Mets owner speaks

Celtics trade Brown

Good morning, all and happy Thursday!

News item: Steve Cohen speaks

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has emerged from the witness protection program, choosing to speak about the Mets debacle on a New York Post baseball podcast hosted by Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman. Cohen says Carlos Mendoza was fired as Mets manager to put him out of his misery. As long as the Mets were not going to bring him back, he might as well be given the rest of the season off with pay; the spare him the ignominy of speaking to the media every day Cohen stated.

The big news involved the head of the baseball operations, David Stearns.

I’m going forward with David as our leader. There’s no guarantees in anything. I’m going to evaluate this as we go along. David knows that it hasn’t worked out the way he thought it would work out, the way I thought it would work out. He’d be the first one to admit that he’s made some mistakes.

We’ll figure out what changes need to be made. But the change that’s not going to be made is moving David out at this point. I’m just not going to do it.

Translation. I still owe David $25M and there is no way I’m going to let the guy go at that price. How in the world do you think I made my billions, by paying people millions not to work?

News item: Yankees drop seventh straight game

As I wrote the other day, the Yankees will make the playoffs, because they play in a mediocre league. That said, the team’s offense is putrid. It is becoming obvious with the injured Aaron Judge out of the lineup and weeks before his return, pitchers are pitching around Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger. The catching situation is abysmal and the bullpen is spotty. When they had the chance to win the game in the 10th inning yesterday, after a nice ninth-inning comeback, they blew it. With the winning run at third base and one out in a 2-2 game in the 10th inning, you have to find a way to get that run home. The Yankees failed to do it.

Heck, I would have even tried a squeeze bunt. That’s how the Hartford Yard Goats won a game in extra innings in late May, squeezing home the winning run. The element of surprise works wonders.

When they did not win in the 10th inning, I knew they were cooked. In 11 innings the Tigers prevailed 6-2 and the slip-siding Yankees had lost their seventh straight.

Their lineup has more holes that Swiss cheese and I do not see changes anytime soon. I do believe, however, Aaron Boone and for that matter GM Brian Cashman are on the hot seat, no matter how many lives they seem to have under placid owner Hal Steinbrenner, who is the total opposite of his father, no matter how many times we are told he gets angry, when he watches the Yankees lose.

By the way, the Yankees picked a good time to lose seven straight, as Tampa Bay has won seven straight. New York has gone from first place and two up in the loss column on the Rays to second place and five down in the loss column to Tampa Bay in one week’s time. It’s rare you see that dramatic a swing in the standings in such a short period of time, when the two teams are not playing each other.

The Yankees go to Tampa Bay to play the Rays four games next week in a series that could make or break their chances of winning the AL East.

News item: Celtics trade Jaylen Brown

It’s not often you see teams make a major trade with a division rival in this day and age, but that’s what the Boston Celtics did yesterday, trading Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for veteran forward Paul George, the Sixers 2028 and 2031 first-round picks and two future second round picks.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens had no choice. When it was rumored Brown was the centerpiece of a trade with the Milwaukee Bucks for their star Giannis Antetokounmpo, only to have the deal fall through and Antetokounmpo traded to Miami, there was no way Brown was returning to Boston, despite the spin Stevens tried to put on the story.

I look for Brown to play with a purpose, wearing a Philly uniform, and those Sixers-Celtics games next season to be something special.

NBA lays off ‘dozens’

No business is immune from layoffs, even the sports world. The NBA dismissed dozens of employees this week, according to several reports. The bottom line is the bottom line and even the NBA, drowning in revenue sources, has a limit. And so with the league about to form an NBA-Europe, those who follow the sport closely say the layoffs were needed so that the league could reallocate its sources.

Translation: we need the dough to start up another NBA across the pond and that means your job on this side of the pond has been eliminated.

That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for being a subscriber and have a terrific Thursday!

DAN