7-6-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

I'm joined by Hall of Famer John Smoltz. Smoltz, tell me this, what's harder, winning a Cy Young or an Emmy Award? Oh man, winning a Cy Young. It takes a lot longer to happen. You know, it's funny when you mention something like that, I just go back to all those years of being predicted to win and just feeling like a failure for the 96.

Fortunately, I was able to at least get that off my back because that was starting to bother me. Download the Brett Boone Podcast, available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live like a gagillionaire with AT&T Fiber. Limited availability in select areas.

Visit att.com slash hypergig for details. Good morning to you. Are you back in your routine yet? Are you still on vacay? Are you still in vacay mode actually?

Maybe you're supposed to be back into your familiar rhythms and you just can't do it. Not yet. We're glad that you're with us, whatever the case. On Twitter, because we don't have threads yet, we just have Twitter. A-Law Radio, our Facebook page too, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, though if Facebook had its way we would only be on threads and not on Twitter. To answer Lane Johnson's question, a lot of ground we've covered on this edition of the show. Like Michael Rubin's all white July 4th party that featured a mesh outfit for Joe Burrow and some of the top athletes as celebrities rubbing elbows and taking selfies with some of the biggest names in the entertainment world. That was kind of fun.

All white though, couldn't wear anything except for white. Tom Brady definitely went overboard and definitely needed a lot of electrolytes the next day. That's according to his Insta account. I wonder if he has threads now as well. We've talked about threads versus Twitter.

The benefits of one over the other. Don't do it. It's not that I love Twitter. I think it's a cesspool really. But the other one is Zuckerberg trying to control the world.

So it's owned by Meta. They're trying to suck you into an alternate universe or whatever that is. Alternate reality. Don't do it.

Don't be fooled. If we could just wipe social media off the face of the planet, wouldn't that be tremendous? Oh my gosh.

It's literally my dream. Except that you would not be able to get interviews then. Sometimes, yeah. It wouldn't hurt that.

But we'd find other ways. How did you find the interview that joined us earlier in the show? Was that on social? Yeah. I slid into a DM.

See, Jay needs social because he slides into DMs. It's a little bit creepy. I do it sometimes.

But only if I can't find a phone number. It's a useful way to do that. But I'd say I do that less than three quarters of the time. Less than three quarters of the time.

So roughly 70% of the time. And in case you missed the beginning of the show, well I haven't lost my finger yet. But my middle finger is turning black at the end of it because I was trying to wipe up the area with a non-grippy, cheap wipe that's provided by the company. Definitely going to have to put wipes on my list as I get to the grocery store after the show. And my hand slipped off the non-grippy wipe and smashed into an iron post that's underneath the desk.

I have no idea why there's an iron post underneath the desk. That's dangerous. It turned bruisey instantly. I now have a bruise on the end of my fingertip. It hurts to the touch. I don't even think I can text right now. It could be weeks before I'm fully healed.

I may need to follow Workman's Comp suit. There is a black mark on the end of my middle finger. Can you see it, Jay?

Can you see the end of my middle finger? I see it. Jay is blind. He can't see past like three feet in front of his face. And even then he has to squint.

So he doesn't know that I'm flashing my middle finger at him right now. Oh, I see it. You see it? Oh, I see it. Do you see the black mark on the end of it?

I've seen it. What if they have to amputate my fingertip? If it keeps growing at this rate and spreading like it is. Growing? It could be gangrene. It could. I can't rule it out. I can't rule it out.

You can't. With my expertise. Dr. Jay, you can't rule it out. Speaking of people losing fingers and other body parts, oh my goodness. I started reading some of those fireworks accidents because we know every year roughly 15,600 people go to the hospital with fireworks injuries around July 4th.

So I've got one in particular that I would say you wouldn't believe it, but given the human race and some of the dumb crap we do, you probably will believe it. Fireworks aren't over. Maybe you heard them in your neighborhood on Tuesday night, on Wednesday night. Well, they were on the diamond.

Oh, see what I did there? Also on Wednesday night, especially if you were in Miami, you didn't have to watch the first eight innings of the game between the Cardinals and the Marlins. You got plenty of bang for your buck in the ninth inning.

On three and two, Contreras leads it first. There he goes. The pitch by Puck swung on. And a drive! Deep left field! It's a gunner!

It's a gunner for Walker! The Cardinals go ahead down to their last strike. And they lead 9-8 in Miami.

Unbelievable! The count is one and two to Joey Wendell, bottom of the ninth inning. There goes Hampson. The pitch is dribbled towards Hicks. He's got it. He's going to throw it the first!

He threw it away! Hampson's going to score! Going towards Dirk Gurriel! He's going to try to score! He's going to score! The Marlins just walked off the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth inning! An error from in Hicks! Oh my goodness, they've done it again!

They have done it again! The Marlins win it! 10-9! I played game six of a World Series. That was kind of crazy. The freeze home run was insane.

On the other side, on this side, coaching or managing, this is number one. I think the bullpen has been so good all year. And I think it's just really cool that the offense picked them up because they needed it. The Cardinals just kept punching back. Credit to the guys in the dugout. They're like, let's go, let's go, we've been here before. I didn't see that happening. But once you get a walk, that lead off walk, then you kind of feel it going. And Dayla kind of started that inning and you could feel something good was going to happen.

The guys throwing 103 miles an hour. Didn't know what was going to happen. Hicks has been pretty good being in the closure role. But man, that was just a crazy ending.

I didn't see that coming. Skip Schumacher just raving about his Marlins resiliency. But they needed Jordan Hicks to sail a ball over the head of his first baseman. And honestly, he wasn't supposed to be throwing in that direction anyway. That's how the Marlins got the walk off with the error after Joey Wendell bounced a ball to Hicks.

But yeah, Ali Marmol, he's not thrilled with, I guess you could term it a brain fart by Hicks. Double pumped and they would have kept going home and there just wasn't an awareness on his part of that. So a combination of that and a bad throw is where you end up losing that game. Does he have to just ignore the runner and make a good throw? No, you never ignore the runner.

You're aware of your surroundings. And that just wasn't the case tonight. That was a case where his teammates were yelling for him to go home. Yeah, everyone in the dugout as well. That caused a pause.

Probably couldn't hear it or I'm not exactly sure. I've yet to catch up with him. Is that him throwing Jordan Hicks under the bus?

Very much so. It seems like Ali's a little bit ticked. In the heat of the moment, he thought the Cardinals had that win. Now the Cardinals are what? 15, 16 games below.500. They're in the basement of the NL Central. Was he hoping that this was going to be the springboard for them to rattle off, say, 10 wins in a row? I'm not sure.

Probably stunning. You hear John Rooney nearly loses his marbles there in Cardinals radio in the top of the ninth when the home run from Jordan Walker gives them the lead only to see the error give it away. But yeah, he seems a little bit salty over a game in which, OK, they could have had the W, but also they've been awful this year. They've been awful. Maybe because they don't generally have the offense to be able to cover up the issues with their pitching.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So this was a wild game anyway. 13 walks, 25 total hits. Neither team pitched well, but the Marlins ultimately get the win. They now have nine victories in the last 13 games, and yet they're not making up any ground on the Atlanta Braves who briefly lost on Tuesday. But Rosario hammers one out toward the gap that's into the alley and that'll score two runs. Eddie going into second base with a two RBI double, and it's 4-0 Atlanta. Here comes the 0-1 to Austin. And he powers one to deep right field. That'll send back Brennan to the wall. That is out of the ballpark. Austin Riley downs up the launch coach once again. 2-1 slug to deep right field.

That explodes off his bat and lands deep over the wall. A homer by Olson is 29th of the year. 7-0 Atlanta. So they get right back to their winning ways as you hear with Ben Ingram on Braves radio. And they may not have won their 10th consecutive game, right, because they lost on Tuesday. So they're starting a new win streak. But the Braves have consistently been scratching fighting claw. Actually, it's not even been that hard. They've just been ascending to the top of Major League Baseball.

Yeah, it's not been much of a fight. They now have the best record in baseball and the most wins in baseball because the Rays are finally backpedaling. And so they've won 18 of 20, but also 10 consecutive series. So they come out on top in 10 straight series, meaning they're winning a heck of a lot more than they're losing. It's a good feeling. You know, I think when you try to go out and win series, you know, it keeps you in. You're able to lose a game here and there, but you have the goal to win every series.

You're going to make a good spot at the end of the year. And they have 10 straight scoops and playing some good ball. Matt Olson, 29 home runs and now up to 70 RBIs.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. So while we're thinking about the Braves playing, the Guardians want to tack on the battle. You know, the battle at the top of the AL Central.

I suppose if all the teams are bad, well, somebody's got to win it, right? So the Guardians are inching closer to the Mendoza line. They're still below.500, but they're only two back of the Minnesota Twins. However, this could be the Twins surging right before the all-star break. And boy, what a gem they got from their starting pitcher last night. And the 3-2 pitch. He struck him out swinging on a changeup. And Pablo Lopez, a new career-high 12-strikeout gem so far tonight here at Target Field.

Two down, line drive, left center, Taylor to his right. He's there. He's got it.

Ball game over. And the Twins shut out the Royals 5-0. Pablo Lopez goes his first career-complete game shutout. He was just ridiculous. I mean, he was just ridiculous the way he... Every pitch was, I think, almost precisely what he was looking for. He was just awesome. Just awesome. Pablo was, from the very beginning of this game, the stuff, the swings and misses, everything.

It really did stand out. And he carried it from the first pitch to the last. Rocco Baldelli is thrilled with Pablo Lopez, who right now is 5-5. But, again, kind of goes along with the theme of the AL Central, where the top teams are right at.500. Nine innings pitched, as you hear with Corey Provis on Twins Radio. He allows just four hits, no walks, 12 strikeouts.

And get this, not quite Domingo Hermon, because there were four hits. 100 pitches. That's it.

To go a complete game. That's a dinosaur. It's a throwback.

We don't see that anymore. I believe they call that a Maddox, if you have a complete game with under 100 pitches. That's impressive. So, yeah, Domingo Hermon had, what, 99 when he threw the perfect game two weeks ago?

Was it two weeks ago? So, congratulations to Pablo Lopez. Pretty impressive that he closes out his first half with that complete game shutout. Feels unbelievable. Not only, you know, individually, you know, my first career complete game, but just as a whole team, you know. Obviously, we know that we want to end the first half in a good knowing, I think, in the spot that we are in right now. It's the most fun I've ever had. Oh, I like to hear guys say that.

It's the most fun I've ever had. So, yes, the Twins are on top of the AL Central. They've got the two-game edge over the Guardians. That's a race that's going to last, I would think, long into the summer and then the stretch run. I could tell you all about the Orioles and the Yankees. Mostly, the Orioles won in the Bronx last night, but the moment that more people are talking about on this Thursday morning.

Ooh, it's Thursday. A scary moment, actually, on an errant throw by the Orioles rookie shortstop. One-on-one out, kind of falafel off first. And the pitch hit on the ground in second. And he boots it. Flipped a short one onto first. Wild into the crowd.

And so Volpe will go to second base. Oh, my goodness. Where did the ball go? Is somebody hurt?

Somebody's hurt. Ooh, it hit the camera. Oh, my goodness. It hit the cameraman, one of the yes cameramen, right on the head. Oh, God. And it looked like the Baltimore trainer went running out there and the Yankee trainer's around.

Hit him smack on the side of the head. Oh, God. So we have a stoppage in action here. I couldn't see who it was. The ball did go flying into the crowd, and I didn't see it hit the cameraman.

Oh, that's terrible. It looked like it hit him right on the side of the head. I mean, there's no way you can see.

You've got your head underneath the hood thing trying to shoot the game. And Ariel standing there extremely concerned. Well, let's start off with let's first hope that that cameraman in the camera wall there was okay.

That was a scary moment. Gave the peace sign coming off the field, but that was tough to watch, and hopefully he's okay. Brendan Hyde starts his postgame remarks by talking about Pete Stendel, who is the yes cameraman, that's the Yankees TV network, who was standing along the I guess it was right at the end of the Yankees dugout along the first base line. And he's filming the game.

And this errant throw sails over the head of the O's first baseman and hits him on the head himself. Thankfully, he was conscious and he was able to flash the peace sign or the wave to the fans as he was being carted off. But he did have to go to the hospital and he was going through testing.

There was no update as of last night. But those are certainly scary moments in the game was stopped for 17 minutes. And you could see it the serious sober nature of the entire stadium, but also with the guys on the field. I can imagine Gunnar felt really bad, the shortstop who threw that ball, especially as a rookie.

It's just a tough moment. But thinking about Pete Stendel and hoping that we'll get an update on him today. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, not on Threads.

I can't add any more social media, but Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page too. Straight ahead, Giannis goes through a bit of a surgery. Patrick Beverley, he's ready to be a Philadelphian.

And why did Draymond Green stay with Golden State for less money than he could have gotten on the open market? It's after hours. Good morning from CBS Sports Radio. You are listening. AT&T Fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine. Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a good gillionaire?

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Visit att.com slash hypergig for details. Listening to the After Hours Podcast. Giannis top of the circle. He'll hand it off to Carter. Carter, left elbow, backpedaling, bounce pass back to Giannis with three to shoot. Gotta get to work. Goes to work and sends it down with a one hand slam. Oh, and went right past James Harden.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On Bucs radio, Giannis needs to get healthy. And maybe even before training camp because he does really like to participate in the international events and star for the nation of Greece.

It's a big deal to him. However, he's got a minor physical malady that he's got to take care of first. Here's his new head coach is going to take some getting used to Adrian Griffin. He had a routine surgery on his left knee and it went great.

Everything went as planned and we expect him back ready to go in training camp. Training camp. So we don't know whether or not Giannis will be able to play in the World Cup. The FIBA World Cup is taking place in the Philippines actually this year going late August.

So right about the time the Women's World Cup finishes up in soccer, then FIBA World Cup will begin in basketball. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for hanging out with us on this Thursday morning. We've covered a lot of ground. Speaking of surgeries, by the way, and I know we're going to talk more hoops, but it just sparked something in my brain. They ended up doing a surgery for Mike Trout. And so he's already had that surgery on his broken wrist. And Phil Nevin was talking to reporters before their game in San Diego. With these injuries, that's just the only way to fix it.

The only way to treat it is you've got to get it out of there. So we were able to have this done rather quickly and get him back quicker than every day you take to get the surgery would be one less day he's back. So getting it done today and getting in front of it, I think it's going to bode well for us when we get him back.

I'm not even an Angels fan and this is stressing me out. The window between four and eight weeks. Four weeks, best case scenario.

Great. He could be back in four weeks. That's still four weeks. That's past the trade deadline. So the team will not have him as they try to figure out what to do around the trade deadline. If you missed that conversation with Jeff Fletcher who covers the Angels, it's a big question for them now because they're treading water. They're sitting just above 500. They're trying to keep pace in the AO West and in the wild card races.

But if they don't and they fall off the map without Mike Trout or with some of the other injuries they've got, well what do they do about Otani at the trade deadline? So if you missed it, again there's a link. We put it into actually a Twitter file, an audio file that's just over two minutes. So it's easy to find.

It's gotten a ton of traffic in the last 24 hours. That's on my Twitter, ALawRadio or our show Twitter. Or you can grab the entire conversation with Jeff Fletcher which is posted on both of our social media sites, not Threads.

We're not there yet. I don't know if they'll allow audio files on Threads. Why Threads? Yeah, I mean I guess it's called a thread. So like a tweet, it's going to be called a thread. That's what they're going to call it. So I guess it's just kind of the idea where you can just keep writing, continuing on.

I mean it's literally the same thing. It's just connected to your Insta account. Apparently you get to keep your same handle. Everything that you post on Insta can automatically be posted to your Threads account.

You get 500 characters per message. You can't call it a tweet anymore. It's a little bit like, and this happens a lot, right? Ketchup is a brand but it's now turned into an actual product. Kleenex was a brand.

It's now turned into an actual product. So tweets, Band-Aid exactly. There's a word for that too and I can't remember exactly what it is.

But there's a literary term for it. So now it's going to be tweets. Even though it should tweet, it should only refer to Twitter. These are going to be referred to as tweets on Threads. Oh, Mark Zuckerberg is going to be fit to be tied. It's just, I don't know what anyone is expecting because it's going to be the same exact thing as Twitter where every single person can respond in an open forum kind of way.

It's the same thing. It's going to be a cesspool in less than a week. There's no doubt. You're going over under a week?

I think a week is generous. Oh my gosh. Anyway, we just have Facebook and Twitter.

We're required to have them so we have them. But that conversation with Jeff Fletcher has a lot of great intel on Otani and how he might make his decision and how he likes working and living in Anaheim and being in L.A. So good stuff there with Jeff.

And again, we had a lot of traffic on it in the last 24 hours. This is a different part of California where we're hanging next and we decided we'd welcome in a Warriors insider because once again, they're changing the group around the core. They trade away Jordan Poole. Dante DiVincenzo is gone. Now they've got a new general manager to replace Bob Myers even though it's a guy that he groomed. But Dre stays. So Madeline Kenny joined us from the Bay Area news group.

Just a couple of minutes with her. Why ultimately did Draymond Green decide to re-sign with Golden State for less money? Yeah, I think there was always a belief in anyone that you talk to amongst the Warriors that Draymond was going to come back and was just going to depend on how much in terms. And he made it very clear that he wanted to come back on a longer deal, one that would line him up with Steph Curry. And so I think in taking less money for next season, it gives the Warriors a little bit more flexibility.

Still, they can only offer a veteran minimum to any guys that they add, but it puts them in a better position. It puts Draymond in a better position in his final year as a player option. So it saves the Warriors money on taxes like more than $40 million.

So just everyone kind of got a little bit of what they wanted. The Warriors get to save some money. They get Draymond for another three-plus years. Draymond gets that longer-term deal.

It all works out in the end. Any idea if there would have been suitors or if there were outside suitors for Dre? You know, Draymond's name was linked to a few other teams, including some Western Conference teams. But at the end of the day, I always had this position that I just couldn't see him leaving Steph, especially with how last season ended up, and then it just seemed inevitable that he would eventually come back.

It just was a matter of how many years and whether or not he was going to opt in or out of his player option. I thought it was so much fun to see him and Steph and also Klay interact at the match on Thursday. I don't know if you had a chance to watch it, but boy, they are a hoot when they're together. Yeah, totally. I think that's just all those years of building and winning together. Obviously, with winning comes championship parades and parties, so they know how to have a good time and save. What's your reaction to the Jordan Poole move so he's no longer part of that roster or Dante DiVincenzo? It seems like, again, Madeline, they're willing to shuffle the roster around this core, what feels like every season.

Yeah, it totally was a double-down move to send the message that they want to win now. They want to capitalize on Steph Curry's prime for as long as they possibly can. In moving Jordan Poole, even with Draymond Green coming back, it seemed likely that one of them, as much as they put on brave faces, they worked professionally together, seemed like eventually one would have to go for the other to stay. So with moving Jordan Poole, that puts him in a different environment.

He's going to have an opportunity to be one of the go-to guys in Washington. I think it kind of gives him a bigger opportunity. And with that, too, it opened up the opportunity for Chris Paul, obviously, to come in. The Warriors are definitely shifting to having more veteran guys in the locker room. Their bench last year was extremely young, and with that came some growing pains that the bench early on in the season was still trying to figure out its identity and stuff. And so bringing in guys like Chris Paul, Corey Joseph, those are older guys. They kind of slowed down the game a little bit. The Warriors like to play fast, so it would be really interesting to see how that all plays out, obviously. But also Steve Kirk can trust them, right?

They're low turnover rate guys. So I think these are all moves, obviously, to build a contender for next season. Madeline Kenny is with us from the Bay Area, where she covers the Warriors for Bay Area News Group.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. I've heard Draymond talk extensively about what Chris Paul can mean for this group. How does he fit in in terms of his skill set, not so much his personality? Yeah, so it'll be interesting with Chris Paul, right? Obviously, there's a little bit of history with the Warriors, but it seems like they're all very excited for this union. He has started every game of his career, and when you start to look at the Warriors' roster as it is and where he fits, it seems more likely than not that he's going to have to be coming off the bench for the first time in his career. Maybe the Warriors will look at a three-guard lineup, close out. But I just can't imagine that the Warriors want to start small that often. They have done it in the past, starting a three-guard lineup with Jordan Poole and having Kavon Looney come off the bench.

So that's definitely an option. It'll be really interesting. Chris Paul obviously gives them a veteran leader for that second unit, assuming he's coming off the bench. He can really help slow down the game. He can help some of the young players take that next leap in their careers. So I think it'll be really interesting to see just how the fit is and how it all plays out. It also gives the Warriors flexibility, financial flexibility in the long term, which is obviously a huge storyline with this team that's paid all of their superstars rightfully so.

Madeline Kenny from Bay Area News Group. There's more there about what else they need, but they can only offer veteran minimums, and this is what the Warriors have continued to do. They pay their crew, they pay their guys, and that's Dre and Steph and Klay, and then they have a revolving door of guys around them.

Some of them will stay. Gary Payton, he's on the roster. Andrew Wiggins. But because they can't offer, and they did pay Andrew too, because they can't offer any other money, they have to bring in guys who are willing to play for the vet minimum. But think about it. You get a chance to play with the Warriors. Even if it's one year in your career, two years in your career, even if you're a role player, it's an opportunity for you to play with one of the best franchises in the NBA right now, but also a chance to compete for a title. I did ask Madeline, by the way, what was their issue on the road last year, right?

Like, how in the world could they be so bad away from home? And so that coupled with her kind of comparison between Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Bob Myers, the outgoing Bob Myers, all really good stuff, and you can find that on our podcast After Hours. AmyLawrence.com. Actually, that website's defunct. We can't be sharing that website anymore. Do you know it's defunct? It's defunct. Whoever runs our digital department, and who even knows who that is, we used to have an active link, After Hours, AmyLawrence.com. But if you Google it now, I think they ended it. They stopped using it so that we would be forced to promote the Odyssey link. I see.

You see? Do you see how you go to the website and it hasn't been updated in who knows how long? You can really only access one link from our podcast each day. You can't access anything else, and we have tried to get it fixed, but our requests keep going ignored. They somehow get lost in the shuffle.

Somehow. I'm pretty sure it's because they don't want us to use that link anymore. Jerks. We'll show them. So instead, we'll have you go to our Twitter or our Facebook.

That's where you can find the weekday morning link to the podcast. We'll see who's in charge around here. We'll see who's boss around here. They did it on purpose. Jerks. Actually, they may not even know we exist here, so they probably thought that was just some stupid... Who even knows what website this is for?

What's this spam? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Once you've obviously walked through the grounds, you know what makes this place special. But I think as a player, it's the atmosphere, you know, playing on the grass. The crowds, I think, also being so knowledgeable. It's history, of course, you know.

And I think also the way the term is run, there's a sort of ooze's class. And it's just very pretty and very calm, like a garden. You're walking through a garden, you know. It's very special. And I always love coming back here.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The voice of Roger Federer. Unmistakable. For me, anyway, because I've been listening to him for 20 years. And I do really miss him on the court, but it's great to see him holding court at Wimbledon, where he is the king of grass, though Novak Djokovic could tie his record with eight Wimbledon crowns. Right now, Novak easily through to the third round at Wimbledon. Still a long way to go, but he's playing great tennis, even though he feels the pressure. And we'll let you hear from Novak coming up, especially his answer about his age and whether or not he feels like he's aging. And this was Sue Barker, who was talking to Roger Federer on the Wimbledon YouTube. On CNN, though, the question was posed to Fed about Novak tying him with the eight Wimbledon singles crowns. And remember, Novak has already passed Roger Federer in terms of number of grand slams total.

Honestly, I think it's great for him. You know, I had my moments for me having won my eighth or my fifth in a row or whatever it may be. That was my moment, you know. So if somebody equals that, passes that, this is their thing, their moment. And I know nowadays it's especially media driven as well, also the player driven.

I was driven as well by trying to break records to equal records. But I think as you sit back, you have a totally different perspective. As you're not in it anymore, you start relaxing, just very proud of your achievements. And so I hope he does it, to be honest, because I think anything more he does adds to tennis history, goes above and beyond just talking tennis. He goes into global sports, like when he went to 23 now in Paris.

This is incredible stuff, great news, and it's good for the game. So I think he's the heavy favorite, and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins Wimbledon again. I miss his grace. I miss his class. I miss his humility. Now, granted, he believed he was the best player in the world, has a big enough ego to fill center court at Wimbledon. But when it comes to his place in history, when it comes to the competitors, love the way that Roger Federer represents himself and his game, the game, not his game. I mean, it is his game, but the game. And I just think that there are very few players who will ever be as great an ambassador as he has been for the game of tennis, and certainly for Wimbledon.

He talked about just walking out onto the grass courts, and you know immediately what makes it so special. Now, as for Novak, he isn't going to handle press conferences, questions the way that Federer did. Federer would deflect a lot when it came to the pressure. Now, did he want to win?

Yes, but he would save his emotion for the end. He was really good at remaining even-keeled. That's not so much Novak Djokovic. And for the early stages of his career, it was actually the pressure that would get to him, and he would fold in some of the bigger moments back when he was first battling Roger and Rafa.

Now, of course, he's mastered that. He's worked with a mental skills coach, if I remember correctly, and he's a guy that can channel that pressure into even better play and taking his play to the next level. But he is so honest about the fact that, yeah, there's pressure all the time now, especially as he approaches even more rarefied air in his sport. Every time I walk out on the court, particularly in grand slams and center courts, I feel, of course, tremendous pressure and expectations from myself and people around that are watching live or on TV or the whole tennis world.

It's a feeling that I'm used to right now by now, and it's something that I also embrace because it's giving me further motivation to strive to make more histories. So Novak right now is sitting on 23 grand slams. He's already got the most among men all time, just one ahead of Rafa. But I don't know if we'll see Rafa be able to compete at the highest level again. He hopes to return from this hip injury coming up next year at the French Open because that's his jam. But we don't know whether or not he'll be able to play the way that we're accustomed to, especially he plays such a violent game where he rolls around and he dives and he just really has done a number on his body.

I used to compare him to Ken Griffey Jr., who maybe would have played longer and more years in Major League Baseball if he wasn't constantly giving it 110% out there in the outfield and running into walls and diving all over the place and costing himself some time with injuries. So we don't know about Rafa, but Novak's already sitting on 23. 24 ties in with Margaret Court, which she's not even modern era, but she does hold the record for most grand slams. So yeah, here he is staring at this history and even continuing to add on. While there are a bunch of younger guys, 15 in some cases, maybe 10 years younger than he is, he recognizes that right now he still has the edge when it comes to pressure and experience and wisdom and everything he's seen on the court. And so yeah, the question of aging doesn't seem to faze him. Well, you're only as young or as old as you feel. I feel young in my own body, in my own head, in my heart. My children remind me of that, you know, the time that I spend with them, the innocence and the incredible curiosity and pure love and energy that I get to experience with them is something that really strengthens that inner child in you and also the fact that I'm still playing the sport that I fell in love with when I was very young. So I think that is something that is very refreshing. That was ugly.

Why do we cut him off like that? Anyway, Novak is only as young or old as he feels. I like that.

That's going to be my new philosophy. I'm only as young or old as I feel. Right now for Novak, he's in the driver's seat and at 36 years old, does it feel 36 years old? I'm not sure. I don't think that's considered old. It's only in the world of sports or in TV and film. Is it considered old?

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So looking forward to seeing what happens with Novak and Carlos Alcaraz, of course. Shoot, is he 19?

Yeah, 19 years old. And so there's always, it reminds me of golf, right, with Tiger Woods and the way that Tiger was so dominant and then of course he had the time away for the injuries and what happened in his personal life. But while he was gone or while he was away, you leave this window open and all of a sudden you've got a bunch of young guys who grew up watching you who want to be the next Tiger Woods who are younger, more explosive, they've got more power simply because that's what youth is all about.

Maybe they don't have the skill or the experience but they can smash the ball. Well in the case of Novak Djokovic, now it wasn't his choice but he was away from the game or away from some of the majors because of the vaccination issue and everything else that happened. And so in his absence, other guys stepped up, that includes now world number one Carlos Alcaraz who has a game that really does fit all courts and it just kind of depends on how quickly he certainly can push Novak. He got hurt or got cramped up at the French Open and so it wasn't a fair fight but it was good for the first couple sets until he was unable to continue. How quickly can he push Novak?

How quickly can he acquire that experience that allows him to go toe to toe but also mind to mind, right? It's a mind game out there when it's just the two of you on center court. Speaking of mind games, I swear that's what the NBA is doing to us. Have you guys seen the headlines? Because I know nobody actually reads articles these days. Have you seen the clickbait slash headline about the new in-season tournament?

Oh my lord, it's so convoluted I can't even keep up. The final four of the new in-season tournament will take place in Vegas of course because everything these days takes place in Vegas when it's sports related. But yeah, these are regular season games as best I can tell. Except for the championship.

That's not a regular season game. I don't understand that part. I have no idea but I know that Adam Silver has been all about them doing an in-season tournament similar to what happens with the Euroleagues in soccer, right? And so they haven't released the full details yet but it's so complicated. It's even more complicated than the play-in tournament which also is dumb.

Who asked for that? Gimmicky. It's so gimmicky.

That was a product of the pandemic, right? Where they needed something to have these teams play extra games in the bubble. So yeah, it will debut next season and it is part of the new CBA but it's this whole round robin thing and then it's a knockout stage and then it's the final four and it's right smack dab in the middle of the tournament. I mean, I'm sorry, the middle of the season. It just sounds dumb.

It's like trying to get viewers and fans to pay attention before Christmas. That's the whole thing. Have a great Thursday. We're back tonight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence CBS Sports Radio. Boom!