The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets vs Lakers Round 2! Astros Making Strides, USA Loses to Venezuela

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Rockets vs Lakers Round 2! Astros Making Strides, USA Loses to Venezuela 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross, where we celebrate the madness. UD. Arena last night was hopping back and forth. Well, I wasn't really back and forth. It was mostly U.T. up. Then North Carolina State makes a massive comeback, hit a bunch of threes late.

And then sixth year senior Tremont Mark on his third school. Longhorn legend, baby. Longhorn legend comes through with the big jumper mid-range. Fall, I mean, fall away, tough shots. 1.1 on the clock, 68, 66. And it's on to beat BYU on Saturday in Portland. It's beautiful, I guess.

Go beat BYU. Okay, truth be told. Can I explain my night to you? Sure, why not? Nothing crazy. I just want to get, so I went and had some dinner with some colleagues in the industry yesterday

and got home and watched probably all the second half in me a little bit of the end of the first half. And there was a lot of buzz on the social media streets Rossi about Charles Barkley and Dick Vital doing the game. I'm going to tell you something. And this is for broadcasting geeks like myself that are out there. That might have been the very first game ever

that two analysts were doing a game that didn't even pay attention to the game they were calling in front of them. It was like they were talking about everything but the game itself. It wasn't great. I don't want to be that guy. Go ahead. Do it. But I'm going to do it, and I've done it before.

Yeah. Dick Vital is an incredible ambassador for college basketball. Mm-hmm. But for the last 10 years, he's been Lee Corso. And Rossi, I'm holding you accountable. Me? If I sound like a mascot or sound like I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Ooh, okay.

You're going to have to tell me. Well, you're a play-by-play guy. That's different. That is true. And you have, you know, yeah, Dick Vitel's been a caricature of himself for like 20 years at this point. at this point. Never a great analyst. Never broke the game down. You never learned anything

when Dick Fidel, but you appreciate his enthusiasm. Energy, enthusiasm, yeah. That counts. It certainly does. Like with Tony Romo, it used to be analysts and energy and enthusiasm,

and now it's not analysis so much. But, yeah, you know, unfortunately, the audiences don't want to break down a box in one defense, and they don't want to break down certain high horn sets and stuff like that.

So they don't care. No. But, yeah, he's 86 years old and he is just like stream of consciousness out there talking at this point. And you knew Charles didn't even know a single player in either team. There was no interest in him doing any preparation at all on this. Yeah, his only preparation was to say hockey assists like 15 times. I know.

He didn't even know that on timeout you cannot advance the ball in the front court. Because he was asking about that when when North Carolina City had to basketball. He's been covering the tournament for years. Yeah, but if you ever listen to him, you never noticed that he's ever... It's half-time here between Virginia and Colorado. Charles, your thoughts about it.

Well, I used to skiing Colorado back in the day, and by the way, Shaq, you smell. It's just not... Whatever. But it did get headlines. It probably got a lot more viewers than a normal playing your first four game, they call it. No, Matt, when it's Wolfpack versus Longhorns, the entire nation turns its eyes to the tournament. I walked more of it yesterday.

I was rooting for your squad. Oh, thank you. And I was not reading. I was not going to text you either way. It was a horrible college basketball game. I mean, nobody could shoot, make free throws. It was not aesthetically pleasing. No, it wasn't.

But that's college basketball. But Tremont Mark, former Houston Cougar Great? Yes. Then he said, I'm going to go to Arkansas and be a former Arkansas great. Yes. And now he's at the University of Texas. I believe he was 20 years old with two children. I don't make you guys.

I call it Texarkana Tremon. That's what we're going to call it. He's the mid-south as great as a basketball player. Ross, we got a snack. We don't have a snack since. We have a brunch-sized edition of the show. Are we sure about that, by the way? I've checked in in Florida.

I've not received a text yet. Okay. I say that for those don't know. Yeah, where it's supposed to be Astros game coming up at noon, but there was rain in the forecast. So I didn't know what the latest on that was.

Here is the update. Hope so. Cardinal guys think it will. Teams hitting right now will keep you posted. That's from my sources down there. Because I am the Weather Channel insider down in the South Florida area. And then we'll have Adam and Adam on call in case anything. Yeah, because I got a big game that I got to keep my pipes first.

Me too. Absolutely. Yeah, you sound a little scratchy. Now, I'm actually feeling fine. Okay. I really sound, I got using a brand new microphone today. Oh, maybe you just woke up. No, I don't think that was the case. Okay. I'd love to be able to wake up at 9.50 in the morning, 9.30. That's not bad.

I know. I mean, I know friends people that do it in the past. Don't know if they just will do it now. Hey, I intentionally moved close to the station. You know what? Because I like to sleep in. Do you think I'm begrudging you on this? I looked at my faults and I try to work around them. Ross is a night owl and he likes to sleep in.

So move close to the station. Hates traffic and lives 37 miles in the station. Well, I'm sorry, Matt. We'll get you that high rise downtown soon. We've got a gallery high rise. There's a bunch of them popping up. How about that new one that's opening up on Memorial? That's the St. Regis.

Got about 3 million a pop for those bad boys. Yeah, let's get you one of those. I don't know if it's St. Regis. Maybe it's four seasons. It's one of those super ridiculously high-enals. Oh, is it Ritz? maybe Ritz. I think I read something about Ritz building up something.

Yeah, I'm all for that. All right. On the radio program today, we are going to 1150, we believe, before we send it over to, I believe it's Robert and Steve on the call today for the Astros and the Marlins from Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter. Okay. We have Brian Bogus Civic's going to join us at 11 o'clock today. Beautiful. Looking forward to that.

At 1120, right after that, we're going to shut your bum ass up. But I got a new one for you on ain't nobody got time for that. Ooh, okay. And it's happening at Toyota Center quite a bit. And my guess is happening in arenas all around the NBA. And for that matter, arenas in general, whether it's concerts, stadiums, arenas. And a full breakdown of Venezuela versus the United States in the WBC final. Boy, Mark DeRosa is wearing it, the manager of Team USA.

How do you not use Mason Miller in the ninth inning? because the Padre told him don't use him. Yeah. But he also said we were only going to use him with a lead. There was something that he said. That sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah. That's not what AJ Hinch said when he was talking about using Garrett Cole, was it?

That's what I was thinking about. He said he was only going to use him late with a lead, but it was tied. Yeah, it was two, too, too. Once you hit the ninth, and Aaron Judge Let America down again, like you typically Once you hit the ninth, they're never going to hit the bottom of the inning with the lead. It's either going to be tied or they're going to be losing. No, I think basically he had to come up with a convenient excuse to say that the Padres called said, if you said, I'm going to find you and crack you over the head with a baseball bat.

Shut your bum ass up. And apparently Omar Lopez had to deal with the same thing. Yeah. So now that it's all said and done, Rossi. Yes. It's fine. I'll look forward to it in three years like I look forward to it three years before that. Were there any major injuries?

I'm glad you brought that up. I'm glad you brought that up. Besides Pum. Zach Desenzo is not feeling great. Okay. Any plumbers from Chechia? How are they doing? I don't know. How is the Chechian team doing? I don't know. Is that guy back plumbing? Is he okay? The leader of the Chechian name team is named Greg Jones, ironically.

I don't know how that happened, but, yeah. What's up with Zach DeZenzo? We will tell you coming up in a couple minutes, but it's... Desinzo update. I don't think we're doing that. Oh. I mean, let me tell you something. If there's anybody in the world that would want to say,

Zach DeSenzo update on the show like ours, it'd be Zach Desenzo. We'd like, y'all really care about me that way? Thanks. But yeah, I'll say this. Miami did a great job. The crowds were great. I think the television numbers have been very good. I think we in Houston did a fantastic job. So props to any of you that went to any of the games last week.

But once every three years are good. Now the issue is, what do you do? Do you keep them in spring training or do you try to circle it? do you take a like a weak hiatus around the all-star break and do it every three years how many days did it take with this format and then you have guys playing all over the world too yeah i i honestly and i i'm not that i've had great deals of thought about this but my guess is if you're going to keep doing this you've got to do it around what you're doing right now yeah it went from march 4th to 17th so to just exactly 14 days yeah you can't take 14 days off in the season

could you do pooling play preseason and then the bracket that way fewer players are involved how about pool play in the spring and then bracket play in the all-star break by the way Zach descends on nursing a sore elbow does not affect him at the plate

affects him throwing and so could be used as a DH in the final number of uh... maybe he slept on it wrong do we know what happened in the WBC? What do you think they have not bad accommodations? Maybe I don't know how team Italy's rolling let me tell you something. I mean he's got one

five star after the other. Yeah, I know, but can does Team Italy have the budget for that? What do you think they're staying? I don't know. Red roof or something? Maybe. No, there's no chance. You can't put Team Italy the red roof.

We were in a nice boutique place when we were in Miami. You could put them out of Ramada. And everybody is what you put it at, right? Across the street from that bar. It was nice. It's real nice. South Beach or like somewhat South Beach?

I think we, no, we weren't close to the South Beach. We were more downtown Miami, I think. We were close to the convention center. I think were we walking distance? I can't remember. It was great. It was the best hotel I had at a Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, because usually, no, we've had some decent ones.

Yeah. Indianapolis was okay. Your travel trips were kind of weird. You've been going to connecting through Seattle, which wasn't win string one way in Portland and the other, which is right. Yeah, it was. That's a different year. We made it.

All right. So on the agenda today, we have WBC wrap up. How do you feel? Did Team USA let you down? We will get to Rockets, Lakers, Part 2. Rockets Twitter losing their MF and minds the last handful of days, Rossi. Oh, what happened? Just in general.

They've been losing their minds forever. I mean, I've just got to go and mute farm some more. I'm going to tell you this. If you are suggesting that you may ad hoc get fired, you have the IQ of a squirrel. Well, I did a little social experiment, or we can talk about it in the next segment or whenever. I'd like to, yeah, for sure. Okay. I love when Ross does these social experiments.

Yes. usually means you're being people are being mean to you no but it were nice to you no it wasn't about me but it's about the point that you just brought up so we'll talk about it all right 713212 570 7190 7190 1020 on 790

Matted Ross with you until 1150 This episode is brought to you by Spreker The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple.

You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Sprinker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. All right, so the Astros starting lineup has a change in it, and I think it's because they don't want any sort of slippage.

Jordan Alvarez is supposed to play left field today, sports RV, but he's going to now DH, Joey Loporffito, who, was going to DH, not going to play left field. Oh, why is that? Because it's the possibility of being slick out there or something? I guess. They are treating him with getting kicked. I love it. I love it. Let's go. All right, here is

your starting nine today. Altuve at second, Peretti's at third, Alvarez D. Hing, Kareit short, Loperfito, D. Hing, Cam Smith and Wright. Christian Walker at first. Yarnier D.S. Catching. Sneaky snake Jake in centerfield and J.P. France

will throw it today. Love it. Oh, JP Francis is still hanging around? That's good. Dude, he's going to win 20 for the Skeeters this year. No, the Skeeters of Space Cowboys. He's going for 30, Matt. Is he going to try to win more games as a AAA player

than any other pitcher in single season history? Do you want that kind of record, by the way? Probably not. But you know what? I mean, it's still correct. Like Crash Davis was the all-time minor league home run leader. He didn't want that. Yeah, I mean, we make fun of minor leaguers as we like have

Frito crumbs on our chest and we're sitting in front of our microphones, but I mean, AAA baseball. I mean, you're still pretty elite as a baseball player. Well, you're on the cusp. Yeah. So, all right. Now, you had brought up an example. I was talking about the social media rocket streets are a little bat blank crazy these days. Rockets and Lakers, okay, and we'll have that for you tonight at 730 with the launch pad.

Yes. Network pregame and then 830 will be the tip time. Are you doing the rockets, all the good stuff tonight? Yes, I am. Pre-M-post. Will we go past midnight again? We'll see tonight on Sports Talk 790. I almost called you because you had two lousy callers

that are day in a row. And you're like, it's how we're going to end it. I was like, I got a call. But I was so mad. You can always call. I was upset, too. I just was like nine turnovers in the fourth quarter.

I don't want to talk about it. That was as angry as I started the show going awful, awful, awful. I know. I felt a little bad after, but I mean, I don't know. But I wasn't lying. You were, no, you were speaking the truth. You were not trying to embellish or get hot takes or try to say something you didn't mean.

Remember, the truth and the facts and the score sheet will always set you free sports, RV. It just will. And that was awful basketball in that four quarter. All right. So what's your social situation you were talking about? Okay. So I did a Twitter poll yesterday. And I asked, I think it was yesterday.

I asked if where the rocket, the rockets are fourth in the west. Okay. So do you, I ask, do you think they have a top three roster in the West or the fourth best roster in the West are worse than fourth? And it ties into what we were talking about. Seventy-three percent of the people say it is a worse roster and 13.5 percent say it's fourth and 13 and a half percent say top three. Meaning 73 percent of people think the rockets are outperforming their roster. Talent. Right? Does that make sense? Yes. Then how many of those same people that voted they don't have a top four roster are also saying EMAI doka needs to get fired? I'm doing my best to try to open some eyes out. So basically you're saying is that if you are evaluating the roster for what you think it is, the coach can only do so much with that roster that's been given to him. If if 73% of people think they're outperforming their roster,

how many of those people also are saying EMAA doka needs to be fired? How can you get fired if you're outperforming your roster? I'm just going to tell you all rocket fans, don't be stupid. Just please. Don't be stupid. There are things I'm, I am muting, and Ross has given me very few bits of wisdom over the years. I mean, really, really few. But one of them was the mute key and the mute button, and I have been using it on the regular.

Because I'm just, look, I'm not looking, you don't have to, you can have dissenting opinions. That's okay. Absolutely. Matter of fact, dissenting opinions and good constructive conversation on Twitter can be good. Certainly can be good for a radio show. That's what we do. I'd rather talk to you about it than. get into a 140 character argument with you about it.

But the reality is, I could go look at timelines of people that want EMA and Raffel fired, and the next day the rockets went by 14 points, and then they're like, oh, all is good. Just stay in one lane. And this has been the problem with the Astro fans for even since the team has been good.

Well, and any fans of any team for, I mean, 100 years. Yeah, and that includes media, too. Look, Ross, you and I both had the Texans not making the playoffs at 0-3. I mean, I can say that. Yes. But it wasn't because we wanted to just get out there and say, oh, this team is hot garbage. They were underperforming. They were 0-N-3, and they looked like lost souls out there.

But they rallied, and the defense played outstanding football and got you to the playoffs. I mean, I still believed it was possible. I didn't completely rule it out. I believe I completely ruled it out. But that's just an opinion. It wasn't like fire Casario, fire D'Amico, You know, well, now we were, we were asking for a new offensive coordinator maybe pretty quick. Well, there's also the difference between predicting something and then saying, you know, having a ridiculous opinion.

Yeah. Which is, and that's my problem with that freezing cold takes Twitter account. Sometimes it's really good stuff, but sometimes it's somebody saying like the bucks are going to win this series and then they don't. Like, okay, is that really a freezing cold take? No, I think the freezing, I think that website or that Twitter account was made for more of the. No, I know. Tom Brady will never win another game. game for Tampa ever and he winds a winning a Super Bowl.

Right. That's where it's more. Yeah, I know, but sometimes they just do predictions and I'm like, they're annoying me because they're impression farming. But anyways, I digress. Off my soapbox for a second. I'm just going to say, if anybody, and there are two, here's the thing that bothers me. There are too many people that have too many followers that y'all take the people that they say as gospel, and it's just stupid. It's stupid fanboyism.

You end up with groupthink. you end up with followers and then the crowd who follow them and allowing other people. And the lack of independent thought has always been a problem, but it's even worse now with the, I mean, the state of education, the state of social media and all that type of stuff. It's just you get in this hive mind of where you think you're always right and you're all, you're following these, these influencers who have a bunch of followers and you can't have an independent thought. You can't have any logical thought. Can I give you a logical thought about the team that I call games for? Yes. We are turning the ball over way too many times.

Yes. We are in desperate need of a good ball handler. We are in desperate need of playing better in crunch time. We, because we're going on the backup, the back of the back of the back. That's okay. No, no, you get a paycheck from the Rockets. You say, you're in. Yeah, I'm with them all the time.

No, you're in. The Rockets need Tar Easton to play better. At 100%. The Tarisan that is playing right now will not help the Rockets win a playoff game. Kevin Durant can't carry the weight all. alone by himself. Alper and Shengu, by the way, off the injured list, he'll play tonight. That's a good sign.

That's going to help. The Rockets need to be a better clutch team. They need to be very careful with their ball handling because they're going to have more turnovers per game than the average team because they don't have a true ball handler. So if you do have the ball in your hand, take special, special care of it. And don't have mind-numbing turnovers, like eight-second calls, Or you're putting your heel on the, and look, and Kevin's been fantastic.

But Kevin knows better. Kevin can't have an eight-second count. Kevin cannot put his heel on the half-court line and get a violation. No, that was a bad one, too. That, I forgot about that. Was that the other team one? No, that's... Is that on Kevin?

No, the team ones would have been the eight-second call in the 24-second violation. Yeah, so I didn't know if a back-court violation... No, that's him. That's the team turn-over or not. His body was responsible for that in turnover. So, yeah. Okay. You know what I did, folks?

I just gave you a logical conversation about the Rockets who, with the wind that I will be within a half game of the third spot in the West. And the reality is I'm talking about Denver, Minnesota, Houston, Phoenix, and the Lakers. The five teams I just brought up, better play better, or they're not, they're going to be sitting around watching Oklahoma City and San Antonio. to play for the finals. Because those two teams are playing out of their mind right now. They might be doing that anyways. I didn't hear you say that.

713-212-5-7-a-di. Rossi, we need to tell the audience, we're going out tomorrow to meet the people. Mr. Texas on the road, just like I normally am. No, you're not Mr. Texas. All right. But yes, we are going on the road,

as we will be out at Willie's Ice House. 290 and Barker Cyprus. We're going to be out there for all the tournament action, of course. Oh, yeah, yeah, get the, get the badge on. They got crawfish season in full swing at Willys. They've got delicious food. I mean, Matt, they've brought us some food up here. They've got fajitas, they got burgers, they have great food, they have great eats,

they have great TVs, a lot of action. And most importantly, you can come tell them in person, the man who if you put a brisket enchilada, in front of him, he wouldn't touch it. He doesn't like sweet tea. He has no qualifications for Mr. Texas at all. Come and tell him in person, Willie's Ice House, 290 and Barker Cyprus.

Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10 to 2, 4 full hours tomorrow. Damn, that's what I'm talking about. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones, don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like,

sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, Well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

How's your bracket looking, Maddie? I've only filled out one. It doesn't matter how your bracket's doing. That's what I'm talking about. I've taught you well. No, I just wanted to come up. Number one, we don't care about your bracket. Oh, I got, well, I'm going to do mine tomorrow morning.

Number two, we don't care that you had South Dakota State not going to. off Wake Forest or whatever, you know. We don't care, because you can't name a player. Texas pulled off the upset, by the way, plus one and a half. Just saying, that's not an upset. One and a half ain't nothing. Yeah, one and a half's an upset. Please.

Hey, don't soft sell. Don't mean, let me bring you the definition of favorite and underdog. One and a, you're really going to call yourself a big dog at one and a half. I didn't say big dog. I said underdog. You know what, you are, you were a literalist? Yeah, I was going to call you an A-hole, but that's... Well, they're not mutually exclusive.

All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Biscuit at 1037. Biscuit, what do you got this morning? Hey, what's up, my brothers? Hi. Hey, uh, before I get to my rocket talk, man.

man, I love the draw we got, man. It's a good one. It's like, whoa, man, okay. And we want to play a certain type of teams. They gave us those teams. So, you know, we still got to win the games. But, man, I love to draw. I hadn't filled my bracket out yet, but I love to draw.

Ross, me and you have talked about the Rockets. It has to be a money thing. That's the only thing I can think of, man. When Fred went down, to not get someone else. It's to me it's like wasting a year of KD. KD has, I don't think anybody can say that KD has lived up and beyond our expectations. He hasn't been injured too much.

He's won a couple of games in the clutch. He's, you know, playing a lot of minutes. But we don't, the fact that they don't have a point guard or just a floor general, It's put everybody out of position. And that's how you get turnovers when people have to do stuff that they're really not good at. And for Kay to bring up the ball up the floor, come on, man, you cannot do that.

That's not his game. And it's just, I would say this. I think the Rockers are like one of the worst teams in the clutch and team like the Lakers are like one of the best teams is because they have, the Lakers have multiple guys that can handle the ball, they can facilitate, and the Rockets have maybe one. Hold on, hold on, just one second.

Let's not reinvent the Laker wheel. They are playing excellent basketball. They have all nine to their last 10. Hold on. Hold on. They are a defensive sieve. They have not been coaching games. They're on a really hot run right now,

and they beat the Rockets two nights ago, so you're talking about what just happened. So let's, and also if the Rockets win the night, they're a half game behind this so-called team that is as clutch as you speak up. So I'm just saying the three, and I mentioned this in the last seven of a biscuit, I'll let you finish. Three through six all have terrible awards.

They just do. Right. And Matt, you misinterpre to what I'm saying. I think the Rockets have a better roster than the Lakers. The Lakers, like you just say, are terrible in offense, terrible on rebounding. But they do have guys that can facilitate. and if you let it be close, they can win a game because they've got multiple guys to facilitate

and create shots for other people. The Rockers, on the other hand, do not have that. And that's when they bogged down in the fourth quarter because when teams force KD to come off the ball, who else is going to create? And it's just, I mean, it's just. I think we're going to find out tonight. I can't imagine, and Biscuit, thank you for the phone call. I cannot imagine that the Rockets went to practice yesterday.

Ross and said, it was just an off night for us. That Katie, facing those double teams, that's just going to be a one-off. I'm sure they've drawn up a plan B tonight, which I look forward to seeing. Yeah, and one of those plans is going to be Alper and Shingoon flashing to Kevin Durant, getting the ball,

and he's a guy who can go downhill and score and find other guys. He's a playmaker. You were missing him, and you're missing that element of his game on Monday. And that is what is going to be interesting to watch tonight, because we know also Alperin Shingoon can help limit half-court spacing because of his lack of three-point shooting. He can have the occasional defensive issue, but going up against DeAndre Aiton and the boys is not necessarily. I'm not super worried about that, but we'll see because they were hunting Reed Shepard on switches. Might they hunt Al-Prin Shingun or what the defense is going to be there?

We'll see. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be a bit of a chess match and it's going to be a different game than Monday night. But the bottom line is. I'm going to ask you this, the analyst of the two of us. Let's say Alpi brings the ball up a little bit more tonight, obviously than he did previous games, and they double him. Can Alpi get out of the double team? I would assume the answer would be yes, a little bit better than maybe Kevin did.

He needs to. He will be able to. He needs to. That's going to have to. And then you're going to leave Kevin, Durant, on isolation probably at the elbows, and that's not going to work well for the Lakers. Well, you have to do it quickly because they're going to recover and then they're going to cover their bases and they can contest. Your openings in the NBA are fractions of a second. And that's why the doubling was working as well because even when they would pass out of it, they would just sit there and dribble

and allow the Lakers to recover and reset their defense. You have to attack immediately to take advantage of all these people getting out of position. So they're going to have to be more decisive and attack and get downhill and find the open man and move the ball. Of course, as we all know, moving the ball, moves people, moves the defense,

and go from there. And the reality is this too. and this is a hard pill to swato. If I'm the Lakers, I probably do a lot of the same thing I did tonight that I did two nights ago because if you're going to take your chance on doubling, A, you're hoping to force a turnover, and B, if the Rockets find an open man, they could be Dorian Finney Smith. It could be Tori Easton, who have both had subpar seasons.

Yeah, and the Rockets... The knockdown shots got to come into play tonight. Not necessarily for those two guys, but for anybody. If they could have knocked down a couple of threes and a couple of shots in that four quarter, they win that game. Like the defense was excellent. And a lot of, Luca Doncha scored 36,

but he's one of the greatest scores to ever walk the planet. And how many difficult, how many times did you on the call say tonight, like last night, I'm sorry, on Monday, Matt, something like difficult shot from Luca

or tough shot or something. I imagine it was a handful. He was making crazy tough shots. And that's just what he's going to do. Well, he does score moving. Yeah, he's scored 36, but they only scored 100.

Most of your problems were your own. And the Lakers couldn't find the broad side of a bar when it came to a three-point shot. That probably makes the loss on Monday not even more aggravating is that they weren't shooting well. Yeah, Austin Reese probably not going to go 0 for 8 from 3 again, but you're hoping Reed Shepherd doesn't go 1 for 6 from 3 again. And with Kevin Durant going 0 for 3. I'm just saying tomorrow we need to be in a... Hopefully we're in a better frame of mind because I don't know if we're going to want to hang out for four hours together if they lose another game. But that's going to probably put them in the six spot.

I don't say that. I think the numbers bear out. Don't say it all loud. I'm not even going to talk it into existence. It's a rebound night. We're going to play Victory by Cool, the gang, tomorrow. Hopefully. 10.50 in the a.m. here on a sports talk, 7.90? Okay.

I was losing my microphone. I'm sorry. I've never done that before. And that's you in the corner? That's you in the spotlight? Is that a song I should know? Losing your microphone. You know that one. I know. R.E.M. Losing my religion? Oh, REM?

Properly rated. Properly rated. Properly rated. Decent, not one of the all-time greats. I mean, had some hits. A 90s band that I could listen to that I would not want to call my eyes out to. Very easily is one of those. I mean, not quite Dave Matthews or like Creed, but you sing like the lead singer, whatever that guy's name is.

Lung. My Reddoll. There's me in the corner. Yeah, everybody does it. Shiny happy people. A unique voice. Seriously. We cannot do R.M. for a segment on the show.

That's terrible radio. To keep our listeners, Maddie. Let's go. Losing my relation was my jam when I was like six. You know, Jimmy Fallon does that with his Saturday Night or Saturday Night Show. Well, people will come in and he'll have to sing a song or his celebrity guests will do it and impersoning somebody else. Really?

We could throw, people throw that at us. Like, hey, talk sports like, I don't know, Johnny Carson. You know, Rockets, Lakers, it's a weird, wild stuff there. That's a terrible Johnny Carson. It's great, Matt. That was terrible. It was wretched.

You're doing great. Mm-mm. No, that was a terrible idea. And remember, this is. is live radio, so some of our ideas really hit, and some just don't. And that one, this doesn't. Yeah. Back to R.E.M. No. Okay. We're going to have Brian Bogusivic

coming up in just a few minutes. Astros Baseball 1150 here on Sports Talk 7. A couple of things here from McTaggart, because he's down there. And he'll join us tomorrow. Looking forward to talking with him. Zach DeSenzo elbow flared up during the WBC. He's not throwing, but he can DH. Josh Hayter threw a bullpen yesterday. He'll throw again this weekend.

Pena throwing and will swing a bat this weekend. Opening day quote has not been ruled out. That's good news? I think it's what we've predicted. Not going to open the year on the injured list, but probably won't be ready for opening day. That's kind of feel like that's where this is headed. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping.

I could seem big, because it's only 10 days, so he could definitely be on the injured list. We'll see. There's no retroaction because there's no games, so that's an issue. Yeah. That'd be fun. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain.

Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Sprinker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're

going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Can I make this retroactive to the 15th matchup against the nationals? Do you think that Dan is like, let me run my operation here? There's a reason why I kept people. people around for a while. What do you mean eating? East like Parades. Just in case something happens. But you can't live that way.

Yeah. Especially that outfield opens up the year with an OPS of plus of like 40. And you're also, again, the human element of benching a player who is going to be one of, I mean, I will say top three hitters. Yacacac Jus is one of your top three hitters. Because we're going to put this in play for the hundredth time on this show. when everybody's healthy, the guys are going to walk in the clubhouse and they're going to see their name not on the scorecard.

That is going to, whether you like it or not, Houston, and whether you understand it, and whether you can adjust to it, two different things. The reality is baseball players like routines, baseball players, it feels like to me, Ross, in 2006, they need like three days ahead of time to know when they're getting a day off. 1984 player

you know johnny bench i need a day off fine you're not behind the plate no big deal 2006 guy needs to know like the monday before the saturday off day it's crazy that way now again does that make it better no but it's just the reality of sports today it's a sport science it's the way the athlete has been manufactured engineer today and when they go to that lineup card and they don't see their name for one or two days in a row or that yordan alvarez can't play left field once a week when he wants to or twice a week. Joe's going to have to play part-time therapist.

And I don't think Joe Espada, I don't think he's even hitting it. He doesn't want to do that. He'll have to do it if everybody's healthy, which will be a surplus, but he doesn't want to do it. Finally tuned athletic machines. Yeah.

But it's got a great on him. And it's going to grate on him if those corner outfielders don't hit either. Forcing Yorda Nalvarez to play more left field than I think he wants him to play. Sam Smith's going to be ready. Zach Cole's hitting the ball hard. Or Joey Lopofito.

He's got like a 900. He's always had a good spring. He's a really good spring, actually. I am excited. I know that we're bringing up the days of our lives of potentially an Astros clubhouse, but this is all good stuff. We should do.

Yeah, we can play that. These are the days of our Astros Clubhouse lives. It is a good problem to have. But sometimes good problems become major problems. Mm-hmm. So, and paying your rest up, my friend, if it takes you 10 days before they're ready to start swinging the bat and really hit the ball and defend your position,

we've got the Astros have backups. Yeah, we'll be fine. Take it easy. One week from tomorrow, opening day. Is it one week from tomorrow? One week from tomorrow. Wow. Snuck up on me.

I like, that's the one thing about the NFL, in college football and basketball they can't do. You can't... Baseball's got opening day cornered. There is never more optimism in the world of sports than an opening day of a baseball season. Even Royals fans like, oh, man, we're going to win the A.L. Central. They could do it.

Marlins alike. We're going to win 85 games and win the American... I don't know if they're believing that. No, they don't admit, it's a bad example. They're enjoying the win for Venezuela. Shout out to Omar Lopez and shout out to Jose Al-Tube. I mean, those guys... They love it.

Omar Lopez was crying his eyes out. And the pitcher on the ninth was crying in the ninth. You know what? There is crying in baseball. There is crying in national baseball. The WBC, beloved by the world. And tolerated by U.S.

Yeah. But that's okay. We have other things like that, too. I mean, do you think the Olympics, are the Olympics was beloved in other countries, more beloved in other countries than it's in U.S.? And I don't give a damn about American football? around the world.

Most of the world doesn't care about American football at all. Yeah, yeah. And then they try to, yeah, that's anything. We can all invest in what we want to invest in. You don't invest in European soccer. It's huge. There's millions and billions of people. I don't invest in certain things as well.

And, you know, by college basketball outside of the Texas Longhorns, I don't invest. Like, for instance, golf, I don't invest. Yeah. World Cup's going to be a huge freaking deal. Even though I don't like it, I value. you it. I know what it is. I know they're going to have gargantuan ratings. And we'll watch Spain play.

Who are going to want? Who are the two favorites? Do we even know who the favorites are? I don't know. Probably France is going to be up there. Probably not. Ross has watch parties. You're going to go hang out with him. Maybe. We'll see. We have some things in the works. Okay.

And I'll be happy to promote it. England generally underperforming. England is usually one of the favorites. and then underperforms. Yeah, Spain is number one. Here's your FIFA top five, Matt. Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil. I got Spain and Brazil playing for it all.

Okay. That would be a great matchup. I figured you'd like that. All right. You're supposed to ask where the USA is. 12th. 15th. Behind Colombia and ahead of Mexico.

Now, when the U.S. gets eliminated early, and I come on the show and say, we should stop bothering, worrying about the U.S. team ever being competitive. Are you going to hit me? I'm not going to hit you. You're vehemently disagree with me, though. I mean, if you want to, it's fine.

They're getting better incrementally. But I feel like we've been saying that since 1984. That's a good conversation. They've got more talent. Now, this is a question for more for Glenn Davis, but I believe they have more talent playing overseas in Europe, which is the big indicator, because the MLS is just not good.

It's just not. They have more talent playing in Europe than they ever have. But the teams ahead of them are, I mean, they're really good. And the reality is, the only chance that U.S. soccer will ever really national compete is when you have multi-sport youth at 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, saying I'm foregoing basketball and foregoing football and I want to play soccer. Exactly. And even earlier than that, I mean, they are, they literally are these teams and these clubs are scouting players around the world like seven, eight years old. It's crazy. And then they get them into their academy. They sign them to their academies.

And they get them into school. They literally are at school and then they play all day. That's what they do. They go to school. That's a culture we don't know. They have their studies. And then they practice soccer for like hours every day. And they fine-tune them and refine them and all that stuff.

And that's why they're better. And that's okay. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Let's spend 10 minutes right now with Brian Bogussevik of SC8. joining us here on the program. He's at us every Wednesday on Sports Talk 790. Brian, we're down the home stretch. Tell me how much more your detailed look at the box scores.

I know you did a game on TV that are day. Are we to make anything out of the increased offense? Are we making anything out of the better lineups we're seeing? Tell me what it's like to watch the Astros down the home stretch of the final week of spring training. Yeah, the last week of spring is, Interesting, from an evaluation standpoint. I mean, you've got the guys who are veteran guys and you know they're going to be on the team,

you're just looking for them to check whatever boxes they feel like they need to check. If the guy's not feeling great, you get them more at backs, get them on a back field. If guys want to get a feel for stealing bases or doing something, you say, hey, go ahead, force the issue. I don't care what the result is on the field. The flip side of that is the other guys, the handful of guys who are in the tree, true competition for spots. You're almost grading it as if it's the regular season.

And there is some process to it. You want to see things that are going to be sustainable. But you want to see guys who are looking like they're ready to go and who can help the team from day one. And maybe even if it's, you know, if your feelings on two guys are roughly the same, whoever is swinging the bat better and can maybe get off to a quick start the first week, that's going to be the guy you go with. So, you know, you kind of have to handle it two different ways

depending on individual situations. Boogie, I don't want to be hypocritical about, well, are the bats going to be good enough for the start of the season because I'm watching spring training? But, man, on the other side of things, starting rotation and everything I've seen, by and large the last two weeks, has been very and very impressive. I'm talking about McCullors all the way through to, you know,

even Christian Javier looked better at a couple of the couple of things. pulled days back. I mean, so can I separate pitching and hitting for this time of year? Are pitchers supposed to be ahead of the game at this point? Well, certainly, the pitchers are always ahead, but at the same time, you've got to look at... This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster.

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because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Why these guys have been successful and what maybe the questions were regarding them coming into the season. Christian Javier, for example, okay, what's the V-Loh going to look like? Well, it ticked up in his last outing, and he held it over the course of a couple of endings. So that, you know, regardless of what the bottom line is, which across the board pretty much has been good, you know, that's what we wanted to see from Javier. You know, you wanted to see front line high-end stuff from Tetsuya Emi. He's gotten better every time out. He's sitting 96-97 now.

You know, Mike Burroughs, okay, he's got a really good change up. What's the other stuff looked like? His fastball's been just blowing guys up. His slider looked really good in his last outing. So, yeah, I'm really bullish on what the pitching as a whole has looked like, you know, because the questions that we had are looking like they've been answered at least in a spring setting from what the guy's stuff is looked like, but also just how the rotation and staff kind of takes form. We know Hunter Brown is an ace. You know, were Emi and Burroughs kind of a number three, number four type, or are they number two, number three type? Well, they look like they're top of the rotation guys. And the depth has looked really good. You know, you mentioned Lance. I haven't seen Lance in, you know, a long, long time look as, comfortable and confident in his fastball as he does this spring,

which again, exactly what you would have wanted to see from him coming in. So, yeah, there's a lot to like about what the pitchers have shown. And what about the bullpen? I mean, with Josh Hayter probably on ice, we know it's Brian O'Brien, you stepping into the closer's role. How are we feeling about the guys behind him? You know, as good as you can,

it's funny when whenever a team loses a closer, always think, okay, well, what have we got in the ninth? What do we have in the ninth? Well, I think everybody's comfortable with Brian Abrae, you in the ninth. But it also ticks everybody else up into, you know, one inning later and that much more pressure. But, you know, those guys were really good, especially at the end of the year last year, it was the same situation. They were all pretty good. I think it's a little bit left-handed, even though all those guys handle lefties and righties pretty well. I think, you know, a wild card type guy could be Rederi Munoz, who's looked really good, you know, hasn't showed any of the control issues that he's had in the past and

looks like a power right-handed arm. So, you know, for a short spell, I'm good with it because they've covered, you know, important innings in the past, but there's no question that for this team to work the way it needs to work, and it's kind of set up to be a shortened game with that back of the bullpen, you need Josh. later back, you know, sooner than later, but definitely equipped to handle it for a short spell. Brian Bogusevic with us here on Sports Talk 790. And let's just keep with, it's been a big storyline as though the infield log jam stuff. But I'm just curious kind of your insight as far as a former player, the human element of this.

Because we just as pundits and media and fans and stuff, just just like, yeah, just put them out there, just sit one guy. But can you speak to what it's like? not only for the players but also the manager too, trying to figure out how all these guys who want to be out there every day and if you as a person only as a player don't know necessarily going into the ballpark when you're going to be in the lineup, when you're not, and then having to sit sometimes when, especially if you're ESAC Piraeus,

you're one of the best hitters on the team. Yeah, it just throws another element into the dynamic of a clubhouse in a dynamic of an entire season that you would rather not have. You know, everybody says the right thing, and everybody, in theory, is fine with, oh, you get a day off here, you get a day off there. But eventually, guys start to see it as this is not a day off for my, you know, rest purposes. This is, you know, the other four guys getting chosen to be in the lineup over me.

And it can affect you. And you're not going to get the best out of people unless, number one, they know exactly what their role is, and number two, they're comfortable with their role. And, you know, these are five guys who are everyday players, have always been everyday players and should be everyday players. And if it gets to a point to where one of them feels like they're not or, you know, potentially multiple feel like they're not, it's just not going to be a good situation because, yes, everybody wants what's best for the team, but at the same time, everybody, you know, to a degree, feels like they are what's best for the team.

And it can just muddle things up and create a dynamic that you don't really want to have to deal with. I brought this up with you last week, but it's worthy of repeating just for the different audience, Bogie. The leash for the corner outfielders, when you have a guy like Jordan Alvarez, who loves to play at left field, I know there's a chance of some wet stuff today in Jupiter, so they're going to pull him out and let him DH. But when you've got a guy who's like, I can do it, I've never been hurt out there, let

me go out there more than once a week or whatever the case would be, how much of a, of an, not necessarily an argument, but a good old-fashioned debate, will that be between the athlete, the general manager, and the manager? It's a real thing that needs to be, you know, discussed and revisited probably constantly. You know, a lot will depend on how well the offense as a whole is functioning. If you can kind of afford to give somebody a little bit of a longer leash, if you can, eight other guys are coming out of the gates hot. But at the same time, Jordans made it very clear that he's comfortable out there and likes playing out there.

You know, it can, I think everybody's of the same mind that if you take the risk of injury out, that having him out there and allowing all the other infielders to get in with the DH spot makes the team better. So, yeah, I think it's something that they're going to have to revisit, maybe not on a daily basis, but quite often to see, hey, because it's risk and reward. The reason for not having Jordan out there, he's not going to be an everyday guy out there by any means, but having him out there for a significant amount of time is you're trying to, you know, cut down on the injury risk. Well, the reward might start to outweigh that a little bit if you see that you really need

to have all these guys in the lineup at the same time. Last thing, Christian Vasquez was a late add-on to this roster. I would presume, Brian, and you and I are not general managers for a living, but he didn't come just for giggles to start the season and play a handful of games in spring. I mean, is he the leader in the clubhouse of the backup catcher spot, you think? I think so. It's a difficult position to be in that backup role. You know, it's hard to not play every day.

It's hard to, you know, and it's probably going to be even less of a time share considering the amount. of that bats that yiner is going to get back there. So, you know, bringing in a guy who's a veteran who knows how to succeed in that role, but also who knows the organization and has been there before, they were bringing in a guy totally from the outside. You might say, okay, well, I can see that being a fall back plan and give Cesar Salazar some run out there and see how that goes. But I think bringing Vasquez in, you know, they feel like he can add something from a veteran standpoint. So, yeah, I think he was brought in for a reason.

You know, that being said, I know that they're comfortable to sets our salads are. It's just, you know, who gives you the best option back there. Bogie, great stuff as always. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Thank you for the time. All right. Thanks, guys. You got Brian Bogusufik with us every Wednesday, 11 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790.

Ross, we've got to tell some people to shut their bumasses up. Oh, yes. Let's do it. I got a brand new. Ain't nobody got time for that this week. Oh, I love it. it inside an arena and it could be at a stadium near you

or it could be a stadium far away ain't nobody getting time ain't nobody getting time for it hey nobody getting time for it ain't nobody getting time for me time for you tell other people to shut their bum asses up 713-212-5-790

713-1-2-1-2-5-790 Ross I'm a man of routines my friend Okay. At halftime, as soon as I say, at the half, the rocket's blank, the other team blank, I go to the bathroom. Okay. But my headset down. Yes. Turn around.

I walk to my right and I go the bathroom. And there's sometimes a line. Sometimes there's not, depending on how fast I get over there. I don't mind the line. Okay. Things happen. People drink beer. If you're at a urinal, excuse my French, taking a whiz.

Do not check your phone. while you're taking a whiz. People are always on their phones these days while that's happening. I'm sorry. Ladies and gentlemen, not ladies. Gentlemen, listen to me very carefully. There are 40 bros behind you waiting to go to the bathroom. Check your phone outside the bathroom.

Ain't nobody got time for you whiz checking your phone. Ain't nobody got time for that? Nobody got time for whiz checkers is what you're saying. whiz checkers get that trending on twitter right now whiz checkers it is happening ross and i didn't want to make note of it after the half of the first time but i think in the three of the last four games i got whiz checkers in the bathroom and i'm talking to you east clubbers wow sorry to do it but i got to call us i got to call it out when it happens no more whiz checkers do your things drain it get out and spend all the time on the

want to. That's all I got for some. But I'll think of something else, I'm sure. I believe in you, Matt. You can do it. I got one more. Okay. This is a very small one.

Everybody's worried about who the number two, number three, number four, number five guy on the rotation. Do you realize after the first week, it doesn't matter what the name rotation is? Is he my going to be a three? His bird's going to be a four. Is there getting... How about just every fifth day,

Every day a good pitcher goes out there and throws six innings. Ain't nobody got time for roster depth chart rotation. Ain't nobody got time for that? Two times you worry about it, Ross. Am I wrong? One opening week, two playoffs. That's it. That's where it really matters.

Because he's just going to get out of sorts. People are going to get hurt. You're going to hear elbow discomfort at some point. We don't want to hear that around these parts. I mean, you just are. All right. It just are. Ross, what's the matter with you?

People are going to get mad of me. I love this. I love when you, him and Hall. Look, I put, the negativity on social media is just, it feels like it's getting worse and worse and worse. I put out that poll, 73% of you think they have a fifth place or worse roster in the West, talking about the Houston Rockets, and yet the coach needs to be fired when they're fourth and they're a game and a half from third. If they have a bad roster and they're outperforming by their standings, that roster, how can you connect it to that the coach needs? to be fired. He doesn't

have as much to work with, certainly offensively as the Lakers, not overall as a roster as the Spurs or the Thunder, and those are the teams that are ahead of him in the West. And is he Medea Doka a perfect coach? Of course not. But he is one of the best coaches in basketball. If you think he needs to be fired because

Tari Issen isn't a great ball handler and he's missing threes, shut your bum ass up. Shit your bum ass up, man. It's anybody that wants EMAIDOCA fired Shut your bum ass up Shut your bum ass up, man

It is one of the all-time Worst takes of all time Does he need to win more? Of course He's getting a lot of money. Got to win. Yes. Give me a break. It's ridiculous. Thank you, Matt. For having my back.

Jonathan. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like,

sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, in about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monitor

your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. What's the matter with you? The matter of me is all these people

coming in Houston. Oh, here. Uh-oh. There we go. The brawl that happened on what? Saturday. Oh, multiple bras. My daughter was there for it. So many people

Come into the rodeo Ruining the experience And then My girl got Her brother was down In South Padre Island Which you're also going down to All it is brawls all over the beach

People hitting on women It's just brawls breaking out Left and right Man people that come from out of state Trying to come to spring break Ain't nobody got time for this man This is not how we rocked out here This is not how anybody moves out here

You can take that to Atlanta You can take that to L.A., New York, whatever but this is not what we do down here, man. Take it to ATL. That's exactly right. It's just distasteful, man. I'm tired of seeing it all over my social page. This is a bad spring break. So I don't go on threads very much, but it's tied to Instagram.

There is this young lady that took a picture of herself. I got to call to see it. She's fat. And she wore really tight shorts that didn't cover up all her massive left booty cheek. And she's like, I'm here in rodeo on. And she got annihilated. If you're fat, don't wear short shorts. Anybody got time for that.

Ain't nobody got time for that. Doesn't matter where you're from. Don't matter if you're from. Don't matter if you're Anglo, Hispanic, Chinese, black, orange, doesn't matter. Wear appropriate clothes. If you're fat, wear jeans. If you're not fat, Daisy Dukes are just fine.

That's all I got to say. Shit your bum-ass up, man. Anything else where go to the phones? I think I'm good right now. I feel refreshed. So I need just a quick little... You know what you were trying to do? You're trying to represent Houston.

We're getting stained down because of all this nastiness going on the last couple weeks. It's not even anybody from Houston. It's everybody that's outside. It's those 12,000 spring breakers that are coming here every year. 12,000. Oh, I'm sorry. $500,000 to $2 million. You know what?

We'll meet in the middle. All right. I'll meet you to a million. I'll say one million. Is that make you happy now? Yeah, you know what? Yeah. I'll take it. I'll take it. A million people have come here. I'll accept that.

Let's go to Jay on 798. Jay, what's the matter with you? Hi, man. It's really not something wrong with me. I just had a question for you about the world baseball class. Sure, go ahead. Man, I was sitting watching the game last night, and I was thinking about it after I was watching the celebrations of, you know, Venezuela. and I was thinking like if it's the world baseball classic and they're the best team in the world, why don't they play

like the team that won the World Series like the Dodgers or who would like, how is it the World Baseball Classic and it's two world champions are like, how does that work? Is it a way that can make that happen? Like

you understand what I'm saying? I see we're going with that. The answer really is there's not. Guys, you cannot extend this World Baseball basketball classic anymore. You've got to give these guys back to their teams. Plus, let's say team Venezuela had three Dodgers on it. Which team is the, which team of those players are going to play for? Venezuela for the Dodgers. Inquiring minds want to know. Well, the Astros did beat Venezuela three to one.

So the Astros are world champions. Yes, they are. And Aaron Judge sucks in World Baseball Classic play, except for that one home run he hit. This Aaron Judge hate thing is great. Oh, people hate him. America hates Aaron Judge. I bet you privately 40% of Yankee fans hate Aaron Judge. He does swing and miss a lot. When he hits it, he hits it far.

Very far. To Apote, he's an Apotaco guy, too. He hits a lot of opposite. All field power, as the kids say, Matt. Is that what they say? And they walk around telling you, that kid's got all fields power. Yes. All right, one more segment of shut your bum ass up.

Anybody got time for that week? Look, we're off the air in 20 minutes, folks. Get in here now. This is the most cathartic, half hour, the week. 713. 212.790. 713.

212 570. 713. 212 570. Don't tell somebody to shut their bum ass up. Anybody get time for that. 713. 212.790. Ross,

everybody's got to make time to come see us tomorrow at Willies, correct? 290, Barker Sriperus, crawfish season, great eats, Matt Thomas and Ross, in tournament action.

and great, yeah. I mean, come on now. 290 and Barker, Cyprus, Willie's Ice House tomorrow. Full four hours, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Battax show with Ross. And we'll celebrate a rocket's victory.

Yes. Astros victory. Yes. And SMU winning tonight in the first four. Okay. That's all I can think of. We didn't get any Texas calls today. Texas basketball?

Exciting. were you expecting that? Yes, we are your official home for Texas basketball. Does the Mark family listen or something? Well, what, what do you listen in Arkansas, Houston, or in Austin, or all three? Listen wherever you can. I mean, I heart radio. What is that?

It's Gio. It's the one and only guys. G, are you playing Pac-Man or something back there? What was that? I mean, I don't know what you guys are in. I'm in my truck. I'm in my work truck. I mean, maybe you guys hear something there, but, uh...

Yeah, it sounds like you just fired up an asteroids machine. There it is again. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm not hearing anything. That's something that, you know, you guys got technical issues all the time. Oh, Gio, shut your bum ass up, Gio. We know we got your own ass up. Catch your bum ass up.

I've never heard this. It's like you're landing a UFO. I'm going to go ahead and get it out the way. All right, my, my, anybody got time for that. Okay, took my family to the rodeo. You know, nice little family event. Come to find out. When did the rodeo become Magic City?

Okay? I got my daughter with me here, and I got my 14-year-old son over here looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Man, look, I'm going to tell all the women that go to the rodeo instead of shut your bum-ass up. Please put your bum-ass up, man. Hi, how the cheeks, okay? High the cheeks. Shut your bum-ass up, man. And RIP cheeks, speaking of cheeks.

All right, guys. Thank you. Is cheeks still in your freezer? Still in the freezer? I'm not going to answer that question. means yes. You don't know. If it wasn't, you would say no.

Your audience is worried about that. I see a tweet about that every other week. Yeah, it's funny. Cheeks gets more run sometimes than Texas basketball on this show. Hey! Shit your bum ass up, man. We're coming back to Rowell-Lency. Top five recruiting class coming.

Sean Miller, going to coach him up. This episode is brought to you by Spreker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen.

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I don't want to see no cheeks, though. I don't want to see little cheeks. Yeah, I don't want to see no cheeks. If it's covered, it's covered. I don't want to see no cheeks. You want a cheek-free rodeo, covered in smothered? That sounds good Waffle House today. So you'll eat Waffle House.

Yes. You know, the only thing I will not eat at Waffle House is Burt's Chili. I had Birch Chili back in college and it did not end well. 713-212-5-790. James on 790. James, what's the matter with you? Yeah, well, I'm really getting to find. I don't understand how anybody can have an opening game on Easter Sunday.

season tickets hoping to see this game hoping to see all five games on Easter Sunday ain't nobody got time for that That's our phones Ain't nobody got time for that GEO is right It might be

But I've never heard that noise before But high pitch with blipping I've heard that And it said James sounded like he took a helium balloon And then called it That sounds like James like he's 21 years old now That's our phones For sure

I'm assuming he's talking about the gamblers I guess? Yeah, because they have, he said five home games, so I'm assuming I don't know. He said opening day on Easter Sunday? Yeah, nobody cares. When is Easter Sunday? UFL, just go away. Don't waste our time, please.

It's bad football, nobody cares. The teams don't even practice in the city in which they play, and they come and they play and they leave. Oh, yeah, looks like their home opener is at home. It's Easter Sunday against the Birmingham Stallions. Oh, it's 6 p.m. You get your prayers in in the morning. morning you get Easter brunch with Grandma and then you can go to the game.

But don't we have tournament games on Easter Sunday? I think so. Wouldn't that that be sweet? That'd be regional finals, right? I don't know. Yeah, we ain't got time for the UFO. Hey, nobody got time for that? They had a good thing a few years ago.

When the roughnecks were first around, there was a nice, solid fan base of 15,000, but they've treated their fans like crap. The product's terrible. Yeah, it's not good. Moving on. Let's go to line number two. Felipe, what's the matter with you, Felipe? What's going on, guys?

Well, let me get the quick one. I know they're listening, but it's to the two guys that work with me. You know, one of them tip-rise the other, the other one, brown-nosed, everybody else. But to them, you know, ain't nobody got time for that, time for that, shit your bono messes up. Hey nobody got time for that. Ross, let's your bon-nosed. We have at our station. Brown-nosed?

Yeah. I can't, really. I don't know. not a lot that I can think of. I think we're below average on brown nosing. Mm-hmm. I think he's done that. How old is this term?

How old is this term? Brown-nosing? You never heard of that? That until today. Now, you can figure out what it means. You can figure it out, right? Yeah, I had to look it up. Did you go to Urban Dixier and look that up?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to say, I'm pretty proud. We only have one brown-nosed. I think. Maybe you have. Places you can see cheeks is from Kyle. The rodeo, the beach, Matt's freezer. All those are true.

That's a tell the truth right there. Those are three truths. No lies. I didn't want cheeks to begin with. He was an a-hole, too. He was not pleasant. I know. You said he was like he was biting you, right?

Yeah, we'd get him out of his little cage and clean it out. We cleaned his cage every week with soap and water. And did all the nice things make sure it was as plush as possible. And he was just mean. Well, he wanted to be free range, man. he didn't want to be locked up. You got him locked up in a freezer because of how many he was to you? Yeah, this feels personal. Ain't nobody got time for that?

I don't know how to respond. I don't have an answer for you. I love this show. Jesse. Jesse, you're the last one. What's the matter with you, Jesse? Yeah, this is for Ross and it's all in fun. Oh, nice. Ain't nobody got time to watch Jamal Mark do what he did for the Houston Cougars in a tournament, now for Texas. Anybody got time for that. Hey nobody got time for that. Well, I think the Coopers didn't want him, right?

No, we told him to get a, shut his bum ass up. He thought he was a first round draft. Bro, you're 38% from three. Go away. He's been good for the Longhorns. No, he's actually been, he was better for the Longhorns than he was for Arkansas. I think Arkansas was like, get you, shut your bum ass up. Get out of there.

Shit your bum ass up, man. All right, we have official word. The Astros are going to start on time. Oh, yeah, baby. But I'll be close. if we need to jump in. Yeah. I'll have my phone on it.

I was going to take a nap, but I won't. Short show today, but we got to get lunch tomorrow at Willie's Ice House hooks. Tomorrow! Give the location, please. 2.90 and Barker Cyprus. 290 and Barker Cyprus. Willys Grill and Ice House.

Crawfish season. Full swing. Delicious eats. You look, you take a half day. It's fine. Look, take two hours. Yeah. Two hours. Well, we're going to sit and we're going to talk. We're going to go without. If you want to see our show or in person. Matter of fact, you know what I'll do?

I'll bring cheeks tomorrow if you want me to. That is, no, that's nasty. That's a health, that's a health code violation. You know what? If you guys don't show up, I'm taking, I'm going to find out where you all live and bring cheeks to your house. You need to be prison time for bringing your dead, frozen,

frozen, decomposed hampsor. He may not be decomposed. You think Ted Williams decomposed? It's been the freezer for 25 years. Okay, that's cryogenically frozen. You do not have a cryogenic freezer. You don't know that? Yes, I do.

You may be right about that. All right. In the Uptown appliance repairs fixing you up, but they're not getting you that. I know. That's actually the truth. All right,

Rockets Lakers. Give me a prediction sports RV before I tell you about affordable tree service. Rockets win and they cover it two and a half. Lock at a week. Is it on a recorded line?

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That's 713 699-263 for affordable tree service. Astros, Marlins, tonight, Rockets, Lakers, in between the 18. We'll talk to you tomorrow from Willys at 10 o'clock, right here on the home of the Astros and the Rockets. Sport Talks of America.