Frank The Tank
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00:00Frank Walks, Frank Walks, it's time for Frank Walks, Frank Talks, while Frank Walks, it's
00:13time for Frank Walks.
00:20All right, well it's another episode of Frank Walks, of course hydrated by body armor, you
00:26know we got the sport water, you can get it anywhere, you can go to 7-Eleven, you can
00:29get it at Wal-Mart or your local grocery store, and this is Donald Greca, ESPN New York Radio,
00:37he does the Midday Show, and well, he's a good hockey guy.
00:42Afternoon drive.
00:43Afternoon drive.
00:44Yes.
00:45Afternoon drive.
00:48Worked hard to get to that point, so yeah.
00:50Well your show's transitioned now, it's a new show now.
00:53Yeah, Michael's doing 1-3, so we brought in Alan Hahn, Nick Guy, covered the Islanders
00:59back in the day for Newsday, and Peter's still on the show, Peter Rosenberg, so a little
01:03bit of a transition.
01:04I worked with Michael for 22 years, so it was kind of strange working with other people
01:11on that show, so we started 10-1 way back in 2002, and then in 05 we went to afternoon
01:19drive, so worked with Michael for a long time, but it's nice, get my name on the show,
01:25get a little bit more freedom, it's cool, but I do miss Michael, I owe him a lot, and
01:30it was great working with him for so long, gave me the opportunity, I was just an update
01:34guy when I started doing it, and then next thing you know I'm co-hosting with him.
01:38Now the show, you're now on 88, it's going to be like the Mets leading now, all year.
01:47Yeah, it's cool, growing up a Mets fan, it's pretty awesome, when I worked at the Fan it
01:52was cool, doing IDs during Mets games, and Bob Murphy, being on the same era as me, because
01:59I loved Bob Murphy, I grew up wanting to be Bob Murphy, so then we lost that for a while,
02:04and then having him back is pretty awesome.
02:06We started on 10-50, then we went to 98-7, then back to 10-50 now on 8-80, and then we
02:12get the Mets, so it's pretty cool leading into a Mets game, Howie Rose, another one
02:17of my idols, pretty awesome to be on the same stage as the Mets.
02:20And now the Mets look like they finally have a clue what they're doing.
02:24Listen, Juan Soto's great, but I think the biggest acquisition we're going to look back
02:29on is getting David Stearns, to actually get somebody that knows what he's doing, that
02:36can budget the money, bring in the right players, I think that's the biggest thing, you bring
02:41in Cohen with the money, but you still need somebody that knows what they're doing baseball
02:45wise.
02:46You can't really trust a Mets general manager again, so you got the money, you got the right
02:50guy, I think, anyway.
02:51I think they're handling Pete Alonso correctly.
02:54If he was really that in demand, he would have been swooped up, and the fact that he
02:59can't get a contract elsewhere, and that they're almost like trying to pressure the Mets into
03:04giving a contract, shows me just the weak position that Scott Morrison, Alonso's camp
03:09is in, and they're the ones that turned down the 7-year contract extension.
03:14They're handling it exactly the way you should handle it, but I still want to see a way to
03:18keep him.
03:19I want Pete Alonso to return.
03:21But I'm not overpaying it, and I think that's what people think, like, oh, Steve Cohen should
03:24give him $50 million, he's got all this money.
03:26That's not the way you do business, and listen, he's limited defensively, he's limited as
03:30far as speed, he's a big home run hitter, you know, and listen, you need that in this
03:35day and age, but you're also not paying north of $30 million for it.
03:38And that bat speed seems to be declining every year.
03:42It's not going to age well.
03:43It's not going to age well.
03:44No, I think he's a guy that if you give him a five-year contract, by year three you're
03:47going to be regretting it.
03:49Right.
03:50But I'd like to see, but they're handling it the right way.
03:52If you get them at their price, that's what good general managers do, is get guys at the
03:57money that they want.
03:58I mean, I don't want to see him leave, but if, but this is what you have to do sometimes.
04:02These are hard decisions you have to make.
04:04But like you said, let's see who gives them money, you know, San Francisco gives them
04:08or Toronto gives them $35 million, God bless them, you know, but they give them 20, then
04:12I might say, well, wait a minute, I think we could have done that for 20, but let's
04:15wait it out.
04:16It's still only January.
04:17As you can tell by the weather.
04:18Wow.
04:19This weather is terrible.
04:22Now it's hockey season.
04:25Yeah.
04:26The Devils have lost a goaltender.
04:28How about, didn't look good and it looked like it was an A. Listen, Allen's a good goaltender,
04:35but I'm dubious about him being the guy, so hopefully it's not too serious.
04:40Markstrom.
04:41I mean, this has been a terrible, like, stretch for the Devils since Christmas they have not
04:47played well.
04:48They're not scoring.
04:49And I don't know why.
04:50You got Heasher, you got Hughes, you got Mercer, you got Brad.
04:53What's going on?
04:54They were playing so good before the Christmas break, they had that one game after Christmas
05:02against the Hurricanes, and they had the back-to-back, and they didn't play poorly
05:08in the second game in the back-to-back, but then they went to California, and they went
05:13out west, and they just like lost their game, lost their way.
05:17They started playing this sluggish brand of just like slow-down hockey, where they just
05:23give the puck away, and Markstrom's the only one, the reason they didn't go windless during
05:27this stretch.
05:28I'll go this way.
05:30I would love to have been in the room with you when they gave up that goal in San Jose
05:37with like 30 seconds to go.
05:38Because those are the kill—you know, listen, back in the day when you lose in overtime
05:43and you didn't get a point, it didn't really matter if you gave up a goal late, gave up
05:46a goal in overtime, but now with these points that are on the line, and you're 24 seconds
05:51away from a point and don't get any, that was killer.
05:55That was the worst of all.
05:56It basically was the—they were trying to clear the puck, and it went off the ref.
06:00Yeah, it was bad.
06:02But I watch the Devils, and I think Jack Hughes is amazing.
06:06Listen, I grew up a Devil fan, so they're always known for their defensemen and goaltending,
06:10and like their best forward is Patrick Elias.
06:12Going back in the day, you know, Pat Verbeek, John McClain.
06:14Hughes is going to be better than all of them, but I think he freelances too much, he turns
06:18the puck over way too much.
06:20You've got to love him, but it looks like he's trying too hard.
06:22He tries to get too fancy sometimes.
06:26Especially in overtime, he makes mistakes in overtime.
06:33They lost that game to the Rangers a couple weeks ago because of that.
06:36Yeah, it doesn't feel like there's enough structure, and you know, I think Sheldon Keefe's
06:39a good coach, but it wasn't like he did anything in Toronto other than win one series.
06:44But I'd like to see a little bit more structure.
06:46Freelancing with the puck, I just think, too many turnovers cost way too many mistakes.
06:51The goaltending's better.
06:52And now if Markstrom's going to be out, man, and you're going to be relying on Allen to
06:55get your nut through, they're going to have to protect the puck a lot better than they
06:58have.
06:59The only thing that's good is this Four Nations break that's coming up.
07:04If they could, if it's a month, which I think might be best case scenario, the way it looked,
07:12they could probably get to the Four Nations.
07:14You into the Four Nations?
07:15I'm not into the Four Nations.
07:17It's something.
07:18When I first heard it, I thought it was going to be like a three-game playoff where two
07:24teams play each other, and then they have a championship.
07:27But they're doing a round-robin, 10-day thing.
07:30I don't know if I like that.
07:32They're going back into the Olympics.
07:35They wanted to get a World Cup going, but they couldn't get it done in time, so they
07:38wanted to kind of put this together.
07:40But all this stuff, whether it's the Olympics, whether it's Four Nations, I love hockey.
07:45I don't mind regular season hockey.
07:48I'm a little disappointed sometimes at the fact that we're not going to play.
07:51It's going to be 18 days or whatever with no regular season hockey.
07:55It's going to piss me off.
07:56We're just going to watch the Four Nations.
07:58It's something, I guess.
07:59And Mikko Hiescher, who's probably a player who would be an all-star this year, he doesn't
08:05have a country in the Four Nations.
08:06Ovechkin doesn't have a country, right?
08:09Sterkin doesn't have a country.
08:10That's what's just weird about it.
08:11Ovechkin is about to break Wayne Gretzky's record.
08:14The Four Nations tournament, and I know we got the whole thing with Russia and all that
08:18stuff.
08:19Russia's just a mess.
08:21But the fact that we're doing a Four Nations tournament and there's no Ovechkin, it makes
08:32it...
08:33It's odd.
08:34It's odd to have something that's going to have a lot of attention on it, and some of
08:38your best players aren't going to be playing, and it's kind of weird.
08:41Like you said, don't worry about it, man.
08:43If it means that Markstrom gets to rest up for a month and gets back healthy, come back.
08:47That's what you do, man.
08:48I sit in section 105 at the Peninsular Center, so it happened right in front of me.
08:54So it was like, oof.
08:56You like the Rock?
08:57I do.
08:58It's a nice, small arena, good, compact for hockey.
09:03I miss the Meadowlands just because I just love driving to the game, but I get it.
09:06They're so much better off there.
09:08I think the Nets should have stayed there, honestly.
09:10Yes, I do.
09:11I don't get the whole...
09:12It's Brooklyn.
09:13Nobody cares about them.
09:14It's a Knick town.
09:15That's why, eventually, I just said, I can't be a Nets fan anymore, and said, just go to
09:19Knicks.
09:20It's just, Brooklyn, that was a bad mistake.
09:24They thought it was cachet, Brooklyn, but they're all Knick fans there, number one.
09:29Number two, they're drawn just the same as they did if they stayed in Newark.
09:32They would have the whole state to themselves.
09:33It was stupid.
09:36That team's a mess.
09:38It's a bad franchise.
09:42They keep trying to go for the brass ring, and they just keep blowing it.
09:47They have these super teams, and they went for it twice.
09:52They did it with Pierce, and with the Boston deal, and they're making the deal here to
09:55bring in KD.
09:58Build a frigging franchise, man.
10:01Whether it's tanking like Philly has, or trying to go for the super team, everybody wants
10:06a shortcut.
10:07You know what?
10:08You look at the way the Devils kind of built things up.
10:09They took their draft picks.
10:10They took their time.
10:11Now, hopefully, it's kind of coming together.
10:12It was 10 years.
10:13It was 10 long years.
10:14I know it's long, but you know what?
10:17When you try to quick fix, man, Frank, what happens?
10:19The Nets twice set themselves back.
10:21Philadelphia, the stupid trust the process.
10:26Where's the process going?
10:27They just got absolutely destroyed by Denver the other night.
10:29Gave 144 points, but it's Philly.
10:31We don't care about Philly.
10:34He wishes that the NBA was like the NFL, where he only played one game a week, and he had
10:38two bye weeks.
10:39Right.
10:40You work harder than he does right now.
10:41Oh, God.
10:42This 20 minute walk is more than Embiid has done in like a month.
10:45Well, Joe Embiid, this is 484 consecutive days for me.
10:51Joe Embiid can't fathom doing something 484 days in a row.
10:57We're doing a 20 minute walk.
10:58If it was Embiid, he'd negotiate it down to five.
11:01And, of course, you're doing a lot with the Rangers.
11:04You do some games for the Rangers.
11:06What has gone wrong this year with them?
11:08You know what?
11:10Last year, 28 come-from-behind victories, 12 in the third period.
11:14That sometimes can be fool's gold.
11:17You get all these come-from-behind wins, that meant that you were behind.
11:20That meant you weren't playing well, and then you got a power play goal that sparked your
11:23team, and the power play has been way too inconsistent.
11:28The goal tending up until recently, way too inconsistent.
11:31You know in the NHL, there's not that much difference between the best team in the league
11:36and the 20th team in the league.
11:39If a couple of things don't go your way, you look at the Devils last year, right?
11:44They weren't that much different than they were the year before when they went to the
11:46second round, but you get a couple of key injuries, a couple of guys don't live up to
11:50expectations.
11:51Vitek Vanicek had a spectacular season two years ago.
11:54They had a 13 game winning streak, and that set the whole stage for the whole season.
11:58It's like baseball, right?
11:59When you win a bunch of one-run games, then the next year, all of a sudden, it's like
12:0310 don't go your way, and you go from winning your division and not making the playoffs.
12:08That's what's happened to the Rangers, but they're starting to play a little better.
12:11Shesterkin's been great.
12:13They're getting goals now from Lafreniere, and Zibanejad, and Kreiter, so I think they're
12:17going to be okay.
12:18You know what team's in trouble?
12:20The Bruins.
12:23You don't lose two centers like they did a couple of years ago.
12:26You lose Krejci, right?
12:28You lose Bergeron.
12:30That's tough to lose.
12:32The hockey's built up the middle, centers, defensemen, goal tenders.
12:36You lose two centers.
12:38Now what happened?
12:39Pasternak, right?
12:40Last year, everything went in.
12:41This year, not the same, and now they're not scoring as many goals, so I'm with you.
12:46I think Boston is in real trouble.
12:47When I look at the teams that will fall out, I like Ottawa.
12:51I like Ottawa a lot.
12:52I think Montreal's playing some really good hockey, Detroit for a while there.
12:57Maybe I think the Rangers are better than all those teams, but Boston's the one team
13:00where I say, you know what?
13:02I'm with you, man.
13:03I don't think they're going to make the playoffs.
13:04They're old, and they're a team that I think that's now where the Blackhawks were about
13:10five years ago, where they have Taze and Kane, and they have to make the hard decision to
13:15trade them or just be bad.
13:18How are you?
13:19After Marksman got hurt yesterday, Devils showed the most spark they showed in a month,
13:27and the Bruins just didn't look like they could do to have any answer on the ice yesterday.
13:33That team's in a lot of trouble.
13:35A lot of trouble.
13:36And we've got the Penguins, too.
13:37They're old.
13:38Well, the Penguins, they screwed up, man.
13:41They had a chance to let Letang go, let Malkin go, and maybe trade Crosby.
13:47I know it sounds ridiculous, but you know what?
13:49They doubled down.
13:50You know what the Penguins did?
13:52They did the same thing the Giants did with Eli.
13:54Let's get another Super Bowl out of Eli.
13:56Let's get another cup out of Crosby.
13:58Let's re-sign Letang.
13:59Let's re-sign Malkin.
14:01Let's go trade for Carlsen and bring in his big contract.
14:05They're no better than they were before, and now they're in cap hell.
14:08They lose Gensel.
14:09The Giants are a mess, especially—by the way, I love your rant on Evan Neal last year.
14:15Oh, that was fun to do.
14:17I mean, this guy's talking about hamburger flippers, and he can't block anybody.
14:22Anybody!
14:23That's what these players—dude, I don't get these players.
14:26They come here.
14:27They think it's college, right?
14:28Everybody's going to root for them no matter what.
14:30Dude, you were a fifth overall pick in the draft, right?
14:34You have not been able to block anybody, and you're going to talk about people that are
14:38paying friggin' PSLs and 50 bucks to park?
14:42Hamburger flippers?
14:43Geez.
14:44Hamburger flippers can't afford to go to a Giant game, for God's sakes.
14:48I was so mad because I don't want to be talked down to.
14:52Why do you think the NFL makes the money they make?
14:54Why do you think that these contracts are guaranteed around sports is because we pay
14:59money for jerseys, for tickets, for packages on television, and you talk down to us?
15:04They deserve to be booed that game.
15:05They lost that game 40 to nothing.
15:07That was the game right in Dallas.
15:08Oh, yeah.
15:09I remember that.
15:10Yeah.
15:11Come on, man.
15:12They're lucky they didn't get more than just booed.
15:14And then the Jets, I mean, that's a team that—you see, I'm a Dolphins fan, and we're as bad
15:22as can be.
15:23We haven't won a playoff game in 45 years.
15:24No, you shouldn't talk, right?
15:26The Jets and Giants, they just always seem to be, in the last 10 years especially, spinning
15:31their wheels.
15:32Well, because you've got to make stone-cold decisions, right?
15:39They kept Eli for too long.
15:41They drafted Saquon, which they shouldn't have done at the second overall pick because
15:45they wanted to help Eli out.
15:47And you dig yourself—mistakes aren't done in a vacuum, Frank.
15:50Mistakes happen, and it can cripple your franchise forever.
15:54And that's what's happened with the Jets.
15:56Bad decisions.
15:57Bad draft picks.
15:58Bad coaching decisions.
15:59We'll see if Aaron Glenn's the right guy.
16:00I'm worried.
16:01He's never been a head coach before.
16:02I would have given Mike McCarthy a shot.
16:04I'm not a huge fan, but at least he's won a Super Bowl.
16:07He's coached teams to double-digit wins.
16:09But listen, as hard as it is to win at the clip Kansas City wins, it's hard to lose the
16:17way the Jets have lost.
16:18You've got to make some really dumb decisions to not win a championship in almost 60 years
16:23and not go to the playoffs since 2010.
16:25So it is pretty embarrassing how some of these franchises just can't get it right.
16:29At least the Giants have won fairly recently.
16:33I think the Dolphins got screwed with the Tua concussion stuff.
16:37But damn, the Jets, man.
16:38I covered them for 16 years.
16:41And we did go to a couple of championship games in 2009-2010 when I did the pre-imposed
16:45for them.
16:46But, God, nothing—2010!
16:50One winning season since 2010!
16:53That's Brown's territory, man.
16:55That's bad.
16:56Now, you have a charity game.
16:59What goes on in this charity game?
17:03Mark Sasso is a buddy of mine who died of stomach cancer.
17:07His widow came to me and said, can you put a charity game together so we can build a
17:12school, a playground at his old school?
17:17And we get tons of celebrities to come—radio, football guys.
17:21We've had Willie Cologne, Greg Buttle, Marty Lyons come, Carl Banks, Brian O'Halloran.
17:26I know you're a big Jersey guy from Clerks.
17:29And we've raised money.
17:30We've built that.
17:31Now, we've been giving it to scholarships for kids in the area from Hawthorne, where
17:35I'm from.
17:36It's really—we're at Wagfield.
17:38You should come and play, man.
17:39I think by the time—we usually play in late August.
17:42By the time we get to August, man, I think you're going to be slimmed down to about
17:44250.
17:45I might give it a try.
17:46I think you could patrol the outfield for us.
17:48I might give it a try.
17:49Maybe a DH.
17:50Well, it's softball.
17:54Just promise me you won't strike out, because we've got a guy—I'm not going to mention
17:57his name—struck out in slow-pitch softball.
18:00That's not good.
18:01Yeah.
18:02Well, I could be better than Daniel Vogelbeck.
18:03I can promise that.
18:04That's right.
18:05You're going to be slimmer than Daniel Vogelbeck, man.
18:06You keep doing this stuff.
18:07Well, thanks.
18:08And thanks for joining us.
18:09And you know what?
18:10I'll keep an eye out.
18:11If I'm not too busy, maybe I will come by August.
18:12I will let you know, all right?
18:13All right, thanks.
18:14Good man.
18:15I'm so glad you're doing well, brother.
18:16Thanks.