The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Lose Series to Angels, Spurs Did What?! Plus World Cup Talk

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Astros Lose Series to Angels, Spurs Did What?! Plus World Cup Talk

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Change Town. Good morning and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Play a mic and mechanic song, but it's 80s. It's catchy. I mean, it's a one-hit wonder, right? I don't know.

You didn't even know the first hit. What was Mike and Mechanic's second hit? You don't know. It'll change. Have you checked your spark plugs? I was going to say we had to go to a car reference. You did they kept their instruments? Tuned up.

Okay. Turn us up. Jonathan, give it a run. Listen to a few more seconds. I don't want the Gen X review. Here comes the chorus. The next got a miracle. All right, Jonathan, what do you think?

It sucks. This is giving 40-year-old woman grocery shopping. It sucks. shaking her hips, pushing the car a little bit. It's terrible. Again, I'm not... With her orthopedic shoes? I'm not a fan of the 80s.

music by and large, but this is on the good side of the 80s. Crying kid in the stroller. Turn up. Turn up. I want a few more seconds of it. The next fans love their fans. Love their team. Okay. Again, I'm not going to listen to it a lot, but you know what? I'm going to support my 80s. I'm going to go ahead and download that song. Go ahead.

Waste your money. That's free. Oh, okay. Oh, you got Apple music. Yeah, yeah, family account. I got you. Which I'm paying for. 12, of course. So that's not free. That's going to say that.

When I was free to your son. Like last week, boys, I got a bunch of gift cards for my kids. Okay. From them? From them. Gift cards? I think I paid. My wife gave me a gift card to Starbucks.

I paid for that. What do you want, Matt? Love and attention and forgiveness for my sins. Well, last one's going to be a little tough. Those memories cut deep with the children, you know? I know. I know. Oh.

my gosh. So let's put this in perspective. Again, I don't know how many of you watched the game last night or turned or turned it on and then turned it off. Let's talk about the one that people, I mean, the basketball game. Oh, okay. The baseball game was just NBA finals. It was a must win game for both sides. What of many missed opportunities from the local baseball team.

We'll certainly give him to that as well. Fine. We have to. So yesterday, this is again, and I do this for the nine millionth, time and I want to, this is an early I'm sorry for tomorrow at 1130. Okay. But I'm sorry for ever putting anything

on commentary on Twitter because it feels like I get blowback no matter what I say. No, Matt, you just got to mute the conversation. Oh, which I have. Which I have done. The person. So yesterday and by now you know the Knicks had

overcame a 29 point deficit. The Spurs choked and I hate that term. I hate the word choked. But that was the classic choke. The owners choked. I love the orders. That's my only football team I've ever had in my entire life professionally. They choked that game.

There are moments in sports that teams choke. That was a choke job yesterday. And we'll get to many layers on that as well. So yesterday, I'm the whole family, well, actually the boys, the girls are in Rhode Island Island at college orientation. And we're all sitting around watching the game and we're like, wow, this is absolutely incredible. And we were talking about where you put this.

And, you know, for me, now the Atlanta, New England Super Bowl has been brought up. But the first thing that came to my mind, just the first thing doesn't mean it was the definitive thing. But the first thing came to my mind was watching as a young sports fan. The Oilers blow the 38 to 3 lead to Buffalo. Yes. Okay. So I just put that now the Oilers in Buffalo have company. I didn't say this was a greater one.

I didn't say this was a lesser one. I didn't say it was. I said they have company. When somebody says company means you're in a same group collectively. And I get a douchebag that puts out there to do better, Matt. It's not even close. There is nothing in my life that grinds my gears better than do better. Well, I think that person knew that.

That's my guess. And they absolutely won. Well, they said you only had 22 likes. So when I saw that, Matt, I gave you a like. Made sure to get your like up. Where am I at right now? At that point, I gave you. 70. Now you have 176.

So do I take all the credit? Yes, I do. Well, I thank you for that. No, I of course don't take credit for that. But I feel like it's debatable. This is the thing. What you said was completely... I didn't say better or worse. Matt, it's okay. Look, take a deep breath. Relax.

I'm pissed off. I'm here to help you. I'm here to tell you. I saw your tweet. Matt, do you consider me a reasonable sports fan? Please say yes. Okay. Reasonable sports fan. You're reasonable. I saw your tweet and I thought, you know what? Yeah, that's totally, I didn't say,

this is such a stupid opinion from Matt. I am going to respond and tell him to do better. No, it's reasonable. It's debatable to me, which we can have that debate on this show today. Which one is worse? But absolutely harkened. I thought about the Oilers. You think about 28 to 3 with the Patriots and the Falcons.

Absolutely. Any type of all-time collapse that you can come up with. in NBA history or a sports history, really. It has to come to mind after last night because we can debate the ins and outs of it in apples and oranges of the two different sports and one being an elimination game and one being not and one being the whatever. But yeah, absolutely one came to mind after the other. So I just, so when, let me, I'm going to make this solemn.

Here, I'm going to sign in the 790 account and give you another like. All right. I'm going to give your likes up. Jonathan, go give them a like. Jonathan, you're on you from your burner. Do I enjoy your Twitter account? He doesn't use it. I think he's dormant. We keep the little key over here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when I get, when I get hacked for another time, please don't. Okay, give me, give me your Google. By the way, they want to charge me for the author. I'm going to go, I'm going to get verified.

Google Authenticator? I think so, yeah. They will, I don't know, something on my phone. I tried to do it myself and I couldn't just, I'm going to have you here helping you. But point of again, when I, if I ever get hacked again, I'm done with Twitter. You're not getting hacked again. I will set up a,

burner account and I'll just look at stuff that I want to comment on. Or not comment, but just look at informational. Okay. But I was like, damn, I was like, it was not a bad one. And by the way, again, if you disagree with someone on Twitter, you can also scroll.

You just move by. You just move by. Or mute them. I mute them. I see dumbasses all the time. Like, I see terrible things on my 4U tab about politics. Religion. Well, I don't see those things. Well, that's because you're You got only fans models? Okay, maybe, but that's a different issue for a different time.

Okay, you don't, you don't scroll past those. Press play. You let me go to share. I'm sorry. I'm leaving. You already got an hour ahead of it. Yeah, I'm in a rhythm back. I have one minute here.

I'm in a rhythm. I just, I don't comment on everything. Like, I'll give you a small example. Yesterday on the 4 U tab as I'm watching the game, Don Harris is a TV sportscaster in San Antonio. It's been there forever and ever and ever. Okay. And he was blasting Mike Breen calling the game.

Because he says, does anybody already know that Mike Breen is also the TV voice of the Knicks, too? And all of his responses were from San Antonio fans, obviously, yeah, they're so biased towards the Nick. I really wanted to say, I've known Mike Breen for 15 years. He's done 20 NBA championships and you're a local scrub in San Antonio. I wanted to say that. Okay, we'll send him this audio.

At this point, okay. But you know what I did? I scrolled past it. You just kept going. I kept going. Keep it moving. Don't put the negative energy out there. But I don't want to get to fight.

I just like, I'm like, this is not worth it. That's good. Because again, Mike Breen, if Mike Breen would have seen that. Mike Breen has done everything in his power to try to be as objective as possible. The reason why there was so much energy for the Knicks is because they overcame a 29 point deficit. And your team

Don Harris, your team choked. Exactly. San Antonio choked last night. Do you want him to enthusiastically call the three point clanks? What a miss by the San Antonio Spurs! What do you got to be kidding me? They're blowing a 29

point lead. Sorry. That's the funny thing to me. and I just don't get it Thursday, I don't get how everybody think, they can't think for one second that maybe you have your own biases towards your team and that's why you're projecting that the other

announcer is biased against your team. Is every single announcer in the world bias against your team or maybe you're biased for yours? How we have a little bit of open mind and do a little bit of critical thinking here, folks? Well, the reality is this.

When you have national broadcasters do that also have local games, you're going to get that. Joe Davis is the Fox World Series announcer. He's also the main play-by-play guy for the Dodgers. So get us what does everybody do when the Dodgers are on TV and he's calling a game. Oh, your Dodger Blue is coming up.

The only person that I ever remember, like Mara Weber did Knicks games, I don't know people thought he was a serious bias towards the next one he was doing games on NBC back in the day. The only other person I can think of that never ever caught the heat. for that was Vince Sculling. And Vince Culling, known for his Dodger games.

It also did an NBC game of the week for like 15 years. But I know Mike Breen, I consider Mike Breen a friend. I was really, really disappointed that another member of the media would think that Mike Breen would go out of his way to oversell the Nick's success on a national broadcast. I only listen to the audio because I was watching the ass shows. I was doing post game show. So I had the audio on that. And then on TV, too, I had the finals.

I swapped the audio around like the last three minutes. And I didn't, I just felt like he was calling the finals. Didn't feel like he was. I didn't feel like I was watching the Nix broadcast. Yeah, I mean, again, do you think Mike Breen, if the Spurs were down, 29? Do you think that Mike Breen would have said, oh, there's another three-pointer for Darren Fox? Offensive rebound put in by Devin Vassell and the Spurs are up. Oh, dang.

But the do better thing just drove, oh, God, it just. I'm sorry, Matt. I think that person said that on purpose. Don't let them win, Matt. Well, he's muted. I'll never talk to him again. Oh, beautiful. I was hoping he's going to follow me.

I'm so proud of you. Yeah, Matt, you got all these supporters in your comments. It was just one of the food. Yeah, yeah, don't focus on that. But that's who I am. I know. Well, let's just try to change perspective. I'm trying to change.

All right. It's okay. Bottom of the hour, we're going to get some World Cup preview in because it is today. It's weird. It's, but today starts. Two o'clock, right? First match.

Yeah. Our friend Vanessa, Richardson from Space City and ESPN's going to join us at 11 o'clock. She was, I think she was on the floor or pretty damn close to it. Because she was on the floor getting a bunch of videos and stuff. And people were catching her in the background. So Vanessa is going to join us from MSG. Well, not literally from MSG, but at MS in New York at 11 o'clock.

I just don't get it. It's coming up at 1130. We have the news at noon. We believe it or not today at 150. We've got a busy show today. Woo! And we went the whole first segment without talking about the Astros. That's good.

31 and just five and a half back. just three and a half back I'm just going to say this you can't lose two out of three of the Angels you just can't I'm sorry if you want me to sell if you want me to sell to this city

and to this great fan base that you're going to be in this thing even despite an under 500 ranking you cannot lose to the Angels I'm sorry they suck they suck they're not

Mike Trout's amazing everybody else is mid at best hey don't don't hate Astros legends Jose Siri like that and by Brianne Burr you. I mean, bra, it's time to DFA. I'm sorry. Oh, stop. It's time. We've seen it. 1015 on Sports 790. 1022 on Sports Talk 790. We're going to get to some soccer at the bottom of the art, just to kind of give us a little nibble about being somewhat educated. And you were able to book, I mean, I said, go get us somebody. You said, I got you somebody. I'm like, damn good for us. Paul Tenorio, he is a senior reporter for the athletic on soccer.

Also wrote a book called The Messy Effect about, and that's a be part of the broader conversation. You know, Leo Messi is playing here in the United States. You have the World Cup here in the United States. What better opportunity than now? I mean, this is a good as it gets. You have the greatest player, arguably, in the history of the sport playing in this country. You have the biggest tournament in the sport in this country. If you're not going to get some interest from this, it's just not going to happen.

So I have a poll question up. And I'm, again, until I get hacked, I'm going to go ahead and get verified. Because I'm only got 22 votes on this. And I used to get a lot more votes on it. Okay. You know what I'm saying? You were right, whatever they did. They changed the...

They throttled us. They did. This none. So I have a level of interest in World Cup, four options. A, so fired up. B, I'll watch occasionally. C, only when USA plays. Or D, no interest.

Okay. No interest leads at 41%. 23% I'll watch occasionally. 18% tied between so fired up and only when USA plays. place. So it is what it is. Again, I'm going to be into the category of I'll watch occasionally, but I'm, you know, again, it is what it is. I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't out watch, you know? It's not my job to tell you what you like. You know, just like, you know, I like, I like pro wrestling in the 80s and I like soap operas and, you know, I like cheesy 70s. Yeah,

the NBA finals ratings were great. What did they pull? I don't even know, like a 10, 12, 12 share, whatever. So, I mean, so 88% of people aren't watching the NBA finals. Right, right, right, right. Okay, real quick on the NBA before we get to the soccer stuff, we got to get to the baseball too. As I said, I hate using choke, but that was a choke last night. That was terrible threes. I

really, I could not believe how much Wemby got into the brains of the New York Nixon in the first half. Taunting, scoring, getting Carl Anthony Towns in foul trouble, Mitchell Robinson. who was a non-fact.

I mean, he got in their heads. This is a 20, what is he, 21 or 22 at this point? 22. I was like, man, cocky wimby is a scary wimby because he's really good. And then he thought he was Ray Allen in the second half last night. He thought it was Reggie Miller. So did everybody. I mean, if I'm Spur fan, if I'm doing Spur Talk 790, which is actually, we have a sports station there,

I'm losing my mind. It was like they, you brought this up when you were talking with Dan. earlier. He scored 30 points in a second half. Unbelievable. A horrible shot selection. Didn't take timeouts. Didn't burn shot clock. Now again, you're not going to go there and play four corners

where you're sitting there dribbling until the shot clock shows six. I'm not asking you do that. But it was in a frantic pace. And when you're up 29 you've got to act like it. It was a check. It was unbelievable. And look, De Aaron Fox is going to get killed for the last

play or the second of the last play where he tried to go. I can criticize that. I can't kill that. I can kill him more for the body of work of the second half. Man. He's a six, seven year guy. I've been in the league a long time. He's the point guard. He is the leader. He is the, I've been through these NBA wars. I felt like, and again, not being there, and we'll talk to Vanessa about this a little bit, that he could have been more of a point guard. Like, I'll say this and not, maybe it's because of Houston rocket bias.

I don't think Fred Van Vliet lets that happen. I think Fred Van Vlitz has calmed the F down. Let's do this. I'll start running some sets here. I thought Deerrin was nuts last night. I agree. And it's funny, I was expecting you, or not necessarily you, I guess, but just everybody was crushing that Deerran Fox play.

I'm with you to where he just thought O.G. and Anubi wasn't as close as he was. And you take the two free points rather than risk missing some free throws. He steals the ball. He's in momentum. He's going. I'm going to go to the lane. I'm going to go.

And then O.G just makes it. I know. I think we're in the minority because I can, I can wrap my head around what he was thinking and what he was trying to do. Uber savvy players would have gone to the back corner waited for the foul. But again, he's a career 75% shooter. So it's like he thought he got two free points. Yeah. Bad decision, but not God awful. Oh my God. It's not why they lost. To me, it was more about the body of work in the second half.

I just said that that's how I saw I agree with you all right let's do a little soccer we come back here we're going to check in with Vanessa and then we're going to have to Ross you handled Astros duty last night I'll be honest it's it was painful watching that baseball game I was flipping back and forth last night

I find myself way more capital but obviously in the basketball game but in the baseball game because again the Astros we're getting no hit to a Jumoke right Hey Reid Debra's not a Jumoke he's a veteran but yeah there are five innings of perfect re-Detmers, you can't have that. You just can't. And they did.

Thank you, Shea Wickham. Thank you, Shay Wickham. And Cam Smith. And that was it. 1028 on Sports Talk 790. 10.30 a.m. here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. As we have a lot of stuff to get to here on the show with the Astros and Action

NBA Finals last night. And of course, the World Cup. up kicking off today at 2 o'clock as you will have Mexico in action. And right now, we are pleased to be joined by Paul Tenorio of The Athletic. He is a senior reporter for them, also author of The Messy Effect, The Global Legends Last Act and American Soccer's Beginning. Paul, first and foremost, thank you for joining the show here in Houston. We appreciate your time with me, Ross, and Matt as well.

Thanks so much for having me on. All right. Let's just go ahead and start with the world. World Cup coming up here. It's starting today. There's a lot of talk about the preparation and all the different stadiums and, of course, games in Canada and Mexico. How do you feel specifically here in the United States, and we do have some games here in Houston as far as getting ready for the tournament and trying to put on a good tournament and trying to gain interest on all those types of things? How do you feel we've done here in the United States?

Yeah, I mean, look, it's been a rough start to this tournament, right? When we talk about the logistics of it in terms of, but these aren't the fault of the U.S. and the stadiums here in the U.S. Like every market, every city has done the best it can to prepare for this tournament. I think this country will be prepared for the tournament. And I think once the games kick off today, we'll remember kind of the fun and the brilliance of this tournament, which is the actual soccer part of it. It's been tough because of FIFA. It's been tough because of the ticket prices and the feelings of inaccessibility.

It's been tough because so much of the attention has been focused. around visas and the fact that a referee got turned back and Iran has faith issues getting in. All of those things are valid to be talked about. They're important that we talk about them. But I do think that there is a level of maybe relief that will come from the ball being kicked off for the first time today in Mexico City and the game is actually starting and we'll remember what makes this tournament so great. And that's the sporting side of it.

And I think we're going to see probably one of the best tournaments ever put on because the U.S. knows how to put on a show. And the fact that 1994 is still the most attended World Cup, that record will fall for this one. But it shows that an American hosted World Cup is going to be a success. You mentioned FIFA and some of the things they've done wrong. What is the level of collaboration that they have or how much control, they control everything, or exactly what is their role in this? And in which ways do you think they've mishandled this? Yeah, they certainly control everything. And that's been the case from the very beginning.

It's the reason why, for example, I live in Chicago. It's the reason why Chicago is not hosting a game because the contracts that they drew up with these host cities were very favorable to FIFA. They control all of the revenue and all of the profits. And this host cities take on all of the burden and all of the risk. And that's the way FIFA operates. They sort of can bully people into it because the World Cup is so spectacularly popular globally that they can control so much of the way. this goes down. I think where things have gone wrong is where they've placed their priorities. So they say, well, look at American entertainment and you can see that this is the way that they

do business, which is true. You know, it costs a lot of money to go watch a sporting event in the United States. It costs a lot of money to go watch a concert. And there are a lot of reasons for that. The fact that we allow secondary market sales, drive prices through the roof, you know, it's thousands of dollars to get into the next game last night at the garden, right? Like, this is become the norm in this country. And FIFA says, okay, well, we're going to capitalize on that. We're going to set this dynamic pricing with extremely high prices. We're going to create our own secondary market so that we can take the cut on both ends of the buyer and the seller, the way Stubhub and Seekke and all the other resellers do. They're saying all we're doing

is exploiting the market that exists in America. What I think that does, though, is it misses the long-term goal of hosting a World Cup. You know, FIFA says, well, we're taking all that money, all that profit and we're pumping it into these smaller countries around the world that need the money to set up infrastructure for the sport. But the people who lose or the sacrifice of that is growing the game here in the United States where they're hosting the tournament that allows more people access to the sport, more people access to the games. And for me, there's a cost to that.

And I think one of the ironies of it is that Johnny Ventino, the president of FIFA, gets up on stage and says, I'm going to fix the pay-to-play problem in the United States, which of course has limited the growth of kind of the world-class players coming out of this country is that usually when you get to the higher levels, it's most accessible for the wealthiest families because it costs so much. And yet the first opportunity FIFA has to actually not exploit the pay-to-play system, it's doing the opposite, right? It's doing the exact same thing that Americans do in the youth soccer world. So, you know, there is a cost to this. It's a long-term cost. And I think it's the wrong decision from FIFA in terms of opening this sport and this game up to everyone in this country.

Paul Tenorio is our guest here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Paul writes for the athletic. He has a new book out called The Messy Effect, The Global's Legends Last Act, and American Soccer is beginning. We'll get to that in just a little bit. Paul, my partner Ross is an avid soccer fan. My oldest son is, I am not. I am very much a novice at best, but I will watch. Give me something when I'm watching Team USA that will give me pause.

for encouragement, and then when you sit down and watch Team USA play and they're not playing well, what would be the issue? So basically in a roundabout way, how do I know this year's team's going to have a chance to advance a couple of rounds? Yeah, well, I will say this. When you sit down and watch this team, you're going to see that they look really good in the attack. They flow well. They have really good players that play on the attacking third of the field. And when you're watching this team, if you see them connecting in the final third, you're going to see players like Christian Polisick, the star in face of the program, playing well. Valer and Balligan, this is a name that not many people know,

who I think they're going to get to know. He's coming into this tournament with 12 goals in his last 18 games. He's looks maybe set for a big move back to the Premier League. He's playing in France right now at Monaco. You know, those types of players, Sergenio Dess is an exciting, creative player who's going to be on the right side of the attacking line. You know, these players are fun to watch. And you're going to see them passing the ball around taking players on, creating goal scoring chances, scoring goals. That's when the U.S. is playing. The downside is the backline and the goalkeeper.

Two areas that are typically the strength of our American teams are question marks this time around. Matt Freese is the goalkeeper who's going to be starting, likely starting tomorrow in this opener. He has no World Cup experience. He only really broke into the national team last summer. In my opinion, he's been outplayed by the backup, Matt Turner, who started the World Cup in 2022. he's been outplayed by him this season in Major League Soccer. And so there are real question marks around a position goalkeeper that is typically the strength of the team. So I think the positive will be when you see them on the attacking on the front foot and they're controlling the game and they're going at teams, you know they're playing well.

But when they open up and start to attack more, they become a little bit more vulnerable in transition moments. And that's when this defense, this backline and especially this goalkeeper can be exploited. So if there's going to be a big problem, a red flag for this team, it's going to be in that transition defending. But they should be, in some moments in this tournament, a really fun team to watch because they do have attacking talent. All right, Paul, it feels like that Spain and France is getting a lot of the love for favorites. Is there a sneaky team we need to keep an eye on that would be a challenge of either one of those two squads? Well, I would say the one team I think is not being talked about enough to make a deep run. in this tournament is Mexico.

You know, when we talk about home field advantage, out of the three host countries, Mexico has the biggest home field advantage. Not just because it's really hard to go down there and play in front of what is going to be a crazy atmosphere. The crowd is, it's very difficult to go play in Mexico because the crowds are so intimidating, they're so into the games.

But also, if you go down to the Azteca, which South Africa is going to have to do today, you're playing at altitude. You're playing well above the altitude of Denver, for example. I think a thousand meters above what Denver is. And that's really, really hard to do, especially

when you're playing against the Mexico team that's already been there for three weeks, training in that environment. By the time they get through the group stage, they'll have been there another three and a half weeks. So they'll be fully adjusted and adapted to the altitude. And if they win the group, they'll get two more knockout games at the Azteca.

I think one game to keep an eye on if Mexico takes care business, this isn't the strongest Mexico team team. They've had some injuries. But if they take care of business at home, I could see them knocking England out in the round of 16 at the Azteca and being a quarter finalist in this World Cup. So that's one team to keep an eye on in this World Cup tournament. Paul Tenorio is the author of the messy effect, the global legends last act in American Soccer's beginning. Paul just tell us about the book. I have a copy. I'm looking forward

to reading it. I haven't been able to crack it open yet. But how did this book idea come about for you and what exactly went into it? And then, of course, most importantly, what do you want us to come away with from the reading this book? Look, as you guys know, it's not often that American soccer is at the center of the domestic sports landscape. And when Messi arrived in 2023, there were hundreds of journalists that descended on Fort Lauderdale for that first training session. A helicopter was circling overhead. Messi and Miami were leading sports center every single night.

The goal against Cruz Assul only drove that forward and louder. LeBron James and Kim Kardashian were there, Serena Williams. For me, I've covered this sport in the United States since 2007. I looked around and realized this is a different story. This is a story worth telling. But I also wanted this book to be a story that wasn't just about a season in the life of Inter Miami and just about messy coming to Miami. I wanted also to be able to explain to people this is the American soccer landscape

he was arriving to. This is what's grown the sport already in this country that's driven popularity around the Premier League and Champions League, League MX, which is still the most watched league soccer league on television in the United States, and also where MLS was and where it needs to go. And so I wrote this book for anyone, for example, this summer, who's going to tune into the World Cup and wants to know what's going to happen after this World Cup? What does this mean for American soccer? Why hasn't MLS caught up to the rest of the world? Where is it going? I wanted to answer those questions in this book as well. And so, you know, in the narrative of the

book. I'm threading together behind the scenes moments from the locker room with Messi, getting to see what he's like as a teammate for guys who grew up with posters of him on their walls. But then also, I take you into the boardrooms behind the scenes with the billionaire owners of Major League Soccer as they make these critical decisions about the future of the league and try to keep up with a sport that is growing here in the United States, but the competition is growing too. They have to be able to pull audience away from those leagues that I talked about before. So this is a book that's about the

sports business. It's about how leagues make decisions about how to drive the business of the sport forward. It's also about what it's like when the most famous player of all time, the greatest player of all time, drops into a locker room with guys making $100,000 a year. And I hope

that people can come away with a little bit of both, getting to know messy a little bit better on what drives him, but also being able to sit down and have a conversation about American soccer and say, hey, this is what needs to happen in this country in order for major league soccer to be competitive and in order for the u.s men's national team to better compete in future world cups the book is the messy effect available at all major outlets also paul tennario senior reporter for

the athletic paul thanks so much for the time we appreciate it thanks for having me thank you very much that's paul pinario good stuff right there uh from the athletic and i tell what the athletic uh i don't know how they're doing fun But they have great writers. They have a lot of soccer coverage. Yeah. Overseas as well. Like they have Premier League writers and Yeah.

Italian leagues and Spanish league. They do a lot of soccer coverage on there too for people who don't know. And I'm a subscriber to it. And they don't pay me to say that, but I just, yes, they do. It's just good stuff. I'm a subscriber as well and they don't pay me either. I know. And I got this book.

I'm going to crack this bad boy open soon. Maybe I'll think the book with me when I go to Galveston next week. Oh, you want to give it to you? No. Come on. Let me. I'll read after you're done. All right.

You can quiz me and everything, too. I don't believe you. But the problem is, you have to come up with quiz questions. Look, this is, as Paul was saying, like, you've got Lionel Messi here in the United States. You've got the World Cup here in the United States. 94 did give a little bit of a pop. The teams have gotten better interests is up, but you're looking for a real lasting leap in interest here in the United States, and this is the best way to do it. They've got to put on a good cup, and the team has to go deep.

They just do. I was going to say, they could put on the most amazing cup in the world. If U.S. flails, I'm sorry, Ross, those of us that are the, we'll check in with every four years, be like, we'll see you, Tom. It's going to be so much easier to check out. If they, like, don't even make it out of the group stage.

All right, Astros fall yesterday. Nix, Spurs from last night was unbelievable. And when we come back, you attack a Swifty. The Swifties will come after you. 1044 on Sports Talk 7.9. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you'd like to be a part of our radio program,

today. We've not taken any calls yet. We can be more than welcome to join us. I guess Vanessa's going to join us from New York City in about 15 minutes. All right. Do we do a breaking news on the Astros or is that just not nice? You know what? Can you... Jonathan, can you do a half? Oh, I was going to say, can you do a half?

Well, that was a half. Good for you. Look at this guy. Yeah, Jonathan, we were so proud of you. Don't leave. I mean, don't ask for any more money, but don't leave. Shea Wickham hits a home run yesterday and got demoted back to Sugarland. Yeah, that's a shame. The cruel breaks there are friends.

From Anaheim to Sugarland. Some suburb to suburb. Yeah. Corresponding move to be made. I don't care at this point. I mean, are we going to speculate? What's got to be for a position player? Is it that guy they just signed?

What was his name? They got from cash considerations from the raise. I don't know. If you're getting a cash consideration player, then I'm assuming. mean this is not going to be the guy that's going to turn you into a triple crown team here. Yeah. All right.

So last night, and I'm going to peel the curtain back a little bit, when you start to play at the higher level in the playoffs, team broadcasters, team broadcasts like to add video to radio broadcast. Or if you're doing a TV broadcast, they'll actually put the photos, the cameras on you. I mean, they're just trying to add elements, add extra media, multimedia feed. features. Well, one of the things last night was the Knicks radio crew had video of them saying, hey, watch our announcers call the game as you're watching it on television. And the voice of the Knicks, his name is Tyler Murray, is a super good dude. I'm just a fan. I'm just a really good, really good guy. His partner is Monica McNutt, who you occasionally see on the ESPN. She was not

particularly happy with what she saw downstairs. Now remember at MSG, the radio broadcasts, I've told you, we are in the second to highest deck of the arena. We are way, way up high. Okay. Here is them during a commercial break when

the radio was off, but the video was still on. Is that Taylor Swift down there? No, I think Gray was just saying her name for no reason to distract me. No, that's her. Yeah, but where? With that long ponytail, ain't that her in the blue?

Yeah, I literally was like, that's her. I don't know if I believe you. Wow, look at Tyler Go. You don't even know where you're looking. Yeah, sure. She's not a Knicks fan. Get out of here, girl. Get out of here, girl.

She's not wrong. Can I say, yeah. No, no, she's gone to games before. Yeah. Okay, was she a Knicks fan, though? She's not a Knicks fan. Now, the shirt she, there's no way. The shirt she wore.

There's no way she knows who O.G. and Nubi is. She's not, she's going to do a song about Josh. Hart's Miss Layup late. Yeah, she doesn't know Mitchell Robinson's player efficiency rating. Come on. This is the Grunk AI. Taylor Swift has long identified as the Knicks fan

confirming her support in 20-19. There are pictures of her at Nick's games in the past. Okay. That's crazy. Yeah, it doesn't matter. No, no, no. This is very jovial. This is like as much on a hot on mics that we say during the breaks here,

man. Oh my God. I would be so fired. Taylor Swift, Get out of here, girl, is the most. Well, The reason why I bring this up for multiple reasons. Number one.

It's funny for sure. First of all, it's funny. Number two, her partner, her partner, Tudor, obviously the wife is a Swifty. And he's trying to get a, if you look at the video of it, if you'll see it, he's trying to get a photo on his phone. Oh, okay. I would be doing the exact same thing. Of course. My wife is a diehard Swifty.

My daughter is a diehard Twifty. I mean, I would be exactly what Tudder. or the Nixon announcer will be doing. Now, Clinton hates Swifty. Oh, he does? So he would be in. He hates someone? I know. It's stunning. He would be in that same mode that Monica MacNow was in.

Yeah, get around. So, oh, so this is like you guys on the broadcast. You're getting a picture. And he's over there saying, get out of here, girl. So that's the reason why I brought this up is because, again, A, it's funny. Yeah. B, I could so see myself in the exact same situation. Uh-huh. And when Clinton off air would say much worse than what she said. Correct. Now, the general thing about this is this. If you attack Swifty, the Swiftys are coming after you.

They are vicious. They are vicious. If I'm Monica McNutt, as innocent as it may come across, you do not want to look at social media because they will, they are not will. They are annihilating her. So just to be careful for a little bit of advice to all of us on radio. Yes. Broadcasters, host, journalist, Twitter. If you disparage Taylor Swift, the Swifties will come after you. It just happened to be in the middle of NBA finals game. But would you see which the shirt she was wearing last night? It just said Knicks, right?

No. What did it say? Stevie Nicks. Oh, I didn't see that. Because that's your favorite. I guess I wasn't paying that much attention. Well, that's what I'm here for. Okay.

But again, the thing that made me laugh so hard about it was the fact that Tata Murray, the Knicks announcer, would be doing the exact. I mean, if Taylor came to a Houston game, I would be, forget about calling the game, I would just be looking around looking for, because I want to send a photo to the girls about this. So I just thought it was funny. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. an absolutely incredible night in New York City, and I'm highly jealous of our next guest. Now, Ross, I didn't want to bother Vanessa because she's bouncing around from the part one part of the country

of the other doing the hoops dream thing, millions and millions and millions of views, meeting all these celebrities, hanging out with the cool people. Yeah. Too cool to talk to us, I figure. Listen to me. Vanessa, you went on Instagram,

I saw one of the restaurants you went to. The rabbi was $115. What the hell's going on? SPM, I must give me that great per diem. Good God. Matt, Matt, you think I'm paying for that? Oh! You think I'm paying for that?

Oh, yes. Yes. I almost texted like, damn, $1,000, like pieces of sushi working, $22 a piece. I went back to look at the damn menu where you were at. Good God. You're out of your mind. I am out of my mind.

Listen, I appreciate it coming on. All right, so tell me where you were, because there's so much other stuff, but I'll ask for the game itself. How did you position your, you were off, the air about a half hour before tip time. Where do they put you during the game? And then as, because you were on the floor, it felt like almost immediately after the game was over. So talk, walk us through your night.

Yeah. So with hoop streams, there's a digital element on site. And then for a couple of these games, there's also a studio element. So, you know, I'm obviously for the, for the hoop streams that are on site, I'm the host. For the, some of the ones that have been based in Bristol, I'm the reporter. And I feel like that's the best thing for me, just being here and being on side and getting the interviews. So during the game, we have media seats. And it was cool because our hoop stream set was actually right by the inside the NBA set. So I actually watched a quarter of the game with those guys, which was just really cool to hear them, you know, talking basketball. I know Rockets fans are certainly familiar with Kenny and Charles Barkley.

So that was really cool. And then around the fourth quarter, I went down to the floor because we did some post-stop. game celebrity interviews for digital content. And so it was to be a part of such an emotional environment, Matt, was really cool. And it's, it's, you know, I'm neutral, right? Like everybody knows I root for the rockets. I don't try to hide that. So, but, but just the magic of Madison Square Garden and wondering in those moments with all these celebrities around and, and Larry David losing his mind and the Wu-Tang plan court side. And it's like, Who's going to be able to pull this off? It was unlike any sports environment I have ever been in.

It was truly spectacular. That's what I was going to ask about, Vanessa, as the environment in terms of just the overall energy, because it feels like maybe with a bunch of celebrities, you wouldn't get as much, but did you feel like it was a pretty raucous crowd? Okay, so here's my take. I think that a lot of Lakers celebrity fans are not actually Laker fans.

They just want to be seen. the Knicks fans are not that way. Like this the majority of the celebrities like Edie Falco Tina Faye, Tracy Morgan, Timothy Chalmay, Ben Stiller, like they are all legitimate Knicks fans. We had John Turturro, Terturo who's like a famous character actor on like all these, a lot of these people are really dedicated and have been legitimate fans throughout the years. So they were really, really into the game. it was awesome. It was really a special environment. And when the game was over, all of them rushing to court, all the celebrities, all the Knicks alumni, you know, from Patrick Ewing to John Starks, all of them rushing to court as if it's a college game was kind of unlike anything I've ever seen. So it was, it was awesome. But when the Knicks were not doing well, the entire first half, it felt like you could hear a pin drop in there. I mean, it was it was like the highest of highs in the last.

lowest of lows. Vanessa Richardson, Space City Home Network and ESPN, working on the HOOP Streams broadcast. Okay, so it feels like to me when I've gone to MSG that the security guards, the ushers are the rudest in the NBA among the 30MBA. I'm just going to say it. I don't care.

Really? That's my thought. But they didn't worry about anybody leaving the building last night. I mean, how long it would it take you to get out? So I waited, because I did some post-game interviews, I just waited until some of the madness wrapped up. I mean, it was, and then at that point,

they had blocked off a lot of the streets surrounding MSG. So all of us, unless you have a car, you're like VIP, VIP, like your car, you have a car in the loading dock. Unless you're that, like you have to go up, you have to leave, and then you have to walk probably three or four blocks and just call an Uber to whatever bar or restaurant.

you know, you can find. You cannot call one around MSG. So yeah, I mean, it's definitely, if for some reason the series comes back to New York and the Knicks are to win at Madison Square Garden, I feel like a lot of us might just have to sleep at the building. So tell me, you had a lot of different celebrities on your show who, uh, anybody awestruck for you at this point? Well, I think it was really cool. I'm, me, you. and Craig and Tracy, like we have like our group on the road, like all of us Lump and Stiller and all of his movies.

And so to have them Stiller on was really cool, but he's so, he's so into basketball. And what he told me is it's like, that's like his release from acting. Like, so that was really cool just because I think that between Zoolander, meet the parents, um,

all of Dodgeball, like I think he has some of the most rewatchable classic movies ever. Um, and that was really cool. I also, having Tracy Morgan and Spike Lee on together was very special. Their interaction, the way they were talking, Tracy Morgan started quoting the Godfather. Like it was actually really, really cool.

And so I don't know that I've been like starstruck because in the moment you just have to kind of, you know, do the show and you get that. But afterwards, oh my God. Like even like watching part of the game with the inside the NBA guys because our sets we're right next to each other. You have these moments that are, you know, that are really cool. And you think about it when you get back to your hotel, you're like, wow, that just happened. But it's been really cool.

And most importantly, the basketball games have been good, right? Like, you can be, you can have all the celebrities there you want. But if the games aren't good, it's just not fun. And all four games have been great games. All right. So I'm going to put you on the spot here. You've got the three left. What do you think? Who's going to win this series?

You know, I'm going to go with Knicks. I said, you know, whoever won last night, I think it was going to win the series. Just because if the Spurs had pulled it off, now it's a brand new series tied at 2-2, and they have a 5 and 7. They have home court advantage. So, honestly, because the Knicks were able to pull it out last night, which just, you know, OG Ananobe talk about, like, not to bring it back to the Rockets, but that's a total, like, the thing I love about the Rockets, just the grittiness and the hustle and all that.

Like, OG and Anobie getting right to the board, saving the game. It was just such a tough play. So that makes me think the Knicks will win. I just think that they played so well in San Antonio before. Everyone says experience didn't matter. They said the Spurs connection, right? Experience usually matters, but the spurs are the exception. I think what we're seeing is that experience does matter.

And, you know, people might kill me because he's from the Popovich coaching tree. But, you know, this is Mitch Johnson's first, you know, really running the playoffs as coach and in the finals particularly. So there's probably some growth that could be had there as well. So I'm probably, I'm going to, my heart and my head are both telling me next at this point. Speaking of the youth, Wemby, 22 years old, come under some fire, not speaking to the media earlier in the playoffs, maybe being short in some interviews. What has your experience been like with him? Has he been easier to deal with or a little bit more, I don't know, just difficult? I haven't had any one-on-ones with him.

I've had Deere and Fox and Devin Vesel from the Spurs, and they were both lovely. I had McNeil Bridges and Jose Alvarado, who were both great. Jose was awesome. I mean, talk about immediately becoming one of my favorite non-rockets in the league. But I have not had any one-on-ones with Wendy, so I have not dealt with him directly. I will say this. Like, if you want to be the face of the league, you have to do media. And you have to be willing to do the walk-off interviews and you have to be willing to,

after a loss, do the podium. So look, it could be just age. It could be that this is his first time in the finals. But, you know, he's such an exciting player and he's young and it's international. And, you know, Adam Silver is trying to grow the league so much internationally. He, in theory, you know, is perfect. And I think it's good that he's kind of a villain for this. the series with the Knicks. I think that's good

for basketball, but certainly, you know, if you want to be the face of the league, then that's what it is. Vanessa, safe travels. Thank you for coming on again. We won't bother you anymore. I know you've been bouncing around. And again, you know me, I love calling athletes games and whatnot, but the celebrity

stuff is like, like if you get to talk to Larry David, I will be really super jealous. And I think Susie Esman is there. I mean, everybody's there. McEnroe is there. Jerry Seinfeld. It's crazy. And so enjoy the experience. and thank you again for joining us this morning. I've got it Larry David's story for you after the finals,

but I'm not going to tell it on air. So that's my little piece for you. All right, I'll talk to you soon, Maddie. Did you chat and cut? Is that what you did? I did chat and cut. I actually have a chat and cut story with Reed Shepard when we were in L.A. for the playoffs.

Oh, right. Reed and his lovely girlfriend were in line for coffee. You know, that coffee place. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's super long line. and Reed and his girlfriend see me and they're like, hey, just like, come stand with us. So I started talking to them and got in line and I realized that I had done a chatting cut. There it is, ladies gentlemen.

The sideline reporter for your Houston Rockets is a chatting cutter. She should be shamed. Vanessa Safe Travels. We really appreciate young lady. Talk to you soon. All right, man. She's a chatting cutter. I forgot about she.

We've all done it. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say I had to have done it at some point. I'm sure. Not a lot, though. But since the show, since the episode, no chance. Okay. I've had to de-chat and decut somebody.

Okay. At mothers and New Orleans of all places. I know. Unacceptable. 1113 of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. 713-212-5-790. I just don't get it. It's coming up in 15 minutes.

That's right. 15 minutes for I just don't get it. You want to chime in? All right. We've killed an hour in 13. We're going to have to get to the Astros when we come back. Because we really haven't talked about it. Not killed, Matt.

entertained for an hour of 13. We have given you soccer. We've given you NBA. We gave you Swiftie. There's another radio show. You know, we haven't done. Ooh, I was going to say it. No tip jar.

1113, sports talk, 7. 90. All right, 1119 is our time. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. The news at noon. By the way, I goofed up. Mike and the Miracles have a second hit.

The mechanics? Am I going to make? It's a Smoky Robinson's band? No, stop. Shout out to you, Aaron. He caught me. The Living Years is another one of their hits. So that's two, I think.

I don't think they were a three hit wonder, but they were definitely two hits. Which, you know, that means, Ross, when you have two hits, you can perform in a casino. Yeah. So do a couple covers, throw some deep cuts in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's off our new album.

Our new album that no one cares about. That's exactly right. changes you go through in life, you know? Life is about changes. Check this one out. It's like every time that I went to go see Paul McCurney, he put on new stuff and people are like, we don't want this. We want, we want, uh, love me do. We want, uh, helter, Skelter.

No, no, we're going to give me this one from this deep cut I have from an album 19 years ago that sold 11 records. Mm-hmm. Sorry. So, yeah, if you're a Mike and Mechanic fan, through the living, uh, living years, I apologize. I goofed up on that. All right. 713212. The fans were, yeah, I think they're out

They're outside with pitchforks. They're like the Swifties. Yeah. Oh, man, that's hilarious. That's the negative about the videos every time about the Monica McNet thing. You gotta always pretend you're on the air. Whether you're on the air, you know what I'm saying?

Well, sometimes mistakes are made. Woo. I pray that I don't make those. I mean, imagine if you'd have said something worse. That is the first rule they tell you when you get in front of a microphone is pretend it's always on. That's exactly right. All right. So I did the on deck and tent editing shows Monday and Tuesday.

Yes. You did it yesterday. Yes, I have tomorrow. You have tomorrow. Clinton and Wexer don't do any of them. That's okay. They're very busy. Doing what?

I don't know. Texans OTAs? And then Clinton? Playing GTA running over hookers? Pretty much. Okay. So you had more of a keen eye on the game than perhaps I did. Okay.

We almost saw a perfect game. Not almost. It got busted up in the sixth. It's so funny that Todd Callis will not at bringing up. That's their little thing. He and Jeff Blum, they don't like to mention it. Yeah. On radio you have to because you can't see the graphics, so you can't.

It doesn't have any bearing on the game. Zero. They have fun with it. Zero. Jeff Blum is sick because people get mad at him. Why won't you say it? Because it's funny. No matter what you do, people get mad.

They get mad when you jinx it. They get mad when you don't say it. Right, right. And Blum has had to defend himself and be like, hey, it's like we're having fun here. Relax, everybody. We ain't building bombs. Yeah. All right.

So the Astros fall, two out of, Rossi, two out of three to the Angels? It's not. I mean, come on. I mean, I'm trying to keep glass half full here. I know you have been. You cannot, you cannot lose two or three. You just can't. Yeah, not only are you five and a half back of the Mariners, you're three and a half back of the Rangers.

You're three behind the A's. You have to catch every one. have to catch them all. You got to, it's Pokemon. You got to catch them all if you want to win the American League West. Four hits last night. Four. You can't do it.

This is the thing, though. They're going to turn it around at some point if you're not. And you're not. And if you can't beat the Angels, you've got the last place Kansas City Royals coming up, tied for last place, Detroit Tigers coming up as well. And you have this nine game stretch where you're supposed to be getting fat and happy. You're supposed to be going six, three, in a minimum, hopefully seven and two. Well, you got to win out to go seven and two.

because you just lost these two, and now you've lost three of your last four. You are eight games below 500, and you're slipping to three and a half back in the wild card, and there's like three or four team sandwich between you and the last wild card. I'm just going to say this again, because we always want to inform the audience. Average OPS is about, what, 7.50, give or take? A little less these days. I can give you the OPS pluses, but... Okay, I can't give you OPS.

Okay, if you have an APS, okay, if you have an APS, I can give you OPS. Okay, if you have an A lot of L. 800 OPS. That's really good. Yes. 900 puts you at damn good. A thousand puts you at super elite level. Mm-hmm.

So again, 750 average. This year's average is 696. No, I'm saying. No, I can't do that. That's wrong. That's wrong. Where's it now? That's the Cardinals.

Okay. I mean, the Diamondbacks. So if, if seven, let's just say for the sake of purpose is 750's average. Altube is at 684 after going 0-4 yesterday with two strike counts. Hmm. Yaron and Alvarez. is at 1066. And he has been over 1,000 all year long.

He's just mashing. Christian Walker's 813. I'll accept that and be very happy with that. Jeremy Pena, who pinched ran last night. 761. Okay, not bad. Paredes. Down year for him, 738.

Cam Smith. Harley takes 10 days off, right? And for that, you credit him. He had a home run yesterday. 675 is OPS. 715 is average this year. Oh, boy, that's gone down the last couple of years. Okay, so 715's average.

Your friend, Jake Myers. Hey, 58. Bryce Matthews. Playing a lot. OPS, 572. And Christian Vasquez, who I argue with dorks on Twitter about how the Astros only do is win when he plays. His OPS is 656. Bad.

I'm sorry, gang. this this this astro lineup is currently constructed is not going to get back on the race yeah if you're looking at every day players who are above average it's yordon obviously huge then it's walker and a little bit of paena

and a little bit of isaq parades everybody else i mean there's just a significant drop-off Jose altouvae i love that man now he doesn't know me from john no but i love him we all love him and I'm trying

to sell that he's going to get to 3,000 hits. It's just going to happen, happen, happen. But man, he's got 30 hits this year. He only has five home runs, right? He's got 30 hits, five home runs. He's hitting 232 with a 684 OPS.

That's, he'll have to, if he hits, he'll be 47 years old before he gets the 3,000 hits. I don't want that. I want him to get to 3,000. 3,000 is sexy. 3,000 is automatic inclusion in the baseball Hall of Fame. Automatic. He can heat up, like anyone,

out of nowhere. You're right. He can go four for five, a couple three hit games in a row and he can get up to like 275 and a flash. But it's been a decline for several years now. Your outfield, which we worried about

Ross from the day the season started. Did we not? Yes. Super concerned. We were. Your OPS out there. Left field starting. Matthews 5, 7. Yikes. Center fielder Jake Myers, 588.

Oh my God. Your right fielder, the highest number, 675. You have three, among other, terrible spots in your lineup that don't produce. Thus, a Jamoak goes five perfect innings yesterday. It's kind of saying. I'm trying. I am trying to sell this. I, and maybe I'm, maybe I shouldn't, but I'm trying.

I'm trying to say. hey, that's a team that can score 10 runs. Hey, that's a team that went 7 and 3 on a road trip. But you go 4 and 5 at home, and then you go on the road and you lose the sucky-ass angels. That's what they are. Their sucky ass. It just are. It's hard to inspire confidence.

It's hard to feel like when are they going to turn this around? Because now we're 70 games into the season. This is not nothing. This is not, oh, it's early. And you have been getting a lot of your guys that you're going to get back, you have gotten back. Jeremy Payne is back. Jose Altova was hurt. He's back and he's not playing well. And Josh Hader is back and he's been good.

What the heck is going to continue to go on with Brian Abraeu in the back end of this bullpen? Hunter Brown alone is not going to save this team. And Christian Javier, three scored those frames and minor leagues? Great. I haven't seen Christian Javier throw a successful major league game in three years. You know what? I need a snack. Ross, I just don't get it's coming up next. Okay. Well, hey, lunch is coming up. What don't you get by the way?

All right, here we go. I'm going to go non-sports open up this week's edition of I just don't get it. This is the segment we do a half hour every week here on the radio program where you call us, if you'd like, at 713212-5-790 and you just say I don't get something. It can be sports-related, it can be non-sports related, and we come from three different backgrounds, lifestyles, and we try to help you walk through these murky waters. And I will start with, I was looking at a TV program. and the anchor was on there and he was talking, and I didn't really particularly care what he was saying. I kept looking at his hair.

It's really dyed very, very jet blacky. Okay. I'm going to say this, and I don't mean to be rude for those of you that do do this, because we've got people that we frankly work with, that we love and admire and appreciate. If y'all are dying y'all's hair, we know it. You can't hide it.

Dying your hair. I'll just frankly say, boys, I just don't get it. I know it obviously makes you look more youthful, but unless you get it like really, really professionally done and get it checked on a lot and really maintain it. Maybe leave a little gray in there, a touch of gray. Yeah, sure, when I. You go into your sink and put an ingrecian formula,

bra, we see what you're doing. We ain't buying it. Like Mike Shashefsky. He can't hear you. It's like 80 years old. He's got pitch black hair That's not true It's not possible

I say boys I just don't get it Vanity You know that's a very easy It's a very good answer yeah Now women do the same thing They get the tummy tucks And they get the facelifts

And they get the eyebrows Dudes get facelifts too Botox too And Botox And I've seen it to mannequins Yeah it's weird You know what I don't like to Is because you will see somebody

and they try to look good for Instagram. You see somebody like, oh, wow, that looks normal. And then you see them in person, and you can tell, especially from not the perfect angle without the perfect filter, you're like, oh, this is kind of grotesque. So the problem is everybody's looking for what looks good on their photos to get posted more than even what looks good in real life. And it's just getting more and more.

They look like caricatures of themselves. It's not good. I'm keeping it natural, Matt. My hair is gray as hell. Yeah. And I will probably say that I've contributed to your grayness. Oh my God. A small extent of it.

Not a lot. Not a lot. Lord. And how. All right. But I'm just going to live with it. It's me. I'm evolving.

I'm not the same that I was when I was 22, so I'm letting go. So I'm just going to say that those of you that get your hair colored, I just don't get it. And again, you do you. And that's good. And if it makes you, but we know how old you are. We just do. It does make people look younger. It does.

No, it does. For sure. It does. It does. All right. Let's see. What do you got? Well, as you guys know, I went camping last week.

I mean, I was in Southern California. I also went camping north of Big Bear Lake. You can find the pictures on my Instagram at SportsRV. And also, my latest story was The Moon Rising, which I think is a good pick. You can find out my Instagram at SportsRV. But as I was out there, in the camping, campsite. Now, I wasn't just at a like a regular campsite where people just drive up, get drunk, and go home. This was like we had to take a four by four to get to this campsite. It was like,

it was dispersed camping. It's not easy to find. And everywhere you go when you go camping, Matt, they say pack in, pack out. That means whatever trash or whatever you bring out, you bring in. They call it leave no tricks. And I get out there. And in this fire pit, there's burned up beer cans, there's beer bottles everywhere, there's trash everywhere. Like if you're out there, you're a... That's frankly sad. You're a serious camper. It makes me sad. Yeah, yeah.

It makes me like, you know, those old commercials where the Native American has got the tear running down his face. That's you. That's what, that's me. Yeah. I don't get it. If you're out there, especially like a four by four spot, you love nature. You appreciate nature. It's not easy to get out there.

And when you get out there, you're going out there because it is nature. And nature doesn't involve trash. You, there's... leaving trash and setting beer cans on fire. And I tell you, every mile there's a sign. Leave no trace. Pack in, pack out. Leave no trace. Especially with fires that have been so prevalent.

Yes. Yes. I don't get it. What the hell are y'all people doing out there? Can I ask you if you? And there was another one if it was one more. There's another site we went to. We left the site because there was broken glass everywhere. Like people got in like a beer bottle fight or something.

The whole site was covered with broken glass. We had to leave. It makes me angry. What the hell's wrong with people? anybody got time for that actually yeah that too I should have brought that up how far are you from

the next camper like what is the proper it depends on where you go like if you go to a state park there's one 30 feet away from you and where we were there was not anybody for half a mile

so basically you get to just plop down wherever you want to go that's what I love it's the silence yes really and so when you go when you go backpacking as well depending on what kind of trail you go on you can go where there's nobody for miles.

But you don't know what's around you to us. No, you don't. But you follow certain rules. Don't make a big pot of chili and dump it on the ground. Otherwise, bears are going to come around. You make sure you watch all your crumbs. You make sure, like if you're backpacking, you have to have a bear box, which is you put all your food into the bear box,

which is going to lock it. Basically, you twist lock it and the smell doesn't get out. You have to have precautions. Because otherwise, yeah, animals are going to come snooping around. but for the most part, animals are more scared of you than you are of them. Okay. There's other questions I want to ask. Okay.

But I feel that if I do, that you'll get mad at me. I won't get mad at you. No, you will. You're going to ask where you use a bathroom. That's number one. I just know you too well. And number two, if you are... Bring wipes.

What's the closest you've been to somebody else's tent? What do you mean? Like, could you be 50 feet away from somebody with a tent pop-up? somewhere else? You could be. What if? It depends. Do you like go to talk to them or do you let them be or? I say 99% of the time I leave people be. Sometimes I don't know. Like I've given people, for example, you can't take

propane, the little propane fuel on a flight. I'll go give it to somebody on the way I. I've given, I've had extra firewood and I'll go offer firewood to people, stuff like that. But generally I'm not, you're not meeting up with people. All right. Last question. Go ahead. You're asking about hooking up. That's where you're going. what's the romance factor in when you camp mine is zero well you were by yourself well that doesn't necessarily okay forget it but no people now i have heard what's generally speaking what is the romance do's and don't there are trails you can take like you can go on the appalachian trail and people go by themselves for miles and there are stories of you run into somebody and you meet them on the

trail and then you go off the trail for a little bit wow thank you for i have never done that Thank you for telling us. I have never run into. I know that you love that type of stuff, so I only said it for you. It's salacious. That's fine. Yeah, I don't. Thank you.

I've learned a lot. You're just a horn dog, and that is what it is. No, I'm a warm-blooded mail does the rest of us listen to the show. Jonathan, what don't you get this week, my friend? Can I say you? Oh. Because that question did not pop in your mind, did it, Jonathan? It did not?

But it pops into horn dogs, man. What do you call you horn dog Thomas? No, they don't. Nobody calls it. I don't, and I'm not going to, I'm not going to a whole tangent because I'm frankly, I'm tired of it. I don't get this Soresby situation. I don't get it. I won't ever fathom why this is allowed or even talked about.

I just don't, I don't understand, dude. Like, these are, there's rules in place. Yeah. Then you can just say there's no rules. But it just like for any. You see what Cody Campbell said yesterday? What do you say? Oh God.

What do you say now? He says, if you. Big 12 schools go against us. We'll sue you. Oh, see? That's what I said. There'll be lawyers. They're looking in the charter. And I don't want to go into politics, but y'all this is what Gen Z has to see. This is what we got brought into. This is what America

John. Everything's getting worse. Like, how do you even have a good outlook? Sorry. Step out. I'm sorry, Jonathan. Step out. I just don't get it. You know what you need to do? You need to move to Thailand, become a scuba instructor. You know, that's what I'm saying. I got to Jamaica or something. I'm going to quit

all this and go and go be a waiter to steakhouse. Okay. Think you do a good job? Yeah, I mean, I'm personal. I can sell some wine, sell some steaks. I mean, I'd be on my feet a lot, but I mean, I can do it. Well, this, he don't know more from Paso Robles.

John, you don't know this, but Ross knows this. When we go eat out at nice restaurants, I do pry. He asks every single one, what do you make? Every single, especially in Las Vegas. I'm going to tell you, Jonathan, it makes me uncomfortable. It shouldn't make you uncomfortable. No, you're asking somebody about their own personal health and well-being

financially. It makes me uncomfortable. No, because it's not, it shows that they can let their guard down a little bit. No, they squirm. They don't squirm. They're the anti-squirm. They squirm and then Matt pries and it's makes him comfortable.

Prying, that's what he said. Here's what I say. We were at one year we were at I'm getting squirmie right now. Go ahead. Turn the microphone off then. We were at Rith and Bolinskies.

I rhymed it. What is wrong with you? In Las Vegas. And I said, hey, if I had a midlife crisis. And I dropped everything to go wait tables at your restaurant. Can I make six figures? He goes comfortably.

I have bad news for you. It takes years and years and years to get up to that quality. That's probably fun. You're going to need years on your resume at Buffle Bows. Yeah, I know. Or Millies. I know. To get up to that level.

But if you go to ballgrass, you go to ballgrass right now, this average takes at ballgrass is like $45. You have to pass quizzes about what everything. You have to pass wine quizzes. is? Yeah, I'm going, yeah. Okay. I mean, it's not just, you can't just walt in there and put down your application. They're like, oh, come on down, Matt Thomas. I'll start at release and then go to Baltgrass. You're going to be retirement age by the time you can get hired there. That doesn't sound like prime. That's a normal question. Thank you very much. He's asking how much they make.

No, no, no, no. He's trying to soft selling. No, no. Matt has asked people directly how much they make. My question is, can you make? That's what I've said. No, he's also been like, how much do you make? I didn't, that is not true. Yes, I will guarantee you. You look at his face. Can you see his face? He knows I'm right. All right.

Our buddy James and Garden Oaks is calling in. He doesn't get something. We'll find out what he doesn't get. Coming back in a minute. All right, let's get back on the phones. Oh, man, I didn't dial on the phone system. Oh, John. Get mad at me, Ross.

It's my fault. I'm sorry. How many hours are we into this? We're in an hour and 53. Okay. How long is it? show? It's till two. You started at nine.

Yeah, I've been here. I'm tired. You look like hell. Thank you. All right. Back on the phones. We're going line, too, my friends. Where we going, Jonathan? George. Sports Radio 66. James and Garden Oaks. What's going on with you, my friend?

Well, thank you, Governor Thomas, for taking my call, and nice to chat with you, fellas. I hope everyone is having a great day. I got to get this off my chest, And I want you guys to chime in and give me a response. All right. I was trying to set my wife up to go, you know, and go to the doctor. And, you know, you got to go do with your primary.

So they give you a referral. And I went to a nice, you know, place and everything. And I know it's a good place to go. Highly recommended. But I had to call in. So I talked to the gatekeeper, one of these little medical, little assistant ladies, you know, very charming and everything. But she tried to charm, you know, like charm me or for me, you know, taking my gatekeeper. draws off because, you know, the way she said, I got to leave my banking information with her.

And I said, excuse me? And my wife was here. And she said, what's that crazy lady talking? I said, I don't know. And the thing is, I even let one of my friends, because I had it on speaker phone. And we were just laughing our head off because I never heard of that, you know. So anyway, this is a true story. So thank you for taking my call, okay? Our pleasure. nothing about New York at all 1049 FM Sports Radio 66

Sports Radio WFAN What the hell was that phone call? I don't know I like James and Gardner So he needed a referral His wife needed a referral for a specialist And apparently the specialist

Asked for him to take his pants down I think he was being metaphorical You don't know that Why would he have to take his pants down For his woman's procedure? Maybe there was maybe she the woman was found James and Garneux attractive and said drop your drawers.

I think he has money and she wanted to know his bank account. Yeah. That's weird. I don't know. James's got motion like that, yeah. It's the accent. New York. I don't even honor his spot. I just don't.

Okay. I thought he was going to talk about the New York Knicks. How do you not talk about the New York Knicks? Your team's one game away from winning the championship. Yeah, he can't hold Ralph. You know, I forgot to ask Vanessa, was all this violence we're seeing, are these just one-offs or are we seeing the streets?

I don't get it. Was there more? Yeah, that's a good, I don't get it. It's all over Getty images too. Oh, my God. Oh, I saw the one where the fireworks were going off. Yeah, I see that one. What is wrong with people?

I mean, it's almost like you don't, I mean, if the Knicks win will there be violence, yes. If the Knicks blow a 3-1 lead, they'll be violence. They'll just be violence in New York, period. Yeah, no matter what. It's going to be more violence. They lose or win?

I would presume they would lose to be more violence. But how embarrassing for New York City for Manhattan? That's a great sport. I mean, it's just an amazing sports community that all we're talking about. These kids, these Gen Z kids like Jonathan.

Is that what it is? Yeah, they're out there causing violence. Gen Z, I don't get you all. Hey, you blame us for everything. Now I'm blaming you. Yeah. I was just saying what? I mean, that's kind of... There's not a 54-year-old out there punching people in the throat.

There might be. You kids, there might be. But, you know, it's mostly the kids. It's for the viral. Exactly. Y'all all got your phones out. You're trying to go viral on TikTok and Instagram. No, I understand.

This is the world we made for you. Sorry. But it's New York. It's New York. Oh, you ready for today's TikTok thing? So my daughter is at orientation at the University of Rhode Island this week. Oh, really? Congratulations.

So yesterday they got their day early to do the shopping and bump around that air because it's one of the most beautiful parts of the country. Jonathan, she went to a coffee shop to shoot a TikTok video because other people wanted that exact same coffee shop to do a, a TikTok video. That's smart. Or Ro-R-R-R-Rand, whatever? Is that what it's called? Rob-Rand? I don't know. See, these places are getting smart, too. It's a good way to marketing. It's a good way to get people in. Well, it costs me money. Against the women, I'll

really like that. Yeah, I'm going to have to see where she was. Hold on a second. It's just crazy. Where she was at? I can't, I don't know. I'm done. I don't know. I don't operate TikTok very well. The point being is, she's like, I'm going to the TikTok coffee shop. Why don't you just go to like the Rar Rocks down the street or go to the Runn Rothers?

No, I gotta go to this famous place. It's kind of like how the older people like to go to those old cigar lounges and it's all, you know, like the nice whiskey and stuff. It's the same thing, but for Gen Z women. Okay. Well, I'm raising one right now. Just let you know. Coffee shops is good for a hangout. I love coffee shops.

Good for a first date? First date. Absolutely. I would agree with that. It's a coffee shop. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. First of all, it's cheap.

There you go. Second of all, it's a chill atmosphere. Yeah. Low pressure. Think about this. You're going to buy her a coffee and an almond croissant. It's about, what, eight bucks? You're not going to have live music to fight over.

There's no threat of dancing. Job interview. I've had job interviews at coffee shop. See, that's more accurate. Oh, how about this one? Heart to heart talk. Yeah, that's true, too. Like, if Jonathan came to me and said, Matt, I'm worried about my career.

I'd be like, I'm worried about your career, too. Let's go up some coffee. Okay. I'm all right. Usually we go for tacos. That's what you all do. Or JCI or whatever. Are you ashamed of JCI?

You've never been back, have you? I will never be back. You just shamed JCI. Well, I was the second, it's rare that I'm the second youngest person anywhere, and it was by about at least 15 years. Matt was like, this is not how I used to. Matt, you know what? Matt was the third youngest person in there.

It's rare that we're anywhere. You're the youngest. I'm the second youngest. and he was the third youngest person in there and you know it's right. You know I'm right. It was bad. Because you know what?

The problem is 26 year olds aren't going to pay three dollars for a hot dog. No, five, six months. Whatever it was. Whatever it was. Yeah, I paid you forgot. Because I had a gift card, remember. And I think I owed.

You did owe for a bet. I had lost something. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This song is way catchy than it was even two hours ago. If you were in an 80s party and you had to put on a bunch of songs,

this would be one of the songs you put on. I see a young girl crying the corner. What? Big perm, whatever y'all used to wear in the 80s. Three out of ten. Wow, you're a tough critic. This song needs a miracle to be good. Well, I've never played it before.

It's fine, I guess. I don't know. I see a 50-year-old mom right now in a car day. Just jamming out. Jonathan, you were single, and you were single, and you want on the dance floor and a cougar found you, she'd be yours and vice versa.

With this song? Yeah, turned it up, see? You can do that like that Carlton dance from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air? Oh, God. Oh, my God, you get so much 50-year-old cougar ass, you'd be very happy if you were wanted something like that.

I see you doing a sprinkler in the middle of the dance floor. On this song, you think so? That's something you do. The sprinkler? I don't do the sprinkler. I did the lawnmower. Everybody got the sprinkler? Lawnmore.

Or the T-Rex? Yes. I'll listen. Thank God to TV. That's not on the show on TV. We need to be on TV for that one. Here's the problem. If this show went on Space City,

we could not be able to play any songs. I have an important question for you, Matt. Was this before the news at noon or after? It's, uh, no. Is your son going to get mad at me if I send him this meme I just saw of the San Antonio Spurs? Choking like the Tottenham Hot Spur. Send. Oh, no. You're going to get me yelled at.

Whatever it takes. Because, you know, he's... Is he spur a spur fan? No, he's a Sorsby honk, and it's pissing me off. Oh, okay. All right, there I hits in, just for you. Perfect. And then would you please tell me what he responds?

I'm probably not going to be able to say it on air. That's true, because his mouth is quite foul these days. All right, eight minutes past 12 o'clock. Time now for the news. Zit noon. Yes, Matthew, well, we will lead with the NBA finals. It was a must-win game. for both sides, well, only one side won it.

The Knicks win 107 to 106. The Spurs choke a 29-point lead. The biggest choke in NBA playoff history. Or as they're saying in New York, comeback. You call it a comeback, you call it a choke, whatever you want. Just a crazy tip in. You heard Mike Breen on the call there. Some people, Spurs fans are mad that he got all excited.

What was he supposed to say? Oh, Gianniobie. He tipped in the ball, the whole of the, the, Nick's win. It's the greatest comeback in NBA history. Of course he's going to belt it out. Spurs fan. And Mike Breen is one of the nicest people in sports broadcasting today. Period of his story. So shut you bum ass up. Jalen Brunson, 36 points.

O'G. Nenebby, 33 points. For San Antonio, I'm going to give you quarter by quarter. Go 1, 2, 3, 4. 41 points, 35 points, 14 points, 16 points. And historic collapse last night at Madison Square Garden, Matthew. All right. When we come back after this segment, I want to talk about how much Mitch Johnson, the coats of spurs has to wear it, how much Deer and Fox has to wear it, and how much Victor Wimbunyama has to wear it. All right. Elsewhere, you have the Astros losing the rubber game. I mean, look, the 27 and 42 Angels, you lose two out of three. Not great. They were getting perfect gained by Reed Detmers for five innings. Shea Wickham broke it up in the sixth inning with a solo shot. He's been sent down to AAA, corresponding mood. to be announced tomorrow.

Cam Smith with a solo shot in the eighth inning to make it 2-2. Astros couldn't come through with anything in the 9th or 10th, and then the Angels walk it off with Jose Siri. So the Astros lose 3 to 2 there now, Matthew, 31 and 39 through 70 games. I don't want to interpret what Dana Brown would say, but his Dana would say we've still got 92 left to go. Run differential minus 30. Angels run differential

minus 42. Three and a half games back of the wild card spot with the A's, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Twins all ahead of them for the Rangers who are holding on to the third wildcard spot.

Would you like a little bit of good baseball news? Yes. The Tarak Scuba is going to make his debut for the Tigers on Saturday. Okay, so that means the Astros will miss them or not? Correct. Okay. That's good. That's good. Look, you're playing three last place teams in a row.

Tigers and the Royals are tied for last place right now in the AL Central. You just lost a series to the last place team. You're supposed to be getting fat and happy on these nine games. You've got to get something going against the Royals and Tigers. Come on now. Time is running out. Yeah. And by the way, on Scoobel, so he was supposed to be out three months. He'll be out a total of five weeks. Crazy. He's got a... Is he rushing Mac? He's got that Jose Al Tuve Heal juice, secret stuff?

I wonder if he's thinking if... The only way I'm going to get traded is if I'm actually out there. You think that would be part of it? I mean, maybe, but I think even... No, I don't think he needs to rush. He's Terrick Scouble. Maybe... You know what? As long as he goes to nationally, I'm very happy with this. I think I read it was kind of a different type of way they did the procedure than normal.

I think Jeff Passon was talking about it. Maybe he's Hercules. You never know. I mean, there's always breakthroughs in... medical field. That's right. Well, Jose Al-Tube came back from his shoulder. That was just the oblique. That was just a soft tissue injury. So I'm buying the Jose Al-Tube is just a real fast healer. Oh, yeah. We'll go with that. All right, elsewhere in the news, Matt, you got the World Cup kicking off today. Oh, we've got some live pregame coverage from right now.

Jonathan. No, this is not pre-game coverage. This would be game coverage. Oh, this is a game. We have live game coverage here on sports talk. 790. Here it comes. Stay with me. How many World Cups have we used this for? It's got to be about the fourth one. Okay, well, yes. Here is the American broadcast. It is, who is Mexico playing at at 2 o'clock? I guess I should know this because I'm bringing

you the news at noon. I'm looking at up right now. South Africa, that's right. Mexico and South Africa at 2 o'clock and then you have Chechia. They'll be taking on Chechia next Wednesday. South Korea, Chechia tonight. Ooh. Who do you got in that one, Matt? I'm going to probably go South Korea. Okay. And then tomorrow you have Canada at 2 o'clock USA at 8 o'clock against Paraguay.

Yes, here is some live game action, Mexico versus South Africa. Halfback passes to the center. Back to the wing. Back to the center. Center holds it. Hold it. Holds it. I'm hoping for no zero-zero draws because I won't hear the end of it from you. But sometimes, look, I'm not going to tell you that Qatar, versus Switzerland's going to be a barn burner. Okay? Wait till like round of 32, 16. That's when the best teams will be in action. Also, this is the Mexican broadcast.

Hot-fight, fascist to center, back to wing, back to center. Center, hold it. And we have one bit of none sports news, the news at noon. That makes me very happy. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Nothing new with soccer, but it further pushes my agenda that we are not a spring break destination. Oh, okay, here we go.

A good friend of the show, H-Town Sports Nutt, sent me a list of the top 20 vacation destinations this summer. Summer? Yeah, nobody else comes here in summer. Spring's nice. Oh, stop. Go ahead. At number 20, it's Houston. We're at number 20.

That's pretty good. I can buy Houston as a 20th spring break destination. In the summer. Yeah. When it's 115 degrees. Oh, I'm sorry. The spring is pleasant. Oh, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, whoa. Yeah, you're wrong, Matt. Hold on. Just eat your L. Stay with me. Stay with me on this. James Winston ate his W. Eat your L.

Guess who is number six? Tampa. Hot as hell. Okay. Guess who's number? That's for strip clubs. Three. Austin.

Hot as hell. There's more stuff to do in Austin for sure. Number two. Orlando. Hot as hell. They have Disney World. And the number one summer. summer destination, hot as hell. Atlanta GA.

The kids would say it's High Atlanta. Nobody's going to Atlanta for the summer, are they? Other spots in front of summer destinations. This is according to whom? Apple News. Where do they aggregate us from? Omaha 17, Tulsa 15, Pittsburgh 14. Did you say Omaha?

Pennsylvania. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This list is a bunch of bunk. Oh, no, no. You know what? You go to Pittsburgh. Hey kids, let's load up and go to Pittsburgh this summer. I want to go to see Cornhuskers.

In the summer, that's what we're doing? Number 12. The numbers don't lie, folks. Yeah, okay, the numbers don't lie. Literally every news out of it said you were wrong. Channel 2 made it up. They said 2.2 million. They were off by 1.7 million?

Yes. You're so delusional. Omaha's a better Houston. Okay. I mean, whatever. I'm not buying her. selling that, I guess. We were talking about spring break. Matt.

All right. The Texas Attorney General has chimed in the Brendan Sorcerchby case. Is that the one that got indicted? That I can't tell you. But we'll tell you what he said coming back in a minute. 1215, it's a Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Also, I got to tell, we got to hold some people

feet to the fire. Mitch Johnson, Victor Wemnon Yamma, and De Aaron Fox for what happened last night in New York. 713-21, 5.5. 790. 1222 on Sports Talk 790. Brian McTaggart normally with us on Thursdays. He's traveling.

Right now he's in the air. Going from Los Angeles to Kansas City. You know, the Astros left right after the game last night. Game was late. They land, I looked at flight away. They landed at 4.30 in the morning in Kansas City. Oh, that screws you off for a whole day. We can call Robert Ford.

See if he's awake. That'd be kind of rude, wouldn't it be? I still got time to go to the Jazz Museum. Hang out. Good barbecue there. Yes. Excellent barbecue. Not as good as Texas.

No, but I'm saying it's still good. Mm-hmm. The only trash barbecue is really, frankly, Charlotte. Vinegar, I just, it doesn't do anything for me. Okay. I'll take your word for it. Because Mr. Texas does represent the great Texas barbecue. Yeah, but you don't like brisket, and that's the heritage.

That is the heritage meat of Texas. Beautifully. You're so terrible. All right. So, real quick, before we go to the phones. Yes. If you want to join us, by the way, 713, 2,1, 2,1, 5, 790. 719.

You're right about Ken Paxon. He's our attorney general. I didn't know. Oh, okay. I should have known that. Franklin makes me stupid, and that's fine. I apologize. He has told the Big 12 conference,

you want to be high and mighty and tell tech, you want to freeze out Texas Tech? Texas Tech's going to sue you, and we're going to have their back. He's basically saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, the judge ruled that Sorosby can play. And if the judge says this, and there's no further ruling on this again

until they meet this in the tempering injection after the seasons of worth. This is it. That if you, basically, it would be, quote, unlawful and would expose the conference to substantial liability. You are essentially, you are a disadvantage of Texas Tech by cutting off access to the resources it needs to compete. The Big 12 would also face liability for breach of contract in tortuitous. Torturous. Torturous interference. The Big 12 should seek sanction Texas Tech for acting consistent with the order.

Texas Tech would pursue all legal avenues to pursue its interest in those of Texas Tech student athletes. What did I say to you yesterday? Legal action. There will be lawyers. I don't know what's going to happen, but there will be lawyers crawling all over this. So basically here's what happened. Brett Yormark has this, he's the Big 12 commissioner, had this conference call. All like 15 to the 16, you know, like, shut your bum ass out.

They're like, do something. Do something. Probably Brent Yormack said, what can I do legally? and Ken Paxton's like, I got your back on this. I'm going to tell you what you can do legally. Nothing. There has to be something in the league charter about conduct detrimental to the league or some sort of not conducting yourself in a professional manner.

And then maybe Big 12 will try to do something. And then Texas Tech will sue and the Big 12 will get their lawyers. And then they're going to sue what the words mean. And the season will be over with. Right. That's the reality of it So I don't know I think they're trying to

I'm sure Brett Yormark And the other ADs are trying to figure out What they can do that is enforceable Within the legal bounds of whatever league charter They have in the contract language So Here's what I think he's probably doing Brett Yormark's like

Texas Tech Are you sure you want to go to bat for this dude Are you sure you want this? And the Texas X like Yeah we're good They're like he can do what He's costing how much You can throw football

Really well? Yeah. And this whole addiction card is just weak. Not that I'm sweeping addiction under the rug and saying it's not real. Right. The way you have somebody recover from the addiction is not to throw a football. Hey, we need him to heal up. We need him. Hey, you know what?

He needs all of us right now. And Brendan Sorsby is an addict. And he's a recovering addict. Okay. And they're recovering addicts. They need, when you mess up and you get a DUI, you need to get punished by the law. And that can be a wake-up call.

You need wake-up calls when you're an addict. We've all dealt with some in our lives or know some or have been some ourselves. You need something to wake you up. And Brendan Sorsby having to miss two games at the beginning of the season. Yeah, but it's Oregon State and Abilene Christian. Against Oregon State and Abling Christian is not punishment enough. As you heard yesterday from Joey McGuire, he may not be ready for Houston.

You're letting him get off. Yeah, right. We'll hold our breath on that. This is letting him get off Scott Free. This is enabling and not giving consequences to the actions of the addict. That's the worst thing you can do. But Ken Paxton's saying from a legal standpoint, the judge ruled. And if you go against this and you think you're going to be sly and freeze out Texas Tech, we're coming after you.

Yeah. The talking to is just, hmm, it's a mess. He just shouldn't be eligible. Because every other coach, I mentioned this couple days, every other coach in his country, you're going to be like, no matter what you do, we'll get you in front of a judge that will feel sorry for you that will use mental health and sickness and illness and addiction to help you

get reinstated. Well, as Kirby Hocut said, it's not their lawyers. They're not the ones that filed the case. It's Soresby's lawyers. Right. So, I get where they can say, hey, well, this is, but that also, you don't have to rule him eligible. You don't have to have him on the team. You don't have to give him a scholarship. Texas Tech can say, in the best

interversal of school, we just, we have decided that we don't want to honor your scholarship. We wish him the best on all his future endeavors. But Cody Campbell doesn't want that. No. Cody wants him to play. Cody wants him play. Cody's got a... Cody, the Texas Tech football program is not a football team to him. It's a stock. I would love something to happen. A little Cody Campbell humbling seems good to me. Oh, I think it's... Because he's acting like, we run the Big 12. We're calling out Texas and we're the big... He does. He does run the Big 12 in his mind. I know. That's why I want

a little humbling. That's all I'm looking for some humility. All right. 713-212-2-5-7. 97-13-21-2-5-7-90. How do the Spurs handle the blame factor of what it was? I'm real quick on this. Do you think we'll ever forget this game? Do you think 30 years from now we'll forget this?

No. Well, it depends on if we've got food shortages and stuff. 29. 29. It was 71-42. 30 points in the second half. 30.

7-13-21-2. 5.790. You got to check the whole question for the day. How excited are you about the World Cup? Yeah, I got to verify myself. I only have, I got literally no more people voting for this. This is going to cost me, about $42

a year, more than that. I think it's like a close to 100, right? Y'all go to my Twitter account what's left of it, at SportsMT. Level of interest. Stay off there. Who cares? Find us on Instagram. Oh, yeah.

At Sports RV. Instagram. False promises at SportsMT. Here it comes. Here we go. If you follow me on Instagram, Brandon Sorsby will never play for Texas Tech. You better, I'm going to hold you to that.

I'm going to write all your false promises down. Like on the gut feelings page or something like that. You're out of control. Your wings will taste better. Okay. Branden Sournsby will never play for Texas Tech. Uh-huh. And gas prices will be around $3.25 a gallon.

At SportsMT. on the Instagram. All right, so I need more votes. Level of interest in World Cup. It's crazy because why is I only 22 votes? Let's go. That's tough. This hurts it hurts my ego.

We can hear that. This is boost. Let's see. So fired up. I'll watch occasionally only when USA plays and no interest of the four options. I did a poll as well. Bigger collapse. Spurs versus Knicks or Oilers versus Bills. Oh, what's that

What's going on? Spurs at 57% right now over the Oilers. Okay. 43%. So I've teased this two segments in a row. How much other responsibility goes on Victor Women Yamba for the way that he was a one-man gang in the first half and was just basically jacking threes up in the second half? 27%. You're going to break this like a pie. Yeah. Okay, I got you.

Mitch Johnson. Mitch Johnson just, was he like an innocent bystander on this? 44%. 44 and 27 makes 71 so you're leaving 29% the blame to D-Aren Foxx well bump him and Mitch back down to 34 okay now you're making me add all this 39% Deeran Fox why did you think didn't could Mitch have called more timeouts could he have drawn something up

could he have done something because they just slowed everyone down slowed everybody down it looked like it was a summer league game in the second half it was like they got to 29 they thought they had they thought they got the Knicks to quit. Remember Mike Brown, the coached the Knicks yesterday, for those who don't know, played 10, you know, he went super deep to his bench. Hell, he used Jose Alvarado in key moments of the game last night. I'm a big guy with Jose Alvarado fan. I think he's as tough as nails. But they went deep and they were able to not, they were able to overcome this deficit without using

when he played 40 minutes. That caused him to be a little gas at the end there? Mm-hmm. Forty-four minutes in a game you were up that big. Now, of course, this is the counter to that is, well, you can't sit Wimby this long. If they'd have come back and Wimby was on the bench, then it's like, hey, this is a must-win game. Wimby's got to play all 48. So don't always let the result write the narrative for you. Do we need to check you down San Antonio? I don't think they want to hear from us.

You want to check out on the Missy the Ultimate Spurs fan? Oh, you know what? She's going to give you two words. Suck it. One's going to start with F and the other one's going to be off. She's here, I think. Yeah, I'm scared. Jonathan, let's call her.

Oh, my gosh. No, this is rude. No. You didn't call her after game three win. Yeah, just go back for you. This is you twisting the knife. You didn't call her after they made the finals. You didn't call her after they won game seven.

So all of a sudden, they're down 3-1 with the biggest collapse in history, and now you call her. It's not fair. It's not right. Call her up. Yeah, I'm sure she says. Jonathan, I'm sending you her a number right now. Okay.

Call her. Don't even tell her. Just hit the numbers and then just put her on the air. We won't even get it put her on there because I didn't check it yet. Put her on the air immediately. Don't even, don't even, don't even screen it. Let's just go put her right on. Let's see how this goes.

She's our salesperson. One of our favorite people here at the office. We've been friends for 15 plus years. Diehard Spur fan. Where's Spurs Lanyard here at the office? You got her on the air? You got it ready to go? Diled up.

Well, we'll see if she calls. She might not pick up. Yeah, that's true. It shows up as a strange number. It is a strange number. Spurs fans not doing so hot, Matt. This is all they have, too. They do latch on to the Cowboys, even though they're in San Antonio.

They do. Is she there? But do they have a, they don't have a baseball team. Are they like an Astros slash Rangers fans? They got the missions. Missy? Those don't count. I hear it.

Missy? I don't hear anything. Hey, Missy. Missing. Maybe she's playing the silent game with us. Yeah, she's giving you the silent treatment. No, she hung up. Hmm.

That didn't go well. Not great radio right there. Did we just leave a voicemail? Maybe we did. All right, anybody, anybody, you know what? Anybody that's a Spurs fan? We got a few that are popping around here. Don't we have a few?

Of course. If you're a Spurs fan and you've got the Stones that call this show, let us know how you're feeling. Because here's what I would do. How are we feeling? Here's what I would do if I was Spurs fan. I'm not trying to give you ammunition here. I'd call this show and say, hey, Matt, hey, Ross, love your show, appreciate what y'all do.

Secondly, I say, my team's in the NBA finals and yours are not. Suck it. And the number three, the thing I would say, and that's why even though yesterday was so obnoxious, do you know, Ross, if the Spurs win this championship, now they're down 3-1, we'll forget about this game. Yes, it'll be a footnote in history. Yeah, it'll be very interesting. It'll be dynamic. It'll be something that it will be memorable.

But at the end of the day, we worry about hoisting up banners and claiming trophies. We don't care about 29-point loss or overcoming 29-point games. Yeah. And it'll be a learning experience. I mean, Jordan had to get past the Pistons. LeBron lost the Mavericks. I mean, Steph Curry had his issues earlier in his career. Everybody, for the most part, doesn't just hit the ground running winning championships.

got to take your lumps early. Looks like that might be what the Spurs are doing, but the book isn't written. Now, game five is going to be super loud in San Antonio. Yes, must win games in Spurs. And I would think that they would come out with, you know what, we got to shake this. And it's, you know, in a friendly environment, right?

You didn't give up the tournament. Look, when the Rockets lost those games to Phoenix, you know, during the Troke City step, those were games weren't in Houston. Yeah. So there's a little bit of a difference on that. Five and a half point favorites are the San Antonio Spurs. I would take the spurs to win. You can, by the way, you can trade San Antonio five and a half on Kalshi.

Use that promo code 790. I'm telling you, it's going to help you out. It's going to make you feel good. $10 trade, get your $10 bonus. You know what? Ross has been Kashi and is to death, and he's been getting some super bonuses. I think he's been going nice. Just saying.

We're team Kashi. Code 790. 713-212-5-790. if you want to join our conversation, 713-212-5. Oh, we have a Spurs fan that just called the show. Love it. God bless you. Let's go to, let's see here.

I don't know. Stan. You want me to do it? Yeah, I need you to do it. Okay. John's got it. Thank you. Stan?

Stan? Yeah. How's it going? Who's behind you there? I'm curious. Dropping off the wife to get the car repaired because we're in depression. Okay, so both of you are Spurs fans? Both of us are Spurs fans

Are you from San Antonio? They're born and raised here Who? What? I've lived in San Antonio for 28 years Including Starting with the 1999

Championship My kids My kids only know victory And now they know The same heartbreak I had as a kid With U of H

NC State Oilers Uplow Oh Oh, first of all, we applaud you for calling the show. So tell me who was at the house last night. How do you all are watching the game? And then take us to the emotions of the final five minutes of that game.

No, just me and the wife now. Kids are all grown and suffering in their own homes. Here in Houston, actually. Okay. I don't know. How many times was Winby in the paint or even in, inside the three point line entire second half.

I don't know why he... I don't know why, as I said, yeah. Stan, why was he think... Why do you think he was Ray Allen and Reggie Miller reincarnated? I don't know. It was brutal. Brutal!

It's just, oh my gosh. And yeah, I mean, you got a question Mitch Johnson. I mean, I don't get it. I don't get it. It's not that hard to it. They're up by 29 points.

Do you hear this in his voice? I know. I'm starting to feel a little bad. Stan, I don't feel completely bad for you, but I feel a little bad. I know. No, I'd love to bash the rockets. Nah.

I respect. We're losing connection all of a sudden. Just kidding. Very spotty. He hung up on himself. Are you sure about that? I didn't do it. I didn't touch anything.

I mean, either. I liked him. At least he brought the passion of the show. He sounded like, really. He sounded like somebody. he ran over his dog. He was really sad. But he raised Spurs kids.

In Houston he raised Spurs kids. Well, this is what they get. I believe Stan's kids' names are Manu. And let's see what is the other one. Bonner? Not Bonner. I don't think so. Maybe Matt Bonner.

Bowen? Bruce Bowen, Tiago. Mm. Splitter. And apparently the dog's name is Pop. Malik Rose. Okay, now you're getting in the weeds. Of course.

That's what we do here. All right. I'm going to try to find Spurray fan. Look, when you give up the biggest loss the game in NBA playoffs history, you have to tease, right? I almost text. Twist the knife, yeah.

I almost text it's a sorry for your loss. You did? I almost did. What is wrong with you? You're a sick individual. You know nobody wants to hear this from you. Nobody. I know.

I know. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. If you're a Spurs fan, let us hear from you. If you're an astro fan, you're pissed off because your team dropped two or three from the halos. That's bad, too. How are your calls last on the 10th inning show?

We've got a couple of them. Were they good? Oh, they're spectacular. I appreciate everyone who calls. Good. I'm glad to hear that. It's measured, well-thought-out, great calls. Get here. Thanks, guys.

6-A-7P. Let's go. Sports Talk 790. 7-19. 7-1-3-2-1-2-1-2-5. 790. Spurfam may have terrible energy right now. A little low energy. All right.

It's 1250 on Sports Talk 790. Happy World Cup Day to you. We're going to carry some World Cup games here on the session. Looking for the Cinderella run, baby. No pressure, guys, but you know, the interest of the sport in your own nation is a weighing in the balance.

And ticket sales. Well, yeah, FIFA overplayed their hand. Yeah, another thing I always Look, Ross and I have busy schedules. We're not running, getting in our cars and bumping around town. Can I get a downtown update from somebody? Oh, it's going crazy right now. There's a big watch party and stuff going on in Edo, as the kids call it nowadays.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. As they're trying to rebrand. Yeah. Like, that's the hood. Is it fun? Apparently, it's like massive party down there with all those places. There's like a street fest going on. They got big screens.

So I would like, I would like an eye. eyewitness account. If you are down there, what's going on? How's the streets? How's the buzz? Is there a vibe? As a kid would say? I think it is a vibe. Because, you know, there's a lot of Mexico supporters here in Houston. Makes sense.

Yes. So, yeah, I mean, I have a friend. He sent a video. He's down. Is he there right now as we speak? Really? Now, these out of town people, these people that took the day off? I don't know. I mean, there's a, well, Well, he's a teacher, so he's on summer. Oh, that's a good spot. So, yeah, it's pretty packed down there.

Oh, I like her. I mean, yeah, it's nice. What'd you say? Nothing. Oh, my God. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I was looking Jonathan for reaction and stuff.

And I feel like I disappointed. He's always shaking his head at you. Yeah, he's shaking his head, putting his head up in the air. What's that? I was laughing. Okay, good. This will make sure. Better than laugh than cry sometimes.

Okay. I'm crying about the Astros. Why am I'm pissed about. I think about the Astros so much today. I'm just mad today. They lost two out of three to the angels. Are we supposed to be happy? And that game,

they got their ass to be 10 to 1. In the one game they won. Extra innings when a host of Altubia should have been thrown out by 20 feet. They won. Yes, they got gifted in the one game they won. And I got feeling that they were going to sweep both these scenes. Ooh. How are you feeling about that?

We don't value your gut feelings, unfortunately. You had that, what's his name, Densergums or Guzman or whatever? Densat a Guzman. He picked up a foul, a ball that was going foul. You got Altuvvv. at third and he should have been thrown out by a mile at home. Otherwise you don't win that game. You were gifted that victory.

Otherwise, you lost four in a row. Thankfully, you've only lost three out of four with a gift. It's not because you were playing in front of 40,000 Angel fans that made you go cray. The place was empty. Empty. I've had enough with Angels fans, booing Al-Tuvei, by the way. There's one dude. He just yells.

He's been there for years. You think it's the same dude that's in Cleveland, too? hits him. He just travels around the. town, booing El Tuva, around the country, booing Altuve, maybe. I mean, I give him credit, his voices, I mean, very, very pronounced. And it's obviously just not one guy.

My favorite was when they were booing Martin Maldonado and calling him a cheater. And in 2017, he was on the Angels. Yeah. Yeah, that's going to happen sometimes. A lot of geniuses out there. No, it's, uh, well, let me think about this. Other dumb asses. I don't want to be rude, but I will. I'm going to be rude.

Your average sports fan is not going to be a brain surgeon. Your average human being is stupid. case and point Nick's fans fighting each other last night in New York and then fireworks going off Have we ever been outside of now

Of course there's been some fights here at Dyken Park Here and there over the years Oh let me tell you Cowboys Texans at NRG Are reliant back in the day Jumping fans simply for having the other Teams gear on such weak sauce Happens at Dodgers Stadium You're not going to that game in a Giants jersey

Put off fireworks speaking of Dodgers fans They like to put up a lot They have to blast off a bunch of fireworks and guns Like they have to issue warnings in the city. Please do not fire off your weapons tonight because somebody won a baseball game. So now it's time to fire off my weapons. Right, right. Oh, man, my team won a game.

It's time to set my couch on fire. What is wrong with you people? Hey, Knicks overcame a 29 point deficit. Let's go throw hands. Hey, Matt. Hey, they won the championship. You got the gasoline? I've got the lighter.

Let's go. That's why. What are we doing? That's why I'll say, and you were a baby. you're a young child that when the Rockets won the 1994 championship and we partied on Richmond Avenue

Yes it was all love baby It was all love There were no I mean there were probably a handful of rest at best But there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people in the Richmond strip that just behaved themselves And we're just hugging and high five

It was our first championship ever Yeah And we didn't destroy people. We didn't hurt each other. It'd be the first Knicks championships in 73. Nobody out there throwing hands and jumping people was alive when it happened. So they should be all love. They should all pissed off about their high rent.

Yeah. That's maybe, what? Like $9 for a bagel. So basically, I'd be pissed off too, I guess. My teams do well. It gives me an open opportunity to create violence. I just don't get it.

That's why New York, it's not, and people always say, I get asked this Ross all the time. What are your favorite places to go in the NBA? It's not a top five for me. Now, there are some parts of it. The food is excellent. There's always plenty of things to do.

There is, the hours are, it's a 24-hour city town like Vegas is, you know, in terms of never being turned up. But, man, it's a lot of it. You don't feel safe. You're always feeling like you can't turn the corner without you being robbed or something going off or some sort of massive protest. It's, New York's just, it's too much.

Does that make sense to you? It's just too much of everything. I love New York. It's too much anger. It's too much money. I wouldn't want to live there. Too much congestion. Yeah, but to live there, the subway's cool.

The museums are incredible. The sites. It's just very unique. I don't think I would live there. Now, I will say this. Certainly the winter. Yeah, no, I'm never, I would never live in New York. They are super passionate about their sports.

You cannot, I mean, we've got so many water carriers in this town. That would never. happened at WFAN. They just wouldn't let it happen. Okay. And I'll have a bunch of failed radio hosts going out with a YouTube pages going on and cover teams. It just wasn't happy.

You'd be legit members of media. So I'd give them credit for that. But, you know, but a lot of the things about New York, I don't want. Give me Houston every day of the week. They don't call me Mr. New York. This was something I'm never going to do. No, you're not, you're Mr. Kingwood.

That's about it. Mm-mm. I grew up in Katie, Ross. Okay. I mean, worst case, I'm Mr. Outside the Tollway. So we'll call you Mr. KKK, K, KKK, and Kincade. Kincaid? I don't know. You were stretching it. Come on something. All right. This way.

You know what? I'm sorry. Let me write that one down. We got an hour left in the show. We were moving along so nicely. Oh, look, here. Look, I wrote down my apology this year. I'm this week. Jesus Cruisers. I was writing an email while you're. We were talking to me. We've got so many sorries. We may have sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. KKK comment. Let me write that one. That one. Yeah, that one. That was bad. That was awful. You know what?

I'm sorry. So tomorrow, Jonathan, we had 11.30, we do. I'm sorry. You and I'm sorry. You know, you're going to stand back and stay out and stay out of the way. We can do it all day.

All day. We're going to two. Yeah. Katie Klein and Kingwood. That's enough. You done? Don't say Crosby. It's not a K.

You're right. Folks. Can you all call me. Because I don't. You know what I'm getting up. I'm going to get a donut. I'll see you later. I'm frankly tired of talking to Ross. You know what? Gary and Spring, if you want to call the show, James and Klein,

Brad and Spring Branch, all you dorks. Who? Ray in Miami. Ray in Miami, you can call to. All y'all dorks that I think your calls suck. Come on in, join the program. You're welcome, at least this hour. And if you're better than those, jabronies, let's go. 713-212-5-790. 7-7-1-3-2-2-7-7-7-1-3. 1-2-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right.

So I admitted to you a handful of minutes ago that I would take Gary Springs' terrible call. Yes. Bright and Spring Branch. Uh-huh. I would take James and Klein. Uh-huh. I would take, uh, what's his face in Miami, Ray. Okay.

I failed to mention their fifth terrible caller. I think this is a great caller. He said he's going to give us some money. How could we possibly forget Terry in Ohio on 790 to open up the 1 o'clock hour? This is we call a ratings grabber right here. Terry, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Hey, why are you bashing the Angels?

What's that say about your team? The Angels suck. The Angels are terrible. Worst team in the American League West, worst team in the American League. What's that say about the astronauts? It says they massively disappointed. Goatee, Middley. You're Italian, Terry?

Yeah. Oh, okay. Is Terry short for like an Italian name? Terry, is your last name of Mountbatano? No. All right. You had your coffee today, Terry? Yeah, I had four cups.

Terry, are you on, Terry, are you on a permanent tape delay? Did you drink your prune juice today, Matt? No. No, but I took a Terry. Yeah, sorry. Sorry to ruin your day, but the Astros suck. I missed that, Mr. Terry. I didn't really feel like I missed work on vacation, but I missed Terry now.

I would fire myself. Over a billion, $200, a trillion, $200 billion. Keep going. I'm beginning to see why your wife left you. Oh, this is one of my favorite ones. Folks, I can tell you and I've known eight presidents. Three of the minimum. This one for Jonathan, of course.

You, off the board. I'll come up and drag you off. Terry and Gary are my favorite worst callers. Seriously, we have five. Well, Ray and Abby doesn't call the show anymore, which makes me happy. We routinely have four awful, horrible. The pandemic is that the president has no intercourse whatsoever with the rest of the world. Four horrendous callers.

Is there another show in the marketplace that can give you that four terrible callers? This really does sound like Terry. Over a billion, a trillion, $200 billion. Mm-hmm. Perfect. I was right. And I said he sounded like Joe Biden. I was right.

You know. 713-212, 5, 700. all these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by the, go, you know the thing. That was when he was lucid, actually. I know. How is he now? Jill's out there trying to defend

all the things she said about him when he was trying to run for president. Okay, so the Astros have dropped two or three. They're off today. Okay. In Kansas City tomorrow. Brian McTaggart. We'll join us from Kansas City tomorrow on the show. Wonderful. We have game number five of the NBA final. Is it game five?

What is it? No, yeah, game five. It's a must-win game for the Spurs. Absolutely. See, it makes you feel good saying it, doesn't it? No, I think it's just a funny bit. Oh, game five's not until Saturday night. Yeah, they get two days off to regroup.

God. I was talking about this on the morning drive with Dan Matthews and Cole Thompson. You get the, it feels like they can. Go ahead. you're going to say what I'm going to say. Then they have another two days off. You can regroup. And then another two days off.

The Spurs can regroup. That's what I'm saying. Even though last night for Spur fans sucked, you win the series, it's a painful part of it. But, you know, it's a loss of a battle, but you want to win the war. Well, how about that for an... Ooh, is that an analogy I want to use? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can lose the battle and win the war. Yeah, yeah. Well, the odds right now, trading, I should say, at 18%. there is a part of me that doesn't want New York to win because I've got Stephen A. Smith is just like we've been waiting 53 long years.

I've been so disappointed. You know, a year after, I don't care about how long you waited. Yeah. I know. See, it's feeling lose-lose because the Knicks fans are, the Knicks fans are getting

out of control. They're beating people up. They're setting off a cherry bomb. How do you feel about the size? Celebrity watch. The celebrity watch is too much. Like every crowd reaction from every celebrity. They're so boisterous and loud.

I want them to lose, but then the Spurs fan, oof, I can't root for them either. It's bad. It's a lose-lose. I thought I was going to be full-born Knicks in this series. But when they started beating people up and acting crazy, that's when I was like, oh, I don't want them to. I don't want those people to be happy.

I definitely don't want Spurr fan to be happy. Me either. So, again, lesser two evils? Yeah, go New York, go New York, go New York, go New York, go. That'd be six championships for the Spurs to two for the Rockets. And then after that, back to full bore Rockets. Speaking of that, Lewis and Sugar Land on 790. Hi, Lewis.

M.T. and Ross, how y'all doing? Wonderful, Lewis, what's on your mind today? I hope you're not going to lump me in with those other loser phone calls you were hoping to get that. So, um, no, but hey, Terry, Louis, hold on, Louis. Do, would you have to say, when you listen to this show and you hear those dumb-ass callers, you lose years off your life, do you not? Oh, that's time I can never get back. Correct. Good.

Nope. Good. So I don't blame you. I just hope you're not going to love me in with those clowns. All right. Well, good luck. The pressure's on. Oh, shoot.

Anyway, I got a question. I like you, Matt, I am not a spurs fan. I have never been a spurs, but I think a lot of my hatred to them, a lot of jealousy, because I think that organization was well run for many, many years, and lots of championships. I do have a question, though, being Wimbignana basically gifted to them, and Dylan Harper basically gifted to them. getting to a point to where they're like Oklahoma City where, you know, somebody's got to go.

Because I just don't see them keeping Dylan Harper on the bench next year. You can't keep Castle on the bench. I mean, is Fox the odd man out or are they going to be able to work things out? I'm just curious. But go, Nick, and I love listening to you guys. Thanks. Thank you. They're not in that position yet because those are all rookie deals.

The reason why Oklahoma City is going to find themselves in a little bit of a cap issue is because those guys are getting past their first year contracts. Plus, they paid out incredible. What is SGA making $70 million a year or something crazy like that? I'm going to get up to somewhere around there. So my guess is Oklahoma City is going to lose Isaiah Hartenstein. They're going to try to re-sign him at a lower value. But if you're Hartnstein and you've been as good as he is, you're going to get the opt out of the contract. go find some money elsewhere. He's moved on to a bunch

of different teams. Harper is cheap. Let's see. Wemby is obviously cheap. Darren Fox is still under contract. He's not due for a new deal. Is anybody else for agency wise I'm thinking about? Maybe Kelton Johnson's close. Maybe. The castles on his rookie deal. Yep. Harper

Bryant. They're all rookie deal guys. They're all very young. So no, I mean, it's the youngest team in the NBA or him and them in San Oklahoma City. That's the reason why we as on the outsiders are so scared about those two teams because they're not 31 years old on the front line.

They're all young dudes. Yeah. We got a first time call or do you're going to join the show next? I'm excited about that. We like the first timers. We like the virgins that call the show. 7-1-3-2. You had to make you, people got what you were saying,

and then you had to cross the line and make it weird. I didn't think it was weird at all. Nobody's like, oh, that made Matt, Matt made it weird. Nobody said that. Look at John his face right now. He can't even look at you. He's eating wings.

I don't care. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If your version of the Matt Thomas show at Ross, come on and join us. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 119 on Sports Talk 790. Good afternoon to you, Houston, Texas.

We really appreciate you. I'll spend it some time with us. Texans minicamp has concluded, Ross, nothing from the Texans until the end the next month when training camp will officially open. Okay. That's all I got. Okay.

You didn't want to do a depth chart, position by position? We can do that in July. Okay. I mean, nothing really changed. I don't think at this point. Looks like they're, yeah, Keel and Rutledge are getting some run at center, but they're rotating guys. Yeah. Good on that. Tank Dell has been running some more routes.

That's good. He said he's running with juice. Well, I'm glad it's better than that than motor oil Or peanut butter That'd be a better analogy, peanut butter Okay Just let them work it through, Jonathan Yeah

Oh, sorry, I thought we were allergies were on pot on. I wasn't supposed to be doing an allergy Until Friday, right? No, until the week, rest of the week. It was Thursday, but... The rest of the week? Oh, you want to put them back on back on moratorium.

Wow. We got virgin talk, then we got motor oil. Isn't life an analogy, though? Don't you always compare things one thing to the other? Life is a highway. Okay. I want to write it all now on. Yeah.

Thank you, Jonathan. Jonathan, let's put some more mic and the mechanics on. No, let's not. Let's not, please. Don't let me do that. Please. They have two bangers of songs. Two.

What's the other? We only have one. Living years. Say it loud. Say it proud. Is it the name of the song? Yeah. Play it a little bit of.

We'll get a phone call on you. I want you to find him black and I'm proud. No. James Brown? No. I can't say that. Oh, yeah. Don't sing that one, Matt.

Randy, turn us down. I've got to talk to Randy first. Then we'll go back to that. Randy on 790. Good afternoon to you, Randy. How are things? Every day is good. How are y'all doing?

Excellent. Thanks for darling. What's up? Yes, sir. I was willing to talk to y'all about the Astros real quick. I know y'all say, Brian or Brayu needs to be DFA. You know, I kind of agree and I kind of don't.

But to be honest, you know, there's some options that I kind of think they actually look at, like maybe Fairbanks or, a Lucas Erseg or maybe a Rodas Chapman for relievers. And I know we need some starters too. I was thinking maybe we should go after maybe Waka Waka or Freddie Parato. Maybe one of those. I wanted to get y'all's take on that. Was Waka having a good year?

I know he wasn't so hot the last couple of years. No, he wasn't. I don't know. He's pretty back. Okay, yeah, it looks like he's having a pretty good year. I didn't notice, but yeah, 344 ERA 13 starts. Randy, I got to tell you something. I don't think the Astros are buyers.

I think it's one of the two things. I think they're either going to sell or they're going to stay in Pat. Because they probably in their... That's all in how it goes. Not necessarily. It's not always the truth. They wouldn't got Kakucci a couple of years ago. They wouldn't got Verlander.

They've done some things. Last year, you went and got Jesus Sanchez. You got, who's the other guy they DSA? Randy, the reason why I think they're going to be innocent by Sanders is because the fact they know they're in the worst division in baseball and that if they were in any other normal year for as being as many games as under 500 they would be nowhere near a playoff chase so this is kind of like found money right now yeah no i understand i understand i just hoping we can try and make some sort of moves out there you know trying to help us at least

make postseason territory yeah i understand yeah if if they were to do anything and thank you for the phone call randy don't be a stranger you've got Hunter back, you're going to get Christian Javier, whatever that is back, you might get Renel Blanco back, what they say, mid-July, somewhere like there,

you're probably going to get maybe Wesniewski and all, I mean, again, these are all maybe's what it could have should have, so. I'd still, yeah. No one of them are going to strike the fear in teams. Let's say we've waved the magic wand,

and all of a sudden, boom, the Astros are buyers. You would want a starter, you would want a reliever minimum and probably an outfielder. See, I would flip it. I would go outfielder first. Okay.

Look, I brought this up an hour ago. I'm not putting priority. You had three guys in your starting outfield last night with a sub-680 OPS. That's Ratchin. That's not good. Do me a favor. Can you, and I hate to put this on the spot,

we'll think of all. OPS plus is a good scale. 100 is considered average. Correct. Give me the three OPS plus. of the starting out field from last sentence. Are you sure you want that? That's Cam Smith and that's Jake Myers.

Your buddy, Jake. Okay, well, let's start with the good news. Yordon Alvarez is at 195. That's insane. That's MVP good. For example, Christian Walker's having a great season, right? He's at 124. It's fantastic.

So the fact that Yordons, 195 is insane. 100 is considered good. Yes. Cam Smith, 89. Oof. Jake. Come on, Jake. Jake Myers is at 6.

65. Bryce Matthews is at 60. Zach Cole 48. Lo proffito. Low Profito, 94. Because remember he started the season hot. Very limited sample size. Jose Al Tuve.

91. Okay. The outfield has been nothing materialized out of the office. Last four years OPS plus, Jose Altuve, as Matthew said, 100 average. 151?

Amazing. 124, good, 113, pretty good, 91. That's four years of decline. And I don't think it's going to get any better. He could at least get to 100. He's going to get hot.

Gut feeling, I know it's Thursday, but gut feeling, he's going to get a little hot. At some point. Let's go to our buddy, Sal, calling us from Central Florida. Sal, good afternoon. Hey, guys, you know these talking heads on MLB, They keep talking about the Astros need to do a total rebuild and move Alvarez. And it kind of reminds me of the old Bum Phillips line when they asked them in the middle of the Love You Blue Glory years,

what could you get if you traded Earl Campbell? And Bum said, I can get an empty stadium. I believe that Alvarez is the only player they have who's worth buying a ticket to see right now. And, you know, I don't see if they're going to do a rebuild, they've got to rebuild with him and mine. but I don't see them moving him at all. Second comment, Mr. Altovae, he needs 70 hits right now for the rest of the season to hit 2,500 this year. That means the next three years he's got to average 160 to 170 hits a year. And you were talking about this earlier, Matt.

I don't know that he makes it. I have been trying to sell that he's going to do it until he just can't move anymore. but the numbers are hurting, as you said, the downtrend, as Ross brought up, Sal. And the number one thing that's going to hurt him more than anything else? Well, two things. COVID hurt him and a lockout's going to crush him. Yeah. And I make a comment about the Knicks.

Take your time. Well, I was a, you know, I'm an old guy. I was a senior in high school when they won in 1970. And then again, in 73 when they won, I was a junior in college. there were no riots there were nothing going on like uh these people now they're not fans these are just hooligans looking to mix it up with people they're not they're not really uh NBA fans uh I don't know where these people came from but you know I I will never go down to midtown Manhattan again for the rest of my life it's just too dangerous uh because these people are

crawling the streets and it's too dangerous to walk around over there and um I just think it's unfortunate that that gives all of the fans a bad name. And, you know, but they're everywhere. What can you do? Yeah. Thank you, Sal, for the phone call. It is sad. You've got three or four videos that are circulating that are basically stereotyping an entire fan base. And it's not, and it's not fair, but it's just it is what it is. Get your fan. I didn't see. You know what I didn't see? I didn't see a whole lot of Nix fans stepping in and stopping and pulling people back and trying to stop everything. They all had their phones out and they're trying to go viral.

I was just going to say this. How about this? A video online shows a at least one egg tossing the direction of Victor Weniam as he entered his hotel? Yeah, they were throwing stuff out of him. Come on. You barely missed him. Have you ever met? I just watched the Knicks. I watched the team I love when a basketball

game. Hey, let's head down to the hotel and throw stuff at the other players. What? How does this even enter your head? What is wrong? What is going on to where you think that's a good idea? You think that's cool? That's something to do.

They don't think they're human no more. And by the way, do you get, do you go to the local grocery store and do the produce stand and grab an egg? Eggs prices are. It's all right. That game ended at about what, 11 o'clock Eastern time? Yeah. How do you, do you go to a 7-Eleven to go get an egg? Are they rotten eggs?

You're going to the bodega? You're getting a dozen at the bodega? That's going to run you in New York. It's probably at least seven bucks. If you're walking into the 7-Eleven and getting an egg and a slurpy, of course, that's what you have to do. That's going to cost you a little bit of money that late. Yeah. Hamlets aren't cheap these days, Matt.

I don't know why they're just throwing eggs. Imagine if it would actually really would hit them. I wonder what... Terrible. Well, you know what it would have done is it would have probably forced the evacuation of the hotel or a change of the... These kids today. Seriously. These kids like Jonathan.

Gen X. Gen X, guys, you suck. Let me tell Gen X, people, you seek. No, no, no. Ross is Gen X. I'm Gen Z. I'm sorry. Hold on now.

Gen Z, you suck. You know what I am? I'm just cool. the letter of the law. I'm just... Sir. I'm just easy like Sunday morning is what I am. That's all I am.

All right. Carlo will get to you on the World Cup and... Garlo. Garlo! On the World Cup. Plus, Swifties got mad last night. If you didn't hear it. Oh, yeah.

It's worthy of a replay. 713-212-5-790. 130 on Sports Talk 790. Ross and I were talking about my great trip to... I'm going to go to Galveston for a couple days next week. week. I got a fun week. You and I are going to LC for a couple days. Well, let's, we'll see how fun it is.

Let you know on the drive back. It's going to be fun. That drive back can be so great. It can be so low. The drive there is electric. Yes. Yes. And then we stop at the Rarerene and get some fish and some corn dogs. At the Rarerene in Beaumont? Oh, no. You mean Inviter? That's right. Yeah, we've got to get out of there quick.

You mean, lying about that. Or we stop at the Ruckies. Yeah. You know, no. Ruckies in a way there. You know what exit number is. 790. Is it really? It's in Baytown, right?

Yes. Go ahead. Say what you got to say. You're looking like you want to say something. Is that Alexi Lawless? Dude, he's aged. We're getting old. Dude, his hair used to be a lot redder.

Now it's like, you know what he's putting the Grecian formula in there too, I think? All right, back on the phones, we go. Oh, to Carlo. On 790. Carlo. Good afternoon, Carlo. Okay, okay. I do want to have Matthew.

Matt, where were you in 1994 when our Cup started here in 1994? I was 22 years old. I was celebrating a Rockets championship and I was grossly overweight. Yes. I didn't like basketball or baseball back then. I didn't like football, soccer, you know. Yes. So you think that you were going to make the round of the 15 or the final four?

United States? Absolutely. That's my country. I'm here, yeah. They're going to make the final four, Maddie? Carlo, I've done a lot of research and analysis. I do not believe the Team USA will make the final four. No?

Nope. Oh, my God. I know. Hey, do you watch Akira singing? So two things are going to win today. Somebody is betting me like $200. I said, no, hello. I'm not good about it.

So they said that Mexico is going to lose one zero. I said it. Yeah. Wait, me, Carla, you're telling me there's a soccer game they'll only have one goal scored in it? Yeah. That's too bad. No, it can be like that.

It's not baseball. Come on. It's not basketball, that's for sure. A lot of high scoring. Or volleyball. Hey, no, somebody's got to score 25. You can't leave the court without somebody scoring 25. The first half lines, half a goal.

So what about ping pong? Ping pong. You play ping pong when you were like you know And no question I played ping pong through college Oh really? Yeah the kids the kids call it table tennis Yeah I was great at it All right man I gotta go

I'm sorry to hear that thank you Carlo Appreciate it buddy Hmm Yeah you know Matt you can you can trade the under On every game From Kalshi? Yeah Can I use a promo code 790?

Yeah it's two and a half Total at Mexico, South Africa. All right. Hey, you're training. Put the $10 trading and get you $10 free. But you got to use a code 790. Mm-hmm. And you know what?

Your computer will smile back at you, by the way. Really? Yeah, it's a smiling computer. Okay, I'll take your word for it. All right, we got to get the Nick's radio call in from what happened last night. But first, let's talk to Stephen in Los Angeles. Hi, Stephen. Hey, guys.

Hope you're doing well today. I wasn't going to call in just because there wasn't much to talk about with the local team. a couple of things that I was here. So just quickly, I'll try to be quick about all this. Angels fans are idiots. As somebody who goes to a lot of Angels Astros games, just because it's cheaper and it's easier to get to, they're a miserable bunch because, you know,

their franchise has been miserable for years, and so they don't know ball. So, and then it's a game. against my better judgment to root for New York teams, you know, but I was all in on the Knicks winning because the last thing I wanted was two teams from the Rockets Division to win championships before the Rockets even if to playoff win. But it's in New York fans' instincts to be rabid dogs. And everything I see after win or lose in the city of New York has making me want the spurs to win this and i hate it but um it's just this is what a little bit of

joy and victory brings out in them which is why it was absolutely so sweet when the astros used to just clobber the yankees year after year during their the golden era so um but you know i'm probably at the end of the day still going to root for the nix just because i don't want the spurs to keep winning and the fact that they are you know, advancing at warp speed after the rebuild is just painful to watch. But anyway, guys, that's all I got. Have a good day. Talk to you later.

Thank you. Yeah. When in doubt, you can't rule for the spurs. If you consider yourself a Houstonian, if you consider yourself a rocket fan. It's a fellow Texas team. If you consider yourself part of the Mr. Texas culture, which, of course, I created, then you have to root. You have to frankly be indifferent.

But if you have to have a dog in the fight, you bark towards the Knicks. But their fans have been so insufferable. So insufferable. And they're radio analysts too. Jonathan, hit the audio. Not happy that Taylor Swift in the building last night for that game number four. Is that Taylor Swift down there? No, I think Gray was just saying her name for no reason to distract me.

No, that's her. You're aware. With that long ponytail, ain't that her in the blue? Yeah, I literally was like, that's her. I don't know if I believe you. Wow, look at Tyler go. You don't even know where you're looking. Yeah, sure.

She's not a Knicks fan. Get out of here, girl. Get out of here, girl. Well, her shirt did say Stevie Nixed. But it was in blue and orange. Yeah, her and the girls she was with, they had like funny, funny Knicks. Well, you know, what she was with was,

Marissa Hargitay. Who? That's from Law and Order. Oh, she was with the girls from some of a band called Haim. I know, but Marissa Hargate was like next to her two, I think. Okay. Let's take a look at all. One of their shirts said Nickelback.

Yeah, the girl was in a couple of Paul Thomas Anderson movies, licorice pizza and one battle after another. Let's take a look at. Olaheim, I think, and they're in a band. They're in a band. Oh, Mauna McNutt, apologize to Taylor Swift. Okay. TMZ got it too and it's smart on her part

Hmm She's not a Nick's fake Get out of here, girl Oh The cadetness That was really tame As far as off-air stuff I've heard

I mean said I'm telling you And said myself Clinton would be way worse I'd be the one Taking the pictures of Taylor Swift Because my daughter My wife loved her

The Swifties would have been in his At his house Oh yeah Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah matter of fact you know what we do let's see if we can let's play this apology i'm going to send it to you jonathan real quick here this is monica magnate out right now yeah we got it's only a minute okay let's do it real quick here ross promote your uh instagram at sports rv you can find me there

uh let's see i mean videos from the show if you want little snippets of that uh also i put some camping photos up recently and you know what until 2 p.m i will follow you back at sports rv on instagram i appreciate to follow if you follow me on instagram Astros beat the Royals tomorrow night. False promises. At SportsMT. But it's not a guarantee of a followback. I mean, I might consider it, but it will not be a guarantee.

Okay. All right, I just sent Jonathan. This is Monica McNutt. I'm presuming this is outside of a studio of some sort, because she does some ESPN TV work to you. This is Monica McNutt, ESPN Nix radio analyst. So we got to talk about the elephant room. Nothing crazy, but we got to ask you.

Okay, so I read some of your comments, and they are coming for you in the comments Swifties, I appreciate your passion. I said what I said. And here's the deal. If I'm wrong, I am wrong, apparently, because she's got an OG, I'm Arsodemar Jersey. Only in New York. I know what's that. Only in my city. Go ahead. Right. I misspoke. I did not know, but here's the deal. Contacts. I literally just did a piece on Celebrity Row. I've been with this organization for five years. I know these folks. Ben Stiller and his wife, Christine, like, Spike Lee, or Fat Joe. Like, I had not seen her here this year or last year. And we just saw her in

Cleveland with her fiance. Obviously, draft supports the cabs. She didn't have any mixed paraphernalia. So I did not know of her Knicks' loyalty. But shout out though T. Smith, like, we could be united in orange and blue. Like, it's fun. Okay, I love that. So you're standing on it.

I mean, I did not know. I apologize if I'm wrong. And apparently I'm wrong. And that's fine, but I did not know because we've seen, come on now, every celebrity does a Knicks man been in the building this year. Timothy Chalamee. Come on. So it's all good.

No, it's not all good. It's not all good. It's not all good. It's very New York. They're going to cut that bitch is what they're going to do Whoa, hey, why does she got to be a bitch? That's what they're calling her.

That's what I'm saying. They're calling the best. I said they're going to cut the bitch. I'm scared. I don't want to read the comments. The Swifties are up in arms. It's already got racists too. It's not shocking.

It's the worst. That's not shocking. It's on the first one. The Brick Center? Hold on. Let me look. Let me look. What's the same?

I'd rather not. Let's take a look at the 165. Yeah, I can't read that one. Can't read that one. That can't. Nope. None of it, no, he's right. None of these Swifties are buying her argument.

Mm-mm-mm. Mm-mm. Man, Monica, she's toast. Let's play, believe it or not next. You want to, gang. What's the category, by the way? The greatest soccer player of all time. Pele?

Liano Messi. Also was the subject of our interview we had earlier today. You should catch it. Paul Tenorio. It was a good interview. He wrote a book called The Messy Effect. And, of course, he is covering the World Cup for the Athletics. So good stuff with him earlier in the show if you missed that.

Yep. Very good. All right. Let's play, believe it or not, next. 713-212-5-790. All right, 152. We got five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should do something. We should play, believe it or not. We should. We should. I hope. There it is. Let's play, believe it or not. Here's how it works.

You call 713, 2.1, 2,000, 5, 719. 7. 7.1, 2.1, 2,000, 5, 790. Today's edition of Believe it on us, all things about Messi. I'll read your statement about Messi. You get the statement completely and utterly accurate.

Two of them, you'll say this. Believe it. Give it. The statement's erroneous photo bunk a minute up. You'll say this. Nah. All right, the first person that gets two in a row will win the last pair of tickets we have to the fix

with two X's. Now, if you don't win that, you get a T-shirt. Or you have a shout-out. It's up to you. Let's play. By the way, do you really think Bill's going to go to the fix? Yeah, he loves the fix.

He does? All right, let's play. 7.13-212-5-7-9. Blake on 7-90 Blake, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. As a youth, Leonel Messi had a hormone growth deficiency and signed with Barcelona because they agreed to pay for treatment. Believe it or not?

Not. Believe it. That is such a random. That's widely known. Is it? Well, now you know if you don't know it before. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

Scott, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Leonel Messi is named after his mother's favorite singer, Leonel Richie. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Sneaky. So, sneaky.

He really named after Lionel Richie? There's no way. Are you sure you'd make that up? Well, unless the Sports Illustrated Fun Fax page lied to me. Gil on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. I might as well.

I caught in for something else, but that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. Leonel Messi's idol growing up was Diego Maradona and even has a tattoo of him on his shoulder blade. Believe it or not. Not.

Yeah, Ross made that up. Not. He does. His idol was Pablo Imar? Is that right, Rossi? Imar? No, it's not Escobar. Come on.

Get your drug out of there. statement number two for the win. Leonel Messi has known his wife Antonella since the two were children growing up in Rosario, Argentina. Believe it or not. Believe it. Congratulations. You're going to see the fix.

All right. Gil has got the fixed tickets now. If he doesn't want them, we'll pass them to the next potential person. Dylan on 790. Dylan, who's your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show? Let's see. Talking about the next In his debut for the Argentina national team, Lianel Messi was sent off with a red card after just two minutes. Believe it or not.

Believe it. That's right. Statement number two for the win, Lianel Messi is distant cousins with fellow Argentinian legend Alfredo di Stefano. Believe it or not? Not. That's also correct. Congratulations. Jeff on 790, ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Lionel Messi is close friends with fellow Argentine footballer Sergio Aguero and is even the godfather to his son Benjamin. Believe it or not. Believe it. Statement number two for the win, not only is Leonel Messi a prolific goal score. He also has the all-time assist record with over 400. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Yay. Three winners today. All right. Tomorrow, Ross, you ready for this? It's anything goes Friday. No. Brian McTaggart, 11 o'clock. Okay.

Now in Florida stories. Wonderful. And how many more videos will you see of New York Nick fans being arrested? And will Monica McNett go after maybe another famous female celebrity? Up next, a man who hates Wemby, he hates Swifty, and he hates you. It's Clinton. It's Wexler. It's the team on Sports Talk 790.

Spree.