been talking about a lot of injuries. We've got to talk about Giancarlo Stanton.

Cookie:

Oh my God, You're right, joy. I mean, we forgot about Big G.

Joy:

No, I'm waiting. Big finish with Big G, big G Center, I'm waiting. I was on Big Finish with Big G, you know.

Cookie:

Big G, santa and Ideson both those albums. I wonder what he's been doing off the season and off the ballpark.

Joy:

Well, that's what I was wondering. But what I heard Michael Kay say recently on another podcast was that he was hurting. Last year there were points where he'd wake up in the morning and he couldn't even pick up the bat, couldn't even hold the bat, so he just went beast mode in postseason and really carried us offensively I don't know how he did it, man, but he got my respect because last year he was, he went wild.

Cookie:

Yeah, he did. And the postseason, just like joy just mentioned, I mean it's like the guy was like he was Mr Clutch, you know what I mean and he did, he brought us back from the dead in a couple of games against Cleveland. I mean he clinched, he won the MVP of that series.

Joy:

Yeah, he was tough. So I say take all the time you need yeah just come back in time for the playoffs. Just come back for the postseason. We'll see you. You know, maybe around September, you know, we'll send you a card, make sure you're good.

Cookie:

Come back around August so you can warm up by the time September rolls around your head.

Joy:

All right, I'm good with that For my birthday in late August. You know we'll get Stanton back.

Cookie:

We'll get Big G for Big J.

Joy:

Yeah, there you go. Okay, so we were talking about Stanton coming back for the postseason, so I like the way we're thinking, right, that we're going to go to the postseason. In order to get to the postseason, not only do we need Stanton back, but we need Judge to have a big season. We're talking about all these guys and we're not giving the captain the proper due respect, right? What about Aaron Judge?

Cookie:

Aaron Judge. I think he's going to go on a revenge tour this year. Now so far in the spring, boone has been holding him back. I don't know why and that's my contention with Boone, because I think he has he hesitates too much to let the guys who really get them molded into each other. The captain's got to lead, he's got to lead by example, and so when you start hitting and you know the judge can hit when he goes on a roll, you've got to warm him up. Now You've got to heat him up. He's like a stallion, he's like Secretariat, as a thoroughbred, and he's big enough to be one. So the guy he's got to warm up before he makes that final turn around, the final postmark at Aqueduct to be one. So the guy you know he's got to warm up before he makes that final turn around the final postmark at Aqueduct.

Joy:

Any predictions? Is he going to hit over 50 home runs this year?

Cookie:

I think right now, I predict that he's going to be at least 45. Okay, I haven't seen enough of him to see exactly how he's going to now Because, to be honest with you, joy, I think that the American League this year is not competitive at all. I think the Yankees and the Red Sox are the most.

Joy:

The American League East.

Cookie:

The American League East.

Joy:

Right.

Cookie:

Even the whole American League, but specifically the American League East. I'm glad that you pulled my coat on that one, because it's true, I mean who's in it?

Joy:

Toronto.

Cookie:

They ain't going anywhere. They haven't made any changes. Baltimore has stayed the same. Basically. The only ones that's made changes this year are the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Joy:

Let's talk about the Red Sox for just a second, because my boy, hague Smith, good friend of mine, is a Red Sox fan.

Cookie:

Oh, I know Hague.

Joy:

You know Hague right, so he's a Red Sox fan. Him and his boy, kai, are Red Sox fans. So I'll give Hague a shout out, and he told me already that the Red Sox are better than last year. And Red Sox are better than last year and they have.

Cookie:

They went and got a bunch of pitches. And they got Bregman.

Joy:

And they got Bregman right.

Cookie:

So they'll. They even got what's his name. Rafael Devers is now just de-aging. Right, right and he was the face of the franchise. Think about it. Talk about a face.

Joy:

Anyway, you bring out the bad in me. No, that's the best in you, uh, but uh, yeah, so red sox will be competitive, right they're gonna show up and compete. They're, they're spending money and they're they're a winning franchise.

Cookie:

Just because they can't beat us doesn't make them, they're like second they're the only ones that other than then you know the dodgers that can beat us well, and then also the round out.

Joy:

So we we haven't mentioned tampa, and tampa is basically like our tenants right now, because unfortunately, their stadium got blown away during the hurricane, which is not a joke by any means, but they had to come to us, so they're playing at our field.

Cookie:

They're playing in all seasons so we know that they start to beat us. Daddy you know, if they start to beat us, we'll evict them that's what I'm saying.

Joy:

We got the upper hand there and you're talking about them playing outdoors in the rain the sun and you know those fly balls, the sun's going to be really in there.

Cookie:

They're not used to that. I think that hurts them they were already hurt, but give them credit because they're going to get acclimated. Because they're playing in our ballpark right now and doing their spring training, they can get acclimated pretty good. Sure, I know, but they stripped their team down. They have nobody. Yeah, I think they're a franchise on the way out, Well you know, I think you're right about that right now, for the moment, I don't see them competing to the point where they're going to make the playoffs.

Joy:

Right right.

Cookie:

I think the top three teams in the East is going to be the Yankees, the Red Sox neck and neck and then the only other team that I could say that could be competitive to us would be the Orioles. Yeah, and even then I don't think the Orioles have a chance against the Yankees or the Red Sox. I put the Orioles in third place.

Joy:

Right, so we win the East. And then I think the other American League team that's done some things. They got a pitcher. I wanted was Detroit Tigers. They got our boy Glaber.

Cookie:

Yeah.

Joy:

And they got the guy that was pitching with the Dodgers. What's his name? Flattery.

Cookie:

Flattery. Yeah, I wanted him to go to the Yankees. We were a little bad, but we didn't.

Joy:

Twice. I wanted to get him and we didn't get him either time. So I think Detroit is a better team, and my friend Mark Pearson he's a Detroit Tiger fan, so I'll give him a shout-out as well. But either way, we'll match up.

Cookie:

We'll play 163 ballgames right, we're going to play more than that this year, my friend.

Joy:

Right, yeah, 163 regular season.

Cookie:

The Yankees will win the East and we'll see who we're going to match up with. The only thing is that. What I don't like about the playoffs Joy, what I don't like about the playoffs Joy is that I hate the whole configuration of it.

Joy:

The wild card, yeah, the wild card.

Cookie:

to me it's not fair, because you can win your division or your conference and you can win 100 games. Let's say the Yankees or the Red Sox win, let's say, 99, 100 games and then all of a sudden a little team that gets hot at the end of the. They make the wild card and they get hot for three games and then they beat that leader. It's the best out of five. That's not right. I'd say change it all to best out of seven. Best out of seven, best out of seven. Everybody's happy. The MLB makes money, tv sponsors make money and the teams have a chance to release shows. They shouldn't make it a wild card chance. In other words, if you get lucky in three games, they're done, you're done.

Joy:

Right, right, it's not right. I want to talk a little bit about the business of baseball for a second, since you mentioned the mlb, right, because that let's, let's do that, but, um, but before we get off, um, the yankees. I know we were talking about judge and you were telling me about a kid that we have in the farm system that's like big and strong, like Judge. Who is that?

Cookie:

Spencer Jones. Right now he's wearing number 78. They're running out of numbers at Yankee roster, my friends. Number 78, spencer Jones. He bats and throws lefties, so he's an Aaron Judge, but from the left side. You know what that means. At Yankee Stadium, right the short porch, short porch. How about the upper deck with this guy? He's 6'6 and 235.

Joy:

How do the kids get so big? I don't know, man, what do they eat? I?

Cookie:

don't know man and he's only 23 years old, Same age that the judge came in.

Joy:

That's good stuff. I don't want to bring it back to the Dodgers, but anytime I have an opportunity to remind fans and I know I have a lot of key west people that listen to my podcast the dodgers have uh up and coming superstar. A native son of key west, antonio knows in their pitching uh rotation and um or on their pitching staff. I should say I hope he gets called up this year. I expect him to get called up, but he got an inning of work on opening day spring training.

Joy:

Seven pitches looked great for whom uh, he's playing with the dodgers oh, that's, right. Yeah, I've been telling you about him. But yeah, yeah, antonio knows, but I'm hoping that they got enough pitches and the and the yankees can go steal one we gotta drop that diamond. They stole the world series from us, we're gonna steal.

Cookie:

Antonio knows. Let's take that, let's take the nose yeah, let's go get him.

Joy:

Let's go get him. Hey, cookie, I was talking about the business of baseball. You mentioned the major leagues. One of of the things you know, there's always the narrative that baseball is boring, baseball is dead. So major leagues have done a lot of things to speed up the game right. One of the things is the pitch clock. I think we've gotten used to that End of the game, tie ball game, end of nine tied up. Now they put a runner on second.

Cookie:

The ghost runner, the ghost runner, the ghost runner.

Joy:

Um, there's been um a couple other changes that I've seen the abs yeah, I wanted to. You want to talk about that at all yeah, the automatic balls and strike system.

Cookie:

I can't stand it. I've been looking at it. At first I said, you know, let's try to get. It was cute because now you can. You can actually challenge a pitch if you think it's close.

Joy:

Yeah, you tap your head.

Cookie:

Yeah, exactly.

Joy:

Which already looks ridiculous. Yeah, it's like what?

Cookie:

are you a third base coach making signs? Leave it to the asshole to use that as a cheating scheme. But the thing is that you know it's like come on, I mean, do you want to really get rid of the umpire? I think that's the greatest thing about umpires is that you've got the human element. Number one. Number two why are you going to take away the manager's right to argue with the umpire? Then nobody will be thrown out of the game.

Joy:

Yeah, talk about excitement and I'll give credit to Boone for that. Boone can argue. Boone can pick a good fight. He can argue boom, boom can pick a good fight. He can. He can argue better than man, you know, yeah, he's a good fighter. So the other thing I've seen, uh, is about blocking the bag at second base, so that that's a thing that's out just like they did for home plate the catcher can't block the bank.

Cookie:

They play anymore. He's got to have the ball. He's gonna be. You got to get the ball in that area for him to reach and then block the bag, or he uses the legs. We got a lot of injuries last year from the catchers having to use their legs or their arms. They're taught rotator cuffs because they slide into the arm. When the catcher reaches and catches the ball with his mitt, the guy slides in pretty hard and he puts the spikes on his glove, he snags it and pulls it and he acts as a rotator cuff.

Joy:

Yeah, so they try to avoid injuries, collisions at second, and then it falls back on the catchers trying to just not block the bag, so they're making pretzels out of the slide, I say just let everybody hit each other.

Cookie:

Yeah, just like the old days, right, come on man.

Joy:

Toughen up a little bit. It's just like everybody getting on the IL Every time you turn around everybody's got something hurt Before you know it.

Cookie:

They're going to be sharing the World Series trophy as a runner-up. They're going to have a participation trophy, hey we don't want that.

Joy:

We can't let that.

Cookie:

Let them play the game the way it's supposed to be played. Man, toughen up a little bit, right.

Joy:

And that's the same thing they're trying to do on first base. And again, a lot of this stuff is happening during spring training. We're not going to see it in the actual regular season, but they've added a bag to first base, oh yeah.

Cookie:

That's right Like they're doing in Little League.

Joy:

Yeah, just like Little League. Hang on, we got this. There's Soto coming over us again. But yeah, they've added a second base, right, so there's now two bags at first. So if a runner's coming down the line, he's got to touch that.

Cookie:

That outside bag.

Joy:

Yeah, I'm looking at my clock to make sure I hit record. He scared me for a minute. I'm looking at my clock to make sure I hit record. It scared me for a minute. I'm starting to feel like Soto's watching me, but anyway, yeah. So the runner coming down the line, he's got to hit that orange bag, at least partly right. So now you're putting your umpire in even a tougher position.

Cookie:

Yeah, because he's got to see if he partly touched the. It's a bang-bang play. What are you going to do? What happens if you get to the real bag and the sound is different from the one on the outside Because they go by hearing too Sure?

Joy:

sure.

Cookie:

Ba-boom, you know, and when your cleats hit the bag it goes to sound differently than when you don't hit the bag or you toe it. I just think that's a wrong, wrong idea. I don't like that idea at all. The ABS for me should be taken off. I know they're not going to use it this year. They're using it as spring training, but in the minors they use it all the time.

Joy:

Right right. No, and I think you know, I think there's. You know, we want to get it right as much as possible, but we're human.

Cookie:

We don't have to be perfect right, just that human element and that I've attended games at Yankee Stadium all my life. Not to exact, I didn't care what time it was. Do you think folks, do you really think that real baseball fans care give a damn about how long they stay at the ballpark? What's it? Is it punching and punching? You got to be home at a certain time. You pay all this money now to go to a game, hundreds of dollars before you even go to the food stand, and you're worried about getting out of the ballpark at a certain time so you can beat the traffic. Nah, come on, man, toughen up guys. Stop with this stuff already. Let them fight, let them get into it. Make it a contact sport like it was before. I mean, it's not like football. It's not like football. You know You're going to put a time clock Before you know it, you're going to put a time clock on the game.

Joy:

Hey, cookie, we got to wrap up here. Let me ask you, can you take me back to the subway and take me back to Yankee Stadium.

Cookie:

Yes, you can. My favorite part of going to Yankee Stadium, guys, was when we hit the last stop, which was 149th Street and Grand Concourse, in the tunnel area prior to hitting 161st Street and Riverside. And I would always run to the front of the train because my favorite scene was like you're in this darkness, You're in the dark and you see this little pinhole up ahead. And it got bigger and bigger and wider and wider the more you progressed on the rails. And when it hit that spot, right there, the whole world opened up and all of a sudden you saw on the left-hand side of the window was Yankee Stadium and it was pulling up and they would announce they wouldn't say 161st Street, they would always say Yankee Stadium.

Cookie:

And the conductor would say Yankee Stadium to your left, and your stop is going to be on the right. Don't go to your left because the stop is going to be on the right. Don't go to your left, because the door is going to open on your right. Good luck, yankees. And that was it. And let me tell you something it was such a because at that time the subway station was connected to Yankee Stadium. You could go straight from the station platform to the actual ramp into Yankee Stadium and it was for me. It was the delight of coming out of that dark tunnel and seeing the color of the blue skies and the white facade of Yankee Stadium. To me it was a great contrast and I'll always remember that, to the day I die.

Joy:

That's good stuff and that's a good place to stop. Let's do another one around the All-Star break. We'll do another episode.

Cookie:

I'll be more prepared.

Joy:

And see how our Yankees are doing. But I hope everybody out there catches a ball game in your town on TV, because baseball is a great game. We all love it. I'm Joy Newlish and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. My purpose is to bring joy into my life and the lives of others. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a review, share and subscribe, because there's a lot of good stuff on tap. You can also follow Bring Joy on YouTube or check my website at joynulishcom. Now go bring joy to the people in your world. Until next time, much love. Thank you, cookie.

Cookie:

You're welcome, sweetie.

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