After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team. Your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real-time updates on everything you care about. Miss your show?

Jump back with our awesome re-wide feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand. Wherever you are, whenever you want. And do we mention it's all free?

Download the Odyssey app today. All right, raise your hand if you completely forgot that the World Series was starting on Friday. Or that you've gone multiple days over the course of this week without even thinking about baseball.

The faux pas. Now I get they have to schedule these games months in advance. And they did have to leave time in case the LCSs.

Sounds weird. In case the league championship series went deep or went seven. But man, it did not break the way of Major League Baseball this time. And it happens with the NBA too. It annoys me. Sometimes they'll go 10 days.

Okay, maybe that's extreme. They'll go a week in between the end of the conference finals and the start of the NBA finals. And I think you lose so much momentum when you do that. But we are going to preview the opener of the World Series as we head through these next several hours on CBS Sports Radio. In addition, we're going to talk more about week eight. Week eight.

What? Week eight in the NFL. It's going so fast. And I'm not sure what blows me away more saying week eight. You have to say it like that out loud or the fact that it's the last weekend in October. Halloween is Monday. October 31st is Monday and then it's November, which is the same month as Thanksgiving.

How did that happen? I don't know why I said no. I actually don't mind. I like I love Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I can't go anywhere this this year, but I do love Thanksgiving.

Not sure if I'll have any plans or if I'll just be hanging out with the zoo. But either way, the concept itself and what it stands for makes me happy. But it's just so close to the holiday season now, right? Wow. So that kind of blows me away. But also the fact that it's week eight and it feels like the NFL just started. And where the heck is the offense?

That's the other question. Is it really possible for the bills, the Chiefs and the who else the bills, the Chiefs and the Bengals? They've been showing more of it, but they lose Jamar Chase for a good chunk of the of the upcoming two months.

Hopefully he's able to get back sooner rather than later. But yeah, it's it's weird and wacky that we're about to cap the first two months of the NFL season. And still, I don't know outside of a couple of teams what we actually have in the NFL. I know the NFC East is fantastic and I can't make fun of the division anymore.

It's been a punchline for so many jokes for a decade since I've been here at CBS Sports Radio. And to that end, it's nearly two months into the season. We have not talked Giants football, but it's we're past the point.

It is way too late to be asking, are they for real? Same thing with the Giants, same thing with the Cowboys. I mean, every team has fatal flaws, but of course they're for real. They're six and one outside of the Eagles. They have the way. Hold on. I got to I got to like take a deep breath before I say this outside of the Eagles. The Giants have the best record in the NFL.

Uh-huh. They have the most wins along with the Eagles in the NFL. I just I feel the need to take a pregnant pause after that because it doesn't seem real like, hey, it's the last weekend in October.

It doesn't seem real, but we're past the point at which it's not real. They're not renting these wins. They're not leasing them.

They're not giving them back. These are actual wins and we have not talked Giants football. And so coming up an hour from now, Sean O'Hara, Super Bowl champion, three time Pro Bowl offensive lineman. He's all about the Giants still lives in New York area, even though he works on NFL network. And I really enjoy his insights.

Love talking to old linemen. And so he is an hour from now here on after hours CBS Sports Radio. So on Twitter, a law radio on our Facebook page, too.

We've got your game of the week poll up. And also I posted this quote on Twitter because I saw this. I was this is kind of funny.

Actually, I stumbled on it. Someone gave me a journal for a gift in the last couple of years. And I'm not big into journaling mostly because I don't have time. And also because I spent a lot of time writing for work and other things. And I just don't always want to write in my free time. I know people say journaling is so good for your mental health. It's so good for you just personally. But I don't really feel like spending a lot of time writing when I don't have to.

I'd rather read. And so I hadn't really opened this journal except that it's on my table in my living room because I use it. It's the perfect size for me to put my note cards on Sundays. And I use it as kind of a hard backing so that I can take my notes. So that's why it's on my table. But I don't open it.

Someone gave it to me. It's just it's about a five by seven size, which fits perfectly in my lap on Sundays when I'm taking my notes. And so I opened it today because I was waiting for my oil to get change and waiting for my car to be done. And I was taking notes for a call that I have tomorrow. So I was jotting down some notes and doing some research for a call that I have planned tomorrow. And I opened up this journal to try to find some I just kind of grabbed it on my way out the door and opened it up to try to find a couple of blank pages. Well, there weren't a lot of blank pages, but there were a lot of quotes. And I saw this quote and I had to share it on Twitter because it makes me smile.

But it's also so unbelievably accurate. Are you ready? Timely reminder, especially as we get into the time of year where things are so crazy busy and I do not mean sports. I mean, it's late or it's fall. We're going to be going into the holiday season and we just get so wrapped up in all the stuff that we have to do.

And all of the things that we have to buy and all the places we have to go. This comes from Ann Lamott. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Isn't that an amazing quote, an amazing thought and a timely reminder?

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Which is so true. I try. I try at least once a month. It doesn't always happen. But I do try at least once a month to unplug for the weekend or at least for 36 hours on the weekends and not look at my phone at all. I feel badly sometimes because people try to get a hold of me, but I really just need a break from that thing. It becomes an extra appendage.

And it's not just that. I need to not look at my email. I need to not look at my laptop. I just need to watch some other TV, read a book, go play golf, take a run, hang out with friends. So last weekend was one of those weekends where I was with my brother and sister-in-law.

And other than using my phone to take photos, we went to a pumpkin patch, and then we went hiking on Saturday. I really didn't pay any attention to what was happening on Twitter or on Facebook. And certainly in sports, I have to catch up, but I was willing to make that sacrifice. And somebody said to me, oh, how dare you? I'm paraphrasing along these lines, like what, you don't like college football? You know, how could you leave the house or how could you go hiking when there's college football on? You must be a Northeasterner where college football doesn't matter. And I get that kind of stuff from people all the time.

Nah, it has nothing to do with where I'm from. It has to do with I would suck as a radio host and suck as a sports analyst if I did not take breaks. We all get burnt out.

We're just humans. And so last weekend was one of those weekends. Probably not this weekend with the World Series starting.

But almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. So that's on Twitter. And I'll post it on Facebook here.

I'm a terrible person. I still have not posted the photos. I promised you on Facebook, but I suppose they'll look good this weekend too.

And maybe you won't realize that they were from last weekend. 855-212-4227. That's our toll free line.

Always glad to connect with you. And yes, please vote for the after hours game of the week. And for those of you who have not yet seen our national pumpkin day Halloween video starring Josephine, you need to check it out. We do have the pumpkin carving video just about ready to go. I told you that it was going to be an epic fail.

I was pretty sure. And we do have it on video for your amusement and your entertainment. And we will have that up first thing on Friday. So you get the double feature for Halloween on our YouTube channel.

Easy to find is named after our show, but also the links to the first videos are posted and are pinned. That's the word pinned to the top of our show, Twitter, as well as our Facebook page. So lots of goodies this week. It's been a busy week.

I think it's mostly been a positive and productive week. Though sometimes when I'm in the middle of it, that's not how I feel. It also is good for me to get away from it because if I never get away from work, I can become way too critical of myself.

And that's also not a good space where you're an entertaining host if you're freaking out over mistakes. And so my perfectionism, my anal retentiveness flares up if I don't take time away from work. So good to get away from work.

I hope that you all do that this weekend, that whatever you need out of this weekend is exactly what you find. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Weekend is going to look a heck of a lot better for the Golden State Warriors after their Thursday performance at home against Miami. Got to Thompson. Back to Curry. Chase by hero. Curry with a dribble. Crossover. Takes a jumper. Three ball. Curry.

Ridiculous. Timeout, Miami. Curry comes up. Screens for Wiggins.

He gets downhill. Toss over to Curry. Design play. Corner three. Up. No good. Game on out to Thompson.

Good catch. Back to Steph. Fakes and fires. And another three. Stephen Curry. Gets a scream by Thompson.

Gets hero as a result. Step back. Takes a two.

Top of the key. Swish. He's got it going right now. He's got the defender on the string.

Yep. And he has that championship look in his eye right now. 118-107. Warriors up 11. Golden State able to pull away in the fourth quarter. This was a game that was really close through the first three quarters. So just to quickly go through it after the first quarter, the Warriors had a one point lead after the second quarter. So at halftime, they had a four point lead after the third quarter, they had a five point lead.

So this was a really tight game, but ultimately pulling away and adding eight more points to their lead there in the fourth quarter. And Steph Curry getting hot, finding the stroke, 7-14 from beyond the arc, 33 points overall and 10 of those came in the fourth quarter. And so you got to see some of Lively Steph pounding his chest and yelling.

And this comes after one of those sequences where he dazzles with the handles and then steps back and sinks a three point in your face. So yeah, even his teammates were raving about it. You know, it takes a lot to impress Draymond Green, but even he was impressed and said it was a great move. So as Steph starts his 14th season, this is actually I heard Steve curse say this and I was a little bit surprised.

I was listening to the Warriors broadcast while I was getting ready for work as the football game was over and it was Tim Roy and also Tom Tolbert on Warriors Radio. And they were talking about the fact that this team, as much as we think of it as the defending champion and it is, this team actually has a lot of new pieces. It's not the same roster as the one they had last year or a few months ago, I should say that won the title.

Yes, they have pool. Yes, they have Wiggins and certainly they still have their core, but they've also got once the starters come out of the game, Draymond Wiggins, Kavon Looney, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, they've got different guys. So James Wiseman is just getting acclimated to life in the NBA. So they've got different people and different rotations.

And I thought that was a point. I just really hadn't thought about that with the Warriors. So they're still going to be some growing pains and they're not using a lot of guys off the bench a ton, but especially in a game like this where they desperately want the win at home, but it's still a nice victory for them against a quality opponent as they get above 500. After the game though, what we were focused on and what caught our ear, ears, we don't share an ear, our collective ear, there we go, is the fact that Clay had a message for Charles Barkley on the TNT set and he's serious about this.

I've got one thing to say. So it hurts when someone like Charles Barkley with the platform he has says you're not the same player prior to the injuries you have. It's like, no, duh, man, consecutive years I told my ACL, my Achilles in consecutive years and still help a team win a championship. I mean, it hurt hearing that because it's like, man, I put in so much freaking effort to get back to this point, like it's hard to even put into words what I had to do to be the player I am today and it's like I played 55, 57 games in three years, like give me some freaking time to get that back and just hear someone say, oh, he's not the same prior to the, as he was prior to the injuries, like duh, like who goes through something like that and comes back? I don't know. It just hurt my heart hearing that.

But you know what? I'm going to internalize it and it's going to be feel for me to be even better. And I think I'm very proud of what we accomplished last year and I feel like I was a huge part of it, you know, so I'm not going to let these injuries be a crutch for me.

I'm just going to keep going and I'm going to have a great year and I bet on that. Your comments are, you know, part of our success, right? You're always going to be in the spotlight and people care about how you're playing and care to comment positively or negatively because they know that'll move the needle.

And when you say certain names, people are going to pay attention. But it's interesting just because you know, certain guys kind of forget what their careers look like in the back end. So you can kind of cast and throw those stones, but you know, Clay's still in here, like you said, helping us win a championship after two hellish years he had. And I think now it's balancing for him just the expectation of what he was before the injuries, what he can get back to, all the while maintaining his impact on winning. I'm sure he's, you know, comparing to the stat lines and percentages and all that.

But I think I heard Coach talk about it earlier. He's gone through this, you know, even before the injuries where a slope starts, don't really hold him down. Don't kill his confidence. When you come off a championship, you have such a hunger and desire to get back to what he wants to be personally. And he's going to get there. It's just a matter of, you know, sticking with the program, the time that he puts in his competitive fire that comes out, you know, every single night and, you know, he's going to make shots.

We're not worried about that. It's just, you know, it's a long season. How often do we remark about athletes who don't open up? How often do we remark on athletes who give us the standard company line or tell us nothing or spit out comments or cliches because they've heard them over and over and they're trying to play their cards close to the vest and give the media nothing. If you know nothing else about Klay Thompson, know that that was straight from the heart. His feelings are hurt. And you can say, oh, he should be used to it by now.

He's been in the NBA for 10 years, yada, yada, yada. And sure, there's an element to that. I certainly have changed over 20 years, not quite 20 years of social media. It wasn't, it wasn't operational when I first got into sports radio, but I remember the first time I fell deep into a chat room in which people were ripping me and lying about me. I cried. It hurts so badly that there was nothing I could do to defend myself. It hurts when people say crappy stuff about you, even if they don't know you. And in this case, Klay Thompson knows Charles Barkley.

This is a basketball fraternity. And here is Barkley who, he wasn't ripping Klay Thompson. We'll let you hear the audio from, from Barkley before the show is up. He wasn't taking aim at him. He wasn't making fun of him like Charles Barkley's want to do. He wasn't making a joke about Klay. He just said Klay's not the same. And as you hear Klay say, it matters to him because he's poured blood, sweat, heart, soul, tears, everything he's had.

And that includes a lot of tears. We've seen that guy cry over these injuries. In fact, when he tore his Achilles, so you remember he was so close to coming back. He was weeks away from playing. The season was delayed, right?

Coming out of the pandemic. He was weeks away. He was scrimmaging.

He had no restrictions following the ACL. He was about to play in a game that mattered for the first time in over a year, two weeks away. And in a pickup game in LA, he tore his Achilles.

And I remember just seeing it because it started to break. The news started to break here while we were on the air and it was breaking all over Twitter and the Warriors wouldn't confirm it. But we knew right away, Steph went to LA, Steve went to LA, Bob Myers went to LA. They all flew there to be there for Klay. And Steph said afterwards, there were a lot of tears. Klay over the last year, that last year of watching his teammates play with Adam, he was so frustrated. Even when he was in the arena, you could see it on his face. He so badly wanted to be part of what they were doing. Ultimately, he comes back.

I think it's one of the best stories of last NBA season. And he is a contributor. But as Steve said, just a couple of days ago, he's really frustrated still. He doesn't want to be limited. He doesn't want to have a minutes restriction. He wants to be able to find that rhythm that came so easily and naturally to him when he first started. It's just not there yet. And so on top of his frustration and feeling like he's not where he wants to be, even after all this time, Charles Barkley, someone who's respected in the industry most of the time, says he's just not the same guy and dismisses him, even though Klay is still in the process of trying to get back to who he was and just everything he's put into it. Of course, it's personal for him. And so when you say athletes never give us anything, they're never real with us. They always have walls up. No, you remember Klay Thompson.

I'm human. This is as real as Klay Thompson gets. And I love that Steph has his back. I mean, Steph is the peacemaker in that locker room. We know about it with Jordan Poole, with Draymond Green. But when we say Splash Brothers, it's not just because they can both hit the three in that back court. These guys have been through everything together. So I love that Steph has his back, but I also appreciate that Klay is speaking out and he's actually wearing his heart on his sleeve because we don't get that very often.

And you know what? Maybe people make fun of him. Maybe say he should have a thicker skin. People have said that about me for years, but I am who I am. I don't need to develop a thicker skin. Being emotional, having a heart is what makes me who I am. And after years of trying to change it and trying to bury it, I finally decided, nah, that's part of what makes me good at what I do.

Part of what makes me a good human, a good friend, a good daughter, a great sister, an auntie, is because I leave with my heart. And I love hearing that with Klay Thompson, even though he's upset, excuse me, he's disappointed, and his feelings are hurt. I don't know that Barkley Oseman apology or anything.

He's just doing his job, but I appreciate that Klay gave us a peek of what he's going through as well. No, I'm running a little bit late. There was a game that went into overtime between the Mavericks and Luca and the Brooklyn Nets who are desperately seeking win number two.

It's after hours. Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows, follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome re-wide feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football, live and on demand, wherever you are, whenever you want. And do we mention it's all free?

Download the Odyssey app today. Throughout the sixties and seventies with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio, you are listening to the after hours podcast. Luca with seven to shoot, left wing, guarded by Irving, Luca draws a double and stolen away by Simmons. Simmons with the Nets down two, gets to Durant down the middle, the slam on the right hand. With eight seconds to go, it ties the game. The Simmons steal to the Durant dunk and we're tied. Dallas on the right going left to right, didn't what he snaps it into Luca, guarded by Simmons, one on one, straight off. Luca coming right, bumps, surrounded, whips it left side, pull off the three, no good. Clax to the rebound and time expires, we'll go to overtime.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. Chris Carino on Nets radio, I suppose that's progress forcing overtime. I know I'm being snarky when it comes to the Nets. I'm still not over my annoyance at how Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant handled this off season. I know that the front office, the ownership of the Nets needed to forgive and forget and move forward.

Otherwise this entire season was going to be a disaster, but I'm just not ready to let it go yet. So the Mavericks visiting Brooklyn against the Nets and yes, a late stretch there where the Nets are able to force overtime, but Luca Doncic. Doncic slow dribble to his left, pulls up, doesn't shoot, left to Finney Smith, holding it, finds Cleve, pitch it back to Luca to his right, behind the back to Cleve, top of the arc, three, good.

That's the prettiest pick in popular see. Luca was right off of Bullock, nearly an illegal screen, not called again behind the back and Bullock will try the three and that's good. Same exact play, behind the back from the wing to the top of the three point line and Luca's like, not on my watch. Finney Smith trying to set a screen, lots of crowding out there. Now Watanabe switches on to a five to shoot Luca between his legs, left to right, he got by him, hangs in the lane, rolls it home. 41 for Luca, 41 for Luca, what a night.

I didn't realize he had 41, I mean I didn't check the stat sheet, I just saw him decent night. It's hard to stop KD and Kyrie, it's almost impossible but we did a great thing today. You basically can't stop him so we didn't slow them down either but it's really tough against those two guys but Reggie, Reggie and Do as every day they step on the court, they guard the best player, they never complain. We just played a team, we shared the ball, we knew they were switching, we didn't execute well.

The last game, the switching but we went through, we did great things, we learned how to play like that and we execute better today. Luca Doncic on Mavs Twitter following this victory in Brooklyn. 41 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds, so are you ready for the latest in Luca history?

Nerd alert! He is the 10th player in the league, all time, only the 10th player to ever have three 40 point triple doubles. Man lie, women lie but the numbers don't. And he's still what, 24, 25, I'd have to look, I can't keep track, I just know he's still young. So he sets up three, three pointers in OT and the way the Mavs move the ball and the fact that they have multiple guys who can hit shots in the extra period. So Tim Hardaway, who actually you heard, what, he hit 41, Tim Hardaway, Maxi Kleva and then also Reggie Bullock. The fact that they're able to spread the ball around and that also means stretch out the defense and we know the nets are definitely not, they're defensively challenged. Defense is not their forte and so to be able to show them different looks and different guys who can hit the three, hit shots from deep, not only does it stretch the defense out and force them to chase but it also makes it really difficult to cheat when there's that many guys who are able to hit the three. So Luca dominates, whether he's hitting the shots himself or administrating, Luca's able to dominate in overtime and that means the nets are now one and four.

Luca's obviously a tough customer. You know, I made a couple great passes on the money out of little show and recover situations and they knocked them down. So that's a team that's been in those situations a ton of times before and they, you know, were able to execute it extremely well. They had three threes in overtime, wide open ones, bad coverage and they shooters knocked them down. They had, what, six and double figures and played a good team game tonight.

The best player had 40. All we can do is put one foot in front of the other, one day in front of the other and teaching takes time, you know, and me and Kev, we've become teachers just playing in this league now and we're looked upon as that and it's not just us, it's the veterans around the league, but specifically the veterans on this team. It's so early. I said the same thing about the nets that I said about the Sixers that I've said about the Lakers. It's way too early to be flashing red lights and tanking the season. Many of you believe that players tank.

That's actually not the case. It's way too early for fans is what I meant to be tanking the season or to be throwing in the towel, waving the white flag, all of these cliches. It's way too early for that they've 82 games and a long way to go. However, I would say there should be a sense of urgency because five games is long enough to expose your major challenges and where you need to work. And that's what Kyrie Irving mentioned, although I think it is funny when he talks about time, he takes time.

I mean, aren't you the guy that just takes time off and disappears? I mean, maybe, maybe he's all in this season, but I feel like it's been a while since Kyrie, he gets fidgety. So I think it's been a while since Kyrie is able to actually give a full season's worth of time to basketball.

It's the dark side and crazy. He gets itchy. He breaks out in hives. If he plays too much basketball or has to like practice two days in a row, he just, he's not, he's, he's not able to do it without some type of, of allergic reaction. This party started.

Oh, so let's see when he takes his first break for, who knows what, where he goes to AWOL for the first time. Oh, Kyrie, what are you doing at home? See what I mean?

All right. Do you know the world series starts on Friday, Friday, man, it feels like forever. I'm tired of waiting. Let's get, speaking of getting this party started, let's freaking go. It's Justin Verlander, it's Aaron Nola, it's Phillies, it's Astros, it's the upstart versus the big, bad, pretty excited about what's to come just because a, there's been a lot of buildup.

B, these two teams have taken completely different journeys to get to this point. You've got the top team in the American league versus the last team to get into the national league post-season or the post-season bracket. So we'll do a little bit of the baseball to come at the top of the hour.

So excited. Sean O'Hara, Superbowl champion, three time Pro Bowl offensive lineman. He's a teammate of Eli Manning.

Yes, we're going to talk about the Money Night Manings because I can't help it. Also I kind of feel like Daniel Jones and Eli Manning could be brothers from another mother. I just, they're very similar, at least in my opinion. So I wonder what Sean has to say about it. What are the 60s and 70s that it's after hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the after hours podcast. They want you to judge Brown ball, weekly hit Presley has it. Doc's part of the way.

The first under handsome. You only inside starts front of the news that Houston Astros break out the brooms and the Bronx, and they're headed back to the world series for the fourth time in six years. Your 2022 American league champions, Houston Astros, Suarez kicks, here's the pitch, breaking ball, popped up, shadow, right? Segura going out, Castellanos coming on, Castellanos has it, and the Phillies have the National League Championship. They have beaten the Padres four to three and they celebrate on their home turf as the Phillies are the 2022 NL champs.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. I can't tell you how much I love the fact that you've got these two pennant winners clashing from opposite sides of the galaxy, they're on a collision course and they have come from complete opposite ends of the baseball world. The Astros have been, were, have been the best team in the American league going back to say July. The balance of power shifted right around the all-star break when the Yankees limped out of the break and had a losing record for six weeks. Meanwhile, the Astros were on this meteoric rise that eventually would lead them to 106 wins, 50 games above 500, the top seed in the American league, and to this point now zero losses in the postseason.

The final call of that AL pennant in the sweep of the Yankees with Robert Ford and Steve Sparks on Astros radio. They're the big bad. They're the team that so many people will only watch just a cheer for them to lose. Then you've got the Phillies who were the last team to punch their ticket in the entire playoffs. They were the last team to get in a national league team. That's the third out of the East division, completely dwarfed by the discussion around the Braves and the Mets and their 101 wins each, and yet the more they climb, the more they fight, the more they scratch and claw, the more confidence they gain, the more chemistry they develop and the more people believe in them, which is the moments that they've had over the course of this postseason have been amazing and they've not actually been pushed to the brink, which I also think is really interesting. They're playing their best baseball of the year.

I wouldn't tell you they haven't been challenged, but they've had an answer for every challenge. On Phillies radio, the final call of their first pennant since 2009, it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio, on Twitter, a law radio, on our Facebook page, on our YouTube channel. We've got new stuff up on all of our social media sites.

You can find us there just by Googling it. Listener just asked me, well, maybe he's not a listener. He just asked me, why can I find you on Spotify? People come up and I know people are big fans of Spotify. Mr. J loves Spotify. He introduced me to Spotify, but my goodness, there are at least five other digital outlets by which you can listen to us. And of course he wants Spotify, which I guess I understand. Makes sense, but yeah, there are literally like five to eight different outlets you can just download for free.

Yeah. I mean, if you have Sirius XM, I know I listed a Sirius XM, not just on a radio, but on an app and multiple different phones in my house. I listen to the Odyssey app. We've got the CBS sports radio website. You can still catch us on tune in radio. Just so many different ways that you can find us online. So I hope, sir, that you are able to find another one instead of sending me tweets with sad faces.

All right. Let's dive into a little bit of the preview and the anticipation for this world series that begins Justin Verlander for the Astros, Aaron Nola for the Phillies. And again, they're coming from two opposite ends of the baseball galaxy.

And yet ultimately we're talking about the two best teams. Now the layoff I think has really hurt major league baseball, but has it hurt Justin Verlander and how has he dealt with it? It's kind of one of that weird timeframe where you're not going to, you know, try to rush in an extra like simulated game or anything, you know, so just through a couple of bull pins this year, I've had a couple times through the rotation where I had eight days off.

You know, so just kind of hope that all the repetitions throughout my entire life show up. He's 39 years old. He's definitely a contender for the AL Cy Young. My gosh, we haven't gotten to the awards yet either in baseball. They're going to drag this out till Christmas, 18 wins for Verlander led the ER led the majors in ERA 1.75.

That's phenomenal. He was the eighth highest paid pitcher of the season and you know, he will be a free agent after this is done. And so of course people are asking him about not all that different from Garrett Cole right a couple of years ago where they lost in the, was it the American League Championship Series they lost? So they, they lost in the playoffs and here, maybe it was the world series and he puts on not an Astros hat afterwards. He puts on a hat that reps his agent and his agency. So instantly you could see he was divesting himself of the Houston Astros. I don't think that'll be Justin Verlander's approach that won't be his tactic.

However it could be his last start at Minute Maid Park, depending on how the series goes. I don't know, man. I'm just kind of along for the ride right now. It's been a wonderful, you know, year for me. My family at home and in the sport, I'm, I'm just trying to be present and part of it.

I'm not really trying to focus too much on what's ahead. In the final regular season start for Justin Verlander, he actually pitched five no-hit innings against the Phillies, but then was pulled. Now on the other side, it's Aaron Nola, also great story. I'm sure his brother will be there and cheering for him. And yes, the Phillies come into this world series on a super high note. For us, it's awesome as well to be in this position. It's great for our team, the organization and the fan base to be in this position right now and, you know, have a chance to world title. So it's pretty special. No doubt.

I mean, it's, it's really special to get it. Just even as I'm talking about it dawns on me, they haven't actually haven't been pushed to the brink. So this is not the nationals from a couple of years ago who faced elimination a dozen times on the Phillies have once they've gotten into the playoffs, it really does underscore that old adage of once you get in, anything can happen.

They did. They got in. They've made the most of their opportunities and Aaron Nola has been a big reason why and you can see them oozing with confidence when we, you know, had our struggles and we were losing a little bit. Everybody always believed that we were going to turn it around and we did. And we're at this point now and when we were winning a good bit, we never got too high. And it's a reality of the game, anything can happen and I think everybody in that clubhouse knew that.

Well anything can happen and did in the eighth inning of game five of the NLCS when they were trailing the San Diego Padres at citizens bank park, Bryce Harper pounds, the home run heard round the world that put them ahead for good and man, it's been quite a week for him since that Homer. I was just super excited, all my neighbors and everybody around me was just really ecstatic and kids going to school with jerseys on and Philly jerseys on and Philly days and things like that. So it's been really cool. It's been great for the city. It's been great for the people around the team as well, ownership to our workers, to everybody.

I mean, it's just, it's been a lot of fun to know that we're in this moment and have this opportunity and we're all looking forward to it. There's a lot of Phillies who have not been to a world series and there certainly are Astros who haven't been there too, though a little bit different, right? Because they are now in their fourth fall classic in six years. A little bit later on, we'll hear from Trey Mancini, the cancer survivor who missed a year with Baltimore and then ended up returning to Baltimore, beloved by the Orioles fans, of course. They had a very urgent year. They were above 500 and were really one of the great surprises of this season and we're still competing for a playoff spot deep into September.

Trey though got traded at the deadline to Houston and while it took him a while to get comfortable to find his spot and find his place with a team that already was so good. How cool is it that you have a story like this and Mancini, who now gets to play in his first world series? So there's always stories like that as much as people can poo poo baseball and man, now it's been a week since we've seen them on the field, yada, yada, yada. I've heard people say, no one cares about this world series matchup and I think that's ridiculous. It's just one of those hot takes that people spew that is not true because if you dig deep enough and you come up with the stories and the people, oh man, there's so much to love about this battle. Sean O'Hara next on CBS Sports Radio.