The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - People We Miss Hearing From - Julia Morales

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

This is the Matt Thomas Show. It's 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. We've had a lot of fun with our people we are mishearing from series. We've had local, national people on. We've had the likes of Craig Ackerman, Robert Ford. We've had Jim Nance, Kevin Harlan. We had Kaylee Griffin on who travels with me with the Rockets. Who else have we had? Bill Brown was on, and no list would be complete without our next guest.

Our friend of the show normally joins us in spring training, we catch up with her during the course of the season. And now we just catch up with her doing live IG videos before Astro Classic Games. Hi, Julia Morales, what's going on? Hi, I was going to, you know, get after you a little bit, but the intro was pretty good because you had Kaylee on first, which just means that you like Kaylee more than me. And that happens fast. She's only been here like six months. Let me tell you, Julia.

This is peeling back the curtain for the audience. She has been giving me such grief. What am I coming on your show? What am I coming on your show? And I'm like, okay. All right, I'm going to just try to make amends here and put her on very first. So, yeah, first. And you guys are such great people.

I've enjoyed, had a great experience with her. And you guys are really getting along well. And I loved your piece during the season when you were together at the Rockets game. So let me. Let me ask you this. Have you mentally prepared yourself for maybe going to Arizona or maybe Florida or maybe in the state? I mean, how are you thinking about when and if this thing resumes where you're going to be for the next six months? You're asking about my mental space right now?

Yes. It's all over the place. It's all over the place. I want to know what it is right now, right this exact second. No, honestly, Matt, like I'm following just like everyone else, but, obviously, I'm following just like everyone else. Obviously, you know, we're not getting any information. I mean, you know, it's like, this is so different because MLB is obviously following what the CDC is saying. I mean, this is just so much bigger.

So it's a very interesting situation we put in because it's not like you can call people that you know or your sources or people that you lean on for information. I mean, we are, we just all feel like we're in the dark. And so I'm following this. I'm obviously reading every single word that's written about baseball right now because there's not that much. But yeah, no, I'm following. And all of it's very interesting, how it pops up, who actually has the story, you know, and then MLBs actually followed up a few of these stories with their own statements, which is, you know, telling in some ways. So it's hard.

It's hard to wrap your head around really any of them. You know, you think about them, and you're like, okay. And then you think of reasons why it won't work. And then you watch the news and you're all, no. So, yeah, my mental space all over the place. That answer pretty much covered how I'm feeling and thinking about anything that could be happening when it comes to Major League Baseball. Do I want it to come back? Oh, my gosh, Matt.

I'm dying. I know. I'm missing it like crazy. It's like we did a meeting on a Zoom last night with our listeners, and we brought up the question of if the Rockets were to go to Vegas and everything was safe. I'm just throwing it as an example. Would you go out and say to a heartbeat? Because, A, it'll be the resumption of live games. but also, Julia, in our lives as broadcasters, we may never cover an event like this ever again

where the epicenter of an entire league is in one city. It's going to be the weirdest. Whenever it returns, if it does, it'll be a weird experience. So I've always said, as long as everything's healthy, because they're not going to send thousands of athletes somewhere if it's not completely 100% safe. They're just trying to do it from a economical standpoint in saving of travel.

So that's why I would take the assignment in the heartbeat. I'm sure you would do the same thing. Yeah, no, I mean, it's all we know. It's our passion. It's what we love to do. And so if there's baseball being played, I want to be calling it. You know, however that happens, again, there's so many scenarios that we could play out in our minds when it comes to that. But no, I'm missing it like crazy.

I'm missing, you know, it's just this time of year. You know, it's a fun time of year, the drafts is the NFL draft being talked about. And that's when it gets good. It's like the rockets are on the playoffs. The Astros are just getting warmed up. You know, people are actually starting to hit. a little bit and feeling pretty good. The pitchers are feeling pretty good.

You've got NFL talk, and it's just, it's this kind of year, and the sun goes down later. And for those of us who are baseball people, we're outside every night. You know what I mean? Not, you know, the roof is closed in Houston, but there's still this feeling of being outside, and then when we go on the road, and I am missing sitting in my spot watching baseball as the sun goes down. I mean, it's killing me that I'm sitting on my couch instead watching Netflix. So I'm not in a wonderful place when it comes all there. We're hanging in there. We're healthy, and that's obviously the most important,

and I'm rooting for everyone that's working right now and keeping us all safe. But gosh, man, it's been hard. It's very hard. We just kind of have to take it one day at a time. I hated that cliche, Matt, but now here I am, living my life that way. By the way, before we go any further, we have to give a shout out to Kevin Ashenfelder, who was one of our people we miss hearing from. He's listening to us right now going, I guess I wasn't memorable. Julia, tell the world how memorable Kevin Eshenfelder is to you.

Oh, my gosh. Kevin, stop it, Kevin. Kevin's my favorite. We just spent the last hour so on Zoom. We were practicing our Zoom so we can get ready to do some more content. I mean, you know, we miss each other, too, and I know that people are missing Astros baseball and they're wanting to see the shows that come with it just because we're a part of Astro's baseball or those that tune in every night. I'm missing Kevin. I'm missing T. speaking T.K. and Blummer and our interactions that we have every day. And so it was good to hang out, Kevin. Kevin is the absolute best. And I'm surprised you didn't have him on first and Kayle on before me. I feel like I'm dropping quickly on your list of people that you miss hearing from. Well, you know, we just, we had you on.

I wanted to make sure, because I want to get you guys at 18 to you doing a great job of doing these Instagram live videos. I actually tease Kaylee yesterday. He got Mike Dan Tony to do it. I don't even know of Mike, Dan Tony knows what Instagram is, much less before going on video yesterday. So that's the reason why I was teasing her. He did not. No, I thought that was fantastic. And those are starting to come around, too. You know, not everyone has Instagram. So that's been a little bit of our behind, you know, it's like us trying to figure out, you know, we're trying to figure out ways to get the touch of these guys and then and then talk to them and then bring it to the fans and the people who

would usually be tuned in every night. I had Gus in Garneill on tonight. I'm going to talk to Joe Smith on Thursday. So in our small way, you know, we wish we could be giving you the five hours of content every night that we usually do on AT&T Sportsnet. But in our small way, we're trying, you know, we're trying to bring you something to keep your mind off what's really happening in the real world. All right. I'm going to put you in a leadership spot in baseball because we bring up this going to Arizona, going to Florida. I know Texas now might be considered as a place. Let me ask you if Mike Trout came to you, Commissioner Morales, and said, look, what my, I'm,

I'm going to have a baby this year. I want to go be there. Are you going to put me in quarantine? I'm not going to be gone for two weeks? How do you answer that? How do you answer the criticism that some players are saying, Julia, that they don't want to be away from their families for a lengthy period of time, especially some of the younger players who have maybe babies on the way?

No, I know. And I don't want to answer that question. I don't make the money that brought me for me, so let him answer it. But, you know, in all reality, I don't like it either. I don't like the idea of quarantine or any of it. So, no, all hard. All very, very hard. I mean, these ideas do get interesting as they get them across.

But gosh, the quarantine them from their own families just sound so crazy. I mean, these guys don't get enough time with their families. You're going to take the little times they do have a way is really hard to imagine. So I don't want to say anything. I'm going to leave that up to Rob. All right. That's why it makes a big money. Tell me about your husband.

What is he doing right now? He's working out at the moment. Yeah, no, he's a professional athlete, for those who don't know, he plays in Mexican League. And a couple of days after Major League baseball shut it down, so did the Mexican League. And it's the same scenario. There's things being talked about. There's dates being thrown out there that we're trying to keep up with Mexican

League baseball news. It's hard when you're over here, and my Spanish is not great. But, you know, it's for him in that pro-acist state of mind. It's just how ramps up or when does he ramp up? and how, you know, as far as being at the top of your game in mid-season form, like he can't do that. He doesn't have the ability to do that. I can't throw BP. I can't, I'm not playing catch with him. That's a frightening idea. You know, and so he's a hitter that wants some timing down.

So this is, it's hard on him. It's hard to know just how strong he needs to be at this point. How far out is the season? Can you imagine what pitchers are going through? You know, this generation just has no idea because they haven't done it before. obviously Stanton and he's gone through the strike. And yeah, there's been scenarios that have been similar that from way back, you know, I mean, it's been a while though. So it's the mentality for my husband and what he needs to do to get himself prepared for a baseball season. Gosh, I feel for him.

I mean, he's working out every day, he's doing what he can. But he feels like he should be doing more or does he need to lay off? Is it going to be another two months? Gosh, you just keep going. But he's good. He's home, which this is, this is, more time that we've had together consecutively than ever since we've been together for eight something, eight, nine years now.

But yeah, we're enjoying that. We're doing some house projects and we haven't killed each other yet. So we're doing pretty good. All right. There you go. Julia Morales from AT&T Sportsnet. How long do you think realistic? Because you've talked to a lot of players, how long do these players need once there is a resumption?

I mean, do you see expanded rosters? Do you see? Because everybody goes to Arizona. people are going to get hurt, Julia. You can't use a minor league system to bring back players up because there's no minor league. So how do you think we should go, should we go 40-man rosters? Should we go 25, 30 days before the start of the season? Do you go to spring training? What do you envision once we get the all-clear at some point, if we do, of how this season even begins? It's an excellent question. And the baseball people I do keep in touch with, it sounds like, you know, they would be a few weeks, not a week, but a few weeks in order to get. themselves prepared. And we're talking pitchers that need to build up, have they been throwing,

did they have the ability to get off the mound, all those things so important. And then, you know, once you do get going, if there's going to be less off days, I mean, we're going to be cranking out some games, I would assume, you know, trying to get as many in. And that's a scary thought. So that's where, at least that expanded rosters would be definitely something they have to talk about and think about, just to be able to not, you know, to ease these guys in, You know, we were all worried about the innings for the Astros and how are they going to fill some of these guys that had left the team and a Garrett Cole and a Wade Miley and some good quality innings. And we were thinking we'd lean on those middle inning guys, you know, and they didn't really have a ton of those. They had some good guys, some good options there.

But, gosh, I can't. I bet it's a lot more of that, you know, once the students are for every team, just to kind of piece it together in the very beginning. So, yeah, I see a few weeks. I would think, you know, that's what I'm hearing from other guys. Obviously, I don't know from, I've never had to prepare for a season, but that's what they're saying as far as just how they would feel good about being at the highest competitive level they can possibly be. Remember this is that these are professional athletes.

I mean, they compete at their best and which is the best in the world. I mean, they don't settle for anything left. So you can't just tell these guys to get on a field tomorrow. Let's just see how it goes. That's how they think. It's not how Major League Baseball thinks. It's why it's the greatest game ever. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of things you'd have to consider in order to keep guys safe in such a crazy time and uncertain time.

Last question. And you may not know the answers because Kaylee didn't know this either at the time. Have the TV networks had any preliminary discussions of how to broadcast these games if they all want to go into one central location? Is there any been in any conversation of that? Are all these TV networks, especially the regional ones kind of just waiting to hear from the commissioner's office and say, yeah, start putting together a plan to start broadcasting. podcast in these games. Yeah, I know we haven't, you know, as far as the network, we're not hearing anything for major league baseball yet just because there's,

there's not a plan yet, but that's going to be, you know, obviously above my pay grade, but those people above me have been talking every day, communicating, coming up with their own ideas. You have to have so many plans, and hopefully one of them, one of them works out to where you're prepared in a way. there's so many different ways you can do it, right? As far as the PD well goes, and I would bore a lot of people technically

if I were to get into something like that, but it's also very unique if you were to put everyone in the same area. I mean, it's just there's a lot of people in Houston that do great work, and they would not be in Arizona's, that's where you put them or the Florida's, and what happens to them. So, you know, it's hard for me to even go down that path.

I don't want to. I want to keep thinking and being optimistic that we're going to play baseball in Houston with my crew, the people who I love and who do such a great job on our broadcast. But, yeah, it's all up in the air still. People we miss hearing from, no doubt. It's our friend, Julian Morales. Julia, thank you for the time until Matt we sent our best. We're welcome.

We look forward to seeing you guys broadcast very, very soon, whenever that may be. Yeah, same to you. Thanks. Hi, dear. I take care. It's Julian Morales from AT&T Sportsnet. 214 is our time. The long-awaited lawsuit details involving a sports executive and the league he used to work for

for a very short period of time. It's next at 214 on Sports Talk 790.