The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Bring the Brooms! & Rockets Add a Respected Coach

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Astros Bring the Brooms! & Rockets Add a Respected Coach 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Thanks, town. Good morning, and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Esteem producer and friend, who is your favorite golden girl? Who is the shortest one? Oh, that would be the mom. Yes. My mom grew up watching us all the time.

All right. I don't know her names, though. There was Blanche, Dorothy, Sophie. Dia was the mom and Rose. And they were just a bunch of old ladies talking about getting late all the time, right? Pretty much. Good for them. Sneaky, funny show that you can catch yourself in a rabbit hole watching multiple episodes.

I would say all-time, iconic show. Absolutely. I mean, they just did a behind the scenes of like a 40-year anniversary of the show recently on ABC. see and I mean just funny people doing the show. You will never, ever, ever have a cast of women where their names are B, Betty, Rue, and Estelle. Estelle, yeah. All four of those names have been, I believe, permanently retired and the names. The next version of the Golden Girls will be McKenzie.

Kimberly. So, let's see, what would be Kimberly. McKenzie, Sophia. NZ, no, Sophia. Sophia's like the number one name in the world. Amber. Bailey, maybe. Bailey, L-E-I-G-H.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kaylee, Haley, Bailey. Yeah, all those. Braley and Bray-Lynne. And Kate Lynn and Hay-Len. Yes. And Rebecca with two K's. Yes.

I think we've stereotyped today's youth. Welcome in. Good morning, everybody. That's right. Good morning, everybody. Hey, how's it going? standing watch 790 is good it was a good day for standing's watch yesterday yes it was it was it not it's a good day for playoff odds watch 790 here we come we're going on it for you know it yeah they moved on up i told y'all never

give them up standings 790 that's exactly right they're still not contenders but that's they're too they are they are the crannies division in baseball the standings say they are standing say they're 50 and 54 but they are only two games out. I love it. And also one and a half games back of the Mariners. Not bad. Are you kidding me? Here's their simple rule.

Those two teams in front always lose. Your beloved Houston Astros win, they can jump them. By law, you're allowed to jump more than one team at one day. As we're seeing the last couple days. Nice, impressive win over the fish. You've lost, I believe, now nine in a row or something like that. That's a shame. It's not really.

Nobody cares. I was watching, I told this to Steve and to Robert, I went and said hello to the midday when I was working on the game and I said, man, I can't name five Marlins. Not five Marlins in the 2026 roster. I can't name five Marlins ever. Ever? I can't actually. I can, but my point is, what a just a nondescript blah franchise who has two World Series. And then as soon as they win the World Series, what do they do?

They got the team immediately right after. What was it, 97 and 03? Yeah. Josh Beckett Marlins legend Kevin Brown too Ryan am I right about that Was he there?

I'll take your word for it You had a Jeff Like at the end of his career or something Jeff Conine maybe Who were great Miami Marlins Mike Redmond was a friend of mine He used to play for the twins And he was eventually the player

And manager for the Fish for a short period of time Hmm Andres Galaaga Uh yeah Dantra Willis remember Oh yeah, the D-Train? Yeah, we see him now. Oh, Pudge was on that O3 team?

Huh. Miguel Cabrera, of course, young Miguel Cabrera. One Incarnation. It's a good squad. Yeah, Miami Marlins, 96, 97, Kevin Brown. Yeah. But he moved around quite a bit. Made a lot of money, too.

Yeah, he did okay for himself. Piss me off in 98 with the Padres, but that's a different issue for a different time. I have to bring that up. Yeah, we don't have to. That might be, what do you think? That might be the second greatest Astro team.

I would say maybe better than 22's World Series Championship team. Yeah, that's fair or no. If we had to go position by position, but yeah, with Randy Johnson and Shane Reynolds and Jose Lima. And Billy Wagner. Oh, man. That was the squad. And healthy Bagwell and healthy Biggio.

I was still saying that was the best Astros team, even after 2017. But I don't know. We'd have to go through and look. I would say probably. Moisius Olu had a great season that year. Ricky Gutierrez actually was hitting a little bit. That was a dame. Carl Everett.

Even though he didn't believe in dinosaurs, he believed in OPS. 98 hurt me for a long, like 05 helped a little bit, Rossi, but 98's never got out of my craw. And don't forget, backup catcher Tony Usabeo. The, you call him the Astro Clipper?

The Astro Clipper. So back in the day, I think I've told the story once or twice before. You had four hitters over five war. Ooh. Bigio, Bagwell, Alu, and Derek Bell. and then Carl Everett was pretty good OPS at 840

Sean Barry was really good Richard Hidalgo Ooh this is the best I told you I told you you can't sleep on 98 No matter what happened This is a squad really Damn

Okay so 98 memories You ready for this? Yes Two things Watching the Astros and Padres on Fox This one Fox Newly gained the Game of the Week package

In the playoffs Chip Kerry Forgot Mike Hampton by the way Yeah Chip Kerry was doing the studio work And they hired a Houston reporter to cover the clubhouse of the Houston Astros. They kept calling Mark Berman, Mark Furman,

multiple times. And that was fresh off of the OJ trial. Oh, no. He was exposed as a racist. So if you ever wanted to needle Mark Berman, just call him Mark Furman. Call him Mark Furman, say, ma'am, I loved you, 98th series. And I guarantee you go to Mark Berman.

If he's listening right now, good morning, Mark. Hope you're enjoying retirement. What do you remember most by the 98 series besides the eventual result, which the Padres won? He would say, that effing chip care he kept calling Mark Furman. And the problem was he's reading it off a teleprompter. So obviously somebody goofed up not once but twice. I'm looking it up. Matthew, you might be right.

Line up better. Rotation, though. Rotation better. Yeah, 98 better than 22. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Second thing about 98, there was a sports bar on the West Indenton called SRL, legendary sports bar. Standing a room only. Yeah. Did you ever go or you too young? Absolutely. I remember watching fights there.

Because we used to go, you know, back in the day, Jonathan, there would be a big boxing match and you and all your friends would head out and watch them the Pugilists for 12 rounds in the must system. Ross and I back in the day went to see a sunny list and attack on a Cassius Clay. He would later on change his name. get what it was. I believe it was Cream Abduljabah. Yeah.

So my wife and I went to SRO with a bunch of people from the radio station. This is when I used to work in KSCV way way back in the day. And I had a few too many beverages because I was pissed off the asteros were losing. So two.

Beverages. It might have been two or three. Then we go, we leave SRO. And the owner of the bar at the time, like Matt, come up and get the people fired up. I'm like, we're down 6-0. I can't fire. So I had a few beverages.

Like, hey, why not give you a microphone? I'm a young broadcaster. Why not? So I think I swore a few times during it. Got people even more liquored up. That's good. Let's just drink. Shots, shots, shot, shot, shot, shot, shots.

Then left there, did not drive, thankfully, because we don't ever endorse driving. And then went to a bar called the hideaway. That's on Dunvale? Yes. That's still there. Yes. Steak night's not bad. Where I, my group of people that I were with decided to then, uh,

watched some live music after the Astros lost. And I happened to see there was a tambourine sitting next to the drummer. Yes. That wasn't being used. So I had had two more beverages for now a total of four. Yeah, it's a lot. And I went up on there with them and started playing a tambourine with the band. They still have live music there.

Just saying. So, catch some blues. If you ever were there at the hideaway in 1998 with a very portly bald, balding guy, not full ball, but balding guy, that was me. If you go back, it's the same crowd. Really? I mean, y'all saw somebody there. Hey, where are you been? It's been, it's only been 28 years.

Not a whole lot of people under 55 there. All right. Just saying. So then we get home, my wife at the time, we were newly married. We get home and we're both vomiting. I'm vomiting downstairs. She's vomiting upstairs. That's beautiful.

Well, I mean, you have to be. Wow. So I sleep on the couch. You grow together with your wife. She's upstairs passed out. I'm downstairs passed out. And I'm like, oh, I wish. wake up and I'm like, oh my God, I'm so hung over. I'm not feeling good. Well, I open up,

we said we get the paper delivered to us. This is how long ago this was. And in the Sundays, you'd always get lots of coupons. So I said, I'll go get some food. I don't feel like cooking anything. And I screamed to Kim. I said, Kim, you awake? Yes, but I can't move. Hey, I'm going to go get some food. And she said, where are you going to go? She's maybe thinking some soup or something. I said, I'm going to go to Black Eyed P and get some chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. And she heard me say that. She goes, what are you going again? I said, I'm going to Black I P.

She goes, she started vomiting all over again, just the thought of the Black I'd P. Oh, man, I love Black I'd P. Me too. I miss it. Me too. Those are my two stories in 1998. Thank you, Matt. The greatest Astro team never to win a World Series. Well, my father got tickets for me and my brother.

We went to Randy Johnson's debut that year in the dome. 10 and 1 he went that year right i think is what he went might have been yeah 11 he had erh certainly under 2 10 and 1 1 or 11 1st something like that yeah 10 and 1 look at matt 11 starts maybe that's why it's in my head and i believe he did not play a game less than 40,000 the astrodome at any point 2.28 er a he was good not a great dude but i think he softened up later in life but uh how did he not win the sai young that year uh because he wasn't great with a man he was plus it was split leagues yeah remember the assur that's right that's right you're right that's right you're right I forgot. All right. Well, there is 1998 down the primrose path of good times. Randy Johnson, Jose Lima, Shane Reynolds, Mike Hampton. That is a rotation, Matthew. That did not win the series, sadly.

Was it Sterling Hitchcock on the? Mike Brown started on three days. Kevin Brown. Kevin Brown, yes, you got Sterling Hitchcock mixed in there. And then Kevin Brown came in and shut them down on three days rest. So in a five-game series, you got Kevin Brown twice and a Sterling Hitchcock. pissed me off four years, Rossi. I know. Matter of fact, when Milo and I did his retrospective of his life, we did one day we were down in Florida and just kind of did an audio recording of everything he did, he joined me in saying that 1918 was as disappointing, as good of a team as it was, especially when you went and Jerry Hunsaker, went and got Randy Johnson at the deadline.

You were literally setting up for a World Series run. Moises Allu Silver Slugger, Craig Biggio Silver Slugger, Bagwell, 9. 180 OPS. And then I'm going to hit a hill beans and the postseason debats. 111 ribbies. Do we want to look at their postseason box composite? It's probably miserable.

They got carved up by Sterling Hitchcock. Sterling freaking Hitchcock. Crafty Lefty. That's today's edition of Astros history. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. You were a little bit. You were younger, but you were a part of it too.

I remember. That was when I was learning about Houston sports about that. Yeah. Oh, this is what it's like. That's your first line of frustration. I get it. All right. 1015.

We need to talk about the 2026 Astros because Rossi, standings watch 790. It's getting cozier. Very happy to tell you that. Never going to give you up. Never going to let you down, Local 9. Playoff odds up to 24% on theagrft. Let's go.

713-212-5-790. Brian McTaggart. 11.30, I just don't get it. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, 15 minutes, we say farewell to a Houston Texans great. with a song that matches his time as a Houston Texan. Hmm. That's a radio tease, friends.

1016 on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you at 1022. It is Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join us because your local nine are relevant. It is funny. And I've not done a poll question on this yet. I feel like I'm, I still want to wait until after this weekend. Because look, the White Sox are a better team than the Marlins are.

the White Sox are competing with the Cleveland Guardians of first place, the American League Central. And they're not a series against the Rangers. Yeah, two out of three in Arlington, actually. They've been hot. I think before that they were on a three or four game winning streak. Well, they're also a team that lost over 100 games last year. So this is the turnaround of all turnarounds.

They're going to get their game better than Cleveland, five better than Minnesota, in the division in the central. So I want to, I'll get the temperature of the people that follow me with, you know, should the Astros be buyers or sellers, but I want to wait until Sunday for that tip. As a matter of fact, you and I will have a little conversation about that on Monday, although I did tell you that I will not make my grandiose prediction until a week from today because that will be three games with the Anaheimers. It'll be in the book.

I will stick with, I mean, I was certainly saying sell before this sweep, and I still think that is the best option. I was talking about this on the 10th inning show last night, Matthew. Of course. Of course. Talking out a lot of people throwing names at me. The Mickey Moniac, of course, keeps getting afloated. And the other, who is it, McCarthy?

Jake McCarthy's, yeah. By the way, his OPS is significantly different at home than is on the road, but the road OPS is still almost 800. So, yeah. But the problem is his value is going up almost by the day because he's had a good season. Yeah. And so we'll see what happens with that.

I still think for the long-term health of the franchise, selling off a couple of pieces, it would be good because I just don't think they're contenders, even if they sneak into the playoffs. as the last, they're going to have to win a wild card series, then they're going to have to win a DS and a CS. Yeah. I just don't see, I'm not saying it's impossible.

No, no, but you are not in the minority on this. The majority would be, if the Astros were to get in, it would not be for a long playoff run, because the long sample side says this team is still under 500 team. They are afforded the luxury of, there is a world where Tatsu Yi-Imi continues to turn things around. Peter Lambert keeps going well. Hunter Brown, it turns into the Hunter Brown, we know he is.

Any of Blanco, Araggetti, Wesnese, Borrowes, whomever, can be solid. Brian O'Bray, you got his sixth save last night. He was hitting it up to 98 on the gun. You get a leverage reliever, you get a left-handed bat. You can convince me that it can happen. And by the way, I don't know if anybody gave you any guff about Brayu being in the eighth inning history.

He was the only option. Yeah, no, no, nobody said anything. Okay. And I think he's been better this month. Because here's the reality. You can't use, I mean, Josh Hader going back to back gives me the hebie-jeebies. There's no way to know how that he will maybe ever pitch three straight for the afters ever again. Outside of the playoffs.

Playoffs, yeah. There's even days off in between. Everything is on the table in the playoffs. But yeah, you'd have to be in a CS or the World Series for three days in a row. So, yeah, it could happen, but what did I name? Just like six, seven things have to happen. They could all happen. but they're not all

super likely for all that to happen. No. It is funny. Yordon goes deep again yesterday. Insane. These are much-watched TV. And I'm seeing this. I saw this on a couple of tweets. I don't know if he was directly asked about it

or it's kind of just the word is spreading through. He doesn't want to talk about the Triple Crown anymore. And Yordon, I appreciate you wanted to focus on the team and not your own individual awards, but Rossi, the Triple Crown doesn't happen very often, especially in Houston, Texas, whether he likes it or not,

it's going to be a storyline the rest of the way. He's going to be asked about it in every city he goes to, especially if the Astros are playing impactful series post-trade deadline. That he's part of the job requirement. You know what? You like to print up shirts. You should just print them up some shirts that say

winning the Triple Crown would be a great honor, but I am focused on the team getting better and making the playoffs and making a deep championship run like we are capable of. That's a lot of alluring. Now, it would be exciting. expensive. Or a sign or an index card and he could just hold it up every time. Well, the Transitor could do it. Triple Crown would be great. Yeah.

But I'm focused on the team. And I think that's fair from him because he's going to get asked the same question a million times. He's going to give the same answer a million times. Well, I'll say this. He will get some slack in Houston because the beat writers are the same people every day. But when he goes, like for instance, he will be in New York for six days when the Astros play the Mets and the Yankees. And Joel Sherman's going to be asking him about it? Yeah. I got news for you. If Buster only gets on a plane and comes to Houston to watch a series. or goes to another city or a Bob Knight and get. Well, Bob probably thinks he's going points,

rebounds, and assist, but that's a different issue for a different time. He's going for a triple double. No, Bob. No, it's the triple crown, Bob. Or as people on Twitter call him, boob. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately, good guy. He's going to New York.

But you know what I'm saying? Name all the ways you're worse than Aaron Judge for us, please. What you can do is you can tell your PR folks, hey, I'll meet with the opposing media. Other people, when a series starts, get it out of the way. Yeah. But he's not, especially if he is leading, which he is in these categories, it's not going to go away.

And it's probably only as you get to the September pennant races, add more to it. Astroostein trying to say competitive. Oh, by the way, we don't see Triple Crown winners that often. How often do we see Triple Crown winners? Miguel Cabrera was the last one. And then before that, it was like Mike Yisrenfri. Or Carly Shremski?

Carlisich. You got Mike is his nephew, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's been a while. Yeah, and I get it. Which makes him part of him is charming to it. But also part of it is yes, understand.

It would be like you're on the home run chase and having Aaron judge say, I don't want to talk about it. When you have records are such a huge part of sports, but they are especially in baseball. Yeah, so McGee and 12. Then it was Cowell Yistremski. Cowell Yistremski in 1967. So you're talking about in the last 60 years.

two triple crown winners. Before that, Frank Robinson did it in Baltimore. And then Mickey Mantle and that was in 66, I should say. Then 56 and then yeah. Do you remember when Lester Lockett did it in 1948, Matt? I do not. Okay. That was in the Negro League. So when did Frank Robinson do it? In 66. The year before. With Baltimore. Yes. Okay. Ted Williams did it in 47 and 42. and then, yeah, it's a short list. So having superlatives comes with a little bit of unfortunate, it's immediate response, but they ensure he's not thrown with,

but like I said, if you get out in front of it, you probably can kibosh a lot of the daily, hey, Yordon, you got a couple minutes? What's it like being a guy that has leads a league in home runs and batting average in RBIs? Mickey Mantle did it with 50 homers. Looks like he's the only... And how about this, Ross?

He's doing it batting number two in the order. with the RBI's that you figure that would hurt him. Yeah. And the back end of this lineup. And the fact that when, I mean, Jose Altova, you can live with as a five hitter or a four in right now these days. But it's not been great when he's been a lead off now. When Christian Walker is right, he's your four, Altuva is your five, and that's fine. By the way, we need to get some shine on Jeremy Pinio, and we'll do that coming up before they are.

Oh, my goodness, yes, we do. Three straight home rights. This is heating up, by the way. That top three is magnificent. Everybody else? Well, it's like... Work in progress. Well,

Here we go. Go ahead. I'm scared. I'm scared, Jonathan. I'm shaking over here. Elijah Juan and Drexler. Okay. And then Chequie Brown's like,

I'll go along for the ride too. We win a championship. I mean, these three dudes are carrying them. Right? It's just a very top heavy lineup. That you would like to lengthen with a left-handed bat that you could trade for and then maybe some internal improvements

from Walker, from Altuve, from Cam Smith, whomever. Correct. By way, Cam sitting in the last handful of days. Yeah. I think that's good. I still feel good about him long term.

I hope you. I joined you in that club. You see him. I know. He is like, if you were chisling a ball player out of granite, it would look like Cam Smith. And you think a man who is,

well, probably you're on, actually. You, a guy who's been in third base all of his career, all of a sudden says, you're going to go to the major leagues. And we're going to put you in right field and he plays to a gold glove level. Oh, by the way, here's the best pictures in the world. You're coming up from Florida State. Like, yeah, his hands. head spinning. Wait a minute. You don't think Wake Forest

into major leagues is a competition's fair? I don't know what the demon deacons got. I mean, they're pretty good. All right. We honor a Texan who apparently is going to call it a career. And we have found, Jonathan and I have found the perfect song for it. We'll play that with

some highlights at 1031 on Sports Talk 790. He's going to choose his way to the 29-yard line, a gain of 13. He's the loudest three- Turned the Colts crowd today on second and 10. Vixen trying to left side turns the corner and picks up the first down.

And it gives Houston an automatic first one. Bixen, head of steam running left. Ticks it in for a touchdown. Joe Bixen. We'll make you. Bang-dang! Sorry that unfortunate incident with his foot. All right.

All right, without looking, I haven't looked either. Where is he, you think, on the Texans' all-time rushing list is always like a... It's a who-what? A who's-of-who-that. Yeah. A fourth. I got to feel, I'm going to go like... You might be close.

I'm going to go like sixth. You know what? I feel you're going to be closer. Okay. It's all in. Because I think it's... Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, this is great. It's always a who's who. Hold on it. It's reloading. All right. It's always a who-who's... Okay, well, you know who you can guess who number one is. Yeah.

Hold on. What did you just say? You got a reloading sound now. Go play it. Oh, you're reloading. You know what? Jonathan, you're adding production value to the show, and for that, we thank you. Oh, my gosh, we're both way off.

What? 10th. Oh, no, is this? This is career. He only ran... This can't be right. Well, he did punch the girl for a year when he was in college. That hurt him a little bit.

Mm-hmm. He only got to a thousand yards. he's 13th Here's the fun list Arienne Foster Dominic Williams Lamar Miller Alfred Blue Ben Tate

That's your top five Jesus His team sucks When it comes A running backs Steve Slaten and Deshawn Watson 6 and 7

Damian Pierce 8th Ron Day 9th and David Carr 10th That's sad David Carr is still The 10th leading rusher This is 25 years of NFL football

I feel like I'm on a spoof website. This is pro football reference, right? It's absolutely crazy. All right, so let's face it. He's tried to hide the gunshot wound. We've been on it since day one. Oh, my God. Who's we?

We being the smart people. There you go. Oh, my gosh. Go ahead. What's the news? Well, apparently, Aaron Wilson says that he is likely to retire. Now, I've not read Aaron's work. Does he have great detail?

Apparently it was in a YouTube Q&A, which I started to watch this morning, but I didn't get to the, I was watching it and I didn't get to that point. Oh, yeah. Look, all I'm going to say is that the four you paid streets are all over it. They think the same thing we're thinking. Yeah. I mean, maybe there could be fire. And the four you is never wrong. So we know that.

There could be fired to all this smoke. Well, here's what I, and I will say this, even though I don't want to say because it's more funny. It's funnier to actually discuss the. gunshot. Something went wrong that he was not supposed to do or medically got either terrible doctors or terrible advice. Something off the rails happened. Something that was not a prototypical regular injury that would afford him to have said surgery or any sort of rehab to get back on the football. You just don't go away and never to be heard from again. That is not normal. and that means there is something nefarious going on.

And that's why Nick Asarol lied to y'all last year when he said, oh, it's nothing bad or anything. Nothing irresponsible. No, it was something irresponsible. Whether it was irresponsible doctors, whether it was irresponsible medical procedure, whether it was an unnecessary. I don't know what it was. But you just don't say where is he and get a bunch of hands up in the air and go,

I don't know. Well, I'm locked in on 26. I don't care about Joe Jones. shotgun mixing. Go ahead. No, I like it. I'm locked in on David Montgomery, baby.

RB1. Knuckles. Woody Marks, not Sonic. They're going to split carries, dude. 50-50? I don't think so. I would be very surprised. I'll give you this.

By the end of the season. Maybe the first couple of weeks to work them in. What's closer? 75-25 or 50-50. I was thinking 70-30, actually, when I was listening to Adam and Adam talk about it yesterday. Which one gave you that thought? I think it's going to be third down. Woody Marcus is going to be your third down guy and then he's going to be in like every third

series or something like that. And then goal lines and red zone is going to be all David Montgomery. Something like that. Can I make a gut feeling on a Thursday? Okay. The discrepancy will be 60 or less on the carries between the two guys. Now, if there's a third running back, obviously. 60 or less all season long? I don't think so.

When the dust settles at 17 games, if you take the, if there's a hundred carries split between Modi Marx and David Montgomery, no more than 60% of them will go to David Montgomery. You always have guys who get,

Woody Marks is going to get all the carries when they're up big or down big. So that could skew it somewhat. But like the high leverage carries, and there are fantasy websites where you can find adjustments for score and what you're, kind of leverage the series is and stuff like that.

I'm not looking for adjustments. I'm just giving you the plain facts that those two cats running the ball a certain number of times, the percentage. I think, and again, this is not any sort of inside intelligence, or maybe it is. No, I don't think so. I think the Texans like Woody Marks maybe more than the rest of us do.

Okay. And they're going to give him every opportunity to shine. I think they like to run when it was Joe Mixen, he was the lead dog. And I think it's going to be closer to that. Remember when's the last time Montgomery was a primary ball carrier was with the Chicago Bears, correct? And he wasn't very good there. He was a lot better, obviously, with the Lions who have a better offensive line.

And then you have the change of pace back, not change a pace. Jimir Gage is just one of the best. Yeah, he's one of the best in the league. All right, so I just wanted to throw that out there. I would say early on I could see a close bit, a split. I would say later on in the season and then come playoff time. If and when that happens, it'll be more David Montgomery. Okay. So is there any chance I can get you to say, yes, man, I believe. that Joe Mixing was shot. I don't think they are all in on Woody Marks,

because, I mean, we did see a fair amount of Jawar Jordan and whoever else towards the end of the season. Woody Marks, it just became a necessity. I think they see what we all see. He's like a third down back. I hope you're right. He's not very shifty.

He's not very explosive. He's not bad, but he's not great. He's got okay vision. If we're doing like Madden, he's just got like he's on the sliders. He's like 75 everything. So here's what I like you do. I like you to write this down.

And that says it's a 60-40 split between those two guys. Okay. If I'm right, you say, Mr. Texas, you indeed are the Texans insider. No, I will not say that. If I'm wrong, then you can destroy me and say, you don't hear your head from your ass. No, I would, I'm going to, like I said, it depends on context. If David Montgomery gets most of the snaps while the Texans are in the first couple of quarters, and then they get up 21 in Woody Marks and gets all the snaps in the four quarter.

going to allow them to get up 21 points. I'm just telling there's a scenario where it's 60, 40, but it doesn't matter. I don't care. I don't care what the numbers are. I care what it is in leverage. And in leverage and in important drives, I want more David Montgomery. I don't think I disagree with you. Matter of fact, I know I don't disagree with you. I just, I'm reading the tea leaves a little bit, and I think they're, and I hope I'm wrong on this because I never, I haven't been wrong very often in my life. But I'm hoping in this particular case that that they are, they are, They see Woody Marks is how we see Woody Marks. It's just a guy.

Also, by the way, Woody Marks can get better. He was a rookie. Now, running backs do often, I mean, I remember injuries can play and play a factor in this as well. Absolutely. He was getting hurt every single week. So there is a world where you could be right. And he was, he was, literally how many weeks did he go out with an injury at some point in a game last year? Like 10.

Not even joking. So if he was banged up all year long and that's who we saw, because that happens in the NFL. We're like, man, this guy's terrible. And then guys have bounced back years. I always tie it back into fantasy. We have guys who are injured and playing hurt. And then all of a sudden the next year, their yards per carry spring up and they look more explosive. And they're like, oh, of course he was playing with an injury.

So yeah, if he was playing hurt, which if you're the Texans insider and telling me he was playing hurt, and I could buy that. I would love to hear that because that gives me a lot more hope for him in his future. that he was playing at 70, 75% all year long, and that's who he was. Yep. Because honestly, to be good and to be a D'Amico Orion's lead offense, you need two running backs. You're going to run the damn ball. You're going to run.

Domingo Ryan's loves that. You're not going four wide, no tight ends. D'emico Ryans gets up two points. It's time to deflate the ball and then hang on for dear life. We all have heart attacks in the fourth quarter. Rockets get a new shooting coach that has got Rocket fans very, very pleased. Calvin Murphy? You'll find out who it is next. 1045. Sports Talk 790. Brian McTagger joins us in about 10 minutes here on Sports Talk 790 for his weekly Thursday visit.

If you'd like it would be with us. We always welcome you to join us a couple times a week if you'd like. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-790. That's 7-1-3-212-5-790. So the Rockets made an announcement. I guess it's not announced, but Shams put it out there, which will eventually make an announcement. they've added a member to IMA Adoka's coaching staff. His name is Chip England. I have really, I might have heard his name. That name does sound vaguely familiar. But it's like, I don't pay attention to assistant coaches,

typically lesser like Jeff Van Gundy, like former NBA head coaches that have become, you know, assistant coaches just trying to get back in it. But Chip England is a shooting coach, I guess, has been able to have quite a resume of guys, that he's been able to work with over his career. He was with Oklahoma City last year, and before that he spent 17 years in San Antonio with the Spurs,

in which EMA was an assistant for quite a while there in San Antonio, so there's a relationship. And so it is being largely, largely applauded around league circles to say, hey, if there's any team that could certainly use a guy that has had his experience, it's coach England. and the two main guys are talking about are Amen Thompson and Alper in Shangoon Yes

Alperin to stretch him out a little more beyond 15 feet And frankly Amin Thompson to stretch him out beyond 10 feet Let's go I'm on board A I'm excited about that B I was told yesterday I'm not getting my race in the Rockets Which is fine I can live with that Not kidding I was like damn

He's talking this on here I was kidding about that I'm just kidding, Rockets. I'm just teasing. That's a Friday. I'm sorry. Yeah, I know. I'll expect that in September.

Okay, so, but there is a little bit of pressure now on Coach England because the Rockets are probably spending a lot of money to get this guy because he's obviously very well received to run NBA circles. And there's probably a lot of pressure on Amin and for Alperin. Either they're going to be improved because Coach England has done this before in the past with other players or they are. who they are. Okay. By the way, he was known by Phil of Pino basketball fans as the machine gun for his superb shooting skills. Chip, England. Is it England or England? England. England? Because I'm adding an extra syllable and I think you might be... It's Engeland, but it's spelled. Yeah, but I've been trying to listen to on a YouTube. England. Yeah. Coachy. People, people add extra syllables to stuff for no reason. Your name in particular. If you're

We are rialialio, ro, roll, ro. I know, I understand. So I think it's great, but I'll tell you what. Think about this from a player perspective. A man, Thompson's going to get a shooting coach in here that maybe he's going to be able to see something and learn and get from that. And that is very, very exciting. The negative is if he doesn't have any sort of improvement and is still limited by the amount of feet he can shoot shots, That's going to limit who he is ultimately as a basketball player in the NBA.

He can defend, he can dribble, he can play multiple positions. It's just going to be a question of where is he most comfortable shooting? And if you keep it at the dotted circle and in, that limits him as an offensive player and probably limits him as an ultimate great NBA player. Well, we have to wonder if a guy that was on the Thunder the last few years that we talked about this week, first three years of, or let's go first four years of Lou Dort's career. He was a 33% three-point shooter. Last three years he's been 38% three-point shooter.

Now, is that all to England or is that something that Dort unlocked? Who's to say? But that's certainly something we could keep an eye on if we want to point to somebody who's turned their three-point shooting around in their career. And honestly, if I'm a man, Thompson, I absolutely 100% embrace this because a man is due soon rossie to get his second NBA contract get off his rookie deal and that's where some of the guys really start to make a lot of money and i mean my guess is what you do is you uh you bring in someone from the outside and say hey i got this guy i like and

we think he's done a lot but maybe we need he needs a little extra touch or we need another fresh set of eyes on him to determine whether or not he's ever going to be more than what he is yeah whatever he's doing he's going to have to completely build down and and and rebuild because he's at he's at 21.9% his career three point shooting I mean that is abysmal and he takes more shots and it feels like than not from the corner well back half of last year he did not he did refrain much more in the second half of last season good because he was also he was awful there was awful there was a run where he was like one for 19 I mean so and I what you know what tar he said listen to him too you got a fresh contract there I don't like that let's get england

chip england working with him yeah so I'll just say this I think it's a really under the radar, savvy, widely respected decision by the Rockets to go get somebody in here who has the reputation of being a guy that has been able to fix other jump shooters in the past. Yeah. Does that mean he's just going to get everybody shooting 40%? I don't know. But it can't hurt. Look, I can't imagine a man going from 22% 3 to 40. But I'll tell you what.

Would that be awesome. If you got him to 33 on a regular season, that's not great. Uh-huh. but at least keeps the component alive. If he went to 40%, he's a top 10 player in the NBA. If he went to 40%, he's an all-N-A second-team player. He's an MVP. He's an MVP.

Absolutely. First team. Yeah. Because he's all-N-B-A defense, first team. Defensive player of the year, top five. His brother was first team. He can slash the basket. Yeah.

He was first team two years ago. Didn't get anything this year, which is strange. He didn't even get second team. No, sorry, got all the work. Oh. eighth and defensive player of the year voted. Yeah. All right, hey, let's get to some Brian McTagger. He'll join us, Soxmasters

baseball next. But we'll get more on this. We'll also get into what Lane Kiffin did today at SEC Media Days. Mm-hmm. He spoke quite a bit. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

1103, Sports Talk, 790. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with our friend, Brian McTagger. You hear him every Thursday here on Sports Talk 790. You hear him Friday's on the on-deck show where the Astros will be headed to Chicago to take on the White Sox for a three game series and then three with the Anaheimers after that. And McTaggart was there at the Dynke in part the last three days. So Brian, we as Astro fans and followers are riding the ebbs and flows of this season. What's the clubhouse like right now?

I'm going to assume frustration kicked in with the Baltimore series, not winning any of those games. but I'm assuming they're also not throwing a championship parades after beating the fish three straight times. Yeah, I think that's accurate. I mean, I think if fans were in the clubhouse on a day-to-day basis, they'd be surprised at how just every day is pretty much the same. I mean, you wouldn't know if they were on a five-game winning streak or five-game losing streak.

You know, guys are very routine-oriented. They do the same thing. I mean, the only thing, you know, after a win, there's music pumping, and the mood's, you know, lifting a little, and after a loss, it's quiet in there. But when they come to the park the next day, it's over, and they're looking forward to the next day's game. But I did think it was interesting after they got swept by the Orioles.

Jeremy Pena, who has become a leader on this team, sort of for the first time I can remember, really, speaking out about the direction the team was headed and said, it's time we go on a run. And there were no team meetings or anything like that. but there were words that probably didn't need to be said, but he said them publicly, and they turn around and sweep the marlins.

So it's been a really, really weird season. I mean, three days ago, they looked like it was over. They were going to be sellers or stand pad or whatever, and now it looks like, hey, they're right there. Maybe they're going to be big-time buyers. You know, I've been in the clubhouses for a long time, around this time of year. You get the group of guys that may say,

hey, we're good enough as it is. Let's not bring somebody in here. Then you have a certain group that says, we need help, get us something. And then there's another group that says, I'd like to improve as long as I'm not the one being moved. So I'm going to assume that if you went to each individual player privately, they know this team cannot rely on the top three of its offense,

which did largely this three games against the Marlins for any sort of run. The thought is because the outfield has not solidified itself offensively, that's what Dana's got to go get before the deadline. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I don't think any of the players would say publicly, oh, we need outfield help because, you know, you're dumping on your fellow teammates. You know, you don't want to do that. I think what they would say is, you know, we believe in one another, but privately behind the scenes are like, hey, are we going to get somebody? I mean, we got a chance at this thing. If you remember in 2017 at the trade deadline, the Astros traded for Liriano, and that was all they did.

And Dallas Keiko popped off and said, hey, we have a chance to win the World Series and we should have done more. Well, lo and behold, a month later, they get Verlander, and that woundered up being what they needed. But, yeah, I mean, I think the players are wondering what they're going to do. I think some players are probably wondering, hey, am I going to be traded? It's going to be a very tense, 10 days, I think, for a lot of the players who not only have jobs, a couple of the outfielders, but some of the pitchers who might be traded. So there's going to be a lot of whispers behind the scenes publicly. They're all going to say the right things for the most part. What Keikle said in 2017, it was pretty rare for a player to say something like that.

What do you think about, I mean, how the trade market is going to go with the potential impending labor strife and the fact that like people were talking about sunny gray and red sox players well the red sox have won a bunch of games and now they're in the race and you just have so many teams that are in it and so few buyers just how do you feel like this this trade market could play out yeah there are only a few teams out of it like you said so in those teams that are out of it are of course holding everyone hostage for the players and the prices are really really high just because there's so many teams that are interested and the astros are a little bit worse spot just because two things. They just don't have the prospect list that a lot of other teams do. And the two guys that are in their top 100, I'm guessing Nayan and Alvarez are probably untouchable. And then also they want to try to stay under the luxury tax, which creates another set of problems. I mean, they created a little room trading McCullors. So it's going to be difficult, I think, to fill definitely all their needs. I think the moves, I tend to lean towards any moves they make are going to be on the

smaller scale just because of the limitations money-wise. So I don't think they're going to go out there and get a front-line starter or another team's closer. You know, Mason Miller's not coming here. They're not going to get a big-time bat, but they could get a player that could help. And for me, if you ask me what they need, most more than anything else, I think they need the left-handed bat. I just think they need another bat in the offense.

Bullpen, I think you can figure it out a little bit. You know, a bray looks like he's turned the corner and it might be back. and you're going to get West Nesky back. Maybe you could move another starter to the bullpen. They need another bat if you ask me. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. And, yeah, if they are going to stick with this rotation, I mean, somebody's got to step up.

But just the way you see it, one turn through, plus Lambert being good last night. How are we feeling about the rotation? Yeah, I think it's, you know, trending up post-all-Star break. Like you said, I mean, everyone pretty much held their own. the first turn through. You know, Lambert's been their best starter all season. Hunter Brown's the guy that, you know, really needs to step up at this point.

I mean, you, you know, he's your race. You need him to go six or seven innings. And, you know, he had, what, a career high six walks his last time out. So that's not ideal. So I think he will, I think he'll get it ironed out. But you need him to pitch at close to the level he pitched last year, or I think he could be in some trouble because you're almost like it's, a given that Hunter Pence is going to give us 100 Pence.

Hunter Brown is going to give us a chance to win every time out. And so far, a couple of cases, that's not been the case. But the other guys have pitched pretty well. You know, Eric Getty's a start-to-start thing. You're not sure what you're going to get, just like Emi. You can count on Lambert at this point. Blanco came back. It looked really good to me.

I mean, he looked, he was throwing strikes. He looked confident. I think you feel good about him. And then, you know, maybe next week you get West Neski back, who's looked pretty good in his minor league rehab. We saw Nate Pearson got moved yesterday to the Royals. Obviously, they're trying to open up some space. So if Wessniewski comes back, who's next to the bullpen?

Who could be moved? I mean, is A.J. Blueball's name still being talked about as a potential trade target? Do you need a guy for leverage? Or does Kai Wei Tong assume that spot? What, how is this, if we don't see the Astros make a move for a pitcher, How do you see things being crafted out post-deadline? Well, if they don't make a move for a pitcher, yeah. Yeah, that's a good question.

I mean, which Neski, I think, is for sure going to get a shot to come back and pitch in the rotation. You know, we saw Javier being moved to the bullpen. And I think Javier guy that Astros would like to move if they could, just because he just does not seem to have a role here. And, of course, you got the money. the contract. I mean, they would have to eat some of that. But yeah, I think AJ Bluebaugh's name is going to be mentioned. I think any young controllable starting pitcher for the Astros could be moved. And I think they're going to probably have to move a pitcher off their

major league roster if they're going to make one of these deals. If they don't, if they don't make a move with a pitcher, you have a little bit of a logjam, but it's going to become, you know, who's pitching best? What have you done for me lately? And I guess that's what you'd rather have than, you know, coming up short on some of these arms. But, yeah, Pearson getting DFAed and then trade. I mean, trade it. He's the fourth pitcher they acquired in the offseason that they DFAed this year. So not exactly.

They went out and acquired all these pitchers. That was a big storyline, build up the depth. And four of them have been DFAed. And then, you know, Burroughs is hurt. You know, EMI's been totally hit or miss. You have Lambert that's been good. So, you know, not a great offseason for the Astros in terms of adding pitching. And like I said, I think I told you last week, there's some in the organization that think adding another reliever is the number one need.

So I don't know. It's going to be interesting 10 days. This club could go a lot of different ways. That's funny because I think Brian Abrayu, in what he does, I think impacts whether or not you have to go get that eighth inning guy. Because Brian King did it for a while and obviously kind of ran out of a gas on that. For it let you run Cam Smith and not play much in the series. He's had a woeful second half of the season. I mean, the whole year has shown some glimpses of real power and excitement,

but other times a lot of offers. What's going through his mind right now? What's the Astros state of mind on him as they tried to give him some time off to kind of decompress? And, you know, again, with nobody really fighting for outfield playing time, he's going to be given another opportunity to get his bat back in the lineup for the Astros. Yeah, I mean, I think he'll be in the lineup tomorrow in Chicago. Yeah, I mean, it's been a rough go here post-all-star break. but really, you know, all season.

I mean, he's shown glimpses, and there were times I thought he'd turn the corner. And he does look to me better at the plate, taking better swings that he did last year. But I think this was just a reset. I think it was just, hey, let's give him a blow. He worked on some things with the hitting coaches. And also the matchup with some of these pitchers that the Marlins were throwing

were not good for him in his swing path. So I think everyone just agreed, you know, let's just give him some time off here. And, you know, maybe he can regroup. work on some things and take four days off in a row. And, I mean, if he could just pick it up a little bit, I mean, that would be so huge for the Astros because they're just searching for anybody in that outfield to be a part of this lineup. I mean, Lucas Spence's and bats have been pretty good.

You know, Lamont Wade is drawing some walks and getting on base, but they're just missing another dude in the outfield. They just need another bat. They can put in the middle of the lineup in the outfield. Thank you, Mr. Metaggagg. There's always great information. and we look forward to hearing you tomorrow before the Astros and White Sox. And thanks again for all your great coverage.

Talk to you again next week on this show. All right. Thanks, Jess. You got Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. Weathers here on Sports Talk 790. How do you command a room, Ross, and not take any questions? Explain, Matthew. I will next. 1113 on Sports Talk 790.

Hey, we've got, I just don't get it coming up for the bottom of the hour. And for those of you that are new to the show, first of all, where are you been? because I'm seriously, what are you listening to? Thank you for listening to the show. Yes. We're here. Yeah, 10 to 2. I just don't get it every Thursday.

Three of us has grown-ass men come to the table with predicaments in our life that we don't figure out. Okay. And either we help each other and get it or we go, we don't just don't get it either. We kind of talk these things out. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? Correct. Some are sports-related, but more times it not, and they just don't get it. They're not sports-related.

So we'll have it for you coming up at the. bottom of the hour. We're going to check in with Chris Gordy coming up at 1250 today for our SEC Media Day update. He is in Tampa hanging out with his fellow broskies. It's funny, somebody on Twitter just a few minutes ago said, these media days are absurd because especially in the SEC, they're not big media markets. Most of them are not. So you've got a lot of fanboys that are pretending to be quote unquote journalists and radio hosts that are just going up there going, Excuse me, roll tide. What are you going to do with your backup linebacker there, coach DeBore?

Yeah, I saw some guy was, some Aggie reporter was joking with Mike Elko. I saw that too, yeah. I'm sorry, I'm wearing a burn orange shirt. I'll wear maroon tomorrow for Sark. Like trying to be buddy-buddy with Mike Elko. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't mean to be cruel. Go ahead, but you're going to be.

Yeah. If you are, I'm sorry, techsags.com, you're not real media. you are what you are right I mean I'm sorry I'm still Hookum.com I'm gonna leave you on an island there

Hookham.com is not going to be your complete unbiased unbiased right down the middle of coverage of Texas Longhorn football. Have they ever picked against the Aggies on Texags pre-game show? We talked about that when they played their playoff game. All four of the broski's on there had Texas Aggies

won in the game. I think they were favored, maybe. But I mean, we ran into that with the Texas Tech dude at the Big 12 weeks ago. Yeah, well, we got the Astros and making the playoffs every year. It made the last two years. Somebody said they were washed in the first week of the season. And now they're saying they're in the playoffs. Standing 790, don't lie.

That's not... Standing 790, they're out of the playoffs right now. Standing 790 says they're getting closer. I'm just saying the small college-type things. Like, for instance, I'm going to tell you something to do it. I'm going to pull this When Gordy comes at 12.15, I don't know if Gordy's listening to us.

And if he is, it's going to ruin the bet. I would say probably he is. Okay, then I won't say it then. Okay. But I want to try and experiment. I'm with Gordy. Okay. How about this?

I'm going to say Gordy that I talk to a very respected SEC national reporter. Okay. He's got, I'm going to say he's got LSU going seven and five. Okay. Do you think Gordy's going to lose his mind? No, he's going to go, okay. We'll see. Something like that.

Who's this guy? Who is this guy? You don't know. All right. So Lane Kiffin, by the way, it was his turn to speak today, which probably I think, when's Gordial on, by the way?

1250. Okay. So every coach at media days get a certain allocated time. And for the most part, Rossi, they try to stick to the minute on this because there's a lot of, I mean, there's four to five coaches a day.

if you're with a smaller conference, you may be doing six or seven in particular day. So it's a big-ass conference. It's a big-ass conference. A lot of media there and people are on deadlines and they're trying to navigate the water. So these league offices have to do their job of keeping these things tight. Plus, it also narrows the, like if you tell Joey McGuire, Texas Tech, you're only getting 25 minutes. You can't berating for 25 minutes over Brendan Sorsby, right? You got to either he's going to have to talk.

So it's a 25 media media availability. Lane Kiffin was asked today. at Tampa, would you like your opening thoughts? He went 16 minutes. That's smart. He left nine from media. Uh-huh. He got to ask four questions in nine minutes.

You know he used to do a good job of that? Stephen Silas. He would talk for like three straight minutes to every answer. He's like, I know I'm only going to have to answer a few more questions if I keep talking. Yeah, I mean, I cannot continue to tell you that Kayolanican Christian Water are going to get us the promise lane. Yeah, that's just savvy. you're getting 25 minutes you go filibuster for a good 20

I get the guy credit 16 up there now the greatest filibuster coach I've ever been around in my entire life is Calvin Sampson by far he's the goat yeah

you can say coach how you're feeling and he can say well I was feeling better this and this is the reason I mean coach I can have coach Samson and we've had him on the show before I've asked maybe two through

I used to do it at Ruddruckers I could ask him a question Go in line, order my food Wait for the food to arrive Go to the toppings bar You load it up and have two bites And I'd be ready for the second question That's good

I used to love those silas bites for Rockets launch pad I bet you did I bet you did So he asked four questions But one of the things he was I don't know if he addressed it himself Or it was asked of it is He's off of all social media

Okay And it says it's been the best thing in his entire Is his 22 year old girlfriend asking him to get off or what? pause. It's really, I think if you are a head coach at any level of a very powerful professional or collegiate team, to order to maintain your sanity, you have to say I lose social media.

I would say it about athletes too. If I didn't have this job, I wouldn't be on there. I wouldn't be nearly as interested in seeing it on Twitter. Right. Instagram, fine. Yeah, he pictures up, you know, plays you've been or food your ears. Yeah. I do love those Elmo reels.

By the way, if you're sending me an Elmo reel every day. Every day. Every day I'm getting an email. But I'm only sending you one per day. One of it was kind of funny. I could send you 10. Okay. How many people are making Elmo content?

Do I need to go do it now? Hello, I'm Elmo. John, explain to me my problem. I'm obsessed with this Elmo, the mean elbow bits, because there's two different dudes doing it. First of all, he gets caught up in the algorithm. Yes. And so once you get, once you like it or forward it to somebody, you're going to get all that stuff. But I'm not mad about that though. I know. You love it. So he's Mr. Elmo content.

If any of you all want any mean Elmo content. John, the man I send you one today? You know what? Sure. And then either going to laugh and go, this is damn funny or don't ever send this again. Is it worse than the Bob Barker? Oh, the Bob Barker stuff's gone. Yeah. What happened? Why? Because people stop doing it. These things are. No, these things are. run its course. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're over the Bob Barker. Bob Barker made me chuckled. These make me flat out laugh. Okay. Okay. Because he calls everybody bitch at the very, which I think is funny. Okay. All right. So shout out to Lane Kiffin for at least acknowledging that social media is probably, if you're the coach at LSU, you cannot be going to tiger bait.com or to gorty.com to go get your rundown of what people

think of your football program. You're going to get biased. Like when you talk to Gordy, you're going to get a bias. Well, they're going to hate you faster, too. Uh-huh. Because if you're going to ask them reasonable questions, they get called a dumbass. If you don't beat Tulane by 46 points, they're going to crush you. Who is LSU's non-con? Can we take a look here?

Oh, I'm sure it's embarrassing. They play Clemson, and then after that. That's okay. Yeah, yeah. If you play Clemson, you get to play one embarrassing team. LSU football schedule. Let's take a look here. Really fast if we get to just don't get it.

Yeah, go ahead and follow me on Instagram at Sports RV. Hey, would you all follow me on Instagram, too, if you don't mind. Look, if you're busy, if you're busy with Ross, I get it. Go see the, yeah, the Dijon grilled wildcat fish from on the curb. It's on my story right now. Okay, so here we go. Week one, they're playing Clemsonsons.

Is that in Atlanta or is that a home game? I have no clue. All right. They go week one right off the bat. Right up the bat. That's tough. I didn't like that when Texas played Ohio State first week. Oh, it's a Tiger Stadium.

Okay, because they played them last year, so it's a home-and-home. Yeah, home-and-home. Week number two, they're home for LaTeck. It's a big one. That's actually not terrible. You could play worse. At Ole Miss, home for A&M, home for McNeese. Big one.

At Kentucky, at Mississippi State, at Auburn, home for Alabama, home for Texas, at Tennessee, at Arkansas. They have a great schedule. Home for Texas, November 14th. Should I go? Yeah, yeah, I think LSU is one of the greatest places to watch a football game. I've been there, I've been there once myself. It wasn't a great game. It was Ed Ogeron's last

game and they were playing the Aggies. But I mean, the half the half full. The scenery. Oh, we got the best tailgate. We got the best atmosphere. And it was like half empty and nobody cared. I don't envision it'll be an issue for the Texas game. I don't think so either. All right.

What don't you get in your life? That's sitting to my left. That's fair. Elmo. Elmo doesn't get you. Your mom called. That one was kind of funny. I'm going to send you and Jonathan the same one.

I'm going to look at it. If there's something in life, you don't look yet. 713-2, shut up. 7-1-3-21-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. We will try to give you as the sage advice as we can here with Matt and Ross and Jonathan. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 with a word.

Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the same. topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say I just don't get it. Mine is sports-related.

7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. It is Matt. It's Ross, Jonathan, with you here on a I just don't get it Thursday. Something in your life you just don't get, let us know. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. I've got to be honest with you. I don't get why LeBron has not announced it yet.

Now, I haven't delved into this headline I just saw, so it's funny you brought this up. Okay, please. LeBron James reportedly postponed his decision after Adam Silver complained about its impact. I feel like you of all people can respect a spite move. That is very spiteful. And you know what? I tip my cap to you, my friend. I just...

According to Andy Baskin of Cleveland's 92.3, the fan. 92.3, the fan. Cleveland's Sports. Sports leader. Everybody jump on the fan. Everybody jump on the ticket. I don't know if we believe some guy from the fan in Cleveland. No, we do not believe anybody on the fan. He says LeBron was irritated and then they decided to hold the... Why does this guy know this information? Did he text LeBron? Are you mad, bro? Here's what I was told yesterday by a reliable source. That's what he says.

Maybe he's the Cavs insider. Like you're the Texans insider. That's fair. We all can't wear capes of every team. What do you got? Oh, you're just saying that's it? Oh, me? That's all he said? Yeah, that's all he said. Sorry. I just, I think chemistry building, I know we're still, what about? Chemistry building for LeBron?

Okay, maybe. They didn't even start in camp. So you say it starts in camp? Bro, these NBA dudes, I see it, work out months and months and months. There was also a report from Kevin O'Connor. Did you see that one? He's all more reputable. used to be with the ringer.

Now he's as Yahoo. He's got some stuff way off base before two. Oh, that's not good. But he says, according to his sources, LeBron James is slow playing the decision to see if any suitors can find a way to land Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving. So he's negotiating with teams for himself

and then also to see if they can make trades. That makes sense. I can buy that. Yeah. I don't think he's mad because Adam's over, so we need the schedule. Because the reality says, if LeBron makes the announcement tomorrow. They're still not releasing the schedule until

until the middle of August. And they literally were, I know this for a fact. They work on this schedule up until two to three days before they release it. So it's constantly moving around. So he's talking to these teams saying, I will sign with you if you can trade

for Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving as well. Okay. So then. Which would make sense. And also complicate things. It would. But how much salary cap space would team have right now? I will say if that is the reason,

I get it then while you wait. because you're trying to still massage the dream team that you want around you. So I will say in that particular case, if indeed that story is true, I get it. Jonathan, what you got? What don't you get, my man? I'm afraid I'm going to say it, and y'all are going to get it. I love this. I don't get the new landscape of sports media as a whole.

Uh-oh. Do talk. I'm a young guy. You know, this is... Yeah, you're right. The Adams are terrible. I would listen to them either. Just kidding.

But they're on our stations. I'm finally, you know, getting to, you know, adulthood, you know, you grow up with all these sports, you know, broadcasters and these, you know, ESPN talents and everything like that. Nowadays, you get Kendra Perkins saying Katie's ain't nothing because he's

not working out with his teammates just for Vanessa Richardson to come out and interview, Reed Sheper saying, you know, Katie's been with us. He's a good leader. Then you have Kendrick person. Perkins as well going on saying Janice needs to get off his butt because he needs to call

LeBron, he's not doing anything. He's not helping it like his team. When did sports media get so ignorant? No, see, that's the thing is that he's not sports media. He's a sports blabberer. But they're sponsoring that.

It's one of the biggest shows. I don't. Well, you know what you have to do? You have to not consume it. It started. Yeah. Well, even with the ESPN layoffs and you're actually getting rid of the Dude has been covering baseball games, high-profile baseball games since 1996.

I know. I know. Like, what are we doing? Unfortunately, it's a reflection of our populace because as you know, Jonathan, and as we all know, we have numbers. We know what rates. We know what doesn't. ESPN has numbers. It started with cold pizza when Skip Bayliss was there.

And then Stephen A. Smith got sprinkled. Remember, he was just with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he would come on to talk Sixers. That's right. And then he started yelling and calling Kwame Brown a scrub. And then all of a sudden they're like, you know, we got a little something. Let's put this guy, Skip Bayless, and let's put this guy Stephen A. Smith on a show. And they would scream at each other and say ridiculous stuff. And it started popping.

And then so the ratings went up. Sponsorships went up. Their salaries went up. And unfortunately, these companies are fishing where the fish is. And unfortunately, it's a reflection of our populace as a whole. We've gotten dumber. We've gotten less into nuance. We got shorter attention spans,

and we like to watch 30-second clips of people yelling at each other rather than actually breaking down the game. And I remember Matt giving me some media history about why reality TV is a big thing and how blew up because of the OJ Simpson trial, right? And I had looked up on that, I was like, oh, you know, Matt, you know, putting me on some ball knowledge. Yep. Just for 2026 to come around and they're faking reality TV. They're faking realness and real actual, like, what's going on with the 14.

But think about what Kendrick said. Kendrick is mad because KD was working out with Powell Ben Carroll, not having any idea that Reed Shepard was working, and the Rockets were working with Kevin Durant. Because, again, he doesn't get held to it. If you flat out, John, and I don't mean to be back in the day guy, but here it comes, 30 years ago, when you occupied a media position, television, and radio, and you gave out in Rodion's information,

you would get scolded by your bosses first and foremost. You had ethics. Ethics, yes. And then you'd get let go if you just talked out of your ass and you lost credibility. Kendrick Perkins has no credibility in the NBA streets, but yet he still has the opportunity to be on there because he says things that gravitate, that to gain traction because of social media streets and podcasting and all that. Aggregating.

Everybody listens to podcast. To listen to 40 minutes of analysis. They listen to it. it to get, they do these podcasts to do 20 seconds of super big clips so they can go viral on the Facebook reels. So you know what I've done instead? I look at it at Elmo insulting people. And that's what I'm going to start doing because that's what it's much easier. You made a very good point with the World Cup. These soccer analysts are actually like the how it used to be in all sports, man. And the TV NFL has done so bad, you know?

That's what it was. Tierra Ron Rian and Laton are like breaking down tactics and like Alexi Lawless is just coming in there with a hot takes. Like it was the Ameri, the European PN versus the American mind, and unfortunately that's just what we're into. And I will also say this as an old person, Jonathan, things do cycle in life, and I'm hoping, I'm hoping

that at some point we will cycle back to valuing credibility and good analysis, but the way that things are kind of going, I don't know that that will cycle back. Also, something cycle back and some things go away for good. And I'm hoping that's not something that's gone away from good.

Because that's what we do on this show, Matthew. Yes. Now, there are some hot takes here and there. Not very often. But we have reasons to back them up. Correct. Because I don't want to go, God, I was listening to Matt and Ross. They don't know what the hell they were talking about.

Just to get people excited. Well, I value my credibility and so do you, Matt. Yep. All right. What don't you get, Rossi? Have you heard this case of Cole Hudson? I am not, please. Former Texas Longhorns Offensive Lyman.

Is this an on Florida story? No. Oh, okay. He played 48 games for the Longhorns Over four seasons He graduated Every single game with a bowl game mixed in He entered the NFL draft

He went undrafted He went to Cowboys Rookie Camp He was cut from Cowboys Rookie Camp And now he just was granted A temporary restraining order to come back To college football After entering the draft And being in Cowboys Camp

what I don't really get is how this is possible and how do the NCAA, who are their lawyers that keep taking these L's? These are the worst lawyers in history that the NCAA has. They cannot win a case to save their lives. They didn't even win the Brennan-Sorzby case. I know. How do you not win that?

I don't get it. How are they taking all these ass whippins in court? I mean, are they, does the NCAA go to like on the freeways and look at the sign, the billboard, the injury lawyers? Hey, I'm hammering away at this case. Cole Hudson has no case. Like, sir, you're an injury lawyer.

Call 1-800 get you to win. What is up with that? Why are they using injury attorneys? I'm waiting. On these labor cases. We're waiting for you to win a case, NCAA lawyers. I don't get it. I don't get this case and what he's arguing,

and I don't get how they're losing this case. It's crazy. Four seasons, 48 games, entered the draft, and was in rookie camp. So he's trying to has already been allowed to. He's got a temporary restraining order. So as of right now, he is eligible. But from there, we're going to see what's going to.

They're supposed to have a hearing and a, I don't know. A hearing has been scheduled. I don't know. Well, when in doubt, take the other side against the NCAA. When in doubt. Seriously. All right. We need some people.

Can we get somebody to call with something we don't get? You guys always have something interesting that you don't get. Yeah. My poor algorithms. Oh, so my fault. So my fault. Mass six sports. Every break, John, this is all here.

Elmo's doing this. Elmo's doing that. Elmo, Elmo's cursing. Look at him. He can't stop laughing. That hell's wrong with you. It's summertime. Not busy with rockets.

Well, think about this. If we're in the fall or the winter, what do I normally do when I'm working with you? I'm working on my rocket stuff for that night. So I don't have anything else to do. There's no on deck or 10th inning tonight. it last night. Yeah. No game today. Uh-huh. So I'm going to go

tonight. I'm having dinner with my mom, but after that, I'm going to go home and just look and stare at Facebook rules for a couple of hours. Okay. No, it's not okay. It's an issue. Why don't you study up on some, you know what I should do. A defensive run safe for Jose Al-Tube. Oh, my God.

You see that play on Saturday where he slow played the ball to ground ball to second base? My gosh. She was waiting for it. I'm glad you brought that up. I did. I'm I did on the 10th thing. I was like, this is terrible. He was just standing there waiting for it.

They teach you not to do that at any point in your life, especially for a guy who's got limited range. Absolutely right. So here's the question. Yonan's going to have to do this for a couple of more years, not triple chronic every couple of years, every year, but I mean, going to be 40, 100 guy. Okay.

Slug of, I mean, OPS of say, 8, 75, 900, 9, 925. Not 1,000 is a little much to ask for every year. It's way too much to ask. So let me ask you this. If we were doing a, what is it, what is it, what is it, teeter totter? Is that when you have one guy moving up and the one guy?

Seesaw. Seasaw. So if we're going to seesaw them down to the evil level ground, what, how far does Altuvei drop in terms of his production and how far up does Albares have to go in order for him to be eclipsing either Jeffrey Allen Bagwell or Jose Altuve as the greatest Astros of all time? I, yeah, I would say at least five more years of this. He's 29. He's been this awesome.

What the trade took place in what year? I don't know, 17 maybe, but he was a rookie of the year in 2019. So we're talking about seven years of, okay, not seven years of overall greatness. He's been hurt. He's been hurt three or four of those years. Let's deduct that to four years of greatness. Here's his, well, 2020 member was a wash for him. He had the creaky knees. Also, I mean, it was the COVID year.

87 games is a rookie. OPS of a thousand sixty-seven. 27 home runs in 87 games, by the way. That's a full year of awesomeness. I'm going to give him the benefit of that on that. A one rookie of the year. Yep, yep, yep. Then 144 games, 135, 11417, 147, just 48 last year, up to 102 this year.

Or the OPS is of full seasons during those times. 877,000, 919. 959 last year he was bad remember 797 overall career OPS is 970 so we're talking about six really awesome years right basically six awesome years yes also doesn't play the field Al Tuve in his prime gold glove and by the way he is regressing as an outfielder right now gold glove second base yeah bagwell how many gold gloves is he went at least one not two or three consistently was an outstanding defensive first basement and ran the base as well. 30, 30 seasons. Two 30, 30 seasons, I think. A baseball player on the field.

You never questioned. When Jeff Bagwell made a decision, he was thinking about what was ahead. First of all, to get behind the rope, you got to get an MVP, which Bagwell and Al Tuve did. Okay. I do believe, as much as I love,

Jose has the greatest player of Astros' history. He does lose points for his horrific base running, which has never gotten any better. Yeah, if we're making a splitting hairs argument, which we are, it matters. Okay, so let's do this. So if I said Yorna Alvarez's next five years,

not counting this year, he averages 30 home runs, 90 RBIs, and is OPSing 875 to 900. Does he have to win MVP to get inside the ropes, as you use the term?

He has to win an MVP, which is going to win it this year. I think he's going to have to pass Bagwell on Homer's at 449. Because Bagwell also played the field. Great. As you mentioned, stole bases. So as awesome as Jordan

has been, he's got work to do. And probably got quite a bit of work to do. Two 30, 30 seasons for Bagwell. But I'll tell you what, you know what he's got to do? Probably two or three more years of. Be awesome, and guess what you get to do then? Stay healthy. You get to be in the Mount Rushmore

as the fourth person. You might be there already, especially if he wins the MVP this year. You know what, Ross, me triple crown is I mean MVP is awesome Triple crown is sickening good Especially for a two-play setter

For both of Bagwell's 30 30 seasons were actually 40 homer seasons 40 30 seasons Gosh dude's great Just looking at his page 149 walks in 1999 With 40 homers OPS of 1,045

Steals bases Stole 30 base Faces, finish second the MVP, Silver Slugger at first base. Pretty good. See, to me, you should maybe make the Hall of Fame. And he's going to. All of them, those guys are. I think Bagwell's regular season numbers are better than Al-Tubez.

I don't think it's disputable on that. But I do believe postseason is a chunk of the equation. And that's why I give the lift to El-Tube. Career OPS Plus 168 for Yordon. Mr. Bagwell 149 but longer career and Frank let's be

brutally honest the last couple of years of Jeff Bagwell Oh it's horrible tough to watch and no postseason success really Career OPS Plus for L2A 126

still amazing give me every give me every one of those in appearances for Jose LTV to become postseason wise you can't take those away from me I'm not going to

And I'm not saying you are. I'm not saying you are. All right, there it is. Yeah, Altubis, I mean, Yordon's got maybe three years. Are we going to have a Mount Rushmore of the Astros and not have a pitcher in the group? Is that we decided? Can we do that?

You throw Nolan Ryan in there? Royals, Walt Warren's consideration. Billy Wagner. Warns Considerate Hall of Famer. But he did a lot of his lifting other places too. Yeah. Not that Nolan Ryan didn't, but of course Nolan Ryan did. But he'd spent 10 years.

Yeah, 10 or 10. 80 to 90, right? Something like that. All right. I would like the Astros. We want to thank them for being a friend. A great friend to all of us. They were down and out.

We didn't give up on them, Sports Harvey. Okay. Standing 790. We'll back that up next. It's 1158 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Big ball drops in for strike three and That is the ball game.

The Houston Astros break out the broods against the Marlins winning tonight. Five to two to sweep the three-game series. Marlins lose their ninth in a row. You're welcome, Matt. You know what? I'm going to invite you and Jonathan over to the house. Pop some popcorn. Maybe you do a vegetable tray, and we're going to watch multiple episodes of the Golden Girl.

Okay. I'm going to get a loan to pay for the gas to get up there. That hits. But I can scoop Jonathan on the way. I think he's in humble area. right? Yeah. All right.

I pick it on the way. I mean, stick your thumb out at 1960 and 59. Oh my God. He won't even come on to, what's the main road? Like Houston Parkway to come get you. That's terrible.

The rest arrive over there. Or the Ruiz. There's a Ruffle Rouse over next to Umbal High School go and pick him up over there. Hey, umbel High School's a little down the road, right? It's off of 1960. No, we, I'm working more.

towards the highway. Oh, wow. He's fine. Thank you, Jonathan, for being a friend. Thank you all north-siders. Yeah. Thank you for being a friend to this show. So you went with that for the Miami song. Well, we could have gone Miami Vice. That would have been nice. There's more, we didn't play Conga. That's the jam. You really think so? Oh, yeah. You don't like, Jonathan, do you know Conga? We'll do Conga next break. How about that? on Sunny. That's got to be in the system. Oh, it's got to be for sure. Sunny was built for the Miami Sound Machine. Are you kidding me?

Sonny was built for the Miami Sound Machine and Celine Dion and Adele. Just rotate those three groups over and over and over again. We'll do it next break. Oh, no, we're doing it now. Sure, why not? Turn it up. You got to turn it on.

Too late now. Do the news and new with this. Oh, yeah, I like this. Let's see how this works. Hello, how Estes? This is the jam I don't care what you say All right, now time for the news of dude

With a little Gloria and Stefan Astros get the victory They sweep the Marlins Can I say something weird I don't mind calling the Pirates the Bucks I don't know, Cubs the Cubbies Marlins the fish I just don't lie to it all the time

I know And it's not your fault It's very common Well let's do this Let's run through We've got a minute here to do this Okay Let's run through all 30 teams very quickly

Astros go stroes Stros Rangers don't have one No Let's do west to east It makes it easier They call Mariners the M's Yeah

That's fine Angels are the halos That makes sense Dodgers jerks That's true And knife fighters Angels halos We mentioned that

Giants don't have a nickname Do the people call the Diamondbacks of the snakes? Yes. That one's okay, I guess. Days are really short for the athletics, so that's the... Podries are the pods. The friars. They also call them the friars, too.

Nationals are the Nats. Yep. Reds, not really. Fills, Phillies. I just don't know why. The Indian used to be called the tribe. I don't call them out anymore. That's true.

That would have worked. Yeah. But Marlins to fish, I don't know why. I can't explain it. It just irks me. Hmm. From no inexplicit. That's an I just don't get it.

Why didn't you come up with this 20 minutes ago? I just thought it. I'm in a much better conversation. I just don't get why it irks me. But it does. It's something I can't explain. I can't put my finger. I like the word moist.

Oh, God, I hate that word. The word moist just irks you for whatever reason. I like a nice, delicious slice of moist brisket. Oh, God. Yeah, you've coughed again. Are you okay? All right, anyways. Let me tell you something.

We're getting rid of the word moist. I've got no problem with the word. John, then you have any problem with the word moist? Not at all, but I have met people like Matt. Why don't you like a delicious slice of Dutch chocolate cake? It's very moist. The Moistmaker.

That's what you used to call me in high school. Continue on, please. Three in a row, the Astros of 1. If we're going to standings watch 790, they're now just two games back of the Rangers and one and a half games back of the 6th. Seattle Mariners. Peter Lambert was quality.

Did it get into some trouble early in the game, was able to work his way out. Did give up two earned runs, two walks, three strikeouts, but six innings. That is a quality start. 303 ERA on the season. And Brian O'Rew, looking pretty efficient. Every day. O'Kert was efficient as well, just eight pitches for him. And who was the eighth inning guy?

Oh, excuse me, the ninth inning guy. I just said, yeah, Brian O'Rew got a six save of the season. Yes. As the Astros improved to 50. and 54. They're just four games below 500. They're bubbling at the surface, Matt. And ready to buy at the trade deadline.

So you know what? So you know what? I really want to have an argument with you about about why people continue to be want to be sellers. I think it's a ridiculously simplistic conversation that you probably come back and say, well, what's the end result? Is this team of World Series

title contender? No. We'll save this for the next segment. But I'm just telling you, I want to have this debate with you. We'll do it next. Okay. I have to go to the rest of the headlines of the day, Matthew. Lane Kiffin says he regrets his messy Ole Miss exit. No, he doesn't. Speaking at SEC Media Days, he asked about how he was fighting to coach the rebels after he had reached a deal to replace Brian Kelly at LSU.

He said he should have walked away when Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter told him no. Quote, yeah, I do. talking about whether or not he regrets it. But I think that's a good thing that I look at life that way now. Instead of saying, no, I don't, I was right. I look at things always now, like, how could I have done them better? But it's also easier when you're further removed and there's no emotion evolved. That's with everything in life.

Everything, every rash decision or emotional reaction I've had in my life, you always go back and go, I could have done something better. How many times in your life have you been mad or happy or sad or sad or cried or laughed about something and said, you know what? I don't know if I handled that the right way. It happens 90% of the times. Absolutely it does. So him acknowledging that does nothing for me.

He's still a pud. He just is. He's a good football coach. He's trying to learn and be better, Matt. He's trying to grow. No, he's not. He's saying all the right things because he had a chance to think about the rehearsed message.

Please, LSU, don't buy into this guy. He's not. He's a good football coach. He's not a good human being. All the Baton Rouge media says he's turned over a new leaf. Yeah, Matt Mascona, 104.5. man, he's just something special. Now I'm really looking at whatever.

KLSU, come on now. Stop. I mean, that's good dude, too, but come on. Yes, he is. Friend of the show, a friend of the station at least. Yeah, he goes on like Gory with every other day, I think. Yeah, I think Dan Matthews, good friends with him as well. So there you go.

And that's a good dude, but don't, let's not hide the fact that you're not going to, you, if you're doing a radio show in LSU and you want to rip on Lane Kiffing, your days are numbered. You have to like him. And of course, if you went to LSU, you do love them because you love everything LSU. You know what we're going to do? We're going to try to convince Gordy to say one negative thing about LSU at 1250. Okay. How long will it take a minute, two minutes, three minutes?

I don't know. I would say don't keep your hopes up. But there you go. All right. Elsewhere, Matt, there's some interesting news from Kevin O'Connor. Used to be at the Ringer. Now he is with Yahoo. Yes.

He says LeBron James, according to his sources, is slow playing his decision for his landing spot because he wants to see if any of his suitors can find a way to land Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving. Why those dudes? They're both hurt all the time. They're de facto clubhouse lawyers. I mean, I get it if you wanted to say, hey, I want to see where, I don't know, Anthony Edwards wants to play.

I get that. Why those two cats? You're getting the band back together. I don't play with your boys. Yeah, but one's going to play 60 games. The other one's going to play 50. And one's going to play 35. I love doing the news and news with Congo on the background, by the way.

This might be a regular thing. Like when Chicago. Oh, you know what? Tomorrow we will play a Chicago song under the news and noon. Oh, okay. Some Kanye West. No, the band, Chicago. Some R. Kelly?

Maybe one big surprise. Chicago. Chief Keefe? 25 to 624. Wishing you were here? The kids like the chief keep. You're a chief keep guy? Everybody loves Sosa, man.

Who? What? Everybody loves Sosa. Sammy? On culture. Kevin O'Connor, by the way, going on to say, though, the problem is that 80 and Kyrie do not seem to be available for trade. So we'll have to see and wait and see where LeBron James. So Davis is still a wizard, right?

Yes. And Kyrie's still a Maverick, correct? Yes. You're not 100% sure, are you? Yeah, you see my face. And I do, you're squinching up. Yeah, you see my poker face. Not so good.

Yeah, Anthony Davis is still with the Wizards, and yeah, Kyrie's still got to be. Yeah, he's a Mavre. If I'm Kyrie, I want to hang out with Cooper Flagg. Don't you? It depends on where you. I mean, if he's going to, like, I don't know, Philly or something. That's true.

There's more of a contender. All right. The nice of done on the news and news. Kyrie's also 34. He probably in Win Now mode. Yeah, but he's also got to be in walk now mode, in play now mode. Well, it hadn't happened in a while. LeBron James wants him, according to Kevin O'Connor.

There's your news at noon, Matthew. Brian Winhorst says, I'm telling you the people who I'm talking to, who are the players, the coaches, the executives, the owners, they don't know about where LeBron James is going to be playing. Is he still trying to figure out? Maybe he's still deciding, Matt? I don't know. I think sometimes, don't you sometimes in your life have to make a decision? Yeah, well, if he doesn't. I mean, I can't, I had a great experience in this, but I had three jobs to do's from and I had to

ultimately, I said to myself, I need to make a deadline by a certain day. And I did. Well, maybe he's doing that, Matt. Just the deadline hadn't passed. It's July 23rd. Do you have four MVPs? And are you a billionaire? No. No. But I have 40,000 points? No. No. But I am Mr. Texas. No, you're not. 713-212-5-7-90. I give Ross the definitive argument as to why you got to keep thinking about the Astros,

being buyers, and be invested in the rest of the season. Okay. And I got, I, there's like actually a couple callers made some good arguments on your side. All right, 1215 on Sports Talk, 7-9. All right. Here comes the argument in no particular order. The note. The number one thing on my side that says you have to keep fighting is what the standings are telling you.

We are in late July. I have said on multiple occasions, I keep waiting for somebody in this division to win 7 and 9, 11 and a 13. Like Seattle did in September. Okay. The reality is it took until September for them to pull away in this division. And even though they did pull away, the Astros were tied for the final tiebreaker for the wild card spot, they just lost the head-to-head of Detroit. This year, it's even more of an

advantage because nobody in this division has pulled away. They're all around 500, and as bad as the Astros have performed at times over the last of the entire season, you're still looking here, about to approach the trade deadline, two games out of first place. You are

what the standings tell you. In this particular case, you are not what your record says you are. You are what the standings tell you. The standings tell you two out of first in the division. They're telling you they're also in the wild card chase as well. And so if somebody's going to have to win the division,

somebody's going to have to win 7 and 9, somebody's going to have to win 8 of 11, there's just as much chance the Astros could do it as Seattle and Texas camp. That's number one. Number two, once you get to the playoffs, it's a crapshoot. It's a best of three. It's a best of five. It's a best of seven.

It's not a best of 70. It's not a best of 30. It's not an aggregate system. You can catch lightning in a bottle. And if you have a filthy one through three lineup, you can sometimes catch that lightning in a bottle. Am I worried about the pitching? Absolutely.

Am I worried about who the starting rotation would be for the playoffs? No question. I am not trying to hide the warts of this baseball team. In fact, the warts on this baseball team have driven me crazy. Starting pitching that Dana Brown has accumulated has generally speaking all sucked. The outfield, which the asteros did not try to improve this offseason, sucked. The salary drop moves to bring in Nick Allen and said Mariso Dubon did not work out. Letting Hesu Sanchez go away did not work out. The catching spot is still a hot mess.

Christian Walker has had two hits in the last month. I'm not oblivious to what I am seeing and what I am hearing. I'm watching his team every single day. But the cornerstone of my argument is you are what the standings tell you, you are too back, you have the triple crown guy, and the least thing you can do for that triple crown guy is maintain a competitive baseball team because the standings tell you you're still in it. And for that, you must be buyers of the deadline. You cannot sell the deadline, and you must continue to think this team has got a puncher's chance. I rest my case, your turn, defense attorney. Okay, Matthew. ESPN just put out their updated Major League Baseball Power Rankings.

I would like you to guess where the Astros are in their MLB Power Rankings, 1 through 30. 18. 22nd. Okay. You're the 22nd best team in baseball. I understand going all in this year. And there's a couple of other arguments to your side. You don't want to waste a special, special season from Yorda.

You want to do everything you can for him. this organization to give him the benefit of trying to make a run. But if you go throughout history, first of all, there's no guarantee if they make all these moves that the Mariners aren't going to, Mariners have the number two farm system in baseball. Mariners are going to make some moves in all likelihood. Rangers don't have a great farm system. But according to this Bleacher report article that I just pulled up, they have the Rangers at like 21st.

They have the Astros. This is post-draft. They have the Astros at 30th. 30 out of 30. And probably your top two guys who are top 100 guys. are going to be untouchable. So you're going to be mortgaging the future for a team that I don't think really has a chance

and I just don't think that this is the long-term play. Short-term, I get it, it's fun, you're only two games out. Hey, maybe EMI will turn it around. Maybe Hunter Brown will turn it around. Maybe you get a left-handed bet. There's no guarantee you trade for a left-handed bet and they're successful. Maybe El Tuva and Walker.

That's like five things. Maybe a Breu is a leverage guy. That's six things. Like six things happen to have to happen. for me to think they're even top three in the AL. You're not going to be better than Yankees. You're not going to be better

than the Tampa Bay Rays. You said mortgaging the future. They're not going to mortgage the future on a trade of the deadline. If you trade anybody away, Will you Abraeu is the best defensive outfielder in baseball right now. You traded them for Christian Vasquez

for a backup catcher. Small trades can come back to bite you and hurt you. So I'm not saying if you trade away three or four, nothing guys, maybe it'll turn out to be nothing. But they're not going to trade away. You're not going to get complete Zero prospects with zero tools for players who are going to help you on the field right now.

And if you go to the last several, who's the worst team to win a World Series? We're talking about catching a lightning bottle and anything can happen in baseball. Last two years is the Dodgers. Year before that, the Rangers and 23 were very good. 22 Astros were great. 20 Dodgers. I'm pulling up the list. 21 Braves, great team.

20 Dodgers is COVID-year, whatever. Washington Nationals beat the Astros and they were kind of the underdog. they won 93 games that year. They won 90 plus games. 18 Red Sox great. 17 Astros 100 plus wins. You don't just, 85 win teams don't just go win the World Series.

So I think you're fooling yourself to say that we're going to get in here. Not you, Matt, but you know what I'm saying? I'm saying the Astros' organization would be fooling themselves to say, hey, maybe we'll catch a lightning in a bottle. Could it happen? Maybe. But even if they get every move that you're talking about,

I don't know that I see them as better than the Yankees of the race. Lightning in a bottle can be caught on both. you can catch lightning in a battle and surprise folks you can also be the prohibitive favorite in a league and also be out in the first round I think baseball players are generally speaking are crap shoots and I know the Astros will be heavy underdogs I just want to once again reaffirm if the Astros are where they are record wise

and they're seven back this is a this is a moot conversation the American League Rossi is garbage except for two teams that just is the 23-hour Of the last 10 World Series champs, the fewest wins a World Series champs had, not counting 20, of course, would be the Rangers in 23 with 90 wins. Okay, but this is not your typical American League standings. Look at the, let me give you the case and point here. The American League standings, the third best record, Rossi in the American League, is seven games above 500.

This is a one-off. Okay. Where are the Astros? They're way down. Four games below. Yeah. But I'm saying if you get in, you're telling me that the Cleveland Guardians would be a super heavy favorite of the Astros and a short playoff series?

I would favor the Guardians, yeah. You've got to play them on the field. Yeah, of course. The Boston Red Sox, who have won 14 of their last 15 games, are three above 500. They're not going to play 990 ball the rest of the season. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Okay. I get saying maybe you want to buy, buy, buy is a little much. Because you don't have anything to buy with. Buy something. And you don't, you don't have anything to buy with and you have to stay under the tax threshold. Two games out. I ain't quitting. Your roster's worse than the Red Sox right now.

You're worse than the Yankees. You're worse in the race. Now, thankfully, all three of those are in the same division. You'll be measuring up against the White Sox. And we can see what happens there. Who scares you the America League? I don't say, who scares you the American League? scares me or who's better than the Astros?

Who scares you? Ray's and Yankees are better. Everybody else you can win a series against. You could win a series against. Yeah. But you're not, they're just not, I don't think they're going to be good enough.

We'll see. Hunter Brown, Hunter Brown, I need to see more. I need to see Hunter Brown turning around and pitch well. I need to see Peter Lambert. Keep it up. I need to see more from Tattoo Yemi.

I need to see more. That Hunter Brown. Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesley, we'll see. Hunter Brown needs to act like he's a staff face. As of this right now, as I said, they're 22nd in the power ranking, so you could be, you could be fooling yourself that you're a contender and then you could regret it.

I'm never going to say contender. I'm going to tell you there's a division to be one that won't take much. Okay, we're a hope and a prayer. If you have a hope and a prayer, I don't think you should be, you should be buying. You got a chip? Yeah, exactly. You're chipping a chair. You're chipping a chair to me doesn't mean buy.

A fangraph playoff odds are at 24%. Why don't you tell baseball? Yeah, I'm just telling you the odds. Because we're in Houston, we're going to be homers, and we're going to bang the drum for the Astros. I didn't make these numbers up. They have the Astros at like 24% to make the playoffs. No, being a homer for the Astros, be like, come on, everybody, you can do better. No, we're dealing in realities.

The realities are the Houston Astros, in most other years at 50 and 54 would be seven or eight games out of first place, and I'd be telling you to sell, sell, sell. Baseball reference, 21% postseason odds. Well, you beat the White Sox 2-03. Those are going to jump to 36%. I mean, that's how it's going to fluctuate. Yeah, well, you have to go out there and you have to do it. Yeah, and they're going to do it.

Because we are rooting 100% for them. I'll give you another team, scared of. Orioles. Orioles just came in and swept your ass. I'm scared of the O's. How about that? They're fine. I ain't scared of Minnesota.

Be them. Guess who's saying they're scared of the Astros? Nobody. Nobody. Zero. We're in Boston Radio. We're in Cleveland, Chicago. Twins Talk.

Twins Talk, 790 is not scared of the. Astros. Kids talk the fan. That's not what they do. Are you okay? That's what I was missing. 713-212-5-7-90s. All right, you guys don't take a side on this?

You just want to just let it play out? No, I want to be clear. I'm not like sell, sell, sell. No, and I want to say, I want to be clear. I'm not bye-bye-bye-bye. I'm just saying that... Wait a minute. You said bye-bye-bye and slam the table. But I was doing a male...

Boy group song. No song bye bye bye bye bye bye In sync Good job The male boy group Song Whatever The male boy group song

Well I knew it was something like that That's funny Point being is that Look I've watched 97% of these games I know the warts Mike Burles drove me nuts Ryan Weiss drove me nuts

Tatsui Emai generally speaking Has driven me nuts That is the reason for hope is that you get Blanco in here striking out eight people. He was throwing strikes. He did give up two-two-run shots, but we had Brian McTaggart on earlier. He talked about how sharp he

looked. Hayden Wisniewski, there have been rave reviews about Hayden Wisniewski and how he's looked in his rehab. If you get a couple of those guys in, Hunter Brown into form, and Peter Lambert doing his thing, that's four strong starters. So it can happen.

It can't. This can maybe not be the 50 and 54 team. But, But you need a lot of things to click into place for a magical all-time season. I would love to watch it. I would love to be on the post-game shows and love to get back in the playoff run. I'm just the philosophy. Give me a chip and I'll get in. I'll have a chance.

But also, we can't ignore. We are, this is not just we're talking about this in May or June. We have seen 104 Astros games. And in 104 Astros games, there are four games below 500. That's not a nothing sample size. Let me ask you this. If all of a sudden they got to 500 by, say, the end of the month, would you change your opinion about it? It's going to be in the manner of which they do it.

Because, like, they won the game of Ronell Blanco started. They've won some baddie my starts. I want to see the result. I want to see not even necessarily wins and losses. I want to see starting pitching first and foremost. That's the number one thing. Little life in the bat of Altovae would be nice. Little life in the bat of Cam Smith.

You're not going to have nine guys in your daily lineup all hitting. I know. I'm asking for, like, six. But two and a half ain't going to cut it. Now, Pena is crushing to baseball. Back to back to back home. And he's having a soft tissue injury every other week, which is a concern. I know.

Paredes is hitting the ball well. Yordon is being Yoron. Al-Tube is mid. We've seen Cam Smith fall off the planet. And wisely, Joe said, sit down this weekend. This week. Walker is hitting well under 200 in the month of July. Playing Nick Allen doesn't help.

Get a bat. Get a left in a bat. That's fine. and we'll see. Lamont Wade's sample size, we kind of know. Lamont Wade Jr. is not going to be the 32-year-old revelation, unfortunately. He's hitting well under 200 now, too. Please.

170. As you know, I'm so horrific with analogies. So just try to help. How may help me create one? Okay. You're in this leaderless mid-division. Not that mid. It's bad.

Okay, bad. Bad division. 51 and 51. So you've been given this nine. Would be fifth place in the NL East. It would be fifth place in the NL Central. They're in the West. It's a third place in the NL West.

I'm not arguing. It doesn't matter, though. Yeah, you're saying mid. I'm telling you it's bad. Okay, stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. This.

Tell the audience, my glasses are off. I've closed my eyes. Okay. Stay with me on this. Okay. If this division is bad and you're hanging around could one little piece at least give you a little boost that make you feel like you got a chipping a chance?

So why not try it? If it's the year where you don't have to go get Bobby Wood Jr. to be your future shortstop, you don't have to go get Garrett Cole to trade deadline. I'm just saying, I like winning baseball. I think September baseball is fun. I think the Astros players have to do it

because they are competitive. And oh, by the way, Rossi, you got a general manager, a manager who is fighting to keep their jobs to give it up right now and to say, eh, let's sell because it's been the best interest of the franchise. None of those 26 guys in that

clubhouse cares of the long term of the franchise. And I can damn well tell you that Joe Espada and Dana Brown don't care about the long term future of the franchise. So what I'm saying is not going to happen. I understand that. I'm saying what should happen. But how about you say,

you're looking at fools gold right now. Can't you just say, though, why on us? If the division sucks, Because I have no history. Why not us? I just ran through all the World Series champs. But this is a one-off, though. I mean, you want, let me tell you some. You want to win the World Series? Tell me in the world somebody that thinks that somebody not in the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to win the World Series. They've built the franchise because they've overspent.

The Reyes have a shot. The Yankees have a shot. A shot. But at the end of the day, is it that much more celebratory than if you lose the American League championship series or you lose the division series? Are you feeling significantly better about yourself? When the Astros lost the American League Championship Series, the Rangers, I felt like crap. I didn't feel like it was. I didn't feel like it was on the cusp there. I mean, sometimes if you hadn't been there before, but the Astros have been there before. What excites you about this team besides your own Alvarez?

Nothing. Zero. Yeah, it was okay. But you know what? The whole division makes me. The whole division's a bore. You know what it is? We are in a room of ugly-ass girls.

Okay. and they all need loving. And somebody's got to win the beauty pageant. Okay, then what happens? Okay, that's good. We can win the local. We can win this room's beauty pageant. But what happens when we go to countywide?

What happens when we get statewide? We get our ass want. It depends who the judges are. Okay. So first of all, it's a bad analogy. No, no, no. If the judge is like a slightly porkier contestant, you may be plenty of your advantage.

So yeah, you can win the room. You can win your, did you know what? you're winning the class spelling me and then Bibwack came up. In the dumb kids class. What happened when you... Hey, that was me. What happens when you go school wide?

And when I went to Bivwack? You're going to spell. The gifted and talented kid. You're making it impersonal. The gifted and talented kid is going to whip your ass. But nobody's gifted and talented. You got two smarter kids. The rest of them are dumbs like you.

Guess what? The White Sox are dumbs. They're going to beat you. The Duns. Minnesota's the Dums. Okay. Let's delude ourselves. Fine. Trade everything away. Let's go.

I'm not saying that. See you later. Bryce Meyer, see you later. You know what? You got a bunch. You got two kids at the top of the class with a 4.68 GPA and the rest of them are 3.3. Controllable arms and throw 97, 98,

AJ Blue Ball, see you later. Yeah, we don't need you. Because we're going to dilute ourselves and thinking that we're going to win the World Series this year. Cool. That's fine. Walker Yonix, your number four prospect. Train him. For what? For Chris Gordy's SEC reports from Media Days next plus Tom and Cyprus at 1243 on 790.

We'll check in with Gordy in just a matter of moments as he will be joining us from Tampa Bay. Let's get a quick call in on the Astros. Our friend Tom in Cyprus is going on. My computer was turned off. This is not great. Ross, mention our Instagram, please, we're quick. At Sports RV and at SportsMT. Yeah.

I would appreciate your support. You'll get videos of us. You want to help support the shows? Getting my numbers up wouldn't hurt. Thank you. All right. Oh, hi, Tom. You're on 7 honey. Thanks for waiting.

What's up? Hey, Matt. Thanks for letting me in. Sure. Hey, I want to throw something out in numbers in this division race. And I'll start with history, MLB history. In 1973, the Mets won 82 games and lost 79 to win the Eastern Division. Now, to my looking in the record book, that's the least amount of,

of wins any division leader has had. What is the high number for this division, do you think? And we know the low number 82. So if you win 82, you could win a division. It's been done. I tend to think it's going to be 85 to 87. Now, remember, the Astros won 87 last year and didn't get into the playoffs. But this year, with this up and down with the 500,

and everybody's basically, it's parody in a sense. I think the Astros have to be buyers. And I think they could win the division. And I'm going to take the high number being 85 games. 85 and 77. That would mean the last 58 games, they're going to go, what, 35 and 26? That's all right. I love to see that.

Yeah, that's a lot of heavy lifting, Tom. Thank you for the phone call. I appreciate it. That's, yeah. Yeah, we will get more to this than 1 o'clock hour. Let's talk to our friend Gordy here. Chris Gordy live from Tampa, putting in some serious hours. Gordy, I had a friend of mine who is a national writer for, I'll say the athletic.

He follows college football. I said we were going to have you on today because it was LSU Day. He said, please tell your friend Chris, and he listens to the show, LSU's going 7 and 5 this year. Your thoughts on that. I hope it wasn't Sam Khan. It was not Sam Khan. Okay.

I just, then something went horribly wrong. Why did, why did Lane Kiffin leave Ole Miss? He could have just stayed on that train. And by the way, they were a playoffs team last year. They could be a playoffs team this year. Kevonne Lacey and Trinidad Chamble's back. I just, seven to five seems like everything went horribly wrong. Well, it probably could because, let's face it,

Two of your wins are against McNeese and Latex. You're really a 5-and-5 team when you really think about it. Yeah, we're playing Clemson at Non-Con. Who's your best non-Con? Wait, wait, wait. This isn't about me. This is about where this is the SEC Media Day. You always bring up the two cupcakes,

and the SEC is the only conference that has a group, a Power 4 required game. You must play a non-Sufferns game against a powerful. Tech? Southern. Southern. Corey, I'm going to be honestly, I didn't have a friend call, Matt.

I was just going to just go see how long this would take. That's so rude, Matt. That was terrible. Gordy, I'm sorry. 1130, I want to apologize to you. Well, I'll give you this. The only way that I think that happens is if Sam Levitt, who was awesome two years ago at Arizona State,

led Arizona State to a college football playoff appearance against Texas near, I mean, had the Longhorns beat. Along with Cam Scataboo. With Scataboo, but Levitt was awesome that year. And then last year, he was hurt most of the year. And even played their injury. and wasn't good, and then they just kind of said, all right, let's hang this thing up.

I'll tell you this. Every quarterback that's played for Wayne Kiff in the last handful of years has been super productive, whether it was Matt Corral, whether it was Jackson Dart, look at what Trinidad Chamblis became last year. So, you know, I think the reality is if Sam Levitt's healthy, he's going to put up big numbers. But how does LSU go 7 and 5? I think it's Sam Levitt gets hurt,

and they have to go with the backup, who was a freshman last year at USC, and, you know, Hussein Longstreet is his name. And if he's got to be LSU starter for 10 or more games this year, yeah, maybe five losses is possible. All right, I was just teasing. Hey, he spoke for 16 minutes straight before taking a question.

Was he trying to avoid something, or do you just have a lot on his mind? No, that was absolutely. Philibustering? Yeah, he wanted to take as few questions as possible, and he did it. He only took like four. And then one of the answers got really weird. He talked about, he didn't realize, Hulk Hogan had died or something or lots of documentary.

And then he said something like, we're all going to die. And his parents are dead. And it just felt like his dad would never die. I don't know. It was a really weird answer. But, yeah, Lane knew what he was doing. He's doing all that to avoid answering tough questions. And the other part of it, too, guys, give him credit.

He said he made a bet with his son a few months ago to stay all social media. And he has. And, you know, we haven't said anything about it. that's where he loses his mind. Like him in front of a podium, in front of a microphone, isn't all that spicy. He isn't all that, you know, he's not like this walking soundbite. It's his social media that gets him in trouble.

And so give him credit. He said he deleted all the social media apps. Might be a good lesson for you, Matt. Hey, why am I getting thrown into this? Because you're talking about Joe Mixing getting shot in the foot. By the way, what's your favorite Joe mixing is a Texan moment? Oh, right. When you got shot in the foot?

When they almost came back to beat the Chiefs in the playoffs. All right. So it was also Texas Day, correct? On top of that. And it was juicy from anybody wearing the burn orange. I am staring down a long hallway, and Arch Manning is down there in a suit. They don't go to the podium until this afternoon. I think Sark is actually set to speak here in a few minutes starting at two.

So they are the last team of this week. And let me tell you guys, mission accomplished by the SEC, the last day of SEC Media Days, the last session is always the one everybody's packing up, getting the hell out of here, got to get to the airport, all this stuff. This place is still packed with media because everyone's sticking around for the Texas Longhorns. They are considered one of the favorites in the SEC.

Archmanning could be their number one pick in next year's draft. There's a lot of hype and excitement around the Texas Longhorns. I think the SEC did this strategically putting them dead last on media days. Yeah, a lot of hype and excitement, of course, Corey, but how much do you think as far as heat and pressure? Of course, in a 12th team

playoff, it's hard to end up at the end when it's all said and done, Sark has been at Texas for a few years now and has made the playoff a couple of times, but just hasn't gotten back to the Promise Land, which of course, all the fans and boosters and donors, especially these days, want with this expensive roster they have. Yeah, I mean, like if I were picking or making a prediction, I would say Texas goes 10 and 2, I would say they make a deep playoff run. Is it good enough to win a national championship?

I don't know. You run into a really good Ohio State team, a really good Oregon team. you know, who knows. But that would be my prediction. It would be a 10-and-2 season. They play for an SEC title in Atlanta, win it or don't win it, whatever, and then, you know, win a playoff game or two

and make a run. Can they do better than that? Sure. That's what the expectations are. I mean, I think I've told you guys before. They've used the words all-in with every move they've made this off-season. All-in is firing your defensive coordinator, or bringing in a will must-champ.

All-in is wiping out in your entire running back room and going to pay big dollars for a league brown and Hollywood smothers. Going to get one of the top players in the portal, the wide receiver, Cam Coleman, from Auburn. All the moves they made this offseason says they are all in. And you're right. You guess, you know, you kind of parallel to the Astros

where we say, like, time is kind of running out here on Dana Brown and Joe Spotted. They have to prove themselves. I think time's kind of starting to run out on Sark in terms of, man, you had this short little window of Arch Manning on campus. If you go three years with Arch Manning on campus, and you don't play for a championship or make a really deep playoff run. I think a lot of the heat's going to turn up on him. And I've even had some people tell me, you know,

Yurgo at this time, we're talking about LSU and Brian Kelly. They're loaded. They have Garrett Nussmeyer back. They're a dark horse playoff team. And then he's fired mid-season. There's a world where this thing backfires on Texas. They lose a couple games they're not supposed to, eight and four, seven and five. I mean, we're talking about Sark not finishing the season.

All right, your opinion. So where does Texas? have to finish in order for to not be a disappointing season, knowing that everybody wants to win a national championship, everybody wants to play it, only one can do it. Where is the line to say, all right, great season, Texas football? I think 10 and 2 are better. We know this playoff committee has shown 10 wins,

they'll get you in the playoff. You know, the 9 and 3 last year, they were out on the outside looking in. There's some talk that maybe, you know, starting to schedule may matter a little bit more now, and there may be a word where 9-3. three team can make the playoff based on you know if you played a bunch of top 25 teams and have some top 10 wins and things like that but yeah I think I think 10 and two are better nine and three

is what you just just did last year right they they won the cheeszed bowl you patted sark and arch on the back you went hey great season but not awesome season you know it was nine and three if they go nine and three again the second straight year and they missed the playoff again yeah that's nobody's going to say great season two last questions who is first of all who is in the SEC Championship game industry, in your opinion? The overwhelming favorite, the media we're all voting on it today. We've got to get our ballots in, but kind of my informal poll

talking to everybody. Everybody thinks it's Georgia and Texas. That's kind of the default. There's some Ole Miss homers who think, you know, Pete Golding's going to pick up right where Lane left off, and Trinidad Chambers is just too damn good to lose a bunch of games. And Ole Miss might find their way in there. There's even some folks who think

oh you. If they win Red River this year, with John McIereback healthy in that, you know, Brent Venables defense, that Oklahoma could be in there as well. But the overwhelming consensus for most of the media is Georgia versus Texas in Atlanta. All right. I said one more question. I'm making two. I know the SEC championship game is extraordinarily profitable for the league. Is there any scenario that you could see for the bigger picture of college football,

the SEC eliminating that SEC championship game? Is that such a financial win for them that they're going to say, take it out of my cold dead hands for this to happen? At least in the immediacy. I think it's going to be played the next couple of years, but I think five years from now there is no SEC championship in football. I just think the other conferences are too on board with, you know, doing away with it. I think everybody's looking at it saying if we go to a 16 or 2014 playoff,

that we want to get into playoff games that weekend. It really is, it's meaningless. Think of the conference championship in basketball. You know, no offense to the Coogs, but, I mean, I mean, you know, what do we talk about? We talk about Kelvin Samson and U of H. It's about final fours. It's about trying to make one run to the championship.

It's not about, well, hey, man, they won two Big 12 tournament championships. Nobody cares about those. So they're irrelevant in basketball. We still play them. But I think of football, the bigger picture is we're going to expand these playoffs and make these games much bigger. I mean, look at Alabama last year. They lost to Georgia, and I asked one of their players afterward.

I said, were y'all maybe not as focused? and even if you lose this game you're in the playoff, he said, yeah, a lot of us have that mentality. So it's becoming less and less relevant. I think it's gone within five years. Well, I got to put my name on it. I got the college football playoff maxing out at 16 teams. So if you want to go to 16, I'm more than pleased.

I will take a loss and Ross will push it right around the radio show every day that if I get it wrong beyond 16. Yeah, well, you say no way, never know how? I said 16 was the absolute max in my mind. All right, lastly, most annoying, small college media, attached to a school like K-Tiger Radio, Tex-Ags Radio, GameCock Network.

What school has the most homerish media at the SEC Media Days? Texas is up there. What? Does Craig Way know you said that? It's not him, man. There's, you know, inside Texas, Longhorn. Orange Bloods. Yeah, I mean, they are all,

those people live and die with it. So Orange Bloods is the most. bias of all, even over Bulldog.bogtimes.com or something like that? Oh, I thought you were talking like collectively who's got the most No, that's what group? No, no, not biggest group. I'm saying the most homer group that like, where you pretend to be journalists, but question for the back for

Rolltide.com. Hey, coach, appreciate it. Roll tide. And then he asked the question. It's Alabama. It's Alabama. Those people are. Has any member of the Baton Rouge media said, hey, coach, I got a question for you. And by the way, go tagas. No, we haven't had that. Have we ever had it before? I'm sure we've had it quite a bit.

Yeah, it's some schools. Tennessee, I think Bama, though, in the Sabin heyday, I think one of the media members actually asked Sabin a question with we. You know, coach, we bring back our running back. Like, we? Who's we? Are you coming in the office tomorrow? Are you off? If this flight gets in late tonight, if not, I'll be spending another night in Tampa.

What happened? What's about with your flight? It was this tropical storm thing. Oh. You know of Houston, pushing flights back. You may have heard of it. Where's Dan? Where is Dan sound like hell today?

Where is he, by the way? Dan's sitting right next to me, soothing his voice. Oh, my God, he was awful today. It was a tough, tough listen. Don't worry about me. I can hear over the background. I'm just teasing, Dan. We had to listen to you call a basketball game with that.

I know. That was, hey, that was the worst ever in my entire life. I don't need you at every day. at RecreitNet. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Two reports. Right on that? Yes.

That he's saying that Joe Mixon says his career is done. Well, usually when you get a revolver and you put it in your middle between your big toe and your little toe, it's going to cost you. This is like his number one favorite sound bite or bit or whatever all time. And the best part of it is that I have at least someone on my side on this one. And you're in charge of the audio. So it works out. fire to this smoke. And if there is, I will pay you with coffee and a pastry.

No, I feel like I need odds on that. Odds? Yeah. The bet has already been shucking. Well, Calshy, you can change momentarily. No, you can jump out of the market, but it's going to cost you to jump out of that market. Isn't that crazy? It's about to hit a year since this rumor, like, everything has came out.

Mm-hmm. Remember, I'm the Texans insider. Oh, you are? Number two. I only give you relevant Texan stuff. I'm not going to bore you with backup linebacker or safety conversation. No one cares about that. You care about C.J. Stroud.

You care about Nico Collins. You care about Will Anderson, DeNeil Hunter, Jalen Petrie, Derek Stingley. Who else we care about? Fairbairn. I care. You're going to the kicker? Yeah, we care about the kicker. Are you kidding?

He's the number one part of the office. I care about Wyatt Teller and Keelan Rutledge. I could give two craps about either. Why not? Because. What do you mean? Either you protect them or you don't. Yeah.

You protect them or you don't. But I'm not going to do it. Deep down. I'm going to discuss. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. I'm not doing it. Why not?

Because the insider's got busy working on stories. If you're the insider, you should be all in on why. I'm not the analyst. I'm the insider. You want information. Bang bang! Well, we'll get the information from Adam Wexer. He's the Texans.

He's the. He's the analyst. No, he's the analyst. He doesn't. He's out at, uh, he's out there. writing notes. Did you combine them? You copied and pasted them, didn't you? Whatever you got to do, keep doing it. And they'll change.

Jonathan, if you're with us for another 15, 20 years, you're going to be still. First of all, you'll be making some decent money by then. And then secondly, but it's not going to be until then. And then secondly, you're going to be with me on this because we're going to get the truth out of Joe makes it eventually. Okay. By surgery after a gunshot wound. Okay. Well, then I'll get your coffee.

pastry. But see, at that point, we're talking about inflation. That's going to be at least a two-eg breakfast. Two-eged breakfast. Oh, are you going to pay that if I win? That's fine. You owe me like three. You're back-ordered on like three bets right now. We'll go to La Maddalen and get you breakfast and lunch. You owe me a low-per-fito appetizer. Because he was with the space cowboys.

Do you really want that? Yes. Hell yeah. Oh, you know what? I know when you can give me a low-per-fito appetizer, that'll be next week. Oh, we're going to eat. Next Thursday. Ross and I are dating next Thursday. We're going to see Tony Danza.

Yes. And we're going to take pictures too. And I'm going to fan boy the hell out of that. Yeah. Are you going to dress up? Do you a tie on? Can I go with a long-sleeved shirt and pants? It's summertime.

I don't want to put a tie on. It's no. Like you're going to your IT job? Come on, man. Dress up a little bit. I can't wear a tie. I can't do it. Why not?

I'm wearing a tie. I'm not wearing a tie. I'm getting a whole new outfit. You know what I'll do? I'll go the other way. I'll wear a zoot suit in a top hat and a cane. Okay, let's do it. Yeah.

And I'll walk in with putting on the ritz in the background. Dump, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, putting on the ritz. Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. I'll do that. The baby elephant walks more for you. Okay, that's not nice. To the phones we go next, 112. K-So-ons talk about the brand-new rockets assistant coach.

Chip England. It's going to save the rockets. Have we ever talked about assistant coaches in the show very often? Except when we interview him in Summerlee, that's about it, right? That's about it. I would talk about it now. I don't know why we're in the backyard with some country time lemonade. Now, road damn tied now.

It's funny. Gordy is at Locked on SEC for sure, but he does hate Alabama. Oh, yeah. I do respect the hell of that. Yeah, he's going to pick against Alabama, and then he's going to... Homer for LSU. Yeah, it's fine. That's basically locked on SEC.

You're locked on Centrogenics. So the Rockets didn't make a little bit of news. It's not official by the team, but when Shams says it, it's the gospel. I mean, Shams bats 1,000. By the way, I love when everybody continues to confirm Shams. Stop doing it, media. Why don't you do it? Because it's a waste of time.

You confirm it, and then I'll confirm your confirmation. Okay. What's the... Oh, I make this promise to you. When LeBron decides where he goes to play, I'll confirm it. Okay, and I'll confirm your confirmation. And I bet you I'll get a blank ton of views off of it. It'll be good.

Yeah, especially now you're verified. How's verified life? It's mid. I've lost, I'm losing followers almost by the day. Oh, what the hell? L. Audomer bots. I thought verification was going to change your life. No, I'm in 31, 405.

I think it was almost 32,000 six months ago. I think I've lost. I lose about 10 a day. It says, by the way, you've been verified since August of 2016. That is actually not accurate. It's retroactive. Yeah, that's not accurate. If you all still follow and do Twitter, follow me at SportsMT.

As a matter of fact, if you follow me at SportsMT between now and two o'clock, I'll give you a like on one of your tweets. What? Who cares about that? People want to follow back. Yeah, but I can't guarantee that. Remember you did MT Blessing when you got the first time you got hacked? You've been hacked three times now or two?

Twice. Okay. I think the verification probably eliminates that for the most part. I don't think so. All right. Follow me at SportsMT. And if you follow me at SportsMT, I will like one of your tweets. I'll go retro like one of your tweets.

That's weird. That's what I'm going to do. It's what I do. He's going to go creeping through your tweets. And you know what? If you're female, I might even like more than one of your tweets. Oh, by the way, believe it or not. We've been talking about this for two hours.

I gave you a... Lane Kiffin. We did Tony Danza. No, we said something else too, though. I don't remember. Triple Crown winners? Golden Girls? Golden Girls?

Like the show? I honestly don't know enough about it. I'd be a little bit. I've seen a few episodes. We're down to 30 minutes. This is not great news here. You know what? I'm going to talk.

I'm going to talk to Koso. You don't get to talk. You're done for the next. Why? How about Chip England, believe it or not? He's the Filipino machine gun. Can you do it? I love you to try.

Let's see what Kaiso's thinking about. Rockets' new assistant coach, Chip England, is in to be the shooting coach, hopefully, to improve on one of men, Thompson. And maybe to a lesser extent, Alperin Schengun, especially if we're going to make him a three-point threat. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79-0. And let's go to Koso on 7.

God, dang, at this computer system. I'm blaming you. You should blame me. Hi, Koso. what's a Chilican question or Chilicin comment. Mr. Texas, can you hear me all right? Yes, I can. Appreciate the proper introduction.

Thank you, friend, very much. You know I've always got your back. Thank you. All right. Quickly, I haven't been this excited for an assistant coach for the Rockets. I mean, I'm a true freak when it comes to Houston Rockets basketball.

But this reminds me of when Darrell hired a guy named Jeff Bisdellick. Do you remember him that? I do, Jeff Bisdellick, a former coach at Air Force and at Wake Forest, and was the quote-unquote defensive coordinator on one under Mike Dan Tony. Exactly. And what Daryl saw was how Mike doubled the offense and half the defense. And that was when James was getting attacked on those terrible YouTube highlight reels of his defense.

That next year when Jeff came in, he elevated James from being a below defender to a okay to average defender, especially in the paint. You taught him how to use his size. That's how he's going to be a better defender. This share is the same type of echo where Stone looked at the Rockets offense and their assistant coaching and saw whatever they were doing with Amin Thompson and Shingoon wasn't working. They needed to get a fixer in there and do it quick because I know Amin's up for a contract extension. And Singoon is our second best player on the team.

So I have high hopes, but what I was thinking is that how this is going to help the other guys who are about an average 3.% I'm talking about Jabari, Tari, and KD. If he can get those guys from 35 to 38, 39, God forbid 40, oh my God, that's going to open up the offense so much more. Because I mean, I know you watch Amman take those jumpers our games. That is the most disgusting shot I've ever seen in the NBA. I hope he can fix it, but I just don't know if there's actually a cure for that. And if Amman can be a 34%, 33%, he's going to be a top 15 player in the NBA. I just wanted to get that out, and y'all have a great rest of your day.

Thank you, Koso. Ross and I brought this up earlier worth repeating, if Amman Thompson becomes even a 33% three-point shooter, if Alperin Shungoon bumps up to, say, Rossi, 35% from three, Nothing he's going to do a lot, but because teams sagged on him. They let him shoot three-pointers when he wanted to. Now, if the Rockets tell him don't do it anymore, then it will be a moot conversation. But he can play the stretch five if the shot is there.

If those two guys see a significant bump, Alpin's already got his money. A man's going to make sick, sick money. Jabari Smith's already got his money, but he's going to be a much more of a deadlier threat. This team is going to be better off for it. But the other side of it is, if you bring in this high-end coach, which you obviously have with Chip England, and a man shoots about what he does, you kind of unfortunately know who a man's going to be for the rest of his career.

This is not a last gas. I'm not saying that. But it is definitely a measured opportunity for the Rockets to say we, there was an assistant coach out there that has a terrific pedigree with multiple NBA teams with multiple players to say, yes, you bring me on your team as a coach. I can get your shooting percentage. up. So there's a lot of pressure, frankly, on both sides of this.

I would caution against getting my hopes up that Chip England's going to wave a magic wand and just save everything with the rockets. And all of a sudden, he's got some secret sauce that nobody has, that nobody knows, and all of a

sudden, they're going to be like the best three-point shooting team in the league. I know we're not asking for the world, but I mean, going from 22% to 33% is a massive, massive leap. for Amin Thompson. And you're asking for Shingoon, what was he, probably like 28% or something like that? First two months and then it fell off the club.

You're going to go for 35%. I don't know. I would like to see it. I don't know that you're going to see it immediately. He's also probably not going to come in here and fix everything within a couple of days. It's going to take months, if not years, to fix whatever is wrong with the shots of a men Thompson. I don't know who their shooting coach was the last couple years, Matt? But I don't tell you, it's probably not some guy that was telling him.

him to flip it behind their back. Use both hands and shot put it in. Chris cost your hands and go granny style. Like whoever the rocket's shooting coaches were the last several years, I mean, we have three years of Amin Thompson not being a good three-point shooter. We have four years of Alperin Shingoon, not being a good three-point shooter. So hopefully it can happen. And we did point out Lou Dort, who was not great his first four years of his career,

and he's been great the last three. And that's where Chip England has been. Let me give you some more examples, man, if you don't mind. Good. He played his college basketball at Duke in the 70s and 80s. He was a played in the Philippines. He played in the CBA. Okay.

1990. He was a shooting consultant for Alvin Gentry when the Detroit Pistons. He started to work with Grant Hill. And I'm reading this, this is a Yahoo story. So I'm just reading this literally on the air live as we speak here. In Hill's first five pro seasons, he went 18% from three. The season England got to Detroit, he went to 35%. After that season...

This is 27 years ago. After that season, he'll sign with a magic and free agency where he would not make more than 34 triples in the next nine years. Now, injuries are, of course, a part of that as well. There are some other examples. So Grand Hill probably speaks highly of them. That's not a bad choice on that. Let's see here.

What does I mention? players in particular by the Spurs. Oh, Tony Blossom. Tony Blossom. Tony Parker would be a guy that was a England disciple. Became a much better shooter. Oh, really? Kauai Leonard. Did he ever become a really good three-point shooter?

I guess late in his career he did. Kauai Leonard apparently is getting a lot of kudos thanks to coach England's work. Who? Kaui Leonard. Okay. Yeah. Buck Harvey wrote for the San Turner Express News in 2014.

one NBA coach telling Buck Harvey, let me put it this way. They wouldn't have won the title without him. England helped out DeJante Murray make that sort of mid-range maturation in his career. Other people he's helped over the years include George Hill, Danny Green, Corey Joseph, Derek White, Patty Mills,

Calvin Johnson. It's been a great three-point shooter the last seven years. Richard Jefferson, Marco Bellinelli, DeMarde Rosen. These are all people... DeMarden's a terrible three-point shooting. No, this is not three-point shooter.

No, this is not three-point shooter. This is a shooting in general. Oh, okay. Yeah, let's not, yeah, let's not confuse that. So, yeah, I'm, can't wait for him and I to be bros. We're going to, you know, we're going to break bread over the course of the year. Okay. Hopefully the shot doctor comes up and doctors them up.

Yeah, one year in Oklahoma City and, you know, I guess. You know, let's just ask him to fix one of them. Yeah, I'm good. You know what? If you're going to save, if you're going to add something, you had a three-point shot Rossi occasionally to a man? good gracious That guy can write his check

for whatever he wants Matt and Ross with you Brian McTaggart joins this program after I tell you about uptown appliance repair All right so we got to figure out who this Astor team is You get swept by the Orioles You then sweep the Marlins We ask that to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com

Yeah I think that's accurate I mean I think if fans were in the clubhouse On a day-to-day basis they'd be surprised at how just every day is pretty much the same. I mean, you wouldn't know if they were on a five-game winning streak or five-game losing streak. You know, guys are very routine-oriented. They do the same thing. I mean, the only thing, you know, after a win, there's music pumping,

and the mood's, you know, lifting a little, and after a loss, it's quiet in there. But when they come to the park, the next day, it's over, and they're looking forward to, you know, the next day's game. But I did think it was interesting after they got swept by the Orioles. Jeremy Pena, who has become a leader on this team, sort of for the first time I can remember really, speaking out about the direction the team was headed and said, it's time we go on a run.

And there were no team meetings or anything like that, but there were words that probably didn't need to be said, but he said them publicly. And, you know, they turn around and sweep the marlins. So it's been a really, really weird season. I mean, three days ago, they looked like it was over. They were going to be sellers or stand pad or whatever.

And now it looks like, hey, they're right there. Maybe they're going to be big time buyers. You know, I've been in the clubhouses for a long time around this time of year. You get the group of guys that may say, hey, we're good enough as it is. Let's not bring somebody in here. Then you have a certain group that says, we need help, get us something. And then there's another group that says, I'd like to improve as long as, I'm not the one being moved.

So I'm going to assume that if you went to each individual player privately, they know this team cannot rely on the top three of its offense, which did largely this three games against the Marlins for any sort of run. And that the thought is because the outfield has not solidified itself offensively, that's what Dana's got to go get before the deadline. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I don't think any of the players would say publicly, y'all we need we need outfield help because you know you're dumping on your your your fellow teammates you

know you don't want to do that yeah i think what they would say is you know we believe in one another but privately behind the scenes are like hey are we going to get somebody i mean we got a chance at this thing if you remember in 2017 at the trade deadline the aster's traded for liriano and that was all they did and Dallas kiko popped off and said hey we have a chance to win the world series and we should have done more well on behold a month later they get verlander and and that woundered up being what they needed. But yeah, I mean, I think the players are wondering what they're going to do. I think some players are probably wondering, hey, am I going to be traded?

It's going to be a very tense, 10 days, I think, for a lot of the players who not only have jobs, a couple of the outfielders, but some of the pitchers who might be traded. So there's going to be a lot of whispers behind the scenes publicly. You know, they're all going to say the right things for the most part. What Keichael said in 2017, it was pretty rare for a player to say something like that. What do you think about, I mean, how the trade market is going to go with the potential impending labor strife and the fact that, like, people were talking about Sunny Gray and Red Sox players. Well, the Red Sox has won a bunch of games and now they're in the race. And you just have so many teams that are in it and so few buyers.

How do you feel like this trade market could play out? Yeah, there are only a few teams out of it, like you said. So those teams that are out of it are, of course, holding everyone hostage for the players and the prices are really, really high just because there's so many teams that are interested. And the Astros are in a little bit worse spot just because two things, they just don't have the prospect list that a lot of other teams do. And the two guys that are in their top 100, I'm guessing Nions and Alvarez are probably untouchable. And then also they want to try to stay under the luxury tax, which, you know, creates. another set of problems. I mean, they created a little room trading McCullors. So it's going to be difficult, I think, to fill definitely all their needs.

I think the moves, I tend to lean towards any moves they make are going to be on the smaller scale just because of the limitations money-wise. So I don't think they're going to go out there and get a front-line starter or another team's closer. You know, Mason Miller's not coming here. They're not going to get a big-time bad, but they could get a player that could help. And for me, If you ask me what they need more than anything else, I think they need the left-handed bat. I just think they need another bat in the offense.

Bullpen, I think you can figure it out a little bit. You know, a bray who looks like he's turned the corner and might be back. And you're going to get West Nesky back. Maybe you can move another starter to the bullpen. They need another bat if you ask me. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. And, yeah, if they are going to stick with this rotation, I mean, somebody's got to step up.

the way you see it, one turn through, plus Lambert being good last night. How are we feeling about the rotation? Yeah, I think it's, you know, trending up post-all-star break, like you said. I mean, everyone pretty much held their own the first turn through. You know, Lambert's been their best starter all season. Hunter Brown's the guy that, you know, really needs to step up at this point. I mean, you, you know, he's your race. You need him to go six or seven innings.

And, you know, he had a, what, a career high, six walks. his last timeout, so that's not ideal. So I think he will. I think he'll get it ironed out, but you need him to pitch at close to the level he pitched last year, or I think he could be in some trouble, because you're almost like it's a given that Hunter Pence is going to give

100 Pence. Hunter Brown's going to give us a chance to win every time out. And so far, a couple of cases that's not been the case. But the other guys have pitched pretty well. Eric Getty's a start-to-start thing. You're not sure what you're going to get. Just like EMI. You can count on Lambert at this point.

Blocko came back. It looked really good to me. I mean, he looked, he was throwing strikes. He looked confident. I think you feel good about him. And then, you know, maybe next week you get West Neski back, who's looked pretty good in his minor league rehabs. We saw Nate Pearson got moved yesterday to the Royals. Obviously, they're trying to open up some space. So if every, if Wessniewski comes back, who's next to the bullpen? Who could be moved? I mean, is A.J. Blueball's name still being talked about with potential trade target? Do you need it? guy for leverage or do you does Kai Wei Tong assume that spot? What what how is this if we don't see the Astros make a move for a pitcher?

How do you see things being crafted out post-decline? Well if they don't make a move for a pitcher yeah yeah that's a good question. I mean what's Neski I think is for sure going to get a shot to come back and pitch in the rotation. You know we saw we saw Javier being moved to the bullpen

and I think Javier guy that the Astros would like to move if they could just because he just does not seem to have a role here. And of course, you get the money, you know, the contract. I mean, they would have to eat some of that. But, yeah, I think AJ Bluebaugh's name is going to be mentioned. I think any young, controllable starting pitcher for the Astros could be moved. And I think they're going to probably have to move a pitcher off their major league roster if they're going to make one of these deals.

If they don't, if they don't make a move with the president, pitcher you have a little bit of a log jam but it's going to become you know who's pitching best what have you done for me lately um and i guess that's what you'd rather have than you know coming up short on some of these arms but yeah uh you piercing getting dFAed and then trade i mean trade it he's the fourth fourth pitcher they acquired in the off season that they dFA this year so not exactly they went out and acquired all these pitchers that was a big storyline build up the depth and four of them have been dfayed and then you know burrows is burrows is hurt and you know, EMI's been totally hit or miss.

You have Lambert that's been good. So, you know, not a great offseason for the Astros in terms of adding pitching. And like I said, I think I told you last week, there's some in the organization that think adding another reliever is the number one need. So I don't know. It's going to be interesting 10 days. This club could go a lot of different ways. All right.

That again, Brian McTagger with us every Thursday at 11 o'clock live here on Sports Talk 7.90. 143 is our time. Rossi, let's play, believe or not. What is today's category? Chip England. You really did it. First time ever a rocket's assistant coach has been the topic of, believe it or not. Might be a lot of knots, folks.

You don't know. 713-212-2-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Believe it or not today coming up next, your chance to win one of three prizes. Tickets to see John Mellencamp, August 6 of the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com. Brian Adams with Pat Benatar on July 29th at Tota Center. That's at TOTA Center.com for tickets or a pair of tickets to see the Big Three this weekend inside TOTA Center this Saturday, July 26th.

Tickets on that. Big Three.com. Yeah, yay. 713-212-579. Believe it or not, next. You know, it's hard carrying all these monikers, Mr. Texas, first and foremost. Mr. Yacht Rock. You're a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible candidate for Mr. Yacht Rock, I get. Mr. Houston Sports. I always appreciate that one.

Five diamond, five diamond. Fancy Matt. High horse mat. Not high horse. Peach basket. Not, you never get Mr.

Fentzetter, Matt. That's not what happened. Sometimes. When? It was last time I fenced. You said they were washing. Now you're saying they need to buy. That's wishy-washy.

Two things can be true. Mr. Wish-washy? No, don't call me Mr. Wish-washy. Mr. Anology? They do call me that. And I'm trying to stay away from that.

Because I'm full-throat, Thomas? Nope. Five minutes left to go. in the 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 called it Believe it or not and here's how it works. You call 713-212-2-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not is all things about Chip England, the new Rockets assistant coach. By the way, Rockets just announced a re-signed Jay-Shaun-Tate.

Woo! Let's go, baby! Championship! Jay Sean Tate's back Salty veteran Jay Sean Tate About the 10th year with the Rockets Ring up to Gary Glitter Hey Jersey retirement's in play

Could be Could be you never know I'll read you a same bit about Coach Chip I'm not it's called Coach Chip right Chip England England or England England England England England

England England The third Is Arthur Edward England the third All right Samus complete elderly accurate You'll say this

Salivet Samant Tironius full of bunk and made up You'll say this Two believer knots in a row. Get you either big three this Saturday. Or John Cougar, Mellencamp or John Mellencamp. He's just not. You dropped the Cougar. Come on.

A John Mellon camp. A yeah, yeah. Or. Just became Bow Wow. Same thing. Hmm. Things you learn on the mat, Thomas Show with Ross. Or tickets to see Brian Adams next Wednesday. My wife will be there.

Do not talk to her unless you want to buy her like a Coke or something. Let's play. Or popcorn, hot dog, whatever. Melanie on 790. Melanie, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? The Astros. Talk. Who's behind you there talking to you? Who is that? My new boss, so we can't be mean to her. In 1975, Coach Chip was the ballboy for John Wooden's national basketball winning UCLA men's basketball team. Believe it or not?

Hurry. I'm going to believe it. You should. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Coach Chip played four years. years from Mike Chishefsky at Duke and was even captain of the team his senior year back in 1983. Believe it or not. I'm going to go with Believe it. You should. Believe it. Tell you and your boss, you've won a prize.

So what are you going to go? You're going to see John Mellencamp? You're going to go see Big Three or are you going to go see Brian Adams? I think I'm going to go with Brian Adams. All right. Well, we'll put that on hold. Congratulations. How your boss has said hello.

Mike on 790. Mike, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Chebengland played in the Filipino basketball league where fans nicknamed him, quote, the machine gun for his proficient shooting. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it.

How do you not get that one? Very few people in those world have ever been called machine gun. Let's talk to Michael on 7.90. Michael, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Chip England also became a naturalized Filipino citizen and played for their national basketball team. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Believe it. Statement number two for the win. And as assistant coach, Chip, England has won six NBA championships, five with the Spurs, one with the thunder. Believe it or not? Not. That's right. He's only won three. Congratulations.

Spencer on 7 on a Spencer, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. Finding out that J-Shon Tate is still a rocket. Okay, you barely just turn on the radio on. Whatever, Spencer, good luck to you, or limited luck. Here we go. Chip England is close. friends with Spurs coach Greg Popovich, who was also the best man at his wedding. Believe it or not. Believe it? Nope, and you lose because you don't listen to the show. You must listen to the show for the whole four hours in order to win our game.

Jeremiah on 790, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Chip England has two children named Press and Path. They are both standout tennis players. Believe it or not. That sounds ridiculous, but I believe it. You should. It was ridiculous, but it's believe it. statement number two for the win. Chip England's coaching career started with his shooting clinics where he called them chip shots. Believe it or not. I believe it. You should. Congratulations. Oh, you body wide. 95 times. Good. Good for him. Happy. Ross has already packed up. Let it leave. The show's not over just quite yet. Ross, some takeaways from today. You sent the two radio show for you. I thought it was extremely entertaining. I had a good time with it. And I want to reiterate the Astros are never going to sell, but I think that's better for the long-term health of the organization

because they're deluding themselves at this moment if they think they're contenders. Standing 790, two-back, baby. White So they'll be ready. They'll be rested for the Astros. Astros are off. 21%. Let's take a look at this. Who's playing whom tonight?

What are we got going on in MLB? Who will be rooting for? Guardians are up 1-0 on the Twins. That is mid. Rays and Blue Jays. We're rooting for the rays. Diamondbacks, Cardinals, we don't care. Royals, tigers, we're rooting for the royals.

And that's how we set the day for you. Hey, everybody. Tomorrow, we're going to be with you at 10 o'clock. We're going to wake the strippers up at noon. We'll have I'm sorry. He's at 1130. Basically, that's Ross's entire half hour because he's got a lot to apologize for. Oh, uh, we're out of, oh, we're out of Brian Adams.

Is that what you're just going with? Okay, well, they can figure it out. Go plan B. Brian Adams was the first one off the list, huh? Over John Mellencamp, that's interesting. All right, you guys can figure that out. Hey, thank you for listening to the radio program. Thanks to Jonathan for producing.

Thank you to Brian McTagger. Thanks to everybody that did call. And the number of followers I gained today, Ross, on Twitter would be two. Nice. Follow SportsMT, folks. It'll make him feel better. It'll be only last layer in five seconds, but at least he'll feel better for five seconds. I will like some of your tweets.

turn. Up next, Man's who I never liked any of their tweets. Clinton and Wexler, the A team on 7-90.