Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Randy Levine | President of the New York Yankees is Trying to Save College Sports

Transcript

Randy Levine | President of the New York Yankees is Trying to Save College Sports · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Yankees actually put something on the scoreboard, a tribute
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to Charlie Kirk. The Mets didn't do that. Part of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: my issue with the Metropolitans and why I left and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: went to become a Yankee fan. And now more and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: more people are doing the same. The Yankees do the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: right thing. President Trump was in the Bronx last year.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I don't make it too political for Andy Levine to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: get him into trouble, but the truth is, you know,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk tomorrow and 9-11 on Friday and the Yankees...
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Just seemed to do the right thing time and time again.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And now Randy has been put in charge, my buddy,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of saving college sports. And I love college sports. I'm
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: in this building where the Dallas Mavericks play. I watch
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Cooper Flagg play a lot of college basketball at Duke.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And I watch every college football game every weekend. I
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: can't wait to see Texas take on Ohio State on Saturday.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: My Miami Hurricanes delivered a beating to Stanford on the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: road on Friday night. I love it. But it's a mess.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And Trump said to Randy, fix it. Help me fix this.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: You remember a couple of months ago there was a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: big conference at the White House. Trump, Rubio, Trump. Tiger Woods,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Randy, Mike Johnson, too. So
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: here he is, my buddy, the president of the New
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: York Yankees, one of the great New Yorkers, Randy Levine. Randy,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: good morning, buddy. How are you?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I'm good, Sid. How are you today? It's great to
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: be with you.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It's great to have you, too. I love you so much.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I love this friendship of ours, which... started when I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: decided to leave the Mets and come to your team.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Because as I mentioned moments ago, you don't have to talk.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You guys always seem to do the right thing. Tell
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: me this though, before we get to college sports, what
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: was the energy like in the Bronx last night? My producer,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Justin Alec was there. Thanks to you. What was the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: energy like with 99 back on the field in the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Bronx last night?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Well, we had, we were sold out. It was, uh,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Tremendous buzz when the captain came to the plate. It's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: been a long time. We miss him dearly. And, you know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the team, I think, feels whole now. You know, they
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: did a great job surviving while he was, you know, out, hurt.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: But when he steps into the lineup, he's probably the
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: best player, him or, you know, Shohei Otani in the game.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Everybody just relaxes and feels better. And, you know, the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: more he plays, we'll get his timing back and we
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: got to get him right for the playoffs because I
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: have a feeling he's going to have a big playoff
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: this year.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I think he he's a guy, like you said, Aaron Georgie,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: like Reggie said, you know, starts a drink and. I
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: think this Yankee team is poised to do big things.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I look around the American League, and like you said,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you know, you had pitching injuries. When Aaron Judge went
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: down and Stanton went down and Bellinger went down and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Freed was out and Wendon had a comeback, and you
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: had injuries all over the baseball team. Judge, of course,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is the biggest name, but you guys were able to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: stay right there, second place behind Tampa Bay. I don't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: care if you win the division or not. I still
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: think your baseball team, is the most dangerous inside the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: American League. That's my thought, Randy.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Well, we like to win the division. That's what it's about,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: winning the division. We're in striking range. We have four
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: games with Tampa left. We're far behind them. So we're
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: going to do everything we can to win the division
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and hopefully get some players, additional players back and get
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: poised for the playoffs. And how about Cam Shetland? what
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: a uh what a performance again last night cam shit
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: you know he's going to win the uh cy young
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and what a unbelievable great young man what a great
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: great season i.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Don't know where that kid came up last year and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: we couldn't even say his name now he has really
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: been from the time he arrived randy last year one
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of the best pitchers in baseball one more of the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: yankees um 9-11 coming up on Friday, and again, your organization,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the Steinbrenners, and you, Randy, you, Cashman, you guys do
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a really terrific job when it comes to the civic
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: responsibility in our city and doing the right things by
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the right people. And correct me if I'm wrong, but
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: we've got a Subway Series this weekend starting on 9-11
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: with the Yankees and the Mets, right?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: We have a Subway Series, and we're going to have
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: a really, really... special program to honor the heroes, the victims,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and all of us who lived through those tragic times
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and hopefully spur the memory of people who weren't around
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: at that time to understand the significance of that event.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: We can never forget that event. So it's going to
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: be a very, very special program. I urge everybody to
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: tune in and watch it. Uh, it's going to be
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: beautiful and, uh, nothing. There's nothing that can accommodate for
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the pain that that time caused, but it's time to
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: move forward. It's time to keep going. Nobody's going to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: beat us. And I think that, uh, it'll be a
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: nice program for people to watch. And then, you know,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: then it'll be baseball.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Baseball, baseball.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: But I don't think most people.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: During that time. And, and, and I think, uh, you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Subway Series, no matter where the teams are in the standings,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: it's always a great fight. So it should be great.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Should be great. I don't know if a lot of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: people know this, Randy, that before you became the president
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of the New York Yankees, this amazing baseball president, that
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: you were a big-time official in our city, a deputy mayor,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: back to the Rudy days. So you have experience in
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: government in and around that time, yes?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, I was president of the Yankees at the time
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: of 9-11, but I was deputy mayor of the city.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I was labor commissioner. I was in the Justice Department.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: So I've served in government quite a long time and
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: understand it. But I was president of the Yankees when
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: the terrible events happened in 9-11. But the Yankees stepped
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: up at that time. I never forget. We had our guys,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: all of them, Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Andy Pettit, they all went and they visited the armory
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: where people were waiting to find out the fates of
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: their loved ones. And they went to see all the
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: workers that came in from all over to help at
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: the Javits Center and victims who were hurt at St.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Vincent's Hospital. It was a big morale booster for those folks.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: And more important, it made our guys feel really good
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: to help out.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Actually, both teams, Bobby Valentine and the Mets and John
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Franco and Mike Piazza with their big home run. I've
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: talked to all your guys many times over the years, Randy,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and I think Bernie Williams was the first to say
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: to me, he said, Bernie, Bernie, you won four World Series, right?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: You beat the Braves twice, you beat the Padres, you
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: beat the Mets. I said, would you be willing to
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: give up one of those World Series wins just to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: rewind the tape and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks after 9-11?
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: And he said to me, I would. except for the Mets.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: But it's true because, you know, even I hated the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Yankees back then, hated them. I was rooting for the Yankees.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Everybody was rooting for the Yankees after 9-11, and Mariano
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: had that one bad throw, one in his whole career,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and the Diamondbacks prevailed. But what an emotional time. I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: know you've seen this HBO piece with Andy Levine, nine
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: innings from ground zero. What an amazing piece. Yes.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, it was. And it was an amazing time. And,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: you know, it was unfortunate we lost. But looking back,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: it gave the city a chance to distract and feel
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: good and cheer and, you know, forget a little bit
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: about the tragedy for a couple hours each day.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: That is true. You're right. And those are monster home
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: runs of young, young Kim. From Derek to Tino to Brocious.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: It's just a very exciting series. Let's get to what
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: President Trump has basically put you in charge of. Now,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you know how much I love college sports, football and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: basketball specifically. I don't miss a college football game. I don't.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I went to Miami for a short time. I was
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: there when Bernie Kosar beat Nebraska, won the national championship.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: So that's my school. But I watch every team, every game.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But it's a mess. You know, the one-year portals. You
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: got kids that now play at four different schools over
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: four years and make more money playing quarterback in college
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: football than they could playing for the New York Giants.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: or the Dallas Cowboys, the portal system. It's a complete mess,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and yet, yet, there are politicians like Senator Dick Blumenthal
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: in Connecticut who like to keep it the old way
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: when you guys are trying to fix it. Tell me
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about all this, Randy.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Well, you're right, and you can just see what happened
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: over the last week where, unbelievably, you know, you had
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: courts and LSU where, you're going to allow professional athletes,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: guys who actually played in games in the NFL or
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: in the NBA, come back and play in college. I mean,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: we seem to be forgetting that there's a difference between
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: a professional athlete and a student athlete. You know, people
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: go to college for that great college experience and play ball,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: and very few of them become professional athletes, but a
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: lot of them become leaders and and go on to
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: great careers and get a great education. What's happened here,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: because of bad, bad legal decisions, the whole system of
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: college sports, is about to collapse. What do I mean
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: by that, Sid? There are universities, and this is all fact,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: you know, just this year, UCLA, North Carolina State, right here, Rutgers,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: who are losing tens of millions of dollars on these
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: athletic departments. And they can't afford it. So what do
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: they do? They do three things. One, they take money
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: from their endowments, which is supposed to be used for
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: education of students to pay NIL payments to try and compete. Two,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: they eliminate Olympic or non-revenue sports. And, you know, therefore,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: it's going to hurt us. We won't have great athletes,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: great Olympic teams. They won't do that. Or they raise
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: fees on students. And, you know, that's unacceptable also. And
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: this is going to collapse. I mean, the president has
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: talked about it. The Senate's talked about it. The House.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: It's going to collapse. ADs, coaches, so forth. You saw
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Nick Saban has been very vocal on it. We have
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: an ad coming out where Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, who
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: not only is a coach, has kids in college, is–
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: very concerned about it. So we have a bill in
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the Senate. It's going to be voted on next week
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: called the Protect College Sports Act. It's bipartisan, where today,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: as you know, there's no such thing as bipartisan. And
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, this will do significant things.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: It will close the transfer portal. It will ban professional
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: athletes from playing in college sports. It will basically allow
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: eligibility so you don't have 18 and 19 year old
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: kids playing against 28 and 29 year old kids it
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: will be very fair it doubles the what we call
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: the cap the amount of money that schools can pay
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: for college athletes it'll be the largest investment in women's
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: sports it protects that's the u.s olympic committee is behind
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: it and because it protects olympic sports and if this
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: doesn't pass You're going to have a situation now where
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: every day a local judge somewhere, instead of one national
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: standard for rules where everybody plays on a level playing
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: field and some form of parity, you're going to have
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: every day a different judge in a local college town
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: make a decision to basically give that university an edge,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: have pros play, have guys play who went from one
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: school to the other. You know, Michigan won the national
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: championship in basketball with five guys who just came in.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: And even Dusty May, the great coach left, he said,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: this system doesn't work. And then you get, I just,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: we're locals. I'll give you two examples, right? We're in Connecticut, right?
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: University of Connecticut basketball is historic. Dan Hurley and Gino Auriemma,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: two of the greatest coaches there are. And yet, you know,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Senator Murphy and Senator Blumenthal, despite those coaches saying this
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: has to happen, This bill has to be passed. They're resisting.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: It's insane. Here in New Jersey, Rutgers, right? Rutgers, which
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: is basically in the Big Ten. It's losing tens of
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: millions of dollars every year. The senator, Cory Booker, right,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: is the leading, leading person trying to defeat this bill
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in the Senate, despite the fact that 70 percent of
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: what's in the bill he wrote. So it makes no sense.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: This is going to be the last hope. The president
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: got involved because they've been in Congress for seven years
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and nothing happened. Anybody, 360 universities have endorsed this. As
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: part of this, a billion dollars will go to the
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: historic black colleges and universities. I mean, this is a
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: win-win to basically save college sports, which is our tradition.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: If not, This is going to be no different than
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: the G League or AAA in baseball or the USFL
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: in the old days and just basically a minor league
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: for professional sports.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: You know, we had tickets, me and my dad, for
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the New Jersey Generals owned by Donald Trump. They actually had...
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: They actually had two Heisman Trophy Award winners on that team, too,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: with Doug Flutie and Herschel Walker. In the final two minutes, Randy,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you know, my daughter Ava played tennis. You've met Ava.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: She loves you. My whole family loves you. And she
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: was a really good tennis player. And when you talk
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: about the collapse of college sports, the non-Olympic events, the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: people who really get screwed in this are the females
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: because these colleges... will start to get rid of all
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: their female athlete sports. I mean, not Connecticut because of,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: you know, Ari Emma, but all these other schools, the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: overwhelming majority, they'll just whack all the female sports just
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: so they can keep their basketball and football teams alive. 100%.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: It's happening now. I mean, just a couple of months ago,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: University of Arkansas, one of the great SEC schools, cut tennis,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: men's and women's tennis, just got rid of it. There
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: was an uproar and they had to restore it, but
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: this is happening every day because it's an unsustainable system.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not just saying it. These are the facts.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You can go to it, look it up, and listen
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: to college presidents, listen to athletic directors. They will tell
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: you it can't work. So either we're going to fix
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: it now is the last hope, or the system's going
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: to blow up. And all of the opponents, they all
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: think it's a great bill, but like anything in life,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: you can't get a hundred percent. You can't let, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: there's no such thing as perfection. This gets about 80%
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of what everybody thinks is appropriate. So we just got
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: to hope the Senate steps up next week, passes it,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: and then we get it over to the house and
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: hopefully the president can sign it during college football season.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I hope he does. That would be great. Great job,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Randy Levine. Great job with this again. I love college
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: sports and My son is going to college next year,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: so I pay very close attention. You've done an amazing
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: job on this. Good luck, too, with the New York
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Yankees the rest of the regular season, which is winding
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: down and the stretch run into the playoffs. And I
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: look forward to seeing you, my dear friend, in the Bronx.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Randy Levine, I love you. Great job. Thank you so much.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: You're the best. Thank you, Sid.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: All the best. You're the best. Thank you. Look who's talking.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I'm the best. You're the best, Randy.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: mornings at 6.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: If you like the podcast, share it.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: With your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: and X.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: See you next time.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: For a new episode so you never have to wonder.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?