 Hi, I'm Meredith Marokovits alongside Hal Steinbrenner. Hal, baseball is coming back. What was your initial reaction when you found out that the two sides had indeed agreed? Excitement and relief and, you know, been a little bit impatient, quite frankly, the last few weeks, but we got it done. I'm actually up here at Yankee Stadium. The place looks great and we're ready to roll. What type of vibe is there at Yankee Stadium right now? Because I imagine you don't have your full staff there because of everything and all the protocols with COVID-19. Limited staff, but, you know, today, for instance, Garrett Cole scheduled to pitch a sim game and I got very little sleep last night. I was so excited. It's going to be great just to see baseball after all these months. You mentioned Garrett Cole. That was a big off-season acquisition and now it almost seems cruel that you had to wait this long to eventually see him in pinstripes. What is the anticipation like to finally see him in a regular season game when we get there? Anticipation is high. We've got a few weeks to go, unfortunately, before we see that, but it's going to be great just to see this many players out on the field getting ready and, you know, there was a lot of doubts that we would play or not play, not just because of negotiations, but because of the virus in general. And it's going to be exciting. Everybody here is psyched. There is a very long book of protocols that every team must go through. Are you feeling confident that this is going to happen and you're going to be able to fit in 60 aims? Yes, I am. I am. MLB did a great job with these health protocols and the union was great agreeing to them and it's going to keep everybody as safe as possible. I mean, safety is first when it comes to the players and all of the staff and, you know, eventually, hopefully fans. Everybody's taking it obviously very seriously and I think the protocols are very thorough and very well thought out. Now, originally the Yankees were going to have their, what we're calling summer camp down in Tampa, Florida at the minor league facility, but because things have heated up with COVID, you decided to pivot. Was that at all a difficult decision to move the entire operation up north here? Well, it was difficult. We had spent weeks and weeks and weeks really perfecting, you know, sanitization techniques and products and got a lot of outside advice. And we had both facilities down there ready to go, safe as any facilities in the country. But as you said, things did heat up. So, you know, we made the decision. Things were calming down up here to move back, even though the facilities were probably better for that amount of people down in Tampa. With that being said, what is it going to look like? Cause as we know, there's only one field at Yankee Stadium. Well, we're going to make sure everybody's, you know, safe distances and we're just going to have to get through these, these three weeks and then we'll be utilizing Scranton and all likelihood for the, for the other half of the team, so to speak. But we'll, we'll get through it. We'll make sure everybody is safe. Everybody's keeping their distances and following the protocols. Make it, we'll make it happen. What are you most looking forward to over the next three weeks as the guys get ready to start the 2020 season? I'm really looking forward to seeing the guys that were injured, you know, come back and see them be able to play. Most of them have been in Tampa, obviously. So I spent a lot of time with them and they've been progressing well. And hopefully we get them all back for opening day, but it's going to be great to see, 60 guys all in the same place, including, you know, our top prospects and others. It'll be good. You mentioned some of the top prospects. Esteban Floreal is among the group. Davey Garcia, you have a guy like Clark Schmidt. Are you going to be watching those younger guys, maybe even a little bit more closely because you haven't seen them as much as this three week period progresses? Yes, I mean, obviously, you know, guys like Floreal and then Schmidt have obviously been with the Tampa Tarpons and then, you know, I'm able to keep a pretty close eye and I'm, you know, in that regard. But yes, it's been a number of months and everybody I'm sure is going to be a little bit rusty, even though some of these guys have been working out very informally in Tampa, but it's going to be exciting to watch them, you know, they're our future. How can you just kind of take me through the process? Once you knew that a 60 game season was going to be implemented, what has your life been like? I imagine it has to be round the clock, busy, trying to just figure everything out logistically. Well, again, we've been busy, oddly enough, I've been as busy as I've been in a while the last few months. I mean, just trying to figure out protocols, try to figure out when things started again, how to keep people safe, talking with outside consultants regarding sanitization and keeping places clean. We've learned a lot as everybody has. But yes, once we knew it was game on and particularly as you alluded to, once we knew we had to go back to New York, which we weren't ready for at that point in time, things have been pretty crazy here for the last few weeks, but Doug Bihar had a stadium operations and everybody has done a great job. And we're now ready up here. Everybody's going through the same thing. They were ramped up during the first spring training, obviously went home and now they're trying to ramp back up again. What concerns you the most about that aspect and potential injuries? Well, I think it's the same concern we have every off season, right? We're just rolling into another spring training, the way we do every year. And we're hoping guys, you know, stay safe and stayed in shape when they were at their homes. And, you know, we had a group of eight to 10 guys that were at Steinbrunner Field almost every day, Judge Tyler Wade and others. I know they've stayed in shape. So it's really the same concern every year, but this is certainly an altered reality, you know, doing this a second time in four months. Will there be any element of relief if you get to the 23rd and opening day is actually happening? Absolutely, there will be. And, you know, the playoffs are gonna be very exciting. We just need to make sure we keep everybody safe, play your staff and eventually fans. And I do expect to see fans in our stadium at some point to some degree. And that's gonna be a great day as well. How that's gonna make a lot of Yankees fans very happy because I know they wanna be there. How many conversations do you have with the league about potentially bringing fans back safely? When do those start taking place throughout this process? Well, those conversations have already happened. We've also had a lot of conversations with the governor's office and he's been great. He's been a big advocate to get, getting sports back on the field. And then eventually when things are safe to get fans back in the stadium. So between the two of them, we've had multiple conversations over the course really of the last month. Do you have any idea what that would look like when fans are allowed in? I would imagine there'd be some type of limited capacity for them as well. Yeah, we've done a lot of work. Ticketmaster's been great helping us out, really, really putting a diagram together which would keep everybody at least six feet apart. And it would be limited. I'm sure it'll be in the 20 to 30% range, hopefully, at first and that will, it's definitely possible in this stadium to keep people at a safe distance wearing masks at those capacities. Because of all the different variables involved, what do you see as the biggest X factor this season? Well, I think keeping this virus at bay, for me in particular and obviously New York City. And I did certainly, I think, just walking around yesterday, walking around the park, people are really behaving themselves here. It's impressive. I haven't been up here in a few months. So that needs to continue. Everybody needs to be safe. And again, we need to be doing everything we need to do at this stadium to make it the safest stadium in the country and ensure the safety of everyone. So we just need to get through these months and hopefully the virus stays down in our area. There's no question. Expectations were sky high for your team coming into this season. Has anything changed on your end because of the circumstances that we've gone through? No, but I think this is gonna be a sprint, right? Not a marathon. So we really need to come out of the gate. There can't be this two weeks of really not playing well to begin with. And I think that puts added pressure on the team. It also creates a lot of excitement, I think. And so it's gonna be a difficult first month and we really need to perform well to stay on top of the division and be there at the end. Do you feel as though Aaron Boone is even more of an asset in a situation like this because it seems like nothing really phases him? He's very adaptive and he will improvise and he will adapt and he'll find a way to lead even if it requires changes, not getting as close to players, not adding them on the back, not doing all the things that he's great at as far as motivation. This is an altered reality. We're all gonna have to change the way we operate and he'll be no different, but as you've alluded, he will do a good job at adapting. As a guy that's been around baseball his entire life, will it be odd for you to watch the new reality knowing there are no fans and guys are going to have to go about things differently? There's no doubt, for everyone involved, this is going to be a very different experience opening day at Yankee Stadium with no fans, but we hope it's gonna be short-lived, that phenomenon, and we hope to get some fans back sooner rather than later. Are you curious to see how your new pitching coach, hire Matt Blake, fares in this situation? It was gonna be his first year in uniform at the major league level as a pitching coach and now he has another wrinkle that he has to deal with. Yeah, look, he's gonna adapt as well. He's a very adaptive guy. We've made a lot of changes. I'm gonna be curious to see how Eric Cressy who we brought on and Donovan and Brett McCabe, our new strength and conditioning coach, how it goes with injuries and how these guys get in shape and so we made a lot of changes. Blake's just one of them. I'm gonna be curious to see if we made the right decisions everywhere. Hopefully we did. While you haven't seen them in-game action, but have you noticed any difference just from the limited time that they were able to work with the players? Well, I can only tell you're talking to some of the players, they're very happy with all the changes we made and personnel also and equipment in the right room. We changed a lot of things and so the players seem excited and they like the changes we make and that's a good start. So what happens for you from now until July 23rd? Just making sure, keeping my fingers crossed that we stay healthy. That's the most important thing and that these guys continue to get more and more in shape and it's gonna be a short spring training compared to usual, which has its concerns of its own. But just gonna be here watching over everything and enjoying everything I see. They're appreciating it more than I probably ever had. Hal, thank you so much as always for the time and I look forward to seeing you at the ballpark soon. Likewise, Meredith, thanks.