What do you think the Mets can learn from this year's playoff teams as they look to build out their 2027 roster?

That's a great question, Joe.

I think that, you know, what happens a lot of times in these circumstances, where you have two teams that might have smaller payrolls, two teams that play baseball, maybe a little different than we see as far as velocity.

Guys are trying to throw it 100 miles an hour.

Guys are trying to hit it 500 feet.

So it's a little different than all of that.

But I think what the real lesson is to me is that these teams, two ball clubs decided that they have this certain kind of roster and talent and they kind of shaped how they're going to play the game on the roster they had for this season.

What is your favorite specific memory from that day?

Yeah.

And they believe they can.

And if you're around them like I've been the last week or so, and you see the way they walk and the way they talk, um, they believe it 100%.

Now, will their going to the bullpen work when they get to a seven-game series and they don't have as many days off? You know what? Who cares? Because right now it's just so beautiful and fun to watch.

You know, that unbridled joy of watching these young men play.

You know, everything seems so corporate at times.

You know, guys, once they make a lot of money or have a family or have kids or whatever, some of that glow, um, leaves, uh, that they had when they were 15, 16, 17 years old.

Uh, what is your take on his season, and what are, uh, what would expectations be for you, uh, for Bo next year?

Putting it in perspective, Yankee fans know it, but when you're calling the games, what is it about the Rays that makes them so difficult to play?

Well, I think I'll use a basketball analogy, especially coming off the Knicks' great season.

You might be a team that has all the great players, and you're playing a team that presses you for the entire game.

Defensively, they're in your face from the second you get the ball to the second you get your shot off.

You might be able to put up your numbers, but it's going to come where you're exhausted at the end of the game.

I think that's what it's like playing the Tampa Bay Rays, because they bring everything into play.

They're going to catch a lot of the balls that are in the air or on the ground.

Out of any of these young guys, like going into next year, Who are you the most excited about?

He was more a father figure to all of

us than a pitching coach.

He was tough when he had to be tough.

He was easy when he had to be easy.

But more importantly, I think all of us felt a respect for Mel because he had two sons that were on the verge of being pitchers themselves in the big league.

Mel Jr. and Todd.

Mel Jr.

Be a stupid Newark that you're in the all-time state of Massachusetts.

... and he has to, after a rehab assignment, go back down to triple A, um, what are you looking for from a guy i- in that situation to show that, you know, he's, he's taken that situation, learned from it, and, and moving forward from it?

it?You know, Blake, that's a great question.

I, I think that it had to be devastating for him when he was sent down to the minor leagues to rehabilitate.

And when it got to be his time to be called back to the major leagues, they optioned him, uh, to Triple-A S- um, to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

So it had to be tough for Volpe, but I think when they optioned him down, they probably asked him to be a little different player than he's been in the past.

He's been a guy that's looked for slug, look, uh, slugging percentage for a lot of power, and I think they want him to be a guy who puts the ball in play more, walks more, has a little better on pers- uh, base percentage to go with his solid defense.

So, so far so good for him.

... maybe showing some signs of pressing when it comes to the key guys who aren't hitting as well this year.

[laughs]

... uh, in the game.

Of various levels of success.

Some were very, uh, great players, and some not so much, but 150 years just the same.

And I think when teams go through tough struggles, that 150 years on the field really means something.

It really does.

Uh, are we smarter now than we've ever been as far as, uh, what we know about today's athlete in the game? Probably, if you are into quantifying and projecting how baseball will go.

[laughs]

So what jumps out to you about what you've been watching with the Mets, and where do you think Carlos Mendoza the manager fits in that conversation?

Well, first, uh, Carlos Mendoza, I think he's a brilliant guy.

I think he's got a toughness that you need to lead a team, and I would hate for him not to manage, uh, this ball club.

Um, I think that he's the r- he's the answer.

I think he's the, the right person for the job.

Not-- I, I don't know him well enough to fight for his job.

I know him well enough to know that he's a manager.

Yeah.

Uh, you trust Peterson?

I trust Peterson.

Oh, a- absolutely.

I, I think, uh, you know, sometimes you use, um, as an excuse a pitcher not having a good second half, but that's the first time in his entire career, after, after hip surgery, uh, that he had taken the ball that many times and gone that many innings.

So I think a lot of people always talk about the physical wearing down of a pitcher who hasn't gone to that innings mark.

It's mental too, Mike.

What, what happens over the course of the year is that when you haven't been to the well 35 times in a season, at around 27 you're like, "Uh, oh my goodness.

How important is a fast start, and how much is the manager cognizant of needing a fast start?

Why, you know, how big of an issue do you think chemistry was in 2025? You

know, Mark, I think it's all of those reasons.

And I think one of the big problems was 2024 was a magical season for that kind of clubhouse season.

You know, they just had one of those years where everything went right.

The players on the team really got together.

They had a couple of players on the team that ended up becoming kind of de facto coaches for the team.

And by the end, every time they needed a big hit from a major or minor player on the team, they always got it.

What are your thoughts on him? And also they had Sproat as well, who looks like a fairly promising pitcher.

He probably batted third in the lineup with the Yankees, but he stopped pitching to just then concentrate on hitting.

Yeah.

It, it's, uh ...

And you know, the pitching and the way you pitched and got people out in those days certainly is a little different than now what guys are looking at, uh, today.

But I remember, I'm old enough that when I was, uh, drafted, I remember saying to my agent, I said, "What if I don't like who drafts me? Why can't I go to Japan and play for a couple o' years? I'm 20 years old, it would be a great place to hang out, learn a lot about baseball, formative years and also, uh, a new culture." And my agent told me that, "You'd be blackballed from baseball forever." Um, but the one thing he did say, and I'll never forget it, is he said, "You know, it's inferior baseball over there.

They'll have some pitchers maybe someday come over and make their mark.

Uh, but the everyday player will never, uh, have a place in a Major League Baseball." And in my lifetime, uh, we have ...

All right.

He probably batted third in the lineup with the Yankees, but he stopped pitching to just then concentrate on hitting.

Yeah, it, it's, uh, and you know, the pitching and the way you pitched and got people out in those days certainly is a little different than now what guys are looking at, uh, today.

But I remember, I'm old enough that when I was, uh, drafted, I remember saying to my agent, I said, "What if I don't like who drafts me? Why can't I go to Japan and play for a couple years?" I'm 20 years old, it would be a great place to hang out, learn a lot about baseball, formative years, and also, uh, a new culture.

And my agent told me that, "You'd be blackballed from baseball forever." Um, but the one thing he did say, and I'll never forget it, is he said, "You know, it's inferior baseball over there.

They'll have some pitchers maybe someday come over and make their mark.

Uh, but the everyday player will never, uh, have a place in, uh, Major League Baseball." And in my lifetime, uh, we have, um, the best player that I've ever seen, um, was born in Japan.

All right.

S- um, sorry about that.

So, Ron, 40 years later, when you think about that game, what first comes to your mind, having played in maybe the craziest game of all time?

Well, Atlanta at that time was not a great team.

They were going through that point, trying to rebuild.

Remember, they're early 80s.

pretty good with joe tory dale murphy and others in fact they went to the postseason i believe in 82 murphy was right in the middle of winning uh mvps but their team was not very good then and we had the great dwight gooden was starting that game and dwight was right in the middle of his 85 season where he went 24 and 4 ended up with a 1.53 pretty automatic win when dwight pitched in those days um But because of the rain and everything else and the game starting late, it really took Dwight out of play.

What I remember about that game is two things.

One is that at some point, Being on the bench, whether you're a position player, this backup catcher, a pitcher, you had to get into this game.

Do you know what he did for the rest of the game, where he was, what he was doing?