The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Next Coach, Dusty Baker & George Springer

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-01 and 8thown. What's happening in lunchtimes? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. I'm Matt with Ross and with Brendan.

It is great to have you guys with us today and ladies as well. we have a really, really, I think it should be a fast-moving, fun, interesting show today. A lot of stuff to talk about. And then we've got, I think, a fantastic guest list. Coming up in 28 minutes or so, Dusty Baker, the manager of your beloved Houston Astros, will be on the radio program to talk with us as he does every week on the show. We will go at 1.30 to Joel Clatt, our Fox number one college football analyst. And clearly, I think Ross probably Fox's greatest decision.

Let me give you some numbers here. Fox putting the Simpsons on. Great decision. Fox going with American Idol for when people actually cared about that show. I'm married with children. I'm married with children, if you will. What was the show? 24 with Jack Bauer.

That was a huge hit. 24 wasn't bad. What was the show that was about the teenage cops? That was a movie, not too long ago. Oh, Hill Street Blues or somewhere? No, no, no, no, no, no. 21 Jump Street? 21 Jump Street.

A fantastic program. Okay. But perhaps, and I'll tell this to Joel an hour and a half from now, perhaps the greatest move Fox has ever done is put the Houston Cougars on the game of the week. Well, obviously there's a posity of options right now. What is it?

Not a lot of options. Okay, I was going to say, posity? What was the last thing we said posity? Five minutes ago. Before that. Okay, I don't know, a couple weeks. See, I'm stealing words from you, and I'm just not sure if they're accurate,

but I'll go with you. Posity, the presence of something only in small or insufficient quantities or amounts. Brendan was the last time you said, toxicity in your life. I was the first time I've ever heard it. Okay, fair enough. Thank you very much.

I'm glad you had my back on that one. So, Joe Clatt joins us at 130. All right. The season premiere. This has been a cultural hit, and it is brought to you by our good friends at RemoteForu.com. It's Ross's Rotten 5. Can't wait.

Where, and you don't know about this, Brendan, but you know how lame it is for every sports journalist and every radio host to say, hey, here comes the Power 5 this week. These are the best five teams in the NFL. It's not hard to say, right? It's Kansas City. It's Baltimore.

Again, mixing up whoever you want it for 3, 4, 5. But that takes no ability, correct? Yeah, I'd say it's pretty consensus everywhere. Well, it takes something special and something interesting for us to find the five worst teams in the NFL. So does that mean Ross is spending more time than anyone in America, like paying attention to these bad football teams? No, you just. Well, I'll just say this. You always want to little, because you're from Detroit,

the Michigan, you always want a little lines flavor. Oh, I assume they're on the list. I feel like you're going to get it every week. So it's more about a segment about you than it is about anything else. And you usually start with some usual suspects, Jets, Cleveland, Jacksonville. But we like to mix it up. And by the way, the Texans have made the Rotten Five on several occasions over the years.

In the last couple years? Maybe. We've been doing the bit for like 10 years. Oh, yeah. They were four and 12 a couple years ago. and then they were two and 14, what, when they were drafted Clowny five, six years ago. Yep. So the Rotten Five debuts today, they will do that at 220.

And then George Springer, who had another leadoff home run for the Astros yesterday, as they beat the Rangers. Probably should have won like 9 to 1. Left a lot of men on bases. Did not do well with runners in scoring position. But George goes deep again to open up the contest. He'll join us at 2.30. So we got a lot to get to today. That's a star power on the show.

I mean, that's a show that you kind of go, okay, you guys are doing all right. We're always doing great on the Matt Thomas show, 12 to 3. Sports Talk 790. Please listen, please tell your friends. Please tell 50 your enemies. I don't care at this point. All right. Other things to get to.

I mentioned the Astros. I don't believe the NBA will resonate in this city now that there's no rockets. And sometimes it's hard to resonate when the rockets are playing, unfortunately. But if you think you got a bad rocket fans, Clipper fan, if there is such a thing, like I feel like every time I go to Los Angeles and I do a Clippers Rockets game, I don't like the clippers. I like Doc Rivers a lot.

I like the fact that Donald Sterling got kicked out and that Adam Silver said, you know what, we can't have you trash our league. You know, with your, I mean, they did everything the right way.

They got rid of it. And they've made a lot of moves. They've made trades. I mean, let's face it, they're not probably upset that Chris Paul's now on a second team since leaving the Rockets,

right? Montres Harold, six man of the year. Lou Williams has been a long time score. Pat Beverly gets fouled out, fouls out a lot of games. Pat Bev. Overrated defensive player now.

Love him. In this point of his career. But four or five years ago, he was not getting any rated. Yeah. And now he's getting all the acclaim. And frankly, he probably shouldn't get it. But that's not here nor there. But they're out.

They're done. It is to me, maybe the, if you were to have the most shocking things of 2020, this is probably on the top three of the list. It's definitely one of the single biggest collapses because not only were they up three, one, they were up and by double digits in every single game. Do you know when you and I, talking about the Clippers that I kept telling you there was something chemistry-wise that bothered me about them. Yes. And I didn't want to use that as the exact reason for what they did.

But do you see what I was talking about that there was just something that just wasn't meshing properly with them? Denver's playing out of its mind. I mean, you know, Nikola Yokic is doing some amazing things. Jamal Murray's been fantastic. They're just very much an under-the-radar type team. Yeah. And yesterday. Yesterday, Doc Rivers echoed those sentiments. He said something about the chemistry being off and being in the bubble. And remember Montres wasn't there. Then Lou Will wasn't there.

And it was just kind of they were piecing everything together. He says that the chemistry wasn't right. Or it was either Doc Rivers or maybe Lou Williams. And I think Paul George is like, hey, we're just new together. So that's the longest team in sports history never to make it to a finals of a sport. It's been 49 years. Is that right what I saw? Something crazy like that between Buffalo and Los Angeles?

In San Diego before that? It's a prolonged drought. And it's also Doc Rivers third time in his coaching career. Now, he does have, what, a championship to his claim with the Celtics? Yes, 2008. Third time in his coaching career, he has had a 3-1 series lead and lost it. So again, Rocket fans feel sorry for themselves. Clipper fans, if they're there, really feel sorry for themselves.

Yeah, if Clippers fans actually existed, they would be writing in the streets. Like when you go to Clippers games, they're sold out. There is a Clipper fan base. Clipper Darrell's hair. It's just significantly smaller than Laker fan base. So the Clippers are doing actually the smart thing. They're buying the form where the Lakers used to play, gutting it, and kind of making it their own facility in Inglewood. Well, Englewood's not very safe, right?

Well, no, it's not safe, but it's also where the new football stadium is in Los Angeles. So they're trying to build it as a new area of town. And that's a smart thing to do. But the number one thing they have to do is they got to get out of the show. the shadows of the Lakers, and sharing an arena with them is probably not the right thing to do. I wish I had like $50 billion like Steve Ballmer. He's going buying teams, buying arenas, hanging out. Oh, he'll be fine.

Waring dad jeans. Yeah, well, he's doing okay. And then, you know, setting the baseline like Mark Cuban does? Yes. All right. So we got that to get to. Bam, out of bio's block in the overtime of the Miami Boston game. I would like to know of a better defensive play.

The cleanest block I've ever seen with a ball above the rim in my entire life, Ross. And look, we had the greatest block shot guy in the history of the sports. Ford in our town, right? But that out of bio block was as filthy as I've ever seen a block shot in my entire life. So, not that we're getting in Miami, Boston, but it was just a great way

to end that basketball game. Other things. Big Ten football is back. No surprise. No. It's because the rumblings have been happening for a couple of weeks. And it's not because the Big Ten,

you know, they're saying the protocols have improved, which they have. But the Big Ten is sitting around watching the SEC, the ACC, the ACC, Notre Dame, the American Conference, the Big 12 playing ball. And they're like, we got to get some of that. So they are. They're supposed to start a eight game season. And again, eight is the rumor. But it seems like eight would be the logical number that would begin the weekend of October the 23rd and the 24th.

Gives them plenty of time to practice. Get the guys back in pads getting after it. They can play eight games in over a nine-week span. and then they can be eligible if the other conferences allow them to eligible for the college football playoff. And they will because the other conferences can't be like, well, we were out there in front. No, because your conference could face the same sort of problems of the Big Ten they thought had faced. So I think they'll get a green light and we will see a Big Ten team presumpt, you know, the presumption is Ohio State will be right there like it always is playing potentially for a national championship.

Now the question is, will the Pac-12 do such a thing? and if they do, they'd better hurry. Because again, what the Big Ten is trying to do is start a season in late October, play eight games over a nine-week span in hopes of gaining a spot in the college football playoff and thus the money. Make no mistake about this. This isn't about player safety. This is about kids that want to play.

Kids are watching other schools play. And there is money that is being made at the national level. Not necessarily with crowds, but with television. they're missing out on it. They are flat. Fox is not paying the Big Ten network and this Big Ten schools to put on Best of Rutgers football. They want live games and thus they'll get them. It's a huge reversing, of course. It's quite remarkable, actually.

I mean, I felt like they stopped. The reason they stopped was because of the presidents, right? Athletic directors and coaches the whole time, we're like, hey, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. The president's has stopped it. And now I think it is, the widely available cheaper, most importantly, cheaper rapid testing. And then now you just have all these other colleges and they're making them. And it's not even necessarily about making money. At this point, it's about losing less money than they normally would.

So you factor in all that. You factor in that they can be more safe with all the testing. Yeah, Big Ten made a huge mistake. This is one of the biggest turnarounds I think we've seen in sports. It's so bizarre. And again, they wanted to be on the edge of doing something, being the pioneers. Instead, they're looking just the opposite. Christine Burnin of USA Today's sports says it's the darkest day in the history of the Big Ten.

Is she going to be okay? Well, she got ratioed so bad on Twitter that she had to delete her, not the tweets, but the replies. Hmm. Never even heard of her, so. Oh, she's, she makes my blood boil. How bad? I just, I have, I have zero respect for Mack Kellerman. I have zero respect for Skip Bayless.

I have zero times, like, we can't time zero because it'll be zero, but I, I have even less respect for her. She's just awful. I'll take your word for it. I have no idea who she is. Don't, don't waste your time. I'm too. I'm looking at her timeline now.

12.12. It's a Matt Thomas show. A lot to get to. Dusty Baker in 18 minutes here. First a word for oops, steam cleaning. A 281, 822.0561. 281, 8220561. If your carpets are messed because of the rain the last handful of days

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taking your kids to school, doing their activities, involved with yourself with church. It's time for you to let somebody else take care of your house and they'll do it the right way. 281, 822.0561 and online at oopsteam.com. Hey, it's Matt Thomas. Did you know that you can listen to Rockets and Astros games on FM? Yep, 94-5 HD2. That's Sports Talk 790 on FM. That means your games and all your favorite Houston Sports Talk can all be found in crystal clarity.

With Sports Talk 790 on FM. 94-5 HD2. 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 Mercilus. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

You know, Ross, you want good things to happen to good people. And obviously, Whitney got himself a big, fat contracts. That's a good thing for a good person. Yes. You just kind of want him to play up for that contract. Well, it would be nice. Either way, he gets his money. I mean, he was overcompensated for what he got.

I mean, for what he did. And look, one game need not make a sense. season, correct? One game does not a season make, Matthew? No, that's exactly right. Just what I said, and I think of just some different tense. But he's got to show up. If we're relying on JJ Watt to be the sole man to provide

pressure for opposing quarterbacks, this team is toast. Yeah, I mean, the pressure rate was not very high for the Texans. You did get the one sack out of Jacob Martin, a couple of hits from J.J. Watt, and you always do have to credit the other guy. The Chiefs have a really

good offensive line. but yeah, they're going to have to ramp it up, certainly, this week. I mean, everybody that they have, we have Kirk Cousins. You have Ben Rathosberger. This week, it's Lamar Jackson. I mean, Gardner Minchew look pretty good. We've been talking about how they're just going to sweep the Jags. I don't know.

They beat the Colts who I pick for the AFC South. Who did you pick for AFC South Crown? Was it Titans maybe? I don't know. I think I don't think I'm okay. Okay, so I mean, but the Colts are supposed to be a good team, and Gardner Minchew looked pretty good and beat them and threw three touchdowns. So they're going to have to be getting some pressure on the quarterback,

breaking news. And it's got to come from somewhere. It's got to come from multiple places. And certainly one of those places needs to be Whitney Merciless. If the Colts don't make the playoffs, do you think Frank Reich's any sort of trouble at all? That's a great question. Did Ballard?

That's Chris Ballard as the general manager of the Colts. Did he choose Rank or was he there beforehand? It's very close. I want to say Ballard was there the year after, but I'm not sure. Has he been there a couple of years? look it up. Not that we're going to spend a lot of time getting into whether or not the

coaching. He's from Galveston and went to Annem, Kingsville. Yeah, he's got local times. He was amidst the 2016 playoffs. So I want to say Frank Reich was not there. Frank Wright hasn't been there since 2016. No, you're right. So yeah, this was a Chris Ballard selection.

Yes. Okay. That's his guy. So, yeah, I would imagine, I mean, it's about how it looks. If they go 9 and 7 and miss the playoffs, maybe they're going to, they will give them another year. If they go, if they're a complete disaster, I'm sure he'll be out. The reason why I bring this up is because I really do believe that Eric B. enemy, if the chiefs put up huge numbers, will be a guy.

They will. That will be on the top of the depth chart when it comes to coaches or teams looking for coaches. Yes. Problem is you're not, Eric Bianami is not going to take 30 whatever year old Philip Rivers and all of a sudden turn him in a different quarterback. Philip Rivers is who he is. He's a gunslinger. He's going to throw the ball a lot. And he damn well, hope he doesn't throw fourth quarter interceptions, but he did so.

against the Jags this past Sunday. So I like Philly Provers. I think, frankly, he's gotten too much blame over the years. I just don't know, and because I haven't watched any of the Colts so far, how good they're supporting castes around him. Is his offensive line going to hold up for him? He does have receiving targets still.

They have a really good offensive line. Marlon Mack just tore his Achilles, but Jonathan Taylor is supposed to be good. Nihing Heim's had a couple of catches. You know, you got T.Y. Hilton there. Outside of T.Y. Hilton, though, I mean, it's like Paris Campbell and, you know, And Governor Jack Doyle.

Okay. Yeah. So skill positions could be a little better, but they do have a good offensive line and a good running back. A couple good running backs. So again, I don't think we should ever make one week a season. Of course. You never should make two weeks a season.

But the funny thing is after week two, the stack comes out, teams that open up the year oh and two only make the playoffs certain time. It just comes with the territory of talking about the NFL. Yes. But as far as the Texans are concerned, And they don't care about that because they've gone to the playoffs after opening up O&2. And one in three or something a couple years ago, too, right? And more importantly, they're scheduled.

They have played the two hardest teams in a row, no doubt about it. Probably the two best teams. Would you say two best teams in the NFL? I'm going to go with that. Chiefs Ravens. If the Saints are the best team in the NFC is that we're calling right now? Yeah, we can go with that. But I'm saying two teams best teams in the NFL regardless of.

I would agree. Ravens and Chiefs, and then I think the Saints would be a significant step down. But I will also say this. Bill O'Brien is in what his seventh season? You're supposed to be at least close to that class, and they didn't look close to that class at the last week. And if they don't look close to that class, that's an indictment of Bill O'Brien, right? You can't say, oh, well, you know, they're the two best teams in the NFL. Well, you've been here six years. You should be at least close to them, right? No, well, you are, and you're going to be what you are this year as you have been for most of the last five years, right in the middle of the

pack. You know, that's almost like, you know, they always say, well, you know, would you rather be on top of the world and then drop a few notches to get back or would you just kind of always want to hang around? I mean, face it, the rockets, they've had this conundered themselves. They don't want to bottom out. I don't think the Texans want to bottom out. The Texans have been at this certain level and just haven't gotten any better.

And that's been the rub is that Bill O'Brien under his regime, whether or they're not, you he be coach, general manager, both have only taken a team to a certain level. It's been remarkably consistent where this team ends up. It ends up in embarrassing divisional playoff losses to far superior teams with suspect coaching.

Houston Texans football. Catch it. No fans in the stands for the way for Sunday's game. Yeah. I'll be honest with you. Still open the air for the next one. Minnesota. Vikings. Yeah. To me, as a person

that watches the games, It doesn't mean no difference. I didn't really notice. Did you notice anything about the caliber of play in the Tampa Bay, New Orleans game without a single soul in the Superdump? No, not at all. I mean, probably the player. You could hear a little bit more of the screaming and stuff like that.

That's cool, but that's about it. I don't like neutral side. The bubble after a while got kind of plastic and vanilla for me because it was the same court or the same courts every time. At least when you're watching an NFL game or a baseball game, you see 30 different ballparks. You're going to see 32 different NFL. stadiums.

Is JJ Watt just throw the ball into the stands now pregame instead of the kids? Well, he could even throw it to the ushers, but there's really no even ushers there. Can they make sure that he sanitizes before he throws them the ball and then they sanitize for they throw it back? Well, who does he throw it to now? I don't know. The mascot's not a lot on the field. The guy with a parabolic mic.

How about how weird is it for the Sondon reporters for the NFL, which again, are they needed? Who knows? Well, it doesn't hurt to have a... Well, I mean, if they're attractive, it doesn't hurt, right? Right. they're in like the first two rows of the lower level. They're like essentially going to be sitting in the stands. So how do you get sort of any,

any side of insight when you are, I don't know, 75 feet from them? Yeah, how do you hear what the coaches are saying about a certain injury or something like that when you've got to keep your distance? My guess is, I don't know how they do it.

You know what we should do. We should get a silent reporter on soon. Just see what it's like because I don't know what it's like. Because the NFL, the PR directors don't have time to come whisper them. stuff. Right? No. They're in the press boxes. It is. So you want to get Maria Taylor on is what you're saying?

I'm Maria Taylor, a Michelle Tofoya, an Aaron Andrews. Susie Colbert? She doesn't do something. She doesn't do it anymore? She used to. No, she hosts a Monday night show on ESPN. All right. I just wanted to say Susie Culber. Why? I don't know. That's funny.

The name Susie Culper is funny to you. I think so. You chuckle when you hear the name. Hey, Suez. Yeah, it's a weird name. It's not weird, but it's... She spent a long time. How many Susie's are running around here under the age of 20? Well, she's not under the age 20. I know she's not.

I'm saying it's just not necessarily a common name anymore. Do you know she is the answer to a trivia question? Yes. Who was the first host of an ESPN2 show? Susie Colbert. And Keith Olberman. I didn't know that. Yeah.

I think it was called Talk 2 or something like that. It was when ESPN try to be like the hipster ESPN. They had cold pizza too. I used to like cold pizza. And then they would have ESPN and they wouldn't put it in all caps just because it was cool that way. But now they're just the hybrid of ESPN, which is a smart thing to do. I was a big fan of cold pizza back in the day.

I don't know. Although that spawned Skip Bayless. That's true. And now the rest is history. And now you've got hours and hours and hours of people screaming at each other on television. And now they're pulling point ones on Fox Sports 1. That's right. Hey, we got Dusty Baker coming up in a minute. Let's go. Hey, I got to be honest with you.

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you're going to enjoy the experience of trying some of the best whiskey and some of the best bourbon you will find. And the best part of it is it's made right here in Texas in Waco. It's made grain to glass in their distillery up the road in Waco. In fact, I'll be going up there probably in November sometime, do a little tour for y'all to kind of see what's all about. They have lots of different things to choose from. In fact, they've sent me five different samples, and I've been looking forward to trying each one of them over the last handful of days.

and this Texas pot, still bourbon, is fantastic. So I want to tell you about this company. Again, in Texas, proud to be serving you from Waco. They have won over 350 national and international awards to date. All I want you to do is if you're looking to upgrade your flavor when it comes to bourbon and whiskey, I want you to try Balcones distilling. B-A-L-C-O-N-E-S. That's Balconi's Distilling, and it's Distilled to appreciate.

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Still ahead, Joel Cladham Fox Sports. He'll be on the call of the Houston versus a Baylor game this Saturday in Waco. Game you'll hear on 950 KPRC. That's our Cougar Update presented to you by the Joint Chiropractor, the official chirobractic. of Houston Cougar athletics, Cougars, and Baylor have not played each other in 25 years. Brutal! The old SWC teams don't get to play each other very often.

Thank you, Ann Richards. Yeah. All right, let's get to it. We get 10 quality minutes with our favorite manager of your Houston Astros, the one and only Dusty Banker here on the Matt Thomas show. Dusty, thanks for the time. Give it to us straight.

We can take it. Okay, Skip? How did JV look today? Well, you know, he looked pretty good. I mean, he's been great, you know, you can tell he's been taking care of himself. And, you know, he threw about 75 pitches total, including four in a simulated game. The rest of him, he threw in the bullpen. And for the first time out, you know, facing hitters, you know, he looked pretty good.

And, you know, we'll see how he, you know, how he feels tomorrow. That's got to be the key, right, how he wakes up and how he feels. I mean, I'm sure the adrenaline was pumping today because he's facing live hitting, but it's about tomorrow, isn't it? Yes, I'm for sure. It's about tomorrow and even the next day. And so, you know, there's nothing else to report until we see how he feels tomorrow and the next day. All right. And, you know, I mean, the fact that he was on the mound, you know, is a great sign for us and for him. And I'll tell you, it sure was nice to see him coming in the ballpark.

I'm sure it was. Primarily fastballs, or did he change up his speeds over the variety of pitches that he threw? No, no, no, he was throwing everything. You know, he threw some sliders, change shots, fastballs, and some curveballs. And so, you know, he mixed it up. And, you know, he was pitching as if he was in a, you know, in a real game. That's fantastic. Let me ask you in previous conversations with him, not about necessarily today,

but you've been around a lot of amazing baseball players over your playing and managerial career. career. Did you have to have the heart to heart with him to say, look, I appreciate you wanting to come back, but let's not set this thing back further. Did you have that, or was he along the way of, you know what? My plan from day one was to make sure that I took this nice and slowly, but if I can come back and help you, I'm going to do that. Well, you know, I'm, I mean, you know, JV. And, you know, like, if he can come back to help, if he will. You know what I mean? but, you know, the thing about it is I haven't had a heart-to-heart with him yet. First, you've got to have a heart-to-heart with yourself, you know.

And so, you know, he's a pretty honest guy, and he's straightforward. He doesn't beat around the bush or, you know, or anything, you know, like that, because JV is JV. I'm coming to like being around a guy and really, really respect him and how he works. this guy's kind of one of the hardest workers that I've been around. I've been around some hard workers. But, you know, like I said, you know, I hate to beat a dead horse. But, you know, there's nothing more to report other than we just have to wait for tomorrow the next day.

Last question about him, and then we've got some other things to get to. When he returns, I'm assuming you want to see him in the regular season, just at least get a test run of things. Could you? Well, we'd like to. Yeah. Could you envision him? Go ahead. I was like, could you envision him coming out of the bullpen,

especially if it's best served that he throws a limited number of pitches every time he throws? Well, you know, I mean, we're not there yet. Okay. So, like, I mean, you know, I don't want to speculate, you know, that idea because we're not there yet. So, you know, he has some improvement to, you know, to make and, you know, some decisions to make for us and for him. And so we just have to wait and see, I can't say any more than, you know, So he's got to wait a couple days and see how he feels. All right.

Let's get to Carlos. How is, did he wake up this morning, hopefully feeling better than he did when he left the field last night? Yeah, well, I talked to, I talked to Jeremiah trainer. And, you know, actually, he was feeling pretty good than he left the field last night. And so we're waiting back for him to come in at 1 o'clock, get some treatment and see how he's feeling. You know, either way, you know, we think we dives the bullet. You know, everything was negative. I'm sure he'll probably be sore.

depends on household. So, you know, again, I mean, almost daily, you know, waiting to see, you know, the health of certain guys. And, you know, we have to, you know, not only think about Carlos, we have to think about, you know, Dio's quad. We have to, you know, think about and be aware of Reggie's hamstring. So, you know, we're trying to do what we can to win as many games as we can,

but also, you know, be concerned about the help of those that are ailing or the fact that they're getting better, you don't want them to go backwards. And how did it feel to fill out the lineup card just like you typically normally would for once? And then this happens with Correa, though. Well, it was great. I mean, I was just sitting there, you know, mulling over the lineup yesterday, you know, when I made it up. And I was like, man, it sure feels good. They had Gregie back in the four spot and Michael in the same.

second spot, I mean the third spot, and had two way back. I mean, it was a great feeling for a manager and a great feeling for the team. I think it's a tremendous boost for us, but, you know, hopefully we'll get Carlos back today. Speaking of boosting, everything on plan, I'm assuming, for Lance to start tonight? Well, I mean, we're waiting to see Lance as well. I mean, it's a, it's like a broken record, but I mean, it's just kind of how it is. And we're waiting Atlanta come in and hopefully, you know, he'll come in, say he's feeling great. I mean, I anticipate he will, no matter if he's feeling great or not, but we'll just have to lay eyes on him.

I have the trainer work on him, and then we'll see, you know, if he'll be ready for game time. Look, over 162 games you deal with injuries, but it feels like in your first year with us, and obviously only being 60 games, that I think you probably spent more time answering questions about health than you've ever had any of the point in your managerial career. Would that be fair to say?

Well, I mean, at least for 50 games worth. You know what I mean? I mean, like, every day it's getting better. I mean, there was a time there when I hated to see Jeremiah, our trainer, call me on the phone and come in my office because there was like another guy, you know, bites the dust. And I was like, oh, no, Jeremiah coming here with some good news. And so, you know, we're getting some good news now. And, you know, I think it's going to be right on time, you know,

for us to finish strong here, you know, add some distance between us and whoever's trying to catch us and then close the distance between us in Oakland, because that's not over yet either because, you know, they have some, you know, some pretty key injuries and they got some tough road trips coming up. So, you know, like I venture back to think about the time, I think in 1980, I think, was it 80? I think 80 or 82, one of the two, where the Astros had three game lead on us for three to go. And we caught up and forced a one-game playoff. So like you never, you know, you never, never, never, never until you're not to mac alone, you know, eliminated. You know, you're never out of this out of the race. I mean, who knows what can happen in this race.

I mean, one team gets hot and another team gets cold. And then the next thing, you know, boom, you know, we can overtake them. So like, I'm not, I'm not discounting that. But right now, we just got to win ball games for that to happen. Skip, I was nine years old and teared up, so thanks for bringing it up. I appreciate that very much. Last question. Jose Orquitti, he's going to make your life difficult if he pitches the way that he did in terms of where to put him. And so what a blessing for a young man who just wasn't with you very long to come out there and throw those seven frames for you last night.

Well, hey, man, I invite making my life difficult because I'll tell you, the more the more the merrier. I mean, this guy can pitch. and the first time I had seen he pitched last year in the World Series. And, you know, he throws strikes, he changes speed. He seems like he's ungraddled on the mound out there. And, I mean, I love watching a pitch. And, you know, it's like making a trade, you know, just late in the season. I mean, you get a guy of his quality, and, you know, he's going to get better.

And his endurance is getting better every time out. So, you know, he can pitch. That's all I can say. I mean, I enjoy watching me pitch and enjoy watching Maldi navigating through the ballgame. Skip, keep making that lineup card easier, hopefully, not avoiding injuries, making it more difficult for you. Thank you for the visitors always. We'll talk to you later on. All right, man.

You got to take care. You got it. That's Dusty Baker, manager of your Astros. Just being tempered, and that's exactly what he would do, what he should do. It's about what JV does tomorrow morning when he wakes up. If his arm is throbbing and in pain and, like, what was I doing, I'm still raw. holding out, I shouldn't say minimal hope, but I'm not going to be shocked if things don't turn out the way they're going to.

Keep expectations low. That way you never get disappointed. That's how I live my life, Matt. But I mean, if this is a 162 game schedule, I don't know if it makes that big of a difference because the initial report that was out there said basically that he wasn't going to pitch again this year. So I don't, you know, he wants to do it because he's Justin Freakin Verlander. A lot of other guys would have said, I'll have a surgery, I'll do whatever I

have to do. Let's worry about next year. He wanted to give it a go. And that's why I brought the bullpen angle, because if he is a guy that can't give you 75-80 pitches, can Justin Burlander get your three key outs in the eighth inning? It would be so atypical, but this is an antipical season. And it's in an antipical situation because that's not what Justin does. But if Justin can give you 25 pitches and he's going to be able to give it to your full throttle, you tell me in the ninth inning in a three-two lead, do you trust Brad Peacock to hold the game, or Justin Verlander? I'm going to go with Justin Verlander, Matthew.

Just saying. 1243 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. If you want to chime in anything that Dusty had to say, 7-13-212-5-790. With a message right now for Shaw's Jewry at the corner of West Gray and Montrose. They have been there since 1966.

How many Houston businesses can say they have been in the exact same intersection for that period of time? Yeah, that's what I thought. that's why you've got to get with Shaw's jewelry. Quality diamond jewelry at a fair price. And they will also do a lot of things like trade in. You want to upgrade if you want to get something done by their master jewelry.

If you've got repairs to your jewelry, especially watches, they'll be happy to help you with that. That's what they did for me. And they can do that for you. Plus, speaking of watches, they have the largest selection of pre-owned Rolexes you will find in the city of Houston. It's an amazing place. You can shop and secure comfort, social distancing, plenty of security. because if you're going to buy jewelry, you need to see it firsthand. Buying it online ain't going to cut it.

Go to Shaw's jewelry where I promise you you'll be taken care of, especially when you drop my name in and say, hey, Matt sent me over to Shaw's. West Graham Montrose open tonight until 7. That's Shaw's. 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 Five! Texas Five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. 1248, Sports Talk 790. Thanks again to Dusty Baker for joining us. We will get more baseball in coming up at 2.30 this afternoon with George Springer on the radio program. Joe Clatt talks college football with us in 50 minutes, 40 minutes from now. What do you think about the Big Ten? They're not messing around.

They're like, we've got to get some of that cache. We've just got to get it. I know our kids are somewhat important to us. No, Matt. They want to be. It's for the kids. it's for the fulfillment of the student athletes to give them the best possible college experience.

God, that sounds very university president. Yeah, I'm running. Do you see that USC wrote a letter to the commissioner of the back of the, was it back 12? I think they wrote it to. Okay, what they say. They want to play too. Do you think those team letters work?

Probably not. They're more symbolic than anything else, aren't they? The players wrote a letter to the governor of California. Oh, that's right. It wasn't the commissioner. It was the governor in California. You can't even breathe. in California.

You don't need to be playing football. So let me get this straight. So Seattle was supposed to play the Giants yesterday. But the air quality in Seattle was so bad that they had to move the game to San Francisco. First of all, I thought Safeco Field, is that what the call now? Or is it a T-Mobile Park? No, it's T-Mobileport. I thought it was a dome or in closed.

How does bad air get inside a closed stadium? Well, I mean, the air has to come from somewhere, man. It's not just trapped in there. I have never been. I don't think it's a true dome stadium. I think it's, I think the sides are open. Yeah, I believe you're correct. We need to go.

It's got like an apron. Seattle is such a fantastic. I've been wanting to go to Seattle, but now it's on fire. Okay, how about next year, if the fans are allowed? We'll go to an Astros Mariners series up there, do the show from up there. Will you go whale watching with me? Yeah, I would. Oh, great.

I've done it once. Okay. Of course, it was on my honeymoon, so if you want to have that kind of romantic atmosphere to it. Okay. Can you pick up chicks on a whale watching boat? In honesty, you want to go with women that are uneasy about being. being on a boat. So they can be close.

No. So if they vomit, you can hold their hair. Oh, that's just what? Is that the move? And then you kiss them while they got vomit on their chin,

Matt? Brendan, how does a girl appreciate you more than else when you hold her hair when she vomits? True or false? I don't know.

Tell me I'm not wrong, Ross. Can't she get a scrunchy or something? But it's a thought. You're going to put a cold towel on her and hold her hair. She's, this is the problem. I'm really.

really skittish around vomit. So if she starts throwing up and I're going to do it too. And I smell it. I'm going to start throwing up. We went well watching on my honeymoon and it was the first time I ever gone. And I was scared out of my mind because I didn't know what to expect. Yeah. I didn't think, well, is this well going to be within 20 feet of us and it's going to tip our boat over?

We're going to die. Hopefully not. Well, I mean, I'm here. That sounds terrible. That was in 1997. Something's good. Now I'm scared. Now I don't want to go.

Were you okay? It was amazing. Okay. It was almost like when I took the helicopter ride. in Vegas down on the strip. It was amazing, but I'll never do it again. Okay. But I will go whale watching with you if you want to.

Yeah, because I have like an orca fascination ever since I watched Freeway of the kid. Are you sure they're doing it in Seattle though? Yeah. I've never heard of that before. Seattle, Orca, Whale watch. Okay, we're going. I'm booking a trip right now, Matt.

Let's do a listener trip. Okay. We'll take 20 or so listeners. You don't want to take listeners. Okay, what does mean you then? Well, I don't have to commit to seeing them or anything, do I? I mean, on the plane, on the plane, maybe. Well, depends.

And you're going to sit with them probably at the stands. headshots first. Okay, I got you. Full body. So where we're going with this? Oh, okay, so the dirt, the smoke was so bad. I mean, if you're going to try to avoid the smoke, I don't know if San Francisco would be the place to do it, right?

Aren't they going through the same issues? I don't know. Is it mostly Southern California and not Northern California? No, it was mostly Northern California. Okay. Maybe the smoke has moved up from California. Obviously, it moved up the West Coast. But I would think that wouldn't be a safe place.

I mean, honestly, if the judge. Giants and the Mariners are going to play games. Wouldn't you want to go play the game and like, I don't know. St. Louis? I don't know what they're. I heard Hartford-Kinnickett's pleasant this time of year. So we've had games all moved around because of a coronavirus pandemic, because of COVID outbreaks, because of hurricanes.

Civil unrest. Civil unrest. And now because of wildfires. Yeah. What's the next reason why? I mean, what's left? Tornadoes? No, what's happened before?

Rolling blackouts? Well, okay. civil arrest has never happened smokeouts earthquake we're missing earthquake that was in the 80s that was happening the 8th century what's next for this year

okay I'm just trying to think out what would be something that would be outside the box that has not happened civil unrest smoke yeah hurricanes yes

pandemic a collapse of a stadium I don't want to well nobody's in it before the game oh there's going to be somebody eight hours before the game oh okay I'm sorry

the west wing while everybody else is in the east wing like the outfield you're talking about yeah okay you want an outfield wall to crash sure why not what's a i don't want to i don't want to let's not let's just we'll abort this topic i was going to make a joke but i didn't no it's better that you don't yeah i know sometimes you're you're what's going on in the hamster head of yours it does not translate very well in front of my microphone you're right thanks matt okay it's what i'm here for seven one three i don't talk to y'all because y'all can have the hamsters going and we could just need the

delay button if it's inappropriate. Grace says she's in for the Seattle Astros Road Trip. But how do you build a stadium that's got a roof but doesn't have a side closed roof? I mean, because Seattle gets cold. I mean, I would imagine to be fun to be there in a 56 degree day in July, right? It's just like a big apron, right?

Like a Miller outdoor theater or something. No, because that is not fully enclosed. I would think it would be more like Cynthia Woods if you're sitting in the lower area. Yeah, well, yeah, okay. Oh, I see what I'm talking about Miller. Okay, I got you. But, I mean, they never get rained out, but they get black, they get smoked out?

Is it safe to go to Seattle, by the way? Tony says super volcano eruption. If super volcano happens, we're all dying. Now, you and I have arguing about this. What if the sun burns out for a day? Matt, we're not arguing about it. It's not going to burn out for a day. It's got enough fuel for like four billion years or something like that.

So if the sun goes down, it doesn't come up for an entire day. So you're great, great, great times a billion grandchildren are going to have issues. So that's what we'll go with. We'll go with the sun did not come out today. And the entire country's dark. No, yeah, it's going to be very disastrous. But will it be baseball? Well, actually, before the sun burns out, it's going to grow into a red giant and envelop

the earth completely. So the earth will get absorbed by the sun before it goes out. See, I cheated in astronomy. Yeah. I didn't get to learn this because I refused to learn. That's what I'm here for you, Matt. You went to astronomy class. Yes, I did.

And so thus, it did give us a little bit of help here. Yeah, it's going to swallow Mercury, Venus, and then the Earth, and maybe even Mars. So how does this affect baseball again? Well, I think the games would be postponed if the Earth got swallowed by the sun. And how are we going to survive all this? It's in billions of years, Matt. You're fine. Oh, okay.

So it will not affect the potential two games series. We got to worry about, you know, deserts and water shortages. Oh, I got one. How about the state of California breaks off? Oh, from the San Andreas fall? Yeah. And it's a, how do you get there if the state's floating? Float out.

Yeah, I guess. I don't know if there's going to be many baseball stadiums if California violently breaks off from the country. I better call my father. He lives in Palm Springs. I got to get him out of there. Dad, get out. Tonight's game from the Giants and the Mariners is due to a, it's canceled due to a floatout. This has been an uplifting segment.

Yeah. We've got a rally here. Nothing but positivity. starting up the second hour of the Matt Thomas show. We got Joe Clyde at one-half hour looking forward to that. We look forward to visiting with you and hopefully getting off of this horrific topic. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The Astros didn't get a game-a-half game on the Mariners who didn't play yesterday, so at least have that going for you. 1257 on Sports Talk 790. Is the Matt Thomas show. 101 on Sports Talk 790. What's on your mind today? I mean, really, what's on your mind?

Lots of little things to get to. Are you like an IG model who posts a selfie and then puts what's on your mind? Well, I mean, the Astros and Justin Verlander. You want to know what's really on my mind? Sure, why not? Who's going to be the next head coach of the Houston Rockets? Hmm. I remember through the headlines were quick, and then we'll get into that.

All right, so Justin Verlander, Dusty Baker was with us half an hour ago. official word on what he did today was 75 pitches, 24 in the simulated game. I think it was like Jack Mayfield, Miles Straw. I mean, it wasn't going to springer out too. They were major league hitters. They weren't necessarily great ones, but they were certainly major league hitters. Major league by name, major league levels and other stories. 75 overall pitches 24, and as Dusty said with us a few minutes ago,

it's about how he wakes up tomorrow and probably the day after that. I'm not cautiously optimistic. I'm not cautiously pessimistic. He's Justin Verlinder. He's trying everything he can to help the team. And when you're making what, Rossi, $35 million a year, you should do that. Yeah, he's going to. He's a gamer.

He would do this for free. That's a beautiful thing about Justin Verlander. That's not true. You know what? No, no, he wouldn't do it for free. You wouldn't do it for $20 million. Well, that's because that's not his value. But he loves playing baseball.

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of other athletes would have said, you know, maybe it's right. Let's go get this. go on the knife. This has been a gimmick he sees it. We'll try next year. He wants to help. And he's coming towards the end of his rope.

Well, he also wants probably one more contract. Well, hey, I don't know. Because here's the thing. If he was going on the knife today, he misses all of this year, all of next year, what kind of value does he have for a guy that's what 30,

would be at that point. It's 37, 38 years old coming off of a major surgery. Go prove himself in the KBO or something. Don't think that's going to happen. Lakers lose game seven. Denver down 3-1 wins the series. Bam on a ball.

bio is one of the best blocks in the history of the NBA to save Miami from being in a win over with Boston. Big 10 football is returning. Pac-12, they better get on there. They better get going if they want to play too because they want a piece of that national championship high. They have to get cleared here in the next couple of weeks. The Big Ten season is going to open up on October the 23rd, which will be a Friday. They'll play Friday, Saturday. The presumption is they're going to play eight games over nine weeks. Now to the rocket stuff. You wanted to you, you, you asked what's on people's minds. We invite you to join us at 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790, and you want to know about the Rockets. Yeah, I'm just thinking about who's going to be their next head coach.

Are they going to go with a retread? Are they going to go with a young assistant? Are they going to go with, I mean, again, if we're to believe that headline we saw, was it in Rockets Wire on the USA Today blog, whatever it is, that they're looking for a culture change? Well, that was aggregated from the athletic. I think that was from Kelly Eco and Sam Eamick had a story coming out. So what do you think? Culture changed to me means you go as someone that's never been a head coach

before. That has been tried and true as an assistant that is ready to take over his own basketball team. Okay. Let's go. I'm up for anything. Because wouldn't you say, I'll throw people out there. Van Gundy is more along the lines

of Dan Tony. Old school. Yes. Longer in the tooth. Yes. Now, Mike did a really good job of relating to the players. That isn't the question. It's just, if you really want a fresh opinion, you go with someone that's never been in the NBA waters as a head coach.

Or maybe that's somebody that's been in the NBA waters today that knows what today's game is all about. And I think Mike was stuck in his ways in some respects. So maybe somebody who is more open-minded and forward-thinking and things like that. Not to say that Mike Dantonies not forward-thinking when it comes to offense. I mean, he's a basketball. genius. I do believe if Jeff

Angundi is a serious candidate that I think Jeff will change. Jeff knows. I mean, Jeff's been the NBA from the day he left coaching the Rockets. He's been doing the games

on ESPN. He's been with ABC. He talks these players and coaches. It's not like a question of, you know, he's doing the games from his basement.

He has a feel of what today's NBA is all about. You hear it when he does a broadcast. He last coach in 2007. Yeah. And the NBA level. Yeah.

He's done this USA basketball thing now. for what the, is it 18 under? Is that what is, whether 18 over, whatever, what do they call on it? Is it under? Yeah, something like that. It's one of the, yeah. He's affable.

He would get a lot of positive media attention. The question would be, would it be Jeff Van Gundy, the broadcaster that we would see as a new coach of the team? Or would it be the Jeff Van Gundy that was the old coach who, you know, I wasn't here when he was coach in Iraq. So I can't speak to this. But it felt like that it was 100% coaching and everything else just played a second-tier role. Yeah, he, I mean, he very much threw himself into the job. He was very curmudgeonly. He was a good defensive mind.

The offense was very stagnant at that time. I mean, a lot of it was Stevie Francis and Cotino Mobley just jacking up mid-range shots after dribbling for 20 seconds. See, I think Jeff would never let that happen again. I agree. I agree. And I think, I mean, it was him and he had Tom Thibito as an assistant. So the defenses were always very good. I think Tyrone Loo's a name is going to be brought up because, again, Ty Loo, basically.

I think gained credibility as a coach, even despite the fact that obviously his main number one go-to guy was LeBron James. I think he was very highly regarded. He's always up for jobs. He is one of the top assistants or was, I guess still is with the Lakers, right? No, who's he was Tyrone Lewis? Clippers. Yes, Clippers.

Speaking of the Clippers, on that staff, Sam Cassell has been asking and hoping and dreaming for an opportunity to become a head coach for the first time. Would this be the right spot for him on that? Do you go to the college ranks? Is there another assistant coach you ever heard of before that, you know, is maybe on the in the Popovich coaching tree? Is it, you know, everything, if Daryl's going to be the one that's going to recommend it of the job to Tillman, it's going to be something that's going to have a metric background to him. Or at least on board, yeah, completely on board with the, with the analytics. Yeah.

Which is good. Which is, you know what, if you don't do this now, you're not going to, if you just, if you say thanks but no thanks that, I'm only what I see in front of me, then you'll never win. If you look, there's a guy named Kurt Goldsbury, who is a basketball analyst, and he had what's called a heat map. You know what a heat map is Matt? It's where they show shot locations. And they show the 2015 playoffs, and it was basically evenly spread throughout the court.

The 2020 playoffs is for every team, not just the Rockets. It was all at the three point line and all at the rim, the heat maps. That's with a lot of teams, correct? Exactly. That's for every playoff team. Yeah. From five years ago, just five years. It's funny because when we were in Toronto this year,

they had the Rockets' Sons' Western semifinal game on from, I think it was 94. Maybe 95, but I don't really matter. Okay. And I'm in the room next to Matt Bullard. And I'm watching this game. And I'm watching top of the key. I'm watching inside the arc.

I'm watching a rare three-point shot. I'm watching elbow jumpers, baseline jumpers. Yeah, it's weird. and I was like, I used to like this. Because it might be a point against me, but I do love three-point shooting. I do love attacking the rim. I don't like Lamarcus Alder's top of the key jumpers.

I just don't. And a lot of my buddies who are in my age group that watch the same amount of NBA that I did hate today's NBA. It doesn't bother me at all. Yeah. Because if I'm going to, if I'm a jump shooter and I've got a team full of jump shooters, they're going to have to make three point shots to win in the NBA. It just is what it is.

Now, I think the biggest criticism is if you don't have a team that has pure jump shooters, then it becomes a major problem. And that's where I think the rockets probably could be best served. If somehow some way they make a boo, they go get a pure jump shooter. They're not easy to find Ross, are they? Yeah, I mean, the best three point shooter, they've had. And by the way, the heat map was from 2000, not 2015, so I lied. But you see what I'm saying. I just retweeted it at Sports RV. It's completely changed the game of basketball. And that's

everybody in the playoffs. So yeah, I think of their Ben McElmore was probably their best three-point shooter you would say over the season. As far, he was around 40%. That's the thing about this offense is it works so much better if you have somebody who can shoot like 40, 42 percent, a dead-eye shooter. Like I hate doing this. I hate doing this. But seven or eight years ago, JJ Reddick would have been an absolute perfect fit for this basketball team. Catch and shoot guy doesn't need double screens. He doesn't need to set his feet. He takes the ball in his hand and he shoots.

Well, you know what you want? You want probably a more fluid Ben McLemore. Ben McLemore who plays better defense. He gets the ball up quick. He makes about 40% of his three. No waste in motion. Yeah, he's been great as far as a gunner. Or, you know, what Gerald Green would do sometimes and he can go get hot. But you need that guy who can also play defense. But you know what? Great three and D guys just don't grow on trees. And they're

certainly not usually available for a vet minimum, which is usually what the Rockets can offer now with so much of their money tied up on the roster. Basically, it's mid-level. And we won't really know the list until we figure out who's a free agent, who's not. One-11 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. We thank you very much for listening to this afternoon. We got Joe Clap from Fox Sports to join us at the bottom of the hour. We have Ross's Rotten 5 at 220. Who would you say in the history of the Rotten 5 has been in there more anybody else? Wow. The Rotten 5 Hall of Fame? Browns have got to be, right? Browns are in there.

Lions? Lions are in there. Sorry, Brendan. Jaguars? Although the Jaguars are going on an AFC championship game this decade. Bengals, Jets. Jets have been there a lot. Yeah, the Jets might be the first inductee into the Rotten 5 Hall of Fame. So that's coming up in just over an hour

from now, and we have George Springer to join us at 2.30. So a lot to get to today. If you'd like to join us, we would like to have you. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. 790. The Matt Thomas show continues after this. Rip it H-Tale, light, five, slamma, jammer. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bumby, the Trill O.G.

With the whitest man in America, Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in the Sports Talk 790, man. Texans back on the practice field today, getting ready for Sunday's matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. That line kind of hanging at six and a half. Is that right? Last I saw. that doesn't happen too often in the NFL, does it? We are a six and a half point dog at home. Well, that happens since the Texas quite routinely.

Well, I was trying to be polite. Way to ruin that. I mean, and there's no home field advantage, right? Or is there? Well, usually you get, what, two and a half or three? Yes. I'm guessing you don't get all that this time around. I just wonder how that were.

I wonder, I'd be interesting to see data dives on that type of stuff. because generally there was a book I read called scorecasting that was about the sports and home field advantage. They believe that the advantage comes from umpires subconsciously not wanting to disappoint fans and umpires and referees calling things for the home team. And I don't think you have that in football. Unless it's a pass interference call that if you throw a flag, when Wolfler may or may not have been interfered with, it gets the crowd of 70,000 people very excited. But football has one of the biggest home field advantage.

Like, think of about, like, a referee, there is a block or a charge, and it's a 50-50 call. Subconsciously, they'll usually give it more often to the home team. So let me ask that. If the general rule is you give the home team two and a half three points, what do you give them in a game that's got no fans? I don't know. That's what they have to figure out. Maybe a point, a point and a half, maybe? Maybe.

Because how much of that is travel and stuff like that? We don't know. It's up to seven now in most books. Hmm. So the money is a porn on the Ravens, which means. maybe it's time to pivot. Or will you? We'll find out later in the week.

You've got to find out Friday when you spend those in. Not off to a rip-roaring start and beat the Schmo's for myself personally. Yeah, by the way, we should applaud you. Brendan. Whatever your name is. Brendan, you went three and one on the Schmo's this week. Beautiful. You won 6,000 M.T. bucks.

See, I would boast, but I'm sure by the end of the year, like I'm just hoping to stay above 500. No, we're going to give you a show on the weekends. I made 15 palais in a row. call my phone number right now. You can do that. And I'll sing your theme song. Yes. I mean, I'll take it.

I also went three. We're going to call you B-Money. Sorry. I also went three-in-one. But my big play was Indianapolis minus the eight. That's eight points in the road to open. Thanks, Philly Rivers.

That cost me $5,000 M-T-buck, so I have $0. Rossi, you went one and three, and you owe the bank $2,000. Yeah, that's okay. I won the big bet. I won the lock of the week, Ravens minus, whatever it was, against the Browns. What was our gut feelings again? Astros, you have them not worrying about the playoffs as of next Monday.

Correct. Ross, you have... Dodgers-Padres fight. Was there any kind of incident yesterday? Not yet. You got one more day of that, don't you? That's fine, yeah. And then my bet was the Texans are going to lose by at least 10 points this week.

But not the end of the season. I had them going 9 and 7 and losing the first two weeks. Again, only the most supreme Kool-A drinkers thought they were going to win both games. No, you don't know what's calling D. Like that. Well, he is an ambassador. I don't think, except the extreme Kool-Aids 2-0. Some people have it one-on-one.

I mean, it is what it is. And then there's a lot of people that, like me, I think, have them going 0-1-2 and finishing 9-and-7. You know what? Maybe they're going to shock the world and beat the Ravens on Sunday. Who might be better than the Cheaps. Maybe. More complete team, maybe.

Defensively for sure. Yeah, they're better defensively. And Lamar Jackson, one of the things. things that he worked on in the offseason was throwing the deep ball better, and he did that a bunch against the Cleveland Browns. 713-212-790. Joe Clatt from Fox Sports joins us in 10 minutes. Larry and Stafford at 121.

Larry, what's a good word today? What's going on, MP? How you doing, buddy? Doing well. Hey, man, I hadn't talked to you in a minute, so I figured out get in and talk about a couple things. Look here. You know, Dan Tony leaving, man.

You know, it was time for that to happen. And I like Mike. I thought that he, you know, he was a professional. Every time he do stuff around the city, man, he was supportive of the city. But I just think that when you have those kind of personalities in James and Rush, man, you can't be passive aggressive. And I think now what Tillman and Darrell have to do, they have to look for somebody that's going to be willing to shake James and Russ ass up, man, to their core to see if they can get a championship.

and you got some dudes out there to do it. I'm not a big Tailu guy, maybe, but now that Doc Rivers might be available or somebody that got that kind of pedigree, I think Tillman may want to look at that because if they have any interest of getting a championship with James Harden prime years, like we didn't waste Yao and Tracy,

they might want to go get somebody that's going to make sure that these boys know how to play the game the right way because I'll tell you, I remember when our Kobe Bryant said that style of play that James is, doing is not going to win championships. And as much as we want to believe in that, just go at it and go at it, you've got to

play team basketball and have the right kind of personnel. And right now, that team over that need to be shipped up. But the real reason for this call, MT, that Osoraz Bill O'Brien, let me say this to you, man. Look, we've sat through seven years, and you've been on here, and you've been an advocate of not being a fan of Bill O'Brien from the get-go. And we've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. member. Bill O'Brien is living in an alternate universe that none of us are living in

because he's basically forcing Houston fans to believe what he's saying is true. He honestly believed that the offensive line was fine on Thursday night. He honestly believed that the tempo that they put out there when they was down three scores was fine. He honestly believed that it's okay to huddle in the fourth quarter and then when you break the huddle and call a time out, and that's not a problem. These are the same consistent problems that Bill O'Brien has presented as a head coach to the Texas fans for the last seven years. And what I am not, and I'm not mad at Bill O'Brien, just like I'm not mad at Donald Trump. I'm mad at all the people that allow this stuff to happen.

Because Cal McNair sits over there in River Oak and he got to be seeing the same stuff we see. And the reason why I'm so mad at Cal because he should know better, because it's been 18 years since this team has been in existence, and we haven't sniffed a championship game yet. That's an indignant. And that's what Texan fans are so sick of. And if I had my way, I would go fire Bill O'Brien ass after this Ravens game because if the Ravens come in here and put the ass to us, it's going to be a lot of fans that are going to be unhappy.

I'd fire his ass and I'd go get me a coach next evening in our haul. All right, Larry, good to hear from me. I don't think you're firing after two games because guess what? They weren't supposed to win these two games. Now, what you do is if they beat both Kansas City and Baltimore, we're like, oh, something's going right over there on Kirby. 15-year extension if he did that. Well, it feels like it.

No, this is all going to be fired. He's not getting fired. No. They start 0 and 4. He's not getting fired. No. They might have. The back half of the schedule.

Is it a Jaguars after that? Yeah, there's Jaguars. There's a Tennessee game that makes, and the Texans have had success against them. Okay. Look, I think we come back Monday after a 37 to 20 game or something like that. 38, 15, 14. It doesn't really matter. and people can be pissed because that's what we do.

When teams win, nobody wants a call and be excited. When teams lose, it's, I can't get to my radio fast enough. But if you were going to make the move on Bill O'Brien, Larry, you did it last year. You don't do it now. They're not going to make a move. No, I wouldn't. And you don't give him the title of general manager. He's getting more power.

Cal sees him differently than you do. Cal sees him differently than I do. Cal has bought in. That's exactly right. On all his Bill O'Brien's stock. Yeah. Is it going to be Amazon or is it going to be Enron? We'll see.

Oh, I think it's a penny stock right now. Hoping to build and grow. Bill O'Brien. I mean, Cal McNair is spending more than pennies on it, though. The stock has dropped a little bit, especially after Deshaun watched his teammate DeAndre. Cal just pumped a bunch of money into it by giving him the general manager title. Again, I'll tell you this, Easterby out survives O'Brien.

Okay. I don't think, oh, I don't think it's a join to the hip forever. I think they're kumbaya now. And I'm not saying that Jack's trying to usurp Bill. I'm just saying that Jack Easterby gets this opportunity. He's going to take and run with as far as he can and say at the end of the day, maybe we've got to get a first set of eyes in here. I think Jack is his lap dog, though.

I originally thought that. Okay. I think Jack's got the ear of Cal like you wouldn't believe. Interesting. I have no insight information, just a gut feel. Okay. You know my gut. That's my long-term gut feel.

Okay. No, yeah, I got it on the nostrilongest pad. Don't worry. Okay. By the way, do you have that Bill O'Brien will never lead the Texans of a Super Bowl? Yes. I also have that the NFL season is going to be postponed. Yeah, but you keep bringing that up all the time when I clearly told you the NFL was not going to play any preseason games.

And I don't get credit. remember that. Oh, I know, because it's on your screen. Put it on there. Let's talk to Joe Clatt from Fox Sports. He is going to call the biggest game of the college football weekend. That's right. Biggest game. Houston, Baylor, 950KPRC, Fox this week. We'll talk to him about that. After I tell you about Berkeley, I Center. Folks at Berkeley had this offer of $1,200 in LASIC savings for you. They've had it for quite a while now. A lot of positive response. I'm like, what, let's keep it going for a while because we want to get more people into our offices to take advantage of the supreme technology that LASIC can provide in terms of giving you

clear vision without glasses and contacts from Berkeley. They're going to give you that, and they're also going to give you a free pair of designer sunglasses. It's kind of a double thank you for them, for you choosing them for your LASIC. Clear vision, no glasses, no contacts, procedures painless, takes just a handful of minutes, and the results will be long-term and satisfying. If you want to take advantage of this, and save $1,200 in LASIC savings. Text the word LASIC, L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48, and start enjoying that Lasic Laser Vision Correction with free sunglasses from Berkeley Eye Center.

I-Hard Radio, the free app for your music, your stations like Sports Talk 790, and number one for podcasting. Hi-Hart! This is Eric Gordon. Got a pullback. Three hit it. Eric Gordon on fire here. Sports Talk 790 is your home?

Yes! For Houston Rockets of basketball. Ladies and gentlemen, the four greatest things that Fox has ever done in no particular order. One, the Simpsons. Two, American Idol when actually people watch the show. Three, hire Joe Clyde as their lead football analyst. Four, put our Houston Cougars on their main game of the week against the Baylor Bears. Am I right about all four of those things?

Thanks, Joel Clyde. This is it. You got it. You nailed them. How about that? So word travel through my world, Saturday morning. Houston was going to ditch the Memphis game, play Baylor, and then I thought to myself, hmm, I wonder what time would be good for that.

So I went to the year Fox schedule immediately, and I did not see an 11 o'clock game. And that's when I texted you, and the magic began shortly after that. When did you all hear about all this moving around apart and having these two teams play this Saturday? Same really early. So even before we kicked off, you know, we had heard I had gotten some texts and I sent them to our bosses and just, you know, said, hey, heads up. This game looks like it's going to be planned. And we were not on the schedule this week, right?

So we were planning this, our crew, to have the week off. And, you know, they thought, well, shoot, we're going to do a big noon kickoff anyways and have the guys out into the studio. Might as well do a big noon Saturday and put this. game on the air. So, yeah, it came together quick on our end as well, and I'm happy it did. And it just kind of shows you. And we just talked with the Houston coaches, and Dana was great. And he was talking about how thankfully he was for everyone just being willing to be open-minded. You know, so much of college football in particular coaches or administration, they're, I don't want to say close-minded, but it just moves so slowly, you know, there's so much red tape and we've got

to see this or that. And this came together quickly. And in particular for a couple of schools, that haven't played and, you know, shoot, what is it now? 26 years, Matt, since the old Southwest Conference. Right. So I think everyone's excited. I'm sure people in Houston are really excited to get this game, not only because of how quickly it came together, but maybe more importantly,

because of the historical significance of this game. And the fact that the two teams will play two more times, hopefully by the end of the decade. Now, Dave Miranda, I was on his conference call, had a different viewpoint than Dana on this, and I want to get yours. Do you think that these schools are doing too much, much advanced planning or do you like or I should say do you like how this came together?

Now granted it was because of COVID, but if we could shorten up the time frame and advanced scheduling or do you think because it is such a difficult business to schedule games that you know what? You just can't avoid not trying to schedule something five, six years in advance. That's a great question. I personally believe that we should take scheduling out of the hands of the athletic directors and the individual schools altogether, to be quite honest with you. if it was up to me, I think that we would reshape the way that schedules are thought of and made. I would create the non-league games for you, for every school out there. And I know that Houston fans wouldn't necessarily like this, but I would play more Power 5 games, Power 5 against Power 5.

And the way that I would do it, Matt is similar to how the NFL does it, which is I would have a conference scheduling partner. and then you would play the opposing team from that conference based on where you both finished in your league the previous year. So, for instance, let's just say for the sake of argument that we have a nine-game conference schedule and everybody plays a nine-conference game league schedule. Then you basically have three games to play with or four games to play with, however you want to do it in a normal year. What I would do is you would have two scheduled games based on where you finished against PowerFes. teams, one on the road, one at home. And then you would play two regional schools from, I would say, lower level. And again, don't get upset, but to help with their budget, because I think it's important that the big schools understand the importance of their role in creating opportunity

for those schools to maintain scholarships and play the sport of football. So that's how I would do it. So to answer your original question, I think that we plan way too far ahead. And I think that we give way too much power to the individual schools and the athletic directors to make these schools, to make these schedules, Matt, which oftentimes don't help college football more generally. And so that would be my idea. Not bad thought at all. Joe Clatt, Fox Sports will be on the Houston Bader call on TV. We'll have it for you on radio on 950 KPRC beginning at 10 o'clock with our pregame show 11 o'clock

kick. What happened to the Big 12 last weekend? Well, I think that what happened is what happens. a lot of times when you play good football teams for many conference. And I think in particular Louisiana with Bill Napier and Arkansas State are good football teams. I do think it should be noted that I think we should all pump our breaks on the whole like, oh, the Big 12 died last weekend. Oh, it was the worst week of all time.

I just don't think that that's the case. And I'll give you three reasons why I believe that. So, Matt, the first reason being exactly what I mentioned just a short time ago, Louisiana and Arkansas State are good teams, and they would have had a chance to beat any number of Power 5 teams during the course of this season, in particular when you're talking about teams that are coming off of this type of an off season. And Kansas State specifically was replacing all five offensive linemen as well as their defensive tackles. Louisiana was 11 and 3 last year. And then Kansas is Kansas, so I don't really care. Third, or excuse me, the second thing I would say is like, this happens, right?

look at last year alone. Matt, just in the ACC last year, you had North Carolina lose to App State, you had Boise State lose to Florida State, right? Like this thing, these things happen. And the SEC, this happens. Georgia State beat Tennessee. That's the team all of us are fawning over here in the preseason this year. Wyoming beat Missouri, San Jose State won over Arkansas.

You know, all of those games happened last year, but the SEC wasn't dead. It happened to the PAC 12. as well. Think about Air Force over Colorado. San Diego State beat UCLA, Hawaii beat Arizona and Oregon State. I guess the point being is like results like this have happened forever, and we don't necessarily bury the conference because of it, and it brings me and leads me to my third point, why does it not bury the conference? Because we rate conferences based on what happens at the top, not in the middle.

And this is evidenced by what we see in the ACC, that conference is not very good right now, and yet none of us talk about it because Clemson is so good at the top of their conference. So for the Big 12, the important school is really Oklahoma, Texas, maybe Oklahoma stayed in there, maybe TCU thrown in there, and those are the schools that we're going to rate the conference on. And quite simply, oh, you and Texas looked great. I don't care what their competition level was. Matt, they were really good, led by their quarterback, Spencer Rattler and Sam Mellinger. I think that the whole Big 12 is dead

or sky is falling. I think that that's a bit premature and we should all just relax a little bit. Dave Miranda gets his first head coaching opportunity at Baylor. What was he just waiting for the right job? Because again, you could be a coordinator at LSU for a long time, make a lot of money and have a lot of prestige working there. What was so enticing to him besides the fact that he could be a head coach for the first time? I'm not sure, to be honest with you. I really am not sure. I think that seeing Matt Rule go all the way to the NFL, it's not going to be a stumbling,

block in terms of your ascension throughout coaching, if this is going to be used as a stepping stone. But I've talked to other coaches, and in particular, some retired coaches who are scratching their head and thinking to themselves, what is Dave Miranda doing? When you've got that amount of leverage where you're going to be in the conversation for the biggest jobs in college football, you don't go to a place where at least it seems to be so hard not only just win your league, but also go to the playoffs. even Art Bryle's great teams were not able to go to the playoff, even the year that they only lost one game in the regular season. So I think it is fascinating,

and I think maybe, to a lesser degree, we should start talking about the difficulties that defensive coaches have in getting the biggest tier job. You know, we don't see it quite often like we have in the past. Remember in the past we saw Bob Stubes go from

coordinator at Florida to the head coach of the University of Oklahoma. We don't see that often now because everybody is chasing offense. It's the Ryan days and the Lincoln Riley's and Cliff Kingsbury and all these guys, they're the ones that get the job. So maybe for a defensive guy like Dave Miranda, he thought, this is my chance to go to a really solid program where you can still move up from there and he jumped at it. Last question, you better get your Parker ready for the months of November, maybe early December because it looks like the Big Ten is going to play. Let me ask you this. And again, I don't know how much the audience cares, but from a grandiose,

viewpoint, I want to get your perspective. The Big Ten in my mind wanted to be out in front and say, we're going to make sure we don't play to protect our kids. Half of college football said, we've got the proper testing, we're going to go forward. And as soon as the first snap was taken, the Big Ten's like, uh-oh, what do we do wrong? How do you see it? Not only how they handled the last 30 days and how they're going to handle the rest of the season. Well, a great question, right? And yes, I think that there was some egg on their face because I truly believe that those presidents in particular who tend to operate a bit in a bubble. And I'm not talking about a COVID bubble either, right?

I think that they are detached from reality at certain points, in particular when it comes to the athletic realms and sporting realms. I will tell you, I feel like from what I've been told, they were confident in early August that if they made that decision that everybody else would follow, And they were not expecting what then transpired when the SEC and the Big 12 and the ACC basically said, you can go do that, but we're going to stand pat because our medical team is telling us something a little bit different. Or we are trusting that the advances in particular in the testing advances that we are hearing about is going to allow us to get onto the field in a safe manner. And I think that that was a bit of a surprise for the Big Ten at the time, which then sunk it into this, this, I don't even know, I mean, how long has it been? Six weeks of just PR nightmare where you've got coaches fighting against them and players

fighting against them. The president is getting involved. And this is certainly not how Kevin Warren wanted to start his commissionership at the Big Ten. I will tell you, though, I think that they've done a good job with the hand that they've been dealt of coming up with this philosophy or criteria or season as they have. And now the bigger question, at least for me from a football perspective, what did the other conferences and Notre Dame do with the Big Ten as it relates to the CFP?

Because like I said, a little bit earlier, the Big Ten put those conferences in a really tough position when the Big Ten decided to postpone. And I don't think that these other conferences are going to want to bend over backwards to share in the revenue pot for the Big Ten when the Big Ten put so much pressure on them in early August. just something to watch out for. I don't have anything concrete, but I think it could get very partisan and very nasty behind closed doors.

I think it's going to get very nasty and very ugly, but they're going to let him in. I just have a gut feeling. Probably. I just do, but it's going to be contentious, that's for sure. Hey, have safe travels awake. We'll see you Saturday morning, in fact. We'll have breakfast.

You got it. I love it. All right, Matt. Have a great day, by you. Joe Klett, Fox Sports with us here on the Matt Thomas show. We have some Astros injury news. Another player is done for the season. We'll tell you who that is after I tell you about TGS insurance.

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to 23-23-23, and start saving big on that home policy immediately with TGS insurance. Right, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt Hey Matt, love your show What was it talking about? By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast.

Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Ranking News 151, Sports Talk 790. Oh, no, what? Is it good? Here's the question, and this is only Brandon will be able to know the answer to this. I'm scared. Will we be calling Florida when I tell you this?

Chris Tivinsky. No. That's fine. You don't even know what I was named a humanitarian in the year. Okay, well, that's good. That's not what it is. If he's off the team, it's okay.

Chris Davinsky underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his right elbow yesterday to have a bone spur removed. It's funny. James Clickton mentioned that to Sean this morning, nor did Dusty mention it to me. They're very tight-lipped around these parts. It's an early tight-lipped.

The recovery time for Divinsky is expected to be approximately four months. Four months? Four months? For a bone spur? Must have been a big one. It's pretty rare. I mean, pretty.

I don't know. Does Florida have a response to this? Does Florida even care about Chris? Is she a big Devo fan? I don't hear her. Does she like dragons? Nope. No, Florida.

Yeah, I think we're okay. I mean, look, it's nice to have another arm in there, but do you know what Chris DeVinsky's ERA is this year, Matthew? Why don't we play the range game? Okay. Do I get a run either direction? We'll go zero to four, four to six, six to nine, nine to eleven. That's it.

It's 14.7.3. Ooh, that's the game called That's too much that I didn't get right. You have to keep going up. Yeah. Damn. That lady was yodling for a long time up there. What lady? You're mixing your games.

Yeah, so did you. You said that. Well, that's a guy? Yeah, the guy, it's a guy. Cliffhangers is yodeling, yodeling. Yeah, but the yodeling, the person that's yodeling as a woman, right? No. Find the yoddle.

Find the song. Find the song yodeling. That's a dude. That's a dude. It's a dude, yeah. Just Google, yeah, it's fine. Clifhangers from Price is right. Or cliffhangers.

I've used it a million times. Yeah. It's definitely a dude. Okay, and just start playing it whenever you're ready. That's very disturbed. Here's the bigger question, Ross. He's due for arbitration this year. Third and final year before he becomes a free agent.

Do you offer him a contract for next season? This is a woman, right? No. No, definitely a dude. What? Brendan. I think this is a dude. What?

Yeah. That's disturbing. It's been the same guy for 40 years. They've used this game forever and ever. Has this guy hit puberty yet? No, I think it's a tenor. Maybe it's a castrati. Tenors, their testicles,

do drop two, Ross. Okay. Playing it really a whole out. Here we go. Oh yeah, definitely a dude. I think it's a woman. No. By the way, keep this on standby.

Every time I ask you, we always say, what does a guy make? Or what is the guy's ERA or his free throw percentage? We have to have that music close by, just for a bit. Okay. I lost the range game because, yeah. Because what you would have done there is you would have said, what's the ERA and I would have said nine?

And then the only guy would have gone up five spaces up on the bar because I was five runs off. Okay. I can't believe you thought it was a girl. You'd have been not watching the game? Yeah. He calls him Yolidooly guy. That's okay, but I'm saying the yodled person sounds like a woman.

You guys literally just asked me to find the yodeling, and I was like, what in the world do you want from me? Have you never watched? You don't watch, do you don't watch your prices, right? No. Ever? I have watched it in my life, but it's probably been 10 years. You just haven't lived, my friend. like if what's on your DVR right now

a DVR? Dancing with the stars oh geez you don't have a DVR I don't have cable He's a cord cutting kid Oh I had cable like literally for one year A little since I moved out

Do you have YouTube TV? No I don't I don't have anything Everything I watch is Online streams illegally You are a kid I can't afford cable I wish I could afford cable we should get Sean Salsbury to get you some Affinity or something

I that would be you have no idea how much I miss having cable So you don't watch how do you watch Sports Center? Sports Center, I don't watch Sports Center really either Wait a minute Unless it's after like a Monday Night Football game or that Games are on Van Pelt show is on Yeah, I like Van Pelt but I mean I usually turn it off with in five minutes Illegal streams usually cut off after the game is over

Same yeah, yeah, that's true So I was I was a legal stream guy about five or six years ago CSN Houston. Shout out. And the reason why I got tired of it was because all the pop-ups, they show showing up all the time? Oh, yeah. I understand. This is not a preference of mine.

So basically, if you want to watch a football game at noon, you got to get on that website 1145 and spend 15 minutes going through the pop-up. Yeah. Matt was dropping $100 a week on live Jasmine. I mean, there are pop-up. No, most of them are porn. Yeah. They are. Matt was spending too much time at the live camp shows, so he was dropping a lot of coins.

Just so the pop-ups would close. No, I mean, there are pop-up blockers that help, but it's still that mess. And it's very, very frustrating to do that. Absolutely. But you are doing something illegally. Oh, yeah. So we don't feel that sorry for you. That's fair.

That's actually totally fair. Okay. I guess if you're not paying for it, if you go through 15 minutes full of spam and ads, go for it, right? Yeah. I love the illegal stream life every now and then when it's necessary. Because I don't think YouTube TV. cheap anymore, right? They were, they were supposed to be the low-cost alternative, and then they raised their rates.

They're like $50, $60.00. Yeah, it's crazy. I think you can do sling for like $30. I think that's the cheapest I'm familiar with. Oh, man. I don't know. I don't like being 30 seconds behind anyways. I like to live as possible. Who should get you one of those illegal fire sticks? My son's got one and love it.

Yeah, why don't you get him a jailbroken fire stick. Help the man out. If I told you about these jailbroken fire sticks before? Oh, my God. Don't, by the way, sports talk seven. 90 and I Heart Media, Houston, do not endorse this. Any sort of illegal streaming, any jail broken fires. And it's not my son's, it's not my... You do not any of this.

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry about that. FBI is going to be called. Sorry, Cam. It's on Cam's watch, so we're fine. Remember the FBI warnings before VHS tapes? It's like, do not copy this tape.

Wasn't there a great Kirby enthusiasm episode? Oh, was there? Involving that? No, but... Stop. you know it's funny. You just don't want to acknowledge that you and I find a show that's equally funny. Okay.

It's okay. I said it's okay. It's not disaster. It's not the greatest show ever. It's the funniest show ever. A little too sloppy. Oh, I didn't realize you were a theater critic as you're watching the show. Just laugh.

Do you laugh your ass off? Of course you do. You watch the show. I laugh some and then sometimes I say, this is ridiculous. You say it's sloppy. 158. Let's get the final hour started. Ross is rotten.

fives in 20 minutes. I'm excited about that. Can't wait. That better not be sloppy. That better be a masterpiece. Yeah, it's over 550 words. Let's go, baby. And then at 2.30, George Springer is going to join us in a few minutes as well. 713-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas Show. 201 on Sports Talk 790.

It is the Matt Thomas Show, Sports Talk 7-90. We appreciate you all listening. We've had already a great show so far with Joel Clatt was with us. Dustin Baker was to tell us about Justin Verlander's session today. Amazing. Well, it won't be amazing until tomorrow. He wakes up and he doesn't need 9 Advil. It was amazing.

He wakes up tomorrow morning and he can't move out of the bed and he has Kate get his tea for him and crumpets. Then it's going to be a bad, bad situation. Gotting deep into a bottle of tequila if I need 9 Advil. You know, I got this balcony distilling here. I can give you some of that. Yeah, you already said you wouldn't. I will. It's fine.

Save it for Rody. Whatever. We've got to go to Lubbock and go see those folks. not Lovick, Waco. If I take it to Lovick, we'll be there very long because my son and the distillery tour? Yeah, you've ever been on one before? Yes.

One here locally, with you. Yeah, a couple years back. Now we're going to go to Waco. I've been to Waco in a decade. I've never stayed in Waco. I've driven through it. That's it. Yeah, when Cameron and I go to Lubbock, when we drive him back, we go through Lovick every time.

It's much more cosmopolitan than it was probably when we were younger. I mean, every city is that way, right? Right? Well, I mean, what are things to do in Waco? Well, don't you go to the Dr. Pepper Museum and see how it's made? Oh. You want to go to Balconi-Sistilling to see how Texas pot bourbon is made? Yeah, I get that for sure. Let's see. Things to do in Waco.

Number one, the Waco Mammoth National Monument. Huh? Like, I asked somebody the other day, what's the place to eat in Waco? And nobody had any ideas. I'm like, okay, we're going to... It's a waffle house. We're going to Chili's. Yes.

They may in and out there. Oh, they do? Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I like that. But it is, in all seriousness, it is sad that it's taken 25 years for Houston and Baylor to play each other again.

The Cafe Homestead. Oh, and those remodels live there. Oh, that's right. Are they still together? I believe so. Okay. Not that I watched that show, but I think they're still hanging out. Okay.

I'm glad they haven't broken up. Are you really? Are you having the relationship? as strong as ever. Yeah, I'd be really broken up if they What are their names? I think it's Chip and Joanna Gaines, correct? Chip and Joanna. You don't even know. You don't even know.

I don't watch HDTV. I know Brendan. I know Brandon doesn't. Oh, watch a bunch of shows with people with nicer houses than me. Screw that. So what are you watching then? Sports. There you go. Sports-related programming? Not cribs.

Cribs? Is Cribs even on anymore? No, I don't think so. Is it? I love that. that show. I think Cribs single-handedly cost football and basketball players millions of dollars because they wanted all the cool stuff that they saw on Cribs. Well, I'll say this. You know these Zoom meetings we've been watching as of late?

Mm-hmm. It's kind of a mini version of Cribs because you see what's behind people, whether they have a bookcase or they got a bunch of, like Jeff Blum, I saw him on a Zoom call. He's got a bunch of his old jerseys and a bunch of other people's jerseys on there. Yeah, that's a lot of pressure. That's why I just go green screen. No, the pressure is, I have had to alter my Zoom because I'm like, Like, I'm going to go on Channel 2 today.

I have to have something in my background. Hmm. Can I go? Why you should use a green screen? Because it's Channel 2. They don't need me. You make it like a nice fireplace. It looks like you're in a wood cabin.

Well, I think if you screen something differently than what you have, it's because you're embarrassed of what you have. Hmm. All I have is behind me is a plain wall. So that's boring. So that's why I go green screen. And I put, you know, Tiger King and other stuff behind me. Speaking of Tiger King, have we gotten Carol Baskin off the show yet?

She's going to be voted off first, right? She has. Usually the biggest gimmicky person on that show is knocked off almost right away. Like a carrot top or something? Well, like Tucker Carlson was on there one year. Was he? I don't know how I know that. Well, because it was on dancing with the stars, believe it or not. That's right.

It was. So I think those type of people, they obviously have a list of who they think. Like the, like there's one of the ice skater guy. He's going to win, right? Yeah, Johnny Weir, right? If you're a professional ice skater, this is not fair. This is like when Simone Biles is on there, which I think she didn't win. And there was one dude that was on in the Backstreet Boys.

Yeah, A.J. McLean. Yeah, he's going to make it too. Is he? Is he a good dancer? Well, I mean, you would think boy bands wouldn't be able to tell how to dance. I mean, yeah, they dance, but that was like 20 years ago. How's it? Are his hips okay? Yeah.

He got knee problems or something? AJ McLean's not a spring chicken. Yeah, but he'll be fine. Okay. And Hey, she's on there. She'll be around for a while, too. She's an actress. Oh, he's only 42.

Oh, he'll be fine. What? He's got plenty of time. I thought it was going to be at least 50. All right. So, all right, headlines of the day. Justin Verlinter pitched. 75, 75, 77, somewhere in that range.

20 or so went to real-life hitters. The rest were in a bolt were in a bullpen kind of thing. So we'll find out how he feels more tomorrow. Chris Tivinsky is done for the year. He had a procedure done to fix his right elbow. Clippers lose game seven. It's going to be the Nuggets against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Lakers are winning this thing, right?

I think so. They'll be heavy favorites. And the all-NBA teams just dropped. Go ahead. First team. LeBron James. Duh. Yonis Et de Kumpo?

Sure. Luca Donchich. What? Anthony Davis. Yeah. James Hardin. Who are we missing on that group? Well, I'll give you the second team.

Okay, let's go. Is there anybody in the second team? Kowile Leonard didn't make it. because he was behind LeBron, Janice, Luca, Anthony Davis, and James Harden. Luca Donchitz made first team. That's pretty crazy. That just shows you that they think this is the kid that's going to take over the league. I mean, yeah.

I mean, he was as great as he was in the playoffs. He's 21 years old. He's 20 freaking one doing the things. That's why this rocket's off season is so important because Golden State's going to come back, right? You would think, and then they may not be at dynasty level, but they're going to be back. You're going to have a highlight of repick. Dallas might be better than they were. year ago.

Yes. They were what a seven seed. Pelicans. We'll see. They got talent. They have talent, but can that talent stay healthy for a long period of time? Full season is I on. Yeah.

I don't anticipate San Antonio getting any better. They're going to have to kind of basically wait for the new coach to come in there and change things around there. Anybody else else is on the up? Memphis might be. True. True. I don't think Utah's going anywhere.

I don't think Portland's going anywhere. Phoenix played well in the bubble. Phoenix did really well. Ross, there may be a team that's at 500 or better that doesn't make the playoffs next year in the Western Conference. It's that. The balance is so skewed to the West over the east. And it's really been that way for at least a decade. 20 years.

It seems like. When the Lakers were making it to the finals and going up against like the New Jersey Nets. Or the Sixers. That at Allen Iverson and really nobody else. Matambo. And then Todd McCullough. Okay. My point.

You're making my point. All right. Second team NBA again was. Second team is Dame Lillard. Kauai Leonard. Yep. Nicola Yokic. Chris Paul.

Second team all NBA. Wow. Pascal Seacum. Whoa. Chris Paul made second team. Oh, and to your first point, Matt. Everybody on the first all NBA team,

all Western conference. Oh, I'm sorry. No, Janus. Sorry, one Easter. Four out of five. Real quick, we've got to get a call in here. What do we do about the following? people in the NBA.

Did you know James gets ridiculed for not taking the team further than he has? Yon is going to get some of that? Feels like he is. He should. He is. I feel like Paul George could be in that category. Playoff P. Terrible.

Yes. Is Doc Rivers in trouble in Los Angeles? I would take Doc Rivers in a heartbeat. I think he's terrific. Yeah, I think you let them have another year, for sure. But I would think he probably losing after a 3-1 lead, really, really hurts his legacy. And being up in double digits in every single one of the following games.

Yeah, it's crazy. Let's go to, uh, just, let's see, is this a say, Shannon? Channing. Oh, I'm sorry. Hi, Channing. Hey, how are you guys doing today? Wonderful. What's up? Talking about Waco early, being up there by Baylor. I wanted to let y'all know, right by Bay University, there's a Texas Sports Hall of Fame Museum. And they've got, uh, they've got high school, Texas stuff, college, and professional. And it's really cool out there. Well, thank you for mentioning that.

I know that for future trips. We're not getting at all about 7 o'clock, so we'll miss that in the game as early on Saturday. We're just looking for a place to eat selfishly. That's what we do in the world is we just find something to eat. All right. Well, my fault. Thanks for having me on. No, thank you.

Appreciate Texas. Is that like the Houston Radio? Is that like the Texas Sports Radio Hall of Fame? I mean, is this Texas Sports Hall of Fame legit? Is it high school sports? I think it's probably all sports. I think anybody that's involved with Texas, right? I've heard of it once or twice, but not overly familiar with it.

Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Yeah, it looks like it's in Waco. Is there a chance I get in? What sports did you play? I know as a contributor. In what way? Sports media. If you say no, and they say no.

No. Okay. Oh, now I got the end. answer her. You know, I used to have a call name Jason. It lived in Waco. Called me for over a decade. What happened to Jay?

I don't know what happened. I have not heard from Jason and Waco in five years. Yeah, it's been maybe even more. He was a season ticket holder for SME football. And I believe he was in charge of equipment at Waco Midway. Yes. That's right. And would make grandiose bets with me that he never could fulfill or win because the

bets he was looking to win on were never going to happen. He was a nice guy. Sweet kid. Yes. Matter of fact, I think what he said one time was if he was to hit the lottery, he was going to give me some of his money. That's right. Which I thought was as generous as any listener would ever give to me. Yeah.

I'll help you out if I hit the lotto. Define help out. I'll pay for all your children's tuition. So I like to hear it. That's a help. Let's go to John in League City at 212. Hi, John. Hey, how's going?

Good. You're good. Hey, I got you placed to eat in Waco. Go for it. It is called George's restaurant and bar. Yeah. It's awesome. It's got plenty of TVs.

It's called a big old beer. Anything you want, and they'll fill it up all the way in the top. It's always cold. It's awesome. Nice. Yeah, it's list number two on this list. What's it called? George's?

Yes, sir. Okay. It's number two on the best restaurant. Oh, it looks good. On TripAdvisor. It's got fried food. I'm all into it. And brown gravy.

Oh, delicious. Thank you for the recommendation. Oh, yeah. You have a good one. All right, buddy. We're going to Georgia. Anybody that's a Cougar wants to the Cougar broadcast team, we're going to be at Georgia's on Friday night.

There you go. I'm hungry now. I'm starving. Go get Mexican pizza after the show today? Are they, well, what are they taking them off the menu? It's going to be a while. Like, it's a race between them and Luby's going on business. The quality is just gone way down on there.

I'll go to Lubies. I'll go get a high ho. I go to Danny's getting it moons over Miami or something. I want a Belgian wall for. for some reason. Yeah, are we eating after the show? No, we're not. 2.13 is our time.

We're going to come back and let you enjoy the season premiere of Ross's Rotten 5. It is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Yeah, I got to talk to you guys about how you're feeling and just the way you're going through life. Sometimes, you know, you have some issues sleeping and you're moody and it just becomes a cycle. And you know what? I'm going to tell you that it might not be your fault. It might be something that you can't control. And that might be your testosterone levels.

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makes you wish Royce White was dropping a line for the program. We need to find that Royce White one. Former Rocket great, Royce White. Well, two of the three parts that are accurate, former Rocket. All right. George Springer is going to join us in 10 minutes here on the Matt Thomas. Joe very much looking forward to that. We were going to play Believe it or not today, but the prizes just aren't very good.

I am making a passionate plea to our sales staff, and I'm going to reach out to some people. If you would like to donate some prizes that would actually appeal to people besides old DVDs, I mean, not that DVDs aren't great, but there are a dime a dozen. Right? Who doesn't like a free movie, Matt? Well, I mean, it depends. What kind of movie it is? Excuse me?

Well, we don't want to talk about what you're doing on the road. You're Beverly Hills hotels You mean reading the Bible? Yeah. So we will attempt to find some better prizes. Isn't that funny how they said in 2020 and there's a, in every hotel room in the top drawer,

there's a Bible. It's crazy. Is it every Bible? I mean, every hotel? I always thought it was in Marriott's. No, I think it's every hotel. Okay. Somebody's...

Can you request one? Somebody go to the PI tonight with your special sidepiece and let us know if there's a Bible in there. I don't know if there's Bibles in the P.I. That's a little different, Matt. Let me ask you this. Have you ever been to a hotel or motel with the Bible in your room?

And there's sections highlighted. No. That would mean somebody actually would read it. Yeah, I don't read it myself, so I would know. But next time you go to a hotel. Okay. See if any of it's highlighted. If I need some like a late night reading.

Like when we used to buy college textbooks, you thought the cool thing would be to buy new and improve? No, no, no, no, no. you want to get the used textbooks because... Well, they're cheaper. Well, first of all, they're cheaper. And secondly, they're highly of the important parts. You don't have to worry about reading every single page.

God, the bookstore is such a scam. Oh, it is. Yeah. You buy back the books. You buy this book for $85. Okay, we will sell it back to you. Well, we'll give you $4 back. Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah, there's this... One of these pages is folded. Yeah, we're going to give you 50 cents. No, the best excuse I used to here was, well, the professor's going to change textbooks next year. Jeez, thanks. All right, it takes absolutely no... sports acumen to tell us who the best teams are in the NFL. It takes research.

It takes thought. It takes analysis to give us this that we call the Rotten Five. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's Rotten Five. This don't smell quite right. Now, before you go, small prayer for you, Brendan,

because there's a chance of lions are in this thing. Like they know what they are. Well, I expect them to do no problems if they are. Well, I will say there are a lot of usual suspects in the Rodin 5, starting with the New York football giants. They were thrilled to select Sequin Barclay, one of the best running back prospects in recent memory. Second overall in 2018 draft,

well, Sequin may feel differently. After a breakout rookie season, he followed that up last year with injuries and a disappointing sophomore campaign. And on Sunday, Barclay had 15 rushes for, Just six yards Monday night. I'm sorry, Sunday for the fewest, I'm sorry, yeah, Monday night tied for the second fewest yards by any player with 15 plus rushes in a game since the 1970 merger. Some credit is due to the Steelers Stout Front Seven, but the Giants need to figure this out or soon they've squandered a generational running back talent.

The New York Giants, now the fifth worst team in the NFL. I think it's a disgrace. We know how Donnie T. loves his New York teams. Well, at least the Cleveland Brown's hype train from last year wasn't present in 2020. but there's still a lot of pressure on Baker Mayfield to perform with new head coach Kevin Stefanski. It should be no surprise that the Browns fell to the Ravens, but what is cause for concern? The manner in which it happened. The Browns only mustered six points.

The bounceback year of Odell Beckham Jr. got off to a rocky start, and Baker Mayfield's 33.3 total QBR, one of the worst performances in week one. Hopefully they can get a win against the Bengals, but right now the Cleveland Browns? The fourth worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, it's bad. That feels like that's a good spot for them. Like they're usually one or two. Yeah, they're four.

They can go worse because you know what? Number three is the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow did not dazzle, but he got a rushing touchdown. And John Ross dropped the potential passing touchdown. They'd be one in O if it weren't for Fat Randy blowing a 31-yard kick and then probably fainting like he blew his calf. Randy Bullock is as healthy as his appetite, however, an admitted post-game that he just had a kick he needed to make.

The Bengals, they have a grudge match coming. Coming up Thursday against the Browns in the Battle of Ohio. But as of right now, they are the third worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, we suck again. Yes, you do. All right, we talked about teams being inducted into the Rotten Five Hall of Fame. But if we did players, Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick may be an inaugural inductee. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw interceptions to the Patriots, which is a tradition as old as time itself.

In week one, it was no different. He had three picks to the Pats and the Dolphithe. Dolphins only scored 11 points. The drum beat for Tuatungovaloa got louder this week, but Brian Flores says, as of right now, it is Ryan Fitzpatrick. Well, keep an eye on week number four. That's when they'll have an extra time off after a Thursday game. But right now, Miami Dolphins, the second worst team in the NFL.

You suck. You duck ass. And last but not least, the New York Jets. They inexplicably hired wandering-eyed Adam Gase to be their head coach last year after three lackluster years in Miami. The decision proven to be questionable at best as gay sports one of the least inventive offenses in the NFL and seems to be stunting the growth of Sam Darnel. The Jets were 31st in offense last year and they only mustered 254 yards against the bills in week one, which is third worst in the entire NFL one week into the season. Add to that, Levion Bell is on

an IR which leaves the corpse of Frank Gore as their current number one running back. Yuck! The New York Jets, the worst team in the NFL. I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. And that's your rotten five. Man, you could have really flipped some of those teams around a little bit, I think. Oh, it's a tight horse race. You know, when you're coming down the stretch, Matt, and anyone can jump ahead of the others, there are a lot of sucky teams in the NFL.

Did you, so the lions escape the rotten five? For now. The Texans avoid the rotten five. For now. They start out in four. Oh and four? Let me get a little spoiler alert for you. The Colts avoided the Rotten Five.

For now. Well, you know, half the league's 0 and one, Matt. So you can go any number of directions. But Indianapolis lost to Jacksonville. Jacksonville, a perennial participant in the Rotten Five. Oh, absolutely. A stalwart, if you will. All right.

Not bad. You wrote, that was a lot of material right there. Information, analysis. Again, it just wasn't off the top of your head. going, ah, you know, the best teams, New England's good, and, you know, Missa's good, and Green Bay's good, and Kansas City's good. It was, again, what separates us from the rest. Yes.

And for that, we appreciate it. A new staple midweek here on the Matt Thomas show. The Rodin 5. All right. George Springer is going to join us next. Let's talk about improvemyerection.com. That's a website that I'd like you guys to check out if you are having erectile dysfunction issues.

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A lifelong Astros fan here. Anytime, anywhere. I love your home team. The goal rockers. Just tell your smart device. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHard Radio. Playing Sports Talk 790 on IHard Radio. This is 790 baseball direct.

Direct from the ballpark. To your radio. Driven by Texas Direct Auto, powered by Vroom. 231 on the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. One of our favorite people is joining us for a quick 10-minute visit prior to tonight's 7 o'clock start. He hit his 39th career lead-off home run. George Springer, you're only 14 away from Craig Bizzio. it done in the next, well, there's less than 14 games.

So we're going to have the way to wait a while. But congratulations, nevertheless. How are things? I appreciate it, man. I'm doing good. We're plugging away over here. Seriously, I think you need like a voodoo doll in the clubhouse because if Karea was going to get gone for any length of time and have been like, you know what, let's just

shut the season down. We can't have any more injured players. Too much. It's been just too much this year. Yeah, you know, this has already been a weird year. It's been a weird way to kind of go about your daily in life, for one, but especially around the ballpark. And with just the amount of injuries that we've had to, you know,

fight through, seeing him go down last night was kind of one of those, you know, stomach droppers. But, you know, luckily for us, I think he's going to be okay. Okay, let's put a few things out there. You love playing baseball. you're very well compensated for it. You love the game. You approach it. Awesome. You love Major League Baseball. But let's put 20-20 in perspective, but just for a second. You're traveling to places. You can't go outside and eat. You're playing at 8-10 at night instead of 7-10 most nights.

You are not doing the normal routine. What has been, and again, no one's going to complain to you for saying that you're bitching about anything. But what has been the hardest adjustment to playing this season of 2020? Tony? You know, I think one of the interesting things, I wouldn't even say hard, it's, it's, well, we're so used to, as a baseball players, we're creatures of, you know, of habit. We like to do certain things at certain times a day, and if it's not, you kind of get screwed up. And, you know, to have to adjust to doing things that you're not comfortable with, I mean, I don't, I mean, you know, having on masks everywhere, constantly washing your hands. and being kind of weary of the guy next to you while at the same time trusting the fact that they're doing the right thing, as are you. Yeah.

But I think one of the hardest parts, I mean, no, I don't want to speak for anybody else, but for myself, it was the lack of time to get ready. You know, it doesn't matter if you're playing, you know, 50 games, five games, 100 games. This game is hard. and it takes time to get yourself acclimated to play in this game at this level. So, you know, to have only 21 days to do it, you know, the entire league had to do it, but I think that was one of the hardest parts for me in specific. But it's just been one of those awkward, weird years, and you're trying to navigate it to the best of your ability.

Well, I'll say this. You navigate it quite well at home. Help me out with this, George. you guys are kicking ass at home, and then the road has been, I mean, it's a tough watch sometimes. Why the discrepancy this year? I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. I know we've lost a lot of games on the road in the last inning.

I know that. You know, it's hard to win on the road in general, but, you know, I don't know. I think it's just kind of one of those outlier years where stuff like that happens. You know, I mean, there was a year where we, you know, played better on the road than we did it home and then it's flip-flops i don't know um you know it's it's it's just been kind of one of those again one of those weird years i i know for a fact that we've been walked off um more than once um on the road so it's it's i know that the numbers may seem glaring but a loss is a loss it you know it it it doesn't matter what where it happens

George Springer here on the Matt Thomas show. And George, just you personally at the plate, obviously hitting pretty well as of late and struggled a little bit early. How much of that is what you talked about about the time to get ready or was it just a slump? So what was going wrong early and what's going right right now? Well, I think it's a big part of it was not having a time, you know, to get prepared, you know, but this is a season where you're going to get

you know, a third, maybe a quarter of the at-bats that you normally get. And, you know, for a lot of guys, you don't like to look at statistics, but a lot of people outside the game do, and they take into account, you know, a one-for-20 start or whatever, but a normal year, a one-for-20 start in the middle of June, you don't even really blink at it. And I think you're starting to see across the league that guys are kind of on a normal progression, right? You get through your first 50, 100 bath, and then things start to, you know, to slow down.

They start to click in. And now they're starting to see guys be who, you know, they normally are. But people, including the players, expect themselves to play well from the get-go. And that's just kind of what, you know, didn't happen for some guys, you know, including me. but it's every day is a progression. And unfortunately, this is game 48 for us, I believe, you wouldn't even blink. And I'd be going, I got 120 left to go. But instead of that, it's 12. So you set you out and play and try to win the ball game. Busing with George Springer here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

You know, when we used to come to the clubhouse, because I know you love when we're there before the games while y'all are playing video games. It's one of your favorite things. We go to the card and see who's in the lineup. Well, you're always the top, so that goes without saying. But did you look at it yesterday and go, oh, my God, we're a full team today? Yeah, I mean, minus Alvarez. That was one of the first times, I believe, all year where we had our full squad of guys out there. And then obviously to see a career go down was tough. But, you know, I think it's a testament to the guys that we have in the locker room that we hadn't necessarily had our, quote-unquote, you know, all of our guys in there,

but the guys that haven't been in there have been playing their butts off. And it's, you know, a good thing to see basically everybody back out there. So, again, we'll have to see what happens. 2015 you're fighting and scratching and clawing to make a playoff spot for the wild card in which you eventually get and beat New York up there. Does this season have that kind of feel where, let's be honest, 17, 18, 19, y'all are destroying everybody. Is it a little different in these last few games, say, the last three years for you? Well, I mean, I think that's a little obvious. You know, the A's are up by, you know,

a whole whatever it is as opposed to us the last few years. The A's are a very, very, very good baseball team. And, you know, they're going to be hard to beat, especially down the road. But for us, it's honestly that's about controlling our own destiny. You know, going out, understanding that every game that we play is going to implicate something, is going to have some impact on something. So it does have a. that, you know, feel of 15, you know, fighting all way up until the last day, I believe,

and it's 15. So it's not like we haven't been in this position before. So, you know, I just got to rely on that experience and go from there. All right, for I let you run. When we visit with you on this show, in particular last year, you were newlywed, and the wife was cooking most of the meals and kind of keeping you on a low-carb thing and highly nutritional, which I guess is cool and everything. But has she allowed you to enjoy a little more junk food in 20?

You know, I mean, I haven't told her, but yeah, I've been kind of, you know, sneaking some chips here and there. You know, eating some candy on the plane at every blue moon. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, you know, she makes sure that I eat right, I sleep good. You know, that kind of, I understand that I got to fuel myself. I mean, I'm still trying to get the hang of eating a bunch of salads and stuff. and all that good stuff. But I need it to stay healthy, and I'm going to keep going with it.

Okay, well, lots of fatty foods in 12 years when you retire. Is that fair? Oh, I'm going right for it. The steaks, the chicken wings, I'm going right for it. Yeah, seriously, when you're like 44 years old, I want to find you and say, God, look at how gross you are. Congratulations. I mean, I hope I don't go to that, you know, that end of the spectrum.

him, but I'll, I don't know, I'll let myself go, I guess. I mean, I might as well, right? You got that right. George, thank you for the time. Congratulations and all the lead-off home runs. We just don't care when you get the home runs. Just get them and have a great time. That's what gets Texas, and good luck in the playoffs, my friend.

Appreciate it. We'll see you later. George Springer. You got it with us on the Matt. Thomas Show. Here I'm trying to get him, his cluster all level up when he finishes playing. What's what I do is, if the Astros can pull off this great run, Rossi, and go and win the World Series, we got to just tell Georgia's wife

hey you know we need our we need your guy for one day and just go get him some pie ice cream you go take him to Georgia's in Waco cheddar cheese loaded fries with ranch on it Mexican pizza

no that's not going to be around when he's out of the league A1 I'm talking about right now it's like one day we're just going to knock this out just make him so sick if they get a like if they get a day off no I'm talking about when they win the World Series if they do only they win the World Series if they do only they win the World Series, though. He gains five pounds in one day.

A1 thick and hearty. Matt, you're hungry. Yeah, I guess I am. A1 thick and Hardy Burger is not back, though. It's gone? No, it's not there right now. You know what is today? What is today?

Wednesday, right? Yes. It is. When you're thinking burgers, you're thinking a big city wing. That's true. Eight dollar burgers. Any of the burgers you want, eight bucks. You get aside with it.

too. You're not paying $8 for the burger and then $4 for the side and $9 for the drink. $8 burgers, any of them. Plus, you get a side. Tater tots, French fries. I think a tossed salad could be in the mix as well. Whatever you want. Big City Wings is known for amazing burgers. Big city wings is known for a lot of things. Pull pork nachos for an appetizer. Amazing. The wings, bone in, boneless. Amazing. They also have great appetizers, as I mentioned before, and amazing desserts. But today, Oh, by the way, it's Whiskey Wednesdays too. I've got to get Bacconi's over into Big City Wing. So if you're listening to Doconies and Big City, work it out.

Whiskey Wednesdays plus $8 burgers today, any of the eight, soon to be nine Big City Wing locations. To find the one near you, you simply go to bigcitywings.com. That's big citywings.com. The morning sports show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. 247. Final cycle of the bad time of show. Proving for the 5 millionth time that perhaps the off-micophone conversation is significantly better than the on-better conversation on-mic conversation. You know, man, I told you about the why your team sucks thing and we should go through.

Oh, yeah. Do we need music for this? Well, no, well, I was going to say, there's just like an F-bombs every other word in this thing. Okay, can you clean it up? I just said there's F-bombs in every other word in this thing. So the answer is no. I don't think so. We should explain the audience. There is a guy that every year does why your team sucks.

Now, normally... For all 32 teams. They usually during the preseason, but since there wasn't a preseason, they just based off of... Well, and they used to do it for Deadspin. Deadspin got bought by a parent company. All the writers walked out of Deadspin and then formed their own website called DeVector Media, and that's what this is from. Well, send it to me. I'll do it.

Okay. I mean, I'll try. What's your name? My email address. You guys ever want to email you're welcome to do so. And we used to do Matt's mailbag where we would read tweets and emails that you would get. Yeah, but I don't get any of those anymore. Whatever happened to that?

People don't listen to the show. And you used to play, it was a, what was the Fifth Beetle? What's his name? Billy Preston out of this world or out of something? He's number of the Fifth Beetle, was he? No, there's a number of guys named the Fifth Beetle. All right. So we're going to read this to you.

And I'm going to have to very carefully. You're telling me I have to very carefully read this. You do what you. You do you, Matthew. Well, I mean, I've read a lot of things before that's got a lot of swear words in it. That's true. So I'm, you know what, Ross? I'm a trained professional.

And as soon as I get it, I will read it without having any preparation. It's on the way. I don't know. Tell you. All right. Out of space by Billy Preston. We used to play on the mailback. Oh, yeah.

We also used to play Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs. Great song. All right. Here we go. This is Defector.com. Why your team sucks. Your team, ooh, we were talking about that. I talked about this on a Twitter poll.

You do ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, or do you go, really? Your team is AHA, HAA, HAA, H, H, A, A, H, A, H, A, there's like 50 AHA. I mean, it's a bunch of, it's the most extreme aha, as you will see. Yeah, it seems like he takes great delight in this, in the Houston Texans ones of year after year. Your 2019 record. I've been waiting for this one. I'm so excited to get to that playoff game, but I can hardly stand it.

But before I do, let me tease my own blank by ticking off a few of the Texans earlier blanks. The appetizer blanks, as it were. He's talking about the appetizers. Here it is. Trading Judevian Clonny to Seattle for virtually nothing. Loss of the Saints on a 58-yard field goal at the gun. Thought 37 seconds left from the clock wouldn't be enough for Drew Brees. Surprise.

Needed a failed two-point conversion to beat Garner-Minchu. I was there for that game. lost a game to Kyle Island gave up two bucks on the ground to Derek Henry in the final game of the regular season and then watch Tennessee make the AFC title game despite beating them out for the division crown. Okay, nothing so far, nothing bad so far.

Now, all those fairly benign goofs for a Bill O'Brien-led organization, almost minimal, especially in retrospect. The Texans even came back from 16-0 down the wildcard round to beat Buffalo. Then they hung down. 21-0 lead on the Chiefs at Arrowhead. All they had to do after that was convert a fourth and one deep in in Chaf's territory and make it 20 into nothing.

And then, why? Why did you do that? Why did you kick a blanking field goal there? Did you need to take a time out to decide? Don't you know who you're playing against? Don't you know what's on the line? From the exact moment onward,

life of the Texans has been the world screaming at them. What in a living blank are you doing? doing. Oh my God. You know the rest, but I'm going to write it down anyway because it's worth it. Houston blanked away a 24-0-0-0-le in the division-round game in a span of just under 10 minutes. They faked a punt from their own territory. It failed. They gave up four touchdown passes to Pat Mahomes in the second quarter alone. Then they let the Chief score another 24 points after that to complete the symmetry. Gaze upon this portrait of disgrace. It's the win probability. The Texans were 93.9% to win that game.

Your coach, Bill O'Brien, what the blank are you doing, Bill? Who told you to call that fake punt? Who told you to call that blanking field goal? You're the blanking coach. It's your job to have a blanking play for that. I can't do much more of this. I'm pretty proud of myself so far. What coach doesn't have a play-up his sleep for fourth and one?

With the Sean Watson, a quarterback, no less. Teams get to fourth and one every blanking game. Why did you have nothing for it? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why? This man combines the charisma of Doug Marone and the game management of Mike McCarthy, and Houston won't fire him. They just keep giving him more blank to ruin. I think O'Brien owns the Texans now.

I bet he's going to end up heading the post office soon. I blanking hate O'Brien. Every NFL season features a lone coach everyone despises. And last season, he was it. and given then he got his blank pushed in again by Kansas City in week one, expecting to keep his crown of blank-tipped thorns this season as well. I need a deep breath. I've done this all swearing yet.

Your quarterback. Deshawn Watson, I say it every year. This man deserves better. He can do everything back there and then explain it to all with you with a kind of elegant concision that would make Obama weep. And what does he get for his trouble? sacked over a hundred times in just two years, and a coach whose brain is filled with beanless chili.

This bad news for Deshaun is that he signed his contract extension. The good news that O'Brien will probably train him away this offseason for Jordan Howard and a sixth rounder. That's because, oh, man. What is always sucked about the Texans, 51, 53, 51, 53, repeat it like 50 times. Oh, this thing goes on and on and on. Oh, it's very lengthy. A lot of F bombs. Blank J.J. Watts arm brace.

You're not a cyborg, kid. You passed over the DeAndre Hopkins trade part. Oh, where is that? What's new that sucks. Let's see. Do I have time for that? Yeah, what's new that sucks? DeAndre Hopkins hasn't dropped the pass in over two blanking years.

And yet Bill O'Brien traded him for running back David Johnson, all because he didn't want to pay Hopkins, money that Hopkins had so clearly earned. Meanwhile, David Johnson has one of the worst contracts in football. So the Texans stiffed a great player for the privilege of overpaying for a medical school cadive. Oh, God. They also got a second rounder and a swap of fourth rounders.

O'Brien didn't even get a first runner out of this transaction. His biggest off-season move, and it's a trade that would be vetoed an enemy self-respecting fantasy football league. Oh, but he wasn't done wheeling and dealing just yet, flush with a whole, extra second rounder. Oh boy. The Texans traded the second rounder they already had of the Rams for Brandon Cooks who had a whopping 42 catch the year ago. How do you blank this up? I need a cigarette after this. Rano Cobb is also here from the Cowboys. But what does that matter? Everything from here is out on the downslope. Lamar Miller is also gone. The right side of the line is

a door off its hinges. This roster was compiled using a suction cup dartboard. Why that guy hates the Texans. That's how you end the show. That's better than believe it or not right there. The Why Your Team Sucks series is great every year. Hey, tomorrow on the show, Dr. Roto's with us. Is he going to give us the news? He's going to give us.

Dana Holgerson makes his season debut on this radio show tomorrow. Wonderful. We got something else going on too, I think. Fantastic radio segments. I hope, believe it or not, with a decent price. Well, we'll see. We're going to try it. We're going to try our darnness because I do love the game,

but I don't want insult your intelligence. You don't go on the price is right to win a bowl of salary. You go to win a car. And the first full hour will be Browns, Bingles, Battle of Ohio breakdown for Matt Thomas. No, I think I'm going to leave it to you. We'll call it the Ross's film study. For Brendan, for George Springer, for Dusty Baker. All, man, what a show today.

For Joel Clatt and for Ross, I'm Matt, have a great day. Adam Wexler, Adam Clatt and next are going to entertain the heck out of you until 6 o'clock. They call themselves. We call them the A team, and they're on 790 next. Thank you.