The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Daryl Morey Steps Down & Astros Stay Alive

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. Yeah. H-Town. What's happening at lunchtimers? And welcome to what I think will be an intriguing show today. Not what I expected.

I was going to play some staying alive by the BGs, maybe alive by Pearl Jam, anything with the song. alive, still kicking, survive, whatever you want to go with. And then about 30 minutes ago, Wodge Bomb dropped. And when Wodge drops a bomb, certainly involving a local basketball team, it takes as much of the front of the stage as anything else.

If you have not heard, Adrian Woldjahowski of ESPN reporting that Daryl Mory, it will be stepping down as the Rockets General Manager to be replaced by Rafael Stone, who was already in the organization as the General Manager, as the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. I have so many layers to this. First of all, I'm completely stunned. And again, you have to understand, I call the basketball games.

I have been a fan of that basketball team since 1980. But I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of the team. they don't call me for my advice on who they should hire, fire, keep trade. So when things like this come out, I'm as surprised as you guys are. It would have made perhaps a little more sense if Darrell would have resigned or the Rockets would have let him go following the fiasco with the whole tweet and everything. Because then you could say, you know what, this is this decision in his editorial comments cost, you know, us. a relationship with a foreign country that pumps in billions of dollars in the NBA. You can obviously make sense of this when a team goes 30 and 52 doesn't make the playoffs

and just, you know, massive mistakes in terms of draft picks and bad salary cap moves and whatnot. But this is a team that has never tanked in 13 seasons, never been told to tank, remained as competitive as competitive can get. I mean, look, the end of the game, you have to win a championship. You have to get the NBA finals, and this team has not done that. But at its face value, and in public, there has been nothing that I have seen that hasn't been total solidarity between Daryl and Tillman-Fortita.

Now, there are obviously things that have gone sideways with Mike Dan Tony, that's the reason why he's not returning his coach. but it is interesting that Daryl is citing a thought about staying home with family, staying close, you know, taking a little break from the NBA. I don't know if I believe that. I just don't know if you are one of the most respected, you know, general managers in the game. He just is. I mean, there's a lot of people that hate him.

There's a lot of people. I don't think you could personally hate Daryl more, but you could personally hate the decisions that were made. You can think that the metrics that the rockets do, three-point shots and dunks and nothing else drives you insane. But that's a lot of teams that are doing that. And people have asked me, does Daryl Derry deserve to keep his job?

Is Dary a good general manager? And my always reply back to that person that asked me that is the following. If Daryl Mory was a bad general manager, he would not be able to get a job tomorrow. Darrell Mori resigning as the rocket's general manager I bet you his phone is ringing

there are probably three or four teams including one that's looking for well is Elton Branden help me out is Elton Brand technically still the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers? I believe go look that up if you don't mind because I'm sitting here doing a lot

so I can't really do it. Yeah he is. Okay but there are lots of rumors about a front office upheaval in Philadelphia. They've already changed changeout coaches, Doc Rivers is there. I don't think, and to give you the answer to the question,

if Darrell Mori is available, what's to become available, which he now is, I think of several NBA teams would find a place for him to be a part of their front office. So that should answer your question, that Darry is irrespected and well-liked general manager. So you go from searching for a coach with Darrell helping that, And by the way, apparently he's going to help stay through that process. To now having to go find a general manager and a coach at the same time. This city, this sports town is so whack right now. Well, actually, you don't have to look for a general manager

because the general manager apparently is going to be Rafael Stone, who I don't, I have zero relationship with. Not that we've avoided each other. I know who he is. He knows who I am. But I've just never had any dealings with him whatsoever. I know the last handful of years he has been one of Daryl's right-hand men. Daryl's had like three or four assistant general managers that you guys will never see.

This kind of behind-the-scenes kind of people. Two of them in the last three years have gotten new jobs. Gerson Roses was one of Daryl's right-hand men. He is now the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Monty McNair, who I did have a relationship with and I did like, is now the general manager of the Sacramento Kings. So spawns of Daryl Morey have been getting jobs around the NBA.

Again, I don't know how much Rafael's been involved. Really, my guess is quite a bit since Gerson has left. But I don't, I mean, we've never broken bread together, never had a meal, never played a game of bingo together. I don't know if he's good, bad, great. I can't give you an answer to that. All I know is that he is now the general manager,

of the Houston Rockets. I will say, I think now, and again, this is just me strictly 100% opinion, and this is not me having any information at all. Because you guys know, I like surprises. I don't have to be told things ahead of time and then pretend that it to be surprised. I like to know when things come down. This feels like to me that Jeff Van Gundy is now the leader in the clubhouse to become the next head basketball coach at the Rockets.

and it's just kind of a gut feeling I have on that. Brian T. Smith's going to stop by at 1 o'clock for a few minutes. He wants to get a couple of words in on that. And this is one of his platforms. He's a regular contributor to our radio show, so we'll talk to him at 1. I'm going to move Roto tomorrow until 1.30 because, frankly, we've got two ridiculously huge topics to get to today. And we got no Thursday night football anyways. That's right.

So Roto works perfectly tomorrow. If any of you are craving Texans Titans preview, I'm not going to be the show for you today. There's just too much other stuff going on. We got more COVID problems in college football. We have the Houston Astros American League Baseball Club still involved and alive in the playoffs. And what a game last night was for several reasons. Dusty Baker is going to speak about it in a few minutes. We'll play some of that during the course of the show.

apparently a couple players as well. The Rays, by the way, have announced their starter. John Curtis will go today. I don't know if the Astros have made their announcement yet. It can take me just a matter of minutes. But my guess is when Dusty meets with the media in five minutes, he will announce his start. He's going to have to, basically. Games at 4 o'clock this afternoon.

So we have that, and we have the Rockets. New coach on the way, whomever it may be, and now new general manager and a guy that has been synonymous. I mean, one of, I don't know, you were. You worked in Detroit for a while, right? Yeah. Did you guys talk a lot about general managers in your, when it came to the Tigers, Pistons, and Lions? Was it a huge conversation?

Yeah, I think so. Maybe it's changed because I felt like when I first got into business, you didn't talk about GMs. GMs are huge now. I think you talk about them more with good teams. They're architects. They're the ones that create the franchise. Jeff Leno became a megastar in this town

for crafting up this baseball franchise known as Houston. Rick Smith got crushed many, many times because Rick couldn't get over the hump and couldn't build the team to get over the top and had issues with the players here and there. So Darrell has been there. I mean, this is the only general manager I know since I've returned to Houston in 2010. I know nobody else. So it's weird. And I've traveled with Darrell, and I've had dinner with Darrell, and I've talked to Darrell, and I've known Darrell. And Darrell's been on this show before.

So it's a little bit of a weird situation. Is it really he wants to spend time with his family? Which clearly isn't a lie. I mean, everybody, when you don't work, you get to spend time with your family. Or is that there's something else out there that he'd like to do. And something has gone on between him and Tillman and the organization and say, you know what, this is just the right time. I don't know what Darrell's salary was.

I think it was fairly, fairly high. I just don't know if you just go in and say, hey, I don't want to make, let's say he makes $8 million here. I'm just throwing that number out. That's an awful hard situation to say, I don't want $8 million because I want to spend more time with my kids. That feels like to me that the connected dots don't mesh here very well. But you know what?

Like I said, they don't whisper things in my ear, and if they did, then I'd be able to have a better feel for it. But they don't, that's okay. What do you guys think? between the Astros' impressive win yesterday and what happened within the last hour with the Houston Rockets. Either one of those topics of conversation are welcome. 713-212-5-790.

If you would like to talk about the Houston Texans, I can do that as well. There's just nothing particularly going on with them that would, for me to be the focus of a three-hour radio show. You have a major, major bomb, one of the longest lasting executives in sports today. certainly in Houston history, out after 13 years. 713-213-5-7-90. And, oh, by the way, your American League Baseball team still alive in the playoffs.

And that to be celebrated, too. Plus, especially how good Jose Al-Tube was yesterday. 7-1-2-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for TGS Insurance. To save money on your home policy, it's ridiculously simple. You text the word money, MONEY, to 23, 23, 23, and the folks at TGS Insurance will ask your address back. You type that in, and within about 15 minutes, you're going to get amazing savings on your home policy.

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By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Don't worry, we will celebrate the Astros win. I'm still playing staying alive with some Astor highlights. It just felt kind of weird doing it at 1201. The key to a good radio show is flexibility. If you stare at your sheet and say, you must get to every one of these things,

you'll make it. That's today's Matt Thomas, Radio 101, 101 advice to you. Go with the flow. We got two ridiculously crazy headlines. Frankly, the Darry story is a bigger story in the Astros, now because I hate to say this, but the Astros still are the heavy underdog to lose this series. I mean, if they win this series, it'll be the greatest thing maybe in recent Astros history, not named the 2017 World Series, but they'll only be the second franchise ever to come down,

be down a 3-0 in a series and win it. Don't you find yourself in a much more optimistic place, though, after yesterday, about as far as the Astros? Well, until Ryan Presley got to the mound. he makes me nervous. He makes me very, very nervous. But the Astros got the win. So we will celebrate the Astros with some good music

over the course of the next two and a half hours for sure. 713-212-5-790. Brian T's going to join us at 1 o'clock for a little chatter on the day's developments. 713-212-5-79. Darrell Morey out, resigned as the general manager of the Astros. I do want to just do a little. bit of quick reading on the Woage story and then we'll go right to the phones. He's going to remain in an advisory role for a short period to assist the Rocket's completion

of their head coaching search. Mori's, according to this is according to Woge, is not ruling out a future return to the NBA on the team side, but he has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally. Mori also saw an opportunity to spend time with two college-age children who are each taking a gap year academically during the Corona virus pandemic. he's been the general manager since 2007, 2008. I think Darrell could run anything he wanted to.

I mean, he's, I mean, basketball is a fun. It's passion. It's cool. But analytics work in everything, right? If Darrow, if I was going to open up a chain of restaurants, Matt Thomas's amazing meatballs, that sounded kind of weird. Yeah, weird choice, but I was going to let it go. I'm not Ross.

Ross would absolutely not let that go. So Matt's, let's open up Matt's meatballs. And I was going to open 13 locations around the greater Houston area. He can analytically put it together for me, right? Oh, I'm sure. Locations, price point, serving size, ordering. Would it be as much fun of running NBA team? No.

I mean, he may want to wear Matt's meatball gear like he wears rocket gear, but it's not nearly as cool. But yeah, I don't, I don't think Darrell was born as this, I'm only thinking about basketball. I don't know how many of you are friends that is on Facebook, but much of what he puts out there is not about basketball. And that's why, you know, in a weird quirky way, I've always appreciated it,

it was because of the fact that he just, it doesn't beat you to death with the same stuff. He's got other interest. Arts, politics, ping pong, Sloan MIT stuff. He and I would actually have, fun talking about 70s music on team buses.

We'd go on to various games. And he's like, I can't argue with you about 70s music because you know way more than I do. That was the one thing I think, Brendan, I got to have rain over Darrow was I could outlast him on 70s music. I was just thinking that's got to be a hit to you that you won't be able to talk 70s music with him anymore. Honestly, that's it.

That's it. And Darrell's always come on the show we wanted to. I mean, you know, he's a little different. actually a lot different, but that's the quirkiness in his, he is who he is. I've got to know his wife, Alan. I've gotten to know the daughter a little bit, but I really, Alan, you know, great, great woman, really enjoyed her. She made a little, she's a quilter.

Macrame, you know, a stitching kind of thing. She made a, she made a rocket stall from Mark Harley when she was younger. So I do like the more family tremendously. So I wish them nothing but the very best. my gut tells me he is time if if he goes and explores other things that'll be cool but my guess is he does love basketball and my you know he will probably be behind a h an office of another NBA team in the not-due distant future that's this is this is going to please a lot of folks this is also going to anger a lot of folks I mean again he he's been kind of a polarizing figure because

again the analyst he's stayed true to the analytics and some people believe that sometimes you got to step out of that You know what the best part about the Astros game yesterday was? I barely heard about exit velocity. It was so nice. They got a couple soft hits. They did. Now, George Springer's won.

That was not a soft hit to the fourth deck of that stadium. That was really good. We'll get to some Astros on the Rockets as well. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Donald and ALEELEE first up on 7-90. Hello, Donald. Hello, this is a conversation between

Kimmer-Fertita and Darry, Timber Fratina. Gerald, I'm tired of you coming around here and taking me to these dances. I want to go to the prom. I want to be the king of the prom. You've told me when I came here, you could make me king. I'm tired of it. And I don't want to hear no more about those analytics.

I want to win. And you were made the man that make me win. Why can't you make me win? I woke up this morning and I'm not in love with you no more. From now on, you want to be ahead of scouting. you go to Scali and you take those analytics with you. I'm out. That was a weird way to open up the show.

He sounded like part car salesman, part ambulance chasing attorney, and part professional wrestler there. I was going to say you're the wrestling guy, but that sounded like he was delivering a promo to me. Yeah. That was a guy that said, I've got to find a radio station

that will take my phone call. And he found it. Yeah, he already knew he was doing that somewhere. Yeah, he didn't particularly care where he did it. He just had that in the back. He's like, I've been rehearsing this all morning. I'm going to change my voice a little bit, and then we'll come on here. And, you know, I was actually part preacher, frankly.

You know, Sunday morning preaching? I was just so, like, immediately I heard wrestler. I didn't hear anything else there. Yeah, all right. Good combination. I, frankly, when he started doing the blabbering, I lost track of what he was talking about. But that's how they hear him there. 1225 on Sports Talk 790.

7.13, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 7.9. 7.1.3, 2, 2, 1. 125-790. Jason Willowbrook on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Jay. MT, good afternoon. How you doing now? Well, what's on your mind today, friend?

Man, come on. One thing I've never been known to be as a conspiracy period, and I'm not going to try to be one or play one on the radio. But anybody who believes that this is not about the China, the Baca probably needs to have their head examined. This is what this is all about, brother. I'm telling you now. Truman Petita is an extremely strong.

shrewd business man. I watched this guy's show. He had a show called a billion-dollar buyer on the NBC. Man, this guy is shrewd, brother. And I'm telling you now, if you believe that Darrell Mori could commit that debacle that he did with that tweet and caused the Rockets and the NBA and Tim and Petita millions upon millions of dollars, and there would be no consequences, man. Hey, I have a bridge to sell you someplace that don't even need one. I don't know. but it's about China, man.

This has nothing to do with basketball. I think Petitia needed to pick the right time to do it. I think if he had done it when it first happened, it would have been very disruptive to the team. But I also believe that had Darry brought a championship to Houston, I think I would have been for the most part, but he would have still remained the gym.

This is not about basketball. This is not about MIT analytics or anything else that Darryl Moore brought to the table. This is all about the China, a debacle, man. Let me ask you this, Jay. Don't have it, Jay, because I want to ask you something. Okay.

I could argue that you brought a lot of credibility to that statement. I can go with that. But what if I also told you that? And again, this is just me guessing, that this whole coaching search since replacing Mike Dan Tony has coming to play, and that Darryl is like, you asked me to find the coach that I want, and here's who I want to present.

And Tillman said, well, that's cool, but I'm the owner, and I have heard from another coach that I like more, and I want this coach. Could you believe there's a scenario where Darrell said, I don't want to run this operation for the next three, four, five years with a coach here that I really don't want? Man, I'll tell you what, I can probably give you maybe about 25% of that possibly may have factored in, man. but I promise you, man, this is about the China deal, and I'm promising you that if Fritia had got an NBA title, he would have been, all would have been forgiven, man. I mean, there may have been some of that, and there may also be a situation, too,

since we're going to kind of go to that route with what you're saying, that maybe the type of coach that they wanted to bring in, maybe he was not willing to buy into the wholesale analytics and the whole Moray blueprint. So maybe this other guy, Maybe he has a different take on it, but I promise you, man. Bottom line, this guy is shrewd, man. This guy is about the bottom line.

And that shine of the baffle, man. It cost him a lot of money, brother. And I don't think he was going to forgive that any way too soon. I think this is just part of it, man. He's finally to need to get rid of him. And that's what happened, man. You may be right, yeah. Good talking to you again, Matt.

I used to be with you when you had your afternoon show, then you went to your morning. and I kind of got away from you for a while because I was working. I have my own business and everything, but I've been listening to you and just got a chance to call in the talk. That's nice to do that. I appreciate that, Jay. Always good to hear your voice, my friend.

Take care of yourself. I know y'all can't call sometimes. Middle of the day is tough. I get it. I'm still going to be here every day. I don't plan on moving anywhere. Knock on whatever this is made of. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. Do you think it's China? Do you think it's just being tired of being a general manager today, thinking about something else? Or do you think it's he had one idea for who he wanted as the coach of the team and Timmy wanted another? So crazy. Tillman's offices are like, I could walk there and be there in 10 minutes. I'd love to go up there and say, hey, just kind of give me a heads up. What is it?

Now, granted, it would take, that'd be only one side of the opinion, but it'd be a side. Could China be that big of a deal this late in the game with everything else that has happened? Yeah, I think that's a little bit. To me, that would have happened way quicker. See, that's my thought, too. I think if you pull the China card, it's because you were just really pissed off at what happened in the moment. I love my man, Jake. He's a great call to show and has been listening a long time. But that, to me, is a possibility, but I don't think a likely probability. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Come on in. Astros, Rockets, those are the topics. How the Texans are going to stop Derek Henry? Probably can wait till tomorrow. I think it can't. Let me tell you about Big City Wings. You know what? Can't wait? Buy one boneless, get one free. Buy one boneless, get one free.

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Just enjoy buy one, get one free. Do it today at Big City Wings and Big CityWings.com. That's where you find the location near you. Buy one, get one free. today at Big City Wings. From first pitch, getting set for the first pitch to final out. And that is the ball game. Your Astros play exclusively on Sports Talk 790,

flagship station of your Houston Astros. This is your opportunity. This radio show is yours and mine. My name's on it. Station is 790, but you know what? I love getting you guys involved at 713-212-750. Brian T. Smith's going to drop by, give us his two cents, and this is coming up at 1 o'clock today.

The rest of the time, this is you and me. I'm going to move roto to tomorrow because there's no Thursday night football. And more importantly, we've just got a huge, huge set of storylines here. The Astros,

staying alive, down 3-1 in the series to the Rays. And Darrell Morey, out as general manager. I mean, I'm frankly blown away. I just am. I don't try to sell you something

that I'm not in terms of what I believe and what's good for the theater of the radio show. I'm telling you, I'm... I would not have been stunned if this would have happened October 1st. Well, I'm trying to think of this season.

Yeah, when they got back from China. That would not have surprised me. Sometimes things are said by people, employees, that employers go, we can't have that. It'd be like me, and this is a terrible example, Brandon, I apologize. It'd be like me send me something stupid and insensitive seven months ago. And then the station going, well, no, we support what Matt did. And then let me go today. Something just, I don't think it's China related.

I really don't. But, you know, it doesn't mean it's not. But it doesn't feel like that to me. Well, they also say he's going to be involved in helping them pick the next coach, right? Well, they said assisting in the process. Right. But I believe that because of how far into the process we are at this point. I would not be surprised a week from today.

We know who the Rockets coach is. And I just, I don't think he plays any role in that process if this is China. Like, I think you try to get yourself as far away from him as possible. And that's the reason why, again, I would have gone with letting him go in October, November, than doing it now. If you were so mad at Daryl for what he did with the China stuff, you'd let him go months ago. Why would you keep somebody around, pay him all that money, let him run your operation, let him make trade? I mean, he made the Klincapella tray in the middle of the season.

Why would you give him the keys of the store if you just, if you thought this situation was so bad and cost you so much money, you didn't want him around anymore? my gut feeling this is not gut feeling we gotta stop saying that because that's a great segment on Tuesday I wanted to be ruined all during the course of the week I think this is one step closer for Jeff Van Gundy to become the coach of the Rockets

I really do and this is just a hunch just a hunch because he's not an analytics guy because I think well I don't know I mean Jeff hasn't coached in 15 years right I was just trying to follow why you thought that yeah um

I think Jeff's wants his hand. My guess is he wants his hands and everything a little bit. Shaping the roster, shaping his coaching staff, shaping the, you know, kind of being able to say, all right, James, we'd like you to do this. We want you less of this. I don't know. I don't know. I can tell you the last time his brother coached he got that. By the way, Stan is a finalist to become the coach in New Orleans. How about that? 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. I'm also going to go with just a gut that maybe Daryl had an idea for a head coach and the Tillman another. And sometimes philosophically, you just can't get past it.

But I, yeah, the China thing to me just, no, too much time's past. And while that was a huge financial hit, so is the damn pandemic. That really is crusty NBA, even way more so than the China deal. 713. 212-5-790. Let's go to longest wait. Denzel and Sugarland on 7-90.

Hi, Denzel. Denzel, you there? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, sir, go ahead. I'm leaning, the crazy part, I'm leaning towards what you said. Well, first of all, the China thing. I'm with you.

It's been too much time that is fast. I really don't believe that that has anything to do with it. I think more so, like you said, just a few minutes ago, I think it might be philosophical. There might be a philosophical change as far as, like, he maybe, just say maybe Daryl wanted Tailu out of the, he didn't want to let Tailu leave the building without a contract. And it looks like Tillman wanted Jeff Van Gundy, because I'm assuming, I think Jeff Van Gundy, was he mentioned the last time before Mike Bantone got hired? Yes, he was.

Yes. Jeff's been brought up the last two times. That is correct. So I'm thinking maybe, like, I'm thinking maybe Jeff Van Gundy had been somebody that the franchise had been looking at him. Maybe that was someone more so that Tillman would have wanted. But, like I said, philosophical, philosophically, I don't think there would be a fit for Darrell. And I think, and moreover, what do you guys think the big picture is for the team as far as, like, I know, like, when free agency has come around, we've seemed to not be able to get any of the big names.

Daryl's been able to pull a trick out of his hat to bring in a Chris Paul into because I really don't consider Dwight was a good player when he came but he was coming off a down year from L.A. And I don't really consider him a big name. But some of the other guys hadn't even

we hadn't even been able to get in the building. So I just wanted you to know what you thought about the franchise as a whole going forward. I will say nothing in terms of massive changes for this team, Denzel. unless James and or Russ are traded. I don't, yeah, it's, they're just made too much money. There's too much tied up into, frankly, three players that it's hard to do much maneuvering.

Any maneuvering that I think you're talking about would be very minimal because you just don't have much money to spend. I would think if you really wanted to change things up, you've got two $2.40 million players in the same roster. One of them would have to be moved. And I don't even know. And now, with Darrell gone, does the, there's no way in the world James gets traded conversation become in play. Because I've always felt like that James was never, was never on any sort of trade conversation as long as Darrell was here. I don't know if Raffell Stone, the new general manager would feel the exact same way.

One last thing. What do you feel about? Is there any, like, I love Russell Westbrook as a competitor. Do you think there's any way possible that they can unload his contract and somehow, get, I don't know, anything worse, like, as far as... No, if you're moving Westbrook's contract, Denzel, to answer the first half of your question, yes, he can be moved. When Chris Paul got traded Oklahoma City, I'm convinced that there is every contract in the NBA

can be traded. There was a report yesterday. It was one of those hoops, hype stories. I don't know if you follow them on Twitter or not, that somebody in New York wrote that maybe the Knicks would be interested in Brussels. So that's the only thing I've ever seen. So to give you the standard answer of every contract in the NBA, regardless of who it is, can be moved. I'm convinced of that now after seeing CP3 sent to Oklahoma City.

So to answer your question, yes, if a team wants to bring it on, would you get great return back? Probably not. Would you have to send somebody else with Russell Westbrook? Because you're now asking that team to inherit his contract? Probably so. But I would say, absolutely, Russ can be traded. James can be traded. Anybody in the NBA can be traded.

Would Russ's cap flexibility be worse? I mean, would giving you cap flexibility, would it be worth shipping them out? You'd have to ask the next head head coach of this team. Because maybe the next head coach's team doesn't think that James and Russ can stay in the same back court together. That's just the reality of it. If you go to Tillman and say, I think I can get the best out of both these guys together, then let's go and do it. then I don't think they're going to talk about it.

But I think if that coach says, hey, I see your team right now. Here's what I see as problems. And the first thing you can do in terms of your quasi-rebuild is to unload one of the contracts. And Russ's contract, if you're such a big James guy, which I'm assuming is, James one of the best players in the NBA, that if you can find a trade partner, that it might be a temporary bullet taking some on some players that you may not be in love with. But to get rid of ultimately the flexibility of that $40 million is, Russ is over the next couple of years, you know, go ahead and do it.

Let's start the rebuild now. First time, Carla, listen to you quite often. Thanks for having me. Nice here from you, Denzel. Don't be a stranger to the show. Appreciate it. 1244 is a time. That's the crazy thing is that we don't even know what the philosophy of the team is on these players.

Just because there's a published report on New York says that the Knicks may be interested, we don't know if the Rockets would be interested. because maybe in that Rockets front office, maybe in the hierarchy of that organization, they want Russ and James together. They want it to work out. Maybe James wants to work together. Maybe Russ is like, no, don't give up on us. We can do this. Or it could just be the opposite. 1244, Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas Show. Brian T's going to join us at the top of the hour. Let's tell you about bronze roofing for a second. B-R-A-U-N-S, bronzeroofing.com, no matter what kind of roof you have. of bronze roofing are going to take

really good care of you in terms of repairs. If there is something wrong with your roof, they'll give you a free estimate right on the spot. If everything is okay with your roof, you will elbow bump them. Wave to... Rockets Basketball! Rockets PA announcer and sports talk show host.

One might get the impression Matt Thomas loves to hear Matt Thomas's voice. Go ahead. Matt, talk for us. Luis Garcia's going to start for the Astros. it's going to be a bullpen game. Hadn pitched since September the 27th.

I don't know much about him, but he'll start. John Curtis will go for the raise. They're used to bullpen games. Game number four of this game five of the series, I should say, is right here on 790. I'll have the On-Dex show at three. First pitch is at 407,

and then Wex and Michael Connor will have the 10th inning call-in show following the game. A couple of baseball calls to get to before we go back to the NBA. And again, Brian T's going to join us in a couple of minutes. Gilbert, Spring Branch on 790. Hi, Gilbert. How are you doing today, gentlemen? Great, Gilbert. You know a football game tonight?

No football game tonight. What happened? Anyway, what happened? COVID. COVID? COVID because they'd screwed up the previous game. All right. I want to ask you a question anyway.

Sure. I'm a 70 fanatic anyway. Yeah. Okay, I got a baseball clip for you anyway, okay? Sure. Okay, you sing the nextor-A-A-R-A-T championship playoff? Who sang the 81 national anthem? No, 1980.

1980, 1980, huh. Astros and Dodgers, divisional title. Divisional title. Where did that anthem? And Houston or in Los Angeles? You're saying Los Angeles. I know, but which game you're talking about? Which stadium was this person singing at?

No, he's funny in Antoinetteau. Go ahead and tell me the answer. Captain Teneal. Oh, you know how I love the captain and Toneal. Yeah. Gilbert, I got to run with some other folks, my friend. Hey, call me back in a few days. We'll talk more Captain Teneal.

Goodbye. Bye. You know, love, we'll keep us together. Don't even get your reference. Don't worry about it. Gilbert's a treasure. Today we just don't have time for Givert. We would go a little longer

with Givert if we could, but we just can't. Let's go to David and Alvin on 790. Hi, David. Hey, Matt. Good to be on, man. Thank you. I just wanted to call and quit. I always call and talk baseball

because all the other sports suck. And they do. You know, it's true. But I wanted to call with positive vives for the Astros. You know, only one team has come back from 3-0. We all remember that horrible series, both teams stink. But a lot of teams have come back from 3-1, and that's where we are now.

I love these Astros. Man, what a hard year. How hard does it have to be to have every press article, not just sports articles, but national articles, negative about you. You know, you lose half your fans. Other teams are trying to beat you. I've never seen these Astros give up on the net bat in the last seven years. And I appreciate them for that.

They're going to give everything they have to the last out. And if we win this game, I don't know who the scared team is. So I'm predicting whatever that advertisement you just had for fantasy betting. I'm going to go all in on Yulelegao to get a couple RBIs and a couple hits today. Astros to make it 3-2. And then we'll see who's scared at that point. Look at you talking all positive. The scary, badass Astros.

I like it. Thank you, David, for the phone call. I appreciate it. All sports don't suck. All sports rule. It's what we're here every day, 12 to 3. But yeah, I'm all for that, too. How nervous would you be if the raise lost today again?

I mean, where would you be on, if you were a ray, zero to ten? I was thinking about this yesterday. I think three, two, is when you start to seriously think a comeback as possible. Because streaks and sports don't happen a lot in playoffs, but of any sport that has a streak, it's got to be baseball, right? Well, and Gordy was saying it too on In the trenches. I think you also have to consider where it puts the Astros. Like, today is the big hump to get over where you're like, who's going to pitch? So then you would go, do you go McCullors tomorrow?

Let's see, that's... I think you go Fromber than McCuller. But, but again... Yeah, Framber, because you're not going to put a T.J. Canada out there on short rest. I'm also curious, when does Javier come into play again? Tomorrow. So he can't go today after two? No, I don't think...

No, I think all hands on deck again. You're all hands on deck the rest of the series, correct? Yeah. No, that's why it's... Today's the tough one. If you can get through today... And not use him. Boy, you have arrested Javier in case somebody gets in trouble tomorrow.

And you feel a lot better with... I think you do with Framber and McCullors is your last two starters. And then you still got the Orchita could come into play too. Oh, yeah. Today's, I mean, every day is the hump day. I mean, this is, every day is a moment of truth. These are must-win games. To answer your question, if I'm a race fan and the Astros win today.

Like to yesterday, if I'm a race fan, they win. Okay, I give them a, on a one of the ten scared scale, probably two. Yeah. Today it bumps to a four. Yep, I'd agree with both of those. And if they lose the third game, it goes to a 9.6. That seems a little high, like an 8. I don't know.

How scary would it be being up 3-0 in something and then having to play a deciding 7th game? I'd be going, I'd be soiling myself. Yeah, I mean, you don't want to be there. Nope. You don't want to soil yourself, and you certainly don't want to do that as a race fan. Let's go to Gerard at 1255 on 7.9. I need, Gerard, what do you have today?

Oh, man, I'm doing all right, man. How about you? Good. Yeah, I agree with you, man. I don't think it had nothing anything to do with China. You know, China started showing NBA finals this past week with Miami and the Lakers. So they started getting back involved with the NBA. And plus, for Tuttle said when they, Rockets started the new head coaching search,

Martyrna said, look, I don't really got a lot of experience in hiring head coach. This is Dale Murray's field of expertise. I'm going to lead everything to Dale Murray's discretion as far as hiring a head coach. But I think somewhere along the way, man, like you said, I think he got infatuated with Jeff Van Gundy. I don't know what he was a factuation with Jeff Van Gundy. When he was here, we didn't get out the first round. He did a good job as far as having us one of the top defensive teams in the NBA,

but we never got out the first round with Jeff Van Gundy. But it's some kind of infatuation with the guy, and I think Tim, Tim Fatira wants Jeff Van Gundy. And I think Darry wanted Tyrone Loo, because it was reports came out just the other day that Tyroneau was the leading candidate for the Rockets' head coaching job. Now you're hearing reports saying, that the Rockers are going to do a second interview with Jeff Van Gundy.

I've interviewed with him, I believe it was yesterday. So it's obviously, like you said, you put two and two together real good. The owner won it wants Jeff Van Gundy, and Dar Amory wanted Tyroneu, and he didn't want to be a part of this if he's not going to have his hand in on the head coaching. He didn't want to be tied to Jeff Van Gundy. So I think that's why he stepped down. Now, as far as Jeff Van Gundy coaching the Rockets, I think it can work if he bring in an offensive-minded assistant coach

to basically run the offense. The offense that he ran in Houston is not going to work in today's NBA, man. That 90s and basketball. Yeah, Gerard, I got a role in that, my friend. I appreciate it. If Jeff gets the job, Jeff's a smart guy. I don't think Jeff's going to run the 9-2004 NBA style of offense. He won't last long if he tries.

No, but wouldn't you think if you are the coach and you've been, I mean, do you think that John Gruden is going back to his? playbook of 1999 when he was running the Buccaneers and the Raiders about how to run NFL offense in 2020? No. If Jeff Van Gundy gets the job and he is the guy, it's because what he is saying about what he feels of the style of the team is what the is in, you know, in agreement with the Rockets. No, look, say what you all about whether or not a coach has been gone from the game too far, too long. I understand that. But You guys know, you watch Jeff.

I mean, Jeff Van Gundy has been analyzing games since the moment he left the court. He has probably a very, very good feel for what it's like to run an offense in 2020. He sees 50 games a year in person. He's been in every NBA finals. He knows what it's like to watch the champions play. Now, does it necessarily mean he's going to all of a sudden be a different coach? Well, no, not really. But in all honesty, this is not like a guy that's been.

hold up in his room and his house in West U and never been out to see a basketball game and thinking, well, I'll just pull out my old playbook from 2003 and that'll be just fine. I don't think that that would be the problem. But it doesn't mean that Daryl and Tillman did not agree on who they wanted as their coach. We'll talk more about that. Start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show next on Sports Talk 790.

Is the Matt Thomas show. 104 sports talk 790 those of you on hold do not go anywhere we are taking your phone calls much of the way as we did the first hour we'll continue to do so and we invite you to join us at 713 212 5 790 719 719 8 719 astros against the raise game 5 of the series right here on 790 beginning I'll have the on deck show at 3 o'clock louise garcia will go for the street John Curtis will throw for Tampa. I expect Luis Garcia's day to be short. Hopefully it's two solid innings of no runs, no hits, a couple of strikeouts. But that bullpen will be used quite a bit today.

My guess is the Astros try to stay alive. But the story of the day continues to be the announcement, at least from Adrian Walgerhauski, nothing official from the rockets in terms of emails or what's sent a letterhead or any kind of Zoom meetings. But Darrell Mori is going to resign as the vice president, general manager, for the Houston Rockets. And you've heard what I've said about it for the last hour. I want to get a different opinion on that. We'll say hi to our good friend, Brian Smith,

who always likes to chime in on super big sports days. I'd have thought, Brian, the Rockets or the Astros, game five would have been plenty for this radio show. We get this bomb dropped at us about 1130 this morning. Matt, who remembers Bill O'Brien getting fired? The head coach, General Manager, King of Kirby Drive. I mean, number one, there is literally, literally so much, so much to get into.

And I want you to ask me about Russell Westbrook and James Harden, because that plays a part in all of this. But let me just say this. What an insane year for Houston sports. I'm not talking about 2020. I'm not talking about the stupid coronavirus pandemic or the crazy election or the economy or whatever. Houston sports, man, since I think it was January 13th,

you have the chiefs debacle, which ultimately leaves the firing of Bill O'Brien. Then you have the Astros cheating scandal, AJ Hintz, Jeff Luno gone, Bill O'Brien gone on a Monday when no one in the world expected it. And in some ways, this is the biggest news.

Not because it wasn't time, not because this hasn't been building for years, but to do it right now, Matt, during a head coaching search, I know that you and Ross love this term, but this is pretty unprecedented in the NBA, and the NBA loves its drama. Yeah, this to me, and again, this is just pure conjecture because they're not whispering anything to me, and I'm okay with that. This to me is I want a coach, says Darrell, I want a coach, says Tillman, and I don't know if they're on the same page.

Look, I've been working the phones. I'll be working the phones. I've been working the phones the last few years. I mean, since I became a columnist, The Chronicle. I don't love this drama in the sense of, I mean, these are people, these are jobs, these are life, these are families. But I always say, like, it's every Bill O'Brien. I mean, you know, when there's this much at stake, when you're making millions upon

millions when you go all in and my lord did darrell mori go all in you know many times it's it's life it's it's like watching a reality tv show or a great uh it's like watching the wire or or you know a great HBO show things happen Matt there there's fallout now i'll say this we've seen this happen a few times i mean there could be another part of the story that hasn't come out but with what i know now and what i've reported for the last few years in the chronicle with everything we know, a lot of this is tied together, Matt, and a lot of this, the writing was on the wall. But that being said, just like Mike Dantone walking away, and Mike Dantone chose to walk away from the rockets, this, the timing of this, how it happened, was just as stunning because this has nothing. And I heard the early call. I know there's some talk out there. Attaching this to China is.

is absolutely idiotic, not in the country, but the tweet, and we all know what happened with that. If the Rockets wanted to do that, if the NBA wanted to do that, if Tim and Fertita wanted to do that, he would have done it when it happened. And you wouldn't have waited until a month after the season ended while you're searching for a head coach to do that. It's not like Ty Lou or Jeff Van Gundy or whomever said, well, you know what, I will be your next head coach, but you've got to get rid of Darryl More because of a tweet that he sent out 10 months ago. give me a freak, 12 months ago, give me a freaking break. This is, this is another sign, Matt, that the rockets have quietly, somewhat been one of the most dysfunctional organizations in the NBA in the last few years. Darry, if there was a Hall of Fame for GMs, Darry would end up in that Hall of Fame, right?

Darrell Mori is one of the smartest, brightest, most creative GMs and not just recent NBA history, an NBA history. But he was never able to get over that, you know, that cliche hump. And with the way that Mori ran things, whether it was, you know, daily interactions, whether it was just his personal style, whether it was by far being James Hardin's biggest support. inside and outside of the building, when you go that all in and you get Chris Paul and because of the hamstring, you fall short, you don't make the finals, when you then trade for Russell Westbrook,

when you, when Mike Dantone walks away from you, when you have all these things, when you have frustration and when you have an organization that no matter what they say publicly, internally, they often contradicted it. They would always say everything's fine, we're all great, you know, we're better than the Warriors.

The Rockets matter. have just been churning through drama internally for the last few years. And so in many ways, this is the peak of it. It wasn't Dan Tony. This is Darry who's been doing this forever. In many ways, that long outstate is welcome. Not only does he step away from the Rockets, much like Dan Tony did, but he steps away a month after the season while they're theoretically on the verge of hiring a head coach. That does not happen in the NBA. I've always felt that Daryl, any thought of moving James was preposterous. It might still be, because Tim and may echo those thoughts.

I wonder if that philosophy has changed and maybe is part of the reason why there is a disconnect. And maybe there is, hey, if you can go kick the tires, I'm moving James against something, and we sort of rebuild, let's do it now. Yeah, and here's the reality of that. it's much more Hardin and Westbrook, right? The Rockets made the decision top down to trade Chris Paul. And I wrote this 100 times and it was 100% accurate as much as it was denied by Hardin or Mori. Remember last summer? Like everyone forgets things immediately now.

Last freaking summer, Darrah Mori basically said publicly our entire roster is on the trade block except for James Harden. Who says that in the NBA? that's how Mori operated. That stuff creates frustration. That stuff creates issues. And that's just one little, little smart of the issues. The Rockets also loved Mori and knew that they wouldn't be in this position without Mori, but if you keep falling short, Matt, if you can't beat the Warriors,

if you can't beat a non-Dinacy Lakers team, if you get knocked out of the second round and the second round, if you go all in with small ball, when everyone in the world tells you small ball for 48 minutes is a pretty stupid, idea, even in 2020, you better win a finals. And it didn't happen. And so the second the Rockets lost to the Lakers, and I wrote this in the Chronicle, Tillman Furtita was staring at a mess. And he knew it. And what's happened since then? Dan Tony's gone. Morrie's gone. But when it comes to Hardin and when it comes to Westbrook, I can't make this any clearer. They love Hardin.

They know he's one of the best players in the NBA. They know he should be better. And ultimately, that is on James Hardin. So they have not been able to find a coach. And as of right now, they haven't been able to find a GM who can put together a true championship team around James Harden, and most importantly, get the best out of James Hardin. And so, you know, I've seen stuff loaded for Mori and family and kids and, you know, all these things. And those all may be accurate. But he was the GM of one of the most interesting teams in the NBA. How many times did he say, you know, how badly he wanted to win a finals for the Rockets? but also for James Hardin.

And to fall short, your coach walks away, and for Mori to step down, tells you once again that there's just been simmering frustration. And here's part of this that hasn't been reported. And I'll put this out right now because I know it's accurate. There was tension last, this season, this season between James Hardin and Russell Westbrook. And so you just, you puddle that together, and people are going to fall by the wayside. And then you have an owner like Tullin Fertita, who is very demanding, who in many ways runs the rocket, it's like he runs all those billion-dollar businesses.

There has been the feeling the last couple years that they were not being run right, that they could be run better, that at times they were dysfunctional. So it's not a coincidence that after this team falling short again and hard and disappointing again and Westbrook looking that bad in the playoffs at certain times that there have been casualties. man, when I, as you're running through the list, I just came to the notion that we have had three general managers and three coaches gone in one city in 12 calendar months. I've actually handled the pandemic fairly well. Like I've been lucky, you know, that's far. You know, you know what's aging me? Houston sports. Jeff Luno, AJ Hens, Bill O'Brien as King head coach general manager, Mike Dantone, and Darry all since.

January. It's only October. Well, I look forward to Tomon's, I look forward to Tomon speaking, I look forward to to Darrell speaking, I look forward, I think the next head coach of this team will be announced within the next seven calendar days. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be shocked at all.

And I'll say this lastly. Darry fell short. But Darry ultimately, Matt, did a fantastic job as the Rockets GM. And that must be said. You know, you're not, there is no reason unless something comes out.

There's no reason for anyone to kick dirt on him. He fell short, but it's not easy in this modern NBA world with all the super teams and the major markets, you know, L.A., etc. to win the titles, you have the Warriors dynasty. Mori could have done better at times. I think the team went backward clearly the last two years, and they're in a tough spot right now, just like the Texans are in terms of team building.

And maybe they have to consider starting to gradually. tear it down. But Darry And that's the thing is that this organization has never allowed itself. They've never done it. Yeah, never done it. And it didn't want to do it. Under Less, and certainly haven't done so under Tillman. BTS, look forward to reading your column tomorrow morning in the Houston Chronicle.

Hey, you're going to be on tomorrow with me. Yeah, you, by way, you're coming back on me at 2 o'clock tomorrow. We've got to figure that with this Astros team's going to do. I'm piggyback and we're going to bullpen at both games. Perfect. Thank you, friend. Brian T. Smith with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Back to your phone calls. Next, 1116. It is

the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. One line is open. Come take it from me. 713-212-5-7-90. The morning sports show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Brandon, tell the audience what you just told me about 30 seconds ago. Who would have thought we have barely talked to Astros today?

Yeah. And it'll look, there are two mega big stories. But this one was the shocker. The last one, we had a chance to kind of sleep on, relax, look forward to we got another game coming up in two and a half hours. This one has got loads of drama to it. Because you're promoting a general manager that very few people know about, including myself.

I don't really know Raphael at all. And you have a coaching search underway, and you have a general manager. I mean, how often do general manager stick around for five years, much less 13. Crazy long time. He had to be one of the most tenured in the league. So as far as I'm concerned, this is a big one.

And what it does, could it be a ripple effect? Does the head coaching decision, whenever that's made, does that impact where this team is next year? Does it keep its superstars? Does it try to spend one or two of the players off? where does this team go? Is it rebuild or is it at a piece? Is it move Westbrook? Is it kick the tires on Hardin?

Is it none of the above? What does Tillman want to hear from the next head basketball coach of this franchise? And what has Tillman instructed Raffell Stone, who will be the new general manager of this team, to do with this franchise? Maybe Raffel, maybe I should say maybe Tillman said, Daryl, it's time for us to rebuild. Let's start cutting and chopping and start from scratch. and maybe Daryl didn't want to do that. What I don't believe is that Daryl's still got a lot of fire in the belly to be a general manager of an NBA team and be back in the NBA. Do I believe he's got other interests?

Yeah, I've told you that before. He's got lots and lots of interest. But I think he does enjoy being an executive of an NBA franchise. I have a feeling you're going to hate this, but can I at least bring it up real quick? Why not? There are definitely people out there who mention the idea of Daryl going to the Texans. Any thoughts on that? Um, yeah, I don't think so.

Not that he couldn't do it, but I don't know how much fire Darrell has for football. I know Daryl's been a basketball. Daryl's favorite sports are basketball and ping pong. That would make it weird. Yeah, no, I mean, no. I mean, not unless he's been thinking about this for a long time and said, man, do you see that job opening just opened up two weeks ago? I could stay in town. I can craft myself in another way? No, I don't think so.

I think if you are, how old is Darrell? Probably late 40s, maybe early 50s. And once a GM, I guess always a GM, but wouldn't you want to be around that sport for a long period of time to learn all the nuances because a drafting department is different, the salary cap is different. You have multiple layers of drafts

as compared to the NBA where you only have two rounds. and in Daryl's case he likes to trade those, use those as trade chips. I would say respectfully, I don't think he would be interested or considered. It might make a little bit more sense if you had a championship, right? Like if it was like a new challenge still in the same general world? Yeah, I just think they're so different. Now, would an amazing Mexican restaurant manager do well in a Chinese restaurant? Yeah, I think so.

But I just think they're so different. And I just think that, as I've said this in the first hour of the show, if Darrell just said, look, I don't want to be a part of the Rockets. Timman's like, I get that, let's go, let's separate, we'll go amicably. And Darrell put out a want-at, hey, what do you do when you are looking for someone, call a headhunter, right? Five teams in the NBA would call him tomorrow, at least. It may not be for the same title, but they would put him to work,

whatever title he wanted. And the rumors that Philadelphia just don't ever seem to go away, although there's still a general manager there in Elton Brand. 713-212-5-790. Sam is in downtown at 125. Hi, Sam. How's it going, Matt? Good, Sam. What's going on with you? I'm on my way to Austin, and I got the news.

For some reason, $7.90 still on the radio all the way out here. So I've just had all these thoughts about Darrell. A quick thing, I actually got to meet Darrell outside of Toyota Center, riding my bike one day to class. And I just was riding, and I saw him, and I just stopped. talking to someone. I asked, just blatantly, I said, are you Darrell Moore? He just shook his head, yes. And after that, we just immediately, I was wearing a rocket shirt. And the first thing he says, I like your shirt. I said, I like your team. And we talked for about 30 seconds to a minute

about the Rockets. And it was just so genuine that he just kind of stopped to a complete stranger, you know, who was a fan of him and his team. He kind of just talked for a little bit. But I, wish him well. He did everything he could, and there's damn warriors that took that from us, but I, the best GM in town in the midst of the Texans, and then later the asteros of Jeff Luna,

I still thought Darrell was the best GM in town. And going forward, I'm just a little curious on what the two head coaches kind of would bring us, because I don't really, no Ty Loo's head coaching death other than he had, you know, LeBron James was pretty good. That's, and he had LeBron James. Yeah, he had LeBron James and then LeBron left.

And then I think Ty had to leave at some point due to some stress issues or whatever. But he's back. He was a lead assistant under Doc Rivers in Los Angeles with the Clippers. It was very highly well regarded. He's been offered, not offered, he's been interviewing for multiple jobs the last couple of years. And I believe Ty Lou will be a head coach again in the NBA. I don't believe his permanent attachment to LeBron James, at least as a coach, is going to hurt him getting another job again.

Yeah, and that's what helps him is managing other superstars. I mean, and you have James and Russ. My only fear is that I know James really loved him to Mike Dantone, and like you said earlier, Darrell batted for James Harden every single day. That was Darrell's guy, you know, it was James. And I'm a little worried to see who they bring in. and if, you know, James is, you know, he's been here, what, eight years now? How much longer can he take of coming up short?

You know, some players want a new start. I'm just worried because he's my Elijah one. You know, I'm 30 years old. Sure. I've known nothing but James Harden doing James Harden. I'm just worried about what Tillman's going to do because I know a lot of Rockets fans, like he kind of rubs us the wrong way. But I just kind of wanted your opinion on, you know, the two Jeff Van Gundy and Tyahou,

obviously, Jeff Ngundy being here in Houston. You know, he's honestly one of the best commentators on TNT. He's so hilarious, but he's got all his analytics right. I kind of want to know what you thought about moving forward with those two coaches and, you know, would you like some breaking news in the middle of our call right now? Would you like it? It'd be a first time. Here it is.

The new head basketball coach of the Los Angeles Clippers is Tyloo. I knew it. They would do everything they could to keep them there. How about that? Sam, don't be as strange to the show because when you call, breaking news happens. I call as much as I can before. You've given me free rocket tickets before. This is my favorite show.

Thank you, buddy. I love listening to Matt Thomas show. Even though at the time you did give me six, I got a parking ticket. Oh, well, we can fix that next time. I know people. Sam, thanks for the phone call. I appreciate it. Thank you, man.

All right, thank you. Brandon, let's just say it. My gut, this is a, this is a, I'm going to go Nostra Thomas prediction on you here. I believe Jeff Van Gundy is going to be the next coach of the Houston Rockets. I mean, doesn't he have to be now? No. There's Stephen Silas. There's Wes Unsell Jr.

There's John Lucas. I think we're going to know pretty soon that it's Jeff Van Gundy. Are these puzzle pieces starting to form together? Tailu, L.A. Clippers coach. just coming down in the last couple of seconds. Man, what a day for sports! What a day! I can use a drink.

I can't drink on air, obviously. But I can drink when we get home tonight as I watch the Astros game. You can do that as well, as long as you do it responsibly, and you need to do it with my friends from Balcones Distilling. They have won over 350 local,

regional, and international awards. I'm telling you, friends, this is a group of people based in Waco that have been unbelievable making some of the best whiskey you will find, and they do it right here in Texas. Everything is made grain to glass in that distillery in Waco. They had the baby blue, which is their trademark. They also have amazing varieties, like the Texas Potsdale Bourbon that's made with Texas blue corn and Texas wheat and Texas rye. That's what the missus and I are trying right now. In fact, we have become big fans of drinking old-fashioned at night when we're just trying to take the edge off.

So if you like it that way, or perhaps you like it, need it on the rocks, if you're going to go with a cocktail, go with an old-fashioned using Balcones and that Texas Pottsdale bourbon. Buy it, try it, stop by your local favorite spirit store, and you will be hooked on the distinctive taste that is Balcones. That's Balcones distilling, distilled to appreciate. We are former players. We are lifelong fans. And we're your home for your voice. Houston's going to have their voice with her to date. Sports Talk 790. Your most complete lineup in Houston sports. More news. Tileu's the Clippers coach. That was a guy that was on the shortlist. That was the guy that came to interview here in Houston. Darry is out. Rafael Stone in. Rockets don't have a coach yet.

Oh, by the way, it's game five American League Championship Series. And the biggest of them all, the Texans play the Titans Devon Sunday. It's Texans, Texans. I'm losing my mind, aren't I? It's not a normal Thursday. I know. We need to get into what the linebacking core is going to do against Derek Henry. I know, but it just won't be today.

Matt, basketball, your favorite sport? Yes. Football is my favorite sport. Yes. But I don't know how you're not talking. Daryl Morey and the Astros right now. I don't know either. You're not winning.

You're not playing radio right if you're not. I mean, we got one bomb after the other, whether Wode drops it or somebody else drops it. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb. And you guys have been great on the phones. Let's continue. Let's say hi to Mike in Spring at 136 on the Matt Thomas show. Mike, good afternoon. Oh, let's punch him up here.

Let me try this slide to. Mike, I'm sorry about that. Mike, what's going on? Hello? Hi. Can you hear me? Absolutely. Holy, Claire's a better.

There you, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. So when I tuned in today, I'll be honest. I'm not really surprised at Morrie left at all. So I do a lot of volunteer and charity work for an organization that Tillman's basically the head of. And throughout that, I've met a lot of people from the Golden Nugget and his super fancy dealership over there by the Postoak and then his restaurants. And I'm not talking about waiters and, you know, these are higher up feet.

And the consensus opinion is he is absolutely horrible to work for. Horrible, horrible, horrible. So I'm not shocked. The coach left, the GM left. Next thing up is going to be a few players. It's going to be disgruntled. So it's sad that the bad news is all, you know, he's tough to work for and somebody will sign on. The good news is he makes everything turn to gold.

So he'll get a winner out of this. Okay. Thank you for the call. Apparently that was not a call from the Tillman-Fritator PR agency. You know, I don't, you know, I've known Tillman for a long time, even before I started working for the Rockets. Matter of fact, when I took the Rockets job as a PA announcer, this go around and do the radio, Les Alexander still on the team. But I've known Tillman for a long time. I've started to know his kids a little bit. He's been nothing but good to me. But again, I don't work for him full time.

I don't report to him 40 hours a week. I do their games and do their arena announcing. I'm such a simpleton in the big process of things, but I've had nothing but a good relationship with him. But I'm also not, you know, he's not my employer 40 hours a week. So for everyone that would call and say that, there could be five people that could say, oh, he's the best guy to work for. So I take everything with a grain of salt. So this is, you don't need to do that if that's what you want to do. And I'm not saying that that was the point of the call.

But, you know, they're going to be, with every. boss, you're going to have, that's the greatest boss I've ever worked for or the greatest company ever worked for, and you're going to have just as many people that say it's the worst. And that just comes with big multi-billion dollar companies. So I'd like to refrain from that if all possible, because again, I don't know where you're coming from. I don't know if your best friend got laid off by that company or that best friend of yours or

yourself or your wife got fired. I mean, who knows? But I, because I can't read into that. I don't have time for that. What I'd like to do is I'd like to keep it to the sport itself and the decisions that are being made. And that is who is the next coach of this team? And why is Darrell Moore going? Is it because he really wants to, you know, spend time with family and get away from the world and maybe try something else in his life professionally?

Is it because he just doesn't want to work for the Rockets anymore? He's miserable? Or is it that they both said, hey, Darrell, you make a lot of money with us and you're thinking about maybe going somewhere else? let's put together a package that satisfies both of our needs. Because I think Darrell was one of the more higher paid for an office people in the NBA. It'd be hard to walk away from that kind of money and just say, yeah, I don't need it. Now, I think Darrell's done quite well for himself, and he'll be able to work again wherever he wants. But, you know, only time will tell, and it won't be in the next 30 days for us to figure out ultimately the main reason of why.

Because what they'll do is they'll have a press conference and they'll have some written statements. and everybody will be kumbaya and all the nice pleasant things, we'll ultimately find out what the real backstory is. And I'll wait for that. But for now, on a day like this, it's just purely conjecture for us. And that's what I appreciate. I appreciate what everybody thinks could be the case, but there's only going to be about five people in this world that really know

what's went down and who's acting on whose behalf. Let's go to Jeff in Oak Forest in the Matt Thomas Show, 141. Jeff, good afternoon. Hi, guys. Weighing in on the Brockus here, I think with both GM and the coach, they saw the handwriting on the wall. This team is going nowhere but down. They're going to have to have a major rebuild, in my opinion. I've never been a hardened fan. I'll say that from the get-go. I don't think that him and Westbrook could coexist and both be their best. It's either one or the other that's going to perform.

So I think that that's a job that nobody really wants, considering that I heard you guys say if they had locked to the thunder, which would have been a complete disaster, they would have fired Mori on the spot. That's not true. I never said that. I don't believe. I heard it on an afternoon show. I'm not sure. Yeah, I wouldn't. I'm going to tell you a little something, Jeff.

And this is just having been around the sports world a long time. So just kind of trust me on this. when general managers and owners want to fire coaches, they don't necessarily worry about the next series in front of them. If you are someone, like for instance, if you ran a restaurant and you wanted to fire your general manager because the profits are down, the servers are not doing a good job and your quality is bad, you're not going to let one good dinner service make you change your mind.

And that's what I've noticed about sports, Jeff, is that when coaches and when general managers and owners want to make moves, they don't do it just based on what the next series is in front of them. They think big picture. And that's why I don't buy into that well. The Rockets would have lost OKC. Mike Dantone would have been fired. Was one series different losing the Lakers in five that much different

than not playing them at all? Well, I think with Bertita, as many people have said, he is a guy that wants results and he wants them now. He's used to that. And I don't think it's going to happen with the Rockets any time. soon. So I don't really envy the coach or new GM coming in because I think it's going to be a tough road to hoe with where the team is as far as the talent besides the two guards. That's true. Thank you, Jeff. This is not an easy fix. You have money tied into three players.

I'm thinking just three, right? Eric's got good cash. And Westbrook and Gordner are playing at, or Westbrook and Hartner are playing at over $40 million. Not a lot of wiggle room. That is for sure. But obviously it's a good enough job that apparently Jeff Van Gundy wants to get up back in the business after having a cush living. I bet he makes a million dollars at ESPN. He'd be worth every penny to them. I'm sure.

To work, I don't know, 75 days a year, maybe 100 of the very most if you count travel. I have to imagine it's a much less stressful job than coaching as well. And way less stressful. Jeff Van Gundy comes on this radio show and other radio shows and is beloved. Oh, Jeff, your analysis, you're so funny, you're analytical, you're this, you're that, you're this. Rocket's going a four-game losing streak. Oh, Van Gundy's pass his prime. He can't coach out of a paper bag.

Stop talking about running this offense from 1998. But man, once you get that taste of NBA coaching from a power standpoint, from a financial standpoint, and from a control, it's a drug. And sometimes you can just be a bystander and kind of watch it happen and sometimes you want to be involved in it. People always say, well, you know, in my business, well, you know, I can step away from the microphone anytime I'd want to and go do something else and go. Like, I've never in my life, I am 48 years old. I have never had an office job in my entire life. You don't think if I all of a sudden stepped up to this microphone today and said, guys, it's been a great rum.

but I need some time away from the industry. Don't you think I'd be back, try to get back with it within six months or six weeks or six days? I mean, there's a track record. A lot of people do that. Yeah. I've been around a lot of people that say, I'm stepping away from media.

The grind of working a radio shows too much. The pressure, the having to be on the air and having to do, you know, try to do entertaining radio 15 hours a week or 20 hours a week. And then they're back within three months. Sometimes the professions you choose are not just your jobs, not just your careers,

but they're a drug. and for Jeff Van Gundy, I think it's a drug. And he ain't the only one. A lot of coaches that jump in that TV booth can't run fast enough to the court. Stan Van Gundy did an outstanding job on TNT this offseason, right, during the season, doing these playoff games. I mean, just fantastic. Might be the next coach in New Orleans Pelicans.

They just don't want to stop doing it. I don't blame him. It's a great life. A lot of pressure. Great money. Great responsibility. And you get to mesh and. Create a team and you get to put a ring on.

You never get a ring for being best broadcaster. You get a ring for being a champion. 145 on Sports Talk 790. Back with your phone calls. Good mix in on the Astros and Texans. We'll get to some Astros calls as well as those of you were standing by. Astros on deck at 3 o'clock today here on Sports Talk 7. I mean, right now, a message for Cronberg's flags and flagpoles.

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Do yourself a favor and call Cromberg's flags and flagpoles, and I promise you, they will take terrific care of you. They've been around for 50 years. They are fully insured. They're trained, their background check. Those are for those that are doing installs of banners and flags to your place of business. If you have a part of a school PTA,

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Crombergs Flags and Flagpoles.com. Good news. It's the Matt Thomas Show for lunch. Let that boring brown bag lunch rot in the employee refrigerator. Oh, what's that smell? The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. 152 on Sports Talk 790. We were going to open the show today with a little staying alive by the BGs. Only is a good chance to get the BGs on the show.

And we'll do that at 220 to get ourselves revved up for the game five of the ALCS. Alex Garcia, quickly, give me five interesting facts about Alex Garcia. You can't. I don't know. I think he's 23. I know that much. That's why you listen to The On Dex show. I'll give you some interesting things about him.

Maybe not interesting, but just at least some factual things about him. First career poses an appearance. He made five appearances for the Astros all in the month of September. He had a five-inning scoreless start on September the 9th against Oakland. I don't envision him playing in the third inning unless he's just dealing. I was going to say I'd take a five-inning scoreless start. No kidding. You're not lying to me on that. All right.

713-21-2-5-7-90. Good stuff on the Rockets. Tailu is accepting the job to become the Clippers coach. Clippers, not Rockets, Clippers. Darrell Morey has resigned today. Again, nothing official from the Rockets in terms of release or any kind of Zoom or press conference or anything like that. And we have Game 5. And tomorrow we'll have Dr. Roto.

Normally in this spot, we'll have him back tomorrow at 1.30 because there's just so much going on here. Look, we've got to talk about it. And that's why I'm here for y'all. and I appreciate you being here for me. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Let's continue in terms of longest wait. Collins and Pearland with the Matt Thomas show.

Colin, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Matt Thomas. How are you doing today? Amazing. That's good. Or should I say Matt Nostodamus Thomas. That has a nice ring to it. It does.

I appreciate it. But I'm just going to put in a real quick. quick word. It's been crazy the amount of coaching changing in Houston. Like if you think about it real quick, I mean, obviously you have, you know, A. Astros, A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luno gone in February. I think it was February. Correct me if I'm wrong. And then you, I don't keep up much with a dynamo, but I'm pretty sure they got a new manager this year. And let's obviously now the Rockets have lost Mike DeAnne Tony's gone

Darryl Morris gone and now Bill Brian both the head coach and GM is gone like I don't think we I don't think we've seen it seems this much like you know change in one city in sports history I don't think any city has ever gone through

losing three head coaches and three general managers in 12 calendar months I don't believe that could possibly be a scenario that anybody else has gone through except Houston, Texas? I mean, it just had to be Houston. But honestly, I mean, hey, some things like this are about to happen at some point. Like, you know, even though this, even though some guys do good for an organization, they seem like they're doing good, but you never know.

They could be just gone in a snap. And, I mean, you know, it's a tough. loss for the Rockets. I mean, I believe Darryor Mory has done a good job for the Rockets. I mean, you can say the same thing. You can say the same thing for like Dwayne Kayser with the Raptors. Like, you know, he led them to, you know, a lot of wins and a lot of playoff appearances. And after getting swept by LeBron in the Eastern Conference finals a few years ago, boom, gone just like that. Even got coached the year was gone like that. Yep. And again, these are all things, and thank you, Colin, for the phone call.

We don't know the real stories to them. We don't know if it's frustrating. from the owner, frustration from the general manager, fatigue, you know, cordial setting of parting of ways, not amicable, my way or the highway, I mean,

there's all different ways. I mean, I don't know how many times in your life you've left a job or been fired from a job, but has every one of those ways been the exact same way? I highly doubt it. But we're not going to find out anytime. soon until Woj does a deep dive once everything is done and settled. And we'll probably get some answers, but it won't be today.

The next question that has to be answered is who's the head coach of the Rockets? Because it sounds like to me that the Rockets have already made the decision that Rofel Stone, who was one of Daryl's lieutenants, is going to become the new general manager of the Houston Rockets. Dave and Alex and John, you are at one, two, three coming out of the top of the hour. We've got two lines open. 713, 212, 5, 790. 713, 212, 5, 790. A quick music tribute to the Astros great performance last night coming up at 220.

You and Meadle 3, then Astros on deck right here on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. So much going on today. And I'm not talking just about the baseball game. It is 201 on Sports Talk 790, hour number three of the Matt Thomas show. Get in here right now. Let your voice be heard. You guys have been excellent on the phone lines.

And I continue to want to get your first gut reaction to the fact that Daryl Morey has resigned as the head coach. The general manager of the Houston Rockets. Tailoo moments ago agreeing on a five-year deal to become the next coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Jeff N. Gundy meeting us with the Rockets for a second day. ALCS. We got more college football games postponed due to COVID. Atlanta, Minnesota game and the NFL could be up for grabs because of COVID. So much to get to you and me, 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. No need for a blame game at this point. What's the end result? Does Jeff Van Gundy become the leader in the clubhouse for the head coaching spot? Is there some mystery candidate that has either been interviewed already that maybe already now is a leader? Who knows? And what is the real reason behind this departure today from Darrell? Let me read you the story that Adrian Walgerhjahowski wrote at ESPN.

Darrell Mori approached owner Tillman Fertita with the idea of leaving the job and the sides quietly worked through an exit agreement to conclude his 13 seasons as a franchise leader of basketball operations. Mori isn't ruling out a future return to the NBA on the team side, but has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally. Mori also saw an opportunity to spend time with two college-age children who are each taking a gap year academically during the coronavirus pandemic. Mori will remain in an advisory role for a short period to assist in the Rockets completion of their head coaching search. The Rockets are planning to promote executive vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone to general manager. Stone has played a significant part in the Rockets team building throughout his tenure. Houston is also promoting Eli Wittis WITUS to assistant general manager.

13 years, Darry through the college, through this next coaching search, quits or resigns before the coaching search is done. Obviously, the story says he'll stick around to make sure it's fulfilled. But what could be the reasons? I don't believe China's the reason. If China was the reason,

it would have been the decision to separate from each other would have been a lot sooner or a lot, you know, six, seven, eight, nine months ago. To me, this is either Darrell just, out of gas. This is either Darrell, I'm bored, or this is, you know,

Darrell and Tillman just don't see eye to eye on the new coaching search and the new candidate or whoever it's going to be. Or maybe they don't see eye to eye on how the franchise and how the team should be shaped for the upcoming season. And until Dilman and Darrell call me and say, here, Matt, what's going on? Your guess right now is as good as mine.

713212-5-790. But Ty Lou, who was in town just a few days ago, was a prime candidate. Did Ty Lou get a better offer from the Clippers? Did he get an offer at all? Or was the hand-running on the wall that maybe Tyloo should take the Clippers job because he might have heard through the grapevine that somebody else, maybe Jeff Van Gundy, would become the next coach of the Houston Rockets? Dave and Cyprus at 205 on 790.

Dave? Hey, guys. How are you doing this afternoon? Good. What's going on? Good. Oh, no, just a wild two weeks in sports, huh? Amen to that.

Hey, wanted to reach out and say, I heard y'all talk in a couple of seconds ago about if Mori wore to be the GM of the Texans, you know, a little rumor flying around. And I'm curious, you know, how does the analytics approach to football manifest in the sport? Like, do you all think it's more of an old-school defense wins championships? So you build a strong defense? and let Deshaun's talent play out? Like, what does that look like? Give me the first part of your question again.

I didn't catch it. Yeah, so with Mori, if he were to say be the GM of the Tech. Oh, that's why I was confused. I thought you were talking NBA and then you flipped it as Sean, and I was kind of surprised for a second. Well, no, I mean, anything that Daryl runs in sports is going to have a heavy analytical approach. I don't think there's any question about that.

Sure. So how does it manifest in football, though? Like, what does that mean? Types of plays that are run? Yeah, types of plays that are run. What pass routes are more effective? What lineups are out there? Maybe gauging how a guy's energy level is.

You know, I would think that it would be one of those situations that you would be staring at a lot of different spreadsheets of, well, Deshaun, we've charted your last 250 passes, and we've seen them go this far, and we've seen them do this, and we've seen the receivers do this. and this is, I mean, again, I don't know, because I'm never been involved in an NBA or NFL front office before. I'm sure there's analytics to it, but for me, the sport that has been way out in front with analytics has been baseball and basketball. With shifting and defensive plays and where to put people and where to put people in the lineup with exit velocity and Vorp and all that kind of stuff, and then from the NBA side, telling these guys, this is where you shoot, this is where you're at your best, this is where you're running hot in particular game. Here's where you should take your rest. I don't know how the NFL does it because I've not really been around it. Right, and that was my curiosity.

I know it's heavy in analytics as is and when they choose to run certain plays, and they're always trying to beat the defense by being analytical in what will work. But I just wasn't sure how that would look. Either way, guys, appreciate it. Love listening to y'all. Tell those bums, Adam, to work for once. Oh, by the way, they're off again today. Imagine that.

Oh, I know. See you later. Thank you, Dave. Actually, Wex is going to work with Michael Connor on the 10th inning show tonight. So Wex gets it. But Adam, I think Adam's worked twice in the last two weeks. More time off than vacation time, really. I mean, I feel like that he owes the time back, right?

I kind of wonder if he needs like a preseason to get back into it. It's like he could have had COVID during this time, and we would have never have known. We wouldn't. We wouldn't have seen him. 207 on Sports Talk 7.8.7.7. 213-212-5-7-90. Alex and Garden Oaks on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Alex.

Hey, Matt. Hi. You know, I've been listening to you. You're really good, and you're a sports writing analyst or sports show analysts, and you provide a platform for fans to call in, make points, and you don't get, come back. It's like last night I was listening to you or the night before, where you had a fan that called in and he was talking over you.

And you still, after you told him to stop doing that, he still, you still allow him to make a point that he called in about. You didn't agree with him, but you're just a great analyst. Thank you. I appreciate that. And here's the thing. I value all the people to listen. You know, people have choices in which shows they want to listen to and whatnot. So I try to be as respectful as I can because it does take some stones to call to radio show

or it's just really easy and it's not to. but sometimes you just you have a fine line because I'm not going to let a caller destroy a show or put on information it's not true so you just kind of back and forth and I love debate and that's especially when I'm in a solo format that I like to talk to you guys because

you may have a perspective that I'm not aware of or can't think of and then sometimes you may say Matt you're wrong about this and I can say back to you you're wrong so it's just part of doing the show and I enjoy it but thank you what else you want to get to besides that on the Astros? Well a couple little things real One thing, you know, mentioning fans and that you're a platform for fan feedback and whatnot. This COVID pandemic, believe it or not, has a silver lining where sports is concerned.

I have never, and I imagine the sports world has never really imagined just how integral a part of the sports world the fan is. I mean, it's just unbelievable playing these sports without fans. Right. And the players feel it to the core. They're not being there. And so the owners do too, because there's no revenue coming in either, right? That goes without saying. But in terms of the spirit of the play, you know, the energy to prevail where you have your fans rooting for you, that's a major part of the sports world, I think.

And you know what? And I hope, and I hope honestly, Alex, that these players and these owners don't take fans for granted anymore, because they all notice how hollow it is to play these impactful-type games with nobody around them. Oh, for sure, for sure. Matt, here's a statement and a question. Okay. Last year, the Astros were number one in hitting into double plays, and they were real close to that this short season.

Last night, there were four double plays. So as an analyst, I would like to ask you, what can they do to reduce the number of double plays they hit into? Well, a lot of that, and thank you for the phone call, Alex. Short answer to that would be, well, you could be more aggressive on the base paths. But frankly, stealing bases is such a, not taboo, but it's a lost art. when I was growing up in the 80s watching baseball for the first time, I mean, you went to baseball games because you wanted to see Ricky Henderson and Vince Coleman steal bases. Or if you were an astro fan back there in the day, Billy Dorn or Dickie Thon.

Nobody does that anymore. Brendan, I don't even know. I'm going to guess. Did the leader in stolen bases in Major League Baseball this year have 40? Or even close? Well, you know what? You can't use 2020. Forget that.

You gotta Google this real quick. Who led the Major League Baseball in Stolen Bases in 2019? And how many were there? While he looks that up. It's just one of those crazy things. It's just, it's not a big part of it. They did have above 40 last year. Who was?

It was 46. And the American lead, Malick Smith. Okay. 46. Yeah. I mean, there were guys that were getting 50 on a routine basis for, I mean, multiple players. Astros are not a good base running team actually when you think about it. If you look back to the 80s and 90s, these leaders are in the 80s routine.

Oh yeah. Some of them in the 90s. Yeah. Yeah. 80s and 90s were crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. It's just a lot.

And sports change. But that's the reason why it's a little fluky on the double play ball. It's an astro team that doesn't strike out very much. So that's maybe my initial blush answer to you, Alex, is that for a, team that doesn't strike out a lot, there are a lot of hard contact and hard contact can run into double plays. That would be my overall simplistic answer. In this year, seven, I mean, you've had, Jose Al-Tubei have his worst year offensively. You had Springer struggle for the first month, Kyle Tucker struggle for the first three weeks, and your 7-8-9 guys, Reddick didn't do much.

Malnano's not going to be much of a hitter, not a lot of team speed at the back end. So I would say a team that doesn't strike out much that doesn't have a lot of guys with a high batting average, going to probably lend itself to more double plays than other teams. 213 on The Matt Thomas Show. Thank you, Alex, for the phone call and the kind words. We are here for you until 3 o'clock. We're going to come back and give you a little music, small little music tribute to the Astros. You want to talk about their chances.

By the way, again, Luis Garcia, John Curtis, likely going to be two games involving lots of relievers on both sides. So first pitch is at 407? Are we done? Is this game done by 8 o'clock tonight? I think so. I'm going to take the over on that. Think more runs scored than normal?

I'm going to say more runs and more pitching changes. Yeah, I strongly agree with the second part of that. I wasn't thinking 7 to 6. I was thinking six pitchers on each side. Thank God you have to pitch it to at least three people. This game would never end. So if you're going to watch the game, that's cool. Listen to it here on 790.

We're going to be here all night long. Relax. It's going to be a take a while. 713, 212, 5, 790, 214, 214, 21, 2, 14 on the Matt Thomas show, this is Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas, we'd like to thank his parents for only giving him two first names. Because who would listen to Billy Ray Thomas talk about Houston Sports? The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790.

And Al-Tube hits it well and hits it deep to left field, going back from Rosarena at the wall. Looking up, see you later. Jose Al-Tube goes deep for the second straight day and for the third time in this series. and it is one to nothing Astros. Boy, he's a first inning wonder these days, Altuve. Flicing away from Meadows and it grabs at Maltonado's scores as Altuve bangs one off the right field ball. He gives the Astros a two to nothing lead.

Drives this one pretty deep to left field ball. It's hooking if it stays fair. It's gone and it's gone. A home run for Springer and the Astros are on top. Springer's first home run of the ALCS and his third this postseason. season. Struck him out on a change-up.

And the inning is over. Rays, leave them loaded. Bottom of the six, game four of the American League championship series. Astros four, raise two. That is lifted in the air, deep to right, playable for Springer, makes the catch two steps in front of the warning track, and that is the ball game. The Houston Astros live to play another day as they hold off the Tampa Bay Rays, four to three. lead this best of seventh series three games to one. Sturs are staying alive.

How do you feel about tonight? Keep this song on because it's just, it's one of my favorites. Sorry, I'm sorry. I felt a lot better about yesterday, if I'm being honest. I think if you asked me when the show started, I had a little bit more just like natural excitement, optimism, but like as you get closer,

today is about really surviving. Bullpen games scare me, because their bullpen's better than the Astros bullpen. Right? I mean, it's not just a bulletin. Got a hit. Got a hit. There are Astros' offense is better. Well, yeah.

Do you believe that yesterday is what we're going to see the rest of the way, where they stop making these ridiculous defensive play after defensive play after defensive play? One could hope. One could hope. I like the chance is a lot better if yesterday is how the defense looks. Let me tell you something. If you hate national media like I've become. to hate them.

The Astros winning four games will send John Heyman into a catatonic state. By the way, did you see my poll question earlier today? I did not. I forgot to even mention it. I don't even know how many votes we got here. Let me look at it real quick. By the way, if you want to follow me on the show, you can do that at SportsMT. That's at SportsMT.

I had a poll question up here. It was, who hated the Astros winning the most yesterday? Senator As or John Heyman? and 776 people voted 62% since Senator Ass and 38% said John Heyman. I don't think Senator Ass cares about baseball. Clearly. He didn't sound like he knew what he was talking about. It was like, did like one of his, we're talking about that douche from Nebraska that took time out of the Supreme Court hearings to bag on the asteros.

Do you think like one of his writers in his office said, you know, I love baseball and I love honesty. And let's make sure that we show that Amy, whatever her name is. is really honest and she's the anti-astro. Let's go with a baseball cliche similarity rundown of this. You know how, I don't know if it was yesterday or two days ago, but this week I said, like,

my one pet peeve that comes to mind with sports fans is people who, like, try to keep up with you. That's what that felt like. It felt like a guy who, like, he's very, he cares about sports but doesn't actually watch them or follow them. Like TV news anchor.

Yeah. And it felt like he's like, this is how I can keep up with the world of sports. This is how I can appeal to those people. Yeah. TV sports people doing news should never talk about sports. I should really never talk about weather or politics. You kind of stay in your lane. And Senator asked, Stig got out of his lane yesterday and he paid the price for it. I hope he loses. But like getting out of your lane on a talk show versus the Supreme Court?

I have 15 hours. This guy gets like, I mean, I'm sure he's very popular in Nebraska, but he doesn't get a whole lot of national run, unless Senator Ass is running for president a couple of years. I don't know if Senator Ass is going to run, is going to have any sort of legs to it. What's the dude's name? But ass is the middle three letters of his name, right?

Sass? Yeah, or sassy or whatever it is. I don't really even care what it is. But the middle three is ass. So in my mind, until he apologizes for being a complete. Gibrony and the Supreme Court hearing see Senator As to me. Senator Ass. There you have it.

BGs and Senator Ase talk in one segment. Name another radio show in the marketplace I can do it. I didn't think so. Jim in Sharps Town at 225 of the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Jim. Hi. Well, it's a good day to be a Stroze fan and I'm not

talking about the beer. And what I wanted to say is, you know, you've got to hand it to these major league plays. for doing what they've done. I mean, some people say, well, you know, they have small crowds in minor leagues, but to have no crowd, and they seem to keep their own enthusiasm up. And I really think the stroves are going to break through today.

And my friend had knee replacement surgery last week, so I'm taking him a radio up to the rehab place. He's doing great, and it's going to be tuned to 790 a.m. Well, you know what? His recovery is going to be significantly faster now that it's on 790. If it was another radio station, he'd probably have a terrible infection. Well, after I get done saying what I want to about the Astros, I'll hang up, and then I'm going to take him the radio.

Nice. Thank you for that. What I wanted to, I had a few quick questions, and then I'll hang up. One is what's going on with Presley's knee and ankle. two is the rookie guy of the rookie going to start tonight and I think this you know no fans in the stands has really benefited rookies all across major league baseball by you know not having people heckle them and I also want to know do you know who's going to pitch tonight and then is Ertiti going to pitch six and McCuller's game seven those are my questions and one

last thing. I got a buddy. He does drink that baby blue, but he mixes it with soda. And I'm always kidding him about the name. No, you can do that. The baby blue can be had with soda. I'm not questioning that. Thank you for the phone call. Jim asked me a lot of things in no particular order. Luis Garcia, Jim, will start today's game. And he is a rookie. It feels like half the asteros pitchers are rookies. No announcements for game six and seven. That's no surprise. it doesn't normally happen when you're in elimination games. I think it's it. I think it's what you wanted to know.

So, yeah. And by the way, you can drink anything of soda with your baby blue with Balcones, for sure. Yeah. So Luis Garcia, it's going to be a largely bullpen game. And the Razor basically not even hiding it. That their starting pitcher, John Curtis, is going to be a opener for them. Garcia has not pitched since throwing a third of an inning of relief. on September the 27th.

So you go from not pitching in a live game in 28 days to starting for an Astros team that's trying to stay alive in the America League Championship series. How are you feeling, Matt? I'm going to vomit.

I don't want them to lose. I like when the local teams all do well. I even close the Texans. It's better. Y'all are in a better mood? We have more fun. Imagine how depressing. Imagine how little baseball will be talked about when the Astros lose? And I'm not just talking about Houston, Texas.

I'm talking about America. If Tampa Bay plays Atlanta in the World Series, you might as well put that thing on FS2. No one's going to watch it. People can root against the Astros as much as they want. The Astros are probably great for national baseball right now. Astros Dodgers would be sexy AF, and you know that's the case. Oh, my God.

People would lose their minds if you were able to have Astros, Dodgers, the repeat of the 2017 series. All right, 228. We got a half hour left to go. Brendan, how do we set the agenda for the final half hour? We have Daryl Morey out after 13 years in a complete bomb, right? There were no hints. This was, and the story says that he and Tim were quietly working through an agreement to, you know, severed ties.

Quiet's an understatement. I mean, you couldn't know. They kept their lips shut. They didn't let anybody know until the very end. i.e. Woj. Your thoughts on that. Does this mean that now that Ty L.A. Clippers

that maybe Jeff Van Gundy is one step closer to maybe coming back to Coach the Rockets for a second time? And how do you see? Get your crystal ball out. You know, I use that phrase probably too often. Get the crystal ball out right now and tell me how this Astros

race game is going to go. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Lunch timers This is the Matt Thomas show Brendan is this song on my iPhone, yes or no? Definitely. It is. I feel like you can only listen to this song after like 10 o'clock at night.

I'm going to be honest when I asked you what song you wanted. I knew the song was on your phone by the face you gave. You looked very excited to play this. That's true. I have made an executive decision for the show tomorrow. If the Astros win and send this to a game six, remember somebody tweeted and said, hey, let's get the double crush going.

I said, well, only if the season, the series evens up. Well, we don't have a show on Saturday. So the show tomorrow, after we wake up the strippers, we'll be the double crush bus if they win. If they lose, I have another song in play. Oh, boy. It's not uber sad. We've played it before.

but it's just kind of the it's been real kind of song so double crush bus tomorrow 1201 if the Astros in this bullpen game they're about to play name of the father son, Holy Spirit against the

Tampa Bay Rays on deck by the way coming up in 10 minutes here on 790 let's get a couple of calls and to wrap things up Tony and Katie on 790 hi Tony hey guys how's it going good Tony what's up

I ain't not much, you know, just when I woke up wondering what Dusty was thinking, first of all, not going with the colors. Then I started doing my research on this kid that they're throwing against us, picking Curtis out of Texas. He's been around the league a little bit. He gets banged up quite a bit, so I think he's playing chess. We don't want to play our best against their worst. So this kid that we got throwing tonight, throw some nasty stuff and nasty change him. So I think we're going to jump on it pretty quick with like a four, three or four run first inning, and then we'll just worry about the bullpen.

but I don't think we have anything to worry about. I think a little young arm who is, he's a rookie, he's only played, what, AAA? Luis Garcia's got one month of major league experience. But, you know what, he is a rookie. I'd rather take a good rookie than a washed-up young kid has been thrown around the league a little bit. And he's a Texas kid and all that, and I hate to say that, but we're going to smack him around.

And then we're going to have to go to the bullpen early, but you get this kid to go five innings, we're looking good. All right. I hope you're right. It's funny, everybody that tries to predict games, and I'm doing the same thing, Astros are going to jump out fast, four or five runs. Nobody's jumped out fast in any of these games. And that they have, it's been solo home runs by Jose Al-Tube.

That's been it. Four runs sounds like, in all honesty, if I told you the Astro scored four runs, you'd probably be pretty happy about that, right? I would say there's better than 50-50 they were going to win the game. How about last night's Dodgers game with the Braves? They scored 11 in the first. By the time I looked, it was 15. How good does L.A. feel yesterday?

11-0-0 start. God, I would... I mean, I would do crazy things for that. I'll buy you lottery tickets for like a week if they get 11 runs in their first inning. Speaking of a lottery, the jackpot's pretty good this weekend. Haven't seen that in a while. Yeah, I'm a sucker for it.

Because I always pretend I'm going to do what I'm going to do with the money. I used to pay attention to that stuff. You lose enough times and you get tired of it. You're right. I just... I got some in Lubbock this weekend with my son. son, and the woman did not put all the tickets on one ticket. So she gave me 10 individual $1 tickets for the Texas lotto.

So I went to my phone. You can scan the tickets now. Not a winner. Not a winner. Not a winner. I'm like, oh, the hell with this. I'll hit it someday, I think. Astros need to hit the lottery with their bats.

All of us have been saying, score four in the first. Score six between the first three innings. Hell, again, as Brendan said, maybe four runs will be enough. to win the baseball game. Let's go to Trent in League City at 254. Hi, Trent. Hi. I wanted to say I enjoyed the show yesterday

with you bashing Senator or Congressman ass. Senator ass. Yeah, he's always going to be Senator-ass to me. I think that's just absolutely ridiculous. But anyway, what I wanted to say is why is Major League Baseball so against going back to old-school baseball, especially Dusty Baker. We played a lot of one-run games

and a hit-and-run or a butt somebody over to third or a suicide squeeze or something. Those things can change a game and they can excite the team and they can take the stress off the hitters. I don't know why we're so reluctant to do that stuff. Well, that's everybody, not just the Astros.

Trent, it's Major League Baseball feels like in 2020. It's been this way for over a decade now, maybe even longer, that giving up outs, even though there are 27 of them, isn't the smart way to go. With all the different metrics in play and all the different hitters that are bigger, faster, stronger, more powerful, better. I mean, when I was growing up, 7, 8, 9, if you had one guy batting 230, you were blessed. Now you got guys like Zanino for the Mariners who's hitting the ninth spot, and he's hitting

home runs. I mean, tape measure jobs. So it's just something that has been lost in the game. We were talking about stolen bases. same kind of thing. So when Dusty says old school, what he means is basically, instead of going lefty versus lefty bullpen matchup, he's basically saying,

I have a gut feeling that Zach Granky's going to get this final out of the inning. One old school, it was just a gut feel, and it worked out for him. But I'm not pro-bunt, once in a rare while, but I'm not giving up outs. If you like that kind of stuff, watch a college baseball game. They do it like, I don't know, five times a game. You get plenty of fix on that. You all sit back, relax, get yourself something to drink.

Maybe go to the bathroom. If you're driving in your car, don't do either one of those things as you drive. But sit back and relaxes in four minutes. Astros on deck is straight ahead on Sports Talk 790.