The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Snap Losing Streak, Imai Adjustment Questioned, Rockets vs Lakers Set

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Astros Snap Losing Streak, Imai Adjustment Questioned, Rockets vs Lakers Set

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. If you know, you know. Stand by him, Maddie. And if you don't know, well, you miss great radio yesterday. Check the podcast. Check the podcast.

Sports790.com. Shout out to our friend in Laredo. because you know what he did? He did this for the Astros. This is beautiful. It's a beautiful, Matt. We're standing by our Astros. We are standing by them.

Although that ninth inning got certainly very interesting. Would that be the phrase of you doze? Ennio Dolo Santos, the new closer. Brian gives the Astros. My shine and then he gets pulled because he gives up a couple of hits. Well, you know, you ask him to get a five-out save. It's kind of, it's not easy. Yeah.

Brian and Bray, you completely on ice. I wasn't shocked, but I was a little surprised when he was the first one that Ennio Delos Santos came in instead of Brian and Brayu. In a very high leverage situation. Now, you were at the building last night. Did you say the whole time or did you go back to the studio? I stayed the whole time. Okay. So could you, now, when you get two strikes, two outs, people stand.

Yeah. Oh, yes. That happened twice. It kept happening. Yes. And then Cam Smith misplays the ball in right field or actually probably didn't defend it. Not misplay, but it was a lot. a tough play. It was a tough play, but it made it

a little more nervous than it could have been. Yeah. And I mean, it wasn't a full crowd on a Tuesday night against the Rockies at the end of the game. Right. So could you, there is nothing more disheartening and makes your heartbeat than

hearing the groans of a crowd that's on the precipice, on the cusp, if you will, of a victory, and then you see defeat right in front of you. Yeah, especially when you've lost eight in a row. You're playing the Rockies who are not very good. You got up seven to three. From there, you thought it was going to be, you were going to be on easy street,

but then they got a couple of runs to make it closer, and then they scored a run again to make it within one. I mean, they were just chipping away. A run in the fourth, a run in the fifth, a run in the eighth, and then you got into danger in the ninth. So there was at no point in that game where, are very few points in that game where you felt like they were just going to run away with it. And it was, and it's like the freaking Rockies.

It was, it's not a must-win game. in the middle of April, but for all of our mental health sake, if they would have lost that game, that would have been horrible. It just, it would have been so disappointing, so disheartening. After everything with the injuries and all this, this turmoil that's happening right now, but they pulled it out. They were able to win. They were. That last strike three call. Did anybody ever take a look at that on slow-mo? Was that a good call? I didn't have the, I didn't have it open. I didn't have the, because I was at the game. It looked like a strike from my vantage

point, but also I'm not behind the plate, so I don't know what it looked like on TV. I guess I can look at it, but it didn't seem I think they had a challenge left. They did, in matter of fact, I think what was I was listening to either the TV or the radio call said that basically it was too late that they couldn't. I mean, how long

do you have? It's the final play of the play. It's a couple seconds. You have to pretty much, well, almost immediately challenged, or they're not going to let you challenge. because they don't want you sitting there thinking about it, delaying the game or anything like that. So you're going to pretty much do it right ahead of time.

Because you could have somebody shouting from the dugout or another player. You don't want all that. Right, right, right. So I just, I want to look at it again. And like I said, literally when the last strike was out, I barely kept my eyes open just to see that and did that and then went to sleep. So I have to go look at it. But ultimately, it is a victory.

And we'll just, talk more about that throughout the course of the show here today on the program. 713-212-5-7-9. And again, if you don't understand why we played Stand By Me, you need to listen to yesterday's show. We had a great caller from our friend in Lovredo that came in. It was worth the price of admission, which we charge you nothing to listen to this show. We'd like you to sponsor, take care of our advertisers. That's true.

That's it. That's it. We're with you today until 2 p.m. coming up at 11 o'clock, our friend Brian Bogus, I'm with us for his weekly Wednesday visit. We'll have shut your bum ass up at 1130 today. We've got other things to get to, including a debate you could have. And I always tell you this. I was told this many years ago when I was taking debate in high school and college. A really good debate, you can easily see both sides of the story.

Now, I can see some of what we're going to talk about today on the debate. about Tatsu Emi. But I still think that the balance is on one side of this. And we'll discuss that on the show today. Also, Diana Rossini is out of the athletic. She resigned yesterday. And she took many a shot at social media for the reason why. Oh, she did. Oh, yeah.

Saying basically social media that got her to resign as compared to, I don't know, the truth. The investigation that was happening. Once I heard the word investigation, that sounds like, oh. And I can just tell you, she's going to lay low for a while. I can tell you that she's purr. There are some other coaches, general managers, front office people that are relieved that it was a variable that was the one that got caught. Maybe there was some others.

But I can't go any further than that because I don't have concrete evidence of such things. All right. Texans insiders on the job. Just saying. Mm-hmm. But yeah. She never admitted anything. I'm just kidding.

No, I don't think it was Bill of Brian. And we'll leave it at that. All right. 713, 212.790. 713212.570.790. You know what we've not done in a while? At least you, I don't know if you've done it on Twitter, but we, for the radio audience, we need to do our Christian rankings. That's true.

And there is a perfect song for it. Okay. And you'll hear it coming up if God was one of us? Nope. 10.30, you'll hear it. Jesus is just all right with me? That's a great song. Doobie brothers.

Good group. They're back on tour with Santana. Oh, really? Yeah. that's great Santana all-time great lost his fastball years ago but oh that feels personal

it's not personal okay you could have just said one of the all-time greats left it there I'm just saying if you're going to see him live just keep your expectations

doesn't everybody lose their fastball at some point? Yeah I mean he's almost 80 at this point yeah I mean put it this way and I know that this is an easy answer so basically the doobies have about

I don't know eight songs that are really popular Give her tank right? Okay. I'll go over. Maybe 10? Okay. They've been singing those 10 songs on tour for the last 50 years. How many original members are left?

Well, they reunited a couple of years ago. And it felt so good? I want to say there's at least three, if not more. Okay. Is it like more of the doobie cousins? I don't know who they are. Okay. Yeah, but point being is that those guys have carved out a successful career

Yeah. With 10 hits between say 1972 and 1980. And then I've been touring for 45 years. Now they also broke up for a while, but they got back together. They said, look, money's good. Yeah, good for them.

I just say, I think it's incredible how you can have 10 hits and still get on the, because people want to hear it. People like to hear nostalgia. People want to hear songs that they grew up with. And I'm the king of that. Oh, apparently they do have some original guys. So Michael McDonald's back with them, like you said.

Correct. There's the long hair guy, and then there's the guy that's the, that had the numerous health issues. I guess they had a big, they reunited in 93, it looks like. Yeah. Looks like they got a lot of the OGs in there. Yeah, it's good. Good for them. So, all right, but no, the song that will be the, we'll play, it's a journey song, by the way, 1030, there's your hint.

Okay. I think it's journey. Oh, and I got to look at them now. I'm frustrated. All right, so back to the Astros. How the local nine doing? You know what? You're one and on games so far this year. Oh, on games that I work?

Yes. No, actually, that you go to. Oh, that I go to? I was at opening day. Oh, by the way. Yeah. You were on your, you were at your first job. It was opening day. It's not a journey. Somebody else. Okay. I was at opening day. I was on the road.

I have two jobs. Not one more than more important. The a other. Opening day, the asteris. The Rockets. I had on. I had on. on Monday in 10th inning, and I have it again tonight. Good job.

I got playoffs this weekend. So, yeah, I'm happy. I got playoffs this weekend, too. I'm a balancer. I can balance both. I got playoffs this weekend too. Working all the game. Let's go.

Got full schedule out. All right. Astros hit. Astros pitching. Five of the Astros seven runs were unearned. You know what? Dems the breaks. If Colorado wants to butcher the play defensively.

Yeah. Shout out, Billy Castro. Yeah. All right. What else is going? Oh, we mentioned, And Diana Rossini. I keep thinking you're going to say Diana Ross.

Every time you say Diana Ross, got upside down. Diana Rossini got right side up. Diana Rossini. Don't do it. It's coming out. All right. Well, I thought, never mind. Oh, geez, you're, you know what, I'm done.

Diana Rossini has. I'm over. I'm over this. Reflections of the way life used to be. I can go on. I thought you were going to go baby love. No, we could do that. All right, 713, 212-790.

Tatsu-e-e-mi. Quite an interesting explanation as to why he has a sore arm. We'll discuss that next here on Sports Talk, 790. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 1018 on 790, if you would like to chime in. Look at those phone lines. Rossi.

They're all happy. Five phone lines full yesterday after the Astros lost their eighth consecutive game and they win. They did what they're supposed to do. Yeah, beat Colorado. Climb up the American League West Andes. Do your job. Hey, they gained a game. That they did.

Only two and a half back at first place. So maybe someone's thought of demise is largely over-exaggerated. We'll see. I hope I'm... Pitching still and look, what is the old Jeff Van Gundy, phrase do not ignore in victory, which you wouldn't have in defeat. They had issues. A lot of your runs were unearned, but thankfully, I mean, Christian Walker had three hits. You got a big

RBI double from Yoron Alvarez. You were able to get 10 hits, but you got out hit in the game. Five of your runs were unearned. Colton Gordon did not go four innings. While he was out there, he was getting knocked around with some very, very hard hit contact. AJ Blue Ball gave up some runs again. It wasn't hyper-efficient. And then you had to close out the game without what, in theory,

your best reliever, Brian Abray you, but he's been so bad, he was on ice in a very high-leverged situation in a game you really, really, really wanted to have. And you didn't use him on Monday. So you had him fresh for last night. Boy, I'll tell you what, it's going to be

and the reason why I brought this up a couple days ago, the pitching to me, There's nothing, no relief around the corner except for, let's give you some positives here because that's what we need to do. There's nothing structurally wrong with Tatsu Emi. That's good. That is excellent news. Again, if we believe that, everything is being reported. Hunter Brown is, sounds fairly optimistic.

This is not going to be a long-term setback for him. He went to the, going, he went to the automotive cart. He's from Detroit. Okay. You know, getting new spark plus and oil change, you know, all the things. I felt like I was. His nickname is the diesel. I felt like I needed to get a coupon.

I get $15 off. Okay. The cost of oil changes now are astronomically bad. Yeah. I'm just going to buy some ramps and do it myself. Got that right. And then Josh Hader had a bullpen at a live batting practice yesterday out at Diken Park. Yes.

Hitting 91 to 93, which he said is good as far as where he is in his progression, felt good afterwards. Joe Spada and Josh Hater, I believe, both saying the real test is going to be today. How is he feel as far as building up from there? Right. Because you don't, because 91, 93, will not get out to the major league level. No, but you got to build up. You got to crawl for you.

You can walk, Maddie. So let's put this way. If it's May 1st, it's about what we all kind of thought. Yeah. Which is a long time out, and, you know, you hope that he can come back and save you. And again, just a healthy arm of the bullpen will be the case. Okay, so let's get to the Tatsuweeemi.

And I'm going to paraphrase what the translator said, because that's how we can do. Okay. Basically, Tatsui Emi was asked about what's going on, and he said that, you know, the adjustment to, being in the big leagues as a major leaguer in the United States is significantly different than he thought it would be.

I do want to pull up some of the Brian McTagger quotes just so I get this right and this is not Brian McTagher speaking. This is, uh, and he was at the scrum. I was at the scrum too, Matt. Okay, so would you like to? You know when you're, you know this, Matt. So you're in media scrums and you're in front of somebody

and somebody says something and everybody in the scrum kind of looks at each other. And they're like, did he each other? Did he just say that? All right. So, Emi says he's not been able to adjust. Yeah. Yeah.

That's basically what happened. Through an interpreter, Emi said he's not been able to adjust to an American lifestyle in terms of baseball and outside of baseball. So everything. So it's basically miserable here. Oh, hey, come on. How do you, how does anybody else figure that out? He's having trouble adjusting, coming over from Japan, different culture, different, different language,

doesn't know the language. language, different game, different slope of the mound, different baseball, and the biggest part, higher level competition. Right. It is, this is the, this is the major leagues. When asked an example of such, this is a follow up from Brian McTaggart. The travel is different from Japan and also the timing when players eat. So in Japan, the players, when they get back to the hotel, they eat their dinner.

But in here, the players eat at the stadium. Okay. So that's, that to me, having been in the NBA, in the NBA traveling with team. Not all NBA players like to eat at the same time. Some will eat right after the game in the locker room, knock it out. Some will take a to-go box and we'll go take it back to their hotel or onto the plane with us when we come back. So that's, I mean, to each his own on that one.

He was asked about things he had to adjust to and he listed a couple things. I don't think some people, some fans especially are taking it as he can't eat. Now his arm is hurt. That's not what he was saying is one has led to the other. I think he was just trying to think of ways that the adjustments were different. And he just body language-wise, he seemed uncomfortable. Like he didn't want to be, not like he didn't want to be. He didn't want to be in front of the media explaining an injury, which is everybody,

most athletes anyways. Nobody likes to be hurt and then has to talk to the media because they're hurt. And he's already in an uncomfortable situation. Okay. And that's all fair. And that's correct. But the things he was saying, now, Grant, was not there, you were.

Do not directly correlate to an arm injury. Right. That's where I think the disconnect is with the face. Right. And I understand that, too. Because like I said, we're all looking at each other. We're like, what? We asked him why his arm hurts, and he says it's like eating an hour later.

So let's put this in perspective. And I need to preface this by saying that none of us have ever lived the life of a major leaguer in terms of. athletic preparation, the mental preparation, the lows, the highs. The highs are insane amount of money. Insane amount of money and fame. But with that comes responsibility. That comes public scrutiny.

That comes scrutiny with your own teammates. That is having your business out there. I mean, Tatsu Emi, we know what does he make per year. It would take you five seconds to figure it out, correct? Is he about $20 million or something? $18, $20 million. If you want to know what Ross Villarreal makes for a salary, you have to directly ask him. He's not going to divulge that.

So somebody's business financially for 0.1% of the country is public as athletes. So there's just a lot of different parameters that can't correlate to what we are as regular human beings. But regular human beings have taken jobs. Regular human beings have had to move. And there's adjustments. In 2005, I moved from Houston to Salt Lake City, Utah. There was adjustments. Yes.

Some of them were great. Some of them were miserable. But I made that decision. No one forced me to take a job in Salt Lake City, Utah. No one forced me to take a job in Minneapolis, St. Paul, two years later. Right. But if you're a high-level pitcher and one of the best in Japan, you are going to be compelled to come to America for the money and the fame.

compelled, yes, not forced. Yes, he's not forced. Nobody kidnapped him and forced him to come over here. Not only did he do that. He also went and got the saber two. Hakeem could have stayed in Nigeria and played basketball. I mean, this is not going to happen. You've got to come over here and you want to be the best of the best.

Okay. So if that's what you want to be. Yes. You have to know there's going to be a lifestyle and a cultural change. And all by the way, he went got a saber-tooth tiger and Scott Boris. He did. He went and got the guy. that is the higher gun.

Sab a two tagger. That is going to, is going to cliche and rhyme his way to getting you as much money as possible. And, well, we'll see if you did, or how that turns out. Right now, the deal is a disaster, but it's very early. So,

I empathize, but there's still a larger part of me that says, you need to get over this. You could have stayed in Japan, played professional baseball like you had been doing, Japan, right? Yes. I mean, I don't mean to be ignorant, but I just want to make sure I'm getting the right countries here.

And you're not the only ones ever done this before. There are international players, there are Far East players littered throughout Major League Baseball. One of them happens to be the most C player in the history of maybe baseball in the last 35, 40 years in Shohi Otani. Kaui Tang is right now on this baseball team. He's from Taiwan, correct? Yes. He's adjusted. There are lots of players that have done this.

he's not the first and he certainly will not be the last. So while I understand that he is uncomfortable with some of the things, you don't have time to get over it. There's not an adjustment period. You want a year-to-year contract in which you are being paid obscene amounts of money for a guy that doesn't have an ounce of majorly experience. If I'm the Astros, I'll do everything I can to make your life as easy and in transition because all of us have moved,

I'm not saying all of us, but a lot of us have moved in life, and there is a transition time to it. But to me, this feels more like I've sucked so far, and I have to come up with some ideas as to why I've sucked.

As compared to just saying, you know what, I've not performed well, and I'm going to get back on that hill as soon as I can. He talked about the hill being hard as a, in Seattle, the ball is slippery.

I mean, honestly ross nobody when you're getting paid crazy money like that nobody wants hearing excuses they just don't i understand that and and i totally i totally get that but we're also talking about a human being who has thoughts and feelings and is having adjustments and clearly is having issues right i don't even know i'm not going to say he's not hurt or something but the the imaging is arm fatigue doesn't make sense there's been no explanation for why his arm is fatigued and the imaging was clear So I don't know.

Maybe he's just shutting down. Maybe he just is, I don't know, having some kind of episode or something like that. I don't know. We're speculating here. But whatever it is, we're talking about, yes, a human being with thoughts and feelings, and maybe things are going the way that he thought they were. And maybe it's not as easy as he thought he was going to be. And he is having some issues adjusting right now, whether it be the food or the travel or the mound or the ball or whatever.

I know. It's unfortunate. It's because whatever the excuses are, it's hurting because he is one fifth of your rotation that you thought was going to be a really damn good rotation. So, I mean, I think generally speaking, we can kind of, we can, again, empathy can be part of this, for sure. But this can't go on much longer. Well, what are they going to do? Well, we'll go on much longer in what way?

If he's, if he's miserable. and hates it and doesn't adjust to it and can't perform the right thing for him to do would be to opt out of his contract the end of this year and go back to Japan

and go back to Japan or try something else I would be shocked like a 70 million dollars so then if that's the case then don't give me your sob story then he was asked a question if you ask hey why are you struggling

like hey I'm having trouble adjusting what did he do I don't I don't understand man it the the reason for sore arm doesn't the answer doesn't match they don't correlate right yeah that's my issue they don't correlate they didn't say like oh i heard i heard my uh shoulder doing this or whatever like hunter brown said yeah i heard i felt something in we did some imaging and it's a shoulder strength now to be fair to him again one more time for going right to be fair to him question asked question

answered and for that we appreciate honesty so i'm going so i think at the end of the day when we just wrap this hall up in a bow here, it's okay to kind of feel bad for him. How long we feel bad for him? I don't know. We're not a very forgiving society when it comes to our athletes. We're just not.

So I applaud him for answering the question. I just hope the Astros either take it seriously and say, all right, let's do whatever we can to make his life easier or somebody goes to the clubhouse and shuts the door and says, listen here, you're making $20 million a year. Grow up. Let him eat at the hotel. Yeah, that can do that.

Maybe they prepare special meals. I don't know. Let him eat what he wants. Get him a personal chef. Do whatever it takes. Because he's on the hook for a lot of money. Yeah. And the Astros watch every dollar they spend.

If you, put it this way to wrap. If you're Jim Crane hearing this, what do you think Jim Crane's thinking? I got Scott Boris in here. I got Dyken on the dime on this. You know, Dikin's got a huge interest in this. Yeah. Well, you're thinking maybe you made a mistake. Sometimes it's a bad deal.

It's early. So if that's the case. fine. His fatigues and be all right. So if it's a season long issue, which hopefully it will not be, because again, you look good in Sacramento last week, it's there. He said it was a lot harder for him to adjust than he

anticipated. He's having a harder time than he thought. He's been in America for what? Two months? I don't even know. But he had to know that was coming. I think sometimes we take on challenges and they're bigger than we thought they were. And I think that's what's happening with him. Well, I just hope that

maybe dinner time different, travel different? Let's go. All of a sudden heal the arm. Yeah. I'd like him to be out there. The correlation doesn't make sense, but that's him.

It's unfortunate too, because if Hunter Brown were healthy and Christian Javier were being L. Reptile and McCullors Jr's drinking from the fountain of youth and everybody, we wouldn't really be talking about this as much. You're like, oh, Rokie Sotsai. Tatsu Yemi,

I was pulling up Rokie Sizaki stats with the Dodgers. That's why I said that. He's not doing so hot. But anyways, yeah, if everybody else is pitching well and the team was 11 and 5. Mm-hmm. This would be a much smaller story.

It's a compound of problem, for sure. 1033 on the Matt Thomas showed Ross, 713, 212570. I don't think any of you, honestly, I don't think there's any of you that are completely going. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my entire life. It just needs to be addressed immediately, if not already, by the team.

Sister Christian all the time. Time now for a Christian update. Oh, come on now. This is not terrible. It's not a great song, but it fits. Who said anything about this quality of the song? You said, I'll jump, jump. I said, oh, this is not Journey. I know, it's not a Ranger.

Oh, so you're not, you're not ripping the song. Do you know what movie this is from? Can I have a hint? Or a movie? You're not going to know. Yeah, 1997, one of the greatest directors of all time. a elite actor who was a musical star and then became a movie star. And one of the great films of all time. No, I'll give up.

Boogie Nights. Oh, what a fantastic movie. Have you seen Boogie Nights, Jonathan? No clue. What on your list? Buggy Nights. Jonathan, you have got to go see Boogie Nights. We love the movie for two different...

I love it for Heather Graham. Matt only loves it for the nudity. Correct. It's about a porn star in the late 70s. But it's really about, it's about family. It's about Heather Graham getting completely naked. It starts off with an incredible steady cam shot. It's pretty much to me, Paul Thomas Anderson's ode to Martin Scorsese.

You have the fast scenes. You have the drug use scenes that mimic kind of Goodfellas Casino and other, even Raging Bull and other Martin Scorsese films. It's a Scorsese-esque. The screenwriting is amazing. the acting is incredible. The story is awesome. It's funny.

It's dramatic. It's a great film. Boogie Nights. Fantastic. Okay. Unbelievable. Matt just likes the nudity. It's a huge part of it.

I've always had a thing for Heather Graham. I just think even I saw her most recently. You know what? I forgot. I didn't want to talk to Jonathan at Whiplash. Write that down. Oh, what's that movie? I know.

All right. Back to, you got to play some more music because we're going to get the Oh, yeah. Keep the song going. Keep the song going. We're going Christian rankings. Christian rankings this week. Can we actually add a new member to the Christian?

Actually, we're taking one off and adding one on. No, if you're on the angelus, you can be, you still be on the Christian update. Mm-hmm. All right, so we got Christian Roa, Christian Walker, Christian Vasquez, Christian Javier. Yes. Rank him, please. One, Christian Walker. Two.

Christian Vasquez. Yes. Three. And moving. up to number three on the charts this week. It's Christian Roa. Dear Casey. Last but not least. Is he staying in the four spot?

Christian Javier. He's coming back. Is there a spot that Javier jumps out of four? He can at least pass Roa. He can at least pass Roa, right? I don't think Christian Roa pre-seth. Maybe Christian Roel is famous listen to show right now. Memorial High School grad?

It's a great film. This song only makes me think of Boogie Nights. If Adam Clinton is listening, he already would have they're texted. William H. Macy was fantastic in that movie too. Oh, yes, he was. A great cast of actors, Jonathan. Julianne Moore, outstanding.

Oh, again, granted, the nudity is phenomenal, but everything about the whole movie was great. Yeah, this is awesome. Heather Graham, where you're putting her in your list? What do you mean, of what? You know, of the list. In that movie? Of anything.

She's number one in that film. Oh, yeah. But she was also, I mean, she was great in The Hangover, too. and now hangover one hangover to i think she was maybe she was who knows hangover one she was great yeah yeah i'm just i'm just a huge huge heather graham fan okay what was her character's name paura and that spy who shag me oh very funny roller girl brother girl i don't remember her real name it's kind of spooky now though oh well how much she's 97 man she's also probably in her 50s at this point right yeah man

give her a break it's 30 years ago go google 2026 heather graham i you'll be all right. Wait, this is the one, that was the blonde. And Hangover One, right? Yes. Yes.

She had the baby. She married the dentist. Hey, spoilers. Oh, stop. There are about two or three movies. We'll get back to sports. I swear to God in a second. That I can watch today that still

let me laugh. And they've been right. Hangover one still to me, you can just laugh your ass off. Stepbrothers, you can just belly laugh the entire time. Of course, Airplane,

the funniest movie ever made, so. Airplane is not to me the funniest movie ever made, but. But.

It's a great pick. Thank you very much. Wouldn't have like a sports empty movie night? Y'all come on the house? No, because you don't really know film. I'm not looking

to sit in front of a film and watch it. I'm not looking to dissect it as an Oscar great. You're going to bring up all your favorite. It's an art form. Lifetime movies.

No, Matt wants to the album. It's a lifetime movie. It's not TV, Matt. It's our phone. Yeah. Well. And then you're starting on Young and the Restless, and we're really going to get mad. I haven't watched Young and the Restless in two weeks. I don't know what's going on.

Oh, no. I know. You feel disconnected? A little bit. Every time I go, every time I go watch it, my wife, he races them off the DVR. Is that why you're shaking and crying in the corner? Victor, you're still the goat, my man. All right.

1043 on Sports Talk Seminary. That gave you your sister update for the, your Christian update for the week. When I'm doing it, we should do it like everyone when we just forget. Because I felt like it's been a couple weeks when we've done it's, right? Yeah, so. I hope we want a pencil and every week at a particular time. But there you go. All right, Rockets, another NBA playoff schedule.

Conspiracy theorists, I'm here to fix your problems. There's conspiracy theories about the NBA schedule. About the Rockets and Lakers when it comes to one, maybe if two injured Lakers and potential return for them. We'll discuss that next. Today we're going to try something different. We love everybody to listen to the show. and we really appreciate those who listen to the show.

We have prize horses that call us every day at 150 that conveniently just happen to get in their cars and not listen to any minute of the show. It is crazy. It is a strange coincidence. And here's the thing that we can't understand. Our prizes are nice, but we're not giving me like cars and cash or trips.

We give away tickets to 70s and 80s bands. Yes. And the occasional 90s band that had one hit. Now, sometimes they give away tickets to sporting events, which is kind of cool. Yes. But that's not a common occurrence. Like, for instance, we're playing today for, let's see, we're playing for tickets to see the psychedelic fur is or Rod Stewart. I mean, two great groups.

Love them. I'm not the biggest Rod Stewart fan, but the teacher's own. I mean, he's got his hits. I could name one psychedelic fur song, I don't think. I think you can go your own way. That's not. It's Fleetwood Mac. And I would actually pay it because he'll see Fleetwood Mac.

All right. So my point is this. Today, Jonathan, I hope you're listening. I know we've got people in there talking to you. They should be shut the door and they're very busy. They're trying to figure out engineering issues. That's fine. Anybody that calls today has to give you the password to get in to play the game.

Now, all you've got to do is get one correct answer today, I believe it or not, to win. Wow. Because we're not giving away a prize as fast enough. Okay. So it's one correct answer. The keyword to get in to play the game is pineapple. Pineapple. Pineapple.

Because that's what you put on your porch. By the way, we only have one Rod Stewart ticket left. And we got psychedelic furs on the Yahoo, right? The yahoo, right? The yahoo. Psychedelic furs. And we're going to mention this password multiple times. So, I mean, all you got to do is listen, at least, I don't know, for 10 minutes, four times today at some point.

So if those of you at 1050 that want to call us back at 153 hours from now, the password to get into play, believe it or not today is pineapple. So Jonathan, you'll ask them what the password is, and if they don't have it, just say thank you a nice day. Sounds good. Okay. So we'll give you plenty of opportunities. The password is pineapple.

Yes. That gets you into play, believe or not. It's like going to a speak easy, if you will. Yes. You don't know the password. You're not getting in. Using it in a sentence, Matt likes to put pineapple on his porch. Ross, sentence.

Ross only goes to Santa plantation when he knows pineapples are out. used in a sentence. In the Boy Scouts Bakeoff, where you weren't supposed to use professionals, we used my grandma's pineapple upside down cake. And one, shout out Grandma Dolores. May she rest. Let me tell you, pineapple is maybe the most underrated fruit out there. It's the greatest fruit of all time.

It's in season right now, folks. February to July. First of all, delicious by itself. Yes. Pineapple upside down cake is fantastic. I don't even put on a pizza. It's not my preferred topping, but I'll put it on it. It's not crazy.

And I love Pinia coladas. Yeah, they get caught up in the rain. that's almost a guarantee I was hoping that would happen all right 1054 so the NBA playoffs schedule was announced yesterday

for everybody now and everyone is I wouldn't say everybody but a few people are winging out about that the fact that there are two days off in between games one and two

and two days off between games three and four welcome to the first round that's what first round is if you go back to the history of it it's not abnormal for these things to happen the conspiracy theorist

out there, which is just really silly. If you just took a little bit of research and looked at how previous playoff schedules, the conspiracy is that the NBA is trying to hold back the games as far as they can, so Luca can come back and play in this series. There is absolutely no possible thought in the NBA world that they're ever meant publicly, that they're trying to space these things out so Luca can come back and add to the series. The reason why there's twofold. Number one, first round playoff series always have these massive gaps.

They just do. And number two, this is the most attractive televised series of the eight. So they're going to put them in the primest of prime spots. Three of the four games are on either NBC or ABC over-the-air commercial. There's only one game that is non-prime network, and it's going to be an Amazon Prime game. Yeah, Friday, game three. So that's the reason why there's a spacing out.

It's not so they can give the Lakers additional rest. So please, if you're hanging out with your bros and they're saying there's a conspiracy, they're trying to get Lick, Luca back. It's not, that's not the case under any circumstance. And I have a crazy thought too. Go win the games. Go win the games, even if Luka's there. They're supposed to be better than the Lakers.

If Luka comes back, I will put my name on it. I'm putting my name on it. He's going to be 50% of Luca. So whatever 50% of Luca is, that means worst defense and probably going to get the 25 points, Ross, but it may take him 31 shots. Yeah, I ain't worried. I ain't scared.

Speaking of Amazon Prime, you guys are a great network. You lost the coverage for over two minutes last night. It was in clutch time, too, right? And the Miami-Sharlowlick game. I was seeing that on Twitter. I was at the Astros game, so I didn't really see the game. Gonzo.

Black, can't frozen. And I kept refreshing. I'm like, what am I missing? Nothing. The whole world missed it. Jeez. Streaming is wonderful until the streaming doesn't work.

It's been technical difficulties on TV too. When's the last time you missed three minutes of a game on NBC? I don't know. It could have happened at some point. Maybe there was an earthquake. Maybe there was an electrical fire. Yeah. But just good old fashion.

Internet outage, that ain't one of them. That ends the brakes. That's what happens. Buffering. It happened, I think it happened in an Astros game recently like the last couple of years. Oh, yeah, there's some times where the screen will go blank and you'll hear like Todd and Blum

on like a phone line. Yeah. We're here with Yankee Stadium. We're trying to work with some technical difficulty. Stay with us. Swig of the bus. Yeah, they sound like they're on the moon. Dube! Dubey! Dibby!

One small step for Jose. Al Tuve. Yeah, technical issues happen. You just don't want them in your first ever playoff game that you're broadcasting. Not good timing. Come on, Bezos. All right.

Brian Bogussevick to start the second hour. What? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Time for us to spend 10 minutes with our friend Brian Bogusevich of S-C-H-N, pre-and-post game shows. And, of course, the former Astro joining us here

on Sports Talk 790. That was a sweat last night. Ryan Bogussevik, but the Colorado defense didn't do its job. Astros took advantage of it. The bats came back and you got just enough from your bullpen to cover a large stretch of games to finally end that losing streak. Yeah, you know, watching that game yesterday is kind of like any port in a storm. You take a win any way you can get it. You know, use five relievers and throw over 100 pitches, get a lot of help from Colorado's defense. But, you know, whatever you can do to break the streak, kind of put that behind you and maybe not think about it anymore,

go out there and you're not going to be able to consistently win that way, but you know, you can win a game like that and we'll take it. All right. Unfortunately, you have been through a few of those in your life. When he gets to that, I didn't mean to bring it that way. Every time those lists come up, every time those lists come up. I know, I know. I didn't mention the year.

You weren't solely responsible. But how do you shake when it gets a 6, 7, 8? What's going for your mind beyond the fact of what can I do? When do I start looking at teammates? And again, you never have anything publicly about it. But just the thought about when it starts to get to that kind of level, what is the tenor like for a personal player and then obviously a group in the clubhouse collectively? Well, it's certainly not fun.

And nobody's having a good time going out there. And, you know, you show up every day trying to have a fresh mindset and trying to approach the day as if today's the day that it's going to turn and to put in all the work, you know, from noon until 7 o'clock and then go out there and be like, oh, man, another loss. It happened again. It gets old fast. But the thing about this team and this clubhouse versus, you know, teams that are just perpetually bad, like some of those 2010-2012 teams, they have guys who have had a lot of success

and they have had success as a unit. And they can look around and say, look, I know that I'm doing my part and I trust that these guys are doing their part to get out of it. And eventually we will. So there is a little bit, it is easier to try to look ahead and see a light at the end of the tunnel when you have a group that's been so successful previously. But it just comes down to are you doing the things that you need to do on a daily basis to try to get better and get us through this? And do you trust the fact that everybody else is also? And I don't think that waivers in that clubhouse. There's a variety of things a manager has to do, Brian, when you're in a long losing streaks.

And when you're also battling injuries, which unfortunately Joe has had to deal with a lot this year. How is it for him? And you've never done it yourself. I'm just curious what it's like from your perspective watching Joe try to massage this bullpen, which has been overused. It got used a lot last night. And how do you kind of work through this knowing that the only way you really give guys time off is by asking, inexperienced guys to give you six, seven innings when they don't typically have a history of doing that?

It's difficult in a lot of different ways. It's difficult because your closers hurt and the guy that was supposed to fill in for him is not himself. It's difficult because the starters are not going deep enough into games to allow you to kind of, you know, pick and choose your spots where you're using as. You're just having to cover innings. It's difficult because you have a lot of guys pitching, you know, big innings and pitching meaningful innings who don't have a ton of experience. So there's all of these different variables that you have to deal with. And, you know, managers like to go into games with a roadmap for the most part.

And obviously things change as a game goes on. But you want to know, hey, I can generally expect to get this from my starter. And I know that I like these relievers against these different parts of the lineup. And hopefully you have in the back of your mind. And I know if I get to the eighth and the ninth, boom, you go, you know, upray you hate her in years past. And that's a given. There is no roadmap right now.

So it really is, you know, day to day based on who's available and who's been overworked. It's inning to inning on, you know, just do I need to cover four out of the pen today or do I need to cover seven out of the pen today? And really it's batter to batter because, you know, for the most part, you're thinking about relievers in one inning stints and maybe, you know, three to five batter pockets of the lineup. But there are plenty of times now where it's, okay, you went in there and you put out the fire to get out of, you know, basis loaded situation.

I got to run you back out there the next inning and see if you can get me three more. And if you do that, I might push you one or more after that. And you're just constantly pushing it and you're constantly trying to find where the edge is and pull a guy right before he gets to it. And that's just, you know, it's really difficult to do once or twice. It's nearly impossible to do if that's what you're having to do with every matchup. Brian Bogusovic with us here on Sports Talk 790. So I guess as the rotation is comprised, your one, two guys or maybe McCullors and Burroughs.

It's kind of crazy to think about where they are right now. But, I mean, whoever's out there, they have to perform, they have to go deeper into games. specifically on those two guys, what do you think has gone wrong and can go right with them? Well, I think what's gone right is their stuff looks good. I mean, Burroughs, if you just look at the spin of his breaking balls and the velocities of his fastball, they look fine. McCullors his stuff certainly looks better than it did last year. And similar to what was encouraging in spring training, they've gotten in trouble

with location within the strike zone. And there's been so much talk about walks and everything, and obviously first and foremost throw the ball over the plate. But you've got to have quality pitches, especially if you're going to pitch deep in the games, especially if you're going to try to get through lineups, you know, multiple times. You've got to make quality pitches.

And when those guys in particular have gotten hit, it's when pitches end up in the middle of the zone, and nobody's going to, you know, live 100 pitches on the edges and on the corners. but it's just if you're going to rely on guys to be, you know, what is essentially the top of your rotation right now, they've got to be able to go out there and just execute at a greater level because the stuff is good enough to get deeper in the games.

I don't know that it's going to be, you know, an automatic seven innings every time you go through the one and two spot, but it's got to be more efficient in the zone and then more quality in the zone as well. And on the starting pitching front, Tatsu Ma, I imagine you heard his comments about adjusting to coming over from Japan. And it's just an interesting and curious situation where he says he has arm fatigue, the imaging is clean, but he was I-held as well. What do you make of all that? And just him at some point, unfortunately, especially with paling with everything else that's happening with starting pitching.

you need him to try to figure this out, adjust as soon as possible, and get healthy, and then, oh, by the way, be effective when he's on the mound. Yeah, so a lot of stuff. First and foremost, it looks like a guy who's not having a very good time right now, who's not very comfortable in his surroundings and is just struggling, you know, baseball-wise, struggling and just struggling to adjust. I can sympathize. I went the other way.

I went from, you know, the U.S. to playing in Japan, and all of the things that he he's talking about. I dealt with them in reverse and they're real and they affect you. You know, not to the point to that you can't perform, but adjustments are real off the field.

I will say this in just, you know, listening to his comments and especially just the way he was talking yesterday. So when I was over in Japan, a question that we got asked all the time by managers, coaches, media, fans, whoever,

was how's your conditioning? They would always ask us, how's your conditioning? And they would want, like, a percentage. It was a strange question. But at first, I hear conditioning, you know, through my interpreter. And I'm always, you know, like, I'm healthy. I'm in shape, like 100%. My conditioning is 100%.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm in shape. I just got to hit better. But what I found later is it's a question that they ask when they want to know what's your conditioning relative to, like the best version of you as a player. You know, are we seeing 80% performance, 90% performance? Are you at 50%?

And it's like this all-encompassing thing that is how do you feel? Are you healthy? Are you comfortable off the field? Is your girlfriend mad at you? What's going on? And so it's this weird, like, all-encompassing number that they're, and I got to the point where I would just make up things. I'd be like, I'm at 74% today.

Like, it didn't mean anything to me. But it is a very real thing for, the Japanese players to answer these questions about just how do you feel kind of holistically and as a whole and the adjustment plays a big part in that. So I'm sympathetic to a guy who's talking about his struggles, not just on the field, but also trying to get comfortable off the field and also understanding that that's a real thing that they answer on a regular basis over there. And I wonder if, you know, through question to interpreter to player back to interpreter and then answering the question, if, I mean, things get lost and tweaked and stuff. So I wonder if he's just

trying to express that he's not feeling right and really just feeling like himself at this point. It's, Brian, it's a... It doesn't think of the fact that you've got to pitch better. Yeah, I mean... It's just is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is. And as I talked to Ross about it last hour, and look, when you want to play the very best, you go to the major leagues. No disrespect to the Far East game, no disrespect to the Mexican leagues, but there's a difference between those two leagues that is brought up and what you have in the major leagues. So if you want to go do this and you want to make the large amount of money and you want to play against the very best, there's going to be some ups and downs to it.

You know, when you are compensated and when you wouldn't go get Scott Boris as your agent, he's going to go get you the best deal possible to make you the most. money because that's what you hired him for. So I think there's a little wiggle room to feel sorry and empathetic. I mean, we're not all cold as human beings, forgetting about baseball fans, but I think the leash is fairly short on this because this is a guy that was supposed to be brought in to basically replace Framber Valdez. The Astros made a concerted effort not to bring back from Bramber Valdez because they had a plan B. And this plan B so far has not worked out. No, at the end of the day, it's a bottom line league and it's a bottom line world.

that we live in and it's not a try hard do your best league it's a do good league and you are expected to perform and you are compensated well for that performance and whether or not you're comfortable with the hotel situations and the travel situations um you know that that is for you to deal with and figure out in order to perform in the way that you are expected so yes at the end of the day, it's all about what can you do out there for the team on the mound. But yeah, there's a lot going on there right now. Bogie, thank you for the time. As always, we really appreciate your weekly visits with us.

Enjoy your work on SCHN and we'll talk with you again next week at this time. All right. See you guys. Thank you, Brian Bogus-Septic with us here every Wednesday at 11 a.m. here on Sports Talk 7.9.11.14 is our time. Ross, we got shut you old bum ass up at the bottom of the hour. Can't wait. you don't have anything bad about me, are you?

I might. That's fair. It's a half hour to just air the grievances, right, basically? 713-212-570. 7-1-3-212-5-790. We'll read a little bit of Diana Rusini's letter attacking social media. Okay. As she doesn't say anything about the relationship with her or Mike Rabel.

She's taking a high-priced job at the athletic and saying, you know what, I did nothing wrong, but I'm going to resign anyway. I have a good tip for all the folks out there young and old. Oh. If you're getting cyber bullied, turn off your screen. Yeah. It's not real. And keep your job.

If you did nothing wrong. Well, she was getting investigated. When you resign in the midst of investigation? Yeah. Question is going to be, what does a variable have to answer to? We'll discuss that next. 1115, Sports Talk, 790. 1119 on Sports Talk 790.

It is perhaps a more media-driven story, but honestly, it's to fans too. I mean, and the NFL news cycle is incredible from Shepter's to Rapids, to J. Glazers, to the fact that NFL news coverage is 12 months a year. It is the one sport. I'm going to get down to the whole gunshot thing. Don't worry. I'm not giving that up. Yeah, I heard you were going to, you were taking a borrowing from some of others' methods. What methods of the journalistic methods? You said you got a lot of good ideas lately. Wow.

Why do you do this to me? It's just flat out cruel. So I'm not going to read all of Diana reciti's... Is it long? Yeah, several paragraphs. Oh, is it like a sob story? Well, I'll let you decide. Okay.

I was going to say, do we need like a song? What song? No, that's good. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Please accept this letter as my resignation from the athletic effective immediately. I have come to the decision with deep sadness, but with clarity about what is right for me,

my family, and the work I've spent my own career building. You and I, meaning his publish, his editor, her editor, have public addressed the recent articles against me, and I have nothing to add publicly to what we have said. I've covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story. I've ever published.

I'm glad she finished that sentence and she's a standby story. When page six item first appeared, the athletic supported me unequivocally. Express confidence in my work and part of my journalism for that, I'm grateful. In the days it followed, unfortunately, commentators in various media

have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unfounded, oh, excuse me, simply unmoored from the facts. The media frenzy is hurting forward, without regard for the review process the athletic is trying to incomplete. It continues to escalate fuel by repeated leaks. I have no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has already caused far more damage than I'm willing to accept.

Then she explains why she's quitting because her contract ends June 30th, just to it now. Once a career is spanning more than 15 years in sports journalism and NBC, ESPN, the Athletic, I have built a body of work that I'm proud of. I have broken stories, earned the trust of sources across the league, and have been guided by the highest standards of professional conduct. This record speaks for itself.

And she thanks the athletic and her colleagues for what has worked out for the time there, wishing the platform continued success. She doesn't admit anything. Didn't need to. It's a letter that she knew that was going to get published, so she did not want to hang any more tea out for us to consume.

Bottom line is, no one believes her. Not a single soul. No. I'm sorry. The photos say it all. They just do. Leaked photos. Somebody professionally took them.

In a pool with hands in Sedona. If this is at a rugged in Kansas City and they're both both grabbing a milk carton at the same time as they want the same milk bottle. Okay, I get it. No.

You're in a pool, holding hands, on a floaty, hugging. Hugging. And I remember, Ross, you said that this wasn't going to happen. No, okay. Hold, Jonathan. That was before there was an investigation. I didn't say this was going to happen. First of all, you said, y'all were saying her career is over forever.

We never hear from her ever again, then you will be right on that. I believe that to be honest. And we don't have to read these comments, bad. It's bad. Okay. So, yes, she has resigned from the athletic. Also, at that point, there had not been an investigation. And I said that on Monday, once they launched an investigation,

I thought it was possible that the athletic would just let her deny everything and then let everything sleeping dogs lie. Once they said there was an investigation, because that's anything, right? If you want to investigate something, that means you want them out. So the athletic wanted her out. Yeah, the athletics getting crushed over this or was getting crushed over this. So once the athletic said investigation, I'm like, okay, she's gone. And there we go.

If there was just going to be a denial and everybody's going to move on, that's what I thought was a possibility. Now, here's the reckless part of it. The reckless is there are beat riders and fellow colleagues in the NFL media world, which you and I are not part of, that have basically said this has been the worst kept secret in sports for a long period of time. Not only is she having a relationship with Vable, but she's also had relationships with other general managers and coaches. There's Sean McVeigh rumors. There's a bunch of other guys.

There are. There just is. And I don't want to say it because I don't want to be libelous on this. Okay. But it wouldn't take it long to figure out the list of people that she's been associated with it. And again, this is rumor-mongering. So there may be inaccuracies in that. And maybe that she's what she's talking about here.

But there ain't nothing about, there's, no speculation about the Mike Rable pictures. It's just not. And the reality is this. They're two adults. Adultery happens all the time. It just does. Doesn't mean it's right, but it's just a part of our society.

And if they're going to have a relationship, they can do that if Diana Racini is an accountant and Mike Rable is a construction worker. You can do it all you want to. It doesn't make it right, but you can do that without any repercussions. questions. She is essentially using her relationship to gain access to stories and information to help her job. That's, that is an ethical violation of journalism one-on-one. And that's the reason why she's out. Yes. If she wants to have side pieces and he wants to have side pieces and their

regular Joe Schmoe 9 to 5 shift workers, nobody cares except probably their, their spouses. And for that, we feel sorry for them. But this is a direct public journalism to source conversations. that you cannot argue under any circumstance, they cannot have a relationship. It blurs the lines. Yes. And also, it's interesting to me, now we've talked about the Mike Vrable

just going to get away with everything. Well, the reality is this. How do the Patriots feel about Mike Vrable, perhaps, I wouldn't say perhaps, probably more than likely giving her stories? That's the thing. because it's not about the adultery, as you mentioned. It's about the stories.

If Mike Vrable is giving out protected information, insider information, right? Diana Rossini is not just, I mean, maybe they're just hanging out and having a good time. Nobody believes that. But she's broken a lot of stories related to the Titans, to the Patriots. So if inside information, if you're at a company and somebody is sleeping with someone and they're a reporter and giving them inside information, that's cause for firing. Yes. Any other job. We have ethics training we go through at this company every year.

And this is a class of quiz every year. That's not true. But thank you for throwing me under the bus. That conversation is constantly talked about in our yearly trainings. Giving proprietary information. Company secrets. To help out the competitor. And the reality is either she's trying, she's either trying to promote what my variable is doing

or trying to get other people off the sniff of what. maybe the Patriots and before that the Titans were doing. So he's involved in this as much as she is. But the reality is there is no code of conduct per se about what it's like to be a head coach. There may be a code of conduct that if you're an employee of the New England Patriots, you have to adhere to. But look at your owner. Your owner's getting happy endings in Jupiter. Florida.

Florida. Yeah. Somebody, like I said, any job we can think of, you're leaking stories to the media because you're getting happy endings. Yeah. That feels like cause for firing in a lot of places. And it's not going to happen.

And it's not coincidental that when it was time for the Patriots to have a media availability with the coach, Mike Vribleson, I'm good. He's going to have to answer this eventually. And my guess is he'll be trained to say that I've already spoken about this. I've already made a statement. I'm not going to discuss this.

Yeah. That's curious. They all just got. They just got caught. Yeah. They just did. And I hate to say this, but there's adultery all of our society. And sometimes you can get away with it and sometimes you can't.

Yeah. Again, that part is... Your high profile job, reporter to coach. I mean, direct source to source e. It's like, come on, Mike. Giving up stories to you. Anybody willing to open their legs for you? Come on, man.

The argument we had that you and I have about this, and I think she's done as a... As a journalist is that... If she directly screwed this up, they would then have to take another journalism company, whether, whatever it be, to say, okay, you made a mistake. Like all of us make mistakes in life, and people should be given second chances. But how is she, she's going to wear this for the rest of her career. So the next job she gets, the next story she tries to break, what's going to be the number one narrative for that company that employs her?

Oh, she slept her way to this story. Yeah. And if I'm a company, I don't want any part of that. I wouldn't want any part of that. it would be a smaller company. She's not going to get picked up by like the New York Times. I mean, what is she going to? I mean, the Galvest in Daily News is going to pick her up?

I mean, there's a million NFL websites. PF, the 33rd team, pro football network, whatever. All right. Like Yahoo. Jonathan, Ross may be right by technicality, but I think in the spirit of this, when we think of legitimate news ESPNs. It's, no, it's, it's the Yahoo's, it's the athletics, it's the, who else is out there?

S-I for a certain extent. I will double down on this. She will not be working for anybody that you would consider a quote-unquote legit. Like if she works for bar stule, that's not legit. If she goes for her underdog, that's not legit. Okay. That's what I meant. I didn't mean that she's going to go and she's going to move upwards from this and she's going to be on CNN.

Like, that's not what I was saying. Y'all got to read these recent, like, go to her most recent post before this and go to... The comments. The comments. But do recent comments because she blocked the comments on the other one. So they're going to the back, they're going back to the other post and putting more and more. So here's what she's doing. She took off the allowing to reply, but you can still retweet and repost with your own quote at the top.

That's how people are doing it. You can turn your replies off all you want to, but if someone re-reviewed, repost your tweet you can put your stuff on the top that's what people are doing but this day and age too like so any company she's going to go to you need a social media presence and you can't even do that with her is now it's that's that's that's a point you have to have a social media preference preference to wherever you go work her presence they got caught I don't know would have been better if you just said okay we made a terrible mistake we're trying to fix this we need some time away away from this business to get to get my family back in order I made a mistake I actually I don't know

but would I feel better about that what I feel like okay you know what people make mistakes in life everybody does we're not we're not foolproof of being perfect would have been better if you just come out and said okay we goofed i don't know but she's it's worse it's worse because then didn't you completely crumble any bit of credibility but her she still hasn't admitted to anything basically saying i'm quitting because you social people me people are mean to me that's that's another reason why i think it it is possible for her to latch on somewhere else that would be smaller of course is because she hasn't admitted anything my Vrable hasn't admitted anything.

She'd deny it. Move on. If she can break stories, if she can get somebody's social media presence, not now. I'm talking about later. Yeah. I think, of course, it was a different scenario, but Bob Nightingale was like he was getting every single story wrong. He was a complete joke in terms of baseball. Anytime he put anything out, he was a laughing stock.

Yeah. All right. Let's tell some people to shut their bum asses up. Would you like to do that? 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 shut your bob-ass up ain't nobody got time for that after Ross tells you about synergenic I bet you have time to play believe it or not today at 150

the pass code to play believe it or not today is pineapple so if you don't tell Jonathan the pass code you don't get to play believe it or not okay this is really not for y'all because y'all all listen to show and call in. We thank you. It's for the 150 prize horse. What's the topic today? Believe it or not, today would be all things about famous arragettys. I'll start, Spencer.

Mrs. Mrs. Darling Arrogatee. Mrs. Darling Arrogate? You're just making up words. You may be. We'll look at all the his no hitters he threw against Made Creek. Oh, there's two of them. It's plenty of time. 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-5-7-90 Jonathan you're first up this week

What's the matter with you Jonathan? Houston does not make any sense why I-10 is getting completely demolished And move to a different highway you're trying to make Three lanes can't merge into one in a moment's notice And then on top of that Houston we got to survive. Why is there a car in the middle of the highway

of a two-lane street because everything is merged in? Got his hat with the lights on and doesn't move. So everybody's at a standstill coming from a five-lane highway to one. And the span of like maybe two miles, ain't nobody got time for that, man. Ain't nobody got time. You're basically describing traffic in the city of Houston for the last 30 years. It's how it is.

It's worse later. I'm with Jonathan because I think there's some kind of beautification project going on because of the World Cup's coming. Yeah, like, it's weird. Like, there's lights now under the underpass by Dike and Park. They are working on seemingly every street downtown and I-10 and all, like, everywhere. It's everywhere. And that's what I was going to mention, too, because this happened to me last night when I was,

I was coming home from Diken Park after doing the post-game show, I had to take like three different detours and I can't figure out where the hell I'm going. Also, we can look like 5% prettier for the World Cup. Ain't nobody got time for that. Ain't nobody got time for that. I'll land this. Ain't nobody got time for two of the three biggest airlines to potentially merge. Oh my God.

What happened? I trust busting. Shmided and Bamerican might be merging. That feels like that should be illegal. If that happens, we'll never be able to afford to fly anywhere. There will be down to four airlines. I was telling this to my kids last night. When I was growing up, there were 15 airlines.

You had legitimate competition. Yes. For not only prices, Rossi, but for customer service. If you wanted to go from Houston to Tampa and you went on, I'll just do an old airline, Braniff, and Braniff gave you good service and good fares, you paid and you win. But if they did you lousy, then you had a chance to fly Texas International, or you had a chance to fly TWA or Ozark or Republic or Western or anything, I mean, I'm just going through all these Pan Am.

now if those two airlines merge we're down to nothing anybody got time for the two of the three biggest airlines to merge because all of us as customers are going to get screwed ain't nobody got time for that's correct they are they already soft collude with their airline ticket prices baggage fees are going up now I understand prices are the fuel costs are getting to people I get that I mean it's what it is but they certainly don't bring them down when the fuel costs go down

sorry I just had to say that because I'm trying to plan. Carly and Kimmer got they've got orientation in June and we're trying to book the fairs. I mean, the Providence, Rhode Island, Jesus.

Sorry, Matthew. I mean, we better to take the space shuttle up there more affordable. I thought you were done spending once you got the scholar. Shut your bum ass up, man. Exactly.

Chris Brousard, you complete idiot, tool, douchebag NBA reporter. Shut your bum ass up about Kevin Durant. Shut your bum ass up, man.

And Colin Coward, I have a lot of respect for you, But shut your bum ass up for giving Kevin, for giving Chris Brousar, the latitude and the ability to say his endless babble about Kevin Durant. Shut your bum ass up, too. Shut your bum ass up, man. I don't watch any show that any of them are on. Folks, you want good Rockets Talk Astros.

Houston Sports. Yes, us. Sports Talk 790. Come on. Damn it, piss me off. Ross, what's the matter with you? I already said, all the construction and all this lights and beautification and all this stuff. Like, they're working all downtown.

town that all the lanes are blocked. So, I mean, putting up the murals is cool. So I guess maybe long term, I'm going to be fine with this. But putting lipstick on a pig on a lot of parts of these parts of Houston, just because we have a couple of World Cup games. And we want people from Qatar to think we're cool. I got another small one to a certain delicatessen. Who doesn't toast bread?

I like toasted bread on my deli sandwiches. I'm sorry we don't toast bread. What do you mean you don't toast bread? Get a damn toaster, pop it in now. Let's go. You know, but I got time for that. Huh. ain't nobody got time for that?

I guess that's a valid concern, I guess. Not high on my priority list. Yes, I'm saying not high, but that's just me. It's just me being me. Okay. If Subway can toast my break, so can this delicate testin. Cheap. Ain't nobody got time for that?

Cheap, bad deli meats. Subway. I still eat it. Cheap. I got a subway gift card is burning a hole in my pocket. Oh, yeah. How much is it? I don't know.

How much is on it? I don't know. Shit your bum ass up, man. All right, I'll give you you, uh, if it's worth 20, I'll give you 10 for it. Matt on 7. Matt, what's the matter with you? Oh, Ross, Ross, Ross. I don't really agree with a lot of your takes.

I know really I'm in line with your opinions, but you really sent me yesterday. I got to tell you to shut your bum ass up. All right. Ain't no one got time for your terrible opinion about Starship. Nothing's going to stop us now as a banger. No, sir. Shit your bum ass up, man. blows, you're wrong, and Starship can shut their bum ass up, Matt.

Shit your bum ass up, man. All right, we'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. Phone lines are open. 713, 212, 7998. To Amazon rhyme, you can't get two minutes off of an NBA broadcast. Playoff game.

You just can't do it. Anybody got time for that? That's a bad look in your first go-around. People are bitching about streaming. Yeah. Tatsu E-Mang. Ain't nobody got time for your eating problem issues, your time clock. They just don't.

Hey nobody got time for that. You've had too much to adjust. You just have. I empathize on a lot of the things. Culture, I get it. Being in a different country, I certainly get it. Yes. It's a culture shock.

He's taking a little time and, yeah, he's having some issues. Shut your bum ass up. No. Either you take the food. Shut your bum ass up, man. eat with your boys or get to the deco plutter and you go back to the hotel and knock it out. Shut your bo-ass up. What is Japanese for shut-o-mas-up?

I think, obviously, we wouldn't be talking. If he was throwing six innings of one-run ball, we would be hearing less. I think it's all things wrapped up. I think you're right. It is the culture shock. It is the new league. It is all those things that are happening and going to go into Florida. And now he's in Houston.

And now he's traveling around. And he's not pitching well. It's all adding. And I think the very last thing meant 90% of it. And I'm not pitching well. I think you're right. All right. 1145.

Let's go back on the phones. We come back. 713. 212-790. 7-1-3-2-2-1-2-7-90. It's... On the phones we go. We ask you to call us and we help you.

Tell some people to shut their bumasses up. Matt, 7-90. Matt, what's the matter with you? airlines and their baggage fees which is why I found out if you sign up for the United Explorer card you get your bags free brrah you only get one

your bum ass up man bra you only get one bag for free unless you're in a leaf fly and you get two but yeah the bags it's not the issue with the bags it's the airfares that are going up and it's the fact that if the two airlines merge we're going to be in a worse situation than we are today don't you agree

Well, I agree 100%. Just trying to help you save some cash for your upcoming trip. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Yeah, all my credit cards are tied to airlines. How many credit cards you got? Two. Good.

Both with Shmited because that's the airline. We fly more than anything else. Yeah, I just signed up for the Southwest one. Yeah. Thank you very much for the phone call. Yeah, everybody should know. If y'all don't know this, this is a little PSA from our previous caller. If you do travel a lot and you do not want a paper bag,

just get a credit card from them. Now, if you don't want to carry an interest, you know, whatever. If you want to make sure, well, yeah, if you're going to pay it off. Yes. They also have good bonus intro, bonus points. Yeah. Southwest was doing a companion pass for a little while, which is why I sound up for that one. You can also do Chase or Capital One, depending on what kind of points they have.

Just saying. Yeah. Shop around. Do it to best, but like I say, if you have to carry bounds, do not go to the shire. Don't do that. Don't do that. But you've got a bitch purchase coming up because normally these intro offers, they have like you need to spend a certain amount in the three months. If you're like about to buy a couch or a new car or whatever, put on a credit card, get your bonus points.

Let's go. I do that. I'm a points horn. Oh, yeah. Hashtag churning. Go look up churning, folks. Churning or churning? Churning.

Okay. I told you about it. Javier, what's the matter with you? Oh, man. I got strep throat. I'm here at work. I'm tired of this traffic out here. Missouri City. I told my boss

I wanted to go home to see. Javier, turn your radio up and I said it's bum eyes up. Go look up turning. Shit your bum ass up, man. I think he's a little bit of stuff, man. Javier, turn your radio up as lot as you can.

Turn it up really loud. It's like 12 or 13. Way up high. Thank you, Javier. I think Javier got his little three seconds in and I want to hear my voice later. Steve, on 7.

Steve, what's the matter with you? Mapple music. Ooh, Mapple. Go get after him.

Get them, Steve. Yeah, they delete my songs. I paid for them and they just say, you know what? You don't get that

song anymore. Not like the good old days. You could buy a cassette or an album and it was yours, right? Well, it's not like

that with Mappel music. They're taking away songs you paid for? Yes. How? They just say, you can't have. have this anymore. I've had like four or five songs that have been like that.

Are you sure you're not deleting them yourself? No, no, no. I go and I try an attempt to play and it just says, you know, not available. Hmm. Wow. Sorry for your loss. Seriously. Anybody got time for that? Yeah, I know. And race bank, you know, your mobile app, I know everybody just loves that mobile app. well, you know, if they get a hold to your account number and your, you know, and all that's in your routing number, they just,

they just, they'll print checks and then they'll use that mobile app, and then I'm the guy that has turned around and prove that that's not me. Ain't nobody got time for that. Man, you haven't... I got to be honest with you. Thank you for the phone

call, Steve. I have Rappel Ruzik, and I have race, and I have zero issues of either one of them. You have what? Race. Race bank. Okay. I was just Googling. People say tap on Apple ID,

view Apple ID, and look in hidden purchases to unhide and download your music. There you go. This has been happening to people. Sage advice from old sports. I don't know. I just Googled it.

All right. Last one before the news at noon. Gary on 790, Gary, what's the matter with you? Hey, good morning, guys. Matt, this is for you, man. I'm so ashamed of you. And I heard you listing off a

all kinds of stuff about this guy that just came from a foreign country and he's not pitching and you listed his eating and this and that you've made a list of stuff I sound like you're trying to write a fictitious novel man the guy's here from a foreign country he wants to pitch there's something wrong with his arm and and even I had to change the channel even the OG on the other sports sports talk you know what Gary turn the other station and leave it on there we don't want you anymore goodbye I don't shut your bum ass up Don't tell me what you're doing

If you're going to turn the station Turn in keep it Because you're going to be bored off your ass Okay, that's just the reality of it Shit your bum ass up, man Thanks for listening, Gary No Gary, go to hell Gary I don't want you to listen to show anymore

Have a great day Gary We will not need you You're grumpy all the time You come and you take your shots Goodbye, I don't need you I like people I don't like you Goodbye

Hope you have a bad day Shit your bum ass family's doing great Gary. Gary, I hope your family's fine. They're probably embarrassed for you, but that's a different issue for a different time.

Have a good... Shit your bum ass up, man. Have a good hump day, Gary. Gary, don't get into car wreck. If you do, hopefully you don't get too many severe injuries. I hope you get home safe, Gary. Gary, hope you have a good time

on the home tonight. Hope they get your tapioca and putting blended perfectly. You completely misunderstood what I said. The reality is this. He chose to come play here. I did empathize

for the transition. It's not easy to move somewhere else. But the comparison to why my arm is hurting and why I'm not good is compared to I'm miserable because I'm not in my home country. That's two different things. And again, no one forced him to come in the United States. No one forced him to get the most saber-tooth unbelievably thirsty for money agent in the sports industry today.

He had to know this was going to be a possibility. transition is difficult. I've done it twice in my life. It ain't easy. And I certainly haven't done it from country to country. But when you're getting paid... How's your Japanese? It's not good.

$20 million, whatever the dollar amount it is. $20 million doesn't mean anything, though, if he's just not in a good place mentally. Okay. And if it's not in a good place mentally... If he's not a good place mentally and physically, I mean, it is what it is. But that does not correlate to tired arm.

I'm saying it's both. I said physically as well. Walker rushes this one deep to left field and you can kiss that one goodbye onto the train tracks for Christian Walker his fourth home run of the year and it is three to one Rockies a three two slider and Walker was all over it and the moon is the only light will see first paste of your Donnie rips it down the right field line both runners will score It's an automatic double as that ball inducted into seats down the right field line on a blistering line drive.

And we're tied. Here's the one-two from Lorenzo. Ground ball, left side, and throw! An RBI single for Vasquez at 7 to 3. Vasquez's second hit of the inning. Yeah, two hits in an RBI. That's a pretty good day, right? That's an even better inning if you're basket.

or the mountain should pumble and Los Santos set to two runner goes and that is strike three call on the outside corner

and that is the ball game the Houston Astros in their losing streak at eight games as they take the series and homestead opener from the Rocky 7 to 6

thanks to our caller who's the gentleman's name Laredo yesterday they called I forgot I should write the names down better I don't remember Was it it wasn't Javier was it? No, we had a hobby

I had a hobbyer that called earlier. Laredo, you're representing for that, we thank you. We need more guys from Laredo and Les Garys. Oh, man, I'm going to turn the station because you're so mean to you're so mean. Shut up. Seriously, shut your bum ass up. Go listen to other stationing, fall asleep to it.

Knock yourself out. Shut your bum ass up, man. You won't curse, you won't go on disgust. This, this, this, this. Oh, hell no. That's 50. that's $50 I know you know what here just take my wallet Ross just take it

uh could Nick Casario get us a sneaky pig in the second round shoe no hell no we're gonna do four hours of great well maybe not great at least halfway trying radio Unforgettable moments Yes great analysis

Yes well you'll get that from you The occasional shouting match Yes that's for me Matt Thomas show with Ross. I ain't changing. I'm going to enjoy myself doing the show. We screamed at, what were we screaming each other about again? Oh, the tip thing.

The tip thing. By the way, Ross is going to go buy us lunch today, Jonathan, and we're going to leave him to leave his credit card up and going so we can do the tip after. Yeah, if you do 15%, that's what I do. I mean, I did 12 for that young man that left his... What if you did custom tip? Do you ever think about that? I'm not going to do that.

By the way, I'm getting a lot of support from people on Twitter and people on the IG, you can follow me there at SportsRV. I will follow you back up until 1 o'clock. Appreciate it. And some guy told me that he, there was a woman being rude to him in the line at, at Dyken Park. And then she left the tip thing up and he put in like 10 bucks.

Hey. If you're rude, do it. Yeah. If the person's gone, then I would say no. But the person's being a jackass in front of him, Make sure their life's miserable. I like it. 12.10.

Let's get to the news and noon. Okay, sure. Why not? The Astros won a game. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Rockies. Go down.

That's what I'm talking about, baby. Go, go Astros. USA. USA. You can't use USA. The Rockies are a part of the USA. Colorado? You mean former Mexico?

No! No, sir. Is Colorado part of the United States? 713-212-2-5-790? A.J. Blueball got the win? I didn't even realize that. Colton Gordon, not great. 500 runs for the Astros. Not great. Brian King got pulled in the ninth.

Not great. It was like you kicked Brian King's dog when he left the game of the night thing. I had a bray you completely on ice. Not great. But Ennio Delos Santos closed it out. It's not how, but if. And the Astros were able to get the win. 7 and 11 now on the season.

Maddie, only two and a half games behind the Rangers and the A's. We're coming. We're coming. Here we go. Go. Go. Astros. I will take the L.

Man, it's a little bit of this in a while. What is this? Dung de Nestros. Dund up to do. Dump, don't... Just don't put your hands up. Just enjoy it. This is a jam.

Got it. All right, sorry. I'll play the English one. This is better for you, John. And his version, better, frankly. What do you mean worse? Shut your bum ass up. It's a better.

Why don't you and get a lunch together? You can talk about how miserable your lives are. Orange fire. What's the man? This is the jam, John. I grew up with this song. This is the jam, John. I don't care what you said.

This is like the 76ers for the Astros? Yes. Yeah, come on. If you like the Sixers jam, you got to like this jam. If you don't like electric piano, you don't like America. If you don't like this, you don't like America or Colorado. All right. What else in news headlines?

NBA play in tournament winners were. Yeah, I was going to. Okay. I thought you wanted to go with Diana. I don't want to go with Diana Rossini. I don't want to go with Diana. Yeah. Stay far away from Diana.

You need to. Hornets beat the heat. 127 to 126 in the playing games. Suns lose to the Trailblazers, despite a stellar performance from playoff legend Jalen Green. Read the stat line, can you? 35 points, 14 of 29 from the field.

2 of 7 from 3. He also turned the ball over five times, but overall, very good game from Jalen Green. Dylan Brooks had 20. Devin Booker had 22. But Denny Avdia. Falbator. Had 41.

How many free throws? He only made eight. How many attempt? 13. That's a lot. That's a lot of free throws. Devin Booker attempted 13. We don't call Devin Booker a foulbator.

You know what I will. I'll start a new trend. Hello, Devin Booker. You're a foulbator. I like him, though. That's the news of noon. All right. Up next. And Diana Rossini resides at the athletic.

Mike Vrable still is a job. She'll be on with 33rd team next year. Is that what you're going with? Sure, why not? I mean, doesn't Barstow ride her a check? Doesn't Barstow ride everybody's check? Barstow might, yeah. Does only fans have a sports account?

Matt. What? Come on, man. O-FN? You would not read Diana Rusini's reports on Only fans. No, I would not. All right. You guys are a quick- You're a member, though.

Who is? You? No. They shipped you that plaque. No. Everybody got time for that. Same. You said I couldn't use your debit card.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 1215 on the Matt Tobin show with Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You know, tomorrow we have if I just don't get. This has been one of those topics I bring up a hundred times. And the reason I'm bringing up now is because it was on McAfee, which we're changing, thankfully.

How ESPN continues to treat wrestling like it's a real sport is... It's literally unbelievable. Mind-boggling! Unconscionable! Well, I don't say it's unconscionable, but... I mean, they're treating it as journalism. They're like breaking down who could win this and having people on... I get the odds.

Don't they have betting odds on those, too? Yeah. But if you're betting on wrestling, you're just a sucker. You just are. You're a sick human being. Right. But my, you know what I'm saying? I mean, look, there's 24 hours they're going to cover. And they're going to repeat sports centers. They're going to go through on the offbeat. But wrestling is not real. It never has been. It's real with me, damn it.

There is a totally scripted event. And yet they're treating it like it's a game seven of the world series. WrestleMania is this weekend. I understand that. Yeah, it is. That's great. It should be a good one. What's the main event? It's a two-day main event. Okay, what's the main main event? What's the headlining? What's the big, I cannot wait to see what happens in this one. Roman Raines versus CM Punk.

Oh, I've heard of both those guys. Okay. That's good. I still haven't been invited back to your house. I've since the WrestleMania, whatever that was. And then you have Cody Rhodes versus, I don't know who Cody Rhodes is going against. But they have two different individual heavy white championships and each have a belt. Oh, okay.

Oh, he's going against Randy Orton. I just remember. See, I don't watch the current stuff. So I'm just catching it just off the top of my head here. But those, those, the, WrestleMania is a two-nine event in Las Vegas for the second consecutive year. It was supposed to be, I think it was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia. And they had to pull that out.

Yeah, they brought to Vegas. It was a war torn. Yeah, not a great idea. And prices for the event are as high as they've ever been. So now there's been pressure for WWE to lower the ticket prices. People cannot get to Las Vegas without spending. thousands of dollars for this event. Are they selling or not?

It's down considerably than it was last year. Last year there was like 60,000. There's like 35,000. There's like 35,000. In a single event or a two-day event, that's a lot of money that's lost. Issues selling tickets in Vegas, you say. MBA does not necessarily worry about it.

They don't seem to care. Nope. By the way, do you think we should go to Vegas? You and I are going to Vegas in July. Okay. Do you think we should go without a hotel and just trying to see we can scrambling? rounds up in terms of value, like a last second deal.

Would that be good in our best interest? I book hotels last minute all the time. Okay. Because everybody's asking, where are you all staying? I don't know where we haven't figured it out yet. We're going to stay downtown. It depends. Unless it's like a big event, unless it's like, oh, you weekend where you know it's going to fill up?

Yeah. Or... We're going in July where it's hot as balls there. I'll be talking more about this next week, but you have the Argentina versus Honduras game coming up, June 6th at Kyle Field. you might want to book early. Super Bowl, stuff like that. We have purchased the Thomas family

has purchased tickets for that event. What's that? The one at Cal Field. Oh, really? Yeah. More about that? Next week. Oh, you're going to have some information about it.

I will have more information for you. Oh, I liked hearing that. I'm glad you got information on those things. Argentina versus Honduras. Maybe I'll get some tamales and Pepsi and drink them together. So you're going to the game? No. I may watch it.

Or I may not. Hopefully I'm busy with the Rockets and deep, like deep four of the game of the NBA Finals. I understand being delusional. I kind of understand being delusional while I'm being the Thunder. Let me be that way, please. Let me have this. They're not going to the finals. For a few more weeks.

But we have the schedule set. Yes. By the way, 128 players were asked who's going to make the NBA finals, who's going to win the NBA finals and you could not pick your own team. Number one of the list was Oklahoma City at just over 50% of those players. So 65 or so of those players chose the thunder to win the whole thing. They are the favorite. Clear favorite.

And the best team. Yeah. Barring injury. And you know, you want to hate them, but they're not a hateable group. I mean, Shay is hated. She's hateable because he gets the free throw line way too much, and he gets dinged on his elbow for a small scrape, and all of a sudden he's at the free throw line 16 times in a quarter.

Chad Holngrens Wiery. Chats had some success against the Rockets, but also the Rockets throw his body around like a rag doll, too. He's also had a better career than Jabari Smith Jr. But Jabari's really come along. He has. Jabari's given you 15, 16 points a game, playing good 1-3-5 defense.

Not lockdown, but good. And frankly, has become, oh, I think he's going to be offensively. 16 points a game, about 36, 37% from 3. The mid-range is, I would say, is an uptick better than it was in years past. He did an off-the-low. block there was like a week or two ago he did like a spinning move and then went in for a dunk and I'd never seen he normally just pull up

I don't know why every team is not prepared for this he's going to he's going to get one dribble in and he's going to do his little pet pull up shot and it goes in it doesn't even even pull up I mean he just directly shoots the ball yeah that's his pull up game and it's good

and he's been shooting well but yeah a little bit more development from the offensive game could happen what's he like 22 years old? Yeah, they're all still babies. Oh, he's so old. He'll be 23 in next month.

23 and is making ungodly amounts of money. He's doing well. Playing basketball, working hard, working on his game, working on his body. And you know what? I am Team Jabari. Period in the story. Big time. Super guy.

I think he still calls me boss. He might know my name by now, but there's no guarantees. Okay. He calls me Ross. He does? Yeah. Wait, what do you think he's saying boss? Would you like a little story to embarrass myself a little bit?

No. Okay, I won't tell them. I would love it. Ah! That was quick. So I was having dinner with a group of people from the Rockets. Do you snort? That was Jonathan.

It's funny. So having dinner with a group of people and one of the Rockets players went up to one of the people in our group and said, hey, what did you do for dinner? And they said, well, a bunch of us went to dinner. And the players said, well, who went? And they mentioned names and they mentioned Matt. And the player said, who's Matt? these kids today dang sorry

it's like your radio announcer good no respect with you for 10 years no respect at all no that guy no respect at all it's like you ever see that segment on on a Saturday Night Live

called what's his name what's that name no it's where they have two contestants go up there bill hater was the host of the segment was very funny

and they had two people they said all right name the actor that won the best picture award in 2019 what's their name or what's his name and then the character

yeah I saw him Yeah, and one of them is Norman the Norman, and the guy's like, I don't know who that is. He goes, I've raised your kids. I've helped you park your car for like seven or eight years. What's my name? And he goes, Greg, and the crowd goes, Norman. Yeah. So I feel like we're playing, what's his name with the Rockets players?

Yeah, they know you, Matt. They know my face. Yeah. Katie gives me out, what's up, man? Yeah. I don't you use wear shirts with your name on it or like a name tag? Like how my name is Matt? Yeah.

You could wear like a price. You know what? I can wear a price is right name tag. his right tag. That'd be hysterical. That'd be pretty funny. And they'd be like, what are you wearing, Matt? Easy peasy. I think I'm, you know what? My goal is we're going to be out in L.A. for like a week, apparently.

So, I'm going to be out there a while. I'm going to try. It's two days off. Yeah. My goal is to get at least half the players and know my name. Good luck. Not going to work out well, is it? I think you can do it. I believe in you. 1230 on Sports Talk 790.

7.13. 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I'm going to ask you all a question. Because Ross and I have discussed this so far, probably what, two or three segments so far on the show today? What is your thoughts on the United States? Do you say, give him a little break?

It's new, it's a new world, or do you say on just the other side of it? He knew what he was signing up for. He's been in the United States for two months. He know what was going to be asked of him as a major leaguer. Suck it up. Now, I will say this, Ross, social media is not overly interested in hearing about his sob story, but social media generally speaking is a cruel group of people in the world.

Yeah. So I would tend to rid myself of that equation. Much of sad human beings on rage baiters. Yeah. So if you all have an opinion on when you heard EMA, EMI, excuse me, EMI say that the food time and the time change and living in a different country has caused him, is he directly correlating the arm problems

you were there? Was he directly correlating that? It sounded like it, yes. That he's having, because people ask like, hey, did you hurt yourself throwing? Like, did you hurt yourself throwing? Like, too much Velo program?

And he's like, I'm just adjusting. So that's what he went with. But also it's through a translator. Who knows if something. Brian Bogusevich talked about stuff being lost in translation when he was in Japan. So was there something lost in translation?

I don't know. Okay. So if you haven't a thought on I, hearing what he said, saying, hey, the transition tough, do you say, I'm going to give the gate a break? Or do you say, toughen up, Nancy, you're getting paid $20 million a year and you knew this was coming

because you decided to make the change from going from the far east to playing in Major League Baseball, the highest former baseball out there in this world. 713-212-5-790. I mean, again, I can really see both sides of this. I really can. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Congratulations to Lehigh baseball, Ross. Did you catch this yesterday?

No, I did not. You're a fan of Lehigh baseball? They played Coppin State, and they took care of Coppin State by a final score of 38 to 6. 38 to 6. Lehigh setting a Division I record by scoring 20 runs in the first inning. Wow. You know what it's worse? Let me run through this, and it's going to go from bad to worse in this 38 to 6 game.

eight different Lehigh players had reached base in the top of the first inning. Five were scored and the Eagles then made a pitching change. This is the Eagles being Coppin State before reaching the first out. Damn. The remaining 15 runs came across before out number two. Oh my God. Runs four through 16 were all scored on walks, hit by pitches. Oh my God.

Or wild pitches. Oh, my God. So literally Coppin State fielded a baseball team that literally couldn't throw strikes. Geez. You know the Astros bullpents got issues.

Go look at Coppin State. Oh my gosh. Lehigh's 10 and 24 on the year. 38 to 6. That's incredible. They had 12 hits in the game. That's it. They score 38 runs on 12 hits.

Oh, man. 25 walks. Nine hit by pitchers. Coppin State throws 11 wild pitches. It was three different pitchers in the first inning. They're four. There's four different guys. So what do you do?

Do you just go to Coppin State during an inning and say, hey, here's your check. Let's end this. There was nothing good to be, I mean, obviously the game was run rules, so they didn't have to go a full nine. But my gosh. Good God. That's horrible. 38 to 6. We go to the bottom of the first of the Coppin State Network.

It's 20-0-0 Lehigh. Back after this. You know you always had to have your extra stories ready for blowouts. Oh, I've had a few. How was that broadcast? Oh, Lord. What was the runtime on this game? In my Cougar baseball team lost 10 to 1 A&M yesterday in college station.

Time of game 402. For five innings. How many innings did it go? Looks like it went at least seven. Oh, it's seven innings. That's right. Oh, God. Seven innings in four hours.

Oh, poor man Oh my gosh, that's not good That's a beat down to remember With the boys later After you graduate You think things are bad with Brian and Brayor right now Just think about old Cappin State baseball

Poor guys Would you think about in the ninth inning last night I'm not going to Brian or Brady Did you did you? I was a little surprised Go ahead, sorry No, I was going to say Did you get your dander up?

Did you like shock Were you like what's going on here? I was like, why? I was, shock I would not say surprised maybe a little but totally understanding he has not looked good

you don't want to use him in a high leverage situation it was a very it was important to win that game oh my god it's important especially as color was trying to come back a little by little bit more than Brian King they had to try to give him a five out save and then Enel delos Santos had to come in for the last one probably tried to stay away from Brian Abrae maybe if it was like a three run lead

then Brian Abrae you might have gotten in there for some wiggle room but there was no wiggle room, room for error, and it was a game they wanted to win. Totally get it. Yeah. Good leadership by Joe Espada. Anybody give him credit? Everybody give him Joe Espada credit?

And congratulations to the Astros pitching coaches for weathering through that storm with all the bullpen work. Yeah. All right. We brought this up to the audience. And again, if you're out there, listening. By the way, if you want to play Believe it or not today, what is the pass code to get in today, Ross? Pineapple. John, then what is the pass code that you'll be asking people to play, believe it or not at $150?

this afternoon. Pineapple. Pineapple. Using a sentence, when Ross goes to see in a plantation, he only stops at homes with a pineapple

in front of the door. Boom. I love eating pineapple. It's my favorite. The house built for the sponge that lives under water. Pineapple.

He lives in a pineapple under the sea. When Ross sees a pineapple in front of someone's house, he drops his keys and moves in. Absorbid in yellow and porous is he. All right, back to

Etatsui-Imi. Okay. So let's make sure We're very clear on this, so nobody misconstrues what I'm saying. He's a worse human, he's a terrible human being. He's quit on his teammates and he needs to be shipped back to Japan ASAP. I believe that's what you said. You hear that, Gary?

That's what Ross said right there. That's what Matt is saying, I believe. Gary's listening to their station right now, so we've lost him. He's asleep. We've lost Gary, he's a listener. I don't know how I'm able to move on with my life. Relax. Talk about that's EMI.

That's right. So EMI question asked and answered for you get serious bonus points on that. you also get empathy because people do move in life and transitions are difficult. Sometimes you take these dream jobs and you think they're the greatest thing in the world and you're in another part of the country where you miss your family, you miss your friends, you're like, I've got to go out here as fast as possible. And he does have that out. He's not pot committed to playing in Major League Baseball for three years.

He's pot committed to being a Houston Astro in 2006 and that's it. my resolution to him being so upset is call other people that he's I mean Scott Boris has clients I'm sure that have international flavor to that That's what I'm saying This is probably not the first But there's no way the Astros are just like

We'll put him in with the boys And everything's gonna be normal And we're all gonna be good I imagine some help To help him transition was made by both Scott Boris And by the Astros Was it just not enough Or is it just the case of him

Or I don't know exactly. Well, here's the one thing. Would EMI be complaining about the food and the time change and then being away from home if he was 2 and O with an ERA of 1.50? No, but maybe it's all adding

up. When things aren't going your way, it feels like nothing's going your way. It's like to travel, the food, my arm hurts. I'm not throwing well. I can't get out consistently. It's, you know, frankly, it's a danger for being forthcoming, and that's why I I think, frankly, teams, general managers and coaches,

tend to give you less than more because they're afraid that whatever they're going to tell you is going to come back and bite him in the ass. If EMI comes back in, let's say, three weeks and he continues to struggle, and the ERA is north of five and he can't get people out and he's pitching short, you know, are people going to run back and say, well, maybe it's because he's missing home too much. Maybe he'll quit baseball and become, I don't know, a woodworker. Tatsu Imi, a Japanese woodworker. Why not?

I mean, I guess if he's got a background in that, I hope it works out. He's going to pitch better. It's going to be better. The only thing I'll say to close out this visit is that it just feels like there's just, or trying to connect the dots on this, and there's just a couple of spaces. It just seems so odd that the things that are,

You're not performing well, that's one thing. But tired arm, arm fatigue is not a direct correlation to I'm not eating dinner in a proper hour. If you're terrible, you're pitching every fifth day and you're giving up five runs and your head's not in it. You know what? You go to work and you're in an area of the country that you don't want to be in and you miss your family. You can you still go to work. You just don't perform well.

But your body is your temple, Matt. What you put in your body, you get out. Okay, but nobody's depriving him of food, Ross. Maybe he's been eating like too much brisket and Tex-Mex. You know what we got to do? Let's go get some ribs. Yeah? Why not some brisket, Matt?

We can take him about some brisket, too. You know what you do? Tatsung and I need to get in the car and travel my state. Your state? Yeah. This is your state? You own this place? No, when you carry the mantra of Mr. Texas...

You're not Mr. Texas. Maybe I didn't take him down to Port A for a couple days. Puerto Ranzas? Yeah. That's what I'm just saying. That's what you're doing. Oh, okay. Sure.

Then we can run over to, I don't know, San Angelo? San Angelo, don't go there. Why? Just don't. You're saying that San Angelo's on a place you don't want to spend quality time? What are your top five things to do in San Angelo? There's a national park that's there. You're lying.

No, there's not. There is a... See, you don't even know where the national parks are in... There's a museum there? name the national parks in Texas. Zion? That's in Utah. You're out.

You're voted out. Worst candidate ever. I'm just going to tell you, Tatsouille. The worst candidate. You and I was a road trip, getting into culture, getting around the state. Let's take him down to Gabboson for a couple days. Name three state parks. This should be easy.

Mount Vesuvius. Oh, my God. I think that's in Italy. I'm trying, Tatsui. I'm trying. 713, 2, 1,2, 5, 790. 713-212-5-7-90. Don't look at me that way.

Fraudulent. I just wasn't prepared. Give me time to prepare. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Come on in. How do we fix Tatsui? Do you guys have a way to fix E-Mai? Because I'd love to hear it.

I know the assholes wouldn't mind hearing it. Sports Talk 790, 1246. 1251 on Sports Talk 790. It is Matt and Ross with you. We have a chance to catch Dana Brown every Monday. Wednesday morning at 9.30 here on 790. And Ross, he addressed directly the thoughts we had about Tatsui Emai and the fact that he is having a difficult time adjusting to playing American baseball.

I was just told there were cuts in the system from Cole. All right, well, we won't be playing it then. I thought there were. That's my mistake. It's the whole interview's in there. It's nine minutes. I don't know if time we get to top of the hour. Okay.

What? Top of the hour. You know what I do and said? Let's pivot here. Okay. I'll tell Josh. I'll tell. Oh, okay.

Yeah, follow me on Instagram. At Sports RV. I will follow you back. Well, I set up until 1 o'clock. Oh, how'd they go for you, by the way? I haven't looked. All right. Hey, everybody.

Please follow me on, um, on Instagram. Yeah. At SportsMT. Yeah. You're not going to follow people back, though. There's a chance. I might. Hater update.

on Matt and Ross's show Hader update When will his arm be good to go? There we go. When will his arm be good to go, Maddie? Let's ask Josh Hater. It's in his system. I did see this one here.

Josh Hater number one, Jonathan, telling the media yesterday assembled at Dyken Park that this has not been easy return getting back into play. Stuff don't sit here and watch games and not be able to get a part of it. Obviously, no motions. still there, but not being able to participate. It's definitely a crime, but overall, you know, I got work to do in the background, and I feel like I've been doing that.

Is he concerned about the injuries? Number two. We haven't been playing good baseball, and we've been losing, but we play 162 for a reason. You know, there's a long season ahead of us. We're going to have some ups and downs. I think, you know, obviously with the downs being early in the year, it magnifies much more, but we got a really good ball club here and we're going to do some really good things I think you put too much pressure on what we got going on now you lose sight on what's ahead

so you know these guys know what they got to do each and every day they're going to show up they're going to put 100% in and they're going to play good baseball so obviously you know you just got put the put the foot forward and move on and exactly where is his arm compared to the time of season we're in That's kind of where we're at right now. It's just going through that, quote, unquote, spring training schedule right now. And then the rehab would be essentially my games. And there you go. There's your Josh Hitter Update.

Josh Hater Update. Good for him. Hater Update. Love it. Feels like May 1st. Needed. That's honestly one of the under, not necessarily underreported, but it's kind of been on the back burner that we haven't been talking about, hey, what's going on and going wrong with the Astros?

Why are they losing all this games? games, well, yeah, you're missing, I mean, guy who's arguably best closer in baseball. You've missed him all season long. And the guy you thought it was going to be a backup has been a complete disaster. And oh, by the way, none of your pitchers are going like five innings. So, of course, they've been struggling. Getting hater back would be huge. I mean, how massive would that be?

With all these late games and late comebacks that they've been giving up. It's putting people in positions that they're not comfortable in. Brian and are you? here's the thing I don't know what kind of offseason he's going to have in terms of free agency but the sample size of him being a closer

is not good so if he's looking to take the next step in his career he's probably going to wind up being what he was somewhere else as he is now here and that's a guy that's a setup guy that doesn't necessarily have the evidence to say he's a proven closer he did okay last year but it wasn't

spectacular he's never been a guy that has been typically 11-12 pitch-inning guy to begin with, which is a little alarming. At the time. The results have been good. Brian Abrayu has been great, and even in high leverage.

But for him personally, he could not be having a worse way to end a potential last year as a free agent. They went to Enel Delos Santos over you. You just got, you got,

Enel Delos Santos going in the game over you in a high leverage situation and a game that you you really needed to have and a win. For as big as an April 14th, must win game can be, that was that.

And you were on the shelf. That's got to hurt. Because again, he didn't pitch the previous day. Now, he had pitched two days in a row. There's nobody for the Astro is pitching three days in a row. With all the injuries I've had, I guarantee the Astrod medical department says you're not using a reliever three days in a row.

Joe Spott, I couldn't trust him. And I understand. And that's cruel because, if this team was going to hold its head above water, you needed Brian O'Brien-Bray you to be that guy that can fill in the missing pieces for, you know, 30 to 45 days. 228 ERA last year in 70 appearances. He was fantastic.

Was he the guy we were talking about that was being so overworked the last couple of years? Yes. Do you think that's part of the problem? Could be. Is that finally the amount of mileage you put on this vehicle? Last three years, 72, 78, 70 appearances. Okay. That's a lot.

All right. So thankfully, Josh is getting 9091. I wonder if he's got to get to 96, 97 to say that's where I normally am before I'm ready to go. But he feels good about where his Velo is, where he's coming back. Yeah. So he's in spring training mode, which is a good sign as compared to not throwing, because that's what Hunter Brown's not doing right now. Yes. Tatsu-E-E-Mai.

All right, so as I promise you, we will hear from Dana Brown when I asked about the Tatsui-Emi situation. We'll do that to open up the 1 o'clock hour with the show. If you want to get in some rockets chatter, we can do that to 7-1-3-2-2-790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. As promised, here is the, I'm chuckling here. Ross just asked what today's edition, believe or not, was, and he said Diana Rossini. I mean, we guess we could.

Has she been with this player or coach? Believe it. That feels rude. That is kind of rude. Especially a lot of it is just more rumors or anything else. But, man, people cannot tell me enough of the stories that are out there about her in the NFL. And you know what? And there are a lot of women that are coming to her offense.

There's also a lot of women that are saying, hey, we all don't do this. I totally understand why women are defensive, mad, angry, all the above. Because women have to fight this to get in the man's world of sports journalism slash reporting. And the lowest and lowest hanging fruit is that they say that women get opportunities because they flaunt their sexuality. And this is an example of it. of it. Now, as you brought up yesterday, it brings up a lot of point. Men also use influence of, hey, if you give me this story, I'll be happy to do this for you when it comes to promoting this

or talking about this or defending you when something, when criticism comes up. I mean, it's a, it's a convoluted, messy game. And women and men don't have, unless there's homosexuality involved, which I don't think there is a lot, but it could be some, but that's not important at this point. But attractive woman to a football coach, building relationship beyond just the question and answer Diane ain't going to be the first and she ain't going to be the last yeah and women have to understand that

and that's why women have it more difficult they're automatically going to be judged before they Aaron Andrews how many stories have been over the years about Aaron Andrews and all the hugging that she does with players after she interviews I mean that that's a terrible look for her I know that she's probably doing innocently but people tend to take that kind of step and run with it.

I don't know. I don't. I got nothing. Okay. I mean, I haven't heard anything about Aaron Andrews. I don't know. Certainly, yeah. There's a rumor that happens all the time when it comes to women in sports.

And you just have to, if you're really good and you play about the rules, you'll get past it. But you have, I mean, no. You cannot, you're not a lot as a female. any gray area whatsoever. You're just not. Because the presumption is you got the story or you got the contact or you got the information

because you used a personal relationship to use it. And when you have Rossini and Vrabel holding hands in Sedona, Arizona. Playing mercy. And playing mercy. Did you say you were playing mercy with your wife?

All the time. I'm a little worried about y'all. Why? Yeah, I guess whatever. You know what? Whatever you freaks are into. Jonathan, what's the last time you played mercy with your lady? Never.

Okay. That's your thing. That's beautiful. That's cute. We all have our things, right? Whatever keeps a pineapple off the porch. You ever played Twister with your girlfriend? All right.

Maybe in college, a group of friends? Oh, you got friends involved. Here's Dana Brown. I didn't bring to bring up those Western Kentucky frat parties. Here is Dana Brown. Hill topped. Hilltoppers. So you won't get into the receding conversation,

but you're talking about being hilltopped. You're certainly a very selective. I didn't have anything to say about it. I never heard anything about Aaron Andrews, so I didn't have a comment on that. You don't think Aaron Andrews had to fight that? I mean, I'm just, I don't know. I'm presuming.

Well, when she hugs Aaron Rogers after the interviews, that makes them look kind of like, you don't normally hug an interviewer. Take pictures, but no hug. All right, back out. Tattoo Emi. Here's Dana Brown addressing the concerns that Emi had about his performance and maybe some factors that are off the field. And we will play that because I think I just put it in the system.

Is it there? It's there. Oh, it's loading. Okay. Follow me on Instagram, SportsMT. Let's go. How's that going? Great.

I don't think I've got anybody yet. That's all right. Come on now. It's a work in progress. Instagram. There's adjustment periods for all these players. Our players, when they go. over there. Their players when they come over here. The big thing we have to do is you have to listen

and talk to them and try to figure out what we could do to make the adjustments. You know, there's a cultural difference in this country, you know, the meals are different. And so these guys have to come over and they have to make adjustments. I mean, ultimately, these guys are human beings. I know sometimes, you know, we look at things in the computer and we look at the data and we look at the information and we, you know, we start saying, hey, we're going to do this we're going to do that. And then, you know, you have to remember the human element as well. There's an adjustment period.

You know, he's used to eating at certain times. And so, you know, we have to get different. We have to make those adjustments. You know, there's, you know, it feels like there's a mound difference, you know, the ball. There's a difference to the baseball. And so these are all growing pains where, you know, guys learn to make adjustments. I mean, this is something that multiple players that have come from, Pan had to deal with. It's part of, you know, being active in that market. And so you just have to

continue to listen and try to make the adjustments, you know, for him. And that's the key. Listen and try to help him. But is there ever a pult moment where you're going to have to say to him, we do things a certain way here. We're trying to be, we're trying to do what's best for you. You maybe don't understand things about Major League Baseball that we're trying to help you get acclimated with to where you're allowing him to still be himself, but it's going about it in the Astros way. Overall, it's just adjustment periods that these guys have to go through. You know, we have a culture here that, you know, we represent and, you know,

our Astro way. And we, you know, we have some of the best pitching people here. That's why I feel like we'll get out of this funk. And so we'll help him to make the necessary adjustments to be successful. you know, at the major league level. And as I mentioned before, this is, this is normal. This is not something that's abnormal. This is very normal.

Players come over here, they have to adjust. And the same, as I've mentioned before, our players have to adjust when they go over there. It's just different. And we know it's all baseball. It's the game we love. But there are adjustment periods. Perfectly said by the general manager, what was he supposed to say? Toughen up, Nancy, no.

but there but but there if you pour true serum down the throat they would be saying this needs to be done fairly quickly here we are trying to compete yeah we want to figure out yeah it's it's a bad situation that's made worse by by this if hunter brown were healthy and giving you seven innings a one run ball and everybody else is pitching well you you would be we'd be talking so much less about this but it's a bigger story because it's it's 20% of your rotation and it's also a large chunk of your salary and he's hard he's hurt have year's Browns hurt and everybody else that's out there isn't pitching while. All right. 713-212-5-790.

If you miss our conversation, Brian Bogus, we've got that coming up at the bottom of the hour. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's go to the phones and talk to our friend Vince on 7-90. Vince, good afternoon to you. Hey, guys. How y'all doing? Good. Good, good.

Hey, I called about the rockets and got three keys, three keys to victory in the series. and see what you guys think about this. So the tendency is to double-team LeBron. I don't think we should double-team LeBron. I would rather see LeBron get 38 points and five assists as opposed to getting 28 points and 16 assists. Most of those assists are going to be for wide-open three-pointers. I think we have three guys that are capable of staying in front of LeBron

and making things difficult for them. And then second, we need to run the ball as much as possible. They can't keep up with us. So I think we should push the tempo as much as we can. And thirdly, Sengoon and Tari need to play within themselves and not try to do the extra stuff that they're, you know,

known to try to do and just play within themselves and be the players that are supposed to be. Guys think about that. Thank you, Vince. Yeah. Go Rockets. How deep will the Rockets bench be in this series? No play seven, eight players. It'll be, well, let's, let's break it down.

It's going to be, who's going to be starting? That's a great question. I mean, you can argue all three. I have a theory in this series, and I think it'll be something different in the next series. Let me ask you this. Could this theory, do you think this theory will be consistent? through all of the games or do you think we'll have it flipped? I think it'll be consistent in the games, but maybe not series to series.

Because the matchups will change. I think it's easier to go with Reed Shepard in this series, and you might go more defensive against the Thunder with Tari Isan or Josh Akogi in the next series. Just a gut feeling, totally. You know what? I'll tend to agree with you. I... Because no Luca, no Reeves.

I mean, LeBron is good. I mean, Luke Kinnard, you got to watch out for, but Reed Sheper's not guarding LeBron anyways. You don't have... Here's the thing. When you play Oklahoma City, if you get that far, and that Oklahoma City does as well. Reed against Janlon Williams

doesn't necessarily excite me over a whole lot. They're going to be on the floor at the same time, obviously. A Kogi would give you probably a little bit of a better chance. Tar Easton probably would as well. But if Tar Easton's offensive game does not allow anything, sort of perimeter, that means you're putting now in theory three perimeter players on the floor at the same, or two

perimeter players on the floor. No, three. A men, Tari and Shingoon that you don't respect the shot outside of 10 feet. And that's tough. Tari's three has been better. Overall in the season, still not great. I mean, he's had that run, but it's more down than up.

And that to me, if you're going to really try to shock the world, and frankly, Tari's playing for his next contract, whether it be with the Rockets next year or somewhere else. He's going to have to have the postseason game of his life. He just is. Yeah, I think Reed doesn't.

I would be shocked if Reed starts a Thunder series. If and when they get there. Yeah. But they're minus 800 favorites or 8 to 1 to win, they should get there. If they don't get there, if they're gone very wrong or like Kevin Durant got hurt. Well, I'm going to have to take some time off. We cannot.

What? They can't lose the Lakers. They can't. They can't lose. You'll be fine. I mean, I'll be fine, fine. But you know what I mean? They just can't. It's a must-win series. Absolutely it is. 100% is a must-win series.

It's a must-win series. Every playoff series is a must-win series. All right. Ross, you're going to be leading our World Cup coverage here on 7-90, meaning you'll be going over the scores, which will be a lot of to be 0-0. Okay. We can bring, that's the C, you're, well, it could be. then there's bad teams, there's zero-zero games. But normally, normally, let's see, let me pull up to the,

you're such a hater. Hmm. It's such an archaic way of thinking. Correct. Something called polymarket sport. Is that a legit website? That is, they do, it's pretty prediction markets. Okay.

They have found out, it says just in, and I don't necessarily think they would spend the time to go tweet this because it doesn't help them when they're betting. Yeah, they do, it's basically a gambling website. Okay, says FIFA has banned tailgating before World Cup matches at all major U.S. stadiums. Now, FIFA does not have a formal policy that restricts tailgating. However, specific restrictions may be imposed in alignment with host cities, public safety authorities in certain venues based on local restrictions.

So if you're planning on tailgaining NRG, don't bring anything because I'm not going to let you do it. You tell me, I've never been to a high-end soccer match. Is tailgating a huge part of soccer? I don't, not that I know of. I've never been to a huge soccer match either. I mean, I've been to some dynamo games.

That's not huge. No, it's usually a dollar dog night or something. Yeah. All you can eat. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's quite nice, honestly. Is that?

Folks, if you can get the club seating at what is it called now stadium whatever? I don't know. It's nice. All you can eat, all you can drink? Very nice. So can I just go there, eat, and then turn around and go back home? If you want.

Skip the game. If you want. Go to the games are fun. Going to the games are fun. Watching on TV, not so much. You know like college baseball or something. Yeah. Watch it on TV is not great.

You go to the game. You have a drink. Have a good time. You, you're such a hater. I don't think I'm hating. I think the city of Houston hates them. first being a vibrant soccer community nobody goes although i got i got a soccer fan in the house so it is what it is

yeah so i don't know it is i don't know if tailgaining necessarily does much for angering people to say i won't go now or i was part of my i mean i guess do they tailgain in san paolo brazil yeah i don't think so so what is your strategy are you going to are the tickets just too expensive for you to go to anything i'm not going to look at anything I kind of feel bad for you on that. Why? Because you love World Cup. Okay, don't feel bad for me.

Cut the check then. How bad you feel? Well, man, I just wish you were able to financially afford it. I didn't really look. I know people that got into lotteries and then they didn't win and now they're jacking up all the prices. And I mean, I guess if I want to see, I don't know, Portugal versus Burkina Faso or whatever. Doesn't do it for he, does it? Not really.

I think one of the round of 16 games is coming here. But the ticket prices apparently are fluctuating because they went too high. Now they're selling and now they're not selling as well as they were hoping for. Because as I've discussed before, ticket prices here in America for sporting events are way out of control relative to the rest of the world. I told you, I'm a Manchester City fan in the Premier League. They held a freaking protest because their ticket prices were going up so much and they were like $85. Really? They're like, no.

They literally the fan groups were like protesting the team because they went up that much. And that's like nothing in America. Right. Yeah. If you want to go to the Olympics in 2028, swimming finals are $1, $1,500, apparently. Oh, Lord. I think the friendly at Kyle Fields can be very expensive. Yes.

And the heat too. Oh, those guys, do they realize how hot it's going to be? Yeah, it's a 7 p.m. start. What day? June 6th. Oh. That's the day after my birthday. Really?

Yeah. Happy birthday. Thank you. I'm off that week. The entire week? When I'm going to celebrate? Preceding week, yeah. Oh, well.

You got on your calendar? Yeah, I do. Okay, good. I told you. The calendar's locked and loaded in there. I got it out of there for you. I haven't got the color, my calendar is color coded too.

Yeah, you're a psychopath. Yeah, because I got a lot of moving parts. Yeah, I get it. You got, I mean, you got all your jobs. Yeah. All right. So what else? I'm trying to think.

What else is going on the world of sports? We got more playing games than the NBA tonight. I don't think it's necessarily going to move the needle. They're on prime, so hopefully there'll be no outages. They'll be fine. And then the rockets don't start until Saturday night. Magic and the Sixers, Warriors and the Clippers. Should be two good games.

Yeah. I wonder, do we want to, this is the, this is 9-10 in the West tonight, right? Because Phoenix won, I mean, Portland won, so they're the seven. What of the three teams that are left, that could potentially play Oklahoma City that could give them the most difficult time

not necessarily win it would it be Phoenix Golden State or the Los Angeles Clippers I would probably go Clippers Clippers or Sons nobody's going to give them that much trouble I would maybe go to the Sons but if the Sons

can't win a 7-8 game in their home building how are we supposed to expect them to give them to go six one basketball game they lost by four points it happens Maddie better not four times the next week. That's all I'm saying. The Thunder are barring injury

as is the case of everybody. Cruising to the Western Finals. Are they cruising into the NBA Finals? No, because I think the Spurs and I think Spurs Thunder's going to be knocked down, drag out. That's going to be fun. I know maybe not here in Houston, Texas for many of you. Oh my God. And I know we

hate San Antonio. We hate them. And certain people hate Victor Wimbunyama. That's going to be most watched television for me. I'm going to want to want to watch Adam Clinton watch Spurs games. Then you got to root for the Thunder, though. I'm going to do that. I'm not doing that. All right, let's go to our buddy.

Gerard is with us. 127 on 7. Gerard, how the heck are you? I'm doing all right, man. How are you guys doing? Good. Thanks for calling. Okay, quick thing on the Rockets, man.

The key to the game is obviously going to be the turnover that's played the Rockers all this year. I don't think the Lakers are a team that really create a lot of turnovers, The Rockers still got to be smart with the ball. I think they got to have an answer for the trap, because you know Reddick's going to trap Kevin the Rank get the ball out of his hands. So hopefully they can take advantage of four-on-three situations once that happens.

I think the Rockers are, by far, the more challenging team. I don't see those sweeping the Lakers, but if this series goes seven games, man, something wrong. I think the Rockers should get them out of them five, six games, max. I expect them to do that to move on to the second round. Now, as far as the first round goal, as a whole. I know I was here you guys earlier

said y'all going with the chalk. I got one upset in the first round. I know you guys big on Denver in San Antonio. I think Minnesota upset Denver in the first round. I think that's a tough matchup for the Knuck. You got Ann Edwards, you got McDaniels, you got a lot of guys. Nasree coming off the bench, Julius Rando. They match up pretty good with them if you look at it.

They got the kind of ways that can give up Murray a lot of issues. I think Joker's going to get his, but I think Murray is really the guy that really burns you. If he's going on, along with Jokers, it makes Denver a tough team to beat. I think they slow down Murray or nothing that series. I think they beat Denver in seven games. I think it's going to be a good series. I got Minnesota upsetting them.

Everybody else, that's pretty much the favorite, Houston, OKC, San Antonio. I got them all in the second round. My one upset is Minnesota over Denver. And in the east, you know, I got Boston, Detroit, for the most part, winning there. Cleveland and who else is the other team? Cleveland. in New York. So everybody got, I think I all the chalk host

up in the first round of one-up shit is Minnesota over Denver. Also, a quick thing on the playing. Those games last night were good, man. I watched both of them games. They were probably the best playing games. I've seen since they started to play in. That Charlotte Miami game went down to the wild

and went to overtime. A lot of great shot making in that game. That was a good matchup. The Portland Phoenix game was good. A lot of people don't know about that guy from Portland, Avila. That guy is a special player, man, special talent. So they got a lot of young town over there along aside him with shark and guys like that.

So they're going to be a team in the future that you're going to have to deal with. So that was a good win by them. And I give the one-up tonight's game between Golden State and the Clippers. I think we'll win that game in the night at the 8th. I think they beat Phoenix Friday night at Phoenix. And I think that's got to probably round out the first round match. You will win Clippers, Golden State, plays O KC, and then we got Portland and San Antonio. But again, the one-up set, Minnesota over Denver.

I think that's going to be the one-up set in the first. I hang up a little. Thank you, Gerard. Thank you, Gerard. Minnesota over Denver, that's a bold pick. I don't know. The only time the lower sea

beats the higher is Rockets, Lakers. Okay. I think everybody else wins. I think you're right. But we'll see. Chalk would be fun. I'm laying the rockets as chalk

because they're the big favorites in the series. They just are. All right, Brian Bogussevick. We had a chance to visit with him today. Yes, we did. Great insight. He always provides it.

The internet is a buzz with how great the insight was from Brian Bogusevic. Oh, is that right? Yes. We've got a couple tweets off of it? That's nice. It makes me feel happy. It's somebody all listening. That makes me feel good.

I wonder how Gary thought our segment was with Brian Bogusevic. Just move on, Matt. It's okay. 713-212-5-7-90. We visited with Brian Bogusivik earlier this day on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross, and we visited with him. I'm going to play a few minutes of that for you right now before we get you to believe or not.

the final password. What you say it? It's too close. No, we're not going to say it. If you don't know the password by now, you're not playing, believe it or not. One correct answer, by the way, wins on believe it or not today. Here is bogey on what it was like to get back in the ball yard, back at home, and back in the victory column. Yeah, you know, watching that game yesterday is kind of like any port in a storm.

You take a win any way you can get it. You know, use five relievers and throw over 100 pitches, get a lot of help from Colorado's defense. you know whatever you can do to break the streak kind of put that behind you and maybe not think about it anymore go out there and you're not going to be able to consistently win that way but you know you can win a game like that and we'll take it all right unfortunately you have been through a few of those in your life uh when it gets to that i didn't mean to bring it every time those lists come up every time those lists come up i know i know i don't i didn't mention the year just wanted and you weren't solely responsible but how do you how do you shake when it gets

is 6, 7, 8, what's going for your mind beyond the fact of what can I do? When do I start looking at teammates? And again, you never have anything publicly about it. But just the thought about when it starts to get to that kind of level, what is the tenor like for a personal player and then obviously a group in the clubhouse collectively? Well, it's certainly not fun. And nobody's having a good time going out there. And, you know, you show up every day trying to have a fresh mindset and trying to approach the day as if today's the day that it's going to turn and to put in all the work, you know, from noon until 7 o'clock and then go out there and be like, oh, man, another loss. It happened again. It gets old fast. But the thing about this team

and this clubhouse versus, you know, teams that are just perpetually bad, like some of those 2010, 2012 teams, they have guys who have had a lot of success. And, you know, they have, guys who have had a lot of success. they have had success as a unit. And they can look around and say, look, I know that I'm doing my part and I trust that these guys are doing their part to get out of it. And eventually we will. So there is a little bit, it is easier to try to look ahead and see a light at the end of the tunnel when you have a group that's been so successful previously. But it just comes down to are you doing the things that you need to do on a daily basis to try to get better and get us through this? And do you trust the fact that everybody else is also, and I don't think that waivers in that clubhouse.

There's a variety of things a manager has to do, Brian, when you're in a long losing streaks, and when you're also battling injuries, which unfortunately Joe has had to deal with a lot this year. How is it for him? Now, you've never done it yourself, but I'm just curious what it's like from your perspective watching Joe try to massage this bullpen, which has been overused. It got used a lot last night. And how do you kind of work through this knowing that the only way you really give guys time off is by asking inexperienced guys to give you six, seven innings when they don't typically have a history of doing that? It's difficult in a lot of different ways.

It's difficult because your closers hurt and the guy that was supposed to fill in for him is not himself. It's difficult because the starters are not going deep enough into games to allow you to kind of, you know, pick and choose your spots where you're using guys. You're just having to cover innings. It's difficult because you have a lot of guys pitching, you know, big innings and pitching meaningful innings who don't have a ton of experience. So there's all of these different variables that you have to deal with.

And, you know, managers like to go into games with a roadmap for the most part. And obviously things change as a game goes on. But you want to know, hey, I can generally expect to get this from my start. and I know that I like these relievers against these different parts of the lineup. And hopefully you have in the back of your mind. And I know if I get to the eighth and the ninth, boom, you go, you know, a bray you hater in years past. And that's a given. There is no roadmap right now.

So it really is, you know, day to day based on who's available and who's been overworked. It's inning to inning on, you know, just do I need to cover four out of the pen today or do I need to cover seven out of the pen today? And really it's batter to batter because, you know, for the most part, you're thinking about relievers in one-inning stints and maybe, you know, three to five batter pockets of the lineup. But there are plenty of times now where it's, okay, you went in there and you put out the fire to get out of, you know, basis-loaded situation. I got to run you back out there the next inning and see if you can get me three more.

And if you do that, I might push you one or more after that. And you're just constantly pushing it and you're constantly, trying to find where the edge is and pull a guy right before he gets to it. And that's just, you know, it's really difficult to do once or twice. It's nearly impossible to do if that's what you have to do with every matchup. Brian Bogussevick with us here on Sports Talk 790. So I guess as the rotation is comprised, your one, two guys or maybe McCullors and Burroughs. It's kind of crazy to think about where they are right now.

but I mean, whoever is out there, they have to perform, they have to go deeper into games. Specifically on those two guys, what do you think has gone wrong and can go right with them? Well, I think what's gone right is their stuff looks good. I mean, Burroughs, if you just look at the spin of his breaking balls and the velocities of his basketballs, they look fine. McCullors his stuff certainly looks better than it did last year. and similar to what was encouraging in spring training, they've gotten in trouble with location within the strike zone.

And there's been so much talk about walks and everything, and obviously first and foremost throw the ball over the plate. But you've got to have quality pitches, especially if you're going to pitch deep in the games, especially if you're going to try to get through lineups, you know, multiple times. You've got to make quality pitches. And when those guys in particular have gotten hit, it's when pitches end up in the middle of the zone

and nobody's going to, you know, live 100 pitches on the edges and on the corners. But it's just if you're going to rely on guys to be, you know, what is essentially the top of your rotation right now, they've got to be able to go out there and just execute at a greater level because the stuff is good enough to get deeper in the games. I don't know that it's going to be, you know, an automatic seven innings every time you go through the one and two spot. But it's got to be more efficient in the zone.

and then more quality in the zone as well. And on the starting pitching front, Tatsu Ma, I imagine you heard his comments about adjusting to coming over from Japan. And it's just interesting and curious situation where he says he has arm fatigue, the imaging is clean, but he was I-Led as well. What do you make of all that? And just him at some point, unfortunately, especially with paling with everything else that's happening with starting pitching.

You need him to try to figure this out, adjust as soon as possible, and get healthy, and then, oh, by the way, be effective when he's on the mound. Yeah, so a lot of stuff. First and foremost, it looks like a guy who's not having a very good time right now, who's not very comfortable in his surroundings and is just struggling. You know, baseball-wise, struggling and just struggling to adjust. I can sympathize. I went the other way. I went from the U.S. to playing in Japan. And all of the things that he's talking about, I dealt with them in reverse.

And they're real. And they affect you, you know, not to the point to that you can't perform, but adjustments are real off the field. I will say this in just, you know, listening to his comments and especially just the way he was talking yesterday. So when I was over in Japan, a question that was, we got asked all the time by managers, coaches, media, fans, whoever was, how's your conditioning? They would always ask us, how's your conditioning? And they would want, like, a percentage. It was a strange question. But at first, I hear conditioning, you know, through my interpreter,

and I'm always, you know, like, I'm healthy. I'm in shape, like, 100%. My conditioning is 100%. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm in shape. I just got to hit better. But what I found later is it's a question that they ask when they want to know what's your conditioning relative to like the best version of you as a player you know are we seeing 80% performance 90% performance are you at 50% and it's like this all-encompassing thing that is how are you how do you feel are you healthy are you comfortable off the field is your girlfriend mad at you what's going on and so it's this weird like all-encompassing number that they're And I got to the point where I would just make up things.

I'm at 74% today. Like it didn't mean anything to me. But it is a very real thing for the Japanese players to answer these questions about just how do you feel kind of holistically and as a whole. And the adjustment plays a big part in that. So I'm sympathetic to a guy who's talking about his struggles, not just on the field, but also trying to get comfortable. comfortable off the field and also understanding that that's a real thing that they answer on a regular basis over there. And I wonder if, you know, through question to interpreter to player back to interpreter and then answering the question, I mean, things get lost and tweaked and stuff.

So I wonder if he's just trying to express that he's not feeling right and really just feeling like himself at this point. That again, Brian Bogus-Sever. By the way, Channel Rome on his old tweets today said that the asteros have gone through three different interpreters for em i three we'll play believe it or not next seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven nine seven one three two one two five seven ninety ross what is today's category and believe it or not uh googleable and the song we bumped back with will be a hint oh really all right remember if you don't know the password you can't play seven one three two one two five seven ninety with Five minutes left to go on the show.

What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply called a B. Leaving it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. The category is I will give you an NBA player.

And does this player, is it currently plays for or has what ever has played for? Currently playing for. playing for a Far East basketball team. Chinese Basketball Association. We came back with a Jay Cole song because Jay Cole has now, he was playing in China, didn't go well, he's now off the team.

All right. Rapper Jay Cole, Matt. You're one of your son's favorites. Oh, he loves him. If you, if this player really is playing there, you'll say this. Believe it. If he's not, you'll say this. Not. To believe it or not, it's in a row when you apprised

you're playing for today, either a pair of tickets to see Rod Stewart or, that's one pair, or a pair of seeing the psychedelic fur. Tickets are on sale for both those concerts at Ticketmaster.com. Tom on 790. Tom, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Sam Decker plays for the Yilin Northeast Tigers.

Believe it or not? I'm going to believe it. You shouldn't. Thank you for playing, though. This is cruel, by the way. Frank on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Howdy, Matt, believe it? Malik Beasley plays for the Sineuan Blue Whale.

Believe it or not? Believe it. No, he does not. Come on, everybody. You know better than this. Bill, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Pineapple, baby, pineapple. Victor Oladipo plays for the Gwinchow Loon Lions.

Believe it or not? Believe it. Yeah, oh, he's a winner today. Wow. Mike on 790, Mike, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Joe Chi plays for the Beijing Ducks. Believe it. Or not?

He does the former rocket grades. Thanks for playing. Tim on 790. Tim, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Justin Holiday plays for the Jing Hao Luan Lions. Another one of those. Shinghow Lou Lions.

Justin Holiday, believe it or not? Believe it. That's a winner. Congratulations. Anthony on 790, Anthony. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. KJ Martin plays for the Ningbo Rockets.

Believe it or not? He does. I've said it once in a thousand times. You've got to know who your Ningbo rockets are. Remember when he wanted to trade it out so he could be a star? Yeah, I remember that. Joe on 790, Joe, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yeah, man, I'm ready.

Hassan Whiteside plays for the Shanghai Sharks. Believe it or not? Believe it. Another winner. Congratulations. Congratulations. Patrick on 790, Patrick, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. Everything. Javelle McGee, Beijing Ducks. Believe it or not?

Believe it. That's another winner, and we'll be there. We've got to take care of the day. Nice job. Josh, you good a while. I'm proud of you. I did. You tried to make me sound bad, which I normally do that by myself. I didn't try to make you sound bad. All right. This time. Uptown appliance repair is going to make me look good because I'm going to say, you to them and they're going to fix your appliances at a very good price. 281-7589978, 281-58-9-9-78, whether it's your washer, your dryer, your refrigerator,

your ice maker, your high-end stove, your high-end, maybe that coffee maker that's you've spent thousands on. Trust me, I haven't done those things. And you've got a gas grill that's not working either. Get with the appliance repair professionals, the premier ones in Houston. Check out their website at Uptownappliancespair.com or call 281-7589978. 281-7589978. Online uptown appliance repair.com.

I'll have Astros on deck for you at 6 o'clock. First pitch 710. Up next, Clanton, Waxler, the A team here on 790.