The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Are Back To .500 Hunter Brown is a Monster, Season Is Getting On Its Way.

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Astros Are Back TO .500 Hunter Brown is a Monster, Season Is Getting On Its Way. 

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Man, I love those City Connect uniforms. The hat? The uniforms, top shelf. They're growing on me. Oh, man, I am... It's funny, last year I loved the hat more than I love the top.

This year, I love the top more than I love the hat. Well, it doesn't matter what you put Hunter Brown in. That man is Dalen. Should we do a Hunter Coin? Oh, Huntercoin's looking good. Hunter coin, yeah, I mean, it is thriving. Undercoin is skyrocketing. Good morning, everybody.

It is outpacing the Dow. Woo! If I had a 401k on Hunter, I'd be, I'd be, I'd want to check it every day. Yeah, you'd be doing okay. Every time I, and again. Don't do it. Don't do it. You know what it is? It's, I have problems with checking things a lot.

I check standings. I check 401K. Uh-huh. And every time I go look at my 401K. You keep checking that growth. It's not going to change, Matt. I wish I had a growth. It's been a long time.

I mean, a while. All right, good morning, everyone. It is the bad time of show at Ross. We are with you today until 2 p.m. Hi. I'm going to entertain you for the next four hours. Jonathan's our producer. Yes.

It makes it a little cool in the gang. Jonathan, you don't even realize how cool, cool in the gang was back in the day. I mean, my God. You got to tell me, I'm looking at the pics right now. They look smooth. I'm not a lot. Ooh, baby.

You know, they're still, well, it's cool in some of the gang. They're still touring, aren't they? Well, it's cool and a really old gang. Yeah. Cool and part of the gang and some of the gang's grandchildren. Oh, they got stuck in a 360 deal. They can't stop performing now? No, I mean, and I wouldn't do, I would do the same thing if I was them.

I remember going to see Cooling the Gang at the Arena Bowl in like in 2005 in Denver. I'm like, they're still around and that was 2005. Good for them. Man, I could, you could get into a Cooling the gang rabbit hole and just listen to Joanna. Cool, the gang had some hits, man. Oh, baby, celebration. Jungle boogie? Oh, they made a celebration.

Oh, snap. Ladies Night We should just start giving Jonathan assignments Because you're how old Jonathan 22? What was your birth date? August 11, 2002. Go to your phone. 2002, man.

Go to your phone and just hit the Kooling the gang and listen to 5 or 6 songs. Not right now. You've got a busy on work on the show. But I got the way home from work today. Get in there and listen to it. You mean like, good God. Cooling the gang had some hits. Man, it's good times.

Yeah, he should know Jungle Boogie. Ladies Night, too hot. Joanna. I mean, if you want to go with a croon, uh, victory we just played. And this is all like 80s, right? Uh, it's more late 70s, early 80s. Okay, okay. But yeah, you're in that range. No, it's 70s, yeah. Yeah, 70s and 80s, yeah. But, uh, good, good time.

You give me earthwind and fire and cool in the gang, and I'm pretty much set. Okay. We talked about this at dinner last night. And it's not, not to say he's one of these groups, but we were all sitting around going, if we had once, we were left on a desert island. Huh. We had one song, song of the list. song one song that's it if you had to only listen to

one song the rest of your life my um my daughter Carly thought it was piano man that was incorrect oh for you for me my wife Kim got it correct that'd be Neil Sedacca's walking in the rain no it would not

it was laughter in the rain not walking or whatever you can laugh and walk mine would be hey Jude I'd listen to Hey Jude Hey Jude is good you'd have to pick something that's really long I would anyways because if you pick a three minute song and that bad boy is playing 20 times an hour, you're going to want to rip your hair out.

Well, you don't have necessarily listened to it every single minute of the day. I'm just saying, if you were stuck with one song. I was going to be in a loop. So let me ask you, if you were stuck with one song. I would go with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. No, seventh.

I'll go with the seventh symphony. You know, instrumental isn't a bad deal on that, but I'm not a big enough fan of instrumental music to give you to say... Also, there's three movements. So does that really count? It's like 40 minutes. Oh, yeah, I'll give you to you.

Okay, wonderful. If it's one song, it's one song. That's the rule. It's one song. Hey, Jude's about six, I think, give or take. A lot of it is nah, no, no, no, no. I mean, I would get a little bit old. No, if you're making me choose an actual pop song, oh, man, I don't even know.

I'll let you think about it. Like I'll choose something 10 minutes long. Stairway to heaven. Like free bird, stairway to heaven. Yeah. American pie? Hmm. That's a good one.

That's a long range of emotions. Oh, my God. Hot mess. Yeah. You'd also do one that would be kind of appropriate all by myself. if you are alone by an island. Yeah, but then that would be depressing. Then you'd be depressed.

I'll keep your spirits up. I'll go with Lucille by Baby King. That's like 10 minutes. It's a jam. You go to any James Brown song. Oh, that's a good pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Hey, Hunter Brown. My God, is he dealing. He's a beast. I love that attitude he has. I love that look in his eyes that he has when he's strutting away from striking somebody out. And he's like, bleep you. Why did you even get in the box?

Like, what are you doing? Go home. Get away. Yeah. And then like even if he gives up a hit or a walk or something like that, he's like, give me the damn ball back. I'm about to get everyone out. I love it.

He literally is maturing in front of our eyes. Yes. You know he's also maturing out in right fields, Cam Smith. Camp Smith is making plays. You know what he is, folks? He's just an athlete. Yes. And that's what the Astros said is that, yeah, we don't think long term you're a third

basement for this team. Nothing could obviously change. Brett is obviously playing extraordinarily well at the position, now, both defending and also with his offense. But we want to figure out the future. We need a, you need a great athlete. Your best athlete plays right field. And your center field.

Well, center field gets you your most territory. But I mean, in terms of throwing people out, tough angles, I've always put, I've always wanted to put my best true outfielder in right field. Yeah. Athlete is going to be shortstopper center usually. Right, right. Yeah. So he's just a player.

and I'm excited about his development. Your friend Jake Myers continues to slap it around. Jose Al-Tube continues to get hits and yet make the dumbest running mistakes in... Oh my God, what a bad base running out. By the way, Jake Myers 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. But we're looking big picture

here. He went from 305 to 286 and one night. That sample size in April can be pretty changeable pretty quick. By the way, Jake Myers will be a guest of the A team today at 2.30. He will? Yes. All right. Are you going to stick around and do the interview?

I mean, it feels like you should be part of the interview. I mean, you're doing like three or four times. Yeah, but do you think out of an M can handle it? Yeah. Okay. We're going to replay it on Astros on deck tonight, so it better be good. Oh, I bet you would. Oh, whatever.

That's easy. You play great interviews because we repackaged. Exactly. I don't begrudge that. It's two different audiences, Matt. Exactly. I'm not going to crush one for doing so. Thank you very much.

I appreciate that. Some might call others mailing it in, and then when we'll, they do it, it's not mailing it in, but that's okay. Who would be, who would have called mailing it in? There's hypocrites around here. Oh my God. That's, I don't, I don't, I don't work with any of them. Jake Myers, 2.30, we got Joe Spada coming up at 1230. And by

the way, was I right about, and I didn't necessarily forecast Zach Desenzo doing this thing, but my, to tell the truth yesterday was that a terrible take now when you think about it. It wasn't. Well, we'll see about the, you also said no NBA series is going seven games and two of them squared up.

Yeah, they did screw up yesterday. We're wearing up yesterday. I was like, what? That is fair. Hey, see, I told you, you got to get in the mind of a madman, Jonathan. Jonathan, to tell the truth is tough. It is. It is.

I will give you that. It is. When you're out on a two, or Monday, I'm like, I don't know if we're going to do this. All right, on the show today, we've got a lot of Hunter Brown conversation, the Astros offense putting up. And I want you to, let's get into the mind of George Springer. Obviously, not the body, right? financially well beyond his dreams.

He's doing great. But do you, is there a part of him as going, I'm up here in Toronto, I'm never going to, I got the Red Sox, I've got the Yankees to compete with every year, I've got Baltimore. Am I just,

was my 2017, my crescendo of my winning career? Oh no, I won a World Series. But I mean, when you win, when you win one, you want to win multiple. You want to make competitive.

But he was, so better towards the aster's. Like, I ain't taking any offer. I don't care what you throw it. We will discuss, and I think we should also discuss who is bat number two in the lineup yesterday. I think it's a great decision. Also on the radio show today, Shaq

did something last night on television that I applaud him for. We'll discuss that as well. Got feelings at 1130. Joe is spotted normally at 1230, but he's got a meeting today, so we will move him to 1.30 this afternoon, giving us a chance at 1230 to

get to Ross's NFL Rewind. 713-212-5-7-9. If you want to brag about the local 9's big victory. And it was big, 7-0-0. I mean, very few of those have happened so far. It was breezy. It was like, oh, that's their best win in the season. 1019.

It is the Matt Thomas show at Ross. We take you till 2 o'clock this afternoon. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Astros back at 500, 1-3-3-4. knocking off Toronto last night, 7-0. You know it was so nice, too, is that you got a crooked inning in. I mean, it feels like there haven't been a whole lot of those so far this year. But last night was one of them.

The Astros doing a lot of damage in the fifth inning. Some hard hit balls. The Senzo got the double. Altube had a double. Issaq Peretti's with an RBI single. Yeah. They went up against a good pitcher and they hit them. Normally, they get, you know, the guy throws.

seven innings of one-run ball and they're like yeah we went up against some good pitching we couldn't do anything hey you can hit good pitching it is possible yeah and it happened yesterday it is interesting to some of the more impressive wins this year for the local line have come against some of the better teams in baseball yep

it's how it goes with the saseros team you beat the match two out of three I mean that granted it was the first weekend series of the year but it was still the mats and they're very much a championship caliber team against the Padres now the Blue Jays coming to town you get a victory So the demise of the local line, it maybe have been greatly exaggerated by those nimrods on Astros.

Yeah. We had a a. We had a.O. last night on the, a positive a.O., I suppose. Oh, what did you say? On the 10th inning last night? No, it was a caller. And? Is Zach DeZenzo going to be taking over first base? I don't think so.

I think Christian Walker got a, what was it called a breather? Yes, a breather was the word, it was the term used by, Joe Espada, but he also did say post-game that Zach DeZenzo will be in the lineup today. Where? We'll find out later on. That's why I brought up, and I kind of flippantly did the Chaz McCormick stuff. I think the Astros is an organization like the future of Desenzo. I mean, let's face it. I mean, Chaz is who Chaz is.

He just turned 30. He was given an opportunity to make this roster coming out of spring training and play a little bit and play right field. that obviously he didn't even do enough in spring training to gather the confidence of the organization that Camp Smith, the guy had never played right field before in his entire life was given the opportunity to be the opening day right fielder. Yeah, so, I mean, Chad just had his 30th birthday.

So it's not like he's just some young up-and-comer who needs a little bit more time and A-Bs and all that type of stuff. He kind of is where he is right now. And Zach DeZenzo, some very hard hit contact yesterday, earning some playing time. I mean, and again, I think, think this is very much true for any major league baseball team over 162 games, especially with some guys that aren't tearing the cover off the ball.

Joe should be rotating some people around trying to find a hot hand. Because that's what that mean. When you are stuck in mediocrity, which is what at 11 and 11 is, there is really nobody with exception and probably, I mean, you can probably, in your starting nine, you've got three or four guys that absolutely should be in line up every day or at least six days a week. But the rest of the guys should be fighting for playing time right now. Nobody's crushing it from an offensive perspective. I always say the same thing about Janair Diaz.

I mean, maybe more Victor Caratini down the road. Who's to say? Yeah, we'll see with that. That'll be interesting. Backup catchers, though, you have to be very careful about that because, again, backup catchers are backup catchers for a reason. This is the thing, too, is whenever Caratini is in there as a backup catcher, that means he is in probably whatever best matchup gives him the chance to succeed.

So if you see a guy for a small sample size and you're like, oh, my God, the guy's hitting 300. Well, he's also getting a favorable matchup every time he goes out. So you play every time. somebody every day against lefties, righties, whatever repertoires, then the numbers go down eventually. When you can also say the thing about Maricio Dubon, too. Yeah, exactly.

You put him in in a particular batch up because he's had some success or he hits a certain player, a certain way, or certain pitches. You put him in there six days a week, and he regresses back to what Marisa Dubon is. Exactly. And that's why the constant arguing, what was it not, was it last year or the year before of he's got to play more? Was this like, you know, let's temper. Yeah.

Also, two years ago with Chas McCormick. Boy, Yarnar Diaz. I didn't get a hit yesterday, but still, that OPS is at 410. Gosh, Almighty. Struggling out of the get-go. Yeah. Well, you know, he was under the tutelage of Martine Maldonado for those years. I mean, this lineup still, generally speaking, is largely underperforming.

Yorda's OPS is 656. Altube's regress a little bit as of late. I mean, you're still looking at you, Pena's OPS is 6.9. You're supposed to be about $750 to be considered an average player. 800 put you in the really good club. 900 put you in the elite. Jake Myers, 682.

So he gets on base, but he just doesn't have any much sock to it. Brendan Rogers has been nice, but the OPS is 645, two-hitch yesterday. A couple RBSs. Yeah, but I mean, let's just face it.

If the Astros are going to win this division and or make the playoffs, they're probably going to have to do it with the guys that are on the rubber every day. Yes. And so far, the bullpen, has been B plus.

It's been great. Starting rotation's been an A-9-9. We didn't even mention Forrest Whitley. Six outs yesterday. Really seven, if you count the strikeout that got the first. Yeah, dropped the third strike.

He looked good. Forrest Whitley looked good. So, and again, this is where predicting baseball issues are always a very funny test. Because you and I, we had some good-natured fun of the month of March

about whether or not with the Achilles Hill of this team was being. And you were like, when he's starting pitching. He's starting pitching. Really we're about starting pitching. And look, everybody needs depth, though, so to say that nobody needs death is ridiculous. But by and large, I'm very rarely ever embarrassed about a starting pitcher playing for the local nine right now.

The bullpen's been better. The bullpen's one of the best in baseball. Unless you think Ronell Blanco was going to go back to what Rinal Blanco was prior to last season. No, he's not going to go to that, but I think he's going to be better than he has been. And then you've got hopefully Lance McCuller's coming back. back, which is going to add another interesting decision. It's kind of coming together. And honestly, in this division where you are in fourth place, but you are only two back of the Rangers and first,

you're allowed a little bit of wiggle room and the Astros have been able to survive the wiggle room that has been largely an underperforming bottom five offense in Major League Baseball. Yeah, it's going to be the offense. The starters have been middle of the pack. They're 391 ERA, which is, 15th. And then if you go to relievers, they've been one of the best in baseball.

That's fourth at 280. Best in the American League. Yeah, honestly, to me, and again, we're only talking about a small sample size of 23 games. Yes, we are. 22 games. To me, it's,

the offense has got to wake up. Absolutely. And it's not going to win the division if it continues to struggle for the most part. Now, yesterday was a nice sign, especially, you know, Toronto's got some decent pitching we're going to see in this series. And the Astros got to them yesterday. I mean, Kevin Gossman, I mean, even with getting racked, hit hard yesterday, his ZRA's barely

above three. So he's having a really good season. Now, he's also looking for some offensive support. He's two and two, the earning of 3.16, which means he, which means he's staying in games long up to get decisions, but he's also not getting much run support. Yeah, he's been great. And he's been great for Toronto when they sign him to that big deal. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. Now, Jerry Springer, George Springer's having a very good season for the Blue. George Springer.

Probably his best start as a Blue Jay since he's been up there, I would say. Okay. I mean, the OPS, even after going when he went one for two years, his OPS 9-81, so he's obviously, he's sucking the ball. But if you're him, do you just go, you know what? I got my championship. I got my check. I'm moving on. Because when I look at Toronto, I think to myself, a lot of hitting, not a front-end pitching, not a lot of back-end pitching, and certainly not a great bullpen.

I'm sure he hoped it would have gone better. I mean, I don't think he signed this long deal that he did, thinking that he wasn't going to win anything here. Yeah. It's also really hard to win a World Series championship. He's got people around him. He got paid. Chet and Guerrero and Santander recently, sent a little Santander, who the Astros were trying to kick the tires on a little bit. He's not been good for them.

A Vladito. Yeah, like you said, Guerrero. Yeah, they just haven't been good enough. And they're in a tough division as well. I don't think he's having any regrets, but I'm sure if you've asked him, hey, did this go the way you want it? He's like, no, I probably would have liked one more.

Yeah, that's right. All right, 1028, it is about Toma's show with Ross. If you'd like to be a part of our radio program, we'd love to have you at 713-212-5-790. All right, listen to me very carefully. We just got a pair of tickets for the playoff game tomorrow night inside Toyota Center. Excuse me?

You heard me. I didn't swear. Woo! Horse Center. The Houston Rockets versus the Golden State Warriors at Toyota Center. At Toyota Center. Playoffs. Yes. That's a serious prize, Matthew. And we're going to get them away in the 1 o'clock hour.

When? We're not going to tell you. But you just can't listen to 1 o'clock hour for us to tell you when to call. You have to know the winning phrase. The phrase that pays. Well, we're not paying you. We're giving you. It pays you rockets tickets.

That's true. That's true. The phrase, the winning phrase, is something I say, hopefully at least once per rocket broadcast. Well, not a whole lot in the last one. This is true. The phrase you must recite to Jonathan in the one o'clock hour when we call for it is what I say, nothing but nylon.

Okay. So in the 1 p.m. hour, when somebody says, or you say, nothing but nylon. Mm-hmm. Call in. That's your cue to call. The seventh person. Seventh.

The seventh person that hears that in the one o'clock hour that calls in, is going to win the tickets to see the Rockets and the Warriors tomorrow night. Okay. Love it. Now we're not saying the phrase again. We'll say the phrase again in an hour. Yes. Don't call again when we say it an hour.

It will be at the one o'clock hour to win the seventh caller. And I'll just organically think. throw it in the conversation. And when I do, that's when you'll give a chance to win those tickets. So, you 1030 years, you've been given a little bit of advance notice. One o'clock out. You're welcome. Rockets Warriors.

Last night, we did see a pair of series go even in a game of piece. The road teams did win. Detroit won at New York. I believe that is a either 15 or 16 game postseason losing street that came to an end for the Detroit Pistons. Oh, good for them. They earned it. Yeah. So Detroit won last night.

The Los Angeles Clippers, even the series with the Denver Nuggets at a game of a piece in Los Angeles. And I thought, I ain't given you credit out of these things, but I have to. What did I do? You talked about, on your Twitter account, about how we described Kawhi Leonard. Yes. All the time.

Because let me give you the ultimate positive. Ungartable. Yes. can beat you anywhere on the floor. Mid-range, lay-ups, three-point shot. There just isn't a spot on the floor that he is not incredibly fluid. Problem is this. He just can't stay healthy.

And in the world in which we live in, we're attendance as part of the grade. I mean, you could be a great student, but if you don't go to class, they're going to fail you out of the class. and I think that to me is a large reason why you don't think of Kauai Leonard as one of the greats of the greats. Because if you were to describe Kauai Leonard and you started putting a list together of the great things or any description of who he is, you could clearly say he is a two-time world champion.

You can say he is one of the most highly compensated NBA players. He is one of the most interesting, multiple point guard, small forward. big guard, multiple position type player. But man, the first thing you think of is what is he in pain for now? Is he going to play again? Yeah.

To me, one of the handful of greatest perimeter defenders I've ever seen. Oh, I forgot about that, yeah. Six foot seven, seven foot three wingspan, giant hands, smart, strong. I mean, the reason the spurs won that championship in 2014 because he was locking up prime LeBron

James. Yeah. I mean, he's ultimately, people always trying to figure out what Amin Thompson wants to be. If a man Thompson could be Quaillan, you'd take him in a heartbeat. Minus the injuries. But the problem is, Kauai is a much better shooter. Kauai is a much better shooter. He has multiple seasons of 25 plus points per game, but never a

scoring champion, never an MVP, but two-time defensive player of the year. Two-time world champion. Went to Toronto and help them. Finals MVP on two different teams. Mm-hmm. Which I think has only been done by LeBron and maybe Kareem. It's an interesting resume to place him. Like if I say, if I say greater all time, Kevin Durant or Kauai Lennard.

It's, it's Duran for me. It's Durant. But, man, if Kauai had played a little bit more, he's there. Well, let's add 50% more games to Kaui Leonard's resume. And I would say it'd be very, very close, if not even a small smidge advantage to Kauai. but you can't do that because he's missed so much time. And they're a lot of athletes that way. I mean, we run into a lot of amazing folks.

I mean, for instance, and I get teased about this because I was very concerned about Yao Ming in his feet when he was first with the Rockets back in the day. When Yao Ming played, he was unguarded. He just was. He just didn't play. But he just didn't play. I mean, you could say that about a lot of big men, but I mean, that happens in sports all the time. You know, there are lots of great. For instance, Max Scherzer, one of the best pitchers in the last 25 years.

But unfortunately, the last five years of his major league career, I've talked more about him being injured than he's been about actually pitching. It just goes with the territory. The body doesn't cooperate sometimes with the natural ability. I'm going to throw some more at you. Kauai Leonard, greatest all time. Or Derek Davidski. See, the attendance is hurting me every single time.

So if you want to say. Equal games? Kauai. Man. Okay. Janice Atentacumpo. Or Kauai? Mm-hmm. Kauai.

Based off of equal playing time. Because here's the thing about, Janus is downhill as unbreakable as I've seen, but he is a disaster from three-point range, and he hurts you at the free throw line. Kauai doesn't do either one of those two things. Kauai Linnett or Kevin Garnett.

Garnet. Oof. I think I go Kauai, but it's close. It's just interesting. Yeah. You can do this a lot of times. Because he is so, Kauai is so talented,

so, like you said, unstoppable, unguaritable, all those things. Multiple positions, multiple defensive positions. Two-time defensive player of the year. I mean, if you want to,

like, there we always, people always say, well, who's a man Thompson? And I say, well, you know, if he's,

if he's Andre Goda, he's going to have an amazing NBA career. But I think he could be better than Andre Godel. I think the next level above being a five-by-five player is from Andre Aguadello to Quai Leonard. But again, Kauai just misses so much time that, you know, he invented rest. You know what's not? You're talking about five-by-five players.

I know this name is radioactive in Houston, but Draymond Green? No, Draymond Green created five-by-five. Yeah, I'm okay with that. It's a sixth layer that just pisses me off. They're kicking people in the nuts layer? It wasn't an issue in game one, thankfully. No, no. But he was bitching the officials.

time. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was. 1040 on Sports Talk 790. 713. 212.5.79. We've got gut feelings coming up at 1130. NFL rewind at 1230 and Joe Espottalto be with us at 1.30 this afternoon. Game 2 of the series between the Astros and the Blue Jays and I'll have the on deck show for you beginning tonight at 6 o'clock with a 710 first pitch inside Dyken Park. I feel like if we did a tip jar this year, that our tip jar would be rather low on the name of the ballpark.

I thankful. I have started, what if you do half the word? I've done, or me, but I haven't. I don't think I've said. I think I've said the stadium formerly known as Minute Made. Okay, that works. That's true. Also formerly known as Astros Field.

Yeah, it's been a few things back in the day. I remember when Enron went down, they're like, hey, the Astros called us and said, hey, we just won't let you know or change the name of the stadium. To what? Astros Field. Oh, okay. You know, it's happening a lot in sports markets. I mean, the arena in Phoenix.

Phoenix, Ph.X Arena, right? It's PHX Arena. Miami's Arena has been named five different things. Uh-huh. It was the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland for a while, right? Yeah, and then it went to Oracle. It was O.D.O.D.C. Oh, you're going to the outdoor.

Because the indoor arena used to be called the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Okay. Now it's just Oracle. Now it's just a dump. And now it's abandoned, right? No, it was used. It was used during All-Star Weekend. For who?

They did the celebrity, uh, Oh, they stuck Kevin Hart and his friends in there. Yeah. And Bebs or whoever? Kevin Hart. I don't know who anybody. What? Loved him in the Tom Brady Roast, but I wasn't going to watch him.

Okay. Pound for pound, maybe the most overrated comic out there right now. His stand-up is actually not bad. It's just that he does a billion movies with The Rock and plays the same character and all of them, but he makes a ton of money, so good for him. How about this one? I got one for you. Jack Black, he is now back on the scene.

Where is he? He's like, I've been gone for 20 years. in the Minecraft, yeah. Why was he gone for 20 years? I never liked him to begin with. Yeah, most prolific one-note actors who do the same character and everything. So basically Hollywood said go away for a while and come back and let's try this again.

But he was on SNL like a couple weeks back. Yeah, he was in the Mario movie. He was King Cooper. Yeah. Shadow Howe wasn't terrible, I'll be honest with you. Shallow how, it was like 20 years ago. Yeah, Nacho Libre was a little overrated for me. Nacho Libre was okay. Yeah. It's funny or the second time?

It's one of those movies that the first time you watch it, you're like, this is the weirdest, stupidest thing I ever saw. And it's funny. Because the same director of Napoleon Dynamite. That's how I felt about Napoleon Dynamite the first time I watched it. I was like, this is the dumbest movie I've ever seen. Yeah. And then I watched it again, and I was like, I can't stop laughing.

Yeah. You know how I felt about that was the McEloven movie. Oh, Super Bad was great. Super Bad. It was a classic from the giggo. I enjoyed it the first time. I barely laughed the second time. We used to pregame with the Super Bad Drinking Game in college.

Anytime they mention drinking or alcohol, you have to drink, anytime I think they mentioned sex or something. So we were getting hammered. Yeah, and it didn't take you long, I don't think. Not at all. 1043, Sports Talk, 790, 713-212-5-790. All right, I put a poll question up. It's got a day to let you vote.

The question is, interest level in round one of the NFL draft. It's a 24-hour poll. And again, it's just based off the people that follow me on 20s. and you would like to get your vote in. You may do so at SportsMT as a Twitter account. Four options. Huge. Sure, I'll check it out.

Minimal. No interest. I like that. 64% sure, I'll check it out. Which feels like that's me. Sure, I'll check it out. I mean, Thursday, we got nothing going on Thursday because the rockets are off and I believe what are the Astros doing on Thursday?

Are they playing a game on Thursday? Let's see here. They are off as well. So, yeah, Thursday night's a good night just to sit back and just kind of see what other things are going on. Watch some playoff basketball and the draft. Yeah, 64% sure, I'll check it out. 27% huge, 9% minimal and 0% with zero interest. So.

And you can welcome Nuggets and Clippers to NBA TV. Is that where it's on? Yeah, on Thursday? The two NBA TV series. eat calves and Nuggets Clippers. Poor guys. Ross, we just can't. We're just not an NBA.

I mean, we're not a great sports team. Oh, no, we're not going to talk about it. Yeah, we're not going to talk about it. I'll be watching it. Maybe on our own podcast. You want to do NBA playoff podcast? The playoff push. Plinkos, power bombs, and the playoff push.

And the playoff push. We're on the air. We're on there enough as it is. I might have to sit out when you talk about wrestling. Yeah, by the way, thoughts and prayers of Pat McAfee who got choked out last night during he did during Raw hopefully he's going to be able to do his show today oh I thought I heard you jumping up and applauding

McAfee for me is really intriguing on game day everything else is horrifically bad bro stick stick yeah apparently he's high as a kite when he works his wrestling events by the way really who said that Sina and Paul Heyman have both referenced the amount of weed that he smokes. Oh, okay.

Which I'm thinking if, you know. He's got a lot of football injuries, but he was a punter, so I don't know. I don't know. Another thing, too, is, you know, Joe Tessator is the host of Smackdown. He is? Yeah. And he is a fantastic college football announcer and a very good boxing announcer. I love him on blow by blow.

But it's an acting role. He knows what's coming up. but he treats it with all the sincerity if he's calling a game between Auburn and Georgia. Well, do they tell the announcers what's happening? What's going to happen? They're going to have to at some point. They don't have to be in the dark? No, because you have to know what the angles are. You're going to know what the next segment is coming up.

You got to know when to talk, when not to talk. You probably not know every single thing, but my guess is you've got to have a pretty good feel of what's going on. Uh-huh. Yeah, I would think probably if you were, if there was a 10-page script, they probably have nine of them. it'd be hard for me to to pretend to legitimately talk about a sporting event or sports and entertainment event already knowing the result

you call Steph Curry 3s you already know they're going in oh damn Ross that hit the that hit the midsection it's true too I know I don't want it to be true he had two the other night that was just like the fall away on the right side and then like the pull up 35 footers So the old in rhythm, 35-footer, which you say to no one else in the world except Steph Curry.

He's the one that can say it. And like I said, it just splashes in. There's no rattling. It just splashes in. It's crazy how good he is. Still at 37. Yeah. Defensively, still a hot mess.

He can still turn a ball in with the best. Oh, Jalen Green doesn't think he's a hot mess. That's, you know what? If I was, unfortunately, I'm not doing pregame tomorrow. But key to victory, Jalen Green, win the switches against Steph Curry. You have to get by him. You have to.

at worst case, go get a foul or at least try to go get a foul. He did draw one foul once. Ridiculous. Must win tomorrow. Very important that they win this game tomorrow. It's a must win. It's very important that they win.

But if they don't, the series doesn't end, so. Oh, I think for Houston it will end. Oh, okay. Ask the 90s rockets if it ends when you get down 02 at home. Yeah, it's true. It was against Phoenix, too. Speaking of that, I didn't watch much. much NBA last night because I was watching the Astros.

But Shaquille O'Neal, he certainly takes his jabs by us and by everybody because he just doesn't care about the NBA, even though he works in it. That's fine. He does great. He's been able to carve out a magnificent post

basketball crew with his investments and endorsements and whatnot. Yeah, he just sold a company and gave his brother a big check. I saw it on Twitter and he's like told him to go buy a Bentley. That's nice. And I think, and Shaq, I want that kind of check. He's been in Houston quite a bit, and he buys out restaurants, which is kind of nice.

I mean, not very few athletes do that. Good for him. I think he's gone to breakfast club a couple times and bought people breakfast and whatnot. Oh, really? Yeah. I need to go get in line. Is there still a line there? Oh, yeah.

I'm just not a line guy. I know, Matt. Don't roll your eyes. It's not out of the ordinary. People don't go, hey, let's go find a place where we can go wait for 45 minutes. Oh, sometimes you go to a restaurant and there's a 45-minute wait. It's the same thing. That's true.

But at least I know that going in. Okay. I would, for two eggs and some ham, I don't know if I want to be waiting 45 minutes, but that's a different issue. Well, you'll never know. We'll keep eating your Rennies, telling yourself it's just as good. Rennies is fine by me. I know. I sit down and get orange juice, coffee.

Rennies is off my list. Why? No. Done for life. Did something happen to you over there? The one by me is the last two times I got pancakes, they tasted like, they tasted like, they taste like cardboard. You tell them? No, I didn't tell them.

I just told them, I'm just never going back. You're not afraid to tell people how bad their food is. what are they going to do? Send me more cardboard pancakes. You know what? Jonathan and I'll go to Rennies. We'll be fine. They just tasted cheap and like spongy. Thank you very much. I used to. I used to.

I used to, but I had two really bad experiences at the same one and I'm never going again. So you just said, forget the entire chain based off a one bad location. No, I'm sorry. I'm lying. It was two times at that location. It was one time when we went in West Palm. The pancakes were terrible. That is true. I'll give you that one. All right. So back to Shack for a second. So, uh, he wasn't feeling well.

and when you got to go, you got to go. And in the middle, I've never seen this before on live television. Yeah. In the middle of a segment, he's like, I'll be right back. And he quickly, he scampered to the bathroom. And the way that he was walking, he was going to walk in like this. You need to go look at the video of it. Matter of fact, we should post it on our socials.

You can tell by his gate that he was trying to make sure there was no slippage. So I'm going to be brutally honest with you. That happens to me about once a month. So, you know, I'm going to give him his flowers and say, nobody wants to get flowers for this, man. You know what you can't? You'd rather give flowers. Using their term incorrectly.

Well, I respect his ability to say, you know what, I got to exit out of this segment. Because if I don't exit out of this, there's the other thing exiting out of me. Yeah. So he got up and he scampered and first thing Charles said, does I make any matches back there? Or make sure you bring the matches, yeah. Yeah, so there you go. Gosh.

What? Yeah, did he say anything about it? Has there been a statement release? I don't think you had to release a statement. Because they had to release a statement because they said a player was dead and he wasn't. They did do that. That wasn't great. Apparently a player for the Portland Trailblazers back in the day.

And Ernie was very serious about it. He's like, we didn't do it intentionally. It was kind of flippant, but we screwed up and we're sorry. Yeah, it was. was, what was his name? I'm trying to find it. Henry Lee Jones? Something Bates.

Oh, Henry, I don't know what it was. Billy Ray Bates. Billy Ray Bates. And Charles was just joking. And I was like, you know what? We would do that on this show. He was just joking about it. Oh, we've met up all the time on that.

He's like, there's Billy Ray Bates alive. And then nobody knew if he was alive. And then Shaq, the Shack made it worse. Sheck goes, he's passed. And he was alive. We've done that. We ain't guilty. We have.

We're guilty. 10.59. Let's get the second hour of the Matt Thomas show with Rawl started. Are we got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour? This is where we make our sports predictions. And I'm stayed away from the Rockets Warriors prediction because look, I have a vested interest.

I'm going to pick Rockets against everybody. So it is just what it is what it is. Rockets and 7. That's what I started with. That's what I'm sticking with. Let's go. If this thing goes 7, first of all, be happy. Secondly, I will be a basket case. Oh, I know. I'm a basket case right now. Game 7 in Toyota Center against the Warriors. Woo! Yeah. And

By the way, I love me some Fred Van Vleep, but Freddie, don't talk about... He's going to be better. He's got to be better. And second, don't talk about the crowd. Why? What did he say that was wrong? See, everybody got all pissy about this? I'm not, I'm just saying...

Not you. I know. I'm just saying, you gotta be... It'd be... I think going after crowds, first of all, is always dangerous. And number two, it's really tough to do it when you had a really bad shooting. Okay, I agree with number two. He should not have said what he said.

If you missed it, basically, I can try to find it. But Fred Van Vleet said, yeah, the crowd was great. I've been looking for it since I got here. And I don't disagree with him on that. And he's absolutely 100% right. Yeah, it's a large corporate crowd that just enters late, leaves early, and doesn't necessarily get overly energized. But there hasn't been a lot of energy in the last couple of years.

This year's obviously been significantly different. It has been a much more of a fun vibe buildup than there has been in a long period. of time. Yes. And I was kind of, I was looking purposely at the crowd in game one, trying to look around multiple times during the game. As I said yesterday, there was a lot of Warriors

fans early, but then it was vastly vast majority Rockets fans, which made me happy. But also at pockets of the game, especially in the beginning, there was a lot of the club seating. There was a lot of empty seats. But the shirts were taken, which tells

me they're in the building, but people are just hanging out in the club. Right. Which, by the way, shout out to y'all to hang out in the club. Those prices, ooh, $25 for a single beverage. I mean, you need your drink on. You got to get your drink out. But man, you better bring the checkbook with you.

So I think it is that a lot of the people are there, but they're just hanging out in the club, doing corporate schmoozing and stuff like that, rather than watching and cheering for the game. But the crowd was great on Sunday. I will say this. because look, we have taken our shots at crowds for all three sports teams in this town, not just the rock. I mean, look, the wave being done at Minutemey Park is an embarrassment.

Texans fans don't typically show up until the second quarter because they're out tailgating and whatnot. It's just who we are as a community. I thought I was fully expecting an overrun of Steph Curry every time the Warriors and Steph Curry. And that didn't happen in the room. No, it didn't. I thought, and the first five minutes certainly helped the dictation of that.

First five minutes, there was a tremendous pop in the building. And it certainly helped out that the rockets got up to a good start. And then they only scored seven points for like eight minutes. Don't don't put that. The building didn't. That's fine. It is what it is. All right.

713, 212-579. If you want to jump in on our conversation again, we've got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour. Rockets on the practice court today will take on the Warriors game 2, 830. And we'll have some details on how you can win some tickets coming up at the bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. Well, we do have two giveaways. If you go to my Twitter at SportsRV, you can see we're going to do the preset that we've been doing, preset giveaway that we've been doing doing.

We'll be doing that drawing tomorrow. Also coming up at 1 o'clock, there'll be the phrase that pays. And when will we tell you next month? What the phrase is? In the bottom of the hour. There we go. By the way, NBA television ratings are out. Highest opening weekend in the NBA in 25 years.

What? Yeah. But the NBA was dead and nobody cared. No, well, it. that's what the haters will say. Oh. I, like I said, I guess we're maybe the exception,

but I've been watching a lot of the playoff action. Both games last night had drama at the end. They're really good. Nuggets Clippers is going to be a, I think, six or seven games, slobber knocker. It's going to be fun. Yeah. All right.

What was fun last night was watching Hunter Brown. Seven more scoreless innings. 24 collectively. The diesel. I haven't thought. fully bought into the diesel, but I'm going with it. Yeah, it's, when I, when I

call somebody a nickname, it's, it's got to be to me you call me jackass every day. Well, that's your nickname for me. I've been calling, it's been easier since 2010. Like, I, there's very few players, like on the Rockets.

I call Dylan villain. Okay. It's just, it, it rolls. He is Dylan. I call, a man Thompson's nickname is twin. His brother, his brother, also. He is a twin. He is, but it means just... Well, that's also a slang that people just call

them twin. Like, what's up, twin? I could say that to Jonathan. That's why it makes me laugh when you say it to men on the interviews. Yeah. Because it's like you're using young kids slang. Well, that's because I'm a young kid. Wait, say it for me. I want to hear it. Twin?

I think we have some of the internet. I can find one of the interviews with him calling a man twin. It is, it's pretty funny. That's his nickname. Nobody calls him that, do they? Oh, I didn't make that up. The whole team calls him twin. Like the action calling Twin?

Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, are you kidding? I didn't make that up myself. It's not like, like, if I would, if I came to you right now, Mel, oh, what's up, twin? It's not like that. No, no, but that's how he uses it, though. It's funny.

Here, let me see. Is my computer on? Here, Matt Thomas with a man Thompson on the floor, 28 minutes, twin for you. Seven of 11, 50 points, 10 rebounds. Yeah. It's like, what's up, twin? You said, good, hey, you said, good flow. Yeah.

Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. Matt's got young and hip. that the young hip slang I like it I'm going to be very confident telling you if he was not a twin

I would not be calling him twin I think it's great what's up twin I'm gonna start just calling you twin all over I don't think you should and why not it didn't fit you and I are the opposite of twins

I have class oh we're more similar than you want to admit oh no don't even say that all right back to the Astros so yeah Diesel for me is just I like it It's like a 6 out of 10 for me

But it's growing on me And you know what If he keeps throwing gas Like he is out there Love it I'm trying to think Who we call nicknames Among players we've had on the show

I've know We've had Chaz on before But I don't think we call him Chazzy Fizz No I don't think we mentioned it though I think one of the first times We had him on Because that's his Twitter campaign

Yeah yeah And you were like telling him To change it or something Yeah I mean, I think I call Breggman A.B. I've called him Breggs. I've got, you know, but that's not, I'm just not a huge nickname person. At least to your face. Behind your back, I'll call you a bunch of different things. Unless it's twin. Yeah. 7-0. The Astros win yesterday. Three wins out of their last four. And they're getting their home mojo back a little bit. And you know what? Two games out, even though it's fourth place, still very early in the season. A lot of teams, facing this, think about this, Ross. If this team, if this team, And in normal circumstances was hitting as poorly as it is,

this team would be nine games, seven in games under 500, probably buried in fifth place in division. I mean, sometimes you do appreciate where you live geographically and in the teams within your America League West. Because they're just purely pedestrian right now offensively, and they're right there with the Rangers in the America League West. And I just have three words to say about Hunter Brown. Lock him up.

Lock him up. I thought you said, pay the man. Lock him up. Pay the man works too. Astros history of paying pitchers. Early? Let's talk. Verlander's been compensated very well.

Yeah, but he was also like in his late 30s and 40s. Garrett Cole never got to deal with the Astros. No. And now he's torn my UCL. And doing a remake of the Rappin' movie for some. No, he's not, Matt. McCullors? Yes. McCullors got paid.

Got paid. A lot of people were like, what are you doing when they're, that happened. Bought out arbitration, correct, right? I think, yeah, yeah, very slight, yeah, yeah. Oh, Christian Javier got paid. Bought out arbitration years on that. That's true. And speaking of UCL tears. We don't have a firm, I don't know, if I'm Hunter Brown.

Granted, we're dealing in what we're just, we're watching now as compared to what we watched a year ago at this point. But can you kick the tires on a buying? some years out? Or do you, if you're Hunter Brown, like, you know what, we'll have this conversation at the end of the season. Me, you, Scott Boris, and Scott Boris can tell you to shut your bum ass up. Exactly. You can try to do it. You should start doing it now. And Scott Borris are going to be like, I see you later. Yeah. I know how you deal with us. You want to return my text. He's like, oh, now you got my number now. That's crazy how that works. Yeah, that's exactly right.

I always think surveys are kind of interesting or list. Just kind of things that keep me interested in sports besides X's and O's of whatnot. And Astros will be back in action. We'll have Joe Espato with us at 1.30 today to talk all things Astros. We have gut feelings coming up at about 10 minutes from now. This is coming from, I don't know where he or this website. Oh, from Sportico. Or is it a Sportico, right?

Is that he pronounced it? I think, yeah. Sportico. Sportico. It's a Sportico. Yes. Top 50 highest pay athletes of all time. Of all times.

Of all times. Okay, is this counting like money that they've made or this is only as professionals? Like Michael Jordan's a billionaire. This would have to be because of everything basketball, sports related and market. In and out of sports. In and out of sports. Okay. At number 50, just to kind of give you a range of where this person is.

Carminell Anthony is the 50th richest athlete ever. Really? Yeah. He made $500. $70 million in his career. Okay. It's kind of put things in perspective. All right. Let's see, Rossi. I put you to the challenge on this.

Let's see how well you do with, let's see how you do on the top 10. Okay, Boris Becker, number one. I'm going to let you try this again. I'll go with Michael Jordan, number one. $4.15 billion, number one. Playing career, Nike, Gatorade, McDonald's. Team ownership. Team ownership, although he was a terrible owner.

terrible general manager but yeah 4.15 billion dollars no December 1 okay number 1 okay number 2 I want to go either LeBron James or Leonel Messi

I'm going to go with I'm going to go with LeBron James that is incorrect LeBron is number 4 Tiger at 2.79 billion dollars that's easy what was I thinking

oh it's a lot of money I mean it's Phil Mickelson's up there uh yeah he certainly is yeah I'll go with Phil in the top 10 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. No, just outside of the top 10. Phil Michelson is number 11.

Okay. At 1.49 billion. Is Leo Messi on there? Do they have world athletes on it? Yes, Leo Messi is on there. Okay, where is it? 1.85 billion. Woo!

So let's go, we'll go from 10 to 1. Okay, so I'm missing three. Yeah, you've done well. Rinaldo? Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano Ronaldo is number three, 2.23 billion. Okay.

Woo! You're knocking this out. Good for you. I'm going to go, is Roger Federer in there? Yes, he is coming in at number nine, at $1.59 billion. I thought he might have been a little higher. There are two names in the list you'll never get. Okay. Is Thomas Brady in there?

Thomas Brady is not on that top ten list. Okay. I'm... Showing O'Haw Tani? No, let me just keep a little... Let me give you 10 to 1. 10 to 1.10 at number 10, Floyd Mayweather, $1.5.2 billion. That's good. Federer 9 at 1.9.

David Beckham at 1.6.1. I guess I could have got that. At number 7, Jack Nicholas, $1.75 billion. Really? Even more. The golden bear. Numbers are six. Arnold Palmer, one point. No way.

How many is this guy selling? Well, he's selling an expensive golf courses and golf club. Lino Messi at 5 LeBron James 4 Christiana Ronaldo 3 Tiger Woods 2 and Michael Jordan number 1. Other people on the list that we would care about

Chris Paul at number 46 $615 million Are you serious? Not what I would expect Let's go CP3 Kevin Garnett A few spots up at 655

No way Kevin Garnett made more money in his life then Evanor Holyfield at $650. James Hardenworth, $640 million in career earnings. Damn. There are some crazy ones in here. Peyton Manning, $750 million. Yeah, he was selling all those Budwisers.

Tom Brady, $820 million in career earnings. What number is Tom Brady? They don't do numbers. Here's not to do a quick check on that. Let's count it. Stephen Curry 950. Mike Tyson, 960. Greg Norman 1.14 billion.

And the deuce, Kevin. Greg Norman. Greg Norman, one point one point billion. I do have some Greg Norman collection shirts that I got from Coles. Well, the shirts and probably his NIA, his not as, uh, uh, live tours doing him well for him. And then you've got, uh, the deuce, uh, Shaquille and Neil at 1.27 billion. It's a lot of pizzas. The deuce?

Well, nobody calls him the deuce, man. After yesterday they do. He's the diesel. He is a diesel. He is a deuce. The M. DE. The M. DE. Most dominant Ebbler.

They called him deuce yesterday. No, he wasn't, they weren't calling him deuce, Matt. They called him duty calls. Duty calls. You're not calling him Boo Boo Boonee. Come on, man. Grow a tail O'Neill.

Oh, come on, man. Manny Pacquiao, 775 million. Mani Pacow. Kevin Durant, 1.07 billion. Kevin Durant's a billionaire. There's no way. Billionaire.

$1.07 billion. Good for him. I've had conversations with like five of these people on this list. I kind of feel lucky. We're proud of you, Matt. I was wondering how you get yourself in this list somehow. No, I'm well done this list. Yeah, I don't think I'll make this list under any circumstance.

But yeah, it's crazy. A lot of money in sports. Thank you, television network. Thank you to the public. Thank you to the advertisers that support these things. Because you've taken Carmelo Anthony, granted, he's going to the Basketball Hall of Fame this year. Really nice player.

Not one of the all-time greats. Hall of Super really good. And he's turning into $570 million of his career. Just in front of him at 49 was Drew Brees at 585. Air Rogers 620. Russell Westbrook, $665 million in earnings. What is Russell Westbrook endorsing except big contracts?

He must have a shoe deal of some sort of apparel. I don't know. He's also been in the league a long time, too. I think it's a Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, been paying a lot of money. Oh, he does not like going to Utah. Actually, frankly, most NBA players don't like going to Utah. All right. Time for us to make some predictions.

You ready, Ross? No. How did we do last week, by the way? We'll find out. I was sick last Tuesday. You were? I don't think I can keep track You're never here

I wish I was here I actually wanted to be with you Which is really strange for me to say He's a grown man 102 degree fever Less than hanging out with Ross I appreciate that I'm glad you'd choose me over a high fever man

I figured you'd like that That's what it took All right would you like to make some sports predictions If you would 713212 5790 719 we're looking for you to come in with your gut feelings If you get them right

we let you brag about it. If you get them wrong, we largely forget about them unless they're so absurd. We can make fun of them. Okay. So we got gut feelings next. 1127. This is Sports Talk 790. All right.

We are giving away a pair of tickets for the Rockets and the Warriors tomorrow and I inside TOTA center. Today, we're giving them away at some point in the 1 o'clock hour. Make sure, Ross, I'm saying this so we're getting absolutely zero confusion. in the 1 o'clock hour. Today. Today, you're going to hear me say one of my phrases that I use on Rockets Radio, and that's nothing but nylon. Nothing but nylon is the phrase that pays.

When I say that in the 1 o'clock hour, it'll be organic in the conversation. Okay. You're going to be the 7th caller. When you're the 7th caller, to hear me say nothing but nylon. In the 1 o'clock hour, you're going to see the Rockets and the Warriors tomorrow and I'd inside Toyota Center. Wonderful. That's the phrase? That pays.

Nothing but Nylon in the 1 o'clock hour. And we're not going to say it again until 12.30. Okay. So there you go. All right. Gut feelings time. This is where you come in at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-2-5-7-9-0, where you get to make your sport predictions.

Ross, how do we do from last week? All right. First up, I said the Rockets will play the Golden State Warriors. This was before the playing games. win. I said they will defeat the Warriors in seven. Love it. TBD. I said that the Astros would win. This was against St. Louis last week with Hunter Brown on the mound. That was a very easy prediction for me. They did win two nothing. I said Hunter Brown would throw seven innings of two run ball. He threw six innings of shutout ball. Yeah, the shutout streak is now to 24 consecutive. That's pretty good. Yep. Oh, no. I said

Shailon Green's going to go off for 30 plus in game one. Not real close on that one. Remind me again, Matt. How many points did he score? No, I'm not telling you. I think it was seven? It was definitely in single digits,

and it was a lot of misses, unfortunately. Oh, we'll take a big L on that. I said when McCullors comes back for the Astros, I thought it was going to be this week, but then he had his stomach bug. he caught what Shaq got he's going to throw four innings with Turing runs giving up

but the Astros would win the game so that's TBD on the list of that one sure Jonathan said that Ashton Jainty would go on the top 15 of the NFL draft and will be picked ahead of Shador Sanders I think you're going to lose on that one

you think Shador gets going first? I think Shador I think Shador is going first I don't see why I don't see why I don't know why he's a lot of people have his stock going down but when an owner steps in and says, hey, take a quarterback, then that's where things can get right. Oh, it's a business side. Okay.

Yeah, there's a business side to it for sure. He also has Travis Hunter top three, which I think is going to happen. And not that Mel Kiper determines everything, but Mel Kuiper has been very effusive in his praise about how much he loves Sardor Sanders. Well, other draft, Nick's not so much. It's in the eye of the beholder, right? Now, you and I don't study the film. No.

Oh, God, no. I think he's going to be, like, Jane Daniels, for me, when I saw him play, I was like, this guy can play football. Remember we talked about that a year ago? There were two quarterbacks in the draft that I thought were just absolutely amazing. And it was the Chicago quarterback. Caleb Williams. And I think he's going to be fine. He just needs an offensive line.

And the Bears have done a lot of spending money on that. And I think that the quarterback in Washington is special. I'm ready to say, as my gut feeling, Shadur Sanders, Just a guy. Okay. Not a bust. Not a star. But I think you'll obviously have to hold this for a while.

Yes. But to me, it's got some components. I think there are some deficiencies. Everything I've read about him, there are some issues with accuracy. There are issues with staring down receivers. And again, good coaching can fix a lot of that. If you have the natural athletic ability. But I will say at the end of the day, Chadori is going to be

just a guy. Probably going to start in the NFL. It may make some decent money. Okay. But if I was going to put a comp on him in terms of what I think his future could be... Will Levis? Better than Will Levis. I know you're going to rub that in.

I know. Just a good old-fashioned middle-the-road starting NFL quarterback. I would say... Boy, better than Andy Dalton, but maybe not much better. Ooh. Ooh, that's rough. The red rifle? You're going to do them like that, Matt.

Okay, let me, that's a bad name. No, it's not bad, actually. I mean, it's fine. You're talking about mid and just a guy. I mean, Andy Dalton was just a guy. All right, how about this one? In a long career. Brock Purdy will have a better NFL career than Shrador Sanders.

Okay. I could see that. Okay. I'll go with that. Also, by the way, I didn't mention last week it was Gordy sitting in. Yeah. He had the Warriors winning one of the first two games against the Rockets. That's a win.

Well, it could be two. Don't even. Must win Tuesday. Must win Wednesday, I should say. All right. He says the Titans will trade out of the number one overall pick. Whoever takes Cam Ward will get a bust. Relative to the number one overall selection.

So he says Cam Ward first round pick but not worthy of 1-1-1. Correct. He says Cam Ward is going to be a bust. What do you play college football? Miami? Also, if he was an SEC guy, he'd be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don't know. All right.

Any more from last week? And that's it from last week. All right. Let me another one. Texans will stay at 25. They don't move. They don't trade. They don't trade.

Okay. Now, I think that Kassaria will entertain lots of phone calls for it. I think if he's doing anything, he's going down as compared to up if he was to make a move. It's kind of what I talked about yesterday. Oh, yeah, we go. And draft stuff. These are our last chance. Oh, I'll go Texas.

Texans go O-line with their very first draft pick whenever that draft pick takes place. I will say Texans will not draft at 25. You're taking the field on that one? Yeah, okay. I'll accept that as a field. Okay. Field bet.

Yeah. I'll go, I will say all line, but I can't guarantee a first round, but my gut tells me he stays at 25. I will say their first pick will be an offensive lineman. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Oh, okay. You said that too. I'm not listening.

No, I think you're going not, you said not offensive linemen. No, I said not they will not move. Oh, okay, okay. So you and I are agreement on both these things? Oh, no. That's terrible. That means we're going to be way wrong. That's bad.

Shador Sanders, top 10 pick? I say yes on a top 10 selection. Shador's Sanders. Oh, hmm. Man, I could see that going either way. Okay. Shador Sanders top 10 pick? Yep.

I'm going to go with three of the, Texans first four picks offense. That feels good. I will go with the Texans will drop the tight end. Ooh. Okay. Because I think if Schultz plays like he did last year,

that they will be willing to eat a final year of his contract. Because it was a three-year deal he originally signed, correct? Yeah. Go with that. Okay. NBA playoffs. We never made it. Rockets win game two.

Rockets win game two. Put that down. For my mental health, they better win game two. Because I don't, first of all, I don't want to lose the Warriors, period. But to have to do it in a potential sweep situation, oh, that would be depressing. Bay Area, San Francisco sucks. And they're super expensive there. No thanks.

Okay. Would you like to make a grandiose prediction of the series does not go back to San Francisco a second time? You have rockets. I have rockets in seven. I'm going to have to say it. I'm feeling good. It's going to be knocked down, dragged out. Drag out.

Okay. Two great teams. Johnler, what do you got this week? I think Pacers make the conference final. Pacers make the conference final. That is a hot take. That is very hot take. I don't know, man.

You know why? Because they score a bunch. Yeah. He's got to be thinking at the day, they've got to be scoring a bunch points. And I like Halberton's play style so much. Ever since he's like shot up. I really like that play style.

All right. Pacers on the East. You want to make an Eastern prediction? Game two of Bucs Pacers tonight on NBA TV. Yeah, I mean, don't, doesn't have Patriots games belong on NBA TV to begin with? Your Eastern Conference champions are the Boston Celtics. Sorry, Cleveland. Go ahead, fight me.

No, I'm not going to fight you. At me, I don't care. I wonder who's the favorite. Oh, what are we hearing that? I feel like, he's got to replay the dead because of those segment is gone. Yeah, I got you. I don't know, I'm not going to stay. I'm going to stay away.

It could very well. It's calves. Caves are really good. I know. Could be either. I think the calves are really good. The Celtics are better. I'm really buying into the calves lately, though.

I'm not going to fight you on that. Okay. It's one or the other. 713-212-5-7-9. I know Houston you got some predictions out there, don't you not? I hope so. We don't bite here on the show. Not hard.

We do. It's more of a nibble. All right. 7-13-21-2-5-7. 9713, 212, 5790. My 401k will be up 10% 1 month from today. I hope you're right.

I think things are bouncing back. I'm making a good feeling on that. Or could be what they call the dead cat bounce. Who, do you know, that's, that's, I didn't even know that term. I'll respect it, though. Yeah, like dead cat bounces, but it's still dead. Oh. Yeah.

I didn't make it up. Who would you hear that from? You watching some CNBC business? I was watching Fox Business. Were you really? Fox Business. You've watched CNBC? Yeah, I put on my spectacles.

I'm watching Wall Street Journal TV. My ex-stepfather used to love Wall Street We Can Review? Oh, my God. Friday nights, I'm like, can we put Dallas on a Dukes-A-Hazard? No, Wall Street Weekend Review is on. I'm like, oh, God. So bad. What an A-Hole he was, too.

Jesus. That's a Dighty-Rice. Okay. I'll just check it. I'm setting for you. I'll check it when I get laid off. You're not getting laid off. You and I are lifers here.

Whether you know it or not. All right. Anything more from you, Jonathan? Prediction-wise. I'm looking at the draft again with the picks. I'll say, okay, because I might change my answer to the Shador top 10, but only because New Orleans has a nine pick.

And I think that's a good spot. He might go to New Orleans. Okay. I got one for you. This is a rather hot Astros tank. Your Astros will occupy first place at some point in the month of April. In April? Yeah.

Yeah. They're going to go to Kansas City. They're going to win the series. And then they've got, oh, you know what? Let me, let me rephrase. Let me rephrase you. You want to go with May. May 15th, the Astros will enjoy it.

Now, may not be stuck there by May 15. but by May 15th, the Astros will be at least in a share or by themselves in first place in America League West. I love it. I hope you're right. Rangers schedule. I like to hear that. Rangers have a tough series of the Giants coming up this weekend. Astros got a chance to get on the road in Kansas.

They played well against the Royals typically. So, yeah, I'm good. All right. Sounds great. You're not willing to do that, are you? It's still only two games, Ross. It's not that big of a deal. Okay.

I mean, I'm taking your word for it. I'm just not going to back you. Okay. I hope you're right. All right. Let's see. Anything else in terms of gut feelings we have? 713-212-5-7-9.

If you've got a last chance to get in here. By the way, great question from one of our Twitter followers. It's Andre Jackson. He says, what about Jamal Mashburn, Vinnie Johnson, and Junior Bridgman on that money list? Junior Bridgman passed away like a month ago. He was worth $1.4 billion. What? Remember that?

We were talking about all the businesses, and restaurants and whatnot. He was running. Why isn't Junior Bridgman on this list? Was he dead? No, but I mean, there are people on that list that are dead, aren't there? You know what?

That's a great question. Are everybody on that list alive or not? I think so. Muhammad Ali on there? No, Arnold Palmer's dead. He's on the list. Arnold Palmer's dead? Yes, he's dead.

Are you sure? Yes, he's dead. Yeah, that's a great question. Oh, man, he died a while ago. you didn't know that Huh See we're getting in trouble like Shaq and And Chuck Arizona T

He's on the Arizona T With the black and white I thought he's been dead since like 2000 2016 May he rest Yeah don't don't pre die him He was alive He was alive and too

I thought he might be still alive Yeah Junior Bridgman should be on this list He's not This list is bunk I hate you list Hmm And I want to say Jamal Mashburn's made some good money post-NBA

career as well. Really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, again, I don't know how the definition, what's defined as, you know, how much of that is. You know, it could also be how much you've made in sports endorsements. Could be. I don't know.

Maybe it's a bunk list, as you said, Matt. It could be full of bunk. That's for sure. All right, 1151 here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. And if you would like to be a part of the show, you may do so at 71321. 1-2-7-90. We have the news at noon coming up.

We're also going to play some of the highlights of last night's win for the local nine as they knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays by a final score of 7-0-0. Tonight's Dollar Dog Night, which would mean a good crowd out there, which means the chances of the wave increasing. How many dogs are you going to crush? I'm not going. I'm going to be working from the Kingwood Studios. Oh, you are?

I always start going to the Astros games when my rocket season is done. I get very few days to home these days, so take advantage of that. By the way, shout out to those of you that sent me tweets and did the at WaveBusters, H-O-U. They did a poll, I want to say Saturday's game. I think they do this like once a year about what your thoughts are on. They've been doing it, yeah. It was 60% anti-wave, 40% wave. And that's saying something for a Saturday because that's your fringe baseball fan.

Like I always think the Monday through Thursday are the diehards. And so I really give them a lot of extra push because they're like, ones that have to make the sacrifice of having to go down there and go to work, get home, get the kids, bring them down there. The Friday, Saturday, Sunday crowd could be the Roski crowd or the family crowd that wants to be enjoying the wave. But yeah, 60%

were against the wave. So those of you that voted against that, I thank you very much. By the way, did you see Gordy made the Chronicle website? He did? Yeah. Cron.com or? I don't know. It's so confusing. What is, there's like, there's one legit website with real writers and there's one like bro writers and that's just not really bro writers you know like hey man

i'm a writer like there's a lot of people that think they're writers for like u.s. today and they're not because u.s. today barely acknowledges their existence okay but point being is that he went out he was on one of the two websites and his tweet about how people are going to games and they're getting the bobbleheads yeah getting the bobbleheads leaving and then going to sell them on e-bbing yeah one one joker will buy like five ten dollar tickets and then go get five bobbleheads and then flip them. People are turning it into a business. Which was not the intent of them.

The intent was to enjoy them. Correct. That's why when you get there for a giveaway, everything's usually gone unless you get there like two hours early. So let me ask you why can't you do that on the way out? Is it because they don't worry about congestion leaving the stadium, I guess? Oh, hand them out on the way out for people that stayed for the game. That's interesting. Yeah, maybe things would slow up.

too much? Because when you enter a game, people enter at various different times, but the stadium opens at six, games, seven, tenths, you're looking at about 70 minutes. So if you were trying to leave the game, relatively speaking,

you are leaving around the same time period. Also, I mean, if you pay for the tickets and you get the bobbleheads and people are willing to pay for them online, I'm saying, don't knock the hustle. we got the same 24 what you mad for i can say you know what i can do i can knock the hustle a little bit okay i thought they were they were given away as gifts to coming to the game and enjoying having them in your office or your bedroom or whatever the case i don't think bobbleheads were created

and produced and handed out for you to go on the secondary market and try to make some side money so i so in this case while i respect hustle i don't respect this form of of hustle. I think largely, if I was to meet bobblehead guy scumbag. Dushbag. So I'm not

going to respect douchebag. Bobblehead guy is when he can get his free rack in the rocks. He goes to five different rack and gets them all. Trippling up coupons. Going to Rick Raleigh and getting three free chicken sandwiches when free throws are missed.

You're in line at the freeway trying to get off. and then he cuts you off and he passes up the line? Yeah. No, so, look, you and I hustle all the time. I don't respect bobblehead guy hustle. I'm not saying I'm respecting the guy. I think you just did.

No, I didn't. Oh, yeah, see, you're not listening. I didn't, come on, man. No, no, no, check the tape. What was it? What was the phrase you just said 24, get you 24? I get the same 24, what you're mad for? That's basically a sign of it.

of respect, right? No, I'm not respecting him. I'm just saying the other side of the argument, man, the other side of the coin. I would like to stamp this out somehow, but how do you do it? Well, again, it feels like the easy thing to do would be to do it on the way out, but again, I don't think you want to logjam those exits 10 o'clock at night, people trying to get home and you don't want to have to have people. Again, that would be this. Now, they used to do that for Baseballs, but they don't give baseballs away anymore because the people were throwing them on the field. So they're having to do it towards the end of the game anyway, right? Uh-huh.

But, man, Gordy, he was not happy with bobblehead douche. Oh, yeah. Also, what he had happened, which is also bad, is he would be one person saving a spot, and then five people would come up and be like, oh, I'm with this guy. Number of bobbleheads you have in your life? In my, I think I have the Yordons still tipping one, and I have a Jeff Baguilone one. somewhere in my closet. I have never went I've never gone for one. Now

have I received them and gone oh this is cool and I have some of my office but I've never, I'm not a collector by any circumstance. Gordy is, he's bobblehead guy. He collects them though. He doesn't flip him. I was going to say if he's a regular bobblehead guy. He like he puts him in his office. Yeah, he's got, if you go

look at Matt when you watch SEC, locked on SEC, he's got like a thousand bobbleheads behind him. And some of them were interesting. Yeah, he's bobblehead guy. That's fine. But I hit them, I like to get them and just give them away to family. I respect the collection hustle. Mm-hmm.

Do I respect them going on eBay? Not so much. It's almost like, I wish we could out those people. Because they didn't do it because they loved the Astros. They didn't do it because they wanted a bobblehead. They did it because they wanted to turn a profit off of it. Which is not the, which is not the point of going to get a bobblehead. You're typing over yourself.

I'm putting Josh Hayter hot bobblehead. They're going for about 50 or 75 right now on eBay. Is there an email address we can attach it to and go you're a douche, goodbye? Yeah, you could. I mean, they have accounts. Silver Gun Superman

selling his for $25, $52. G.T. Sittin, selling for 75. Sweet Dreams for you, selling for 50. Not real Astrofan. I love the wave guy. Selling it for 44 hours.

Baseball cards collecting store. Oh, geez. That's terrible. Selling one for 50. There's like at least 10 or 15 of these on sale right now. Dang, should I just start selling these ones that I get? I mean, I have some, my guess I have some that are valuable, some that I don't even know what

the value are of these things. But it's in the eye of the purchaser, correct? Yes. These are up for bid. Like, what's the most expensive? Can you find out what the most expensive Astro Bobblehead is available right now? There is a Craig Bigio one for $125. Oh, no, that's like, that's not a bobblehead, really.

It's a bronze, kind of a bronze small bronze statue. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's different, yeah. You know, we will sell anything at any time for any reason. It's the American dream, Maddie. Only in America. No, no, no. I refuse to accept this part of the American dream.

It's an American nightmare. All right, let's get to the highlights of the Astros win over the Blue Jays, plus the news at noon is coming up. First, as this is our number three of the Matt Thomas show. We take it until 2 o'clock today with Ross. I'm Matt. 713-212-2-5-79. jump in. 713212.

5790. We have the NFL Rewan coming up in 23 minutes from now. But first things first is we do every single day during this time. We present to you the news at noon. And we will go to the bill by ESSA of Houston sports.

Journalism, we present to you Ross Villarreal. Yes, Matt. Appreciate you going to me. We did play the Houston Astros winning the Game 7-0 over the Blue Jays. the highlights there. Hunter Brown very good. Here's what Joe Spada had to say about his performance after

the game. Oh man. I'm not surprised. What's that like 20 plus inning scoreless right now? He's on a role. He's confident, dominant. You know, he goes after this guy's, you know, he's got the stuff, he's got the demeanor.

You know, I'm just how quickly he's turning around from last year, how it started, and where he has now. It's been incredible to watch. There you go. Hunter Brown, incredible to watch. The turnaround very quick, the attitude as well. We'll hear more from Joe Espada coming up at 1.30 here on the program, Matt. But he has blossomed into a full-blown ace.

Seven shutout innings. ERA on the year down to 1.16. You know what? And now you're calling him the diesel? I call him Cy Brown. Cy Brown is looking pretty good right now. He has been the best pitcher in the American League since May 1st of last year in terms of ERA, fourth best, I believe, in all of baseball.

So he's been really good. And something we didn't address earlier in the show map, but is newsworthy, I suppose. Yordon Alvarez hitting number two in the lineup yesterday. There was an instance in the seventh inning where the first place hitter, Jose Altuvae was out with a runner on base. so in comes Yordon Alvarez who knocks in Zach DeZenzo with the single. I'd rather have him up there than Isak Paredes, so I like Yordaun Alvarez in the number two spot. And he was also intentionally walked yesterday.

Especially for a guy that at Gossmann had some success against him. So he was an 0 for 10 going into the game with some strikeouts too. So ultimate sign of respect. Yeah, I, I don't know. It feels like to me that's a little bit of an overblown conversation piece. It is. But no matter where everybody is, they have. Got a hit.

Yeah, I think as long as you get in more swings than anybody named Jose L. Tube, I'm more than okay with it. Okay. I think you should. Elsewhere in the news at noon, Matt, you had some NBA playoff action. The Pistons defeating the Knicks, the Clippers defeating the Nuggets, both of those series squared at one apiece. Tonight, you got the Timberwolves versus the Lakers game number two, nine o'clock on T&T. Lakers favored by five and a half points in game number two. Is that a must win for the Lakers?

No. They can lose a win four straight. They can lose a one four out of five. Is there a must win for the Rockets tomorrow against Golden State? Nope. They can lose. Still win. It's a mere semantics argument.

It's fine. Yeah, we do call you Mr. Semantics. It's coming up two to six, I think. Stop. All right. What else you got going? What else is going on in the news, Matt? How about Damien Lillard,

returning into action in the NBA? for game number two versus the Indiana Pacers. Of course, as you know, we got the full breakdown from you on deep vein thrombosis, as he had been dealing with some blood clots. And it was supposed to be him not available at all for the start of the playoffs, but he is going to play in game number two, Damien Lillard coming back for the Milwaukee Bucks. And I know very few of you saw that first game,

but he was quite blank talking the Indiana Pacers during that first game. Big return of Damien Lillard tonight on NBA. TV. Will not be our topic A. Matter of fact, if we've taken a rocket call, we haven't taken any calls today. That's fine. That's fine. We want to talk some rockets?

We have great listeners. We do. And we appreciate you. A lot of people are getting into these. Was that rude yesterday to our guy, the goofball that calls a show? Martin and Angleton? Yeah, you're rude, but it's,

Martin is a goofball. Was it warranted? I would say, yes. He was talking about your wife, Matt. No, he was talking about Gerard's wife. Somebody's wife. He wanted us to see how long he went with his wife.

We're like, we don't care. Yeah. That was a little bit bizarre. Which is most of his calls. Not most of them. They're all of his calls. Yeah. All of his calls.

By the way, quick update. Louis Oryas is on the concussion aisle after that collision with Mariso Dubon on a Sunday. Okay. Some people calling out Maricio Dubon like he's doing. It's Padres fans. They're idiots. Are there such a thing as Padres fans? Yeah, believe it or not. I'm not. I'm not either.

All right. I know. I also made mention earlier, Matt, the opening weekend playoff ratings the best in 25 years. Yes. Commission of Silver, of course. Making sure to brag about that. Well, he's got a lot of things on his mind that aren't great about the league,

but television ratings aren't one of them. International interest is not another. Big television news he signs. we as a sports society, if we don't love something, we assume everybody else does, doesn't like it. We had trash it. We was like, nobody likes baseball. People love baseball.

Yeah. I was tweeting about the Rockets the other day and somebody's like, I don't watch the NBA. It's like, why did you take the time to type that up on your phone and hit Sidd? I don't care. Just move along. Right. Let me tell you, I think soccer sucks. I don't go after people on Twitter for liking soccer.

Yeah, exactly. If you're talking about Succession or something, I haven't watched Succession. I don't know, just go tweet you. Yeah, I don't watch that show. Okay, cool. Breaking news, brother. We don't need your opinion. Listen, I just don't get it.

But anyways. Well, it's happening a lot. And Shannon Sharp is in the news today. Very briefly, the reason we're bringing this on a local side is there's a woman alleging some issues with his relationship. Sexual assault, she's alleged. He went on Twitter yesterday and put out the tweets basically saying that she was thirsty. Yes. And wanted a, using her phrase, put a big black baby in me.

Matt, why are you bringing this up? The reason I'm bringing it up. Guess who is representing her? Tony Busby. Local angle. There we go. Tony Busby was representing the woman that was suing Jay-Z as well, right? In that case, got thrown out her.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't think he's batting a thousand using a baseball vernacular. All right. Thank you, Matt, for bringing that to our attention. Well, I mean, there's not much more we can say about it, but... I got nothing to say on that. Nothing. You know, it's funny because you're supposed to, like, hold all your cards. If you have evidence that are supporting your argument, you like, you hold onto it.

Shannon says, I'll go to the X platform. I'll make sure the entire world knows exactly who I'm dealing with here. I'd never even heard of the case until he responded. Because he put out these long, this long document with text, I was like, what is, and I'm like, what, what, what? You want to do what inside our what? All right.

Put a big black baby in me. I mean, my God, who speaks like that? Well, this woman, Gabriella Zuniga, apparently. Have you seen her yet? No, I haven't, Matt. You're going to check during the break? I don't care. I'll check.

I really don't. 12-15. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Well, we'll hear this again in 10 minutes. We got the NFL. It is a jam. It is a good jam.

Would you want to listen that one song on an island if you were by yourself? No. There we go. Or this? I'd rather do this. Oh, we had a caller earlier, one past Sunday. that he liked that, like, that could be a segment idea you guys do, like figure out a song, like a genre or something like that,

and be like, is this like, or like make a situation, be like, oh, by yourself on like a zombie apocalypse, what song would you choose? Like, from this to, you know, he was just giving me that idea to throw on to you guys. Hmm. Zombie apocalypse? Hmm. I'm going to go with a flight of the Valkyry. Nope.

Can't answer these questions. It's from apocalypse now. All right. You mean it's from, actually, it's a... Derrissot. Shake your head. Have you seen Platoon? Nope.

Have you seen Full Metal Jacket? Nope. Have you seen Dr. Strangelove? Nope. Thin red line? Nope. You should keep going to something until I've seen something. Well, I'll save this one, because I figure you've seen this one.

Saving Private Ryan? Nope. Oh, my. Keep going. I'm trying to think of other more. I'm just putting war movies. I don't like war movies. 1917?

Nope. All quite on the Western front. No. Dunkirk was amazing by Christopher Nolan. Nope. In glorious bastards? Quentin Tarantino? Nope.

Oppenheimer? Nope. Loan survivor? Nope. We can keep going. It's going to be a bunch of nose. Now, if you want to go rom-com, we can go on that. Ten things ahead about you.

Excuse me? Ten things I hate about you? No. Failure to launch. How to lose a guy in 10 days? Yes. Failure to launch, yes. Okay, you've seen failure to launch and how to lose a guy in 10 days,

but you have not seen any of Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket. I love Catherine Zycle. Period. In the story. Hegel. Whatever. Zygel, whatever. Catherine Ziegle Jones.

No, it's Catherine Zeta Jones. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Hmm. I watched wrestling. I did? You don't watch wrestling? It's what it is. I can go through a bunch of five.

Watching a bunch of guys prance around in their underwear is different than not watching the greatest movies of all time. Did you see WrestleMania won? No. Okay. Well, then. I was, I don't know if I was I born. Wait, wait, what's the reason?

He doesn't like violence. I don't like violence. Oh, he's never seen Goodfellas? Nope. Saw Casino. The color purple? Color purple, yes. That's a lot of violence in it.

You know what? That movie was 40 years old. I don't really remember much about it. That was why I guess that was when Whoopi Goldberg first became a star? Yes. I think that was a big jumping off point for her. So yeah, I don't, yeah, rom-coms for me, biopics, big time. Violent movies, no.

Okay. Horror movies, no Halloween, no, Ferney Kruger, none of that. I was kind of listing them all because I knew you were going to say no to all. but I was surprised to hear you say no to saving Private Ryan. Heavy violence, correct? Yeah, especially like the first 15 minutes or like some of the 15 goryest minutes in film history. Dang.

Yeah. Wait, superhero movies? Superman, yes. Batman. Like in 1980s? Not any of the recent ones. Christopher Reeve once, yeah. Any of the Avengers movies?

No. Batman with Michael Keaton and George Clooney. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor. Nope, nope. Dr. Strange. New Spider-verse movies? Nope. Here,

since y'all are outing me, I'm just going to just tell you the truth, okay? I'm sorry. Let's move on. We'll talk sports. Let's talk sports. That's fine. I can be honest.

But go ahead. My point is this, I work with you four hours a day. Yes. I travel an hour each direction, sometimes longer. It's true. I have Rockets games.

I travel. I try to see my daughter's volleyball. events. When I go to my mother's house for dinner, like we went to Easter, we went for Easter on Saturday. She's like, did you see the show on Apple or this show on Netflix? Do you see this show? I get the answers. Typically, no. I don't watch a lot of television. It's not sports. I don't go to see a lot of movies. I, in this wonderful life in which I live, I have given up certain things. I've given up golf and movies and TV shows for the most part. But you watch Young and the Restless every day.

Not every day. But if it's on, it's on. Will I be in the bed working on a Rockets game and have, you know, and wrestling some background? Yes. Okay. Now, you is coming out on Netflix, the final season of you. What?

Me? Oh, so you like that? I have watched every episode of you. You or me? No, just you. No, me? Not you. You.

Who? So I will watch that. I do have a bunch of righteous gemstones on the DVR, which my son can- You gave away on the, you? gave up on the show like three times. Yeah, my son's like, don't give up on it. Don't give up on it. I'm like, I want to give up on it. She goes, he goes, once you get past the male anatomy being exposed, it's

really funny. Okay. I did, you know, look, I loved House of Cards the first four seasons. I feel like I'm time in the justice for my television. No, that's what I said. Let's move on. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't mean, they didn't mean to do that. It's fine. I mean, I peeled a current back in my life.

It's what it is. Yeah. All right. Where are we going with this? I don't know. We were talking about what we're talking about? Oh, I don't know we were talking about. Shannon Sharp. Shannon Sharp and that girl. By the way, there's a woman out there on Twitter that on Twitter on Instagram is like,

I'm not the one associated with Shannon. She put it in her bio. Okay. She's attractive as well. So. And you know, ESPN's got some issues. What is up with ESPN? Shannon's been in trouble multiple times.

You've got basically Stephen A. Smith using his show as a place. platform to run for president in 2020, whatever it is. That's crazy. You had, what else has been going on with the, you had, oh, Pat McAfee being sued. Yeah, with that whole Ole Miss thing. Right. And get to the worldwide later. Good for them.

Chandler Sharp did release a statement. I don't know if. What do you say? I'm not guilty. Yeah, why not? Oh, boy. Do we have the audio? Is it audio?

I do. How long is it? It's a minute. It's a minute. It's, well, let's do it now real quick. Okay. For NFL Rewide. To my family, friends, supportive, and colleagues, I want to,

want to speak to you directly and from the heart. This is a shakedown. I'm going to be open, transparent, and defend myself because this isn't right. This is all being orchestrated by Tony Buzzley, who is targeted Jay-Z. Tony Busby targets black men, and I believe he's going to release a 30-second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and play into every stereotype you could possibly imagine. That video should actually be 10 minutes or so. Hey, Tony, instead of releasing your edit, put the whole video out.

I don't have it or I would myself. You know what happened and you're trying to manipulate the media. The encountering question took place during the day at her invitation. And now that appears to be a deliberate setup. Coordinated by Gabby, also known as Carly, on Onlyfans. Gavie and Tony Busby want $50 million. What they're getting is sued for defamation and trying to take me down. My career is all about real talk and honesty.

I know my family and fans know exactly what this is about. and I'm going to be out there telling you whatever I need to say, just like I always do. I love all you guys. So the girls are only fans, huh? Man, Shannon, you got to be really careful with your company. I mean, I know that they're... How do I say this in the most polite way?

Just be careful who you're dating. And I think if you're rich, successful, athlete, pro, or current, you're going to get a certain client tail-headed your way. And I just think you've got to be careful. Because most people in America don't have to go through this. Most men, even if they have multiple tutuant of relationships, don't have to worry about extortion, allegedly. All right.

I mean, help me out here. Just be careful who you go. Yeah. Yeah, be careful. She seems like a lovely only fans model. There are girls, and there are men that would, do the same thing to women that are just going to go after that crowd because there's financial bonuses that are attached to such things.

Have a relationship. Things get a little surly. Let's extort. Or let's text. How about you want to have a baby? I think we'll leave it at that. That'll conclude our conversation about that. But he's not the first athlete's going to go through this ex-athlete and he will certainly not

be the last. Okay. And we'll leave it at that. Thank you, Matt. 30, Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. NFL Rewind is next. Military veterans and active duty service members. You could become a certified cyber warrior

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and I have terrible news for one of our great listeners. It's M-R-J-L-F. No, M-R-J-L-F. He listens on the app, and we really appreciate that. Problem is the app runs about 30 to 45 seconds behind our live feed, and I don't have an easy resolution. I can't tell you the time we're doing it because that's the whole point of us doing the contest

was to surprise people. So, well, we are on a 20 second delay, so, and you can be the seventh caller. So if you call quickly, it could be you. Or we can hold the whole phone opens for 30 seconds. Well, let's be fair about this, because I do want to take care of those people that listen to us on the I Heart Radio app. I mean, if we'll hold the phones closed, excuse me. You could say the phrase, and then we'll hold the phones closed for 30 seconds and then open them. So, Jonathan, let's do that.

Let's balance this out. We will not start taking phone calls. Say that again? Not getting any calls anyway. I know, I was going to say. We haven't talked to anybody yet. Maybe nobody likes us anymore. Come on, man.

What have we done wrong? What have we done is talk sports? Let's talk some rockets. And Astros. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to hold for our man, M.R. L.J., or whatever his name is.

We're going to hold, we're going to close the phone lines off for 30 seconds. Yes. After we say it. After the phrase. After the phrase. And then that gives you enough time to get in there and called in. be the seventh quarter.

Mm-hmm. Does that seem fair? That's very fair, Matt. All right. Great job. No, it's a great job by you. Your idea. Rockets on the practice court today will play game number three, game number two tomorrow.

And then we have another couple days off before the games. I know this is dictated by television, but to have this thing go two weeks for a first-round playoff series, to me, if you're playing in one city, you should play every. other day. And then you take the two days off to fly to go to the next city and get to practice in that kind of thing. That to me makes more sense. Okay.

The own state's been here since Friday and they will not leave until after the game tomorrow. And we don't play again until Saturday in San Francisco. Now again, you're obviously lining things up with television. Yeah, it's for TV, baby. It'll tighten up in the second and third rounds. Will it? Yeah, you want to play

oh, yeah. Conference finals, you're playing every other night, basically. I hope you're Right. Now, it happens. It was been a long time, Maddie. I was going to say, I don't really remember. There is quite a bit of separation between one, two, and three. And then once we get to four, it's every other day the rest of the way. So it goes, three is on Saturday, four is on Monday, five's on Wednesday.

Yeah, you'll have a lighter schedule. So, Gris is going to be swept by then. Magic will be out. Watching the, look, you and I love basketball. Watching the east is a little tough. Of the last since the train. A second run of the east will be good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll give me that.

I'll give me that. And Buck Pacers, Buck Pacers, especially with Dame coming back, could be interesting. Let me give you a few things before we get to the top of the hour. We'll get back to the Astros on the Athletic. Did an NBA survey. And I don't want to go through all the different things because some of them to me, I don't think necessarily are overly intriguing to the Houston audience.

But there are some things that I thought were interesting. This is the anonymous poll. of by dumb by NBA players. They asked 158 players anonymously. Hmm. A variety of things. Yes. So MVP of the year this year,

Shea Gildes Alexander, 58% to Nicola Yokich is 37%. Okay. No surprise on that, right? It should be Yokic, but it's one of those things where we just give the team with the best record. See, I really do believe it should be SGA. I think he has been absolutely phenomenal. Not the Yokuch has been incredible too. He's been great. Yokish is better.

Well, pound year to year, but I'm talking about, Here at individual numbers. I think this year is SGA's year. Is it Yokic averaging a triple double? Didn't he have a triple double this year? Yeah, but he did it in fewer games too. I mean, how many games does SGA play compared to Nicola Yoko? I can pull.

I don't know. All right, so let's get to some things real quick. Which team other than your own win the title this year? Boston Celtics, 57.7%. Oklahoma City, 17%. A lot of people are in on Boston. Yokich played 70 games. Okay.

A few other things. Oh, Adam Klein. I hope. Shea Gil just played 76. You're going to hate to hear this, Smat and Smanton. Five years from now, the face of the NBA. Oh. Victor Wembenyama, 54%.

Oh, no. This is his fellow peer. The fellow NBA peers, yeah. Oh, no. Anthony Edwards, 13.8. 8%. Shea Gildes Alexander, 11%. And yes, Nicoliochic,

average a 29-point triple double this season. Most overrated player in the league. Ooh, I like this. Do you think you even know? LeBron James. Tyrese Halliburton. Tyrese Halliburton. Interesting.

Rudy Gobert, second. Jimmy Butler, fourth among those groups. Let's skip that one. That's an overly intriguing. Best organization in the NBA? Celtics. Golden State Warriors. Okay.

Second, Oklahoma City. Celtics, third. Clippers, fourth. fifth the rockets don't make the top 15. That's kind of a hard situation to judge on how somebody else's organization is when you're only, it's only basically just word of mouth, right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying,

it's word of mouth. In the group chat. That's a good group chat. Worst organization? Well, it used to be the clippers. I'm going to go to the Charlotte. Charlotte Hornet's 38%. Wizard's second, Pelicans, third, king's fourth,

76ers, fifth. Sixers, Mavericks. Best coach in the NBA besides your own? I don't even know. Kenny Ackinson. Mark Dagnold of Oklahoma City, 21.

Dang, I wanted to say Mark Degnell, but I didn't know if everybody in the NBA would say it. Kenny Ackinson, second, Eric Spolster third, Joe Missoula, fourth, EMAIDOCA coming in at number eight. That's pretty good. Okay. A few other things before we get at the top of the hour.

Worst coach in the league, Brian Keefe of Washington. That's weird. Mike Booneholtzer second, Doc Rivers third. Boontholder's second, Doc Rivers third? Yeah. Is this NBA players voting this? Yeah. That's great. Which player in the league would you least like to fight?

James Johnson, overwhelmed. I believe he's a black belt, right? Isaiah Stewart, you can throw hands. Stephen Adams in third in that list. Congratulations to a rocket maker of the list. And let's see. here. A couple more. Are analytics good for the game or bad?

Bad, 38%. Some in the middle, 33, good 28%. Hmm. Okay. Kind of mixed bag on that one. Let's see here. Do you like the idea of 10 minute quarters in the NBA? No, 78%. Yes, 13%.

Where's the other percent coming from? I don't think it was in the I don't care. No opinion or something? Undecided. And let's do a couple more here that I think would be good. It would be intriguing. This is a long, man, it's a long article. Oh, would you mean, this is a cute one.

Would you be in favor of shortening the regular season if it meant your salary would be smaller? No, 86%. Yes, 12%. Nobody wants to, no, baseball players don't want to reduce from 162 to 154. The NFL will acquiesce and say, yeah, okay, we'll play 18 games. and get more money and the NBA players 1.82 game schedule. And that is

some of the questions of the 158 players that were chosen to submit to a player's only survey in the NBA. And that's I can wrap up the final hour of this hour. We've got one more to go here. Yes, we do.

We have a very important hour. Very important hour. We're giving me those rocket playoff tickets the next hour. We are going to hear from Joe a spot at 130 and we have Believe it or not today. Where the category is? I gave you one.

Oh. You wanted me to do Shannon Sharp. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing Gabriella Zuniga either. Also known as Carly on OnlyFans. Is that what it? How did you know? Is that what it was in the story?

He said it in the audio we played, but I guess you're. Well, the audio was. You're playing Candy Crush. Number of video games you play. Right this second. Right the second? On your phone. Zero.

I mean, I play. Now, this is different. On the plane, I always play games on planes. Yeah. You know what? I play my chess app. I do puzzles. will play craps on my phone. That's it.

You're rolling dice on your phone? Absolutely. And then you go and dig, is there a casino credit button on there? And it says, if Ross is coming with you, don't play. That's not true. See, it's only you. You're the mush. Whenever I roll dice with anyone else, ask Mo Morge. We're hitting points, baby.

1259, final hour. Matt Thomas Show at Ross is next. Talk 790. It is the final hour of the program. Coming up in about 25 minutes from now, we'll hear from Astros, Manager Joe, Bada. Are we doing the Pope on the believe it or not today? We were kind of running out of things.

Or these famous diesels? There's Shag Diesel. Yes. There's Diesel the wrestler. There's Dynamo mascot is named Diesel. Is it not? Hell of I know. Or did they change it? Well, could they change it too?

Oh, yeah, it is. Dynamo Diesel. Diesel the Fox. I think we should do things about diesel. Okay. Although Diesel hasn't tweeted since 2021. Maybe he's on the outs of the organization. Maybe they changed the mascot. Okay.

It's up to you. All right. All right, Mac. It's up to you. We'd like to do Diesel, Dynamo, Diesel. I think he does a great job for the Houston Dynamo. Do we? Seriously.

You get me caught up of that every single time. All right. Final hour of the show. Okay. 321-2-5-7-90. On the show tomorrow, we will have shut your bum ass up. Yes. We're also going to, I think we're going to try to schedule another member of the Golden State Warrior broadcast team.

Really? Remember Tom Tover playing the NBA? Yes. For a long time. He was on ESPN for a while, too. ESPN. He does their color on their radio broadcast now. Is he still bald with a sole patch?

I don't know if the sole patch is. No, there's no. You know, there is a sole patch. Nice. So we may try to get Tom Tobin on the show. Tell me what they're doing. Don't you get a soul patch going. I think the bowl of the soul patch

Look, looking good Let me ask you this Do I let it gray out, correct? Yeah, you can die it if you want You can go Ryan Day Could I go Ryan Day on it? That'd be awful Even though he said he, his wife defended him

Said he does not die his beer That's a lie. That is a flat out lie I mean it looks jet black But maybe he's just got jet black jeans Do you Do you honestly believe that? I believe it's possible, yes I believe it is 100% impossible

That is his story I say anything is possible. And it could be Ryan Dave with a black beard. We have a friend of ours who remains nameless. Who knows that we all know he dyes his hair. Okay. And. Mike Shishowski?

No, we're not friends with him. Oh, okay. But when asked about it, he's like, I don't care about it, but my wife wants my hair. Oh, well, then do it. Then you got to do it. Ryan Day's wife wants that beard black. Okay. So she's lying.

I'll take your word for it. There is, I would be willing to bet. Have you seen it up close? No. Well, see, well, you need to get to go, look, get your eyes on that thing. See if it's real. I am not going to stare at that beard, ever. Up close, from a distance, never, ever, ever.

Okay. But it's, it's, that thing is, Walt Frazier and Keith Hernandez are jealous of that beard. Oh, I get you. Like, I gotta be honest with you, I think doing that makes you look bad. I think trying to put hair plugs in your head makes you look bad. You just got to go with what the good Lord gave you. Well, some people, for instance, your main,

your main, you are to be applauded for it. Thank you, Matt. People think it's attractive. I don't know why, but they do. We also got very gray. Maybe I'll put a touch of gray in there instead of full gray. You don't put anything in product in your hair now, do you? No.

So it's... No, I mean oils. But I mean, it's, but it doesn't darken things or like... In fruit and juices and berries. You put berries in yours? Yeah. You put wine and cheese in there too? That's a coming into America reference.

Okay. Let's go to McDonald's after the show you want to. Let's go. How about that? You've happy with me now? Yes. Thank you. Did you ever see coming to America too?

No. Yeah, that looked terrible from the jump. Maybe it's good. Probably not. The reboots, got issues. The latent sequels, yeah. Terrible. Yeah.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. We got again, Joe Espada, coming up in about 22 minutes from now. James is with us here on the Matt Thomas show. James, thank you for holding, and good afternoon to you. Yeah, are you guys more of a best player available, or would you want to pick a special need on the draft? Well, I think if you're going off with the Texans say, they're saying best player available. I think the need is offensive line.

and that's why I think they should go very heavy offensive line. If not, with the very first pick, certainly within the first two rounds. Well, I think if Golden's available, they should just grab Golden because I think of a lot of their sacks were covered sacks last year. So if you can get a receiver than get open, then he's going to be able to get rid of the ball. I mean, obviously he's moved up well up the charts. How do you feel of the receiving corps right now for the Texans? Not great. I mean, Nico Collins is a stud.

Christian Kirk is okay. Christian Kirk is he a stopgap or are we thinking two to three years down there already still with his football team? I think if he's healthy, he can be very effective. I think that could end up being a very good move. You know, honestly, I think I am a little bullish on Christian Kirk as a number two for this team. I do. He produces when he's out there, but he just hasn't been out there.

And as you know, Matt, injury prone can be a lie. Yeah. It's a very violent sport. People get hurt all the time. It's not necessarily predictive. It's almost like if you can stay healthy for 17 games, you got somebody looking over you, basically. Yeah, it's a very tough sport. Because take, let's use Tank Dell as an example.

Tankdale plays sport the right way. Yeah. But he, his frame is just not going to allow him to play 16 games, 17 games in the NFL. Last time Christian Kirk played a 17 game season, he had 1100 yards and 8 touchdowns. Yeah. You get that from him. He's going to be great. How long ago was that?

2022. You played 12 games in 23 and just eight games in 24. You can bounce back. Absolutely. It feels like a very cassero type deal. Let's catch lightning in a bottle and go from there. You know what I'm saying? Yes, I do. I mean, it's just one of those situations that you just catch lightning at a bottle. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I can't come to people. People can't be generally fired up about a guy that played eight games. going, oh, he's our number two. But staying out. But could it happen? Could it work out? Yes. Could he be out for the season in week one? Yes. That's the NFL.

You said it's standing for about a lot of those players. That's what I'm saying. I mean, you never know. One bad hit, one hit to the knee, and you're done. That's why, you know what? I know people get crazy about the amount of money that is being spent on athletes. You're one hit away from being done. You just are. Yeah, they're great values to this.

these franchises as well. Didn't we talk about what is it? The Warriors are the number one valued NBA franchise? What if Steph Curry had been there the last 15 years? Yeah. Where would their value be? Yeah. I mean, no disrespect to Kavana Luni, but he's not driving the value of the Gold Sailors. Yeah, we love you, Brandon

Pajemski? We don't love him at all. No, we don't. It's Squirley. Squirley. Mm-hmm. Not a fan. What does that mean? You know what schoolie means. Not exactly. What does that mean? What does that mean? When somebody calls somebody a squirrelly, you know what I

means. Untrustworthy? Yeah, like, I want to hit him. Oh, okay. You want to punch Brandon Pizske right in the mouth? No. Okay. No.

I want to go Paul Hammond on him. Right in the old... I don't know what that means. In the upper area, growing area. That's what he did on Sunday night during WrestleMania. I didn't catch it. I mean, that reference went over my head. That's fine.

Let's talk to Gary in Spring at 1-11 on 7-9. Gary, thank you for holding a good afternoon. How you guys? Good show, as usual. Thank you. I have a question. when I win these rocket tickets coming up. Is there an S on that?

Is it more than one ticket or how many tickets is it? Why would we give away one ticket, Gary? Well, that's why I was calling, but to let you know that it's only one ticket when I win, you're going to need to supply me with an escort. No, no, no. Nobody ever gives away just a single ticket. You don't know a single person, Gary?

Come on, Gary. You know people. You're popular. Well, I know that, but I know you know people better than I do, and I was going to give you the description of the kind of escort. will be interested in. Oh, you want us to get you on escort for the game? Well, no, if you were just giving away one ticket.

No, we're not. We're giving away two tickets. Gary, have you ever heard of a single giveaway in the history of giveaways of one ticket? Ever. I usually don't call in on them, but I'm going to call in on them. All right. Well, good luck to you.

Wait for the phrase. Wait for the phrase it pays. Why would people think we give away one ticket? That'd be silly. I've gotten like five callers asking that same exact question. Did you say a ticket? No, you've been saying a pair of tickets. Pair?

Pair means two, folks. What happens when you have a pair of faces, Matt? How many you have? You have two of them and then you go all in, baby. Yeah. And you lose on a bad beat. And you get busted by 7-6. Then somebody hits three-threes and you're like pissed off the rest of that.

Yes, exactly. Pair means two, folks. Now, I will say this. Great call, Gary. Did you roll your eyes at, Gary? No, dynamite stuff, buddy. In 1984, the USFL was starting up. Okay.

And my ex-stepfather, who I hated life more than life, and my mother bought a vehicle. Okay. From a Reisler Reap dealership. Okay. They bought a Waggoner. That's how old this was. Uh-huh. And they gave us a little bonus prize.

Here is a season ticket to the Houston gamblers. They only gave us one. Oh, okay. So I guess there is precedent. There is a precedent. In 1984. Yeah, one time. Your life changed forever in 1984.

It did. I love the gamblers. That was a big gambler. Oh, I was saying because I was born. I didn't know you back then. Well, I was an infant. All right. Joe Espada in 15 minutes here.

Let's go. Let's go. 713-212-579. If you want to get in, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Lightning and the thunder. What's the problem, Matt? The song blows. It's the song.

It makes you so upset. It does. You've only been playing it for five years. We've played it for five years and nine producers. Glad Jonathan's here. Doing a great job. Tom says I went to a comedy show and they were giving away free tickets to come to their

next show in a few weeks when you texted this number. They texted me only one ticket. Yeah, you can't go to a comedy by yourself, although I've done that once. I was in Vegas. I went and saw a carrot top by myself. Laugh my ass off. I think I'm the only person thinks Caratop's funny. Yeah, you drag it.

drafted them in your top five comedians of all time. I didn't go so hot for you. Yeah, but I did win the Saturday Night Live top five actors. That was ridiculous. That was fantastic. That was fantastic. That was a belt, by the way. Don't even get me started.

I got the belt, by the way. I have to win in last week. Oh, yeah, that was a robbery, too, but that's okay. Less so. It's funny. It's always a robbery when I win, and when you win it's because I think you've win some close ones, but normally you're just a bad drafter. That's why I win the majority of the time.

You're at about 60-40, I would say? I think it's more than that. that. 65.35? I'm going to go 70-30. I don't think that's the case of all. I think there's an argument for 80-20 if we went back and looked through all of them. You're getting crushed for a while there.

We stopped doing the bit for years because you were losing every week. That's because you were paying off your people. Oh, my gosh. I don't have any friends. That's actually evident. Yeah. All right. So tonight in the NBA, we got three games.

Yes. Bucks, Pacers. Grizzly stunder. That should be good. Dane Miller's coming back. Don't me. Miles Turner, Tyrese Halliburton, Yonison and the Gubo, Dame Lillard, that's good NBA action. Come on now.

NBA TV? They're happy to have the game on. They're not real thrilled. Grizzlies Thunder. That's a man. They're about to get the Thunder or about to choke out the Grizzlies. Oklahoma City has a 79% chance of winning. The current line, if you were to bet on it, would be 14 and a half.

I would probably take Oklahoma City give up the 4%. 14 and a half. Close for a while. Then Oklahoma City pulls away late. I got to bounce back at some point. Grizzlies. My God. Timberlb's Lakers game number two of that series tonight. Minnesota 1-0-0. Rockets play the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night.

Yes. You know what? I was anti-T-shirt for a while, but the T-shirts, I have to change my viewpoint of this. The liftoff? Any T-shirt. Oh, the playoff T-shirts? They've been doing it for like a decade now. Well, everybody's been doing it. But I was an

anti-T shirt for a while thinking this is the low-hanging fruit not much originality it kind of glistens the arena a little bit it makes it feel like there's more togetherness yeah yeah it makes the game feel bigger you could do the wave of the pom-poms you could do the towels t-shirts are always a good value then you're all inhale like when that happens in the astros you're inhaling all this towel dust I don't think it's healthy those are good problems to have no it ends up on all like my laptop is covered in orange little orange hairs or towel threads, fibers. What do you think, Jonathan, we should keep that?

See, I'm thinking... I don't know what they're made of. If the Rockets make it past this round, now they're on a T-shirts. Okay. And they should honor me for my great call. Why should they honor you? Because I'm a part of the team in a very small way. I know you think that, actually. They should get the T-shirt and say Houston Rockets

versus either what, Minnesota or the Lakers. They don't ever put the opponent on there. Houston Western Conference semifinals, and they should put in all-bold, nothing but nylon. Don't you think I'd be the perfect 10th shirt to have? Nothing but nylon? That's it. Perfect.

I can see it working, but, you know, I could see it. You could see it working. I'm glad you could. The back of the shirt, like, you know, the back of a shirt, like turn around. No, I think you put it around the front. No, you just go with lift off like they did for game one. No, I think nothing but not long to be better. No, to me.

I mean, they love on, the Rockets can't love on Craig and Vanessa and Ryan enough. That's true. The train waxer and I get absolutely zero run. You never see highlights of us. You never see it. in promotional videos. So, you know what? Let's get one shirt.

Let's get one shirt with on there and let's an ode to me. That's all I'm asking. Okay. I'm not asking for much. Not asking much at all. 713-212-579. If you want to jump in and say hello, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 as we have Joe Spotted coming up in a couple minutes.

Wonderful. What else going on in your world? Am I world? Yeah. I'm going to the Kendra-Lmar concert. Okay, I want you to just to show you folks who are working with you. I'm really sad.

It's hurting me. Please. He had a choice of sitting. No, no, sorry, you're not going to be nice. You have a chance to go see your beloved Rockets basketball team. Yeah, I know. Or go see the Picasso of the music industry. It's a very difficult decision for me. Now, let me ask you this.

I don't want to worry. I've been waiting for playoff games. I love working playoff games. You love being in the building. I love being in the building, pre-imposed games. Right. but I was able to acquire some tickets from up here at work. Will you watch the game on your phone?

I will be keeping an eye on it. For some of it, I won't watch it the whole concert. I'm going to go home and watch the game. I will so, I mean, look, I mean, it's my job to watch these games, observe them, analyze them and give my opinion. So after the concert, I will be staying sober for this concert because I will be going home and watching the Rockets game. So I can actually call you, can I call you ahead of time and tell you what happened?

I'm going to know what happens. I'm still going to watch the game. I want to know how is Jane Green doing? on switches. How Stephen Adams looking with crashing the boards. What's Alper and Shingoon looking like? Is he going to be turning the ball over? All that little stuff. I love watching the game. That's good. That's good.

I'm going to watch the game. All right. 126. Let's take a short time out. We have a winner, by the way. We do. What's his name? Chris Rainwater, man. Chris Rainwater. I tell you what, my goodness. Chris Waynewater is going to the game. He's an Enterprise and young man. He is. He was born in South.

Talk to Oklahoma, cold Chris Rainwater. You want to talk to him? Yeah, he said, I want to go to the Rockets game. And I listen to the Matt Thomas Show at Ross 10 to 2, Sports Talk 790, where I played by the rules. Congratulations. Chris Rainwater. You're going to see the Golden State Warriors. I remember quite a gold rush back in 1849.

And he went to the game with one of his bros. And he got to the arena. It is a pair of tickets, by the way. And he saw a young maiden. who was heavy-chested. Oh, Jesus. Can I please buy you a cold beer? Well, how could you tell him those days?

Everybody's all covered up. No, I'm talking about tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow. Tomorrow, Chris. Play-off talent was in the building on Sunday. You're going to meet a heavy-chested woman tomorrow. How you feel about that? Yeah.

That's your own decision. We were talking about meeting that special someone at Rocket Games. Could you imagine meeting that special someone, Ross, if that other special person you happen to meet is wearing a jersey of the other team he rooting against. Like you see this girl from a very far distance. You're like, God, she's beautiful and she lows sports. She's in the game and she's wearing a Steph Curry jersey.

It's fine, Matt. Doesn't matter what color of the jersey is when it's on the ground. Like, I'll tell you, it was a little dicey in the Thomas household during Duke versus Houston. Yeah, it adds a little spice of life, right? I didn't necessarily enjoy it. We weren't together, so it wasn't out of... Like, if we were in the same room together, it would have been a little awkward.

We weren't. I was in San Francisco. She was in Reno. So it kind of worked out that well. You had a good buffer zone. We have a lot of people that have called the show in the years past and have said, hey, I'm my wife's a cowboy fan. I'm a Texans fan. You have people who are like Longhorns and Aggies married.

Yeah. And I, the easiest thing, I would treat it like I would treat politics. Just don't discuss it. Okay. Don't you think? Yes. There are three things in life that I feel like a marriage where you're really politically divided is probably a little more difficult than a sports team. Right, right, right.

Among my friends, my closest friends, there are three things we don't talk about. Religion, politics, and how you raise your children. Ooh, you don't talk about how you raise your children? It feels like you need dead. Explain that from a young man. Explain that from a young guy. What's up with that? Because some people will have a different philosophy about what you get away with.

what your kids should be punished. Spanking. Going out. Curfews. That kind of thing. Now, if you are like minded, it's kind of like, hey, you know, my daughter, she was an hour late or, hey, my son did this.

Yeah, I figured you would go for advice. I would, not that I wouldn't, but I just don't think I've ever had done so. Okay. But I would say most of my, but like if we're in a casual setting with people, I hear at the office. I mean, we have acquaintances,

but we don't have a lot of tight friends in the office here. Yeah. I wouldn't get into a deep-seated conversation about raising your children in our office place. But if I have a really, really intimate group of friends, I would probably do that. Same thing with religion in politics. But generally speaking, those are three taboo-top conversation pieces.

Okay. Because I don't want anyone telling me how to raise my children. Oh, I'm telling you for decades. I know, and look what happened. One of them spent too much time with you. 7-13-212-5-790s. 713-212-5-790. We do have another pair of tickets for the Rockets.

We're going to give away tomorrow, and Ross will tell you how that happens in just a couple seconds here, but I do want to get a phone call in before we talk to the manager of the Houston Astros, and let's talk to Dave in Spring on 798-135. Hello, Dave. Hey, Matt, Ross. I tell you what, I've gone to Rocket Games, I've never met any women there, but apparently some guys,

well, maybe they don't meet them there, but what always strikes me is how many grandfathers are there with their beautiful granddaughters. It's really just something, you know, tremendous. I don't know if you notice it. Oh, oh, I absolutely noticed. I do know what you're saying. Thank you, Dave, for the phone call.

A lot of grandads with their granddaughters. And they're wearing a lot of scantily clad. The granddaughters are scantily clad. Imagine that. You don't say anything. I got no comment. That's fine. Let's talk to our friend, Joe Espada.

He is the manager of your Houston Astros with us here on Sports Talk 790 at 136. Skip, it's Matt Ross. Thanks for joining us. Hey, I felt like last night listened to you in the post game show, somebody said, hey, what do you think about Hunter Brown? You were, like, measured because you couldn't think of more superlatives. The guy's been

lights out for you. Have you had a chance to really boast now that you've had 24 hours away from the ballpark? You know, he is, Matt, he's been really, really good. And the beauty of it is,

that there is potential to get even better. Like, he's overall game, right? I think once you reach this level where he is now, where we know he's got this stuff, and, you know, you've got all the teams talking about facing Hunter Brown. Now he's creating that consistency where you show up every single night and you give your team an opportunity to win the game. Right?

You know, it's doing that. He's becoming that guy now. is, you know, long-term, right? Hunter Brown is becoming that ace. And I've been watching them transform into this guy where we, you know, we lean on him. Like, dude, you know, we got an opportunity to win a game and an opportunity to win another series at home. I feel great about, you know, we all feel great about Hunter Brown getting the ball and game on.

That's where he's at right now. Skip, it was literally last night, it was like him throwing. darts at a board and hitting the bull's eye. I mean, when he was missing, he wasn't missing by much. No, and the thing is that when he when pitch, you know, when

hitters are following pitches off, he's like, you know what? Shit, here you go. He's 99 down the middle. Like, right, when you have confidence and I'm just going to just challenge you with my best in the heart of the plate, I don't care if I get hit, but

I'm not going to walk you. once when you reach that level of confidence, now you're doing some stuff, right? Now it's when you're like, oh, my God, this guy is real. This guy is not afraid of contact. This guy is actually coming at you against a really, really good lineup. And, you know, he's just becoming one of the best in the game. You also made a lineup change yesterday, moving Yordon to the second spot. Initial thought about that, got on base a couple of times, including the obligatory intentional walk,

which I'm more than okay with. And it helped out a little bit because you got a crooked number and then in the middle of the game, which was a nice surprise as well. Yeah, you know, Paredes right now, he has been our best hitter. We've made in scoring position. And, you know, the more traffic we could get on in front of them

for him to get big hits like the night before where he got the big hits to center against San Diego, he did it again last night after their walk, Yordan. You know, he really has a feel for, RBI's. So trying to, I'm just trying to create some, you know, some moments there where our best guys come up to the play often and try to give our offense spark and trying to give our starter of Hunter Brown in this case and our bullpen opportunity to pitch with the lead. And he worked out really well last night.

Yeah, I'm a big fan, Joe, of Alvarez hitting second and it happened last night in that seventh inning when he was able to come up and knocked his Inzo in. What is that? Is there anything you talk to him about it? How does Yordon feel about it? He's just say, hey, put me wherever and I'm going to hit. Yeah. Yeah, he is. He's like that. He puts me wherever type of, you know, he's so good. I, you know, I look at it this way and I present it to him this way. If you look at the best lineups in the game, the tool hitter are, you know, we're talking about the Bobby Wood Jr.'s of the world, the Vladimir Guerrero's, the Mookie Betts, the Aaron Judge.

You know, those are the guys when the game is on the line, and you're going to hear me say this all the time, seven, eighth inning, that two spot right behind Al Tuve, it comes up all the time. Having someone behind Altuvae with a presence that, okay, this guy's also helps Altuve get better pitches to hit. So now, you know, both of our best hitters are getting, you know, big of bats getting pitches to hit in high leverage moments. Astros manager, Joe, is spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. Also some good production last night from the back end of the lineup. You mentioned last night in the post game,

Zach Dzenzo will be back in the lineup today. Was that something planned or something you're saying, hey, I'm going with a hot hand? No, no, it was planned. I do going to, you know, I've got to wait. This is breaking news. I am going to wait for him.

He, when he slid in second base yesterday on a double. His second double left field. He kind of jam his thumb. So I am waiting for him to come in. He's getting treatment right now. He's going to hit in the cage. And hopefully he doesn't need a day to heal that thumb. So I wanted to give him back-to-back days. My plan is to give him back-to-back days, but I am waiting for him to tell me how he feels. And has it been a little bit of a, not a struggle, but you're always trying to wiggle guys in. You want to make sure that Cam learns right field and get everybody there proper opportunities. You've been balancing

left field and the D.H. spot. Is that a tough spot because you want to see him do with a little bit of everything in the infield and outfield and still get a plenty of bads? Because look, you hate young players that just don't get the opportunity to get their, you know, two or three played appearances per night if they can. No, no, you do, man. It's tough. It's a tough balancing act because these are guys that we, this is our future, right? And I want to give these guys opportunities to play. And the best way for you to play and get better is by gaining that experience on the field,

learning from your mistake, learning from the up and downs of a very long season. So this first month I've been trying, the first three weeks, I've been trying to get everyone opportunities to play. And once it does settle, some of these guys need to have, you know, every day I bet. You know, the Jordans, they'll do it, the Jeremy. the Paredes, the Walker, those guys are penciled in there every day, but then it's the other players, the Rogers, the Dubon, who we know how good Dubon is when he gets every day at Batch,

his ability to put the ball in play, his defense. So trying to get all these guys in, and we have had every Thursday off. It makes it a little bit challenging, but once we're getting to May when we have 17 straight, now you want to see more at Bats to go to a lot of these players. I think you used the term breather for Christian Walker yesterday, and maybe I'm paraphrasing here, but what is it exactly like for a veteran player that has had so much success, no matter what uniform he's had, not to have the kind of month he's had for you, what was a breather like for him?

And what did you see from his demeanor, just kind of maybe chit-chatting during the course of the game? Yeah, just being able to come in and relax, you know, for me the best breather was when I brought him in the night before in my office and tell him I was going to give him the breather. for us to breathe together and talk about stuff. Like, you know, this guy comes in, you know, he comes as a free agent, you know, to expectations are high and he wants to produce. And he is, he's a producer. That's all he's done in his career at the major league level. And sometimes coming to a new organization, it could be, it could be a lot and you can

probably try to do too much. And that's understandable. He wants to do well. and I know he's going to do very, very well. But sometimes you just need to press the pause button and give him a breather and, you know, get him back in day to day. And hopefully that gets him going. Last question, Forrest gives you the two innings last night. You're about to have Skip, and this is a wonderful problem to have a little bit of a log jam in your bullpen.

And maybe if Lance comes back in the next few weeks, starting rotation. So have you started in the back of your mind thinking about, man, what am I going to do here, especially if I can get Forrest Whitland to get me six outs when he pitches for me. Well, I'm telling you it's not a bad problem in half, Matt. And you know our season, how we went last year. You could never have enough pitching. And, you know, once, you know, Lance gets back, it's going to be doing that stretch.

We go 17 straight. So we are going to go into a six-man rotation. And we go in my half to have, you know, one less guy in the pen. So having guys like Forrest who could go multiple innings, and he could punch people out. It's huge, right? So right now, it's not a bad problem. I'm happy that, you know, for us, he's healthy.

He's a force when he's in the zone. So it was great for him to give us two innings, and I'll stay away from our back end guys. Skip, great stuff as always. I need you to get a different shirt on because your shirts before game one with the Rockas didn't help. So we've got a changings up a little bit. Can you help us out a little bit here?

Yeah, get me, get me, get me. give me one and I wear it. Big game tomorrow, right? Oh my God. Yeah, you're going to win first and then the Rockets are going to win second. So you need to start things going for the local city if you don't mind. All right, fellas. You got it. Thank you very much. Joe Spotted with us here at 145 on Sports Talk 790.

Great visit as always. Back to play, believe it or not. All things about diesel. 146 Sports Talk 790. By the way, the NBA punishing a member of their star for saying something not very nice to a fan. Anthony Edwards What did he say, Matt? He was in Los Angeles over the weekend to play game one of that series in which the Wolves

beat the Lakers. And he was arguing with a fan and he told the fan that his blank is bigger than his. And then... What blank? His D. The exact quote was, my D is bigger than yours. And then he takes his hand and puts it on his D and shows. shubs it and shows him that

indeed size does matter. $50,000 NBA fining him for the size reference. That's cost you. Does that it run you 50 G's? Yeah. It's tough. Tough scenes.

Anthony Edwards, he just gives zero Fs. He really does. He just wants the ball. He's given zero F's and $50,000 he's giving as well. That's right. The charity. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We. should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show.

We simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not, is all things about diesel. I'll read your statement about diesel. Statements completely not early accurate. You'll say this. Belie-Belie.

If the statement's erroneous full of bunk and made up, you'll say this. Two believe or nots in a row win your prize. Jonathan, what are we playing for today? Sports Talk 790 T-shirt and a pair of tickets. see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest live on October 26th at the Woodlands Pavilion. There it is. Mike on 790, Mike, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Mike is not, boy, they're dropping like flies here. They don't want to go see Alice Cooper. School's out for the summer, Ross. Well, not yet, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I know what you're saying. Let's talk to Jeremiah on 790. Jeremiah, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Hunter Brown's nickname the diesel was given to him by

Wayne State University Coach Ryan Skelly. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, it was Pete Solomon-Walled AAA level. Sorry. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Robert on 790. Robert, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Vin Diesel's given name is actually Mark Sinclair. He chose his name when he was a nightclub bouncer because he thought it sounded tough. Believe it or not? Believe it. That's believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the way and Vin Diesel was awarded a role in saving Private Ryan after writing a heartfelt note to Stephen Spel.

Billberg telling the director how much he loved his work. Believe it or not? Not. That is actually true. When you think of heartfelt notes, you think of Vin Diesel right away. Let's go to Greg on 790. Greg, what was your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show? Oh, all the Astros talk for sure, 7-0 on that victory last night. The diesel engine is named after its German inventor, Rudolph Diesel. Believe it or not? Believe it. That's correct. Statement number two for the win.

When Rudolph Diesel invented his engine, he was a farmer with no engineering background. Believe it or not? Not. That is also correct. Congratulations. Nick on 790, Nick, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. The name for the Houston Dynamo mascot Dynamo Diesel was chosen after a drawing contest held by the Art Institute of Houston.

Believe it or not. Not. That is a believe it. How do you not know the history of the Dynamo Diesel? Randall on 790 Randall, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Giving away of tickets. The diesel fashion brand was founded by two skateboarding professionals in Los Angeles back in 1986. Believe it or not.

Not. That is right. It was popular back in his 70s. Statement number two for the win. Shaquille O'Neal has DJed under the moniker DJ Diesel at several venues and festivals, including doing a set at the electric at Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Believe it or not. Believe it. That is believe it. Congratulations.

Nice to do. All right, Rossi. Tomorrow, shut your bum ass up. We will check in hopefully with Tom Tolbert of Warriors Radio. We'll do that on the show tomorrow. We will have, what else we got? Oh, an Astro victory, hopefully, and an opportunity to give away more tickets

to the game against Golden State tomorrow night. Okay. Up next. Wexelan, Planton, and Jake Myers at 230. What?

It's the team on Sports Talk 7-90, and it's up next.