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DOUG MUZZIO: Hi, I'm Doug Muzzio. This is City Talk.
Today. No politics. No De Blasio. No Cuomo.
No Hurricane Sandy. Unfortunately no Kano, no
Mariano, no Andy, rather Tanaka, McCann, Elsburry and Beltran
got the call. Any Bronx games worth watching this fall?
Once again, no juicers in the hall.
♪ [Theme Music] ♪
DOUG MUZZIO: Joining us to talk Yankees, baseball, the
Steinbrenner's, taxes, the fate of the game is George King the
III. The New York Post Yankee beat writer here and another
winter of my sports discontent, welcome back, George.
GEORGE A. KING III: Thank you. How are you?
DOUG MUZZIO: Good and apologies for the bad poetry again.
Wait a second. Before we get into baseball, was New York
sports ever this hopeless? I mean you've got the Yankees,
the Mets the Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils
and Islanders. They all stink. I mean seriously.
GEORGE A. KING III: You know it's hard to say because I'm
sure we could find another year somewhere.
DOUG MUZZIO: 65 maybe, 66, I mean come on.
GEORGE A. KING III: This is probably as grim as it's
been I would imagine.
DOUG MUZZIO: It's awful.
GEORGE A. KING III: I'm not a follower of some of those
sports you just mentioned but I'm sure it's not good.
DOUG MUZZIO: You want to kill yourself, take away my
shoelaces and my belt. Okay. Before we get to the Yankees,
rules changes. Two major changes and it's in some sense changes
to really the essence of the game. One, instant replay with
certain exceptions and no home plate collisions. Let's talk
your attitude, one word reaction to instant replays.
GEORGE A. KING III: Forget about it.
DOUG MUZZIO: Why?
GEORGE A. KING III: I just- the game is played by humans.
It should be officiated by humans.
DOUG MUZZIO: Old school.
GEORGE A. KING III: I know the people sitting at home have
better technology than the umpire, get a better view
sometime than the umpire but where's it end? I mean
where's- what's next? I just- no.
DOUG MUZZIO: So right now, as I understand it, they would
have eye off or something like 90 percent of the plays. They
wouldn't have bogs, interference, balls and strikes
and the neighborhood play where the second baseman who
shuts up, grazes second base. How does it work?
I mean do you understand how it works?
GEORGE A. KING III: We're going to find out.
DOUG MUZZIO: Because they get one challenge each, the
managers, something like football but in baseball it goes
to New York like the National Hockey League rather than the
NFL. How long are these games going to be? 27 years?
GEORGE A. KING III: There are certain people who think this is
going to speed it up instead of the manager going out and
jawing with the umpires. That might speed it up.
DOUG MUZZIO: They'll jaw with the umpires
anyway will argue it.
GEORGE A. KING III: My biggest concern is where does it end.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: Where does it stop? Is this it? Is this the
end of it? Or in five years do they figure out
how to do something else?
DOUG MUZZIO: With balls and strikes.
GEORGE A. KING III: With balls and strikes.
DOUG MUZZIO: That gets right to the essence of the game.
GEORGE A. KING III: I mean this is I would just rather-
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah I would think also that managers might
not like it because they have to make another decision and they
don't like to make decisions so you've got that too.
GEORGE A. KING III: We'll see who's aggressive.
We'll see who's not aggressive with it. I mean the one thing
about it is there's no arguing it. So I mean once you
challenge you can't argue the calls. It's a fact.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right. Well I mean I can see, I mean too
bad he's not around, Billy Martin. I can see him kicking
dirt on people even then. Or Earl Weaver.
GEORGE A. KING III: We're going to find out. I mean I think
the pros, the people who are for it says it's going to
be great and the people who are against it are waiting to
see how it plays out.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay the second major change, major, is
no collisions at home plate. Now I got my feelings about this.
Your reaction.
GEORGE A. KING III: Terrible rule. Absolutely awful rule.
I know everybody's worried about concussions and they
should be but I would say the more concussions a catcher
suffers is a foul tip off a mask than a collision at home
plate. Now you're going to say, okay, did he run into him
hard? Did he run into him on purpose? Did the catcher not
get out of the way of a slide? It leaves far too much
up for the umpires.
DOUG MUZZIO: I hate to use sexist terminology but there's
an element of sissification about baseball these days.
I mean you can't throw at a batter to move him off the
plate. You can't collide. You can't go after the second
baseman because the second baseman doesn't have to touch
second base. I mean does it change the sort of the essence
of the game, taking all the contact out of the sport?
GEORGE A. KING III:That depends how old you are.
DOUG MUZZIO: Go ahead. You and I are on one side of the divide.
GEORGE A. KING III: We saw it when they played for money.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: To get to the post season you had to-
to get money you had to-
DOUG MUZZIO: And it was real money.
GEORGE A. KING III: It was money.
DOUG MUZZIO: Dusty Rhodes, the hero of the Giants in '54
worked on the tugboat.
GEORGE A. KING III: Now they're all in the same union.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: And a powerful union. I think that the
days that they slid into second base for $5,000 playoff check,
they're gone. But you're right. You can't pitch inside.
The umpires give you an intent. They can read the pitcher's
mind supposedly.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right. And it's automatic ejection.
GEORGE A. KING III: But if you're 20 years old you don't
know what it was like. So it depends what you saw before
and what you're seeing now.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right, okay. I don't think we touched on this
last time but we ought to do it now. Designated hitter.
GEORGE A. KING III: When I was covering- I covered the
Phillies for nine years and then I went to cover the Yankees and
I thought oh this is- how am I going to watch a game with nine
hitters. And it took me about a week and I didn't miss the
other thing at all.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh really?
GEORGE A. KING III: I fully support it and I think everybody
should have it. I know it extends careers and gets a
little bit dicey there but I think when you're spending the
kind of money people who are asked to spend to go to games,
I'd rather watch a player perform than a manager think.
DOUG MUZZIO: Excellent because that- I mean that really is the
trade off, the strategic decision making. Okay. Let's
go to the Yankees. Last- the last time we spoke was just
about this time last year just before the pitchers and
catchers, another week. We talked about the prospects of
the team. We talked about Youkilis. We talked about
Jeter. We talked about Cano and the general shakiness of
the team. What most surprised you about the previous Yankee
Stadium- season last season before we get into this season
sort of as a transition to this season?
GEORGE A. KING III: Surprise- I mean you can't be surprised
by injuries. They happen to everybody.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: And they don't want- they're pretty good
at not making excuses all the way up from Steinbrenner all
the way down. But you can't ignore the games and the
manpower they lost Teixeira and Jeter, Rodriguez. In '09 you
could make the case that- and I know that it's a while ago but
you can make that case that infield that won the World
Series was one of the top infields of all time.
DOUG MUZZIO: Absolutely. With A. Rod at third, Jeter at short,
Cano in second and Teixeira at first, that's a good team.
GEORGE A. KING III: Essentially they missed three fourths of
that for most of last season. So you can't be surprised about
that. The surprise for me is that they just didn't hit.
I mean even the people in that played- Ichiro didn't hit.
DOUG MUZZIO: Nobody hit.
GEORGE A. KING III: Granderson missed a lot of time. He didn't
hit when he came back. And they really paid for the mistake of
not resigning Russell Martin.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yes.
GEORGE A. KING III: They threw all the injuries and everything-
DOUG MUZZIO: Their catcher was just awful.
GEORGE A. KING III: I think if they had to resign Russell
Martin even as bad as they were last year they may have
snuck in the playoffs.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay, we focused last time a lot on Cano and
being in a walk money year that Cano there would be this
tremendous pressure. Talk about Cano leaving the Yankees,
what it means to them and what it means
to Cano let alone Seattle.
GEORGE A. KING III: What it means to the Yankees is that
they made a decision that the money that he wanted and
he wanted $300 million.
DOUG MUZZIO: But he didn't get it at Seattle.
I mean a lot less.
GEORGE A. KING III: They weren't going there. They weren't going
to go near 300. They decided to take that money and spread
it around and fill more holes. If they resigned Cano for $250
million, there's probably no McCann.
DOUG MUZZIO: The catcher. We'll go around the field.
GEORGE A. KING III: There won't be a McCann, Elsburry and
Beltran and Tanaka. Somebody, two of those guys aren't here.
So they're thinking we'll fill multiple holes with money we
saved instead of just putting it in to one or two players.
DOUG MUZZIO: Even if that one or two player was a
potential Hall of Famer.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's a terrific player. He's a top 10
player in the game, Gold Glove second baseman.
DOUG MUZZIO: Joe Morgan too?
GEORGE A. KING III: He's terrific.
Joe Morgan with more power.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right. So we're talking Hall of Famer but the
logic is to get more quality ball players for the superstar.
GEORGE A.KING III: And they did.
DOUG MUZZIO: They did, okay. Let's talk about Tanaka, taxes
and the Steinbrenner's. The last time we discussed this
$189 million threshold and we were figuring out what the
Yankees could do with it, he just blew- how Steinbrenner-
bottom line guy- just blew the budget. Half a billion dollars
worth of contracts?
GEORGE A. KING III: Well he blew a budget that was a goal.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: I mean to say the Yankees have budgets,
everybody's got budgets but the Yankees play
with a bigger budget.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right and the budget happen to be
a huge checkbook.
GEORGE A. KING III: Right. So they decided that okay we're
going to do this now. But that goal had an effect on a
previous two years.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: They didn't spend a whole lot of money.
DOUG MUZZIO: No.
GEORGE A. KING III: And cost them I think last year.
DOUG MUZZIO: I think it did too.
GEORGE A. KING III: They got Soriano and they got him but
they don't pay him much.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: Vernon Wells they didn't pay anything.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right and all the billion and those guys-
GEORGE A. KING III: So I mean the top players-
they didn't get-
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah. Okay. So they spend all this money and
the last piece of the puzzle I guess is Tanaka which is
somewhat of a problem because the history of Japanese
players and pitchers in the Yankees, in the majors and on
the Yankees is problematic and I was looking for George King's
stories on Tanaka but you're on vacation it looked like
in the month of January.
GEORGE A. KING III: I've been down a little while.
DOUG MUZZIO: Talk to me about- I want to hear what
George King had on-
GEORGE A. KING III: I mean the people you talk to,
they've seen him, spent a majority of the season watching
him. They say he's a terrific pitcher. Terrific. Now he's
24 and 0 over there. Does that translate here? How is he
going to translate? It's New York. It's the American League
East. It's the- I think this is overblown a little bit, the ball
is a little bigger but he throws splits.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: That's going to affect him. We don't know
how he's going to pitch. Nobody can tell you how
he's going to pitch.
DOUG MUZZIO: No.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's not- they say he's not affected by
things like Matsui wasn't affected by things.
They were right about Matsui.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: He wasn't affected at all.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: Arabu...
DOUG MUZZIO: Collapsed.
GEORGE A. KING III: Well you know he was okay. But with all
the bells and whistles. Matsui was terrific.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah, okay.
GEORGE A. KING III: Darvish has been terrific.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: Matsuzaka for two years was terrific.
DOUG MUZZIO: And not so anymore.
GEORGE A. KING III: You know what? I think if you've got to
trust people that watched him, I think he's okay.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay. Let's go around the diamond from
two to nine and then come back to the pitching stand.
So we got McCann at catch, a great improvement, up the
middle defense, more offense.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's going to hit some homeruns.
DOUG MUZZIO: He's going to hit some homeruns. Big improvement.
Okay, let's walk through. First base?
GEORGE A. KING III: It's two years now. He's been hurt.
Teixeira's been hurt. He's got to stay on the field and he's
got to produce. I mean-
DOUG MUZZIO: He was declining in his skills before he got hurt.
GEORGE A. KING III: I mean A. Rod has been the focal point
of the abuse and the criticism.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: I think it's time for Teixeira to, A, stay
healthy and produce.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah because I mean-
GEORGE A. KING III: It's time.
DOUG MUZZIO: It's a zero.
GEORGE A. KING III: And his mindset too. He's not running
from that. He understands it.
DOUG MUZZIO: No, yeah, still good defense at first baseman
but he can't- may not hit.
GEORGE A. KING III: It's time for him to stay on
the field and hit.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay so now we have second base. I mean the
rest of the infield though invalids. I mean be serious.
I mean you got Teixeira and Jeter and then who do you have
at second and third? You've got possibly the
worst infield in baseball.
GEORGE A. KING III: We got Brian Roberts whose injury forever.
DOUG MUZZIO: Totally and not that good to start with.
GEORGE A. KING III: No.
DOUG MUZZIO: So he's, excuse me-
GEORGE A. KING III: He's a huge question mark. We're going to
see about Jeter. You know the people that know Jeter, you
don't bet against Jeter, however, he's going to be 40.
DOUG MUZZIO: Come on.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's coming off a season where he played
17 games with bad legs. So the questions are legitimately
there. When you get to third base, in my opinion,
that should be Nunez.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: That should be Nunez. They don't think he
hits enough to play third.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right. He doesn't.
GEORGE A. KING III: But he's got a live body and a live bat.
DOUG MUZZIO: And he can breathe.
GEORGE A. KING III: He doesn't have the power.
They like power at third.
DOUG MUZZIO: So the infield is basically awful.
GEORGE A. KING III: It's a lot of questions.
It's a lot of question marks. We'll see how awful it is.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay. Also, let's focus on Jeter a bit.
What is it, 1935, the Yankees trade the greatest Yankee of all
time, Babe Ruth. Is it time for the- is it time for in one
sense the Yankees to move beyond Jeter or they can't?
GEORGE A. KING III: They can't and they won't.
DOUG MUZZIO: They won't.
GEORGE A. KING III: We're talking about-
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: The greatest Yankee since DiMaggio.
DOUG MUZZIO: I would argue there are other great Yankees
like I would say Mantle but go ahead.
GEORGE A. KING III: Okay, Mantle.
We're talking iconic players.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah and a Hall of Famer probably.
GEORGE A. KING III: The biggest thing I think, the biggest issue
with Jeter this year, what happens if he doesn't hit?
Does Girardi have the guts to drop him in the lineup?
Will he sub Brendon Ryan for defense late innings?
DOUG MUZZIO: Late innings because as defense he was always
basically a mediocre short stop and now he's got no range.
GEORGE A. KING III: The range is going to be worth watching but
he's going to have to use Brendon Ryan's defense for one
of the three spots- third, short and second.
Defense for all of them.
DOUG MUZZIO: I'm getting depressed. Let's go to the
outfield where it's less depressing. Let's start with
right field. We've got Carlos Beltran, good addition.
GEORGE A. KING III: Switch hitting, a professional player,
above average hitter. He's been through it. He's played here.
DOUG MUZZIO: Older though again.
GEORGE A. KING III: Older but that's free agency. You live
with it, you die by it. And when you live with it they hit and
they produce and they pitch and everything is great.
When they get hurt, well they're 36, 37, 38 years old by the
time they- you know most guys get to the free agency in their
mid-30's. So I think he'll be alright.
DOUG MUZZIO: Old and broken down. No, go ahead. And then
we have center field. We stole one from the Red Sox.
GEORGE A. KING III: Yeah. That's going to prove-
I'm a little intrigued by that.
DOUG MUZZIO: Go ahead.
GEORGE A. KING III: I don't think they upgraded
much over Brett Gardner.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: I don't think that's a huge upgrade and
they admit that Brett Gardner is close to being Elsburry.
The difference being about $150 million now. It's their money.
I mean people scream and tell about the Yankees spending
money. The Yankees don't tell you how to spend your money.
Don't tell them how to spend theirs.
DOUG MUZZIO: Good advice. Okay.
GEORGE A. KING III: I think you have to wait on Elsburry.
Let's see how he plays.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay but offensively an improvement over
Gardner, not necessarily in the field but
certainly at the plate, no?
GEORGE A. KING III: Yes, he's a better hitter. But again-
DOUG MUZZIO: He had one season.
GEORGE A. KING III: The gap is not-
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay and then you've got Gardner on left.
GEORGE A. KING III: I'll be interested there
for a couple reasons.
DOUG MUZZIO: No power.
GEORGE A. KING III: Power you got- see you could go without
power because you had Cano hitting 30.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: So he made up for a couple sins. The things
to watch with Gardner, he was going to be the lead off hitter
in the center fielder on the Yankees going into his free
agent walk year. He's now the number nine hitter
and playing left field.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: The appeal-
DOUG MUZZIO: Market value is- come on.
GEORGE A. KING III: Now you can say well it's only one year
and this and that and the other thing but it's a big mental
adjustment I think.
DOUG MUZZIO: Starting lineup? What's the starting lineup?
GEORGE A. KING III: Elsburry will hit one.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: Jeter will hit two. Then you can play with
it. Gardner is going to hit ninth. Brian Roberts is probably
going to hit eighth. Nunez-
DOUG MUZZIO: Seventh, sixth. Okay so you got Beltran,
Teixeira and Elsburry and McCann.
So three, four, five and six.
GEORGE A. KING III: And Soriano.
DOUG MUZZIO: And Soriano but where does Soriano- oh, DH.
GEORGE A. KING III: One and two are set. Now you got Teixeira,
Soriano, McCann, Beltran, three through six.
DOUG MUZZIO: Soriano third, Beltran fourth, Teixeira fifth
or sixth and Elsburry fifth. Okay, we've got that solved.
Why don't-
GEORGE A. KING III: No, Elsburry is leading off.
DOUG MUZZIO: I mean who's left? I mean somebody.
GEORGE A. KING III: Well then the third baseman,
the second baseman.
DOUG MUZZIO: The middle of the infield. Okay. It's October of
2014. Yankees, what do they got to do to get in?
GEORGE A. KING III: My point is are they better than they
were a month ago? Are they better than they were in
October? The answer is yes.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: Are they good enough to win the
American League East?
DOUG MUZZIO: I'm asking you.
GEORGE A. KING III: Today, I say no.
DOUG MUZZIO: Why?
GEORGE A. KING III: Pitching.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay, talk about pitching.
We didn't get there yet.
GEORGE A. KING III: It's a game dominated by pitching
and there are question marks-
DOUG MUZZIO: Up and down.
GEORGE A. KING III: -one through five.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right. Sebehty you don't know. Tanaka you don't
know. Nova you don't really know.
GEORGE A. KING III: Do you trust Nova?
DOUG MUZZIO: No. And Robertson, is he the closer?
GEORGE A. KING III: Yes.
DOUG MUZZIO: He's the closest.
GEORGE A. KING III: When I say pitching, I mean-
DOUG MUZZIO: One through five.
GEORGE A. KING III: And the people who get the game to
Robertson. I think Robertson is going to be fine.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay.
GEORGE A. KING III: The problem in the bullpen is replacing
Robertson what he did.
DOUG MUZZIO: As the set up to Mariano.
GEORGE A. KING III: Shawn Kelly's got a chance. But when I
look at it, I just the pitching is not-
DOUG MUZZIO: Who wins? Boston again?
GEORGE A. KING III: Tampa Bay.
DOUG MUZZIO: Ah. Tampa Bay better team.
GEORGE A. KING III: Better team, better pitching.
DOUG MUZZIO: One of the organizational failures
of the Yankees, and we had talked a bit about
this before is the chronic lack of Major League
ready baseball players in the Minor League system and
you almost have to go this free agent route.
Are there any home grown players in the minors?
I mean how many home grown do they have now? Gardner's one.
GEORGE A. KING III: Robertson is two.
DOUG MUZZIO: Robertson is two.
GEORGE A. KING III: Nova.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay and that's three. It's not-
GEORGE A. KING III: Surely is going to be the backup catcher.
That's four.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah that's not the core four. But not too many
people coming through the system. Are there any-
GEORGE A. KING III: No big- there's no- their system went
dry as far as you know high end people at
the worst possible time.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: Trout, other teams have Brice Harper.
The Cardinals are loaded with home-
DOUG MUZZIO: Right and Tampa Bay in the Nationals too.
GEORGE A. KING III: Then last year when they needed help it
wasn't there from the minor league system.
DOUG MUZZIO: At all.
GEORGE A. KING III: Their players- their better players
are still a couple years away from being ready to play.
DOUG MUZZIO: So who's closest in your mind in
terms of the minors?
GEORGE A. KING III: Gary Sanchez.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay.
GEORGE A. KING III: And he's not ready.
DOUG MUZZIO: No, they're not ready. Okay let's go to real
quick A. Rod. What's the deal with this guy?
GEORGE A. KING III: Flip a coin. Which one are we talking about?
DOUG MUZZIO: I know. One of the best players of his time
and he totally-
GEORGE A. KING III: One of the best players ever.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right and he blows it. Best shortstop ever. Why?
What is the story and now what is the game he's playing?
I mean he's ticked off everybody and if he comes back after
suing the Player's Union there's going to be a lot of pitchers
that are going to slip out their pitcher's hands at his head.
GEORGE A. KING III: Oh it's- whatever draw you want to get
into, he's in it right now. There's- go ahead he's like
take your shots at him. I'm sure he hopes he's going to play.
I don't know about a Federal Judge getting involved in this.
DOUG MUZZIO: No, they're not.
GEORGE A. KING III: Binding arbitration.
DOUG MUZZIO: No.
GEORGE A. KING III: I don't think that's going to happen.
DOUG MUZZIO: So he's finished for this season.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's finished for this year.
DOUG MUZZIO: At least.
GEORGE A. KING III: At least.
DOUG MUZZIO: So one of the- I mean talking about self
destructive tendencies, it's just astounding.
GEORGE A. KING III: It's a shame it came to that. It really is.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah because he was so good. Him and Bonds
were the two best.
GEORGE A. KING III: Terrific player, smart, baseball smart.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah and smart smart.
GEORGE A. KING III: Enjoys the game,
enjoys talking about the game.
DOUG MUZZIO: Works hard.
GEORGE A. KING III: Works as diligently as anybody. And then
this is the way- well it's not going to end this way because
he's not retiring but a whole year off at their age.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah, that's a lot.
GEORGE A. KING III: You lose the will to compete.
You don't know what-
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay, Hall of Fame. Last time we talked a bit
about juices in the Hall and it just so happened it was right
around the time that the votes were in but they hadn't been
counted. There was nobody voted in 2013. In 2014 I guess you
had Maddox, Glaven and Thomas and Pigeo missed it by what?
GEORGE A. KING III: Two votes.
DOUG MUZZIO: Two votes. 74.8 percent out of 75 percent.
You voted in both of those elections.
GEORGE A. KING III: Right.
DOUG MUZZIO: In 2014, the most recent, I don't know if you
discuss- some sports writers discuss.
You tend to not though.
GEORGE A. KING III: No, we published it in the paper.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh you did. So who did you-
GEORGE A. KING III: I voted for 10 for the first time.
DOUG MUZZIO: You voted for every- full ballot.
GEORGE A. KING III: We can vote 10 and usually it's-
well it depends but it's four or five.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay, since it's public tell us who
did you vote for?
GEORGE A. KING III: I voted for- I always voted for Palmeiro.
DOUG MUZZIO: You did vote for him.
GEORGE A. KING III: Bonds, McGuire. I vote for Clemens.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh man. You're the juices delight.
GEORGE A. KING III: Well here's the reason.
DOUG MUZZIO: Go ahead. McGuire though?
GEORGE A. KING III: You can argue McGuire-
DOUG MUZZIO: I can-
GEORGE A. KING III: -that he doesn't belong in there on his
baseball stats. Here's my theory.
DOUG MUZZIO: Go ahead.
GEORGE A. KING III: Bonds, Palmeiro, homerun hitters,
right? Tell me how many of those homeruns
were hit off clean pitchers.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh.
GEORGE A. KING III: Clemens.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah, I know please.
GEORGE A. KING III: How many of those strikeouts were against
dirty players? You can't separate. It's an error that
happened. They say they're doing the best they can do to
eliminate it. I don't think that's ever going to happen.
Look, we just suspended-
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh, that's interesting.
GEORGE A. KING III: -13 people without a failed drug test.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: I just look at it as a whole error. The sad
thing about it in my opinion, Rafael Palmeiro is one of four
people with 3,000 hits and 500 homeruns. He's off the ballot.
All of a sudden this guy doesn't exist?
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: He's not a great player?
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah that was shocking that he wasn't
even on the ballot.
GEORGE A. KING III: Ballots are ballots.
DOUG MUZZIO: Right.
GEORGE A. KING III: You can do what you want with it. I don't
argue or get upset about somebody else's ballot.
The fact that he's off the ballot-
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah that's a problem.
GEORGE A. KING III: And he was a terrific player.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh absolutely.
GEORGE A. KING III: So I mean if you're going to say,
okay I'll vote for Palmeiro but not Bonds or Bonds but now you
know- I voted for Piazza and Begio.
DOUG MUZZIO: Well I mean-
GEORGE A. KING III: And Frank Thomas.
DOUG MUZZIO: But Piazza has never been formally charged
anyway and come on, outside of two catchers maybe Johnny
Bench and maybe somebody else, Piazza is the best. Not a
great defensive catcher but certainly the best offensive
catcher. He was screwed and getting 74.8 percent he's got
to get in next time, no-
GEORGE A. KING III: You would think.
DOUG MUZZIO: You would think the second time on the ballot.
GEORGE A. KING III: Terrific hitting catcher.
DOUG MUZZIO: That's interesting that you voted for all of them.
What about Sosa? He wasn't on the ballot though, was he?
GEORGE A. KING III: Hmm?
DOUG MUZZIO: Sosa?
GEORGE A. KING III: Oh yeah.
DOUG MUZZIO: He was on the ballot? He doesn't deserve
it though, does he?
GEORGE A. KING III: Well yeah.
DOUG MUZZIO: You do?
GEORGE A. KING III: Think about the player.
Again, I'm eliminating-
DOUG MUZZIO: You're eliminating the steroids. And caulked bats.
You're eliminating all the cheating.
GEORGE A. KING III: Well where do we stop? Splitters?
Spit balls? Cut balls?
DOUG MUZZIO: I know.
GEORGE A. KING III: Where do you-
DOUG MUZZIO: I knew I grew up with Wady Ford so we understand
that you can use wedding rings and sandpaper and-
GEORGE A. KING III: Exactly.
DOUG MUZZIO: And how many people throw spit balls?
Your life over 12 months, I mean you're just coming off of
probably your only break. I mean you work from-
GEORGE A. KING III: Extended break.
DOUG MUZZIO: You work from February 10th to Christmas.
GEORGE A. KING III: Yeah.
DOUG MUZZIO: And also one of the things that struck me
from reading your stories for the last year was it's not only
what's between the lines. The old sports page was what was
between the lines. Now the sports writing is everything-
the financial, the social, all of that stuff. So what's-
talk about spring training. I've never been there. We've got a
minute. Just talk about the glories of
spring training so I feel bad.
GEORGE A. KING III: Well you're going to be shoveling snow
and I'll have suntan block on.
DOUG MUZZIO: That's not nice.
GEORGE A. KING III: That's it.
DOUG MUZZIO: I mean and the fact that you live in my town
you know we live together that lots of snow.
GEORGE A. KING III: I hope there's a lot of it
February 12th, 13th and 14th.
DOUG MUZZIO: You're miserable. That's ridiculous
that you want snow.
GEORGE A. KING III: It's a very relaxing time for a person
in my industry. It's a time to get to know the players.
There's no pressure. Nobody has lost. Nobody has a job taken
away. It's a relaxing time. I enjoy it. Not everybody in my
business enjoys it. I enjoy it.
DOUG MUZZIO: Why don't they enjoy it?
GEORGE A. KING III: I don't know. You hear people gripe
about it. And they gripe and they gripe
and I don't go around-
DOUG MUZZIO: They need to gripe.
GEORGE A. KING III: I don't go around waving pom poms spring
training is here and though this year they're going to throw in a
trip to Panama probably too to honor Rivera.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh, interesting.
GEORGE A. KING III: I'm looking forward to that.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah a little junket for you, huh?
GEORGE A. KING III: Yeah.
DOUG MUZZIO: Traveling, get to you?
GEORGE A. KING III: Talk to me in September.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah. At least it's not basketball. At least you
have a homestead. You're there for a couple of days.
GEORGE A. KING III: Travel you know it's what it is. It's part
of the- it's like your bus ride. It's part of the deal.
DOUG MUZZIO: Don't start me with the bus ride.
That's another whole show.
GEORGE A. KING III: You can drive.
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah no. Forget it. Okay, let's get back to this
right here. October, who's in the World Series?
Stick your neck out.
GEORGE A. KING III: World Series in October?
DOUG MUZZIO: Yeah.
GEORGE A. KING III: Detroit against the Cardinals.
DOUG MUZZIO: And Detroit finally wins.
GEORGE A. KING III: No.
DOUG MUZZIO: Cardinals win.
GEORGE A. KING III: Yes.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay.
GEORGE A. KING III: Bracket that.
Verletto's gotta be healthy.
DOUG MUZZIO: Okay, Yankees? Just talk to me, just something.
GEORGE A. KING III: They're in the Pennant race.
DOUG MUZZIO: They're in the Pennant race?
GEORGE A. KING III: I mean you can- would you describe
Pennant race last year? It never felt like-
DOUG MUZZIO: No.
GEORGE A. KING III: This year I think it will feel more like a
Pennant race but with that pitching, I don't know.
DOUG MUZZIO: You're going to have to come back. I'm telling
you in July we might need to have a razor blade, shoe laces
and belts taken away from us. Do you ever get that way?
GEORGE A. KING III: No. Just [INDISCERNIBLE] girls
basketball that's all.
DOUG MUZZIO: Oh, don't start. Thanks to George King
for being on this show and for his insight and analysis
preparing us for first the boys of spring and then the boys
or summer and the fate of the game. Join us next week here on
CUNY TV. Excellent.
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