After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

Well, that's perfect on a night when the field of dreams is the center of the Major League Baseball universe. I don't know if it will have the same ratings as the two NFL preseason games. I teased you guys last week because we had the Hall of Fame game from Canton that really started off the NFL preseason and it dominated the night on TV. Didn't matter what else was on TV. We were all in on a game at Canton which, by the way, is not that dissimilar in terms of the atmosphere and the more intimate type of setting than what we got at the field of dreams in Dyersville just a few hours ago. So yes, NFL, even NFL preseason, tends to dominate among sports fans but I hope you did not miss this or you'll catch it on MLB Network or on some of the various outlets like YouTube or social media to see the highlights, especially the Griffies. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page. It's named after the show. So is our YouTube channel. You hear producer Jay say that is what keeps him coming back to work. It's what he lives for. So for heaven's sakes, the man spent a week in jail.

Make him happy. Please find our YouTube channel After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We are live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

When you need certainty in the home buying process with a loan that fits your life, Rocket can. And the 3-2 pitch on the way. Swing and a miss. Strike three and the ball game is over. The Cubs win the ball game. Rowan Wicks strikes out Matt Reynolds. Gains the save.

Bruce Smiley will get the win. And the Cubs defeat Cincinnati by a score of four to two. It's just it's so cool. It honestly coming in from the airport brought me back to summer ball and Midwest. I grew up in Pittsburgh, so we would drive to Ohio, to Indiana, to Illinois, to Michigan and play summer ball tournaments. And so, you know, pulling up through the cornfields into a place like this and being able to play baseball brings back a lot of those memories. Pretty much every player, every coach, the managers, the fans, even the broadcasters themselves raved about the atmosphere and the nostalgia. As well as the opportunity to be in a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa for the second Field of Dreams game between the Cubs and the Reds. The final call there with Pat Hughes on Cubs radio. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're pleased to welcome from Dyersville, now that his work is done, Trent Rosecrance, who covers the Reds for the Athletic.

Trent, I'm just going to start out because I want to get your thoughts on this. What was it like to be there for a baseball game at the Field of Dreams? You know, it was cool. It was, I mean, that's probably an understatement. And I'm supposed to make my money with words and that's not.

I'm having trouble like doing it. There are so many emotions that brought that I did not realize it would. And I think partially is that I lost my father in February and he loved this movie. We shared baseball, you know, the whole thing that the movie is about. That was a big part of our relationship. Last year when they had this game, I know he watched every second of it, loved it. And when it was announced that the Reds were going to be there, he was super excited.

And I know he knew at that point that he wasn't going to be able to go, but he was really hoping it was something he could experience through me. And, you know, it's funny that just the father-son parallels that go through it. You know, we talked about he and his father bonding over the movie and he lost his father 14 years ago and what it meant for him to play here.

You know, talking to David Bell, who is a third generation major leaguer. And then before the game, I was in the trailer with Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. We were talking a little bit. And it was just, it was a complete, like, you almost have to remind me that there was a game played. And I don't really remember anything about the game, but I remember so much about the event. Well, thank you for sharing that with us, for sure. And you're right, there are a lot of emotions around this for a lot of people. David Bell doing an interview on TV and getting emotional before the game when Ken Rosenthal asked him about his brother who he lost to cancer last year.

So I appreciate you sharing that with us, Trent. It still feels so significant that we're able to get an actual baseball game out there. And nowhere else in the world would it make any sense for athletes to walk out of a cornfield.

And yet it's so perfect there in Dyersville, Iowa. Yeah, and to walk and to kind of do it yourself. You know, I got to walk through a cornfield into the movie set field. It was really, it was cool. On the movie set, Jordan Bastian, who writes for MLB.com, covers the Cubs. He and I had a game of catch and I brought my glove. He brought his glove. I felt like a goober bringing my glove, but I'm glad I did. It's interesting that baseball and really this facility makes all of those options available where you wouldn't get that on a major league field.

Why is that, do you think? It's the spirit of the movie. They build this, you know, a stadium that you can play Major League Baseball on for one game.

There's only 7000 people here. Joey Votto talked about it after the game. He says it kind of felt like a minor league game in a way like it was a minor league game, but it felt like a minor league game. But yet it had a lot of similarities to an all star game. It was just that dichotomy and it was really amazing. And I know it's funny, you hear the people are like, well, last year was so much better. And yeah, what a great game last year was the first time. But I don't think you can be here in person and not feel moved by it.

Yeah, it's not so much about the game. It's about the atmosphere and about the nostalgia that surrounds that whole place. Trent Rosecrans covered the Field of Dreams game between the Reds and the Cubs. Still there in Dyersville, Iowa, and is joining us here after hours on CBS Sports Radio. I was pretty blown away when I saw the Griffey's walk out of the cornfield. That gave me chills to hear Ken Griffey Jr. say to his dad, hey, Dad, want to have a catch? You had a chance to talk to Ken Griffey Jr. before the game.

So what did he have to say about the experience? You know, Ken got to do a lot of things, but he was having fun with it. It was fun to be with his dad. You know, it was it was neat. And he flew in today and, you know, his dad kind of did some interviews and signed some autographs and was around.

You know, they're they're fathers and sons. We all have our times together. And it's oh, it was me.

Ken was really relaxed and he was going to have fun with it. I had to correct him on the line. He's like, oh, yeah, I just got to say one line. Hey, you want to play catch? I was like, no, no, no, no.

You got to you want to have a catch. OK, so what is Ken Griffey Jr. up to now? He's working for Major League Baseball.

And so he's he's been all over the U.S. You know, it's so many of the youth games and some of that youth outreach. And that's really important to him is growing the game with with the next generation. It's a passion of his, which is funny because both of his sons played college football. And we're not baseball players. But like, you know, like my dad never pushed me to any sport. He never pushed his kids any sport. And his kids grew up in baseball, but love playing football.

And but, you know, the game is still important to him and it's given him so much and he loves it so much. I don't know. Here is this is kind of a weird story, but I was talking with Ken and had his. Oh, you got your glove to have it there. And he's like, yeah.

And I put it in. He's like, well, you do it with the two hands and two fingers in the pinky. I'm like, what are you talking about? I was like, that's how you should do it.

And like so we have this discussion like who who gets this opportunity? So finger Junior puts his two is pinky and the ring finger in the pinky section of the glove. So the last one. Oh, the middle finger in the ring finger slot leaves the next one open. And then the in the fastback, the finger on the back of the glove. And he's like, do this.

I did it because it closes easier. Right. I'm like, yeah. And he's like, also the pocket. Feel the pocket.

You're not going to get the bone bruise there. And I'm like, I'm 46 years old. And Ken Griffey Junior just taught me how to wear a baseball. That's really neat. Oh, my goodness. Where else would that happen? Except for the Field of Dreams. That's fitting. Trent Rose Krantz is covering the game at the Field of Dreams in Iowa for the athletic and follows the Cincinnati Reds, which maybe have had an unremarkable season except for this unbelievable experience.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. It's kind of interesting to to think about Ken Griffey Jr. and his impact on baseball and now going back to his MVP season, which was what late 90s. So those Mariners who haven't been back to the playoffs since then, his Cincinnati Reds years. But I say this a lot about the current generation of sports fans, Trent, that you guys are sad saps. If you didn't see Michael Jordan play, if you didn't see Joe Montana throw a football.

Well, we're getting to the point where there's a hell of a lot of sports fans out there did not see Ken Griffey Jr. in that sweet swing of his dominate at the plate. It's unreal. You know, and you and I probably had the same thing when the Michael Jordan documentary came out. And we were just like, we knew all this. And it blew my mind because they're all the kids. You're like, like for me, it was like a refresher course. And I'm like, hey, did you know about this?

Yeah, of course. And you like, oh, my gosh, I'm old. This is my dad talking about Mickey Mantle. I'm talking about Michael Jordan and Ken Griffey Jr. Oh, my God, I'm an old man. Oh, still, I wouldn't trade it, though, because they missed out. These younger kids missed out on seeing some of the greatest of all time. I wouldn't have traded it.

Nope, not at all. One of my other favorite stretches of the broadcast on Fox is when John Smoltz was miked up with Joey Votto. Now, interestingly enough, we just saw these types of exchanges at the All-Star game, but not in the middle of a game that counted. So I was fascinated by the way that Joey was able to actually figure out what he was doing out there on the field and still carry on a conversation. And of course, they talked to him about the fact that he's a quote unquote old man and he's spanned a couple of different eras.

I'm not sure if you had a chance to hear the conversation. His time with the Reds, obviously, he's seen so much. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. What does he mean to that franchise and the fact that he's still there, Trent? Yeah, I think Tony has a weird spot in the franchise because in some ways he's been underappreciated for just how great he is. And I mean, think about it.

You talk about spanning. Ken Griffey Jr. is out there. When Joey Votto was a rookie and debuted, he was on the same field as Ken Griffey Jr. Wow. In 2007.

I want to hear another crazy one. I'm looking out into the stands and you would see, like I saw Sean Casey, I saw George Foster. I looked down and saw Carlos Zambrano and he was with Giovanni Soto. Giovanni Soto was the winner of the 2008 National League Rookie of the Year. Giovanni Soto was second place. Giovanni Soto hasn't played since 2017.

Whoa. He's now at 38 years old. They were talking to him about whether or not he will continue playing. And he mentioned actually having a conversation with Ken Sr. about the fact that Ken played into his 40s. Considering where the Reds are, does he ever talk about how it's maybe not worth it to go through another stretch like this where they're trying to find their footing in baseball?

No. Joe is, he's a different cat and he is, he has a focus. He has, I will never cover anybody else like Joey Votto.

I don't know that anybody will. He, I usually joke that you could tell me anything about Joey and I'd believe it. Anything he puts his mind to, he can do. He's just one of a kind. Heck, I just finished writing about all this experience and his words off the top of his head were better than what I could write, writing down. And I'm supposed to be a professional writer and this guy who's one of the greatest, probably the greatest pure hitter of his generation is better at that than I am.

And that's really annoying. What did he say? He talked about like, you'll have to go, it's in the pregame and it was unbelievably, he was talking about like the, how it resonated, being here, he and his dad. And he talked about the act of playing catch and how it is kind of a relationship that, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's two people and you're trying to help the other person.

You want to throw it right where they can catch it so that they can continue this. And just the kind of symbiosis and it was just this soliloquy that the mental state I was in kind of had me fearing up and I don't know. And I, you know, it sent me thinking about all the places where, you know, growing up where we moved and I would play catch with my dad, you know, it was, it was just special. After the game, he tweeted, thank you Dyersville, Iowa. What an all time experience. You built it. We came with a heart emoji.

Now, any man that will use a heart emoji is a man after my own heart, but he, for him to be around for this experience. I mean, he's nearly 39. Actually, I said he's 38, but he's got a birthday, not that far down the road. I mean, to be able to say now that he played in this game too, I mean, that's, that's the type of experience that only so many guys will get in major league baseball. Yeah, it's just a phenomenal career. And, you know, like you got to see him play in home in Toronto this year and hit a home run there.

It's, it's crazy. I've been there since his first hit, which was a home run in 2007 and to watch this career pretty much the whole way. It's been sort of privilege and they get to have so many great stories that he's given to me and made me look good. It's, it's, it's, it's been quite the honor and I'm really excited. I was in Cooperstown last year and I was in Cooperstown when Kendrick and Jr. got in and there's, there'll be no keeping me away in six, seven, eight, nine years.

Before I let you go, Trent, we've talked a lot about him and Ken, obviously your experience. In the words of some of the younger guys, even the Hispanic players who maybe didn't see the movie or it wasn't a big part of their heritage growing up. How did they feel about playing there?

They all thought it was really cool. I talked to Jose Barreiro, who's Cuban. Also, again, the son of a professional baseball player, his dad is a legend in Cuba. And he talked about how cool it was and like, he wasn't really sure of it.

I also talked to, here's a great story and I'll write about this probably later this week. Each team got a 27th, an extra roster spot for this because of the travel and whatnot. The Reds called up Chucky Robinson, who is 27. He's a catcher. The Reds got him from the Astra out of the Astra system two years ago. Career minor leaguer. This was his first ever call up. First time he's on the 40 man roster. And he was called up just for this game.

Wow. He'll, he'll, he'll be joining the bats in Des Moines later this week. But the Reds pinch hit for starting catcher Michael Papierski in the seventh. Oh no, for starting catcher Austin Romine in the seventh and then put in Michael Papierski. Papierski was coming up fourth in that inning in the ninth. And he had, he had Alejo Lopez was on deck for him when the final out was made. Well, if the reds had tied it, Chucky was going to make his big league debut game as a 27th man.

Get sent down without having a, probably without having an, a bat like moonlight Graham. So I asked Chucky if he'd ever seen the movie and he goes, no, I haven't. And I tell him this, I tell him, well, there's a player, but my grandma gets in the game just, it's a game never gets to that bad as a defensive replacement.

And he never gets in that bad ever. It goes, oh, that could have been me. And so like, honestly, like, you know, I cover the game for, I cover the game. I, I'm not rooting for teams or anything. I was rooting for a tie game because I really wanted Chucky and I was like, I'm going to be writing about Chucky if this happens. And it was funny, I was sitting in Bobby Nightingale and he knows my, my love of talking to catchers.

And he was like, well, what happens when somebody hits the walk off homerun? I don't care. I'm not going to write about that. I'm going to write about Chucky because I care about that.

I don't know. Those are the fun things that you just kind of think of and get excited about because I'm a big dork. Oh, well, it's a perfect night to be a big dork, especially if it has to do with being on the field from the field of dreams and all of that nostalgia and surrounded by other people who would say the same thing about those feelings. And Trent, thank you again for sharing your personal memories, your personal story with your dad.

You can find Trent Rosecrans on Twitter at C Trent covers the reds for the athletic, but for tonight, carried away, transported to a different world in Dyersville, Iowa. It's really good to catch up with you. Thank you so much for sharing your personal perspective.

Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. Just over 30 years ago, Kevin Costner, starring in the movie that turned into not only an indelible piece of pop culture, but really changed the way that a lot of people see baseball. And now to be able to use that set, that field, that cornfield for actual baseball games, it, as I say, transports the players as well as the fans to a different world. A stroke of genius. I don't know who came up with it, but it's brilliant.

Unfortunately, they will not be able to return in 2023 because there's construction taking place. We heard that earlier in the week, but if you're watching the broadcast, you saw they had a clip from the original movie where Kevin Costner is throwing BP to Ray Liotta to the late Ray Liotta, his character. And he throws him a curveball after kind of talking about the fact that he couldn't hit a curveball. And not only does he hit the curveball, but he hits it right back at Costner, who was on the mound, and Costner ducks and the ball careens into the bag of baseballs that he was pulling from.

And he makes the quip of, oh yeah, you can hit a curveball. And Costner, in paying tribute to Liotta, does this voiceover on the Fox broadcast in which he said that whole scene was organic. It was not scripted.

It was not a stunt. It happened exactly like that. And they kept it in the movie. So that was really neat after having lost Ray Liotta earlier in the year. Yeah, yeah. You can hit the curveball. I need to go back and watch the movie now. I can imagine there's going to be a run on people getting it on demand. Really neat to see the Cubs and the Reds appreciate the setting too.

It was more than just a Major League Baseball game in a cornfield, and nowhere else does that make sense. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Still have a long way to go, but we're getting closer to our Friday, as we say here.

Happy almost Friday! It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I am because I've been sitting in my car, listening to your show, waiting to talk to you on the phone for about 30 minutes now.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Our interview ran a little long, and so we have a shorter segment here, but it seems like the perfect opportunity to tell you about the move that the NBA has just made. I really like this stand that's taken by the association. Bill Russell's number six will be retired all across the league, similar to what Major League Baseball has done with Jackie Robinson's number. All 30 teams in the NBA will retire his number six jersey, and it's the first time the NBA has ever made a move like this one to have a jersey retired league-wide. We get the reaction from former NBA player Antonio Daniels. I think this is a true testament to who Bill Russell was as a man. As a man.

Throw the basketball stuff out the door. What he had to endure to be great. What he had to play through to be great in a city where he wasn't appreciated anywhere outside of those four lines.

But he still brought it. He still brought it to the tune of 11 championships. I think this is the ultimate honor and very, very, very well deserved by the late, great Bill Russell. So Bill Russell, of course, played in Boston, and as Antonio Daniels himself was an NBA champion, he points to the success of Bill Russell. And we talked about Bill when he passed away and the fact that his legacy and his impact is not just about what he did on the court. Of course, we went through all of that.

So I like this move. There certainly are other ways that the NBA has honored him. The NBA Finals MVP Award is named after Bill Russell.

He wasn't able to be there either in Boston or in Golden State when the award was handed out this year to Steph Curry. But the fact that he himself has his name on the award and that he was an 11 time NBA champion, that he was a five time MVP, that he is, of course, in the Hall of Fame. These are other ways that Bill Russell will be remembered. But to have his number retired speaks to the fact that he was a pioneer and a trailblazer and that his path was hard. You know, we glorify Jackie Robinson and there's a movie about him, 42. We can talk about how difficult it was for him or what it must have been like for him to break that color barrier in baseball. And similar to Bill Russell, who was the first ever player coach and the first ever African-American head coach in the NBA.

But until you would ever walk those specific shoes and along those specific paths, there's no way to really understand. I mean, I said this to you when Bill Russell died. In reading about him, I was blown away to discover that he was at Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. He was there in attendance, right? He was at various events that featured Muhammad Ali, who was also known for his unpopular stance very often when it came to social justice and wanting equality for all races and for all ethnicities. So to honor Bill Russell in this way is significant because it's not just about the basketball. It's about the fact that he was also on the front lines and he was breaking color barriers. And so I like the move because it seems similar to what baseball has done to recognize the path that Jackie Robinson walked was not an easy one. And really, he was the one who could do it.

How many other guys got to that point but didn't continue on, didn't break through? It had to be Jackie Robinson. It had to be Bill Russell. So I really appreciate that the NBA is taking this step.

It had been suggested by others, but as you hear from Antonio Daniels, this was the man who was tough enough, who was determined enough, who refused to take no for an answer, refused to turn back, and maybe was even motivated by the racism and the discrimination that he experienced in his own city, even as Boston sports fans were celebrating all the championships that he was the catalyst for. So Antonio Daniels on Sirius XM, NBA radio, and this move for Bill Russell will kick in immediately for the upcoming NBA season. All right, you can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Thanks for hanging out with us and checking out our social media as well. Also on our Facebook page, now still ahead, we've got an extensive edition of QB News because we're off and running in the NBA preseason. We've also got what I will entitle What Jay Missed While He Was Gone.

And this is not sports headlines. This is a collection of the audio that we compiled in the last week that is potentially going to be inducted into the After Hours Hall of Flame. He needs to know, you guys, he needs to know. And so I've instructed him, you did not cheat, did you, producer Jay?

I did not cheat at all. So Jay has access to the audio, but he swears to me that he did not listen to it ahead of time. So we'll do that coming up next hour as well. But we did have more than one. We had two, you guys, because that's more than one.

That was such hyperbole there. We had two NFL preseason games on Thursday night. One of them taking place in New England, but there was another that featured the Ravens. Yeah, not Lamar Jackson, sorry. But as they were hosting the Titans, we saw the rookie Malik Willis, the Tennessee quarterback.

At least QB won on this night and got to hear from him after his first preseason snaps. Might totally eat chicken wings. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. I want to eat chicken wings with Mike Tomlin. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. If you want a physical presence, I think Mike can bring it.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I would say he made the team, Malik Willis, going back to his pre-draft experience. And as we now know, he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans, and he saw his first taste of preseason action on Thursday evening. So Titans, Ravens taking place in Baltimore, and Malik Willis goes 6 for 11 with 107 yards and a couple of sacks in there as well. So welcome to the NFL rookie.

You're a highlight from WKRN News 2 in Tennessee. Well, how was it, Malik Willis? It's not the result you're looking for, but we're blessed to have the opportunity to go out there and play some football. I mean, you got a lot to learn from. You got a lot to look at on film. So I guess it's really cool to get out there again and play football. Yeah, I missed some things probably, and I just made up for it with my legs. I can't continue to, like, you know, rely on that, though, but that's what the preseason is for. So you just see those things against a lot of defense. And one we hadn't played before, you know, with the joint practices next week, we'll have an opportunity to play these guys.

But like you say, you just got to look at the film, take it for what it's worth, and continue to work. I mean, we're in the middle of camp. It's against my religion to give you preseason NFL scores. But like it's against my religion to give you spring training scores, I refuse. The games do not matter. I don't ever give you all-star game scores either.

I might tell you who wins for the MVP purposes. But I appreciate that the rookie quarterback first notes it's not the result they were looking for. Nah, nah, nah.

He needs to learn. Your success in the preseason is a direct correlation to your lack of success in the regular season. For instance, if you go 4-0 in the preseason, you're doomed to have a season in which you're below.500.

I'm convinced that that's how it works the majority of the time. So don't you worry, Malik Willis. But yes, welcome to the NFL. And so we're going to see a lot of talk about whether or not Malik can take that job from Ryan Tannehill. We'll hear from Ryan Tannehill after the top of the hour as part of an extended QB news.

Because Producer Jay is back. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio, also on Facebook and YouTube. And then you can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Good to connect with so many of you this week.

Our phone number, 855-212-4227. Let's talk to Josh, who's in Portland. Welcome to the show. Hey, ALaw. First of all, I think you do a great job.

I consistently listen to you right after I listen to JR. You both absolutely crush it. My question to you is in regards to the NBA's decision to retire the number six across the league, which I completely agree with. I think they absolutely had a good decision doing that. But the ability to allow current players wearing the number six to continue to wear that jersey, I think, opens up the NBA to controversy that didn't need to exist. I think they should have just retired it in absolute and not allowed any other players. Because now, if I'm looking at NBA.com, the top three players currently wearing number six are Lebron James, Alex Caruso, Kristaps Porzingis. And then beyond that, there's players that probably only local people would know what team those guys are attached to. How does this fall out if one of those big time names decide, I'm going to retire this myself?

And then another guy says, I'm not going to. I'm going to wear it in honor of. And has the NBA opened up some kind of a window to controversy via allowing this to continue?

No, no, no, no, no, no, it has not. And I'll bring up the example of Jackie Robinson in Major League Baseball. I understand what you're saying, but the players who were wearing that iconic number 42 at the time were allowed to continue wearing it until they were done. And the guy that wore it last and wore it, I think, with the most grace and class, as well as represented Jackie Robinson with his performance was Mariano Rivera.

And you would never want to take that away from him. He's a Hall of Famer. It's a guy that, you know, is a household name at the time he was pitching. I mean, whether you were a Yankees fan or not, you understood what Mariano Rivera meant to Major League Baseball. So I understand not every guy who wore 42 at the end was playing at the caliber or the level or a Hall of Famer like Rivera.

But it doesn't matter. I feel like that's the road that the NBA should take. And there are other players, in case you didn't know, in baseball who still wore 42 even after it was retired. So it was retired in 1997, first uniform number for baseball to be retired across the sport. But for instance, I remember with the Red Sox, Movan won it or, excuse me, wore it for another year before he retired.

He was actually the last black player in baseball history to have 42 as his uniform number. So you never know, to use your term, what's going to fall out by allowing these guys to continue wearing it. But to me, it's actually, it's source of pride for these guys to say, hey, I was the last one to wear it in the league.

And I think for that reason, they'll represent it well. I would hope that that's the case, but I guess I would question, given the current, I guess, societal pressures that we live in. No, no, no, no, no. If LeBron James says, I'm going to also retire number six, but a different player decides not to. Who cares? I just don't think it matters. I think you're creating some controversy where it doesn't have to be. The point is, the point is that number, the point is that Bill Russell's number, once it's no longer in use by the players who are currently use it now, it will become unavailable. That's the point.

But the guys who are currently wearing it, again, this is something that's a source of pride for them, too, if they know anything about their NBA history. OK, cool, Josh. Good to talk to you. Bob is in Rhode Island. Bob, welcome to After Hours. Yes, I wanted to call about Bill Russell even before you spoke about him.

OK. But I want to say this, that Hal, thank God for Hal DeJulio, because he was the only one to offer Bill Russell a scholarship. And Bill Russell said when he offered the scholarship that he needed to make the most of it. And he certainly did. And what happened is the first year when he was with the University of San Francisco, and they won 28 or 29 games, they won the whole championship. He was MVP of the Final Four. They picked someone else from North California to be the North California Player of the Year. And at that point, the racism of it, he decided at that point on that he would only focus on team titles, not individual statistics, because he didn't want to die a bitter old man. And look what happened.

And now this is great that this is happening. Yes, I would agree with that. I like to move by the NBA. It's not as though it came out of left field because it certainly was one that was talked about because of his impact both on and off the court, similar to Jackie Robinson, because of the barriers that he smashed through. But it's good that the NBA makes it official. I want to say that he found the other reason that he picked a very poor player because he said he had atrocious fundamentals and bigger scoring. He said he felt he had this extra instinct in basketball, especially in the clutch. Imagine that. Imagine that this guy spotted this despite the fact that the guy could barely put the ball in the basket. Barely at his size. I mean, that's great.

I love it. Bill Russell obviously was not a Hall of Famer because of his scoring. If I remember correctly, his career average was not that much more than 15 points per game, but he was a tenacious rebounder and really changed rebounding, defensive rebounding specifically. In the NBA after that. Bob, we have to let you go because we're at the top of the hour, but thank you so much for that recollection, that memory from Rhode Island.

855-212-4227. Our call before that, Josh in Portland referenced players in the NBA who are wearing No. 6. Right now there are 25 players, including LeBron James, who wore No. 6 last season and the NBA, as I pointed out, will allow these guys to continue to do that until they change their minds or they're out of the league. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio.