9-7-22 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

It's not often that we see two legendary athletes in their 40s bid farewell to their sports in the span of a week. But that's exactly what's happening now.

It's on the women's side. Serena Williams, I mentioned these numbers earlier, most watched tennis broadcasts in the history of ESPN networks. When she bowed out in the third round, at one point there were nearly seven million people tuned in. I mean this is the U.S. Open in which it's a little over a million people on average watching matches. And at its height, nearly seven million people were watching Serena in the third round, in the third set against Isla Tomianovic.

It averaged better than four and a half million viewers. Again, most watched tennis broadcast in ESPN's 40 plus year history. More than Roger Federer, more than Rafael Nadal, more than Novak Djokovic, more than Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras or any of the other greats. And understanding, recognizing that the sports world was all in on Serena, regardless of gender, regardless of sport, Serena transcends tennis. And now we say farewell to another athlete who transcends her sport and not only has represented the red, white, and blue, and been highly decorated, but is also in her 40s.

It's amazing, right? The longevity of athletes who commit over decades, and Serena mentioned decades of tennis. She's still, what'd she say, relatively young by normal standards, but she's given half her life roughly to the sport of tennis. And it's been, and when I say half her life, I mean ultimately her entire life. Let's say it goes into her 80s.

Let's say she gets into her 90s. She's given this first half of her life to tennis. And Sue Bird has done the same thing with basketball.

And in both cases, these athletes have redefined their sport. In the case of Sue Bird has redefined what it means to be a point guard, what it means to be a quarterback on the basketball court, a leader. And so when people list the number of titles that she's been part of, it's because of her leadership. It's because of her tenacity. It's because of not only her ability to set up her teammates, certainly her ability to score. And she's the athletic point guard.

She's the point guard that can do it all. And on the women's side, where she's had to play, not just in the United States, but in Europe as well for a good portion of her career, as many of these women do, that longevity is even more astounding. Not much downtime for Sue Bird over the last couple of decades. So we'll hear from her coming up. But yes, in the span of a week, Serena Williams and Sue Bird both riding off into the sunset, moving on to the next phase of their lives and their careers. Pretty amazing to see the respect, not only from her opponents, the Las Vegas Aces, who eliminated the Seattle Storm in the playoffs last night, but also to hear the respect from them. Opposing coaches and players, not to mention her own.

And eventually you just run out of words. Again, a phenomenon we're experiencing with two different women in two very different sports in the span of a week. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yes, I'm back. If you're just waking up on your Wednesday morning, ow, come on, get after it. It's just a couple of days and we have football. We have football. We can see it. Now that we're staring downhill toward the weekend, we can see football coming on Thursday night. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

You need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family. Rocket can. Serena Williams, two matches on Wednesday and Friday, the second and third rounds at the US Open. Those were really the only sporting events that I was tuned into while I was going on vacation. I was monitoring. College football was on the tube, but it was my last chance to take off and to not have to be immersed in sports.

And so I did take advantage of that. By all standards, my vacation was the most boring that you could possibly imagine. It was pool time. It was a little shopping, a little cooking, a little baking with mom. It was reading a book.

Mom loves to read. So we did a bunch of reading in two chairs in the living room. We went out to dinner. I took lunch to her school and saw a bunch of her teacher friends. We went to church.

I mean, it was as boring as as life can possibly be. And yet I treasure those times with my mom because I don't get them very often. It was the first time that I saw her since Christmas. And having lost my grandmother just a couple months ago, it really does underscore how valuable the times are, especially since for 20 plus years I've lived away from my family.

It's kind of funny as I was. I was thinking about it really about Labor Day and how much I love my career, but also how many years I've invested in this career now, more than 25. And then I was thinking about that's how long I've lived away from my family. Once I moved out and went to grad school at Syracuse and then started my professional career, I never lived near my family again. I've followed the career wherever it's required me to go, and that's been all over the country in different parts of this grand USA. But it's taken me away from my family. And so as boring and completely undesirable my vacation for the majority of my vacation for the majority of human beings, it was exactly what I needed. And I really enjoyed it and did finally put the selfies up on Facebook. So you can check it out there after hours with Amy Lawrence and also on my Twitter A Law Radio. And thank you for your kind words about how I was missed.

Those are those are always nice to read. I appreciate that. In addition, if you have not yet joined us on Survivor Island, that's partly my fault, because it wasn't set up the right way. And I didn't know how to fix it. So I had to wait on producer J. But I was on vacation.

So you know, just you can do the math. So it's now fixed. We have an island for those of you who have played with us in the past. And we have a separate island because you know, someone called me a multimillionaire on Twitter on Tuesday, with all of my millions, I can buy a separate island.

So we've got a separate island for those of you who've never played before. What you need is a CBS sports login, and the link on our Twitter and Facebook pages. That's all you need. Facebook, Twitter, one or the other. Find the link.

It's there at after hours CBS, or on our Facebook page. And then you create a CBS sports login. And boom, you're in. Now I'm not going to remind you to pick. Maybe I'll remind you week number one, only because I haven't yet made my picks. In fact, I have two survivor pools that I'm joining. One with producer J.

We thought it'd be fun. We'll do an after hours survivor entry. And then survivor island.

I haven't made my pick yet either. And so I haven't done it. So I'll remind you to remind me.

But once you log in and you join us on survivor island, you are on your own, then it becomes cutthroat. And if you're not watching your back, I will shove you into the water and feed you to the sharks. By the way, two of my mom's teacher friends in Texas in the last three days had gigantic snakes in their houses. Okay, no thanks. I love Texas.

You're always good to me. And I fit in Texas more than I fit in New York City, just based on my personality and my background. But I cannot deal with year round spiders and year round snakes and year round bugs. Can't do it. My mom's husband was out doing a, he was burning, he had a burn pit. He was out burning some, some brush and some boxes. And he comes back with this photo of a spider that has yellow, it's yellow with black polka dots. Are you kidding me? I do not ever, ever, ever need to spider, see a spider that's gigantic. I mean, its legs had to be three inches long, gigantic spider with black polka dots on its yellow body. No, you lost me a yellow spider. I'm running the other direction. And then and then he wants to show me the picture and tell me how it's not venomous to humans.

Oh, okay, great. Still not touching that thing. I said, What did you do with it? Expecting that he killed it or that he threw it in the burn pit. He's like, I just left it alone. What? It's not gonna hurt me.

It's not venomous to humans. Oh, well, in that case, it's like hurting me mentally. Anyway, I love you, Texas. And thank you for being so good to me. And thank you to Spirit Airlines. I had zero travel problems. I was a little bit nervous because everyone I know has had travel problems this summer.

For the most part, except for producer Jay, he also lives a very charmed life. But to me, well, that and the fact that I pray for your travel, your travel so that you don't have to worry about it. But anyway, I did not have any travel problems at all. And so I was very grateful for that. It was a low key laid back and yet wonderful visit with mom.

So thanks for all of your kind words. As I say, we watched Serena Williams. And we enjoyed seeing the emotion and feeling the buzz and the excitement emanating from Arthur Ashe Stadium. When she started talking about her family, I got teary when she mentioned her sister. I started crying like a total dork. But I do appreciate that Serena is authentic and she's real and she's genuine.

And she earned this moment. Oh my god, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today.

I tried, but I just played a little bit better. Thank you, daddy. I know you're watching. Thanks, mom. Oh my god. I just thank everyone that's here, that's been on my side so many years, decades.

Oh my gosh, literally decades. But it all started with my parents and they deserve everything. So I'm really grateful for them. Oh my god, these are happy tears, I guess.

I don't know. And I wouldn't be Serena if it wasn't Venus. So thank you, Venus.

I mean, lost it. When she started talking about her mom, of course, that really gets to me because I was sitting there with my mom and my mom means the world to me. And then she mentions her sister.

I mean, amazing, but good for Serena Williams. She goes out with class and grace and she calls them happy tears. And she talks about what she has coming up next in her life after sleep. By the way, she posted a photo on Instagram of her sleep. I can't remember what blanket she was using. Oh gosh, I'll see if I can go find the picture.

She was using some funny blanket, but yeah, she's probably mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. I'm ready to like be a mom and explore a different version of Serena. And technically in the world, I'm still super young. So I want to like have a little bit of a life while I'm still walking. I mean, that's important, right? It's important. Tiger Woods talks about that, who by the way, was there at her second round victory.

He talks about wanting to be able to play with his kids and be able to walk and run and hang out with his kids without having to, without having to, you know, to be in pain all the time. It was Moana. She had a Moana blanket. I don't know, I'm assuming that's a hotel that she was sleeping in in New York or wherever she happened to be going, but that's what she did after losing in the third round and that emotional scene there on center court. And even she and Venus playing doubles one more time, also on center court. So she went second round match doubles and then back to her third round match.

And they were marathon matches, especially the one against Isla in the third round. And so just took everything that she had to give and she took a nap with her Moana blanket. So keeping in mind, those are happy tears, keeping in mind that as she's about to turn 41, she has so many years ahead of her in which she gets to finally be something other than a champion in tennis. She'll always be that, but she deserves the opportunity to explore some other part of her life. She's earned that.

I'm still super young. As has Sue Bird. And there is the transition. In a week, both Serena and Sue compete in their final serious competitions. We may see Serena in exhibitions, a lot of these tennis players do, and maybe we'll see Sue in some other capacity around basketball.

Maybe not. But she got to hear the fans not only chant her name, but serenade her as she walked off the court in her final WNBA moments. You feel sad about the season and the game. Or I felt sad about the season and the game. And I then think as the emotions started to come to the surface, you know, that's also what I know deep down and that that was my last game.

So it was a combination of those two things. But overall, it just feels kind of weird. I didn't really want to leave the court. It felt like that's where everybody was going.

So I just followed at first. But I also wanted to kind of have one last moment to say thank you. To, you know, soak it all in. Because in some ways it is a happy thing. You know, I'm proud of everything we've accomplished here. And of course I'm sad, but there's happiness too.

Both of them saying the same thing. I was struck by that. Happy tears for Serena.

And there's happiness for Sue. And everything that she's accomplished as the ultimate team player, a leader. And you're a quarterback when you're out there as a point guard.

The ones who do it right. You are essentially the same as a quarterback. And in many cases, you're an extension of the coach as well. And she always was that at UConn, right? An extension of Gino Auriemma where she won a pair of national championships with the Huskies. Then she gets into the WNBA and she and the Seattle Storm win four WNBA crowns. She is one of the most decorated Olympians in team sports ever.

Five gold medals with Team USA. She's also got European championships. And the reason I say I list all of these and talk about the team titles and the team accomplishments is because she's the common denominator. She's running them. She's the engine. She's the brain in many cases.

So she redefined the position and she'll redefine it for generations. And I've talked about this before with younger athletes who play with Tom Brady or against Tom Brady. Younger quarterbacks. I say the same thing about young golfers. So the next generation of golfers with Tiger Woods. We know Coco Goff and Naomi Osaka and other young tennis players grew up emulating and idolizing Serena Williams. And it's the same thing with Sue Bird. There is now a generation of young girls and young women who have been watching Sue Bird play for years.

That's who they wanted to be. That's why they play the sport. That legacy matters as much as championships, especially in women's sports.

Especially in women's sports for a bazillion reasons. And so congratulations to Sue. Congratulations to Serena. Tom Brady decided to un-retire, so we'll get to congratulate him again at some other point down the road.

But pretty astounding in the span of a week to see these two women in their final serious competitions. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, if you want to join us on Survivor Island. We've got a brand new link with a brand new island for those of you who are newbies. You don't want to wait though because time is running out. We are nearly staring down the barrel of the NFL season. I'm so excited. Facebook as well. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. My favorite thing about Mike Tomlin is something that we share. He never gives you the succinct version. Well, very rarely. Every now and then, we'll get a very cryptic answer or a curt answer from Mike Tomlin.

But it's not often. Usually when he answers a question, he trots out the vocabulary that no other NFL head coach has or employs. They definitely moved their units. And now, after watching them all move their units, Tomlin has finally let the rest of the world in on the secret.

Not a very well-kept secret. Mitch Trubisky is the starting QB. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. But if you missed it, the depth chart was revealed even before Tomlin made the announcement. It was Trubisky 1. It was Mason Rudolph 2. It was his rookie Kenny Pickett at number 3. It was a clerical error. That's how the depth chart was listed at the start of training camp. So the cut and paste component was the cut and paste component.

I know you were hoping for a little bit more colorful explanation, but it is what it is. That's what happened. Name one other coach. This is a legit question, not rhetorical. Name one other NFL head coach that you've ever heard talk about cutting and pasting. Just one.

I'll just take one. Any other NFL head coach who talks about clerical anything? The only other example of anything clerical that I can remember is going back 2014 maybe, 2014-15, when the Denver Broncos missed the deadline in the NFL office because something happened with their fax machine and their fax didn't get there when it was supposed to. And because of that, Elvis Dumerville did not resign with them.

He became a free agent. I think that was the case. I remember correctly. But it was a fax machine error. The cut and paste component was the cut and paste component. No one talked about cutting and pasting or a clerical error. Instead, it was a fax machine that screwed up. So the Broncos front office was trying to get Dumerville's agent to send in the offer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so this is the only time I've ever heard of a clerical error. In fact, I feel like in most places in 2022, clerical errors don't happen anymore.

Now spelling errors happen because people refuse to use spellcheck, but I don't know about clerical errors. It's easy just to blame it. Someone hacked him. He should have just said that.

I would have laughed my arse off. I got hacked. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So yes, in fact, Mitch Trubisky, he was the one who moved his unit the best. Mitch Trubisky is our starting quarterback and our captain. Man, we're just really comfortable with what Mitch has shown us. He's a guy that came to us with franchise quarterback experience, if you will.

He's comfortable in those shoes. He's been the focal point of a football team in an organization before. I am so, so excited for multiple press conferences per week with one Mike Tomlin.

Boy, you better knuckle up. I suppose, I suppose Mitch Trubisky too, but really to me, he plays second fiddle to Mike Tomlin's first fiddle, first chair. So that's just one quarterback storyline that we will watch. We're obsessed with our quarterbacks of course, which means that as we get into this first week, everywhere we look there'll be quarterback storylines. We've got rookies, brand new guys. We've got guys who are no longer rookies, but who are trying to take what they learned last year and spin it forward into something that looks more like a believable NFL starter.

For instance, Trevor Lawrence. I don't think, well, I shouldn't say this. I shouldn't say no one. I caught myself before I even said what I didn't want to say. Brain and mouth, not in sync. It's just right now, it's not happening.

Just, I apologize, but I've been up now for more than 24 hours essentially. So the Trevor Lawrence debate fascinates me because even before he was a sophomore in college for heaven's sakes, he was considered the overall number one draft pick at whatever point he left Clemson. And we've been crowning him this incredible NFL starter for years without seeing him take a snap in the pros.

And I still think he has all of the tools and all of the potential, but he had a brutal first season. He would say part of that was on him, but let's be honest, part of that was on the coaching and Urban Meyer and the fact that Urban Meyer and really anybody else in the Jags organization were not on the same page and did not speak the same language when he even bothered to get on the team playing to speak to them at all. Now he's got Doug Peterson, who not only is a former NFL QB himself, but has been a quarterback coach, an offensive coordinator, and a head coach who won a Super Bowl in large part due to the fact that he could take an offense that was led by an MVP candidate in Carson Wentz that year and could morph it to fit the guy who stepped in, who was really nothing like Carson Wentz, and that was Nick Foles.

This guy speaks the language. You can hear it when Trevor Lawrence talks about him and you can hear it when Doug Peterson speaks about Trevor Lawrence. Now this one we stole from a conversation with his former QB in Green Bay on Sirius XM NFL Radio.

That would be Brett Favre. He's such a mature young individual. Nothing really fazes him. Honestly, Brett, he kind of reminds me of you that way.

Nothing really fazes you when things got a little sideways. You were always the same yesterday and today, and that's the way Trevor is. Trevor doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low, and I think that's a great quality to have in a quarterback. He's got so much talent. You do feel like you're starting over just a little bit, but what you understand too is that he played last year as a rookie. He played in NFL games, meaningful games. How he's really come through that and with all the adversity that the team went through last year, he's such a mature individual. From a football standpoint, yeah, we took it slow in the offseason, making sure he understood everything that we were trying to get done, our philosophy here in Jacksonville, and then we kind of sped it up in training camp and threw as much at him as we could and he's handled it extremely well. So to hear Doug Peterson talk about that quality with Trevor Lawrence and to recognize that there's no panic around Trevor, whether this new coaching staff or his teammates, even though the interceptions were, in Trevor Lawrence terms, were brutal, were astronomical. That's along the lines of what Peyton Manning did his rookie year, right, which Peyton likes to remind us. It was a low bar to start and it certainly wasn't meeting the lofty expectations that people had for him when he was at Clemson and when he was getting ready to come out.

And you know what, same thing with say, we're thinking about, I mean it happens a lot, right? The expectations are so sky high that regardless of what an athlete does, he could come out and have an incredible rookie season and not win a title and somehow all of that is lost. All the learning, all of the wisdom and experience that was gleaned, all of that becomes really just a waste.

It's such, I hate that storyline, I hate that narrative. There is value in losing. Yoda tells me that all the time, that failure, the best teacher is, no, failure the best teacher is, there we go, failure the best teacher is.

But it's not just Yoda, it's a fact of life, lest you think I take all of my wisdom from contrived movie characters, even the greats. It's true, we learned the most in failure and I feel like the idea that he isn't going to get better or that what he did last year was such an unmitigated disaster, well it wasn't a winning team to be sure and it was painful at times, but the team kept going, kept working despite all of the curveballs that were thrown at them with the coach that didn't know what he was doing, maybe didn't care what he was doing and so he's going to be able to wrap all of that into what he does this season with a coach who speaks his language and I love that. I mean the idea that it's all a failure or that he's not going to be a potentially an elite quarterback, I hope that he puts all of that to rest this season because I do believe, maybe not in the Jaguars as a playoff team this year, but I do believe they're going to push teams and I believe in Trevor Lawrence as a quarterback, as a starting quarterback who will eventually be one of those that we go gaga over again.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, if you want to join us on Survivor Island, whether you're new or whether you're returning, either one, we're glad to have you. We've got just hours to go before the NFL season kicks off. How is that possible? Do you think we can all be as excited as Bill Belichick?

Because I'm telling you what, when he gets excited, watch out. You'll hear that next. You may never hear anything like it again as long as you live. I've covered it.

So on Twitter, on our Facebook page too, join us on Survivor Island. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Good hitters count, the 2-0. Swung on, ripped to right field.

There's Brown in his tracks. He's got it. Tagging, coming to the plate and scoring is Acuna. Zach Klein for Austin Riley, his 89th RBI of the year, and the Braves back on top 10-9. 1-2, bitch.

Swung on, missed, strike three. And with 26 games left in the season, the Braves have caught the Mets and are in a tie for first place in the National League East. For the A's and the 9th, no runs, no hits, no errors, none left. And the Braves win it by a final score of 10-9 as they put a very wild one in the win column and have finally caught New York.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The Atlanta Braves have reeled in the New York Mets, but it wasn't easy for them either on Tuesday night in the Bay Area. Their best pitcher, Kyle Wright, allowed eight runs season high for him. It might have been a career high actually, eight runs for him, but Atlanta scored 10 runs on 13 hits and so breaking the tie in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly and then hanging on for that victory in the Bay Area. On Braves radio, that's Jim Powell, 147 days and they finally catch up with the Mets. Now, is it over?

Heck to the no. In fact, I hope it goes all the way to the last day of the regular season like Giants and Dodgers did last year. But still, some neat storylines coming out of this one because Matt Olson had his return to the Oakland Coliseum, which is of course where he did the bulk of his damage.

I mean, he's been a really good addition to the Braves, but more people know him from his time with the Oakland A's and a three-run home run for the fans, the, I don't know, five fans who showed up to see him. A little different being on the other side, but you know, we played a good game and it's a good win right there. You know, I've been talking about us winning different ways and that was a good one. This is a race that last year turned out to be no contest, right? So once the Mets had been caught, they didn't have enough offense, they didn't have enough firepower to make it a race. They had used up everything they had just to stay on top of the NL East into August of 2021. By the time the Braves and the Phillies caught them and passed them, it was done.

They were out of gas. That's not the case this year. The Mets and Braves right now, identical records, 85 and 51.

Yes, the Mets have dropped three in a row, the Braves have won six straight and seven of their last 10, but I do not believe this race is over. We wait to see what happens with Max Scherzer, but it sounds like he's going to go ahead and make his next scheduled start though. Listed it day to day with, side fatigue. They come up with all kinds of new injuries for baseball players. There's side fatigue. I had that every afternoon when I wake up. Side fatigue. Same thing with neck impingements. I've been dealing with this neck impingement for the last two months, although man alive, it was not nearly, in fact, almost not even noticeable, negligible over the last five days because I slept and there was no stress. No stress. That's the beauty of a boring vacation. No stress.

Spent time in the pool. It's almost like it's healed completely. So I guess it's not a tumor. My mom gets so mad at me. I keep saying, mom, what if it's a tumor?

And she hears me, then she yells at me. It's not a tumor. Not a tumor.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, for those of you who know that reference. That was pretty good. Thank you. And so anyway, I don't know how I got on that. My point is only that Jay and I have these types of of side fatigues and neck impingements every day when we wake up. Many of you do as well. And yet somehow we still manage to do our jobs.

We make it in. Baseball players are so soft. Many of them are cream puffs. Let's be honest.

Not all of them, but many of them are cream puffs. And sometimes I think they just decide they don't need to work 162 days. And so they, they come up with some reason why we gotta be super cautious. Baseball sometimes sucks. Anyway, Mets and Braves now tied.

The wildcard races will be great in both the AL and the NL. I am sure Yankees were rained out last night. So the Rays and the Blue Jays both had an opportunity to pick up some, some ground, some territory, try to reel in the New York Yankees.

You really starts getting the feel for those pitches. And the O2 pitch hammered straight away center field to his left Hernandez, back to the warning check, to the wall, gone! A three run homer for Randy Rosarena and right out of the gates, the Rays have a three nothing lead.

Five runs on nine hits against Rich Hill with the Rays hosting the Red Sox. And that's exactly what Kevin Cash wanted. He wanted his guys to come out with the hot bats early.

So it was contagious. We probably did right by ourselves, not letting Rich get settled in and we saw how good he can be when he gets on a roll. But we had, I'd like to think we made some adjustments.

We were ready and we squared some balls up early on. So that's the Rays now within four and a half games of the New York Yankees. Four and a half games. It has been steadily shrinking. And I still say it's the Yankees division to lose.

It's right in front of us. Over the weekend, just because there were a few articles or different links that I wanted to make sure I didn't miss or share with Producer J when I got back, I was reading a little bit about the numbers with the Rays and the Yankees. The Yankees were ahead by 10 games in this division, not even a month ago. 10 games, not even a month ago. Mid-August they were up by 10 games and it's now down to four and a half.

In July, pre All-Star break, the Yankees led the AL East by 15 games. It's just, okay, think about it in the span of say a basketball game. When a team goes down by 20, you know how much energy they expend just trying to climb back into it so that they're within striking distance. And then maybe ultimately fall short or come up short because they used everything they had in the tank just to pull even. That's kind of the idea here with the Yankees, the Rays, and the Blue Jays. We'll see what happens moving forward.

There's still plenty of time. And maybe the Yankees don't ever reignite their offense. Maybe that's the case and the Rays are able to not just reel them in but bypass them, which would be stunning. You want to talk about the story of the decade in baseball.

Oi! But it's not just the Rays, it's also the Blue Jays. And Blue Jays, by the way, are battling another AL East opponent, Baltimore.

Nine miles an hour. Chapman couldn't get to it. A strikeout for Baker who minimizes the damage. Runners were on the, whoa, and now we got some jawline going back and forth. Baker snapped back at the Blue Jays and the bench is clear.

Coach is separating the players out in front of the mound. Boy, did that ever escalate quickly. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. being restrained over towards the third baseline. Gray meets White in the middle of the diamond and Guerrero and Hernandez are incensed.

They are hot. These are two clubs that are in the thick of it and feeling the pressure of a playoff race. Things escalated very quickly. It wasn't a lot of jawing. It was a sprint by both benches right into the middle of the diamond.

I'm not laughing at men behaving badly. It's just benches clearing conversations in baseball are kind of tame. So all that to point out, the sense of urgency is much higher. The tensions are a lot higher and you get the seventh inning chirping and then you end up seeing Baltimore score five runs in the third to get the victory. And so the, this race is more about, well for Baltimore anyway, it's more about wildcard, right? It's more about them continuing to measure themselves against teams in the American League East who are better than they are, but also trying to reel in the Blue Jays. I feel like I've been using that fishing analogy all night to catch the Blue Jays who right now are sitting in the number three spot in the AL wildcard race. So it's Tampa Bay, it's Seattle and then it's Toronto and Baltimore is three and a half out. So this is huge. It's huge for them to go toe-to-toe with the other teams in the AL East where for so long they've been the team that was in the bottom of that division and other teams would kind of chalk up wins against them like the Yankees. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio promised you two things. The other sporting event that my mom and I watched while I was on vacation, Albert Pujols has at bat his 695th home run. Amazing. We're now on Albert watch and I promised you that you could hear how excited Bill Belichick is for the start of the NFL season. Are you ready?

I don't, you may not believe this. I'm not sure I've ever heard him this excited. The question was about whether he still after all these years as a head coach gets excited for the start of football. Yeah, I like football. I like football season and all the things that go with it.

I need to hear it again. I'm not sure I can, I feel like I lost his words and all of the the buzz and the anticipation that you can feel emanating from Belichick. Yeah, I like football. I like football season and all the things that go with it.

The man's excited. Remember when your kindergarten teacher told you there was no such thing as a stupid question? Belichick is the antithesis of that.

He thinks all of your questions are stupid. I like football. I like everything that comes with football. I like football season. Dummy.

Okay, Bill Belichick also in mid-season. We don't have time for that. Enjoy your Wednesday. We're back tonight. I'm never going on vacation again. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. Boom!