Jimmy O’Brien on Making Funny Sports Videos, Not Being a Talk-Radio Blowhard and Why He’s a Proud Mama’s Boy

Eventually, everyone gets a Jomboy video sent to them. Usually, it’s in a text or an email, normally with a message attached along the lines of “Hey, have you seen this? It’s pretty funny.” Maybe it’s a clip that dissects the particulars of a brawl that breaks out during a baseball game. Maybe it’s a video that goes into detail about an argument between a manager and an umpire, their exchange perfectly transcribed by an expert lip-reader. In my case, it was an analysis of a homer hit by the Chicago White Sox’s Yermin Mercedes off a position player, Willians Astudillo of the Minnesota Twins. “You should check out this channel if you’re not familiar with it,” my nephew texted me. “Think you would definitely like it.”

These videos, which break down sports highlights in amusing, intricate ways, are the work of Jimmy O’Brien, the 34-year-old founder of Jomboy Media. A history major who grew up in a family of New York Yankees fans, he’s turned his love of sports into a successful media company. Jomboy came together in 2017 — by the end of 2022, O’Brien had 60 employees. Breakdown videos aren’t the only thing Jomboy does — for one thing, O’Brien co-hosts the podcasts Talkin’ Baseball and Talkin’ Yanks with his friend and partner in crime Jake Storiale — but the company’s YouTube page, which features more than 2,200 videos, has 1.7 million subscribers. Business is booming.

Jomboy covers everything from hockey to cricket, but baseball made the company’s name. Two 2019 videos were key. One involved O’Brien, who’s had a skill since childhood of reading players’ and umps’ lips during a broadcast, sussing out exactly what Yankees skipper Aaron Boone and home plate umpire Brennan Miller were yelling at each other during a tense in-game altercation. (The video became a sensation, inspiring “Savages in the Box” T-shirts that the Yankees started proudly wearing themselves.) The other video, a few months later, was even bigger: Inspired by a piece in The Athletic that first brought the accusations to light, O’Brien used game footage to argue convincingly that the Houston Astros had stolen signs during their 2017 championship-winning season. 

“I just took all the information I had from all over the place, made the video and told the story to my audience,” he said at the time as his video was making national headlines. “But I didn’t break this news. I helped accelerate it, and helped people really see. It just kept going.”

Since then, Jomboy has only grown, signing deals with the YES Network and Amazon, but O’Brien who remains the face of the company (and the voice in the videos) has retained his ability to be an unassuming, straight-talking regular guy. As he puts it to me in a recent Zoom interview from his New York offices, he’s just the buddy sitting next to you at the sports bar, making observations about the game and cracking the occasional joke. A 2022 New York Times profile painted O’Brien as someone who eschews negativity in his content, which helps him stand out in a world of sports media that often values angry commentators who yell their hot takes at one another, gleeful to tear down stars. Another thing: He’s genuinely funny, and not in a forced, oh-so-hip kind of way. During our conversation, he was exactly as he is in his videos, never straining for the joke but nonetheless exuding a warm, friendly demeanor. He rarely laughed, but he smiled a lot. 

As another baseball season gets underway, it seemed like the perfect time to catch up with O’Brien to talk about what he’s looking forward to on the diamond. We also discussed which players he finds funny, why he thinks baseball lends itself to humor and how he found his voice as an online personality. Plus, he tells me why he’s not embarrassed to call himself a mama’s boy.

How are you feeling about your Yankees right now?

Oh, man. Well, they keep getting hurt, so I don't know how to feel: It’s the least we’ve ever known about who’s going to play what position. We don’t know who’s going to play the majority of the games at center field, left field, shortstop, third base, second base. First base is the only position — (Anthony) Rizzo’s going to play first.

As long as his back holds up.

Yeah, unless his back remains cranky. That might be the only injury where you have a solution — you put DJ (LeMahieu) there. But I think they’re going to be competitive and a good team and a playoff team. But I have no idea of the formula right now, so I’m hoping that the young kids get in and we have some fun. But we’ll see.

A new baseball season is about to start. As both a fan and a guy who runs a company that does a lot of baseball videos, what’s your mindset right now?

As a fan, it’s the land of eternal optimism. But, man, it’s just a big change now that it’s part of work, it’s part of routine. From the company (perspective), Q2 is really Q1, and April’s the start of the year where everything we do starts trending up. I know that there’s going to be 15 games a night, so we’re going to get outpaced by the amount of content we could do if we wanted to — where, in the offseason, you’re searching and when something comes around, you’re like, “This is awesome, let’s talk about this.” But during the season, you have to pick and choose: What do you have time for and what do you don’t? So our lives get a little crazier, but also a little more scheduled. It’s like getting ready for the big race and getting to that starting line — then once you go, it’s like, “Okay, now we’re just playing. Now we’re in it.” So we’re just prepping and ready to get into the rhythm of things.

Are you thinking, “This season, I want to do X and Y differently” in terms of how you approach the videos? Or are you just tackling whatever comes along?

It’s a little more “Whatever comes along” — and hopefully I can do it. There is a weekly output we stay on, especially with the ad stuff. But what I tell myself is, “This year I want to do more than I did last year.” 

Last year I had a baby — he was born in November (2021) before the season started — so it was my first season with a commute to Manhattan, a baby at home, and we went from 15 employees to, by the end of the year, 60 employees. I realized that I made the breakdowns at night after dinner when my wife was lounging: Something would happen, I would run to the computer and I would do (a video). All of a sudden, I got into this need for a nine-to-five (schedule) to just unwind and be really tired at night. So my productivity and the amount I was able to do was less, which then made my need for the ones that I did do to be as good as they can be and not just (hastily) put together. I did some that were 10 minutes — there was the (video of the) Yankees finding out the pitcher tipped his pitches — and the time that I started putting into them was much longer. But the number I made was less. 

I want to go back to finding the time to make more (and that they’re) not all this big, long process that they were. I still want to do those when it’s necessary, but I’d love to throw out some more casual ones. I realized I’m not going to get back to where I was before I had the kid and before I had all these employees and all that, but I’d like to up the output a little bit. 

And then another goal always is that, when the baseball season starts, to continue to mix in other sports. I haven’t found a ton of success with that in the last couple seasons because, like I said, MLB is 15 games a night — there’s always something going on and they perform better because that’s the audience. But I’m doing a lot of cricket (videos) this offseason, and I can see the stats that a lot of the people that subscribe (are) new fan bases — and that’s (from covering) cricket or lacrosse or other weird sports. I did the Chris Rock (slap) from the Oscars a year ago, and that was our biggest video of the whole year. And it’s like, “Well, that was a very wild moment. Let’s keep our eye on more pop culture ones as well as baseball.”

That Chris Rock video made me think that, had you been around when the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction happened, you would have covered that. In terms of tackling weird pop-culture stuff, is the approach the same as your baseball breakdowns?

The way my brain works is that, on those ones, you got to be first or when it’s happening. (With) baseball, we’ve built up a reputation that I don’t feel as guilty now if it takes two days and then I get it out after the fact — I still like being quick to it. 

The Chris Rock one, I was on the couch, and my wife and my kid were asleep. There were three different broadcasts: There was the Australian broadcast that you could hear the audio, the U.S. one that cut away and they didn’t show the shot, and there was an Asian broadcast where they had the full audio, but it was from someone filming their TV. I like when I (don’t) just make the commentary silly, but literally make it so I put all three of those (broadcasts) into one video and you might not be able to tell because I crop it or I do the Japanese audio with the Australian visual broadcast. 

I try to be witty or funny in the way I walk through it — but, really, I try to make the actual editing something that you’re not going to see elsewhere. So for baseball, I’ll take the home broadcast and the away broadcast and I’ll match the shots so you don’t know which one you’re watching. I’ll take replays and throw them back into the timeline. With the Chris Rock one, I was like, “Hey, this isn’t really my lane, but I think I can provide what I do and take multiple broadcasts and put them together to show the full story in one place.” 

And it went crazy — it was unbelievable. There’s been other times I’ve tried to tackle things like that — weird, silly ones, not often. I did one where this guy got attacked by a bobcat, and that one was pretty funny and I think did well. I’d love to do those more, but I just feel like the internet moves so fast that if I’m not at my laptop with free time in the next two hours (after) it happens, then I’ve missed the wave. 

The breakdown videos are often really funny. Do you consider yourself funny?

I wouldn’t call myself a comedian. I don’t think I could ever go say, “Hey, come to this show — I’ll make you laugh.” But I think my answer would be a sheepish yes: I know how to make a joke, but it’s not my goal to go make a joke. My partner, Jake (Storiale), he’s always joking: He has a response, whether it’s at Dunkin’ Donuts or at a wedding, whoever he talks to, he’s always quick. I’m not like that. I think it’s more just bringing levity or lightheartedness, and not crafting jokes.

That’s a big reason why I like your breakdowns: They’re funny without trying really hard to be funny. They just feel very natural, off-the-cuff. 

I don’t write anything down. I’ll spend the writing process in the edit: When I put together the edit, I am writing it, but I’m not writing the line I’m going to say. I’m just putting the story in order: “Okay, talk about that there, talk about this here, lip-read, lip-read, lip-read, talk about this here.” But when I do the narration, I don’t practice or anything — sometimes I’ll say things that I didn’t realize I was going to say. If I do (the narration) how I want to do it, it’s one take. Obviously, the lip-readings are different because I’ll (lip-read) one (player) and then I’ll do (the other person) — that takes a couple times to get their cadence. 

(Baseball) is a forum where you have really, really educated people on the subject matter breaking down film and telling you what you’re seeing in an analytical way or a professional-sports-mind way. I’m not that. And then there’s the other side, where you have the people who do what I’m doing, but they’re writing bits and jokes and really heavy-handed humor, which can be really funny — I’m not doing that either. 

I just ride a middle line of flippancy. If you were sitting next to me and you were like, “What are you watching?” I’d be like, “Oh, watch this: This pitcher throws this pitch and then he is going to throw this pitch. So now the batter’s thinking this, but the pitcher’s like, ‘Ha ha, got you.’” That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s the vibe I’m trying to have.

Were you always that guy? The one who liked to tell his buddies what they missed when they went to the bathroom?

I’m happy that I started doing this when I was older and really found who I wanted to be: not overtly negative. If I was younger, maybe I’d have lots of videos I’d regret (that were) cynical and “Fuck this and fuck that.” That’s not my tone. I try to make it positive and find the humor in things instead of the anger. 

My dad growing up, we had TiVo, and if a pitcher walked off the mound screaming, he would rewind it and be like, “Jim, what did he say?” And for some reason, I could always lip-read. For lip-reading, there’s a lot of context because of the sport (that makes it easier for me). If you just give me someone across the street, I’m not going to be able to read their lips — context looms large. And I would love to voiceover athletes, when they’re screaming and celebrating, in a joking way to my buddies in college: “Look what I just did!” It’s what they’re actually saying, but when you highlight it, it sounds awkward and weird. And that’s who I was growing up. 

When the videos started blowing up, did you feel more pressure because you knew a larger audience was now paying attention to what you were doing?

There were two videos I did that I didn’t feel good afterwards because I felt like I edged too close to negativity. I’m an optimistic cynic is how I would describe myself — I’m not really super-negative, but I’m also not walking around all cheery and whatever. There was a video where I highlighted a really bizarre sport, and usually you’d find the athleticism in it or the skill in it. I tell my team, “The goal is not to shit on these sports. The goal is to make people go, ‘What?!’ and then go, ‘Oh shit, that was cool.’” But there was one, for professional tag, and when I watched it back, I was like, “Eh, it’s so easy to shit on things for humor. That’s not worth my time.” If I genuinely think something is lame or bad, don’t do the video.

The other video was a player — Jared Hughes is his name — and he runs in from the bullpen for the Phillies and he gasps like he’s out of breath and he gives up the walkoff homer. This was early on, and I didn’t realize players were watching or that (the videos) were really going beyond my audience. I don’t think I was as rude as other people are who do this, but I just think I was a little mean. He talked about it and said it was tough to watch, but then he had to laugh at himself. And I messaged him and I was like, “Hey, no hard feelings.” 

I don’t want to look back at something and be like, “Oh, man, a player watched this and I was mean.” I don’t want to ruin anyone’s time. The goal is to highlight something that you might have missed — even if you were watching the broadcast, you might have missed this. My goal isn’t to go shit on something. But as the audience gets bigger, it does get harder — especially on social media, because I used to be all sarcasm on Twitter. Now you can’t do that at all. That was a big change. The more followers you have, it takes a while for some people to (understand), “Oh, he’s joking.” It’s just not worth it anymore.

Positivity is also good for business, I imagine. Being negative probably helps some people, but you’ve carved out a niche as the opposite of that. 

Yeah, definitely. We’re not out there doing G-rated (content) — we’re not doing Disney. It’s definitely R-rated. I swear all the time, so it’s not family-friendly. We probably should become more family-friendly, but fun is the concept. 

I’m looking at it on our office wall right now: We have our mantra, and one of them is relationships and then the subtext is “Don’t burn a bridge that hasn’t been built yet.” That was a mantra we had when it was just the two of us. 

Bob Costas emailed me once: “Your videos are great. I love them.” And it was so nice, and I love Bob Costas — I would’ve never tweeted or said anything (negative) about him, because I genuinely enjoy Bob Costas, but I’m like, “Imagine if I (had) because I didn’t know he was tuned in.” Same with Michael Kay, the announcer for the Yankees: I didn’t know he knew who we were, and he was just like, “Hey, good job.” It was a little eye-opening: “Hey, we have no idea who is watching that may help us in the future.” So why would you burn a bridge that hasn’t even been built yet?

Do you think baseball is inherently a funny sport? I love baseball, but it’s treated with such reverence, which makes it seem not especially funny. But one of the reasons why I think your videos are so good is that they argue, “No, no, baseball is actually really funny — and the people who play baseball are really funny.” Baseball takes itself so seriously that it’s ripe for humor.

Yeah, and there’s so much downtime that allows personalities to show. There’s no helmets, so you get to see all the facial expressions. And it’s so minute in its action: Throw a pitch, everyone reacts to that pitch. And you get to see that for every pitch, every hit. And there’s communication that’s going on that is non-verbal constantly — whether it’s body language toward the umpire or the umpire’s body language toward the pitcher. And all that stuff’s funny if it’s pointed out to you or you’re paying attention to it. It’s all just these little human nuances. 

The breakdowns you do of brawls are especially great because you capture a lot of the empty posturing that goes on in them. Are you always excited when another brawl happens? They do well for you. 

Sometimes it’s like, “Oh, man, here’s 10 hours of my life — I got to go dissect every angle of this.” And now people are sending me iPhone footage from fans, (which) does help out. I did the Angels and Mariners’ brawl: I think it’s 16 minutes long, and it took me 20 hours to piece it all together, because there were so many moving parts. It was crazy, but it was cool. This is a little name-drop-y, but Bill Hader is a big baseball fan, and he reached out because he was a fan of the breakdowns, and we chat a decent amount now during baseball season — he called me on that one, and he was like, “Hey, man, I didn’t even want to text you. That was so good. That was storytelling. That was really good.” So I was like, “All right, 20 hours is worth it.” 

Sometimes the brawl is daunting and I’m like, “Fuck, all right, I don’t think I can do the show later: Can you guys do it? I got to do this video. It’s going to be big.” And if I release anything before I release (a brawl video), the comments are just going to be, “Where’s the brawl?!” And it’s good for MLB too: They post it on their YouTube and they’re like, “Look at the brawl!” Hopefully no one gets truly hurt (during the brawl) and there’s nothing terrible that happens and it’s all a bunch of posturing and silliness. 

It’s also fun when you go deep into manager/umpire arguments.

Managers, when you can’t hear them and don’t know what they’re saying, your brain thinks they’re (making) these eloquent arguments of “I’m right and you’re wrong.” David Ross for the Cubs, (he and the umpire) were yelling back and forth — I’m going to get this wrong — but it was something to the extent of “You are!” “Am not!” “You are!” “Am not!” They’re like little kids, because that’s just how humans argue. I think that’s really funny. The manager arguments do really well, too, because if I’m able to highlight that they’re just not saying anything (constructive) toward an end goal, that’s just as funny as if they’re saying something very interesting.

Recently, you tweeted a picture of you as a kid in your baseball uniform. Were you a good player? 

No, not really. I was a good catcher. Once balls started curving or going anything but straight, I was quickly asked to stop playing. But I blame all my coaches now because I watch these pro players, they put the T outside to practice hitting outside pitches and inside and up and down. I said, “Dad, I was only ever trained to hit a fastball right down the middle. We never even moved the T around. So I think if we redo it and you teach me a little bit…” (Laughs) 

But, no, I’m short — I was good at bunting, running hard, playing defense. I really, really loved catching and calling pitches. But hockey was my main sport — I played club hockey, I was good at hockey, I played on the varsity team when I was a freshman in Connecticut, and then I played in California for our team that won the state championship. My skill set was more hustle-and-grind than pretty plays. 

Did you watch a lot of SportsCenter as a kid? Or highlights shows in general?

No, my buddy Jake grew up on that. I watched Yankees games and big tournaments, Little League World Series, the World Series, Super Bowl. If it was something that was big, I watched that. In college, SportsCenter’s on a lot with my roommates, but I grew up watching TV shows: Nickelodeon to Disney Channel in middle school to MTV in high school and then to longform shows. I liked Real World and all the reality shows — back then, it wasn’t as fake, so you’re learning human traits and tendencies and the differences of people. 

The one show — and I do mention this a lot for comedy — was Cheap Seats, the Sklar Brothers. One joke I remember watching triggered a new alleyway in my brain of humor. They would do breakdown stuff almost: It was this old cliff-diving competition that they were watching and they clearly prepped jokes, which I didn’t know the first time I was watching it. (There’s) a coin toss and the Mexican captain (wins): “Okay, what do you want to do?” And then (the Sklar Brothers) pause it and they go, “Okay, what’s he going to say? ‘We want to dive first,’ ‘We’ll let them dive first,’ or ‘I just hope everyone has a good time’?” And then they hit play and (the captain) says, “I just hope everyone has a good time.” I think I had to be 11 or 12, and I thought that was so funny and clever — they set it up well. You thought the joke was the fake answer — obviously he didn’t say that — but he did say that. And I remember thinking, “Oh, that’s a fun way to do humor.” It wasn’t mean to the guy, but it’s like, “This is funny — you should pay attention.”

It’s not a great comparison to what you do, but I also thought of Mystery Science Theater 3000. 

Yeah, people always say that, because we have some shows we do where we watch bad game shows or bad reality shows and comment and riff on them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mystery Science Theater.

One of the first real breakthrough videos you had was focused on the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Did that video ever get so big in terms of the response that it was scary?

Well, I was pretty hated. I think anyone that has as many followers as I have gets some terrible DMs and anonymous people threatening emptily. So I don’t think I’m unique there — I just think that comes with having social media that people view. But when they (were) emailing my wife’s email or my not-even-work email, I’m like, “How’d you find this?” There was a bar that made a piñata of me that they beat up. I was like, “Oh my god, I didn’t intend for all that.” The level of actual hate that I get from Houston fans, that’s not my goal — I was like, “I was just covering the news. You guys cheated.” 

I learned a little bit (from the response to that video). Once the first video came out, any thought I had on (the scandal) could not be flippant anymore, which is how I like operating. On that subject matter, anything I said was used in an article — like, “Oh, now he’s saying this, it must be true.” So I had to just shut it down.

Both in the videos and from talking to you, I didn’t get the sense that you’re a bro’s bro, which is a sports persona that can get tiresome. I’m curious how you feel about that.

I know what you’re talking about. I grew up in locker rooms and played hockey and all that, so I see that. Most guys aren’t like that, that persona of talking about “fucking chicks” and blah blah blah — it’s not really what it’s like. I’m sure there’s some guys, but usually those two guys are the assholes in the locker room. 

I grew up with two sisters. I’m a mama’s boy — I am not shy about that. My mom used to point out Joe Torre when he would be crying after Yankees wins and say, “See, Jim, a real man cries when he’s got tears.” And I love that, so I try to pass that down — I have a kid right now. I hate the sentiment — and just the stupidness — of “Ball and chain” and “Oh, let me ask the wife if it’s okay first” and “Oh, fucking kids.” That’s so stupid. I grew up hearing all that stuff and I was like, “My dad’s not like that.” I love my wife and hanging out with my kid. 

So, not really in the breakdown videos, but if you listen to some of the smaller shows where I’m talking about myself and my life, I’ll try to project that side of things. I don’t think I’m going to make any giant change (in the world): I just think if there’s any little kids that are surrounded by that fake macho-ness…  But I’m sure there’s times where my wife would say, “You have moments where you’re a boy’s boy.” (Laughs) I don’t clean the bathroom enough. And we can make some pretty amateur jokes and be dumb. 

I really loved the breakdown you did of the New York Yankees/Cleveland Guardians game where the Yankee fans threw stuff at the Guardians outfielders. That’s your team, but you ripped those fans pretty bad, and deservedly so. We haven’t talked about fan behavior at all, but I imagine it was especially annoying for you to do that video because it was a few Yankee fans making the rest of you look bad. 

Yeah, we talk about that on Talkin’ Yanks a lot. And I’ll be on both sides of the argument. If you want to boo players, I don’t care — that’s part of playing in New York. And a lot of fans are really soft about that and they’re like, “How could you boo your own player?” I’m like, “Well, I paid to go to the game and wanted them to get a hit and instead they struck out” — I don’t think that’s a big deal. 

I always say that honking and booing on the East Coast are just not as big of a deal as they are in California. I lived in California, and if you honk at someone it was (shocking) — you had to be almost in an accident or you’re really, really mad. Here, drive through New York City, it’s just like, “Beep beep, get out of my way.” And I think that’s how fans treat booing. Fans are going to yell things — they’re going to try and get under (a player’s) skin, and I’m fine with that. Players have to understand that. 

Don’t throw stuff at players, though — that’s scary. Just picture yourself on a field looking up and there’s 20,000 people and they’re throwing stuff at you — and you don’t know what’s going to come down next. “Oh, it’s just empty soda cans”: You’re not guaranteed that as a player. What if it’s a full water bottle from a hundred feet up? That’s really scary. They have to take insults as part of the gig — if everyone’s chanting your ex-girlfriend’s name, whatever, that’s fandom. I just really don’t like (fans) throwing things at players — or when people run on the field. You have no idea what craziness could be happening with a guy that’s on the field drunk as shit like that. 

I don’t like that (bad fans) are doing that, and then I don’t like that other people are allowing these 10 people to change the narrative on 40,000 people. If I have a voice and I can be someone that says, “This isn’t cool,” and I know a million people are going to watch, then I’ll grandstand that one time for that. Otherwise, I try to stay off my pedestal.

Are there certain players you think are especially funny?

Funny on purpose, or just funny to watch? Like, DJ LeMahieu is hilarious — it’s not on purpose. He’s just so intense and so boring in his answers that it cracks me up. They do those things where the Yankees players walk (into) spring training, and there’s a question on a whiteboard: “What’s your favorite Taylor Swift song?” And they all answer it. But DJ’s not appeared in one of them, or he just walks past silently — that’s hilarious. 

I think there’s some players out there that, physically, doing what they’re doing — Bartolo Colon swinging a bat, that’s hilarious. But on purpose being funny, I don’t think they get the avenue to do that much or to have a voice. Joey Votto is funny. I like when he throws the ball into the crowd, but doesn’t actually throw it, fakes them out. It’s fun when you can have a sense of humor and play with the crowd in those ways.

As Jomboy continues to grow, do you think of yourself as the face of this company? “What persona am I projecting? How do I represent this brand?”

I always say I have a lot of trouble not being me. I’m a shy person if you don’t know me. My wife got pretty frustrated the first time we hung out with her family and friends, ‘cause I was shy, and she was like, “What?” I’m like, “Oh, I guess you don’t know that about me.” I’m a wallflower in scenarios where I’m not around people I know really well. 

I try to be consistent in who I am on mic because that’s probably the best version of me — I’m more trying to be lighthearted and easygoing and stress-free. I’m not always stress-free — especially these days with the company and all that — but we’re not doing characters, we’re not being someone we’re not. It’s pretty nice to go into this interview — or a business meeting or hiring someone or on a mic — and I don’t have to think about, “Oh wait, get in the zone — you got to do this now.” It’s just who I am. We made it easy for ourselves that way.

A lot of sports media is built on “takes.” You don’t really do that.

That was bizarre to me when I would share a thought — people (would) respond, “That’s a bad take.” And I’m like, “Oh, I don’t even know if I stand by it — I was just thinking out loud to you guys here.” But because everyone wants everything to be a take that they can either disagree with or agree with — call you dumb or not — you’re not allowed to have thoughts anymore. Everything has to be stamped “final,” that’s your opinion. I’m like, “Wait, hold up, I just think, ‘Are the Rangers going to be good this year?’” I’m working through it in my head out loud on the show, or I’m just tweeting. 

Clearly, many on-air personalities have figured out that being loud and opinionated generates attention. 

I think it’s incredibly impressive to be able to formulate strong opinions on everything. I’m an opinionated person — growing up, people know, I’ll try to find my thought on something if you ask me. But yeah, some of those shows, do they really believe that? Or they just half-believe it and they’re hiding it? But the conviction in which they say it — and for every topic every day — I’m like, “Yes, it’s impressive.” Try to do it — you will get exhausted so quickly.