The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - MLB Owners Move Closer, Matt Confused By NBA Players & Week Of Bad News

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

KBME Houston My Heart Radio station The Astros The Houston Astros The Rockets And the Rockets Your home for your home teams This is Sports Talk 790

From the classic Chevy Sugarland Studios Find New Roads Launch Timers Launch Timers Is the Matt Thomas Show 1201 in H-Town

to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790, alongside our producer, Brendan Riley. Co-host, confidant, pal, friend of the world, sports RV, Rossville, Real. I'm Matt Thomas. Wow, friend of the world. Well, I mean... I would agree with that, Matt. I don't think you're an enemy of the world. I agree with... Well, some people might disagree with you on that one. Yeah, it is what it is.

As one Matthew Thomas would say, that's neither here nor there. That is right. I am still searching for a hear headphones. So if you and Brandon want to take shots at me, probably being your best interest to do it right now before. I mean, okay, if we need us to talk, we can do that. Isn't anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show.

You can, you know what, do us all a favor. Follow SportsMT. He's been hemorrhaging followers, and it's just not been a good look. He's very worried about it. You told me about not worrying about the bots, but the bots were a part of the run to 30,000. That 30,000 run has been,

completely curtailed. Yeah, I told you to stop blocking everybody because I get, like, multiple times people saying Matt Thomas blocked me for no reason. Let me let you in on a little secret, Matt. When you make a new Twitter account and in these days, and you don't have a regular set name, it puts your first name and then like 15 numbers. And so you, what you would do is just block them for no good reason. And then they would eventually either change their screen name or keep their original

screen name. And then they would have to come to me and say, hey, Matt Thomas blocked me and I never even tweeted him. Now, to be fair, I do block douchebags. That's fine. Okay. I got no issue with that. I'm just like, I just have to be the messenger.

I understand. And get people who have you have blocked. Right. Unceremoniously for no reason. Yeah, it's terrible. And I always say, you know, I block them. I say mistakes are made. Yeah. And I fixed them.

But I told you to stop doing it and you kept doing it. Yeah, I'm not doing anymore. Okay. Good job, Matt. Because I want to get, I mean, well, exactly. I'm thinking 2026 somewhere in that range. back to 20 we're talking about or up to which one happens first back down to 20 or up to 30,000?

I'm moving way more south than I am north. So if you want to give the gift of a follow, I'll take it. But at this point, I'm resigned to the fact that I'm going to be hovering around 25,000 for the rest of my life. Okay. I peaked if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, you have to plateau or plateaued perhaps. Oh, yeah. You have to plateau at some point.

I mean, you're not going to get to a million followers. I peaked at 20 and was fine. Well, you're peaking at 251. Yeah. You might have plateaued. Probably. All right. Enough about that.

Let's get to... At SportsMpte. Exactly. Let's get to the essence of anything goes Friday. You will call, if you so choose, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Today, you know, Monday through Thursday, Ross, we keep a very tight leash on the show. Oh, yeah.

It's as tight as it gets. It's a tight chip. We plan every single segment. We have callers come in, and then we... We plan stuff for that, and then they're always really good, concise, coherent with great takes. Yes, that's Monday through Thursday. Friday, we get a little more leverage. So, if you would like to call on about any of the following things, 713-212-5-7-90.

Well, there's a number of things you can talk to us about today. Well, let's see. It's Father's Day weekend isn't this weekend. It's next weekend. So do you have anything on your wish list, Matthew? I like the full day to myself. That's it. That's it.

So you're going to Lake Charles. No. I'm done with Lake Charles for. while. Okay. It was that bad, huh? It was not one of my final moments. I don't know if we discussed on the show. We shouldn't. So if you need Father's Day gift ideas, Matt Thomas is a father. Matt Thomas has children and a wife. Maybe you can talk to him about that. If you want to talk about the ends and outs and the intricacies of the Major League Baseball Draft, Matt Thomas,

people don't know this. He is a baseball draft guru. So if you want to talk to him about that. That's actually not true. Oh. No, no. I did watch. probably 20 minutes of it yesterday. Really? There was nothing else on. I didn't watch any of it. Yeah, it's just, I mean, the MLB draft tries to sell it as sexy, and the first day was obviously two days ago with all the first round picks.

But the reality is most of the guys that were drafted this year, last year, don't make it to the big leagues for two to three years. So it's kind of an out of sight of mind. If it'd be a whole different animal is if these flame throwers or these big homerun hitters, why not being on the 25-man roster coming up in six months? But just not the case. Yeah, the baseball draft is just never going to be as big as the other drafts. I mean, the NFL draft is the biggest, and that's because college football is the biggest of the sports that's under it. So we know these players. We've seen some of them. They

have to play for three years. Some of them we've known for three years. People love breaking down tape. Nobody's breaking down tape of some high school pitcher from the Bronx. Yeah, the fact the matter is less than, what is less than 1%. 0.01? Well, anything, 0.9, 0.8. Okay. In the history of my life, I think there's only been,

I mean, less than 10 players that have ever gone right from the draft right to the big leagues right away. So we're looking at 0.000,000,000, 1. The most famous around these parts, I believe, was a pitcher named David Clyde, went to Tomball High School.

The Texas Rangers drafted him. first round pick. I don't know if he was the first overall pick or whatever, but he went right from the draft to the big leagues and did not have a successful graduate league career. Got tired on very quickly. There's a reason why these guys get drafted,

get all this big money, and then they go sit and play in single A and double A for two or three years because they need to get their bodies mature. They need to be physically prepared for a long 162 game schedule. It just takes time. Sometimes it takes a year. Sometimes it takes multiple years.

For example, Carlos Correa and George Springer, two different examples. Going to college, you would think would speed the process up. It doesn't always, not always the case. So it's very hard to get into a conversation about a handful of players that we've never seen a play before ever in our entire life. And don't have to really worry about seeing them until, I would say, Ross, they get to the AAA. Then they get on our radar a little bit, especially if a team is needing in a certain position. They can get, they can even come on our radar from prospects list.

but most of us aren't watching, you know, the Tri-City Valley Cats. Yeah, baseball and America is, but that's their jam. Exactly. My jam is what's going on currently. Right now, can I? Go ahead. I'm really getting pissed off. Uh-oh, what's happening now?

Well, now we've got another proposal coming for Major League Baseball today. That's 70 to 75 games is the rumor. And that's fine. But the rumor does it. But the rumor also states that they're going to ask for 8. to 85% of the prorated salary. And what has Major League Baseball the players done since day one, Ross? The players have said 100%.

100%. Then the owners count offer. Then the players say, okay, cool, 100%. And then the owners counteroffer. And then the players say, okay, cool, 100%. 100%. You want us to play in Arizona and Florida and other places that can actually handle stadiums?

That's fine. 100%. You want us to wear a mask in the dugout and you want us not to spit seeds? Okay, 100%. You want us to play X number games? That's great. 100%. Somebody's going to have to back off of the salary requirements that each sides are having.

Is 80 to 85? Is that a, that seems like a move up from what the players, from the owners have asked in the past? The last one was 75%. So they're coming closer. Yes. And that's what Rob Man, we played the bites from Rob Manford.

They were going to come closer to the player's side. he said even in those soundbites kind of flippantly, but you could tell you there was a little bit of animus as one of our favorite Matt Thomas shows words. A little bit of animus in him saying he wished they would back off of 100%. And it was

I don't think I've ever said animus before. They came up on the show from a tweet or something. That's not one of those words I would normally use. Okay. So Carl Ravich says 70 plus game, salary percentage on the 80 to 85% scale. Playoff pool bonus.

and then Ravich puts a little commentary in his tweet, and he's obviously very well connected. He's with ESPN baseball tonight. Says, my concern is the recent spikes in COVID-19. Worst case would be to start up and then start, will players move? Start up and stop. Start up, yeah.

I don't know. There's this. I know you don't like the word unprecedented times. I don't like, I don't know, worse. But this is worse. That's all I can say. I know. Flip it around.

How many times in the history of this show, Matt, Have I said, I don't know. In the last three months? Oh, my God. The first 10 years of work together like zero times. Because you always have an opinion about something. And then now, as I don't know since like March. You know what?

I'm catching myself doing that at home. And I'm like, I can't say her off. I can't stop. Because I don't know. What's going to happen? Are the players going to go? These are unprecedented times because you have the certain times. They're very uncertain, Matt.

And we'd rather have baseball sooner rather than later. Oh, God, I hate that phrase. too. By the way, later is winning every time. You notice that? Yes. Everybody is saying, well, technically, later always wins. Deep thoughts. Not, no, not really.

If you want to have, let's go up dinner. Let's have it sooner. Tuesday or Wednesday. If we do it in the next three to four days, sooner wins. If it's in the next month, later wins. What if sooner men I meant that night? All right, anyways, we're not doing the semantics, we're argument. Let's talk about baseball. Do we have to?

Can I, can I, let me just go to the phone lines right now. Can we get anything goes Friday? Line one, what do you got today? Okay, that sucks. There must be some technical issues. Line two, anything goes Friday? What's on your mind today? All right.

Line three, what do you got today? Okay. Well, how about, well, it's anything goes Friday so we can explain a classic Matt Thomas bit. Yeah. So we got multiple tweets, people saying, does any stripper really listen to the show? Why strippers? Well, the story is. We'll tell it after the break.

We'll discuss after the break on Matt Thomas show. You will hear the history. behind Good Morning strippers. A little nugget of Matt Thomas show history. I think I'm the official Matt Thomas show historian. Yeah, yeah. Because I've been here the whole time. And we pay you like a recurring fee for this.

You get one of a burger once in a while. Well, in big city weeks. Only just a shaking. Only other people get a burger. Not that I'm bitter. That was Missy. Spurs fan. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It isn't anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790.

So come on and be a part of the show. You can follow us through Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRvey, and at Brendan Riley underscore. Right now, speaking of good food, big city wings. We went there last week. My wife is a huge crawfish eater. I don't like it. I mean, I like it, but I don't like to peel it. Too much work.

She got five pounds. I mean, she couldn't finish it. It was the amount of crawfish, the tails were just amazing. And so even though we are in June, typically out of crawfish season, they are still going. five pounds of crawfish. I mean, not the other stuff that just adds to five pounds. She got legit five pounds of crawfish for $25. If you're a wingman like myself, you'll enjoy bone in, boneless wings, new flavors, great sandwiches, great burgers.

They've got like 10 different burgers that you choose from. The salads are really, really good. The appetizers are fantastic, like the fried macaroni or the fried pickles. And then for dessert, fried Oreos. I had it for my birthday last week. Don't judge me. Find the location near you. It's very easy to do so.

BigCitywings.com. BigCitywings.com. Still today as we speak, five pounds of crawfish, $25. Big City Wings. This is James Arden. It goes to hard. Three to shoot.

Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Are you kidding? I'd like to say that James listens to the show, but I think it would be just a flat-out lie. He should. We do like to talk basketball on this show.

We like talking about all things. It isn't anything goes Friday. Time is 12. 18, Brian T. Smith's going to join us at 2 o'clock this afternoon. 2.30 will be the Fantasy 5, and I am taking a boycott week. Really? What happened? Because I got completely screwed last week.

Completely screwed. And you know it. What was the draft? Beatles songs. Oh. What wasn't like any kind of special day for you or anything, was it? Yeah. Not only did I lose in my favorite band, but I lost on my birthday.

And I lost to a sucky-ass song called Octopus's Garden. Well, at least you didn't like build a lead in the votes and then lose. That would have really been soul-sucking. No question. All right. 713, 21, 2-1-2-5-7-90. Ross, explain what the essence of the Good Morning Strippers bit was the show. So at one point, Matthew, as you recall, the show, well, it's moved around a lot over the years.

It's been 11 to 2, 12 to 3. Right. At one point, it was 2 to 4. Yeah, we were told that the parent company wanted to put Jay Moron in the middays because it was important for them to be cleared in Houston. Cleared meaning aired. And were you in the room with me when I was told this? Told what?

I was going two to four. I don't think so. I was probably on the board. So I, so Brian Erickson is our good boss to this day. I said, are you sure you want to do this? Because let's be honest, network radio in Houston does not do well.

During prime time hours. Yeah. Well, any, I mean, yeah, weekends and nights. It's fine. Who cares? During the week, we have so much going on while we did locally sports-wise that you want to have a local flavor to it. Yes. So he says, I'm sorry.

I said, are you sure you want to do this? He goes, it's out of my hands. So the networks, so our company said we need to put this Jay Moore show on 11 to 2. And you and I would come on at 2 o'clock every day. And we may be in crickets mode now. We were in super crickets mode. We are not in crickets mode now, Matt. crickets weren't even creaking chirping chirping yeah the crickets weren't even chirping they

may be tripping once in a while now but they didn't chirp back then it wasn't the greatest lead in the ratings weren't the greatest but anyways so the classic line to start up the matt thomas show was always what's happening lunch timers well nobody nobody eats lunch at two o'clock so i would say what's happening snack timers what's happening late lunchers and then one day Matt was like, all right, I'm tired of saying these late lunches. Like, what's up? I said, like, how about good morning strippers? You said that.

How about because they're waking up at 2 o'clock? Right. And Matt ran with it and he's belted it out. Every Friday. Only like Matt Thomas can do with the beautiful, euphonious tones of one Matthew Thomas. I'm one of the more euphonious people you'll ever meet. And it just caught on and people loved it. And so when we came back to 2 o'clock, everybody was saying,

Matt, there's one thing you got to do when you come back to 12. you have to continue to say good morning strippers right and that was what five or six years ago it was a while ago i don't know if it was five the years all run together i'll have to go look but yeah we decided every friday from here and on out as long and let me tell you something if i move on at some point which hopefully isn't the case i don't plan on moving on but this i'm going to wake the strippers up like it said let's move on and you're on at six in the morning oh they're sleeping they're still up so you say good night strippers good night strippers at six I think that, do we do that when you move to the mornings?

We might have. I think we might have too. Yeah, good night, strippers. But what if they're... Have a pleasant evening at 6 o'clock at night? Happy lunchtime? What's happening? What's happening?

What's happening? Lunch strippers? What's for lunch strippers? That's exactly what it was. What's for lunch strippers? I don't know. So, that's just a little behind the scene. If you're doing a midnight show, then you say, happy commute, strippers.

Or where do you all want to be? me for breakfast. Yeah. How many times you've had breakfast of a stripper in your life? We had a chachos once. I think I've done it once or twice.

It wasn't breakfast. But it wasn't because they were going with me. I think it was a group of us that went to have breakfast something. Yeah. Things got weird.

I don't think you've lived life unless you had breakfast of the stripper. Because the stories they tell you about why they're stripping, you don't typically believe, but they present them in a way that sounds very believable.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I was zoning and I was thinking about my story. Did the stripper tell you a story that you just could not believe? It was just a weird evening. She was married and she was also with another girl with another stripper. They were together.

Like sitting next to each other? Yeah. And then this guy started buying everybody drinks that we didn't know and he was being really creepy and weird. It was a weird night. God. I think I miss your stripper stories as much as I miss your Uber stories. I haven't been to a strip club maybe once in the last year. I'm getting old.

It's been 10 years from you probably. At least maybe a longer. Well, I certainly haven't gone in the last three months. Nor has nobody else in the city of Houston. That's a shame. This is how our feel is today. I mean, we got a little bit. I mean, if I run it the sports headlines,

it's going to just depress the hell of you. I'll give you another lady before we can take some phone calls here. You're ready for the next round of depressing things? There's a Yahoo story out today. And I want to make sure I quote this accurately because it's a sensitive topic. but I want to make sure I get this right. Chris Haynes writes for Yahoo, right? Have we ever had Chris on the show before?

I don't know. I'm going to say no. Chris Haynes is their NBA writer. I know I just proclaim myself the historian of the show, but I don't think so. Yeah, I think, frankly, you probably should have an idea of every guest we've ever had out on the show. I have a pretty good memory of it. All right. We had Wojohn once.

So he tweets out two hours ago. Yahoo sources. Significant number of players disappointed. This is the NBA, by the way. disappointed their voice wasn't heard in decision to restart this season. And others believe black players sequestered to entertain and ease league's economic burden amid racial tension as bad optics. Meaning, the world is a mess, but we're going to send all of you, and let's face it, the NBA is primarily African American, to go to Orlando and play basketball to entertain us. Rossi, that's a bad optic.

I don't, no one, let me tell you, the NBA would love to play a season. But the NBA is so socially conscious that they're not going to use their basketball players as mascots. They're going to play basketball because of a variety of reasons. You ready? Yes. One, they all want to be paid. Let's not forget that, Ross. They all want to be paid.

number two, a lot of them would like to finish out the season. Third, a lot of them would like to win an NBA championship. And yeah, the optics are terrible. Having to go to Orlando to finish this thing is awful. It's tough. But this is not a regular line of thinking by the NBA. This is not how the NBA wants its season. The NBA would like to have 17,000 people in their stands and having home games.

it ain't going to happen in 2020. It's just not. And this whole thought of that this is racially motivated, that's a stretch. I really, really do believe it's a stretch. If you wanted to say, we are scared as hell about getting COVID down there, then I could get into that. But let me tell you, Adam Silver is one of the most thoughtful commissioners, even though he's not done in a real long time, he's one of the most thoughtful commissioners in the history of sports. I think his relationship with his players is the strongest I've ever seen a commissioner.

You want to argue that? Name another commissioner that has the best interest of his players more than I think Adam Silver does. I don't think he can. I think he's done a great job. I agree with you on that. I mean, when the Donald Sterling stuff came out, he did not mess around that. He was on the job, Ross, less than six months. And he's basically telling Donald Sterling, you're going to sell the LA Clippers.

I mean, I know you're one of my bosses because remember, these teams work, these teams are the commissioner works for the teams. He went to one of his bosses and said, you don't get to own your team anymore. I mean, strong, strong, strong leadership. And this is not, this is, you're not doing this to amuse this. You're doing this because you want to compete. You want to finish off a season. I think there's a lot of other things.

I don't think this is the main opting. But I think there is also an issue of, I think there's a lot of players, and I don't know what a lot is, what percentage it is, but there's a lot of players that don't want to be put in a bubble. They are flipping the blank out over being in a bubble. Yeah. And they're worried about, well, if I'm in the bubble,

what about the people that are serving me my food? What about people that are cleaning me? my room. What about the people that are in and around the campus of Walt Disney World? Why do they get to go home? Why do I have to stay here? And I get those concerns. And we don't know. Like you said, we don't know the percentage. And this report from Chris Haynes says it's a complaint privately expressed by multiple players. So I mean, and it also says significant number of NBA players. So there are what, 300 teams, 300 players on, if you want to go 15 man times 30, right? Or more than that, right?

450. So there's 450 players. Is it five players? That's multiple. 22 teams times 15. I'm sorry, 22 teams, you're right. So what is that? 330? So if you have, is it 10 players? Is it 50 players? Is it 100 players? Is it three players? We don't know. Because they're not a monolith. You're never going to have Everybody agree on anything. There's probably some players who can't wait to get back. There are some players who are concerned. There are some players who maybe do feel this issue with feeling the pressures of social injustice. And in the midst of a, if they want to say, we're in the midst of a global pandemic,

we are also in the midst of one of the most trying times in our nation's history when it comes to social injustice. And people are trying to defund the police. There's protest all over the country. nationwide protest, as big as we've seen in a long time, and you want me to go to Orlando to get sequestered and play basketball, this doesn't seem like it should be high on the priority list. If somebody thinks that, I totally understand. But how many people think that?

And is that a sentiment that is among players that are playing for the 7-8-9th scene, the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, or is this a cross-section of all teams and all positions in the West and East? because there could be a sentiment of why are we going to Orlando just to play seven or eight games to lose five of the eight? Or is this a cross-section of all teams and all positions in the West and East? Because there could be a sentiment of why are we going to Orlando just to play seven or eight games to lose five of the eight and not make the playoffs and waste a month of our time? And oh, by the way, it would be quarantined. And oh, by the way, not being able to leave a campus.

I'm just getting, and this is just me, an extremely mixed message of what I thought this. life would be like. And I'm confused. And I wish I could give you some more clarification, but I don't have it at this point. And I'm sure a lot of you don't either. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It isn't anything goes fronting the Matt Thomas show. We have a fantasy five. We got Brian T. Smith. And we have a lot of unrest when it comes to whether or not we're going to have an NBA season now that we've got players that upset. We've got major league baseball sent in another proposal. I need some good news, Ross. What do you got? You got some, can you give me some? something next segment that's just good, that's interesting, that's funny. Even if it's not sports? We've got to try something next. 1230 on Sports Talk 790.

Hi, this is Eric Dickerson. You're listening to Sports Talk 790. Real Texans talk here. It is and anything goes Friday. Literally. Anything goes day for like every day. All I'm going to be doing this. Anything goes quarter.

I would like to say it's been a long week, but I took three days off. Yeah, come on, Matt. I got a rally. I got a rally. I'm just, I just, nothing but negative news in the sports world. Oh, crap, you asked me to find happy news. And how are you successful so far? You can say no.

No. No, I got nothing. I mean, are you watching the golf yesterday? I did not. Florida signs a name, image, and likeness bill now into law so state athletes can profit from endorsements next summer. Well, guess who's going to be getting some recruits when it comes down to Florida versus other schools in the country?

Florida and Miami and others. So that's why Texas and California and others should probably enact something very, very soon. Should it be up to each individual state, though? I mean, that's the way a republic works, Matt. Do you feel like the NCAA needs a Graham Poo-Bah commissioner? What does Mark Emmert do? Emert.

Not much. Is he toothless? Is he not available? Is he not able to do anything? Do you think anybody goes to Mark Emert for really big time decisions when it comes to especially college football? No, I don't know. Did he say he's leaving up to the States or they're trying to fight all this? He said it was leading up to the conferences as to how they're going to do their schedule.

You know, what does he do? Make money? I mean, do you think his office, his desk is full of printed out emails? or do you think he puts everything to spam or hits delete? You just filtered out? Like, I got to tell you. You ready for a little pet peeve time? I am.

I send out emails. Yes. And everybody's busy. And I try to. I don't bat a thousand on returning emails, but I bat 975. I'm bat about 0.98. I'm not kidding you.

Oh, 098. So maybe at 9%. if that, yeah. Okay. I'm telling you, I think I bet 975 in terms of at least returning them. Like either thank you, appreciate it, got it, one of those things.

A huge pet peeve of mine is me sending out an email or a text for that matter and getting nothing in return. Sorry. I mean, I can tell you, yeah. We could have talked about this during break if you wanted to come after me during the segment, Matt. I feel like you're the poster boy for this.

I'm really bad at responding to text. Unless it's something urgent, I'll kind of just see it, and then I'll forget. And I'm very scatterbrained in which you can attest to, I'm sure. Yeah. So the key would mean, maybe for me to just text to you multiple times, so it would just drive you crazy and your phone buzzing the whole time? That's what a friend of mine would do. Yeah, I'm going to do that. Like if we were going out or something, he would put letter by letter.

He would put R-O-S-S and then start typing out his manner or whatever. All right. You don't have to do that. I mean, I'm thinking about it. Because I found that annoying. But all I'm going to tell you is this. If I ever send you guys an email. Yes.

Or a text. If you want me to go screw off or like I sent someone to some of the other day hoping to get a got your stuff. Thank you very much. Nothing. So it's like me when I email for a job interview. Basically. I mean, I hope that's not the case. I hope that you get a no, you're probably at your pinnacle as what it is right now.

Don't come after this job. You've peaked. Have I plateaued as well? Oh, no. I'm just saying. I guess it's not good. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know what your career path is. What you're looking for. But just do your, just a little friendly sports, M.T. advice. Just reply. Got it. Okay. Thanks.

So there's no need to, well, did it go to his junk folder? Did it go to spam? Like, I tried getting Joe Buck on the show under the category of people we miss hearing from. And this is his wheelhouse. This is baseball season, right? He'd be doing games right now. And I think Joe George. gave me his right number.

And I sent a very polite text. Mr. Buck. I didn't put Mr. Buck. Big fan of yours. I've interviewed you a couple times many years ago. We're doing a series of people we miss hearing from. I've had people like Kevin Harlan on, Ian Eagle. We had the Tim Brando on.

We've had Mike Breen. I mean, we had some pretty heavy hitters on, right? And I said, we'd like to have you on for 10 minutes. I got Bubkiss back from him. And it said delivered. So I know he got it. He could have said, no, I'm busy. Contact my PR flag.

Go to hell. No, I don't want to do it. Just give me something. He gave me nothing. Sorry, Matt. Do you want me to text him and say, hey, jerk? No, but I'm pouring my soul out to you folks. Yeah, I understand.

So just do yourself a favor? Well, now, do you hate Joe Buck? No, I don't hate Joe Buck. You'd not like him? No, I wouldn't be that petty. Oh, I would do it. When I would try to get guests on, if they never, if you could not, even give me the time of day to say, you know what, I can't make it. You're on the bleep

list. So just if I, if I text you. Talking to you, Zach Lowe. Sorry, Steve Tasker. Steve Tasker. But by the way, you probably got some scoreboard on Steve Tasker. Jeff Van Gundy recently on the bleak list. He's Jeff and Steve Tasker no longer works for CBS. Oh, good. Yeah. Sorry, Steve. Sorry to hear that. So you're not very petty then. I never, I never once said I wasn't petty. Let's do this. Let's turn this COVID because we're not that bit. None of us can go the I'm busy card. Yeah. Just if somebody texts you, text them back.

Either it's a thumbs up or a ha ha or an exclamation point or a got it. Yeah. Let's just do it that way. Let's be that way. I'm trying, Matt. It's my New Year's resolution halfway through the year. It's called the COVID resolution. Okay, the COVID resolution.

I'm going to try to be better at responding to emails and texts. I don't really get emails directed towards me. Any type of email I get, I would guarantee you it's on it's on some kind of group that I'm a part of. Some groups that I'm not a part of. I get KTRH traffic updates for some reason. Because you want to help people out throughout the streets

of Houston. Get to where they need to go. Oh, cool. There's a road closure on a 59 in Porter. Great. Hey, that's important for me. I know. You should afford it to me. I should have. I don't look too far for Port. Matt, can I confirm real quick? So you want people to reply to your email

even if it's like finished business? No. I don't think. I explained finished business. Well, so like you sent me the rundown for the show and I didn't reply. Are you looking for a reply that says thank you? I received this. No. Okay.

Good because I didn't reply to that one either. No, no, no. I was getting ready to type of reply right now. No, no, it's funny. Because Brandon had asked if we could do a little show sheet to send to him. Okay. And I'm, I said, that's great. No, I'm glad you brought that up.

That's not one of those things. If it's a declarative statement, like, hey, here's what's going on. I would then say, I would put at the end if I wanted you to respond, let me know that you got this. Is there a way to put an urgent flag on a text? No. Hmm. They should put that on it. You have it for emails.

You should be able to do that for text. I just invented this. Well, what can we do to make money off of this? Let's forget about inventions. Let's talk about how we're going to make profit. Let's float the idea to Apple or Android. Let's get an app going. Urgent-ass text.

Urgent ass text. You only use this app. How about it? We'll call it urgent AF. Yeah. Urgent AF. Hi. This is Matt.

Thomas, have you been trying to text someone they won't respond to you, but you really need their response? Send them to urgent A.F. And that's when the text on the fond of your phone, Ross, listen to me on this, is like 80 times bigger than your normal text. So when that person goes to check, urgent A.F. How about it goes off like you're getting an amber alert?

That's right. But if somebody's abusing it, what if there is something that just doesn't need to be urgent? You report them for violation? or you can turn them off. You can opt out. It has to be a two-way straight. It actually, yeah, you got to get where you bet be responsible.

If you're going to use the app, urgent AF text, you have to make sure you don't abuse it. But the font is bigger in your phone. You can't call anybody or check your email until you respond to urgent AF text. I don't know if I like that. What if I ask you a very direct question and you need advice from somebody else or somebody... You reply. I'll get back to you. At least you know that you saw it. You're going to have to pick up a landline and call somebody.

Probably. What if somebody says, hey, this is urgent, we have a meeting at 3 o'clock and you make it, but you have something you need to pick up your kid from school or whatever, and you need to call your wife. I got to call my wife. Call me back. I'll call you back. Okay.

But at least it gets the communication chain going where if I didn't have urgent AF text, you never would have responded to begin with. At least I know you're getting your response. Oh, no. Chris, I'll say, a tweet is this. He's actually right. They do have an urgent option on phone. It's called making a phone call.

No, we don't want to do that. Talking to people is not that urgent. Don't be ridiculous, Chris. Chris, we don't want to talk to you. We just want to text with you. 1243 on the mattoffaw. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. If you haven't noticed already, if anything goes Friday,

I just don't want to spend, we're going to spend a little minutes of every hour depressing you about MLB and now the NBA is having some hesitancy. Did you want to have a Jenny Fuchs update? anything? Do we have one? And no, I was asking if you did. Uh, no, no, no, no. No. I mean, I mean, I, I think she's, I think yesterday was the end of the story. I think we learned more about ingestion than we ever thought we would ever learn on a major market radio show, so we did that. But no, nothing new on Jenny. That's G-I-N-N-Y-F-U-C-H-S. Jenny Fuchs. May she have a long,

successful career in boxing. And nothing more than that. All right, if you're a big sports fan, why not it would be a great idea for you to fly the flag or banner of your favorite team? And you can do that today by visiting with the folks at Cromberg's flags and flag pulls. You know that Cromberg has an assortment of flags that you can support your favorite college or pro team. They've got an abundant selection of state flags, international flags, and of course the good old fashion USA flag. Flags and banners over at Crombergs are heavyweight. They're durable. They're 100% nylon.

And they are made of that nylon or they're made of polyester. and they are finished with a heavy-duty stitching, and that'll be for the longest durability. So if you want your flag, the Rockets at Red Nation, Matt has Maddy Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You've made it.

I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. Anything goes Friday on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas Show, 1250 is our time. If you'd like to join us, 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790. We'll update you on what we believe is the latest proposal from the owners in baseball at the top of the hour.

We'll also give you an update on some reservations of what could be going on Orlando and how some players are not happy about being quarantined. Is it quarantined or put in the bubble? I guess it's sequestered is the word they're being using. And there is a player that apparently we now know one of them that is showing some concern of of this. He's currently hurt, Ross. Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant. You're close.

Let's go to Kyle in Pearland at 1251 on Sports Talk 790. Kyle, what's going on? Hey, Matt, welcome back, buddy. How you been? I'm well. Yourself? I'm doing fine. Listen, I know you went to late Charles this weekend.

I'm planning on maybe going next couple of. days, what did you find that you didn't like or did like about any changes? The number one thing I did not like is the table limits were extraordinarily high. Okay. And there's just not as many tables available. If you're going on the weekend, you're going to go in the middle of the week? It'll be Sunday Monday. Okay.

So that's what I did last weekend. You will see probably 10 blackjack tables open, one or two roulette, and two craps tables. What about the amount of people? Is everybody, do you have to wear a mask and all that? Nope, no. Come as you want. A lot of people did wear a mask. Not everybody did.

And you will get your temperature checked. And they'll do that once or twice over the course of the day. It's really painless. They put a sticker on you and you walk right in. And then once you get inside the casino itself, there's nothing different about what you would normally go, except for the fact there are fewer tables. And that the blackjack tables have three people on them.

The craps have a max of six. and then I rule out. I don't play roulette, so I'm assuming it's probably half of what a number would be there too. Yeah, did you find the table limits

changes the night went on? No. They all, I've been twice in the last month and I have not seen a blackjack or a craps table that was less than $25 per wager. Okay.

Well, man, I sure appreciate the info, buddy, and you have a good day. Thank you, buddy. Thanks for calling. Did you try the aisle? Yes. That's because those are lower. A little bit lower.

I think they advertise, or at least they used to it, they'd have at least one $5 blackjack table going at 24 hours a day. No chance. It's deep in the depths of the boat. You had to find it, and there's like a billion people waiting around. In fact, I think Al Capri doesn't even have table games until a certain time of the day. They close them down. Oh, really?

Or at least Golden Nugget has live. You can play a table game at any hour of the day. Because I don't know, I've told you all this, but I'm having problems sleeping as of late the last six months or so. So when you can't sleep in Lake Charles at 2.50 in the morning, what do you do, Ross? You go gamble. You go gamble. Dang, I know that. As compared to laying in your bed and trying to dream of something.

You know what, Matt, we need to get you like a meditation app or something. Get you relaxed. I'm okay with that, yeah. Get you, like, breathing deeply and stuff like that. So last night, I got up at 3 o'clock in the morning for a little bit. And my son, Cameron, who is home for college since March, was playing video games at 3.30 in the morning. I'm like, I got a typical 20-year-old. Yeah, or if you're 35.

Do you play video games that late? Until when? 3.30? Maybe on a weekend. Now, you get the headset on talking to people? Yeah, of course. You got me in comms, Matt. You got to communicate.

That's what the kids call it, comms. Have you gained friendship over this? I used to, yeah. Well, back in the day when I used to play a lot a lot. Yeah. We would be people that I knew people that I'd never met, like from Oklahoma, Virginia, all across the country. And then you're just boys because you play every night.

You don't even really know the person or even know their real name. What about females? That happens. People have gotten married off a meeting off of video games. Now, me personally, no. I just assume they're not attractive. But that's not always the case. Well, what a terrible stereotype that is.

That's a stereotype, Matt. There are hot girls who game. And they make a lot of money on Twitch. So let's get to this. Let's say that you're- They put their breasts out. and do great. You're playing a game with a girl. Okay. And how do you take that next step of, I'd like to, is it, I'd like to see you?

Or is it, let's meet somewhere? You probably start messaging. Okay. It's conversing about regular other things. You try to get her last name. So at least you can see what she looks like on Facebook. Exactly. You can Facebook stalker. I would imagine. I mean, I don't know. The easy one would be for the kids would be, what is your Instagram account, right? Well, you know what? We could put this out there. Has anybody ever met anybody off a video game? My cousin's girlfriend moved from Florida to Michigan to be with him after playing. I believe it was World Warcraft together.

There you go, Matt. It happens. Now, this is your cousin moved or the girl moved for the see your cousin? She moved. Okay, so she was in warm, balmy Florida, where they're great stories. And she said, I met this dude who's in Michigan, and I want to be with him. Yeah. And how long ago was this?

They've probably been, I don't know how long they know each other on games, but she probably moved to Michigan. About a year ago. Had they dated before that? they had been yes they had been together before that and they still together now yes but that's how they met though yes do you like her i've only met her once but she seems really nice she hot is she hot that's a no i'm going to ask this question again on a one to ten scale i don't want to be mean give me give me give me florida number and give me michigan number which one's which one's higher oh uh michigan would be higher So Michigan 8 is probably a Florida 6.

Florida 4.5. Oh, come on now. Oh, no. The ratios are... Don't do the man... Don't do Michigan like that. He knows I'm right. I am just going to say like sub-6.

I would you say under nine. Yeah, we don't want. It doesn't matter. I'm just curious. Everybody deserves love, regardless of what you look at. Yeah, Matt. So you know what? Maybe Cameron won't meet somebody.

But anyways, what were you trying to get at? You were just saying that you just saying that you just... thought it was weird that he was playing? No, I was like, I think I'm raising a completely normal 20-year-old. What game was he playing, do you know? I want to save maybe World Cup of some sort. Oh, FIFA. Yeah.

Is he a FIFA player? He plays it all. He got an Xbox or a PlayStation? You'd have to ask him. I might have to get him on the stream. Can you make my... What's it like having Matt Thomas for a father? Yeah, I don't think I want to ask him.

We did that one time last year when he turned down when he graduated. That's right. We don't do it anymore. We're good. All right. He had nothing but glowing things to say about you, Matt. He did. He did. It's the off-air version where he'd really tell you about what I'm like.

All right. Let's start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show. Ross, let's update the folks on the NBA and on MLB. And yeah, we're going to depress you, but we're going to make it a very short segment. 1257, hour two, and anything goes Friday on Sports Talk 790. Yes, is the Matt Thomas show. Second hour of the Matt Thomas show underway right now on Sports Talk 790. We'd like for you to join us, and you can do so.

by calling 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. Joe George is going to take my spot in the Fantasy 5 because I'm just protesting the horrible horrible results of last week. That's fine. So we just did the pre-draft. This week is Best All-Time NBA Uniforms.

Houston off the board. Yes. Which, again, Houston ketchup and mustard, the authentic ones where they won the titles and the ones in the 80s. The best, the best logo, the best uniform, the best warm-up jacket, everything was the best.

I agree. They never should have... The warm-up jackets are so... I love warm-up jackets. The last dance and they had those classic warm-ups in the 80s and stuff like that. With the big collars? Yeah, they're so great.

I don't mean to get a movement off of a jacket but calm down man the Milwaukee bucks jerseys yeah next week we'll draft best warm-up jackets so Joe and Ross drafted uniforms and we're going to put them on the blog for you guys to look at

yes and then you can vote at 230 I like every one of the jerseys on on on Joe's list so I listen to both your list one it there's a clear and easy winner oh but both are good but there's a clear and easy win both of you did not go five for five

your picks, by the way. I disagree, but that's okay. That's fine. I also believe that there's no way in the world that Octopus's Garden should ever win in a Beatles contest, but I staying corrected on that too. These things happen, Matthew. All right. Baseball update. I'll give you basketball, and we're going to go to the phone.

Okay, great. What? Oh, look at Joe coming in for the one minute. He's not even on Mike. He just came in here to call Matt a hater. He did. 713-212-5-7-9-8 isn't anything goes Friday. And you're going to tell us on that baseball.

This from Carl Ravich. Sources tell me, MLB counterproposalsalsals today will move towards the season of roughly 70-plus games with a salary percentage on the 80 to 85% of pro rata. Playoff pool bonus. My concern are the recent spikes in COVID-19. Worst case would be to start and stop. Will players move? Question mark. He's not saying move to play.

He's saying move off of 100%. Exactly. That's what he's because all throughout these negotiations, if you haven't been following, the players have not backed off of 100% proration for if they play one game or if they play 162, they want full pro-rated salaries. And I believe if they do not come off of that, Ross, we're not having a season that they would agree to. They would then major league baseball would lay the hammer down and say, by our agreement in March, we're going to play 50 games at a pro-rated salary.

Yes. That's going to basically be the least we're going to get. Because Rob Manfred said multiple times yesterday, we're having baseball. how much baseball is going to be the question expanded playoffs is going to be a question but there is going to be baseball in 2020 so let me ask you this if we get to that point

and I'm asking this probably every day in the next two weeks if we get to that pattern what's baseball like I think there will be an initial shock I think it'll take a little bit of time to get in but I think if they're let's say they're playing the minimum 48 games

I think by game seven it'll just be baseball with no fans and we'll be used to it and we'll be watching and we'll be into it I really truly believe that. Will the players be into it? Yes. You really think so?

I think so. Especially the ones that are going to be free agents next year. They're going to put their whole hearts in into it. And I think they're going to... I think the baseball on the field is not going to suffer. Now, will they'll be into it as far as interviews? Will they be into it as far as showing up at events and doing charity things on off-day? My guess they won't even be asked to do that.

They might not even be asked to do it. But if they did, I think you're not going to see any of the extra media. stuff that makes baseball and drives the interest in baseball, you're not going to see that. I have really huge question marks about how many players will come and play this 48 game schedule with as bad of the negotiations that has gone on so far and that would be continuing to force Major League Baseball to say, we've already got you committed, you're going to do this. I think, Ross, you'd have a lot of, yeah, a lot of players would say this just isn't worth it. Well, that's the question that we have that we haven't really had answered.

So the player's proposal we've heard, right, opt-out language. We've heard high-risk, opt-out with salary and service time, not high-risk, opt-out only with service time. And then in the latest proposal from the players, you wouldn't even get service time. What's in the 48-game thing that the owners can trigger? Is there any kind of opt-out system? Are they going to extend? Can Rob Manfred just, what is the procedure? Does he pull a lever and the season gets charged?

triggered? I mean, what happens and what's the details about the opt-out stuff as well? Because even if he pulls a trigger for that 48-game schedule, there's going to be some players and be like, I'm not comfortable doing this. Yes, and so apparently with the procedure would be, if nothing gets done, the players who don't show up would be on the restricted

list. And the players, if they all don't show up, it's an illegal strike. So Sean Doolittle says, my wife has a cute asthma. I'm not playing. They're going to put them on the restricted list. And then you're going to have a mess of legal issues. headed that way.

And oh, by the way, the season will be underway, and by the time it probably gets resolved, Sean Doolittle doesn't have to worry about a playing because there's already half of the season's already gone. This, oh, they've got to get this resolved before that mandate comes into play. Because I think it's going to be a lot of terrible, terrible sentiment.

Now, how much is Major League Baseball watching what the NBA is going on? Let me run through what's going on in the NBA. There was a report initially by Chris Haynes that said that there are a lot of players in the NBA that are very apprehensive about the bubble that apparently have come out of the woodworks in the last handful of days,

saying they don't want to go because they're worried about being in a confined situation on a campus, not being able to free and go as they please. There's also some sentiment that basically, why are you putting us through this to finish out a season and so you owners can make money. Meanwhile, with all the civil unrest we have in America, we're out here just to keep you entertained.

And, of course, I'm paraphrasing, so I'll go to more of it. Taylor Rooks, who works for, I think she works for Turner. I've never heard of her until two hours ago. I thought she was, was she with ESPN before or something? She says she's with Bleacher Report and Turner Sports. I'm a big fan of Taylor Rooks. I don't even know who she, who she is.

I'll look during the break because that's when I'm responsible. supposed to do. I think she's a great great what? I think she's a great journalist, Matt. Yes, I would agree with you. I've spoken to multiple players. Taylor Rook speaking. This is on her Twitter. More about, please, I need to focus.

About five days ago, there was a Zoom call of about 50 players discussing what they can do to take a stand. They are planning another call tonight that was this evening with about 150 players to solidify what that stand is and stress is only works if they unify. Meaning there's a fraction, the players are fractured right now. So Howard Beck, who writes for the New York Times, right? I think one of the New York papers, NBA guy, says adding the Taylor's report, I'm told

today's conference call could involve up to 200 players. Wow. First of all, what's the biggest Zoom you've ever been on in your life? The Monday night meeting with five people. Yeah, I have not been on a Zoom. Now, I was on a Zoom with the University of Houston. on Monday that had about 75 people on it. Oh, really?

Yeah. That was the alumni, I think. Yeah, but most people weren't actively talking. It was 72 people. It was actually 71 people that were watching and there were four people. There was a moderator and there was three of us where I was one of the guest. So I can't imagine hundreds of people trying to talk at the same time. And maybe this wouldn't be what the Zoom call would be.

Would you do it like, well, you were on the Zoom with the Bill O'Brien thing and you probably put your hand up, right? Yes, you put your hand up virtually. Yeah. Is that what you is virtual? And you get in a line? Yeah. All right. Also, so let me add to it Bexel.

So there's 200 people potentially on this call. He also hears that there is a driving force in organizing these calls and raising concerns about NBA's bubble plan. That player is Kyrie Irving, who supposedly Ross, was he not supposed to be out for the rest of the season? Yeah. And I think he's trying to come back. I, okay. We know that Kevin Durant is not coming back. That's already been officially been announced.

But is Kyrie trying to come back? And even if he's not trying to come back, why is an injured player who wouldn't be intimately involved in this event raising such a stink about this? Is it because he's Kyrie Irving? And that's, you know, his name carries a tremendous amount of clout. Is it because Kyrie Irving just wants his name in the newspapers in the in the Twitter world and on,

radio shows? What I don't understand is what happened between Chris Paul and some of the prominent, recognizable players in the NBA that went to Commissioner Silver and said, we want to play basketball. We want a crown a champion. We want those television dollars coming our way. We want good revenue for the league. So next year when we determine the salary cap,

we can take this television money we're earning the rest of this year. and applying it towards next year's salary cap. What happened to those people? Garrett Temple, who is the vice president of the Players Association, said it's important for basketball players, especially African-American basketball players, to show leadership during this time. And he thinks it's a good idea to finish the season.

So who are these players? These apparently up to 200 on a Guzum call that are upset about what the NBA is trying to do in terms of treatment in order to finish this season. There's a massive disconnect, I think. Well, I wouldn't imagine there's 200 people that are all upset and all don't want to play. I don't think that's the case. That's probably true.

And also, I mean, you're saying what happened since then, since Chris Paul came out and spoke, is George Floyd was murdered in the streets and there's protests all over the country. So these athletes who feel like they are influential and who they have voices, if they want to do something and get together and I don't know, make some kind of statement, we don't know what they want to do. We don't know if they're going to refuse to play. I don't think that's going to be the case. We don't know what kind of statement they want to make.

We don't know what kind of statement they want the league to make. I don't know. But that's what's changed. And as I said last hour, I think of all the owners in professional sports in the last 30 or 40 years, the one commissioner that I feel like gets it with his players more than any other is Adam Silver. This to me, I don't think is about the civil unrest. I think it's part of it, but I don't think it's the main core. I think the main crux of this. this issue is you're going to take 22 teams, 15 to 17 players each, and you're going to put them

in a bubble for a handful of weeks. And I think the players are not comfortable with that. I think there's a lot. It's like everything that's happening right now, it's a multi-layered conversation. I don't even think this is about money. I think this is about, I have to go to Orlando and I don't get to see my family for several weeks just to finish out of season. For eight games of pay. Right. Carmelo Anthony was on the record saying as much yesterday. So you're going to have to get those players from those second-tier teams that probably don't think they're good enough to win a championship and convince them that, yeah, we should try to finish this out. 7-13-212-5-790 if you'd like to join us today.

7-1-3-212-5-790 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. It isn't anything goes Friday. We've got the Fantasy 5. We've got Brian T. T. Smith, and we have you at 114 on Sports Talk 790. At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless.

Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Ross, I got more bad news for you. What are you laughing about? Our web hits. Are we doing well? The people love Katie Bell, and I'll just leave it at that. Still? When did you put her on the web?

Monday, I think. What is your favorite Katie Bell moment on the sports talk 7 on a website? Every day of it. She is killing it. Should we get her on the show? Be a huge get. Are she going to talk sports or what? Does it matter what she talks about?

I guess it doesn't. All right. You ready for more bad news? I felt like today's been a Debbie down today. What now, Matt? Lucky's downtown Edo's closing. I saw that. That's a shame.

That was our last big event was there, right? The Monday night, Monday now opener for the Texans last year. We have done lots of things there. We've gone there for Texans Chiefs games. Yes. Texan Saints. I got my head painted there. I've blacked out there a number of times.

Yeah, man. I've had those cheese steak egg rolls many, many, many, many times. Oh, the Philly steak egg rolls are so good. The pizza is really good. The food is really good. The environment's really good. Dang it, Corona. All right, let's do this.

Brandon, you're involved in this too. We're going to rotate. We're just going to talk about bad things that have happened in the last week. You ready? We need some somber music first. Sumber music? Find something really, really sad.

And then we're just going to rotate. We're going to talk about crappy things that have happened all week. Because I've asked people to call in with good stuff and they haven't done that yet. So we might also just add more bad stuff to the mix. So we can find some sad music, something depressing,

Something awful because I'm telling you, Lucky's Pub is our jam. I've gone there many nights after Rockets games. I've gone to there after Astros games. Lucky's, that's our jam. Now, the parking sucks to no end there. Yeah, I would always Uber because I'm a responsible human, Matt. I know I'm going to have, I'm either there for a bunch of mini pitchers or a bucket of beer, some Philly cheese steaks. We made this song one of our worst song, number one songs of the decade.

Was this the number one song? Yeah. No. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't even remember. I picked this song. Did you?

Yeah. I don't remember I lost that one. I got robbed. Whatever. All right, I'm going to start first. I lost my ass in Lake Charles. And I mean, lost it. I have no ass left.

Don't quote that. Well, Tillman Fertita has it. True dad. So it's stayed in the family, so to speak. Yeah. Ross, you're next. What crappy thing happened this week? Uh.

Well, baseball owners and the players are unable to make an agreement. They've had three proposals already this week, and the players are refusing to budge off of 100% of pro-orata. Things aren't going well there. Okay, that sucks. Brennan, what do you got? What's bad this week? I really thought the NBA was our only safe bet to come back.

And you guys are just tearing that down today. I am. Kyrie Irving's tearing it apart. I'm next I had a few drinks last night My stomach has been turned upside down because of it So I've had digestion issues Oh I got another one go I went to a burrito place yesterday

Yeah I get home Yeah I open up the bag And there's no meat You had a meatless burrito? I had grilled I wanted grilled a fajita chicken

That sounds simple enough It was nowhere to be found Anywhere So I had I was home. I had to drive all the way back to the place. And then I get there. The lady already knows.

She's putting her hands out. Yeah. She's like, what happened? I was like, there's no meat on this. And so there's the guy who made it is next to her. And she just totally threw him under the bus and goes, how come you keep forgetting to put people's meat on? That sucks.

There's a little contentiousness there. I love contentiousness. That makes me happy. Yeah. And what else you got? What else have your life sucks? This week. You know, I don't know if this counts.

I don't know if this is fair. But I actually just texted a friend that I have to listen to a Taco Bell commercial every hour. And I want Taco Bell every single day now. Yeah. Every single day I leave work, I have to fight not to the Taco Bell. So you're worried about your overall health because of this. Yeah. Okay. I think I got one more.

What else is really sucky? I lost my ass the casino. I'm having digestion issues today. Oh. Oh, I'll be brutally honest. with you. I'm sick and tired of talking about non-of-negotiations. Like another layer of crap today from the NBA. Of sports that aren't happening. Yeah. So that's three things. There you go.

So again, let's recap me. I'm going to the bathroom every 90 minutes. I've lost my ass in the casino where the ass is back in the bathroom. And I'm talking about NBA now wigging out about the bubble. And Lucky's Pub is gone. And Lucky's Pub is gone. You got one more? And nothing is immediately coming to mind. Okay, as soon as it does, let me know. I got one. Go ahead. I had to spend three of my five days in my first full week here

without Matt Thomas on the Matt Thomas show. Oh, man. That's what I'm saying. I agree. That's really, that's, but now you feel better. We told him kissing ass would really go a long way here, especially when it's Matt Thomas's. For sure.

Yeah, the kiss ass will work beautifully for you. No question about that. All right, let's go to Jimmy at 125 on 7-90. Jimmy, what do you got today? Well, I just wanted to put – y'all could have done a different spin on the Lucky's closing thing, not talking about things that have happened bad in the last week, but let's talk about like best blackout moments at Lucky's.

Oh, I can't remember, though. No, man, of course you know the day after that it was bad. You know, my best was 2017 game four World Series. Yeah. where it was very difficult to get a table there during the World Series and probably any other big game. But got there like six hours before game time and started drinking to hold it down for some friends. And I woke up on a curb. You woke up on a curb?

So you went from being there and then not knowing how you got to the curb? No, there were some things that happened. And I remember the ending of the game. We had a good – I think that was a Halloween. party-type night. Oh, yeah. And so we did that. And then, yeah, curb.

Dang. I've never working up on a curb. Jeremy, how often would you go to Lucky's? Probably once or twice a year. Not really that often because of the, like you said, the parking. Parking sucks. That's the biggest problem. That has been an issue, obviously, lately.

But, yeah, the parking's been the worst thing. Thank you, Jeremy, for the phone call. Ross, let's throw it out there. Anybody got any spectacular lucky ones? moments. Gotten luckies from luckies? I mean, have you ever, um, experienced sensuality? There's only a matter of time before it would go this way.

No, it's not. I'm just throwing, I'm just throwing different things out there. Okay. We've had, remember we did a show where we were talking about great moments in a rodeo? Yes. And how they, and the guy talked about how he met, he and his wife were getting after it on the Ferris wheel. On the Ferris wheel and in the Port-a-Pottis.

It was two different callers, I think. Yeah. So, I mean, I can't. think of many more dirty places than the Houston livestock show and rodeo porta potty. Let me tell you. And this man was getting down in there. I could do the Ferris wheel. I don't think I could do the porta potty.

The mood strikes, Matt. No. There's plenty of... There's a feeling of love in the air. No. No. And Miller Light on your breath. No. Tell me the first time you've ever been into a porta potty and it's like, man, it smells wonderful on here.

If it's a tailgate and you're the first one to go. You put the pot down. right, the lid. Yeah. And there's nothing in there. And there's nothing in there. It smells great. That's when you can,

but if you're, you're assuming, you're assuming that couple they called the show. Literally about 14 seconds after that, it's a disgusting mess. See, again,

I don't think it's possible that the couple that hooked up were in a clean porno body. And can we have a public service announcement about why are you people peeing on seats? Yeah,

lift the damn thing up. Lift it up. Did your mother or, I don't know, father somebody not teach you? Or any female in your life. Having any sense of class? It literally takes five,

seconds. How come 75% of of port-a-potties we go to? First of all, a lot of them have the little urinal thing on the left. There's pee all over the seat. What are you people doing? Are you six years old? No, quite frankly, maybe I did that when I was six years old because I thought it was funny.

Is your aim that bad? Yeah. How drunk are you? No matter how drunk you are, lift it up. Be respectful for the girls. Yes. And for us that have digestion issues. Yeah. If you need to make a run, If the bacon-wrapped halapinos from the tailgate are hitting yard, you got to go, man.

If you were Brendan looking to get those nine charitos from Taco Bell. Yeah, if he's having nine-inchuritos and a cheesy gordita crunch, it's going to run through you. By the way, Taco Bell, invent something else. You just make up words that sound Hispanic in order to talk about the same thing. You take a hard shell, you wrap a tortilla around it, you throw beans on it, you call it a mexinito or something like. I don't what the hell you're doing over there. You should be on the Taco Bell marketing team. That was brilliant.

I just explained what it was, right? 128. I'll take Lucky's moments. It was this girl. She had a sleeve on. Still wanted to be with her. Why wouldn't you want to be with her? Because he has a sleeve, Matt.

Why don't you say still? Because, I mean, the sleeve, you know, sometimes. What? I don't even know what you're getting at. Good. 128, Sports Talk 790. The pros do it on the bench. Rest.

management. You can do it at home. Oh, I don't want to get up. Just ask your smart speaker. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Alex Bregman here. Get 790. And Breggman drives it pretty deep to left field. Get your stroze on the radio.

That the wall looking up and that ball is gone. Time is 133. Brian T. with us at 2 o'clock for a weekly Friday visit. Fantasy 5. Ross, do we have the entries on our blogs, by the way, yet? We're doing a uniform once.

It is on the what's on Matt's Vine show page. I don't know if, yeah, I have it. Do you want to tweet it out? Twitter it out, please. All right, well, you've got to talk while I type. All right. Yeah, by way, people are asking about Lucky's was closed. It's the Lucky's East Downtown location apparently is closing.

And I'm seeing this on variety of different people that I trust on Twitter. You wouldn't make this up. So that's the Edo. I think there's a Katie location. I think Rod Ryan owns the one out in Katie. That one I think is still going. But the one in Edo is apparently going out of business. So 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. Aaron's and King, one of the Matt Thomas show. Aaron, what's going on? Hey, guys. Good afternoon to you. Hi. I just wanted to give you an uplifting story for this starting at a weekend. Please.

For my mother-in-law, she had heart surgery. last week and she gets to come home today. There you go. That's a good story for us. Yeah. And then my second one is my daughter who just graduated from college. It was offered a job yesterday. Oh, hell yeah.

Off of your payroll. That's the best thing ever. Yeah, that's the best part. Where did she go to college? She went up to Stephen up Austin. Very nice. What is she going to do? I found herself a teaching job.

Oh, good for her. Great school for teachers. That's for sure. Yeah. So, hey, I had a idea with, or a thing with the NBA, you've been talking about with people concerned going into the bubble.

Right. It seems that if they want to have some kind of, the players want to have some kind of voice, what better way to do it than they have their games on TV and at some point they're going to have, if they have something to say or whether they're wearing a shirt or at least have a chance for them to be on

TV so that people can see them and that they can say something about the racial issues. There's no question. They have, they would have a powerful impact if they were interviewed, could put things on their jerseys, whatever you, whatever, if they have a message and thank you for the phone call

and congratulations and all that great news, Aaron, thanks for listening. If they want a positive change, be on television. Let's hear from you. Ross, we're in a world right now.

We are communicating more than we ever had before, and it's frankly refreshing. I don't think people are afraid to say things anymore. That's good. Yeah, I think that's what they're talking about and trying to get together and discuss, us is how do we go about making a statement or something like that.

I don't think they're saying if we need to say something or we're not playing. I don't know that it's getting that done. I don't think it's that drastic. I hope you're right. But I'm telling you, Ross, if they don't play this season, is it going to be because of the bubble? I think it's going to be multilayered. Bubble, putting yourselves at risk. I don't know how much social justice is going to in the George Floyd situation.

But how do you solve that part? I don't have an answer to that. How do you solve that this isn't, we shouldn't be playing during a time of civil unrest? I think quite the opposite. There are so many NBA players. I see them all the time with, I'm in the league all the time. That really could have a powerful, positive message. I think they think that they're just being used as a getaway to the social issues.

You know what? Sports does that. Sports makes us forget about unemployment rates. Sports forget, makes us. forget about COVID. Sports makes us forget about cancer and other sad things in our world. I mean, that's what sports does. Well, maybe they don't want to be a distraction from that message.

Maybe they don't, why, we shouldn't forget about George Floyd. We shouldn't forget about Rachel and Justin. We shouldn't. Nobody's going to go, well, I don't care about what's happening in our country because I got the Rockets versus Clippers game on. I don't think that's, I agree with that, but you're saying that sports is a distraction and maybe they don't want to be that detraction. I don't know. I'm not their mind. But I'm just saying it's not about being a distraction. It's about having their voices heard and wanting to say something and wanting to try to affect change. And you know what?

The best way you can do that is being by playing basketball? Yeah, by being on television. You know, having a chance to speak. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because you're not going to affect change unless if you if you're not going to play a season because of a variety of issues, the best way to get out and get out in front of this is to be on television. I don't think playing basketball games is going to help Kyrie Irving make a social injustice but but not being on this

but not playing is not going to help are people going to go wow these players are not playing because I think of social injustice we might have a problem in this country I think so if they all come together and say we are not playing because of social injustice

then that will then that will make waves so then how do you fix that in time for next season? You don't. So then you don't ever play again? I didn't say that I don't you're going to have to ask Kyrie Irving.

This to me is more about the bubble. I really believe this. I think they are losing their minds. They're thinking, why are you going to put us in it? Now, putting them in a campus is one thing, but if they want to go hang out with their family and friends, that's probably what's bothering more than anything else. I can't imagine the George Floyd murder is, we're not hearing that from football players.

Football players are speaking out right now. Football players are getting ready for a season. I don't hear, I don't hear African-American people. baseball players saying I'm not playing because of the civil unrest. Now, granted, the NBA has more African-American players than any other sport. I get that. But man, there are too many cool guys. There are too many really good people in the NBA that have, I mean, Chris Paul Rossi carries a huge message. He carries it. He when he speaks people listen and I'm willing to listen to him. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean because he's only playing basketball,

but man, I just, I would hope that this would not be the reason why. that they are just wgging out about being in their hotel rooms and being an arena and not being able to their friends and family. That would sound more justifiable than we don't want to, for us playing basketball is a deterrent of what America is going through. America is going through all of this. We're all trying to learn. We're all trying to be better. We're all trying to hear each other sides. I don't think not bouncing a basketball is going to make those conversations go silent.

I just don't. It's my opinion. I mean, neither is bouncing a basketball. But again, they're saying it's hurting. I don't see how it's hurting. I'm not saying it's playing better, but I don't think it hurts. It's not hurting the cause. NFL players, Ross, are having Zoom meetings and getting ready for the season.

I don't hear one NFL team talking about not wanting to play. Well, the NFL is also committed $250 million to helping racial injustice. They just named Juneteenth a national holiday or a holiday for the league. You had a statement come out from Roger Goodell. And they haven't seen anything. And the NBA is a commissioner that is probably the most player-friendly commissioner in the history of sports. Well, has he come out with anything? I mean, maybe that's what they want to see.

Go look at what the NBA is done. I'm sure the NBA has done a lot of things. I don't know. Like I said, the NFL is trying to do what they can. The NBA has done probably more than the NFL. There's been a huge problem with the owners not saying anything. I mean, Cal McNair is one of the few owners that have said something. I have the feeling if you went and looked at timelines of NBA teams and websites,

I think you'd see a strong faction of this is unacceptable. I'm just telling you, I don't think you're helping the cause by saying we're not going to play basketball. Now, again, this could be 10 players, this could be 25, this could be 100. But this is Chris Haynes put out of tweet a few, like 30 minutes ago. So according, as Taylor Rooks and Howard Beck have said, Kyrie Irving is organized a call tonight for players to discuss what position they should take. He's of the mindset that during racial tension not returning to play should be considered.

Okay. So maybe they just want, and maybe their philosophy is, us not playing is a sign of we got bigger fish to front in our world. Yeah. Okay. Playing basketball is low on the priority list, quite frankly, of a lot of things. of economics and racial injustice and things we have going on. But my issue with that is, if you're going to say that, does that mean in December when the next season is supposed to start?

Is everything going to be fixed by that point? I just think you're going down a slippery slope of you're going to use this as a reason not to play. At what point do you feel like we've done enough where you feel comfortable in playing? That's my only point. Is that you say we're not doing this because, unfortunately, the problems in our country are not going to be solved by the end of this year, sadly. So I just, I would hate for them to use that as a reason why they're not going to play. If they are just like, we're not going to play because we're not going to Orlando.

I do not want to be stuck in a four-mile square area and I don't want to be away from my family for six weeks, which very well could happen. Ross, there are going to be players that are going to be going there in July that are not going to leave Orlando until October. That's a factor. That is, that to me would be the one that would probably wig me out more than anything else. And also there's players that are like, we've got six or eight games left in the season. We're not making the playoffs. I don't want to be in this situation even for four weeks. Again, it's hard for us to determine this because we're talking about a variety of very important issues that span 100 players.

50 players, 25. Yeah. I just understand what they're saying. I mean, because these players, like Russell Westbrook is out at a protest with a megaphone putting his fist up. I think if he's going through that experience and he's going through that protest, he probably would have a step back moment where he says, you know what? I mean, how important is playing basketball right now when all this is going on? And all these thousands of people are protesting in the streets and all these cities are burning and all these things are happening. If he steps back and has the moment or whoever, any of these players at these protests and say, you know what, maybe basketball isn't that important right now, I totally get that.

Okay, so answer this question. Is it better in December? Could it be so much better in December? These guys will come back and play. It would be better in December, yes. I hope you're right. But I can't, nobody can guarantee that. I'm not saying social injustice is going to be solved by December, but that's not the point.

The point is this just happened. I think you get an opportunity to have a lot of world of good when you have the platform. Because, like, America would be watching basketball. It would be. Forget about the shots. Forget about these, you get a thing about these high profile, very, very popular people with a chance of an international message while playing and finishing out something they want to do and get compensated for it.

Bring the world to. via basketball. I'm not disagreeing with that. 144 is a time. It is the Matt Thomas show. We take you to 3 o'clock today. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790 with a message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Auto rates are as low as 1.99% APR with the Shell Federal Credit Union. ShellFCU.org is their website. You can get two skip a pays a year. You can ask about deferred payments. And if you get a new vehicle, you get it at 1.99%. Refinance the vehicle you currently have at 1.99% or perhaps a pre-owned at 1.99.

All I ask you to do. This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas fine. Texas five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

We have some other headlines I want to get to before we wrap up the show today, including Alex Kora spoke for the first time. sports RV since his year's suspension. Ah, yes. He didn't say a lot except Alex Cora. He didn't say a whole lot, but he just, what a peach. He just wanted to make sure that he and Carlos Belcher and not the only two fall guys. We'll explain that coming up in a minute. Let me go to Alex in the Woodlands on 7-90. Alex, good afternoon. What's going on? What's going on, Matt? Welcome back.

And we all know that you're only back because you didn't win enough to stay. We know. Let me tell you something. That is absolutely right. My wife told me, she says, if you, you know, I went with a buddy, and she says, if you win so much and you want to fly home and say an extra day, you can't. She gave you permission? Yeah, I was ready to leave after the first day. I should have taken the L early and just kept going, but no, I went back to the tables, gave my $25 pass line, then backed that up and then put money on the specific numbers, and I kept losing and losing. So I go to the black check, and I kept losing and losing.

I was just rotating from one losing table to the next. So there's my story, and I'm sticking to it. You are what's known as a mark. Correct. I say that affectionately. But let me tell you this. I lost more money than I ever had probably in the last 10 years, but I'm still probably up a couple thousand dollars for the year, so I feel pretty good.

So as the kids say, you win some, you lose some. Kids don't say that. You know, all this money that we've been saving, staying home from COVID, one of my best friends from high school, you graduated college, you moved back home, and he doesn't have anything going on, so he's just, like, getting unemployment and staying home, and I guess he's bored, so he came and stayed with me, and, like, all of that money that I saved, I've just spent it. And it sucks.

It's not my favorite thing in the world spending money that I saved. But anyway, so I got a Lucky's moment that I want to remember me and one of my buddies. I don't know if he's listening. Brian Domino, you're out there. What's up? What's up? Brian Domino. We left Lucky's.

We left Lucky's after watching every time I die. and we're walking by we left Warehouse we're walking by Lucky's I'm like hey let's get up a drink so we go and grab a drink and lo and behold the singer for my favorite band from every time I die is sitting at the bar

or no we're sitting there and all of a sudden he walks up with his one of their roadies or whatever their friends and he sits right next to us and we're like just playing it cool everything's cool and then like within half an hour we're doing shots with the band all the other bands that went on tour came in my best friend is drunk wrestling

one of their best friends and everybody in Lucky's watching it. The bartenders are letting it happen. It was awesome. It was one of the best moments ever. So, yeah, I'm definitely going to miss Lucky's. That was a great place. I've not been, obviously, since the pandemic. I wonder what happened is just a fact of bars closing is just you can only stay around for so long. I mean, I don't what, have you been in the last two weeks at all? No, not at all. That's maybe like a six time of year type thing. I don't, I live in the Woodlands. I don't see, that's a problem is with the inner city bars. It's hard to have regulars, right? I mean,

does Lucky have regularers? I would imagine you. That's the thing about Houston Sports in general. That's why we don't, that's why we show up to games late. Houston is huge. It's not a walk. Yeah, I mean Warehouse Live's been closed, right? There's been no concerts. That's the thing. They get a huge bump from the Dynamo Stadium. They get a huge bump from

from Minutemey Park. They get a huge bump. Even people that go to Rockets games would want to just go hit Lucky's before. After a Rockets game, I've been with friends who are like, where we go? You know what? Let's go to Lucky's. It's not that far away. And so I think they were definitely, especially that East Downtown location, depending on sports going around. And I'm sure that's definitely affected them in a huge way. Yeah. They're definitely pre and post game spot and during the game spot for Astros.

Yeah, this feels like sports and concerts had a lot to do with this. Yeah, I would be at Lucky's. Would you go during an Astros game, people will leave the Astros game in the fifth inning just to go have a cheaper beer and have some good eats at Lucky's. It was always a great spot to be right there. So unfortunately, I'm sure the writ is super high over there in East Downtown, and a lot of their economy depends on the sports. They're always a great spot. So were you buying the shots,

or was the band buying the shots for you? Are you still there? Oh, he's going, okay. All right, there you go. Thanks for that lucky story. You've probably bothered. They probably traded rounds at some point. Who's the most famous person you ever had a drink with?

Matt Thomas. That you did not go with intentionally. Like you happened to. I don't know if I have any stories like that. You know, Austin on 6th Street, my brother's got a lot of stories about that. He was, not me, though. I don't think I was there for any of those.

Marcus Aldridge he ran into. Oh, really? Cedric Brinson, may he rest? I'm trying to think. I don't know if I ever partied with any of there? I don't think I've ever done that myself. I don't think I've ever had. Now, I've seen people at restaurants and bars, but I've never walked up and sat down and had to drink.

Now, the only, the close thing it was is that we took listeners in 1998 to Chicago to see the Astros, but the Cubs at Wrigley Field. and we went to the hotel where the team was staying, and I went to the bar because I was waiting for some people, and I sat at the bar, and to the left me was Mike Hampton. And this really attractive woman did not mess around with how what she wanted to do with Mike Hampton. So they got out of there pretty quickly. No, he said, I'm married and no, thank you, yeah.

How about that? Wow. What about that for a story? Good for him. And I said, I look to my left. I said, I bet that happens you all the time. He goes, yes, it does. I said, yeah, ballgame.

Should have been a pitcher. That's my story. Greatest, one of my five favorite hitting pitchers of all time. Probably, yeah. I would say so. The guy would come in and pitch hit sometimes. He's had double-digit home runs in his life. Career ones.

I would imagine, yeah. He's close. All right. Let me go to, let's go to Larry and Galveston a second time this week on the show. Larry, what's going on? M.T. How you go, buddy? I'm broke. Oh, man, I tell you what, I've been listening to you, and I really feel your pain, but, you know, there's one thing that I think you're missing at the casino.

And that is, you need to go to the roulette table and bet down and dirty on number 35. Why 35? That is the number. That is the number. every time I go and play roulette in Shreveport in Budger City, Louisiana. Bozier City, Matt, your spot. I've been to Bojur City before, yeah. Oh, yeah.

And I walk in with 25 and I walk out with some nice change. All right, very good. Thank you. Thank you very much of the phone call. I'm not a roulette player per se, Larry, but in honor of you, I'll do it one time. What are the odds of me hitting 35, Ross? That would be one in 36, or one of 35 to 1. Or is it 36?

No, well, actually, the actual odds are 37 to 1, they pay you 35 to 1. If I hit the 35. Mm-hmm. That's a good payoff, but. I'm sorry, yeah, 37 to 1 are the actual odds, 35 to 1 are what they would pay you. That's how they make money. Yeah, I've never been a roulette fan. I hate roulette.

When the guy says, no more bets, no more bets. I think that's kind of fun. That's the fun part is when he does that and the wheel's, start spinning. And you just watch. You go around and around and around and then they take up all your money. First casino game I ever played? War. First? At the Tropicana.

I played war. I was in, we were waiting for the Lion King show at Mandalay Bay. That's the one's the only time I played war. I put down $100 down, $20 a bet, lost five straight hands, said I'll never play it again. Yeah. I think we even tied on one. They take you on ties or something like that.

Well, they don't do the three card thing after that? I don't remember. It was some kind of, it was some kind of, It was some kind of joke. I was like, this is the worst game ever. Yeah. And the Lion King show was fantastic. Well, at least you won that you won half your bet. Yeah.

You got your investment. Well, those Lion King tickets were not cheap. Brian T. Smith opens up the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. We have the Fantasy 5, Ross Rookfast. We've got 10 seconds here. Tell folks where they can find your uniforms so they can look at what you guys shows. Yes, if you want to go to the What's on Matt's Mine show page, or if you want to go to my Twitter at SportsRV, I put the link up there.

So we're going to have the Fantasy 5 at 230. Best NBA jerseys of all time. We did not put names in the list, but one list is mine. One list is Joe George. Judge for yourself, and then you can call us with who has the best list coming up at 230 on the Matt Thomas show. All right. Brian T. next on 790. It's the Matt Thomas Show.

Here we go. The final hour on the Matt Thomas Show 201 on the Sports Talk 790. Alongside Rossville Real, I'm Matt Thomas. our regular Friday contributor to the show always brings in the good takes at Friday 2 p.m. It's Brian T. Smith. Brian, we've tried to on this show today have some optimism about things. I'm not getting it from baseball. And now basketball is starting to wig me out. Are you in the same boat as I am?

Yeah, I am. And honestly, I've been here since what March 11th, Matt, it just seems like everything. political, social, sports-wise, COVID-wise, everything is a stumbling step forward and then maybe two stumbling steps backward and then we go forward again and backward. And I mean, the general feeling that I continue to get from everyone, you know, whether it's readers or people on Twitter or sports fans, it's like everyone's just mentally exhausted, you know, And I try to be, especially in print, and some people would laugh at this, but I try to be optimistic. And, you know, sometimes the Texans of the Rockets might not help that.

That's how sports goes. But overall, I do try. And I've really tried during this because I believe optimism is needed. And unity is needed during this to get through this. But you look at how Corona's gone the last few days, how some of our bleep in elected leaders continue to handle this thing locally. And then you look at the sports situation and Major League Baseball, and we'll get into that in a minute, I'm sure. But the NBA, you know, the NBA where you have a sourced report. And we saw this, Matt, before the approval started to pick up, the return started to pick up, where players are uncomfortable coming back.

But it isn't interesting that there hasn't really been a single name attached to that? It's always 30 or 40, 40 or 50 guys. Look, if they don't feel comfortable, that's fine. That's their right. but the NBA is going to move on without them as long as the NBA actually comes back. I mean, they're saying they're going to come back, but if things continue to spike, maybe they don't. Yeah, the one player that Howard Beck wrote about today that apparently has been leading this is Kyrie Irving. So take that for what it's worth.

And Kyrie Irving is the same, you know, I mean, he has every right, every right of the human being, if it's health-related. Obviously, he was dealing with injuries. Brooklyn is a championship contender. He has every right to express that. Kyrie Irving is also the same person who a couple of years ago insisted that the earth was flat, got destroyed for it, and then kind of came out and said he was joking the entire time. I don't really put a lot of stock in anything that Kyrie Irving says. Well, here's the thing that Ross and I debated, and I took the opposite.

I said, you know, some of it has been because of the social outrage that we've gone through the last few weeks, and that I think the platform of putting games on television, playing, finishing out of season could do a lot of good towards, not only getting us back into the world of sports, but also sending out a message that wants to be out there. Ross's contention was that maybe there are enough players

that just don't feel like that basketball can do any good on this, and that they need to take a stand that the problems of our country in the last few weeks can't be solved by play. playing basketball. And this is the way they need to say, you know what, we need change in our society. And the best we can do that is by saying, you know what, sports can't fix this. We need real talk. So I'm not asking you to pair a side on this. I'm just curious how much of

that. I will pick a side. All right. Go ahead. I love Ross. He is 100,000 percent wrong as he sometimes is. And Austin, Austin is very right. He's completely wrong. Look, sports don't fix everything. Nobody is saying that sports fix everything, but sports help. And there's a reason that many of us have based, many of us have based parts of our lives, all of our lives around sports and family and whatever else you believe in in the last 20 or 30 years. And that sports have become so important, Matt, in our culture. I think we are seeing in many ways what happens to modern life, which is absolutely insane and crazy and way too complex and busy. This is what happens when you don't have anything, when you can't go into work, when you don't know if you can go

to the grocery store, when it's weird to go out to eat, when you don't have any sports. We have so few diversions now. And yes, having Major League Baseball on, having the NBA on, is it going to fix the racial issue? Hell no. Does it help society move forward? And is it a huge part of the society that we live in. Hell, yes. And so I will say, as long as this goes on, we need sports back and we are missing sports. And it can help things. It definitely doesn't hurt anything. See, I'm just saying that the players are talking about, hi, Brian, how's it going? Hi, Rob. It's a 100% wrong guy here. So I'm just saying that the play, I understand where the players are feeling. All they're doing is having a conversation right now. We haven't heard that they said they

don't want to play. We haven't heard that they're protesting the league and they're refusing to play or anything like that. We just know that they want to make a statement. Perhaps they want some action from the league. We don't know. And I understand for a guy like Russell Westbrook, who gets in front of a crowd and gets on a megaphone and puts his fist up and marches in these protests, or Jalen Brown, who is also on the PA executive committee, who drives 15 hours to Atlanta in order to march in solidarity in a protest. If he has a moment where he says, you know what, basketball's not that important right now. There are a lot of things going on in our country,

and I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back. If they want to say that, I think that's totally well within their right. So that's what I'm saying. If they don't want to come back or if they don't think it feels right, that's their choice. And playing a basketball game might not be high on their priority list. Yeah, but it seems like it's all tied to corona and health issues and family, not right.

I mean, if Russell Westbrook comes out and says that, then that will be a huge issue. be very surprised. Look, and I'm not, he can say whatever he wants. He's an incredibly passionate, smart, committed, driven person. I mean, Russell Westbrook makes the world a better place in many, many ways. He's also incredibly competitive. And he, I would imagine, wants to finish this season, wants to win a title with his friend James Harden, came to the Rockets for a reason. I just don't believe we can continue to stop the world and accept. And, expect it to keep moving forward.

And look, MLS is coming back. College football is going to come back. The PGA is playing right now. I respect, if that is the viewpoint, which I haven't heard, if that's the viewpoint, fine. But at some point, they have to work. We all have to work and make a living, Ross. Well, my point is this. I think this is, while it is an issue, I think we would not, we don't want to be naive to this.

I think there is tremendous angst about the bubble. And I think they don't. That's what I believe is. understand, well, I guess they now have come to comprehend that once you get to Orlando and once you get to the Walt Disney World headquarters, you're not leaving. And I think that's wigging a lot of players out. Well, and look, really quick, the bubble, and now, I agree with Ross on this. If it was corona-related, the bubble-related, I would agree with that. The bubble is crazy, Matt.

Major League Baseball, if it comes back, is not going to do a bubble. The NFL is not going to do a bubble. College football is not going to do a bubble. MLS is, but the MLS is, but the MLS is, isn't, let's just be frank, is not the NBA. The idea that if you're a coach or you're in PR or you're a player and you're basically sequestered on some level for two months, three months, and you still have corona going on, that's difficult. It's going to really affect the media. I mean, I don't know how many people are actually going to be able to go there, let

alone afford to go there. So the NBA's decision to wait this long to dry and be so super safe, it'll be interesting. and I agree with Ross in this point, if it actually backfires. If they've tried to make it so perfect and so protective, but it's almost too protective and you kind of can't have a life. Maybe you are better staying at home. Well, listen, listen, and we'll get both of your opinions on this. What if I said, all right, we're going to campus,

we're going to Walt Disney World, but we're going to check every day when you get in, and if you're cleared and you don't have the virus and you have not been tested, you don't have a fever, you just play your games and you go back and you go stay at your hotel, but if you want to go have dinner at Universal or you want to go into downtown Orlando, whatever, you know, we can't watch you 24 hours a day. Do you think that's a realistic possibility or do you think because of the intense testing that they're just going to be saying the longer we're taking these guys and putting them away from our campus and not out of our control, the bigger chance we have for the virus to infiltrate the NBA campus?

I mean, I just feel like that maybe them being too overprotective could ultimately cost them. which is strange to say. Yeah, no, I agree with that. And that's where I would understand if I was Kyrie Irving or Russell Westbrook or Jalen Brown, whomever. Do you really want to completely go with? Here's the thing that we don't know if they're going to.

I mean, I heard Ross joking about this when he's filling in last week, and he was 100% right about this. Somebody's going to get busted. I mean, who's going to be the first person who goes out. And TMZ is going to be there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, Instagram at 2am, and then the bubble's broken.

That's exactly right. who's that's a game we can play Brian who's the bubble breaker James Harden minus 300 well here's the thing last week yeah here's the thing is it is it 7 8 9 seeds in the west and east that know that they're going to be gone

or is it 1 2 3 seeds in the east and west that know that they got a chance to be there until October what if it's no one someone no one thinks about it and if someone the NBA really needs what if it's Zion what if Mike Shosheski has to give Zion

some more back days oh that's not not He has to find a way to get it. That is not nice. That's all right. So let's go to one depressing topic of the next. Major League Baseball, apparently according to Carl Ravich, is going to say 70-game season. We're going to ask the players to make 80 to 85% of their prorated salaries.

That's all well and good, Brian, but there have been two things that have been very consistent. The owners under every circumstance have said portion of prorated salary. The players under every single circumstance have said 100%. prorated salary. So we're just splitting hairs here, right? We are. And Matt, if you have this many counter proposals in public, everyone else is coming back, planning to come back, NHL, NBA, MLS, on down. What is wrong with Major League Baseball? And if you have these counter proposals and they're still polarizing to each side, but getting closer, how come they can't compromise? How come everyone else in the world is having to

compromise. Even the president of the United States, local elected leaders are having to compromise, and major league baseball players and owners can't compromise enough to make a deal. I'm writing in Sunday's Chronicle about Rob Manfred and baseball. And look, Adam Silver's not perfect. The bubble might end up being a little too sanitized. Roger Goodell has had some issues in the past. Nobody's perfect, but Rob Manfred, two of your last three world series winners, alleged cheaters, cheaters at Major League Baseball investigated and penalized in some way. Now you have this labor issue during corona, during the economy having, you know, at 1.40 million plus unemployment, you know, filings with all the racial unrest. Rob Manfred can't get his league

together to get a compromise. Guess what's airing on Sunday night on the ESPN, I believe, the 30 for 30 on the 1998 home run chase, right? McGuire and Sosa and what a farce that was. Major League Baseball just keeps hitting it, punching itself on the face like it's Ken Giles. And if anyone is failing right now, Matt, it's Rob Manfred. Yeah, that union just has not budge one bit, one out. And frankly, they just keep saying, keeps in those proposals.

We're not coming back remaining less than 100%. BTS, a great weekend. We'll talk to you next Friday. Thank you, friend. You got it, Brian T. Smith from The Chronicle at Cron Brian Smith on Twitter. And, of course, you can read his stuff at the Houston Chronicle. Alex Corr spoke. We'll let you hear what he had to say.

Well, not here, but we'll read some of the things he had to say about really the first time he's spoken since being suspended for a year by Major League Baseball, losing his job as a manager of the Boston Red Sox. That's after a message here for Big City Wings. Would you like some delicious wings tonight? Yeah, you don't feel like cooking. It's been a long, long week. It's been a long spring, but it'd be a long summer. Delicious wings, bone in, boneless, all different sauces, all different flavors, dry rub, the terriaki, which is a personal favorite.

The sour cream onion dry rub is fantastic garlic parma is a personal fave. Also, I mentioned this in the first hour of the show. If you love crawfish and you can't get enough, Big City wings still has huge, huge crawfish available, five pounds for $25. Not weighing it down with a bunch of other side stuff. You get the other stuff if you want, but the crawfish in itself, Five pounds for $25. Big on crawfish, big on wings, big on special.

Rip it H-Tale, like five slamma-jammer. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bumbie, the Trillo, G. With the whitest man in America, Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in to Sports Talk 790, man. All right, listen very carefully. The Fantasy 5 is largely visual. You can vote without seeing it, but I think, think it would help you if you saw the uniforms. So do yourself a favor.

Mm-hmm. Go to our website, sports790.com, go to our Twitters. And you can see for yourself, who has a better uniforms collection? This is NBA uniforms all time. The rocket uniforms are excluded, right? Yes. Any of them. No rocket uniform.

No Houston rocket uniforms. No San Diego rocket uniforms. Those are actually pretty good. The green ones? I like those. Yeah, green and yellow. Yep. But the best, the ketchup and mustard are not eligible.

So NBA uniforms, not involving the rockets, Joe George and Sports RV in a competition because I am protesting the terrible, terrible performance that I received last week when I was up 3 to 1, should have won probably 75 to 1. Instead, a bunch of lunatics decided to vote for Joe George, because I think they felt sorry for it. I believe after hearing the draft,

I predicted a 4-1 win for Matt Thomas. I was almost there. Yeah. All right. Real quick, Alex Cora. spoke to ESPN. He says he deserves his punishment for his role in the Astro scheme, but he took Ross Umbridge with suggestions that he and Carlos Beltron were the driving forces behind it.

You know when someone takes umbrage? You know what that means? They're not happy. Not happy. Quote, there has been a narrative out there of what happened. ever since mid-November until the commissioner announced the results of the Red Sox investigation, I have read many things that are true and many other things that are not.

Out of this whole process, if there is one thing that I completely reject and disagree with, is people within the Astros organization singling me out, particularly former general manager Jeff Luno, as if I was a sole mastermind. The commissioner's report sort of explained in its own way what happened. But the astro players have spoken up and refuted any allegations that I was solely responsible. If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it is that it was not a two-man show. We all did it. And let me be very clear that I am not denying my responsibility because we were all responsible.

Can I give you my take on this? Go ahead. Yes. I think a lot of players fully admitted that they took advantage of it. Yes, they did. But it takes a mastermind. It takes a team captain, if you will. It takes a leader.

It takes a person that says, hey, let's try this. And Alex Cora and Carlos Beltron were those two people. There's always leaders of the pack. There's always leaders of any scheme. There's always Oceans 11, Danny Ocean, and Brad Pitt and George Clooney are the leaders. Yeah, yeah, sure, the other guys were involved, but there were leaders. And that's what it was. And he didn't like being called out.

He wasn't called by name in the statement from Jeff Luno, but Jeff Luno kind of made. some generalities, said players and below-level employees, and then also said bench coach, which can only be one person. Right. And that's fine. You know why Alex Cora? Because you were involved. And guess what, Maddie? Yes. The funniest thing to me

about this is the hypocrisy of Alex Cora. Did you see in that statement what he said about regarding the Red Sox video replay system investigation? Go ahead. He said the report quote speaks for itself. What did that report say, Matt?

The reports of the players all through the bus, through the guy under the bus, the video guy. J.T. Watkins. Yeah, you know the only man named. He was the only man who was punished for any of this. So Alex Cora doesn't like getting singled out, but he has no problem with J.T. Watkins, who relayed information to somebody in the replay room,

who replayed it to the dugout, who related to second base, who related to the, batter on base, apparently all happening without Alex Cora, not knowing anything about it. Who has a history of doing the exact same thing they're doing. And J.T. Watkins had a history as well. So Alice Cora doesn't have an issue. It, quote, speaks for itself when J.T. Watkins gets singled out and is the only guy punished. But when it's, when it's you and you didn't even get named by Jeff Luno, that's where you have issue for getting singled out literally what happened to J.T. Wachis.

So the headline on ESPN is accurate. Alex Cora says Astro a sign ceiling wasn't a two-man show. That is exactly right. Yeah. But it was led by two men. Yes. Created by two men. Yes. Perpetrated by two men. Yes. Divised by two men. Oh, but the Red Sox thing? One-Man show. J.T. Watkins, he did by himself. Rogue. Alex Corr is never managing again. I take Umbrage with Alex Cora not saying, you know what? I had something to do with this Red Sox thing and not, and letting J.T. Watkins take all the fall. That's what I take. I have something for you. Alex. I take Umbris. with people saying that, yeah, the Astro situation is completely different than the Red Sox.

I agree with that. I take umbrage on the reason why the Red Sox didn't get punished because they didn't have a Mike fires in their clubhouse. No Mike fires and Astro's Clubhouse, no super severe penalty. That's just the truth. And if you can't handle the truth, then you shouldn't be listening to this show. It's just so funny. Why are you singling me out? Oh, what about the Red Sox thing in J.T. Lockett speaks for itself.

Yeah. We got nothing to say about that. man, you and your J.T. Watkins cross references. I love it. I don't, I tend to forget nerdy people in video rooms. J.T. Watkins. Where's he from?

I don't know. Is he from the Deep South? Sounds he's like from Louisville, Kentucky. Oh, he's got a cigarette in his mouth. He's drinking some bourbon? Perhaps. Watkins party of three. Come to the table now?

Do we do a J.T. Watkins impersonation? Who does it sound like? Hey, it's J.T. Oh, this J.T. Party of three. Waukins Party at three. Yeah, that's me. Thanks, man. Appreciate. Can I have that kind of ashtray? That guy sounds like he's in the club in the video room with the Red Sox? I don't know.

Just throwing things out there. I can do it a horrible, a Boston accent for you if you want. No, it would not be wicked awesome. So the sign ceiling wasn't a two-man show. Yeah. I totally agree with you. I'm all about my personal life and my family. This has not been an easy time for us. and it's my fault.

Okay. Good for you. I'm sorry you're saying it's not a two-man show, but then you're totally okay with J.T. Watkins taking the fall being a one-man show. Yeah. The whole thing's a fraud. The Red Sox should have been severely penalized, severely.

And everybody was tight-lipped, you know why? Because A, they didn't have a fall, they didn't have a guy in the room, and C, and B, Ross, they watched the Astros get persecuted for months over this. Another reason they should have been prosecuted even further was because it was literally the same guy

was the Apple Watch guy. J.T. Watkins was the Apple Watch guy. Admitted. And he was still an employee there. A second time offense and the Red Sox got a slap on the hand? That's the whole thing. The whole memo from Rob Banford started when he said, hey guys, we ding them we find them for this. If you do something again, it's going to be much bigger. And it wasn't.

They did something again. It wasn't much bigger. All right. Time now for the Fantasy 5. Here's how it works. I'm out for protest. reasons, the good kind of protest. Ross has a list of five NBA uniforms that he loves more than any other.

So does Joe George. Go to our website, sports790.com and the what's on Matt's Mind Show page. Take a look at them. They will also announce them on the air in this next segment, and then we need you to judge. So if you are a connoisseur of great NBA uniforms, call in right now

and be a judge at 713-212-5-790. Now, we've never done a video fantasy five. So this may not work out well. Hopefully it does. And if it does, we'll do some other ones like this. But we're experimenting a little bit here on a Friday. So if you'd like to be a judge, listen to the uniforms and vote next.

713-212-5-790. When you get home, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio. This is Alex Bregman of your Houston Astros. From Clutch City, Rockets, basketball to Crush City. The Houston Astros. Sports Talk 790 is home for your home teams. All right, we're trying something different here. A little video, I keep seeing video.

A little visual. Yes. Fantasy 5. Joe George, who's been bragging through the streets of Houston about beating me in my own band. I'll tell you guys, I feel so good about last week that I feel like this week could be a letdown. I'll say if I win this week, they roster out next week, so I get to go three and no potentially. Oh.

I just want you to think about I have the seventh deciding vote if we get to a seventh vote. If I go with three and oh, I will never participate in. a fantasy five ever again. That's true. You can just retire on the mountaintop. I was suggested last week to retire after one win. Maybe you should have. But you didn't. I didn't. All right, here's how it works.

Sports790.com if you want to look at them. I mean, you can picture them in the mind. Anybody that's an NBA fan will know what you're talking about too. These are all very recognizable uniforms. So, Joe, since you won last week, you had the option of going first or going second and third in the snake system. Yeah, I deferred to Ross for the first pick. Yes, I had the,

first overall pick and this to me, one of the greatest uniforms of all time and one of the greatest players of all time wore him in his rookie season,

the Chicago Bulls read but with the script letters on them. I think those are the best of the Chicago Bulls uniforms. There's a lot of great ones. So I went with those with my first pick.

With the word Chicago. No matter of those script. Yeah. The word Chicago. People don't script means. A lot of smart people on the Matt Thomas show. The word Chicago and cursive.

Okay. That's the easier way to describe it. All right. My first pick was... By the way, 713, 212-5-790, 7-1-3-21-5-790, if you would like to vote on this competition. My first pick was the black and pinstripe Orlando Magic jersey that you will see them wearing as they lose to the rockets in 1995. I like those. Those are good.

Okay. The Penny Hardaway's, those are classics. Shack's second year in the NBA. Reminds me a little penny. Now my second one is a Bulls jersey. I don't think Michael Jordan ever actually wore this one or not often. I think he did. Because I think it's in,

or he only did for a little bit in that season when he came back for like half a year. So my second pick is the black and red pinstripe Chicago Bulls jersey. Okay. Back to back pinstrikes. So you are two pinstripe and fool. I am. Next, I went with to me.

I honestly might have taken these numbers. one, but I thought they were going to fall. So I went with the, there is the, what would you call it, teal, pink, and the Miami Vice, Miami Heat, alternate jerseys. I think those are me,

those are my favorite jerseys currently in the NBA right now. They remind me of Grand Theft Auto Vice City. They remind you of, obviously, Miami Vice. I just love those jerseys, so I went with the Miami Vice alternate Miami Heat jerseys. Okay. And the next, I went with a classic.

I went back to the Kiki Vandaways. I went to the Alex Englishes. I went to the Denver Nuggets, Skyline jerseys. Also a classic, in my opinion. Okay. My next... 713, 21, 2.12579.

Your phone number, if you'd like to judge. 713. There may not be... That's my money over there. There may or may not be a dollar bet going on in the studio right now. Yeah, there is. My next two picks are the purple dinosaur, Raptor's jersey that Vince Carter made very famous,

and Tracy McGrady, and then the teal Vancouver Grizzlies jerseys. See, I didn't like the purple dinosaurs one. Really? It was kind of on my list, but I think the cartoon dinosaur I didn't really like it all. Okay.

And I didn't really like the Vancouver Grizzlies one. I mean, they're okay. That just reminds me of like, who is it, a big country. Bryant Reeves. Yeah, Big Country Bryant Reeves is who I think of. I think of Mike Bibby. And you think of Mike Bibby?

Who was the score, too? Sharif Abdul Rahim. Sharif Abdu Rahim, yeah. Yeah, I didn't like those jerseys that much. All right, next. I have, it is my turn to pick, and these are the classics to me as well. When you think of classic NBA jerseys, maybe a lot of my picks are from the 90s. You think of a Mugsy Boggs.

You think of an Alonzo morning. You think of the Larry Johnson. You think of the classic cartoon Hornet logo, and their jerseys, the shirties. the Charlotte Hornet Teal pinstripe jerseys I think good pick and for my final pick

I struggled with this one but I also kept it basically 80s and 90s I really think that is really the sweet spot for NBA jerseys I went with one of the best logos in sports history and one of the best times

Dominique Wilkins imagine him in the Atlanta Hawks Pac-Man red jerseys with the white stripe across the middle. Okay, and my final pick from Magic Johnson to Kobe Bryant,

the throwback 90s, Lakers jerseys. The ones that were like the purple letter. With the drop shadow? With the drop shadow on the number. I like those. I think that's probably should have gone a lot higher. All right, yeah, I think so too. I think if we were doing this, I just, I didn't want the Lakers high on my list. I know.

But I'm with you. All right, so the list, if you want to judge, 7-1-3-21, 2, 5-790. Ross's list, the Chicago Bulls' Red Script jerseys, the Miami-Vice, Miami Heat Alternates, the Denver Nuggets Skyline jerseys, the Charlotte Hornet-Teal Pinstripes, and the Atlanta Hawk Pac-Man Reds. Joe's list, the pinstripe, Orlando Magic Blacks, the pinstripe black Bulls jerseys, the purple dinosaur, Toronto Raptors jerseys, Vancouver Grizzlies, early era teal. and the Lakers, classic yellow, with the drop shadow.

713, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. 7.7.90. Let's go out to the judges, Matthew. What, never am I on the judge list, by the way? You're seven, right? Okay. Are you ever getting there? Are you sure?

Yeah. All right. I think it should be fine. Let's go. We have some social media votes, too. That wasn't the bet. Line one, Greg, on 790. Who wins a fantasy five?

Ross or Joe? I got to go on Ross. Ross is a vote. Thank you, Greg. You're a smart man. May you have a pleasant weekend. Whatever. Okay.

Let us continue. Our buddy Doseckis on 790. Dosecis, how are you, friend? Good to talk to you guys. Yes, sir. I just tune in. Can you please, Maddie? Can you repeat the Ross picks, please?

Sure. Yes, it's the Chicago script, Miami Vice, Alternates, Denver Nugget Skyline, Charlotte Hornet, Teal Pinstripe, and Atlantic Hawks Pac-Man. Shoot Wow, I'm not a big pinstripe fan

But you know what I like the Raptors The logo The dinosaur I guess I'm going to go with Uh Joe, my name is Joe Dosekis, thank you Yeah, his Joe, he's on the show

Take care Take care So he went with you All right So we got one more It was a very soft vote It was I was a little worried there

When he asked for just Ross's list He said he didn't like pinstripes He got two pinstripes Well he liked the Raptors Yeah, whatever All right. Let's go to Mario on 790. Mario who wins a fantasy five, Joe or Ross? I'm a fan of the pinstripes. I got to go with Joe on this one. Oh, dang. He's a two to one.

Very nice. Two to one. Takes four to win. It does. Let's go to Jim on 790. Jim, Ross or Joe, who wins a fantasy five? Well, I'm a protest here. I'm a protest vote. I'm voting from Matt Thomas. All right. Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it. Thanks for running, Jim. Appreciate it.

And somebody just hung up. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 7.90 if you want to judge. 7-1-3-1-2-5. Well, they call. They drop. I don't, no, no, no. No, Jim didn't vote. It's vote.

That's not, he didn't vote. He didn't vote. It's 2-1. He abstained. All right, well, we just had somebody hang up, and then Jim just voted for nobody. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90 if you want to vote. Should we go to social media? I got three votes on social-man.

How about Brendan's vote? How about my vote? I never got to go right. Go right away, Matt. All right, I'm going with it. This is the seventh vote. No, it's just better. I need a little.

It still counts. All right. Or we got three people calling in if you want to just go to them. All right, I'll say my analysis for after. Line number one. Steve on 790, Steve, who wins Ross or Joe? Thank you, Steve. All right, two, two.

My boat may have made a difference. It's two to two. No, he said Rossi. No, but I just tell people they suck when. You say whatever you want. Tell them to go to hell. Tell them to go to hell. Have a nice weekend.

It's two to two right now. All right. Justin on 790. Justin, who wins the fantasy 5? Ross or Joe? All the way with Joe, Joe. Whoa. You can be going.

You're one vote away from being a back-to-back fantasy five winner. And you owe a dollar to Ross. Yeah, he's in payment. Line number three. Colton on 790. Who wins the fantasy five? Ross or Joe? I'm voting for Joe.

That's it. This is BS. Got robbed. All right. Thank you. My list is so much better than yours. How do you guys feel that I'm a guest on your show and I've beaten both of you now? That's fine.

I know my list is strong. All right. Let me kind of you. I'll give you quick 30 seconds on Ross's list. The Chicago Bulls uniform is amazing. It's the best. It is amazing period in destroy. But I don't like the Miami one.

I love the Denver. I'm indifferent to Charlotte and different to the Hawks. Okay. Yours. Orlando okay. Bulls okay. Raptors horrible. Grisely is horrible.

Lakers is really good. So I'd probably lean towards Ross in a win, but it doesn't count. Well, good thing. It doesn't matter. I had your bank. I'm putting these people out. Marvin, who's your vote for? Marvin?

What? Who do you got, Marvin? John. No doubt. John? John is done one. Hell, like, I'll take it. I forget it.

John, I tried to tie it up. All right. Kyle, who do you have on the Fantasy 5? Michael Connor or Sean Salsbury? Mike, Kyle, what do you have? I think I'm going to have Andy Kalukeloot. Andy Kalukeloot.

Thank you very much. Have a good weekend. And one more. Mark on 790. Mark, who do you have? Do you have Ross or me? Sports RV. Thank you.

All right, so I really won five to four because I got Matt's vote and that guy. Thank you. Thank you. Brendan voted for me. Brendan's account. All right. Brendan, who do you have?

A trial basis. I had Joe. And what did the Twitter world say? not clan Adam Sager says Ross Tiffany says List A

which on the blog Would have been Ross Yeah And then on the other post We got a list B And that's for me And from tweet Resner We got a Joe

It's pretty split But I won You did win You're 2 and oh You're gonna give up You never gonna play again I'm gonna take you on next week too 3 and oh

Damn bitch You're out You're not gonna be Oh wait I'm gonna be gone Yeah Yeah You and me again next week And then it's back to Ross

And I The real people That should be doing The fantasy five Not this phony crap. No, but then one of you guys can actually start winning again. We got robbed. All right.

The official word on Major League Baseball Players Association proposal back to the players, I think, right? No, it's the official what Major League Baseball is saying to the players. We'll have that for you next. 243. Stop it. It's the Matt Thomas show with a message here for Hoops Basketball Goals and Sporting Equipment. Would you like to get the best basketball goal for your driveway for your neighborhood so your friends and buddies and your family can stay close to home? Then call 281-351-9822.

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You can also check them out online at ProDunk Hoops.com. Then nothing will be missing from your driveway, and it's exactly where your kids should be. Produnkhoops.com, 281, 351, 9822. Right, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt, love your show. Look, what was it talking about?

By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Our buddy, Misty Air Sports says, Joe is getting airtime, so he's got all of his friends and his family listening. That's where these votes are coming from. His ass should have been, should have lost. also the Vancouver selection alone. Preach Mr. Gass Sports.

Those are as bad as the Pajama Rocket Junis. I couldn't pay my dad to listen to Houston Sports Radio. Is that because he doesn't like us or doesn't like Houston? He just listens to Chicago Sports Radio. Okay. All my friends in Houston work at other radio stations are here, so I don't think that's the case. Oh, they're listening. Trust me.

They're bits dealing like a mutters around here. This market does nothing but bits deal. Right, Ross? People have been bits dealing off this show for a decade. That's true, Matt. I mean, in fact, they bit steal so much to the show on our own station. There's a segment about bit stealing.

That might have been my idea. See? We stole from Salisbury this week. It's a compliment. That's just sincerest form of flattery, Matthew. Ours is we don't want to do any work, so let's steal what you guys are good at. I will give you credit because you do call it a bit stealing segment.

Yeah, it's called Wednesday's BS. It's purposeful, intentful, bit stealing. Okay, I got it. Twitter started doing a... You can read people's quote tweets now. because you know that tweet that you tweeted with Mr. Yeah Sports? It says one retweet

and I click on it and it's your retweet with a comment. When did this start happening? Two weeks ago? No way. Okay. Several weeks. Some with comments, some without comments. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah. All right, Ken Rosenthal, front of the show. We can call him a friend of the show. He's been on a couple times. Sure. Source confirms MLB proposal. 72 games. Players receiving

70% of pro-rated salaries. If the postseason is completed, they get 80%. My guess the players are saying, what don't you understand? We want 100%. Guys, if the players do not come off the 100% pro-rated salaries, we're not having a baseball season, right?

Well, we're having a 48 game season. That no one's going to watch. Tell the truth. didn't hold on didn't the the the MLB last proposal say 75% they went down to 70 so it's just that it wasn't they didn't have exact details when they first reported it this morning and now we have the official official sauces can I give you my theory of why the 48 game season's good for baseball oh is this the same theory you had about a bunch of teams getting stadiums and other cities and stuff no okay I just think like to the what was that idea oh it was like irresponsible hot take and that because of the pandemic and teams canceling that there's going to be a bunch of relocations and stuff. That's an irresponsible hot take. You can't hold into that, Matt. I still think within the next five years, the Grizzlies will be the Las Vegas Grizzlies.

I'm not saying that they're going to not stay in Memphis. And the A's will be sold. That one's a little trickier. They can't pay rent. Okay, go ahead. What's your theory? What if, because there's only 48 games in a season in the upcoming season, that the baseball is so competitive that it just, it catches the viewer's eyes that much more.

And they're like every single game matters. The intensity is at an all-time high for every moment of a season. And long-term, that could attract fans. Do not buy it. I don't know if I buy it either. Because if the negotiations continue to go the way they are and they're running out of time, they're going to force this 48-game schedule. And you hear what I said?

Force. Why would anyone be overly invested in a season where the players are walking out of the field pissed off because they didn't get the money they thought they deserved? Evan Drellick saying that the MLBPA has been notified that the offer expires Sunday and that this new offer represents about $71 million in total new possible compensation for players as compared to their previous offer.

Okay. Yeah, Bob Nightingale says the World Series is play. There's a $314 million difference between the proposals between what the players want and the owners want. 314? Yeah, so we're down to 300. $114 million. Can we meet in the middle of that?

A little over $10 million a team. Like me in the middle. Guys, the three of us had this thing settled two weeks ago. I know. What did we say? 90% proration? What do we settle on 85%? 90% prooration on a 90 game schedule.

Yeah, I think it's going to be like 90% or 85% prooration on a 72 game season. Yeah, the thought of 80 games now in the river mirror. Yeah, just not enough time. Nope. Because here's the thing. They don't want, they want their season. around the same time they normally do. Well, they said it has to be.

They said. But why does it have to be? I don't know. I think it's because of television issues. Yeah, I think that's what it was. And weather, too. I mean, the fact is, they're going to play World Series games. You would think maybe in one cold weather spot, potentially.

Potentially, even two. With fans. This is going to be the year, like, they're going to push back everything. And we're going to get like a Minnesota versus Chicago World Series. And it's going to be snow and snow and snow. and snow and just ruin everything. All right. Lastly, we got three minutes back. Monday.

I got something if you want to go ahead, please. Apparently some Texas football players are calling for changes on campus, most notably getting rid of the eyes of Texas. The song apparently was first played at a minstrel show where there were actors wearing blackface and they don't want it associated

with that, so they want the alma mater to be changed. Many Texas football players. Whoa. It's been the alma mater since 1903. I have zero opinion on that, Ross, you sang that song five million times. You get your horns up. If they want to change... I don't understand.

Do they want to change the lyrics? I think they want to change the lyrics. Doesn't bother me. I'll learn new lyrics. Yeah. If you're going to fall in your soul for lyrics, you've got other issues to worry about it. It's been the song for over 100 years.

Do we feel better today about the NBA? She said, better or worse, and we feel today about the NBA? I'm down on the NBA today. can we feel better on my Monday? Is this conference Zoom call going to calm some nerves down a little bit? For the NBA? Yep.

Or is it going to get worse? I don't think it's going to get worse. I think there will be a productive conversation. I think they're going to have games. I think they'll still play. Guys, there's still a lot of money. They approved 22 teams. The NBA PA approved that.

Yes. The players association agreed to it. Agreed to it. They're going to play a season. I'm just curious what, did the George Floyd murder change all that? we're about to find out this weekend. What hasn't been agreed on is ins and outs and bubbles and protocols and all that. Real quick, 30 seconds.

What about just get rid of the bubble? Games in Orlando. Everybody back at home? No, no. Play in Orlando, but if you want to get a condo 20 minutes away, you want to stay at the hotel Walt Disney, you want to go out and eat, you want to go to Applebee's, go do your thing. They want you to quarantine if you're going to do that.

But do you have to. Under the current plan. Just take the test. Walk and take the test. If you have it, you have it. You don't have it. Come on and play. Will that solve everything? I don't know how long you turn positive before contracting and being...

I think these players are flipping out about being sucked into an area for a long time. That's it for us. For Ross, I'm Matt. Have a great weekend. We look forward to visiting with you Monday at 12 noon. Up next, Adam Clive, Adam Wilkeser, the A team. And they're on the way here on Sports Talks and I do not go anywhere.