After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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For important information, visit principle.com slash disclosures. More than anything, your number one question is, how's Penny? I know, I know it's your number one question. Penny is recovering nicely. Poor thing. She is a mess. And she had to go to the vet and get part of her, her hip shaved.

And underneath was a giant hotspot, some of which I couldn't even see because of how thick her Aussie hair is. And she got the whole area cleaned. She got some medicine put on it. Now her mom has to do that once a day, clean the area and put some ointment on it. And there's antibiotics and there's a donut around her neck. Oh my goodness. This dog, I'm telling you, she runs my life. Not to mention, keeps my schedule for me.

And it's been that way for 11 and a half years. But I wouldn't trade it. I keep reminding myself of that.

On weeks like this, I wouldn't trade it. She has been has been a great companion. She has been one of the reasons that, gosh, that I get out of bed sometimes when life is hard. She makes me laugh every day.

She has the funniest facial expressions. We speak the same language. And if you have a dog, you know what I mean? And I would not trade it, but it has been a week. It's been a week with that dog. She's 70 pounds and she does not move faster than a shuffle.

And so everything is very slow. It's totally fine. Thank you, Aaron, for that validation.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for hanging out with us. But mostly thank you for all of your questions.

I'm not joking. Dozens and dozens of you weighing in yesterday, today, I'm sure moving forward, asking about Penny and how she's doing. So I just want to let you know she's doing much better.

And she does have a large blue donut around her neck right now. I felt badly. She gave me the look. She gave me the big brown eyes, but I had to put it on her neck anyway because she's got to be healing it on the mend.

So two weeks of antibiotics for us. My mom, she knows I'll take real good care of her when she gets old because of how I'm taking care of this dog. Now, I won't say I never grumble and complain. I can't claim that I'm always joyful about it, but it's okay because even when I grumble at the dog, she can't hear me because she can't hear anything.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I'm telling you what, there are a number of times today where I just thought I can't, I can't do this anymore. I can't. But the perspective is important. I get the privilege of taking care of this older dog because she has been taking care of me. She rescued me, not the other way around.

So it is a privilege to be able to take care of her now and to spend all of my money on her. And then I wonder why Jay doesn't want to get a dog on his own. Wait, I can't hear you. You can't imagine why I think is what you said, but only because I can read lips.

Could not imagine why. Yeah, it's funny because every time I tell Jay how hard it is to take care of this dog on my own, I realize I'm reinforcing his decision to never have one, or at least not while he's by himself. All right, I deserve that. And pretty soon we'll be a blended household with three pets. Oh, it's going to be so fantastic. Goodness. But there'll be another adult in the room to be able to handle it.

Extra hands. I'm thankful for that. Bob and I will have to work out the pet rotation and the pet schedule. But if he takes Betty during the daytime so I can sleep, I'll be happy to take Daisy during the early morning for her walks and the late night for her last trip outside. Does that sound like a good compromise? That's pretty fair.

You think that's fair? As long as all the animals just get along, I think is the key here. Well, you know, Sugar gets along with no one. So she loves people. And actually she's now clinging on with Penny.

But it took a long time because it was only till after my older cat died that Sugar didn't have her big sister anymore. So she kind of decided Penny would be it. So now she and Pen are fast friends. Actually, Pen doesn't care.

Pen's never cared. But Sugar was the one who had to decide she was okay with Penny. Yeah, Sugar creeps on Penny now. So it's kind of funny. They are. Yeah, they're the Wonder Twins. And now we're going to add the Tasmanian devil to the mix, which is all right. I keep telling Bob that Daisy is the canine version of Sugar.

High maintenance, high anxiety. Yeah. Oh no. That should be fun. What are we doing? Maybe we could have separate residences. I actually do have some friends in my life who are married and maintain separate homes.

And apparently there are some celebrities that do that. I don't know what would be the point of getting married. Yeah. For the tax breaks? I guess so. I was just going to say for the tax breaks.

No idea. That's not what I'll be doing. That's not what Bob and I are doing. So yes, a blended family with our multiple pets. It'll be a full on zoo.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On that note, it's funny because every now and then I'll get someone who says to me, why can't you just talk about sports? As if we never talk about sports, right? Why do you have to talk about your dog or getting married or food? And well, the answer is because the vast majority of listeners care far more about those things than they do about anything I have to say.

See what I mean? Everyone loves dogs. Everyone loves dogs.

And if they don't love dogs, they love cats. And I've got you both covered. So yes, we get a random stick to sports guy every now and then. But most of you care more about Penny than you do about me.

Let's be fair. I think Jay does actually. Jay texted me yesterday and today. No, you called yesterday to check on Penny and then texted today to check on Penny. I had to check on Penny. That's what I'm saying.

I liked how you were too. After. After. And what about you? Okay, nevermind. Penny's all right.

I'll talk to you later. Goodness. I hope you survived your hump day. We certainly made it through because we're here, but I'm not sure that speaks to our quality of life.

Jay's fine. I'm the one who had a rough go of it on Wednesday, but we survived. We're here. And I guess we could say the same thing about the Houston Astros. They survived. They are here.

They are still alive and kicking. And I hate this phrase, but people use it all the time. Raise your hand if you've already said it today as a baseball fan or you heard someone say it on TV or radio. Now we have a series. Okay, we had a series before, but all right, it's one of those annoying phrases. I can't stand this one either. Everyone does this or everyone thinks this or no one gave us a chance. That's the other one.

No one gave us a chance. See, I can be cranky if I tried, but I'm not going to be. It's going to be fine.

Totally fine. So we're going to talk about the American League Championship Series, which didn't go very far. It only moved to the Dallas area, Arlington to be more exact, and the Rangers getting a chance to host games three, four, and five, which will now be necessary.

The Astros, they're not flummoxed by being down, and actually they seem to play better on the road than they do at home sometimes, clearly evidenced in this series as well. And so we not only are going to let you hear the reaction from Arlington as well as the big moments, but also our friend Steve Sparks, who joins us once a year here on the show. He's a former big league pitcher himself. He and Robert Ford are the play-by-play team for the Astros, and I love to listen to them. And I'm not just saying that because Robert is also a frequent guest, and Robert is a Syracuse alum, but because I genuinely enjoy listening to them. There are a couple play-by-play teams in baseball that I'll listen to late night in the middle of June or July. Charlie Steiner, the voice of the Dodgers, I really enjoy. Is Tim Neveret still with him?

The last I knew Tim Neveret was the other part. But also they've got different guys that they rotate in there as well, and I really enjoy listening to them. And the Giants as well. I know the Giants actually knock us off the air, their replays during baseball season in the Bay Area, but I love listening to the Giants team. Of course the Red Sox.

I've been listening to them for years going back to when I was a kid in New England, and there are a lot of others. Don't everyone yell at me all at once because I didn't mention your team. But for sure, Robert Ford and Steve Sparks, the two of them have worked together for quite a while, and they bring not just energy and enthusiasm, but also expertise because Steve is a former big league pitcher himself. So he will join us from Texas coming up at the top of the hour. I always say this about Steve, he's a late night guy, of course traveling and doing the late night baseball thing. Obviously you get into that rhythm, and he's very kind to join us, and he always teaches me something from a pitcher's perspective.

So that'll be next hour. We also had the closeout game in the WNBA championship series where the Las Vegas Aces become a repeat champion, and this is with Becky Hammond. First two years in Las Vegas as the head coach of the Aces, and not only is Tom Brady a part owner, not only were there some pretty high profile fans in the stands in Barclays Center, which is where game four against the Liberty was taking place, but the Aces are able to celebrate two wins, two championship wins in two years under Becky Hammond.

That's quite a percentage, a winning percentage if you will, and so we'll let you hear the big moments. Gosh, some awesome star power on that Aces squad if they can keep that group together, and the Liberty too. I mean this core group with the Liberty has only been together this season. You're thinking about Breonna Stewart along with Sabrina Ionescu and others, and so this could be a coast-to-coast rivalry that unfolds over the next couple years if we continue to get them playing at the highest level.

Phil Mickelson. Oh, hi Phil. We missed you, and also getting set for week seven. You guys, week seven in the NFL.

That's crazy. I don't know if you're ready for Halloween, but it's coming up quicker than, yeah quicker than I, I don't have time to prepare. Not that I would, yeah you don't want to know what I'm doing on Halloween. It's not fun.

I'm going to keep that a secret, at least for now, but my Halloween's not going to be enjoyable. Just I'll tell you right now, you guys are going to have to have fun, and I'll live vicariously through you, but we will get ready for week seven of the NFL season. The London series is over, so no early games. We've got some really enticing matchups that we can talk about, and by the way, if you missed my conversation with Cynthia Freeland from NFL Network, we had her on the show last night, and she and I, mostly she, but she and I talked about the Dolphins-Eagles game that is Sunday Night Football.

How about that? Dolphins and Eagles should be a lot of fun. Certainly going to be one of the games we put in our Game of the Week poll, which we'll do on tomorrow night's show. So a lot happening, a lot to get to. It's our smorgasbord here on this Wednesday night into a Thursday morning. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio.

You can also use our Facebook page or our YouTube channel, and as I say, we will talk to Steve Sparks coming up at the top of next hour. The Astros are a team that over the past seven years has pretty much, not only been in every situation you can in Major League Baseball, from the highest of the highs, right, with the World Series title in 17, that was the first in franchise history, yes the trash cans, but they've managed to, even with the cheating scandal, even with the front office and the managerial staff wiped out, the coaches wiped out, with all but four players having turned over from that 17 squad, they have managed to stay, not just relevant, but managed to remain one of the best teams in Major League Baseball. And they're okay with being the villains.

They're okay with being a team that everyone loves to hate. If you look around Major League Baseball and see what else has changed, right, we've seen, gosh, teams rise and fall. We've seen turnover in the other divisions. Goodness, the Orioles won the AL East, and it was Orioles and Rays who were battling down the stretch. The Twins were back as champions of the AL Central.

Last year it was Cleveland. Even in the AL West, we've seen the Mariners end their playoff drought. Now the Rangers get back to the ALCS for the first time since 2011. We've seen the rise of the Phillies the last two years again, this new iteration of the Phillies. The Cardinals were great in the AL Central last year, the Cubs this year, the Brewers. I know the Dodgers have won the AL West for 17 years in a row, but we've also seen the Diamondbacks and the Giants take turns in the playoffs. So all that to say, well everything else in Major League Baseball has kind of gone through its normal rhythms, and we've seen teams rise up, fade out, one year, two years, success, but then fall back. The Astros have somehow managed to remain the steady force in Major League Baseball, and you could say look at the Braves and their success extended, but back-to-back years they've been knocked out of the playoffs despite winning over 100 games. Dodgers, same thing. Those two NL powerhouses in the regular season have not been able to translate all those wins into more than one World Series title. The Astros, meanwhile, are defending champions. They won in 17. They've done no worse than the championship series for seven straight years, and so to think that they would be an easy out this season or even that the series was over after they lost both games to the Rangers at home, well that's just redonkulous. Here they are again making life miserable since 2017 for the majority of Major League Baseball fans.

So we'll dive into that game three from Arlington coming up. Glad to hear from you. Glad to connect with you. Hope you had a good day. Thanks again for all of your kind words about my sweet dog.

I feel like if I got sick there wouldn't be nearly as many people concerned as there were about Penny. You guys rock. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. In the dirt, kicks to the right of time. Here comes Alvarez and he will score, and the Astros lead one to nothing their first lead in the series. Scherzer delivers, and that is hit sharply past Youngin in the left field. Tucker scores. Dubont around third coming home.

He will score as well. Maldonado racing for second. The throw in the second, the slide. Maldonado was out, but the two runs count. This one's clubbed.

Left field and deep. Going back to Veras. Still going back. Still going back. It's gone.

That's how you do it. Left center field for Altuve. Six rows deep. Four nothing Astros, and it's Altuve's turn.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Robert Ford and Steve Sparks on Astros Radio, and welcome back Max Scherzer. Over a month since he pitched. Over a month since he had the shoot forearm, oblique, shoulder. I have no idea. His jaw hurt something. Triceps, biceps, hamstring, hip. I came out because I had a tight hammy.

All of the above. He has, he's been on and off the mound all season going back to the Mets, and now the Rangers, and I don't know. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence going into this, and neither did producer Jay.

He thought that Max might not last long. I was impressed with the way he started the game. It seemed like he had some pop on the fastball at a couple of big strikeouts early, but then the Rangers were able to get to him.

Rangers, sorry. Astros were able to get to him in the second inning for three, and in the fourth and fifth, or in the third and fourth, able to tack on a couple of runs. So they had the five runs early. Rangers battled back, and so it did become a real good tug of war, but just like we saw with the Rangers in those, well, the first game at Minute Maid Park. The team that jumps early, the team that's able to get some runs on the board early, has had some success.

So the Astros, even though it was the Astros, even though it was a tight game, or it was a tight battle, I guess, with Justin Verlander pitching relatively well in the opener of the series, it was still the Rangers who were able to get the early runs, and then in game number two. It's funny because you would think that it might silence the fans, maybe, or take the fans out of it, or however you can kind of subdue the fans, except with these two cities, or these two teams being so close geographically, I'm not sure that really has a huge impact. Kind of seems like there are a fair number of fans for the other team in each of the first three games. We'll actually ask Steve Sparks about that because it's hard to tell on TV sometimes how much noise the fans for the other team are making, except when it's a game at SoFi Stadium and the opposing team's fans are always louder, or in Vegas either.

That's another opportunity. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So yeah, you hear on that call of some of those runs early on that it was the first time the Astros had the lead in the series, but that was important. It was huge for them. Even though these guys, a lot of them are veterans, they've got the experience from last year.

Well, they would tell you it was really important for them. There was no panic, but it was important for them to get this win. Meanwhile, Christian Javier continues this month-long odyssey into a different pitcher. He was great and actually took a no-hitter into the fifth. Here's the one-two to Nathaniel Lowe. Hit the other way, just out of the reach of Breckman and into left field. The Rangers have their first hit with two outs in the bottom of in the bottom of the fifth. That's what Lowe does with two strikes.

He did it in game two. Two strikes, he shortens up and just plays Pepper the other way. Javier at the belt and to the plate. There's a swing and a drive to right center field, chasing Dubon back. He's at the wall.

He leaps and it is history. It's in the Ranger bullpen. Josh Young goes the opposite way and gets the Rangers back in it. It's Houston five and the Rangers two. Josh Young with a pair of home runs in this game and yeah, we did see the Rangers mount a bit of a challenge, but Javier had that no-hitter into the fifth, ended up pitching into the sixth, but just allowed the two runs on three hits. It was kind of fun to see the third aspect of the game. We got the pitching, we got the offense always.

These two teams generate a ton of offense and if it's not on the same day, just wait because you know the other team is going to bring the bats and we are going to see that, but it was a lot of fun to see what the guys could do with the leather as well. This ball is drilled deep out into center field. Laody going back. He's on the track. He leaps and he makes the catch. Laody Taveras says to everyone, you want me on that wall.

You need me on that wall. He takes a home run away from Jordan Alvarez and keeps it a 5-2 game. What a play.

2-2. That's hammered deep to left center field headed toward the gap. Brantley racing over and he runs it down. What a catch by Michael Brantley. Deep left center field that goes into a tumble on the warning track. Holds on to the baseball. Ending over.

Boy, can you believe that? Brantley out of nowhere. A flash. Tumbling onto the warning track at left center field in the catch of the year for the Astros. Thwarting the Rangers chances here in the sixth inning. What a play. Nice. So you have one guy go up the wall and take away a home run or an extra base hit and then you have another diving kind of somersault catch in the outfield for the Astros.

Great stuff. Really enjoyed watching the defense too and it does add a little layer of excitement. I was thinking back to the Phillies Braves game two when we thought there was going to be an extra base hit to potentially put the Phillies in front, tie the game, whatever, blah blah. And we saw Bryce Harper go all the way all the way around second base and have to turn around and go back. But of course he didn't make it and that was how the game ended with the double play. I mean this kind of stuff it's it's the postseason so you want to take gambles and you want to run and you want to be able to take advantage of a ball that goes deep into the ballpark and yet you got to be careful because the defense has been pretty amazing in both of these championship series.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah the defense together for both the Rangers and the Astros was eye-popping and so is the bat of Jordan Alvarez. 2-2 to Jordan. Swing and a shot to center field that's a base hit Maldonado scores. Altuve around third base he'll score a two-run single for Alvarez. It's 7-2 Astros.

Again Steve Sparks on Astros Radio 10 RBI now for Alvarez in this postseason run 10. And this is the first time that the Rangers lose in the playoffs. So they won their first seven games now they taste defeat. Not worried about that nor am I worried about these two teams against each other. It's likely to end up being a series that goes the distance. Remember what happened in the regular season where it was actually a tie break. These two teams have the same record but it was a tie break that determined the division winner in the AL West in the very last game of the regular season. So as for the Astros they knew they had to get this one.

They weren't panicking but Alvarez said there was no other option besides the win here in game number three. And for Ryan Pressley for that pitching staff the bullpen specifically to be able to pitch behind Christian Javier and that was huge right. He gave them nearly six innings and he was awesome in limiting the Rangers offense. I knew that my fastball was going to be good.

It was doing exactly what I wanted and you know even early on in the game I noticed it was really good. Well I mean he was good. His fastball had life. Good breaking ball. A good change up.

You know good location. I think he only walked one guy or two guys. I mean that's the secret.

That is the secret. Don't put freebies on base. Meanwhile for Max Scherzer first inning looked good.

I felt like he had a real live ball but then five runs in the four innings that he pitched and I don't know it kind of seemed flustered after the game to me. In these situations you know that look there's some badness. I get it but you know that's where you kind of got to turn out and look at the good. I was able to do well. Look I made some mistakes.

I get it. You know I got punished for it but there are some good things I also did as well. And so you know it's tough to take a loss in the postseason anytime but for me you know I'm not going to sit here and beat myself down. I still thought I did some good things and made some good pitches and you know I got to focus on that and move that forward. All right well nobody wants you to beat yourself down but as he continued on talking kind of the words tumbling out over each other.

Not that that never happens to me but I don't know. It felt like he wanted to try to explain it away but really the layoff probably did have something to do with it. So we'll ask Steve about it because Steve will join us top of the hour and he was a pitcher himself and nobody's worried about the Rangers the Rangers offense but you got to give credit to Javier for the way that he pitched. I like how Jonah Heim put it following this Rangers loss. It's not the first time we've lost this year so I think we're gonna be just fine. Okay it speaks my language.

Snarky and sarcastic. It's not the first time we've lost the series or this season. I think we'll be fine.

Yes I bet that you will. We need a game seven in one of these championship series. We have not had a winner-take-all game yet to this point.

I'm feeling some withdrawals. That's what October is all about but not yet. No game threes, no game fives. We'll see if the Diamondbacks can fight back. Tomorrow it's a double-header again in Major League Baseball so you've got the Phillies and the Diamondbacks with the early game. So it's a 207 start. Phoenix time. So Phillies in Arizona and then that's followed by Houston and Texas.

Jose Urquidy and Andrew Heaney tomorrow are the matchup. Yeah I like the series. I do. I like the fresh blood. I think the Phillies are fun.

I like how loud and obnoxious they are and that's a compliment but I don't know. I don't really want short series. That can't be what baseball had in mind. Can we alter the script please? Oh you're gonna need to because Diamondbacks are in a lot of trouble. Can I go back to Max Scherzer for a second though?

For every Ranger fan that I'm sure is listening to this and had their stomach curl like I did. Hey Max this ain't August. In August and you haven't pitched in a month. Take the positives. I agree with you. It's the playoffs. If you can't give a better outing than that because you're working your way back then you know what? Stay off the playoff roster and let healthy players try to do their best out there.

Yeah I agree. Because you're not helping. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of them throwing him out there in a game three when he hasn't pitched over a month. I get it because you're looking at a workhorse and you're looking at a guy and you say look can you give me something tonight? Even if it's only four or five innings I need your best though for four or five and I'll back you up with my bullpen. You tell me as a bulldog and a guy that's won multiple Cy Youngs and a ring before.

Yeah I can give that to you. When was the last time we saw that though? Well I mean you haven't seen him since September 12th. But I mean like in general last year in the playoffs with the Mets he got blown up. Right but he was healthy the whole way through and then he I mean just unraveled down the stretch. Unraveled down the stretch. Now he has had a good track record in big moments.

He's had his failures yes but he's had big moments. If Bruce Bochi who I trust looks you in the eye and says Max what can you give me? Now you can tell me look I can only give you like three innings though at my best. I don't have much more than that.

I have stamina but who knows how much location I'm gonna have. You've got to be honest in that situation. I don't want to hear about positives. My arm feels good. I don't care what your arm feels like.

You're trying to win a World Series for the first time in franchise history. I don't care how you feel. He cares a little bit Max.

No he doesn't. Again no none of your teammates want to hear that either. You're scratching and clawing to win a title against the team that is really up against the wall. I don't want to hear it.

Down to nothing. The Astros the last thing to do is panicking. They feel good in Texas and they feel good about themselves.

That is a confident group that has every right to be confident because they've been there and they've done it. This is not a young group where you're like well we could have a game to play with. Don't play with games against the Astros because you're going to get beat.

Yeah. And Max Scherzer I'm sorry after the game is over it's okay if you get beat. Afterwards you tell me I let them down. Not my arm feels good there was a lot of positives. Stop it.

Yeah that I didn't love. Again as you point out this wasn't a must-win game but these are still the Astros and you want to if you can step on them and keep them down as long as possible. I just felt like of all the things you needed to say and actually there's more because he was asked about the layoff.

If you didn't like what he had to say before how about this? You might be able to you know isolate a few pitches here and there in terms of execution but in general I thought I'd you know locate the ball pretty well for a layoff. But this is a postseason there's no excuses you either win or you lose and tonight we lost. This is the postseason there's no excuses I'm going to give you 17 of them and then I'll tell you there's no excuses. You give me an excuse. Stop giving me excuses. Tell me you didn't do your job and walk away. Yeah I'm not going to beat myself up that that part I didn't love.

That's awful. Because if this is let's let's just compare another older dude who's got multiple Cy Youngs and World Series rings Justin Verlander would absolutely beat himself up if this was him. And every reason too it's the playoffs you don't get a lot of chances to do this. There's no games to play with there's no well you know what if I round myself into four for game three if we're playing game seven hey guys don't worry I'll be good by then are you kidding me? Yeah I don't think you should pitch again in this postseason unless mate well bullpen would be weird because he's Max Scherzer and he's old but I don't know. I don't know if I can get ready in the pen that's you're asking him now to do something he hasn't done in probably 20 years that's hard. I don't feel confident right but how many other pitchers who are starters would say I don't care what you asked me to do.

Well I don't know if he would he would stop you I don't think he would say I can't do it unless health wise but that's not the point. If Bruce Bocci puts you in game three that means he's got confidence you're going to have to throw twice if you go seven unless he's going to bring somebody back on short rest but who are you going to do that with in your rotation because it's not going to be Nathan involved because he's had too many issues he's not a guy that could come off three days rest we saw it in the world series I know I know I know that was what two arm injuries ago and three surgeries ago I mean it's just it's not set up that way and your bullpen's a little bit thin to be able to have a bullpen game in a game seven that's rough. Don't say that. So you're setting yourself up for failure if that's the case then you don't pitch him and you try to move forward without him but you cannot go out there and say I gave you what I could give you but everything's okay because I felt good. You say I gave you what I could give you and I let you down.

Right. Just say that I don't understand why people can't take responsibility I let you down. I'm not going to beat myself up I mean I'd I would beat myself up even if you don't plan on beating yourself up say you're going to beat yourself up. Take some accountability again it's not August it's August I don't mind hearing that. No we're not going back to August I don't want to go back to August I'm good.

Brutal. On Twitter after our CBS on our Facebook page too there was a championship moment in Las Vegas oh hey potentially indicative or at least some excitement over what we'll have coming up in February for the Super Bowl but this was basketball the WNBA actually it wasn't in Vegas what am I talking about it was the Barclays Center but they'll go back and celebrate in Vegas. Vegas is turning into a bit of a title town though you got to kind of keep that in mind so we'll talk WNBA we'll let you hear from uh from well Becky Hammond pretty cool that she is uh that she's able to win now two titles with her first two seasons with the Aces and then Steve Sparks top of the hour it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. To game four. A resilient conclusion to a remarkable season for the Las Vegas Aces and for the first time in 21 years the WNBA has a back-to-back champion the Aces on top yet again. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Even as we talk about the Houston Astros as the defending champions in Major League Baseball hoping to make it back to back well we've got a repeat champion in the WNBA wrapping up its championship series its final and definitive round at Barclays Center the Liberty who had an incredible year they were 32-8 overall well the Las Vegas Aces were just a bit better and they win the championship series three games to one and for Becky Hammond who came off of the staff of Greg Popovich herself a WNBA star in her playing career to now have two titles in two seasons it's completely turned the league upside down and there were people that questioned whether or not she should have gotten an NBA job when she applied I think Sacramento was a place that she officially applied or officially interviewed pretty soon if she keeps on this trajectory she'll be able to have any job that she wants in basketball this one's sweeter it just is it's harder to do um we went from darling to villain real quick we had our names our good names slandered and all these women did was lock in together and you ask why I'm so confident it's because I know exactly who's in that locker room ask him quick I don't have a whole lot of time I gotta go celebrate Becky Hammond and the Aces it's like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles it's Becky and the Aces fantastic I thought about getting booted tonight because it was exactly the same time but I just thought this has to be my priority but it was close it was close congrats Becky yeah baby good stuff anybody got anything all right quickly quickly I gotta go get some wine can I say that Greg Popovich he's in such a good mood he doesn't ever want to talk about his own teams or himself in such a jovial fashion but he'll rave about Becky he's been her champion for years now it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio congratulations to Becky and the Aces like one of those old bands or musical groups that he was pointing to Ryan Ruko with the call there the final call of the WNBA title series and if you don't know any of these women now's a good time to get in people ask me sometimes who's your favorite WNBA player I'm a huge fan of Kelsey Plum who's on the Aces certainly Asia Wilson is someone that went to South Carolina and won titles they're partnering up with Dawn Staley so she had an incredible college run now she is the you know that I mean she's the she's the center she's the driving force she's a defensive stopper as well I mean she's one of the best players in the league and to be able to play one of her best games in this forum on this setting it certainly helps when you have that type of experience going back but 24 points and 16 rebounds and she really did want to talk about it post game it's big it's not easy as you as you know it's not easy not a lot of we just can't wait y'all I'm being serious I got to answer this question so it's kind of funny you don't generally see this but the entire Aces team was in the the press room and so every time one of their teammates is in there trying to answer questions they're celebrating with champagne bottles and yeah the videos are kind of fun and here's Asia Wilson who finishes not only with the double double but the finals MVP she was top three in regular season MVP balloting but she can't finish the question she wants to but she can't wait y'all I'm being serious oh my gosh so game was tied at 64 Vegas goes on a mini six nothing run but then you see New York fight back and they've done this all season they're real gritty club with Brianna Stewart of course being her first year in New York their game plan was going to be to like junk it up and make it difficult and that's that's exactly what happened um we I mean such a low scoring game but um we kind of get stops when we needed it and and kind of get anything to drop and I mean I don't know credit to Vegas they they played well but we we wanted to obviously force it to game five so Brianna Stewart had the ball in her hands in the final possession and she was double teamed so she had to find her teammate Courtney VanderSloot who misses on the three at the end otherwise uh Liberty would have stretched this out to a deciding fifth game but congratulations to the Aces we'll talk about the Astros with Steve Sparks straight ahead it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio I'm here to tell you about pom pom at home where comfort meets elegance pom pom at home is offering 20 off site wide for a limited time see why so many of the top designers use pom poms luxury easy care bedding they have created a timeless beautiful coastal living look that incorporates subtle tones and natural fibers offering a unique touch create your dream bed now get 20 off sheets duvets throws and more right now at pom pom at home.com easy to use easy to love luxury bedding just enter code pom pom at checkout maybe you're still new to this whole ev thing but those range fears turns out your all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 gets you to 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