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Sid & Friends In The Morning

Joe Tacopina | Defense Attorney | 03-13-26

Sid & Friends In The Morning

77 WABC

Sports, News, Comedy

4.2826 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Defense Attorney Joe Tacopina joins Sid for his weekly Friday morning hit to talk about the World Baseball Classic, arguing modern pitch counts and reduced workloads make pitchers more fragile while the real injury driver is today’s max-velocity approach. He shares a humorous memory of being mocked for wearing Mets jerseys while their colleague wore cowboy hats and boots, then discusses renewed excitement around St. John’s basketball under Rick Pitino and plans to attend the Big East tournament. Turning to war, Tacopina says that regardless of how it began, the U.S. must finish the mission and that airstrikes can only damage Iran’s nuclear program; securing enriched uranium and verifying destruction would require limited special-operations “boots on the ground.” He also criticizes NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ free-speech rationale for hosting Mahmoud Khalil and cites Adams visiting a wounded perpetrator instead of a shot police officer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.1

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0:10.2

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0:12.5

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0:13.9

Children will be entertained by Twiggy, the water skiing squirrel.

0:16.9

Enjoy free face painting.

0:18.0

Plus, on Saturday and Sunday, the first 100 kids get a free life fest. Free parking all weekend. And Friday, it's free Heroes Day admission for military and first responders. Three days only. March 13th through 15th. Visit NYBoat Shows.com for details. Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience. You're a great scientist, Dr. Grace. The world is counting on you. Starring Ryan Gosling. So I met an alien. Two worlds, one impossible mission. We're gonna save the stars. Project Hail Mary. Amaze, amaze, amaze. Seed first March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere, March 19th. Joseph Tocopinna, 48 years, my brother, the best defense attorney anywhere in the world. Jojo, you remember Ernie when you were a little boy there on Beppard Avenue and Avenue X? Oh, my God, of course. My mother loved him because that hair he had, that quaff, that big curly, like blackish. Yeah. So he's a great-looking guy. But he was just, you know, I've heard all the commentary this morning on your show. He was just a class act. And, you know, we need a little bit more of that in today's world, especially in the media. He was a really great guy. He really was. It's funny. You also texted me, well, we had a little back and forth with Justin talking about the World Baseball Classic, because if you don't know, you should know. You probably do that. Takapina is a big sports guy, own championship soccer teams, football teams in Italy, but played college hockey. He loves his Rangers and his Mets and all those teams. So we're going back and forth about some of the pitchers in the World Baseball Classic. And, you know, I know there was a game. You know, Warren Spahn would pitch against, I guess it was Gibson. They won 16 innings apiece. Whatever it is, Sieber would throw 9 million innings. Those days are over, and you've got to admit, yes, it sounds like a bunch of wussies with pitch counts, but TAC, if you're a MET band and you lose one of your pitchers to an elbow injury in the World Baseball Classic, you're going to be pissed. You mean like when Edwin Diaz started jumping up and down the mound? I brought that up, right? That's just idiot stuff, right? Let's say, let me tell you some, come on, man. Let's just look at numbers and science statistics. You know, I was yelling at myself in the car. I'm driving a court right now. When you were doing that, I was screaming in the car alone. So you got me riled up so early. But come on, in the 70s, Ryan routinely pits 300 plus innings, Steve Carlton, Tom and Tom Steve, McGa, Lord Perry, Earl Bly 11, all these guys were elite starters that pitched 300 innings a year. You know what happened to none of them? They got injured. None of them. I know. So if pitch counts were truly essential to prevent injury, the previous generations of pitchers would have been collapsing at historic rates. They weren't.

2:51.6

I think pitch counts actually create a fragile pitcher, okay?

2:55.4

You know, modern pitch still fewer innings.

2:57.1

They pulled earlier.

2:58.3

They rarely pitch deep into games because they don't build a workload.

3:02.7

And I think that's a major part of it.

3:04.1

Arm injury is at an all-time high, even though they're pitching.

3:06.8

Like if a pitch, pitch is 160 innings a year, a starter, he's like a workhorse.

3:11.2

Give me a break.

3:12.1

You don't build durable arms by protect them constantly.

3:15.2

Okay?

3:15.5

You build them by training them to handle workload.

3:18.6

And by the way, the real problem is not pitch inning pitches.

3:22.0

It's this obsession with velocity. Every pitch, every pitch cannot be

3:28.0

100 miles an hour. That's far more stressful on ligaments than throwing 120 pitch at 92 miles an hour.

3:34.7

So really the problem is in pitch count. It's the modern day max every effort on every pitch philosophy. That's what's hurting

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