On Wednesday, Moose and Maggie's Mystery Guest presented by Jersey Mike's brought a flair for the dramatic to the 1 p.m. hour on WFAN.
Wednesday's Mystery Guest was placed almost immediately by Marc Malusis, who recognized the raspy voice but couldn't place it. But, after M&M learned that he was a baseball player, and a position player, who played for both New York teams, Moose took that last curveball and hit the ID out of the park…
Jim Leyritz!
Yes, it was the unsung hero of the 1996 World Series (and, unfortunately, goat of Andy Hawkins' used-to-be no-hitter 30 years ago this month), Jim Leyritz, who joined Moose and Maggie to kick off their final hour and started by explaining his curveball of playing for the Mets.
"I was part of the Mets in Spring Training 2001," Leyritz said. "I got cut, but I did play with the Mets."
He's not playing now, but Leyritz did say that if he was active in 2020, he wouldn't opt out.
"I've been asked if I would participate and I've said absolutely. We have to get back to give something for the fans, and with the amount of money in the game today, I would kiss my family goodbye and say I'll see you in a few months, we need to have the paycheck," Leyritz said. "It's unusual, but that's where we're at. I'm not surprised some players are against it, as there are understandable concerns, but I think I could sacrifice three or four months of my life for this."
Even if, as he confirmed, he played for a team that had protocol for every single action he made, like the Yankees did back in his heyday.
"When you join the organization, your first tutorial in spring training is how to put your socks on. In those days, that's the first thing you learned about how to be a Yankee," Leyritz said. "Especially with Buck (Showalter) – I had him all the way up from Single-A, and he was a stickler for that, but I think it was important as a young player to learn these certain disciplines. Growing up, my father worked for IBM and they had a similar uniform policy, so I grew up with that, really."
Leyritz also dished on many other topics, including Aaron Judge's injury history and the Yankees' concern over it, which you can hear by listening to his entire segment with Moose and Maggie below. And, as always, you can check out more on-demand audio from Moose & Maggie, or tune in every day to the WFAN.com livestream of the show!
Follow WFAN's midday team on Twitter: @MandMWFAN, @MarcMalusis, @MaggieGray, @BMonzoRadio, and @CMacWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social MediaTwitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
