The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-17-20

Episode Date: January 17, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/17/20Oilers loss in '93 or this week, which is worse? (0:00)Trump and the LSU Tigers (1:02:30)Brian T. Smith discusses the effect of this week on Houston (1:19:13)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. I'm on my way. Is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 in H-Town. A Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790, where it has been, without a doubt.

Well, maybe now, there is some doubt. one of the crappiest weeks in Houston sports history. No, there's no doubt. You know, Ross, I got to play the age card on you. I don't want to. Oilers losing to Buffalo was the worst thing ever. The worst.

I'm going to say this Astros thing. You lost your manager and your GM that built a championship team. My memories of 2017 ain't going away, bro. They're not. Yeah, okay. Well, the guys who built that team are fired. And then you also had a similar loss by the Texans right on top of it. You're on segment suspension.

Yes. Yeah, this is worse. I don't believe it's... I don't believe this is worse, because let me tell you something. If you were to listen to the Matt Thomas show last Friday, I told you all the Texans were going to lose by 20. It wasn't like the Texans were the favorites going in. You didn't tell us they're going to get 24 to nothing and then lose it by 20.

That's true. That's different. I didn't tell you how the sauces were. May it's going to come out that way. That's way different. Okay, well, that's what makes it worse. I think we put it to a vote. Oh, ready?

Oh, let's go. This is like, this might be the fastest. Okay, so here's, here it is. Oilers giving up 353 lead or this week. The greatest comeback in NFL playoff history, still to this day, the biggest embarrassment in the last 30th. 30 years in the NFL. Versus the only team in the history of the playoffs to get up 20 and lose by 20.

And losing your general manager and losing your manager. And the entire Astros and baseball world being thrown into chaos. Now, if you are like 19 years old or 23, listen to show, your vote doesn't count. I need to know. 40 and over only? No, I would say 30. 30. I have memories of them.

30 and over. I remember that game. The Buffalo game. 33 and over. You're only allowed to vote. For me, and this week has sucked. Really, really bad. But it took us.

It doesn't tell. We still haven't gotten over it. On the radio Ross for six straight months. You think 610 talks Texans too much. Every radio station was talking about the orders collapse for years and years. And we're still not over it. Time for the instant poll. Look at the way our new phone system, Morgan.

Is that really, really? Is that the case? Oh, okay. Let's go. Line two, what was worse? This week of the Oilers' loss. The Oilers' loss. By Fico.

All right. Thank you very much. What do you say? Bicycoco. By five? By five. I don't know. What does that mean?

What does that mean? I don't know. Line two, what was worse? The Oilers or this week? This week, because you are so close to host you. your first ever ASC final game. You were three quarters away. That's a good point, too.

That's a good point, too. I give you about, because remember we had in the show Monday, Ross, we had people telling us what they were going to buy their tickets. Line three, what was worse? This week, or the Oilers lost? The Oilers' loss.

Okay, thanks. Two votes for that. One for this week. Line four in the Instaple, what was worse? This week or the orders lost? Illers, easy. Oilers, easy, all right? And line five, you're always. Oilers or this week?

Line 5. The Oilers or this week? All right, that's silence. Line 2, the orders or this week? Come on, line 2. You're on. Man, what's going on here?

Line 3, the Oilers or this week? Oilers, because Bill Oilers is getting fired today. Book it. No, he's not. Close a poll of. It's done, 4-1. Now, with that being said, Ross, this week has stopped. They're wrong.

This week is super sucked. And yesterday, especially suck. Let me tell you about my yesterday. We get off the air at 3 o'clock. Were all your troubles so far away? By the way, that was just an okay movie. I mean, it was a Beatles movie, but it was just okay. Oh, I was talking about the song.

Oh, yesterday's one of the all-time glass. Oh, so it's okay. Yeah, Ray Charles' version is way better than the Beatles version. We have to fight on air of the three of us. I think you're just needling just a needle meeting. That's fine. Should we have an insta pull on who's going to win? No. No, no, no.

Okay, so I had a couple of appointments after the show yesterday. We did the post-show show, which you all should check out all the time in our various digital platforms. And I guess, Ross, the whole buzzer thing kind of got started late in our show. We spent most of the time on the show yesterday talking about that Twitter account that was basically calling Carlos Beltron her uncle. Yes, and it turned out that was a farce. and this whole thing about the buzzers and it kind of gains steam as the afternoon progressed. Yes.

There's a lot to go through. First of all, you had the, we did talk about this on the show yesterday. Josh Reddick on an interview with Fox Sports, he had something on his chest and people are zooming in and going JFK Zepruder and saying it's an electronic buzzer with a wire.

It was a piece of confrity. and a chain. Then you have people zooming in literally on creases on Altuve's shoulder. When you're jumping and running, you get creases in your shirt. So that was stupid. Then you have the whole thing, everybody talking about, well, he doesn't want his shirt taken off because he's wearing a buzzer. And this is why he's telling his teammates not to take his shirt off during the Chapman at bat.

when if everybody on the team knows he's wearing an electronic buzzer why would they they wouldn't rip his shirt off that's right if you're hiding something everybody and everybody knows about it why would they want to why would they want to throw their buddy under the bus and get him caught

unless they started ripping his shirt off unless they forgot but I can't imagine him forgetting right you wouldn't forget something like that no so here's here's the problem of of all that buzzer crap from yesterday. I'm at dinner with some friends. I'm talking to my wife about this. She goes, what do you think? Could this happen? And I said, and my answer was this gentleman, and ladies out there, I said, probably not. But what has gone down with the Astros gives it a little bit of thought. You have to at least think of the possibility of this. And that's what ultimately sucks about this entire situation is anytime anybody says anything that would be, uh,

ruining the integrity of the game, the Houston Astros are going to be the first ones thought of. This made me think of, you know, hypothetical situations that we're going to deal with. Like, next time, let's say in the middle of the season,

I'm in a bar, and Yordon Alvarez is having a spectacular season. He's got 50 home runs. And I turned to the guy next to me, I'm like, what do you think about Yordon Alvarez? He's going to think, well, he's probably cheating somehow.

That's the first thing that's going to pop up. Oh, yeah. Yorda Alvarez didn't join the team until the middle of 2019. Right. So he has, there's no evidence that he's been involved in any of this at all. When in doubt, the Astros did it or it's, it's the possibility of they were in it. And that sucks.

It just sucks. But Rossi, and like I said, I was off of Twitter for about two hours yesterday. It felt like between three and six, it was going besides stuff. Matter of fact, you even alluded to it on Twitter. He said, this is just one of the craziest days ever. in sports Twitter history. I want to say days in recent history where I had to just completely get off Twitter

for an extended period of time. One was definitely after the Rockets lost game seven against the Golden State Warriors of the Western Conference Finals on the Chris Paul team in 2018. Definitely after the World Series this year. And then one of the ones was yesterday. It was just out of control. and it was making me mad, and I just felt like a crazy person.

But you know what that, you know, yesterday was, was really scary in all seriousness. The power of going to your Twitter account or creating a fake Twitter account in putting on information that caused a blank storm around the world of sports. It's very, very dangerous. And that's why I almost would like to be able to find out a way

for there to be greater accountability for what someone puts on Twitter, whether it be in their own Twitter account or if they own a burner account. Because Ross, you and I could go put something crazy out there today. And if we're wrong, what's our punishment? Nothing. I'm sorry. Oops.

Oops, my bad. I was given some wrong information. Yeah, that's what I mean. Your guy, John Boy over there was like on the Reddick thing. He's like, oh, it looks like it is confetti. My bad guys. And then he's, you know, going all over ESPN and the Michael Kay Show and getting clicks. and getting follows.

I mean, that's what, this is just, it's just, I'm so done with this, I'm so over it. But you can't be, because it's going to last at least this season,

if not longer. I wish we had some, you know, I wish spring training started tomorrow so we have some games to get to. We did the Rockets Lakers tomorrow night. That should be fun. Right?

Must win for the Rockets. Badly needed a victory. It's not a must win. Mojo. building win? It would be a mojo builder, I guess. It's not a must win. I need a mojo. I'm going to be on fire tomorrow night. If you think I'm salty for the visiting teams, oh, tomorrow night, I'll be on. As a kid say, Ross, like Donkey Kong. It is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with Ross and Nick. I'm Matt

713-212-5-7-9 if you want to get in. Ross, it's anything goes far to explain the essence of anything goes far to the audience, please. Well, Matthew, anything you want to get to on the phone lines, it's 713, 212. 590. You can get to. If you do want to talk about the Astro scandal, we can get on that. If you want to talk about the Rockets and the Lakers and the huge matchup there, definitely talk about that.

Championship Sunday in the NFL? Championship Sunday. Yeah, we have talked like zero NFL on a championship week. And I don't know it's not really involving Texans, the Texans, but the Texans just lost in embarrassing fashion. You've got NFL championship week, and we've hardly talked

to any NFL because of the Astros this week. I haven't bashed the Texans much enough. We've got to make our predictions at some point. We do, and we'll get to Brian T. Smith at 2 o'clock. A lot to get to today between now and at 3 o'clock today. 713-213-2-5-7-9. Cougars coach Kelvin Sapson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 7-9.

Heard a little every day. That's what I'll have to do. Stop loving you. All right, it is, and anything goes Friday, 1219. Matt Thomas show, 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 is how you reach us. Anything goes on the show. If you want to get into, you're looking at purchase a new car, we can help you with that.

We would suggest back in Baston. If you are having troubles with the in-laws, or maybe there's an anniversary coming up, or your producer's birthday was yesterday. I mean, what's a great gift for that? Or the Astros, or the Rocket Saturday game with the Los Angeles Lakers, which I think is going to be hopefully a festive atmosphere. Y'all get to the arena on time, 7.30, tip time. Of course, the game right here on Sports Talk 790.

And then we've got the championship Sunday with, I think, I'm telling you, and we've got to make our predictions. We can do that here in a few minutes. Is there a part of you that needs Kansas City to win this thing? Because it would be, I mean, it would be a perfect crescendo to the crappiest week in sports at the Houston Olders, now known as the Tennessee Titans, go to the Super Bowl on the same week that the Texans

blanked the bed in Kansas City in the second quarter and that the Astros. I mean, that would be the perfect triple of disaster, right? Come on now, guys. Don't make that a big deal today. I'm going to, coach. Yeah, it could have been worse. Winning last week and then losing this week

would have been worse than just losing last week, but they did a fine job of making it pretty bad for the entire city of Houston. Yeah, I'm mad as hell at the Texans. not because I didn't think they were going to win, but the way they lost. There are a lot of people bumping around these streets of Houston, Texas, that Ross, they spent a lot of money on their Texans gear.

They PSL. They put things around their neck, like chains. They face paint themselves. They go to city halls of other cities and spend gobs of money, thinking their team is number one. When in rally, their team's never been number one. At least the Astros were number one. They've been AFC South number one, four years out of five, Matthew.

AFC South champions, two years in a row. And two years in a row. And four out of five? Yeah. And do you think, let me ask you this, should the Texans put up a banner that says aFC divisional participant? No. Do they put up individual banners for every AFC South championship?

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to see. Are they putting up four banners for the last four year, four out of five years? I don't remember. I would probably think yes, right? I know that Toyota Center does not put up Southwest Division banners. Thankfully.

Because nobody even cares about the Southwest Division. Because the new way the Western Conference, it doesn't matter what division you're in. The only reason why you decide the division is for scheduling purposes. That's it. But no one around Rocketville the last half decade has been bouncing around on Southwest Division Champions, baby. For Western Conference Finals participant.

That's right. But, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. All I know is is that today feels like a news dump Friday on the Texans, right? They've been lying in the weeds. Somebody predicted he's getting fired. Somebody on our phones. I don't.

Can I make a 17-star selection? Yeah, I would like to make an 18-star selection. Go ahead. He's not getting fired. Oh, no, no, no. You don't get that. get you don't get the opportunity to do that. How about the Romeo Cornell has decided it's time for him to retire after a long, successful career? I could see that. It's not his fault, though.

Romeo Cornell is still a good defensive coordinator. I truly believe that. When the Texans defense is good and keeps teams guessing, it's fun. It's interesting to see what he dials up next. But frankly, it's been way more predictable than anything else. Well, I mean, what does he have? Because he didn't because he didn't have, you know, Vernon Hargraves and Garyon Conley and 90-year-old Jonathan Joseph and Lonnie Johnson, Jr., who just showed flashes, but as a rookie and has room to grow? Because, like, he didn't throw those guys together and make an all-world defense. Do you think Lonnie Johnson should go to tight-end camp, like, defending it?

Because, like, my daughter, she plays competitive volleyball. Yeah. She goes to specific camps to work on things on her game. Really? Yeah. Well, sounds like a nice money grab. It is. That's why I'm having to work 19 jobs.

What a scam. Well, she's enjoying it, so it's not a scam to me. Oh, okay. Point being is this, like, is there a book how to cover a tight end? Because obviously he had no idea how to stop Travis Kelsey. And now if Lonnie Johnson is a part of this team long term, either he's going to have an amazing offseason and learn how to do it, or there's going to be a book on him. Or is that how you get Lonnie Johnson? You're going to get him a book covering?

tight-ins for dummies. I don't know what it is, but I'm still having horrific memories of that. Well, it's all Romeo Cornell's fault. That's why it feels like a Friday news dump. Maybe.

I guess we could see that. I wouldn't shock me either way. I think they should keep him. I like Romeo Cornell. Number one, it's just soothing seeing him look like an old man reading you a book on the sidelines. I feel like he's a much bigger badass.

than we ever would ever think he is. You think so? Yeah. I mean, he has this grandpa look. I think he's just, manner of fact, let's get down to business. You think he's in there, kicking ass and taking names?

I bet he's his team once in a while. Probably every now and then. Yeah, not often because then it becomes it's in one ear or out the other. But I think of, I think it's your thing, we love you, Rack. But if you get Rack mad,

like, I don't think Rack was particularly happy with his second quarter defense. And he went to locker room and arrowhead. And I think he probably dropped a few F-bombs on some of those guys. Now it didn't work, obviously. By the way, there are AFC South Banners in the stadium. It is a division championship. That's horrible.

You should have one banner that lists every year you want it. I'm okay with that. But it's really the same thing. I mean, I'm guessing the Texans don't think decorating the stadium full of AFC South banners is what's going to get people crazy. But you have to recognize. recognize it. I guess. You did beat, Ross. You did beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee, Indianapolis to rise above everybody else. Yeah, you beat Tennessee who switched their

quarterback in the middle of the season. Yes. Indianapolis, whose quarterback retired at the beginning of the season. And Jacksonville, whose quarterback broke his clavicle, and then they were playing a sixth-round rookie in most of the season. And then the other starter came back and he sucked, so they went back to that sixth-round guy. That was good. That worked out just great. I'm just saying yeah. Look, if I'm the Texans, I put the banners

up. Now, you're right. Maybe put it on one big banner just add a year. But I don't think they're going to put the AFC. Yeah, we don't want any like, we don't want Rockets, Western Conference, finals participant on there. No. We want championships. And hopefully it starts Saturday with

it's got to start somewhere. Okay. Look who lost, Dowles lost last night. Rockets gained a little ground on them. Yay. so there Dallas is in the six spot and the Rockets are in the five spot. But they're like a game out of the number two

spot? Two games. Okay, I lose track of these things. You got to climb three people though. Yeah, you can climb in three days. They've been two games out of the two spot for like ever. They were one game out of the two spot. They've been in the two spot. And then they just want to go lose. Damn it, Ross. We need something positive. If something positive would happen, I'll talk about it.

Beating the Lakers tomorrow and I will be positive. That would be great. Can the Rockets save us from what has been the worst, one of the worst, the second worst week in Houston sports history. Astros Fan Fest is tomorrow. You'll be there. I will be there.

Me and Michael Connor and Brian Leema. What time of the show? We're on 11 to 1 live, and then we have to switch to Facebook live because of Longhorn Basketball. Wait a minute, you didn't sell that hard enough at all. You're supposed to say, We're on 11 to 1, and then we got Longhorn Basketball on Sports Talks 7-Hawrne

Basketball takes on the Kansas Jayhawks. Actually, we're off at 1 o'clock. You're playing Jayhawks? You're going to lose. They might win. No, you're going to lose. They won two straight games in the Big 12 play. You're going to lose.

They've beaten Kansas at home a number of times over the years. It's not going to happen tomorrow. This winning at the fog has been a different story. Where's the game tomorrow? It's at home. It's at Irwin, sir. You're still losing. Should I just take off tomorrow's show and go to that game?

There'll have to do Rockets pre-game too. Bitsy Dave. All right. Anything goes Friday on the regular on the program. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. So you think they weren't cheating back in the 80s, right, Ross? I'm not sure.

We stand corrected. So says one former major leaguer who pitched in the 80s, who, by the way, throws under the bus, highly ranked baseball executive. That is next. 1229 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

This is James Arden. It goes to hard. Three to shoot. Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 7-90. Are you kidding? A caller that called during the instant poll that said that Bill O'Brien could be fired today.

So just sent me a private message, not going to say who it is. He's like, I want credit if it happens today. Is it okay? You get the credit. Your private message on Twitter? Yeah. What if it doesn't happen today?

Then he's going to probably send it back to me and say, sorry, I goofed up, just like Twitter does. Okay. Whatever. I mean, I have no way to respond to that. Like, everybody's got an insider. Okay. You hit it. You hit it.

If you're wrong, you can need open, you know, you need. you tell me you're wrong. You suck, too. You're going to. Thanks, Bill. All right, so Tarler Russo, successful front office member of several baseball teams. I think it was also involved in Major League Baseball

Office, too, for a while, from not mistaken. But notably, his most successful days as a manager were with the St. Louis Cardinals. Early in his career, Rossi, he was the manager of the Chicago White Sox. In fact, took the White Sox to an American League West Championship. I want to say it was 1983.

Well, and Nick, I want you to play the audio if you don't mind. Jack McDowell, a former pitcher for the White Sox for quite some period of time, appeared on a radio station in Charlotte. Was it yesterday or today? Within the last 24 hours. It was today, I believe.

Well, at least it was posted today. And he just kind of had enough about baseball players in 2019 cheating. He said, you know what? Why don't we about what's going on in baseball, and that has been decades and decades and decades of cheating, including when Mr. McDowell was a young member of the Chicago White Sox. The system in Old Kamisky Park in the late 80, Gatorade signed out, and right center had a light.

There was a toggle switch in the manager's office and a camera zoomed in on the catcher. Okay? I'm going to whistleblow this now because I'm getting tired of this crap. there was that. There was that. Tonya Rousse is the one who put it in. He was also the head, the first team of all the people doing steroids, yet he's still in the game making half a million. You know? No one's going to go after that.

He's getting old where they target certain guys and let other people off the hook. And, you know, like the media doesn't know this all happened was going on. Everybody knows. Everybody who's been around the game knows all this stuff. While all of a sudden it became a big thing, I have no idea. So LaRusa puts the camera in while he's a manager of the White Sox in the early to mid-80s.

It's still out there apparently for some period of time because Jack pitched towards the later end of that decade. And the people have been looking up photos of old Kamiski Park and there is a gatorade sign smack dab in the middle of center field that will have a good sight line to the catcher. We should just stop watching, right? Is that where we've come down to? No. We're going to watch, right? Of course. just like we said back in the day

when everybody said, these athletes are using steroids, I'll never go to a baseball game again. No, you did. Look, we can continue to bring these things up and we can talk about how there's cheating in the 80s and the 90s and the 90s and the

whatever. Yogi Barrett cheated apparently 1951 with binoculars. There I said it. Uh-oh. Is this going to hurt his Affleck endorsements? Wait, he's dead. No, he's long been dead. That's a shame.

Not super long. It's been a while. anyways, it doesn't matter. The point is, none of that matters. What does matter is there was stuff happening in 2017. Rob Manfred put out a memo, said, stop it, and the Astros didn't stop. So we can be Astros fans and blaming everybody else and saying they're doing this and this is part of the game. And all that may be very well and true.

The fact of the matter is the Astros continued to break the first. the rules after they were told not to break the rules, and that's why they're coming down on them. And that's why all this is happening. And every single day between now and the end of the season, some old player is going to say, hey, I can tell you this story. I mean, now the whistle blowing is out, everybody's pulling their whistles out and just talking ad nauseum. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I can tell you, though, I get a speeding ticket, and then you can tell me 20 stories about how you used to speed back in your day. it doesn't matter.

I broke the law. I'm the one getting punished. I'm the one who messed up. That's what it should be with the Astros. So Astros fans can get all mad and go after people all over Twitter and talk about how this is not a big deal because everybody's done it. And that may even very well be true. But also the Astros did it.

It's also like basically talking about how you, you know, you may have been able to steal a Coke from a, from a grocery store. You maybe fudge your taxes a little bit. Okay. IRS going out of some people. Yeah. It happens.

Maybe I don't even would know. Let's just make up the numbers. If 100 people cheat on their taxes, maybe the IRS only audits five. Five. Okay? If you're one of the five, you don't say, wow, look at, well, what about these other people, IRS?

You say, no, I screwed up and then you're the one that gets in trouble. Or more importantly, if you're one of the five that gets caught, you don't go to the IRS, say, hey, IRS, why aren't you going at the other 95? people. Or this guy, why don't you go after Jack McDowell who cheated on his tax? Tony LaRouccia, who cheated on his taxes in 1980. By the way, Charne LaRosa's senior advisor to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League West.

Tony will also not be making a trip to Houston. I'm just kidding. He could be making a trip. I just know Mike Fires isn't. By way, everybody's asking, how is Mike Fires going to handle this in every ballpark? I said, I don't know. We don't know. Why do you and I know more than somebody else does?

We don't know. reaction is going to be? Yeah, we can't even agree on whether or not he's going to pitch in... Well, I can tell you he ain't pitching in Houston. I feel very solid in that. At ever, at all. I mean, if his spot in the rotation doesn't come up. They'll figure out a way for his rotation and not to come up,

or he will come up with some sort of tired shoulder. Load management, if you will. Okay. For a salty veteran. 1242, let's start talking to you guys, and we'll do that next. All year, or just the first trip? All year. Mike Fires doesn't pitch in Houston

Tex. Can I get a little let's get a little run on this. Nick, will you be nice to me if I'm right about this? Will you, will you not bag on the Beatles for an entire calendar year if Mike Fires... Calendar year. Does not pitch in Houston this season. Yeah, years a long time.

That's a pretty bold bet then, right? What are you going to do if you're wrong? He can just keep doing what he's doing. Well, why would I make that bet then? Yeah, there's nothing to gain. Everything to lose. He gets to gain by a rag on him. all the time on my show.

Well, he's going to do that anyways. Whether or not you make the bet. I'm going to try to make him. Just take the bet. Mike Fires doesn't pitch against the Astros in Houston this season. That's my bet.

Anybody want to take a bet? I'll bet a dollar. I'll bet you a Coke. I bet you a dollar. One dollar bet. Well, I don't know. There has to be parameters. What parameters would be?

I just said... If you legitimate has shoulder inflation or something. Because that could be a lie. Well, it could be true, though. We won't know. Could also not be. So I won't make the bet. Well, okay.

I'm making it to a single dollar. One dollar. If I ask you to cut your hair, that's too big of a bet. Oh, come on now. We'll lose all my powers. No question. 12. I don't know how that's happened, but it is what it is.

713-1-2-5-790. It's an anything goes Friday. It's a Matt Thomas show. We appreciate you. Listen to Sports Talk 790. The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas show. As I watch the land of pro visions of the meaning.

Time is at 1249. It is in anything goes Friday. Which means if you would like to get into the NBA of the Rockets, trying to snap a two-game losing streak, we'll take that. My beloved Houston Cougars on the road to play Wichita State tomorrow, which you can hear over our 950 KPRC. Longhorns with a big game tomorrow against the Jayhawks. Bigs are relative terms. Bigs really relative.

Which you can hear 1 o'clock. on Sports Talk 7 out of your home for Texas Longhorns, basketball, and football. And 950KPRC home of champions, the Houston Cougar basketball team. What championship had they won? They're going to win the American this year in basketball. For sure. For sure? For sure.

Guaranteed. Not guaranteed, but feel veryly count. There are no guarantees in life sports, RV. Okay, Matt. Brought to you by the Joint Chiropractic, the Fisher Chiropractor of University of Houston Athletics. The Cougars can cause you some back pain when you have to carry the rest of state basketball-wise.

Baylor's number two in the country. Yeah, that's overrated. Anybody that uses Marks a lot for their uniform color should not be going to the final four. They do have crappy uniforms, but they also do have very good basketball. What do you think about, like I do love uniforms, but there are, I think there are too many of them. Like in the NBA, the Rockets have like five.

I like the, I like the H-Town ones, yeah. Those were the ones where my least favorite until I actually. actually saw them on the player's jerseys. Yeah, I think they look better. I think when they came out, I was like, eh, they're fine. And then when I saw it when they were wearing them, I'm like, wow, these are pretty sharp.

Yeah. I think the new rockets... To sound like my grandma. Oh, it's very sharp. No, I think adults can normally say that. It'll be 80 years old to say that. I don't think anybody, you know, under the age of 30 is saying sharp too much.

Okay, so what is the 26-year-old saying instead of sharp? Those look what? Drip. It's got good drip. How about dope? Or it's dope. They're dope.

By the way, Marshawn Lynch earlier this week, You know we do D of the Weeks? Yes. So they lost a green band, the divisional playoff. And he goes up on speaks to the media the other day. And he squires a couple of times and talks about... He says, get your chicken. I had to go look up what the chicken was.

Did you look and do you know what that was? It's just money, right? Yeah, but I had never heard that. Have you? No. You looked it up to. No, I didn't look it up. You just figured by context clues.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I've heard money is bread. Yeah. De Niro. Cache. Clams. Coins. Bucks.

Bucks. Do. Do? I had never heard chicken until Marshawn Lynch said it. So what is the first thing I do after trying to figure out if that really is a true definition of money? You go to Urban Dictionary. I went to an urban dictionary. And it was about fifth on the list.

Because under the definition of chicken, it was an animal that's cooked fried occasionally, you know, or baked or whatever. You go a little bit deeper down. How about oven roasted? A rosemary garlic? Sure. All right, let's go to the phone. See what you guys are talking about on it. Anything goes Friday.

We'll start today with Tim and Katie at 1252. Hi, Tim. Hey, what's going on, guys? A former Euler fan, former Texan fan, a current chief fan. And that's only because my kids went to Texas Tech and we fell in love with Batmay Holmes. but I think a lot of people are trying to find people Stop, stop, stop What did you call him?

Mayhomes? No I said Mayhomes What do you think I said? Yeah, I want you to try his last name again Pat Mayhom Nope Patrick Mayhombs

No What are you killing me about It's Patrick Mahomes It's Mahomes. Mahomes. Okay. All right. Mahomes. No, wait a minute. You said you're a Chiefs fan and you're calling him Mahomes? Yeah.

Okay. Well, I am a Chief fan. I'm sorry about that. I think people in Houston are trying to find all these people wrong. I think the media, with you guys and the fans kind of got a little bit ahead of yourself thinking you have a... Yeah, I think you swore too. Anyway. Yeah. Listen, it's fans fault just as much as it is media and everybody else. But the defense coordinator had nothing to do with.

I'm not a Bill O'Brien-Fran. I don't believe he had much to do with that either. A lot of bad things happened during the game. I'm just trying to save you guys up because I'd like to see the Texans be my team eventually. I went to the draft party hoping you would take my quarterback, but you didn't. And by the way, now you've been talking about the Astros. My twins were bat boys for years for the Astros. I'd love to talk about that.

But now you know my name and Worst City. I don't want the Astros to blackball my kids. But, man, I would. Potentially, Tim, that could happen because there's no other Tim's and Katie. So I understand you're trying to protect them. I get that for sure. Tim, have a wonderful weekend. I think they're the only twins that play.

and the bat boys. One was the Astros and the other one was the visitor. Let me tell you something. Tim, your secret is good with me. And I have a feeling that even though you are a Chiefs fan, and it sounds like you are, that DeAndre Hopkins would love to have you as a Texans fan eventually. I want to be a Texas. Hey, listen, I was a Love You Blue, went to the big Miami game.

Love the city. I know. Listen, May Holmes is a text I know, yeah. All right, you guys kept me on the radio too long. I agree.

We did, actually. Thank you, Tim. Completely agree with that sentiment. You think he was a fan of Warren Mone? Let me tell you something. I go to Tim and Katie. When I want to sit down and have a you know, maybe a

beer, some fried cheese or something. and talk about Deshawn Watson and Deshawn Watson and did Jose Altavei have a have a buzzer and how many sacks JJ Ward's going to get this week? Mayhomes. You can't do that on a sports radio show. You just can't. What do you think about the matchup between Patrick Mayhomes and Ryan Tanea Hill this weekend? I'm looking more importantly for air.

Aaron Rockers in the matchup with Jimmy Gerpolo. That was tough. There's a listener calling him Pat Mayhomes in Houston, Texas. It's really freaking me out.

And it wasn't intentional. He really thought it was Mayhomes. He's like, what are you talking about? What's the problem? Ray calling us from Montana. Hi, Ray. Where in Montana are you? I'm in Great Falls. I'm originally from Beaumont. I'm married a Montana girl in the while I was in the Navy, so I'm kind of stuck.

I called Rich Eisen about an hour before I called you guys, because he's saying that the steroid scandal is not nearly as bad as supposedly what we did. And I called him out on it. I was like, you're a Yankees fan. When Clemens and Rodriguez and all the rest of them were juicing up to go to the World Series, you weren't saying a word. You were defending them. and I can bet you money that Mike fires won't even come to Houston.

Matter of fact, I even asked Rich, will you, will he give back his ring to the Astros? Because obviously he doesn't care about the Astros. Obviously, he was disgusted by what happened during that season. So he will keep his ring. He will keep the memories of being in the clubhouse and being littered with champagne under the drinks and putting the goggles on. But that'll be a dismembered because he wanted to do the right. thing for his sport, right?

Wrong. Well, I don't think he wanted to do the right thing for a sport. I think he wanted to just, the Astros didn't want him anymore, and he's pissed that. He's with the Oakland A's. Playing in front of 8,000 people. Ray, thanks for listening on IHeartRadio. We appreciate that very much. We'll see you.

Mike fires an Astro in 2020. None of this happens. None of this happens. I agree with that. I don't think you could possibly dispute that. I think this is I like this is good for the I think this is good for the long term though

Yeah I would agree I don't mind sign stealing Right it's really probably It's not a core fundamentalist sport Because some teams don't do it But I think Within the lines Video feeds and

Buzzers and you know Okay buzzard thing probably didn't happen But video fees and And relaying information and whistling and trash can banging with a massage gun and all this crazy stuff, doesn't seem necessary. Especially for a team as good as they were.

From everything we can tell, this was not happening in 2019, and that's when they won the most games. That was their best team. To me, the 2019, we can say whatever you want. It's better than 2017 team. Oh, for sure. Garrett Cole makes them that immediately.

Yeah. Martin Alvarez's season replaces anything that, Marwin Gonzalez or anybody that played, you know, D-Hed. Evan Gattis. Yeah, for sure. Is the Matt Thomas show. 103 on the Matt Thomas show. Good to have you with us on this Friday.

We'll check him with Brian T. Smith coming up in an hour from now. I'm trying to make you some money at 2.30. You guys are going to make our predictions on our NFL games before we go back to the phones. It isn't anything goes Friday here on the program. We need some NFL music to get ourselves appropriately set up for this. only two games to get to. Both of them have heavy, heavy favorites in this game.

What a touchdown? I think on Championship Sunday, that's a lot, don't you think? I suppose. You would like it to be closer, yeah. All right, we'll start with the first game. The Titans at the Cheaps. Games at 205 on Sunday. The Texans...

Sorry. No, the Texans aren't involved, Matt. Yep. Titans getting seven points at Kansas City. Nick, who do you like? with a final score. Well, by the way, this whole week has gone. I'm going to say this is going to be further terrible news piled on the city of Houston.

Don't do it. The Tennessee Titans are going to eke one out, and they're going to win 2724. So you like the Titans plus a seven. Nick, all right, your vote has been put in. Ross, you're next. As an Euler fan, can I root for the Titans now, Matt? I'm not going to tell you root and can. I'm not going to read for.

I'm just kidding. I think the Chiefs still roll. Last check, Chris Jones has not been practicing, right? Is he still not going to play? But I just think their offense is still too much. I think it will be a high-scoring one. Wow, the total is 53, which is very high for an NFL game. I'll go 33, 24.

Okay, so you like the, again, Chiefs minus a 7. I will stay on the Chiefs fan wagon, and I will also, for the second consecutive week, think it's not going to be close. The Chiefs run defense is very subpar, supposedly, but certainly didn't help the Texans cause. Carlos Hyde didn't do much last week. Derek Henry is significantly better, but the Chiefs offense looks unstoppable. I think it's going to be 31 to 14. I got the Chiefs by 17 to win the AFC Championship. Wow.

All right, NFC Championship, the Packers, and the Niners will play in Sanctuary. San Francisco, a.k.a. Santa Clara. And the Niners are seven and a half point favorites. I will go first in this one. I was very impressed with how well the Niners played against Minnesota. Their defense is exceptional. Garapolo looks like he's strong and confident. This will be a closer game than the other one will be.

I still have the Niners won in this one. I'll go 27-17, 49ers with the Niners laying the points and still winning the game. Hmm. Nick, you go. I'm struggling with this one. I'm along the same lines as Matt here. I think this is going to be Niners, and I think they will be able to overcome that seven and a half points.

I'm going to put it at 49ers. Let's do 2820. They're just barely going to cover that. Okay. You want to pick Green Bay, don't you? No, I don't. Um, I'm picking the Niners, but I'm trying to figure out if they're going to cover his basically work going.

Uh, I just, I can't go against the Niners defense. And that defensive line is so ferocious. And the Packers have one of the better offensive lines in the entire, uh, league. So that's what kind of can mitigate it that a little bit, but I think they have too many options. I think it's going to be a lower scoring game. I think the defense will rue the day on both sides of the ball. I think San Francisco comes out of. on top, I will say

20 to well, you have to have them cover 20 to 12. 20 to 12? What an odd score. I'm rolling with it. Okay, fair enough. I got one for you, boys.

If Andy Reid doesn't win this game, do we start putting the label on Can't win the big game on them? I know they've been to one. Labels already there. Well, I guess I should say this. This is what Sean Salsberg is talking about this morning in his show. Do you further push that agenda that Andy, and then they've been to one Super Bowl,

but it's felt like he's had the best team at least four or five different times. He's got the best team that he's at home. There's no excuse, but the Titans are one of the hottest teams in football. They are super hot. Last having lost to the Texans in week 15. They've won every game since then, right? Yes.

He has to win this game. I mean, they've been on a great, even before losing there, I think they were on, what, a four-game winning streak, something like that? They've got a win it for him or it's going to be really tough to describe Andy's one of the best coaches. I need to.

All right. And that's our NFL picks. So all three of us have the same picks, right? We're all taking the spreads and I'll give him. No, I took the Titans. You guys didn't. Oh, that's because you're just a bitter. You just want to rub it into Houston sports fan.

You have no thoughts, no analysis. You just want to make sure our week of hell continues. It's going to keep piling on. So here's the thing. It's been a terrible week. had the Texans blank the bed in Kansas City. We've had the Astero stuff. The Rockets have lost two consecutive games.

So if you just want to make this the worst week ever, the Rockets should lose tomorrow to the Lakers and the Titans should beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. Just go ahead and finish it off. It's like in the movie Leaving Las Vegas, Nicholas Cage's character. Just keep drinking. Keep going.

Finish it off. Take the extra bottle of Pail us. Just keep hitting us. Yeah. Pound us into submission. So the question remains, will there be a ray of sunshine if the Rockets beat the Lakers

tomorrow and the Chiefs beat the Tennessee Titans? I'll feel a little bit better. A little bit. It's just time heals all wounds. I just need to get away from this. I need like a week vacation, actually. Matt, I'll see you in a week from now.

Well, here's the great part. I'm going to come down with the influenza. Here's how you're going to be able to fix this. You're going to be an Astro Fest tomorrow. So that'll be just a real barrel of laughs. Yeah, that'll really help me get away. You know what the best thing about Astro? What are they don't call it Astro Fest?

They call it fan fest. Here's a little secret. If you're a nostalgic astro fan, every year they put up a bunch of old person's uniforms. Oh, they're going to have Mike Fires jerseys? No. They're not. Michael Potter bought a Mike Fires jersey there, I think.

Last year, the year before. So here's what I'll explain. Old jerseys of old players. Yeah. From like. Or players you barely remember. Yeah. From the bricks.

If you want like a Justin Maxwell jersey. Like, let me tell you something. You can get terrific value on a. Matt Dominguez batting practice jersey. If you want the Charlton Jimerson away Gray's If you're looking for a Tommy Manzella

Houston Gray jersey, you're going to be able to get it at fantastic prices. You are. Halloween this upcoming year. Mike fires jersey with a bunch of scars and stitches on. Yeah, that's going to be a good costume. That's going to win Halloween contests. People will be dressed up as the trash can

It'll be like, it'll be like couples costumes. Somebody is a trash can and somebody as an Astros player. Mark my words. We don't know. Now, you and I don't know a lot of couples that listen to the show. We have a lot of female listeners. What do you mean? Husband wives.

Okay. Okay. Stay with me on this. Don't interrupt me. Well, it's always, I'm not always weird, scared you're going to take a creepy turn. No. Okay. We have male listeners.

We have female listeners. Okay. We only know a few that our husband, wives. Okay. So of those people that are listening to show right now that we know you as your husband, we know yours or what, we actually have some friends that are guy and his girlfriend. Y'all need to dress up in that and then take pictures of us of them in October.

No, why do we want them dressed up like fires in a trash can? Because it'll be funny in October. It won't be funny right now. It'll be funny. No, I don't think so. You should get tossed out. I'm talking about across the country. In Houston, Texas, you should get tossed out of whatever venue you're at.

I guarantee you someone's going as my phone. A thousand percent. A thousand, yeah. But somebody's going to have a trash can't, too. We don't need our listeners doing that, Matt. Placing my order for Mike Fires' Replicate Jersey now? Look at, can you go to eBay during the break here? Or not eBay.

What can we go to? Probably eBay. There's got to be a Mike Fires jersey somewhere available. I don't know if you can find a Mike Fires Astros jersey online. Well, I'm going to let you look as I tell you the folks about. There's no hitter purchase available. You would $3.75. Because that's when he dumped all his news.

Oh, that's true. You don't want to buy a Mike Fires, Oaklanders. You lose value the time it got to your house. I'm going to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff. I'm not going to spend much money on it. All right, seven one. Mike Hampton jersey is available for 15 bucks. That's not bad.

Favorite lefty, maybe the greatest. Hitting, asteros pitcher of all time. Think about it. Him and Nolan Ryan. Darrell Maury here. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Hey, so you're hot. Are we heartbroken?

Just sit around. I'm still hopeful for the 2020 Astros. Right? Nothing affects him except hopefully getting a good manager in here. Yeah, but we're three days away, three days removed from, or four days, I guess, five days, whenever it was. It happened this week. Yeah. The worst day in Astros history.

Yep. So it's okay. It's okay to be sad, I think. My head is still spinning. And then all this buzzer stuff. And it was just so much noise. It was so inferior. I was actually frustrated yesterday.

Do your friends? You don't have very many friends. This is probably a huge conversation. But, you know, everybody wants, you know, to know, to know some inside stuff or have an opinion or what do you think? And I told them, I said, I'm in the same boat as you are. I never would have fathomed a base, is fathomed a word, I think? Yeah. Yes, it is.

Okay. I just want to make sure. that a Houston team that I grew up watching would have this happen to them or they did this. That a roster full of amazing good guys would have done this. That A.J. Hinch, remember all the whistling stuff and how offended he was by that? Yes. He was really pissed. Matter of fact, I'm going to try and find the sound bite.

Yeah, you might be able to. That was during the Yankee series, right? That was from this year. Oh, yeah, it was this post. I want to say. And that Major League Baseball found no evidence that all of that was any sort of... They looked into

2019. They looked into electronic buzzers and all that stuff. And yeah, nothing in 2019. And there would be no reason to me, there would be no reason for them to, for players that were interviewed to lie about 2019. Listen to my man. And I

like AJ a lot. Still well, I'll always like AJ. But here's how Matt he was. I understand. gamesmanship, I understand, kind of creating a narrative for yourself or wondering how things are going. Now, the game in question, you know, we got three hits and no runs. And so, you know, nobody heard it. You guys have audio, video, people in places and nothing, and there's no evidence of anything. So to the Yankees, you know, there's nothing bad going on. Pitch tipping is a little bit of a different story. If you don't want us to know the pitch is coming, don't do something

that demonstrates what pitch you're going to pitch or what you're going to throw, but they're doing the same thing. So every hitter wants to know what's coming by virtue of what a pitcher is doing or not doing. The problem that I have is when other people take shots at us outside this competition. You know, when you guys ask me this question, my, you know, my face, my name is by my quotes, my opinions, my reaction is all for you guys to tweet out and put on the broadcast. But we have people that are unnamed or you guys have sources that are giving you information. I suggest they put their name by it if they're so passionate about it to comment about my team or my players.

There's nothing going on other than the competition on the field. The fact that I had to field the question before a really, really cool game out of Yankee Stadium is unfortunately. but we can put it to rest. It'll be the last question I answer about pitch tipping or pitch stealing. Yes, it will be. Oh, man. Five, four, three, two, one. Okay, I'm better.

Do you know what it is? Just hearing that, the guys in the clubhouse, Ross, must think, every Major League Baseball player must think that every other major league baseball player and team cheat. There had to have been in that room a justification of, all right, so I'm hearing that this team's doing this to gain a competitive advantage against us. Well, guess what? We're going to one-up then.

We're going to put cameras out in the outfield and we're going to really, really. We're going to, if you think cheating is a part of the game, we're going to cheat better than you're cheating. Right? Yeah, I think so. There's, it makes too much sense for this. to just be so widespread and maybe the Astros took it above and beyond. Maybe their system was more involved and more intricate than others, especially when you factor in the emails, the Kevin Goldstein emails and all that type of stuff

and trying to get scouts involved in that type of stuff. Maybe not every team was doing that. But to some degree, probably this was happening just about everywhere. You would figure. otherwise, I mean, in a league, especially in 2020, where players are changing and getting traded and going to other teams and free agents, the player pool is always swirling around, right, and changing.

There's no way that you should be able to, you would be able to keep wraps on this, unless you think this is happening everywhere, or, I mean, everybody's sworn some kind of blood oath. Yeah, if you're in a fraternity of Major League Baseball that says, if you wear the uniform and you play, anything that happens in the clubhouse or in some cases

beyond the outfield stays in the clubhouse. And a player decided that he couldn't live by that. Whether that's right or wrong, that's for all those players to decide. Let's go to, in terms of longest wait, Matt and Stafford on the Matt Thomas show at 125. Matt, how are you?

You are. You're great. Nice to hear from you. We have the best show in the market. Thank you. I agree. All right. Thank you. Matt, appreciate that. Let's go to Larry in Pearland on 790. Hi, Larry. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. You're on. Can you hear me? Yeah, very well. Okay. Yeah, I just want to call and say that I'm really disappointed in the Rockets.

I was disappointed last year, but this year I'm even more disappointed. I don't like the way they're playing. I don't like their ISO ball. It's the same thing as Kobe Bryant was when he's with the Lakers, and he was handling the ball all the time, making $15. points a game, but losing the game. And what good does it do for Hardin to score 40 points and we lose the game? And they need to move the ball. What they're doing is not good basketball. I think Hardin is probably one of the best players in the market as is Westbrook. But when you're not letting other team players develop, it doesn't do any good.

And they're not going to make it to the finals of the playoffs. So I'm just disappointed. I'm disappointed in Dan Tony. I don't think he's coaching him. He's just there as a figurehead. I think they do what they want to do. And I think it's a shame for as much talent as they've got for them to play this ISO ball and not get open shots.

They're getting too many contested shots when they could move the ball. And they've got good three-point shooters that could make three-pointers. But when they're not getting the ball and they're not getting enough to develop their skills, it doesn't really matter. So I've watched my last rocket game. That's not true. That's not. You're going to watch plenty of Rockets games.

No, no, I'm not. No, yeah, Larry, I've got a monitor. Larry, I've got a monitor on your television. You're going to be watching Saturday night's game very closely. It ain't going to happen. And I'll tell you what, the Lakers will kick their butts. The Lakers are playing good ball. Well, you won't know that because you won't see the game, will you?

Well, I'll find out about it when I listen to y'all's pro. Oh, that's nice. Thank you. Hey, Larry, let me ask you this. And you're good sport. the Rockets philosophy offensively really hasn't changed in the last four years, right? You'd agree with me on that, yes? I agree. I agree wholeheartedly.

Okay, well, they've won 199 games in three and a half seasons here. So it's not like this is an awful display of basketball. Now, the end game is winning championships, and you're right about that. And you may want to say that James has too much isolation ball. So if you are the of the notion that James holds out of the ball too long and shoots too much, who would you like to see on the Rockets get more shot opportunities? I'd like to see all their players get more shot opportunities. I think McLemore has got tremendous potential.

I think House does. Even Rivers does. They've got a lot of good players, but they're not getting enough minutes to really develop their skills. And you see it. And nine times out of ten, when the Hardin passes in the ball, they pass it right back to him. It's the old alpha.

you know, and so it's all up to him. And, I mean, he's a great player, and he makes some great passes. I'm not putting down his skills. He's one of the best. But I just don't think they're developing the talent that they've got, you know, to play the kind of ball that it takes to win championships. And thank you for the phone call, Larry. And like I said, I've got a monitor on your television.

You'll be watching. I'll hopefully listen to Rockets Basketball. We'd like that. My very simple answer to that is, I don't know if a team full of Daniel House Austin Rivers three-point shooting is going to make that big of a difference. I'd rather give it to a guy that has been, frankly, pretty efficient this year. Now, the last two games have been duds in terms of number of shots, but James is playing some of the most efficient basketball.

He's probably played in the last five or six years. Are you familiar with the stat potential assist, Matthew? Oh, goodness. No, I feel like I should. So, you know, say you hit somebody for a wide-open shot and they shoot a three, and they miss it. You don't get the assist. But it's a potential assist. All right, I accept that.

Number one in the league in potential assists is LeBron James. It's good. There's also up there is Ricky Rubio, Ben Simmons, Luca Donchich. Number six in the NBA is Russell Westbrook. Number seven is James Harden. So there really isn't the ball hogging. I mean, it feels like it, but it isn't. And James would have more than 10 assists again because he's already, he's always, he's

always top 10 assists anyway. Do you think Chris Paul's like a ball distributor and, you know, a guy who's moving the ball around and all that stuff? So says you two. Well, James Hardin gets two over two more potential assists a game than Chris Paul. Okay. Yeah. Got a knock shot's down. And look, everybody's got to. Right now the-

He's averaging seven and a half assists the game. They're moving the ball. Yeah, do you want more PJ Tucker post-ups? I mean, by the way, this is the Rockets offense. The offense is not their problem. The defense is their problem. has especially... If you want to talk about James Harden in the defense, especially the perimeter defense, and my goodness

when he was on an island against Dame Lillard on whatever day it was, that wasn't pretty Wednesday? Neither one of those guys shot well. Lillard was terrible. He was good getting the hoop, though. True. He missed... I think he was like one of eight from three, but he was getting to the hoop. Yeah, well, Portland got to the hoop by everybody.

Yeah. Everybody. All right, 130 on Sports Talk, 790. Coach Dan Tony here. Red Nation. Listening to the Flag Show. Sports Talk 790, home of the rockets. Tonight it's

Lana Ritchie over at the Astros Gala. This is Commodores. This is, I think this is, I know Brick House is the most famous Commodore song, but this is my favorite one. Go with it. This is smooth. Loving, relaxing.

It's good. This is definitely more of, but I mean, brick houses in all the time. It's the most famous one. Let's do a lot of Richie, believe it or not today. You in for that? Sure. Okay.

We call it Hell yeah, or not on Fridays. Hell yeah. All right. The following one minute of the Matt Thomas show is presented without commentary. Ed Ogeron and OSU's, not OSU's, LSU's football team. I might comment. I probably will comment too.

So, Edo and the team, was the whole team up there? Or just coached? Yeah, the whole team. Okay. They went to Washington to visit with the press.

And here's 56.5 seconds. We could do what you talk about President Trump, but we don't have time for the predict that. That's way too hard. Bill O'Brien goes ABC. Donald Trump goes

ZJW. And uses foreign languages in two. Here's the president with LSU today. Coach, if you'd like, we can take whoever wants to come to the Oval Office. We'll take pictures behind the resolute desk. It's been there a long time. A lot of presidents, some good, some not so good. But you got a good one now.

Even though they're trying to impeach the son of a bitch, can you believe that? Got the greatest economy we've ever had, Joe. We got the greatest military. We rebuilt it. We took out those terrorists. terrorists like your football team would have taken out those terrorists, right? But we're doing good. So we're going to go to the Oval Office with some of the players and all of the players, I guess.

And again, I want to just congratulate the team. I want to congratulate your great representatives, all of you. You've been fantastic all season long before they went on this big streak. And it's an honor to have everybody at the White House. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. And the president asked Joe where the money is from old.

B.J. Did he give him some handshakes? Don't meet with Trump. It's bad politics. Okay, can I just have an honest question? I'll answer it. This is free of any political discussion or just criticism or anything. Because we are the most anti-political show in the marketplace.

What does it mean we would, we took out those terrorists like your football team would have? Now that's what I call a nice question. Is there, is there some history? of sending the 72 dolphins over to over to Vietnam or something like that. It's like a chess player, grandmaster, playing against a checker's child.

It's above my head, I'm sure. What he tried to do is he tried to use war in battle and equated to a football game, which never usually works out properly. And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. Oh, Nick's been looking forward to this the entire show. He called himself a son of a bitch, so that was interesting.

Yeah. We bleeped out the B part. Well, and then you said it. Yeah, it's all right. As long as you don't overuse it. I'm not going to say it. We really didn't talk much about OBJ this week. Oh, yeah, that was a story.

I think it's a disgrace. First of all, he hands out hundies to the players while they're on the field. $100 handshakes. And Joe Burrell said, well, my eligibility is done. That's okay, I'll take it. It's good to see that $100 handshakes are still a thing. The greatest handshake I've ever heard of, and I think I mentioned this before in the year, was way back

And the UNOV didn't behave themselves. Not that I don't think they behave themselves now, but that players that were being recruited to UNOV would, they would get the dad's jobs, parking cars at hotels. And then the big boosters would come by instead of giving you five or ten bucks to park the car. Right. As a valid way.

Yeah, they were making $2,000, $3,000 a day. You shouldn't treat people that way. Didn't necessarily help out at UNOV basketball because they were really very ordinary after their national championships. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to John and Richmond at 140. Hi, John.

Hey, Matt. You guys are cracking me up. That Donald J has something else. I was having to the previous conversation that you're having. And I think you're right. The Rock is all who they are going to be. I think we've got a pretty good sample size getting ready to go on to the All-Star break. That, you know, this team is just not only missing a piece, but not playing very.

good defense right now and your accessory parts are not knocking down shots. I know the Carla said before that, you know, he's not going to watch Rockers games. Look, man, we're Houstonians. We're glad for punishment. We are going to go and watch those games. But the thing of it is, and I can see why Petita didn't renew Dan Tony is because we just look like the Phoenix Sun. And what I want to know, Matt, is maybe you can ask Dan Tony the next time you have

them on the show. when the Rockers are going 0 for 7, 0 for 8, 0 for 9, 10, and letting these teams get off 10, 12, 16, 18, 18 to 2 runs. When he calls his timeout, does he ever say to James or Russell or mostly James as he handles the ball primarily,

hey man, I'm not saying stop shooting, but let's get you some rhythm. Let's get you to the basket a couple of times free throws. Let's try and stop these gargantric runs by Ashley's. Maybe, I know the office isn't scoring two points, you know, jumpers and whatnot. But I mean, does he at all, you know, stand up and coach James

to not to the level of what Popovic used to do to Dunkin? I don't know if Dan Tony has a type of pool. Let me tell you, Greg Popovich has the pull that I've never seen a coach in the history of the NBA have, John. I think you sound like you've watched the game quite a while. I can't imagine Pat Riley dressing down Magic Johnson. I don't think Casey Jones dressed down Larry Bird that often. So to your point, Popp was amazing that he could take those guys, break him down,

and build him right back up. So what I will do for you is next time we have Dan Tonia on, which will be next week, I'll ask him about what kind of things he can say. Now, again, it could be, he could say one thing and do another, but I've never directly said, hey, have you ever told James get better right in the middle of the game? because I just don't think those types of conversations have between player and coach. I think there's little adjustments here and there. And that's my guest, John, is what he'll tell you is that.

But I'll ask the question about what kind of in-game conversations you have with a guy that is such a large part of the responsibility of your team. Yeah, because I feel like, you know, on these games where we get these large leads, 20 and 18, and then we give it right back, a lot of it has to do, at least I've watched and you watch, is it just seems like they fall in love with that three. They forget that prior to, you know, the teams going on that run, not only were they knocking down threes, but they were, you know, getting to the free throw line. I just felt like some of those games where they gave those leads back.

If you hit just a couple of two-pointed, some floaters, some layups, you kind of sustain yourself, and you don't give it all the way back. The Rockins have a habit of building up 20-point leads and then giving the 20 points back and then going down by six points. So I just feel like I want to ask, Dan Tony, you know, What are you saying to these guys when you see the Atlanta Hawks knock your 20-point lead down to 10 to 6 to 5? And you just continuously see penetration, kick out, shoot a contested three. Or I'm just going to pull a three right here from the timeline.

Well, sometimes, and thank you for the phone call, I got to get to a break. Sometimes they want them to shoot that three-point shot because one of those threes changed the momentum of a game very, very quickly. and it sounds easy to attack the lane and go to it. But Ross, we've seen it a lot of times this year. James goes to the lane. It goes against three bodies. And there isn't a foul call. It isn't a guarantee that he makes a shot.

There isn't a guarantee he makes a free throw. I think we've seen spells of where he doesn't get the calls that he has been getting in years past. But one other thing, John I know knows this. The NBA has horrific flows in it, up 12, down 12. It's a game of runs, as they say. Yes, it literally is, more so than any other sport. 144, Sports Talk 7 out of the Matt Thomas show. Thank you again, John, for the phone call, good conversation.

I'll bring that up to coach. What do you exactly talk about during timeouts, especially when you're faced in a run where you're facing a massive deficit or at least going on a bad negative run? The Rockets have Red Nation. Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You made it.

I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go. If I have to beg, please for your sympathy, I don't mind because you mean it. Sometimes you're in R&B like today is a good day, right? The weather's dreary. It's been a dreary sports week.

We're going to be walking on sunshine before you know it. Rockets will beat the Lakers. Rockets can beat Oklahoma City on Monday. We're going to be on the air Monday, by the way, with the show. So don't be afraid to call and say hi. As I think most people now have MLK to the office. Is that correct? I don't know.

Not us. We grind. We work. We'll be here for you, noon to three. Monday. Actually, yeah, noon to three. A little early for me, I've got to get to over the Rockets for the game for the 4 o'clock start. I wish all games started at 4 o'clock.

I bet you do, Mr. Roth at 3? Be nice. 12 to 3, rockets at 4. home by six seven maybe like five maybe four 30 or five would be even better

because you do the whole show and then get it there right yeah I'm gonna ask ask Adam silver I'm gonna call Tillman say can we start

all games at five o'clock because it would then not congest downtown traffic would be the same amount of early crowd yeah would you all go to every game at five o'clock

could have dinner at eight o'clock you know how downtown's fun that dinner at eight and then you could have it's five o'clock somewhere happy hours you could have have a happy hour in the first quarter being your seats.

Yeah. So when I announce, LeBron James, LeBron James. You're not going to say it like that. I want to, though. LeBron James. What if he misses the game due to load management?

LeBron James. LeBron James. He ain't missing this game. First time to go against Russ. And by the way, it's on ABC, National Game of the Night. No chance he's missing this one. LeBron James. LeBron James.

Who's the MVP favor right now? Is it him? Let me see if I'm worth this out. Okay. Whistle. Referee puts up 23. I go, foul is called on. His first team third.

Are you going to say, do you say St. Vincent, St. Mary's when you introduce him? Yes, I do. That's a lot, too. Yeah. It is. St. And what was he, 6-9?

Is that when it's... 6-8-8-5. Everybody got re-measure. Right, everybody got re-I. I think he got bumped up a half-inch. Excuse me? What? Go ahead and record that.

We're just catching ourselves now, aren't we? Don't worry. I already got you saying Cougars give you back trouble. I missed that one. I did, too. Let's go to Gabriel at 153. 790. Hi, Gabe. May I call you, Gabe? Yeah.

Hi. How does the turn-out goal put Astros caravan? A lot of people go to all of them. Well, the ones in Houston is tomorrow at Fan Fest, so I can't tell you about the rest. Did you go to the one in San Antonio? No, they didn't have one here. Oh, well, I thought you were calling...

They're going to, aren't they? I thought you were calling with a report from San Antonio. You mean they didn't come to they didn't go to San Antonio? Are you sure? supposed to hit us with some inside info. Yeah, well, I just see how if I call it, the ones from the Houston, from the Houston caravan, if not people show it up or not.

Well, I'll say this, and thanks Gabe for the call. When I was doing appearances to coincide with a caravan, like it would be like George Springer, Jose Al Tuve, Carlos Correa, you'd have like Chris Devinsky.

Have you gotten your list for tomorrow yet? Tell the truth. Yes, I do. All right, running through. Can we get some new? Hold on, hold on. Well, we do list. We want the whole list.

Give me some go-go-astros. Oh, if you want the whole list. You want the whole guest list? Okay. Well, hold on. I got to pull that up. I will say the caravan was supposed to go to Houston, Conroe, Round Rock, and Corpus Christi.

Okay. Okay. Do you want the guest list? Yes. Chris Devensky. Okay. The dragon. Alex Bregman.

Yes. our fave Josh James I mean headed spots Dustin Garneau new backup catcher Jeff

Lou now he was there last year he will not be there we interviewed him last year you're facing suspension like more than one segment continue Joe Beijini

oh you'll never get the microphone away from him Kent Emmanuel as number one. Keep going. Just finish it up.

And last but not least, Kyle Tucker. That's it. You know, years past, we've had Springer, Altuve, Verlander, Verlander,

McCann. Trinos, we had last year. He was fantastic. We had Seth Beer. As a guy was yelling beer here the entire time, we had to have him escorted off the preises.

List is a little thin this year. You know why? Because they're very, veteran team. Yeah, that's why. Let me explain. Three 100 win seasons. World Series 2 of the last three years.

And they just need extra, you know, their seasons are going along so they need extra rest. A lot of Quad Cities River Bandit's conversation. By my argument. I insist. After this week, we're going to start thinking about the better things in life. The best things in life are free, Matt. But you can give those to the birds and bees. Okay.

I want money. So tomorrow it's Astro special sports RV show live from Fan Fest. With Michael Connor and Brian LeLima. Takes the review to interview these people? It'll be the, well, you know, they're baseball nerd, so they just bogart their way on on my show. So you didn't invite them to be on the show? No, I didn't invite them.

They just show up. You hear that Lehm and Connor? You're inviting yourself to Sports RV show. Yeah. At least Gordie's not there to Bogart his way on and ask a bunch of LSU questions. to Will Harrison and Alex Bregman. Gordy's a kind of guy that if anything LSU comes up, he all of a sudden becomes an automatic co-host.

Yes. LSU were saying to later. All right, Brian T. Smith's going to join us in a matter of moments here on Sports Talk 790. He will, I feel like I could ask him one, two questions. One of the Texans and one of the Astros, and I don't know for the whole segment, right? That's that BTS is going to do for us.

Yes is the Matt Thomas show. I'm going to try something here that I've never done with an interview before. And because we're pals and because Brian always has a lot to say, you can find him, Cron Brian Smith on Twitter, and you can read him in Houston Chronicle. I'm going to try to attempt an interview with our good friend Brian T. And use less than 15 words in my entire conversation. Brian, are you ready for this? Maybe. Do I have to talk?

Is Ross going to carry the show? No, no, no. You're talking a lot because you've got a lot to say, and I have very few questions. So here we go. You ready? Matt, you know I can do this. I'm just not prepared to do this. Yeah, you are. You know what? That's what I'm trying to challenge you on these things. Here we go. You ready? Let's do it. Brian T. Smith, word one.

Brian Astros. Two words. utterly depressing. No, no, I'm only using two words. You talk more than that. Forget this. This is your fault. I should have rehearsed it. Yeah, I should have rehearsed it.

Okay. BTS, we have spent. This is the worst week in a long time. We actually had some fun with it. We had more people think the older's losing 35 to 3 lead to losing was the worst event in Houston sports. This is not far behind. this. So take us to the week that it was, because first of all, you were in Kansas City for that abomination, and then you get to come home and get to part of this for a last handful of days.

Where do you strike this up in your journalism career in terms of just a wacky, sad, and depressing times in Houston sports? Yeah, it's so weird, because all you said for the last few years, right, your show and the Chronicle, all on 790, every good, smart Houston sports fan on Twitter is how incredible the last three or four years had been. And I was, I wrote in the Rockets on Wednesday, I mean, I wrote in The Chronicle on Wednesday night back, because the Rockets played the Blazers. And my idea going in was, you know, have a little fun with, like, try to be a little

upbeat, you know, rockets save us. And, of course, that didn't happen. They, they were horrible against the Blazers. It's really unbelievable. I couldn't even leave Kansas City on Monday because my plane was like six hours late. And by the time, I got to. through, you know, the reaction and the initial blog. I had to write my column.

There was no way I could get on the plane and write it and still do everything. And then today, I went to the doctor in the morning and I was supposed to be there for 30 minutes, except for two and a half hours. And now I've been at the car dealership for four hours. That is just how this week is going, Matt. It's just everything. It feels like it's falling apart in Houston. And it's so perfect.

Just a week ago. You have Deshawn Watson. Maybe there's a shot to beat the Chiefs. The Ravens lose. Oh, my gosh. You know, if the Texans actually find a way to do this, they're hosting the AFC championship. The AFC championship game could have been in Houston Energy Stadium in two days. And they blow 24-0.

And then as you said, we've talked about all week. Once the Astros happened, who cares about the Texans anymore? I mean, Bill O'Brien should send Jim Crane a lifetime's worth supply of, I don't know what. I mean, what's going to erase that? everyone's forgotten somehow about, you know, Bill O'Brien and 24-0 into 517 because of the Houston Astros. So it's shocking, it's stunning, it's depressing, it's a shame. We could come up with 100 words, but ultimately, it's real life now. And I think the only ones in denial are utter Astros homers, because this is pretty bad stuff.

So we were all, and I don't like to use the term, put everybody in the same category, but there wasn't a single soul that wasn't completely surprised when Jim Cray made his announcement that said that he had fired Jeff and AJ. Now, taking a few days back, could you have imagined a system where these two gentlemen would have been suspended for a year and then they came back? Or should we have been thinking about them being fired all along? Yeah, I'm going to disagree with you. I actually, you and I usually agree, Matt. I completely disagree with that.

I think most Astros fans were shot that AJ and Jay and Jim. Jeff were fired. No, no, no, no, I know I agree with you. I'm saying, I'm saying everybody believe that. I'm saying now in retrospect, having there been a few days later, should we have thought about that being a realistic possibility when none of us really did? No, because nobody, I remember going on 790, like six weeks ago, two months ago, when this first broke and you and I talking about it and saying whatever they did, they needed to investigate it to, you know, to the fullest of their capacity. because it was so serious and it was going to sway so many things like a World Series title, careers, positions, who's in charge, what the stats really mean, all the things.

There was so much at stake, like a steroid era. You had to investigate it. And whatever they found, hopefully properly, hopefully officially, on the up and up, they were going to find. And whenever they, once they found that, then it could, who knows where it could go? I was saying that two months ago on 790. nobody knew what they were going to find, though. And so there was, look, A.J. Hinch, according to Jim Crane, was absolutely shocked when he was fired. He was upset. He didn't see it coming.

Jeff Luno, from everything he was saying just a month ago on the record, speaking of reporters, he just didn't even seem like it was a possibility. I don't think that anybody truly knew that Crane and Luno would be fired. Maybe it could for Rob Bancford and Jim Crane. It feels like that's about it. Nothing about that's leaked. So I believe that out of everything, what is the most stunning?

What is the most damning? What is the most depressing about it? With a few words, speaking of 15 words, with a few words behind a podium, Jim Crane officially ended an entire era of Astros baseball, and it was by far the best era in Astro's history, and wasn't even close. It doesn't mean that they won't win the AOS this year.

Doesn't mean that they might not be in the playoffs five the next seven years because the roster is still that talented mat. But that was his decision. Maybe it was some man for an input. That was his call. And he did not have to do that. That's another reason why it was so stunning and shocking. And I still believe it's fully debatable whether that was the right call

specifically when it came to Hinch. What do you think they'll do? We're all speculating. Do you go with the grizzled old veteran? do you go with the guy that's been around? We're talking about Joe's spot of the bench coach, or do you go somewhere in between, a guy that's got some Texas ties and John Gibbons.

There's been some other names brought up. I know Buck Shaw-Walter's name has been brought up as well. I've been interviewed. Who would you, if you were to, if Jim called you and said, hey, BTS, I like your opinion. What kind of manager does this Astros Clubhouse do? I don't understand doing this kind of quasi-cle slate thing, which doesn't feel very real to me.

But I don't understand doing that. And not actually having a clean slate. Like, I'm not in any way knocking Espada or Pete Patilla in no way. Pete's always been very nice on the field. I've been running into him off and on randomly, you know, in small bits since I first started covering the team in 2012-13. He is really, he's a definition of working way up in an organization. So this is not anything on him. And Espada's been around the team.

He's very respected by, especially the middle-in-jutor, Jazeera. He's put in hours upon hours with him. He was very close in the dugout with AJ Hinch. He played a huge role, coaching component on that role, as much as Brent Strom did, so did the spot up. But if you're going to have the clean slate, have the clean slate. And if you're going to have the clean slate, and you're going to enter spring training,

and it's going to be chaos with national media, and there's still be more information that comes out and reactions and your players are constantly having to fit themselves. Doesn't it feel like you need somebody who's been through the fire multiple times? I know that Astro's Twitter hates to hear a name like Buck Showalter or Dusty Baker, and I'm not advocating for Baker. But I will say, Sher Walter, John Gibbons, they've been in major markets. They've seen just about every storm, you know, that you can see.

And if they found a way through it, Sherwalter has, you know, multiple manager of the years for a reason. Somebody like that that has the experience, that can be a calming influence. That's what you need. That's what you need because the Astros went through a lot of drama, Matt, the last few years, even with all their expectations. success and the one person who always navigated them through that was AJ Hinch and he's gone. Last question. Yesterday for, I don't know what you were doing, but yesterday was a complete

blank storm on Twitter with this account talking about the buzzers and whatnot. Everybody that I had got into contact with yesterday is like, what do you think? And the initial response I would say was, well, that sounds completely absurd. That wouldn't happen. But then I forgot what the asteros just were penalized for a handful of days. So are you like me that anytime you're going to hear something, you immediately want to dispute it, but in reality, Brian, there's a small part of you that frankly can't. That's exactly. This is the world we're in now. I mean, that's what is so fat about it all is it was a great baseball team. It was a great era. They went through hell, Matt, just to get

2015, I'm not talking about 17 or 18 or 19. 15. The pain of the rebuilding years, the fans, the fans that I feel for the most, the people I feel for the most on this, more than Hinch, more than Ludo, are the devoted, long-time fans that go back to the 60s or 70s or 80s or even the 90s. The fans, you know, the 0405 fans, whenever you came along, if you went through the rebuilding years and you had to endure three years where your team didn't matter at all, and all it was was the hope for the future.

and the prospects and the call-ups and drafting Alex Bregman and George Springer Day, Carlos Correa Day, all those things. And then this happens, and in some way, no matter how you see it, there's no question that nationally, locally debatable, nationally, the World Series title has an asterisk and is invalidated and will forever be associated with cheating. Nationally, that is a truth. That's hard. And so now everything that comes up, it can be one person, it can be a russian.

Russian spam bot with a fake anonymous hotmail account. And they, with two followers, and they can post, you know, blah, blah, blah, with using smoke signals and carrier pigeons to, you know, know the location of pitches during game five of the world's trip, whatever. And it'll get retweeted and it'll get a little traction. That's, unfortunately, that's the world we're in now. And now that this is official and there have been not just suspensions, but firings, everything, sadly, Matt, is going to have a little traction, and it's going to be a rough year.

No matter what happens on the field, it's going to be a rough year for the Astros, and I will say this, they right now, they have never shown that they have the internal mechanism to handle it, to deal with the blowback. Look at the Tobman, look at all the controversies they've had. They always tend to put their foot in their mouth at the wrong time, and they haven't really changed that part of their organization. I don't know. It feels like it's going to be a really rough year for the Houston-Abroaths off the field. It's as much about they're on the field record and how they conduct their business off and how forthcoming they are and how apologetic they are and how they can try to make amends with the baseball community. Forget about Houston, just in tire in baseball.

BTS, your luck selling that car, my man, or buying that car. Just getting repaired and it's been four hours, so today's going great. So you're not cranky at all. not cranky at all How many times have you asked for the manager? I already left the previous dealerships and I'm on another one. Oh,

BTS! Snap! Don't go bananas on him. All right, I'll see you soon, Matt. See you guys. All right, Brian T. You don't want to make Brian T angry at the car dealership.

You know, he's not very nice when you make him angry. You won't like him when he's angry. Let me ask you this. I bet you he gets, yeah, I could see Brian getting all up and asking for a manager at places. I do it. I'm not asked for the manager guy. I am.

But it takes a lot for me to get to that spot. A lot. Okay. Yeah. I need to be pushed, but I don't fly off the handle as quickly as others. Yeah. I try to be understanding. My zero to 60 is faster than yours is.

But I also come down faster than you do. Excuse me. 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 Mercilis. Back to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. We're going to play a new game, giving away nothing.

We're just going to test Ross's ability to guess how well he knows NBA players and their popularity. Do not look at Twitter. Okay. We're doing that in 10 minutes. I can't look at Twitter for 10 minutes? I think you'll be able to pull it off. Okay. All right.

So what do you think? Too late. Wait, I looked at her. Did you already see this? I didn't see anything. Nick and Spring believes that I can fix the Texans and here's how. What do you think, Ross, I can do to fix the Texans? Nick, what do you think I could do to fix the Texans?

I have no idea what he's going to say. Is he still there? Yeah, he's still there. Ross, what could I do to fix the Texans? You personally? Yeah, that's what he says. This is Matt Thomas can fix the Texans. I don't refer to myself in third person that often, but I just did.

He's going to say you could interview Bill O'Brien, and he would immediately get fired. Nick and Spring on the Matt Thomas show, good afternoon. Good afternoon, guys. How are you doing? Wonderful. All right. Well, how are you going to do this, Matt, is I'm just listening to the Brian T. Smith call,

and a lot of people forgot about the Texans. I'm not one that forgot about the Texans and this abomination of a loss. And everybody, well, I expected the Texans to fire somebody, not the Astros. But now how you help fix this is you're kind of, have a big deal with the Houston Rockets, right? You've got, is it fair to say you've got Tillman's ear? Could I call him and he would answer? Yes. But does he going to listen to anything I would say? That's up to him.

But, yeah, I mean, I can call. I'm sure. Sure. And even if he takes your call and speak to him in person, you plan a seed with him because nobody talks to Cal McNair. Nobody sees Cal McNair. There's no press conference other than five words and he's just non-existent. He's off with the Uber rich guys hanging out. Well, you talk to your Uber rich guy, Tellman, and have him plant the seed and explain simply, listen, you've got to get rid of Bill O'Brien. You're looking for a GM.

You're looking for a coach. The Astros just got rid of a GM and a coach. Now, I get it. It's not the same sport. But what we're talking about is proven winners. Forget the cheating. I don't care. I'm over all that.

I want winners. And I want this Texans team to stop being mediocre. And we need a better GM. and a better coach. And if nothing else, Jeff Leno as the GM of the Texans would be phenomenal. And A.J. Hinch knows how to lead men. So, Matt, I need you to call Tillman to plant the seed to Cal to help get that ball moving.

So you think that Timman will call Cal? Is that what you want him to do? I think that if, well, I don't know how anyone else can get a hold of Cal McNair. He's never, you don't ever see him giving press conferences or talking. He's not on social media. he's not one of these guys that you can easily get access to. You know why? Do you know why?

Because that's intentional. Nick, they don't want Cal to speak. That's a reason why. Somebody has told him, Cal, you will not speak. You will let Bill O'Brien speak on behalf of the franchise. That's your new role. So you don't have to call anybody. Thank you for the phone call and the nice suggestion.

Cal is just going to let things go status quo unless my previous person that tweeted me earlier said that he's going to they're going to fire people today which i don't believe but you know that's ridiculous cow's collecting money gang cow's doing right great cal's doing great he's printing money yes for a very pedestrian franchise i would say a slightly above average never been to a pedestrian i'm saying over the last few years i think i think when you're one and done on a regular basis or two and done. Right.

But it hasn't been a complete aptitude. It's not Detroit. Right. Well, yeah. Have they even won a playoff game in the last few years?

Not lately, no. I know they got close against the Cowboys. Not Cleveland. I mean, look, they're a way, they're a way where...

They haven't been what the jets have been or the Bengals. Oh, there's a lot worse. And I'm not saying pedestrians but pedestrians just men. Pedestrians, ma'am. average.

Yeah. There is, there is averages they get. Astros, above average. Exemplary. Rockets above average. Close to exemplary. Texans, divisional, division a round. Okay.

They made the final eight. The elite eight of the NFL. And we're up 24-0. Yeah. If you stop everything when they're 24-0, they're in the elite eight and they're up 24-0-0-0-0. Let's just forget the 50-0. I already have.

You saw the Aaron Hernandez documentary. Yes, that's right. I watched all three episodes yesterday. It was good. It was a little all over the place. It was good. It was kind of, didn't you think it was kind of all over it? Like, they would be going to one storyline and then they just interject something else? It felt a little disorganized.

Well, kind of, but I really liked the way that they did it. There was no writing. It was all like compiled footage and audio clips. Yeah. From people who actually involved. Is it wrong that I have zero interest in that? that? It's an interesting story. I just, I

guess if I, once I sat down and did it and watched it, I think I'd be pretty interested. Well, I want, this is like a mild spoiler, I guess. One of the reasons I wanted to watch it was to figure out why he killed Odin Lloyd and it never, they don't know, we don't know. Is there anything

empathetic about him? No, not to me. Well, he had a bad, look, anytime you have some story with the murderers and serial killers or anything like this, there's always a pattern. It was a bad childhood. He had problems at home, possibly closeted homosexual, which is definitely, I mean... Closet homosexual, you said? Yes.

Okay. They push that hard. Which definitely can cause, you know, depression and stuff like that. How did Urban Meyer come out on this? He was fine, I guess. They didn't run him into the ground or anything. Yeah. All right.

We got one more segment to go. It was Bill Belich. It felt like, I felt like there was, there was one part where they said something about the Patriots, like how they could have stopped it or they could, they could have, was it when they gave him the apartment or something like that? They were kind of, the Patriots are a little bit of enablers. They were talking about, I can't remember. Oh, he requested a trade. Yeah, he requested a trade. They didn't trade him.

They helped him get a separate apartment. Yeah, he's like, hey, man. I did not get killed. Yeah, he's like, my life's in danger. I need to be traded away. And Bill Bill Hick's not, no, we're going to keep you here. We know your life's in danger, but we're trying to win football games here. That's funny.

Thanks, Bill. That's funny. Okay, so one to five, you give it a four? Oh, how about a one to ten? I'll give it a seven. Three and a half. I'll give it about an eight. Okay.

So you guys have sold me. I'll go watch it now. O.G. with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in in the Sports Talk 790, man. Oh, you're going back to content. It's such a good song. Back at it on the Matt Thomas Show,

234. Save us for Lerner Time. This is a good song. Ross, the top 10 top 10 merchandise in the NBA. Where the Rockets won. to 10. Where are the team over team merchandise? Okay, Lakers are one. That's correct. Where are the Rockets? Yep, one to ten.

This is for October through December. Fourth quarter of 2019. Five. Seven. I almost said six. Here we go. Ten Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie and Duran. Nine Miami Heat.

Well, can I? Well, let me get some more of these. Okay, go ahead. Okay, one was the Lakers. give me two through eight I already told the rocket so give me the sixth I'll go warriors Nope

Are the warriors in there The warriors are sixth Okay I guess Bucks I don't know Bucks are five Clippers not in the top ten

Clippers not in the top ten Bucks are five It just shows you still It's such a Laker Town Um I don't know Just go ahead and give them to me I guess 10, Brooklyn, 9, Miami.

Major surprise on that. Eight, Chicago. Really surprised on that. Rocket 7, Warriors 6, bucks 5, Toronto Raptors 4. That would make sense after the championship. 3, Philadelphia, 2, Boston, and the Lakers number 1. I was going to guess Boston, Philly.

One more here. Top 15 NBA jersey sales, October through December. Individuals? Yep. Can you give me 15 in the list? How many can you name until you get one wrong? Okay.

Well, let's throw LeBron James in there. Number one. Yannas at Tentacompo. Number two. Anthony Davis. Number eight. Eight, really?

Mm-hmm. Kauai. Seven. James Hardin. Five. Man. Look at the first. Donchich?

Six. Really? Look at Donchish is sixth already. Yeah. Now it's getting tough. Uh, Joel Embed?

Nine. You're doing good. Um, uh, Kwy Leonard. Uh, Quad Leonard is seventh. You already said that.

Oh, I did? Mm-hmm. What am I doing? Uh, how about Dame Lillard? No.

Here comes the list. Fifteen, Zion Williams. who, by the way, will make his debut next week. Should have went with Zion. Here's a mild surprise. I think it should have been pelt at gear, period. Campbell Walker, 14.

Okay. Russell Westbrook 13. Yeah. Kevin Durant 12. Ben Simmons 11. Kyrie Irving 10. Embed 8. Leonard 7th.

Luca Donchett 6. James 5th. This is a stunner for me. Jason Tatum 4th. What? Steph Curry 3, Janice 2, and LeBron number 1. Boston fans are out of control with the Tatum

love. He's good. He's really good. But how about him and Kemba both making top 15? And there's no surprise. The Celtics are second in sales, too. All right, to the phones we go. Howard and Memorial 27 on the Matt Thomas show. Howard, what do you got today? Two things. I'd like to ask you a sensible question. When did this business with the Astros start and what would they do when they started it? Was it 10 years ago, five years ago?

What would they do when they first? Do we know what was first started, how technological it was and what they were doing? All that was investigated by the commissioner was the things that Mike Fires told them about the 2017 season. That's when the start. That's when the investigation started. What they did in 2016, 15, 1998, we don't know. I would think there's a book there somewhere, maybe from your previous co-host, about what really, and if I were this pitch of fires who pitch for us, I would check my car every day

because some people are going to get very angry, his having broke the code. I remember a manager of the Astros saying what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. Well, that's been the number one argument. And thank you, Howard, for the phone call. I get some of the folks to get to is that this was a baseball clubhouse code violation that he felt like it was such an egregious mistake that was such a break in the integrity of the sport that he had to say something, right? Yeah, a little bit of grudge.

bitterness. Don't forget of bitterness and grudge. It's all mixed in perfectly. Howard, thank you for the phone call. Let's go to Rican in downtown on 790 at 239. Rican, what do you got today? Hey, Ross, Matt. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. To the point of your longtime caller there, Mr. Dr. Howard there, I think the fate of the Astros was sealed on the day, I believe it was April 2nd when Mike Fires got. His bat line was 1.2 innings, six earned runs. His ERA, I believe I looked it up. It went up maybe like two runs, almost two runs,

and that's one outing. Do you gentlemen think, I know you just said it right now, you said it so he broke the code, do you think perhaps he thought in his mind that there was a possibility that they were using something new, maybe this little buzzer thing on that day? Because, you know, the guy had a good piece. I mean, 390ERA, 15 and, 15,000.

and four, other than that outing, pretty much every other outing before that was okay, you know. So that's my first question. I'm not comprehending. Why? You're saying because he pitched bad? Yeah, he had a pretty good year except for that one outing against the Astros that raised the DRA quite a bit. Oh, no, no, no. I think this is a, this is a combination of I'm watching the Astros from 500 miles away.

having all this success, and they've got to be doing it. I don't think he's pointing out to one bad appearance that he had. I think he's looking at the, these guys are on top of the baseball mountain for a long time, and it's time for someone to knock them down, and that's what he thought he was doing. My second question, Ross, maybe you might help us out when looking this up.

But, you know, you mentioned the rockets are not as bad as the detection. Matt, I disagree. I think if you were to put up the whole scope of things, I think the Texans over the last six years that perform a lot better than what the Astros, I mean, what the Rockets have, not true. I bet you, I bet you if you look at,

if you look at win percentage, and obviously, and the Rockets made the Western Conference finals, what, twice in the last five years? Yeah, they've made the playoffs each of the last six years. There was a four and 12 record on Bill O'Brien's resume. I understand. I mean, hey, look, you work for them. No, no, no, no, there's not a question.

working for them. Rican, I just gave you facts. Nothing new about working for him. I just gave you the facts. The win person over how many years are you saying, Rican? I'm saying Darrell Mory's had a lot more time than Bill O'Brien. Bill O'Brien had to clean up a mess. That's just made by the previous administration. But you've got to remember, Osweiler was an owner thing. The owner over, overstepped his boundaries and cost us a first round pick to Cleveland and two second round picks. That's stuff that he has to clean up. And I'm not sure if He also didn't want Deshawn Watson. If you want to go there.

I mean, we're talking about... Oh, no, yeah, no, we're talking about the decision. So if you're saying he didn't want Osweiler, he also didn't want Deshaun Watson, the best quarterback in the history of the franchise. And he's also traded out the next two first-round draft picks and the second in two years. The last point I'm going to make here,

is there ever been a city where all the three major sports teams have no first or second-round picks for people of myself who love the draft and who love organizations that build from the draft in, I have no hope whatsoever for any of these teams over the next three to five years. I appreciate the time. Thank you. There's optimism the next three to five years. Astros are still good.

Hey, that's true. Rockets are going to make the playoffs. That's true. And frankly, the Texas are going to make the playoffs. How far are they going to make it? It doesn't matter. They're going to be in. Texas are going to be in the playoffs.

When someone says doom and gloom three to five years, I think of 60 losses, 95 losses, and 10 losses. Yeah, I think we're somewhat a little bit spoiled over the last couple years. Yeah. This isn't nearly as, I mean, this is, this is doom and embarrassment, but it ain't doom and gloom. Doom and gloom is James Hardin tears his ACL, Deshawn Watson broke his shoulder, and Justin Verlander can only throw 58 mile an hour press. That's doom and gloom. Astros are still the favorites

to win the American League West this year. Ask like Nick's fans or something about it. If the Rockets have had some success over the last several years. Go run to Atlanta. Ask him how things are there right now. 244, the Matt Thomas show. Hell yeah or not.

All things about Lionel Richie, who's performing tonight at the Astros Gala. By the way, he is not available to the media. I would be such a fan boy. Really? Sure, I would be. With Lionel Richie? With any musical star.

I've interviewed hundreds of athletes. I don't get to interview. Get me an interview with Elton, John. Remember that time you sang Honky Cat? That was great. No? Nope. I got you birthday cake and this is what you get from me back in return? You got me a coffee

cake that someone left in the break room. Matt was the one that left in the break room. Yeah, semantics. 244 on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife

dress you, man. Texas fine! Texas five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. All right, before we get to a hell, yeah or not, Jay on the north side of the Matt Thomas show, 249. Good afternoon, Jay. Matt, what is going on, brother? You tell me.

I wanted to give you a call the other day after the Texans lost to Kansas City, especially after I just heard you going back and forth with that guy, making excuses about how the rocket is and the rocket says. That's just what the problem is. Everybody that I work with, everybody that I live around, they always make excuses for the text. Well, they could have just did this.

They got smoked, okay? Yeah, you know what we are, Jay? We are a sports society that makes excuses for our favorite teams. And that's perfectly human. I wish I could say that I am any different than anybody else. When the Astros don't win, I want to say it's because of this. If the Rockets don't win it's because of this, and we're, you know, Cougars don't.

It is what it is. It is what we do. It is what it is, man. I mean, just after a terrible show on like that, man, you give, what? Well, you're at 24 and then you're down four before halftime. That's just terrible. But you and I actually go back a long way. We're brothers from the PGS days, from your PGS days.

Oh, nice. We just haven't talked in a while. Yeah. So I just wanted to get on, man, and talk to you for a second. And, hey, man, I love the show. I listen to it every time I get a chance. I'd like to call more, but I'm just not able to. But I definitely want to talk to you Monday.

Didn't get the chance. and then the whole Astros' onslaught came on. And that was a blessing in disguise for all the Texan chains and stuff like that. So, hey, what can you do one hand and watch the other, I guess? All right. Thank you very much, my friend. Have a great weekend. I appreciate you calling in, Jay.

Don't be a stranger to the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. You should use that number because we've got five minutes left to go on the show, and I simply ask one question. Ross, and today, being a Friday? Sure, why not? Why don't you ask that question?

What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply Monday through Thursday called it. Believe it or not, but on Fridays we call it a hell. Yeah, and out, and here's how it works. You'll call 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Today's edition of Hellyer and Out is brought to you by Houston Woodhouse Day Spas.

Printoutch gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about Lionel Richie. I'll read your statement about Lana Richie. Statements completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this. Hell yeah! If it's erroneous, Fulobunk and META, you will say this. Not.

Two hell yeah, as it are not in a row in your prize, Ross, with surprise. Matt, we've got a pair of tickets featuring a totally 80s, which has the motels with Bow Wow Wow and Win in Rome, February 27th at the House of Blues, LiveNation.com for tickets and information. Well, any of the songs we picked yesterday being in that group? I don't remember picking a motel song. I'm so mad at you about Kiri. You should really should be mad that I won.

Yeah, because you let Bill, who didn't give a crap about the vote, get a vote. Who had no interest in all in trying to... You heard for me. That's why your wins are frauds. Fake news. Let's play. Cabin on 790, ready to play hell yeah or not. Hell yeah.

Liner Richie was a tennis star as a youth and even got a scholarship to play tennis in college. Hell yeah, or not? Yeah. Hell yeah. Statement number two for the win. Lionel Richie was also interested in joining the priesthood in the Episcopal Church before eventually deciding on a music career. Hell yeah or not. I'm not.

Hell yeah. The Reverend Richie. Let's see if he wants to play a few sets. Dave on 790. Ready to play Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah, sir. Not only did Donald Richie write the number one hit lady for Kenny Rogers. he wrote it on the toilet.

Hell yeah or not. Not. Hell yeah. I'm really speechless on that one. Line number one. Matt on set. That's where you get your greatest inspiration, Matt. Matt on set.

No doubt. Matt on 7. 90. Ready to play hell yeah or not. Hell yeah. According to an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Paula Abdul engaged with an unfair with Lionel Richie during the mid-1980s. Hell yeah or not.

Hell yeah No, Ross made that up with help from me 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 Tommy on 790 ready to play Hell yeah or not Hell yeah Lina Richie first attempted to leave the Commodores

during recording of their 1981 album in their pocket but Motown executives threaten a lawsuit and then he returned to work Hell yeah or not Hell yeah No, sorry That might be a best of

Wait for December of late 2020 Sergio on 790 Sergio what was your favorite part of the radio show today You're my favorite part of the radio Thank you Frank Thank you That's the correct answer That is always the correct answer Sergio

Thank you Early in his musical career Lionel Richie had stage fright And preferred playing the saxophone Over lead singing Hell yeah or not Not. Not.

Hell ya. Oh, it's too bad. I know. I hate when people say nice things about me and then lose. It seems to happen at a very high clip. Unfortunately. Tyler on 790, ready to play Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah.

Although Lionel Richie had been a prolific songwriter, he doesn't know how to read or write music. Hell yeah. Or not? Nah. Hell yeah. We cannot give away these things. That's a believe it. Line number five.

Who is this caller five? Larry. Lionel Richie is a megastar in the Arabian world and is one of the most beloved musical app Acts in Iraq. Hell yeah, or not? Not. If I've said it once a thousand times,

you've got to know who the stars are in Iraq and who are not. And we gave away nothing today. They love Lionel Richie in Iraq. That's true. Play some Lionel Richie for us close to show out today. He'll be performing tonight. And again, he's not available to the media,

so there'll be no sound bites from him on the news. Could you imagine asking a lot of Ritchie? What's it like being here out of the week of the Astros just had? It ain't easy, like Sunday morning. Ooh, I like that. And he's not going to be dancing on the ceiling because the roof might be open tonight. The Astros were stealing signals all night long. And the Astros used to wear brick-colored uniforms.

And they're horrible. They weren't terrible. I didn't like them. The Silver Star uniform for worse. They're only the worst in the franchise history. I don't believe that to be accurate. Have a great day. A team next. We'll see you with the Rockets tomorrow.