The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Fall In Tampa, Are the Astros Falling Apart With More & More Injuries?

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Astros Fall In Tampa,  Are the Astros Falling Apart With More & More Injuries?

Pro Painters. That's painting happy. Get started today at surterpro.com. Each sort of pro painter's business is independently owned and operated. Contractor license and registration information is available at sort of pro.com. What will you find at Macy's Backstage? How about essential warm weather styles? Just $30 and under like dresses, shoes and bags, men's, and even kids' looks. Find the latest trends, new arrivals, and great prices at a Macy's backstage store near you. Find out about D&M Auto Leasing's Easy Lease. 3-290-1000 or DM Auto Leasing.com. This report is sponsored by Lowe's.

Lowe's knows that no matter your painter's stain project, saving is at the top of your to-do list. So shop Memorial Day Deals now on paints, primers, and stains from top brands like HDTV home by Sherwin-Williams Fowles Sparring Cabot for your next project. Find more Memorial Day deals now at Lowe's. We help you save. KBME Houston, K-TBCD-2, Houston.

My Heart Radio Station. The Astros. The Astros. The Rockets. Packets, basketball. Your home for your home teams. This is Sports Talk 790. From the Parsons Imagine Next Studios.

Hey, it's Robert Ford from the Astros broadcast team. And right now, your shot of $1,000 on Sports Talk 790. Just enter this nationwide keyword at sports790.com. Cash. C-A-S-H. Cash. Enter it now at Sports790.com. So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers.

Ross v. Real. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-1 in H-town. Good morning. Or is it? It's a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Sports Talk 790.

You just heard Dana Brown a half an hour ago. We'll have some cuts coming up in the next segment. As a matter of fact, just because we'll refresh it. Because we'll get people getting it out of the cars and whatnot. But I will just say that Dana said on Renele Blanco, and I'm paraphrasing here, we don't know anything yet. We should have something by this afternoon. Hmm. I'm going to predict they already know something.

Yeah. And that's completely fair for the aster. and for Dana to say that. I mean, completely. We love when news gets broken here on 790, but we understand. It's totally understandable. But he's going to want the assembled media to either come to

him at 4 o'clock, whatever it may. Now, Joe was spotted, the manager will speak at 4 o'clock, and usually Dana will be before or after that. And my guess is if it's something not of good news, it'll probably be before, because you don't want to put Joe on a difficult spy. You'd rather have Dana just say it, or whatever. The point being is

this. I am an oral interpreter. I turned class in high school called oral interpretation. Oh, okay. I don't think it's good news. I wouldn't imagine. There's a large part of me that believes him, doesn't believe him when he says he doesn't know anything.

And again, there's no fault of that at all. If you want to save it, save it. It's okay. I'm a zero problem with that. But just listening to him and we'll let you hear some of the cuts. I don't think he was in a, oh, damn mood today. It was like, you remember,

droopy dog. Did you watch commercials? Yes. I watch the cartoon back in the way. Yeah. Droopy dog. I can't do a droop dog. That was actually not terrible.

Okay, thank you. That's my first attempt ever. Why don't you give out our call number, our phone numbers? Do it. No. You've already set yourself out. You might as well do it now. Plumco.

Tommy John, 713, 212, 5, 799. You know, that's actually too much. I should never mention you that. I'm sorry. I told you. No. I'm sorry.

This is your fault. I'll work on in front of the mirror. Now, you've got Astros duty today. I do. I would presume we should prepare for the worst. Yeah, we were saying this yesterday. Because like when Dan was talking to Dana Brown, I mean, literally 35 minutes ago, good morning, Dan, how are you?

I'm great. You know what I mean? I mean, even though they lost two or three. Tired. Tired, that was a day game in Tampa. Maybe he was up all night playing Candy Crush. He's tired. Maybe he had a big game of cards at the house.

Yeah. Maybe, you know, Peanuckle. Playing poker or something. Okay. Or maybe that nasty game is, the spades can get kind of ugly at a while. Uh-huh.

By the kids, the kids are playing spades on a regular now. Yeah, that's, spades never went away. Did you play spades when you were 17? Yeah, Yeah, we played it in the, we would play it in the lunch room before.

Oh, nice. Or Domino's. Okay. I've never played Domino's before. You never played Domino? I'm sure I would love it. Oh, man. You never slapped the table and I'm yelling Domino?

It's the best feeling in the world, man. Now, it was a Van Morris and something? happy play next to it? I'm not familiar with that one. Oh. Into the mystic? No.

No. Oh. Okay, moving on. Moon dance? So I'm not looking forward to listening to you today. Oh, thanks, Matt. I mean, not like you, you per se. Oh, okay.

But you providing some news. We'll see what happens. Now, granted, Jeff Passon may break it earlier, Rosenthal. There may be the whispers out there. I'll go, Chandleroma, I have as a minus one. Channel of Rome. One 25 favorite. McTagher be with us coming up in about 50 minutes or nine.

All those guys. Ooh, maybe he could break it on 790. Let's go, McTaggart. So that. Then you had the game yesterday where you had the ace. Yes. Now, bad job by us because we found out shortly after the first pitch of the game that wins were blowing out to 20 miles an hour.

Oh, I didn't know that. It was warm. The jet stream was lifting fly balls all over the place. And the rays with LOW and Low, as you just heard in the highlight, took advantage of that. And the Astros dropped the series. I finished the trip 3 and 4, which is not a gut-healing

feeling hit because I had the team going to the opposite, 4-and-3. That's unfortunate. Yeah, it's going to happen. So, this might be... Now, last year when they fell, what, 10 games under 5... Well, they were more than that, right?

They were 10 games back. Like, yes, yes, they were 10 games back at one point. And how many games under 500 were they? Was it like 10 and 23 or something like that? Now, they're three and a half out of Seattle behind Seattle. The Mariners won't beat the White Sox yesterday, so they lost a game on that. And I shouldn't be doom and gloom and feel sad. But if we get the news on Ronnell Blanco today, that's really going to crush this team.

Because he had been pitching better the last month. Even if he had not been with the Ronald Blanco of last year, he was also a guy that was a solid middle. of the rotation guy for the stroves. Last year they started 12 and 24. On this date last year, they were 22 and 28. Okay, so obviously things are significantly better today than they were a year ago.

But I imagine the Mariners are probably ahead of where they were a year ago. Right. Problem is, you are asking if you lose Blanco for any significant period of time. Maybe he just goes on the injured list for a month, whatever.

I mean, it could be, it could also be just, it could be. Even a great scenario of him going on the EIL for a little while is bad. Yeah, I mean, no matter what it is, I can't imagine he's getting, we're going to find out today it's a free and clear. That he just, he took some ibupro and he feels a lot better. I think he's all good. Okay. This, the start, the back end of the rotation, whomever it happens to be these days, not only are they young in being put into some really, really tough spots, they're not going particularly long in games. Lance McCullors Jr., we need you, brother.

Come on now. So we need strike one, strike two very quickly. We need balls in contact very quickly. And we need you to go 144 pitches today. Oh, dear. This starting rotation will be as taxed as it's been in a very long period of time. Is it wrong to say this could be the season slipping away? Not ready to say that yet.

Okay. Well, the bats aren't hitting. You've got three of your opening day starters down. The replacements are all big question marks. Bullpen's been good. Okay, so all of all the question marks, and we don't know who they're going to be. But could one of them save the day? How long until Arrogati gets back? We've got no update on that, too. Okay, we do. Yeah, probably going to be July is what Dan Brown said. Great. Fantastic. You know, it's May.

He has to re-do another spring training is what De Dana said a little while ago. And we'll play some of those cuts coming back here in just a second. Oh, dear. Matter of fact, I'll let you play them and you can play them. No, I'm going to have tears in my eyes. I'm going to short out this keyboard. We have to provide the information. But to answer your question, your initial question, slipping away,

slip-sotting away, we will not play the Paul Simon song at least for a while. Okay. I remain glass. I remember my glass isn't half full, but it's not close to empty. What if they lose three out of four of the Mariners? I choose not to bring that into existence. Okay. 713-212-5-790 if you want to chime in on the conversation today.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Brian McTaggart in 45 minutes. We have, oh, shut your bum ass up today. I got a fresh one from last night. Yesterday afternoon? One in the afternoon. Was it wearing a wig? She was definitely wearing a wig.

and I hope that she recovers fine from her stroke. Or that was me stroking out. Yeah, you did stroke out. I don't even really look at how other people are playing their hands, man. Just look away. Despite the smart idea. 1130, shut your bum ass up. 12 noon, all of the news at noon.

150 today. All things Jim Ursay, the cult's owner passing away yesterday at the age of 65. What about George Wint? Okay, believe it or not today, half George Wint, half Jim, Rese. Jim Ursay, 65 years old, looked 90, which meant he ran a very fast life. Seemed like he lived a hard life. Still no cause of death? He had tweeted like eight hours before. Which is the creepiest thing of it all. Right? It's a little weird. 713-212-5-790.

I don't even know what therapy gecko is. So, Ross, I'm going to need you to listen to that podcast on your way home today from work. and give us a full report tomorrow. No, Matt, I'll be listening to the A team. It's Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler. Two to six here on Sports Talk 790. So the simple question is, would you rather listen to Therapy Gecko or the A team? And you're saying the A team. Sometimes I like to sit in silence.

Okay. I just added a third thing to shut your bum ass up. And you did? But I got time for that. It just happened in the den of doom. Hmm. Hmm. Okay.

I'm going to say, but we weren't doing... What's the din of doom, Matt? That's our bathroom on our office floor, that people like to go in there and just wreck it. Well, it's not as bad as it used to be. I mean, the rule is you never go to a restroom on your floor. It used to always smell like a horse barn back of the day. Whoever that is, I guess, got laid off or left,

because I hope that guy got his intestinal track checked out. It makes some more of green vegetables at his diet. Seriously. All right. Get to the Dana Cuts. Let's go. Okay. Dana Brown earlier today on the Sean Salsbury show. Normally joins Wednesdays at 9.30.

What's the latest on Renal Blanco? Not yet. We will have an update probably later on today. You know, there's always a concern, though, when you hear Elbow, you know, we're hoping for the best, but we should have something by later today. Okay. you tell me he doesn't know. And again, I don't blame him for, look,

there's a lot of things I know that I say I don't know. It's not even a lie. It's just a small little fib. You have to sometimes, look, everybody's, you know, like when you're boss says, how's business? And you go, oh, it's, we're getting there. You know, you know, you're down 15% year to year. Okay.

You know what I mean? It's a small fib, and I'm okay with that. Matter of fact, I'm actually totally understanding of that. Okay. Well, let's see. How's Yordon Alvarez? Ready to get back in the lineup? It was supposed to be, what, almost five days ago in Arlington?

He's still not in the lineup. Yeah, we did some key work with him, and so, you know, he felt a lot better. And so the key is that we wanted to be 100%. We don't want this injury lingering. It's one of those hand injuries that you have to let heal of the defense. muscle strain. And so, you know, he took some swings yesterday. He felt pretty good.

That's a good sign. We'll let him pick some swings again today to see how it feels. And then we'll take it from there. There you go. He's hitting off of a T. Not in the cage. Live action. He's hitting off of a T.

Hands are slow. Is there any good news we have to? to report at this point? Let's get you some great news, Matt. Spencer Arredetti, the initial report was that we, hopefully, something would happen in June. Now, we're towards the end of Maine. He's not throwing yet. How's that going?

Not at this time. You know, it's healing fine, though. And so, you know, he's been out for a little while, so it's going to take him, you know, a little time to get back. But, you know, hopefully we can get them, you know,

somewhere in the month of July because he's going to have to go through a complete spring training type thing because he's been shut down for so long and so, but the healing of the bone is coming along nicely. Bones healing nicely. He's got to go through

spring training. Which is about well, usually spring training for pictures is seven because you get there before everybody else does. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. it being six weeks of spring training. I mean, my guess it would be a month. Because literally he's not throwing.

I mean, if he started throwing two days, six weeks from today is July 3rd. Yeah. He said sometime in July. I mean, I get it. Our friend Jones said she's kind of bracing for this. Is change hard for us? Are these the signs that we just can't turn our eyes away from? Change.

What kind of change? Like this glorious run. of spectacular Houston sports when it comes to the local baseball team, times are a changing. Didn't you feel like they were changing a little when they didn't get it done in 23? Didn't you feel like they changed it a little when they started 12 and 24 last year and barely won the division? They got to the playoffs. And they were out in two years, two games? Two years.

Didn't it feel like they were changing a little when they traded away Kyle Tucker and let Alex Breggman get signed away? And they're like, yeah, this guy's nine months out of floor estate. It can be fine. So I don't go back to your second statement. Let Alex Breggman do. Did anybody even the diehard of Alex Breggman fans think that Alex Breggman was worth $40 million? If Alex Breggman signed a $40 million contract for the Houston Astros in 2025, the city would have rioted. Okay.

They could have signed them. Only reason, there's no salary cap. No. They got $3 million. What did they get? $3 million in 24? But let's. let's play let's play i'm just playing devil's advocate just to say if he gets off to his typical start

that's our number one topic you re-signed bregman for 40 million dollars to bat you know 240 well he's got an ops and 950 yeah maybe you and i don't have an opser 950 if we play half our games oh yeah it's those brilliant redsox hitting coaches that will do okay let's ask aftro's whatever whatever jeff passing see jeffatton didn't even mention the aatro's hitting coaches but anyways No, but there was an intuition, not intuition. It's what do you call it? Intimation? Intimation?

Intimation? Yeah, I'll work either. Yeah, I'll work either one of those. That he's rejuvenated his career because he had different eyes looking at him, which is completely bogus. I didn't get that feeling from reading the article. I know a lot of Astros fans did. And I'm in that category because I know, Matt. I can jump in.

Yeah, you hate Jeff Passon. There's no doubt about that. No, at least I'm honest about it. We appreciate you for that, Matt. Thank you. Dan Matthews, we walk in today. He goes, Matt, you hate a lot of things. I think that's part of my charm.

I like a lot of things, and I ran through a list of things that I like with him. And he's like, oh, you do like a lot of things. I said, yeah, but the charm of me is hating things, too. We all have that in us, right? I guess. Yes. Yes, we do. All right.

So, Aragetti down for a while. Nothing new on Yordani. He's swinging off the tea. And news today on Ronell Blanco coming up perhaps later today at Diken Park. Last six games, Alex Spregman, he's hitting 150. Okay, I mean, there was going to be natural regressions we talked about before. Three for 20. Those hitting coaches had a bad week.

I think Jeff Passing is going to his right arc curl about that. He won't. He's literally in the back pocket of the Dodgers for sure. I mean, that, well, the Dodgers could do, every other team in baseball could do what the Dodgers are doing. No, they can't. No, they can't. Yeah, carrying water for the Dodgers was pretty funny. And honestly, on that day, I've been not a Jeff Pass and defender.

I just haven't hated him as much as everyone in Houston. And I despise him. But that day, make sure I'm very clear about that. I definitely lost some respect that day. You should have lost all respect for him. He should have been embarrassed. Yeah. All right.

1028 on Sports Talk, 7.90. If you want to chime in in the conversation, you're more than welcome to do so at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-790. We'll get Brian McTaggert's viewpoint on this coming up in one half hour from now. Shut your ball mass up, and ain't nobody got time for that in one hour. We have to talk about what happened last night in New York City next. What a wonderful basketball game. Now, we won't talk a lot about it because we kind of read y'all.

It was great, though. And all those New York celebrities are in such dismay this morning. 1028, Sports Talk, 790, 713-212-5-790. Point game six seconds to go. Halliburton driving. He's in the lane. He nearly lost it. He backs up and unloads a three. It hit the back of the rim. It popped high into the air. And it dropped gently through the net. Break the call, Ross. That's Indiana Radio on the three-point of it turned to be a two-pointed. I like it. I thought it was good. Tyrese Halliburton. He did a good job of describing. Yeah, he went inside the lane and came back out. Which was, it was like he was not like he was a frogger.

Frogger is a game. You can go back and forth like that, right? Yeah, kind of. Okay, so he frogged his way to the free throw line and frogged his way back out. I want to hear you say that on a play-by-play call next year. He fogged his way to the free throw three-front line. There is no doubt I will throw a video game reference into a call next year for sure. So that is the three-pointer that turned out to be a two-pointer.

And look, it's a tough position for a play-by-play guy to call. because Harlan called it a three as well. And honestly, it's probably easier to say three. And then the instant replay go, oh, look at the toe as compared to saying two and a tie when it was actually a three to win. I didn't look. Did the referee put their arm up as well? Do you look for that for cues, right? To see if the things a third?

Absolutely, you do. 100% you look for cues on that. And so I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, I can't recall. But the officials, I mean, you took you five seconds to look at the instant replay and said that there was a toe on the line. And then he does the choke. signal like Reggie Miller did back in the day. Could you imagine if the Pacers would have lost that game with Halliburton going to the choke sign?

But they won it. I know. I wanted that to be it. When he did the choke and I thought it was a three for a second, that was so perfect because the Knicks did choke hard. It's funny because I tweeted out about Tyrese Halliburton not being overrated. He was listed as the most, according to the athletic website, on a player survey, was named the most overrated player in the NBA, which is completely absurd.

But ever since that came out, he has been unbelievably good, including that shot. So he makes that shot, sends the game to overtime, and then they go on to win the game. Meanwhile, all the Knicks fans, including the national people,

you know, you're one national guy, I'm not going to mention his name, because I don't think he needs any more attention, is still saying he's not that great. Tyrese Halliburton is fantastic. Why do you, why do sports media people? Like for instance, I mean, this is the same thing. Political talk show hosts never say anything good about the other party.

No matter what happens, you can never say anything good about somebody that doesn't agree with your ideology is 100%. And it's the same thing with us sports people. We can never say anything good about somebody we don't like. Like, for instance, as much as I don't like Jeff Passon, if you write to an interesting, article and I find it intriguing with good quotes, I'll give the guys due. Hmm. But how do you not say the Tyrese Halliburton? Now granted, Nemhart and Neesmith were heroes last night for them as well.

The Knicks gagged. I mean, that's another choke job. Have we seen a lot of choke jobs in this playoffs this year? Yes, a lot of them, the Pacers, there were some crazy stat. It was like teams down seven with a minute to go have like four. They're like four in a thousand. Yeah. And the Pacers have three of them.

three of the wins. This playoff run. But the Knicks choked yesterday. So, but you have to give him credit. That's a tough shot. Crazy that he went outside the arc when he, frankly, Ross, did you see where he turned back when he went back from the free thawing? He probably could have had a layup or a small, small mid-range to at least tie the game.

He went for the win last night. Yeah. That's how big a stone's he has. Or maybe stupid he was, but trying to do that. All right. Teams trailing by at least seven points with at least 90 seconds left. They're 1 in 698 before this playoffs. Pacers are 3 and 0.

What? Pretty incredible. What? All right. Not that we pay a lot of attention to TV ratings, but there's just a small metric, as you would say. Uh-huh. The Oklahoma City, Minnesota game,

the ratings were down 24% from last year's Dallas, Minnesota, Western Conference finals. Okay. I'll be curious to see how the ratings are for big market New York and small market Indianapolis, but really more big market New York. If the ratings are up or as where they were last year for the Eastern, who was in the Eastern Finals last year, Indiana, Boston, that's going to give us more evidence that the television networks don't get it wrong when they put on every New York game possible they can, every LA game possible they can, every Chicago game they possibly can.

That's true. But they've got to take their lumps. They've got to let these guys. They've got to let the country learn more about Tyrese Halliburton and Jalen Brunton and hope that they engage. That's the only way to gain new fans. If you ignore these young stars for all this time, then you're just cutting off your nose to spot your face, putting the aging stars up there again and again and again and again and again. And while I will agree with you, on the MBA's got to showcase others,

it's not like Oklahoma City hasn't been on television 25 times in the last three months. Yeah, that's good. So they're doing what they can. You can't force the country to get engaged. No, you can't. And it just shows you that, unfortunately, the really good basketball fan just probably isn't as abundance we would like it to be. Because Oklahoma City, Minnesota has plenty of stars.

Now, the game got out of hand in the second half when they out of what, 30 or whatever it was. Yeah, it was kind of a big blowout out of the end. And that's probably part of the reason why the ratings dropped the way that they did. I mean, I would assume the ratings would be better for, last night's game because the game went to overtime of very exciting and it did feature a team in New York City. But it's not like Jalen Brunson's a headliner. Not like Carl Anthony Towns as a headliner. No. Like O.G. Ananobe is a household name throughout the NBA Street.

So I hope that Oklahoma City and Minnesota provide a better game tonight than we saw in game one. So people can actually go out. This can be a great series. Because Anthony Edwards, he won't be the face of the league because he doesn't want to be. Has no interest in doing it. Matter of fact, he got fined again. $50,000 for swearing during a post-game interview session? He's racking up these fines. His fines are like seven times your salary. I would say more like 17 times.

Okay, fair enough. My point being is that he gets more on fines than you'll make an entire decade. Yeah, thanks for bringing it up. Sorry to me too. I'm just trying to do a little comparison. Cool. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right.

Congratulations also to Shade Gildes Alexander being named the NBA's MVP. He gave all of his team, Rolexes. Yeah, that's great. You know what it would be the coolest thing you do? You should have finished second to Nicolioch, but that's all right. You know what the cool thing to do is to give everybody that doesn't make millions of dollars

a Rolex. Everyone? Give like the trainers a Rolex. Give the equipment managers a Rolex. Give maybe the ticket takers, maybe the people that serve the food in the dining rooms and whatnot. Just give me the cash. I don't need a Rolex.

Then I got to flip it and then I got to pay taxes on that. Isaiah Hartstein just made, got a three or four. 48 million dollar deal. He can buy 5,000 Rolex. Yeah, just give me a duffel full of cash. I don't need a watch. Oh, it ticks twice every second. Yeah, cool. I don't care. Walk in the arena.

I'm a season ticket holder for the Thunder for the last seven years. Thank you for your support. Here's $20. You know what? Snacks, hot dogs, and popcorn are on me. That's for me, one of the MVP. Thank you for giving us a small part. Yeah, the fans are great there in Oklahoma City. There's not a lot of whole else to do, but it's a good crowd.

It's a sleepy city for sure. I think it was, was Trey Young? Well, also Trey Young hates the Nix and Nix crowds, but he was talking about how the Thunder crowds are better than Nix crowds. More genuine. How about that? Did you even keep, I didn't even pay attention to we were driving back last night from our secret location.

But, yeah, I, I, celebrity count doesn't, now, celebrity count is a big thing in New York. When you go to a Knicks game, as part of the bit of them giving you the really good court site, tickets, they're going to put you on the big screen. That's just, and they used to about four or five years ago, they used to give you a list of who's here, but they don't do that listing stuff anymore. Why not? Because my guess is they probably said, hey, Ben Affleck's going to be here tonight, but then if he doesn't show up or doesn't get to the third quarter, then you go, and you go, where's Ben Affleck?

Okay. And you feel like an ass. By the way, Nicolioch, a seven-footer averaged a triple double. Yes. A 30-point triple double. And finished second. And did not win the end. On a 50-win team.

Yeah. who's going to drink, who apparently announced the other day he's going to drink lots of beer this off season. Yeah. He's been hanging out with his horses, drinking bruise. Who's more out of shape? Donchich or Yokic? Donchich.

Yokic looks exhausted from like the second possession. But he plays hard. He gets up and down the floor. Donchich takes plays off. I feel like. Hold his shorts down to his knees. They both look exhausted.

But Nicoliochich, his feet. face is like beat red. He's breathing hard from the second possession to the 48th minute. It doesn't help that he plays in Denver. But he gets up and down the floor. Donchitz just stands there sometimes. It looks like me at Lifetime Fitness when they run full court. I'm like, I'm going to stay over here.

I'll wait if the ball comes back. So you're not a full court runner, huh? I like jog. If the possession gets bogged down, I'll get over there and put a hand on somebody. Now, are you bringing up a post player to bring the ball up the floor? It depends. If somebody's taller to me, I'll just sit out. If I'm the tallest guy on the court, I can score.

If somebody's taller in me, it's going to be tough. The athleticism is lacking. You're 6'4. I'm 6'2. See, I'm 6'1, and you're a couple inches taller than me. Yeah, because I don't lie about my height. I'm not like about my height either. We have measured, because my daughter is in that 6-foot range now,

and we always fight about our height. So we get to measure out. She's lying, too. She's going to hit you. I told her that to her face. I know you do. She wants to hit you. But you're invited to her graduation.

She's going to that listed height. You're definitely invited the graduation party next year. You only want to bring a present. I didn't get your kids a graduation present. It's cash. The kids won't cash. That's the present. I'm going to get a Rolex.

That'd be nice. Well, you'll be getting a graduation announcement for Peyton coming up on that two distant future. Oh, man. I am so busy that weekend. All right. 1044 on Sports Talk 790. The Texans, according to the Houston Chronicle,

have found a really good spot to perhaps build their training facility. or at least thinking about building a training facility. We'll tell you about more of that in a minute. 1044 on Sports Talk 7-90. More on the Astros in about 12 minutes when Brian McTagher joins us. It is Matt and Ross. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Sports Talk, 790. Hey!

How's it going? Paper in the Chronicle Today, there is a story that Jonathan and Alexander and Daniel Lerner co-wrote. I think John, wrote paragraphs 1, 3, 5, and 9 and then she took the even number of chapters. That's great.

Maybe you guys should co-write a story. I'll write it. I'm not a bad wordsman. See, it should be word Smith. But I'm not a smith. I'm a Thomas.

I mean, the word Thomas would sound wrong. All right. Wordsman is a word, I think. It is. I think Swordsman is a word. It is. All right. So their story today was talking

about how the Texans and their new team president are looking to find a new place to build their practice facility. Okay. Which is just the precursor for a new stadium on top of it or next to it. And that one of the spots they're thinking about, they want to keep it in Harris County. And I think there's some government people that would like to keep the facility in Harris County and or the stadium would be the area of town where it currently is. Well, there's a lot of acreage over near in the NRG Park area. and they want to build basically an area like they have in Frisco with the Cowboys

where you have restaurants, businesses, a couple of hotels pop up, and the training facility. Okay. Now we did, there's a bunch of restaurants and stuff in Frisco where that bubble is, where the Cowboys Practice Facility is. The star, yeah. Who comes out there for a practice facility to eat? Nobody would. Okay. That's part of my drift.

Okay. Is that people, there's enough industry in Frisco that the Texans, if the Cowboys Practice Facility wasn't there, nobody would be like, oh, I really wish the Cowboys Practice Facility was out here. Nobody goes to practice facility. Yeah. I mean, as awesome as the Rockets practice facility is, it's only being used by the Rockets. You can't rent the Rockets practice facility out. And I, now I know that the Star, there is a stadium within the facility. Yeah, they have games, don't they have high school games?

high school games all the time. So in that respect, you probably could, you do make it a multi-purpose facility for the team and for the games when they're not practicing. Maybe the Texans would do that. I mean, that would be smart on their behalf to do that. But I cannot tell you how anti-NRG area I am. I think you're just wasting your time. Now, if you want to say you want a bigger, roomier practice facility,

that's close to your stadium. I get that. And there is obviously plenty of land in that area to do that. But to think that people are going to go on top of the practice facility to build a build a bunch of condominiums and bars and restaurants, you're fooling yourself. And I would say that, frankly, if it was in Harris County or wasn't in Harris County. If you want to build your Texas Live, is they called Texas Library? Yes.

Okay. Do it in an area where you have hundreds of thousands of people. people with disposable income that'd be willing to drive to that particular area? I think the location does matter and it is important, but also it would happen. I think you could get people there, but you'd have to do it right. And I'm talking bells, whistles, walkable area and everything nice and safe, feeling safe for people. You need to do basically kind of like, I don't know, Discovery Green downtown, which does get a lot of people down there. It does.

You'd need to do a lot. And you'd need to spend, and I just wouldn't imagine they're going to be willing to do that. You can't just slap up a sports bar and then... See, my philosophy is south of downtown. It's not the position to go. If you're going to do anything,

you go north and west of downtown. I don't think it's the worst location. It is off of the metro rail. But like I said, I think it would take a huge, grand investment that I don't think they would do. I think they would half-ass it, and then it would face.

Yeah. That's true. It's a possibility for sure. I'm going to stand if the Texans want a new facility, meaning practice and or stadium, all right, we got some hurdles to jump over here. Building within three miles of NRG Stadium would be a terrible, terrible mistake. I am of the belief, and I know that my Southside friends may disagree with me and those that grew up, there and went to the astronomer as a kid just like I did.

If you are trying to do something, OST, Maine, Fannan, Murworth, Holly Hall, you are wasting

your time and you are more importantly wasting our money. I don't think there's, I can't, the Pearland area, which is the most

affluent suburb that funnels into that area is not big enough to drive people. And again, if you live in Cyprus, the woodlands, Katie,

Tasca CETA, any of the, I just think there's more money, more population, more disposable income, north and west of downtown. Yeah, but I understand why they might want to do something a little more centralized. So you don't alienate somebody from, or as much, I should say.

But do you don't you think building it by energy alienates 60% of the, where the population is? I think it's less alienating than going all the way out to Katie. or Sugarland? See, I think Sugarland probably is a sweet spot. I really do. There's just too many people out there.

You have Sugarland, you have Southwest Houston, you have Richmond, Rosenberg, Sugar Land, Missouri City, Stafford, Katie's close to the Grand Parkway. If I were the Texans, I'd think Sugarland. Now that question is, do you sneak into Fort Bend County in that area, or do you keep, can you, is there any part of, like, when does, when just, when just, I don't even know, answers. When do you get into

maybe people that live in that area can know. When you're on 59 and you're headed south. Like I'm headed to Sugar Land after the show today to go to Tellerland. It's about the border of Harris County. Right? Or is it Stafford? Maybe I'm thinking of Stafford. But it's in... It's in that vicinity. You're asking where the Harris County border is? Yeah, that's

where I would like to know. I think it's around Stafford. Maybe I'll think, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to tell you brewing today. I'll do a little due diligence, a little check it. I'm going to look for some property out next to consolation field. You're going to buy some up? No. Well, I don't have a kind of disposable income, but I may have drink a couple of pops. You never know. All right. I'm just saying, I just saw the headline, read the story this morning on the Chronicle. It's a good story by Alexander and by Miss Lerner. But I just don't think building anything in that.

And I think the energy area is what it is. Yeah. And it's just undesirable. Stafford is basically the next stop after the border of Harris County. Okay. So Constellation Field, Sugar Land, Stafford, all in our Fort Bend County. Yeah. Okay. 1056, let's get to some Astros conversation. We'll see if Brian McTagger believes our vibe as well that we're going to get some terrible news today on Rennell Blanco.

Don't want to be that guy or those guys or be those fans for that matter. Yeah, thanks. But tell me you didn't hear anything from Dana Brown today that made you go, oh, it's a case of the owies. And maybe it will be a case of the owies, but. It'll be long-term owies. I mean, it's going to be... The 60-day awy list. It goes from an awry to an ouch.

To a... Oh, 713-212-5-790s. All right, we spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on the Astros beat. You know what? Smart moved by you not going to Tampa Bay.

My goodness. You don't have lost 10 pounds. You don't need to lose 10. Probably more like 15 or 20, but that's not here nor there. Tags, how's your life? That's very true. I'm good. Yeah, it looked very hot and very miserable. And what is the, do we even know what the long-term solution is for them? They're not going to fix the roof, are they?

What's going to happen in the race? Were they playing in 20206? Do we even know? Yeah. Last up seen, they are going back to the crop. I think they are going to fix the roof and go back there. You know, they had all these plans for a new ballpark, but, you know, that's all sort of fell through a new ballpark right in that same district in downtown St. Pete. So it looks like they're going to go back to the TROP and, you know, status quo and see if they can maybe get that new ballpark off the ground again. Yeah, I'll let the Nashville raise them a much better sound to it. Do they not? I think a team in Nashville would be a great idea. I mean, look, I love going, and I think any sports writer will tell you, we love going to St. Petersburg. The Trop is a great place to work.

There's not a lot of crowds. Press box is great. Town St. Pete's pretty cool. So I'm okay with them staying there, too. All right. Now on the more important things. Dana Brown was on this radio station about 90 minutes ago. He says there'll be a further update on Renal Blanco. Brian, you and I have been around these baseball streets a long time.

I am not expecting anything close to good news if Dana speaks to the media later on this afternoon. Yeah, I mean, I tend to agree. I mean, they just went through this with Wisniewski and, you know, they got the worst news possible with him. Not that that's going to happen with Blanco. We have to wait and see, but, you know, I'm not so sure there will be an update today. I mean, these things tend to drag out. We kept hearing there were going to be updates with Hayden and, you know, it dragged on for a few days. But, yeah, certainly not good if you have an elbow issue and you have to fly home.

It's not like, okay, he's going to make his next start now. He's obviously going to be out a while. So that just further trims their starting pitching depth. If he does go on the IL, you would have three fits of their starting rotation out of the, out of the opening day on the IL. And they're about at the ends or their starting pitching depth right here. So, I mean, I think Brandon Walter was probably it.

AJ, you still have AJ Blue Ball. But now you're just counting on rookies who you don't know what you're going to get, despite, you know, Blue Ball's a pretty good prospect. So they're in a tough spot pitching-wise and certainly can't afford any more injuries while they got to hope for some good news on Blanco. And the unfortunate part of all this is these guys

that are taking over the, for the injured players, Tags, expectation levels are just get us through five, six innings if you can, and that just hasn't happened. I mean, Walter gave you five of their day, but most of these guys have had a difficult time getting there. And I also include Lance McAllorner, who's fresh off the injured list. This bullpen started to show its wards a little bit the last couple days. Yeah, they've had to cover a lot of innings, and the bullpen has been really, really good, the strength of the team. But, yeah, that combined with the offense, not scoring a lot of runs, you're being asked to cover a lot of

innings and you have a one or two run lead most days just because the offense is not scoring runs. It just puts a lot of pressure on those guys and yeah they let a game get away in Tampa that they would like to have. They would have won that series and had a winning road trip. Didn't happen but yeah, I mean

Gusto is going to pitch Friday. You know, if you're the Astros, you want to get five out of him maybe, your TVA for Sunday, which could be Colton Gordon and you're going to be like, we've got to get five out of him. Unfortunately for the Astros, they have an off day Monday, so maybe they can reset things a little bit before the A's come to town.

But this could be a pretty difficult series to negotiate. The Irish team is planning really well. Yeah, we talked about McCullors, and it's funny how it kind of feels like it's changing a little bit with all these injuries, Brian, to where it felt like beginning of the season, okay, if he can be your fourth, fifth guy, anything he can give you can be a plus. But right now, it seems like there could be some pressure. The Astros need him to produce.

They do. I don't think it's a case of, you know, in a month or six weeks, you know, Lance will be back to his old self. I mean, they need him to start getting deeper in games. And I think that's the last hurdle for him is just becoming more efficient. He's searching for that putaway pitch. I mean, he was constantly ahead of guys in Arlington. A lot of two-strike counts. He just couldn't put the hitters away. There were a lot of foul balls. He threw a lot of strikes. I think he had like 64- strike percentage. So he was putting the ball in the zone, but just controlled it in the zone pretty well, but just could not get the put-away stuff. And that let some of bats get a little long. His pitch count went up. So that's going to be the big step with him when he takes the mound tonight. Can he put away hitters? Keep that pitch count down and at least maybe get past five. And who knows, maybe six innings as well. Brian McTaggart, MLB.m.com, astros.com, with us here on Sports Talk 790. So we have the Mariners coming into town. You don't want to oversell us. series in the middle of May, but injuries are piling up.

I mean, if you lose three out of four in this series, you could be five and a half back in the West. It feels like a lot could hang in the balance, again, saying that it is in the middle of May. Yeah, but yeah, this is a big series. And, you know, I've always said, you know, where are you at Memorial Day? Well, they'll be at Memorial Day after this series. So if you're the astronauts, you don't want to be six and a half out, seven and a half out. If you split or win the series, you're okay.

But, I mean, this is a Mariners team that is. coming in pretty hot. I mean, they've won six of eight. They went to San Diego and swept them. They took two or three from the White Sox, so this is sort of the last leg of a long road trip. And they're throwing a couple of, well, I guess three really good starters at you

with, you know, they got Luis Castillo coming on Sunday. George Kirby's coming back off the injured list tonight. His first start of the season, he's always pitched well against the Astros. They have Wu going on Saturday. So it's going to be a really, really tough matchup for the Astros. And

They can swing it a little bit too. I mean, they're not a great offense, but they're certainly better than they were last year. So they're a little bit more complete team than they were last year when they blew that 10-game lead. And they're doing this with a couple of their best starting pictures on the injured list in Miller and Gilbert, who's back tonight. And Kirby, who's back tonight. Tags, Christian Walker's a pro. His glove work has been phenomenal. The reason why he's won three straight goal gloves.

Would he be getting the Jose Abraeu treatment if he wasn't the only, only one that was struggling right now in this offense? I don't think so. I mean, I don't think he's not performing as poorly as a bray you did. He's not living up to his contract and what he did certainly. He'll be the first one to tell you that. And he has told us that. He says he feels a lot of pressure and embarrassment about the way he's played. You know, he had that O. for 16. He broke out of it in Arlington, he hit some balls

really hard. And then, you know, here he is again in another prolonged slump, although he got a hit in his lasted bat yesterday. But it just seems like a lot of his at-bats end with a close pitch on the zone that he takes looking, that he's not happy with. I haven't seen enough of him to know if that's sort of his MO or, I mean, does he have to get a little bit more aggressive and some of those pitches? But the deeper we get into this season, you just wonder, is he going to get out of it? I think he's hitting under 200 now.

So, you know, Abrae was in the low 100. So not in that territory, but certainly not anywhere close to what the Astros meet or what he expected. And we're almost two months in now, and here we are. A couple more minutes, the Brian McTaggart of MLB.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. The second base spot has seen Rogers. It's seen Dubon. We've seen a fair amount of Jose Altova. Are you surprised at the rotation?

What would you like to see if you were whispering to Joe's spot as year about what you think should be done at second base? Not saying it's a problem spot, but it has probably been more of a variety. and think people, and most teams would like to have at that position. Yeah, it's been a revolving door, and I think it's just kind of surprising because, you know, the Astros have had that one guy at second base, what, for the last 12, 13 years, it's been Jose Al-Tube every day. So it's sort of unusual, I think, just seeing the rotation of different guys go through there. I don't think we're going to see, like, a steady guy there.

I mean, you know, Dubon is definitely their best defender at second, but you need to play him at other positions. You know, Al-Tubei, I think,'s played a little more second base lately than I would have anticipated. I think three of the last six games, he started a second. So maybe, you know, maybe they can put him at second a little bit more if, you know, you got McCormick now getting some at Batson left and DeSenzo. So I don't think things are going to change. I think we're just going to continue to see Al-Tubei and Rogers get most of the playing time at second base with Dubon in there a little bit as well. You know, Bryce Matthews is at AAAs on the injured list with the concussion and he's playing a little bit better, but he's still, I don't think, in any position

to help you at this point. So, you know, I think when they get to the trade deadline and they're looking at needs, they're going to be looking at some other things other than second base. It is going to be what it is. I mean, they're going to be looking at starting pitching, maybe a left-handed bat that can help them in the outfield, but they're just going to have to keep this second base rotation going and try to figure it out. Dana Brown also said earlier here on Sports Talk 790 that Yordon is still just hitting off of a T. We had heard that possibly he would play over the weekend, so how concerned should we be? Well, I think every day that he hits off a T and doesn't do anything else, I think Astros fans should

be more and more concerned because initially this was going to be a 10-day thing. He would only be on the injured list 10 days. I think we're three weeks into it now. And so the longer he stays out, I think the better chance he's going to have to go on rehab. I know that Dana said today that's probably not going to happen, but he still doesn't look like to me a guy who's really close to coming back. I mean, he's going to have to hit off some velocity off pitching machines and really test that hand

before they can bring him back. So I'd be surprised if he plays in this series. You have an off day Monday, maybe you can get him back. But as long as they don't have him, this offense is going to continue to sputter and just not be itself. Because now you compare the offense to last year. You don't have Bregman. You don't have Tucker. You don't have Alvarez.

Alteuva is not playing at the He expected to come in and give you a lot more production. He has done that. So it's about Alvarez. It's just going to be some tough sledding with the bats. Last question. Going back to West Nesky is going to be on T.J. There's been lots of different players that have had a variety of arm elements.

And it feels like there's been an uptick, Brian, since the pitch clock. If we were to pull Rob Manfred aside and give him some tangible evidence of injuries that are continuing to hit not only just the Astros, but any major league baseball team. Is Rob Manfred for the kind of commissioner, do you think that would go, oh, you're just pulling out selective numbers. I've got a sample size that says that the pitch clock has helped baseball and it does not increase arm injuries. Or is there any thought that maybe in the next two to three years,

if we continue to see this rise of guys going through these type of ailments, they may reconsider this. Because I know the pacing of baseball is good. They love that. They're about to find a new television partner. may be NBC next year. I'm thinking what level of concern is Rob Manfred really have that so many pitchers are going through the types of things right now, the Astro pitchers are going through right now.

Yeah, it's been a league, a league-wide thing. And, I mean, Major League Baseball is obviously concerned about this. They did a report, I think it was last year, maybe December. They released a report where they interviewed over 200 experts from all areas about pitching injuries that happened over the last few years and are getting worse. I mean, that was, you know, surgeons and pitching coaches and pitchers themselves. And there are a lot of different factors. I mean, pitchers chasing velocity was up there.

I think that's probably one of the biggest things is guys now are max effort. And that's led to an increase in injuries. I think, you know, pitchers, they come to spring training now, have been throwing four or five bullpins. Before in the past, the guy would come and throw his first bullpen and sort of get off the ground. It seems like they're ramping up quicker. Even the guys coming up now, they've been throwing hard since they were kids now. They chased the velocity when they were amateurs on these travel

teams. So I think the pitch clock is here to stay, just because the results of it have been so good with the time of games and the pace of play has been so much better. I think there's a lot of other contributing factors in the injuries that are probably more culpable than the pitch plot. Tags, looking forward to reading your updates. night for the ballpark astros and mariners four game series i'll have it for you on seven 90 and look forward to catching all your stuff at mlb.com thanks for the visit as always all right thanks guys you got brym mctaggart mlb.com on the astros beat ross you'll have the

on deck show at six o'clock tonight where i hope you're not the bearer of bad news we'll see it could be we're still waiting for some more tests well it'd be very typical of the a ayes we were given the good word today that he's been told to take two talonalls for every every eight hours the next four to five days and things will be just fine. It's going to be fine. Or he's not. We'll see. 1114 on Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-790.

If you want to chime in anything that Brian had to say, we have shut your bum ass up, but ain't nobody got time for that. Oh, yeah, it's coming up. I got three things. You're going to unload. Den of Doom. Okay. That wigby.

Hey, you don't have to call her names like that. Oh, I'm going to call her worse than that. She was a nice lady. Who needed to be crushed. All right. Her crappy blackjack playing. And third, my drive home. All that coming up.

1115 on Sports Talk 790. Thanks again to Brian McTaggart. We'll be on the scene tonight as well as Ross Field of Real. Our two insiders. I'll call you an insider. I mean, you poke your head inside the clubhouse. I've never broken news on anything. Let's go.

We'll break something. I'm good. All right. I hear whispers every now and then, but I'm not going to run to Twitter. and breaks down. Yeah, you don't need. You don't need a glory.

Yeah. So the push push gets a new life. It stays in the NFL. It takes 24 of the 32 teams to vote for it. Apparently it was 22 they got, not 24. I think it was what it was. 20 or 22, I forget what it was. Okay.

One of the teams that voted to get rid of it are your beloved Houston, Texans. And what's interesting is, Damiko Ryan's and Nick Casario both publicly earlier in the year said we're not big fans of having play stopped just because you can't stop them doesn't mean you can't you still use them. So publicly they said one thing and privately they voted another. Yeah, who makes that vote? That's the owners. There's no football people in the room. Those are strictly owners. Now granted, if there is... They're leaning on people. They're leaning on their football

operation side of things. So I'm sure it may so it was Hannah's call. So do you really think Hannah? Hannah, your thoughts on the tush push. I like to push Hannah's tush. Why is Forrest Gump as part of that? That was funny. I'm excited for the new Grand Theft Auto, six. So, yeah, the owners are in the room,

but they're obviously getting the responses from their football operations out. Yeah. So, but why would, you know what, you can't have a change of heart on things. that's not the issue. It's just interesting that both the guys came out when asked about it. They're like, you know what?

We've got to do a better job of defenses to stop in the play. But yet they voted against it. That's interesting. I'd be curious to hear Cal McNair's logic or advice or whatever. No, Cal will never be asked about the game. Cal's got one focus. Take a look at the online account to see how much Hannah spending and two, getting a new stadium.

and three, ranking up his school in NCAA-25 football. University of Texas is up there, right? Yeah. But he likes a challenge. He's taking Texas State and he's trying to take him to the chip. Now, I'm not a video game player, but can you play NCAA 25, put your headset on and play complete strangers, can you do that? Yes.

Could you imagine if you accidentally ran into the Cal McNeer page? Oh, yeah. You're playing against Cal? Yeah. It's like Big Cal, 6. 9-69. Hannah's L-U-V-E-R lover.

Yeah, I like that. I-V-3, Hannah. Is there any other ownership group? We're teasing because we care, but there's a little bit of context to it that the image of the franchise has completely changed since Hannah

has had much more in the in the crowd kind of look to it. Who was the player? Was it David Carr or no, Matt job? Sage Rosenfeld. Who said he went to go meet Cal and he's like on the floor playing video games in his office? There's a part of me that doesn't believe that Robert Kraft does that. If you beat up to hook or you can get your money back.

What this voice go? That is for, as I said, Jonathan, I've told Ross for two years. What? All you have to do to sound more like Cal is speed up your gump. Speed it up and you'll sound more like cow. I may not be a smart man and see he won't do it he won't even speed it up but is there any other city that takes its owner

one of its owner of its sports teams and just kind of lightheartedly teases the fact that not a lot of heavy lifting done over there I want to say isn't it close to half the teams are owned by by via nepotism well Jim Ursa who just passed yesterday yeah obviously do we know the Rudy family has held the Steelers forever

Do we know the Ursa line? Like, what's going to happen? There's a daughter that's involved. There are a lot of children. Is there a succession type of struggle happening? I miss succession. What a good show. It's done, done, right?

Done done. And it was one of the great of all time. How many seasons was it? Five or six? I think it was like three or four, I thought. It felt like I watched it. I loved every minute of it. Okay.

I'll pick that one up. That would not let you down. Okay. Back to it, though. Yeah, nepotism in sports ownership is huge. But think about this. If I owned a sports team and I had kids that had some business acumen to it, I don't want them to run it.

Now, I don't think the Texans are in that situation here. I think Cal did the right thing by hanging out with Bob for as long as he did. I mean, remember the first 15 years that Bob ran the franchise, you didn't see Cal without seeing his dad right next to him. So he played it off brilliantly. It looks like 16 out of 32 teams are owned via nepotism, the NFL. Inherited teams. Yeah.

Hoo. That's a lot. Now, I don't know. I know Jim's got multiple children for the Astros. Jared is his oldest. I don't know how, I don't think. For the Galt. I'm talking about it for the Astros.

Jim Crane. Oh, Jim Crane. I thought you said Jim Mersey. Sorry. No, Jim Crane. Get my Jim's mixed up. Yeah. Jared is, I believe, his oldest son.

I met him one time. I don't think he's intimately involved in the Astros. operation. I think he's involved in the family businesses, but I don't think it's involved with that. Tillman's got several children, and the one that is the most active is Patrick, and Patrick is really, really involved in the rockets.

In fact, my guess... And my guess is that because of now Tillman's ambassadorship to Italy, that and I'm my guess, it's Patrick is being told he's now running the operation. Does Tillman have to divest? Does he have to do that from the casinos

or the sports teams or both? He has to step out of away from every he doesn't yeah he has to step away from all the business adventures but not sell but just step away from day-to-day operations just been announced eight rockets games will be in italy make get ready to fly out there i've never been to italy before i hear it's lovely i'm sure it's wonderful i've never been i've never been i've been to europe one time went to london one time to work the NBA of the uh the feeba international games and then they banned you for life they did not oh small story on this

I started dating Kim. This is 1997. We had been dating about two months, and I said, hey, we'd like to go to London with me. You took her to Lundy in two months in? Oh, you're smitten. Uh-huh. That was 1995, actually. Oh, it was more lonely than anything.

I was like, I get this hot piece with me? Oh, I'm taking her with me. That's beautiful. The craziest part was we were on the subway. They called the tube, I think, right? In London, I think. Yeah, the tube. We were on the tube going from our hotel to the arena,

and there was a massive tube accident. What? And we were not on the tube that was involved in the accident. Nobody died, but it was just, it stopped the system. And when you hear massive tube accident, you think, everybody's worried about, you know, where were you? And I was like, yeah, I was on a tube. And she's like, what?

So we had to get off the tube, we got on a bus. Okay. And had to finish our rest of our trip that way. It's a small story there. Wow. That's scary. The better part of the story was I took my girlfriend of about two months to London. That's a way to gain some browning points of the kids are saying.

That's really. She was like, oh, wow, I'm going to be living like this. Little did she know. You haven't been to London since. We haven't been overseas. That's actually right. I think I've disappointed her since then. That was 1995.

You're right about that. She's like, wow, we're going to see the world. Well, we're going to see Kingwood. And we're going to see Arkansas. Kentucky. A lot of volleyball trips. Providence. All right.

Hey, are you ready for some shut your ball ass up? I think the city of Houston is ready. All right. If you want to tell somebody to shut their bum ass up. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 that's the number call in anybody got time for that chachabal mess up all straight ahead after ain't nobody getting time ain't nobody getting time for that ain't nobody getting time for that ain't nobody getting time for that ain't nobody getting time for day hey nobody get time for it 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 what do you got time for ross i have time for good sports conversation walks in the beach sunsets you know as i gotten older sunrises also very nice

you can get it for the sunrise beautiful nice start to the day a cup of coffee put your feet up on the top of the table maybe good maybe a good book yeah put on some soft jazz perhaps some Herbie Hancock. Maybe some Michael McDonald. No, one of the most hopeful singers will find out there. Terrible.

He sounds like he's fake singing. He sounds like he's doing a bit. Tell him it to his face. Yeah, he sounds like he's doing a bit. No more running down the road. You don't talk like that creed singer. You don't talk like that. You don't sing like that Michael McDonald.

Sorry, go ahead. Shut your bum ass up, Michael McDonald Terrible We were all right folks We were arguing this on the road trip That's why this is coming up We were talking about You shit your bum ass up man

We were talking about four white guys that have sold Uh Joe Cocker may he rest He's well on the list Van Morrison Definitely on the list He's alive I put Michael McDonald on there's a third

No he's out All right Well replace him then please Now did we determine Is Freddie Mercury is he Indian or white? That's not soul. That's rock and roll. Yeah, but he's got a soulful, what?

Disrespect. That's not soulful. That's different. Yeah, but he's got a soulful voice. I'm just talking about soulful voice. How about Robin Thick? Oh, stop. What? Justin Tiberlake. No, he's poppy. He's pop. I got a hot take for you. I would put Paul McCartney ahead of Michael McDonald. And you know, I don't, I'm, you know, I like to make fun of you and your Beatles.

All right. I got Rick Astley. ahead of Michael McDonough. That's reductive. That is awful. Never going to give you up. At least he sings like that. Michael Bolton has more soul than Rick Astley. All right. Get out of here. You shut your bum ass up.

Michael Bolton sucks. Why should I change my name? He's the one who sucks. All right. Here we go. Three things that I've got to tell people. Number one. To that hag that sat next to me in Lake Charles yesterday. She wasn't a hag. She was a sweet old lady with a little coin purse. I hope you stroke out. Okay. I mean, sure. Her wig was from 1976, but she was nice.

You had a 14 against a 4. You hit it. You hit a 10. You busted. I had 11. I doubled down. You got 8 and 3, right? Yes. I doubled down because you always doubled down on 11, no matter what the face card is in front of you. That is correct.

And I got a 3 for a total of 14. I would have gotten 21, but that, excuse my French, that bitch of the right of me, took my 10 from me. Whoa. I lost double the hand, because that stupid ass, you know what, doing her thing. Dang.

I almost got a lighter instead of her hair on fire. It's how mad I was. So for her, ain't nobody got time for you not playing blackjack the proper way. Ain't nobody got time for that? Thank you. Wow. Number two, to vote that guy in the den of doom last hour. Oh my gosh.

That's our bathroom on our floor. Uh-huh. If you got to do one, I get it. If you got to do two, we all have to do it. Okay? It's just part of what the body does. We have to get rid of our waist. don't play music while you're in the bathroom.

Oh, man. I got a prime suspect. I'm not going to say who, but I think I know who it was. And nobody got time to hear your iPhone, iTunes hit card while you're dropping the kids off. You know what I'm saying? Hey,

nobody got time for that? Sounds like high school all over again. Have you, now, have you turned a TV show on when you're in the bathroom? Of course you have. No, you're not supposed to do that either.

That's rude. It is what it is. Do you check your Twitter? Do you check your Facebook? Of course. Do you put a TV on once in a blue moon, but put music on? Without headphones? Honestly, music might be better than a show.

Okay, I don't care what you listen to when you're doing your number. What if you're really ripping and running? You've got to put something on because you want to... If you're ripping and running, you're probably putting nothing on. You're going to get in, pull your pants out and get out of there. That's a rip and run. This was a sit and ponder. All right.

Ain't anybody got time for music while you're dropping trow. Ain't nobody got time for that? And then number three, anybody got time for that? Ross dropped me off here at the radio station about 830 last night. You're welcome. And I took 610 to 59. 59 at 610, it once again became a drag race. Why are we drag racing on 59 northbound at 9 o'clock at night on a rando Wednesday night?

ain't nobody got time to die on 59 i just want to go home ain't nobody got time for that far right to far left three cars did it at probably 85 90 miles per hour why are we drag racing on the east techs freeway uh i don't know for money i they're going 85 or like higher they well i was going 75 so i know they'd go at least 10 to 15 higher than i was anybody got time to lose your life on 59 And those are my three. I got another one. Well, I got one to start, I guess.

No, I did Michael McDonald. Shit your bum ass up. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to tell somebody to shut their bum-asses up. Yeah, we were in the casino, Matt, playing Blackjack. And a guy sits down to my right, and then he starts sparking up a cigarette. And I'm like, it's 2025. Why is this nice, fine casino?

Are people allowed to smoke in public next to other? people. Did we not hear the phrase secondhand smoke? Have we forgotten about all this? At least make a smoking area and a non-smoking area. Try to split this up a little bit, but the whole casino floor is smoking?

Ain't nobody got time for that in 2025. My eyes are irritated, tears are streaming down my face, and you're giving me lung cancer. And it stinks. It stinks. Why are you smoking cigars? And cigars, I guess I kind of, I get a little

bit more. But cigarettes, come on, man. Cigarettes are so in 1987. That's what I'm saying. What are you with a Marble man? Are you hanging out with Joe Camel? Get you a vape. Can you vape in casinos? I don't even know. I think so. I mean, if you can smoke, if this guy's blowing cigarette smoke in my face, and yeah, there was another guy who sat to me, he's blown his black and mild in my face. He didn't even apologize. Black and mild. Black and mild. He was losing money for sure. Yeah. I think he was on br- He had his construction outfit on smoking. going to block it mild. He lost like five hands and left.

I kind of felt bad for the guy. Another thing. He was on Lodge, and then we'll move on. What happened to the hot ladies of Lake Charles? Oh, since when? Well, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

a crowd, I can get you a few in there. But we couldn't find... All these women were just... What, Matt? Full of tats. Narnly teeth. Bad, 1986.

Hair. I mean, if I'm losing my ass at the casino, I might as well to look at some sevens and eights. I was looking at Louisiana threes and fours. Anybody got time for heavily tattooed women while you're losing big money at the casino. Hey, nobody got time for that. So you just went on a whole diatribe about how the women aren't hot enough in League Charles. Correct. Well, we're just there to play blackjack, Matt.

Yeah, you got to look at something. You don't think your girls looking at guys. I'm happily married, Matt. I'm very happily married. I mean, I'm blind. So you would like a better stock of woman on a Tuesday night in Lake Charles, Louisiana? I would take fives and sixes. I was getting threes and fours. It was kind of like my blackjack game.

I'm looking for a pair and I was getting two fives. I was getting to five and a seven. Off suit. You need to play better. Exactly. Anything else for you? How about just I-10, West and East in general, going to Louisiana? Why is that? Well, how come there's been construction in there, basically since reconstruction. Since Louisiana

purchase, actually. Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous. Everywhere you go, it's going down to two lanes, it's too tight, you got 18 wheelers swerving in your lanes, there's bumps, there's humps, you're going up and down, it's like you're on a freaking roller coaster, and there's potholes

everywhere, and they've been working on it. There's been construction equipment parked on I-10 for 30 years. And it never gets better. I saw one and said vote for Reagan on there. I was like, that's a damn old one there. Ain't nobody got time for construction issues on I-10.

I-10, you suck. 59, you suck, especially northbound on the drag race scene. All right, Jonathan, what do you got? To the people at, hold on, let me think of rhyme. Donald Mc... I don't know. All right.

You tell me. But they messed up my order. And that's not the problem. That's not the problem. What did you order? Maybe we can help you do it in a rhyme then. What did you get? I got a sausage mic fiddle. Oh, okay. You went to Rick Ronald. Rick Ronald.

Rick Ronald. Okay. I got my order wrong, which is okay. I'm going to work. I'm like, cool. Someone, whatever you have, I'm going to eat it. I'm not, you know, I'm grateful. I got food at least.

Ain't nobody got time for a cheese, bacon, and egg biscuit. That is. Oh, you was sausage McGirtle and got bacon, egg and cheese instead? Wait a minute. Those are good. What? You don't like the bacon biscuit? Those are just...

They're not disgusting. Shut up. What? What? The... It's not. It's baking, it's egg, it's cheese, and it's a biscuit. How can it be disgusting?

Shut your bum ass up. Have y'all had the egg? All right. It's real egg. I used to work there. There's egg on the McGrittle. It's the same egg on the McGrittle. Oh, you're getting the McGrittle with no egg.

I only get them a mcgrittled with a sausage. Oh. Those are good, by the way. By the minute, McGrills wouldn't it? It's like, there really is syrup in the middle of those things. You know what the funny thing is? I thought they sounded terrible. I got one on accident.

I didn't order it, but McDonald's gave it to me. So they screwed up my order, but that worked out good. but I was like, oh, you know what? Exactly. I was like, you know what? This is delicious. That's the only the good, that's the only breakfast option I get there.

I'm about to give you a little secret that's not, it shouldn't be a secret. It's really simple. I take, I get the steak egg and cheese bagel. And I get the hash brown when it comes to the meal. And I put the hash brown in the bagel itself. Ooh, that sounds good.

I mean, it is a meal. It's a lot of work, but man, it's delicious. That actually sounds pretty good. Have you had the steak bagel? Oh, it's delicious. It is the steak. Sometimes you get the weird, you know.

I like the highest grade of steak. I like the sauce. It's not like it's a prime rib eye. We asked, it's not a ripai. No. It's so, it's not Wagyu McMuffin. No. So they're hitting mess.

If you get a good piece of steak, it's good. Yeah. All right. But we have been super quiet today. Are we not entertained the city of Houston? I think so. I've enjoyed the show so far. Do you mean there's nothing that's bothering anybody in the city of Houston?

If something is bothering you, let us know. We're here for you. This is the half hour week where you just get to lay it. all out. We'll get you right in. 713. Yes. 212. Keep going. 5.790. 713. 212.790.

One more segment of shut your bum ass. No, anybody got time for that. As the Matt Thomas show, Ross continues after this. 1150, sports talk 790. Anybody else in the three of us? We got people that want to tell us and tell the world to shut their bomb asses up.

What do you got? 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Okay. Hague, I worked with a blackjack table, 59 drivers, the den of doom people put music out in the bathroom. By the way, somebody on Facebook, something messes says they listen to our show and they're going to number two. Oh, well, appreciate them, I guess.

Yeah, you know what, actually, I approve that. Blasted to the whole office. I was talking about the show, by the way. I was hoping so. I'm glad you ended that response. Oh, I got another one. Taylor Walls on Tuesday Tampa Bay Race

hits a sacrifice fly Christopher Morales scored I believe there's one problem he should have already been out should have been strike three on the fourth pitch of the A.B it was well within the zone but unfortunately because we like the

human element instead of two outs and having a hope for extending the game they get a sacrifice fly and win the game ain't nobody got time for Major League Baseball and their crappy umpires. Hey nobody got time for that. I, yeah, Joe Espott backed you up on that, by the way.

Let's talk to Brian and Friendswood at 1152. Brian, what's the matter with you? I'm just seeing D'Amico making some bold claims about the offensive line recently, and I don't have time for that. What are the bold plans? Go with a bunch of one and two your guys. It's actually not D'Amico. It's more Nick Ocero, don't you think, Brian?

Yes, yes it is. All right. Brian's a very emotional about it. Thank you, Brian, for the phone call. I don't think Brian can sleep at night realizing how bad that offensive line's going to be. You know what? I got a little early or super lategot feeling.

We ain't going to wig out about the offensive line as much as we think we're going to. Oh, now I'm thinking I'm going to be wrong. Because two years ago, we wigged out about it, and they were fine. I don't think it will be as, yeah, as big of a storyline as it has been. Cam Robinson did give up a lot of pressures,

but he can play. Hopefully, Blake Fisher's better. You got Arionte Ursary as well. I think there is a world where the offensive line is overall an upgrade. Upgrade it. If they're average, the Texans are in good shape. By the way, you find much of this J.K. Dobbins' conversation of the Texans? You think that's even an ad?

No. If you're a free agent this late before training camp starts in a couple of months, are you really going to be doing anything? He's had major leg injuries, including an Achilles tear. And now he did start off the season hot last year, but then he completely fell off a cliff. It was a Cam Acres. Yeah, exactly. It's Cam Acres 2.0. He's better than Cam Acres, I think, but not significantly.

He was electric, his first couple of seasons in Baltimore. And he had some success against the Texans, actually. And he is young, but he was dog by injuries, and he had an Achilles injuries. So I think I'm okay with that. All right. Let's go to David on 7. Honey. David, what's the matter with you? Well, I want to know what's wrong with the Astros.

I thought we're going to be a winning team this year. Well, they're a winning team. They're a game above 500? That's a game above 500. That's winning. Heck, I thought we'd be somewhere this year. What did you, okay, honestly, David, what did you think was going to be? I mean, when you, when you, when you, when you were with your buddies,

having dinner or a church or sitting back at a brew pub. Did you say, hey, we're going to win 95 games this year. Is that what you were thinking? I didn't think 95, but maybe I was like at least 85. Well, guess what? They're on pace for about 83, so you're not going to be that far off. Well, okay. We should better win that division.

Well, if somebody wins 84, that's not going to be the case. I am not utterly surprised at where things have gone. I mean, you lost two-fifths of your starting, lineup that were your middle of the older lineup. You were not completely sure who was going to be your back end of your starting rotation, even when healthy. Yeah, I mean, they're a little underperforming to me, but this is not a global shock that the Astros are hanging around 500.

Well, I thought Al-Ti would be a lot better than what he's doing. He's been bad. He has regressed, unfortunately, a lot. David, thank you for the phone call. Is he in decline? I hate the term decline But if you're going off of strictly what he's done the last three years The numbers have declined for sure

He's declined two years in a row He's 35 and they're throwing him in left field Actually he's playing a lot of second base Franklin Martin as McTagher brought up He's playing a lot more second base than I thought it was going to be And luckily well not luckily But he's also It's good that he's getting some DH opportunity

You don't want your own healthy But when he's not you can throw you can toss out too I mean honestly you've lost three fifth of your starting rotation Yes You've lost two everyday position players. You've had a horrendous start by Christian Walker. Altuve's been down and out. I mean, down number wise.

You've missed Yorna Alvarez for about three weeks now. And you're still above 500? It's a miracle. It's a miracle. Absolutely. It's a Barry Manolo? What does that mean? It's well past its prime and it's got 17 facelifts and it looks protest.

No, no. It's a miracle is one of his top hits. I never heard of that. When I go to the bathroom, I listen to that song all the time. I bet you blast it. The song? 713-212-5-790. Before we get to the news at noon, Sal and Pearland.

Sal, what's the matter with you? Hey, what's up, Matt? Hey. Hey, I usually don't like to get very political, but can the commissioner's office just give the Harris County their race? I mean, they deserve it. They go out there and serve the community. I think they need to do that because they nobody got time for them not to approve a race

for the police. officers. Ain't nobody got time for that? That's what I got. All right. Are you a police officer, Sal? No. But I have friends that aren't.

Yeah, yeah. You know what? You're a good friend for having taken up for them. That's nice you to do that. Yes, sir. Yeah, I, I, you know what, pay the police as much as possible, pay the fire department as much as possible. Anybody that risk their lives for us, I'm cool with that.

I always feel like we're underserved when it comes to police officers. I bet, I bet you, I could take a whole graduating class of a high school and say, Hey, go join the police coming right now. Get you some good money. Oh, you're going to say something? I'm good. Okay, I'm just saying, yeah, I mean, let's take care of them, right? Okay.

Okay. I'll step off. I don't spend, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I want more good cops. Oh, okay.

I see what you're saying. You don't want the bad cops. We all want good cops. You know what else I want? We want some good news. And we get the news. We get the news at new, which you're going to lead off with the Astros. And that may not be the best news.

But you're trying at least. There's no news, which may be as bad news. That's probably accurate. 1157 on Sports Talk 7-0. The news at noon is coming up next. 7-13-212-5-7 on the eye. Just Florida. It looks like the LATRLE.

That's exactly what it is. Like the fences? Yeah. One part of the park was a big hall to hit out. One was a piece of cake. Well, they do use the Yankee Stadium in the engines. Bandbox. Yeah.

gimmicky. 12.7, time now for the news at noon. And a suggestion from a listener, we present to you the Matt Lauer of news and sports. Thank you. It's Rossfield around. Some allegations. They weren't allegations. I don't know if I want to. Oh, they were

confirmed. Was it convictions? Well, there was some harassment charges. Well, I'm not going to get involved in any harassment charges, Matt, but I don't want to do a great job of the news at noon. We just played the highlights of the Astros, to the Tampa Bay raise.

They will be back home tonight, settling in for a big relative to the middle of May. A big four-game series against the first place, Seattle Mariners. Lance McCullors Jr. on the mound tonight, but we also got the bad news that Rinal Blanco is getting evaluated by doctors here in Houston with elbow discomfort.

Dana Brown on the Sean Salisbury show earlier today. joins them normally Wednesdays at 9.30. Here's what he had to say about any update on Ronel Blanco. Not yet. We will have an update probably later on today. You know, there's always a concern, though, when you hear elbow, you know, we're hoping for the best. But we should have something by later today.

So something later today on Renel Blanco's elbow, Matthew. How are we feeling? Not great. Not great, Bob. I mean, tell me, tell me that. you're going to get to the ballpark and they're going to say, hey, we checked everything out. It's just a little flare up.

The doctor said, give it a two weeks rest. We'll put them on the aisle for two weeks. Let them rest, calm it down a little bit. And we'll get right back on the bump and get after it. That's the best case scenario I can think of at this point. So your probable rotation for this weekend, McCullors, Gusto Valdez, Gordon. Pray for offense.

Lots of it. At least the bats have been, hey, okay. Team OPS, the Astros ranked 21st in baseball right now, Matt, your thoughts. That's actually higher than what I thought it was. When you first asked me, I said 24th. And how's Yordon Alvarez doing, Dana? Yeah, we did some key work with him,

and so, you know, he felt a lot better. And so the key is that we wanted to be 100%. We don't want this injury lingering. It's one of those hand-injointed that you have to let heal of this muscle strain. And so, you know, he took some swings yesterday. He felt pretty good. That's a good sign.

We'll let him take some swings again today to see how it feels. And then we'll take it from there. So still just hitting off a tea is Jordan Alvarez. That is concerning, Matthew. Okay. That's what are we at today? May 22nd. Does he take a bat in the month of May the rest of the way?

Yes. Yes. Glass Eiffel? I will join you in that. Okay. Thank you. Elsewhere on the news. There are two off days, by the way, over the next 10 days.

Okay. Elsewhere on the news at noon, Matt. A furious comeback by the Indiana Pacers last night in the Eastern Conference Finals. I believe it was a 99.7% win probability for the Knicks at one point. To see there's a chance. At 0.3% came through as Tyrese Halliburton, what we thought was a game winning three at the end, sent the game to overtime where the paces were able to win. We played, well, Kevin Harlan, of course, thought it was a three.

We played an Indianapolis radio call as well. How about the Korean television call of the Halliburton shot? That's energy, 5th, 5th, 4, 3, 3. 2.2. Yeah, panza-hams, Hanimati's so. And that's telemanyahuity

to get. That's energy, Matt. You need to bring that energy to your play-by-play calls. You all want some more, that our rockets? Step it up. Nothing but Nailon needs to be at that level every time.

Yeah. Do you know that I actually learned something from that final play? Because usually a ball that hits off the back hill like that, the chances of that bouncing perfectly up in the air and falling straight through is,

I mean, minimal. You would see it if you saw it a hundred times, you may see it once or twice. And obviously it did happen. It made me learn, even in doing all the years of doing these basketball that I've done, wait it out. Yeah. Because imagine if I, and I look, back iron game over, it goes through. You sound like an ass. And thankfully, the Indiana call.

Especially some places where you got a bad angle. Well, yeah. It's funny because the Indiana. announcer for the Pacers was in section 223, which is super high up at Madison Square Garden. He could have easily had said game over. He didn't. So, kudos to any

play-by-play broadcaster that lets the ball officially land or go out of the cylinder. And that's exactly what it didn't happen. It fell through. Two-point shot. Goes overtime. Indiana wins a game. And that's your news. It knew. Real quick, President Trump has suspended,

at least for now, the subcommittee on getting government and involvement in the NIL war. So that's a temporary hold on that. I think there's like three wars going on. Can we focus on that? I think that's what they're saying. You know what, look, I know Nick Sabie, you just got a sports semi, but you got to just chill out.

We've got to worry about something else at this point. Okay. That just came down in the last few minutes. And that's the news at Newton. I thank you very much. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. All right.

1213 on Sports Talk 790. If you want to jump into the conversation, you may do so at 713-212. 5-790. All right, Crystal Ball time real quick. We got some phone calls. I want to say hi to us. And we appreciate you all being a part of this radio program at 713212-5-7. And Crystal Ball, post-July 31st, trade deadline.

Significant change in your starting five, minimal change in your starting five, no change in your starting five. Are you talking about buying or selling? You know what, let's hold off on that. I will say significant change as it. Am I gut feeling right now? And maybe I'm being doom and gloom because Renaudo the news, we haven't heard it yet. Right, right, right, right.

My gut feeling is they're selling. I need Christian Walker to hit. I need Yorna Alvarez back in the lineup. I need the lineup not to be carried by Jeremy Payne and Jake Myers. And Yon Yon Yves to wake up. And YSachai, yeah, YSuk Parade has been great too. Right, right. I need it, yeah.

I was a El Tuve. He's been terrible. You know, as I'm thinking about this, maybe we, you know what I should have done? We should have waited until next Tuesday for this. Okay, let's wait. So we'll stop because it's not fair because there is a world, and honestly, there is a world of difference in what you do in the Seattle series. Not making it a must-win series, but it's a certainly a, how about must-get closer?

Well, it's a big series and three and fours further away. It's going to be McCullors, Gusto, and probably Colton Gordon, three of the four starts. And Framber, don't think of Framber. I know. I left him out because I feel more, first of all, he could be shaky. He can go out there and get shelled. We've seen it before. And George Kirby could also get racked hard today, too.

Although he loves playing the Astro. He is an Astro's killer. But it also just, it's his first start back from injury, so hopefully he doesn't go 100 pitches or something. That crystal ball asks you to get out? Put it back. Throw it away. I'm smash it like it. Because it feels better.

We do this Tuesday because Tuesday will have a much better frame of reference here. Okay. We'll have four Seattle games in the books. I would take a split at this point. I would love a split. As long as you stay within five, you know, over the next 30 days until you figure out what you're going to do about the trade deadline, I'm okay with that. George Kirby, seven starts against the Astros career. 1.55 ERA.

Opponent OPS 498. going to be on a pitch count. No question. That's good. That's the good news. When you're making your first start of the season on May 22nd, you're on a pitch count. He also throws strikes. He could be on a 75 pitch count and get through six against this squad. Yeah. Christian Walker, big series. Right? Christian Walker. Oh, ESAC credits continues to hit the ball well. That's good.

And somebody not normally hitting well is going to do very well for the local nine. I like that. Just get a split. Split. Let me take, I'm splits full at this point. Okay, who throws longer in this game? George Kirby making his first start or Lance McCuller Jr. making his fourth? All right, how about this?

Try to be positive here. Try it as hard. How about this? How about this for a little prediction? The first pitcher that gets knocked out, that team loses the game. Who's the favorite there? I would lean Kirby over McCullochers. I would too.

minus 145 the Vegas odds plus 120 Astros minus 145 Seattle so Seattle is a decent favorite on the road tonight correct even with Kirby not making an appearance yet this year correct boy boy not everything not everything I saw a team loses minus 150 favorite yesterday I said I did too Doug is where there's a 1225 hi Doug go what's going on so I just want to clarify yes because I'm going to the game tonight and I'm going to wear my Framper jersey because I need to get as much use out of that thing while we still having. So I'm not saying that we should trade Framber waving the white flag. I definitely

think we need to trade Framber for at least one starter and a prospect. But if somebody's interested, say, A, Framber in one of our prospects or two fours, I just think at this point, even for the Astros to be viable, possibly going into the playoffs, they've got to have at least five. Well, you're going to, if you're going to make a move. You're trading away one of your best starters to get a starter? No, that's not happening. If you're trading Framber Valdez, you are giving up on the season. You're not, that doesn't make any sense. You're not, you're not getting two starters. No, no, you're no. That's not, that's, you are, if you are trading Frommber Valde's, you are going for two good minor league prospects that are part of your future, regardless of

position. But you're not getting two pitchers that jump in the rotation, go, oh, two third level starters are number one. No major team is going to do that for you. That's not going to happen. We're not really playing not even close to the top 100 prospects. You don't think if we got two legitimate prospects back for Framber that those guys wouldn't immediately go into the rotation.

You're not starting. Doug, what don't you understand? You're not trading one pitcher for two pitchers, and why would they be top 100 prospects? Give me a break. For a rental, yeah. For a rental, that doesn't make any sense. Don't underestimate how much profit is going to be. Oh, Jesus.

That's it. I'm out. Bye. Matt's walking out. Yeah, look, you're not getting two Major League ready top pitching prospects for one rental prospect.

If there's a Major League ready top pitching prospect, whatever team that you think is trading them away is you're going to pitch them. I would imagine. With no guarantees that, Romber is going to stick around. He's in all likelihood going to get free agency, hit free agency. So, yeah, it's, I'm with Matt. It's going to be a scenario if Frommer gets traded at some point, it'll be closer to the deadline. They're going to wait this thing out. They're going to see, this is an interesting series to where you can be, heaven forbid, you get swept. You're seven and a half back at that point, right?

And then you start to have to start to have some hard conversations. We're talking about if and when Christian Walker turns it around. We're 50 games into the season. If and when Jose Altuve turns it around, we're 50 games into the season. Same thing with the Ordone as well. So very hard conversations could be coming. And three of your top five starters are down. That's also a very bad look.

I'm going to make this very simple. If you are trading Framber Valdez, you are trading him because you believe your team is not going to win the division or compete for a postseason spot. that's the brutal truth thank you aggie dog come on aggie dog I gotta fight longhorn Ross over here I'm not longhorn anything

I haven't mentioned the longhorns all day yeah but you're thinking about bad things about the Aggies no I'm not they do it to themselves I didn't do anything by the way the Astros are a game and a half out of the Waldcard just saying as I'm saying if you are moving

Frumber you have said the season is over and I don't believe that's going to happen. But if you're moving him, you're moving for, guess what? A general manager who has a distinctive history in building minor league systems. That's something you have to wait too, is if you want to try, you can try and get into the wild card, but if you don't feel like you're a real contender, if you're a few games out come July or end of July,

you say, is this better for the franchise moving forward to make a trade? Oh, I would slightly disagree with you on. that. I think if this team is... Some of you'd have to weigh. If you're, you'd weigh, but you wouldn't, I don't think you'd do it. If you're three out of the walled card at the deadline and you make a move, that would create a neck... I don't think Jim Crane is built that way.

It was hard enough, I think, for the Astros to move Kyle Tucker, knowing that this team still had a lot of pieces of the puzzle. Now, these puzzle pieces are not working out very well. That would be a horrific public relation scene to the... Yeah, it would be bad, but if it's the right move, it's the right move. People were upset Kyle Tucker got traded.

People were calling Jim Crane, people on Twitter are calling Jim Crane cheap because he didn't sign Alex Bregman. You take the hit and you do what's right for the organization. But you would do that if you were three out of two months left to go in the season? It depends on some other things. I mean, who's holding it together? Who's in the rotation? How is Christian Walker looking?

How are other guys looking? Okay. Mulling it is one thing. I don't know they would pull the trigger on it. 1230 on Sports Talk 790. 7.1.3212. 5.790. More of you up next.

Believe it or not today is a 50-50 split on two people that passed. Is that right? We don't want that? Half Jim Ursay, the former, I should say former now, he is, the Colts owner, and half on George Wen, who passed away a couple days ago. Of course, Norm from Cheers. 713-212-5-790. I have to tell you all something, and it's a power of advertising. And we believe that advertising is very important. It makes the world go around. It makes 7-90 the station that we are today. I am obsessed with saying a yay, yay! It's getting disturbing. A yay, yay! Wow. I can't stop saying it. Hmm.

Okay. Could you imagine being romantic with your wife or girlfriend in hearing that in the middle of your conversation? Hey, yay! Hmm. No. I can't see that either. Just throwing it out there. Please tell me that somebody that listens to this show or this station for a length of time.

You're at the office. And somebody says, you got time for a quick meeting and you go, like, yay, yay! You should. Is that what Ice Cube does in his day-to-day life? I'm not doing it. Do it. Don't even look at me. I'm looking at you.

Straight up looking at you. Yeah, we're looking to diversify your portfolio, Mr. Cube. Should we move forward with these plans? And they would say? Oh. Jonathan. You're at church on Sunday. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

a yay, yay! A yay! Would you like to add extra bacon for two more dollars? We can go on and on. Yeah, we could. We never run bits into the ground on this show. We overstay our welcome many times. But Jonathan, just know that you've got carte blanche on that.

If you ever want to drop that in any point of the show for the next three to four months, you're still with us. All right, good to know. three to four years. Years, excuse me, three to four years. You'd be the all-time leader and producer spots on this radio show if you say three or four more years. After me? Well, I don't count you.

I produced a show for 10 years. That's true. Brad on 7.Dy. Hello, Brad. Hey, how are you all? Excellent. I got a quick question that I've wondered about for a long time. Sure.

And it was prompted again by the shot off of the back iron. last night. Yeah. If, let's say somebody's in the back court right at the end of the game, they throw the ball up, it bounces short, and it bounces up into the basket. I'm assuming that counts. Is that correct? If it bounces short and up into the basket?

What do you mean? Yeah, the ball hits the court short of the basket. Oh, okay. If it bounces from the floor into... Yeah, that's a basket. Okay. I've never seen that before. It's basically physically impossible.

No, he's saying the ball bounce. No, you throw the ball, it takes a bounce, it goes in the air and it falls in. Yeah, you'd have to throw like a three-quarter court shot to get that enough momentum for it to bounce that high, right? Well, yeah, if you're in the back court and you throw it up, it'll bounce that high. Yeah, I believe that's a basket.

It's my understanding. Well, the reality is this. Yeah, if a ball goes through the hoop, it goes to the hoop, right? Right? I'm going to look it up because I have never, I've never seen that in my entire life, but it doesn't mean it couldn't possibly happen. I think it's no matter what. Yeah, you can volleyball set it up in there. You can do whatever you want. That's just what never happened. So I'm assuming even if, let's say somebody happens to be down at the other end and they're going well, the ball is short, so they're not even going to fool with it. But the ball bounces up and they go up and then tip it and it goes.

in the basket. I'm assuming that's still a basket, even though it's contacted on the way up. Does that make sense? No. No. I'm curious what made you bring this up. This is interesting to me. I used to play basketball, and that was one of the shots that you're pulling around on the court. We'd get beyond half court and throw the ball up in the air and see if we could get it to bounce in. the only way I could see it happening is if you are within 10 feet and you just slam the ball on the floor hoping to get a high bounce no if you if you're in the back court and in the the yeah you can bounce it in so i yeah throw it up or even if it's

let's say somebody happens yeah but it's never could you recall this ever happening brad it's not gonna happen brad there's number one brad if you and i were 90 feet away from the basket okay and we threw the ball high up in the air trying to get it to 94 feet. The chances of it going a bounce high up in the air and falling through is probably as much as you and I splitting a lottery ticket. But by the way, I did find Kevin Porter Jr. did this and I forgot about this. I remember it now that I see it. Kevin Porter Jr. did this with the Rockets.

He bounced the ball towards the opposing basket. It went in and it counted. It was at the end of the game and the Rockets all by 20. But it was also very close to the basket too. He's close to the basket. He's literally basically at the ballast. at the free throw line, he angrily slams the ball into the floor, and then it went in. Okay.

Well, I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, unless somebody accidentally puts way too much air in the ball, you're just not going to get it to bounce in. Good conversation. Hmm. That's what we call a show killer topic right there. Ooh. A yay, yay! Screeching off.

You beat me to it. Thanks, Brad. Well, you just had a question. It's just never going to happen. No, because think about it, if, again, to Brad's point, I throw the ball 90 feet, it's going to take a bounce, but it's not going to bounce into the hoop. 10 feet up in the air. No. Yeah, Kevin Porter, Jr., I'm looking at the video.

He slams the ball into the ground from about the free throw line. Where was the game? Toronto. I'm sorry, it looks like it was in Houston. I was going to say, because I don't remember calling that. It must have been when I was just doing the PA for the home games and the radio on the road. Hold on, now I lost the tab. This was in, well, this is in 2022.

Yeah, I was still doing half and a half, I think. Okay. Interesting. Yeah, so. Maybe I did, I wonder if I did call. I don't know. Now I'm confusing whether I called that or not. Yeah, this is in, this is in Houston.

2022. Was it, uh, 2020? Okay. Well, the things you learn about. I remember this now. I don't. By the way, Kevin Porter played really well this year for Milwaukee. It was Milwaukee, right?

He's moved so many different places. Where did Kevin Porter play this year? And I was with the Clippers for a while. That's going to drive me crazy. He was actually a really good resource for the... Yeah, he's with the Milwaukee Bucks. Maybe he's a part of the Yonis Trey,

whatever Yonis goes. Hmm. Nah, I think Kevin Porter's days in Houston are probably long over. Oh, wait, did they not count this? Maybe they did. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I ruined it. Shut your bum ass up, Ross.

I'm sorry. Okay, we'll give you, now we're confusing the four people that are listening remaining after that phone call. It says it should count, though. Maybe the rest missed it. It should count. It doesn't matter. The point stands, it should count.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because it ain't going to happen. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Hi, Biscuit. What's up? Hey, what's up, my brothers? Brother Matt, Mr. Fellow.

Just, just PSA for you, man. If you find yourself in a set in a setting, in this predominantly African America. Please. Don't do that, yay, yay. I'm just trying to help you. Okay, Biscuit, it sounds good, though.

Does it? No, no, no, no, no, Matt. Trust me now. Okay, all right, Biscuit, you're probably right. You're probably right. By the way, by the way, we've played it's too hot by cool and the game. I get some points for that, do I not? Yes, sir. You do. All right, thank you.

you, thank you. And ain't nobody got time for it to be in this hot in Houston right now, Matt. You know what? In the Brown Army. You know what? I told you the day I moved back to Houston in 2010. I was never going to complain about the heat and I will remain vigilant on that. Yes, sir. Ross, you're absolutely correct? How

can a man average a triple double putting up these Wilkes-sham-type of numbers and you're going to give it to his other guy because his team won more games? I'm not understanding the MVP race anymore, man. I think it's a little voter fatigue. He's won, what, three of the last four, I think?

Yeah, but Matt Ross, the numbers he put up this year? No, he's got my vote. I'm not telling you what happened. You said, how does it happen? I'm telling you how it happens. It happens with voter fatigue. He would have my vote, but he'd won three of the last four. Yeah.

It's like how Michael Jordan should have won the MVP 10 years in a row. LeBron James should have won the MVP 10 years in a row. It just didn't happen. but it was historic ross you know what i mean you know you're right shak should have won it i mean shack should have won it over steve steve nash you go back he was averaging like 15 and 11 and they gave him the MVP

yeah Kobe they robbed Kobe yeah yeah they steve Nash took him from Kobe and shack or whoever but my last my last uh comment is mad it's to all those players that voted i don't know if those players or management or whatever that voted halberton the most overrated player Mac, what's that slogan you say? Shut your what?

Shut your bum ass up, man. You know what I say? Yes, sir. Is he the most over-gain playing the NBA? A no-no? All right, I'm out of that. You might be able to get away with that one, Matt. I'm going to try it.

A no-no? Oh. How about this one? Hell no. There we go. How about does that sound better? I can't say hell no. It sounds real texting.

You know, he obviously Tyree's Taliburton took that very personal as well as anybody should. That's getting the award I'd be like if I did take a personal if Ross, if I was named the worst radio host in Houston. Which I probably could have won.

You just missed the vote. I was off by that much. I hope I don't get that award. Yeah. We don't want to give you the it was like the golden raspberry like they do for worst actor and stuff. Halliburton was great.

31 points 11 assists But here's the thing, he didn't do it by himself. No, he didn't. Nemhart and Neesmith were crushing it. Turner helped out a little bit. How about it? Go ahead. And Jalen Brunson was in foul trouble.

And by the way, Jalen Brunson is a terrible defender. Awesome offensive player, but he's lousy. 43 points on 25 shots. Carl Anthony Towns had 35. Talk about Brunson, by the way. 43 points. Yeah. Carl Anthony Towns had 35.

It lost. And lost with almost a double-digit lead with a minute and a half left. Damn. Hey Jonathan, do you believe in the Pacers right now up 1-0? I was the one that called it, like, what? He said the Pacers, yeah. I was looking to see if you're going to play the sound one more time. Oh, he was looking for a yay, yeah, yeah.

We're done. Real quick on the NBA, you know, Tyrese Halliburton's dad went right up to Janus and told him off. And I think Janus wanted to crush him. Like, great, remember that a few weeks back? Charles Barkley on the post-game show last night was like, you know what, Tyree's Halliburton is playing amazing basketball. his son should be, his dad should be able to see him play in person. So he said that Charles did is going to text Adam Sober to see if he can get Pops Halliburton reinstalled

or reinstated back to going to NBA arenas. Put him in the nosebleeds. Is it at risk? That'd be funny. Put them in the top row. No, you can't go after players. You are not part of the show, Mr. Halliburton? I'm sorry.

So the question is, how much is the punishment? Do you say rest of the playoffs? Bring it back next year. Think about it. Even LeVar Ball didn't even do that. It's true. Honestly, it was such an embarrassing moment. Even though I understand where Charles is coming from in this,

I think the timing works out perfectly that he probably, not probably. He should probably not, well, I'll say it. He should not see any more postseason games this year. That cleanslite 2025-26. Actions should have consequences. Now, I'll understand if they're going to let them back in. Like you said, I understand what Charles Barkley is coming from. You want to see your son, you raised, and you're so proud of.

Right, right. That's cool. You can do all those things without stepping to Janus and trying to make yourself part of the show and overstepping your bounds. I can't believe that Mr. Halliburton, who's significantly smaller than his son, would have the stones to do. I mean, Janus is an, I mean, if you want to do that to like Pat Connington, I kind of get it. Okay. But that's a top 75 generational

top five player in the league And you're going to blank talk him Especially after his team just lost in the playoffs Yonis is like I'll eat you like Euro meat Oh I see where you went on there I'll eat you like grape leaves Oh right

I'll eat you like Baklaba Are you throwing Zatszikki in there while you're here And hummus Jeez I'll eat you like Tabuli Mmm delicious I don't like Tabuli I know you don't

I like... We don't argue with you. You like Grave leaves? Yes. Do you like Spanacopoda? Yes. Which one is that one? That's the fried...

Spinich with the filidol around it. I love Spanacopaedia. I love Greek food. Yeah, I like most of it. I don't like Tabuli, though. And I've tried it multiple times. Give me credit for at least trying it. It's like it since 1995 or something like that.

Oh, but yeah, but then there was many times back in 1995. I was a multiple time to bully eater. You think I don't remember all your lies. No, that's the truth. I have not had Tabuli in 30 years, and I'm very kind of comfortable with that. John and Deer Park at 1254 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. John, good afternoon and thank you for holding.

Howdy? Since the playoffs, the NHL, NHL playoffs are going up. I thought it would be a good time for this question. Okay. I was always curious about this. If they, I know there's a rule against what the size of guards that the goalies can wear on a goalie.

Your pads can only be so big. But what prevents them from getting like a thousand pound dude that could just cover the whole goal and just roll him out there and just let him live in the bottom of the stadium just rolling out to the you'd let him live there yeah I mean I mean you know that you wouldn't have to move around too much yeah you'd probably go five hole on him pretty easy but I mean it would still be a small area you put those thousands you can even he's got no reaction time have you seen how good these guys are at shooting I know but a thousand pound dude could cover the whole goal I mean but how much john how many thousand pound people are are available? I don't know, but if you find one, you can even have a show call it My Thousand-pound Golly. I mean, you could have on TV that you have a marketing.

Besides being impenetrable, you could have a side show my thousand-pound goalie. I mean, I'm just wondering if it's actually legal. Where you've been, Megablast? Haven't heard from you in a while. Hey, John, where you been? You've been hiding? Just working. I'm retired, but I'm working on another job, too.

How's the money? Good money on the new job? Oh, it's really good. The trafficking, I assume. I got a retirement check and a paycheck, so it's really good. Oh, hell yeah. Now, by the way, I want to give Megablast a little credit. He's the one that got me on the going to get the double cheeseburger at McDonald's,

asking for no lettuce, I mean, asking for no mustard and ketchup, adding mac sauce and lettuce. You get like a mini-mac without the middle bun. Value Mac. Called the Value Mac. And the meat's the same size meat, and you get it for about half the price. The key is the same size meat. John, Megablast, good to hear from you. Yeah, I mean, in a nutshell, let's go over to the last half hour of this show.

We had one caller, Doug, friend of the show. He's a fine Aggie. And normally his calls are rational. Wanted the asteros to trade Framber Valdez for two starting pitchers. Getting rid of yours for two starters. We had... Bouncing ball. Hold on. We're not done yet.

We had Mega Blast calling and asking for NHL teams to get the most obese goal tender you could possibly have, and just literally pick him up, drop them in front of the goal. And then before that, we had, what was his name? Who's our caller that you hate? Same name. Brad. Brad say, can you throw a ball from one end of the floor to the other, get a perfect bounds, and it falls right into the goal at 10 feet? I see why other shows don't take callers.

I like taking callers. It's fun. Okay. There is an element of unpredictability, as we've seen today. Can you give the inside of why you call a Megablast? That's his nickname. That was his Twitter handle. Yeah, I don't know if he's on Twitter or not, but that was, yeah, he's mega blast nine.

I don't think he's Twitter accounts very active, I don't think. One through eight was taken, yes. Nine's a good number. Okay. It's as good as any, I guess. Well, maybe his favorite player was a number nine. You never know. Karim Benzama?

But he gave you the value Mac. Okay. I give him mad respect for that. To my point, though, we do take phone callers. We actually like having conversation with. Look, I've spent basically the last 36 hours of Ross nonstop. I need some fresh blood. And the callers are where it's at.

But I just don't want you all think when you do call the shows, knowing that trading one good starting pitcher who's going to be on a, with two months left on his contract, for two starters, probably isn't going to be on the radar. and that watching someone throw a ball 75 feet in the air getting a perfect bounce with no players anywhere near him that ball bouncing high in the air and falling down the goal probably again lottery chances

and then to John's point Megablast to do go get 30 slobs 30 morbidly obese can't move goaltenders to plot them literally in front of of the goal? What if at the end of the game, you got to pull the goalie? He's going to take him six minutes to get over there.

You can't, he can't, he's not gliding over there. He certainly isn't skating. You get a roll over there? You're going to have to get one of those, what do you call forklifts? You put a pork chop on a stick on his helmet and he'll go after it. No, you dangle that you dangle pork chops on the other sticks that are out there. There you go. This is not right.

This is not right. This is absurd. Let's move on. Hour number four, please. We have an hour left to go. thought the blast hour was amazing. We got 62 minutes left. That real estate guy.

Woo! What is more annoying? Woo! Green light! I love them both. I love them both. Thanks to all of our great sponsors. We love them all.

That's why advertising works. My name is Ross. I think they're amazing. That's exactly the reason why. You're going to go to Big Three because of ice cube. Yay, yay, yay. You're going to sell your home to that GreenLLLens. I do because he's going to go, whoa.

104 on Sports Talk 790. Couple things. Astros play the Mariners tonight. We'll have the on-deck show at 6 o'clock. I don't know who's hosting. It doesn't really matter. Whoever we'll be doing. I'll probably just read the press notes.

And we've got a first pitch at 7-10. Also, we have game number two of the Western Conference finals between Oklahoma City and Minnesota with the Thunder Up 1-0. It will be made at 6 o'clock, Matt. All right, and you will give us the latest news on Renal Blanco. Well, there is some. Now, they could also be coy and say, eh, we thought we had something.

Probably, yeah, yeah. Dana Brown threw a probably in there for probably later today news, so we'll see. All right. I'm not going to hold my breath, I'll be honest. Also, congratulations to Amanda Thompson. First team, all defense NBA. Oh, let's go.

The other four, Atlanta Hawks, Dyson, Daniels, who led the league in steals, I want to say this year. Lou Dord of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors, and Evan Mowgli of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Congratulations to those five. How about good for them, good for them. And I meant Thompson.

In my world, Ross, and I know you're going to argue with me, and you have certainly tremendous logic for it, untouchable. Okay. If Yanna said four years old in his contract, I'd say touchable. Oh.

Last Houston Rocket to be first team all defense. Should I get this right out the top? I had a guess and I was correct, but I wasn't 100% sure. I'll just put it that way. Within the last five years? No. Ten years. Yes.

He was the leader of his own marketing campaign on making first team all defense. That's a good hint, I think. Okay, let me James. Arisa wouldn't do it. He basically lobbied. He was his best. lobbyist to make first team all defense.

Pat Biv? Jonathan Allen is correct. I was going to say. I couldn't argue that. Last one before that? I didn't know this. Scottie Pippen made first team all defense for the Rockets in 99. Of course. Okay.

Pat Bav introduced me to Hennessy. Before that, you go to Elijah one in 94. That's a rarefied air in that group. That's what I'm saying. I'm in Thompson. Congratulations. Congratulations. To me, Pat Bev lobbied for first team. He was always a good defender.

Heady played hard. But to me, he was never a locked-in-lawed. But his last five years, he was the most overrated defensive player in the NBA. One more note. My daughter sent me something just a second ago, Rossi. Okay. I don't know why she follows SMU football, but she does. Huh.

SMU football on their Instagram just sent out congratulations to themselves. Oh, they didn't put something. on about Jim Mersey. Didn't he play? This is a little preview for you for Believe it or not coming up. He was a walk on at SMU football. Interesting.

They are congratulating themselves on their highest full semester average in program history. GPA. Okay. Would you like to guess what that GPA is? SMU football. Actually, 2.95.

This happened with Texas. People got mad at them too recently. They had their highest GPA a couple of years ago, and everybody's like, oh, it was pretty good for football. Hey, 2.9 is higher than my Texas GPA. Certainly, my hire my GPA at U of age. But I would say at first blush, 2.95 is nothing worth bragging about.

Especially in SME where, you know, let's face it, they probably get 35 players. You got 100 meatheads to average 2.9. is pretty good. I've been in the study hall, man. I mean, it's no Western Kentucky. What happens when you take out the guys who were taking their tests? Does that still happen in college?

I heard a rumor that was happening at Texas. I know U of H got dinged for it by the NCAA. No, it's not true. That is 100% correct. Don't make me look it up. Don't look it up. But that feels really low. 2.95s.

Because, again, let's take, let's take, let's take the hundred guys in the football program. So if you're taking the 40 guys that don't go to class, those are zeros. Nobody's getting zeros, I don't think. They're getting one. They're not going to class, but they're getting credit. Oh, okay. You know what?

This isn't even not in a conversation piece. Because we don't know how legit any of these numbers are, if you're telling me that. If you're telling me that guys are getting GPAs for not even going to class, and that means the whole system is up. I don't know about at SMU. You would think SMU, I mean, if you're like, Like SFA or Western Kentucky, you would think 2.95 would be like an all-time crescendo high. I would just say I had a class with Vince, you know, and he wasn't always there.

I knew I went to OU visit, and the girl was on classmates with Baker Mayfield said he never went to class. Are you outing Oklahoma? School you didn't even go to? I mean. It's just saying. I'm just saying, no, topic. All right, I got one for you. At least, at least that was probably, he might have been taking online classes.

In my day, they didn't do that. This is the second time I took this story. I told you this story. I was in an astronomy class at U of H, and there were guys on a football team that I was calling their games for. And they were wanting to cheat off me, and I'm like, bra, I don't even look at stuff.

Yeah, you were cheating, because you were bribing the professor. I bribed the professor with sports tickets, and it absolutely worked. Johnny, you never heard this. I flat out bribed the professor for sports tickets. You're sick. And so back in the day, you couldn't, this is way back in the day, you didn't go online to get your grades.

You had to call a service. And so I went, and I was hoping to get like a D minus in the class. Because my first exam was like a 48. My second exam was like a 52. I had to get like an A just to pass the class. Yeah, you was hoping for the, just a straight 60. I was looking for 60, get out of there. I gave him tickets to multiple sporting events, good ones, by the way.

I call to get my number and it goes, astronomy, you know, Science 24, 25, grade C-minus. I'm like, are you kidding me? The power of tickets in this town. That's a cool story. I like a lie. Thank you very much. It's actually a sad story.

It's not a sad story. First of all, who you're cheating. You're cheating in academics. What about all these hardworking people who put in the time, they did the studying, they showed up to class and took the test. You cheated them. I tell those guys to suck it. The reality is this.

I was a speech communication radio television major at the University of Houston. The Harvard of Southeast Texas. At what point in my sports broadcasting, news broadcasting, communication, anything, was I ever going to learn anything about the Big Dipper? Got to learn, man. No, you know. No, no. I have been in this business since 19-19-

Ursa Major, Ursa Minor. You just take a step back. I have been in radio television since 1991. It's an accomplice sports professional. How many astronomy questions have ever hit this show? Zilch. Astronomy was a ginormous waste of time, and I resent the University of Houston

for making even take the class begin with. You cheated those poor people. And I absolutely cheated the system. 100%. But you know what? I tell the truth. Others around here don't. Okay.

Taylor will get to you. He wants more NHL conversation. All right, that's fine. If you missed the Brian McTagger conversation, that's coming up in about 20 minutes here on Sports Talk, 791. I'll give you guys a little heads up. And ladies, too, tomorrow we're going to be a gallery furniture. I believe the address is 6,06, I 45 north between Tybal and Parker.

I think I've probably heard that about 9 million times. Ross and I will be out there. Mac will be out there, big Memorial Day special. Let's go. I know there's always good food out there. Mm-hmm. I mean, why not buying something, too? I don't know.

Who knows? Really? Another big screen TV or something. I've been looking at, I'm looking at recliners. Oh, very comfortable. Like a good recliner. Good one. I'm going to buy you for your birthday in December.

I don't know what date is. I have a, I have a, December 19th. I have this big blanket. It's super, super heavy. You, I lay in it, I lay on top. I don't need a super heavy blanket. I live in Houston, Texas. But if you have a cold house, what you probably do, you get underneath that blanket.

You fall asleep within five seconds. It is an automatic sleeper. I'm about 72 during the day, 67 at night. We are at 7268. Okay. Yeah. So tomorrow, if you are out and about, maybe a long weekend, you may get Monday off. Come on and see us.

Okay. 6,06. I have 45 north. Between Taylor and Parker. Wonderful. Well, they will apparently, I believe they will save you money. So that's tomorrow at Gallup. No back order slips either.

You get it today. You buy it today. You get it today. This is why our advertising works. That's a great. We rained in our brains. For $1 million. Uh-oh.

There's no way to get this answer. Okay. Where was the first place that Jim McEnvill advertised on television in Houston? That would be on General Hospital in 1988. That's not a terrible guess. Houston wrestling. Okay. In the early 80s.

Actually, I know that now that you say it, because I believe you've said that before. Yeah. And the original name of gallery furniture. was called Gallery Model Home Furniture. Oh. All right. I thought it was Max Furniture Emporium. No, that's the Sushi Emporium.

Okay. Different, different person. So tomorrow we'll be at Gallery. Come on by and say hello. Okay. We may have some treats. I don't know. We may have some something giveaway.

Autograph pictures. We can do that for sure. But we'll give you no back. Of you? We'll give you no back, back, back, back, back order slip. I can tell you that for sure. Let's talk to Taylor on line 1 on 790 at 120. Taylor, thank you for waiting and good afternoon.

Yeah, how's it going? And congrats on the C-minus. Oh, thank you very much. I would say I worked hard for that, but that would be a complete lie. Well, it's good regardless. Hey, I wanted the call. So we got the Stanley Cup conference finals going. Three quarters of the teams are warm weather teams.

and Houston still is without a team after, I feel like it's just been expansion team talks for forever. You guys have ears to the ground on when this might happen, and if it does, what is the name going to be? Is the Arrow's going to come back? Are we going to have a different name? Something terrible like the Cracken or Utah Hockey Club. These guys have awful names.

I mean, what's going to go on? The Utah team has changed their name to, is I believe it's the mammoth. Am I correct on? that, Taylor? Is that sound about right to you? The Utah Mammoth? I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything about them having a formal name yet, but you know what? It is the Utah Mammoth. Yeah, that's what it'll be called next year. So they've come up. Matter of fact, the logo is, do a little Google search. I think you're

going to like it. It looks good, actually. Utah Mammoth. Check it out. All right. Back to your initial question. This is an unpopular take. I don't know how Piperter is or impopoer. Maybe it's a difference. We're going to wait a while. I'm okay with it. I will say I'm not thirsting for hockey action. I'm going to be honest.

It won't be this decade. I have absolutely zero inside information. But I do read what Gary Bentman says. And I think Gary Bentman is very lukewarm on this. I think their television deal is good, great.

I don't think they can get the kind of expansion fee dollars. They think that the NBA, if they were to expand the NBA, you don't want to split the profits up 32 ways when you're very comfortable doing it 30. And honestly, the last time I read a story about anything, NHL expansion, the city of Atlanta was talked about more than any other place. And that's really strange because they're a two-time loser of an NHL team. And I guarantee you with complete certain day. they want to go back to Phoenix.

I just don't know. Is Houston on the radar? Yes. But I think they want to resolve Atlanta and Phoenix before they want to resolve Houston. Now, I said the exact same thing 30 years ago, Ross, when the Texans were not on the front radar

of the city of Houston, or for the NFL, they did everything in their power to get L.A. a franchise. L.A. wasn't ready, so Houston was ready, and they got the franchise. So if you could get, I believe there are two groups of people in Houston at one NHL hockey, or at least I've talked about it. If one of them says, we have an NBA, we have a hockey arena ready to go, locked and loaded, we want it, we'll get it, we'll do whatever it takes.

Then Gary Betman would have to take the phone call and listen. But it feels like to me, especially with Tillman busy for the next three years, I don't know if that's on his page one of his agenda. And the other group through the other Toyota group, I don't know the gentleman's name. I always mispronounce it. I got to make sure I get it right. I don't think he wants to be a tenant in the Toyota Center.

So if he's going to want to build a hockey team, he's also going to build an arena with it too. And there's a lot of work to be done before that even get started. So I would say, Dan Friedkin? Freedkin. Yeah, Freedkin is the group. It's with Gulf State Toyota. He owns a large distributorship of Toyotos.

They also own Roma. That's an Italian football. club, which is pretty big club, and Everton, which is a pretty big primarily club. So he does have some experience in sports ownership. But in his case, my guess is he's going to want to build his own arena.

So then you're looking at it. Yeah, I would say nothing sooner than 2030. What about a collab? Freaking got together and they built an arena with the Texans. Remember they're looking for somewhere, and you talked about that. I'm just making this up.

No, that's not a terrible thing to think of. You don't think Bob McName. Cal would call and say, hey, put your arena near my stadium. And we'll have these on all these restaurants and bars and whatever. Yeah, that's certainly a possibility. That's not going to have these, but you know. But Freakin's not going, and I don't want to speak out of turn because I'm just, just just you and I just talking here. He's not, he's not going to, he's not building that arena unless he can put an NHL tenant in there.

because there's no way you can the city of Houston needs another 18,000 scene arena if at least 45 dates are not filled with your team right he's not in the arena

running operation he's in the he would want to be in a ownership group that has an arena in their own building but yeah I would highly doubt now there is a relationship between Toyota and the

obviously the Rockets because of Toyota Center So it's not like they're foreign to it. I just, nobody wants to be their, nobody wants to be a landlord to anybody else. You ever notice that? Yes. Everybody wants, they want their own than rent. They want, everybody wants to own their property. Makes sense.

Property ownership is big, man. It's why the Philadelphia 76ers are trying to get out of their arena in Philadelphia because they have to pay rent to the Flyers owner. That drives them nuts. That's why the 76ers might go to New Jersey, which is strange. Interesting. They're close. Yeah.

still be the Philly Sixers? Yeah, I think they're ultimately going to stay. They may have even made the decision to stay in Philadelphia. That's like New York Giants and Jazz playing Jersey. Right, yeah. Nobody wants to be, now you can work a 50-50 deal like the Giants and Jets do, but nobody wants to pay rent to the other person, especially among franchises that are owned by different groups in the city.

And there's your NHL update. Thank you. I don't anticipate anything. On the Matt Thomas show. Actually, we can do that one. NHL, the Houston update. Should. Is there two?

No. But you'll be happy. You got me worried. Yordon's going to be back in the lineup tomorrow. Not astro related. Oh. What is it? College football has just voted the CFP. You make the top 12. You keep your seating one through 12.

You do not get an automatic spot if you're a conference champion. No automatic spots. No automatic spots. What do you mean? I thought they might do automatic spot, but not automatic seed. You will not be guaranteed a home field if you are in the field of 12. Okay. That's a welcome change.

I think that probably helps because, let's face it, there were some teams that had home field that were not nearly as good. Like, for instance, Boise State last year. So there you go. So there's some news for you there if you would like to know. All right. Thank you, Matt. Yeah. I want to get the official word here.

Who's the college football guy who would really trust? Stuart Mandel, would that be a guy we'd go with? Stuart Mandel's good. All right. Pete Thammell, if you will? Pete Thammell, if you will. All right. Let me see Pete actually text, said it correctly here.

By the way, if you want to join us for, believe it or not today, that's coming up in about 15 minutes from now. Oh, his tweets aren't loading right now. I wonder if you got hacked. So Arizona State would have or did make it in as a 12. Straight seat. They're calling it straight seating. So there you go. Here it is.

12 team football will move to a straight seating format this fall using a selection community's top four teams with the top four seeds and a first round by. The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Vivacua who comprise the CFP's management committee reached a unanimous agreement to day. So just because you are a conference champion does not guarantee you a top four spots. Oh, only top four, but it guarantees your top 12? I mean, I'm reading it that way, right? If you win your conference, aren't you guaranteed top 12? Because remember, Clemson got in as a 16. And it bumped Alabama out.

Yeah. Yeah, it's the eligibility is still the same. It's just the seed. So Clemson would still be in. They just wouldn't. Right. Okay. Who was the very last team that got in this year? It was Arizona State, but they got bumped up to a four seed because they won the Big 12 championship. So the Big 12 champion still would get in, but Arizona State would stay where it is and not have a home game. Makes sense? You look at me confused. Yes.

No, they're just saying, whatever, if you win the conference, you're in. But if you are the worst of the 12th. teams that are eligible to be in the tournament. They're not going to bump you to the top four. Okay, good. There you go. I like it. All right. Brian McTaggart was a guest earlier today. We went to write the main news stories,

which was a lot of it about the Astros injuries. And here's some thoughts from tags on Ronell Blanco and what could be ultimately, hopefully not some more bad news later on the day. Yeah, I mean, I tend to agree. I mean, they just went through this with Wisniew and, you know, they got the worst news possible with him. Not that that's going to happen with Blanco. We have to wait and see. But, you know, I'm not social.

sure there'll be an update today. I mean, these things tend to drag out. We kept hearing there were going to be updates with Hayden and that, you know, it dragged on for a few days. But, yeah, certainly not good if you, if you have an elbow issue and you have to fly home. It's not like, okay, he's going to make his next start now. He's obviously going to be out a while. So that just further, you know, trims their starting pitching depth. If he does go on the IL, you would have three fits of their starting rotation out of the opening day on the IL. And they're a, they're a about at the ends of their starting pitching depth right here. So, I mean, I think Brandon Walter was probably it.

AJ, you still have AJ Bluebaugh, but now you're just counting on rookies, so you don't know what you're going to get despite, you know, blue ball is a pretty good prospect. So they're in a tough spot pitching-wise and certainly can't afford any more injuries while they got to hope for some good news on Blanco. And the unfortunate part of all this is these guys that are taking over the, for the injured players, tags, expectation levels are just get us through fire. six innings if you can and that just hasn't happened i mean walter gave you five of their day but

most of these guys have had a difficult time getting there and i also include lance mcculler's who's fresh off the injured list uh this bullpen started to show it's wards a little bit the last couple days yeah they've had to cover a lot of innings and you know the bullpen has been really really good the strength of the team but yeah they you know they that combined with the offense not scoring a lot of runs. You're being asked to cover a lot of innings and you have a one or two run lead most days just because the offense is not scoring runs. It just puts a lot of pressure on those guys. And yeah, they let a game get away in Tampa that they would like to have.

They would have won that series and had a winning road trip. Didn't happen. But yeah, I mean, Gusto is going to pitch Friday. You know, if you're the Astros, you want to get five out of him, maybe. You're TBA for Sunday, which could be Colton Gordon. And you're going to be like, well, we got to get five out of him. unfortunately for the Astros, they have an off day Monday so maybe they can reset a little things a little bit before the A's come to town. But this could be a pretty difficult series to make it. Especially the Irish team is planning really well.

Yeah, we talked about McCullors. And it's funny how it kind of feels like it's changing a little bit with all these injuries, Brian, to where it felt like beginning of the season. Okay, if he can be your fourth, fifth guy, anything he can give you can be a plus. But right now, it seems like there could be some pressure. The Astros need him to produce. They do. I don't think it's a case of, you know, in a month or six weeks, you know, Lance will be back to his old self. I mean, they need him to start getting deeper in games.

And I think that's the last hurdle for him is just becoming more efficient. He's searching for that put-away pitch. I mean, he was constantly ahead of guys in Arlington. A lot of two-strike counts. He just couldn't put the hitters away. There were a lot of foul balls. He threw a lot of strikes. I think he had like 64% strike percentage.

So he was putting the ball in the zone, but just controlled it in the zone pretty well, but just could not get the put-away stuff. And that let some of bats get a little long. His pitch count went up. So that's going to be the big step with him when he takes the mound tonight. Can he put away hitters? Keep that pitch count down and at least maybe get past five. And who knows, maybe six innings as well.

Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, Astros.com, with us here on Sports Talk 790. So we have the Mariners coming into town. You don't want to oversell a series in the middle of me. May, but injuries are piling up. I mean, if you lose three out of four in this series, you could be five and a half back in the West. It feels like a lot could hang in the balance, again, saying that it is in the middle of May. Yeah, but yeah, this is a big series.

And, you know, I've always said, you know, where are you at a Memorial Day? Well, they'll be at Memorial Day after this series. So if you're the astronauts, you don't want to be six and a half out, seven and a half out. If you split or win the series, you're okay. But, I mean, this is a Mariners team that is coming in pretty hot. I mean, they've won six of eight. They went to San Diego and swept them. They took two or three from the White Sox,

so this is sort of the last leg of a long road trip. And they're throwing a couple of, well, I guess three really good starters at you with, you know, they got Luis Castillo coming on Sunday. George Kirby's coming back off the injured list tonight. His first start of the season, he's always pitched well against the Astros. They have Wu going on Saturday. So it's going to be a really, really tough matchup for the Astros. and they can swing it a little bit too.

I mean, they're not a great offense, but they're certainly better than they were last year. So they're a little bit more complete team than they were last year when they blew that 10-game lead. And they're doing this with a couple of their best starting pitchers on the injured list in Miller and Gilbert, who's back tonight. And Kirby, who's back tonight. Tags, Christian Walker's a pro.

His glove worker's been phenomenal. The reason why he's won three straight goal gloves. Would he be getting the Jose Abraeu treatment if he wasn't the only one that was struggling right now in this offense? I don't think so. I mean, I don't think he's not performing as poorly as a bray you did. He's not living up to his contract and what he did certainly. He'll be the first one to tell you that.

And he has told us that. He says he feels a lot of pressure and embarrassment about the way he's played. You know, he had that O. for 16. He broke out of it. And Arlington hit some balls really hard. And then, you know, here he is again in another prolonged slump. although he got a hit in his last at bat yesterday. But it just seems like a lot of his at-bats end with, you know,

a close pitch on the zone that he takes looking, that he's not happy with. You know, I haven't seen enough of him to know if that's sort of his MO or, I mean, does he have to get a little bit more aggressive and some of those pitches? But the deeper we get into this season, you just wonder, you know, is he going to get out of it? I think he's hitting under 200 now. So, you know, Abrae was in the low 100. Not in that territory, but certainly not anywhere close to what the Astros need or what he expected.

And we're almost two months in now, and here we are. Couple more minutes, the Brian McTaggart of MLB.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. The second base spot has seen Rogers. It's seen Dubon. We've seen a fair amount of Jose Altova. Are you surprised at the rotation? What would you like to see if you were whispering to Joe's spot as year about what you think should be done at second base? I'm not saying it's a problem spot, but it has probably been more of a variety than think people

and most seems like to have of that position. Yeah, it's been a revolving door, and I think it's just kind of surprising because, you know, the Astros have had that one guy at second base, what, for the last 12, 13 years, it's been Jose Al-Tube every day. So it's sort of unusual, I think, just seeing the rotation of different guys go through there. I don't think we're going to see like a steady guy there. I mean, you know, Dubon is definitely their best defender at second, but you need to play him at other positions. You know, Al-Tubei, I think,'s played a little more second base lately than I would have anticipated.

I think three of the last six games, he started a second. So maybe, you know, maybe they can put him at second a little bit more. You know, you got McCormick now getting some at Batson left and DeSenzo. So I don't think things are going to change. I think we're just going to continue to see Al-Tubei and Rogers get most of the playing time at second base with Dubon in there a little bit as well. You know, Bryce Matthews is at AAA's on the injured. with the concussion and he's playing a little bit better, but he's still, I don't think, in any position to help you at this point.

So, you know, I think when they get to the trade deadline and they're looking at needs, they're going to be looking at some other things other than second base. It is going to be what it is. I mean, they're going to be looking at starting pitching, maybe a left-handed bat. They can help them in the outfield, but they're just going to have to keep this second-base rotation going and try to figure it out. That again is Brian McTagger with us every Thursday here on Sports Talk 7.90. Next is believe it or not, all things about two folks we lost this past week.

Jim Ursay, the owner of the Colts and George Went, who played Norm on Cheers. That's 145, and that's up next with, believe it or not, 713, 212, 5, 790. All right, 150 on Sports Talk 790. So we've got an interesting news today. We've had the college football committees. They're going to true to the 1 to 12. Now, if you win your conference, you do get a spot, but you don't get a good, you could be, You can theory could have the four conference champions be 9, 10, 11, 12.

I mean, I don't think it would turn out that way, but you could. Upsons happen in championship games. And then have a Clemson upset SMU and they still made it in or what was it? I can't remember. Yeah. We have Astros against the Seattle Mariners. Ross Villarreal will have the on-deck show at 6 o'clock. It will be magnificent.

Wonderful. Must listen to. I couldn't agree more. Game two tonight, Oklahoma City versus Minnesota. Who do you like in the game? Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City. Oh, I feel really good about Indiana.

My seven-game Indiana prediction. Some people think, is Scott Foster? Who's the crew chief or whatever? Can we do that for one minute? Just explain what you said earlier to a member of our seven-on-a-year team. Yeah, some people think that Scott Foster's there to make it 1-1, and if you believe that, very easy tactic for you. Yeah, Scott Foster, Tony Brothers on the same crew.

Moneyline the Wolves. and you're good. The wolves could very well win. It's really about as dumb of an argument as you possibly have. The NBA, oh, God, I hate doing this to you. Yeah, I'm going to have to. It's really dumb to say the NBA puts officials in to extend series. Or put teams over.

Because let me tell you something. The NBA could get potentially crushed in an Oklahoma City Indiana finals, ratings-wise. Yeah, if you see the NBA referees and you know the outcome, you should be a billionaire from betting. Just money line it. Don't even say Just money line. Works out. It works out for you.

Money lied the Astros yesterday. That dumb bitch next to me hit four against a four teeth. Matt. She was a sweet old lady. Who needed to stroke out. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game. Shall we simply call it a B? Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is half George Went,

half Jim Ursi. I'll read your statement about one of the two gentlemen, statement completely notarily accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. It's the statement's erroneous full of bunk and made up. You'll say this. Not.

To believe or not, to a row one-year prize. What are you playing for today, Jonathan? Sports Talk 790 T-shirt. As always, pair tickets to see big three basketball on August 22nd. And we have a pair of tickets to see a concert of Simple Minds Live on their live and kicking tour, 2025, a special guest soft sale

and modern English on May 31st. Bill, what's your favorite simple mind song? A yay, yay! George Went began his acting career working at the famed Second City Improv Comedy Theater in Chicago. Believe it or not?

A nay, nay? Believe it. Oh, God. Wait a minute, was that, he said a nay, nay or a yay, yay? I couldn't, I thought I said her. He said nay. But do you say it? It's confusing. Yeah, don't do they. It's believe it or not.

It's Bill's fault. You lose by Tenne Cal. The answer is it's believe it. It sounded like he said nay. Yeah, it's believe it or not. Now you create your own game. Laurel on 790. Laurel, what was your fair part of today's 10 to 2 radio show?

All of it. It's been wonderful. It's been informative and very beautiful. Oh, bless you. George Wentz failed his audition for a Saturday Night Live and was called dull by Lauren Michaels. Believe it or not. Not.

That is correct. Statement number two for the win. George Went was nominated for Outstanding Supporter Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy six different times, but he never won. Believe it or not? Not. Oh, he never won. I'm sorry, but thank you, Laurel, for listening. Dennis on 790, Dennis, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. George Went participated in season nine of the mass singer as a moose. Believe it or not? Not.

Oh, how do you now watch that show? You would have known that. Shameful. Roy on 790. Roy, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Let's do it. Jim Ursay attended SMU, where he was on the football team as a walk-on. Believe it or not.

Believe it. There you go. You were listening. God love you. Statement number two for the way, and Jim Mersey was a big animal lover. He donated millions to the Indianapolis Zoo and spent millions attempting to free captive

Orca, believe it or not? He did. Come on. I need not know Orca trivia. Duh. Junior on 790, Jr. What was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? The Earl Camber interview. The who? Earl Campbell interview. I didn't interview

Earl Campbell. That must have been yesterday. I'm sorry. No. Not yesterday either. Oh. I'm a little bit older than you. Jim Arseh has a massive collection of memorabilia that included guitars from Elvis and Prince and Wilson the volleyball from the film Castaway. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the way. We had Michael Jordan on the show today. Did you hear that?

No, I missed that. That's all right. I thought that was last week. I thought that was last week. Jim Ursay was a lead singer of the Jim Ursay band and played with notable musicians such as John Mellencamp and Buddy Guy. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Yeah, congratulations. Up next on the next show, they've got a, hey,

huge guest list on the show today coming up for them. They have, let's see, Barry Bonds will be on the program. Wow. They're going to go with, oh, what a huge get. Carmelo Anthony is on the show today. I believe the ghost of Muhammad Ali? Yes.

All on with Clinton and Wexler. The team. Talk to you tomorrow from Gallery Furniture 10 on Sports Talk 790.