The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Were Not in The Empire State of Mind... Texans OL Depth Takes a Hit.

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Astros Were Not in The Empire State of Mind... Texans OL Depth Takes a Hit. 

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Six o'clock at H-Town. Good morning and welcome to a Thursday edition. It's Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. Yankees even up the series at a game of peace as they defeat the Astros tonight. 9 to 3. I've got news for you. Ben and Sousa, maybe a real estate and Sugarline wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

My God. He's terrible. Absolutely terrible I think he was good for them To start the season When he came back from his latest injury Oh, Ross Hello Matt

Being in first place is difficult sometimes A little bit But they still are First place American League Future West champions It's a pile of less than mid now Everybody

Everybody Everybody. By the way, thoughts on this song, generally speaking, an all-time New York great? I think it's great. Yeah, it's, I mean, with New York, New York and New York State of Mind, top three New York songs? I got a take for you that's going to surprise. Okay. But we said a little echoey this morning. Yeah, that's what I... Okay. I don't know exactly what the deal is. That's okay? Yeah, we'll figure it out. We're a radio show. I'm going to go, this name of the song is Empire State of Mind, by the way. Uh-huh. And I'm not a big fan of R&B in general, but this. This is better than Billy Joel's New York City of Mind.

I like it. And New York City of Mind's OG. I like it. But if I'm putting together my New York list, this is going to trump New York City of Mind. Oh, I see what you did there. I didn't mean to. New York's great. I can't.

I don't even do one. I can't. I'm not going to do it either. I'm half six. No, you are on the somewhat road to recovery. It's moving from your head to your chest, which is going to sound like a lot of flum coming up today. I feel better than I did yesterday, but I sound worse. You still look like hell.

I got a little bit of more basic. in my voice. It'll all I do too. You know, it's because whatever we've done this is in the board. Oh, yeah. We do a quiet storm tonight, baby. Jonathan doesn't even know what the quiet storm

is, Dee. I don't... Before his time. They're still doing quiet storm these days. Can you do a quiet storm at 6.04 in the morning? It's supposed to be like the morning storm. Yeah, you're right.

It should be like loud and boisterous. It should be ready to go to the bedroom, get rowdy. So you can't do the quiet storm 6 a.m. It's different. It's more like... Nobody's putting on Teddy Pendergrass at 6 in the morning.

Yeah, if you're going to have have morning romance what song you're putting on hmm here comes the sun uh yeah good day sunshine i mean little darling to be well it depends on how you are okay all right let's let's focus all right uh we are mad and ross in the morning we are sports talk seven honey and we are going to entertain a hell out of you until 10 o'clock i am uh ridiculously excited first of all we've had a great week so far it's so much fun talking to you guys and everyone's like how you're going to handle this Don't worry about me. We're going to be fine.

This show's going to move along. Yeah. I'm going to get a key from Ross's apartment. Oh, yeah. I was thinking about this yesterday. I think I'm going to be at your place like once a week, I think, as appropriate. Because we see each other a lot as it is. And I don't want to overstep my bounds.

No, you can come over as much as you want because I'll be asleep. That's true. You'd be watching a Rocky game. Just don't bust in the room. Oh, yeah, because I don't, yeah, I wouldn't want to say, hey, Ross, I'm here. I can't guarantee what's, yeah. I can't make any. guarantees. Wait a minute. You're inviting me to your home.

Don't come to my room without knocking. That's all. That's one rule. That's very easy. Right. Right. The bathroom's not adjacent. I mean, the bathroom is like autonomous, whatever you would call it. Separated. Separated. Oh, so that's easy. So you can make it to the bathroom. You don't need me. Am I bringing my own pillows and blankets? No, I got pillows and blankets for you. Oh my God. What a house guest. Is a pull out bed? Yeah. And you get your own pillows and blankets. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. You know what? Even for you, I'll wash them. So nice of you. So nice of you. All right. So. So. So. I, so. I. I just asked for five stars on my Airbnb. Are you Airbnb? Ross B&B.

Yeah, it's funny. My wife isn't an Airbnb, and the guy has been super nice. Of course, we're paying for three months of Airbnb. Of course he's going to be super nice. You can kick his feet up for three months. He's chilling. There was two things. One, the internet was terrible, so they got that fixed, and there was not enough

a similar. Yeah, they're going to name it after you. So Kim went to Dollar General yesterday. It's going to be V.S. Kimberly. By the way, those in New England? A dollar general is quite popular. Really? Two most important stores in the greater

Providence metro area, Roller-Ren-Reneral and, of course, Bunk and Runa Runa. I didn't have a problem with the Rala Rindle Rindle. Although, be careful. Sometimes they try to trick you. Really? They'll give you less ounces or smaller soaps or whatever, and you'll be paying just as much as a grocery store. I need to tell

to that when I get up there. Yeah, they scam you. So today... I know it's shocking. Sorry, Jonathan's I don't. Things are getting worse. There's good value. Runk and Ronken Ronuts every 50 feet as well. Yeah. Like we have Rour-Rournots here, they've got the Runkin Runkin' Ron's. I love Runken. Runken over Starbucks all day. I don't disagree with you.

The problem is the coconut donuts, they don't make it. Coffee's better. The donuts better. I mean, why does Starbucks still roll out that microwave stuff? Yes. Frozen food. Cook something. Yeah, I'm okay with it.

Yeah, I agree. That's for cost. If you notice that we've tried to not get into the meat and the potatoes of last night's Astros game, Peter Lambert almost was quality. Almost quality start. What would you say? Quality Start light? Is it what you're going with?

Ooh, let me see. Five and two thirds. Or quality start, medium rare? I don't know. That's a quality start light. Five and two thirds with two earn runs, that's a QSL folks. He almost, now, we said, what we're going to do when we got the six and the third? What's going to happen?

You're going to give away $50 out of your pocket. To Big City Wings, that's right. Oh, no, never mind. I mean, I can do that too. Yeah. But yeah, $50 gift card to Big City Wings is as long as someone goes 6.1. Not six innings and faces batters. They need to be quality plus getting out in the seventh.

Yes. Okay. Because we haven't seen it. forever. Well, you're asking for too much for the actual pitching staff. They said we cannot do this. So Joe Espada has said on numerous occasions. Okay. I need to get my bullpen off their feet,

so to speak. Kauai-way Tong. Bennett Sousa. Della Santos. Well, tongue was okay. You only had to worry about getting one out. But Sousa was awful and Dillo-Santos wasn't any much better. Yes. And people are

very upset that he did not pinch it. Yoner Diaz for Christian Vasquez when the basis of loaded. And Payne had base load, too. There was, I mean, do I want to look at this? Oh, goodness. Payne got the bases loaded. It was just not a good A.B. It's not necessarily his fault. He just wasn't seeing, I can't remember the pitcher's name, Blackburn, I believe. Good bullpen guy, by the way.

Oh, yeah. I mean, he struck him out on a really nasty sweeper. Yeah, Blackburn is now got an earning of 1.70, although technically he blew the save, but he got the victory. Yeah. Pena was up 2-0, and he thought that he was going to get a couple of sweepers. He got meatball, fast balls. So they went at 2-2 and then it didn't go his way. Yeah, I was

when it got to 2-2, I was not encouraged. So we were And I'm just Neither. Look, the Astros, I don't know what their batting averages when they were in run it with run it with not run a scorn position.

We know they can figure that out, but base is loaded. It's not great. It's just not. And there were opportunities. I wish it came down to, I wish we can come in here with firing Brimstone Rossi and say, damn it, Joe, why didn't you go with Janier Diaz?

But it was more than that. It was, you know, the pitching was terrible yesterday. Yeah, I would have liked to see Janir Diaz there. Joe had his reasons. I mean, Joe Spada, when he puts in guys in a pinch hit situations, he's actually been pretty good throughout his tenure. And not afraid to do it either, by the way.

Yeah, and he talked about the matchup with the pitcher, and he just wanted to get a ball in play, and the bat-to-ball skills of Christian Vasquez. So it's kind of funny to me that everyone's crushing him for not putting Yan-R-Dez in, and these are probably a lot of the same people that have been wanting Christian Vasquez to be the everyday catcher, I should say.

And he's like, Christian Vasquez is God's gift to catching. And then the second he doesn't pinch hit for him, Joe's positive idiot. You just can't win. Yeah, and Joe is very smart when I tell you this, and this is any manager that should be, you just don't want to be on any sort of social media because it's so reactionary.

And look, part of the Astros don't mind it because it means you are vested in it. If you are emotional to it, I mean, Astro fans were emotional in the 90s when the Astros were winning games and losing games. They just didn't have social media to go tell the world about it right away. What did we do in 1998? Now, I remember what I did when I did when I drank a lot at an old sports bar and then went to play tambourine in another bar. That's what I did.

Every night? No, just for the- You got a problem, Matt. I didn't do it. Thankfully, my liver would not have survived those kind of nights. All right, the drunken tambourine guys here again. All right, get security ready. But I mean, you were in high school. What did we do when we were mad about our sports teams?

We didn't call sports show. I mean, we called sports shows, but not everybody did that. I don't know. You just talked to your dad. That's what I did. You know, there was, you know, the phrasing water cooler talk. Yeah, there was water cooler talk. There was very popular back then. There's not a much water line to call.

No. Group chat. Oh, you can get on the Yahoo group chat. You get pissed off. Yeah. People were doing that. In 98, you were? Oh, yeah.

Okay. All right. I wasn't know. I was trying to get the framework of years on that. I remember. When did Eddie Johnson? and hit that three that was in 97 right yeah in 97 i remember going to some kind of group chat and like we're all like oh rockets e j e j it's a little echo in my microphone right yeah it's

we're doing it's okay it's fine all right uh 12 minutes past 6 o'clock you know what echo is it's just reverb for your heart and we are with you today until uh what can't speak but that was beautiful did you like that yeah we turn the microphone okay you're turn now you're just trying to reinvent Look, our equipment here sucks. It just does, and it's okay. But we'll figure it out. Oh, it doesn't affect the airwaves. We have a new song today. We'll play on the 7 o'clock.

Our listeners are coming through, and we'll mention us a few times. We want you guys to sing us jingles for the show. Can't wait. And my guess is we're going to play every single one of them. Now, if we don't like them, you probably won't hear them very often. But we have the AIs. We have our friend Javier. We've got a very new listener to send us something yesterday.

So I'm looking forward to playing that for the audience. I can't wait. You guys are awesome. I love you all. We've got to just don't get it today at 830. And then today at 9 o'clock, the season premiere of Dr. Roto. We're talking a half hour of fantasy football because we've got to get our drafts ready. Beautiful. You're going to ask him about Kish on Booty. Or Boutte? That's Bouti. No, it's Booty. It's Booty.

I like Boutte sounds a little more elegant. You're going to try to draft them just for your team name, aren't you? No, I'm the Houston Toros. No matter what? Absolutely. Yeah. And then we've got, believe it or not, today at 950, I host on Thursdays on Believe it or not, and the category today will be people are dead or alive. We lost another.

We lost another person yesterday. No, I want to do Tim Curry. You can't honor Tim Curry? I'm not really familiar. I mean, I know who he is. What? But I didn't do Rocky Horror. I did do Home Alone.

You never saw, you never saw Rocky Horror? Not start to finish. You never saw it? No. Really? No. He was it? You see Clue? Yeah, I thought it was terrible. Oh.

So as I'm saying, I'm not a Tim Curry. aficionado. No, if you are... There are people gonna come after you. Notice people who love... He's like a cool figure. No, that's fine. I get it.

There are people who love Tim Curry. I get why people love Tim Curry. So that does beg a question. They're gonna come out of there with their pitchforks. Things are coming in threes as we talk about every day. We do. Who's the third?

I thought they already had the third. A Peyton Pantier died, which I didn't realize. While you were gone, yeah. I can't believe that. That's crazy. Yeah. 36 years old. Yeah.

Obviously, a lot of issues, unfortunately. But so... Yeah. Is that in thirds? Because they were about a week apart. Usually the thirds are like, boom, boom, boom. I don't want to predict that. Things don't come in threes, yeah.

That's not fun. 614, Matt and Ross in the morning here on Sports Talk 790. If you would like to discuss the Astros, we will do that. We also have got some Texans O-line depth issues we'll get to. And also the sounds at 630 will feature yet another coach bragging about the Houston Texans. And it's not a Houston Texans coach. So that's all coming up today on the program. Shout out to the Philadelphia Phillies,

who beat the Mariners last night, 6 to nothing. Shout out to the Chicago White Sox, who, by the way, would like to be the number two seed in the playoffs. So the dreams of the Astros doing that are probably long gone because they won again yesterday, beat the Rangers 10 to 4. So that means whoever wins the American League West is falling further and further behind for the number two C in the American League West. But we ain't worried about that.

Let's just get in and win it. RIP did it and win it. Let's push for the two seed talk. That lasts. A week. August 15th, August 22nd. I didn't think it was going to happen, but it got to within two. That's how close it got. Which, again, two is nothing in these worlds now. Oh, it's nothing. Well, it's a little breathing room. Joe spotted disagrees with me on that. And again, that was my fault. For those that don't know, we brought up yesterday. I was at the ballpark last week before they went out of town. That was rude. I'm going to write that down for my sorries. Oh, you'd be gone. And I didn't need to bring that up.

No, it's okay. I said breathing room and I, and I, sometimes when you say something, you know that was not the right thing to say. It wasn't like mean. It was just, it was probably not what I would have said. I mean, like somebody said, Matt, you have breathing room in your, if I was a manager, breathing room, two games. Breathe room in your belt. I'd like to.

Yeah, the Astros are now find themselves four back. So the White Sox had breathing room for the number two C in the regular playoffs. And they're going to be. They are seven games above 500. You are one below. What an abomination. They should just fold up the AOS this year. I ain't scared.

Whatever team, you know how they don't accept bull bids? You shouldn't accept your bid to the playoffs. This is an embarrassment. Walk me through this. I would like for you to explain to the major baseball. Yeah, you know what, guys? We're going to go ahead and save our money. We don't want to spend all this money and travel and stuff like that just to lose.

So if you don't win the division, then the natural wallet card would then take that spot, right? The fourth wild card. So let's take a look at the old fourth wild card. Oh, it's a Texas Rangers who are now two games under 500. There are three teams. How many teams in American League, Ross? 15.

There are three teams that are 500 or better. One of them is the Cleveland Guardians. That's not true. I'm looking at the wall cards. I'm sorry. Four teams. Four teams. Four teams. Five, sorry, five. Yeah. You have five. five out of the 15 teams that have a 500 better record.

The fifth best record is the Cleveland Guardians at 68 and 66, which as you do with the kids would equate to a 507 winning percentage. Eight teams above 500 in the National League. By the way, the Guardians have won seven straight games. My goodness. Who's winning manager of the year? Will Vinnable White Sox? Absolutely.

You go from 100 losses to winning a division? Absolutely. Yeah. So here's the bit. Not only is the American League West in trouble of whoever wins a division, but remember we were always like, well, there's a default, there's the wild card. The Guardians winning so many games, they're now have a two-game lead over Texas for that final wildcard spot. Okay, so if the playoffs started today.

Astros v. Guardians in Houston. Get your tickets. Let's go. So, yeah. Yeah, okay, Astros and Guardians. Ashos would host the Guardians for three games. Yeah. You get home field, I should say, no matter what.

Yankees, excuse me, the Marlins. No, Marlins. I'm trying to get mixed my leagues up here. It would be Tampa Bay would have the... You know what, hot take. Please. Astros should have to go to Cleveland. Whoever has a better record, even if it's a wild card.

You get in the playoffs to win your division. That's fine. But you don't get home field. Yeah, Tampa Bay and the White Sacks would have home field. What if you finish below 500 win your division and you get home field? It's terrible. Seattle Seahawks about 10 years ago have zero issues with that. I know they have zero issues with it, but I do.

I got an issue with it. I think you should have to go on the road if you got a losing record and got in the playoffs because you're in a crappy division. This doesn't happen very often. I know. So then what's the problem? You, when you raise the division flag, you should do it in front of your home fans. This is an embarrassment. Rangers, Mariners, A, Athletics, and Angels are an embarrassment.

What my idea of a miracle league west? Whose idea was it? Baseballs. Okay. We could have been the National League West. I said, all right, Jimmy, you want to buy this team? Get ready to learn AL, buddy. If the Astros had said, we're not leaving the American League and we're going to the National League,

they would have been in the same division as Los Angeles and San Diego. We would have probably replaced Arizona. Mm-hmm. And we would have been about 11 games out of first place. God bless the American League. It was so funny. When the Astros... An abomination.

I don't know if you remember this tonight, but there were... Were you, we doing the show together when they, yeah, they did. They moved in 11, right? Yeah, and people had called the show firing brimstone. I'm never going to watch this team again. I grew up a Colt 45 fan. I don't know why I sound like I'm in the middle of Baytown doing this, but I'm just never going to go again.

There's no real players anymore like Cap Anson and Nat Lazioe. They have that dumb designated hitter or whatever that means. Well, it's universal now. Which is supposed to be the kid. It's not real baseball. Oh, okay. Yeah, you want to watch the pitcher flail at three pitches. Let me tell you about how much baseball was goofy back 25 years ago.

They had the DH in one league and not in the other, which made absolutely zero sense. Right. Then you had umpires that only umpire in that one league, which made no sense. And then the American League umpires had the reputation of calling higher strikes than National League umpires did. It was just stupid. Very odd. Very odd. Like, would you, I don't know if this is your answer.

What's the dumbest thing right now in sports? Hmm. I mean, what is like when you go... Not having full ABS? It's in every single ballpark. The technology is installed. So you're ready to fall on that sword. That's the dumbest thing.

I don't know. You just ask me right off the top of my head. You know what? It's a librarian. It's 625. You know what? I'm going to go with the kickoff infant football is really stupid. Well, the concussions are up.

They didn't get rid of it. It's not working. Yeah. And people are like, yeah, you got to let the pitchers hit like Zach Grinky. Now, I did like the double switch and the mentality of that. I mean, it was fun. D.H. to me, who would you rather watch hit? Peter Lambert or Yordaunt Alvarez?

Peter Lambert or Nick Allen. Peter Lambert, yeah, Nick Allen. Peter Lambert or Lamont Wade. Who's your designated hitter? His name is Yorda Alvarez. God bless him. So who would you rather see hit? Okay?

God bless the age. Bittitt Sousa? Bittitt Sousa or Yorna Alvarez. Hey, by the way, Carlos Gray, but it looks like he's been back in September, which I am stunned by. What we're getting back from him, I don't know. The sounds at 630 are next 627 on Sports Talk 790.

Well, that sounds very inviting. Well, it all sounds exciting. That sounds like a threat. That sounds stupid. No, it's sweet. Matt and Ross bring you sounds at 630. Are we bad AI people? This is the most Matt Thomas thing I've ever heard.

Yeah. It's a banger. It's fine. Dave Canellis is the head coach of the Carolina Panthers Sports Survey. Okay. He had a combined team joint practice with your beloved Houston, Texas. Yes. According to Mike E.K.

Not Mike E.K. He is the ESPN Panthers reporter. Mm-hmm. Daniel Hunter got to the quarterback so much that there would have been at least five would be sacks on Panthers quarterback yesterday. In one practice from Daniel Hunter. Very nice. By himself, five. Yeah, that guy's kind of good.

A little bit. Well, can you keep him and Will Anderson on the same team for a long period of time? Can you spend that much money on ends? Yeah, that means they just re-uped him. Now he's older. What is he, 33 or something like that? Yeah, but wow. All right.

It doesn't sound like you slowing up. 31, sorry. Still very much to the prime. We're not going to allow 31 to be old. We do that too much in sports. In the NFL. Old.

Running back, that's like senior citizen. Oh, yeah, absolutely. 31 season veteran. Yes. Here's Dave Kelleis on the Panthers side of things from yesterday's Texans' Panthers' joint practice. In two words,

Danil Hunter, Will Anderson. I think that's four words, actually. But those guys are fantastic players. That's exactly what we need to see. Monroe needs it. Rashid needs it. you know, when we dropped back today, we couldn't really do much. Other than Bryce extending and getting a couple of plays going, the rush was phenomenal.

And that's exactly, you know, just the information we need. That was, it looked fairly, like they were pretty dumb. Yeah, it was pretty lopsided today. I'll be honest. Today did not show that. Today there was a couple of flashes of some nice throws and catches, but, you know, that was a good group today. So, again, I try not to just take it all in a microcosm, but if we want to be good, we have to be able to play against teams like this. Yeah, you're going to lose.

The Texans are going to beat the Panthers over and over again. And apparently the offense was dominating the Panthers defense as well. That's great to hear. Yeah. Now, I don't know. What are we thinking of how good of the Panthers are going to be this year? That I don't have an answer for. What were they last year?

They rallied some at the end of the year. Yeah. Did they win the division? Oh, did they? I think so. Like a 9-and-8 record, something like that. Yeah. The NFC South was the AFC West or the American League West.

Okay, yeah, let's go with that. I'll take your word on it. I don't really recall. Because here's the bit. And look, I love my son. I love all my children. Oh, he's panther fan number one. My oldest Cameron is Panther fan number one.

In fact. Why? Yeah, they're 8 and 9. 8 and 9. Oh, so they won the division where they're losing record. I'll go, I'm, it's, the page is loading. I don't remember them winning the division. Yeah, first, yeah, they did actually. Yeah, that's right.

Okay. Well, I know that because I have Panther fan one in my house. house, which I don't understand. That's something. You kid, you 27-year-olds, I'm throwing the shade right of you, Jonathan. Why does my son like the Carolina of Panthers? Wasn't he a big Cam Newton fan?

Yeah, but he then he went away for a while. They had the same first name. But that is... But he loves him some Bryce Young now. That's his team Bryce Young. Okay. You know, he likes to be contrarian, especially against you. No question about it. So yesterday we're a dinner, and he's like, we didn't look good yesterday.

I'm like, excuse me? You're not to we? Excuse me, we? Who is this we you speak of? Oh, he's left guard for the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, he's big enough to play left guard. Yeah. So, yeah, his sister is going to play Davidson this year.

That's DeF Curry's alma mater. And he's like, Dad, I want to go see Carly playing in Charlotte. And I'm like, that's great. You can meet your mom there. Pony up to cash. Huh? Pony up to cash? And he says, oh, by the way, the Buccaneers are playing the Panthers at Sunday.

Can I go as my birthday present? I'm like, oh, really? You just happen ironic. Just accidental. You accidentally figured out the NFL schedule coincided with your daughter with your sister playing volleyball. Yeah, it's a double dipper. Smart. He learned for the best.

Yeah, he did. And he did. So Dave Canellas, thank you for being honest. Your team sucked against the Texans, and that's my sounds at 630. All right. For me, we're going to go to last night. There are a lot of people upset on Twitter. Now, the Astros, first of all, we should point out, lost by six runs.

Yes, they did. Also, we should point out that there's no guarantee that Yiner Diaz would have hit a grand slam or anything like that. LPSing of 700, but it's not been a robust year for him. Yeah, and also we should point out that there were people that were Christian Vasquez truthers and acting like he's the best catcher, I don't know, since Johnny Bench. But there was an opportunity for Joe Spada to hit Yainer Diaz for Christian Vasquez with the bases loaded. Here's what Joe Spada had to say about that. No, in that situation, no.

against that particular pitcher. Vasquez, back to ball skills. He's one of our best hiters we made in scoring position. It's a tie game at the time. We really liked the way he's calling games. So I figure that the last, you know, the least I'm going to get is, you know, ball pulling play and, you know,

Blackburn executive pitches. You make, you know, made it, did a nice job. Yeah, there you go. Tie game, didn't want to push it. It was one out. I get his reason. I would like to see, have seen the I energy is there, but I get his reason.

How many times? and this is not a per se to Joe, how many times do as a manager, and it was respectfully, I mean, I guess it was a second guess. It was, hey, what was your thinking pattern behind this? How many times you heard a manager go, yeah, I probably should have pinched hit for him

and gone with yarn ear. I'm going to be honest with you. I goofed on that one. That doesn't happen, rarely. But he was asked his reasoning and he gave his reasoning. Because Joe is spotted, I know some people won't believe this. He's going to have reasons for making his moves.

And those were his reasons. Question was asked and answered. Why did you stay with Vasquez as a comparative pension? And then he gave the answer because it was the seventh inning. It was a tie game. He likes the way Christian Vasquez calls the games. He likes the match up with the pitcher. And he was hoping he would just put the bat on the ball.

I did look at Astros foot up before I went to bed last night. And they were not accepting of his answer. Oh, that's shocking. I know. Well, he wasn't a very good A.B. Because here's the reality. if he would have said all the things he just said and then followed it up with

oh well I just gave you what I was thinking and I should have thought otherwise then people would have been like oh there's there's the there's the manager second guessing himself and it would have been a mess yeah and if the Iner Diaz would have came out there and struck out on four pitches then everybody would have been saying oh well how could you burn Vasquez

yes that's exactly right you can't win you're damned to be you're right right yeah that's the sport's all about we're second-guess and mothers. Especially in baseball. Oh, baseball is second-guess more than anything else because it is a little bit more of a game that, again, people can relate to.

I think it's like, for instance, no one can say I can coach this football team better because, again, you're drawing up plays, you're going over scenarios, you're worried about two sides of the ball, basketball? You're not trying. How many of you as kids were drawn, that were not intimately involved in basketball,

drawing up plays and calling up scenarios and putting out lineups, very few. But everybody's played baseball. I mean, in theory. Everybody knows that there's a, well, I would have put this guy in the lineup. I would have done this. Like, I heard a call the other day. I don't know which show it wasn't here on the station. It was like, oh, maybe Gordy in the post game.

Why isn't you on batting third? Because I like him batting second, because it gives him one chance of him betting again. Was hurting his RBI opportunity? Well, is it? Clearly it's not. Isn't he leading the American League and runs batted in? But he would have more, as some would say.

No. I... So stupid. I want my... I'm sorry. He's Lady of the American League in RBI's. You want him to... He's also got a bunch of runs scored because he's getting on base more and guys are knocking him in.

Yeah. He's getting up more. Best hitter gets up more. It's very rudimentary. I'm sick of this. Can we be that stupid collectively for this long? No, it's not 1956.

Yeah, it's never going to change. Look around the league. Aaron Judge won an MVP batting second. Come on guys. We only watch Astros baseball since 1965. Watch other baseball games. Go look at, you know, the first time I ever really saw it when I was covering the twins in Minnesota that Joe Maurer was her best hitter. They bet on him second.

People lost their mind until they realized, oh, my God, his on-base percentage is amazing. Yeah. And gets RBIs and draws walks and get a great eye. Today in 2026, there's easy justification that your best hitter is your second place hit in the lineup. He hit three grand slams in June. All three of them were times, obviously, because he can't hit one where you're batting second in the first inning. All three of them, he came up in that scenario because he was batting second.

Very simple. I want him batting more than anybody else. Even the Jeremy Pena. But Jeremy Pena is a really good prototypical everyday lead off. It's a happy meeting. You let Jeremy Pena hopefully get on base. If he doesn't, whatever. I mean, who do you want batting second anyways?

Issoc Paredes? That's the only possible. candidate. It's not like he's fast. It's not like he's some speeds are on the base pass. He gets on base some, but... The theory is putting two guys on base in front of Yordaun instead of one. If you had a guy with elite speed with a 400 on base, maybe I'm ready to hear the argument. But not for Issoc Paredes. Sorry. Yeah, because Issoc Paredes on a double by Alvarez is not going first to home. It's just not going to happen. So you like it to, but it's just not going to. In fact, I think... Critical thinking, people. I think would Yordaunt

in a foot race, would he beat Paratus? I think so. I'm just trying to spread out. That speed the end of the trip over the day. That was quite impressive. He can get moving. He didn't even sweat that hard. I'm going to guess, and I don't know for a fact,

I'm going to guess he's got a higher sprint speed this year. Well, maybe he's lingner. It's like I got a bad second. I've got to get on those base paths. 643. We are Matt and Ross in the morning. We're with you today until 10 o'clock. At 8.30, I just don't get it.

And if those of you that are new to, I just don't get it. We'll tell you what that is. We've got Dr. Roto for the season premiere of Fantasy Football Talk. We're going to get you ready for drafts. Excuse me. And we return in a matter of short moments. We've got some depth issues for both the Texans on the offensive side and defensive side. We'll tell you about that next.

643. Matt and Ross in the morning on 790. 649. It is Matt and Ross in the morning. We have one of our great listeners. By the way, good morning. Good morning. I learned to something today really quick.

When you work early mornings, and I'm sure a lot of you that are early mornings about getting your way to work, or you have a routine where you time out every minute. When we were doing the midday show or afternoon show, it's flexible based on traffic or where you are. When you do morning drive, you have every minute. So this morning I got up at normal time, but I was not finishing packing. I'm going to Rhode Island after the show today. Got a jacket for the nighttime. The five minutes that I took extra.

to get myself ready, cost me 10 on the road. I got here 10 minutes later than I wanted to today. So it was a 15 net negative. Correct. So if you got a pack or do something in your routine, my suggestion, especially with the lunatics that are driving at 6 o'clock on 610.

By the way, 610-45 interchange over there, North Siders, you cannot come over to my lane and try to squeeze on to 610 but you're pretending to go on 45 for a while. Oh, I know who you're talking about. The Wieslers. The Wieselers. You're going to call them out.

Well, here's the problem. Even though we all weasel sometimes. I can't do it. I'm a weasler. Yeah, you are. I could see you being a bad weasler. No, no, I wave. What does that mean?

It means me, I'm a nice weasler. You say so. So today, when you did that to me, as I was on 610, I gave you double rods. Wow. Yeah, that was my first time in the four days we'd be doing this morning thing that I double rodded some people, multiple people. Jonathan, in one, let's just say four weeks is one month of commuting. Okay, five days a week, right? That's 20 days.

Yeah. how many of those 20 days do you give people the middle finger? Now listen. He's busy, that's fine. Okay. Okay. What about you, Matt?

Oh, well, I mean, so far four days, 5 o'clock, I'm about 25%. Okay, so one. I'm telling you, what about previously when you were getting it at 10? Oh, my God. Twice a day. Twice a day. Yeah, two different spots in 610.

Really? At 610 and 45, and then when 610 would curve around, like past Northwest Mall or whatever. I can't remember the last time I gave someone a middle finger. I have middle finger. I yell at you. I honk. I do honking.

No, I don't road rage. Like, I don't like speed up against you, but I do it to. Okay. We're worried about you. Well, I tellgating people. Of the Thomas. You just blast it on in H-town. You better watch out.

Of the Thomas duo, I am the least to be worried about. Mrs. Thomas, a lot worse. Yeah, I could see that. A lot worse. Okay, real quick. Texans did we mention the practice with the Panthers. By the way, both coaches, Dave Connellis and D'Amico, Ryan said, no starters are playing on Friday.

So if you want to really go out, take your girl out for a nice romantic dinner, here's what you do, honestly. You tell your lady, the Texans are playing on Friday, but you're more important than the game is. I like that. Yeah. You know, it's the last preseason game is the biggest one. Third one, that's like the dress rehearsal. That's like getting ready for the season.

You know, they don't play four like they used to. so the third's more important now. You don't know. Yeah, I'll take you out, girl. Girl, you know what? Let's go do this. Let's go see some live music, some dinner. Okay.

We'll have a couple of beverages. And maybe we'll go walk in front of the Meekam Fountain. I don't know what's called that anymore, but I drive by it all the time. What's the fountain over there down the street? Is that the one in the medicine or in the museum district? No, second of the one over here in the gallery off of Richmond. Oh, you're talking about the water wall? Yeah, the water wall.

Let's go walk by the water wall. Waterwall is nice. It's a good spot. So listen to me, if you have girls, ladies, that don't like sports, but show them the Texans are on the calendar, and you say you're more important than a silly old Texans football game, major points in your direction. What if they find out your line?

They're not. What if they, like, talk to their coworker dude? And he's like, yeah, they're not playing any starters. No. So maybe don't listen about it. That's a brocode. That's a broco violation. People are violating brocodes all over the place.

I know. All right. So, Brayden Smith gets hurt yesterday. Yes, not good. And Ali Gay, if you just asked me who Ollie Gay was yesterday, I would have been like, I don't know who it is. Yeah, linebacker.

Oh, I'm sorry, depth linebacker. Yeah, what I meant. He's also, they both went down on the same play, different endsides of the field. That's not good? No. So we'll see what's going on to that. But ultimately,

if you're looking for, boy, I'll tell you what Vanamerer is going to have some, now he knows all the players, so that's fine. But I can tell you as a play-by-play guy, when you're doing nothing but scrubs, on both sides because nobody knows, it's a little bit of a challenge. So, yeah, I wouldn't care.

But the Texans got again on the practice field, probably after a long weekend, normal routine of practice starting what I would think they start a Sunday. So maybe they have like maybe a long weekend, Friday, 30, Sunday, Monday, something of a thing. And then they start going for regular season, week one.

Can't wait. Actually, we know we've got two weeks for the start of the season because next week, this weekend is college football sort of. It's like college football light. Week zero. are they calling it? Yeah, and then we have got week one. By the way, did you, you know, the big week one game is TCU playing North Carolina in Dublin? Yes. Did you see the TCU story?

Mm-hmm. So apparently there was a alleged assault or was it a confirmed assault? I don't know. I've not done a lot of the research on it. A leg. Let's roll with a leg. It's safer for right now. Ledge assault in the locker room at TCU. Mm-hmm. The Fort Worth Star Telegram got a hold of it and reported it like they're supposed to do.

TCU not pleased with that. and pulled the credential of the reporter who covers TCU football and they revoked the credentials of anybody at works of the Fort Worth Star Telegram so it wouldn't be somebody else. First of all, the guy that covers the team is already in Ireland. Secondly, Aiman Carter, who is as big a part of TCU as anything, because the name of the stadium is named Aymn Carter, was, I believe, a publisher or helped create the Fort Worth Star Telegram?

Yeah, he only, yeah. founded it. Third, what are you doing TCU? Do you understand no one in the Metroplex cares about TCU? No. I mean, we have our own issues here with the Houston media with Houston Cougar football.

It's worse for TCU. It just is. And you're going to pull the only credentialed, legit media source in the Metroplex that cares about, that the dude flew to Dublin to cover your game and now you're telling me can't go.

bad, bad, bad look. Yeah, it feels like things are trending more in this direction where people can't handle the bad press. I mean, look, if he's the reporting, I'm sure that it didn't happen, and then they were talking about, oh, well, he, you know, the player received threats after this, and well, he didn't release the player's name.

The player came out and made their own statement on Instagram. Yeah, yeah. Because he hid the identity of the kid. Yeah. So, just, I'm telling you, media, and we got some youngans that are in the car right now thinking about this, it's tough. You're getting pressure from your bosses, the media companies,

and the people that you're talking about covering. And I'm sure politics has the same problem. The sports does. And salaries are, I wouldn't say shrinking, but stagnating. They're stagnating, and there are fewer salaries. You are asked to do multiple things. All right, let's go. The phones will start the second hour of the program.

713-212-5-7-90. Felipe wants to talk about the Astros pitching. Ryan says his wife shoots people to bird all the time. Oh, wow. And Stunna is on the Texan. Stunna, by the way, blaming me for, what did you blame me for yesterday? That's something that was your fault. I don't believe it was.

Dolly Parton's death? It was a dolly. Waking up the strippers for that 49ers. Oh, yeah, for Jed York. Oh, by the Jed York video is out. Well, go ahead. What do you think? Apologize.

You win. Yeah. I didn't apologize. I just guessed wrong. And I gave you credit on social media. Thank you, Matt. And you're welcome for that. We are Matt and Ross in the morning.

This is Matt and Ross. in the morning. Oh my God, Jonathan, you got in there. That's why you're playing this song more often, aren't you? I know how you're going to roll. I didn't even listen to this. He said this one's number one. Number one on the list.

Now, that was a listener that sent it to it, correct? Yes. I believe that's AI as well, though. Who cares? I'm just saying. Yeah. If y'all are AI efficient, competent, experts, we'll take an AI.

songs. Are you kidding me? We're all about that. It is Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790 where your local team the Astros. The good news is they're your first place Astros, Rossi. It's pathetic. The bad news is they're under 500 and they got their ass

kicked yesterday by the New York Yankees 9-3. It's one of the saddest first place teams in baseball history. Okay, I want you to look into my brain for a moment. I know as painful as you're going to say, why am I not flipping out? Why have I never flipped out about this team? What do you mean? Never flip? You said they were washed like in April.

Yeah, which I didn't realize it would be 140 games in the season where they'd be doing this. Yeah. I mean, they're still not good. They're not a good baseball team. I'm not flipping out. I mean, you feel like you're just indifferent. They're going to get into the playoffs. They'll probably be out of a wild card. At the very least a DS. Yeah. They don't have the rotation or the lineup or at this point, the bullpen to survive much of anything. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm feeling rather indifferent about it all. Yeah, I would say the most of the audience, meaning astro fans, and not just sort of our show, but Twitter, just in general,

that there is a lot of disappointment, a wee bit of indifference, but there is a small minority, and I'll throw myself with the mix, like, you know what? Okay, these are the conditions we're given. We're going to make the most out of it. Yeah, but I just don't feel good about the team. It's weird saying they're in first place, and then there's, what are you most excited about? I guess you're on, and then Peña.

Yordon, Triple Crown, MVP. Peña, Peretti You know, Altuba give me a couple hits in the game It doesn't make me sad It just doesn't That was nice Because they were all Gia

He was getting jeered He was by the Bronx crowd Yes he was And came through with an RBI double Yeah Yeah At one point of the game He's OPS 711 now

That's good 711, okay He's getting somewhere I guess He was 770 last year 790 the year before Christian Walker did get an RBI yesterday to spying 0 for 4. He's 0 for the series.

What happened to him, man? His OPS Plus is down to 106. What was his high watermark? Do you remember? I can go look. Yeah, it's okay. If you want to get really... In the weeds?

Really depressed. Bellinger. Rice, by the way, went deep yesterday. Is Rice getting closer to our friend, Jordan Alvarez? All right. Started the season, I mean, in literally March, he had a 900 OPS.

a thousand for a lot of it. At the end of April, he had a 918 OPS. Okay, so 918, oh, 918 OPS, and right now it is at 734. Yeah. And he plays every day. That's pronounced. So since that, he's been, for 96 games, he's hitting 208 with a 674 OPS. He's got 16 homers.

It's crazy that his OPS is as low as it is with him having that many home. You're just not getting on base or getting any other hits. Yeah, it's either a home run or nothing at all. Right. Yeah. All right, Matt and Ross with you at 707, 713, 212-5-790, 713. 7-1-3-1-2-5-79. We do invite you guys to join us.

I know you're busy getting yourselves ready for work, but if you have time to call in and say hello, we'd love to hear from you. Also, I just don't get it coming up at 830 and the season premiere of Dr. Roto with us at 9 o'clock for your fantasy football advice. That is coming up at 9 o'clock this morning, right here on 790. Felipe opens up our conversation at 707. Felipe, good morning to you. Good morning, guys.

Sorry to call on at 6, but, you know, things happen. One thing I do want to know, you ruined a lot of people's day by mentioning Astro's Twitter. You know how that is. But I will say, Benesu at this point, if you've ever been on the Internet and you've seen those memes about Scooby-Doo

where they go, oh, let's see who the guy is, behind the mask, pull the mask off of Minnesota and find Brian King. That's basically how he is right now. I said that a last hour, Philippa, I was like, man, you're mad at Brian King, and now you're mad at Benesusus.

These left-hand relievers can't win for losing, right? They can. I mean, it's like, they show signs of really great talent and just a great outings, just like Benisthusus. He came back from the injured list. He had a great outing, and we're like, man, this guy's looking great right now. Coming back from

like, we need him right now, especially with the way Brian King was pitching. And then now he just went down the drain just with him. This team is lacking consistency. I just said it many times here on this show. That's the key word for this year of consistency. We don't have any. Now, that one bit just the other day,

what was it? Tuesday night, we had we won 9 to 7, and that's all our runs for the series. I'm pretty sure if we lose today, we're probably going to probably scour up three runs from the bottom of the bucket. That's all we're going to have. It's 12 to 3.

Man, I hate to say it like that, but I know this team can do a lot better. We have talented to do a lot better, just that can they put it on the field? Well, this is a great argument, Philippine. Thank you for the phone call. Can they really do a lot better? Ross, your construction to me, Ross,

does not say this team being a 90 and 72 team. It just doesn't. I would say at the most part, I mean, who where, we be, talked about this all season long. We have. We're looking for sources of improvement or turning of a corner or surges, whether it be Cam Smith or Yiner Diaz or whomever. I mean, is Lamont Wade Jr. all of a sudden

going to be great? Taylor Chamele, like, who are you looking at that's going to turn things around? Hunter Brown, maybe. Right. Let's go to the disappointments in my mind. Altovae has regressed. He's not a 7-11 OPS guy in particular, but that was expected. That's not a surprise. Varsho He's having his worst career year since like the start of his career. He's supposed to be better.

He's hitting 240 years. I don't know. Is this 36 year old supposed to be slugging that high? I don't know. I know. But that's a downtron. Dalton Varsho was excellent last year for the Blue Jays. A huge part of the reason why they were the America League champions.

Uh-huh. He has fallen off the map. So there is, but you wouldn't have gotten him if Dalton Varsho was good to begin with, right? So I don't even count that as a possible A couple hits with the home run yesterday. I mean, it's something. Christian Walker, you were like, okay,

season two is better than season one, and then June 1st came around, and he hasn't been the same since the first two months. He started off like gangbusters, and now he's hitting 229. OPS plus a 106. Taylor Chamell, just a guy. We understand that.

Cam Smith, still at this point, just a guy. Yeah. Lamont Wade shouldn't be. here. He's a quadruple a player. Yeah. And 30 something 30 something years old. I mean,

been around majorly baseball, mid-player. He's a little lightning bottle of for a week or two. No. And the reason why Lamont Wayne Jr. is because of Zach Cole, who you liked, the top ten prospect, struck out every single time. Jake Myers. Jake Myers.

Joey Loporffito. Jack DeSenzo. Desenzo's now wearing Giants gear. I mean, on and on. And on and on. Christian Vasquez, batting OPS 610. That's what backup catchers do. Although he's playing more than a backup catcher. You're thinking of Shea Wickham, by the way.

Oh, Shea Wickham. Who's, uh, where's DeSanzo? I think he's still in the system, I think. Okay, so, yeah, as Wickham is the Giants. Okay. Yeah. I was mixing up my 4A players. Mm-hmm.

Nice people. People were upset. Shea Wickham's hitting home runs for the Giants. Who? People on A.U. You know. Yeah, Shrew's Twitter. How could they get up on Shia?

Wickeham. He's Shea Wickham. Come on. You are smart. You can figure. Yeah, the back end of your line as you just said. Varsha. Okay, well, let's start with. After your top three, Al Tuve, disappointment, Varsho, Dud, Walker, bad, Tremel, quadruple a player, platoon guy, Cam Smith hasn't developed. And then Christian Vasquez literally was scrap heaped in the middle of spring training.

Yeah, because they just didn't trust his ourselves. Because he was not a... Everything outside of your top three has been a disappointment. All right, so let's go the rotation. You didn't think McCullors are going to do anything. You just know you don't. You knew that. You thought, it makes me sad, though.

How sad? He's collecting a check. He's fine. I'm sure he's, I'm not going to cry for him. Okay, good. But I like Lance McCullough's true. Hunter Brown? Disappointment.

Yeah. Hurt and disappointment. Mike Burroughs, a pitch for AAA last night. Massive disappointment. Who else? Peter Lambert wasn't on our radar in season. turn. So he's a plus, but he's showing who he is. He had 366 ERA. Yeah. And this far into the season. It's a bonus. Pretty good. It's a bonus.

Oh, Emi, massive, massive disappointment. Oh, I'll tell you what. All this makes it sound like it's a miracle. You're 66 and 67, really. Spencer Ergetti, massive disappointment. Yeah, and they traded. He was worthy of being traded. Uh-huh. With years left in May. And I'm, you know, again, shame on all of us here at 790. We had this team 88 to 94 wins, one in the division. Oh, let me go look at the preseason. Did you really have to? Do you want to embarrass ourselves this early?

Yeah, sure. Why not? Save it for the 8 o'clock hour. All right, Matt and Ross, in the morning at 714. It's 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79. We've got to get to some Astros. Texans kicking the crap out of the Panthers at practice yesterday.

And Lane Kiffin, Cordy, I don't even care for listening. He's a sleaze ball. He's just sleazy. And you know who thinks he's sleazy? Some LSU fans. We work in a building of LSU people. And we had one of the big LSU fans, Rossi,

that works with us that was like, I'm done with LSU. The sleaze factor for Lane Kiffin is incredible. We'll explain on that as well. 714. Matt and Ross in the morning as we thank you for listening to Sports Talk 790. We all in sports radio make a lot of predictions. about things. And we get probably what? If we're lucky to get half right

we feel pretty good about it. Like people ask who's going to win the game, what's your thoughts on a particular position or a person or just your general thoughts. Yeah. There has been one sportscaster in this market that asked you, I don't know, Rossi, what about 10 years ago, give or take?

To just say no to the Pro Bowl? Yes. And it took 10 years. And it took me on the picket lines with my sign. Just say no to the Pro Bowl And the NFL said You're right, Matt Well, the NFL said you're right Ross

As well What now? Because I said no injury replacements If you make the Pro Bowl or you don't Because we're messing with people's legacies And their Hall of Fame resumes And they said they're not going to do that anymore So thank you for listening to me, NFL

So basically the NFL Listen to both of us There's no more Pro Bowl Good I believe they're going to just let the NFL's best players play pinball games and just let you watch that over and over again. And now you either got selected to the Pro Bowl or you didn't. Yeah.

Which I love. Because I mean, when Chador Sanders made of the Pro Bowl, that was the sign of, you know, we've got to end this thing. Pro Bowl quarterback Shador Sanders. It just doesn't have the right ring. He doesn't. Who, by the way, he's not the starting quarterback in Cleveland right now. He's a pro bowler, but he's not a starter. Yeah.

So they're ending. I let you know it's a sham. I'm telling you, I don't know, I mean, they'll figure out something to do. because they want to, you know, they want to capitalize on the, the week before hubbub. And, you know, look, these Super Bowl things are now festivals. They're not just games. There's the NFL experience and there's various parties and, you know. Are they going to do like an award show or anything?

Do they say anything about that? I don't know. But when the Pro Bowl ended, I got about 10 tweets saying say no to the Proble. So thank you NFL for listening to this radio show. We are, you know, we're our own influencers in some small ways. Yes. Of course. I don't want to take credit for this, but, you know, it took a small army.

For any of you that joined me and to say no to the Pro Bowl, I thank you. Yeah, it was fine. Either watch or you didn't. And pretty much nobody was watching it. But it was ridiculous that everybody in their grandma was getting named to the Pro Bowl. You can't have 20 Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Like, isn't Matt Schaub a six-time Pro Bowl? Yeah, I think something like that.

I mean, it's fine. Matt Schaub, Pro Bowl MVP. Yeah. Put some respect on his name, that. I'm curious because when I was a kid. kid, I watched it. First of all, it was in Honolulu, which I always thought was interesting. It was always fun. It was always fun.

And they did the game where it was like Drew Bree's hitting the moving targets with paint on the ball and stuff. That was fun. Yeah. And when you'd have like, I don't know, who's a good NFC, when you have Phil Sims throwing to Jerry Rice, that was kind of cool. Yeah, it was cool. And then something happened. What happened? Did we just not, we didn't, we don't want anybody to get hurt? Because the guys could have gotten hurt back in the day. It was money. But also, yeah, the money.

grew to where it wasn't any kind of incentive. Guys were begging out of it. Yeah. There's no incentive. The money grew. Yeah, the injury factor as well. Just prestige for whatever reason went down on the Pro Bowl. It wasn't as big of a deal. Because, let's face it, the Pro Bowl, when it was being played, was gimmicky the last five or six years.

The NBA is... Adam Silver can't sleep at night because he can't figure out how to fix the NBA All-Star game. Yeah, nobody cares about it. They did U.S. versus the world. I mean, with a couple of U.S. teams and a couple of world teams, and I don't even think I watched it at the end of it. Obviously, these are all moneymakers. But the NBA is even more because it stops everybody for a few days.

And they make an event out of it. They move it around different cities. And they keep trying to reinvent the wheel. And it never seems to work. My philosophy is, and again, this is taking one for the team, give everybody a four-day break. Let everybody recharge their interests. engines, and I do believe you'd have less players sitting out, less load management in the NBA.

Yeah. If you just said, we're doing an NBA weekend hiatus, whatever you want to do. Maybe you get some legends. Maybe you have a big convention. I'm just thinking loud here. But playing the All-Star game, taking that much time off, when you can probably take half as much time off. So you give these guys less back-to-backs, less four games and six days kind of thing.

I think there's a bigger value to shorten the All-Star weekend to a three or four-day hiatus, whatever you're going to do it, and then spreading the season out. So you have some guys that don't have to worry about going from Denver to Utah on a back-to-back. Yeah, back in the day, you needed an All-Star game. You wanted to showcase the league. I mean, to help the NBA thrive or the NFL or more Major League Baseball. And Major League Baseball, it was always cool because you could get an American League versus National League. And the luster went off of that when you got interleague play. That's right.

So you became not as special. You used to need the All-Star game to say, hey, this is the best we got. Let's attract some people who can watch this and get interested in the sport. NBA is a made sport. But the problem now is, and this is where, again, money comes into play. In baseball's an all-star game, you're moving into different stadiums, and the stadiums are sold out. Yeah.

And they're sold out the day before for the Home Run Derby. As boring as that has not become. Kids taking rockets off the dome. Yeah. I mean, you've got 40,000. people in every stadium on two nights and those aren't regular. You're not value adding on those to

prices. You're not doing dynamic pricing. You're charging a lot of money for those events. Yes, they are. You have these cities that are hosting hotels and you're having these parties and you have red carpet. So there is a financial implication to it. The NBA doesn't do the same thing. When NBA, when All-Star

games go to arenas, they have 18,000 people, they've got people traveling from all over the country, the hotels are full, the ballrooms are full. you weren't doing that for the Pro Bowl because you were sending the people to either Orlando or to Honolulu where it wasn't a place where people were jumping on a plane and going to watch these particular games.

And you had Troy Vincent says they talked to players about it and the players basically said they didn't care they didn't want to play competitive football or any kind of competitive games. They need to rest their bodies. And if you had teams that were in the Super Bowl, you lost all those players.

Yeah, you had these guys are pushing their bodies to the limit more than they ever have. Yeah. And you don't just have like, I don't know, of Sonny Jurgensen taking a drag from a SIG and then going out there and throwing 50 passes. That's Len Dawson. Although I'm sure Sonny Jurgensen smoke too.

Yeah, probably not. Probably. The most famous photo of cigarette is got to be Len Dawson, right? Crazy, crazy, crazy. So I think you and I mean, you and I are in the same page on this, but the MLB and NBA are not. They're like, I'm a big fan of it not being an all-star. For example, I want that into the NBA.

Alper and Shingoon, sorry, you weren't an All-Star last year. He was an injury replacement. Shouldn't be named an All-Star. Now it goes on his resume. Yeah, I just don't want any part of it. I want, you know what? You call it an NBA long weekend. I don't care what you do.

NBA long weekend. Yeah, right? I just call it, yeah, the half-time break. Yeah, you can do it with whatever. Like, don't you guys and ladies that are listening to show, don't you all take a three-day weekend sometimes? Just to kind of decompress? Yeah. I'm not asking you to go around the country.

Four days sometimes. I mean, I'm taking Friday Monday off. Yeah, I got some five-day weekends coming up. Oh, do you? Okay. That's good. We should have. You got to recharge.

You ever, yeah, you're taking a four day. But I'm, but the problem is I'm, yeah, I mean, I'm not relaxing. I'm out at home. I'm out there on these volleyball streets. Oh, you're on vacation. You're not working. That's true. Oh, you're out there on the volleyball streets.

Watching a volleyball game and kicking your feet up at the Airbnb, you're, you're fine. It is going to be like 75 degrees there tomorrow. Yeah. Who shut up? Okay. Point being is that volleyball streets? I just, you take, you're basically taking a week plus off and I just, I just, you take, you're basically taking a week plus off and I just think it's

not in the best you should the counter is so crushed as it is nobody cares anymore and yeah the pro bowl just no so we said no to the pro bowl and the pro bowl is gone thankfully and they were doing what potato sack races last year right I think it was yeah they were playing the three-legged race I thought the game of

Twister involving defensive ends was quite interesting it's pretty good AFC won the hopscotch did they yeah there was a show back in you This is before your time. It was called Battle of the Network Stars. Did you ever see that? I remember it, but I didn't really see it.

Hot people from your favorite TV shows. Okay, here we go. I'm not saying here we go. I'm just pointing out what it was. Okay. Suzanne Summers on a three-legged race was fun. Hmm. Chris McIll.

Staying away from that one. Yeah, you should. I'm going to move along. Thank you. If you were an OG. If you're an OG of Battle of Network Stars, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 713-212-5.

I want to hear you putting Suzanne Summers in third leg in the same sentence. May she rest in peace. Well, losing the great ones. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is Matt, it is Ross, and we are in the morning. We've got, I just don't get it at 830. We'll explain what that is.

When we come back, I get Lane Kiffins a sleaze ball. Gordy's listening. Sorry, Gordy, we love you like a brother, and we appreciate all the hard work you do for our same. but you're coaching a sleaze ball. 713212-5-790. 735. Matt and Ross in the morning.

In one hour from now, we do a Thursday staples called I Just Don't Get It, where Ross, Jonathan and myself, will throw things at you that we just don't get and we try to figure it out whether we get it or not. You're like, Matt, that's not a great explanation. Jonathan, help us out here. What would be a good example if I just don't get it?

We've had things about traffic. We've had things about social media. Yeah, especially social media. Our parents raise their kids. Yeah, I'll give you one. An OG, I just don't get it, was we did it one week where we were talking about why people go to Facebook and say prayers needed. But then you don't explain why you don't, what are the prayers for? And my philosophy is, and I don't know if you agree with me or another on, Jonathan, is that I will be giving me.

I can give you all the prayers you want. You got to tell me what you want. Why are we praying? Because I can't give out unlimited prayers. I guess. I don't get that. Perfect example. That's a great example.

Why do you need the prayers? If you need the prayers, all you do is tell us. Prayers needed. Well, that's something they're just asking for some, you know, prayers for good health, you know. Just say it. My mom's not feeling great. Prayers needed. Love you.

Can't wait. I will be happy to give you prayers needed. But if prayers needed because you are hoping to get a buy one, get one free to pizza place, that's not, I'm not giving you prayers for that. Oh, didn't Gordie just do? He doesn't get why Valet doesn't have a QR code. Yes. Oh, he doesn't get why we have to carry cash for valet parking. Especially if it's mandatory, why do we need a tip of him?

I totally get it. Get your cash out, just like Jed York did. By way, real quick, before we go to the phones, we got to get to a potential D of the year candidate in Lane Kiffin. But real quick. What is Lane do now? I'll tell you a little bit. Leave way alone. We've got to talk to Q Butts of Masters baseball too.

Wonderful. So a few days ago, Jed York was arrested for solicitation of prostitution. Mm-hmm. And we were having a debate about how much cash he was carrying. Yes. And you had said, what was your final answer on that? I said he had a couple 20s on him. He did.

I believe he only carried hundies. Yes. So yesterday the video comes out of him being arrested, which is just very peculiar. It was two minutes of unsightly television watching, but I still watched it. Okay. I didn't catch the video, but go ahead. And at the very end of the video, they show the money that he had in his possession. There were at least five-twenties.

Okay. So he was pulling up with 20s. He was going with exact change. He told you, yeah. So he did go to the ATM. Or he just keeps 20s on him. Or he broke the cash with the rhino pills, like we were saying. He's wearing a Yankee shirt?

Huh. Yeah, he was not wearing anything Cleveland related, because that's where he lives in the area, and he was not wearing the Giants, the 49ers stuff, because he owns a team. Yeah, he wasn't wearing a shirt saying I'm the 49ers owner. And he's a Nepo baby, correct? Yes, his father owns the team.

And he gets to own it now. Right, his father's still alive and on the board, but he's the CEO and chairman, I think. I don't know. So, yeah, he had the police. were handcuffing him and got in the back of the car at the very very end of the video

was the 20s multiple 20s so yeah Jed York Salt of the Earth, man of the people hanging out with 20s going on to Youngstown escorts.net or whatever

and again for the 500th time that mobile home park is like we were not involved in this you just simply arrest him in front of our place. That's where he got arrested. those poor guys. They're having a real big PR hit.

I don't know. It's good. Yeah. Some people think that all PR is good PR. I don't necessarily. Grated out when somebody's getting pulled over for hookers in your neighborhood. Oh, that's horrible. It might be good for some people, I guess.

Yeah. But, I mean, it depends on what kind of client you're looking for. Yeah, you're going to get the unsavory people. Yeah. Let's talk to Q on 790 at 739. Q, good morning to you. Good morning. How y'all doing, Phil?

We're excellent. Thanks for dialing in. Hey, man, I'd like to know what the cities do y'all. I think the first team Well, I'm confused because I know the Last four months, you know, we've had four different Division leaders at the beginning of the month. You know, it started with Oakland and then the Mariners,

then the Rangers, the Nationals was first starting in August. Now, what a facility would y'all say? The team that gets the 81 win first will win the division. 100%. 100%. I would be stunned, Q. First of all, I had a gut feeling that the division winner wasn't going to win 85. So I feel like I'm very good on that.

We'll see. It might be 83. It might be 82. But I don't think it may as win division under 500, but it's saying it'll be five or six above. I don't think so either. But I guess at this point it wouldn't, why would it be shocking? Right. It wouldn't be shocking.

And I guarantee whoever wins our division. They won't go out first in the playoffs. They're going to make a little run. Mm. So your glass cue is half full, and I appreciate that very much, because I like baseball and I like glass half full baseball. We'll see what happens. It doesn't matter.

They're not winning the American League. They're not going to win a DS. Certainly, once they burn up all their pitching in a wild card, they're not winning a DS. Yeah, that's right. Well, you know how baseball is. Once you get hot and you get in, you know, anything can happen. We say anything that happened, but we look at the World Series winners, basically in history.

I don't see an 81 and 81 team winning a lot of World Series. Until 2026. Thank you, Q, for the phone call. It's the first time for everything, Ross. Okay. I'll go look at the list of World Series winners. What's the last time we had a first time for everything in sports? Lester City winning the Premier League.

Ooh, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. In 2015 or 16. People kept saying that the Red Sox were going to win a World Series again, and they won twice. Lester City was like 5,001 to win the Premier League, and they won it. Okay. That would be like, I don't even know. That would be like Toledo winning the national championship.

Don't shame on James Madison. They got there last year. Yeah, it would be like James Madison winning the national championship or something like that. Okay. Indiana winning the national championship was pretty crazy. Did anybody in America have that? Maybe outside of Bloomington? No.

Let's talk to Judy on 790 and 742. Judy, good morning to you. Good morning. How are you? Good. Listen, I was just calling to make a comment about the prayer thing regarding someone asking you to pray and you don't know what to pray about. I know sometimes people, they want prayer, but they may not want you to know specifically what it's for, and that's okay because it can be unspoken. I know in my church sometimes people will say prayer, pray for blah, blah, blah, unspoken, meaning whatever they're going through, all they need to know is. that someone is praying when you pray, you just need to pray that whatever the situation is

that they get through it and give them the courage and give them the strength, whatever it is that they're going through, you don't really have to know specifically because they may not want that, you know, out there at that moment. But Judy, first of all, Judy, you're making a lot of sense, and I would like to be your friend because you seem like a really nice person. Why do I hear a butt? There's a butt coming. So if here, there's a very little butt.

Don't clip that for Friday. In this time of trouble, in this time of despair, you ran to Facebook to say this. I mean, it can't clearly be that devastating in your life that you had to go run to your social media platform to ask for these prayers. But you know what? And see, I'm not that person because I'm not going to Facebook. I don't do Facebook like that. Yes. That's what people do these days.

and I don't get it either. Well, then again, that's what I just don't get it. That was why we did it. I just don't get it. But I don't get why they have to go to Facebook. Me personally, I'm not going to Facebook to ask for fear. That's just my personal. Let me take some, Judy.

I have never met you. I want you a part of my life because you sound like a woman that gets it and has nothing but pured in your life and sweet. Thank you, Judy. If I ever get sideways, I want you, Judy, do it. My honest, me, then I'll feel better by myself because you're a wise person. Okay, Matt. They see you later. Thank you, Judy. The problem is, Judy, you're a good person.

I'm not. Man is not. I'm glad you set you straight. No, I'm not. What did I miss, by the way? I was getting coffee, I guess. We were talking about explaining how we got kind of I just don't get it. And I said that I just don't get why people run to Facebook to say prayers needed, but they don't explain why they need them for.

You don't get it? See, this is very simple. Well, two very simple reasons. Please. One, they want attention. Yeah. And number two, it might be something embarrassing. What if you got like, I don't know, an infection in you?

your undercarriage or something. Well, guess what I'm not doing? I'm not running a Facebook and saying prayers needed. Yeah. I got an infected taint. Please pray for me. No. What did you just say? Maybe you just want a regular, you have a regular, you know, you want to ask for prayers. Then call, and you don't need all the details. I'm going to call you, Ross. First of all, I don't need your prayers. If you want my, the devil. If you want my prayers, I need some explanation. I don't need a deep dive. Mr. Pryor? We don't need that to do everything about everybody's life. No, here's what you do. No. Here's how it works, Charleston. Stay with me on this. Prayers needed.

I'm not feeling well. That's all I need. Are you sure? Is that enough? That's it for me. Is that enough? Mr. Arbiter of what's going to get your prayers? Correct.

You don't have a limited prayers is what you said. That's right. I don't have a limited prayers. I see her a seat catching on fire. What the hell is wrong with you? You want my prayers. You're going to get them. You got to give enough information for the threshold of you saying so.

I don't need a deep dive. I'm having some issues of the house. Boom. Oh, that's what you need? I'm having some issues And what does that mean? Like your roof's got a leak? Could be.

Go to break. It's wrong with you. Nothing wrong with me. And by the way, some of my closest friends totally agree with me. Okay. You guys are nosy. You want, no, just give me something.

You shut your mom's ass up. None of your business. Then guess what? Give me the prayers. No. You can't tell me. You don't get them. I told you a reasonable.

They just want some attention. Oh, then you say that. you're back on my point. 745. We are Matt and Ross in the morning. Jesus. Jesus will give you unconditional prayers.

I will not. Oh, yeah, Jesus you think is going to say I need to know every single detail? No. Doesn't he already know? He knows. He already knows, right? I think he does.

Go to gray. 746. Matt and Ross, in the morning on 790. The morning endlines, the Rangers lost to the White Sox, and the Phillies beat the Mariners, so the Astros, despite being under.

under 500 own a half game lead in the American League West. The headlines, Allie Gay, the backup linebacker hurt. Braden Smith also hurt on the Texans offensive line. I'm going to stick with that. Okay, that's fine. Defense. It doesn't matter. I didn't know who Alligate was until yesterday.

Nor did anybody else. Okay. We're going to discuss some Alligay. What's that going to do for the team? Let's go. Sorry. Tip jar. Go.

I didn't do it today because I'm not going to do it tomorrow or Monday. maybe I do it with my wife, but that's I don't think I've got to discuss and disgust with her. No one like, hello, how are you? Hi, don't look at me. I'm trying to focus. Let's go. 713-212-5-7-90. I've had a few cups of coffee this morning. We need a more severe penalty, Jonathan.

What do you want to do? This jar is not discouraging anything. Nor a shame. Yeah. Yeah, you can shame me. It doesn't matter. Terrible. People love it. I get people like, You're going to cuss this, cuss this morning.

Of course we're going to cussing. We can get in our rig. Get us a hot cup of Josephine and get in there. What is a cup of Josephine? What the hell are you talking about? I'm just loopy. Yeah, me too. But at least I'm on a bunch of meds.

Yeah, you're on meds. I can't explain your situation. Yours is I can't explain mine. All right. George says a TCU, I'm talking about the TCU situation. Is an NIL booster? He is? All right.

All right. George, am I correct? You're an NIL booster in Fort Worth? Is that correct? Yes or no? Yes, sir. I live in Houston, but I went to T.C. I'm an NIL booster, and I'm not drunk like I'm normally when I call you because you're in the morning.

Oh, I know who this is. Okay. First of all, you know, we have mutual friends. Yeah. You don't. You're not an NIL booster. You make no money. So I'm not, you're, this is not true.

Well, I don't make any money, but guess who does? My dad. Oh, that's right. Right, you are gravy training off your father. All right, go ahead. Absolutely. So I just want to make a point real quick when you said the Metroplex doesn't care about TCU. I mean, we stole signing to X from SMU and we are GEPW's college football team.

That's our slogan. Just we'll put that one out there. And then also, Matt, really, you think the guy, the forward telegram should not have their credentials taken away? Correct. Stephen Johnson. Okay, well, my opinion is Stephen Johnson reported things that shouldn't have been reported at all

way before TCU did. And that was really messed up and then we lost our guy that I also paid about $12,000 to get from law tech. Jacob Fields is now no longer a TCU player. I mean, it was messed up, the guy

screwed us. Four telegram guys screwed us. He's from Memphis. He's been with us for like maybe 14 months. months or so. He was not even from TCU. He's not from Texas. He's not even from Memphis, Tennessee. He's from like somewhere in Northwest. He came down forward, forward telegram from Memphis and they came to us. And now he's just reporting BS about our team when we have this high, big, big old safety that's picking off our boy from Jaden Craig from Harvard all the time in spring practice

and early practice this year. And then he's just out here and just screwing us because we have to drop him. You know what? We're finding around weights and talking to you. I know. But George, but George, understand.

I gave you a platform. No other station town will give you a platform. Yeah, I love it. Okay. Thank you, George. All right. We're not going to end that. Okay, so there was a fight in the locker room.

Here it comes. TCU. There was a locker room assault that resulted in a case filing with the TCU campus police. The reporter, Stephen Johnson, Fort Worth Star, Telegram, has been told that the decision stem from the victim receiving threats after the reporting. But Stephen never identified the victim until the victim made a public statement on his Instagram account about the assault three days after his initial reporting.

So they're blaming the, I guess, again, trying to summarize here, they're blaming that the report was even out to begin with. Yeah, athletic director, Mike Buddy. Unfortunately, an unnamed source without firsthand knowledge of the incident provided inaccurate information. cited in initial reporting by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which we strongly disputed. So they're saying there was misinformation in the report, and that's why they're pulling the credential. I can't, I don't know if that's wrong.

I don't know. I would think that if you work for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, especially when it comes to youth, talking about a youth store, you're not going to jump the gun as quick. He's his 10th year as a reporter. He was at the Daily Memphian, as our friend George mentioned. and he was at USA Today. So I don't know if he went to the Bob Nightingale School of Journalism.

That's not a great association. I'll give you that. He has covered horn frogs since 2022, so not 14 months, as George erroneously just told us. I mean, if there are inaccuracies, then I get it. But if there is that they didn't get to put out their message first before the Fort Worth Star Telegram got a hold of it, then too bad so sad. Now look, when you have off the field problems, and this goes for TCU or for any football, basketball, baseball program, that there are things that happen internally. You'd like to get your mitts around it and make sure you address it from a PR standpoint in a way that, you know, tries not to make you your organization look bad,

but sometimes those reports get out before you want them to. Yeah. I mean, if they're saying falsehoods were reported, I guess I get it. I mean, is this essentially like if Space City Home Network reported something about Van Vleet and it was like something in-house for the Astros or the Rockets and it was, you know. No, because Space City is owned by the team, so that would not be an example. The Chronicle. If the Chronicle found out about a player, and this happens all the time in sports, a player gets into a fight at a nightclub after a game. And a particular team finds out about it and they want to address.

it internally first before releasing it out there, but sometimes maybe the reporter gets a tip from that bar and says, hey, I got video of this particular player getting in a fight. That media source, whether it be the newspaper or TV or a radio station, is going to put that out there before. They don't need to get cleared by the team first. Right. And yeah, this was also reported to campus police. I'm going to guess that had something to do with the reporter finding it out because campus police got involved. Yeah, I, you know, again, was TCU trying to hide this and trying to make sure that sure that the reporter didn't get a hold of it at all. Yeah, I don't exactly know what to make

of this. But the bigger point is this, whatever happened, unless, and I'm going to say this unless, unless the reporter goofed up the story and got facts wrong, which could happen, we see this all the time, to pull a credential from the, because you didn't like the timing of the report, makes you look weak especially when you are a newspaper that covers your team there is nobody in Dallas that gives two craps

about TCU except the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The Dallas Morning News who has a huge sports staff and one of the best sports sections in America doesn't cover your team. They just don't because I know nobody cares. So take what you can get. That's what you're saying.

Well, I mean, you don't want renegade journalism. I understand that. Trying to look at Stephen Johnson's Twitter. He just said, I want to say, I appreciate the support and all those reaching out. It means a lot. As for the situation, I don't have much to say aside from I look forward to continuing to cover TCU and believe the frogs have a chance to be pretty good this year. Now, does he, now, I'm sure, I think he's there. So does he?

He's in Ireland. Does he turn into a vacation now, or what do they do? He's in Dublin of Stephen Johnson covering the Texas Christian horned frogs. You waited until 8 o'clock for that. You're welcome. Oh my God, hit a break. You six o'clockers didn't get that this morning. Yeah.

I'm on the other side of the studio because our microphone's busted, so I can't see the clock. I'm blaming you. Yeah, that's fine. We're going to go break. Hey, we got to just don't get it coming up at a half an hour from now. The Astros did not have a good time in New York. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. A high fastball, and that is the ball game.

Yankees even up the series at a game of peace as they defeat the Astros tonight, 9 to 3. Oh, yeah. And I know Robert sounds disappointed, but thank you, Texas Rangers. You sucked and you lost the white socks. Thank you, Philadelphia, Phillies, for beating up on our favorite team of Seattle Mariners. First place is still ours in the American League West. Stop acting excited about being a game under 500. Trying to balance the two of us out.

Because you're right, but I have to at least try to balance. Okay. Well, I'm being realistic. And I say this... It's not a good baseball team. I say this with the upmost respect, the gentleman that have worked hard to get to their level of baseball. I don't want to see Brian King ever again.

Ever again. Yeah. Nice guy, good and good, Maine. Uh-huh. Ben and Sousa had a RBF going last night. RBF? Yeah. Resting bitch face.

What do you mean he had a resting bitch face? You see his face when he was out there? You're not happy? He wasn't happy when he got on the mound. like, I got a big Yankees, I'm not trying to get these people out? One third of inning for Bennett Sousa. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't, was he joyful out there?

No. Why would he be joyful? He gave up four runs. That's why you had RBF. Five hits, four runs, one walk, one K, I mean, Bennett Sousa. And then Delos Santos comes in, who I'm scared of, frankly. Yeah, and, you know, Delos Santos is just a guy.

Just a guy. It's a miracle you were getting saves with him. early in the season. One and two thirds, one hit, two runs, both earned. The bully last night gave up six runs after the game was tied three-three. Today, Hayden Wisniewski versus Garrett Cole. Oh, we were going to have Garrett Cole call on the mobile, but he's not feeling great. He's trying to rest it for...

He's under the weather. By the way, I've been sending out these daily IG reels of mean Elmo. Apparently, OG Frog is mean as well. That's O.G. Frog. Yeah. Okay. I'll send you some Kermit's saying.

We haven't gotten any Elmo's in a while, Jonathan, unless he just sent them to you. No, I'm sending other people. I'm trying to distribute. Okay, thank you. But I'll send you know, I'm going to send you guys each one a day while I'm in Rhode Island. The last couple of ones you weren't that bad. I'm saying you were actually on a roll. There's no strikes. So now I'm following those guys on

Instagram. So if I get them fresh, I'll be sending to you. Cool. And there's also another woman, too, that you yells at people, which I love too. All right. Yeah. So if you don't have any, if you know, if your wife isn't you, I'll send you videos of other women that

yell at you. Why do I need that in my life? She's funny. Sometimes you need comedy. I didn't seem that funny. Getting yelled at? Yeah. I'll send you one during the break. No, I'm good. 8-10. It is Matt and Ross in the morning. Bottom of the hour, I just don't get it. And 9 o'clock, Dr. Roto, it makes this season to be. You're going to get your fantasy football play sheet out, ready, Rossi? I haven't done hardly anything. I'll tell you is Dr. Roto helps me out every year, and I've been cashing, not first place checks, but I've been cashing money. First of all, you threatened to quit for like three straight years. That is fair. Now you're acting like your fantasy football guru number one. No.

Because you got second last year. I just get great advice. I finished like second, like four or five years in a row. I'm like the bridesmaid. Don't make me look it up because I can find the league history with your lies that you're telling. I did win four out of six. Oh, by the way, if somebody on Facebook says prayers needed, maybe they want a good fantasy draft. Yeah.

You don't know. Give me your prayers, Matt. I'm not giving you prayers for a good fantasy. he takes five seconds pray for Doug boom I need to know what you're talking about let's go to the phones and let's talk to Sheena at 811 it's Madden Ross

in the morning sheena good morning to you hi good morning so this help me understand something here yes why with all the advanced analytics are we still going well Yankees have seven lefties in their lineup so the next few days we're going to lean heavily on

ochre and sussex said that at the beginning of the series, News has reversed splits. Yeah. Why the hell are you putting him in there? I mean, they're hitting, lefties are hitting over 300 on him. The old idea and adage of

lefty pitcher versus lefty batters is the preferred idea doesn't always work. And to just fall back on that makes no sense when you got somebody like him or lefties are literally hitting over 300 off of him. I mean, he was putting in a bad situation. That made zero cents. So help me understand why we're still doing this when we got all the advanced analytics that show that matchup did not work.

Who did you want out there? Well, I mean, I understand that aspect. Well, I hear, okay. So you, hold on, you paused, and that's fair. I'm okay with you pausing because there's not a great alternative. The only option would have been your best reliever who gives you more than, say, two to three outs is, probably AJ Blueball, but you can't use AJ Blue Ball every single day. You just can't. And you know that. I mean, he's already been used way more.

I don't think we used him on. I don't think we used him on Monday either, right? I get it for Tuesday. Yeah, I can't even remember what day of the week it is anymore. But yeah, so it's like, he could have used him. And Delis Santos, I looked at it. And his against lefties is better than Sus, I believe. So, I mean, just look at the analytic. I don't understand the decision there. I was hesitant when they brought him in the other day. I was like, oh, my gosh, when they're like, hey, yeah, he's got reverse splits. Lefties are hitting over, you know, over 300. And it's just like, why are we doing this?

And, God, I can't remember his name now. I don't remember now. Somebody came up against him the other day and hit over 100 miles per hour. Luckily, they hit it right to somebody. And the next day, you know, and yesterday they got a hit off of him in RBI. So it's just like, you know. Yeah, Sheena, you're making very, very good points. the reality is this.

The Astros is an organization of grasping at Strauss. They move relievers up and down. Brian King one day, Ben and Susan the next day, Delos Santos. Uliola's been up here. Uliola, you're watching, Alamber Santa, I mean, you're watching this team. Yeah. If you were in this position and you were listening to this radio show and Sheena, you were the manager of the Astros, the answer to it would be like, what the hell do you want me to do? I don't have enough people.

This bullpen is lacking of supreme quality And Oakhert is being used a lot And he was going to come down Earth a little bit He's still very good Haters been fantastic But also Josh Hayter's a premier closer in this sport Everybody else It's just like every other year in baseball

Sheen as you know Bullpenes go up and down like stocks They just do Yeah No I understand I just felt like he was the last guy That should be pitching against this lineup right now

I mean I guess the question would be Yeah thank you for the phone call Good stuff there. Thank you, Sheena. Do you go Kauway-Tung? Do you keep longer in there? I don't know. I guess clearly he didn't like to match us with tongue.

You had a whole inning to figure out if you wanted to throw tongue out there again. So I don't know. It would have been three days out of four for Stephen O'Kard if you put him out there. Brian O'Bray, you would like to save for the eighth inning. Josh Hader, of course you want to save for the ninth. Blue ball hadn't pitched in two days, so I don't know exactly why or what factored into the decision of going with Benet Souza over Blue Ball. and Delos Santos did pitch and he gave a bunch of runs. Got you five outs and gave a couple of runs.

So really it would be Ben-Autsuza, Blue Ball, or Keeping Tongue in there. And I don't know, honestly, what pocket of the lineup that Joe Espada felt like he would go with those guys. So Ben-N-Suzza, Blue Bowl, Kai-Wa-Tung who's been up and down. I mean, I get the criticism. I don't know what the heck was going on with Ben-Susufth.

Yeah, I think Ben-Tususa is having, A Brian King type month. And I don't mean to be stares Brian King because he's a nice person and it was good for this team. But relievers go up and down. They just do. And right now it's a down period because I think, frankly, a lot of it, Ross, is overusage. And that goes to the bigger point. I'm not Joe pulling the trigger too early.

His starters are going 80 pitches in three innings. Yeah, soft single, walk, infield single, and then that's when the damage really started. And you were trying to save your leverage guys. It was a three-three game. You thought you, just like you did on Tuesday when you were. come back. You want to use those guys in the more important parts of the game. 815, it's Matt and Ross, and we are in the morning at 713-212-5-7-9. Let me tell you something. We love LSU. I love people that go to LSU. I've got a lot of friends that go to LSU.

Hell, half my workforce around here is LSU people. But Lane Kiffin is sleazy. I'll further explain. Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. All right. Before we get to, I just don't get it, which is at the bottom of the hour. This is where you have things in your life you just don't get. It can be something with your relationship, can be something at your workplace, it can be something sports related. If you just don't get something,

Ross, Jonathan and I will try to help you try to get it, or we will join you and I just don't get it. And no need to worry. And no need to fret. Correct, because sometimes you just don't get it. Okay, so I want to make sure a very, I don't want to get two in the weeds on this, but I want to dumb it down.

Uh-oh. So the five-for-five play rule was past this summer. Yes. Okay. Uh-huh. It starts for athletes of this year. Okay. The rule was passed in the summertime.

It was not passed in time for players that were playing last year because they had to declare themselves eligible for, like, say, the NFL draft. Well, there was this big hullabaloo about should these kids from last year be a part of this five for five. So they found they being the group of athletes. found the judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Oh! That said, okay, we're going to put a temporary restraining order on this, meaning that if you were a part of last year's graduating class and you were not a part of this five for five,

we're going to let you come back on the campus, even if you wouldn't declare yourself eligible for the pros. Now, the SEC and the Big Ten have said, we're not letting you do this. The Big 12 and the ECC are followed up suit on that as well. So it's coming out. Who set up this whole lawsuit among players to think about trying to sue the NCAA and to get a temporary restraining order? Like who was the mastermind behind this?

Who was it, Matt? His name is Lane Kiffin. According to whom? According to two different writers that work for CBS sports. Kiffin and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters or their representation. in an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school. So these kids didn't think about doing this until late Kiffin said, Hey, I got an idea.

Why don't you sue the NCAA? And I can find a judge in Bat Ruse, Louisiana that can help make this happen. Is this John Talty and Chris Hummer? It is from CBS. The Tigers have three players that were applicable to this. DeKwan Wright is the tie-in who plays. played for Lane and Old Miss. Uh-huh.

And former Notre Dame Edge Jr. Tuohamaqa. Ooh, goodness. Tuahamaaka. They were the two most... They're okay on that. I'm proud of you. Toa Malahaka?

So, again, we got games come up this Saturday. So this is all going to be worn under the bridge. But Rossi, should a college football coach be calling agents... And telling them to sue the NCAA? And it feels like, again... Well, Stay out of your lane. Stay in your lane, I guess.

I don't want to go on Chris Gordy on you. But if there are unfair rules, if I understand the perspective of, well, if these guys get five for five, why can't I get five for five? And then go and contact the judge and try to get a temporary restraining order that way. I mean, I get it. It's not an I just don't get Thursday. I just don't get it. Right, right. I get it.

They're good. I'm going to imagine both these guys are pretty good. I'm going to imagine Lane Kiffin would like to have them on the LSU. squad and they're they're you know not bad players and see the philosophy that Lane has had during this is that if I'm not doing it somebody else is

going to. Yes. It doesn't mean it's right but I'm still going to do it. Doesn't make it right but also I mean I don't know. Was there other reports of other coaches who are contacting these players? Oh I'm sure. I'm sure it's happening everywhere. It's all sleazy business but so has college football been basically since I don't even know last hundred years or so.

Like in fact Cole Hudson's a guy you've talked about before is one of those players. So Cole Hudson is he he was in Cowboys camp. He did not, he took part in NFL mini camps but did not sign a contract. Okay. So is he okay to be on Texas or not? I think we're still too easy. He's just interior line depth. He's not even going to, he wouldn't even start for the long words just saying. I don't I guess the issue to me is the semantics of how this began. If these young men on their own thought this would be in the best interest of doing that, that's fine. I get that. But obviously Kiffin tried to create this, coalition of players

said the bigger we are, the stronger we are. And by the way, I can go find an attorney, I can go find a judge in Baton Rouge that will side

up with your side. Uh-huh. And then it frees and clears them opportunity to go play Fouch football, and of course they're going to wind up in Louisiana State University. But now these guys aren't going to be eligible at all,

correct? I don't think so. Yeah. I don't think so. Well, it's unfortunate for them. Not good enough to be the NFL and they miss out on the five for five.

But life is hard. Todd Munkin. said last week that Lane Kiff had reached out to him and he said he didn't return his call. He's like, oh. And I think he had to clarify those comments because there was some kind of potential

tampering issue there with that too. Yeah. Again, my philosophy is that college football coaches have a lot to worry about. Roster building. Yes. Play calling. Uh-huh. Shaking hands and kissing babies of high donors.

That's too much of a headache. He highly compensated, though. And now he's trying to build. the coalition of players that goes through the incident. And then they won. I mean, they found the judge in Madge. Lane Kiffin's getting $13 million a year from LSU.

He needs to win and he's got kids. He thinks he can help them win. Yeah. Well, everybody needs to win. It's going to be too hard. And the initial thought is, why are these college coaches? Kiffin's not the only one, by the way, doing this. Why are these college coaches grabbing these kids for this extra year

and basically telling kids that have been around the LSU program or other programs where you're going to to lose your roster spot because I'm bringing these kids into the last Yeah, that's the hard part. That is the hard part. Somebody's who's losing, who's put in the time, who's been with the team. And they're like, oh, see you later. I don't know when it goes to class. Well, we don't know that.

Well, but I mean, LSU. That's true. I mean, you can. Anybody go to class at LSU? Yeah, you get, they're giving out degrees left and right. Yeah, that's funny. It's not the Harvard of South Louisiana for sure. Yeah.

But man, it's just, Lane's got a lot of time. I haven't seen more time than we thought because if he's time to get these bros to go find a judge and they found one, and obviously got attorneys together that he's the one kind of steering this. It basically, did the SEC try to police one of their own coaches?

That's all it was to me? They weren't trying to do that. No, they didn't care. They didn't care until the Big Ten stepped in and said, we were going to do that. They were like, oh, they put out the first statement. It was like, eh, this is not good, this great, but whatever. It is what it is.

So why did the Big Ten become all of a sudden this land of morality? I don't know. But I believe also the conferences have more autonomy. They have, it's easier for the conferences to enforce rules in the NCAA is basically what I'm getting from all the legal people. That sounds right. Yeah. Because NCAA at this point sounds like they don't have much jurisdiction over anything. They're quite toothless.

Yeah. They're losing every lawsuit that they've been given. It just goes to me to put this in summarization that coaches, when you have pressure and you have compensation that is big, you must, must do every. you can, whether it's ethical or not, to get in there. And when Lane did, and maybe the other's doing as well, put in these kids' heads, hey, you deserve

this opportunity to come back and play for me. Let's go get you and let's go find somebody. If you went four years and you need, why can't I get the five for five of the guys after me can't? I get that argument. I don't know. I just don't, I think that just having Lane involving himself

in this just seems sleazy. He's sleazy and stinky. He's not looting it for the goodness of these kids. No, he's doing it for his football team. All right, I just don't get it. What don't you get, Rossi? Don't say me because you've been with me for a long time. If there's something in your life, you just don't

get. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get no need to worry, no need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends. It's time to say, I just don't get it.

For the next 20 minutes, this radio show. We ask you if there's something in life that you just don't get and every Thursday we provide a public service, no other radio show in the marketplace. I mean, we can talk about backup linebackers to the Texans or blue in the face. We can get into the Astros bullpen, which is painful at times. But there is not a radio show in the Houston

marketplace, gentleman, that provides sage, wealth of knowledge, resources, history, perspective than this show when it comes, I just don't get it. So, if there's something in your life you just don't get let us know 713215-790 713212 5779 i use the example earlier today on the show on just don't get it was our first ever on just don't get it why people go to facebook and just serve prayers needed and then put nothing else if you want the prayers you got to kind of give us a little get us some

so you say i refuse to pray for you unless i get a reason i don't say refuse i'm just not likely to do it Okay. But if you give us a little details like, hey, tough times at work, good enough for me. Or having troubles with my back. Done. I don't get why you're so nosy. I don't get why you ran to Facebook and tell me. For attention, I told you.

Yeah, well, if you want it, then you're going to have to give me a little attention. All right. Jonathan is the youngest member of our school of our show here. Jonathan, you've got a lot more things in life that you just don't get because you're not as aged as Ross and I are. So I'd like to ask you on this first edition of the morning edition of I just don't get it. What don't you get? Look, I don't understand the five or five. This whole thing NCAA is trying to do because it seems like in the long run,

the student athlete is still not going to be hurt and still not going to be valued. You're taking away medical and normal red shirts. I've been in these training rooms, football, all types of sports at these big institutions. most of these guys and gals are here to make themselves better and get a degree. Not most. I'm telling you. Let me change that. Most are.

This is what a lot of people don't understand. You have these anomalies that are making men's dollars. Those are the point decibel percentage that are making that money. Everybody else is student athletes are there to make a better life for themselves and use their bodies to do so. and we're forgetting about people who are walking on, trying to get on a team, try to get some money, try to better themselves. And in that instance,

the student athletes, like we want to be able to be valued. If we make that name for ourselves, to get a little money on the back end because we are ruining our bodies for the lifetime just for you, the athletic directors and those coaches and that institution. This entire time,

student athletes have not gotten that value. And then you goes and all these football owners, all these big donors making a spectacle. Let's spend this money because we want better NFL or, you know, NFL prospects. We want this national championship. You're forgetting the core value of what a student athlete is. You have all these other sports that you wouldn't believe how many people are there crying that training room trying to get their bodies right back.

And because they can't go home. They got a kid. They got something else. Or they got to get disagreed to help their mom out. That happens the majority of times for even young women and young men. Yeah, but this is, but five for five is not, it's not canceling your opportunity to get education. They're just saying you have five years to compete athletically. But you don't know what's going to happen as a student athlete.

This can happen. You can put it down for football and basketball for those big institutions because they're making so much money and they're doing this and it's getting a little outlandish. Okay, cool. But you're making that and you're sweeping that to cross the whole NCAA and thing that's going to solve the issue. That's not, at the end of the term, you're going to keep these kids locked up, especially in a difficult situation or programs. that aren't good for them or not going to let them grow. At the end of the day, you're trying to teach these young Americans that are going to these institutions that you are going to be a capitalist, you got to find your way,

and you've got to get on your bootstraps and get that degree. They're going to, they need to be able to do every single thing they can to make that regardless. We are your product. We help you. We have that control. If we need a resture or we need a medical register to persevere and get that because we're in the NCAA situation, you know, situation.

and we're in that program where we signed this letter intent. Okay, cool. But when you have these, yes, there is exceptions and there's, I'll land this, but that's why the rule is in place because you've got kids that are competing

in a seventh and eighth year and they're trying to curtail that. Make the rule for them. Make that exception for them. Well, you're getting all of Instablaid student athletes, I guarantee you, all right, I'm just telling you,

this is going to hurt the student athlete again. It doesn't make any sense for this. I don't know how much is, is going to hold up. Because, yeah, if you have a, you know, a lot of guys red shirt because they're just second on the depth chart or third on the depth chart or whatever. And then you can, that's burning a year of your five. That's kind of wild.

What it's probably going to expand even the transfer portal even more than it is today. It would be my guess. Because if you've got five years to do it, you can't be wasting two or three. I don't know if. It's not the solution. It's not the solution. But at least somebody is trying to curtail the. rampant misuse of it.

Because here's the reality. I'll give you a small example. And that is that my daughter thought she had a school that chose her. Okay. And I'm not going to name the school. The school came back to her, Jonathan, and said, we can't give it to give you the spot now in the scholarship because a young lady claimed a medical red shirt that's coming back.

That happened to me as well. So I kind of see both sides of it. I do like some sort of regulation because the one thing we talk about in sports when it comes to college athletics is there is no regulation. Five for five gives you a little, it's more defined. There is no red tape. There's no gray area. It's you have five years to play five.

And by the way, if you're healthy for five years, which hopefully is the case of many athletes, you get to play five years of sports as compared to the previous time where you only get to four. But at least the medical register, if you get hurt now, oh, my scholarship's gone. I don't have a chance to get that money back. I'm out. My transition to get to college, to make it into America, to make it into this, because the degree is dwindling

as it is as a status. You get hurt. That's my money gone. How am I going to get to this college? How am I going to get to debt? But if you're a medical richer, I mean, if you're at five for five, you still have an opportunity

to continue your education. Nobody's stopping you from going to room. But not using your athletic ability. You're gone. That's what you get in there. Well, but, if you're hurt, they're not going to pull your scholarship right away for that. At the end of the year, they'll say, will.

No, that may happen to some people, but not at their time. If somebody in the basketball team breaks an ankle and done for the year, they're not pulling their scholarship, especially the kid's going to come back and recover. All right. So, obviously, Jonathan does not get the five for five. I don't think it's going to uphold either. It just feels like the NCAA is going to get another loss on all this, too.

All right. Anything from you? Maybe perhaps a little more lighthearted. Oh, more lighthearted, sure. ESPN just came out with their new farm system rankings. This is how you don't get? How are the Astros 29 still? No way.

Please don't tell me that. I don't get how you're going to be this bad for this long. Now, I understand they lost first rounders and second rounders, and that's four opportunities at least one top prospect. Man. Yep, they got them at quality depth rank, 26. overall rank 29th Euston Astros Farm System

ahead of the San Diego Poddress. Did somebody send this to Jim Crane like four days ago? I don't know. They do mention that there's some upside in this last draft, the last couple of rounds of international signings and drafts have been good for Dana Brown, but those guys need to get to higher levels before.

We love Kevin Alvarez and we love those Albert for me, but they're like teenagers. Xavier and I is as well. You're talking about three, your three crown jewelers are teens. teenagers and that as you know over the years there are teenage phenomes who can can sometimes plateau or hit a ceiling for sure somewhere so they want to see a little bit more out of those guys but unfortunately you know what I totally get it Ross because we haven't seen any of these prospects come up investing for like four years five years we're seeing James Click.

James Click years even Jeff Leno yeah towards the end yeah it has a great 29th no I don't get it come on guys That's why James, like, I got to give me a new general manager. And by the way, I don't get why anybody thinks Jeff Bagwell is going to be the general manager. You don't want it. And I got another one for you. Please. Why is Cam Scadaboo getting into skirmishes with everybody in Giants camp? I don't get that.

Apparently, he slid into the legs of Javan Holland and Greg Newsom and was getting in a fight with them. And that John Harbaugh was asked about it. He's talking about his energy being infectious. Well, it is infectious in a bad way. Infectious Zibb type of thing. We don't want that. So we want it to be directed in a positive way. Talking about Cam Scataboo's infectious energy.

Eh. He seemed like a broskey. Like he should be in a fraternity. Yeah. Like he's somebody who's like literally will ram his head into the wall. Yeah. And drink a bunch of beers. Yeah, chug a beer.

Yeah. All right. Mine I just don't get. It'll be coming up. It's non-sports related. So stay tuned for that. If there's something in your life as you're bumping around your way to work this morning and you just don't get it.

We may be able to give you the answers. 713-212-5-790. It's Matt and Ross in the morning. This is Sports Talk 790. All right, mine, I just don't get it, is to you, Jed York. Look, here's the bit. Prostitution is the world's oldest profession. Okay.

There you go, so you get it. Okay. That in one respect, I do. but I'm going to be honest with you and I want to make sure I'm very clear when I say this. I have no experience in this. Except your one run at the chicken ranch.

Okay, that was back when I was 21. If you are negotiating a price for a hooker and the value comes in at $140 that probably means you're a part of a sting. I think when you come to a bizarre number you have to say to yourself, is this just a good old-fashioned pay-for-play hookup, or am I going to be arrested and handcuffed?

I've got no context for this. I don't either, but I'm just thinking about this. If I am worth billions of dollars like Jed York is, I pay a high-price hooker $3,000 to come to my house and don't say a word. So I would say to you, Jed York, for you trying to go hookers on the cheap at $140, I just don't get it.

I'm going to imagine this is not his first rodeo. But man, why are you discount dealing? You can afford... Who likes to save money more than billionaires? You can afford to go eat at rastroes. Why are you at the Golden Corral looking for your hookers? He's saving a few bucks. Saving for what?

He's got a multi-billion dollar operation. He's an NFL owner. And if you're going to go down that road and you're going to try to catch some action, catch some action. And have it be a non-relationship-type situation. Did Richard Gear bring Julia Roberts to the hotel? That was a movie, Matt. Hey, based off of somebody, I'm sure.

He was going to the trailer park. You didn't see Richard Gear at the horse track. You didn't see Richard, you didn't see Richard Gear in the nasty parts of downtown Houston. I'm sure some people are getting down to the horse track. I don't know. Big parking lot out there. That's true. When we used to go to Oklahoma City to go horse racing betting,

we would, the big place for the lizards would be at the... The lizards. Well, like, truck lizards, whatever they want to call them. A lot lizards? A lot lizards? A lot lizards were at the truck stops. So you're speaking from some experience? I mean, I was 19 and didn't...

I don't know. Didn't we have Stunner called and said $1.140 would be for two. Yeah, but Stunner... I don't know. Maybe Stun is looking on the cheap. Maybe we went to price line for his, for his exculpation. I don't know. Screw price line.

Man, you are mad at them still. Why are you doing price line in 2026? They're not cutting deals for you anymore. I don't get that from you. I know. I'm sorry. I screwed up. I was traveling.

I was looking for a hotel quick. I messed up. I got another one. I just don't get it. Last two times I went and got a hamburger this week. Okay. One would drive-thru? One was here in the building and one was at a normal restaurant.

Okay. Both of them said you want mustard and, mayonnaise on your burger. Okay. I think it's the worst possible combination. What? Yeah. Why?

ketchup and mayo, sure. ketchup and mustard, sure. Mustard only, yeah. Myel-oh, okay. Manez and mustard together? I just don't get it. It's a little... The textures, the flavor.

So you like mayonnaise. I do. You like mustard. I do. You don't like one side mayonnaise and mustard. Correct. I think it's fine. I got no issue with that.

That's like their default, isn't it? I don't know. I just like mixing those two creams together. I'm a mustard over mayonnaise guy. I'd rather have mustard than mayonnaise. But why do two separate places doing it? I didn't realize that was quite the combination. I know a Dutteburger.

Do you? Yeah. You can say default is mustard. That's how we do it in Texas. Yeah. Oh, no, by the way. So I was at Renan Rout last Friday after the Doobie Brothers concert. Okay.

And we walked out of Runders'Rout. And I was telling the people that we're with, I said, man, you know, in and out is so good. It's so delicious. I love it. Man, and people give me such shame over Waterburger. Rando girl behind me says, Waterburger's better. I said, then what are you doing here?

What'd she say? Oh, it was closer to my house. First of all, I got breaking news for you, folks. You can enjoy burgers from one of the one place. You absolutely can. Breaking news. Okay? Number two, Waterberg is not better. I will have to shame about my hamburger choices. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Yeah. Fresher, better tasting. Yes. Ingredients. Yes. Love the spread. Keep going. In and out's better. Yeah. And the fries are underrated. Oh! Underrated. You're coming around on the fries. I've always been team fry there.

Get them light well done. That's what I like. All right. Light well. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're new to this segment, it's things you don't get and we're here and we kind of bounce things off each other. I tried the light well done. Sorry, I'm still fixated on it and out fries. I'm getting hungry. Me too, I had three cups of coffee if you can't tell already. Yeah, you seem quite energetic. I'm ready to go.

We're going to have to be on the show. Yeah, I'm trying to make it. I'm finding out this cold. We've got Dr. Roto coming up now. That's good. You ready for some finish football? You can hang. Yeah, why don't you go rest?

Yeah. Go take a little nap. What time is that one? It's coming up next. Dr. Roto, season premiere, 857. I'm going to take this hour off. See you later. See you later.

857 on Sports Talk 790. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Turn out to be a photo. Give me the news. I really don't know what I should do. Boy, this, I believe. I don't know. This got to be like the 31st or 32nd season of Dr. Roto on Sports Talk Seminary.

We're like American Idol editions of the show. Roto, good to hear a voice. Happy fantasy football season, friend. Same to you, my man. It's like anniversaries. You just can't remember. We've just been together for that many of the years. I know.

Through the years, we've never celebrated when we're a broken bread. And to tell you, the truth, never met each other. Now, I've met your son before because your son is a fine product of Rice University. He is, and he always appreciates. your help whenever you can. There you go. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Roto, for those of you do not know, is the number one fantasy football guru.

Ross is not going to listen to the car because he's a little under the weather and he's taking off right now. So it's going to be me and you, Roto, will take some phone calls in the second segment of the show. And if you have any fantasy football questions, you are welcome to join us at 713-212-5-790. We'll get the calls line up here in a couple of minutes. If you've got questions for Dr. Roto, he'll be with us until

930 and he will normally join us on Fridays before the start of the season and that will begin prior to week one of the NFL season. So let's go macro view first of all. What are you taking away from anybody with new destinations? I know preseason it's very hard because guys are not getting much time but is anybody kind of grabbing your attention early wearing new gear in 2026? Well, I mean, look, we're always looking to see value who's where, how they're going to end up, like A.J. Brown. AJ Brown goes for a situation in Philadelphia where Jalen Hertz, who does not throw with any anticipation whatsoever. And now he goes out to New England to be their number one receiver. He joins Romeo Dobbs.

And you've got to think that Patriots offense was pretty close last year. Do they take a big step up this year with a number one receiver and now a viable number two receiver? I think they do. So that's a guy that I'm looking at. I think we also need to be looking at guys coming back, maybe from the depths of wherever, like the Jets. Could you imagine that I'm telling you that Garrett Wilson might actually be fantasy relevant this season?

He always had been, but now that there's an offensive coordinator that knows what's doing, and now that there's a professional quarterback, you may not like Gino Smith, but he's played in the league for a lot of years, Derek Wilson might actually be fantasy viable too. So I'm looking at all situations to help people out in any way I can. So, Roto, are we making mistakes by pushing players back for sub-500 teams?

Like you mentioned the Jets right there. There could be some issues with the Raiders this year. I mean, is that a fo'paw of us, or should we still stick with the stars as long as we can? That's a great question, M.T. Really is. So what I like to say is this, if all things are equal, give me the player on the better team with a better offense that will score more points. So we know the bears are going to score this year, right? So, I mean, we like Holston Loveland, we like DeAndre Swift, we like Luther Burton.

We think the Chargers are going to score. Give me McConkey, give me Hampton, give me Quentin Johnston. But, you know, guys like the Jets, you know, on the Jets, you're going to look at the scoreboard and see 17 points way too many times. So when it's close on your draft board, always pick the teams that are going to score more points. More points equals better opportunity to win your weeks. All right. Let's get to some thoughts early on on the first round of the N. NFL draft.

By the way, we should explain that you are a part of how many drafts so far this year and how many will you ultimately be a part of? I have about four more. I'll be doing about 20 leagues this year. 20 leagues? Yes. Don't tell Mrs. Rota. I was going to say, does she divorce you or threaten it every year?

Do you guys go to counseling during this time of year? That's insane. No, we keep things on the DLM team. Otherwise, I'm going to need somebody quickly. That's crazy. So who so far through your staff? 16 have been the consensus number one selections. Oh, it's going to be Jamir Gibbs, right? He's going one in drafts. Bejohn Robinson's going two.

Jamar Chase is going three. Then it all starts to get a little hazy depending on what types of leisure in. In PPR formats, going four, five, six, seven are the Pucanakua, who may get suspended for a week, JSN from Seattle, Amal Raus St. Brown, who I really like. And then in the end of the first round, you've got these running backs. Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCann. Jeffrey, James Cook, Chase Brown, O'Marion Hampton, Saquan, Barclay. So depending on where you're picking is where you're going to be, where the draft will lead you. So if you're picking at the end like 9, 10, 11, 12, starting with two running backs makes sense. You could pair Chase Brown with Kenneth Walker.

You can get James Cook and put them with Saquan Barkley. That's a pretty good start. But if I'm starting earlier in my draft, you know, give me Jamar Chase all day. Give me Jackson Smith, Bidigma, and I'll figure it out. You know what I do hate, and I want to know if you can help with this. We flood our drafts early with running backs and wide receivers. You taught me many years ago. Don't settle for a quarterback until you absolutely want to, say six, seventh round.

Is there any way we can circumvent that, or is it just that there's such a high end at running back that if you don't feel like you grab one early on, you're really on the outside looking in? Well, I'll look at it a different way. I wouldn't take a quarterback. I did a big high-stakes draft last night. They don't take my quarterback until round 10. Now, you're thinking, I'm crazy. Why did I rate until round 10?

Because it's so deep. Gough, Purdy, Stafford, Knicks, Mahomes, you can get all those guys later in your drafts. So going back to your point, get a couple of, by the end of round eight, you should have at least three running backs, maybe four, and at least four receivers, maybe five. Build the brick to your house, right? Make sure that your house is strong.

Then in rounds 9 and 10, go get your quarterback and tight end. You'll get Isaiah likely. You'll get Dallas Goddard. If you don't get Brock Bowers or Colston Loveland, does it really matter who you get? I don't think so. Say, I guarantee you, M.T. I can win any fantasy league this year with Bonnix as my quarterback. He's good enough, especially if I have good running backs and receivers.

So let me ask you this, short of reweighing the conditions of points for touchdowns and passing yards and bonuses. Are you okay with that? I mean, should fantasy football rely on just a guy being the quarterback, especially if you take them and say in the ninth or tenth round? Well, I'm not saying just a guy. I don't think Brock Purdy is just a guy. I mean, he's got the best play caller in the NFL as his coach.

I don't think Jared Gough is just a guy. I think what happens is in today's NFL, even mediocre quarterback. Baker Mayfield throws for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns. And he's in a contract year. This dude is going to sling it. So I think you could find guys. So maybe it's, well, let me ask you this.

How many 300-yard games did Lamar Jackson have last year? Zero. Right? So everybody loves Lamar. But if Lamar's not rushing for a touchdown, he's still not throwing for 300 yards. You're not getting any bonus points there. So, I mean, to me, I would rather wait five or six or seven rounds and take Bo Nix instead

of Lamar Jackson. Dr. Ordo with us until the bottom of the hour. if you've got questions about your draft coming up, 713-212-5-7-90, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let's get to the Texans, because we're near and dear to our heart here. Let's space where Nico Collins is the appropriate draft spot for him.

Yeah, Nico Collins in my leagues is going at the end of round two, early round three. I think it's a really great spot. I love what the Texans have done this, offseason than like the offensive line injury the other day. But I love having David Montgomery. Love David Montgomery. Okay. He's what we call boring, but sometimes boring is good in fantasy.

You're going to give this guy the ball 20 times a game, maybe more. He's going to score 14 to 18 fantasy points every game. And he's going to be that reliable running back that you haven't had since Joe Mixon. Because look, Woody Marks is young. He's good. He's okay. But he's not David Montgomery. I love, love the trade pute.

Look, right? Because this guy, all he needs is an opportunity. opportunity without Jaden Higgins there. I think Boote has steel late in drafts. I think Nico Collins is a really good spot early in drafts. Not a big Dalton Schultz guy because the yards after reception are like two. The big thing is C.J. Stroud. If C.J. Stroud plays like he has in the past, you don't know what you're getting.

You're getting inconsistent C.J. Stroud. So on the good weeks, Collins and Boutte and Montgomery go through the roof. On the bad weeks, you're scratching your head going, where did I go wrong? So I think the Texans should be winning this division. I mean, I think they're the best team. I like Jacksonville's offense, but I think Houston's the more complete team. And getting booted to replace Higgins was a great addition. All right.

Staying with the quarterback spot, fantasy, not about end of the season, but just fantasy. Why don't you rank the four starting quarterbacks into the AFC from worst to first in terms of fantasy perspective? You're talking to AFC South? I'm sorry, AFC South, yeah. Oh, okay. So I would think that it's clearly true. Trout Lawrence by a lot. I mean, really by a lot.

Then I would argue that the other three guys are just, I could see Cam Ward being number two, Stroud number three and Daniel Jones number four. Daniel Jones loses all value if he's not running. And after last year's injury, I can't imagine him running nearly as much. So the thing is Cam Ward. They brought in Tate, the rookie Ohio State.

They brought in Wondale Robinson, Rover from the Giants. They have Brian Dable, who maybe wasn't the greatest head coach, but he does know how to call plays. I think Ward could take a step up. That's going to be the interesting battle. If Stroud is clearly the number two quarterback in that division, Texans win it by two games.

If Ward is playing better than C.J. Stroud, then the Texans are hanging on, probably meeting the playoffs because their defense is that good, but it's not going to be as easy as it should be. All right, we've got a lot of folks that want to get in with you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-790 in the next segment for Dr. Rorto. But my final question for you is this. Give me two or three.

rookies, Dr. Roto, that need to be even on the draft board early on or just on your draft board in general in terms of making any immediate impact? Take a look. I'm going to give you a guy that nobody is talking about, but you're going to take him real late in drafts. Cyrus Allen. Cyrus Allen is playing so well right now for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Every day in training camp, he makes another big play. Rishie Rice, the best place to get physical therapy is not prison empty, let me tell you, he's looking slow, and that's a problem. Xavier Worthy gets hurt just getting out of the bus before games. Cyrus Allen has been terrific. So he's a guy I'm eyeing, and here's another

name for you, Kailon Black from the universe, from Indiana, okay? Christian McCaffrey had a lot of touches last year. He stayed immaculately healthy. If he doesn't, if he's out for any length of time, black is going to be the starting running back there, and I like him a lot.

All right. And again, now the very last question. Who have you noticed in your fantasy drafts, the previous 16 that is being drafted? That would be a recognizable player that people know and like, that maybe have had some previous fantasy success that you feel in 2026 is being over drafted at this point. Oh, that's a great question. So I would take a look at Cortland Sutton. Not that I don't like him, but the team, they brought in Jalen Waddle, right? The Broncos brought in Waddle to be their number one, and Sean Payton loves him.

They also love Pat Bryant, the rookie last year from the University of Illinois. So Sutton is in his last year of his contract. I think he gets phased out. And I think Brian gets faced in. And they brought in Jonah Coleman, the running back. I just feel there's a world where Sutton is more named than game. And that's, I mean, I'm in 16 drafts. He's not on one of my teams.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, that is Dr. Roto with us every Friday starting prior to week, number one of the NFL season. But he's with us for another 15 minutes here on the mat and Ross in the morning shows. The fastest 30 minutes in major market radio belongs to Dr. Roto. With us in the mornings here. Matt and Ross will be with us every Friday morning, 9 o'clock hour, starting in just a couple of weeks. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach the show if you want to get in for a fantasy football question.

I'm trying to think. What else is Dr. Roto, before you go to the phones, has caught your fancy, so to speak, in this upcoming fantasy jar? Because a lot of us are doing it in the next five or six days here. What other trends he noticing? Yeah, I mean, if you can only remember one thing from this segment, and hopefully you remember many, please, please, please wait on your quarterbacks. Quarterback, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Tyler Shuck is killing it for the Saints right now.

There's so much depthed quarterback that I think that any team that reaches for a quarterback this year is strategically really hurting themselves. Running backs are not deep. There's a lot of media. Not only saying mediocrity, but there's just a lot of committees going on. Make sure you get a couple of top wide receivers as well because you want like two guys that, think of it this way. I want at least two of my three receivers who can score touchdowns.

Don't give me Juan Del Robinson, M.T. Give me guys that can find, give me T. Higgins, right? Give me, give me guys, give me Jalen Wall, give me five guys who can find the end zone. Because just building up points is good, but the touchdowns this year are going to be the difference. All right. And for those of us that do have defense and kickers in our league, The two top defenses it feels like are going to be Seattle and the NFC and Houston and the AFC. If we're in a draft, what's the earliest we can go to those teams knowing that they're going to, obviously, if they perform like they did last year, are going to be very valuable in terms of not allowing a whole lot of points.

They are, but I'm going to wait. So here's what I'm going to do. Assuming that you're in a 16 round draft, I'm not taking my defense before round 14. If that means that I'm going to lose Seattle or Houston, I will. I like Denver. I like the Eagles. And if you want a really sneaky late defense, the Saints. I think the NFC South stinks.

I think Atlanta's bad. Tula is bad, right? Bryce Young is bad. Baker Mayfield can throw a lot of interceptions as well. So I think taking advantage of that division is good. And then please, please, please wait for the last round for your kicker. I like Cam Little. The guy from Green Bay hit a 59 yard of the other day.

There's a really amount. I want a guy who can kick 50 yards or more. So if the guy does that, he's my best friend of kicker. All right, let's go to the phones. First up for Dr. Roto is Koso. What's your Chilikun question for Dr. Roto? Go ahead, Koso. I think my man, it's too early for football.

But all right, Dr. Roto, I've got two handcuffs, Baker, Mayfield, and Egg Buka, or Stafford and Puka. Which one should I be starting? Thanks. Oh, yeah, you're most going to start Stafford and Puka. But just be careful. There's rumors out there that Puka, who has been really immature this offseason, might be suspended for a week. But obviously, Stafford and Puka is clearly better than Baker and Ibuka.

All right. Thank you for that phone call. Let's continue. 713-212-5-790. Josh, for Dr. Roto on 790. Josh, good morning. Hey, good morning, guys. Welcome back for another year.

I got two of them real quick. Tight end. I'm torn on the New Orleans Johnson or I have a Conquo. And my other one is the collection of wide receivers. I don't know if you want to answer that. on first. All right. So here's the problem of the Conquo.

Washington's offensive line is dreadful. Okay? They may be one of the worst that the league is seen in quite some time. So now, and Rashad White, who is their best blocking running back, he's out with a hamstring too. A Concoe, they brought in to be the number two receiver. But Stefan Diggs was signed. Now this kid Antonio Williams from Clemson is good.

So I think Akanko is not going to be as involved as we think he is. Shuck loves Joanne Johnson. You don't have Jordan Tyson there. Jimmy Johnson over a Conquo. 713-212-5-7-90. Scott with us for Dr. Roto. Go ahead, Scott. What's going on, guys?

Dr. Roto, I was going to ask a draft philosophical question. So I'm in a 10-team PPR, and, you know, it's the same league I've been in for a long time. And I've, you know, gone about my strategy a few different ways in the past. but in my studies so far this year, what my inkling is to do is to ensure that I draft a running back in each of the first two rounds and try and go wide receivers three through five. But I'm curious if you think I should stick with that plan dependent on draft position. I don't know what the pick I'm going to have. Obviously, Bejohn and Gibbs are at the front.

And if I get in the back, I could go double up on potentially like Cook and Chase Brown. I'm high on. What if I'm in those middle five, six, seven, eight, where it's a lot of, It's, you know, the value saying you're supposed to go CD, six-round, Justin Jefferson. Could I reach for Cook, hypothetically, or Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey, what do you think about ensuring that I got running back in each of the first two picks, rather the best receiver on the board?

Yeah, great question, really great question. So the receivers that I'm taking, if you're in the middle, I'm taking Jamar Chase, okay, that guy's a difference maker. When he goes off in the fantasy playoffs, you win your league. I will take St. Brown because I think he may be the safest person out there. Every year guy gets 100 receptions, assuming you're in a PPR league. Every year the guy gets 1,200 yards. Every year gets double-digit touchdowns.

Sam Laporteur is hurt, right? JSN, if you want to fade him, I could fade him. Pook and a coupon, if you want to fade him because of the immaturity issues. And the fact that it was the Matthew Stafford MVP tour, I don't think they're going to throw up for 45 touchdowns again this year. So if you want to take Cook, who I love, I love Cook this year and you want to move him up a little bit. You can, but I wouldn't move Cook up in front of Chase or St. Brown.

I just think that they're too reliable. But if you want to go to running backs, I like it. Look, I'll give you a guy that nobody likes Devon A. Chan. Miami is awful, but that guy is going to get a ton of touches this year. I mean, they're going to run him until he drops. So, I mean, I don't wish injury on anybody, but as long as he stays healthy, he's going to get the ball 25 times a game. Rodo, the Judkins running back out of Cleveland.

Good pick middle round and any Browns players worthy of good picks. So yes and no. I just don't understand the Deshawn Watson move, I mean, but they paid him a whole lot of money. So what are you going to do? You're going to let him sit there? You're going to let him go out for a couple of games, the first two games of the year on the road. You'll let him lose the first couple of games. Then maybe you bring in Chador.

When they bring in Chador, who's a slinger for, you know, not great, he'll, he's willing to throwing all sorts of traffic. I love Jenkins. Juckins are great running back. He doesn't catch the ball as well as Dylan Simpson, but he runs, you know, he's a great runner. I like Harold Fanon. I like Casey Concepcion, and I really like Denzel Boston. Denzel Boston

is a big target in the red zone. Casey Concepcion gets separations, as everybody knows from Texas A&M. Guys is a good player. So I think there are skill players there. They just don't have anybody throwing them the ball. Don't laugh. I think their fourth quarterback. Maybe their best one, but they're never going to play them this year because they, you know,

this is the dump for Dante, right? Or the March for Arch, whichever one you want to call it, the Browns are not trying to win. You mentioned running back. You brought up David Montgomery earlier. Woody Marx has had a good camp. Montgomery would be the number one for the first time in quite some time. How do you see the running back?

Not necessarily split because that's up to Damiko Ryan's, not you, but where do you put those two gentlemen in terms of draftability? If they say 50-50, I'm not believing one word of it. Not one word. I think it's going to be more like 65, 35. Woody Marks, they didn't throw him the ball out of the backfield, and that's his best skill. In college, he was the best receiving running back in college football,

and they barely threw him the ball. The guy can't run in short-yard situations, Auntie. The guy got stopped in the one-yard line like 18 times last year. So he's going to be out there as a breather for David Montgomery. He is a solid backup running back. There's nothing wrong with him, but I think 65-35 easily. All right. Last call belongs to Gio for David Montgomery.

Dr. Roto on 7-927. Go ahead, Gio. Hey, Rodo, good to have you back. I got two quick questions, man. In one league, I already drafted, but I'm getting a preseason trade offer from one of my other league mates. I have Waddle and Diggs,

and he wants to give me Kenneth Walker and Colo Loveland, the tight-in out of the bears for Waddle and Diggs. And also, I have the third overall pick in one of my snake drafts. I kind of know where to go already. It's either going to be Gibbs,

um, uh, uh, uh, case or, uh, but I just want to get your take on, uh,

the best way to go about if you have the third overall pick. Okay. So first of all, in a vacuum, I like that trait, but I don't know who your running backs are. I like Waddle. I don't love Diggs.

I like Kenneth Walker and I love Colston, love them. Guys, a great player. Uh, in terms of drafting third, I assume you're going to get Chase on the way back. The only running back that will probably make it to you,

is Derek Henry. Derek Henry, look, he's not sexy, but he's safe, right? He's going to get 1,200 yards,

he's going to get double-digit touchdowns. There's nothing wrong with him. But what you could do, what I might like even more,

is come back in round three with a receiver. Give me Zayflowers. Give me Ladd McConkey. Give me Devontas Smith. So then your Chase, Henry, and Devontas Smith, that's a pretty good start,

Gio. All right, this is a tough question for you to answer preseason, but we're going to ask it for you right now in 2020.

who is going to be the fantasy football lock of the season. Hit it. The lock of the season this early. The season. I mean, because Jemir Gibbs was the lock of last year. I know that firsthand finishing second place in my league. Thank you, Jemir. Who's my lock of the year in 2026?

Yeah, he's great. I'm going to say Jemar is going to win people fantasy championships this year. I think Joe Burrow, it seems like every other year he stays healthy. and when he does he throws 4,500 yards and 40 touchdowns. And Jemar Chase is going to catch about 1,800 yards of them and 13 touchdowns, and you're going to wish you had him.

Am I still? Are you still in my material or what's going on here on this? All right. What's that? Yeah, are you still in my material? That's the lock of the year. Jamar, give me. All right, who is the candidate behind him?

Oh, behind Jumar Chase? Yeah. Oh, Jammar Chase. Oh, no, I said Jermier Gibbs. All right. No, I said Jemar Chase. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, now I understand. You know, hit me next time, Rodo.

That's terrible. Hey, remind the folks where they can find you between now and opening weekend of the NFL season. All right, a few things for everybody out there. First of all, please check out Dr.rotto.com. Enter the promo code 2026. You get 20% off all of our packages. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Go on to YouTube, do a search.

Type in Dr. Roto, subscribe. I've been doing videos there for the last couple months. Hopefully they help you win your leagues. and check me out at Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio from 9 to 11 a.m. both Saturdays and Sundays, and I'm happy to help in any way I can. All right, and let me tell you something. You reach out to him on Twitter. He will respond to you. So he's one of our favorites for that reason alone. Dr. Roto, it's great to hear your voice. Look forward to talking with you in about 10 days or so before we get ready for the start of the season.

Can't wait, M.T. Take care. Thank you, Dr. Roto. So he's got to Jemar Chase is his Roto lock of the season. 9.30 is a time. It's Matt and Ross in the morning. Ross begged that a little early as he's trying to fight this cold. It's you and me for a segment at 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790. Also, today's edition of Believe or Not, which is coming up in about 20 minutes. It is all things about whether a person or persons are alive or dead. We get morbid on the show sometimes. It is what it is. 931 on Sports Talk 790. Damn. Now I got Mr. Texas in there.

Jonathan, you got a plug in there. Hey, we need y'all to send us some liners. I don't care if AI does them or not. Just send us some music. We like these little drops that we have in. We've had our friend Javier and Laredo do some. We've had AI do most of them. So if you are someone that is nifty with AI, all you got to do is this.

Have Matt and Ross in the morning. That's into the show. and Sports Talk 790, and the rest of it is creativity in your part. Plus, it's a little jingle, singing in with your family and the room, and, you know, that'd be nice. Yeah. So send it, oh, send it to you what you're saying. Where do you send it to? M.T. at sports790.com.

Are people using emails anymore? I feel like he still needs mail as a huge part of it, right? No, yeah. Yeah. I mean, because you can DM and Instagram and a Facebook Messenger, and then you got WhatsApp and whatnot. But, I mean, look, email's still there. at Sports 790. So if you, if you're sitting around and go, man, I'm getting nothing to do.

Go to AI or you just go to your phone and sing us your own version. I mean, you know some of you out there that are crooners. I remember I'm a 13-time letter winner in May Creek High School back in the day. Just saying, you don't want me singing my own song. That'd be kind of vain, wouldn't I? No, I feel like you should get, yeah, you should help the audience. Maybe they hear you singing your own, you know. Okay, you know what?

I'll work out this weekend. By the way, tomorrow and Monday, I'm all. And we did not plan it this way, but because of the schedule change, we did not anticipate this morning thing. So I'm off tomorrow. We're going to, um, hmm, say good night to the strippers. And Jonathan, I'll be sending that to you tonight because that's going to play tomorrow, 8 o'clock. So. Okay, okay.

And at least I didn't say anything this week that would be clippable for Friday, am I correct? I behave myself. Right, right. We can say that. Mm-mm. Yeah, you know. All right. When I come back, will the Astros begin first place in American League, West.

still. Got three. One more of the Yankees tonight. They stay in New York and they will take on the Mets, Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday. Garrett Cole's going against the asteros today. Hayden Wisniewski. I don't think I'll like this matchup.

By the way, ESPN's matchup predictor has the Yankees at a 61% chance. Wow. I mean, are we surprised? No. No, Garrett Cole is 7 and 6 this year. Ernie of 3.1-1. His whip is 1.07. that's good.

92 innings this year. He has 100Ks and 92 innings. So obviously he's okay with all his injuries of the last year and a half. Oh, man, oh man, oh man. I know. Ross and I argue about this. And it's polite arguing, but it's arguing.

He finds, I don't want to speak for him completely, but he doesn't find nearly as much joy in a team being in first place that I do. And I do. I don't know why it is. Why is it? in a nutshell. Why don't you read my mind, John, that for 60 seconds before we get to play, believe it or not? Why am I not? I mean, I'm frustrated. I'm disappointed. I, it hurts me to see the same, unfortunately, four A players playing a lot in the outfield. It disappoints me that Christian Walker's OPS has dropped off considerably in two months. It disappoints me that the Astros continue to leave lots of men in a scoring position. 0 for 5 with runners and score position

last night, one indication. It is the left-handed bullpen is leaky here at this point. Matt, you got to think about it. And I think a lot of Astro fans forget this season that has so much more hope to it at least to get to the postseason than you had last season.

Everybody was hurt. Yoran wasn't here. Nobody was there. And we were still like, oh, maybe it was kind of helpless. This time we at least, like, They just need a little couple more pieces and just maybe one more win streak, one more hot streak. Like five out of six.

And that's all they need. And they're in the postseason. And that's 10 times better than what we saw last season. So let's put it this way. The Astros were hurt in the first month of the season. The Astros got it like seven or eight pitchers and none of them worked out. Yep. The guys that were regressing it back to regressing normal levels.

And the starters can't go six innings. And yet the Astros are in first place. That's why. the glasses have full. Because I just described to you for about the last four minutes why everything has sucked. Somebody's got to be the best of the worst. Or the worst of the best? I guess.

Is that James? Uh-oh, we got to get the James real quick. Okay, okay. Do you get the liner ready? This is going to really confuse our audience, but who cares? When it's ready, just start firing off. James and Garnoaks is our Yankee aficionado. He's very, very pleased.

going on with his team. Well, maybe not please that for the first game. Certainly pleased yesterday. And we have a special opening for James because he deserves a special opening on the show. And here it comes any moment now. Find it? Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Is it going to load?

Is our computer slow today? Imagine that. Yeah, I mean. Microphone. All right. We don't want to be too late here. No, that's not going to load. Not going to load.

All right. Sorry, James. James. Well, we're going to get to James call. We'll get it real quick. And then we're going to play believe or not. James in Garden Oaks on 790. James, good morning to you. Hey, Governor Thomas, man.

Nice to hear your voice. I've been listening to you. You've made a nice transition, man, to the morning. Thank you. All these people here that we're going to kind of like, you know, nitpicking everything, I guess they're going to have to find something else. And you got a good team backing you up with Arvi over there. And that other guy, Josh, he's got a lot of.

potential to be on the long day. You got a lot of potential. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, no doubt. Hey, listen, I made my prediction that it was going to be two out of three in this series, and if everything goes true to fall, it should be. But, you know, the masters are putting up a good fight, and I know they need to put up a good fight because there's a lot of treachery going out there in that club. I was over there here in H-town that you guys were referred to. There's a lot of backstabbing. And I don't know. That owner says that he's for the team, but he's only halfway.

He's looking at it, you know, from like he's, he's like a king on his throne. And he got his few people like that, like that guy that got bad one and everything, bagpipes. But believe me, he's alienating a lot of his team that he has working for him. And then the fan base. And look, I hear. hear for my wife and some friends and not liking what's going on. And, you know, I was trying to tell them I'm not surprised.

But I feel sorry for the real fans that are really rude for these astroses. Because like I say, I got to live by it too because my wife is a diehard astro fan that she's from Richmond, Texas. I appreciate you taking my call, Governor Thomas. Keep up the great work because you are at the top of the hill. That's why I only, I may listen to other people, but I, I would only talk to you because you're very knowledgeable. Bye-bye.

Thank you, friend. New York. Yankee talk is next. Garrett Cole, going to throw seven strong innings for the Yankees. We'll get the Staten Island Bobby next in your phone calls. Oh, we're going to play, believe it or not. In the morning, 713-212-5-7. 995 minutes left to go on the show.

What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports. radio game show, we simply call it be. Leave it or not and hear you how it works. You'll call 713-212-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. I will give you a person or persons, and you will tell me if they are alive or dead.

If they're alive, you'll say this. Believe it. If they're dead, you'll say this. Two believer in a row when you either Jack Johnson tickets, August 28th of the Woodlands Pavilion, or a pair of tickets to see ACDC at Reliance Stadium on Monday, August of 31st. You got tickets for

Friday or Monday, but you must first, believe it or not, tickets for both Jack Johnson and ACDC are available at Ticketmaster.com. And I'm giving you like two seconds after I read the name to tell me whether you, they are alive or dead. Scott, in Jersey Village on 790,

Scott, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, I am. Bud Sealing, alive, believe it or not? Bud Stealing is alive, baby. Yes, he is. 92 years young. Name number two, Glenn Campbell is alive. Believe it or not. I don't know who that is. I'm going to say he's passed on.

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Yeah, Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet is alive, so she's 77, so you lose. Sorry, thanks for playing. No, obviously Jack Ritter or John Runner's dead and Suzanne Summers are dead, but that's not here nor there. Chris on 790, Chris, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. All of the Brady Bunch kids are alive. Believe it or not? The Brady Bunch kids? Yes.

No, one of them's gone. Nope, they're all alive. Thanks for playing. I'm kind of surprised by that myself. Mike, what's that? You two? Me too. Mike on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Former Saints coach Jim Mora Senior is alive. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Yeah, he's 91 years old. Name number two for the win. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is alive. Believe it or not. Not as right. He died in 2021. Congratulations. Gil on 790, Gill, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

Former Redskins quarterback Joe Thaisman is alive. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yeah, he's 76. Former CBS, whatever, CBS Sportscaster, Brent Musburger is alive. Believe it or not? Believe it. It is 87.

Congratulations. Look at y'all getting all finicky. That is an easy one. Shut your bobb-asses up. This is tough playing, believe it or not, and alive or dead. Brian on 790, Brian, your favorite part of today's 6 to 10 radio show.

Former Catwoman Eartha Kitt is alive. Believe it or not. Not. Yeah, she died in 2008. Name number two for the win. Laverne, who was on Laverne and Shirley, and director Penny Marshall, alive. Believe it or not.

Believe it. No, she died in 2018. Now, I feel better. Turn it up. If you don't know who the Rhinestone Cowboy is, we cannot be friends. I'm off tomorrow and Monday. Hey, Ross is back

with tomorrow. Jonathan, I'm asking for prayers. You ready for the prayer? Okay. Did I get a safe trip to Rhode Island? Got it? And my daughter, it plays best to her ability and is healthy by the end of this weekend. about that. Oh, me and my girl already got that. Prayers asked for

and you got the reason why. Let's leave. Dan Matthews next than the A team on 790.