After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Never crossed my mind before, but things that make you go, hmm. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Che and I are in a really good mood on this edition of the show because we didn't have to watch any basketball on Monday night.

Good help. Okay, just to clarify, we love basketball. We love the basketball playoffs, but they have dominated our lives since mid-April. It is so refreshing to have one night where there's only one playoff game. You don't have to worry about getting a cramped thumb or getting texting thumb because you're going non-stop on the remote, channeling among seven, eight playoff games to start going back, I guess, a month, a little over a month ago. But even the last couple weeks, it's been conference semifinals, and there's still eight series going on.

It's just a lot to keep track of, and so this rare night, I don't even think it's happened. Saturday night, maybe there was no basketball. I think Saturday they took off basketball. But for our purposes, nights that we work right after the games are done, it was the first time since the playoffs started that we only had one game.

Just a game seven, little old game seven in Dallas between the Kraken and the Stars. It was quiet. It was nice. I worked on my blog post. I actually am doing a blog post about my Grand Canyon trip.

I haven't had a chance to write it, but mostly I've been waiting on pictures from my hiking partner. So Casey has been promising me for weeks now that she would be sending me the photos because we had an agreement when we hiked. I would take pictures of her. She would take pictures of me. She keeps sending me an empty Google Drive folder.

It's happened three times. She sent me the Drive folder. It's labeled Grand Canyon photos, and yet for some reason there's no photos in it. I'm not sure why she keeps doing that because I sent her mine and she could see them. But when she responds with her own Google Drive folder, they're not in there. So I still have yet to see a lot of the photos that she took of me. Is she just like buying time? No, I think something's just not working.

I'm not exactly sure. She does everything on her phone. A lot of times instead of using a laptop or a desktop, she does everything on her phone. And it's just not working the way that it's supposed to on her phone. Maybe because it's an iPhone and iPhones suck.

I was gonna say, is this iPhone to Android? Well, no, she's putting them in a Google Drive file and then sending me the folder, the file. It shouldn't matter.

It shouldn't matter, but she's tried it three times and the photos still aren't there. At this point, I'm just moving on without her. And so that's the thing. It's time for me to go ahead and write this blog post and share my own photos.

Wow. Do you want to hear this tweet that I just got? You ready for this?

Ready. You're gonna like this. Producer J, don't give it away.

You know the answer, so don't give it away, okay? Tom writes, how about you get out and deal with your own gas? Or don't take a full gas can through your window.

Again, get out and put it in your trunk. And then he writes at the end, lazy in all capital letters. Huh. That's one thing no one in my life has ever called me. Funny, Tom.

Oh my gosh. In my entire life, no one has ever called me lazy. There isn't, because there's not a lazy bone in my body. First of all, I would much rather pump my own gas. Do you know how annoyed I get having to wait for someone else to pump my gas? But Tom, just for your information, in New Jersey, which is the state in which I live, it is illegal to pump your own gas. We are forced to wait for a gas station attendant to pump the gas. And you're not actually supposed to get out of your car at the gas pump either. You're supposed to sit there and wait and not leave your car or your gas can, in this case, unattended. So I accept your apology.

I would much prefer to get out and deal with my own gas. Don't you love it when people make complete and total fools of themselves on social media? It happens very frequently.

But in this particular case, for a person who does not know me to call me lazy, because I didn't get out and pump my own gas and actually break the law, is maybe taking it to a new level. That was the internet in a nutshell. Truth is optional on social media. In one tweet right there. Now here's the funny part. If I turn around and I quote tweet this and I let him know that he needs to research New Jersey state laws, of course he'll delete it, right?

Because he looks like an idiot. Of course. Yeah, it never happened.

It was never there. What do you mean? I just got called lazy. Do you know any, seriously, do you know anyone who works harder than me? Lazy I am not. You can call me a lot of things. I'm emotional. I am passionate. I am a nerd. I'm a lot of things.

I'm impatient. A lot of times I can be a control freak. Lazy is not one of the things that I am. Even on my worst day, I'm not lazy. I mean, just what, a couple weeks ago, we were doing the show and then driving to Syracuse and then doing the show there and then driving back in the same day.

Running half marathon. Yeah, oh yeah. I actually have this and it's a problem. I will admit it. I feel guilty if I'm sitting around doing nothing on the weekends.

I actually, yeah, I don't even, I don't remember the last time I was bored and I don't remember the last time I even felt lazy. But as I say, Tom, you're forgiven. By the way, Tom has zero followers, so it's no doubt a troll account. No, it's no doubt a troll account. So if I did respond to him, it wouldn't matter. It would go nowhere. But yeah, it's people sometimes, this happens a lot.

People actually set up new accounts just so they control people without having it traced back to them. The burner. Like Kevin Durant. Exactly. Exactly. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

I was looking at lazy and I used the Z instead. Take two. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio and you can find me on Twitter A Law Radio with your regular account or your burner account and also on our Facebook page and our phone number is 855-212-4227. Now coming up, we're going to get to your responses about the NFL and its streaming because there's a mixed bag of responses.

But that's the question out there. Will you sign up for the Peacock app if you don't already have it simply to watch one NFL playoff game? Because this upcoming season, there will be a wild card game on Saturday night that is streamed live and exclusively on Peacock. I pay for three streaming services already. I've got Amazon Prime. I've got Paramount Plus. I also pay for Sirius XM and I've been a 20 plus year subscriber of Sirius XM.

It's not, well, I've managed to get a deal recently, but it's not cheap. It's 13 bucks a month. I think I pay $50 a year for Paramount Plus and I do do the ad services. So there's ads on my Paramount Plus and then Amazon Prime, which has gone up actually and is very expensive for a year, but since I don't just use it for streaming, I also use it for delivery services and various goods that I need to buy. It's worth it to me because the shipping is free.

So those are the three that I have. I will not sign up for Peacock unless there's a free trial, but I did some research and so I'll get to that. I'll let you know what I found out about Peacock.

It could change between now and January of 24, which is when the wild card game will be played. Let's talk to Mac who's in Buffalo. Mac, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Hey Amy, Amy, Amy, I must tell you I'm happy to be on your show. I know you do a lot of social media, so appreciate you taking my call.

Sure. I must give you a confident first of all, I will say Tom is an idiot because he does not know that New Jersey does not allow you to come through and get. I found out when I had my second job in higher education as an admissions counselor at the University of Scranton, I traveled to Jersey, New York, and I knew that and I had loved it because I hate, hate, hate pumping gas.

So I will even pay an extra fee to go somewhere to have them pump my gas. So I will say something really to really give you a compliment because you have become so confident, self-assured and enabled as a reporter, as an analyst and sportscaster since you did that position at Syracuse. I can tell the difference, even in your speech, your communication, you don't pause as much as you used to. There used to be this kind of empty air where you take a pause and then I'm like, what is she doing? Is she thinking?

Is she going to come back? I'm always thinking, yes. And you'd be talking about something and I said, but you wouldn't say anything, but since you've left that Syracuse position, what teaching can do for you, can give you this confidence booster. Like I have two PhDs, I have two masters and the only reason I'm saying that is because the reason I became so confident in my speaking abilities is because I taught.

I taught undergraduate students and I wasn't quite too sure of what the heck I was doing. I said, I'm going to do this like Mario Andretti drives. I'm going to do it until the rubber meets the road and that's what you did. And it has improved you and it's causing a problem with me because I listen to J.R. from 10 until 2 a.m. And I used to turn it off.

As soon as you came on, I'd be like, click. I'm not listening to Amy, but now I'm listening to you. And so, and I'm like, I can't see up all night.

And I call in a J.R. show and I talked to the producer, Shep, and I'm like, what am I going to do? But lately I tweeted J.R. and this week I've been getting baby sleep, which means as you get older, you need that 8 to 10 hours sleep and I've been getting it. And now I get you from whatever time you come on from 2 until, but I'm sleeping at that time. So I just woke up at 3. So I'm full of all this energy. My normal waking time is 5. So I want to get off, let you take some more calls. Thank you.

And us people, not saying us people, not in the proper language. We don't use social media. I use it for business.

I don't use it for personal reasons, which is why I've never been on any of your sites. So I'm looking forward to your blog. And can you, before you get off, please repeat what, I'd like to hear what some of your upcoming plans are for the next six months.

The next six months? Because I feel like you're going to take off. So I'm going to shut up and listen. And congratulations on that teaching position because it did wonders for your career. Oh, thank you. That's for your career, but for your confidence level and you're speaking truth, speaks the truth like your mama wants you to and God wants you to.

Speaks the truth. I'm going to hang up. Thank you so much for your call in Buffalo. I'm sorry about your sleep, but a great compliment that you wake up to listen to the show earlier than you would have. Glad to have you with us.

I appreciate the phone call. Man, plans for the next six months. That's a hefty question because I don't ever go very long without having plans.

I will say I've got a few that I'll share with you though, since you asked. Number one, Bob and I will finally be seeing each other again. Seems like forever, but we've got a hiking trip coming up in the third week in June. It's still five weeks away, but we've got a hiking trip coming up in West Virginia and Virginia, his choice, not mine, where we were meeting there the third week in June and then in July I'm going back to Houston. No one goes to Houston in July for vacation, but there I'm going and that's also a combination trip.

Yes, to see Bob, but also to see my mama who is contemplating. She desperately needs a foot surgery and because she's still teaching, she can't do it during the school year and I'm trying to encourage her to get it done as soon as her school year is over. So it would be late May, early June, probably after Memorial Day weekend. She's putting it off because she doesn't want to go through the recovery process, which would be about three months, but she needs to get it done because she's limping. It's bone spurs on the top of her foot. She's limping and it makes her unstable and she really can't do a lot of activity.

So because of that, I'm trying to encourage her to get the surgery done. And then I can be there in July to spend some time with her and also to use the pool. I mean, you don't go to Houston in July.

Either you stay indoors or you find a pool or a body of water in which you can reside while you're outside. So I am going to Houston in July. As for other plans, my college roommate, she'll be visiting me in New Jersey.

We've got, get this, producer J, you ready? These are really hard to get. We've got tickets to go to the crown of the Statue of Liberty, not just the base, not just at her feet. So you can go, you can walk around the island.

You can also go up to what is considered the next level up to her feet. The tickets for the crown are not only sold out months and months in advance, but they are also really hard to get. But because we're both celebrating milestone birthdays, we have tickets to the crown in July. I have never been up there and I am over the top excited to get to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.

That's amazing. And to be, I can't believe you said that because I know how hard those are to get because, you know, two weeks ago or a week last weekend, I went to the city with my mom. We went, we were going to a play. New York City.

New York City. But before that, we actually had the idea to go to the Statue of Liberty and I was like, oh, I've never been inside and I've never been to the top. And I looked up tickets for the ferry and how to get to the crown and they were legitimately sold out until September, October. Right.

You couldn't get in. So I know how hard it is to get up there. That's awesome. She bought these tickets two months ago when we planned this trip. As I say, she's coming to New Jersey to visit me and then we will spend some time in New York City. But the number one reason she had to pick July is because that's the only time she found a couple of availabilities, availabilities, a couple of available dates to go up on the crowd. But they're sold out six months in advance and they only allow a few tickets per day. It's not as though they allow hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people up there.

You go in waves and it's only a few people at a time. And I've never been since I moved to the New York City Metro. Every time people come to visit, including Bob, Bob will be here later on the year. He wants to go to the Statue of Liberty. Of course, it's amazing. It's an iconic landmark.

It's breathtaking to be on the island. I've been there probably a dozen times since I moved here because that's what all of my friends and family want to do. I've never been able to get tickets to the crown.

So Colleen, again, my college roommate and I, I've known her since we played basketball against each other in high school in New Hampshire. We finally got the tickets and that's our kind of milestone birthday celebration. We'll be up in the crown in July. That's so cool. Those tickets are so exclusive.

I know. I'm so excited. Can't wait. So there there's some plans coming up for the summertime. Also, I've just about to sign up for my next half marathon. That'll be in September and maybe another one in November. We'll see how how stupid I get. Don is listening in Madison, Wisconsin.

Don, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Thank you. I've never heard of using carpet cleaner to deodorize your car, but Febreze works much better. I do have some fabric Febreze, I think, because I have pets.

That should work. We rented a car one time and every time we got in it, it smelled like smoke because, you know, they sell these, rent these, you know, smoke-free vehicles. And yeah, my sister, every time we get in or out of the car, she would spray Febreze in the car.

We went through, we went through two cans in one week. Oh my gosh. It was that bad, huh? Oh yeah.

My goodness. Well, the reason I use the carpet cleaner is because there was a stain on the seat and I wanted to get rid of it right away. It wasn't really about the scent. It was about the fact that I didn't want a stain on my seat. Even though Princess Leia is a 2015, it's not like she's a new car.

I still, it looked awful. So that's why I was rubbing the carpet cleaner in there and just haven't had the opportunity to, I mean, thankfully the stain is gone, but to spray, but I'll take the Febreze. That's a good idea. Well, you need to get a better car with leather seats.

No, I don't. First of all, I have a dog who gets in my car as well, which is why I decided against leather seats, but also, yeah, but also I, I did have the option. I prefer to go with economical myself.

And since I was buying this car, I decided I did not want to be the extra two grand for the leather seats. So I was good. Yeah, especially with the dog.

My brother has a new fee, so I know all about her. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, Australian Shepherds, they also shed another dog every day. It feels like.

Oh yes, they do. Yeah. So what's good to talk to you, Don. Thanks so much for calling from Madison. No problem. Talk to you later. All right.

855-212-4227. Yeah. Sorry. Just to make it clear, I wasn't actually worried about the smell of the gasoline. I was trying to get that stain off my seat before it got worse. But Febreze sounds like a good option.

I do use Febreze for rugs and for pet stuff. Two cans in a week sounds a little dangerous though. To be inhaling all that much.

Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, that's a lot of... What are those called? Not stimulants. What are those called when you inhale? There's a word for it. You know, when you inhaled something from a can, an aerosol can, there's a word for it, which I'm sure I'll come up with in the next 30 seconds. But then we'll be off into a commercial break. I'll just have to yell it out, even though you can't hear me.

All right. On Twitter, A Law Radio Wilson says, check out ozone machines on Amazon. Might help you remove the gasoline smell from your car. People use them to remove smoke odors from vehicles when nothing else will work. Ozone machines.

I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like fun to research. All right, coming up about 20 minutes from now, we'll do a QB news. I know, weird, right?

In May, but you'll enjoy this. Guess what? There's a QB competition in Tampa. Producer Jay thinks Baker Mayfield is going to lose. To Kyle Trask? Don't really care. You're lying. Also, Josh Allen taking BP with the Toronto Blue Jays.

That's kind of fun. If you haven't seen the video, you can check it out on our show, Twitter. After Hours, CBS, MLB put the video out there. And I'll give you the info, the intel that I found out about the Peacock Network and the NFL wild card game. If you're waking up on your Tuesday morning, good morning to you.

We're glad to have you with us. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. We did talk overall about media.

We didn't talk about where we are in any of our discussions with potential partners. I do, and I've said it before, believe that this will be a streaming product and it'll be available digitally because I think that's best for our fans. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That's the commissioner of the NFL going back to when, Producer J, 21 or 22? 2021, that was. 2021, and even at that point, facing questions about the media partners for the NFL. And let's be fair, football is banking on its popularity and specifically the power of the playoffs, the power and the allure of the playoffs to drive traffic to Peacock. Now, NBC is already a broadcast partner, so this is tack on, but an exclusive playoff game, playoff broadcast, I should say, on Peacock Network is coming in January, wild card weekend. The game will be the Saturday night broadcast, January 13th, actually. Now in market, whatever two teams are chosen, let's just use last year's Saturday night wild card game as an example. It was Jacksonville and it was the Chargers. So crazy enough, in LA, that game was over the air, or the game would be over the air, excuse me.

That's a huge media market. I can't imagine the NFL sacrifices all of those potential viewers in LA or in New York. So producer J is worried about the Giants being on this. Let's just say for the sake of argument, the Giants make the playoffs. They're in the wild card round because they don't win the division, or they do and they have a lesser record. And they end up on Saturday night. I just don't think that's a possibility because they're not going to win the playoffs.

I'm thinking out loud here. If the Giants play on that Saturday night and the game would move to Peacock, it would not be for the New York market. There are 10 million plus people in the New York TV market, which means there's no way that the league would use the Giants for that Peacock game because they would miss out on potentially all of those subscribers that might otherwise have to sign up for Peacock because they can already see the game for free in New York.

Does that make sense? Right. So I don't think they would do it for LA either or San Francisco.

I could be horribly wrong. You're only going to have so many options wildcard weekend. But when you're talking massive TV markets like the ones we just mentioned, the NFL would not get any new subscribers in the New York City Metro because they'd all be able to watch it live on a local network. Right. So there would be no need for them to sign up for Peacock. So that's a hell a lot of subscribers or potential subscribers the NFL would miss out on because they'd be able to watch it on actual NBC. Right. The NFL wants the biggest markets to have to buy the subscription. That's what I'm talking about.

Thank you for saying it a different way and making sure people understand it. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. That thought popped into my brain as I was working through it. But yeah, last year it was Jacksonville and it was LA. And so Jacksonville and Los Angeles, if it's the same matchup, would be able to see the game over the air on NBC. Otherwise, you would have to purchase the Peacock app if you don't already have it. Or here's what I found out. Amazon Prime members can actually get a special offer that provides six months of Peacock Premium for free. So there's an option. Or Peacock does offer a seven-day free trial.

Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me. Now here's the question. Will Peacock or will NBC put the kibosh on the free trial come the start of 24 because they don't want all these NFL fans to get the free trial and not have to pay for this wildcard game? That's the question. Another question, right? I can't imagine that the league puts its best wildcard matchup on a Saturday night anyway.

But listen to this. It's a one-year deal with NBC slash Peacock for $110 million. One game for $110 million. So if Peacock slash NBC is forking over that kind of coin, then they expect to get a game that is worthy of people signing up. They expect to have new subscribers that are there simply because of the NFL playoff game. I mean, that's a lot of money for one playoff game. According to the Wall Street Journal, $110 million. But as I was saying earlier on the show, if the NFL puts a high profile game on the streaming service, we know the numbers will be lower.

We know that. Amazon Prime's numbers over the course of last year, Thursday Night Football, weren't anywhere close to what happens on Sundays or on Saturdays or even Monday Night Football. The number of viewers that tune in for these games helped to set the ad revenue moving forward, or how much the NFL can charge its broadcast partners, how much the NFL can charge corporations that want to air their own commercials during the games. That all depends on viewership and ratings. So it's a catch-22. You put your best game on Peacock, well, then you're sacrificing a great matchup on network TV. A great matchup on network TV, where you can then turn around and charge your commercial partners extra money for the ads.

So yeah, see, as someone who works in the industry, this kind of stuff geeks me out. I'm just all about it. We'll see whether or not that free trial goes away. But right now, Peacock does have a seven-day free trial. I could easily see them making some sort of, not making it go away, but having some sort of limitation on it where the NFL package isn't included in the free trial or something. That would just be wrong.

It would just be wrong. Or you could pay for one month and then cancel it, if they allow that. I don't know if they do. Paramount Plus, I pay a flat fee for the entire year, and it's still relatively cheap. I don't care about the ads, whatever. I'll do something else during the commercial breaks. All right, a few of your comments on Facebook.

So we'll start with Facebook here. A lot of you were just saying, nope, I will not pay for Peacock simply to watch one NFL playoff game. Eric says, I already have Peacock. I got it to see Yellowstone, which, by the way, is ending with season five, I think. But seeing sports and NBC primetime is also great. If I didn't have it already, I would get it just to see a playoff game. David says, not just for the NFL. No, there might be other reasons, but one football game is not compelling enough. Michael, the only way I'm signing up for one game is if my Dallas Cowboys are in that playoff game.

Other than that, no way. Brett, I already have it, along with many others, and I still pay less than I did for satellite. I think the NFL is ahead of the curve. The majority of their games are on over-the-air channels.

Now they're expanding to streaming. I think baseball and the NBA could learn. The thing about the NFL, though, is what I just said. They'll never get the same viewership without the over-the-air, meaning CBS, Fox, NBC. They're not going to cough up all of those games because that's where they make the boatload of their money.

Think about it. CBS and Fox carry the conference championships northward of 50 million viewers, 50 million viewers. These are the most-watched programs on TV all year long, the Super Bowl and the conference championships. The NFL is not giving up that kind of ad revenue.

They're not. Brian says it depends on who's playing. Gregory says no, man. Shareen says, yes, I would. I already have Peacock for the English Premier League soccer. I use it 10 months out of the year, so it's worth it. Cool, now I can catch the NFL wildcard game you mentioned. Shirley says, no, there are shows I'd like to see, but subscribing to each and every service is crazy, so I do without them.

I have plenty of choices without going to extremes. Michael says, no, like you, I appreciate the radio broadcast also. Mike has Peacock Premium free with Xfinity.

Let's see, Laura says it's part of my cable subscription. And then Jason, he's the rebel. Not a chance that they're going to be able to get the card.

Jason, he's the rebel, not a chance. There are apps out there that allow you to watch all the games for nothing. That's true. You know what's going to happen? The more that the major sports leagues migrate to streaming. And I think the WNBA is also following suit. We know baseball put a bunch of games on Apple last year, but then caved because Aaron Judge with his home run pursuit and Albert Pujols, they didn't want those historic moments to end up on a streaming service where a lot of people couldn't see it. They gave in to the pressure of baseball fans. And actually the league itself decided it's not a move we want to make to have Aaron Judge and his home run chase for the American League record be on streaming.

So I still think there's a fine line these leagues have to walk. But we're asking you, would you sign up for Peacock just to watch this one playoff game? On Twitter, ALawRadio, and then also on our Facebook page, Blake says just go to a sports bar for one game.

You absolutely can do that. Straight ahead, a little bit of QB news to whet your appetite. I know it's mid-May, but we're obsessed with our quarterbacks. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Oh, Ricky, is he locked in or what?

Oh, my goodness. So fun to watch him figure it out. He struggled for so many days.

This was not timed up right. But for a guy that says what he does is pull home runs, that's exactly what he's been doing. He hit that one about five feet inside the foul pole down the left field line.

Halbright number seven for Arenado. The Cardinals have the bases loaded with two outs, six runs in. The 2-1 pitch. Kistner hits a drive. Deep left field. That's a grand slam for Kistner.

Light up the night in downtown St. Louis indeed. 401 feet. The ball off the bat at 110 miles an hour. 18-1 Cardinals.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You heard that right. 18-1 Cardinals.

Oh, my goodness. And this is a divisional game in the NL Central. The Cardinals are still in last place.

They had a brutal beginning to the season. And now as we get to about the quarter, well, we get to about the quarter mark. Quarter mark? That sounds weird.

The quarter pole is not accurate either, though. So whatever. I was busy recording my CBS Sports Minute and now I'm a little flustered.

All right. John Rooney and company on the Cardinals radio network. As we get to about the quarter point, that sounds odd, too.

We finished the first quarter of the season. Where is that woman in Buffalo who tried to tell me how much more confident I am now on the show? Sometimes talking is hard. I just I want to point that out. And it doesn't come out the way that I anticipated.

Clearly, I have no problems making a fool of myself on the show for your entertainment. But back to the Cardinals. 18 to 1. And even though they are still in the basement of the NL Central, I should have just quit while I was ahead. And they're still eight games below 500. They have won four in a row, seven of their last 10. And this will help a bashing of the Brewers. 16 hits, four home runs, and an Andrew Kisner grand slam off a position player, actually. So the Brewers had thrown in the towel, to be sure. And he said it was kind of fun to hear his post game comments. He said that he was thinking of one Cardinals legend as he was at the dish.

Well, they all count the same. And there's a big adjustment when you're used to facing guys who can throw in your face and guy kind of lobbing it in there. There definitely is an adjustment. I went with the Albert Pullholes approach, which is get on top of the plate front of the box and try to hit it as hard as you can and as far as you can to left field. I remember him telling me that last year after he hit a homer against a position player. So I was like, if it works for Albert, it'll work for me. And it ended up working out. So I'm happy. It absolutely did. And Kisner's first career grand slam comes off a position player.

But as he says, it all counts the same. Meanwhile, Nolan Arenado is out of that early season slump. Had four RBI in a couple of hits.

And this is exactly what the Cardinals need. I feel like I'm hitting the ball hard. I'm having a good bath, seeing the ball a little bit better. And I'm just trying to continue that, you know, try not to do too much. And there's been a lot of work to put into it. But so far, so good. That's a great way to start off the series and just keeping up that momentum from this past road trip and hopefully we can keep it rolling. It was just a matter of time. I mean, we got so much talent on this team. I think it was just a matter of time before we really put things together. And you're kind of starting to see that like we've done over the past week.

Hmm. That's the nine hitter, the nine hole hitter, actually. You know, when your nine hole hitter has four hits that it is, in fact, your night. And so for the Cardinals, this is exactly what they need.

And I believe that baseball is more interesting when the Cardinals are involved, when the NL Central is good from top to bottom. As you hear Tommy Edmonds say, this is who we are. We weren't playing the way that we are capable of.

But this is who we are now. On Bally Sports Midwest. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. The Braves, they got their groove back 12-0 victory over the Rangers on a night in which I actually was looking at the Rangers as a team that were one of the fun dark horses through a quarter of the season. But yeah, the Braves were bashing the ball. 12 runs on 12 hits.

Charlie Morton, he goes nearly seven innings without giving up a run. So there's these wild swings still at this point in Major League Baseball. But if you missed my conversation with Matt Snyder, we did start out kind of reviewing 40 plus games now with the pitch clock and the fact that it doesn't really seem to be strange or odd or notable anymore.

Fans are getting used to it and they're happy with the pace of play as is Major League Baseball. So if you missed that conversation, we also talked about some of the surges that were within the game right now, including the Dodgers who had a walk off against the Twins right before we went on the air. That game went into 12 innings and so it was still happening even late right before we got on the air. And then Aaron Judge with a pair of home runs yesterday. Otani, he got on base five times even as he gets the win over the Baltimore Orioles.

He nearly hits for the cycle. So a lot happening in baseball and it was a good night for us to be able to catch up because we had no basketball playoff games. But that will end coming up tonight. It's the start of the Western Conference Finals and earlier last hour we heard from LeBron James and Darvin Ham as the Lakers will take on the Nuggets again.

Now remember this is a rematch of 2020. The Denver Nuggets lost to the Lakers on their way to the title going back to the bubble. But this is a different Nuggets team and it's certainly a different Lakers team and whatever you may think of the Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis are still one of the best duos in all of the game and it will be up to Nikola Jokic to keep Anthony Davis occupied. But also he has the job of defending AD. First of all, he's talented, offensively, really talented and they're looking for him. He can score on any kind of baskets, rolling, short roll, mid range, post up, face up. So he's a really good offensive player and on defense and he's really, you know, he's athletic, he can block shots. He's leading the playoffs in the blocks, deflection with quick hands, you know, so he's a really good defender.

So we will see how it's going to be. I'm excited for this matchup. I think not only are the Lakers a different lineup because of the various iterations. They've got a different coach now, of course, than the one with whom they won the championship in 2020. But the Nuggets have Jamal Murray back. Jokic is locked in. He had three triple doubles in the last round and they wiped the court with the Suns in game number six. They're also the best home team in the NBA.

40 wins at home so far this year and they have not lost in the playoffs. Mike Malone actually has familiarity with both LeBron and Nikola Jokic, of course. I feel really blessed to have coached both those guys. LeBron as an assistant coach for five years when I was in Cleveland, you know, eight years with Nikola. And you guys around here have heard me say often that I see many similarities. You know, you take away the athleticism, you know, which is a striking difference, but their IQ, their feel for the game, seeing things before they happen, their ability to make everyone around them better and just their personalities are just very, very, very similar players. And it's funny because it shows you there's a lot of different ways to be great. You can be one of the greatest players of all time, like LeBron, a tremendous athlete, or you can be, you know, not maybe a great athlete like Nikola, but still have the IQ, still have the ability to make everyone around you better.

And both those guys take the greatest joy in making a play for somebody else. I'm looking forward to this matchup, not only because the Lakers right now are playing their best basketball since the trade deadline. And remember, it wasn't just the fact that they changed a bunch of pieces, but LeBron was injured. If not for the LeBron James of feet, he might not have come back.

The doctor that he credits. But the Nuggets have found their rhythm again. They found their footing.

They kind of spit the bit there at the end of the regular season, but they've earned this top seed. By the way, I know I teased QB news. I just was running behind with my CBS Sports Minute.

I had an editing issue. And so I promise we'll get to it next hour if you stick around. Thanks for accommodating me here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm a little late with this promo. Listen for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. At your local CSL plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity.