 Welcome to another edition of Yes We're Here, and today we get the first opportunity to talk with the warrior Paul O'Neill. Paul, a lot of people were wondering, they call up on the radio show, they ask, how's O'Neill doing? So, right to you. How you doing? I'm doing all right. I actually, when we left Tampa, I came back on the other side, I've stayed in Florida the whole time. So, you know, looking outside at sunny, but we're in the house, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, and just believe it or not, you're gonna, I'm gonna get a chuckle out of you here, all right? So, like three days ago, I think, you know what, I wanted to start running again. So I go out behind my house, I go through the old spring training, then leg kicks this and that, day three, which was yesterday, I strained a hammy. So I'm on the DL. Wow. I'm on the DL, the Coronavirus DL. It's like the, it's like the 96 areas all again, game six, right? You know what? I hope I don't have to go get a fly ball tonight, because it ain't gonna happen. All right. So how do you spend your days? I'm curious, you always like the golf, you can't do that. So you probably have a home gym of some sort. What else do you do to fill your 24 hours? Well, I tell you what, you're so into schedules, you know, you get up basically, you set no alarms, the longer you sleep, the quicker the days goes, you do. You get up, you do your garage gym. You have a big breakfast, you kind of hang outside for a while to possibly the next workout and then the kids are over for dinner and then you play cards, you play taboo, you play something and then you get up, you do it all over again. Any TV or anything like that? Oh yeah. I mean, I actually know my Netflix password now, which I never did. So some things are changing in life, you know. Unbelievable. And it's a different world for sure. So you have to fight the urge to go out? I mean, we go outside in the backyard, obviously being in Florida, you know, you have a backyard, you can sit outside. That is a blessing obviously, but we haven't been to a grocery store. We have stuff delivered. We obviously haven't been out to eat. So, you know, you do get into a habit of, you know, certain times of day you look forward to certain things. And, you know, we have a small circle. We have my daughter, her fiance, my son and his wife. And basically that's those six of us have been together for the last 10 days or so. And have you been washing your hands a lot? Oh, you know what? I told my wife, I mean, I've absorbed so much stuff now that I can just wipe the walls clean. It just comes right out. Now your son is a doctor, so he's right in the middle of this. What is he telling you? You know what? He has seen some ups and downs. He actually was sent home from one of his rotations in Chapel Hill back to Asheville with his wife, which was a good thing. But, you know, again, you want to thank all these people because, you know, he is one of the people that is seeing this at the hospital and the people and just the, you know, just feeling that, you know, the need of people to take care of the people that are sick. It is amazing, Paul, because you and I, you know, you played I in an ounce and I wrote and we look at athletes as heroes, but then you see people. I mean, essentially what happened in 9-11, people running into the fire. Doctors and nurses are running into the fire for everybody else. It's a mindset that a lot of us just can't grasp. Yeah. I mean, there are certain times and, you know, you brought up 9-11 and you see that, you know, how you remembered, you know, the police officers and the first responders as heroes. It just seems like in different times of life, you know, people get to step up and be those heroes. And right now, it's definitely, you know, our leaders and our medical field. All right. So let's talk some mundane things like sports. You were actually involved in a season of 95 after the lockout where you guys had to get ready in a hurry. I think you did it in three weeks. Was that enough? Did you feel that you were ready in three weeks? I did because it's a little bit different here because back then, I remember still being, we were in Fort Lauderdale at the time and, you know, you could still go out and run and throw and even head and cages at a park if you wanted to where players are not going to have that access. So in my mind, when you have to get ready, I mean, sure, you might have a home gym, but you don't have a batting cage in your house. You don't have a batting cage. You can go to a park or have somebody throw to you. That's kind of been taken away. So this is kind of going to be a time where players don't have a specific date at this point, and they're probably going to be in the worst baseball shape that they've been in because they don't have access of playing catch and going out with people. But looking back at that time to answer your question, Michael, I thought three weeks I was ready to go. Yeah. Oh, was the pitchers ready to go? Is that always a problem? Hit or say spring training is too long. It's long enough because of the pitchers. Were the pitchers ready after three weeks? You know, I don't remember other than, you know, you had short outings, obviously, from starting pitchers to start. I don't remember the great pitchers not still being great. So I think that, you know, once you do get a date of some sort or even a hint of a timeframe that people will ramp it up and get closer. All right. So they're talking about if they start baseball ball, they could start it maybe in July, maybe in June, hopefully if everything goes well. And everybody wants to play as close to 162 as possible. So they're talking about two double headers a week. Can a baseball player's body take that? Can a pitcher? I mean, do they have enough pitching in baseball to take that? Well, I think you are going to have to make some adjustments to rules and the regulations of the roster. You know, possibly we talked earlier, you know, maybe seven any double headers who knows they do that in the minor leagues. I don't think that you're going to be able to get to 162 games if you're looking at June or July. But I also think that basically, you know, you get to 100, 120. I think your better teams are still going to be where they would have been at 162. And, you know, the great teams are still going to be great. Possibly some of the teams that get off to a hot start might be in the running more so than they would have been in a regular season. But I think your best teams usually end up at the top. Now, according to how this pandemic progresses, if they do resume sports ball, they might do it in front of empty seats. As a former player, how weird would that be for you? Is that something that's doable? Well, I think it is doable if you wanted to start that way. Is it something that you would look forward to as a player? No, because, you know, the fan base around you, the stadiums being full, the lights on, those are all part of the major league experience. And, you know, if you want to just put games in without people in the seats, you know, it is an option. But I would think that, you know, baseball would want to get back to normalcy, and that is having fans in the seats. It's funny, though, because a lot of players, and you always, you know, you don't hear the fans. I guess you don't hear specific things, but you feel the energy that the fans give. Well, yeah, I mean, it would almost be haunting to go up to a major league at bat to just emptiness and to no noise and to no nothing. And that might be more distracting to a player than hearing crowd noise and things that you've learned to get accustomed with. Now, what do you say to the fact, like if the season starts in June and July and they want to get in as many games as possible, they might have to play through October, which makes possibly playing a World Series in New York or Northern City unlikely. What would you say if they had to play those games, the playoff games of the World Series in neutral sites? Again, is it an option? Sure, it's an option. If it need be, it has to be that way, sure. But for me to think about playing a World Series game not in your home stadium with your home crowd, that seems to take a lot away from the grand, the big time of the season that you play for. But you know what? You take other sports. The Super Bowl is always in a neutral field and the excitement is still there. But to me, baseball has been played home and away. And you see the records home and away in big games. Home field is an advantage when you have your crowd there. I'll tell you what, Paul, I was thinking about it. If games are played without fans, probably the most fortunate team would be the Houston Astros, who are really going to hear it when they played away games. And now all of a sudden, if there's nobody in the stands, it might be an advantage for them because they might not ever really have to quote-unquote pay for what they did by listening to the visiting crowd. Yeah, I mean, you can look at it that way. There's no doubt about it. It kind of put an end to the story for now. And that was the big story going into spring training. I mean, how are they going to deal with it? And it wasn't just the fan bases around the country, but the players around the league too that seem to lose a lot of respect for a lot of the Houston players. All right, so you said you have a bad hand. If this was the sixth game of the World Series right now, could you play on this leg? I tell you what, I don't know. After I crawled in from the golf course yesterday after my sprint, I actually told my wife, thank God I don't have to catch a fly ball tomorrow. So I'd like to have the opportunity to be in game six again because believe me, those are fun. Did it pop or did it just pop? I just grabbed, just, you know, don't get old, Michael. It's just the way it is. That's what I'm feeling, that's what I'm feeling now. Of all the, I mean, this is obviously not a great time for our country, for our planet, but you'd have to admit of everything going on, the fact that you miss me probably hurts the most. Oh, you know what, I just, when you popped up on the screen today, I just got goosebumps. It's just like, wow, there he is. I'll tell you one thing. Some things do happen though. You've done well with your hair. Mine's starting to get a little wide without getting a haircut for a few weeks, you know? I gotta tell you what, I'm not gonna be able to get a haircut. I was thinking about like doing it on my radio so maybe doing a flow beat because it's gonna go crazy. You won't fit the screen if your hair gets too high. No, I mean, because this head's big enough, right? Well, Paul, stay safe. Obviously you wanna tell everybody out there, wash your hands, do everything. Social distancing, everything like that because we wanna stay safe. I wanna see you. We wanna see baseball. That's the most important thing, right? No doubt about it. I mean, in our society, you do realize at times like this, how lucky we are and, you know, how selfish we are sometimes by missing things. But, you know, sports are such a huge part of our society and our country. It's just not baseball, it's basketball, it's football. It's just being able to turn on the television and watch something competitive and that's what we are. But right now, there are bigger fishes to fry, obviously. And, you know, I can't wait till that day where we can open the door and I can give you a big hug, Michael. How's that? That'd be nice. That'd be less than six feet away. Do you believe, Paul, one final thing, do you believe that once we, everybody gets through this, that the handshakes and stuff like that, so that's gonna change, that people might not do stuff like that? Do you have the field? I think that there'll be an after effect to this. I mean, you know, as well as I do, you go through the, you know, the stands at times and, you know, you could shake 20, 30 hands and, you know, if you probably could look at your hands at those times, you probably wouldn't do it. So it doesn't mean we don't like people. It just means that, you know, maybe we've learned something. Yep. Tell Neville and the kids, hello, please stay safe and I'll talk to you soon, Paul. I'll tell you, Michael, I saw your play-by-play with Charlie hitting a home run and I was gonna break down his swing, but I didn't know how to do it on the phone. So we'll have to do it during the season, all right? I'll tell you what though, that's a good Yankee Stadium stroke left-handed. I didn't know if they were gonna lock him up or not. You know, that's the big question. Be good, Paul. Bye everybody and we'll talk to you soon. Take care.