The schedule getting underway. Thanks appreciate it. I guess in some way as a writer going through the grinder zone stoppages nice thousands more than just the second half and i guess five eight through moral. Yeah yeah good. Good his while. Spiritually feels halfway a little bit more than halfway. Yeah and i think you're right man like the word grind and just the fact that for me and i think for a lot of baseball fans if feels like the normal rhythms of a season from your vantage point zack. Does it feel like that. And and last year. I thought the all star festivities homerun derby the game itself. Seen you know everyone operating in and around cores in denver kind of business as usual really for the first time i think since the pandemic started I thought that was great. It just it seemed as close to anything. We've had any normal. See that we've really had for my vantage point from From the start of this This stuff last march. Yeah definitely. I mean i. I worked the shortened season in more of a backup role since my first real hundred. Sixty two You know games going through but I mean it was. I talked to a lot of people. Do go the also game. And they're were talking about how i really did feel like his nineteen all over again which is good in some ways. A little uncomfortable in other ways but for the most part is just a always positive scientists. The kind of stuff in life returned to normal. And i i mean i think zack as far as like normal. It felt like you know a normal baseball game. And as far as the all star game is is concerned you know. It is really the one like sports. All-star celebration or a couple of days where you actually have i think is close to like competition as possible. Costa real competition as possible. And i'm not even alluding to the count not count Debacle of the last couple of decades. But i thought it was great to see all its ray us In the kind of competition that he got into phase. Great see nolan our auto. you know. get another go round with With the fans in denver and like major league baseball think has to be happy and think that things and things from showcasing the product of the personalities of the game especially when we're entering kind of a baseball dominant month here before football. They've got to be happy with how things went last week. Yeah i mean we talk about shohei ohtani the hindu do it. He did and him kind of dominates conversation to be at the center of conversation. I mean obviously what went on with stephen smith. Espn wasn't the most. Glamorous wasn't the greatest conversation was good times they have But it's still just shows that there is baseball to be talked about is still at the forefront even though there's a lot of talk about dying sport or it's losing touch there is this young generation and and he's offering Junior at the all star game and and the reactions. They're having to each other when when thought might up is a a lot of excitement kind of bubbling right now and it's really important for the leaf. The on the all star game is a great op to start doing so. You know the one. The one thing that i wish. And maybe this is getting a little nitpicky your maybe this journalists nerd of me but i do wish that maybe baseball and i should say freely admit that i don't live for instance in san diego so i don't root for the padres and i'm i know a number of their writers in folks to do a tremendous job women covering that team but i wish baseball would take some ownership in marketing. For instance more than just like to bat flip in sunglasses and like whatever suit. He's wearing the red carpet right. Like i wish they would take initiative perhaps to tell a little bit more the story of the personalities of these guys because i think especially coming off the last year The things that i find compelling and the stories that i find myself strong to which again. Perhaps they're being told by reporters. But i wish the league would control their own. Product per se are about personalities about people. Whether it's you know one of the best players in the game or whether it's you know grounds crew member i'd just i wish baseball would grab a little more of that. Maybe they are maybe start of it. But i hope it stops. It's definitely such a longstanding conversations. Add you know. You have a player like mike trout. Who is the best player this generation in decades. And how much do you really know about him. Is he likes the weather and he's to baseball and she likes tweet about flying in planes and whatnot. There isn't much there and by the way liking liking the weather like is the most mike trout like hobby outside of being very very just consistently underrated. Good like liking the weather. Atta boy right like when you have a conversation with somebody. You don't know what to talk about. The weather. Like i think conversations but yeah i mean it in public sad that kind of wood damaging trout and manfred the other month or the year was was not what everyone wanted to see but it is interesting conversation we're players who want to be marketed. Ken get market. That's why you see these. Because he is such a star he is a bubbling personality. Who wants that spotlight on him. And you know shohei. Ohtani does also have that desire in him and it's sort of now on baseball now on us as reporters in media members to get those stories out of them and you saw the other day with the documentary on fernando's Junior there is some some work being done at at the league level. Mlb network level to get their stories out there and just kind of a ground right now that hopefully yeah and and you need the right subjects right and i think that right now. It's a shame what happened around the union. This is i mean. This is the most exciting group of young players in baseball at the same time who could potentially all be reaching semblance of free agency in the next pamphlet years since what you think maybe like the group of shortstops like the jeeter a rod nomar when those guys are coming up like mid nineties. I mean i can't think of another group of dynamic players that are just now really entering their quote unquote prime. When you think about you know guys like soto entities junior in vladi and like it's gonna be fantastic for baseball. I'm really excited to see how those guys kind of our You know jack. Flirty chief among those guys as well. You know the the guys that not only will be the face of the league. But also i think will will probably take a take a really strong Position have every opportunity to be the leadership and and the backbone of the players moving forward as well through some potentially historic dots. And i think what's so great about all the guys mostly guys you just mentioned are the fact. They all come from such diverse backgrounds There is a lotta talking to the all star game about how for the american league The the the first one was hit by a canadian. Born dominican player The game was won by japanese player in the game was closed out by an australian player. So you have a lot of players from different backgrounds ethnicities different stories. That are being told these days than that's really great to see. Just how much of a global sport baseball isn't how much of a market enemy tap into. Were night here. Liam hendriks talking after the also get high. Wants kids in australia to pick up baseball enjoying him. And you do see some does that. There's a minor leaguer on the oils from australia. So you do see some some rise in in groundswell of mung other countries and among around the globe and you know baseball. That's a real real market that it can have is. That's kind of what a pride. Cellphones being global for. Australians are already the coolest people in the world they should just let.