John Burkett on WFAN in NY

[Cyberlibrarian]

John Burkett is going to be on WFAN radio (660 AM) in about 15 minutes.

The announcer gave us the tease by saying that an upcoming guest is a pitcher who turned down an offer from the Yankees! as if it were the biggest surprise he's had all year.

I have to run up and down 3 flights of stairs to do laundry, but I'll do my best to report what he says to any Skank-related questions.

[Cyberlibrarian]

This will probably be posted at their website, but here goes:

He said it was a tough decision, that he'd always wanted to play in NY or for the Yankees. He says his wife was fine with him going back to pitch. But that he needed time to think.

The Skanks backed off a bit because of the whole A-rod thing, and this gave him enough time to really think about it and to make his final decision.

He said it had gotten to the point where he was talking himself INTO playing, rather than out of it, so it was easier than it could have been, but it was still tough.

The host (Ed Randall) is still incredulous that he could give up a chance to pitch for the Skankees. He said that watching his 9-year-old play Little League is more important than possibly winning the WS with the Skanks.

He thought the 1996 Rangers team was good. He really liked the chemistry, and thought that they had what it took to win the WS. But the Skanks managed to pull through.

Now a Mets fan is asking him about Tom Glavine (you guys won't care about this, but I do).

Now they're talking about Questec -- he doesn't like it, and he doesn't understand why some parks have it and some don't.

He didn't want to have to make a team. He wanted to know he was going to pitch. So the fact that the Skanks would not give him a guaranteed contract helped him made his decision.

The guy seems like a class act. That is, of course, yet another reason he couldn't pitch for the Skanks. ;)