Hour 1: Mike Tannenbaum

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast. I gotta get more Kay. Listen live weekdays at 1 on the ESPN New York app and your smart speaker.

**Jake Asman** (0:41)
No Michael Kay.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:43)
No Michael Kay.

**Jake Asman** (0:44)
Jake Asman in for Michael, taking you till 3 o'clock here on 880 Espn, New York, the ESPN New York app, and of course brought to you by the Parisman firm, the ESPN New York YouTube channel. I hope everyone is having a great Thursday. You're avoiding some of that Canadian wildfire smoke that I know has hit parts of the city and from Long Island. So I've heard from some friends of mine who live on the island still that they see it from where they are. So hopefully everyone's doing all right. We got a decent amount of things I'd say to talk about, given the fact there's really no sports on this time of year. Although if we're going to count the Mets returning to action as a sport, they are in action tonight. Mets and the Phillies, a stand-alone game for Major League Baseball. We had Carl Ravitch on the show the other day, and Carl of course will be on the call for ESPN of this game later. And he said, look, MLB was expecting the Mets and the Phillies to both be really good this year, so we were excited about getting a chance to broadcast Mets-Phillies in a stand-alone spot to kick off the second half of the Major League season. Only one of those teams is actually any good, and it's amazing because here are the Phillies who made the move that you could argue perhaps the Mets should have made a lot sooner. I don't know if it would have made a huge difference, but perhaps it would have. And what I'm referring to is Don Manningley replaced Rob Thompson as the Philly manager. He replaced Rob Thompson as their interim manager on April 28th. The Phillies were 9 and 19 9 and 19, 10 games under 500 with Rob Thompson as their manager through April 28th. Under Don Manningley, Philadelphia is 45 and 24, tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in Major League Baseball since. Now, I think this Mets team is incredibly flawed, but if there was ever a time for them to try and jumpstart and spark something with their team, Carlos Mendoza should have been let go a long time ago. And when they finally let him go, it was too little, too late. The Mets are so far out of it, they're clearly going to be sellers when we get to this deadline coming up in a few short weeks. But you just wonder, would that have provided any sort of spark if the Mets say fired Mendoza in the midst of that 12-game losing streak? They really cooked their season. I don't know if it would have made a big difference because the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and it's not like they took off right away. Now all of a sudden they won nine in a row, so maybe they're legitimate. Let's see how they look coming out of the second half of this All-Star break. But the two teams that fired their managers in season, it worked clearly for Philadelphia and for the Red Sox. It didn't work at first and now I guess we'll see. But the Red Sox play in the American League, which is the biggest thing. So they're still under 500 despite winning nine games in a row, but they're right there in the mix because of the fact the American League is not any good. So Boston at 46 and 48, they're two games under. They're just a half game out of the final wild card spot. You know, if the Mets were 46 and 48 and you look at the National League wild card, that wouldn't even be close to getting a wild card.
If they were 46 and 48 doing math in my head, the Mets would still be six games back of the final wild card. So it would be better, but obviously nowhere close. So just a big what if. What if the Mets made the move on from Mendoza a lot earlier than they did? Again, I think this Mets team is incredibly flawed, but Philly made the change and you know what? They made the change from Joe Girardi to Rob Thompson in 2021 and that got them all the way or excuse me, 2022 And that got them to the World Series, where they played the Astros and lost in six games.