The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Lose Series vs Nationals… Is the Pitching Them Back? More Cody Campbell Talk

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Astros Lose Series vs Nationals… Is the Pitching Them Back? More Cody Campbell Talk

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. In H-Town, good morning, and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. I need a starter. Super sad edition. Bonnie Tyler, R-I-P. He's got to get out and he's got to throw strides. A needle starter.

Are you giving gory ideas? Let's go. Corny. I need one starter, please. One starting pitcher. Mm-mm. You keep it up. Bonnie Rush, she passed away today.

She did? Yeah. Today? Literally, yeah. Bonnie what? 75. Bonnie Tyler. Son of a gun.

That's what I'm saying. You kind of fit today, sadly. We need a starter. I wanted to honor Bonnie Tyler. Yes. And we're doing both. Smokey, smoky, late 70s, early 80 voice. I'm surprised she didn't have a longer career, but she's had some hits.

Total Eclipse of the Heart, probably be her most famous song. Yeah. This is a jam. This is a jam, too. John, you ever heard this song before? Of course. From Freck 2. Okay, good.

Did Arageti have yesterday, by the way? This is a good workout jam? This is good for jazzercise? Let me tell you, if you're going to put together a, like a, what do they call, when you hide stuff, when you take a box of stuff and you hide it for, like, Oh, I know what you're saying. I can't remember either. But you're going to put good 80s things in there?

This song is in here. capsule. Time capsule, yeah. Yeah, you're going to throw in some magenta, a spandex. You're going to throw in Prince, Madonna in this song. A leopard print headband. And though

shoulder pads for women. Yeah. A ball of cocaine. Rubik's Cube. Yeah. A VCR machine. Of course. Maybe a Beta Max. A bag phone. Ooh. I like that.

A new Coke can? Uh-huh. You're going to throw in some stagflation and some reganomics? Oh, reganomics have to be part of it. That's true. All right, good morning, everybody. Oh, my gosh. Spencer arrogating.

Spencer arrogating. Well, that wasn't an enterprising man last night. He was not throwing strikes. You know, we were talking about this with Joe Spada and something we would talk about. Throw strikes. Throw strikes. You want your guys to throw strikes You don't want your guys to throw meatballs

But you want them to throw strikes And there is a difference I asked him of a difference For the meatball and a strike Well of course You don't want a guy Throwing 94 pitches And 48 for strikes

And it could have been worse It's six walks He should have had seven Six walks There was the batter Should have challenged But he didn't Walked away

Yeah Yeah What the hell Six And we're team Arrogetti He's no hit my May Creek Rams Twice Yeah, that's because May Creek baseball sucks.

That may be fair, but didn't need to bring it up. Thank you. ERA up to $4.50. Pitcher of the month in May. Of course, he was due for some regression. Of course, and we talked about it. And actually, somebody on Twitter even got mad at me. Somebody got mad at you on Twitter? I know, you're shocked. I saw it.

But he was due for some regression, but this just cannot stand. You cannot go through a series where Tatsuya Imai goes three and a third, where Mike Burroughs gives up seven earn. runs and then where Spencer Eriggetti only throws four innings and he gives up eight earned runs, two homers, and six

walks. This cannot stand. This is not good baseball, folks. And again, there's a segment of the population that have called the 10th inning show like, man, got to get to 500. I mean, 500 is wonderful. They could sweep the Rangers and get to

500. But guess what? But guess what? You don't have to be at 500 a day. because you are three back of now 500 again, and you didn't lose any ground. The AOS sucks. That's the good news. The great news. But it doesn't make you feel great.

No. You know what? I got an analogy, Matt. Let's see how you like this. Oh, okay. You know, I judge analogies better than anybody. You got a 70 on the test in your class in college, but then the professor lets you know, like,

nobody else got higher than an 80, and you're like, it makes you feel a little bit better. But it doesn't make you feel good. So you get a little bit of bump of the curve. You're only two games back in the West, but it still doesn't feel good. You feel better, but you still didn't do good. You're 46 and 49.

It's not good baseball. You have a negative 48 run differential. It's bad baseball to watch. It's not fun. Maggie, you have you an analogy. Oh, here we go. You don't have to match the analogy. No, because I'm trying to acknowledge that I made a good one.

Move on. No, this is not as, this is not as. I'm scared. Oh, God, I'm so scared. You should be scared. I'm going to cry. This is going to Weight Watchers. Oh, God.

The Monday after Thanksgiving. Okay. And you only gained two pounds. And you're like, oh, God, I feel so terrible about myself. And then the White Watchers representative says, well, you know, the average person gains five. So you just shouldn't feel so bad about your time. No, you're still worse than average. See?

It doesn't work. See how it doesn't work? I'm trying. You know, Matt, you're getting better. Thank you. Thank you. You know, on average, this is not as better. No, no.

At least he was in the ballpark You've heard some bad ones I get it He wasn't on another planet He wasn't on Mars I'm trying to be as good as you And it's not coming close Thanks Matt

I appreciate the compliment Sometimes the best try is to not try The best play is the stay away But I don't want to give up our analogies Because at some point I'm going to have a good one We got France Norway coming up later France Morocco You know what I don't have a good feel

The best play sometimes is a stay away, Matt. Okay. Although we know Jonathan's all in on Morocco. By the way, got a report from a friend of mine who's listening right now in Seattle. Mm-hmm. That says... It's raining.

That, uh... The Morocco, uh, scenery? Mid. The Morocco scenery? Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay.

Brazilian. Good. Mexico good. Uh, what else? Columbia. Really good? Colombia. That's a triple a lifetime. See?

Morocco? The mountains were beautiful, Jonathan. Don't shake your head. Jonathan, what are you thinking about it? What are you thinking about over there? Come on, Jonathan. Merijin in the valley. Oh, beautiful.

Gorgeous. Gorgeous. See? Huatape, Cartagena. Yes. Minka. Correct. Mika was real nice.

But the Morocco scenery, at least in Seattle, is not up to part of those other countries. Mm-hmm. So I'm just throwing it out there. Okay. Okay. So we got that to get to. Then we got Cody Campbell. We've got to get to him today.

Little details are coming out about what Cody's great plan is to make the Big 12 great again, Ross. Without even knowing the story, can you kind of guess what he's thinking the other Big 12 schools should do? Cody Campbell? Yep. He wants to join a different conference. He wants to leave. No, no. He's trying to make the Big 12

the great. Us is a collective group of 16 teams. He's trying to like, The Monster Energy, Big 12, the best conference in the land. Well, boy, there's more reports

about how little this deal was. Enjoy your million. Yeah. I know you got to defend your conference, Maddie. But there were some schools in the league. It sounds Mickey Mouse. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Here's the problem, Ross. There were some schools in the league that were getting more money just for their own individual. And those deals go away. Well, they had to because they The league told them to, we'll get something better for you. This is like when the UFC took away individual sponsorship dollars from their fighters.

And they're like, don't worry, guys, we got Reebok. You're getting 20 Gs from Reebok. It's like, oh, is this 1996? Reebok. Yeah, exactly. You're like, they're still around. Jonathan, there's no way you wore a Reebok shirt shoes ever in your life, correct? That's not true.

Unless it was sponsored by Western. Kentucky or something. No, no. That's Nike. Oh, okay. I got you. Big dogs. Big dogs. What's SFA? Umbro? Under Armour. Oh, that's not bad. Avia? That was that was a dream shoe.

That was Spalding. Etonic. Was it Etonics? It's crazy. All right. A lot of astro chatter. A lot of astro chatter, unfortunately, because man, Spencer Getty. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yeah, the Lambo. Getty is sputtering. Lambo's good. Gettie, not so much right now. We got that to get to. I just don't get it.

And I'm going to tell you this, folks. I don't like to promote something that is going to be basically 27 hours in time. I believe in the history of non-flora stories, I have the grossest non-flora story. Okay. Remember when I told you about the woman in San Antonio that the woman above her in the apartment complex died and the blood was sparring out over the ceiling fan? Okay.

Yes, that was pretty bad. Ross's story tomorrow at one thing. 30 will top that. It's pretty bad. He rarely does Jonathan knows this. Rarely does Ross ever comment in the group text. Not zero,

but rarely. Usually it's about the amount of tourists hitting Houston during spring break. Jonathan, he called dibs on a non-Florida story last night. So he gets the dibs on that. It's much to my chagrin because it will top my story about the woman

who had apartment had blood all over the apartment complex. So I'm just telling you, folks, tomorrow at 1.30 will be the grossest edition of non-Florida stories we've ever had, and you've been warned. I just don't get it at 1130. I just don't get one of the Astros. By the way, I change my focus on what I want for the Astros again for the trade deadline. I'll discuss that next 1013 on 790. Matt and Ross with you on a Thursday edition of the program. Brian McTagger normally with it on Thursdays is flying.

back here to Houston today. So he'll join us on the road on the way to Arlington tomorrow. So we'll talk to him on the radio program tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Wonderful. All right. Other things we've got to get to today, we have a job dismissal in the NBA that I need a ruling from you two young bro. Okay. Younger bros.

All right. It involves a colleague of mine in the NBA. Really? Mm-hmm. This is rebounding, dirty work. power forward. He's been on an NBA court. Okay.

He's never played on it, though. Okay. And my guess he's never worn shorts on an NBA court. He's probably in a suit. Hmm. Okay. So that was a little bit of a B minus T's, but that's not bad. I'm intrigued.

Cody Campbell, again, has the answers for how the Big 12 is going to be a power conference. Okay. And, oh, how I changed my mind. And I did this. I was last night, I was at a friend's goodbye party. and it was an Edo and watching the game my phone and having a couple of beverages. And so I wasn't happy how things turned out with the local nine yesterday. And I decided that I was, you know, I've been talking about trying to get a power hitting left-handed bat for the outfield.

And I still think in the end of the day, that's probably where you need to go. But how in the world are you supposed to win a division or get a playoff spot if you have numerous warts in your starting rotation? So the new three things for me and my priorities in life, Ross, are one, starting pitcher for the Astros. Okay. Two lower gas prices. Hmm. They've been going to dive bombing, but they're going back up again. They are?

I just saw that this morning. What happened? I don't know. I think there's more tension over there. Oh, that's great. And then number three, I put, you're on? Number three, I put World Peace. Okay.

I would rather have lower gas prices than World Peace. Can I give you a little tip? Please. The tweet's funnier if you do three, two, one. Build a suspense. Oh, okay. In three different tweets, or should I do that? No, no, just three, two, one.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm an A-minus tweeter, but if that makes me a general A, then I'll be happy to do it. I'm just trying to help. By the way, I got a bunch of people, and I don't mean to brag on myself, but we're very happy at the wedding tweet I had over the weekend about how I got invited the big wedding and how they were like, they made me, made him chuckle. Oh, what happened? I didn't see that one. Yeah, I brought up on, uh, was it Friday? The Taylor wedding? I don't know.

Was I? No. You don't know that? I could have been there. Remember we all... Bill Simmons on his podcast, tricked Zach Lowe into thinking he went. Really?

Yes. Because I guess you were not supposed to... I guess you were not supposed to publicly say if you win or not. But there are people taking pictures and that kind of thing. All right. So, Rossi, first of all, how were the tentating show calls last night? Uh, a lot of trade deadline talk. We even got a...

It was a... not trade Yordon, but should the Asher's trade Yordon, which I'm still against. It's not happening. And by the way, Chandler-Roman has a story out today about, I think that the Astros will have some meaningful conversations about locking him up for the rest of his career here. Good. I've been saying this for like all year. Give him a 10-year deal. Now, I don't care.

I don't care, Jimmy Crane. You make exceptions in this world, and Yordon Alvarez is worth that exception. So I'm looking to tweet from eight minutes ago. The Astro's starting rotation has the 29th best ERA in baseball. Starters. Is that good? There's 30 teams. Oh.

Well, yeah, I was looking that up last night in the end of the postgame show. I was like, I'll tweet that out in the morning. This can make me sad. But yeah, and name the two teams they're around and where they play. Go ahead. No, I'm not doing it. All right, well, I will do it. I'm going to pull it back up the

the whole thing 28th in starters ERA I meant to tag fan graphs because I pulled it from their website Oh so you're Jonesing in on that you're bits stealing

I mean technically I can find I'm not bit stealing I put it I looked it up on their website and usually I try to tag them but I forgot Sorry I shout out fan graphs Here I'll do it in the reply Yeah see now you're now you're making me feel guilty So now I have to And wouldn't have been better if you'd have gone 30,

29, 28? Because you told me you go 3, 2, 1? No. Not in this one. Okay. It's either or they're in the middle. It's not a comedy bit either. It's a listing of a stat. I got you. Okay. 28th. Athletics who play in West Sacramento. Where the ball flies out. 527. So if I want, you know what, I'm going to pull up ERA plus after this now. Houston 5.29 ERA

Colorado in altitude 6.01. Here's the quote I love to when I get it. Is that bad? Nothing but you're saying that's going to do with the amount of money that's being spent of these guys? What do you mean? I mean, if you have a crappy team, it might be part of it's because you're not spending anyway.

You don't really add up the starting pitching payroll. That'd be kind of funny. We'll think about it. Okay. EMI makes great money. Lambert, nothing. Yes. Aregetti, relatively speaking, nothing.

Correct. Who else might forgive me yet? Let's go to... Oh, the good news is in XERA, their 25th. Hunter Brown doesn't make great money. I mean, you make good money, but it made great money. I'll be curious how much that is coincides with the money that you spend on a rotation. What's the matter?

When you correct for ballparks and situations... In the answer's a 30th. They're 30th. Okay. Oh, my God. Don't correct with things. Don't correct. It's not good.

Oh, X-FIP, they're 28th. XERA, they're 25th. X-E-R-A-minus, they're 30th. Oh, screw. That's a bunch of dorky numbers that say they suck. I don't care. It's dorky numbers that all the teams and all the players are using. I'm context.

You call it whatever you want. They suck. Yeah. Dorky numbers, regular numbers. They're any number we have, they suck. I would say people who are baseball fans know what X-E-R-A is. Not the majority, no. Have you met Astro's Twitter?

They want Joe Spotify it every day. They don't even know what XERA is. I respect those that do know what XERA is, but not the majority, no. I'm not saying the majority. I'm just saying there are people. Okay, 8%. I'm just throwing them out. Yeah, you are.

It doesn't matter. 29th. They're bad. By the way, the seeing eye test matches every number you've given. They just, what the hell happened to Arroghetti? He was nails in May. And now he's throwing pus. Well, I understand the regression part, which you've said, and that makes a little bit of sense.

But this isn't a regression. This is a complete downfall. No, this is, this was expected because these, these metrics that are only for dorks and nerds told you that the regression was due. Dweeds, too. So the metrics are useful and all the teams are using them. So, I mean, XFIPP told you that he was towing the line that he was getting a lot of base runners and that he was getting a lot of second and third zero out and somehow getting out. and somehow getting out of it or getting a lot of traffic on the base pass,

walking a lot of guys, and he was getting out of it. And now, of course, at some point, that's going to regress. When you're not a pitcher who is just a stud and who can continue to, at the right times, pitch to contact, at the right times, get a swing and miss and strike out two guys in a row to get out of the inning because he's just not that good. He's good, but he doesn't have the margin for error

where you're walking six guys and you're getting a punch of people on the base pass, and you can just always get out of it. You're going to end up with a stray three-run home runs. You're going to end up giving up some runs on sacrifice flies or hits or whatever like he did last night. And that's what happened. The chickens came home to roost or they have been. So you can't get out of every single jam when you're Spencer Arigetti. Can I give you a basketball comp?

Oh, okay. This is I call games. Some guys will go on, and I'll give you an example. Tar Easton would be a great example of this. First two months of the NBA season, he's hitting 46% of his three years. He went from 46. Now, when I think of normal regression, I think of a 46% three-point show. shooter maybe shooting 35 for a month.

Tarwin from 46 to hitting like 12%. Yeah. And I think that's the Arrogati comp on this. He is in regressant. This is a different zone he's playing in right now. I mean his ERA's 450. What's his career? It's probably around there. Same thing for I'll pull up Spencer Dinwiddie. Why is that pulling?

Spencer Erreddy. Spencer Benwitty. Spencer, Benwitty. I want Spencer Erigetti. Let's see. What is our good friend, Spencer Aragetti's career ERA. It's probably not too far off from 450 where he is right now.

So, yeah, career ERA, 463. He's at 450. So yeah, he's regressing to where he's been in his career. So it actually is the hard regression because he had a 0.94 ERA. So it's not super surprising. It's just unfortunate that you thought maybe he was making it a leap in improvement. That's the thing is. It's a part of me thought, okay, 4.6 ERA, young pitcher,

growing, learning the sport. When you grow up, like for instance, Greg Maddox didn't come out as a Chicago Cub with an area 1.65. He grew up and became this dominant Hall of Fame pitcher. We were waiting for Irrigati to do that, and that just hasn't happened. Tari Isson ended up with a 358, three-point

percentage. He's a 350 career. So he ended up to regress around his career. It just unfortunately hit harder that you were hoping Tari Isan figured something out. You're hoping spent to Erigetti figured something out. But unfortunately, oftentimes in life, things just regressed to where they were. And now that doesn't mean Spencer Arrogati can't go out there and give you seven innings of one-run ball the next time out.

I mean, this show used to be on top of the world. No, all right, come on. No, we have been sustained excellence. That's true. Okay. Bad example. Come on my part. All right.

1029 on sports talks. The longevity as well. We're the LeBron James of Houston Sports Radio. 20 years of excellence. Are we not 20 yet, are we? We're getting there. Just rounded up, man. Yeah, when did that round up?

What the hell, man? Come on. Do you sell it? Did you sell it? Did you get me in the radio? Hall of Fame yet? I told you. I bid. They don't return my emails because you're not a member. Oh, is that why? I think so. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-790. If you want to join us, 1030, Sports Talk, 790.

I just don't get it coming up in one hour, and I got two dozes. I got to write down one I have. I got two of them today, and it happened both today. One I've already talked about, one I'm going to add a new layer to. Yeah. 1030 on Sports Talk 790. So, and over our working relationship of Ross and I, which is going to be 16 and a half years now, we've taught some things about each other. Do's and don'ts, how I handle things, and I've given him advice, he's giving me advice. And one of the things you've given me in the last year, which I've come to appreciate, is the mute button is your friend.

There is this ass hat. And I won't even mention his name because I don't want to, I don't, I don't want to give him the time. I love that word. who supposedly has been a baseball fan for much of his 75 years plus of his life. But he's a complete ass hat. And I woke up this morning because the very first thing I do is I check my emails,

messages, then I will go to OnlyFans. I mean, I'll go to Twitter. You know what? He stole the joke out of my mouth. I was literally going to say that. Sometimes I'm serious. I run my own stuff.

No, I know my Only Fans that you know of. In the morning, huh? And then I go to... Following. And I go to 4U. And this complete ass hat is once again, I want to spy on fire. He wants a spire and fired on Monday, Wednesday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

He doesn't want him. What did he do yesterday? Just left there. Ageti out there too long. They scored two runs. He is, this ass hat, and he is an ass hat, is also a Christian Vasquez should play way more than Yarner Diaz truther. Look, I was getting some of that too.

I've asked politely for baseball, for Astros' Twitter to smarten up and it just won't do it. Do they not see what Christian Vasquez is hitting? Did they, this is the thing. I get like, okay, maybe I don't get it. At the beginning, he started the beginning of the year hot. Like, look at his output the last couple of years. It was horrible.

He was signed to a minor league deal late. So it was nice that he could feel in for a little bit, but he's been terrible. And then going with the calling games thing, I understand that as well, but are we not watching these games? No. Did we know?

We're just being stupid people that run to Twitter with terrible baseball takes. And I've, this morning I was like visibly upset. I'm like, I've got to make a decision. Either I'm going to annihilate this person on Twitter or I'm going to mute him. And I made the executive decision.

This will be the last time I bring this. up with this person. I'm going to mention his name. But I am muted. I will never see his stuff again. I sent you the tweet because I wanted you to see what got me so upset. And I'm over it. And so I'm just going to tell you, because Ross tells me this, others of you as

mute can be your friend. Mute dumb asses' Twitter. Since May 1st, Christian Vasquez is hitting 176 with an OPS of 470, Matt. They're saying the argument is he handles the pitchers better. Okay, well, here's the thing.

Did Yiner Diaz make Spencer Erigetti throw six walks? He couldn't find any of his pitches. And oh, by the way, here's the thing, folks. This is the major leagues. This is what I was going at when I said, are you watching the games? Watch the game.

Watch Spencer Arrigetti shake off Yiner Diaz and throw what pitches he wants. He has to agree with them. It's called a battery. You know what a battery means in baseball? That means it's the pitcher and the catcher. Yiner Diaz doesn't call a pitch and then Spencer Arrigetti just sits there and say

Yes, Yiner, I will throw that exact pitch And then he throws it No, he shakes him off, it's mutual It's between the pitcher and the catcher And then Arrogati throws what he wants He throws what he's feeling He throws via his game plan He throws what he thinks is going to work

And he threw six walks He was shaking off Yiner all night last night So he was throwing what he wanted Because his hair was going moving around And you could say, okay, well, then he wouldn't be shaking off Christian Vasquez. The end of result is probably the same. They're throwing about the same pitches. Yes, it matters who's calling the game and that type of stuff.

But Yiner Diaz, Joe Espada, and the pitching staff have talked about how he's grown in that aspect of the game. Spencer Arrogati, if Christian Vasquez was in there last night. So you're going to tell me if Christian Vasquez was catching last night, Spencer Arrogati would have thrown six innings and one run ball. I just don't buy that. I just don't. Thank you. I'm trying to avoid or it's a reduced stress in my life, and the mute is doing it.

Because that's, and it's such a small group, but the small sometimes is the loudest and the dumbest. Maybe Christian Vasquez should be up there some more. I don't know. But they need some, they need pop in the lineup as well. They've already got three outs, guaranteed outs, and they're called the outfield.

You don't want a fourth. You just don't. You need pop. And Yonner Diaz is going to give you way more pop than Christian Vasquez is. That is an undeniable truth. He may aggravate you. You may be able to run on him.

And maybe Vasquez, I don't say maybe. I'm sure Christian Vasquez calls a better game than Yarner-Diaz. I don't even think we could even dispute that if you wanted to. Yeah, probably. At the end of the day, the pitcher has to execute whatever pitchers are called and the pitcher gets to decide what pitchers are thrown to.

They have the same game plan, no matter who it is. Yeah. Griffin, by the way, is now 10 and 2. How many, Ten game winners are in baseball. Jesus. Look, Gryphon was on. Foster Griffin was on. I mean, as Joe Spott, I would say, the sweeper was sweeping.

He was locked in. He was dotting up corners, nine strikeouts. He was great. He was great. The other guys get paid, too. And Foster Griffin was better than Spencerian. The nationals have one decent starter. We saw him last night.

Yeah. Let's talk to East Houston and say hello to Steve on 790. Steve, good morning to you. Hey, good morning, Matt. Good morning, Ross. So how does it make sense to trade? or talk about trading AJ Blueball when he's, you know, kind of a Swiss Army knife pitcher. I get it.

The reality is this. You probably would incorporate him in a trade for an outfielder. You're not training an arm for an arm. That would be the first thing I would think of. Secondly, the minor link system, Steve, does not have anything plentiful to owner for other teams that would want because they can then go check on their minor leagues. So what do you have that would be a value? And it's not saying that AJ is all of a sudden going to command you a power hitting 850 OPS guy.

But he is versatile. He's young. He's got controllable years. He's had a good season. So you're kind of dealing with what do you have other teams want? And my guess is on the top of the list, whatever that list may be, probably AJ Blue Ballas near that top of that list. And would you two have a surplus of you would hope that Hayden was an askie or

Ronell Blanco or Christian Javier or so many colors. or McCullors could fit that role and give you 95 to 90% of what Blue Ball is giving you in that role, and then you can get some help with a bat. Okay, well, but it still feels like addition by, or subtraction by addition. Not necessarily, because again, if AJ Blue Ball is part of a package of players that goes for a guy that has an OPS, Let's not even say 100. Let's say he's got an OPS of 750, but it's producing way more than your wades,

your Desenzo's, your Operfitos. You can live without AJ Blue Ball. He's not indispensable. Because we say we got people following up. I mean, so you have to give up something to get something. And I would, if you're giving me a package, it involves a minor league or two and AJ Blue Ball for a guy that's got an OPS of, say, 750 in the outfit.

that it's a left-handed bat, I would do that deal in a heartbeat. Okay. All right. I don't think Steve was happy with our answer, but that's okay. A.J. Blueball fan club president. Come on, man. He's A.J. Blue Ball. Let's... I like A.J. Blue Ball.

I do, too. I want him here. You have to give to get something. And you're not going down to the modeling system to go grab a top 100 prospect for potential rental. You're just not. I mean, you got to deal with what you got here. He's not a spring chicken either. He's not some 21, 20, 20, two-year-old, he's 25.

This is not, now that doesn't mean 25-year-olds can't blossom. And he also has value. Let's let's let's let's, yes. And that's the reason why other teams have called because if you're, if you're going to say, hey, why don't you send us Walter, Walker Yonick in a trade? He has no value. Yeah, I'm sorry, by the way, happy birthday to AJ Blueball. He was

born on the 4th of July. He's 26. So he's 26 years old. This is not some young phenom who's, who if we, he gets pride away, he's all of a sudden going to turn into a no doubt about it, ace. Yeah. he's your fourth most important reliever right now. Yeah, he's 26, and he's in your bullpen, guys.

Yeah. Let's relax. I just, I think what Steve was saying was, hey, he's getting well for us. Why we get somebody that's good? He has, he has. Because other teams know that the minor league system doesn't have a lot of good players. Can Hayden Wazesneski do what AJ Blue Ball is doing? I would say yes.

But he can't right now because he's not on an active roster and still on the injureless. But he's rehabbing. Ronell Blanco is rehabbing. Laspercolors Junior. Rehabing. Mike Burroughs? Do you think Mike Burroughs? He's retooling, hopefully.

It's Mike Burroughs and Jake Matthew admires. Are they room dogs? Why? Because I would think neither one of them are. Why do you got to bring up source subject, man? But I mean, Jake Myers is raking down there. If you are... Jake Myers is ready to come back.

He's in the lab, baby. I didn't see how he did last night. He's in the lab, getting it's like when Iron Man got beat up, you know? You got to go back to the lab and you got to come back stronger. That's what he's doing right now. Hmm. Okay. I'll accept that.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't know when Jake Myers was ever Ironman, but we're going to make it work. All right. Gentlemen, we need an employment ruling. How do you guys, Jonathan, how would you describe your EEOC acumen? A zero. All right. Ross, what would you put yours at?

I mean, I do the training every year. I pass. I pass the quiz. Okay. I got a little job scenario involving a broadcaster in the NBA. Okay. We'll tell you that story when we come back in a minute. All right.

The next topic and conversation is a little difficult. I don't know the person that is involved in the story. I've met him one time. He is the television voice or was the television voice of the San Antonio Spurs. Okay. At a good season. Jacob Toby. You always want to call a good team, Matt.

I look forward to doing. Finals games. Hey, I've called 50 plus wins two straight years, 52 and 30 back to back. Now I need a little more postseason success. Semi finals would be nice. Okay, that's, again. Western semis. Can we ask for some western? Nancy, Matt.

Oh, dang. What's that? He's just a negative Nancy. Why is he? Me? Yes, you. I'm talking about the team. That's how I want Matt.

I want the team. Like, yeah, I want Matt to call wins too. I want Matt to call finals games too. Yes, yes, yes. All right. So I don't know if you know about what it happened with Jacob Toby, but let's give it. the really quick story on this.

Jacob Toby has had a long-time girlfriend, Jonathan. Jacob Toby. And Jacob Toby apparently must have left his phone open because his girlfriend of six years happened to find some photos. Uh-oh. Of Jacob Toby having a relationship with while cheating on his girlfriend, obviously, with Lindy Waters' sister. Lindy Waters is a

guy that plays with Spurs doesn't play very much. And there were photos apparently of Lindy Waters' sister with Jacob. Oh, Lindy Waters, the Fed. So what did Jacob's girlfriend do? She took over his Instagram account and said a bunch of despairing things about

here's what it was. This is my girlfriend of six years, but I cheated on her with Lauren Waters. So feel free to continue following me if you really think I'm a good per guy, because I'm not. Basically, he was, she was pretending he was Jacob. Oh, she was shaking. So this happened earlier this week, and needless to say, the NBA world kind of got a hold of this because that's what social media does. And this morning, the Spurs decided to release him of his duties as the television voice of the San Antonio Spurs.

And then she posted pictures. They had pictures of them in a photo booth? Yes. Oof. Don't do the photo evidence. Seems like a bad idea. Okay. So Jacob replaced a guy named Bill Land who was there forever and ever.

And so I think he just finished his second year. Like I said, I've made him. I met him once officially and maybe said hello here and there. I don't usually as radio bros hanging together more on the TV guys. I don't know why it is, but it is what it is. So needless to say, and this is where the legality is come into place. play here. Now, when you are a broadcaster or you're any representative

of any professional team, of a media company like ours, we have a unwritten standards code. Don't embarrass us. It's in our contracts, I believe. Some more than others. I mean, it may be in our contracts. Jonathan, even though you are not under a contract, I heart legal teams

covered their basis. Trust. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you signed. That's right. You probably did sign. The hard legal team is airtight. I'm just letting you all know. So I'm just laying this all out. I'm not trying to editorialize here. Yeah.

It is not illegal to have an affair. Right. Okay. It's maybe, it's not maybe. It's definitely unsavory. It's disingenuous. It's lying. It's hurting a woman's who you were with for six years together.

I mean, that's, it's dushy, correct? I mean, I can go on and on about describing it. But there's something legally against it. Correct. I wonder. If the Spurs went to the, you embarrassed us, you're out? Or do you think Lindy Waters is like, I'll be damned if I'm playing for your basketball team? And I got my TV guide having relations with my sister.

Oh, I don't think about that. It could be both. Probably could be both. My guess is you don't want teams and sports. And for that matter, restaurants, Iheart media, Houston Rockets, Santer's, they don't want to be embarrassed. They like to keep the off-the-field stuff as. hidden or not in any sort of headline as possible. That's why players, that's why teams like the Texans per se

don't usually choose players that have criminal histories or checkered past because they don't want their name in the headlines for the wrong reason. Right. I mean, it just seemed like a lot to lose his job over this unless the player did ask for it. I mean, it is an affair. I mean, Mike Vrabble's doing fine. But also, Mike Vrabble took his team to the Super Bowl. So, maybe Jacob Toby's a little more replaceable.

As you said, it's not illegal. It's also not illegal to go out and say something racist. You're not going to get jailed for that. You have freedom of speech. But it's a poor reflection of their organization. Well, and Frabble didn't do it inside the organization. I think that we know of. I think they're in the meeting rooms.

So as I was thinking about this and bringing this up to you guys, to me, this is an easy one. We all have, in our contracts, don't embarrass this clause. Uh-huh. Yeah. And the Spurs are embarrassed by this. There's Code of Conduct. We do Code of Conduct training, too. And my guess is the Spurs went to them and said,

not only are you, did you have an affair and that your girl went to Instagram and put all that out there to make it become a headline, but you're doing with one of our players' sisters. Yikes. It was kind of a double doozy of this is going to look bad and probably not easily resolved. For instance, if Jacob's calling these Spurs games

and Lindy Waters is on the floor playing for the Spurs, there's going to be natural joking about this, correct? Right? Wouldn't you think? Yeah, it's not going to be good. It's not good for the organization. But who's messing with someone's sister, though?

That's... Jacob. Yeah, but I'm just... Would y'all do that? Maybe he's finding his true love. Well, yeah, if somebody's going to have a sister, you just mean... All right, so if you knew the brother,

you're going to go for a sister? Does that... Why not? My guess is not knowing Jacob at all, but my guess is that was a chance. He probably has no relationship with the player, probably very little relationship with the player, I should say. No, because, I mean, did Jacob even know?

What if she got a hot sister and she's interested? I mean, yeah, what's probably? Now, maybe, to be fair, don't be cheating with her. Did Linda, did Lindy introduce the sister to Jacob? And they said, hey, you guys should go out? I mean, that could have. We don't know that. We don't know that.

It could have. Yeah, Jonathan, every single guy you know, every single sister is off limits? I guess I'm doing it in the context of him already. being in a relationship. Now, if you're single- Do you have a sister, Jonathan? No, I don't. All right, Ross does. Now, Ross's sister is happily married. Yes,

for many years with three children. Beautiful children. How would you feel if you set up your sister with one of your friends? Well, I'd depend on who it was. First of all, I don't have friends. That's evident, yes. We hear you. I'm sorry. I've got to be

honest with you, it would be difficult for me. Second of all, it would have to be the right. Yeah, it'd be if I think he's a good dude, I guess But you know the dude You know he was your lifelong Not that Lindy Waters and Jacob Tobey were Life Long Bros

There are millions of people married Who's They're friends with their sister They're Right Millions But the setup I probably wouldn't feel great about it

Yeah The setup is the weird part of it Yeah that's okay The setup was just weird here I just So we don't know that happened My presumption it is It didn't

They're like acquaintances Yes That maybe Jacob Toby's sister Was sitting down court side and happen to catch each other's eye and the rest is history. That's a pass. I'm not, because I'm thinking if I was back on my sports team, like if I'm on a track team,

I'm not messing with my teammate's sister. I'm not doing that. But if you're going to, and I guess this is not that I have any experience in this, but if you're going to have a side piece, you better make sure the girl has no idea how to get into your phone. And if you have the sidepiece, do not be taking photos of such sidepiece. Right, Rossi? I guess. I don't know, Matt. I don't know, Matt. I didn't work. I don't know side piece protocol

Me either, I don't either. I'm learning it by, I'm learning here by watching the San Antonio Spurs situation. Not a break. Terrible. Missy Ultimate Spurs fan texts me. Go apply. I'm good. Oh yeah, get you on TV.

Hey, that's, you've been one to know. You know what? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. You want to be with a winner. Hey, I'm with a winner. 104 wins in the last two years. That's, that's winning.

That's my team. I grew up as a rocket fan. I'm not going to go do. the Spurs. I'm not going to do a Houston radio show and be the voice of the Spurs. That would not mesh well. Do you think? Think if I was the voice, the Cowboys have been mesh well living

in Houston too? Well, there's a lot of Cowboys fans out here. That actually, that's not the worst thing I've ever heard you say. All right, 713-212-5-7-90. More on the Astros, starting at the second hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you'd like to join us, you may do so. It's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. More on the Astros. And also, Cody Campbell has a good idea of how to

make all the big 12 schools even more ferocious than they already are. We'll tell you what that is coming up in just a minute. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Number two, four. We go all the way to two o'clock this afternoon, Rossi. You ready to go? Three more hours is bad boy.

Let's go. All right. A lot of Justin Verlander tribute on the old MLB network today. A lot. I didn't expect to hear about Carl Hubble today. Yeah. You seen it didn't make my top five list

of things I just talk about but there it is. Believe it or not, today we'll be at 150 All Things Bonnie Tyler may she rest in peace and the following way at the age of 75

And we played some of her songs But yeah, you, you had an idea of, I need a hero, I need a pitcher. Yeah, I need a starter. Gordon's doing that right now? No, I don't think.

He's been very busy. I haven't seen him all day. He's probably, he's probably in meetings. It's like shuffling around the same. San Antonio lineup. Maybe talking to some South Carolina

offensive linemen too, you never know. Yeah, I know. He's locked on SEC. He's busy. So, Gordy, if you're listening, we'd love it. We'd love a spout. We'd love a parody. Need something.

Gordy's horrible baseball parody? Oh, people have been asking, I get at least once. Maybe he's not motivated to do them because you call them horrible. Well, what if I paid him? Well, then may that be some motivation for anybody? All right, Gordy, 50 bucks a pop starting a soon whenever. you heard me wow

they gotta be at least two minutes long though that's it that's all the requirement I have oh you need two minutes from Gordy I mean 50 bucks huh trying to put all that into context 50 dollars

only two minutes from him that's all you can give him all they can give you I'm Bisonette hey now don't let don't let Fondren sit there by itself either in Harwin

oh seven one three two one two one two 5-7-90 Araggetti, terrible E-My, really bad. Mike Burroughs, really bad. Even though the last turn, Hunter Brown wasn't good. You get the day off today,

sweep the Rangers, you'll be 500 going into the All-Star break. And remember, just as bad as you, and as angry as you are with this team, three games under 500 and unable to get to the one, you're still only two back because the fish beat the Mariners again yesterday. Yeah.

the Angels won too. Snapping a long losing streak. Where's my standing watch? 790s. The 790s standings watch. Standings watch. I don't know. Astros are two back of Seattle. Seattle is in first place.

American League West at 47 and 46. Texas is 46 and 46 in second place. Astros are third place at 46 and 49. So at least the Astros are tied in the wind column. You call this a must win series? You got Hunter Brown and Lambert going on the first two. And then TBD on Sunday. Which one of the three games will be the lowest scoring?

TBD? That feels like a bullpen game. The Rangers, at least on the M.O.B. website, they have not announced a rotation. ESPN kind of goes in turn, and sometimes that can be off. They got Quantrell, Rocker, and then DeGrom. So, I mean, three guys are the R.A. under four. Yeah, but Jordan loves playing in Arlington. Altube does, too.

Really? The Astros have had a great success the last time. Yeah, they own Arlington, but 10 years or so. Astros, by the way, are a game and a half out of the wild card, but they have a team that is bumped above them, Minnesota. Oh, Gordy is weighed in. He said he can't hit Bonnie Tyler Notes. Yeah.

All right. You can auto-tune it. So, Gordy, $50 if you do it, if you try to attempt to hit a Bonnie Tyler note, it's $75. Hmm. Okay. The offer is out there.

713-212-5-7.9. 213-212-5-7-9-0. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-19. We've not heard from Terry in Ohio in a week. Oh, great. It's probably a great idea because the calls are not good. Is he going to give us money yet? Terry, I thought you were a multimillionaire.

Let's find out. Terry, did you get my Vimba account, and I've not seen any deposits from you lately? What's going on with that? I'm not giving any money, you money, rubber. How are you doing, Terry? You had to prune juice today? Hey, I got a trade.

I'll tell you what. If the assos had the Guardians' pitching staff, they'd be running away with the ALS. If the Guardians had the Astos lineup, they'd be leaving the American Comedy Central. Here's a trade. A.J. Bubba, or either Anheil Martinez, he'd come up in two weeks, or Kalil Wasson. What? Yes. He didn't stutter.

He kind of did. He sputtered. Sorry. Sorry, Terry. Can you say that again? A.J. Blue Ball for what? Stephen Kwan? No, not Stephen Kwan.

On Hel Martinez. Oh, what's his numbers this year? OPS plus of 99. He's on the injured list right now. Oh, and he's hurt. Okay. Got 11 homers. But you said OPS plus is 99.

That's 100 is considered average, correct? Correct. I think AJ Bluebaugh is above average. Oh, look at here. Yeah. Ben Verlander on to talk about his brother on Justin and MLB Network. Good for him. What's wrong with that?

He's on the flipping bats podcast. You know what? When I retire, you're not going to have my wife on the show or my kids. He goes on there weekly. Ben Verlander's on there like every week. Ben's like, this was paid for by Justin. this was paid for by Justin, this is paid for by Justin. That's not true.

You know it's true. I mean, yeah, wouldn't you take care of your brother? What's the big deal? Why does it make you so angry? Because, again, he thinks he's a star when if his name was Ben. You think he thinks he's a star? Have you seen his Twitter account? Absolutely.

I think he knows he's not a star. Yeah. Thank you. We left poor Terry. We ignored the old man in the room. That's not good. You're not good. I'm sorry to follow for sure.

There's no chance. Y'all left them sitting on there for 40 seconds. Did Terry even call? I don't think so. Okay. All men and women are created by the go, you know the thing. Dang it. Let me try this again.

Oh, this is good for life. You sound like Terry actually there. We hold these truth to be self-evident. All men and women are created by the go, you know the thing. Texans announcing today, they're a training camp schedule. They will have a joint practice. in Carolina with the Panthers towards the end. They'll have a joint practice with the Raiders when they come to town before that.

They'll also have eight open practices that U.S. fans will be able to see. And they sent this nice release out, giving a day-by-day schedule, which is good for people that want to know exactly when they're practicing, when they're not, that kind of thing. And, of course, Adam Wexler will be our intrepid Texans reporter. Remember, I'm the insider, but he'll be the reporter. And look forward to getting the insights of Wex throughout training camp. Oh, okay. You're the insider?

Yeah. What stories have you broken? Joe Mason's foot. What about it? Jonathan, you know. Go ahead. Say it. You're the insider. He shot himself on the foot and hadn't played since. I haven't seen that reported anywhere else. Okay, so when it hits, you know where to go.

I don't know why it's being held back so long, but that's fine. Teach his own. Okay. Ross, I just want to you to know you're the minority in this. Am I? Well, between y'all two, but now between a reasonable Americans, And the Twitter streets. I'm just saying. The Twitter streets? I told you about how great the Twitter street were here.

If a person, it would have been reported by now. If a person shot himself in the foot with a firearm. He's got enough money to sweep it away. And then went to the doctor in the alleyway. Yes, you're doing it perfectly. No, he does not. So. Plachico Burr shot himself in the leg and it was massive headlines everywhere.

And he got gun charges because he wasn't supposed to have a gun in a public place in New York. Mm-hmm. Okay. So back to the other thing. So the PR release came out and Cal McGare had a quote. Yes. I'll ask you this question. Did Cal really say this or not?

Believe this. Cal had a quote. What was it? Here it is. I can't wait for Grand Theft Auto in November. We are looking forward to building on a very productive offseason with training camp around the corner, said Texan's chair and CEO, Cal McNair. Nick, D'Amico and our staff will have the players ready to work and compete every day on the field. there's so much excitement around our team heading into our milestone 25th season

and we can't wait to welcome our fans back to practice as we kick off another memorable season of Texans football. Believe that or not. I don't think he said that, no. Now, in fairness, most owners aren't saying most owners aren't saying that. So, I don't have time to do it right now,

but we could go back and look at the previous releases. Okay. Do you think he said pretty much, much the exact same thing every time and they just adjust it for the year changing? Maybe. I don't know. I got a point. You're feeling you're dead.

I'm sure Cal's on top of it, Matt. He's doing great. 25 years of cussing and disgust in the Texans, Ross. And no AFC championship appearance. So let's put this in perspective. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because we'll have a lot of us. We've got some summertime. Okay.

The lions have never been to the Super Bowl. That to me is the greatest, not injustice, that's the greatest single team of apathy ever. Yeah, at least they won some NFL championships, like the 40s or whatever. But my point is, how many Super Bowls have we had? 60 something. And they've not been to even one of them. Right. That's awful.

Yeah, or the Browns. Those are the worst ones. Because they've been around. So you have the Browns with this deep, rich history of lack of success. You have the lions at this deep, rich run of lack of success. Jaguars are a younger team, so that doesn't really count. Was it 96 or whatever was their first year? Somewhere on there.

Somewhere in there around there. Panthers have gone to the Super Bowl before. They know what it's like. Yeah. Well, Jake Dale own, baby, to raise a Cajun. That's right. Houston. Yeah.

So let me ask you this. Ask me. Are the Texans the third status NFL team in terms of length of tenure being around with no taste, no thirst of a championship? When you add in no championship game, maybe, but the fact that the Browns and Lions have been around as long as they have. The top of the list is so big.

And that made a Super Bowl? Yeah. You can argue. You can argue. Never making a NFC championship game. That's embarrassing. So what's worse? The Lions and the Browns

never go into a Super Bowl. in what, 60 years of it, right, give or take? Or the Texans never making an AFC championship game in 24 years. I would still put the Lions and the Browns in front of the Texas. We don't have no idea. The last time the Oilers went to the AFC championship game, what had to have been, was it Oilers Steelers? because I'm thinking about the 70s yeah

Yeah because I'm thinking the The love you The run and shoot teams didn't do it They were divisional and out too No championship games Walled card losses And people still hold on to the Oilers Like they're some great grandiose thing

So think about for Houston residents That considered some of the owners And they moved on to the Texans You haven't been to a championship game In Now again I'm not counting the Titans in Tennessee As a Super Bowl team I'm talking about just if you are a Houston fan

that watch the owners and you watch the Texans. I rooted for the Titans, but you don't have a Super Bowl and you have, what, two AFC championship losses in 45 years? There have been, yeah, 60 Super Bowls. That's what I'm saying. The Browns and the Lions take the cake on that. Yes, they do. Because first of all, the Browns fans are die-hards.

and then they sell their stadium out. Dog pound. Lions fans too. They travel well? Yeah. But I mean, there were times when the lions were routinely bad that no one cared, they would have empty seats. Cleveland games, because part of it was wearing the dog outfits and going out there

in 14-degree weather and yelling and whatnot. Now, at least the Browns went to a.FC championship games. Now, they also lost them with the fumble in a grandiose fashion. Oof. So ask yourself. Would you rather have been a Bears, I mean a Browns fan, Lions fan, or a Texans fan? I think the least humiliating is the Texans. Me too.

But it's still pretty humiliating. But the problem is with this, and the reason why I bring this up is, when you, there are certain anniversaries that are big deals. When you've been somewhere 10, 20, 25, then it almost kind of skips to 50. Or 30. Or 30. You've got a big prize for being here. I heard it for 30 years. Yeah.

But my point is those, when 25 is a huge, that's the. silver. Like you're 25 years of marriage, 25 years of being around. Yeah. 24. This is the 25th year and we are still looking for an AMC championship game. It's happening this year. All right. I hope. You hope. Not predicting, but you're hoping. That's battle Red Ross.

It's got to happen at some point. It's going to happen eventually. But let me ask you this. And I was able to chew on this. Did they do enough? Because the defense, and I'm speaking here on a wide-ranging view of this, the defense just looks ferocious. And as long as they're still healthy, and everybody's compensated for the most part very well. You can't assume the health.

You got really good health luck last year. You did. Offensively, you got a little bit better with David Montgomery at running back. You didn't fulfill your number two number receiver unless Jaden Higgins is that guy. Or Tankdale. I know.

And C.J. Estrada is coming off of two, well, a bad playoff game and a horrific playoff game. It still feels like that bad. It still feels like, I mean, they didn't do enough to fix the offense. In my mind. And that's why I would not put them as a favor to win the EFC. Well, you drafted Rutledge. You got Braden Smith and Wyatt Taylor. You're supposed to be better in the offensive line, and that's going to hopefully fix it.

Or maybe Arionte Ersary makes a second year leap. and we'll go from there. All right. I just don't get it's coming up. I have two things for you this week, boys. Okay. And they both happen today. I have two, but I'm saving one for the next week.

One I've talked about before. 713-212-5-7-90. For those of you new to the show, first of all, where the hell have you been? I mean, because I don't know what you were listening to before, but it wasn't as good as this. Secondly, welcome to our little radio show that we do ever do ever to attend it to. Third, we ask you every Thursday about things in your life that you don't get. And Jonathan, myself, Ross, try to give you a perspective to maybe help you out with said things. I just don't get it.

It's up next. 1128, Sports Talk 790. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend. The things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say, I just don't get it. You're saying, do you guys put production value in your show?

That was AI that created that song for us. How do we feel about that, though? I thought we're anti-AI. We're anti-AI. Because we're guaranteed humans, Matt. Yeah, we are. So we're not thrilled about it, but non-Forto story is also a good song too. Okay.

All right, here come my two. Number one, this is one that I've brought up before. So yesterday, again, I've been taking the, the apps map is taking me I-10 to the equipment exit, turn right, go down in the, what would be considered the northern outskirts of the heights. on to Taylor Taylor to I-10. It's not actually a bad drive. It's the least stressful

way for me to get from my home and Kingwood to here. Okay. So I don't mind it. But I'm telling you, these damn Waymos, I am on average

of seeing three to four Waymos per trip from when I get off at 59 to when I get on to I-10. Now, obviously these Waymos are not getting on

these street on the on the interstates because i haven't seen one they don't get on the i had no idea they don't get in the fruit i've seen them i've seen them what if you yeah what if you're going 30 miles away okay they say like the right you know the slow lane but i want to know is what the hell is the heights doing that's got it so last night i was at a going away party for a friend of mine and this one of the ladies that was with us last night she lives in the white oak area and she says i see which white oak is adjacent to the heights she sees waymo's too When did the Heights slash White Oak area

become the mega area for Waymo drivers? Waymo cars? I don't know. I've seen them all around town, not necessarily just in the Heights. I was in Austin over the weekend. They're everywhere. Even in the middle of the city.

Everywhere. Now, I don't go downtown very much except to go to Diken and to Totoa Center. I don't know no business meetings or anything downtown. So I don't even know if they're prevalent in ours, And you better watch out, by the way. There were some kids doing some stuff. They were like, I don't know if there was paintballs or what they were shooting out of the Waymo.

And the like the Waymo turned them in the police. Good. Good. Waymo's out there snitching, folks. So don't be doing anything illegal in the Waymo. You're getting snitched on. By the way, I did find out last night whether this is true or not. I'm presuming it is that if your Waymo loses its mind, you know, like it goes in circles or it.

Uh-huh. That you can hit a stop button. You can stop the vehicle. Yeah, two teens in California were drinking. and shooting water beads while riding in a Waymo, and then basically the Waymo snitched on them. Good for the Waymo. So I would just say, number one, boys,

why is White Oak Slash Heights the center of the Houston Waymo experience? I just don't get it. I don't know that it is. I think it's very heavily populated with Gen Z. People are not trying to, you know. But there's one street. It's Quitman off of 59. Oh, well, my Pops is weighed in.

He says Waymo is only allowed inside the loop. We're only operating inside the loop at the moment. Okay. There you go. But I mean, it's the same street. Hi, Dad. That is on the same street that I go and I see three to four a day. That's just, to me, it would be, like if I saw limousines every day, it would strike me as interesting.

And now I'm seeing Waymo's on this one particular street in the heights. It's not far from Maine and Houston Avenue. So I just don't get it. And maybe there isn't a reason for it. Number two, I went today to get a bacon, egg, cheese biscuit from a Rick Relay. You know how some fast food places boys have the double lanes

where they try to how do you put this merge two lanes into one to go get your food? This chick-fil-a that I went to on Taylor has three lanes. That feels like a variety of things could happen.

Number one, you could have three cars going at the same time and maybe one person doesn't want to yield to the you could potentially have accidents. That to me is something that's a possibility. Okay. Number two, do we have absolute 100% no doubt about it that the triple lane

or the double lane speeds up the drive-through process? Because when I go to Rick Ronald sometimes and I go through a double lane, they always say, sir, did you have the happy meal and a small diet cook? I'm like, no, I had a fish fillet meal with an unsweet tea. They never get it right.

Now, Rick will aid to their credit, Ross. if you notice this here on my cup, it does have the type of vehicle that I have. Yeah, and a lot of times ask you for a name. It says Matt on there. Yes. So Rick Willey's got it going right, but I'm just thinking,

does the triple lane in a drive-thru really make it a faster experience? I say, I just don't get it. What do you think? You think the answer is yes. What do you do? My first blush is, let's get as many people in the drive-thru as possible.

What do you think? Do you think they're doing it and it loses them money? No, but you think they're doing it and it slows their production? And their profits? Because as we've talked about before, Rotterruger's drive-thew is the worst. Yes, it's terrible. And they try double lanes, and it still takes you 25 minutes. That's because they're Waterburger.

McDonald's has double-lanes. I never have an issue. Okay. I've never had an issue in a Chick-fil-A either. I would say eight times out of ten, they always... Eight times? Which one? This one in...

No, the roadstroke? 59 and, like, Little York. Oh, this one right here on Postoak is perfect. Yeah, they go like this. Yes. It's the fastest McDonald's. It's the fastest McDonald's in the city. I say during the day.

Really? At night, it's the slowest McDonald's in the city. It's weird. I don't know who's managing at night. So what I decided to do is next time the McRib comes back, anytime I want to go to McDonald's, I'm going to put a McRib shirt on. So when they go through the line at Little York in 59, they know exactly what I'm looking for.

America sandwich. You're putting a what? A McRib shirt on. A McRib shirt. Yeah. They can't see you when you're ordering the McRib shirt. rib. No, but if I come to the lane, it doesn't make any sense. No, they ask you, they say, are you the quarter pounder of cheese?

They're not going to say, are you wearing a McRib shirt? No, no, when you look in. When you get to the, when you go pay. That's a bad idea. It's a wonderful idea. I think he just wants to wear the McRoove shirt. And by the way, shout out to you, Rick Ronnells. The fried apple pies are doing very, very well.

Hopefully it becomes a permanent item. They are doing well? You're checking the sales? You read an article on the sales? I'm trying to push. Just trying to push the agenda on this. You're so weird. All right, boys.

That's my two examples of it just don't get this week. You know what? You're not Mr. Texas, but you are Mr. fast food. Unfortunately. It's not something I'm proud of. Yeah. Or do I go when I'm in the middle of the city of Texas? Where do I go eat for fast food? Rodderburger.

Texas burger. In a out. Mr. Texas goes. You go to In and out. No, Texas Burger. Buffalo, Texas, Mr. Burr. You get the burger and you get the Bluebell ice cream because that's what Mr. Texas does.

You're not Mr. Texas. He honors those that are. Mr. Fast food. Well. I go to Texas Burger. It works out that way. When's the last time you ate a Texas burger? Be honest. Look at your face.

Look at his face, Jonathan. By a couple years. About a couple of years. Well, I don't drive the Dallas out often. Did you have hair last time you went? Oh, shut up. That's one of the worst things you've ever said to me. That's one of the worst that you've ever said.

He's asking you an honest question, Matt? asking an honest question. I have been bald and had a Texas burger. Okay. All right. So, that is recent. What about a Taco Buino? You're in Dallas.

Dang. Jonathan from the top rope. Damn. Go to the hair card. That was like, you know, it hasn't been boss for that long. Oh, man. You know what? I'll say sorry tomorrow.

Friday, right that right that one down. Write that one down. By the way, if you have something you just don't get, 713, 212, 790, call us in, let us know you got something you don't get. get 713212-1-2-5-7-90. What do you got, Rossi? I am going to go with, well, it ties into what we'll put in the news at noon as well, Matthew.

Christian Polisic, unfortunately, against Belgium, suffered a bone bruise and a micro fracture in his lower leg. He will be sidelined for several weeks. and therefore, I say to the Carly Lloyds, the Lennon Donovins, and I mentioned this even yesterday. Like saying he could have performed better and he needs to be better in the big games, that's one thing, but saying, oh, you would have had to drag me off the field. He got to play through the pain. Okay, but at some point, as I said yesterday,

he's limping around, you're hurting the team. You've got to come off the field and he had a bone bruise and a fracture in his leg. So I don't get why these people are jumping to conclusions and acting like he had no injury or major injury and he could have played and he decided to tap out of a Belgium versus USA in Seattle on home soil World Cup game. How does everybody just jump to conclusions about him having to play through the pain when it turns out he had a serious injury? I don't get it. Let me ask you this. maybe this is a chance to pile on a guy that people didn't like to before the tournament. Maybe that's part of it.

But I think going with the injury card is, I feel like we have enough history of like professional athletes, which this is a professional tournament too. They get money for this. Like bowing out of a tournament with at the time, I think it was 2-1 when he got out of the game. I don't get it. I actually get it by saying that there's just enough people in the soccer press soccer media community that just don't want Christian Polisic and they had a chance to pile on so they do. John, then we'll get to yours when we come back because we do hit our breaks on time here on the Massachusetts show with Ross. All right, 713212-5779. We give the best advice in major market sports radio.

Would you say, Rossi? Generally speaking. Duh. Yeah. So if you have something you don't get, let us know. 713-212. There's a wealth of life. experience. Yes. And Jonathan. And then Jonathan. And of course, Terry in Ohio kind of balances that out.

That's true, too. What do you call you a money grubber? What is it? Money grubber. I like that. All right, John, what don't you get this week, my man? So, I went on a trip. This is, I don't get, the family had a friend. And he went out and he came back and saying how this girl was all over him like a backpack. Uh-huh. We come to meet this, you know, young woman. Mine, this guy is, let's say, he's 28. Okay.

We see the woman, and she looks like a baby. Like very young. Yeah. And then makes you know the women in the family ask how old she is. She proceeds to say an age that is older than what. To come find out, she actually was. She was still in the teens. Uh-uh.

18, 19, yes. Okay, well, that's at least okay. We're at least in legal territory. But the dude is already divorced. Hmm. And 28, so what I'm saying I don't understand is I don't get why us men that get older, like, you know, they're trying to look for a partner, go so young. Like, and now if it was like 37 and like 27, I can get that.

But like a 30-year-old going for a 19-year-old? Y'all have to explain that. to me because I don't, I wouldn't you I'm glad I'm here for you because I'm going to say I totally get it and I'm going to give you no example. Do you know who Luke Wilson is? No, I do not. He's an actor. The actor. Wedding Crashers would be probably

among his most famous work, right? Old school? No, Owen Wilson was in wedding crashers. Oh, Luke, okay, what was Luke's most famous role in? He was in old school. He was the lead on that. A lot of Wes Anderson movies. Legally blonde.

Royal Tennen bombs. Okay. Yeah, yeah, Royal Tennon bombs. Well, congratulations. He is now a father along with his girlfriend, Kendall. Okay.

They just said she Kendall had a baby. Okay. Lucas 54, which is kind of veteran for being a father. Okay. His girl's 24. So you're saying you get it.

Hollywood gets it. But like, they're saying, no, you said you get it. So that's what I'm saying. No, I don't get nothing. If I'm 54, I got nothing to say to it.

24-year-old. How are you going to converse with this human being? I don't think they're going to be relatable. I think if you're in a partnership, you're going to be relating to this person. You're going to be like making jokes and references and like I probably she's listening to Taylor Swift and he's listening to Frank Sinatra. But even like I thought it was Hollywood like Bill of Belichick. Do you see that right? Well, the bottom line, it's an ego thing. John, it's an ego thing too and it's guys who want to manipulate a dumb and young women because they can't get women their own age. Because even, and now if we're talking like dudes, and I apologize for women out here.

If we're talking like guys right now and you just want an easy score. Yeah. Isn't that lame? No. Don't you feel like, oh, like this is like, that's not, that's something that you can. Hey, points on the board, points on the board. Hey, if you recover a fumble in the end zone, that's still a touchdown, Jonathan. So let's go to, let's go to 24-year-old Kendall.

What did a 24-year-old Kendall Gates and 54-year-old Luke Wilson? What do you think? He's a Hollywood man. I get it. I get it. Yeah. Are we saying, was this guy rich, though, Jonathan? No. See?

He had a nice truck, so you know how... Oh, yeah, that is. The kids are. The good truck does everything. I mean, I guess you're in Hollywood. There's different rules. But if you're in general in life and you're 54 going for a 24-year-old, no. Rossi, could you see me with a 24-year-old? No. Matt, I was shamed me to the...

You were ashamed of you. You're old enough to be her father. Correct. I think that's weird. It is weird. I wouldn't be with a 24-year-old. I'm 40. Matt, think about your daughter's age. 18.

And she's like, yeah, dad, and brings home this 30-year-old. Oh, hell, no. Oh, hell, no. You don't have a problem, Matt. It's okay. No, you get it. No, you get it. No, I didn't say, I had a problem with it.

I said, I get it. No. There's two different things. Okay, well, then you get it. Then you get why she's with an older man. Good job, Jonathan. That's great. A great point.

I just got to localize it. That's how Matt came around on NIL. And you not me like that again. Both of you. Shut your ball. messes up. That was your yeah. So if your daughter's 24 she can bring home 54. You got no problem with that right?

What's the problem? No. You get it. Oh, I could imagine that's face. But it doesn't mean I like it. And I think it's fair. I can be, I can get something and understand why something happened and don't agree with it. No, I it's just basically I think like an ego

thing or they or maybe the guy's rich. Like in the case of Luke Wilson who's this girlfriend? Is she an actress or something? I have never heard of her. have a friend of mine, she's 40. Okay. She likes older men for two reasons. One, she never has to worry about the money.

Okay. And number two, she doesn't have time for anybody. Like, she likes to date men 55 plus. Like, the guys who just finished dating was 62 years old. Okay. Just finish. What, he died or something? No, they broke up.

Okay. And the reason why was that they just, you know, he kind of got tired of her. He's, he was the eternal 54 date in the 24-year-old. But I would think, again, I don't want to speak in a grandiose term, but if you're, if you're 40 dating 62, you guys both know

what you want. He wants a younger piece and she wants some financial security and no strings attached, right? Does that seem about fair on that? I understand that. You're 30 picking up teenagers. You need to, that's that's ridiculous. That is gross. I find it weird is that she willingly lied about

her age in front of people for, like, that's weird. Did you meet her? Yes, I did. How old does she look? Like, she looked 16. Ooh, that's even worse. That's what I'm saying. And I'm like, you're bragging about scoring that? Oh, that's weird. I don't get that. I don't, like, no, that's not a... I can't imagine I can't imagine when I was 28 bragging about somebody I was dating as a teenager. If you're on a weekend trip or something, I guess it makes more sense. Like if you're in Daytona or something? Yeah. Why'd you look at it like that, Ross? I've never been to Daytona. I don't know what Matt's talking about.

The cold. I'm always winking. Orlando. Yeah, there's no rules in Florida. Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, Florida's got different rules, by the way. Age has never really brought up in consideration. I mean, yeah, if we were talking about a weekend hookup, it's one thing.

If you're like in a relationship, well, you know what the rule is, Jonathan. You can date somebody half your age plus seven. That's the rule. This has been made up by older men, by the way. I've never heard of anybody talk about this rule except that. It absolutely fits. I'm the only person's ever thought of it.

So, Matt's the only person I've ever heard saying. So Jonathan, how old are you? I'll be 24 next month. All right. So 19? No, okay, so 12 plus 7, you can date a 19 year old.

We will not judge you. Judge him a little bit. I just, you know, and I guess. So if you're 100, you can get 80 to 57 year old. Correct.

That's ridiculous. But how many 100 year olds are bouncing around looking for dates? Bouncing around? Bouncing around is a relative term. by like staggering around She's 57 she's All right so mine would be

I'm 54 27 plus I can date a 34 year old and I will not be judged See that's what I'm saying When you get to older and like all Both are like real adults I guess I make sense Ross you're in a better spot You're 40 right

Okay I'm 41 41 It's 20 and a half plus seven You could do it a 27 and a half year old I have nothing to say to a 27 and a half year old You could have something to say I got nothing to say Relationship No

I'm good All right. And that's, I just don't get it for this week. What I want to talk about? SpongeBob? Hey, hey. Now, wait a minute. Now, 27-year-olds. Now, I will say this. I had the TV viewing habits of a 27-a-half-year-old.

Yeah, I just watched... Now, I've got to get into Love Island. I'm not doing that. First of all, I'm an older soul as it is. I just watched off campus. I get into, like, I get into, like, 1950s jazz music, all right? So I already got a problem with young kids.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I just watched another show off of Amazon. I forgot what it was called. But, yeah, I'm too serious. into the Gen X series. I got nothing to say to these kids. I'm sorry. Except hello? Yeah. Nice to see you.

Hope you have a great weekend. There you go. I'm doing your fairly odd parents marathon. Are we... Hey, hey, what's all these good shows? See what I'm saying? Now, if you just adore the Explorer,

that'd have been a little bit of a bigger issue there, right? Yeah, let's watch Blues Clues together. All right. Are the Astros holding out for a pitching hero? That's a good way to segue it, right? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Bonnie Tyler. I don't know enough about her, Rossi,

but she's got a, she did have a great boy. She passed away at the age of 75, either yesterday or this morning. But a really sultry, smoky, early 80s, late 70s voice that had had some hits. And she'll be the

honorarium today's edition of believe it or not, coming up at 150. Yes. You want a quick a quick hint or not a hint, but how about a freebie? Quick freebie, please. She had the distinctive husky voice because she had vocal surgery in 1976.

Really? And she was supposed to not speak for six weeks, but she accidentally screamed during her recovery and ruined her vocal cords. Not ruined, but made her husky. Her voice so husky. So one scream caused the huskiness? One loud scream. I don't know what she got scared by. I'm doing some research on that. Wow. I'm not going to put that in that. the question. I'm just going to say due to vocal

or not healing properly from vocal surgery. That will be the year. If I could pay you not to... There you go. She screamed in frustration. Because she wanted to sit back singing. She had a permanently raspy tone. I think raspy tones.

Jonathan back me up on this on women is quite attractive. Yeah, it can be. Sometimes it's like a fine line. Now, you don't want them like Tina Turner. Tina Turner. Kim Carnes I think to a smaller extent

Stevie Nix has a little bit What was that? Kathleen Turner back in her heyday Had a smoky voice that was kind of good Now I don't want two packs of cigarettes On your throat every day That's not what I'm looking for But I guess Janice Chapplin

Yeah Janice Chapplin for sure But yes Janice Chapplin was She was beyond Rasp Yeah that was just She was born June 8th 1951 died July 8th. So she died yesterday.

May she rest? Five foot three. Okay. Greatest hits, total eclipse of the heart. It's a heartache. It's another good. That was like her first big one. And then she had holding out for hero, which we just played.

All things, Bonnie Tyler on today's edition of, believe or not, coming up at 150. I'm just reading about her because I'm doing, believe it or not. Yeah. She's in 1973, she married Robert Sullivan, a. property developer and 1972 Olympic judo competitor.

All right. He said he needed a hero, so. You ever been with somebody that performed judo? She was in

Portugal treating a perforated intestine and that's where she died. Oh. What is, you know, you know what?

You know what? You know what people are doing, honestly. A lot of people going to overseas or different countries to find

alternative medicine forms of, you know, prolong lives. I don't know. All right. On that summer note, let's get to the news at noon. Yes, Matthew, the news at noon is that the Astros need a starter. I need a starter.

He's got to throw strikes and he's got to get out. We need a starter. Who can go at least five innings in the middle of the night? Right? Sure, why not? How long there you go? How about can we keep Josh Miller at bay? Josh Miller's getting a lot of steps this year.

He's going out there for like first inning and second inning early mound visits, basically every game. You know, Josh Miller doesn't worry about losing weight. He's getting all that exercise. That's true. He is getting his 10,000 steps in a day with this Astros starting pitching staff especially.

Ergetti, four innings pitch, eight earned runs, six walks. A couple of home runs, only two strikeouts, 94 pitches, only 48 of them for strikes. Foster Griffin for the Nationals was spectacular. He had seven innings of one run ball, nine strikeouts for him as well. Washington Nationals win the rubber game, 8 to 2. Astros regroup with the day off today.

They will be in Arlington for three over the weekend. If they can win all three, they will be at 500. And you do have Hunter Brown and Peter Lambert going in the first two games of that series. Sunday at this moment, TBD. The thinking is that it could be Christian Javier, who worked a scoreless inning yesterday. I didn't see his inning. How do you look? He walked two guys and gave up a hit. Didn't look great.

The velocity was up to 93-94. That's good in a relief roll because they were worried about him in rehab. He was hitting like 91. So he's up to 93-94. Sweeper had some movement on it, but it wasn't getting thrown for strikes. Maybe he can find it and be okay on Sunday.

We shall see. But the Astros at this moment, Two games behind the ALS leading Seattle Mariners Who lost last night Thank you very much Boy, the far on Marlins, you ready for this? No, the Marlins might make the playoffs And a game and a half behind the Rangers

They're also behind the Rangers A game and a half for the third wildcard spot With the Minnesota Twins wedged in between Okay Elsewhere you got World Cup action later today You have France if you're trading on calcium, holding it as 77% favorites.

KAL, S-H-I, use that code 790 for 20 when you trade 20. That game is coming up at 3 o'clock, over under 2 and a half. And that one, France versus Morocco. So that should be a good one. Then tomorrow you have Spain and Belgium at 2 p.m. And then Saturday is another, well, they're all big ones at this point.

Norway, England at 4 p.m., Argentina, Switzerland at 8 p.m. We need to be in the book for both of those. I have not planning. We're going to be in Vegas. The only thing I'm doing in Vegas and is on the clock is I'm going to see the Rockets play a summer league on Saturday. But other than that, I'm just going to be here.

What time is it on Saturday? 5.30. Ooh, Argentina, Switzerland is at 6? You go into game? You got tickets or you got a credential? Credential. What's the ticket situation there? Plentiful?

They're not even in the real arena. They're in the backup arena. They're like in the high schools, rafters. Yeah, because honestly, the rockets don't have an exciting summer league. Do they play Sunday? Or when did they play Monday? They play Monday. Yeah, maybe Monday.

We'll see. Maybe Monday I'll go. Because Saturday's World Cup action, baby. All right, there you go. Also, speaking of the World Cup, some soccer news. Christian Polisic has a micro fracture and a bone bruise in his lower left leg. He will be sidelined for several weeks. U.S. soccer has confirmed.

Today, he had an x-ray in an MRI on Tuesday. Athletic first on the scene to report the news. sustained the injury seven minutes into the second half, attempted to take a shot on goal, but struck the back of midfielder Yuri Tileman's leg. Tried to carry on, but he was replaced in the 59th minute. And at that point, they were down 3-1 in the game.

Christian Polisic widely criticized for leaving the game, but he did have a bone bruise and a micro fracture in his leg. He's going to be sidelined for several weeks. We have lots of Astros to get to between now and 2 o'clock. Ross has a soccer conundrum. wants to get into on the show today. Okay. And I also want to tell you how Cody Campbell thinks he's going to elevate everybody in the Big 12. Ross, it's a very simple answer. Got that for you as well. Cindy says she had people at the game, her 12-year-old grandson and his father.

Now, is there a great story to this, or is she just telling us that there are members of Cindy's family there? I don't know. We'll find out coming back in a minute. 7-13-212. I'm intrigued. As am I. So Cindy, don't let us down here. 7-13-21-2-5-7-9. any Astros, another series loss. But the Nationals are good. They can hit. Who's that tall drink of water that plays with Nashville? James Wood. He's huge. He's six. He can swat the ball, too.

CJ Abrams, very good as well. Both those guys, by the way, came over in the Juan Soto trade. Do you think the nationals are regretting it? I don't think so. I don't think so either. They just ain't pitching. Yes. By the way, Jeff Passon, our friend, good close friend of the show. You hate him. No, I know. Hates a strong term.

has the recommendations for how the Astros are going to make the playoffs by a trade deadline acquisition. Oh, okay. And some miracles. Would we sacrifice some chickens? Yeah. All that kind of stuff. Grinding up some iodute.

Kentucky fried or just like a live chicken? It depends. All right. It's up to the manager. 713-212-5.7.0. Come on back with us. 1220 on Sports Talk 790. It's Manon Ross.

We'll reach you today until 2 p.m. Believe or not, all things Bonnie Totter. Got to get to Cody Campbell's quick solve resolution, Rossi, to fix the Big 12 or put it with everybody else. And you said you have soccer, I don't know if conundrum was the term you wanted to use, but what do you... There's been a debate popping up on social media and I think it's kind of interesting. Do you have an opinion about it? Are you looking for opinions? I think both. I mean, I think I have somewhat of an opinion, but I think it's an interesting discussion. We'll get to that after I would.

to Cody and or, oh, our alcoholer just dropped. Dang, Cody. It wasn't Cody, I think it was Kathy. Oh, Cindy. Cindy. You said Cody, signer. That's right.

That's okay. It's weird. All right. Let's, oh, what was I going to talk about? Oh, let's do the thing about Cody Campbell. I'm fascinated by Cody Campbell. I'm going to tell you that.

I love a man who's ready to put most of his wolf behind his school. I mean, I will give him credit for that. He loves him some Texas Tech. And his, well, he's Warren Buffett. Not Buffett. He doesn't do that. Who's... Jimmy Buffett?

No. Phil Knight. Okay. He's Phil Knight. He's T. Boone Pickens. Okay. He's, who else? Who puts in just crazy amounts of money? I mean, back in the day, you want to go Red McCombes and Joe Jemale? Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the modern day

of that. When Texas Tech played Houston last year, the guy had a line and people wanted to take pictures and get his autograph. He's a star. I haven't been results with that star, but he's been a star. A couple of things I noticed about him. And I found out from people that are close to situation. He knows he's a star.

He wants to remain the star. And whether administration of techs, tech likes that or not, he is more important than the president and more important than the athletic director. Cody's money carries more cloud than I've ever seen any Texas school, even as great as Combs was in Jamest. was. And who else? You know, we were talking about people down here. I've never seen anybody in this state command more respect from a school because he writes checks. I don't know if he's respected. But more acknowledged. He's been acknowledged. He's been a story. He likes being in a limelight. I mean, yeah, Tillman Fertit is not, I mean, you know, posting on social media all the time. Timman gave the money and said, I got to go buy casinos and go run Italy. He's, you know, he's

crazy. Doing okay. You're doing all right. So, Cody Campbell, we talked about this Fort Worth dinner they had in the day to kind of smooth the waters over and basically Brett Yormark and Cody and some other people from Tech's Tech. And Cody, we found out from Ross Dellinger says,

we want to find a way. Listen to this quote. And you tell me how vain this is 1 to 10. We want to find a way to get all other Big 12 schools to elevate themselves. Everybody needs to do some version of what, we've done. That's the path towards forward this conference. That's the path forward for this conference. A rising tide lifts all boats. We said get your damn act together. So my interpretation is, which just shows you that maybe

his heads are his heads in the clouds on a variety of things, is go find a billionaire to fund your program. Yeah. Now, are there billionaires at University of Houston, obviously? Tillman is one of them. I don't know if there's a billionaire ready to figure out Iowa State's financial situation. I don't think so. Arizona State or Arizona or Cincinnati or West Virginia or TCU or Bado. I can go on and on.

You get my drift on this. That statement to me comes across as your job, Big 12 schools, is to find as much, find other benefactors, people that want donors that want to spend

money as much as I do. And when everybody spends as much money as I do on my school, will all be better for it. That's how I interpreted the conversation. How long is he going to be able to keep this going? I mean, I guess Phil Knight's been doing it for however many years in Oregon, and it still hasn't resulted in a football national championship.

So I went and looked at Ross Dillinger's replies from people, because, you know, college can spark some interesting conversation. Sure, Cody, this is from Cyclone Story, Iowa State guy. Oh, okay. Just find a billionaire from each school who's willing to fork over millions each year for football. Sam says, does Cody Campbell really think to find a billionaire who's willing to torch nine figures on football

with no expectation of personal return of interest? Not ROI, what is it? Return on investment. Is a business model everyone can just replicate? Let's see. Here's one from Mateo. I need everyone to become a billionaire off of oil like I did and put the money towards their schools.

Next, let's see here. Does Cody realize every school? doesn't have a billionaire alum who played football. Oklahoma State fan on Twitter says, the entitlement from a university that didn't do blank before the last couple of years is absolutely mind-boggling. It is pretty crazy. Cody Raider jumped in.

Everyone is mad at the comments, but he's right. You do anything to see your team with the same resources. Big 12 needs investment in its teams. Well, not everybody's going to have some crazed billionaire fan who wants to one. money on fire for sports. D5 Terp says he's getting way too much air time for a

booster of one school in a conference of 16. It's true. We talk more Cody Campbell and we talk anybody in college football right now. A horns fan jumped in, Rossi. Oh! In our next segment Cody Campbell lectures you on how to auto control spending is ruining college sports and how

he is the best person to lead the charge and fix it. Yeah. Wasn't he pushing for some kind of bill, that bill? Yeah. Cooke Defender comes in. Follows me on Twitter. Thank you, Coop Defender. L.O.L. Cody Campbell inherited his daddy's business and thinks he's got real thoughts.

Is that true? ATX, Texas Aggie jumps in, Rossian says, try scoring a point against a team and a pulse before sharing your recipe. You know, they didn't score. Yeah. What he is saying at its core is if you're going to be a Power 4 school, you need the backing of a Power 4 school. Cool.

Whatever that number is, everybody's got to elevate. That includes my alma mater. I don't think the money is coming in like the University of Houston wanted to come in. I don't have evidence of that, but my gut, my me's guts tells me that. Okay. But it's easier send than done. Go find donors that want to kick in money.

Okay, you can whine and die on these donors that are right in the face, but there are going to be very few people in this world that can just hand over. $15 million to their school because they love their school. Cody's a one-off. There are some other people that have put large amounts of money. And Fortita put in $18 million towards a fortita center. Whatever, you know, there are school. Universe Texas does well. A&M's done well. But man, that's, that's an awfully simple approach to say, just go find

the money. Yeah, just go throw the money at it. Yeah. Let's go. That's what Kelvin Samson was saying. Let's get some cash. Look at the weight up, son. Yeah. I, to me, Cody, probably, if Cody had a PR firm, the PR firm, if they were good, be like, take a step back on this. You guys are doing fine. You're obviously bankrolling a much more relevant

athletic department than you did said 10 years ago. But sometimes other schools don't want to hear what you're doing, especially when the only thing you're doing is just writing a check. Oh, he's writing a check and spouting off on social media in interviews. So, you know, he's doing what he can. He's doing what he can. But it's funny. He said, just everybody, make it fine, do it like we're doing it.

Yeah. And we'll be fine. Just become a billionaire and be overinvested in your sports athletic department and light millions on fire. Double D. Cody Campbell can shove it unless he's contributing $30 million each program. It's crazy in the mouthpiece he's been given. He might be, because I know that Phil Knight's been waiting forever for Oregon, right? Yes. Is Cody now taking the lead of

alums who are going to be super pissed off that his money ain't going towards anything? I mean, he's got to get there at some point. I mean, maybe. Maybe he will. They're in, at least they're getting in there. Can they knock the door down, as bum Phillips would say? Kick the door down.

Yeah. All right, 713-212-579 if you want to join us. 7-13-212-570. When you, and I guess we got some college fans listen to the show, right? I'm a mixture of schools. Does Cody have any point to say, schools? No. Go step up and find these people. Maybe. Or does Cody have, or is there a little bit of mixture in between? Or is it Cody? You're the one dude. There ain't 19,000 Texas Tech fans

that are all contributing three to four million dollars. Yeah. It's one dude. Maybe there's a couple others, but it's primarily Cody. Shit your bum ass up, man. So the rest of the Big 12 is saying. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. 12-30 on Sports Talk, 7-90.

12-36 on Sports Talks 7-90. We get a little day baseball, Rossi. The Rays and the Yankees are playing in St. Petersburg. And right now, the Rays lead the Yankees won nothing. Is that good news or bad news for us? Here, let's take a look. Card.

You know, standing watch 790. This is two best teams in the American League. You're not catching neither of them. Can I just be a little bit more positive? They're three games under 500, Matt. They're not good baseball team. They're not a good baseball team. Damn it.

But you're saying there's a chance. Astros are only five and a half out of the number one walled card. Oh, great. And it would be five if the rays hold on to beat the Yankees. Wonderful. By the way, the rays have finally put out. their plans for a brand new stadium in St. Petersburg. Wonderful.

It's going to have a transparent roof. Oh, really? It's going to be a clear tarp. Yep. Not a tarp. It's going to be, I guess, glass. It's really weird, and we're going to get to some other things here, but the stadium in Las Vegas is under construction.

I'm looking forward to seeing that. We go there this weekend. This new St. Petersburg stadium is going to have a seating capacity of 31,000. So what I've noticed in the trend, I don't know what Las Vegas is new, but I think Las Vegas is probably that same similar ilk in terms of number. They're going to not assume that every one of their games would draw 40. Okay, I get that. They're going to make those 31,000 probably more expensive than the 31,000 seats at Diken Park

in hopes that you can not only be a winning baseball team, but you'll appreciate coming to a new ballpark because they've been sitting in this tropic in a field for 20 years and it's been a dump. 31,000 times 81 games, you're only going to draw a 2.5 million max. That's provided that every single seat is sold. Usually you really get into the fat and happy numbers when you're drawing that 26, 27, 28 number.

That obviously is never going to happen for the raise. But these architects obviously have been given clear instructions in Las Vegas and now in St. Petersburg to put up these super small stadiums. When I was a kid, the thought of Fenway Park only seating 35,000, I was like, what are you doing? Why would you have such a small statement of small capacity? Well, they've obviously managed themselves quite well with that small number. I'm just curious why we have seen these facilities if it's because they say it's better to charge more and seat less and create more of a demand.

Or that maybe long term, we can't draw 40,000 a game, and we're just wasting our time. I mean, then you mitigate construction costs, I imagine as well. Yeah. Like I'm trying to see what the new New Las Vegas, Paul Park, a capacity is going to be. Let's take a look. I wish I could spell. Ross, promote your Instagram account. Hey, you know what? Go ahead and follow me on Instagram at SportsRV. You know what, until the end of the show, I will follow you back.

Been, it would be a nice way for you to support the show and help me out in my media career, which is, um, flageling. I would say growing. Fledgingly means like a young bird, like just starting. I would say I'm trying to... Jonathan's more of a fledger. I'm more trying to spread my wings and fly. So if you want to follow me at SportsRV, I really would appreciate it. And I will follow you back from between now and 2 p.m. if you follow.

All right. At Sports RV. If you follow me at SportsMT, I'll say thank you. He will not follow you back. There's a chance. My guaranteeing it is a chance. Maybe you've got bikini picks up or something. Matt will follow you back.

But I'm a man of the people. If you listen to this show right now and you want to follow me, I will follow you back. I appreciate it. Little known fact, Ross usually unfollow people within a week. That's a lot. That's a complete falsehood. Okay.

By the way, the new ballpark in Las Vegas will be 33,000 seats. I only unfollow people who unfollow me. Okay. Sorry, what are you talking about? 33,000 for Vegas. Okay. 31,000 for St. Petersburg. And Vegas is going to have a roof, right? Or no? But,

you know, I don't, Put a canopy on it? I think it's a canopy. Don't hold me to it. They're going to put like an easy up canopy? You'll lock that bad boy into place, click it into place. So apparently Bally's was supposed to build a hotel next to it.

And they're like, what are you talking about? We were not going to do that. Well, I thought Bally's, is Bally's different than, did they divest from Cesar's? Because the Bally's became horseshoes. And then horseshoes owned by Cesar's, which would be ultimately owned by.

But Bally's was also owned by Cedars. and then it became the horseshoots, I'm confused. What the hell is going on over there? I know. I'm in the same spot you are. I'm going to be curious because for those who you've gone to Vegas before, it's where the Tropicana used to be. Las Vegas Athletics Stadium will feature a fixed non-retractable dome roof.

Designed to resemble a spherical armadillo. Excuse you. I hate armadillos. I know. You have a big armadil phobia, which is good. Don't touch them, folks. They will give you leprosy. And by the way, we mentioned this yesterday,

Las Vegas is up for grabs. There's different groups trying to figure out what they're going to do about an NBA team. And every one of the groups that wants to bring basketball in the NBA to Vegas is, they're including an arena as part of it. This arena, the one that the Las Vegas Jacks want to build, has a shape of a diamond. Oh, but not like a pyramid. No. Like in Memphis back in the day. Correct.

It'll be a diamond-shaped top. It's supposed to be the most glamorous arena. ever built. I'm confused. Okay. I guess I need to see renderings of this. Think about on a basketball court and a roof. And instead of a roof being flat. So not a cube. It's got, it's diamond shaped. Four on four sides.

Like the jewel? I guess. Or like four corners like a cube. I don't know. I'm confused. But you don't like the name Las Vegas Jacks. I don't like, I don't love it either. Because I think there's some connotation. That's a fact. Jacks. You get your calls ready.

Yeah, you're right. 21s would have been better, but that's not here nor there. All right, 71321, the jacks are folding. Ooh, you got to work on this, Matt. Well, that group's got to win it first. The jacks have gone all in. Folding, all in. Yes.

Bad beat. They're pot committed. The jacks are pot committed on their stars. Bad beat's the best one. Right, don't you think? Yeah. Ooh, I like that one. and the Rockets hand the Jacks a bad beat.

Ah, it's good. It's good. Yep. I like it. It's better than being the Queens, I guess. Well, I mean, they could have named the WMBA team that. They call them the Aces, right? The WMBA team is the Ais.

The Las Vegas Aces? I like that name. Why can't they both be the Aces? That's not going to happen. Well, Aces are greater than Jacks. You can call them a Las Vegas. That's why I don't like it. Because you get a pocket jacks in, In poker, you're like, yeah, it's good, but it's not great.

It's not great. It's like the Burger King of Poker Hands. Hmm. How about that? Okay. Do I get that? It's okay. I'll give you that one.

I'm stealing your Burger King bed. It takes a little better than Burger King, but all right. I like Burkang, but it can't be defeated. Maybe it's a Wendy's. You ever know how much food we talk on this show is because we're typically hungry. Yeah, you all are having lunch and we're trying to entertain you through lunch. We're doing the best we can. Okay.

Now I'm looking at this diamond. So it is like a, it's like a jewel? Yeah. Ah. Right next to Legion Stadium. That looks stupid. Well, one new arena, do you ever go by an arena and go, man, that looks beautiful?

Do you go, no, it's gaudy? Like, into a dome is a hot mess, but it's really cool inside. The Moody Center, Austin's beautiful. I've not been before. Go to the mood, baby. It's pretty. Maybe the Rockets and Spurs can play a game there. Maybe they could.

By the way, the Spurs are going to play now four games outside of San Antonio, which is strange because they just got funding for new downtown arena. They're going to be playing some more international. One international game, and I believe two in Austin and one somewhere else is what they said. So, Hmm. Our, our buddy

Gordy just set out a really funny email to me and I don't know if you got it too about the rockets. And,

um, we're going to talk about it probably at the top of the hour, I think. Okay. It's about how spicy the rockets are

when it comes to their language. Hmm. It's how spicy the rockets are. Mm-hmm. Players? Organization? And fans.

And fans. Okay. Now, whether this has got any credence to it, I, you know, again, these are just people that are looking for free plugs. Okay. But it's, it was a funny email, so I wanted to look at it. So, uh, we'll discuss how the rockets are with their oratory, with their language at the top of the aisle. Oral skills? Oral skills.

How about that? Clean it up, Ross. Here we go. All right. Ross, you are, we've not asked this yet in the show. Are people going to tune out because Team USA is not involved? If you're watching a great match, you're watching a great match. But the casuals are probably not going to spend as much time on it.

Probably not, but the ratings for Mexico, England were huge. I mean, for obvious reasons, you've got a lot of people who are fans of Mexico around here. 42 million viewers in the United States for Belgium versus United States. That's pretty crazy. So that's even more than the NFL divisional round of playoffs, which were at 39 million. So the numbers have been smashing. I don't know if everybody's going to tune out,

and we'll see especially because you have, I mean, today's games at 3 o'clock, you have the other semifinals are tomorrow on Saturday. I imagine Argentina and Switzerland is going to get pretty, pretty good views and I think Norway, England as well. I don't know that everybody's going to necessarily tune out, but obviously the interest is going to be lower with the United States bowing out because of Christian Policic and how terrible he is. I'm just kidding. I was making that joke.

So what's your little question you were thinking about? Question. Well, there's been a debate. A lot of people are talking about this. And it is kind of America versus the world on this on Twitter. Because you have a lot of people saying, I think like Dave Porter North from Barstools like, hey, we, got to get all of our best athletes into soccer. And once we get all of our best athletes into soccer, we're going to dominate the sport. And then there's a lot of pushback from people saying, hey, it's not necessarily true. Like the greatest of all time is a 5'7 Argentinian dude, who obviously is very skilled,

but there is a debate between people who think if we just invest in having our young athletes play this sport, they will dominate. Then there's some pushback from that. And then there's also debate from people who are talking about how to best get our youth involved, where Alexa Lawless is stupidly backing the current system, where a lot of it is pay for play to where you have these travel teams where they have to pay $5,000, $7,000, if not more dollars. You know, Matt, the travel volleyball world.

It can rack up. It can get expensive. It's volleyball, it's basketball, it's baseball. It's basketball. It's soccer too. So where a lot of times it's a, it's basically. basically a capitalistic ecosystem where kids, if the kids can pay to play, they're on the team. It doesn't matter how good they are rather than a merit-based system where the clubs are investing in the youth.

That's what these European clubs do. They go out, they scout players. They pay for them. They pay for them to train. They bring them in their housing. They school them. They bring them into their training grounds. They get like La Macea is this big school that Barcelona has had that a lot of great products have come around.

They'll find people. Barcelona found Leo Messi in Argentina paid for him and he needed hormone treatments. They paid for his hormone treatments and schooling and brought him up through their school and he became one of the greatest players of all time. You don't have that happening. And a lot of people, it's like, oh, well, you just need to add college incentives,

which would help. But a lot of times, by the time you get 18, 19, 20 in the soccer world, you're already turning pro. You're not just like, oh, we need to go ahead and play college. They need to pay college for Texas or A&M or Houston needs a program. It's like by that time, a lot of times it's too late in the sport of soccer. You've already, guys have already been developed and been passed by. So go ahead and phrase the question because I have answers for you.

If America did a better job of investing in their youth, then automatically we would be one of the best countries in soccer. We would be, we would dominate soccer. Okay. not knowing what that definition is, I'll give you a nice simplistic answer. If more kids got more invested in the soccer, like the club programs paying for scholarships and doing that kind of thing to keep the kids in these clubs,

of course the answer would BS. I don't think of it. Because look, we as the United States athletes in general, we're not number one in everything, but we're on number one a lot of things. We invested in gymnastics for 30-plus years. look at where that's turned out. We've invested in swimming.

That's turned out very, very well. So I would say the answer is, is there improvement? Yes. Is there a chance that they could be more competitive in World Cup? Yeah, sure, why not? But we're never going to be on top. We're just going to have to accept, I think most Americans have.

You can't be number one in everything when it comes athleticism. And I think when it comes soccer, because the world, meaning everything outside of our country, has been so ingrained in soccer for hundreds of years, it ain't going to change. It can improve, but it's not going to change. I think 94 was a big improvement. You had launched the MLS, and the MLS for, I mean,

for what it's worse and worth in the product that it is, it's still healthy. I mean, it's been going for 30 plus years at this point, and it's expanding. So there has been some bump, and there will be a bump here. I just don't know how much it's going to be. And you nor I, nor anybody that's,

that loves soccer that's invested in the youth, Has the answer to that question. Yeah, I think it's a disservice to these soccer players who are world class to say, oh, we could do that. It would be super easy. We just got to invest in it. Maybe. I mean, you need the skill. You need the hand-eye coordination.

You need the power. For example, Brandon Aubrey, who was like the best kicker in NFL history, he was a washout soccer player. And he can kick the ball. Everybody's impressed with how he can kick the ball 60, 70 yards. How many American, he's like the best of all time, and he's a soccer washout. out. So to assume that if we just had all our best guys play soccer, that they would be able to

kick the ball as long and as far and as accurately as all these athletes do while keeping the stamina to run up and down the field for 90 minutes and the creativity and the passing ability and all that type of stuff it takes, I am of the mind that I'm not going to be one of those people that's like, oh, we're

dominant. We'd be number one in the world if we just care about it. We don't care. I don't, that's maybe. But I mean, Spain doesn't have a huge population. They're amazing. I mean, Argentina does have a very, very big population, but it depends. I would say it all depends.

I would say there would be improvement, but never to be on the same group as Brazil, Mexico, Spain, England. Mexico is soccer craze. That's the example of everybody. We invest everybody, then we're going to be huge. We're going to be ripping off a bunch of World Cup.

Mexico's hugely involved. Mexico loves soccer. They're soccer crazed. They've never won a World Cup. I honestly Ross I don't think we should be thinking about it that's not one of those things here so we're talking about I'm thinking about it this comes up every four years

when is US soccer going to get on the world stage we think about every four years we think about what can we do to make soccer these are just the general every four year conversation pieces they have improved though you have more players playing in in Europe than ever before the Weston McKinney's the Sergenio Desk the Christian

Polisics the Fuller and Balagoon those guys that you used to have like 12 years ago was all MLS guys and they just weren't good. So the goaltender is sucky, right? Matt Fries is terrible. Sorry, I mean, he's just an MLS guy. It is what it is. Before we go to break, I want to point out that the women's soccer team in the U.S. dominates the entire world. So we can't. Well, we can't just say, oh, it's not going to happen for men. I really do believe that if it is invested because the women already showed us that if we invests, we can dominate.

Yeah, they can do that too. And that's also part of it. See, but the problem is this. You just made a generic statement, Jonathan. You said, if we invest, that investment means what? The same thing. I mean, like, you just brought up gymnastics. You brought up swimming. The whole part of making soccer more involved with the kids,

having these different types of things, making it a bigger deal. Like, AAU is a huge deal. You have, let me tell you something. And I have raised three children in the last 25 years. You were a part of youth sports, I'm assuming. Yeah. My children had the opportunity to choose anything they wanted to choose in terms of extracurricular activities and sports.

And I would assume that most people listen to our voice right now, have children had a chance to do a variety of things. At the end of the day, out of every 10 kids that stays in youth sports, my guess is seven of them choose football, basketball, baseball, and three, choose soccer. So you're just, you're, you have to, the kids have to love it. And if they don't love it because they don't see it and they don't see success and they don't see NFL football and how fun that is on Sundays or college football and Saturdays and the NBA or baseball, they're not going to gravitate towards it. It's just not, for the average human kid, it just doesn't translate in terms of, A, my future, which is ridiculous. Should you be thinking about your future or about that, but making money. But just the overall excitement and fun and passion about it. It doesn't care.

This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 107 on Sports Talk 7.9. We'll go back to the phones in a couple of minutes here. Those of be on hold, please stand by. 713, 212, 5, 790. You know, we do use social platforms. platform and Instagram and Ross I got one new followers so thank you very much for that I know you got more and that's fine but we talk people at sports RV we follow you to follow you back until

the end of the show uh follow me at sports 17 I'll give you a shout out let your brand grow a little bit oh wow you're so funny so Chris Gordy sent us an email sent me one about fandoms okay and we've talked about by far Astros Twitter is the most toxic out there. Rockets Twitter is making them. See, that's your opinion, but I think Rockets is worse. Okay, well, Rockets is making a massive

uptick. So this group called Action Network analyzed 1.6 million comments over the last 12 months across the subredits of all 30 NBA fandoms.

All right. Okay. The goal was to find out which NBA fandoms are the most polite and which fandoms are the most foul-mouthed. Additionally, this analysis also uncovered which NBA fandoms are the most positive and which ones are the most negative as well as the most popular swear words per fandom. Really? This is interesting.

Congratulations, and to no surprise. I'll let you guess. Who is the most... Let me get this right. Most foul-mouthed? Most foul-mouthed NBA fandom in the NBA. NICS. Close.

Philadelphia 76 years. Oh my gosh. I almost said Philly. I swear. 10% of their comments included swear words. Who came in second? Hmm. Utah Jazz.

I'll give you one more guess. Brooklyn Nets. The Houston Rockets. Really? 8.89% of comments including swear words were number two. The Atlanta Hawks, surprisingly. I didn't realize ever even Hawks fans were number three.

Are they sure they're Hawks fans? The most negative NBA fandom in the NBA is most negative? Most negative. Kings. Fell off of his 76ers. Oh, well, 76ers, okay. 31.67% of their comments carried in negative tone. Who is second in this list?

Most of that will go Rockets. Correct. This makes sense. See, I told you. 31.35% of comments carry a negative tone. I told you they're horrible. Third. Losers.

You'll never get the third one. Just like you're going to be a random face. Portland Trailblazers. Orlando Magic. You said, I figured it was a random team when she said. The most positive NBA fandom in the NBA would be. Positive. Lakers.

Utah Jazz. Oh, Utah Jazz. Jazz. Everybody just have a good time, guys. Playy Jazz, man. 52.92% of their comments carried a positive tone. Oh, 52% is number one. Second most positive. This is a surprise.

Second most positive? Boston Celtics. Brooklyn Nets, 51.8%. Third is even a bigger surprise. Even bigger surprise? Memphis Grizzlies. Washington Wizards. Washington Wizards. Positive? All right, guys. Get those ping pong balls. Who is the most polite NBA fandom?

You get one guess. Most polite Utah Jazz. Utah Jazz. Only 5.19% of their comments contain swear words. Washington 2nd and Brooklyn 3rd. Wow. The most foul-mouthed NBA fandoms. I think we brought this up already.

Philadelphia all be a 10%. Yeah, you said Rockets 8.99. Let's take a look here. If there's anything else I can go with here, they took a collect. election between June of 25 and June of 26. They were able to decipher over 1.6 million comments from the 30 subredits of the NBA teams. Wow.

Of the comments, there were 127,060 swear words found. Wow. So, needless to say, y'all are very polite. You crush your team. I know. And you swear a lot. Yeah, I know. Number two.

So the Rockets are number two and something. Toxicity is at an all-time high. And I don't want to blame Kevin Durant. And Philadelphia is one, because Philadelphia is just an angry city as it is. But, I mean, you've got more highlighted on the, on the rockets with the startup of Kevin Durant. You're going to get more social media attention. Social media attention is going to be negative. And I don't know if the, like the Durant fanboys are fighting with the Turkish.

fan boys or what's going on. But it's just it's been a toxic wasteland, Rocket's Twitter. There is a guy on Instagram and I won't mention his name. Maybe you wouldn't want me to. That I don't follow because he says he's a Rockets fan, but he is

also a fan of other teams in Texas. And all he does is swear with horrific racial slurs and misogynistic terms to Rocket players. Okay. It's funny for a while and then it just kind of gets old. Okay. But I but I wonder if he was a part of the subreddit.

That's just the subred. That doesn't even count X. Yeah. Or Instagram for that matter. That's just the old Reddit. Good God. We get on those computers. We don't mind swearing.

We just, we want to tell you how we really feel. You're going to rocket subreddit. No, don't do it. Once you get in, you won't barely get out. 113 on Sports Talk 790. Believe it or not, today is all things about Bonnie Tyler. She passed away yesterday at the age of 75. Jonathan, let's come up with another,

Bonnie Tyler hit when we come back. We've not given her a proper deal on the show today. Brian, apparently, I was talking about the MLS soccer conversation. We'll get to that as well. Astros fall yesterday. And Ross, we've got to figure out what the hell's going on with Spence Yargeti. These are things we've got to decipher in the next 40 minutes. Okay. We're going to try not to swear and be polite. Hmm. Okay. Because we are a polite radio host.

Yes, we are. Most of the time. And you want to be polite about telling folks about how to get their energy out. Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears. Every now and then I get a little bit of the best of all the years have gone by. So much emotion in this song. With my girlfriend in elementary school, I heard this song. You did? Yeah, I cried.

What happened? She said I'll, she stole your binky? Hey, ever to the binky when I was in the fourth grade. I don't know you can't still another man's binky hear it though I mean

desperation she just can't she wants this man in her life so badly she's pouring her soul out I'm gonna listen to Bonnie Town and we're home today

same three songs on repeat John the way thing since he passed I'm not gonna leave my criticism oh since she passed what you're not gonna say anything bad about her? So she's a live you'd rip her.

No, I just, I like, I need a hero, but I think this on sets. It's a slow bill. It is. Is it acquired taste as well? But it's her most popular song. Is it? Yeah. Really? I think so. Okay.

I think there's several commercials that use this song as part of their commercials. But man, I always think it's weird. We'll go to the phones here just one second. I mean, she had three hits in like a four-year span, and then you didn't hear from her again. Okay. Fame is tough. Being a great songwriter and a singer is tough.

Yeah, Matthew, it's not easy, or else everyone would do it. But, you know, we do the same thing, and we cover people that are hot for three or four-year stretches. Yeah. Morgan Innsberg was in home runs left away. Or spent there in May. It's cold in June. Too soon. Too soon.

It's true. Let's see. It's a heartache was a number three. three hit. Yep. That was her first one late 70s. Ooh, it took her a while. Total eclipse, number one hit. Yep. Great. That was when MTV was actually

putting videos out. Holding out for a hero. Is that what that song is? I need a hero? Yeah, holding out for a hero. Yeah, that's the one we played earlier. Okay, that was only a number 34. And what else? Is that it for her, right? That's it for top 40. That's why you appreciate guys like Barry Manil churn it out hit after hit after hit after hit. Did you see that video of him

going viral? He's forgetting all the words to his to his songs? Yes. But you know... And somebody said he looks like a Chucky Cheese animatronic robot and they were right. It's time to hang him up, Barry. It is. He's on his farewell tour, which is going on for like a fifth straight year.

I mean, is he even going to know? Just tell him it's canceled. By the way, Elton John, remember a couple years ago? Farewell tour? Yeah, you shilled out a bunch of cash for that. I did. It was great. I was glad I did it. He's going to have two performances of Mexico City. Oh, really? Is South of the U.S. Deca?

Yes. Damn, that's like 100 G, 100 K people. They just can't turn it down, Ross. Well, duh. Where's the thing? Why would you? Why would you turn it down? Do you think you could ever replicate the feeling and the rush of dopamine

and every kind of good chemical you have in your brain from being in the middle of a stage in front of 100,000 screaming people? Who loves you? Who love you? They adore you. they're singing every word of these songs that you wrote that came out. Well, he didn't write all those. But you know what I'm saying?

That you sing, that you put your blood, sweat and tears into. Paul McCartney is complete result of what you're saying. And how could you ever replicate that rush? So I get it. It's like, and I just don't get it. I get it. No, no. That's why I would say to anybody that's been a successful performer don't ever have a final farewell tour.

Get your line to us. If concert halls or stadiums or arena, I mean, Paul McCartney is 80. He cannot sing half of his songs anymore. I have proof of this. I've been to these things. He can't sing anymore. As long as people pay to go, why wouldn't he keep doing it? I know, by the way, the wedding of the century,

not century, but the wedding of the whatever you want to call it. Kind of wedding the century. Kind of. Guess who was the lead singer? Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney was there? Yeah. He's saying, I saw her standing there.

No, no, no, no, no. Don't sing the young stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not right. He's saying, I want to hold your hand. Oh, okay, good. I thought he was just 17, if you know what I mean. Yeah. I'm going to pass on that.

He had not performed that song publicly in 60 years. Really? It's kind of, yeah. It's okay. It's early beetle man in which I'm not a fan of. It's okay. Nah, it's below average. You get me like 65 of the Beatles.

Oh, yeah, but they haven't cut a nice check. Getting to sing that one. And who else sang? Stevie Nick sang there too, but nobody has any evidence of what you're saying. Really? So everybody's been kind of quiet about that. They had hologram meatloaf, I believe, as well. Brian and Pearland on 790 Brian how are you?

Hey good afternoon guys hey real quick you were talking about the age equation earlier I have heard that as well so the half your age plus seven that is a legit Thank you I've never heard that for anybody under 50 No I'm under 50 Thank you thank you thank you by one presidential cycle but I am under 50 But real quick you know I used to work in an MLS And I think part of it is, is I'm an older Gen X. I was born in 1980.

So me growing up, I didn't have access to soccer and all of that as kids do today. And I think we get one more generation down the road. It will start to expand. After this season, MLS will actually flip their calendar, which I think is a smart move, to a global soccer calendar. So they're going to go August to about late April, early May. Right now they're running on a baseball. schedule. So your transfer windows are

different from when MLS can bring teams in. But I think what kills MLS and there are major NFL owners that are in it, or they're blank. The Hunt family started MLS. They're still in it. Jimmy Haslam, Bob Kraft. So there's big money in there, but I think

where MLS hurts themselves, one is they control the TV deal through Apple TV. So unless you have Apple TV, you can't see your local team playing there. You can't see these larger stars without going to the stadium and doing all that. Maybe that's by design,

but it's not on ESPN. It's not on Fox or Fox Sports 1 for a majority of the games. There are separate ones, but also it's a single entity. So Matt, I'm not sure if you're aware, but MLS has what's called a designated player. So you can pay up to three

players whatever you want, but only X amount pounds towards the salary cap. So Miami can bring in Leo Messi, pay him $10 million a year, but maybe only a million of that goes towards the MLS salary cap, therefore being able to bring on some of these larger stars. Until they get rid of that and get more investment in MLS,

it will never fully grow where it is. And I think maybe then that's where it has. But also in college, there is only one college in the entire state of Texas that has D1 soccer as an NCAA program. Do you know what it is? Is it SMU? Yeah, SMU. SMU.

That is it. A&M, Texas, Baylor, TCU. So we're sending all these kids off to do it, and they're not dumping enough resources into their academy programs, especially here in town, like they should be, and that's eventually where you're going to pull more of these kids up. So I'm never going to say it's going to be a big four sport, a big five sport. Never going to say that.

I've been there. I've worked there. I understand the market. But I think you can get more competitive when you're willing to put, serious dollars behind it and MLS has to get rid of we own the entire right you've been around for 30 years now I was smart doing that starting off but you've been around for 30 years now get rid of the salary cap let team spend and you can get some of these larger guys going over here maybe not necessarily in the final three years of their career but maybe the final back half of their

career and get a little more longevity out of them so that's just kind of what I wanted to add to what Ross was talking about earlier. And hopefully that kind of helps in terms of a U.S. perspective on it. Thanks for Brian for the phone call. It's, to me, it starts at the core. It's when you're 11 years old, what 11-year-olds want to do? 11-year-olds do play soccer. They do play soccer.

But at that point, 11-12, when it's time for mom to shell out the money to play in the AU, you can't do them all. And you have to pick and choose. And the choice is, you really have got five things you can choose. from you can be competitive swimmer you can play golf and can be competitive and pay for golf lessons or you can do the aAU routes of volleyball tennis too for for sure but youth football even though it's taken a massive decline in the last 20 years because of all the injuries still insanely popular the aAU circuit for basketball is incredibly popular and the youth baseball amount of youth baseball being played in this country because it is a warm of sports that's outside and we played all over the summertime and fall is insanely popular It's just going to take the pre-teens to say,

help me out of this, Ross. I'm 6-4-2-40. I don't want to be a linebacker. I want to be a soccer player instead. Yeah, but 6-4-240. I mean, then you're at that point, you're playing centerback. That's the thing, too,

is everyone assumes it's like, oh, we're going to put LeBron James and goal and Russell Westbrook on the wing and it would be great. Like, like I said, I mean, Leo Messi is the greatest ever. He's 5-7. You also need the one in the billion skills or one in them, however,

several million of you have to have the speed, the stamina, the power to kick the ball, and then as accurately as is, it's just not that easy. And we're also in a world in an American culture that we like scoring. And soccer just doesn't score as much as a basketball game or baseball game or a football game does. I guess. By the way, the half your age plus seven dating rule goes back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I had never heard it. You're the only person I've ever heard mention it.

You bring it up a lot. I mean, because I've, I mean, that's good. I'm good. I'll leave it there about athletes. Exactly. By the way, my friend Bill sent me a note, HCU has a Division I soccer team. Okay, there you go.

I wanted to say, and I didn't want to correct Brian, but I thought there were like four that played Division One soccer. It's very limited. But I know that SMU does, and now I know that HCU does. It's just fewer and far between, though. That's the point. And also... SMU, Incarnate Word, U.T. Rio Grande Valley and Houston Christian.

So I was right. There are four. There are four the do. Okay, but I mean... Did he say major conference? No. He just said four in Texas. Or he won one in Texas. Okay. Well, there's only one major conference, and that would be SMU. So...

And who they compete in the ACC. And some of those schools don't play in their... Like, for instance, they move conferences. Where does... Incarnate World are what conference they play in? The plays in the SEC, it says. I mean, that could be a possibility because there's not soccer teams in the South. OVC, Ohio Valley.

Yeah. All three of them play in the Ohio. The Incarnate Word, U.T. Rio Grande Valley and Houston Christian all play in the Ohio Valley. Yeah, because they took similar schools and they say, all who's going to play with. Deep in the Ohio Valley. You ever know in Ohio Valley? Yeah. I've been to Houston Christian campus.

I've been in the Ohio Valley, I guess. Yes, you have in some respects. the Rio Grande Valley and they play in the Ohio Valley? That's confusing to people. No wonder our American geography is such a mess. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We've got to fix Spencer Arrogati, Ross.

How are we going to do that? We'll discuss that next at 132 on 790. We've had opportunities over the last few years, ladies and gentlemen, to talk to Spencer Arrogati in always a good conversation. Matter of fact, we kind of, didn't you invite him to our fantasy league football league one year or something like that, Rossi? Was that the right play? He said he would join, but then he said he was also really good, and he was talking about all these deep cut third running backs.

I was like, he kind of knows ball. Yeah, we don't need that. We weren't going to bump him. We need more Matt Thomas. We need more Matt Thomas's and Adam Clantons. I finished second. Did I not? How many times you won the league?

Since 2011? But I've cashed like four or five times in the last eight years. Since 2010, I think, actually. I am the Houston Texans. I never get to the – Actually, that's not true. I get to the championship, I just lose. You're the Houston Cougars.

I'm sorry. Hell out of my hour. Get out the hell out of you. Yeah, he hasn't made that many championship games. I mean, I won four out of six. I had a pretty good run. My team was trash last year. Two title championship games in the last five years.

Jamar Chase scored me one year. I didn't win it for over 10 years, but then I won four out of six. Went on a pretty good run. Okay. I don't know how this. I'm like the Kansas City Chiefs. No, they won early two Super Bowls. They won like Super Bowl three or something, right?

You want to call me the Buffalo Bills. I'll accept that. No, Houston Cuckers. You make the final four. I'm in the final two. I know. Twice. Then you lose.

Then you drop the ball. All right. Back to focus. God, I'm trying to focus here. Who won it all this year? I don't even remember. Oh, is it Robert Reese, our sales staff? Yeah.

He's the kind of guy like, I beat all of our sports guys. They must know what the hell they're talking about. Look, I'm with you. It's like, yeah, shut your bum ass up. But the last two years, he's had like the most stacked teams. He also picks eight saints. I don't know why that is. It's working for him.

It is working for him. So Arrogati yesterday doesn't give you five, which is, it's funny. Joe, Spada, all he asks his starters for these days is five, and he can't get him five. It'd be nice. Cool. It'd be fun. But you don't go out there and get shelled and walk six batters. Yeah.

I know. Get all choked up about it. I see that. It should have been seven. I can't remember which batter was of the National. Should have a challenge. I mean, to show you how good he was in April and May, he goes four, gives up eight earn runs, six walks, and his earning, by the way, in four innings, he throws 94 pitches. I mean, that's like arm falloff mode.

And his ERA is still four and five zero, which means he had a great start of the season. Yeah, but as I said, he was towing the line. He was allowing a lot of base runners. Listen to these walks and these starts. I'm going to start with April and May. Four walks. Four walks. One walk, very good.

Five walks. Three, four, four. He was walking everybody and he was getting away with it. And eventually, that has come to a halt. So what is he? Do we want to start making some grandiose? He's a fourth guy. Third or hopefully third.

I think the biggest thing for me is his lack of control. High strikeouts, high walks. Yeah. That bothers me. And I don't know when that's going to. change because he throws with so much spin. A lot of times guys who have high spin, Lance McCuller's

Jr. says hello. It's hard for them to locate and dot the pitches when it's spinning so much that maybe even they don't know where it's going. So regardless of what this team does at the end of this year, I think when you know, the next

off season when there is a real offseason because the league's going to turn its lights off December 1st. where do you pencil arrogating? I mean, do you say, okay, Spencer Irrigati, you are going to go to arbitration eventually

and you're going to ask for a lot of money and you're going to be a fourth or fifth starter? Or does he turn it around and become a guy that has better control that still has the high strikeouts? I don't know. He's got options. I'm not suggesting a minor league strike. I mean, the Astros, frankly,

the shuttle bus between Dyken Park and Sugar Land is incredible this year. It's confusing. I don't know what's going on. Mike Burroughs going down, Kaiway Tong going down. Now you're getting back, of course, McCullers and Blanco and Javier is back.

Right. It's, you know what it is? It's, and you brought this up, and I wish Hunter would kind of act like the lead act, act of those, it's,

it's Glad of Sine the Pips. It's, uh, Jackson 5. It's Natalie Merchant, the 10,000 maniacs. It's, um,

it's Teddy Pindergreens. and Marvin, Harold Melvin in the Blue Notes? Okay. It's Donnie Asman and the rest of the Asmonds you never heard of? We heard of Marie. Give me one more. Larry? No, Larry Osmond.

Frederick? Nope. Dante. My point, exactly. Dante Osmond was pretty good. So here's what we need to do. We need Hunter Brown to act like Michael. Okay.

And we got to live with Tito and Germain. You know, we also need. We need a lot. We need it. Janet. At least. We're getting a bunch of Latoias. It's not good. And Jermaine had one hit, right? Yeah. So we need more of that. So Peter Lambert's Germain right now? Hmm. Hunter Brown's not even though. Michael Jackson. He's my guy, his hair on fire. His last start. Was he filming a Pepsi commercial? What's going on with that? I don't know.

If we took this comp into the Astro's Clubhouse, they'd be like, what the hell are you? Who's got Vitelego? I don't know. We'll figure it out. Let's help him back. Is there somebody, help me out, Jonathan. New Edition? I couldn't locate my fastball. Okay. Was Bobby Brown part of New Edition? I can't do Michael Jackson without inevitably going into Mike Tyson. Yeah.

My back is broken. Who else spinal? Oh, how about Justin Timberlake? Wasn't he part of a boy group? Yeah, in sync. Who's Joey Fatone? None of them were any good. there is none of the radio Fitzpatrick or Kirkpatrick none of the radio show the marketplace

is going to give you Astros pitching to comp bands of boy bands of the last 30 years he is Justin Timberlake of in sync that's a good one man I'm proud of you thank you finally got one today only took me three hours and 43 minutes

all right let's play believe I have the wire you're like Argentina in the 93rd minute great comeback yeah and you just sat there because you were what's the country that lost

Egypt you were just Egypt just sitting there watching it happen Yeah. All right. Believe it or not today is all things about Bonnie Tyler. Let's put the last Bonnie Tyler hit. She has three.

We only play two of them. We might as well play it coming back. 713-212-5-79. If you want to play, believe it or not, 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-night. We're playing for Motley Crew tickets. And we'll do that next here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

It's a hard. Nothing but a heart. This is the roughest one. It's you when it's two. God, Stewart. It's like she's got a sore throat singing this song. Clear your throat, Bonnie. This is her youngest hit.

This is right after the surgery. I believe she was, this is under the knife. Oh, God, Ross. She just passed. God. See, he is alive, wouldn't it? Yeah, thank you, Jonathan. You're the nicest of the three of us.

There's no doubt about that. May she rest. You can make fun of me when I'm dead. Who cares? I'll be dead. Can I make funny when you're alive? Yeah, you do that anyway. Who cares?

That's what I love. All right. I'm sorry. She sounds like you've got a chicken bone in her throat. It's not my fault. Okay. On the show tomorrow. Oh, my God.

Erase that from the show. Brian McTagger with us tomorrow at 11 o'clock. I really threw you off. We're going to wake the strippers up. We're going to say, I'm sorry. You've got a whole list of, you've got two weeks of I'm sorry. You're waking up strippers. And then also tomorrow, the grossest non-flora story, perhaps in the history of non-flora stories, will be read by Ross tomorrow at 1.30.

I don't think I'm underselling it, R. Do you think? I don't know. Jonathan, what do you think? It's definitely the grossest one. Yeah, it's definitely the grossest one. So parental guidance on tomorrow's edition of non-flora stories. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it, believe it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is All Things About Bonnie Tyler. I read your statement about Bonnie. Statement completely utterly accurate.

You'll say this. Believe it. Give the statement to erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you'll say this. Not. Two believe or not in a row. Get you tickets to see. Motley Cruz, September the 11th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.

Let's go to Robert on 798, 153. Robert, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Robert, Bonnie Totter was discovered in a teen talent competition as part of a female vocal group called Pink Velvet. Velvet. Believe it or not? That is correct. Good makeup, Ross.

on that one. Number two for the win. Bonnie Tyler's given name is Gainor Hopkins. Bonnie Totter was just a stage name chosen by her manager. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yes. Congratulations. Blake on 790. Blake, you ready to play? Believe it or not?

Believe it. Bonnie Tyler is Welsh and in 2022 she was given the prestigious title of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. You have three major hits like that. Anthony on 790, Anthony, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show.

All right, he doesn't have one. Let's go to Edward. Edward, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. Girls, girl, girls, believe it or not. Bonnie Tatter was an avid animal rights activist and lived a vegan lifestyle. Believe it or not? Believe it. No chance.

She loved her. meet. Thanks for playing. Okay, if you love beef. Mike and Sugarland on 790, Mike, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Bonnie Tyler appeared as herself in the 1982 film, some kind of hero. Believe it or not? Believe it?

No, we didn't even sell it very hard. Oh, well. Chad on 790, Chad, your favorite part of today's 10 to 2. show. Erigetti talk. Bonnie Tyler's raspy voice was due to not properly healing from vocal cord surgery in 1976. Believe it or not?

Not. Believe it. We literally brought that up an hour ago. Oh, well. Jacob on 790. Jacob, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Throughout her career, Bonnie Tyler had only three songs.

reached the top 40 of the U.S. Billboard singles chart. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yeah, we brought that up 30 minutes ago. Statement number two for the win. Bonnie Tyler's hero was fellow Welsh native Van Morrison and the two recorded a duet album called together in 2003. Believe it or not?

Not. That's right, because Van is Irish and Rothman ended up. All right, that's it. More Bonnie Tyler memories coming up with Wex. That's how he was able to serenade his beautiful. for Brian, who've known for many, many years and love the entire Wexler family, so he'll give you a few renditions of Bonnie Tyler songs. Have a great rest of your day.

Tomorrow again, Brian McTaggart on the radio program, we have I'm Sauris, and we have the most disturbing non-Flority story ever in the history of non-floor stories, courtesy of Ross. No Astros game. We've got a World Cup coming up in a few minutes, but right now you're not going to worry about the World Cup. You're going to worry about the A team with a single A. His name is Adam Wexler.

He's next on 790.