
Don, Hahn & Rosenberg on ESPN NY
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A
This is pro linebacker TJ Watt.
B
And I'm back with YPB by Abercrombie.
A
For another activewear drop.
B
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C
That sounds like heaven to me.
B
Listen live weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app, and your smart speakers. All right, we have a serious situation happening right now in the YouTube chat.
D
What's that?
B
As you guys know, on Fridays, you know, I tend to get pizza, right? Like, Stephanie's out, she's Cali's got hockey, and on the way back, she goes to Phil's and say, Ossett picks up a nice pie, some other stuff as well, brings it in. You saw last week, I got a little bit of chicken parm, which was really nice and delicious. So everybody's asking about, where's the pizza? And Stephanie's not home yet. She's still. Callie still has practice. So then comes up this discussion about what? You know, different things, things you would like to have on a pie. And Butch said, pineapple pizza is the best. Then some Jay Smooth says that ham and pineapple. What are we doing here?
A
They should be stoned.
B
What are we doing here?
D
I never tried it, but I do hear the whole, like, sweetened, salty kind of thing. So I get that vibe. It's not for me, but I can understand, I guess, if that's what you're looking for. That could work. I'm not mad at it. It's just not me.
B
I don't.
C
It's not an everyday pie for me, but if I know a place that does it well, I think pepperoni and pineapple is delicious. That salty and sweet I find to be lovely. But I believe I've had this argument a thousand times. And Alan's gonna make the obligatory, you're in New York. You can't eat pepperoni and pineapple.
D
Oh, I've never heard Alan talks like that.
B
That's about right. Honestly, though.
C
First of all, look at his track jacket. He's gonna go, you in New York, you're gonna put pineapple on a pizza. What can I get you?
B
Oh, got the Adidas on today. It's cold. Man. This feels. This feels good. Yeah, yeah. Also, shout out Rod Strickland in liu. But. So a million years ago, when California Pizza Kitchen had not yet moved all the way to the East Coast, I was out in California. That's back when I was working for. Remember EA Sports. I told you guys that story about what a smart move I made leaving that company and all the stock options I had.
C
Drop.
B
No, no, that was not a good thing. That's not a drop. That's a. I was stupid.
D
No, no, no. There was a drop. Not. It was. You dropped.
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Totally. But a friend of mine, when I was out there, and he's like, oh, let's go get pizza. And I'm like, yeah, all right, we'll try it out. And he takes me to a place, and, you know, I wanted pizza, so I just said, yeah, I'll get. I'll get a couple of slices. And the guy was like, well, what do you want on it? I'm like, no, just. Just a couple of slices. He goes, no, no. And he's, like, pointing up to their board, and I see things like, there's pineapple pizza, and then there's. I couldn't even. Like, they had names for them, like, as if, like, you have names for salads, like the Santa Fe pie and then this. And so I'm going, no, no, man. Just, like, just cheese. Just. Just cheese marinara. That's all. I'm good. He's like, we don't. We don't make it like that. I lost my mind. This was in San Mateo, California. I couldn't understand. Like, what are you talking? Like, they had. They had like. Like, Buffalo chicken pizza, which now everybody loves. But at the time, this is in the 90s. I couldn't process this. So I just. I. I didn't eat. I said, I'm not eating any of this. I'm not having it. So then, of course, fast forward now. California Pizza Kitchen suddenly became this big chain. Everybody went to them, and that's all they serve. I. In that moment, I couldn't. In my. I, like, nobody will like, this. This will never work. And it ended up being. Obviously, it's a huge business. I've never tried it, though, so you could tell me it tastes delicious. And I've just. I've never tried it. I can't understand having, you know, fruit on. On pizza. That's like. Like, ham and pineapple. That's quiche, man. Like, that's not pizza. You feel me?
C
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D
Have you ever had. I don't like it but have you ever had a cookie or some sort of pastry with salt on it? It's that same, that sweet and salty kind of combination you're looking for like sweet and sour chicken. It's like the combination of the two flavors hitting that people seem to like.
B
Yeah, I totally understand it. I just when it comes to. It's almost like the expectation like Don what you would might had with. With sushi. The expectation of holding a slice of pizza and taking a bite and then having it taste like nothing that you would want in that moment. Like I'm not expecting this. That's. That's my problem. So I just, I. That's my hang up. I can't do it. Everybody has their flaws. I have many of them. This is one of them.
D
Yeah, it's not crazy, but. It's not crazy.
B
Yeah, but, but I didn't go dice Clay in the. In the place. I just said no, I'm good. I'm all set.
C
No but you're. But you're not in a weird place either. Many people feel strongly about that. Yeah, Yeah. A lot of people hate. Hate. Get animated there. People scream about pineapple on pizza. It's like a trigger thing for people. Like, you order pineapple. It's like, it's one of those default. Don. You've heard it before. It's like a very New Yorky. You know, we have. We have the best pizza. How dare you bring up the thing. That is true. But how dare you bring up a thing that's something else. It's like, it's just like a built in.
D
Well, they made it sacred, right? They made the pizza sacred. How are you soiling this great thing by putting something out? Because people like to put stuff on it.
B
That's fine.
D
What are you gonna do?
C
Meanwhile, our whole country is a joke. Do you realize that We've accepted. We have accepted that pizza reviews are done by a yo yo with a Boston accent who walks around grabbing pizza and goes, I decided, why am I giving. Why am I. I should give him a Mayor Quimby accent. That was the wrong voice.
B
Yeah.
C
We allowed a Boston guy to be the official reviewer of all pizza. It's. It's, it's upside down. The whole world's upside down.
B
It's more of the entertainment value of it, which is everything in our society. It doesn't matter what you say is, is it entertaining? Okay. And then it just becomes what we all are too much with. With people is now we're all lemmings and we're just going to copycat it because it's funny and we want to be funny, too. So we copycat it well.
C
And we don't know what entertaining is anymore. Entertaining used to require, like, putting work into it, not standing outside with a T shirt holding up a piece of pizza. Go, take one bite, what's the score? And people go, this is the greatest content I have ever seen. There's that word again. Content. When I'm scrolling, when I'm mindlessly scrolling and turning my brain into mush to ignore the problems of my life, these are the things that make me feel good. Whereas when we were kids, it's. I'm going to sit down with my loved ones, I'm going to turn on a program, and I'm going to watch people put on a show that is just. We don't live in that area anymore, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on.
D
But Alan brought back memories for me because we'd always have baseball or there was always something going on. And my dad loved pizza and he still held true even though he wasn't overly religious of not eating meat on Friday, not even during Lent. He didn't like to eat meat on Fridays, period. And we always had pizza on Friday. Always had pizza on Friday. So when you brought up that it was Friday, like it did bring back a lot of memories that there wasn't even a discussion we were getting pizza on Friday.
B
Yeah, that's how we do it.
A
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B
Don Hahn and Rosenberg Podcast.
C
I didn't listen to anything you just said.
B
Catch this show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, you know when a trophy's raised, it can feel like the season's over. But on the ESPN app, it never really is. Because with more than 47,000 live events, plus originals, highlights, coverage from every corner of the sports world, there's always something to dive into. It's Friday night. You know, there's lots of hoops tonight, this weekend, lots of basketball. And once football's out of the way, we're going to get a ton of NBA on Sundays as well. Boys, I know you're all fired up. No off season, just everything a fan needs to keep going all in season, get all of ESPN all in one place. Download the ESPN app on your TV or phone. Today I actually heard from some of the people at get up saying you ready? Because in a couple of weeks, you know, the whole format starts to shift over from football.
C
Oh, you're it's time, baby.
B
NBA. And so yeah, it's my the marathon's going to start on the other side of the All Star break coming up in a few weeks. So I am definitely, I'm definitely looking forward to that. Before we get to our last Call crew, we got lots of calls. The whole thing is loaded up, so let's get as many as we can. I do have to give him one more game time brought to you by Telemardu Irish Whiskey because when it's game time.
D
It's Tony time.
B
That would have been better in unison, but I like that. Rangers and the Sharks in San Jose. Coverage follows Ty Butler, who follows us on 88 at 9:30. Nets and the Celtics at 7:30. And Don McGregor and the Devils in Vancouver playing the Canucks 10 o'. Clock. And you can hear the dulcet tones of Don Lagreca on MSG Network tonight. Telemardu, the original triple distilled, triple, triple blended and triple Cashman shirt. Irish whiskey. Be sure to grab a Telemurdo or try the new Tullamore Dew Honey during today's action, glasses up to enjoying Telemurdu responsibly. John in Oakland wants to talk some Zar. Go ahead, John. Zar.
E
Hey, John, I just want to preface this by saying I won't turn down a slice of any kind. Pineapple. Probably not for me, but give it a try. I want to bring up a scenario. I want to hear your take. I had a buddy a while back, a law school buddy, meeting my home buddies, one of the, you know, first time meeting up, going to bring a pie, going to get from my place, my favorite place. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. He comes through with barbecue chicken pie.
C
Full pie.
E
I found it to be particularly egregious that he would make that assumption. Was a good piece of pizza, I'm not gonna lie. But to sell your spot and have that be the, you know, thing you bring, I thought was offensive. So curious to hear your take.
B
Yeah, that's interesting. Although I'm telling you, my kids love Buffalo chicken pizza. They love it.
A
Yeah.
E
Listen, like I said, I'll eat it. I'm not, not gonna turn it down. But to go full barbecue chicken pie.
B
I thought was particularly aggressive.
C
But let me throw something at you here that I find like pizza conversation. My wife is, is as New York as the Empire state built.
B
She's Ms. Hatton.
C
She's literally Ms. Hatton.
B
Yeah.
C
Born Stony Brook alum. Stony Brook alum. Stoney, you're Stony Brook yourself.
E
I.
C
We were there.
E
We crossed paths a couple times. Not, not anything of note, but I know the name, so.
C
Yeah. So Stony Brook alumni, 40 under 40 at Stony Brook. Loved Queens so much that when her parents moved to Brooklyn, she insisted on staying in school in Queens and would go to get find a way to school every single day, right? New York to the core. Her favorite pizza from her favorite spot in Queens is a chicken Caesar slice. It's her favorite slice in New York and there are people who will hear chicken Caesar slice and be like that's not pizza. Like it's just so arbitrary of what makes a New York slice or not interesting.
B
You say.
C
Thank you buddy.
B
Thanks John. Peter I will, I will. I'll share this real quick. When Stephanie gets the Caesar salad on the side, I might, you put it on the pizza. I might put some of that on the pizza. Well, I kind of like that little, little mix. Let's go to, you know, shouts to Romeo's pizza. John in Atlanta. Go ahead. John d'.
E
Agostino I hear in Atlanta there is no bread on the shelves. It's like the end of the world is coming here to Atlanta. Jared Stetem I Stephen A. Seems to be railing against the guy about because he hasn't thrown a pass in two years. Didn't we just have Philip Rivers take Seattle to a end of the last minute field goal and he hadn't played in what, four or five years. Don't understand, I mean I don't think that, that he's going to be the reason why they, they possibly win or lose the game. He's making a mountain out of molehill. My last point is Salah. How in the world does Robert Salah land another head coaching job?
B
Because he coached with the jets and people give him the benefit of the doubt. John. Like that's.
D
And how do you, how do you not?
A
I mean, right.
C
He's such a good coordinator. He's such a good coordinator. His only failure is with the Jets. Why not?
B
Right? Exactly. Yeah.
D
Listen, could Stidham lose the game?
C
Yeah.
D
You could throw four picks, right. I don't think they'll put him in a situation to do that. But, but the, the thing that could hurt is there might be a moment where he needs to make a play. Can he make that play?
B
Right.
D
All right. He hasn't thrown a ball in two years. He's thrown in practice. He knows the system. He's an NFL quarterback. He can make the throw. But can he make the throw to win them the game? And that's, that's left to be seen. I would probably bet no. But even if you dumb it down guys and even if you game manage, there's going to be a couple of moments where you're going to have to make the play.
B
Yeah. And do that and that's going to be the challenge. By the way, it's not a great comp to Philip Rivers when Philip Rivers was in his time a great quarterback who has history. Stedham hasn't really done it in the NFL at all to have any type of resume or feel for what he's about to walk into. Nick and Westwood, you're up next. Nick.
E
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. I just want to know what your thought on. Obviously, the Yankees needed Cody Bellinger back and that was big that they got him back. But what's next for them? Because they did have the best offense in the league in last year in the regular season, but then in the playoffs, obviously they're pitching and everything went down. But, you know, I don't think the team is built to get to the AL championship. What do you guys think?
B
Well, just quickly, what is it about them that you think will hold them back?
E
I think it's their offense, honestly. I know they were the best team in the league last year, but, you know, the Blue Jays outplayed them and I don't think they could get there again.
B
So the Blue Jays will be in their way. And that's fair because the Blue Jays, they did a great job with their pitching staff. So you got to like what they've done. But I don't know how. The Yankees have to be healthy, and if they're healthy, they're going to be dangerous. When they get healthy, they're a dangerous team. They still have one of the best lineups in the sport, and I think they're pitching when everybody's healthy is going to be a lot better.
D
But who do you want replaced?
C
Right.
D
Like, Caballero is going to be your shortstop to start the year, so you don't have to worry about Volpe. McMahon is a really good defender. Yeah, you'd rather have a better third baseman, but they're not going to replace him. Grisham's here.
B
All right.
D
You hope he hits like he did last year. But like, where's the hole where. Who do you want replaced, I guess is the question.
E
I don't want anyone replaced, technically. But I think giving Grisham the franchise tag was just a terrible idea.
B
Well, of course it was. They. All they did was they qualified him and he took it. They didn't think he would.
E
Yeah, not the franchise tag.
B
The quality. I know what you meant. That.
D
That's the. That was a mistake. We got to move past that.
B
But you hope the mistake is like, going to. You hope the mistake will work out for you by him having another good year. And doesn't he have to have a good year when he's going to be a free agent? Like, he's going to. This is. He's got to make his money right now. So this is. This has got to be the time for him. Do we dare try it with less than a minute to go?
C
Oh, my God.
D
I know what you're asking.
B
Is this a big risk.
C
Always just fade out with can't be done.
B
It can't be done. Not gonna do it. All right, well, you hesitate, everybody. We already talked about the weather coming up. Very cold tomorrow. And you got to be aware of that. Rich Hoppin told us to. The fact that it's cold means that slight dusting, the beginning of it all means the bottom of it's going to be frozen. So be very careful. Even if it's early in the storm, if you think they're going to go out there, be careful. We're all worried about you. We care about you guys because you give us a reason to keep doing the show every day. So be safe, be warm this weekend. Help out your neighbors. Don, get home safe. Have a great weekend, boys. Enjoy the let's Do It Monday. All the best. Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.
C
I don't want to know how the.
B
Sausage is made, man. I just want to know. It's good. Hear more more of Don Allen and Peter weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app, and your smart speakers.
Don, Hahn & Rosenberg Podcast — Hour 4: Pizza Toppings & Last Call Crew (January 24, 2026)
This hour of the show centers around the ever-controversial topic of pizza toppings, especially pineapple, and dives into spirited debates about pizza authenticity, regional preferences, and the cultural significance of pizza in New York. The hosts field calls from listeners, adding layers of nostalgia and personal stories while also touching on sports—most notably Yankees roster discussion and some brief NFL commentary. The segment is lighthearted, opinionated, and full of New York flavor.
Setting the Stage: Pizza Traditions
Strong Reactions
“They should be stoned.” — Alan (01:34)
“You in New York, you’re gonna put pineapple on a pizza?”
Broader Perspectives
“I never tried it, but I do hear the whole sweet and salty kind of thing… If that’s what you’re looking for, that could work.” (01:38)
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) & Regional Pizza Norms
“I couldn’t process this… That’s quiche, man. Like, that’s not pizza. You feel me?” — Alan (04:44)
Philosophy on Expectation
“It’s almost like the expectation… holding a slice and taking a bite… I’m not expecting this. That’s my problem.” (06:38)
The Sacredness of New York Pizza
“People scream about pineapple on pizza. It’s like a trigger thing.” (07:17)
“They made the pizza sacred. How are you soiling this great thing by putting something on it?” (07:49)
The Influence of Pizza Reviews & Content Culture
“We allowed a Boston guy to be the official reviewer of all pizza… It’s upside down. The whole world’s upside down.”
Changing Definitions of Entertainment
“When we were kids… I’m going to watch people put on a show… We don’t live in that era anymore.” (08:48)
Pizza Topping Protocols
“My wife… her favorite pizza from Queens is a chicken Caesar slice.” — Peter (16:46–17:21)
Mixing Pizza and Salad
NFL: Quarterback Discussion
MLB: Yankees Roster
“The Yankees have to be healthy, and if they’re healthy, they’re going to be dangerous.” — Alan (20:23)
Roster Debates
Community & Safety Reminder
Classic Sign-Off Line
“I don’t want to know how the sausage is made, man. I just want to know it’s good.” (22:32)
Alan, on pineapple:
Peter, on pizza reviews/content culture:
Don, on family pizza tradition:
Peter, on pizza arbitrariness:
Closing sentiment:
“We care about you guys because you give us a reason to keep doing the show every day… Be safe, be warm this weekend. Help out your neighbors…” — Alan (21:48)
This hour’s blend of classic New York food debate, sports talk, and community storytelling delivers a lively listen for anyone interested in the soul of New York—on your pizza and in your fandom.