ESPN Radio host and Yankees play by play man talked about his new YES Network simulcast and his feud with WFAN’s Mike Francesa with The Post’s Justin Terranova.
Q: Any kind of adjustment with the show being on television now?
A: The first hour you are kind of cognizant of the camera and we don’t want to ignore the camera, so it looks like a surveillance camera that’s eavesdropping on us.
Q: How do you think being on YES will help?
A: We’ve been making strides. In the last ratings book, we finished seventh out of 88 radio stations. Obviously, Mike Francesa is the guy we are chasing, but you do the best that you can. I think it can only help the ratings, so we’ll see how it goes.
Q: Whose idea was it to throw out the Diet Coke to start the first show?
A: It was totally my idea. I just thought it was funny and kind of a changing of the guard and it meant absolutely no disrespect meant at all. I am actually totally amused some took it as if I desecrated a religious artifact … A lot of people have asked, would I do it again? I’d absolutely do it a hundred times again. I thought it was hilarious and anybody took it seriously that’s their issue, not mine.
Q: I’m sure you saw Francesa was among them?
A: His comment (to Newsday) was that it was a classless stunt. I really laughed at that because ever since I started this radio show I have done nothing but been respectful. … I’ve called him the gold standard of what we do. But, of late, all he does is make comments about ratings, comments like a pea shooter, and to me that’s insulting and to me that’s a lack of grace and class. And what I did is something funny and it wasn’t as if I took a shot at a guy that hasn’t taken a hundred shots at us for every one that we’ve taken at him.
Q: Last season, there was a lack of buzz about the Yankees. Have the offseason signings changed that?
A: Every signing certainly came with a surge of intensity and interest and I think that will carry over into the season. All the signings were sexy signings and when a team goes out and spends $503 million in free agents, you know there’s a commitment to winning. The Yankees fan base where the only way to get excited if it’s a move toward a championship. This is a team that won 85 games last year and the excitement wasn’t there.