The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T Smith On The Bubble Security and Latest On Stros & Rockets Return

Episode Date: July 2, 2020

This is the Matt Thomas Show. Two o'clock, Sports Talk 790, the final hour of the week of the Matt Thomas show. Hope you guys have a happy, safe, really super safe, relaxing weekend. We'll have Best of the Matt Thomas Show 12 to 3 tomorrow if there's such a thing. And back with you for a full three-hour get-together on Monday. We appreciate Brian T. Smith. Nobody's with us on a Friday visit of the show. stepping in today to help us out with a segment on this radio show.

BTS, one thing I've not talked to the audience about today that we did a little bit yesterday was the Rocket Zoom call, which I think you were a part of. Are you a little weirded out by the fact the NBA has not called Mike Dantonie and said, yeah, you're definitely welcome to come to Orlando and that he's kind of just interpreting it as you didn't call me, so I'm coming? Yeah, it's a good point, Matt. Yes, I was a part of the Zoom call. I am a part of all Zoom calls now.

My life through at least 2020 will now only involve Zoom calls. It is odd. Now, there's two ways to look at it. I thought Mike has almost always captured it perfectly. Nothing in this case is better than something. You know, if they had called him and say, hey, we think you've got an issue or you've got to see a doctor or Mike, I'm sorry, you're just too old to go to Disney World. Then that would have been a real issue. The fact that they haven't said anything, and they're technically this close, is encouraging.

That being said, shouldn't they say something? Like, how is they not officially told Mike Dan Tony, and I believe Greg Popovich and Alvin Gentry, hey, guys, you are going to Orlando. You're going to be able to coach your team on the bench, and the only way that's going to change is if you come down with coronavirus. So again, Major League Baseball, the NBA, it's like, I guess there's just so much going on. It's incredibly clear in a lot of ways they're just flying by the cliche seat of their pants, and they haven't had time yet to have a chat with Mike Dan Tony.

I'm just afraid they're, you know, when someone has bad news for you, it's easier just to just wait to the last second and tell them as compared to just being out and forthcoming. I mean, I hate that about people, but I have. hope I'm wrong, but there's just a part of me that believes that they don't want to tell those gentlemen the bad news until it's just about time to do so. Or maybe they're still wrestling with it. I don't know, but I don't think it's fair because I got news for you, Brian T. Smith. The COVID virus is hitting everybody from 17 to 77, and it's not going after age groups

and going, well, we'll skip you or we're going to make more of you 65-year-olds more susceptible to it than others. I would hope that the NBA is not as dumb as major league baseball right now. NBA is smart enough, which they take a lot of pride in being, Matt, and not telling Dan Tony and Popovich and Gentry, you know, the week before, hey, sorry, guys, you know, you have to, you have to coach from the stands. I mean, if it, if they wait that long and make a call that close to it, that'll be absolutely absurd, and that's 10 columns in waiting in the Houston Chronicle. I have to think the NBA smarter than that. It's not going to be an issue, and the only

way it changes is if MDA gets the corona. What did you think of Randall Cobb tweeting at the NFL and at the Players Association saying, hey, I'm supposed to be going to Houston in four weeks, and I've heard Jacks go off from you all. Again, right? I mean, it shows. It shows for Major League Baseball. It shows for the NFL. It shows for the NBA that there's just – and on some level I'm not knocking them, right?

It's really easy to talk on the radio to be the host of a major market program and the fourth-argest thing in the country to write. in a print column, what they should do, and it's much harder to actually make it all happen. That being said, if they're going to pull this off, and not just do it, if they're going to pull it off successfully, it's clear that the communication has to be better in the NFL, in the NBA, and Major League Baseball. And, you know, again, the test came out today for the NBA. There were, what, nine more positives? That's probably percentage-wise, just fine in terms of how the rest of the country is going.

but when you look at college football and all the positive tests, Major League Baseball, the NFL on and on and on, if they don't have, and I'm using cliches here, because I've been talking about Corona for four months, if they don't have all their ducks in a row, Matt, if they don't have it all figured out, it's going to fall apart at some point. And there's no reason, much like MDA,

there's no reason that Randall Cobb shouldn't have any idea, according to him, you know, when he's supposed to show up in Houston or whatever the case is. it feels like to me that all these leagues need to have their guides put together and the NBA's done so the Major League Baseball folks have I don't know if the NFL's put together their big guide but just because you put out a guide doesn't mean that every single day you can email anybody that's involved here here's another rule add to your list I mean for anybody to think that just because it's put down in paper on June the 15th meaning it's gospel the wrestle away is crazy everything is changing in fact I'm the first one one that thought, honestly, Brian, that if you get to your bubble, meaning Orlando, it would be the safest place on earth. The FC Dallas team proves otherwise. They jumped on a plane COVID-free, and since then they've had nine positive cases of it. There's a shot, and I don't have clarification. There's a shot that I end up going to Orlando right to cover the rockets

and the NBA thoughts. I'm not so much concerned about, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, going to do it. The right is in the finals. I'm going to go and I'll get the corona for the greater good. But I'm not so much concerned about the bubble as getting, yeah, getting off at the Orlando airport, getting the rental car. I mean, you know, Uber is apparently a mess, you know, right here is a mess right now and has been for months.

There are so many steps. There are so many dominoes, Matt. And I applaud all the leagues for trying ultimately. I've never believed the season should be canceled until there is. absolutely no other answer, but in some ways, they're almost thinking it more complex than it has to be major league baseball by dragging negotiations out for three months, the NBA, by having it in this bubble. And we thought all along that there's a shot that the bubble backfires.

We're about to find out. Yeah, Brian T. Smith from the Chronicle with us here on Sports Talk 790. Obviously, MLB didn't waste any time trying to make a buck off of this new spring training 2.0. Let's not call it that. we need to call it summer camp it's brought to you by a particular sponsor it starts in earnest tomorrow at minute made park and i've been reading online on your on your paper it is going to be it's like a circuit training every part of minute made park is going to be used to get workouts in but they're also going to make sure that there's very small groups and they're going to use

houston they're going to use the university houston they may even use corpus christi what i mean what a logistical mess for the astros and James Click to do any sort of talent evaluating, much less Dusty Baker, who's still trying to figure out who he's got? You know, and I think fans will know this better than I, because I've had a lot with all the leagues, there's a lot to keep track of right now. What day do they run the bases? Is it after the Sunday games?

Yeah. When do they run, they have the kids run the bases? I've run the bases on Sunday. It's amazing. I'm not knocking. It's awesome, but it reminds me of that. You know, you have all these kids running the bases, trying to make the bases, trying to make way to home plate. And it just, it's super cute, but it also is chaos. It reminds me of fan

fan fest. Fan fest is a lot of fun and it's great for the fans. But it's, you know, before this year, it was the last few years, it was total chaos. Increasingly, the idea, and I saw this in the Chronicle, obviously, that they're going to have, they're going to use the opposing dugout, you know, I believe Joe Espada said, rightfully so we're going to use every inch of this park, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know what it's going to be like. I mean, it's it's going to look like eight different Little League fields, right? You know how Little League is? You have like eight fields.

It's going to look like they have eight fields all stacked together, and one team's doing batting practice, and one team's catching flies, and one team's learning how to fly it again, one team's taking grounders. I mean, I guess this is what it takes to get it done, but it's one more reminder of just how surreal and unprecedented and this all is. We opened this show today talking about the Texans, making a smart business decision about allowing fans to skip this year and push it towards 2021.

It's always funny. I've always thought the Texans business operation operates at a Super Bowl level. It's the football side that just can't get out of its wall-distance. Jamie Roos is a money man. Yeah, there's no way around it. Business-wise, the Texans do just by the Texans are NFL leaders when it comes to business. That's never been a problem. Yeah.

What about this? Would you sign a coronavirus waiver to attend a game? Let's ask a more important question. Would I sign a coronavirus waiver to attend a Pearl Jam concert? Yes, I would. And I don't want to wear a mask. I've been wearing a mask. I've been wearing a mask.

I don't want to wear a mask at a rock show. I would wear a mask. You could distance. And I think it's going to be the same thing for sports at some place. I felt it felt all along that like it's going that way. Right? Like, hey, if you actually want to come, we're not liable for anything. You bring your mask, you bring your hand sanitizer.

Everyone separate. You know, don't screw up. Don't break the rules. You know, everyone takes care of themselves. It feels like that's where we're going to get any of this stuff back, to get 50% of the fans in the stand, 25% to have concerts again, all this stuff. I mean, that's just how it's going to be.

Until the coronavirus goes away, which according to the president, well, any day now, until the coronavirus has a vaccine, which, according to Fauci, could be in, you know, 2020 or 2028. or tomorrow until something positive happens with it and it goes away, I think that the leagues and all entertainment situations, at some point the waivers are going to stop popping up. It's like, hey, if you want to go, it's on you. Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what the point of the waivers would be.

I guess that would be just to say don't come soon. Yeah, don't come soon. Like, I mean, you know, on the back of tickets, they say, you're not, we're not responsible for things that happen. They're going to add a COVID-19 or COVID-20. or whatever they're going to call it from future years. So what we're going to do? Yeah, well, yeah, because the last thing, I mean, just imagine the disasters that are waiting PR-wise

to where you do everything right. It's not your fault. And there's some, I'm just making this up, there's some drunk guy who stumbles into the, you know, the stands, falls on somebody, the beer spills, the nach spills, the guy coughs, you get corona the next day. Who are you suing? And in our modern day world, you're suing the organization, you're suing the team, you're suing you're doing major league baseball they're going to it feels like to me there's going to be

waivers across the board hey if you want to walk through these doors and you want to support your team during the time of the coronavirus we're not going to be liable all right lastly on a very light note we were having some fun in the first hour of the show about vanilla ice is going to perform in austin he's obviously postponed that uh joe and i were discussing how if you've had a lot to drink vanilla ice sounds really good and I also use an example of Casey in a Sunshine Band, okay, where if you just sat and heard them perform, you'd be like, oh, my God, this old man singing,

old disco music we hated. But if you've had a case of beer, you love him. So Brian T. Smith, the music man that I know that you are. He's only got one song that stole Queen's baseline, right? Isn't that under pressure? And David Bowie, the last time I saw vanilla ice and it's the only time I ever saw him he was performing at half time of a Texans game and he is Matt he's horrid. Oh, I saw him. Hey, I saw him at a half time of Rockets and Kings in Sacramento.

That's not my point. My point is this. You're not a heavy drinker, but when you've had a few in your life? Wait, I didn't say that. You said that. I'm setting you have to be a very politically correct person. If you were to have, when was the last time you had too much to drink? that you remember hearing a guy sing a song or a group and going, man, I love this group, only to realize that you didn't think they were nearly as good when you were sober. Honestly, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night in my backyard, when we're listening to the Bluetooth speaker and, you know, you're three hours in,

and you finish out the second bottle of whatever, Prosecco. Yes. And you listen to the Sirius, the Bridge. and what's the Christopher Cross comes on or something like that? No! No, no, no. He's amazing when sober. He's amazing. So we've decided so far today, we had Peter Burns on from ESPN last hour. He said Nickelback was his band. That just sounded better when you're drunk. Okay, I don't know who. Peter Burns, is that what you said?

Yeah, SEC Network, yeah. Okay, well, he has to lose his press credential because he should, Nickelback is the worst band of all time. I don't know what that's what I'm talking about. I don't even think if I was, if I would just drink a bottle of tequila, I think nickelback sounded any good. But for me, nickel back is, nickelback so bad they could cure the coronavirus mask. Well, you mean like, if you go outside, if you don't wear a mask, I don't know. I'm making it up on the spot. All right, I got you.

All right. There you have it. So yeah, vanilla ice is good for a five minute half time. How in the world is he going to fill up a 5,000 scene amphitheater? Well, we'll have to come find out. BTS. Clay Walker, I guess Clay Walker would sound better at Texan games. If you were, you know, eight beers in, I don't know.

That's true. Think about this. You're a Texan fan. You're at the 40-yard line. The Texans score 47 points in a game against Buffalo, because it can't be anybody good. It's going to be Buffalo. Yeah.

That's it. I think that's why Clay Walker gets to perform every game, because some of the fans are quite inebriated before it starts. Clay Walker sounds pretty darned. aren't patriotic by the time you walk in that stadium. Amen. That's a great call. BTS, happy fourth. You and the fame. We'll talk next week. Thank you, Matt. You too and everyone else.

All right, buddy. That's it. Joe, George, he hit it. Clay Walker sounds better when you're drunk. Well, duh. I mean, you tailgate all morning. You go to the Texans game, football time in Houston. You're jamming. Because you're not, like, right now, as you listen to this show, we put it on, you'd be like, get that garbage off. if you've had a case of beer

you're like play it louder yep and now I just need to find a way to get invited to Charles' tailgates he was talking about and find Charles adds if you're listening we want to be invited to your tailgate and then we'll go watch Clay Walker and we'll be real excited by the way are they even tailgating

this year there's no chance right I don't know why not it's the same thing as a waiver like if they're loud in the stadium why can't they be spread out tailgating what's the difference This year sucks. Hey, let's get nine Florida stories.

I have a doozy from Louisiana. I mean, this is one of my better efforts. 15 minutes from now. Your calls are next. 713, 212, 5, 790. Matt Thomas Show till 3 on 790.