 Yes, we are still here. Meredith Marokovic is hanging out in Clearwater with my friend, Ryan Rucco, who is in the city right now. Ryan, how are you doing today? I'm doing all right, Meredith, you know. I feel like at this point, quarantine life, we've had some time to adjust to, right? So I'm not gonna say it's normal, but definitely have found my routine. I am envious of the sunshine you have there in Florida though. It's not terrible. There are worse places to be, and I hope everybody is doing their part staying home, staying safe. And Ryan, while that's the message, and that's what everybody should be doing today, I can't help but think the Yankees are supposed to be in Baltimore right now. We're supposed to have opening day, and it stings. Obviously, everybody is staying in for the greater good of the community, but that doesn't mean that you don't miss baseball right now on a daily today. Yeah, that's well said, Meredith. It's like we all have this perspective, obviously on the macro, and we understand, no, there are much larger things on hand than baseball, and we all understand that, and we all also realize that we have a critical part to play in helping our world right now, right? But man, would it be great to have baseball today, especially there's just, there's something about that opening day energy, right? Because it marks sort of that signal of the beginning of spring, which obviously means warm weather and more time outside, and you just, you know you're going to then be with these people for the next six, seven months. You know night in, night out, and that's where baseball's so different, right? Like, you are actually with your team day in, day out. It's not a once a week thing. It's not a couple times a week thing. And usually, you're getting jacked up during the afternoon to get to watch the games, and Meredith, there is definitely, this morning I was sitting down, I like looked up the clock and I was like, it was 10 a.m. And I was thinking, oh, like normally, I'd be just getting ramped up for the pregame coverage. I'd be just a few hours away from baseball. It's a tough pill to swallow for all of us right now, no doubt. There's such an energy in the ballpark, whether they open up at home or on the road on opening day, and that's what really gets you excited. I know opening day, I've been a part of a lot of them. I've covered a lot of them for the S network. I remember back to when I was a kid, when there was opening day, not only for major league baseball, but T-ball and softball and all of that. You just get those butterflies in your stomach. You're excited to get going again, the possibilities of what can happen in a new season. And then more than that, it's the crack of the bat again. It's the lineups being read. It's the introductions beforehand. And you certainly miss all that. We do know once we get through all this, there will be baseball again. We all hope that it happens sooner rather than later. But Brian, while we're on the subject, do you have an opening day that stands out to you? Yeah, and you know, it's funny because I was thinking opening day in terms of obviously major league baseball and the Yankees, but as you're talking about like literally opening day and that, I'm remembering, remember when we, did you used to have to do like one of those parades in your town on opening day, where everybody's in uniform walking through the town? It wasn't through the town, but we'd have a big opening day ceremony at LTAA Field, Leag Township Field, right down the road from our house. You'd put your whole uniform on and you might not even be playing that day, but it was essentially just kicking it all off, getting everybody excited for both the softball, t-ball, and then baseball, all the age of people that were playing. And I remember, I have pictures from when I was little, little kids in baseball uniforms are so stupid. Brian, the cutest thing in the world, it really is. I know, I'm thinking about how we, so my park was Gearing Park in Fishgill, New York. And we used to, you know, the whole, like the whole little league, softball, baseball, all ages would parade through the town and end up back on the field. And then there'd be, you know, some teams would play that day and some would wait. And I'd be so disappointed if I didn't have a game that day, like I wanted to play that day so badly. So now I'm thinking of, you know, my own opening day memories, but as far as the Yankees go, I always think about three opening days, 96 in the snow and just, you know, watching Andy Pettit pitch through that snowstorm and just how surreal the scene was, seeing baseball and that kind of driving snow, 98, the 17-13 wild game against the A's. And I remember I had an odd obsession with the score finishing in what could be a football score. I have no idea why. I was 11 years old, but it was so important to me as I watched the runs pile up that the score ended up a football score. So 17-13 made me happy. And then Hideki Matsui's first opening day with the Yankees, I was, and I forget if it was the home opener opening day, but it was definitely at least the home opener. I was playing in my own high school baseball game. And I remember I was so excited for this new acquisition that, you know, everybody had heard about. And I remember as I was coming off the field at one point during my game, my dad told me Matsui hit a grand slam. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. Like, because we had heard he had the thrill for the big moment, et cetera. And I'll always remember that moment. I gotta ask you this, Meredith. You know, we don't know exactly when opening day is going to be, and we all are obviously going to be jonesing for baseball by the time it comes. But you've had a lot of conversation and you've had your finger on the pulse of the guys on this team, as well as Aaron Boone. We've seen some of those conversations as you have produced more great content during this period of time than I think anybody in our industry. But what has kind of been like the mentality from these guys as to how they are staying prepared for this season, whenever it does start? Well, and speaking with Luke Voight yesterday, by the way, if you didn't catch it, it's still on yeses feed. You can scroll back and find it. Please go watch it. He was saying he thinks it's a little easier for hitters than it is pitchers. With pitchers, you need to be a little bit more concerned how built up their arm is. We saw the video that Aaron Boone admitted. He shot, he lives right up the street from Garrett Cole, of he and his wife playing catch in the backyard. So pitchers are doing stuff. You just don't know the level at which they're able to do it if they're home at their own facility or if there's a facility nearby. So he thinks it's gonna take pitchers a little bit longer to get ready. Hitters maybe can still at least stay in shape and a lot of them have cages in their houses or a place where they can go and take some swings. But there's nothing like game action and that's really what spring training gets you ready for, that high pace game action. So there will be some type of a modified spring or I guess we'll now call it probably summer training until it actually gets to the season. But they're all kind of in the same boat, in the same mentality. We're gonna try to keep ourselves as ready as possible while staying safe, while doing the right thing. But nobody knows and that's the toughest thing. If there were a date at the end of it or something where you can say, I think this is when it's going to happen. I think it would be easier for everybody but this is just such a wild unknown that there is really no way to predict when exactly baseball will be back. I know that's the toughest part, right? Like so these guys are sort of in a holding pattern as to how they stay ready. It's funny, I was talking with Zach Britton yesterday because Cece and I did an episode of R2C2 with him that released this Thursday. And he was saying the guys he feels worse for from a baseball standpoint are like Jordan Montgomery and Jay Hap who were locked in and so on track to start the season and now all of a sudden like their rhythm gets thrown off. And I think it just speaks to what is going to be just a larger reality we all have to accept, right? Like there's a standard that everybody's used to with this is how I get ready and this is what's fair and these are the confines that we all play within and that's all just gonna be thrown out the window and we all have to accept that it's going to be about okay, health and safety first, but then also how do you end up getting your guys ready for the start of the season in a way that they stay healthy but also gives us the most games possible? And so I think it's Meredith, it's interesting. We're all just gonna have to sit back and see how it unfolds and hopefully get as much baseball as we possibly can. I'm thinking of the scheduling nightmare that Major League Baseball is going to have to get through when they do decide on a date and baseball is back. You mentioned playing as many games as possible. That's the wish, but you wonder how many you can fit in in a certain amount of time. How many double headers would the players agree to playing? How many could they play and still remain healthy and safe throughout it all? So it's gonna be a little bit of a monster to figure out for Major League Baseball, but I'm sure they're already thinking about possibilities and how they might get it all done. And as you saw Aaron Boone already tweeted, Aaron Judge tweeted everybody just wishing that they'd be playing the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore today. Now, you mentioned your podcast you spoke to Zach Britton, the other half of your hosting party there of R2C2, Cece Zabathia, he and his foundation did a really, really nice thing in the Bronx yesterday. Yeah, they went out and they gave meals to all the girls in boys clubs in the Bronx. And anybody who's gotten to know Cece, who's been around him, Meredith, like you and I have over the last over many years, knows the boys and girls club is something like it's not a facade, it's not for show. This means so much to Cece because it's where he went as a kid. And even talking to him last week, one of Cece's initial concerns was just all the kids who go to those clubs and eat meals. And so he wanted to do anything he could to try and help them out. And this is one of the things, like I've been saying to, now that's obviously helping on a big scale, right? But to anybody who happens to have the means right now to positively influence people in their orbit, it's so important that you do that, right? Like whether it's your bar first who can't work right now or if it's a nail salon you patronize normally or a masseuse or whatever it is, all those people who just can't work right now, if you do have the ability, restaurants, you can buy gift cards now so that they can pay their employees, or there's go fund me pages for a lot of these people. You happen to be in a fortunate position where you can at least contribute in some way. It makes a huge difference for all these people who have had their jobs completely halted and stopped. So I loved seeing what Cece was doing and was certainly inspired by it. Meredith, I'm just curious, like what has been kind of like your go-to routine during this period of time as you are in isolation in Florida? Well, this, as you see, every other day I switch hot coffee and then iced coffee. So that's pretty exciting. Wake up, you know, read the paper, read a couple of different papers in different areas. I'm down in Florida, so I'll check out the news down here. I'll check out multiple papers in New York. I'll check out where my family is to see what's going on in their community. You know, make some phone calls, make some coffee. Then I'll get going a little bit. Think of ideas for the day, go sit on my balcony for a couple of minutes just to get some fresh air, try to get an in-home mini workout in of some sort. And then it's, you know, a little bit of social media stuff, a lot of Netflix and a lot of pretending I'm gonna do things around the house. What have you been up to? You know what? It's funny, like, I keep joking that like I'm actually gonna be in the best shape of my life when we emerge from this because the in-home workouts have been the best thing for my sanity. So it's like, there's no skipping days. I'm like, yes, I want to move. I want to do something, like just to feel like you're moving because especially for us who travel with the Nets, you know, we've been under a quarantine for, you know, we've been self-quarantining for, you know, for, I guess, for me I've basically been doing it since I got back from Dallas when I called the final game of the NBA season up to this point. But right before that, I had been with the Nets. So we all were kind of told, hey, you got a self-quarantine for a two-week period beginning with last, not the Saturday that passed, but the Saturday before. So going up until this Saturday. So like, just for me, it's been like opening up the window as much as I can on a nice day, getting a breeze in here, exercising as much as possible. The Peloton has been a godsend. Thank you, Ally Love and Alex Tucson, my people. And then, you know what? I have a show for you, Meredith. Oh boy. Meredith First Sight. I know how much you love your online reality dating shows, okay? This is a show you wanna binge watch, trust me. I've seen it before. I'm not up to date. And I tell you, nothing makes me feel better about my dating life than watching online reality dating shows. That's right. It's a wonderful way to stay positive and stay up. How about it? All right, well that's gonna do it for Ryan, Ruko and I. We hope you all will stay safe out there. We'll see you again soon.