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Don Hahn
this is the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.
Rosenberg
That sounds like heaven to me.
Don Hahn
Listen live weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app and your smart speakers.
Rosenberg
Last Call Crew 1-800-919-3776. Don on Rosenberg. Alan's got the week off. He'll be back next week. Talk about a Tuesday. Tomorrow at 4:30 get into everything that's happening in the world of sports lot. We talked about LeBron today, we talked about the Knicks today. And the baseball of it all is very interesting. The American League still stinks. However, we do have a couple of teams that have been hot. The Red Sox are playing host of the Orioles tonight. Red Sox have won 13 straight games, now are above.500 at 50 and 48. The Orioles have won seven. They're just two games.
Anthony
Oh, you know what that includes is that. Did that start when I was. That start when I was. No, no, no, that was. I caught one trying to do the math. All Star was this past week. So I was at the Orioles last game before the break.
Rosenberg
Oh, you were.
Anthony
Oh, you weren't here. No, I took Maya to her first game, went to Camden Yards.
Rosenberg
Love Camden.
Anthony
I ended up being, I was, I was right. Natalie was at a wedding right next door. And I looked up, I'm dropping off at the Marriott at 1:30 on a Sunday and I look over from where I'm dropping off and I see Utah street. And I was like, wait, hold on a second. No chance they're here. Are they? 20 bucks. Walked right in, had some dippin dots, took a picture or two. It was nice.
Rosenberg
Nice.
Anthony
We didn't really sit in the crowd. And I mean she's 18 months old, right? But, but it was the, it was the principalities.
Rosenberg
And now maybe you've been.
Anthony
Maybe I'm part of something.
Rosenberg
Part of something, yeah. I'm still under 500. But here's the way the national, the American League east. Rounding out the Yankees are a game and a half back at Tampa. Tampa's all of a sudden lost five in a row because they had caught the Red Sox fever. Over the weekend. So the Red Sox won 13 in a row. Two games above.500. They right now are six back of the Rays. There are only four back of the Yankees in the loss column. I'll be interested to see what happens after they finally lose. Will they get back to winning? Will they fall apart? But here's a little bit of an indicator. I've always talked about run differential, telling you how good a team is. Okay. This is how good the Red Sox are. The Red Sox right now are tied for the second best run differential in the American League at a plus 45. Tampa, who's the best team in the American league is only a plus 14. So if you go by the run differential, it kind of tells you that maybe their record, which is 14 games above.500, is not sustainable. The Yankees, who are 11, that was a big win last night. Jazz had the home run in the eighth inning. They won the game 2 to 1. Jazz is not having a great offensive year, but he is hitting clutch. So the Yankees with The win climbed 11 over, but they. They could have been nine over. Single digits under five, single digits above.500. So that was a big win. They still dropped two out of three against the Dodgers. But you don't have to worry about the Dodgers to the World Series. And you're also playing without Aaron Judge, so that is something.
Anthony
It's not nothing.
Rosenberg
But you know what's amazing to me, and it just shows you how fragile things are. And we started the show talking to Jake Aspen about why I believe the Yankees feel like they're okay, is because they could say to you, well, look at the Blue Jays. Blue Jays went to game seven of the World Series last year, and now they're seven games under.500. Isn't that crazy? The Blue Jays almost beat the Dodgers in one of the best World Series we've seen in a long time. They're in last place. They're 46 and 53. They're 10 and a half back at Tampa. And now the wild card. Listen, they're only four and a half back, but they still have to climb over Houston, Minnesota, Baltimore, Seattle just to get to the Red Sox, who would be in the playoffs today if the season ended just two games above.500.
Rich Eisen
Crazy.
Rosenberg
But that's what the Yankees will tell you. Well, we don't have that happen here in New York. We may not win the World Series, but we're always in it. We always finish above.500. We usually go to the playoffs. We usually win a round or two. What are you complaining about we could be the Blue Jays. Look, the Blue Jays are out there in last place. They went to the World Series, didn't win. Now they're in last place. We never do that. Yeah, Houston went to four World Series in seven years. Where are they now? There's seven games under.500.
Anthony
I'd still take it relative to the Yankees, but whatever.
Rosenberg
You know, Baltimore five minutes ago won a hundred games, now they're under.500. Like I get it. But don't you see what the Yankees are saying to you? You think we're losing, we're good. We want to win. But we also don't want it to come at the expense of being bad for five years. I think Jake said it best. You could do both. You could be all in and yet still have a bright future. But things are going to look different next year. Can you imagine if there's a salary cap now? The Yankees are going to have just as good a chance as pretty much most of the league to spend money. They'll, they'll spend to the to the cap, but so will a lot of other teams, right? There'll be a few teams, Marlins, Rays that won't spend to the cap, they'll spend to the floor. But the days of having a payroll 150,000, 150 million above everybody else are gone. And now you might be in a world where there could be 20 other teams that have the same payroll you do. Are you still going to be as successful? Are you going to be. You're not going to be able to buy your way out of mistakes. If somebody gets hurt, it's going to be catastrophic. That's why I think Brian wants to hold on to prospects. Because when those days happen, he's going to be like, I can go to my farm and I can get good players. I don't want to keep adding salary.
Rich Eisen
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Rich Eisen
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Anthony
I know, but to Jake's point, if you're a Yankee fan, oh, my God, you've been holding on to farm for so long. But.
Rosenberg
But.
Anthony
And how much has it worked out in the long run? What do you have to show for it?
Rosenberg
But do you hear, where's your mil?
Anthony
Where's your Miguel Anduhar jersey right now?
Rosenberg
All right, you haven't won since 2009, which is a long time for the Yankees. But it's not that long.
Anthony
No.
Rosenberg
And you're good every year. You don't ever have to worry about there being a year in which. But you keep telling it. You're doing it. No, I'm just.
Anthony
You're doing it, but you're Yankee splaining.
Rosenberg
I'm not Yankee splaining.
Buster Olney
Anthony.
Anthony
Is he doing it again?
Rosenberg
No, I'm not doing it again.
Anthony
He kind of feels like he's doing it again.
Rosenberg
I'm just telling you what they think.
Anthony
You tell me what they're not telling you what they think they think.
Rosenberg
Like, yo, yo. What I'm trying to say to the Yankee fan is your misery is still better than any other team. You root for Jake roots for the Yankees. Right. Well, now, obviously, the Knicks just came off a championship. But before the Knicks won a championship, of the four teams that Jake Aspen roots for, Yankees, Knicks, Jets, Islanders, what team has given him the most pleasure?
Anthony
Be the Yankees?
Rosenberg
Without question.
Anthony
No question.
Rosenberg
And yet that's the team he complains about the most because the Yankees are supposed to win. But when he starts a season again, obviously the Knicks changed all that with their recent success. But like two, three years ago, the season he looked forward to the most was the Yankees. Certainly wasn't the Jets. They haven't been to the playoffs in a decade and a half. Islanders, nothing.
Anthony
Not a sniff before this year.
Rosenberg
The Knicks sniff them. But all I'm saying is I'm not defending them. They should do Better than the New York Yankees. But the team you complain about the most is giving you the most pleasure because there's not one season in the history of Jake's life.
Anthony
Yeah, I know, but that where he's
Rosenberg
ever been embarrassed by his team. The Knicks have embarrassed him. The jets certainly are embarrassing him right now. Islanders embarrassed him. Right. The Knicks certainly embarrassed him for years.
Anthony
Okay, so what you're saying is you've been married four times. It hasn't gone great, right? When you rank your wives, one of them, she barely gets dressed, okay? She looks like crap. She stinks sometimes. Barely brushes her teeth. Okay? Doesn't want to cook anything, doesn't want to go out for a meal. She's no fun at all. She's basically worthless. But she's never cheated on you. Your other ex, she slept with your best friend. The other one, your brother. The other one sold all of your possessions. Well, the Jets. The jets slept with your brother and your father. I mean, it's complete.
Rosenberg
It might have been at the same
Anthony
time, it's on the table. And you're saying. And you're saying, we'll be happy for the one wife who just. Whose breath stinks and doesn't do anything.
Rosenberg
But what I'm asking, just as a Met fan, is that, does the Yankees breath stink? They all want to champion.
Anthony
No, the breath stinks. It has not been. It has not been sexy.
Rosenberg
So no matter what.
Anthony
And you know what it makes me realize? The obsession with their farm, the whole farm system obsession with the Yankees, it now justifies what Anthony, you think it's all this culture and tradition. They don't put names on the jerseys because they know they're just gonna rotate.
Rosenberg
That's a good point.
Anthony
It's what benefits the way they do business.
Rosenberg
I've given this analogy before, but it's worth repeating because it's the perfect analogy for the New York Yankees. And it's coming up next.
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Don Hahn
thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg Podcast.
Anthony
I didn't listen to anything you just said.
Don Hahn
Catch the show on demand whenever you want. Just subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Rosenberg
The analogy I was going to give with the Yankees, how it's good, but it's not great because they haven't won since 2009. The analogy that I used before Julian's new to the show, and I don't know if Anthony.
Shopify/Ethos Ad Voice
Rudy.
Rosenberg
Remember the movie American Pie?
Anthony
Okay.
Rosenberg
Picture it, if you will. Are you. Remember the. Are you familiar with the work of Kevin.
Anthony
Kevin from.
Rosenberg
Kevin was going out with Vicki, who
Anthony
was Tara Reid, and Kevin's like one of the cool dudes.
Rosenberg
Yeah. And he's in a relationship with Vicky, and they spent a lot of time at third. Haven't scored, but a lot of time at third.
Anthony
Right.
Rosenberg
That's being a Yankee fan. Oh, not bad.
Anthony
I disagree.
Rosenberg
But you're getting a little tired of being stranded. Third.
Anthony
It's a bad comp.
Rosenberg
It's not a bad comp.
Anthony
It's terrible.
Rosenberg
It's not terrible.
Anthony
It's terrible.
Rosenberg
That's just because you just don't agree with my third.
Anthony
No, my. Wait, I thought my third. I thought the third they're talking about. Oh, your third. Is that. Yes, I thought your second was. And your second was my third. Oh, yeah. That was the issue. You were saying, what's third?
Rosenberg
Right.
Anthony
Okay. No, so I'm going with your third.
Rosenberg
Okay.
Anthony
And I still disagree with it.
Rosenberg
Why?
Don Hahn
Because.
Anthony
You know why? Because if I told you, if we were all out one night and saw the most amazing human being of all time, physically.
Rosenberg
Yes.
Anthony
And I called you the next day and I went, don, you're not going to believe it. Remember the girl at the bar?
Don Hahn
Yeah.
Anthony
I ended up talking to her. We went to third. The first words out of your mouth are not going to go, ah, it came up short.
Buster Olney
Huh?
Rosenberg
They'd be mine. But short.
Grainger/LinkedIn Ad Voice
No.
Rosenberg
I'd be like, it's amazing.
Anthony
You know, and no one says that about going to the World Series.
Rosenberg
But he did in the movie because he complained throughout the entire movie how he didn't score and he's sick. He even.
Grainger/LinkedIn Ad Voice
Even use.
Rosenberg
I can't use the quote, but he's even just. I'm tired of this. You know what? I want to go all the way.
Anthony
Well, that's because.
Rosenberg
So he's being a Yankee fan. He's tired of third. Meanwhile, for Jake. Poor Jake, the Jets, the Islanders and the Knicks.
Anthony
Okay.
Rosenberg
Now it's now kicking him in the groin.
Anthony
Okay, now the comps coming together. That's a good point.
Rosenberg
You see what I'm saying? Yeah, but it's complained the most about. He. He's Kevin, in American Pie, what you're complaining about. Meanwhile, the other teams are taking a baseball bat to your privates. Every time. You hang with them every time. But you kill. You still hang with them. You hang with them as much as you hang with Vicky.
Anthony
I just saw them. One of the most brilliant tweets I've ever seen in my life. Anthony. Anthony, you want to see an amazing tweet?
Rosenberg
Absolutely.
Anthony
I don't know.
Buster Olney
Where am I looking?
Anthony
I don't know who this person is. I'll just read it to you. It's a picture of a beautiful new Taco Bell. One of the black awning New Jones.
Rosenberg
Oh, yeah.
Anthony
And that's one picture. And then the picture next to it, what's the one that looks like a little circular, almost like octagon?
Rosenberg
The Crunchwrap.
Anthony
The Crunchwrap. It's your favorite, right?
Rich Eisen
Yeah.
Anthony
Oh, yeah.
Buster Olney
I love the Crunchwrap.
Anthony
And the next picture, Don, is a picture of the Crunchwrap supreme with a whole bunch. What's the black sauce?
Rosenberg
Oh, yeah.
Anthony
One of the Sauce Diablo.
Rosenberg
Oh, the Diablo sauce.
Don Hahn
Yes, yes.
Anthony
And he's got his Taco Bell bag and the Diablo sauces and the Crunchwrap. And above it, the only caption he wrote was the safest time in history tofly was September 12, 2001.
Rosenberg
I love this man.
Anthony
Do you follow it, Don, anyone? He's just leaning right in. He's going, no, this is the time you want to go to Taco Bell right now. When everyone's saying, and it's Anthony's point falsely, by the way, that they're to blame for this atrocity of explosive diarrhea all over the country. This is when you want to go enjoy your Crunchwrap supreme. Because this is when they're putting in the work. The phone calls are happening to every location. We cannot have explosive diarrhea today.
Rosenberg
Extra lettuce.
Don Hahn
How about that?
Rosenberg
This would look bad.
Anthony
Yeah, you can't do it.
Rosenberg
And meanwhile, Chipotle and Moe.
Anthony
Oh, yeah. God only knows what's going on.
Rosenberg
They're sweating.
Anthony
They're flying by the seat of their pants.
Rosenberg
Don't know, Ken. Don't know what to tell you. All right, that's a good tweet. And this was a good show.
Anthony
This was a hell of a show.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Yeah.
Rosenberg
Run it back tomorrow. We will have talk about a Tuesday. We'll go over the Mets and the Yankees, but the Mets and the brewers, they're coming up next. Don, on the Rosenberg espn New York.
Don Hahn
Thanks for listening to the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.
Anthony
I don't want to know how the
Don Hahn
sausage is made, man. I just want to know it's good. Hear more of Don Allen and Peter weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app and your smart speakers.
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Date: July 20, 2026
Hosts: Peter Rosenberg (Rosenberg); Don La Greca (Don Hahn)
Special Guests/Contributors: Anthony (Producer/Sidekick); Rich Eisen (briefly, ads); Buster Olney (briefly)
This episode dives deep into the state of New York baseball—especially the Yankees—while riffing on sports fandom, expectations, and the unique “misery” of rooting for a perennial contender. With Alan Hahn off for the week, Rosenberg and Anthony banter about the Yankees’ current position, how their fans perceive “success,” and why Yankees supporters are infamous for complaining despite consistent competitiveness. The conversation is humorous, self-aware, and heavily flavored by the hosts’ lived experience as New York sports fans.
| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------- |---------------| | AL East/Yankees update | 00:39–03:41 | | Run differential discussion | 02:23–03:41 | | Yankees fans’ expectations | 03:42–05:01 | | Hypothetical MLB salary cap | 05:01–06:24 | | Yankees farm/future debate | 07:40–08:06 | | Fandom misery & NY teams | 08:06–10:59 | | Rosie’s “American Pie” analogy | 14:18–16:19 | | Taco Bell tweet/Crunchwrap story | 16:59–18:24 |
The episode is playful, loaded with analogies, and unapologetically New York. The hosts use relationship metaphors, movie references, and fast food jokes to put the Yankees' situation—and the peculiar angst of their fans—under a microscope. The main takeaway: even if Yankees fans gripe about “not going all the way,” they’re far better off than most sports fans. This dynamic, funny, and at times self-deprecating discussion will resonate with any longtime NY sports fan, especially those puzzled by the persistent dissatisfaction of Yankees Nation.
Let us know if you want a breakdown of earlier hours or a player-by-player Yankees analysis!