The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dana Brown & Joe Espada Are Back For 26’, KD Makes His Preseason Debut

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Dana Brown & Joe Espada Are Back for 26’,  KD Makes His Preseason Debut

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-1 in H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790 alongside Ross, Villereal, our producer is Jonathan Allen. I'm Matt Thomas. We really thank you for listening to this radio station and this program today. Where, for the next four hours, we will try to give you plenty of sports information,

a little bit of analysis, maybe a few laughs, who knows, and we'll give you an opportunity to tell some people to show us. their bumasses up at 1130 today. And that's coming up in about 90 minutes from now. Okay, wonderful. Yeah. Last night, interesting baseball games. I was already popping the champagne on the Toronto Blue Jays.

I know, when it was 6 to 3. 6 to 3. And then Aaron Judge became Aaron Judge. And Jazz Chisholm did what Chas Jism did. I know. You can't even use that. Aaron Judge doesn't come through in big games narrative anymore. How's Kyle Tucker about doing, by the way?

I didn't notice, actually. You know what? Let's organically look. Oh, okay. No, they're off. Oh, so it's not going to change. Yeah. There are four games today, by the way.

Well, I believe one of them Kyle Tucker will be involved in. And my gut feeling is he'll have an extra base hit. Yes. That's right. I locked that in yesterday, baby. Feeling good. You know, honestly, we've been ribbon each other about the Kyle Tucker stuff. You can't decide what your future is on Kyle Tucker based on what he does now.

I mean, there's a little bit of it. It would have to be one extreme or the other. He can help himself more than he. he can hurt himself. Yeah. If he goes completely over, which he hasn't. He's gotten three hits.

All singles, but three hits. Jake show me a beverage. Nope, can't say that. Oh, gosh. You ears. So weird. You know why I do that?

Why? Because I protect the people that want to advertise on this show. That's good, man. I believe in them. That's true. I believe you can. But yeah, I mean,

if there's no competitor in the category, it's not like you're speaking for a repsy. I would speak for repsy. I know you would because you hate Dr. Pepper, which is why you're a bad Mr. Texas. You know what? That was rude two minutes

in the show. Back to the baseball playoffs. What's Lauren Shahati have to say about all this? She's on the road. She must be working for TBS because she's not in the MLB Central studio. Oh, she's in a nice hotel suite. All right. Matt, what's up, man, you're getting weird. Nice pearly white teeth. Now you're trying to geo guess what

hotel she's in so you can find her. I mean, there's four cities. Weird. It can be in one and four, right? It's high in hotel. Okay, back to sports. So to Kyle, I mean, my guess is if you are in the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes, and you think you want to bring him to your team, you've already got a nice, good feeling of what you're going to want to pay him.

Yeah, I do think playoff performance would matter, especially to me, and maybe general managers who are knee-deep in analytics and all that type of stuff aren't good. But I would say an owner. If an owner was wanting to shell out all this money, it's an easier sell from the general manager or whoever to say, hey, look, this guy performs in the playoffs too,

and we want to make the playoffs. Well, I'll say this. How astute are the owners? are the owners, guys that are just, that dip their toes in the water, or are they actively involved in the front office stuff? Yeah, you have a mixed bag. I mean, they're probably got guys like Jim Crane. He played college baseball.

He knows baseball, and he has a pretty good handle on some things. And then you got, I don't even know, people who are just the cow McNair's of baseball. Yeah, that are just worried about what time dinner is. Yes. And when they get their nap in. Uh-huh. And they want to make sure they save their campaign on redneck. dead dead redemption before they leave them before they turn the console off that feels like a video

game reference and i was able to correctly get it when you said uh the console so i was some context in the clue there good job yeah i say this and no one's going to confuse me for being a road scholar and i totally understand those things i mean i did go to the harvard of southeast texas yeah you're a harvard of southeast texas i'm a college graduate is it rice the harvard of southeast texas in my world it's university houston okay pretty i mean we got a nice bump in the narrow Greece, rice is the Sarvaido, Southeast Texas. But that's got to be, and maybe he turns off the noise. But he's, Cal, but he's never going to shake that.

He's never going to be, he's never going to be, like there are really smart, like Jeffrey Lurray, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, comes across to me as a really bright guy. Who else would, before he got the, let's see, before Kraft got involved in all. little fun things he got involved with down in Florida. Pretty astute guy. He didn't know. That the women really liked him. That could be, and when you pay somebody money, they do tend to like you. For a few minutes.

Not to my, I haven't experienced on these things, but I'm just telling you, that's what exactly... Why are you winked at me, Matt? Okay. But my point is that there are a lot of astute, like Jerry Jones, for as bad of a football acumen he's had really in the last 10 years. Yeah. He's the greatest sports business owner in the history of sports.

I mean, considering he's their general manager. They haven't done anything, but I mean, for the most part, they've won games. They've won. For the most part. And they continue to be the biggest brand in the National Football League, in the biggest sport. Yes, marketing-wise, he's been a genius.

And so you have to give him his kudos on that. He got stadiums built. He's got them full of people. He's got huge advertising dollars. The NFL can't put the Cowboys on national TV enough. But going back to Cal, that's... Remember, again, cows worth multiple billions of

So he probably, he's probably going scoreboard biatch? Well earned too. But my point is that he's never going to be considered. Man, one an astute, I've never heard anybody in the business community go, wow, I like what Cal did with this. Well, that's something he's going to have to come turns with on his own, Matt, because, I mean, how much does he care? He's just, as the term you used, which I've used before as well, not going to be confused with a Rhodes Scholar. He's just not very bright. He just doesn't come across that way.

and it doesn't seem like he is that way. He seems like a nice person. It's not normally something that's going to change. But I'll tell you this. And this is the truth. And I've brought this up with many people over the years. Most billionaires are really brutally, how do I, cold people.

Yes. Right. You have to have a killer instinct from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed if you are worth billions of dollars. That's actually. interesting. Do you want the shrewd businessman who cut a bunch of throats on his way to the top and stepped over people? Or do you want the NEPO baby who's just kind of having a good time? Well, I mean, there's a little bit of both in sports. Yes. But by no means that Cal earned his way to

the top. I mean, Cal did the right thing. He stood by his dad from day one. Probably learned a lot of things from his dad. Yes. In terms of running businesses and obviously being next to him. Obviously, his relationship with Bob was significantly more increased than it would be carries, because that's obviously gotten surly really quick over the years. But the point being is that, you know, what do you want? Do you want a guy that you can have a beer worth that you can high five that can cook your burger for you? Or do you want a shrewd tycoon? Jerry Reinsdorf, some type.

Well, there's funny. I mean, there's a lot of owner. I mean, again, most billionaires, whether they're sports owners or they are running fortunate. 50 companies, probably aren't guys you're going to want to sit back and say, how has your day been? They don't care how your day was.

They don't particularly care that you asked how their day was and you just move on. You're constantly in acquisitions in trying to go to the next level. Well, you have a businessman who spends owner of the Rockets, so that's good. Yeah.

I'm not talking about questions, but I'm just talking about the personality wise. Now, for instance, I, you know, I know Jim Crane a little bit. I don't think he remembers my name, but that's okay. That's all right. But we've had multiple... I've heard him call you Matt.

He has called me Matt before, but I haven't seen him in a couple years. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Well, I forget names too. I mean, so my point is, but I have a little bit of relationship with him. We have had some not necessarily personal conversations, but very lighthearted ones. But I don't work for him. But I don't know what he's like when he's in the front offices of his buildings, whether he's running his logistics company or that. Tillman I've known for a long period of time

because I knew Tillman when he was just starting out building the empire. So I don't even really count him because I do know him. Now again, we're not besties. I haven't talked to him in a while. Now, Patrick, his son is now running a lot of their operations here and I do talk to Patrick on a semi-regular base. We had him on the show last week at Media Day.

Yes. And he does listen to the show. They got a nice, deep voice. He's good okay. And I respect Patrick because Patrick has been given this and he has to continue to run it. I mean, dad is busy. I mean, when you're an ambassador to a country, you have to, you got to put everything away.

Yeah, well, I wonder how busy he actually is. I mean, he can probably, he can obviously call and talk. I heard that's a nice wine cellar in that state he's at. Well, if it's not working, you get a call uptown appliance repair. I don't know. Do they have a bureau in Rome? I mean, I can certainly ask. But cows, then it, cows just a little bit different.

He's, there are Nepo babies out there. And I don't know if the Nepo babies take. Stephen Jones. I don't know anything about Stephen Jones. If we ask people in Dallas, they probably give us a pretty good indication. But Stephen feels like he has been really intimately involved in the Dallas Cowboy operation since Jerry took over. And in fact, wasn't Stephen the one that kind of said, Dad, you're not taking Johnny Mansell. I'm pulling the card away from you. Is the rumored story about that? So, you know, who knows? But, yeah, Cal, um, Cal's not going to be, I don't know, how do we get into this conversation begin with? I don't recall. What we were talking about baseball owners. You were talking about how much guys know baseball? Oh, yeah. It started off on Kyle Tucker bat conversation.

Yeah, that's what this show can do. We go in a variety of different directions to try to confuse you as often as we can. Yes, we flow like water. Yeah. But yeah, so what kind of owner is going to say, I need to see Kyle do something in the postseason, in the postseason, before I want to write this big check? He has performed in the postseason previously, but he's had a couple of bad ones in a row.

This might be the third bad one in a row. And another stint on the disabled list this year. So that's two straight years. Now, last year, obviously, was really long. This one, not nearly as long. But do you say, oh, he, you know, he fouled a couple of balls off his shin and got a correct. Correct.

Fracture, you know. It's kind of a freak thing. Just actively involved in the game itself. All right. On the show today, we've got some news on the Astros that we will obviously get to, and that includes the front office in the managerial's position. We will get to shut your bum ass up at 1130. Well, the news at noon, believe it or not, today at 150.

And great postseason games. A couple series could be coming to an end tonight. Four games today. All of them could, I think all of them could end tonight, right? It's game fours. I think so. I would think so. The math tells me that that happened.

So it would be the last time we have four baseball games in a single day, the rest of this baseball season. And no Astros. It still, it still stings. just does. Yeah. Now I got a route for the Tigers and the Blue Jays. I was rooting hard for the Blue Jays.

I mean, hard for the Blue Jays. And now Cam Schlittler is on the hill for the Yankees. Apparently last night on the MLB postgame show on Fox, they were having a difficult time saying his name. And I think Big Poppy was involved and said, you know what? Better just call him Cam.

Just calling Cam. I've done that before. I call him Big Chief. Do you? Yeah, Big Dog. Now you're just throwing nicknames again. the board here to see if brosuf broskiff okay 713212-579 if you want to chime in on the conversation today 713 212 5790 713 212 5779 i was talking about a timon's wine cellar in rome if if he

wanted to call me and said hey who would you recommend to come fix his wine cellar mine in in rome i would say uptown appliance repair they speak italian i bet i bobby fiero bobby fiero i don't know the bobby you know speak in Italian. Hey, up that our appliance rip it. Okay, that's... You should apologize. I'm going to apologize. I'll save it for Friday at 1130.

It is 1019, Sports Talk 790. It is Matt and Ross with you here until 2 o'clock today. Shut your bum ass up at 1130. News at noon. Believe it or not, at 150 today. Well, tomorrow we'll get into the Cougars game against Oklahoma State with Willie Fritz will be on the radio program. The Rotten 5 is back tomorrow at 1250. forward to that. And

the Astros have decided to keep the manager and the general manager for 2026. They were under contract, so it's a little bit different. So, needless to say, first reported by Brian McTaggart, friend of the show. Friend of the show.

You can catch him every Thursday here on the show, at least during the baseball season, yeah. We can get him sporadically when he's on up there. He came on the 18 yesterday? You did? Yeah. Then we should get old on a rom on. We should. I mean, we're poaching.

Guest swap. It's been a lot of swapping around these parts over the years. 713-212-5-7-a-ne. So we'll get to more on that, but I do want to say that again, they were under contract. Now, they're lame ducks. Sounds like they've both got one year left on their deal. In college athletics, you can't be lame duck, apparently. In pro sports, at least baseball-wise, you can do it.

And it kind of makes sense. it's a it's a prove it deal yeah because you're not bringing in recruits and stuff like that no i mean if a particular player now you can have a if you have a good general manager and a good manager that could help but 99 times of 100 it's about how much money they're going to get it who's the guy yeah whatever it's my check all right

yeah you had an extra zero to that seven what's my arbitration hearing exactly i'm at arb one all right uh oh hello keith you're on seven Good morning to you, Keith. Good day, sunshine. Good day, sunshine.

Hey, Keith, you didn't call when your team was an 0-2 hole. Why didn't you call it when your team lost two games in a row? You never call us. It's crazy. You're so busy. Yeah, you're very busy. I was ill. I was ill.

I just came from the VA that gave me a clean bill of health. So I need for you, Ross, and you, Matt, to issue a public, a podcast. to my son, Aaron Arson, Judge. Wait a man, I've never taken, hold on. I've never taken shots about Aaron Judge, except the fact that his World Series numbers last year were horrific, and that wasn't an opinion that was based on 100% fact. It's called, quit being a hater and be a congratulator,

because I know that Ross has had disparaging comments about my son. Hello. He's the greatest hitter in baseball. What do you want to say? He also choked a lot of the... He also choked a lot of the... He also choked. a lot in the baseball and the playoffs

and that's also a fact. He's the whiff. He was the all-time strikeout percentage king in playoff history just ahead of Martine Maldonado coming into this series. I didn't do that. He did that. What's he doing now?

I don't know. Well, he had one good game. What else has he been doing? No, he's averaging 500 right now. He's bad in 500. And he had a ginormous three-run, home run last night to tie the game at 6. He was fantastic, and the people in New York love him today. But if he goes over four with three strikeouts,

and today he's going to be hated, and you will be calling us on Friday's show or Thursday's show. He's still got a regular season OPS of 1,000 and a playoff OPS of 817, which is good, but below his average. Okay, so here's what I know. Like through the regular season, Boston kicked our ass. Toronto kicked our ass. Would you know who didn't kick our ass?

Seattle. We'd love to play Seattle So as soon as we get through With Toronto We're going to open up a can You know they're down 2-1 in the series, right? Yes, I do I do know, but I have faith

F-A-I-T-H I have faith We're going to win Tonight, we're going to win Friday And then we're going to beat The crap out of Seattle And go back to the World Series Okay, so you're like the George Michael

of Yankees fans Okay, all I want you to do is when your team gets eliminated, whether it's tonight or on Friday, you need to come in here and say, I'm sorry for being such a boastful person about a mid baseball team. Mid? Mid? You heard me? We have 27 World Series champions. How many y'all got, Matt?

First of all, I'm not a y'all. I'm an astro fan, but I'm not an team employee. So the answer is two. Yeah, but most of those Yankees championships were like pre-war and pre-integration. Those didn't mean count. 15 years ago, the last time we were at the world champion. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And the Astros were three years ago. Yeah, modern history, the Astros has been whooping that ass.

You don't want this Astro ass on you? You know what we're going to do? You know what we're going to do? We're going to take your lunch money and kiss your girl. In 2009, everybody on the team was juicing. That one doesn't count either. Astros will not be in any of playoffs for the next five years. You know what? Just call tomorrow and apologize after your team get you're asking.

You know what? All right. I'm going to, hold on. I'm going to tell Jonathan to find a song because I'm, you talk for just a second. Sure, why not? Why don't you follow me on Instagram at SportsRV? I really would appreciate it. Influencer initiatives up here at the wonderful I-Heart Media Empire.

At SportsMT. Doing very well on the Instagram. Thanks for all my recent. We're getting closer, actually. I just got over 1,200, so I'd appreciate you guys. I'm at 2000. If you really want to make Matt, mad, unfollow him and follow me.

I need to catch Matt. 200938. This is it right here for all you Yankee lovers. I love our country. They have a better national anthem. Turn it up. No, they don't. They absolutely do.

And she sounds attractive. I don't know if she is, but she sounds attractive. The Yankees must fall tonight. So say with me, Houston, Texas. Oh, Canada! It's a banger. It's fine. Tearing up a little bit here.

Would you say? This kind of sucks. Oh, God. What? What? I don't got a lot of nationality, like national astronomy, but our national anthem is like. Way better. Yeah.

No, O Canada's better. Turn it up. Here it is. It becomes a big climax. Excuse me? It's not better. It's not even close. You can tell me that it's better than O'SA does that star-spangled banner?

Come on now. Wade yet wave over the land of the free and the heart of the brave. Would you like a hot take? Sure, why not? God bless America is a better song. than the Star-Spangled Banner. You can't be Mr. Texas, Matt. That's no way.

You know what? I'm Mr. America with that. God bless it. I mean, of all your music takes, which are really bad, this is also like a, this is a different category of bad. I don't know you could be bad

in so many different categories, Matt. You're saying God bless America is better than the Star Spangled Banner? Yep. You know what? God bless America is good. Hold on. Hold on.

Oh, we're going to go with Lee Greenwood now? Hold on. Hold on. No, no, no, no, no. know. You're going to go with I'm a real American. I want to be, I'm going to be proven wrong because every time I do this. Oh, okay. Well, you want to do an insipole? Yes, I do.

Hit the insipal music right now. Star-Spangled banner or God bless America. Okay. Actually, initially, I was thinking of America the beautiful. That would be a horrible, horrible. No, no, no, no. God bless America is a little closer. God bless America is a better song than the national anthem. Then Star Spangled Banner? Yes. What is this?

Oh. Oh. God bless America. This is a smallsy. This is terrible. This is terrible. You'd find that at a at a Nashville bar. We need the instant poll music. I don't think I'm going to be by myself on this.

Maybe I will be. And as we say before, the instant poll doesn't lie. It's time for an Instapole. We don't screen you, 713, 212,790. What song do you prefer? God bless America. or the Star Spangled Banner. The Star Spangled Banner.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. First to four votes. Oh, people are not liking you on Twitter. That's fine. I mean, I'm used to that. I got somebody ripping me the crap out of me already this morning. Go ahead. What are they saying? Somebody tell Matt Christopher Cross did not invent O Canada.

Geez, what a terrible take. I love O Canada. But that's at the debate. Maybe you'll have somebody on your side. I say God bless America is better than National Anthem. Line 1 in the Instapol, God bless America or Star Spangled Banner? You're a clown, Matt. Listen to David Smith, and said.

What do you say? He said you're a clown. So I think it's a Star Spangled Veda vote. All right. But he said something else. Listen to something else and said. I don't remember. David, did he say Barry Mal?

No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. I'm going to say him calling you a clown. It's disagree with you. That was not very nice. I'm going to say he's not. I didn't call you a name. George.

Corey, Star Spangled Banner or God Bless America. Come on, man. Francis Scott Key at Fort McHenry. Boom, boom, pow. Boom, boom, pal. I'm sorry, Matt. That's fine.

That's 2-0. You know what? At least I stand on my takes. That's good. Well, you're, yeah, bad ones. Josh, Star Spangled Banner or God bless America. Star Spangled Banner. I've only cried during the National Anthem.

Who cries during God bless America? That's true. does. It's a bad gift. That's a great good point. It's an emotional one. Especially, you know, every six months when we're evade in another country? First of all, you know the reason why Star Spangled Banner is so bad? Not bad. It's not as good as America. It's

because people butcher the words to Star Spangled Banner all the time. Okay, well, you're down three O. I feel, I know. Here comes the fourth one. Line two. Star Spangled banner or God bless America. Hello? God bless America or Star Spangled Banner? Matt, such a

Govada and so. All right, polls are done. That's fine. That's a four host, sweet folks. I mean, we keep in a book right now we ask. That's your music opinion's talking. I got one more for you. Why do you hate to start?

I don't hate it. I just, can I have a preference? You said, O Canada is better? I do believe O Canada. You know what? I will have someone back me

when we come back. Okay. Oh, somebody texted you? No, I know the, I know a person that will back me up on this. Okay. Are they from my? like Germany or something?

Nope. Okay. He's as American as American get. Somebody will back me up. 1031, Sports Talk, 790. 713, 212.790. I'm going to call him right now. Without a doubt, Matthew.

The greatest version of any national anthem, any ceremonial song. Thank you, Whitney. Thank you, Whitney. May you rest? Easy. You gave us the greatest of it all. I mean, not the love of all, but the greatest version of it all. She also did that, too.

Yeah, she did do that. I got to bring reinforcements in sometimes Oh, here we go. You're still on the wrong side. All right, let me tell you all something right now. Okay. Y'all are wrong about, by the way, people are saying me emails and sending me tweets about the America the Beautiful. Ray Charles saying the America Beautiful.

I mean, unbelievable. Yes, that is great. Okay. It's a great song and a great version. So the insipole did not necessarily represent that. You went 4-0. Whatever. But, I mean, and there were rude votes.

They were shut your bum-hasses up. They call you a clown. If you notice that people are mean to me? Yeah. They don't got to call you. clown just because you have bad music takes. He did disrespect the entire country. No, I didn't respect.

For the neighboring country. No, no, no. So all I said was, I love the national anthem, but I love Okina Moore. And sometimes you've got to bring in reinforcements. Okay. A man who never gets criticized. A man who's beloved by all do love him is the television voice of the Houston Rockets. It's Craig Ackerman.

Does a spectacular job. Craig. Good morning. Tell me. Tell America. Tell this great audience of our. how you and I love us some O Canada. Yeah, O Canada's our national anthem,

Star Spangled Banner is awesome, but O Canada is a better tune. Thank you. Are you from Canada or something, Craig? Where were you born, Craig? No, I'm not from Canada. No, I'm not from Canada. Were you born in Saskatoon? Don't listen to it.

Come on, man. No, I mean, I was, well, actually technically you were born closer to Canada than I was. Oh, is that true? You from the Valley or something? No, no, I'm from Ohio, but you're, you were born in the Detroit area. No, you're talking to, you're talking to Ross. Hi, hi, Craig, how are you? I'm Matt, Ross.

Hey, Ross. Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay, I forgive you. It's early for you, I understand. Did we wake you up? I'm busy prepping like, I'm busy prepping like a muddha for this preseason. There you go. Kevin Durant making his rocket's debut.

You know who broke the story and Kevin Durant playing? Emaudoka? Nope. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Was it Craig Ackerman? Nope. Was it not correct? Who broke the story that Kevin Durant's plan tonight, Craig?

Um, was it a Chronicle? Nope. It was Kevin's new best friend who's going to, he's going to take her out for some barbecue when she gets to town. Okay, Adams. I was talking about Kay Adams? Oh, okay. Well, when did she break it? I don't know. I just look, I get assassinated for terrible, terrible reasons, and I had to come and get some backup, and that's why you're my backup. Okay, well, how do you feel about it?

So what is Ross's position on this? Yeah, I prefer the Star-Spangled Banner to O Canada, but O Canada is a great song. Also, though, do you prefer America? Was it you said? America the beautiful. No, no, God-Bless America. I prefer God-Bless America. Matt also prefers God-bless America over the Star-Spangled Banner. What's your opinion on that, Mr. Ackerman?

I think both are great. I do believe, don't people say that, now, I can't sing worth a lick. A lot of people say who can sing the Star Spangled Banner is a very difficult. song to sing and hit, especially on those high notes. And I'll still go Star Spangled Band around there. Both are great. I'll take both. But I think O Canada's. O Canada, in terms of, and what I will admit whenever you are at a sporting event in Canada, and

their Canadian National Anthem does play, the majority of the people in the building get into it a bit more than, say, us Americans do. And it kind of adds, I think, to the impact of the song when virtually everyone in the arena and or stadium is singing along to it. So maybe that has something to do with it as well. But it is, I think it is a great song. But so there you go. There it is. And most importantly, how do you think Reed Shepard's going to do as far as the point guard position for the Houston Rockets?

I look at it. I'm getting you some basketball questions into you, Craig. Are you ready for this? Are you ready for this? Well, I think I was probably more. All you did was text me and say, hey, we're going to call you in three minutes. And we need to get your opinion to help settle an argument on because you agree with me. That's right.

You're still down 62. I really had no idea where this is going. I know. I really had no idea. We want to throw some things at you're not surprised. Okay. Go ahead. No, it's okay.

It's all good. You know what? Look, they were, they were, he was, they were going to need him to step up this year with Fibandleet. And now that Fred out, they really need him. to step up. And I thought he was, look, the times I saw him last week in training camp during the practices, I think he looked very good. He looked very assertive. I think one of his biggest issues, particularly in the first couple, three, four months of last season, that he played very passively, and obviously they don't need him to play passively. There's a reason why they took him third overall.

There's a reason why the organization believes so highly in him is they believe he's a really, really good basketball player. And I think it took him a little while last year to adjust. Now, the times that the Rockets made some adjustments to their lineups and put him in the starting lineup and said, hey, go be you, he was awesome. And I thought last week in training camp, watching him during training camp, he was very good in those practices and scrimmages. I thought he was much more aggressive, looked much more confident and assertive in that preseason opener the other night. And so I thought it was some pretty good stuff there from him, and I'm looking forward to more of the same. Because, again, they were going to need him to begin with, but now they really need him to take a big step forward. from his rookie season this year with Fred out of the lineup.

That's inside you get nowhere else. That's why they pay you the big bucks, Craig. Thank you so much. No wonder television money gets more money than radio money does. Well deserved, Craig. You do a fantastic job on the broadcast. What was Matt's breakdown compared to mine? He started comparing it to Neil Sedaka.

It was very, very weird. No, I didn't I compare Reed Shepherd to Neil Sedaka. He's asking about Reed Shepherd, Ross. What the hell's wrong with you? Ross, this is something I will agree with you on Ross. Matt's taste of music is awful. It's so bad. By the way, he hates Elton John.

Craig does. See, Craig, but you're a guy, and I hate ranch dressing, too. You often talk on the bra. I'm like, you never know, you are a box of chocolates of opinions on anything. I never know what I'm going to get with you. Well, I do. I do not like ranch dressing. Yeah.

It's just truly terrible. And, yeah, Elton John. And then you love Hello Kitty. And you hate Elton John. I'm a big hello. Well, I like cats. I mean, I have cats. I think cats are cute and cuddly. Okay. So I think Hello Kitty is a very cute little character brand there. Well, the city of Houston agrees with you because they go nuts for Hello Kitty Night.

Hello Kitty Night? They do. Rockies in town, 40,000 people on a Tuesday. Yeah, the Astros run like two or three of them a year. I know the Rockets do one promotion a year and it seems like virtually every professional sports team is running some sort of promotion like that. and yes, you're right, it does drive a lot of tickets. We should do Hello Kitty against the Wizards. It plays me full.

18,000 strong. Smart. Well, I think Cam Whitmore sells that game himself. Oh, my God. Oh, that is so uncalled for. All right, I'll see you tonight. What? No, that was a compliment.

That was a compliment. Oh, you think Cam Winmore is going to fill the TOTA center up? Okay, I got you on that. Hello Kitty and Cam Whitmore. How about Hello Cam Whitmore night? That'd be good. I like it. I'm all for it.

That dude's like crazy athletic, man. I know, I know. All right, back to your prepping like a mudra. I'll see you tonight. Thank you, friend. We see you guys in a little bit. Bye, man. Take care.

That's it. Voice. Television Voice of the Rockets, Craig Ackerman. And a swell fellow. Yeah. Who doesn't like Elton John in Ranch dressing? He's got weird. Like I said, I end up watching a lot of the TV.

The radio broadcast is fantastic. I appreciate that. I'm here on the call on Sports Talk 790. But I usually have to talk about the games afterwards on post games, so I watch it on TV. That's fine. I understand. And Craig is the absolute, you never know. He's just going to hate weird, random stuff.

Yeah. And by the way, if you ever go to dinner with Craig, it's going to take you about 30 minutes longer than an average dinner companion. Oh, that's because he has all these weird food preferences. Well, he has to get like four things taken off and two things added on. It's just a lot of work. I mean, great conversation once you get past that, but it's just a lot of, does it have this on it?

Does it have this? It's just too much. All right. 713-212-570. By the way, real quick, before we get to a break, David on Twitter says National Anthem. Chris Stapleton, the all-time best, is his opinion. Marvin Gaye than Whitney Houston. Now, Marvin Gay was excellent, too, but it also took like six and a half minutes.

It was great. And I don't remember, no, it was really like three and a half, but yes. When did Chris Stapleton do the National Anthemps? He did it recently, and it was good. Not the best ever, but it was good. Okay. All right. 713-212.

Was it a Super Bowl or something? I can't remember. Yeah, I want to say it was. Yeah. I want to say that was, but yeah, we can, you know, when we're on our next road trip to Lake Charles Ross, we need to just have a good old, we'll play nothing else about anthems and kind of rank them one to ten. Okay, good. All right, coming up in about eight minutes, we're going to get into the Astros decision, well, actually, Jim Crane's decision to bring both guys back. But I do want to bring them something.

You know, again, I'm a Mr. 4U tab guy during the break. Yes. And I'm also Mr. Followed people that I follow. So I looked at this. Okay. You know what the college sports commission is, do you not? Is that the people that, is that the clearinghouse for the clearinghouse? Excellent.

I'm glad you got that. Thank God, Matt. Because you usually bat like one for 10,000 when it comes to guessing what I'm going to ask you questions on. Not when it's sports. Well, you're asking about, yeah, who was on what's happening? Then, yeah, I'm going to struggle. No, you always, you know, John McLean or something like that or goofy stuff. That is one of my favorite.

Probably no one laughs at that but me. You're literally the only person. It pisses me off, but yet you still find it funny. That's why it makes me laugh. All right. So the College Sports Commission 50 minutes ago tweeted out something. They got a Twitter account?

I didn't even know that. They got a social team? Who's running this? Condoleez-Lies of Rice? 2,800 people. Follow it. Okay. Today, we launched an anonymous tip line

Oh my God. This is a bad idea. That allows anyone to confidentially report potential rules violations around third-party NIDL deals and revenue sharing directly to the CSC. So now you have some loser with no life, either like a Texas fan combing through OUs or A&M's NIL deals. Aggies fans cope. This is interesting. Okay.

So that's part of who's going to be sending anonymous to stuff. The other is going to be legitimate. schools. Now the clearinghouse says you can't give this athlete this much money. Then you find out the school did it anywhere. Or not the school, the NIL group did it. We got to separate the school from the NIL. The NIL did it anyway and you found out about it. Like for instance, if I am like a Kauai Leonard situation. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Oh, you're telling me that you're creating a faux company and funneling money to him through that way. Oh, I'm going to send the tweet or send an email to this anonymous organization.

You don't want to be a part of that. You don't want to look at the inbox. You're going to be sifting through, I'm going to say, like, 99.9% of these submissions are just going to be dead ends in a waste of time. I mean, my God. Josh on Twitter says, oh, I lost it here. Who is funding this commission? I don't know. It's the clearinghouse.

And obviously the clearinghouse is saying, but who is who? Okay, who's paying this? So people are going to be investigating this, right? Yes. Who is paying these people's salary? It's got to be the people that are involved in this, I guess, NCAA, I don't know. But it's basically a snitch line.

Yeah. Yeah, we need a Chris Gordia perspective on this, our college football expert. So Ross, the high school athlete, or the college athlete says, I'm getting $6 million from Idaho. Uh-huh. And we're like, wait a minute, there's no way that you as an Idaho athlete, you get $6 million. You and Ross the athletes says, well, I got it.

Guess what me here at UNLV said, and again, I'm going to snitch on you, Idaho. And again, if somebody wants to cut that check, let them. I don't understand what the big deal is. People lose value on advertising. There's no NIL cap. There isn't. Yeah.

What they're basically saying is that we are trying to put rules into place. And the clearinghouse is the, when you go to an NIL deal, When you say I want to give a particular athlete in NIO, you have to go to this clearinghouse. The clearinghouse has to say, okay, that makes somewhat sense. It's their, and again, if they say no. It's their discretion. If they say, oh, okay, you can give an athlete that plays at UCLA $400,000 for talking about Rubway. I mean, Subway.

I don't make sure that was wrong. Subway. Don't say Rubway. No, I was going to say rubway was a bad choice. $400,000. My guess is the clearinghouse would say, okay, that makes sense. LA's huge market. It's a big 10 conference.

But if you're giving, you know, a kid at UAB $1.2 million to speak, and they're going to go, well, that doesn't make sense because UAB's reach is not going to be that grid. Again, your argument is, well, it's whatever the school, whatever the collective wants to give the athlete. Why does a cling house even have to put in the pack? They're just trying to make some sort of regulation to it. And if you don't like the regulation and you find out one of your other schools you're going against, you lose an athlete because of it, you can go snitch on them.

This is going down. This is going to be another. Supreme Court case. There's no way this holds up. Mark my words. We'll be talking about this getting struck down at some point. As I asked somebody a long time ago when I first heard about this, I said,

who determines what's fair and what's not fair? Exactly. This is, yeah, there's going to be cases, multiple cases it feels like. Because if I'm Louisville and I've got an athlete that I really, really want. Yeah. I'm going to probably pay more than market value so I can keep him at Louisville. Texas Tech. Yeah.

Cody Campbell. You can't NIL at Texas. Tech. There isn't a, the Texas Tech brand is not enough of a reach. Now, it might if it goes to a national place for a, you know, college football playoff, all of a sudden, it'll help. It'll help. The clearinghouse. I, I found it comical. Yeah, you're just, it's just almost a way to keep the halves intact from the have-nots. So you know what's going to happen? The collective, the clearinghouse is going to tell people no,

and then they're going to go backdoor channels. You know, this happened in the Premier League, actually, in English football, where, my squad Manchester City was bought by the United Arab Emirates and then they pumped a bunch of money in there and sponsorships and now they have a bunch of financial fair play charges it's like well this this wasn't worth this

like who are you to tell us worth so there's like a huge lawsuit it's been like dragging on for years where the league is suing the team and the team is suing the league over sponsorship dollars my question is if the clearinghouse allow some things and doesn't lend others are you going to go oh there's precedents that you allow this

and didn't allow this again this is way beyond our pay I knew when the term clearinghouse came into play, this was going to be a mess. Because there's going to be no consistency to it. Somehow this feels like this has been fumbled at every turn by the NCAA. But it all started, you're working backwards from a broken system. You're trying to fix something that is broken at its core. You're treating the symptoms, not the disease. The disease is the NCAA.

The funny thing about it is for me is you've got a snitch line now. That is funny. I mean, how many people can go, is it? a portal, you go enter, you put your code with your name, your username, and your I password in, and you can go, oh, this schools do offer in this, go and investigate. I don't know. Let's make, I'm going to make some complaints.

I heard about some dirty dealings over at U of H. Wait a minute. We are clean. We're clean as a whistle. I'll stop on Hawaii. Hawaii, what? UF.H. Oh, thank you. You know, if you got an AIDO to Hawaii, you know the problem with Hawaii? I always thought

Hawaii should be expensive, right? Really good. Well, first of all, it's expensive. Second of all, it's far. You're not going to, if you're homesick, you live in Cincinnati. It's going to take you a little bit to get there. Mom and Dad, come see me. How much? $3,400. Hawaii airfares are, we were looking at me the other day, are astronomical. And it's the most beautiful place in Earth that I've been to, but God, it's expensive. Literally, you can't do Hawaii on a budget. You should try like a St. Lucia. Well, yeah. Or the Bahamas. It went from Hawaii to the, the panhandle of Florida.

Okay, really? We're trying to... It's an economical. I've been trying to get you on your big relaxation vacation. I don't know if it's going to happen. Matt, you need to relax. Come on. Too busy.

You're not that busy. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790, coming up at 1130. Ain't nobody got time for that. Slash, shut your bum ass up. Mm-hmm. You got some lined up? You look like you're ready to rock.

I know. I'm going to slugs up over there. Okay. Here's the thing. I have great friends. Like a Mike Tyson Headbob. I thought you were going to throw down at 1130 or something. I got people emailing me.

Wayne, Star Spangled Banner is trash. Canada's anthem is better too. You're not alone, Matt. God bless America is much better. Yeah, he's from Serbia. Then I got my buddy Ragnar. Oh, Canada is a far superior anthem sung by fans in a hockey stadium. I was at the East Center for the Olympics in 2005 and 2002.

Ragnar? Yeah, where's that guy from? Yeah, that's definitely not. He's German. See? former rocket employee good friend of the show okay german germany down playing america i've seen that before all right i'll fall i know i'll lose i know i lose the battle matt if you're at the olympics if you're the Olympics in america citizens you know

USA i'm not saying here's the thing you don't understand i do like the song i'm not did i ever say i didn't like the song it's lame i'm not saying you're saying it has more emotion. O Canada has more emotion than Star Spanel Banner, but I imagine you win and you hit a Star Spangled Banner? Yes. If you, no. Whitney Houston singing, Marvin Gaye singing it for me. Ray Charles singing in America, they're beautiful.

All boom, boom, boom. A1, A2, A3. All spectacular. Roseanne Barr, not so much. Anybody else butchering the name? What I do not like is I don't like America when I go there, and we look, we have the Star Spangled Banner at Rockets games. People like add verses and they add little you know and the home of the brave hey hey hey hey

don't add stuff yeah write that down you're going to clip that aren't you I knew you were going to I agree with you though just sing it normally most of the time they do it straight I got to do I'm at 82 games a year I'm rossie I'm telling you they're adding Okay. Write it down. Write it down. I will. I'll text you.

I'll say, this woman is adding or this man is adding extraversies. I would say, I go to a lot of games too, mad. I know, but I'm just saying, I'm almost NBA streets.

NBA streets hadn't, you know. All right, I want you to write it down. Oh, say, does that start, and generally it's a guy

with a spangled banner. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're wrong. All right. What about last,

what about yesterday? I, you know, I usually have my earphones on, so I don't hear it. Did anybody? You didn't even listen. You said you're not even listening. But I wasn't supposed to pay attention. You know, because people came out and stuff. Hold on.

Hold on. You're such a fraud. Can we get to the main, let's get back to sports. All right, here we go. We're talking about sports. We're talking about the national anthem. Yeah. That's sporting events.

Yeah. 713, 2.12. 790. 713212.5.790. All right. I told you on Mondays to tell the truth. I was not wiging out, but I was like kind of, I wasn't completely uncertain. and frankly, Brian McTagher must have gotten a tip and said the Astros don't like this uncertainty out there.

Or the Tigers are winning in those games. Or, or, or, things are settling that they said, you know what, we had a deep conversation. Because my guess is there's no way in the world that Jim did not have a private meeting with Joe Espada separately. So you said that was the one you believed, right? I thought Dana was more in trouble than Joe was. But you're wrong. Well, I mean, I'm not wrong. I'm just saying that in my world, in my thoughts.

I'm a lot of opinions on it. Maybe a wrong opinion. I didn't base it as fact. But they're both back. Both have one year remaining on their contracts. I will say this, and this is really no great assumption of my part. If this team doesn't make the playoffs next year, both are gone. You know what?

I'll put my name on it. Write it down. Okay. You can join me. I'm not going to say that's crazy. Yeah. I don't think it is crazy. I mean, if you are, if there is doubt, Ross, that either one were going to lose their job after, after they were on the outside looking literally by a tiebreaker loss, imagine if they don't make the playoffs, like legitimate, don't make the playoffs next year.

Yeah. I mean, I was fairly confident that our friend Dana Brown was going to be back. Joe was a little more iffy on, but I thought he'd be back as well. It was not surprising news. But honestly, here's the thing I can't comprehend. If you were, if Joe, if you were in the, look, there's a certain segment of the baseball public, Astro fan base, really the dumb, dums that are in Astro, Twitter, Joe is Spotify. What, what, if Joe is being fired and Joe comes back to you and says, what did I do wrong? I would like to legitimately know what he did wrong.

Did he not motivate the guys? To those people who are saying that, he didn't bunt enough, he left pitchers in too long, you know, he missed. handle the bullpen, just stupid stuff that no matter who the manager is, people like to complain. Just like the low, it's the lowest of the... Yeah, it's, I've got the four narratives standing by it around like that. Exactly. He didn't motivate the guys.

His lineups were too frequently changed. Yeah. Yeah, like for example, the first reply, no accountability from Jim Crane. It was not just injuries. Thanks. Christina.

Brian McTaggart responded, actually. And he said, They lost Bregman and Tucker had devastating injuries in rotation lineup and bullpen and finish one win from a playoff spot. So off of that reply, the only way Joe's spot in my mind would have lost his job this year is if they would have gone 70 and 92. Instead, they went, what did they go? What did they go, 85 and, what, 87? 86 or 87, yeah. I mean, they won 87 games.

That's actually a miracle. With Ryan Gusto being their third most innings pitch on the season. With Colton Gordon. Colton Gordon was tied for third, I think, with most innings pitched. With a bear of Zax playing. A what now? A pair of Zax. Oh, shorts?

Short and Cole. Yes. Taylor Tremel got serious AB. Yes. Carlos Corre was a deadline deal. He got more A-Bs than Yordon Alvarez. We're forgetting Cooper Hummel, huh? Oh.

That's the goat. Don't sleep on Cooper Hummel. Cooper Hummel on this show, big week. You can go back to bed. The next day on, believe, on gut feelings, he said that, what do you say, seven hits in a series, something like that? No, I said three hits, right? I think it was three hits in a game.

And he didn't have three hits in a month, which is fine. I was riding that wave-law. And then he was, yeah. He was Cooper D-F-Aid. No, he's Cooper Little Rock. Poor guy. That's fine. You can get on a minor league deal.

Point being, this team would have had to completely implode. You would have, and again, major league players don't want to say something publicly, but they'll go whisper to their buddies. and those buddies will call Ken Rosenthal and they'll call Jeff Passon and they'll call other people. They'll, they'll find out about it. But,

now, the question's going to be, what kind of contract is A.J. Hinch sign in Detroit. A big one, I don't care. Yeah, I don't... If you're Jim Crane, you're a responsible owner of a sports franchise, you can't be waiting in the wings for somebody to come say, all right, I don't want to come here.

You know what I mean? If you're going to make a change, you're not making the change because you might get A.J. Hinch to come here. You're doing it because you really think you need a philosophical change. But I will say this. And this is one of those, it's an evergreen where it's like a long lasting one. If A.J. Hinch ever reappears in the Astros organization, this is just a, and I know we're not on gut feelings here because we're on regular day. He's going to be the general manager of this team. You think so?

I believe that. This is a super, super. super gut feeling. I believe that AJ, this will be the last time he manages that once he's done managing in Detroit, he will not manage anymore. I think he's got a front office moxie to him. I think he wants to craft a team. And that's why I always thought that, you know, because he and Joe are very tight.

I thought that would have been an interesting combination of working those two guys together. And I think AJ would have gone to gym and said, Joe's my guy. That's the reason why I was kind of in my thought process of if anybody was in trouble, it was more Dana than it was Joe. I like Dana, actually. I don't think Dana's in a poor job. Now, he didn't win the trade deadline battles. I mean, Issaquaredes, I mean, not Issa Paredes, but

Hesu Sanchez did not help. Monarius didn't do much. Korea was good. Korea was good. But also, I mean, that was just, they held the twins hostage. Yeah. And frankly, until Paredes got hurt, the Paredes, part of the Caltechah trade was a super win for this team.

And Cam Smith was still a win. Yeah. He was an overall positive player for you. Well, you at least have the, faith that this is a guy that can do it, you just needs to get over the rookie, you know, because he played a lot of baseball. He just did. And then you got worn down.

You know, Scana reports, because guess what? Major League Baseball's hard. It just is. All right. So if you would like to have a comment either way on whether or not you are happy or sad or frankly indifferent to Joe Espada and Dana Brown coming back, let us know. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. We have shut your bum ass up coming up at the bottom of the hour.

the news at noon. Believe it or not today at 150. 713-212-5-790. Please join us here on Sports Talk 790. 1118, Matt and Ross with you here on Sports Talk 7-90. Shut your bum ass up coming up at about 10 minutes from now. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Kevin Durant will be making his preseason debut, says Kay Adams. Rockets against the hated Utah jazz tonight. Utah was the number one pick. It'll be his prediction-wise last year. The only won 17 games? and they fell all the way to number five. That's a shame. Who did they take?

No idea. I don't remember. Actually, this is interesting. Remember a guy named Ace Bailey? Yes. He was a Rutgers player. That's right. He had two players in the first round.

And everyone's like... Oh, that's the one that didn't want to go to Utah. He's like, you don't think... There was rumors for like 24 hours. He didn't want to play in Utah. Now I remember that. And he talked to his representation. He was like, oh, I love Salt Lake.

City. Yeah, just great. It's not going to extend an extension there. This is wonderful. It's so amazing.

It's the best. Yeah, and then there's a player on there. What's the best thing about Salt Lake City? Right now? You mean like as we speak today?

If you were trying to sell me on moving there. Okay. Let me give you, I'll give you five things. Okay. All right. Wow.

First of all, it's one of the most beautiful cities in America. In what way? Mountains. Okay. Seasons. Utah is beautiful.

They have the big, National Parks. Lots of outdoor activities. Skiing, parks. Okay, so that is, if you're a skier, it's, they always call it the clean snow is there before it gets to the Rocky Mountains. Is Ace Bailey, much of a skier? I don't really know Ace Bailey that well.

I mean, I could ask him before the game. Yeah. Okay, so beautiful. Lots of stuff to do outdoors-wise. People are generally very nice. Hmm, Russell Westbrook would disagree. Yeah, there have been a few players over the years that have had issues. I'm not talking about jazz people.

I'm talking about just generally around the streets. What else is nice about Utah? You said you're giving me five. I thought you had them all. I thought you had them ready to rock. I'll get in a anything. Hold on. What's the cost of living situation compared to like, I don't know, Denver?

They do have a state income tax. I would say... It's got to be cheaper, right? No, no, not necessarily. Not necessarily. Can you use Park City as an example of a great little neighborhood town that's close? How close is it? This is 40 minutes from downtown?

Yeah, sure. Park City is one of the best resort destinations in the world, frankly. I need to give you two more things. Oh, not a lot of traffic. Okay. Okay. And if you're not Mormon, Sundays is a piece of cake to do stuff. Like everybody's in the church?

Yeah, Sundays are a big church. They don't go outside? Like all day? Like mornings. Church is an all-day thing for LDS on Sundays, typically. Oh, like eight hours? And Sundays is, I think it's at least three hours. And then Sundays are a day with, they legitimately call it a day of rest.

Okay. So they don't do a whole lot. You get brunch all to yourself. Well, yeah. Plus, it's funny because the Jazz, the jazz have tried to avoid playing Sunday games because people are like, I'll stay at home. We play the Jazz Thanksgiving weekend on a Sunday in the afternoon, which is we're going right up against the NFL. You can get some cheap tickets.

I mean, I assume so. But it is, it is unbelievably beautiful. Okay. And you as an outdoors person. How's the nightlife? Better than it was when I live there. Okay. It's not, it's not like the outdoors.

I've been to Zion. I want to go. Oh, I can say this. I can walk, I feel very safe there. Not that every city doesn't have crime, but I always felt safe in Salt Lake. That's good. And the downtown scene is, 300% better than it was 20 years ago.

Okay. Thank you, Matt. There's your Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce update. How many of those are Ace Bailey receptive to? Oh, I mean, I wouldn't go ask players. I mean, no one's going there. No one has said, I want to play for the Utah Jazz. Well, of course, Carlos Boozer was the greatest example.

I was there in Utah when Carlos Boozer signed a Duke player, a longtime NBA player. And it was like, it gave him a crazy contract for the, Why is he going to Utah? Like, pay me more than anybody else. Yeah. Lots more.

Let's talk to Jay on 790 at 1122. Jay, thank you for holding and good morning to you. Good morning. Before I get to my Astro take, how far is the Amish community in Utah? Amish? I'm going to put it at about, I don't know,

1,800 miles. Oh, okay. Okay. From what I hear, they're bringing back Joe at Spada and Dana Brown, correct? Yes. Well, you might as well give the, maybe the Rangers or Seattle. One of those teams is going to finish one and two, and your Astros are going to be fighting with the age at the bottom. Because the general manager and the coach and the manager, excuse me?

Well, not really the general manager, but your coach. You mean the manager? He's the man or not the coach manager. Yeah, this will be his third year, yes. Yes. Joe Espott's third year? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Give it to the Rangers or give it to the Mariners next year to the division. Well, they had Joe Spada this year. They won more games than the Rangers this year and they had Joe Spada. Well, good luck next year when the season starts in February. Why is that, Jay? What does Joe start? By the way, it starts in late March.

What did Joe's spot to do that was so bad? Well, the rumor was they were going to fire him and bring back A.J. Hinch to get you another World Series. But that's throwing out the door. How many World Series is A.J. Hinch won with the Tigers? He's trying to win one now. Go, go Tigers. Go Tigers. Jay, I want to thank you for this very insightful call you giving us today.

As usual. All right. Just bringing it. Please stay safe on the road out there, folks. Yeah. Especially you, Jay. I mean, I'm assuming Jay, I can hear the car, right? Yeah, he's driving.

Maybe he's on a hands-free. Even then. By the way, get home safely. Word of the wise, I've been using hands-free texting, the Siri texting system on my car. Just enunciate because there have been some things that I've not said that Siri thinks I'm saying. Just be careful. Yeah, be careful out there, Matt. So drive-

I'm glad you're coming to my side because I've been telling you used series of text for years. Absolutely. I'm all for it. It's just much safer. Now, people do laugh at some of the things they get back at me because they're like, what you can't? Now, the thing about Siri that I do live is she does, she will accept swear words.

Yes, she does. And I mean vulgar things I say. Also, I like when you're doing that, when you're driving. And then you're like, what the hell is this guy doing? Get over! And it ends up in your text. Is that ever happen to you? Not lately.

Sometimes I'm talking to text and then I road rage and then it ends up in the text. And I hit send for fun, just to make it funny. Just see what people think. See what did I do? Let's talk to Jerry on 790. Jerry, good morning to you. Yes, good morning. Hey, this conversation about the manager reminds me of a comment a couple weeks ago that

McDaggart made. saying that there was more on us on players these days for a team to be successful. You know, I just completely disagreed with that. I think it appears that way because we have so much information on players as it relates to analytics. And very little analytics, by the way, on the managers, you know, accept the effect of their decisions. But one of the key variables is the fact that, well, one, we're not in the locker room.

And, I mean, I have to think that if I'm looking at my manager and he's been to three World Series as a player, and he's been to a World Series as a manager, as opposed to the abilities, I should. could say the complement of the Astos current manager, I've got a, man, I'm pumped at a, from a psychological perspective. And that's kind of what I saw lacking with the Astros, the collective, psychological winning attitude, you know, and just determined in that perspective. I would, I would bring the manager back, though, you know, because, because he has some chemistry,

It's his own type. The question, though, really is what goes on behind closed doors, you know, in the management. And only Jim Crane and the players and some of the other associated people really know what the 401 on that is. You know, what does you think about? Thank you, Jerry. I appreciate it. Yeah, I cannot give you that answer. Joe Spotted does not tell me about his private meetings.

We have private meetings here in our company, and we don't tend to tell you very much. You can figure some of it out. You probably could, but not everything. Yeah, as long as your players don't, in 2025, you do need managers who are players' managers and who the players like. And I'm not in that clubhouse every day,

but just from things that I've seen in the way that people act, everything's all right. People like Joe Spada, he's very, he works with the guys, he's out, he's out there, he hits fly balls and ground balls with them, he's out there doing drills with them. He's almost, it's like he's still basically like the bench coach or a positional coach. He's interacting with them.

He's very good with them. They play hard. This championship winning attitude is something we just assigned whether or not they won one more game than they actually did. So Joe Spada is doing a good job, I think. the players like him. Most of the decisions he has to make, I'm not going to say are pre-made, but you have all the analytics and match-up data

and all that type of stuff kind of at your feet. As long as you have somebody who's doing their job correctly, which Joe spotted does, as far as the attention to detail and being prepared for those types of things. Yeah, pre-7-10, I don't know how much Joe gets involved. I mean, I would not say 100%, but quite a bit. One-7-10 hits, it's in his hands. Well, yeah, well, the players just have to,

go out there and do it. They have to do it. Bruce Bochy was two years ago, they won a World Series. And he's the genus manager. Now they're 81, two years later, they're 81 and 81, and they're out. Yeah. What change? He forgot how to miss Bochie's old. He forgot how to manage? Or they have worse players. Mm-hmm. Ain't nobody getting time?

Ain't nobody getting time for it? Hey nobody getting time for it. Hey, nobody getting time for it. All right. This is our most cathartic half hour of the week. You want to tell somebody to shut their bum ass up? I don't think I'd explain much more than that. 713, 212.7.90. Call in.

Explain what's going on. At the very end, tell them this. Shit your bum-ass up, man. Yes, I'm in the office. You having the keys in the Mondays? No, somebody tells me the case of Mondays, no. I think about to get time for that. Hey, nobody got time for that.

It's Wednesday, Matt. You have in the... Hey, are they walking? I'm going, happy hump day. Shut up. Shit so bum ass up, man. Guess what there it is. Guess what there it is.

I think of a two piece of something. Whatever. All right. I really, really, really disagree with how the NFL are the Arizona Cardinals handle their coach. Now, Jonathan Gannon may have a few screws loose.

But the fact that he got fined $100,000 for telling Amari DiMarcato what a piece of blankie was for dropping the ball in the end zone is ridiculous. Now, I guess it was him pushing his hand away or whatever was the reason why they got the $100,000 fine. But sometimes your coach needs to tell a particular player, you're an idiot. I guarantee this Ross, every NFL team has talked to running backs, cornerbacks, receivers,

quarterbacks, anybody. Get across the goal line. then drop the ball. Get well across it, like five yards deep in the end zone. Yes. And when DeMercado didn't do it, costing his team a touchdown that would have ultimately given them the win, you gotta be pissed. This isn't a teachable moment.

This isn't ninth grade. This isn't even college football. This is pro football where everybody is judged on wins and losses. Eric is owner Cardinals, shame on you for finding your coach $100,000. Shut your bum asses up. Shit your bum ass up, man. That's why y'all are trash-ass franchise. Oh, wow.

I just, look, he shouldn't have touched him because you lose credibility in that point, but he was pissed, and I don't blame him. And look, look, DeMercato could have, you know, said, you want to touch me out? Come watch his hands of mine. Hit your nose. But he didn't want to do that because he knew he screwed up. He literally cost his team a chance at a legitimate victory.

I don't have any tolerance any longer for these players that are dropping the ball short of the goal line. I just, there is absolutely no excuse. They've all been warned over and over and over again. And I just, I find it pathetic that a coach can't go over there and chew a guy's ass out. That's my opinion. That's what I wanted to say, Ross. Thank you, Matt. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Who's going next? Me? Sure. Do I even mention the publication? I'm certainly not going to mention the writer. Did you see this headline? I did. Many people are having a bad year in college football, but March Manning is having one of the worst.

The quarterback has gone from preseason Heisen Trophy Favorite and projected number one pick to a man synonymous with failure. Okay, let's relax. I understand there was a ton of hype and Arch Manning has not lived up to that and he hasn't been very good and I'm not super optimistic that he is going to get good. But to put this out there just to use his name to try get clicks. That's what this is. A man synonymous with failure is Arch Manning, who's made a handful of starts in his college football career? I'll say it.

The athletic, shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. Six months ago, Arch Manning was never synonymous with anything. Maybe not playing a whole lot. Money. I'm not synonymous with NIL deals. Don't call me unless you got seven fingers. Is Arch Manning College Football's first flop?

What? What is it? You've been watching college football for one year? Now, you don't go after people directly on Twitter. Sometimes. Go off for that person. No, I'm not going to do. Let's see what you want to do. Go pull an Adam Clinton.

See how it works. I don't think I want to pull any Adam Clinton's in life. Oh, come on. Just do one for me. Maybe some. Go see what he says. Not Adam, but that guy. I don't even know his name.

And this is just, this tweet that I have doesn't even have his name mentioned. Some guy named Will something, college football writer. Whatever. He doesn't deserve the attention. Just terrible. Jonathan, what's the matter with you? I'm at the point now. I'm getting really tired of the national sports media against with the Cleveland Browns.

I saw a video of media personnel trying to find Shador at a college dealership or a car dealership, excuse me, asking him how he feels about him being QB2. Last week he paramed his answers And then you want to go Pantsimon Sorry And hunt him down To ask him How do you feel about being a roster up?

He didn't earn that He didn't gain it Someone just got traded I don't It's just You guys are doing it for Cliffs at this point And it doesn't He's not even giving you guys what you want

It's just going to feel more hate Rather than the attention you want for your platform Is that make sense? And it just Ain't nobody got time for that It's over He's QB2 Dylan Gabriel

Over exposed It's just It's almost the same thing With the arts man situation Like do we really care about this anymore Hmm Yeah Shador is still getting a lot of headlines Way too many for guys

And isn't taking a snap yet But that it'll all dissipate The 15 minutes will be over Until he gets his opportunity And then if he's successful And gets a chance To get his 15 minutes back He'll perform or he won't

All right We have D-Man and Gil Want to talk legit Astros I don't know if they want to do Such a bum ass up The only person on the line right now that anybody got time for something is Brad. You know what the rule is that? I'm assuming it.

You haven't called in a while? Then it's two straight days. Everything was great. Yeah, I know. But let me ask you this. If anybody else wants to jump in front of Brad. Oh, please. Please.

Because D-Man and Gill, those are legit astro calls. We need to, how do you want to sneak though? You want to sneak them in here? Or do you want to, what? Those two guys. Yeah, sure, why not. Let's sneak him in here. Even though we're not doing anybody got time for that.

D-Man's calling us in Shiner. D-Man, what do you guys? this morning. Hey, hey. Brad, sneaking in to other, to other shows. He's sneaking in around you yesterday. He called in, so to the morning show. So I just want to warn everybody about that. But hey, I'm calling about, well, I'm calling about the medical staff for the Astros. My wife works for enter Milan, Italy, and what's the name of that, what's the name of that division group, See the eye. Yeah.

And anyway, she says she's that they are so far ahead of, because I sent my kids, my grandchildren, little Astro hats and that, and told her about all the injuries. And she started talking about what they do. As soon as you become a member, I can't remember she's either A.C. Milan or Inter Milan. But what they do are x-rays, MRIs, MREs, of, the new player, and they can tell, down to the millimeter, the ligaments and this, that, this,

and every three months, everybody has to go through and do it again. And they can start to see if your tendons are starting, just starting to rupture or just slightly tear, or maybe a little bit of inflame, but they're not, the guys aren't talking about the little problem. And then they'll start even, they'll even go as far as having to do, themselves if they think that something is going on. And I was thinking, you know, with the spin rates and all this stuff.

All right. Well, I'm sorry. We're up against a break, yeah. We appreciate that. That was a thrilling conversation. But we're going to hit a quick break here. Welcome to Matt Thompson, Ross. With Ross.

Continues here on Sports Talk 790. All right, 713-1-2-5-790. The phone number if you want to get in, please. Look, guys, Brad is on hold. Please get ahead of him. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Ain't nobody got time for that slash. Shut your bum ass up, man.

Broderick, go ahead. The floor is yours. What's up, Ross? Hey, look, man, I had the call just so I could be ahead of Brad. Brad. Thank you. This is specifically for you. Ain't nobody got time for you calling every day with these horrible good feelings

sounding like you've been drunk for three days already. Then you need to quit regurgitating old takes when you get one right out of five. Ain't nobody got time for that, Brad, and shut your bum ass up. Woo! Shut your bum ass up, man. Broderick bringing the heat. What happened? What do you mean?

I stepped away for a moment. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm going great. All right. I'm just responding to some tweets. They look lighter. Yeah, beef with Brad, Matt. Broderick had beef with Brad.

Oh. By way, we got a new name of our show. What's that? We're now the babbling idiots. Oh, nice. What's that? It doesn't matter. I will tell you right now who told us that.

Well, Jay Eitman hates us, and he calls us two babbling, yeah, who are the two babbling idiots? So, that's cool. Cut your ball, I can survive. Cut the ball I can't. Why am I saying I hate William's song all of a sudden? Are you okay? No, I'm not.

I called for people to get ahead of Brad. Last chance. Last chance to get in before Brad. 713-212-5-79. We know a little bit of delay, so we'll give it about a minute here. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Your last chance to get in before Brad gets in with his.

Anybody got a time. But the news at noon coming up, which will feature the Rockets back on the floor tonight, taken on the Utah Jazz. And Kevin Durant will be playing that game tonight. You excited? Yes. Sorry, I was reading these angry tweets. Yeah, we're getting, we're getting crushed. Well, just two guys.

That's a shame. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. Michael Madrono says, The Beatles suck, but your show rocks. I mean, I'll take that, I guess. That's good. It beats the alternative.

T.D. Miller says, Matt and Ross arguing over tacos is not good sports radio. Their dribble at lunchtime is horrible. Eh. Thank you. I guess. Have we argued over tacos? We, uh,

maybe we do, maybe we, we argue over food occasionally. And we do, you know, well, Jess, we can't cuss and discuss

some tinkins again if you won't do that. Okay, since you miss Broderick, he wants to, and nobody else wants to get ahead of Braddock. Yeah, you know,

I'll get Broderick a second chance. Broderick, I was, I stepped away momentarily. Brodered, the floor is yours. Take plenty of time. What's up,

man? Yeah, man, I sure wish you would have been there for round one, but we're going to go for round two. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Braddonard.

Okay, Brad. So check this out. Just like the caller before me said, you call in the morning show. I heard you on with Carl Thomas saying the exact same thing that you said on the Matt Thomas show. Ain't nobody got time for that. Yeah, you got a fresher material. And quit hating on Houston sports teams, Brad. You want to be so bad, just join us, man.

Quit hating. We know you love the assholes. We know you love the Rockets. And deep down, you love attention. Just go ahead and be who you are, man. Just do that. All right, Broderick will be great than life. That's right.

Shut your bummed ass up, Brad. No. Shut your bummed ass up, man. Love you, Broder. You can call any time you want. Brodier's, he's bringing the heat. It's firing brimstone, if you will. Hold on.

Oh, hold on. Oh, hold on. You can't go to you next, Brad. Somebody's online. This is your old friend is on the line for. Who is that? Oh. Oh.

Brad and Houston are Gary in Spring. Gary's great. He crushes you about the wave. He does crush me about the wave. Let's see if he's going to else. I didn't make any reference to the wave lately. Gary, what's the matter with you, Gary? Hey, guys, I was calling about. I was listening to you station the other day. And during a break, there was a commercial on there. And it was talking about the Matt Thomas lunch hour show coming on.

and then it came on. A lady came on about she said something about listening to you and something about the food that's in the refrigerator. She said, what's that? She said in the ladies' voice, what's that nasty smell? And then immediately after that guy came on

and said, it's the match show. So ain't nobody got time for those commercials. Don't play that commercial no more, man. Your show don't stink. It smells good. Thank you. Thank you very much. to support. Let me tell you about Gary. Gary and I are friends.

I believe you called him an idiot before. No, there's no chance. He told me to get hit by a bus couple times. What's that? You told him to get hit by a bus couple of times. I did? Well, I mean, he didn't get hit, so. Or that we know of. I reversed jinxed it. Good job, Matt. All right. Brad. How the hell are you, Brad?

For one, I don't drink. And for two, I haven't called y'all's shown what since yesterday. before that it's been like two or three weeks. So I guess that guy doesn't really listen to your show at all. Yeah, but it sounds like every day because you call too much. No, I just call on predictions because I ain't got time to wait. I work for a living still and I don't have time to wait on the phone. So I don't call except for the prediction.

And I took off a couple of days this week. That's the first time I've taken off. So now that's why I'm calling. And for my first thing is Gordy. I made a prediction on the morning show that Paredes would play again this year. And Gordy said, no way, no how. And he said he'd buy me a steak dinner. And he disappeared.

Yeah, and he disappeared after that. Yeah. Gordy, Gordy didn't. Nobody got time for it. No, that's right. You know, Gordy is that way. He will tell you one thing. and then do another.

I totally, you know what, Gordon, he meant a steak bagel from McDonald's. I think he meant he said, I think he said cracklins from a Lafayette gas station is what he said. No, he said a steak dinner. I told him outback or I could go Ruth Chris. Oh, just call in and pay it for me. Step up. That's, that's quite a, that's quite a haul.

Hey, I thought him I'd accept the outback. Maybe chop steak from Ruby's. But anyway, let me tell you one other one. I'd have, I kept this hidden. Okay, I was out visiting somebody in the Midtown area. It's a very exclusive security, guard, gated community, and my car's parked on this person's grass because there was no otherwise you're parking on the street.

All of a sudden, a big black SUV plowed into me out of nowhere. He got out of the car and said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And we exchange information and I called the security guard over and to get his name. And it's funny how his number got disconnected later. I didn't want to call the police. I was in a loner car and it was the brother of the owner of the Houston Texans. And right away he gave me the insurance.

He wouldn't answer his phone, but he answered his phone. but he answered his text and he gave me his insurance agent's information and they need to night anything happened and it was just all it was mysterious the whole thing but so I gave

the car back my car was getting fixed so I didn't really care I mean it was a loaner I am keeping a book right now we ask yeah we asked on that call we are good God I just said he got hit by Carrie McNair I'm assuming it's gonna there's There's more than more.

There could be a couple of them. I'm going to McNars are running around here. Oh, that's coming up. That's coming up next. Let's do it. Hit the music. 4. 26 W.F.A.

and you're home for game for for American League Division Series. Aaron freaking Judge. The jazz freaking chisholm. Aaron Judge finally came up big time like Bernie Williams. Got some big weird barrels there. And that right, James. God Nooks. Hi, James.

Well, thank you, thank you fellas for taking my call. Thank you personally, Governor Thomas. Listen, I'm going to give a quick shout out to Mr. Brad over there. Over there, you guys are terrorizing for no reason at all, including some of these hospitalians over here.

But anyway, you guys can sort that out. Look, these two magpies that you got over here on this radio station, man, I thought Dan Matthews was better than that, but he's just a magpie just like that called Thompson. dude. First of all, if the

Houston sports thing didn't do well this year, man, just leave it, you know, put it to rest for now. Stop trying to, you know, beat down a legendary team like my team. You know what I'm saying? I ain't got time for none of that. Those two mag pies over there, man. Ain't nobody got time for that. Thank you for taking my call. Anything for you, James, on 66. WFAN.

Hey, you're on 790. Good morning. Good morning, guys. Quick one on this. Hey, Brad, ain't nobody about time for you to use it the whole segment. I'm up, man. People got to get in, too, brother. Come on, man. They ain't nobody got time for that. But I agree with them on the insurance, man.

The insurance companies go shut their bummeds up. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Shut your bum ass up, man. Insurance companies, they need to help you. I mean, they may send you nice emails and Christmas cards, but they're going to make sure you have a difficult time with your claim. That's for sure.

All right. That was interesting. Good conversation on today's edition of Shut your bum ass. Unbelievable stuff. Unbelievable. A lot of long winded calls in. We do give you a little bit of bleach here on the show. We're getting some hate.

For what? What do we do now? On Twitter streets. I'm just meeting everyone. It's fine. Okay. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

12-06, Sports Talk, 7-9. Time now for us to give you what's happening. in the world of sports as we recap things at the news at noon. Boss, what do you got going on today? Yes, Matthew, there's a lot of great stuff to talk about all the news at noon, including your baseball playoffs, as you had two games yesterday, headlined by the New York Yankees bouncing back in their series. They're in an 02 hole against Blue Jays.

Aaron Judge had a big game three for four, four runs batted in, and a home run. hitting 500 in these playoffs. Yankees get the big 9-6 win, and now with Cam Schlittler on the mound today, they are minus 175, excuse me, now up to minus 180. Favorites against the Blue Jays. Go Blue Jays.

You also had the Mariners get a win. They have a 2-1 lead over the Detroit Tigers. By the way, did you see the stat after the game last night? The Tigers, season, which is only one game. They have lost eight consecutive home games. AJ Hinch. There do.

AJ Hinch is not winning big games at home, apparently. Well, it's baseball, Matt. It is baseball. That would be saying on Detroit Radio? What would be saying we're calling for everyone's head? I don't know. 208 first pitch for the Mariners and the Tigers today. As they'll look to bounce back.

It is a quadruple header in baseball, the last one of the season. You have Brewers and Cubs, 408, Jays and Yankees, 608, and then the late night West Coaster, it'll be the Dodgers and the Phillies at 808. Now, yesterday there was a massive delay in the Seattle Detroit game. So yesterday was a Fox Day, the two American League games. They decided they had to make a decision because they're not going to bump the Yankees on national television. That's just not going to happen.

So they took Seattle, Detroit, and they put it on the MLB Network, which has a fairly decent reach, an FS2 who no one gets, basically. Correct. So they're getting annihilated for such decision. I don't know what was on Fox, the regular Fox last night, but they're not bumping. The Masked Singer, season 76?

Yeah, they're not bumping anything on the regular channel for a Seattle, Detroit Division Series. It's not happening. It's unfortunate whether they didn't cooperate, but at least they put on an MLB network. I mean, fair number. Now, if you're in a hotel, you want to go. go watch, you're probably SOL, but if you were at home

and you have regular cable or direct TV, you probably had a pretty good chance of watching it. So, again, that's the breaks when you sign these television deals and you don't force the networks to put the games on over-the-air television. And by the way, did you see who was at the game and caught a foul ball?

I did not, can I guess? Blue Jays, yes. Is it an actress? No. Actor? No. Well, kind of an actor. Sports musician. Actor-mus. musician, little musician actor. Would I like this person?

I think you love this person. Bad Bunny. Yes. Yes. OJ. Been taking very long to figure it out. Some bad bunny caught a foul ball. Good for him.

Legit or did somebody hand it to him? I don't see the video. Okay. I think he caught it. All right. Let me look at the video. No, that's fine. Whatever.

All right. Elsewhere, apparently Kevin Cefansky says, not so fast, my friend, on naming a Shadour Sanders, the backup quarterback, to Dylan Gabriel. Apparently, practice squad, Bailey Zappy, also in the mix.

Look, I've seen Bailey Zappy throw a little bit. You have? Shador Sanders is going to be better than Bailey Zappy. I would hope so. I mean, it's Bailey Zappy. Also, elsewhere in the NFL news, did you see a six-game PED suspension

accepted by one, out Beckham Jr. Is he even playing? No. Isn't it easy to accept suspensions when you're not able to participate or actually on a team? He failed a PED test while he was a member of the Miami Dolphins. Okay. Beckham insisted that he did not knowingly take any banned substances.

The three-time Pro Bowl are adding when asked about the PED he tested positive for. He said they said his testosterone levels were too high. He will be 33 years old by the time the suspension ends. He wants to return the NFL this season. He said during the appearance, there are four franchises he'd be interested in joining Steelers, Chiefs, Rams, and Giants. Why the Giants?

Just because he used to play there? He started his career there, I guess. That makes sense. Yeah. And he didn't say, he didn't mention the Titans in there. Or going back to the Dolphins. He didn't certainly mention the Raiders. No.

Or the Texans, for that matter. Hey, Texans are good at wide receiver. Xavier Hutchson, the goat. Right. Is he WR2? Just throwing it out? there right now, Christian Kirk. But he's in the slot.

Who's going to make a bigger catch for you right now? Xavier Hutchison or Christian Kirk? Hutchison found the engine twice. That's true. Okay. They're all great, Matt. All right, thank you. And, well, do you want anything else for your news at noon?

Sure. I mean, the other headlines include Alan Iverson talking about his sobriety. Oh, Kevin Durant starting tonight for the Rockets. Yeah, the Kevin Durant does start for the Rockets. tonight. That'll be a 630 start on Astros Radio Network. Astro's Rockets Radio Network, whatever. Sorry, I mean, I guess

moving into Rockets mode. There are some Astro affiliates that are rockets. I haven't flipped the switch yet. I think you have. I think the case and point was you have not split the switch. Yeah. It's right here on Sports Talk 7 outing in Houston. Alan Iverson discussing his new memoir, misunderstood on ESPN's

first take. By the way, the Janus rumors are not going away. Bobby Marks out there talking about. Yeah, but he's not an Intel guy, really, right? I don't think he is. He's saying they can fit the rockets with the, he's a capologist type of guy. But he also said the rockets would move amend Thompson to make that happen. I don't see it, Ross. I know you and I have disagreed about that. I think amends untouchable. I really do. And I know you're not going to, I know, like,

it was for you honest. I get it. It's still think it's untouched. It's the MVP of the league. I know. I know. I'm, of this guy who has been an MVP. I'm just saying. Men Thompson's, look, I'm just going to say it. Amin Thompson's not winning NBA MVP. If you want to call back, come back to me in a few years. You know what?

A man, if you're listening, which you're not, now you've got a little bit of motivation. He's certainly not winning two of them like Janice did. Janus last year, 30 points per game, 60% from the field. And he's a perennial defensive player of the year candidate. Could Janice and Durant be on the Florida at the same time? Why not?

I guess I could figure it out. Yeah, what do you mean? That sounds amazing. How could anybody score? they just stand the finger to finger and you cover the whole court the wingspan.

Yeah, one's the best downhill player in the game. One's a plus 40% three point shooter. Last year, Janus, NBA, all first team, eighth in the defensive player of the year rankings.

He's finished top 10 in the defensive player of the year for seven straight years. If Janus goes anywhere, he's going to New York. All the signs are showing in that. Not that every sign is... I love him in Thompson.

I know. I love him in Thompson. Thompson. You're hoping that Amin Thompson turns into what Janus is. I can live with that. And it's probably not happening. Oh, I don't think, I don't know if the Rockets are a practice going, man, come on, man. Get closer to Janus. I think he just wants to be his own player.

No, I know he wants to be his own player, but I'm talking about trading for that guy. He's not untouchable in a trade for Janus to me. Okay. Even though Janus is 30. Here's my thought. What one is we come back? like $50 million a year or something. The contracts and all that stuff too.

All right. We're going to discuss more of this coming back. Because I just, while in theory, Yannis is super special. And if Yonah signed here tomorrow, I'd be losing my mind. Like I lost my mind with Kevin Durant. Okay. But I want to,

I want you to kind of see my side a little bit. I see it. He's very good. But that's like, yeah. You don't think age and wear and tear has some factor of why you wouldn't make the deal? I understand. Let's go ahead. A little more when we come back.

We're going to hit our breaks. All right. Oh, this time? Because I got to tell people about the shell federal credit. You need, Ross? Okay. So, and I'm going to probably do a poor job of explaining this. But this is just you and I sitting at the bar having a beverage talking this over, okay?

Janus is one of the greatest players ever to play in the NBA. And he's one of the most difficult guys to guard. He's also an outstanding defensive player. all the things. And has been, I want to say for the most part, fairly durable in his NBA career, right? Not a lot of injuries? Not a ton, but he's,

last year he played 67 games. Last five, a few years, 73, 63, 67, 61 games. He's had some injuries. This might be a weak argument back to you. I do believe wear and tear does play a prime factor in my decision

that I wouldn't move him in. Amends in his third season. He's still growing into his body still growing into his role might ultimately be, I mean, crescendo, an average three-point shooter, but everything else, I think he can be exemplary. He can play multiple positions. I'm not building my team exclusively around him, Ross. I'm not trying to put that kind of MVP status on him, but I can, I need layers to win a championship. I don't need one guy to get rid of three really, really good young guys and hope that Janice is going to be able to take me by myself all the way.

I can't imagine the Bucks would not be asking for a complete massive haul that would not just be draft picks. It would be current players. And among my current players, a man Thompson in my world call me wrong on this is my untouchable. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. And again, that may be not the logical argument, but it's just me speaking. Okay. Would you trade him for Nicoliochich? Well, it's not going to be straight up. The answer is yes, but these aren't going to be straight up deals.

Janus Furman wouldn't be untouchable. Yeah, Janus Furman wouldn't be untouchable. Wouldn't be for straight up. I'm just trying to gauge how far you're going with this. Because to me, Janus is a two-time MVP. He averaged 30 points per game last year, and he's finished top 10 in the defensive player of the year. To me, this is

You're banking on the youth and the potential of a men, Thompson, and what he could be. But the reality is, I just pulled up that list we were talking about the other day that top 100 basketball players of all time. This is of all time. Yannis is 24th on this list. Of all time. And 30 years old isn't the death now that it used to be. If he can still slow, I mean, you could be worried about him slowing down because he's not a great three-point show. shooter and you can be concerned about that.

And if you want to bring salary cap implications into it, I get it. But the bottom line is I would trade away, Janus, if it gets you, I mean, 30 years old is still your prime. He'll turn 31 in December in the prime of the 24th best player of all the time. Well, also, I'm going to own for you here. And this might be a different conversation if Fred Van Vlead is healthy. But if, since Fred's not, if you can. get rid of a man Thompson if you were again, I want to make sure we're very clear. This is

just us talking. This is not us. This is no speculation to this. Yeah, I don't think he's going to be Janus is not coming to the Rockets in my opinion. But my point is if you move to Man Thompson, who's running, who's handling your point? You're not handling. You're not handling, Janus is not going to handle the ball 60% of the time. There's no chance. Six and a half

sis last year. That's really good for a big man. But Nicolioch brings the ball up occasionally. So it doesn't primarily run the offense. That's fine. You can have somebody else. You'll figure it out. I don't know if I... You don't necessarily normally have the old school Bob Coozy Floor General who's out there getting 10 assists and scoring five points.

I think it would have to take... Who's a point guard on their championship team that the Milwaukee Bucks won? Drew Holiday. Wasn't it? I'm actually, I don't know. Yeah, I think it was. I mean, Drew Holiday is more of it like a two or a three, right? When did they win the championship?

20... It wasn't... It wasn't the Aggie player. Milton. It wasn't Chris Milton. Who ran the point for them? Exactly. I don't know.

But it was good. But it wasn't, I mean, Bobby Portis had a huge role in that team. Brooke Lopez had a huge part in that team. Yeah, you don't have to have a pure point guard. I guess my argument to me is that I need multiple players. Now, again, Duran and Janus would be quite formidable for sure. but if you're at you you'd have to probably give up jabari a man multiple draft picks now is jabari could you move him for the right player of course you could

but now you're looking at he's got a brand new contract i don't know it's just there's just something in my craw this is i that a man i just don't want to touch and maybe i'm just too maybe i'm just too bad too big a fan of his i love versatility i love a guy I can play four different positions. I love a guy that's got amazing athletic ability, really good court awareness, and he's 22 years old. Well, I can't wait to see him in the next five years.

He's a fantastic young player. Love his attitude. Love everything about him. He's not Janus. No, and he wouldn't be the first to tell you. He's not Janus. I guess, I'm afraid of the collateral damage, Ross, that would be coming of that trade,

what would have to go back? maybe what the Knicks are saying the same thing. I mean, I don't know what the NICs situation is in players and salaries and whatnot, but I don't see him staying in Milwaukee. I just don't. I think he's going to have to come to Jesus and realize that even in this Uberly, highly competitive Eastern Conference, not necessarily championship,

where there's probably three or four other teams he'd either go to and get a little bit of an easier path to go to the NBA finals, and I don't think it's going to be in Milwaukee. But, yeah, and again, it's not necessarily rumors. It's just one guy asking about it. Now, I will say this. I do believe that if the Reed Shepherd experiment does not work here for a while and the team is not necessarily underperforming, but not getting to the satisfaction that the rockets will kick the tires on trying to find another guard.

They've already asked for an injury exemption, which will give them a little bit of more caps to go get somebody. Now, the question will be who would they be? Yeah. The most prolific guard that is out there is looking for work is Russell Westbrook. I think people get the heby-jeebies when they talk about Russell Wesberg. As they probably should. All right. The assist leader on that 21 bucks team was Drew Holiday, 6.1 assists per game,

5.9 for Janus, and then Chris Middleton had 5. Okay, so you got 11 assists a game from your guards. I mean, clearly honest was the reason why they won the championship. No argument on that. And I do, I'm a big Janus fan. Again, if tomorrow somebody said, Matt, the rockets are getting Yonis, I'd lose my mind. Like, I lost my mind with Kevin Durant.

but I just I guess what I'm just afraid of how much has to go back and I think the price would be too rich. Okay. I think Amin Thompson is a great player with all-star potential. I mean, and I think Janus is one of the all-time greats. He's just behind. I won't say, I could be wrong.

A men's young. Maybe Amin will ascend to one of the top 20 players in all-time history. Well, that's unfair for him to put them. If you give me one of the top 20 players today in the NBA, I wouldn't move them. If I got a top 20 guy on my team, it's going to help me win a championship today. I'm not worried about his past resume. I'm taking Amin Thompson.

If Amanda Thompson turns into a top 20 player, defensively is already there. It's the offensive stuff that's the concern at this point. Okay, let me see. ESPN does a list the top 100 every year. Let's see. When did this come out? September 23rd, when's the rest of it? They only did the top 50.

You know what? We can, let's see how things pan out. Let's see where men takes the next step. I like a man Thompson. Again, I'll say. He ain't averaging 30 points for game and 60% of field goal. He ain't. He's just not.

But he doesn't need to. Not in this squad. Yeah. You know, he doesn't need to. With Kevin Durant here, don't need, you know. And again, can Durant, is there enough basketball for Durant and Tenta-Gupo be on the floor at the same time? If you were to do something like that? Yes.

Okay. You can answer that quickly. That's fine. I don't know. These mega teams sometimes don't work. Sometimes they don't work. Sometimes they work beautifully. Sometimes they're right.

They worked just fine. Yes, they did. Other times, not so much. Well, it's also the definition of people calling it. The Clippers. Oh, they're a super team. Are they a super team? Super old team.

Yeah, have nobody ever plays? Yeah. If they're not healthy? If they're injury and if they're load managing. Kevin Durant was supposed to be on a super team with the Phoenix Suns. Well, that went south really. We're under 500. Yeah.

Got coaches fired and players leaving left and right. All right. That was just a good fodder there. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. If you want to join us via Twitter, you may do that as well. It's at SportsMT, at SportsRV. Also, we don't play Nick Casario sound a whole lot on the show, Rossi,

but there was something from yesterday that we did not really get into too much that I thought was interesting about. about his evaluation of his football team. We'll discuss that coming back in a minute. 713212-5790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Time is 1234. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross.

7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to visit with us through Twitter, you may do that as well. If y'all want to be nice to us, we'd appreciate that. If you want to be rude to us, that's fine, too. We will bounce, we will fight you maybe a couple of times, but otherwise, thank you for listening. It means a lot to us.

Or you might get muted or blocked, one of the two. One of the three. 713-212-5-790. So basically, Nick Kassarie was asked yesterday about the lack of offensive line firepower that the team has had. Okay. And it feels like to me that's when the second straight year where they have not been an uber aggressive on going to get offensive linemen. They have not necessarily spent a lot of money.

There has been a lot of draft capital spent on it. And Casario basically kind of fought back a little bit on it. I want to curious your thoughts on it. Basically saying that we did our due diligence. We did make the calls. We did invest in try to find some better offensive alignment. and that sometimes things just don't work out. So do you go, when Casero says something like that,

and I'll find the exact quote here in just a minute, do you go, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Nick, for helping clarify. Or do you go, this is really cool and everything, but your job is either to get the player, and if you don't get the player, it doesn't make any difference because he's not here. You know, like, for instance,

the Astros many years ago put together an offer to get Carlos Belt around, stay with the Astros. He went to the New York Mets. And Dray at the time was like, you know, hey, we put an offer in front of him. But if you don't get the player, you don't get bonus points for putting the offer in front of him.

It'd be like the Astros saying, well, we put an offer in front of Alex Breggman. It was his decision. Okay. But you don't have him. You don't win. You don't get points for that. I think it would be more like saying the Astros didn't address first base this year. Well, he tried. First base wasn't very good. Yeah. Christian Walker, we liked the signing. Now, Cam

Robinson, obviously not the level of a Christian Walker if we're doing and it's a little bit apples oranges of course but they drafted two second round picks in the last couple of years at tackle. If you had a hit on the now Ursary of course will still the jury's still out on him he's getting a little

bit better when he doesn't have to go against top pass rushers in football which he did the first couple of weeks of the season in Jared Verson and Josh Heinz Allen or that was week three huh but when you're not going against top guys you can get yourself a little bit more

time and he's still got to find his level. He is a second round pick as well. Blake Fisher was a second round pick. If he'd a hit and he was in right now for Titus Howard and you were able to kick him into guard, you'd be talking about how great this offensive line is. If Kenyon Green was a real player. If Kenyon Green, Blake Fisher and Ursula were all hits, you're talking about top 10 offensive line and football. So they're trying. I agree with Nick Casario that he tried.

He's just whiffing. He's failing. and trading away Cam Robinson is because that was pre-draft. You didn't know that you were going to end up with a tackle. It was an insurance policy. And, well, they're going to roll with Arionte Ursary and see how good he can come and become. I think what Casero is assuming is that we didn't think he made phone calls. Well, of course, we'd think you made phone calls.

And people aren't normally just giving up franchise left tackles. Wait, you did. Well, I mean, I don't think Nick Casero was, moving Laramie Tunsel and said, well, you know what, what can I go find out there that's good? I mean, I don't, I don't doubt that he didn't try. I mean, that's not what a general manager can do and keep his job. I don't think he said, we're happy with what's in the building right now. I don't think that was a case.

But the reality is this, if you move Laramie Tunsel in which they did, there aren't solid, Ross. I'm not talking about all pro. I'm talking about just solid guys sitting around looking for free agent deals. If you get good tackles, especially love tackles, you don't. everything in your power to keep them. So of all the categories on a football team that's perhaps

the hardest to replace, it's offensive line. And that's why I think that if you really wanted to criticize where maybe Casario went wrong is that if the draft doesn't fix it one year, Ross, you got to try to go back to that draft to fix

it again. And I think that's where the issue was that they had an opportunity to go get another first round pick at an offensive of line position, knowing they were going to get rid of Laramie Tunsell, and they chose to trade out of the first round to go get some receivers who may be very good, but that wasn't priority number one going in. And so that's where I think there's maybe an little bit of disconnect. Casario can't assume that we didn't think he was trying, but also can't, Casario doesn't,

you can't say, well, at least you try, we appreciate it. You have to execute, you have to get depth at every position. And if there's one position that has plagued this team for the last, last couple of years that continues to be a worry spot, even though they've had two straight weeks where CJ's been mostly upright, it doesn't necessarily mean the next eight or nine weeks are going to be significantly better because you will see some good pass rushes. We saw the certainly the pass rush against Tampa was good. We saw the Rams in week one was spectacular. And, you know, I don't know.

It's question asked, answered, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm all of a sudden saying, well, Nick, you're not hell without responsibility for this offensive line because at least you tried. Yeah, well, also we don't know where they had certain tackles on that board. I mean, let's see, LSU's Will Campbell, Armand Mimbu, who has been very good, but he went number seven. And Kelvin Banks, I think, has been solid out of Texas for the Saints. He went number nine. then the next tackle taken was Josh Connerly Jr. by the commanders at 29.

Where did they trade out? 25, I think. Yes. Let me see where old Josh Connerly is. Oh, we've got to check PFF grades, by the way. Josh Connerly is 59th rated for tackles. Arionte Erisory is 58th. So at Ryzim now, they're both kind of mid.

As well, they should be in their first year. And then Josh Simmons for the Chiefs is having a decent year. who I like Josh Simmons. I thought, you know, as long as he was going to be the first tackle off the board until he suffered a bad injury with Ohio State. And that was one of the names that I was kind of curious why they didn't feel like they needed to go down that avenue. Will Campbell right now, this is just tackles. His PFF, it's one data point.

They have Will Campbell 27th. And let me see, Josh Simmons is rated 31st out of tackles. Out of 71 rated tackles. Speaking of PFF, let's go look Let's do it right now You want to do it right now? Right this second. Let's honor the Texans offensive line for their very good work against a

very bad Raven scene that was injured at Riddled. Hold on, I'm scrolling. Wait, you can't scroll. This should be higher up than scrolling. What do you mean? Now they were 30 seconds. Then they were 31st last week. And now they are. 29th, baby. Charging up

the rankings. Let's go! So it's a cumulative... Over the Ravens. It's a cumulative grade then. All right, there you go. Only three pressures and no sacks. Wait, I thought he was sacked twice.

No, no, no, no. He was definitely sacked. Maybe they're putting those on C.J. Stroud, because they also grade... Okay, I can see that. I thought he was sacked twice for 17 yards. Well, thank you to the Poonhounds for giving us information there. Yeah, thank you. If you know, if you listen to show last week, you know exactly what we're talking about.

Oof, juice grugs, negative grade on 27% of run plays, which is the second worst rate among all guards. Ed Ingram, it's been their best offensive lineman. Who they literally picked up off the scrap heap. Congratulations to Nick Casario. Yeah. Addressing Ed Ingram. I mean, addressing the offensive line by picking up the great Ed Ingram.

To be fair to Casario, again, how many great tackles and guards are sitting around on a beach going, I can now put myself out there to sign any amount of money I want to. Don't typically teams that have good, they keep left franchise, left tackles and a right tackles, keep them. If we're on 32 sports shows and 32 NFL markets, we're all saying we got to win in the trenches, we've got to build our offensive line. It's not that easy. Yeah.

But that's why I think you do, I think they do, even if things get better with this offensive line, because certainly at this point they can't get a whole lot worse, you have to address it this offseason. Ed Ingram is the number one. rated guard in football. Ed Ingram? Yes. Now, look, he's got an 84 this year. Last year, he had a 54 and a 59

before that. If you and I went to a sports bar right now and said, what do you all think about Ed Ingram? Do you think the average Houston sports fan? But we need to be more knowledgeable than an average sports fan, Matt. Let's go. I don't disagree. We want to provide information. We want all of you. Here's what I want you to do. To entertain and inform. Yes. In that order. Mostly entertain, yeah.

I want you all to go. go to your friend's house tonight or go to a pub or maybe you want to talk to your lady. You're not whispering things about it. You see Ed Ingris' PFF grade. He's an 84. I'm going to try that at home tonight.

Okay. Sweet talk, your lady. You're looking good. You know also look good. Eddinger and pass pro. I don't think that's going to work particularly well. Go for it. See what happens. I actually run block

grades. What have you really been doing well? No, seriously, I want... Texans run blocking has been among... Not like top five in football, but I think top half of football. Well, it may be better than runners. Pass blocking. Not great.

Seriously, here's your homework for tonight. I want you all to go. Maybe it's your water cooler. Maybe you guys are on a group chat. I want you all talk about Ed Ingram tomorrow and see what kind of buzz you get back. Hey, do you know who the number one PFF-Graded is, baby? And then she's like, what does PFF mean?

It's a poon. on a football evaluators. That's right. That's glossed by us, by the way. I want, oh, you know what, I'm going to look at these defensive line rankings. How do Arionte Ursary do this past week? That's what I'm really worried. He's not done particularly well.

Give me a second. The PFFers don't like him for too much. He's rated 59th out of 70, or 58th out of 71 tackles. So he's been the category of, you know, rookie guy. I get it. 1245, Sports Talk 7 out of 8. This is Matt Thomas Show at Ross. We've got to, believe it or not today at 1. 150. Rosswood is today's category.

What? I know. It's only an hour and five minutes away. The show's moving fast. What do you all want to get to? A little bit of rockets. We talked a little bit about a under a under, talked about a lineman for the Houston Texans. Mm-hmm. We got Joe Espada and Dana Brown coming back for 2026. By the way, we've talked about this a little bit off air, very little bit on air. there's one thing that Dana's got to do, right? Number one, most important thing for 20206, right?

Sign a pitcher. Well, we'll see if you and I agree on that when we return. 1246, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. All right. We've got to save the... what's important for the Astros and 26th at the top of the hour,

because I just got a DM from a listener. And the DM from the listener, something terrible, bad or anything. Is that nudis? No, I would hope not. I hope this person would not send me those. Okay. We were talking, I believe, yesterday about the bands

and how crazy stuff can happen on band trips. Okay. Okay. Yes. So I think we kind of said, hey, if there's ever been issues or experiences in the band, let us know. This person who I will not identify as a person said the following. I can neither. He says that I can either confirm.

I think it's neither. Confirm nor deny. But as a former member of the spirit of Houston, go coogs, and being completely honest. And I want to be anonymous on this topic if it's mentioned. you won't mention your name, by the way. I can confirm things happen on the bus and on band trips in the hotel rooms. Things that would make adult sites blush

happen at times. That's it. So I was right. Band trips can get crazy. Okay. I just want to point that out. They weren't singing. They may have been singing.

Could have been dancing. And they were definitely romancing. Eight hours bus, Lubbock to Houston. we'll see things like that happen they just do I've got nothing to say that's fine I just want to point it out that

thanks Matt thanks to the listener who I'm not going to mention his name okay I just want to say that you people want to tell you stuff and as long as you keep them anonymous that's what anonymous sources are for so if you want to go see the spirit of the cougars

getting one of them band trips and the rest is what happens on the bus stays on a bus clearly not Or you tell Matt about it in your DMs. But I didn't mention a person's name. Okay. Okay.

Now, a couple of minutes left to go on the show. No, I actually got an hour left. We used to go three hours. Now we're going, man, three used to be a piece of cake. Making us getting into the fourth hour. You'll be fine, Matt. Make your big bucks. Come on now.

I'm trying. All right. 713, 212-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7. Oh, one quick thing. Joe Flacco is starting already at Green Bay for the Bengals. Now, is Browning hurt or is he healthy and just a healthy scratch? he's healthy.

I thought. It must really, Zach Taylor must really hate Jake Browning. They had two straight games of three points scored. Now, they did score some points late. I don't know if the Lions let off on the gas, but that game was never really in doubt. Wow.

You know what the reality is, Ross? You're just never going to be... Imagine getting bench for a 40-year-old who was just on another team? Like three days ago. Yeah. Who got bench? Oh, by the way, he got benched by the team he was previously on.

Joe Flacco's coming over here And taking my job in three days Well, how about this? 40-year-old Joe Flacko's taking my job Not some whippersnapper, 23-year-old Third-round pick who's got a lot of promise It's 40-year-old, really damn old throwing a lot of passes, throwing all interceptions,

can't move quarterback. That's got to be disheartening. Jake Browning, wherever you are, I hope you're, whatever makes you happy. Ice cream. Well, I mean, he probably doesn't. Brownie cookie. Well, he's got his

faculties at least that I would presume. That's true. Whatever it is that makes you happy, I hope you enjoy that today, Jake Browning, because it's rough. Because, man, you got bench for a 40-year-old. Oof. Who's been on the team for about 36 hours?

Yeah, we're going to get him up to speed, meaning we're going to make him sit in the film room and study everything humanly possible because we want no way, no part. And by the way, his first game... We're going to show him your film and say, don't do that. They're playing Green Bay.

this week. Every May. How's that going to work out for him? I don't know. I tried to pick them up on waivers. I don't think I got them. I didn't either. Everybody, that was the hot pick.

That was definitely the one. So I got the Cardinals defense this week. I'm not looking forward to that. I got the Steelers instead. That's a good consolation prize. Dylan Gabriel's first start. Yeah. Torrell's looking to go five and one suffered our first loss this past week.

That's a shame. It's part of us because Cala Murray sucked. I'm one and four. Yeah, that's fine. And the team I lost to who did. even start one of their players. He just flat out forgot? He forgot. I still

lost by like a good 12 points. Did you really? I wouldn't have admitted that. It's not good. Hey man, squads, look, we lost Malik neighbors. Mike Evans's been out. Brock party's been out. We had to start Jackson Dart. So it's really, it's not about how good of a general manager are. It's just how frankly

how lucky you are. Andrew luck matters, but you get it's a long season. We can rally, baby. You see these shirts that are being sold in Seattle now? Dumber? No, it says dump here. Ew. These ladies wearing this? No, some guy with man with man breast.

And now you got James and Turner of the Seattle Mariners wearing the same. Maybe these shirts are becoming very popular. No, it's just some random fan who caught his home run ball. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, he's getting on the MLB Network. He was wearing a dump here shirt and he caught it. Oh, he's not even a real player? No, he's just a fan.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You caught a ball and you get to go on MLB Network and you're in Detroit? I wonder if it's part of the deal. Give the ball of the guy. Maybe. Probably not. James and Turner sounds like a backup outfit or it, isn't it?

James and Turner? Yeah. I mean, it's not like... James and Turner. Enterprise and young man. So literally he had a shirt that said dump here and he caught the ball with the name on it. It's actually quite an incredible story if you think about it. Yeah.

Sure, why not? I don't care about it. I don't want to hear what he has to say about anything. I'm going to say this. Hey, you cut that ball. How was that? Great interview. Please, Tigers, win.

Because you know Mariner fan is insufferable to begin with? Imagine if they're playing in the American League Championship series? Imagine if they're playing the Yankees. Who are we rooting for? Yankees, Mariners, who are you rooting for? One, two, three. Okay, hold on, hold on. I'm not ready.

I'm not ready either. Okay. I was ready. Let's just real quick. Jonathan, you get on this as well. have to have an answer. No, no hedging. No fencing. As soon as I say one, two, three, after I say three, you must say it.

Oh my God. Okay, here we go. Here we go. Y'all do this in your cars right now listening to me too. You okay? Uh-uh. No. Okay, here we go. Go ahead. Do it. Okay. Just do it. Just do it. I got to come up with an answer.

Oh. No, you see you're natural. Don't even think about it. All right. I know the answer. Whatever comes out. one, two, three. Mariners. Yankees. Mariners. But I mean, it's...

Because I think the Mariners would have a better chance of winning it all than the Yankees. I'm not even thinking that much ahead. You know what I'm saying? I'm just thinking about having to sit there and being forced to root for one of those two teams. Yeah, but the Yankees made it last year and lost. So this was fine. I'm going Yankees in that scenario. Let's do it one more time. One, two, three, Mariners.

Say it then. saying go Yankees. No. They haven't won yet. They haven't made it. I'm saying go Blue Jays. I'm saying go Tigers. Go Tagas.

Go Blue Jays. Are we coming? We're not backing down. Oh, Canada. Oh, please. 1259 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 105 on Sports Talk 790.

So the question I threw at Ross was, what is the number one concern for Dana Brown now that he's firmly under contract, well, at least the contract's there and he's going to work for it in 2006. To me, it's pitching. No if, ands or buts. I think the first, I think the

infield positions will be addressed. I think there will be some tendering of some contracts, maybe some non-tendering. This is the way you fix the infield is if you non-tender somebody supports RV. And do you both tender Mauricio Dubon and

Ramon Urius? that seems like that's about the same player my guess is that Urius is more infield Dubon is more everywhere Yeah and Dubon's probably going to cost you a little bit more Would be my guess on the numbers on his contract situation This is last year of arbitration

Yes So I think it's going to settle itself I think the Isak Paredes hamstring Will settle itself ultimately as to what he can do And cannot do again I think it's either going to be First Base or they try to move him It seems to be set for Christian Walker I don't think you start ProDIS as a candidate for second base

because then you're going to have a logjam at second base, especially if you use Jose L. Tuve at second base a handful of times. But to me, going back to the essential issue, you have, is it unfair to say one and a half starting pitchers, or do you think are you going to put Christian Javier in the solid number two club? That is the second, second starter for this team. One and a half sounds about right. Because if you were to really.

judge Christian Javier, it's a mixed bag. And that should not be a huge surprise because he's fresh off of Tommy John surgery. Guys are not supposed to come off a T.J. surgery and come out here and start throwing 98 miles an hour and throwing seven innings of two hit ball. Well, maybe he'll get a... Well, he threw six innings of no hit ball, and one of his starts.

Right? No, no hit, no, no, shut out. Yeah. Sorry. But that that was a one-off. That was typically what he was giving you every single time. Man, if you're Hunter Brown,

and you know this organization is in depth, desperate need of starting pitching, and you've had your best season as a major leaguer? Yeah, no, it was six innings and no hit against the Angels. Six no hit innings? But it's the Angels. It's a double A team. Three walks.

Still counts. Still a no hitter if it would have counted. But he ran into pitch counter issues, I'm assuming, right? 85 pitch hitter or something like that, yeah. Okay. So still to me one and a half. I don't know if Christian Javier, I think Christian Javier has got a spot,

but is he a guy that I'm trusting on the second day of the start of the season? I don't think so. No. So back to my point on Hunter Brown. Hunter Brown, Rossi, he's going in saying, where's your checkbook?

I'm going to fill it off of what I want to fill it off for. Right? I mean, if anybody's got the leverage... Who is he represented by? Rot Roars. He's not a... He's not a... Advertising entity.

Yeah, but I don't like him. Scott Boris. Oh, man, it was a hundred mile an hour fastball in on the hands that Judge sent out, too. That's pretty clutch. He's a throwback to the yesterday power hitters, isn't he? He's the best hitter walking. He's the best hitter on the planet. Well, show him how he'll close.

I would take Otani. He's going to strike out as much. Okay, well. But Judge has more power. Otani's a better player because he pitches. But anyways, sorry, what we're talking about? It'll be trade rumors puts out their projected arbitration. They have Dubon at 5.8 million.

Okay. And Ureus at 4.4 million. And these are generally pretty accurate. They do it. This website does a good job. Okay. Hunter Brown. 5.7 million.

Jeremy Pena, 7.9 million. Okay. You can overpay those guys that number to keep them happy. Buy out arbitration years. Give them more than what they think there were. Not more than, it's more what the numbers say they're worth, invest in them, give them a little bit of a bonus for Jeremy Pena's career season. But let me also say about Pena that's two instants on the injured list this year.

Okay, for an oblique and for a key, he got hit by a pitch in the ribs. I know. And I know. But you also know attendance is part of the grade, regardless of the situation. All right. It just is. Okay. If you want to discount him for that, I don't think.

discount. I'm saying he played 125 games. And they were gray 125 games. How many years you're buying? How many? What? He's 28. I don't know. I know the Astros don't have

the reputation doing it. They've done it a handful of times. They're going to try. They're going to try. They tried to do it with Coray. He didn't want to. They tried to do it with Springer than he didn't want to. They did it with Jose L. Tuve and Alex Bregman. They didn't try with him. And you order now, right? Matter of fact, they went to arbitration to fight with him. They probably tried to do it. They probably tried. There was probably some discussions.

Cal Tucker said I'm good. They said we'll see an arbitration court and they lost and Kyle Tucker's like, well, good. I lost, you lose. I'm getting out of here. And now he's a cub. And now he's going to get paid. He bet on himself. He's going to get paid. It's going to get paid. Hopefully for seven years. Some people bet on themselves and they don't get paid.

Jared Kellanick was one of the top prospects in baseball. Seattle offered him a long-term deal. And then two years later, he was DFA. He was like, I don't even know where he is. He was on the braves. I believe he was in the Canadian Rocky League. You know Canadian Rockies? Wow. He's at Banff? He's, yeah, he's playing for the Calgary Sheep Herders.

The Banff Bears? Sorry. Can you give me a second city in that part of the world? What do you mean? Saskatoon. Okay. Yeah, he's playing for the Saskatoon Sasquatches. I like that.

That in 209 with plenty of power. Got a huge OPS. Yeah, so we'll see. Man, that's... For Dan to earn his... My gut feeling has... has been, and I'll stick with it, is that of the two, Hunter Brown gets paid. They figure something out, and he gets a long-term deal, because he's younger as well.

So on the big board, we have both get paid, neither get paid, one gets paid. Favor feels like neither. I know, I don't want to think that. Scott Boris wants to hit the open market. Are they both Scott Boris clients? Yes. Oh, we're screwed. That's the reality of it.

Right? Is it? Let me ask you this. Jose L. Tube, Scott Borris client, but Jose was a special situation. He bought out, the Astros bought out arbitration years. Does Scott Boros have a history of players buying out arbitration years? I'd have to go up and down. I don't want to do that.

You got much more important things to do. My point is that probably not much. I don't hear that a lot, you know? Generally he, well, first of all, Scott Boris, if you're like a quadruple player and you're struggling and on a minor league deal, you're probably not a Scott Boris client. He's like that. He's a shut your bummed ass up. Talk to me when your OPS hits until 1100. Exactly. So,

I mean, you're dealing with a kind of a different level of client. Isn't it crazy, though, some of his clients, a lot of his clients, frankly, are guys that were with other agents that were just trying to get their feet wet into being major league players and all of a sudden he scoops up and takes these guys once they hit that level. Because Hunter Brown knows

if Scott Boris takes care of you, you're going get paid, and Jeremy Payne and thought the exact same thing. Yeah, I'm just trying to find a list Matt Chapman signed a big deal. I'm just looking at Wikipedia, literally, of Scott Bores clients. Juan Soto, that guy got paid. But he went to free agency? Blake Snell, remember Blake Snell was all upset?

He did a one-year deal with the Giants and then opted out. But then got a brand-new deal after that. Yes, now he's got a big deal with the Dodgers. By the way, the Dodgers are beating up on the Phillies. I'm trying to see somebody who did like a it got paid early. See, the thing of it is here's the question. I don't know if the asteros are going to think this way.

I don't think they're going to go, let's go all in a one guy because we got a better chance of keeping him. Everything looks like. I would hope the Astros is an organization would say, look, we got a lot of money coming off the books here in the next couple of years. Let's do what we can to try to keep both. And I think they will do so.

But it's almost like the same thing we were talking about Nick Casero last hour. Ross. if you say, well, we put together an offer and you don't get them, you don't, you don't get brownie points for at least trying, unless the deals elsewhere are so astronomical that it doesn't make sense. That'll be the question is if they don't sign here and they get these ridiculous, for instance, the Astros, in theory, could have signed Kyle Tucker to a 10-year deal worth $375 million, right?

There's, they're, they're within their opportunity to do so. They just chose they didn't want to do that. If those two guys eventually two or three years down the road go somewhere else and get paid astronomical money, then you're going to say, okay, that makes sense. But if they get mid-level money for being who they are and the asteros could have afford them, and that's when I think the criticism of ownership would be fair. That's why Dana, go have dinner with Jim, have a few cigars, drink a bottle of wine, and do something outside the norm. because you're in a tumultuous time for an organization. You still have a lot of star power.

But you got to be starting thinking two to three years down the road and it's hard to get these elite short stops that have turned their corner in their professional careers. It's hard to find a one-dash-one in a rotation. And I think Hunter Brown has certainly proven that.

And by the way, you're about to lose your second best starter due to free agency. You got to, you got to, if you're going to put them. You can get them back if you want. Will they even qualify offer them? I would say yes. I would say yes and he rejects it and hits the market. And I'm basically going off of what I read from Chandler-Rome.

Yeah, that's Framber. I mean, he knows. I mean, he's pretty smart. Channel and Rome thinks that they will give a qualifying offer. Framber Valdez will reject it, hit the market, and then probably go somewhere else. But if they might circle back late in the game if Framber's not liking the deals he's seeing. I don't know. Do you think people would be excited if Framber came back?

No, they would not be. I would say it's actually they're like. lot of more Framer supporters than I thought. I'm out on him. I understand. That's okay. Yeah. It would depend on the money, of course. Yeah. If it's like one year $20 million deal, why not?

If it's around what the qualifying offer is, what if it's a one year $30 million deal? 30 million is too much, no chance. $125. Lower. $120. That seems about right. We just put the range game, did we not? I think so.

$116 on Sports Talk 7.9. we have believe it or not today coming up at 150 that's in 35 short minutes 713 that's a little time cue for ross 713 212 5 719 there's no topic all right i'll come up with one here so i did i did our live yesterday i did my part 713 712 7190 719 you didn't help odd people so i'm a NFL announcer scheduling kind of geek well i mean a geek about a lot of things but i'm just self-glossing myself here I went and looked at the NFL assignments for this week on Fox Game of the Week. Main game is the Dallas Carolina game, which no surprise at the time Dallas plays anybody. Dallas could play Mississippi Valley State and it would be the main game. There are five games.

There are six regular Fox NFL crews. Ross, what analyst is not assigned a game this week? You have one guess and one guess only. Mark Stabloon Sanchez. Yeah. So who's the beneficiary? Mark Schlerth, who was not? supposed to work this week is not going to work. Oh, good for him. So he's getting some bonus games.

Excellent. It has, are you surprised at all that Marks, that Fox has been quite about Mark Sanchez or are they still trying to. They're probably just waiting to get on details. I mean, I know we want to answer, we always want to answer now, but these things are going to take time, Matt. You got to let the details bear out. You got to get Marks. First of all, you had to wait for Mark Sanchez to sober up and get his side of the story. There's a lot of video to check, apparently as well. Yeah, the toxicology report will have a lot to do with how this thing turns out, right? I think so.

So, yeah, that's the game of the week. And we are getting, so this is off, we're getting Dallas, Dallas Carolina early. We're getting Cleveland Pittsburgh early. And we're getting the late game would be San Francisco, Tampa Bay. So a lot of NFs, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of NFC going on there. I love Texans by week. A lot of red zone all day. Let's go.

Okay. Texans off week. You earn a buy. All right. I was saying that, it's wondering if you were going to say something. It took you a second. I learned it from somebody.

And we'll say who. Okay. All right. 713, 21, 2.12. 579. If you want to chime in anything, we've gone over on the radio show today, we mentioned a little bit about the Texans.

And again, it's kind of quieter around the Texan streets. They're all vacationing, I'm assuming, or just getting away from it. And a very important game coming up with, we're going to get Softia on next week, huh? We do? Yeah, it's Texan C.

Well, we'll get him on a week from Monday. What if the Mariners are like in the ALCS, he's going to be rubbing it in? That is a difficult programming decision that you and I have to make. I don't want to hear that. I think for the sake of the show, since he didn't join us before, you know, he was gone. We had his buddy, Dick Fane was on.

Excuse me? Dick Fane, who's his partner on KJR. Dick Fane was great. We're going to have Softie on. It's just good fodder. It just is. By the way, you're asking for Ariante Urseries, weekly grades. Yeah.

Pass blocking. Week 1, 29 out of 100. Ouch. Last week, 76.7 out of 100. So with more playing time becomes improvement. No sacks, no hits, one pressure. There you go. Where does the name Ariante come from?

That's from the Staffordshire. Ariantes? That's not the worst answer you were giving me before. Thank you. Like when Mrs. Ursula had the baby come out of the belly and it's just like, man, this kid looks like an Ariante. Yeah, what's wrong with that? I have never heard the name before in my life. Okay.

Of course, we've got some other bizarre names. Like I saw some photos of Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple, she's like teenager now. Oh, really? Apple's all grown up. Yeah. I'm just trying to avoid puns. I'm just trying to restrict myself. But it's just...

Does she look like, Gwynnev? Yes. She's a model too, apparently. So she didn't fall far from the tree? Let's ask Cam Ward, what do you thought of that joke? Hey, Cam! Cam! You know, he's busy.

That Cam Ward... Cam! I'm asking for Cam. What did you think about that? I don't need to hear from Cam Ward. He's not even paying attention. It's fine. What does Cam Ward think of him? about that joke.

Got out of this stuff, Freddie. Come on now. Timing's everything on the show. We keep in the book right now, we ask. My computer pros. That's not even my fault this time. I can tell a picture right now. Why would you dare blame technology in this building?

And you know, guys, they do this while I'm doing an editing blog. They see me on the computer editing. They do that see. Just messed up. Thank you, Jonathan, for all that you do. Why does everything happen during our show? Well, they're, you know, sometimes breaking news doesn't. Most of it happens two to six.

That's true. But it's like, you know, when you have maintenance of freeways and streets, it's usually done like a 9 o'clock at night? Yes. They're like, you know, 10 to 2. Let's see how 7. I actually hate when that happens. You're in Houston, you're like, man, you know what?

It's Saturday afternoon. There can be no traffic. There's traffic everywhere. It should be a nice, breezy drive downtown. Everything is under construction. And it's fine, but it feels like it's been perpetually for like 30 years. ridiculous. I'm still amazed at the drive time traffic.

When I leave, I wake up in the morning at 7.15, and the update on Channel 2 at 730 gives you the drive time traffic. And Kingwood's pretty good, actually. You, Katie, folks, I feel terrible for y'all. It routinely, at 7.30, it's between 60 and 70 minutes. Now, I don't know how far back Katie that is, if that's like Katie Mills Mall or if that's like fried rice. road. But could you imagine getting in your car and not getting to it, not getting off your freeway until 60, if you're going downtown for 70 minutes?

You just got to live it, Matt. Got to listen to a podcast, books on tape, or 790. Learn Espaniel. 790. Oh, sorry. Sports Talks. 790. With the 790 morning show.

Or you just get a downtown apartment and call it a day. Could do that. Or your room with your co-host. Gil. It's not talking about Joe Esposy. next. We'll do that at 1.30 on Sports Talk 790. 134 on Sports Talk 790. We've got some nice folks that want to go to visit with us. We're going to get to those comments in just a couple of seconds. Real quick, congratulations to Stanford football.

They just received a $50 million donation from a donor. It is the largest gift for the Stanford football program history. It is a game-changing gift. Former trustee Bradford M. Freeman giving the $50 million. It is not, oh, excuse me, it is directly tied to football and not a building or facility project. So that library you want to build Stanford? Nope. That school of architecture you want to build at Stanford? Nope.

Stanford football, $50 million to help pay for salaries. And maybe some NIO on the side. Congratulations, you got it. $50 million. That changes programs. Huge. I guess. Good for them.

Some of my guesses they're going to improve their facilities because you can't. There's a certain cap. You can't give unlimited amounts of money from the school side. You can only give so much. Now, that to me sounds like that's going to help with that and then ultimately will help with, you know, I know, Cardinals Sanford. stadium is a dump. So I don't know if they're going to, yeah.

One told her to Super Bowl, but that was in the early 80s. It's like Rice Stadium of the West, frankly. Oh, really? Yeah. That's okay. That's bad. I'm saying. That really contextualizes it for me.

You know what the general manager of Stanford football is, don't you? Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck. What would have been in your second guess? John Elway? That's actually not terrible. You get one more of a third guess if you had a guest, not John Elway. A.J. Hinch.

That's actually a wonderful guess. Those are all good. I'm out of Stanford Alums. That's it. I think you've knocked out. Oh, Richard Sherman. Yeah, that's good. That's right.

The Collins brothers were, aren't they Stanford players too? Basketball? Carrie and Terry? No, Jaron and Jalen or something. Brooke and Robin. Oh, were they Cardinal? Lopez, weren't they? Yeah, I think we've just running through every Stanford amazing athlete.

Oh, excuse me. T. Woods would have been the proper general manager for that. You don't want him hanging around the chaperones. Gill on 790 or at the breakfast places. Hi, Gil, thanks for holding. What's going on? You tell us? I'll do a little bragging during your, I don't want to hear that, or was it?

How's it go? It's called shut your bomb ass up. I mean, I don't want to hear it sounds good, too. I ain't got time for that. Well, I have plenty of time for this. I had a little bet with a buddy of mine. There was Spada. He said, if they don't make the playoffs, he's going to get fired.

and I've been pulling for him all year. So I made a couple of hundred bucks in the less of the week. $100 on P. Did he go to prison? And a hundred of their spot would not get fired. Where did you make these bets? A buddy of mine, he's all cracked up because he ain't him graded. He's all happy and so he's willing to lose all his buddy to me.

Nice. He bet you that P. Diddy wasn't going to prison? Yes. Wow. He had too much money. He would die get convicted. He got convicted. He would not get sent to prison.

And then we had this better while back to the spot. He said, Father's going to get fired. Let me tell you, but the Spada let pitch to, what's his name? They're only here for the Angels. Don't go on it. Mike Trout. Mike Trot. I was ready to fire his ass right there.

I was like, man, he deserves you. I don't care if I lose $100. But he was like, no, I got him. I got him for Pete Ditty and for Spina and for Spala stayed on the staff. Good job, Gil. Thank you. He wanted to brag about it. You know what?

you're always welcome to brag on this show, Gail, because we do quite a bit of bragging ourselves when we get things right, which is not very often. Jonathan calling us from Fulcher at 139 on the Matt Thomas show, Ross. Jonathan, good afternoon. Do you thank you for holding?

What's up, my man? So, a couple things. I appreciate you being very coy about the bye week. We all know Charlie Polillo, was the one that it's not a buy week, it's an off week. They didn't deserve the buy week. And I totally appreciate that.

Jonathan, you don't know what I'm saying. You don't know, you don't know. Oh, I knew. Like, I think all of us have been listening for many years, we're like, that's a palillo ring all over it. What? Come on, it's an off week. It's not a buy week.

they haven't earned the right to call it a by week. Nonetheless, that's not why I called. I drive in downtown from Fulcher every day, and it's a beast, right? But don't tell my boss and don't tell anybody else. This is just between us, right? Yeah, of course. I bring my fish and pull. I've got a couple spots that I stop off.

So I leave, I've already left work and I'm supposed to leave at five. But I duck out a little early. I hit a couple of fishing holes. This is probably more for Doug Pike. But I'm now at George Bush Park. That's the only thing I'm going to say. I'm not going to give up my other fishing hole. I tell the wife I'm going to be home at seven because traffic is a beast, which normally it is.

But I stop off and do a little bit of fishing. That's just for me. that's like my little, I've earned the right to do it. I got my laptop. That way, if anybody calls me, if I have to do any business, answer some emails, I'm doing some fishing while I'm working, but I won't say where I work. So I'll talk to you all later. Thank you very much.

Your secret is good with us. Suck it up, Tuts. I'll be trying hard to bed supermodels twice per week this year. What a rinky dink outfit they are at the Major League level. Ken? Why am I talking Astros? These are different times. Why is he in their rotation? What's this one?

Ken Giles makes stink bombs say, we smell like a bouquet of orchids. What else does Kate Upton offer besides a big chest? If you're right, you get a million dollars. If you're wrong, you eat poop sandwiches for lunch for a year. Bush was unbelievable. Damn near arousing. You're just a candy ass.

You're just a candy ass. Someone tackle me. I can't make it any farther. Please. One of your homies. Nothing to pitch about. Craig. No need to pussyfoot around.

You're either lazy or. ignorant. Oh, this is a good one. So those who kiss your ass, who lick your boots, who carry your water bucket, they're cool. They're right. That's basically 90% of Texans media. I knew you were going to do that. What if? Here's a... Ninth inning, save situation.

Must put Gregerson in because he's my closer. Gregerson. Luke Gregerson. That's deep cut. Stunner. What's going on, Stena? What's going on, Matt and Ross? We're doing good.

We're having a ball. Yeah, I got a couple of issues, but that one thing about who would we prefer to go to the World Series? Man, I got to say the Yanks, because I'm looking at everybody we don't let go that's still in the playoffs, and I don't want them to win.

I want them to miss Houston just as much as they won when they was with us. that's why I'm rolling with the yanks but picking that it's like trying to pick between who's better Adam or Adam

because what Adam is good for you and the other Adam ain't so that's my issue and one other thing I got to say is that last game with the the Tex Rangers and the Cleveland Guardians

hey man you can't walk the bases loaded and then hit the picture and that put us out the game. So I'll see why they fired Bochy. But anyhow, hey, man, y'all, it was a good day. We'll see you later. By the way, that was the reason why they fired Bochie. For Bochie left out of his own,

and Bochie may become the general manager of the San Francisco Giants, if he wants to still be a field manager. All right, Rossi, believe it or not, it's up next. It's highly Googlable, and you must give an answer within, what, two seconds? I'll say it. You must then believe it. say one second. All right.

So one second for believe it or not next. It's 713212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. One line open for, believe it or not, 7-1-3-213-21-5-7-90. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Rockets in action tonight.

Here on Sports Talk 790, be a 630 Rockets Radio Network start. We don't do pre- and post game shows, at least locally, for Rockets preseason games. But it'll be a 7 o'clock tip. Should be Kevin Durant making his Rockets debut in a Rockets red uniform. I don't even know what uniforms. Because of home whites, I don't know. Whatever he's wearing. He's going to be wearing number seven, and it's going to say, Houston on the front, or Rockets. You want to call me, old fogie? I like the white uniforms at home. I like the colors,

uniforms on the road? I would say yes. Well, I'll say this. I am not averse to Lakers gold at home. Yeah, I've seen the Lakers wear gold on the road is really weird to me.

It's always weird and it's always all and it's Nike driven. Just sell as many different alternates as they can. Is it Nike? They're Nike. Adidas. I don't know. Now, major league baseball, you have to cap out at five uniforms.

Okay. I believe NBA basketball, it's 15. Yeah, well, it's five a year. Oh, okay. So you got like 30 different uniforms. Like, you know, at the Toyota Center, you can go, there is a section of the arena where every uniform the rockets have ever put on is available for you to look at. Oh, really? Yeah.

It's very interesting. And I'm a huge uniform connoisseur. I like the H-Town script was fun. The H-Town Blue was fun. Yeah. I believe the, what's back again? H-town in the red and blue is back this year, I think. Okay.

they did the Dunkernot type uniforms last year, right? Yeah, I think that's what it is, right? Doesn't Dunkerroth the H-Town? Sure, why not. You know what? You go back to ketchup and mustard full-time? You got me for life. Those are the best.

Those are the goats. They won two championships. Let's change it up. Yeah. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports radio game. Shall we simply call it?

Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not is all things about whether or not this country's national anthem is really its national anthem. If it is, you say this.

Believe it. Damn computer is going to lock it up. If we made it up, you'll say this. Two believe or nots in a row. Will win you a prize. You get a pair of tickets to see what's one pair of tickets for U of Age versus Arizona. That's on the,

18th of this month inside TDUC Stadium. Tickets are available at 713 go Coogs or you can go see Keith Urban in concert and help me out Jonathan is that this weekend the Keith Urban concert? Yeah the 11th. All right if you want to go to that ticketmaster.com that's at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. So Keith Urban or a pair of tickets to the University of Houston versus the hated Arizona Wildcats can be yours if you believe it or not again we're talking about anthems here. Let's go to Chris and Sugarland. Chris, you're on 790.

You ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. National Anthem of Belgium is God's glory to Belgium. Believe it or not. Hurry. Believe it. No, it's the brab... What the hell is this?

Brabantium? Is that right? Does that seem about right? All right, let's go. Renee, on 790, Renee, what was your favorite part of today's to send the two radio show? You're a Kate Upton joke. That was Charlie, but thank you. Ukraine. The anthem is Ukraine's glory has not perished. Believe it or not.

That is a believe it. Believe it. Thank you for listening. No. Charlie appreciate you as well. Steve on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Sri Lanka's national anthem is Mother Sri Lanka.

Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Thailand's national anthem is called National Song. Believe it or not. Not. It is a believe it.

I'm sorry. Thank you for playing. Bye. Leon on 790. Leon, you're ready to play believe it or not? Believe it. Germany's national anthem is the song of the Germans. Believe it or not?

Believe it. That is correct. North Korea's national anthem is the patriotic song. Believe it or not? That is a believe it. I'm sorry. Oh, man, these are challenging today. Chris on 790, Chris, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show.

Listening to about the infield or what's going to be done with the infield, become really curious. I will go with you on that, my friend. Croatia's national anthem is upon the Adriatic Sea. Believe it or not? Not. It's correct. It's our beautiful homeland, duh.

Statement number two for the win, Portugal's national anthem is the Portuguese. Believe it or not? Not. It's a believe it. I'm sorry. Ron on 790, Ron, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Yes. Hungary's national anthem is, hmm. H-Y-M-M-M-H-Y-M-M- or him. Him is with an end, right, at the very end?

Sure, why not. Okay. Maybe I misspelled it. Hungary, him, believe it or not. No. It's a believe it. Believe it. These are quite challenging, my friend. Ike on 790, Ike, you ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Uruguay's national anthem is all honor to Uruguay are home. Believe it or not? Not. That's correct. You finally got a winner today. And you're going to be a winner and you go to Uptown Appliance Repair, 281-758-9978, 281-78-98-9-9-7978. They want to eliminate the stress that you have that comes with a broken appliance.

Give them a call today at 281-758-9978. Whether it's the high-end dishwasher, the high-end washer dryer, the sub-zero refrigerator you have, perhaps it is the ice maker that's not producing the ice that you need. Anything that's going to affect you hanging out with your friends and your family and feeding them and making sure all the drinks are cool, the clothes are washed, and the dishes are clean. Uptown appliance repair will fix all of it for you at a very fair price. Bobby Fierro, great company. A plus rated by the BBB. 281-7589978. That's 281-758-9978 or online at Uptown Appliance Repair.com.

Up next, it's Wexler, it's Clinton, it's the A team on Sports Talk 790. Now.