The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith Joins The Matt Thomas Show

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

is the Matt Thomas Show. The final hour on the Matt Thomas Show, 203 on this trying to be kind of yucky Friday. Wet rain in the forecast all weekend long. Please be especially careful if you're out and about, especially with my 16-year-old son who's student driving. He's getting his first experience of rain this weekend. Not looking forward to that, thoughts and purrs to myself.

Let's say how to our good friend Brian T. Smith, league columnist for the Houston Chronicle, a Friday contributor on the show. BTS, are we done with Diva baseball players going on their Twitch channels telling us how unfair they're being treated? Are we going to see more of this in the next handful of days?

I thought we'd be done, Matt, but then I saw that, what does Bryce Harper make? It's in like $330 million? Isn't he the highest paid player in baseball, like not even close? Oh, not even close. Well, I believe Machado got $300 million, and then Harper topped him with $330 million. Someone can send me a tweet if I'm wrong about that. I believe that's what it is. I woke up today to Bryce Harper saying, you know, Snell, you know, some of what he said was true and it was great for him to speak out, which I actually think is even worse because not only is Bryce Harper, you know, who can be very talented and also very disappointing, but not only is Rice Harper, on some level, one of the most annoying players in baseball in the last 20 years at

time, and at times I really like him. But for him to say that, when he makes $330 million, $330 million, $330 million in terms of that contract, which already, I mean, the second he signed it, you knew that contract was not going to work out. For him to say that, and back up Blake Snell, I don't even know what to think anymore about some of these guys. But, you know, then again, we've been dealing with it for the last 20 or 30 years in sports. So on some level, it's not surprising. Well, the thing we spent a lot of the time on our show yesterday talking about was, you know what, if you're an athlete and you have legitimate concerns about the health and welfare of yourself,

people around, I totally can empathize with that and say, all right, you know, show me Major League Baseball what you're going to do. Show me what you're going to do NBA. But when he's, when he pregnant pauses and says, well, if you pay me, then he's just got a price. and that's where I lost all respect for, especially with what Blake Snell said a couple of days ago. Yeah, the biggest thing, and I've been doing this since 2005, so I'm 15 years now. I'm not the general. I'm not Dale Robertson.

It's not like I was covering sports in the early 70s or in the 60s. And obviously, things have changed. Things have changed that keep changing. But I know just in my 15 years, Matt, so many players, it just gets more and more distant. Part of that's the media, part of that's the access. A lot of that's the money. I'll never say they don't be deserved to

pay, to be paid with their paid. I think we all learn at some point they create the revenue. They, you know, whether it's the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, college, or whatever, without the players, the leagues are nothing, right? You can't have a 70-year-old owner and put him

out there and no one's going to pay for that. That being said, when you make that much money and normal people, their wages haven't really increased that much in the last 20 years, not to get political. But my point is, when that happens, and then you have coronavirus and you have 36 million people, 36 million people, that's about one-third, I mean, one-tenth of the country has filed for unemployment in the last two months. When you have that, not only do you sound clue.

And out of touch, to me, the biggest thing that it just so much sounds, it sounds and looks like they are in an absolute bubble. And so many of these guys are, whether it's the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, I'm not even sure it's their fault. I think if you put anyone in that position and you're Bryce Harper and you're basically catered to from the age of 15 and all you do on some level is play baseball for a living, you're at the park all the time, someone gives you $330 million. to play Major League Baseball, you're going to live in a bubble. But at times like this, we're painfully reminded of how out of touch so many of these guys are. So the biggest contention of this, and this is trying to dumb it down as best we can, is that they don't want a salary cap. They believe a revenue share is. And they also believe that we already took the one pay cut. Why do we have to take another one?

And the owners are saying, well, when we thought, when we actually take the pay cut the first go around, we thought we were going to come back and play with full fans and we're going to have stadiums full and we're going to make up the revenue. So if you're the player side and the owners come to you with that, why don't, and this is why I think they're going to have to come to negotiation. I think Rob Manfred said this yesterday on CNN that he feels encouraged that they're going to. But that's the thing from the player side is you'll win the public, you'll lose the court of public opinion if you believe the owners are just going to pick up where they left off if there are no ticket sales, no beer sales, no parking sales, no food. And that's where I want to know what the baseball union is going to do, BTS, and saying, all right, we've thought about this. We know we don't want to take a second cut. We also have to realize that, yeah, the money that's going to be coming in is going to be nothing close because these stadiums are going to be empty for the foreseeable future.

Yeah, you and I are in 100% agreement about this. We were at the start. We continue to be. And that's exactly how I see it. And now I have seen a report recently that Major League Baseball might be on some level opening its books to the union that report. quarterly the union asked for that during negotiation. But that only makes sense. Look, ultimately, it's going to be a negotiation.

It's going to be a bargaining. This happens every time when there's a new CBA up in the NBA, the NBA, the NFL have covered a lot of this in the last decade, when you're trying to get back to the field, and it's an absolutely unprecedented time of the history of Major League Baseball. This is going to happen. So the owner is going to have to be more transparent. Rob Mansford's going to have to be transparent. I thought it was encouraging when he said last night because it seems, he seems,

He seems sincere, and I ultimately believe, Matt, that when, you know, it always comes down to a deadline. It always does in these situations. When they're facing a deadline, I believe for the greater good, as long as the health situation continues to at least be tolerable. And you can have it make some type of sense, and they feel somewhat safe. They'll find a way to get back on the field. But the owners are going to have to be more transparent, which means major league baseball will, but the players are going to have to bargain. And I believe they will.

And I think that the best point you made is it's so unprecedented. And it's not like they're going to be a D3 college team. It's not like they're going to be a jucoat and they're bleeding money and they don't have any resources. But Matt, if you don't have fans, if you don't have fans, you're not selling beer in the stadium. You're not selling food. You know, the only thing that's going to work is TV,

but everything else is going to be so 100% different that if you're Jim Crane, if you're a small market team, more importantly, I mean, it's going to really, really affect your bottom line. And so if the money is not there, the billionaires can't hand out the same money to the millionaires they were going to hand out before. That's common sense. And I'll say really quickly, it's not that different than, and some people are going to hate hearing this, maybe Adam Clanton will like it.

It's not that different than a governing body. to a, you know, a female league or a lesser league. I'm not saying the female league's lesser. I'm just saying a league that doesn't make it much money. Hey, we can't pay you the same as we would normally pay you or pay somebody else because we don't have the revenue. If that is true, it makes league baseball can't do it. Well, here's the thing. If they open the books, I think the players association is really going to face some pressure. If the owners don't open the books, then there's this presumption they're hiding something. Hopefully it isn't the case. I feel like last week I asked you about why the NBA is slowing.

in the uptick, it feels like to me, because of the stars, and let's face it, BTS, they want their money. These older players that maybe have just two or three years left or four or five in terms of making super big money. Chris Paul is the postal child for this. He wants to go get that cash. And I think that's how this thing is being driven, just like Blake's now is like, you know, I don't want to go out there unless you're paying me full. Money at the end of the day, regardless of whether or not you're worried about health and wellness and making. sure that the facilities are clean, they want to get their money and they'll be able to get it because the NBA is going to push ultimately to get these games going because there are still a lot of

money left on the table right now. Yeah, I wrote about in The Chronicle this week, and I think, gosh, that the NBA stars finally spoke up. The NBA is a players league. It's run by superstars as much power and as modern and forward thinking of how Adam Silver is. And he's by far, for my money, the best commissioner among the major three pro sports. The NBA, is run by its stars, and it's going to take, and they did it. Credit to them, it's going to take Bron James and the Greek Freak and Kauai Leonard and Russell Westbrook. I'm sure James Hardin was busy. Chris Paul, it's going to take those voices saying, hey, you know what, if there is a shot for us to play, we understand there's going to be risk. There's a risk when you work at the grocery

store. There's risk when you pick up takeout food. This is the time of the coronavirus. Everyone's dealing a risk. But if there's a shot for us to play, we want. want to play and just compare, and I still think it's going to work out with baseball, Matt, but compare the NBA stars to some of the baseball stars. And no wonder that it's the NFL, it's the NBA, it's college football, and for my money anymore, in a lot of ways, and I love baseball. But baseball's had so many issues. It continues to have so many issues.

Compare the NBA stars to the MLB stars. and no wonder that so many fans since 94 have, you know, if they still follow baseball, they don't love it the same way. And I think we're seeing proof of that in some of these stars' reactions from the baseball players. All right. Are you watching any NASCAR or golf this weekend? I am. I actually am, especially NASCAR.

I grew up watching NASCAR. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I think they've ruined it a lot of ways. But I was at a race early this year. when they actually were getting the season in, there's a guy from the Woodlands I'll be writing about and Sunday's paper he'll be running in it. I 100,000

percent applaud NASCAR for doing this and just think of what they're going to be able to do in terms of sponsorships, advertising, reaching eyeballs they otherwise might not. Now, we don't know Matt, it's all preface with it has to be

safe, but NASCAR has an accelerated schedule. I think they have 20 races that they just officially announced. It's mostly in the South. Obviously, they're based out of Charlotte. But I am. Well, I watched the whole race. I don't know, but I think it's going to be a fascinating experiment. And I applaud anybody right now, whether you're, you know, a small business, whether you're a big box store, whether you're delivering the mail, whatever it is. I applaud anybody who's trying to find a way to make it work and be smart about it. And NASCAR is doing that. Ironically, NASCAR and the PGA,

or at the lead right now, and pro sports, it's obviously easier for them in some ways. But when you start looking at what NASCAR is doing, it's not easy. I mean, they're really trying to find a way to make this work. Well, leave it that. Have a great weekend. Talk to you next week, friend. Thank you for the time as always. Take care, Matt. Thank you. You got it. Brian T. Smith from The Chronicle here on Sports Talk 790.