The Josh Innes Show - Goodbye Bregman...

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Alex Bregman is off to Boston. People had grown sick of hearing about Bregman and I think most are probably relieved it's over. Now that he is gone, the only player left from the golden era of Astros baseball is Jose Altuve. Is Altuve the most beloved player in Houston history? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I don't know, what a weird way to start. So it would appear when you know exactly what it is. It didn't appear as anything. Alex Bregman is going to play with the Boston Red Sox, so it's over. I would assume all those Red Sox people that cried, cheater, cheater, are no longer going to call him a cheater now that he plays in Boston. I don't know. I guess if he was to go play somewhere,

I'd like it to be with these type of teams where their fan base is all called the Astros cheaters, which most of them did anyway, even if it didn't impact them. Like, hey, I'm a Marlins fan, but the Astros are cheaters. Like, okay, fuck off. But Alex Bregman's gone. I don't know. Alex Bregman was a very good player for the Astros.

I don't know. I've never felt that he was a superstar. I never felt like he was elite. I feel like he had some huge moments, obviously. His biggest moment being the walk-off in Game 5. Of course, I was passed out in a suite at that game and was awoken, awakened by the sound of people going nuts. I had way too much beer that night. It was me and Jim Mudd at the game.

Jelly didn't end up going. So it was me and Jim,im game five and my season tickets and um it was quite a moment like we i just started drinking early jim doesn't really drink a lot so he wasn't an issue but uh i got fucking plastered and um i missed every marquee moment in that game that was an epic game it was like four nothing after the first half inning and every marquee moment that the Astros had hit a huge home run or something, I'd be in the john taking a leak. And then I missed the walk-off because I walked out into a suite and was blacked out. Again, these are not things I'm proud of,

but these are things I've done, kids. And you know what? You live and you learn. You do some things that are great. You do some things that are dumb. But it's stories, and that's really what life is about. Life is about the stories, and you have to embrace the stories. You've got to cherish those stories. They're very important. But out like Bregman, seemingly a nice guy, did a lot of nice stuff and using wasn't a guy that you'd look at as a problem or anything like that. Like he's just a guy that happened to be part of a big part of the best era of sports for any team in the history of the city better than the Rockets run better than anything the Oilers ever did certainly better than anything the Texans ever did this run that we're still experiencing although it's pretty clear that it's about to be on the

downslide it's already kind of gone down it's like once you're losing all these key pieces of it it's kind of like okay it's kind of over it's not totally over but we're in a different era of baseball and if you're not spending a billion dollars on your roster and you don't have billions of dollars in media money like LA or New York it feels like we might be about to hit a point where the Astros might just be a nice team decent team good team but maybe the days of the Astros being a full-on World Series contender and being the beast of the league and being the ire of everyone in the league, maybe that's over. That's okay. Things don't last forever.

The Patriots didn't last forever. The Chiefs aren't going to last forever. These things happen. They come and they go, and perhaps the Astros, it's just kind of time for them to be over. But if you look at that run from really 16 to I guess you'd count the first round exit against Detroit this year it's kind of like the last kind of moment of it but if you look at this it's an amazing run and Alex Bregman is a huge part of

that was a huge part of that it's an interesting thing because it's not like he leaves and there's a ton of negative to say about him it's not like when and which makes it odd because he was here for so long that you'd go well fuck you why did you string us along and i think that's kind of the part that most people are kind of agitated by was how long this whole process took like people got sick of hearing about it i think that was to the detriment of bregman if this is something that could happen and come together faster i don't think it would i think people would have said, Hey man, going to miss you. Whatever. Now I think people look at Bregman and they have a little bit of a bitter taste. It's not a terrible taste. It's not like, you know, you lose a guy in the prime of his career and he takes a shitload of money to go to the Yankees. And like,

you're losing the biggest piece of your team. It's not like that. It's not like when Beltran rolled out and even though Beltran wasn't here very long at all, but you kind of still booed Beltran. I don't know that Bregman's going to come to town and get booed other than the fact that this thing dragged out way too long. And because it dragged out way too long, you lost a lot of goodwill from the fans from that standpoint. I think that hurts you a lot, is that people got sick of hearing about you. Oh, where's Bregman going to go? Is he going to go to the Red Sox? Is he going to team up with A.J. Hinge in Detroit? And I think people just got sick of hearing about you oh where's Bregman gonna go is he gonna go to the Red Sox is he gonna go team up with AJ Hinge in Detroit and I think people just got sick of hearing it and by the time like you finally signed with someone people were kind of like

kind of washing their hands of you and they said all right good I'm done with you I'm not really interested in you anymore go on go play in Boston we're gonna figure our own shit out and I think that's kind of where fans are at least I am and I consider myself someone who supports the Astros I I'm not a diehard fan. I don't pretend to be, but I'm someone who had season tickets. I consider myself a supporter of anything in the city because I love the city. So from that standpoint, I think that most people from my Twitter that I've seen from people commenting, I think people hit a point where they were just like, I don't give a shit. Sign there, sign here. We don't care. We got to get on with our lives. And I think that's kind of where we are with Bregman right now. Let me play a few commercials and we will continue. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition,

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of this era and the obvious answer is Jose Altuve is it possible that Alex Bregman ends up doing you know becoming a guy who gets his number retired and what what are you giving me here okay thank you all right Jilly just walked in and gave me some chocolate cold foam from Starbucks. I'm going to make sure whenever she's voice tracking tomorrow for Nashville, I'm going to walk in and be like, Hey, have a granola bar. It's fucking delicious. I know you're busy. But anyway, but that was good.

You're not lying, Jilly. I'm glad that we couldn't wait. You're like, this cannot wait. It was about to melt. Oh, it is good, though. Thank you. I appreciate you i appreciate that's good chocolate thank you for the starbucks foam uh but anyway thank you meanwhile back at the ranch um you know like everybody that was associated especially the core of that team is going to be remembered fondly and people are going to look back and in 10 years none of this will matter that you know dude left or whatever I don't think it's going to leave a horrible taste in people's mouth or anything by that but the guy you still have to look at in a remarkable way because this

kind of shit just doesn't happen is the fact that you've got Jose Altuve and Jose Altuve is still here and Jose Altuve was there when shit was terrible and he had the great story about how he got to the Astros and he was there when they were terrible. And he had the great story about how he got to the Astros. And he was there when they were tanking on purpose to get good. He was here on the way up. He was there when they were fucking phenomenal. And now he's here on the way down. And I look, I make fun of Mount Rushmore conversation all the time.

And that's fine. We do that a lot. And cool. Fine. But if you look at just the city of Houston and the iconic sports figures in the city, there is zero doubt that Jose Altuve belongs. Jose Altuve is not the best athlete in the history of the city. There are dudes that were better at their respective sports than Jose Altuve. Not to say Jose Altuve isn't great and that he might not be a Hall of Famer.

He very well may be. You'd argue he's on the path. Certainly an Astros Hall of Famer type guy. But if you look at him from the standpoint of how good is he, how amazing is he, what does he do? First of all, he's the most important Astro of all time. It's not debatable. It's not Nolan Ryan.

It's not my man, uh, Berkman. It's not gonna, the most important Houston Astro of all time. The face of the franchise, the face of the Houston Astros is Jose Altuve. Altuve is a Mount Rushmore guy in Houston. No doubt. He is not the most talented and he is not the best. Earl Campbell was a better running back than Jose Altuve as baseball player. Hakeem Olajuwon was a better all-time basketball

player. If you compare him to the other greats in the game, he is a better all-time basketball player than Jose Altuve is a baseball player. But Jose Altuve is the most beloved athlete in the city of Houston ever. Doesn't mean that they don't love Drexler. Doesn't mean they don't love Olajuwon. Doesn't mean they don't love Watt. I'd say Watt's pretty close. And I guess they get recency bias as well, right? They get the benefit of recency bias and the internet bias and social media bias. They get the benefits of all that because they played in those eras. Guys like Warren Moon, a young dude that's on the internet right now that started watching the Astros in 2016, has no fucking clue about Warren Moon, doesn't know about Earl Campbell.

And you can't just dismiss those guys because Earl Campbell is an all-time great at his sport. And Olajuwon is an all-time great at his sport. And Olajuwon is an all-time great at his sport. And they're all beloved athletes in Houston. But when you now see guys like Bregman go, and you've seen guys like Springer, who was a core part of that early, and you see guys like Correa go, and Verlander come, go, come, go, and all these guys that were a huge part, Tucker, all these guys that were huge parts of what the Astros did

and what will go down as the greatest era for any team in the city's history. One guy is still there. Now, of course, it was brought to my attention on Twitter when I posted this that Lance McCullers is still there, to which I responded, is he? Because Lance McCullers will go down as one of the great what-ifs of all time, and I think people are just finally sick of Lance McCullers. They're like, dude, shit or get off the pot. Is he going to play? Is he going to stay healthy? He'll be the great what-ifs of all time. And I think people are just finally sick of Lance McCullers. They're like, dude, shit or get off the pot.

Is he going to play? Is he going to stay healthy? He'll be a great what-if. And he certainly had some great moments. But if you look at that core group of dudes that played for the Astros in that era, one of them is still here. And that is Altuve. And Altuve will never wear a uniform of another team.

Altuve will move positions if he has to. Altuve is seemingly the greatest teammate that anybody could have. Altuve will move positions if he has to. Altuve is seemingly the greatest teammate that anybody could have. Altuve is an amazing story, a true blue be someone Houston underdog story. And I think that he will go down as the most beloved athlete in the city's history. Even J.J. Watt, and J.J. Watt's huge.

J.J. Watt is a better football player than Jose Altuve is baseball player. And J.J. Watt and JJ Watt's huge. JJ Watt is a better football player than Jose Altuve is baseball player. And JJ Watt is beloved. And if you want to do a Mount Rushmore of beloved, not who was the best, most beloved, because there'll be guys who are super beloved athletes that weren't all time great. Usually they come together in that way. Sometimes they're not. There are guys in city, like go to Philadelphia. Buddy Ryan is arguably the most beloved coach they ever had there. Didn't win a fucking playoff game.

Some things just work out that way. They just fall in love with certain dudes and certain dudes don't win. Look, the Oilers didn't win shit in the grand scheme of things. You know who people love? Bum Phillips. Bum Phillips, one of the most beloved figures in sports history in Houston. But when it's all said and done and Altuve finally retires and he has however many hits he has and home runs he has and clutch moments he has and likability that he has

and the story that he has, he will go down as the guy that people look at and go, he's the most beloved athlete in the city's history. And that all comes, you look at Bregman. I don't think Bregman ever had a chance to be that because he plays on the same team or played now on the same team as Altuve. You very rarely find guys like that in a city that like people universally have nothing bad to say. Maybe they'll say he commits too many errors. Cool. There's not a lot of bad you're going to have about Altuve. There's not guys that people look at and go, I'm sick of seeing this.

Like we talked about Jason Kelsey. Now people in Philadelphia are starting to turn on Kelsey because they're just sick of seeing him. They're sick of hearing about him. They're sick of seeing him. They're sick of his brother. They're sick of Taylor Swift. They're tired of all of it. They're done with it. Even people in Philly are turning on that guy who was captain Philadelphia. no one has turned on Altuve. So you can have your Bregman's leave and your Correa's leave and your Springer's leave and your Verlander's leave and your Cole's leave, and you can have them come, go, come, go, come, go, Tucker, come, go, all that. But the guy that still stands, the guy that rises above the rest the guy that is the

most beloved the guy that people will never get sick of the guy that can have a statue not even just at the stadium guy could have a statue at city hall downtown a monument be right there next to the giant president heads is jose altuve and now you kind of get that moment where you're starting to really realize that this golden era is about to be over because there's one guy left. There's one guy left, and it's fascinating. But, all right, anyway, got to run. Love you guys.