The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Championship Anniversary, Negotiations Over & Texans Testing Positive

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

Championship Anniversary, Negotiations Over & Texans Testing Positive

Lunchtime is 12 o'clocker than life Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show 12 o'clock in H-town What's happening in luncht timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show

on Sports Talk 790. Good evening everyone. And welcome to the summit for game three of the end for the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic Tiana State number 32 Shiglin Magic is Brian Hill assisted by Richie Adamado Sri Rolins and Tom Sterner Rockets showing a sense of humor and playing the music from Disney World it's a small world heard echoing over the public address that's my second favorite song of course what a surprise yeah it's an

uncomfortable song, but it still works. Don't think of the context, man. Yeah, don't think of that. It's like when a Michael Jackson song comes on. Yeah, I went to a Michael Jackson, what do you call it, Cirque de Soleil. And I tried to enjoy the music.

Really? Yeah, in Vegas a couple of years ago. That's not here nor there. Hi, sports, Harvey. Love the shirt you're wearing. That's right. Old school ketchup and mustard Rockets logo shirt.

We've been number one off the board of our Fantasy 5 on Friday. Best NBA jerseys, for me anyways. Happy anniversary, everybody. 25 years ago yesterday, they won the championship. 25 years ago. Which means, you know what? We need another damn championship in this town.

25 years, Ross. It also means we're all older than we used to be. I was just telling you, I was 23 years old when you heard my voice there. Hasn't my voice changed a lot in 25 years? Yeah, I would say so. I know a lot. No, I'm sorry, you said change,

and that's when I started to respond. Right. A lot? I would say it's changed a little bit. A little bit. Just because it's just over. I think it's deeper and fuller. Yeah, I was definitely, when I was in high school,

I was a baritone the whole way through. Okay. And now, and the easiest way to go from a baritone to a base to smoke a lot of cigarettes. Yeah. Case of that's what you do. Nina Blackwood of MTV Vane.

You're at about two packs of cool today now, right? Well, I can mix in a swisher suite if you need to. Okay. All right. So we're going to do a little bit of celebrating today. You know, again, happy anniversary. We do this every year, but it just was 25 years. and frankly there's a jack squad in terms of live sporting events

there's a lot of crap we got to get to today that is not related to the field of play we will get to but uh just finished a conversation with clydexer we'll replay that for you at one o'clock this afternoon and then tellman for you is going to join us live at 2.30. Really? I'm curious what his life was like in 1995 because he had the empire started

but where was it at that point? Because I think he was a minority owner of the Rockets at time very small piece. So obviously he had something he had enough wealth to get himself involved. And I know that he tried to buy the rockets the first go around, but then Les Alexander got the team. So I want to know what he was doing 25 years ago. And of course, we're going to update on what's happening with the NBA situation. Just tremendous

amount of question marks from, again, the call over the weekend, which I don't want to spend a whole lot of time. I guess we got some baseball bitching to do Ross. But it feels like, again, there is a, everything is mixed. You've noticed that? The call with the NBA players, half of them said, yeah, this is about social justice. The other half are like, we need to play. It's important for us. And those that are claiming social justice are the ones that have also been heavily compensated, that the super rich don't speak for the entire league.

So it feels like there's a split there. We have a split in the world of sports whether we should come back. We have a split whether we should be going to restaurants and going to bars, right? Everything is split. J.J. Watts tweet over the weekend. about from a listener about the kneeling. Half of the people thought J.J. Watts's tweet was awesome. The other half said, I'm no longer a fan of yours.

Rossi, we live in a society, and that's why you and I don't get into this whole lot of sports. I should say a lot of politics. Frankly, probably getting a lot of sports either, but we don't get into politics because 50% of our audience is going to think we're speaking the gospel. 50% of them are going to tell us to go to hell. And it ain't worth it. We're just not able to, we're not here to change your minds about how you feel about certain things. That's what social media is for.

No, actually, nobody's there to change anybody's mind. Nobody ever, like the next person to change their mind about something on the internet will be the first person. That's true. That's true. That's true. All right. So let's get to, there's a variety of things. And again, any memories you have about Clutch City Part 2 or whatever they want to call it, you are more than welcome to join us today at 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. If you want to reach out through Twitter, you can do that as well. at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. He is our producer of the show.

And he is also going to be responsible in part for the return of believe it or not. The triumphant return. Remember that run off the air we said we were going to do? Yeah, we never did it, did we? No, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to predict, and nothing against you, Brendan, it is going to be a complete CF. Because I don't even... You could say that.

Cold beer Friday night. Yeah, you could. You could say that. You've never even done it once. We're going to get Joe George come in there and help you today. He'll be here by then to help you with this because it is an audio machine that sports RV has absolutely nailed down almost in the get-go. It's been a little, a few hiccups along the way. We'll flub every now and then nobody's perfect.

So today, here's the great thing about the return of believe it or not. If you win, and it's, by the way, all things about 1994-95, Houston. in Rockets basketball, the championship year. If you win, you win a $50 gift card to Hooters. So we'll be giving that away, and we'll have a couple of those to give away between 252 and the final segment of the show today. So looking forward to that. Wow.

All right. And we're going to send them to you. I'm a three-mile island guy personally. Through email. So you don't have to worry about coming to the station. We're just going to email them to you, which makes it even better. Hashtag social distancing. Yeah, exactly.

There doesn't have to be any handoff or any danger. You don't have to wear your mask. No fist bumps, no hugs, nothing. and no signing anything, just we're going to send it right off to you. Wonderful. All right. Where do you want to go first? The baseball complete ineptitude of negotiating or we can go to the fact that just moments ago,

the New York Yankees along with Major League Baseball have appealed the release of that statement involving the lawsuit concerning the daily fantasy players. Let's go with that. Okay. You ready? I'm ready. They just officially announced it. This is, again, I'm following off of things that

Evandrelic of the Athletic is putting out there. There is something in that letter, and you did a great job to listen to Sports Harvey Saturday, of explaining there's something in that letter they don't want out publicly. What do you think it is? Because all of the

Yankee truthers and all of the East Coast media says, oh, it's no big deal, whatever it's going to be. Well, then if it's no big deal, Ross, help me out with this. What the hell is it if it's no big deal? If everything that has come out Because so people are like Well, just point to the press release

From Rob Manfred And what he sent out there Right All the pertinent information's in there Okay, well if that's the case Then unseal the letter Why are you appealing And then why are you saying

It's going to be The injurious behavior What is it? Severe injurious to the Severely injurious to the reputation Of the league or something like that Yes, that's right If this gets out

If it's going to hurt the league's reputation A bunch then what's in this letter? Yeah. What's in the letter that has got all of you, the Yankees organization, and Major League Baseball all wigged out? If it's something huge,

then we need to see it because then I want to know why the Houston Astros are being persecuted way more so than everybody else, i.e. the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Just tell me. If it's no big deal, Let us read it and we'll say, you know what, friends,

unfortunately, it's no big deal. But let people that judge letters and arguments and information out there. Let us judge it. Don't let a sealed letter. And what you've heard could be in this letter. Let us decide whether or not this is a big deal or not. And by the way, everybody on social media, whether it be a current astro player or a fan that wants to take shots at Major League

Baseball and Rob Manford for hiding this, good for them. Doesn't mean the Astros were not guilty of what they did. It doesn't mean they should have been penalized. What we've been arguing about since day one is that everybody, not literally everybody, but there are a lot of teams that were doing it before. And the fact that Boston Red Sox got a little slap on the hand

when you know that Alex Corr knew about stuff, and you know that there was history with Carlos Spelltron. And when he walked in and said, you as the Astros are behind the eight ball on this, you guys are well behind, everybody else, that there's smoke where this fire is. I should say there's fire where there's smoke is. So let's see the letter.

Let's see exactly what you're so embarrassed about. And then we'll decide. And Ross, I will be the one first person to say, you know what, I apologize, Major League Baseball. I apologize, Rob Manfred. I apologize New York Yankees if we're making too big a deal on this letter. But let us see it. Exactly.

You hiding it means that you've got something to hide, and I'm going to take the side of, You have done something wrong, and you have not treated the Yankees the same exact way you wanted to, you should have treated the Houston Astros. And I also don't have a problem with anybody jumping to conclusions on this is if an Astros fans want to do that. And a lot of them are doing that to stir up stuff because you know what? Yankees fans fabricated this entire buzzer thing and talking about the sauces and our guy, John Boy, and scaring all that up. And there was zero evidence to support it, except for wrinkles in Jose Altuve's shirt. and Rob Manfred said nothing happened in 2019.

The player said nothing happened in 2019. There's zero evidence to support anything happening in 2019. But you know what? They just ran with this wild speculation. So if you know, if Astros fans want to run with wild speculation, that's what happened to the Astros, so I'm all for it. We're here for you. Where are your official wild speculation station?

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Breaking news from the NFL. We'll tell you about it after I tell you about Big City Wings. Today is $1 chicken tenders at any of the eight Big City Wing locations. Today continues five pounds of crawfish for $25. Two amazing options at one of my favorite place to eat in the city of Houston. And that's Big City Wings.

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The dream is unarmed. Unbelievable. Mad, Max, Sam I am. A three pointer to sell. Yes, the rocket fight one. Big shot Bob, Super Mario. Hell, he's got a three-pointer. Legends, who took us from joke to Clutch City.

How sweet it is. How sweet it is. We're 25 years and still Clutch on Sports Talk 790. Oh, early 90s. Stadium Rock is really good. Jock Jams? Yeah. It's getting kind of hectic.

It's getting, it's getting, it's getting kind of hectic. Nobody asked you to sing that, though. That's fine. Maddie. Yeah, it was a good jam. He wasn't singing. Yeah, that's true. You know what we need to find eventually?

Do you know, do you remember the Wump? There It is, Rocket's edition? I've heard it, but sure. Yeah, we're going to find that at some point. Okay. Do whatever you can do? I used to love that song. How many time did you play the Jock Jam CD in your life?

I never, I don't think I ever owned it. Yeah, I mean, but I would play it five million times. Yeah. I mean, it had all the hits. Every one of them. They were all mixed beautifully. 1219 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. We are happy to have you with us on this Monday, this Clutch City Monday.

And if you'd like to join us again, what? Nothing. You were just chuckling. No, I was looking at the, I was actually looking at the track listing of Jock Jams, and there's just. It's one good shit. There's not one bad song in the mix. Moni is on there. The original Tommy James and the Shandelles.

Ooh, even worse. Not the Billy Idol remake. Yeah. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 if you want to get in today on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsRB at Brendan Riley underscore All right, so do you know where the breaking news sounder is? Does he know? I think so. I don't know.

I think I have one. We need a little breaking news sounder here if you don't mind. It's pretty big. I mean, I wouldn't falsely put out a break. There it is. Several Dallas Cowboys. and and

Houston Texans players What? Testing positive for COVID-19. Among those on the Dallas Cowboys, Ezekiel Elliott. Wow. So Zeeks got it. Got the Rona.

Got the Rona. Well, it's basically an inevitability, right? At this point, any of the, we had the college programs coming back. We had heard about the Alabama players, we've heard about UCF. You had Houston.

University of Houston over the weekend, had, what was it, five or six players? We don't know what they were, but there were six people that came back. So they shut down stuff. So, I mean, it's basically what we've been hearing for months about coronavirus and how easily it spreads

and how a lot of people have it and they don't even know it. And this is just another example of that. I wonder if we'll ever find out who the Texans players are. I would imagine some of them would come forward and say something. And by the way, I want to say this right now, and hopefully you and I don't get it or Brendan for that matter. And even our audience, it's not embarrassing to get the Rona.

No, I don't think so. I mean, it's, it's embarrassing to get a STD, but it's not embarrassing to get the Rona. That doesn't normally get it announced in the public. True, but I'm saying is that I know. I feel like people would be afraid. If I get it, which hopefully I don't, and hopefully none of you go, I mean, we're going to just, we're going to be worried about you. That's it. This thing is, this thing hits every, uh, economic.

economic status. It hits every race and nationality. I mean, no one's precluded from this. So if you get it, just tell everybody, you know, warn your coworkers, warn your family, war your people that go to church with. A cautionary tale.

Yeah. During these uncertain times. During these unprecedented times. So, but that's big. I mean, we've had some pretty big superstar athletes get it out. We've had Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert. Ezekiel Elliott's huge. Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant. Now, the question I think becomes into play, did they put themselves, did they just get it just by happenstance, or did they get it because they were not, they were doing things like partying and going on and doing things and being in areas where they weren't wearing masks,

were they doing everything from a preventative measure? And that we don't know. Well, we know that Deshaun Watson and other Texans players were out at protests. Yeah. And, I mean, you can be at a mask, But, I mean, anytime you're with 60,000 tightly packed people, there's going to be. Even with mask on.

Yes. Yeah. So I think part of the, I think the rise, and again, I don't play doctor on the radio. But I think two parts of the reason why we got to rise. One, we've had way more, we've had openings of things, especially in Texas. Yes. Secondly, we've had more testing done in the last 30 days when we had in the first 30. So you're just going to get naturally more people to test positive or something because the tests are out there.

And lastly, we have loosened up who we are. I got some very good friends of mine that took their family and some of the kids' friends to Galveston this weekend. Ross, all they said to me all weekend was Galveston was as crowded as they've ever seen it even pre-pandemic. People are not traveling by air. Summer vacations to faraway places are a thing of the past, at least for now. And I think people are just, the cabin fever is in an all-time high. the weather warms up. It's fun to go to the beach. It's relatively cheap. And I'm not saying the beach, but I mean, we've seen festivals. We've seen people going to bars and whatnot.

And we've seen people at the beaches. I mean, you would just think naturally there's going to be a higher spike in numbers. So that's what we got. It's been happening. It's been spiking in Texas. Ever since I think Memorial Day, people are saying the last couple of weeks, you've been having hospitalizations going up. And like you said, yeah, people need to go out and do something. And maybe the beach you can be as safe as possible, but I don't really know the solution to any of this, but, um, well, the question is this going up is that did these players get it just, I right, would it be Ezekiel Elliott, a backup linebacker and a punter, or was it Ezekiel Elliott and 10 members of his offensive,

you know, like 10 fellow offensive players? Did they get it because the facilities weren't prepared? I mean, nobody's been going anywhere, right? I guess you, which you, if you're Ezekiel Elliott and you're these Texan players, which we don't know who they are, you can't have to kind of retrace your steps. Were you all in the same workout area? Where you having a barbecue at somebody's house? Something happened. But it doesn't look good that members of a particular team are all coming down with

guilt with the positive numbers at the same time. There's no way to know. But that's only for them to know. I mean, because of Hippelaws and stuff like that. They're not going to release their names. They're going to have to do it on their own. Maybe Deshawn Watson will come out or whoever. I mean, I don't know that Deshawn Watson has it.

We don't know anybody. We don't know who has it, where they got it. It would be cool if we could get some more information on that, but they don't know us that. No, but I mean, again, now that's who they are so we can say, hey, hope you're feeling better. Again, I'm not going to judge anyone. I won't judge. I mean, we've known people. We don't know, you know, they've gotten it.

It doesn't mean we think anything less of them. We, there's just so much unknown. I feel bad for them, really. We have anything. We're like, man, just take care of your. yourself. Certainly because we don't know a lot of the long-term effects. They're still finding things out and it's finding new things out about the virus every day. So that's the news of the day on the NFL is that there are players, including the most notable. The only one

really we've known publicly is Ezekiel Elliott the Dallas Cowboys, which makes me come to a grandiose Nostra Thomas prediction sports, RV. Is it a ominous one? Yeah. Oh, great. You're first going to ask me how many stars you want to put on it. That's true. Is it a 5 million star selection? No, it's not a 5 million one. I would put it in the 75,000 range. 75,000 star selection. Yeah. Okay. Okay, maybe not that many. Forty-three thousand stars.

Well, let me pull up my nostril wrongest pad where I used to write down all your... Write this down. You ready? Yes. The NFL season will be delayed. Ooh. Okay. And I'm not saying this because of what happened. It's just furthering my cause. Okay, well, they already talked about not having four preseason games. Do you going to count that?

No, I'm saying that week one of the NFL season, a 43,000 star selection will not take place on, is it Thursday, September the 10th? Is that right? Yes. Texans. Texans chiefs Thursday, September the 10th will not go on a schedule. That is correct. Type it in there, put it in there.

And if I'm wrong, I'll be very, very happy. Don't do that yet. I could be right. These are pending ones. And you know what the funny part is? Sometimes I would write stuff. Once you get right and I would just delete them and you live it up to you to remember if you got them right. Some of them slip through the cracks.

Two big fraudulent things about you. One, you get just as mad about losing a fantasy five as I do. That is not true. That is absolutely true. And secondly, when Nostra Thomas hits it, and that's why we got Brendan with us here, because Brendan will be able to make sure that all the proper things, the correct things I say will get their due credit. So, 43,000 stars. The NFL season does not start on.

time. And it's not because I think of what happened today, Ross, I just don't think they know what they can get away with in terms of can you have practice, can you have contact, where do you do it? How do you do it? Outside? Do you do it inside? How do you travel? I just, to me, there's just going to be too many things. And another thing I think will be big is Ross, they want fans, they want as many fans in the stands as possible. And if you back everything up a month, it gives you a greater option to at least have maybe by the end of the year half capacity in these NFL buildings. 1228, sports talk 790. Can we just say this right now?

Baseball, you suck. But we leave it that. Is that all right? Baseball, you suck. Rob Manfred, you super suck. 1228, Sports Talk, 790. It's a Matt Thomas show. 713, 212, 5, 790 if you want to get in.

713, 212, 5, 790. You bind into my argument that we will not have the start of the NFL season on time. I just have a gut. I have a feeling of my gut that we're going to be delayed probably anywhere between, say, three and six weeks. Right now, a message for Berkeley Eye Center. No need to delay when it comes to getting Lasic laser vision correction. You can do that with a couple of ways. One, check out the website, Berkeley Eye.com.

Secondly, calling 713-526I. 7-1-3-2-6 E-YES. You can also text the word LASIC, LASIC to 48-48-48-L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-S-I-K to 48-48-Sat up a consultation, see why you should get rid of your glasses and should get rid of your contacts and start enjoying life with Clear Vision with the best savings ever, I repeat ever, in the history of Berkeley Eye Center. Great physicians, outstanding state-of-the-art technology, and a spectacular support staff makes it an absolutely fantastic experience, especially if you're looking to gain that clear vision. without glasses and contacts. Text Lysick to 484848-48 or call 713-526 eyes or online, Berkeleyye. Mr. Bunby, would you like it regular? Or trapped and screwed.

Ha-ha-ha-ha. Keep it trill. This is Coach of Antony. Your city. Fires. My city. Plutch City. You're listening to Sports Talk 790, home of your rockets. Happy anniversary.

Plut City. 1233 is our time. If you would like to share some memories of the championship years, the two of them, we're here for you on that. I had literally the best seat in the house. I have vivid memories of both. The best memory I have of obviously the first year will be winning the first championship. John Stark's having the horrible game seven.

Elijah won tipping the ball in game six to send it to a game seven. Looking over my left shoulder and seeing Zizi top sitting right. behind me, looking over my right shoulder and seeing Spike Lee sit next to me. That was always just, that was my first look into celebrity life on an NBA floor. Did you say anything to Spike Lee? No. He was looking to buy tickets and he didn't care what it costs. He was going to be there for the chance for, I mean, you think about it, New York came to

Houston and he had one chance, they had two chances to win one game, to win a championship, and they didn't do so. And so, and then I met the party after, which was legendary, first, championship. But then the second championship. Certainly legendary on your part. Oh, my gosh. To see your name in the Houston Post of what you were doing?

That's something else for sure. And the second one was when we got, we were all comfortable. We had a brand new introduction of how we did the team. That's when Acapella came into play. We played Serious the first year. We kind of basically bit stole the Chicago Bulls. That's a great song. But Acapella came into play.

Clyde got here. And one of the things that Clyde and I will talk about at the top of the one o'clock hour is that, and I'll say this right now to preface it, I was sick as a dog the day he got traded. And the Rockets would play the game that were playing game at line against the Los Angeles Clippers and word travel that he was going to be in town in time to be introduced by the crowd at some point. And I said, I'm not missing that game. Come to find out, I had a fever about 103104 degrees, never should have been there, made the introduction, did the game, went home, died, not literally, but figuratively, went to the doctor, the next to the next to the doctor,

next day and they said you had monocleosis and was out for two weeks terrible and then you went to the movie theater knowing you had mono and spread it everywhere there too i had the cabin fever like america has right now but that was nineteen ninety five mistakes remain i'm not much more mature i just like to i just like to call you out for it every time you bring me up do you remember the movie that i went and gone and sent and saw cheeseball movie i don't the brady bunch okay because i got to saying that now i have a little thing for um the girl that played marcia she's now Ben Stiller's ex-wife. Christine something.

Christine Taylor. Okay. I still think she's sexy as hell. Get out. And I was like, she's playing Marcia Brady. And so I just said I had to go see her. Well, you know what, Matt? Y'all are the same age.

She's 48? Yeah. She older or younger than me? She will be 49 in July 30th. She's about 11 months older than you. Okay. I don't want older women. She's age well, right?

Is she dating anybody now? You know, I'll get to the bottom of it for you, Matt. I figured you would. I'll see what I can do. Well, maybe somebody's getting to the bottom of her. Ah, be nice. All right. So if you have any great memories of the Rocket Championship,

you're welcome to do them today because this is, I mean, at a certain point, after 25 years, you don't celebrate him nearly as much, right? 10's a big year. 10, 15, 20, 25. Right? Yeah, 85 anniversary. Because if we're celebrating, 25, is that the silver anniversary?

That's, uh, because Golden's 50. Rossi, if we're celebrating the golden anniversary of the Rock Championship and the Rockets don't have a championship in between then. That's going to be a long, long drought in between. Could you imagine doing 25 more years of sports talk? Yeah, 25 is silver. Yeah. So happy silver anniversary.

And again, Clyde Drexer at 1 o'clock. And we'll have current Rockets owner, Tim and Fetitia, to join us at 230 today. 713-212-790. 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-9. If you want to reach out on Twitter again, it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV and at Brendan Riley underscore. Baseball sucks, Ross.

Oh, gosh. It's horrible right now. How was Saturday show? Was it just one depressing thing after the other? Saturday show was weird. I heard you one caller yet. I started talking about baseball. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, somebody started calling me about kneeling for the National Anthem, and then that just caused a flood of racial conversation, which I don't normally like to get into. But if it's brought to me, I will, I can talk about it.

But anyways, on the baseball thing, it was just. it was just weird. The Yankee thing had just broken the night before. Isn't that weird? Is this a Friday news dump the Yankees thing, Matt? Evan Drellick tweeted it out like midnight of Friday. Or is it the court proceedings were on Friday? I don't want to blame news media for trying to hide it from the Yankees.

It doesn't do the athletic any good for it to be a Friday news dump. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. They got it out as soon as possible. Evan and Kanwad clicks. Yeah. So, I mean, the story had to come out when it came out because I think the court proceedings were Friday. So officially today, the Yankees have filed an appeal and Major

League Baseball to keep the contents of that letter sealed. That's a different story. You know what that is Ross? That's corruption in baseball. So why am I supposed to take Rob Manfred's sign on anything when it comes in the labor negotiations on this when he is trying to hold valuable information away from the rest of America about exactly what the Yankees did in 2017. Oh, and oh, by the way, another news item we haven't talked about baseball or later is the billion dollars they're getting from TV networks for the postseason. Yeah, they were going to go from 500 million to 1 billion in two years.

Turner is going to buy more games, another championship. That's an incredible, first of all, how does anybody let that out? The New York, I think it's a New York Post media writer got a hold of it. If you're Turner, Ross, if you are Major League Baseball, you don't want that getting out under any circumstance. Because Turner is a partner of Major League Baseball. Why in the world would someone leak that out? It's a big deal.

And what it does, what it does tell you is, again, it tells you how healthy the sport is. I'm serious. I'm sick and tired of people telling me how baseball is in trouble. It's in trouble for different reasons. But when you get a double in your television contract, that means they're eyeballs that are watching your sport. So enough of this, no one's watching. The games are too long.

There's too many games. That's Bubkis. When a television network bumps to a billion dollars for television rights for a handful of regular season games and a handful of postseason games, back off. Yeah, it's a bottom line business and their revenue has been growing healthily, basically every single year.

So over $10.7 billion last year. So now they're going to have this new money in two years. And now, Commissioner Manfred is going to go to Twitter or to a press conference or a press release and say, you know, our players did not negotiate in good faith. Thus, we're going to give you all what you've been asking for, the return of baseball. It's going to be about a 52 game schedule, give or take. And we're supposed to buy into this when you have such bitter feelings on both sides? Ross, oh, hell no.

there are asterisk's going to be loaded all over this season. There's going to be so many media players that are going to be like, this sucks. I'm out here only for the paycheck. I'm not out here for the love of the game. It's going to make the players look bad. It's going to make the greedy owners look bad. And oh, by the way, this could be just the start of probably two to three years of terrible labor negotiations.

Yep, they could have issues beginning of next season. if there's a second wave of the pandemic, that obviously going to have issues when the CBA expires. It's going to be a long time of, I think distrust is the word that you would use between the players and the owners, and I think rightfully so.

If I were the players and the owners are telling me, oh, we don't make any money, oh, we're down 70% of our revenues, and then it comes up, hey, T&T is doubling their money that they're putting into the playoffs, it would be kind of a head scratcher for me. I wouldn't trust the owners either.

And you continue to ask the owners to show their hand and open up the books if this is the poor that they're crying and they're not going to do that. No. No, or should they? No. But you also, you can't have your cake and need it too. You can't say we're crying poor. We're losing 70% of our revenue. We don't even make money.

So, okay, prove it. Well, no, we're not going to have to do that. And it goes back to the core belief, whether you want to agree with the following or not, is that there are some people in America that do not believe that it's your inherent right to make money. money and everything you do. And baseball is taking a bat this year after having years and years and years of tremendous success. And they will have years and years of future success. Now, I'm not, I'm not trying to play sides on this, Ross. I can't do that. Because ultimately, I believe it's both this, both sides's fault. We need baseball. When the players need to get paid, owners need to make as much money as they can when they come back. We need it for America. So I'm not going to take sides.

But it's very hard to cry for owners when they get the new day. deal announced and the fact that they are now in a position where they can force the players to come back out there and it's going to be a crappy brand of baseball and there's going to be a whole bunch of who cares out there. And we're not in sports to be who cares. We are, we root for teams because we have a passion for them. I think the passion of the sport of baseball has been eroded because of what has happened over the last handful of weeks in these unprecedented times. I feel like every single we got you saying it. We got to say it at least one second. And by the way, I'm not saying sooner rather than later because I'm telling you, later

keeps winning. That's true. NFL is going to win with the later rather than sooner. And the NBA may not be far behind, especially with the situation going on there. 713-212-5-7-90. Clyde Drexler in 15 minutes on the Matt Thomas show. 7-13-212-790. 7-1-3-2-1-7-90 with a message for oops steam cleaning. How about getting those carpets clean? We've had some rain last week in the area. some more this weekend and sometimes when it rains, that's the biggest lead for Oop Steem cleaning because what's going to happen is dogs and cats are going to be afraid to go outside. They're going to have accidents inside your home. That's when you call 281-8-8-2-2-0-561.

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Oopsteam.com. The morning sports show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. 1249, Sports Talk 790. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-79. Headlines, NBA, will release start. documents very shortly about their

health and safety manual and for the 22 team restart, 125 pages, man. You know what I was talking about why in the world is this a delay while they're waiting until July 31st? Because it's going to take out July 31st everybody to read every rule of a July 31st return. They'll have to write a book report on it too.

Well, they'll be quizzed. Can we get the cliff notes? I guess could, yeah. No, you can't do. This is about life and death. So what was I going to tell you? Oh, and Ezekiel Elliott among the NFL players, the Cowboys and Texans. Ross, he's the only one that has been announced as a player that tested positive for COVID. And apparently he's not very happy about it.

Well, he tweeted about eight minutes ago, HIPAA question mark, which we were referencing. So HIPAA rules should preclude any employer saying anything medical about their employees, correct? Or anything public coming out. That's right. So are we to assume that Ian Rappaport got it from the Cowboys? Well, it's already said in the, there's sourcing in that coming out. It's his agent.

Rocky Arsino told NFL network that Ezekieli tested positive. Okay. Well, then that's really not an issue for you to run a Twitter for. That's a cool name, though. Rocky Arsino. I don't know. Do you want an agent name Rocky Arsino? Rocky Arsino sounds like he's going to get stuff done.

And leak your name out to the press when you get coronavirus. No, I disagree. I think he is a former middleweight. heavyweight boxer. Okay. Who... Like a gatekeeper? Like a middling guy?

Yeah. He's... Or they would say in wrestling a jobber. Okay. Who basically tried to go to law school. Yeah. Got his degree, but didn't pass the bar. Okay.

I like that. Lives out of his van, or at least he did for a little while. No, no, no, no. He lives in a small one-bedroom apartment. Okay. But tells his friends it's a loft. Yeah.

And he doesn't even have like a... No, it's actually like a studio that doesn't even have a kitchen. He just eats off a hot plate. Yeah, he's also, he also drives a very old Dotson. Yes. And he says he does that because it gets great gas mileage and he doesn't feel like that spending a lot of money in a car is a really good thing to do. Okay. Rocky Arsenal.

He also goes to every place he goes on to dinner. Yeah. He gets a coupon. But he's got a heart of gold. Oh, yeah. I think he's on your side. Yeah. But remember, if you pass the bar, you have really, really good idea what Hippelaws are.

Yes. And Rocky Arsenal does not. Rocky Arsenal seems they just wanted to be on it. It says told NFL network, I don't know if that means told Ian Rappaport or what. That's what the ESPN story says. Yeah. All right. So cowboy players and Texans players have tested positive. Source is telling Ian Rappaport and Tom Pellasaro, none of the players are believed to have been in their team facilities. Okay. The teams follow proper health protocol. So may I make an assumption that could be based in a little bit of fact, but I have no guarantee that it is? That's what we do in 2020.

That's the Matt Thomas show 12 to 3. I'm going to believe that there are several players that got together and worked out. Yeah. In that cluster of friends is where the COVID came into play. That could be true. I mean, any grouping of people, you're increasing your risk. Absolutely. Because it's not one Texan player.

It's not one cowboy. So the term we're being used in this report is several. We don't, yeah. We don't know how many we, I mean, I guess we can wait. Hopefully Rocky Arsenal can provide Ian Rappaport with that information. and we can get to the bottom of that. If I ever get a broadcast agent, it's not going to be Rocky Arsano.

It's not? Hey, hearing that Matt wants to go work for XYZ network, Rocky, keep it to yourself. Shut up. Rocky, what the hell, man? What are you doing, Rocky? Shut up. Like, for instance.

Rocky has to put down his cup of ramen to read your text. Let me give you some names in sports. Who sounds better as an agent? Rocky Arsano or Davis Love the Third. I feel like Rocky Arsenae is ready to bust some rocks. He's not trying to get you. out of prison. He's trying to negotiate your contract. That's true. He's not a criminal attorney.

He's wily, though. I'm going with Rocky Arsenal. I like the wild card element of a Rocky Arsenal. You can do that because he's going to be cheaper than my attorney, Davis on the 3rd. He's going to work for about 0.1%. But my attorney, I call him DL3, past the bar, Ross. I'm going with a little salt of the earth, a little Rocky Arsenal. Man with some grit and several concussions at his boxing career.

You know where Rocky Arsenal's lawyer review is? on Yelp. Is it not good? Well, you can't find him. Maybe it's Chaser? You can't find him in the Texas Law Academy. Yeah. Rocky Arsenal.

My attorney, we call him DL3, as the kids would call him. Much. Yeah, I'm not trusting Rocky Arsenal. So this is, so here's an example of why you don't have to run to social media every five seconds. Clearly the agent said something, right, Ross? Yes. So why did he?

do that? Why did he put HIPAA out there? Yeah. Why don't you call? Talk to Rocky. Click, click, click, click, click, click. Rocky, what the blank are you doing? Click. Rocky picks up his car phone and his dotson. Oh yeah, he's got a bag phone. Because he thinks he travels on a lot of strange areas where the coverage isn't as great.

You don't need to run down. If there was every time I had a beef with anybody in my life I ran to Twitter, I'd have 900, 900,000 tweets. Rossi. He didn't need to run and put hip out there. because you know what he does by doing that? He's putting into assumption the Dallas Cowboys release that.

And that's not the truth, apparently. It's the agent that did it. Now, if you want to run to Twitter and say, why you do me like that at Rocky Arsenal, then that makes a little bit of a difference. Does Rocky Arsenal have a Twitter account? There's no chance. No chance.

Oh, he does. Alliance underscore Sports. He is his, he is the CEO. How many followers are? He has tweeted since April, 1200. Okay. Yeah, see,

real attorneys have more than 1,200. No, Lyons Sports has a number of big-name clients. Eric Dickerson, Marshall Falk, Donald Penn.

Mm-hmm. Well, then it kind of Ricky Seals Jones. Yeah. Kicker John Barron the second. Wex are just texting me.

Would you take Rocky Arsenal or Bus Cook is your agent? But now, Bus Cook. Sounds like an NFL player.

Listen to me. Yeah. Okay. that went to law school after he finished his career, i.e. Greg Cook, but he's still built like a rocket grand. You know, grand. He's just, he's really, really, really tough. Yeah, but everybody's been firing Bus Cook as of late. That's true. Bus Cook's, I think, most famous agent or client would probably be, you have Brett Farve, if you think about it.

Okay. And Brett's done okay by that. And there's some strange names. Now, one day, I'm believing or not, we should do. Oh, agent or not? Agent or not. I would love that. We could put Agent or WWF Java back in the 80s.

For those of you know what jobbers are, those are guys that the superstars would beat up. Okay. It would be like the macho man Randy Savage versus Steve Lombardi. And Steve Lombardi would never ever change. That's like a tomato can. Basically. But even worse. I mean, you, that guy knew he was going to get his ass kick for four to five minutes.

Hashtag jobber. All right. Let's get the second hour started. It is a clutch city celebration here on the Matt Thomas show. Really, we're just celebrating it all day with the various guests. And Clyde Drexer and I talk about. a variety of things, starting off with what exactly it was like to be introduced for the first time as the Houston Rockets. We'll have it for you coming up in the top of the next hour.

Tim and Fratita joins at 2.30 and at 252, Ross, it is the return of believe it or not, all things 1994, 1995 Houston Rockets. That's up as we start the second hour of the Matt Thomas Show next on Sports Talk 790. One o'clock on Sports Talk 790. We celebrate Clutch City 25th anniversary. They won the championship 25 years ago today. A visit with Clyde Drexer in a matter of seconds. Update from our favorite new NFL agent who we don't know if we passed the bar or not.

Apparently, well, Ezekiel Elliott tweeted out. Because people were telling him, obviously, hey, your agent confirmed this story. Zeke Elliott says, my agent only confirmed. The story was already written and reported as have been calling my agent all morning. I think he's doing damage control? Your agent doesn't have to confirm or pick up the calls. So you should still have, get mad at your agent.

Why would the Dallas Cowboys only release his name and not anybody else's? Well, it's not the Cowboys released it. It got leaked by somebody within the organization, I guess. Meaning that somebody's kicking the tires. Hey, can you give me somebody? Yes. Is anybody big?

Like Ed Werders talking to Jerry probably. Jerry. Give me the biggest name you have. Is it your kicker? No. Is it your punter? No. Is your backup quarterback?

No. You know what? It probably was Jerry, right? He's having a morning Bloody Mary. Just tell some reporter on here. Oh, yeah, he's got loose lips. You know what? I apologize to Rory.

What's the guy's name? Rocky Arsenal. I apologize. You are a stellar attorney. You're a great agent. You're a friend to all to all of us. And we believe you passed your bar on the first go-around. Jerry, the bloody Mary's kicked in early.

Yes. And you're star running back. who you paid a boatload of money to who held out last year, and now I got the Rona. How are you feeling? That's exactly right. All right. 713-21-2-5-7-90.

We've not heard from anybody. Is anybody out there today? Y'all just bumping around and joining this warm weather. It's championship recap day, 25-year anniversary. Clyde Drexler was signed via trade and how it all went down. As among the things we talked about with Clyde, as I did a little while ago, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the second championship. Clyde and I spoke first and foremost about exactly what it was like the night that he entered the arena floor at the summit for the first time being introduced as a rocket, not playing in uniform, but just coming and wearing that Houston Rockets hat the day he got traded.

Well, Matt, it was really, first of all, delighted to be on the show, hope you well, say hello to all the listeners. But Matt, that was just a surreal moment. I had a great career in Portland, 12 years almost. We had a lot of success. We had gone to the finals. I had the best record in the league. And so to be traded to my hometown of Houston, Texas was a thing of beauty. It's the way I wanted to finish my career.

If I was ever going to leave Portland, the only place I would have gone was Houston. And so to have that opportunity and to have an opportunity at a championship was like, are you kidding me? This is too good to be true. And so when you saw me with that Rockets hat on, I was elated. I couldn't believe that it happened, and I knew good things were in store for the Houston Rockets. Did the Blazers keep you up to date on where you could be going, and did you give them kind of the parameters of, hey, or how much were you involved when hearing the talks about you eventually living Portland? Well, you know, I was completely involved because they couldn't do anything without my consent. So they could not do anything without my consent.

Let me say that again. I didn't want to rebuild, and they were doing in Portland, and I didn't want to stop them from their rebuilding. But I wanted to compete for a championship because I thought I could still play a little bit, right? Well, you did. It was my 12th year in the league. And, you know, I thought I was just getting back healthy. And so I wanted to compete.

And so I kind of helped orchestrated that trade with Robert Barr. and the Houston Rockets and Leslie Alexander. Those were the guys who made that trade possible. Me, Robert Barr and Leslie Alexander, we orchestrated that trade and made it happen. No wonder you're the commissioner of the big three. You know how to handle these kind of moves like that. Well, you know, the thing is,

if you're a franchise player, you need to have some ability to affect your movement. Like, I didn't leave Portland to go to New York when I was a free agent, but the one thing I demanded was I have to have, you know, power over where I do play. But it couldn't make a move without my approval. Let's be honest. The record the rest of the way was kind of average pedestrian.

Couple of big winning streaks, a couple of big losing streaks. What was it like, just talking about the regular season, and why wasn't there this huge explosion when you came here? Well, the thing is, I think Hakeem got injured. The minute we got it going, Hakeem got injured. And so we had to really survive and fight to keep our playoffs feeding. otherwise it could have been really, you know, you don't want to go. I think we were third or fourth until he got hurt.

Then we could have dropped to like number eight. And so we were able to keep the sixth seed. And so that's where we were in Utah was so good. To have to play them in the first round was a disappointment. But we knew if we're going to win the West, we've got to beat all the good teams. So it really doesn't matter when or where you face them. You got to just play the games that you have to play.

Matt, let me tell you, that team was phenomenal for three reasons. It was well coach. Rudy was phenomenal. His own staff, those guys understood. Leslie Alexander, Robert Barr, Carol Dawson, I mean, they were all phenomenal people. So you got a lot of good people as leaders in that organization.

So I was proud to be on an organization that had great leadership, first of all. And then the players, they won the championship the year before. So they were championship caliber player. Now, me coming from Portland had been in two finals at Western Conference Finals, so that's three. And so we all had playoff experience. And then you got dream playing at a very, very high level. You got a guy like me who was a franchise player, had a couple

injuries getting older, but you can still pull it together whenever he needed to. Right. But Hakeem, I want to get my teammates all the credit. Hakeem, Robert Ory, Mario Ellie, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell, Pete Kilcutt, Elmigo, Chuckie Brown. I mean, these guys were all very good players.

Just incredible. Kenny Smith. Did I mention Mario Elliott? You did. Big shot, Bob. I mean, these guys were just good guys, too. And Maxwell was on that team as well. And so just a lot of great guys who came together and made it happen for the city of Houston. And it's been far too long, Matt.

It's been 25 years. It's time for another championship. Yeah, you're telling me. The Phoenix series, now you weren't a part of the team, obviously, in 94 when they came back and the whole Choke City Club City thing. What was it like? What was the locker room like with many of those guys going, oh, here we go again, Phoenix and another playoff series,

and I'm sure revenge is certainly going to be on their mind. Well, one of the thing that's always prevalent about that team, we were road warriors, we were never going to be intimidated, or we were never going to say, hey, we can't do this. We had a good spirit of can-do. We can do anything if we stick together and play our game. It's going to be tough for teams to beat us because we're strong in the middle, We got rim protection, we got great defense, we got great three-point shooting, and we were good in transition.

So we had all of the intangibles, and that's why that team was so good. You know, it's funny. I've spent a lot of time watching NBA TV and seeing some of the great highlights of not only you as a rocket, but as a blazer, and just watching a lot of the great NBA finals. I know that so much of the decade was focused on the Chicago Bulls, but you guys beat a tremendous Orlando Magic basketball team. I mean, they were loaded. They were young guys and young stars like Penny and Shaq.

They had veteran guys. They were deep. I mean, I hope basketball historians can really talk at length about how good that Orlando team was and how you were able to beat them four consecutive times. Well, the Orlando team was phenomenal. Remember, they beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls and beat them convincingly. They were young, Shaq and Penny were real Hall of Fame players. They had side guys like Dennis Scott, Horace Grant.

Those guys could all play Nick Anderson. They were well coached. They were a fine-tuned machine. The one thing we had was experience on them, and that's what played the biggest part. I think Kenny Smith came up big in game one. When he hit that shot, the three-pointer to force an overtime, and we ended up winning that overtime.

But I tell you what, we were down about 20, 25 points in game one, and we were looking at that like, well, I guess we got to get ready for game two. But somehow we came back and stole that game. in game one, and they never regained their confidence, because that was a tremendous loss. The intangibles, whether it's a good defensive stop, or it's a tip-in-le-dream, or a jump shot you made, or our team missing free throws. All your ability to make free throw. Yeah, I mean, the little things.

Absolutely. See, that's why I've always said, if you're a great player and you don't have a championship, don't feel bad because this is a team sport. You need everything to be working well in order to win. Matt, you can have 50 points and 40 rebounds. but if I don't make the two free throws to win the game or send it in the overtime to have a chance to win, does that make you not a champion? Come on. This is not tennis or golf.

You can't look at this like an individual sport. It's a team game and it's a great game, but you need a real team to win. And it's emphasis on team. There's no eye in team. You can be a great individual player, but you need your teammate. And that's the only way you can win. Clyde Drexer with us here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I always like to ask guys when I turn back the clock, where's the ring right now?

Well, it's in the safe deposit box, Matt. I don't think I've looked at it since 95. It's one of those things that you consider sacred. And, you know, you just have so many good memories. And it's just, if you ever play team sports to have an opportunity to put yourself in position to win, it's a wonderful thing. And to actually do it, well, it's even better. And so the city of Houston, I like to say our fans were the best in the world. They were number one because they were knowledgeable.

They were supportive. They picked us up whenever we were down. And let me tell you something, coming back home and seeing all of that was a thing of beauty. Before I let you run, I want to get your thoughts on the bubble, the campus in Orlando. You know, Matt, I have conflicting thoughts about that. And I love Adam Silver and everything he does in the NBA. He's always responsible. He supports everyone.

He's looking out for everyone's best interests. But I just don't know. During this pandemic, it's hard to determine, you know, what you should do and what you shouldn't do. I applaud them for trying to have a season, whether it's going to work out or not. We'll find out. But I'm sure they've had a lot of experts give them, you know, worst-case scenarios. They've talked to the players, the coaches. And if they all agree, then, you know, we'd love to see it.

Probably there's just so many details that every time you go into a boardroom and shut the door and think about, what are we supposed to do about this if this happens? I mean, there's got to be a lot of what-ifs, basically, right? A lot of what-ifs in scenarios that you, you know, like nobody saw the pandemic coming. You could have all the forecasts and analytics in the world, but there are some unforeseen circumstances. Because think about it. Most of the coaches are a little bit older, and so they're more at risk. some of the players, they're going to be around.

They're not going to just be in a bubble in Orlando. They're going to go out to restaurants and they got to eat. They got to get out the room and do stuff. So they're going to be exposed. My thought is, you know, the NBA is very, very, very smart in the way they approach everything. And I support them a thousand percent. So I'm hoping that good things happen and then no one gets hurt. and it doesn't take away from any of the momentum that we're seeing as the cases begin to drop a little bit.

We'll leave it at that, friend. Thank you so much for the time. I want to see you back on television soon. Go to some games, hopefully. Enjoy the rest of your summer, my friend. We'll talk soon. Thank you, Matt. These protests are keeping everybody busy, but hopefully there'll be some serious changes in the future.

I would completely agree with it. Thanks very much. Clyde Drex are with us here on the Matt Thomas show. More coming up in a moment here on Sports Talk 790. only celebrate for a day. And now back to Double Clutch Day on the home of the Texans. Oh, bull-h-h-h-h-h-h-that was not even close to good. Because we're the home of your Rockets?

We celebrate Clutch City every day. This is Clutch City all over again. 25 years and still Clutch. Houston, the Eagle has landed. Your team is on top of the basketball world. The celebration continues with former and current players, coaches and more, on Sports Talk 790.

And unfortunately this song cannot be thought of except for it was catchy, but produced by a man who had issues. You don't have to bring that up every time, Matt. Yeah, but it's the problem is every time I hear the song, I think of the guy's issues. It's jock jam. Is that what you think of every time you think of, are you hearing R. Kelly song now, Matt?

I know he's one of your favorites. Yeah, he's one of my favorites. By the way, just do yourself a favor. Go look at Rocket Roll Part 2 on YouTube, the video of it. Oh, the acid trip video? Oh, my God. They were all high. Extraordinarily high.

Yeah, but I mean, wouldn't you say like 97% of all music produced since 1960 has been under the influence of drugs? Or sex. It's not more. Or rock and roll. That's true. All of it. Alcohol, some sort. Like, look, you know how much I love the Beatles.

The last half dozen years of the Beatles were all. They were all high as a kite. Had to have been. Strawberry Fields Forever. Loosing this guy with diamonds. Octopus's Garden. Come together? Any of those.

Yeah, read the lyrics of Come Together. High. Rocket Man makes no sense. Well, he's going to be high as a kite by then. Yep. Afternoon delight. Sex. That's true.

Lots of it. The Starland vocal band. Also one of your favorites. Oh, I have almost everyone of their songs. Well, they just have one. That's true. Yeah. One hit one.

120 on the Matt Thomas show. 713, 212. 579 if you want to get in. Thanks again to Clyde for joining us. A little over an hour from now, we will visit with Tillman Furtita, owner of the Houston Rockets. Wonderful. And more so it'll be 99% about his memories of the Rockets, what's going on as an owner now. But I want to get his thoughts about how often he visits with the folks of the league, you know, what the Board of Governors' meetings are like.

Yes. That kind of behind the scenes said that we don't really don't get to hear from. And again, from what we understand, there was a very interesting meeting Friday, a Zoom call with about, what, 100 players in the NBA race? I thought they said 200. 200. Wow. Big as Zoom meeting I've been on has been eight. Big as Zoom meeting I've been on is like six.

Yeah, by the way, we have our Monday night meeting tonight at 8 o'clock. Wonderful. Facebook.com slash Sports Talk 7 and 8. I'll be sending out a little reminders of that for everybody later on. So please check a look of that with us as some of your favorites and some of your non-favorites of 7-90 get together. Some of the ones you hate. Yeah. Maybe you despise me.

Nobody despises you, Matt. How could you hate Matt Thompson? That's what I say. But, you know, I have those haters out there. It's going on social media. You can find them. All right. 713212-579.

07113-212-5-7-90. Headlines of the day. The Yankees letter, the letter that the Yankees was not received, but... Well, yeah, the Major League Baseball had the sealed letter Major League Baseball sent to the Yankees regarding their 2017 fine. Right. Okay. concerning what they did in 2017 if they were able to seal signs and how they did it. A judge on Friday ruled that that letter should become a public record, and the Yankees and

Major League Baseball are appealing. Yeah. Major League Baseball of the weekend took the letter that the Players Association said and said, we're disappointed that you guys are not acting in the best interests of baseball to have a longer season and more fulfilling season, and that we need to get together as owners and figure out what we want to do. the Players Association said, we're not going to take anything less than a priority 100% salary.

So now go to your scheduling department, schedule our games, and we'll be there. Yeah. And we're going to be really grumpy. Pretty strong statement from Tony Clark over the weekend saying, all right, we're done. Just tell us when to be there and how many games. Now, I've read some things since then

saying that both sides could file lawsuits against each other citing unfair labor practices and unfair negotiating. This is going to get even uglier you're telling me? Let me ask you this. If you were abetting, I would like to do that if you're a betting game card. Which I am.

Let's go to the window. You ready? Here are your options? Okay. No NBA season, no baseball season. There's one option. Okay. No baseball season.

There is an NBA season. There is an NBA season, but there, I mean, there's no MLB season, but there's no NBA season, but there's no NBA season, but there's no NBA season. Or there's both seasons. Would you go on with? Both seasons. Yeah, me too. I think the NBA, I think, uh, I think, uh, Kyrie Irving in this call, it's going to raise concerns.

I think the players, I don't think they would not want to play. LeBron James says he wants to play. Patrick Peverely is like, if LeB says to play, we're going to play. So, I mean, while everybody's not going to agree on everything, something will be done as far as making a statement or doing something towards social injustices, I'm sure. But they're going to play games, I think. And then MLB, I think it would also be a very short. Now, if you want to say overrunner in games, we've been throwing numbers like 60-something. I think we're under that.

We're under that. Yeah, under that. And by the way, if the NBA decides not to play, it will completely destroy their salary revenue, their revenue and their salary cap for future years. Yeah, I think they're going to play. They're going to play. Because, again, part of it is Kyrie Irving is a known,

Ironton isn't the word I would use. Well, there was an article put out over the weekend by Adrian Outson Rioski. He said, Kyrie Irving, the disruptor. Yeah, disruptor seems fair. that no matter what you do, if everybody at the table, if you're at a table of 10, Ross, you know, you go to Bucca de Bepo. You have a little Italian, right?

A bugabat. And, hey, lasagna sounds good. Yes. And the other guy says, yeah, lasagna sounds good. The other guy says, yeah, Lassan. Like, eight of the nine people at the table, love them some lasagna. They're like, no, I'm not having lasagna.

I want Fennacini Al-Frano. He, that's, he's Finacini-A-Fredo guy. The contrarian, you're saying. Yes. And that's if there's anything wrong with that. No, sometimes it's okay to have a different view. viewpoint. But if eight of the nine members say let's have lasagna, let's eat lasagna. He's doing it just to do it. That's the reputation.

But everybody says the earth is round. He says the earth is flat. Well, he did do that. And he also voted a couple weeks ago with every other member of the teams and the players association to go ahead and have a resumption of the season. So, and again, people are all that changed our viewpoints on things. I get that. That's fair. But there are more players, including Austin Rivers that said, hey, we can do just as much, if not more providing our voice to social justice by playing games. And that was my point to you when you and I argue about on Friday. I think there's more that can be done by them playing as compared to them saying,

yeah, we're done for the season. That's my thought. And again, that's for anybody to have their voice with an opinion. I just think way more. There's 200 players. You're going to have 200 different opinions. Yeah. I mean, some of them obviously are going to be having the same.

But you're just, you're not going to get a bunch of guys to agree on anything. I'm sure, like we're going to have Talman for Tidon. I'm sure he has different ideas about the NBA coming back than many other owners. And same thing when you get 200 people and players. And certainly when you go to, I mean, the entire NBA. But I think the good thing about that Zoom call they had on Friday was that there was good conversation as compared to just running to your computer screen and yelling about, I'm not doing this. Now, there were a couple things. Dwight Howard initially said this isn't for me, but then there's been a little bit of soft pedaling back on that.

Ross, the bottom line is these guys are going to miss out on tremendous amount of money. bonuses that are attached to a number of minutes. And at the end of the day, these are jobs that pay ridiculously high sums of money. And I think there's more players that don't make the Kyrie every money that do that are saying, hey, we need to play basketball. Not only for our finances, for our family, but as Austin Rivers said, we can show America how to do it right. And we can move the storyline along and create better social justice by showing that we're out there and we're in the public.

If every interview they want to do wants to bring this up, who's against that? but he could be. So that's why I think that it's in the best interest of the NBA, not only for selfish reasons because we want to see them play in sports again, but I think they'll get more done by actually being in front of a camera than being, you know, to themselves. Buster only.

Now, people like to make fun of his name. Yes, because there's not generally a lot of adults named Buster. No, ESPN's got their fair share of people that just don't have regular names, like Bougar McFarland. I don't know another Bougar in this America except Bougar McFarland. I know maybe three other busters in this world.

Buster Pointexter, Buster Brown. Buster Posey. Okay, we're good. Yes. So he writes his story on Saturday about, I know it was actually Sunday, about how basically the reason why the owners are as short-sided as they are is because they've all believed in the Jeff Leno way of building a franchise. And that the Astros, how the way they've built,

the Astros into a world championship type team is how Major League Baseball is negotiating with the players right now. And I'm reading the story and I've read it two or three times. Rossi, and I'm telling you, I'm not trying to be Houston myopic on this. Because I actually think Buster does a really good job. I'm not anti-Buster. Like, I don't make fun of his name or call him names. I'm just, he is who he is. But I believe if you take the time to look at the article, it is a massive stretch to say that the Houston Astros and the way they do their business is how Major League Baseball is doing their business and trying to renegotiate a new deal with the players. I think it's a massive stretch.

I haven't read the whole article, honestly, but yeah, if that's the way it's being presented, it's ridiculous. You're going to tell me all 30 owners are saying, hey, we're going to run our thing. People hate Jeff Luno. Other general managers and owners don't like the way Jeff Luno operates. That's just a fact. So that they're all going to borrow from Jeff Luno and say he is this demigod and he's smart and he's figured everything out. No way.

there's no way in the world that the owners on the conference call said, hey, let's dig our foot in the sand on this one. And let's do things the way the Astros did it without mentioning Jeff's name or not. It's an article you should read. And what I would ask you to do is if you please read it and you do see any parallel of what the players or the owners are doing to how the Astros ran their business, I'd be very curious because I cannot put, it feels like to me it's apples and oranges. And frankly, it was a lazy piece of journalism.

And it did not match what baseball is trying to do is compared to what the Astros are trying to do. The Astros built from scratch. They bottomed out for a reason. And yeah, some of their strategies, some of the way they treated personnel, a little cold. But let me tell you something, Ross, mainly baseball owners, generally speaking, probably pretty cool people. You don't get to become multi-billionaires because you're Mr. Warm and Fuzzy 24-7. A little cold.

But let me tell you something, Ross. Majorly baseball owners, generally speaking, probably pretty cool people. You don't get to become multi-billionaires because you're Mr. Warm and Fuzzy 24-7. Yeah, and some of them are, and some of them do it a different way. So I don't think Jeff Luno is just revolutionized. He did revolutionize some things, but I don't think everybody's saying we need to run our organization the way Jeff Luno did. 713-212-5-790, a message here for bronze roofing. These folks have been around for decades.

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It's an extraordinary tie to be in Houston, man. This is H-Town. The Astro and the Rockets. This is Sports Talk 790. You're home for your home teams. 135 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. I saw only the first half hour of the 30 for 30 on the Sosa McGuire.

And from what I've read on social media, I'll tell you for what it's worth. Yes. It doesn't have nearly the staying power that the other, you know, again, last dance is just a hard one to top. I did watch the first half hour. I took a sleeping pill last night because I've had a little bit of neck soreness and just tired. So I fell asleep. So I have it on the DVR.

But I saw Adam Wexer gave it a review of just two baseballs out of five. I did see that, yes. A lot of people said they just wasn't very good. And that from what I understand, the last 20 minutes of this two-hour event was basically about their steroid use when frankly, the whole reason why there was a home run battle in 1998 was because the steroid of these two guys using them. And you had Joe Georgia saying yesterday, this documentary is a Jamarcus Russell-sized bust. Which would mean it's a zero star, right?

I didn't watch it at all. And I saw people tweeting about it. I haven't recorded. I was going to watch it. But now I'm like, should I even want to bother wasting my time? If y'all saw it yesterday, the whole thing, let us know. Again, the first 20 minutes of it before I fell asleep, Ross, was littered with highlights of these gigantic. can't take home runs. And that's the thing about 98, if you don't remember it, is that only were these two guys hitting home runs, but they were hitting moon rockets. I mean, Bush Stadium was never considered, the old Bush stadium was never considered at Paul Park

that was good for hitters. It was always a pitcher's park. Now, Wrigley Field, depending on how the wind would go, would be a pitcher's park sometimes and would be a hitter's park, the other. But those two guys, I mean, for Sammy to hit 20, with 20 home runs in a month of June alone. So, yeah, it was excited.

did I get caught up in it? Absolutely, because baseball, you know, less than five years before that, had ended the season prematurely and didn't have a champion, and the whole sport sucked. And having the Cubs and the Cardinals in the same division of the Astros, you saw those two guys playing the Astros all the time. So, hell, we probably, and then at that time still, I think the Cubs were on WGN,

so you could still see 100 plus games of theirs. So I'm guilty of buying into all of it, but I wasn't going in the Cardinals' locker I'm looking for creatine or looking for the juice or the stick or the pen or not even like that. But it got me going. And then I just watched this thing last night. Like, this is nice, but I've heard every play-by-play Cardinal and Cub announcer call a home run. It felt like the entire first half hour of the show was all about that.

I want to know the good stuff. Like, who gave it to you? What made you decide to do it? Yada, yada. And I also wanted to see how bleached Sammy Sosa is. And apparently he's quite bleached. Yeah, he's very, very bleached. leached. He's quite, I would say pink. It's almost like, uh, looks like peptobismol.

Peptobismol. Side note. Yes. You take it supposed to coat your stomach? I guess. It makes me sick right away. Really? Yeah, it's like, you know how sometimes when you have an upset stomach, you just need to throw up? Nausea, heartburn, upset stomach, diarrhea, indigestion. Yeah. You know how you just you throw up you feel better? Yes. I take that and an omnacly says, Matt, go to the bathroom as soon as you So you can go throw up. Well, maybe it's like a mental trigger for you, Matt. It could be. Maybe because you only reason you smell it, and the only reason you take it is because you have a bad stomach.

It's maybe taking it makes you feel worse. Yeah. Smelling it makes you, it's like a Pavlovian response. Same thing with Alka-Seltzer. Sickness. Al-Ca-Seltzer. Oh, there you go. I cannot digest Alka-Seltzer.

I think we're getting to the bottom of this, Matt. What is it? You associate the smell and the taste of those things with sickness, so that's why they make you even more sick. I get rid of it, and then I'm fine the rest of the day. Okay. So thank you, Pepto Bismol, for trying to coat my stomach, but in fact, you're just making me want to lift it out of there. And that'll be enough for Vomit Talk for the radio show today. Thank you, Matt.

We appreciate that. I'll have to show you a different side of me once in a while. 1998 was also when the Astros had that, I mean, first of all, they had Kerrywood 20K game. Right. And also, they were a great team, traded for Randy Johnson, and then ran into Kevin Brown in the playoffs. And that entire ridiculous Sterling Hitchcock, San Diego Padre. I would love to watch a documentary on the 1998 Astros. One of the drunkenest nights in my entire life was 1998.

We went to a sports bar called SRO over there. Standing room only at Gessner and Westheimer. Okay. We used to go to, yeah, my dad used to take us to those for various sporting events. I think we went there for a Rockets Championship game for finals game. We had a station event there, and I had a few pops. Uh-huh. And had a few more pops.

And then they said, hey, Matt, the guy owned the play said, hey, get on the microphone and get everybody fired up. And I'm like, that's not going to happen. Okay. And then? So you get on there? No, I didn't get on there. Oh, dang. So then the game ended.

I don't know if they lost her one. I don't really remember. How many ladies you take home? I was married at the time. Oh. So one. Okay. So Kim and I, with some other friends, went to another bar because, you know, after 11 beers, you need to have

one mortars to kind of tie everything up nicely. You get an even dozen. It was a place called the hideaway. The hideaway and Dunvale? Yep. Really? Got there. Had way too much to drink.

Uh-huh. And decided that I needed to join their band. Yes. They still, I don't know if they're still going, but they, the hideaway and Dunvale. Don't know.

Got up there. Didn't ask for me to go up there. You just waltzed up there? I waltzed up there. grab that instrument that the one that knew how to play. That would be the tambourine. The tambourine

and play beautifully for 15 to 20 minutes. Are you sure it's beautiful? I thought I was right on tune. You probably were way off beat. No, no. I was definitely on beat. Because all the people were like,

yeah, man, you're on beat. They call you the human metronome. And that's what I remember about the 1998 season except the fact the Astero's loss in series and probably the greatest Astro team until the 2017 squad. arguably for sure.

Yeah, 98 to me. Is it 98-04? I think the 0-4 team was better than 05 team, honestly. I would agree with you on that. Yeah, I would go 17, 19, 18, no, I'd go 17-98, 19, then 0-4-05. I got a hot take for you.

19 might be better than all of them. The best. Oh, with Garrett Cole in the front end? Mm-hmm. How did the Astros lose then? Cole Grinky Verlander in that lineup of Yordon Alvarez coming up. I don't know, Matt. Breggman-Altoeve-Corea. Oh, that's enough.

Now I'm excited for that 50-game season after all. So we can take it to the H, right? Take it to the age. For the age. They're not taking it to the H. They're not going to Home Depot. I want to give somebody the age. I can tell you that right now.

7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. I'm really mad at baseball for giving us this 50-game crappy schedule we're about to find that. And by the way, the players say they want the answers from the owners by the close of business today, which would be what in the Eastern Times on 5 o'clock. So we're talking about three hours, right? They want the close of business today what they're going to do for the 2020 season. Will they do that?

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Talk 790. One last thing about the Mark McGuire thing. So, a story from Barstool, a guy by the name of Phil Ozerki, Ozerski,

he caught McGuire's 70th home run ball. He was going to give the Cardinals that 70th home run ball. He wanted in return a sign bat, sign ball, signed jersey, and a chance to meet McGuire.

Okay. Mark McGuire said no. That's rude. Ozerski said, screw you, I'll take the baseball. He did. Guy was making $30,000 a year,

sold the ball three months later after the 70th home run for $3.05 million. That's Sotheby's or what? I don't know what that was with. I mean, was Sotheby's a big deal? I guess they were back in the 90s, yeah. The eBay was just getting started up.

Why would he be such a jerk? him being McGuire. Why would you want that baseball? Well, I'm sure Mr. Ozersky or what it doesn't mind. Ozarsky? Yeah. O-Z-E-R-S-K-Y. Okay.

Why would he want it? Why would he be such a gibronomian? Or the happiest moments of his life, supposedly. I don't know. Is that something not covered in the documentary? No, again, I got to go back and look. I think the guy Ozersky was in the documentary. Somebody was in there.

No, the guy who bought the ball for $3 million. By way, that's terrible. investment, right? Yeah, because I mean, it's certainly not worth $3 million. First of all, if you're buying anything memorabilia-wise, even in 2020, you're going to lose money on it. I mean, that thing went way down in value, first of all, when Barry Bonds hit 73. Correct. That's what I'm saying.

At some point, if you were in the steroids area, wouldn't you be a little nervous that somebody was going to top 70, especially when you had Barry Bonds starting to cross the ball the way he was? And Sammy Sosa could have very easily done it the next year. Mark McGuire could have done it the next year. There are a lot of a help. If Brady Anderson was hitting 51 home runs, in the season, you knew somebody else is going to be in the mix to try to go for that kind

of record. And that somebody was Barry Bond's. Although, you know, Barry Bonds never hit 50 before that or after. Yeah. And it was the cream not the clear, right? Or was it the clear not the clear? I think he's cream and the clear, right? Or he's flaxseed oil, as he called it.

Okay. All right, Barry, whatever you got? All right, so J.J. Watt, over the weekend, responded to somebody on Twitter talking about taking the knee. and he came back and said, first of all, you don't speak for me. And second of all, the knee and the flag are not one and the same. They mean different things. Didn't you know anything?

And basically he said, did you not learn something from three years ago? I want to say, Ross, this is going to be the first time. You correct me if I'm wrong on this. Is this the first time that JJ Watt has had to face any sort of backlash on Twitter for something he has done? Now, there have been people that were questioning where the money was going for all the money he raised. Yeah, that's true. But that's just jerky people.

They just thought it. Well, there was a, what are you doing with it? Why aren't you telling us what you're doing with it? When indeed, he has spent a lot of that money and continues to spend that. No one's, no, the IRS is not chasing after JJ Watt and how he's, all those monies that, those monies have been or accumulated and or spent. Mm-hmm. And JJ can be a little hokey with things. He's corny.

He's corny. He's corny. He just is. call it. But there was never any serious backlash. There's going to be a certain sense of being on Twitter you're going to be snarky. This is the first time I think in his career that legitimately, if you look at his timeline, after that tweet, half of America thinks he is awesome for what he said. And there are, there's about half of the people on there that said, JJ, I thought you and I stood for the same thing when it came to what the flag meant. And he said, he said, you and I stood for the same thing

when it came to what the flag meant. And he's faced backlash to it. And however you side, that's really on you, that's not from Ross and I to decide and what you think it is. I'm just talking about it as an example of the first time that JJ's life, you know how JJ is very self-conscious

about how he's treated in public and how he's perceived. Yes. This has to be the first time that he's faced any backlash for any tweet he's ever said. Because most tweets are like, hey, I'm hanging out with my girl

or hey, I want, one of those cheeseburgers too. Update. We're locked out of the cabin in Wisconsin or whatever. This is the first time he's gone out there, and I wonder how he's handling that. I don't know. I mean, it was good. He had to have known that what he said was going to cause not everybody to agree with him.

Well, he said, don't speak for me. If you still think it's about disrespecting the flag or our military, you clearly haven't been listening. I have no issue with that. But others do. Yes, clearly. Yeah. And again, it's not for us to decide whether you should have an issue with it.

I'm just saying this is interesting that this is the first time that JJ has really tried to go out there and say something like that because he had to have known that not everybody was going to agree with him. So I don't know if it's a change in who he is or he's trying to appeal to a group that didn't appeal to him before. But I don't think it's going to affect his image except if he's one of those athletes that looks at every one of his Twittermen. If he is one of those players that is very self-conscious about what is being said about him on social media, he's probably in for, not I wouldn't say a rude awakening, but hey, this is not the JJ that we're normally accustomed to. Because there's a lot of people on it, and I didn't. It took me two minutes to look through it. I wasn't spending a whole lot time on it, but because I wanted to see what his reaction was.

And the reaction is, some of it is, man, bravo for you. Glad you figured it out. The other half are like, man, JJ. Because I have a lot of people that I look on Facebook in the same situation. 50% Bravo JJ for doing what you're doing 50% are like JJ I thought you were better than that It is split right down the middle It's pretty funny

There's people calling him a sellout And tell him to sit this one out And then people saying I'm a veteran I support you and I mean he hadn't even sat He hadn't even kneeled or done anything yet Yeah What is there as a sport Except for him saying you don't speak for me

And it's not disrespecting the flag or military Which it isn't That's about social injustice nobody's protesting the military I would hope not they're there to support us I'm just saying that everybody has opinions on it and I think people

gravitate those people that you agree with and I think that a lot of people that were the flag taking any is disrespectful thought that JJ was on their side and I think it was a surprise that he didn't think he doesn't think that way or maybe he has a change of philosophy the guy was the previous tweet it's since been deleted and the guy has changed his Twitter handle

saying you wouldn't see you wouldn't see JJ Watt kneeling because he's the All-American poster boy, I guess, or whatever. Yeah. I just think it was an interesting example of an athlete going out there that probably wasn't normally doing that and seeing what kind of reaction he got. All right.

This final hour of the show, we've got to get to the NFL. Is it breaking news today? Yeah, I would say it's breaking news, right? I would say so. We got some news on some players, unnamed, except maybe one of them. The Major League Baseball and the, The Yankees are going to have the filed appeal today to get that letter sealed that shows them what exactly the Yankees may or may have done wrong in 2017.

We'll have it for you as well. And Tim and Fratita, the owner of the Houston Rockets will be with us in about 35 minutes. And Rossi, the return of believe it or not, all things about the 1994-1995 NBA champion Houston Rockets. So if you know your game on that, you have a chance to win. Are you ready for this? A $50 gift card to our friends at Hooters? It's all coming up in the final hour of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. If you want to get in, you are welcome to do so.

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They go 10 to 6 on Saturdays. That's Shaw's Dury at West Gray and Montrose. Your home for your home teams. This is Sports Talk 790. From the classic Chevy Sugarland Studios. Find new rocks. Yes! Is the Matt Thomas show.

Well, apparently HIPAA's trending on Twitter at 2 o'clock. Final hour, Matt Thomas Show Sports Talk 790 with Ross. I'm Matt. We are very happy to have you with us. A half hour from now, we'll visit with Rockets owner Timon Fertita about his memories of the 1995 championship as we celebrate Clutch City the anniversary 25 years ago yesterday. The Rockets win their second championship. If you want to get in today, 713-212-5-790, 7-13-212-5-790 on Twitter. SportsMT at SportsRV and at Brendan Riley underscore.

Ross, why is HIPAA trending here at 2 o'clock? Well, because one, Ezekiel Elliott, amongst others, tested positive for the coronavirus, several Cowboys players, several Texans players. Stop. Several Texans players. Correct. Houston Texans players. Yep.

The only name that has been leaked out, though, has been that of Ezekiel Elliott, who tweeted out HIPAA, question mark, question mark at 1241. And then he followed that tweet up when it came out that, hey, I mean, it was your agent, Rocky Arsinoe. Yes. Do we have he clarified whether or not he passed the bar? We have not. We don't know if Rocky Arsino pass the bar, but he is head of the Alliance Sports Agency, which has Ezekiel Elliott amongst others as a client.

He says, my agent didn't break the story to the media. My agent only confirmed. But also, even forgiving that, apparently HIPAA only requires hospitals, doctors, and insurance. companies to keep health information private. It doesn't have to do with employers. It doesn't have to do with agents. It doesn't have to do with anything other than that. Houston Texans releasing a statement a few minutes ago.

In accordance with both federal and local privacy laws, the Houston Texans are unable to comment on the personal health of our players and staff. We are following all CDC, local and NFL guidelines to ensure members of our organization stay safe while maintaining limited facility access. Sounds very official. It does. Very formal. a lawyer. I'm sure. A lawyer reviewed that.

And very, do not call me again asking for players. Or names, yes. Yeah. We're going to get some, there's going to be some kind of leakage on that at some point, right? Who's going to leak it, though? Somebody to a reporter. And then that player has to go to and go HIPAA? Well, yeah, that's true.

Apparently, as long as the hospital. There was an issue with Adam Schaefter getting, didn't he get somebody's, like, doctor's report or something like that? And there was a HIPAA issue there. Because if that's, if you're getting a. doctors, it was like a whole, it was in an x-ray. I can't remember what it was. It might have been an x-ray.

Sounds about right. It was a doctor's report or something like that. If that leaks out, that's a HIPAA violation because the hospital's not supposed to leak anything out. No. If it's somebody saying the name, like if it comes out, I don't know, it's Justin Reed or somebody, whoever. Some Texans player, that's not a HIPAA violation, unless the hospital leaks it or a health care provider or a doctor leaks it. All right. So that is headline number one, which made me.

I give 43,000 stars on this, right? It's pretty major. No, no, it dropped it to $45,000. No, no, it dropped it to $43,000. Oh, you dropped it to $43,000. $43,000 prediction. The NFL season will not start on time. Okay.

Well, we're in June. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's possible. Do we know what kind of, have we heard anything about their protocols and stuff like that? I guess as far as wiping everything down when they come back and we're going to go engage in training camp. So baseball has a 72 page report. You 67. Why don't I say 72?

Did somebody cut some of the pages out? There was a 72 game season being discussed. Oh, okay. 67 page in Major League Baseball. Apparently the NBA is going to be 125 pages. They're adding layers to it. How? Why? What?

120. What's in this document? Are you going to read it all once it comes out? No. You skim it? I will let Adrian Woodson around and give us the big bullet points. Shams will look at every bit of it. Shams will get a bottle of wine, some cheese and grapes.

You think so? And he will wrap his mitts around 125 pages. You think he's a wine and cheese guy? No, I'm just saying he's trying to cut back because he's eating a lot of heavy carbs these days. Okay. Well, you know, it'll probably be somebody lower level. Wodge isn't going to have to come through this 120. Oh, no, no.

If you're going to be the permanent guy when it comes in news, you've had to read through it yourself. You know, let Ramona Shelburne or somebody read through it. And then just retweet what she has to say. Well, it doesn't have time to read 122 pages. He's breaking news. Give me the report on it. Come on now. All right.

So that is the story is that they're going to release. least theirs pretty soon. We also have, we're supposed to, by the end of the day, today, supposed to have the MLB owner's response to the players saying,

not only we're not going to accept this latest deal, let's just go ahead and play the season you want us to play, and we want the details of what that season is going to be by the close of business today. It scared me.

What was that? It's 24, Matt. It's a little louder than I wanted. I know, it startled me. Oh, you know what you were trying to play? You're trying to play the 24 seconds. The clock. The clock is ticking, Matthew.

Show them where the clock. Oh, you want the old cheesy clock that Matt likes? I'm sorry, Matt. I'm not familiar with your drops before me. Well, maybe you should if you're going to work the show. Learn the clock. There it is. That's the clock.

Oh, mine is way better. What game show is this from? Every one of them. Is it? It's really from the pyramid. Okay, so there you go. Matt likes old game show stuff. Do you really think that's better than the one that I used?

All right, listen to yours. Go ahead. Yeah. I like mine better. Get a cleaner fee. Maybe it'll help me change my mind. It does sound a little distorted. That's okay, Matt. The point is the clock is taking on Majorly Baseball. It is, but the owners don't have to play by the Major League Baseball Players' rules.

Tony Clark says we want it by the end of business today. Major League Baseball, like, suck it. We're the owners. Well, they want something as quick as possible so they know and they can get ready and, I don't know, get their throwing programs going or whatever. I'm going to ask you this every single day until they step on the field. Tell me the morale of the players. Convince me they're not going to be like, okay, we're going to play. That's, but this is going to be crap baseball.

You think they're going to be soft tossing? No, I mean, I'm not saying they're going to be out there treating it like as a beer league softball game. Yeah, I was going to say, is Justin Verlander going to be serving up meatballs? So is ERA's 12? No, I just think that the whole thing is going to be walk on the diamond, play the game, walk off, closed door. There's going to be no love of the sport. And baseball is the summer

of sports love, right? These players love the sport. I think on the field, it's going to be fine. Off the field, I agree with you that it'll not have the same feel. But I think the product is still going to be good. These guys still have, I mean, some of them are going to be free agents next year. They're going to want to

be at their best and be in shape. And I don't think like a, you know, these guys, think of the Astros. I mean, Jose Altuvei loves baseball. He's not going to go out there in half-asset. I just don't believe that. Same thing for Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Justin Verlender,

Zach Grinke. But how are we supposed to sink our teeth into a 48-50 games season? Seriously. I think a weekend we'll just be watching. It'll just be like baseball. We won't be thinking about how it's almost over. We'll just be thinking about, hey, I'm watching games. That's how I'm going to be.

And if you lose three or four games in a row, oh my God, you're in serious jeopardy making the blocks. Every game is going to mean that much more, and it's going to be that much more important. it's going to be weird without fans. Apparently, so. There was a W.W.E thing, Matt, and they piped in noise and people hated it.

Yeah. Then they put a few fans. They put a few employees in and they're already around the ring now. So there is crowd noise, but it's legitimate crowd noise. It's paid employees that are just yelling. Oh, I thought it was, I thought I read it was piped in or something.

No, I'm talking about what I see on Monday nights. Okay. You may be right, but I just don't see it. I don't need crowd noise. When you watch the Korean baseball league, which we're not watching, really, but do you, How does a KT. Wizz looking, Matt?

They're competitive. Okay. I can't even much more than that. I haven't spent a whole lot of time on that. But ultimately, when you watch a few minutes of that, do you go, man, I really wish I could hear the roar of the crowd? Not really. I think that's probably the, of all the things we've talked about this summer, at least so far, the most overblown is having crowd noise. When LeBron James goes for a big slam dunk and we're all watching it on television, we're going to love it.

Well, maybe not love it, but you know what I'm saying. Joe Buck disagrees with it. He thinks he needs crowd noise to call a game. See, I think if you add too much cry noise, it becomes overly artificial. Isn't it kind of, it fits Joe Buck's style, though, because he's not a big talker. He doesn't, honestly, he's not like rising to the occasion and belting out a big long call. He's kind of, he's a man of few words on the call. And I think the crowd noise is kind of, I don't want to say a crutch for him.

He just, it's something that he uses more than most. Hmm. I had not thought of it then. way. Would a play-by-played broadcaster use the crowd noise as a crutch? I guess you could after saying something like, you know, the crowd is elated. It's a 15-3 rocket run. You're not going to have that.

I don't know. I don't want it. I don't want an official crowd noise. I wouldn't money either. That's going to be the weirdest hump to get it. Because let me tell you've watched lots of college games on television, right? Mm-hmm. Like when I watch my bulletin.

love at Houston Cougars play East Carolina in Greenville, North Carolina. There's a thousand people there. Is my love of the Cougars less because they're playing in a front of a small crowd in Greenville, North Carolina? No. I wouldn't think so. Now, is it fun to hear the energy of a jam-packed Tota Center or American Airlines Center? Of course it is, but we don't get that this year. Yeah, it's going to, we have to take what we can get.

Yeah. What's the average crowd of a beefo Brady's bowl? Oh, how about the Bahamas Bowl? Yeah. Who's going out to the Bahamas? I mean, the Memphis Tigers were a surprise football team last year. They didn't draw flies. What is the crowd like at a pop-up?

And why is Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen sponsoring the Bahamas Bowl? Because you get Popeyes in every... Isn't Popeyes in every state, basically? Probably. I bet I'd get a Popeye's in New York. Jersey? Washington State. A West Virginia, if you will.

No, I'm hungry. God, I go for a two-piece spicy right now. Red beans and a biscuit? Oh, unsweet tea. Some will say something. sweet. I know. The sweet tea at Popeyes is quite good. Sometimes a little too sweet, though. Yeah, I just don't want any sweetness at all.

I understand. All right. Lastly, the third major headline of the day, the Yankees and Major League Baseball have appealed the judge Jed Rakoff's decision, R-A-O-F-F Rack-O-F's decision

to unsteal a 2017 letter sent by Rob Manfred to Brian Cashman. What's in it? We don't know. No. Yankee apologists are saying, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. The rest of us, meaning logically thinking baseball fans, like, if there's nothing wrong with it, then send it to us.

Let us see it for ourselves. Because Ross, I'll be the first one to tell you. If there's nothing wrong in that letter and the Yankees did nothing wrong, then I will stop accusing the Yankees of cheating in 2017. We can do that right as responsible sports fans. I mean, they were cheaters. They got fine for something. So they did cheat in 2017.

Well, let's find out what it is. Because some reports say they were three different cameras placed all throughout Yankee Stadium. Yes, it was a former player said that. What was the guy's name? Was it Blackjack McDowell? Or was that when he was with the white socks? Yeah, it was the, no, that wasn't. Somebody, we'll try to find it.

All I'm saying is, if you did nothing wrong, I'll accept that. If you did, let me see it so we can crucify you because Rob Manford, Certainly didn't crucify you and certainly didn't crucify the Boston Red Sox. 713, 212, 579. 713, 212, 5790. Tilling 14 of the owner of the Rockets to join us in about 18 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join us again, 713, 212, 579. At 2.13, a message for Big City wings.

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If you like chicken tenders, you get them at a dollar apiece. Really big, juicy chicken tender sauce and toss the way that you want to in your favorite sauce. those are $1 each in any of the eight Big City Wing locations. Go out for dinner tonight. You don't feel like cooking at summertime. And again, if you need a crawfish fix, you better get to Big City Wings while crawfish is still there. And it remains to be a huge surprise and a big gathering for a lot of people looking for delicious crawfish. Five pounds, $25 at Big City Wings.

Find them online at Big City Wings.com. 25 years and still clutch. The Rockets Olympia Champions. Oh, sweetly it is. And the Rocket. bring home the Larry Online trophy. Celebrating the Rockets back-to-back

championships. Oh, we're going to get to take part in the celebration. On your home of the Rockets, Sports Talk 790. Does anybody know the origin of where this song came from? It's like a German techno club song or whatever. Acapella.

They ever make the weekly top 40? That's quite frankly. If I mean, totally honest with you, Matt. don't do it don't it's kind of a lame song it is not a lame song it fits perfectly

now I have great memories of the song I love the song it will always have a place in my heart it's a lame European techno song from the night but here's the thing it makes you

first of all what makes it lame because here's the thing when you hear it you immediately think of the rockets and the best time they ever had in their history of course franchise

I just mean on its own if it didn't have that connotation if it were just on its own if you had no memories of the rockets you think what you say is a great song made from Germany right exactly that's what I'm saying

so you're not destroying the song you're destroying the genre the type of song I don't know maybe there's a good German techno song I haven't heard one yet I'm just saying if if we're on its own if it had no connotation of the rockets

you wouldn't really have it wouldn't have a place in your heart I think Siri agreed I think Van Halen's right now is a good song on its own. I think the intro to Sirius, the Allen Parsons Project would stand on its own as a decent intro song. The Aerosmith's Dream On,

we love because of the Rockets thing. So it's good and paired with that. It's also good on its own. Standing on its own, the Acapella song is not good. All right. How about this? We put this to the Rockets lineup.

Yeah, this song, what about it? It's time. Senators are starting lineup. for the Western Conference Champion, Houston Rockets. At Guard, 6, 7 from Houston, number 22. Wait, this is working. Clyde the Glyde, Tricksler. The other guard, 6-3 from North Carolina, number 30.

Kenny Smith. What do you think? And one forward, 6-5 from America International, number 17. May. The other forward 610 from Alabama, number 25. And at center, seven feet from the University of Houston, the dream. Akeem Olajuwon.

So just replace Acapella with this. What do you think? That's what I'm saying. You're making my point. But this song is catchy because of the Saturday Night Live skit. You see, you're bobbing your head left or right. because you watched the skit. It wasn't because the song

is all of a sudden this particularly catching a song. This song's actually not that bad though. How about for Halloween this year you and I go with these guys? You got to know it's a second and most successful studio album by Italian Euro dance act

Capella. So it is European Eurodance music. Legendary status. Well, let's not get crazy. Hmm. What do you think? Hey, Coach of Iraq. It's Rudy Tach-Cettovich.

This works. This might even be better actually than the actual Capella song. I might rather have this one. All right. Now that you got me thinking, we're going to put some new songs behind it. Okay. Because when we celebrate the 30th anniversary, you're still going to hate Acapella.

Again, just for the record, Ross hates everything about the 1995 Rockets. That's not true. I love everything about the Rockets. All right. 713-212-579. There's nothing a radio show in the marketplace that can put what is love behind the rock introductions. They're just not. 7-13-212-5-790.

If you want to reach out through Twitter, at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and Brendan Riley. Phone lines available as well, Matthew. They've been really available all day long. All day long. Matter of fact, let's check. What's your favorite moment in the 1995 championships? Line 1, go ahead, please.

Ross, a damn technical problems in line 1 again. A lot of technical snafews, as you like to say. A lot of snafus. Line 2-year-on-Rocket championship talk. That's all right. People just sit back and relax and enjoy it. Of course, I can't turn the phone off. All right. Tima Petitia is going to join us in a couple of seconds.

Real quick, did you see who was out getting a little bit of an accident? A current NFL superstar quarterback? There was a jet ski incident, correct? Right. First of all, if you're a franchise quarterback, if you're a franchise player else, you can under no circumstance be on a jet ski. I'm one of those people that is vigilant about it. They absolutely cannot be on there.

So Lamar Jackson is fine, according to a tumbling over a jet ski and a video posted on social media. First of all, stop going to social media. And if you're a friend of Lamar Jackson, you're on skiing with him, let him be. Apparently, the quarterback is running with a football on the beach following colliding, before colliding with a parked jet ski and falling headfirst into the water. What? Oh, he had a parked one? He had a parked jet ski and fell on the water.

What the hell was he doing? He was playing with about a half dozen other people. Ross, no social distancing. Yeah, that's correct. Later, he posted a video on his own Instagram story. Oh, I just watched the video. And? Well, first of all, he's faster than everyone on this beach.

The video starts with Jackson faking someone off his feet. Yes. Okay, here we go. And let men see it. At the 15, at the 10, at the 5. He's over a crash. It crashes into a park. God.

So he wasn't jet skiing, so that's good. That's right. Put that post up on the old What's on Match Mine Show page. The What's on Match Mine Show page. I'll see what I can do. Man. Yeah, do you agree with me that you don't get on any of those things?

No jet skis. I don't know. How dangerous is. I've actually never driven a jet ski by myself. I think I've been on the back of one when I was younger. How dangerous is that? I've driven one time and I never done it before, and so I was so nervous that your muscle.

that you don't normally use. You tighten up, yeah. Tighten up. I was tight for like three days. Hmm. So let me tell you a very fast marital story. You ready for marital story? Okay.

Before we get the tellment for Tina. So Kim has been on the water all of her life. And we were dating at the time. We were engaged. And from San Antonio? Yeah, I mean, there's lakes. Okay. I mean, there's other bodies of water except the Gulf of Mexico.

So she is a, she knows what she's doing on a water, on a jet ski. So we went on a two-person one, and I could not stay balanced. We kept falling over. I was poor. at the time. She was probably getting mad at you, too. There's the story. So I eventually, we try four or five times, and I say, I give up.

I get off the jet ski, and I go back to the clubhouse, where I partake in probably four or five beers in about 20 minutes. I mean, I'm knocking them back like it's water. And I'm sitting here at the bar by myself, stewing over how embarrassed I am, but I can't get on this water ski and this thing sucks. And I said, I'm sitting myself. If Kim comes in here and rips me a new one, I'm going to break off the engagement. Oh, I was.

Really? This is a legendary Thomas story, by the way. So I'm just pounding beers one after the other. She comes back and says, are you okay? I felt so bad for you. I said, we're going to get married. That's when you said, this is the one. This is, I mean, I'd already proposed to her, but I knew that it was the right decision I made.

So you wanted her to feel sorry for you rather than... Correct. Because it would have been easier for her to make fun of me. Like, listen, you beach whale. Get on this jet ski and stay on it for three or four seconds. She was such a good sport. And I knew we were destined to be married. Well, she projected she was going to live the fancy Matt lifestyle.

She wanted to keep that in play. Oh, for no question. No question. She did it to make sure that she could take care of. She'll be the first one to tell you that. All right. 26 here on the Matt Thomas show. We're scheduled to have Tillman Furtina join us in a couple of seconds.

Believe it or not, all things about the 94-95 championship team in about 25 minutes right here on Sports Talk 790. All right, let's say hi to the owner of the Houston Rockets joining us here on the show. Timman Fetter for, I think, a second or third time here on the program. Tillman, it's Matt. Good afternoon. How are things? Hey, Matt, what's going on? Just hanging in there, ready for some basketball.

Amen to that. I want to ask you, because the first time I ever think I ever met you in person, you were getting, you were on top of a billboard at Landry's on Westheimer, and you was for a cover of a magazine. And I think I was like, is that Tillman getting a picture? That had to have been around the championship time. So what was Tellman-Fortita's life like growing the restaurant industry back in 1995 when the Rockers were winning a second championship? Well, I had just taken my company public, and I was two years removed from trying to buy the Rockets, me and John Moors. And because I had been a limited partner with Charlie Thomas from 82 to 92 and, you know, less outbidness by a few million dollars.

And, you know, it seemed like a lot of money, which it is still a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. You know, $80 million. But 2.2 billion 25 years later is a lot more. So, but it was great. I had taken my company public. and it was a great run, and then I took it private again in 210. And, you know, the rest is history.

The rockets have been successful, and I've been successful, and hopefully today we can be successful together. Any minute of that. Did the minority ownership help you at all, or is it such a different way of living life and running a business when you own the sports team as compared to being a minority owner? It's so different, Matt. It's, you know, I was a partner in the Texans, too,

but I had to sell when I bought the Golden Nugget Casino in Vegas. And then it's so different. It's just so different. And I think one of the reasons that you had some say-so, but not as much say-so as you might have thought you deserved or that you had. And I think one of the reasons that, you know, we haven't had even much turnover here at the Rocket since I've owned it now for three years is that people love just having one owner to talk to.

And you don't have to, hey, we want to do this. And, you know, it's just Tillman saying, sure, absolutely. Whatever y'all think is best. Y'all have the professionals, that's what you do. You don't have to go talk to four other partners to do it. And, you know, that's what Daryl tells me. That's what Tad tells me. And that's what other people there tell me.

Timmer Fertita with us here on the Matt Thomas show at 235. for us being Cougars, you and I, to not only have the rocket celebrating this championship, but two key cogs, Elijah Juan and Drexler, what was that like for you as a fan? Because you were really more as much of a fan as we were, and I was obviously doing the PA back then, to have those two guys wearing rocket gear that had such close connections to the campus to win a championship for our city. I mean, it's been a long time, but memories are still rather vivid. You know, it was magical. I mean, it really was magical, you know. was it just a few years later when then like Jack Pardy, you know, went from the Cougars to the Oilers and had a couple of good years?

And it was, there was just this great connection between the University of Houston and, and, and pro sports. But that watch Akeem go from University of Houston, you know, to then this unbelievable Hall of Fame, you know, truly it's starting to come out now when people are realizing and it's almost like the last dance. People get it, how great, because they're talking about it, is how great Elijah one was, and that he really is, you know, one of the top 10 players of all time and not top 50. But for Klein, it's just magical, especially after, you know, the biggest upset, probably in the history of the NCAA tournament was when North Carolina State, you know, beat us on that flute play at the end because we couldn't hit a feed-threat. But at the same time, I mean, people forget how great that Cougar game, that Cougar team was,

and for the two of those guys not to bring a championship to the University of Houston, but then brought it to the Houston Rockets and the University of Houston a few years later. Yeah, no question about that. You have Dream as a guest occasionally with you at the games. Much basketball talk, much life talk without getting too descriptive. Can you tell us what some of the chatter between yourself and Dream is when you guys are sitting they're watching the game. You know, usually basketball, but you know, the dream is, has always been a great businessman, too, and he loves to talk business, and we talk deals

and real estate, and, you know, it's kind of funny. Him and I did a few deals with each other many years ago, and, and so we talk business, we talk basketball. He has his opinion on certain players and you know he's just a he's just an icon and just a wonderful man uh that's that's an understanding of tima fat fat thomas show tell me just kind of give us an update if you can uh it feels like adam sovers got a tremendous pulse of not only you as with the board of governors but his players as well uh how often are you guys meeting in terms of zooms and and phone calls and how do you feel like even though we've had a little bit of uh conversation the last couple days just generally about the July 30th restart.

And is everything going according to plan as far as you see it? You know, it's going according to plan. And, you know, I think it was everybody deciding this is the best plan. And, you know, I don't know if the plan's going to work. No. You know, I think it's going to be hard to keep these guys in one facility for, you know, a few months. And but that's the thing.

plan. We'll see how it goes. And the plans don't always work out. But let's hope this one does. Man, seriously, if the biggest problem is staying in Orlando to go win an NBA championship, I'd like to be able to tell PJ, hey, this will be worth it, or James and those guys? How often do you talk to the guys? And punch, can you have conversations about how are things going, what you're doing to stay in shape, and what they're thinking about is the return is pretty close? You know, not a lot of conversations. I've had conversation with a good group of them. And, you know, it's exciting. And just to start playing again, it feels like it's a new season, but it isn't. But, you know, we have as good a chance as anybody. I mean, you know, Vegas odds and all the odds out there basically show us right behind Milwaukee, the Clippers and the Lakers. And, you know, when you look at how. how good our team is, you know, when you think about that, you know, you have Russ and and James who want this and TJ and Eric and Covington.

And it's just a really good team. And then you have House and Rivers. And, you know, when you start looking at our eight-man rotation, you just go, wow, you know, this is pretty darn good. And, hey, I'll take a championship any year. you know, I can't tell you in football, basketball, or baseball, you know, who was the team that wanted in those shortened years? And because when you look it up, that was the NBA, MLV, and NFL champion in those years. I don't think anybody could tell you who the three short and season champions were in the last 30 years.

Well, part of the reason why I don't like to use the asterisk when it comes to the NBA is you're going to play eight games. And frankly, Tim, one through y'all's agreement, you're going to play me playing full playoff series. There's nothing gimmicky about the return. It's just unfortunate that you won't be able to do it in the home arenas. Yeah, that really is. And what you're saying is right. I think it'll make it, you know, a little more interesting that it is in a neutral site. But there is nothing gimmicky because the teams that are to be in the playoffs

are the teams that we're going to be in the playoffs and not shortening, you know, where somebody can get lucky. and I, you know, I personally, I like the short and series, because I think, especially in the first round, I mean, and Matt, you know this. I mean, we beat the Lakers twice in the last, what, 30 years is because of the mini-series, wasn't it, the two out of threes? And, you know, once when Ralph hit the shot and then another one was, I don't even remember who it was. But, you know, we beat the Lakers twice in too many series when they had the better team. So that's just my opinion. But this year we're doing four out of seven and four out of seven and there's nothing gimmicky about it.

Yeah. Before I let you run, provided that we get everybody down to Orlando and competing in this thing, I mean, how much access have you been allowed will owners be able to? I mean, I know there's going to be some strict policies about a number of people getting down there and who can go in the campus and who not. I mean, what have you been told? Because, I mean, look, you're almost every one of the home games. I see you or Patrick or somebody in the family in almost every road game.

I mean, you guys like to be there as often as you can. What restrictions have they talked to you about, about potentially seeing your team in person? The owners aren't going to have restrictions, okay? I mean, they're just not. I mean, the NBA is the owners and the players. and the players are going to have access, the owners are going to have access, and the players' families are going to have access, because that's the NBA.

And I think that's going to make the players feel great that their families, I believe, are going to be able to be at games, and the VIPs from each organization are going to be able to be at games. But that's not a lot of people. That's what you're talking about, a couple of hundred people. That's not a lot. I just saw the...

Not when you go around Houston, and you don't see a lot of social distancing going on right now. That doesn't seem like a lot. Yeah, I understand. Well, I'm glad that your businesses are back on their feet a little bit. I can tell you that the Thomas family has spent a little bit at the Golden Nugget. So congratulations on that. Good.

The best of luck. Getting this season starting, we'll look forward to talking with you very soon. Hey, thanks, guys. And it's great to think back and talk about those great nights. Two great teams. Absolutely. Ready for more of that in 2000. 20. Thanks to him for the time.

Hi, this is former running back of Herschel worker. You're listening to Matt Thomas on the Sports Talk 790. All right, so you got the music set. We're not going to play it just yet. It's like a teaser. It's like a trailer. Believe it or not trailer. And by the way, we're not going to judge you today because you've been to receive no formal training, Brendan, how to play this. No. I just gave him literally a 30-second crash course, and quite frankly,

it's going to be a... It's not you, Brendan. Just my hopes aren't high because it's a difficult game to run. He finished his crash course by saying you will mess up. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a question of how bad you'll mess up. So it's like, I'm going to give you a curve. You know, you know, you have tests like this is so difficult, but we're going to give you a curve on it. Yes. So the question is you just don't, you want the curve to be high enough to get at least a C. You're starting at a low F. Because it's just a bit, it's just a bitch of a play game to play. It's difficult. Matt is just so demanding and high maintenance. Hashtag demanding. Hashtag high maintenance. And we're using a machine that was built what in like the 50s? Don't give away company secrets like that. Honestly, I mean, that's just about as easy to use as anything.

It's probably the best option you have in there amongst the other systems that you could use. All right. Now we've set them up for complete failure. Now I'm getting a call from Waller, Texas. It's probably wanting you to do a hotel timeshare or some sort. Well, they probably won't want me on a Waller's sports leader since you're not available or something. Yeah, that's true. All right.

So happy anniversary, by the way, Akim Elijah one will be on with Adam and Adam coming up at 5 o'clock. The Dream. The Lajian? Yeah. Might have to have some of that on the nightcap tonight. Over Clyde Drexler? Well, I would think so, yeah. Okay. You probably play Clyde on the previous editions.

I don't play both. Yeah. I play Talman. So why even here? Just record the show and get out of here. I would not do that to you, folks. Hashtag the nightcap 6 to 7 on Sports Talk 7 out of. Ratings are good. Are they? Yeah, nightcaps doing well. I have not seen the number.

Okay, well, that's because I'm kidding to myself. Okay, very good. In my mind, they're great. Like the Saturday Sports RV show. Oh, wow, I was just killing it. All right. So tonight, tomorrow, are we going to have rules on the baseball season? Because, you know, that's what the Players Association demanded.

Will we have a season triggered by tomorrow? I will say yes. I will say no. I will say Major League Baseball is like, we're the bosses, not you. We'll tell you when we're ready. I mean, what they had to get ready about? They're going to do 100% proration. Or will they have a counter-prope?

Is that what they're going to do? No, I think the owners are being serious and saying, okay, you want to say what we're going to do? We need to think about it for a couple days. I'd be stunned it by 5 o'clock, which would be actually 4 o'clock our time. We would have what the 2020 season's going to be like. It'll be 5 o'clock somewhere, though. 52 games, higher or lower? Are you said right at the number?

I was going to say no. Make it 52 and a half and I'll go under. 52 and a half. 51.5. Oh, yeah. I'm sticking over. I'm making you stick with that. 52 games schedule.

It makes sense. All right, here we go. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? There we go. All right. So far, so good. It's time to once again play America's fastest growing sports game show.

We simply called it B, believe it or not. And here's our hours. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe-E-Liever-N-N-N-E-N-E. brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston WoodhouseSpas.com. That's Houston Woodhouse Spas.com.

Category today is all things about the 19904-95 NBA champion rockets. I'll read you a statement about those rockets. If the statement's completely utterly accurate, you'll say this. Not believe it. You'll say believe it. If the statement's erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you will say this. There you go. Two, believe it or not, so win your prize, Ross, what's the first?

prize. Matt, we have a $50 electronic gift card to Hooters. We've got a couple of the giveaway, right? Fine dining. Fried pickles are amazing, cold beers. I don't know if they, well, I don't know if the gift card goes against beer. I can't speak to that, but at least for food. All right. Let us play. Let's go

to, uh, is that Sean? Clearlake on 7.00. Sean, you ready to play, believe it or not? Yeah. All right. According to sports odds, History.com, the rockets were minus 150 favorites to the Orlando magic. Believe it or not.

They were plus 130 underdogs. Here we go. Statement number two for the win. The Rockets leader and assist during the 1995 finals was Kenny Smith. Believe it or not? Not as correct. Clyde Drexer was you win. Brin is killing it right now.

How excited are you? Sean? What was it? How excited are you? I'm pretty excited, thank you. Okay, we'll put John hold. All right, let's continue. Sean is besides himself.

Line three, Ron, on 790. Ron, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. In his first six seasons in the NBA, Nick Anderson shot 69% from the free throw line. He only shot 60% from the line in the seasons after his final free throw misses. Believe it or not?

Not. Believe it. Believe it. Good to have you back. I feel like the break. have made their way back into believe it or not. Line number four. Uh-oh.

Bill. I miss you guys so much. Believe it or not. After leaving the Rockets in the middle of the 1995 season, Vernon Maxwell signed with a Philadelphia 76ers. Believe it or not. Man, believe it. Believe it. Yeah.

I'm back, baby. Come on, babe. Statement number two for the win. Akeem-Elisho. was the highest paid rocket in the 1995 Rockets. His salary was $3.2 million. Believe it or not.

I'll get lost. That's a good one. Not. Get him out of here. You had nothing and like it. We've missed you, Bill. Michael on 790. Michael, what was your favorite part of the radio show today?

Right now. In the 1995 NBA Finals, Shaq average 28 points and 12 and a half rebounds per game. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Referee Jake O'Donnell through Clyde Drexer out of the Western semifinal game one against the sons.

He never refereed a game ever again. Believe it or not. Not. Believe it. Yeah, that's legendary. Last one. Joe on 790. Joe, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Bye. Nine different rocket players play in the 1995 finals. At the bottom of that list is Jean Tabach who logged in three minutes. Believe it or not. Believe it. No.

Peach Hillcott was the one. Dang. Brandon made it clean almost the whole time. There's a good job, though, Brendan. He only messed up there in the beginning. I mean, you got a bean for today for the first time? I'll take that as a success. Rushed.

Thanks again to Tillman. Thanks again to Clyde Drexor. Akema, part of the show with Wexler and Clinton. They call it the A team. And they're up next here on Sports Talk 790. Talk to you guys tomorrow at 12 noon.