After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash positive. 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 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. But in 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 podcast. If you were invested in whether the National League or the American League won the All-Star game, maybe you were invested because you had a bet on it or you were gambling on it, had a wager on it. National League does in fact end its losing skin against the American League.

The first time in 10 years, first time since 2012 that we have seen the National League prevail. All right, I feel like I've done my duty. It still was an exhibition and doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

So that's probably about as much as I'll do on the scoring. It was a show and I enjoyed it like I always do. I really love the buzz and the entertainment factor, the entertainment value of these guys. Best players in the world, brightest talent the game has to offer. Being in one place with their families, with friends, teammates in some cases, but in other cases just a mutual respect.

All right, it's kind of cool to see them on the base paths. Kidding each other, greeting each other, smiling. It was fun to see Otani on the base path talking to some of the National League guys who were playing the field when he walked in whatever inning it was that he walked fourth maybe.

A Midsummer Classic, it's supposed to be high on entertainment. A lot of great moments that I always appreciate, right? So Ken Griffey Jr. throwing out the first pitch with along with Edgar Martinez, the ceremonial first pitches. Seeing the two incredible defensive plays in the first inning alone. This is why I tell you I only watch the Major League Baseball All-Star game because they actually have to play defense. And we got one incredible catch in right field, one incredible catch in left field, and shrugs and smiles from Garrett Cole.

That's how the game started out. Of course, smiling at hearing some of the conversations taking place with these guys mic'd up. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, his teammates out there talking to each other as much as they were talking to Joe Davis and John Smoltz in the booth on Fox. Corbin Carroll, a Seattle guy facing a pitcher who was mic'd up. That was kind of funny.

Nathan Evaldi, I think it was. Really the joy that these guys found in being together and hanging out in one place. And yes, of course, the circus around Otani. Showtime doesn't do it justice. It's much more than a show. It's an entire traveling circus. Really looking forward to getting the eyes and ears on the scene from Seattle.

Maury Brown, who is a senior contributor to Forbes magazine, is on his way home from the All-Star festivities. And we will get his perspective coming up at the bottom of the hour. I've always wanted to attend a Major League Baseball All-Star game because it seems like a lot of fun. And again, the entertainment value is high. One of these days.

It's on my bucket list. As laid back as it is, as much as they smile and have a good time, the fans really reflect that. And you can see that. That joy reverberates around the stadium. So bravo Seattle. Another All-Star game in the books. And still no answers about Shohei Otani, in case you were wondering.

If you haven't taken our poll, we've got the Shohei Show Us The Way poll. A couple hours left to go. If you're the Angels, would you trade Shohei Otani by the July 31st deadline?

So trade deadline is coming up. Inside of three weeks. You can find that poll pinned to the top of our show Twitter account after our CBS. I'm actually going to retweet it again so it's high in your news feed. On my Twitter, A Law Radio. On our Facebook page. Hundreds of comments.

Because why not? He is the biggest name in sports right now. WEMBE's got nothing on Shohei. WEMBE is a relatively new phenomenon.

Shohei Otani? It's already a global circus. Yeah, this should be fun to hear what Maury has to say. Our phone number is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Lots of past and present faces and names from baseball. I love seeing Ken Griffey Jr. as I mentioned.

But also really cool to hear some of the interaction among the older guys versus the younger guys. Julio Rodriguez, definitely the man of the hour next to Otani. If we take Otani out of the equation, Julio, the man of the hour and takes advantage of this being in Seattle. I love the I love the love he got. I did.

It was pretty neat. Not only has he signed a contract to stay put until the Seattle fans know that he's theirs. But at 22 years old, there's a lot of potential there for the Mariners. It's just the beginning. So we'll hear from him as well as the MVP. And just in case you think it's all peace, love, and fun and games.

Oh no, the Major League Baseball Players Association has a beef. It was the only game in town. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I hope that you did too.

Across the pond, not so much fun for the number one player in the world on the women's side or one of the Americans still standing. We'll get to that. It's funny because we just talked about Zion Williamson on the last show, or I did. I brought him up when I was talking about Victor Wemenyama and the, the, yeah, speaking of circus, the sideshow that is Wenby now. He's departed Vegas and I was bringing up Zion Williamson and how he was in the same position a couple of years ago. It was him who was considered can't miss. Anything Zion did made headlines and that's the position Wenby is in right now.

And so as I was talking about that, you're thinking about how, I mean it's a bummer, how much it stinks that Zion hasn't been able to stay healthy or stay in shape in large part because of the health issues. And what does he do? Well, he pops up and he, he speaks.

It's as though his ears were burning. We heard from Joe Cronin in Portland about Damian Lillard's future. Now the head coach of the Blazers is speaking out. And of course, football. We can't go an entire show without mixing in a little bit of football.

You know us better than that. So settle in, but also let me know what you thought of the all-star game and take our poll. If you haven't taken our show, hey poll yet. It is the middle show of the workweek. It is the hump show.

Got to get over the hump to get to another summer weekend. So we invite you to submit your questions for Ask Amy Anything. It comes up a couple hours from now. You know the drill on either Twitter or Facebook. You're kind of behind the eight ball though because the questions have been pouring in. You know the drill. You're kind of behind the eight because the questions have been pouring in now for hours. And so Jay's got a lot to sift through. I will go back later on Wednesday. Do my absolute best to answer if I can do it succinctly, but for now it's open season. So send your questions to producer Jay.

Just saying, if you don't want to get left in the dust you better hustle up. He's got a lot to read and a lot to decide. It's time to have some fun.

It is time to have some fun. Well I haven't heard the voice of Roger Goodell in a while, but it won't be long because we are a few weeks away from all the NFL training camps being in full session. Oh my gosh it hurts me to say that even.

I do love football, but I can't believe it's coming up. Defense. Defense. It's why I love the all-star game as I said because they can't actually get done playing the game if they don't get out. 40 home runs 80 stolen bases. Here's an opposite field fly ball deep to the track and a leaping grab made by Garcia. Highlight play to begin the all-star game.

I tell you what he was battling the sun big time on this. You see him look right there and then leap at the last minute. Acuna has tremendous power to all parts of the park and what a start. Cole on the benefactor of a great defensive play. Cole's walk through to Freeman is popped down the left field line towards the corner. He makes the catch. What a way to begin the mid-summer classic. One great catch in right, one great catch in left. Arozarena doesn't waste any time.

So Garrett Cole could only smile and shrug recognizing that he was in fact the worst feeling in the world. On the right end of two incredible defensive plays. Pretty sweet Adelise Garcia and Randy Arozarena. Now Freddie Freeman he was a little ticked off. Are you kidding me? It's an all-star game.

What are you doing? And then just just moments after Arozarena robs Freeman of what would have been a two-bagger if not more. Well then Arozarena steps to the plate and promptly gets a hit. So he's standing next to Freeman on first base. You can't take hits away and get hits. You got to pick one.

That is not fair. He says he's sorry guys and everything's okay. Everything's okay.

He said he's sorry. Nice catch dude. That's a great start to your game. Yeah real good. Yeah well we're five batters into the game. We got an early MVP candidate for the all-star game.

Oh and he's running. All of the play-by-play coming from Fox Sports of course. In fact I'm watching the game again.

They're re-airing it on FS1. So yes an RBI. Oh no I'm sorry not an RBI. A single just a plain old boring single.

Sorry Randy. A single for Arozarena. Some ribbing from Freddie Freeman and then it caught stealing.

Oh and he's running. Freeman's still trying to make him feel bad for the fact that he not only had the defense and flashed the leather but that he also was on base and then he gets caught stealing. So I suppose there's some poetic justice in that. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

I do love it when these guys are mic'd up especially when they have great personalities. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts as Dodgers teammates were both mic'd up in the bottom of the first inning and that was when Shohei Ohtani was at the plate. Swing and a miss.

One ball and two strikes. They're chanting come to Seattle. Do you guys want to start your own chant to Shohei? That would be tampering.

I'm not doing any of that. They were really funny. I actually really enjoyed them.

I think more than anybody else being mic'd up I really enjoyed them. It's also cool to have a pitcher mic'd up when he is on the mound but it's tough though too because he's trying to throw pitches. Now I thought Evaldi did a good job and he was interacting with his catcher as well. I mean there were so many Texas Rangers on the field.

It was either Texas Rangers or Atlanta Braves at every position it seems like. So it's kind of fun to hear him go back and forth with the booth but at times he does need to focus on on his actual pitches. As for Freeman and Betts, now Freeman did make a joke at one point about how hey I gotta concentrate. I could get I'm in the line of fire over here while Betts is out there just kind of hanging catching some rays. I do love it when these guys are mic'd up and I think it's good for the game for us to see them in different positions right in different circumstances where it's not serious quite as much where we get to see them and hear them cut up talk to each other goof off maybe talk a little smack. As Shohei said in the dugout once he was done with his couple of bats usually these guys are my enemies they're my opponents but now we get to root for each other. I think the major league baseball all-star game is fairly timeless and I know they've done some tweaking to the home run derby they've done some tweaking in terms of whether or not it counts for home field advantage in the world series I get that it's not as though it's the exact same that it's always been and people feeling the need to complain about the fact that they no longer wear their actual uniforms instead they wear matching uniforms but if that's your biggest beef with the all-star game then okay baseball has struck it rich. I know many of you do watch the NBA or NHL all-star festivities this year I watched the flag football game that took place at the Pro Bowl just because it was new this is the only one I look forward to it's the only game among the all-star concoctions that I actually enjoy most of the others I ignore or I watch because I have to this one I really enjoy to the point where I told Bob I had to get off the phone because I needed to watch the major league baseball all-star game I had a couple of moments that had nothing to do with baseball that I will bring back and tell you about and we'll hear from some of the other all-stars as well as the MVP first venezuelan ever to win the major league baseball all-star game most valuable player award most valuable player award just getting started glad to have you with us thanks so much for hanging out it is the hump show on twitter a law radio take our show hey does he stay or does he go poll and also on our facebook page because you're an all-star or maybe you're a firework it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio you are listening to the after hours podcast well you never forget your first all-star game you are never gonna forget your first potential game-winning homer wow what a moment for him me a lot to me uh to my family I mean I'm so proud that we would have been doing what I've been accomplished being the also getting for me is it's amazing getting you to the good half of your week it's the hump show on after hours what a story elias diaz 32 years old playing in his first ever all-star game and he's the MVP because this two-run home run in the eighth inning that you hear on fox sports is the reason the national league ended a streak that went back to 2012 or 2013 he's the first rocky ever to take home the honor raise your hand if you even knew elias diaz played for the rockies i'm impressed it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio craig kimberl had a chance to close it out he did give julio rodriguez a base on balls but then is able to come back and end the game kind of neat to get his emotion as a grizzled veteran right so not his first time but a guy who has been around the block and has pretty much done everything you can in baseball getting to face rodriguez there and seeing this crowd get up and get excited i took a moment stood on the back of the mound took it in it was it was pretty cool to see especially with the home crowd i'm just glad i was able to get the job done it's been a while since the national league has got to win so it feels pretty good i wonder how many of these guys actually knew that it had not been in 10 years that the national league had won do you think they put as much stock in it as the media does or as the fans do i'm not even sure the fans keep up with that i would say that if i was the national league player i'd want to win and stop that streak you think i'd say not that it's like a pride or embarrassing but you know like why not if you could stop it why not why not us let's go there is a a bunch of really cool moments that weren't actually part of the game and one of them took place beforehand and that was little eight-year-old braden i hope you were tuning in just before the game he ran around the bases and then because he's a seattle kid had a chance to meet his hero julio rodriguez the smile on braden's face as he routed the bases and he waved to the crowd the whole time he got a standing ovation from 47 000 plus in addition to the players in the dugouts and on the field so they were already out there at their positions the american league taking the field first already out at their various positions as braden is rounding the bases and he's waving and he's getting high fives and encouragement from the players who were already out there on the field but at home plate his hero julio rodriguez met him with a hug and a double high five and a congratulations how amazing that must have been for little braden i know this was julio's moment because he's the mariner and he's the star but i love that he wanted to make it about little braden in that moment it was pure joy on his face and my heart oh my goodness i i teared up of course because that's what i do so little braden eight-year-old stealing the show before they ever got out there well they were out there before they ever started playing and then what is always the most powerful moment of the all-star game in the sixth inning if you missed it that moment when the entire stadium rises and stands up to cancer so that too always gets me and as i looked at all the different signs and i thought about various people in my life that right now are battling cancer or who have added their names to the list of cancer survivors i thought of our friend john concade former cbs sports radio host who is a morning show host in philadelphia a 97.5 the fanatic and who has been a guest on our show has gone through two of his chemo treatments of the 12 that he has to go through for his stage three colon cancer and i was thinking about him and standing up for him and also put it out there on twitter too if you want to share it because i know he appreciates the support and the encouragement so those were two of my favorite moments now coming up we'll get the perspective of mori brown who is covering the event for forbes and had a chance to hear what rob manfred said before the game and also the circus that is shohei otani he was right in the middle of it it's after hours on cbs sports radio you are listening to the after hours podcast two on two out and a two-two pitch ramirez door the national league's finally back on top its first all-star game win since 2012 this is after hours with amy lawrence on fox sports i loved it the entertainment value very high but that's a lot that happened in seattle around the game before after monday tuesday back-to-back days of a circus for shohei otani and everything else that you could imagine with the brightest stars of baseball and the celebrities that gather around it's after hours with amy lawrence here on cbs sports radio really excited to welcome a brand new guest to the show mori brown a senior contributor for forbes magazine so is there not only covering baseball but the business of baseball there is big money we know that to be sure so it was a full house 47 000 strong both monday and tuesday not to mention everybody on the field mori what did you think well i mean everything from the weather to um the crowd everything that was there really turned out really well i you know i think that the you know um rob manford addressed the media as part of the bbwa meeting this morning and he was you know he was pleased about the whole thing as he said um there's high demand for every um club in major league baseball to host it so it's good for seattle they try to come back to places that they haven't been for a while so um you know there's some good history in seattle and uh again it was it was a great atmosphere a lot of fun especially when otani came to the plate everybody was shouting you know come to seattle come to seattle which was pretty wild but uh you know all in all it was great how would you describe the buzz around shohei otani for the past couple of days insane um you know i i don't know if you know this but during the all-star game right when players are done they will go straight back to the interview rooms and do their you know their scrums afterwards while the game is being played and the interview room that they had set up was probably made to hold about 70 and i would say there was probably 150 in there and it was insane it was crammed as tight as you could get it so of course everybody is you know how you feel him right now um on monday he said he was really tired of losing um which of course you know lends itself to whether um the angels could potentially trade him and so you know i mean he is really the center of where everything is at right now it seemed to be on everybody's mind and it was certainly um the buzz throughout the ballpark how much bigger is it than just baseball mori well that's a great question i you know i think that there's a cultural element to it i mean we've he's he's a unicorn in a lot of senses right in the sense that we have not seen a two-way player like this probably since ruth so i mean it really is that i mean he's young i you know and seems to have um you know the world is his oyster right now he really is going to be able to make some decisions and do whatever he really wants to do and people are kind of hanging on every word that he has to say somebody asked him you know who's your favorite player on the all-star team and he asked if it was the a o or n o and they went all of them and he said mookie bets which of course every dodger fan is going to go oh my gosh right that's it and then somebody asked him what do you think about seattle and he goes i've spent two off seasons here so i really like it and so of course everybody in seattle is like oh he must be coming here but really i mean we're not going to know i mean nobody is going to know until the off season where he ultimately ultimately winds up saying but i mean it really is he he is right now i think the center of the baseball universe we're excited to spend a few minutes with mori brown who's a senior contributor for forbes magazine and was there for the all-star festivities the pomp the circumstance the show around shohei otani it's after hours here on cbs sports radio you had an opportunity to catch up with joe davis and john smoltz what was that experience like for you considering that they are the voices of the all-star game now yeah i mean i was curious about how they handle it in terms of the fact that the rosters really aren't set until a day or two before with you know players dropping out other players being added um i asked davis i i was curious about whether the the pitch clock has really altered stuff around what they call these jewel events right i mean the all-star game you get a lot of narratives and you talk a lot about the players right and you get to really wax a lot more than you would maybe and necessarily in a normal game but with the pitch clock that's not there and like small says that's you know he's the guy as you pointed over to davis he's the guy that's got to worry about that i just picked the spots where there's some drama and kind of lend itself there but davis said you know that they've been working on the games you know all season already you know the balance schedule has allowed them to see teams that they might not otherwise see so that i think is lending itself to it you know they said that really leading up to the all-star game is prepped for it and then they just kind of tweak it a little bit entering the game i you obviously couldn't hear it because you were there at the event instead of watching on tv but it's pretty incredible to hear some of these athletes in the middle of it at bat or right before they throw a pitch to be miked up and i really did enjoy some of the combinations like mookie betts and freddie freeman who were out there on the field communicating together as well as with the guys in the booth it was pretty cool yeah and you know this is something that the league has really wanted to try and do for a long time you know it obviously requires the players association and the players to buy off on it and you know spring training the all-star game that's something that you're going to see it are you going to see it during the postseason probably not but again i think that it is one of those things to where the personality of baseball players i think has been kind of a lost story for a while i just don't think that they get enough credit it's part of the you know the design of the game players are up to bat you know every inning and a half or so so you don't get to see them there you know if it's a star pitcher you may not see them every until every fourth or fifth day it's different than every other sport where a lebron james right or a tom brady or whoever you want to pick as your star is out there for long periods of time so i don't think you really get to see as much star power and the league and the players association have been trying to market the players more and i think this shows their personality and look there's a lot of personality with major league baseball players so it makes it really is entertaining television yes agreed and the 47 000 plus in the stadium they make for that ambiance and that electricity uh as the backdrop for the game too is really cool mori brown is with us after attending the all-star festivities in seattle covering it for forbs after hours here on cbs sports radio rob manford held court on tuesday what stands out from what he had to say about baseball and every other topic that he covered yeah i think the big one was that he's really honed in a major topic was the rule changes and the fact that you know that attendance is up on television is up they're looked very closely at the age demographic they're seeing a younger demographic which is of course really important if you want to sustain your game you can't have 55 and older people doing it or you won't be able to have the game for very long so look that was really important now tony clark the head of the players association spoke before manfred and the players would like to see in the postseason the pitch clock extend extended a little bit more they actually asked for that when they started the design for the pitch clock when they wanted to see it at the beginning of the season they didn't get manfred to go ahead and do what they say those conversations are still going on but it sounds to me like the league wants to hold the line on this for a couple of reasons one the players have been working with it right they've had that sort of thing and they will tell you that most pitchers are delivering pitches six seconds before the pitch pitch clock ends the other thing is the belief will be well if if they ask for the postseason they'll ask for it again during the regular season because of course they wanted that in the first place so some of it is political some of it i think is practical nobody wants to see postseason games decided by the pitch clock so that was a big topic of discussion then the other stuff was largely some questions about win expansion might happen and that was really important because there's a belief that finally the a's and the rays there's a little bit of you know light at the end of the tunnel on these ones and he said that they would look at expansion right away now they're not going to jump into it willy-nilly they're gonna they understand that you know certain markets and what comes with it there's a lot of small markets so where they would take revenue revenue sharing but they see that the expansion fees which could be two billion dollars each right so it would be four billion dollars total would come in to the current 30 owners and that's a healthy paycheck he said that once they get this thing with the a's and the rays sorted out it would be a pretty quick thing so you know it could be five years from now what are a couple of moments or people that you will remember from the seattle experience well certainly marston lynch with the with the homeowner he was pretty great i mean he's just a character in and of himself and is such a signature guy um in seattle um it was pretty great at the beginning of the game they had a lot of the guys from the 2001 mariners so you had um we had uh egar martinez we had lou panella um we had um john olerud and other players that were on that roster come on out and kangaroo junior of course so you know that probably lent itself to it you know there were some others that were wandering around i was largely there only for part of the day yesterday and today and it was it was chaotic i mean when you get down on the field i don't know there's probably close to a thousand people while they're doing bp whoa so it gets pretty crazy you know there's a lot going on with the international press there was well over 200 people uh from the media there um for the game and a lot of that was japanese looking at otani there's so much interest around him that you saw quite a bit going around that and if you haven't checked out mori's twitter you should because he's got a photo from inside the press room where otani was holding court does look like every single member of the media packed in there so i can imagine then the press box emptied out quickly at least for a short time yeah well and you know they have overflow um for for the media so they can't fit everybody in the press box so they'll use part of the seating around there and we had great seats this year for it the unfortunate was it was at the far end of the ballpark so you literally saw members of the media running to get downstairs to the interview room right and we like you walk in the door and of course it was wall to wall people so you know again i i have not seen anything like this maybe not i mean barry bonds during the height of his home run chase is the last time i can remember any kind of hype like this it's just something that that you have to see to believe it really is like this incredible thing where the media is that's all anybody can talk about right now and you know largely because we know he's going to go somewhere other than the angels it's just a matter of when so you know again it's great for baseball um it you know the commissioner's happy tony clark from the players association is happy about stuff and again it was you know the players look like they had a great time the weather was perfect it's interesting too because i feel as though he handles it so calmly and with a lot of humility but maybe doesn't quite understand the furor around him or maybe he does and he just handles it like a pro no i think it's the latter i think he i think he's fully aware of what's going on um he is very humble he's you know he's very his answers are pretty short he doesn't really you know elaborate and get too wild he's pretty evenly keeled he'll smile you know when there's questions about stuff around certain players or when he's pondering you know like how do you say who's the best player that you're around without offending people or like you know like there's political implications about when you say stuff right he seems to be you know self-deprecating on some levels i asked him um you know what he wanted to do on the second half you know given where everybody's you know there's this break and then we go into the second half into the stretch he says i'm not going to change anything that i'm doing now if it ain't broke don't fix it right but given where the angels are at and this storm that's going around him right now you know he could say hey you know maybe i'm gonna go ahead and pull back or i'm gonna lean into it a little bit more given the fact that we there's so many injuries specifically mike trout but again he seems just really evenly killed about the whole thing and really aware of where he's at nothing seems to be going to his head he's very very humble in that regard i think part of why there's so much appeal there is because he's not a jerk or doesn't come across that way anyway all right all right you can find mori on twitter at biz ball mori so b-i-z b-a-l-l mori for forbs and was there for the festivities in seattle i do love the all-star break it's great to hear your perspective mori thank you so much all right you take care of yourself thank you so much for having me now back to normal right all-star game is done a couple days to breathe and then it's right back to the grind huh i do think that baseball is gaining momentum this season and of course commissioner manfred did have to highlight the fact that it was all the changes the rules changes that are making baseball so much more popular popular are you have you guys ever seen wicked the broadway show it's also been on i think it's been on tv i think there's been a broadcast broadcast but certainly it's available in other markets besides new york but it's been running in new york for the better part of 15 years outside of covid and one of the hysterical songs the soundtrack is so good is um the good witch good witch glenda popular she's she's so unaware she's just uh all about herself from for a good portion of the play but anyway that whenever i say the word popular that song instantly pops into my head we might have to play it next hour because it's classic you're gonna be popular thank you jay have you seen wicked you need to take your mother to see wicked are you supposed to be taking her to a show for her birthday uh she's actually seen with my dad she loves it they love wicked we're going to take her to see the mj okay fine that one should be pretty good i've heard only great things about wicked oh it's amazing i highly recommend it it's my favorite broadway show i've ever seen although phantom of the opera was pretty incredible too anyway he's popular it's popular baseball's popular that i derailed myself it's after hours on cbs sports radio