The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Lose to Yankees, Framber Crosses Up Salazar, Texans Announce Captains

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Astros Lose to Yankees, Framber Crosses Up Salazar, Texans Announce Captains

I didn't think I was going to go to a Joe Jackson song in the early 80s, but it is what it is. This is Michael Jackson's dad? No. Oh. This is a jam. This is a very 80s. This is a sixth grade Matt Thomas. Okay.

Turn it up. It's fine. Somebody says stepped out. Stepped out of the box once they thought they were going to butt. No, I'm talking about step off the mound. Stepped off the mound. That didn't happen. That didn't happen.

either. Yeah, we're going to By the way, Frankie, our producer, crushing the 10 o'clock open, yeah. Yeah, he's got a nice quarter zip on. Yeah. On September, I mean, it's cold in there. Oh, he's getting some action tonight. I don't know where he's going, but he's going to get some loving. It looks like he, I mean, maybe if he's going to

a lodge in Aspen. Oh, no, there's no question. He should have a turn-like sweater on his neck. It's looked like he's going to have a hot toddy at the cabin. My name is Frankie. Oh, I'm Frankie as Westmore. I'm sorry. We're not supposed to give his last name out? Yeah, we can say. Wait, wait, wait, I look at sports Talk 790.

I mean, doesn't he sound very stately? Hi, are you a Francis or a Franklin? Frank, just Frank. Yeah, well, you're Frankie for us. Your birth certificate says Frank? That's right. That's very uninventive of your parents. But anyways, my first hotel road trip of the year going to Birmingham.

Guess what I'm using is an alias. Oh, Franklin? Frankie Big Mowland. Westmoreland. Whatever, same difference. Oh, I'm Franklin, Westmoreland. Hi. So I've had a yes, I've had the MLBN network.

Yes, of the northern Westmorelands? I've had the MLB. Network on for one minute. And by the way, Lauren, you're looking so good. So good. Oh, yeah. I just got the pony going. And they've only played the Framber Valazar, Sazar, Sazar, Sazar, Sallazar, five times. This is big time national news. Like every, everybody. Everybody. Everywhere. Yeah. Except Quile Leonard's like, can we, can we play more of that? Oh, yeah. That too, by the way. That is true. What a show we got for you today. Steve Balmer went full SEC.

Yes, he did. He's like, I got your NIL right here. That's a different issue. All right. That's Ross. I'm Matt. Frankie Westmoreland. Franklin at Westmoreland.

Frankie at Westmoreland's executive producer video show today. We're going to talk about an astros ass kicking by the New York Yankees. Yeah, okay. Let's start with the good news, Matt. What is it? Oh, I got the great news. Let's go race. Let's go race.

Let's go raise. You are 22 and 28 in your last 50 games. 22, 28, yeah. And you're still three games up in first. You've only lost four games off your season high and seven game lead. That's the good news. Yeah, it's not good news. It's fantastic news.

But then there's some not so great news. Well, first of all, 22 and 28 is not great. 22 and 28 isn't great. You have one for seven with runners in scoring position. The wrist woes came back. You only scored one run. It appears that Framber Valdez perhaps briefly lost his mind in the game and everybody got the bunting bug.

That's all the bad news. So I hate to give credit to a caller like Aggie Doug, but I listen to him on the Sean Salisbury Show calling him this morning. He actually didn't have a terrible analogy, and it's something I should have thought of. Okay. He says, the Astros have 10 miles left to go on their trip. There's only three miles left in the gas tank.

And you are turning off your air conditioning, you're rolling the windows down. You are praying at that meter is not right when it says three miles left in tank. Oh, I like that. And they got the parachute out? Wait, it's that bad? No, you don't want the parachute. Why do you want to parachute a car?

No, you want to push. Yeah, yeah. When's the last time you pushed a car? Got to be high school, maybe? Okay. I want to say in my life, and I've been driving for, well, let's see, I'm 53, 16, 37 years. I think I've run out of gas twice, maybe. Well, the last time I ran out of gas was on the way to Big City.

Kingswood. One time... I was broadcasting and you were waiting for me and you were not happy with me. Oh, no, but I'm happy, generally with you in general. Thank you. One time Cameron was in... My oldest was in college. We were headed to Lubbock and we were driving there and we were down about five miles.

And we're out in West Texas. I think we're between Abilene and Lubbock. And we were yelling at each other and like, you... It was... It was not father-son conversation. It was F-U-F-U-Back. And I was like, son, it was just the heat of the moment. it was 95 degrees it's august we're trying to move you back to lubbock and we got there thankfully

but that was that was pretty scary okay well as the astros are they going to make it like matt thomas and his son we made it looks like we you know we did looks like you made it oh we're playing barry manelow and the astros on the astros in the aster's from the division oh yeah looks like we have to keep what the astros are the american league west champs we knew they would always be there not because they're playing so good it's because the Mariners suck oh yeah Matt, we're supposed to keep listening

I'm sorry I'm sorry I was my totally good God what I shut my own bum ass up on that Turn his microphone off Alright let's break down the Astros So Framberg gave up a two run home run in the second inning Yes and he was cranky then Then he gave up a chop double negative 28 degrees I don't know if I've ever seen a chop

When you tweeted that I'm like A chop double I don't even know what that means but it means must be something bad Yeah. It was a chopper double. I'm hearing. No, it's fine. I'm going to good. Are you hearing anything? I'm good. Yeah, I hear. It's fine. I hear a little hiss, but that's it.

Okay. Or I'm having a stroke. Something's in my ears. It sounds like a ringing in my ears. That's not good. Okay. Well, that's when you get the medically clear for one. All right. All right. Anyways, so he gives up the chop double. And then honestly, I'm sure there are some people like, oh, he's about to melt down. Then he strikes out the next two guys. He's good. Then he gets the bases loaded. There's two mound visits. He strikes out. He strikes out. Giancarlo Stanton. Lefty's coming up.

I'm like, oh, baby. Now, he gave up one home run to a lefty earlier. He did, but it was only two all year. So, like, it ain't going to happen again. He's getting out of this. I literally was, like, typing a tweet, like, good job. Fraber getting out. And then, Cesar Salazar is like, hey, step off the mound.

Step off the mound. I mean, pronounced step off the mound. It wasn't like a subtle, what is he saying to me? He's like, no, get off the mound. And then he throws a sinker. Unfortunately, it goes middle, middle. I'm sure that's not. what he was looking to do.

And Trent Grisham I hit a ball that was out in five parks. One of them was Minutemade. I'm sorry. I hadn't done that while either. I hadn't done that a while. Dyken. One of them was Dyken.

By the way, I don't think we as a city that has a very cheapy ballpark should be talking about those things anymore. We should just not even bring it up. All right. I mean, I mean,

you know what? I do like actually, but it's just every single one of the home runs. It just never helped. It just makes you feel. feel bad. Yeah, it does. It's like if you were anywhere else now, honestly, if it was at Yankee Stadium,

it, left field's a little more of a poke than right. Right field's a joke. Right. It was absolutely a little league. Yeah. But it doesn't matter. It went out. And it's just, and then that's where, and then two pitches later. Two pitches later.

Framer Valdez hits Cesar Salazar in the gut. It looked like a cross-up. But also, when you look at the, you look at the video, it doesn't look like Framber was very remorseful. It turned around. It doesn't look like it was some big accident on his part and says our Salazar did not look happy. Now, I did

read Channel Rome's article this morning. Okay. And it gave a little context to it. Apparently, Framber has been told through his sports psychologist that when the blank hits the fan, step off the mound, walk back, turn around, gain your composure

off the rubber. Yeah. And that's what I think now, whether he was looking to get his composure or whether he was just pissed off, whatever the case may be, he did what exactly what the sports psychologist would tell him to do is step off the mound, turn around, walk backwards. Right after the pitch, right after you hit your catcher in the stomach? Well, here's the question.

Here's the question 11 minutes past 10 o'clock. Now the Astros, Joe spotted, did meet with the two gentlemen. The contents of the context of that conversation is between them, and I'm okay with that. It is what it is. I mean, sometimes you have internal issues in your office and you know what the whole world to know. get that. But we are a sports radio show. We are a team that has a vested interest in that team. We talk more Astros than anybody else. We have more Astro fans than anybody else in the marketplace.

And we're very happy for that. Do you believe what Salazar said? Do you believe what Fromber said through the interpreter? I mean, or was this a 10 minutes after the game, what they call a cooling off period? they got to each other and said, hey, you guys may hate each other, we know what y'all did, we're going to give you a nice storyline and you're going to follow it to a T just so there isn't any more of a kerfuffle

than there was, obviously, during the game yesterday. Well, they didn't get their story straight. Explain. Fromber says, I threw the wrong pitch, Cesar Salazar says, I called the wrong pitch. So which, it can't be both. No.

So the reality is this. there very well could have been miscommunication on two different levels. Okay. And miscommunication happens. But the guy, if that's Hunter Brown, if that's Luis Garcia, hell, if that's even Lance McCuller Jr.,

we're buying that completely. Correct. Yes, you don't have the same, you don't give the same grace to somebody who you've seen a track record. The reality is, the reality is, no one's giving the benefit of the doubt to Framber Valdez. And so if it indeed is the accurate situation, everybody from Salazar to Framber to Joe, to Dana,

who was just on with Sean, and we're going to play some of that once it gets cut up. I don't think anybody here to cut it up, but we'll obviously try. It's our efforts. What? Go ahead. Framber doesn't have the benefit of the doubt. I would say the general public doesn't believe a word it. I don't think, frankly, anybody in America believes him.

I don't even want to put a poll up. I mean, I thought about it and I'm like, I don't need that hate. I don't need a running tab of, come on now. Now, you as a radio show listener and a caller to the show, you're welcome and welcome to. We can have an official poll with our listening audience that way at 713-212-5-790. The sportsman in me, which is very, like, I'm 1% sportsman, right? But the sporting guy me says, competitive game, highly charged the Yankees, you're trying to gain a game on the Mariners.

The intensity of the moment says, all right, things can get mixed up. You can be flustered. It's not, it's flustered. He gets flustered. He gets flustered. Yeah, he's, he's just not somebody that, you know, he's, uh, the eggs crack rather easily. Mm-hmm.

That's just, he's gotten better at it. But the last couple times, I mean, the Detroit outing, first inning was a complete blow up and then this was, I mean, here's the reality. Not good. You, the, what's the fable that we don't give the benefit of the doubt to? The boy who cried wolf.

We don't, we don't give the credit to the, we don't give the benefit of the doubt of the boy. What about, we give golden locks? She's chilling. Okay, Golden Locks is okay.

She might have got mauled at the end of the, that's true, because the porridge was just right. Yeah. Who else we don't get the benefit to in life? I don't know. I feel like there's another one besides. Are you saying you're a doubting, Thomas?

I'm Matt Thomas. I've been an astro fan since 1979. I like saying 1900 and 79. You know the kids say that now. It sounds very OG-like. Oh, you were born in the 1900s. Okay. I've been a fan since 1979. I'm a doubting, Thomas.

Hi, Matt. Hi. I'm a doubting Ross. Hi, Ross. Well, we'll discuss. And you know what? There are two people in this world that know the truth. That is correct.

And you and I are not to do. Well, maybe a third who asked in that meeting. But even, yeah, that's true. That's true. And maybe the guys in the, maybe Carlos Craneus. I mean, because Carlos is always up on that bump all the time talking to his pictures all the time. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-790.

1016 is a Matt Thomas show, Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. 1021 Sports Talk 790. Look, this is difficult because we, When Fromber is excellent, he, first of all, I don't know why this is. And maybe I'm just, I got a screw loose. I think, people grew up when I was watching baseball. I love, you know, everybody loves a 99-mile-hour fastball, right?

It's, it's sexy. It's, man, that guy's got a powerful arm. And I always appreciated Nolan for that. But for me, when I was growing up watching my favorite all-time pitcher, Nolan Ryan, his 12-6 curveball was as filthy as it got. I love the knuckleball pitcher. I love with the Nicos pitched. I loved when Tim Wakefield pitched.

I loved when Steve Sparks. I mean, I was just a big, those are my favorite pitches. Watching Frommber with that curveball when guys are diving for it and barely making soft contact and inducing all the ground balls, it's like he's a, he's like a surgeon cutting up a team. He doesn't have that brood. I'm going to just throw as fast as I can to get you. Like, for instance, clothes just have to have that. Josh Hater has that. there have been

who other guys that are just Billy Wagner was a guy like that for sure Mariana Rivera wasn't that's why he was so good because he used his his yeah earlier in his career though he was touching close to 100 but he was

for most of his career was 92 93 miles and of course don't forget 100 miles jazz man oh I can forget about that so I do take pleasure in watching Frumber when he carves lineups up but when he he loses his mind, whether it's the facial expressions or the performance, it legitimately

pisses me off. That's okay. But I don't get that way when a certain other, like, when Lance struggles, I'm indifferent to it largely. I mean, I want to be successful, but I don't like, like, oh God, Lance, when, you know, if Hunter gets rocked occasionally, which it happens everybody, I don't get that way. If a save is blown, like Brian and Bray, you, or blew the save that her day, or lost the game when he had a lot of those hits. I mean, I was like, I was upset, but I wasn't like, I was like, oh, I can't sleep. Fromber makes me mad. And why is that?

I don't know. That's something you can get to with your therapist, but I'm not going to my therapist. Matt, what's troubling you today? You know, Fraubber was a terrible lesson. She's like, get out of my office. He couldn't get hits. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, after that strike, which by the way, was piped down the middle,

and Fopi just looked at, he got the ground out. got out of the inning. So it I do think I have defended Frumber to where as you said, there are guys if you put Frumber Valdez's head on Lance McCuller's Jr.'s Everybody would be like, oh my God,

this is the hugest blow up, he's lost his mind. It's like, well, pitching is hard and sometimes guys give up runs. And it kind of doesn't matter, making the distinction, but is he blowing up or is he giving runs? It doesn't matter. They all count on the scoreboard the same. Correct. So it's just kind of like us discussing about the pitcher

and whether or not to sign him long term, which their Astros aren't going to do anyway. So it kind of doesn't matter. But yeah, how much of that was a blow-up and how much it was that was, dude got a hold of one, middle-middle, and poked it into left field. I don't know.

And it doesn't matter. They won the game 7-1. But when you cross up a pitcher and when a guy is waving you off, and to me, when he's blowing up, is he's yanking pitches in the dirt, and he just kind of looks lost out there, and it just feels like something's bubbling that something's bad going to happen.

And it hadn't been happening that often the last couple years. Really, since last year against the Angels, when he gave up those three home runs in one inning, like that was a blow-up. And then the rest of the year he was nailed for the most part. I mean, he has had stretches twice in his career. And his career of six years, basically, right? He's been good for six years.

He's been good for six years. There have been two different stretches where he's given you, double-digit quality starts consecutively. That is so hard for a starting pitcher to do that. And that's the thing too is I try to, when people call him, oh, he's mentally weak out there. If you are going to 18 quality starts this year, you got to have some mental fortitude. You got to. It's hard.

Hard to be a good starting pitcher for that many innings, that many consecutive times out. Yeah. So, yes, he can be more prone to others than meltdown. But again, like he'd been really good at it, but two of the last three times he went out. in my eyes, he he melted down. And it just makes you wonder going forward, how will he be able to settle in? Now the last time he melted down was against Detroit. And then the next time he went out, he threw seven shutout against the Rockies.

He looked like razor sharp from Bervaldes. So he can bounce back. Yes. He has done it. But it's the implosions, maybe that's too strong of a term. But the lapses that he has on the mound, whether it's pit selection, whether it's his defense, whether it's criticizing an outfield or whether it is just having a bad day, they just seem to just sting a little bit more than a particular pitcher just having an off night

because that's going to happen too. Yeah, I get it. If you go late yesterday, he walked Paul Goldschmidt, which, I mean, happens. It was on six pitches. And the last pitch that he got, it should have been a strike. He walked him on a strike. Then Bellinger hits a 60-mile-an-hour single. I mean, he just lost a single.

that happens. Judge Lace is one and that's what Aaron Judge can do. Then you're like, uh-oh, what's going to happen? They do a mountain visit. He strikes out John Carlos Stanton. It looks like he's settling in and then the reality is this. He doesn't... The grandiose picture

is he's not a number two guy. Number two guys don't have these unsettling type moments. Yeah, but I mean, when you add it all up, well, right now his ERA is 340. But that's the worst it's been in a couple years. But he's still been a good plus pitcher for six years. Oh, no, the positives are significantly outweighing the negatives.

Just the negatives just, again, they hit you harder. And you know what some people are talking about? And it's a valid question. And we'll see, because it's only September right now, did he cost himself some money last night? Well, here's a really... And if so, how much? Here's a really dumb hot take.

You're ready for this one? Yeah. You know, when you're a free agent, the team has a chance to, offer, what they call a qualifying offer. It's a one-year deal for a certain amount of money. Usually around 20 million-ish these years. It depends on who the position and whatnot. If you offer somebody a qualifying offer and they reject it to go play somewhere else,

you do get a compensatory draft pick out of it. If you don't offer it and the guy goes somewhere, you get nothing. If the Astros offer him a qualifying offer and he accepts it, does that mean that he doesn't think the market's good for him? he would come back and pitch it. There's no way. There's no way. I'm just throwing that out there. I would be shocked and honestly, if he accepted the qualifying offer, that's good. I would take one year of Framber for 20 million or whatever it's going to be.

But maybe the organization doesn't want to. Maybe the organization's like... No, they'll do it. I mean, I'm 99.9% sure they would. I mean, it's been very rare that a pitcher of his elite status has not been offered a qualifying offer, even if things have gone a little south. Good thing we didn't put anything on our Fromber bet. It was a gentleman's bet. because we did five years, I think. After last night, I'm feeling like you're a minus 250. All right. Rod and Baytown's been holding on.

We'll get to you. If you want to follow up Rod, 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Brian Bogussevik joins us in one half hour here on Sports Talk 790. All right, we're setting up a pretty busy show for you today because there's just a lot of things going on. And we will obviously get more into the football side of things tomorrow. Texans are on the practice field today for the. the first time getting ready for Sunday's game with the Rams.

But look, the local nine is just, it's carrying the headline. I mean, again, go put on SportsCenter, go to your social media. Everybody in their mother is showing the videos of the cross-up. I've seen it on Instagram, Twitter, MLB on Fox was putting it up.

I mean, everybody, even Lauren Shihadi, the goddess that she is talking about. Yeah, you know John Boy would be. Anything Yankee related, he'd be a part of it. And Astros. It's negative to the Astros. And Yankee related. Yeah, he's all over. And by the way, a prod partner, Major League Baseball John Boy, Media. Please, you're going to make me throw up. Don't say that.

I had to say it. It's just the truth. All right, we got Rod here. He's been very patiently waiting at 1036 on 790. Rod, good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you. Enjoying the show. Thank you. I have four questions. Wow.

This is a deposition. Real quick questions that I want to stop and listen to what you're answers are. First of all, why are we resting Alvarez with 25 games left and he's only played like 10 games? Why are we resting him? The other question is why are we the best hitter on the team bunting with two runners on base. Thirdly, memory serves me right. Does Framer and Brown not have a decision since the All-Star break?

And the fourth question is, what's up with Correa taking so many pitches? I hope I didn't confuse all. No, no, no. No, okay, as far as... Let's start with one. Your Ron Alvarez, why is he resting? Dana Brown said this earlier this morning.

We're going to play the Dana Brown conversation in 1120, at least a good chunk of it, because it's better to hear it from him than us. They're on a schedule with him. Yes. He played five. Yeah, this was planned. There is not a plan for him to take any more days off the rest of the season.

But again, plans can change because of how particular players. And they said, look, I know. it's going to anger some people, but the plan is in place to keep him healthy and available to play all the rest of this regular season and hopefully a long playoff run. And the decision was made yesterday. He's taken the day off. He would have been available to pinch it if the situation arose. It obviously did not need to because of the game of being out of hand. That he's missed 100 games. This is not a guy that has, he's got a very delicate situation where the hands could flare up. He just, this is a decision made by the organization. And if you don't like it, I'm sorry.

But the plan is for him not to miss any more games. But today was, yesterday was a game that they decided, hey, because of the previous workload he had, it was a proper day for him to take the day off. Yes. And we have to, I mean, let's just ask yourself that question. Say, why is Yorda out? Do the Astros want to win? Yes.

Are they trying to hurt themselves? No. Clearly, Yordon, they have a plan and they want to rest him. as Matt Nett said and Dana Brown said. And it just keeps coming up and people are like, they don't want to win. Why are they hit? Well, if he played yesterday and he re-injured his hand, then what would you say?

Oh, they rushed him back. They're pushing him too hard. Fire the training staff. He's had multiple setbacks. So they have a plan in place. They're trying to avoid another setback. And they're arresting him. Remember, this is a stretch of 13 consecutive games for the Astros. Yes.

So everybody who's going to get a day. Altube is going to get a day. My guess is Carlos Correy is going to get a day. You're going to see Christian Walker. I mean, I know that you want them to treat them like robots, but they're not. We go through this every year. But it is what it is because everybody wants Cal Ripkin, and Cal Ripkin ain't playing anymore. Cal Ripkin is not walking through that door.

Yeah. He just ain't. Now do I say this, to maybe those that don't want to hear what we're saying, is that could you have given Yordon Monday off and had him ready for all three games of the Yankee series? Of course. But again, these are timed things by sports. No, I would do it the other way.

I would rather have him against the Angels. Yankees is a 50-50 shot. You give yourself more of a chance. But you could even say, I want my number one lineup out against the team that's the harder team to beat. I could see it either way. You could see it.

Yeah, you could do it either way. But, I mean, that was like the old Popovich thing is like he would rest everything. against the hard teams because it's a coin flip anyways. And then you might as well give yourself the better, better chance against bad teams for a win. See, yeah. So you can see, I get, I get it. Either way.

Tomato to potato. Yeah, it's, again, even, you can lose the Rockies one night and beat the best team the next day. Baseball doesn't make sense. It's the marathon part of it all. Okay, so that's number two. The bunting is atrocious. 95% of the time that Major League Baseball, players are bunning, it makes me mad.

There's a 5% that it makes sense, extra inning games when you're the visiting team or your home team trying to get the run to win the game. If you've got a guy struggling at the plater against a particular player, that's one thing. Jeremy Payne should not be bunning in the situation he was in last time. No. There's just no, there is nothing that makes any sense to that whatsoever.

He is your best hitter by average and OPS and WRC Plus and basically anything All the geeky stat you want. Anything you want to look at? He's been your best hitter. Two guys got on base. One of them was your ninth place hitter who is not a major leaguer who was hit in the back because Max Fried had been yanking pitches. So you just can't do that in that situation. And Jeremy Pena, in my opinion, did this on his own. Joe Spott addressed it after the game.

Of course, he kind of covered up. He's like, oh, I didn't think it was a bad idea. Yeah, it was fine. But you can kind of tell the way Joe Spott answered it and we can play later. When he was winking half the time, you knew it was that a good answer. He's like, oh, yeah, it kind of worked out. But the third base. one was backed up. He was 0 for 8 against Freed and so he tried to provide a spark. It didn't work. It didn't work at all. It was a bad idea.

Correa does look at quite a few strike threes. That's always been his mantra. I think he's aware of I think he's kind of being the one to take it on the chin of looking at a lot of people. A lot of them have been on the edge, honestly. I mean, they have, and the umpire last night

was atrocious. I mean, again, well, we could say that most nights. You know what, Ross, there's something, 10 years ago. I was like, let's go to the challenge system. How about we just, I'm so disgusted by, and I'm not saying this because the Astros lost. I say this every day. I'm disgusted by impires behind the plate. They just can't see it. They're making mistakes. We're having injections at an all-time high level because of the damn box. The box don't lie, Ross. And when you are addicted to that box, you stay with it all the time. We didn't have box like

that 30 years ago. 1042. Please write this down. Oh, my God. If we didn't have a box like that, we wouldn't be a dick to do it. Write that down for Jonathan to clip, 1042. Thank you. Yeah. Correa has it. I think he's the one kind of taking it. He knows that the collective approach is a lot of aggressive hitters and the pitch

counts aren't being racked up. I think he's trying to slow that. And also I will say, like, I've been watching, I'm like, oh, my God, he's just getting pitched on the edges. This is another thing, guys. The other pitchers are pretty good. Max Fried is pretty good. Now, they also have been not scoring.

against some bad pitchers. But it's hard. Max Fried is elite. Max Fried is elite. And Framber was supposed to be elite and he didn't match him. Yeah. There was a fourth thing you brought up.

Have Brown and Framber had a decision since the All-Star break? I don't care. You can go Google that. We're not your Google source. I mean, we can do an empty Google segment. That wouldn't be yet, though. All right, let me set the rest of show up for you.

11 o'clock, Brian Bogus Hevick's going to join us. Great. 1120, we're going to play a good-sized clip of the Dana Brown conversation took place this morning at 9.30 and we're working on that right now that's at 1120. The news at noon

at 1.30, Willie Fritz will be with us on the show today. What? The Willie Fritz. Brought to you by our friends of the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of the University of U.S. Athletics.

He's awesome. And our cougars are going to win by multiple touchdowns on Saturday against the Rice House. What's the line of? Oh, rice. Okay, that's right. And believe we're not today on all things about the jazz?

All that jazz? Chisholm? No, I don't want to honor Chess Chisholm for rating two home runs. All right, whatever. 713-212-5-79. If you want to chime in, 7-13-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, and this is Sports Talk 7-9. 10-50 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790.

We've got Brian Bogus-Evick coming up in a few minutes. Also have some Dana Brown conversation coming your way. Willie Fritz. We've been talking a lot about. the ass shows. It's a jam-pack show on a Wednesday here on a sports. Shut your bum ass up too. Shut your bum ass up. I believe we have Cesar Salazar in line two.

Cesar. You want to tell me to shut the bum ass up? Yeah, there's a certain left hander. I won't mention his name. No, it's the pitchcom, Matt. The pitchcom. Yeah, he's saying pitchcom, shut your bum ass up. Believe him. Or not. People aren't buying it. They're just not. I don't know how you could. Just from looking. And this is all I had to go on

when the post game started. You just just look at it. Like Cesar Salazar gives him the death stare. Frumber gives like the bleep you turn around. It just doesn't look good. It just doesn't. And again, if it's Hunter, okay? If it's Erigetti, excuse me, it's Arrogati. If it's anybody on the Astros pitching staff not named Frobber Valdez, you're giving the benefit out. You don't get it. Yeah, because cross-ups have happened with pitchcom. I mean, we've seen it. It's rare, but it's not unheard of. Yeah.

By the way, real quick, before other phones, I'm going tonight. You went last night. What was the Yankee infiltration inside Danken Park? Well, maybe last night wasn't a good example, because especially after that grand slam, that place was clearing out. So the Yankee fans took around. When the bases got loaded,

there was a big, let's go Yankees chant, especially on the visitor's side, but basically throughout. And then they tried to drown it out with booze, which the crowd did because, you know, they had bigger numbers, but there was a lot of Yankees fans. Yeah, no worry. 713-212-5-790.

Rogers with us on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Hello, Roger. Ross, Roger, Roger, I mean. Roger. Roger, your phone sucks. I mean, you do. Julio. You call on different lines and it never works.

Oh, there you go. Where are you been? I'm not my fault. Anyway, so I've got a couple of things. The framer issue, obviously, I got a question to you, Ross. what if what if you're the manager

playoff into today and you have to have three guys to go would probably be in that rotation I know he probably couldn't have a little motion for one but if he would he be would he make that rotation right now

would you make that gamble I know it's spot I would I would still put him out yes but you don't have it I mean look it's got a it's like one of those high ceiling high floor propositions and you got to No, you have no choice.

You have to go with a guy that has done it multiple times. Well, probably still two at this point. Now, we get a couple of weeks. If Christian Javier, now he didn't give a hit the last time he went out there, if those guys can continue to round into form, we can have more of a discussion. But as of right now, I, two starts ago, he threw seven innings and shut out. Two innings ago, I mean, two outings ago, he threw seven innings a shutout ball. And that was against the Rockies, but still, I mean, he has that.

capability. And he's been he has been up and down in the playoffs throughout his career. He was horrible in the playoffs, I think in what, like 21, except for that eight-inning one-run ball game against the Red Sox. I think he was pretty good in 22. And in 23, he wasn't good.

That's cool. I understood. Second phrase of my question. The hitting philosophy, it's changed a little bit. I know Saitron's been there a while. but I remember when he used to protect more, especially with 02 counts or 3-2 counts, especially with 2 outs and running the scoring position.

And that kind of that philosophy has not been emphasized or sheltered the wayside somewhat, especially with our power hitters. So, Christian Walker, I've seen him so many times. It's like he starts the bat with 02, you know, and then he'll even go up to a hitter's down and go through a two, but I just don't have any confidence because I know that lollipop to 30 is always going to come. So with that in mind, do you think these guys lost that strategy of fighting to a pitch and taking a picture? The parades, man, oh my God, we missed that guy.

Okay, but that's one guy. I mean, if you take a look at the last 10 years of the Astros, Roger, which I'm sure you have, this has been an Uber aggressive team. I mean, led by Jose Altoube, who's the most aggressive first pitch swing in the business. and, you know, I would never characterize the Astros as a whole as a team that was overly selective. I would say maybe like five years. When you had Brantley, Bregman, and I mean, Yordon's a pretty good judge of the strike zone. But those are, I mean, those are just kind of hitting styles. And Isok Paredes has a more patient approach than, like you said, Jose Al-Tubei does.

Yeah. And they talked about that. Brighman Drew walks. Yordon can draw walks for a guy that's a big man. Altube has gotten better over the years, but by no means. whatever be a leader in walks drawn. Brantley was the quote-unquote professional hitter. But those guys are long gone.

Yeah, exactly. The guys that are on this roster are doing what their resume says. And that's uber aggressive. And frankly, as you brought up before, maybe Carlos is taking too many pitches because he's sitting there looking going, my God, our opposing pitchers got six pitches thrown in an inning. And I don't need to bring the defense back out there. I get my pitcher some rest.

Yiner Diaz swings away. Marisa Dubon swings away. swings away. Jose Altova swings away. I mean, Christian Walker swings through things, unfortunately. It makes contact, it's fun. And there was an article, again, from Chandler Rome. It sounds like that guy does a good job, covering the team.

Man, he's all over the place. Talking about a Correa talking about that, where they want guys to, you know, be more selective, but you also want guys to be themselves. You have to be, if you're that aggressive hitter who's looking to attack, and then you, if you're like, I don't know, let's say a boxing

style. If you have an aggressive guy who's supposed to be on the attack and you tell him to be a counter puncher, then he's out of his comfort zone. And by the way, on Sunday, you know the very first person that said, we don't need to change who we are because that's who we are? It's Carlos Carras is not asking for, he says, because if you start being something that you're not,

you can't get your own head. You're going to get in your own head, you're going to confuse yourself and you're going to cause more problems. If you've been an aggressive hitter, since the day you've been a major leaguer, you keep it that way. Brian Bogus Civic, joins us. We'll talk about that, about pitch how that goes with the approach, among other

things, with Bogey next here on 790. Our buddy Brian Bogusemic is with us and he's with us every Wednesday here on the Matt Thomas show. We'll spend 10 quarter minutes with him. If you missed the conversation with Dana Brown earlier today at 9.30, we're going to play a decent chunk of that coming up at 1120. Shut your bum ass up at 1230.

The news at noon. And we'll be Fritz today all between now and 2 o'clock. So a busy show for you today. Plus, we've got to get into the story about what is happening in Los Angeles with Steve Balmer and the Clippers and Kauai Leonard. Uber, Uber juicy stuff. Bogie is with us here on the show Wednesday. What an odd evening on many accounts, Bogie, as you saw things, cross-up, a not stepping off, the offense was not really around much. The two home runs made a huge difference in the contest. Bunting. Bunting issues.

It was not a game that you're going to want to go watch on the best of Space City Home Network, correct? Yeah, that's not going to be on the highlight reel. You know, there are oftentimes you can lose the game and walk away saying, you know, had one or two things gone our way, we'd have been there, or, you know, this didn't go right for us, but we did a couple of things good over here. That was one where it was just like, you can't take anything from that. That was a pretty thorough beating by the Yankees. The Yankees played the exact style of game that they wanted to play.

It didn't seem like there were any answers. And, I mean, it was a six-run game for most of the game. It felt like 16 runs. Okay, look, the people that will really know what happened, is the pitcher, the catcher, maybe the manager after the conversation, but just the baseball fan. Cross-ups happen all the time. the problem is bogey if it was any other pitcher

we would chalk it up to cross-ups happen and it can happen with your elite pitchers as well just like we have with Frommber but the body language the prior issues of maybe issues on the field about how defense are replacements we don't need to go

in an almsim on that I'm not asking you whether or not you believe him or not but the look was just so bad that everybody from sports center to Major League Baseball Network to this radio show, other shows are saying, what's going on with this guy who's supposed to be playing for a new contract and supposed to be either a one or a one-a on this starting pitching rotation?

Yeah, I mean, the optics of it were about as bad as can be, and if it were a cross-up or whatever, it's a hell of a coincidence in when it happened. But, you know, whatever happened between Fromber and Tessor Salazar, they can work that out. I've seen worse things happen in clubhouse, that guys work through and get over. And, you know, we can get through stuff like that.

I think the bigger issue for the team, the bigger issue for Frumber, you know, this year and moving forward and other teams looking at it is once again for, you know, how many times here in the last six, eight weeks, you've got a guy in the mound who is good enough to be a Sall Young candidate, a guy who is good enough to carry a team to the playoffs and carry them deep into the playoffs, standing out of the mound in a huge game. fighting multiple battles. I mean, it's hard enough to go out there and you're facing the Yankees. It's the hottest team in baseball. And you're frustrated by the rapport with the catcher. And we've seen to be frustrated with defensive alignments and we've seen to be frustrated

with plays being not made behind him. And, you know, your focus has to be 100% on I need to get the guy out who's standing in the batters box. And when you're swimming in your head and there's all kinds of other things going on, it's distracting and you're not going to get your best performance and it's a team that needs Fromber's best performance to get them to the playoffs and to have any shot of going anywhere in the playoffs and they've consistently not gotten it, not because he's not capable of it,

but because it seems distracted. Does that move its way through the diamond, the guys in the lineup, the clubhouse, or could there be a certain aspect of, man, we love Fromber, he's our teammate, he's our bro, when he's on, he's giving us a, six innings, seven innings of two-hit ball. But sometimes that just comes with the package and that they can shake it off or does sometimes

that become a detriment when you have a guy that you know is as good as he is, had these kind of meltdown maybe too strong of a term, but uneasiness on the mound when you are sitting here trying to hold on for dear life to win this division. It's both. I mean, you know how much time guys spend around each other during the course of the season, and how well they get to know each other. It becomes like a sibling relationship. And, you know, everybody knows that their siblings.

You love them for the good and for the bad, but they're also the people that can frustrate you the most that you can fight with the most. And, you know, guys understand each other. They understand how each other, how everybody ticks. And, you know, you know what their good days are like and what their bad days are like, and you learn how to work through them together.

But this time of the year, when everybody's supposed to be, you know, forgetting all of your personal stuff, and moving in the right and in the same direction. And it's, you know, 26 guys in the clubhouse. And the only thing that matters right now is winning games. To have somebody who's so vital to that seem like there's more going on than just that. That is about as frustrating a thing that can be in the clubhouse.

Brian Bogusevick with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's go to the bats. We know they've had some issues with runners in scoring position. And we've talked all season long about approach and changing your approach, but staying within yourself. what do you think is just happening as far as a collective because everybody seems to be struggling, especially with the runners in scoring position situations, as far as meetings and talking with coaches and each other,

what do you think is happening behind the scenes right now with the Astros and this funk they've been in? Well, I think in the clubhouse, the thing that you're most trying to express and the thing that you're most trying to spread throughout, you know, all of the hitters and the meetings and everything is relax. the last thing you want to do is be going up there tight, trying to do more pressing. You don't want to turn a second and third one-out situation into a pressure situation for you, right?

That's a pressure situation for the pitcher. You're not supposed to be feeling like, oh, here we go again. I hope I'm not the guy that gets out. That's taking a positive and turning it into a negative. So you're trying to kind of smooth everything over and just tell everybody to relax. You know, they're getting hits, not necessarily yesterday, a lot of hits. But in general, there's runners on base. There's stuff going on.

That's why they're getting those scoring opportunities. So if you just continue to push forward, you know, law of average it says you should start to get those hits with runners in scoring position. But at bat with the runner and scoring position is not the same. Pitchers are going to be more careful. They're going to go to their best stuff. They're going to try to prey on your weaknesses. And we've seen a lot of times where a very aggressive team gets into that runners and

scoring position situation and turns it up a notch and gets even more aggressive and pitchers are able to prey on that. There's been a lot of at-bats in those situations that have ended early on not the best pitches to hit. Well, one of those situations was Jeremy Pena with runners on first and second. What did you make of the bun attempt there? Well, you know, first and foremost, I hope everybody understands it wasn't a sacrifice bun, right? He's bunting to get on base. He's trying to sneak attack the third baseman. He's sitting back on his heels deep in the hole. He's trying to move the line along. You know, if it works out and you're sitting there bases loaded for Yordon, it's a smart play.

I just think where his stature is, I guess you could call it, in this lineup, you know, how good he's been this year. You kind of want him to be above just trying to sneak a hit. Hey, go be a run producer. I know you're hit lead off, but when you get these opportunities, we need that. I will say this. Just in general, in a situation where a pitcher is strong. struggling to throw strikes where there's not a lot of balls being put in play, walk hit by pitch.

That's usually a good time to try to sneak a bunt down and field's kind of on their heels a little bit. Pitchers maybe trying to lay one in there. So the rationale behind doing it isn't terrible, but the fact that, you know, make the argument that he's the best hit around the team throughout the course of the season, you need that guy to go get the big hit, not just move it along. What about the fact that Carlos Correa has kind of added that responsibility of taking perhaps more pitches than he wants to because of the fact there have been so many innings,

it feels like in the last two weeks where he has seen the guys in front of him take just a couple handful of pitches and all of a sudden that pitcher across from him is in a low pitch count, meaning that if he records the out, they're going to go back on defense and that starting pitcher of his own maybe back on the mountain sooner than he wants to be. Yeah, there's been a couple situations where, you know, a pitcher of ours has had a long inning and then there's been the first two outs made on three or four pitches and somebody's to go up there a couple times. It's been Carlos and take a pitch, take a strike and just try to, at the very least, make along at that. It kind of comes with territory. It's just, you know, playing the

game. Carlos is also a guy who's comfortable hitting with two strikes. He's comfortable going deep into the count. So for him to be willing to take on maybe a little bit more of that responsibility is him, you know, kind of seeing an opportunity that I can do my part and maybe a little bit more because, you know, the last thing you want to do is go up there and tell a yiner Diaz or a Jose Altuve to be somebody that they're not. That's not going to be productive. It's not necessarily about when you're swinging. Go up and to swing at all the first pitches you want

if they're good pitches to hit. Don't go up there swinging at first pitch sliders in the other batters box and either rolling over or being down 01 every time. So it's not necessarily about when they're swinging. It's what they're swinging at in those situations. Staying with the hitting,

we talked a lot this year about Cam Smith, how good he looked early on. He just unfortunately continues to struggle out there. What are you seeing from him? A guy who's got some things to work through with his swing and his timing and his mechanics who's at a point in the season where there's not a lot of time or energy to be able to put into getting that working. And he's just kind of got to fight with what he's got from here on out. You know, you can't go into the cage when you're this deep into the season and put in an hour-long

hitting sessions trying to figure it out and going out for early batting practice every day like you can in spring training in the first month of the season. At some point in the year, your swing is your swing. And right now he's backed a little bit to where he was to start the year. It's a little bit stale. It's a little bit late. But, you know, he's trying to fight. He's trying to hit the ball the other way because that's what he can do right now. Every once in a while, he's trying to use the count in his favor to be able to, you know, cheat a little bit and get the head out. But it's, he's just in the spot right now where your swing is what it is and go out there and fight and try to produce what you can.

That's what you got for the rest of the year. Thank you for your efforts. As always, my friend on TV and radio, we appreciate it, and we'll talk with you soon. Thanks for the time. All right, thanks, sir. You got a Brian Bogus-Cid with us every Wednesday here on Sports Talk 790. All right, a clip of Dana Brown talking about two things that people have only been asking about. Why was Framber off yesterday and obviously the situation involving...

Your Honor, excuse me, Yon-Ber... Well, Frommberg was a little off. He was on. I was actually telling the truth. He was on the mound. Why Jordan had the day off, and the battery yesterday was an issue. The pitching and the catcher, for those of you don't know. 1115 on Sports Talk 790. All right.

We have obviously spent a lot of time on the Astros, and we're going to continue to do that because, look, it's the top of mind. I mean, again, I cannot. I'm flipping through the channels, running to break. Every sports network is talking about this. And you're going to hear some passionate words from Dana Brown, but you're also going to hear a general manager defend his player and that's what he's supposed to do. I mean, could you imagine Dana Brown went on our radio station and said, Frumber, you nut job. Would you calm the air ass down?

That would have not worked out very well for him. So you've got to take everything with a little bit of a grain of salt on that. But there are some, and it's saving here and it's just taking a while. But I think you'll appreciate the Frumber conversation. you'll appreciate the Yordaum part of the conversation as well it's about seven minutes i want you all to sit back relax to it listen to it and then we're going to do shut your bell mass up we got to get to steve balmer and the coi liner because that's so juicy the Texans by the way of an ounce their captains and we will tell you who that is coming up as well in the next uh 40 or so minutes or the news at noon okay

pablo tori has been coming up with some bombshells this pablo tori cat he he he going for the juggler all right so now the dana brown audio is edited ready to go this is about seven minutes so sit back relax Oh, yeah, okay. We're good? I think so. All right, here it is. Dana Brown talking with Sean Salsbury this morning about why Yordon was not in the lineup yesterday and how they're approaching the rest of his playing schedule, the rest of 2020.

Well, we have to stall for a couple more seconds, Matt, as everything loads up. How are you? I'm good. You know, follow Sports RV on Instagram. I really would appreciate it. No, no, no. You should not let the audio difficulties allow you a chance of blatantly promote your Instagram. at SportsMT, at SportsMT for your Instagram Follows.

It's worst. Go ahead. Now do it. This is part of his buildup, and he had one more game that we wanted to, you know, allow him the rest because you still, you know, you're still at that buildup part. We've pushed them hard enough, you know, and we wanted to give him that one more day. Probably going to play the rest of the season, you know, the rest of the season, you know, as long as he feels good. But you give him that chance to take the day off because you're still in that build.

up more. You got to remember, he didn't play for almost four months. And that's like, you know, longer than the off season. So you have to allow him a chance to build up. And you don't want to re-agivate anything. And he's been doing so well that we want to really, you know, protect them because we're going to need them down the stretch with those last 20 games and in the postseason. So we don't want to take any chance. And so we get him another day off. And now, The plan is that, you know, we can give him like five or six in a row because he is building up still. And we're pushing him. Who's making the decision how he feels daily and the buildup?

Well, it's collective, right? So the first thing, it's two things. So the first thing is, you know, as a group, we talk and we try to put out a plan for him in terms of coming back, right? And so we set a schedule. And then after we set the schedule, we, of course, have to ask the player, hey, how do you feel? Right. I feel pretty good. And so as long as he continues to feel good, we're going to play them and we're going to put them in the lineup.

But we still have to go by the schedule that we set. And so look, he's for the point where he's probably going to get at least five or six in a row, you know, but you want to build up to that point. And you've got to remember, four months off is four months off. Yep. You know, you can be well-rested, but you still have to get back to the build-up so that you don't, you know, re-injure anything. And I think that this is a plan that we set for it.

Yeah, and this is more in my craw, and I'll always lean on you for this, and even more so than fans that want to know. So let's say five games in, he's raking. And your plan was on the sixth game to give him a day off, and you go to him and he says, I feel great. Does he stay in the lineup,

or do you get him that day off? Yeah, at that point, because it's five in a row, you can roll with them, right? But when you're building them up, and you let them get one, then two in a row, then three in a row, you know, then, you know, four or five in a row, and then if he still feels good, then that's a good sign. I mean, you could probably roll with it when you give them like five in a row, but you really

want to protect them, right? And so, look, that's the schedule we set out. I mean, you know, right, wrong or indifferent, but you have to have some type of plan, you know, when a guy is coming back. You just can't throw them in the fire and say, go get them. Now, look, this is a postseason game, of course, you know. Explain to me what you saw last night and why we should believe that it was miscommunication as opposed to frustration. Yeah, that's a great question.

You know, let's talk about it, right? So you've got a very competitive, very competitive for Amber Valdez. He's pitching against the Yankees. He gives up a home run, right? A grand slam that kind of like, you know, put the game out of reach, sort of speak, right? So I believe that he was absolutely frustrated If anybody ever played any sport And you're a competitor

You know how competitive this game is And you know how competitive other sports is You know, you get frustrated You get rattled You're angry And so, you know, this thing's happened And sometimes you get so angry You can't see straight

And you know, he crossed them up You know, they had a conversation at their game And they squashed it I don't think people understand the competitive nature. When you're chasing the planet race, you're playing in New York Yankees, you have high drama, and you get up a grand slam, and you're down six to nothing. Why not say that? Why not just out it frustrated?

We screwed up. We got it fixed. We're competitors. It happens instead of, well, I crossed him up. I expect because the math doesn't add up. And I understand the media and the way we approach it. But why not just say that? Because look, this guy is very competitive.

you cross, you get crossed up all the time. Sometimes you get so frustrated in your mind, in the heat of the battle, you're anticipating throwing one pitch, a guy calls another pitch, and you're so frustrated you forget what was just called. That is part of the game. That happens all the time. I think the, I don't know why, look, people always want to look at different things in sports. It is the competitive nature of players.

It's the same competitor, that competitive nature, it's the same competitive nature that makes you good. Right. And sometimes that same competitive nature could be part of what screws up the game. It just happens. I want to just put it to bed. You can get crossed up. It happens.

You forget it happens. Like, we should really not dwell on this. We should move forward. This team is three games up with 23 to go. And they want to talk about somebody getting crossed up. Do you as a baseball guy trust that he can handle the emotion in a bad way in the postseason if it goes sideways? Were you feeling about him right now? Yeah, here's what it's called, Sean.

This is the real deal, right? You have these competitors that compete in sports. And you know what it's called? It's called the mound visit. Soon as you see him getting a little frustrated, you head to the mound, you go out there, you can. talk to him. In basketball, you call a timeout and football, you call the time out. You have to go to the mound and you can give them a mound visit. Look, I do not. I do not. And I will repeat this over and over again. I do not want to pull out the competitive nature of farmer. It is the one thing that makes them really

good and competitive, right? You don't want to take that away from a player. You don't want to coach it out of him. Right. I get that. No doubt. You don't want to coach it out of them. However, however, You do have to stay under control, so it's going to take a mound visit. It's going to take, hey, hey, hey, buddy, look, you just made a hell of a pitch. The guy flipped the base hit to right, the run scored, it's over. Blush it, let's go. We got two out. We've got to get the next hitter.

That's what it's called. That's what it takes to be a champion, and sometimes we have to read it, and it's exactly why coaches are on top of it, and they call a timeout. You know, you have a 12-pitch at bat where guy files a ball off with the pitch. bases go to continue to foul the ball off, hit the base hit, ties the game, mound visit, settle them down. That's what it's all about. And you have to read the teamings of these competitors.

And sometimes it takes just the mound visit. And so let's not, you know, fault Frumber for being a competitive, mean guy that will, you know, do whatever you have to do to win, but let's keep them under control. And that's the way I see it. And I don't want to pull that competitive nature from them. You know, I want him to continue to compete and we'll work with them and try to get him settled down when he gets a little frustrated. It's all a part of the game.

It's all a part of sports. There's always this competitor that you have to calm down. All right. So the question would then be, are the Astros doing a good enough job of calming him down? Because it feels like he's been, generally speaking, cranky for two months. from defense to what happened last night. And again, you can say we're making a big deal of it. It was the Yankees.

It's September baseball. Everything is under a microscope. But we get to other things to get to. We're going to give a little break for a while because we're going to tell some people to shut their bum asses up. 713-212-5-7-90. If somebody's irritated you this week, sports Harvey, somebody's made you mad,

somebody attacks your lack of not enjoying a brisket on a lovely Wednesday. 713-212-5-790 shut your bum ass up ain't nobody got time for that get your calls in next here on 790 all right next 25 minutes very cathartic for us there's a lot of things you want to say to your spouse your girlfriend your co-worker that you know is not right not appropriate you get you in trouble guess what not the next 25 minutes here on the matthomas show ross we tell people to shut their bum asses up Man. Shut your bum ass up, man.

Or if somebody at the office, it's just going on and on and on about how long it was to get their oil changed or what it was like at the post office. Ain't nobody got time for your life? Ain't nobody got time for that. Excited things about your life. Tell us about it. If you got boring mundane stuff about how the parking garage was hard to drive around the day, nobody got time for that. Okay. I'm saying.

Ain't nobody got time for that. All right. Ross, what you got? Okay, man, I was at this past weekend, the weekend concert. With no E, right, or is it no end? There's, well, there's two E's, but not three. You know, they ran out of letters on the marquee when he was early this career. It'd be a tough puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.

By the way, if you've got something that bothers you, 713, 212, 5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Go ahead. That was a knot from believe it, by the way. Anyways. So I am in the row of the seats of where I am. And we have, there was three of us and we had seats 16, 17, 18. So we get to our seats. We sit down. Everything's all cool. Well, then there becomes a dispute. Somebody says we're in their seat. So we have to, we look at the seats in the way that they're numbered. It goes from 15 to 20 in four chairs, not five. There's a miscount. So we count from the end. There's 30 seats in the row and then we fix it. Then like 30 minutes later, somebody else says somebody else is in their seat.

So they count from the other side. And they find out the row is supposed to have 30 chairs. There's 29. Somebody miscounted the chairs. People were like yelling at. It was getting tense. Not with us with the first thing. it was like, okay, we're all good.

But then the other people get intense because there were 30 people in the row and there was only 29 chairs. Okay. So NRG Stadium, ain't nobody get time for you people not being able to count to 30.

Ain't nobody got time. They had to take one of the guy who was seeing Sweet 12 because he was the one that was by himself. They put him kind of like in a weird area, a couple of rows before where he had to stand because there was no chair and they weren't going to bring one out.

That poor guy. I mean, he got closer, but he had to stand the whole time. It was like a three-hour concert. Anybody had time for you, NRG? What are you all doing out there? Anybody got time for that? I never want to hear the story again. Why?

It was convoluted. Okay. Well, I mean, all right. I'm not going to tell it again. There was 30 people in 29 chairs, and everybody was getting, like, upset with each other. So you know what? Shame on energy. That's what I'm saying.

Shame on them. Shame. All right, whatever. You know what, shut your bum ass up. It wasn't one of your better ones. Shut your bum ass up, man. I've decided I'm going to be a better person. It said April 1st?

I've been thinking about this since I've been driving this morning. Go ahead. I really, I have no one to shut their bum ass for. Oh, good, because I got another one. I don't have anything for a, nobody got time. I am a domic stay. Okay. Well, good. I got another one. Please. Maybe briefer than the previous one.

Happy birthday to Dan Matthews. Yeah. Jay Bar M. A sponsor on this station. Brought some barbecue. Some delicious ribs and potatoes and beans. There's cake out there. And there's somebody who has self-glossed themselves, Mr. Texas. Yes, that's true.

There is Mr. Texas. Which we know, this guy loves free. I mean, he is Mr. Handout. There is free delicious brisket out and available and he did not put any on his plate, yet he calls himself Mr. Texas, shut your bum ass up.

See, Frankie doesn't believe him. Shit your bum ass up, man. It's a little late to it. That's fine. Can I give you an explanation? No, I don't want it. All right. I'm going to give it to the audience,

I'm only going to eat a certain amount during the show today. Uh-huh. And if I'm going to eat, I'm going to grab a third rib I'm going to say you got about six ribs. I don't know if you're talking about how you're... I love ribs. I don't know about the dosage.

And I got actually got too much beans and too much salad out there. Beans, potato salad, brisket, ribs. That's a good plate of barbecue right there. Thank you, Ross, for calling me out. Well, I wasn't... I wasn't going to, but then you pooh-poohed my story. I didn't poo-pood. It just was a little long.

I don't know what she said. 1139. 713-212-5-7-9. 9.713-212-5-790. Let's go to Kyle in Paralyang. Kyle, what's the matter with you? Kyle. Kyle? You know what's wrong with me, MT, Mr. Texas? Yes, sir. I had a gut, I had a gut feeling the other day that Texas was going to lose, and Archmanney was going to get hurt, and I was completely right while us University of Houston Cougars went ahead and shut out who we played. You got that right. Wait a second. Archmanning got hurt?

Well, yeah, didn't you see him crying in the tunnel on the way out, like a little bitch? Oh, he's a little bitch. Wow! Wow! Man, Kyle, you went right for the jugular. No, I didn't see him crying in the tunnel, actually, was he? So, can you cry? Hold on, let me ask you this, Kyle.

Can you be a male cry or not cry like a little bitch? Or does it, if you're a male, you automatically cry like a little bitch? Well, I think if you've had a death in the family, that's one thing. But just when you lose to a team, you should have been no reason to cry. They should have been a male. Well, I don't know. The line moved back to Ohio State at the very end. Well, that's true.

But, you know, we've got to give you any time to get on you a little bit, Ross. Yes, right. Thanks, Kyle. No, people are saying this is Michael Taff, not Arch Manning. So shut your bum ass up, Kyle. Or it was AI generated or file. I don't see Arch Manning crying in the tunnel. Shut your bum ass up, man.

Did he want to cry? Yes, absolutely. Probably. And, by the, I'm okay with crying after sporting events. Yeah, what about when Nick Sariani cries during the National Anthem? Is he being a little bitch? No, we should be careful when we call little bees. You know what? It's okay to show some emotion.

What's up? You know what? I got news for you. I weeped during the Lou Holtz segments. Wow. Yeah, I'm a sensitive guy. Oh, you mean Lee Corso? What did I say? Lou Holtz.

Lou Holtz. I could probably cry with Loo Holtz. That was terrible. Shut my own bum ass up for calling him Lou Holtz. Shit so my ass up, man. Oh, I got one. I'm glad. I'm glad.

The regular Matt is back. ESPN. Yes. What in God's Green Earth are you doing, sending Lee freaking Corso and his member of his family on dark breast airlines at Columbus? Get him a GD charter just like you get Herbstreet and that damn dog. Get Lee a charter to and from Columbus from Orlando. Ain't nobody got time for Lee Corso flying commercial on his last ever trip for ESPN? Ain't nobody got time for that?

That's ridiculous. I heart media. I should also fly charter. Oh, God. When Ross and I... Shush. I'm hearing from the CEO. Shit your bum ass up, man.

I'm not Macalberry. No, you're not. I don't bring $9 million in table or $10 or $15 or whatever he brings, but I bring a fair amount of change. When Ross and I go next year to West Palm Beach, we want charter service. Anybody got time for flying commercial? Ain't nobody got time for that? CEO Bob Pittman on line one. He says, shut your bum ass up.

Congratulations. Set your bum ass up, man. On the new extension, we're happy for him and Rich Brissler. Well, never mind. It would be nice. Jimmy and Tomball, what's the matter with you? Man, I got two of them today. Number one, Matt, Ross's story was interesting.

Why are you being rude to him? Bum asses up. Yeah, get him, Jimmy. Shit your bum ass up, man. You know what, Jimmy? You're not interesting. Shut your bum ass up. Shit your bum ass up, man.

I hope your Cougars go 0.11 or 12 or whatever that's like. Oh, 11. Okay. It's too late. It's one win, baby. You're already a long week behind, Jimmy. I just assumed that loss in by the budget. That'll be vacated. And then, dude, ain't nobody got time for Frumber Valdez having a mental breakdown and assaulting our catcher

and whatever else was going on last night. I'm assaulting the catcher. Hey, hit him in the padding. How's that Bruce said, by the way, the Astros have plenty of time for that. Because it's all, it's all been, it's all been done.

It's all been done. 713-212-5-7-9. If you want to tell somebody to shut their bum asses up, 7-13-212-5-7-90. 1144, it's the Matt Thomas showed Ross. As you listen, we appreciate you doing very much so to Sports Talk 7-9. 713-212-5-790 to Ray Re-and-Ree.

I thought I was going to not do this. You know what? I've changed my tune. I'm a fraud. I was on the phone for 40 minutes before I got to a live operator to pay for my data plan and my prepaid data card that I used for my radio broadcast. 40 GD minutes. This is for the whole phone you're on?

Not the ho phone Or the bro phone No it's for my data For my The Kingwood Studios Okay Hey nobody got time How much FaceTime

How much face time And you doing on that hoe phone How many people in your life Have more than one phone My brother Because is that Because his business is painful One of them

Okay I don't think I should even count My father has a work phone And a personal phone Um How many people do you know Have bro and ho phones Bro and Ho phones? I know too

And I'm not saying that either one of them are. I know zero. I have two. No. And the question I always ask is, which fun am I on? Thankfully, I'm two for two on bros. Proud of you. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Mark, what's the matter with you? Well, tell the arts manning haters, set your bum ass up. He's going to be fine. Shut your bum ass up, man He has two uncles who are first-class quarterbacks in the NFL.

He's going to get help. He's going to be fine. So shut your bum ass up. Shit your bum ass up, man. He is going to be fine. I'm not even a Texas fan. I hope you're right, Mark. I'm not even a Texas hater.

I'm in Texas indifferenter. Can I say I'm concerned a little, though? No. No, I'm not letting you. It's his third year in college. But he's had three starts in his life. three starts, but he is a third year quarterback. I mean, you know what?

I would have liked him to look better. He'll be great against San Jose State. No. And then after that, what if he's not? He's going to be great against San Jose State, but what if he's not? If he's like seven for 14? That line is 36 and a half right now, by the way. If we had to bet $1,000 on it, what would you do?

If he had to make, 36 and a half, I guess I'll take San Jose. Because you start running. Once you get up 28, you're probably run the clock out. You get the running clock going. 36 and a half. You ought to be ashamed of yourself playing somebody like that. What do you mean? You heard me.

I just played Ohio State on the road. Or do a cupcake. Cupcake? You don't even get the batter. San Jose State's a legit program. No, they've been bowling recently. No, they're the SFA of Northern California. No, they're better than SFA.

Come on now. All right. Ryan and Montgomery at 1152. Ryan, what's the matter with you? And they're in the Hawaii Bowl last year. Hmm. Every time. Shut up, Ross.

I'm talking. All right, you know what? I'm mad. Okay, well, here we go. Watch this, Ryan? How about you shut your bum ass up? Sit your bum ass up, man. You just hung up on Ryan?

Yeah, what's up? You just hung up on a great listener. I'm sorry? It was his time to shine. You've got three hours and 59 minutes. Don't tell me to shut up. Sorry, you're going to get hung up. Certainly not in this segment.

Wow, Ryan, I did not do that. He can call back. Ryan call back. We've met Ryan a bunch of times. Yeah, Ryan's a good guy. Ryan drinks beers with us. Italian brewing. Come on, Ryan, call back. No, you don't have to.

Now, I have no one. People are now afraid to call the show. If you are not afraid to call the show, 713, 212-5-790, if you're afraid to call the show, don't call because right now we've got nobody there. Look what you've done. You've taken a really, you've given the city of Houston,

I've given the city of Houston opportunity to come on and just say what you want to say without repercussions, and you've just shot people down. Disgusting You tell me to shut my bum ass up No, I just am disgusted by you in general What else is new? Oh, it's also Wednesday

Oh, there he is All right, we can get Ryan back on You know, turn your microphone off All right, I'm gonna leave actually I want you to behave yourself No, I'm leaving Go give me a slice of that cake away I'm gonna get some water

Give me some cake of that too Ryan, it's just me and you my friend What do you got today? I'm sorry Ross I'm just, I'm tuned up about my Shut Your Bumass up I'm sorry you caught a stray on that one but so I like eating pizza my wife knows I like eating pizza but every time I call I just want

cheese pepperoni extra cheese and she hijacks my friggin order every time and she changes it then I just all I want is regular pizza honey I love you shut your bum ass up I want the way I want it and that's it that's all I got to say guys shit your bum ass up man pepperoni with extra cheese is a classic I got news for you I wouldn't order extra cheese. I think it's a scam. No, you get extra cheese. Depending on, well, also depending on who you order from and where. Certain places have certain locations that aren't as good as others.

I would say check the Google ratings. I'm just saying this. If I got somebody that's going to order extra cheese, I'm going to probably just give you one little more, a little run through the whole cheese thing. It's going to cost you two or three dollars more. I don't know. It feels like the cheese should be something that should be plentiful to begin with. Okay, we want to buy a bag, keep it at home and sprinkle it on every single.

slice yourself. I'm just saying, I think it's like, it's a sucker. It's a sucker. It's a sucker order. Are you a big parmesan on the cheese guy? Yeah.

Every slice? Every bite or some with and some without? And I actually like red pepper on it as well. I'm actually surprised. Mr. Texas loves him some red pepper. Who is, who are we talking about?

Me. You're not talking about you. You are not, you are, you literally had delicious free brisket. And you passed on it. That is not something in Mr. Texas would stay with a certain amount of protein.

By the way, that home punt on parr last on he was terrible for both teams. I brisket is chock full of protein. Shut your bum ass up, mate. Shut your bum ass up, man. Imagine like baseball, your umpires suck behind home plate. They're trying their best, but they still suck. How is that lady doing?

I think she was one and done, maybe? Really? They called her up for one game? Well, she did two games. She worked at first base. There's like a bat dog. They call them up for one game and send them back down? You just called her a bat dog?

I'm just, no, I'm making the comparison. Sorry, you know. Continue this comparison, please. I'm wanting to hear more of it. Go ahead. It's time for a break. No, it's not. We've got at least two minutes here.

I am declining this rope your hand in me. All right, I don't think, I've known that you've ever said this, but... Actually, are we hearing from her? She's online, too. She's telling me to shut my bum ass up. Bill. Ross says welcome to shut your bum ass up. Wow.

Really? What's up, Bill? Do you know, Ohio State played Texas last week, right? That is correct, yes. No, I don't remember. That was no game. Who, Ohio State played next? No clue.

Don't care. They're freaking gambling. Gambling? Oh, wow. Are you kidding me, gambling? What's the line on that one? That's what I'm saying. My friends say the line is 40, 48.

Oh. I want to tell them to ship eight, I want to, I want to say a ship eight bomb a because they don't lose about four. 47. Thank you. Shit your bum ass up, man. So he says take Grambling,

take the points. No, I think he's saying take Ohio State. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, they play Grambling.

Oof. Oof. Then Ohio? I got one for you, too, that's really going to be, I think there's a chance of it becoming a national story. Our friends down the street at HCU,

you know, used to be HBO that started at football like seven or eight years ago. Yeah. They're playing. in Nebraska in a couple weeks. So what? What do you think so what?

What do you mean? What's the story? They're going to lose by 70 points. Okay. But they've got God on their side. And a check. That too. The check's more important. God likes checks. God loves checks. He asks for handouts at the end of every service.

It's true. Jaime, you're last up. Jaime, what's the matter with you? Okay, so we got an MVP World Series guy doing a commercial he's taught him the great food at this restaurant and to show the quality of the food

to have him eat a chip yes a chip yes a chip so to takari arranda's marketing department shut your bum ass up hey me shit your bum ass up man

I have never been to Rockareas Roranda's never been there is it tell me the truth tell me the truth because you're as I think you're your spank is that safe to say Yes. Jaime would be the name? Jaime?

Jaime is the food good at Rocka Ria's Rondas? Yeah, it's good. That's what I'm saying. Why having meat a chip? Having me a nacho. That's also a chip. How about a big pork belly enchilada? Well, do something other than a chip.

Thank you, Jaime. I have mostly had that place after 2 a.m. When it is fantastic. Before 2 a.m., not so much. I'm not sure. You have no idea what Rockery and Saranis is like pre-2am. Maybe it's amazing. It is true.

It'd be like going to Robboro and saying, the seafood here is great and then taking a bite out of French bread. I mean, you'll eat it there, but it's not what you're going there for. Well, maybe they didn't want them to get a spoon out or a fort. Something he can eat his hand. It's, you know, you sit down and you eat first. It's not the worst idea ever. By the way, if you're a Mexican restaurant and you don't make your own chips,

shut your bum ass up. There is a place. There's a chain in this town. I will not mention what it is. Doesn't make their own tortillas and doesn't make their own chips. Me as Mr. Texas will not take in your restaurant. Oh, Lord, you're not Mr. Texas. Yes, I am.

You won't eat enchiladas at said Mexican restaurant. You are not Mr. Texas. But I'll have a chalupa. Oh, my God. All right. The Astros should have had their pitcher step out. We'll explain next on 7.30. All right.

So I was perusing. Hope you liked a little Joe Jackson. I haven't heard this song in a long-ass time. It's catchy. It's 80s catchy. It's fine. During the dark period of the early 80s. Pre-Madonna.

Three other greats of the 80s. 1982. Did well quite well for itself, right? Number six at the Billboard Hot 100. That means it was the number one hit at some point during the year. All right, so I was perusing the for you tab on my... I peaked at number six. Oh, on the...

Oh, on the poll... Oh, he never got number one during the year course of the year? No. Okay. Will Minterbrooks. Does that name ring a bell to you? Yes. He has a broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox. Used to play in Major Lakers.

I'm looking at what he said on CBS, and I'm not pulled the audio of it because we're obviously just looking here. Uh-huh. He was not a fan of the decision by Frumber to throw the... ball at the chest of one Cesar Sanchet Salazar. Well, who's come out and said this is a great idea?

Wonderful move by Frober. Listen to the what he just said, and we're going to have to probably play this. I want to hear it in context. Does it need bleeped? I don't know. The CBS Sports put graf-no, this would not be. The quote of the top of the CBS Sports tweet says, this is an all-time scumbag move by a teammate.

All-time scumbag move. What do you think? I mean, if he crossed him up on purpose, that's yeah scumbag move kind of comes to mind all right so we're going to play this audio coming back out of the break

right now at 1208 we gotta get you the news at noon and we go what to the Lisa Ferranda of sports journalism former channel

of a little sweetheart yeah I was gonna be careful on that one it took a U-turn on that one I slowed down in you turn

Just get to the news. Yes, Matthew, we are talking about the Houston Astros. Well, not only were the hitters, one for seven with earners in scoring position, and you had Jeremy Pena, one of those non-hits was a bunt attempt that went back to Max Fried and got the lead runner thrown out at third. Hey, Yankees, Keith, what would you like to talk about? Your mic is on. Your mic is on. That's cool.

I mean, you tell Yankees Keith, go to hell. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, yeah. Oh, now Yankeeskees. Funny how Yankees. Funny how Yankees Key didn't call when the Astros took two out of three in New York. Funny how that works, Matt. I can't wait to hear his insight here in moments.

Yeah, continue. Anyways, Astros lose 7 to 1. Framber Valdez gave up a grand slam and the big controversy, which everyone in the baseball world is talking about now. And non-baseball world. Two pitches later, Framber Valdez throws a sinker down the middle, says our Salazar clearly not ready for the pit. got crossed up, wasn't intentional or not.

Astros say that it wasn't, but everyone is talking about it in the baseball world, Matthew. And again, let's be blunt about this. If this was a dushy move, which some people are, you're going to hear from Willow Middlebrooks here shortly in a couple minutes. If you make a mistake within your company, you're still going to cover it up.

If we had 7 and he made a terrible, terrible mistake, We've been covered up for your mistakes for years. No. You've been, yeah, you know what? You've been covering up my achievements. What you've been doing? That's exactly what it is. Some things, you're going to cover your ass.

And if the Astros have a problem with their starting pitcher and their third string catcher getting crossways with each other, they're not going to tell us. Because that's what people do. If there are issues, we're going to have to guess. But it doesn't mean that people can't analyze it. And Lord knows America certainly has analyzed this. in the last 12 hours.

We like to speculate. We like to talk. The bottom line is, what does this mean for them going forward? Is something they move past? And more importantly, can Farmer go out there

and get outs without giving up a bunch of runs, which he's done? Basically, somewhere around like five of his last six times he's going out. All right.

Astros still have a three-game lead over the Mariners because they lost the race again yesterday. Shout out to the Mariners. Shout out to the Mariners. You guys suck. They make all these big moves. They've got this deadly lineup.

They've got a great pitching rotation and they just lose. I think Astros fans are really upset. How is Mariner fan doing right now? They were way more active at the trade deadline than the Astros were. We should do S-M's-O's. Problem is I wouldn't

know who half the players were. Come on, wow. You want to talk about Dominic Canzon? Okay, so tomorrow, let me tell you know who Josh Naylor is and Big Dumpur? Julio Roderiggas, J.P. Croft. Ineis. I-ohanil Thwadeth. All right, so tomorrow if the race, we'll lose tonight.

I mean, the Mariners was tonight. We'll do M.O. tomorrow. And we'll call softy at the same time. Oh, you know he's already he already calls you out that you only call him when they lose. We're going to have mine when the Astros and Mariners play. Okay.

And when the Texans and the Seahawks play. Okay. All right. Speaking of the Texans, we have the new captains announced. Oh, I didn't see that. Go ahead. Maybe it's all over the place. I don't care about that.

CJ. No, no. We're going to cast and discuss. We're going to discuss the Texas captains. Who should have been on there? Who should have been on there? Okay. Here are the Texans.

Captain. C. C. Cedaird, Nico Collins, Will Anderson, Aziz Al-Shayr and Dari Ogunbo-Wale. Sounds great to me.

Let's break it down. Your thoughts? Anybody want to comment on the Texans captain's selection? Okay, Matt. If you had to rank the captains in order, how would you rank them?

Go. CJ won the field two through five. Okay. There you go. By the way, Brian loves my Lisa Ferranda call. I don't know who that is. She sent some commercials now.

That's fine. I saw her last week. I was like, hmm, you're looking good, girl. What's that? All right. Oh, and Kauai Leonard. Yes.

How do we explain this in a very short period of time? According to Pablo Torre. Torre, right? Pablo Torre. Pablo Torre. Pablo Torre. The L.A. Clippers have been accused of circumventing the NBA salary cap by paying $28 million to Kauai Leonard for a quote, no-show job, which is a staple move of college football over throughout the years.

Do you think the clippers would give him $20,000? $28 million in a side company. Pablo Tori said he's been investigating this for like eight months. I don't think he's coming out with this unless he's feeling for his health. Yeah, he's like, I really have this hate towards L.A. Clippers. Yeah. Bill Belichick and UNC came after him for his reporting, and then they got a, they got slapped. So I just don't think Harvard graduate Pablo Tori spent eight minutes, eight months on this without vetting and vetting some more.

And what do you do for the NBA? this is like you just got to cost you draft picks and fines seriously it's got to be severe it's got to absolutely hurt you like hurt your franchise i don't know you can't really take away wins or anything but i'm thinking like a first round draft pick you can't take away you can't take away rick lenders contract i mean two first round draft picks let's go by the way got a question from my buddy wade what's more scumier what more scumier scummy yeah scum here scumier scumier scumiest what's the scumiest thing Fromber Valdez throwing at Salazar's chest Or

Ricky Vaughn sleeping with Dorn's wife in Major League Well he didn't know Right? That is correct So yeah I'm going to go with Under the Above Say it like you mean it All right

Phones are next Gene and Galveston Yankees Can we plead for people to get ahead of Yankeeskees? Okay, here's the thing. Gene and Galveston, we don't, you don't have a high rating on our caller board, so I'm a little nervous about that coming up back. He's somebody kidding. So we have, here's what we got it for two callers on our screen.

We have a low-ranked caller. Yes. And Yankees Keith, which we've deemed as a low caller. We believe we can get higher quality callers that are currently on the screen. Yeah. I believe he's also Texans Keith, formerly Titans Keith. And Rockets, Keith. Such a fraud.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5-7-9. If you believe you're a high-end caller, call us next, we will put you to the top of the list. Now, if you don't think you can call and provide something, then we won't put you at the top of the list. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-790.

All right, so this is Will Middlebrooks. He is the Boston Red Sox analyst. Now, the question you always get asked, Rossi is that if this was a Boston Red Sox pitcher-catcher, would he have the same piss and vinegar that he would be for a Houston Astro? And typically the answer is no.

Especially if you're employed by a team and by a network. You're going to be a little more of a sugar coder than you would be if you were not employed by the team. It's natural. It's natural. And everybody gets accused of it, so you have to just take it with a grain of salt. By the way, we are not employees of the Astros, even though I got accused

of that post-game like a couple weeks ago. I'm not employed. I'm a life, I'm a lifelong fan of the Astros. As I am I. And I'm a lifelong fan of the Rockets. I'm also the voice of the Rockets. Employed by the Rockets. It is what it is.

But I think I'm pretty fair with them. I'm not employed by the Texans. I've never been a fan of the Texans. And I will be a fan of the Texans when they go to the Super Bowl. Woo! This year, baby! It's not happening. I'm mentally, I'm in a really good place with the Texans.

They wins. Great. They lose something. No emotional connection whatsoever. All right. Here is Will Miller Brooks. This is on a CBS sports feed he's on. Okay.

the reporter or the anchor said, hey, what do you make of what the Astros said that it was a mix-up between the battery and that there is nothing to see here? What are they supposed to say? They're not going to come out and say, yeah, I drilled them on purpose. I think this is an all-time scumbag move by teammate.

This is one of the worst things you can do as a pitcher. He was angry because Salazar didn't want to throw that pitch. Framber wanted to throw that pitch. So he told him to back off the mound because the pitch clock was about to go off. back off, let's get the pitch I want. He threw the pitch anyways, gives up a homer. Then he's mad and does that.

You just, you can't purposely cross up a pitcher. The reaction was everything I needed to know. When I initially saw it, I was thinking, okay, it was a mistake. Then you watch the reaction of Framber. No remorse, no, my bad, no nothing, no reaction. Because your initial reaction, anytime you cross up a catcher is, oh, oh my God. Like, you can really hurt a guy. you squared them up in the sternum with 95 and you didn't even react.

That's, I'm sorry, if he's my teammate, if I'm that catcher, we're going down the tunnel and you're getting these hands either now or after the game, you can pick one. That just can't happen. It's like he's pouting like a five-year-old out there. He's an emotional pitcher. This has happened his entire career. He's one of the better left-handed pitchers in the game,

but sometimes his emotions get the best of them. That's the most recent example right there. All right. Thank you, Will. Getting those hands in the tunnel. First things first. Yes, sir. I've seen Framber with a shirt off. Cesar Salazar don't want that smoke. No.

He don't. He don't want to catch those hands. And when you throw 97, you got quick twitch muscle fibers in them hands. Okay? I'm just saying. Cesar don't want them hands, number one. Number two, can I go devil's advocate on you? First of all, I will say it does look bad.

It looks intentional from Fromber, in my opinion. Right. would he have hit him on the first pitch of the AB? Or is it because they disagreed on that second pitch? That is information. That is intel that I don't have any idea. And then also, I will say, I could see a situation where Frommer did accidentally hit him, but he's still so upset that he didn't really want to react to Salazar

and show him remorse because he's still fuming from giving up the Grand Slam. Here's the thing. All we're doing is conjecture. It's not irresponsible conjecture because we're not the only one's doing. In fact, we're not even ones leading the charge on it. I'd like to give Farmer the benefit of the doubt, frankly. Yeah, it's hard. I'd like to.

I'd like to be able to say stuff happens. Because you know what? In life, stuff happens. You may bark it of somebody at your coworker. It doesn't mean it. That means you get something is an emotionally charged situation. But the problem is, again, it's who's doing it. As compared to if it was even Brian and Brayouty who did it.

literally everybody on the baseball pitching staff including Lance McCullors would get the benefit of the doubt well yeah he'd be next in lines crosses himself up you know Charles is with us at 1224 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross Charles thank you for holding in good afternoon good afternoon

thank you for having me sure yeah you know I don't like putting everything on the coach the where what what what is what's the lineup you know i mean when we were at 129 games i'm i'm thinking man every day they come into a new lineup how does anybody bat not knowing when they're going to bat the night before when they go to sleep and at a 229 games they step in the batter's box and then they swing the bat that's how amen and

they're they're great they're pros they ought to be able to do that one called upon but every day changing the order at 129 games a spot I had changed the order 105 times. And batting cleanup. Well, they've had a lot. Number one, they've had a lot of injuries. Number two, yeah, you have different guys who are performing well and not in different guys who are in different matchups. Right.

And we're always changing players to keep them from getting injured. And the order is always changing. Why did Jake Myers do so great in his breakout May? You tell me. Because Chas McCormick got hurt. hurt. They were vying for the position. One day one would play, the next day the other would play, and they were both batting around 220. McCormick gets hurt, Myers steps up game. He says, this is my field, this is my bat, and he batted like 357 all through May. And it never went

down. Chas McCormick came back, and he was trying to come from 160, and by the end of the year, bringing him in, he got it up to about 220. But McCormick's went down from three, whatever it was, down to 280 because he was being played out. Your Don now is healed, supposedly, and you don't start him against the Yankees. Why do they? And I love Christian. Well, they want to keep him healthy, maybe. Or he's still hurting?

You answered your own question. You answered your own question. Could be both. Yeah. Yeah, but he's got to play. I mean, that's, he's healthy. I don't want to keep him healthy. I want him to play healthy from now throughout the season.

He's got to hammer the Yankees. We've got to beat the Yankees. We've got to put our best players in the best lineup. And we never have the best lineup. If you've got Christian Walker batting force, I mean, Christian, what's the average batting average across the league right now? It's like 247. Walker's got 2.30 something.

With runners in scoring position, it was down like it was like 198 for the longest time and the man who should be batting forth if you really want to bring someone up they put him in in the beginning of july they moved him down from the seventh spot where he was batting like 350 380 maybe even i'm sorry 280 250 250 270 whatever he was batten you have charles you have given us so many numbers my head is spinning Charles? Yeah, and it should be because that's what the numbers you played on. And you have all those numbers.

If you look at them, and the spot does too, but he thinks, oh, you've got to bring a lefty in because they've got a left-handed pitcher. And you take out a Rebae, when he hit a double that drove Yiner, and it was a zero score the second basement that we recently got. It's just great.

Urias? Yes, yes. Are you talking about it? Eureas. When we were playing the Brewers, and Hunter was pitching, and they were playing great game. But he was the only one to get a great hit that brought Yiner all the way home. And that was a good call, but they got him out right at home place. And then they pulled him to put someone who's batting 180. And then Jesus Sanchez, they pulled Cam Smith, and then they pulled Dubon.

And that's just like, hey, when Peña got hurt. That's enough, please. Who did they put into bat first? I don't know. Why not Dubon? Why not Dubon who batted for Al Tuvei and had 22-game hitting streak? Dubon should never be told for him a game. Yeah.

Yeah, it was two years ago, but who cares? All right. Please. No, no, it's enough. It's enough. It's enough. It's been almost five friggin minutes. There's enough.

No, no. Cam Smith. Cam Smith. Go ahead. Oh, here we go. Oh, here we go. Ten games he played batting fourth. They won seven or eight out of ten.

and then they moved him and he had it You want him to clean up? I don't want Charles I can't have I can't have Cam Smith a cleanup Charles I can't have Cam Smith leading No no no no no He's hit one ninety four

No no don't Charles Charles What are we talking about? Charles he's been one of the worst hitters in the team and maybe in baseball I don't need a bad and clean up I don't Charles just me and you talking here bro

Good God That was too long He was but he was so He was so No, he's got it all figured out. Joe Spot is an idiot. They sat yard on. He answered his own question.

This is all I'm asking is from some of you people who are asking, why is York on sitting? Ask yourself why he's sitting. Do the Astros want to win games? Yes. And then he answered it very quickly. It was a planned day off and they don't want him getting hurt. If he goes out there and he goes and gets five ABs and he cracks his hand in half, everybody's saying they rushed them back. But Charles said numbers, though.

280 or 250 or 350? I don't know. Hey. You didn't have those numbers. You said you bought that because he was making them up. No, he don't know that. You could be very accurate. You don't know.

God. Cam Smith has been horrible for two months. You're not putting me to clean up. And yeah. The one is he is a good cleanup hitter. Duh. Charles brought some bet. Charles was like.

Charles wasted five minutes of my life and I'm walking out of here. Give me some more cake. It's quite moist. 1231 on Sports Talk 797. 713-212-5-790. 1236 on Sports Talk 790. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got at 120 today a little bit of an update on the Astros from the mind of Brian Gaborassevich.

Love it. Willie Fritz at 130 here today on 790. And believe it or not, at 150, which is all things about cross-ups. Crossword puzzles. Cross-fit. Cross-words. You can do a lot of cross. You could.

Jane and Galveston, Jane, how are you, friend? I'm all right, Matt. Thanks for getting to me. Sure. I heard Mr. Stats, the call before. Yes, he's Mr. Stats, yes. Yeah, I heard that. A lot of it was ridiculous, like y'all pointed out.

You know, Cam, Batten, Four, give me a break. But anyway, you touched on it, so I wanted to know how Yordon so Yarnon's not heard. He was just rested. He was rest. He was available off the bench. If the game was close, he would have been available for pinch hitting duty, yes. Okay.

They never did say anything. I didn't know. Yeah, Joe Spott said it pregame. Yep. It was before the game. He was, because it was asked. Anytime that any player is out between now and the end of the year, you're going to be asked by the media that's there. Yes.

So has it been announced he's playing tonight? No, but they will make the announcement when the lineups, come out at about 3 o'clock this afternoon. The presumption is Dana Brown said earlier today, Gene, that he does not anticipate you aren't needing any more days off. But again, things can change. Right, right. Okay, well, look, you are doing a great job, and I just want him to win, and that his

guy has started hitting more. The pitching's all right. I will say this. I don't like what the pitcher did last night about his body language. after the guy hit the grand slam. When I was growing up, I played catcher. And if a pitcher acted like that, I would go out to the mountain and talk to him.

I really would. He probably wanted to take him, like Will Middlebrook said, Gene, thank you for the phone call. Take him down to the tunnel and throw hands. That's what he wanted to do. Now, for what it's worth, Michael Schwab,

he's got somebody in the clubhouse that talks to him. He's not a reporter, but he's got people that he talks to. And he tweeted out a few minutes ago. Sources tell me tensions rose in the Astros' clubhouse last night after the loss when players confronted Framber Valdez for his in-game actions against Cesar Salazar. The argument escalated and coaches eventually stepped into calm the situation while intent behind the pitch remains unclear. Valdez's initial refusal to address Salazar frustrated many in the clubhouse.

I don't think Michael's making that up. I also believe that could be true. Well, he could be. I mean, he could be making it up. I don't know. I mean, I don't think there's a reason for doing that. Oh, you think there is a reason to do that? Notaryity.

Oh, that's true. Clicks. Cuss and discuss. Speaking of cuss and discuss. But I don't know. You know, look, Michael's got somebody. I mean, there's doesn't. He's broken some things.

He's been wrong on others. He's been wrong. Yeah, it is what it is. But I read that and I go, okay, that sounds like that could, that's not him trying to embellish something, I don't think. Yankees, Keith, who doesn't call when his team loses to the Astros, but when they win, he calls. Hello, Keith.

Good afternoon. How are you? Amazing. So you were very busy after that series in New York, huh? Absolutely. I have a life outside of sports. Oh, unless the Yankees win. It's funny.

When the Yankees win, you've got plenty of time to call, but when you're very busy when the Yankees lose, I get it. That's fair. I was shaving my head while you kept me on hold. Me and my wife are going to take a trip to Yankee South Stadium. Oh, my God. You're just the worst. You're not even a real Yankees fan.

Unfortunately, I can't find my glove, and I'm a little nervous because we're going to hit a lot of line shots tonight. Against your second and third string pitchers. It's going to be kind of. a hectic to protect my wife from all this. What you mean? The ace of the staff is on the hill tonight. Jason Alexander. Your ace of the staff was on the hill

last night. No, Hunter Browns's Ace. I was joking about Jason Alexander. Let me tell you some. I ain't scared of whatever this is called Will Warren. He wears jersey number 98. Please. He should be a spring training pitcher down in Tampa right now, not worry about the Astros. Well, what do you think about the pictures that you

got for tonight and tomorrow. Syung 1, 2, and 3? I think they're wonderful. Oh, yeah. Matt, I got my broom. I got a new broom. You know, last I don't you can do the end of it. Last year, me and my wife

went to the first four games of the season. Do you remember what happened? The first four games of last? Nope. I do not. It's called selective memory. I think you have No, no, they call me Mr. Memorization, so I I remember what happened in the 2022 ALCS. I knew two.

In the 2019 ALCS and the 2017 ALCS and the 2015 wildcar. I remember what happened then. Yeah, I do. It was called ass bullpins. That's what happened. I also remember that you guys were investigated for a bunch of cheating scandals. No, that was actually the Yankees, actually. No, there was a letter from the commissioner.

Yeah, you're confused. There was a letter from the commissioner and Rob Manfred tried to keep it secret. You're talking about the Yankees and they're cheating, yeah? No, I think you're misunderstood what I feel. Oh, okay. We understood everything you said. You were talking about Carlos Beltran, who came from the Yankees and said you guys' sign stealing is behind the times. Here's how we did it in New York.

Correct. Thank you, Keith, for the phone call. And I can tell you what you can do with that broom of yours. That made happen. Sweep. That could happen. Could happen. But, I mean, again, life.

And let me tell you, I don't care. If the Yankees want to sweep the aster's, that's fine. go raise. Cut those cut that magic number down. God, imagine if the Mariners weren't wetting the bed, we'd really be freaking out.

Well, you know, they play well at home. They are atrocious on the road. Shout out to the Mariners. Shout out. Shout out to all the rays, the Orioles. Who else has beaten him the last few weeks? White Sox have got some wins there.

It's all good. You get your notepad out. You're writing some things down? I like, God. Yeah, this is getting important. I got you. All right. 1243, it is the Matt Thomas.

What's that? Are you proud of me? That's fine. I'm really largely indifferent to what you do. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-79. We're going to talk about this Kauai-Linner's situation when we come back. It's very interesting.

And we've got to ask you guys as sports fans what the commissioner of the NBA should do if it is indeed true. We'll tell you the story next. 1243, Sports Talk 790. Texans on the practice field today getting ready for the Rams. They will play them Sunday at 325. the captains were announced I don't think it's any surprise Z.J. Strouds among the captains.

Al-Zazhair is among them. Gumbuwale is one. Wille is one. It's all good. Nico Collins is a captain. And that will conclude Captain Talk on the show today. We will try to reach out to somebody in Los Angeles tomorrow and get a Ram's perspective.

Sheldings captains? Captain and Teneal, Captain Kirk. By the way, a lot of people asking for the Chris Cross, crisscrossed applesauce. Jump, jump, jump, Christopher Cross, anything crossing up? I'll figure it up. All right, coming up in the next hour,

we're going to play some of the conversation we have with Brian Bogussevica. That's going to be at about 1.15 or so. Willie Fritz is with us at 130. To talk about the Cougars game against Rice Ows, believe it or not. So we've got a lot of things to get to. All right.

So again, if you did not hear, and this is a bigger issue that if you're not even a huge basketball fan. So there is a Saturday cap in the NFL. It's a hard. cap. There is a cap in the NBA. It was not a hard, hard cap, right? It's just very soft cap. Very soft cap. It's got all sorts of different things. Most of the teams are over the cap. Yes, or at least half. Pay penalties. And there's a luxury tax threshold that Major League Baseball has, although they don't have a true salary cap. So there is an investigative reporter

named Pablo Torre who did a rundown of the relationship between Bill Belmont. checking his horror girlfriend. Hey. What? That's very strong. Okay. Slutty girlfriend? You're gonna get sued.

Okay. Hussey? Hi, my name is Ross, and those words were uttered by Matt Thomas. Hi, I'm Ross, Villarreal. No, no, no, no, no, sir. Okay. No, sir.

And his little friend. And about their relationship and how North Carolina has been trying to distance themselves from this. And may have to worry about her. They may worry about that record more so anything else, but that's a different issue

for a different time. So Popo Tori for the last handful of months has found out that the loss, that Steve Balmer, who is the coach of the coach, the owner of the Clippers, and he was a, was he a Microsoft guy, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Steve Balmer, yes. Yes. Microsoft

billionaire. Billionaire and built the Intuit Dome, which part of it is really awesome, part of it's a hot mess and I don't want to get into logistics of that. Why, what do you mean? Plumbing doesn't work? No, no, the plumbing worked. I went to the bathroom, just fine, thanks. but you're always trying to make sure the player is taken care of. You can pay them as much as you can within reason

because you do have a salary cap in the NBA. And word is that through Pablo Tori's investigative reporting that Steve Ballmer created a dummy company in which he paid another dummy company $28 million for marketing. That dummy company was owned by Kauai Leonard. And it's worthy of you checking it out on Twitter if you're on those streets. I'm sure other social media platforms can find it as well.

But the bottom line is that there was $28 million in additional funds over a – I believe it was a four-year stretch that the Clippers were – or that Steve Ballmer, shouldn't say the Clippers. The Steve Ballmer was paying Kauai on the side, which is obviously highly illegal by all intensive purposes in the NBA. Now, you can do that on your own if you want. want to, but you cannot pay a player side money that would go directly against the rules of the NBA salary cap. So the Clippers easily today said this is false, this is wrong.

I don't know what Pablo Tori is making this up. Pablo Tori is like, I've been doing, I've been researching this for six, seven, eight months. I stand by my resources, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now, what will Adam Silver do about this? Adam Silver clearly works for the 30 different team owners of which Steve Ballmer is probably one of the most affluent ones, if not the most affluent. If Steve goes to...

Also bailed him out of that bad Donald Sterling situation. That he did. If Steve Balmer calls Adam Silver and says there's nothing to see here, goodbye, does Adam Silver say, okay, boss, I got you. Or does he create an investigative team to figure out Indeed, Kawhi Leonard received $28 million in additional funds that were illegal by MBA standards. And if it is, and they deemed it to be illegal, what kind of penalty should Balmer and the Clippers get? The Clippers have had a statement, release a statement.

Please. Neither Mr. Balmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to aspiration. That's the name of the company. Okay. Any contrary assertion is provably false. The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago during the 22-23 season when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations.

Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Balmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Balmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can. Okay. That's about as strong

of a, we didn't do anything wrong that you can put out there. So Ross, somebody's lying. Did Pablo Tori spend, did he lie about months and months of investigating? He does have a person that he hid the voice and the identity from on an audio, on a video and audio tape that basically said, yeah, we saw this money going right to Kauai Leonard. And the first thing reaction was what the effort we do and send this guy money. I'll tell you what I think. Please.

I think that there was something in place for Kauai Leonard to get a little extra on the back end. but I also think the Clippers and Steve Ballmore probably put their ducks in a row, have enough documentation to try to legitimize this company and legitimize this money that was spent to where at least in front of a judge, they could argue that it looks good enough to not have any sort of either criminal or whatever. And the only thing they covered their ass enough. The only thing they could do, this defaulted company could do is say, here's what we paid him for and here's what we got in return.

The argument that Pablo Tori has is that there is no evidence that Kauai Leonard has done one bit of marketing whatsoever for this defaulted company. And that's where the rub is. That everybody else, what's the name of that company again? Aspiration. That everybody that's spent any dollars on marketing that's done any marketing. And there's been other celebrities that have been involved in this. Have accountability. There is no accountability for Kauai Leonard.

Yeah. And wouldn't that, wouldn't that take an easy Google search? Kauai Leonard here for aspiration, whatever they even do. I think they're a plant company, if I'm mistaken. Plants? Yeah, I think it's something about that. $28 million endorsement deal for a plant company. I'm not for sure on that.

No, I'm saying. It sounds a little. Yeah, I think, look, these types of bribes and backhanded kickbacks and glad-hanting pork barrel, whatever you recall, has been happening for years and years and years. and a lot of times people are really good at covering their ass on this. So we'll see. My guess is if they did something wrong, to your point, they will say, you know what, go look at our records.

But you have to prove it. Correct. I can hand you cash through a dummy corporation, but you have to prove that's something nefarious or whatever. I don't know if it's illegal, I guess. No, it's not illegal. Yeah, I don't know. If Steve Boll owns a company wants to hand,

quality $7 million. That's his due. That's his own process. Now, if it's not a publicly held company, he can certainly do whatever he wants. But the problem is, you are paying an employee to do, first of all, do nothing. And second of all, you're doing it to a guy who's also employed by the team that you own, who, by the way, has to be restricted by a certain

amount of salary. Yeah, I just don't know what any sort of legal ramifications would be. Just because the last sentence of the Clipper's statement, the team and Mr. Balmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can. So, I don't know what that means exactly. Okay. So is it, do you feel like it's cut and dry, somebody's lying? Or somebody has their

eyes? I think it's probably, I think Kauai Leonard got some kickbacks, and they probably got some documentation and try to make it look not that bad. So your gut feeling is this is much to about nothing, or there's going to be smoke? My gut feeling is that he took money illegally. But my also my gut feeling is that you get a lot of high-priced lawyers involved,

and if they covered their ass enough, it's going to be very difficult to prove in a court of law. Yeah, again, if Adam Silver says something about this, I'd be very curious. Steve Ballmer, one of the most affluent of all the owners, not that Donald Sterling, the former owner wasn't. But this is something that

I'd like to see investigated. It's like the old school. Didn't that happen with Rhett Beaumar at OU back in the day? He had a job at a dealership and he just wouldn't show it, never worked it. And it happened with other people.

I mean, this is just discovery of basis. Yeah. All right. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show Ross will feature a visit with Brian Bogus Sevik and Willie Fritz and believe it or not. And you, come on in. Next segment is,

yours 713212-5790 710 713 212 5790 it's a matt thomas show at ross we thank you for listening to sports talk 790 we have failed to bury the lead we know we didn't fail we buried the lead on the matt thomas showed ross in the final hour here at 103 and ross i want to apologize to our audience and i want to apologize to you because you are battle red ross go ahead uh congratulations davis mill has got himself a seven million dollar deal yesterday to pay the backup quarterback for who? For 2016. For the Texans? The Houston Texans? Yeah. Davis Mills? You're a team. Let's

Cassness guess. He wants a cousin his guess. I thought you wanted to apologize because C.J. Gardner Johnson's at practice and he's looking good for week one. He's looking great. Good for him. You said he was going to be out week one. He's going to be one and done. One year and done. Not one and done. Okay. Oh, he's gone. Please. I didn't say he's staying.

I'm a Texans and Seder. I know these things. I'll have told you was about mixing, boom. You had them under wins the last two years. Lost. I'm not, no, it's insider. It doesn't mean that's facts. I give you spit facts. I don't spit predictions. I'm a man that spits the facts because I don't have a bias towards it.

I'm not a homer. I don't, I don't know. You're a hater. No, I'm not. I'm a realist. Texans hater, Matt. Mm-mm. I want them to do well.

They've got a lot of people. No, you don't. No, but it doesn't hurt me when they don't do well. I hurt when the Astros get their ass kick. I hurt when Framber Valdez is throwing at his catcher. Okay. I heard. C.G.

Gordon, Johnson, looking good for week one. Okay. How's that offensive line will be? Are youante Erse's Rearcery is ready to dominate? You know what? Davis Mills? Be ready, my friend,

because you might be playing in week two. What happened to the other guy? Graham Mertz? He's still there? Graham Mertz? Do you think he hangs out with Frankie Westmoreland? Hey, you know those brosomey our fraternity?

Sigma Kai? You mean Frankie Westmoreland and Graham Mertz? Those are good dudes. Some good broskeys, man. There's some broskeys, man. There's some broskeys. Some bush lattes with those guys, man. Let's get some Zimas.

Yeah. Nobody drinks Zimas, Matt. What do they drink? Well, for Seltres? Oh, they're Seltter guys. Seltre Bros. We've had some Seltre Bros.

As a producers in the show, too. Yeah. Conardine was a Seltre. Yeah. Oh, that's right. No, who's a Seltre drinker? Uh, you? Nope.

You like fruity sweet drinks? I've never had a seltre before. Okay. But you like vodka cranberries. That I do. We were ordering shots at the draft book. I think it's just drafting sports It's not personal

And then you're getting tequila And you order to sex on the beach All right 713-212-5-790 More on Brian Bogus' Evick's thoughts about the Fromber What we're calling it? Frommbergate, we're not calling it

The Crossup Oh, the Crossup Yeah, the Crossup Allegedly Nothing to see here, says Dana Brown Sayzars-Ellis says Hey, I pressed the wrong button Frommber says, hey, I threw the wrong pitch

Those both can't be true No Jason on 790 at 106. Hi, Jason. I was having my friends. As always love the show. Thank you. One of my favorite players is Kauai, Leonard.

So that's why I wanted to call. Sure. And I'm not going to defend somebody because I don't know the facts. But I could tell you, I went to school for sports journalism, and the unnamed source is sometimes a bad thing. you know, you got an owner that, like you said, clearly bailed out the whole Clipper situation with Donald Sterling. Not only that, he's also got them a new stadium where they could now play in their own place and not be the little brother to the Lakers, which right now we all know they're kind of doing better than the Lakers.

But, you know, this is a situation where, you know, I'm with you. I want to see if it goes anywhere. I want to see if it gets investigated because, you know, this, this, this, this. This isn't just any ordinary owner. This is like one of the richest men in the United States, probably even the world. I mean, he's got more money than have some of the owners that have the teams now that they have. But like, when you, any time you say you have an unnamed source and, you know, and the police or whoever looks into it, that unnamed source eventually gets named. And off the records during an investigation kind of don't count anymore.

so his peas and Q is better be in order because if it does get looked into and he's wrong, his career is going to be screwed up for the rest of his probably journalism life. Well, I want to know, isn't Jason, thank you for the phone call. Who is paying Pablo Tori? I mean, I know he goes on networks. He does a podcast. Yeah, but that doesn't pay the bills. I mean, it can't to that level.

It can work for some. Pablo Tori's got to have something else going on. You can't be taking six months to investigate something. and rely on podcast money. You just can't. There's not enough in it. What is his... What is his...

Select few. Most people don't make, obviously, money and money for a living from podcast. Let's see what his career is, what his bio says on his Twitter account. Pablo Torre. P.A. B-L-O. I mean, he's got to work for somebody, right? The podcast is partnered with the athletic, but I don't know if they... Okay.

if he's working with them or what? Yeah. He's a journal. I mean, he's got, again, got legit followers. Not verified. Good for him. Didn't pay the money for that. I just don't know.

Unnamed sources work in sports. I mean, they work in politics. You can't. How did this guy say he went to journalism school? You can't trust unnamed sources. That's, it's... Now, can sometimes... That's journalism 101.

A lot of sources want to be unnamed and are reliable. Yeah. I mean, the person that, Pablo had on his video was a guy that was an accountant for that company. Okay. Unless he found an actor to portray that person, I mean, I would assume he's accurate. It wasn't a lie. That's funny.

This does not look good for Steve Ballmer and the boys. Steve Balmer, by the way, the eighth most wealthy person in the United States. Number, like, the number eight? Mm-hmm. You can probably guess the top three. Somebody involved with Walmart. All right? No.

Oh, you can guess one. Elon Mosquez one. Number two would be. Oh, Amazon guy, Jeff Bezos. This is number two. Okay. By the way, congratulations on his wedding. Number three, also pretty famous.

Okay. Amazon, who am I forgetting? eBay? No, and I wouldn't be eBay. Apple? No. Give me the name. Mark Zuckerberg. Oh, Facebook so making them good money? Well, he also... Facebook owns that, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and probably more. Wow. They're doing okay over there. I'm looking... Adam Silver has said nothing at this point.

Somebody in Twitter says, Adam Silver is going to send a strongly worded letter to the owners. That'll show them. Oh, they also have threads, don't forget. We've all forgotten about threads. At Sports RV on threads, thanks. You're wasting your time. Threads. What's the one that, Blue Sky?

Nobody cares about that one, either one. Everybody's nice on there at least. I don't know. Nobody's called me a douchebag on there. Well, I can call you a douchebag to your face right now if you like that. Well, that's why I like to go to Blue Sky. It's the anti-MT. I haven't posted that.

Because I'm as petty as it gets. I wouldn't want to be on Blue Sky. I want to hear meanness. I know. See, you're what's wrong with America. I am wrong. You know what Mr. Texas is. is America though. You are not

stop. Why do you keep pushing this horrible bit? Because people are buying into it. Nobody's buying into it. One Yahoo on Twitter buys into it. Ivan, shout out to you, my friend. We appreciate you you're not a yam. Everybody else knows. Frankie, you hate you followed you on Twitter.

You called me Mr. Texas yesterday. Yeah, he just gave me the hookum signs. You hate Dr. Pepper, sweet tea, yes. Inchaladas, tamales. Yes. You like beans and chili. I'm not I'm not adverse to it.

I'm not a bean snob. Yeah, you're out. You're out. All right. Up next, our friend Brian Bogusevich chimes in on the Yordon on a step-off gate. The cross-up. The cross-up. A new miniseries coming from CNN.

The cross-up. Up next, 112 on Sports Talk 790. 117 is the time. It is the Matt Thomas show at Ross. We got Willie Fritz coming up in about 13 minutes. We will brag about the shutout victory against Stephen F. Austin. and we'll hear from the coach coming up in a few. Also today at 150, we're doing famous Chris crossing of Chris's and crosses?

What did you decide? Why not? I want to make sure that you're comfortable with today's topic. Are both Chris and Cross alive or did one of them pass? I forgot. Well, Christopher Cross still alive. He survived COVID. Nasty COVID for him.

As a matter of fact, he was paralyzed for a short period of time. Really? You know, there's like a 1% group that lost, but he's walking around now. I'm wishing him the best By the way you did not Go ahead and see him at the Chucktow Casino By the way you did not A comment on the tweet that I put out

Over the weekend About who was on the Yacht Rock channel Yes I did Bill Withers Yeah What did you say? I sent a GIF And that was

It was Somebody staring at their phone And then dropping it on the ground And disgust What was the song? Was it a lovely day That it's not Yacht Rock That is, let me tell you something.

As someone who knows Yacht Rock better than anybody, that's not a Yacht Rock song. That's just a good old-fashioned soul right there. This is what happens when you have a stupid, made-up genre. You just bend the rules however you like. Breazen, Yacht Rock. Lovely day, not love Yot Rock. Oh. What makes one Yacht Rock and one not?

I'm kind of the judge and jury on that. Okay, well, yeah, well, I'm asking your criteria. My criteria is smooth, catchy, catchy, good, be. Lovely day is smooth and catchy with a good beat. You'd want to listen to it on a boat. You'd want to listen to it with a pool. You'd want to listen to making sweet love to your girl. Why wouldn't you listen to a lovely day while you're making sweet love with your girl?

You could, but it's not. It feels like it meets all those criteria. That's true. There are a lot of songs. I mean, there's, you know, respect would be all those things, too. You wouldn't want to respect's not, you out of rock. Yeah, you show her some respect. That would you show her?

They respect D's. D's what? Good times we're having. Oh, my God. Frankie, you're learning the worst from him. Thank God you got me here as a leader. Just terrible. All right.

Our friend Brian Bogussevich is every Wednesday at 11 o'clock, and we talk with him. It's usually for the best of best conversation. During this segment of the show, I get Willie Fritz coming up in about 10 minutes from now. Right now, here is our visit or some of it with Brian Bogussevich. As he discussed exactly what he thought as he was, watched the, I don't know, it was meltdown, lack of composure, or the mix-up cross-up between

Framber Valdez and Cesar and Cesar, Geron. What Cesar's Cesar's last name? I'm drawn a blank. Cesar Cesar Cilazar. Cesar Salazar. Makes sense. Here's a bogey. Yeah, I mean, the optics of it were about as bad as can be, and if it were a cross-up or

whatever, it's a hell of a coincidence and when it happened. but you know whatever happened between fromber and tessor salazar they can work that out i've seen worse things happen in clubhouses that guys work through and get over and you know we can get through stuff like that um i think the bigger issue for the team the bigger issue for fromber you know this year and moving forward and other teams looking at it is once again for for you know how many times here in the last six, eight weeks. You've got a guy in the mound who is good enough to be a Sigh Young candidate, a guy who is good enough to carry a team to the playoffs and carry them deep into the

playoffs, standing out of the mound in a huge game, and he's fighting multiple battles. I mean, it's hard enough to go out there, and you're facing the Yankees. It's the hottest team in baseball, and you're frustrated by the rapport with the catcher, and we've seen to be frustrated with defensive alignments, and we've seen them be frustrated with plays being not made behind him. and, you know, your focus has to be 100% on I need to get the guy out who's standing in the batters box. And when you're swimming in your head and there's all kinds of other things going on, it's distracting. And you're not going to get your best performance.

And it's a team that needs Fromber's best performance to get them to the playoffs and to, you know, have any shot of going anywhere in the playoffs. And they've consistently not gotten it, not because he's not capable of it, but because, I mean, it seems, distracted. Does that move its way through the diamond, the guys in the lineup, the clubhouse, or could there be a certain aspect of, man, we love Fromber. He's our teammate. He's our bro. When he's on, he's giving us six-inning, seven innings of two-hit ball. But sometimes that just comes with the package and that they can shake it off or does sometimes that become a detriment when you have a guy that you know is as good as he is, had these kind of, And meltdown may be too strong of a term, but uneasiness on the mound when you are sitting here trying to hold on for dear life to win this division.

It's both. I mean, you know how much time guys spend around each other during the course of the season, how well they get to know each other. It becomes like a sibling relationship. And, you know, everybody knows that they're siblings. You love them for the good and for the bad, but they're also the people that can frustrate you the most that you can fight with the most. and, you know, guys understand each other. They understand how each other, how everybody ticks, and, you know, you know what their good days are like and what their bad days are like,

and you learn how to work through them together. But this time of the year, when everybody's supposed to be, you know, forgetting all of your personal stuff and moving in the right and in the same direction, and it's, you know, 26 guys in the clubhouse. And the only thing that matters right now is winning games. To have somebody who's so vital to that seem like there's more going on. than just that. That is about as frustrating the thing as there can be in a clubhouse.

Brian Bogusevic with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's go to the bats. We know they've had some issues with runners in scoring position. And we've talked all season long about approach and changing your approach, but staying within yourself. What do you think is just happening as far as a collective? Because everybody seems to be struggling, especially with the runners in scoring position situations.

As far as meetings and talking with coaches and each other, what do you think is happening behind the scenes right now with the Astros and this funk they've been been in? Well, I think in the clubhouse, the thing that you're most trying to express and the thing that you're most trying to spread throughout, you know, all of the hitters and the meetings and everything is relax. The last thing you want to do is be going up there tight, trying to do more pressing. You don't want to turn a second and third one-out situation into a pressure situation for you, right? That's a pressure situation for the pitcher.

You're not supposed to be feeling like, oh, here we go again. I hope I'm not the guy that gets out. That's taking a positive and turning it into a negative. So you're trying to kind of smooth everything over and just tell everybody to relax. You know, they're getting hits, not necessarily yesterday, a lot of hits. But in general, there's runners on base. There's stuff going on. That's why they're getting those scoring opportunities.

So if you just continue to push forward, you know, law of average it says you should start to get those hits with runners in a scoring position. and at bat with the runner in scoring position is not the same. Pitchers are going to be more careful. They're going to go to their best stuff. They're going to try to prey on your weaknesses. And we've seen a lot of times where a very aggressive team gets into that runners in scoring position situation and turns it up a notch and gets even more aggressive and pitchers are able to prey on that.

There's been a lot of at-bats in those situations that have ended early on not the best pitches to hit. Well, one of those situations was Jeremy Pena with runners on first and second. what did you make of the bun attempt there? Well, you know, first and foremost, I hope everybody understands it wasn't a sacrifice bun, right? He's bunting to get on base. He's trying to sneak attack the third baseman who's sitting back on his heels deep in the hole.

That's, you know, he's trying to move the line along. You know, if it works out and you're sitting there bases loaded for Yordon, it's a smart play. I just think where his stature is, I guess you could call it in this lineup, you know, how good he's been this year. You kind of want him to be. be above just trying to sneak a hit. Hey, go be a run producer.

I know you're hit and lead off, but when you get these opportunities, we need that. I will say this, just in general, in a situation where a pitcher is struggling to throw strikes where there's not a lot of balls being put in play, walk, hit by pitch, that's usually a good time to try to sneak a bunt down infield's kind of on their heels a little bit. Pitchers maybe trying to lay one in there. So the rationale behind doing it isn't terrible, but the fact that, that, you know, make the argument that he's the best hit around the team throughout the

course of the season, you need that guy to go get the big hit, not just move it along. What about the fact that Carlos Correa has kind of added that responsibility of taking perhaps more pitches than he wants to because of the fact there have been so many innings, it feels like in the last two weeks where he has seen the guys in front of him take just a couple of handful of pitches. And all of a sudden, that pitcher across from him is in a low pitch count, meaning that if he records the out, they're going to go back on defense. and that starting pitcher of his own, maybe back on the mountain sooner than he wants to be.

Yeah, there's been a couple situations where, you know, a pitcher of ours has had a long inning, and then there's been the first two outs made on three or four pitches, and somebody's had to go up there a couple times with been Carlos and take a pitch, take a strike, and just try to, at the very least, make along at that. It kind of comes with the territory. It's just, you know, playing the game.

Carlos is also a guy who's comfortable hitting with two strikes. He's comfortable going deep into the count, So for him to be willing to take on maybe a little bit more of that responsibility is him, you know, kind of seeing an opportunity that I can do my part and maybe a little bit more because, you know, the last thing you want to do is go up there and tell a Yiner Diaz or Jose Al Tuve to be somebody that they're not. That's not going to be productive. It's not necessarily about when you're swing. Go up there and swing at all the first pitches you want if they're good pitches to hit. Don't go up there swinging that first pitch sliders, you know, in the other batters box and either, you know, rolling over. over or being down 01 every time.

So it's not necessarily about when they're swinging. It's what they're swinging at in those situations. All right. Swing for the fences. Do anything. Get runners in scoring position like you had a couple days ago. And more importantly, if you win, chances are you're going to gain some ground because the Mariners, all they like to do is lose two teams in a road, including the raise, the last couple of days. Let's talk to our good friend Willie Fritz.

He's a head football coach of our school, your school, America's School. Of course, at the University of Houston. We'll talk with him next here on Sports Talk 790. Willie Fritz, the head coach of your Houston Cougars, my Houston Cougars, and America's Cougars. Presented to you by our friends, the joint chiropractic, the official chiropractor of University of Houston football. Coach Fritz, thanks for the time.

Congratulations in the opening night win. What was the beyond the shutout? Shutouts, no matter who the opponent is, tough to find in college football. What else did you love about the performance last Thursday night? Oh, I just, you know, a bunch of it was defensively. We tackle extremely well for game one. You know, you always worry about that.

You don't do a whole lot of live scrimaging and live tackling. You do all sorts of work with, you know, with dummies and agile bags. And you got these big rings of the years. You do a little close proximity tackling as well. But for us to come out and tackle the way we did, You know, after, oh, I guess 25 practices, I was happy. We had eight missed tackles. That's pretty darn good in week one.

It felt like your defense, beyond the fact that it was exceptional, not giving up a point, it probably could have a couple of pick sixes along the way. Is that good-nature grief from guys dropping balls? Or like, hey, this is fine this week, but we need you to grab those in future games. Yeah, we always talk about, you know, winning the turnover, takeaway battle. And, you know, my career as a head coach, we've won 91% of it. the games and we've been plus one or better. It's probably the most telling statistic in football.

You know, we were plus two, which is great. I think you know, 30, three years, the head coach, I've lost one game. And then plus two or better, but I could have been about plus six. We had some drops and I told the guys, let's start getting greeting to catch those balls, we had an opportunity to get a fumble recovery, and we mess out as well. But you're right. We had some, you know, opportunities to get a few more picks. and one of them for sure could have been pick six but guys came on and we just need to improve on that.

It is so interesting for me, Coach, because I saw your team for the first time playing as all of us did. So many different names. And look, that's the portal that's guys graduating, that's recruits that have come in. Is there still going to be a little while before everybody knows who everybody can do? Are these non-conference games going to carry more weight? is you've got to figure out who is really going to be in your depth chart come conference season? I think you're right. You know, we looked at that, and I told the guys, you're earning playing time, you know, not only in practice, but also in the game.

And we've got to figure out as coaches, what do they do well, what do they do not so well, try to keep them away from that. We've got 41 new guys. 21 of them are incoming freshmen. We've signed a really good freshman class. I'm really pleased those guys. I think all of them have an opportunity to be a good player here, University of Houston at some point in time. And then we brought some guys in from the portal also.

And, you know, we're kind of figuring out what they're doing, you know, as far as in our system, because we're doing things a little different than maybe where they came from. I'll be honest with you. It was fun watching Connor get his feet wet as a Houston Cougar quarterback. But his tight end, and I know he got banged up a couple of times during the game against the lumberjacks, I can't wait to see his progressions

because he looks like a grown-ass man on that football field right now for you. He's a good football player. You know, Tanner Cozell is, you know, he's 6-6, 6, 7. He's about 250. He runs excellent routes, tremendous movement, great length. You know, sometimes the guy's at tall

and didn't have real long arms. He's got long arms, which he can kind of catch the ball out in front of him away from the defender. Yeah, he's in great shape. He had a little banged up. We decided not to play him anymore at night when the game was in hand. But, you know, he's going to be a very good player for us.

If I was to pull aside Connor after the game yesterday or on Thursday and then looked at his tape after maybe the visits you've had with him this week during practice, what would you say was his bright spots and what do you want to see him work on as you get ready for this game against Rice? Well, I think that Connor is, you know, like everybody. He was, you know, first game playing. in quite a long time and getting into his teammates a little bit. And, you know, that first game, you know, you try to draw it up

and hope you got drawn up like they were going to do it, but it was a little bit different. Some of the looks and coverages and fronts and things like that that they presented to us, I thought for the first game, he did a really nice job, and he's only going to get better. This will help him grow as a quarterback and leader and football player in our program. So there's a lot of good things to build upon from game one.

I was watching so much college football this weekend, as I'm sure you have as well, as you're preparing for the rice game. You know, it's kind of a little bit of a running joke coach that you can't trust college kickers. I don't know if it's just a good batch this year, but there were some major kicks made all across the country. You had several kicks made in the game against SFA from field goal perspective to the extra points. Are we now seeing a better crop of place kickers out there? Or are we just doing a better job of evaluating?

And because, again, you've got portal and you've got NIL and you've got ways to compensate these young men that you're expecting more from that position maybe than from years past. Well, you know, I think they're getting better coaching. You know, I think that was kind of like, oh, I guess I don't play golf, but 20, 30 years ago, probably didn't have very many people who could help you with your golf swing. And same thing a little bit with punters and kickers and snappers. there are some specialist coaches out there that and I know our guy does a really good job and you know so it's uh

there's a lot more information and drills and technique and you know plant foot too close to to the ball or whatever the case may be and we're in the past everybody's kind of only worried about you to go through those two uprights out there as you only thing anybody could really coach So, yeah, I think you're right.

I've watched a little bit of football this weekend, too, and there's some good kickers out there. There's some good kickoff guys, not very many opportunities to get kickoff returns anymore. Guys are kicking in real deep. So there's been an improvement in that area for sure. Willie, are we sure that Ken Haffield's not running rice again? They had 55 attempts against Louisiana Lafayette last Saturday.

You know, coach, Sean Ables does a really good job with that spread gun, option, attack. You know, I ran that at San Houston State when we had our good run, you know, back in the early 2000s, and then we ran it over at Georgia Southern, and, you know, it was difficult because it's hard for, you know, to prepare for it. You don't get the speed of it and you don't have as many practices to work on it as you'd like. You know, so we had a lot of success at Davidson. and, you know, the big thing that we've talked to our guys about is, number one, we've got to have our alignment, correct.

And you've got to have your eyes on the right thing, what's your keen on that particular play, because you start looking at other places. You can have some problems because it is an assignment football. You've got to have somebody on the dive. You've got to have somebody on the quarterback, and you've got to have somebody on the pitch. Is there any benefit to playing Rice Net style right now?

I mean, is there anybody else on the calendar this year that's going to pose that? And if the answer is no to that, that's a lot of work for your young men to learn in a very short period of time so early in the season. Yeah, you know, it's one of the good things is we worked on a little bit during preseason camp. You know, there's some days we go 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there. And then also we were able to work on it on Monday. We had Thursday game. We left it, you know, kind of put that game to bed and then get the kids off Saturday and Sunday and then jumped into it. So really got five days of preparation instead of the four that you usually get.

Coach, thanks for the time, as always. Congratulations. I enjoy these road trips that go six miles from campus to campus as those easy for us to travel with. And we wish you the very best this Saturday against the owls. Thank you very much. Goon. All right. Thank you, Willie Fritz joining us here on Sports Talk, Sedan. Believe it or not, he's up next.

Ross, between the Bogus Evick interview, Willie Fritz. I mean, this is going to be a masterpiece. of a believe it or not. Don't get your hopes up. You know, it's almost like some of your best work is done when you're under pressure. Yeah, there's no pressure. So don't get your hopes up.

So it's going to suck then. Okay. So a horrific edition of Believe it or not is coming up next to your other program. 713-213-2-5-7-9. If you'd like to join us, 7-1-2-5-7-90. And if you want to follow us on Twitter, you may do that as well. Plus, Instagram, at SportsM-T. There's no other account you want to find.

I just can't think of one at this point. So, yeah, at SportsMT for Twitter and for Instagram for insights, analysis, hilarity, and it will lower your blood pressure. 713-212-5-790. 147 p.m. here on Sports Talk 7-9 to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You've got Astros on deck coming up at 6 o'clock, I believe, with Matt Thomas, joining you from Dyken Park. Astros looking to bounce back against the Yankees.

It is another nationally televised game. It's on MLB Network. It's on Amazon Prime Video. I think it's still on Space City Home Network. I'm not sure. I know where it's going to be. It's going to be right here on your home for your Houston Astros Sports Talk 790. Jason Alexander will be on the Hill versus Will Warren right now. Astros slight underdogs plus 110. It's a minus 130 for the New York Yankees.

there were slight underdogs yesterday and well Frumber wasn't good he gave up a grand slam and then now there's a huge nationwide controversy about him possibly intentionally getting crossed up with his catcher it just certainly was not

a good look A team Adam and Adam are coming up at 2 o'clock so make sure you stay tuned for that and we'll get to believe it or not here in just a couple of seconds like at the end of the day whether we believe What's his are Salazar and Farmer Valdez said publicly, which it's hard to believe them both.

One said they threw the wrong pitch. One said they hit the wrong button. So he hit the wrong button and he thought he was going to throw that and he threw the wrong punch. Unless they got double crossed up, it doesn't exactly make sense. So hopefully it's going to be all water under the bridge. And next time Farmer goes out like he did when he bounced back against the Rockies. He can go throw seven innings a shutout ball or something like that. So you're promising there'll be another or another kerfuffle involving something involving Farmer Valde's.

I can't promise that. No. I want you to, though. for the mental health of the Houston Astro fan base. Can we have nice Framber? Can we have the Framber that was tweeting him like a month ago? Where'd that bro go? I mean, he was great for like a year plus, limiting the blowups,

looking good out there. I mean, he was giving up from runs here and there, but he wasn't just having the wheels completely fall off, but they did in Detroit. They did last night. He'd been great at home all year long. If he could have just gotten, Trent Grisham out,

we're probably not talking about a lot of this, except for Astros probably still lost. I hope Carl's Gray went to him and said, you pull that crap one more time. I'm going to beat your ass. I don't care what they said publicly. Can Carlos Correa beat his ass? I don't know.

I'd like to see it. Who you got? Ooh. Correa's got a bad back and a bad ankle. Oh, so you're saying Correa wouldn't be the guy. Yorda would have only one, right? Oh, Yorda don't crack him in half. But he's not that kind of guy.

No. Who you send him? Honestly, don't forget. Romer got to screw loose. Now, he might not be a... So you're saying Frombard's Twitter account doesn't match. He's got the biggest arms. Well, Cam Smith's got Cam Simpson's pre-built.

But he's too nice. He's super nice. He's a rook. Yeah, but he's from West Palm. Can't get dirty. That's true. Especially if you're on that side of 95. The other side of 95 is nice.

At one side. It's pawn shops and whores. That's your word of the day, I think. What? Hors. I'm sorry. Scandling-clad women. That do things.

For money. For money. Five minutes left to go to the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not. And here's how it works.

It calls 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not is all things... How did you describe it, Rossi? Things about Chris Crosses. Crosses. I'll read your statement about crosses. Statement is completely utterly accurate.

You'll say this. Mali, babe. If you're erroneous, follow about commitment, you'll say this. Two crosses questions that you can get correct will get you one of three things. One is a 790 t-shirt. One is a pair of tickets to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest, October 26th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. Or Ross, you ready for this?

Three, two, one. A four bag of tickets with pit pass to Monster. I am, October 18th at Energy Stadium. That's a bad idea. See, look what you did. Tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. Victor on 790. Victor, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. The first known crossword puzzles were published as a children's book back in 1890 in New York City. Believe it or not. That is a not. Statement number two for the win. The adolescent rap duo, Chris Crosse song, Jump, hit number one of the U.S. Billboard charts in 1992, and was there only top 40 hit, believe it or not? Not.

No, I had three more in the top 40. Congratulations. You're going to see Judas Priest. What's your favorite Judas Priest song, Matt? I believe it's April Flowers, Spring May Showers. I'll go with Breaking the Law. Brian on 790 Brian. What was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? You both ganged up on that Yankee fan. Priceless. Earl Moore pitch in the major leagues from 1901 to 1914

and was nicknamed Crossfire because of his sidearm throwing style. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yeah. As a matter of fact, Milo did his games back in the day. No, he did not. Maybe rest in peace. God love you, Molo.

Statement number two for the win. The first known crossbows originated in China around 650 BC. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's correct. We got a little mini jam going here. Four statements, two winners, four correct answers. John on 790, John, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. There was a game show in the 1970s called Crosswits, where contestants were paired with celebrities to solve crossword puzzles. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yes. Statement number two for the win. While the Medal of Honor is the highest Army decoration in the United States,

the second highest is a distinguished service cross. Believe it or not. Believe it. That is also correct. Six statements. Six correct answers. Jeremiah on 7.9. Ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. The Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball team won the NCAA tournament in 1947. Believe it or not. Believe it. Oh, here we go, Jeremiah. A chance for a perfect day. Are you ready? Here it is.

No pressure. Ready. Christopher Cross is alive. Believe it. Or not? Not. He's alive. That was the gimmie.

We just talked about it. I know. I threw the gimmie at the end today. We just talked about. He got overcome. COVID and was paralyzed for a while, but now he's fine. I think it was the exact quotes. All right.

We got a minute left to go. I know Ross is packing up because Lord knows he's been super busy the last half hour. Listen to interviews and replays. And writing those great questions. How does he get Christopher Cross wrong? That was the lay-up drill. I thought it was a done deal. All right.

Astros take a three-game lead into tonight's game. The Mariners and the race play tonight at 635. George Kirby is throwing today. Kirby's record, 8 and 6, ERA 3.94, his whip is 1.16. It's good. It's not as good as he used to be, but it's still good. Oh, man, he's horrible. Is ERA 394? What's Frambers? 340. The Mariners, by the way, according to match a predictor of a 50.6% chance of winning the game. Mariners are a minus 145 in the money line. That's interesting.

The raise are a plus 120. They don't think that this Adrian Houser dude's any good. He's 7 and 4 with the 285. Ernie. That's like saying Ernie. Okay. I'm going to say that a lot tonight. You know why? Why? Because I'll be hosting the On Deck Show.

6 o'clock right here, Sports Talk, 7.9. Where I'm sure everything will be kumbaya down there. You'll be playing a bunch of interviews and mailing it in. Good job. No, you're going to hear great insight analysis, recap. You're going to read some game notes and mail it in with some interviews that we've already heard three times. Should be great.

Well, you've only played it, replayed it once. You know, I think people want to hear from Dana Brown. I learned from the best. Uh-huh. Yes, you did. That's it for the rest. I learned from the best. You did learn for the best.

Up next, it's Wexler. It's Clanton. It's the A team. Have a great rest of your day. Frankie offstanding job as our producer. Our buddy Jonathan's back tomorrow. The whole gang's all here. 10 to 2 right here.

On Sports Talk 7.9.