Hour 1: Buster Olney and Rich Cimini

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Hey babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton Honors app the other day, and yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive, even for me. Just kidding, you can never have too many Hilton Honors points. And I want to do something iconic this summer, so I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton Honors member, and I might be sending you Paris points, because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

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This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

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I gotta get more Kay.

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**Michael Kay** (0:41)
And a good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 It's me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. You know the story. It's the fastest two hours in Sports Talk Radio. And you are the co-host. And you know the membership number. You know the password 1-800-919-3776.
Yesterday, so many people said, wow, the guests yesterday were amazing. And they were. Jeff Passon really brought it. Brian Windhorst really brought it. Don LaGreca really brought it. And today, we're going to try to do it even better. We've got Buster Olney at 1 30, as we continue to fixate on the upcoming trade deadline, August 3rd, 6 p.m. Rich Cimini, Jet Camp Beginning, we'll check in with him. And then Mike Lupica, we've been separated by a couple of weeks now. I was on vacation, he was on vacation. He returns to the show for his regular Wednesday spot. That'll be at 2 30 So, so much to do. And we're so happy that you're going to do it with us. Um, Yankees won yesterday, three to two. And it's kind of amazing. They've won 11 of their last 15 games. And as you watch them play, you almost get the feeling that they're not 11 and 4 over the last 15 games. You almost get the feeling that they're 4 and 11
Because they're not doing anything with any degree of excellence other than they're starting pitching, which is a big deal. But they just seem to do enough to win, which there's something to be said for that. There really is something to be said for that. And I'm going to tell you something that's going to bother some people.
I think that when you watch a team every single day, the way you watch the Yankees or you watch the Mets, or I watch the Yankees or I watch the Mets, I think we get a different perspective, probably more of a harsh perspective, than if you just checked in every now and then. Because teams that are having quote unquote good years, right? The Yankees, the injury-decimated Yankees play those teams, and they seem to handle them quite well.
So Philadelphia under Don Mattingly has been really, really good. You know, they're breathing down the neck of the Atlanta Braves, and now they've stubbed the toe since the All-Star break, but the Yankees go into Philly again, ravaged by injuries, made only worse when Bellinger got hurt on Saturday, and they take two out of three from Philly.
I keep hearing the National League is so much better than the American League. Well, the Yankees went into Washington to play the Nationals, and at the time the Nationals were over 500, and the Yankees just came back in the eighth inning of each one of those games and won.
Now, the Yankees come into Chicago, and the White Sox, surprisingly enough, they're in first place in the Central. And the Yankees take the first two games of this four-game series. So what I'm trying to say is, maybe things are not as bad as we all think they are, because we're watching them every single day. Like, on a personal note, you are more harsh about yourself because you look in the mirror, and you get a really close look at your face in the mirror, than you would be seeing somebody walk down the street. You don't really have that same perspective, but you study what's in the mirror. You study the man in the mirror. So you're more harsh to that than you are somebody walking down the street who might be worse off than you.
Now, I know the ultimate goal is to win a championship, and the Yankees might have to get by the Dodgers if they get to the World Series. And the Dodgers just took two out of three from the Yankees, but for the most part, the Yankees played pretty well against them again, without Judge and without Stanton. So it's kind of odd that we're all coming down on the Yankees. They've gotta make trades. They can't let this trade deadline go by without making major, major reconstruction, right? Maybe we're wrong, because something that Jeff Passan said yesterday on the show, and he really surprised me, he said, and you can listen to the podcast, you think I'm making this up, and I'm paraphrasing it, but this is essentially what he said. He said, if the Yankees don't make a move, they don't make one move in the trade deadline. One, Jeff Tassin, totally not a Yankee boy, not connected to the Yankees in any which way. He said, if they don't make a move by August 3rd at 6 p.m., he still thinks that they're going to the World Series.