And now you're here when the team is the best of them all

allYeah, it's hard to describe.

I mean, uh, '90, '91, '92, you, you know, we were just try- fighting to finish l- not last.

And now, you know, the last two years, three years, this team's, you know, developed.

Uh, Joe came in and did a great job with this ball club, kept us together.

And not one superstar on the whole team.

Everybody contributed, 1 through 25, and, uh, we just did a tremendous job.

Oh, he knew that if he told you, you'd get everybody going.

It was in Baltimore in a very tough situation in the ninth ... 3-2 pitch between third and short.

That's a very good memory.

That was long, that was six years ago.

That was a very good memory, and I, like I said, this is, this is something that capped off these six years I've been here.

It's, you know, it's a great feeling.

It's, you know, last year we made the playoffs, but we were the wild card.

This year we won a division.

Yeah, this really is terrific and-

In your estimation, first and foremost, on the baseball diamond, what are your thoughts on Scouble going to the Dodgers, and how do you see him fitting in with that team? Well, you know, I always

talk about how much I miss Mr. Steinbrenner.

And you know what? I think he's being reincarnated on the West Coast.

Yeah, no, listen, God bless that, man.

Yeah, is it not a good look for what's going on in baseball right now? It's probably not.

But you know what? It's amazing that not only do they get these players, these players actually want to go there.

And it reminds me, like I said, it reminds me of the late Yankees and the Steinbrenner era Yankees.

I don't know how much baseball would be able to recover, but from your vantage point, how disappointing, and more importantly, how detrimental would this be to the overall game itself if we have a work stoppage after this season?

I know he rubs people kind of the wrong way sometimes with some of the quote-unquote antics, but first from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room, or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

What about you?

I know he rubs people kind of the wrong way sometimes with some of the quote-unquote antics, but first from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room, or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

You and your former Yankee teammates, when you talk about this group and you talk about this core, are you guys sitting there and just laughing and saying, hey, George would have never put up with this for so long without a

I know he rubs people kind of the wrong way sometimes with some of the quote-unquote antics, but first from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room, or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

What about you?

But first, from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room? Or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

What about you?

But first, from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room? Or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

What about you?

But first, from a player standpoint, is a guy like Jazz beloved in the locker room? Or do guys kind of roll their eyes sometimes at some of the stuff Jazz might do personality-wise?

Well, I'm going to predicate it with it would never happen in our day, but it's not our day anymore.

And you know what? This is the way these kids want to play.

This is what they want to bring to the game.

And you're right.

He fits in perfectly for this kind of game and what these people want to do.

And one of the things that I look at a guy like this is, He is such a great talent.

What about you?

Oh, God.

And basketball, too.

Analytics.

Analytics.

And thank God there wasn't analytics in my day, because if you look at my month of September before the playoffs, I would have never played in a playoff game.

And you think about that, not only did I help change the history of the Yankees being the postseason, but also the San Diego Padres.

And you would have never played me in the sabermetric era.

You know, what did it take to win a championship in New York? And then at the same time, my two-part question, the second part is, what did it take for you to be able to excel and be able to feel comfortable to excel, not once, but numerous times, which led to those championships? I'll give you two reasons.

That OG tip goes down as one of the iconic moments in the history of Jimmy Leywitz of New York sports.

Yeah.

I mean, all I could think about, like I texted you, is if they don't win, it's a footnote.

And I just told you before, 95 home run I hit against the Mariners.

We thought that was going to get us to the next round.

That was a big home run, too.

Yeah, and it was great, but we didn't win.

He walks

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

And so, I mean, you know, I, I look at, you know, at, at both of the teams, but we also have to remember too that this is the beginning of the season and it should not be played while these guys are still not even really in shape yet.

And, you know, to me, I'm like, it's a little different now than it was for us when we played because we came into spring training and knowing we had 30 to 40 days to get back into shape.

Uh, these guys don't have that, that luxury now with the amount of money they make.

But they still come in, you know, not ready for the season to, to go full force.

And, you know, I think Skuba was the one that said it, like, "Okay, I pitched that first game, but I got amped up way too much and I'm not gonna pitch again because I'm afraid I might hurt myself."

Do you know what I mean? Like, that would be my only issue.