The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Layers of NBA Bubble, Constant MLB News & Why Are We All So Hungry?

Episode Date: June 17, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-1 in H-town. What's happening in luncht timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790 alongside Rossville, Real. My producer, Brendan Riley, I'm Matt Thomas.

Happy June 17th, 1994. 26 years ago today. We watched some NBA basketball and then we had the Bronco chase throughout the entire city of Los Angeles. Still to this day, one of the weirdest television events. Forget about sports, Rossville, O'Reill,

one of the weirdest television events I've ever seen in my entire life. There are two times in my childhood. I vividly remember my father. screaming at the television. The Bills, Buffalo, annoylers, the comeback. I remember him screaming at the TV

of that one. Too soon. And I remember as a child him screaming at the TV when he were trying to watch the finals and they're giving us full-blown O.J. Simpson coverage. All right.

That was my first year during the PA. This was my first year, I think, even hosting a full-time radio show. I did not travel. Matter of fact, I think I was still Dan Patrick's our lieutenant governor's sidekick. he and one of our cohorts, Darren Jones, who was with me at 700 way back in the day,

the two of them went to New York, so I did not go. I went to some other parts of the playoffs, but I didn't go to the NBA final. I went to the Western finals in Utah. Oh, man, you didn't get to go to New York, but you had to go to, like, Phoenix or Utah or something? Yeah, I went to Portland and Utah. Sounds like you got muscled, Matt. I love the West. New York's a better tip-down.

But I would have loved to have gone to New York, don't care. But I was 22. My boss is like, I'm the host of the show. I need to go. Okay, whatever. You do your thing. Makes sense. So I'm at our apartment.

And this isn't, I'm way before I'm married. I got my two roommates. And we're watching the game. And all of a sudden the split screen comes into play because of the game five with this chase at the same time. Ross, I'm going to admit something for the very first time that I never thought I'd ever met in a major market radio show. The split screen annoyed me so much. that I went to channel CNN and watched the live coverage of OJ's Chase.

Explain. So you were like so frustrated. You're like, well, if I'm going to, they're going to do this, I might as well go get full coverage. No.

I was recording the game on my VCR. Yes. So I explained to Brennan what a VCR is. Brendan, a VCR is a video. I am not that young. I remember VCRs. Okay.

I recorded that. I was going to record the game. I did record the game. and I thought to myself, this is so crazy that O.J. Simpson, former Heisman trophy winner, former Monday Night Football commentator, former Hurtz spokesman, current actor of such great movies as the naked guns, all of them, is in a chase, and he might kill himself, and he might be surrendering to police, or he might be trying to, I mean, we didn't know who was in a car, that I, that I flipped on CNN, Ross and Larry King basically led me.

And I'm not saying I watched a lot of it, but instead of screaming at the TV going, hey, give me one of the other, I went to the other. So I missed probably a quarter of the Rockets game that night because I wanted to see exactly what was happening with OJ Simpson. It was that incredible of a moment. Yeah, it's history, absolutely. It overtook the nation. That's why there was the split screen because NBC would be hurting themselves.

We maybe disagree in Houston, but the ratings would, the ratings would, gone down if they weren't going to do any coverage of it. Oh, if you're NBC, if we're all television executives back then, we're absolutely doing the exact same thing. We can be mad about it, yeah, but we're doing the same thing. Do you remember we have Mike Brayneen, he told the story about how people it was on his monitor while he was calling

the game and people behind him and the stands were watching? Yeah. And like, hey, don't turn that off and get out of the way so that they could watch the chase on his monitor. Yeah, when he was talking about his spot, I've broadcasted a game from that exact spot at Madison Square Garden when I was doing comments games. Now we broadcast

very high at top Madison Square Garden. We're not even close to the court. So no one can see my television screen. You get the binoculars out? Yeah, exactly. So he had a really good seat. We were given two or three television monitors at the time. And so I completely, those were lower level

mid for lower level seats. So those are people paying really good money to see this. And I could absolutely imagine those guys, our ladies behind him, saying, hey, Mike, show us what's going on on television. So, yeah, you know, I had the game, that's why I didn't have any hesitation because I was recording the game and I checked them. I walked out on my VCR. You don't know if you remember this or not. But when we used to have VCRs, you were always scared that it was going to be turned off for some reason.

Or you recorded the wrong show. Or you ran out of tape. Or in the wrong channel. I absolutely made sure that everything was, I stopped my tape, went back and looked, okay, it's to record in the Rockets game. Okay, good. Hit record again. And that's when I went and flipped on to CNN. Because at that time, you could flip a channel without having,

and still record what you wanted to record on your own. Oh, you had one of them fancy VCRs. Fancy's a relative term. I was making about $30,000. You had one of them Sony joints or something. I mean, it was good. I think we had the Montgomery Award VHS. Montgomery War.

They're not around anymore. See, Montgomery Award, Brennan, was a store that they had back in the day. It was at a department store. They don't really have those anymore. we should play does my does brendon have any recollection of the following does brendon know i like that the answer is i don't recognize that one brendon have you ever seen an a track player in your life no i don't think i have okay brandon do you know where do you know what a girlins food fair is

not a clue okay actually you're from michigan so this this doesn't do this is not actually not fair to him yeah yeah you can't grow up here they had montgomery awards though sure they did What about a Foley's? Do they have Foley's up there? No, no, no, no, no. Up in Michigan, boy, I moved there when I was seven. Are you got a pigle wigglies or something?

No. They didn't have Big Boar. Bob's Big Boy. It was Elias Brothers when I was a kid, but Big Bois was still a big deal in Detroit at the time. I think they kind of recently, in the last decade or so, started disappeared.

Yeah, they were a quasi version of Denny's and Shoney's mixed in. And they would have their own version of the Big Mac. It was called Bob's Big Boy or whatever, and called Big Boy was. And they had the boy with the little boy holding up the tray or whatever? Yeah, they had a great breakfast buffet. Okay.

And they had an amazing strawberry pie. That was kind of their jam. Well, now I'm hungry, Matt. This happens like every first segment of every show. I know. We talk about food. We're doing it. But we are part of a lunchtime show.

You do open the show saying what's happening lunchtimeers. All right. So if anybody would like to call in, I just made, I mean, Ross, I've been on the air in Houston except for five years for about 25, 30 years. I mean, give her take. I just made a proclamation that I actually turned on Larry King on CNN for live coverage of OJ, and I skipped about a quarter of Game 5. How much shame do you feel?

Little. Okay. Now, if I didn't have a VCR, I probably would have to take the L and just watch the split screen on NBC. So if you have any vivid recollections of you watching the events of that day between rockets, I mean, you could be one of those people to do. just screamed and yelled. Or you can say, I tried to find an NBA only. I don't believe there was. Like, you couldn't find a channel that had just the game on.

You probably could do that now. Like, for instance, if that happened in 2020, my guess is you could go to NBC Sports Network or, like, let's say ABC is going to have the finals this year. Yeah. If we had something like that happen again. If there was like an emergency presidential address or something like that. Correct.

You think they would move it to ESPN? Or you think they would do split screen. Or ESPN 2. I mean, and they would say if you would like a full feed, you could find it. But they didn't back then, NBC didn't have NBC Sports Network. There weren't a lot of cable conglomerates that were mixed with national TV networks. Now there are. And now you've got that.

And they control our lives. Yes, they do. All right. So if you've got a vivid memory that you'd like to send off, it's 26 years ago today. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-90. If you want to reach out through Twitter, it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore.

I feel like we've got to get rid of that underscore. It's just kind of an little... The guy who has it, apparently has an inactive Twitter account, so... Well, what can we do to help you with that? He tried to contact them, and apparently he can't. Unless we're going to, like, all team up and just continue to tweet at this guy, I don't know what can be done. How many followers do you have?

Like, 700. Okay, so if we'd get you a brand-new account, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. No, you can change her. He can change his handle and you don't have to change your... How about like B. Riley 790? That kind of has a better run to it, don't you think? See, I've gone that route before, but then what happens is this is the fourth station I've worked for. Oh, so you're worried that we may lay you off or fire you for something.

I mean, it happens, doesn't it? It's a follow-in-a-bus business, Brendan. All right. You know what? You're actually right. Follow him on Twitter at Brendan Riley underscore. It's trying times in the medium, okay? sorry. And sooner rather than later,

no, you might want to follow me down because, yeah, who knows how long I'll be here. Wow. Well, we've had quite a rotation in the last few weeks. No, my plan is to stick around. I swear. All right. All right. So let me tell you, if you're here by January 1st, we're going to get you new Twitter account neighbor. I'm looking for the original

Brendan Riley. I don't see one. Is it gone? Because I'll go take it right now. Go get it. I searched people. I see Brennan Riley 1,34. And you're Brendan, not Brandon, for those of you're playing at home. So, all right. So if you've got a vivid memory. Kylie of the championship of that night per se. 713-212.

Oh, yeah, he's there. Okay. 7-13-212-5-790. A lot of different things to get to on the show today. Bottom of the hour, Ross, Brendan, and myself, we're all going to go through some of the most interesting nuances of NBA Orlando. Oh, yes. Fight Island was my favorite story of the pandemic.

It might now be the NBA bubble. I was listening to you running through it yesterday. on the nightcap. And I just wanted more. In fact, I saw Shams's tweets. I saw Woj's tweets. I mean, there's like 15 NBA writers tweeting about it. And by the way, Mark Medina, the USA

today is going to join us at 1 o'clock today to talk about this thing, this NBA campus. I really want to get a hold of a hundred and whatever page manual it is. I think you'd need to petition the rocket to let you go, Matt. Well, this sounds amazing. I'm going to give you a little bit of breaking news.

It wouldn't be the rocket. called the I I have been told very unofficially that the league may be calling out to me this week oh let's go mattie I need you out there with the players I need you at the DJ sets I need you at the movies I need you playing foosball right with Tyson Chandler I need all of that now because very unofficial I've been said told something and when and I'm still looking at my phone no one's called you're waiting by your phone it's fine now so if they know where to find me The Rockets people have said, you know, they may be reaching out to you. So if they do, and it works out, now I've got Rockets play-by-play responsibilities too.

So, but if it works out, I will go. What are you going to do? I mean, well, what if the Rockets have, well, I guess if they have a noon game, we're not going to have a show anyways. Right. Hmm. Now, again, we've got logistics to get. So a lot of logistics. That's logistics, yes.

But when the, when my guy at the Rocket sent me a text and said they may be reaching out and talk to the White. Okay. And she's like, you have to go. this is a once in a lifetime experience. Can I be listed as your security? Um, I guess. Yeah, I'll be a bouncer. But I don't need security.

I need to put on like 50 pounds and I'll be a true bouncer level, but I mean... Were you wore a zootsuit suit, top hat and cane too? I don't think bouncer wear zootsuits. I'm just saying you look better. You need all black shirt and all black pants and non-slip shoes. Yeah. So if they call, I cannot wait to talk to them. Now, whether logistically it will happen, I don't know.

Mm-hmm. Because I do have responsibilities. Rockix first. I'm Googling shirts that say security on them. So look at you. It's never about, hey Matt, great for you. It's what kind of new to Jones in on this? It's great for you, Matt, but let me see how much we can get a security shirt. All right, Mark Medina at 1 o'clock,

NBA bubble talk. Dr. Fauci is confusing me about sports again, Ross. It's Fauci, right? Oh, Dr. Attorney Fauci. And then Ross came up with an amazing tweet last night. Don't, don't buy that shirt. You cannot buy that shirt. You're not security. You get the security hat in the

for 20 bucks. Change it. At SportsMT. Security. Let's get the publicity out a little bit. We'll get it embroidered. 713.

212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for Shaw's jewelry. Do yourself a favor. If you are looking for fine diamond jewelry, please skip the malls. And yeah, going online is cool.

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Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 7-19. Your rockets, your Astros, your voice. So this NBA campus thing will be interesting. We'll go through some, and look, it's been out for about 18 hours. So we're not going to run through, but we're just going to run through some of the more fascinating parts of it. Well, we haven't covered it on this show. I think we should run through it.

Okay. I'll let you do it because you're much more of a step-by-step guy. I just look at one thing and just go off on that. So point being is that there's a few things that I thought were intriguing. We'll see what Brendan thought was the most intriguing you as well. And by the way, there was a story this morning about the Orlando airport having this incredible amount of positive test. Whoever initially reported it completely screwed it up. Okay, what happened?

They had said there were 500 people that had just recently tested for the coronavirus. and there were employees at Orlando Airport. Okay, and that's wrong? It's wrong. It was, first of all, they weren't all in Orlando employees. Secondly, there was a sample size that included 500 tests, and the people that were found guilty, or not guilty, but they found it had it.

You've been guilty with the coronavirus. We're over a several months span. So it just didn't help the cause. It here comes in being Orlando. Wanted to put their bid out. And then the Orlando airport makes this, or the governor or somebody of the Orlando's airport, I didn't initially make the connection.

And I was wondering why Orlando was trending. Today was a weird trending day. There's been a lot of weird trending days recently. But today is probably one of the weird ones. Orlando International Airport, trending. Aunt Jemima, trending. Yes, and Chimima's going away. Yep.

McMuffin. Yes. Trending. Mick Muffin is the number one trend in the United States right now. Now, how did McGrittle get in the bit? I looked at the video. She only says McMuffin. I didn't watch it.

I guess I can. It's two and a half minutes. Okay. Maybe, is she you saying you recommend? When you're bored. The gist of it is an officer was complaining about how she was getting treated and then everybody says, okay, Karen, you can't wait five more minutes for McMuffin, right? They're belittling her.

I don't know if I didn't watch the video so I can't, you know, make a con. I don't know. I don't know what to say about it. Yeah. I watched it. She just looks exhausted. What do you mean? Like heavy eyebags?

Like, yeah, she had been working a lot of hours and she just wanted breakfast. She wanted a McMuffin. And by the way, as an ex-McDonnell's employee, I can speak to all of the greatness that is the McDonald's breakfast. Except I never made McGrittles because they weren't around when I was working there. But the egg McMuffin is a true American classic. Absolutely. McGrittle's better, though.

I wouldn't necessarily, it depends on what you're going to mood for. If you want sweet and savory in the same time, you're going to get that with a McGritle. But if you don't want that, The McMuffin, I mean, I think the McMuffin is better than any of the biscuits. And frankly, not that you're really watching your calorie count, but it's probably the healthiest of all the breakfast sandwiches there. Yeah, but the biscuits is heavy, heavy carbs. Heavy carbs.

Healthyest breakfast at a fast food joint is. It's not possible. But I mean, when I was there, we introduced the breakfast to breakfast burritos. Oh, that's right. Those went away and then they came back. Do they still have the dollar breakfast of tequitos or burritos? That I don't know. I don't go. No, when we go to McDonald's, my middle son, Peyton loves the McGritles.

I get them two of them. I have two McGrittles is a power move right there. We didn't do bagels. The steak egg and cheese bagel is my jam. Steak egg and cheese bagel, one for me. Number two is McGrittles for sure. But the good old fashion, like for instance, after the show today. Are we just hungry? Brendan, you mind us talking food in the show? We've been talking food for 30 minutes. Are we losing the focus of the show here? I would have no issue doing a three-hour show on food.

I mean, the great thing is you can go to McDonald's, which is one over here on Postoak and get him egg and muffin at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. When back in the day, we stopped cooking them at 10.30. And I've never had the issues at that. That McDonald's always has great service to me, in and out in seconds. Yeah, it does move pretty quick, especially because traffic. It's got two lanes as well, which is always a great move. All right.

So that's what's trending on Twitter today, and we're probably not going to discuss any of them except for on a food basis. Yeah. And apparently Mrs. Butterworth's stock is moving up nicely. It's Ms. Butterworth, is she safe? Yeah, so McMuffin 1, McDonald's 2, Aunt Jemima 3. What else? Well, Stacey is 5.

That's the officer's name, I think. And she's being called Karen, basically, right? Yeah, well, yeah, that's, my mom's name is Karen. I feel bad that everything is Karen now. Everything is Karen. I know. We got to go by, well, her middle name is not any better. For instance, if I say Texans Karen, we know who exactly who that is.

Yes. We also know who Astros Karen is and Rockets Karen. Yes. And Officer Karen apparently is trending as well. We don't know who Texans Amanda is. I have kind of a feel she's fun, lighthearted. Texans Amanda? Yes.

Tramp stamp? Yeah, sure. Okay. With a small Texan logo somewhere on her body as well. Oh, really? She's all in. She's not nearly as bitter. Like when the team sucks, she's right.

ready to say it. Texans Amanda will say that. Texans Karen could be down. Like she said watching the Texans Chiefs game in the third quarter when the Chiefs were putting up 51 or whatever it was, she says, boys, there's plenty of time. Texans Karen never gave up hope

that the Texans could come back from that massive splurge of points from the Kansas City Chiefs. Texans Amanda was with us at Lucky's May it rest in peace, knocking back bruise going, this team sucks. Okay. Hmm.

Yeah. Does she wear a backwards Texan's cap? She's under six feet tall, by the way, comfortable, like more like 5.5. Well, most women are. Okay. Maybe in the 5-4 range. Okay. It's about average.

Yeah. Is an average woman 5-4? I believe so, yes. Okay. Yeah, she's really average. She's fit. Okay. Texans Karen could probably lose 15.

Texans Karen's divorced. Texans Amanda has a boyfriend. Texans Karen goes to every player radio show in the hopes that she can have a conversation. with him. And even if it's like Peter Kalambi, Bali or something. Yeah, the player will say hi to her because she's polite. He's polite. Yes. And he'll sign an autograph, but

he just doesn't want to have a conversation. She brings some weird, like, homemade quilt that has been signed by like five odd Texans you've never heard of, like special teamers, and then she wants him to sign it too. Yeah. I absolutely, like, for instance, Texans Amanda is not a traveling Texan. No chance, no way. She keeps it real.

Texans Karen would spend every dollar she could have joined the Texans, traveling Texans, but she just can't do it. No, Texans, Karen, will take out a loan to go with the traveling. She goes to one game a year. She doesn't go to every one of them. But she will carry the banner into that city hall of that particular. She goes to the high,

she goes to the high interest, easy loans place. She don't know. She goes that far. I don't know. She goes that far. All right. Her blood sugar's too high. Can't go. Yeah. Okay, so when do we start this whole thing? I don't know. Brennan, you have to understand. If you're going to produce this show, you're going to

It's in. It's an anything goes Friday. Let me taste them. It's been anything goes five months. It feels like five months. When we're going with this? Okay. Oh, the things that we're turning on Twitter.

So that's, we're going on. Oh, we're talking about breakfast, too. All right. Other things to get to today, there is an alarming set of tweets out there that Brendan passed along to me. It's SEC coaches. Yes.

That have been transformed into women. I saw the female Nick Saven and I was pretty much done. I have no interest in seeing what a female Mike Leach looks like. It's interesting. It's pretty funny. Kirby Smart, no interest either. It's interesting, funny, and disturbing all at the same time. No, I was literally one when done with that. Are we that bored in Twitter world that we have to take male coaches and put them in drag and call them female coaches? SEC

coaches. That's what we're doing today. Dr. Fauci says he's got a timeline for baseball which conflicts with every other sport out there. We'll discuss that. Ross is amazing. o'clock tweet last night, NBA bubble, and Mark Medina from USA today joins the radio program in half an hour. We come back, we're going to tell you the strangest parts of the NBA Orlando campus, at least in our review. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. If you want to reach out through Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore, with a message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Some of you are looking to purchase new vehicle, new friend of ours, in fact, just told me the other day they're looking to buy a new vehicle and they said, hey, these auto loan rates that the dealerships are giving are not very competitive. I suggested Shell Federal Credit Union because you can get APR as low as 1.99%, 1.99%. Plus, you get two skip a pay as a year and you get $250 in cash back, and you're going to get with a company that has been taking care of the financial needs of people all throughout Harris County in Houston since the 1930s. do yourself a favor, go to shellfcU.org, shellfcU.org, and apply online where you'll enjoy the experience. It is the Shell Federal Credit Union.

That's shellfcuh.org. Welcome home to ShellFCU. Your hoops. The Houston Rockets. Your hits. And the Astros. And your honest opinions. All the chicken's plate. All in for Houston all day.

This is Sports Talk 790. 1233. Good afternoon. Matt Thomas' show continues on Sports Talk 790. We were, Mark Medina just texted me. He said, hey, can we put you to 2 o'clock? He's got an interview.

So covers the NBA for USA today. In fact, little known fact, Mark Medina, I believe, and I'll have to verify this with him. I think he did the last interview ever with Kobe Bryant. Oh, is that right? Piece of journalism. Not like, you know, TV interview,

but last sit-down, storytelling kind of thing. Long-form. Okay. So long-form journalism. So we'll get to him on that. But more importantly, it's not more importantly, but just to push things ahead a little bit. Just the strange world that will be NBA Orlando.

All right. So Ross, run through some of the things. Now, let's just put a blanket over the lots of testing, lots of self-quarantining, lots of precautions, lots of spraying and cleansing and sanitize. We all know that. Give the folks a couple of other. things that were intriguing to you. And now we're going to go to some of the stranger parts of it.

Okay. So the NBA teams are going to be in the Orlando campus. First of all, one of the intriguing things, Matt, they're going to be in different hotels based on where they're seated in the playoffs. And apparently all three, the different hotels are very nice. I don't know anybody's going to be crying over what they're staying. Nobody's at a Super 8, yes. Nobody's at like the Kissimmee Super 8, which is fine.

So the top level teams are going to be at the Grand Desti. Have you stated in any of these, Matt? I've never said in a Disney property. The Grand Floridian is the middle team, so that's where the rockets are going to be alongside the 76ers, Thunder, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Nets, Pacers, Magic. And then the bottom of the barrel teams are going to be at the Yacht Club. So is this because the teams in the lower seat are probably going to be dismissed sooner? So that's why they're trying to almost, we don't need this hotel anymore after all these teams are out. My game, my thought would be let's rid a hotel as fast as possible.

Yeah. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen because, as you know, I've talked about, there's going to be some upsets. Yeah. So if there's an upset, then do you get grad, do you, like, move on up to the Grand Destino? You know what? That's a question we'd like to ask Commissioner Silver if he ever joins a show. That'd be funny. Like, if somebody knocks a two seat out of the playoffs, and then you get there, you get their exact hotel rooms.

And then you can take a picture from it and put on Instagram, like, ha, we beat you and I got your room. I got your room. Have a nice off season. Yeah, exactly. And then some of the teams are like, I'm ready to get the hell out of here. Well, that's true. I think some players are going to be like that. So they're going to be in all different hotel rooms.

So also on the Orlando campus, there are going to be various amenities. There's going to be 24-hour VIP concierge, which that's to be expected. There's going to be some hotel amenities with the players-only lounge, with pool barbers, manicurists, and pedicurists. There's going to be daily entertainment, which we can get to in a second, various movies. screenings, DJ sets, video games, ping pong, pool, lawn games. And the players can go to the other team's games. So it's almost like a tournament type of thing. And also I believe MLS players can go too. Oh, really? I think I saw something like that. I didn't see that, but okay, I'll take your word for it. And so they also put down various game day schedules of what you're going to do at different times,

when there's going to be shoot around, when there's going to be games, transportation, and all that type of stuff. And the full timeline is out where players have, I believe, until next week, where they can opt out. or they can get designated as, oh, what was the language, Matt? Was it like high risk? It was protected and excused. And they have about two weeks here. Actually, a little less than two weeks to figure out what do they want to go or not.

And so the league is making it open to the players and say, you know what, at the end of the day, this isn't worth it. So all the talk, I don't think Kyrie is going to play, right? I mean, Kyrie. He's not. Yeah, he's out for the season. We've got to get to Kyrie for a minute. Of course.

We don't let me forget that. But Dwight Howard was very apprehensive. initially he said this isn't for me let's find out what happens in nine days all right so continue on a few other things yeah so i mean yeah there's the in phase one they're going to go to the team practice facility except for in toronto because of international implications i suppose uh when you get to the team facility you're going to be tested for three days and then they'll let you or that's i'm sorry that's for guests but they're they're going to be tested basically every single day and then they're going to travel to uh the beginning of july they're going to go to

Orlando. Can be a campus at Disney World starts July 7th. Then they're going to basically be on there at phase. They're going to have all the games played. They're going to be on the campus. And then the playoffs are going to start eventually. Basically, the NBA has slow played this to an amazing proportion. I mean, they're going to, it feels like to me they have super, super slowed this process down just so. And look, we'd be naive to think that somebody's not going to go to Orlando.

and test positive at some point. But they don't want enough test to shut down the season. And that number, by the way, has not been determined about how many players over what period of time would the NBA consider shutting everything down? They don't want to have that talk. I'm sure it's being discussed. But this July 31st, this extraordinarily precautionary run they're going through to make this happen is in the hopes that the corona does not infiltrate that campus.

So a couple of things. First and foremost, as you were reading through what you just said, and then reading some of stuff yesterday. And again, Ross, I was mesmerized by all the different things that were coming out. Yes, this is fascinating. They're very detailed. It's very much a club med environment. I mean, they're not going, they being the players and the stabs, are not going to have to ask wish for anything. The only thing, Ross, they're not going to be able to do is leave the campus.

Correct. Everything else is in play. Food, entertainment, exercise, music, families will eventually come. Everything, Ross, they're just, the only thing they're going to have to be ultimately be disciplined on is whether or not they can stay in their rooms for those first couple of days and not leave during the self-quarantining. And how bad with our cabin fever get, especially for teams that have won games. How about here's, here's the predicament. I think they're going to be in Ross. Let's say you beat a team in the first run of the playoffs four straight times and you're not playing for another week. Can you behave yourself? Can you

not sneak away? So that's the first thing is that this is very much a club men situation. They have some plans in place for that. If a player leaves without prior approval re-entry, he'll be subject to enhance testing, including the deep nasal swab testing. They're all trying to avoid that. We're going to jam this into your brain. and a 10 to 14 day self-quarantine period, a reduction in compensation for any game which he is unable to play as a role as a assault from his campus. And also, the NBA will create an anonymous hotline

to report potential violations to protocols in Orlando. That's my second one. The snitch line. Name an NBA player that would call the snitch line. Well, DeAngelo Russell's not going to be there, right? I'll have two right at the top. Okay. Chris Paul would call the snitch line.

Hmm Yeah I think a lot of people are saying that I can get that LeBron James would call the snitch line You think LeBron

would snitch out on somebody This is another thing though What if you're playing What if the Rockets Are in a series With the Clippers And Paul George gets When the James Hardin

Is going out And left the bubble He's gonna call the snitch line Yes he is And get him removed Yes he is As he should Or you know what

Patrick Patrick Bray Beverly would probably do it. Oh, is Pat Beverly on the top list of cinters? I think Patrick Beverly would absolutely. If he saw James Harden out, well, you know what? Actually, no. No, Patrick Beverly's not a snitch. Let me ask you this. If a player, and I hate to use James, but we'll use James, decided to leave, that team snitches on it. Wouldn't you then assume that it's

somebody on that team that did the snitch? So you look like in a snitch. So I wonder if anybody is going to, maybe that's... For instance, if James Hardin is, scene leaving going out because he's just he's just had too much game people and it's somebody from the 76 I mean no one's going to think it's the 76ers are going to do it it's going to be somebody that the rockets are playing next in the playoffs I think there won't be snitching and I think I mean I feels like I mean this this bubble seems amazing what more could they want the bubble's amazing and then the third thing what so that was interesting here you are going to bump and grind

and play these basketball games eventually but if you want to have a meal with somebody that doesn't play for your team you have to have it outside Oh, is that right? So you're going to play inside of a arena. Blood, sweat, and tears. Hopefully not blood. But sweat and tears. It happens.

And you're going to take a shower and go back to the hotel. And you're like, man, we played Paul George today. It was a great game. Paul wants to go have a cocktail or have a dinner. No, it doesn't play for your team. You got to eat outside. Got to drink outside. It just, I thought that was really weird.

Did you guys see the proximity alarms? Ooh, let's save that for coming back. Yes. Matter of fact, Brendan, we'll let you brag about that. That seems like one of the most intriguing parts of as well. And that's not just for the players. There's anybody that's on the NBA Orlando campus. 1243 on the Matt Thomas show, 713, 212-5-7-9 if you want to get in.

Intriguing parts of the NBA Orlando campus after I tell you about Oops, Steam, Cleaning. 281-8-2-2-0-561 for great-looking carpets. It's easy. Do not go to the grocery store and you do it. Get with oops and you'll enjoy the experience. 281, 822-0-561. They'll take care of your carpets, your rugs, your upholstery, your air ducts. If you have a small business, they have a great commercial cleaning department as well.

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Houston's home for Houston teams. A little bit of breaking news on the Astor, on the Astor, on the Major League Baseball Negotiations. We'll have it for you coming out at about 10 minutes. Is it a deal been struck? Are we having baseball? No. Oh. That's why I said a little bit, Ross. Okay, I'm sorry.

Listen to what I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself. All right. So, Brendan, explain the monitoring system that the NBA Orlando is going to have. Well, so you mentioned it. All non-players and possibly referees, it looks like, are going to be required to wear a proximity alarm that will go off if they're within six feet of somebody else. Who has to be wearing the alarm, by the way, for five seconds or more.

It's optional for NBA players. But if you're both wearing the alarm and too close, it'll go off and let you. you know, hey, back up. It won't let anybody else know. Just let know the two you guys know that. Nobody is wearing that proximity alarm, right? Come on. It's going to be like a ring.

Unless somebody's there with their mom and their mom, that you better put a son, put on your proximity alarm. Let me ask you this. Ross, you and I are in the same studio right now. We're not within six feet of each other. You mean, yeah, we are. You mean we're not more than six feet. Yeah, we are less than six feet from each other.

I would say, what do you think? Four and a half feet? No. My wingspan is six feet. It's actually close. It's close to six feet. No, a six foot. If you laid from this end of the table that it's not six feet long.

Let me lay on it. No, stay back there. Point being is, why would they need to wear these things? This is, to me, overly cautious, right? Overly cautious, which also translation, overly cautious, cover your ass. Okay. Because you remember Major League Baseball wants to sign off and everything? Oh, release of liability.

Right. You can say we've taken every single measure. If they don't follow them, that's on them. We said NBA right now, they're looking great in the court of law as far as trying to do everything, right? You read this. What is it? What is it? Would you say 100 something, something 37 pages or whatever it is?

I want a copy. Somebody can download a copy for me and send it to my email address. You're tapping out 10 pages into that. There's no chance. I'm tapping out two pages into that. You're flipping maybe. No, I'm, you know why I'm reading it? You know why I'm reading it is because there's nothing else on television.

Okay. I've watched every hardword classic. I could possibly watch. You know what you should do? You should do like a live stream on Facebook of you just reading the book. Like a little, like a fireside chat. I did a fireside chat with the Rockets. Oh, you did?

Yeah. Really? They call it wire side chat. And you don't even have polio. That's cool. All right. Anything else that you thought was overly intriguing besides the monitors? The only other thing that really stood out to me is that teams are a lot of 35-person

travel party. And they're allowed some flexibility in there. Like the article I read pointed out. you can have players like personal massage therapists. Which we travel. Stuff like that. I just thought it was interesting the flexibility they're allowed in their travel team. Yeah.

The Rockets Traveling Party probably is north of 50 when we go somewhere. Sometimes it's a little bit longer if it's a longer trip. We do normally carry at least four massage people. Four masseuses? Yeah. Musso size. I think two are hired by players and two are hired by the team. Okay.

We have two strength coaches. I want a personal masseuses. Our broadcast department, that's just the people that brought, there's the TV is, there's six people that travel. Seven, excuse me, with Kaylee that brought TV play by play color, and then there's four people behind the scenes. I'm Radio One, so there's eight people that would normally be going that were not going. So, yeah, it's not going to be dramatically different, but there will be a few extra people that normally go on a regular season game or a postseason game. They won't be going to Orlando. And they'll be, as Brendan said, you can move those people in and out.

You can sub one per set of group people for another. Okay, but when they get dismissed, they go into quarantine or something like that? That, I didn't read. I got out of the manual in front of me, Ross. That's true. By the last thing for me that I thought was weird. So they're going to be, you can play ping pong. Yes.

But you can only play singles. You can't play doubles. Darry is upset about this, apparently. Is he really? Yeah, he's a big ping pong player. Well, I know that, but he's great. Are you sure he likes to play doubles game? Yeah, well, he jokingly tweeted.

That's why I was saying he, Darrymory is upset. I don't think he's legitimately upset. He said, I'm trying to find the exact wording of it, but he said something. Something like, oh, we won't stand for this is what he said on Twitter. Okay. Last time you played ping pong on a regular basis. I was a freshman in college. I was in high school.

And a friend of mine, shout out Claybear. He's listened sometimes. We used to play for money. We used to play, and he had a ping pong table. We used to go over to his house and play sometimes after school. When I was a freshman at the University of North Texas, we'd play some serious 3 a.m. Ping pong tables in Clark Hall in the basement. I was just terrible at it.

If I was average. If I could ever get good, I would love to game. gamble on that. He used to gamble on pool games. I had a pool table too. I like playing pool. I actually like playing pool much more than ping pong. Because ping pong guy can sometimes be a little uber aggressive. What do you mean? Like he's a little too charged up. He thinks he's playing at Wendledon. He thinks he's at the Olympics going up against like the Taiwanese his finest. If ping pong guy has a sweat band on, it's a little much. Oh man. That's awesome actually. I would love to play to get the uh get the John Stockton shorts and the in the high socks with the stripes on them.

Hmm, no. I bought high socks with stripes on him for the last NBA, for the Media 3 on 3. Rockets Media 3 on 3. Here's what I want. Now as an older person, I want the game to go along. I want lots of volleying. I think 19-year-old Matt Thomas just wanted to ace him every single time. Yeah.

And put spin on the ball and wear stuff and bring your own special racket in. You just play with what's in front of you. You get some stick them for your racket. Get the chalk like Boulder guy does. Oh, actually, the last time I played. ping pong I lost to my eight-year-old cousin. Okay. That's embarrassing. Anything else from you on the NBA?

Yes, I want to talk about these DJ sets, these concerts, these comedy shows. What movies are they going to be playing? Are they all going to be basketball movies, Matt? Is it all going to be like loving basketball, air bud? The fish is safe Pittsburgh? That's really old school. That's a, what is that? That's a basketball?

Uh-huh. Okay. I think Dr. Jay was in it. Don't hold me to that. I'll take your word for it. It's going to be like Hoop Dreams and Hoosiers. Hoosiers. Oh, Eddie, the Whoopi Goldberg movie where she takes over for the next.

Like Mike with a little bow wow with the magical shoes. Yeah, I think it's, well. What was that Kevin Durant, Thunder movie that was basically the same concept? Thunder Up or something. You're going to have Walt Disney officials. Yeah. Putting out the grandiose most amazing movie theater. Yeah.

They want the players to show up. You're going to have to show first run movies. So it's not going to be like a. They're going to put a ratatouille on? Put it this way. You're not going to put out this popcorn pretzels, big movie theater, fountains of, you know, loads of soft drinks for a white man can't jump. That's a classic, though.

But those guys don't care about that. They can't sit still for two hours? Can you get like an extra large cherry icy? But if you're going to show a recent movie, then it'd be fine. Or something that they haven't been able to see yet. They're going to have to watch their diets too, Matt, because movie food, movie food is not healthy. Yeah, you just don't go in there. and get,

yeah, like, what's the healthiest thing you can have at a movie theater? Raisin' heads because it has fruit. No, it's got chocolate in it. Hot dog, no. Nachos, no. Chicken tenders, no.

Popcorn, not really. A tall IPA, no. I mean, maybe peanuts would be the lowest carb of all this snacks. Yeah, I guess. But that's a lot of crunching inside. That's a lot of sodium. Yeah.

So, yeah, the key to the movie theater bit is getting the first run. Classic NBA movies, won't work. And thus, we've just given you every bit of the run of what's going to be in B. Orlando. And I'm telling you, Ross, I hope the NBA calls because I want to hear about it. Okay. They need me?

We're going to need daily reports on all the shows. I mean, I'll be happy. I'll go on all the radio shows and say, here's what we're doing. Here's life. I may call you one day. Now, when I'm on the air, like, I'll call the nightcap and say, Ross, get me out of here. Okay. I would love that.

I don't think it's going to happen. It might. Yeah, we're going to treat it like. you're we sent you to the iraq war or something we're going to need reports all throughout the day everyday part well we got to first give the invite okay let's not let's see cover before the horse all right a little bit of breaking news on the in uh major league baseball front encouraging snack size breaking news very much snack size 1257 the second hour of the matt thomas show next if you'd like to join us 713212 5 790

is the matt thomas show all right a little bit of break Thank you news here on the radio program at 101 on Sports Talk 790. This is coming from Mr. Cranky John Heyman. John Heyman, again, those of you to remember, he writes for what MLB Network. You see him all the time on there. He's the one that said the Astros were unhappy in the spring training. Ross and I saw it firsthand. They were, I mean, they weren't having a parade, but they certainly weren't unhappy.

He walked in, didn't getting interviews and walked out and said they were all unhappy. but that's what reporters do. Kind of bury the lead on that way. It happens. All right, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Players Union Chief Tony Clark had what was being called a productive meeting face-to-face in Arizona.

Meeting was called at Manfred's request. Has the olive branch been extended, Matthew? Are we all good now? Um... Or is it a step in the right direction? Because last we heard, we talked about the statement from Tony Clark that the NBA,

the player, I'm sorry, MLB, PA, players are disgusted after Rob Manford unequivocally told players and fans that there would 100% be a 2020 season. He has decided to go back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season.

You know, it's funny because again, we can't speak for every baseball fan. We can't. But I feel like when you see all these players, Bregman's done it. I think, really anybody that's been a major league player that's gone to Twitter. Tell us

when and where. Yeah, I think they had a there had to be some kind of memo for memo. Correct. Too many players put out, tell us where. So the perception at least, again, on the streets at our Twitter, is that they're ready to go that if there isn't a season, it's not because the players don't want to have a season.

And I think probably Rob Manfred had to catch on that a little bit. So really, negotiating ploy win? Probably to the players. Because we've talked about before, we mentioned this on the show yesterday. There are two different reports out there.

One says that six Major League Baseball teams don't want to play a season. One report had eight. So Rob Manfred is having to take two-thirds of a Major League feeling down to a players association chief. That sound like they're very unified at this point. Have you seen a player that said, we should give up money? Have you seen a player that said maybe, you know, 50% of 100% is better than 0% of 100%? You know what I mean?

Kind of that. The players to their credit, maybe. that's why they're perhaps the strongest union of all those professional sports have been so unified from today since day one. Yeah, it was, I can't remember one of the MLB writers was writing an article and talking about how this has been the unity and all being on the same page as far as the players union is as strong as it's been in years. They're all unified on this. Like they are standing strong and that bodes well for them with the upcoming negotiation of next year. So kudos to whoever got in the major league office and maybe right, man for gun on the conference call with the owners and said,

hey, we got to save this because now with all these players, at least publicly saying, tell us one and where, that gives out the mentality of they're ready to go play baseball. They know they're not going to be able to get the season they wanted. They're not going to be able to get the money they wanted. So let's just play this thing out. And what I'm so surprised with, I guess Ross, I'm pleasantly surprised.

and it gives me some cause for optimism is that most of the people that fill out our survey yesterday on the Twitter account were like, I'll take 52 games, I'll take 48 games because it's better than nothing and that if you really do like the snack size mentality that every game means more,

that means that first game out of the get-go, those first 10 are going to largely shape up how the season's going to go. Because think about this, there have been a lot of teams in baseball, notably last year's Washington nationals that were very pedestrian, well under 500 and came back to win the World Series. The Astros team of 2005 was well under 500, came back to win the National League.

So you don't have that little breathing room of, well, we got off to a lousy 50 games start, or our first 15 games, what we wanted. These teams are going to have to play up to another notch so early than ever had been before because of the fact you've got very little room for error. It's definitely going to be that element. but also there also will be though the expanded playoffs are going to help out with that I guess if you get off to a rocky start and you're still a good team

and you're probably I mean if there's 16 teams making the playoffs there's going to be what 500 teams or maybe below that they're going to make it in right right now you could give a chance to prove yourself so it's eight in each league huh I don't I have I can look at the stand does that's more than half the teams in baseball are going to make the playoffs

it's going to be like the NBA 816 out of 30 yeah is that where they are right now or is because we've heard 14, we've heard 16. That's if something gets agreed. Yeah. I think if no agreement is made and they trigger a season, there will not be expanded playoffs, I believe. But maybe the television folks are telling Major League Baseball, go ahead and have this extended playoffs so that you can make more revenue because those games are frankly the reason why you have these big contracts. Turner, over the weekend,

is going to change their contract in a couple of years. Instead of paying Major League Baseball $500 million for their television contract, they're going to pay them a billion dollars. And why is that? It's because of the playoffs. It's not because of the Saturday afternoon game of the week. It's because the television ratings for wildcard division series and our championship series do very, very well. Thus, ruining anybody's thought of baseball sucks, baseball slow. Got to change the game. That's weak, uninformative, lazy narrative. that too many of today's fans believe. Now, are there things that baseball should always improve on?

Absolutely. Do I think the game, the pace of play still has to be improved? Yeah. Do you want to be in a baseball game for three and a half hours? Oh, hell no. But this general thought that baseball is in trouble and that baseball is on its deathbed couldn't be further from the truth. That's why, even though people are saying, I'm done with it,

we had over a thousand people, Ross said that, and 65% of those people, would say, as soon as you come back, we're all in. Yeah, I think there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be willing to come back, no matter what length it is. All right, it's fine. Here's the strange part. So, Dr. Fauci.

Dr. Tony Fauci. Anthony. Anthony. Anthony Fauci. Tony, I don't think we're close to have to call him Tony. Okay. Tebow?

Could be. Okay. Anthony Fauci, doctor, says, you guys need to finish this season up before the end of October. Because there could be another wave. Cooler weather is going to perform. provide perhaps a little more lucrative piece of virus moving around from one part of the country the next. And Ross, at space value right there you go, that makes sense, right?

Yes. I got a real quick question. Okay. Is you telling me that all sports are going to be done by the end of October? Well, the NFL is going to be revving up a month end. And give you one more. That would be college football? Yes.

Possibly college basketball by November-ish? Yes. Yes. And, oh, by the way, the Masters and, oh, by the way, the Masters. Wimble, I mean, it feels like this fall is going to be the most busiest time in the history of sports. But let's forget about the other stuff. Let's get right to the two big ones. So Anthony Fauci, Dr. Fauci is saying, get baseball done by the end of October,

so you don't have to worry about another spike. Meanwhile, you have over 275 college football teams between FCS and FBS playing, right? Yes. And 32 NFL teams. Yes. that all carry anywhere between 60 and 100 players. Then you add in coaching staves and training staves and all that, you're over 100. And fans and stands in some places.

Did not just kind of throw you off a little bit by him saying that? It doesn't surprise me, no. But why would he say that about baseball and not go, well, not to think of it. Maybe he's a baseball fan. Maybe he despises the New York Giants. Isn't he like a Phillies fan or something like that? I can't remember. He loves him some baseball.

He references baseball all the time. But why hasn't he brought up the fact that that's just going to be the start of the calendar of football or in the calendar of sports in the rest of 2020? I just thought that was kind of funny that he's like, baseball, you got to be done with as soon as you can. He says viruses do better when weather starts to get colder and people start spending more time in size as opposed to outside. The community has a greater chance of getting infected. And by the way, this week with Lambeau Field week at this game. Oof. This week in Denver, we have this game.

Yeah, they're going to be outside instead of inside. If it's better. But aren't most baseball teams going to be outside anyway? Yes. That's why I thought it was kind of peculiar, that he made such a note about getting baseball done as soon as possible. Meanwhile, football would be right in the middle of the season. By the way, there's a report on ESPN that says that the Hall of Fame game

could be up in the air in terms of whether it's being played. That's, you know, that's what early August, right? We'd heard the reports about the preseason getting shortened. So that would make sense, too, if the Hall of Fame game just kind of have to They didn't play it, what, a few years ago because the field was so crappy. Correct, right. 43,000 stars. Remember this.

What I tell you. The NFL season is going to be pushed back. Yes. It'll be played. I have never wanted you to be more wrong with a No Sir Thomas prediction. But you feel that I'm going to be right. I don't know. It goes 50-50.

I could take it or leave it. Six and one and a half a dozen the other. You can't say, I don't know. Okay, fine. It's not going to get pushed back. You're wrong. You don't believe it. You're wrong, Matt.

You don't believe it. It's all right. 43,000 stars will come in. You'll want that investment eventually. Yeah, I've seen 5 billion star selections fall short, so whatever. 111 is the time. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-2-2-1-790 is how you reach our show. If you'd like to say hi on Twitter, we can do that. We haven't heard from anybody yet today. Do we have anybody listen? We've been getting some tweets. Have you? Okay. So if you all can call in it.

Remember, we are playing, believe it or not, today at 2.30. doesn't mean you only call in for the game because y'all are just prize pigs. We are playing for Hooters' Giff cards. Somebody said Mike Fires was going to be running the NBA snitch line. Somebody said Rudy Gobert would snitch on other players so that he could get some heat off of them. By the way, do those NBA players

are they change her voice when they call the synch line? Hello. I mean, Rudy's French, right? He has a distinctive accent. Did he try to put on like an accent? They have a rode a gal bar. Snitch line. It's not because he's,

Snitch line, Mike Fires speaking. No. M. Fires. Yeah, this is Rudy Gobert. I mean, I'm sorry. This is unnamed player. I play for a team in the Southeast Division of the NBA's Eastern Conference. Nobody's calling in like that, man.

Well, how are they calling? I don't know. Can you text a snitch line? I just know this, Matt. Snitches get stitches. 713-2-790. 7-1-3-212-2-5-7-90 with a message here for T-LINch. TGS insurance. How would you like to save money in your home policy? Have you even thought about it?

Well, now I'm going to give you an opportunity to do so. All you need to do is text the word money, M0, M0, 2, 23, 23, 23, 23. The folks at TGS insurance will simply send you a text back. You fill in the address of where you are currently residing, and they will send you back a quote, probably 15 to 20 seconds stops. The money and the savings are tremendous. In fact, so many of our 790 listeners have saved over $1,000. The average savings of a listener is up to $870 with TGS Insurance, Houston-based company. They can help you switch over from one policy in the next in a matter of days. TGS insurance will save you the big-time money, but all it takes for you to get started

is a text of the word money, M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23, and you can start saving bidding on your home policy with TGS insurance. Next time, tell Alexa. Playing 790 on I Heart Radio Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. We invite you to listen to our programming all throughout the day here on 7-9, including the 18, which will be up at 3 o'clock, and then the 6 o'clock show, originally called Just the Tip,

is now called the Nightcap. Rossville Realty is the host for that, and he'll have it for you tonight at 6 o'clock. By the way, Mark Medina from USA Today will be with us in about 45 minutes. It's never been called Just the Tip. So last night I listened to the show a little bit. Thank you. And then took my daughter to volleyball.

And then we were coming back. And we stopped off at Sonic to get a little treat. I've already, I've been saying for years, Matthew, highly underrated Sonic. You hate it because of the guys that are on the course. And they're not on there anymore. So I've decided to.

So you're back. The boycott is over. Yeah. So we're waiting in line and I'm looking at Twitter to see what's going on. You had one of your best tweets ever. and I think the evidence is there. Go ahead and give yourself a little tonk. A tongue is what it is.

Whatever, same difference. But that's for like, anyways. How many likes did you get off of the tweet that you're about to read? We're at 773. How many retweets? 177. How many comments? Oh, that's a great question.

Let me go back. 20. So you didn't get ratioed? Correct. Generally speaking, people agree. Oh, it's up to 192 retweets right now. The number is it up? So you're doing very well with this one tweet.

And that's why I said on your tweet game on tweet, I said your 8 o'clock or later tweets are very strong. Yes. And you naturally went to your to text me and say, was this a jab? And I'm like, no, it's not. I didn't say was this a jab. I was, you said your 8 o'clock or later tweets are solid. I was like, I didn't get the, I thought you were referencing something. I was not.

I didn't get it. I was like, you between 10A and 8P? Yeah. Well, I don't tweet. 8 p.m. after? Some good stuff. In a contemplative state, Matthew. Yeah.

So I just said, just try to think in your head the amount of media fear there would be right now if the MLB were trying to block the unsealing of a letter sent to the Astros about cheating. By the way, I forgot to put two in there. And there's a grammatical error that's been eating at me every second, but that's okay. By the way, can we get Twitter to let us edit? I think there should be like a 30 second edit button or maybe one minute. No, no, no, because most times you mess up, it maybe takes you five minutes to figure it out. Well, what if I quote to each you and say, this is a great tweet and you edit it or, I mean, it's a problem. I think.

I think we're in 2020. We got time to figure this out. But go back to your tweet. I think there should be a Twitter button there, edit button that expires. Okay. I'll go with that. Because what if you say the Texans are going to be

2020 Super Bowl champions? And then you go back and edit that and to something else. So we can't call you on your stupid... Let's put it a five minute time. Proclamation. Five minutes timer. Yeah, five minutes.

Good. I like that. All right. Read on. Anyways, imagine all the tweets, the TV segments, the radio talk,

the think pieces. It would be a firestorm. So if you, I love thought experiments in general, but yeah, just thinking of if this were the exact same scenario, if there were an unsealed letter about outlining cheating that happened in 2017 and in the midst of a lawsuit, Major League Baseball and the organization in this thought experiment at the Astros were hiding this letter, appealing to keep it sealed, how much more coverage you would be getting than it is right now with the Yankees? it would be the problem is

what would we know we don't know anything but what do we know about the buzzers nothing Jeff Passon mentioned buzzer stuff in his articles Ken Rosenthal mentioned buzzer stuff in his articles

people ran with that like crazy because jackass John Boy was making a literally pictures of folds on a jersey while somebody is running is what they're running with so that took no evidence

that took nothing. So you have former players saying they heard that the Yankees had cameras in left, center, and right? Three different ones, right? Yes. And nobody's talking about it. And not saying they need to, I'm just saying I feel like the Astros got a little bit of an unfair slide in the media.

So when you're a local host of something, you're going to actually naturally going to root for the local teams because it's in your best interest to have the local teams do well. It gets your audience involved. Because look, if we covered teams at loss all the time, no, wouldn't care about sports in our city. We have assigned 2011 Astros that we carried or for that matter

basically eight or nine years of it. We literally had this thing called oblique. So you don't know this, Brendan. We got so few Astros calls in the middle of the season. Like it's going on.

The Astros are in a series with the Phillies or whoever. We would have a sounder called obligatory Astros call. Matt would be like, can one person call in this three-hour show about the Astros? And a lot of times

we would even play that and get none. Nobody was calling about the Astros or caring. And now we've got a brand new call we're going to introduce today. Oh, is that right? It's called obligatory call to the Matt Thomas show. Calls have been slower. That's okay.

Yeah. We're getting a lot of tweets. Let me see the technical problems are still in play here. Line one. I like when you say snafu. Just say snafu. Line two, you're on anything you want to talk about on the Matt Thomas show. Okay.

Damn snafu's. Snapu's a great word. All right. So when you're doing this on a local show, you're going to naturally tend to believe the local team and get them and benefit for the doubt more times and not.

Correct. And you're also going to say that when things don't go your way that there's a vendetta against your local team. Rossi, I try to play this as even as I can

when it comes to how we discuss all teams. Yes. But the Astros are absolutely getting screwed on this. 100% getting screwed. Before I hit Send on that tweet, I like had a moment

to me thinking, I'm like, am I being like unfair Homer? Yeah, because that's the first thing you have to think about is, are you going to put something out there that's going to be, that you're going to be called an unfair Homer? Or myopic, whatever the phrase you want to use. Yeah. They're getting screwed over. The blatant lack of coverage of this Yankees letter,

the blatant lack of, well, oh, that makes sense. The Red Sox had a guy in the video department that did all of the heavy lifting. A J.T. Watkins, as you would say. Always feel like you're coughing up along when you mentioned J.T. J.P. Watkins. You as Astro fans are getting screwed because

the Red Sox and the Yankees have been protected. And I'm not afraid to tell you that. Yeah. It blows my mind. It blows my mind that there's appealing to seal this letter that's going to do, they say nothing's in a letter.

It's not going to be a problem. There's a, hey, anything that's in the letter was already talked about in the press release, well then unseal the letter. Reveal the letter and explain why you're, why you were so hesitant to announce the reasons for the letter. But no, instead of saying,

you know what, if there's nothing wrong, let's just put it out there. They took the extraordinary means, Ross, on Monday to follow the appeal to make sure it doesn't get open. And oh, by the way,

the earliest it will be ruled on apparently from what I've read is August. Really? Yes. Oh, okay. I thought that it was going to be like fast track or something. I had heard that maybe we were going to have it. Oh, you know what?

They ordered it unsealed Friday, but I guess the appeal pushes that back. To a time where we're maybe focusing on sports and games. Oh, yeah. And not focusing on non on the field stuff. Yeah, and the decision will come down Friday at like 1130 p.m. Hashtag news dump. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212. 790. Benjamin and Paralyam on the Matt Thomas show. Benjamin, what's a good word? Oh, man, just working up some ideas for the show. When I bring baseball season back. Wait a minute. We've got to have a season first. You know something we don't? Well, I think we would be just so happy to get a season that y'all should do some new things if we do get it back. For instance? I'm saying road trip. Yeah. Road trip, you all do the show from inside an RV on the way to Dallas. to go watch an Astroo's game against the Rangers.

You know, I just don't think the stadium's going to be open this year. And it will be very limited. Do we have the technology there? Is the technology there to do it? Yeah, we can do a show while we're moving in a moving vehicle, absolutely. Now, here's the thing. It's off the internet. So it would be a little dicey in terms of if we ran into a bad,

like, for instance, we have these 4G cards we could use that don't require being connected to a electrical, But the problem is, is the 4G coverage in Buffalo, Texas as good as it is in Houston, Texas? So I'll be a little nervous about here we are going through Huntsville, Madisonville, Fairfield, Buffalo, Corsicana. And we would drop like four times during the show. Corsicana, the fruitcake capital of the world, Matt. By the way, Ben, have you ever been to Fairfield before? I've been to Dallas on 45.

You nailed basically every small town that you go through, Matt. Have you ever stopped in Sam's in Fairfield? Oh, gosh. No, no, I haven't. You know, I'm actually offended. We went to the trip on Fresno, and twice, I think. Did we go to Big Ten Media Days twice or once? Two times.

One time in Arlington, one time. We never stopped at the crappy Sam, so I can make fun of it. Benjamin, thank you for the phone. Because apparently Adam Clanton hates it and as does Michael Connor. Time out. Matt just called... I just call a timeout and we're not even on television.

You want a 20 second or a full? There's no such thing as 20s anymore. 30 or a full? There's 30s or full. Any of you that have done the Houston Dallas Rody, which I'm assuming, if you've lived here for any length of time,

you've done it at least once. I have family in Fort Worth probably done it 50 times, literally. There is a restaurant that I go to almost every single time that became a huge, huge argument on our Monday night meeting this past Monday.

I'll explain the story. They don't spend any money with us. They're a small... Breaking news? What? Now it could be bigger, but still pretty big. John Heyman saying MLB players and players union are closing in on an agreement to play the 2020 season via players. What?

Hallelujah. ...expected to be for pro-rated pay and include expanded playoff. Now that, my friend, is how you break the show right there. He tweeted that four minutes ago, and it's already got 3,200 retweets. are closing in an agreement to play the 2020 season vehicle? Does that mean they're going to play at the commissioner's number or at a larger number than the 40 to 52 we were talking about? By the way, that is very 2020 of him.

I mean, he says breaking, like it's breaking they're close to a deal. Like breaking would be there as a deal, right? That's why I said it's not huge. Yeah. No, no, I'll accept it. Let me tell you something. We've had another but crap. I'll take this.

I will take this breaking news. All right. Let's come back with that. We'll save our story for Sam's and Fairfield a little. while, but it must be discussed. Okay. 128. It's a Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790.

Some encouragement from baseball. More on that next. Yes, that baseball news has me energized. And so I'm feeling good. I'm feeling great. But what if you haven't in your daily life? And I know you've got the baseball news and you're feeling better. But what if you've been a little sluggish? You haven't felt like yourself. And you're thinking to yourself, I've been tired.

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Play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. 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. All right, John Kermudgeon Hayden. Heyman.

Hey, man. Hey, man. No, he's John Heyman. And Evan Drelick has weighed in as well now. And what is Evan Havent have to say? Major League Baseball sent a new proposal for the 2020 season to the Major League Baseball Players Association a short while ago, sources say. Source says no deal is close yet. See, Heyman.

Ah, Heyman! Heyman, you're a douche, Heyman. You don't do this to us. Source says no deal is close yet between Olympia and MLBPA because the proposal was just sent. No agreement, even in principle at this point. You know what? We can't jump in at first on this then. So I'm going to tell you my Sam and Fairfield story

because we got Mark Medina coming up from the USA today in 25 minutes. And somebody tweeted us about the towel you nailed every 45. Did I get every one of them right? Yeah, pretty much. He says he would drive from there to Denton all the time. Yeah. And he's a fan of the Chicken Express in Fairfield, which I love the chicken express too.

That's what I would eat. So I have an ant in Corsicana. Okay. So there's the Chicken Express around there too. love chicken express. I forgot the great people of Venice. Yeah. Oh, that's true.

But I think I did pretty much everyone in the cities. You did great. Yeah. I mean, I've only done the trip about 150 times. Exactly. So when I was doing rice football in the late 1990s,

we had a plate, there was a place called, and it's still there today, even though this day, it's called Sam's Restaurant in Fairfield. And it's known for country cooking. Oh, wait, it's four and a half stars on Google. Yeah, 2,100 reviews.

Yeah. So Samson Fairfield is kind of a nice halfway place. It's not a fast food. You don't go through a drive-thru. You sit down and they have, and I've been there probably 25 times in my life. And it's the same thing every time. It's ribs. It's brisket.

It's chicken fried steak. It's mashed potatoes. It's corn. It's green beans. Now, again, it's all coming from a can. There's fried chicken on there sometimes. Okay. but it's comfort food.

We talked about a comfort food places you just don't have enough anymore. They bake their own bread. You get a big loaf of bread. Oh, that's beautiful. Big glasses of tea. I love it. They have like a hundred different desserts.

Including the, like the yogurt station, you know, the ice cream pole station where you put the little toppings on. It's about 12, 13 bucks. Again, it's not, it's not, it's not Michelin dining. Yeah. But it fills your belly up when you're on a long, when you're in a four-hour. already between Houston and Dallas. One dollar sign and four and a half stars, this sounds right up my

alley. So again, if you're, and maybe I oversold it to the people that I went with. Maybe, did, maybe you did try to say, did you say it was like a Vic and Anthony's? No, nothing even close to that. It's basically a buffet of, um, tap as barbecue. Yeah, even, let me, maybe a drop, a stop. I mean, some of the reviews, I wish I could give them a hundred stars. For a family restaurant, it's the bomb. You will hurt yourself if you like and love good food, as in like you're going to eat too much food. So one time... Awesome diner and buffet and gift shop.

They got a gift shop? Yeah. It's like a... It's like a... Not corral. Cracker Barrel. Okay. But it's in the middle of nowhere.

It's a mom and pop restaurant. All the kids of that city in Fairfield work there. I've never had bad service a day in my life. And it can accommodate anywhere from a... a table for two to a table for 12. And when we were traveling with rice, there was six or seven of us. And we'd all say, hey, let's make a pit stop and let's eat at Sam's in Fairfield. And we had a great meal.

And I've done this for 20 years. How would you compare it to say a Shovels on I-10? Shovels does not have a buffet. I would say Shovels has probably higher quality food, but very comparable. So for you, I-10 people, Shovels would be the place to go heading towards San Antonio. and I would say Samson Fearful and away to Dallas. Four stars on Yelp,

four and a half stars on Google reviews. So these food snobs we work with. Terrible. Adam Clanton. Don't get me started on Adam Clanton's palette. Doesn't eat ranch dressing. Or mayonnaise. I mean, mayonnaise I kind of get.

But ranch dressing. I will eat mayonnaise. I don't refuse to eat mayonnaise. It has to be the right thing. When I go to Sam's, I gorge. It is what it is. Yeah, that's what you do. On a road trip.

So when I said, Adam and I are going up to cover the Rockets and Mavericks playoff series. And I said, we got to go to Sam's because that's what your tradition does when you go between Houston and Dallas. Yes. And I didn't eat. So when I got there, I went down to the chicken fried steak. I got the they have a huge salad bar.

They have soups. I mean, it's a big, you can do really well for yourself. Quite frankly, I'm offended. You didn't take me. Next time we're going to go. For sure. Big 12 media days are canceled. That's true. 2022. Next time there's something Houston Dallas related.

But I will say this, when we do make our trips. We're fixated on in and out. This is true. Matter of fact, we're so fixated. We go to the warehouse instead of the actual restaurant. Hey, that was one time, all right? I'm sorry. So I take Clayton, and he's just miserable through the whole

experience. And then Michael Connor, who has somehow, someway, become a food snob of himself. Whatever. Seriously. You're like, this place sucks. You're the only ones that... Those two Jibonis have ever said it. So we had it. We were talking about something, right? Food restaurants, right?

Oh, buffets. Yes, buffets. And they attack Sam's in Fairfield. So Sam, if you're listening to Family Fair, the family that runs Sam's, we love you. You're an institution in Fairfield, and I'll be going there, and not taking those A-holes with me in future trips. Make them sit in the car while you eat. You know, they can go to the gas station and get them one of those little corn dogs things in the freezer. Boiled peanuts.

Yeah. I'll have none of that slander. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. Let's go to Ray on the Matt Thomas show at 140. Hi, Ray. Hey, guys, thanks. A really good show.

I know it's kind of a slow day, but I appreciate the input. We're trying. A couple things really quickly. Any baseball would be great baseball. I think that was evidence on pro sports. I'm not a big golf fan, but just watching a little bit of golf this past weekend was really good. So I would love to see some baseball very quickly. on the I-45 thing, you guys have obviously done that a whole lot more than I have, although I do it with frequency.

Pass the Buckees on Madisonville and stop at the Woody's Smokehouse in Centerville. Great barbecue, great calacches, and the best jerky selection in all of the state. So that's my only input. Thanks again for the great show. You got it. And I'll hang up. There is. There's some good advice right there.

We got to go somewhere now in Dallas. I haven't hit the Woody's. Yeah, there's a bunch of barbecue place along the way, right? Yeah, there always is. All right, real quick, let's go to Brian and Edo at 140 on 790. Hi, Brian. Hey, guys, Matt, I just wanted to correct you show. We're going to go through a green one sometimes.

I got customers off that direction. I will stop there. Oh. They got a white cat fish for selling it all right. They do. So, don't overlook it me to send you off that way. All right. I will take you up on that.

Good call. Thank you for the clarification. If you want a good place to stop, too, I'd send out in Celi at 718. The original location is named towards the campbell, but it's called Prochecks. They all have the best beef jerking in, in the state. I bought their sausage before in the store. It was pretty good. Yeah, true.

The deep turkey is even better. So this time you're out that way, it's on the south-bound side of ice thing. When you're coming back from Columbus or San Antonio, it's right. during ceiling. There's one with a little stop. Kind of like mini-bucky's vibe. But she always has everything going on there. But she always does have a other page.

All right. All right. Thank you very much. We're getting all the country cooking updates. Two country cooking legends in the state. We're here. We're like your Yelp online. Yelp Radio 790.

It's and anything goes Friday, Matthew. It's been anything goes months. And we've been talking about food for about two straight hours now. All right. So let's update the folks who come back on what Drellick has to say and Heyman has to say. And we'll do that on the baseball beat next. 142.

We'll go to the NBA and the world of NBA Orlando in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. First a message for Berkeley Eye Center. Get with the folks at Berkeley Eye Center. If you are thinking about LASIC laser vision correction, if you're tired of glasses and tired of contacts, get to your phone right now and text the word LASIC, LASIC, L-I-K, to 48-48. 48, LASIC to 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, and you will find the best deals in the history of LASIC from Berkeley Eye Center. Great physicians, amazing, top-notch technology, great customer service, and financing plans

that will satisfy just about every single budget, especially if you are tired of glasses and contacts. Getting LASIC today from the renowned surgeons from Berkeley Eye Center has never been as easy as it is right now. Text LASIC, L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-48-L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-48 for Berkeley-E-Center. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Good afternoon.

Welcome to Spoltz-M-T theater. Playing the role of John Heyman's tweets. We'll be at SportsM-M-T. playing the role of Evandrelic's tweets at Spolzavi And now Put some more energy in it, Matt

Come on No, because I'm John Crow to go Oh, because you're upset Because I'm John Hayman Here, get the people going I'm John Hey man And this is Spoltsin T Theater

Okay One hour ago Breaking MLB Commissioner Manford and Players Union Chief Tony Clark had what's been called a productive meeting face-to-face in Arizona. Meeting was called at Manfred's request.

Next, breaking, 21 minutes ago. MLB and Players Union are closing in an agreement to play the 2020 season via players. Deal expected to be for prorated pay and include expanded playoffs. Breaking, nine minutes ago, as part of the pending agreement to play the 2020 season between MLB and the Players Union, the union has agreed to waive any grievance. I'm John Heyman, and I'm a miserable son, bitch. I don't think he tweeted that, Matt. Evident Drellick!

1.31 p.m. Major League Baseball sent a new proposal for the 2020 season to Major League Baseball Players Association. A short while ago, sources say, source says no deal is close yet between MLB and MLBPA because proposal was just sent by MLB no agreement even in principle at this point take that John Heyman okay that part wasn't in there okay so let's do this

do you think they're getting they're obviously getting it from two different sides it feels like that Hayman's getting his information for the players maybe Drolik is not or that Drellick got beat and he's trying to soft play because that happens all the time. It does. It does.

If somebody beat you on a story, you try to discredit it really, really, really, really fast until you get a little further clarification. Or, Hayman doesn't own his head from his ass. I'm going with that one. I'm going with he heard that they were,

they probably heard something similar, that there's a new proposal on the table now. They had a productive meeting. So John Heyman is, just jumping to conclusions, which he is apt to do and he's done before. Yeah. And saying, well, a deal is happening. A deal is imminent. There's a

deal on the table. They had a productive meeting. And I think he's making a little bit of a leap of faith, it seems like to me. So let's go to the tiebreaker with some more. Oh, MT Theater Music, please. It's back? Who do we got now? Just stay with me. And now it's an encore edition

of SportsMT theater. Matt Thomas playing the part of Jeff Parson. Uh-oh. You know how you're going to do this one. Hey, guys. 16 minutes ago, in my suit, that doesn't fit me really well.

All right. Major League Baseball has sent a new proposal to the MLB Players Association. Sources tell ESPN. No deal is done, but with Rob Manfred and Tony Clark having met, this has seen as significant progress considering where the parties were 48 hours ago. Now, will you come play with me? That was a part of it. And that has been another bonus edition of SportsMT.

Encore edition. That's our first sports MTE theater encore, I think. Here's the truth. I've had beers with Evandrolick before. Yes. I've never had beers with Jeff Passon or with John Hayman. So I'm going off of who I know of the best of the three of them. Now,

now passing to his credit found our show to be very entertaining. He chuckled several times while we were there. And he was doing live commentary on the show, basically. Yeah, he would hear something and go, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he would have, yeah, he would laugh and he would look over at us and or like roll his eyes. If you were kind of taking passive aggressive shots at him and stuff like that. And I think he wanted to be on the show. I think he did too.

I think we should have gotten him. What? Okay. Would you know where the music is? No, I don't think he does, but it's fine. It's not his fault. Do you know where the Instapol music is, Brennan? We're going Insta.

I feel like if you gave me like 15 minutes, I could find it. 15 minutes. I'll come in there. Matt, you talk. All right. I made the mistake of not inviting Jeff Passon on the Matt Thomas show when we were down in West Palm Beach. if the situation arises again,

would you like to hear Jeff Passon on the Matt Thomas show? It's a simple question, ladies and gentlemen. All of you, tens that are listening to this show right now, would you want to hear a Jeff Passon MLB suit-wearing guy every single damn day on ESPN? Would he be a welcome guest on the Matt Thomas show.

As you hear the music, it's time for an Insta poll. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. On the Instapole, would you like to hear Jeff passing as a guest? Ross, tell the audience what an insipole doesn't do. It doesn't lie, Matthew. It doesn't lie. Line one, you want to hear Jeff passing on the Matt Thomas show.

Believe it. Oh, he said to believe. That's a yes. All right. Very good. Line two, you want to hear Jeff Passing on the Matt Thomas show? I'd rather listen to political talk on the sports all day. Oh, that's a no.

That's a hard no. That's a big fat no. Line three on the instepole. Yes or no on Jeff Passing as a guest? No. All right. That's two nos. Remember the Intapole doesn't lie.

713, 212, 790. Line four on the instipole, yes or no, is Jeff Passing as a future guest? No. All right. Hey, and one other thing. What? I'm voting for Ross in the fantasy five. Yeah.

Thank you. Go to hell! Thanks for listening. By way, Ross, you will not be doing the fantasy five this week. It'll be Joe George. I got to burn some vacation. Line five. Yes or no?

On a Jeff Passon in future interview. Oh, that guy. Sorry, close the poll off. That's not very nice. We're done. We're done. Four to one, no Jeff passing. Has you update anything else in the last few minutes?

Well, you know, I don't have a notification. on for him. Let me see what I can, if he said anything. No, that's his last tweet. So he's somewhere in the middle, right? Evan's like, no deal's imminent. John Heyman said. Well, let's continue. Let's, you know what? It's a hot and the cold porridge and then Jeff Passes is right in the middle. Bob Nightingale. Uh-oh, we got to, we need another theater. Get the music. No, boy. I'll see if he's even updating here. Yeah. And now it's a second encore edition of sports MTV Theatre,

playing the part of Bob Ninel, his third role of the evening folks give it up for one Matthew Thomas. Rob Manford and Tony Clark

met Tuesday night for a meeting. It's unknown whether any further meetings are scheduled between the two 44 minutes ago. 18 minutes ago,

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Union head Tony Clark hold productive in-person meetings only Tuesday night and new proposal. No meeting

Wednesday but renewed optimism. Ten minutes ago, the players are encouraged after the meeting Tuesday night with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Union Chief Tony Clark. Nothing close yet, but this jump start, serious negotiations and hopes of reaching an agreement by this weekend.

Bob Nightingale 29 seconds ago, the biggest question is to be resolved in negotiations with hopes to reach an agreement by Saturday, maybe the length of the season. It could fall somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 to 70 games. The regular season still concludes on September 27th.

And that is the second encore edition of SportsMT Theater. So let's give Pass and credit. I told you yesterday, passed and thought he could, that they were encouraged by this. Yeah, he said 70-something games. He said 70.

Well, he obviously knows something we don't. And the offer still stands. He wears a T-shirt in the ESPN. I give him a $100 donation to the charity of his choice. Wow. $100. We go on the NBA. AP, Mark Medina, USA Today.

Next, 156 on Sports Talk 790. We are approaching 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. We take you for another hour. Believe it or not today, coming up in 52 minutes. Topic is, is it Dr. Fauci? Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe it or not, today. All right.

For a $50 hooters gift car, we're playing for that coming up in less than an hour. Right now, we've rain-checked this next guest a couple of times. I've been with him on a couple of interviews, and now we get to have him on our show. Mark Medina is an NBA writer for USA Today. He used to cover the Warriors. He used to cover the Lakers. Now he covers basically anything west of the Mississippi when it comes to the NBA, and Mark was with us here on the Matt Thomas Show night, writes for USA Today.

Mark, long time, no talk. How are things? Matt, good to hear your voice. Things are good. I mean, with the needed caveat and obvious caveat of all things considered. But, you know, I'm healthy. I'm working. I'll hold on to the victory

is where I can. I understand. Mark, there's so many things I want to get with you, but first and foremost, can you get me a copy of this or NBA Orlando thing? I'm just fascinated by it. Everybody was tweeting. Any NBA writer yesterday, including yourself, was giving the details of it.

I just wanted to soak up more of it. Have you had a chance to read a good portion of it, or are you still catching highlights from your colleagues? Yeah. Well, my colleague, Jeff Zilgin, we got the document, It's 113 pages, and it's one of those things where you want to sink your teeth into and look at all the interesting tidbits.

But, you know, this isn't like an entertaining novel or anything. This is like a lawyer document, so there's a lot of jargon. So we divided it up into halves. He covered the last half of it. I covered the first. You know, a lot of it is stuff we already know, but I think some of the new things were what we shared about, hey, you know, they're taking these social distance protocols and safety mechanisms so serious that, you know, they're saying, hey, like, no multiple people on

ping pong tables. And if you play card games, try to be six feet apart. But if that's not possible, just like don't touch each other, you know, throw the cards away after you're done. But I think that the other cool thing is not to downplay the serious concerns about safety, and being away from family for up to three months. But this also reinforced that at the end of the day. These guys will have it pretty good.

The properties look nice. There's a lot of good setups that will keep them entertained. So for any player that says that they're bored, it's hogwash because, you know, they got Calais video games, you know, golf courses, ping pong tables, pool tables, card games, you know, a lot of property to get fresh air, where you can take walks, ride bikes. There'll be plenty of things I can keep them occupied in a safe way. You know what, as we ran through some of this earlier today, clearly to me, the veteran teams, I think, will have a little bit of an advantage because they're going to win a championship,

especially those that are competitive. But ultimately, Mark, the number one thing they've got to worry about is just having that cabin fever itch, because as you alluded to, Everything has been thought about. When you write this over 100-page manual about safety and culture and where you're staying and what you're eating and what you're doing, the NBA has been very thoughtful about this. So the only point that somebody could really screw this up is that they say, screw this, I want to go to Universal Studios.

Yeah, and that's the tough part about this is because I don't think that players are going to want to be reckless with their lives and put other people in danger and that they want to win as well. But you do wonder, will there be a point where they are getting cabin fever? And when you look at the document, I mean, it makes it pretty clear that the NBA is not going to be big brother here and all that. This isn't a police state, but they are monitoring who's coming in and out. And if you do just, if you do leave the bubble because, hey, you just got to get out, you're going to have to be in quarantine for two weeks. and that's going to be detrimental to your team. And secondly, for these guys, you know, they're going,

unless it's a league-approved thing ahead of time where the players said, hey, look, there's a family emergency, or there was a wedding that was already pre-planned, I have to go to. And this is before the season starts. Those exceptions aside, they're going to say, look, you have to be in quarantine now, and for every day that you miss, your paycheck's going to be deducted on a pro-rated basis. So, you know, there is kind of a fine line where there are going to be consequences for players who are leaving the bubble.

But, again, like, this isn't a police state. So these guys are adults at the end of the day. And if they wind up, you know, making those choices, they'll have to little with those consequences as well as the teams. Mark Medina, USA Today here on the Matt Thomas show. And Ross Villarreal with here, Mark. I'm wondering the Kyrie Irving. element of all of this. And obviously, 450 NBA players aren't going to agree on anything. But how much support do you think he had in his concerns about stopping this or possibly suspending the league?

Do you think there was a lot of support amongst the players in some of his thoughts? You know, it's hard to read at this point because, you know, frankly, we make a thousand calls a day and very few of them get returned. So I'm always humbled in our field of, like, you don't know what you don't know, right? But I will say that. I think even if, regardless of whether Kyrie was speaking for the majority or the minority, there are still philosophically are a lot of concerns that players have about safety and also, you know, because of the George Floyd killing and the peaceful protests that are

going on and their initiatives with trying to use this tragedy into turning into something good where there's racial justice. There were some concerns of, you know, will this platform elevate that cause or hurt it? And how do we find a way that we can use that platform or not only are the players contributing to that cause, but also having the league do that? But, you know, you also can't help but wonder here

what Kyrie's motives are, because he's already had questionable leadership skills when he was in Cleveland with Boston, with Brooklyn. And the reality is he was, he is on the executive committee on the players union. They've had discussions over and over again about all these issues for the last few months. And I understand that things have changed. Things are fluid. The racial justice things are a wrinkle that kind of just evolved the last few weeks.

and that there might be new questions that come up once you read the fine print. But at the end of the day, this vote that took place was unanimous, and there was no sense that he was voicing those kind of concerns that he suddenly is voicing now. That being said, in times like this, regardless of who the messenger is, the message itself is still valid. And so I think because of that, you know, the league and the players unit have tried to take these things pretty seriously and not dismiss any of it. Gang, one of the best writers in the NBA when it comes to the sport, Mark G underscore Medina from the USA Today with us here for a couple more minutes on the Matt Thomas show.

This Zoom call that took place over the week, I guess I said, what, 200 players on it? Any idea through your sources, how many real players are really contemplating saying, you know what, between social justice and what we need to do is a society? and the COVID. Do you expect a large amount of players to say thanks but no thanks to this? You know, I'm humbled with, you know, because there's so many moving parts of this. I don't know the exact number, but I would, if I had a guess, I think the majority of the players are going to be there. You know, the players have until, I believe, June 24th to inform the league on that decision. and, you know, I know that publicly, well, Kyrie hasn't say anything publicly, but, you know,

with the Players Coalition statement that he had, you know, Avery Bradley's been on record saying he has some question marks, Dwight Howard as well. But, you know, at the same time, I do wonder, are they bringing these concerns up more to make sure that the NBA is fully supporting their cause and also holds up their end of the bargain in terms of having you know, different owners, the league office, support things monetarily, logistically, as opposed to them actually thinking they're not going to play. You know, when this happened, I talked to a few professors, college professors around the country that teach different sports activism classes, political classes, you know, African American studies classes. and the handful of those experts I talked to, the sense that I got is there wasn't necessarily a wrong path to take with this.

Do you play or not play in the hopes of elevating the platform? They stress the devil really is in the details, but I think if you had to pull them, they would think that the platform would be a lot bigger if you chose to resume the season. You know, one professor told me, hey, the reason why these guys have a voice is because they're NBA players. And if you leave that, suddenly you're losing that authority.

And, you know, you're then becoming an anonymous sports activist, right? And they all do great work, but they don't have the same kind of leverage that players do. So I think with all that, there might be players that don't play because of safety concerns. you know, maybe there's some unique family situations going involved as far as health. They're just being needed to be attentive to it. But I think the majority of the available players will be on hand to open the resume season. All right. Final question for you, Mark. And again, you're in Houston, so you don't have to push it towards a rocket.

It's, but I'm going to throw your rocket question. Does this campus environment help a rocket team hurt or, frankly, indifferent? I think it can help for two reasons. One, we've seen James Hardin's Instagram page that he's been in really great shape. And I think even for a lot of guys, including himself, that have done all the right things during quarantine, there's going to be rusting us involved. And so I think with the Rockets, that could help them because he has, he has, you know, kind of won the weight with his dietary habits and his training.

And then number two, you know, they're playing such an unconventional style where, you know, they decided not to really have a center at all with trading coin Capella and getting Robert Covington. And I thought before pre-pendemic, you know, the heavy favorites were going to be the L.A. teams, the Lakers and the clippers, and I don't think anyone would upset them. But I saw the Rockets having a chance of, you know, being a wild card of just, you know, stealing a game or two, making the speed bump a little bumpier than needed. And I think in these times, you have an unconventional lineup mixed with going up against teams that are going to be rusty.

That could be a good recipe for them, you know, kind of knocking some sales here. All right, Mark, thank you very much for the time. Always enjoy reading your tweets, updates on all of everything. Hope we can bother you again. Maybe when we get the season going again, hopefully that's in July, in Orlando. And everybody's healthy, wealthy, and why does it do that? Thanks again for the time. And by the way, I do want to mention, I said last question, but I do want to ask you this because you were supposed to be on with this many months ago about this.

Are you the last person that did a paper, newspaper article, Journalism Peace with Kobe Bryant before his passing? Is that accurate? Yeah. From what I was told from Kobe's camp, I had his final sit-down interview, like in front of the camera. And fairness, he had done a few phone interviews that same day because it was on the heels of LeBron James is about to surpass him on the NBA all-time scoring list. But, yeah, it's obviously this is a tragedy for obvious reasons. But, you know, I look at that interview kind of through a mixed blessing where I'm glad that I talked with him. Sure.

I was able to see him. But the fact that it was nine days before he left us, it made a, it made a, it made a little bit of, you. that much harder and also the subject matter. I mean, we were talking about how he was able to make the transition from his post-MBA career and what his ambitions are and his bucket list and all of a sudden that's come to a halt.

And so when you look at the timeline here, interviewed him nine days before he passed away, the stories wound up getting published a week later. So that was about four days, three days before his passing. We exchanged a few pleasantries on

DM, you know, that Friday evening, and then all of a sudden Sunday morning, you hear the news that he's no longer with us. I mean, it's, you know, how many months ago has this been five? I mean, to this day, I still struggle wrapping my head around. Of course. Yeah. The circumstances, but certainly the tragedy itself.

Yep, yeah. One more reason why 2020 sucks. Mark, thank you very much for the time. I hope we can catch up again soon. Yeah, likewise. Be well and hang in there. Thanks very much. Mark Medina.

You can follow him on Twitter, and he's a great follow. Mark G underscore Medina covers the NBA for USA Today. 214 is our time. Ross, we have yet to go to one baseball guru when it comes to his thoughts about the negotiations. We're going to let you do the next round of sports. More theater? Wow.

214 on the Matt Thomas show with a message here for bronze roofing. Have you had your roof checked lately? I mean, like ever? Well, what are you waiting for? Get with the folks at bronze roofing right now. They will give you a free inspection of your roof. If there's ever any issues with your roof, they will give you a free estimate right on the spot.

Everything is free, free, free. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. In efforts to completely overdo a bit, we present to you one final encore, I believe, one final encore of one sports M.T. Theatre. Today playing the role of one Buster Only of ESPN,

it's sports hobby. If the honors surrender and relent on the concessions needed for an agreement with the players, the first question of Manfred must be, why wasn't this offer made five weeks ago? I need to interrupt you. This is not

Buster Only. This is Tim Kirkshin. Reading Buster Only's tweets. Sources. The owner's latest offer to the PAs for 60 games, full pro rata starting July 19th. Yeah, I always feel like that Tim Kirchian's voice is just somebody just cracks. Yeah. Right? Seems like a sweetheart, though.

I've talked to Buster two or three times in my life, nothing recently. But I've always been, he's always been very affable. Do you ask him why his cue goes by Buster? No, I want to say, what the hell you're doing writing a stupid-ass article about baseball's labor problems and relating it to the Astros. It's not very nice. Did Tim Kirkshan put anything out there on the Twitterverse? No, Peter Gammon said something.

Oh, hit the music. Go ahead. I'll wait for it. Yeah, go ahead. You might have to have it on standby. Your turn. Are you doing Peter? And now, the 15th encore edition of the SportsMT Theater.

Matt Thomas, his fourth role of the day, Playing Peter Gammons. 60 games starting July 19th sure seems reality television. Are you okay? You get tremors? I'm Peter Gammons. No? No.

There you go. So 60 games starting July 19th? I'm with it. July 19 finishes end of September, right? See, August 19th. September 27th, I think they said. So you're talking about 75 days to play 60 games. No, no, no, no, less than that.

July 19th, start the season, September 20th, so that's 68 days to play 60 games. Which means you're going to get some double- Well, you'll get some double-headers. You're going to have to give some guys some time off. And they'll have, and they're going to have spring training. And I think they're going to do it back in their own stadiums. Maybe expanded.

I think expanded playoffs? No, no one's given a number yet, have they? No, I haven't seen it. I'd imagine if they're coming to some kind of deal. They're going to do expanded playoffs. All right. So let's throw it out of the audience. Time for an obligatory Matt Thomas show call. Wait, do you want another instable?

No, no, no, no, no. We know the answer. People will want to watch this. Yeah, that's true. I'm going to tell you right now, how excited are you of a 60 game baseball season? So we do, well, here we go from passing. 60 game season ends around September 27. gives players full-proated salaries, expanded playoffs. No, no, if we're doing it to do, Pat, you're right.

Good idea. Let me do Matt Thomas. Try this again. Right this again. Here we go. Hit it. Do it like Jeff Passon would say it. I won't do it like Matt Thomas would do it like Jeff Passon would say it.

Go. The MLB proposal to the MLBPA, as Ken Rosenthal said, is for a 60 game season that ends around September 27th and gives players fully prorated salaries. It would have expanded playoffs and would include the waiving of right to grieve by the union. I feel like they had this about a month ago, did they not? Yeah, I think so. Are we just going in circles here now? What is up with that?

What are we doing? I don't know, Matthew. Okay, 60 games, full proration. Pro rata. Pro rata, as the kids would say. The kids aren't running around saying pro rata. First of what, is there anybody under the age of 20 saying pro rata? I don't think so.

Nobody under the age of 80 was saying it before the last month. Do you think anybody in the age of 25 even knows what prorated means? Yes When's the last time you said Prorated before this baseball stuff? I got laid off when I was about 25 and I got a prorated paycheck Hmm

No you got severance After I just got back from vacation Didn't you just get severance though? Yeah but it was some kind of You know what you're right it was different Because prorated Saturday cut is not a prorating salary Prorated is based off of a calendar

If you bring up pro rated you bring up, instead of doing something in six months, you're doing it based off of three months and we're going to pay you off a pro-rated calendar. Yeah, I was hourly and I was just coming off of a vacation. Sounds rather personal. All right, 60 game schedule. How excited are you when I tell you that right now?

Hey, sounds good. I'm going to ask the audience. 713, 21, 2, 5, 790. 713, 212-790. I'm telling you majorly baseball. Now, it could be even more than 60, correct? Because my guess is the players are going to go,

are going to, not nickel and dime, but I mean scratch and claw will be the term I don't want to use for every possible game beyond, they want to play as much as they can to get as much of that proration

as possible. Yeah, I wonder if they're going to agree to 60. What was the latest in the players was they went from 114 to 89? I bet you they try for 72. Let's go.

Let's meet in the middle. Because here's what you can do with 72. You play everybody in your own division a certain number of times, and then you split the rest of the games among, like, remember that original plan that we had the very first one where you would take on your own division, and then you would take on the other league's same division?

Yes, for less traveling. Because with the good, you know, it's more traveling. You could send the Astros out for two 10-day trips and knock out a lot of the West Coast opponents. True. And frankly, you know, would save on cost.

Because, you know, having to fly back and forth from Seattle, back and forth from San Francisco, back and forth from Los Angeles. It does make all the sense. Let's go. 60 games. I'm with it. Just agree.

I'll be a selfish, B. I'm going 72. I think the sticking point to me, though, is going to be the players waving their right to grieve over the safety. I think, I don't think it's a sticking point now. I think when you're hearing what we're hearing from numerous baseball aficionados,

people on the inside, I think the biggest sticking point is going to be the number of games. games because every game means a greater chunk of the full salary of the players they're getting way jeff passin's come up with some numbers MLB's last offer maxed out at one and a half billion guess where this uh maxes out no one and a half billion so they are going in circles what do you mean what no no no no no no no no it's it's the it's the adam wexler analogy do you want a quarter and two dimes or do you know

a quarter and three nickels do you want four dimes do you want ten pennies and three dimes if there's a deal to be done it's going to be more than 60 games says Jeff Passon Union will counter higher and somewhere in the middle is the season so we're getting somewhere maybe it's full prorated now though too

which I don't think they offered that's true that's the one thing is that they're not asking for the cutoff of the prorated salaries so if he goes let's see this let's do the quick math on this 66 games schedule. Oh, geez. You play everybody in your division 12 times.

That's 48. That leaves 18 games among everybody than the other division. Sure. Why not? Would you play each of them three times and one team six? Or four sometimes. I mean, could you imagine being a schedule maker in either the Major League Baseball office or the NBA office right now?

Well, NBA is easier for sure. Are they, they going to try to pick up where they left off? For the most part. So that is easy. But you're also then trying to try to try to. trying to figure out what NBA arenas are going to be open in December. Because as I've told you before, they're already starting to work on next season schedule right now. Here we are in June.

The next NBA season, Ross, is supposed to start in December. You can't let a week, you can't let people know a week before the start of the season when the next season started. They got to put these games into play. NBA is easier, too, because you don't have to deal with other concerts or, well, I guess nobody's having to deal with concerts. Stations are wide open at this point. I think the books are open at Minimates. That's true. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. On Twitter, at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. I tell you at least 60 could be as much as 70. 72. 7-13-212-5-7-90-229 on Sports Talk 790 with a message once again for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Great people to do business with. They have been taken care of Houston's financial. needs for many, many years. In fact, since the 1930s is what ShellFU is all about. And right now,

they have loan options, mortgage loans, refinance loans, all different types of loans available for you. And if you get a loan right now to the Shell Federal Credit Union, they're going to offer you $500 in cash back. There's low-down payment options. There's options that will go for long-term or short-term loans. And the best part is your loan, what you get from the Shell FCU, is going to stay in-house. It will never be sold. sold. No matter what kind of financial help you may need for an upcoming purchase or to take care of everyday expenses, I want you to think of the Shell Federal Credit Union online at shellfcU.org. ShellfcU.com. Sports Talk 790, available everywhere with the IHard Radio app. Now number one for

podcasting. We are former players. We are lifelong fans. And we're your home for your voice. You can go have this watch you heard today. Sports Talk 790. Your most complete lineup in Houston Sports. 234. It is the Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790. All right. Brandon, if we miss anybody, we've done Buster Only. We have done Jeff Passing. We did a Bob Nightingles.

Any other baseball writers out there that we have yet to completely butcher the way we think they sound? I'm going to be honest. I've lost track. Have you done any Ken Rosenthal? He's had some stuff. Ross. We have not stepped up our game today. I mean, maybe he hasn't anything important.

Uh, here, well, yeah, he's tweeted out a number of things. All right, just, damn. Who's doing, Ken? You hear me? It's your turn. I just did Jeff. All right, I'll do. All right, go ahead and introduce this first.

And now, his fifth role of the day, a modern day Robert De Niro, Matt Thomas, with another edition of, Matt, what's empty theater? Why did it escape me? I don't know. We've done it 15 times today. Matt Thomas now playing the role of Ken Rosenthal. Source. MLB proposal includes 60 games in 70 days.

Season starting July 19th or 20th. Full pro-rated salary. Bless you. Expanded playoffs in 2020 and 2021. Waving of any potential grievance. That was me, Ken Rosenthal, 26 minutes ago. You followed it up? Me 19 minutes ago.

One more time, Union would figure to counter, perhaps with goal of senting at 65 games. With full prorated salaries, that number would be getting players 40% of their original projected earnings for 2020. And poor Jason Stark, 66 games might work best for scheduling purposes.

Then Ken Rosenthal tweets Jason Stark. 66 games works, the following ways. 12 games each with four division opponents, three games each with four interleague opponents, six games home and away versus interleague rival. And I'm done. And I think we never should impersonate anybody.

Frankly, my Jeff Passon's really good. Is it? You sound just like a man. It's nailed. I mean, you tell me what was the best one of the group? The Bob Nightingale. By the way, I've lost Ross for the foreseeable future of this show. Sorry.

He's watching something called MC versus Arce. Manchester City, that's your squad, Maddie. You picked a Premier League team, you remember? That was last year. This is a season. This is a season debut, right? No, this is not the debut. The season, they're in the middle of the season.

It's almost over. Oh, so they had their pandemic stop too? Yes, they completely stopped because of the pandemic. And now they're playing without fans in the stands. Imagine this. They played 20 minutes. There's no score. Gabriel Jesus just missed a big-time scoring opportunity, Matthew.

Who? Somebody's going down. Let's get the orange wedges out right now. Capri sons. All right, Jim Rome from 1993. You know what? I have tried for 30 years to enjoy soccer. I'm telling you, Matt, just bet on it.

Okay, over under one. I'll take the under. Okay. I'll take the over. Let's bet. What do you want to bet? No, let's let's let it. No, look at it.

Look at this, Gibroni. He's on the ground. He has his forearms on his head. They're probably out of shape. This is their first game back. Look at him. Look at him. You don't know what happened, Matt.

He might have ripped his Achilles. And another stupid part of soccer, the clock keeps going. That is very stupid. Stop the clock. It makes absolutely no sense. You end up with like five minutes of stoppage time, and they really should have had like 10 because of some of this stuff. So first of all, this Gibroni has got his head on his shoulders on his head and he's

upset. He's coming out of the game. Here comes David Luis, Matt. And now he's rolling his ankle. He's all upset. His ankle hurts now. But they haven't played game in months. He might be cramping up.

And they're all wearing. hair buns. Seriously. What? David Luis is taking his shirt off. Yeah, he's going to change numbers and go play somewhere else. Yeah, why doesn't have to change numbers? He's got great locks, by the way. Oh, no. Look at him. Now he's running back on the field. He's just fine.

We're going to bet on the over under of one, right? Oh, no. No, excuse me. I got the guy mix up. Another guy, they're still stretching him out. Yeah, he's coming off. He's going out. And going and going and going. Soccer sucks. It just does. Okay. By the way, interesting. Black Lives Matter on the back of the...

Every single jersey. Both teams? Yes. And they have patches on their sleeve as well. And guess what? That's what you can do, Ross. That's what you can do when you play. Oh, they all kneeled to start the game as well.

Yeah. Interesting. Not wrong with that. But if you don't play, you don't get to send your message out. And that's why... Oh, we didn't even talk about Kyrie Irving yet. Oh, gosh. It's very short time, if we can believe it or not.

So, Kyrie was... Now, he, I think he's backpedaling. a little bit. He is he? On multiple occasions, apparently he had been talking about trying to set up his own league. And then a reporter said that Kyrie was not doing that and that when that was brought up setting up their own league, he left the Zoom call when that was discussed. I think Kyrie wanted to start his own NBA.

Well, I thought they said a group chat. He was in a group chat and he left that. Was it the Zoom? Was the Zoom is the group chat? No, it was some group chat involving night. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Yeah. That he was not the one that was leading the pack.

for a potential new basketball league. Ross, we have to stop creating new leagues. We tried with the XFL. We went all in on the XFL. It didn't work. Another secondary NBA is not going to work. Well, they're all under contract. If LeBron James is under contract to play professional basketball

for the next three years for the Lakers, he's not going to be able to go in this new league. Or they're going to get their pants suit off. It's a non-starter. It's a non-starter. It really is. Unless you tell everybody, all right, but guys, everyone, nobody signed a contract longer than 2025.

And then that's probably some kind of illegal collusion, too. I don't know. Yeah. We have to stop. Just make changes. You've got the best commissioner in the sports today. He's going to listen to you. He's going to take your advice.

He's willing to listen to you as compared to pushing your opinions of the side. Well, I wish they would get the red, white, and blue ball from the ABA. That'd be cool. Is that what you want? Yes. What else do you want? Well, they brought the three point line over. That was good.

Okay. That was an ABA thing first, right? Right. And then also the Virginia Squires. We need them. How about large, bushy aphros? Like Dr. Jay back in the day when he was the next. That was good.

The St. Louis Spirits, good squad. All right, real quick, we got a minute left in the segment. Well, if there was one NBA rule, you would legitimately change. I, wasn't there one about the, well, you know what? How about another? If you win your coach a challenge, you get another one? Yep. I'll give me another one.

I don't like when a team calls timeout they get to bring the ball in the front court. Well, the reason they change that is because it was kind of boring at the end. They want more scoring. Exactly. They want, but it seems like, and again, it does give a definitive advantage to the offensive team because they don't have to go,

they have to waste any clock time getting to the mid court strike. More drama, more game winners, because college doesn't do that. And so there's like three seconds left and they have to go full court. There's no chance. You have three seconds half court, something crazy might happen. But it then also then forces you to throw a really good

pass from the baseline entering the college game. I mean, that's one I can live with, but if you were just to say, hey, but I do like, why should you only be held the one coach challenge? You keep challenging like a muda, as long as you keep one of you. Three minutes into the game, Mike D'Antony's won a challenge and he's out. It's ridiculous. And that's

why he can't challenge stuff early in the game, because he wants to perhaps save it for later on. Well, no, they use it. One possession in the first quarter means as much as one possession in the fourth quarter. He has said that as well, but I still think in the indirectly, it's, hey, do I want to save it from a really important, crucial time in the game. As long as you're sure, that's the only thing you should worry about. How sure are you

that you're right? And then PJ Tucker, of course, never thinks he's committed a foul. Sometimes he's failed Mike Dentell me. That's okay. And Eric Gordon gets fouled every time he goes in the lane. And I love Eugene. Every time under the basket. Hands up in the air. Yeah. Where's the call? I'd be that kind of guy. Do you remember who? Who is the referee that teed him up for that? And they mocked what Eric Gordon was doing? It's probably Scott Foster. No, it wasn't Scott Foster. I can't remember. Yeah, you can't. You can't. You can't mock that. He teed him up and he mocked Eric Gordon.

He's like, stop doing this where you throw your hands up. All right. 713212-570. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We're going to play, believe it or not, next. The category today is Dr. Atoni Fauci. Dr. Tony Fauci is our guest on, or not guess. If he was a guest on the show, it'd be a great get, it'd be a great get.

But he's our topic of believe it or not, we'll do that. After we tell you about what's happening at Big City Wings, today is Wednesday. which means it's $8 burger Wednesday in any of the eight Big City Wing location. You get the burger of your choice with a side of your choice as well. It's a great combination. Plus, it's Whiskey Wednesdays at Big City Wings. You will love both experiences. And I don't know why that's on, but we'll go on.

People are trying to call Big City Wings right now to make a reservation. You can do that, sure. You can also take out or have it delivered to you. And on top of this, the crawfish are still there. Five pounds for $25. $5 pounds, succulent, tasty crawfish available for you at Big City Wings. But remember tonight, it's Whiskey Wednesdays and $8 Elder Burger Wednesdays at any of those eight Big City Wing locations. I find the one near you. Big City Wings. That's Big City Wings.com.

The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790. 248 on Sports Talk 790. Final segment of this Wednesday edition of the show. Joe George is going to step in for Ross Thursday and Friday as you are. doing God knows what. Just I need to take a little vacation and taking some time off in June and July before NBA comes back because I'm not going to be able, obviously not going to be able to take any time off when baseball and basketball come back. It's just going to be a little bit too busy.

So a little summer vacay coming up. What are you going to do? I'm staycation. I'm not doing anything. Honestly, do you want to know my actual biggest priority in these two days off? Sleep? Cleaning up my apartment. You look like hell.

Thank you, Matt. Cleaning up my apartment, I think. It's priority number one. Yeah, but that should take you a couple hours tops. It's pretty nasty. You do a scrub down? Can I buy you a maid service for some sort of gift? Absolutely, right?

Yes. I'll get you that for Christmas as your gift. Oh, well, that doesn't help me for this weekend. Oh, okay. What kind of maid do you want? I got to do laundry. Regular maid or like? What, like topless?

Well, I mean, I'm just asking. Do they do that? I don't know. Or is that only on your favorite websites? I mean, I might have seen one or two episodes of that variety. Episodes? What do you mean on like a Skinimax or something? I don't know what you speak of.

Donald on 790 at 250. Donald, what do you have today? I was calling to ask y'all a real simple question. Who today emulates the Express in football? What one player or what two players comes close to being the Express? I'll shut up and listen to them. Express who? Who's the Express?

Remember Syracuse had Mr. Brownie came out, and then the next year they had the Express, the one player. Ernie Davis? You're asking me what player? Hold on. Let me make sure get this right. I forget his name. Ernie Davis.

I don't want to be at infancy with you. No, that's okay. That's okay. No, no. But are you talking about Ernie Davis, the first black Heismanman winner ever? Yes, the first. Black Heisman winner, I'd like you to tell us today the audience in ALEE who today exemplifies the Express.

I'll get off the phone and listen. Thank you very much. I enjoy you. You got it. Thank you. Well, go ahead, Matt. Who most closely resembles Ernie Davis. Well, since I've never seen Ernie Davis play.

I'm going to YouTube highlights right now. I'm going to see what I can come up with. Can you find something? You turn the sound down for the love of God. I'm going to have to probably wait to give you an answer until tomorrow. I've never, I don't like watching Syracuse sports in general. Yeah. Because their alums are, well, not all of them, but some of them are schmucks.

Runs kind of upright and fast. We'll go Derek Henry. Okay, there you go. To our caller, Donald. Derek Henry of the Tennessee Titans is the 2020 version of Ernie Davis. I wonder if he's at his club. They're all sitting around talking old school football and they're saying, who is the next, who is this, this generation's Ernie Davis?

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call the Matt Thomas show. It isn't anything goes Friday. Yeah, I mean, he didn't have to call and I appreciate them. I just was ill prepared for that, largely because I'm not a, I just don't know the great history. I do know, I did answer a question on a sports trivia game show many years ago that got me a prize and the question was who was the first black Heisman trivia winner.

I didn't know that it was Ernie Davis. So I went to a sports almanac while the guy was asking the question, and I called the line. I said, this is 12-year-old Matt Thomas. I said, is it Ernie Davis of Syracuse? Yes, you win. And you know what I won? I told you this before. You have.

Oh, you won. Now, hold on. Let me say it. There's a lot of things. The Fat Boys record. I won lots of albums, including the Fat Boys album. And I won a pair of Astro tickets. Oh, wow.

It's a good prize. I miss that, I miss that Fat Boys album. Mm-hmm. we played some fat boys for you every time we brought up that story. I think I got a Willie D album out of it too. Oh, that's right. With one of his most famous songs. Go ahead.

Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe it believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790.

Today's edition of Believe or Not, brought to you by Houston Woodhouse Spas. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation in Houston, woodhouse spas.com. Category today is all things about Dr. Anthony Fauci. I'll read you a statement about Anthony Fauci. The statement's completely and utterly accurate.

You'll say this. Believe it. Statements erroneous funnel bunk and made up. You'll say this. Matt. Oh, there we go. He got it. Two, believe it or not,

on all things about Dr. Anthony Fauci, you won your prize. Ross, what's the prize? It's a $50 gift card to Hooters. Wings. Well, I don't know if they're going to cover your beer, but fried pickle chips is great. I'm a three-mile island guy myself.

Seriously, you see my head sweat when I eat super hot wings like that. Yeah, that's true. I can't go with you. That's fine. Let's play. Let's start with Tyler on 790. Tyler, you ready to play, believe it or not.

Believe it. Dr. Fauci received his MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1968. Believe it or not? Not. That's right. He's Columbia's class of 66. Duh. Statement number two for the win.

Dr. Fauci's father was a pharmacist who also graduated from Columbia University. He ran Fauci's pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it is right. $50 to Hooters, congratulations. I've lost my touching these times off. So you're going to get you back in the game.

You're like an NBA player in the first three games of the season. Hey Seuss on 790, Hey Seuss, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Dr. Fauci's official title is the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. He is a director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

That's a long-ass business car, don't you think? Blinkie. Statement number two for the win. Although Dr. Fauci grew up in Brooklyn, he is a fan of the Washington Nationals. Believe it or not. Believe it. Another winner, Ross. We have a mini.

I'm fuming right now. Mini reverse skunk. Oh, my God. Would you focus on this show and not worry about this. Rahim Sterling is. It's no score 39 minutes in. There you go. I just gave it to you.

Reheme Sterling just missed a sitter. Mike on 790. Mike, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Dr. Fauci was one of the leading researchers during the breakout of the HIV AIDS epidemic during the 1980s. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's five in a row.

Statement number two for the wing. Oh my God. What is that word? I don't even know what that word is. Virology, is that right? Yes. The virology wing at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York is named in Dr. Fauci's honor. Believe it or not. That's six in a row. Do we have enough gift cards? I'm not quick. I hope we don't give away too many. I think we got enough for like one more Ross. This is embarrassing for you. Have you got no shame? You've lost your touch. Sean on 790. Ready to play

Believe it or not? Believe it. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Dr. Fauci the highest civilian honor. The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Believe it or not? Not. Oh, finally we get one.

Finally a stump. Last one. Line 5. Who is this? Cody. Cody. Dr. Fauci was a standout. basketball player in high school and was even the captain of his team believe it or not believe it another winner four winners today all right frequent updates on the mc versus arse game all straight ahead with adam clinton and adam wexler they are called the a team and they are up next we're also a nice couple days off get a nap and you look like hell we'll look forward to talking with you

folks tomorrow at 12 noon george george will step in and hang out with me wexler clinton eight team next here on sports talk 790 Thank you.