After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash positive. The PBP, Voices of Baseball, is a podcast about the art and craft of play-by-play, and we're in the middle of an amazing season. Catch up on episodes with Joe Buck, Joe Davis, Pat Hughes, and more, and learn along with me, Matt Spiegel, how the job is done. It's not just home run Bryce Harper and the Phillies lead.

To really do it justice, you gotta widen the lens. What does this home run mean? The PBP, Voices of Baseball, I bring you the people who bring you the game. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. One hour down in the hump show, middle show of the work week, though it's a weird week for me. Working the middle three shows here on After Hours, but then on Friday I will be on the noon pacific show following Jim Rome actually here on CBS Sports Radio.

It'll be noon pacific 3 p.m in the afternoon eastern. You know it's kind of a bummer. I think it's a great challenge for any host to get out of their comfort zone now and then, and so I will of course accept the challenge and approach it as I do our show here on the overnights. But what stinks about it is that my Friday doesn't begin until six o'clock eastern time when the show is done, and then I have to battle the traffic, the people, the mass transit system to get back home to a penny and b my dinner plan. So I was not expecting to have to wait until 7 38 o'clock to eat dinner.

Listen to me, first world problems, I get it. Radio host problems, I totally get it. But that's where you can find me coming up on Friday noon pacific after Jim Rome here on CBS Sports Radio three o'clock eastern. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio and you can also send your questions for Ask Amy Anything. We've got our show Twitter humming along After Hours CBS and then our Facebook page too that comes up next hour here on the hump show. Before we welcome our guest, I don't want to call him a guest anymore, he's one of those familiars, one of those favorites here on the show that we just asked him to kind of come in and make himself at home. When you invite people over, friends, family members, you don't need to treat them as guests, you just tell them to help themselves and they can even take off their shoes and put their feet up if that's what they want to do. So that's how we treat our favorites here on the show.

But before that we have to give a proper introduction. Betts lines went into left field and it's going to drop in for a base hit. Grounding third on his way home is out and the throw is cut off. The RBI single for Betts and the Dodgers with five in the bottom of the six now lead six to one. Oh looky Betts seems to be in the center of pretty much everything these days with the Dodgers and that's how it's been since he joined the team. Freddie Freeman, he's having one heck of a season again too.

The starting rotation appears to be more stable now and don't look but the Dodgers have won nine straight and are at least within shouting distance of the Braves for best record in the National League. That's Charlie Steiner on Dodgers radio and that is the introduction for our friend Michael Duarte from NBC LA who joins us here on the show. Michael it's always good to hear your voice. How are you?

It's always good to hear you too Amy. Us night owls you know when we have to wake up early like you said those those first world problems. It's like when I have to cover a 9 a.m day game on the road or something covering the Dodgers. I get that feeling.

I get your pain on that. Why do you sound like you're in the next room? Well I'm not sure. I plugged in a microphone to try to call to do this over a microphone so hopefully I would sound better than when we do this over the telephone. Yeah it sounds like you're in the next studio. Oh interesting yeah so when your listener's listening live or tomorrow maybe I'll come in more clearly than normal.

Oh you definitely do. That's impressive. Are you at home? Yeah I'm at home and I get no cell phone service here so I got to do this over wi-fi so I'm calling the studio over wi-fi and I was like hey I have this brand new microphone let's plug it in and test it out.

Oh you need to send me the specs of that microphone because I've been needing to buy one myself to plug into my laptop and yours is giving us the type of quality sound that sounds as though you're in the studio. It's awesome. Done I will send it to you. Thank you.

I got it on Amazon. Nice. Michael Duarte is an NBC Sports LA insider and also an LA native and he is our go-to for all things Los Angeles sports. Right now the Dodgers yet again are lighting it up. Nine consecutive wins. When did they hit this group? How did they start to surge Mike?

Yeah I'm glad you phrased that question exactly as you did. So a couple things first the last time I came on the show I think it was like right around the all-star break right before the all-star break I told you of any team in the NOS that you'd want to be coming out of that all-star break it would be the Dodgers. It was the strength of schedule that was a little bit lighter for them. They were getting healthy again and I just felt like some teams like the Diamondbacks and Giants they just wouldn't be able to keep up the pace and and obviously they're kind of dropping like flies here but the moment that you speak of July 21st it was an off day for the Dodgers. They were in Dallas Texas. They were going to play the Rangers the following day and Max Muncy decided to have a two-year-old birthday party for his two-year-old daughter Sophia and he wanted his whole team in attendance. Even Corey Seager former Dodger now on the Rangers showed up for this party and it was a two-year-old's birthday party complete with cupcakes and princesses and everything you could imagine but every single player on the Dodgers showed up. They bonded over this moment. Many players have told me privately that was just a very connecting moment because it wasn't just for them as players like when they're on the bus or when they're on the planes and the flights and the road trips.

It was their whole families together for this. They pointed to that that day as just a kind of changing thing where they all kind of came together and had that camaraderie and then also I can tell you that was the moment the the Freddie dance celebration was born. They were all laughing at Freddie Freeman's dance from the Dodgers gala that Usher performed at a little bit recently and they were making fun of his dance there at the little girl's birthday party the two-year-old birthday party and they decided that if Freddie was to hit a double or whatever he would do the dance and sure enough the next day he had the first extra base hit he had a double he did the dance and the rest is history. So that that was a moment where they kind of came together but now they've won 13 to 14 9 straight like you said Clayton Kershaw is back that was a guy we talked about last time about when he would come back that would help bolster the starting rotation. This bullpen and starting pitching staff had one of the worst stretches in July that we've ever seen but they've just completely turned it around in August. You look at some of these these trade deadline moves that Andrew Freeman made addressing the holes Lance Lynn addressed the fact that they only had you know last time we talked we were talking about they had no starting pitching no nobody right from the original opening day starting rotation had not been hurt throughout the season so Lance Lynn is a guy that can come out there go deep in games he's been pitching well he's three and oh since he came to the Dodgers they addressed another weakness and that was their ability to hit against left-handed pitching they had an old friend and Kike Hernandez who's just completely turned his season around he told me also privately Amy he didn't know how badly he needed to hear the roar of the Dodger Stadium crowd again to get him going he's a guy that needs the juices flowing to be able to perform and play high at a high level and he's getting that and then Ahmed Rosario another guy that just mashes against left-handed pitching he's been very successful and then another under the radar kind of move obviously they got Joe Kelly another former Dodger but they got Ryan Yarborough that was a guy that they played against when he was on the raise in the World Series in 2020 but he's been quietly unhittable out of the bullpen and he pitched a three-inning save today the first of his career so these are the reasons but that that July 21st birthday party for Max Muncy's two-year-old daughter is when they told me everything kind of changed from there hmm interesting what can make a difference especially for a veteran group of guys who certainly have all the experience and the ability it just wasn't clicking and then getting healthy critical too Bobby Miller has another win for the Dodgers tonight how would you describe his contribution to this rotation when they desperately needed it yeah obviously he was part of that group of rookies that we had talked about last time him and Emmet Sheehan Michael Grove is another guy that they needed to go call upon that depth in the minor leagues because guys in the opening day rotation went down and they needed them to step up but the difference here is you don't hear the name Michael Grove and Emmet Sheehan anymore those guys are back in AAA Oklahoma City the one guy that has proven that he has the staying power and maybe that big league stuff is Bobby Miller and one thing that impressed me about his start today obviously a one-hitter over six innings really just got jumped on the first pitch of the game seeking a fastball but he was still touching 100 101 in that sixth inning that's stuff that like Justin Verlander used to do right you know you start pumping in triple digits to start the game that kind of heat but then he could come back and do it in the seventh inning and to see Bobby Miller still touch triple digits late in that game in the sixth inning that was really impressive to see he's had a little bit of a roller coaster and roller coaster debut here in his rookie season obviously he came out of the gates facing the Yankees and the Braves and the Giants you know big games for the Dodgers and he performed well at that level but then he kind of started to get beat up a little bit he proved he could be rocky he proved he could kind of be unraveled if you got him nervous or if you got him upset a little bit he seemed to calm down he told me tonight after the game that the key to his success is getting the first batter of every inning out and in order to do that he needs to throw first pitch strikes and he says when I can get the first batter of the inning out it kind of calms me down and I'm able to get through it so this is a guy that I think the Dodgers are going to rely upon heavily here and I also think as we talked about the last time on your show Walker Bueller who just faced hitters for the first time last week he's getting closer and closer to a return I would say by the end of this month you might see him out on a rehab assignment of his choosing and then he could join the team sometime first week middle of September that's going to be a guy that's not going to be all the way ramped up to like five six innings but if he can give you three four innings on top of a three four four five innings from Bobby Miller that's a game right there that's 27 outs and those are two guys who are very similar in their approach very similar in high speed velocity fastballs so that could be a piggyback situation that we could look for once Walker Bueller gets healthy. Michael Duarte from NBC LA after the Dodgers win their ninth straight and now are running away with the NOS as he points out the rest of the division has really taken a step back if not flat out collapsed it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. The the Dodgers had these two incredible athletes and incredible gosh MVPs both of them at the top of their lineup with Mookie and with Freddie Freeman if you had to make a case for Freddie as MVP right now how would you do it Mike? Yeah that's that's a really tough question and you know it's interesting because we thought Ronald Acuna Jr was going to run away with this MVP race on the Braves and now it seems Matt Olsen has kind of said something about that leading the entire league in home runs so you have two potential MVP candidates on the Braves and you have two on the Dodgers and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts but I think what I would say with Freddie Freeman is yeah I think he's going to end up leading the league in doubles and end up breaking the Dodgers franchise record in doubles this season his batting average is another claim that you could say could put him in the MVP category but his defense as well also now I know Acuna's got the stolen bases Freddie is not as fleet as foot as Ronald Acuna Jr is but he's got some stolen bases this year as well so to me it's just kind of impact on the team and when the entire team celebrates big hits RBIs extra base hits home runs by doing the Freddie dance I think that just tells you how valuable he is to this team and how consistent he has been and how he's been able to take some of the younger guys like James Altman who who's also maybe making a case for rookie of the year in the national league how he's taken those guys under their wing and made them better major league players Mookie is such a great personality he's had some pretty impressive moments the long ball especially has been an advantage and a weapon for him this year but that's not why I'm bringing him up did you hear him tell the story of a fan who who named his daughter partly after Mookie and keeping your promise yes yes I if you didn't bring it up I would have brought it up on this show tell us the story yeah so I was unaware of it in real time even though I was there but it wasn't until Mookie brought it up on his social media and I'm glad that he did that we got to hear this story so I'm trying to remember the date but a couple couple weeks back Mookie was in the on-deck circle and he was talking to a fan and the fan said you know you're my favorite player and my wife is pregnant and if you hit a home run right now uh I'm gonna name my daughter after you and Mookie was saying even if I do hit a home run don't do that don't do that and he's like why and he's like trust me I'm married you happy wife happy life you don't want to name you don't want to have your wife be upset with you by naming your daughter after me and he's like hold on let me get her on the phone so he gets her on the phone and telling her on the phone I'm making a bet with Mookie that if he hits a home run here then uh we're gonna name the middle name of the daughter after after Mookie bets and so Mookie goes up in the batter's box and he hits the longest home run uh as a dodger just crushes it was like 480 feet or something like that unbelievable shot uh and then he rounds the bases he points to the fan he goes and gives him a fist bump and I don't think he ever thought it was going to happen but sure enough the fan's name Giuseppe Mancuso uh he he posted on his social media and tagged Mookie and said a bet is a bet and he posted uh the birth certificate in which his daughter's name is now Francesca Francesca Mookie Mancuso oh my god uh and so Betts made sure on his social media today to shout that guy out and he said that's going to be my girl Francesca because she's got the middle name of Mookie so that's pretty cool that Mookie does that and I don't know the fan obviously he had great seats uh to be able to make this bet but uh it's pretty interesting what they do you know there's another famous bet that happened in the exact same place at Dodger Stadium and that was the the bet with Manny Machado and his entire 300 million contract that the Padres would win the world series before the Dodgers I don't think he's paid that up Michael Duarte is with us from LA here on CBS Sports Radio and the Dodgers are a lot of fun right now we'll see how it works the rest of the way but be careful uh thinking back to the beginning of the season those of you who are so quick to bury them because they have staying power for a lot of reasons the wisdom the experience but also the talent I mean they may not have spent a ton of money in the off season but they certainly have spent money on the lineup and and they are no slouches uh Mike we're asking our listeners on this edition of the show to fill in the blank about the upcoming NFL season the season will be a success if what how would you fill in the blank for the Rams so we're just talking about the Rams here well you can talk about any team but since you cover the Rams I'm asking you about the Rams right now yeah so so to fill in the blank as if we were the Rams for the season to be a success for the Rams I think they just get into the postseason I know internally talking with Les Knee Sean McVay that's not necessarily the goal they're looking at potentially next season 2024 with a younger talented roster they can build around and potentially more flexibility and cap space depending on what the Matthew Stafford situation is but I think this team if they can stay healthy as we've said if the offensive line can stay healthy has a fringe chance at a wildcard spot and if they can get there I think that's a very successful season for them after the horrific season they had last season after winning the Super Bowl I believe it was the worst follow-up season for a Super Bowl champion in NFL history so to follow that up with a better than 500 season and a potential NFC wildcard I think that's a success for the Rams this year is there another team that you would like to highlight would you like to fill in the blank about the Chargers yeah that was the next one I was going to go for for the Chargers now they actually a successful season is not just going to the playoffs it's actually winning a playoff game and I think for them if they could reach the AFC championship game that would be a success for them not necessarily to win the Super Bowl but this team needs to show that they can make that next step obviously they extended Justin Herbert so he's the quarterback of the future and they're building around him and now they need to prove that they can not only get to the playoffs and not have the biggest collapse in playoff history but they can win those games and make a run and that's what the Chargers need to prove here and after they just played the Rams in that first preseason game even though it's meaningless and the Rams and Sean McVay they never play the starters the Chargers did make a little bit of a statement there with that 34-17 victory what tells you now about the Chargers that other than extending Justin Herbert that they can put it together and change the culture change the narrative around this season around this team the way it's been for so many years regardless of quarterback regardless of coach they seem to find new ways to lose in the worst possible scenarios and they did it again in the playoffs so what might convince you that they have have or can turn a corner yeah you're not wrong you know I think one of the biggest things was you know Austin Eckler was unhappy there and they did everything they could to hold on to him I think that was a very very important move they addressed some some other issues obviously they have a new offensive coordinator in place Kellen Moore I think they believe is a guy that can help them not have the kind of collapse that you saw in that wildcard game to the Jaguars credit to the Jaguars though that was you know a great comeback and what they did but I think they're hoping Kellen Moore can do wonders for Justin Herbert the same as he did for Dak Prescott in Dallas and so for them I think that is the big move that wasn't even necessarily people on the field I think it's getting the right coaches and pieces around Justin Herbert to make him as successful as he possibly can be and I think they really believe Kellen Moore is that guy but you know if they had lost Austin Eckler if he was unhappy and they traded him or got rid of him I think that would be terrible for this Chargers team so to keep them keep kind of the core intact and get get Justin Herbert some help both on the offensive line and also in the coaching booth I think is what's going to pay dividends for this Chargers team unfortunately they just happen to be in a division with the Kansas City Chiefs right that's that's the tough thing for them is they got to have to beat that team this is I'm just throwing this at you before I let you go what's your reaction to what's happening with the Pac-12 considering that you're in LA we know you see a UCLA and USC are leaving but now it seems like the the whole entire conference may break up I mean do you have a reaction to that we were talking about how the NFC west just completely dropped off here after the all-star break that Pac-12 dissolved uh faster than that and so you know my initial reaction was there needed to be something happening uh once USC and UCLA left the Pac-12 did everything they can including suing UCLA to try to in the boosters and other people were suing UCLA to try to get them to stay once that was resolved in the courts and UCLA was free to join the big 10 with USC I think that the Pac-12 dragged their feet obviously they brought in a new commissioner he was trying to negotiate this tv deal but to to not have that in stone to not have a backup plan I know they tried to add San Diego State and then that fell apart at the last second now that looks like a bad move I mean what I'm not surprised now knowing what happened but I think the Pac-12 and and the new Pac-12 commissioner completely bungled this because once once UCLA and USC left and you had plenty of time to go get their replacements and then go get a tv deal and keep everybody else intact there were rumors that some of these teams like Oregon and Washington would be interested in leaving but they they didn't entertain it until way after the season until it just this tv deal was what everything fell apart my sources told me they went into the meeting trying to talk about streaming and how Apple could come into play and it was all based on subscriptions and people buying this Pac-12 package it wasn't like what the other conferences were offering which is you know here's here's our own network or here's ESPN and Fox Sports coming and here's all the money on the table it was a lot of what ifs and hypotheticals and based on subscription models and things for what those schools were going to get paid and once they saw that they all bolted as fast as they could and I just feel bad for the remaining four or five teams that are that are still there because I don't know what happens now moving forward with this division either they get up to eight teams and they stick with eight for 2024 and beyond or they just completely dissolve and the other local conferences absorb them I'm interested to hear your thoughts on it too but the days of the Pac-10 Pac-12 whatever you want to call it might be gone forever now right although I do think that there are some mid-major conferences that would be interested in joining the Pac-12 it may seem awkward an awkward union at first but still there there could be some kind of emergency measures that are taken to try to spare the conference I agree with you about them screwing up the TV deal especially when you look around it's just crazy how the rich have gotten richer and even with the expanded college football playoffs supposed to be including more conferences and opening it up for for more teams especially west of the Mississippi what it feels like is the richer getting richer and college football is actually shrinking in terms of the contenders not expanding yeah absolutely and I think I saw this online at one point saying that eventually they could see something similar the NFL model where there's an AFC and NFC where it's SEC and Big Ten or it's a southern and northern kind of hemisphere thing for for the conferences that eventually it just becomes maybe two big super conferences um down the road to try to make it a little bit easier for exactly what you're talking about because they expanded the college football playoffs to have a champion from each conference you know represented in the playoffs and now uh all the big teams are going to be in two or three conferences so uh it's going to be interesting to see how this shakes out but I could see five six seven years down the road just having two or three conferences and that's it oh let's I very much value your wisdom and your insight but let's hope that you are dead wrong about that I hope that you are but you're right there anything's possible with college football especially considering the money that's involved okay you can find Michael on Twitter at Michael J Duarte from NBC LA but we really invite him in as a friend we let him take off his shoes put his feet up raid the fridge whatever he wants to do it's good to talk to you and we will talk again soon don't forget to send me the specs on the microphone I will and speaking of like being friends and family I saw you paid your car off congratulations that is a huge success I remember when I first did that and I got that pink slip in the mail it was an unbelievable feeling so good accomplishment for you congratulations thank you all right Mike we'll talk again soon bye see this is what I love about Mike he cares about us as people not just as an outlet for LA sports and in this case of course the Dodgers winning nine straight one of the streakers that we're talking about on the hump show we've asked you the same question we just posed to Mike fill in the blank the season and you can insert whatever team you like the season will be a success if what or if you like you could say our season will be a success if what on twitter after hours cbs on our facebook page to send your questions for asking me anything while you're at it because it is the hump show here on cbs sports radio you are listening to the after hours podcast we welcome all kinds here on after hours hey what's going on girl here you are a woman holding her own in a still no dominated profession you're really holding your own hi amy what up i like to think of you as my sister from another mister ray is listening in toronto first of all to say i'm a huge fan i look to you all the time thank you you've got a lot of fans up here north of the border doing a great job down there can i get a boom baby boom baby thank you so much you're adorable you make my nights wonderful i appreciate you so much alo you rock this show this is after hours with amy lawrence you do not want to see me dance the night away it's better if i just talk you through the process you don't need to see me dancing i'll make a fool of myself every now and then and sing at the top of my lungs here on after hours for instance when i want a hippopotamus for christmas or when we're singing oh one of my favorite songs to sing on the radio which is the one that you're supposed to sing off key jay do you know which one i'm talking about i think i do do you want to try do you want me to try do you go or i want me to go do you want to go who should talk do you want to talk or should i talk about a girl i know that's when you're supposed to sing off key uh now and then i'll belt out some eddie muddy just for fun yeah huey lewis in the news i'll do a little huey lewis every now and then jay loves the 80s and 90s this is like this is good stuff this is right up your alley belting out a little eddie muddy or some huey lewis in the news every now and then you just need it sometimes absolutely and so those those types of moments i don't have any problem with you do not want to see me dancing the night away however if we're talking about athletes dancing or dancing because they're streaking we know freddie freeman and the dodgers right now they're streaking blue but how about lino messi he is in fact streaking pink just bright pink what jay hold on um i did in fact flash you the signal are you unprepared i was for a second but now i'm prepared now what should i should we do it again should we retake did you dump it no no this time jay actually leaves his mistake for all the world to hear okay once let's let's let's try that again take two messy you ruined it i mean i was all excited about messy being a pink streaker and you you absolutely ruined it kristoff into the feet of martinez has time to turn into messy advantage play messy driving forward messy so what are you thinking for lunch uh i can't i'm getting new window treatments so i gotta go home and wait around all afternoon for a design consultation just to get a quote it's gonna totally mess up my workday why don't you just go to blinds.com because i need custom products blinds.com products are made to order and totally customizable and you get upfront pricing right on their website to easily get your quote online but i want to see the products in person blinds.com ships samples to you fast and free they can even verify your measurements and handle the installation wow how convenient tell me more blinds.com also has a huge selection of stylish shutters shades curtains and options for motorization even for your patio plus their 100 satisfaction guarantee well you've convinced me let's go eat i've got time now shop blinds.com and save up to 45 plus free installation on qualifying purchases up to 45 off right now with blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply what can he not do we are watching greatness that's on apple tv because if it's not on apple tv it didn't happen pictures or it didn't happen right isn't that the the social media line if it's not on apple tv well that it didn't happen this is now if you're keeping score at home six games with nine goals for leo as tom brady calls him i did not call him that lino messi is toying with mls defenders and goalkeepers it's it's too easy there are times when it's too freaking easy here you go with enter miami cf who by the way if you don't remember was the worst team in the entire sport until messi came on board and they've been in this leagues cup the semi-finals taking place against the philadelphia union in pennsylvania so miami is playing all over the country it's pink messy fever taking over and now they are into the final of this league's cup six games nine goals already this move by david beckham and enter miami is paying dividends miami also clinched a spot in the 24 concave champions cup they've never done that in their franchise history the saturday night final is in nashville he's on his own personal tour messy miami tour the messy miami tour i go to that i would too i also don't mind snorting on the air as part of my laughter it's completely biological you should try it sometime you laugh out through your mouth ha ha you breathe in through your nose see that's a good it makes perfect biological sense you know this right if they win the league's cup miami may spontaneously combust and i don't mean the team i mean the city it's fun to watch but i almost think it's unfair i almost think it's unfair it's after hours although life and sports are not generally fair right it's after hours with amy lawrence and no aaron roger still does not glow in the dark fill in the blank my team our team the team whichever one you pick the season will be a success if what on twitter a law radio or after hours and then also on our facebook page what are you gonna say we're just over an hour away from asking me anything so bring it on eight five five two one two four two two seven you are listening to the after hours podcast we've had our talks and uh i think we'll just uh be playing it day by day and see how it goes we've got a lot of guys we've got to get any persons out here that uh is gonna need a little money when the time comes this is after hours with amy lawrence jerry jones from late july in thinking about zack martin and what they might do to get their top offensive linemen back into camp and ready for the upcoming season it was a critical time a critical juncture and boom lo and behold it took a little effort on the part of first zack and his camp and then the jones family but it all came together and they were all smiles on wednesday sorry tuesday oh my gosh my week is so messed up after being off sunday night i thought all day yesterday today depending upon where you are if you're on the west coast it's still today i thought all day today was monday but now i feel like i'm all mixed up because it's middle of the week i digress it's after hours with amy lawrence cbs sports radio yeah zack martin mike mccarthy the jones family oxnard california cowboys training camp all smiles about having zack back in the mix with a new deal it was great to get back i mean you know we got the news yesterday and the offensive staff meaning i'm gonna be in the room erupted so there's been a lot of high fives and hugs all day and night yesterday you know once he got in and but yeah i think that shows you what he means to us and what he means to our football team and you know i know especially offense so but it is business you know that's that this is part of our this part of our industry but you know we're about connecting and what we need to do to win and he's a big part of that i definitely had my uh my days during this thing especially uh you know i had all my film and all that kind of stuff so you know i was watching practice every day and definitely had those moments but um you know kept the faith and had a good feeling that eventually we'd get we'd get to an agreement and and luckily it came when it did and um i'm just i'm happy to be out here man it's great to see everybody and be back with the guys jerry jones was initially in california at training camp and zack martin's crew his agents his reps they were trying to figure out a way to negotiate in person but it's hard to do because zack was not in california it kind of all came together when they got to come back to dallas and uh we got to spend some of that face-to-face time and kind of hammer this thing out uh we reached out and uh you know some of the some of my buddies here and the uh an organization helped kind of get that going and um you know it was good to to get face to face with them so the holdout is over and you hear zack martin grateful excited ready to be back with his guys and that certainly is the case for mike mccarthy and his coaching staff again the offensive line doesn't work as well really the offense doesn't run as well for jack prescott or anyone else if not for zack on the line you just look the way he trains the way he prepares his training's top notch i mean he's super consistent uh humble he he pays it forward you know he helps the young guys so has excellent relationships throughout the building uh so and other than that when he puts his hand on the ground he's really good so i mean he you know he just does everything right it was definitely difficult i mean um shoot if you would ask me a few years ago if i'd ever be a holdout guy i would i would probably say no but um you know that's what it had to i felt had to come down to to um you know reach some of my goals that i was looking for and and luckily it worked out there it's good to know it's good to know that they were able to collaborate and able to come to common ground and this actually gives me hope about negotiations in pro sports but specifically in the nfl because very often teams have such leverage and and have such a humongous advantage with this upper hand when it comes to teams or when it comes to contracts and holdouts that the players don't have many options or they feel like they don't have many options but martin was willing to pay the fine he was willing to fork over the money and bide his time until they could get this deal done it's a reworked contract and it now guarantees him 36 million dollars over the next two seasons according to the multiple reports and that's up from what his previous deal guaranteed in fact it's nearly up 10 million dollars in in that money and both years are fully guaranteed of this deal not the highest paid guard even though he's an all pro again consistently one of the best players on the cowboys when he's healthy he's still third among guards on the nfl pay scale so he wasn't looking to break the bank he was looking for more guaranteed money and i guess you could say a little more security but it doesn't that part because both years are fully guaranteed there's a little bit of it there but we're not talking about a long long-term deal a little extra money the fully guaranteed the fully guaranteed aspect of it and it makes a difference and he was asked as well about all the money that he was fined 50 000 per day and it it's not like the team can cancel the debt or rescind it no this is part of the cba so when you're under contract you don't go to training camp fifty thousand dollars per day i justify it to myself is that if i you know if i got this done and uh you know it would i would make more money than i would be losing money that's my favorite new laugh in sports we need to compile a laugh track just based on nothing except athletes laughing so good and then we know of course we've got crazy stuff curry we've got patrick mahomes whose laughter is decidedly unique we've got kawaii leonard another one that stands out we've so many good laughs mike tomlin obvi there's probably plenty of guys that we've never heard laugh but it is fun when we do hear them throw their head back and let out this big old belly chuckle so good for zack martin really good for the cowboys obviously i guess i put the wrong one on actually even if you take off joe burrow's comment at the end so people who don't know he accidentally put on the wrong jersey uh last year for what was that press conference i think it was yeah right for the post game press conference no no it would have been practice yeah middle of the week practice uh so kind of funny there we do enjoy it when we get to see the softer side of them if you will although aaron rogers i don't think i have a laugh of him oh we must except that a lot of times it's snarky and sarcastic it's when he is clapping back at media reports okay you don't have my number you're not gonna have my number he finds himself funny he does find himself very humorous um that's fine it's a little bit too sarcastic sometimes with him i don't think so stop it jay's like a mad scientist on the other side of the double pink glass he really is he's in there i can see the smoke coming out of his out of the top of his head out of his crevices there's smoke coming out because he's so in there you know concocting a new formula i don't have your number you're not gonna have my number exactly after hours on cbs porch radio twitter as well after hours cbs you can send your questions for asking me anything and also on our facebook page some of you are responding to our question even initially but i i do love it i mean i tell you that if you don't identify your team i'm not going to know which team you're talking about kevin just fills in the blank this way we're asking to fill in the blank the season will be a success if and he just writes super bowl well how am i supposed to know which team that is eddie team but that's not realistic for a lot of teams super bowl is not realistic now i know anything can and will happen in sports and there are surprises every year but how am i supposed to know which team you're talking about so we are getting some responses though like this one from a frequent follower and engager on social media the season will be a success if we get rid of dak presscott all right yeah that's not happening uh let's see lee weighs in the dolphin season will be a success if they win a playoff game so that's where he's he's putting the bar setting the bar relatively low they were above 500 last year with mike mcdaniel they had 15 different starting quarterbacks is what it felt like if two i would say the dolphin season will be a success if tua starts all 17 games that's what i would say uh laura will be a success if lawrence on twitter the niner season will be a success if they have a healthy decent qb and nick bosa is ready to go week number one so fill in the blank on twitter or facebook after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio you