Boomer & Gio
Full Show - MLBPA's Tony Clark Steps Down, NBA Tanking, Stanton & Mendoza Speak
18 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What scandal led to Tony Clark's resignation from the MLBPA?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. And we're coding you live for the build for tough studio. Boomer Esaias and Greg Giannotti. It's Boomer and Geo on the fans. Simulcast across the country on CBS Sports Network. And wherever you are on the free Odyssey app. Good Wednesday morning. Boomer will be back tomorrow. That means that Jerry is here again in CeeLo on the updates.
Good morning, Jerry. What's happening? G, good morning to you. Is it Wednesday? It is Wednesday. Nice to see you, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. Everything blending together, of course, during this long winter. But the sports news cycle never ceases to amaze as there is always something out there that you didn't expect or didn't see or never thought was coming.
And that was what happened yesterday with this Tony Clark situation. Normally, the labor negotiations and baseball and the collective bargaining agreement, that's stuff I hate talking about. We're going to have to talk a ton about it coming up because of what may happen with a work stoppage. But then you see the details of why Tony Clark, the MLBPA head, has to step down.
And all of a sudden, it becomes this scandalous story as there was a whistleblower that said, Hey, some weird stuff is going on here. There's some nepotism. There's some money that's missing. And an investigation happens, an internal investigation.
Not only do they find out there's some money missing, there's some nepotism, but Tony Clark is having an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law. That's a rough one. Happy Valentine's Day? Yeah. Oh, God. I think about the week that this gets blown out on. Good God. I know. That's another part of it, too. It's like, you know, I'll never forget that it was...
You talk about the news cycle and Friday news dump stuff. So I was in the newsroom, and it was right after Imus said the thing he said about the Rutgers women's basketball team. And there was a person in the newsroom who had been in radio for a long time and said it was Friday that he was looking at the paper, and it was a blurb in the paper.
And he goes, I still haven't figured out if this is a good thing or a bad thing for him. Meaning?
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Tony Clark's inappropriate relationship?
That he was getting a lot of attention about this particular thing, and he hadn't gotten that type of attention in a while. But then it ended up blowing up because there was nothing else going on. As we've talked about before, that Virginia Tech shooting, that horrible tragedy down there, happened like a week later. If it happened the next day, maybe people wouldn't have seen it.
Maybe we're all not here. Yeah, well, that's very true. Everything changes. At least not as early as a new show started, right? Yeah, no, you're not wrong about that. So Tony Clark's probably thinking like, oh, great. I mean, you know, this couldn't have come out the same day that the Epstein Files came out like this. Why is this happening now when nothing is going on in the sports world?
You are probably right about that, though I think his marriage is probably still over and he probably still does resign. It just would have been a little less noise around it. Oh, of course. Yes, there's no doubt about it.
All those things would have happened, but it's just that now everybody's talking about it where this would have been just a bit of a conversation as opposed to if it's the day after the Super Bowl, we're talking about it a little bit. Sure. But a lot of people are, of course, consuming it now.
And I asked the same question to Gina yesterday that Al asked CeeLo this morning on the warm-up show that a lot of people, I'm sure, have asked. Is it worse to bang your brother's wife or your wife's sister? I don't think it matters. I think it does. I think they're both terrible. Now, it's hard for me because... Now, do you have both? Do you have a wife, sister, and a brother, wife? No.
You don't. All right, so I don't have both either because I'm an only child. Does anybody have both? So what I have is I've got two sister-in-laws, one that I've talked about on this show, the naked sister-in-law, who would walk around and she stayed with us for six weeks and I'd come home from work and she liked to be naked in the house and she didn't know I was there.
I would catch her naked in the house and say, oh, I didn't know you came home. I'll put some clothes on. Thank you. She's just a free spirit type of person, you know, whatever. So, you know, I think because... We have the situation we have where I have two sister-in-laws. It felt worse to us if it was that situation.
But then if you think about it, like if you have a brother, I don't have a brother, but if you have a brother. I do. He's just not married. And then you're, you know, you're with his wife. They're both horrible. Really bad betrayals. To me, it's six and one half because you break the bond with your brother. That's the first. I mean, that's a problem. That's a big problem.
I might even say that's worse because he's your brother. At least, no disrespect to married people. I'm one of them. If you do that... She's your wife. You get divorced. You move on, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. Your brother's always your brother. Yeah. So you know what? Now that I think about it, I think it's worse if you do it to your brother. Yeah. And that's what it was.
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Chapter 3: How does the discussion around affairs relate to Tony Clark's situation?
I'm sure, yeah.
You guys got your stuff together or what? Yeah. I mean, all is fair, right? I mean, why not? Yeah. Little jab, little jab, no doubt.
I mean, it's going to be nasty, and I can't imagine that this thing is going to be easily resolved because the owners want a salary cap, and the players have said forever, ever since I started paying attention to baseball business, probably in high school, that they will never, ever, ever accept a salary cap. You know, the biggest problem is...
The Dodgers, who play by the rules, kind of, this Focaccia contract with Shohei Otani. I actually believe, and this is just my opinion, I don't think this would be an issue if the Dodgers weren't spending $4 billion a year on payroll. Yeah, Steve Cohen might spend more for sure, but the Mets haven't been proven to be this perennial winner.
And the Yankees are, they play by the rules with that contract. With the threshold, so it seems to be working for 29, I should say 28 teams. I think it's the salary floor is the bigger issue. But because of what the Dodgers are doing, teams feel like they're in a completely different stratosphere.
And I do think it's going to be salary cap or nothing, which is why I don't think there'll be baseball next year. I always bust boomers' balls about him bringing up the consortium of billionaires that own the Dodgers. He loves that consortium of billionaires. But really, it is, and the bigger issue is not how much money they spend.
It's the fact that they don't care about the competitive balance tax bill. Steve Cohen, even though he spends a lot, still cares about that. And he won't go way above and beyond it and pay penalties. that are insane to him because he's a money guy. And we've seen what Hal Steinbrenner does. I mean, and Hal Steinbrenner says, no, we're not even paying. We're not going above this at all.
I'm not touching that. I'm not paying money to go into the pot with the revenue sharing and all these other teams that aren't trying. I'm not doing it. Which is what it was designed to do.
Right, but the Dodgers and all these billionaires that they have, they don't care about that tax bill, and they feel like they can make that money up and still have a profitable business and all of the Japanese players and the fact that it's a global brand at this point. So it's really them.
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Chapter 4: What solutions are proposed for NBA tanking?
Let's say you put a floor in. You made these owners spend $160 million. I'm not saying $250 million, $150 million, $160 million. All of a sudden, the idea of keeping Paul Skeens in Pittsburgh is a very real possibility for a Pirates fan. And you do have money to spend. Yeah, the payrolls are going to be bigger for the bigger market teams. But it does close the gap potentially.
And I do believe baseball, as much as any other sport, if you close the gap a little bit, it does allow teams, if they make smart decisions to compete. The Rays have been doing a lot with nothing for years. They're obviously the minority. But I do think the floor is the bigger issue if it wasn't for what the Dodgers are doing by just blowing through and making up their own rules as they go.
Yeah, absolutely. To me, if they could force, which you can't, but if you could force the teams like the Pirates and the Royals and some of these lower teams that aren't making a lot of money to spend the money that they're getting from the CBT tax and the revenue sharing on the roster...
That would solve some things, too, because the way the system is now, I mean, there is no incentive for an owner of one of these lower-rung teams in these smaller markets to put the money back into the team because the competitive balance of the league is so fecocted. Sure. So if you're...
If you're an owner, if you're Bob Nutting, as I mentioned before, Pittsburgh, you're taking that money, you're putting it in your pocket because you're putting it into the team. It's not going to really go anywhere because you don't think you're going to be able to make money. So you decide to take it. It's profitable for them. So they're not losing money.
Right, and so now if you have a system that allows them – I understand the Dodgers are on an island on their own right now. It's just the way it is, and the Mets obviously spend a lot too. But if you created a system that at least makes it a realistic possibility for these other teams to reach the postseason, now you've got – you would think a better record.
You would have higher attendance, and you're selling postseason tickets. Everything goes up dramatically, and you're putting more money into your team to get a better product – I think there are ways to do this without the hard salary cap that the players are never going to accept. And I think everybody would win.
But you've got to get these two sides in the room and actually talk it out and figure it out. And I don't know how long it's going to take to get there. Yeah, if you think about the luxury tax and how much money the Dodgers spend, the Mets spend, the Yankees spend a little bit, 50% of those millions and millions of dollars, it's over $100 million for just the Dodgers.
50% of that gets distributed to the non-CBT paying teams. Plus the revenue sharing on top of it that they agreed to. Do you think there's a number... In terms of tax, where the Dodgers would be like, all right, this is stupid. No.
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Chapter 5: What scandal led to Tony Clark's resignation from the MLBPA?
Like, he doesn't have to do it. You know what I mean? There's some older artists who... feel like they have to tour to maintain a certain lifestyle that they have because they can't sell new music, and the only way they can make money is go out there. So it's a little bit different because of that, where Tiger is, I mean, he's a billion-dollar human being.
And will continue to be until the day he dies. And he's still getting money. Still getting money. And he should. So he doesn't need to play whatever $32,000 he would get for finishing 72nd at the Cognizant Open.
Chapter 6: How does Giancarlo Stanton feel about the Yankees' offseason moves?
He doesn't need that money. But... I feel the same way about certain guys when you're watching them and you're like, man, it does not sound the same. But then again, you go and you get tuned up and you're watching one of your favorite artists play the songs that you loved, then it's still like the songs that you loved. I think we talked about this last week.
McCartney is one for me that I have not seen and I would like to see before he hangs it up. And he's not the same. I've seen the clips from his tour last year. I think he... Maybe it was 15 or 16 different stops he had.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of Tony Clark's actions on MLB negotiations?
He doesn't sound the same. He doesn't move the same. But it's still Paul McCartney. I'd like to see it once before he retires. I'd compare it to Phil Collins had to be performing in a chair. I know. He's been sick. That's the type of thing I'm comparing Tiger doing now. It's like he's not going to be back to going around and jumping around the stage and doing his thing. So, I mean...
Chapter 8: What types of men are discussed in relation to infidelity?
Yeah, I'm trying to think if there's another example of that. I mean, you saw Bob Dylan and walked out, didn't you? Yeah, but he was in his prime. What was this, 1965? I mean, 1991? Bob Dylan's prime, Eddie. I mean, he wasn't 100 years old. He was in his 40s. I know what you mean, but I'm just curious to see what... Yeah, when he went electric. That was his prime? Right before that?
Yeah, right around there. Right around there? I mean... And that was what, 70? No, that was like the Newport Jazz Festival of 1965. Right, but I'm saying in terms of his age, he wasn't an over-the-hill artist at that point. I mean, he's still out there now in 2020. Yeah. So this was 20... This is 35 years ago I saw him. Yeah. And it was horrible.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's one of those guys that some of the greatest lyrics and songwriting that Americans have seen that should have just handed every song to somebody else. You know, just go and sing this. I do like his studio stuff. I just didn't like it live. God, was it bad.
Chris Stapleton was a guy who was behind the scenes and wrote songs for other people, and then people realized that he had the best voice out of everybody. And he was like, I'll just do this myself. Yeah, Bob was a little unique. You know, but Staples is like, listen, I'm kind of a fat guy with a beard. You know, I don't know if I'm going to sell. And he goes out there and sings.
Nobody cares how, you know, you don't have to look like, you know, you don't have to be thrusting like Luke Bryan in his prime, you know, doing that whole country girl shake it for me thing. Or whatever. He's knocking boots. He's done quite well for himself. I saw him a couple times at Jones Beach. He does that knocking boots thing. It's just like, it's so cheesy, but it's just so funny.
I try to find like 50-year-old women with perms that you know are from Nassau County and just to see what they're doing while that's going on.
Like, oh, hello.
knocking boots that's the worst but the best somehow at the same time uh paul in pennsylvania what's going on paul yeah good morning uh geo and jerry thanks for taking the call i love talking golf man love talking golf what you got for us man yeah so i was fortunate enough to go to the 99 masters and it was great because tiger was there very still very young jack and arnie both played and uh
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