Hour 2: Jeremy Schaap and Mike Lupica

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This is The Michael Kay Show podcast.

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**Michael Kay** (0:37)
Welcome back to the show everybody. Two hours of the fastest moving sports talk in all of the world, right here on The Michael Kay Show every Monday through Friday from 1 to 3 You're listening to us on the ESPN New York app, and you're watching us on the ESPN New York YouTube page, which is brought to you by The Parisman Firm. Some good news for the Jets. Brees Hall, the other day, pulled up upfield and went right to the training table, and everybody got nervous that this is going to be a long-term thing, a groin injury, but it comes out that it's going to miss just 2 to 3 weeks. And that he should be ready for week 1 at Tennessee on September 13th. He's important to what this team is going to do. It takes a lot of pressure off of Geno Smith. So that's good news finally for the New York Jets.
Okamoto, Kazuma Okamoto, had his 25th home run yesterday for the Blue Jays. So that sets the Blue Jays rookie record, beating the record previously held by Arikinsky. And this is something that's always bothered me. Why are players that were established players that won MVP awards or Cy Young awards in Japan considered rookies in the major leagues? I think it's unfair to people that are really rookies. Okamoto is an established player. He's an established player making big money. There should be a different category. They should not be put into the pile of rookies, guys that might be 20, 21 years old. Now, I don't think Okamoto is going to win the rookie of the year. I think it's going to be McGonagall, who is a legitimate rookie. But you can't tell me a guy that has played six, seven, eight years in the Japanese Professional League is a rookie when he comes over here. And it's funny, they've done that with a lot of Japanese players. But when it came to Hideki Matsui, they didn't do that. He didn't win it. I think Angel Baroa won it that year. So it has to be consistent or it's not. Players that played at a professional level, a high professional level, like Japan, and they come over here, their first year should not be considered rookie years. It's ridiculous. Everybody knows it's a farce. So why are we considering them rookies?
Now if it's a guy like Suzuki, now he didn't win last year because he didn't have a real good year, he had a great postseason. I could see him being considered a rookie. He's a young player. Yamamoto, I can't see him being a rookie. Shohei Otani should not have been looked at as a rookie.
That's all there is to it. Ichiro was not a rookie when he played in the major leagues at the first year with the Seattle Mariners. It's ridiculous to look at him like that. Now speaking of a rookie, did you all see this? Joshua Baez, highly touted prospect, burst upon the scene in his first big league game and hit three home runs in his first three of bats. And you go, oh, here we go. Here we go. Since those three home runs, he's won for his last 18
And I contend this and people could fight me on it and I will continue to fight the good fight. There's no sport, not even close, that's as hard as baseball. There's no sport. Now, football is hard on the body.
Basketball is relentless pounding on the body, but there's nothing more difficult than being successful on a consistent basis than Major League Baseball. There's nothing tougher than hitting a baseball. There's nothing tougher for a pitcher to stay healthy and getting people out. So this guy looks like, wow, this is the greatest start of all time, which it was. It was the greatest first game ever in Major League history. And since then, won for 18
Tell me what sport is harder. Let's go to Francisco in Brooklyn. Francisco.