After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Hey, hey, hope you had a good weekend. If you are a Minnesota Vikings fan, there was a bit of a turn. Not that you couldn't see it coming. It had been reported slash rumored slash speculated about for weeks, but it became a reality over the weekend as the Vikings part ways with Dalvin Cook after six years. Six years and the last four of them with 1100 plus rushing yards, even in the midst of injury.

So why? Why did the Vikings part ways with their feature back? What are the prospects for him moving forward?

He's made no secret about what he would like to happen, but is that the most likely next step for Cook? And what about the Vikings? Because honestly, if you ask me one of the number one reasons that they have not been a championship contender in recent years, it's because of the lack of a consistent running game.

I mean, one that gives them balance. Yes, Kirk Cousins. He's been better than people believe, better than the narrative, if you will, but they need more balance. They need more production from the run game. So what now for the Vikings and what about that defense for heaven sakes?

There's a lot of questions always. We enjoy in the off season having the chance to check in with our various NFL insiders around the country because even if we talk about practice, we give you QB news, we don't always get the tough or the tight intel, I should say, the inside information unless we check in with our various men and women on the scene. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You can find us on Twitter After Hours CBS.

Our Facebook page too, always available for you. Our podcast is posted every weekday morning. And speaking of podcasts, Luke Braun has the Locked on Vikings podcast. He's joining us now from LA. It's the beauty of the off season, right? This was a Friday news dump, if you will, Luke. Dalvin Cook gets released.

It took a couple weeks, so the timing is interesting. But whatever options there might have been, why did it result in the Vikings releasing Dalvin? The answer is I think just economics and markets and all that stuff. Look, Dalvin Cook was slated to make $14 million in 2023. That was never going to happen. I don't think that the team intended to honor that when they signed him to the contract in 2020. It was either going to be a pay cut or a cut or a trade and this was always going to be the off season where we deal with it. And I think then it comes down to what other parties wanted, right?

Dalvin Cook, not willing to take a pay cut. And that's totally fair, right? He was not willing to renegotiate his contract for a trade.

I think that was a Mike Florio report. Totally fair, right? He doesn't want to take less money.

He would rather take his chances on the open market. And if somebody is going to trade for me, then trade for my contract as I negotiated it. You hear people tell players, well, they signed it. Why don't they have to... How are they supposed to hold out or ask for more money? And I think it's kind of the reverse of that, right?

I was told I was getting this money. Let's see if anybody's going to honor that. Nobody was going to honor that contract though. So then it becomes basically, can he work out a new deal with someone to trade or we're just going to have to cut you and good luck wherever you go. Many months ago, they got really close with the Miami Dolphins. That almost happened, but it ended up for one reason or another didn't go through. Maybe that was just Dalvin Cook not being able to... Not being willing to agree to whatever contract the Dolphins needed him to agree to, to make that deal work.

Whatever. The Vikings basically just kind of sat on their hands after that and said, hey, we'll wait for the post-June deadline to come around. In that world, the Dolphins will have a different financial situation because of a post-June cut that they made with Byron Jones. They get a big influx of cap space in June. So they waited through that, but that also meant they waited till after the draft. Dolphins drafted as running back in the third round. So changes the whole thing. And they said, well, we'll try to negotiate something.

Didn't get it. So now he's released. Looking at this from Dalvin's point of view, he's not 30 years old and really hasn't fallen off the map though. He has dealt with some injuries, but what type of market do you think there could be if not the Dolphins? That's the bet that he made. And the Dolphins, I think, maybe are still interested.

He has been as vocal as you can be. His trainer has gone on a podcast and said this. His agent has gone on shows and said this, that he wants to be a Miami Dolphin. And he's from Miami. It's a hometown thing.

Love it. So he wants to be a Miami Dolphin really bad. And it's a matter of if the Dolphins are willing to pay him, what he thinks he can get.

But that's the bet that he made is that, yeah, I think I can do better pitting teams against each other. There's rumored interest from the Jets, rumored interest from the Bills, the Broncos. If I can pit all those teams against each other, maybe I can get a better deal than what I would have had to agree to if the Vikings were doing the negotiation trade-wise for me. And now, by the way, none of these teams have to spend a draft pick.

So maybe they'll be a little bit more willing to give me that. But we've seen lots of players make that same bet and get burned. If you look at Jadevion Clowney making that bet has gotten burned a lot. Ezekiel Elliott is still out there. A lot of players make that same bet and then end up not getting the same contract that they thought they were getting.

And you don't really get to know how it's going to work out until you're in there. So that is the gamble that he made. But I think there's a reason that the Dolphins are the odds on favorite at like every sports book. Last four seasons, over 1,100 yards rushing. This past year, eight touchdowns. But not that long ago, 19 and 20 had 13 and 16 touchdowns. Is he still a feature back in your opinion? Feature back?

Absolutely. I think the biggest thing with him is going to be the health of that shoulder, which he had a surgery to repair it. He has been dealing with a shoulder injury for three years, the same injury that has been bothering him. And he didn't get a surgery on it because he thought he would be able to rehab it all of those years.

And then it always comes back. That made him finish runs differently. When he's fully healthy, he'll lower his shoulder. He'll get hit into people. He will push the run a little bit further trying to make a move and he'll sort of attempt to thwart more tackles. But when he's hurt, he would just kind of go down and he would just kind of say, here's my yards.

I'm just going to sort of dive forward and take it. He would play a lot more conservatively. And there's an argument to be made for that. You know, you maybe fumble less, bad things can happen, fighting for yards too much and stuff. But ultimately, I think it really, really hurt his production playing that way. But if he's had that surgery and that's truly, that problem is truly in the past now, which he insists that it is, but of course I will tell, then I think you can get somebody that's still got plenty in the tank.

But I think it really depends on health. The injury thing is going to be the biggest thing. I think making teams a little bit nervous about guaranteeing this dude, you know, eight figure sums of money.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio and surprise, it's mid-June. We're talking about another big move in football. Minnesota Vikings releasing Dalvin Cook, who's been their feature back for years, has spent all of his time in the NFL with the Vikings organization. We're excited about Luke Braun with the Locked on Vikings podcast, our Vikings insider.

Where do they find that same production? How comfortable are they with Alexander Madison? Madison's the guy. They're going with him for sure. I think that their running back room does need an extra body for camp. I think they only have four guys under contract and then a couple of full backs, but I think they need at least one more guy just for camp. That might be an undrafted rookie or somebody from, you know, a mini camp or a workout they had, or maybe they are actually going to pick up somebody that will seriously inject more competition, but they're going to go with Alexander.

I've been saying Alexander Madison and the Madisonettes. It's going to be Madison probably 60% of the time has been the guess I've been saying. That is more a guess than anything, but it will be Alexander Madison's three down running back. And then in certain situations, you'll have Kenny Wong Wu at Iowa State, who's our kick returner mostly.

He might get some. Ty Chandler, they're really excited about him as possibly like a compliment. They just drafted Dewayne McBride out of UAB in the seventh round. And those guys will kind of fight for the remaining scraps in camp. They're all in a big giant camp competition for who gets to be running back two or three.

If you're in a really deep dynasty league, you know, maybe bet on whichever one you whichever guy you think is going to win that battle, but it's going to be the Alexander Madison show. I wouldn't be surprised to see another name end up in there, but there, but I don't think they're going to be looking, you know, I wouldn't expect to hear Vikings calling on Ezekiel Elliott or anything like that. In Kevin O'Connell's first season, the Vikings had a ton of success offensively. Of course, the passing attack flourishes with some of the young receivers. How much of an emphasis do you think Kevin O'Connell wants on the running backs and the rushing attack? I'll say this, he wants to fix it because it was kind of broken last year. It was very one note.

It was very bland and fainty. The Vikings ran a lot of this Sean McVeigh 2018 style. We just ran a lot of outside zone and a couple of variants on outside zone, but it was a very non-diverse running game and, you know, kind of complimenting zone with duo runs and defenses figured that out and the Vikings kind of didn't care. They just said, yeah, we're just going to kind of keep calling it as much as we have to, to set up our play action plays, but we're a passing team. But this year, he wants to have the run game actually work for him a little bit and not be something that you just kind of throw away a down because you got to get that on tape so that you can set up the play action for the third quarter, but rather have it be an actual productive part of the offense. So I think the emphasis is going to be not necessarily with the running backs. Alexander Madison can do what they need him to do, but more with they signed Josh Oliver, who some would argue is the best blocking tight end in the entire league. They extended CJ Ham, so they bought even into the idea of having a fullback on the roster. Those guys are, I think, going to be, they hint at the schematic stuff I think the Vikings are going to switch to, which is more stealing stuff out of the Kyle Shanahan side of that playbook. Like look at what the Miami Dolphins did, Mike McDaniel, kind of that stuff, a lot more lead blocking, a lot more running zone to the strong side rather than the weak side. Get more guys involved, more blockers, create a little bit more of a push, I think, and have more answers to questions versus when you run outside zone side, which means there's no extra blockers out there.

It's kind of, hey, if the linebacker can read this play, he gets to make the tackle. Now it makes it a little bit harder for defenders to do that thing and we've seen Kyle Shanahan work that really well. We saw that work really, really well with the Dolphins, with you know Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson and all those guys. Let's see if we can do something similar with Madison and the Madisonettes. What stands out from the practices that the Vikings have held to this point, even though we're still pretty early in that process?

I'll give you a couple things. One is that Ty Chandler and Kenny Wong-woo are splitting second team reps, so they're in a true, true competition. D.W. McBride is still dealing with hamstring injury, so we don't know where he slots in there yet, but we have Alexander Madison, number one, and then we've got the other two guys sort of in a true competition.

We don't know who's second team, who's third team yet. And then the other thing, the Vikings probably don't want a lot of people talking about this, but I'll say it. They have, there's a clip that I saw that was just them sort of practicing motions of CJ Ham lined up in like where you would put a tight end and motioning across, which looks like a play that I know as Zorro or an outside strong like lead zone thing, which essentially confirms the Kevin O'Connell wants to be like Shanahan more kind of thing. So I would look for the shape of that to look a little bit more like Kyle Shanahan.

That's probably too valuable of information that they probably don't want the media talking about, but hey, that's how it goes. Luke Braun is with us from the Locked On Vikings podcast talking about this big move, which is Dalvin Cook getting released. Certainly room for growth in this off season, despite how the Vikings played last year in Kevin O'Connell's first season.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. By that, I mean, of course, Luke, they had a great regular season, did not capitalize, did not translate into the postseason. What else have the Vikings done that's notable in terms of their roster for 2023? So the roster has gotten rid of a lot of the big pricey veterans. These are getting out of a lot of the contracts that Kwesi inherited when he got here in 2022. Eric Hendricks, Adam Thielen, now Dalvin Cook, trading Zadarius Smith away. That's one that Kwesi did last offseason.

So it's a much different group of people. They have picked up Byron Murphy at cornerback. They drafted Makai Blackman. They get Louisine and Andrew Booth back from injury. Those are a couple of second year guys that I know the team is really excited about. We have seen basically nothing from them and they're not even practicing on the first team right now. So we'll see how much of that is bluster, but it's going to be a very different group of people.

It's a much younger group of people. I don't know if that means better, but I think the biggest thing defensively is hiring Brian Flores. The Ed Donatell disaster, Ed Donnachel as some people call him, the disaster against New York ends up getting Daniel Jones a big extension because it made him look so good. Got Ed Donatell fired and essentially not only did it get rid of Donatell, but it moved the Vikings off of that scheme and onto an entirely different defensive scheme. Now they've got Brian Flores, blitz heavy, going to look like one of the old Patriots defenses. A totally different approach to defense, way more aggressive, totally different everything. So the defensive woes of 2022 were not lost on the Vikings.

They're changing a lot schematically and also at the same time trying to get out from under some of those albatross contracts that Rick Steelman left behind when he got fired after 2021. And Brian Flores is about toughness. He's about mental toughness.

He doesn't mind being the bad cop, so to speak, if he needs to. Remember when he took over for the Miami Dolphins, he was okay with the entire locker room hating him while he was making moves here and there and trading away pieces and essentially doing what management wanted him to do. But if anyone could bring a toughness and that kind of mental focus and discipline to a defense, it's Brian Flores.

And that's the hope. A lot of the problems with the Vikings defense in 2022, in my opinion, were more mental than physical. It wasn't guys being slow or guys not having the right athleticism. They had so much stuff to read before they could do anything. They had to look at the quarterback, look at the route concept, back to the quarterback.

Where am I? Now I'm doing my zone drop. And by the time they were actually able to break on anything, the receiver had finished his route, it was just too much stuff for them to try to think about. And they were all new to thinking about it. So I wonder, in an alternate universe where the Vikings decide to run at Donatell back and give them another chance, I wonder how good a year two would be.

But now that's all good. Now it's all man coverage, mano y mano. Can our guys cover? And I think the concern there is that we've got a whole bunch of unknown cornerbacks and Byron Murphy, and we're about to ask them all to go one-on-one.

So we'll see what happens there. But hey, if you just blitz every down, some guys, especially young quarterbacks in the division that aren't as used to it, Fields, Love, Jared Goff has had his issues with the blitz. You hope that you just blitz every play and guys fall apart and you don't have to cover. Are you impressed that I've gotten to this point in the conversation and have not really, technically asked a question about Kirk Cousins? I'm kind of proud of myself. The quarterback doesn't even take center stage in this conversation, but how is our friend Kirk Cousins?

Doing fine. There is a really interesting ongoing contract thing with Kirk Cousins, kind of always. But right now he's had his contract restructured to make some extra space going into the 2023 league year so that they could get under the cap for that.

They did that in March. And I think the idea was to go into the draft and try to get a quarterback. And they tried, I think more than the public knows, they tried to get up into the top five from pick 23.

They tried to go up really, really, really high. It would have been like a crazy, crazy trade and it got closer than you might think. But ultimately the Texans ended up trading up with Arizona and that was kind of the end of that. And then they didn't have any quarterbacks left that they liked. So now they're with Kirk Cousins again for kind of the foreseeable future.

My guess is we do the same thing in 2024. We'll see how this year goes, where we're picking, how hard it is to get up. But what that might mean is that in the meantime, Kirk Cousins who does not like playing on contract years, he says in the media that he's used to it, but he's very highly motivated not to. And he's going to be really into the idea of an extension with that extra security, but we'll see if the Vikings want to give him as much security as possible. I think there is a pretty difficult negotiation there. I think there's some space between the two sides in terms of how much money to actually guarantee, but I wouldn't be super shocked to see them find some kind of middle ground on a one year sort of bandaid extension or something that's kind of a two year deal, but it's tradable or something like that, that gives Kirk Cousins the money that he wants, but gives the Vikings flexibility. If there's a solution there, both sides are definitely motivated to find it.

There is not necessarily a solution, but there could be, and if there is, they'll get there. So see always with Kirk Cousins, there's always something to do with the contract. It feels like Luke brought us with us on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Before I let you go, Vikings did win the NFC North going away last season. Four games was their ultimate lead when the dust settled. Though the Lions came on strong, the Packers have obviously gone through a major change in trading away their franchise QB. The Bears, at least they've been busy. We'll see if the moves fall into place.

A lot of people seem to like what they've done. How do you see the NFC North now after a few months of wheeling and dealing? You know how every year there's that division that puts like an eight win team into the playoffs? It was Tampa last year. You know, every once in a while the NFC East a lot, that four seed that ends up having to play a really good team and really people go, man, we should probably receive the play.

I feel like we're going to be that division. There are so many reasons for all four of these teams to fall flat on their face. You know, if Jordan Love isn't the second coming, the Packers are in trouble. The Bears I think are on a much, their eyes are on the future a lot more than their eyes are on the present right now. They've made some moves to be a little bit less embarrassing, but I think, I don't think that if you asked Ryan Polz, he would tell you that this is a complete thought yet. You know, I think they've still got building to do and they're doing that over a patient arc.

And then the Lions are the odds on favorite to win the division, but I think that there's still a lot that they have to prove. Can Jared Goff be a serious quarterback? There's a lot of young players, you know, are they going to take the steps forward in their second or third years that we all kind of assume that all these guys will take? Guys like Jamison Williams, Aiden Hutchinson, Malcolm Rodriguez, all those guys.

Are they going to take the steps forward that we think? And as we've been talking about, you know, the Vikings have their fair share of questions as well. Who is covering receivers is a big one. You know, the offensive line is running back guy for guy, and that was not always successful. So is that going to get better with continuity or are we going to have the same problems where, you know, Ezra Cleveland or Garrett Bradbury just has an awful game and it just holds the team hostage?

All of those things can really get in everybody's way. The division is truly wide open if anybody figures their crap out, but I don't know if I would bet on anybody figuring their crap out. Yeah, but somebody's got to win the division.

As you point out, eight wins could be good enough like it was for the NFC South. The good stuff, I know it's mid-June, but we always get excited talking about football. You can find Luke on Twitter at Luke Braun NFL. He's got the locked on Vikings podcast and we always appreciate when he can jump on with us here on After Hours. You are the best. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Amy.

Always a pleasure. I like that division being a wide open race and multiple, multiple pro bowl players, but future hall of famer even and Aaron Rodgers have exited the division in one way or another with one ride share or another. The Vikings won the regular season title in the North going away, but couldn't capitalize in the postseason. Can they come back and do it differently this year or will there be the roar of the lions? I mean, remember how the lions finished up. We're all about it. Dan Campbell, he might spontaneously combust if they end up winning a division title.

Dan Campbell is quickly, quickly, quickly catching up to Mike Tomlin as our favorite coach speak in the NFL. I swear to God, I'm not a lunatic. It's so unique. I'm just rambling right now. I don't know what I'm saying. I don't know.

I don't know what it says. Oh, only five and a half weeks of training camp. So hang on on Twitter, a law radio.

If you want to react to Luke or find Luke as well, you just heard his Twitter handle, our phone number 855-212-4227. Wait until you hear the moment that could have knocked a man out on the radio. It could have knocked him out.

Instead, he just kept talking. True professionalism. Not enough broadcasters have this level of professionalism.

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That's point.me. Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. One and one to Kike. Here's the pitch. Swing and a line drive in the left field. That's the base hit. At last, a hit with a runner in scoring position.

Kike delivers. Duvall scores and it's 3-2, red sides. They have a good team over there and we pitch well the whole weekend. So we take that home and hopefully at home we start hitting the ball the other way.

Get that feeling back and have a good week. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Sunday Night Baseball in the Bronx where the Red Sox edged the Yankees 3-2 in extra innings and you hear the call on Red Sox Radio. That was the only, only hit with a runner in scoring position. One for seven were the Red Sox but the Yankees weren't any better.

One for five. Each team had its opportunities, could not capitalize until extras with that runner on second base. And Kenley Jansen, he has the win in this one.

So yeah, they got quality start but it also took three guys out of the bullpen to be able to go three consecutive scoreless innings and hold off the Yankees before they could get that win. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Now that was Sunday's capper. Saturday was a little dramatic, though not for the Red Sox radio team, even for the Red Sox or Yankees on the field. No, this happened in the visitor's radio booth and John Sterling who'd come back after what was a lengthy, for him, a lengthy sabbatical while the team was on the west coast and going through a lot of those teams in the AO West, he was not with them. Justin Shackle was calling the action. So John Sterling returns at the end of that trip and then in the booth, he's got energy and he's got vigor and he's full of vitality, feels re-energized, I think probably from his time away.

I'm sure he missed it and greeted oh so rudely in his first week back. Now the 3-2 swung on a pop foul back here. It really hit me. I didn't know what's coming back that far. So once again, it'll be a 3-2 and Holmes ready to deal. A ground ball to third. Donaldson squares, throws to first in time. Ball game over. Yankees win.

The Yankees win. You know that foul ball actually hit me. It kind of glanced off my forehead. So I took one for the team. Yes, yes, John Sterling definitely took one for the team. He was hit by a foul ball in the booth and didn't even know it was coming right at him and then he continues on and finishes the game. So they're in the ninth inning.

This is Saturday night. They're in the ninth inning in the Bronx. This foul ball off the bat of Justin Turner is angling right for him. He doesn't know it. And what you hear is the impact and the ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

Now it wouldn't be nearly as funny if he weren't perfectly fine. He gets, he gets up or gets back to the point where his microphone is on square or he's sitting near his microphone and he says it really hit me. You know that foul ball actually hit me. It kind of glanced off my forehead. It really hit me.

And so I took one for the team. But the noise of the impact is the part that's so jarring. Oh my gosh. And after a brief pause, there's this. So once again, it'll be a 3-2.

And he just goes right back into broadcasting. It really hit me. I didn't know it was coming back that far.

So once again, it'll be a 3-2. Now we took out the pause there in the middle, but he didn't take that long before he just went right back to business. The show must go on. Oh my gosh.

Okay. So then on Sunday, he wants to make sure everyone knows that he's fine. Well, first of all, to all the Yankee fans, I am fine. It hit me in the head.

A lot of muscle up there. So I was okay. And I thank you for all the warm, wonderful, loving thoughts. But anyway, I'm fine. And as I told Susan, Susan was the first when I was driving home.

It produced phone calls and texts from all the people who love me. So it was really sure it has to be a very good thing. But once again, thanks.

And I'm 100% no problem. That's on Yankees Twitter. It's one of those moments where the audio wallet is priceless, is priceless, can be augmented by video. If you have not seen the video, please check it out on our show, Twitter, After Hours, CBS, because John Sterling. Oh, sorry, I'm watching. He's got his glasses on and he's holding, as he typically does, if you've ever seen him broadcast, he usually has a hand in near the headphones of one ear, right? He is gesturing with his other hand. So he's got all kinds of gestures that go along with the calls. Maybe it's because there is a camera on him and he knows it. But I suspect that regardless of whether there's a camera or not, he's relatively demonstrative and he really does get into the games.

We know he puts a lot of energy and enthusiasm into it. Now this guy's in his 80s. So he's got one hand. He's got his left hand up to his ear and he's looking up. You can see him looking up like he's lost. Well, he's trying to track the foul ball, but he's lost it.

He doesn't know where it's coming from. And so he's making the call and he's looking up to try to see where the ball had gone into the sky off the bat of Justin Turner. He looks up, he looks up, he looks up, he's making the call into his microphone and then bam! It actually comes from below him on this trajectory that goes right up into the bridge of his nose. His glasses get knocked askew and it smacks him in the face. So yeah, he's looking up, but the ball is coming from below a bit of a line drive. And yeah, he had to fix his glasses.

Actually, he leaves his glasses off. So I'm not sure if they were broken because he doesn't put them back on and he just continues through to finish the ninth inning. It really hit me. I didn't know it was coming back that far. Now you got to play the whole thing again.

This is maybe the most priceless piece of audio from the entire weekend. Now the 3-2 swung on a pop foul back here. It really hit me. I didn't know it was coming back that far. So once again, it'll be a 3-2. And Holmes ready to deal. A ground ball to third. Donaldson squares, throws to first in time. Ball game over. Yankees win.

The Yankees win. You know, that foul ball actually hit me. It kind of glanced off my forehead. Oh my goodness.

So I took one for the team. Later when he has his glasses back on, he then goes back to the foul ball call. That's on our New York affiliate WFAN Yankees radio. The part that makes me laugh is when you watch the video, he's looking up and the ball comes from below his eye level. Poor guy. He completely lost it. But how often does that happen? We lose a foul ball off the bat or maybe you play golf and you swear you're tracking it, you're tracking it, you're tracking it and then you can't see it anymore. He is notorious for making home run calls when they don't leave the stadium either. I mean he hasn't been the best at tracking fly balls. You're right, but true. Maybe his depth perception is not the greatest anymore.

But he also is not unique in that category. There are many broadcasters who will make, accidentally make a home run call when it's a pop up. But I love that he calls it a pop fly.

It's actually a line drive. Gotta keep those glasses on. Please keep that for Hall of Flame. That is Hall of Flame material.

If that's not Hall of Flame, I do not know what is. Oh my gosh. All right, so a couple more highlights from the baseball weekend, but also we've got basketball on tap Monday. You want to manic Monday? It could be the first ever NBA championship in the history of the Denver Nuggets franchise. So we'll do a preview of game five from the Mile High City straight ahead.

A little bit of a look back to game number four too. Glad to have you with us. If you're already awake on your Monday, oy, I hope you feel better than John Sterling. Right. I hope you don't have a headache like John Sterling. Just get to the coffee is what I'm saying. It's a little something, something that can help your head feel a lot better.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. McCutcheon sitting 264. The season eight homers, 23 ribbies. The pitch.

Line drive, left field. There it is. 2000 for Andrew McCutcheon and a standing ovation. Cuts 2K at PNC Park and everybody up, including Mets fans. A tap of the back from Mark Nientos and now McCutcheon, got his helmet, raises it to the crowd here. Both benches, Pirates and Mets players applauding.

Extra time for Reynolds to get in the box. What a moment here at PNC Park. Andrew McCutcheon, an amazing milestone and the fans don't want to sit down.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Andrew McCutcheon standing ovation, as you can imagine at home PNC Park, one of the best parks in the majors. Actually my personal favorite and with the Pirates still above 500, there's plenty to cheer for. But then a guy who got his start in the Pirates organization logs hit number 2000 on Sunday and the standing o, even the Mets, giving him his due. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

The call there on Pirates Radio and after the fact, inside the clubhouse with the Pittsburgh Pirates on the day of this momentous occasion. Not often do you get to be part of history. 2000. Hey, can you hear me? Okay, good. Well, so can your potential customers right here on your Odyssey station. You might be used to skipping social ads, but you are still listening to me right now. And so are your clients.

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Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today. Hey, no, okay, that's cool. The dub is cooler. Yeah, I mean, look, I only kept I thought I was gonna get to pay like five years ago. Fires go like I'm gonna have to pay by the time I turn 30 for real. It's done a lot harder than it looks for real. But yeah, man, it's been cool.

I'm glad you all be a part of it. All that. Whatever. He's now 36 years old and his second tour of duty with the Pirates. But for those of you who are longtime Pirates fans, or you remember McCutcheon when he first came on the scene, that goes back to 2009, middle of the season 2009. He was only 22 years old at the time. And now here we are hearing him say, I thought that I'd get this five years ago.

I thought that I'd be at this plateau a lot quicker. But 14 years later, now there's been a lot of baseball in there, right? A lot of baseball. He won an MVP. And he was an all star multiple times. But he admits, you get this much mileage on your body and parts don't work as easily and as fluidly as they used to.

He points to his legs. But he is now the 291st in major league history to log 2000 hits. His wife was there, their kids, really neat. And of course game is stopped.

And he mentions the dub. For Pirates fans who have waited a long time, I know many of you were worried that the run, the quick run to the top of the NL Central to begin the season was more of a kind of the rabbit in a horse race, if you will. It was a flare out, a quick flare, and then it was going to be out. But the Pirates are hanging tough. They've won seven of their last 10. They're still above 500. And with the Brewers backsliding, they've got the lead in the division.

It's slim. And the Reds are creeping too. But right now, Pirates are in front.

It's really exciting. I think just for new fan bases to be involved, we did the question a couple weeks ago in light of NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, three teams poised to win their first ever championship in franchise history. The Nuggets are on the verge.

One more win could come Monday night. And the Golden Knights of Las Vegas. I know they're a baby franchise. They're much younger. However, it would be their first.

You never forget your first. So they have the chance on Tuesday night to close it out at home. Two first time champions.

That would be pretty incredible. But we asked you the question in light of all these potential first timers, who needs a title? Who's next?

Who got next? And yes, the most popular answer, the Detroit Lions, but second most popular answer, the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's been a long time and they've been the gum on the bottom of Major League Baseball's shoe in part because of the philosophy of ownership and management. Don't want to spend money to retain their own stars.

And Andrew McCutcheon was one of those who was allowed to leave. But now here they are defying the odds. They're not the only team that's defying the odds and doing it with a meager payroll compared to the top dogs in Major League Baseball. The Pirates are still hanging tough on top of their division.

Not getting challenged quite as tightly or quite as powerfully, at least at this point in the season, are the Tampa Bay Rays, who've been the best team in Major League Baseball since the year began. Two-one with men at the corners and one out. Wunder swings and it's off the end of the bat to deep left. Over and back Grossman to the wall.

Gone! Wunder's first homer in more than a month. It's a three-run blast and the Rays have a four-run lead. It's 7-3. I mean it sounds like there are actually fans there in Tampa or St. Pete at the Tropicana Field watching this series and it was against the Texas Rangers so big deal for the Rays. Not only do they still have the best record in Major League Baseball but they flex their muscles against a team that was the hottest in the game and they take two of three from the Rangers.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. The Wunderfranke home run is a big deal but Shane McClanahan, bigger deal. Already at 10 wins this season. He is more than on pace for a 20-win season, though that means a whole lot of nothing except for math and projections.

We're extrapolating but now 10 and one wins. After he goes seven innings, allows three runs on four hits, he strikes out five just shy of the 100 pitch mark and his ERA is barely north of two and I would rather hear him talk about the team's success. Instead, nope, somebody has to ask the question of what about the all-star starting opportunity. The farthest thing from my mind right now, you know, we're a good ball club and my only thought right now is to help this team continue to win ball games and, you know, put my best foot forward every single day whether that's pitching, whether I'm running, whether I'm throwing, you know, whatever it is, whether I'm being the best fielder I can be and, you know, whatever happens happens. Why would someone ask that question? It is June 12th. Why would someone ask that question?

Well, just because. So good for Shane McClanahan for saying essentially zip it in a manner of speaking. All right, NBA Finals. Game five on tap in Denver Monday.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder. A generation of all-electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7 and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW. 100% electric. But isn't that what you'd expect from the ultimate electric driving machine? Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today.