Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.80 | The Mets are Looking for a New Name! Feat. Jason Smorol

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Good News York: An Inside Look with Syracuse Mets GM Jason Smorol In this episode of Good News York, Mike Brindisi chats with Jason Smorol, General Manager of the Syracuse Mets. They discuss the team's recent successes, including their first-place standing and notable player call-ups. Jason shares insights into minor league baseball operations and the exciting community contest to rebrand the team for its 150th anniversary. The conversation covers the team's fun promotions like Taco Tuesday, Dollar Thursday, and Kids Eat Free Sundays, and wraps up with entertaining anecdotes from Jason's rugby days. Tune in for an engaging discussion filled with baseball updates, team pride, and community involvement. 00:00 Welcome to Good News York 00:19 Meet Jason Smorol: GM of the Syracuse Mets 01:17 Syracuse Mets' Success and Player Development 05:03 Minor League Baseball Insights 08:29 Fun Promotions at the Ballpark 11:05 Rivalries and Competitions 13:54 Renaming the Syracuse Mets 18:30 Exploring Syracuse's Inventions and History 19:32 Pitching AI-Generated Logos and Names 22:03 Rugby Stories and Memories 29:42 Upcoming Events and Promotions 34:49 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them, plus time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age-appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy.

Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month, if you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Welcome to Good News York. It is Wednesday. No, it's Thursday. What am I talking about? It's Thursday. I'm Mike Brindisi. Good News York, sponsored by Ads on the Go, get Ads on the Go.com. I'm very excited because I am joined by one of my favorite people and one of our favorite guests we've ever had, GM of the Syracuse Mets. Yay. Jason Smorrell. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. This is my guy. This is my guy. The reason you're my guy

Is for many reasons But I'm going on while we're talking Oh, you can leave it The first time I met you We had come to shoot some footage at the game Opening day Opening day which was awesome And while I'm walking around with Matt

And I said yeah He goes I gotta introduce you to the GM And I said yeah I can't wait to meet him You know I'm nervous but that'd be great And I'm looking around And he says oh there he is And I look around and I said where And he pointed, and there you were with a big flappy hat on screaming and hugging people and shaking people's hands.

And I was like, that's the GM. He said, yeah, I said, I love this. And it's been a love affair ever since. Listen, we brought you in for a couple things, but let's talk baseball real quick first. We'll get that out of your life. Your first place, Syracuse Mets. That's where I want to go. Yes.

I just wanted you to be able to say. I love saying it. Say it one more time. First place Syracuse Smith. First place, Syracuse. Smith's second half of the season you guys are tied for not only first place but for the best record in all of the minor leagues my man 30 and 11 we've been on a heater yeah yeah so it's just kind of you know it's it's the way it works in minor league baseball you just kind of catch lightning in a bottle and we had we had a great nucleus in the first half but it just has all come together really at the end of the first half and the and obviously for this whole second half just come together with the prospects and the veterans and the pitching and the hitting. Yeah.

And it's awesome. And it's not slowing down. No. And in fact, you guys just called up three guys, three young players. Was it Jet Williams, Jonah Tong, and Carson Bange.

Did I say that right, Bange? We haven't figured out how to pronounce his last name yet. We're not sure if it's Benj or Bengi. I hope it's bang, because that, you know, bang, bang. I think it's Ben. We can do a lot with that. It could be.

I don't know what it is. Benj. And then we also, there's another one. There's a fourth one. Oh, sorry. Benj, Tong, Jet Williams, and Ryan Clifford.

Ryan Clifford. Shout out. Sorry, Ryan. I didn't mean to leave you off the list. These guys, you think they got the goods to go get the big call to the big show? Eventually, we're going to find out. That's a big jump from AA to AAA. It is. And then it's a big jump

from AAA to the majors. And then the trick seems to be is staying in the majors. A lot of guys can get to the majors, but it's staying in the majors. You look at a guy like, Louis-on-Hellicunia and he's he's back with us he's a major leaguer you know but this they want him to play so he's here because he's got kind of he there's a roadblock for him at the Mets right now so he's with us because they need to keep him sharp they need to keep him playing so in addition to you

know I think right now we have well they just called McLean up okay he's going to pitch Saturday for the Mets so before we had six of the top 10 and eight of the top 20 so we're probably five of the top 10 and seven of the top 20 prospects in the Mets organization are with us. And that is a tip of the cap to the organization as a whole because if you're, you know, if the Major League team's kicking ass and then the minor league teams are kicking ass, that means you got a great farm system. And clearly you guys have done really great with that. You know, and that was Baltimore a couple years ago for the last couple of years.

It's been Norfolk has been awesome and the Orioles have been great. So it's a testament to David Stern and the Mets and the baseball department. and they've been drafting well and developing well, which is what our guys do. You know, Dick Scott, J.P. Aaron Seba and our coaches, AJ Sang, our pitching coach and Rick, our hitting coach, their job is to develop players to figure out how to take you from good to great. And how to keep that mental focus and keep advancing.

So they say, that guy's ready and it's time to go to the mess. Go to the show, if they say. It's right. And everything's better at the ballpark when the Mets are winning. Whether it's AAA major leagues, winning breeds happiness. Winning is fun. It's great because we've had a lot of losing, you know. And we have fun and, you know, these things are out of our control.

We talked about this the last time I was there. We can't control the play in the field. We can't control the weather. But when it all comes together and the sun is shining and the boys are playing well, it feels different going to the park for us. as staff and for the fans. Absolutely. And for those listening or watching

that maybe don't understand the ins and outs of the minor leagues, I always found this fascinating. Is there a way for you to kind of decipher because there's single A, there's double A, there's AAA, there's AAA, right? And I think people are under the impression that it's like, you're really good in single A, then you go to

AA, then you go to triple A. It doesn't really do that. Sometimes you skip over double A, you go to triple A. Is there kind of a brief summary summary on how that works a little bit? I know there's no real like set format. I don't think they're it. I think it's based on the play of the player and sometimes maybe the needs of the of the major league organization.

You know, we're here to develop players. So they need the pitchers to go upstairs. They need the hitters and fielders to go upstairs. So when someone's ready, they're ready, you know? And then they, you know, sometimes they rush a guy. Sometimes they take too long with a guy. Sometimes there's, you know, there's a roadblock in front of you. I always say who was the shortstop in Scranton when, you know,

Derek Jeter was playing there. He wasn't going anywhere. Right. You know, so, you know, some of those guys, and he could have that person, over those years, there was probably a ton of really good short stops that maybe had to get to other organizations or play another position. Yeah. And I met a guy, Greg Legg, was our old manager in Batavia.

And I remember seeing his number nine retired at Scranton back when they were the Red Barrens. Oh, yeah. They were the Phillies organization. And he was my manager, so I met him. And I said, I said, Greg, how do you get your number retired in Scranton? He says, you play third base behind Mike Schmidt. Exactly. If you're in Scranton forever, then that's how they retire your number.

You get retired just because you're there. Yeah, because you're there. And he was great. Yeah, it had to be good, too, but he was there. There was nowhere for him to go. Have you ever lost a player because they were so good? They got called up. And, you know, it was in the middle of when they were on a hot streak.

and you're like, no, please. Oh, have it all the time? Yeah. It's got to be tough. But it is what it is. It's not tough because they're not our players. They're the New York Mets players. That's what we're here for.

And we're in our 149th year of professional minor league baseball in Syracuse. And it used to back in the days with September 1st call-ups. Everybody locally would get upset. I remember 2014, we were in first place as then Syracuse Chiefs. Yeah. And the Nationals called up, you know, Stephen Sousa Jr. And Destin Hood and, you know, Tyler Moore. And they took six guys just before we were going to go into the playoffs.

But everybody was upset. But it was called the September 1st call-ups. And they called the guys up. Exactly. That's what they're called, the call-ups. And I always tell the guys, I hope I never see him again. I hope they leave. I hope they go to the big leagues.

And I hope they kill it. And I hope I never see him again. again maybe on a rehab because they're so awesome and sure ended up yeah i mean that's uh that's every performance anxiety over here oh you're all right you're you got you know that's every kid's dream when you're when you're growing up is you know you're playing wiffle ball or you're playing baseball in the backyard and you dream of making hitting that home run that walk off um you've been hitting a walk off uh with this organization man i tell people all the time and i'm not just saying this because you're in my presence i've said it you're in my presence i've said it

saying it because I'm right here. A little bit. But it is, uh, you, we went to the game and my God, man, like minor league baseball is known to be fun anyway. It's got a very fun energy, uh, known for a lot of promotions going on. But you, you take it and you, you raise the bar. And I'm just going to prove it by every day of the week. Okay.

You've got taco Tuesday. Delicious nutritious tacos. Wildcat and wine slushy Wednesday. Who doesn't like a wine slushy? You could pair that with We Care Wednesday. You could, and we often do. And one of I'm sure everyone's favorites, Dollar Thursday?

The greatest invention in the history of baseball. And Fizzy Friday. And with fireworks. With fireworks. We like alliteration. But that's the week. Let's talk about the weekend. Super Saturday?

Always a giveaway, always fireworks, always a national acts. Something is super about Saturdays. Kids eat free Sundays? Maybe the secret best day. Maybe that's probably the better invention than Dollar Thursday, but probably not. the kids eat free.

They run the bases after the game. Jeff the Magic Man is there doing his balloon artistry and telling jokes and doing magic for free. Sometimes it's themed up last week was Pirate and Princess's Day. We had princesses there. And it's just such a, it's a day game usually. And it's just such a family kind of thing that I, why there's not every family in the community there. I don't know why. I don't know either.

And on top of that, for you, for the parents, I think it's one Sunday a month, you got boozy brunch? Boosey brunch. I mean, I think that speaks for a dollar. It sells out every time, unlimited. Bottomless mimosas, bottomless bloody marries. And then we don't just serve hot dogs and hammers. We have chicken and waffles and chiquet eatery.

We don't, no. What do you think of you talking about the Binghamton Rumble ponies? What was the thing I had last time that you told me I had to? Oh, the parogies. That's what I'm... Hirogi, no S. As... Pirogi.

Central New York's 2025 poll of the year. Okay. My job is to make sure people like you... Like me. Stop calling them parogis. All right. It's just parogi. Parogi.

This whole desk could be covered with parogi, and it's just parogi. So it's like deer. Like if there were more than one deer, you would still say, there's a ton of deer in here. It's like bison. Oh. But for some reason, the buffalo bison's... Yeah. Call it, put a nest on it.

I got a problem with them. On the way to Buffalo, there's that sign that says Buffalo in all-America City. Is it all-American city? I don't think the people in Buffalo understand grammar. Well, I don't, okay. You said it not me. Take. Hot take.

Usually we trashed to Rochester Red Wings. Yeah, you know why? Because of Dan Frickon Mason that was on my list. How, what, give you an update on. Anthony Sprague and Mike Vukshowski in Buffalo are wonderful people. Buffalo is a wonderful city. Let's circle back to how horrible Rochester is. Let's go back.

And Dan Mason's position. I wanted to give you time. For those of you listen, last time we were here, we learned Jason's arch rival. Arch nemesis is Dan Mason of the Rochester Red Wings. Horrible person. Horrible. Red wing or Red Wings? They are the Red Wings.

Okay. So give me an update. At least they understand their grammar. Yeah, they do. So let's talk about Dan Mason real quick. Anything you want to say to him other than? Oh, no. He and I, he knows that he's the world's most horrible person.

And they just inducted the world's most horrible person into their Hall of Fame for years of service and giving back to the community and running a great organization 100% thank you uh why they do this for this guy i don't know why i don't either yeah and raising money for charities making kids happy blah blah blah helping the community healing people who are sick right thank you whatever uh dan i don't know if you know this but the syracuse mets are in plays. Oh, and owners of the Golden Fork, which is our rival with the Syracuse Salt Potatoes v. The Rochester Plates. So we won those games and we hold the Golden Fork. I believe we're well on our way to the Thruway Cup, which we will be coming to Rochester to take from your stadium, Dan Mason.

The World's Most Horrible person. Well, and there it is. You cut the promo. What's the Golden Fork and what's the Thruway? Is that a real thing? Are you just making this up? No, no. Golden Fork is the largest trophy in professional sports. and it is a blood battle on the field between the salt potatoes and the plates. Their food alternative identity. And it's a best of three series, and we pick specific games. And we won it.

That's amazing. Swept them. The golden fork. I was in. Oh, it's an eight-foot trophy. Really? It's a golden fork made of gold. That's phenomenal.

Paint on wood. Were you aware of this? Danny used to work there. Yeah, you... Did you... It's in my office right now. Did you ever use it to eat... You know how, like, when you win the Stanley Cup, you drink out of it?

Do you use the golden fork to eat steak? You'd be eating Bronosaurus burgers with this fork. It's a big fork. That's all right. You need a big parogi to stab with this fork. You know what else you could eat with it? Dan Mason. You could eat him alive with the board size.

I don't know if you could use the fork for him. I've never met Dan, but man, when I do, that's going to be awkward. You are going to be very disappointed. I love you. Because he's such a nice person. Jason, we're just awesome. Jason Smorrell, let's talk about the thing that everyone's been talking about. Yes.

You have opened up a competition to the public. Talk about that. What are we doing? We are renaming the Syracuse Mets, a little community contest, and we've engaged the community. We have to 149 years of being the stars, the chiefs. We started the stars in 1876. And then you started.

The Chiefs in 1936. 1934. You brought this beautiful jersey. Thank you. That's the 1985 chiefs. That's hot. That is amazing. I am so honored you brought this.

Danny is like salivating over there. I know. He really loves that font, don't you? Yes. Yeah. 85, man. That's amazing. So you're doing the chiefs, then sky chiefs, the back to the Chew-Choos chiefs, then the Mets.

So next year is our 150th year in professional baseball in Syracuse. And we just figured it was time to go forward. with a new identity, to re-engage with the community, let them have a say in the matter. We love the Mets, you know, and a lot of people love us being the Mets. There's a lot of people who don't like us being the Mets. So we figure, let's let the community get involved. Let's find something that identifies with Central New York, a lot of salt entries, a lot of snow entries, a lot of salt potatoes entries.

And hopefully at the end of this process, we're going to have a lot of, fantastic new identity that we're going to take into our 150th year, 151st year. Right. Because this is not happening until 2007. Right. So we will celebrate the Mets and all of our former names next year. And not to be confused, you will still be affiliated with the Mets. Very confusing, but yes, we will still be with the Mets.

Okay. Just not called the Mets. How about when we were owned by the Mets and we had the nationals on the field? That was very confusing. A little bit. I remember Strasberg was pitching there, and I remember thinking, wait, I thought, I thought they were the Mets. No, they're the nationals.

That happens in minor league all the things. It happens all the time. Now, that's a very ballsy move to open up this contest to the public. But you're a guy that loves engaging with the public. Was this your idea? Was this like your brainchild? I think specifically my idea. We have kind of a brain trust over there.

There's a lot of good minds over it. If it works, I take credit for it. If it doesn't work, it's Katie Stewart's or Brian Poppick's fault. I blamed a lot of things on Danny Tripodi. Well, yeah. We do it here. No, that's fantastic, man. It's doing exactly what we thought it was going to do.

Well, I guess what we hoped it was going to do. It's generated a buzz. A lot of times we get to August, and they stop talking about the Syracuse Mets because it's time for Syracuse University football. It's time for the state fair. It's time for high school sports to get back in action. So now, with this name change,

we thrust ourselves into the conversation. Now with the first place, Syracuse. First place, Syracuse. It's hard to ignore us. So we're in the news. We're being talked about over coffee. We're being talked about at the kitchen table. We just had a youth baseball camp last week for three days.

All the little kids were giving me their ideas. Not one of them was good. Sorry. Sorry, kids. How about the Syracuse cramps? Stupid kids. And we engage. And some people are.

are mad. Of course. They were changing it. And some people, a woman came up to me. She's like, thank you so much. This is such a great idea.

So for her, I totally took credit. I was like, oh, you're welcome. I did that all myself. But the one that came up and was like,

why are you changing this? Yeah, Blame it on Katie. Blame on Katie. I told her not to. No, that's great. And look,

no matter what you do in life, I've learned, especially now at social media, there's always going to be a group of unhappy people. Sure. There's no one name that everyone's to go, that's it.

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With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. It's been made that you're doing the naming contest.

Like, is it everywhere you go now? People like, oh, Jason, I have an idea. Everywhere. Yeah. And it's great. That's what it's supposed to be. So everyone's got their idea. Everyone just sends me in that everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people just put their ideas in.

A lot of people find it very important to also attach their AI generated logo. Okay. Yeah, we're in that world now where you're, you can use AI. So they're going to give you the logo of the team and everything. They're giving us everything, which we're not going to use. No, I wouldn't recommend that. And we're not going to use AI, I don't think, to make the logo.

No, we're not going to do that. No, we're not going to do that. But it's so much fun. And we're learning so much about Syracuse. We're learning about Central New York. We're learning more about the salt industry. We're learning more about, you know, the things we invented here, the dental chair, the serrated knife. Obviously, everyone's favorite, the brannic device.

You know, the history of Krauss Hines and the first traffic light. We have the upside down traffic light. You know, there's so much stuff that we're learning about. Myths of Lake Monsters. Wow. Obviously, we're learning more and more and more about the low bridges. Listen, I'm floored right now because I had no idea. The dental chair was invented here?

Yes. So the thing that has horrified children for years. Yes. The torture device was different. But you want to cut yourself some bread? We invented this serrated knife. No way. Way?

The Syracuse serrated knives? Yeah, maybe. The Syracuse dental chairs? Right. All right. You can have a sound effect because our guys come to bat. Like seventh inning stuff. Or when they get to bat, yes.

I actually, I have some names. I wanted to run by you. Do you have any AI generated logos that you could accompany these with? You do have a logo guy over there. I do have a logo guy over there. It's better than AI. Well, here's what I did. I thought, listen.

How am I going to compete with everybody? I mean... You simply register like every single other person on the planet? Right. But I said... There's no competition. It's super easy to do. Go to Syracuse Mets.com and click on the button to register your idea.

There it is. I was going to ask that, too. I thought, listen, Jason's coming today. I have a fast track right to the GM. How am I going to woo him? And I thought, how about you make it about Jason? So I'm going to make it nearly impossible for you to say no to these names. I'm already saying no in advance.

All right. Well, here's the thing. I'll start with the non-Jason. Okay. What about the micron machines, right? Oh, I forgot. There's a lot of microns. There's a lot of chip action.

Sure. I'll wait until there's a shovel in the ground. Okay. But now I'm starting to think. Very good Syracuse. True blue. We'll wait and see if we know it's going to happen. It's awesome.

It's super awesome. That's actually a very smart play. I think that's a very smart play. Just a good. I do love the salt potatoes, but here's a thing. Love the salt potatoes, but they're their own thing. They are their own thing. How about this?

What about the Taco Tuesdays? You love saying Taco Tuesday. I love alliteration. Now, you did go to Fredonia. Yes. What about the Syracuse, Ferdonia, Blue Devils? I think Ferdonia would have a problem with that. Okay, fine.

What about the... Oh, here we go, here we go. The, what is it? Oh, the Syracuse Watertown Indians. Because you worked for the Watertown Indians? Indians has had its time in the sun, and that's also... Right, right, right, right. we got to be careful of that.

The Syracuse 92 battleship rugby team. Oh, part of that. Battleship would be good for our naval history here in Syracuse. The battleships? Yes. Or the Syracuse Cobra's because that is the Bishop Grimes. It's up for grabs. That's where you went to high school, Bishop Grimes.

And then last is my favorite. Okay. The Smoriels. Instead of the Baltimore Orioles. Sure. Syracuse Smoriels. Smoriels versus the Orioles. Who doesn't love that?

Kind of like your favorite campfire treat. That's right. Those are fantastic ideas. Yeah, I don't know about that. But I will say, okay, but I will say this. I am in street to find out I was doing I was doing reason. I was doing research on you. I do want to talk about this 92 battleship rugby team. What the hell is that all about?

Oh, the rugby team. I played, so in Fredonia, my mother sent me a rugby shirt from T. J-Max, my roommate, Johnny Murdoch, Johnny Crime, because crime doesn't pay, he had a little alligator arms. He paid the bill. Never paid the bill. Johnny Crime, they needed,

he played on the rugby team, he played in high school, he played on, we had a men's team in Fredonia, the Battleship Rugby Club, or the, I'm sorry, the Black Horse Rugby Club. Were we talking about Black Horse or Battleship? I think Battleship. Oh, you won the 92 championship. Well, I started playing in Fredonia and then I, so I started to play, I played for a long time. I ended up in Mobile, Alabama.

And the best thing about, one of the best things about rugby, is that wherever you go, you have immediate band of brothers. You just go to the local rugby club. And if you are, you just show up and played on the Syracuse Chargers. I played on the barracks, Rangers or whatever they called. And I was in Watertown. And when I went to, to Mobile, I'd go to the United States Sports Academy for my degree in sports management.

I looked them up and found the battleship rugby club and just showed up. And it was a wonderful time because you have an immediate band of brothers. And you go to practice, you stay in shape, you play rugby. It's a great game. And they were a really good rugby team. And we won the 1992 national championship. The only reason that anybody knows this is because Clint Cure was our assistant general manager. He was a really good rugby player.

He would go and travel to Ireland and England and go in tournaments. And he just looked like he was a good rugby, better rugby player than me. You look like a rugby player. So I put that in there just so Clint knew that, oh, by the way, Clint, oh, because you always talk about his rugby, I don't really talk about it that much. And I was like, well, let's just rub it in Clint's face. It's out of spite. Yeah.

You know, because Dan Mason's a horrible person. Me, I'm a wonderful person. Out of spite, I put that, I played on the 1992 National Championship team. Division two, men's division two, back in the day. And it was, it was great. And I still am in touch with those guys to today. It's a brotherhood. And I, do you still follow rugby at all?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a. Brad Bassett will send out that we could watch the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the world championships on Peacock at 3 o'clock in the morning or whatever it is. Sure. I was fascinated.

I mean, the Olympics was great, but the women's rugby. I love women's rugby. I love women's basketball. Yeah. I just think it's a more pure game. It's, you know, I love watching, you know, I got, I was hooked on women's basketball before Caitlin Clark, but she's got me all locked in. Now you're locked in.

Now I know. Multiple players on multiple teams. I love it. So I thought hockey players were the toughest athletes on the planet until I watched a rugby match. Yeah. Dude, that is, it's football without pads. Yeah.

It's just wild. Yeah. And how does one know they're good at rugby? You know what I mean? Like you grew up playing baseball with your friends. You're like, oh, man, I got a good arm. How do you know, yeah, I might be good at rugby. It's not like a regular.

As long as you're a good athlete, you're good. And then you just have to be just not the brightest bulb in the blocks. Sign me up. You're going to put yourself in harm's way. But, you know, the counterpoint to that is you're not, you don't have helmets or helmets and shoulder pads and it's going to hurt you just as much as it's going to hurt the other guy or girl. So you know, you properly tackle. And, you know, I don't know, you get kicked a lot and you get bloody and it just happens.

And it's just kind of a, you just get used to it. You think rugby players? And you'll know after a couple of practice and a couple of games if you're in it or not. That's not for me. It's not for me. Or I'm all in, which I was all in right from the get-down. So you think you think rugby play? I think my daughter would have been a fantastic rugby player.

I was always encouraging her to do, excuse me, to do that, because she was fit fast and ball hungry and all of her other sports. But the multiple concussions she got just playing soccer, I don't think that's going to help her playing rugby. Yeah, no. Yeah, we're going to. Yeah, she would have been good, though. She's speedy.

Yeah. I was not, however, speedy. I played in the pack. I was deceptively fast. Deceptively fast. I thought I was fast. Do you think rugby players are, like, the toughest athletes on the planet? They've got to be.

They're pretty tough. I miss some pretty tough guys out there. Dude, I think all these guys are tough. I mean, football players are pretty tough. Hockey players are pretty tough. Hockey players and rugby players seem to be very much more sympathetico. Just kind of just beer drinking dudes. They are tough as nails.

I had a band years ago, and we played at this place called General Clinton's Pub in Oneonta. Okay. And we were getting ready to load in, and the owner says, guys, yeah, we got a rugby team here from the college. They just won something. You know, they kind of took over. the bar so you're going to have to wait about an hour until you load in. We walked in and I swear to God to you.

There had to be three, four inches of beer on the ground that made like a puddle. And some guy was doing naked stomach slides. This was late 90s, early 2000s. And it was the, I mean, music was playing and their cheer. The greatest parties in the world are post-game rugby parks. That's where I was going. I had never, and I've been a lot of parties, my friend. I had never seen a party.

songs, the singing. All of it. Yeah, they were all clinking glasses and they knew the words and they're... It's a little bit like a German beer hall. Yes. Yes. And my question was, does that translate across all of rugby or was that maybe an Oneiana thing? All of rugby.

All of rugby. All of rugby from the world class, New Zealand, all blacks, down to the Oneonta Rugby Club. Yeah. So, O-R-C. The old... Yorks. After the game, after the practice, you go to the bar. after the game, you play a game, you shake everybody's hand.

Sure. And you go and hang out and you party with them. That's amazing. And you sing songs and it's awesome. The hell's better than... There's nothing better than... Actually, there is. The first place, Syracuse Mets.

That's a little bit better. Uticus Rugby likes to come out and... To historic MBT Bank Stadium. So they must have be a band of teams and have either consolidated. I go over there, I say hello to them. I kind of let them do their own thing. They try to recruit some new players. I'm assuming the Syracuse Chargers are still going.

They have a nice little rugby pitch over there on the west side of town. Yeah, okay. I love it. Yeah. One time, my funny one, we were staying with the Chargers. There was this guy. And I can't remember his name. And I met somebody that I shared the story with him recently.

And he remembered who the guy was. And his name was Mike. And we were playing a game. And there's a tackle. He starts screaming and screaming and screaming. He's down there. He's like, oh, my gosh, my gosh, my gosh, my eye, my eye. And he comes up and he has no eyeball.

in his socket. Yo! And then he picks it up, and he's got an eyeball there, and we're all just standing over the tub, and we're all like... And then he just put it his mouth and then popped it back in his eye. I guess he had a fake eye. He would do that every once in a while. Jesus Christ.

Oh, that guy was great. That guy was great. That guy was great. That was a long time ago, but that was great. I had a friend who had one eye, and he, the first time I ever met him, I was sitting at a bar, and we were having a conversation and I looked the other way and when I look back there was an eyeball in my

beer. Oh, I think that was a big thing of this guy's game. I think that was a big part. At the party. At the party. We were best friends ever since. He was probably like the vice president of some company. Of course. Of course he would. I thought you meant. You really ate his eyeball. I mean... I really did. Everybody thought he did it. He whacked it. It came out. There was blood coming down to his face.

That's great. That's a huge intimidation. And then he just knows. He's like, oh, this is the perfect time to do the old eye trick. I haven't done this in three years. I love that. Well, Jason Smorrell of the first place Syracuse Metz. First place, Syracuse Metz. Tell us what's coming up other than the naming contest.

What do you got? Anything you want to plug coming up? Well, first the contest, you know, go to Syracuse Metz.com, and we have it pinned right to our website. You click on that. It'll take you to a site. You can register your name. Your suggestion gives you a little place to add your suggestions.

We're really not really talking about the names that are being submitted because we're going to at the end at the end of the month, which I believe is the 31st, that ends, and then we will release 10 names, and then people will vote on those 10 names. And then we will release, little that down to five names, and then people will vote on those five names.

So you still have time to put in your suggestions with good ideas. Super awesome, still some time to do that. And we only have two homestands left. Wow. So we play, so we only have 12 home games left. We have, we're on the road right now in Rochester. Oh, hi, Dan, Mason. Yeah, hello, Dan Mason.

So we're on the road, and they're just promoting the fact that the Syracuse Mets are there and all the prospects. Because there's Mets fans, Mets fans are nuts. Yeah. And so there'll be a lot of... A sea of orange and blue at historic, innovative field in Rochester. Yeah. So then we come back next week, so August 19th through the 24th with a Taco Tuesday. Hey, oh.

With a We Care Wednesday and a Wildcat and a wine slushy Wednesday. Thursday as the Conguero State Syracuse, our third Latino night. Very nice. Fizzy Friday with fireworks. That one is our ERA's night, our Taylor Swift promotion. Oh, my gosh. Taylor Swift, friendship, bracelet, jersey giveaways, card set giveaways, courtesy of our friends from Hyundai, Cicero with the team photo on there, fireworks set to DJ

Swifty playing Taylor Swift music for the fireworks. And then Super Saturday Nesting doll giveaway. Oh. It's little because it's a salt potato power move weekend. Okay. So we'll be playing as the salt potatoes. And then we have little,

we have the golden fork and then Mr. Salt Potato, Mrs. Salt Potato, little tater tot, and then it just goes down to the nesting doll. So cool. Thank you to our friends from Coca-Cola. That's amazing. Kids Eat Free Family Sunday,

which is a bark in the park, your last chance to bring your dogs. It's $5 for the dogs. All that money goes back to local rescue. groups. And then we go have a two-week road trip, but we're going to the dreaded Scranton Railwriters. Oh, Yankee. We are, which are right there neck and neck. We win like crazy. They're winning like crazy. Right now you got both tied at 30 and 11. That is going to decide. That's a huge game. That's it. Huge series. There's six games. That's going to decide who's

going to the playoffs. Wow. That's my guess. And then we have the last home stand, which is like September 9th through the 14th. And then we pack it all again. Go Tuesday, another week here Wednesday, where we bring out 10 local nonprofits, and hopefully people can go to our website. If they feel like coming to a game on Wednesday, I'd rather you buy a ticket from one of those nonprofits because $5 of each ticket sold goes back to those nonprofits. A dollar Thursday, which is 9-11, so we'll do a remembrance day.

It's also college night. There's discount for college kids. We'll see how that. Those two things match up together. And then it's Irish night. Big night, green beer, yeah. Giveaway Irish jerseys. I think we spelled, we don't know if we did it correctly,

but we spelled Syracuse and Gaelic on a green jersey. And then Saturday is Italian night. So we have bagpipes the other night and, you know, dancing, Irish dancing, Italian night with an Italian musician coming in, Italian jerseys, which are super hot, fireworks set to Italian music. And then we wrap it all up on the last day of the season for us. There's another road trip on a kids eat free family Sunday fan appreciation day. There'll be special ticket deals and food deals.

We need to empty out the freezers. My God. Last day is a good day to come. That whole rant you just did sounded like the greatest vacation resort of all time. But it's not. It's the Syracuse Muts. It's just what we do. Nobody does what we do.

That's what I'm trying to say when we opened and I said, you know, minor league baseball is known for a lot of fun promotions, but you take it to the next level and I'm not exaggerating. There might be a boozy brunch on that last day. That might be the best boozy brunch to go to. We've got to clean out the freezers. You should bring your friend over and do eye. eating Thursday. He'll pop his eye out through his mouth. Hopefully that guy still lives in

Syracuse. He'll come to a game. And he won't hopefully doesn't say anything. Hopefully he just comes up to me and just takes his eye out. Yeah. And Dan Mason Hate Day. That's got to, we gotta get that. Why that hasn't started. That's your best idea. That's your best idea. That's it. That's it. We hate Dan Mason Day? 100%. Or you do Dan Mason Bobbleheads, but make it real ugly. And just destroy them. Just, yeah, just smash. Have him look nothing like nothing like him. Yeah. Nothing. Like absolutely

just like missing teeth. Yeah. Make him like 300 pounds heavier or whatever whatever you can do. He's a big Notre Dame guy. We put him in like a USC jersey. Yeah, you're Michigan. Oh, yeah, that would be good. That would be real good.

That's actually got some legs. That's got some legs? It's got some legs. You got some legs too. Don't downplay. Listen, Jason Smorrell of the first place Syracuse Mets, I, you are one of my favorite people, man.

And thank you for coming. My pleasure. Good luck with the naming contest. Good luck with all the promotions. Thank you so much for the throwback Chiefs jersey. You got one for Matt? Sorry, Danny.

I really think. Danny just make himself one. He can do it all. We'll get a better one. No offense. No, that's fine. He deserves it. Jason Smorrell, Syracuse Mets.

Thank you so much for your time. And good luck with everything and go Mets. Thank you. Thank you guys for spreading the good news in New York. We love you. We love you. Mike Brindisi here on another edition of Good News, York. You heard it here first.

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