The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Are Moving On UP! Lance McCullers Goes Deep With 12ks, Could They Get To #1 In AL West?!

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Astros Are Moving On UP! Lance McCullers Goes Deep With 12ks, Could They Get To #1 In AL West?!

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-02 at H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Well, we're moving up. The Alton to center field, Clark, first pitch is laced up the medal. The Astros are moving out. I'm out of first place, baby. Sing it. Well, not technically.

They do match the number of the Seattle Mariners and number of victories. They're 30. The Astros have played one more game. It was a loss. So Seattle yesterday drops a game. They're 30 and 24. Your beloved Astros with the sweep. And granted, it's two games, but it's still a sweep.

And they are 30 and to 25. Good morning, everyone. 1004 on Sports Talk 790. I'm just going to tell you, part of the charm of having Jonathan as our producer of the show, he is such a young fellow. He has learned so little in life because he's only like 22 or 23 years old. and beyond the occasional three to four mistakes he makes per program. We're still thinking, oh, sorry, I didn't even say that.

One to two small mistakes and then one major one, but that's a different issue for a different time. It is so much fun to give you songs to play or to tell you things and you go back and look at them and you go, man, this is a gym. That, my friends, and I will say anybody from the age of 17 to 77, that song, the Jefferson's theme song, moving on up, sang by the late Janet Dubois, who was played Waloma or not Walona.

Yeah, Wellona on Good Times is the greatest theme song in television history. Do you know that, Jonathan? Is this from the 60s? No, 70s and 80s. I was listening to the whole way in the car. I'm telling you, is it not a jam? It is a 100% jam. And I thought to myself, I wanted to, you know, we play the songs winning and another one bites

it does and the beat goes on. I mean, all that kind of stuff we play. I wanted to find something different today. And I thought to myself, does moving on up kind of make sense for the local nine? And I thought it kind of does. It's four games in a row, no? Yeah. And the Nationals shut out the Mariners last night, nine to nothing. Nine to nothing. So ladies and gentlemen, as much as this team is not hitting, as much as this team is struggling with starting, pitching,

getting deep into games, by the way, thank you very much, Lance McCullers with six innings. The bullpen's been filthy, the defense has been excellent, and the bats are starting to warm up, and your team, your Astros, through all the, and other Tommy John surgery announced yesterday, your baseball team, Houston, Texas, is one half game out of first place in the America League West.

And if I look at the, and the wild card, this shows you how whack the American League is this year. The Astros, the Guardians, and the twins are all tied with the exact same wild card market, 30 wins and 25 losses. Now, you're saying, oh, they're firmly in. Well, yeah, they're firmly in, but we've also got basically three months left to go on the season.

And also the fact that Kansas City is a game back, Tampa's two back, Toronto, three back, the Rangers are four back, Red Sox are four and a half out. So a long way to go. But sometimes we come to you as radio host and sports fans and you think, oh, the glass is half empty. Today, I come to you with a cup overflowing. A, the Jefferson's played.

B, we got two highlights in. The theme song is only a minute seven. Jonathan, if the theme song could be like five minutes, I'd have played it over and over again with every highlight from last night's game. Good defense, a strikeout. Lance McCullors with 12 strikeouts. He couldn't move his arms six months ago. That's insane.

Wait, before you continue, is this song not a real song? No, it's just a theme song. It would never hit the charts. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Jonathan, I'm telling you, there was a generation of television before you were even born that these songs became as much as part of the show as anything else. As a matter of fact, today, you know what we'll do, Jonathan,

we're going to let you learn a little bit about how great television shows were when they had awesome theme songs. Name one right now. Oh, you know, Sanford and Son is instrumental. That's a show from the 70s. It has an instrumental theme. The Dallas theme is amazing. Who else had a three company had a great theme song.

So as a matter of fact, today on the radio show, I just gave you that, I'm throwing this at you right now, and I'm sorry I'm doing it, but that's what the show's all about, right? Basically, me throwing things to you with very little advance warning. If you guys want to send me a tweet at SportsMT, don't call, but send me a tweet. Give me some, let's get Jonathan up to speed with great theme songs from shows. And we use them as bumper music. So you guys send me a tweet at SportsMT.

And then I'll see them and I'll go, okay, that's a good one. So Jonathan, today for you only, we're going to play Bumperman. bump music of great TV theme songs. And you'd be like, damn, that's a jam. All that's, I mean, you know the friends, I'll be there for you. You watch Friends, right? I've watched Friends. Now, that's a theme song show, but that also became a hit, too, based off of the television show.

Really? I didn't know that at all. That's why I'm here for, Jonathan. I'm here to teach you things, to get you up to speed on the last 40 years of your, well, you didn't even not, you're not 40, but the last 40 years of life. You're like my prodigy. And I'm not going to lie to everybody listening. I really like some of the reactions they show me the songs,

I'm jamming back here. It's actually. I told you. I wouldn't lie to you. I wouldn't lie to you. We're not going to put corny songs like Full House on or leave it to Beaver. I want songs today on this show that move. I as a white man, when I hear the Jefferson's theme song,

I don't want to sit in this chair. Think about it. When you play the song again, you hear this song, everything in your life is better. You're bouncing into a different beat. You feel better about life. My drive to work wasn't nearly as bad. Mine was clear. My was still horrific, but that's a different issue for a different time.

It just makes you in a better mood. And the baseball team is winning. We have one half of the NBA finals settled. Probably the other half tonight. That game was horrible, by the way. Oh, just brutal. We have Brian McTagger coming on the show today at 11 o'clock. But seriously, as a white man, there are very few songs we can dance to.

This is one I can move to. Go in, fire us a little bit more. Yo, yeah. I'm serious. If you're not in a better mood up to hearing this song, oh, yeah, everybody's got them in here. We got some instrumentals, too. That's sending them right now?

I'll tell you everyone. I'm going to do them in order. There's some jams. I'm telling you, there are some jams. And Jonathan, it is my responsibility in my life for the next six to eight months you're working with us here. And so you find something else to get you up to speed with the great pop culture of the last 40 years. All right. Ross is off today. He is off today and tomorrow, a couple of days of R&R. so we'll look forward to having him back on Monday. We mentioned Brian McTaggert's with us at 11 o'clock today.

Our friend, Cole Thompson, who you produces the A team, is going to stop. by 1130 to 1.30 today. We also have, we're going to push, I just don't get it to 1230 today because I figured we'd be kind of awkward for cold to come in and start a segment already with I just don't get it. So we're going to push that to 1230 this afternoon. We have the news at noon. And we have, believe it or not today, all things about Shag Gilges Alexander. He is the Western Conference MVP after last night's game with the Minnesota Timberwolves where the thunder took their souls. That's an understatement.

I mean, is it too wrong to say bitch slap? No, there we go. I mean to be crass, but it is what it is. We have that to get to. We have the Astros winning a game yesterday. Lance McCullors giving you, I mean, 102 pitches, 69 strikes. Wasn't it your gut feeling that he was going to be out by what, June? I didn't say a gut feeling.

Because I'll say this, and I want to come back with Lange, because he deserves his flower. But there's still a part of me that has scared the death. And I need y'all's help to help me get past that. We'll discuss that as a show progresses. And then we've got to get to Stefan Diggs. Have you seen Stefan Diggs in the video? You're talking about the one in the boat?

Oh, yeah. Someone's going to explain that to me. I was, I don't know the answer to this, but I've been around a lot of pro athletes, Jonathan, in my life. And when in doubt, everything that you saw is 100% completely accurate. What I saw is what I saw? There is no AI involved in any of that stuff. It is the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. If you want to join me via Twitter at SportsMT, we're going to play theme songs today of TV shows because, again, got a cat from my man up to speed. I got another great one from the 1970s. That is, again, a good white person song that stands to. 1013 on 790. Good time.

Good time. I still have a crush on thumb. If we're rating them, I think I'm putting this one over to Jefferson's. Shut up. I really like that. Oh, I used to watch Good Times every day. I was a latchkey kid. And for those that don't know, when you were in the 70s, you could probably late 70s, early 80s.

My mom was a single mom and was working, so I'd come home from school, and I would shut the door and lock it and not go out. Yeah, me too. And I was in the apartments in A-Leaf. Shout out Spice Lane. You know, you guys are Spice Lanners? You know what I'm talking about. And I would watch Sanford and Son repeats. and I'm going to watch good time repeats.

I mean, damn, that show is good. All right, 1020 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross Ross of the day off. And again, Brian McTagherby with us coming up in 40 minutes from now. And so, okay, so I want you to keep your list. Do me favor of this. That's a good idea, Jonathan. I want you to replay these songs.

Put these in the order. And at the very end of the show, you can tell me where you put your favorite, like top two or three. We're going to try to mix in a new bump song. I'm putting some extra work on you, but it's all right. What's just the two of us hanging out. All right, if you'd like to be a part of the radio program, 713212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-9, as we take your calls today, following the Astros win and the Nationals win over the Seattle Mariners. So what Lance McCullers is doing right now is, first of all, unbelievably awesome that he's able to get back on the mound after all the years of injuries.

the seasons missed. Then yesterday he gives you 12Ks, three runs over six, which again is a quality start. And needless to say, I'm not the only one, but the reality is that I think a lot of us are very surprised by his return, first and foremost, because for a long time, there was just no thought of he was ever going to come back because it kept being set back after setback after setback.

And then he's back. And he's throwing, you know, 85, 90 pitches. And I'm like, this is not what I expected. I expected him to go 50, 55, 60, and he'd start laboring. And the bullpen would be a hot mess because you could not rely on him to go deep into games. And the reality is he's getting deeper into games. His pitch count is getting higher. He's bouncing back.

And he's pitching every fifth day, or every six day or fifth day, depending on the rotation, since his return off the injured list. Six innings yesterday, five hits three runs, 12 strikeouts or another one home run, only had one walk. His strikeouts to walk ratio was 12. And he pitched 102 pitches. We got guys in a major leagues that are fully healthy that are not pitching. to 95, 96, 97 pitches. So I need y'all to help me out with something and tell me what I have to do.

Forget about me as a talk show host. This is just me being an astro fan talking to y'all. How am I going to not, how am I going to get over worrying about him? How am I going to get over the fact that it gives me the hebi-jeebies when he gets to 90? Or for that matter, 85 and even some maybe cases 80. because, and to be honest, we worry about that with all of our pictures or any of your favorite players. You worry about injuries. It's just the thing.

I mean, you worry about Jordon's hand. You worry about, you know, arm elements. And look, obviously, the Astros have been beset by plenty of them this year. But Lance has come back and given you the starts. Now, he's still looking for his first decision one way or the other. but if I would have given you a line score of the pitcher that threw yesterday and said this particular pitcher went six innings allowed five hits, three runs, one walk, 12 strikeouts. And I said, name the astro pitcher that did that.

You probably would never have, well, you would have guessed, Lance, because there's only a certain number of guys in rotation. But if I would have said a year, if I had asked you a year ago that on March the 28th, 2000, 25, a pitcher is going to give you those numbers. Who did it? You would have never in a million years had said Lance McCona. So first of all, I'm happy for him. Secondly, keep it going. Whatever he's doing in terms of his recuperation,

his rest after starts, his buildup going into it, whatever it's going on, it can continue to what you do. But there's still a part of me, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to shake it. There's still a part of me that just am worried about that one pitch or that one time he walks off the mound and it's going back to square one. And I've got to shake myself of that. I ask you Houston, Texas, how do I do that?

How do I say Lance is back? He's throwing. He's getting you 12 strikes. He's going longer in games. That one awful start where he only got a one-third of an inning is in the rearview mirror. And while he doesn't have a decision, he's keeping you in ball games. I don't know how to do that. Except that I would give you my own simplistic answer of, well, if Joe Espada trust him and throws him out there every fifth or six day.

And Joe Espada lets him throw 102 pitches. and Joe Espada lets him go six innings. Well, not even Joe Espada. Probably even just like Dana Brown and like... Any of them. Any of the organization. Yeah. Then why am I freaking?

Why am I wigging out about it? So I'm not asking you to walk me off the ledge. There's no such thing as a ledge. But am I ever going to shake the... Please, Lance, don't get hurt, start. Because I don't do that with Framber. I don't do that. with Hunter Brown.

Now granted, those guys have not had the injury ailments at Lance does. And maybe if you've been gone for two and a half years, maybe that's just par for the course. When you put anybody out there, I mean, for instance, I mean, when Yordon comes back, whenever he does come back, maybe I'm going to be in the same spot as that. I'll hope that hand holds up. Hopefully he will not, you know, that hand will not start.

will be hurt and sore and he'll be down for a few days. It's almost like yesterday, I'll give you a case and point, the Texans had training camp OTAs yesterday. CJ's strided the throw. What was the first thing I thought of? Uh-oh, what happened? What's the matter with him? Maybe we as sports fans are just trained that way.

Well, I mean, especially for Houston, thinking about just the only alone basketball in the Rockets in 2018, in 2017, like the whole city is kind of cursed in big moments with people getting injured and all that stuff. Yeah, I know. But the thing of it is, Jonathan, every city goes through that. I don't know. Maybe I just have got to, I need a way to shake myself. Maybe Lance has to call me or text me and say, man, I'm good, bro.

He wouldn't call me a bro. You got me a bra. B-R-U-H-B-H, bro. A personal text. I need a personal text from Lance McCuller Jr. Matt, I got this. I'm good, bro. I'm good.

And I'd be there for him. 1027 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to join the conversation. Are you all in the same situation as I am, or am I just making this up? This is a show from the 70s called Rockford Files. Jim Garner played a role of a private investigator. I didn't watch the show. I think it was very good.

But this theme is a great theme song. Mike Post, put this up a little bit. Oh, John, then you poor kid. Now there's no more theme songs anymore. It's so different. Yeah, everybody really took pride in their shows. All right, there you go. There's a little Rockford Fowles for you.

I got one that's going to be coming up that's vocal that I think, I don't know if it was ever a hit, but damn, people saying it for a long time. So we got that coming up today. Brian McTaggart in one half hour. It's a Matt Thomas show at Ross, Ross with the day off. Cole Thompson's going to come by and say hello to his 1130 to 130 to 130. And he'll make his debut for I just don't get it, we're going to push back today to 1230.

All right, 713-212-5-7-90. Am I by myself and still worrying about Lance? I probably shouldn't, but I'm honest. I need Lance to text me, Matt, I got this, bruh. Is it B-R-A-H or B-R-U-A-B-R-U-A-B-R-B-R-H? Yeah, but that's a down like, come on, br-A-H. Come on, bruh. Bra.

B-R-A-H is, I got this, right? You know, I would say you're not making sense, but I'm... You know what I'm saying? I think it's in bruh and bra. But I've never seen anybody say, I say, bra. Bra. You only say it out loud. You don't really text bra.

Okay, well, go right. If you know my number, text me, brah. Ponder in Baytown at 1034 on 790. Ponder, good morning. Hey, good morning, Matt. How you doing? Good friend, what's up? Hey, so, look.

Here's how you be optimistic about lanes. And I know that your optimism is not your question here, is the fear of the busing another injury or throw in that one pitch. But look, you've got to look at it at Glass Appell and say, at least he's not Anthony Rendon, at least he's not Albert Poole's, not Steven Strasberg. And we've got him, what is it, 17.5, I think, for the rest of this year and next year. Yep. So understand that the injuries are probably.

probably going to happen and why. I take this back to the Dodgers, the World Series with the Dodgers, and he threw what, 17-something curveball straight and they couldn't hit them. I think the damage he's done to his arm is for the city of Houston.

It does not shock me that he went out there. I mean, it shocks me at this point in his recovery or this quick being back that he was able to do that, but his stuff's nasty. It's why we've coveted him for the years that we've had him. so it doesn't shock me. I think when he goes out there, be happy,

especially right now that we've got him in the rotation. I don't know how long. And I don't know that you can ever erase the fear of, oh, God. You know, we saw that grimace on his face or something like that. It's almost like, man, it's like angel fans. I don't know if there's any such thing as an angel fan, but probably angel fan feels that way about Mike Trout. You know, Mike Trout.

Oh, great catch in Center Field. Oh, he banged his knee against the wall. He's out for two months. I mean, maybe that's just... He stole my thunder, Matt. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That was the covenant one I was going to.

Oh, no. They're locked on him for, what, seven more years in that deal? Yeah. I mean, it's, and so you just thank God that we've got him for what, and here's the last thing I'll say about this is he, and I hope he does. I think he absolutely loves the game. We've had some really good players that I don't feel had that Houston mentality that we grew up loving with the Bagwells and the vigios and people that were team first.

We haven't seen that in all of our star players we've had here throughout all these championships. But I guarantee you if he plays again after this contract, it's with Houston, and he'll do it on a discounted deal because he wants to stay here, and he knows what we waited for. And I just think that about his personnel, and I'll hang up at listening. All right. Thanks for the phone call, Pond. I appreciate it. Yeah. So what I've decided is, it's just taking every fifth to sixth day, whenever he pitches.

They start worrying your way. Well, no, you don't. worry until he puts his head down and then starts walking off the mound. That's when you start worrying. Because here's the thing. You know, if you're that sports fan, if you're that Astro fan that just sat there and said, oh, he's never going to come back, and then you're the sports fan that says, well, I'm waiting from him to get hurt, then there's no joy in watching Lance McCuller's throw.

And honestly, you need Lance McCullors. Aragetti still is probably a month away, if not even a little bit longer. Renele Blanco is done for the season. What's that? Hayden Winsneski is done for the season. I mean, man, to steal a bit off of our show on Wednesdays, we ain't got time to worry about injury guys. We already got enough of those. So I think I've already solved my own answer.

Just enjoy for what it is. but when he got to hotter pitches yesterday and he's striking all those folks out like oh man don't don't go get him Joe go get him go get him right go make him feel good fit thudding okay get that bullpen ready

he saved the bacon he did he didn't have to stretch that bullpen out yesterday 713 212 570 Aggie Doug is with us on the Matt Thomas show with Ross 80 what's a good word today man when

Lance walked back out there for the sixth inning yesterday. I said, Joe, what the eff are you doing? See, I'm not the only one. I knew it, AD. I knew it. I was like, like, why are we, like, at this point, I'm like, if he gives you four, you know, I'm good with that. But then I was like, he had 12 strikeouts? It was like the most unsuspecting 12 strikeout game that I've probably ever seen.

I mean, the dude averaged two strikeouts per inning. and I mean, but I mean, again, he also got hit really hard whenever they did hit the ball. So, but like I was saying yesterday, I think with the Astros pitching, I think it's going to be something that's going to end up kind of being a actually a plus for us.

And, and you know, like you said, Eric Getty is going to be back in a month. Then you're going to have hopefully Garcia that will be back in a month and a half to two months at the beginning of August. And think about this. you're going to also have a really good look at Gusto and also at Walker and also at

Gordon, yeah. To see if those three guys are something that you can use in maybe a trade bait to get a big bat or possibly, you know, maybe even pair with another one of our pitchers that could be a free agent at the end of this season to get a really stud pitcher. Because I don't think he's going to resign with us. But again, as long as he keeps giving him. that's good Framber, there's no way the Astros are ever going to get rid of him. No, I think there's a better chance. Thanks to Aiding for the phone call is I think the Astros would probably,

if Framber continues to pitch the weight that he has and those these quality start after quality start, you know, I've always been, I'm very honest with you. I pencil Fromber in a long-term contract percentage with the Astros at zero. But I'd necessarily say that it would be zero. if it was a short-term deal. Now, again, only one person knows what Fromber wants, and that's going to be Fromber, or maybe his agent, somebody to two people.

It is interesting that the international players tend to take deals faster than players that are from the states here. I don't know why that is. I mean, it's coincidental or not. I mean, we can use Yoron as a good example of that. Christian Javier is an example of that. Now, again, I'm not going to worry about Frombers 2026. I'm worried about the hearing now.

But at this point, I would not move any pitcher knowing that so far at this point, we've got two pictures definitely done for the year, and one Skidolo can be going to be gone for a month plus. I'm holding on everybody at this point. At least somebody that's been able to show me they can throw a strike. Gordon's been okay. Gusto's been okay in spots. And in Gusto's spot, he kind of has a good spot. to hang in because of the fact that he is a guy that can go back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen with relative ease.

Not easy for a lot of those pitchers to do that. And Gusto at least says, look, I can do it now. I'll help when I can't. So you kind of need one of those swing-type pitchers. Seth Martinez is one of those guys the last couple of years. 1042 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross off today.

We got Brian McTagher coming up at about to 20 minutes from. now. We'll get more on the aster's. When we come back, we do have a Western Conference finals champion. Oklahoma City wins it and destroys the Minnesota Timberwolves. I'll say this once and I'll say it a thousand times. If you think Houston is snake bit by bad sports juju, Minneapolis St. Paul's got us beat. 1043 on 790. Saturday nights we're watching this show. Every Saturday night as a kid. The people are good looking too. Oh, hell yeah.

You went on the love boat to hook up. Listen to this chorus. My goodness. Gold, my friends. The cruise director's name was Julie. I had a massive crush on her back in the day. I'm seeing Calvin, the captain?

No, it was Captain Stubing. Oh. Yeah, go He had the ship doctor. He had Isaac. He was the cool bartender. What was this even about? It was just like... It was about couples that would go on the boat,

celebrities, and they would just go on to different places around the world. And they wind up having romance. I'm telling you. Oh, adult drama. Turn it up. Oh, Julie is attractive. Oh, I'm telling you. You know what happened?

Jonathan asked me during the break. He says, what happened to good television? I said, it's really your kid's fault. You all wanted so much He did not say this good I didn't mean Stay with me on this It's the

It's the advent of reality television Do you know And I don't know if you know this this is this is true history Do you know how reality television Really became super popular Now there's obviously shows like Survivor And The Real World

Those kind of those old G school type shows Do you know what got really reality television going Was the OJ Simpson trial And mean in all seriousness. They put it on for hours a day. Oh, and they realize. And they realize, like, wait a minute.

People are going in droves to watch this. This is real stuff. There is nothing we can produce. Are you being for real? I'm being serious as a heart attack. Wow. You love something new every day. Are you serious?

I'm telling you go ask anybody that follows social media, pop culture, mass media. The reason why soap opera is when. I've gone off the air. The reason why shows that had character actors in it are not nearly as popular as they were, say, many years ago. First of all, the production costs, it's a lot cheaper to do a reality show. And plus, the reality show, you're not paying, you know, like the cast of the friends were making, you know, $5,000, $600,000 an episode. You don't have to pay. And then script writers, too.

Script writers and producers and directors. You're not paying that kind of money for the real housewives of blank. Now, you're paying them something. or what's the what's the show about being on the boat um something under underworld or whatever i mean or like um uh what do you what's reality i'm on a huge reality show watcher right now like in present time like love island love island yeah you're not paying bachelor bachelor you're not paying brodie 80 thousand dollars a week to be on love island i'm just throwing a name out there that's the reason but yeah going back to it we lost television shows because people like

real people more so than the fake characters. I guess that makes sense, though. I'm just saying. All right. 10.50. I'm just, like I said, I feel like I'm a, I'm a mass media, a professor for you. No, I, I've learned something new right now. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm here for you. All right. Brian McTagger joins us in 10 minutes.

Let me give me to last night. Again, I know that we're not a huge NBA town right now, and that's fine. We'll be a huge NBA town when the Rockets are playing in the same spot, hopefully a year from now. but the Minnesota Timberwolves embarrassed themselves yesterday by getting their ass kicked by the Oklahoma City Thunder. I mean, the wolves yesterday

scored nine points in the first quarter. Nine. It was an absolute bloodbath on that scoreboard last night as the Western Conference was decided. And Shade Gildes Alexander, who will be today's topic on believe it or not, was named the Western Conference MVP.

Do you know what I did not know? And maybe I should have? Do you know when you win the Western Conference trophy as the best in the West, you win the Oscar Robertson trophy, which I did not know? And then if you're the MVP of the Western Conference finals, you win the Magic Johnson trophy. These are things I didn't even know until it happened last night. You didn't know they changed the name? I didn't know they had trophies. I just thought they got like a medal and a high five and anada boy. I didn't even realize it. But last night was 1.24-94, and the game wasn't even that close.

So, and I brought this up to you all before, I used to a little in Minneapolis, St. Paul, for three years and really enjoyed my time there. But you're a lot close, even though the weather and the culture and the type of people are significantly different here in Texas than they are in Minneapolis, St. Paul, in the state of Minnesota, you're a lot closer to the sports trials and tribulations. The wolves have gone to the NBA Western Conference finals two consecutive years in a row. Is that double? That's double. Consecutive. You don't say two consecutive. Just consecutive.

I mean, lost Dallas last year. And this year, they lost to Oklahoma City in five. Now, that's not a huge surprise because I think Oklahoma City was the chalk pick going in. But the way they lost in five games, the way they got beat badly by 30 points, they are on the outside looking in. The Minnesota Timberwolves have been around since I think the. late 1980s and have never gone to the NBA finals. That's a franchise that is, give or take about 36 years old, maybe somewhere in that range.

And they have never gone to the NBA finals. Does that sound eerily familiar to another franchise in this town? It does, just saying. Too soon. It is too soon. The Minnesota Vikings have not gone to a Super Bowl since the late 1970. Super Bowl. They went to four of them in the 1970s.

Guess what? Jonathan, they lost all four of them. Wait, Minnesota's number one to the Super Bowl? Zero. And have not gone to the Super Bowl since the late 1970s. So the whole state of Minnesota is? No whole state. Duluth is feeling it too.

I thought the Vikings won. No. Tell me when they won. I'd like to know. Wait, because Brett Farr was there and he went to Green Bay. Yep. Never won there. They lost in New Orleans.

It was crazy. I grew up right across the street from a big Minnesota Vikings guy. Well, he obviously wasn't big enough to tell you the truth, was he? I didn't know. I'm just saying, so I'm here for him. The Minnesota Twins, are you ready for this? Have not won a World Series since 1991. Yeah, I knew this one. This one was bad. And they don't win playoff games.

They don't go, they go fairly regularly. They just don't win. And guess what? Every time they go to the playoffs, they either lose to the Astros or they lose the New York Yankees. You think it's because they're so far away all the traveling. No, nothing to do with that. It's just bad Minnesota juju.

Culture is ruins. It's cursed. So for everybody that wants to feel sorry for ourselves, and we do feel sorry for ourselves, Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. Paul, the whole damn state, I got news for you. They have a way worse than we do. Their hockey team, that's the state of hockey in this country.

They call themselves a state of hockey. The Wild have never gone to the Stanley Cup finals. They've been to the Western finals a couple of times. They go to playoffs on a semi-regular basis. They don't know what it's like to host a Stanley Cup final game. Their state school, the University of Minnesota, their only Division I football and basketball team in their state. Gofers.

The Gophers. They're football team, they're Texas, their A&M, 7 and 5, 6 and 6, 4 and 8. They have not been in the Rose Bowl and God knows how long. The Minnesota Golden Gofer basketball team, I believe, went to a final 4, 25 or so years ago. Problem was they had a tutor writing papers for all the kids, so they scrubbed their records. from it. No way. Oh, I wouldn't lie to you. That's what happened to SFA when they beat Duke. Yeah, but we're used to that at SFA.

Wait, this is caught in the 90s? They got caught. They got caught. I don't know what exactly the year was. That's crazy. So, for all of us that bemoan everything about our state and our schools and our professional teams, Minnesota to the Western Finals yesterday, game number five, down three games to one, must win situation. They're down 26 to 9.

at the end of the first quarter. They're down 65-32 in the half-time. I saw a lot of conversation saying that this even makes Jokic look a lot more as the real MVP because they took him to 7. After this. I don't know. SGA is still the MVP to me. So just remember, friends, when you think you got it bad and your squad disappoints you

like the Texans in the divisional round of the playoffs and the Astros not a count. in 2017 and 2022 and the Tech and the Rockets Lose in Playoff Series or Western Finals because Chris Paul's hurt. Just remember, Minneapolis, St. Paul, has it way worse than you do. Brian McTaggart to join us after I tell you about the Shell Federal Credit Union. ShellfcU.org. It's a place you can go to get auto loan rates for as low as 3.99% up to 36 months. ShellfcU.org also offers you $250 in cash back on that auto loan.

They offer you an opportunity to have a couple of skip a pays a year. When I was using my auto loan from Shell FCU, I used July and December as my skip months. That was really worked out well. Plus, you have an option for deferred payments. The Shell Federal Credit Union, new vehicles, pre-owned vehicles, refinancing in the vehicle that you're currently in. You can get it for 3.99% APR for 36 months. Do yourself a favor. Check them out online at ShellfcU.org or something.

stop by one of their 14 branch locations for the Shell Federal Credit Union. 1101 on Sports Talk 790. This is our number two of the four-hour get-together. We call them at Thomas Show with Ross. Ross with today and tomorrow off. Cole Thompson's going to come on and hang out with us for a couple hours, starting at 1130. We had the news at noon in one hour. I just don't get it at 1230 in all things, Shade Gilgis Alexander on today's edition of, believe it or not,

which will be headed your way at 150. Right now, 10, maybe even 11 quality minutes. with Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, and the Astros beat. Tag, the Astros woke up this morning a half game out of first place. Congratulations to the Nationals for knocking off the M's last night, 9 to nothing. Yeah, the Astros gained a game on everybody in the division yesterday. So a very good day. And, yeah, Astros can actually be in first place today.

If they win and the Mariners lose tonight, they're in first place. And it'll be a full-blown panic in Seattle if it's not already. I'll give you the open and the question. What are we seeing today in the last six games that we didn't see in the previous 20 or 25? The offense has been much better. Defense remains solid. Bullpen's been really, really good. I wouldn't say the starting pitching has been anything.

Well, I mean, you're getting six from Lancaster. That kind of helps. So I'll throw it to you. What are we seeing now that maybe we didn't see even two or three weeks ago? Yeah, well, I think you hit it. I mean, it's offense. They had, what, five games in a row where they had, at least 11 hits, which they hadn't done in about six years.

You know, the series over the weekend they were getting a lot of singles. You know, they finally started driving the ball a little bit here the last couple of games. But yeah, they're just score more, getting more guys on base, hitting bare with runners, the scoring position. I mean, starting pitching has been good enough. You know, Hunter Brown was really good. And, you know, Lance giving you six. The big question, Marcus, what are you going to get now from the two rookies that are in your rotation now,

probably for at least, I don't know, probably for until you get Eric Getty back in Gusto and Gordon. But yeah, I mean, we've said all along the one area where they got to pick it up is offense and they've done that. Really in the month of May. I mean, they entered the month of May, I think 20 in the 20, like 21st maybe in batting average, not the batting average is everything. And I think they lead the majors in batting average in the month of May. So they've really turned it around here from, you know, top to bottom. I know that Jose had a goose egg yesterday, but he has had a really, really good homestand overall.

What does he think he attributes that to? Yeah, you know, starting to drive the ball more, trying to hit the ball and more. I mean, he was his ground ball percentage rate, at least about a week ago, was probably the highest of his career. I mean, it was over 50% of balls off his bat that were in play with ground balls, which is not ideal. So he's really started to drive the ball here in the last week. you know he's worked a lot with with Alex Cintrani said he started to come in early and just really put in the

work at the cage to you know what he said was told us is just he tries to focus on one pitch instead of trying to you know cover the whole batters box or the whole strike zone

and you know leads him to chase a little bit he's sort of honed in on one pitch and that's helped him you know make better contact and turn it around a little bit. You know, his numbers really this year overall have been significantly down from years past, and it's hard for us because you've been with that him every bit of his major league baseball career. You know, I've been here as well, but you see him a lot more in face-to-face than I do. There's a part of me that would be sad if we started to see the dramatic drop-off because he

has been, in my mind, the greatest astro of them all, because I do include the postseason as part of it. But it is kind of nice to see him get his mojo back a little bit, because I think there were some legitimate concern about what was left. in Jose's tank. Yeah, but I was thought in the back of my mind, I've seen him do this before, where he has these streaks for, I mean, for two or three weeks and just, you know, swings at everything, swings out of his shoes, out of the zone, and you're like, good grief. And then, you know, boy, when he gets hot, you know, he'll have four games where he's, you know,

11 for 15 or something like that. And then you look up and his numbers are about what you expect. And I'm never going to count this guy out. I mean, you know, like you said, I mean, I've covered him his entire, career from, you know, day one when he got called up. And, you know, everyone knows what he went through and all the naysayers, people who told him he couldn't play. And look what he's done in his career. So I think at the end of the year, Jose Al-Tuvae is going to end up having some pretty solid numbers. He's never going to be 2017 Jose Al-Tuva anymore, but he's 35 and he can still

make some good contributions to this offense. Last thing about him, how often do you ask him or is it even discussed about 3,000 hits? Because we have lost in baseball because guys take time off and the 300 win number seems like it's never going to happen for pitchers. Does he venture into that conversation very much with you or for anybody that covers a team? Yeah, I actually talked to him about it a couple of times a year

just when I'm in his locker just talking. And he knows us out there. And he certainly wants it. You know, one thing he said to me, I think it was earlier this year, is how much, the pandemic shortened season cost him, and then the season where I guess it was 22, 23,

where he broke a thumb in the World Baseball Classic. It cost him, you know, 50 games. So those two things combined cost him about a season's worth of games, which to him is, you know, 150, 160 hits. So he would be a lot closer if those things hadn't happened. But he should get his 24th 100 hit this year. It put him 600 out, which, you know, he could get in four or five years. I mean, you're still going to have to do 150,

160 hits a year. But he knows it's going to be tough, but I think he knows he's got a real shot at it if he can stay healthy. Ryan McTagger with us here, Sports Talk 790 for his weekly visit. Tag, how is Christian Walker's hand today? Or how did it feel or how did he feel about it after the game last night? Yeah, we talked to him after the game last night. And he said it was really sorry.

He said he couldn't grip the bat. X-rays were negative. But he said, I'm good to go. So we'll have to see when we get to the park later today how he feels. He said it's just going to be a matter of handling the inflammation, which immediately I was like, uh-oh, because we know Yordon Alvarez has had inflammation for like three weeks now. But if you remember in the College World Series a few years ago, Walker got hit by pitch in the hand. I believe Broca's Hammett bone and played the next day.

So I fully expect Christian Walker to be in the lineup today. injuries have been obviously a huge part of this year with the ailments to pitching staff in particular. Renele Blanco's announcement yesterday that he's going to have the Tommy John. Is anybody doing, and we, you know, I've kind of briefly talked about this. Are the aster's catching this at a bad time? Obviously, there's no good time for it. Are we finding T.Js hitting every team it feels like, or are this the Astros in a situation where they've got two guys right now already going through it? And then you've got another guy in Arageti who's out with that injured thumb.

No, it's a league-wide issue. And I think last week I was on here, I talked to you about the study MLB did that came out last December. Basically, I mean, guys are chasing spin and chasing velocity more. And at earlier ages, it's just taking tolls on the elbows. I mean, the Astros aren't unique in this. You know, I haven't gone around and looked at everyone's I-L to see how many TJ guys. But I'm sure each team probably has a few.

The Astros right now have six stars. on the IL four coming off or including Blanco, who hasn't had surgery yet, four that have had T.J. surgery. So, you know, Garcia and Javier, you know, they're quite a bit removed from it, but not back yet. So the Astros may be a couple more guys than most teams, but I don't think they're unique. Too much an outlaw. The Astros have also played way more games than most teams in the last decade. And guys like Javier and Garcia have pitched deep. into the postseason for a couple years in a row. And I think that's got to be a factor as well.

I know the Astros aren't overly forthcoming with injury updates, but it sounded like there was some news with Luis Garcia. What do we know and what are we to interpret off of what has been said the last 24 hours or so? Well, he's, you know, he's out there at the park every day, and he's throwing some bullpins. I know Dana Brown said on your station that he thought he'd be back in late July, early August.

So he's still got a couple of years. couple of months to go. I mean, you know, he's done this a couple of times now. I mean, he's two years removed almost from Tommy John's surgery. So he's had a couple of setbacks. So he's going to have to ramp up again and do the whole process of,

you know, taking some live BP and then, you know, getting in some minor league games. And, you know, he's going to need the full gamut four or five starts. So that whole process is going to take him a while. But he's done this a couple of times and he's had a couple of setbacks. So until I see him pitching, you know,

in a minor league, minor league game on minor league rehab. I don't think we can, you know, get too excited about Garcia returning. Brian, I spent some time in the first hour of the show, first of all, applauding what Lance did yesterday, 12 strikeouts, six innings, 102 pitches. And then I was talking to myself about, you know, does it still make you nervous when he goes out for that fifth inning? Or the pitch count gets up to the 80, 90 now, 100 number range. It's always the bounce back that you think about the next morning.

feel. And so far through three turns of the rotation, he feels obviously very, very good. When you watch him, I don't know if he'll ever be all the way back, but as you watch him now, especially after yesterday, are you even a little amazed that he's able to go as deep as he is in games? The strikeout numbers are astronomical at this point. He's still looking for a first decision either way, but to give you six after being gone for as long as he has, I mean, it came at a good time for an astro rotation that has not been able to give you a whole lot of link the last three or four weeks. Yeah, for me, it's not so much him going six innings and a hundred pitches.

I mean, I think it's just sort of surprising just because we haven't seen it from him and so long. I mean, that was his longest start since 2022. But the strikeouts to me were really just really blew me away, 12 strikeouts and six innings. I mean, there was a lot of width. I mean, he had those guys really full. I mean, his slider and curveball were just fantastic.

you know he's he's throwing what 93 94 maybe with a sinker even after the game he says I'm not going to throw 97 98 anymore so he's sort of figuring new ways to get guys out and so you get you just you have to tip your hat to him I mean he you know he he grinded for for a couple of years to get back and for him to go out there and strike out 12 to me was the biggest surprise I mean I think they're going to need him to go six innings throw 100 pitches every time out and but other things. that one start. I mean, his results have been pretty good.

And, you know, maybe there's more left. Maybe he can get seven. Maybe, who knows, maybe he can pitch even deeper into a game. But he's got to be really encouraged with what he did. But yeah, I mean, there's always going to be a little bit of hesitation as the season goes. And, you know, let's see if he can do this over

the final four months of the season. Are there certain pitches that are easier and less laborsome for him to throw than others? I'll say, you know, probably the fastball is the easiest thing for him to throw. change up just because you're not putting you know much much pressure on your

your elbow or your forearm I mean when these guys are coming back on the rehab and the first one of the first thing they do they get on the mound and I got on the mound and you know I threw 20 fast balls just because you know it's easy for them they've been doing it all their life and when you start spinning it you know that's when you know you have to exert a little more

on your arm so but you know like I said Lance had no problem you know throwing that curveball a bunch of times he got what 10 of his 18 whiffs on the curveball through a bunch to lefties. So he's always had a lot of confidence in that pitch. But the slider's been a big pitch for him. And, you know, his sinker can still, you know, get up to 94.

If he can spot it, it can still be an effective pitch for him. All right. And as far as Framber is concerned, do you feel like it's going to be a day where you get to the ballpark, you put your computer up and you go downstairs and all of a sudden you see Fromber's name on the lineup card? I mean, where is this ultimately going to be, is it going to be he wakes up and feels great, ready to go, is it a night in the cage, the next day he's in the lineup? How is this going to ultimately play out what we're going to see him back in the lineup on a

semi-regular basis, do you think? Yeah, I guess you're talking about Alvarez, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, you know, Joe Espottis said we're close, we're close. But I think it's real interesting that when you ask Joe Spotted now, he says, we're waiting for Yorda to tell us he's ready. And even Dana Brown said that yesterday on the Sean Salisbury service, we're waiting for Yardana to tell us he's ready to go. They put the ball in his court to where

you just need to tell us when you can play. And so as far as we know, he's taking BP every day. We don't see it because he does it in the tunnel. He's never not going to got hit on the field much anyway. You know, he has been out there a few times running and throwing and he, you know, he looks fine. But it's a matter of gripping the bat and hitting off velocity and how that hand feels. So yeah, I think there'll be one day we just say, we just, yeah, like you said, we get to the park and they're like he's been activated off the IL. And I mean, that's anybody's guess. Could be today.

Could be next week. Who knows? It's just truly is a day-to-day thing. And as awkward as this season has gone from injuries to subpar play to hanging around 500, it's incredible. They're a half game out of first place. They're in there, you have a three-way tie for the wallet card and a long way to go. But the early thought of trying to move players and be sellers, I don't think it's in the,

in the mindset right now, the team, and frankly it shouldn't be because it feels like the American League is wide open right now. Yeah, totally wide open. I mean, if they were in the National League, it would be maybe a little bit different story. I mean, that's where the, you know, probably four of the five best teams are, maybe five of the best six teams in the major leagues. But, I mean, we always knew the Astros, this division, they were going to have a shot at it.

I mean, it's not a great division. The Mariners are showing their warts. Rangers can't hit. Same old problem that they had the last couple years. Very, very winnable division for the athletes. Astros. So I totally think they're going to be buyers in some way, shape, and form at the deadline. Starting pitching is going to be on the radar. They need a left-handed bat, too. I mean, they could really use a left-handed bat to put somewhere in their mix just because they're so

right-handed. I mean, look what happened the other day. When they face a lefty with their all right-handed lineup, they absolutely, you know, destroyed JPC or so. You know, when right-handers pitch, they have the advantage just because the Astros can only put one, pretty much one lefty in the lineup. So, but, you know, Kansas. Smith, a lot of credit to him. I mean, he looks like he's here to stay. You know, some other guys have turned it around a little bit. So they're not without their issues, but they're getting it done and you got to, you know, Astros are inevitably. You hear that all the time, but here they come again. Thanks for the time. As always. We'll talk with you tomorrow. You and I'll be doing

the on-deck show from the ballpark. It'll be an amazing conversation with the return of the Friday tidbits to the on-deck show. Oh, they're back. Okay. I can't wait to hear. I mean, I'm going to assume that nobody has asked you for a tidbit during the Yon-Dec show this season. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to do something out of the box. All right. Let me get in the lab and see what I can get. All right.

Get out of here. Thank you, Brian McTaggart. MLB.com on the Astros beat. 11-16 is our time. Normally 1130. We will do, I just don't get it. We're going to push it to 1230 today because our friend Cole Thompson is going to come hang out with us for a couple hours and he'll join us at the bottom of the hour.

What do you want to get into? We've got the Astros. We have the NBA playoffs from last night. We've got a game number five of the Western Conference of the Eastern Finals tonight in New York. If Indiana wins, they're the Eastern champs. We also got to get to Stefan Diggs and the video. We'll do that next, 1117 on Sports Talk 790. Just a good old boy.

Never meaning no harm. It's all you never saw been in trouble where the loss since the day they was born. If we're just joining us, we are, uh, educating Jonathan on the great TV theme songs of television. A little Whelan Jennings here. It's about an old cowboy, huh? Oh, yeah, well, it's about Bo and Luke Duke,

Enis, Boss Hog, Roscoe Beacled Train. It's kind of catch, real. And Daisy. Daisy Duke. And Cooter. I wasn't a huge Duke's a Hazard fan. They were about these two guys. that always...

They behaved themselves, but the cops always thought they were doing something wrong, so the cops would always chase them. It was like, it was basically like a southern edition of, what is it, Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner? Well, the Wiley Coyote

is always chasing after him and never gets them. This is, boss hog was always trying to get him, and they never could get him. Roscoe couldn't get him either. Friday nights, I don't know if you do this in your life, but Friday nights was when I was a kid, it was, we used to order Pizza Hut from,

Pizza Hut. Pizza. Back when they used to have pizza hut restaurants, not the night to take up places. And then at 7 o'clock we'd watch, Dukes hazard, 8 o'clock we watched Dallas, and 9 o'clock we'd watch Falcon Crest. That was my Friday nights,

because I had no friends, and I was overweight and didn't have girlfriends. But that's a different issue for a different time. You overweight? Oh, massively. Really? Oh, yeah. Guys, Matt is like a twig.

I would not expect that. Yeah, I think my heaviest way, I was 268, I think is what it was. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah. She puts you on old line, man. You're tall two, you're six-thirty?

No, I'm six-one. No, and the easiest thing is, is getting rid of sodas and actually going on it and doing some exercising. That's the, it wasn't a little crash diets or injections or injections or pills. It was just, I drank a lot of Coke when I was a kid. So when did you lose the weight? Like when it 16 and 15? No, within the last, probably the last 20 years.

I was heavy when I got married to. I have a beautiful wife. I don't know why, what she was. saw in me. Maybe economic impact maybe. I mean, I'm a good lover. I gave you that. I gave her that. I mean, you know, but I wasn't the most handsome dude are out there. I would not have

respect that and I'm being like dead serious. Oh yeah. I'll show you some photos. It's not pretty. All right. 1124 on sports talk 7.90. All right. Let's get to and Jonathan's going to put the video up. I don't know contextually what is going on with Stefan Diggs. Now, you know, he send this halaciously big contract to go play for the New England Patriots.

And he had ACL, he tore his ACL with the Texans. And the Texans took a chance. And frankly, it paid a little bit of dividends, but didn't enough because he left after this year. And the Texans gave the Buffalo Bills a second round draft pick. And I was a little squeamish about the deal. Ross tried to sell me on it. And, okay, whatever.

So he leaves after a year, which I knew it was going to happen. It was a one and done situation, especially after. Sports Talk 790, Twitter for the video. Sports Talk 790 if you want to see the video. So he's not at OTAs with the Patriots. Where is he instead? He's on a boat. Now, these are OTAs are what they call organized team activities.

They're not mandatory. But if you're a grown-ass man and you're making millions of dollars and you're a veteran leader, especially you're playing for a new team, Jonathan, wouldn't you think you'd want to go play for your new team and start off on a good start by being at these OTAs? Well, I'm kind of disgusted because he had all that to say about Josh Allen and the bills, right? Right. And now you're sitting, you know, it's just not a good look.

It's not a good look. It's as simple as that. I mean, if I was in the situation, okay. Now, you know. Now, the good look is he's on a boat. Who can't appreciate a good boat ride. He's got at least, I think there's at least three women on the video that I've seen. There may be more.

I don't know, but there's three. and pardon my French they appear thirsty I mean it is what it is I mean it is what it is yeah I've been in a lot of college

far I've never seen something like this this is like crazy they're obviously wanting to love their best life I'm trying to be publicly correct on this and then towards the end of the video

you'll see these like pink pills or something that's pink in a like a zip-block bag. Oh, I just saw it. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the girls aren't nearly as thirsty for Stefan as they are thirsty for these, whatsoever it's in the pink zip-lock bag or the zip-lock bag with the pink stuff in it.

And he knows he's being recorded. He, of course he does. Maybe if he's trying to flake on the, you know, I don't, I mean, there could be vitamins. Right. But they're not snacks. Vitams for what? Like the seasick or like low-patts?

Of course. It could be maybe all three of these. Maybe all three of them are not feeling well and need something to settle their stomachs. But you need to go watch this and you tell me what they need. Now, I do not hang around professional athletes a lot. In fact, I hardly hang around them. Even when I'm on the road with the rockets, I don't hang out with them. But I'm a student enough to realize what the NBA lifestyle is for teams that come to Houston and obviously the rockets that go to other places.

They're young, they're rich, they're successful, they're famous. You're going to get a certain group of people that want to hang out with you. and what you do on a boat, Jonathan, is what you want to do on a boat. This is, if you want to get your freak on a boat, athletes do it. The stories I have heard about athletes and hot women are 100% believable.

But would you even take a hot woman if they're that thirsty, though? Like, you yourself, Matt, I'm asking you. Yes, the answer is yes. Thirsty hot women, the answer is yes every single time. There's never a case I say no, if I provided I was single. But even with all that, you do not film yourself A during OTAs

B holding a Ziplog bag with some yet with some pink pills in it All of sports Twitter is trying to figure out what was in the bag Everybody's trying to figure it out Some say it's a lighter Some say it's you know

Just a little bit of you know Cloud I don't know It's it's I'm going to presume It's the worst possible thing it could be Some sort of enhancement To make the party go even better than it already is.

My point is, if that's what you're going to do with your life, and that's what you're going to do with these ladies, and that's what you're going to ingest or smoke or whatever you have to do with these things, you tell everybody to turn their damn phones off. Because not only does it make you look bad, whatever you've got in that bag probably isn't good,

and number three, you just, signed a way, way, big contract with the New England Patriots. You got overpaid and you can't be at OTAs because you're with three hussies with a bag with pink stuff in it. He's supposed to be at OTAs too? Yes. And Mike Vribal, the coach is like, I'm only going to coach talk about players that are here. Can't do that when you just. Cannot do it.

But I'm going to tell you this to wrap up this segment. whatever you think is in that bag whatever you think those three girls are doing with Stefan Diggs on the boat by the way isn't he supposed to be hanging out with Cardi B that's what Cole just told me right now I think she's there I got to find out of a video

I'm just telling you what you think is going on 99% sure it's absolutely happening 1130 on Sports Talk 790 Another show I didn't watch I think it was also on Farnanites too, but I was busy watching Dallas. This is the Miami Vice theme song. Crocket and Tubbs. Main go-to guys there.

Now, Cole, how old are you? I'm 31. Okay, so you're a little bit older. This is still outside of your frame of reference, all right? I have a bono pick with you when you were talking about earlier. Here we go. Because Jonathan? Good.

I'm glad you're bringing the fire early. Don't be afraid. Jonathan over here is in the generation that truly did. kill television. I completely agree with you that kids killed television. Yeah, it's your fault. It's your fault. Okay, Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan, did you watch the show The Amazing

World of Gumball? Of course. Yeah, that's why television is ruined. Show is like that. I grew up watching good TV on my network. Like, hey Arnold, taught you lessons. Rocket Power taught me lessons. Those were cartoons that I could get behind. And even

old SpongeBob Squarepants was able to teach you lessons. But they can throw in gumball you throw in the laugh house whatever the other crappy television shows that Nick came out with or Disney came out with your generation is why we are so screwed as a society but no

I did not watch Miami guys I was too young for that one yeah I'm no very much a big hit Don Johnson and like superstar show but I just wasn't what I was I wasn't big into the cop shows I kind of thing really see because I grew up with a New York staunch grandfather

so every Friday night either NYPD was being played Oh, great show. Or, uh, what was it? Blue Bloods was always on TV. Okay. With Tom Selling. NYPD Blue was amazing.

That was, that was my exception. I was some big crime show guy, but that NYPD was spectacular. So real quick, run through Miami, like, is this a cop, that's the same thing as the... Cop show, but it was more, uh, lifestyle. The guys wore these, these, uh, Florida suits that were big bright, uh, aqua blue. Uh, they would wear strange... I mean, they were, they wasn't a comedy. It was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a,

drama, but it was just sunglasses on the whole time. It was just, it was Miami hipster crime, put it that way. Literally, if you could think of, like, anybody who looks out of style where it's like a pastel color aqua shirt with a white suit afterwards. And it was like three sizes bigger and they would roll up the sleeves to feel like that they were cool because it was hot weather outside while drinking a Kubana coffee. Like, that was what Miami Vice was, basically. That's good for somebody to know the show.

I pay attention. My dad is really big into old 60-70 shows. 80s shows. So, you know, it was playing when I was growing up. The next song we play will be the greatest theme song from a TV cop show. From a cop show. Okay. Because what is the greatest TV theme song in your time? The Jeffersons. We're going to play it at 12 o'clock. It's because the Astros are moving on up, if you noticed that. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to play it again at 12 o'clock. I think Jefferson is not a bad one. Now personally from a cartoon version, and this is probably... Why are you in cartoons? Because I grew up in the 90s.

Wrong with you. There's always cartoons for us. What's probably? It's bad. Oh, it's fine. Jay, what was the greatest cartoon theme song growing up? Greatest cartoon theme song growing up? I think that there was a right answer for this one. Oh, see, I can give you a different answer to that. I'm young, though. I'm going to be saying like victorious or something.

That's not a cartoon though. That's a live action. Oh, oh, oh, Johnny Test. Get out, get out. I'll produce the show too. I'll just do everything right now. You could do, uh, old school on you and give you fat Albert. Bill Cosby's saying about we can't really bring up Bill Cosby much.

Hey, hey, hey, hey. I didn't ask you to do that. The Jetsons was a cool one. The Flintstones was cool. That was good. Super Friends was pretty cool? Ducktails. Okay.

Now I was on Boomerang all the time. Okay, these are shows I don't know about, so we're moving on to real sports. Let's go. All right. By the way, you're Cole Thompson. You are the producer of the two to six show. Which of the two Adams piss you off more? Wex or Clinton?

Well, I know how to handle Wex a little bit more because I've dealt with them at Texans for the last four years. Ah, I see. So I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to be his producer. Clinton was a wildcard. I'm still trying to figure out how to go ahead and play the strengths of the clan. All right. And so your background is tough for those that aren't familiar with you. You have done what in your life?

Let's see. I've covered college football, which is my passion. I still cover college football on the side. Good. Love the SEC. I love all college football. Are you as big a SEC fan as Gordia? I'm a bigger SEC fan of.

Oh, my God. I am bigger. I will trump. Are you as arrogant about it as he is? No, because I love college football and I want more representation. I went to the University of Alabama. I worked for ESPN on Day Night Football, right out of school. got fired within a year.

Fire, what would you do? I got laid off. My apologies. That big layoff in 2016 with like over 20% of the staff. Hello, I was on the 20%. Because, I mean, fired sounds awful like you did something. Laid off is this work reduction?

No, it was, I got that phone call from Jody and I remember as soon as like, hey, Cole. It's like, don't do the breathe. Just rip the band-aid off when we're doing it. So you worked for Monday Night Football. Who was a broadcasters that year? That was Sean McGahn's first year. Did you like him? I did. I thought McDonough was great.

Gruden was Gruden. you know basically you had a set of rules how to deal with gruden and what was like to deal with gruden don't talk to gruden don't look at gruden hand him gruden stuff and then you could never just have you serious i never had a conversation with gruden i one time i remember we were in charlotte north carolina it was my birthday weekend we were out at a restaurant and he just walks on in and i just walked up and said hey mr gruden just won't let you know i work for monday night football i'm on the production staff with being a runner and just doesn't look at me and goes very nice to meet you and then goes back to eating this meal only words i ever heard from john

I'm grew up in 17 weeks. Gotcha. Wow. No, it was fun. I worked at another station up here. I was with Gal Media for four years. And then I cover the Texans also as a side hustle for Texans Barrier with the USA Day. So, all right.

And you're still doing that? I am. Okay, good. I stay busy. You and Wax can go handle all that. Now, you guys, it comes across to me, you guys are OTA geeks. Oh, yeah. So I look at the big headlines.

I am a big, I'll watch it on Saturday and I'll watch it on Sunday. We're talking about college and pro football. How you create the sauces, I don't particularly care. And I don't know if that's a minority of group or majority, but it is what it is. I like to talk about the games itself. Now, I don't even do that with baseball and basketball. I don't need the background kind of stuff. But with that being said, storylines for me yesterday out of Texans OTA were two things.

And one could be minor, but one could be minor and major. Both could be, I don't think either one of them are earth-shattering ones. But they might be. One, there was a constant shift in the offensive line. Right. But that's just guys just trying things out. I'm okay with that. Are you even a little bit worried that CJ didn't throw yesterday?

I'm at about a 0.000000-1% worried. So tomorrow, when they do get back on the field and the media can see this. I'll be at a 0.0002% chance that he's not to be worried. So if he doesn't throw tomorrow, you still ain't going to be working out. Give me mandatory minicamp on June 10th. Let's get to that point. But the reason why I bring this up is because Domingo said they're on throwing programs. And programs mean I mean schedule.

Wouldn't you want to put together the schedule that would say, all right, rest your arm for this week? You got OTAs? Now, grand, just because the media gets invited OTAs doesn't mean they're not still doing workouts. Sure. I would just think for context and for optics, one of the days that the media is out there to look at it, that your quarterback is throwing. That's the only reason why I bring that up. The reason why I'm not concerned is C.J. Stroud last season got stacked 54 times. Oh, God, Lord.

Your body getting crushed by 290 pound at the bare minimum defensive lineman is not able to withstand that. And so we don't know what type of ailments C.J. was dealing with throughout the off season. But he's not going to get touched today or tomorrow. Exactly. I'd much rather let him rest up his shoulder, but he's in the film room with Nick Haley. He's reading the playbook. He's building that relationship off the field with all the wide receivers to win when mandatory mini cam gets here and everybody's on the practice fields and you're trying to get a basis of which five starting offensive linemen are going to do their best not to get him killed this year. Which wide receivers are going to actually step on up and be more than just another name that's on the field opposite of Nico Collins.

I'd much rather know that he's ready for that moment than when you're walking around in shorts and not even slight pads. Like I'd much rather know that he is 100% ready at that moment than see him do drills in seven on seven. And we all are overreacting to slot magician Christian Kirk going for 1,000 yards in practice when there's nothing to even worry about at that point. Okay. I'm going to tell you because I am, I'm going to tell you that if he doesn't throw tomorrow in front of the media, it's going to wig me out a little bit. I'm just going to tell you that. And it may be preposterous. I may need to get a text on somebody and say, Matt, don't worry about it, which I'm all for.

I'm okay with getting the text. I'll say, I'll hold your hand and tell you. it's going to be fine. All right. More with the colleagues going to hang out with us. We want you to hang out with us as well. It's 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

We have the news at noon coming up today, and also at 1230. I don't know if you know what I just don't get it is. I play along. Your life is I just don't get it. Yeah. My life is just I don't get it. So if you don't get something, we'll do that for you at 1230. Believe it or not today, all things about Shea Gilges-Alexander.

7-1-3-212-5-790 if you want to join the conversation. Astros. on the top conversation piece. Sifon Diggs and his boat and his hussies. Also, the NBA Eastern finals may be coming up to a close tonight. We have the NBA West already decided. And we've got to get Mr. SEC over here

to discuss how... There could be an argument about NYPD blues theme, chips, other crime shows. But to me, watching Jack Lauren on the top of that building turn his head.

You're saying what the hell do you just say? Don't worry about it. I'm not going to explain it. I have no idea. Do it. Don't even. Don't even. This is such a jam. This is definitely the top, going to be the top three. Do you like it? I've got the list going here.

This is the original one, isn't it? Well, I think the new version or which has since gone used the same thing too. So they used it, but it was a different model. Like, I don't think it was this exact version. Right. Turn up. Give it a little jam here. Yeah. It's a good beat, dude. I agree with you.

This is the best cop version of a theme song. Yeah. It's got that good bounce. It's got that good levity. And it makes you want to go hula dance. Oh, 100%. Is it bad that it took me forever to realize why it's called Hawaii 5-0? What did you think it was beforehand?

I thought it was just 5-0 was like a term in cop form for we have an emergency. Not 5-0. It's the 50th state. That's fine. I'm not going to kill you. for it. Okay. There's all things I don't know about either. You learn something new every day. I said, Jay, did you know that? I'm looking at you. Like, what? There we go. Look at that.

Teaching people right here on sports talks. This is a little stereo version of it. All right. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross Ross with the day off. And Cole Thompson is going to hang out with us till 1.30 today. And we have the news that new. I just don't get it at 1230. And believe it or not working on all things, Shay Gildes Alexander. You lived in Houston all your life? I lived a little bit in San Antonio and a little bit in Alabama. I'm going to go and I was graduating college. Got you.

I don't know if you know about this about our Houston sports market, but when our local teams don't participate in such events, we tend to go away from them. Sure. I would have to say that generally speaking, non-Huston sporting events don't rate overly well. So you kind of just pick and choose your spots here. Well, when you look at last night's game between Minnesota and Oklahoma City,

how the heck are you watching that? I brought this up to the audience before you came on the show today. Minneapolis-St. Paul has it way worse than we do. I was listening to you, I'm so glad that you are also a person that loves relishing in cities that are struggling in sports. Minneapolis, far and away, is the worst city to be a fan of for the major sports. Not even close. You missed two also.

So think about this. Okay, hold on. Let me say, because I used to live there. Right. Wild Goves. Yep. The Vikings. Yes.

The, I mentioned the twins. You did. Who did I forget? There was a basketball. team that decide to sell its soul to Los Angeles and then win a bunch of championships afterwards. Oh, the Lakers. Okay. And in hockey, they had a championship team that went to, and it's my least favorite team in all professional sports. They're playing in the Western Conference Finals right now. Yes, but they're about to lose, aren't they?

Oh, they should. I have never in my life rooted for Canada more than seeing Connor McDavid and J.L. Skinner be able to put up great performances against the Dallas Stars team. Now, if we get a hockey team here and we carry the games. You're hosting all the... I am signing up. You are doing 80 postgame shows. Gordy, if you're listening to the show right now, I'll do it for free. That's how much I love hockey. No, no, no, don't ever do anything for free. Because trust me, I heard it'll take you up on that. You won't know. That's a problem. They heard free and they're like, oh, we need a hockey. Tillman, let's get on it right now. We got the host already lined up. Yeah, it's, as I said before,

I thought it was going to be around the corner. I don't think we even touch hockey here to at least 2030. I will say, so, okay, so I live in this world of now after seeing on Twitter, hashtag NHL to Houston for the last five years. Well, they are all over my business. They like, hey, push this. Hey, this. Do you see this? And I appreciate them showing interest. It's going to take more. It's going to take a refurbished Toyota Center and or a new building. And it's also going to take a deep dive into the corporate dollars. Right. I think you can fill the arena up. It's, can you go get XYZ dealership? Budweiser, beer companies, airlines

to spend money to put up the billboards in and around the arena. Because that's where the main money is made off the corporate sponsorships. And it can work. I absolutely think that the I-45 rivalry would be something that people would buy into. And it works in Dallas. But it's a lot like George R. Martin saying I'm almost done with Game of Thrones. I'm going to wait in C mode. Sure.

When it happens, it happens. I'm not holding my breath waiting for a team to finally show up here at this point. 2030 could be it. It could be 2040. Could be 20-29. But I'm not sitting here on pins and needles saying, it's eventually going to happen. Well, let me ask you this.

And we've got other things to get to. But the reality is this. Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, it's not stupid. If he knew, without a doubt, Houston would thrive, we'd have a team by now. Sure. There's obviously something in the ivory towers of the NHL office that has the warning flags up. So what are those warning flags? I wish I knew, but here's the thing, Matt.

Why is Atlanta who's had two teams that have failed? miserably in attendance still being mentioned. Because they're right now in the running with Houston as the next expansion city. Like I understand. Phoenix is going to probably get a franchise too. And honestly, the problem with Phoenix was their attendance was fine. It was the facilities. It was the complexes.

It was the overall status of what was the coyotes. Like they didn't run the team well. So they said, no, we're selling it to Salt Lake, which actually has an arena and has a fan base that's already indoctrinated into hockey. We'll give them that reward. get your stuff together and we'll think about bringing a team back here. But like Atlanta's failed miserably in all three things. The business side, the merchandising side, and the ticket sales side with the revenue distribution. Yet here we are saying, oh, Atlanta or Houston, why not try Houston?

You never have given a shot outside of the Eros that was a minor league team that eventually sold it so to go up to Des Moines with the Iowa Wilde, which I'm never over that one. And it's also, by the way, it's not, you know, NBA expansion is going to be taught. about, but these NBA owners don't want to split the new TV deal with two other owners. There isn't a big television deal that the NHL owners are all sharing. Again, I wish I would pour some true serum down Gary Betman's sword and say, okay, why are you a slow to expansion and be giving Atlanta another shot potentially over Houston? Because I think there's two different groups of people that would like to have hockey here. It's just how bad do they want it? 1158. Here's the time.

We have the news at noon coming up, which will feature the Astero. Astros moving on up. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Colson for us, I'm Matt, and this is Sports Talk 790. His belt to the center field, Park going back on it. Sierra's 3-3-3.

Out of the stretch. First pitch is laced up the metal base. For the American League West. Your Astros are one half game out of first place in the American League West, and could take first place all to themselves if they beat the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that beat them two out of three last week in St. Petersburg.

Actually, they were in Tampa because they were actually playing at the site of the Yankee Spring Training. 12-0.3 is a time. Matt and Cole in today. We're also the day off. Time now for the news at noon. And the news at noon will feature Lance McCullors Jr. Cole, six innings, 102 pitches, 12 strikeouts for a guy that it was not even on the radar three months ago.

Welcome back. Vintage Lance McCullors. That's what you want to see, Auntie. That's what you want to see. Every strikeout was so perfect. And I think the best part was, is that he never seemed tired. He never seemed derailed. Yeah, he gave up a few walks. Yes, he had the two runs. but ultimately, when you look back at that game, never allowed his confidence to deteriorate, knew every position that he was in, worked pitches in his favor, got into favorable counts, and then blew it past him with a 97-mile fastball.

Like, that's the version of Lance McCuller, Schooner, that you're not going to get every single game, but give me it once in every five starts. I'll call that a pretty good deal after missing the last two years. Still chasing a decision, however, though. Quality start, though, is his first one. That's for sure. But that's not also on you.

Like there's also times when you look at quarterback positions. Quarterback can do everything right. Defense doesn't do its job. Yep. It's a 35, 34 loss. But the quarterback has a perfect rating. Like, if the offense doesn't do its part, and you're not getting with runners and scoring position, you're striking out, you're not able to work counts in your favor.

And Luis Severino, who also surprisingly been a pretty good pitcher this year, but just can't get out of his way because of there's inconsistent offense with the athletics. We don't have a home, so everything is inconsistent with them right now. What if Severino would be a trade chip for somebody? That three-year contract, though, I just think it's going to be too much. That's the thing. But, like, you look at that. If the offense does its job, Severino is probably one of the better pitchers in wins this year.

The same thing with Lance. Like, the offense aside and go ahead and kick it into high gear. Once you got Dubin on the mound, once you get to Hater, once you get to your bullpen, which also still deserves a lot of flowers because of it's been the backman on this team. Yeah, Sean Dubin getting the win yesterday. Shane Baez, Ryan Gusto, and today's mouth. On deck show begins at 6 o'clock, which Clanton or Wexer will be host. it. Oh, it's neither one.

Yeah, they don't want to go to this other time slot. No, it's fine. It is what it is. I'll be hosting it tomorrow when I'll be well out of my time slot. I get to stay here and be a part of that team. That'll be fun. I think it's Dan Matthews. I think it's can't be Ross. I say it's not me. It's not Gordy. It's not me. Definitely like Clanton or Wexler. It's not them too. No. So by progressive elimination. By the fall. Yeah. Dan Matthews on deck six o'clock here today on Sports Talk 790. Last night in the NBA, what a complete disaster. It was a game that saw the Minnesota. so the Timberwolves score nine points in the very first quarter and went on to lose by 30.

And rarely, Cole, do you talk about a game that was not indicative of the score? The score was 124-94 Thunder over the Timberwolves. It probably could have been a 40-point game if the starters would have stayed a little bit longer in the game. Do you know who Dan Wolkin is? He's a writer, correct? Yeah, he's for USA Today. So he tried to compare the SEC Georgia lost in Notre Dame to Indiana's loss in our game. Like, yeah, you can say that it was a 10-point swing.

But Notre Dame was up 27 to 3 with a minute 13 left. They took their starters out and said, here backups, get ready to go play in New Orleans next week. So that was the same thing for Oklahoma City last night. It could have been a 50-point game, but the starter still in for Minnesota. All right. We also have game number five tonight in the Easter conference finals

between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers. The game will be played in New York, where I'm sure tickets are going for $5, $600 a pop. If Indiana wins, are we ready for an NBA finals that will feature two of the smallest markets in the association? So the MLB just had that conversation

not too long ago when it came to Texas and Arizona look at the ratings for that. They are begging. I guarantee you that Adam's over right now is colluding with Rick Carlisle. Dude, just make this to seven. Like just please get us to seven. Don't be that guy.

Don't do that to us. No. You're not a believer of the referee center games, are you? I'm not a believer in that, but I am a believer that absolutely Nico Harrison knew that he was getting Cooper Flagg. So I do believe that there is collusion.

There is collusion. Oh, Jesus. Look, you get rid of an aging star with your most profitable franchise and say, hey, this guy is fat, he's pissing you off, send him out West, we'll give you Cooper Flag. Absolutely, I buy into that.

I am fully into the conspiracy theories. We talked about that the day after it happened. I am not conspiracy guy. The last conspiracy I believe in the NBA, and this is before your time, was Patrick Ewing going to Knicks because David Stern pulled the frozen envelope out that had the New York mix on it. That's the last conspiracy. So you do not believe anything that Shaq said about when he met with David Stern.

Hey, where would you rather play? Hot or cold? Hot or cold? I'd rather play in hot weather. Well, here come the Orlando magic. LeBron, literally his team. An 8% chance of getting the number one pick. Oh, let's just have the kid from Akron stay close to home.

What about Anthony Davis? You trade him. You get Zion in return. That was all. Don't tell me for one second that there is not collusion that goes. That is the one sport where collusion I fully believe is absolutely a part of the process. Reviews expressed by Cole are not mine and thank God they're not. Because everything, I feel like I can pull a bunch of stuff off with you when it comes to collusion.

I mean, what else? Let's see, what else? Let's see, let's go. Fire the way. Oh, Pat Mahomes being defended by officials in the NFL because Kansas City is a bigger draw than, say, other teams in the NFL. I don't think this year. I think the past. Oh my God. I think the past is part of it.

It's part of it. Not even a little bit. You don't believe that? No. Really. I believe in the Star Power gets calls, but it's not because they're trying to protect Kansas City, who by the way is a bottom third NFL market in terms of television.

Sure. And had no national cash in 15 years ago. Sorry, it didn't. No, that's fair. What I will say is that you protect your most profitable players. And that is something that I think is always going to be prevalent, regardless of where you play. Because if you want to make sure,

that they are at the forefront of all things for ratings, for television, for commercials, for all that. And I'm not saying that Patrick Mahomes doesn't get his fair share of calls because they also miss a ton of calls on him that probably should be called. What I'm saying is, is that when you flop going out of bounds and it's a 15-yard penalty and then you get upset that that call isn't going and putting you at the one-yard line, you know that there is at least something going on with you and the referees. Just a little bit. The fact that you have a- You know what? I can't do that. Because if I do that, then I'm going to not believe anything in sports anymore.

Well, okay, I believe in sports, but I also believe that there is certainalities that are definitely there. Brady got every single call that he wanted at the end of his career. Now, was that going into it? Did you have to earn that respect? Absolutely. But that's, but getting, veterans getting calls isn't new. There's a difference in veterans getting calls and veterans getting calls to help the league and its television ratings and it's cachet and its conspiracy. I don't think Michael Jordan getting a whistle that Oda Sorb did not get.

I'm trying to do. Steph Curry getting calls that other players that amend Thompson doesn't get. It's a conspiracy towards getting Golden State the next round of the playoffs. Hear me out. Aziz Al-Shayir gets up and he punches Rochon Johnson in the face. Nothing happens on that play. You're five feet out of bounds and Patra Mahomes flops into the actual, into the bleachers, and you get a 15-yard play.

Who's the more profitable player? It's going to earn the paycheck. Okay. But that's StarPa. Again, I'll say this. I think there's a separation between conspiracies and stars getting calls. Now, I don't think that the NFL is colluding and saying catch calls. When you have a conspiracy.

Yes. You are Commissioner Goodell and you call the officials and say, please make sure Pat is taken care of. That's a conspiracy. Sure. I don't think that phone call or anything close that ever took place. Okay. Now, I agree with you on that. Okay.

What I will say is, is that I don't think in the NFL you're seeing collusion go on. What I do think is you are doing everything promising to protect your star players because if you want a profit at the end of the day. And I do believe that at the end of the time, Philadelphia is a great market. Philadelphia also has star powers across the board. But the NFL is marketproof when it comes to that. Look at Green Bay's success. We didn't worry about NFL ratings when the Packers were playing and Pittsburgh was playing.

Those are really small markets compared to the New York's and Chicago's in L. Right, but they've been around for so long that their fan base has made them better markets when it comes to a national perspective. Did we depressed when Carolina made the Super Bowl? No. No, but they watched anyway. But who was the star that year? Then they made the Super Bowl. Cam Newton. What did he did that year? Won the Heisman?

Really? Oh, and the MVP. You want to try? There we go. There we go. It's making a good point. I'm not going to love. You won the MVP. And he was the clear-cut favorite to win the MVP, and no one came closer. I am talking a conspiracy guy. There we got.

That's it. That's ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I don't expect this. from Ross, not from you. You expect this from AC, don't you? That's true. You mentioned, yeah. I was driving it. I was hearing you talk about how reality television started with O.J. Simpson.

It did. And my ears started parking up. Where is AC? You just heard OJ's name. That's right. All right. And that, my friends, of the news at noon. By the way, for those of you wanting to know, UT leading Florida 1-0 in the game one of the college softball world series. Turn it on. I'm not turning it on

because I'm busy doing a major market radio show. I mean, are the girls are trying? I mean, are they cute? It's Texas and Florida. It's Texas and Florida. If it was like Yukon versus Boise State, we wouldn't be watching. But you're watching UTFL. I see how you roll. We're not talking Idaho versus Yukon right now. Yeah, exactly. I see how your role is.

All right. I just don't get it. It's coming up at the bottom of the hour. And for those of you new to the show, first of where the hell have you been? Second, damn glad to have you. We spend a half hour a week just running through things in our life that we just don't get. And we have three generations of people in here that can help you with that. If you have something you just don't get in your life, whether there's something happening at whether it's something in sports and you don't get it, you call us at the bottom of the hour and you can do that. 713-212-5-790.

All right, 1220 on Sports Talk 790. I was just arguing with Gordy about who's a bigger SEC honk, you or him. Yep. And he believes he is the bigger honk. Of course he is. All right. So I told them this the other day. I'm a big Facebook video guy, the little small clips.

And I'm also the same thing on Twitter, even for people. that I don't follow. So you just go through the 4U tab and you put the videos. And Paul Feimbaum, who many of you know is on SEC Nation, has his own radio show in the afternoon. You wouldn't listen to it because, again, it's... You mean the guy who draws everything out and...

Yeah. Makes the conversation flow. And take shots of coaches and then doesn't realize that they're listening. I hope you didn't listen to my interview, Kirby Smart. I hope you didn't hear that I think the routine is going to be awful this year. For those of you know, he talked about how bad, Kirby Smart, quarterback, other head coach at Georgia's quarterback is. And he's like, Kirby Smart's like, I heard what you said.

Oh, him and Lane Kiffin still is musty TV. Yeah. Just for the awkwardness. So Paul, again, has carved his niche and good for him on that. Again, making 80 times what I'm making. That's fine. I'm not bitter or anything. I intern at his old radio station.

So I have been semi-obsessed with all the different SEC people is on. He's doing their show from Destin where the SEC spring meetings are. All the ADs are there, the presidents are there, and the head coach. of the football and basketball teams. Every other day, I'm hearing new possibilities about what the SEC schedule is going to look like and how it impacts the ultimately future 16 team tournament. Gross. Just gross at 16.

I'm sorry. Right now, Cole, I really enjoyed myself. I really enjoy the fact that they're not going to give automatics just because you won a conference. Yeah, I agree. I love it. You can automatically get in, but you can automatically get in, but you really enjoy the fact that they're not. you don't automatically get seated. Well, that's the fair way, because how dare we say that Boise State that lost one game last year

with the 96th schedule gets that first round by? Meanwhile, Texas is that first year in the SEC. I get it. It was easy, but it was the 32nd rank schedule. You welcome in. Oh, Clemson, they just won the ACC. And their quarterback might be the best returning player in college football this year. Yeah.

So everybody's trying to figure it out. Now, it sounds like to me that they're going to go to a ninth game. They usually play right now they play eight-com. conference games. You know why? Because ABC's going to, ESPN's going to pay for it. Yeah, because that's the reason. I mean, I would honestly, if I'm, if I'm ABC, ESPN, give me Georgia versus, I don't know, Randall, Kentucky over Georgia hosting Bowling Green. Right. You know what I mean? But here's the interesting point. So now there's rumors out there and coaches are kind of backing this up. They want to

play a 12 game schedule, per cent usual. They want to play nine conference games. Sure. They want to have two more. non-conference games of your choosing, and then they want to make that 12th game playing somebody in the Big Ten conference and aligning it things that way. I mentioned this to Ross a couple days ago. At what point, Cole, are we going to, as the SEC and the Big Ten going to say, deuses and create their own football league with our own national champion and take the 32 teams that create those two conferences and just say we're the best 32 of our 32 24 of them are household recognizable names the other eight just take our money enjoy your money and sit down and shut up

and shut up and take your bead downs and we're going to create this mega league and espn and fox or nbc or youtube or whomever netflix is going to just cut us a check and the rest of us they're not in that 32 are going to be like This is kind of cool. It's fun playing the ACC champion for a national championship. It feels like to me when you start now scheduling intentionally within another league, that's just getting one step closer to saying let's go ahead and break apart here. So 2031 is when it will happen. You really think so.

I don't think it will, but that's when it can't happen. Because 2031 is when the current status of the college football playoff is going to have to have retribution. I'm going to have some addendums out of it. Has that happened before? No. No, it hasn't. You also have to realize that that's the year for Florida State, Clemson's. and Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Georgia Tech, they can get out of their media rights contract. And they hate their deal, by the way.

They hate it. Well, did you watch how FSU is suing the ACC while still playing an ACC schedule? Because they didn't back them when they went undefeated. And we forgot about Notre Dame, too. We've got to get Notre Dame in the mix there somewhere. But here's what I'm talking about. So what's going to happen eventually is the Big Ten in the SEC, which are actually doing a solid for the ACC and the Big 12. They're going to say, either give us this amount of team.

in guaranteed bids for the college football playoff. We want to be represented because we bring in the most revenue. And if you don't do that, well then we're going to call these certain schools from the Big 12, from the ACC, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, we'll throw in a Georgia Tech,

we'll throw in an Oklahoma State, we'll throw in a TCU because they can match with revenue purposes, throw in a Notre Dame. And then we're going to have a 68 team league, and that's going to be the new college football playoff. We're not going to be relegated by the NCAA. We're going to have our own distributions. We're going to have our own revenue sharing. We're going to have our own deals with advertisement. And you can claim whatever you want over here. But when the television market is showing

95 million people watching our national championship versus the 33 that are watching yours in the defunct now ACC versus Mountain West School, congratulations. Now you know who's actually in charge of college football. Well, I felt like for the last 20 years, the SEC has run college football. they have. And they need to, not as they need to. They deserve it because they bring more eyeballs, bigger crowds, more, I mean, the S, ABC

and Disney wrote a blank check to the SEC and said, we want every one of your games. Right. They literally said, what is it going to take for you to get off of CBS? We want every games. We'll even put your lousy-ass Vanderbilt

versus South Carolina game on the SEC network. Don't your disrespect Clark Lee and Shane beam are like that. I don't know those people are, but that's fine. Point being is this, every single day that I go to that four-you-tap, I hear different things. Right. I hear some people saying, well, you don't want to have an automatic four. You should say, if we have eight teams that are good, get them in. Then you hear about, well, we should only have eight league games.

Because, again, if you want them having nine, you do take one home game out of your mix that you could schedule. You teach Atanooga. Sure. So it, to me, every single day, I feel like I'm hearing something different. And the question I have is, can you get a consensus leaving this meeting that 16 university presidents, 16 ADs, and 16 football coaches can all agree on? Yeah, there is. There is one way that it all happens. The college football playoffs says the big, I mean, the SEC will get four automatic qualifiers.

And then we'll throw in that nine conference game. Because number one, we're not going to penalize ourselves and take us out of the running to have the most representation when we bring in the most viewership because of our strength of schedule. I mean, Matt, I beg people when they say, well, look at what the Big Ten is doing by winning back-to-back national championships with Ohio State and Michigan. Okay, well, number one, the two biggest and most profitable programs in the Big Ten have won national championships. Go ahead and wave the white flag on everybody else. But the other thing is, you're watching as a Missouri versus South Carolina game is bringing in 33 million eyeballs. And it's a ranked matchup between two top 15 teams that have an opportunity to punch their team. ticket to the college football playoff. At the same time, you want to know what's going on in the

Big Ten, an unranked Minnesota is doing battle against a number 25 Illinois, and it's a 13-9 game going in the last two minutes. Now, which television and which college football fan, that's just a casual that isn't embraced into the sport the way that I am, is going to be wanting to watch, which game are they going to be turning into? The one that is a field goal battle in the middle of Champaign, Illinois, or one that's in Williams-Brice Stadium, which I call the ultimate cathedral of chaos in college football because it's such an underrated atmosphere with the Missouri team that takes the lead with 129 left and now you get to watch the Norris sellers go full Superman.

Which one are you going to be buying into? And I love the last part of this real quick is they're, if they're getting the four automatics, they're going to create a pair of qualifiers for three and four. Three is going to play six, four is going to play five. They're not just going to say the next two teams. They're not doing it. So the top two teams will get the top two spots. The two teams are playing the SEC championship game.

Then they want to create a bracket for three versus six. That gets a third spot. Four versus five gets the four spot. Well, have you heard about the five 11 bid? No, I'm not. So it's five teams, five automatic qualifiers. So that'd be the five conference champions, the four big ones, a group of five. Right.

Eleven at large bids. I am salivating watching the individual college football fan that does not know how bad it is going to be for representation for the Big 12 in the ACC. because if you allow 11 at-large bids, nine are coming from the Big Ten and the SEC. So that's more representation for those schools. That's why some are saying, why would you limit yourself to the three at-large with the four-a-manent qualifiers?

But Brett, your remarks out here screaming, I am all for the 5-11 bid. Why? So you get Arizona State, and meanwhile, 11-2 Iowa State is going to be sitting at home or playing in the Pop-Tarts Bowl? That's a great bowl.

By the way, do you know that they actually have that? that second Pop-Tart. That was there for a full year because they can't buy two of them. I did not know this. The mascot information would come from you is incredible today. So the Wildberry Pop-Tart was the exact same one that was saved from last year when Kansas State won it. So they kept it on ice and then put it in the thing. And then that was the exact same one because you can't afford two of them for the price that you're paying.

Wow. Pop-Tart conversation you will get only on this radio show that we called the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right. Now, for the next couple of segments, we need you as you're driving around Houston. And for that, we thank you for listening to this show. There's got to be something in your life you just don't get. Cole, you're going to lose your virginity on this today. Because I know when you're in young life of 31 years, there are things you don't get.

I'm here to help you. The young and over there, Jonathan, as long as he figures out what button to properly hit, he will also help you as well. I can't wait. Things you just don't get. We are here to help you. 713, 212. 570.

713, 212.790. What don't you get? We'll hear from you next on 790. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is the cathartic part of our week because we sometimes take shots of people. We tell them to shut their bum asses up. We get confused by things. This is more therapeutic, Cole Thompson. Sure.

For Ross today. By the way, Joseph Dwarthe is going to be in tomorrow to hang out with me for a couple hours. Looking forward to having him in from the Houston Chronicle. But this is where I don't get things you youngens get involved with. There are some things that you don't understand that I do. And we simply ask you to call in at 713-212-5-7-9. Give us your life story and then say, hey, Matt, Cole, Jonathan, I just don't get it. So, Cole, you're the newbie to the group today.

Oh, great. Thank you for filling in. There's got to be something in your life you just don't get. And frankly, it's better when it's not sports-related. What don't you get? I'm going to sound like such a terrible person when I say this. Oh, please, that makes us even better. This is the best.

This is the best. This is our fast track. Go for it. What's up with Sidney, Sweeney? Oh, I get it. I don't. I don't get it. I don't get it.

I don't get the infatuation with her outside of two big assets that sit directly in front of your eyeballs. I don't get. She's not a good actress. She's not funny. I don't think that she has talent. But here's what I really don't get. What is the line between creepy and profitable? Did you see what Dr. Squatch is doing right now?

Who? Dr. Squatch. I don't know who Dr. Squatch is. So Dr. Squatch is a soap company. It's made for like the millennial group. Like a millennial came around with it and said, hey, let's go get mahogany teak wood for men. And that way they smell better. I got you.

So for the low, low price of $39.99, you can now buy Sydney-Sweeney's Bathwater bliss soap. What is the line of creepy and just, holy crap, why am I doing it? That is creepy. But your original statement was, I just don't get Cindy Sweeney. I don't get, why are you trying to bathe in Cindy Sweeney's bathwater? Why are you trying to smell like the filth that comes off of Sidney Sweeney? What is it smelling? That's why I'm wondering. That's interesting. Matt's the demographic right now. Matt is definitely demographic for this one. What do you think it's Spots like. Do you get, okay, dumb it down. Do you get Sidney Sweney? No. How can you be a warm-blooded man that don't get, that doesn't get Cindy Sweeney?

I enjoy more than just two assets. You don't get Taylor Mathis, do, do you? No. Do you get, do you get walking bets? Yes. I absolutely get walking bets. I totally get walking bets. Then you absolutely get Sydney Sweening. But I don't get why I want to pay $39.99 to know. what her bathwater smells like. Also, let me ask you, Matt, what type of bath water am I getting? Is this after a 5 a.m. run? Is this after being on set for the last 13 hours?

All right. You know what? It's what I don't get. We're not going to get the bathwater bit. I'm just going to say, to wrap it up nicely, I get Sidney, period in the story. Bathwater, I don't get. Jonathan, do you get it?

No, I've seen that commercial with everything. I didn't know to have bathwater. I think it's a bit. I think it's not her bathwater. I don't think she's talented or anything. I think she's just, you know, another appeal. Another what? Go ahead.

Another male in our world. We as warm-blooded heterosexual men love bucks and women, generally speaking. Sure. 1,800s women. That keep it classy. She's not trashy. She's half naked in the doctor squirt. You got to watch.

Doctor Swart. Doctor Swart. I heard it. What the hell's Dr. Squirt? I heard it. Dr. Skor, what are you watching some freak shows? Freiko. What are you watching there, Jonathan, when I'm not around?

Who's Dr. Schro? I didn't do anything. I didn't bring up squirt, although it's a refreshing great food soda. It's like mom walking in on you at 14. I didn't do it. All right, he doesn't get it. I will say I do, but I don't get the bathwater bit. All right, Jonathan, what don't you get this week?

You got to come prepared, don't you? See, I came prepared. Yeah, you did. No, no, no, no. I just thought he was going to Matt first. I had three. Three? I was picking it.

I was trying to pick out of one. Just take one. Go ahead. I just don't get, and I'm going to piggyback off this, because it's really bothered me, the Stefan Diggs video, that I'm watching more of it. I just don't get why professional athletes think it's the coolest thing to record them, like, as it's the flex. I don't get the, I feel like you lose all your respect, all your clientele and all, like, everything. I just don't understand it.

Here's the thing. If he does it without the Ziploc bag, it's okay. it's really okay if he doesn't do it while the Patriots are at OTAs. Sure. You have a double strike against you because you did it with the packet, with the Ziploc bag,

and you did it while your new teammates, who they just signed you, how much are you making $15 million next year? $16 million. Whatever it is, yeah. Well, you're on a boat. They're at OTAs. Just, if you want to do this,

put this video out three weeks from now, or a month or now. ObJ did the same thing? same thing back when he was in the Giants. Well, they did the boat. They did the boat before the playoffs. I'm just telling you guys, having been around the NBA lifestyle, not I saw the Rockets, but the NBA lifestyle, these guys like to brag. Of course you do.

And I'm going to be brutally honest with you. If you're looking at that, and again, it's February 19th, and as long as there's no Ziploc, you're bragging like, Stefan Diggs has got three buxom broads on a boat. You know what's going to happen. By the way, you know what you... Hold on. Let's a conversation with Shradur Sanders, though, about him flexing. And then Stefan Dug's doing the same thing. But Stefan Digg hasn't done anything in a while, even though he's a good asset and good. But Stefan Diggs also has been a long-established NFL player.

Four-time Pro Bowler, five-time, I mean, four-time all-pro, four-time pro, five-time pro bowler, six one-thousand-yard seasons, Minneapolis Miracle. He's made his mark in the NFL. Yeah, yeah. It's a little different. Sandoor Sanders is a very nice college quarterback, but not a high-sman winner and not a high-draft pick. Just remember, if you go just slightly above 500, you too, at a big 12 school, can get your number retired. There you go. There you go. Listen, here's the thing,

though, and this is the one thing that I also didn't know that you mentioned. You know who was on that boat with Stefan Diggs, right? I don't. Cardi B. Also, I didn't bring up Cardi B. His girlfriend was on the boat while he was also flirting with the bustle and busies. So, Cardi B is endorsing this.

Did you not see her section of the video? I didn't go, are you talking to the whole thing. So there's another video. I want you to type it in when we go to commercial break. Cardi B. She's on the exact same boat. It's the type of behavior that he's okay with. And also, here's the thing that I will say, and I agree with you on this, Matt. When you don't have money and then you get a lot of money and then you get even more money,

you're going to flaunt it. And you're going to flaunt it a lot because if you want to show, look at what I can do. Because you never had that opportunity before. So if this happens in April, if this happens in December and you're out of the playoffs, if it happens in March, nobody cares. Nobody's going to even think about it. Time in place.

Think about it. Also, here's the other part. Stefan is nothing's going to happen with this. Because if the NFL didn't see him in just anything, so they can go ahead and say, hey, you weren't at a voluntary practice that you didn't have to show up to. We don't have evidence that you actually did any of these things. Maybe you're just passing it out.

and also this is going to become a headache for us that we don't really want to deal with at this point we have a bunch of other things that we've got to deal with just time in place next time, Stefan. Like that's what's going to be. April 1st would have been a beautiful day to do this. Oh, absolutely. We'd have been like, damn, dude, you got it.

And Cardi's there and she's okay with this? You freak? Get you freak on. Paul, what don't you get, my friend? I'll tell you what, they've got a new car that are well, new to us. Yes. Why would you put the fuel-fill inlet on the passenger side of the car?

Because she doesn't fill the car up. When I take the car out, I'm by myself, I take the car, and I go fill it up. I've got to walk around all the way to the other side of the car with my 58-year-old needs. I don't need to do that. Why can't you put the fuel-filled inlet on the passenger side of the driver's side of the car? I don't get it. you know what? I have never produced a vehicle before,

but why does a gas tank sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right? You know what? I stand with you, Paul. I just don't get it. I don't understand how... Well, here's all I don't understand. Why is it the same company?

They'll switch it. So some models will have it on the left, other models are having on the right. If you're one company, just put it on the same side. Yeah. I agree with that one. I would have to say,

typically, I prefer to have my gas tank on the left side where I'm driving. Same. Plus, when you go to the... Doesn't it piss you off when you go get gas and you're on the wrong side. Like, I drove my son's car yesterday. Sure.

And I was on the wrong side. And I dropped five more F-bombs. I don't need to do that. Well, see, like, if you go to Costco, now they have the elongated ropes. So it doesn't matter what side you're on, just pull on up, pull it over the side of your car. You can still gas up. Speaking of Costco really quick, my family is our Costco-holics. I just don't get it.

I understand there's value. Wait, you don't get Costco? No, no. Stay with me on this. Okay. I appreciate Costco. Big value, large browns paper towels, big six, uh, cases of Cokes and whatever you got to get.

But they go to the prepared food section. I don't need five pounds of Fredicini-Alfredo in my house. Because only guess what? Only a pound of it gets eaten between the five of us or four of us spending who's in the house. Yeah. I throw away four pounds. I'm not getting value. So please, they're there today as a matter of fact.

For those of you that go to Costco, just be careful what you're buying the prepared food section. Because if you want to go buy nine dozen cinnamon rolls, while they're tasty, you're only probably going to have one or two. You know that you're going to have a serious sugar problem. I say to those of you that go to your wives and your kids that want to go to Costco to get their shopping done, buy these large amounts of food, I just don't get it. So my rule is in my house, and Kierston knows this back of hand. If it's in the fridge, it's being eaten. I refuse to go out.

I refuse to let leftovers stay. I will eat all leftovers before I ever go. So if I'm going to Costco and I'm buying nine pounds of chicken, that nine pounds of chicken is going to be eaten before I go back to Costco. But I'm different. Like I'm somebody that doesn't like to waste things. I don't like what I do with my money. We clean our cupboards out and our pantries and our refrigerators out and there's so much wasted food. So I would just say...

I don't get that. I just don't get that. I'm not going to eat bad food. I'm going to let food sit in there for a week and a half. Are you going to go juice up your price and go $450 and say H-E-B or at Costco? And then the second that you get home go, man, Big City Wings, that sounds delightful. Of course I would. Big City Wings are proud sponsor.

the Matt Thomas show. Of course I would. Very fair. Okay. Well, how about Buffalo Wild Wings? Exactly. Nobody's in that trash. Exactly. 1246 on Sports Talk 790. Eric and Gio will get to you next. Gentlemen, your takes about Sidney's screening are not being

received while by the Twitterverse. I would not expect either one of you to go check him. I'm about to. Don't do it. They're going to create some issues with your sexuality. Not that I'm judging or anything. Not that anything's wrong about that. But I just want once again say I firmly, and I mean firmly, get Sidney's sweetie.

713-212-5-790. Geo at 1251 on 7-8. G, I got a question for you. What don't you get? All right, Matt. So, before I get into this, I just don't get it. I just want to say, I am saying this with all due respect. Now, I have been listening to you guys for about eight to ten years now, so I think I can got a good opinion on this. But I just don't get how. The show after you guys was able to get on TV before you guys. Now, maybe you guys can help me understand it, but I just don't get it.

I have an answer for you on that, but we'll continue on. That's pretty much it. Okay, I got an answer for you. It's an easier way for them to forward-promote their evening programming. Space City Home Networks, not most, all of their original programming happens after 6 o'clock at night. So, and to be brutally honest, and I don't want to get into too much of Space City's business, but they do do some infomercials about how it's easier for you to go to the bathroom or to work out. How do I say this?

Or investment wealth. And so they use the middays to put on shows like that and make revenue. And they use the A team as a good way to segue into their Astros and their Rockets. coverage. So I will say, with all due respect, G.L. I get it. Now, would they like ratings? Or would they like a very charming handsome, bald white man doing a show

with a brooding Hispanic co-host? Yes, Matt and Ross in the middays would work. But I will also, and I really need to peel the curtain back on this. I don't know what I'm not sticking. I'm going to screw the microphone. There, you guys, and you produce the show. Right, so I can't have a comment on

this one. You can actually comment on this. You cannot use, like, If we were doing, we're playing TV theme songs. You can't do that on that show because everything you get to pay a rights fee for that kind of stuff. So, Gio, I have one hour where I get to play whatever music I want to lead back into the show. Two to three. Two to three. Yeah.

Everything else has got to be unsolicited music that I can just play on air because it has to match with the television coming on back. So because you don't have the rights, you can't have fun bits like we have today. Like, I'm loving listening to all these theme songs coming back. Yeah. I don't get to use that and we don't get to play those types of. of games or bits because of the television market and the TV rights don't mash with the rights

that we could play. So, it's part of a problem. Like, those are things that sometimes you appreciate when you listen to the Matt Thomas show, where the Sonshawls. But I will say this, Gio, we are significantly more handsome and I would say beyond talented over the afternoon show. I can tell you what. And we definitely work a lot harder. I am

the best-looking version of the A-Team, and I'm not even on the A-Team. So there we go. I tell you, man, I can't wait for us to the day you guys get on stream, man. You guys are way more hey, ladies than Wax and A and AC over there. No, they're funny people too. We love them like brothers. Thank you very much,

but I appreciate it. Yeah, we can go on the stream and do all we want. Matter of fact, I'm looking at myself, like, damn, I'm good looking today. Look at that. Jeez. Oh, sorry, I was looking at myself. I said, you're looking at yourself. Yeah, sorry about that. All right, Eric, you have a short leash, my friend. Eric, what don't you get?

Hey, hey, well, I'm sure Cole was prepped that there's a lot I don't get, but I will say this. I had to listen to all that football jibber-jabber. And, you know, I love this show because we talk Rockets and Astros. But what I don't get is, is the NFL can put in all these rules to protect their players that make the game a little less appealing. And Major League Baseball can't put in some rules about pitching that protect these pitchers

because there is extensive research online that shows how much this is blown up with the Tommy John surgery. And it's become very dangerous. And if you're a guy like Ronell Blanco, your career is possible. cooked now after having a pretty incredible story coming into the league because a pitching coach or a manager, that bum manager of ours, wants you to throw all these pitches with all this spin. That's a bum.

And it's become a pressure situation. I don't know. Thank you. Go ahead. Finish up. Well, I just want to say what I really don't get, though, is you and Ross is dislike for pitchers over 40. I will tell you this.

Every pitcher since Tom Seaver that has over. 300 wins from my research pitched into their 40s. And in fact, let me say one last little tidbit here for you. I found over 10 pitchers that pitched more than 1,000 innings after the age of 40. And then Ronel Blanco and Hayden West Nesky don't have 500 combined innings career. And they're going to get Tommy John surgery. This is ludicrous. I don't get it.

There you go. Thank you. I mean, I don't, what are you supposed to do? your spin rates and the metrics say you've got to change things up and you have to you know you have to you can't throw 88 anymore you can't you can't you have

I'm with you when it comes to the over 40 pitcher no I'm 100% with you on that one I hate them I hate them I do what I also he's saying is that you have guys that are used to pitch in their 40s on a regular basis that's just not happening it's not happening anymore your arm is dead by the time you get to 36 you're lucky to Give yourself.

Because you've been pitching since you were eight. And you've been pitching in 92 since you were 16. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing that baseball can do. What are you going to say? That pitch is illegal? No.

Well, let me ask you real fast. We're going to break. Do you like the pitch clock? Because I personally think that the reason why you are seeing more injuries like this is because the pitch clock. I'm not anti pitch clock. I'm anti. It's being so short. I would add five seconds to everything.

I would do 20 seconds. I'm very cool with that one. Not 15. I would add five to everything with a runner on base and five more with even when the runners on base. I think that would help out a little bit. I think a worst role is having the runner on second to begin the extra endings. Oh, I love it.

Oh, you do. Very much got that. I don't get that. I totally get it. I don't. You know what? I don't need to be there for nine and a half hours. Give me over with 10 innings.

I want to be there for nine and a half hours. That's because you're a loser. Exactly. Stop. Seriously. 1258, sports talk 790. You did a nice. That was, you just don't got it.

You didn't get it. I didn't. You didn't get seen you, sweetie. He could it. You know, I'll send you some photos all throughout the day. It's not about the photos, Matt. He doesn't know, Cole. He doesn't know.

He doesn't know. He doesn't get it. What, don't I understand? You don't get it. She's perfect. I like to make sweet love to her. I totally get everything on there. 1258, the sports talk.

And if I couldn't make sweet love to her, I'd like to get some help. Guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to use rise help.com for my erectile dysfunction issues. If I had that. And if you have it, I'm sorry. sorry. Do you want to make love to your woman the way she would enjoy it? R-I-I-Z-E-Health.com. R-I-I-Z-E-Ealth.com. Erectile dysfunction can be a thing of the past if you go to risehealth.com. Put the promo code MT-20 and get you 20% off your first order. 20% off. These are strips you put it underneath

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air. I don't know if that's a positive thing. Um, no, I would say that that, that website Rumble is just fine. Oh yeah. Fantastic. Sean Salspray got me onto that. Sean got you onto that website? On to Rumble? Would you like to try again? No, we're, you You don't listen to show enough. John, and explain to him while we, what we're calling it

Rumble? Explain it to him the young fellow, please. Why we're calling it Rumble? Yeah. I wasn't listening. Rumble what?

We don't give free sponsor plugs. Oh, yes, you got to rhyme everything. So like, yesterday I had a Mick Burry at... Yes. We never should have said,

we should have called it Ruffalo Bial Bail Bing's we should have called it. I did not know this. Yeah, yeah. Now I understand it. Now, if you are someone that spends money with the station

and we help you spread your message out, we're happy to talk about big city wings of the Shell Federal Credit Union and Rise Health. Speaking of which, Big City Wings, I'll be going there tonight. Oh, that's right. You live in the Cyprus area. I live in the Cyprus area. So I'm going to check out the brand new location. Well, drop my name in. You might get a little free something to treat or something.

Oh, I'm 100% going to drop you. Wex and Lex and Clayton will probably add to your bill. Oh, of course they will. No, they'll find a way to meet me to me. Oh, I got one for you. I'm going to throw Clayton of the bus lately here. Before we get to some Astros conversation. You know, so I don't know if Acese's ever talked about this, but, and I'm not talking out of school for him. He only eats one hour a day. Yeah.

He's talked about it before. Oh yeah, he's mentioned it to me before. So we go to Big City Wings for the end of vendor opening a couple of days back. And he eats an order of white wings, which is like the chicken wings wrapped in bacon with some cheese. It's delicious. I was the one to tell him. Halapeno. Tell ownership to make that an actual entree.

Yeah. So he gets that first. Then he's eating these white wings with a Oreo smoothie. then he gets an order of his own wings with fries and then he gets a brownie dessert and then he eats some of our fried Oreos. So he probably had, I don't know, 12,000 calories in one hour. How do you lose weight that way?

I frankly, I just don't get it. Oh, I don't get it at all. I completely... I think it's a scam. Oh, well, the intermediate fasting thing I kind of get because of I try to do that. Like I won't eat things past 9 o'clock at night. and then I won't eat until about 10 in the morning.

Okay, that sounds fair. So I go about 13 hours without eating. But I'm okay with that. Like I try not to snack. I try to get a protein shake in, probably early before I go workout. And that's at most what I'll put in my body. But like once a day, and then I went out with him for the start of the Silver Boot series last week. Me, him and Wex went out to the one at the Marquis Center.

And in a span of what was it? Two and a half hours, white wings, the, the cassidia, an order of fries, each of us having an order of chicken trips, fried Oreos, we also had, what was it, like fried pickles and like two other things. Yeah.

In one city. It's a scam. It's 100%. But he plays it off and I appreciate this because I'm also, I'm also this way, he drinks black coffee. So it's like it just runs through some no fru-frid drinks. Like that's me at this point. All right.

So there you have it. So yeah, good luck to big cities. Wings, Cyprus location open up today. 106 sports talks of the Astros again winning yesterday. Hell, the game is almost 24 hours old now. 710 tonight for the Astros against the Rays and

an Astro victory and a Seattle loss because the Mariners are in action tonight. And the Astros will wake up. Right now they are tied in the win column. The Astros have one more loss than the Mariners do. But it's amazing to me

and I feel like we've We do this as sports fans. We have our favorite teams, whether it's football, basketball or baseball. We have problems with this, this, this, this, this, and this. And then we sit there and look at our standings and go, well, with all that, they're still virtually in a tie for first place, half game out. They're in the wall. We're only in the third the way through the season. But it could be so much worse.

Now, granted, if you're in the National League, we're filling the doldrums. But because we're in the subpar American League in Detroit, really in the Yankeesies and everybody, else is a distant third, why not? Why not think you've got a chance to be competitive until October? Well, it's a standard. And, like, I can appreciate this from like an Alabama perspective. So every year that you lose one random game and they go 11 and 1, the sky is falling. The world is coming to an end. Nick Sabin needs to be fired or thrown out of college football because of the games passed and by because if you lose to an unranked Texas A&M squad or you lose to a Vanderbilt squad or you lose to a Kentucky.

But yet, end of the year, you're in the college football playoff, you have an opportunity to win yet another national title. All these players are going to go in the first round. You still have a top five recruiting class. You're still one of the best when it comes to transfer portal acquisitions and retaining talent. But we set our brains that way. We're so fixate on the Astros are the pinnacle of the American League.

The Astros have been a staple for the last 10 years as a. dynasty of sorts and more so one of the few constants that you can expect to make the playoffs. So when the offense is underwhelming and you're seeing one bad performance from a Framber Valais and you're getting bad Framber versus good Framber and you're

not getting vintage Lance McCuller's out there. We complain because of our brains have been so directly devolved into saying we should be 10 games over 500. Because it's funny because just two weeks ago I brought up on the show I said I don't know and there's a

there's no term you can describe it as, and there's a way to measure it. It felt like our audiences, not on just my show, but the shows on the station, weren't filling the Astros. No. The crowds have been down a little bit.

I think just generally callers to our show, not that the callers are a huge metric, but they are certainly a metric. They care. Yeah, I was going to say the callers were very depressed every time. It was less of them. It was sky is falling.

I do post-game shows occasionally. I'll work tomorrow night as well, and it just feels like there have been less of them this year. And then come full circle two weeks, Colon, here we are today. And I'm thinking, my God, you got Lance McCullors giving you 12 strikeouts and six innings. The Astro offense is not largely all the way back, but they're getting closer. Christian Walker, before he got dinged yesterday, was having a nice series. Jose Al-Tubi until yesterday's over, was having an amazing homestan. He still has a good one.

And you are getting, hopefully, at some point, Yorda, Alvarez. back soon. Now, granted, this is all coming with some bad news of the pitching staff. There's still enough things that we should be going, hey, at least we're not Colorado, at least we're not the Reds. I got a better one for you. At least we're not Atlanta. Or Baltimore, for that matter. Atlanta did have Spencer Strider and Ronald O'Cunger Jr. to begin the year. They were off to a disaster start, like the worst in franchise history. Right. And they feel like that they finally are putting themselves in a good position to start

attacking. Matt, they're nine and a half gains back in the NL East. They're two games below 500 and they're middle of the pack in the wild card right now. But go look at Baltimore. They're like 19 and 35. Baltimore is even a harsher example because you have been in the playoffs two straight years. You went to the Astros plan of building your franchise because Mike Elias was an assistant general manager under Jeff Leno here and now he's running his own shop. You have this all this preseason publicity of this

vaunted lineup, good pitching, staff two playoff appearances, two tough losses. Now we're growing up, we're maturing. They don't make a couple of free agent signing so they don't spend a lot of money in the offseason. They fire their manager and they're 16 games under 500. Folks, there's going to be a downturn with the Astros. And there was a downturn with the Reds and the big red machine. There was a big downturn with the Atlanta Braves. There's a downturn of the Yankees. Every team goes down, goes through this quote-unquote downturn. But look where we are. No,

Tucker, no Bregman, three of your fifths of your starting rotation is hurt. You don't even really have a super strong rotation because it can't go deep into games except maybe Lance is in the mix now, but except Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez. Most of your lineup is well below 750 OPS. And you are five games above 500. You are a half game out of first place. You are in, you are one of the three wallet card spots. my feeling is today compared to two weeks ago,

instead of just being kind of blasé toward it, be like, man, if the Astros do anything, like just get healthy. Yeah. Or make a trade. Imagine how much fun we're going to have the last two months of the year. Well, the way that I said it was, I went into this season believing the Astros were a playoff team that could win a series.

Nothing more, nothing less. That's how I felt even after the loss to Tampa last week. Yeah. I felt the exact same way. Injuries are a part of the game. You have to learn to roll with the punches. The offense right now is inconsistent. You have Christian Walker looking like Jose Abrae you at the plate,

but he's great defensively. Don't put that stink on him like that. I am the president of the Christian Walker fan club. I have been clamoring for him to come to Houston for years. You deal with the president of the Jake Myers fan club. I do. Sometimes just got to let this grow and fester, and eventually it'll get there. But Jose Al-Tube is 35 years old,

and you're seeing him to come decrease. You don't have Yordon Alvarez, and even when you had Yorda on Alvarez, he wasn't doing anything in the plate. You have young players that are learning new positions. Cam Smith last year at this time was in a regional trying to make it to Omaha. Now he's playing in right field for the first time in his career. And his defensive metrics are amazing for a guy. They're better than his offensive metrics right now when you think about it.

So all these things to say, it can always be worse. Like, I just don't get it. I just don't get how people can be looking at this Astros team, sitting five games above 500, knowing that there are still things that need to be corrected. Injuries. You can make a trade. You can look at your entire farm system and say,

guys not going to fit long term. Guys not going to fit long term. Let's go get a Yasekakakuchi 2.0 to better our rotation and put ourselves in a position to win the division once again. You can look at this team and say, yeah, underwhelming. Got to fire Joe a spot. I got a clean house.

I don't get it. Yeah, well, but that's the low-hanging fruit for any fan base. That's not just Houston. That's not just aster fans. It's easier. I mean, there are people that were hating on Ume Adoka earlier this year. I mean, I can guarantee you if the game won against Charlotte, way back in October, you lose the first game after you're supposed to be improved basketball team.

Oh, he may, this is not going to be fun. It's going to be, he didn't have the Boston Celtics. He's got, they want to winning 52 basketball game. Yeah, but God forbid you say anything negative about the Texans. Oh, you just don't know what you're talking about. Like, that's how it feels right now. But yet E. E. May was able to take a team to the number two seed.

The Astros are still. in the running for a wild card spot. And knowing baseball and how crazy it can get when it gets October, they may end up going on an epic run to the World Series and get one more championship out of this. The Texans have a quarterback that right now is probably top ten on a very team-friendly deal, and they can't get an offensive line to save his life. But God forbid you say anything negative about them,

you have no idea what you're talking about. All right. So we will get to a little bit of Texans conversation next. We'll get more on the Astros. Brian McTaggart was a guest earlier today. If you missed that, visit, we'll have some of that for you coming up at the bottom of the hour. 114. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross out today.

Cole Thompson in for another segment. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I know there's a lot of hate for the city. I know it's because they're arrogant, elitist. But this is one of my five favorite TV shows of all time. Of all time. Of all time.

Kirby enthusiasm. Okay. I'm going to ask you about a curve in a second. What are my five favorite shows of all time? Curbs number one. Dallas got to be, I'm trying to think what else. It runs out hot and cold on me there.

Favorite. You breaking bad guy? Nope. Okay. I'm trying to think of the comedies I've watched. I don't know. Let me get back to another three. All right.

Do you, this is the way the hot. I've always viewed it. I personally think Larry David's best worker's career, your enthusiasm. No question. I cannot. I grew up in a house where Seinfeld was never played, but then I got to college. And my roommates...

Why wasn't Seinfeld ever played? I don't know. My parents just didn't like Seinfeld. I liked it, though. I liked it, though. But all my roommates in college, they have Seinfeld playing in the background, nonstop. I never got the humor.

When Kerb came on, three hours later, we're still watching it. Like, that was me fully innocent of her. Oh, By-Sanford and son's one of my all-time favorite. Okay, that's not a bad one. the Fred G. Samford versus Aunt Esther stuff back and forth fighting was unbelievably funny. I can

get caught up in a YouTube clip, a rabbit hole on those and that for sure, but I'll give you the list. But yeah, Curb to me number one. Dallas theme song, so damn good. We got a couple more to get to before the close of the show. This is your last segment here. So let's get a little Texans in here real quick. So Casario

doesn't feel that the offensive line should be not necessarily a talking point. That'd be foolish if anybody to discuss that, but a point of concern. Two years ago, we thought the line would be horrendous, and it turned it to be pedestrian, average. Okay.

C.J. was great. Last year, we didn't bring up the offensive line a whole lot, and it wind into being a hot mess. What is your, we do gut feelings on Tuesdays? When you look at the story, if you were right down every week after the Monday after every Texans game, how much do you think the conversation is going to be?

be about the offensive line. Are we talking too much about it? Not enough or just about right because we know what the eventual results are going to be. You got a bunch of high priced, not high priced, middle priced veterans that have been good elsewhere, but maybe long in the tooth or

not as good as how the Texans want to sell it to us with line with rookies that are trying to be learning. Where do you see the line this year in your mind? I personally think it's like mashed potatoes. You're okay with it as a side dish. It's not the worst thing out there. It's not the best thing out there, you'll live.

If that is the case, CJ stays upright. Yeah. Because most teams in the NFL, if you describe them as a mashed potato offensive line, there's way more mashed potatoes out there than there are O'Grath and heavy cheese. Sure. And I can tell you what, there's a lot worse sides to have out there besides mashed potatoes. That's just as they're fine. You can survive

with it. It can be on your plate and you'll make it through a meal. That's what the offensive line has to be this year. Here's my question, though. what happens if you feel that the players that you've invested in, Blake Fisher and Tayor are streaming the top two, they aren't ready and they are not going to prove to you that they are ready. Because now you have a bunch of middle-price,

I mean, middle-of-the-road type of offensive linemen. Not high-price, but middle-the-road for sure. That are also middle-of-the-road players that are all here on one-year contracts. Lake and Tomlinson's here for one year. That's what you have to figure out if he is going to be a part of your long-term. playing and if he is he's going to cost you more. Cam Robinson's here for one year because if you went and you drafted Tay ursary and you trade up 10 spots to land Tay ursary to hopefully be your Laramiton sole replacement.

So if Tay's not ready, what's going to be the new asking price for Cam Robinson if he does exceed the expectations? So the thing that I worry about with this offensive line more than anything else, man, is just I'm looking at it from a perspective. You have a lot of young guys. Guys that you've either traded up for or that you've traded for. and that you brought in to be hopefully a foundation underneath Domeca Ryan's. What are they're still not developing?

And yet you internally as a scouting staff are not making the changes on who is watching these linemen and telling you to draft them. Because now we're going into a second or third year with a Jared Patterson and a Juice Grugs and a Blake Fisher. And they're just not getting it done. yet you're not willing to make the changes to your scouting department that's going to better your opportunity to build around CJ Stroud because now CJ's going to cost money. Do you think it's a question of the scouts? I mean, don't you believe they all borrow the same intelligence?

To an extent, but like, okay, Nick Casario, round three, I trust whoever he draft is going to hit. I just do because it's happened every single year. Kaelin Bullock last year, Nico Collins was a third round pick. Christian Harris had his moments as a third round pick. Tank Dell looked awesome as a rookie as a third round pick. So it's like any single time that the third round pick is made, oh, Nick Casario knows what he's doing.

Wide receivers even for that matter. I think for the most part knows what he's doing. Because if you look at Nico Collins and for the most part, even in the limited role, Xavier Hutchinson, I think that Jalen, I think Jalen Noel, which by the way, I think Noah's a better player than Higgins, but conversation for another day, him and Higgins can come in.

I think he's going to hit on those things. But when you constantly are going back to, why is the offensive line still looking like a turn style? Why would I rather have five traffic cones out there blocked for C.J. Stroud than throw Kenyon Green out there. When those are the conversations that you're having and you're not able to develop the talent, then what are you looking at to where players like Tyler Linderbaum, who was still on the board, or is Zion Johnson who was still on the board? Why are they finding success in Los Angeles and Baltimore and we're not finding the same success here? when nobody that I spoke to had a first round grade on Kenyon Green. Nobody that I've spoken to had a second round grade or a day two grade on Drew Scruggs. Yet you're going out of your way to spend money on them.

So somebody has the ear of Casario that he obviously trust. I think. Or at least there's somebody in the building who says this player is special because of X, Y, and Z. And sometimes that's not the case. I mean, when you look at the Texans. Because here's the reality. The honest, average Houston Texan fan doesn't care who plays at what spot. Sure.

Whether you're moving people around it. And we as sports radio hosts have to understand the minutia of football. It's the quarterback. It's the receiver. It's the running back. It's the pass rush. Offensive line is really described to and discussed as a whole. Either CJ is upright or is running for his life and getting sacked.

I don't care if Titus Howard plays left guard. I don't care if if Jared Patterson is the center or not. I don't care if where Cam Robinson plays, it's just keep my quarterback upright. Sure. And that's the end game for us. I think the minutiae of getting into who plays what, generally speaking, at least from my point of view, me being a football novice, I just want CJ upright. And that's the number one thing that Casario will be judged on, not whether or not a player was drafted too high or wasn't it supposed to be a second day pick when it was a third day pick, whatever. We got to keep the quarterback.

This franchise S-type player has got to stay healthy. My personal belief, and it's always been this way, if you do not have an offensive line, you do not have a shadow winning at Super Bowl. Just case and point. And I truly believe the teams that are built internally based off their offensive lines are the ones that are the most successful. Philadelphia, look at their roster.

Jordan Milana picked up as a free agent, former rugby player. Lane Johnson, first round pick. Cam Jorgens, draft pick. Lann & Dickerson, draft pick. 80% of their offensive line that helped Sequan Barkley and

Jalen Hertz win a Super Bowl last year was homegrown. The reason why I was so high on watching the Saints and I think that the Saints will be better than advertise is because of a lot of their players are homegrown on the offensive line. And Kellan Moore's worked with multiple offensive lines.

Where to Kellan Moore start before he went to Philadelphia? Dallas. And when Dallas had mediocre Dak Prescott in some ways, going 14 and 2 in 2016. With all that great offensive line. All pro left tackle. All pro right tackle.

Pro ball guard. All pro center. You have to have the offensive line. So I'm pushing back a little bit with you on this one, Matt. I think that the offensive line is the most critical part for your success. You can win with slightly above average quarterback play as long as you have an elite offensive line. You better have an elite quarterback if you have a below.

And the problem is we're going to roll on this is that I don't think anyone is describing what is put together for 2025 is elite. And that's what should scare Texans fans. You need to get ready for your next show. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for having me. We're going to bother you again. You know this, right?

I hope so. You pass the test. Cindy, sweetie. 130. Back on the Astros conversation with Brian McTaggart next. This is Sports Talk 790. Never became of me. I'm living on the air in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati WK. This was a TV show in the late 70s, early 80s, than it was based off of a radio station. WKRP. They had a wacky general manager, a couple of DJs, newsman, pretty funny show. You don't make nothing like this. No, they don't.

That's actually really, that sounds really like I would watch that. You need to go YouTube clip, WKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Drop. Doing it after the show. You're going to focus on the show right now. Right now, I want to hear a few minutes of our conversation we had with Brian McTaggart earlier today here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We talked to tags about how things are going so well for the local nine.

The bats are starting to improve. And with this latest run of winning games, three or four against the Mariners, two straight against the A's. They find themselves today just a half game out of first place in the AOS. Yeah, well, I think you hit it. I mean, it's offense. They had, what, five games in a row where they had at least 11 hits, which they hadn't done in about six years. You know, the series over the weekend they were getting a lot of singles. You know, they finally started driving the ball a little bit here the last couple of games.

But yeah, they're just score more, getting more guys on base, hitting bare with runners in scoring position. I mean, starting pitching has been good enough. You know, Hunter Brown was really good. And, you know, Lance giving you six. The big question, Marcus, what are you going to get now from the two rookies that are in your rotation now? Probably for at least, I don't know, probably for until you get Eric Getty back. in Gusto and Gordon. But yeah, I mean, we've said all along the one area where they got to pick it up is offense,

and they've done that. Really in the month of May, I mean, they entered the month of May. I think 20, in the 21st, maybe, in batting average, not the batting average is everything. And I think they lead the majors in batting average in the month of May. So they've really turned it around here from, you know, top to bottom. I know that Jose had a goose egg yesterday, but he has had a really, really good homestine overall. What does he think he attributes that to? Yeah, he's starting to drive the ball more, trying to hit the ball and more.

I mean, he was his ground ball percentage rate, at least about a week ago, it was probably the highest of his career. I mean, over 50% of balls off his bat that were in play were ground balls, which is not ideal. So he's really started to drive the ball here in the last week. You know, he's worked a lot with Alex Centron. He said he started to come in early and just really put in the work at the cage. you know, what he said was told us is just he tries to focus on one pitch instead of trying

to, you know, cover the whole batters box or the whole strike zone. And, you know, it leads him to chase a little bit. He's sort of honed in on one pitch. And that's helped him, you know, make better contact and turn it around a little bit. You know, his numbers really this year overall have been significantly down from years past. and it's hard for us because you've been with that him every bit of his major league baseball career. You know, I've been here as well, but you see him a lot more in face-to-face than I do. There's a part of me that would be sad if we started to see the dramatic drop-off because he has been, in my mind,

the greatest astro of them all because I do include the postseason as part of it. But it is kind of nice to see him get his mojo back a little bit because I think there were some legitimate concerned about what was left in Jose's tank. Yeah, but I was thought in the back of my mind, I've seen him do this, before where he has these streaks where he, I mean, for two or three weeks and just, you know, swings at everything, swings out of his shoes, out of the zone. And you're like, good grief. And then, you know, boy, when he gets hot, you know, he'll have four games where he's, you know, 11 for 15 or something like that. And then you look up and his numbers are about what you expect. And I'm never going to count this guy out. I mean, you know, like you said, I mean,

I've covered him his entire career from, you know, day one when he got called up. And, you know, everyone knows what he went through and all the naysayers, people who told him he couldn't play. And look what he's done in his career. So I think at the end of the year, Jose Al-Tube is going to end up having some pretty solid numbers. He's never going to be 2017 Jose Al-Tuva anymore, but he's 35 and he can still make some good contributions to this offense. Last thing about him, how often do you ask him or is it? even discussed about 3,000 hits because we have lost in baseball because guys take time off and the 300 win number is, it seems like it's never going to happen for pitchers.

Does he venture into that conversation very much with you or for anybody that covers a team? Yeah, I actually talked to him about it a couple times a year just when I'm in his locker just talking. And he, you know, he knows us out there. And, you know, he certainly wants it. You know, one thing he said to me, I think it was earlier this year, is how much the pandemic short in season cost him and then the season where i guess it was 20 22 23 where he he broke a stumb in the world baseball classic it cost him you know 50 games so that those two things combined cost him about a season's worth of games which to him is you know 150 150 160 hits so

he would be a lot closer if those things hadn't hadn't happened but he shouldn't get his 24th hundred hit this year it put him 600 out which you know he could get in in four or five years i mean it's you're still going to have to do 150, 160 hits a year. But he knows it's going to be tough, but I think he knows he's got a real shot at it if he can stay healthy. Ryan, tagger with us here,

sports talk 790 for his weekly visit. Tag, how is Christian Walker's hand today? Or how did it feel or how did he feel about it after the game last night? Yeah, we talked him after the game last night. And he said it was really sorry. He said he couldn't grip the bat.

X-rays were negative. But he said, I'm good to go. So we'll have to see when we get to the park later today, how he feels that he said it's just going to be a matter of handling the inflammation, which immediately I was like, uh-oh, because we know Yorda and Alvarez has had inflammation for like three weeks now. But if you remember in the College World Series a few years ago,

Walker got hit by pitch in the hand. I believe Broca's Hammett bone and played the next day. So I fully expect Christian Walker to be in the lineup today. injuries have been obviously a huge part of this year with the ailments to pitching staff in particular. Ronell Blanco's announcement yesterday that he's going to have the Tommy John. Is anybody doing, and we, you know, I've kind of briefly talked about this. Are the aster's catching this at a bad time?

Obviously, there's no good time for it. Are we finding T.Js hitting every team it feels like, or are this the Astros in a situation where they've got two guys right now already going through it? And then you got another guy in Arageti who's out with that injured thumb. No, it's a league-wide issue. And I think last week I was on here, I talked to you about the study MLB did that came out last December. Basically, I mean, guys are chasing spin and chasing velocity more.

And at earlier ages, it's just taking tolls on the elbows. I mean, the Astros aren't unique in this. You know, I haven't gone around and looked at everyone's IL to see how many TJ guys. But I'm sure each team probably has a few. The Astros right now have six stars. starters on the IL four coming off, or including Blanco, who hasn't had surgery yet, four that have had T.J. surgery. So, you know, Garcia and Javier, you know, they're quite a bit removed from it, but not back yet. So the Astros may be a couple more guys than most teams, but I don't think

they're unique. Too much of an outlaw. The Astros have also played way more games than most teams in the last decade. And guys like Javier and Garcia have pitched deep. into the postseason for a couple years in a row. And I think that's got to be a factor as well. I know the Astros aren't overly forthcoming with injury updates, but it sounded like there was some news with Luis Garcia. What do we know and what are we to interpret off of what has been said the last 24 hours or so?

Well, he's, you know, he's out there at the park every day, and he's throwing some bullpins. I know Dana Brown said on your station that he thought he'd be back in late July, early August, so he's still got a couple of months to go. I mean, you know, he's, he's done this a couple times now. I mean, he's, he's two years removed almost from, from Tommy John surgery. So he's had a couple of setbacks. So he's going to have to ramp up again and do the whole process of, you know, taking some live D.P and then, you know, getting in some minor league games, and he's, you know, he's going to need the full gamut four or five starts. So that whole process is going to

take him a while, but he's done this a couple of times and he's had a couple of setbacks. So, Until I see him pitching, you know, in a minor league, minor league game on minor league rehab, I don't think we can, you know, get too excited about Garcia returning. All right, that again is Brian McTaggart earlier today here on Sports Talk 790. All things about Chey Gilgis Alexander. He is the Western Conference Finals MVP along with the MVP of the regular season. We'll discuss him next to play, believe it or not, at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

All right, so which of the songs did you like the best today that we play? We opened the show with moving on up because the Astros were moving on up the American League West. Now, just a half game out of first place with the Jeffersons. And I said there's a great collection of TV shows that have great theme songs to them. For me, it's Jefferson's number one. I'm going to go with Jefferson's number one. And then I'm going to go. Wait, I got my seat.

You have to hear my. All right. Look at you rattling pages back there. The love boat is like a second. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about. And then for number three is the WKRP. I didn't know my favorite top three.

All right. We won't do this every time. But once in a while, we will put some theme songs out there for you. There's still about 50 more than I want to play for you. Like Sopranos, great one. Greatest American Hero, which is believe it or not, which is kind of where we base the game off of. That's what we get there too.

Oh, I don't know that. Yeah. Yep. So that is all on the agenda. Tomorrow on the radio program, we will have Jonathan, not Jonathan, Joseph Dwarte will be with us. He is the longtime Houston Chronicle writer. He's covered just about every team in the marketplace.

He's been on the U of H beat. and does a brilliant job on that. We'll talk to him about a little bit of U of H stuff, a little bit about college athletics, and he's also well-versed in all of the local stuff as well. So we'll look forward to having Joseph D'Worte hang out with us for a couple hours tomorrow. Plus, we've got non-flora stories. Jonathan, I'm going to tell you in advance.

My non-flora story tomorrow is very uncomfortable. You already have it already? It's already ready. It's about flatulence. And that's all I'm going to say. I've got issues, Jonathan. I fully admit that. 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 be leaving 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 it or not

is all things about Shea Gilgius Alexander. Regis' statement about SGA. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If the statement's erroneous photo bunk, you'll say this. Not.

Two things in a row. You win correctly. Believe it or not, about all things about SGA. Win's your prize. What are you playing for today? Jonathan. Of course, Sports Talk 790 t-shirt and a pair of tickets to see Nelly and Jow Rule with special guests, Eve and Jermaine Dupree, live on the Where the Party at Tour, September 4th at the Woodlands Pavilion.

Hey, Bill, where's the party at? man MLK at the Trill Burger or Fondi I don't think I want to go to that one You get to what this Who missed that one

I don't understand the word you said Here we go SGA Bill Was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York And spent one season Playing college basketball At Ohio State Believe it or not

At Ohio State Believe it No he's from Canada It went to Kentucky What's that? What did you say? My bad, I'm on color. Oh, okay.

Come on. You're talking about my SGA being Canadian all the way through. What's the matter with y'all? I'm glad you lost. Robert on 7.90. Robert, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Everybody thinks he's related to Nikiel Alexander Walker or the Timberwolves.

They are not related. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, they're cousins. Sorry. This should have known. This concerns me, Jonathan, very much so. Randy in the Woodlands, Randy, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show?

Oh, Astro's talk all day long. SGA spent his first season with the Clippers before being traded to Oklahoma City as part of the Paul George trade. Believe it or not? That's believe it. That is a believe it. Statement number two for the win. SGA was afraid to fly in college while at Kentucky and would often have traveled to SEC road games via private car. Believe it or not.

Believe it. No, he loves to fly. I made that one up. I'm sorry. I'm pretty proud of myself, Jonathan. I've got to say, though. Michael on 790, Michael, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it.

Michael, SGA, average 11.4 free throw attempts this past season for the Thunder. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's only 8.8. Sorry. Going to have that number right in front of you. I'm all on fire. Brian on 7.9. Brian, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show.

I like the Roth having a substitute in for once. Don't tell them that, though. I will say a word between me and you. SGA's IG account is at Shay and he has 4.3 million followers. Believe it or not? Believe it. That is correct. Statement number two for the win.

After winning the MVP, award last week. SGA bought all of his teammates Rolex watches. Believe it or not. Yes. Congratulations. What does a Rolex cost these days? I have no idea. Like 300K maybe. Or 30K. I was going to say there's no way. I got you. Let's go to Scott on 790. Scott, you're ready to play? Believe it or not?

Believe it. Sky, you only got one question. Good luck to you. One of SGA's favorite pregame rituals is eating a Macintosh apple. Believe it or not? He is Canadian, but not. Oh, he loves his apple. He doesn't care if it's red or white. No, red or green. I was just saying, I never had a white apple before.

Oh, man. I'm pretty proud of myself. I haven't done it, believe it or not, in quite some time. The only ones I usually do are alive or dead, and that doesn't take any creativity whatsoever. I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Thank you very much.

I appreciate that. All right. So again, Joseph Dwarte, tomorrow, 11 o'clock until 1, We'll have non-Florida stories. Oh, we have to do our sorries too. Oh.