Hour 2: Winning the East

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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This is The Michael Kay Show podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

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**Michael Kay** (0:42)
Elmer Rodriguez, by the way, will start today's game against the Astros. So he gets another shot. He's the team's number three ranked prospect. He's made four major league starts this season. 4.76 ERA in the 17th inning. So he has not been great. He's not been great. You know, we had a call or call in in the first hour and say, well, why do you keep rolling Will Warren out there? And I said, well, who would you put it? Well, how about Elmer Rodriguez? He has not been great. He's been much better in the minors, in AAA, and he's had a great run over his last five starts. I think he's 2-0 with a very low ERA. So maybe he's turned a corner. But the times that he's been up here, it has not been that close to dominating at all, at all. All right. So Yankee Stadium and City Field both opened at the same time in 2009
And if you're 50 years old, you probably thought, well, I guess this is the last time I'll see them in a new stadium. They usually stay 40, 50 years in a stadium. Like the original Yankee Stadium was 1923 And they refurbished it starting in 1974, so that's 51 years, right? If my math serves me well. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 And so they moved out of Shea Stadium after 2008 So 64 is 36 and eight. So it's over 40 years. But there seems to be a different calculus now. Because I was reading a story about the Philadelphia Eagles. So you think of Lincoln Financial Park, Lincoln Financial Field, as a relatively new football stadium, right? Well, they're already planning on building a new one. So I looked it up. Lincoln Financial Field opened up in 2003 And their lease runs through...
Let it be written down here. Their lease runs through 2032
2032 So you do the math. There will be a 29-year-old stadium that they'll be tearing down. So if you do the math with Yankee Stadium, 29 years after 2009, it's 2037
Same thing with Citi Field. I just think that the tax breaks that owners get in building these new ballparks and all the bells and whistles that they could put in and how you can amortize interest payments and things like that, they end up making money. So I think the days of like seeing a ballpark stand up for 50, 60 years, I think they're over. So I think I can make it to the next edition of Yankee Stadium. I think Mets fans can make it to the next edition of Citi Field.
I don't think these teams lock in for that long. I think when the Yankees built the ballpark, well, it was something like a 25-year lease. Like they paid for it, but they're essentially leasing it from the city for 25 years.
Same thing with the Mets.
So, we might see another ballpark. So, and now, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Mets fans love Citi Field. I think Yankee Stadium is perfect for the Yankees. Maybe we're all lucky enough that we'll see the Jets and the Giants playing someplace other than that Venetian blind at the Meadowlands. Of all the new football stadiums that I've seen, that is the absolute most antiseptic, no charm, nothing. Nothing about that stadium is great. Nothing.
And then you go to Jerry World in Dallas. It's magnificent. Magnificent. I've been to Levi Stadium. I saw the Super Bowl there. Magnificent. Breathtaking. Nothing about MetLife Stadium is breathtaking. Nothing. No, it didn't replace a breathtaking stadium at Giant Stadium. But at the time Giant Stadium was built, you know why? It was pretty special. But when MetLife was built, the day it opened, it wasn't special. So if they could replace the Lincoln Financial Field after only 29 years, they can replace MetLife Stadium real soon. Now, if I'm Woody Johnson or his sons, I'm moving away from where the Giants are. That's all there is to it. I'm getting my own gig. I don't need to share a stadium. Your professional football team, what other football teams share a stadium? Well, the Chargers and the Rams do. And you know what? The Rams own that stadium at SoFi, and the Chargers are second class citizens. They just are.