The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Survive a Chaotic Game 2... JT The Brick Joins + BIG Announcement

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Astros Survive a Chaotic Game 2... JT The Brick Joins + BIG Announcement

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. The Matt Thomas show and Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. The Houston Astros in their three-game skid as they defeat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2. Astros back over 500 and have a two-game lead in the AL West. But man, I'm Mr. O'Cocker. What a great voice. So many hits.

He even did a loose cover of a Beatles song, which I actually like. Oh, good morning. Houston, Texas. 10.04 is the time. I miss Ross, Jonathan. I don't know because I had the right, believe it or not. I don't miss him that much. Nah, you said it.

You're right. You got me on the evidence. By the way, it's our last, believe it or not, of the week because tomorrow, Eddie Nunez, athletic director of the University of Houston is going to come by and say hello for us for an hour. So in the one o'clock hour. So today, one correct answer, and believe it or not, wins you a plethora of amazing prizes. That is coming up late in the show this Thursday. It is Sports Talk 790.

It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And if you would like to be a part of our program, we got a lot of little moving parts today on the show. 713-212-5-790. If you would like to join the conversation, 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to follow us on our social channels, which would be Instagram and Twitter. Twitter can be mean. Instagram generally speaking is pretty nice. I'm nicer, I should say.

Follow me on both those platforms. And I might follow you back. Chances I probably won't, but at least I'll consider it. At SportsMT on Instagram and on Twitter. On the program today, we will have Brian McTaggart for his Thursday visit at 11 o'clock. We'll have, I just don't get it. And Jonathan, I got two I just don't get it. One is sports-related and one is not.

So we'll have it for your 11.30. today. We get the news at noon. I got some news at noon. It's about, well, I'll just let you all, I don't want to over tease it because I don't want to be like, we go to big. It's an announcement. It's a cool announcement, but it ain't like, you're not going to be able to sleep at night over this. We ain't going to, are we going to get in the big old big old announcements? Wee, we're a big announcement. No, we're not going to do that. We're just going to make an announcement. That's at noon today. J.T. the brick. We'll be on this program at 1230. You're like, that sounds vaguely. familiar. What does a J.T. the Brick? J.T. The Brick is a

longtime radio host nationally and now focuses, I believe, just in Las Vegas. He is here in town to cover the Raiders versus the Texans. I think he's involved in the Las Vegas game broadcasts, coaches shows or TV. I don't know what he, but he's involved and we'll find out him. He is also a guy that was one of the original, it may have been the first Jim Rome smack off winner way, way, way back in the day. And he's carved out a long radio career for himself over that.

And we'll talk to him about what it's like covering the Raiders. We're not getting into a deep dive on today's game, although Aaron Wilson reporting that C.J. Stroud will play in tonight's game. So it'll give you a little bit of a reason why to watch some of that Texans Raiders game. But we'll get a thought about Fernando Mendoza, the rookie quarterback, Kirk Cousins, what Tom Brady's Rollins, is just kind of what life is like covering a professional team in Las Vegas, Nevada. So J.T. the Brick will join us. at 1230.

And then we've got a believe or not today, which I've not thought about yet, but at 150 we'll have that. And one correct answer, we'll get you a chance to win tickets to see either the dubies and, oh, Santana, I'm going that tomorrow night. I'm very excited about that. I'll be hydrating.

Let me ask you this. If you drink a lot of beer at a concert, is that going to, with the heat, is that going to make things worse for you, or you're just going to be able to just like, it'll be a little smoother going down, so to speak. Because if you're drinking beer 28 degrees, it's cold and it doesn't taste as good. Beer in 95-degree temperature feels good, but it feels like you get really, really snogged fairly quickly.

I guess I'll have to find out tomorrow. All right, ladies and gentlemen, 1007 is the time. This is Sports Talk 790, and again, we want you to join us here to discuss all things Astros. Texans getting ready for a game with the Raiders. But we first have to have a little heart-to-heart here, and I hope you don't mind this. The reason we're going to have a heart-to-heart is because of something that happened in last night, game. Jonathan, do we have the highlight ready to go? Let's put this thing in perspective here. This is in the top of the

fourth inning, Astros and Angels from last night. Runners take off three, two, swing and a drive deep to left field. Racing over is way looking up and that ball is interfered with. They're going to say fan interference. A fan reached over the wall and caught it. So where are they going to place the runners. They're going to score one.

They're going to say Grissom scores and they're going to send low to third. So it's going to be a double for the angels. Dinser Guzman and a 1-1 ball game. Consider that the runners were running. Determine that there

was interference. Two runs will four. And then it will be placed the second. Jonathan, I try to teach you a things. Yes. I try to let the audience know how I feel about a variety of things. And just because I have an opinion about something doesn't mean it's right. And there's another thing I need to

discuss with y'all. I think name calling is terrible. You think name calling is terrible. Okay. All right. And does anybody believe that name calling is nice and fun and interesting and in the point? Good point. You know, I just so and I've been called a douchebag by a few people in my life. Okay. I don't think it's happened a lot. At least not to my face. Probably in text. Of course, all the time.

So I use this microphone and these airwaves with very careful consideration when I say, don't be a doucheback. The reality is this. Whoever you were in left field yesterday that you thought you were cool by reaching over the yellow line to catch that baseball. thus fan interference look you might be a father of three you might be a loving husband you might be a caregiver to your parents you might be someone that gives a lot of charitable donations you might be a man that volunteers a lot of time to various groups maybe maybe you read to people at the hospitals on Sundays maybe maybe you sing songs at a senior citizen home maybe you are helping cure cancer And if you're, if you are any or all of those people, I applaud you. But last night, you were a douchebag. Now, I'm not ready to permanently call you a douchebag.

Because no one wants to be ever permanently called something for the rest of their life. But, Jonathan, you know, we make mistakes. I've been called an A-hole. I don't think I'm a generally, I don't live my life as an A-hole 24-7. But people have called me that before, and that's fine. I can live with that. But was this a mistake? Come on.

No, it wasn't a mistake. That's the problem. That man who probably gives lots of money to cure cancer and lots of money to his church and lots of money to a variety of things and volunteers his time and gives his wife flowers when she doesn't even ask for it and cooks dinner three times a week and maybe helps clean the house. Yeah, yep, yep. He's all those wonderful things. But last night, that dude in left field was a douchebag. And we've got to stop being a douchebag. If you do something in your life and you get called on it, like, you know what, if you don't shower once or twice a week, somebody at your office is going to say, may I mix in a shower?

That's bad for the health. I don't disagree. If someone is rude, if you insult your wife and accompanied party or you're out with your friends and you say something that's off putting, somebody pulls you aside and says, hey, man, don't get in a fight with your wife in public. That's not good. It doesn't look good on you or her. if you admonish your kids for being late 15 minutes for curfew and you just read them the right act I mean sometimes if it happens over and over again you kind of get it but just don't do it every time don't don't be that dad so to whoever that person is and hell it might be a list of the show I don't know

I would just say if you're going to sit in the crawford boxes if you're going to sit in far right field where you have a chance to be right at that yellow line, take your hands, put them behind your back, and don't against yourself involved in the play. Because when you do, you're a doucheback. That's all I have to say, because Jonathan, it has to stop. It's probably not going to stop, but it needs to stop. And the worst part of it is, if you look at the video of it,

the douche was very happy with himself. He was so pleased. I'm like, are we really going to say it's a mistake? I mean... No, no, it was not a mistake. It was fully intentional. He is beyond excited that he reached over the yellow line and impacted the game like he did.

Now, thankfully, it didn't make that big of a difference. I was surprised he didn't get jumped. Although Josh Lowe did score when there's no guarantee he would have scored, the Empire said they thought he was. was because he was running on the pitch, which probably he did. That's not for, that should have been for the umpires to decide. The game itself should have decided it. And it would have been decided if you would have taken your hands and put them behind your back.

Now, I guarantee you this is a different type of mood if Astros lose last night. Absolutely. We are blessed that it did not make that big of a difference. Hoof. But what is it, Jonathan? Please help me explain humans. please help me explain. You're asking me.

I'm going to ask you for advice. Why do people go to ball games and yet want to be a part of the ball game? You don't wear a uniform. You don't get a contract. You actually pay to be in these events. Unless somebody got your tickets. He was wearing a glove, right? Yeah.

You know what? I'm going to look at this thing again. But the best part was, is I was doing the 10th inning show last day. And, you know, I was in the car driving back to the Kingwood Studios when this whole thing was going down. does this guy he was so happy with himself he was so happy and then he and his bro leave

I don't see him I'm seeing him walk out of the stadium he's not with a glove he's got no and everyone's clapping around him even Todd Callison Jeppel I'm like you're a douche he didn't sit on the air I don't think but you just don't want to be that guy

that is a public service please please go to the game cheer loudly. Don't do the wave and don't get yourself involved in the game. That's from me to you, your friend, Matt. Don't be a douche. 1015, sports talk, 790.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Good news for Standing 790. We'll have it for you next here on 790. Standing 790 is a good thing today because not only to the hour, Astros win yesterday, but the Rangers lost.

Boy, how about those Nationals going up to Arlington yesterday? And after beating up pretty bad in that first game, they come back and win yesterday. So the Astros lead is now two games in the American League West because of yesterday's game featuring the Astros winning 3 to 2. By the way, the Astros have eight hits in two games. Five yesterday, three the day before. Thank you, Nationals. over the Rangers. No thank you, the Brewers. The Brewers didn't do us a solid at all. 22 to nothing, they beat the Mariners on Monday night to open up that series.

And then the nerve of the Mariners to get back on their feet and go on the field and win, 7 to 5 over the Brewers. So the Astros lead is two over Texas and four better than Seattle. 1022 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to chime in in our conversation this morning, a little up then in the Texans coming up. We've got to Brian McTagher. at 11 o'clock and I just don't get it at 1130. I got two doosies. I'm not doosies, but they're just two. 713-212-5-7-90.

Gill is with his first at 10-22. Gil, good morning to you. Good morning. So, if you're a fan, maybe he's never been in the game before, maybe he's excited as heck. You're blaming him for doing that? Absolutely, 100%. Okay.

Why? Explain me why. Because it was illegal. He interfered with it. with the game. What he's out what the phone? I understand that. Well, then you know you don't because you're calling asking me why I'm mad at the guy.

He interfered. Interference unallowed. Sorry. If it had been a kid, would you be pissed off the kid? Absolutely. Absolutely. You do, you stay away from the line. That's it.

That's what the rule is. What? He should know better. Yes. Oh, come on, man. What are you talking about? Okay. An excited fan with the first thing you're going to do.

Hell yeah, you're going to try to catch the bar. No, you're not. Not at the line, you're not. You are stepping, but you are stepping back a row, or you are getting, or you're putting your hands behind your back. If you can't handle that, then you don't get to sit in the first row. Broth, there's responsibilities. He paid for his ticket.

He said, where the heck he was. Yeah, but he's not a lot to interfere. When you pay for a ticket, what the hell am I talking to? Is this a troll? Are you trolling me, Gil? No. Yes, you are. This is not smart.

No, I'm not smart. but in my reaction is to be catch it. No, my reaction is you catch you, you get your ass thrown out of the game. Is that what you want, Gil? Was that worth it? Did he get thrown out? Yes, he left.

He left. Yeah. Or they made him leave. I don't know. Whatever, but yeah, you are not allowed, Gil, there's a rule called you are not allowed to interfere with the game. Sorry.

Okay. I'm sorry. You don't be sorry, but you're just wrong on this. And look, I'm wrong a lot of times. Gil, I'm wrong a lot of times too. We'll agree to this. Because if you're a fan, you're going to react because it's, boom, ball's coming at you.

No, you're not. How about that guy's in Chicago? He damn, he didn't ruin their season. Well, he did ruin their season. You're making my point. Yeah, but he didn't know any better. You think he wants all that harassment? He didn't know any better.

He just reacted. Yeah, made a mistake. Put your hands behind your back. Or if you can't handle yourself, if you don't have the discipline to not make yourself part of the game, you should not be sitting in those seats. Okay, I agree, but I agree to disagree because I think you're wrong on this one. Any fans would be there excited that the boss coming to them. They're not going to say, oh, I'm going to worry about the game situation.

No, you're going to catch a doggone thing. And you're going to be proud of yourself because you caught it. Okay, everybody. Breathe, breathe, one, two. I don't usually cry on the air. But I'm about to cry. that's why we have the wave. That's why we have people dipping their hands over the line.

Because it's the excitement. No. Get your hands out the way. Stay away. And if you don't have discipline to do that, you can't sit there. And the douche, sorry, again, he might be the most, he might be the most, he might be, you know, he can even be a reverend. If he's a pastor, I mean, I mean, I mean, he's a pastor. I mean, I feel terrible for calling you a douche, but you were a douche.

He just was. He was so happy what he did. He reached, oh, he knew exactly what he was doing. Ball coming the way. Oh, it's over the line. It's in field of play. I still tried after it. Man, folks.

Jonathan, the number one rule about sports radio is you're not right about everything, okay? You're just not. Trust me, I've seen you've been wrong. Wait, I don't need you add that. I'm just, I was hoping the point. Oh, okay. But I'm not wrong about this. Under any circumstance, I'm not wrong.

Oh, man, I'm losing faith, folks. I try. And look, Gil's not going to represent everybody. But he just represented you a little bit. Oh, 713, 212 5790. 713, 212 579, 1027. It's Matt and Ross, Ross, back with us on Monday here on Sports Talk 790.

Just to let you know something. Gill called the 10th inning show last night, Jonathan. He was a very last caller I had. Really? Yeah. And he was largely, what do you call it? incoherent. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of the word.

And he was completely coherent here. So those of you're saying, was that a troll? No, that was not a troll. I know, I got some trollers, but that wasn't it. Gil love you. I'm going to consider our friendship to be that on the likes of a third or fourth cousin I haven't seen in 20 years, but I just don't think you're right.

about this. Now, is there the thought of the ball coming your way and I want to make sure that I can catch a home run ball? It's kind of cool, right? I get that. But that took a concerted effort for him to put his hands over the line, which is fan interference. You're not allowed to do that. Not allowed. So come on now, Gil. I'm going to try to straighten you out best I can't. but there's if in gill i think gills serious is a heart attack on that folks there are people going to astro games that are gills to just be careful who you sit with and remember if you want to sit in the first row back your hands up turn to your backside the ball hits you in the ass who cares i'd have more respect for that than a guy trying to jump you know put his hands over the field of play

remember you think you're smart i think i'm smart not everybody Pretty smart. Marty on 790 and 1033. Marty, good morning to you. Good morning. How are you today? Marty. I'm good. Go ahead. I'm good. Great. Great. Okay. So I want to comment on the all the deals out there, especially the guy that just called in and tried to call you out. Obviously, he doesn't go to a bunch of games because the public service announcement that they make at the games clearly states. do not interfere with any of the plays. Number one.

Number two, do you remember the guys that, I don't remember what game it was, but they were at some stadium where they interfered with, and I want to say it was during a World Series game or something, and it affected the outcome of the game. Yes, it was the Chicago Cubs. Yeah, it was Moises Saloo in left field many, many years ago, yeah. Steve Bartman was his name.

Yes. They were actually. thrown out of the game and banned from every single MLB stadium in the United States. They can no longer go to any of the stadium. So that guy last night, he didn't leave on his own. He was asked to leave because that's the rule. If you interfere with any play, you are asked to leave the stadium. So he ought to be glad he didn't get banned.

Well, you know what? And the public address announcer Bob Ford is a great friend of mine. He tells you guys at games, do not interfere in the game or you're subject to ejection. You just are, either being moved or ejection, depending on what you do. Absolutely. So I'm with you. I've been watching the Astros since they were in the Colt 45. Oh, my goodness.

So if you don't have any knowledge of the game, educate yourself because it could make a big outcome on what happens at the game. So y'all have a great program. I think y'all are funny all the time. Well, thank you. I think you're knowledgeable. Well, thank you. You guys, are spot on. We're trying. All the deals out there, yeah, all the deals out there, go to baseball school. You'll figure it out. Go to baseball school. Here's, here's, here's a clout day one. If there's a yellow line in front of you, don't put your hands over it. They didn't know any better. They didn't know. They were just too excited in that. Come on.

Oh, wait, oh, we're using emotion as part of this? Is that what we're doing here? I'm just, if I was the defense for Gill right now, that's what he was saying. Frankly, I'm more concerned about Reifield than I am in the Crawford boxes. Aren't you? Because that's where guys, that's where outfluiters can jump up in the air and try to make home, you know, steal home runs away. It happens to me, when I watch the aster's over the years, it feels like Reifield is way more susceptible to people thinking they're a part of the game than out there. But, I mean, I have, my friend Grace has sent me.

the video again or I mean it is unbelievable this guy is so happy with himself he is beyond excited what he did yesh Christian on 790 at 1035 Christian good morning to you good morning Matt I'm just gonna

try to say the things that maybe you want to say that you can't say because you're on the radio dealing with the amount of ignorance blows my mind from these fans the fact that you got to understand when you go to a baseball game and sitting in the front row, right field bleachers

is what you just brought up or down the third baseline or the first base side or whatever it is. Yes, you don't reach over those lines. But you have to also know what is going on in the game because the stands is the fans area. And if a player reaches over into your area, you can do whatever you want. You can interfere, you can knock their glove down.

You can do whatever they want as long as they reach into your area. You don't reach into there. So knowing that, you've got to know that if an Astros are on defense and until it's coming over to you, you back up, you box out like you're playing basketball, you put your arms up, give him all the room that he wants. But if it's the other team that's coming towards you, yes, you're going to get there and make sure that if he comes in the area and do whatever you need to do. But fans like GILD, they go to the game, they drink their beers,

they have no clue about baseball and how it's played. They don't think about that stuff beforehand because they're too busy getting wasted or whatever it is. But that's all. The fans like him just don't know, and they never will, and they think it's so cool. I'm going to catch a ball, or I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. Just know, it's a PSA announcement. If you're in the stands, that's your area.

Don't reach over to the field. But know who's reaching into your area, too, so you know what the right thing is to do. Exactly. Thank you, Christian, for the phone call. Buddy of mine just sent me a text. It says, apparently, this guy was from out of town. He's an Australian dude and didn't know any better. I ain't buying that.

Let me tell you something. Next year, Jonathan, I'm going on a soccer trip with my boys. Okay. I mean, on the thrilled aspect of it won to 10, I'm about a five. We're going to go, we're doing a Beatles tour tour, which we'll make, and that's a 10 for me. But soccer's five. There's going to be a protocol about what I do at a soccer game. I've never been to a foreign soccer game before.

Guess what I'm going to do? do a little research make sure I do the appropriate things they got baseball in Australia yeah they got baseball in Australia I'm sorry I mean they do it's not great

probably not great baseball heck that guy from the Mariners that was doing the color commentary with Jeff Blum on Sunday that that dude was Ryan Rowland Smith he's in Australia I bet you Ryan Rollins Smith knows what to do

I'm not using I'm not using I'm not using international persuasion is the reason why we have to give this guy of benefit out. Again, that's unconfirmed. I don't care where you're from. There's got to be a yellow rind. Wouldn't you think if you're a newbie

and you're sitting in the out, Crawford boxes and you see this yellow line? I don't do Australian accents because it would be, I'd be just doing commercials for that steakhouse. I can't even do it. I was going to say bloomin onion with an Australian accent,

but that would be bad on my part. Wouldn't you? ask what that yellow lines for and what you can and cannot do with it. John on seven dotting at 1039. Hi, John. Hey, man. How's it going? Good.

Man, I know sometimes I call just a clown on you for a little bit, but this time, seriously, you are 100% correct. You do not cross the yellow line. Do not. I don't care where you from. No chance. That's right. And the guy said, I don't care what the, outcome of the game was, I just want that ball.

Are you serious? It's all about what the outcome of the game is. You can go buy a ball at the gift shop. Yeah, and you're going to throw the ball back anyway. You know, that's what I'm saying. You're going to catch a ball and throw it, and you really want to make your spectacle of yourself? No chance, no way, no how.

Can't do it. Right. Especially as hard as these wins have been coming. It's been hard to win, and you're going to try to take that away from them. It's like, come on, man. We're barely winning these games. Yes. You want to give the other team the edge.

seen the Astros, I've had eight hits in two games. They need all the help. They need all the defense as possible. Yeah. And now, oh, he was an Aussie. He's from Australia. Who cares, man? Yeah. Don't sit there if you don't know the rules. Yeah, get your boomerang, get out of my way.

Australia. Oh, God, can I, Jonathan, can we do an Australian accent? Australia. Oh, I can't do it. Go ahead. I'm trying to think. Give me a tiny kangaroo down. Oh, God, this is Carol.

This is horrible. Let's let's say, you know, I'm going to abort this quick. Oh, that's horrible. Yeah, thanks, Robert. I get it. Stop. Trey on 790 and 1041. Hi, Trey.

Hey, what's up, buddy? How are you doing, Matt? I'm good. Oh, is this Trey Campbell? Yeah, this is him. Trey, did you hear... How are you? Good, did you...

I heard a rumor that Killed Tony through the first pitch out of the game on Tuesday night. Is that true? Do you know that or not? I heard about that. I don't know. I thought it was the other way. around. I thought it was he was doing it

for the Angels, but yeah, I heard about that. Because I really, I was trying to get some intelligence because you know I want to meet him very badly. You know this, right? Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty easy. He's a friendly guy. I mean, you just, all you got to do is just pretty easy.

I'll get you in there, Matt. All right, this is, hey, for those of you don't know, this is Trey of Trey Campbell, our former producer who's now killing it in Austin, Texas. How's the comedy career going, by the way? Sometimes it hits lulls It's peaks of valleys But you know

I'm just doing what I can You know I get kind of tired of it sometimes Because there's just so many people around And But you know It has its peaks But it's going okay I got a show at San Antonio

But I've been doing a lot of shows At San Antonio Maybe they like your humor better in San Antonio Than I like in Houston and Austin Maybe San Antonio humor's different You never know It's very different over there in San Antonio. I just, but it's going good.

It's not too bad. I think that guy, Gil, I think he's a moron. You know, you can't. I'm sorry to say it, but I think that guy, Gil is an idiot. It says him the thing right before you go, they play that video at the thing that says, don't interfere. You know, does he not watch that? It says don't interfere.

It says, don't put you, it tells you what not to do. And that guy from Australia, I think they might need to spend them back to Australia if he's going to keep messing up our games. No kidding. How's the marriage, by the way? How's the marriage? Forget about the game. How's the marriage?

You guys get along, okay? Yeah, we get along. I had to get her a new car. It sucks. But, you know, we get along pretty good. She's working at a dog. daycare and I had to go pick up the dogs. But other than that, it's going pretty good for the most part.

I mean, it's a, it's got, I'm trying to watch these games, but you watch like 90-day fiance and stuff. Oh, we can, no, no, no, no. You got to, hey, let me tell you, you're in the newlywood phase here at this point. Once you guys been married like three, four years, you got to take over that control of that television again. That's your television. Yeah.

She gets real mad. I'm trying to watch. I've always trying to watch the Rockets. and I don't know why, but she hates basketball. Oh, that's grounds for divorce, if I've ever heard it in my life. I think it's because she's really tall, and they always ask her if she wants to play, and she doesn't want to play. So it's kind of a sort subject.

But yeah, I don't know. I was just calling to talk about that fan interfered. I saw it on Twitter. It was a matter of that guys from Australia. They play the thing. They say, hey, you can't interfere, and he did it. Yeah. And the Astros need wins.

They're struggling. No doubt. Yes. Well, thankfully, thanks for backing us up. And by the way, it's good to hear your voice. We miss you back here in Houston. You are such a good person, and I wish you nothing but the very best. Can you tell a clean joke here to wrap up our segment or all your jokes dirty?

I can tell a clean joke, MT. Here it is. Do you think when Texas won the Battle of Independence, they had to pay Mexico alimony? Get it because it's alamo, alimony. All right, I shouldn't have did that. No, that's some of your best work there, my friend. Trey, you always have a place on this radio show, my friend. Talk to you soon.

Thanks for calling. I appreciate you. Can't wait to hear the news. Oh, it's in an hour and 15 minutes. Thanks, Trey. See you later. All right. That was a good joke.

I love Trey. That wasn't a good joke. Let me ask you this. Do you put that joke in a comedy club? How's that going to roll? That's a good little icebreaker. You start off, you know, but I'm, you know, it's a little, you know, I liked it. Well, you know what?

Hey, if you're at the comedy club, Trey, if he's listening to us on the IHeart Radio app, I would not have laughed. Jonathan would have laughed. That's a win. That's a good, like, okay, you know, not afraid. I like that. I like that. I need some corny jokes every now and give people to laugh. that was by the way for those of you that don't know that was a tray that once said on a gut feeling

Jonathan that he was going to see we're going to see a NASCAR race on the moon oh that's him that's him that's our guy we loved him like something else he's been he actually was on kill Tony for a couple minutes of those who don't know who kill Tony is Tony Hitchcliffe is a comedian that has really become very popular in the last handful of years because of the roast he writes for roast he's been on the couple of roast he's been on the couple of roast he was on the tom Brady He was on the roast of Kevin Hart. And he does a comedy act in Austin where he brings up comedians to do like one or two minutes sets and then they roast each other back and forth. And sometimes he's able to get some stars out of it. And he has a lot of famous people come with him and sit on the dais with him.

And so I'm low-key obsessed with it because it's my kind of comedy. It's very, let's say, anti-family friendly would be what I would go with. It's very politically incorrect. but it's comedy and it's fun and I and Tony and it's very funny and I know that Trey has been up there before so I wish him and his lovely wife all the very best

Brian and Taggers could have joined us in about eight minutes from now we have I just don't get it at 1130 one of mine is about something that is becoming quite a phenomenon in the fantasy

football world Jonathan Are you fantasy football guy? Nah, I never really got into it. You know, I was a fraud a couple of years ago. I told Ross I was going to quit doing it. But then I got back in it. And I finished second yesterday, last year. I am always the damned bridesmaid.

I mean, I win money, but I don't win. I want the whole kitten caboodle, as the kids would say. Y'all need to put a bigger pot. We don't play for money, Jonathan. That would be illegal. See, that's what's thing. We play for charitable purposes. If I'm ever going to join fantasy, it's got to be, I'm dropping $500, and we're not.

All right, we're not going to talk about money you're spending on fantasy football. Jonathan, wink, wink. If I was going to do it, though. If you were going to do it. I don't even do fantasy, but if I was, you know. So there is a trend in fantasy football that I want to discuss with all of you all during. I just don't get it at 1130. And then there is also a non-sports related.

I just don't get it. And it happened on the drive. Let me see. I think I texted it to myself. Do you ever text yourself? like when I was telling Siri what I wanted to do and yeah here it is. You text yourself. I did.

I text myself. I was thinking about this this morning. So I got two. I just don't get it. And if you have something in your life, you just don't get, Jonathan and I are going to try to help you here on Sports Talk 790. 7.1, 3, 21.

What's that? I'll try to help you. I don't know if texting yourself is kind of. No, it's like an auto memo thing. You know, you can voice memo yourself. Right. You don't text yourself. I mean, I don't text myself.

say, hey, man, have a good day or have a good show, or you look great today as usual. I don't do that. I wouldn't put past you, though. I mean, but... Oh, you're saying I would send myself, like, man, you are a glorious looking hunk? Like daily affirmations, yeah, you might do it in the morning, you know,

I don't know. To eat some. It's not a terrible idea, actually, when you think about it. Let's go to Brian in Pearland. Brian, a man who knows stadium etiquette better than anybody I know. Hi, Brian. Well, I mean, I try to anyway, M.T., but, I mean, what I don't get is how Gil is an idiot,

but that's for 1130. Yes. But, and I say that lovingly. Of course, we love Gil. We love Gil. We love Gil like a third cousin we haven't seen in 20 years. Exactly. Exactly.

But baseball is just such a unique sport. It's the only sport where fans really can have an impact or an impact on an actual live play. You're not going to see it in football. You're not going to see it. Maybe courtside. somebody does something where they try to trip a player or a player's kind of running along the sideline and a fan stretches legs out and trips them.

But it's so rare that something like that would happen and normally there's enough room and you're not going to see it in hockey at all unless somebody throws something on the ice but then that could be anything else. So baseball requires just a little bit more level of sophistication, especially if you're going to sit there. Baseball fans are just different.

You know, you have the type of baseball fans who keep a scorebook throughout the game and want to be kind of really involved at everything that's going on and enjoy that type of thing. And I'm one of those fans that when I go and a lot of cases, I'll try and if there's a scorecard available, I just grew up around the game

and I enjoy just trying to keep in that and do a lot of times, do I keep, you know, keep those scorecards at the end of the day? No, but it keeps me engaged in what's happening in the game. But if you're going to buy seats anywhere along the foul lines, the, especially behind the wall, anywhere where you can interfere with the field of play, you have to know what is going on. Situational awareness, everything else.

I mean, you don't want to impede the game by putting up a net there. But if you're going to have some fans like that who are going to reach over the field to play, you have to be banned or kicked out of the game. And that's exactly what they should have done if the other fans don't take it upon themselves, especially if that would have been an Astros. ball that he affected, that guy really would have received the, you know, business end of it, I hope. But yeah, you had a caller mentioned three or four calls ago. If it goes into the stands and the players reaching in on a foul ball, hey, that is as much

you're right as it is the players at that point. I mean, you would hope you would still, a knowledgeable fan would say, look, I'm not going to be the story that the reason that I'm on national TV is because I interfered with this player. I became Steve Bartman, but in Bartman's defense, if you can defend him at all, apparently he was listening to it on the radio. It was a delay, and so he wasn't fully paying attention, but I still don't give him credit for that. But because of the delay, whatever. But if Alu is running at you and you see that, you have to know, get out of the way. But, yeah, I'm hoping the news at noon is that we're back to the Matt Thomas show.

I hope it's not at Ross's expense the fact that he got mauled by a bear Yeah But I saw he just posted something on X So I'm assuming he's alive He is alive So I'm glad he's alive Or the fact that Jonathan is going to be

The new third member of the show And then he's getting a massive pay rate No let's not get crazy No no no no No we know we lay people off here Thank you for the phone call We don't actually bump people up Jonathan right

You're not getting more money today Are you Jonathan? in this. Yeah, we'll have a little announcement in an hour. I'm not trying to oversell it. I just want to be like a regular human being. I don't want to be like, standby, big announcement coming up.

You won't. Standings, 790. I don't know why you play that, but it's going to be big. That my throat hurts. Brian McTaggart next on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross is alive. He has not been mauled by a bear or a rhino or a hippo. Living his best life in the Pacific Northwest, which means two legendary Houston Cougars.

We'll get to spend 10 minutes with each other right now. The one and only Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. Tags, how the hell are you? Doing good, man. How are you? I got no complaints. Local 9 have eight hits in the last two games. Eight! Where has the Houston Astros offense? I was going to say, where has it been? But, man, it's so schizophrenic these days.

Is it not? Yeah, I mean, I think when Pena and Alvarez aren't hitting, it really brings out the warts and the rest of the offense. Not that they don't have guys who can get hot. I mean, Cam Smith has swung it pretty well recently, Al-Tube is swinging it better. but those two guys are what makes the offense go at the top of the order. I mean, Pena is in a 6 for 56 slump.

Alvarez, last 10 game, 7 for 36. It's now three or four. You definitely have a team of a boy. And then it puts on it on some other guy to get it done. It's just not happening. I mean, Christopher had to walk. And so that's really where the last 10 games. I looked it up last night.

They were averaging three points a game, and that's kind of stupid because 10-thending front of five runs. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to try to reestablish the connection with Brian McTagger because that is not a good signal there, and hopefully it's not our fault. Because, Jonathan, if it's our fault, I'm not going to be pleased. We're going to try to reestablish with him. Let's do this.

Let's tell you that the Astros are playing the Angels tonight. We'll have the on-vex show beginning at 6 o'clock. First pitch at 7 and 10. Texans play the Raiders. We'll give you a little update of what Aaron. We'll say about the Texans coming up in the next segment of the show. And then we've got to just don't get at 1130. And then we have a little announcement about something about us coming up at 12 o'clock today.

So please stay tuned to that. If you want to join us, you may do so at 713-212-5-790, as you did a lot of you in the first hour, talking about the man out there in the left field that put his hands over the yellow line. It allowed a little bad interference. All right, let's try this again. Let's see. Brian, do you sound crystal clear now, hopefully? Yeah, I was just talking away.

I didn't know you couldn't hear me. Yeah, you sound great. right now. All right. So let's, whatever you just said, I want you to dumb it down about 30 seconds. Go. It's the top of the order. Pena and Alvarez, when they're not going, um, it's just really tough sledding for the offense. Pena is in a six for 56 slump. Alvarez, seven for 36 last 10 games. You know, Walker hit the walkoff Friday and hasn't had a hit since. So, um, when those two guys aren't getting on and doing damage, uh, it's, this is, this is what you get an offense that's really struggling to score runs.

Do you sense frustration? Look, you'd be, frustrated, generally speaking, if you were the manager filling out the lineup card, but do you sense it from Joe trying to figure out what combination, who to put guys in certain spots, they can at least try to have a little better opportunity to thrive in that particular whole?

I'll give an example, Cam Smith batting in the bottom third of the lineup. Yeah, and he moved up a little bit yesterday, but yeah, I mean the four spot, the cleanup spot, sort of been a revolving door. We've seen I mean, I don't know how many guys have had bat forth, but you know, Varsha was there for a while,

I mean, you know, Cam's hit there. It's been, you know, a lot of it has to do with matchups and who's hot. But, yeah, you get past the top three in the order with Pena Alvarez and Paredes, and then it's just a drop-off. Ideally, you have Christian Walker hitting there and driving in runs like he did in the first half. That's not happening. But sure, he's got to be frustrated. And they go out and get Dalton Varsho and, you know, what, he's like six for 47 as an astro and just not getting it done.

So, I mean, he can only roll out there the guys he's been given, and he's trying to patch it together the best. he can every night. It's been a few weeks since the trade deadline took place, and obviously Dalton Varsha was the only member that was the changeover. Any sense? Not that you want to necessarily speak for 26 guys in a clubhouse, but any sense of we should have done more, could have done more, understand the situation we're in, any feel about

how the players thought about how things went down before the August deadline? Not really for players. I haven't heard any players come forth and, you know, any chatter about we should have done more. I mean, players do say that from time to time, but when they come out and say something like that, it's almost an indictment on the team they have now. And, hey, we're not good enough to win it now. We needed some help. But I do know that in the dugout, in the, you know, the coach's office, there was definitely frustration when they didn't get a bat, another bat,

especially when they didn't get another arm. and some other teams went out there and made some trades. You know, I think there was real disappointment there just with, boy, we could have done more. We had a couple deals on the table that didn't work out. The price for pitching was very high. We know that. But we saw some guys move like Foster Griffin didn't take a King's ransom to get him. And, boy, he would look great in an Astro's uniform.

Hard to say because we're not in the negotiations. We don't know what the nationals wanted or what the Astros would have offered. But it certainly feels like they fell short at the trade deadline. I think if you gave the players truth serum, that they would probably agree with that. Let me ask you about Ethan Pecco yesterday. Pitch count high, not surprising for a first time start, did not give you four,

which meant the bullpen was absolutely fantastic yesterday. Any sense right now whether or not this was a one-off or he's got a chance to at least get one more opportunity to stake his claim in the starting rotation? I think he's got a chance to stay. I mean, they're about to start a stretch when they get to New York, 13 games in a row. I certainly suspect, though, they'll try to go to a six-man rotation.

I mean, I don't know who those bottom two guys are going to be, but, you know, it looks like there were some nerves early on. He was spraying some balls. You know, the fastball command wasn't there early. At one point, he had thrown 40 pitches, 20 balls, 20 strikes. Settled in a little bit, but, yeah, the pitch count got up really high. But when he's in the zone, he got a lot of swings and misses. So I think there was something there to, you know,

deserves another shot and see what she got. They really don't have many options. I mean, it's clear that Emi is completely out of their plans, it seems. I mean, he's pitched twice this month, and that's been in relief. So, and, you know, Javier, he's going to keep starting just because you have a few other options. Bottom line is, they don't have many other options. So, yeah, I mean, I think Pecco will get another start. And I think he showed some signs that, you know, maybe he's got some stuff that can get big league hitters out.

I know you'll be at the ballpark later this. afternoon, anything more than what you've heard except for the x-rays on Jeremy Payne were negative, correct? Negative. I did see Jeremy, we didn't get to talk to him after the game. I didn't see him walking out. He didn't have any brace or anything on the, it hit him right on the knuckles. So, you know, the fact that x-rays were negative, I think, you know, maybe he takes a day or two off.

But they can not afford to lose this guy again. I mean, when he's in the lineup, they're 43 and 33. and when he's not in the lineup, they're 21 and 30. I mean, that shows you the value of Jeremy Pena. That's a really drastic difference. So even though he's not swinging it well right now, he's still a guy that can turn it around at the drop of a hat. You want him at the top of the lineup.

So it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't play today. But, yeah, they definitely need to get him back there and get him going more than anything else because he, you know, he hasn't hit for about three weeks. A few more minutes here with Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on the Astros Beat. I thought last night was a true indication, maybe what the asteros are in a nutshell. Why are they a game above 500? Well, offense is not doing much, but that bullpen last night ate up some serious

innings. We're talking about a combined two hits between five Houston relievers. Great. Just great work out of the bullpen. I mean, all, every guy they ran out there. The, you know, Susa's pitching a lot better. You know, Ocurt's been Ocurt, Abraeu back to being a Breu. And then Haider's been phenomenal at the end. I was crunching some numbers today. Remember how bad the bullpen was in April? And that was because the starters weren't going deep. But in April they had a 6-6-3-ERA and since then

since May 1st the bullpen is a 293 ERA. I mean that's a really good number over a long time. So that has been the one unit I think that is reasoned there in first place in addition to being in a poor division is just their bullpen has been so

good at picking up these starters when they go four or five innings. I mean is this sustainable here over the last five? weeks, I guess we'll find out. But you get to the playoffs and you have a bullpen pitching like this. Gets a little bit of the interesting thing. You know, a guy like AJ Bluebaugh, who's putting more than any other leader, that's a guy that could be a huge weapon in the playoffs going two innings, two and a third. So if the bullpen can keep it up and they can just get the two guys going to the top of the order, find some consistent starting pitching, that's a pretty big checklist.

but they can close this thing out. And frankly, you know, the Rangers or Mariners don't look like they want to win this division either. You know, part of the reason I think you stay away from a bullpen game is because the starters, the other guys on those other nights are not going deep. So you would think, man, you could put this together for seven or anything. Maybe you win a September game during that stretch of 13 in a row. But you can't do a bullpen game when that bullpen is being used as much as it has been. And I know that Joe has tried to give them relief,

and that's why you see guys like Uliola go up and down and whatnot, but they're just not getting a stretch of two or three days where they're not having to use a bunch of arms. Yeah, and every game seems tight. So you're bringing in your leverage guys. It seems like almost every night. I mean, they haven't really had a blowout since, you know, I don't know when. So it's, you know, every guy's got to be ready every night.

The best thing they could do is go out there and get a couple of blowouts this weekend and, you know, rest some of these bullpen arms. let EMI come in and eat up some innings and see what he's got. But, you know, every game, it's like two to two, three to two. And it's, you know, they're scratching and clawing for runs. And you're deploying every one of your high-leverage relievers. And they're doing a great job. But, you know, you can't do that night after night.

And like you said, if you're in a stretch here where you go to a six-man rotation, you're like, wow, we only have five starters. Let's do a bullpen game. And you blow them. And, you know, the next game, the starter goes three innings. You know, you're in a little bit of trouble. So tough spot pitching-wise, but they've been navigating this pretty much all year. I mean, it's been like this from the jump when guys were getting hurt.

So they just got to navigate it another five weeks and get to the finish line. My last question is something that I think you can change your opinion on on a week-to-week basis, but I'll ask it for you right now. Getting your crystal ball out, are we looking at these three teams doing what they're doing for the next five to six weeks or at some point? And I feel like I've been asking for somebody to do this in this division for basically two months. is there any one of these three teams that can really try to pull away or do you think we're going to be right down to the last couple of days with a team scratching to get to say 83 or 84 wins to be just good enough to win the division?

I don't have any reason to believe we're not just going to see this down the stretch trying to get to 83, 84 wins. I will say that the Mariners have a really tough schedule right now. September, their schedule is pretty easy. So I think if you're looking at one team that, again, I mean, I keep waiting for the Mariners to get their stuff together and they just don't. But if they can, with the easy schedule they have, they could be the team that even though they're, I think, seven games under 500, could still make a run at this a little bit just because their schedule is so easy. But, yeah,

I see this being just a pillow fight to the end. And, you know, if you get to 85 wins, you're probably going to win the division by two or three games. We'll leave it that, Tags. Thanks for the time. Looking forward to reading your work today at the ballpark and we'll hear you on Astros on deck tomorrow night leading into that series against the Thanks for the visit as always. All right. Appreciate it. You got it, Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790.

I just don't get it. It's coming up in 15 minutes. A little bit on the Texans when we come back because they're playing a game tonight against the Raiders. And coming up in an hour or so, we'll visit with J.T. the Brick, part of the Raiders' broadcast team. And a long time, Sports Radio OG. We'll talk to him about what it's like covering the Raiders and what is like with Tom Brady and his influence. Just don't get it. 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790.

I just don't get it coming up in 10 minutes. The news at noon. We'll run through the highlights of the Astros victory over the Angels yesterday. And an announcement of something involving this radio show. 1230, we will have J.T. the Brick from Las Vegas. Actually, he's here in town covering the Texans and Raiders. We'll talk to him about what is like to cover the Raiders. And we have, believe it or not today, at 1.15.

I'm trying to think, should I do a Las Vegas theme, believe it or not? I'm trying to think about that. But we only need one correct answer today because we've got some nice prizes to give away, some concert tickets for tomorrow night and for who else we're giving for? I'm mixing up what 70s rock bands would give away prizes for here. Today we're giving away tickets to see Santana and the Doobie Brothers, which I'll be at tomorrow night. Leonard Skinner and Forner, August 27th.

So those are the prizes on today's edition of Believe it or Not. All right. Wilson, Texans reporter for the station and for Channel 2, says that C.J. Stroud will play a few series tonight, along with the first team offensive line, which will include Guard Center slash Gieland Rutledge. Woody Mark's also going to get some time as well. They're saying between 20 and 25 plays. Texans defensive starters expected to be rested. Offensive line evaluation continues as team searches for its top five guys heading into the bill's season opener. It's funny I don't hear about Tank Dell Jonathan I'm going to get this is the daily affirmation

Jaley update with you Do you want to just surrender Take the hash brown loss and let's move on Matt you have to remember this bet is for the entire season I know I know I know I need you to be kind of worried Can I be serious for a second I mean I'm very rarely ever serious

I want Tank Dell to play. Do you know how hard it is for him to have missed as much time as he has? And for his NFL career to be, unfortunately, while there were flashes, to be discussed with two serious injuries? I mean, under the category of life's not fair, that would be probably among the list, right? But the most fair part about his situation is he's in the city with the best doctors in the entire world. That is true. best PTs at an NFL camp so I mean if there's an odd for it it's going to be this it's going to be this scenario I don't know I think he's at one more time you know maybe if it could end in another

time okay but if Alex Smith go back on the field yeah at the way he did his leg I don't see why he can't do it the only thing I want to say is again is that it's not a foregone conclusion I mean I know the Texas fans are willing him especially with the fact that jail Higgins is done for the year And that hurts. That's no breaking news. So you're trying to find some silver lining. Oh, we got this, this, this, this.

The reality is that Nick Casero is going to go find somebody else. I mean, we've run through the list of who's in that wide receiver group. It's not deep. It doesn't have a lot of experience. Now, if there's anybody, frankly, they can take advantage of what is obviously a bad situation. It's probably Xavier Hutchinson. That's true. That's a very good one.

If there's anybody that is going to, if you're going to really have a player in that receiver room that is going to take the next step, it's got to be him. Because, honestly, you don't, I mean, Justin Watson is just a guy. Jared Wayne, you know, again, nobody really had him on the radar screen. Lewis Bond was a sixth round pick in 2000, of this past draft. Trevion Saunders, I think it was not even a draft pick. Jalen Noel has had his own injury issue since he's been joined the NFL in the last year or so. I think it really just depends on what D'Amico wants out of his receiver and his offense. Because obviously they had a plan and that plan just got scratched away.

Yeah. So what's the opposite going to go for? Yeah, you do keep money aside for rainy days like this. Right. And you know how much Nicky's he loves his draft picks? Not only necessarily to draft him, but also to try to. trade them down the road for other draft picks. And I guess what's in the Texans offices today is,

is there anybody on the streets that could clearly come in here and be better than what's already here? Now, the question I have is, do they say, look, the second biggest threat to the Texans offense last year from receiving was not Higgins, one null. It was Dalton Schultz. Yeah. Do they go, you know,

what, we've a better ground game, we've a better running back, we think, we'll go control. I mean, look, no one I don't think is ever going to say Texans and explosive offense in the same sentence, at least for this year. And I do believe what happened here is that a lot of us got caught up in the hype of, man, Higgins is having this great camp. But there are a lot of guys that have great camps. And I'm not saying that Higgins could not have come up here and made the leap in the second season. Matter of fact, I think we talked about that before even training camp. I said, you're going to see lots of tweets about Jaden Higgins being this amazing, take a massive ramp up and become a guy. And he was doing that.

And I think people are excited. But there's a difference in doing it in a preseason game or in training camp and there would be doing it on a Sunday during the NFL season. Unfortunately, we'll never know the answer to that. What we do know is this. Hutchinson has been a fourth or fifth target. Justin Watson has been just a guy. Tank Dell, when he was on the field and playing, catch the ball, ran the ball, did a lot of fun things.

Really built a strong relationship both on and off the field with his quarterback. But the realistic thought is, the number two target for this team was Dalton Schultz. And maybe the Texans offense was trying to diversify a little bit. You got Moreau, you got Klein now, maybe you're a little deeper at the tight-in position today than you were. You still got Cadesdover bumping around here. Driving Jordan, apparently.

You got a lot of tight ends. Jesus. Yeah, maybe get, let me clear that tight-in. You know, usually the tight-in room is in the room closet. Man, they had to go, like, to a conference center for this. I just named five tight-ins. We used to always tease many years ago, Jonathan, where the Texans drafted tight-inists during the Gary Kubiak era.

And, man, we are tight-in obsessed. But maybe in this offense, that's exactly what it's needed. Because Dalton Shultz had a really, I mean, Dalton Shultz got a new contract based of what he did last year. In the year before, I mean, he's been, he had kind of a subpar first year as a Texan, but he's been a pretty reliable guy in the last couple of years, provided he stays healthy, but you can say it with anybody.

I just still think the Texans don't need to. Don't be so reactionary? Yes, because they're still in a very good spot regardless of this really bad injury. I just think it's taking more time and figure out what they want to do. because I don't think it needs to be you right now. The reality is though, I think there was so much hype about Higgins that everybody's just kind of in a, oh, how do I go with a analogy on this?

Don't think about it. You do better. Your best work is when you just go for it. Yeah, see, I'm too late, so I'm thinking about it. Now, I was going to go with a star of a play who's awesome in rehearsals, being in the larangitis before the start of the play. Laryngitis is what you, okay, all right? or illness?

So now the understudies in charge? Back on the stage? Okay, you know what? That was terrible. Yeah. Yeah. No, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't my worst.

It was close to the worst, though. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Folks, I've got to be better. I'm trying. You know why I use analogies because you do want to change up the verbiage of your show. We're on four hours a day, 20 hours a week.

You can't say the same thing over and over and over again. It's a good picture, too, in the head. I'm going to try this again. Jaden Higgins was the star of rehearsals in a big Broadway musical. And he's sick and can't be on the stage anymore. So now you're going to the understudy. I don't think it's terrible. I'm taking points off because it's your second.

Yeah, yeah, I thought about it more. Okay, I get it. See? I'm going to go with it. That's fine. I'm saying with it. It's not great, but it's better than what you were trying to say. Ladies and gentlemen, there are things in your,

your life in my life that you just don't get. I have two of them for you. One is sports related and one is not. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you do not get something, I don't get Gil from earlier today. You know what we ought to do? We ought to play Gil's call at 1 o'clock.

You want to do that? Let's go back and pull at Gil's call. Okay, we can do that. Because you 10 o'clockers didn't get to hear that. Do you have something in your life? that you just don't get no need to worry no need to fret

we will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends it's time to say I just don't get it Why are we shooting somebody, Charlie? What's going on with you back there? What hell is that?

Computer mouthful. What are you? Are you trying to get a hold of Joe Mixing on the line or something or what? What was that all about? Yikes. It's crazy. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. All right. I got two... I just don't get it this week, so I'll do one. John, you do one. I'll do my other one. And we got Jamal and Steve want to talk to us. If you have anything you do not get in life, we're going to try to help you.

Here's my first sort of sports one. So we've got Dr. Roto's going to make an appearance with us on the show next week. get our fantasy football fix on. We got drafts coming up and whatnot. Can I tell you something I don't get? I don't get why people in fantasy football leagues create contests for whoever finishes last to do some sort of stupid stunt. You don't get it, really?

Yeah, like you got to go on a side of the road wearing only a diaper saying, I lost my fantasy football league. Or you have to. you know, eat 73 burritos or something or it's just, it's too strong to say hazing, but it's a little bit of a haze. You're trying to embarrass a person. You know, like wearing all pink one day to the office.

The loss of an fantasy footballing being last place is embarrassing enough as it is because it basically means you got, you don't know jack squat about football. I'm going to say I don't get it. trying to create contests for the broskies in your fantasy football league who finished last to do something embarrassing. I say I don't get it. Oh, it's like, especially because how you guys don't play for money, some people probably don't do the same, but like what better ways to keep it more? That is right.

We do not play for money. You are absolutely right. Jonathan Allen, thank you very much for backing me up on that. And so when you use, like, you know, it just makes it a better incentive. You know, like, okay, we don't do this money. but if you lose, you got to try to win. If you lose, you got to go to Waffle House and eat three All-Star meals

in a two hours or something. I would do that for free. I'd do if I won the league. Let me some Waffle House. Three all-star meals in two hours? You got that? Oof. I know you used to be a big boy, but that's...

I know. I used to be a real big boy. That'd be a defibrillator time, though. You wouldn't know what? How about this? Why don't you go eat three all-star meals and you have a heart attack? Does that make everybody feel happy-go-lucky about that?

No. that's just extreme no i mean no but people would do that don't people like you have to go go eat certain number of food in a certain number of hours like you have to go knock back 13 rudder ruggers or something like that i mean i'm just gonna say i don't get it i mean it's the same thing it's the same thing as you wanting to win a bet you're like you know you yeah but i don't force you to eat large amounts of food i meant you to pick i want you pay for see so you know just all right i'm just saying i just don't get it thankfully in our league where we don't play for any money we just play for the spirit and the fun and enjoyment

of it. I'm a minority. I mean, there are people that will, they will have, get together with their buddies to figure out what the punishment's going to be. Punishment is you suck and you have to pay up like everybody else does. Now, I will say this. I believe there's a league and I won't mention which one it is. Rhymes with Bymart that if you're the low point total every week, you got to pay up

a little extra bonus money for paying the worst team worse points. I like that. But I don't need you going to your pool at your apartment complex and wearing nothing but a thong and having goggles on and saying, hey, painting, I'm a fantasy football loser across my chest.

Unless you get you women, but I don't think it gets you women. I'll get you embarrassed. Jonathan, what don't you get? All right, mine really isn't sports. but I was just thinking about this other day and it's a couple things you know somebody every couple's different

I don't understand the couples that like to sit or side by side at a restaurant oh really I don't know if I you should be saying this publicly I feel like you and your girl I've only met your lady one time

yeah I feel like you guys are side by side people so she is See, this is... I knew it. So that's the thing. So it's like, I think it's more intimate if you're, you know, having a day, like, you see the movie right in front of each other, you know, talking, see each other's face. And then, you know, there's other people that want to sit side by side and, you know, like,

oh, I want to be close and we want to see the same angle. I just, I don't... You don't get the side-by-side dinner, huh? I don't, I don't get it. It's not, it's not as romantic. It's not as much as, I don't know. It just doesn't feel right. I'm going to join you in that.

Okay, good. All right. All right. I mean, I'm not. I'm not going to crush it, but I don't do it. See, I don't want to crush it. I just don't get it. It's not my, I just, I don't, and I want my space, you know, my, do you sit next to her

right next to the movie or you separate yourself by a seat? No, we sit right, right, right. Yeah, me too. So I feel like that's too, that's too, unless your woman's a yapar or something in the movies. Oh, and you can tell her, shut her bum ass up. Yeah, you know, but, no, I like to be. Yeah, I'm going to go with you then.

I don't, well, some people are over romantic that way, and it's the side-by-side is where it's at. I don't need to do that. I don't, but again, I'm not going to kill it, but I don't get it. All right, last thing from me, then we go the phones. Okay. And I don't know even know if there's evidence of this, but this morning, you know, I always turn the Today Show on to, you know, because, look, ESP in the morning is obnoxious. I just, I just don't like, I don't like constant jets, Lakers, and Cowboys talk over and over and over again. That's really what it is, too. And Mike Greenberg, I just don't like him. I just, I've never, never ever thought, man, I want to see what Mike Greenberg has to say are all the people.

But it's basically Jets, Cowboys, and Lakers. Maybe a little bit of Knicks now. So I put today's show on. They did a 20-minute segment about Prince Harry moving back to the UK. And I don't even know if there's proof of this. But are we really into the royal family here in the United States? because I could absolutely care less about the royal family. And every time I put the Today Show on,

which is normally four to five days a week, and there's at least one 10-minute story about the royal family every single week. Now, I understand why the people in Britain are obsessed about it. Why does anybody in Des Moines, Iowa care about the royal family? Or for that matter, Houston, Texas. You don't think some wife and a horrible marriage isn't like, you know, vicariously living through the princesses and all that stuff in the world family?

I would have to say no to that, no. How much do you know and care about the royal family? Enough to know that Harry is no longer part of the world family. Well, yeah, and Megan and you know about Megan and everything? Okay. Yeah, a little bit, you know, I don't know, I can bring it out for you. I will just say, I'll make a nice blanket statement. the American perceived infatuation over the royal family,

I just don't get it. I'll have to agree with you because I just know it's big. I can just tell you that. All right. You have anything else? Are you done? That's all I got. I came today.

I just don't understand this. I texted myself. I said, I got to talk about this royal family infatuation. Maybe it's contrived. Maybe we aren't interested in it, but maybe the networks. Because you know the media will put things out there thinking that we like it. Well, and it's like the royal family is so fanations. You're going to get viewership regardless.

Do that story in for easy story. When it was on this morning, I fast forwarded through it. I was like, I don't, I don't. It doesn't. Now, remember, today's show is not going to be typically for me. It's mostly for, you know, moms getting ready, for dad's getting ready for working getting out of there. But I think I just don't get the real family.

It's don't. All right, Jamal and Steve will get to you coming back out of this break. If you would like to join us and tell us something in your life you just don't get. And I've got to ask you, do you do fantasy football, Pro penalties? What do we call this? Shaming? It'll be bro-shaming is what it is.

By the way, Grover on Twitter did bring up a good point on it. He said punishments can prevent a player from quitting mid-year. I will say this. That's actually a really good point. I will say this. Thankfully, knock on wood, we don't have players in our leave that quit mid-year.

They may want to, but they don't. Because we kind of basically shame each other. Like, hey, man, don't forget to put your lineup in. We're very much out there to do that. What don't you get? 713, 212, 1, 790. 713, 212 5790. Let's go to Jamal Midtown.

Jamal, what don't you get, friend? Hey, what's going on, man? I want the Texans to go to the Super Bowl, and I just don't get it while they don't understand that C.J. Straughters used to running every play clean. He's not used to having to do impromptu things. And the league knows that by having the Texans caught on to that. let's go man take him to the Super Bowl

what do you mean running clean I'm curious what you're saying he's used to dropping back and just happen to make the great throws you know what I mean all CJ had to do coming up through the rankings was make great throws coming up how do you explain the how do you explain the game against Pittsburgh and New England sometimes you have a bad game but they just got to keep the pocket clean they need they need a strong offensive line for him that's all they need that's all they need

they got a build a fortress around him man. You know what? It's all the thing the Texan is lacking. Okay. I don't know. I'm not explaining Mr.

Thomas. No, that's all right. They're, that's what they're, that's what they're, offensive lines going to play a lot tonight. Thanks, Jamal for the phone call.

Unfortunately, Jamal, every quarterback wants a clean pocket, right? Every quarterback, all 32 teams want their offensive line to protect their quarterback.

I don't think it, and Jamal, we appreciate the phone call, friend, I don't think it's as simple as you say it is. I think it's, offensive line protection, it's not being in a lot of second and third in longs. It's also pocket presence.

It's also the capability. And it's also, you got to make the throws. And I don't think a lot of the problems that, I mean, some of the problems for sure, but not all of the problems that CJ had was because the pocket is collapsing. There was an accuracy issues, especially in the playoffs. And that's why I think there is hesitation. about whether or not CJ is going to ever get that super big contract

to be a part of this Houston, Texas team long term. A lot of undecided votes right now, but one great season, even regardless of how the team finishes, like for instance, if the team goes, let's say, 13 and 4 or 12 and 5 this year, and they lose in, say, the divisional round

or even the NFC championship game, but CJ has got 23 or 37 for three touchdowns, 249 yards, and is not instrumental. in the reason why the team did not win, whether it was a late score by the other team or some special team's mistake, CJ's going to get paid. But you could not

be in Texanville and watch what he did against the Steelers and against the Patriots and say, you know what, we got to make sure we sit in a room this year, lock the door and get him signed long term. So whoever's fault it is, it needs to be fixed

because this defense is ready to win a Super Bowl. This defense is Super Bowl good enough. The offense? To be determined. All right. 1154 on Sports Talk 790. Is this Raider Steve called on line one?

Raider Steve does not call very often except when the ratings and the Texans are playing. Steve, good morning. What's going on? Good morning. Hey, I want to do a quick shout out to two of your very loyal listeners have been listening to you for a long time. And what is my sister, Teresa? She turned over the dial, and she gives you high praise like I do. Thank you.

Manager Jeff over there at Molly's pub in the front of Kingwood. They've been over 35 years. They have been. My son has been there way too many times, I think. That's funny, Steve. I have two. I walk in and they say Raiders. Raider.

You are in the Raider game when you go to that? Is that the official raider bar of Kingwood? It is. It has been for a long time. I had my car flag flying up over the bar and everybody's welcome. We don't care if you're a Steeler fan, Cowboy fan, Texan fan. We can't wait until the first. day of the season but man i can't i don't understand i can't get why with all the rich

tradition and the history of the raiders why you're not a raider fan how could you not be my friend me are you kidding well i know you don't like al davis but al's been gone for a while no no no i'm completely why would no i mean raiders i don't care about the raiders that's why i can't be a fan i have absolutely no opinion about the raiders except that i don't know if crime is down less than lives since living oakland that's probably that's probably an accurate statement correct It is. And also, you don't have to deal with the two types of smoke in Oakland. It was the pot smoke and the barbecue smoke. That's the only smoke that's smelled up there.

That's right. We love Vegas and everything. And you know what? With John Spitech, I think he's even better general manager than Al Davis. And I love Tom Brady being with the team. And we need three or four more drafts and everything to rebuild our team and up to beat to catch Kansas City. But Kansas City's on the way down and we're a promising team, but we can't compete against

the Texans tonight. We're going for the tailgate, man. Got to go for the tailgate. I'm going to be in the big city wings, which is not too far from Mollies. Thanks, Steve, for the phone call. Good to hear your voice. Steve's been calling me Jonathan for a very long time. He might be literally the only Raider fan in this town.

Really? I mean, do you ever run around seeing Raider fans in this city? I don't think I ever have. They're an interesting group. Good choice of words. Yeah, I was trying to be politically correct. That's, I just don't get it for this. I don't get why there'd be more.

No, I totally get why there'd only be one Raider fan. That's Raiders T. That's it. First game I ever covered, one of the first games I ever covered on the road. This is dating me back a little bit, Jonathan. I covered the orders against the Los Angeles Raiders at the Coliseum. Ooh! Exactly. That's how old I am.

And I don't know if you know this, but the... How do I put this politely? The Coliseum is not in a good part of it. of Los Angeles. No, I've been, I've been to the cost of him. So the game starts at like 1.30 or 1 o'clock, and the owners are getting their ass beat, and I'm going to catch a red-eye flight out of L.A.X. come back to Houston after covering the owner's game.

And Ed Fowler, Ed's a former columnist for the Houston Chronicle, and now he's a, being as a prison priest. But Ed was a crotchety old guy by nature, but now he's obviously, man, does a lot of the Lord's work. work. He goes, Matt, can I get a ride with you to the airport? I don't trust this stadium. I don't trust this area of town. Can I get, can I get around? I said, sure, Ed. So we're sitting there, thinking about how we're mapping on a plane. And it's like second quarter. And I think the Raiders are kicking the order's ass. And the waft of marijuana smoke got in the press box. This has got to be

like 1993. People were not nearly as, shall we say, as liberal in bringing their pot into sports stadiums like they are now. Right. So young little Matt Thomas, well, I was young, big fat Matt Thomas, but that's not here nor there. I was like, damn, I'm getting a contact high by covering an older's football game, which kind of helped out because I think the Raiders kick the older's ass, if I remember correctly. That's about Raiders or Oilers games.

And getting contact high at the Coliseum. Contact high at the Coliseum. And wanting to make sure when it got the dark, get the hell out of there. Is that a Renault car? You know how people are. Renovcar. you can beat the hell out of those things. Me and Ed Fowler driving to the LAX

racing out of there because it was a certainly part of town after say about 5.36 o'clock at night. Those of you that know in L.A., know what I'm talking about. All right. Hey, let's recap the Astros win. We got a little bit of news to tell you about 2. 1158, Sports Talk 7.9y. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

On it, Bar Show, on the warning track. He's under it makes the catch. And that is the ball. game. The Houston Astros in their three-game skid as they defeat the Los Angeles Angels three to two. Astros back over 500 and have a two-game lead in the AL West. And in 1205, your Astros have a two-game lead.

Over the Texas Rangers, still four better than the Seattle Mariners. There's your standing seven-nighting update. All right, John, let's call Ross. He is somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. I have no idea if it's even going to go through. Just pot it up, see if he even shows up. Does the dialtone go through the air or no? We've never called Ross on a vacation before.

Any luck? Ross. Hello? Ross. Yeah, what's up? Where are you? Who is this? It's Matt, your friend.

Matt, who? Okay, where the hell are you, and are you okay, and have you been hit by a Mountain Lion? Oh, is this Matt Thomas? Oh, Jesus. Come on. Can we, this is the segment ends in a couple of minutes. it's here for the love of God. Come on. Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, I am in San Juan Island. I'm out of Mount Rainier. I did not see or get mulled by a mountain lion. Thank you for your concern. Well, people would ask it about it. That's the reason why we called you. No, that's not the reason we called you. Oh, okay. Thank you. Well, yeah, they heard any reports of a mountain lion

attack, it's fine. That's right. All right. Are you having a good time? I'm having a great time. Okay. Well, plugging, getting rested and refreshed. Well, you need to be because and I will preface this by saying that in radio, and I've told this to Ross off air many of times, we've talked about this on the show many of times,

you have to constantly evolve. If you're going to be in this business for any length of time, you have to evolve, correct? Of course. And we have evolved you and me for most of the last 16 years. Yeah, I would say so. I think so. I wheezzled my way into the co-host chair.

Yes, you have. Weasel will be the good term, despite all those many times that you were late to the show way back in the day. And I covered your ass for that. And it's fine. I can live with that. Not true. Not true. Not true.

The reason why Ross we've called on a vacation is because starting Monday, it went from the Matt Thomas show to the Matt Thomas show with Ross because you weasled your way in there. Starting Monday, it will be Matt and Ross in the morning. What? The morning? Starting Monday morning, your two favorite midday dorks are going to 6 a.m. May I leave it. Oh, am I supposed to speak now? I don't know what to say. No, I'm just letting everybody do.

just let it percolate through their brains. Yeah, let it sink in. So, IHeart Radio is like, look, we are always trying to make you guys the best we can, and we just think at the end of the day that we want to do a little bit of shifting, changing's up a little bit. And IHeart, our bosses came to us and said, hey, would you guys consider it? Ross is like, are you kidding me? Because I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you've always dreamt about working in a morning or a PM drive.

The boys in the afternoon are holding their own with the Space City, simulcast. So it just made a little more sense for us to make the switch. And so Ross officially a 50-50 co-host in this show. Matt and Ross in the morning Monday 6 a.m.

Your thoughts, please. Yeah, extremely excited. Like you said, Matt. I mean, I got in this business from the bottom run of the ladder at the promo team in 2008. It's been a dream of mind to be PM Drive. I'm very blessed. I want to thank you, of course.

for letting me weasel my way from producer to coast to now Matt and Ross in the mornings. You've been great and you've been humble and you've even you're unfortunately this is your own fault. You're the one who allowed me to speak on air and allowed me to pursue my dreams. Now on Morning Drive in Houston where I grew up, where you grew up with the teams we love in Morning Drive on Sports Talk 790, I could not be more excited and happy. Absolutely. And you're going to be a, as you've been the many, many years at great, partner we look forward to that also we need to give a shout out to our producer jonathan allen who has

worked his ass off to become a really fun interesting part of our radio show he puts up with my quirks um he defends me a lot of times especially when it comes to joe mixon even though i had to pay off on that bet last friday so uh jonathan you you are coming up with us so we did a little meeting on Friday, we're all going to make sure we're going to call each other for the first couple of weeks to make sure that we all have our alarm set properly and then we're awake because the key to this will be obviously when the shows

are at 6. All three of us be here at 6 o'clock. So, a few other things to get to. Number one, tomorrow will be the final time I ever wake the strippers up because guess what? The finaling Friday,

we're putting them to bed, sports RV. Good night. Strippers? Yeah. Good night. What time are we doing that? 8 o'clock on Friday mornings. 8 o'clock.

All right. Well, they're partying hard, huh? I think so. Thursday nights. A couple extra lines. I know. All of our favorite things like shut your bum ass up. Ain't nobody got time for that.

I just don't get it. Got feelings to tell the truth. All that's coming to the show as well. The reality is this. we've always considered ourselves and look this will be the last time we're going to just fawn on ourselves this midday show has always felt

kind of a morning-esque feel to it we're not going to go breaking it down next to the nose cuss and disgustin the Texan second defensive line we talk about We're bringing the jar Jonathan Get the jar We're bringing the jar with us too

We're bringing the jar back with us too We've always kept it very lighthearted And that's what you kind of need in the morning Is to be as lighthearted as possible So, oh let me tell you Our buddy Dan Matthews is going to flip-flop with us. So Dan's going to go to the middays and you and I go to the mornings. Now, on Rocket Nights, I could be a little sleep deprived. Don't care. We're going to be fine about

this. Now, you may be able to make fun of me more after a Rockets game because I'm sleeping about four or five hours of sleep. It is what it is. But we are very excited. We're looking forward to it. And a part of the show will be obviously call interaction, Twitter and whatnot. But we're going to keep it many, many of the same elements of our. of our 10 to 2 show will go to the 6 of 10 show. Just give you a little option to have you something, have some fun. And again, sports, it's not rocket science. You don't want to be bored.

You just want to be entertaining your way to work. And we're hopefully going to do that for you for four hours every day between 6 and 10, starting on Monday right here on Sports Talk 790. Anything else you want to say before you go back on your vacation? Yeah, I think he said it very well, Matt. And again, I will say thank you and excited to work with you. If I had any, my choice of a 790 talent, I would choose you. so I'm excited. I'm happy for it.

And also follow me on Instagram at SportsRV. I just posted a couple of pictures from my trip on my story at SportsRV on Instagram. You follow me back in the next hour. I'll follow you back. No, you won't. You know why? Because he's going to turn his phone off. He's not going to follow you back.

He's lying to you. I'm back in civilization. Going whale watching today. Life is good. Are you serious? Now, if the whale eats you, it can't. All right. You can't have me getting eaten by every single animal.

It'll be Matt in the morning. I mean, it would be less to say. Well, yeah. I'll call you from the whale. Oh, inside the whale? Like screaming and yelling, get me out? Yes, Jonah on a mobile, yes. It was better than saying Moby Dick.

Bye. Okay, goodbye. That's Ross calling us from somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. May he survive the whale watching excursion. So there you have it. That's it. Again, it's not earth-shattering. I'm not going to be sitting there, high-five on ourselves. Fisbon, we're the best.

We're just a great radio show we think. We think we're going to have a good time in the morning. So, and we'll be to do that starting Monday at 6 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790. There you go. That's it. And Jonathan, tell your girl, can't stay up late at night. No more. No more video games until 11, 30, 12 o'clock.

Just saying. I'm horrible about the game now. I can't even play it. Oh. By the way, NBA 2K7 is coming out, 27, and I'll be giving some of those away in the air because my voice is still on there from my little contract. I have with him. So I'll be going to tell you about more of that in the next week or so. All right. 1215 on Sports Talk 7 and a JT the Brick on the Raiders.

I just put a tweet out with chat GPT. Did you see it, Jonathan? No, I was going to, hold on. Go look at it. It's absolutely ridiculous. We had somebody at the office doing chat GPT of us moving to the mornings and that's what they came up with. Now, who is this? You've got to go look at my Twitter account. It is hysterical. At SportsMT. The day of the show will be Matt and Ross in the mornings.

It will start Monday at 6 o'clock. And on Rocket late nights and West Coast, I'll be joining Ross at 7. But that's going to be just a few days here and there. So don't be worried about me. I'll be fine. By the way, this also gives me an opportunity to get on the road and see my daughter play volleyball more often, you know, flights earlier and whatnot. But, yeah.

presented the situation. We're like, yeah, we've got to do this. We've got to do what's good for this city, good for this radio station, and good for our company. So we'll be happy to do it to jump in. But yeah, if you want to see Chat GPT's interpretation of what Ross and I look like, follow the old

Twitter account at SportsMT. JT the Brick will be with us to talk some Raider football coming up in just a few minutes. 713, 212, 5, 790. Brant is with us in the Groves on 790. Brett.

Hey, man. Hey, congratulations on the top grader promotion. In the past few years, I've been on the road a lot, and I've been fortunate not to be able to listen to you, Rob, the A team, and then lead into either the Astros or the Rock,

and it's really just made my days on the road to fly by, and I absolutely love y'all on the time slot. Hopefully this time change comes with a bigger couch for you to take a nap on. I do like my naps. Yeah, sure.

Hopefully you're getting what you want and everything works out. I look forward to you and your new time slot. Hopefully I can catch that time slot more often. Yeah, thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. By the way, Ross has sent me a text before he turned his phone off. He said, if the time slot is, if you're used to us 10 to 2, we do podcast these shows right away. So if you can't listen to us in the 6 to 10 slot, you can certainly listen to us whenever you want to.

That is true. And John, that's your responsibility. That's what I'm doing actually right now. Are you really? Good for you. Yeah, Iheart does a good job. Spotify, Apple Podcast, blah, blah, blah, blah. Look, we've never taken ourselves too seriously.

We do like to talk about sports. We like to talk about things off the beaten path to. It's really not going to change. But Ross deserves this opportunity as much as anybody else does. He really has climbed the ladder over the last decade plus. I've worked on all different time slots. There are pluses and minuses with everything. but I do want in the morning to get in here and have a good time.

And that's what we do. It is what it is. And it'll be a good way to get to be the fresh. The fresh is material, too. We won't have anybody bit stealing us because Lord knows, John, then we've had people bet steal this radio show for over a decade. So there you go. But yeah, that'll start on Monday.

And we're also going to do this. And we're going to think about this, John, then, really quick. Back in the day, we would have a professional radio. company do jingles for us. We're going to have the listeners, excuse me, do the jingles for us. Oh, that's right. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, my man of Javier,

who may be listening to us in Laredo, and we're going to do, I'm going to do a little video post about this next week when Ross gets back into town. We're going to do, have you guys send us your songs of us? Like, you can do Mad and Ross. I don't want to sing on the air, but I'm going to do it anyway. Screw it. Anything goes Friday.

It's not anything goes Friday. Today's Thursday, right? Oh, hell, I can do another day of this. You might as well continue. Might as well, yeah. Mad and Ross in the morning. So if you want to ever hear your voice sing songs about us, we'll play them on the air. Gordy's already got AI doing it for us.

Yeah, I already got four ready to go. Do you really already have four? Yeah. Let's play one. You'll play one? Just one. Just one. And then to kind of give you a sense of what we're doing.

and then we're going to talk to J.T. The Brick about the Raiders. Go ahead. Looking for the deep orange and the white. It's my and lost in the morning. Damn. What do you think? Don't, are you shaking your head back there?

I'm laughing at you, dancing. Well, that is a, that is an AI-generated song, and we as whites can do that. Correct? Yes. This is the happy love. I'm not a heck for the young. I just thought it's funny.

That is hysterical. All right. Let's talk to JT. Rick next. Talk a little. Radio's football. 1226 on Sports Talk 790. 12.30. It's Matt and Ross on Sports Talk 790.

Ross has the day off. And reminder that Monday, this radio show goes to 6 a.m. Which means I'll be asleep at 8.50 in the morning. My next guest is someone that I have listened to for a very, very long period of time. A young Matt Thomas used to listen to the sports fan radio network where he would listen to J.T. the Brick own overnight airwaves for many, many, many years. And now J.T. has made his way to Las Vegas where he's working with the Raiders and joins us here from Houston, Texas, where he was at the post hoc hotel last night. Hanging out with celebrities. J.T., it's Matt.

Thank you for joining us. And good afternoon to you, my friend. Thanks for being on the program. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, thank you. Great to be in Houston. A little hot and human, but it's not like Vegas where we've been 110 to 115 in August. So a little break in the weather for us from Las Vegas. No question about that. JT, real quick about the radio because you are an OG like myself. You have been doing national radio for a long time. And then because our business is constantly changing, you have made it away to Las Vegas.

First of all, I remember way back in the day, you had a lot of Houston callers that would call in the middle of night, correct? Yeah, yeah. I have always been on the radio in Houston throughout my career. And I've been fortunate to always be national throughout my career. I was with sports fan and Fox for almost 18 years and now Mad Dog on Sirius XM. And Houston's always been a great sports town, always been a sports town that's been vibrant for callers and, you know, multiple sports franchises that have been successful. So Houston's always been a very important aspect of my national career because there's always something happened. and in this market, which is usually pretty big.

And when can we find you on Mad Dog? I'm on Mad Dog Sunday, Monday, Tuesday in the evenings, and I'm also on Raider Nation Radio five days a week on the flagship of the Raiders, which is also a national show because we're on the Raiders mobile app. And you can find me everywhere at JT. The Brick on YouTube. So if you go to YouTube and your listeners can subscribe at JT. the Brick, all of us need to be on YouTube because that is the future. I have three radio jobs, but if any of them go away, the place to be seen and heard is also on YouTube.

So, plenty of places out there. That is exactly right. So you made the move with the team from Oakland to Las Vegas. I was always fun. We were laughing. My partner and I were about we should have bought some, what do you call those, seat licenses? Because so many fans from other cities come to the game. So you've been there now a couple of years.

If I go to Allegiance Stadium to watch a Raider game, what's, What is the fractional breakdown of other teams fans compared to Raider fans? And I'm going to assume, even though the team is coming off a disappointing season, that because it's been around longer now, there's more Raider fans find their way in the building. Am I correct on that? Oh, yeah, of course. This is Raider fan. Raider fans are global.

So we have more Raider fans in Los Angeles than the Rams and Chargers combined. That is fact, not fiction. So, yeah, we have a lot of Raider fans. The problem is other fans are still. buying tickets at an enormous price to get into our games because it's still the first cycle through the stadiums now coming into its seventh year. So if you take away the COVID year where we played games with those fans couldn't come in, you're seeing fans who have only been there once or coming in through the second time, especially the teams in the NFC. So this year,

the bills are coming in. So that'll be 50%. The chiefs when they come in and, you know, the Pittsburgh, Cleveland travels really well. So until we start winning more, which I think we're on the path and we'll get into that with Fernando Mendoza, it's still a place where, you know, tourists come to see games. The A's, the Oakland A's are moving here. The Sacramento A's coming in here. It's going to be the same thing with them. But fortunately, we got a big base of fans globally.

We have one of the biggest NFL fan bases in the world, but still people are coming in to buy tickets to see their team in Las Vegas. And one quick correction, I always lived in Vegas. I commuted to Oakland for 70 and a half year. Oh, did you really? Wow. Yeah. So I was, I've been in Vegas in sports fan radio, spent some time in LA with Fox. But yeah, I was I was in Vegas that whole time. So it's nice that the Raiders. I don't have to commute to Oakland anymore. But we miss Matt Oakland a lot. We had, you know, the years in Oakland were fabulous, man. Some of the best tailgating out there. But Vegas came calling the sports and entertainment capital of the world. And it's a different world we're living in now. Now it's time to start winning again. Absolutely. I've been to Vegas 45 times. My audience knows about how I feel about your city. All right, last thing about off the stuff of them and I'm getting on to the team. So Tom Brady has a role now. First of all, for you just being a sports fan and as a talk to host, how weird is it that a guy who is not synonymous with the Raiders, all of a sudden within the last couple of years jumps on Fox and

has done a really good job as an analyst, but now is involved in some of the day to day. What's it like? and I know how much you deal with him, if any at all, but what is it like having the greatest quarterback of the history of this franchise now trying to help running the front office of that organization? Well, it goes back to his involvement being an owner of the Aces. The Las Vegas Aces have won three of the last four WMBA titles, and they're a dynasty now currently, and Tom got involved with that with Mark Davis.

So they've been friends for a while, and then he had a minority interest with the Raiders. He's very involved. We don't see him much because once the season, starts, he can't be in the building, you know, his rules. Yeah. As a broadcaster with Fox. So he's around a lot.

He was at the joint practice the other day with us here in Houston. So Tom Brady has a massive role with the team. Mark Davis brought him in here to bring in his expertise on winning and trying to turn it around. And we've had four head coaches in the last five seasons. And I'm the guy that interviews the head coaches every week for the coaches TV show. So it's been a lot of turnover. And hopefully Tom Brady's tutelage here and to help for him.

Fernando Mendoza and the quarterbacks and all that will bring some stability. But Tom Brady plays a major role with the Raiders going forward. And the Raiders don't make a move personnel-wise when it comes to a player without running it by Tom Brady, who was former teammates with John Spitech, who's the GM at Michigan. So they go back to their teammate years at Michigan back in the day. JT, the break with us here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Raw. So we brought up the quarterbacks. Look, Kirk Cousins has been able to make a really nice living, no matter where he has gone.

First of all, were you surprised when the Raiders contacted him. And then tell me what you know about their relationship as Mendoza. Obviously, when you're the number one pick, you are supposed to be the future franchise quarterback. How is it working out right now, forgetting about what's going to happen, say, 10 or 11 weeks in the season? What is it like right now watching those two guys compete and learn from each other? It's absolutely perfect. the word would be perfection. You can't find, I don't think you can find a better quarterback room right now in the NFL of unproven Super Bowl champs. That sounds weird. It's not Mahomes. You know, it's not Josh Allen, but you got Kurt Cousins who had his best seasons with Clint Cubiak when Clint Cubiak was in Minnesota as the offensive coordinator under Kevin O'Connell. Those were the three best seasons of Kurt Cousins career. Now you have Fernando Mendoza, the number one pick overall. You'll see a lot of him tonight. And then Aiden O'Connell is a third string quarterback, and he's a good

player. I mean, Aiden should be the starting quarterback for the Jets, Arizona. He could start in this league overall. So when you see what they're doing to try to bring along Fernando Mendoza, it's great for Kirk Cousins. And Kirk Cousins is here to win games because, Matt, the real big issue now with the Raiders is we're done losing. I mean, we had the worst team in football last year, the worst. We get the first pick overall. We only have three wins. with a legendary coach and Pete Carroll. Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator, got fired. Everybody got fired.

So now you have a new regime, and they're going to have a little bit of a runway. They're going to have a little bit of time to turn this around. But this organization's built on Al Davis, just win baby. Yeah. This is not acceptable to win three, five, six, seven games. So I don't know how many games the Raiders are going to win this year, but Cousins has got to get us out of the gate quickly. We open up at home against Miami.

Then we go to the Chargers, who we really play tight. and split with them a lot. We play the Chargers. Then we go to New Orleans. If Kirk Cousins can come out of this thing, two and one, or if we get through Kansas City two and two, Mendoza's going to stay on the bench for a little bit, and he's going to sit there, and he's going to be on the bench.

If Kirk Cousins doesn't win right out of the gate here, then, you know, you can bring up Mendoza sooner than later. The problem is the Raiders who came in last place last year in the entire league, forget about the AFC West, have arguably the toughest schedule in football. We are the only team in the NFL. Let this sink in. The only team in the NFL over a five-week period

that plays Kansas City, Buffalo, the 49ers, the Rams, and the world champion Seahawks. I mean, how the hell does that happen when you're a three-win team? So we have a gauntlet, a gauntlet, harder than any team in football, including the Seahawks, Rams, and, you know, the Patriots, and throw in the Patriots. We're playing the Patriots in that gauntlet too, who went to the Super Bowl.

Denver went to the AFC championship game. We play them twice. You know Kansas City and the Homes, and the Chargers are no joke. So the Raider's schedule is a monster this year. Not a great schedule to break in Fernando Mendoza, but he'll get in there and play, I think, by week eight or week seven, because we've got to turn the franchise over to this potential superstar at some point. It's crazy, J.T, because you could be a significant.

better football team, but my God, you just ran through the AFC West opponents. That's going to be, you may have, you may be really good outside of the division, but in the division, not only you're playing ferocious teams that you're playing in some tough venues as well. Yeah, I'm not even worried about the AFC West, because we know the AFC West, and Kansas City's not as good as they were. We beat Kansas City last year with a bad team.

The Chargers are the Chargers. They always flounder. They're a bunch of clowns. The Chargers always flounder away their season. time and Denver's really good but you know Bo Nix is not going to run away and hide like he did last year the problem with the Raiders is again New England Buffalo um the Seahawks the 49ers and the Rams who are going to be the best team in football you add all that up I think if the Raiders didn't have that schedule if they had a traditional schedule that a last place team should have

and we're playing say the AFC North or we're playing the AFC South or you mix in the NFC South, I think the Raiders could win eight or nine games because Raiders got Brock Bowers, Max Crosby, Fernando Mendoza, Asgen Genti. I mean, we got some good players. We just got Nicobi Dean and Quitty Pay and Quay Walker. There's some good players on this team,

but it's going to take some time for Clint Kubiak to turn this team around. Last question for you, J.T. So Max Crosby deal gets reneged because of the failed physical. Take us through what the... that was like seeing him come back to the Raiders and where is he stating right now? What's his framework? What's the organization's feeling about him? Obviously, in uniform.

It needs to be ferocious as always. But when you trade somebody to bring him back, that could create some potential hard feelings here. Yeah, no hard feelings for Max. Max is one of the best people I know. He's a future Hall of Famer. He's a warrior. He's 100% healthy. I will tell you it's one of the dirtiest deals in modern NFL history.

Dirtiest deal. by the Baltimore Ravens to fly Max Crosby commercial, not to Baltimore to D.C., bring them into their facility, make his wife wait in the lobby for five hours, knowing that they weren't going to sign them because they got cold feet, and they didn't want to do it at the last second. Everybody knew McCrosby was going to fail the physical. He just had surgery. They knew it was about Max Crosby. They backed out of the deal, and the Raiders had two first round picks for him.

We're all thrilled that Max came back because Max, is much better than the 14th pick overall and the 28th overall pick in the first round. But, you know, there's a big decision coming up for the Raiders. Because if the Raiders are at a point at the trade deadline where they're completely out of it, which I don't think will be the case, everybody's going to be calling on Max Crosby. Just like, you know, the Houston Texans lose a great wide receiver the other day. And everybody's now going to be calling and wanting to get a wide receiver into Houston to help out. Max Crosby will be a rumored name for a while.

but he's got raiders tattooed all over him. He should be a raider for life. He's in his absolute prime other than Miles Garrett. He's had more tackles behind the line of scrimmage for a loss than anybody in this league in the last six seasons. He's a hell of a player and he's the prize piece of this franchise. So if Max can stay another two or three years and play at this level and Fernando Mendoza, remember Matt, Drake May played in the Super Bowl.

Drake May was nowhere near the player Fernando Mendoza. was in college. He didn't the Heisman. He didn't win the national championship. He didn't put a small school like Indiana and he was in North Carolina on his back and win. And then Jaden Daniels, Jaden Daniels took the Washington commanders to the NFC championship game in his early part of his career. This conversation we're having is all about Mendoza. How quickly can Mendoza like other young quarterbacks, Bo Nix? Bo Nix is in half the player Mendoza is. And he's gone an AFC championship game already. The Raiders march back to glory has to depend on Mendoza, not being average, being good, he has to be great. And from what you've seen as he's been here

in Houston, the way he talks to the media, his maturity, his grace, his family, his character, and being the understudy to Tom Brady, this thing better work. Because if this doesn't work, we're in a lot of trouble. Because it's been a long time since the Raiders have been relevant. and this brand, the silver and black, needs to get back to where it normally was for four decades, and it's going to Mendoza. JT, excellent analysis. Thank you so much for your time. Our mutual friend Greg Tui says he wants a shout out during this segment, so Greg Tui is getting a shout out right now. Tui is going to get a shout out from me, not you.

It's National Radio Day. So Fox Sports Radio, sports fan, as you mentioned, catch me on Mad Dog Sports Radio. And a pleasure being on, oh, in that hotel I went to last night. My God. Kilman Fratita owns half of Las Vegas. Biggest shareholder at win, close to buying Caesars. Everyone was telling me I had to go there.

Oh my God. There was a Rolls-Royce dealership in the lobby. That place is off the chart. So that was a lot of fun. Well, he's my Rockets Bosses. I call the games. And hopefully I'll be doing a Rockets versus Las Vegas NBA expansion team here in the not too distant future either, too.

Oh, that's 100%. That's coming. And we'll see it before that. So thanks for having me on, my friend. Thank you, J.T. really appreciate. J. joining us Raider Nation and Sirius XM and Mad Dog Radio.

And again, for those of you that are radio OGs, you've heard JT's voice for many a decade. 1246 on Sports Talk 790. It is Matt and Ross with you today. I'm here. Ross is on vacation. We've got the McTagger conversation coming up at 130 if you missed that. Believe it or not today is random anecdotal things about Las Vegas.

I was going to put it that way. And all it takes for you to win today on the, when those concert tickets we've got is one correct answer. So be ready for that. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It's 1246. We're with you till 2 o'clock today on this.

I always thought it was Friday for like half the time. Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Now, Jonathan, you had never heard of JT. DeBrick before that. He makes you want to run through a wall, doesn't he? For the writers of all people? I'm not going to lie. I was his fan until he started bashing the charges and I'm like, oh, okay. Well, but that's what you do in the EFC West, right?

But yes, but honestly, no, very, very toxic. He loves him some Raiders. I don't think they're going to be as good as he thinks they're going to be here. I don't even know if he, I don't even know if he knows they're going to be good or not. He just wants them to be good because he knows that the Raider brand has taken a hit because of the fact they've been so bad for so long. Yeah, I mean, I see why they pay on the big bus, though, for sure. Yeah, so thanks again to J.T. The Break. Again, I've been listening to J.T. The Break for, geez, 25, 30 years.

Woo! Long time. He used to do Fox Sports Overnights here in the early days of this station, and then would do sports fan where I used to listen to him, and then, again, it's been working with the Raiders for a long period of time. He was commuting back and forth between Oakland and Vegas? I mean, it's not terrible. How long as that? Hour and 30? Probably so.

Yeah. Give or take. It's not too bad. Not bad. I could talk Vegas with him. I mean, I bet he could, I bet if I found him and said, let's go, let's go find, let's go do Vegas for, like, as a local would do Vegas. I bet you, you grab somebody that lives in Vegas and they take you the local spots.

You wouldn't even touch a strip. Like, I got a good friend of mine who works in marketing for MMA or UFC. And he's like, you would not believe all the great deals and food and. and gambling and show options if you stayed off the strip because the strip is not meant for the people that live in Las Vegas. The strip is there for the people like ourselves that come and hang out. Eight rando facts about Las Vegas today on today's edition of Believe or not, and that's coming up in about less than an hour from now. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-790. Rogers with us at 1254. Roger, good afternoon. What's

going on? Holy cow, Matt. Where did you dig that guy up? Man, I used to listen. him back when I worked at Methodist back in the 90s and it would fight with the station Z-Rock because I would hear in Z-rock and I would hear him and the signal would be fighting back and forth as I was working for the parking garage

and you know it was late night and the middle of the night and you know just all kind of wilds to happen back then and I was going back and just thinking about where I was and I was listening to him. And then lobeholds you got him on the radio man, that's crazy. Isn't that funny? For the OG listeners, you got you guys definitely know who OJT, the break is for sure.

I'm old. You are old. You are old. I'll say that. Speaking of old, I will be at the movie books and I did not prize for them. I bought them first. What? Wait, wait, wait.

Well, that's, hit the, John, hit the breaking news sounder. Roger the prize whore is actually paying for something. Yes. Via, via my better half. All right. But, yeah, we'll be there with the injury booth in play. Where's your pregame spot? We're going to running route.

Oh, my. And Johnson's shaking his head. Shut your bum ass up, John. I love you, but shut your bum ass up. Running route's the best. I'll see you. I'll see you. All right.

Come say hello if you see me at the concert. Why are you hamburger shaming me? I'm not. It's just... You just... As soon as I said running route, you shuck your head. Because it's all... Because you're just a lame Mr. Texan.

How are you... Waterburger's right there. Dude, I have a water burger in Kingwood. I go there all the time. Yeah. Get the A1 thick and hearty. The patty mill. No.

You know what? I may even get me a Butterburger Jr. on the way home today. Just saying. I'm actually going to Big City Wings. I don't want to ruin my appetite for that. but come on now I don't know

I'm going to the woodlands I'm going to a running route I don't have a running around in Kingwood if I do I wouldn't be worried about it no so I'm pre-man that's something I do that's what's what's what's what's what's what's that's what's what's what's what's what's what's

I'm going with my son and my his two buddies that's like you wearing a wimby jersey because it was there I shut you know what you're not going this in the morning you see you know what I will put you in overnight you got a rap Texas all the way through you can't let this time up in your brain coming you're going to eat their food

guess what really? In Rout's in San Antonio. It's in Austin. It's in Dallas. No. It is in Arlington. It's in Houston, Texas. In Katie.

Stop. 1257 is the time. Yeah, I'll be at the concert tomorrow night. Going to running around beforehand. And I got three younger guys with me. I got Cameron, my buddy, oldest sons, and his brothers are going with them. So they know good rock and roll. And I'm telling you, Jonathan, tomorrow we're playing a lot of Dube Brothers and Santana on

this show. Got to honor what we're there for. By the way, any Nunez, athletic director at the University of Houston, is going to join us for the final hour of the show tomorrow. So tomorrow is the last good morning strippers. We're going to put them to bed. I've got to practice that, don't I? Good night, strippers?

Because that's what you do at 8 o'clock on a Friday morning, correct? They're going to sleep at that point, correct? Most definitely. I have to think about that. And then, and then. Nunez in studio for a whole hour. Our buddy James and Garden Oaks. He'll be with us next on the fan.

Or not the fan, are we? No, that's 66 WFAN. Hmm, I'm confused. 1258 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 102 on Sports Talk 790. We've got some breaking news. That's one.

That's two. No, it's not about me. I'm not that big of an eagle maniac. James Harden re-signs with the cavaliers. Jonathan. I'm kind of surprised. Three years,

$97 million. For him to make three points in the playoffs, they gave him $3 million and $90 million? I mean, come on. No, because that's insane. First two years are guaranteed the third year's a player option, but he ain't going to turn down 33 or whatever it is,

million dollars three three years ninety seven million dollars they really think they're gonna win the east wow woo rudal

I'm surprised well they got diamond Mitchell I mean they what do they I mean they have Jared Allen yeah they got Diamond Mitchell still right yeah

is Jared Allen still there I always feel guys are moving around left and right all the time that's really all I got those three and Hardin, Mitchell and Allen. That's what we all that guy. Is Dean Wade left, right? Yeah.

Is Sam Merrill still there? I'm sorry, I haven't caught up on my Cleveland Cavalier death charge yet. That's all I know what's for. I think I'm done after that. Jared Allen, that's it. Oh, oh. No, I said I'm good. I cannot at this point give you any more Cavaliers.

No, do you want me to? Let me tell you a minute. If I can ramble off eight Cavaliers, this show sucks. Now, if I'm doing a Rockets Cavaliers game tomorrow night, I better damn know the Cavaliers, but I should not know eight Cavaliers on August the 20th. November 20th, I might have to. Especially I'm calling the game. All right.

104 on Sports Talk 7.9. Let's go the phones. What do you say, Jonathan? Let's go. New York. Let's go to James and Gartonoke. You're on 66 WFA and James. What's going on?

Hey, Governor Thomas. Thank you for checking my call, fellas. Sure. Look, I was, I was very much surprised when you had that gentleman on that, known as J.T. Around New York man and in the annals of every corner in New York City, everybody knows J.T. the brick. That, that man is as knowledgeable as Charlie Polillo is as well, because he was a fellow native New York, and I know he's over here in Houston and everything. And he's a good person to learn something so that guy, Josh, do you have over there?

he has um um you know very good prospect to be a a wonderful broadcaster and everything he's just you know a little bit of tuning here and there he's very knowledge of young man but look let me tell you straight up about it that james hardin deal um first of all he's a cadaver already on what you call on arrival to cleveland cleveland it's like a morgue of a city to begin with i have family from cincinnati and they always talk trash talk about the city of cleveland it's freaking Cole out there, Lake Erie and everything, man, I don't see how he's going to enjoy life over there. But one other quick thing that I wanted to ask you,

Governor Thomas, did I hear you say you're going to move to the morning? We are. Are you moving? Monday morning at 6 o'clock. You better be awake and listening, James. Okay, I'm up because I got to take him my wife because my wife have to deal with my wife taking it to Dallas and so. I'm up and about all the time.

And I listen to that gentleman, Mr. Matthews. He's an okay guy himself. too, but he needs to get out of his own shadow and everything. I'm glad they put him aside on his own because he can stand on his own too. Mr. Matthews, he didn't need that sidekick of a

of a, you know, a pineapple guy that guy that called Mr. Thompson, whatever his name was. But anyway, but anyway, I don't even know what a pineapple person is. Actually, when you're a pineapple person, it means you're a swinger. Are you saying that Cole Thompson's a swinger? I don't know if he is, but he talks

kind of funny though. You gotta admit, when I listen to him talk, he was all over the place. I didn't know if he was, if he was talking like he's macho or he's talking like he's going the other side. I couldn't tell, man.

But anyway, I got one other last thing. I know the Yankees are going to be playing the Astros and everything. I'm making my prediction ahead of time. I think the Yankees, even without anybody, the Yankees could make some hardship

for the Astros and everything. I think they can take two out of three because they're looking, strong on the pitching side of the Yankees. And, you know, they ain't got much hitting, but as long as you can survive until we get to the playoffs. And I think the Astros will make it no matter what, because that's a weak division, too, where that's the only thing is the Astros got to remain focused.

Stop listening to the hype. Just play and play smart. So I'm looking forward to the playoffs this year. I know the Astros will make it. They'll win their division. I don't care if the Yankees are only wild card. Let's get it on because we got to resolve this issue. between the actual supposedly

owning the Yankees. I can't take it too much, because all my friends and family always ripping me over here in Houston, and I got to take it all winter long. But anyway, thank you, Governor Thompson, for taking my call, fellas. Yeah, so you think that

little jingle is good. Jonathan, get us another jingle for our new Matt and Ross in the morning because we're going to have you guys do some jingles for us. We had a I do some. We already played one already. That was 66 WFAN, New York sports leader. Here's Matt and Ross in the morning with one.

Energy is shaking on the roof is tight. The ice is cold, but the energy is bright from the profit boxes to the open lane. We play for the glory and we love the pain. The mecos on the sideline call to play. All to Zep the play. Let the bat lead away. If you need the stats and you need the truth, we're talking to the legends and the rising. You're about to cry.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So if you can do us a little jingle, we're looking for, I think a little shorter than that. I don't know if you could give us like 45 seconds, but I'll take 10. By way, our buddy Javier and Laredo has already reached out to me. He's going to get some jingles for us. Is he actually? He's going to.

That's what so. So if any of you are singers that want to do Mad and Ross in the morning and do anything clever, we'll play it. We're not going to give you any money. Well, thank you. Yeah, make sure you tell you. Yeah, how have you, you get nothing from us, except our appreciation. All right, we had a call this morning at 10 o'clock in the first segment of the show today that was unbelievable. Basically, I went after the douche, excuse my French, the douchebag who caught the ball on left field last night that went over the line that was a fan interference.

And Gil, good friend of the show, like a third cousin, defended him. And I want you to hear that call. We'll have that next plus Ronnie and Danbury will get to you. Brian McTaggart, bottom of the hour, and believe it or not, all things about anecdotal things. about Las Vegas. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. So, James brought up the pineapple, and I mean, I got to be honest with you. When I think of pineapple, I think of pineapples outside of people's homes and Santa Plantation. Just saying, I'm not trying to call out of neighborhood, but I'm just saying what I'm saying.

You've been down the streets a couple times? No, I don't go to Santa Plantation. I'm on the other end of town. We don't do those types of things in Kingwood. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. Actually, there was that website. What is it? Is it Dolly Madison that does the, uh, hooking up with people that are married? Is that what it is?

It's not Dali Madison. You tell us. No, I don't know. I'm not saying something I'm guessing. Oh, okay, okay. I trust you. I thought Dali Madison was like the sweet rolls, like the cement, you know, like the cement rolls and bread and stuff.

Yeah, Dolly Madison cakes, you know. Yeah. There's some Madison that you can, if you're married and you want to have a, you want to go on a dating service for married people, which just seems weird. that's how some people they have long-lasting relationship it's almost as weird as uh say uh putting a pineapple on in front of your house i'm not judging though all right so i brought up the early in the show today for you ten o'clockers they weren't with us now you one o'clockers we love you that um there was a dude out there a broskey now unconfirmed if he was off from australia or not we don't know that for a fact but he was so proud of himself jonathan last night when he caught that fly ball out in left field that was over the line, not a home run, was never considered to be a home run, but obviously fan interference allowed two runs to score when maybe it was only one run.

Now, it didn't ultimately come back and haunt the asteros, but it could have. And needless to say, I did a little bit of a monologue this morning and criticized that person, whoever that may be, for doing a big D bag. So, not that I expected this, but it was Gil, who called me last night on the 10th inning show, was one of my first callers today here in about 1020 this morning, and here's Gil's phone call, at least part of it. You're blaming him for doing that? Absolutely, 100%.

Okay. Why? Explain me why? Because it was illegal. He interfered with the game. What is I want to phone? I understand that. Well, then you know, you don't because you're calling asking me why I'm mad at the guy.

He interfered. Interference unallowed. Sorry. If it had been a kid, would you be pissed off the kids? Absolutely. Absolutely. You do, you stay away from the line. That's it.

That's what the rule is. What? He should know better. Yes. Oh, come on, man. What are you talking about? Okay, an excited fan. What's the first thing you're going to do?

Hell, yeah, you're going to try to catch the bar. No, you're not. Not at the line. You are stepping, but you are stepping back a road. or you are getting or you're putting your hands behind your back. If you can't handle that, then you don't get to sit in the first row. Broth, there's responsibilities. He paid for his ticket.

He said where the heck he was. Yeah, but he's not a lot to interfere. When you pay for a ticket, what the hell am I talking to? Is this a troll? Are you trolling me, Gil? No. Yes, you are. This is not smart.

No, I'm not smart, but in my reaction is to be catching. No, my reaction is you catch you, get your ass thrown out of the game. Is that what you want, Gil? Was that worth it? Did he get thrown out? Yes, he left. He left. I don't know.

Yeah. Or they made him leave. I don't know. Whatever, but yeah, you are not allowed, Gil, there's a rule called you are not allowed to interfere with the game. Sorry. I try getting some sense in him, but he wasn't buying it. I was actually surprised he was being serious.

Because he was. Because, look, we have trolls on this show, right? Yes. More than the more than the average show does. but yeah, that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. And by the way, he tried to give me, if it was a kid, guess what? You know, I'm going to do, Jonathan, I'm going to take my belt off.

I'm going to whip that ass out there in left field. Don't you interfere? If you're a kid and you are lucky enough, that is a mother's and father's responsibility to make sure that you do not put your hands over that line. But like I said, honestly, I'm more worried about you guys out in right field. Y'all are whack jobs out there too. Y'all love getting yourself involved in that. Crawford boxes, a little less room for air because you're only worried about the other line.

Hell, if you're out there in right field, you're worried about a player jumping in there and getting it from you. Now, if that player is coming into your space, you're all for it. But you reaching over, how easy it is to reach over there? Just do me this favor, baseball fans in Houston, Texas. Left field and right field, if you want to sit in those really fun seats and catch a home run ball, make sure the ball is a home run. don't get yourself involved they were so

what I liked the most about it there were so many calls after Gil's call getting so many like he made all of their mornings like shut your bum ass up we love you Gil but you're wrong

let's talk to Ronnie on 7 out of it at 122 Ronnie what do you got today hey Matt enjoy the show as always listen I agree with you on the landing over the rails of us your guy comes by

you're sitting on the front row and he tells you if there's a ball that's coming anywhere close lean back, put your hands in your pockets. Yes. Don't let it hit. Yes. Yes.

Yes. And if you can't do that, let's see if we can't get you a seat sitting somewhere else where that won't be an issue. Now, I'm going to drop my voice down a little bit because the caller earlier was questioning the guy that used to be on the morning show and his high squeaky voice. Well, I'm going to talk like this. There won't be any debate about what my sexuality is. But that's what that being said. or y'all you're moving to the more what's going to be the shake-up on this on this stuff but i got to plan my my date listening to you guys thank you very much we're going to go six to

ten dan is going to go ten to two and then the eight team's going to stay where they are two o'clock until six so we're just flip-clomp i'll sign off on it send me a paper and i'll sign off on it thank you thank you very much that means always a great show appreciate it thank you ronnie and by the way cole is a great friend of mine and is a very talented broadcaster so they will no be shaming of Cole. If there's anybody that's going to shame Cole, Jonathan, it's going to be me through text. Yeah, we know. You all think I'm this really sweet person, don't y'all?

No, they don't think that. I don't think that at all. I am vicious on Twitter. Not a bit Twitter on Twitter. I am vicious in text. You get in my group chat? I will cut you because I get cut myself. Yeah, I'm just telling you,

you think this bright, smiley face is a handsome, brooding man. of your favorite buddy 10 to 2? What? What? What? What additives do you just use? A bunch of them. That all fit. Oh, okay. You see the chat GPT and what they think I look like? It's pretty much spot on, right?

When I got that from one of our coworkers, I belly laughed. I hate that I laughed at it too. That's so. And I'm frankly even more happier. I'm even more happy. I'm even happier. I'm even happier about these AI jingles were playing. We're going to have, we've got to cut them down a little bit. They're a little long. You're hitting the white man jig over there.

It's what white people like. She sounds attractive. She's not being a real person, obviously. So you do text yourself. You get Siri to text you some messages, huh? Siri and I have a good relationship. Okay. Do you know I have a friend of mine who I will not name

gets in fights with his jet GPT all the time? What? Yes. I won't say who it is because I'm not going to do it. argues with argues with chat GPT and says you're being disrespectful to me.

No, no, I think I already know who it is. I remember this. Don't. No, no, no. I know, but that's crazy to me. It's awesome, but it's crazy. Let's go to Alex and Conra

before we hear from Brian McTagger. Alex, good afternoon to you. All right, Matt, I got a solution for this front row issue. Please. Now, we've all, I assume we've all rode on, been on a roller coaster,

a ferris wheel, something of that nature. you know how you have the little retention thingy. Okay, something like that crossed with one of those little leashes that they have for kids. Whenever you sit in your seat, the attendant comes, puts the leash around your waist, and adjusts it so just far enough that you cannot reach over the front row. You can stand up, you can move around a little bit, but you can't get far enough forward to reach over. We've got to put leashes on people, Matt, because obviously nobody has self-control. I don't understand why it's so hard. Between that and the wave, I don't know what we're going to do, man.

But great show. Love you guys. Take it easy. We'll see you later. Thanks for the phone call. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-70. Do you, no, we're adults.

We don't need to put leashes on our children. You know what they should do, honestly, Jonathan, is they should, when you enter the outfield seats, you know how you, there should be like a separate turn style. Do you know the rules of baseball? Do you know that you're not supposed to cross the other line? Do you know you're not supposed to interfere? And if you can say yes to all, it's like, you know what it's like? It's like being in the emergency row on an airplane.

Oh, this analogy that hits. You want to sit in these really good seats in the extra leg room? You've got to be willing to pull the side of the airplane apart if you crash. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. That was it. That was it.

You want to sit in the emergency row. You've got to be able to pull that side of the plane off. in case y'all crash. You want to sit in the outfield of Dike and Park? You better know. Don't put your hands across the other line. That may be the analogy of the week. That was a good one.

That was clean. I like that. You know, if you want to sponsor the analogy of the week, it's all going to happen once a week at most. We'll be a spend more... We might do it once an analogy of the month. Okay, that's enough. Brian McTaggart is up next 127 on Sports Talk 790.

Believe it or not, all things about. about anecdotal things about Las Vegas coming up at 150. Tomorrow on the radio program, it's our Friday visit. Our final, anything goes Friday at least for the midday. We'll be moving to morning starting on Monday. Eddie Nunez, athletic director of University of Houston, is going to come by for an hour between one and two. We will wake the strippers up for the last time at noon tomorrow.

And we got, I'm sorry, he's at 1130. And Jonathan, based off of the show today, you owe me about four to five apologies. Let's get to... Not true. Okay. least one. Let's get to Brian McTagger with us earlier on the radio program today and we

talked to him about this Astro team winning yesterday. Rangers did lose to the National so that means the Astro lead is two going into tonight's game against the Angels and the series finale. But the fact is three hits on Monday, five hits yesterday. Joe is spot of trying to find some

sort of lineup to create some sort of consistent offense. Here's Brian on that. Yeah, and he moved up a little bit yesterday but yeah I mean the four spot the cleanup spot sort of been a revolving door we've seen I mean I don't know how many guys have had that

fourth but you know Varsha was there for a while I mean you know Cam's hit there it's been you know a lot of it has to do with matchups and who's hot but yeah you get past the top three in the order with Pena Alvarez and Paredes and then it's just a drop off ideally you have Christian Walker hitting there and driving in runs like he did in the first half

that's not happening but sure he's got to be frustrated and they go out and get dalton varshot and what he's like six for 47 is an astro and just not getting it done so i mean he can only roll out there the guys he's been given and he's trying to patch it together the best he can uh every night It's been a few weeks since the trade deadline took place. And obviously Dalton Varsha was the only member that was the changeover. Any sense? Not that you want to necessarily speak for 26 guys in a clubhouse, but any sense of we should have done more, could have done more, understand the situation we're in, any feel about how the players thought about how things went down before the August deadline?

Not really for players. I mean, I've heard any players come forth and, you know, any check. about we should have done more. I mean, players do say that from time to time, but when they come out and say something like that, it's almost an indictment on the team they have now. And, hey, we're not good enough to win it now. We needed some help. But I do know that in the dugout, in the, you know, the coach's office, there was definitely frustration when they didn't get a bat, another bat, especially when they didn't get another arm. And some other teams went out there and made some trades. You know, I think there was real disappointment

there just with boy we could have done more and we know we had a couple of deals on the table that didn't work out um the price for pitching was very high we know that but we saw some guys move like foster griffin didn't take a king's ransom to get him and boy he would look great in an astro's uniform hard to say because we're not in negotiations we don't know what the nationals wanted or what the astros would have offered but uh it certainly feels like they fell short at the trade deadline and i think if you gave the players truth serum that they would probably agree with that Let me ask you about Ethan Pecco yesterday. Pitch count high, not surprising for a first time start, did not give you four, which meant the bullpen was absolutely fantastic yesterday.

Any sense right now whether or not this was a one-off or he's got a chance to at least get one more opportunity to stake his claim in the starting rotation? I think he's got a chance to stay. I mean, they're about to start a stretch when they get to New York 13 games in a row. I certainly suspect they'll try to go to a six-man rotation. I mean, I don't know who those bottom two guys are going to be, but, you know, it looks like there were some nerves early on. He was spraying some balls. You know, the fastball command wasn't there early. At one point, he had thrown 40 pitches, 20 balls, 20 strikes settled in a little bit.

But, yeah, the pitch count got up really high. But when he's in the zone, he got a lot of swings and misses. So I think there was something there that deserves another shot and see what she can. guy. They really don't have many options. I mean, it's clear that Emi is completely out of their plans, it seems. I mean, he's pitched twice this month, and that's been in relief. So, and, you know, Javier, he's going to keep starting just because you have a few other options. Bottom line is, they don't have many other options. So, yeah, I mean, I think Pekko will get another start. And I think he showed some signs that, you know, maybe he's got some stuff that can get big league hitters out.

I know you'll be at the ballpark later this afternoon. Anything more than what you, you've heard except for the x-rays and jeremy painting were negative correct negative i did see jeremy we didn't get to talk to him after the game i didn't see him walking out uh he was uh didn't have any brace or anything on the it hit him right on the knuckles so um so you know the fact that x-rays were negative i i think you know maybe he takes a day or two up but they can not afford to lose this guy again i mean it when he's in the lineup they're 43 and 33 and when he's not in the lineup they're 21 and 30 i mean that's that shows you the value of Jeremy Pena. That's a really drastic

difference. So even though he's not swinging it well right now, he's still a guy that can turn it around at the drop of a hat. You want him at the top of the lineup. So it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't play today. But yeah, they definitely need to get him back there and get him going more than anything else because he, you know, he hasn't hit

for about three weeks. A few more minutes here with Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on the Astros beat. I thought last night was a true indication. Maybe what the Astros are in a nutshell. Why are they a game above 500? Well, offense is not doing much, but that bullpen last night ate up some serious innings. We're talking

about a combined two hits between five Houston relievers. Great. Just great work out of the bullpen. I mean, all, every guy they ran out there. The, you know, Susa's pitching a lot better, you know, Okurt's been Okurt, Abraou back to being a Breu.

And then Hayter's been phenomenal at the end. I was crunching some numbers today. Remember how bad the bullpen was in April? And that was because the starters weren't going deep. But in April, they a 6-63 ERA and since then since May 1st the bullpen is a 293 ERA I mean that's a really good number over a long

time so that has been the one unit I think that is reasoned there in first place you know in addition to being in a poor division is just their bullpen has been so good at picking up these starters when they go four or five innings I mean is this sustainable here over the last

five weeks I guess we'll find out but you get to the playoffs and you have a bullpen pitching like this gets a little bit of entering. You know, a guy like A.J. Bluebaugh, who's paid more innings than any other leader, that's a guy that could be a huge weapon in the playoffs, going two innings, two and a third.

So if the bullpen can keep it up and they can just get the two guys going and get the top of the order, find some consistent starting pitching, that's a pretty big checklist. But, you know, they can close this thing out. And frankly, you know, the Rangers or Mariners don't look like they want to win this division either. You know, part of the reason I think you're,

you stay away from a bullpen game is because the starters, the other guys on those other nights, are not going deep. So you would think, man, you could put this together for seven or anything. Maybe you win a September game during that stretch of 13 in a row, but you can't do a bullpen game when that bullpen is being used as much as it has been. And I know that Joe has tried to give them relief, and that's why you see guys like Uliola go up and down and whatnot, but they're just not getting a stretch of two or three days where they're not

having to use a bunch of arms. Yeah, and every game seems tight. So you're bringing in your leverage guys. It seems like almost every night. I mean, they haven't really had a blowout since, you know, I don't know when. So it's, you know, every guy's got to be ready every night. The best thing they could do is go out there and get a couple of blowouts this weekend and, you know, rest some of these bullpen arms.

Let EMI come in and eat up some innings and see what he's got. But, you know, every game, it's like two to two, three to two. And it's, you know, they're scratching and clawing for runs. And you're deploying every one of your high leverage. levers and they're doing a great job but um you know you can't do that night after night like you said if you're in a stretch here where you you go to six-man rotation and you're like wow we only have five starters let's do a bullpen game and you blow them and you know the next game the starter goes three in and you know you're in a little bit of trouble so uh tough spot pitching wise but they've been

navigating this pretty much all year i mean it's been it's been like this from the from the jump when guys were getting hurt so they just got to navigate it another five weeks and get to the finish line My last question is something that I think you can change your opinion on a week-to-week basis, but I'll ask it for you right now. Getting your crystal ball out, are we looking at these three teams doing what they're doing for the next five to six weeks or at some point? And I feel like I've been asking for somebody to do this in this division for basically two months. Is there any one of these three teams that can really try to pull away or do you think we're going to be right down to the last couple of days with a team scratching to get to say 83 or 84 wins to be just good enough to win? in the division.

I don't have any reason to believe we're not just going to see this, you know, down the stretch trying to get to 83, 84 wins. I will say that, you know, the Mariners have a really tough schedule right now. September, their schedule is pretty easy. So I think if you're looking at one team that, again, I mean, I keep waiting for the Mariners to get their stuff together and they just don't. But if they can, with the easy schedule they have, they could be the team that even though I think seven games under 500 could still make a run at this a little bit just because

their schedule is so easy. But yeah, I see this being just a pillow fight to the end. And, you know, if you get to 85 wins, you're probably going to win the division by two or three games. If that hits, remember I told you all, 85, well, I'm going to do it. 84 might. Hell, 83 might do it this year. The way these teams are playing right now in the American League West.

Astros again, 6 o'clock on deck show Adam Wex. So we'll have it for you. 7.10 will be the first pit. And I will be with you tomorrow for 10 o'clock until 2 for the Friday edition of the show, the final Friday edition in the midday slot up next, believe it or not, which, by the way, we'll be moving over with us to the morning show as well. It's all things randomly about Las Vegas, random notes about Las Vegas. That's, believe it or not, it's up next.

713, 212, 570 if you want to play, 713, 212, 790. We are playing. If you want to go see that one correct answer, by the way, wins you the prizes. This is good. One correct answer wins you on today's edition, believe or not. And again, the prizes are pretty good, including tickets tomorrow night to hang out with me,

not necessarily in my section, but I'll be there. Santana and the Dubies at the Woodlands Pavilion or a pair of tickets to see Leonard Skinner and Forner at the Woodlands as well on August 27th. Tickets for both events are available at Ticketmaster.com. Believe or not, Randos about Vegas next. 143 on Sports Talk 790.

148 on Sports Talk 790. Ross off again today. We'll be off tomorrow and then back. We'll all be together hanging out at 6 o'clock in the morning. So Jonathan, if one of us sleeps late, first of all, who we put the percentage on who it's going to be. Now, if I, you and I sleep over sleep, which oversleep, we're not going to do that. But if we do, we're not around the corner. Now, I can work from the Kingwood Studios occasionally if I need to.

I can't oversee that. I'll work. I'll start somehow. Oh, yeah. You get a lot of pressure on you. You'll be okay with this? Nah, being a D1 athlete, you wake up, this is normal. It's funny.

I was having dinner with a friend at the Astros game yesterday. Do you know he told me, I don't want to tell you who it was, but it doesn't matter, you don't know what it is, but he says, I love to hire Division I athletes. Really? He's an investment broker. And he says, I hire them because to get to that level,

and you could say that probably for Division II and Division III, but division one is it's a smaller group. Yes. You don't choose when you get to work out. If the coach says you've got to be there at 545 in the morning, you've got to be there if you want to do it. You know what I'm saying? No, trust me. I lived it.

I know. If you want to work six days or if you have to work for to practice six days a week, like my daughter just finished up two a days. Now she's in single practices. Yep. But she's working her ass off. Yeah. And then she's going to add school on top of that. Yep.

and travel and playing games. I mean, it's a good life, and obviously there's a reward for it. But it was interesting. He said, I hire Division I won athletes because they ultimately work hard. Not saying to other people that don't work hard, but he says, I'd like to choose them because they've been doing this for a very long period of time because of the fact that it does take working out, eating right, exercising, getting your rest, not staying out to the middle of the night. You're going to see it first hand with the daughter It's like I hope so

Until you I hope so So she's got this She's a set of that She got it She got it She got it She got

Boy she loving her Some media Her loving herself on media day By the way That's the best part That's not good I don't need those kids Some other schools

In that area And she's saying What's up girl Not until she's like 22 23 Five minutes left to go on the show What should we do We should play

Should play. America's fastest growing sports radio game show we simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is just random things about Las Vegas. I'll read you a statement about the Las Vegas. Statements completely utterly accurate.

You'll say this. Believe it. If a statement's erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Not. All right. Two, believe it or not. No, no, no. Check that.

One, believe it or not today, one, one, one, get you a beautiful prize. That can either be tickets to see Santana and the Dubies tomorrow night at the Willans Favilion, or tickets to see Leonard Skinner and Forner. That concert is August of 27th. Both of those tickets are available for you online at Ticketmaster.com. I think Max, we can get us four winners. We can do that, right?

Yeah, the four winners, I think it's max. I think there's leftover we have. So of all the tickets we've got left for a lot. Okay, we'll give way four winners. We'll try it. Victor on 790. Victor, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Victor, are you ready?

Yes. Victor, the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was built in 1959. Believe it or not? Not. Oh, it was. I'm sorry. We're still in play. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Matt, the Belagio Fountain Lake holds more than 15 million gallons of water. Believe it or not? Not. 22 million dollars. Congratulations. Nicely done, Matt. Let's go to Junior on 790. What was your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show?

All right. Anytime we're talking about the Astros, man. All right. The Sphere Entertainment venue is the largest spherical structure on Earth. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yes, congratulations. There we go.

Two winners. Chris in the Heights on 790. Chris, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Chris, the Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup final in their very first season. Believe it or not.

Hold on, come on. All right, yeah, we can't. That's a connection there. John on 790, John, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. John, the Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup final in their very first season.

Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, he did, sadly. It made good for them. Andy on 790. Andy, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Andy, Las Vegas Wonders.com estimates more than 25 million people visit Las Vegas in a typical year.

Believe it or not? Not. That's right. 40 million people. Congratulations. So how many winners we have so far? We don't have four winners, do we? I think three.

Three, yeah, yes. Steph, let's go to Steph. Steph on 790, Steph, you ready to play, believe it or not? Absolutely. Steph, good luck. The Las Vegas strip is 6.8 miles long. Believe it or not? Not.

It is 4.2. Congratulations. All right, so we out of tickets? We're dry. We're out. All right, so we can play for a, let's just see what, Javier wants to play for, you know what, and giggles. Javier on 790. You ready to play for a seven and you?

790 t-shirt. Yes, sir, believe it. Of course you are. The city of Las Vegas consumes more beef per capita than any other place in the U.S. Believe it or not. Not.

It's right. They consume more shrimp. Would you think of Las Vegas as a shrimp capital of the world in terms of the consulate? I mean, shrimp cocktail is expensive there. I don't know what they're doing there, but

all right. So congratulations to our four winners and Javier gets a t-shirt. Now, if Javier, if any of the people in front of you can't go to the concerts, then we'll let you have the concert tickets. So, all right, on the show tomorrow, I'm sorry, is at 1130. We have waking up the strippers for the last time, at least in the midday at noon. We have Eddie Nunez in studio between 1 o'clock until 2. We'll talk some big picture college athletics and obviously promote the greatest institution of them all, the University of Houston. That'll be tomorrow between 10 o'clock until 2. Thank you, everybody, for listening.

Thanks again to JT. The Brick. Thanks to Brian McTaggart. And thanks to all of you for being a part of what we call the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Up next, it's Clinton, it's Wexler. It's the team on Sports Talk, 790.