After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Rules and restrictions may apply. If you are waking up on your Friday morning, you've been awake for a while, ouch. I'd rather stay up all night, but there's plenty to keep us company. We're here to keep you company. It's nearly the end of the work week.

That's always good news. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for hanging out with us halfway through our final show of the week.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, our show Twitter After Hours, CBS. We are now devoid of blue checkmarks. I feel so free, so unencumbered. Also on our Facebook page, a new photo up from a playoff game that I went to on Thursday evening. And so you can check that out. I was not in the Bay Area where the Warriors were Draymond-less. So we are blue checkmark-less.

They are Draymond-less in game three against the Sacramento Kings. Hands it back to Staff. Staff a deep three. Good from a far hash mark. Curry with the ball. Finds Thompson right corner. Just fires away and hits a three.

He wasn't even completely square to the bucket, Tom. Dante to Thompson. Takes a two.

It's up and good on the right side. A 15-footer. It's 105. 83 Warriors here in game three. Steph Curry shot fairly well from beyond the arc. Hits six triples. He was 12 of 25 overall for the game. Had 36 points and was helped by great rebounding. The Warriors with the edge rebounding.

Kavon Looney ties his career high with 20 boards. And then they were really able to limit the turnovers and the points off turnovers. Steph of course knew that he had to step up because there was no Draymond and wanted the focus to be on the game. I understand we couldn't change anything about the decision that we knew was wrong, but that if we could come out and win tonight, it changes the momentum of the series. And it gives us an opportunity to just make it about basketball. And that was Draymond's message the whole time was, you know, make the right adjustments, come with the right energy, protect our home court. When he gets back on Sunday, we got to capitalize off of that and try to win and even up the series. So we did what we're supposed to do. They say, you know, Draymond's got a history. So do we.

So we know how to bounce back. Oh man, I love that from Steph Curry. I'm not sure who they is. I certainly said Draymond has a history, but they say Dray has a history. Well, so do we as the champions and the best team in the NBA the last eight plus years.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. We're pleased to welcome Monty Poole, who just has finished up his post-game coverage and responsibilities for NBC Sports in the Bay Area. Monty, when you hear Steph say that, hey, they say Dray has a reputation.

We do too. What's your reaction? That's a direct reference to the announcement made by the NBA that they were suspending Draymond. And there was a line in that announcement saying that the suspension was in part due to Draymond's history of unsportsmanlike acts. So that's Steph being, you know, being kind of chippy there and just kind of dropping that little hint in there that, yeah, he read that. And yeah, Draymond's history is what ended up being a factor in his suspension. And that was Steph's way of saying, I got you.

We see you. What do we know about what Draymond said to the team at practice? Cause not a whole lot has come out about that from Wednesday.

No, not much. I mean, in fact, what Steph said is the most that I've gotten from anybody. Um, but knowing Draymond, he's a very passionate guy, a very demonstrative guy.

And it's funny. The other day he was asked about Mike Brown, been a coach here, assistant coach for six years. And he said, what, what he missed about Mike being around? He said his voice. And he said, Mike is one of those guys. He said, Mike, we talked about offense. You know, he gives you all the details and he's all into it. And you can kind of, you hear where it's coming from. He says, but when he talks about defense, he starts sweating. He starts getting into it. It becomes like a thing, you know?

And I thought that that's Draymond. I mean, that's him. When he starts talking about something that's important to him, that's how he is. If you've seen his podcast, you see how it can get going.

And so my, my guess is that, yeah. Uh, what he said to them was, okay, yeah, maybe I got screwed, but it ain't about me. It ain't about me. It's about you guys doing what you have to do to win this game. We didn't play well in Sacramento. We're at home now where we've been really good.

And if we play the way we played off, he's at home. Oh, that's what they did. Oh, there he is. Uh, sorry.

We'd lost you there for a second. Monty. Do you think that Draymond got screwed by the NBA? Um, the part that made me think that is the fact that they, they made a reference to his history. And, and, and to me, that that's not, that's off, that's off limits because I mean, in Bob Myers, the general manager kind of made an allusion to that the other day when he spoke, he said, he's been punished for those things. What he didn't say was, so now they're going to play some again for the things he's already been punished for. So, um, so yeah, that part of it, I think was a little overdone, but I think Draymond, um, actions after, you know, he stuck his foot onto the bonus, his body, his sternum area. I think that didn't help him in the way that he kind of courted the crowd, stirred it up and, and, you know, Adam Silver's the commissioners in the building and, um, you know, they don't want to see that kind of, uh, thing escalate and Draymond where he took it could have escalated. It didn't, but it could have, this was, you know, one night after, um, E40, you know, the rapper got booted from the arena because of a misunderstanding as it was said.

Uh, and so there was already some in the air, there's already some tension in the air. And I think they, they feared that what Draymond was doing could have made it worse. It didn't, but that may have been an actor in why they decided to defend him, not just to be satisfied with, uh, an objection and a fine pool is with us from NBC sports Bay area, following the warriors win over the Kings in game number three, it's after our CBS sports radio, uh, from your perspective as someone who's covered the warriors for awhile, how critical is Mike Brown, their former, uh, assistant coach to the success of the Kings in his first year as their, their top guy?

Oh, absolutely critical. Um, I went up to Sacramento on Friday before the warriors got there to talk to Mike. Um, and we spent a half an hour and I, my questions to him were about, how did you do this? Because we've seen what the Kings have been for all these years.

What are you, how'd you do this? And really he explained how, um, he got the job second week of May and the warriors were in the playoffs. They were playing with the Grizzlies and they still had to play the Mavericks.

They still had to play the Celtics in the finals. He had the job six weeks before he was able to go there, but he hired two people that he trusted and they hit the ground running. And so by the time Mike got there, it was like, you know, all he had to do was get behind him and get into the pilot seat because the plane was already flying. And, um, what they did was he connected one of his assistant coaches, who also been with the warriors in the past, uh, to work with the Aaron Fox. What made that really work is that Luke Laux was an assistant with a player, um, development coach with the warriors and the woman who was engaged to the Aaron Fox had been an intern under him. So when Mike told Luke, okay, the Aaron's your guy, the Aaron's wife was saying, I know Luke, you got to listen to Luke. So, you know, it's all things like that, you know, and so Mike said the fact that that Luke, that the Aaron's now wife, um, already had a relationship with the coach who was coaching her husband made it so much better. It was so easy for them to connect, you know, and so from there on between what Luke did and what Jordy Fox, his other assistant did in terms of just setting the landscape. And so when Mike got there, basically all you had to do was like put on his shoes, walk into the office and start meeting people.

So that really helped. And you have a young, hungry team too. The roster was put together pretty nicely. Um, the trade last year, uh, last season, or excuse me, before last now with stuff, make sure to have a burden to get the bonus.

You know, that is, I don't know if I've ever seen a trade work better for both teams than that one. So Monty, the, the series itself, um, has featured a lot of three point attempts, but when I finally saw the totals from this game, number three, it blew me away. Did it feel like there were 97 threes that were jacked up in this game?

Yeah. For a while there, the words like every two of every three shots in the first half from the warriors were three. They were three happy. And it's not like the bonus is a rim protector. Um, but, uh, what kept this game is wasn't their shooting 40%, but kept them in this game with their defense effectively took care of the basketball, 12 turnovers, only seven points of the Kings off those turnovers. And they rebounded well. Um, so between defense rebounding and taking care of the basketball, that's what got them this victory. And it's still to me, not quite, it's not a series yet that warriors win game four. Then I think is, okay, now we can compete. We got something now it's even, and we go back to Sacramento and the warriors knew from the start that they couldn't win the series without winning a game in Sacramento.

They did not do that. They didn't come close in games one or two, even though the game's relatively close because the edge they thought they had, which was the experience. And then in game one, the Aaron Fox and Malik Munk and Malik Muck in their playoff debut took over at quench time. That had to be a surprise that two guys would never been there before, all down when the game was on the line. And then you're the warriors. The next day talk about how they didn't really play fundamental basketball.

It's like, okay, you guys just, your experience edge was nullified by these two guys. And then you're talking about boxing out the next day after talking about all being locked in the week before game one. So I was a little thinking, you know what, this team, they got some issues here and they still do because their home record is what they do at home is not indicative of what they do on the road.

Hasn't been all year. So yeah, they wanted home. They looked good doing it.

They may look good doing it again on Sunday, possibly, but they still have to win there to really make this series truly interesting. Well, you set me up because my next question was going to be, why have the warriors struggled so mightily on the road this season, 11 and 30 away from chase center? Makes no sense at all. I have asked that question and really no one has given me a run with. And the same applies to all of us who are on the team.

You know, they all scratch their heads and try to figure it out. But to me, the one thing we know is that at home, they are really good at winning games late. Right. You know, they had a number of games. They had 13 comebacks from games where they were down double digits and came back and won.

Every one of those games was at home. That's not a formula you can work on on the road. It doesn't work on the road.

It doesn't work that way. And on the road, all your sloppy defense for the first three quarters, you get to the fourth, you're already down 15 points. You ain't coming back on the road like that. And so I just think if they didn't play determined basketball on the road on a regular basis and why that is, that's the question that they couldn't even answer. Monty Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area with us as he is headed home after covering game number three.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. How would you describe the role of Kavon Looney? He's pretty, at this stage, he's indispensable. And for a guy who's been through what he's been through, surgery on his on the bow chips in different years, first four years, you know, were almost awash because he was hurt more than he was able to play. And then he gets through that. And then he's now he's playing through neuropathy.

If you know anything about neuropathy, there's no real cure. Well, you know, you have to manage it. You have to manage it. And he's done things to his diet and exercise regimen. And he's managing it really well. And right now he is, he's always been a really solid defender, but he's gotten really good at becoming a really elite rebounder now, especially on offense then. I mean, in this game, he had nine offensive rebounds. And I, you know, somebody told me I didn't confer, but somebody said that, uh, Jeff Curry shot nine of nine on Kavon Looney's offensive rebounds tonight off of his second on his second chance point.

Wow. Um, but I do know that, you know, as Kavon said, through the, after the game, he said, even when he was younger, he said that, uh, assistant coach Ron Adams has been around the NBA since, oh, I don't know, 1915. Uh, Ron, Ron told him that when you get an offensive rebound, check it out, you got Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. Those guys are probably going to be open when the ball goes, when you get an offensive rebound because defense is scattered.

And sure enough, you learn that to get to heart and he's using that. And so he's just in a game where you don't have Greymont Green or Gary Payton, the second, they're two best defenders. Looney was invaluable. Uh, and for 20 rebounds, nine assists, where the hell did that come from? Right. So, uh, just a huge monster game from him. And he was huge last postseason. He's doing the same thing. Yeah.

He definitely filled some of that void in terms of the assist by big men that we normally see, uh, coming from Draymond Green, who's such a great passer. All right, Monty. So this, this is not really fair, but I'm going to do this anyway, just cause you're in the Bay area yet.

No, I'm sorry. I hope you don't mind, but you, you are a trained and professional talker and you also think for a living about sports. So, uh, again, total pivot, the A's shock baseball and fans in the Bay area by announcing that they have secured the site in Vegas and are planning on moving. How much did you hear about that at the arena and what's your reaction to it? Um, this is where it's been trending for years. When the former commissioner, but feeling directed his team to his former frat buddy, blue Wolf partner. Um, that was like 20 years ago now. And instead of being brief groups that wanted to buy the team and the group that ends up with the team is blue Wolf and his guy, but former friend buddy.

And at that point I thought, okay, what are you trying to do here? You know, you had two teams that went to buy the team and wanted to keep the team in Oakland and blue Wolf and his guy did not want to do that. That was never their plan. And so, um, when we sold his part of the team, the John Fisher, who was now on the team, he started this unravel.

It was like, it really is a pace on the script of major league. Um, this team has year after year, they were able to compete when they really wanted to. And then they decided, no, we're not even going to try anymore. We're going to let players go that, you know, have value and we got to get no, no, no names to come back in the open and they'll play and we'll, we'll be terrible. And well, maybe then we won't come. Well, guess what? People stopped coming because they got fed up with an ownership that was trading away players from the That is, that's a perfect scenario for the players to come back into Oakland and play and we'll, we'll be terrible. And well, maybe then we won't come.

Well, guess what? People stopped coming because they got fed up with an ownership that was trading away players they knew, bringing in players they didn't know. And jacking up ticket prices at the same time. That's a perfect scenario for declining attendance, and this is a place, in this ballpark even, it's old now, it's 54 years old, eight years old, whatever it is, in that ballpark, they've drawn close to three million over the years, in three years, but that was when they were trying to go in and game, and they just decided we're going to become a farm team until we get a new ballpark.

We're not going to care much about the product. Jimmy Bean became a darling of baseball when the A's were competing. He got a piece of the ownership, and he just doesn't have the same fight that he once had. He used to be devastated when they lost in the postseason, and now he's just, you know, he's part of the ownership team, and he's just riding along, he's along for the ride. How do people feel about Oakland losing its last professional team? Ticked off, ticked off, but they're not surprised because they start coming to, once we've been around, saw this plan working for years. When you start doing what the Fisher ownership group started doing, that's a message to the fans. Yeah, we know that you want to be here for your team, but we've got to rip away the players, and we've got to make you pay money to see players you don't even know and never heard of. So it's been disappointing for several years now, and you can name, for a while there they would get really good players and recycle, bring new players in and they could find a way to compete, but they lost the will to compete, and they don't even try to market the team very much.

It's almost, it's a lot like the old expo deal in Montreal, you know, they wanted them out of there, so they got them out of there, and with a deliberate plan, it felt very much the same way. Interesting. Well, Monty, thank you so much for responding to those questions. Just happened to be earlier today that the news broke, and so you are the perfect person to be able to bounce that off of.

You can find Monty on Twitter at Monty, M-O-N-T-E, pool, N-B-C-S, because he covers the Golden State Warriors for the NBC Sports affiliate in the Bay Area. We're glad to connect with you. Thanks so much for doing this with us live. We appreciate the time. I've got to say, like you, I too lost my blue check mark. We're no longer verified, Monty.

We are free and unencumbered. There you go. Have a great night. Thank you. All right, you too.

Take care. Good stuff from Monty. Yeah, I knew that he would have something to say, but I appreciate his pointed comments about the A's, and obviously the Warriors left Oakland and moved to San Francisco with their brand new Chase Center. The fans have followed, of course.

Now, I don't know what the price is. I don't know whether or not there are people who are priced out, can't get into the new Chase Center, but they earned a brand new home because of their success and the three titles in five years. But this is tough. I mean, you've got a lot of fans who, as Monty points out, who kind of knew the writing was on the wall. And honestly, if you look at the attendance number for the A's, it really does mirror their lack of success. But I saw this in, well, in a column that I was reading earlier on Thursday, that their announced crowd on April 3rd, so this is the first game of a series with the Guardians who were in town, their announced crowd, 3,035. The next night, 3,400. But get this, this is a nerd alert, 11 of 13 AAA games that day had larger crowds. And a handful of them had more than double what the A's had. They haven't tried to win in a while. The ballpark is, it's, the Coliseum's a disaster.

Producer Jay had said to me how much he wants to see it. No, it's gross. It's got floods. It's falling apart.

People complain about it. And yes, the prices have gone up with no real payback for the investment by the fans. And now they intend to move to Vegas.

And of course, they were doing it under cover of night, not letting anyone know. So now the cat's out of the bag. And of course, fans are the ones who feel terribly about it, the few fans that are left. I did reach out to my friend who works for the A's. She's a reporter with the team, actually does podcasts and that jazz, and she's not allowed to speak about it. So I did try to get someone with the team who could speak about it, but right now they're not allowed to say anything.

All right. No blue check mark, but you can find us on Twitter, After Hours CBS, also on our Facebook page. Coming up, Max Scherzer receives that 10-game suspension for his sticky substance, the rosin, the sweat, whatever it was that the umpires ejected him for in Los Angeles, and you will hear his reaction to the 10-game ban. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Back here at Dodger Stadium and Max Scherzer has been ejected from the game by first base umpire Phil Cuzzy. And for the second straight inning when Scherzer went back to the mound, they checked his glove and Cuzzy saw something that he felt Max could not have. And after an animated conversation, ejected Scherzer from the game. I don't get how I get ejected when I'm in front of MLB officials doing exactly what you want and being deemed my hands too sticky when I'm using legal substance.

I do not understand that. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. He may not understand it, but not only did he get ejected from the game against the Dodgers on Wednesday, but Max Scherzer then picks up the 10-game suspension that comes along with being ejected for having a sticky substance on his hands. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. That was Keith Radd? Is that his first name?

Keith Radd. He's a new announcer on the Mets Radio Network. Alright, so Max Scherzer suspended 10 games by Major League Baseball on Thursday. He initially appealed the suspension.

Not sure if you heard this wrinkle to the story. He started out by appealing, but then changed his mind and accepted that ban. I got suspended today, 10 games. I went through the appeal process, looked at what the appeal process was going to look like.

I thought I was going to get in front of a neutral arbitrator, but I wasn't. I was going to be through MLB, so given that process, it wasn't going to come out on top given that. The best thing for the Mets, I'm a follow what the Mets wanted me to do, and that was to accept the suspension and come to a settlement with that. I came to a settlement with MLB on what the fine should be and move forward in that. So that's the best thing for the Mets at this point in time.

You know what I know that's interesting, and maybe you saw this or heard it on another show or a different outlet. The umpire that tossed Max Scherzer was Phil Cuzzy. He was also involved in the two pitchers last year who got banned, or they got banned 10 games, but who were initially tossed out for having sticky substances. So remember they started testing in June of 21, and I don't know if you guys remember for about two weeks it was all the rage. It was annoying as heck. We made fun of it here on the show, and then it was fairly standard after that.

I wasn't even sure that the examinations, the inspections were still taking place. But Max is the third pitcher to get suspended because the 10 game ban automatically follows an ejection, and the other two, Hector Santiago and Caleb Smith, both last summer, and Max Scherzer all involved the same umpire, Phil Cuzzy. Now I don't know if he was the same one who ejected them, but he was part of the umpiring crew.

Coinky Dink? It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Scherzer's not taking this lying down.

He was ticked off on Wednesday when he got tossed, and he's got more to say. See there's no uniform stickiness. The umpires are, this is part of one of my frustrations too, is that the umpires are giving classes on what they're looking for and this and that, whereas MLB says here's your rosin bag, you sweat.

Don't use pine tar, don't use sunscreen, but here's the rosin, you sweat. So that's what we do. There's no objective quantifiable measurement of stickiness, of tackiness. And so what can be deemed legal one inning is all of a sudden deemed illegal and the next inning just by applying sweat. So that's my problem with this. That's what happened. I agree with that, in that it is going to be subjective from umpire crew to umpire crew because we don't have some type of a science project out there to determine how sticky or how tacky.

So yes, it's going to be subjective. And what the crew chief, I forgot his name, Dan Bellino, or I forgot his name, don't quote me on that. What the crew chief said to the pool reporter after the Scherzer ejection was that whatever was on Scherzer's glove and hands, and probably the glove after he washed his hands with alcohol in front of an MLB official, so then it would have to have been on the glove. But after that, the umpire said their fingers were sticking together and that it was so sticky when they inspected the glove, when they inspected Scherzer's hands initially that their fingers were actually sticking to each other. Now Max says he washed his hands with alcohol in front of an MLB official, used the rosin and then grabbed sweat.

That's what he said. He grabbed sweat. It was fun trying to determine where he would be grabbing sweat from exactly. But it was a little clumpy.

It was clumpy. Now that was before they inspected him or that was the first inspection before they ejected him. When he washed his hands in front of an MLB official, he later went on to say I'd have to be a total idiot to then try anything else after I'd already been called out in one inspection and they had him change gloves.

Whatever in the world would have he had time to grab pine tar or something tacky or I don't know. I would agree. You'd have to be an idiot after you get a warning. You wash your hands, you change gloves, you're going to try it again?

It feels like then you'd be a target and you would know better. But all that to say, Max has a point about this part, which is umpires are told what to look for, they're told what to investigate, what to inspect and how to react and it's not going to be uniform. But that's the same as say pass interference in the NFL.

Of course it's not going to be uniform because it's different human beings who are making subjective judgment calls. It's early in the season. It's a long season. I just hate the idea that if Max in fact did what he said he did and didn't use anything other than rosin and sweat, which is legal, it's the combination that pitchers are told they have to use. They can't use sunscreen.

Remember we talked about that going back to June of 21 when they first cracked down. It sucks that you automatically get a 10 game suspension if in fact he was doing exactly what he thought he was supposed to be doing and washed his hands in front of a baseball official and that still didn't fix the problem satisfactorily to these umpires. Maybe it's Phil Cuzzy who has the sticky problem. Maybe he just has sticky fingers. So when he goes to inspect other pitchers' gloves or he goes to inspect other people's hands, it's the stickiness on him.

Maybe that's the issue. Phil Cuzzy. He's got, is it, well Spiderman has, he can shoot the web, but doesn't he have sticky fingers? Yes, he does.

He can go on ceilings and walls. Maybe he's related to Spiderman. It's a theory. Because then he would be touching the gloves of these pitchers and the hands of these pitchers that he's inspecting. So if Phil Cuzzy's involved in all of these ejections slash suspensions, maybe Cuzzy's the problem. It was clumpy. Maybe Cuzzy's the clumpy. Maybe it's clumpy Cuzzy. Related to Spiderman, if we see him climbing buildings, sides of stadiums, I'm thinking we should let someone know because he's clumpy.

That's the problem. We got to watch him when he throws a ball back to the pitcher next time for a ball change. Oh, interesting.

Could be related to Spiderman. No, not singing anymore. Okay, I got to go do a CBS Sports Minute.

I hope you don't mind. Fernando Tatis was back on Thursday evening and we got a couple of, I would say, crazy momentum swings in the NHL playoffs on Thursday evening as well. One that I saw with my very own eyeballs. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Two and two to Tatis making his 2023 debut. Here's the pitch from Nelson and a swing and a miss.

Got him to go chase something downstairs and one out in the top half of inning number one. It's been great. It is great. It's been wonderful to be here, to be with this team and it's just a special day.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It has been nearly 600 days since Fernando Tatis was last on a Major League Baseball field in a game that counted, right? So an actual Major League Baseball game that mattered. Remember, he was out all of last year, there was the steroid related suspension, the surgeries on both his wrist and his shoulder, not telling his club when he got hurt, how he got hurt and broken trust with his Padres teammates. So he reenters the Major League Baseball arena after a couple of minor league games, a stint in AAA and says he has no issues when it comes to his confidence level. 24 years old, has an opportunity to restart and reset and while he can't erase the past or erase the narrative around him, he can prove that he's grown up, that he's matured and that he won't make those same choices again because they weren't mistakes.

To me, mistakes are accidents, kind of aberrations. You know, he had a series, a little bit like a Ja Morant, a series of really bad decisions that were compounded one on top of the other. So he was the lead off spot for the Padres as they opened up against the Diamondbacks, this is in Phoenix, and then get this, Tatis followed by Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogarts. That's your top four, Tatis, Soto, Machado and Bogarts. If the Padres can capitalize on this, I will say, worth the wait. They've been building toward this for a long time, they spent a ton of money, mostly on hot bats though. They've also tried to secure their pitching staff. Apparently Bob Melvin put Tatis on the lineup card, texted him right away and said, you've got the green light, you're leading off. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio, Juan Soto among the Padres, thrilled to see Fernando Tatis back on the field. He's going to bring a lot, you know, the energy that we need, a little extra energy, a little extra lean off a spot where he's going to bring that electric start game and he's going to bring everything.

There's going to be speed, power, defense, strength, it's going to be really fun. So yeah, this is how he picks up now in what is, is it year three? Three of that 14 year deal? Remember he signed the 14 year deal with the Padres $340 million extension and he did land among the top three in the MVP voting in 2021.

But then had the motorcycle accident. There was the lockout, so that delayed anything, although I don't think that's fair to blame the lack of communication with the team on the lockout. But then he has a wrist injury, shows up to spring training with it. Tatis is getting ready to return, he does positive for a steroid and the 80 game suspension wipes out the rest of 22 and the first 20 games of this season. So his teammates, I think it was tough love from them. They wanted him to do soul searching, which is what Bob Melvin said. And I love the way that Bob Melvin put it too. You're fortunate to be in the big leagues.

Don't take this for granted. Yeah, it's a lot of guaranteed money, but can he come back more mature? Can he come back humbled by how it all went away for a long time?

As I say, nearly 600 days. And it's not like it came back super easy for him either. I mean, he's still trying to find his rhythm. He was in spring training and I didn't keep track of this.

I read it, so please don't think this is me keeping track. But he started spring training over 16 and he was hit less than five at bats last night. Now once he gets warmed up, I have no doubt that he's going to find that rhythm again because he is an incredible player, just man. He missed all that time. And even if you're not thinking about it from his perspective, man, think about it from the Padres.

They put their faith in him with that huge extension and this is what happened. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, so welcome back Fernando Tatis. How about welcome back to the Colorado Avalanche. After losing game one against the Seattle Kraken, first ever playoff win for the Kraken in their franchise history. Seattle scores, I'm pretty sure it was three minutes into the first period in Colorado last night, has a 2-0 lead at the end of the second period and Colorado has to dig out of a hole. But dig out, the Avalanche did. Thanks up, one back for Sam Girard, near side point high in the zone, Lekanen, turning, firing, save made, rebounders in for Tage, he scores!

It's a Taser from Taser! And Devon Tage has his 10th career playoff goal and the Avalanche had their first lead of the series, 3-2 with 7-0-1 to go in the third. And they were able to protect it, so they got the equalizers in the second period and then the only goal in the third period is with Taves, about seven minutes to go, that's Connor McGehee with the call on the Avalanche Radio Network. New Jersey, that was the game that I went to, New Jersey Devils posted a 1-0 lead on their newly installed rival, or I guess newly renewed rival in the New York Rangers and the place was insane. So I was there, the Prudential Center, the Devils fans were so loud after the 1-0 lead, but man did it change so completely in period number two. Lindgren back to Fox, Fox straight away, near circle, drops it off for Teresenko with a blast and he scores!

Flatter! Teresenko! We're tied at one! It's a bandage add, back up top, shot, score! Deflected again in front, by gets who? Chris Kreider on the power play and it's 2-1 New York. Kane between the circles, Kane back down low, tipped by Kreider and he scores! Chris Kreider, power play goal again and it's 3-1! Enjoyed this one tonight, but you go back to work tomorrow and you let it light practice and get ready for the game, but the series are always different, you know, so it's far from over, they're a real good hockey team and we know that and we got to play our best game back in our building, what, Saturday night? Of course it's frustration, we just got whacked for the second straight game, you know, I mean, of course it's going to be frustration, so, just got to, you know, we got more opportunities and we got to go to the guard and play a lot better. Don Legrecha with the calls on Rangers Radio, Gerard Gallant, yeah, yeah, it's far from over but they do have a 2-0 lead and they won both the games against the Devils in their own building. The Devils mentioned being nervous before the series began, now they've got a little playoff experience under their belts, but Jack Hughes says, yeah, this stinks, we got whacked for the second straight game.

I'm telling you, the momentum completely changed, the first two goals the Rangers scored, it was against a goalie who was completely screened, the third one was the killer and then it was pretty much over after that. After hours, CBS Sports Radio. I'm JR of the JR Sport Reef Show on CBS Sports Radio, I'm also the host of the new podcast, Agents of Inclusion, we talk to a different Special Olympics athlete every week to learn how sports can bring us together. We're bringing both the disability and non-disability community to one community, all one people, one family.

It took me a little while, but I decided to claim autism as my superpower, when you hear the word autism, don't let that hinder you from doing whatever it is that you want to do. That's what Special Olympics tells you, you get involved in sports, but then you take it from the playing field out into real life. Family means to me, community, acceptance, love, embracing a person just as they are. That's what Special Olympics did for me. It's all about family.

Subscribe to Agents of Inclusion on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. This April, you can attend NC Science Festival celebrations at the Greensboro Science Center. From robotics to trivia to stargazing, we have activities for the whole family to enjoy. While you're here, visit our aquarium. Did you know that not all penguins love the snow? Some penguins, like our African penguins, live in warm weather climates. Don't forget to stop by our zoo to see meerkats, flamingos, Maine wolves, and more. And take a spin on our carousel or reach new heights on Sky Wild as you climb and soar through our treetop adventure. For more information, visit GreensboroScience.org.