Chapter 1: Who are the rising stars in New York sports?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. Friday, Friday, Friday, New York City. What is up? It is the Boomer and Geo program coming to you live from the fan and CBS Sports Network, the Built Ford Tub Studio. The number to call 888-808-1019. G is out for the weekend. He'll be back on Tuesday to see Basks in the Sun somewhere, someplace with somebody.
Until then, I sit in with the Booms on a, well, we'll call it still a winter Friday. We are getting there. I promise we are getting there. And a little more as we kind of wrap up the Team USA stuff last night to the near and dear New York Rangers to the guy to my right. Not a great game, but again, they do the right thing early on. Good morning, Boomer. How are you?
Yeah, good morning, Jerry. Good to talk to you. Yeah, and I'm very happy with the ending of that game for sure. And I didn't really think that the overall beginning of the game was like the devil game the other night with Jack Hughes. It was different. Now, he scored the golden goal.
It's a little bit different when you're honoring guys like JT Miller and Vincent Trocek for being the defensive part of the hockey team. And plus, it was on ESPN. True. So it was not on MSG. If it's on MSG, there's a little bit more room to do a little bit more stuff. But I thought it was really underwhelming, at least that's the way it came across on TV. I was not there.
And then, of course, they end up losing the game. But the thing about all of this stuff that I took from yesterday is that, you know, watching Nolan McClain pitch, is really remarkable. He is going to be a great pitcher. We all feel that way. We all think that he has got the goods to be really a great young player. It's the way the Giant fans feel about Jackson Dart.
We all think and we feel like this kid could really be a superstar player. And then there's one other player that is basically burst onto the scene and has taken over his respective league. And he broke two records again last night, and that's Matthew Schaefer for the New York Islanders. Not sure if you saw this, but he had two goals.
He passed Phil Housley as the youngest person ever to score the most goals, 18-year-old in NHL history. And he led his team to victory. So there's a lot of really good young players around here. The Rangers are going to go through a rebuild. They have some young players. Whether or not they're going to end up turning into something, who knows.
But there are, like, I remember what I was telling you yesterday. There was somebody who put out a top 10 young player list in New York sports. And I think at the top of that list right now has to be Matthew Schaefer of the New York Islanders.
Yes. Let's see, 8 o'clock.
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Chapter 2: What records did Matthew Schaefer break recently?
I mean, and spring training is not proving ground. It's proving ground to make the team, of course. But getting up here and starting 33, 35 games and, you know, and having a low ERA and basically being the player that we all hope he's going to be, then we can really buy into it.
But the great thing about the three players that I just pointed out, and I guess you could throw Cam Schlittler in there as well. I mean, you could throw him in there as well as you want. As a fan base, you are jacked up because now you know you have a young player where the sky is the limit if the young player can stay healthy and the young player can stay focused.
That's really what it comes down to. You know the ability is there. You know the arm strength is there for the quarterback. You see the ability to throw all these different pitches for Nolan McClain. And then, of course, you see what Matthew Schaefer did last night.
The only thing, the reason I bring up the hockey and stuff like that is just because these are young players now that just don't seem to be overwhelmed by anything. I remember being a young player in the league. I was overwhelmed completely.
For about a year?
Yes, for a year. You don't know whether or not you belong, and then you question. You do have questions in the back of your mind. Do I belong here? Can I figure it out? Can I learn my craft? Now, some of these kids are born. Nolan McClain, I'm sure, has been pitching since he's been, what, five years old?
And he's also older. He's also not 19 years old, which does help.
Well, 100% it does help. But the other part of this is that there's an intangible in each of these players that you can't manufacture. They either have it in them or they don't. And if they do have it in them, then the question is, do they want to be great? And will they become great? And, you know, those are questions that, you know, a number of these guys have still got to answer.
I mean, Matthew Schaefer's played in, what, 60 games? Yeah, two goals last night. Yeah, I mean, so it is crazy that, you know, these kids just come on the scene. It doesn't seem like it bothers them at all. And they just take over whatever they're doing, and they do it seamlessly. And when we watched Jackson Dart play at his highest level, we saw a fearless kid on the football field.
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Chapter 3: How did Nolan McClain perform in spring training?
If he's going to go out there and give you five to six solid innings every time he goes out every fifth inning, gives you a chance to win, then you've got Nolan McClain behind him. If you've got Sean Mania, who you don't need to rely on, but now he's a three or a fourth pitcher.
David Peterson's now a three or a... I haven't even mentioned Kodai Senga yet, who was supposed to be the ace of the staff a year ago. All of a sudden, we talk about the Yankees' depth of pitching. Perhaps the Mets have some pretty damn good depth as well.
I think both teams do. I really do. I think both teams are going to be fine. They have more than enough starting pitching. They each have about eight starting pitchers, and we all know that it's going to be at least eight to ten that are going to end up taking them out at some point. So it's a long season. It's an arduous season.
But, again, I just think that what Nolan McCollum did yesterday was great, and he's off to a flying start. And he's going to be around those other American pitchers during this World Baseball Classic, which is going to be great. Sure. Just being exposed to Paul Skeens is going to just be great for him.
Well, when you're around other major leaguers, they were asking this of, was it Carson Benj the other day?
One of these younger Met players that had come up, and they were asking him what it's been like to be around the likes of Juan Soto every day, what it's like to be around the likes of Francisco Lindor, and his take was, and I think it was Benjamin crediting this too, his take was, you know what? It is great.
You learn a lot, but at the end of the day, it's still baseball, and that's where you hope the talent just shines through. The one thing about Jack Hughes, and this is just about time, it's like, I don't Put him on that list of kids you were talking about.
Because he's been here a little bit longer.
Yeah, and yet he's 24, the same age that we're talking about with Nolan McClain. It goes to show just the perception you have of these guys. And he's still a kid as well at 24.
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Chapter 4: What are the latest updates from the Mets and Yankees spring training?
But then they beat Boston, which was good. And then they beat Philadelphia and Boston, I think, in and around that loss.
But remember when they got out to the really good start to the season and everybody was Mike Brown, Mike Brown. See, this is why we got rid of Tom Thibodeau, Mike Brown. And the one guy, though, as they were playing great and winning a lot of games, was Carl Anthony Towns continually saying, I don't know my role. I'm still figuring it out.
And I remember you sitting there saying, what are you talking about? You're winning every single game you play. What is the issue? So that's been a constant the whole season.
It has. It has been a constant, and I thought we got over that about three weeks, four weeks ago. But now when it shows itself against the good teams, it's really alarming. But this is why the go back and forth about regular season games in the NBA and you have an experienced, gritty – or grizzled roster that has playoff experience, it's really going to come down to that.
Well, here's what you've got, because you talked about this with Gio last week. You've got road games coming up in Milwaukee and in Toronto. In Milwaukee tonight, by the way. Yes, and in and around that, games against the Spurs and the Thunder. Those are your next four.
And, oh, by the way, then a road trip to Denver, L.A., meaning the Lakers, the Clippers, and then, well, the Jazz aren't any good. But your next one, two, three, four, five, six, seven games – And the Clippers aren't great either, though. You've got Kawhi Leonard there.
Are you going to take four and three out of that?
Four and three, you're going to slip down in the standings.
Yeah, I know, but I'm just saying that's what it's probably... It's either going to be that or worse.
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Chapter 5: What honors did Jack Hughes receive in Pittsburgh?
I've never seen. But he's a former player, too. I understand.
He's an assistant coach.
But, yeah, there's a lot of strange things going on around that whole thing. But if there was an issue with Tom Thibodeau, could Jalen Brunson have said something to his dad? Of course, but I don't buy that. Here's the Shiv spot.
If that ever came out, I'd be stunned. There's a lot of things that would surprise me. That one would take the cake.
But as you were saying, all the reports came out that it was Bridges, it was OG, and we're playing too much and whatever. Maybe it wasn't fun playing for Tom Thibodeau because he was... You know, coached him hard, coached him hard and made him play defense. I don't know. I don't know. And and then I'm just wondering, I don't know if Jalen Brunson would do that.
I just think, you know, could you say to his dad, you know, man, this guy is grinding us, man. It's no wonder why we can't win. This is why we always get hurt in the playoffs. We got to do it a different way. And then, you know, it's one thing to fire coach. And then hire the eighth guy on the list. It's a whole completely different set of circumstances.
And I know that they had guys under their radar that they thought maybe they could get. They ended up couldn't get them.
But they had no deal in place.
They had nothing. They had nothing. So something weird about the way that whole thing ended.
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Chapter 6: How are the Rangers performing this season?
I have not, no. I think you need to go there and experience it.
I like to leave as soon as 10.30 hits. And he means 10.30. If they had a museum of sex in Bradley Beach, I would go to that.
Is there a museum of the penis?
I don't know.
I don't know. That's clearly an old clip. I do not know.
We're breaking down strip clubs this morning. We're going to get to that, too, with Boomer in a little while.
All right, Chris.
Sponsored by Chef IQ, precision cooking, effortless results. ChefIQ.com. You guys mentioned Nolan McClain. He was the star of yesterday's Mets 5-0 victory over the Astros. Spring training games down in Florida. Four innings, just the one hit, one walk, six strikeouts. And then Robert Stock... I guess inspired by Nolan McClain, took over and did just as good a job.
Three innings, one hit, no runs, no walks, 6Ks. So Bob Stock, the 36-year-old, looking pretty good. You did have home runs for Marcus Simeon and Tyrone Taylor. Yankees beat the Braves 7-3, five-run first inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr. with a two-run homer. RBI doubles from Ryan McMahon, Jose Caballero.
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Chapter 7: What are the Jets' plans after recent trades?
To me, I would think it's not going to represent everybody for sure, but that's probably an overwhelming thought.
And I would say that every team right now that is trying to make a trade is trying to call up Toronto and see if they can acquire that guy. I would think so. I would think that Chris Drury would be on the phone.
I was going to say, get the Rangers on the phone. I don't think they have what it takes in terms of assets to acquire him.
But if there's a team out there that can go get Austin Matthews, man, go get him. I'm sure he would love to get the hell out of it. Well, I can't say that for sure, but that would just be my speculation given all the crap that has been thrown his way from the Canadians.
Yep.
You got his situation. You had Brady Kachuk getting grilled about the post-game locker room scene when he met the media yesterday.
They all are. They're all going through it.
And then Brady Kachuk also upset that... Doesn't someone at the White House have to get fired? Yeah, this is a pretty bad White House AI video where it makes it seem like Brady's insulting Canadians.
Makes it seem like it.
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Chapter 8: What was the controversy surrounding Brady Tkachuk's AI video?
I'm going to get to these NFL grades coming up at the top as we go around the league a little bit. There are some things that just jump off the page that I got to hit Boomer with if you look deeper into these. So we'll get to that in a couple minutes. We do have some time for a couple of phone calls. Ray in Wappingers Falls. Ray, good morning. How are you?
Hey, Jerry, Boomer. Good morning to you both. All right. What's happening, Ray? Well, first I'm wondering, you're going to be going to football. So I want to bring up a Knicks comment you made, Boomer, but can I give a quick point about the Jets? Sure, go ahead. So it's been building for weeks, and I try to call Carton up and you guys as well.
At the end of the year at their conference, right, their press conference, and I like Mooch, but they're sitting up there. The reporter asked them, you know, how soon do you think you can turn it around? And they say as soon as this year. And then a reporter follows up, like, what gives you the confidence in that?
And their answer, if you go back, is pretty much, well, I see what's in this building. I know who we have. I know what we got. Like, what do we got? You lost the last five games by 23 points. You got Aaron Glenn, who's a defensive guru, who couldn't orchestrate one interception all year, and yet we're sitting here like, what are we going to do? Like, it's just a joke. Like, just...
And Boomer, I get there's like the politics, like you got, just say what it is. Like, give us something. Where you went wrong, what you're going to change. It's like an abusive relationship. Like, I'm done with this.
Wow. Yeah, he had a Nick point, too, that he wanted to give. But just to kind of recap some of the Jets stuff that's going on right now, I mean, I don't know what you want them to say. I mean, they're trying to sell a product, and it's not a product that's easily sellable right now.
And I'm sure that their business department on that side of the building is having a hard time selling suites and sponsorships and things of that nature, especially the lower-level stuff. Most of the high-level sponsorships will stay with these teams, and they should stay with these teams. But, yeah, I understand. They're trying to sell season tickets, and what are they supposed to say?
Well, I think what they're supposed to say from a Jet fan that's been beaten over the head for years and years, and as Ray just said, he's done with them. I think the... The proper thing to say is we're building this thing, guys. It takes a little time. We are headed in the right direction.
We feel really good about what year two is going to be as opposed to... I think what they don't want to hear is a team sounding incredibly confident that they're going to be... I'm not going to say championship, but they're going to be a playoff-type team this year.
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