8-8-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

Hey, Rob Bradford here. I have set out on a mission with my good friends at FanDuel to prove what I have known for some time. Baseball isn't boring. Now I have a daily podcast to prove it with some of the most notable people in the baseball world, screaming baseball isn't boring for the mountaintops, or at least agreeing to come on our show.

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You'll be glad you did. Halfway through our show here on CBS Sports Radio, I keep stumbling over the fact that football season is inside of a month away. Yeah, it's almost here and we will have college football coverage, of course, such as the college landscape is chaos, hectic, it's nonstop changes.

It's hard to keep up with right now. I'm almost afraid to say which teams and which schools are with which conferences because it's changing so rapidly. We're going to get to a little bit of the reaction from some of the schools departing the Pac-12 and then one school that's left behind. Don't even know if the Pac-12 will be able to field up a schedule or put together a conference that's eligible to compete. If all these defections continue, Cal and Stanford now reportedly being recruited by the ACC because that makes so much sense. If you missed my conversation with Brian Fisher of Fox Sports, I highly recommend it.

Not only did he give us the information, the who, what, where, when, why and how much, and there's a lot of how much. But also, what happens now? Where does the Pac-12 go from here?

How does this impact the college football playoff? It will be part of our podcast and the links are always available right after the show every weekday morning. And we'll also bring back part of that conversation in our final hour as the audience has turned over so much. But from the college games to the NFL, we've got you covered here on CBS Sports Radio.

Lots of people ask me, how can I listen? If I don't have a local affiliate, how can I find you? In fact, I've been trying to tell Bob's family a little bit about the options. We do have a brand new affiliate in Austin, which is where he's got a couple of family members, so there's an option. But if you don't always find yourself awake in the hours in which we are live on the air, well, you can use the podcast on the free Odyssey app, but we always post the link on both Twitter and Facebook right after the show is done. And then you can listen on Sirius XM Channel 158. You can also stream online at CBSSportsRadio.com. We are a full service operation.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, 855-212-4227. And then Twitter is ALawRadioPlus, our Facebook page. We do a bunch of football the rest of the way, both college and the NFL. We're getting closer to the first full week of the NFL preseason.

C.J. Stroud, he's going to start Thursday at the Patriots. Doug Peterson, he's got a plan for his starters. So yeah, we're going to see some of the big names, some of the actual starters in these preseason games. And while you don't want them to get hurt, that would be your worst nightmare, especially at the quarterback position.

I can understand why you also want to take advantage of the opportunity. So maybe it makes these week one preseason games a little more compelling. We're fresh on the heels of the Hall of Fame inductions. And I told you about this particular story that DeMarcus Ware shared from the stage at Canton.

I'm a big fan. He joined the Denver Broncos and helped them win Super Bowl 50. You may have heard by now or over the years, he and Peyton Manning, they were really the inspiration for the Broncos to go out and win Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers at that time. Remember, it was the the year Cam Newton won the MVP and they I think they went 15 and 1 that season.

So this game took place in Santa Clara Levi Stadium. And the night before the game, Peyton Manning and DeMarcus Ware addressed the locker room. And as the story goes, that was such an inspiration for the rest of the Broncos that they felt like they were playing for those two guys who likely would retire. Now, we didn't know for sure, but as it turned out, yes, both Peyton and DeMarcus retired. And now both Peyton and DeMarcus are Hall of Famers.

And Peyton, of course, a first ballot guy to DeMarcus Ware being inducted over the weekend. And he shared a story that he's never told publicly before about this seminal moment in his life. And I wanted you to hear it. One single frightening moment was when I was in college. I was attending a parking lot party when I was visiting home. My uncle was in his car and without warning was knocked across the head with a gun. And a knife dropped to the ground and I picked it up. And when I looked up, all I could see was the potential shooter's eyes and a gun barrel pressed against my head.

All I heard was my family say, don't kill him. There was an eerie silence after which I simply said, this isn't me. And I dropped the knife. At that moment, I knew God gave me a second chance and I had to do something with it. That was my turning point. The memory of those parking lot lights and the sounds of those screams don't kill them. It became the fire that empowered me. Wow.

Wow. To hear Demarcus Ware share that. Again, he tells the story of being at this party. He was visiting home.

His uncle was in the car. He's held a gun point. The guy pulls a gun on him and somehow a knife falls on the ground. So as I understand it, either the guy dropped a knife.

That's what it sounds like. The guy with the gun dropped a knife and Demarcus picked it up. And he, as he comes back up with the knife, he is staring into the eyes of a man who's got a gun barrel on his head. And he says he heard the voices of his family saying, don't kill him, don't kill him. And so he drops the knife.

I'm not sure exactly what happened to the gunman, but he drops the knife. And he looks back on that moment as a moment that propelled him forward to where he is now. That had he made a different decision, even if he was defending himself against a man who had a gun pointed to his head, his life could look very different. But that was his ticket. That was his moment. That was his forever reminder that he had a second chance and he had to do something with it.

Man, I love that. I would say not all of our stories feature a moment that drastic, but in every human life there are turning points. Choices that we make. And sometimes we make the wrong ones and it affects us forever. Now, we always get, not always, I shouldn't say always, we often get second chances, third chances, fourth chances. But sometimes we make decisions to engage in activity or we make decisions that are the wrong ones and they cost us dearly. Especially if it's criminal activity or it has to do with the relationship we walk away from.

There's a lot of different ways, even in the sports world, that you can think of those moments. I wish Henry Ruggs hadn't been speeding the night that he was. When he, I mean he was going so fast and he slammed into the back of a young woman's car at a light on the Las Vegas strip.

Killed her and her dog in a fireball. He was a promising receiver in the NFL and he'll maybe get out of jail at some point. But his football career and his life as he knew it, over. Now, he deserves to pay for what he did. He took a life. It's heartbreaking.

That family will never have their daughter, their sister, their granddaughter again. But maybe, just maybe, for a second I wonder if he thinks about how different his life would be if he hadn't made the decision to speed the way that he was. I don't remember the speed that he was going, but it was some kind of crazy. It was like well over 100 miles per hour. The number that came to mind was 175.

I was close. Jay just looked it up. 156 miles per hour.

156 miles per hour. And a souped-up sports car. And so in this case, DeMarcus Ware made the right choice for his life for that moment. And he believed that that was his opportunity to do something different.

Because he made the right choice, because he didn't strike out in fear and anger and hurt another human being, he believed not only was he spared, but he had an opportunity to make something of himself. And now he's a Hall of Famer. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, Peyton Manning, of course, they're inextricably, inextricably, inextricably, not sure which word I want to use, inextricably.

They're tied forever, probably is what I should have said. So after DeMarcus was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Peyton was talking about their time together with the Broncos and winning a Super Bowl. I'm tired of watching you sack my brother. And I remember that hit you had against me when I played for the Colts and got him out there. We thought we had a chance to do something special. And this is a special time playing with him, a special teammate, unselfish, hardworking. And you saw those traits displayed today, the people that he thanked and how unselfish he was. It was an honor to play with him, an honor to call him a friend and sure was special to be a part of that championship team with him. Peyton Manning, part of the Hall of Fame festivities in Canton. Remember, DeMarcus Ware for a long time was with the Dallas Cowboys. And so that's what Peyton means when he says, tired of watching him sack my brother.

Speaking of the Cowboys, did you guys hear the comments from Micah Parsons in the wake of the Hall of Fame induction? Yeah, he doesn't just want to have a bust in Canton someday. A testimony of where, you know, I want to be in my faith in God. And, you know, when you talk about great careers, you talk about the Hall of Fame. But I don't think I just want to make the Hall of Fame. I just want to be known as one of the greatest Hall of Famers. You know, there's categories to everything.

You know, there's good, there's great, and there's like perfect. And, you know, you talk about the greatest basketball players of all time. There's really only three names that come, and a bunch of them is in the NBA Hall of Fame, you know. So when you talk about me, I don't want to just be mentioned in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, that's a great accolade, but I want to be one of the greatest in the Hall of Fame. So Micah Parsons did end up naming players like Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice, Deion Sanders. He wants to be not just a Hall of Famer, he wants to be one of the greatest.

Then he goes on to say, now we don't have this particular clip, but I did hear it. He goes on to say, remember this guy's 24 years old, but already an All-Pro, already highly decorated. He says there are people that have had great careers, but without that Super Bowl, that Super Bowl carries so much weight. You talk about championships. Why do people say MJ was the greatest?

He was 6-0. If LeBron went 10-0 in the finals, it would be no argument. I think those rings and those moments where your best player steps up, it leads and carries and brings everyone else around you. Everybody comes for the finals, everybody comes for the Super Bowl because that's the most important moment in life. Now, can you be a Hall of Famer without championships?

Of course you can. But DeMarcus Ware had to leave the Cowboys to go to Denver to win a ring. Thank you, DeMarcus.

And Micah kind of referenced that. Championships help to boost your resume, so to speak. Championships give your Hall of Fame career a little extra shine. 6-2 is OK. I prefer 8-0. That's just me. Yes, fantastic.

He wants to be one of the greatest, but understands the bling is the thing. Inside of a month until the NFL season kicks off, even less time for college football, though right now it's a lot about the realignment. All right, so coming up, a couple of calls. We're going to take 8-5-5-2-1-2-4-2-2-7. A little more of the reaction to what's happening in the Pac-12.

It leaves a bad taste, but I'd love to hear from you. And anybody who wants to weigh in on this situation with Kevin Brown in Baltimore, on Nassen, who's seemingly been suspended for, I don't know what, for telling the truth? For making a compliment about the Orioles' improvement?

For doing his job? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. There's a lot of traditions that we've had for a long time in college football, and I think we're in a time of evolution for whatever reasons. And some of those traditions are going to get sort of pushed by the wayside, I think, and it's sad. Whether it's good, bad, or indifferent for college football, I guess you have to define what is good, bad, what is good and bad for college football. So I think one thing I would just hope that we would keep in mind in all the choices and decisions we make relative to what we do in college athletics is the student-athlete. They're here to get an education, want to try to help them develop careers on and off the field, and hopefully some of the choices and decisions that we make for college athletics in the future will impact them in a positive way. And I hope that we can keep that as a priority in terms of whatever we decide to do in the future of college football and college athletics.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. A measured response by Nick Saban to what we're seeing with the conference realignment, this explosion of movement even as we're on the cusp of the college football season kicking off. So Friday's announcement is really kind of where the whirlwind few days started. Oregon and Washington officially moving to the Big Ten, then the Big 12 adding Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. Now you've got Cal and Stanford coveted by the ACC, and maybe because they've got to figure out what the heck to do, they might bolt as well. Now this comes, of course, a year after USC and UCLA had already announced that they would be joining the Big Ten. The Big Ten now has more than 500 teams. So when Nick Saban says we need to figure out how to make this a positive for the student athletes, how to improve their experience, it seems so bloated and so impossible, overwhelming to try to attend to the needs of every student athlete in the athletic department of that size.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Here's Justin Wilcox from Cal, because right now Cal is one of those schools that's kind of left behind in the Pac-12. There's no denying the significance of this. This is as big a deal as it gets to be. I mean, this is really kind of shocking. You know, personally, it's sad. It's sad.

I grew up, again, I'm going to first talk personally, and I grew up around the Pac-10, Pac-12 conference and watching it and being fortunate to be a part of it, coached in it for a long time. It's really sad. You know, from what I know, it probably didn't need to come to this, but things happened along the way and really unfortunate, really unfortunate. So it's frustrating. You know, there's some anger in there, but right now, what we're focused on is this season, and there's still a lot to be determined. For us, the conference, moving forward, there's people working on that. But right now, coaches, we're all in with our players and this season.

We know we got the game September 2nd. Yeah, what choice do they have? They've got to focus on what's right in front of them. That's Cal coach, Justin Wilcox. One more here, and this is from Utah. Now, Utah is departing, right?

So maybe seeing the writing on the wall and recognizing we can't stay put. Not if we want to be part of a conference that actually can compete and maybe a conference that isn't on the urge of collapsing. And so Utah will join Arizona, Arizona State and actually Colorado, too, was going to the Big 12.

And the school president, Taylor Randall, explains why the Utes also had to leave. We have an incredible president's room in the PAC 12. It's extremely collaborative.

It is a positive group that is always trying to find solutions rather than not. And I will just tell you, we expended every energy to try to figure out how this deal could move forward. It was an innovative construct. It certainly on its upside had the promise to do something very different to the way we view television.

I think everybody in the room caught that view. At the end of the day, each university was plugging in the numbers and kind of making their own decision. And obviously the outcome is where we are today. Really, the lack of a big time TV deal, a big time broadcast rights deal for the PAC 12 is what did in the conference. It is really where the massive scramble, the mad scramble started. Because the only TV deal that the commissioner of the conference offered was one that was like a subscription service via Apple.

And so not that there weren't big time rights, but they are not that there wasn't going to be money in it, but it wasn't going to be the type of guaranteed money that comes with a TV broadcast partner, an over-the-air broadcast partner as opposed to streaming. It is after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Todd is listening in Tampa. Todd, what is your reaction?

Amy, let's get down to business here. First of all, I am happy for the kids. Nick Saban, you are a great football coach, but don't give me this nonsense about the student-athlete. You could leave tomorrow for Texas A&M for a five-year, $500 million contract and be out the door. You university presidents out there who are leaving, going to the Big 10, whatever, now it is the Big 18, for $72 million guaranteed and you are worried about the kid getting his bag of money and he will probably never make the pros. He could get an injury in his freshman year. I am happy for the kids. As Deion Sanders said, it is all about the money right now. He is going to Colorado.

They haven't done anything in 30 years. And so the universities are getting their bag and I am happy the kids are getting their bag. I am happy the kids can transfer.

If you are 10 years old, it is Skyway Park and they see you and they want to sign you and give you $1,000. I am happy for you. And I hope you kids understand one thing about business and learn some from the great Spencer Haywood, who was a Knicks basketball player who scored all the time and got hooked on drugs. His mama said, all I wanted was a house.

All I wanted was a house. So if you kids make some money, I pray to God you spend some money on your mama and get her a house and pay that thing off, okay? But I am happy for you kids and I am happy for Name, Image and Lightness. I will answer any questions you had because I heard you say the other day that you were happy that if you don't get enough playing time, you kids can transfer and go to another school. Go ahead. Yeah, I don't have any questions for you. I am good.

I appreciate your comments, though. Thank you for listening in Tampa. It is after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Let's talk to Shy, who is in Baltimore. And I understand, Shy, you want to talk about the Kevin Brown suspension. Hi, Amy. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. Yeah, John Angelos is acting exactly like his father, Peter Angelos, did. The Gary Cohn and John Sterling clips summarized it perfectly. The Angelos family is, they're not very well liked here. The ownership is poor and they all want just a bunch of homers in the broadcast booth.

They don't want honestly. Except, and I don't think that that's so unique to Baltimore because there are some owners and GMs and coaches who prefer to have homers in their broadcast booth. I mean, that's, again, that's not unique to Baltimore. But to make such a big deal out of this and to really miss the forest for the trees, Kevin was actually giving the Orioles a compliment. He was saying they're playing better this season.

And one benchmark of that is the fact that they've been able to win at Tropicana Field in Tampa. So somehow they either didn't listen to what he was saying or completely misunderstood the point he was making. But he told the truth. He was professional. He wasn't rude. He wasn't critical. He wasn't piling on.

He was actually giving the Orioles a compliment and talking about one reason for their success in 23. You're absolutely right. But when you have ownership that's basically paranoid, they can't see that big picture. Well, they look like fools now. So I hope they don't mind that people are piling on them all over the country. They deserve it.

Well, for this move, they definitely deserve to be called out. I will give you that. Thanks for taking my call, Amy. Thanks, Shy. Let's quick talk to Rob.

I'm sorry, it's my fault. Rob, who's in Maryland about the same thing. Hi, Rob.

Hey, good morning, Amy. And thank you for your show. It's kind of funny that you played that clip because I remember him saying that clearly watching the Orioles broadcast. Oh, did you see it live? I did.

Okay. And it's funny because my son who's stationed up in Staten Island with the Coast Guard now has the ability to go to the Memphis Yankees game. And I tell him about this because I said it was an amazing stack.

And he never took that as like he was lamenting over it, you know, saying something negative. And I don't know what Angelos is doing because it wasn't that long ago I was posting on Facebook, well, what are the Orioles going to hit first, 35 wins? And where this team has come and people saw it coming from the last half of last year or the second half of last year. And now to see what they're doing, the addition of John Flaherty and Fujianami.

And they have a line of that second to none as far as hitting. I think this comment that Angelos made is a scar because maybe you understand, excuse me, as somebody who works in the booth, they know the players too. You know, the players know these announcers because they interview them. And I think it's kind of a shock that Angelos actually did this because, you know, Kevin Brown's just not an announcer for Baltimore. He talks about these kids, you know, and the thing that he said was not negative.

I took it as a high compliment because it shows where the Orioles, where the Orioles are now and where they're going. OK, so tell me this. Do you think that there might have been something else that we don't know?

Like I said, I said this before, because these are just reports, right? We haven't heard anything from Kevin Brown. The Orioles aren't even acknowledging that there's a suspension. We haven't really heard anything from Angelos. So is it I said before, is it possible that he punched his boss in the face and we just don't know it?

I doubt it. I mean, I thank you for asking me that because I wanted to say that I'm like the common person. You're the expert. And with the expert, I have no idea why he got suspended.

I wish I could tell you, but I'm talking about sports in general. What I'm saying is as a common as a common person who goes to games and enjoys what the Orioles are doing and just I'm just the Orioles fan. I heard nothing. I mean, unless unless it comes out, like you said, something happened there. What he said was not I mean, you're hearing it from our rivals, the Yankees announcer. Yeah, it's innocuous.

It's completely innocuous. Yeah. Yeah.

And I heard all I heard was a compliment because the Orioles were that bad. But what they've done in Tampa Bay this season has erased that has erased that right. Right. It's part of the reason. Yeah, correct. And thank you. No, I appreciate that, Rob.

Thank you so much for your perspective and thank you for listening. That's the only thing I could think. And I don't know why this clip. Unless someone inside Orioles ownership leaked it or someone inside the front office leaked it to Awful Announcing and the Athletic. Because both of those outlets and Awful Announcing covers the people who cover sports. It's essentially a website devoted to media and the media matters. They are the ones who are pointing to this particular clip.

We can let you hear it when we come back. They're the ones that are pointing to this Kevin Brown minute from a July twenty third game against the Rays, in which he did highlight the fact that the Orioles have won as many games this season against Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field, that they had the last three years, which is again a benchmark for success. And all I can think is how could that possibly be a reason for a suspension when it's a positive. And then I wonder if there's something else that we don't know. But if this leaked.

Right. So if Awful Announcing and the Athletic had the leak that led them to this particular Kevin Brown clip, and they've been told by someone inside the Orioles office or the Masson office, it could have been one or the other. They've been told by someone in the know that this is the reason Kevin Brown got suspended. Then either they don't have the full story or this actually is accurate, that he got suspended for something so ridiculous and actually complimentary. So we can let you hear it when we come back.

And if if you hadn't been paying attention over the course of the last, oh, gosh. Twelve hours or so, there are a ton of other broadcasters inside baseball who are stumping for Kevin Brown, who are blasting the Orioles management for the fact that they've suspended this this good broad. Excuse me, good young broadcaster who is doing his job and has been with the team since 2019.

All right. On Twitter, a law radio, our Facebook page, too. We're glad to have you with us. Some of you weighing in on conference realignment. Others, this Kevin Brown suspension. There was an actual suspension in baseball that mattered. That was that was accurate. That's what the White Sox and the Guardians.

We've got some QB news that we'll get to as well. It's it's all happening. It's still the dog days of summer. And yet we can't even possibly get to everything in one show. I don't know when that became a thing. It's usually a thing in the fall, in the spring, not in the in the summertime.

But it is. We can't get to everything. Sports never stop.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Brandon, I just felt like this has been maybe the toughest ballpark to play in. But the Orioles have a chance to do something special today. They've already clinched at least a split in the series, winning two of the first three. And they could pick up a series win behind Tyler Wells today.

It's been a minute. The Orioles split a two gamer with a raise in June. They had lost their last 15 series here at Tropic Caddefield. You have to go back to when our now colleague Brad Brock picked up the win in the series finale June 25th, 2017. The last time the Orioles won a series here at St. Pete.

Already got three and two of the top this year after winning three of 18 the previous three years combined. It is a stark difference, Ben, and it is not a bad race team. It's not like all of a sudden the race became slouches in the American League East. They've led this division every day, but now two. And the Orioles once again are back alone in first place.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The voice of Kevin Brown on Massen, the Orioles' own broadcast network. And that goes back to July 23rd and according to Awful Announcing and The Athletic, Kevin Brown's been suspended indefinitely. Though the Orioles as a team are not acknowledging it and actually just say they won't comment on personal matters. Not heard anything from Kevin Brown specifically. Someone leaked this though. This is how these types of reports work. Someone at Massen, someone at the Orioles, their front office, whoever it was, couldn't sit on it.

Too salacious, too juicy, got to get it out there. Or maybe they felt like Kevin Brown was done wrong. And so for that reason, the news was leaked and now inside of Major League Baseball and the broadcast world, people are coming to the defense of one Kevin Brown.

And that includes me because this is ridiculous. Unless there's something we don't know, the Orioles should be ashamed of themselves. They owe him a public apology and back pay. To pull a broadcaster off the air for being professional, for telling the truth, for actually giving the team a compliment based on facts. It's inexcusable. And I get it, the owners of the franchise can do whatever they want. They're the ones that sign the checks.

But this is ridiculous. You can't do a whole lot better than Kevin Brown on your broadcast. And he was giving the team a compliment and saying this is one area where the Orioles have improved, which is why they're tied for the most wins in baseball. Now at the time they were not, but they are now. This is one reason for their success. They figured out how to win at Tropicana Field. It's not like it's a secret that the Orioles have sucked largely for the last 10 years.

But also to not acknowledge it is sleazy. So he's been off the air. Fans have noticed.

I've had a few people come to me and ask, hey, can you figure out what's going on? He's disappeared. Like he was kidnapped or something. And there's nothing on his Twitter.

The last tweet from Kevin himself was on July 26th. He retweeted a post from the Orioles in which they've got their fire hose, right, where one of their players is shooting the fire hose into the stands. Nothing.

Nothing as a comment. Nothing to indicate why he's not working. I wonder if the Orioles told him to keep his mouth shut.

I mean, I don't know. Maybe he's fearing that he's going to lose his job. The thing that bothers, I don't know about bothering, but I just can't understand is why when an awful announcing reached out to the Orioles for comment, they first said, we don't comment on personal matters, but then added, we look forward to hearing Kevin's voice soon.

Right. I just don't understand if he's suspended indefinitely, if there was something that was extra other than just these comments, they wouldn't expect him to be back soon. We feel like it wouldn't have that response.

We look forward to hearing Kevin's voice soon. I just don't understand what that really means because he's suspended indefinitely. So what is that? But they're not acknowledging that. So maybe by saying that the Orioles' public statement is to kind of pretend like he didn't get suspended.

I have no idea. Like, did they just get caught? And they're like, oh, no, he'll be back.

Don't worry. Right. Something like that could be that they finally got caught. Somebody finally noticed or someone finally outed them. Someone leaked the story.

And so now they realize they look like fools. I just don't get that line. Unless there's something else. That's the only thing that I can think of that would even remotely justify this move is unless there's something else that we don't know about. Did he punch his boss in the face? In which case he's likely fired, not suspended. But which in that case, I just don't see why they would say we look forward to hearing him soon. They'd say, oh, no, you know, it wouldn't be they wouldn't give that path for him to come back. He wouldn't be fired.

Yeah. Again, sources telling awful announcing that the comments you heard to start the segment led to Kevin's indefinite suspension from Orioles broadcast. I don't know what else he would like the man to do. He can't highlight a change from last year to this year or from the three previous years where they struggled against the Rays at their own field.

To what they're doing this year. You can't highlight history, not to mention, did the graphics guy also get suspended? Because they put a graphic up while he was talking.

If you haven't seen it, it's all over the place, Jay. In fact, if you want to retweet it from awful announcing because because they're the ones that are indicating that he got suspended. The graphic goes over the music, so the music is playing. You hear the music start to play, and that's when the graphic replaces Kevin Brown on the screen.

It actually highlights the point that he's making. Kevin Brown, I promise you, did not do that graphic himself. There's producers that put that stuff together.

So he was no doubt prepared for the segment, as was the director and the producer, and they had pre planned to talk about this particular stat. Did they all get fired and suspended? Or suspended? It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Let's quick talk to Alan, who's in Toronto. Hi, Alan. You've got about 90 seconds.

Go ahead. Yeah, it's a shame that Michael Kay had it right. He says truth and facts should never be penalized. And they have the second lowest payroll in the major leagues, and maybe it's because they were comparing him to Tampa Bay. And Tampa Bay is the lowest payroll, and they made him feel cheap, but that's the reason, not the excuse.

They have no excuse for firing whatsoever. It's a crying shame. And Peter Angelos just turned 94. I knew there was something strange about that guy. I've been dealing with people my whole life, and I knew there was something strange about him. I think it was his decision, not John's.

John is more level-headed than him. And we should be celebrating the O's. Unbelievable, the turnaround. They've had giant strides up the ladder. 52-110 last year, and this year they're 70-42.

20 games above 500, we should be celebrating them. This is the worst publicity they've ever had. I've been a Baltimore fan for about 52 years now, and this is the worst publicity they've ever had. And they've had a lot of bad publicity the last 50 years, and this is the worst of the worst as far as I'm concerned. I don't know who made the decision. That's just speculation. Whether it's Peter, whether it's Sun, maybe it's somebody in the front office, no idea. At this point we have nothing because the Orioles are not acknowledging.

But yeah, it definitely takes away from what they're doing this season, which is right now posting one of the biggest turnarounds, one of the best records in Major League Baseball. Alan, thank you so much for your phone call. Thank you for listening in Toronto.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, always good to catch up with you. So a suspension that is actually warranted comes from the White Sox and the Guardians. Bruhaha on Saturday, we'll get to that coming up next hour. Aaron Boone is dying to be suspended. He's actually asking for it.

That as well. Plus QB News. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. This is HBO's official Winning Time podcast on Sundays after the show airs on Max.