After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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A dynamic search for NCAA March Madness right here in the Odyssey app to get started. Would you believe we actually had a baseball game on opening day that wrapped up in 2 hours and 14 minutes? 2 hours and 14 minutes.

Wow. That's shorter than a hockey game I went to a few hours ago. This pitch clock is no joke you guys.

What did you think? I'd love to hear from you as you're watching games on opening day. Maybe some of you attended in person. Happy opening day. I'm still cold from the hockey game I went to. And before that, still cold from walking my dog in 17 degree wind chills. On Thursday morning in my neighborhood, I had to wear two pairs of pants. I had my heavy coat, a fleece under that, a hat, a scarf, mittens.

Actually there were gloves. All of it. On March 30th for 17 degree wind chills because my dog does not go quickly. The dog loves the cold and Penny just meanders.

The older she gets the more time she takes with every single blade of grass in the neighborhood. So it was cold on Thursday morning. It was cold on Thursday evening at least where I live in New Jersey. And it seemed appropriate to go to a hockey game. Actually producer Jay and I went to catch a playoff preview between the Rangers and Devils. And I know it's not the big story on this Thursday. In fact not even the biggest story in hockey but man it was a sweet atmosphere at the Prudential Center in Newark.

It was buzzing. I would say half Rangers fans, probably half Rangers fans which was pretty impressive to hear the two fan bases go back and forth. And somehow managed to keep Jay from cheering and getting us kicked out of the press box. I guess here's the thing though, the Rangers didn't have much to cheer about.

So that was probably the key. Go to a game with Jay where he doesn't have any reason to cheer. He did drop a few swear words though and I'm like Jay we're in a press box. Watch your language. He said I can't say that word.

I was like well you can technically say anything but we're in a press box and I need you to be professional. He was much subdued after that. Of course then the Rangers weren't so good after that. I think you let out a cheer more than I did throughout that game. I did not cheer.

That's the first devil's goal. I exclaim I do not cheer. That is a good word for it.

It is. I mean I react to what's happening but I'm not fist pumping and clapping. I do react to what's happening on the ice absolutely for both teams. The number of hockey pucks that just glided through the crease waiting for someone to slam them home.

There were some really impressive point blank saves by both goalies. But it's not even the biggest story in hockey even as we get down to the final few games of the regular season. The Bruins grabbing the president's trophy. That's not generally a good indicator of who wins the Stanley Cup.

So we shall see moving forward how it plays out. Same thing in the NBA. Both top seeds getting dismantled on Thursday evening. The Bucks and the Nuggets. Now the Nuggets did not have Nikola Jokic. The Bucks had everyone.

As in everyone. Giannis, Drew who's coming off a career high of 51 points. Chris Middleton was in the lineup. And the Celtics at one point led by Fitti.

As in Fitti Cent. It was stark to see. It's freaking out to be like I can't believe it.

I really can't believe it either. I hope that Giannis did not try out a few dad jokes because it would have been the wrong time for that. I don't know if you're the Bucks and you were feeling confident coming off your game against the Pacers. Maybe it was about having to travel back. I mean Indiana, Indianapolis to Milwaukee is not that difficult of a trip.

But maybe, just maybe you were exhausted on a back to back of a night of back to backs. I hope that they've got something more in store for the playoffs. In fact the Celtics may catch them atop the Eastern Conference if they don't buck up little campers. So right now the spread is two games between the Bucks and the Celtics. But the Celtics have the tie break. So we'll get to the two games in the NBA in which neither top seed decided to show up. Declined to participate.

Good job, good effort on Thursday evening. Speaking of hoops, we've got the Final Four this weekend taking place in Houston for the men. Dallas for the women. We've also got, what else do I think you have in basketball?

No, not in basketball. We've got a little bit of football but not a ton. No major news is really the key. There's nothing that you need to know about Lamar Jackson. There will be a couple of NFL storylines that we drop in. One of them being Anthony Richardson's pro day in which he completed the last 45 passes that he threw. It's not just about him, it's about his receivers and his target.

But still, he was on target. Mostly though, this is our ode to opening day and the injuries that came with it. There were a couple pitchers who were really good.

But for the most part, what did I tell you? Just watch out, pitchers are not yet stretched out. They're not quite ready for a March 30th opening day unless your name is Otani. Wow. And also, I didn't even realize that pitchers and catchers could now have, they're called pitchcom devices. Have you seen these or heard about them? Generally, it's the catcher that has the pitchcom device. So apparently, Major League Baseball just approved the use of these pitchcom communications devices, contraptions if you will. Just approved them for pitchers last week.

Must have been a Friday news dump because I didn't know anything about it. So instead of the catcher using old-fashioned hand signals and flashing the hand signals between his legs to the pitcher, now you've got this device where the pitcher hears it through a speaker in his cap. Now that's what's going to happen for most of Major League Baseball. So the funny part is that Shohei Otani, he's got the pitchcom device for his opening day start. And so he's, it was under his left shoulder. I tried to find video of it, I could not. I was listening to that game on the radio so I couldn't see it.

I tried to find video, if you've seen video please let me know. It was under his left shoulder and he was so efficient with it that sometimes before, actually MLB Network is up now with that game on so maybe I'll, or not that game, they're going through the different games so maybe I'll be able to see it. So at the point at which he's ready to key in the pitch to let his catcher know, he reaches underneath his left arm and types in the sequence. But you're supposed to be able to see the keypad.

A lot of guys are wearing it on their wrist. He's not. So apparently he had to memorize the keypad and the sequences because he's not looking. Weirdly enough. Everything he does seems to be unconventional.

And yet I don't think that it was any type of learning curve. There was no issue between him, between he and his catcher. Nah, he picked up right where he left off at the end of the World Baseball Classic for Japan. One ball, two strikes, here's the next delivery and he got him. Took something off that pitch and that was a slider, struck him out.

Otani with his tenth strike out and the inning is over. Two balls, two strikes to Tony Kemp. Swung on a five ball, right center, well hit in the alley. Trout going back, way back, it's over his head.

One hop in the wall. Ruiz to third, turning to third. Rounding the bag. He comes to the plate to score easily and the A's have tied it up. On a double to right center by Tony Kemp. He delivers in.

It's a drive to left center, sinking, that's going to get down for a hit. A round third to score is Tony Kemp and the A's have taken the lead. Ultimately the Angels lose. The story will be Shohei Otani and the ten strikeouts. He actually left with the 1-0 lead.

He was a little bit, I guess, wild for Otani. Sounds funny to say, but three walks. So it's not like he was, it's not like he was mowing down everybody. But he did have the ten strikeouts. And Oakland then scores a pair in the bottom of the eighth. So you hear the Angels and then the A's radio network. Oakland gets the better of the Angels in this one.

So the more things change, the more things stay the same. Otani crushes it in terms of his strikeouts and he has a lead for the Angels when he departs. But the Angels don't give him any offense and so they lose. That game taking place in the Bay Area.

Speaking of the more things change, the more things stay the same. Another big name, household name, one of baseball's brightest and certainly one of its biggest. He picks up where he left off. The pitch is swung on and hit in the air to center field indeed. It is a judging blast.

All rise, here comes the judge. I was trying to pick up my teammates. You know, there's always jitters.

You didn't look like jitters, Aaron. Jitters and excitement on opening day. I just want to try to get on base with the guys behind me. Luckily I was able to sneak one out there, but it's going to get the party going.

That's about it. Webb's going to keep you in the ballpark. And to get a ball up like that and to hit it out on a cold day dead center, not only is it a difficult chore in and of itself, but yeah, to get us a shot right there in the first, to set the tone for us like that, especially after the off season and signing back and captain for him to kind of get us rolling was very fitting. So the Yankees end up blanking the Giants. Not only did Aaron Judge have a first inning home run, so he's batting second in the Yankees lineup, and you hear him on yes saying, I just wanted to set the tone, yes network. He also had an RBI single in the seventh inning. Gleyber Torres had a two-run homer, and that was enough for Garrett Cole, who allows just three hits through six innings and actually strikes out 11 himself, though the temps with the wind chills were in the 30s in the Bronx at first pitch.

It was cold, just tough to feel the hand. I didn't think my command was great all day. I did make some good pitches in some good situations. I thought that Trevor was using what we had really well, and he was locked in, giving us the most margin for error with the pitches that he was calling, and obviously it was nice to get a lead right out of the shoot with Aaron. So Garrett Cole, the New York Yankees, off to a 1-0 start.

See, it's funny because there's so much buzz and anticipation for opening day, but then when you realize it's one game, either a win or a loss out of 162, then you have to see then you have to take a deep breath and remember it is a marathon, not a sprint. It was cold. It was definitely cold. It was cold in a lot of places. Breezy and cooler in the nation's capital where the Braves and the Nationals were doing battle, the Red Sox and I forgot who they were playing. They were also doing battle. It's really neat to see some of the opening day panoramic views of the stadiums.

That part I really enjoy. Baltimore, I forgot. It was Baltimore and Boston, and I had the chance to hop around, so I have Sirius XM on my phone as well as in my car, and the benefit of having satellite radio is that you can hear any call of any team, whether it's basketball, hockey, football, but baseball is my favorite to listen to on the radio. It really is, for me, the soundtrack of summer, though it's clearly not summer yet in most places, but I listened to some iconic announcers, and this was due in part to the time of day that I was listening, but happened to hear Jocas de León of the Red Sox, the Hall of Famer, as well as, who else, I heard Charlie Steiner on Dodger's radio, I heard Howie Rose on Mets radio, who else did I hear?

There were others that I was able to tune in and grab just a few minutes with. Shoot, I'm going to get done with this segment and then be like, no, wait a minute, no, I mean, yes, I also heard John Sterling on Yankees radio, but that's not who I'm thinking of. There was someone else, too, that I heard that has been around, has been doing his job for a really long time, and it was cool just to hear him, but had a chance to dabble in a bunch of different places, John Miller, Giants radio, so I always enjoy hearing the games on the radio, and it's convenient, too, right, because you don't have to be stuck in front of a TV, though generally we're talking about three-plus-hour games in the past, now we're talking about significantly shorter, quicker games, a game that actually went two hours and 14 minutes. So people are yelling at me, oh my gosh, wow, some people are really yelling at me, about the pitch comm, somehow I think that you're misunderstanding what I'm saying about the pitch comm, I didn't say that it was a brand-new thing, wow, people who are nasty, I'm sorry, I block you, I don't care if you're heavens to Betsy, I think you must have understood what I said about the pitch comm, the pitch comm was approved for pitchers to use last Friday in the regular season, to this point it had not been used by pitchers, meaning it was catchers who were initiating the sequence, so it was just approved last Friday, so for those of you who are yelling at me about how pitchers have been doing this, blah blah blah, no it just got approved officially for the regular season for pitchers to be able to use it, meaning pitchers are the ones who are initiating the sequence, pitch comm's been used before, my point was the pitchers are now using it, so it's neat, it's an opportunity for them to obviously speed up and keep the game moving if you don't have to worry about signals, but if the pitchers are initiating, then you're talking about avoiding all the shake offs, right, so how many times do we see a pitcher who knows what he wants, or maybe has a wide array of pitches, and is able to pick what he wants as opposed to having to shake off the catcher multiple times, and with a pitch clock, that becomes paramount, P.S. I do not watch spring training baseball, so, my god, have you guys paid any attention to my show lately, there's a lot going on in the spring, I don't watch spring training baseball, but thanks, my goodness, it's a good thing I don't care what you think, my gosh, that really did, oh my goodness, it is really funny how people just automatically leap to, I don't know what the bleep I'm talking about, because you didn't understand what I was saying, wowzers, I do love the mute and block button though on social, those are my favorites, it keeps me actually on those social media sites, alright, so you can find, never mind, I don't care if you find me or not, you can find social media if you know where it is, otherwise, 855-212-4227, so yes, Shohei Ohtani with 10 strikeouts, but the Angels lose, Aaron Judge with a home run, the Yankees win, and then a whole lot of pomp and circumstance and intros, and did you guys see Adam Wainwright sing the national anthem, if you haven't, it is awesome, I am so impressed that he was able to do that, not only because it takes bravery, he's a pitcher, not a singer, and because he was slow and he was deliberate, it was obviously live, he had two guitars with him and they were kind of following him, I'm gonna retweet it, this is his final opening day, he can't pitch, he's on the IL right now, but instead he was out there all smiles, singing the national anthem, and the fans were digging it, and I heard it was a surprise, now I obviously wasn't there, but I heard from a couple of fans that it was a big surprise, so maybe fans didn't know ahead of time, Uncle Charlie 50 is his twitter handle, so if you want to send him a note, anyway maybe we'll let you hear, should we let people hear some of that, it took quite a while, he was very slow, he was deliberate, he wasn't slow, so he was deliberate, but it was great, I mean I was, I'm telling you I was off the charts impressed, one day down, so many to go, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. 3-1 on the way, ground ball out the first, Olson bobbles, recovers, tosses the bag, Max is there, they get the out, they're gonna come out and check on Max now, here comes George Poulos and Brian Snitker, Max coming off the mound to go make that play, I'm not sure if he had a misstep, he's covering his face with his glove and chatting with George. I saw no signs of him running over from the mound to cover, that would indicate he had hurt his leg or ankle or anything else, he just took one to the mound or to the to the mid, I think he's gonna come out of the game, oh man, he might have grabbed his left leg, maybe the back of the left leg, well that's not good. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence, unfortunately along with the buzz, the anticipation, the chills and some of the northern climbs, along with the excitement of the introductions and in some cases the trophies being presented to the fans, fireworks, another big theme, Jose Altuve with a ginormous cast around his wrist and his thumb, along with some of the opening day traditions, we also got injuries mixed in to several pitchers, one of those being Max Freed who leaves the game, so this is in Washington, Braves and Nationals, he leaves with a leg injury in the fourth inning, that's the call on the Braves radio network, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Strained his hamstring, it's probably gonna, you know, more than likely be a DL, we don't have to do anything until his next start, so we'll just treat him up again with the off day tomorrow, come in, get a lot of treatment, but we haven't, like I say, officially done it yet, but he'll definitely miss his start, you know, then we'll just see.

I felt it, you know, trying to go on the running over and covering first base and yeah, just I know at that point, George was so, we didn't want to take any chances, especially with the weather being a little chillier today, it's just kind of, right now, it's very much see how I feel in the next coming days. So that's Max Freed, the opening day starter for the Braves. In the NL East, he wasn't scheduled to be the opening day starter, but I think that there are a lot of people who would call Justin Verlander the co-ace for the New York Mets and remember last year was Mets and Braves who each logged 101 wins. Verlander was scheduled to start on the weekend, as it turns out he will not. He was doing a bullpen session on Wednesday, thought that his velocity was down one to two miles per hour, felt like there was a tightness that he couldn't shake and so now he's got a low grade strain of a muscle near his pitching shoulder and so he was speaking to the media on Thursday, not about his upcoming start, the excitement of opening day, but instead about how you want to take every precaution at this point in the season. I think the fact that I'm going to be able to continue to throw is showing how minor of an injury it is, you know, but still there is something there. If this was a different point in the season, particularly late in the year, I think pitching is definitely on the table. Playoffs, I'm definitely pitching, but being the beginning of the season, coming off of spring training, it just makes too much sense to not push it right now and like I said, risk three months when it could be much, much, much, much, much less than that. Okay, well at least there's some humor in there from Justin Verlander.

It could be much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much worse than that. But if it's the playoffs, well, I'm in it to win it. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. We know that Adam Wainwright is on the IL because of an injury suffered at the late stages of the WBC. In fact, the championship game was Tuesday of, what was it, last week? Last week?

Man, a lot of the weeks either run together or it feels like forever ago. The WBC championship between the USA and Japan was played on Tuesday. He was working out that day, earlier that day, and ended up with an injury of his own pulling a muscle, some type of a groin muscle I believe, that he pulled and so he does not pitch on what would have been his final opening day start. He's there though. He gets introduced as the national anthem singer. Now we trimmed it so it's just him singing.

It's a little long, but I believe it is worth it. I was so impressed by what is this 40, 41 year old pitcher now going out there and being brave enough to sing in front of all of those people. That's not what he was singing. Those are not the initial notes of the national anthem, but we cut it so that you could hear it because it's awesome. Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming, and the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. And the whole time Adam Wayne Wright, you are unbelievable, yes he is, I need the credit for that, oh Bally Sports Midwest, never mind, the whole time he has his hat in his hand over his heart and a smile on his face. It was amazing. Now, you can hear at the beginning there were a couple of notes that he was off a little flat on them, but I can imagine he was nervous as heck, but he kills it.

He crushes it at the end, really beautiful, and I'm telling you the smile on his face just shows you the joy. Can you imagine how much he practiced? Probably in front of the mirror, practiced dry, practiced with the guitar. They were really just the two guys who were playing guitar who were kind of following him.

They were, as opposed to them setting him up, they actually slowed way down because he was very deliberate. But if you've never tried to sing the national anthem, it is a very difficult song. It requires such an incredible range.

You either have to start super low or you run out of high notes, or you have to do the opposite of the change, you have to modulate in the middle. So good. It's a really difficult song. It's got so many challenging stretches, so I thought that was awesome.

I would never sing the national anthem by myself in public. Heck no. And he just crushed it. It was awesome. Did you see it, Dexter Henry? I did not see that, but I want to see you try it.

No way. Like I said, it's a really hard song. Even with other people, it's a really hard song. But I thought he was awesome. I just really hope someone asked him, I'll see if I can find it, how many times he practiced that.

I would like to see, those are the questions I would, that's something I would want to know. It did sound good. Right, it did. And I think it was a surprise. A few people wrote to me on social and said that it was a big surprise, they didn't know it was happening.

And the whole time, especially at the end as he's hitting those last few notes, he's got this big ol' giant grin on his face. So that was really cool. Happy opening day. We've got Aaron Judge, we've got Shohei Ohtani, we've got Adam Wainwright, we've got Jacob deGrom and Aaron Nola in a game that was the opposite of a pitcher's tool, and we also had our first pitch clock violation. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Do you know the answer to the trivia question? Opening day, baseball 2023.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. I was listening to baseball on the radio, it was such a good rite of passage because the boys of, well right now it's early spring, the boys of early spring are back. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. 2-0, he swings and hits one in the air to right center. Garcia on his horse racing after to the track and the wall, he leaps up and that one's gone. Alec Baum going the other way for the home run, his first of the season and the first runs of this ball game belong to the Philadelphia Phillies, they take a 2-0 lead. He had 13 home runs last year and ahead of the count, 2-0, he too was looking fastball and perhaps even fastball away there and made good enough contact. First runs ever given up by Jacob deGrom in an opening day start.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Ah, opening day, aces are wild and I do mean that literally. We had a couple that were good, for instance, Garrett Cole, he allowed just three hits through six innings pitched, Marcus Stroman, also really good.

There were a few, Shohei Ohtani, he wasn't as sharp, but he had the 10 strikeouts and allowed no runs while he was on the mound, so you did have some of the starters who were living up to the opening day billing. However, you also had what typically happens, which is pitchers are not yet stretched out and ready to go and it's early on, typically early in baseball seasons, it's the hitters who have the advantage. So Jacob deGrom thankfully wasn't hurt and was able to make the start, his first not in a Mets uniform, instead he's with the Texas Rangers, you hear the call there on Rangers radio, and he did have the seven strikeouts, but did not get out of the fourth inning.

Swing and a ball, hit on the ground, over the bag at first, a cue shot up the line of fair ball, Turner rounds first, he adds the second, a funky carrom and he's going to dig for third. Grossman's throw is going to be late as Turner dives in with a ground ball dribbler triple. So back to back triples, deGrom comes to the plate, the pitch, in the dirt and it scoots away from Haim, the runner coming home, Haim's throw to the plate is late as Turner slides in ahead of the tag by deGrom and the Phillies get another run on what will likely be scored a wild pitch. Here come the both, that will be all for Jacob deGrom, in his Ranger debut he goes three and two thirds, strikes out seven, but gives up four runs and Bohm at second is his responsibility.

When the dust settles deGrom allows five runs on six hits in three and two thirds, as I say he does strike out seven, now the game wasn't over there and for the Phillies, Aaron Nola was on the mound as the starter and his numbers were eerily similar to Jacob deGrom's. Here's the 2-0, that ball is hit high and deep out into right center field, a chance to leave the yard, it is gone, into the Rangers bullpen, Robbie Grossman with the Rangers first home run of the season, he's tied it up at five, here's the 2-1, a little tapper up the third baseline, Soto has it, his flip home is not in time, Smith scores on the play, everybody else is safe and the Rangers enjoy their first lead of the day at 6-5 on a ball that low hit no more than 30 feet from home plate. So Aaron Nola also gives up five runs in three and two thirds and coughs up the lead in the fourth inning as the Texas Rangers plate nine runs, we didn't get 24-1 anywhere in the opening day box scores, though we did get some outrageous offense, it'll likely be toned down the deeper we get into the season and the warmer that it gets to, Jacob deGrom, nothing wrong, not feeling any ill effects from the injury that he had earlier in spring training, but facing a good team.

They did a good job of battling me. Some of those were off the plate, JT's slider was off the plate, the one to Trey that happened to stay fair, the mistakes were mainly to bone and those were the ones that were my fault and the other ones I felt like I made good pitches, but I got to make an adjustment, I got to see them leaning out over, make the adjustment go into them, so that's on me. Like I said, I'm not thrilled with how I threw the ball, but hey, we got to win. It's about picking each other up, he probably wasn't quite as sharp today, that's fair to say, they did throw some good at bats, but also he had some bad luck too with some balls that got through, but you know what, the guys rallied and what an inning, just had some great at bats in that big inning there and that's a great one, especially on the opener, so exciting out there, the guys were all excited and again, after a tough start, it's a great way to finish it. Bruce Bochy is the manager of the Texas Rangers, let's take a breath.

It's opening day, but for sure you get nine runs in an inning to pick up your starter who's not as sharp as he would like to be, that's one way to get a win. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Now next hour we're going to head to Los Angeles, haven't had a chance to catch up with our friend Michael Duarte of NBC LA in quite a while, he was covering the Dodgers and by the way, if you didn't know, the Dodgers by some analysts, by some prognosticators are picked to miss the playoffs, potentially finish toward the basement of the NL West. Well that would be interesting, hasn't been that way in a decade or so, so we're going to talk Dodgers and Diamondbacks and Zach Gallin who was on the mound for the Diamondbacks on Thursday evening, I don't know why my days are all messed up this week, just this whole week has been kind of upside down topsy turvy in preparation for April which is now on the horizon. So we'll talk a little bit of the NL West and the Dodgers with Michael when he joins us next hour, but I did mention we got our first pitch clock violation, ding ding ding ding ding, if you know the answer to the trivia question or if you bet on it maybe, there had to be a prop bet about which pitcher was going to get the first violation of the new pitch clock rules. It's tough this pitch clock, it's a big adjustment, I don't think people really realize, it just adds a whole other layer of thinking, you've got to be conscious of the clock, you've got to be looking at the clock, you're trying to worry about the pitch, you're trying to worry about the guys on base, you're trying to worry about your grip, there's so many things going on now, so it definitely adds another layer to the game that's tough to be honest with you, and it's definitely not easy to be a pitcher out there and to feel rushed at times. Marcus Stroman actually tossed six scoreless, he had one of the better performances of Thursday, but yeah, talking about the pitch clock, he's the first one who gets assessed a violation. Dansby Swanson by the way, a really nice Cubs debut, what did he sign, a seven year deal, 177 million, I think sevens were wild with Dansby, he goes out and he has three hits, even though it's weird right now to see him in a Cubs uniform, I'm sure the Braves fans miss him, nice to see him come up with a healthy bat in his first game in a Cubs uniform. Max Scherzer, among the many pitchers weighing in about the pitch clock, and also the challenges of it. I love the pace, I don't like the clock, I'll double down on that, I think the umpires should have discretion to turn the clock off, so I'll turn this over to Tony, we had this conversation the other day, do you think Pete, in that situation, should we start doing ball strike in that situation? I'll go off the record with you.

No, go on the record, I mean you've got to be able to defend this, I guess you can't, yeah. He's a hoot, he's always interesting when you talk to him, sometimes he is like me and he goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, and you really can't get a word in edgewise, that's why I love Mad Max, he's been one of my favorite pitchers since he was with the Tigers, and today, thinking about the irony of it, was it a decade ago? Quote me on the date, when he and Verlander were both in the rotation for the Tigers, and it seems like ages ago, they go their separate ways, they both win World Series rings, and now they're back together with the Mets, as co-aces, I gotta look it up. That is some kind of staying power, is it not? Is it some kind of longevity and commitment to your craft?

Commitment to your physical body? The fact that the two of them, I think I'm thinking of the 13-14, what year did they go to the World Series? 14?

No, no, no, that wouldn't have been 14. I gotta figure out, remember what year they went to the World Series. That might have been 12 when they went to the World Series and lost. Anyway, they were aces, roughly a decade ago, co-aces, roughly a decade ago, in fact Max Scherzer came on the scene when Verlander was already established as a great pitcher, maybe even in the MVP pitcher, and so then we saw, because Verlander won an MVP the year the Tigers went to the World Series, thank you, 2012, and then Max Scherzer kind of came along behind him, he ends up winning the Cy Young in 2013 with the Tigers. He wins it again with the Nationals a couple times, but the two of them were an incredible one-two punch with the Tigers a decade ago. As I say, they both go elsewhere, they win World Series, Max with the Nats and Justin with the Astros, and they're both critical to their team's success. Their teams likely don't win those championships without Max and Justin, and now they're back together again, although Justin's on the IL to start, but isn't that, that's an incredible track record and a lot of longevity. They could still be aces 10 years later, back together with the Mets. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.