The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Bullpen Falls Apart in 13-3 Lost vs Tampa Bay, CJ Stroud Is Still Not Throwing In OTAs? Joseph Duarte Joins The Show

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Astros Bullpen Falls Apart in 13-3 Lost vs Tampa Bay, CJ Stroud Is Still Not Throwing In OTAs? Joseph Duarte Joins The Show

10-01 in H-town. Welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas Show and Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. We are with you today, Anna, anything goes Friday until 2 o'clock. We have Joseph Dwarte as one of my good friends and is a legit member of the media in Houston, and he will be with us in studio from 11 o'clock until 1. Joseph has been on the University of Houston beat for a long time, but Joseph has covered everything in this town.

from the NFL, the baseball. I don't know if he's done any rockets or not, but this is a man who knows as much about the Houston sports scene as anybody I know, and of course is very intimate with what's going on at U of H. We'll talk some college athletics with him, and he'll be my co-host today between 11 o'clock until 1. We've got Adam Wexer right now as we speak at Texans OTAs,

and we will hear from him. He'll come in the studio at 1 o'clock when he gets back, and he'll give us a little update of what he saw it today. And we've gotten on Florida stories, and we have hell yeah or not and we're going to wake the strippers up at 12 noon today. So that, my friends, is the radio show. Now, we do non-flora stories every Friday at 130.

Occasionally we play the Fantasy 5. My 130 story today on Non-Florida is very uncomfortable. Where's it located? You know, that's a great question. I'm glad you asked. Where is my non-Florida story located from? Let's take a look. I've got to pull it up here.

It doesn't even say where it's from. It can be Florida though, so you might be too. No, no, it's not. And it's from some person named Colin Rugg. I think he's a political person. Okay, so I'm in reading this story, and I'm reading it and I'm thinking about, do I even bother put this on the air today? So at this point, the answer is yes.

But I need to further, you know, when you were in journalism, when you were in college, you've got to get like three sources. Trust me. You need a four or five. I know. I want to make sure, Jonathan, this is absolutely right. Because this story is so uncomfortable that I would hate for it to be a phony story.

Now I'm excited for it. So, Radio 101 says you do not forward promote something three and a half hours ahead. Because the fact is, I'd love for all of you to stay with me for the entire four hours or at least stay with me to 1.30. But let's face it, when we play Believe it or not or hell yeah or not, what do most people do? They listen for the first time at 150. And it disappoints me so because I think we do a pretty good job. I listen to a lot of sports radio in this town. I think we do a pretty nice job.

We don't keep things too seriously. We don't bore you. We say a couple of crazy things. We invite you to call in. We're open and honest. We don't have an agenda. What's that? Other sports radio is custom out and stuff.

No, other sports radio is boring and just mundanely. Let's get into a deep dive of, you know, what tight end could be the. difference maker for the Texans? Or what is the war plus APS CBR, SABR of the Astros third base? I can't do it. My mind doesn't do it. I am a sports fan. Now, there are some stats that I think are interesting and relevant, but the most of the stuff I hear, I just go in one ear and out the other. Like, that does not, you have to, sports radio for me is you have to be at a bar. Let's say, say, what's the hot bar in Nacadojas?

Flash. You and I are going to Flash. And we're going to check out the ladies. Right. Okay? We got to go there and we got to talk sports like we're talking at the Flash having a couple of pops. If you're talking like you are at a highbrow bar, first of all, not going to get any ladies. Second of all, you're going to bore yourselves out.

And third, you're going to go home and feel sad for yourself. You and I are going to Flash. We're going to talk about sports in a general, very interesting, lighthearted fashion. And we're going to go home with somebody. win win win win right except you know and i'm you don't even know what flash was like but you're exactly right yeah you and i at the flash is it the flash or just flash it's just flash it's like actually there's a full name that's just the nickname we call it so oh you don't even know what the name of the bar is flash it's like flash cafe and something but you know just called flash how's

the food is it good it's like cheap ten dollar taco or nachos you know 10 dollars for nachos not cheap. No, but like a big plate. Oh, a big plate. I got you. A medium-sized pizza type of thing going on. Okay, I got you. You know, Gordy's a huge nacho eater. Is he actually? Oh my God. There is no one that will eat more nachos in my entire broadcast career with all the people I've worked with than Chris Gordy. We will go to China Garden in Hill order nachos. You can't go wrong with it though. But you just can't eat nachos everywhere you go. You can't go to Mortons and get a nice piece of steak and say, do you have any nachos to go along with this?

No. Oh, how do you feel about the people that only get like the chicken tenders and fries when they go to places? Like, no, I ain't going to judge because maybe you have people on a budget. Oh, so that's you. No, no, no, no, no, no. I like to spend money on food. I would like to eat out more often than we do. And my wife's like, we need to eat more at home more often.

She went to Costco yesterday and, I mean, just bought all sorts of crap that we're never going to eat any of it. I don't want to have hard to tell her that, but it's just the truth. What do you mean you know how to tell of that? Like nine pounds of brisket already. cooked. I mean, we'll eat it once or twice. You want to get the five pound thing of King Ranch Chicken, which, by the way, is disgusting. I hate it. I don't like casseroles

in general, but really to mix all that crap together. King Ranch chicken? Yeah, it's a Texas dish. Okay, okay. It's just gross. And then they went and got nine salmon patties. I despise salmon, so I'm not going to eat that. So there's about a $200 worth of groceries in my refrigerator right now that either

will, A, not eat or B, will be throwing it away because it'll get old, because everybody else that does eat, it'll be like, I'm tired of eating salmon. All right, can we get to sports? What are you putting me down this uncomfortable avenue here? I was going with you. I know, I know. It isn't anything goes Friday here on the radio show.

That means you can call in it. It's 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90, and literally talk about anything you want to. That would also include, if you feel like the need to, the Astros game yesterday. It was 3-3, and the game. Comeback was in play, and I was like, this is going to be fun. Janair Diaz goes deep. By the way, he can't throw anybody out anymore. We've got to get to that eventually.

I was going to ask you about the pitchy if that's on the score. We all talked about how good the pitching is. Oh, how good that pitching is, huh? Well, the bullpen can have an off night, right? I mean, it's allowed to. Of course. But boy, do they have an off night? I mean, Brian King, yikes.

If you heard, did you see how bad it was? No, I saw his box score just down there. Well, I'm going to tell you right now how bad it was. Hopefully you were listening to 790 at least as long as you could. So Gusto goes three and two-thirds, and he's just, he's going to, his life as a major league starter, at least on this rotation is probably short-lived. He's probably more of a long, you know, he's the Seth Martinez of yesteryear. Bennett-Susa, mid, any and a third. Ocurt, scoreless frame, 2-Ks, love that.

Then Brian King comes in. I mean, Brian's had a really good season. And he got pummeled. One third of an inning. Five hits. Five runs. All earned. Home run surrendered.

Then Caleb Ward comes in. One inning. No hits. Three runs. All earned. He won three people. Then Forrest Whitley comes in. Two thirds of an inning.

Three hits. Two runs. Both earned. The best pitcher of the night? Sazar's Alazar, your third string catcher, scoreless ninth inning. His ERA, zero. Shout out to him. Astros lose 13 to 3.

So before you get into this deep depression mode, need not worry, my friends. Guess what happened last night in Seattle? First of all, J.P. Crawford argued with a strike three call and let the umpire, home umpire have it. Then, you ready for this? The Mariners and the nationals were, 3-3 going to the 10th inning.

The Nationals scored six runs in the top of the 10th and won 9 to 3. So if you think we had a bad hair, six national runs in the top of the 9th, and they went 9 to 3. So with all that being said, your beloved Astros, despite being 30 and 26, despite losing a game by 10 runs last night, are still just a half game on first place in the American League 1st. It's an anything goes Friday at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

On Twitter, we want to follow us. It's at SportsMT. As Sports RV is off today, so you can follow him if you want to, but he's not going to tweet anything, so why would you bother? And by the way, his Instagram, oh, what a big old waste of time that is. In fact, do me a favor. Go on follow some of his, uh, him on Instagram. There's nothing he's providing. 11 o'clock, Joseph D'Worte.

We're moving, I'm sorry, to 1230 today because it'd be hard for Dwarth to come in here for half an hour and then sort of apologizing. But we're going to do I'm sorry's at 1230, now in Florida stories at 1.30. Also, something, and you don't know this, Jonathan, but something I hate on a yearly basis happened last night. That you hate. That I absolutely hate. Is it sports related? No.

Okay, okay. But it happened last night, and I think it needs to, for once and for all. end because I'm tired of seeing media coverage about it. I'll tell you what it is after I tell you about rise health.com. It is anything goes Friday on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Jonathan N. Joseph Torto is going to come by at 11 o'clock to hang out with us for a couple of hours. We've got some text and stuff I want to get to in the next segment.

And there was a phrase that I used to have an old boss that I hated. and he used to say this to me all the time, walk me through this, meaning like you made a decision and I don't like it and I want to hear why you made this decision. I used to hate that phrase when you would tell me this.

Now walk me through this. So I've got to walk me through this kind of thing next segment on the show. It involves the Texans. And I want to know if we need to hit the panic button or not. Just stay with me on this for the next segment. So the thing that I find annoying every single year,

And if you've listened to this show for any length of time, you absolutely know that I love just about all the sports, football, basketball, baseball, watch golf, occasionally the majors, not a big soccer fan, don't watch NASCAR a lot. But I respect those that do because everybody has their own favorite things I like to watch and enjoy. But just because you enjoy something, or just because it's on your certain TV network,

does not give it any more legitimacy than the other. So the headlines today on ESPN are McCullors, that's our McCullors, higher security in wake of online threats. And I think that goes without saying. I mean, he's obviously worried about his wife and his kids and whatnot. And there's some decisions about what happened last night in the NBA playoffs and what's happening with the team sales and players are heard, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The very last headline on the opening page is Texas teen spells a clear.

I can't even pronounce it. Eclarecissment. Eclarestismant. I don't even know if I'm saying it right. To win title. It doesn't sound right. You're right. You're right. Thank you.

The word is the, and you're saying, Matt, what do you bring it up the word? Eclarecissimint. Eclarecissimit. Screw it. It's the word that a young man from the Dallas area spelled to win the national spelling bee. under no circumstance is spelling be a sport. Zero percent. There's no athleticism.

There's no skill involved. It's you memorize words or their origins. Wait, what is this? This is the national spelling, but you've heard of this. Of course. Okay. Why is it on the very last headline of my. ESPN front page.

Is it because it's a slow news day? Sure. But every year ESPN puts the winner of the spelling bee on their headlines. Now, I remember for a while ABC used to broadcast the spelling bee. I don't know if they did last night. I didn't watch it. I was watching basketball and baseball. So I can't tell you this.

But to put this out there as a sporting event is absolutely 100% ridiculous. Now, the young man who won. His name apparently is Phazon Zaki. Okay. And my guess is Faison Zaki is going to be a brilliant lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a biochemist, or he may cure cancer, or he may do all the above. And for that, we thank him. But he shouldn't be on sports center. A, he should not be on sports center.

And B, there is no way, no-how, no-how. No chance he's ever going to use the word eclare cissimant, if I'm even pronouncing it properly, in his life. And I mean this in all, I've said this to you guys many years. We are, today's kids are spending way too much time on their phones in front of video games and playing and watching television. They're not out there exercising. They're not out there playing baseball with their buddies in the neighborhood Or not picking up a game of soccer Or they're not going to the basketball court and shooting hoops

And not everybody is going to do that Not everybody thinks that sports is a huge part of their life And I understand that But there's other things you can do outside sailing You could go ride your bike You could do, I don't know Maybe paint And you look you can't paint with a broad brush with every kid

But. Thank you. But I worry about Faisanzaki. Because he's had his head in front of a dictionary for a long period of time so he could properly spell E. Clair Sissimant.

But knowledge is power. It is not that powerful. If you want to take high level classes in high school or you want to study in your off time, good for you. Because again, that's the 1% that's going to make crazy money and be very successful life and applaud him. But is Faison Zaki just a good old-fashioned normal kid who gets at home and after his hard day

of school, he gets home, he wants to put the TV on or maybe get a snack and some chips and a hot dog or something? No, he's probably getting home in carrots and salary and not can open up his Webster's dictionary and studying A, B, and C. I didn't want my kids to do that. I wanted my kids to have somewhat of a normal life. And again, my kids may not be biophysicists. They might be, well, actually, that's not. We already know that. They're already in their young days. You can graduate. Don't knock on your... I know.

But he, I mean, but he went to text A&M. He studied. He did everything good. He's a good kid. Did right way. I'd never put a dictionary in front of him. And I just think this whole spelling bee thing is... So you've never liked the spelling bee? I've never liked it. I've competed one time in the spelling bee when I was in

fourth grade. And got knocked out to the first. I got knocked out. relatively early and I went up peeing my pants on stage. It was very embarrassing. Oh, yeah. But who didn't pee their pants in the fourth grade? Everybody does that. Point being, you know, I'll give you a story. I did that same thing on the mound,

or before I batted it on my coach's pitch team. You peeing your pants? Yeah. That's okay. I don't know the cross parallel on this is, but that's fine. I'm just, you know, trying to, you know, make you... Oh, you're talking about everybody, everybody urinates occasionally in front of people. Yeah, that's what you said, so I'm just, I like it.

I like it. I just, under the category of, I, just don't get it. I will never get the spelling bee. Because that young man needs to have friends. He needs to be able to go to amusement parks. But if his friends are the people that are like competing in the Maybe they are. I mean, I would definitely think they were. I'm sure he's built a fraternity. Yeah. But at least chess club you have got some in it.

I mean, when you are doing spelling bee, what are you doing? You're staring into a dictionary and memorizing words. I will say I just don't get it. And that's all I'm going to say about it. But for it to be on ESPN Sports Center front page, give me some other headlines. Speaking of headlines, the Texans quarterback,

one of them didn't throw again today. Over at OTAs. Should we be worried? 1028 on Sports Talk 790. It is anything goes Friday at 1030. 713212-5-790 if you want to join the conversation 713-212-5-7-90 again Joseph Torte is going to stop by for a couple of hours between 11 o'clock until 1 we've got I'm sorry he's coming up at 1230 today we'll push him back an hour because we just want

to be easier for Joseph to say his sorry is after probably some controversial things he may or may not say you never know uh 130 today we'll have non-flora stories and at 150 we'll have Yeah, or not. So the Texans are back on the practice field for another round of OTAs. Now, just to paint the picture for you, these are what they call organized team activities. They're very light. There is no, and I have not been to an OTA in a long time, but there's no tackling or not full pads. It's just running routes.

It's putting guys in space. It's not much of terms of getting physical. It's not a lot of hard hitting. many at all. They're just, get out there, get the legs moving. You know what I'm talking about. Just kind of just doing a light set of drills, but it does create the culture, it does put some plays into place.

It does put the young rookies in there. The young guys are trying to find spots in the playing time and reinforce things like getting with a new offensive line, which obviously be one of the things that would be key to an offense to this season's OTAs. There are quarterbacks throwing passes during these OTAs. Davis Mills is. throwing passes during OTAs. Guess who's not throwing passes?

For the second time. No way. Yep. C.J. Stroud is not throwing. Now, when asked about it a couple of days ago, D'Amico Ryan's said that these players, these quarterbacks are on a throwing schedule. And that there is a schedule.

and you have to stake with the schedule. Now, Domeco is not set to speak today. Nick Cayley, the offensive coordinator, apparently is expected to speak today. If you were to create a throwing program, if you were to create a throwing program, would you schedule those days during OTAs?

so at least and again you shouldn't placate things to the media but if you're only going to open the media up for certain days during OTAs wouldn't you want to at least show that your quarterback is throwing a little bit I mean he could be in the room

getting filmed though no he's out there he's handing the ball off oh just helping like the rookies and like the people like throw up? Yeah he's just out there doing his thing now he's in past he's you know he's he's got the jersey on

He's in shorts But He ain't throwing Okay If that's the case And let's say he had some sort of Shoulder procedure done in the offseason

He did take a lot of his last season He did And it's not a typical For quarterbacks to get some things cleaned up During the off season I don't have a problem with that I don't have a problem with him taking time off.

But you have two OTAs in which you know television cameras are going to be there and that some members of the media who are legit are going to be there. Meanwhile, most of them are not because they just want to help their YouTube page. And you're not

throwing? What am I supposed to think? What are you supposed to think? So, if you do, if he did have a procedure done of any sort. That's okay. There are a lot of guys that have off-season procedures done and they get right back on the bike and they get riding along and I would fully expect CJ to do that. But I don't know if I'm supposed to believe that there's a throwing program

and there's a schedule and the two times the media have opportunities to watch that those happen to just be days where CJ's not supposed to throw. And for Texans, Homer, to say, I don't care if he throws or not. Yeah, you do. You're lying to yourself if you think it's just no big deal. Unless, unless you come out and say, hey, I had some shoulder tendonitis, I had a scope, clean some things out. Doctors said, you know, doctors even said, don't throw for two months.

I would even accept that. But if you're telling me there is a there is a schedule for the quarterback to throw and it just happens to be on two days where there are cameras, I don't think I'm buying it.

Now, this could be water under the bridge, this could be a non-conversation piece. Is he moving around or just only hand the ball off? He just hand the ball off. I can't even defend that. I don't know. You don't have to defend it. I'm just saying, I don't even, you know, I can't even have an answer for that. Like, as an athlete myself, I don't even know, you know, like you're right.

It might be something like a procedure or just somebody telling them that you don't want, you can't throw anymore right now until. Then just tell us that. If he has doctors orders that he has to take some time off, then I'm okay with that. I can live with that. But you could, but with the general Houston. Of course. Yeah, yeah. But again, something has happened in the Houston sports landscape.

And it's not just the Houston teams. But it's happening with a lot of teams. We just have these teams that just don't want to tell us the truth. Because I got news for you. If C.J. Stroud is not throwing because he had something done in the offseason, that's not people in Jacksonville or Nashville or Indianapolis quaking in their boots because they know that quarterback sometimes have things done in the offseason. Now, if you have a quarterback that isn't throwing in late July or in August as you're getting ready for the regular season,

that would sound the alarms off. not throwing in the OTAs, to me, doesn't sound the alarms on. But you not telling us that he's not makes me much more concerned. What is it? And maybe y'all can help me out with this. What is it with sports teams just not being a little more forthcoming? What are they trying to tell? Why are they trying to hide things?

The Astros did it with Kyle Tucker a long time last year. I don't think they're necessarily hiding things here with Yordon Alvarez. I think Yoran Alvarez just doesn't want to talk. He doesn't want to is upset that his hand hurts. I get that. And by the way, hopefully he'll be ready back on the mound before we know, or back on the field of play. He's going to take some swings at Dyken Park today.

Do you hear anything about Yordan? Yeah, he's going to take some swing. Thanks for listening. I'm just telling you, we talked to Cole Thompson about this, who was with me for a couple of hours yesterday. He said it was 0.000-0-0-0-0-1%. I was going to bring that up. And now he's like, he just, he just tweeted out. He says, I'm now zero zero zero zero two.

He's lying. He just did. Right now he just did. I don't believe him. And I called him out on it. You lie. Remember, the average person lies four times a day. Used to be three board bumping it up now.

He's got to funny for that. He's scared. He's definitely worried now. And I don't think you need to be worried. But just for the love of God, tell us the truth. You don't schedule days off. Wouldn't you know people going to be there looking at you? What's your, what's Matt's prediction?

Like, if you give a gut feeling right now, what's going on? I'm glad you asked. He obviously had something done. He obviously went under the knife or scoped or maybe he's on, maybe he's taking large amounts of ibuprofen. Or maybe they just told him don't throw. How about just saying, a lot of throws last year, a lot of workouts.

It has been, we've been told not to throw. And then the question we follow up is, do you think this could be something serious? And then he can lie if he wants to. Now again, Nick Cayley will be meeting with the media later today, and maybe he'll tell us. But do you really think the new offensive coordinator in a new city meeting the media for the first time during OTAs

is going to be overly forthcoming, especially when the head coach, few days ago said he was on a throwing, that there was a throwing schedule. Don't hold your breath. I ain't buying it. All right. We got calls to get to in a matter of moments. We got Gordy in for a Friday visit as he normally does.

We called a Gordy stop by. All right, Chris. I just spent the last segment. Questioning. And again, I have no definitive information. We'll hear from Nick Cayley later today, the offensive coordinator for the Texans. D'Amico said two days ago, it was a throwing schedule for C.J. Strauss.

C.J's handing the ball off today and not throwing. What do you think? I mean, to me, it's one of two things. Either he's a little bit banged up, maybe he had a little minor procedure in the off season. They're taking it slow, which in my case, or if that's the case, be honest.

Tell us about it. Then you're still in my bit. I just said this two minutes ago. Stop still my material. How is he supposed to be listening? Because he's supposed to be listening to show all the time. Go ahead. I was going to get your guest on the elevator.

I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. It's either that or B, C.J's entering diva status where he goes, voluntary OTAs. No, man, I'm good. I'm not throwing. Larry McTunsell, he used to be able to take the whole off season off. I'm good.

So it's one or the other. Neither is great. You know what? I don't lean B. I really don't. Now, again, I'm not close to situation at all. B would greatly disappoint me. and I'm not prepared to be disappointed.

I mean, there's a lot of things in my life to disappoint me. That can't be it. I mean, I shouldn't say it can't be it. I don't want that to be it. I know what it's not. This guy on social media said he's not hurt. He's just watching and observing, watching every player's habits and tendencies to get a better feel for him.

Shut up. No, by the way. Who does that? And another one is, this is May. Nobody should be worried. Well, then if he's on a throwing schedule like D'Amico said, maybe today would be a good day to throw. Well, why is everybody else doing everything?

Yeah. Why is he? I don't see Pat Mahomes in a throwing schedule and not throwing. He is literally the only QB one in the NFL not throwing at OTAs this week. So please turn your brains on. Okay, it's one and two things, and I hope Gordy's wrong with the second one. He's the only one? Well, who else have you heard?

I mean, let me tell you this. If Gino Smith wasn't throwing, would we hear about it? Probably. Even a mid-level quarterback would be hearing about it. There's another guy. This could be precaution. is this is his first time in the NFL switching coordinators and could be as simple

as sitting and listening and like, shut up, that's so stupid and idiotic. Like, as if CJ's so cerebral that, hey man, we really want you to just sit back and observe. Really, let that new playbook soak in. Like, you sound like a moron saying that. Come on.

Yeah. And you know what? As I said in the last segment, because you're busy getting my guest, Joseph Dwarte, joining us in 10 minutes. if he had something done first of all duh most quarterbacks get something done he got beat to hell last year

he threw the ball a lot more than he wanted to and so I respect that he has been told to not move that shoulder move that arm I totally get that but just say that and I don't know if the Texans feel like there'd be panic it would hit the city no but there are a lot of quarterbacks

that have things done to clean things up order, or he's been told arrested. That happens all the... Brett Farr, for years, was told to rest his arm. Here's, here's my prediction here. Like, it's, it's that he probably did have something minor done. It's not a big deal. He's going to be fine.

But you make it a bigger deal, not talking about it. Yeah, that's exactly right. And what's the competitive... And I never understand us. I don't understand us with the Astros. I don't understand... You're not playing a game anytime soon. So, like, what's the gamesmanship?

here. If you guys were playing the Colts this weekend, I get it. It's gamesmanship. You don't want to let them know that C.J. may or may not play. But it is May. Like, it's okay to say, yeah, CJ had a little something in his shoulder. He got cleaned up. He's going to be fine. Just say that. No one would have any of his concern. 100%. When you go to two days of OTAs and he's there and he's the only one not throwing, all of us look at it and go, either he's heard or he's a diva. One or the other. It's like, and I don't even necessarily want to blame PR people. because I'm thinking PR people would say, and we sure want to go down this road? And guess what? These trainers and these coaches say, I'm the boss and you're going to follow my rules. And what you're going to do is you're going to create, I wouldn't say hysteria.

There's nothing hysterical about May OTAs. If I'm going to downplay them before the OTAs, what have I always said? The only thing I don't want to hear about OTAs is nobody getting hurt. Well, if C.J.'s hurt, that makes it a story. But minimize the story by telling us, what he did, what happened. Now, if he got a torn rotator cuff, then, okay, you want to hide that?

I get it. But even the, remember the Astros were, was it Verlander? Somebody slept crooked, had a neck thing. Like, you could say, tell us that. Yeah, CJ, he was staying in the hotel. He slept a little crooked. His arms a little sore. So we're just going to, out of precaution, just not have him thorough.

All right. So, again, to me, honesty is always the, again, is any, in any game, week. It ain't training camp. Right. And that's what other people are saying. Because it's just OTAs. This isn't training camp. I get it. But again, like, say why he's not throwing. How hard is that?

But do not tell me he's in an observation mode and he's really trying to let this playbook synchian. No, no, but see nobody saying that. That's a fan. There are people saying this. People saying. Who's saying? Out of them. Social media fans. They're not real people. Well, you know, Twitter people.

You'll tell me during the break. is this person at training camp No, no, no, this is fans responding to Aaron Wilson's tweets. Yeah, no, no. But even Aaron isn't saying he's just, you know, Davis Mills is running first team offense as CJ Stroud watches from the side again. Maybe there's a quarterback controversy. There's not a quarterback controversy.

If Davis Mills steals the job from CJ Stroud, then we got problems. Important it, Kelly. Nick, what was it like running things today? Noop, noop, noop. So why didn't CJ? there. And if I swear to God, if they go with, he's on a throwing schedule and today was on his day, I will lose it.

Because that'll be a flat out lie. Again, this is very low level of concern. If we get into July and he is limited, then yes and we're concerned. But what they did today and again, well, maybe they will have some sort of announcement. But what you did two days ago was on a 1 to 10 scale was a 1.

If you give us the same answer today, it's now a 3 or 4. I just thinking this day and age of sports, with social media and there are cameras everywhere. Transparency is the best thing to do. I mean, are some members of media out there worried they're not going to get their t-shirts and their hats if they don't report it? I mean, cooking burgers with Cal, you know.

But I just, to me, and the Astros too, I got to give them a little gruffier. Like, it's okay to be transparent with the fans and say, look, Jordon's got a thing in his hand. He's day to day. We hope he's better by tomorrow. Like, it's okay to be transparent. when you don't say anything and you ignore it, like we're not stupid. We can see C.J's out there not throwing.

Say why he's not throwing. Yep. Because if he wants, if it was, hey, we want to rest his arm. That sounds fine by me. But why are you resting his arm in May? Especially when 31 other quarterbacks are not resting arms. Two months off. Yeah.

Like, it's the deal. Yeah. All right. Astros game two of the series. How about this last night? Astros bullpen absolutely are horrendous. The Mariners bullpen. absolutely horrendous. They keep up

six in the nights, so the Astros only half came out. Yes. And Astros still very much in this. I talked to a friend who was at the game. He said, while the bullpen sucked, the beer was good. He enjoyed an ice cold Crawford Bach for our friends at Carbock. What a terrific segue. It was...

11 o'clock on Sports Talk 7-90. It's our friend Joseph Torte, who always comes through at the NCAA Turin Forest, the Big 12 tournament covers the Cougars. How long we're covering the Cougars now? 13 years.

13 years. And how many years of the Chronicle altogether? 27. 27 years. You're like the John McLean of the Houston Chronicle. You know what I am now? Jonathan Fagan's gone. You're the oldest one?

I'm the longest tenured sports writer at the Chronicle. What does that get you like a better parking space? What was the last time you went to the building to go? I was there Tuesday. Really? Small world. Okay. All right.

Well, you're going to hang out with us. You've covered all the team. You'll only beat you've never been. been on as a rocket speed is that correct that's well you know what jonathan let me cover one game yeah when they were going to china one year he you know they were taking off right afterwards so i uh i i think might have been so you've covered like hundreds of astros games hundreds of texans games hundreds of cougar games and one rocket game pretty much all right there you go and a hundred rice games oh that's right you were you're all by the look did you see rice

game looking for a naming rights for their stadium yeah i'd be a to see how that's going to go over with the older fan base because, you know, it's historic Rice Stadium. It's a dump. It's the hardest place. Beautiful neighborhood, beautiful campus, smart people, wonderful people, an absolute dump of a facility. It's an eyesore. It's way behind its time. And it needs to be destroyed, rebuilt, build a 20,000 seat stadium and let Rice have something to recruit to because that stadium ain't it. traveled. Tulane is sort of in the neighborhood. Exactly. And they've got a great facility. But yeah, if you're a college

university, you're slapping naming rights on any piece of anything. Anything at all. Anything at all. All right, well, it's good to have you, and I appreciate you spending some time with this. And you've always been a great help for us come to tournament time. By the way, I've made the decision if the Cougars go to the final four this year, which will be in Indianapolis, I'm not going to go

because I moved heaven and earth to get to San Antonio and not only did I see my cougars lose but i got covid the day after that so i'm like that was a double whammy yeah i know how those feel um the worst text i got was brian mctaggart texted me he's like you hugged my wife in san and torrid i'm sorry you know you're you're probably going to be watching them in the final four again you know you you ought to book the ticket right now i have i have every regional already booked hotel-wise and car i mean i just do it a year out

you know you just cancel it people are going to say oh you're jinxing well no I'm doing this from a logistic standpoint but I've got

DC but you know and we reported this a couple weeks ago they could play in Houston so they're going to take their name off of huge they're going to take the name off of the south region yeah if you if you relinquish

host duties which people say well what is that involved well you kind of are behind the scenes which is ridiculous your staff does it right you can get anybody to do that pay rise play Houston Christian Texas Southern

or the Big 12 come in and do it too right yeah that was is a little bit of a stretch. They've done it before. Logistically, them being in Dallas, it was easier last year when they did it for the TCU women. But, you know, you just give it off and you can play. I mean, that's the only thing that's preventing them. So is that done deal yet or no? No, they're still talking them through it. And if they can get somebody, I would imagine sometime in the next few months. Okay.

They try to get a better feel for that. All right. Well, obviously, you know a lot about what's going on in University of Houston land. you don't know a lot about the athletics world of college sports. We do want to get into some Texans. I know you're an Astro follower too. My greatest accomplishment for me, because Joseph's been so nice and got me a lot of favors, is that I got him an Astros pickleball paddle.

Yeah. No, actually it was a Rockets. Oh, Rockets? I thought it was an Astros one. Okay. So you still playing pickleball? Well, when I can. You know, it kind of comes in spurts.

It's not a every day, every week. I've been doing some commercials for Talia Brewing, which is over in Sugarland, and they have two pickleball courts. Us older guys, it's perfect for us. Now, I've not played. I kind of don't get it. Not like get the rules, but you can get a decent sweat going, but not kill yourself. Yeah, that's not my.

They gabs into basketball right now. Your son, yeah. Yeah, we do a lot of that. So I'm out there and I think he beat me like 80 to 40 the other day. I mean, keep hitting threes. And how tallosine? Not very tall. Okay, fair enough.

There's usually to be a little point guard, a little lefty. All right, so let's get to the sports scene. And again, Joseph is so well-versed in everything. Astros fall yesterday, still only a half game out of first place. So what are just some general thoughts as you watch this team? It's kind of amazing. They haven't hit very much this year. So many injuries, you know, both in their starting rotation, obviously with Yardo and Alvarez,

and yet they're still kind of hanging around. Yeah, I'm, you know, as a former beat guy, I never paid attention to standings this early. No, I'm my standings a whole life. So when I was driving in and Matt was like, oh, they're only a half a game out. Like it's May, what is it, May 30th? Yes, it got paid in today, by the way. So, yeah, I mean, so you're, let's see, you're two months away basically from the trade deadline. So you look at where, I mean, to me it starts with, it's always pitching, starting rotation.

and they're just they've got no one i mean you look at who they've got what mccullers they've got uh honor brown framer valdes and then you're just kind of filling the rest of pieces so you go into august and you know depending on where you're at you do you go out add another arm strengthen that back into the rotation you mentioned the off night on the bullpen i don't think that that's something that that's a concern but between getting the bats going and then you know more immediate is where do you fit your damn into the lineup. I think before he got hurt, he was batting third. I think the idea right now is they'll probably push him back to the four,

you know, the cleanup spot. Because there's going to make some pressure on him and he doesn't necessarily, I mean, part of he is like he's just coming back after missing that time with a hand. You want to generally put him back in. But there's a lot of astro fans right now that are like, all we need is Jordan and this offense will pick up where it left off. The problem was that Yoron wasn't necessarily doing a whole lot before he got hurt. And he's probably not going to jump in and just light him.

it up, fair it up. So I think it's encouraging that Altuve has, especially on this homestan, has been able to get things going. What is it? Four home runs on this home stand? He's crushing it. Yeah. Well, actually, it's probably five because he had the two, the two, two homer games. So, yeah, I mean, they've got, they've got some stuff that they're going to work through. But again, it's, it's May 30th. I don't see this as a, talk to me. If a month from now, it's sort of, they haven't made any progress or they haven't maybe jumped into that first spot and extended the lead or got an elite then i think some of the things that are that are hurting them may catch up but it's it's not even june one behind the scene story i want to get from you and then we'll get to uh the calls and some other things going on you have had to chase down uh things around the trade deadline july 1st which is still coming up on two months away in your past when you were on the astros beat did you spend more time having to dissolve rumors because agents were floating players out there? Was it general managers trying to get you off the scent?

What was it like having to hear things and go, okay, this makes sense, or I'm going to go chase this down as compared to? This is somebody just throwing stuff out there, just throw stuff out. And you'll know, I mean, I had the luxury of working with our good friend, Carlton Thompson, he was on the beat with me at the time. And just to date myself, I didn't have to chase down rumors because there was no social media. There was no Twitter. I wasn't having to shoot down those type of things.

But you were under probably more pressure today than you were because the national guys didn't have as much pull like you do now. Yeah. And for instance, you know, when I cover the Astros, Jerry Hunsicker was the general manager, Tim Purper was the assistant. They were pretty forthcoming, were they? Yeah. Jerry was great. And I guess the biggest story, trade deadline when I was on the beat was the Randy Johnson deal. And I remember Carlton was in Pittsburgh. I was back here in Houston.

We're both working the phone, you know, whether if I'm calling Drayden, he's calling Hunsicker and the agent, you're just working the phone. And that goes down to like 1159 several time. And it's, you know, a matter of what the package is going to include, which minor leaguers, all that kind of stuff. And they get it done right before the deadline. And like that morning, I'm on a flight to Pittsburgh. I'm literally

they want all of us there to cover Randy Johnson's first start which is going to be that Sunday so that was one there was the Roger Clemens the first time around where they refused to give up Richard Hadogo Scott Ellerton and guys like that

but I remember being in the clubhouse the Sunday that Randy Johnson showed up and you know the guy's what six seven six eight monster yeah and he forgets the duck walking into the visitor's clubhouse and he like slams his forehead onto the frame of the door.

And you're thinking he's going on the injiless right away. And everybody sees it. And we're like, who's, you know, you want to say who is this guy, but you know who he is. But he's like kind of clumsy. Not to date myself, but it's too late. I think I'm doing a University of Houston game, basketball game. I think we're in St. Louis. I think we were somewhere on the road for sure.

We played a daytime game. And I think coach, it was Alvin Brooks was coach and the team. and we go to a sports bar, big screen televisions. This is when ESPN2 first started up, and they had that crawl where they would have the sports headlines, like a ticker. Now, all the networks have it now, but back then, only ESPN2.

That was their niche thing they did. And I'm like, this is so cool. You get to see sports headlines at all times going for this ticker. And I'm watching it going through seeing, okay, the Mets beat the Giants, and this happened in golf. And then I see Jerry Hunts, her on there like wait this is like a midnight why is jerry huntsaker's name showing up on the sports

ticker at 12 o'clock on this this least watch ESPN2 come to find out randy johnson was traded that day or that literally that hour and that's what i i knew it was a crazy experience for me to see that show up where i was the moment that randy johnson in almost the middle of the night was traded from the seattle baroners and this is in a trade deadline but this goes with the trades that we were going to Nashville and I guess 99 maybe for the winter meetings and I got upgraded. You know, that was common back of the day and I'm sitting next to Roger Clemens agents in first class. Hendricks brothers, yeah. Randy and Allen.

I think of Randy was on that trip. So we get off the plane and his phone starts to just ring and he grabs me. He says, hold on. He's like, you might need to come to my hotel room later tonight because we're going to have a little press gathering. I was like, what's going on? He was like, well, Huntsaker just went in front of the national media and blasted us for Rogers' demands and everything. So you're like, oh, crap, you know, this is going to be huge news. Right.

But it was before, I mean, that's the kind of stuff that before I would have even got off the plane would have been on Twitter. I mean, it would have just taken off because nowadays you can tweet and do everything on a plane. Yeah. Couldn't do that. So, yeah, it was a lot of shooting down stuff, but it really was just a lot of phone calls chasing down. you know, rumors and trying to, you know, it's always fun, though. Now, things are changing in your elite beat now at the University of Houston because not only are you having to look at the transfer portal, and we'll get to more of this as the show moves

along, you have to now deal with NIL and not dealing with the institution, but you're dealing with the collective, which is a second cousin to the school, basically, in thereabouts. Yeah, I mean, it's... You can't directly tie into the school, but you can closely associate it with the school. And some of them now don't make any, they don't hide it. There's a connection. Everybody knows that. They work.

Like, for instance, Houston has Linging Coos, and it's part of a bigger national collective. But then you also deal with the agents. All these announcements that are coming out from Transfer Portal, they come from agents. And when I got out of covering pro sports, I thought I was done with that stuff. Right. You call, you get the contract numbers, you swabble. You swap information, hey, this is what the team's looking at. This is, and they're like, this is what we're countering.

That's what you're getting now. Now, a lot of the numbers don't get out, and I really wonder how real some of the numbers are that we see. But like the young lady at Texas Tech softball player who's making a million dollars, that's legit. You hear some of the numbers that are being thrown out for, you know, again, Texas Tech, I think they, the guarantee that each player was getting at one point or O. Lyman, you've got to be careful with those numbers, how much of it is true. how much of it is inflated. Because it'd be easier to inflate the number to make you sound better. Yeah, exactly.

So it's a different way of covering sports now. And, you know, it also can get you because you look at like Kansas State last year in basketball, they spent a lot of money on their basketball roster and didn't do anything. And that's kind of the case now with BYU. They've got a guy on their team that they're paying a lot. And if you don't win, and it doesn't translate, you set yourself up for some, some criticism and rightfully so. All right, we'll go to the phones coming back.

Joseph, obviously, in the U.HB, but he is well versed again in all the different sports in our town. C.J. Stridegan, not to throwing today at Texans OTAs. Should the warning flags be up in the air for that? We'll get to that. We'll get to some baseball. We'll get to some U of H stuff. And also Joseph's thoughts on this college football expected expansion of the CFP to 16 teams

and what works best for, I don't care about the ASEB. because they're going to win everywhere, but how does it affect big 12 schools? 713-212-5-790. All right. Coming up in a little over an hour, you don't know this, but every Friday we do, I'm sorry's. We usually do them at 1130, but we're going to let you save it until 12.30. This is where you apologize, people, this, for things you've done and said.

Really? Now, you don't have to do it, but it makes you feel better. Oh, a little therapy. A lot of therapy. Jonathan, doesn't it make you feel better when you come on here with all the mean and nasty things you've said and done that you get to sponge them out between 1130 and noon? Most days we'll do it at 1230 today. It's like when you yell and just get that rage out. It's the same thing.

Yes. Is it like professionally or stuff you did in your personal life? Anything you want. Anything you want. Wow. Probably you start getting texts from my wife. Like I death stared at a woman in like Charles a couple weeks ago and wanted her to die of a stroke. Oh my God.

That's not nice. And I told her I was sorry. You should have. No. She shouldn't have needed a second. It wasn't a real sorry. She was hitting a 14 and a 4. I want her to die.

I mean, I'm serious. Money's different. You know. You know. Let's talk to some people here in the great city. Houston, Texas. 713, 212, 5790. Cougar Chris is on the Matt Thomas show with Ross,

Joseph Twartay in the house. Double C, how are you? I am doing wonderful. I didn't mean to choke you up like that. I'm choked up. I hope. I hope Big 12 Cougar Ross. is having a good day off.

And I don't know how much longer Joseph's going to be on the Cougar beat because Tuesday, he asked a question. And coach called him out and said, I hope you're teaching those students how to ask better questions than you do. So I'm not real sure what's going on there. Are you teaching a class? We got to do some context here. Yeah, I did a workshop for the journalism students at U of H. I try to give back, you know. That's nice.

I've been telling them for years I've been willing to help by. They never called me. Yeah, well. That's fine. Go ahead. So we had about 12 kids. We took him over to the Chronicle. Happened to have Kelvin's Zoom going on.

So I said, hey, you know, this will be a great learning deal. I asked a, if the question was fine. Kelvin just being Kelvin. Kelvin wanted to kind of slide in a little, you know, little jab. I got you. Yeah. But, but yeah, I was afraid he had some breaking news that I didn't know about, about me not being on the beat anymore. I was like, maybe this is my boss calling in.

But yeah, it's all good with Kelvin. And he, you know, once you get to know him, I mean, you've had him on your show many times. Well, when I was calling games, Chris, the first year, he was very standoffish. After the first year, it was a complete 180. And now he's one of my favorite people in this town. And he treats me of all. I do some of their games on TV in the non-conference. And he's always very warm and accommodating.

But, yeah, I mean, just like anybody, sometimes you have to kind of, it takes your wall to get in the inner circle. Once you get in, you're in a pretty good spot. Oh, I knew 100% that coach was joking with him and stuff, but I just had to bring it up. No, but this is good. This shows that Chris is a diehard fan of the Cougars because that video is not out there. So that means Chris went and listened, I guess, on YouTube or something, and saw the whole deal. Yeah. So you see?

Chris knows what you're talking about. And I do enjoy your commentary on the Cougars and stuff like that. I wanted to ask, before I asked the question about the Cougar, about the Rocket, I am excited about the Cougars basketball program. I can't wait for November 3rd to get here. But just to dig it, Matt, you know, he's talking about one honesty from the teams about injuries and stuff like that. And this is coming from a man that Ross says lies all the time. Yes. I'm not sure, you know.

You know what, that's right. You know what, Chris, I'm a phony. I'm 100% phony. I lie all the time, and yet when my teams lie, I get mad at them. So that's right. Call me out. You know what? I'm sorry for lying to y'all four times a day, at least.

You know, Matt, I've known you for 30 years. I appreciate you and love you. Sure, sure. But the question I had is like a second cousin once removed. The question I had was on Tuesday, that team that shall be remained unnamed that comes on after you at 2 o'clock in your last hour. segment usually had Josh Hayder on there and

they were asking simple questions interesting questions but you know and some them were personal but one question came up to my mind that I've never heard and one of the two of you may give an insight on it but if not the next time you have sparks on there or have

a picture on there I'd like to know what happens out I know what happens in the dugout but what happens out in the bullpen during the game are they really focused on the game or they're talking about pitches are they talking about where they're going to dinner they're removed from the game some what goes on out in the bullpen uh while the game's going on and that's the question i'd like to have answered sometime if you ever think about it we'll do it for sure we have a lot

of relievers come on the show and thanks chris for the phone call it varies between athletes it varies between teams i would say and i'm going to paint with a broad brush on this it feels like it's a combination of chit-chat of life what's going on in the game when is the full bullpen phone going to ring, who's going to get warmed up, who needs a day in, who throw, who doesn't. I would say it's not a lecture out there. It's also not a comedy store. It's kind of a little bit of a both, maybe.

Yeah, I mean, you see the videos where they're all sitting up on the bench, and they're watching the game. Now, first three or four innings, there's probably not, it's probably more of the, hey, let's just chat and whatever. You know, if you're getting your bullpen warmed up in the, second inning well you got bigger problems so um it'd be a great story i wish from it'll never happen because from a liability they're not going to let a reporter go sit down the that would be awesome yeah that'd be a great story but i'm sure there's a lot of lot of you know i used to know some astros

relievers that would do some crazy stuff in the club out stuff that we can't say on the air but just jokes pranks all like there's some of that going on but but i think nowadays because people are watching and there's more visibility it's it's probably about as it's tame and, you know, I would say, yeah, in 2025, it's probably significantly more lame than, say, going back when Raleigh Fingers and Goose Gossage was, we're closing out games. That'd be fair to say. Let me get to David and Kingwood before we take a time out here. David, you're on 790 and good morning to you. Hey, Matt, good morning to you. And Joseph, glad you're on the show this morning.

First of all, saying, Joseph, I've been following you for a long time and I appreciate all the Cougar update It's news, breaking news. You're definitely appreciated out here in the community. Yeah, I got two questions, and I'll spit them off, and you all can answer them. First off, both of y'all, Matt and Joseph, how do you all feel pre-Milos coming back than before? Did the needle go up or stay the same, or did y'all feel good either way before Papa went to A&M? How did y'all feel about that? and my second question is, is it seems like the last two or three seasons or years.

Clyde Drexler hasn't been around the program as much in my eyes. And I've asked that question on, I'm with the U of H a couple of sites, and man, they won't even post it. I just, I'm not being negative. I just, I haven't seen him, like you see, Akeem out there a lot. You rarely see Clyde out there anymore with the basketball program. was there some bad bad blood that didn't have obvious when he was coaching but does something happen that maybe we don't know about? Maybe it's just me, but I just haven't seen Clyde around the program last, like three seasons or so. Yeah, David, and I appreciate that.

You got it. I don't know all the answers. He was in San Antonio, was he now? I believe he was, yeah. I don't think Clyde lives here anymore. The last I had heard Clyde lives in Atlanta, his wife's family is in that part of the country. So that could be part of the reason why. But Clyde was never always around.

I mean, frankly, nobody was around when the team sucked. Yeah, but lately, he's, yeah, there's more visible guys. You know, I've seen, you know, at one point Otis, Burd's song I've seen, yeah. You see Davis, Dwight Davis. Who else? Reed, Gedis does, you know, the broadcast. Right. Mishaw.

So, I mean, there's been guys. Yeah, I would just say, don't read anything. I don't believe there's any. Again, when you go to San Antonio, that's obviously a huge, I want to be around. It's not a Michael Young situation. Now, there was some bad blood between that. Bad was because of the way between the Dickey era and Kelvin, you know, they had some stuff going on. But that's actually mended over the years.

So I don't think there's anything. But, yeah, what was your favorite Pop Isaac's moment as a cougar? When he put his hands, Cougar paw up. No, I'm never a fan of a player, regardless of school, regardless of it's mine or not, leaving to go to the NBA when I watch him enough. And I've called Milo Suzanne Games. Very, very good basketball player. But I know what a pro is.

And I never watched him, whether I was calling the game or just watching on television or seeing him person going, this is a kid that can't, that needs to get the NBA tomorrow. And when you leave early and you're not in that situation, you're only asking for trouble. And I think he went and tested the waters and I think he went to the combine, did not get graded out particularly well. And frankly, Jonathan, Joseph, NIL money is back home for you. I don't know what it's going to be, but it's not like you're going back to the poorhouse and going from, oh, MBA money to zero. He's going to have something when he's at U of H. Right.

And Dave asks how we feel pre-Milow's decision. This is big for Houston because now you went from, if you kept Pop, then you had Pop and Kingston Fleming's. Now you have Milos. He's experience is going to be his team with Emmanuel. And now you can use Milos to sort of bring along the freshman rather than having to throw the freshman in there a lot more. And Milos that ended the year was certainly not the Milos we saw in November and December. And he played his way into being at least a possible second round draft. pick so getting him back we know how kelvin uses the point guard the value he puts into that

position i think this is huge and that puts now in my opinion them from being a team that i thought would have been a second weekend regardless whether they had him or not to a team now that is a final four team and it can win it because that's how much of an impact i think he'll make in year two point guards with kelvin make tremendous uh strides in that second year and i think that we're going to see the same thing with Milos. All right. Texans' offense or court in her new one, Nick Cayley spoke moments ago about why CJ wasn't throwing.

We'll have some details on that next, 1130 on Sports Talk 790. All right. Intrepid beat reporter, Joseph Tortee from The Chronicle hanging out with us today. We got I'm sorry, he's coming up at 1230. The news at noon is coming up in 25 minutes. Jonathan Alexander, who's your comrade over at The Chronicle, quoting him 20 minutes ago.

Texans O.C. Nick Cayley on CJ Stroud quote no concerns whatsoever we do a game here on the show monday through thursday we called it believe it or not fridays we do hell yeah or not what do you think believe it or not but come on man me just give me look and this is as a journalist give me a little something i mean to squash the the speculation the the concern just lay it out there look the dudes on a on a specific plan. He had a minor procedure. I mean, it's clearly nothing visible that you see. I mean, the guys out there. Just calm your fan base. And I don't even know,

you know, I haven't been on social to see that if they're upset. Texans Twitter is different than logically logically thinking. Texan's Twitter, they never want to hear bad information. So they're going to always go on the positive side of things. Astros' Twitter is the other side of it. They're usually negative. Right. So it depends. Yeah. I mean, you know, like for the Astros, Brian McTaggart and Chandler-Roma, you know, I always like when there's some stuff going on with the Astros and they're not getting the full story and the way people start attacking them and what they want to hear and what they don't hear.

But, I mean, yeah, I mean, I figured this was going to happen because you've been in these press scrums afterwards. And you're going to ask it and you could ask it a million. different ways. And you're still going to get the same thing or they're going to tell you, hey, that's our story. That's what we're standing by. That's what we're sticking with. Now, when Gordy was about 40 minutes ago, his was

either he had something done procedurally which would be far from abnormal. Or C.J. is being a diva. And look, quarterbacks and wide receivers are the two biggest diva positions in the NFL, generally speaking. But if he's putting

the, if he's putting the jersey, on in the shorts and walking out with the helmet on. That's not being a diva. That's, I think, the doctor's saying don't throw. Yeah, I don't see, I don't see that as being a diva is not even being there. Correct. Like Laramie Townsendell.

Right. I mean, these are voluntary. So that, that's probably, if you look at everything as a reasonable person, right. It's got, it's got to be something was done in the offseason. And I get it. if you don't want to say but if it was made

and this is my thing whenever I'm dealing with schools I'm like look if I know something or if I don't don't downplay it if you're not going to say anything just don't say it at all but then don't say it's something small

but then it turns out to be something bigger down the road I don't I'm not at the Texans I'm not I don't have any inside knowledge over there I just think that this is this is probably what they do this is how they do it

this is how they But what happened? And I know they answer this. I'm like a trial attorney asking a witness. Did social media change our teams? Not our team, not the Houston teams, but sports teams in general. They either don't tell the truth and lie or they just don't want to say anything. And what are they afraid of?

Are they afraid of the intelligence getting back to their opponents? Are they going, I mean, I can't, as I said this in the first hour of the show, if CJ had something done today, would it raise some eyebrows around the NFL? Of course. Would it be abnormal or another quarterback's never had a problem like this? Of course not. But I guarantee you, if there was something, if he had something cleaned out, let's say he had, you can't have chips, can you?

You can have your shoulder clean? Yeah, if your shoulder was cleaned out. and it was done 30 days ago, 45 days ago. That doesn't mean there's any, there would be no reservation about him being ready to go from training camp time. I can guarantee you that the teams on the NFL on the Texan schedule are not going, oh, oh, oh, he got his shoulder cleaned out.

We now know what to do to go after him. I'm telling you, if he's 100% healthy, they know what to do. Sack the quarterback, get the shoulder, good cert, oh, well. What if it's a misdirection? Maybe it's not even the shoulder. What if he can't go out there? And, you know, maybe it's a knee. Maybe they scoped his knee.

I don't know. I mean, it could be any number of things. Yeah, he's on a, you can say he's on a throwing schedule or something, but maybe, I mean, I don't know. You just don't throw, yeah. Yeah, you hate to speculate, but they invite speculation when you, I don't know. I just don't take it at face value of, oh, no concerns. But to your point, the way social now, the teams also want to control the message. I mean, that's sort of, they hire in-house now.

they have in-house reporters they do things they do their own stories so sometimes now they control their own message and they they put the stuff out but in this case it's just a matter of being about as vague as you possibly can be all right so again that's uh nick cayley i don't believe cj is going to speak during this time he's not required to do so again these are all voluntary things so everything that's been a voluntary basis but yeah cj was in the shorts and the shirt he was handing off but it was davis mills and some other guy never heard of doing a lot of the throwing during drills today. Yeah, I just, I don't know.

But we, we're not looking to probe, but just a little more forthcoming things. Something gets me, and this is Major Applewhite a few years ago when he was coach, they went in, Greg Ward's starter, he's a quarterback, and he's like, there's a quarterback competition. I'm like, no, there isn't. Yeah. I mean,

it's just some of the silly games that some of the schools play, whether it's college pros, and they don't want to acknowledge something, that really could be just something minor. If you get it out of the way, say, hey, he's our starter, or he had this procedure done, fine, move on. It's no longer a story.

The new cycle will move on. By doing this, it's going to continue. I don't know how many more of these they have. I think they goes into June, right? Right, and they're going to minicamps. So what happens if he doesn't do anything the rest of the week or whatever the media has access, then he comes back in June. So here's what I hear's what.

If he does throw a minicamp, I guarantee the people are like, well, see, I told you it was no big deal. And that really, frankly, accents and defends our argument of if it was no big deal, then just tell us no big deal. Just gives the Matt Thomas show something to talk about. Yeah, it's fine. Again, I don't believe it's anything divish. I just think it's,

shoulder got cleaned out, not feeling great. Doctor says stay off, throwing the football. And let me tell you, the amount of times they throw the football over a work week, forgetting about Sundays, That doesn't surprise me at all. It's like pitchers that skip a time to the rotation. They say, you know what? We're worried about your number of pitches you've thrown.

Your workout days. Skip a start. That makes perfect sense to me. That's all, you know. But you know what? It's not just the Texans. It's not just the Astros. It's about 95% of teams in sports.

1143 on Sports Talks, Saturday. We have constant rumors and speculation about how the new college football play will come into play if it indeed goes to 16 teams. We'll get Joseph's thoughts on that next. 1143. We'll wake the strippers up in 17 minutes. Is your wife in the car? You know, we had this discussion already.

I told her, hey, I'm going in. Don't know what that segment is. So we're about to find out. Very, very easy. We wake him up. Now at 12.30, we get to apologize. If we didn't apologize, and Mrs. Dwarty, I'll be happy to do that. 713-212-5-790. There are too many people

that love college athletics that know who Greg Sankey is. College commissioners, generally speaking, just go under the radar. Unless you're the commissioner in the most powerful sports league. It is the Matt Thomas show, Joseph Torte, with us here. We're going to wake the strippers up in about 10 minutes from now.

We'll get us back to some Astros conversation in the noon hour, and then we have, I'm sorry, it's coming up at 1230. Joseph, you've gotten to a few scrapes in your day, so if you want to apologize to some people, we've got your opportunity coming up in 40 minutes from now, so you better be ready. You're thinking about it. Okay. So Greg Zanke is floating out a variety of things. We've heard 16 is a four-go-inclusion, correct?

Yes. Okay. So we have two options here. We have four spots go to the AC, to the Big Ten, four to the SEC. That's eight. Two go to the ACC, two go to the Big 12. That picks it at 12. You have the automatic qualifier, right? At 13, and then you have three open spots. then you have some other people saying let's give the four conferences automatic one the fifth being the power group of five that's five and eleven open spots and everybody has their own opinion about what fits their conference the best brent your mark the big 12 commissioner believes the five plus 11 model it fits them best some are saying don't ask for that because guess what you're then inviting eight or nine of the remaining 11 spots be filled by Big Ten and or SEC teams. So in your mind, what model fits best and what model fits best for schools that happen

to be in the Big 12 conference, of which you cover the University of Houston? I'm a fan and alumni of the University of Houston. Well, I mean, the amount of power right now that's between the SEC and the Big Ten, it's, I mean, they're controlling this. I think it's fascinating that we're in the offseason, and they had an entire week of headlines out of Florida. Crazy. It was crazy. You know, we'm talking about, well, should we even be in the NCAA to, you know, this is how we, how we, I mean, they passed out packets yesterday.

I don't know if you saw this. It was like an entire, it was called a schedule of regular season gauntlet. They wanted the media to look at what it is, the metrics of playing an SEC. schedule. So all this is coming out. I think the five plus 11, you know, everybody's from the Big 12th. You know, they've said, look, that's the way we want to go. I think a lot of it right now is coming down to the, whether you play an eight or nine game conference schedule. I think right now the Big Ten is that nine? Eight. Oh, that's right. Yeah, Big Ten. Yeah, that's right. So I think that that will play into things. But ultimately, you know, what are we?

are we in like the 10th year and it started before and now i mean we've always we've always known there's a push yep but i think the 5 plus 11 it will be the way that that things work out and if you're the other two leagues if you're the big 10 and the excuse me the big 12 and the the acc is it a perfect scenario perfect world especially when you consider the the the uh the automatics no but i don't know if you're going to get any better i just i think that in the end uh based on the street to schedule. That's also going to be big. And I think that'll factor in.

But there's so many things going on with how much control or how much influence the committee's going to have. So something's going to happen. This is going to change for, for 20, I guess 20, 26 is when it would. And how does the ACC with Miami, Clemson, Florida State, I mean, those are things. three pretty successful, and in some cases, well, both in Florida State and in Clemson's case, national championship teams in the last 20 years. How do they feel about being in a league that's only going to have two automatic qualifiers? Well, I mean, you look at what their leagues undergone anyway.

I mean, you look at some of the additions that they've had and bringing in the Pack 12 schools and SMU. I just think that the way things have gone in college athletics, you knew there were separation. You knew that there were certain conferences that were head and shoulders above the other. But now there's this huge separation. I mean, everybody there's clearly, you know, everybody will say the power two. I mean, it went from Power 5, Power 4, to now people are saying Power 2. It is the power two in many respects. And you, so if you're the ACC, you're trying to make sure that you don't fall anymore.

more further back than you already are. I think it's the, I think the Big 12 is the third team, the third conference right now. ACC is the fourth. And then you have the rest. But the problem is with that and look, I'm, U of H is in the Big 12, but if you

were to look at just football related, the history is on the ACC side. Right. I mean, Big 12 loses their two flagship. Like who is the best brand right now, Big 12 football wise, right this second. Probably.

It's not an automatic answer. Yeah, because, I mean, I look at Arizona State, but they're just new. But they've been lousy up until last year. Iowa State? Is it, is it Kansas State? Is that who's going to carry your flag? I mean, you don't have, and that's how they're going to pitch at that, oh, we've got this great parity, but that doesn't do anything for you. Yeah. I mean, you've got to have an anchor, and like you said, the ACC does have these teams.

But yeah, there's the 5 plus 11, I think, is the way that they go for now. And then, you know, there's a lot of changes coming. And we'll get into this, I'm sure. But, I mean, they're thinking about messing with the NCAA tournament, going from 68 to maybe 72. That's the cash grab for me. Yeah. Whatever the TV. Yeah. I don't know.

It's just, I'm still waiting for the moment for the SEC, the Big Ten, to invite Notre Dame. Florida State, Clemson and Miami, and say, we'll see all later. And obviously that would upset the North Carolinas of the group, the basketball powers of it, but this, as great as the March Madness is and as much television dollars it gets there, it still pales a comparison to what college football

brings to television and to the industry. And that's why they, with all due respect to North Carolina and Kansas and other thorough breads of college basketball, they just don't matter. And that's when people always tell me, some of my Cougars get mad of me, as awesome as it is to follow Cougar basketball and see what they've done and get to the

championship game and all the final fours in a routine tournament. Eddie Nunez and Willie Fritz are carrying a much greater responsibility right now. Because everything is around television contracts and filling the stadiums

and getting the big donors. You're not cutting checks for basketball, you're cutting checks for football. Yeah, and when you don't fill stadiums, You don't get that money. I mean, I was looking at the other day, just looking at the history of the revenue budgets. And Houston's made some big strides. But even where they're at now, and I think they're a little bit around 90,

everybody else in a big – and this is just the Big 12. This is at the SEC of the Big 10. Everybody else in the Big 12 is at 110, 120, 120 million. I mean, that's a significant gap. But that's what happens when you're not in the Power 5. power for for 30 years. And so there's a significant challenge and a lot of room to to make up. Because like you said, I mean, they, they, Eddie Nunez's job when he got here, they were very upfront. It was to raise money. They've got a, and that encompasses a lot of things.

You know, the ticket sales, TV revenue, the media rights deals that they have. And that stuff just doesn't happen overnight. So they've got a lot of ground to make up. Even a school like Indiana. I know the coach from Indiana was, I would forget his name. It's whatever. He was in town for the Bear Brian Awards this past year. And as great as Indiana basketball has as a national reputation, how Indiana makes its money is football. It's football. Is it Kurt Signany or something like that?

Yeah. Something strange time like that. All right. Joseph, we've got to wake the strippers up. And I don't expect you to do it. Just sit back and relax. That's when the strippers are here. And we'll get to them.

We'll get to the news at noon. And then coming up in 30 minutes from now, we're going to ask you folks to say, you're sorry because you frankly owe some people some apologies not you actually you probably do jonathan you certainly owe some apologies and you know i live my life apologizing to a lot of people seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two five seven ninety twelve oh four in h town good welcome to hour number three of the mat thomas show with ross this is sports talk seven ninety our buddy jose sir torting in for an hour Until 1 o'clock.

I like this thing. Want to do it on a regular basis? Eh, I like my day job. Yeah, I figured as much. Everybody wants somebody else's job until they come in and try to do it. Like I would like, oh, you mean time I get to go to cover games and just write about the score? That seems pretty easy. Then I realize all the crap behind the scenes crap you guys got to do.

Yeah. And have integrity. I don't have to have integrity as a show host in this program. 1207 on Sports Talk 7. Time now for the news at noon. All right. The headlines are very simple. The Texans had OTAs today. And now they've had OTAs for several days, but this was an opportunity for the media to take apart and watch some of the OTAs. C.J. Stroud did not throw again.

New offensive coordinator, Nick Cayley said, quote, on C.J. Stroud not throwing. No concerns whatsoever. Believe him or not. It's a headline, but no, I do not believe. Something. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Something happened. Something's up.

And somebody said, don't throw. The whole schedule, he's on a throwing schedule. That's what D'Biko Ryan said a couple of days ago. Eh, I ain't buying that. It is what it is. So they'll have mini camp coming up next month, and they'll be off another month after that. And then it's training camp time, 2005. As the Texans, it's still amazing to be.

me. Not getting a lot of respect. Middle of the pack in the AFC, still teams in front of them that consider to be legitimate threats to win the AFC would be Baltimore, Buffalo, of course, Kansas City, the defending AFC champions. And a lot of folks are very robust on the Los Angeles Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals who didn't even make the playoffs last year. A lot of good teams in front of them. I think the offensive line is the main concern. I don't think C.J. Stroud's ailment. whatever it is right now, should be of a concern unless he doesn't throw next month.

And then we can spend the next month after that wigging out about why he didn't throw during OTAs and why I didn't throw during Texas mini-can. Yeah, July is a little bit more of a... A little bit of a warning sign. That's for sure. Astros last night fall to the Seattle, to the, excuse me, the Tampa Bay race by a score of 13 to 3. Brian King got crushed.

Really good bullpen? Not so much last night. King and friends did not do a job. Forrest Whitley struggled as well. I feel like the chase for Forrest Whitley in a long-term major league career is probably going to be pretty short-lived here. He continues to get hit it hard.

I know he's been through a lot of ailments, suspensions, and herd and that whatnot, but this move of the bullpen has not paid much dividend at this point. Yeah. Do you look at your pitching situation as a whole The rotation, yeah, I could see that. But you know, Matt, if I looked at the schedule right, this is a pretty opportunity, you know, teams that they're playing,

schedule-wise. You can start to make some ground because, you know, you do have a couple of tough series coming up maybe in the middle of June. They have dropped three or four to the race so far. It'll be Framber Valdez on the mound, four and four with an ERA of 3.39. Astros, by the way, do not lose any ground. To the Seattle Mariners, they were playing in a game last night with the Washington Nationals. It was 3-3 going to the 10th.

The National score 6 in the top of the 10th. They went 9 to 3. You like the Manford rule? Man for a man at second base. What's that? The Man-Roeuvre at second base, start the extra innings? No. What?

I don't like any of that stuff. Oh, I want to get out. Look, your deal is you don't like the war and all those stats. That's my pick. I don't like any of that. Just play baseball the way it's. meant to be played. I got you. I got you. Yorna Alvarez going to face

live pitching today at the ballpark. Could return sometime this weekend. I like it. It's a good headline because, you know, adding a bat is always a good thing. But again, I think it's going to take some time. But having him back in there

get some runs. All right. NBA from last night, the Indiana Pacers really didn't put up much of a fight last night. They lost to the New York Knicks. That means that series of now three games of two in favor of Indiana. Game six will be tomorrow night in Indianapolis. Are you ready for potentially an Oklahoma City versus Indiana NBA final? And it's a terrible question to ask because it really doesn't mean anything in the big picture.

But is America ready to watch two of the smallest teams market-wise in the NBA compete for a title? I think America likes that. You know, if I'm if I'm watching and maybe I'm not a huge NBA fan. You want that. I mean, yeah, the Knicks are a different kind of story because they haven't won it in a while, but I like some variety. I don't want to see Golden State in it every year. You know, who was the, you know, some of the other teams that have played more recent, like Miami. Right. You know, Boston. I think this is a good thing. Market size, yeah, that, I mean, that's, that's factoring in viewership and eyeballs and stuff. But I think it's going to be cool to see this.

you know Indiana I'm not you know after watching them last night I think they win next game they better not

taking it back to New York because that place will be that's what you work about so if you go Oklahoma City New York the NBA gets what it wants yeah absolutely does and by the way

the NBA and this is for any of us that even pay attention this I don't even know if the general fan does the NBA doesn't care what the ratings are they've very got their money

they've got their TV deal kicking in next year that's going to give every NBA team millions and millions of dollars. They don't care if you don't watch or not. They just don't. I just want to see Daddy Halliburton in the finals. That'd be kind of cool. Do you think his suspension was long enough?

Yeah, just let him be a dad. Yeah, but I get what he did. But let me a dad, but don't go being, you're like four foot nine going up to talk to Janice Dent de Kupo the way that you did. Stop. Yeah, that was probably not a smart move. But you had to do something. So dad got put in the corner. That's enough. And real quick, since you're here, U of H, Todd Whitting is going to be back for the 2026 baseball season. Yeah, year number 16.

You know, regional start today. Houston, this is the six years that they're not in it. I know that's a little bit of a downer. A lot of people thought that there'd be a change. He's got one year left. So basically, you know, this time next year, if you're not, if you're U of H and you're not in the tournament, then probably be a coaching change.

There you go. A year later to most people thought. Yeah, those are the news noon headlines. 1214 on Sports Talk 799. Now listen. In 15 minutes, Houston, if you listen to Shown for that, we thank you. You're going to have to apologize for things you've said and done this week. You know what I'm saying.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. We'll do that at the bottom of the hour. Yankees Keith has an anything- Goes Friday question. Hmm, that could be very interesting. He says it's going to help me with my relationship. Do you have problems in your? relationship right now. Whatever he's trying to say, he's going to help me.

So I'm here for it. Is he going to give you some fatherly advice, some uncle advice? You never know. I can always use some advice. It's 1215 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. If you want to join the conversation, 7-13-212-5-7-90. When C.J. Stroud's offensive coordinator, Nick Cayley, says he has no concerns about C.J.

not throwing today. Do you believe him or not? 713-212-5-790. All right, Jonathan, you're the producer of the show. You get to do something that no other producers ever done. I think we're going to do a spelling bee during Helly Aaron out at 1250. Spelling be. People are going to call in.

I'm going to give them the word and they must spell it within 10 seconds. All right. This is going to be fine. Now, these are going to be words that everybody has ever used. These are going to be words that wouldn't take a dork, staring at a dictionary for nine months in a row to get right. And then the words I'm using are under a category that I Google searched, commonly misspelled words in the National Spelling Bee. Give us a one.

You know what? I'll give you one word that we won't use. Okay. All right. Recommend. Okay. Okay. I will not use that word.

You know what? I'll use that word. We'll reward those that listen to the show right now. That's not a bad one. Okay. That word is one of the most misspelled words, the national spelling bee. So I will say recommend And then they'll have 10 seconds to spell it

Do you think you can Google it that fast or is that too fast Is it even too much time? I can see it that quick, yeah Okay I'll give them five seconds They must start spelling it as soon as I say the word Is that right? Does that feel right?

Let's go with eight And you get eight seconds to spell the word And there are all words that you should get That if you had any sort of education whatsoever Would you go to high school? You went to LaGrange, right? No. I went to Bastrop

I was close Yeah no Is that LaGrange a rival Yours? No we don't even Yeah It's not even Oh my God

Are you being Bougy about Bastrop? I'm just saying We're not LaGrange It's like saying I'm from Smithville Okay so who was your Who was Bastrop's rival then Actually at one point it was

Austin Westlake What when in the 80s? 80s 90s So who's the rival right now If we were to go to Bastrop By the way Are you in the Bastrop High School Wall of Fame?

I know we're this is going. I'm not. I know you are. I am. But I wasn't trying to. Was it Taylor High School? Made Creek. Shut your bum ass up. Seriously. That's terrible. Taylor. But no, I'm not. But that's just a, that's a slight omission on their part.

Who's the most famous Bastrop High School graduate? You know, somebody brought that up. No, we actually, there's a, like a burger place, like back in the day. But recently, we got a guy drafted by the 49ers in the second round. So, Really?

Probably him. Alfred Collins. So real quick, one of my friends from high school, I was the third graduating class at Made Creek, 1990. So we had 88, 89, 90, and 91. So 88 to 91, we kind of stick together doing a lot of things socially. I don't do a lot of fun because I'm busy, but that group, 88 through 91. So one of my friends on Facebook wants us to have an 80s get together. she wants us to go to a skating rink.

Roller. Yes. I don't know if that's going to be, if that's going to end well. That's a lot of hips. That's people between the ages of 51 and 55. Those are broken hips right there. You fall. Hurt yourself.

So, now I understand 80s music, goofiness, because we lived in the skating when we were younger, right? of us, it's albus, but a lot of us did. I just don't, I don't want to go and fall on my ass and concuss myself and break anything. I'd rather just, if we're going to do 80s stuff, just dance to it. Or sit and talk and say, how's life been? Sounds like you need to tell her you're sorry in the next segment. When you say this, you just.

So Lisa, if you're listening, I don't believe Lisa is. I'm sorry, but I don't think, what do you think? Do you think a bunch of 51 to 55-year-olds should be playing, going to a dance? to a skating rink for a reunion get together? A skating rink? Yeah, you know what a skating rink is? Oh, no, no. Y'all are going to mess up all the type of ankles and everything.

Okay. Like, every time we go to the gallery, I point to my wife and say, hey, I want to go to the ice skating rink. And thankfully, she talks me out of it because I probably would break a arm. Mm-hmm. You just can't do that now. Just like pickleball. You ask me about playing pickleball. You can't get hurt in pickleball.

But I don't want to. If you ever get, I got news for you. ever get hurt in pickle boy you should be embarrassed okay all right let's go to the phones keith is with us on seven 90 hi keith how are y'all good okay so i got something for all the males who love women and who love music i got a list of three songs and i'll give you the artist when to go with it's going to help your relationship uh jonathan and you matt you're joseph you're These are the three songs. One is called joy in repetition.

Get out your yellow notepad and your number two pencil. One is called joy in repetition. Two is called I hate you. And the third one is the greatest love song ever. It's called Adore. And the artist is the greatest musician, the greatest songwriter, the greatest long live performer, Prince Rogers Nelson.

Secondly, I'm going to get to my son, Aaron Arson, Judge. He's going to win the Triple Crown. The Yankees are going to win the World Series. And the overpaid Dodgers, the Jukegis is going to win 120 games. We're going to sweep them this weekend. That's all I got. Okay. Go ahead.

I got it. I got it. Pull up the lyrics on Google. That's the greatest love song ever. All right. I'm just going to tell you right now, thank you, Keith. of Marvin Gay, it'll be just fine. Can I knock that out real quick.

Isn't Marvin Gay a horrible person, though? No, his dad was. Shot and killed him. Okay, that's what it is. But Marvin Gaye had his issues, too. What are great songs. Right? I agree, yeah, absolutely.

Classic. Christian on 7-90. Hello, Christian. Hold on one second. Hold on. I'm doing a major market radio show. What I got time to hold on for here? Well, well,

Matt Thomas, I'm sorry, but we, down here in Galveston County, we're in the middle of a crazy lightning storm, and we just heard an explosion-like sound effect. Oh, thank you for that, I think. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry for that. Sounds like he shouldn't be on the radio. A couple questions to ask you and Mr. Duarte of the Chronicle. First of all, when it comes down to the NBA on TNT, I know that y'all probably don't care about the playoff.

after the rockets got eliminated. But with the NBA on TNT having its final weekend, I just got to ask, what do you think people will remember about it aside from inside the NBA? And also, when it comes down to the Astros last night, getting whipped by the race, do you think that they should be embarrassed by losing to a team that plays at a minor league ballpark?

Or it's just motivation for how they going to treat them this weekend? Thanks, Christian. Christian's a... I like that laugh. One of our Alzheimer's. He laughs at his stuff. By the way, do we have... Are we in a hurricane here right now? We have tornado warnings? What the hell's going on outside?

I just saw lightning when I went to the restaurant, but that was it. Poor Christian. He's out there in Lamar getting his ass kicked out there. That's dedication, though, that he's calling into the Matt Thomas show while all that's going on. Yeah, the man's life is in peril, and he is still calling the show. For that, we'd thank him. Inside the NBA is the greatest TV show, pregame show, in the history of television. It's still going to be around next year. They're all talking about, it was a great run. It's going to be an ESPN next year. It's going to be the same version. They're going to record it in Atlanta. T.N. Turner is going to produce it. They're going to send it via satellite to New York, to New York, or Bristol, Connecticut. They're going to put it on. It's going to have the same hilarity that you've had for all those many years.

Just changing addresses. Just changing addresses. All right. Oh, Carter was calling in real quick. Carter, you own two skating rinks. Is this accurate? This is true. Yes, sir. Do you want to have 51 to 55 year olds at your skating rink, potentially hurting themselves and damaging our bodies? Look, Matt, we do it all the time, 80s, 90s, 90s parties, 90s parties, 50-year-old, we got all people coming on skate. We do adult nights.

My boy, Carl, he gets out there. He's about 60 years old. He can skate around circuits around all these young guns. I'm telling you. All right. Do you have an icy machine in your skating rink? Of course I do. Do you really?

Is it always working and fine? Always working, always fine. We sell big crap out of them. Okay. So you're telling me, so if the 50-year-old crowd wants to hang out, we're going to be completely safe and nothing's going to potentially harm us there.

Yeah, for sure. All right. Carter, you know where to find me. Thank you very much. Can you know how to skate? I haven't been on skates and, How old am I? 40 years?

Don't you? Who did that? Who did the... Was it me? Was that you back there? No, I was just on my throat. Oh, you're 20, what? 23?

22. What was the last time you were on skates? Since when I was 16? I've been skating since I was 8, though. Okay. I got to see you on skates, Matt, really. No, you don't. Guess what?

You're not going to see me on skates. I'll go. out with people, but I'll sit and drink my icies. That just, that could end so badly. I think it could add Ben and badly. I can't even spit it up. Respected sports talk host,

Voice of the Houston Rockets, friend to all, enemy to others, dies when he cracks his head on a skating rink? No chance. I'm not going down that way. I'd write that story for you. No, you wouldn't.

I really have, who do I want the Cronko writing that story for me? You don't want to be writing your own bit? No. You know too much about me. Who would somebody? The Matt Kawakara kid can write the story from. He doesn't know me at all.

Yeah. I follow him on Twitter and follow me back. I know who to call to get the good quotes. I know you would. You got too many sources. All right. Time for you to apologize. You need to say you're sorry.

I know you do. 713-212-5-790. All right. It is the final hour of the week. set things up for you coming up in 30 minutes a very uncomfortable non-flora story from me and i'm double and triple verifying jonathan this is a legit story i believe that it is i'm excited but i used have a radio partner his name rhymes with manse merlin you don't know him and he did a story one time that he swore was completely 100% accurate and it wasn't and i've never let him ever forget

about it. So I'm just triple checking to make sure that the story I'm going to read you in 28 minutes, as bombastic and as an uncomfortable it is for me to read to you is in fact something that did happen. Journalist 101. Got to get your ethics right. Got to get your ethics right. 28 minutes. All right. Hell yeah or not

is in 48 minutes. It's a spelling B edition. I will give you a sports athletes name first or last. You have eight seconds to spell it accurately. So you won't have enough time to Google it and give me the right answer. I mean, literally the clock will start. You must the name spelled within eight seconds.

So either you do know it or you don't for the chance to play a fantastic prizes. And then we've also got coming up right now, our friend Adam Wexler, who just came in off of a rainy practice field and or practice bubble over at Texans. Right now is here. I had your producer Cole Thompson in yesterday, and he said the fact that C.J. Stroud did not throw two days ago he was worried. 0.000000-00-1. Today, after finding out that C.J. did not throw again today, Mr. Wexer, he is at 0.000-0-0-2. I am significantly higher than that, but I'm also not significantly concerned.

I am significantly puzzled by the fact that if there was something that was done with his shoulder this year, that they would try to be so coy and frankly hide it. Well, they could be hiding it by not having him out there at all, and we wouldn't know anything was wrong, but he is attending. He did participate today a little bit more than yesterday, did some team drills on each of the snaps that he received. The ball ended, no, they were about eight in a row. Oh, okay, okay. I don't know if this is the exact order, but I think it went something like this. Handoff, handoff, pitch, fumbled snap, handoff, handoff pitch.

Nice. So there were no throws again today for C.J. Stroud, Davis, Davis, and Keedonslovis, handled all the... Who? The third one's name? Keaton Slovis, former USCQB, who was with the team. team last year, did not play and would not play this year unless some dramatic bad things happened. The only concern is there's probably a reason why he's not throwing beyond what Domeco gave his answer on Wednesday and the new O.C. Nick Cayley gave his an answer today. He said he was not concerned at all, which was good to hear because I'm totally in agreement with that. There's no reason for concern, but there's a reason it's happening. They're not resting him. They're not limiting his

throws like, well, I have him make a hundred throws in May when we know he's going to be making hundreds. That, to me, is not the reason. Nope. I've never seen any quarterback get treated like that. There is a reason. We just don't know what it is. And it's not far-fetched or irresponsible when you have media availability, the limited

times you have in the springtime and or early summer to say if your quarterback's not throwing, why is you not throwing? It's not out of the ordinary. I don't know if 31 other NFL starting quarterbacks are not. not throwing. I haven't taken a look. I'm sure you may have time between now and two o'clock to look for that answer. But the answer that Dameco gave two days ago about there is a schedule and today was the day was not a day of throwing, I don't think was completely honest. And there may be a schedule that says do not throw for two months. If that's a schedule, then that makes a lot of sense. But throwing schedule and not doing

on a day where there are cameras and people and reporters there is a little awkward. Yeah, one of the other quarterback so we did not see on the practice field today and did not see on the practice field on Wednesday. The draftee, Graham Mertz, it appeared he was throwing on Thursday when we were not there because obviously their in-house crew gets video from practices. Media is not allowed to attend. They're also shooting the entire practice, whereas we are not. Now, I'm mocking a little bit all the snaps that CJ took today that were all handoffs and running plays, but it gives you a good idea of his mobility. It allows additional guesswork to what might be holding him back if it is something physical. And it certainly doesn't appear to be his foot, his knee, his legs, his lower

half in any way. Probably isn't something in the core or else he wouldn't be turning and handing off or pitching in the way that he is. Doesn't look like there's a, I'm playing big time amateur doctor here. Well, he's also a good teammate, too, because if you're, if you've been told not to throw, that means you probably don't need to be out there at all, because that's what you're primarily there for. You're not there to go practice your pitch. pitching or handoff, you're there to throw the football. So I give him credit for even being out there to begin with. And that's the good part.

It's that he's, you know, we were trying to speculate earlier about this as him being a divin, not wanting to throw an OTAs. I don't think that's the case at all. So I give him credit for putting on the shorts and the T-shirt and whatever the case would be. Quarterbacks who don't attend voluntary OTAs when they're the starter, they're doing it wrong. Yeah. There's no other way to say.

That's Aaron Rogers. That's Brett Far before. him. There's probably a handful of other folks have done over the years. This is a young team. They've got a brand new OC. C.J's a young quarterback. Everything about it screams, you don't have a reason to not attend. So he is. You've got his walkie

talkie out there when Nick is running the plays out there to Davis and Keaton. So he's very involved, but there's clearly a reason why he is not, isn't currently throwing in front of us. I doubt he's throwing like normal away from us. He's not no chance. So

we all play amateur psychologist on this show. I think it's, I think today's medical staff, and this is going to the Astros, is going to the Texans, this is going to probably 60 to 70% of sports teams in general, just believe

not providing information is their way, they can justify it by saying, you know what, we keep things sometime with things in house. I don't like it. I don't think it's a service to its fan base. I don't think there's panic because if there is something that was done, he got

a shoulder clean up or he was just told hey you got 10-9th and don't throw. That is very typical of a young quarterback and three for a guy that has thrown as many passes as he has in his young life. Forgetting about two years of the Texans, Ohio State, high school,

they just say take a break and that's okay. Yeah. That's what I want to know is why even go to the let amateur sports radio hosts like ourselves speculate as to what could be going on. That's why I would take a little bit from the the Cayley comment saying he's not concerned.

Again, I wasn't concerned either. I don't know nearly as much as he does. He has a full picture of it. So yeah, today, by the way, May 30th, 100 days until he's on the field throwing passes against Nick Cayley's former team on opening day. They have the Rams. We still have

100 days until we're there. Whatever the reason is, the routine he's on, schedule he's on, I don't believe there's reason for concern that it keeps him off schedule for being ready to play. 31 other teams are not panicking the here word that C.J. Stroud did not throw passes today. If it's a month from now or two months from now at training camp, then there may be an eyebrow raised. If it's two weeks before the start

of the season, they're game planning for Davis Mills. It's worth noting they will have them for the next two weeks. They got OTAs again next week. The mandatory minicamp follows on the 11th of June or that week and we'll be out there that day. And then they're away all the way up until training camp begins. If there's no throwing for CJ next week, no throwing for CJ at mandatory in minicamp. I'm not sounding alarm bells, but it is noteworthy because we won't see them again for, like I said, about six and a half weeks. All right. Last thing before I let you go, get ready for your very impactful two to six show. What is the second most interesting thing you saw today at practice? OTAs. Probably that they mixed in Tay Ursary with the first unit

over at left tackle. He's their second round draft pick. He's getting work on both ends. He is a tackle. So getting reps at right tackle with different second and third units. But today, as opposed to yesterday. He was getting work at left tackle with that first unit. Cam Robinson getting work with that second unit. Very, very, very, very little is decided on that offensive line. Maybe Howard at right guard. Probably nothing else. So it's definitely noteworthy. Each day we're out there, try to go to look, see on what happens. And I certainly think it's noteworthy that Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel look every bit the part of what they did at Iowa State, what they were, where they were drafted, and what they've initially been able to show.

Higgins wears 81, the number maybe you might associate with a tight end. He's not a huge, burly, big, huge guy, but you could pass for a tight end for a player that size. He's basically Nico Collins. By the way, Nico looks ridiculously good already, as usual. See, I'd rather you come in and say, something's happened to him, Nico. He doesn't get 10 pounds. It looks like he's slow.

I mean, when you just said that, we would expect nothing less. We would. I said to somebody out there today, like, I'm down with this being the last time we see him until training camp. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate him being one of the veteran wideouts. It's a crazy young group of wide receivers they have. Kirk was not practicing today, but he and Kirk are essentially the veterans of the group at the front of the line. What do you got on the 2 to 6 show today?

Obviously, full breakdown of the 7th and 8th innings from last. night if you're unaware of how those things went down. We've got to make sure you realize, here's what happened, here's how it's going to affect him for the rest of the season. No? No, because you're going to treat it like it's the end of the world. I listen to two to six show. I know.

Sky's falling. Bullpen Brian King, normal sub two ERA gets hit hammered and hard. It's over. I know. I know I'm going to hear it. Sometimes you run into a team you just don't match up well against on the baseball diamond. Do you know the best thing about last night was not only, well, they said the Astros losing wasn't great, but how the Ms were on a 3-3 game of the nationals,

the sucky nationals at home, and the nationals not only win the game, which can happen for road teams, but they scored six in the 10th inning. Yeah, they put a nice little number on. They had a late lead. Mariners tied it up, and then they said, all right, we're going to score and score and score and score. Did you go to bed before the game was over? Of course not. I posted on the old X platform after it ended. So you stayed up late just to put the Washington.

Seattle score up? I mean, that wasn't my sole purpose. I just wanted to make sure everybody realized the Astros were tied in their game after six. The Mariners were tied in their game after nine. They lost by six. The Astros lost by ten. All right. An amazing addition of the on-deck show tonight at six o'clock with me, Brian McTagel will be with us along the way. Mr. Wexler, thank you very much. You're going to say you're going to go find Nick Casario. He was there today. And you're going to whisper, hey, man, just kind of give us a little heads up. What's going on? We'll see what we can find out. We've got a another, yeah, 47 minutes. I'll see what I can do for you.

Good luck. That's Adam Wex are part of the A team at 2 o'clock here on 790. We're 17 minutes away from non-Florida stories. Believe it or not, today, Hellier or not is a spelling bee. You get eight seconds to spell an athlete's last or first name. 114. Sports Talk 790.

Bond drives it pretty deep to left field. See you later! Tyving, stop by Dubon. Fantastic play by Maricio Duvon. This is Maricio Dubon. Sports Talk 790 and the I-Heart Radio. You're home for Diatri.

Now, the drive on Sports Talk 790 from the Honda Clearlake.com traffic center. Good afternoon. Happy Friday. We've still got some slowing on the Southwest Freeway outbound at Chimney Rock. We've had this accident that's been causing a delay. It's just cleared out of the two left lanes. Still have one, I-10 East Freeway Eastbound at Freeport, the left lane and shoulder taken up. I'm Katie London and the 24-hour traffic center. Report is sponsored by Wendy's new frosty flavors. Love Wendy's classic chocolate and vanilla frosty flavors, announcing all new frosty swirl and frosty fusion flavors.

The same creamy treat you love now with a flavor refresh. Refresh on a classic? Gotta be Wendy's. Open till midnight or later at participating U.S. Wendy's. Hours may vary by location. Lanny went to college and racked up huge debt. A little bit over $100,000. For a degree he couldn't use?

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Wait, are these rubber scores from last week? She needs to hire new lab technicians so she can bounce back into her old self. I need Indeed. Indeed, you do. Our matching platform lets you spend less time searching and more time connecting with candidates. Redeem your $75 credit at Indeed.com slash credit. Terms and conditions apply. I lived on a commercial salmon fishing boat in Alaska,

and I genuinely think that was the first time I've ever felt myself kind of like slipping mentally. I think Alaska does weird things to people. If you're interested in hearing anonymous callers like this, tell stories from their lives, check out my podcast, Therapy Gecko. You can listen to Therapy Gecko on America's number one podcast network, IHeart. Follow Therapy Gecko and start listening on the free IHeart Radio app today. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790.

My non-floor story coming up in 10 minutes also will reveal audio from the person that such situation is involved with. Now, Jonathan, you heard the audio as I sent it to you. Any thoughts before we play it coming up in 10 minutes? Everybody stay tuned for 1.30. Okay. That's all I'm going to say. because what I did was I wanted to make sure it was not one of those fake stories

but it has absolutely reached legitimate news sites so there is some validity to it oh my goodness this is probably your best one I'm not gonna lie I mean we've had some doozies and unfortunately it's a woman involving

she has a medical condition hopefully has been resolved since then but she had to go to the video and tweet to put this out there. I'll have a second story too, but I just want to make sure the first one is definitely going to get out there. 120 on Sports Talk 790. So the Astros bullpen did not do its job last night. Hopefully it will fix things up.

We got Framber Valdez going today. The Astros need to win this game because, hell, if the nationals are going to continue to give the Seattle Mariners some issues, we're going to be in a good spot. Astros, one-half game behind. the Mariners for the top spot in the Western or the American League West. I'll let the On Deck show at 6 o'clock.

Brian McTagra will stop by for a few minutes. And again, the interesting story today coming out of the ballpark and we'll get Joe Espada's thoughts on this when he meets the media coming up at 4 is that Yordon Alvarez is going to take some live pitching, I believe from some minor lingers

that'll be called up from Sugarland. So maybe he'll throw to some guys and maybe that'll help with him and his recovery. And if he feels good, maybe he'll get some playing time Saturday or Sunday when the Astros finish up the series of Tampa Bay. And then they go on the road for a week to play Pittsburgh and Cleveland. So as Joseph mentioned a few minutes ago,

the schedule is going to get a little softer here. And it's not bad because, again, the Astros find themselves, just one-half game and right in the midst of a wild card chase as well. So hopefully some good news for Jordan Alvarez, because getting him back in there and getting him productive will certainly help a team that has been heading better as of late. especially Jose Al-Tuvian, to his lesser extent, Christian Walker. One thing the Astros have got to fix is teams are running on the Astros.

Well, they're running on one person in particular, Yarnier-Diaz. I mean, that is not a good situation. I don't know what his catching numbers are per se compared to everybody else, but I'm not particularly happy about what's going on with what's going on behind the dish. and Yonner did hit a home run yesterday. He's got six home runs so far this year. Batting 235 that's got to get better. But his framing, which I think is largely overrated

because I think it doesn't take much to be a decent framer. But it felt like the rays were running and running and running and running at the Astros expense. And not that base running is a huge part of the game, but it is a part of the game. And if that continues to be an issue, you know, maybe the Astros, when Yodon comes back, maybe they try to keep third catcher, Sazar, Salazar on this team, and let Caratini get some more work behind the dish,

because right now teams are going to start building a reputation off of what the Astros can't do, and then what the Astros can't do is throw runners out. I'd be interested to say, maybe I'll have time to do it before the shows are with how the Astero is do in terms of caught ceiling as compared to the rest of the teams in Major League Baseball. But watching it last night, watching a raise runner on the bases and an errant throw to third base as well that'll out of run to score. It's not one of those things that as good as the Astros defense has been, there has been one Achilles heel, and that is seeing runners advance from first and second via the stolen base.

713-212-790. Also, we've got no NBA tonight because Oklahoma City did win the West. The next NBA game will be coming up on Saturday. It'll be the Knicks and Pacers in Indianapolis. The Pacers lost last night, and the Knicks won it by a final score of 11-194. So it's the three games to two lead there. Game number six of that series will be tomorrow night in Indianapolis. If they have to go to a game seven, it'll be Monday night in New York.

And if you are rooting for, not necessarily rooting for the Pacers, but you're anti-Nicks, I would have to say if the Pacers lose this game tomorrow, that the Knicks would be a very heavy favor to win game seven on their home floor. But as we've seen before, we've seen teams that go up 3-1 in the series, lose the next two, and win game seven. We saw it here in Houston about what, three weeks ago. So it can't happen. But I would not want to, if I was Indiana, knowing how crazy that Madison Square Garden can get and how the, and how the Knicks play as well as they did.

Although that was the first time they beat the Pacers in the series in New York, I wouldn't want to go back for a game seven. So if you are rooting anti-Nix, anti-Spicely, anti-Benziller, anti-all the other celebrities that are there. We've got Timothy Shadamays how you say that? What is he known for? He's in the movie Dune, and I believe he was in the movie, the new Willy Wonka.

On the Chaka Factory? Yeah, it's a musical, though. Okay. He's a, you know. I mean, is Timothy, what is it, Shalame? Is that how you say it? Shalema, yeah. Is he, is that New York fan through and through?

I mean, look, I know Spike Lee's been going forever. I know Screamin A loves him, but Timothy Shalameh? I just know he's a, like, he came out, like, saying all the ball knowledge he knew on that one. It was ESPN with Nick Saban. Yeah, and he also went to Indianapolis for the games, too. So, I mean, at least he's traveling. He's a ball head, so. He knows this stuff.

but I think he's from the Big Apple. I don't know. Okay, well, but obviously you're spending some significant dollars going to these playoff games. I don't know. I just... He looks harmless to me. He's an actor. But, I mean, is he a blank talker?

I mean, like, McAfee, for his crazy as is and as wonky as his show is, I mean, he's representing Indianapolis because that's where he lives and does his business and whatnot. He got the people fired up. Is Timothy Shalomey supposed to strike the fear? Oh, Timothy Shalomey's rude for this. the Knicks? Who? What did you do? What were you five years ago?

It's because he's dating Kylie Jenner now. Oh, now that is, now that's, yes, I did see, okay, I mean,

then we got to give him some credit. I mean, I don't care about his acting skills. And obviously, his dating skills are pretty good. That's why he's like, now that's why the Knicks are like putting

like that pedestal on, putting that crown. Like he goes to, so it's really not about what he's done. It's about what he's, his status. Like, it's like,

you know, as a young kid say his aura. And she's a billionaire. Yeah, Straight billionaire. I think she's the richest of the Jenner's. Yeah, of course. With her makeup line, like, things like million something or a billion something.

I don't know. Did your girl wear Kylie Jenner stuff? Yes. When I met her, she had like the, like, you know, the makeup palette. I don't, you didn't turn around and hide, huh? And you didn't run the other direction. I was like, oh, this money. Okay.

You seem all right, you know. Oh, so you were happy with the clothing and makeup she was wearing. You said, this girl's going to be mine now. You see a high class woman. You got to go for it. Every other time you go, you see like some Walmart palette. You guys, people that listen, they know what I'm talking about. So Estee Lauder wasn't good enough for her?

Nah. Okay. Gotta be the high name brand stuff. I can't judge you. You're happy. You're successful. She feels like she's your girl for now. Your wife doesn't make makeup?

No, of course she does. The money we spent on makeup is patently absurd, but I don't think my wife is wearing the Kylie Jenner brand. I think it's probably a little young for her. All right. Harder good stuff, though. I'm sure it's wonderful. A very uncomfortable.

And I guess we have to believe it article, a story coming up in non-flora stories. That is next, 128, Sports Talk 790. He's got a text from a friend that said, Matt, your first non-Florida story stinks. Yeah. No pun intended? No pun intended.

I don't think it was any pun intended. Hey, I'll be, you think my day is done? No chance. I'm going to do the On-Dex show from, I can park at 6 o'clock. Looking forward to a talk. with you then first pitch at 710 and then I'll have the 10th inning show so I'm going to put a full out in Dan I want to hopefully Jonathan you understand that I'm the only one here

among the talk shows it really puts in the major hours Ross is a little bit Dan does some but you see Sean Salisbury doing the on deck in 10th inning nope Wax and clinton not out of their time slot no chance well yes was just at the yeah he gets a little bit clinton's got no excuses none whatsoever so when it comes the laziness it's really it's about clinton and probably Sean, not at the top of the list. We love them, but, you know, they hadn't seen a 40-hour work week and God knows how long.

All right. Again, Astros on deck begins at 6. Framber Valdez will take the hill, and again, Yordon Alvarez is going to be doing some hitting to some apparently minor league pitchers, and if that works out well, maybe he will see him on Saturday and Sunday. Game number six of the NBA Eastern

Conference Finals takes place tomorrow in Indianapolis. If there is a game 7, it would be Monday in Madison score garden. And again, C.J. Stroud did not throw today at Texans OTAs. And Nick Caley, the new offensive coordinator, said there is nothing to be worried about. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show Monday through Thursday. We call it a beat. Leave it or not. But on Fridays, we call it a hell you're not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212. 570.719. 713. 2.1.2.5790.

And today, you have a very important task. We celebrated the National Spelling Bee playing yesterday. Guess what? We're going to have to see if you can spell some athletes first and or last names. I'll give you a name. You'll spell it. You'll have eight seconds to complete it.

If you do, you'll hear this. Hell yeah! If you get it wrong, you'll hear this. You get two names right. You win a prize. The prize would be from what, Jonathan? Of course, sports. top 790 t-shirt and a pair tickets to see Nelly and Jal Rule with special

guests Eve and Jermaine DePrie live on the Where the Party at Tour September 4th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Okay. Sounds great. I won't be there. I'll be very busy, but it'll be a great prize. Let's play Hellier and I. Bill! You ready to get those concert tickets? This is right up your alley, I think.

Man, you're invited. Just bring you some baby oil with you. Okay. All right. I'll bring the baby oil. spell Janus is in a Janus is in a Janus is in the Gumpel spell Janus for me you got eight seconds go Janis yep D-U-M-M-Y Bye see you That's not it

Bump-pum-pum-d-d-d-d-on It is spelled G-I-A-N-N-I-S Let's go to Eric Eric you want to spell Granky you're not going to be able to do that are you I would love to spell Zach Grinkey yes sir It's not happening, though. Belichick. Belichick?

Yeah, Belichick. Like Bill? As in Bill. B-E-L-C-H-I-C-K, Billichick. No, that's what you got to, I don't think you spelled it right. Let me double-check here. I'm always double-check on this one. Oh, it is Belichick.

Yeah, you're right. Okay. I spelled it wrong. Name number two for the win. Believe it. Hell you. Yokich, as in Nicola Yokic. Eight seconds. Go.

J-O-K-I-C. There you go. Congratulations. Nicely done, my man. You want to autograph that Granky T-shirt. Nicely done. Let's go to Roger on 790. Roger, you're ready to play Hellyer or not.

Yay, yay. Yay, yay. Shangoon as an Alperin Shangoon. Oh, man. Alper Shang-G-U-N. I mean, S-E-A-G-U-N? No, bye. S-E-N-G-U-N.

See you later. Appreciate your flying. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Come on and we got spots open. 7-1-3-212-7-90. Geo on 7-90. Geo, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? No, I'm for the story.

Thank you. Sabonis, as in to Montes-Sabonis. Sabonis, spelled it for us. De Montes. No, just a bonus. I'll go to just a bonus. S-A-B-O-N-I-S. That's correct.

Nicely done. Name number two for the win. Seacom, as in Pascal Seacom of the Indiana Pacers. Well, this is easy. S-I-K-A-M. No, it's S-A-I-K-I-M. Hold on. You know what, don't leave yet.

I better. Matt, come on. Hold on. Shut your bum ass up. Let me make sure. You may be, now I'm thinking. Mr. Ross here, y'all. Oh, hell, yes.

He said AM, I, A.m. You're right. You win, Gio. I'm stupid. Yeah, sir. Shut my bummed ass up. That's exactly right. Hell yeah.

All right. This is a terrible idea on my part. Adam on 790. Ready to play. Hell yeah or not. Yep, I'm here. Here we go. Schemes.

As in. Paul Skeens of the Pittsburgh Pirates. That's an easy one. S-K-E-N-E-S. That is correct. Name number two for the win. Scoobel, as in Tarek, Scuba over the Detroit Tigers. S-K-U-B-A-L.

There you go. Nicely done, my man. Congratulations. This is still train wreck of a segment. I'll be honest with you. Andrew on 790. You're ready to play. or not.

Hell yeah. You only got one. Scataboo, as in Cam Scataboo, rookie running back, New York Giants. Scataboo. F-K-A-T-E-V-O-O. No! With two-body-Os.

You know, if you have two-b-O's, you regret it eventually, don't you? Although some people say you can't have enough O. Isn't that right, Jonathan? I'm not agree with it. You're not agree with it? Okay, maybe little. Yeah.

Something like on a limit. knows but sometimes you have to have too many and then you get hurt. It's medication for that. All right. Hey, it was fun hanging out with y'all today. Ross is back on Monday, probably thankfully for many of you. I'll join you from the ballpark in five hours. Should I take a nap or should I go to the ballpark

and watch Yoron take some minor link swings? I think I'm going to do that. Yeah, the traffic's probably bad right now. Don't bring that up. Don't get me a coffee. Exactly. He'd probably go to the park. That's true. All right. Up next, it's Wexler. It's Clant. They're going to entertain the hell out of you for the next four hours.

Well, one of them will. It's you to decide which one will as part of the team on Sports Talk 790. The Honda of Clear Lake.com weather center. Your news radio 744 cast scattered showers and thunderstorms today with a high of 84, mostly cloudy tonight, low 73. This report is sponsored by MD Anderson Cancer Center. When facing cancer, where you go first matters. At MD Anderson Cancer Center,

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from the Parsons Imagine Next Studios. Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised by Earl. Key. Multipide the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports. Chill, H-down. For the only homegrown afternoon team

is talking your teams. Adam Clanton. and Adam Wexler are the A team. What's up, Houston? It is a Friday edition of the A team. It's Sports Talk 790. Wex AC, Cole Thompson with you, taking you up until 6 o'clock tonight. We will lead you into game two of the Astros Rays, four-game weekend series.

Hopefully the Astros are there. Actually, that's not even fair. 3-3, going into the 7th. Exactly. That makes last night even. worse. What the hell was that, Brian King? I know you've been good all year. And I know the bullpins been good all year.

You are begging for it. I'm not begging for it. You're begging for me to do it. It's one out of a hundred sixty-two. You are saying, hey, joining me today, co-hosting for the full four hours, Astros legend Craig Vigio. You think Brian King is going to be perfect for an entire season? No. You think Caleb Oort and Forrest Whitley are going to be awesome for an entire season?

No, nor do I expect them to be. It's just baseball. But I hope they don't. crap the bed like that? Yeah, even watching it, you're like, yeah, take care of this, maybe it lasts a week, a couple appearances, everything will be back to normal

for Brian King. He had a day. I'm a little surprised. His pitch count was so low because they kept swinging so early because they were meatballs. I was a little surprised he kept him out there as long as he did, but understandably so. This is what we talked about since they

lost starting pitching. It's not so much that they don't have chance to win the games when