The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Take Game 1 In Tampa, Struggling Bats But High Hopes! Brian Bogusevic, Joe Espada, & Zach Dezenzo Join The Show

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Astros Take Game 1 In Tampa, Struggling Bats But High Hopes! Brian Bogusevic, Joe Espada & Zach Dezenzo Join The Show

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and IHard radio station. Home of the Astros. And he makes the 10! And the rockets. And a two-hand throw-down! This is Sports Talk 790. Your home for your home teams. From the Parsons Imagine Next Studios.

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Enter it now at Sports790.com. Hi there. So much larger than life. Yeah. You said. Lunch timers. Ross v. Real. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Yes. 1002 in H-town. Good morning. And welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Like a stock, the latest numbers are in on the Jake Myers fan club. Oh my God. You're like crypto, dude.

You're like Bitcoin. I'm just, you know, sitting here enjoying Jake Myers and what he provides. You're like my 401. year after year. It dipped two months ago, but now it's exploding. I've been trying to open you people's eyes to the greatness.

That is. Jake. Abraham Myers. I was going to say Santander for some reason. That would no fit. I like it. I like Abraham better. Abraham?

Yeah. Jakab Abraham Myers. Yes. Let's go. Or if he's from Ireland. He's my American League MVP favorite. it right now. Head of Aaron Judge. All-Star? Go ahead and say it. Put your name on it.

Put your name on it. Let's go. I'm not putting my name on that. Let's go. Shut up. President. We'll see what happens. We're just happy that he's being in the lineup every day and productive. God, it is so cold in here. That's all the Jake Myers fan club ever said. It's not cold in here at all. Yeah. You've got anemia. I think Dan puts it on 63 degrees. No, I don't think so. All right. It's fine. All right. Good morning, everyone. It is 1007 on Sports Talk.

It is a Tuesday edition of the radio program. We have a ridiculously busy show. Now, yesterday, we tried to have a busy show, but there just wasn't a lot of meaty topics. We didn't get into a deep dive on the NBA conference finals. We should have. It'd have been nice, but, you know, we've got to deal in realities. We've got to play the hits. Okay.

We can play the hits. The Astros have won back-to-back road games. That's very good. Beautiful. We can play the hits that they didn't have to come from behind. Now, they were tied after being up. Yeah, I mean, it's a step in the right direction. It is.

Now, it wouldn't be bad Just to go and just win a game from the start That'd be nice We're going to play Is this Astro a pitcher in the rotation or not? Because the names that are being put out there right now Look, I'm not a huge minor league dork I don't sit there and calm what's going on in Asheville

Or Fayetteville or El Paso or You know, well, that's not El Paso It's on an Astros market But you get my drip. I'm not a big... Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi.

A little bit of space cowboys because they're close. Yeah. We do get their releases, which is nice. I kind of keep... I read those. Oh, you do? Yeah, I do. I don't.

Well, that separates between me and you and my... That's fine. So, point being is this. When their names being brought up, largely most of them are like, who? Unless they're phenoms. And the a Astros haven't had a pitching phenom in the system in quite some time. Well, they're going to...

We're going to create some phenoms that we're going to create. Okay. Phenoms. creation. Because I have no idea who these people are. The Astros, again, Colton Gordon went yesterday. Yeah, you know who that is. I do, because he's made a couple of stars. It's good.

But there are some other people that have yet to really hit the mark here. In fact, I have to look at his name because I've already forgotten it already. The Astros, let's see, Colton Gordon went tonight. Yes. And then, I mean, last night, Matthew Cara Car will give me the name on tonight. Of course we got asked him.

Carahara. Yeah, well, at least I called him Matthew. Yeah, I called him Mark the other day. That's fine. That's my bad. He's fine. I really felt bad. Did you?

Yeah, I did. Well, that's nice. But yeah, the Astros are with back-to-back winning games on the road. They gained a half game. You're a true feat. Brandon Walter, by the way, is his name. Brandon Walter? All right, you just picked two names out of a hat.

No, because if you listen to the ice. deck show. I told you that last week he was the PCL pitcher of the week last month. Oh, that's right. Nine games for the space cowboys, ERA of 2.27, 34Ks and a .7 whip. And Brandon

Walter is a left-hander and he will throw today for the local nine. Okay. In hot, steamy, Tampa, Florida. By the way, it must have been... So we're going for our... Is that the fifth Astros' debut pitcher? Debutante. It felt like it's a lot.

It's really... That is a lot. It's May 20th. There's too many pitchers and my brain can't hold their names. I know some people said that the pitching depth was just great, but... Well, we're proving it here right now.

Are we? Look at this. All these different pitchers that are being thrown at them. Yeah, they're so good. All these guys are getting one start and getting sit back down. Hey, Colton gets to sleep in his bed today in Tampa. That's good. He's good.

Yeah, pitching in front of the hometown fans. He looked good. Yeah. Look confident out there. It was so flimsy. though the folks in Tampa try to make Starnbrenner feel feel like a major league ballpark?

Oh, it's terrible. It's spring training. It felt like a spring training game. I felt the exact same way. The whole game, I was like my subconscious was in spring training mode. Yeah. It was like, hey, who's going to be running in the outfield eventually? Like, how come this guy has his name on the back of his jersey? Normally it's like 99 with no name on it. Yeah. And there's like strange broadcasters calling the game.

Guys I've ever heard of it, work single-a games. Yeah, it was Todd Callis. Jeff Plum. They were, it must have been sweltering in that press box, by the way.

Yeah, they, the lads were glistening. What are they called? Not drop sweat. What's it called? Flops sweat. Flop sweat?

Flop sweating. And then the phone lines must have been melting because the first two innings sounded like hot garbage. Apparently there was a power outage or a power surge, I mean, we certainly can't speak of technical errors around here. That would never happen up here.

That's something called a weld oil machine. Oh, my God, with our internet. phone lines and all the equipment in a room we don't even use and don't even know how to work. They were battling through it. It was like a minor league broadcast the first couple of innings on the phone. Hey, I did an entire NBA game on the phone this year. Oh, everything web-based.

Just a-okay. Don't get me started. Don't get me started. Don't get you started. Let's not get ourselves started. All right. So 11 o'clock today, Brian Bogus Evers me with us because tomorrow he's on TV duty. Okay.

Which means he cannot join us tomorrow. So we're going to have him at 11 o'clock today. 11.30, we've got gut feelings. At 12 o'clock with the news at noon. At 1230, we've got Joe Espada. And then Zach DeSenzo is going to join us at 1.30 today. Before that, we'll have NFL rewind with Ross at 120. Love it.

I love having Brian Bogus Havicon. He does a great job. But it's like, I'm getting tired to ask him every week. What the hell's going on with Christian Walker? Getting tired of asking him every week. What the hell's going on with YonRDS? What pains me is I wake up in the morning and look at the box score. and I go to the very far right side

where it so's OPS. Those numbers just aren't increasing very much. They aren't. They are not. It's fine. They're still winning games. That's the good thing. It will get better.

Because if the pitching can't get any worse, right? I feel confident the pitching can keep it going and then the hitting will get better. But I also feel like I could have just played your recording from the last two months. Well, month and a half. I mean, and look, I give credit for Joe. He's trying everything to mix the lineup up. I mean, he had Isok Perides leading off yesterday. Yeah.

Joseo and the two, I mean, this is absolutely crazy. Well, it was two days ago, right? Two days ago. That's right. I'm looking at the wrong box score. Yeah, yesterday. Yesterday was back. He got three hits by.

And then Altube was in the third spot, correct? And that yesterday? Yes, and he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. And by the way, why? I mean, we can talk about this. we've got to get to a break, but why is he getting booed lustily in Tampa Bay? I'm going to give you a general statement that doesn't need to reply. Okay.

You know how Lance McCullors, unfortunately, got some things said to him through social media and his family, which was terrible, and just shows you how callous social media can be, especially the anonymity of it? Mm-hmm. I've got breaking news for y'all, and it's not really breaking news. Hosea L-Tube has gotten it ten times worse for a much longer period. Yeah, but, I mean, it's 20-25. and you're in Tampa Bay. Why do they care?

What are they booing him for? Yankees, I get it. Dodgers, I get it. Mariners, to the extent, I get it. Tampa Bay Rays? At Steinbrenner Field? Shut your bum ass up. We don't do that tomorrow.

Oh, I'm sorry. We're doing it on Thursday. Maybe we should do it today. No, our show's busy enough. Very busy. Very busy. Thursday, not so much. We're going to do on Thursday.

All right. Matt, what? Every day is busy. Oh, we're so jam-packed. We're going to entertain the hell out of you between new and two. 9 and 2 o'clock. I mean, will you trust us on this. We will not let you down. Well, one of us won't. 713-212-570. 7-1-3-2-5-790. If you want to follow us on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsMT, at SportsMT, at Instagram, please, for the love of God. But you're not, you're just flat out begging.

Yeah, I'm okay with that. I ain't too proud of bed. I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go. At SportsRV on Instagram. All right. Have you joined the Jake Myers fan club? You know what we got to do? Rossi here before we start really get going on the show is we need to, when you have a new member of a fan club, do you don't take like an initiation, like an oath? No.

Because when we had, we just take the show. When we had Wave Busters, our Wave Busters T-shirt get together a couple years back, we had you had take an oath about you could never, ever, ever start the wave, be a part of the wave. be a part of the wave. You can't worry George. You have to watch the game. Just enjoy baseball as it is. I think we should create some sort of oath. Because I feel like your fan club really gained steam between, say, March 25th and June 1st,

and then after that it just falls off. Oh, that was just last year. This year we're going to sustain. All right. We're going to keep it going. 713-212-5-790. 1022 on Sports Talk 790. if you would like to be a part of the radio program,

especially you 10 o'clockers. I feel like we have two different audiences. Our 10 to noon is one audience and our noon to 2 is another audience. So you 12 o'clockers, come on and we're here every day at 10 o'clock. That might be fair. Some people tune in the whole time

and we appreciate them. If you're a 20-hour-a-week person, which one can give you something. I'm not even 20 hours a week. I know. I work with you. I see you. You go into a days.

I'm about a light 12. Shout out to my guys, my EMS guys. I talked to yesterday at the gas station. Are you okay? I was, no, that's funny if you bring that up. I was getting gas at a Kingwood gas station yesterday. Oh no, gas station nachos and you had to call 911.

Speaking of that. We're not doing, I just don't get it this week. I got you all crack. Go back to the M.E.MS. So these two guys, and this shows you how awesome are listening bases and how long they listen. Yes. And these two guys are in the, Matt, and I forget the other guy's name. I apologize for getting another person's name.

Oh, of course you remember the guy named Matt. Well, that was, yeah. I totally understand that. They said, hey, it's not going to be a sports empty curse if I drive by you. I said, okay, oh, geez. And I went over and talk to them, but it was nice. A couple of nice guys that we talked about their lives and my lives and how busy their lives are.

How quick are you? Because it's a situation where you don't want to be there forever. You're just trying to get gas and get to work. This was at night. Okay. My wife and I went and had dinner, but I wanted to get some lottery tickets and then pump some gas. How did you do?

Well, you're here, so it couldn't have been that well. I have, I use the app, and one of them says I won $7. but I spent 10, so I'm out three. The other one I can't get to go through. All right, back to the nachos thing. I enjoy nachos. Not as much as Chris Gordy. Chris Gordy eats nachos more than any of the person I've ever met in my entire life.

We're at like a high-end steakhouse. He's like, yes, I'll have the nachos. He orders nachos at barbecue places. Yes. He orders nachos at Rennys. Yes. Wing places. At wing places.

At buy-bop. Yes. He's a 24-7 nacho guy. Did you see who now has nachos? We were P.F. Chang's and he was trying to get nachos. Well, it's funny. Yeah. He was an Annie Ann's dumpling house and wanted some nachos.

Not any of Nians. It's something else. But moving on. Do you see who else is selling nachos now? Who? Rubway. Rubway. Yes.

Foot-long things of nachos. Foot-long rubway. Okay. For the sake of keeping this clean. subway who doesn't spend a dollar with us nachos I don't even want a sandwich from there first of all I have not seen it in person I saw the commercial for it

first of all they said prison grade deli meats it's not even good so well you're helping that never get a dollar for subway over this station thank you Ross I'm sorry so they sell the footlong churros which I'm probably in for foot long chocolate chip cookie the foot long sub

okay but They're now, I saw a TV commercial for a foot long, for the footlong nachos, which basically is just a long plate of nachos covered up. And the thing about it, if you go to, if you want... What kind of chips do they serve? Tortilla. And they have the cheese. I mean, they can just melt it on your chips.

I'm really scared to Google this. You can put olives on there. I'm sure they've got pecanque sauce or salsa. I guess if you're in like Columbus, Ohio, this is acceptable. You cannot order this in Houston, Texas. You should be banished from the state. So we will put on... I knew it.

It was Doritos. That's what I figured. Yeah, it's Doritos, Matt. What is it covered with? Nacho cheese? Uh-uh. Halapinos. Uh-uh.

And I don't know. Various deli meats of that sugar. No, you do not put roast beef on your nachos. Why not? That's disgusting. I was a black forest ham? Can I get some sliced turkey breasts on that, please? Um.

Tuna salad. So here's what we'll do it. If any of you... No. Don't do it. Oh, you're sick. If any of you have gotten the Dorito nachos from Bubbay What is on this?

I can't even tell what the kind of meat this is. You're not putting deli meats on your nachos. I'm sorry. You can put ground beef. You can put fajita meat. It might be like from their steak and cheese. You could do steak and cheese down there. Yeah, you could.

You could also do the chopped up chicken too. This is disturbing. But I wouldn't do it. I'm just saying I'm not going to do it. This is sick. You can't tell what kind of meat this. is. Yeah, I think it's from their steak and cheese. I mean, they have

onions and jalapenos and tomatoes already. I mean, this guacamole looks horrible. And they do sell guacamole there, too. I suppose I don't eat, so. That's good. Don't eat subway guacamole. Okay. Well, that's... I used to not eat guacamole when I was younger, but that's because I just realized you have to be discerning about which guacamole

you eat. Yeah. There's good guac and there's bad guac, man. Yeah, and I'm going to go with C. None of the above. I want none of that. I told you, I'm going to bring you to my mom. She makes the best guacamole in the world. And you know what? Because I love your mother, more than you, I will take a taste of it. Okay. Josh

in the Woodlands, give him on line one. Can you do that for me real quick? He says he went to the... Yes, sir. Josh, did you eat the subway nachos? Yes, or no? So not only did I eat them, I invented them. These have been around for 20 plus years with the employees there. Yes. So the way that they charge employees is based on

the bread. So if you don't get bread, you only get charged for chips. So employees would dump the chips on the deli paper, cover it in cheese, Cover it in chicken, jalapinos, all the likings. Put that in the toast oven, pull it out, slather it with Chipotle. And you were set, man. So that's been around for 20 plus years.

Oh, wow. Now, see, that's acceptable. If you're an employee trying to get over on your employer, I'm all right with that, actually. But that makes a lot more sense. But he didn't go in there and go, hey, I saw the commercial for it. I want to buy it. Okay. Well, we have somebody else.

After the break. Yes. 1029, Sports Talk, 790. is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross, if we were playing a game of charades, you are two for two. I'm pretty good, I feel like, at charades. Yeah.

Because I don't have my... What's the other one? Heads up on the phone? I'm great at heads up. Let's feel the curtain back for five seconds. So I don't have my script in front of me of what... Because your computer's not out. We're 30 minutes into the show.

Shut up. So I said, what was our first ad today? And he gave me the perfect graphic for what Rye's health was. and gesture and gesture which I thought what you can't do in front of other people but you did in front of me and I got it yes and then number two you said

let's go for a swim let's go hang out of the two creeks crossing resort which we're going to do right now the streets and on the phones about the nachos at jubb ray website so other shows been where it's at all these years stuck in the mud of middays

first of all I'm never doing morning drive again okay that's never going to happen and the afternoon drive I got too much stuff going on okay well I'll see you later I'm open to both I'm telling you I don't think you're up open a morning drive

I think it just sucks the life out of you dude yeah yeah I mean of course the money's good you're gonna do it I can't hear you I can't hear you say I'm willing to listen to anything anybody make me an offer let's see let's see where the

The jobs are looking at these days. All right, so middays in Houston. Uh-huh. Or morning drive in Duluth. It's funny you say that. There's a job open in Duluth right now. Okay. Send it over my resume.

I mean, I'll give you a recommendation. Thank you. It may not be a good one, but I'll give you the recommendation. A Havre, Montana has a spot open. Ugh. What do you even do? Well, Duluth is easy. You just pretend you're Minneapolis and you just show.

Aberdeen, South Dakota. same thing. Huh. Okay. Because it's, because, well, you know, look. Golden State Valkyry's play-by-plays open, Matt. It's already been closed. Oh. Not that I was looking for it, but I'm just saying it was. Sounds like, yeah, sounds like you heard back already. Oh, no, no, no. I'm, I'm plenty of busy here. I got to be here with you. I don't want you complaining about me being gone as much as I am. I'm not. I was doing Valkyrie's games. Yeah, you wouldn't want me anymore. It's like a 30 game season, right? It's not too bad. That'd be a little odd me doing the play-by-play of another.

their team's NBA women's and me doing the rockets. A lot of misleups. Okay, that's enough from you. Roger on 790, good morning. Good morning, Matt. So on the subway, I'm the scrubway

nachos. Yes. So, you know, the scrubway should never be on anybody to go to list. That goes without saying. But I live in a sometimes the workload is such that you cannot get, the options are very limited,

and I'm right here off of I-10 and boss, and right next to I-10-a-voss is a Home Depot park, which is a subway adjacent to it, and then I'm working at a business park right next to it. So sometimes the options are limited, and you've got to go and do what you've got to do. It's fact that you run out of gas. Sometimes you've got to go to gas station.

So I get there, and, you know, the ladies are very nice and friendly and very, you know, efficient with the way they do things. And, you know, they put the fajita meat or they, you can substitute for chicken, fajita or whatever, like a chicken or a fajita meat type of deal. But it's not bad. It's not bad. It's definitely doable. It's very, I was surprised, actually, by the way they're down.

Not either sandwiches or what they are. Yeah, it's not bad. It's doable in a pinch. Okay. Well, thank you for the update on that. Thanks, Roger. Thank you, Roger. Look, I have gone to, I have a rubway next to my house, very close to it.

I shouldn't stop saying rubway. You should very much stop saying rubway. Dubbay. I have a dub bay close to my house. And you know what? If it's 9.30 at night and you're hungry and you have nothing in the refrigerator and you don't want to go down to the main intersection. It's close and convenient and it gets the job done when you needed to. Like Galveston.

No, Galveston to me is a destination. It's a place I pack and go, hey, we're looking, hey, everybody, we're going to Galveston. Yes, let's go. Let's have a good time. Maybe if you're in Houston, but nobody else in the whole country. You know what? That's our little paradise then. Sorry, Minneapolis. You can't have it. Sorry, Portland. You don't get it. That's because it's convenient.

It was four hours away. You wouldn't go. Not true. If it was 1400 miles away, then maybe you're right. But every pocket of the country has that. I'm sure there are some beaches in South Carolina that aren't appealing. But they go because it's close. I'm sure not every beach in Florida is spectacular. Would you intentionally go to Panama City if you had to, if you wanted to?

It's nothing but 48 wrappelries around there. What's wrong with Panama City? The beaches look nice, don't they? I haven't been. It's a little congested and a little WT. WT. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Yeah. Where we going with this? I don't remember. Oh, yeah. Rubway nachos. Rubway nachos. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Wob say nachos. They're there in a pinch and you should enjoy it. Yeah. So you know what I'm going to do? Next time I go there, I'm going to get the nachos and I'll give you a full report. I'm good. I don't need it. I already know.

What if I bring you some lunch on Thursday? Sounds like a pile of mid. Well, a lot of pile of mid out there. 1040 on Sports Talk 790. Again, we'll have Brian Bocasepic joining us coming up in about 20 minutes from now. Joe's spot at 1230 today. And they highly Google, believe it or not, believe it or not, at 150. NFL that's going to let players play flying football.

Hey, you're ruining NFL Rewind. That's at 120. Oh. I feel like we can bring it up again. Okay, fine. Well, as I said before, the Olympic games in itself have made a mockery of all the things they've allowed. Why? You didn't like break dancing?

chick from Australia was hilarious. You don't think when they were in Athens back in the 1700s, they were thinking about concocting a flag football game at the Barthanon? They were probably beatboxing. Now, breakdancing came down from high on Zeus. Now, just to me make sure I'm very clear, I'm a complete 100% hypocrite on this. Because I love beach volleyball very much.

Okay. So I watch, if there's anything I watched more of, it was the beach volleyball and the indoor than any of the else. Oh, why do you watch so much beach volleyball? Because it's athleticism, it's very few injuries. Christine? Oh, Christine, what? Santiago.

From Brazil. You should have gone with Santos. That is a Brazilian name. Santiago? Santiago, not Brazilian? I would say, well, I mean, it's more Spanish. Oh, damn. But I'm sure there's some Santiago's in Brazil. Okay.

Point being is this. you just can't sell track and field swimming and what else is the true gymnastics has been a long time when you had to incorporate badminton badminton you've had to incorporate table tennis table tennis handball not equestrian um what is it to synchronized swimming love it all once every four years so basically what we're talking about is the

olympics is what every other sports that we actually cover on a regular basis it's just a way to make additional money right Nobody was thirsting for flag football. Help me out. Help me connect the odds. Why did the Olympics decide to add flag football? Eyes. Are you more apt to watch handball or flag football with people that you recognize?

With NFL players, I'm probably at flag football. And guess what those Olympic people are going to do? They're going to sell the television rights to say, hey, you can buy commercial inventory adjacent to flag football. Make the package more attractive to NBC. slash peacock. I was locked in on peacock in the Olympics. We're going to be watching a lot of peacock this year with the NBA on peacock. Yes, NFL action on peacock.

There's an exclusive late in the year, I think. Well, Premier League, of course, as well. And if you're a big fan of Notre Dame football, I think at least one or two games will be on peacock. Huge. Can't wait to watch the pee. Is that what the kids call it? I don't think so. Not at all.

So, again, are you a big old can of a lot? indifference on this? No, I think it's cool. Why not? No, I'm going to tell you this right now. This is hypocrisy number two. I'm going to watch it. Yeah. See, you're a hypocrite. I'm saying bring it on. I want to watch Lamar Jackson making spin moves and run touchdowns. If he plays. You know what? I am all for flag football at the Olympics as long as no Texans play. Why? Why not? Because I don't hate the Texans. I don't hate the Texans at all. I know our fan base that listens to show loves the Texans,

so we've got to take care of those folks. I would like a quarterback with some more mobility. So our friend C.J. Straub, we'll go ahead and put him on the bench. But if mobility is who, if you're Baltimore and Lamar wants to play, not only are you saying no, you're saying hell no. I have to look at their contacts. Can I put this, I'll save this for the gut feeling. Uh-oh.

Okay. 20, okay, we'll save it for 40 minutes. Write that down. Matt has a gut feeling. has a good feeling. I wrote it down. You didn't write it down. I saw you nothing tight at all.

Wait, you're in the room? I know. 713-212-5-7-90. That's how you reach a pro cramp. See, that's one benefit of me not being there. So I say, hey, remember this is coming up, and then you go, oh, yeah, I remember. I can't lie to you as easily. No, you're a much better liar when I'm on the road.

And you're seeing to be proud of that, too. I'm not proud at all, Matt. These are, these are, these are the laughter of shame. It is. slap to embarrassment to look at yourself you're a pathetic self as what you are can't even lie to my face

properly again it's easier to lie when I'm not in studio with you 1044 on Sports Talk 790 know what I looked at because I am obsessed with standings so the Mariners won again last night you know they swept San Diego over the weekend yeah they won four in a row now I imagine

yeah they have won four consecutive games which makes me unhappy and then And on top of that, so the Astros are still two and a half games out of first place in the American League West. Okay, that's no big wolf, right? No big whoop. By the Mariners are playing the White Sox in Chicago. That's going to be a sweep for the Mariners.

Well, the Astros didn't sweep the White Sox. So they didn't capitalize on their opportunity. So you can't get mad at the Mariners if they capitalize on their opportunity. Okay, whatever. So they have, we've been bemoaning the fact that this is a one-trick pony in the American League West, American League West Division. but I stand to be corrected on this. I wouldn't look to the wild card standings. Okay.

The Astros are a half game out of the last wild card. The three walled cards right now in the American League are Minnesota, Kansas City, and Cleveland. And they're all separated by less than a game. So there are seventh out of 15. And they're one half game behind the Cleveland Guardians for the last wild card spot. They're still mid. I mean, you're 7th out of 15. But, I mean, look at how close you are to getting into that wildcarry.

So I'm going to, by here and out, never bring up the fact that the Astros in the American League West is a one-team bit because it's not going to be. If these wildcard teams kind of stay where they are, and I wouldn't think they were going to, that somebody's going to leap, but to think that three teams are going to leap and get into 15, 16 games above 500, well, the Astros are kind of hanging around 500? No, I don't believe that at all. Yeah, it's all, by the way, American. central teams. It's all central teams. How about the boss in Red Sox? Who went and spent $40 million on our good friend Alex Breggman, who's playing well. He's playing well,

so that's money well spent. Money well spent. They are under 524 and 25. That is astonishing to me. Now, I don't know their team. I mean, the Devere situation is turned ugly, correct? I mean, he doesn't know where he wants to play and they went and got a second, they went and called up a second base. Yeah, the first basement got hurt. They wanted to play first, and then he said, no.

I don't know what the latest on that is. He said, anybody got time for him to play where I don't want to play. I haven't been to listen to the W-E-E-I lately, so I don't know what the latest is on that. But it looks like he, at least in their last game, he's still de-hing. Yeah, Red Sox last night beat the Mets by a score of 3-1. Bregman in the game went one-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, who's on base twice. He is still, his OPS is still, I've got to add it up here, 15. 9.55.

Okay, thank you. So, I don't know if, if he likes playing in Boston, keep it to go two more years if he OPS is 955 he's opting out but I think his numbers will go down so we shouldn't even make a legitimate's bet on that about whether he stays or goes if you want to I don't know I'm just saying throwing it out there you know what I'll do I'll take it I'll say that he could crack a tibia and then opt in I mean who knows what's going to happen well okay let's do this then if he plays 140 games or more okay does that seem fair sure Meaning he probably avoids an injured list at some point this year.

What's the bet? I say that even if he plays 140 games or more, now I can't tell you about his batting average or slugging or if he goes in any sort of slump. He will slump at some point, I believe. I say he stays with the Celtics with the Red Sox for at least one more year. He could because he's got opt-outs after every year. Yeah. Because he is on the other side of third.

Not the wrong side, but the other side. The wrong side. The winning side, usually, most guys. By the way, we have spent a lot of time talking about how television dictates putting on a lot of the New York, L.A., Chicago teams, because they draw on. We always tease at Sunday Night Baseball is usually the Yankees, the Mets, the Red Sox, or the Cubs in some combination. Maybe a sprinkle of Braves. The Subway Series finale on Sunday Night Baseball had two. 5.54 million viewers.

That is the largest audience for any Sunday night game since August of 2018. Really? Just two and a half million? So that's how I saw it from you as well. One, that's not a super large number. But two, if you're going to put a baseball game on, you might as well put on a game that's going to be a rivalry game that really people can gravitate to. and I would say that if all the matchups among the rival weekend last year, that the Mets and Yankees seem to be the one that you should put on the television,

and that's what they did. But that's the highest Sunday night game since 2018. That's 2.54 million people. No wonder ESPN's like, I'm good with this. I can live without that. Because let's put something in perspective. What does a – let's take a look at what American Idol ratings are. Is American Idol still a thing?

I think so. I think they're into season 76. Which, they have all these shows, The Voice, American Idol, whatever, America's got talent. Right, right, right, right. How many of these people have become superstars? Like two? Well, okay, let's think about it.

I don't watch The Voice. Has anybody made a superstar I'm off of The Voice? I don't know. Okay, in 2023. Have you heard of Cassidy Pope? No. Okay, this is just, I just happen to look up. I just put American Idol ratings in Twitter.

In 2023, the first episode of the season for American Idol drew 5.1 million. But that's also on ABC. That's on a cable network. Okay. Well, what's on cable? We're going to do Housewives or something? That's actually not a bad idea. A live event.

Okay, let's go back to the original point. Okay. Who's become stars? Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Dottry. Something or other. Here, most famous to the voice contestants, according to Google. Daniel Bradbury? Nope.

Jordan Smith? Nope. Sawyer Fredericks. Nope. Oh, Morgan Whelan. He's famous. He is famous. Melanie Martinez?

Nope. Christina Grimmie. Maybe we're just out of touch. Yeah. That's not our demo. We ask our 22-year-old. He's busy, though. I think he's busy DM his girl right now.

That's fine. All right. Brian Bogussevich. We'll join us. Start the second hour. the show. What do you laugh about over there? I didn't say anything funny at all. 713, and

I've said that plenty of times in my life as well. 713-213-2-5-790. 7-1-2-5-7-90. Look at me when I'm pointing at you to get the second hour of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Man, you have checked out. What is wrong with you? I'm in the casino mode.

All right, normally we get to visit with Brian Bogus Civic on Wednesdays, but we have a shorter show tomorrow because the Astros have a game, a 12-10 first pitch in Tampa tomorrow. Plus, Brian Goboges-Evick's becoming a major television star on Space City Home Network. Last night, the Astros, how about this? We are sitting here in late May, and that is crazy, Brian Bogosovic. That was the first back-to-back road victories for the Local 9 this year.

Yeah, apparently you can do that. You can go out and win two in a row when you're not playing at home. We just found that out. How about that? You tell me, now, granted, all of us were not in Tampa yesterday, but we've all been to Sarbrenner Field before. It's a nice spring training ballpark, and they try to put lipstick on the pig,

but it still had a very gimmicky spring training feel, even as we were watching it on your network last night. Yeah, it just, you know, doesn't look the same, especially you get some of the high shots, and then, you know, there's nothing in the background behind the stadium. It just looks weird. And, you know, in terms of, you know, spring training ballparks, it's about as nice as you can get.

And those fields play so differently when it warms up versus early in the spring. I've been down to do some rehabbing in the spring and summer months down in Florida at times. And it's like, oh, man, the ball doesn't fly like this in spring training. So there's going to be some crazy numbers put up at that field once it really warms up. You know, there was a huge, not a question mark, but a huge bit of uncertainty about Isaac Paredes. You mean, you've had Alex Bregman at the corner spot for all the years, home runs, macho, defense, the gold gloves, the big hits. And we just didn't know because he had been well-traveled, Tampa, Chicago to Houston. Tell me if you remember what you thought of Isok when the trade went down and what you think of him now,

that we've seen him wearing Astros gear for the last couple of months. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I've enjoyed watching anybody more this season than Isok Paredes. He's one of those guys who having the chance to watch him every day, you can really appreciate how good he is. And I knew that the hitter profile kind of matched up, right? A pull-heavy, right-handed power hitter. Obviously, it plays well here at home. But it's more than that. It's how well he works at bat and control the strike zone.

It's how often he takes information from one at bat and immediately applies it to a next. that bat. He hit that walk-off home run on the homestand and basically hunted a pitch that he saw in and at bat the night before off of that reliever. He hit a home run, you know, right before they left at the end of the homestand in his second at-bat of a game. And it was hunting the pitch that he was attacked with in his first at-bat. And it's just like how slowly the game moves, how cerebrally he works his at-batch. You know, you think of pull hitter, and the first connotation is, well, he's going to be super aggressive, he's going to cheat, he's going to swing early, he's going to be, you know, just opening up and trying to let it fly. He's probably going to chase a ton.

It couldn't be more opposite. It's just a guy who knows what he has to look for in order to make his swing work, and he executes his at-bats as consistently as, you know, anybody I've seen. He has been the power source for this team in recent days. The middle of the lineup. I mean, Bogie, you know you're not supposed to win baseball games on the road when your 3, 4, 5 hitters combined to go 04-12 like through the last night. No, and it's weird to why. You know, we do, we look at the box score every day in the post-game show. And when it pops up and you see the 0-4-4-4-4 right in the middle, it's like, man, how did we even get by with this?

But they've been figuring it out. I mean, a lot of it has to do with how good the bottom half of the lineup has been, how consistently good they've been. And, of course, now you've got Pena and Piraides yesterday bunched up at the top. So you do have a little bit of length from turning the bottom over and getting to the top. But, I mean, you're not going to consistently produce runs and consistently win if you're not getting anything out of three, four, five. And guys got to get going. You've got to get Yordan back.

You know, having him healthy and in the middle. of that somewhere will certainly go a long way, but it would be nice to see the big bats go off. We need some games where the offense just carries the team. Give these pitchers a little bit of breathing room. You mentioned the back end of the lineup, Cam Smith, a part of that, nine hits in his last seven games. What have you seen from him?

Really competitive at Bats. It's hard when you're a young player who's working on things, which we've talked about all the adjustments that he's trying to make, trying to get started a little bit earlier, trying to move his contact point, to go into the game and not be thinking about mechanical adjustments, right? And if you're trying to take cage swings into a live at bat, like, you are dead. And he's done a great job of going out there, and he just competes. And it's not always perfect, but he's always going to battle.

You know, he's got a pretty good handle on the strike zone. He's working his walks. He's getting pitch. He's not missing mistakes, too. you know, when he gets a hanging breaking ball or a hanging change up like he did yesterday, he's on that pitch and he hits it hard and he's living off that. He's shooting the fastball the other way. So he has a pretty good idea of what he's able to handle right now.

And he's just out there competing his butt off, which is all you can ask from a young player, you know, put in the work early and then just go out there and figure out how to try to how to get on base. Brian Bogusevick with us here on Sports Talk 790. Yordan Alvarez still not in the lineup. just in general, the hand injury, what do you know about what you've heard about it? And how does that exactly affect him? And obviously, they are trying to limit the possibility of re-injury, taking it slow with him. Yeah, I don't know much about this injury.

You know, like it's like a strained muscle in the top of the hand. Typically, when you think of a hand injury, you know, a hand being sore, it's from getting jammed and kind of the inside of your hand blows up and swells up. but that's not what it sounds like he's dealing with. So, you know, I don't really know. I don't have a good handle on what it is he's feeling. But I do know this. If your hands are compromised, it's going to be really difficult to hit.

It's not like I've got a sore ankle or, you know, my back's a little tight. I'm going to fight through this. You've got to get it to 100 percent because, number one, you're just not going to be the same. Your back speed's not going to be the same. Your control of the barrel is not going to be the same. You can very easily fall into some bad habits. trying to overcompensate. And, you know, especially when we're only a quarter of the way through the season, you know,

getting to 90% and then getting out there is not a good idea. You want to get it to 100%. So, number one, he's right and also that he stays right. And it's not something they have to deal with for, you know, 400 at Bats moving forward. When he does come back and Caratini and Diaz have been the lineup with exact same time a lot in the last week or so, one deaching and one catching. Would you think the Asteros should carry that third catcher as a backup plan, or do you think they should go back to the two-catcher system and they have got going?

You know, I've thought about this a bit. I think they're probably going to go back to the two-catcher system. And Joe has actually been, you know, as willing as any manager to use keratinny in either a D.H. role or a pinch hit role, even when they carry two catchers. And I think it's probably wise to continue doing so. he's just he's honestly he's added a lot he's added a lot of balance to the lineup he's added a lot of good at bats to the lineup it's going to be difficult to try to sandwich you know try to force him in there because the dh spot is probably going to be occupied more often than not between one of

yorda and jose al tuve but if you can get you know at the very least some some decent pinch hit opportunities i mean keratin he's been you know up there with with the jeremy panes and the jake Myers of guys who've given consistent at bat. So I don't think they'll carry the third catcher just because you have to make a move that you probably don't want to make to facilitate that. But I think you can still find ways to get keratinny at bat. Brian, you know, look, this Astro team has won three of their last four and back-to-back role games talked about.

And they're getting a little bit over 500 and still very competitive in the American League West and now the wildcard chase as well. But if there's been anything that's been consistent in this entire season, it's been that the fact that the offense has been absent more times and has been present. So what does the manager do? He shakes a lineup up. He uses different guys. He changes guys in a batting order.

You have been in that major league clubhouse before. You have been going to the ballpark and seeing your name in different spots in a lineup. Does that wear on a player on a team or do you, or does the player sometimes have to understand that, hey, look, we've gone through a 30, 40, 50 game stretch. We're not producing like we think we should. I don't blame my skipper. for making these adjustments on a day-to-day basis? No, I think for the vast majority of players,

they understand and are fine with things like that. You know, especially when you're given a long enough leash, you don't want to see a manager making panic moves or to feel like he's just kind of, you know, throwing shots in the dark to try to get something. When there's thought behind it, when there's communication behind it, I mean, everybody in the clubhouse knows who's swinging it well, who's not, who's struggling, who's starting.

to come out of it. So really what you want to know as a player, you know, when am I playing? How consistently am I going to be in the lineup so I know how to prepare? And then where you're at in the lineup, that really doesn't matter so much. And when you have, you know, the leader of the team, you know, switching positions and moving from the leadoff spot to the two-hole, now to the three-hole, who I can't imagine anybody is really going to speak up and say, hey, I'm not okay with this moving around when you've got Jose Al-Tube being perfectly fine with it. And speaking, moving to around, to wrap up our conversation, one of the things that we've talked about on this show

about why this team is as competitive as they are, despite the fact the offense has not been great, is because the pitching has been good, the bullpen's been outstanding. The defense, Brian, has been fantastic, especially when you've got two corner outfielders that have never played the position before. You haven't been able to settle on second base.

I mean, that's usually a recipe for being a bottom third team in baseball, and the Astros have kind of bucked that trend. No, and the defense, I think, has really, flown under the radar at not just how they've they've been solid all around they've been spectacular at times and you know parades and walker being added at the corner walker is really good over there at first base and a good first baseman makes everybody in the infield better parades has been more than expected defensively i mean we knew he was solid but his feet and his movement in short spaces is even better and in the outfield i mean al-tube's been fine you know he hasn't had any of the

plays like he did in spring training where it's been like, oh, man, that's kind of a disaster type of play. And Cam Smith, I can't tell you how impressed I am with him. He's gone from, okay, he's getting the hang of it. He looks pretty good out there in right field to he is a very good right fielder. I mean, he covers a ton of ground. He can throw. He's in good positions. You know, he's thinking about where the ball needs to go as he's approaching the ball to get himself in a good throwing position. So, yeah, the defense has been really good. And that's, that's one of things that has what the Astros have been when they've been really good has been solid fundamentally on defense and it really shows up when you get teams that come into town who aren't and then

you notice what it looks like when a team's not very good and we've seen a defense this year that that has been really really good great stuff as always my friend thanks for the adjustment and time looking for watching you the rest this week on space city we'll talk again next week all right guys you got it that's Brian Bogusevic with us here on sports talk 7 on here. All right, we got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour. And we need to make a gut feeling about

now you already know how I feel about the Western Conference playoffs. I have Oklahoma City winning. I think probably my guess is that I have not seen the series odds. I know you are a partaker in that. I have seen the series price. I believe it's minus 300. I can go check on that.

Now, we're going to be three to one. I don't want to give away our company secrets, but we're going to give way one. We're going to be in a place today we can actually legally bet on the NBA game tonight, which you know I cannot because I'm an NBA employee. I'm sorry, $3.50 it's up to. So I have to live vicariously through you. So three and a half to one, that means if they, yeah.

Oklahoma City is a seven-a-half point favorite. That's weird because Minnesota's been the one that's rested. Thunder just got off an grueling seven-game series. They played Sunday. They've only gotten one day off. I'm saying. I mean, yeah. The over-under is 2-17-5.

That feels low. two good defensive teams so if I could bet it which I can't I would you know I probably even shouldn't tell you what I think about it why not you don't

nobody thinks you got inside information I don't know but I just I don't want to like you know A silver to NBA.com no that's going I'm sending the audio already I'm working my magic you're trying to get me fired every time

I'm changing you no no I need you just keep that job there's a cruel streak in you that few people ever see oh I'm sorry I just said I want you to keep your job He said keep that job. Yeah.

People heard of that part. I don't see what the issue is. So if I was legally allowed to bet the game, I probably would bet Timberwolves plus seven and a half and I would probably take the over at 2.17 and a half. Okay. What if you don't make the bet as an NBA employee? What if you and I like Broskies were at the bar and we bet? What have we bet a pint of a pint of Italian brewing? Yeah, of course.

That's what I would go with. I would take Timberwolves plus seven and a half and I would take the over two 17 and a half. would be my NBA fanboy analysis. Okay. Agree or disagree? I'm going to go with Thunder in the Under. So you're taking the exact opposite of what I'm going on. It's calling it the fade M.T. Parlay.

You know what? If you faded me over the years, you probably did pretty well for yourself. It's about 50-50. It's like anyone else. Yeah. What do they say if you're 55% you're really good at what you do? 52.5 is where you make money. I mean, if you're getting regular juice on everything.

But yeah, 55% you're great. 60% you're elite, obviously. When I hear that, if I make a hundred predictions on a game, and this is anybody, whether it's a sports personality or just a regular sports fan, wouldn't you think 55 out of 100, you'd get 55 out of 100, right? But the problem is you throw in the point spread, and that's where everything gets kind of disjointed. Mm-hmm. If I bet, if I made a hundred predictions, just straight up, could I get 55 right?

I would think I could, right? Straight up, I would imagine. Yeah, you'd be fine. But man, the whole line, and that's why Vegas was made. It was built for the points. They're good, and they're getting even better. They got all these models and algorithms, all that type of stuff. If you're, if they turn out that you're winning better, they start cutting you off faster.

Yeah, they don't want you to go enjoy yourself. They want, they'll take, they will, they will give you some. money within reason. They reserve the right. It's not illegal for you to win, but they reserved the right to refuse your action. And by the way, if you walk in with a $10,000 bet, the alarms are going off. Yeah, they will, their phone calls will be made. That's why you get beards to do it. That's why, like, the big betters, they would get, like, uh, celebrities or whoever to go make the bets. Phil Mickelson, like, where he got tied up with Billy Walters. He was making bets for him. And, because they won't take Billy Walters' bets, but they'll take Phil

Mike's on his bets. It is kind of sinister, isn't it? In some respects? I think if you're, you know what? No. If you buy who on the better side or on the casino side? Casino side. Casino side. Yes, on the casino side. If I'm a better and you take action from a hundred dopes and I'm a winner and you should take my action too. Like for instance. Or don't put it out there. And I'm not trying to humble brag here. Okay. But I could make a $10,000 bet today if I wanted to. Oh, wow. You could make a $100 bet today. If I could. You had to think about it. You think what was in the bank. I'd have to go into my deep into my savings. I wouldn't do it because I would be...

It'd be a wreck. I mean, I wouldn't even want to be anywhere near... I would like to see that, actually. No chance. I get... I lose my, you know what, when I'm betting $100 at the table when I'm playing blackjack. That's how I'm comfortable I'm about higher numbers. But if I'm a regular old Joe Schmo, which I can...

I think I am. I could go to the ATM or the bank and get $10,000. And I could go bat on something tonight. I shouldn't have to get the third degree on it. But they would do that in a heartbeat. Because first of all, I have no track record of doing it. Yeah, why wouldn't they do their due diligence? We'll find out who the heck you are.

You certainly couldn't do it on the NBA game. No, no, no, no, no, no. Especially if I'm wearing like Rocket Gear or something. We ain't taking this man's money. In fact, in Las Vegas, at the Golden Egg, you cannot even bet a Rockets game if you wanted to. Right. When the Malou family owned the Sacramento Kings,

what's the casino that's off the strip? It's got the bowling alley, not the sands. It's, well, it's on the left side of 15. The Palms. You couldn't bet Kings games. I mean, not the people were betting Kings games on a regular basis, but. Yeah, sure they were. Well, who was betting?

How many Kings games you bet in your life? Sharp's. Hundreds? That's probably true. What's kind of WMBA action we got tonight? Oh, oh. You have to do it. Why not?

Is there even a WMBA game tonight? We've got to be. Now, you and I could bet the Astros. Is it? Or is she all right? She's fine. By the way, did you see what is going on between RG3 and Ryan Clark? I did not.

I believe I have them both muted. Well, I did mute them yesterday because in a nutshell, here's what happened. So, Cately, Ryan Clark and RG3 both had their comments about the whole scrape between Caitlin and Angel Reese. Okay. And Ryan Clark said, and I'm a parent. paraphrasing on the quotes in front of me because I'm not going to go look it up.

Basically said that RG3 can't comment on the plight of black women because he's married to a white woman. And RG3 went back at him and then Ryan Clark went back at him. And I said simply this is a nasty, nasty fight

between two men who shouldn't be fighting about something as stupid as this. And I said, you should go clear of the air and apologize for both acting a fool. Ryan Clark should apologize for saying what he said about RG3. I don't even know if RG3 said anything bad at all. He was just defending his wife. But it was

a completely absurd comment that Ryan Clark said that he can't comment because he married a white woman. It's just patently ridiculous. But point being is this. These were two guys getting into a real, real personal thing about wives and women and all that. I'm like, take it outside. Go talk it out or go beat the crap.

out of each other. Don't, don't go, don't muddle up my 4U tab. And thus I muted them. And I feel better today. Okay. I got no comment on the matter. Well, I'm just, that's my name is Paul. That's between y'all. Yeah, that's exactly right. But instead, it's on the 4U tab. Hmm. By the way, I mean, to me, to give credit what credits do, that may be, Ryan Clark's wife's attractive and, and, uh, and RG3's wife's attractive. Okay. I just get to, why would you throw that in there? Where are you going with that? there's no way to go with it. It's a declarative statement. That's what I would do. It's such a Matt Thomas thing to say.

You know what I do? I'd say, at Ryan Clark. So if their wives were ugly, how would that change the conversation? It wouldn't. Then why would you bring it up? I'm just adding an aside. Kind of way to wrap it up. You both have beautiful women and I'll stop fighting with each other and get off my four U-Tab. And that will conclude our Ryan Clark, R3 conversation for the day.

Thank you, Matt. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they're just jealous. I don't know. Maybe Ryan's. Of what? I'm not answering that. Okay. All right. You've said it.

Time for some gut feelings. Yes. Or segue. I get gut feeling. I'm not commenting on that at all today. All right. That's fine. You can do whatever you want.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is the bat-tablish show with Ross. It's time for some gut feelings to make some sports predictions. If you have any sports prediction whatsoever, we want to hear from you. And if you've gotten something right in the past, call on and brag and come. get your flowers from us. Listen up, girls and more Matt Thomas.

This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-7-90. I ask you a simple question. Do you have something in your crystal ball that you see for sports? If you do, let us know. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. It is time for a Tuesday gut-feeling. Ross, how do we do from last week?

well man last week you said it would be a nix versus pacer's eastern finals yeah which i think was the chalk at the time yeah it's i'm not bragging about that one that's okay no i think i don't think it was mega chalk but i think the nicks were at least up too but that's okay we'll give you a credit for that you said under three and a half standalone games for the texans that is wrong i'm sorry i'm not i'm not counting nine p m on ESPN Plus a standalone game. I'm calling that the wrong. I'm giving that a nobody gives two craps about that game game. You lose. No. Good day, sir. I'm right. It's a three and a half. You get a half a national game on an ESPN plus. Let me tell you, there's nobody in Concord, New Hampshire,

that's going to go on their computer and watch the Texans and Seahawks at 9 o'clock at night, or 10 o'clock in the east. That is a win for me. I will take it. No. You lose. You lose. Yeah, you lose. day, sir. Loss. Lance McCullors, Jr. Out of the room. Seriously, you really want to know how this ESPN plus is for the game you have to put on

because you feel sorry for those teams. They don't have to put the Houston Texans on. There's 32 teams in the NFL. They pick the Houston Texans. It's a standalone game. I'm sorry. You know what this is? It's the 330 Saturday wild card of national TV games.

Good day, sir. Guess what? It's a national TV game, pal. No, no, no. It's a national streaming game. standalone. Oh, National streaming. Christmas is on Netflix. That counts. Netflix is more legit

than ESPN Plus. It's a huge major training. It's not a 9 o'clock. I'm sorry. I'm winning. Sorry. I win. I win. Continue. You are wrong. You lose. Keep playing that. Yeah. You all can play all your sound bites

you want to. It doesn't matter what you soundbite you play. What is this? What is this? the Yankees lose again. Thanks, Charles. Moving along. You said Lance McCullors Jr.

Out of the rotation by June 15th. Did I really? Yeah. I hate her? I don't think I said that. I said we're about to have an uncomfortable conversation. Lance McClurelors Jr. out of the rotation by June 15th.

I wrote it down. Okay. Well, that still gives me. That's four weeks of that. Now, don't forget. He had just gotten one out, though. When you had said that, he'd only gotten one out. Oh, okay.

Okay. Well, you know what? Four innings was a blessing then. Yes, it was. And then you said Framber Valdez Quality Start, which was a piggyback off of mine, which I believe he did have. He did. And I also thought the Astros going four and three in this trip, and that is still within play. Okay. They are right now, what, three and two on their two games left to go. I don't know. Nobody cares. All right, moving along to my predictions. I told you, I'm in casino mode.

I said, I put in all caps, I'm not bleeping leaving Lance McCuller's Jr. Island. feeling good at least a little bit. You feel good after four innings? Yeah. How many earned runs do you give up? Zero. Zero. Quality start? No. No. But we're trending in the right direction. I was on an island by myself. And I'm feeling okay better after Saturday.

Okay. I said over three and a half standalone games for the Texans. That's a win. I'm just going to have a stuff in my coffee. Matt is speechless for the first time in 16 years of the show. I said Colton Gordon good start. His first start wasn't... No, this was the better of the two starts. What was his first start, though?

Was it four... He didn't go five. He went five and third yesterday. But I said he was going to be good. He probably should have been better if he didn't come out to try to pitch the six. Okay, so we'll give me an L on that, man. All right. And then I also said for a quality start last week, which I believe he did have.

Jonathan Allen said, over three and a half standalones as well. And he said Celtics break up. That's tough for that one. That could happen. I'll be your Jonathan Allen translator. He speaks very fast. He still feels that one.

Oh, yeah. My bad guys. He had to clear a throw for it too. All right. Time now for gut feelings. Okay. I will start with my flying football question, gut feeling. How do I do this without having room for interpretation?

There will not be a. an all-pro, not pro-bowler, an all-pro quarterback, playing and flying footballback. First or second team? I mean, there's only one. You're just saying Lamar Jackson's... Quarter. You're just saying that it's not going to be Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. My point is, I would think a good fashion, old-fashioned fantasy football, not fantasy, flying football quarterback would be who's as mid as it gets? Andy Dalton.

Well, now he's a backup at this point. I'm going to try and think of a starting quarterback who's just good old-fashioned mid. Gino Smith. Gino Smith is a good call. Gino Smith and below will be a starting quarterback in the flag football Olympics. Okay.

So there'll be no Lamar Jackson, no Pat Mahomes, no C.J. Stroud, no Jane and Daniels, none of that kind of ilk. All right, well, we'll check back with you in 2028. Yeah, by the way, my wife and all of her girlfriends are going to Los Angeles.

They informed me that yesterday for the Olympics. they just said hey we're going yes that's going be pretty pricey it's expensive well here's the thing they've got a good friend of theirs that lives in san diego so they're gonna they're gonna drive to and from every day because you can't ride a train you could try but i'm saying you can't get any hotels on los angeles during the olympics it would be astronomical i've ridden the train to san diego it's nice you can get nice and hammered i think it's like 20 bucks it's 110 bucks i think 110 miles each yeah yeah but if you have somebody else driving you that's great yeah so yeah if they want to go go I've been in the Olympics once.

That's plenty for me. All right. So mid-level quarterback and below starts for the quarterback of the USA team. Okay. All right. Next, Oklahoma. What about everywhere else? No all pros anywhere?

I'm not ready to make that assessment. Okay. But I would lean towards maybe upper-end guys at wide receiver and lower-end guys at running back. Next. Next. Oklahoma City wins in 6.5. games. They will win on the Minnesota home floor. The Western

Conference. Okay. What about the other side? Indiana. Ooh. In five. Ooh. That's spicy. Yeah. Namhard

Turner. That shuttering you just heard was Adam Silver at the Indianapolis Oklahoma City NBA finals. It's funny. Scott Foster is referring all these games. I wonder why. Yeah, Indiana in five, and it will send off panic alarms in the NFL or in the NBA central offices in New York. Y'all don't think they want a new like finals?

They don't want Indiana. Trust me on this. Probably New York Knicks. Come on now. You have a chance at number one media market in the country over in the market number 30? I don't think, yeah, they're very comfortable for the next. I didn't know they were that low. No, 30.

30, but it's low. if it's Oklahoma City versus Indiana it'll be the two smallest markets I think Ross to ever compete in any championship whatsoever Okay You saw that somewhere or you're making it out Okay But I usually make things up in the time

That sounds good doesn't it? Yeah yeah Continue on all right What do you guys have for predictions? I'll go okay C and five And I will go Nix in seven Knicks in seven Okay C and five

I'm not really ready to make a prediction about Brandon Walter's start, so I'm going to stay away from that. He sounds like my doctor. What are you going to say? I'm going to see Dr. Brendan Walter. I thought it was Brandon. It is.

Okay. I just quickly said it so I can cover my bases. What basis? Either one of them. Okay. I will say Jeff Blum and Todd Cowles pass out from heat exhaustion in the booth. I will say

staying with television and baseball that Major League Baseball will make a terrible mistake, and they will not. re-up under any circumstance with ESPN next year. I think they should kiss and make up and let bygones he bygones. I think MLB's ego is out of control. And I think they're going to feel like that ESPN's disrespect has hurt them.

And most important of the cash that ESPN gives college football in the NBA, and the NFL for that matter, I think MLB is jealous. And ESPN's like, take it or leave it. And ESPN will say I leave it. So there will be no game coverage on ESPN next. year. What you think is a mistake? For baseball.

For baseball. Okay. No baseball. Okay. Okay. We'll make some more. We've come back. Aggie Doug is going to break down all the great women's athletic events and baseball events in college station in the last four days.

Soccerball and tennis are killing. I heard. No, tennis lost. Number one and then the championship. That's great. But they lost them both. Oh. And the baseball team probably isn't making the tournament.

Oh. Just throwing that out there. That's unfortunate. What? But not like they were there weren't high expectations or anything. There were plenty of high expectations. It's not like, when you're in college station, you always expect high things. They weren't ranked high or anything.

They were highly ranked. There weren't people calling it the best team of all time. No, I don't think I'm better calling it. 713-212-5790. 7-1-3-212-7-90. I would like to say one thing to y'all. Ross, I want you to grade how I say it. A-ye-ye?

What do you think? John, do you like it? A yay-ye-ye? It's ice cute? in the building? I'm going to give it a 7.5. Thank you very much. Out of 50? No, out of 10.

A yay, yay! Maybe a 7. Are you okay? A yay, yay, yay. Hey, man, did you enjoy those roadway nachos? A yay, yay, yay. Should the Rockets keep Jalen Green in this young core intact? A yay, yay, yay. Are the Astros going to win the series against Tampa Bay Rays?

A yay, yay. Maybe I don't know. Are you wrong when you said under three and a half? We have technical issues here from St. Petersburg. But if somebody wants us to have an instapole on it, I'm going to lose on that. Okay, good. But I just want to make sure I'm very clear. You are the NFL TV bitch when you were playing at 9 o'clock on ESPN Plus.

You just are. Well, they could have put Titan Shags on. They didn't. They put a team with some cashier, baby, on a standalone game. So much cashier. You have to go to the internet. Oh, please. Sam Darnold.

C.J. Stroud. Battling it out. At 9 o'clock. We will all be asleep by 1030. No, no, that's you. You're going to put a year. You're going to take your fiber con and you're going to go to bed. We're going to be staying up watching the game. I'll be up late night. We'll be late night with sports empty. Texans after dark. Let's go. And you're going to come on and take calls, I believe, is Texans post game show.

No, we can't do that. Well, actually could, but it would have been called the Houston football show. We can't say Texans. That's right. What if we rhymed it? The Roostin-Rexins post-game show. It's time for the Roost and Rexins. We should do that.

What? The Roost and Rexons. If we can't say their name legally, you can't the post-game show. Yeah, for example, because we are the partner, the Astros, the Astros, other people can't have the Houston Astros post-Game show. Or the Houston Rockets Post. We have the Astros' Tint and Collin show. Right. You're on Sports Stock 7-9.

Say it one more time slowly. The Roost and Rexons. Y'all are going to mess that up. You're right. So I won't do it. All right. 713-212-5-790. Oh, you say.

7-13-212-5-790. Aggie-Dug, you have any predictions about the Olympic sports at Texas A&M University? No, not so much about Olympics, but you do realize that you can watch ESPN on a television, right? Yes, of course. Well, you keep saying, you have to pull up your computer. You have to pull up your computer. Like, nobody's pulling up the computer. Matt. I mean, maybe on their phone while they're doing to do.

Look, have you met the average sports fan? No, they're going to have a difficult time with it. Trust me on this. No, they'll be fine. By the way, by Roku, no issues. By the way, Aggie Dogg, it won't matter because it'll be on local television here in Houston. So they're going to put it on an

over-the-air station. So it won't be an issue for people in Houston. Exactly. But guys, so a couple predictions. I think both conference finals are going to go seven games. because I think the NBA is going to try to get as much money out of this as humanly possible because they know that it's going to be at least one small market team in the finals.

Yeah, but that's, hold on. Everybody said that they were going to rig it for the Lakers and the Warriors, and they're both out. How are they, this, come on, man, with this rigging stuff. Well, I don't think it's rigged. I think it's just a situation where I think they're going to let players play and let things happen in the game. That's rigging. You knew that the Colt State game was going to go.

seven, right, Ross? No, they lost to the wolves in five. No, I'm saying the Golden State Rockets, you knew that that was going seven, right? No, no, no, no, no. Because they rigged it? No, no, no, no, Ague, Doug, listen to me, you would only go it to seven if the rockets were up three games to one. America wanted Golden State to win the series. They're way sex or the act. They didn't want the rockets going to round two. I mean, come on.

If you're looking for national cachet, Golden State has it way more than the Rockets do? Well, I think the drama was bringing people to that game more than anything else. The F.U. Dremont and all that kind of stuff. So I think that that game was, that series was definitely destined for seven. I don't know about rigged, but definitely destiny. People are going to destiny, right, Ron? I think we're getting into semantics here. She's on stage two. Oh, destiny. Oh, did she wear a glitter? Anything else, A.D.? The Aggies are actually going to win their, uh, win the SEC tournament, go to a regional and go to a super regional and then lose there.

Can you call my son and tell him that and make him feel better? The fact that we're not going back to the college world series doesn't make any Aggies feel better. Well, he's the one coming over Coach Earle's contract right now on the internet. So I'll find anything to make him feel better. Thanks, A.D. I've never seen a young man like my middle son Peyton obsessed with a college baseball contract. He's out there making the Freedom of Information Act requests in Texas A&N to get the contracts.

Man, that's serious business. The freedom information is like, you want what on a college baseball coach? Like, yeah, my son's diehard. So he had to go outside and walk her in the backyard because he was so mad about the softball team losing to Liberty. So I'm telling you, I don't know how I did it, but he is not 100% Aggie.

He's 1,000% aggior. There's such a thing. Let's talk to Brian on 790. Brian, what's in your gut this week? My gut is something y'all do not talk about. NASCAR. And my gut feeling is Kyle Larson will not complete all 1,100 miles and NB500 and 50,500 and fill of 600 this weekend. All right.

If that hits, Brian, would you please call us it either way and let us know? Because I don't even know anything you just said. Okay, not a problem. Please do that. Thanks, Brian. I appreciate that. If you have a gut feeling about something we don't know anything about, go ahead and tell us.

And Brian, come brag if it works. Now, if he's wrong, you and I won't know because we don't care to look. Yeah, I got a feeling Man City is going to beat Bournemouth today, the cherries. And they're going to finish in the top four so they can make the champions. I have a gut feeling that John Cena is going to beat Our Truth on Saturday night's main event. Our truth. Our? R isn't like the initial.

Ron, right? Truth. Our truth is his name? Our truth is his name, yeah. Oof. I really struggling with these rest are names. He's been around a long time. His name is Ron Killings, I think, is his real name.

Oh, okay. He runs the barbecue joint in Paralyam. No, he does not. No, it's Killins. Okay, sorry. All right. The news that dude is coming up next at 1230, 30 minutes from now. Joe Espada joins a radio program.

I want to apologize for my actions of the first two hours. You frankly have embarrassed yourself. I'm getting water. Good. Put something in it. Non-cavenated. 713-212-570. From the Honda of Clearlake.com weather center. Your news radio 744 casts a mix of sun and clouds today with some scattered showers this afternoon. High 92. Partly cloudy tonight, Lowe 73.

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No problem, because we buy them all. 1203 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Happy Anniversary Rocket fans. I'll explain in 15 minutes. Right now we present to you the news at noon. With Tom Brokaw, Houston Sports Journalism, I present to you, Mr. Rossville, or Yale.

Well, Matthew, thanks for having me again here on the News at Noon. You know what we got to lead off with. That's our guy, Jake Myers. This one shot to right field backing up on it, Caballero. On to the warning track now, and it's gone. opposite field home run for Jake Myers and the Astros take the lead back well we saw it on Danny Janssen's home run there seems to be a jet stream out to right field like Jansomers that just looked like a harmless fly ball off the bat

hey come on Robert Ford we know why he did that he's better he didn't get to call the home run he always just finds his vice right now if I was calling it would have been a fly ball but you got lucky Steve well our friends at baseball savant do say it was a home run in only two parks. That would be Yankee Stadium and the stadium that is modeled after Yankee Stadium, George Strainbrenner Field. So it's cheapies. Cheapies. But they still count. They still count for

Jake Myers. A couple of hits. Average over at 301. Is he your American League MVP favorite? Man, I say yes. All right, fine. Golden Gordon, solid. Five in a third innings, five hits. Three earned runs given up. One of them are

two of those runs off a cheapy home run that was also at the right field. Seven strikeouts on an efficient 83 pitches and then your 7, 8, 9 guys take care of business even though you needed four out to piece from Brian King and Brian Abrayu. But Brian King,

Brian and Brayu, Josh Hater, closing it out. We didn't mention this, but we were going to bring it up if we had time, but we can bring it up Joe Spott coming up at 12.30, Matt. Josh Hater, 12 out of 12 saves. Dude's been nails. He is every bit of the money. Because it's funny, nobody brings up how much money he's making this year.

He's mentioned it once this year. Yeah. Now, he blows his first save. It's, oh, that's terrible money spent. Now, you have to think macro on it. Did that hurt the Astros in signing other players because you spent some money on one guy that only pitches, you know, 40 times a year? I don't choose to think of it that way. Yeah, I would disagree with that.

Yeah, but they're just two and a half games back of the Mariners. And they, they have, he has one win and 12 saves. They have 25 wins. He's factored in 13 of them in that way. So basically he walks on a mound, at least this year, and you know that he's going to leave with a bunch of handshakes. That, and to me, is worth tremendous value. Definitely tremendous value for the Houston Astros.

You have another player and pitcher for the Astros making their major league debut today. Brandon Walter. Brandon. If Brandon Walter. If Brandon Walter. came in the studio two days ago and said, hi, I'm Brandon Walter. I'd say, hi, I'm Matt.

This is my friend Ross. And Brandon, what do you do for a little? Welcome to the sales staff. Yeah. Can you sell 10 to 2? And he would say, no, and then walk out. You'd say, no, I'd sell Michael Berry first. Like, okay. That makes a lot of sense. A dude's a rock star. So Brandon Walter, that's the fifth pitcher by my count,

making their major league debut for the Astros this year. It is only May 20th. Pitching depth. Hashtag it. If you have five guys making their debut, is that? What did you say? Five guys making their debut. What is their sexual?

I have to do anything with it. All right. Let's move on on the news that note. NFL, going to a lot. You deserve that, by the way. Why? What did I do? Just general disbelief of this show.

I misspoke. I apologize. Five what? Five guys. burgers and fries. What are you talking about? NFL to allow players to play flag football at the 2028 Olympics. It's expected to pass the resolution to Tuesday's league meetings in Minneapolis. Needs to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 team owners. Adam Schaefter says it is going to pass and it should be easy. The most recognizable player will come from the wide receiver position.

Put my name on it. Okay, I'm getting corrected by certain sources. Not a major league debut for Brandon Walter, but it is his first big league start. Well, I apologize to him. So I'm sorry. I apologize. That's right.

He had nine games a couple of years ago with the Boston Red Sox. But he's now an astronaut. I must have read wrong. I must have got some bad information. Well, he's the PCL pitcher of the month. That's true. If you check out, if you listen to me during the path of future success, You didn't know that.

All these quadruple-A pitchers are racking up these PCL awards. Hey, some are going to muster up. It would be just fine. We didn't know who Collin McHugh was back in the day. And look what he did. He helped out the Astros get to the wild card in 2015 and won the game. Okay, so who's getting the Colum McHugh Award for the Houston Astros this year? You got a lot of candidates.

I'm going to hold back until June 1st. Thank you, Matt. It's called pitching debt. Back off. All right. What were you saying about the NFLPA or whatever? Oh, the most recognizable player for the flag football team in 20, it was it, 2028, you said, right? We'll be a wide receiver.

How about a two-way player like Travis Hunter? That would technically be perfect. Don't they play both ways at the Olympic football? What? Why are you looking at me like this? Depending on the Olympic Committee, right? What was the Olympic Committee have to do with it with it? Like the rules, they have certain rules at the Olympics.

Like how big are the rosters? We even know? Exactly. Yeah, they're not playing both ways? I don't know. I'm not a flag football aficionado. Although I did get one sack

freshman year at University of North Texas and a rec league and then they double team me the rest of the way. And I got a hell to a lot. I don't believe that. Oh yeah. Ask Ed, he knows.

Yeah, he's going to make it up too. No, he's not. I'm going to call him off there. I get a sack and flag football and he goes, yes, you did. Okay, we're proud of you Matt. Anyways, the NFLPA. It's a bull rush.

Let's see. The new resolution establishes rules and basic structure. for how the NFL hopes to see the process work, but is subject to negotiations with the NFLPA. They're like permission for any other player under NFL contract to participate in tryouts. One player per NFL team on each national team participating.

Designated international player to play for his home country. Salary cap credit for any player that is injured. Who pays this? The insurance policy. The NFL, I guess. Yeah. Okay. If the NFL is giving their blessing to this, yeah, they're going to be on the hook for this financially.

Expectation that the Olympic flag football teams will establish medical staffs and field services that comply with NFL minimum standards. And guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to get a job being the PA announcer for the Olympic flagging football team. I will see you and I'll be gone for a whole month. And also a schedule that doesn't conflict with an NFL player's league and club commitments. Interesting. I think I'm playing sand. I don't think so.

I don't think so either. That doesn't comply with the NFL's playing service requirements. And what are those? I imagine that it's got to be some sort of, you know, Kentucky bluegrass or whatever. Is that very pristine? Fresh cut, I get you. All right. Moving along, Matt, did you see Juan Soto?

And the mammoth shot he hit off the green monster. I saw it. It was a deep drive. The left field ballpark will hold it off the monster. And it took him about five seconds to, leave the home-put area and round first. That's all I got out of it. Soto stood watching it as it sailed

toward the wall. It hit about two-thirds of the way up. Soto managed only a single. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he was going to have to talk to him about getting his hustle up. And that's why I'm Team Crane on the long-term contracts.

Juan Soto signs a six-year deal. He hustles for that. Ten-year deal? I'm good. I think he showed a lack of hustle when he was a free agent. That he did. How old is he again? 26 now? He was 19 as a national.

Correct. Is that we can't pair it over from Joe Buck? Or 20, yeah, 19. I mean, he was a phenom. He was. He's great. Now he's ridiculously rich. He's making three quarters of a billion dollars, so he's doing okay.

All right. Anything else? And that's your news at noon. Okay. Up next, happy anniversary, Rocket fans. We'll let you hear what happened. 30 years ago today. Okay.

1213 on Sports Talk 7.90. Mario L.A. Clyde Drexler, Akeem-Alazuan on the board for the Rockets. Houston a hole for the last shot. With the tendency of the situation to wait too long, though. At the stake through the heart for a second straight season by the Houston Rockets. It was the late Greg Gumbull on the call there. Kiss of death. Mario Ellie, 30 years ago today.

What were you doing? Have you not been any memories of that? I had to be home because I wasn't traveling. I was, I'm sure I was watching. I believe I have the Gene Peterson version of that, by the way. You want to play it? I think I have it. Let's see.

Okay, that's be impressive if you do. Let's see if this works. They double up, Kenny Smith. He gets it across to Robin Ory. Ory across the line, long past to Ellie in the corner. Ellie's got a three-pointer. Seven seconds to go. Time off in it.

Mario, my man. That's the homework call right there, baby. That was awesome. That's awesome. That is awesome. Gene Peterson, may he rest? Did you say 30 years ago? 30.

We used to be younger, Matt. That was my first full season doing the PA for the Rockets. Because I came in middle of 94 to do it. That was after you had served your turn. Does you? On what? No, PA. Public address.

Ablick address means in arena announcer. I was about to say that that was didn't. That's not like that. No, it wasn't. That was Gene Peterson. The great, the late great, Gene Peterson. Yeah. Happy anniversary of being involved in that.

Yeah. So that was on the road. So you were just, you were home. I did travel. I did go to the NBA finals that year in Orlando. I was very close to Nick Anderson missing those free throws late. You know, I mean, with you, hexed them? No.

Well, you know what? Yes, I did. Yeah. Take full credit. I will take full credit. Yeah, that's a ticket. I'll do it. That's a SNL early 90s reference.

I got it for that. Thank you very much. Yeah. 30 years ago, that was the case. I did go to San Antonio for the NBA Western Finals that year. For some reason, I didn't go to Phoenix. For KTRH or for what? No, it was for KSEVKPRC.

Okay, sir of you. Yeah, yeah. We took, metaphor. We took a bunch of four or five busloads of listeners to San Antonio. This is when they were playing at the Almodo. What that bus smell like? Rosemary, sunflowers, and... No regret.

I'm curious. I wonder if anybody met that special somebody. I think we took five busloads of people there. Hmm. That's when you can go to the Alamel Dome. We got in the upper deck at the Alamadone for $10 for a Western Conference final. What? It's a different time, pal. Well, first of all, Alamodome is trying to fill 35, 40,000.

seats compared to filling up arenas. And, you know, 10, that still seems cheap for Western Finals for 10 bucks. Still seems cheap, yeah. Yeah. It was fun. We were there when Elijah Juan had to watch David Robinson get his MVP award. With the side eye in him? And then Elijah won Dream shook him for about two and a half

hours. Yeah, that was great. It was fun. And then I went to Orlando, and I tell you my Darrell Garrison story. Do you know what Darrell Garretson is? Yeah, it was the senator. The junior senator from Kentucky. Senator Darrell Garrison, no, he was the referee that was traveling. Okay.

Oh, I think I've maybe heard this, but go ahead. Real quick. So, 1995, we're flying to Orlando, and we flew Meltta because it was cheaper. Okay. We either changed plans in Atlanta. Mm-hmm. So from Atlanta to Orlando were a lot of NBA people on it because that was, you know, Atlanta's a hub for Delta and whatnot. And I happened to notice Darrell Garrison, who was one of the official referees.

his son Ron was also an official too, but Darrell was a long time, long time NBA official and I'm still active at the time. And I told my radio partner at the time, I said, hey, I'm going to go to introduce myself. I mean, he may know my face because I'm the arena announcer. So I wanted to Darrell Garretson. I said, Mr. Garretson, my name is Matt Thomas. I'm the arena announcer for the Rockets in Houston. I'm covering from my radio station in Orlando.

And he goes, oh, you guys, you think you're the stars of the show. all you do is scream and yell and get people going and it's really annoying and then you socked them right in the mouth 23 year old matt thomas was dismayed i said darrell hope you have a great time i enjoy your work and i turned around with my tail between my legs and i told my partner at the time i said you wouldn't believe that it could not have gone any worse which once again showed you that 25% of america are a-holes. I happen to want it to run into one of them. Dale, Daryl.

Daryl. Daryl Garrison. Daryl Garrison. Okay. Who is that guy? He's not probably no longer with us. Cantoracrous. Grumpy. You think that Scott Foster gets in the sideways with players. Garrison was way with and this is when

I think the NBA only used two officials in games. Which I can't believe the NBA went as long as it did with just two referees. did they add a third, do you know? I want you to look at it, but I want to try to guess the year. Okay. When did the NPA add a third official?

I'm going to say 1997, maybe. 96? This is 88, 89. Huh. But also it's the, you know, Google Gemini. No, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I could be really wrong on this. I thought there were just two officials for that.

First female was 1997. Okay. we're still, then maybe I'm just off. Yeah, it was apparently adopted, they experimented with 78 and 78 79, and added it to me. You don't what I'm mixing up, I'm mixing up 86 finals with the Lakers and Celtics and the two officials

in the computer three, but it was definitely Darrell Gerrits and I saw in the Atlanta airport and I was, you wanted to punch him of the throat. No, I was just disappointed. I'm like, I came over and said, like, I know that there are officials in the NBA today, I can go, I can, when I'm in a restaurant on the road or a bar, I can go up and say hello to, and they can't

be any nicer. And there are other guys that I wouldn't, I would stay far away from. Because they're just not nice people. And I won't mention their names. Okay. Until you find me off here and they'll be happy to spill the beans. I like that. Because I'm bitter like that.

Okay. 713-212-5. So it's been since 88, 89, huh? Okay. Wow. You think we need for a fourth? I think there should be an official on the court, on the, at the scores table. Oh, man, but that's more calls and more bogged down games.

You want the calls right. Yes, I understand. You are the ones. I told you. I told you, you're right. We want the calls right. Just throwing it out there. How about for out of bounds plays, final two minutes, how about speed up the challenge system? Yeah, how about somebody doing their own challenge? Yeah. That's what happens in soccer. They have the video assistant referee. It's another referee who basically does the checks while the game's going on.

Because here's the thing, the crew chief who works the NBA game, who does the official, he's the one that ultimate makes the call. So caucus, New Jersey, where the video replace interrets can help. But they're not one. They're not. Yeah, what do they do? See, the replay center should make the call. They're not making the call. Like I said, you're always going to be biased

toward your own call. That's exactly right. If you are the one that gets called for the, I'm challenging your call, how often are you going to change your own call? Even subconsciously. Now, probably consciously for a lot of these refs, but even subconsciously.

Now, the problem is if I put a fourth official there and that fourth official says, okay, buddy, I'm sorry, I got to overrule you. Did they go back to the locker and go, thanks for showing me up like that? Yeah. I mean, I can, there's some indirect, hard feelings, right? You're an official.

You get the call wrong. But people are still having emotions. They need third-party people to do it in every sport. All right. Let's talk to Joe Espada. We'll do that next. And we'll get to more of your phone calls as well. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-132-212-5-7-90.

1232. Let's spend 10 minutes with the manager of your Houston Astros. Joe Espada. Skip, back-to-back roadwinds. Did you celebrate with a Tampa cigar? Yes or no? No, why should I be celebrating with a cigar, man? We are, you know, it's too hot to be smoking cigar here in Tampa.

Seriously, how miserable was that? I mean, y'all are dripping sweat like at 4.30, right? Basically with the way the weather was in Tampa yesterday? Yeah, you know what? It was warm and humid. You know, we usually would come, when we come here, we have the dome. And so we haven't been exposed to this weather yet. Yeah, but it was a little bit warm, but

when you, you know, the guys liked the warm weather. It just, it was like a, like a heat wave immediately when we got on the field and we started sweating. But, you know, it's part of it it's summer. You know, if you want to get ejected again, tomorrow's games at

110 Tampa Time. I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility for you there. No, you know what? I'd rather, I like watching the games from the dugout better. You know, the other day I was watching the game from the office. It was hard.

Just happy that we were able to pull that win. Well, I will editorialize very quickly and say I applaud you for doing it, needed to be done. Now, let's go to the logistics of it. So you get tossed. You go say what you need to say to say goodbye. Are you jumping the shower right away? Are you still in uniform when the guys are playing?

How does that work out? And how do you kill two hours of time when you're buying that in their clubhouse with you in the clubbies? No, I don't shower. I don't take my uni off. I'm still in the fight with the fellas, even though I'm not in the dug. I'm watching every pitch.

I do shut the door because I don't want to hear the fans' reaction because there's like a 10, 15-second pause on the TV. So I want to feel like I'm watching the game live. So I kind of shut everything off, try to keep the noise from outside. And I just walk myself in and I continue to watch the game. And, you know, hopefully we can turn things around. and but you know it sucks watching it sometimes from the office. Does Mrs. Spada notice the difference in pay stubs when you get it about the ejection

or does she not even pay attention that kind of thing? No, you know, the nice thing about those fines is that you're able to donate it to charities. So I don't mind, you know, making a donation to some of my, some of my favorite charities to, you know, help, you know, children with cancer or autism awareness all that kind of stuff so i don't mind at all paying the fun absolutely hey let's get to the numbers and again if you looked at your season box score and last night was a great example that three four five in your order went 0 for 12 you're not supposed to win games like that but you're getting contributions from the bottom 30 order your defense for the most part has been spectacular this year your relief core has been nails and your starting pitching is getting you to the fifth sixth inning for that

great bullpen. Do you, even if you were not the manager of this team and you looked at the season box, go, man, this team's got to be in trouble. But yet, you're just a couple of games at a first place. You've got two straight wins. You've won three out of four. Are you even surprised that the team's offensive numbers have not exploded, yet you're still hanging around through about the first third of this season?

No, that the way I see it, this is a sign of a good team. When you have different parts of our line of contributing, picking each other up, that's what good teams do. When our middle lineup gets hot, just think about how we're going to, you know, put wins in a row once or often just gets going all at once. So good teams find ways to win games. The bottom-all order pickers up yesterday, our bullpen has been doing as fabulous job. Our rotation is keeping us in the game. It's easy when everything is going smooth and everything is moving the right direction, of course, you know, but doesn't happen in a 162 season.

have to pick one another up. We have to motivate our players to continue to make adjustment to stay, you know, to stay the course because things, things change as we did last year. Part of those contributions from the back end of the lineup have been from Cam Smith. What has it been like for him? He's got, I believe, what is it, nine hits in his last seven games. So things coming around for him, just for your conversations and things you're seeing from him in the batters box. Yeah, developing very nicely. I think he has made some adjustments so he swing. You know, the guys are being trying to have a little bit more rhythm,

more on his timing when he approaches, you know, when he puts his foot down, they want to have a little bit more momentum, trying to create more power. And he's working out very, you know, very well, very nicely. You know, McCormick had a nice game for us last night, trying to get him in there, trying to get him going. We'd be getting a solid production from Jake Myers again, you know.

Not only he's going with the gloves, but he's been very consistent with quality at best night after night. Joe Spada Astros manager with us here on Sports Talk 790. Brandon Walter making his first major league start. Do you just have a speech recorded at this point for guys that are making their first major

league start? You know, I tell him, go out there and have a good, you know, have fun, you know, Walter's has been in the big leagues before. But for me, it's more go out there and just do your job. Give us an opportunity to win. pound the zone. You have great

defense behind you. Don't try to do too much. Be yourself. And we have a nice game plan for him. I want these guys just to know that, you know, and I told him in spring training, all of these guys. At some point, one of you guys will come up and will help us, you know, and start throwing some innings out of the bullpen and at bat.

Some way you will find yourself contributing to our season, because it's a long season and injuries are going to happen. And so, you know, today's, Walter's chance to contribute and help us win tonight's game. Back to last night and the defense, your final two outs, Al Tuve with the great grab, and then you have the... How much help did you guys give Isok when he's coming your direction towards a third base to the dugout?

We do, and, you know, it's funny, man, that you say that, because here in this ballpark, you know, we haven't played in these ballpark. A few of our guys that play here in spring training, before, but the dimensions are very, you know, they're different, right, from tropical kind of field, because there's not much foul territory. The wind, it, you know, blows out and right, not really blows out to left. You know, so the lights, it's kind of dark because the light sits low. So there's a lot of elements that we haven't been used to coming to come in this ballpark. So, you know, we had to do some work early in the day, just trying to get

feel for the dimensions and the surface and the walls and stuff like that. So a lot of credit for parrera to staying with that ball and some defensive play that we made behind Graham Taylor and our relievers. You know why they know, and I commend there because you don't take your veterans with you to long-ass spring training trips. That's the reason why. Why don't you toughen up, Skip? Why don't you tell, let's see, who would you tell?

Joseo Tubei, guess what? You got a three-hour bus ride. Enjoy it, baby. No, you know what? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's other thing about spring training that you have to, uh, be smart about how you, you know, how much work you give these guys in which trips you take them and, you know, trying to build these guys their four seasons. So, you know, not, not, not really, um, concern about those guys

not seeing any, any, any, getting any reps here at, uh, at this ballpark, you know, most important thing is that we, we, we met our adjustment yesterday and we play, and we play really well. We got two more games here, two important. two important games to go. For let your run, Skip, you have had the ability to use Victor and use yarn air in the starting lineup together, and that's because you've got the third catcher. And look, hopefully get Yordaum back, and I'm not in charge of making your roster moves.

You are, but has it made you contemplate what you want to do if indeed you want to carry that third catcher if and when Yordon comes, oh, not if, but when he comes back? Or is that a situation that you're just kind of taking advantage of the situation that's in front of you? Yeah, you know what? I'm just taking the situation in front of me and try to get these two guys' opportunities to get their bats in there, also get him up their feet,

get both of them behind the plate, and give them some rest that way. You know, and once we get to the Yordaun decisions, we make that decision when it comes. You know, our goal right now is to get Yoridan healthy and get him back in that lineup. Hey, one thing I do want to bring up, and you were asked about this last week

about the long stretch of games and you had I think somebody asked you when I was at Mining, how you said he was built for 162. And I did the post game show on Saturday when he got the error, the swing wasn't great.

And I know he likes to play it, but reality was that was a perfect time for him to kind of just take a step back. Did you sense that? He spent that and how hard of a conversation was it to say, hey, I need to give you a day here. You know, he's actually on pace to play 162, by the way. He hasn't missed a game yet.

He did come in that game that he didn't start. Oh, I see what you are. You're just being sneaky that way. I got you. I got you. I'm just telling you. Okay. The thing about it is that you watch how we,

and it's not so much physical break. It's more mental breaks that these players need. This guys do a tremendous job taking care of their bodies, their sleep, their recovery, the way they eat, especially like Jeremy, right? So it's more the mental grind of every day that he needs that break. So that's what I'm really more looking at that actually performance when the mental, when he needs that mental break, if that starts maybe holding him back on his performance and he starts, he's a bad start suffering because he's trying to do a little bit too much.

That's when we pulled back and say, you know what, today is a good day to get a breather. And we gave him a breather that day, and he bounced back today. It bounced back yesterday with a really nice offensive game. Great stuff, as always, Skip. Thank you for the time. Bass a lot. Let's make it three in a row this evening against the race, and we'll talk again next week. All right, buddy.

Thank you, guys. All right, that's the manager Joe is spotted. I mean, scips want to get Jeremy 162, doesn't he? He wants to get him in that full 162 if he can. A little mental day's good for him. But do you want to make sure I got him in late. He is right about that. He didn't get in that late situation there.

It used to be, obviously when Cal played, it was a big deal. But it's, I don't find it to be anybody. I mean, it's a badge of honor. But the grind is real. Yeah. I mean, and they have data on this, that guys are going to be fresher and ready to go over in the playoffs. It's not an accident that the Astros have practiced giving these guys regular days off.

And then they've thrived in October. Yeah. But if anybody is built for it, and Jeremy, thankfully, has been injury-free. Look at you. I had to knock, right? I always feel like I got to knock, right? Just don't even bring it up. You got a knock, though.

You got a knock, though. You got to knock. You got to know, you don't even have to bring it up. Sometimes you've got to knock it. Because you know, you don't knock it until you try it. Okay. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Thanks to Astros' manager, Joe, a spot. for joining us like he does every single week. Coming up, we will have Zach DeZenzo at 130 here on Sports Talk 790. We'll also have the NFL rewind coming up at 120. Phone lines open at 713-213-21-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Astros in action tonight. Brandon Walter, not making his major league debut, as I said earlier, making his first major league start for the Astros. And again, three days ago, Brandon Walter walks in. Hey, Brandon, I'm mad. He's Ross.

I still don't know who he is. You know what? When he throws six innings of nothing but goose eggs on the board, you're going to be loving him now. I'll bet the under on that. Matter of fact, you may start the Brandon Walter fan club. We'll see. I don't have time to run one fan club. Whenever Jake gets DFA, we'll make me make it.

No, no, no, no, don't allow that. That's not going to happen. I'm sorry. When he gets inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame will pivot. You know what? Your undying love for him makes me think that when Jake gets into the Astros Hall of Fame and gets his orange jacket, you should be the one to present it. No, I don't want to. I mean, he could have him as some family member or some teammate, you know. But I do appreciate Jake. And you should be invited to the dais at least. It's been a rocky road. I'm going to tell you.

It's fine. The Jake Myers fan club. We're up right now. We're going to have to watch him June 1st, Bion. because that's when the fall last year started. April of May, loves early season, Jake Myers. Perfect. May 1st, June 1st, Jake Myers, yeah, he's keeping it going.

Blasted a 500-foot home run last night. A little short of that. I was 3.996. 338, I think. Biscuit on 7 out of your 1252. Biscuit, good afternoon to you. What's happening, my brothers? Did you tell us?

Hey, man. It was funny when you played that clip, Matt. It was, man. They were the glory days, man. Glory days, big baby. Baseline 3. Yes. Ross, you probably, what, elementary school?

Yes, I was nine years old, I think. No, eight, eight, no, nine. I think I was 29. Ooh, you're on the prowl back in the day, weren't you, Biscuit? Yeah, wait, wait a minute, let me, let me give my math right. This is. Yeah, actually, I was 10. Take your age. Take your current age and subtracting about 30. It's really easy.

So, yeah, 29. Listen, man, you're talking about those referees, man. Scott Foster, man. My goodness. But he ain't as bad as those ones back in the day, man. You know, Jack Madden. Remember Jack? Jack Man was... He had that vendetta against the team or whatever.

threw him out, that different nugget game. Well, how about the fact? that Jake O'Donnell throws out Clyde Drexler in a game. And then Jake O'Donnell never works again in the NBA. That was his last game ever when he threw Drexler on the playoff game. That was ridiculous, man. I mean, they had some, I was trying to think of mad of some referees that were cool. And, you know, I used to have season tickets to the Rockets.

And, you know, you know, they sometimes. Well, if I gave you the names of people that were cool, our audience feel like, who, who, who, what? And I'm turning the station to put on some Texans offseason backup linebacker talk. So I can't have that. Leon Wood was cool, man. Leon Wood was cool. What was the name?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Danny Crawford. Danny Crawford was cool. Danny Crawford was cool. Big Vivette, I think, was cool. No, that's true. He just was bad and old. But he was cool.

Yeah. My favorite guy right now is Bill Kennedy. First of all, he's a very nice man. Secondly, he gives you the best long explanations. You don't have to think about anything. Anything he's in term of interpretation when it gives you the referee reviews on those challenge calls? Right, right. Man, getting to the playoffs, man.

Man, Ross, I'm opposite to you, man. I'll tell you what, man. If all the rosters of the team left, I like Minnesota's roster. Now, the problem is they so up and down, you know what I mean? But to me, they're deep, they're tall, they got experience, and they got their. go-to guy. You know what I mean? And I'm looking at O KC

against Denver and it's just that Denver didn't have enough pieces. Well, that's not the problem with Minnesota. They can match up. They're not going to wear it down because they only got six people contributing in no four or whatever.

It's going to be interesting to see, man. But OKC is more consistent, hence that's why they had the better rugged season record. But here we go to playoffs, man. I don't see no problem with Minnesota going in there at OKC and winning. but well you know

the consistency that's the key because you know Minnesota they could lose anybody they could beat anybody well here's the thing real fast about this is I don't think

Oklahoma City is afraid of Rudy Gobert I think they're going to push him around I think Hartenstein and Holmgren are going to have force him

heart and son will beat him on the inside homegrin's going to extend him neutralize him but they got Knaz Reed though Matt

they got Nause they got Nause they got they're good for a reason I ain't arguing that with you, but I just think Oklahoma City, it would be, they're too deep and Shaggildes Alexander can taste it. I think he had a very mid-series against Denver. I think he's going to explode. And Anthony Edwards did not play well last year in the Western finals. And maybe that's a,

that's a reason why he wants to prove the naysayers wrong, but he's had to play a lot of minutes and really be the main go-to source offensively for them. And that's a lot of pressure on for a guy for yet another series. And going to Indiana, man, You know, I'm Indiana boy, man. If the Pacers could mess around win a championship, man, you think the fans win the street in New York. You have a whole state in the street in Indiana because we're all about basketball. I understand.

Biscuit, thank you for the phone call. Do you make your prediction, by the way? Yes, I said my gut feeling was OKC in five, Nixon seven. Are you, is there a part? Look, I'd have no affinity towards the Pacers whatsoever, but I just find New York fans annoying and Screaminay annoying and Spike Leonoy.

She want to root against them. That's exactly what I'm doing. Hate watching is what sports are all about. I'm done hate watching now that the Warriors are out. I'm team Pacer right now. That's fine. Nemhard. Longhorn legend Miles Turner.

Miles Turner. Halliburton. Who's the former? Not Pascal Seacom. It's Pascal Seacom. I'm getting all those former raptors moving around. Is T.J. McConnell on that team? Obie Toppin.

Obie Toppin, the former Nick. Ooh, there's a little rivalry there. Okay. Yeah. They're a good team. Also, I forget my Nymard. Who's the other guy that's got kind of a weird name? Oh, Nysmith.

Aaron Niesmith. And a great arena. Oh, my God. It's so much fun to watch a game there. And a good downtown vibe. I'm team in Annapolis. I just said it. The city of Houston's getting swept up, baby.

NBA playoffs fever. We're all catching it. You know what we ought to do. We get back to town later this week. Watch parties. Go to a bar and see if it's even on. I was somewhere and it wasn't on recently. Really?

A legit sportsist type place. Yes. I will not name it. I went to a sushi Japanese restaurant last night. They have three televisions, boom, boom, boom. On the top of their restaurant. None of them were on the Astroski. Yeah, you're at a sushi joint.

Yeah, but they had sports on. They just ended the Astros on. Okay. It is a little weird. All right, 1258. It is the mat, you know, that's why remote for you. Dot biz is available. Is it Kingwood's finest sushi joint?

Where was this? It didn't bat my mail, so they don't get a plug. 713-213-2-5-7-97. We are so happy to have. I am personally the president of the Jake Myers fan club is my co-host on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Let's go, Jakey. Go ahead, home run.

You know, Ross, I told my girl that was your favorite player when went to the game, and she could not understand why. Now, he's not my favorite player. Well, I don't have favorites. You know, I'm an impartial broadcaster, Matt, and Jonathan, as you know. But the club formed when Jake Myers first came up, and I saw him, he was putting together good A-Bs, he was fast, he was electric on the BATs, he was making five-star catches,

in the field, putting together some good A-Bs showing a little pop. I'm like, man, this guy's a baller. I like Jake Myers. And then he came under fire, had a major shoulder injury, and it's been a rough road. But I've believed in Jake Myers' talent since he was first called up, and we formed the fan club,

and there's been some lean times, but we're doing good right now. Now, once a year the Green Bay Packers organize all their stockholders and invite them to like a public forum. Yes. So I want you to take us, because Jake hit a home run yesterday, the Astra is one, four to three.

Take us into the world of the Jake Myers yearly famed organizational meeting where you all sit together. Well, normally it's during spring training. Where, okay, where are you? What do you serve? Duffies. What are you serving? What's the crowd look like? And then ultimately, you know, describe the clientele.

Who is in a, like, for instance, we know who's going to BuzzFest on Saturday. What does that mean? Yeah, no. A 43-year-olds with tats. Bingo. Now, take us to the Jake Byers fan club expo. What are you serving? Who's there and what's on the agenda?

Generally, nobody's there. So you got all this leftover food just sitting there? It's been some lean times, Matt. Okay, fair. It's been fluctuating. Some of us have been there from the beginning. And it's, of course, a great-looking crew. throw back a few have some good times

You know what you should have done? Then we have Jake Drake Myers Trivia Night You know what you should have done You should have taken those leftovers From the Jake Mariznick fan club And said come on over again Like a special sweetheart deal

Now see we were No it wasn't the Jake Morizick fan club We were Chas McCormick fan club We did have beef with Well you know the Chazey fan With the shark and all that kind of stuff Yeah We know who's won that battle

I'm just saying I haven't seen those sharks in forever Now I love Chas McCormick It was never a beef to meet but people brought the beef to us with Jake Myers supporters. I'm a little bit upset with Chas because I went to, we were in down in the spring training and I went to go talk to him. Oh, he big-timed you.

And he big-timed me. And he said, I'll be in this exact spot tomorrow and he goes, no, where I'll be here. And he wasn't there. You know who didn't big-time you? Jake Myers. That's right. But I had to bring you into the conversation.

You weren't such of awe of Jake that I said, Ross, get over here. No, I was up there setting up our equipment because you make me your equipment, bitch, when we go on the road. And by the time I got down there, we were midway through the interview. I could have said, I could have had the interview for myself, but I brought you in.

Thank you, Matt. And by the way, you are not my equipment, bitch. He said that with so much hate. Call you never lift a finger, Thomas, but that's all right. They call me heavy lifter, Thomas. No, sir.

I've been carrying a lot of way on this show for a long time. You've got to get out of here. I got a meeting. I got to leave real quick. Sorry, guys. Can't pack up, Thomas. It's kind of wordy, but nobody calls me that

you just made that up yourself nobody ever calls me that they've called me a lot of things but that's not one of them but Jake who is this guy we're watching the replay of the who is homes of the Atlanta Braves I think it's John that no well like very well could be

describe his main Ross yeah he's got long curly hair he definitely that's not natural he's got some curl juice in there he might put some curl smoothie in that perhaps some Moroccan sleek oil That's what I use. Okay, for those that don't know, this picture name Holmes for the Braves.

Grant. Grant Holmes. He wears 66. His hair looks like weird Al Yankovic's hair. If y'all know who that is. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Is Ward Al alive or dead?

You know what it is? A little, um, what's his name? A little Ryan Sanik. No. Oh, gosh. Who? Shush. Uh, Kenny Powers.

Oh, yeah. Eastbound and down. A little Kenny Powers is. I, look, I, people think when you don't have Maine, you can, you're not allowed to rip on Maine. I can rip on a Maine. Okay. I'm, I mean, frankly, say whatever you want. I've told you the amount of people that find Ross intriguing for his hair lonely, alone disturbs me greatly.

Okay. But this guy Holmes, Grant Holmes. Grand Holmes. Enterprise, young man. It's super curly. it's got multiple shades of brown in it. Yeah, it looks good. And he's got a Foo Manchu mustache.

Who would hit that? I mean, sleep with that. I mean, spend time with that. Excuse me? Atlanta's got a bad. And they got a guy with a little. Spencer Strider. He's got a stash.

And then what's that thing underneath this chin? He's got a sole patch plus stash. Ugh. It's like it's like dotted the eye. What is wrong with today's baseball players? I told you the stash has been coming back. But the chin stuff too? Tin moss.

Yeah, chin moss. That doesn't tickle? Because tickle what? Don't answer that question. Your own self? Your own self? I'm sorry. I'm just dismayed at the amount of hair gel that was in that guy's... Yeah, what's wrong?

In which case, you let the man live? Would I look good in that? No. Would I look good in that at 20? 25 years old? No. I don't think you have the facilities for that, big man. Well, I mean, I might have back in the day, way back in the day.

Okay. I can't believe I went as long as I did with hair on my sides for as long as I did. I don't know what I was doing. You should bring it back. No chance. You should do that with the sides. You should do that with a stash. Like, you need a toupee type of thing or what?

No, no, no. I mean, on my head, top of my head was. It's like a Roman Coliseum around your head with the top. It's like. like Julius What's his name? Venus de Martin Who had the like the

the hair sprouting out of his head? Yeah, Julius Caesar Alexander the Great One of those two guys. Yeah I was a sprouter. Like Albert Einstein. Yeah.

You're getting warmer. All right. 713. 713. 2125-7-7-0. 7-1-3-213-213-1-2-1-7-1-1-2. 257. I'm going to say something real fast.

I love this show. Not everybody does. Not everybody does. Oh my gosh. I love this show. There are other people that think other shows in the market are better. That's fine. I can live with that.

And by the way, if you want to be rude to me, I'm talking about you. I'm talking about in general. At least follow. Like people that are rude to me on Twitter don't even follow me. I never respond to you and I will always mute you immediately. That's a shame. So if you're going to be rude to me, at least follow me.

Then there's a chance I'll give you a rest of you. response back. Okay. At SportsMT. Love it. All right. 713212-5-790. 713-1-2-5-790. We have Ross's NFL Rewind up next. After that, Zach Desenzo, and then after that, it's believe it or not, 113 on 790. Astro Outfielder, Zach Descenzo is a guest here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Zach, it's Matt and Ross. How are you doing? And how's the weather in Florida

the day? Hey guys, I'm doing good, man. Thanks for having me on. I'm down here in Tampa right now. It's hot. It's at least, man. It's hot. So we're enjoying it, though. Hey, you know what you can do? Tell Skip, look, I want to play as much as I can, but don't put me out there tomorrow. It's so damn hot

at 1 o'clock in Tampa, Florida. That's ridiculous. Yeah, it's going to be a hot one tomorrow for sure, boys. But I'm happy to be in the lineup either way. All right. Before we get to some baseball, let's get to some football conversation. First of all, you were at the national championship game. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Yeah, me and a couple of my

buddies from Ohio State, we made the trip down to Atlanta, and we were able to get to that game. It was awesome. And you were at the 50-yard line because you're a major league professional athlete. You live your high life. You spend no amount of money. Exactly. How far were you from the field itself? Unfortunately

not, man. We ended up getting some nosebleeds, but just the fact that we were able to get some tickets was awesome. My buddy's dad had some season tickets. Got him for a little bit of discount, so we couldn't pass up on the opportunity, you know what I mean? So you got none of the

the beach, the beard die of Ryan Day on your body at this point, if you're trying to tell us. That's right, that's right, yeah, yeah. All right, well, now how hard did you party after the championship? We didn't party too hard, man.

You know, I'm in the off-season. I'm focused on baseball, still kind of enjoy, enjoy in life and go do some things that I want to do, you know. But we definitely went and had a celebratory beverage afterwards and back to the hotel. So that was about it. All right. Well, congratulations on your success so far as Young Major Leagueer and your championship, Ohio State Buckeyes.

It has been interesting the amount of games moving around, getting days off, playing a little bit here and there. I mean, you're not out of the ordinary doing that. So any advice, and who's giving you the best advice that you kind of work your way through your first full season as a major leaguer? Yeah, man, I've been blessed to have some great teammates on this team, guys that have been in my shoes coming up as a rookie and, you know, not necessarily being everyday guys, you know, right away and having to earn their stripes and pay their dues, so to speak. So for me, you know, Jake Myers has been a huge, huge guy to lean on. You know, he's an outfielder, one of the best in the game. And his first two years in the big league, you know, he was kind of in and out as well. So he's been awesome.

So to talk to Victor Carrotini, he's another guy, you know, he's getting a lot more playing time recently. But, you know, he's prized himself on his preparation and coming in pitch-hit situations. And he produces. He does it with the best of him. And the third guy that comes to mind is Christian Walker, man. He look back at his career and what he's gone through and, you know, where he's at now. and how long it kind of took him to establish himself. He's been another guy to lean on for me.

I'm glad you mentioned Jake Myers is somebody you've been getting along with. He tries to call you off everything when he's out there in the outfield, doesn't he? He does. He takes charge. He's a leader. And he can cover some ground, man. He can cover some ground.

So I kind of let him do his thing. But we're both warming up to each other. You know, we're getting more familiar with each other. You know what? He's, Zach, he's being cocky. He's like, I cover more centerfield than anybody. else get out of my way. I'm already covering the old man, Val Tuvius back. I'm not carry

your side if I need to. Don't don't buy his crap. I'm serious. He's a fraud. That's fine with me. As long as the ball gets coffering out, you know, that's all it matters. Hey, you got 12 in left field, 11 and right. Tell all the different nuances for yourself playing each one of those corner positions.

Yeah, everybody asks me, you know, do you feel a difference? And I'm like, you know what? Like, I feel like you stick me out there at either spot. I feel like you know, pretty comfortable. So that's the most important thing is just comfortability and just going to make plays, catch the ball, get the out and, you know, keep it simple. So I think each park that I've played at so far, you know, presents some different things, different nuances, like you said, like playing in left and Minutemade, for example, or sorry, Deakin Park is a lot

different than playing left field in Kansas City or, you know, Texas. So it's, you know, you've got to kind of learn the parks and learn different intricacies of each of each position. And do you have to just react differently depending on lefties and righties out there and spin off the bat and all that type of stuff out there in the outfield as well? Yeah, the spins are, you know, I'm still kind of, you know, experiments in learning, you know, some of the spins coming off the bat with different players. But, you know, for the most part, I understand, you know, if I'm playing the opposite field, lefty hitter, I'm playing left, I'm playing left field, right?

You're going to get that lefty spin. same thing for right field with a ready with a ready uh ready spend so it's i kind of treat them treat them both the same wherever i'm at so Zach doesenzo with us here on sports talk 790 what has it been like for you as far as mentally and going to the ballpark in conversations either with joe spotter or others when you're going to play what time they look for pockets are you getting the lineup a couple of days in a row what is that like for you kind of mentally to go through yeah well it was it was definitely

definitely different, you know, to start the year, not being in the lineup, getting, you know, start every, you know, once a week or so. Definitely different. You know, I'm used to coming up and doing the minor league, being in that every day, middle of the order guy, you know. So it was different. But Joe, like I've said before, Joe is a great communicator. He's a great leader.

And he's made it very well known to me up front early on this season. What's the expectation was for me, you know, for me that is he's going to try to get to give me to line up as much as he can and if I'm producing it on playing well then then we're gonna we're gonna keep rolling and he's gonna keep sticking me out there so last question for you Zach look the offense has had its ups and downs clearly you're still winning baseball games but the defense has been absolutely fantastic and look you've certainly shown yourself with your versatility does that that's kind of good pressure it feels like because when the bats aren't doing their best to be able to have the outfield and the guys in the infield, two plays last night at the end of the game were really special, the way that the plays were made by Paredes and by Altuve. It kind of puts a little bit of, you know what, I can handle whatever response was given to me. And if I need to make a play like that to just have a ball game, I can do that as well. Yeah, man, it's great.

Our defense, like you said, it's been awesome. We have a lot of versatility on our roster, and I think that helps us in a lot of different ways. I pride myself on that, just being versatile. playing multiple positions and having Joe be able to stick me in a line-ups, you know, wherever need be is super important. I think the addition of Coach Tony Perez Chica this year has been awesome. He's great working with our infielder. He does a really good job.

And as well as Jason Bellamy, I've got to get credit to him. He's been working with our outfielder, working with me a lot, and putting us in great spots and positions to make plays and do a good job defensively. All right, so Texas plays Ohio State and football this year, right? Is it open up the year? Is that correct? That's correct. Who do you got in that game, Zach? Yeah, who do you have in that game, Zach?

I'm just curious. I think I got the Buckeyes in that game, man. I think I got the Buckeyes. Do you know C.J. Straub much at all? None? Zero. Yeah, man, I don't know him on a personal level. We were both there on campus at the same time.

Cross past maybe once or twice, but I love the chance to maybe, you know, get to know him a little bit better. sit down, meet him sometimes. Why don't you do like a ticket trade? Because I'm sure your seats for Texans are pretty good. And yours for the Astros, I can't be that half bad, right? That's right. Yeah, maybe we can set that up sometimes.

All right. Hey, Zach, thank you so much for coming on the show. Try to stay cool. It's impossible where you are right now. Hydrated. Yeah, stay hydrated. That's for sure. Thanks for the visit.

We really appreciate it. All right, guys. Thank you for all. You got it, Zach Descentz with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Nice to have Zach with us. Well, he's going to be crying when Arch Manning throws for four touchdowns in that game. You know what? I'm going to send you up there as a journalist.

Okay. Let's do it. Now, I can't get you a hotel room. Oh, that's fine. You're going to sleep in your rental car. There's a rate's there for hotels in Columbus on Texas, Ohio State weekend. It's got to find something. Pretty expensive.

I'll sleep with the car. You could also go to a fraternity house. That's true. As long as you know the secret hand sign. Well, hopefully. Do you think the Texas frat boys can go to Ohio State's frat and use the hand shake to get in? I don't know how that works. You're talking like UT Pike and OU Pike?

Exactly. Or Pike Place? Yeah. My understanding from Western Kentucky is it's like straight beef. They don't like each other. Oh. Who's the beef with Western Kentucky with? Eastern Kentucky?

Central Kentucky. I think it was just UK. I don't think the UK people care of them. Nobody likes UK people. Sorry, Gordy's wife. They really stuck up. by the way. Kentucky people are? The Lexington people, yes. Anybody from Lexington,

you can hear this from me. You guys are stuck up. Oh, stuck up and in Lexington, Kentucky. Come on, man. They have cigarettes on both sides of their mouth, too. Yeah. All that blue grass. They do smoke a lot in Kentucky. I think it's the only state of the union that smokes anymore. What was the last thing we saw somebody smoke a cigarette in this town? In bars.

Outside of bars. Isn't vape the way that people are going on that? Yeah, people are vaping. That's way more popular. Yeah. Still people, when I see them, I'm like, Really? In 2025? All right. Smoking cigarettes? Yeah. I've seen it.

I smell. It makes my eyes water. You don't smoke in casinos anymore, do they? I don't. I think some of them, yes. We can't have that. All right. Hey, we're going to look forward to playing, believe it or not next. It's highly Googledable about an NBA Hall of Famer. That's it.

Calvin Murphy? Could be. Do you think the prize people? care? What's in a prize? Let's see what the prizes are there. You know what? We need to tease these great prizes we have. Look, what's in the prize vault today?

Of course, we always got the Sports Talks at a night t-shirt. Oh, yeah. We got a pair of tickets to see the big three, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then we have, as well, a concert of pair of tickets to see Simple Minds live on a live and kicking tour with a special guest

of Modern English on May 31st. Which favorite modern English song? you're the one of you. Oh, me personally? Yeah. Lovely day. That's Bill Withers. No, they covered it.

It's a good cover. All right, if you want to play, believe it or not, 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. What was the name of the concert? Simple Minds. Simple Minds. Simple mind. It's a bunch of soft-cell and modern English. Oh, yeah, soft-cell, tainted love.

Oh, that's a good song. Taint-da-l-l-da-l-da. I think they play it three times. times and they get off stage. Three different languages. 713-212-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-790 for, believe it or not, next here on 790.

This is a jam. Don't you. Don't you, Houston, forget about Sports Talk 790. Turn it up. It's a good jam. Modern English, Melt with you. This is from Sean. Thank you, Sean.

Simple Minds, don't you forget about me. Soft-cell-tainted love. They're just going to play it on a road. for two hours. Let me take, if I can get these three bands and go out there and play those three songs in order, I would go for a while. I wouldn't say for the whole thing. All right, I'll give you two guesses. What country is this

band, Simple Minds, from? Turn it up a little bit more. Don't chew France. Incorrect. Strike one. Belgium. I'll give you one more. Why not? I had no idea until I just looked it up.

Is it a common country? It's in Europe. That's common-ish, yeah. That's not like that from Luxembourg. Ireland. Oh, what? Just a bit outside. Scotland.

Damn. Baldwin, rain keeps... This is like me watching all those 80s movies. Yeah, what? Was this 16 candles or maybe the breakfast club, maybe? Breakfast club, I think. It's got to be. Breakfast club.

Did you ever see the breakfast club? I actually watched it by myself in college. Really? How did that make you feel? Cried my eyes. A great movie. Wow. You cried you to breakfast club?

I love that. It's a good. I really enjoyed that movie, honestly. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Okay, we're not for that. Nobody wants to hear anybody sing, so. Isn't it funny? We're a sports radio station.

It was also in Ferris Bueller's Day Off? We give away concert tickets to con to bands that were 40 years away from like being really good. Well, yeah. All the good modern stuff will be on the beat. Don't let us down here. It says, shaking my head, ATX, Hopo girl.

What did I let you down with here? I don't know. Was that about the country? What country? The band is? You know? I didn't know. Yes.

If you know that Simple Minds are Scotland, you need to get outside. Get a life. Yeah. Go out and get some vitamin D. Hmm. Okay. Five minutes.

No, no, yeah. We're going to kill a more minute. Oh, sorry. Tomorrow. We have a short show. Yes. Extremely brief. 10 to 11 will do a regular show.

Wonderful. So we're going to move Shut Your Bowman's up to Thursday. And then we have Astros baseball coverage at 11 o'clock till 1140. So it's me and you from 10 to 1140 tomorrow. No, I'm going to do on 11. You're going to do what? I'm just to 11. That's all I committed to.

I mean, I can do it. If you want me to do it by myself, I can't. I've done plenty of me. I'm going to go hit the lazy river. I'll see. we will be out of town in a secret location. Very super, super serial secret. Very super secretive.

Yes. But it's only about two hours and 15 minutes tomorrow from the offices. Actually, if you're driving about two hours. I make moves, baby. We'll be stopping at the Ruckies and Baytown the way there. There's your last hint to where we're going. I think that's enough. Five minutes up to go on the show.

What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show we simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-213-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is about Bill Walton. He has, he's giving things up for an estate auction. In an estate auction. Not a state, but an estate auction. Does he really give this up in an estate auction? If he does, you'll say this.

Believe it. If it's not part of the estate auction, you'll say this. Two believe or not, you already heard to hear about the prize a minute ago. Let's play. 713212-5-790. Cody on 7-90, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. For the estate sale, Bill Walton's collection of Jerry Garcia-branded neckties.

Believe it or not. He probably hasn't, but I'll say not. It was a part. It is a part of the auction. Sorry. You get a bid on those, Matt? Zero. Roy on 790.

what was your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show? Simple Mind's song. Bill Walton's copy of the script to the 1996 film Celtic Pride is up for auction. Believe it or not? Not. It is. Believe it. We've art it up about seven times during the course of the show if you were listening today.

Paul on 7.90. Paul, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. A signed letter of congratulations. Congratulations from President Richard Nixon to Bill Walton, believe it or not? Not. That is correct. Statement number two for the win.

Bill Walton's California driver's license up for auction, believe it or not? Believe it. There you go. Congratulations. Going to see Simple Mind. Or to the big three. And when you walk in the big three, you say, I'm here. Yay, yay!

Andrew on 790, Andrew, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Walton's commemorative Rolex watch for 20 years of service at ESPN. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, ESPN wouldn't give any way watches like that. What are you kidding?

Brent on 790. Brent, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Bill Walton's personal tie-died t-shirt size 2XL. Believe it or not? Believe it. There you go.

Believe it. Item number two for the way. Bill Walton's 1968 Voltax wagon type 2 van. Believe it or not? Not. There you go. Another winner. Mike on 790.

Mike, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. The comedy. Bill Walton's game-worn headband from the 1986 NBA finals against the Rockets. Believe it or not. Believe it. No. Nice idea, though. I appreciate the nice word about the comedy.

We try. We're not intentionally trying to make jokes. We just found ourselves naturally amusing. All right. All the interviews we had today, Zach DeSenzo, Joe Espana, Brian Bogussevich, can all be found on the Sports 7-9 website on the podcast page of us. Plus, you can go to Twitter and get them from there. Listen to our show. We're always available to you no matter what time of the day.

Tell a friend. Tell your neighbor. And follow me, SportsMT, on Instagram. Sports RV, Instagram. Eh. All right. So we got short tomorrow, Thursday for a full

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