 Hey, everyone, welcome to another installment of Yes, We're Here, Meredith Marachanis on Flaherty with you today. John, how are you doing, my friend? You know what, Meredith? I'm hanging in there doing the best that we can here in New Jersey. I know you're there in Florida, and the first thing I have to ask you over your right shoulder, I'm very curious about the picture by the Emmys, you have to explain that to me. Oh, this guy right here? Let me grab it. Yeah. Okay. So this is kind of cool. I started with Yes Network in 2012. That was my first year. It feels like it was yesterday, some days, most days. Other days I feel like I've been here forever. So my first interview was with a man by the name of Derek Jeter. Have you ever heard of him? I've heard of him. Yeah. I've heard of him. Kind of a big deal. He's supposed to go into the Hall of Fame in July. Time will tell whether or not they have that celebration in Cooperstown. This is my first ever interview with Yes Network. Awesome. That's great. And he signed it for you, which was even nicer. He signed it for me, and that's Rob Riley right there, who looks like an angel, because you can see my circle light in the reflection. Now I don't know if he's an angel, and we all know that that's true, John. Yes. That's a great picture. Thank you. Thank you. So his final season, somebody within the Yankees organization said to me, did you get anything signed? And you know, it's looked down upon. You certainly don't do that. It's on the back of your credential. You're not supposed to be asking anybody for autographs. I never have. I do not do that. But he said, this is a different situation. You have to do it. And I said, I can't bring myself to ask him because I feel like that's wildly unprofessional. And they said, what do you want signed? And I said, well, I would just want the picture that I took, which was my first interview at Yes Network. And they said, do you think he's going to care doing that? Like, I don't know. I just feel weird asking. Yeah. So Michael Kay actually, Michael Kay got it done for me. So I thank Michael because this is certainly a picture that I cherish. And people come over to my place and they're like, wait, is that really signed? And like, yeah, it is cool. You know what? I know exactly how you feel though, because when I played with him, I had him. I had to ask him to sign a bat for me. And I was scared to death. I played with this guy for three years and walking over and saying, hey, Derek, would you mind signing a bat? And of course, it was no big deal, but you build it up in your mind that it's going to be a problem and it never was. Yeah. And the last thing I'd want is somebody like thinking that, you know, I'm not doing my job or conducting myself in a professional fashion. But I do have one more that at some point in time, if I run into him, I think I may, may try to get signed as well. And that is the final interview at Yankee Stadium when he hit that single to the right field. And we all know how that turned out. Yeah. And it was the first one to interview him on the field afterwards. And Ari, the photographer for the Yankees, was taking pictures and she sent me a picture and I'm like, that'd be pretty cool too. That's a no-brainer. That has to get done at some point. I know. I have one for Moe too. And I did an event for him not too long ago. And he's like, of course, Meredith, I'll sign that. So I have a list after they retire. I'm hitting up. I'm hitting up. Good for you. Yeah. Do you have one prized piece of memorabilia? Wow. One piece of memorabilia. Like if every, if you had a second to just grab the one thing that's nearest and dearest to your heart, what would you take? I would say probably be the, the first base hit that I got, I hit a double on my first hit that was given that baseball. And it's kind of a weird story. My, I had an ex-girlfriend who I was dating in the minor leagues who had that baseball. We broke up. And of course, I'm like, I can't ask for the baseball back. And she was kind enough to send it back to me a year later. And I got that baseball and it used to be, I used to be displayed in my old place, but I have it downstairs. So that would probably be the one piece of memorabilia that I would fight for. Now, what was that conversation like? Or did she just say, you know what, this is the right thing to do. Did she send it without you calling or did you have to make the phone call? Okay. So in 1992, I was in the major leagues. I got that hit. We broke up that off season. I went to play winter ball. In 1993, I was in AAA in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and that's where she lived. She showed up at a game, sat above the dugout, and I was like, okay, this isn't going to go well. And after the game, she handed me the baseball and said, you need to have this. So kudos to her. Wow. I like that. I have some respect for that. That's a cool thing for her to do. That's a cool thing. Too many first baseball hits go through that type of relationship narrative. I think we put that one in the book, though. Now, is there something memorabilia-wise from somebody else that you have? That is your favorite. I would say there's a picture of Warhay Pasada and myself in spring training, and you know, catchers do all these blocking drills and all these other things. And there was a great picture of Warhay and I, which was actually an ESPN, the magazine, where we both had our gear on, and we were both blocking baseballs, and I had him sign that for me. So that's one of those ones that is, I think when you retire, you miss the spring training and getting ready for a season and all the stuff that goes in behind the scenes and to be able to work with Warhay for three years and become friendly with him was pretty special. That'd probably be a nice piece, too. Now, you were down at spring training for a little while, but you didn't get all that many games in. How much are you missing baseball right now? Realizing there are bigger things to worry about in the world, but that doesn't mean you can't be a little bit sad that you don't have baseball as well. I mean, this time of year, you know, we go through opening day and we look forward to, we prepare for it and we get ready for it. And when it didn't happen, you know, it didn't feel great. But I think I'm one of those people, hopefully, you know me this well. I'm always looking forward. I'm always looking forward to something good. And hopefully when we get back to it, it'll be exciting. We can get some sort of a season in. But to be honest with you, when I sit here and I watch all the news and I see all these people on the beach in clear water, I immediately think Meredith Morakovitz, she better not be on that beach. She better be social distancing. So we haven't talked since I've been watching those reports. Were you out on the beach in clear water? John, you know, I am a rural follower. They tell me that's why I'm going to ask this again. Were you on that beach in clear water? It's actually not a lasting matter, but I, when people say of youth and social distancing, I feel like I've been preparing for this my whole life, like finally, something I'm good at. Right. Uh, no, but I actually did go to the beach one day before all those photographs came out, but there is a part on clear water beach, North Beach, where it's completely residential. There are no hotels or anything because I did take it seriously. I had been around a lot of people. I fell fine. I didn't have any symptoms. I didn't want to get sick personally. I don't want to get sick, but also I don't want to get anyone else sick who has a compromised immune system. So I walked miles and miles to get to this part of the beach where I knew there would be no people and I accomplished that goal, but flash one thing that I did not consider in my, uh, in my trek was that I put suntan lotion on before I left my condo and then by the time walking in 80 degree weather, I got to my secluded part of the beach where no people were. I think that that might have come off and I did get a little bit of a Florida burn. A little sunburn. Okay. Well, I would not, I social distance and I have not left my house since last Sunday. Wow. Good for you. The only time I leave my place is to go get food and I got, uh, my two sons are here with me and they're 18 and 20 and these kids, it's amazing when you really pay attention to how much food they can put away. So I had to go to the grocery store yesterday and Meredith is crazy up here in New York and New Jersey. I mean, you're probably getting reports, but, uh, you know, the being in the supermarket, it's like, you're you try to get in and get out as soon as you can and, you know, the Purell and all that stuff. It's, uh, but these guys are, they're making it tough on me. Meredith, you know, they're eating everything that I bring in the house. Now, do you have an outdoor fridge, like a garage fridge as well that you can kind of stock a little bit? No, no. So I'm, uh, I got the freezer stocked. I got all the food, you know, the vegetables and fruits and all that stuff. But, you know, I got one guy who's training, he's going to play football in college next year. So he wants all this healthy stuff and chicken and, you know, he's trying to put on weight. So it's, uh, it's a challenge to keep these guys, uh, calorie driven. Let's put it that way. I imagine now you've been eating super clean. So are you still doing plant-based throughout all this or have you, have you gone off course a little bit? We got some peaks and valleys there, Meredith. We got peaks and valleys. I'm doing the best that I can. I had a bad weekend. I got off the rails a little bit and on Monday morning, I said, all right, I got to get back to it. So it's been a good couple of days. Uh, you know, I'm trying to keep my workouts going, trying to be back out on the street running a little bit, trying to, to get some miles in. But, you know, you know, you try to eat as healthy as you can too. And sometimes when you're sitting here and you've got nothing to look forward to. And I think most importantly for me, when I'm off my routine, the plant-based gets a little, little wavy. It goes a little bit over that way. Yes. Well, friend, I have a great vegetable soup recipe for you and I'm going to send you the vegan Pad Thai recipe too. You can freeze both of them. You'll be good to go. You're set for the week then. Send me a text. Send me a text. Let me know. We'll do. Maybe we can do like a cooking segment next time. Yeah. Well, your cooking is going to be a lot more elaborate than my making of sweet potatoes and broccoli. It's pretty much all I can do. Maybe some string beans. So I need some recipes. I'll try them out and we'll, we'll go back and forth on how bad I fail. I like it. And you have two people that can be taste testers. No, no, they're, they're like, you're going to do the plant-based and we're going for the steak, chicken, french fries, potatoes, all of that stuff. Man, tough crowd in the Flaherty house. They are, they're tough. They are tough. Since I haven't talked to you yet, very quickly, before I let you go, I've been asking people this, if you had to be quarantined with one member of the YesNetwork crew, who would have been? I don't like where this, this is going. Wow. I would have to say it would be Bob Lorenz, because we've spent a lot of time together and we, we definitely get along, but there are some, there's some, there's some concerns with him and I spending that much time together. I think you probably know what they are, but I think we wouldn't kill each other if we were quarantined together. So that's a positive. He's funny. He's smart. He's interesting and he has all the candy. So I think you made a good point. All right. Flash, have a good rest of the day. I'm sure we'll catch up again soon. Thanks, Meredith. Send me those recipes. I look forward to them. I will. And for everybody that missed some of these, don't forget tonight on YesNetwork, seven o'clock, we're going to have a highlight show. So if you missed the Zach Britton interview, the Adam Atovino interview, Grady spoke to a couple of nets, it'll all be on yes tonight at seven. But until then, we'll see you next time.