JR SportBrief Hour 2

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Which means sharing more with the special people in my life. Now and all throughout the year. Shop 1-800-Flowers-dot-com-slash-listen and share holiday joy today. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. Sportbrief show here on CBS Sports Radio. Coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

When you need cash out of your home and a simple way to get it, Rocket can. I'll be hanging out here with you for the next three hours. I hope you're having a great night. Hope you're good. Hope you're getting ready for the holidays. Hope you're making money. I hope you're relaxing.

I hope you're doing something fun. And if you're not, let me try my best to help. I get started though at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific. This is the second hour of the show.

If you missed the first hour, hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. A big shout out to everybody hopping on and joining, listening on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. So whether you're at home, in the car, at the job, leaving the job, going to work, I don't know what you're doing. Thank you for being here. I'm being joined by super producer and host Dave Shepherd. And we got a busy night. I got two more nights here before the holidays. And then you won't hear from me until, you know, after New Year's. So enjoy me tonight.

Enjoy me tomorrow. We opened up the show by showing a lot of love to Franco Harris. Able to share with you obviously what has been recognized as the most amazing play in NFL history, the Immaculate Reception. I talked about my own interaction with him. Such a great human being he was.

Shep was able to share the same. And then you have never heard a negative word said about this man. And I think that says so much more about him than who he was as a football player, which was an absolute Hall of Famer. There's so much that gets put into that one play.

He was an amazing guy, had an amazing career, was a bruising dude and was an even better person. So much love and RIP to Franco Harris as we continue on with the show next hour. It's a new top six list every single Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I bring you a new top six and tonight because it's the holidays. We did this top six last year right before Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Festivus and whatever the hell else people celebrate.

And we're going to do it again this year. It's a top six list of teams that absolutely need a holiday miracle. These teams are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They're in trouble. They might be down, they might be out, but they might have some life. And so that top six list is coming to you next hour and in a few minutes.

I absolutely must. There were two big stories. Unfortunately, one this morning was Franco Harris and the other one was Carlos Correa. Not going to the San Francisco Giants, but Carlos Correa going to the New York Mets, whose lineup is absolutely ridiculous. And whose payroll even goes further than that.

The New York Mets are out of this world right now. And Steve Cohen, he's he's like a supervillain. He's like the guy in the meetings who sits in the corner and he never speaks and everybody hates his guts.

Want to talk to you about Steve Cohen in a second. We have a few callers who have been waiting patiently on the line. It's 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. Sam is here from Portland. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. I love your show. It's just a pleasure to listen to you.

I tweeted you the photo from the statue at the airport. I've been going back to games since 96. I've been a fan since I was 7, 54 years old. And the Steelers have been my one and only team my entire life.

This morning I got text messages from like 10 different people, didn't know what was going on. Everybody telling me Franco had died. And it's sad. It's a sad day for Steeler Nation, for people that love the Steelers football and for us fans. You know, part of my childhood died today. And I've been reflecting on how much I love the Steelers and that era and those players. I had a chance to meet Franco in 2013, last game of the season against the Cleveland Browns.

It was kind of a funny story, but I won't go into it. But it was great to meet him and to be around him. And he was everything you've said.

He was such a great person. He was Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh was him. And I don't think that it was, one of your callers says that Steelers missed the boat in not retiring his jersey earlier.

I don't think so. I don't think it ever mattered to him because he knew how much he was loved and how much he was Steeler Nation. So to his son, Doc, and to his wife and to all Steeler Nation, rest in peace Franco. We love you and we'll see you on the field in heaven. Thanks for the call, man. Well, thank you so much for the amazing call. Thank you, Sam, for calling from Portland. Skip is here from Maryland.

You're on the JR Sportbreeze show. Hi, JR. Happy holidays to you. To you as well.

Skip, what's on your mind? Well, I was talking about the immaculate reception. I remember watching that game as an 11-year-old and I'm 61 now. And I think Jack Tatum was the individual that actually made that play happen. Correct.

I don't know the receptionist for the Steelers. But back in the day, I believe the rule was that once that ball became airborne, someone from the Raiders had to have touched that ball before Franco could have touched it. Correct. And I don't think that rule exists today. Right. That's why the play, that's why the play continued on because you weren't, you weren't able to go out there and quote unquote double tap the ball. Correct. Two offensive people could not touch that ball simultaneously.

And I don't think that's the rule today. Is that correct? The ball is free game today. Yeah, I believe so.

We've seen the ball bounce off a human being and if it ends up in the hands of somebody else, you go ahead and run with it. Yes. But I just remember that and it's as fresh today as it was 50 years ago. So have a great holiday and thank you for your time. You as well, Skip.

Thank you for calling from Maryland. You know, there's been so many people who have talked about that play being the defining moment of their childhood, which pretty much helped just expose them to the NFL. And the fact that you can talk about it 50 years later and go, well, what was it? I mean, Franco, even prior to his passing, he he talked about how magical it was and, you know, he's just like, yeah, the ball ended up here with me and I took it and ran with it. And he scored the touchdown. A matter of fact, he talked about it this week.

He talked about it recently over the years. And here's Franco talking about that play. The Immaculate reception right on the Steelers YouTube channel.

Take a listen. I just remember going into the end zone and I'm like grasping everything at that time. And and I guess, you know, we'll probably say that that play has grown over the years.

Stan, what do you think? The greatest play in NFL history is still described as that. Yeah. And that is so awesome. I mean, that's, you know, so hard to, you know, to put your hands around to say in 100 years of NFL that that one play was chosen number one.

Yes. So when the NFL did its top 100 list of plays, that was chosen as the number one play in NFL history, memorable play. And it was also voted number one by the NFL Network. And so we all have a lot to look forward to this upcoming Saturday where Franco would have been honored and had his number retired.

It will be equally as interesting to see how the Steelers perform at home against those same Raiders who were involved in the Immaculate reception back in 1972. It's the chair of sport re show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Franco was the sad news of the day this morning. The surprising, ridiculously surprising news came through this morning. Not too long after I got off air last night. When we all found out.

Well, let's walk through things. The San Francisco Giants were supposed to have a press conference to announce the signing of Carlos Correa. That was supposed to take place yesterday.

Okay. All of a sudden it gets canceled. It wasn't formally announced that it was Carlos Correa, but everybody knew that's what it was. And then it was kind of scuttled. And then we find out that there's an issue potentially with his medical history.

He's had a history of back issues. And then you don't think anything of it. And then at around 3 a.m. Eastern Time, you know, a little after midnight on the West Coast, it's announced. And at least reported that Carlos Correa is no longer signing with the San Francisco Giants. Carlos Correa is joining the New York Mets on a 12 year three hundred and fifteen million dollar deal. We talked about Carlos Correa signing last week to the Giants and how ridiculous it was. And he's actually signing for less money now here with the New York Mets.

But I don't think he's going to go broke on, I don't know, 30 to 40 million dollars less. And so Carlos Correa is a met. I mean, we just heard from Justin Verlander just just yesterday talking about the reason why Justin Verlander signed with the New York Mets was because of Steve. Steve Cohen, the owner, the man who is now moving into his his third season as owner of the New York Mets next year. And think about some of the names that he's added just this off season. A matter of fact, forget this off season.

Let's start off this year. And then in the past, Carlos Correa. Justin Verlander, he just resigned his own center fielder, Brandon Nimmo, eight years, one hundred and sixty two mil Verlander's getting forty three per. You know, last year he brings in Max Scherzer, gives him forty three million dollars. He just signed a dude from Japan.

Sanga gives him seventy five. Edwin Diaz gets one hundred plus million dollars to be the closer. He brings in one of the best closers in baseball over the past 10 years and David Robertson. We hear trade rumors about that the Mets trying to bring in Liam Hendrix.

This just this is ridiculous. Francisco Lindor got 10 years, three hundred and forty one million dollars. When I do my Saturday show.

In New York City. I've had to hear New York Mets fans call me up for the past two or three years since the sale. And they're just shell shocked.

They have PTSD. It's like Steve Cohen owned the New York Mets. He bought the team officially in 2020.

I had people calling me in January of 2021 before the season even started, worrying about when they were going to sign Francisco Lindor. And this seems like the same old New York Mets that the Wilpons own. And I'm like, the man has owned the team for three months and you're already whining and crying and complaining. The dude is worth 17 billion dollars. He puts to shame the other owners, especially the owners in baseball, who don't want to spend a damn penny.

Hi, Bob Nutty. And so here you have a guy who doesn't need money. He's not going to make money off of the New York Mets until maybe, I don't know, he passes it to his kids. Maybe this is a toy for them in the future.

He ain't worried about turning a profit tomorrow. And so the New York Mets, they that we know what they did in the National League East. They blew it. They lost to San Diego. Jacob DeGrom decided to leave that schmuck.

Poor guy is now going to suffer in Texas with his guaranteed money, at least good for him there. But the New York Mets are abusive. The New York Mets are operating like they're the old New York Yankees, spending with reckless abandon and not giving a damn about any financial implications.

Let me tell you this right now. The New York Mets, this is crazy, even saying this is nuts. The New York Mets have committed to 806 million dollars of contracts this offseason. That's how much money they've committed to for now until the foreseeable future with everybody they signed. Verlander, Correa, Brandon Nimmo, Sanga, 800 plus million dollars. The New York Mets current payroll, listen to this, for this season, this year by itself. 384 million dollars. 110 million dollars in taxes.

OK, let me say that again. 110 million dollars in taxes for the New York Mets. The money that the Mets will pay in taxes is more than 10 teams entire payroll for the upcoming 2023 season. How about the Oakland A's?

And sure, we have more offseason to go. The Oakland A's, their payroll as of right now is 50 million dollars. The Pittsburgh Pirates payroll right now, 58 million dollars. Do you think they're going to catch up to the New York Mets payroll of 384? And so if you take the New York Mets payroll, if you take the taxes that they have to pay for jumping past it, that's almost half a billion dollars that the New York Mets are going to pay because of salary.

Half a billion dollars. That's ridiculous. The New York Mets have spent more this offseason than the Pittsburgh Pirates have in free agency total since the year 2010.

The Mets have lost their minds. Steve Cohen was not joking. In his first press conference, he made it very clear. He's like, yeah, I'm going to spend money. I'm not going to be stupid about it. And almost two years after that, as he moves towards his third season, we see it coming to fruition in his opening press conference. Steve Cohen told everybody, I'm bringing my money and I'm not afraid to use it.

This is what he had to say about his ownership and this is what he had to say about winning. I'm not in this to be mediocre. You know, that's just not my thing. You know, I want something great and I know the fans want something great. And so that's my goal. And that's that's what I'm going to do.

I'm not in this for a short term fix. OK, I'm really like thinking about this, trying to build a sustainable franchise. I don't want to be good one year and bad three years. I want to be good every year. And that's the goal. So, you know, that's the type of business and team I want to build. But if I don't win a World Series in the next three to five years, you know, I'd like to make it sooner.

Then then, you know, obviously, you know, I would consider that slightly disappointing. This guy's like the new George Steinbrenner, except for he has more money than George Steinbrenner ever had. And he's not afraid to throw it around. The New York Mets got a lot of names. They got a lot of talent. They just stole Carlos Correa from underneath the the San Francisco Giants. Correa, Verlander, Lindor, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Max Scherzer, Edwin Diaz got one hundred million dollars. Is Steve Cohen bad for baseball? Is the amount of money that he's just throwing around bad for the game?

Let me say this again. For the year 2023, the New York Mets payroll is almost four hundred million dollars. The Pirates payroll is sixty million dollars.

The Oakland A's payroll is fifty. Tell me how this is good for the game. The answer is it's not. I'm going to take your calls on the other side. That's eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four CBS. There were a lot of owners who are afraid of this. Steve Cohen making them having to to pay up is Steve Cohen and his money and how he spends it.

Is it bad for the game? I'm going to take your phone calls on the other side. It's the JR Sportbrief show CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. I'm a new listener, but a long time radio personality over the years. And you're just enlightening. Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS.

It's the JR Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Steve Cohen is spending all of the money. You know what? It's not even money. It's monies with an S. Plural. He's spending all of the monies. He's spending all of the Scrooge McDuck paper, the De Niro, just every currency. He got it. I don't know.

Take your pick. Steve Cohen is worth 16, 17, 18 billion dollars. I'm sure day by day it might fluctuate by a few bill. He's the richest owner in Major League Baseball. He bought the New York Mets approximately two years ago, like right around Thanksgiving in 2020. And now he's he's spending ridiculously. He said he would not spend like a drunken sailor, but he would spend to build a team that has sustainability and can win now and into the future.

And damn it, that he's done. I haven't even talked about some of their prospects who are going to fill out this roster. Your Alvarez, your Beatty's. They got they got players, man. And but, you know, it's like, hey, here, Max Scherzer, come to the New York Mets. Here's 43 mil. Oh, Carlos Correa, the San Francisco Giants got an issue with your health.

Don't worry about it. We'll give you a 12 year deal. Three hundred and fifteen. Francisco Lindor.

Come on, man. First big hit for the Mets here. Here's three hundred and forty one mil. They're giving Brandon Nimmo one hundred and sixty two million. Who else would give him that money?

Nobody. And a matter of fact, a few seconds ago, I saw that the New York Mets traded James McCann. And what a terrible tenure he had with the New York Mets.

He was always hurt. They just traded him to the Baltimore Orioles. And I think the New York Mets are like, fine, you only pay five million dollars for the rest of his contract and we'll pay the 18.

We'll eat it. Who cares? The New York Mets have a payroll right now. That if you include the luxury tax is half a billion dollars. Half a billion. That is more than 10 teams combined.

This is ridiculous. Let me say this. The New York Mets flat payroll before taxes is about four hundred million dollars. The Pirates payroll is 60. The Oakland A's payroll is 50.

And let me make this very clear. This is not good for the game of baseball. This is not good for the fans.

This is not good for parity. And it's very clear because Major League Baseball does not have a salary cap. They don't have a hard cap similar to the NFL. They don't have a soft cap similar to the NBA. Ask the Golden State Warriors about that.

That's why you won't see Draymond Green probably into the future. And Major League Baseball, if you might recall, we almost had a lockout earlier this year. We did have a lockout.

Seasons started late. They agreed to a new CBA that will expire in 2026. You can get taxed. But there is no hard tax. If you got the money and you want to spend it like Steve Cohen, you can.

There also isn't a salary floor. So if you want to be a cheapskate like the Oakland A's or the Pirates, you can. And the reason why I'm not complaining too much is because this is what the owners want. They don't care. Some of them don't care at all. And so it really sucks.

It's not good for baseball at all. But the owners don't give a damn. So why should I? If they cared, they would have to spend the money. Some of these guys don't want to. They rather pocket it. This is like baseball welfare. It's not good for the game.

But a lot of these dudes, I hate to say it, they're like crooks. They don't care about the fan base. Steve Cohen, as much as what he's doing is not good for the greater good of the game. It's good for the Mets. It's good for the Mets fans and everybody else. Hey, deal with your own owner.

What do you think about this spending? 855-212-4CBS. Jacob is calling from Atlanta.

You're on CBS Sports Radio. How's it going? Good. What do you think? I completely agree. I think it's terrible for the game right now. I think that all this is doing is widening the margin of disparity between the big and small markets.

Between the, like you said, owners that care and don't. And I think that this is terrible for the game. And maybe the only thing that could be good coming out of it is eventually maybe somehow the MLB would convince the owners to let them implement a salary cap or something. But that's about the only reach of a good thing that could come out of this.

Right. And it's a tricky thing because nobody wants a salary cap because look at where the salaries are. Look how high they're going up. If you had to, quote unquote, split that money, the players don't want no damn cap either because they make less. The owners don't want a cap because they won't be able to pack it as much. There's going to be a system that regulates what people make and what they don't and how much they spend. And it's the wild, wild west right now. If you're a damn good player, the sky's the limit for how much money you can make. If you're an owner, you can participate in revenue sharing and you don't even have to put that money back into the team. This is just it's a sad space.

This is one of the reasons when you think about the full economics of baseball. It's like, man, it's destined to crash and burn. One of my favorite memes online. And we cannot play it or share it here with you on the radio because it is vulgar. There is a gentleman standing in front of a whiteboard and he is he has a graph in front of him. And he goes basically says, I'll use a different word. The more you screw around, the more you will find out. Major League Baseball is getting closer to screwing around with the money.

Everybody's making money and people are doing what they want with the money. But y'all, y'all are going to find out if you keep screwing around. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Dan is calling from Wisconsin. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR, I love your show, man. You know, I'm a Brewer fan.

What is there for me to look forward to? How are you going to compete with them, guys? I mean, it's just disgusting. It's throwing money around like that. And I have a question for you.

Well, before you ask me, I have a question to you. What do you think about Mark Ananasio? What do you think about how he spends and what he doesn't spend on it? He's probably one of the stupidest owners there is. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, he owns a soccer team.

He's in there just to make a few peanuts. But is it Steve Cohen's fault that he actually – and he doesn't need to be worth $16 billion to spend money. Like, every owner can put money back into his team as he or she wishes. It's up to them. So we can kick Steve Cohen, but wouldn't it be up to the other owners? Yes, if they had the money.

I have a question for you now. Oh, they all have money. It's a salary syntax. Where does that go? Does that go to these other clubs? It's low payroll? Where does that money go? That's a very good – that's a good question. The luxury tax?

Yeah. Why don't they give that to these lower clubs? If you're $130 million over, okay, we'll give some to the Pirates. Some of them left money for them to spend.

I'm going to look that up. But what I already know exists is welfare. Like, they already participate in revenue sharing for the television deals. And so if I'm making money, if I'm the Brewers and I get to play in the same playpen and I get money from the Yankees or the Mets or the Dodgers, this is the thing. There also isn't a salary floor.

There is no guarantee that you have to have money or at least go out there and spend it. Well, you mean to tell me that the Brewers are going to get as much money off in TV revenue as the Mets? Who's – they're going to turn in the watch? They're going to turn TV to watch these big dog dogs? Well, they share the revenue. That doesn't mean that – What? How much?

How much? Well, they split it evenly. But the point is, no one forces them to spend it. That's the problem. There is no salary floor.

There is no salary ceiling. It's up to each individual owner to do what he or she decides to do with the cash. Ain't nobody forcing them to spend this. Hey, Marco Belletti, what do you think about Daddy Warbucks here just blowing everybody out the water?

Good for him. You know what? Hopefully it wakes up all the owners around Major League Baseball. Because you kind of mentioned it, no salary floor. All that luxury tax money that goes to all these other teams and then none of them spend it.

So what do you want to do? You want to make money or you want to win? So the teams that want to make money, then you do what you want to do and that's fine. And the teams that want to win, they're going to try to win.

So correct me if I'm wrong. That television revenue that gets split is the same that the luxury tax money gets spread out as well? The luxury tax money gets, yeah, they send it to the lower class teams.

I had to look up the exact way how it goes. But all the luxury tax gets put into like a bin to all those teams that are below a certain amount. And it's up to them, their discretion. But most of them pocket the money.

Correct. So again, so how is that? Look, we like to poke at the big bear. We like to poke at the giant. Because nobody likes the big guy picking on the little guy. But if they're giving the little guy money and then he doesn't spend it and puts it in his pocket and makes more money, whose fault is that? Yeah, but we got a lot. I call them thieves.

We got a lot of thieves. They don't care about the franchise. They don't care about the fan base. They care about their own personal bottom line. And thank you for clarifying that on the luxury tax.

I figured that it was dispersed evenly amongst the bum teams. But nobody's forcing anybody to spend. Nobody's putting a gun in anybody's head and spend. And oh yeah, by the way, let me remind you again, they just signed a new CBA. The owners are not clamoring for this and I wonder why. Because they can do with the money what they want. And here's the deal. The fans will still show up.

For now, the television money will still come in. And it's like, hey, this is the greatest robbery ever. It's kind of crazy. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. I'm going to take more of your calls here on Steve Cohen. They're not the only New York team that announced or did or had a few big moves today. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

Start off by saying you're one of the best in the game, man. I really enjoyed listening to the show. I love the show.

I discovered it last year when there was actually no sports going on and I'm loving it ever since. I genuinely love your show. Your takes are great.

I may not agree with all of them, but they're on point. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. At the top of the hour, it's going to be time for a new top six list.

It's the holiday season. I'm going to give you a top six list of teams that absolutely need a holiday miracle. And we are going all across the world of sports for that one. We got a lot of people on the phone lines right now who have many opinions on Steve Cohen and whether or not his spending is bad for baseball. So we got a lot of people on.

Please just try to get right to your point. I want to try to get on as many people as possible before we get to the top six. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Chip is calling from Chicago. You're on the J.R. Sport Brief Show.

Hey, Jared. Just wanted to tell you real quick, I think Cohen is great for the game of baseball because I think now the reality of the rules are you got to spend if you want to win. And teams that basically were up at the or were in the playoffs last year with the exception of two are spending the money to try to improve themselves. And if you want to look at some disparity, just the free agent spending according MLB free agent tracker this year so far. The AL East as a whole division has spent eight hundred sixty six point seven million. The AL West has spent four hundred nineteen point four.

And in Chicago, where I'm at as a White Sox fan, where our disappointment goes on year after year after year. As a division, they've only spent one hundred and eighty eight point five. The money has got to be spent to make you a winning team. It doesn't guarantee you it, but it certainly puts you in a much better position to win. And if a league or a division is only going to spend one hundred eighty eight point five, you're praying that whoever makes it, if as their division winner or if they get into a wild card, just hopes to catch lightning in a bottle in the playoffs.

I'd rather watch my owner spend money to try to improve my ballclub and put a product out there year in and year out than just hope that things break our way. And we're going to go in on a shoestring budget. Well, thank you, Chip, for calling from Chicago. Excellent call. Johnny's calling from Atlanta. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, there.

Where he's spending, where he's doing, I think he's like, hey, he's been on people established. I'm not a baseball guy. No, I don't watch baseball. Listen to you.

Listen to you a lot and talk about it. But my thing is what the Braves are doing. They basically doing the same thing. But they're doing it when people want to play half a year in a major league, giving them one hundred million dollars.

So what's the difference? Like, hey, you're paying a guy who haven't even established stuff in the major leagues yet and one hundred million dollars. That's all I like.

I'm on. What's your take on that? Yeah, no, it's there's more than one way to skin a cap. The Braves have certainly take advantage, taken advantage of extending their younger guys right out of the gate and before they go out there and hit free agency. I mean, but you look at the deals, whether it's Ozzie Albies or Konya, and you just look at the contract and you go, well, damn, these guys, they got robbed.

I think the Braves, I want to say they hit lightning in a bottle. It's extremely smart to take advantage of those guys so you don't have to necessarily go ahead and dip into the free agency pool. I mean, over the past couple of seasons, you got guys who you would figure to be Atlanta Braves through and through. They're gone. Dansby Swanson is now gone. He's now in Chicago. You know, we can look at Freddie Freeman. I mean, this guy is heart and soul wanted to stick around and now he's gone. They brought in Olson and got him on a cheaper deal. So the Braves have been ridiculously smart.

I don't know how many of the teams can necessarily follow in that model. Steve is calling from San Diego. You're on the JR sport brief show. Good evening, Jer.

Thank you very much. So is the problem, Steve Cohen paying too much or is it the other owners not pony and up and paying as much? The problem I have, especially in San Diego, in Southern California, we have a lot of options for entertainment. We draw a lot of people from out of the area who want to come and see their team play in our city. That's a given.

And we accept that and we appreciate that. My problem is, you know, when you're paying fifty dollars to park a car, fifteen dollars for a beer for three of us to go to a ball game, it's easily four to five hundred dollars. That's where I have a problem.

And I think a problem for baseball is, is that if I can sit in my living room and see quality baseball on quality TV, I think at some point it's going to bite them in the butt. At one point, I don't know. Well, I gave a chart and thank you, Steve, for calling from San Diego.

I told everybody about my favorite chart. You continue to screw around, you will find out sooner than later. And that is a huge economic issue for baseball down the line, whether or not they realize it over the next five, ten, fifteen years. We'll certainly see. Thomas is calling from Louisville. What do you think about Steve Cohen and his spending?

How are you doing, J.R.? So I think with the smaller market teams, I've always thought that they need to implement a salary cap in baseball just to even out the playing field a little bit, because I've been a downward red span since I was little. And, you know, the lack of spending, you know, being a smaller market, you can't I mean, you can't compete with the big big markets, the L.A.s in New York or the world. You know, and we have a rich history in baseball, but I just the salary cap, I think would be great. I mean, it works in other sports, football and basketball works, you know, in those sports and doesn't always guarantee success. I know generally the most successful teams in the regular season have been the ones that spend the most, but they also don't always win the World Series either. And, you know, so games like, you know, Cincinnati and Oakland with smaller markets, they got to, you know, really do well in the draft and, you know, kind of, you know, get players that have been serviceable in the league. You know, kind of like that's why I really admire Billy Bean as a GM, because he's been great at that for a long time, developing players and getting players that have been in the league that, you know, other teams overlook. So I think, you know, like I said, I've always just wanted a salary cap in baseball. I hear you, Thomas. You know, just to level out the plan.

Well, thank you for calling from Louisville. Yeah, the owners have to vote on that. That's it.

And if I'm putting all the money in my back pocket, why not vote? Yes. Richard's calling from Chicago.

You're on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, that's an interesting comment. It's really not and we've talked about this a little bit. You and I, it's not really the size of the market. Look at San Diego. It's the size of the wallet of the owner.

The market size is irrelevant. It's about the ability to raise capital and the wealth. And Cohen is a really smart guy and he's a wealthy guy. But one thing, kicking the can down the road, which is what he's doing. What I would be careful about if I was a Mets fan. You've got two All-Stars that are going to have their payday right around the corner. And, you know, you get Alonso and you got McNeil.

You pile those guys on. What are they going to look like in two to three years when they have to compensate those two guys? And they still don't have a catcher. They've got McCann.

No, that's not true. They just traded for a catcher and they have one of the best prospects in baseball. A Francisco Alvarez who they'll have under control for the next couple of seasons. I think in the larger picture, whether you're the New York Mets and you're looking at your younger prospects. Or whether you're the New York Mets and thinking about the next quote unquote guys that need to be paid.

I think it's very simple. Steve Cohen does not care. Justin Verlander just took his money.

Forty three million dollars over the next two years. And when asked, hey, Justin Verlander, why in the hell did you choose the New York Mets? Justin Verlander had a very simple answer.

And I want you to hear it right now. This means a lot to him and he wants to intimately know the people and players that are that are part of this thing. So, you know, what more could you what more could you want from an owner as a player than that?

And ultimately that was, you know, one of the driving factors. There was no way in hell Max Scherzer would have been a man. Francisco Lindor. Carlos Correa.

I can go on and on and on just since this man took over. These dudes wouldn't have been Mets. Daddy Warbucks is here and he's spending all the cash. And oh, yeah, by the way, the Yankees had a press conference today to announce that Aaron Judge resigned. It's been a long time, a very long time since the New York Mets have garnered this much attention and have spent more ever really, at least spending than the Yankees.

This is a wild space. And yes, Steve Cohen, what he's doing is not good for the game, but it's the other owners. They're the ones who have to say something about it. But then you could speak with your wallet, too. Don't show up. Don't patronize. Don't spend.

Don't pay. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. When we come back, it's time for a new top six list. I'm going to tell you about the top six teams that absolutely need a holiday miracle. Who's number one?

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