JJ Archives - Brooklyn Downtown Star

JJ: “A Giant Change in the Coaching Equation…”

BQE Admin on January 15, 2026

By John Jastremski

The coaching carousel in the NFL can sometimes take a life of its own.

Quite frankly, I feel I have been living in this world of candidates for the better part of the last few weeks.

Since the Giants parted ways with Brian Daboll back in November, this has been your life as a Giants fan.

If you follow the team, it seems every prospective candidate has been dissected.

I’m sure you’ve heard the names Jeff Hafley, Jesse Minter & Mike McCarthy a little too much for your liking.

Guess what, last Tuesday finally brought a shifting wind to whatever the Giants organization might have been thinking.

After 18 seasons, the Ravens and Head Coach John Harbaugh parted ways.

Holy moly! As Elanie Costanza famously once said, “this changes everything!”

Harbaugh is exactly the program builder the Giants desperately need.

He is a Super Bowl winning coach. He’s reinvented himself throughout his 17 years in Baltimore and has been a fixture in the month of January in the postseason.

Sure, he will not come cheap. Yes, you’ll have to spend a pretty penny on his coaching staff.

Guess what, who cares!

Giants ownership has to embarrassed with the product that has been on the field for the past decade.

They cannot find themselves in a position rolling the dice on a first time head coach.

For this job at this time, Harbaugh is the perfect fit for the franchise.

He will come in high demand and will have his pick of the vacancies.

Giants fans can only hope that he’s in a New York State of Mind.

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York every Sunday & Thursday on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly at 11 PM on Honda Sportsnite on SNY.

JJ: “New Year’s Resolutions – Four Mistakes NY Teams Need to Learn From in 2026”

BQE Admin on December 31, 2025

New York New York

By John Jastremski

Last week, I looked back on the year in New York Sports for 2025, a year unfulfilled for a majority of our teams in town. The calendar is over and done with and now 2026 awaits.

Look, we all may have some resolutions we want to tackle for 2026. Some of them may be more realistic than others, but in the spirit of the new year, I figured I would offer some advice to our teams.

David Stearns must change approach when it comes to handling starting pitchers.

Mets GM David Stearns hit the lottery in 2024 with the way he built his pitching staff. His buy low guys panned out brilliantly. A year later, Stearns did not come anywhere close to the same success.

The Mets collapse in 2025 in many ways was triggered by atrocious starting pitching. Yes, Stearns is right to be confident in youngster Nolan McLean as a major part of the puzzle.

However, he needs to be aggressive in targeting a legitimate front of the line arm to help McLean.

Will Stearns properly pivot?

Will Yankees Adjust Approach For October success?

The Yankees properly pivoted last offseason after losing Juan Soto to the Mets.

Max Fried & Cody Bellinger were a big part of the success of the 2025 regular season.

However, in the postseason, the result remained the same. Another year without a World Series title.

Will Brian Cashman acknowledge the need for balance and an a contact approach up and down the lineup? Or will it be a lineup with automatic outs at the bottom like we saw a year ago in the ALDS?

Will Giants ownership learn from past mistakes in Head Coach Hiring Process?

The Giants once again will be in the market for a head coach in January.

It’s a franchise that hasn’t gotten it right with their head man since the days of Tom Coughlin.

Can they find the proper leader equipped to handle the battleground that is New York?

Don’t make the same mistake of years past. Try to find a leader with experience as a head coach who can go and hit the ground running.

Will Aaron Glenn learn from his mistakes from his nightmarish first season?

It’s tough to have a more miserable first season than Jets Head Coach Aaron Glenn.

From non competitive football to dust ups with the media, it’s been as bad as it gets.

Will Glenn acknowledge the mistakes of year 1 on and off the field and grow from them?

Or will he join a long list of failed Jets head coaches…

Hopefully 2025 will bring a lot of reflection and learning for the power brokers of NY Sports and 2026 will be a year of upward mobility!

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network every Sunday/Thursday on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sportsnite at 11 PM on SNY.

JJ: “The Year in NY Sports for 2025. Not Good Enough…”

BQE Admin on December 25, 2025

New York New York

By John Jastremski

Believe it or not, next week is the final full week of 2025.

In NY Sports, I think many of us went into the calendar year with high hopes for our teams and prospects for success.

Looking back on the year, it’s hard to not have a feeling of disappointment.

I think the best way to look at NY Sports in 2025 is to say the year wasn’t good enough.

Our baseball teams were fresh off a trip to the World Series and the NLCS a year ago at this time.

Life was good for Mets fans, Juan Soto was the new conquering hero and the sky was the limit… Until it wasn’t.

The Mets inexplicably missed the playoffs in 2025 and it was no fluke.

They were a terrible baseball team for the final 4 months of the season and the ramifications of that poor play is the wholesale change we are witnessing within the team heading into 2026.

In Yankees land, it was another year of coming up short in October.

Yes, the Yankees pivoted brilliantly away from Juan Soto.

Yes, they tied the Blue Jays for the most wins in the American League, but another year slips through the hourglass of Aaron Judge’s career without a ring.

The pressure continues to mount and yet the team continues to be content with where they stand.

Good enough to be in the dance, sure they have a chance, but it hasn’t been good enough to win.

The football teams. Par for the course. And not in a good way. A collective 5 wins by 2 teams is a special sort of ineptitude.

One would argue the New York Knicks would buck this trend of not being good enough.

And compared to the other teams in town, it makes perfect sense.

The Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in 25 seasons.

They had an epic 2nd round series win against the Boston Celtics.

Yet, they can join the club of disappointment. Why? The Game 1 collapse against the Indiana Pacers will be a game that lives forever in infamy.

It flat out cost the Knicks the series and will haunt this team until of course they reach the NBA Finals.

2025 was eventful. There were some monster moments, promising debuts & plenty of interesting subplots.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t good enough for our fair city. Let’s hope 2026 can be better…

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York every Sunday & Thursday on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite at 11 PM on SNY.

The Bully Yanks… Until Proven Otherwise…

BQE Admin on September 2, 2025

By John Jastremski

The 2025 New York Yankees just put together a recent stretch of baseball that sums up their season rather appropriately.

The Yankees got rather fat against three sub .500 teams. The Twins, Cardinals and Rays respectively.

They got absolutely smacked by the Boston Red Sox, one of the better teams in the American League.

It’s been a common theme watching this group play over the course of the season.

When the Yankees are going good, they’re going real good. The ball is leaving the ballpark, their starters are going deep into games and they find a way to hold down leads in the late innings.

When the Yankees are going poorly, a lot of the warts and deficiencies of the group are on full display for the world to see.

It’s a team that can’t win without hitting a home run. It’s a team that yucks up leads with shaky relief work.

Oh and don’t forget about the poor fundamentals in the field and the bases that continue to be a narrative around the franchise dating back to last season.

When the Yankees are going poorly, all of these elements come to play.

Here’s the dirty little secret regarding the 2025 Yankees: They will be playing October baseball.

The team faces a September schedule that is rather reasonable against a good number of sub .500 opponents.

More than likely, the Yankees will find themselves in the Wild Card round the first week in October with a series against a team that has owned them all season.

The only way this group is changing the current bully narrative about their season is two fold.

Stun the world by winning the American League East. Highly unlikely with a 5 game deficit and a month to play, but it would signal a whole lot of wins against both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox.

Two, flip the script in October against the better teams in the American League.

It’s hard to imagine the script changing in Yankees land, but if you’re not satisfied with the narrative, you have to change it.

We’ll see if this team can…

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts every Sunday & Thursday evenings. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets Postgame on SNY.

JJ: “New York Baseball Midseason Report Cards”

BQE Admin on July 18, 2025

By John Jastremski

We have officially reached the midway point of the 2025 NY Baseball season. All things considered, it’s a good thing that if the season were to end today, the Mets and the Yankees would both be a part of the postseason. The bad news is that both would be lined up to play in the Best of 3 Wild Card Round.

So at the halfway point of the season, step into the grading room of Professor Jastremski of the Newhouse School. He knew plenty about getting A’s in broadcasting and history classes. Math and Science classes, eh not so much. Let’s give some grades for both teams, shall we?

Pete Alonso: A

Pete’s first half has been arguably the best half of his big league career. He’s gotten a ton of big hits and it appears he’s bet on himself in a much better way than he did in 2024.

Max Fried: A

I’ve always had an appreciation of Fried from a distance watching him with the Atlanta Braves, but he’s been even better than advertised in his first year pitching in pinstripes. His significance and importance to the 2025 Yankees went up exponentially after Gerrit Cole was lost for the season. Fried has been every bit the ace the Yankees have needed.

Clay Holmes: B+

The Mets have dealt with a whole lot of adversity in their rotation throughout the first half of this season. One of the major questions in the rotation has been anything but for the first half of this year. Clay Holmes transitioned into being a starter for the first time in his big league career and I had serious reservations about whether or not he was up for the challenge. Holmes has done a very nice job taking the ball every 5th day. The only reason he didn’t earn himself an A is due to his inability to go deep into games.

Paul Goldschmidt: B

The Yankees found themselves in a spot in 2024 where first base was an absolute black hole. Paul Goldschmidt has provided much needed stability both offensively and defensively to 1st base. He’s been an absolute pro’s pro.

Mark Vientos: D

I had high hopes for the Mets breakout star from 2024. There is no way to sugar coat it, Vientos first half has been an absolute flop. He’s lost playing time, he’s been injured and he hasn’t performed both at the plate and in the field. Perhaps the past few games in Kansas City will be the turning point of getting his season and full season grade back on track.

Anthony Volpe: D

The most disappointing Yankees performer by a significant margin, If you take out Volpe’s March/April stats, the numbers of futility are even more alarming. He seems to have no plan at the plate, his confidence is shot and now his defense at shortstop which was supposed to be a strength has become a massive liability.

The Yankees have a shortstop problem until I see reasons otherwise…

New York Mets: A-

The Mets have weathered a whole lot of storms especially from a pitching standpoint so far this first half. They are a half game out of first place and will be a major player at the trade deadline. The team is exactly on track to where I thought they’d be preseason.

New York Yankees: B+

The only reason the Yankees didn’t earn themselves an A grade for the first half is due to what happened over the final 4 weeks of June and into July where a massive division lead turned into a minor deficit. The Yankees lineup has exceeded my expectations in the absence of Juan Soto, but can they upgrade a few key spots over the next few weeks to win a very congested AL East…

JJ: “Welcome to New York, Mike Brown”

BQE Admin on July 14, 2025

It’s Now NBA Finals Or Bust…

By John Jastremski

Last week, the Knicks finally concluded their head coaching search and decided former Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown will be their guy.

My first reaction to the news was that as a Knicks fan, I felt uninspired.

Look, Mike Brown on paper fits the bill of the sort of coach you’d want leading your team.

There’s no sense of the unknown for a franchise that will have sky high expectations going into next season.

You know what you’re getting with Mike Brown.

He ran a tremendous offense in Sacramento that was as modern as it gets.

He’s taken a team to the NBA Finals before, albeit a team that had LeBron James, but an accomplishment none the less.

In addition, he seems like a tremendous guy. I expect he will do a fantastic job in handling the NY media and what comes with that.

So, you might ask. After what I just detailed, why is the hire uninspiring.

Well, it’s pretty simple to me.

After the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, I was expecting the sort of hire that would put me in a position where I feel the team clearly upgraded with their head coach.

No disrespect to Mike Brown, but I for one am not convinced the Knicks hired a better head coach than Thibs.

Thats why I cant share a feeling of elation and excitement when it comes to the hire.

However, the goal is pretty simple for Mike Brown next season.

It’s time to get the Knicks back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

Are those unfair expectations to a first year head coach?

In most circumstances, yes. Not with this current Knicks group.

The roster is there, the East is weak and if not now, then when.

Talk about walking into a pressure cooker!

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network every Tuesday & Friday on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets postgame on SNY.

JJ: “As Subway Series Dawns, The Soto Sub Plot Emerges…”

BQE Admin on May 14, 2025

By: John Jastremski

It’s truly understood that New York City has a major case of Mid May Knicks fever.

When you are one game away from the Conference Finals, that is to be expected.

However, the first installment of the Subway Series awaits on Friday night and the anticipation has been building since last December.

Juan Soto will make his return to Yankee Stadium for the first time wearing Orange and Blue.

After a year in which Yankees fans showered him with love, praise and admiration, the tone on Friday night will be drastically different.

Imagine the jeers that David Ortiz and Jose Altuve have received from the Bronx faithful over the last few seasons, well I think that hostility towards Soto will be even worse.

Juan Soto chose the Mets, you can’t imagine the Yankee faithful are particularly happy about that.

It will get lost in the Soto subplot, but the first month plus of the season heading into the Subway Series has been rather glass half full for both teams.

The Mets through 42 games are double digit games over .500 and in first place in the NL East, and that’s without Juan Soto contributing much through the month of April.

It was only a matter of time before Soto joined the party and he has been one of baseball’s hottest hitters through the early portion of May.

In Yankee land, despite some pot holes along the way, the boys from the Bronx lead the AL East at 24-17.

Aaron Judge hasn’t missed a beat even without Juan Soto hitting in front of him and is on a triple crown pace.

And despite the Yankee pitching staff suffering a whole lot of adversity, newly acquired Max Fried has been everything you could hope for and then some leading the staff.

In fact, it makes you wonder in Yankee land. Where would this team be if they hadn’t signed the lefty in the offseason.

It’s mid may so I would be careful with rash judgements either way regarding the result of this 3 game series, but to have an October like feel to this weekend is rather exciting.

As if we needed any more excitement right about now in the Big City…

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York after every Knicks Playoff or Subway Series Game on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets postgame on SNY.

JJ: A Holiday Wish List For NY Sports

BQE Admin on December 23, 2024

JOHN JASTREMSKI

I hope that the 2024 holiday season has treated you well.

We all have our wish lists every year for Santa Claus and what he may bring us under the Christmas tree.

Maybe it’s that apple watch or the newest video game console, but I have my wish list for Santa Claus for some of the New York Sports teams.

For some of the New York teams, this past year brought a lot of presents.

For some others, a whole lot of coal.

Mets: Re-Sign Pete Alonso

Yes, the Mets are coming off one of their best seasons without a championship. A feel good ride to the NLCS. To cap off the year, the Mets signed Juan Soto away from the Yankees to become the next franchise cornerstone.

The Mets added Soto, brought back Sean Manaea, but still have one more major need to address.

They need to bring back Pete Alonso to round out the middle of their lineup.

The power, protection for Soto and the idea of Alonso being a Met for life all should make the Mets fans spirit bright.

Giants: Find And Draft a Franchise Quarterback

The Giants are in the middle of the worst season in the 100 year history of the franchise.

The season thankfully ends in two weeks, but now the stage is set for a great present in late April.

If the Giants lose their final two games of the season, they end up with the # 1 pick in the draft.

Of course it’s not a given, but the idea of the next hope at quarterback come April and the entire draft to choose from, at least gives 2025 a chance at a promising start.

Jets: End the longest playoff drought in professional sports! Hire Mike Vrabel!

The Jets have the longest playoff drought in professional sports. They’ve hired plenty of GM’ and head coaches since 2010.

They brought in Aaron Rodgers, a future Hall Of Fame quarterback, yet here we are.

No playoffs since 2010.

The franchise needs a program and culture builder.

There is no better place to start than to look at Mike Vrabel to be that guy.

Vrabel thrived for years as coach of the Tennessee Titans. His teams were always prepared, tough minded and successful.

This is the perfect choice to change the culture.

Yankees: Become More Fundamentally Sound in 25!

The 2024 Yankees ended a 15 year drought without an American League pennant.

They were also a team that was fundamentally flawed all season long.

They ran the bases terribly and the team’s defense left a lot to be desired.

The Yankee defense was responsible for one of the worst defensive innings in the history of the Yankees and the World Series in a 5th inning of Game 5 of the World Series that will live in infamy.

I am hopeful that the Yankees can be a more fundamentally sound team next season.

Adding Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt who are two terrific defensive players should help the overall team defense.

It will be needed with the addition of weak contract machine Max Fried joining Gerrit Cole at the top of the rotation.

There are a few of the things I listed for New York fans to wish for under their trees for 2025.

To all a Merry Christmas and to all a good night.

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on the Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple podcasts every Sunday & Thursday. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite at 11 PM on SNY.