Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up on Soto Signing and A Lookback at the Mets 2024 Season With PA Announcer Colin Cosell 12-12-24

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One Leg Up on Soto Signing and A Lookback at the Mets 2024 Season With PA Announcer Colin Cosell 12-12-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:01
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Dearrett.
0:07
Speaker 2: Well, it was all smiles today at City Field, and
0:11
Speaker 2: once again the Mets having one leg up in New
0:14
Speaker 2: York in Major League Baseball with this mega deal signing,
0:18
Speaker 2: and here at the One Leg Up Network. A friend
0:20
Speaker 2: of mine reminded me and asked me, well, how did
0:23
Speaker 2: Soto keep his number twenty two?
0:26
Speaker 1: Well, basically, it looks like.
0:27
Speaker 2: He had a purchase all of Brett Batty's merchandise with
0:32
Speaker 2: the number twenty two on it. Doing so, he maintains
0:37
Speaker 2: number twenty two. But as my friend Steve says, what
0:41
Speaker 2: does he do with the rest of the merchandise? Now?
0:44
Speaker 2: How is this possible? According to Christian Arnold of The
0:48
Speaker 2: New York Post, he writes, the CBA requires a player
0:52
Speaker 2: to change its number prior to July thirty first, the
0:56
Speaker 2: trade deadline of the prior year. Otherwise a player would
1:00
Speaker 2: have to purchase the existing inventory of merchandise wearing his
1:05
Speaker 2: old number. So it looks like Soto in addition to
1:09
Speaker 2: a suite. Also, I had to buy Brett Batty's number
1:13
Speaker 2: twenty two merchandise, and you know the kids popular, so
1:17
Speaker 2: I do believe I saw some Brett Baty fans walk
1:20
Speaker 2: around the ballpark, so they were selling his jersey and
1:27
Speaker 2: we'll have to see what number he flips to. I
1:29
Speaker 2: am not aware of that at the moment, but there
1:31
Speaker 2: he goes Steve. That's the answer, and that story can
1:33
Speaker 2: be found in the link below of this podcast. Now,
1:36
Speaker 2: the cool thing about this network is we have a
1:39
Speaker 2: lot of different folks within the Yankees, within the Mets,
1:43
Speaker 2: and one of those folks happens to be Colin Cosell.
1:47
Speaker 2: Not only grandson of Howard Cosell, the legendary Howard Cosell,
1:53
Speaker 2: but he's now the PA announcer for the last eight
1:55
Speaker 2: years of the New York Mets, and he shares his
1:59
Speaker 2: excitement for one Soto and really gives us a behind
2:04
Speaker 2: the scenes look at the twenty twenty four Mets season.
2:07
Speaker 2: Take a listen, all right, well during the days at
2:11
Speaker 2: City Field weekdays, you might hear Colin Cosel, the man
2:15
Speaker 2: behind the mic at City Field, and Colin, welcome back
2:18
Speaker 2: to the One Like Network. Personally, I appreciate our friendship
2:21
Speaker 2: since the pandemic years.
2:22
Speaker 3: By the way, yeah, no, absolutely, it's good to be
2:25
Speaker 3: back at that feels like an eternity. You go, so, yeah, no,
2:29
Speaker 3: it's I appreciate you having me on.
2:31
Speaker 2: Where were you firstly when you heard the news that
2:34
Speaker 2: Juan Soto was signed for this mega deal?
2:38
Speaker 1: I was.
2:39
Speaker 3: I was sitting on my couch and got a text
2:42
Speaker 3: message from my spotter Nick, and it was to a
2:47
Speaker 3: group thread with myself, Jennadok, who is our manager of.
2:53
Speaker 1: In in game.
2:54
Speaker 3: Production and Entertainment, and Matasol, the other PA announcer for
2:58
Speaker 3: the Mets. And that's where I first learned it. And
3:01
Speaker 3: as soon as I saw that, I corroborated it by
3:04
Speaker 3: checking multiple news sources and saw it all come through,
3:07
Speaker 3: and then spend the rest of the evening fielding text
3:10
Speaker 3: message after text message of people reaching out reacting, asking
3:15
Speaker 3: for my reaction, my thoughts on it, And yeah, I
3:19
Speaker 3: will say I got more text messages that night regarding
3:23
Speaker 3: Juan Soto than I did a few weeks earlier on
3:25
Speaker 3: my own birthday. So that just goes to show you
3:27
Speaker 3: exactly how important this was to the Mets universe.
3:31
Speaker 2: You Know It's interesting is I waited a couple of
3:33
Speaker 2: days later to text you because I'm like, wait a minute,
3:35
Speaker 2: I know a guy who does Metspaceall I got to
3:37
Speaker 2: bring up bring him up and here we are, so
3:39
Speaker 2: I appreciate if that made time for this. What are
3:42
Speaker 2: your expectations now, I guess besides a ring, is that
3:45
Speaker 2: an axpretation or what do you want to see them
3:47
Speaker 2: do next?
3:48
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd love to see Maniyah come back. I
3:50
Speaker 3: know he and Mantas have a very strong friendship, and
3:54
Speaker 3: I really like what Manayah brings to the table. You know,
3:59
Speaker 3: I very quietly Tyler McGill had a fantastic September and
4:05
Speaker 3: in postseason, you know, he was very quietly reliable. So
4:09
Speaker 3: we'll see where that goes. We should have a fully
4:11
Speaker 3: healthy Sanga back. I'll be honest with you. You know,
4:15
Speaker 3: last year at this time when Stern started kind of
4:18
Speaker 3: ragtagging the team together with a group of players who
4:22
Speaker 3: basically were trying to resurrect their careers, regenerate their careers,
4:26
Speaker 3: get back to prior glory days, and for the most part,
4:30
Speaker 3: that worked. So you know, I'm of the thought that
4:34
Speaker 3: now that we have Soto, I'm just gonna sit back,
4:37
Speaker 3: relax and watch the process unfold and let the you know,
4:40
Speaker 3: the chips fall where they may. Because I do trust
4:43
Speaker 3: in Stern's that much. I mean, he really is that
4:46
Speaker 3: much of a genius with this sort of thing. So
4:49
Speaker 3: whether or not it seems like a big splashy deal
4:52
Speaker 3: to be made or you know, via tradeer signing, h
4:55
Speaker 3: that remains to be seen.
4:56
Speaker 1: But I'm going to trust in the process. And yeah,
4:59
Speaker 1: of course we.
4:59
Speaker 3: Need to show up our pitching, but I think I
5:02
Speaker 3: thinks Turns will be able to do that. And I think,
5:05
Speaker 3: you know, there's there's some more options available to them
5:07
Speaker 3: this year that weren't there last year. So one thing
5:10
Speaker 3: I'd like to see. One thing on my wish list
5:11
Speaker 3: is to have Maniya back.
5:13
Speaker 2: No, he was solid, and of course Sevy was just
5:16
Speaker 2: a big part of that rotation too. And how emotional
5:19
Speaker 2: was it for you in twenty twenty four. I think
5:21
Speaker 2: I saw that you were really emotional about the run
5:23
Speaker 2: the Mets got on. Talk about that from your perspective
5:26
Speaker 2: being in the booth during that run. I mean, this
5:28
Speaker 2: was an incredible season.
5:30
Speaker 3: It was, and it was truly an emotional roller coaster.
5:33
Speaker 3: I'll tell you it was. I it was.
5:37
Speaker 1: It was a very emotional run into October.
5:41
Speaker 3: And you know, I always bookend the entire season from
5:45
Speaker 3: Memorial Day to Labor Day because as of Memorial Day weekend,
5:49
Speaker 3: we were dead to rights.
5:51
Speaker 1: Right on the heels of that.
5:52
Speaker 3: We had that three game set against the Dodgers in
5:54
Speaker 3: which we got swept. That's when Lopez tossed his glove
5:59
Speaker 3: over the netting and Gary Cohen said, you know, this
6:02
Speaker 3: is rock bottom, and he was absolutely right. And then
6:06
Speaker 3: you know, Lindor called the team meeting and things started
6:09
Speaker 3: to turn around and then started, you know, to get
6:13
Speaker 3: accentuated by like the memification of our season. And so
6:16
Speaker 3: you had Grimace right on the heels of that in
6:18
Speaker 3: a big win streak and then omg into the equation
6:21
Speaker 3: and you know.
6:22
Speaker 1: It, just the whole season was just so wacky.
6:25
Speaker 3: But you know, once things started to come together in
6:29
Speaker 3: June and then you saw that this team was playing
6:32
Speaker 3: well consistently and not just beating the bad teams like
6:35
Speaker 3: you're supposed to when you're a good team, but beating
6:36
Speaker 3: good teams as well, you know, you started to really
6:40
Speaker 3: believe there was something different about this team. But of course,
6:43
Speaker 3: in true Met's fashion, you know, we had to sweat
6:46
Speaker 3: it out until the second to last game of the
6:48
Speaker 3: season in order to make the playoffs. I was actually working,
6:52
Speaker 3: because I work as a corporate events host by day.
6:54
Speaker 1: That's my day job.
6:56
Speaker 3: I was in Austin, Texas when we were playing against
6:59
Speaker 3: the Brewers. Won that pivotal game on Sunday that forced
7:03
Speaker 3: the two games the doubleheader in Atlanta the following day.
7:07
Speaker 3: But because I was hosting these events and had a
7:09
Speaker 3: bunch of high level executives that I had to talk
7:12
Speaker 3: to and work with, I was only watching these games
7:15
Speaker 3: on my phone. So fast forward to the series against
7:18
Speaker 3: the Brewers in the wild Card and for the first
7:24
Speaker 3: time I actually got to watch a game on TV,
7:27
Speaker 3: and it was the It was Game three, and we're
7:31
Speaker 3: watching and watching and watching. Then the next thing you know,
7:34
Speaker 3: we're down to nothing and I was preparing dinner and
7:37
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't want this to end. Let's
7:40
Speaker 3: turn off the TV because all of our wins have
7:42
Speaker 3: happened while I've been watching the game on my phone,
7:44
Speaker 3: so let's switch over to my phone. My wife turns
7:46
Speaker 3: off the TV. Yeah, hundred percent. Well, I'm an ice
7:50
Speaker 3: hockey goalie, so I'm extremely superstitious, So we turn off
7:55
Speaker 3: the TV. I'm sitting there prepping dinner. We get, you know,
7:58
Speaker 3: two men on and he comes up to bat and
8:02
Speaker 3: we won out, and.
8:04
Speaker 1: I said out loud.
8:05
Speaker 3: I was like, one of two things is going to
8:06
Speaker 3: happen right now. He's going to ground into a double play,
8:09
Speaker 3: or he's going to hit a home run and completely
8:10
Speaker 3: change the trajectory of this game of our season. And
8:16
Speaker 3: I'm watching my phone. I'm watching my phone. I'm watching
8:18
Speaker 3: my phone. Then all of a sudden, it populates and
8:20
Speaker 3: I see a three replace the zero and the Mets
8:24
Speaker 3: column and I went nuts. I said, oh my god,
8:27
Speaker 3: he did it. He did it, he did it, And
8:29
Speaker 3: I burst into tears because I didn't want it to end,
8:32
Speaker 3: because this team has been so much fun and we'd
8:34
Speaker 3: been through so much. Because no matter what, if you
8:38
Speaker 3: know you're a fan and you don't like what the
8:39
Speaker 3: team's doing, you can stay home and watch the game
8:42
Speaker 3: or not watch the game at all. But no matter what,
8:44
Speaker 3: I'm going to be in the booth, win or lose.
8:46
Speaker 3: I'm going to be there watching this team and living
8:49
Speaker 3: and dying by it and also as a fan. So
8:53
Speaker 3: it really that's when it really hit me exactly how
8:56
Speaker 3: much I was emotionally invested into this team, into this season.
9:02
Speaker 3: And then of course, you know, the rest is history.
9:04
Speaker 3: An amazing series against Philly. We gave our best fight
9:08
Speaker 3: against a billion dollar team in the Dodgers, and you know,
9:12
Speaker 3: it was just an incredible run. But when we clinched
9:14
Speaker 3: the NLDS, when we you know, we got our birth
9:18
Speaker 3: to the NLCS. Matasol was working that night, but I
9:22
Speaker 3: was in the booth and it was just pandemonium in
9:24
Speaker 3: that booth, Like there were tears that were laughter.
9:27
Speaker 1: I think Madi jumped into my arms.
9:28
Speaker 3: It was like it was really it was just an incredible,
9:32
Speaker 3: incredible sensation. And the worst part about it is once
9:34
Speaker 3: you experience that, you want to experience it again and
9:37
Speaker 3: see what it's like to go to the next level.
9:40
Speaker 3: So again, I firmly believe in Uncle Steve, I believe
9:45
Speaker 3: in Sterns. I believe in the ability for this organization
9:48
Speaker 3: to really turn things around from being the little brother
9:51
Speaker 3: in a neighboring borough to the New York Mets and
9:55
Speaker 3: no questions asked and soon to be world championship.
10:00
Speaker 2: Wah. I never thought I'd actually write the headline the
10:02
Speaker 2: Mets have one leg up in New York. But they
10:04
Speaker 2: do right now, and there's no doubt about it. I mean,
10:06
Speaker 2: of all the sports, they have the one leg up
10:08
Speaker 2: because our football teams, you know, it's not been fun.
10:11
Speaker 2: Hockey's a little shaky right now. So the Mets have
10:13
Speaker 2: the one leg up in sports, and I think of
10:15
Speaker 2: the whole town. Colin, I gotta ask you this, the
10:19
Speaker 2: change in announcing from April to June and then June
10:22
Speaker 2: to October. Talk about your energy shift personally watching this
10:25
Speaker 2: team evolve from April and June and then June October.
10:29
Speaker 2: What was the energy shift for you?
10:31
Speaker 1: Well, for me, there's never an energy shift.
10:33
Speaker 3: I bring the same energy no matter what when I
10:36
Speaker 3: do my starting lineups all season long, whether we're you know,
10:41
Speaker 3: twenty games above five hundred or thirty games below five hundred,
10:45
Speaker 3: I will always bring the same energy to my starting lineups.
10:47
Speaker 1: No matter what. My energy will change during a game.
10:50
Speaker 3: If we're up fourteen to two in the fifth inning,
10:53
Speaker 3: then I'm going to keep bringing that energy. Whoever hit
10:55
Speaker 3: the last home run, I'm gonna give them a little extra.
10:57
Speaker 3: That's just that's my brand, and to be honest with you,
11:00
Speaker 3: that's what I as the PA announcer o to the
11:02
Speaker 3: fans that same experience, no matter what that being said.
11:06
Speaker 3: If we're down fourteen to two in the third inning,
11:08
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be you know, announcing you know
11:10
Speaker 3: the shortstop friends just go leand or like at the
11:13
Speaker 3: top of my lungs because people can be like, why
11:15
Speaker 3: is he so excited? We're getting crushed. So I take
11:17
Speaker 3: the energy level down a bit. Now, that being said,
11:21
Speaker 3: when it comes to the playoffs, when I do the
11:23
Speaker 3: starting lineup, it is, uh, it's full throttle. Every single
11:27
Speaker 3: player gets announced like they are a future Hall of Famer.
11:31
Speaker 3: There's more energy into it. I mean, I go one
11:35
Speaker 3: hundred percent all season long. This is one hundred and
11:37
Speaker 3: ten percent during the postseason. So I definitely, you know,
11:42
Speaker 3: give it that that extra energy, a little bit more
11:45
Speaker 3: of a pause, a little bit more room to breathe,
11:47
Speaker 3: so the fans can react and we kind of play
11:50
Speaker 3: off each other there.
11:52
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, Alex, you know.
11:54
Speaker 3: I I really believe as a professional it's my responsibility
11:58
Speaker 3: to maintain the same energy all season long.
12:00
Speaker 1: Winterer lose call. When we're in the playoffs, that's when
12:02
Speaker 1: we take it to the next level.
12:04
Speaker 2: All Right, you got to announce two good luck charms,
12:06
Speaker 2: you know, Grimmage's first pitch and then of course on
12:09
Speaker 2: a Thursday to a girl. Those are two good luck charms.
12:13
Speaker 2: The reactions are very different. But tell us from your perspective,
12:16
Speaker 2: was it weird to announce talk to a girl? How
12:18
Speaker 2: did you announce that?
12:19
Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna preface
12:21
Speaker 1: it with this.
12:22
Speaker 3: Our real first good luck charm of the season was
12:26
Speaker 3: on opening day and I got to announce this gentleman,
12:28
Speaker 3: a World War Two veteran who's you know, somewhere around
12:32
Speaker 3: a thousand years old?
12:34
Speaker 1: Seymour Wiener was our veteran of the game.
12:37
Speaker 3: And I will never forget walking to work and people saying,
12:41
Speaker 3: are you gonna be okay?
12:42
Speaker 1: Saying this name?
12:43
Speaker 3: Little do they know that I'd actually met someone named
12:45
Speaker 3: Seymour Wiener when I was like ten years old, so
12:47
Speaker 3: all the laughter was already out of my system by then.
12:49
Speaker 3: I was fine with it, but I remember just the
12:53
Speaker 3: crowd going nuts over it, the Internet going crazy over it.
12:55
Speaker 3: My voice was attached to it as it went viral,
12:58
Speaker 3: and luckily Seymour in the and the Wiener family they
13:01
Speaker 3: were phenomenal about it as well.
13:02
Speaker 1: They really embraced it.
13:03
Speaker 3: So when we did Dollar Hot Dog Night, we brought
13:06
Speaker 3: back an image of Seymour Wiener, you know, with a
13:08
Speaker 3: little thought bubbles saying everybody loves a Wiener. You know,
13:11
Speaker 3: that was kind of the start of the memification of
13:13
Speaker 3: our season.
13:15
Speaker 1: Grimace.
13:16
Speaker 3: I remember seeing him on my script and I was like, wait,
13:19
Speaker 3: like the big purple blob from McDonald's, so like, yeah,
13:21
Speaker 3: it's his fiftieth birthday's thrown out the first pitch. I
13:24
Speaker 3: was like okay, And then he stuck around and we
13:27
Speaker 3: started kind of like using him in bits that that
13:30
Speaker 3: night and we ended up winning. That was against the
13:31
Speaker 3: Florida Marlins, and we won handily that night, and that
13:35
Speaker 3: was kind of we'd already started the wind streak, but
13:38
Speaker 3: like that's when it became more palpable and fun.
13:41
Speaker 1: There was, you know, kind of.
13:42
Speaker 3: The darkness from the week's past where it was starting
13:45
Speaker 3: to lift with that. Then you fast forward to August
13:50
Speaker 3: and you have the Hawk to a girl who I
13:51
Speaker 3: also announced, So I had Seymour Wiener, I had Grimace,
13:53
Speaker 3: and I had the Hawk to a girl. I announced
13:55
Speaker 3: her was Hailey Welch, which is her actual birth name.
13:59
Speaker 3: She was there on a philanthropic mission. She was actually
14:02
Speaker 3: donating money to our Mets Vets dogs teaming up you know,
14:07
Speaker 3: trained dogs with veterans as you know, comfort pets and everything,
14:12
Speaker 3: and that's what she's doing with her celebrity, which I
14:14
Speaker 3: had I applaud.
14:15
Speaker 1: You know, she took.
14:16
Speaker 3: Something that was, you know, not so family friendly and
14:20
Speaker 3: turned into something that is truly admirable.
14:22
Speaker 1: The problem with it that day was twofold one.
14:26
Speaker 3: We were also honoring the Archbishop Malloy Varsity baseball team
14:31
Speaker 3: for winning the Queen's Title or winning their their their championship,
14:35
Speaker 3: and I think the first team from Queens to do so.
14:38
Speaker 3: So they were stones throw away from the Hawk to
14:40
Speaker 3: a girl. They all recognized her. So you had a
14:42
Speaker 3: bunch of high school boys and the Hawk to a
14:44
Speaker 3: girl within speaking distance of each other. And that was
14:48
Speaker 3: pretty hilarious to witness, but also just like poorly timed. Also,
14:53
Speaker 3: it was a day game and there were a lot
14:55
Speaker 3: of campers there, so you know it was it was
14:59
Speaker 3: kind of one of those I was like, should we.
15:02
Speaker 1: Have her there on that day?
15:03
Speaker 3: But again I introduced her as Hailey Welch, Internet sensation
15:09
Speaker 3: or viral sensation Hailey Welch, and then about the money
15:12
Speaker 3: she was donating to our cause.
15:14
Speaker 1: All of this probably would have been swept under the rug.
15:17
Speaker 3: However, we squanded a four nothing lead on the Oakland Athletics,
15:20
Speaker 3: who were abysmal at that point. And I say that
15:24
Speaker 3: as my good friend Amelia Shimmel, who's their PA announcer.
15:27
Speaker 3: No offense, Amelia, but we've ended up squandering that lead
15:34
Speaker 3: and lost that game, and it was a game that.
15:35
Speaker 1: We really should have won.
15:38
Speaker 3: So that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. And
15:40
Speaker 3: then of course it's just kind of a pylon from there, Well,
15:42
Speaker 3: what were we doing with the Haley Welch, you know,
15:44
Speaker 3: with the Haktua girl there? And how could we squander
15:47
Speaker 3: this lead? And here goes the other shoes dropping and
15:49
Speaker 3: here go the Mets, you know, standard thing.
15:51
Speaker 1: So it would have been a lot better had we
15:54
Speaker 1: won that game.
15:55
Speaker 3: But for me, it was just kind of like, all right, well,
15:58
Speaker 3: she's here and she's doing good things. She's using her
16:00
Speaker 3: celebrity for a good reason. I just think it probably
16:04
Speaker 3: would have been better to wait until next season, so
16:07
Speaker 3: we're not having her on as Hailey Welch the exact
16:11
Speaker 3: same summer that she became famous for being the Hawk
16:14
Speaker 3: Tour girl.
16:15
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was it was interesting, I'll say that much.
16:18
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, let me ask you this. You don't
16:20
Speaker 2: have a Bob CAUs this moment where he said, oh,
16:22
Speaker 2: I can't promote this. Remember I'm Mike. He's like, I
16:24
Speaker 2: can't promote this. During the eighties, that never came to mind.
16:27
Speaker 2: Right across your mind, We're like, I can't do something
16:30
Speaker 2: that the Mets asked you to do. Right, there was
16:33
Speaker 2: no controversial things to have to announce besides our two A.
16:36
Speaker 3: Girl, I get no no, I Everything that that happens
16:41
Speaker 3: during Mets games, every single thing is scrutinized. It is
16:45
Speaker 3: quadruple checked, you know, to make sure that it's going
16:49
Speaker 3: to be family friendly, it's going to be user friendly,
16:52
Speaker 3: it's going to be nowhere near in cyndiary. Let's face it.
16:56
Speaker 3: As Mets fans, we know this. We get a lot
16:58
Speaker 3: of bad press or we don't get like the most
17:00
Speaker 3: positive press, and that's just kind of come with the territory,
17:05
Speaker 3: and Mets fans have learned to embrace it, which is
17:07
Speaker 3: why this week, with the signing of Juan Soto, it's
17:10
Speaker 3: such a celebratory feeling because we got something that Mets
17:13
Speaker 3: or the Yankees didn't. We're getting all the positive, uh
17:17
Speaker 3: you know, feedback, positive chatter on social media and positive headlines,
17:22
Speaker 3: and honestly, based on that run into the NLCS alone,
17:26
Speaker 3: Mets fans have their reasons to keep their heads held high.
17:29
Speaker 1: But I digress.
17:31
Speaker 3: The point of this is, you know, we try to
17:33
Speaker 3: avoid negative publicity when we can avoid negative publicity. So
17:39
Speaker 3: again everything is combed through with the fine tooth comb
17:43
Speaker 3: and you know, scrutinized with with a an electron microscope
17:47
Speaker 3: to make sure that there's nothing, you know, too crazy.
17:50
Speaker 3: And honestly, seeing the Hawk to a girl, I was like,
17:53
Speaker 3: all right, it's Haley Welch. I guess you know. What
17:55
Speaker 3: she's doing is a good thing. We'll see how it
17:57
Speaker 3: plays out. It really wasn't supposed to make it on
18:00
Speaker 3: the social media. Someone leaked it from a network and
18:03
Speaker 3: that's how it got out there.
18:05
Speaker 2: Let's turn something even more positive because obviously, yeah, fireworks night,
18:09
Speaker 2: and Iglesia says this concert. Were you there that night?
18:12
Speaker 2: The date? The night did the concert before fireworks? I
18:15
Speaker 2: heard that wasn't electric, So.
18:17
Speaker 3: No, that was a night that was a Friday night
18:19
Speaker 3: against the Houston Astros. I was not there that night
18:23
Speaker 3: by choice. I'd had a very very long and busy week.
18:27
Speaker 3: I just flown back in from I was traveling from
18:32
Speaker 3: somewhere doing a corporate event and literally went straight to
18:34
Speaker 3: the ballpark to do a game.
18:37
Speaker 1: And then, you know, I had.
18:37
Speaker 3: A series that week, but I was there for the
18:42
Speaker 3: meeting where they were talking about Iglesias releasing the song
18:46
Speaker 3: early and performing that night. That performance was, it was decided,
18:50
Speaker 3: would be strictly contingent upon whether or not we won
18:54
Speaker 3: that game, because if we had lost, and we'd lost
18:58
Speaker 3: to the Astros, nobody like the Astros.
19:01
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just a.
19:02
Speaker 3: They are universally and with good reason, universally hated team
19:06
Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball. So to lose to them and
19:08
Speaker 3: then have a concert thereafter would have been a bad look.
19:10
Speaker 3: We are going to have fireworks no matter what, you know.
19:14
Speaker 3: So it was contingent upon us beating the Astros, which
19:17
Speaker 3: has not been an easy task for the Mets in
19:19
Speaker 3: recent years.
19:21
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, we won that game.
19:22
Speaker 3: I think we won five to three. It was a
19:25
Speaker 3: super exciting game. I think we I think we led
19:28
Speaker 3: pretty much the entire way. They chipped away at the
19:31
Speaker 3: lead a little bit, but it wasn't enough to overtake us.
19:34
Speaker 1: We won, and I can.
19:36
Speaker 3: Tell you that Jose was very, very nervous about going
19:41
Speaker 3: out there because he was using one of our bull mics,
19:44
Speaker 3: which are the external handheld mics that have a bit
19:47
Speaker 3: of an echo. There's a delay from when you speak
19:50
Speaker 3: into the microphone until it, you know, registers through the
19:53
Speaker 3: antennas and out to the speakers, so he didn't really
19:56
Speaker 3: get a chance to.
19:58
Speaker 1: Rehearse it.
20:00
Speaker 3: So you can hear a bit of like the delay
20:02
Speaker 3: and the echo and him singing. But the energy was there,
20:05
Speaker 3: the team was behind him, the crowd was going nuts.
20:07
Speaker 3: None of that mattered. What mattered was we just beat
20:09
Speaker 3: the Astros, the most hated team in baseball. We're winning games,
20:14
Speaker 3: we're beating good teams, and we're having fun doing it.
20:18
Speaker 3: And the OMG craze was just a part of the memification,
20:21
Speaker 3: but it was a battle cry. It was a song
20:23
Speaker 3: we used every time a player hit a home run,
20:26
Speaker 3: and it just it became a real phenomenon this season
20:30
Speaker 3: that was palpable and infectious and really culminated that night.
20:36
Speaker 2: S and Wise been talking about this signing since its started.
20:39
Speaker 2: Obviously that happened, and one of the things they said was,
20:43
Speaker 2: is it still going to be fun? Right? It's not
20:44
Speaker 2: going to be more concerned about winning the World Series
20:46
Speaker 2: now and more focus and more expectation. Does this signing
20:50
Speaker 2: ruin the fund of the OMG culture or is that
20:53
Speaker 2: going to add to the culture. I feel like it's
20:54
Speaker 2: got to add to it, not put pressure on it.
20:57
Speaker 3: Right Well, I mean, I honestly think we should reach
21:00
Speaker 3: Iglesias just for the sake of the energy he brings,
21:04
Speaker 3: you know. I mean when we brought him, when we
21:06
Speaker 3: signed him in May and then brought him up in
21:09
Speaker 3: late May, I was like, and this guy hadn't you know,
21:11
Speaker 3: played ball in the majors since twenty twenty two? No
21:16
Speaker 3: one thought anything of it. I remember them signing it
21:18
Speaker 3: and I was like, I was a Iglesias, isn't that
21:20
Speaker 3: the Latin pop singer? And I was thinking of Julio Iglesias.
21:24
Speaker 3: So that just goes to show like.
21:25
Speaker 1: How much I knew about him at the time.
21:28
Speaker 3: I think having that kind of energy there is definitely
21:32
Speaker 3: necessary because you can have fun winning a championship.
21:36
Speaker 1: On a meme or a silly song.
21:38
Speaker 3: Case in point, Juan Soto the Washington Nationals Baby Shark.
21:44
Speaker 3: So Juan Soto has been on championship teams. He's been
21:48
Speaker 3: to the World Series a couple of times. He's still
21:50
Speaker 3: you know, he's just entering his prime now statistically and
21:55
Speaker 3: age wise, so I think he definitely knows how to
21:58
Speaker 3: have fun. He's still young, he's still growing up, he's maturing.
22:03
Speaker 3: But I also think that you have a personality in there.
22:08
Speaker 1: Who is you know, our de.
22:10
Speaker 3: Facto captain in Francisco liandor you know you have Mendoza,
22:15
Speaker 3: who is you know?
22:17
Speaker 1: The fact that he didn't.
22:18
Speaker 3: Win Manager of the Year I think was highway robbery
22:21
Speaker 3: because he really helped galvinize that team, but also keep
22:24
Speaker 3: it like, keep it fun and make sure that the
22:26
Speaker 3: guys were sticking to what they preached in their all
22:30
Speaker 3: player meeting, have fun playing the game.
22:33
Speaker 1: You love, but hold each other accountable.
22:35
Speaker 3: And I think that can be that can happen without
22:37
Speaker 3: it having to be so tight laced. And because that's
22:40
Speaker 3: when you get into the Yankees territory, you know what
22:42
Speaker 3: I mean, That's where it's really like zipped up, buttoned up,
22:45
Speaker 3: and like gentlemen were on a mission, and it becomes
22:48
Speaker 3: militaristic and less fun, and it becomes an expectation of
22:51
Speaker 3: yourselves and the fans in the organization and that kind
22:54
Speaker 3: of pressure can help a team buckle as well. I mean,
22:57
Speaker 3: take a look at the New York Yankees. They have
22:59
Speaker 3: one A championship in fifteen years, and every single year
23:02
Speaker 3: is a it's all or bust with them. I think
23:06
Speaker 3: going in there with you know, the expectations like, yeah,
23:08
Speaker 3: we've got a good team and we should win, but
23:11
Speaker 3: it's a long season. Let's take it one game at
23:13
Speaker 3: a time, Let's have some fun in the process, Let's
23:16
Speaker 3: you know, roll with the punches. I think that's kind
23:18
Speaker 3: of the mentality that's there. I think Mendoza brings that
23:22
Speaker 3: and all the players do you know, you don't have
23:24
Speaker 3: any real old curmudgeons on the team. Everyone there knows
23:28
Speaker 3: how to have a good time. Even the elder statesman
23:30
Speaker 3: like as Darling Marte kind of keeps to himself. But
23:34
Speaker 3: he is not hands off, you know what I mean.
23:36
Speaker 3: He's still he's not standoffish in his maturity. He's still
23:40
Speaker 3: willing to help and have some fun with everyone as well.
23:43
Speaker 1: So I think it will.
23:45
Speaker 3: You know, it's going to be a new roster, you know,
23:48
Speaker 3: in many ways, he got Jose Siri now in center field.
23:52
Speaker 3: I'm sure we're gonna lose the crop top of Harrison Vader,
23:55
Speaker 3: which is too bad.
23:56
Speaker 1: He was a fun personality. But it's new personalities.
23:59
Speaker 3: It'll be a new journey in a new way for
24:01
Speaker 3: them to build their chemistry and incorporate the fans as well,
24:05
Speaker 3: because that's a big part of the Mets mantra is
24:08
Speaker 3: making sure the fans are involved.
24:10
Speaker 2: All right, Let's talk about another veteran of a team
24:12
Speaker 2: that made his first NLCS, Brandon Nimo. Oh my god,
24:17
Speaker 2: the emotions he had on the field after that advancement
24:20
Speaker 2: of the NLCS and I met the guy. What an
24:22
Speaker 2: awesome dude. One hundredth homer this year, by the way,
24:25
Speaker 2: talk about watching him play and also call above the
24:28
Speaker 2: year Mark Biento's both of them your your thoughts on
24:31
Speaker 2: both their play this season.
24:32
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, Nimo by his standards, would tell
24:35
Speaker 3: you he had a lackluster season. You know, he was
24:39
Speaker 3: hot and cold, but he was big when needed, and
24:41
Speaker 3: he was a heart and soul player. I mean, he
24:43
Speaker 3: was playing with plantar fasciitis. That that's that's something that
24:47
Speaker 3: makes it almost impossible to walk, let alone play a
24:50
Speaker 3: professional sport that requires running. So Nimo is he just
24:56
Speaker 3: you know, he's one of those guys who is constantly positive.
25:00
Speaker 3: And you saw the emotions because he's the last one
25:03
Speaker 3: there who's been there, you know, the longest from the
25:07
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen run. So to see those emotions, that's that's
25:12
Speaker 3: a man that really cares about winning, cares about this team,
25:15
Speaker 3: cares about his fans, and cares about his teammates. And
25:19
Speaker 3: that's that's something you you can't teach, you know, That's
25:23
Speaker 3: that's uh, that's just who he is as a person
25:26
Speaker 3: and a testament to good parenting. In terms of vientosorry,
25:31
Speaker 3: remember you know, baby came came right out the gate,
25:35
Speaker 3: looked like all right, he figured it all out, and
25:37
Speaker 3: then he cooled off just as quickly as he heated up.
25:39
Speaker 3: And you know, something was just not clicking with him,
25:44
Speaker 3: and so they brought up van To's. The fan base,
25:46
Speaker 3: of course, is saying, oh, well, Vento's is a liability defensively,
25:50
Speaker 3: and you know, all he is his arms and blah
25:52
Speaker 3: blah blah, and Vento's, to his credit, worked his tail
25:57
Speaker 3: off to get better defensively. That isn't man who is
26:00
Speaker 3: dedicated to his craft and to getting better, and you
26:04
Speaker 3: saw it all season long. Then there's the intangibles, the
26:10
Speaker 3: the things that also can't be taught, and that is
26:12
Speaker 3: being clutch.
26:13
Speaker 1: And that man was clutch this postseason.
26:17
Speaker 3: I mean hitting a Grand Slam home run when you're
26:20
Speaker 3: you know, ostensibly a rookie, and just the numbers he
26:24
Speaker 3: was compiling and the way he played, you know, defensively
26:29
Speaker 3: as well, and I can only see him getting better.
26:31
Speaker 3: He's earned that that third baseline spot, he's earned the
26:35
Speaker 3: hot corner and that should be his for years to come.
26:39
Speaker 3: And he's versatile too, so if he needs to be
26:41
Speaker 3: moved somewhere else, so be it. But for now we've
26:44
Speaker 3: got a really really solid third basement and a possible
26:47
Speaker 3: budding superstar in our midst And again, if I, you know,
26:51
Speaker 3: if I'm going to hand the bat over to someone
26:53
Speaker 3: in the postseason bottom of the ninth, down by one
26:56
Speaker 3: or tie game, you know, with the man on, it's
27:00
Speaker 3: going to be Vano's or it's going to be Soto,
27:04
Speaker 3: you know. And then I guess in a close third
27:07
Speaker 3: would be lind Or because he proved it as well
27:10
Speaker 3: that he can be clutched. And I you've got three
27:12
Speaker 3: clutch players in there, but you know, Viento's man oh
27:16
Speaker 3: Man watching him blossom this season quietly and almost unexpectedly,
27:23
Speaker 3: but I mean, he really flourished, and it was super exciting.
27:26
Speaker 2: To watch Colin. I gotta say this. I want to
27:29
Speaker 2: bring on also because obviously your grandfather, Howard Cosell. You know,
27:33
Speaker 2: he announced another big signing to New York that was
27:36
Speaker 2: Reggie Jackson. I figure, what a parallel He announced Reggie
27:40
Speaker 2: at Yankees and now you announced once or with the Mets.
27:42
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a synchronosity there. Did he ever
27:45
Speaker 2: tell you stories about that signing and announcing Reggie when
27:48
Speaker 2: he was around, or did you talk to him about
27:50
Speaker 2: those days?
27:50
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny, we really didn't talk about it
27:53
Speaker 3: that much. However, I have the luxury of having my
27:57
Speaker 3: grandfather's catalog largely uploaded to YouTube, so I but that
28:05
Speaker 3: being said, I listened to that seventy eight home run,
28:08
Speaker 3: that seventy eight series when he hit the three home runs,
28:14
Speaker 3: because my grandfather devolves from you know, sports broadcaster, professional
28:21
Speaker 3: sports broadcaster, master of words and painting a picture and
28:25
Speaker 3: just you know, doing the things that Howard Kosell did
28:29
Speaker 3: into just being a sports fan. You just hear him
28:31
Speaker 3: lose his mind, especially in that third home run. You know,
28:34
Speaker 3: he's stepping all over the call. He's I mean, he's
28:37
Speaker 3: just all over the place, and it's it's a blast
28:40
Speaker 3: to listen to, you know, the fact that he got
28:44
Speaker 3: to call those games with Reggie Jackson, the fact that
28:47
Speaker 3: I get to announce Juan Soto, who I've been announcing
28:50
Speaker 3: for years, but I've been giving him that away team
28:53
Speaker 3: kind of you know, monotone that I do.
28:56
Speaker 1: But now I get to say with Gusto.
28:58
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to say, you know, wants Toto and
29:00
Speaker 3: just like give it that that all, But uh, you know, first.
29:06
Speaker 2: And how are you gonna call? Uh about one? So
29:08
Speaker 2: when he said to the play, how did you know that? Colin?
29:12
Speaker 3: I learned something from from a friend of mine who's
29:16
Speaker 3: the PA announcer for the Colorado Rockies, and he taught
29:21
Speaker 3: me something my first season with the Mets, which was, uh,
29:25
Speaker 3: when you're announcing the home team player's name, let the
29:29
Speaker 3: name tell you how to announce it.
29:33
Speaker 1: So I didn't understand what he meant.
29:34
Speaker 3: And at that point DJ lem Mayhew was still on
29:36
Speaker 3: the Rockies and he was coming up to bat and
29:39
Speaker 3: so he announced him.
29:40
Speaker 1: You know, and he's got.
29:41
Speaker 3: A great, gravelly, like basy voice, and he was like
29:45
Speaker 3: the first baseman, DJ le may you and the wages rolled.
29:50
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, cool.
29:51
Speaker 2: Uh.
29:52
Speaker 3: I took that with me and kind of started implementing
29:56
Speaker 3: it into how I announced players name. So Juan Soto likes,
30:02
Speaker 3: I'm not going to give you a sneak preview because
30:04
Speaker 3: I'm still hammering it out, but it will be a
30:09
Speaker 3: way that's going.
30:10
Speaker 1: To you know, it's gonna hammer the hammer.
30:13
Speaker 3: Home the fact that you've got a generational talent coming
30:15
Speaker 3: up to that, and you know everyone should get on
30:18
Speaker 3: their feet and go nuts. So yeah, I've been practicing
30:23
Speaker 3: it a little bit, but I'm not comfortable yet to
30:26
Speaker 3: give it a preview, but I'll probably post something in
30:31
Speaker 3: the coming days just to give her one kind of
30:33
Speaker 3: a glimpse into that. But what I wanted to tell
30:35
Speaker 3: you very quickly was a parallel. The one parallel between
30:37
Speaker 3: my grandfather and I career wise, was when my grandfather
30:40
Speaker 3: was trying to make it as a sports broadcast journalist.
30:44
Speaker 3: His first big break as a reporter was a beat
30:48
Speaker 3: reporter in nineteen sixty two for this brand new team
30:51
Speaker 3: called the New York Mets. So that was his big break,
30:54
Speaker 3: and my first big break as a as an announcer
30:57
Speaker 3: came fifty six years later on June two, twenty eighteen
31:01
Speaker 3: for the New York Mets.
31:02
Speaker 1: So there's there's the parallel. If you're looking for.
31:04
Speaker 2: One that's beautiful, and I know he's smiling down into
31:08
Speaker 2: right now as you're about to embark on this incredible
31:11
Speaker 2: not just season of fifteen years that I think is
31:14
Speaker 2: going to rock City and fields all have to see. Hell,
31:17
Speaker 2: one last thing you mentioned game day and the operation
31:21
Speaker 2: staff and the game day chemistry that you guys have.
31:24
Speaker 2: It seems like so flawless. How do you guys make
31:26
Speaker 2: it seem so flawless every night out between the in
31:29
Speaker 2: between innings and then the pregame and the you know,
31:32
Speaker 2: all of it. How do you guys make it so seamless?
31:35
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I and my boss will probably
31:38
Speaker 3: kill me for saying this, but it isn't seamless.
31:40
Speaker 1: It never is.
31:41
Speaker 3: We have more hiccups than you would imagine.
31:45
Speaker 1: The idea is.
31:46
Speaker 3: To make it look seamless and ninety i'd say ninety
31:51
Speaker 3: to ninety five percent of the time, us in the
31:53
Speaker 3: control room or us on comms, we're the only ones
31:56
Speaker 3: who know that there was.
31:56
Speaker 1: A mistake made. That being said, we.
32:00
Speaker 3: Are perfectionists and we try to learn from those mistakes
32:04
Speaker 3: and correct them as quickly as possible make sure they
32:06
Speaker 3: never happen again. We do have, you know, dress rehearsals
32:10
Speaker 3: leading into the start of the season, but so many
32:13
Speaker 3: of us now have been doing this for so long
32:15
Speaker 3: it's become kind of like clockwork, and there's certain things
32:19
Speaker 3: that you know you can rely on to to just
32:22
Speaker 3: happen with no guard rails or no babysitting or using
32:26
Speaker 3: kiddie gloves or anything like that. For instance, our in
32:30
Speaker 3: game hosts Emily Reports been.
32:33
Speaker 1: There longer than I have, and I'm going to be
32:35
Speaker 1: going into.
32:35
Speaker 3: My eighth season in twenty twenty five. Mike Janelle has
32:39
Speaker 3: been there for years now, and he is a consummate professional.
32:42
Speaker 3: I mean, he's one of the best in the game.
32:44
Speaker 3: You basically tell them where, where to be, what they're
32:47
Speaker 3: going to be doing, and they can just do it.
32:51
Speaker 3: You know, in terms of you know, we really upt
32:54
Speaker 3: our game production wise this year because we had the
32:56
Speaker 3: addition of the LED lights to the stadium lights so
32:59
Speaker 3: we could change colors, turn them off and on in
33:01
Speaker 3: a heartbeat, whereas the other stadium lights, the old standard
33:05
Speaker 3: traditional bulbs would take like twenty five to thirty minutes
33:08
Speaker 3: to heat up to get to like full capacity. So
33:12
Speaker 3: adding that into the mix, plus the LEDs on top
33:15
Speaker 3: of the biggest JumboTron in Major League Baseball and city vision,
33:20
Speaker 3: which is you know, ultra h D four K, you know,
33:24
Speaker 3: being able to utilize that throughout the game, from the
33:28
Speaker 3: pregame to the Mets take the Field video to when
33:32
Speaker 3: we knocked a pitcher out. We started using that in
33:34
Speaker 3: the middle of the season and it became kind of iconic,
33:36
Speaker 3: shutting off of the lights, having this ominous music play
33:39
Speaker 3: with like these red lights flashing and having the fans
33:42
Speaker 3: start chanting and turning on their their cell phone flashlights
33:46
Speaker 3: and stuff. You know, that's all stuff that we kind
33:48
Speaker 3: of figured out as we went along, and I used
33:51
Speaker 3: the Royal we there. That's pretty much the masterminds of
33:56
Speaker 3: Andy Goldberg, Brendan McKeon, Mike Lano, and then just an
34:02
Speaker 3: incredible array of brilliant minds, Bobby Clemens just to.
34:08
Speaker 1: Name a few, and I'm missing a slew of people.
34:11
Speaker 1: Harry Garcia.
34:11
Speaker 3: There's just so many people that it goes into but
34:14
Speaker 3: they're also the Mets are always open to new ideas.
34:18
Speaker 3: No idea is a bad idea. It just if they
34:21
Speaker 3: don't like it, it won't get used and that's it
34:22
Speaker 3: and you move on. So if you come up with
34:24
Speaker 3: something that you think would work during a game, that
34:26
Speaker 3: you think would be fun or funny, we try it
34:29
Speaker 3: out and if it worked, it works, and if it doesn't,
34:32
Speaker 3: we act like it never happened. But we do have
34:34
Speaker 3: mistakes that happen all the time throughout games. The idea
34:37
Speaker 3: is to not let it kill you, but to learn
34:40
Speaker 3: from it, make sure it doesn't happen again, and move on.
34:43
Speaker 2: Well, Colin, I look forward to actually meeting you this season.
34:46
Speaker 2: It's been there six or seven years I've known you.
34:48
Speaker 2: I'm hoping it's actually meet you this year. That would
34:51
Speaker 2: be awesome and absolutely so we'll hit you up when
34:54
Speaker 2: we're around and hopefully we get to meet up for
34:57
Speaker 2: a minute and take that picture to selfie. That'll be great.
35:00
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, it's long Overdoe, my friend. We'll absolutely make
35:04
Speaker 3: it happen this season.
35:05
Speaker 2: Colin Gosel the Mets pa nown Turin, of course, the
35:08
Speaker 2: grandson of Howard Goseel, joining the One Leg Up new work.
35:12
Speaker 2: Thanks again, Colin.
35:14
Speaker 3: Thank you, Alex greatly appreciate it. Look forward to seeing
35:16
Speaker 3: you in person in twenty twenty five.
35:17
Speaker 1: Let's go, Mets.
35:18
Speaker 2: There you go. Talk to you soon, my friend. Take care,