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SI Media Mailbag: What the Yankees Should Say to Brian Cashman

In Jimmy Traina’s SI Media Mailbag, he answers questions about the Yankees, Pat McAfee, Doc Rivers, Chris Russo, hazing, ‘The O.C.’ and much more.

Jimmy Traina

Welcome to the 17th installment of a weekly mailbag that I will be writing about the world of sports media (and anything else you want to chime in on). Please email me any questions you have to Jimmy.Traina@si.com or send them via Twitter.

Apologies to those of you outside the New York area for kicking things off with a New York Yankees question, but it had to be done.

Anyone would say to general manager Brian Cashman, “Brian, you’ve had a nice run here, and we appreciate you winning that one World Series in 2009, but everyone knows that Bob Watson and Gene Michael were responsible for the dynasty years from 1996 to 2000. So you’ve gotten us one ring in 25 years, and it’s enough now and we need to find a new GM. You no longer have a job for life for no apparent reason. Thank you for your service, and good luck going to a team with one-third the payroll we have where you can’t cover up disastrous mistakes such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Joey Gallo, Josh Donaldson, J.A. Happ, Corey Kluber, James Paxton, Sonny Gray, Nathan Eovaldi, Frankie Montas, Carl Pavano, A.J. Burnett and a few others. I could go on, but why belabor the point? And please take your entire useless, God-awful analytics team with you. Our goal, once again, will be to win the World Series. Our goal will no longer be to hopefully make the playoffs and then lose in the first or second round, which seemed to be your M.O. the past several years.”

I think the real question is, Jeff Van Gundy—why? It still makes no sense to me that ESPN cut ties with the top analyst in the sport.

And now ESPN brings in Doc Rivers, who will most certainly leave the network in a year or two or three to go back into coaching. 

Here’s my own personal theory: ESPN really wanted to move JJ Redick into its top crew with Mike Breen and Doris Burke, but Redick doesn’t have a ton of experience calling games yet, so Rivers is being used as a one- or two-year stopgap until Redick is ready to be moved up to the No. 1 broadcast crew.

ESPN has signed Pat McAfee to a five-year deal. I think McAfee will be employed by ESPN for five years. The one caveat is if ESPN gets sold or brings in a partner, which is expected, and the company decides to slash payroll. But I'm guessing Patrick is asking because he thinks McAfee will say or do something to make ESPN cut ties with him. That's not going to happen.

Absolutely not. Can we do something here that is rarely done these days? Use some common sense. When hazing involves acts of violence or sexual assault, there should be a zero-tolerance policy. Period. End of story. Sticking a rookie who is making hundreds of thousands of dollars or, in many cases, millions of dollars with a dinner check for a few thousand bucks is harmless, lighthearted fun.

I would expect an announcement on this next week. I’d be surprised if ESPN didn’t promote from within for this job.

I asked Chris “Mad Dog” Russo about his SiriusXM future on this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina, and we spoke at length about this topic, so make sure you listen for yourself. While I highly doubt Dog will walk away from the radio, I would certainly expect him to have a lighter schedule beginning in 2024.

This has nothing to do with sports, but the dream is to interview Larry David.

I'd say 95% of the time, these interviews are useless, but I like them for the 5% chance that either it becomes a trainwreck or something wacky happens.

I love that I have a follower from Dublin, Ireland, and I’m flattered that you think I’m qualified to answer such a hardcore football question. I’ll just say that the great Bill Parcells has a famous quote: “You are what your record says you are.” We all know what Dak Prescott is—a good quarterback and nothing more. I wouldn’t expect that to change.

• Chris Russo

• Mike Francesa (until the later years)

• Overnight Joe Benigno

• Steve Somers

• Leaving the fifth spot blank since you said I couldn’t include Sal Licata.

I’m going to answer these out of order. Sandy Cohen may be the greatest TV dad of all time. Easily top five, perhaps even top three. I’m in my 40s and to this day, I wouldn’t mind being adopted by Sandy and Kirsten. 

My favorite episode is Season 1, Episode 13, “The Best Chrismukkah Ever.” Classic Seth Cohen from start to finish.

The best song I discovered from the show is the theme song. I had no idea it was a real song when I watched the show. Just a complete and total banger that is impossible not to sing out loud.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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