KEVIN KERNAN

Kevin Kernan of Ballnine.com talks to the guys about the lastest things in baseball. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
KK, how you doing, buddy, doing awesome, doing awesome? It
couldn't be better. So Yankees arenot really good in their last twenty five
games. So their general manager andtheir owner go to the game last night,
same results, just a different day. Rodan melts down the first inning,
they can't steal bases, they losefive to three to kind of not

(00:23):
great Tampa Bay team. But yourthoughts as we approach the trade deadline to
a team that again looks like itwasn't built for the postseason, and other
than adding Soto this year, doesn'tlook like they did a whole lot.
Now now that that's exactly it,you were hoping both people get better.

(00:44):
He was for a while, andwhenever the GM is with the owner at
a game, that's not good forthe manager. By the way, you
know it's I don't care what thesituation is, it's not good because GM's
never blaming themselves, as you knowdid, and you Yankees gotta do something
to shake it up. I thinkthey will shake it up. They got
a very tough schedule, but therest of July, then it kind of

(01:06):
eases up in August, and youknow, there's no way they're not going
to make the player. I'd bestunned if they don't make the playoffs.
I mean, there's just too muchtalent there, Wisto and Judge. The
pitching's a little short, so obviouslythat I expect them to get a picture.
And I wouldn't be surprised if theygot an infielder like Ryan McMahon maybe,
or you know, get you know, the White Sox are gonna be

(01:29):
dealing. You know, they gottatrade those guys. The Nats will be
dealing with somebody, So the Yankeeswill shake it up a little bit.
Definitely. They need to, becauseit's it's like I said a long time
ago, a long time ago onyour show, the inmates are running asylum
there. It's been that way.Uh. I've known Boone for a long
time and and now I've gotten tothe point to be quite franks and people

(01:52):
get make it mad at me.Maybe that's that's who I am. It's
too bad. I call Spade ofSpade. I don't even refer to him
as a Yankee anchor anymore. Divis. I call him the Yankees team mom.
And uh what what what you whatyou saw with trank fisham? I
mean that's ridiculous. And that's you'vebeen in enough clubhouses. That's gonna filter

(02:13):
down. But you guys are gonnasay what's going on here? Uh?
And Bolt be not running thinking he'san umpire thing saying the ball was fou
thought it was foul, and DJdidn't. The basic mistakes that are making
are atrocious, and that comes backthey weren't built right. You're right about
that, but that to me,the everyday little things come back to,
uh, to the manager when yousee the Rays play compared you know,

(02:38):
Kevin Cash And I said it lastweek when when your wife's Red Sox beat
the Yankees, I said, nothingchanges. Alex Corr always out manages Aaron
Boone, so uh, yeah,they got some big problems. They need
to shake it up. And uhand they because they can't go out with
the same core. They can't justsit here and not do well. Kevin,

(03:00):
Like I remember when Boone got hired, DIBs and I were calling him
a substitute teacher and he's just ayes man. It's like the guy that
you're oh man, you're gonna becoaching. I can't wait. I can
do whatever I want. And likeI hear you what you say about the
GM and the owner showing up,and it usually means this demise for the
manager. But we're talking about theYankees here, Like, I find it

(03:23):
hard to believe that they're going tomake a move on Boone, and then
let's say they do. I findit hard to believe that they don't get
just a carbon copy of a yesMan or Aaron Boone. If it gets
so bad, they'll do something thisyear. I'm going to blow your minds
right now. Okay, so beprepared for this. If it doesn't work
out this year, Yes, Boonemay survive. Who's the free agent manager

(03:45):
out there next year? Alex Korra? Imagine how wow? I told you
to blow your mind you know,I know now it's a long time.
I was kidding with him earlier year, Hey what are you gonna be next
year? And he was telling mebe in his hometown of Puerto Rico.
So that ain't happening. No,Now he'll be somewhere. He'll be the

(04:09):
most desired free agent manager in along long time. I know Counsel got
all the money, but nobody reallybecause it was the central Nobody really believed
in Counsel. And we see what'shappening with your cubs then? But I
think ORR is going to have picketa litter and one of that litter may
include the Yankees. It just camedown Wander Franco was charged in the Dominican

(04:36):
Republic. And you know, sexualexploitation of a minor, et cetera.
Not just so much him, butthere's you know, there's all the sports
are littered with guys that screw uptheir careers. I mean, was there
not anybody around him, handlers,agents, friends that they could have talked

(04:58):
him off this ledge? Because itjust like this was going on long enough
to where enough of his friends andfamily knew that if unless we intervene,
this is going to go bad.Yeah, great question. I'm not on
the inner circle with his people,but they they all screwed up. They
all screw He screwed up the most, of course, right, you know,
And I think you had me into show a while back we were

(05:21):
talking about it and kids, Ialways see these things. I'm not saying,
you know, these personal problems showthemselves in different ways, no matter
what the personal problem may be.When I so Wander Frank go do that
thing with the ball, and heflipped it up in the air. I
think I was on your show rippinghim for that. And so so you
know Kevin Cash or you know someof the owners I know at the Rays,

(05:44):
who knows, they may have triedto intercede and he just wanted listen.
You know how stubborn young players canbe. And here's the mistake.
The Rays may giving them all thatmoney. You give them all that money,
they go on their own world.And that's what that's why, thank
god, thank god. Every daythe Yankees have a guy like Aaron Judge,
and you're seeing it too with theRed Sox too. Some of those
kids are good kids. So yeah, it's it's a it's a nasty situation.

(06:10):
The thing I don't like, andagain it's a third rail, it's
a third reel subject. But thething I don't like is when something just
happens and then you get the TrevorBower situation and you get all the people
on social media saying, you know, lumping them together and stuff like that.
The Bower situation to me is totallydifferent. In my mind, should
be playing in major leagues. Andyeah, he was a jackass when I

(06:33):
covered him sometimes, you know,but that he was. That's who he
was. You know, he wantedto be just smart, and you know
what, people change and people learn. So Bower has certainly paid his dues.
And this is a terrible, uh, you know, tragedy for anyone
connected with the Franco story, butit certainly should be a wake up call
for the raid. We are notwe are not servicing our players the way

(06:56):
we should be and getting them theright help and and and again, stop
these guys when you call them out. That's I think that's the biggest problem
here. And it's in general,not just the terrible personal problems, but
it's you guys grew up and Igrew up in an environment where if you
made a mistake there were consequences.There's no consequences now. But he's on

(07:16):
field mistakes guys just keep going along. They give him a pat on the
buck. Go get him, youknow, go get him again. Well,
Kevin, we had a situation whenI was playing and there was a
mother, a Latino mother would bringin underaged girls into the lobby, and
we put a stop to it.We had a team meeting. I was
a player rep with Norm Charlton andwe're like we're not doing this. We're

(07:38):
not going to have this happen.It's not a good look, and something
really bad is going to happen toone of you guys. And this was
the whole Doctor Boudreaux Arrow where guyswere getting drugged. Remember Pedro Guerrero and
Terry Tata and some other guys gotdrugged. Even I think it was Don
Drysdale was involved in this whole thing. And we were basically saying, listen,

(07:58):
there's people out there to get youguys. If you're if you're stupid,
you're gonna get got. So youkind of avoid some of these situations.
And so we finally got that ladyto get out of the lobby.
Stop waiting on uh, every hoteltrip, you know, every road trip
for the players that you have toyou have to police that because I don't
think the front office is aware ofit a lot of times, especially now,

(08:22):
these front officers, they're they've neverbeen more so divorced from how the
player is going emotionally and physically andwhat makes them tickers. They're all looking
at their computers, so these thingsaren't gonna pomp up on their laptops.
Look at look at show. Hey, Nippy, look look at that situation.
How did they not know that?With the angels right down the line,
I've been saying, everything in baseballnow is screwed up because nobody's watching

(08:46):
the store, and the players haveto be the last resort and they have
to have the accountability. And that'swhy I bring in Judge. You don't
see you know, I'd be shockedif something like that happened. And even
uh you know, uh now Igot on his case less time I was
on the show, and he sturnedit around. But a guy like Lindor
runs a certain clubhouse a certain waytoo, He's not gonna allow this to

(09:07):
happen, you know. And yougot to have those that kind of leadership
from more within. And you knowwhat, most teams have that. But
what do the Rays do, Tibbs. They they don't keep veterans around too
much that unless it's a veteran hangingon a peer mere or something like that.
And then they got rid of Kiermar, so they don't have that voice
in the clubhouse that's going to say, hey, this is bad, you're

(09:28):
stopping it. We're not going downwith you on the ship. And and
and we need more of that,so you know, a credit to you
guys. That's that's that's a greatstory. Ball nine dot com is where
you can find a lot of Kevinkernin stuff. Kevin, I see an
article I need to get into becauseyou're you're hitting a story that I think
is so fascinating with the New YorkMets. I haven't read this yet.

(09:50):
Alls I see is the o MGlogo of the superstar second baseman who is
also a superstar, Latin pop starwho has a number one song, Oh
My God, that he has performedafter the Mets beat the Astros. I
love this story. I don't knowwhat your take is on it, but
what do you think about what's goingon with the Mets right now and just

(10:11):
all things, not just this Latinpop star situation, Well not only Latin
pop star, but he's actually sayingto God, gratitude to God for what
we have. This guy should havebeen with the Mets from day one.
I think I said a lot notshow on your show earlier this year.
I thought the scouts he was theirbest infield in in spring training and he

(10:31):
is a leader. He's an unbelievableI don't know if you guys caught the
the bat he had against Chapman theother day, one of the best at
bats you can see in Mason Baseball. Because this tells a story. This
is why we love the game.This goes all the way back to Cuba
when these guys were in Cuba togetherand this was a battle with two great
Cuban superstars. Obviously, Captain isnot the same and Glaciers is not the

(10:54):
same. But one quick story onthe Glaciers. I gotta tell you don't
forget who's helped training Glaciers. Dustinpe Drawer. I'm standing outside the fenway,
outside the dugout. Dustin comes out. He always liked me because I
would always ask him about the LaserShow when he get all excited, so
he goes, hey, whit yousee what I'm doing here? Today?
He brings out these two kids,one of them was the Glaciers, because

(11:16):
I'm I'm gonna teach him how toplay Pepper. You believe it, they
don't know how to play Pepper.Wow, So so the bjorer. And
believe me, he's teaching them muchmore than Pepper. He's teaching them Pepper,
but he's taught in Glaciers the rightway, and Glaciers has brought some
leadership to the mess, which theyneeded because there are a bunch of you
know, nothing against Pete Alonzo.I told you he's a chocolate lab.
He's running around, you know,and all this other stuff. It happens.

(11:39):
The door was locked into himself untilhe had the statue strikeout. Now
that kind of opened his eyes.He's been a much different player since then.
But Glaciers gives them that defensive prey. Either put at a second or
third and they're a better team.And it still comes down to pitching in
defense. That's what we're doing.So the Mets are in much better shape
than lest time we talk. Iwanted to ask you about your article on

(12:01):
baldnine dot com. Babe Ruth hithis seven hundred home run. I can't
believe this was ninety years ago.KK, tell me more about Babe Ruth
because we're fascinated by this guy.Yeah. You know. One good thing.
I get in olde and meet alot of people, and I have
a lot of friends museum people.So a friend of mine called me yesterday

(12:22):
and said, you know that Saradusthe UNWT anniversary. I said, I
didn't know that, so she gaveme all these great details about it.
I looked up, I did someresearch, you know, from July thirteenth,
nineteen thirty four, Baby Booth.It's a five hundred foot home run
basically at an avonfield in Detroit.Some kid runs it down the track store
in his high school runs it downthings. They bring him into the field.

(12:45):
He gets twenty bucks from babe.Baby wanted to get me from twenty
but couldn't find his wallet. Ah. Yeah, other bands, that's a
great story. So yeah, otherbands exactly typical, you know, typical
I've seen a million times, youknow, go to the golf course,
so I don't have it. Youknow. Meanwhile, you're making millions of
bucks, so we've seen this.So so Babe hit you know, and

(13:07):
I don't think we need at thetime when you hit that home run,
you know, the closest guys tohim were like five hundred home runs away
almost, you know. So whatBabe did for baseball and my friends who's
quoted in the article. She alsomade a great point. And I never
thought about this, she said,And if you think of it, she
has the videos and the you know, the photographs. Babe brought a whole

(13:31):
new generation of women to baseball becausethose women wanted to go to games to
see the idols, they wanted tosee the superstar, they wanted to have
the conversations with their husband's boyfriend's familyabout baseball when baseball was the whole thing.
So this is a story that it'sa fun story. You know,
I can always do the rip stories, but I try to put some fun,
real stories in there. And thisis a fun story where Babe meant

(13:54):
to the game. And of courseI look obviously when Barry hit his seven
hundred, so I had that relationship. Hank Aaron and Poolols is the fourth.
But what bab meant to the game? And some court you'll never haven't
read before. And if you guyswere at the Babywick Museum at Baltimore,
you got to go. It's anumble birthplace museum. It's an unbelievable place.

(14:15):
My friend is also like vice presidentof Saber in New York, so
so they know all this stuff andI lean on them sometimes, just like
I don't know if you guys slowlyare if I got to mention it last
week, because it probably might haveslipped the slipped you seeing it, But
you know Larry Doby. Here's anotherone, Larry Doby eleven weeks eleven weeks

(14:37):
after Jackie, Larry breaks it intothe American League, comes from the Newick
Eagle. So Jackie had a littlebit of a background. He had a
support system with branch Rookie Bill Beckhired Larry Doby. Boom, go out
there, go get him kids,and Larry had to fight the same fight.
Why can't baseball And I talked toTim Wiles from the Hall of Fame,

(14:58):
famous researcher, why can't baseball havinga dual day for both these guys?
Because he was Jackie's wing man andin some ways it was tougher for
him. So his fourteen should beretired. Cleveland retired at nineteen ninety four,
but it should be retired. Andall players on July fifth should wear
fourteen, and all players in Aprilfifteen should wear forty two because we need

(15:18):
to understand this history. And I'mtelling you right now, guys, no
better gentlemen than Larry debe I wasvery lucky to spend some time with him.
He was with the nets when Iwas covering the nets. He was
in their front office. I gotto, you know, and I asked
him one day, I said,Larry, how did you deal with all
this? He said, you knowwhat, I couldn't fight back. So
you know what I did. Ihit the ball as hard as I could.
That's what he did and his sonand you'll love this. I had

(15:39):
a lefty interview with Larry Adobe Juniorlast twenty five years. Larry Dolby Junior
has worked for Billy Joel, youknow, basically Group Imagine Being And as
I point out in the story,he's had a front row seat to greatness
his whole life, between his fatherand the family that they raised and his
mom, Helen was was unbelievable.Helen hell them was the one behind Larry

(16:00):
that got them through everything. Soso that's also on boll inmine dot com.
And uh, it's it's it's it'snot as I say this, but
this is a must reviet because MLB. I think that day I saw this
tweet, MLB had eighty five tweetson on on the day that I'm that
I'm talking about, and not oneon Larry Doby. So pick it up,

(16:22):
MLB, Let's go. MLB Draftcoming up real soon. A couple
of sluggers from Florida are going toget picked up. This Caglioni guy from
Florida first base relief pitcher Timms Juniorfrom Florida State. What about him?
We say a bunch of them becausethey've kicked Yukon's but out of the n
c A tournament. So we knowa lot about these two. But what
what can you tell us as faras the draft goes, who do you

(16:45):
really like? You know? Uh, I'm glad you brought that up,
because the guys, you know,he's he's something, he's he's to me,
he's gonna be He's gonna be superright. I think we're learning too
that these kids can come in quickerand get right to it. Yeah,
like the Pirates, I thought screwedup Paul Steine's he should have been you
know, right out of spring trending. Should have been WI them. I
don't care what you said. Heshould have been there. They maybe wouldn't

(17:07):
be struggling as much as they are. And there's a kid that I can't
think of his name right now,Oregon State Bonanza or Bizana or something like
that. Yeah, the kid fromAustralia fascinating kids. Second baseman. You
got to have a good second basementthese days to really go where you want
to go. That's why I likewith the Orioles, Jordan Westburg, things
like that. Uh, and thiskid is going to be dynamite, So

(17:29):
there's gonna be some big hitters comingout of the draft. I love the
draft. It's not the same asas, of course the other draft,
but it's it's going to be anexciting draft and and and I think I
think I would even go so faras to say some of these kids may
be able to help by the endof the year. So so you know,
it's it's it's always interesting to havethese guys going and maybe maybe someday

(17:51):
the Tiger's wire watching good if theykeep drafting where they're drafting and stuff like
that. So that's the team thatreally pissed off to be Kevin Kern volnine
dot Com. Always a pleasure,my man, to have you on.
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, k You got it.
Guys, Take care