10-7-21 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Anywhere fans go to cheer on their team, there are behind the scenes MVPs, ensuring everything is game day ready. We see you Joe, fixing seats so every fan can enjoy every game. And Allie, who keeps her stadium running smoothly from the moment the first game starts to the last play of the season. At Grainger, you're our MVPs and we're always here for you. With supplies and solutions for every industry and 24-7 customer support.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. By any chance did you hear what Tom Brady had to say about the football we're seeing so far in 2022? I heard him earlier on Thursday and it turns out we have a perfect sample size from Thursday Night Football. If you watched Thursday Night Football between the Broncos and Colts and you heard Tom Brady earlier in the day, you would have almost believed that he knew what was coming. And maybe considering the two teams, he did know what was coming. There are games that are low scoring where it's about the defense. And yes, the defense deserves credit for making the plays and causing these two offenses to look hideous.

But let's be fair, let's be accurate, hideous, hideous. But there are also times when the offense is just awful and hideous and the defenses are really not the driving factor. Sometimes it's play calling, sometimes it's quarterback, sometimes it's bad decisions, sometimes it's just bad execution. And so when Tom Brady was asked about the parody in the NFL on Thursday, meaning there are more teams sitting at 2-2 than any other record in the NFL. No winless teams left, only one undefeated team left.

He nailed it. The state of the league after one month. I think there's a lot of bad football from what I watch. I watch a lot of bad football. Yeah, poor quality of football, that's what I see. Do you think that he was sitting around watching Broncos and Colts? Maybe.

Might have to face those teams, never know. Oi. Sometimes when I get on a phone call that just goes on forever and it's not really informative or enjoyable, sometimes when I'm stuck in traffic, sometimes when I'm waiting in line.

One of the things that comes to mind, it's a phrase when I'm being super sarcastic since sarcasm is my love language. I will say to myself, this is an hour of my life, I'll never get back. Well, Thursday Night Football, I got nothing for ya.

Isn't that what Jeff Probst says on Survivor when the team loses and has to go back to their camp and they get nothing? I got nothing for ya. See ya. Yeah, that's pretty much Thursday Night Football. So for those of you who don't have Amazon Prime, I mean tonight, be glad you didn't waste the money. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Not only do we have the start of week 5 in the NFL, not only do we have week 6 and the go weekend. I'm calling this go weekend in college football. It's go time baby. Let's go. You get into October and it's a lot of scintillating, juicy conference matchups even if you don't know which teams are left in your favorite conference or which teams are about to leave your favorite conference.

I mean there's that too. We're going to talk about all of that with our College Football Insider. NFL week 5, college football go time, and we are hours away from the start of the Major League Baseball playoffs. No joke.

12 hours from now. No, I take it back. I thought the first game was at 207 Eastern Time. I lied. Just scratch that from the record.

I mean I'm as bad as the Colts and the Broncos sometimes. We got 4 minutes into the show and that's it. I already screwed up. We are 10 hours from the first game of the Major League Baseball postseason. By the time we get off the radio here in 4 hours, at least I know that part, we will be half dozen hours away from, no one's ever said that before. Half dozen hours sounds weird.

6 hours away from the start of the Major League Baseball postseason. Let me just tell you what I will not be doing this weekend. That's sleep. Not only is there October in all of its glory that's keeping me from any type of sleep, but I got some yard work to do.

And so, oh my gosh, I have a friend who also works in the business who's making me, well not making me, she's asking me and since I love her, I'm doing it for her. Oi. A zoom call.

On camera. Right after the first game starts. I mean, forget sleep. Just screw it. I'm gonna have to wake up, do my hair, put some makeup on, hop on a zoom call. At that point I'm just gonna watch baseball and get my yard work done. I'll sleep when the playoffs are over. That's what I tell myself. It's only a month. What's the worst that could happen?

The bags under your eyes can get really large and you can eat too many carbs. I mean, whatever. At least you get to watch the baseball playoffs. So, thanks for hanging out with us. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Do you need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Rocket can. So you can find me on Twitter, on Facebook. Loved all your responses to our question last night. One of the best and brightest moments and memories of baseball in 2022. You blew up both Twitter and Facebook all day on Thursday, so that's awesome. I know you are primed and ready for what's to come on the grandest stage in the sport.

And so we'll launch forward into this. It's a new look wildcard weekend. It's Major League Baseball trying to generate the energy, the enthusiasm, the excitement, the anticipation right off the bat.

I actually prefer the one and done method, but I get overruled. Baseball wants more money. It makes money with playoff games on TV.

So there we go. We've got more playoff games on TV. Just think about how Sunday could be so horribly convoluted. My gosh, I can barely keep up with football games.

It could actually end up being four baseball playoff games and a full slate of football starting at 6.30 a.m. Pacific time with the game in London. But you know what? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And nobody wants to hear me complain about the fact that I'm not getting any sleep. It's really, it's not complaining. It's just, it's a state of, it's a state of October. It just, it is what it is. That's one of the phrases in sports I absolutely hate, but that definitely does apply to October. It just is what it is. Our phone number, 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. One more time, listen to Tom Brady very carefully. I think there's a lot of bad football from what I watch, you know. I watch a lot of bad football, a lot of, yeah, poor quality of football.

That's what I see. Shotgun snap to Russell. Protection pretty good. Russell now pinballs. Throws a ball at the feet of Boone. He makes the catch.

Leans out of the 35 to the 36. But that's only a gain of 10 on the third and 17. Bobby Okereke with the tackle. And again, the smattering of booze as this Bronco offense trots off the field. Wilson bounces around, tries to buy some time. Steps away from pocket. Now throws the ball into the end zone and over the head of the receiver.

Incomplete. Soper was on the back line of the end zone. I think Russell didn't want to take too many chances there. Rodney McClellan on the coverage and a lot of frustrated people wearing orange jerseys in the stands here. Here's a snap ball placement at the 24 near hash and the kick is blocked and rolls into the end zone. I think Grover Stewart got his hands on that football. And now you're really hearing some frustration from the Broncos home crowd.

See what I mean? Tom Brady was prophetic. Let's not allow the Colts to get off without any microscopic criticism on them as well. I mean they need to be in the spotlight too because Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson both Pro Bowl quarterbacks at least four times. I read some weird stat, I really didn't write it down or anything, but I read some weird stat that had to do with never has there been a game in which two quarterbacks with at least four Pro Bowl starts each have gone the entire time without a touchdown.

Something like that. But if you were looking for touchdowns, if touchdowns are your thing, or if you played fantasy football and had really anybody in this game, I actually had one person, I'm not going to tell you who. Fine, I'll tell you who.

I had Jerry Jeudy. I don't know, my streak of three in a row may be over. Anyway, I guess if you had the Broncos defense, if anybody had the Broncos defense, you're sitting pretty. Because Matt Ryan was sacked six times, he was hit a dozen other times, he threw two interceptions, both to Caden Stearns, and the Colts were over two in the red zone. Now the Broncos were worse, they were over four in the red zone, three of 17 on your own field on third and fourth down, three of 17. And in case you thought all those punts and those empty possessions in the middle of the game were the worst, nah nah, the Broncos saved the best for last.

Denver's been in third and long most of the night, and unsuccessfully so. Eight times, ten yards or longer on third down. The ball's thrown, and this is going to be intercepted inside the five yard line. Wilson was trying to throw the ball away as he's being hit and threw it right to a defender, either 35 to 40, and that was just a really bad decision. Rodney Thomas on the interception.

It's Dave Logan, a long time play by play voice on the Broncos radio network with the frank description of what he's seeing and hearing there in Denver. So with two minutes and 14 seconds left, Russell Wilson is intercepted in the end zone by Stephon Gilmore. So that gives the ball back to Matt Ryan and the Indianapolis Colts and a couple of minutes to work with. They go ten plays, 67 yards, hello. Good snap, good hold, the kick by McLaughlin is perfect, and we are tied with five seconds left here in Denver. Free football, free football alert.

He's got the notification. Stephon Gilmore and the interception lead to the three points that tie the game at the end of the fourth quarter. So Matt Ryan goes ten plays, 67 yards and two minutes with the offense. And as much as that in fact was a game tying field goal to send this into overtime, I don't know that I needed Frank Reich to gush about Matt Ryan in the fourth quarter as much as he did.

Oh my gosh, we all need someone who sees us through the eyes that Frank Reich sees Matt Ryan. I wish you guys could have seen him up close. I love this guy in the fourth quarter. The look in his eyes, the short conversations that we have, the determination, I just feel like we're going to go down the field and score.

I really do. He's going to make it work. So a credit to Matt. You see all these things that have been said about him. What he does in the fourth quarter is impressive.

Well, he's right. The Colts did score with a few seconds left to go. They scored a field goal from 31 yards, so could not get into the end zone.

However, you see what they did. You want more offense, more points? Well, Colts had the ball to start overtime. For the lead, good snap, good hold, and McLaughlin continues his monster night. He puts Indianapolis in front, 12-9 with 5.50 left in overtime here in Denver. He was 4-4, so he was the star. Did he get the game ball, I wonder, from Frank Reich in the post-game locker room.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Did I tell you that sarcasm is my love language? I did, right?

That and food, but that's kind of a wide open type of thing, so we'll go with sarcasm for now. So yes, with Spirodinos on Westwood 1, the Colts take the lead. A three-point lead, so keep in mind, now it's 12-9.

There's only threes on the board. Three was really the wild card, the wild number on Thursday night. And there's time left in OT, so if the Broncos can take it the other direction and get it to the end zone, finally, they would have the win and would salvage something from this Thursday night. So they move the ball downfield. One big pass play for Jerry Jeudy that goes 37 yards.

Couple of runs by Melvin Gordon, who is now their feature back because Javonte Williams tore his ACL and another knee ligament. And the Broncos are facing a fourth and one, not fourth and goal, fourth and one at the five-yard line instead of taking the field goal. Now remember, week one with the Denver Broncos when Nathaniel Hackett got blasted for taking the ball out of his quarterback's hands and instead opting for a 64-yard field goal.

It was something crazy like that. This time, and remember it was in Seattle, this time instead of kicking a field goal on fourth and one from the five-yard line to tie, he decides to leave the football in his highly paid, very expensive quarterback's hands. Touchdown wins it. You don't pick up this first down, the game is over. Hamler and Jeudy slot right, Sutton wide left, single coverage on him.

Shotgun for Wilson. Gordon to his left, Wilson takes a high snap, one hands it, bounces around, bounces around, throws the ball, and it is deflected in complete main zone and the Colts have won. Fourth and one, Wilson again from the gun, two wides to the right, Gordon the lone setback, one wide to the left, high snap, Wilson drops back, looking, looking, fires end zone, batted down and incomplete. Intended for Sutton, it's batted down by Gilmore, the former defensive player of the year, and the Indianapolis Colts are going to win it here in Denver.

And so you hear both versions, Dave Logan on Broncos radio and Spiro Dinis on Westwood one, and Nathaniel Hackett kept the ball in the hands of his quarterback. They went for the touchdown instead of the first down, and what I think stands out on those calls is that he waited too long. He kept the ball in his hands too long.

Not sure what he was looking for, but he clearly was looking for something very specific that didn't open up. So he forces the ball. Stephon Gilmore gets a hand on it, and if you were watching kind of the fallout or what transpired in the seconds after that ball gets batted away, you may have seen KJ Hamler, who was lined up in slot, slam his helmet to the ground.

Very frustrated. Because the play call was designed for him to slant toward the middle. He actually got a pick, I know they're essentially illegal unless you're right, well maybe it was close enough to the line of scrimmage, but he gets a pick from a fellow receiver who takes out two defenders. The receiver gets in the way of two defenders, has got two Colts behind him at bay, Hamler slides toward the middle, on the slant, he's wide open for a minute, well it wasn't a minute, you know what I mean, but he's wide open for a hot second. But Russ is busy looking the other direction, holding onto the ball, doesn't see him. Even if Hamler doesn't get into the end zone, though it certainly looked like he had a clear path, at the very least the Broncos have the first down, because he was already over that first down marker when the Red Sea parted for him.

And so Russ doesn't see him. And it was maybe a good play call design, Hamler was open, but Russ didn't hit the open guy, he threw it to a guy who had a bunch of people around him, traffic, just a lot of traffic and it gets batted away. So, a lot of frustration for the Broncos, we'll hear why Nathaniel Hackett decided to go forward on fourth down in overtime and not kick the field goal, there wasn't a lot of time left, game might have ended in a tie, Colts already have one of those, oh my gosh, that would have been the only thing that made this worse. And so Hackett maybe, in this case, remembering what happened in week one, we'll hear from him, and Russell Wilson, and then more about Frank Reich, Matt Ryan raving about the win, the defense did play really well and they won without Jonathan Taylor. I will say this to you a bazillion times this season, a win is a win is a win is a win.

And if you get it, especially on the road, on a short work week, you don't care how it happens. So the Colts will take it, regardless of how bad it looked, it can be U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, but it's a win. For the Broncos, there are just no excuses.

And it's seemingly getting worse. Lots of people piling on Russell Wilson. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Excited to talk week five with you as well as the Major League Baseball postseason, it's all happening, that's what October is all about peeps. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio.

Go to Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Throws the ball and it is deflected incomplete in the end zone and the Colts have won. We wanted to win the game. We hadn't moved the ball very well the whole night, and I thought we had a spectacular drive to get all the way down there. It ended up being fourth and one and got the go to go for it and thought that was a good decision, wanted to put the ball in Russell's hands and call a play that we know that he really likes. And it didn't work out.

It was one of those things. The time out before was to kind of get a feel for what they were doing. So the run didn't look as good as we had hoped it would have and gave us a chance with Russell. And that's all you can ask for in that situation to win the game.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Well, that's funny because that's what people wanted in week number one. Instead of that 77 yard field goal or whatever it was at the time, Nathaniel Hackett, after he has to explain himself again right after the end of the game in overtime. In which instead of going for the first down, because they're fourth and one at the five yard line, he opts to go for the win, the home run, or maybe Russ does. He says they opted away from the run because they didn't like what it looked like with the defense, the Colts defense. Instead they line up in shotgun and go for the home run essentially and Stephon Gilmore knocks that ball away. But even so, if you want to pass it, well how about get the guy who's open, who's like right there in front of your nose before the defense can adjust, before the defense can collapse. Russ waited a long time with that ball in his hands and missed his opportunity to get the first down and or the touchdown. So maybe it was a perfect play call and I don't necessarily disagree that you go for the touchdown because if you take a field goal, likely time runs out. You may not get the ball back again or at the very least you give it back to the Colts who had just in the last two drives that they had the ball been able to go the field for a field goal themselves. So the field goal is probably not enough. It's not so much that I disagree with going for the win because I think that builds confidence and that's what players are looking for with their coaches.

The issue is how it was executed. Again, I think the play call left a guy wide open slanting toward the middle and would have easily had the first down. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. What did Russell Wilson have to say? You know, he's always about backing his coach. What did Russ have to say about the final play of the game? We had a good play call on.

He went to Cortland there. The guy made a good play. I was ready to move around if I needed to. We came up with a big fourth and two earlier in the drive before, the two drives before, so we went for it. We didn't want to end in a tie. We wanted to try to win the game. That was our mentality. I think coach made a good call. I think we got to find a way to make a play.

So Russell did go on to take responsibility himself. Both teams rushed for over 100 yards in this game. And with the Colts, that's not Jonathan Taylor.

That's anybody else chipping in who possibly can. But both quarterbacks throw multiple interceptions. There were 10 total sacks of the QBs in this game. So neither offensive line performed really well, but sometimes that's about the quarterback holding on to the ball too long. And the two teams were a combined 0 for 6 in the red zone. It's just brutal offense all around.

Now, yes, the Colts get the win and they'll take it. Definitely didn't want another tie, but both offense were pretty putrid. With experience in the league, you understand I have been through games like this where they're just weird, you know, and they're tough and they're hard and you just got to keep competing and you know there's still a chance.

But for these young guys, I think that experience is invaluable. I'm not going to be critical of the offense right now. We know we need to get better. We won the game. These are hard to win.

You come on the road on a Thursday night, fair question, but not right now for me. I mean, this is a win. We'll figure out how to get better on offense, but we played good enough to get the win tonight. I think we had a lot of opportunities. Again, those things continually show up and we're not capitalizing on them, whether it's a drop, a missed throw, just too many things that, you know, aren't coming together. And I think that, you know, for us, the offense is going through some adversity, and I believe that they're going to get through this and they're going to learn from it and we're going to grow from it.

We have to. We keep continually hurting ourselves and I think that's the thing that's frustrating and we need to address it as an offense and we need to fix that because the performance by the defense was spectacular and we're wasting those great opportunities to be able to win a football game. I got to be better.

I got to play better. This team, you know, this defense played their butts off tonight. We had some key good drives. We moved the ball, you know, in the red zone. We just didn't get to capitalize on some of them, you know, and there's some plays there, here and there, that we can capitalize on. We were third and long again, too much, you know.

It's always tough on offense, you know, and everything else when you're third and 15, third and 17, this and that. And at the end of the day, you know, throwing two interceptions can't happen. So you hear a lot of the similar sentiments from Russell Wilson, Nathaniel Hackett, Matt Ryan, Frank Reich, although in the case of the Colts, well, you swallow it and you move on because you got the win. For the Broncos, this is another game at home in which they're getting booed by their own fans, royally booed.

It got louder throughout the game. And to add the insult to the loss, to the injury of the loss, they paid this quarterback a lot of money. It's not all on Russell Wilson.

It's never that simple. In fact, if you listen to me at all on a regular basis, or even now and then, you know how annoyed I get when we use the stat, quarterback wins. That's ridiculous. A quarterback shouldn't get credit for a win when his defense killed it. Like in the case of Matt Ryan, what exactly did Matt Ryan do that was the number one factor in this win?

I hate that. I hate boiling it down to a quarterback more than anything else. Yes, he's impactful.

Yes, he matters. But come on. And so right now, you've got two defenses that are having to toe the line for these offenses that are just brutal. And I don't know if the Broncos have buyer's remorse. Certainly losing Javonte Williams didn't help. They want to be a run first team. But the Colts figured out a way to win on the road without Jonathan Taylor. They'll bell cow. So it's just a mess right now for the Broncos.

They thought they finally had their franchise QB in the same vein as a John Elway and then a Peyton Manning. And there's still time for that. They've got him for a long time. There's still time for that. But it's been some tough sledding. And yes, some of that's on having a new coach, new system.

There's lots of moving parts. And we talked about how the first month of the season is a race to consistency. Well, neither of these teams have found it yet. What did Tom Brady say? It's just some bad football. I'm telling you, it was hours before Thursday Night Football. I think there's a lot of bad football from what I watch.

And he includes his own team in that, let's be fair. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. We're going to give you the — not the TD of the Week poll. There were no TDs in this game. We're going to give you the Game of the Week polls. We're asking you — actually, maybe we can do two polls. The wildcard series you're most looking forward to.

And the — that'd be fun, actually. I don't know, Producer J, can you manage two polls? I think we can handle two polls.

Well, really, it falls on you. I'm not doing any polls. Yeah, by we I meant, yes, I can handle two polls. Okay, cool. As long as Producer J can manage two polls, that's a lot to ask. But he can do it.

He's a superhero. So we've got a poll about the Major League Baseball wildcard weekend, now hours away. And then we've got your Game of the Week poll in the NFL, which we will do. So find us on Twitter or on Facebook. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

Click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Off the hidden air cafe. Cal rally with a walk-off home run. How sweet it is. The Mariners in the 20-year drought.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh, we've got some juicy storylines heading into Friday and wildcard weekend. We've got some delicious drama brewing on the diamond. I'm all about diamond drama. And actually, I have to tell you something kind of interesting.

Well, two things, really. You may have seen that baseball crowds at stadiums were up, meaning the number of people who went to games in person was up from 2021. However, still below pre-pandemic levels. So baseball is seeing a rise in fans attending games for the regular season. 64.6 million fans for the 30 baseball teams. And that's up from 45.3 million in 2021. And that makes sense because stadiums weren't full. Stadiums weren't even completely open to start 21. However, going back to pre-pandemic 2019, the number was 68.5 million.

So down from 68.5 to 64.5, essentially, million people. But as much as baseball is, I'm sure, thrilled about that, how much do you want to bet that baseball is far more thrilled, and this is specifically Rob Manfred, that the average game time in baseball this year drops six minutes per. The average time of a nine-inning major league game drop for the first time is 2018. And this is ahead of the pitch clock.

The pitch clock is coming, but it hasn't been instituted yet. The average this season, three hours, three minutes, 44 seconds. Last year, the longest average game time in baseball's history, three minutes and ten, sorry, three minutes, three hours and ten minutes. So down six minutes, how about that? The big drop, which of course makes Rob Manfred believe that he's caught the tiger by the tail.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. In 2005, this is how long the games now draw out. In 2005, the average was two hours and 46 minutes. And I get it, 05 is 17 years ago, but 17 years, it's nearly a minute for every year. And so to see it drop six minutes from last season to this one is a big deal. So they've got the pitch clock coming in Major League Baseball next season. And remember, that was a big deal for the competition committee.

Actually, it was unanimous. And then the way that they've done with the extra inning, the goofball runner on second base, that actually has a lot to do with it, no doubt, because they want to speed up games. So there were, this is just, it's like quirky nerdy stuff.

So you can, like your eyes can glaze over if you want. But I think this is interesting. That the average time of minor league games that went nine innings was way down. So it was like two hours and 38 minutes. I don't know if that's what Rob Manford wants or baseball wants. But that's nine innings, right? So they're in the third season with that gimmicky runner on second base. There were 216 games this year that went into extra innings. And they have like calculated, like keeping track, of course, like how many more extra inning games there are versus what they were before. I feel like the pace of play is if you keep that runner on second base, that pace of play is going to continue to drop, right?

Because you're essentially forcing the issue. You're putting a runner in scoring position before either team has earned it. And so that's part of it. But also something is that there are fewer extra inning games. And so that also contributes to the fact that the average game time drops six minutes.

So yeah, kind of in the weeds there. I was going to give you some numbers and like, eh, I don't really need to lose my audience the entire, like the whole thing in the entire first hour. So we'll just go with basics. Pitch clock is coming. Average pace of play is down. Extra inning games, the numbers are down. Stupid runner at second base.

They're charting how that affects it. And in the minor leagues where they've had the pitch clock, average game time plummeted actually 25 minutes. If you can believe that. 25 minutes with the pitch clock. Could you imagine if we're sitting here this time next year and we're talking about the average time of a nine inning game being just over two and a half hours? If what you want is instant gratification and you don't think baseball is worth the investment, then it's coming.

Because that could happen, I suppose. We've got the Rays at the Indians. Oh, sorry. It's like the first time in months. The Rays at the Guardians to start off the wild card weekend. That game is just over nine hours from now. The Phillies and the Cardinals. The Mariners, you hear Rick Rizz on Mariners radio when they clinched their first playoff spot in 21 years.

And the Padres at the Mets is the nightcap. So we're going to put up a poll. Or we have a poll up. Do we have a poll up? Thumbs up from the other side of the double pane glass.

Which wild card series are you most looking forward to? Except it should be 2-0. It just should be T-O, not T-O-O. I was wrestling with that one. I'm usually pretty good with that. The T-O-O is also, or in addition to, or as well.

What if I put a comma after forward? What are you most looking forward to? No, please don't. It will be even worse. I'll fix it.

I did not retweet yet because I always have to check. So, which wild card series, I don't know why I can't talk tonight. Sorry, I'm sure it's not even remotely entertaining. Which wild card series are you most fired up about? How about we do most fired up about? Has you most fired up?

Which wild card series has you most fired up? Then you don't have to worry about how you spell two. That's a lot off my plate. Oh, phew. There's only four, so it fits perfectly into a Twitter poll. So don't find us yet, but you can find us on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, and then on our Facebook page. Daniel is listening in Athens, Georgia.

I used to live in Athens, Georgia. Daniel, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Hey, Amy. What's up? How are you doing tonight? I'm good. Thanks.

Hey, Athens to Athens, man. That's great. Love it. I was going to come football at you, but now you got me nerding out on some baseball, so why not? Yeah, I got a little bit too nerdy there. Sorry about that.

No, I love it. I went to seven postseason games for the Braves last year, and I went 7-0, so two World Series games. I'm sorry, I went 7-0. You actually think you had something to do with it?

I did it, Amy, all on my own. Interesting. I've already got it. Okay, so what's the plan for the Braves this year? I mean, honestly, I had a lifetime experience last time, so I mean, I'm willing to try it again, you know?

Maybe that's what I need to do. I went to one regular season last year and then went seven postseason, and like I said, I won World Series at home, won in Houston, took it home, and that was it, which was much better than my previous trip to Houston, which was Falcons, and we know what happened with that. I was there, actually, so yes, I do know firsthand what happened inside energy stadium. But yeah, I wanted to touch on what you were saying about the games getting quicker. So one thing also to think about is I think the NLDH is probably helping that a lot, too, because you're not getting that same pinch hitter.

The double switch? And switching as much with the pitchers not hitting anymore, things like that. That's only regular season, though. I hope Rob Manfred is prepared for the fact that it will not be the case in the playoffs, because there's so many moves made specifically for matchups and strategies, and it's painstakingly slow. It seemed like last year the average was close to four hours for playoff games. Now, I get paid to watch baseball during October, so whatever, but it's hard. As much as you want people to see the drama and you want people to experience that tension, a four-hour game is quite a leap from what they had during the regular season, and it can slow down so much because of those pitching changes. Well, for sure, and your casual viewer is going to lose interest pretty quick on that stuff, and I used to be one of those years ago, and then once I started figuring out some of the intricacies of the game and understanding more of why things were happening, like throwing back to first and why you make this pitching change and why you make this defensive change and things like that, for someone like me and my crazy ADD brain, that got more interesting to me every time I learned more about it. I'm like, oh, shoot, this is super strategic. Agreed, but I don't think everybody's like us, Daniel.

No, of course, right. The casual fans are just like, why in the heck are we having to wait again? Yeah, it's slow. All right, you've got about 10 seconds.

I'll let you finish. How do you feel about the Braves? I mean, they're strong. They are.

I think either way, you know, and coming with three strong teams between, you know, the three top dogs right now, it's going to be interesting this year for sure. All right. What has nothing to do with you? But I hope that you enjoy the postseason, Daniel. Thank you for the phone call. One hour in the books, it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Anywhere fans go to cheer on their team, there are behind the scenes and VPs ensuring everything is game day ready. We see you, Joe. Fixing seats so every fan can enjoy every game. And Ally, who keeps her stadium running smoothly from the moment the first game starts to the last play of the season. At Grainger, you're our MVPs and we're always here for you with supplies and solutions for every industry and 24-7 customer support. Well click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.