The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-22-20

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/22/20Astros Players Will Issue Apology at Spring Training (0:00)Rob Manfred says Astros will keep title (10:50)The Mike D'Antoni Show (1:18:42)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch Timers is the Matt Thomas show. And what's happening in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 alongside our producer, Nick Lowe. My esteem co-host, a man about town wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt today at Sports RV, Rossville, Real. rare day, Matthew. It is rare.

I'm Matt. Nice to have you all with us. Hey, Matthew. We will have Mike Dan Tony in two hours today. What? He is so even keeled. Yes. He is so not hit the panic button guy. They're probably angers people, and that's fine.

But, yeah, it is a long season, still a long way to go. And the Rockets made up a half game yesterday on the Mavericks after the Clippers beat them yesterday in Dallas. Wonderful. So we will talk, not about that, but we'll talk about all things in the B. They lost a half game on the Clippers. Yeah, you know what? You're always trying to bury the lead.

We will talk to Mike coming up at 2 o'clock today. We have not in Florida stories at 150 where this is an opportunity for Nick to find the most craft story he can find in America. And that is coming up at about an hour and 50 minutes. Working on it. Wonderful. All right. At that going on. And we have yesterday, Jim Crane, saying that at some point in spring, in spring, training. And by the way, I guess he's getting closer and closer to naming a manager. I'm sure the general manager candidates are in play too, but he needs a field manager really right away as soon as possible. And it sounds like that's going to be happening the next

handful of days. You've heard of the candidates, the Jeff Bannisters, you've heard of the Eduardo Perez's, you've heard of Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, interesting group, eclectic, if you will, many of them having lots of managerial experience, frankly. But he also said yesterday that he is going to, at some point, get the guys, whether that's four guys, 10 guys, 11 guys, everybody on the roster, to eventually issue some sort of statement. And I don't know if he said exactly apologize. I think he did. Yeah, he did. So.

We have the audio if you'd like. Would you go ahead and play it for me, please? Instead of kind of paraphrasing, here is, and we're going to give you a part two of this because Rob Manfred. spoke today. But here's first, Jim Crane, the owner of the Astros, last night, saying that, you know what, we owe the fans, the sport, an apology. You know, the players

admit beating up a little bit, and I think, you know, they've been all spread out. I saw some of the things yesterday on with the guys interview. They're just kind of getting some advice to take it easy. When we get down to spring training, we'll all get them together, and they'll come out with a strong statement as a team, and I think, you know, I apologize

for what happening. We'll move forward. Okay, so let's envision this for a second, Ross. Let's predict how this is going to be set up. I don't think each one of the guys are going to be sitting in their locker room spot in the clubhouse where you just rotate from guy to guy. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. My guess is, again, tell me if I'm wrong. Jim Crane holds a press conference.

The players are behind him. Two to three of them speak. They answer a few questions. And they ultimately say, we've done some things. harm the sport. We're sorry. We hope we can get past this. We've learned from our mistakes and we look forward to being a bigger, better, brighter, successful Astros team that you can all be proud of. Does that seem like a scenario that would, in your mind, go, okay, that's how they should do it? I don't know. How would you, because this is unprecedented, I don't know how

they would do it. Maybe it would be Jim Crane and then a couple of players. You think everybody would be standing there, like the whole roster? Here's what I envision. Theater of the mind here. Podium. Astros logo in the back. Jim Crane says a few things. Everybody that's on, in theory, the 25-man roster.

Man, I don't think Ken Emanuel needs to be up there. You know what I'm saying? I don't think who else would be. Who did you guys interview the other day? Dustin Garneau? Yeah. Well, my guess, yeah, Dustin Garneau, maybe, but he would be one of those that would now, like, you know, you can take the morning off.

Does Yordaun Alvarez need to be there? there. He isn't a part of the 2017 Astros. Good point. So, okay, let's put a nice, let's put a nice cross section of everyday recognizable players. They're behind him. And then they speak, maybe Bregman speaks, maybe pitcher speak, and it's not 15 guys, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just two or three that give you the, we represent the team, we represent the voice of the guys who are in the uniforms. George Springer could be in that makes as well. I would think it would be definitely Jose Al Tuve, definitely Jim Crane. I don't know that everybody would have to be there. I think you would just have like three or four players that would represent

the team. Okay. It would be probably Al Tuvee Springer Bregman. But why, but if you're those guys, why are you like, why are you making us go up there as compared to? Because you're the leaders of our team leaders and you're some of our better players. But it's also a team-wise, and you're probably. Nobody wants to hear from Brian McCann. No, nobody's going to do that. I'm just saying from a show of solidarity, a show of we are a new Houston. Because that's how you brand 2020. And I don't know whatever cliche term you want to use. And wasn't it last year take it back, I think is what it was? The year before that was never settle. See, you're good about these things. I barely remember these things. In the year before that was going to kick

some ass? No, it was earn it. And I believe in 2012 it was your mama? No, two, two 2012 was like root root root oh that's horrible how do you guys that's good memory on your part okay so whatever the case may be however they present it there's going to be some sort of apology that will speak to because right now they're not saying much i mean Jose said a little bit over the weekend at fan fest Bregman said nothing and jim frankly has been out there a lot with all this kind of stuff as he should be so let me ask you this do you will the apolli who are the apology Because right now, if tomorrow the Astro's first game of the season was at Minutemade Park, there'd be 40,000 people there. I think Astro fans at this point have already gone through the shock of what had happened, and they're ready to move on.

Yeah. I think so. I mean, are there any Astro fans listen to us right now that are just incensed and that I will never go to a game again? I can't believe my hometown nine did this. I'm so ashamed. I'm never watching. I'm never going to put my Astros' orange cap on again. I'm never going to go get a bobblehead. I don't believe there's a lot of people in that guy. If there is, it would be like 0.1%. If that. And at that point 1%,

half of that group's lying to you. Probably. I think it's a minuscule bunch that are saying, we're never going to go to a game again. Now, are there some people that are embarrassed? Are there season ticket holders that are like, I can't believe

this happen? But you'll be there because you love baseball and you love your baseball team. I'm in that same spot. I am horrified that I've gone on 25 radio stations in the last two weeks. Every city wants the Houston perspective of what happened. That means I'm not going to root for them. Doesn't mean I'm not going to talk about them. They're still my baseball team as they were back when I was in Astros Buddies in 1979.

But the bigger question is, will this apology, if it happens, as Jim Crane said yesterday, will that pacify and satisfy America? Will baseball fan that is a diehard fan in New York, big dime Yankees fan, hear this public statement, which apparently will happen down in Florida, and they'll be like, okay, mistakes happen. No. No.

The only thing that's going to help this is time and winning games. Apology? I mean, you have to apologize, though, right? It's something they just have to formally do and go through. Well, that's a question. I want to ask. Do you have to apologize? Yeah, I think you do have to apologize. But Jim is, but Jim is apologize. But Jim is apologized. But Jim is apologized. Jim is apologized. But Jim is apologized. But Jim is apologized. But I would agree with you. I would say that if you don't say anything at all and just throw your shoulders up in the air. It looks worse. It looks worse. Rob Manfred spoke today. If you wanted to play, guess what network Rob Manfred was on. I'll give you a multiple choice.

Give me like 10 guesses I wouldn't have guessed. A, Nickelodeon, B, ESPN, C-F-S-S-1, D-E-E-B-B-Bravo, or F-F-Business Channel. I'd like to see him on the Food Network. I bet Rob can cook. I think so? I'm just saying. What's this special food?

Chicken masala. Ooh, with mushrooms? Oh, delicious. So the commissioner spoke. We'll let you hear what he had to say about the Astros being stripped of the title and what he's doing in Boston. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. 7-13-212-5-7-90. The Mets apparently have a new manager, so the vacancies are down to two.

New York's got their skipper. Boston and Houston still looking for theirs. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Rockets tonight against Denver-Denver. Russ must win? No. You're telling me that people won't be 10 times even crankier tomorrow if they don't beat the nuggets tonight?

I didn't say that. Then I would say to avoid being even crankier in these parts, the rockets must win tonight's game. Well, yeah. If you want to feel better about the team, they must win. They're not going to lose and me feel great about it in any scenario. Unless, I don't know, James Harden. Thus, we need many.

health in this town. It is a must win. 713-212-5-790. I am out of control. Feeling good to spite the crappy weather. We have non-Florida stories at 150. Mike Dantone at 2. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas. On Sports Talk 790. Time is 1218. It is the Matt Thomas show. So the commissioner of Major League Baseball, Fox Biz has got a good get today. They were talking about robotic umpires, talking about YouTube TV and different platforms

that Major League Baseball is going to find themselves on. But the reporter, I don't even know who the woman was. It doesn't really matter because how many minutes in your life have you watched Fox Business? I put the over under on you at four minutes. It's probably usually been in like you go to, remember we were at Burger King and they had Fox Business on. If you go somewhere like a store or a car dealership and they have the TV, or whatever, or if you're waiting around at the service center of like a jiffy

lube. Right. Probably it's exclusively been in that type of setting. I would have to say the last time I watched Fox Business is when there was a rain delay in a sport that the game was so delayed that FS1 couldn't put it on or FS2. They said, hey, catch the first quarter

of Utah versus Southern Cal on Fox Business. I think Darrell Mori did a segment on Fox Business once. I think I remember cutting that interview. They're getting great gets over there on business. Whoever their producers should work this show. Rob Manfred was on Fox business today. And topic and conversation was whether

not the Astros and or the Red Sox could lose their World Series titles. We haven't concluded our investigation with the Red Sox. So it's a little hard to take the trophy away from somebody who hasn't you know, yet been found to do something wrong. We don't know what the outcome of that's going to be. I think that the second flaw is, you know, whatever the impact of the sign ceiling was, it could have changed who was in the World Series. Absolutely unclear that the Dodgers would have been the World Series champion.

I think there's a long tradition in baseball of not trying to change what happened. I think the answer from our perspective is to be transparent about what the investigation showed and let our fans make their own decision about what happened. And we've already seen an impact, right? Manager, Alex Cora, we saw that. He left the team last week after being identified as the first. ringleader here when he was the bench coach for the Astros back in 2017. Have you spoken to him?

I mean, we further reporting on the coming out and who, if anybody, will be punished. Where does that stand? Well, I think that, you know, four really accomplished baseball people, Carlos Beltran, Alex Cora, Jeff Loonow, and A.J. Hinch lost their jobs over this. You know, nobody likes to see that happen, but I do think it's the kind of message that will serve as a deterrent to this behavior going forward. In terms of continuing investigation, we have an open investigation on the Red Sox. What I've said to the owners is if I have some credible evidence that any other team was involved,

they will be investigated with the same thermos that we investigated the Astros. Rossi, the Red Sox are in trouble. There's no doubt in my mind they're going to be facing the same sort of implications, not implications, the same sort of sanctions? sanctions, yeah, that's what I was looking for. Penalties. Do you think it'll be that? I like that he came out and said,

just because we've already done the Astros, we're not going to be easier on any other team because that's one of the things I'm working. I was just kind of thinking of because they've already, they preemptively fired Alex Cora, which probably helps their case. You can't suspend him.

And it'll be interesting to see how deep this goes and how much the Red Sox can say, hey, we got rid of the guy that was the problem, and I wonder if they did how much it was involved in 2018, because it was for the Astros a little bit, but apparently they ditched it because they thought it wasn't working. So did it work for the Red Sox,

or did they do it all season? I mean, I can't wait to read the nine-page report on the Red Sox and find out what they're going to do. Because here's the thing, if Alex Cora did this with the Red Sox, then what really was different than what happened with the Astros? Nothing. If it's the exact same thing, you've already fired the manager. I guess they get the same sort of thing, the $5 million fine.

The loss of draft picks, that's four major draft picks in two consecutive years. So that's where I think he'd have to go from there. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to join our show today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I am a belief that most people that are Houston Astro fans not have moved on from this because you can't move on. This is such going to be such an interesting year. But I don't know if y'all are looking for that apology. And I'm not saying that the Astros shouldn't do it.

I think they should. But I don't think they're doing it because they're trying to satisfy you. If tomorrow was the first pitch, Astros and Angels to open up the season or whatever it was, there'd be 40,000 people at Minutemate Park. There'd be thousands of people bumping around town wearing your shirts. There'd be thousands of people that would be looking forward to, you know, the first time a player shows up an appearance in a burger joint or something. You know what I'm saying?

I just, I think they're doing this as much for, if not more, for the national perspective of, yeah, we goofed. We're very lucky that our players didn't get suspended. And we hope this statement, whether it comes across organic or it's prepared, is going to give the impression to America that, yeah, we apologize. We did screw up and we're going to try to be better. Does it make it seem less genuine that Jim Crane came out and said they're going to do it at spring training ahead of time? You know what that was, Nick?

That's just him being open and honest. I don't think he was trying to say, hey, get ready because in a few weeks, we're going to go to Florida and apologize. I think he was question asked, question answered. And that means to me that he is not a rehearsed person, that he is not a person that thinks several steps ahead of, what should I say and what should I not say? I think he said it because somebody asked him, when are we going to hear from the players? And that's why I think he came out and kind of said what he said.

I don't think he said, hey, I'm here to give you a little tip that you need to be down in Florida in a few weeks because you guys are going to apologize. That's how I saw it. Yeah, I agree with you. All right. 713-212-5-790. Let's go in terms of longest wait.

Fletcher, East Side. First up on the Matt Thomas show. Fletcher, good afternoon. What's going on with you? Hey, I'm doing good. I really have a rocket's take. I'm going to, you know, just throw something out there. But I, just real quick, if you were just talking to the Astros, I'm not bothered.

I mean, it happened. It's over. I'm not bothered by it. So I'm done with it. They don't need to apologize as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, I think the apology is more for outside of the 713 and 281 than it's inside. I'm concerned about the rockets because it seems like to me that while Russell Westbrook, it kind of seems to be surging at the plate.

Somehow it's impacting Hardin and maybe even the rest of the team. And I'm not just trying to pick on Russell Westman. I'm not trying to, you know, say, hey it on the rockets or anything. I'm just wanting to get things figured out. And because I'm not sure that the two wing shooters they've got, House and McLemore, are going to be consistent enough. And somehow I think, and I'm not. might be wrong.

Again, you obviously, you shoot the rockets more than me, and I do, but I almost feel like that part of the reason that Hardin is in a funk is because more and more teams will double team than them because they're willing to give up two from Westbrook way more than, because they know that you're not going to shoot the three, way more than they're going to give up the three from Hardin. And then I feel like in some ways that Hardin in, is kind of acting a little bit like whenever somebody's being critical of him or

there's somebody going on locker room, you know, he kind of gets his dober down a little bit, and it affects the way he plays. And I just don't know if they're going to be able to get everything they want out of the team this year the way it's currently constructed. So that's what I had to say, and I just want to see what you thought about it. Okay, good points at Fletcher. So I guess what you have to decide, Ross, when answering Fletcher's question is, are we taking the last six games as a sample size of what's going on,

or are we looking at the big picture? When James Harden makes his threes, you can put three people in front of him. He's either going to get fouled. He's either going to make his three-point shot, or he's going to make the three-point shot and get fouled. Right now, there are abundance of double teams coming his way. There are an abundance of good defenders. in his way that is forcing him to take a further step back, making that already contested

three-point shot, maybe a little easier to shoot, but the percentages are not good. He is shooting, and I'm looking right now at the game notes for tonight. In the last seven games, he's at 23% from three-point range. If that is what your modus operandi is of an offense, you're not going to win. It comes down to James making the three-point shot. If he doesn't make them, there's no way a Houston rocket team as efficient as Russ has been they cannot win basketball games

if James is shooting that porting because it is such a huge part of the offense because not only is it do you miss it when he makes it but he's also taking a fair number of shots to get it up there case in point one of 17 he kept trying to shoot his way out of the slump the other night against Oklahoma City

and it was going from bad to worse yeah but so the issue is do you take the last 10 games and go what the hell's going on or do you look at the big picture sure and say that when this team is good, when they were winning, you know, seven of eight and winning, you know, nine of 11, is that the real Rocket basketball team? I just think he's in a

slump and he's going to be fine and he's going to get out of it. I don't think there's something fundamentally wrong with the way that he plays or the way that the Rockets offense runs. I mean, it's the number two offense in the NBA. It's one of the most efficient offenses in the NBA under Mike Danton in the James Hardin era. The fact of the matter is, we're thinking right now, right now and we're in the thick of it. We're in the middle of the, we're in the middle of about as low point of the season, would you say? Absolutely. And so we're thinking and what's wrong and we're grasping at straws, and I really want to say,

I really truly believe it's going to be okay. Because before this stretch where he was shooting 20% from three, I bet we can find a seven or eight game stretch or whatever where he was shooting like 40% from three. We were talking about him being a three-point sharpshooter before this spell. I'll give you an example. I mentioned the last seven games. He's shooting 23% from the floor, 33% overall from the field, 23 from 3. Before that, the previous seven games, 55% from the field, 51% from 3.

I'll even go, yeah, the previous 10 games would be 49% from 3. So what happens? So here's the serious question of this. So he was the greatest three-point shooter of all time during that stretch. and now he's the worst. So is he, he sucks, team can't win with him. You don't hear those calls two and a half weeks ago when he was hitting those runs. Oh, Mike D'Antony should be fired.

This team's never going to go anywhere. The rockets are in a, for them, a long losing streak and the season is over with and done with. That's where you have to figure out which team is which. Who are the rockets? Are they the ones of the last seven games? They've dropped five or six? Or are they the ones in seven before that James Hardin was shooting? and scoring as efficiently as he ever has in his NBA career.

Y'all answer that question. Hey, it's Craig Vizio. Listen to the home of the Astros in your home. Just tell your smart speaker, play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Houston's Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. So yeah, Rob Manfred said they're not pulling the World Series title from the Astros. poor L.A. City Council, they spent a part of their day yesterday asking for that to happen.

Rob Manfred's like, shut up. Why don't you help with a 405? Anybody that's been in Southern California knows that is a terrible freeway. Frankly, every freeway is terrible there. And I love Southern California. I love going to L.A. and visit. But smog and crime and wildfires and freeway traffic is way more important than worrying about the Asteris and whether they should be giving the Dodgers, the World Series Championship, a couple of couple of years ago. It was a nice publicity stunt for them. Do you gain votes? I don't know. Do you think the LA City Council's like, you know what? We really could use some positive publicity. We should go out and be boorish about how the Astros screwed our beloved Dodgers.

Yeah, Matt, who wants to spend time on crime and wildfires and bad highways? Who wants to improve schools in the area? No. Let's just rather talk about how we're going to make Major League Baseball feel bad for about themselves. Exactly. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 9. Florida stories at 152 o'clock. Today we spend 30 quality minutes with Mike Dantone of your Houston Rockets. Let's go to, in terms of longest wait, Rick in Cyprus on the Matt Thomas show. Rick, good afternoon.

Hey, happy, what afternoon, guys. Thank you. I'm a longtime sports fan. I'm a big Astros fan. I'm a transplant. I grew up with the Cincinnati Reds, the big Red machine. We had a scandal or two. But with the Astros, it's like, let's just get on with it.

I don't need an apology. I've been involved in sports. I've been involved with baseball from Little League to the collegiate level. I've been involved with football from Little League all the way to collegiate level. It's like, why do we have an indicator sign for baseball? and why is there the decoy for signs in football? Because everybody's trying to steal signal. Technology has changed.

Something was available. The standard has now been set. Let's move on and play ball. Yeah, but I will say all that is absolutely true. And I believe you are speaking on behalf of most people that consider some Astros fans. But there's going to be a small segment of the population that's going to say, and I think it's frankly outside of our area code than it is inside of it, that are going to say, how do these players go an entire season without addressing it?

They're the ones that got away with it. They're the ones that weren't punished by Major League Baseball. Maybe Jim is trying to preempt any sort of, oh, they're going to clam up and not say a word after they were the ones that got their general manager fired, their owner, their manager fire, the team lost draft picks that got fine. So that's why I understand why Jim said what he said and what they're going to do. my feeling is that whatever they say, you as a fan, Rick, are going to say, oh, that was cool. Thanks for doing that.

Now when's first pitch? Yeah, let's go. Let's play ball. Let's start it. That's your exactly right. So you guys have a great afternoon. Thanks for the show. And take care.

All right, I appreciate you listening. We appreciate y'all listening, calling in on days where the weather's not great. I know sometimes it's harder to call, but we thank you for that. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't hurt anything. Unless you come out and say, you know, we didn't do this and screw the MLB, there doesn't hurt. It's not going to hurt anything. And like you said, you can go out there and play ball. It's going to be a, what, 15 minute, 15, 20 minute press conference.

It's not taking up a ton of time. It's not, yes. It's a good gesture. Yeah. It's, they have to say something. They're not going to be, you know, they're not lining up for one interview after the other. They're going to say their piece and move on. But I think that's the right thing to do.

And let me be honest with you. We're organizing our trip to spring training. It's usually the most lighthearted time for us to go visit with these guys. There's always fun stuff to talk about. This team has been successful with three straight. What he's been working on? Yeah, how is the offseason? Jake Mariznick every year has retooled his swing.

Or his hair is flowing and that kind of thing. And that won't be an issue any longer. So for us, if we browbeat the same thing over and over again, it's not going to do any good because they're going to, again, I think they've been told, we don't have any public information on this. But my guess is they've been told you're not going to spill the beans. We wanted you to tell us everything they went on and will protect you. And by the way, this will not leave this room.

It happens all the time. I'm sure with companies that get caught with tax problems or the FBI is going after something. Hey, tell us what's going on. We will not acknowledge who did it and what you said and at least publicly. But we need to know the information. And that's what Rob Manfred did. And that's why they will make this general announcement. And that's why at the end of the day, you will not know if George Springer knew more than Jose Al-Tube or not.

lose less than Alex Breggman or if there were some players. Now, the only thing that would probably be irritating, Ross, is that if there were people in the Astros Clubhouse that legitimately didn't know about this, I would find that to be impossible. Yeah, it's possible. There will be a time. Unless there was somebody that was, unless Helen Keller was in there. There will be a time where someone will spill the beans about what happened.

There will be a book being written or something when these guys are long done with their major league careers. But we're going to have to wait for that. And I would generally believe at this point that fans are not like, man, I can't. I can't wait for Alex to just tell us everything. Who's the first one to write a book? Well... I think AJ is probably the leader for...

Everybody. Not if AJ wants to get back in a baseball again. That's true. I just mean eventually, down the road, like you said. My guess is Verlander writes a book, and it's only a chapter. Yeah. Okay. I like that.

I think Verlender, that's a good one. Grinkie's not writing a book. Bregman? Bregman seems like one of those guys that could come out with like two or three out of biographies. Brighman would want to spill the beans when he's 61 years old on a podcast, which would be considered ancient in 30 years. Yeah, we'll be struggling. He'll be fighting somebody for water at that point.

Let's go to Shane and Katie in the Matt Thomas show at 1240. Hi, Shane. How's it going on? I think it's not getting mentioned enough or at all how minimally effective this system is since they lost every home game, and the one they won, they won on the road. I just, it clearly doesn't do much. And then listening to the Adams of the other day, they were running down the Yankee stats, I guess the one we beat him to go to the World Series,

or the first one we beat them to go to the World Series. And their home batting numbers were outrageous compared to their road numbers. So I just, I don't think the sign ceiling did much at all. Well, that's not 2019. We're talking about 2017. It's when most of this was brought up. Yeah, well, even through, even though the, the 2017 road and home, numbers for the Astros, they were better on the road at the plate.

And the playoffs, they were better at home, but during the entire season, they were better on the road. So I'm with him that I don't know how much has helped at all. And even Rob Manfred says it in the report that some players felt it was distracting more than anything, and they ditched it in 2018 because they didn't think it was helping or working. Which then makes me pause for one second and say, what the hell were you doing even thinking about this?

Yep. and that this has created mass chaos around the sport and our favorite baseball team for what payoff? It probably didn't even make that big of a difference. 713-2125-790. Those of you on home, we will get to you. We will visit with our friend Mike D'Antoni at 2 o'clock for the Rockets and the Nuggets tonight. Non-Floristories at 150 here on Sports Talk 790.

Matt Thomas returns. Sports Talk 790. 1248. The Matt Thomas show continues. Sports Talk 790. If y'all are out and about today, be careful. Roads are wet, obviously. Ross, are you a better driver in the rain,

or do you not change your attitude at all when you drive? I drive like a grandma at almost any point. As anybody will tell you, anybody in my family, they actually complain about my grandma level driving, and my reasoning is simple. I don't want to die. I drive carefully. I usually go.

If I will go in the slow, and I'll go the speed. Like, if I'm running late for something, then I'll get a little bit aggressive. Or if I'm on a road trip, I'll get a little more aggressive. But in my day-to-day driving, I am just, like, taking a stroll through the park.

And especially when it's rain and I drive a little more careful. Yeah, I am far right lane probably more than any other lane in the freeway. I like that. Just listen to the radio. You just listen to, you know, Indie Kalu on the radio and take your time getting to work. Yeah. And I am heavy on the Bluetooth. Okay.

I don't do 10 and 3 on the wheel. I probably should or 945. I usually just do maybe a 7. That's a weird spot. All right. So, y'all just be careful. We love having you around. Okay.

And we love that you can call the show. But if you can't, because the weather's not great, and you don't want to spend time on your phone, we get it. But if you can, 713, 212-790. Let's go to Mark on the north side at 1250. Hi, Mark. Hey, guys. How are you? Good.

Listen, when are you all going to be at Twin Peaks again? That's the only way in my wife will let me go. No, wait a minute. She'll let you go to Twin Peaks? It's the only way she'll let him go. Only way. Oh, I see. So you can use us as a... Well, tell her that every Friday we're there, and we're really not going to be there. She's not going to check.

Yeah, she's not going to know. Right. She'll know. She'll find out from someone. All right, fair enough. Anyway, on the Astros, a couple things. You know, the apology's not going to hurt, but the bottom line, here's the new slogan for this year. Just win, baby.

I know we're stealing that from Mal Davis, but I agree with Ross. If you just go out and win, that's going to take care of a lot of things. The other thing is I'm over this because you look at professional sports in general, the wife beating, the girlfriend beating, the steroids, the drugs. I mean, I don't condone what the Astros did, but when you look at some of that stuff, you could almost say that's worse than what the Astros did. You know, though, here's the thing, Mark,

is that we're not in the judgment mode here. None of it's good. Cheating the game is not good. Beating up a woman is not good. Getting caught with multiple drugs in your system is not good. I'm not one of those type of people, Mark, that would say, well, at least it didn't do this. If it's bad, if it's illegal, if it hurts the game or hurts a person,

in my world, it's all bad stuff. And it doesn't mean you can't forgive. it doesn't mean that you ultimately can't forget. So I understand we're coming from on this. I'm just going to say that, you know what, I'm not going to put cheating greater than or less than a guy injecting himself with steroids. It's all part of the illegal game of trying to gain a competitive advantage over somebody else. And everybody's going to be up to themselves to decide how serious each of those punishments are

or those crimes against the sport are. Yeah, well, I'll tell you one thing When they go to Yankee Stadium And I don't know if y'all have the schedule in front of them When they play them up there They're just going to get hammered Not literally, but they're going to get hammered by the fans Well, I think every city

Yeah, thanks Mark for the call I think every city is going to have its material Especially Dodger fans who are going to in and date Angel Stadium We're going to go to Anaheim and booed Because we're D's Enjoy your traffic on the way out and enjoy nobody being in the stadium and nobody caring. And y'all being made fun of, frankly.

Yes. The Astros trip to New York is the second to last weekend. It's the last week of the regular season. Oh, really? Four games in New York, September 21st to the 24th. So. Trip to Boston, and I know there's jokes going to be galore. Because by the time the Astros play the Red Sox in May, it's May 22nd, 23rd, and

24th. There will be material. We'll find out exactly how serious the Red Sox problems were. Yeah, I wonder how that's got to come down quickly. At least they, at least they fire their manager quick, so they can start that search. Yeah, yeah. Then the manager, if they, if something happens to the GM, you think, you think something going to happen? I don't, I don't know. My guess is, I would, I don't have a guess, but I'll say this. Brian O'Halloran. I was going to say, I knew David O'Halloran. He's a good Irishman. Dave Dombrovsky wasn't there anymore, but that's who I was thinking of. But now, apparently the last year they're hired.

That's isn't that the person, Brian O'Halloran. Nice to meet you in Boston. Oh, he's in his, he's in San Irish? A little bit. J.D. Martinez. He's a good gentleman. Mookie. Batesa winning in arbitration.

What am I doing? What is Spanish? Now that you sound like a bad app, who a impression. I just, I wish, let me tell you something. There are three things in life I'd like. like to be able to do. One, play the guitar or piano fluently. I'll go piano. Two, be able to speak a foreign language and three, do some decent impressions. I don't do any of them. What am I brought, what am I in this world for? You're in here for great takes, thoughtful analysis, and Keith Jackson

impressions. That's true. Andy in the Heights at 1254. Hi, Andy. Hey, Andy. Hey, guys. I'm a big Astros fan last several years I go to spring training. This year my heart's just not in it. I'm not I'm not I don't think I'm going to go this year. I'm still a big fan but I just don't want to listen to the nationals fans and and all that other stuff and what goes with it. So my heart's kind of not in it. But the main thing I called you about, I've been I've been listening to sports talk for 35 years here in Houston. Today's my last day. I'm a fire department paramedic. I spent a lot of windshield time.

And for years and years, the noon hour was a wasteland. And now, Matt, you got the best show on sports radio. And I appreciate you entertained to me for these last, you know, since you've been on. It's the one I tuned to. And before, you know, I just kind of would turn it off during the noon hour. It was good. Well, that's nice you to say that. Are you retiring, Andy?

Is that what you're telling us? Yeah. Yeah, today's my last day. Well, congratulations. Are they throwing a big party for you or something? Yeah, we're having a little something at the fire station. That's great. What fire station, mate, can you at? Can you tell us?

15 in the Heights. All right. Actually, the party's actually going to be Friday morning. I'm going to come in for a couple hours and do it then. But, yeah, tonight's my last night at the firehouse. Well, Andy, congratulations for serving our community, and I'm sure I've done it well. And, you know, even when you're

retirement, we're still going to be here at noon every day. So if you're you get up from your nap or something. Yeah, I'm moving out of, live out of town, so I don't pick it up in Huntsville. Unless the weather's just right. I understand. But you have a great show. The best in Houston sports.

Thank you. That's nice to say that. And again, congratulations in your long, successful career, my friend. And don't be a stranger for us, okay? Okay, take care of guys. You got it. That's nice. 35 years, firemen.

It's a good run. That is thankless job. Yes. Anybody, paramedics, ambulance, fire, police. First responders. For anything of the first responders. Thankless, thankless, thankless. So we have to thank you for protecting our area.

I heard the food at a fire station is really good. If you get a good cook, yeah. They can grub it up pretty well. That'd be rude if you ever walked up and said, I heard y'all's, y'all make a mean beef stew. Does it make a five alarm chili? Oh, I bet they're good chili makers. I bet their soup is good during the year.

Okay. And protecting us, too. People normally go to the food angle when they think of a fire station, but you did. I know people. Is the Matt Thomas show. 101 on Sports Talk, Sebedani. Thank you very much for listening to our show. We very much appreciate it with Pro Nick Lowe.

That's his Twitter account. At Sports RV. I'm at SportsMT. We've buried two headlines today, Ross. We've already mentioned Rob Manfred spoke about the Astros and the relinquishment of the World Series Trophy. We'll hear that again in about 15 minutes we didn't hear earlier. We've buried two headlines.

Mr. Peanut Dying? That's one of them. Oh, is it? Yeah. The lovable mascot, Planner's Peanuts, dying at the age of 104, doing when he did best, having people's backs when they needed him most. 104 is a good run. I think what he did best with raised people's cholesterol.

See, they're low in carbs, but high in cholesterol. And sodium. A lot of salt. I've just figured out the way to live a sensible normal life is eat nothing that's delicious. Yeah. We as humans have a taste for three things.

Salt, fat, and sugar. And sex. Taste, man. Oh, taste, okay. I thought you're talking about just general things. Like, in your tongue. Well, excuse me?

To eat. Wait. What? Okay. You got one of the two headlines. Okay. You missed the second headline. February, is it February 1st?

I believe is the date on that? I think I saw it. Well, if to confirm it. But our favorite defensive end is going to host Saturday night live. Okay. JJ Watt.

And now. That guy's dead. Oh, this guy's dead. J.J. Watt. That's really a great Don Pardo. Is it? That is phenomenal.

I've never tried. Let me try to do it. Musical guesting. And now, Whizzo! Now, JJ, what?

You gotta shake a little. Yeah. Good for him. Well, sorry, I mean, well, not good for Don Pardo.

No, you know who's been doing it is, I don't. The guy that was Bill Clinton for all those years. Daryl Hammond. Daryl Hamilton's been the voice. Hammond.

Hammond? Darryl Hammond Hamond Darryl Hamilton and former Major League Player and he rest in peace Alexander Hamilton former former president

he also rest in peace I don't believe he was president wasn't he got to be in the early he's like the first one to seven right all right point being

JJ Watt is going to host Saturday Night Live will you watch it the answer is course of hell yeah well you watch it every week anyways no

Wednesday on I recorded it February 1st yeah February 1st it's the Sunday before the Super Bowl right I'm gonna set that to record right now

I'll listen on YouTube What do you think There's always some kind of line Not line crossing What's going to be towing the line type of thing that he'll do? What's the most controversial thing he will do and say on the show? You think there'll be an Astros related skit? That would be taboo.

I think there would be a reference to getting a big lead and blowing it? Probably. But does the average person Does the average person that's going to be in the SNL audience know that the Texans were up 24-19? the Chiefs. I would say not. They know about the Astros scandal. They do. Everybody knows about that.

Y'all, let me tell you, y'all are warped on Twitter. And I mean that in the most kind-hearted way, right? Like, you know who you are that listen to the show. Y'all are weird. Send me skid ideas for JJ Watt. Hmm. Think about it. Let's see.

Could he and Justin Timberlake do a, one of those skits that Justin Timberlake does when he comes on the show. Who's a musical guest, by the way, that day? I know. I saw the Twitter thing on it, who it was. It's a musical guest. It's Paul McCartney. It is not.

If it was Paul McCartney, the Matt Thomas shows live from the set. It's Luke Combs, which I know nothing about Luke. The country western singer, right? I don't know. If his name is Luke, I'm guessing. All right. We're going to sit on this and let it percolate a little bit. We're going to figure out...

He's one of country's brightest stars. We're going to help the writers of SNL do a... Now, you don't bring Cal up there with him because Cal wouldn't say anything. He would just be awkward silence. Yeah, Cal's not going to make it. Will Deshawn Watson appear? I don't think he has recognition. He's going to be...

When's the Pro Bowl? No, it'll be, yeah, the Pro Bowl will be done. Right. It's a Sunday before the Super Bowl. What do you mean? Deshawn Watson doesn't have recognition? People know Deshawn Watson. When he walks on the stage, 10% of the people in that state and the audience wouldn't know who that is.

I will say 25. No chance. Did you see who's hosting the week after JJ Y? I did not. Because Deshawn Watson was a national championship from Clemson. They wouldn't know without saying, hey, it's DeShon Watson. And then they go, oh, I know who that is. But if he walks out there with no name attached to it, they wouldn't know who he was.

Most of them wouldn't. But I think, I don't know, whatever. Who is it February 8th? The following week it will be Rupal. musical guest RuPaul No, that's the host Musical guest Justin Bieber RuPaul makes music too though right

She had yeah that one But he doesn't dress up anymore He's bald and just does his thing She No it's a he Rupal's a dude I thought does she not No she's how she identify

No he identifies as a dude I mean I don't know He's on a started as a dude No he's a dude He's absolutely a dude but how does he identify as a dude now he doesn't dress up anymore he's bald i've seen him on bravo and don't say matt why are you watching bravo my wife watches bravo so i'm and i'm having me in the room so don't judge me on that i am judging you back on the astros uh let's go to

commissioner man for just in case you this is him today on the fox business network but again rupol does dress up not lately give me something current doing a whole residency at the in Vegas, RuPaul's live drag race. Yeah, but that's in concert. If he was out on the streets right now, RuPaul will be dressed up like a man. He just would. Google it.

I don't know if we should be talking about this. We're not. Rob Manfred. I'll bet John S. Nellie's dressed as a woman. Exactly. She. I make a dollar bet. Whatever.

With each one of you. I will take it. Rob, he will come out as a guy. He will come out as a he. I think she will come out as a woman. You're going to lose. Here's Rob Manford on Fox Business Network. We haven't concluded our investigation.

with the Red Sox, so it's a little hard to take the trophy away from somebody who hasn't, you know, yet been found to do something wrong. We don't know what the outcome of that's going to be. I think that the second flaw is, you know, whatever the impact of the sign stealing was, it could have changed who was in the World Series. Absolutely unclear that the Dodgers would have been the World Series champion. I think there's a long tradition in baseball of not trying to change what happened. I think the answer from our perspective is to be transatlantic. transparent about what the investigation showed and let our fans make their own decision about what happened. And we've already seen an impact, right? Manager, Alex Cora, we saw that. He left the team last week after being identified as the ringleader here when he was the bench coach for the Astros back in 2017.

Have you spoken to him? I mean, we further reporting on the coming out and who if anybody will be punished. Where does that stand? Well, I think that, you know, four really accomplished baseball people, Carlos Beltran, Alex Cora, Jeff Loonow, and A.J. Hinch lost their jobs over this. You know, nobody likes to see that happen, but I do think it's the kind of message that will serve as a deterrent to this behavior going forward. In terms of continuing investigation, we have an open investigation on the Red Sox. What I've said to the owners is if I have some credible evidence that any other team would, involved, they will be investigated with the same thermos that we investigated the Astros. So they're going to

go off the Red Sox, I believe that, and they're not going to pull the trophy away from Minutemate Park. So stop having city council meetings, stop having press conferences talking about the outrage, stop having your fan base run to Anaheim and boo the Astros. You're not giving the trophy. Sorry,

Charlie. That's the way it should be. You know what? You know what you're getting? If you want to hide, Ross, you're going to an asterisk. You're getting it. Not maybe in the books legally. No. But from public reception, you're getting an asterisk. That's as much as you're going to get. Let's see how much comes down with other teams. Let's see how much the Red Sox get affected. Let's see what happens with that investigation. And maybe if there's even going to be other teams getting

investigated. And oh, by the way, if you're a Dodger, you better be really, really make sure that all your ducks in order. There's no skeletons in your closet. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. See how that Rupal is going to be a musical guest, Matt. Musical guest, Rupert. Musical guest. Rupertow! Whatever happened to our great staff announcers.

Remember when M. McMahon was doing the Tonight Show? Yes. Here's Johnny. And then it was... Yes. David. You are correct. And now, it's a woman doing...

The Stephen Colbert. show. There's nothing wrong with that, Matt. It doesn't carry the same. I didn't say anything wrong with it. It doesn't care the same. There's that weird dude that does the James Corbin show. That's a drummer. He's really bizarre. Gordon? James Corden. What I say? Corbyn? Corbyn. Patrick Corbyn?

You know, the guy that does the karaoke. Yeah. He's a really weird drummer. You're really late night officiata. Well, I travel late at night. So yeah, I'm watching these shows. Who's the best one? Who's the best one right now? Fallon. If I didn't watch one-o-o-bearer. one show? Yeah.

Rank them for me, top three. We don't count Conan. I didn't watch Conan on TBS ever. Okay. If I had to rank the three shows, let me tell you what got really fast. I'm always been a Colbert guy, but I haven't watched his,

since he moved to Litch. Colbert has the best guest, pound for pound. I like the, uh, Jimmy Kimmel's got good guest. His, his bands that he puts on,

I've never heard of any of them, so they lose me there. Um, I don't watch Seth Myers at all. Once you listen to them and try to listen to some new music, Matt. I have. See if you like them. Yeah, good.

Okay. Seth Myers, I don't watch it all. James Corbin. Corbyn. Corden. Good monologue. Love the carpool karaoke. I don't like the tandem guest at the same time thing.

Which is a little weird. He'll get two people on at the same time. That's what British TV shows do. How often does he do carry? Because you can't run there. You can't run it into the ground. Right. It's probably once every two or three months.

Okay. But he also does the, uh, eat it or like, he asks you really bizarre questions you can't answer because you don't want to embarrass yourself. Right. And you need that I have to eat something really bizarre. I do like Jimmy Fallon's game that he plays, but he's not a very good interviewer. He's just more of a good fall. Oh, remember that, you know, like, remember that time you were on that show, it was funny, you know,

that kind of thing. Colbert is such a Trump basher for 40 minutes that it just gets in the way of everything. And that I mean, I'm not as... You know, you love Trump. Yeah, whatever. I'm a political, but he has great guests on. So I catch the back half of his show.

So I can't give you a defendant number one. If you said you're on it, you're on an island, you can only watch one show. I couldn't give you an answer. You have to. I have to. You're on an island. I've got a DVD of each. Hundreds episodes.

You can only pick one. Nick, you want to answer yours first? Give a chance to kill time? I pick Johnny Carson. He's dead. Yeah, he's dead. No, I'm talking about currently running. Currently running.

Oh, man. I don't know. I don't watch any of them. Well, see, I do. And he's putting me in a bad spot here. I agree. The crop's not as strong as it once was. I probably would go Jimmy Fallon because the guests are good

and the singing games and the different stuff they do outside would be better. Kimmel loses me a little bit towards the back half of the show. I catch up with Colbert in the back half of his show. because he'll have like he had like Elton John on for like 30 minutes or Billy Joel for 20 minutes and that's just great stuff right there. Oh underrated a television show announcer the late Rod Roddy from the Price is Right.

That guy was good. Completely off topic. Correct. You started talking about these announcers. Completely off topic. All right. 713-212-570. Non-Florist stories and a half an hour.

In 40 minutes, Mike Dan Tony. Jimmy and Tom Ball on the Matt Thomas show. Jimmy, what do you got today? Hey, guys. First off on the Astros, I don't need an apology for me, but I mean, except for if Correa wants to apologize for getting out of hitting the world 2019, that's fine. But this is no different than, I mean, I was a little kid, but I still hear people talk about 94, 95, well, you know, those championships, Michael Jordan. I don't care. Those trophies are here in Houston, not Florida, New York.

This trophy is in Houston. It's not in New York. It's not in L.A. And I don't, I could be wrong on this, but I don't think they actually broke a written rule of baseball. Yes, they did. I thought, I thought, okay, I didn't know if that was the written rule. It wasn't in the actual rule book. It was the memorandum released from the commissioner, which is just as, just as.

It carries exact same way. Same way. Yeah. Okay. And the baseball bylaws that they did not put in video technology cannot be used. It's not like rule 11.0201. Yeah. Yeah.

catchers interference and then the next one is don't use video. And I don't know if this makes me a bad person but honestly if it was do what they did and win or not do what they did and don't win I'll take that trophy. I mean I've got to have a trophy with asterisk or whatever

than no trophy at all. But I don't know. To me also what I'm really irritated about is Bill O'Brien comes out on national TV or whatever on Sunday and completely wet his pants. And, I mean, the fourth quarter going out for a punt.

I mean, just, anyway, just completely embarrasses himself. And once again, just like the year he went four and 12 and loses his starting quarterback, the Astros win the World Series, like 12 hours before that, nobody cared about Texas. Now nobody cares. I mean, all the talk was on the Astros, and he don't get his full week or two of total hate like he should have. I don't know. That doesn't me the wrong way. Well, that's the thing we mentioned.

And thank you for the phone call, Jimmy. Of all the things, going for the field goal as compared to going forward on fourth and one, I can live with that comfortably. I would have liked him gone for it. I'd like to have gone for it, because especially if you're going to have that mode of, we can't score enough.

Threes ain't going to cut it against Kansas City. He even said before the game, we're going to need 50. They needed 52. Right. Should the Astros include ruining the week of hate on Bill O'Brien? in their apology. That's true. No, Bill O'Brien's thanking them. Bill and he's sent them a gift basket.

He's like, thanks for taking the pressure off me. The field goal you can somewhat justify. You cannot justify, I don't think, in any circumstance, the fake punt. But what makes him a coach that should not be coaching any further is the fact that he wanted to punt the ball down 17 with 12 minutes left to go in the game. That's the fate of complete. That's where I double down and say he will never leave the Texans of Super Bowl. He's never going to be a game day coach. He is never going to be a coach on game day that's going to win that battle. He didn't win against Andy Reid, Ross. And Andy Reid's a D minus, well, I shouldn't say D minus, a C coach on game day.

And well, game play calling is really good. Getting the guys prepared. But yeah, as far as game management and decision making, he's not always the best. He's just average. Everything we've always said about the Texans organization is what Bill O'Bron He can take you a certain amount of way. He's average. He's not a bad coach.

He's not dumb. He calls some good plays. Not stupid. He can do some of everything. He's a bully, though. And they have allowed him to basically have complete control of the organization. Remember when Bob McNair was saying you can't let the inmates run the prison? That wasn't a proud moment for him now.

Well, yeah, he's letting Bob. He's letting an inmate run the prison. Bob, the owner is supposed to be the guy who is the end-all-indoll. the buck stops here. The buck stops with Bill O'Brien. Or Jack Eastry. Even if you want, like there's not an organization like that in the NFL. Even if you want to say how much power Bill Belichick has,

Robert Kraft has a lot to say with the final say of those decisions. There isn't a move that the Patriots make that Bill Belichick makes that Robert Kraft can't shoot down a heartbeat. Right, exactly. I don't get the impression that anything that Cal has ever gone to Bill and said, you can't do that. That doesn't make any sense. Exactly, my point.

Yep. Earl on the Matt Thomas show. Hello, Earl. Hey, how you doing today? Man, I'm so tired of these Houston Astro fans that is against what's going on and the Major League baseball fans. I'm just tired of them whining about the Houston Astros. And this is my take on it.

If you have never cheated on anything, then it's time for you to go on, go to heaven, if you haven't done any wrong on Earth and quit, you know, doing the Astros the way that you're doing them. So my thing about it is is that the Houston Astros is going to show the world that they can win a championship without cheating.

We'll be back in the World Series. Instead of saying, take it back, we'll say we want it. All right. That's it. That's it. We'll leave it there. Thanks, Earl. I got nothing. You're supposed to have something.

We do talk shows. Oh. We're supposed to respect and respond to such calls. So go ahead. 713-212-5-790. Hey, it's Coach Dan Tony. Step back three and the corner is good. Matt Thomas, my favorite voice in Houston.

Now, that's the Lord's Azurit. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Mike Dan Tony with us and a half. an hour from now. Believe it or not, coming up at 252. Tomorrow, Thursday, we'll have hopefully some happy news on the Rockets and Nuggets. Because it might be just a must-win game sports survey. It's not a must-win game. It's a must-win game for some of us.

I need that flight to Minneapolis to be nice and pleasant. Season's not going to end if they lose. So it's not a must-win game. You have not met Rocket's Twitter. Yes, I have. Rockets Twitter wants the coach firing, wants James Harden. traded and the franchise to just be absolved. And Chris Clemens needs 35 minutes a night.

He is a good chucker, though. Man, he can... Well, I love watching him play. He shoots from his midsection. High-arcing shot. Like my two favorite rockets of all time in terms of a high-arcing three-point shot, Purvis Short and Mike Woodson. Hmm.

Going back late 80s, Rockets Basketball. You'd hit the roof of the summit of some of those shots that those guys would put up. Hmm. The, uh, the, the Knicks coach? Yeah. Play for the Rockets and then never He did? Never nervous is always at Rockets games.

Okay. He works with the league now. All right. Non-Florida story is coming up in 15 minutes from now. And Mike Dantone at 2 o'clock. This is the Matt Thomas show. We thank you very much for listening. Let's go to Lou and Myerland at 135.

Lou, what do you have today? Yeah. Hi, I was wondering. Did Tillman Petita ever replaced the two trophies, Les Alexander took with him to Florida? Yes, he did. Okay. Thank you.

You know what that was? Info line or mT Googles mt googles Should we do not We haven't done an mt Googles in a minute If Ross, if Nick can find the appropriate music What would you like? Wasn't it just basically just some computer ambience music in the background?

I can't remember there's Hmm I remember there was this one song we used That was just overly dramatic It's boom boom boom boom boom it was like almost like the doogie house or theme song No That's not where you well Oh okay you're talking

talking about the Napoleon Dynamite song. We use this too. For empty Googles? Yes, we did. I was insistent just because, you know, sometimes I get, I thought it was pretty funny. All right, if y'all want me to Google something, you just want to ask a random question. We got time in this segment. We can do it.

Oh, you want to do it now? Right. Well, we got other things going on the rest of the show. We can do it at 2.302. What's some things that I was wondering about? Okay, I'll go with empty Googles. All right. I was thinking this out loud, like...

The rule about empty Googles is, I'm going to hopefully know the answer, but if I don't, I'll Google it. Who's the name of that really good safety that the Chargers have? Quentin Jammer? No, like right now. Not Eric Weddle.

No. Now you're supposed to Google. Okay. Hold on. It's empty Googles, not empty guesses. Yeah, that's right. All right. Chargers safety. Why do you want to know about a Chargers safety?

I was just randomly thinking about it. it. The question is really like, he's like an all pro safety for the, for the chargers. What was his name? What's his name? Uh, Daryl Stucky. No. Rodney Harrison. No, he plays with him now. Derwin Joan, James. Yes, Derwin James. Okay. All right, that's it. No, that's not the point of this. Question like, hey, Matt, I've been trying, I got a Thanksgiving turkey. I'm about to cook. What's a good temperature for it? Or how do you, how do you fix your, your phone when the numbers go blank?

Like, I was trying to figure out of your. Oh, I got another one from earlier in the show. Was Alexander Hamilton ever a president? He wasn't. Now that is a M.T. Google question. Alexander Hamilton. He wasn't a president. This sounds like a terrible, terrible... I love this song.

A song you hear in a lifetime movie. That's why it's so good. Okay. He was one of our founding fathers, but he was not a president. Okay. And he is on the $10 bill? No, I mean, he wasn't on... Wait a minute.

Fun to go to the... Yeah. He was the eighth senior officer of the United States Army under President John Adams. He proceeded George Washington and then succeeded by James Wilkinson. Interesting. This is again, this is Lifetime Movie Network music. I love it. Does anybody want you to Google something? Yeah, I got a couple people that want to. Jimmy, what do you want to know?

Is it Tito a GIF? Is a Cheeto a chip? Is Cheeto a chip? I'm going to have to not even give you... Or is it like a snack? No, I'm going to go off of Google on that because that's going to be a debate. I'm going to say it is a chip. It is a chip.

Look, we have friends that... I have two good friends that listen to the show that work for Frito-Lay. They sell Fritos and Cheetos. And they do all that, and they put them in the chip category. It's just listed as a snack, though. It says Cheetos is a brand of snack. It's Cheetos snacks. But where do you find them in the chip counter?

That's true. You find popcorn in the chip aisle, too. Oh, is he asking if Frito is a chip or Cheetos? Oh, Cheetos is a snack. A Frito is a chip. You're saying Cheetos this whole time. Oh, I'm sorry. I was messed up.

So a Cheetos is not a chip? Cheetos is a snack. Not a chip. A Frito is a chip. Cheetos in the chip aisle, too, though, like you said. Yeah, but it's more of a snack. Should be the snack aisle. Hmm.

Is it like a tachies? What about a bugle? I feel like I should have like a tuxedo on. Is a bugle a chip? Uh, bugle's a chip. A bugle, hold on. A bugle can't be a chip if a Cheeto's not a chip. So a bugle, you're putting bugle in the snack category too?

Yes. Wait a minute. I kind of like this Cheetos hoodie they have. Do you have, have you had the, uh, the fire Cheetos? That would be flaming hot. Flaming hot? Yes. I have.

What do I call it? Fire, Figa. By the way, there is a, we have a, uh, we have a, uh, we have you have a, corn on the cob somewhere that was dipped in the fire hot Cheetos. Yeah. It was delicious. In the dust. Elote? Where'd you do this? I don't remember, but it was delicious.

People get too crazy with the alote. I'm not a fan of it. James on 790, what do you want to know? I want to know will Nick Newman and Sharon stayed together when the air clears. No matter who they slept with.

So they eventually get back together. Let me ask you this, James. Do you think this whole breast cancer situation has got a lot to do with it? I'm sorry? Do you know about, you know, Sharon's got breast cancer. My goodness, yeah, I haven't watched him a lot. Yeah. But yeah, he should be there.

He was there for the beginning. Yeah, but Nick is getting all googly out on Phyllis right now. No, no, no, Phyllis is the one that got him in trouble in the first time. Do you know that Phyllis in real life is 54 years old? Is she back? Is the original Phyllis back? What are you guys talking about? None of your business.

Those of you on the inside know what I'm talking about. There's like five people who know. Which soap opera are you talking about? Young and the Restless. Can you give us a guiding light update? No, it's no longer there. You know there's only three soap operas on right now? Young and the Restless.

No, four, I stand corrected. Bold and the Beautiful. That's two. W.W.E. Raw. No, not W.W. Actually, that is a soap opera of a different sort. I don't know. Days of Our Lives in General Hospital.

Yeah. There's your four. Oh, wait. So not the Bold and Beautiful. No, they're on. It's four. Oh, you said four? You said three? No, I changed it. I said four. Okay.

Young of the wrestles, both of the beautiful, days of our lives, and... Um... General Hospital. I was Googling Cheetos, and there's some Cheetos sneakers that are $900. Yeah, it's a hard pass. I'll ask PJ Tucker, but he's got any. What's the most expensive shoe you've ever bought? Me?

I bought some dress shoes at a couple hundred dollars. Couple hundred? Yeah. Were they Italian? They were nice. Were they signed by Pete Rose or something? Mm-mm. You know, when I'm styling in profile

when I'm on the streets of the NBA. Oh, wow. How's your wife let you get away with that? She's one of bottom. Shane, last question. What do you want to know? How come you can foul off the first two strikes or the first two fouls or strikes

and the last foul you can foul off indefinitely? Just a baseball rule. There used to be a limit. Yeah, but nobody would be able to keep tracking it anymore. Like in the 1800s, there were all kinds of weird. You used to get like nine balls or they would have to just throw you nine pitches and if you couldn't get a hit, then you're out. How do you feel about the fact that

you only get one bunt on that third strike? I like that. Me too. I think that it's a perfect media. No, I wouldn't change either one of them at this point. I mean, most of the time you're not getting 20 pitch advance. Most time. Maybe once every year. A couple years. 15, 20 games.

More now there's been 12 or 13 pitch counts, for sure. All right. And that was that was MT Googles. How about the young and the restless call sneaking into the show? I knew there were more dudes that were watching the show than I am. It's the same guy that's been calling you for Young and the Restless Updates for years. Well, yeah, I obviously haven't been watching it.

Yeah, 21 at bat, a pitch at bat is the MLB record. And one single at bat? Yes. All right. The previous mark of 20 was set by Ricky Gutierrez in 1998. Another great Astro. Great to. Will he ever get the Astros Hall of Fame?

I don't think so, should he? I want one of those orange jackets. Why? Because he was the only guy that got a hit against Carrie Wood? I want one of those orange jackets That was an error. Can I have one of those orange? Those things are amazing.

Those orange blazers? Yes. We asked Reed if you could get us some. I mean, is there any point where I get in the Astros Hall of Fame? As a contributor? I mean, I've done, like, I've done 15 years of post game shows. 15 years of post game shows. Yeah, off and on.

Well, a lot in between 2000. You were doing twins games too. Yeah, but that was only for three years. I didn't get, I'm not going into the Twins Hall of Fame. I want to be in the Astros Hall of Fame. You're not getting it. Okay, fair enough. More Matt Thomas

Now on Sports Talk 790 All right we're going to save now in Florida for tomorrow because these stories are Evergreen and can hang on for a while I just hope that Nick can contain himself We'll do it tomorrow at 150

guaranteed unless something really super big breaks We've got a lot of folks that want to talk about the Astros and that's always the most important thing is communicating with you guys calls have been really good the last couple days Fire still in the belly in spring training just a few weeks away and Astros baseball here on Sports Talk 790.

Mike Dantone, coming up in 10 minutes from now. Let's go to line three. Reggie, southeast Houston, the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Reggie. Oh, thank you, Matt. I've been listening to you for years, Reggie. Thank you. Thank you very much, Reggie.

What's going on? I just want to tell you this is how I feel about the Astros' Tina scandal. I think it's very, very, very bad for the organization. think Hinch and Luno losing their jobs and the players being given a pass. It's not a fair thing. And yes, they really cheated and it's going to be, it's a cheap. They're going to be an asterisk next to their name forever. And the players, Pete Rose and Joe Jackson banned from baseball,

those Astros involved should be banned from baseball too. And just wanted to say again, thanks for the opportunity to say that. and have a good evening. All right. Thank you, too. I would disagree. I'm not looking for anybody to be banned. And it bears repeating, and I could be completely wrong on this. But the information that the players were forthcoming with came at a price.

I truly believe my Rob Manfred sat across whomever it was, Correa, Al-Tube, Braggman, any of those groups, and said, you need to spill the beans, tell us what happens, and we, We will make sure you don't get personally penalized for this. There's no guarantee of this, but there's just a conclusion I've come up with. Because you have to get verification from the people that were directly involved with it. You just do, Ross, right? I don't think you can go off of emails in any window. If you're going to suspend a manager and a general manager and find a team $5 million and take away four draft picks,

you better well have the evidence clearly in hand that no one can dispute. there can be no miscommunication. There can be no of, well, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not saying anything. Or there are other teams that are just jealous of our success. They had the goods. They got, they wanted it verified. They got it.

And because I believe Rob Manfred is painfully scared of the Players Association, he said to try to suspend 25 players or 10 or 15 on one baseball team isn't going to cut it. I'm not going to be able to win that battle because there's probably 50, 75, even 100 players. players around Major League Baseball that are doing other sorts of cheating, that if I can't grab all of them, I'm going to be in trouble with the Players Association if I grab some of them, so I'll grab none of them. And that's what it came down to. Yeah, I think one of the things that helped as well is that, I mean, they had to get this done in a timely fashion. And so if they weren't going to make these types of deals and say, hey, we're not going to suspend you,

then you're having to chase down different players and trying to basically, I don't want to say harass, but continue to go after guys. Are you going to say something? Or you say, then find other guys and find former Astros and you're chasing down everybody. If you just start off the investigation saying, hey, we're not going to do anything to you, but what happened?

It just makes it easier for both parties. And it's kind of just a, it's a pill that Rob Manfred had to swallow. And I think it benefits both sides. And I think the players were way more forthcoming. Because you're telling me, anything I tell you? I mean, it's all happened before. Your boss calls you in the office and says there's a,

thousand dollars missing and he says what you know as long as you didn't take it and legally steal it from us but you know where it went and how it got misspent there's going to be some you get exonerated from this yeah because i mean think like this could have drug on if you were having to have rob manfin try to chase trying to have to get somebody to cross the line and chase everybody down and find other people who are at all involved and get them off the record but on the record and all this other stuff it could have taken months and rob manfred didn't have butts. Oh, I think it was convenient. I think it was, I want the information. Yeah. We're up against the clock. And I know that if I start suspending players, the majorly

baseball players association, Ross is going to appeal those. And it's going to be long and it's going to be a drug out. And it's going to probably not get to the end result. He got everything he wanted. The Astros are suffering a tremendous amount of public backlash. And there's a presumption that there are 25 players in that clubhouse that knew what was going on. whether that's accurate or not, until those players come correct and say, here's what really happened, we won't know. Right now, most people are presuming that anybody that was wearing an Astro uniform in 2017 knew exactly what was happening.

And now they're just going to have to make their apology. I wonder how much that's going to help is the statement from the Astros. I wonder how much how forthcoming they'll be, how general it's going to be, how many players are going to speak. When you are listening to WFAN Radio in New York. Mike Francesa? No, he's off the show. The day the Astros apologize.

What would New York sports fans run to the phones of those various shows and say? I would say they don't care. They would say, this doesn't mean anything. They'll say, there we want our title back and Astros are cheaters and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So, again, I don't know how much the apology is going to ultimately change public opinion. But you have to do it. Is it Robert or Joseph?

I lost the line here. Who's on line two for Mumble? Oh, hi, Forrest. I guess wrongly. Hi, Ron. What's going on, Forrest? Hey, Hey, Matt, how you doing?

Hey, I got a question. I was just doing some research, and, you know, some people saying Astros cheated, but when you look at 2017 and you look at their home record, you know, they was 48 and 33. And away from home,

they was 53 and 28. So I don't, you know, people say, you know, they're really too good to cheat. I don't think the cheating really helped them, you know, So to me, it's kind of like, I think what can cure this is just go out next year and win. I think that's the only solution to showing that, you know, we can play this game fairly.

But, I mean, they got some great hitters on their team saying because they cheated that they wouldn't have won the World Series. I don't think that you can accurately say that. It's kind of like speculation. So I just want your thoughts on it and what you think about them record not being so good at home if they cheated so much, maybe interfere with they perform at a high level. So I just want to talk about. Thank you for us. Ross, what are we talking about? Are we talking about 10 games? How many games? Extra games they win?

How many games are we talking about that ultimately made a difference in this? Because I think the easy narrative is, well, they did this for all 162 or they did it for the all 81 that they were at Minutemade Park. And there was no evidence of that, correct? correct um even i mean that denny farquhar game what they did they got shut out or they scored one run in that game or something like that it didn't matter because that in that particular bat that's being shown evangadus got out yes i can't remember did he ground out or do he strike out i think he struck well i think they changed up the signs and then he ended up striking out hmm okay i don't think it helped that much at all if at all and that's the thing is if we're talking about 10 15

20 games. First of all, that's not going to make the difference between winning a World Series and not. But ultimately, the thing that you just can't shake is, then why would you take the enormous risk in doing this over just a handful of games? If you really thought you guys weren't good enough to win a World Series or won a division championship or won 100 games, then you do it every single night. The White Sox won that game 3 to 1. Why are you doing against the White Sox of all people?

You can't beat Danny Farquhar. I don't know. A straightaway three, it is up. And it's good. The Rockets are rolling now. Do a better, harder, longer. We rejected. The beard is cooking.

And they play together. They play hard. He set. He fired. And he had the three. Now, exclusive insight. And the latest on your Houston Rockets. You've got to be a champion.

To be the champion. Presented by Billiard Factory. Rockets head coach Mike Dan Tony joins the Matt Thomas show. on Sports Talk 790, home of the Rockets. Tonight, it'll be the Rockets and the Denver Nuggets. We'll have it for you on 790, beginning with our launch pad show at 6. Tip time is at 7 o'clock, and we're going to spend the next half hour. So visiting with our good friend, the head basketball coach of your beloved Houston Rockets, Mike Dan Tony.

Coach, this is just a general statement. How are things? Things are tough right now. Yeah. So let's just get right to it. are you more concerned about individual shooting fourth quarter stuff? Is it defense that's bothering you? A little bit of combination of all the above.

What's going on? I make a little bit of everything. You know, we hit a spot where individually we're not playing well. And you combine that with some of the problems that we have. We try to that we need to get better at as we go toward the playoffs, but kind of hit us in a perfect storm, and we've got it shook a little bit. But, you know, our guys have been through a lot,

and they'll hang in there, and we'll get it back. Let's get to a variety of different things, and then we'll get to some of the positive sides of things. Up in the first half against the Lakers, up in the first half against Oklahoma City, really through three quarters of that game, and some difficult fourth quarters. What do you attribute the last couple days

giving up those large leads in those particular games? Well, you know, obviously we didn't do both things. We didn't play very good offensively. We didn't play very good defensively. And we just gave up, you know, big leagues. We should have closed games out. Can't tell you exactly why. Then, you know, our defense is it starts just the little things.

And then it cascades a little bit. And then, you know, before you know it, we're shook a little bit. And then we don't make big shots and, you know, ends up with a law. So, you know, we've got to learn through this, and we've got to learn to keep our foot on the pedal. We've got to keep going, and we've just got to be better as a group, a better team. You've got a lot of grown men in that locker and veteran team, been around a long time, won a lot of basketball games. I would assume that you're not spending a whole lot of time explaining what's going on the fourth quarter. This is one of those situations where these guys got to look each other in the eye and say,

we've got to put it together for 48 minutes. Are you sensing some of that with some of the guys right now? Yeah, the whole team. I mean, we're together. You know, we watched the fourth quarter in the last game. Great discussions all the way through and just showed, you know, it's not one thing, guys. It's a cascade of things. And it's everybody's responsible and everybody's got to do a better job.

And it just starts by, you know, little things of getting back and sorting people out and communication and not taking things for granted. Don't let your shoulder sag when something bad goes wrong. you know, that's half of it. That's most of it, almost all of it. And then, you know, we're just not shooting real well right now. We could have won the other night just by making a few more shots and then no one would say anything, but the problems still remain.

We still got to fix those problems if we want to, you know, go further in the playoffs. But now we've got the combination of the two is deadly, and we play against good teams to play. They get up for us and they beat us. So I don't think it's hard to explain. not really even hard. We have the talent to overcome,

and we put our mind and hard to do it. Rocket Ted coach, Mike Dantony, here on the Matt Thomas show. And coach, we'll talk about something on the positive side. Last couple of games, Russell Westbrook has been really good, being aggressive, attacking the basket, not shooting up as many threes. Just your thoughts on what you're seeing from him the last couple of games, especially to me, when teams are doubling off of James Hardin and he gets the ball, he's immediately flashing.

to the basket and either getting a layup or making a play for somebody else? Yeah, I think for the last month, last 10, 15 games, he's played really well. The efficiency's going way up. Like you said, I think he's decided he's attacking first and attacking hard, attacking in transition, attacking the low post, whatever way he can get to the limb. That's what he tries to do. And then once you get a game going, you feel confident and things are well. Then every once in a while, he'll have a pull-up jumper or a banker.

And when you do it the right way and you have the confidence, it seems to go in more. You know, it's not a desperation. It's not trying to hit the home run first and then go back to the other way. He's hitting singles everywhere, and then you can go a little bit harder. So it's good. It's good to see. And I think he's feeling good about his game right now. obviously the three-point attempts have dropped off considerably.

Was that something he came to you? You guys came together, or does he say, look, I'll still take it, but right now that's not just the best part of my game right now? He's just, you know, with only is this conversation as we have, he's got to be Russell Westbrook. I don't, you know, if he feels like he's confident with the three and can make him, then do it. But if he doesn't feel confident, don't do it.

I don't know what's in his mind. Obviously, it's something that you have to understand your game. He's an MVP for a reason, and he's played as a superstar for the last seven, eight years. So he should know, and he does know. And it just took him a while, and there was no, like, you know, he knew how we'd play. And I think a lot of that was he was trying to adapt a little bit, maybe got out of his game. And the discussion we have is just play your game, whatever that is. You just be effective.

You'd be what you did for the last seven years, and that's going to be good enough for us. So I think he, you know, over time, he figured, it out. He's doing a heck of a job. We're going to Mike Dan Tony with us here, brought to you by the billiard factory here on Sports Talk 790. Okay, so James, obviously, coach goes one for 17. There's a large part of you that says it doesn't happen a whole lot in his career. He's been the last seven games not very efficient. The previous seven, he's been some of his most efficient three-point shooting. So before we get into the number of shots, when you're looking at his shot selection,

is it just a simplistic case of the ball's not going through, or is it that he's, he is taking some shots because of guys defending him that maybe he shouldn't be taking because he's trying to get out of this rut. No, I don't think. I think it's just a period where, and it's a strange period because I've been here three and a half years. It's never, you know, a half of one or two games and maybe it's started a year a few. But it's a little bit longer drought than he's ever experienced and he's frustrated with it. But he's not doing anything different.

He's made that same shot over and over and over three and a half years. It's not quite following right yet, but that's probably one of our least problems. I think it's probably a reason for. You know, we haven't won lately because he's been off, but that's not a problem that we need to cure. He'll be fine. Is it the headband in the Braids coach? It's only that simple.

So, you know, I'm sure he's trying to figure out anything because James is one heck of a competitor, and he'll figure it out. So that problem will go away, and it will go away soon, hopefully soon. And the other stuff is we just, you know, sometimes, you know, you've got to turn negative or positive. You got to, okay, if we would have just kept popping along, and we were, you know, but it wasn't quite the right way. Our defense is porous, and we weren't connected.

And hopefully sometimes bad things or, you know, streaks like this, pull you more together. It makes you stronger on the other side if we can get to the other side. So you're just going to, you know, and I told them our theme, you choose the way you want to respond to this. You can respond to the outside noise and then we splutter,

or you can stand here as a group and get better, stronger for it. So hopefully we'll do that. Is that the way? I mean, I think if you do want to put the positive light on it, I mean, James is just going through this tough rut. He's not going to shoot like this for the rest of the season. So if you have him playing the way that we know he's capable of

and Russ turning it around the way he has, I mean, you'd probably see how this is a pretty good team. Yeah, why wouldn't you do that? I don't know anybody walks around, but I clad it over their head and sagged the shoulders and whan all the time and they come out stronger. That doesn't happen. That's the only way to attack it. And we do have some stuff that is good.

You know, Clint's playing well. We've got a lot of guys, you know, that are stepping up. So we'll get there. And if we hang it together, stick together. And, you know, we still, we've got a heck of a hard road trip coming up on our game tonight than a hard road trip. So there could be some more grief for longer than what. But it's beside the point. We're just going to band together and fight one game in a top and then see what we are.

P.J. Tucker said yesterday, pinched nerve has gotten to him. And obviously, he's taking some really brutal hits the last couple of games. Where are you with him now? I know you are obviously very happy to have a guy like that that's one to play through pain. but has it affected his offensive game at all, or is it more with teams of throwing out of defensively that's causing some issues? No, I think it affected him in the last,

and I don't know about the last game, although toward the end, I think he got hit again a little bit, but I think it did affect him before that. And, you know, like I said, we just took a little bit. And I talked to him yesterday, he seems to be okay. So hopefully he's fine.

We're visiting with Coach Dan Tony here on Sports Talk 790. What's going on with Austin? I know he was taking some shots a couple of nights before the game. Is he think he'll be back for this evening's game? He wants to. I think so. I haven't talked to the trainer for his final goal,

but yesterday he says playing. So I take him forward with his word about this. He's a tough kid. Now, we'll talk to the trainer if he's limited whatsoever or, you know, sometimes player wants to play and doesn't perform because he's limited as well, then we'll decide what to do, but he's ready to go in his mind.

How cranky is it when you have a player that says I'm ready to go and the trainer says in the best advice, you're not playing on it? Does that get contentious sometimes? Depending on who it is. Yeah. It can. It can. Player always has the last say so. But, yeah, player always has the last say-soe.

Except, well, I take it back. You know, if a player thinks he can't play, then he doesn't play. And that's automatic. If a player says he can, then the trainer will. We'll chime, and sometimes we won't let it play. Some of them don't, it's better for them. If they don't play, better with the team. Also, because sometimes you can be a little bit headstrong,

and you're not going to perform if you're not able to play at 100%. So we don't want that. It's great that Austin wants to play, and then I think the trainer will make the final decision. All right, more with Coach Dan Tony coming up in a minute. It is the Mike Dantony show here on Sports Talk 790, and we'll have more with the coach coming up in just a couple of moments. Right now at 213, I want to tell you about the presenting sponsor of the show and with Mike Coach Danton.

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The block. And he hits it. To get Rockets Insight, he need to go inside. Hey, look who's here. Rockets head coach, Mike Dan Tony on the Matt Thomas show. Presented by Billiard Factory. Coach got an email in from a listener. Wanted to know, sometimes you use Isaiah Hartenstein and Rotation.

and sometimes you don't. What are the determining factors about when Isaiah gets playing time for you? Well, one is the size and strength of the opponent, a little bit, the center, that he would have to go up against. You know, Isaiah, still learning. They're young. But it's a lot of energy out there, but especially defensively, he's got a lot to learn. But also, you know, Tyson's a veteran, but right now we need to be steady.

And Tyson wins a big voice when he's on the floor and when he's off the floor. There's some of my things going to. I know how they've played well, and hopefully you'll continue to do that, but there are times that we've bought Tyson there for a reason. And as we, you know, hopefully as we get toward the playoffs,

Tyson is going off to play a big part like NNA played, and we're going to need that. So, you know, there's all kinds of reasons, and I'm sure how Zah will get more chances. But, you know, we'll just see how I go.

I like Tyson a lot. Been there, done there, you know, through 19 years, clearly. And look, the game for, you know, in terms of playing major minutes is not what it was, say, even just five years ago. But what is he brought on days that we don't see him when he's at practice? Maybe he needs to shut the locker room door and say a few things. Is he got that kind of player? And has he been that for you this year? Oh, yeah. Now, he's a constant presence on the

bench on the floor. You know, typically, if you're playing, you have a bigger voice. If you're not playing, It stops the players to listen because he's not playing. But he needs to get back. We set him for a long time. He was out for about a month and he was out for about a month and he's got to get back through a little bit of a rhythm. And his voice is huge. He's always locked with him.

He's always talking about how it's his, talking to Clint, talking to Isaiah, how he needs to defend. Talking to players how to get over and pick, under picks. He won't a championship and he wanted to run away. And I had him in New York and he's got. good. And he's good, no matter if he plays bad, he's good. He's just a steady leadership that the team surely needs. You mentioned Clint, and I know he's been battling heel issues. There are nights where he'll go against the Joel Embed and have a great game, and then he'll have a,

you know, he'll go against a guy like Nicola Yochich of Denver, and then there'll be nights where Javel McGee and Dwight Howard kind of have a difficult time. Is there, do you look at the metrics of what he does against particular players, or is it the heel? Is it, you know, that as he's just playing, he's going to have certain matchups are going to favor him. When do you look at him and go, all right, this is a night that Clint's going to really explode and then there are going to be some nights that you go,

man, this could be a tough night for him. Well, you know, it's hard. It is a competition. And when you're putting those good names out there, that sometimes they get the best in, sometimes he gets the best to him. You know, McGee and Howard play it really well. So, you know, he does he his battling.

You know, I think it's more than anything. while ups and downs. You battle in that pain all the time, and sometimes maybe the spotlight isn't real bright, and the pain, you just to come to the pain a little bit. Other times you're going to get over that. But he's played pretty well. I don't think that's, you know, like he's like everybody else.

There are times that he needs to shore our defense up, but there's times that everybody on that floor needs to shore it up. And we're collectively making way too many mistakes, and it's not just one guy making 10, nobody else making any. Everybody's making poverty mistakes. And you can single out anybody

and say, well, you've got to do a better job. Yeah, we do. But do collectively have to do a better job. I know it was frustrating the night against Oklahoma City, but Daniel House looked better from the permanent than he probably had in three weeks, and I thought some of his defensive work was really,

really good, even that in the Laker game as well. So I don't know what's gotten into him, but I like what was in the last week or so. What are you noticing now that maybe you didn't see, maybe, say, even a month ago? Well, I think that he's figuring that a little bit. Hopefully he can stay right there that, you know, your energy's got to come on the defensive end and running,

and the rest of that stuff will fall in the line. But if you're only worried about what you can do offensively or have a bigger role or you do this, then you can get yourself in trouble. So I think Daniels figured it out that, hey, let me leave with my defense and my energy, run the floor, and let me mop up when I can. And then he's good.

He's very time to play. and he has some times of getting back to where the signs he showed last year. So it's good. And we need him. Has the adjustment from starting Ben and putting Daniel on the bench to start things off, is that even noticeable for you at this point with either one of those guys? Not really. I think they both played more or less the same, not started.

It's not that big of a difference. I don't really get it anymore. It's only like you. You can't have about five minutes before you get the take of the game, then you play your own moment. And maybe some guys that is a bigger thing. What you get is starting for you. I can see where you're, okay.

I've started for years. You know, I've been demoted. I can see that. But when you try to make the league and he's trying to get in there, and the main thing is getting a bunch of minutes where you play. And then I have to establish yourself and establish your reputation to go from there. But, you know, it's all. it's got to be at some point, it's got to be about the team.

What is best for the team? And I will do that role in the best of the team. Well, you know, so I think our guys, be honest with, our guys, and I've talked to them all the time, but not a problem either way. And they're all good with it. And, I mean, that's encouraging. They just want to win and play well. I think we all want to do that.

Let's wrap it up with a James question, coach. And I don't think James listened to the show, so it's just me and you talking. You know, he's never lacked confidence. He has been one of the most incredible scores in the last decade in the NBA, MVP's in finishing second. But how much do you think he needs a three out of four start from deep today? I mean, you know him better than anybody else because he's been your player. Does he need a good first quarter?

Are we afraid this could be another one of those? If he misses four or five of the early going, that it's going to be another night where he's just trying to keep shooting his way out of a slump and that maybe that may not be the best thing overall for the team? Well, you know, first of all, no, he needs to shoot his way out of the swamp. Okay, that will be best for the team. And so, no, he can't quit your best. But they know it didn't.

No, then he's going to be James Hardin. And it will be. If there's too much talk, too much analytics about analyzing his, oh, you can't win that way or that way, where, oh, we can't. We've only an average about 59 wins the last three years. He can't win that way. you can't, by little Clint, maybe having his best statistical years, PJs become one of the best three-point shooters in the court and leads the league or did leave the league in numbers of a tip

and points in that. They don't seem to have a problem with him. You know, Ben McImore has now found a home. That's James' fault. James' fault that he found a home and played well. Paulton PJ's playing well. Paulton Clips play well. I mean, James is a heck of a basketball player.

And then they say, they say, I've read something the other day. Well, you can't win and play the way he played. Well, didn't we just take, I mean, James thought that Chris has a pulled hamstring, and then we missed 27 straight threes in the final game to get the final? I mean, you know, it's like, do they watch the games and watch history? What happened? We're in a little bit of a slump, yeah, and shoot bat. But is that our problem?

Yeah, that problem will go away. Can we depend well enough and be tough enough? middley and can we hang in there for all the maysayers and fight if we can be able to be fine if we can then we don't have the metal to be to be what we need to be yeah i just drive me a little crazy of people you know you get questions like hey tell him you have to shoot what you're crazy that's what he's done he is no sufficient basketball playing the last 15 years he's efficient if he's inefficient he he she like he did that was not he's not he's not he he's not he he's not he he's he he's not he He can't wait that way, but he's not that way.

He's one of the most efficient players ever to play the game. Why wouldn't he play the way he's playing? And that's what you want. Yeah, I told the audience earlier today about, I said, you know, it's funny when he's in the previous seven games, not this most recent, but the previous seven, he was probably his highest efficiency ever as a Houston rocket, much less the rest of his career. So I think... Well, it might have been the highest ever in the game, you know, close to him.

So the game has been incredible. And what just got me baddie? You had the Gold State Warriors the last three years have been maybe arguably the best team ever in the history of the game with four Hall of Fame players. And Jane, Chris and different guys, have taken the point to the brief. We didn't get over the hump.

I get it. So I mean, I guess we can't win that way. I guess, you know, playing the way that we play, the way James plays, but whatever causes Chris to have a hamstring product and calls us to this 27 straight three, when you're in the final game to get to the finals. You know, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, they said, you can't win that way.

Yeah, we did. We did. You know, we will. And it's my mind-boggling. It's just mind-bogglinger. I like you being feisty. This is good stuff right here. You know that, right?

You know what? We'll be feisty. Am I going to fight all the way down there? That's what you do basketball. It's what you do sports. You fight. We'll do that. We'll be ready to roll.

I think I think we'll look forward seeing that from your squad tonight. Coach, I appreciate the time as always. We'll see it at the arena and good luck this evening against Denver. Sounds good. Okay. Thanks, coach. Appreciate it. Mike Dan Tony with us here on a sports talk 7-90 and is presented to you by the Billiard Factory.

This is Craig Ackerman. The rockets are certainly popping the polypropylene. I know Matt Thomas all too well. Hey, by the way, this is my new catchphrase. Nothing but nylon. We lost a little bit of coach towards the end of that. cell phone coverage during weather is not spectacular. We'll get him out of line-in-line next week.

We're going to be on the road next week. And you're going to be in the road next week, too, Ross. You're going to Florida for Super Bowl 54. That's right. This will be my fourth radio. Will you get in fights while you're there? I've never gotten in a fight with anybody. We haven't either.

As an adult. Well, is a child you gotten to fight there? No, I just mean in general. Oh, okay. I got you. No, except for the one punch thrown at the 2008 Alamo Bowl, which we've discussed. And you also got hit in the face in New Orleans, right, too, or no? No, I don't think so.

Okay. I'm just mixing my friends up. What coach got kind of, you know, like, we got here. We got this far. I like that far. That's good. Because I'm with him. Yeah, I said, look, if you, everybody's mad.

There's not a single person that's happy. That's happy right now. No one would be that blinders on to show that you'd say, well, you know, they were good for three-cooters, but then, you know, James 1 for something. No, nobody's doing that. Nobody is. And if they are, they're just over-the-top homer or ridiculous. You can't be homeristic on some bad losses the Rockets have had to non-playoff teams, to losing five or six. No one should be happy.

No one should be going, well, we're still in the play-out. Well, of course, eight teams make the playoffs. The goal for the Rockets as an organization of playoff team is not to just make the playoffs. To not enter the playoffs as a six seed. It's one mission, Matt, and that one mission isn't just to win just to make it to the playoffs. 48 and 34. No one would be sitting around bragging and high five each other if the Rockets end the season at 4834. That would mean they'd be essentially playing about 500 basketball for about two and a half months.

They could be division champs as long as they finish ahead of the Mavericks. Nobody cares about the Southwest Division. Nobody cares about the Southwest Division. Southwest Division champs, Brian. Do you think Mike Dantonie would ever do that? No. I know he wouldn't. A.J. Hinch, respectful to the media.

Mike Dan Tony, very affable to the media. Bill O'Brien? Bill O'Brien. What did Bill O'Brien say? I'm trying to think what he said way back in the day against him. Doesn't matter, Brian. Yeah. Or I was thinking about if you were a member of the media, like that Denver Broncos,

the game of the Denver Broncos game. I don't care what you say, just like, you don't care what I say. Yeah, there's always... I don't think you guys really care what I say. Just like I don't really care what you say. What's up to? Jeez, calm down, Bill. That was good.

That worked out good. Calm down, teapot. Timmer Fertita speaks to the media. Yes. Jim Crane has been speaking a lot of the media. Cal? Whispers. Cal is like, believe it or not at 150 every day.

Never ready. Crickets. What are you talking about? You know, Willis. What's the topic of today? I'm not even sure if I'm going to say. This has to do with big news of the day. Big news of the day.

All right, that's a good tease right there. Let's go to Mike and Katie at 236 on the Matt Thomas show. Mike, how are you? Hi, guys. Great. I wish Matt would be on there because a little small phone pick with him on this three-point thing because... Where's Matt? I'm right here.

I don't go anywhere. No, Matt Bullard. Well, Matt's on here right now. I know, but sometimes you have him on there. I like to talk to him because he glamorizes this three-point thing. But if you look at what's happening to, pardon, it's so obvious. I mean, everybody runs this one. I understand that.

But if you look at they're guarding him on the three-point line, okay, and then they'll come when he drives it. But when only Westbrook and Paul are allowed to shoot a 15-foot jump shot without getting fined by the coach. For a coach, he never won anything. So my point being is when the last time have you seen Harden shoot about five or six, 15-foot jump shots, instead of driving all the way to the basket, and then it gets blocked or takes a three-point on one leg, you know, I'm just saying he's a great player. But he's got to shoot a 15-foot jump shot. You want more mid-range.

Yeah, I mean, you don't have to be an idiot. Look at what's the game tonight, and you'll see. He plays with the ball, plays with the ball, plays with the ball, plays with he shoot a jump shot or a drive. He won't stop like Calvin Murphy used to do. Stop and jump. He's no Calvin Murphy, that's for sure. Westbrook does it.

Chris Ball did it. Westbrook does it? Westbrook doesn't make them at a high. It's an inefficient shot when Westbrook takes them. What do you think, well, what do you think that James Harden shoots from, say, say 10 to 16 feet. I'm sorry, I repeat the question. Where do you, how, like, what percentage?

You know they have numbers on this. What percentage do you think James Harden shoots are from about 15 feet? I would say 15, 20% at the most. 15, you want him to take shots where he's only making them 50? I say, how often is he making them? What do you think is make percentage? I don't even know the answer to this. Look, the reason why he doesn't make the shot is the same thing,

is the same thing you've got these kids. they shoot three-pointers. They couldn't make a 15-foot jump shot if you had, if their wife depended on it, and when you get into playoff, and you look at Toronto one last year, they weren't no three-point team. Forget Golden State because that Golden State right,

nobody's going to be ever like them. I'm just talking about when you look at teams that win, San Antonio won all those years, they didn't shoot a three-pointer. What is our coach ever won that you can say? Did the Golden State Warriors shoot three-pointers? robust. Well, here's what I want to do.

Mike, here's what I'm going to do. Instead of arguing with us, Matt Bullard is going to be on with the Adams today at 5 o'clock. You should call and talk to him directly. Oh, well, I mean, just because the guy plays NBA, that doesn't mean he's smarter than me. That's true. I think you're smarter. I don't care. Look, the statistics or statistics has all coach ever won an NBA championship playing his style of basketball.

No. He has not. No. All right. So, go back to the answer. Go back to the answer. Hold on.

Hold on a second. What is James Harden's success rate between 10 and 16 feet? It is 42%. Probably not good because you don't shoot it. And what is his percentage from the 3.1? It's 36%. But you get an extra point. So it's more efficient.

Yeah. It's about 0.8.4 points per shot. That's going to... I'm just... I'm going to let you go because you've got a bad connection. They're like 1.1.1. Here's my point, Mike. 29 of the 30 teams in the NBA are playing the way the rockets are.

New Orleans, just two nights ago, who just is going to get Zion Williamson back tonight for their game against San Antonio, had 21 three-pointers in the game. That was a franchise record. It's not coincidental that teams are shooting that kind of level. It's because the NBA has changed. Because what the NBA metrics are saying is, find me jump shooters that make between 35 and 42% of the three point shots

and we're going to win way more many times than we are if we're going to tell those people that are shooting between 35 and 42% from 3 to now shoot 3 point shots from 10 to 16 feet where they're approximately 40 to 42% accurate but Matt Bullard says and this is what Mike you should argue with him about Matt Bullard who his dying day will say three is greater than two So call him on you. He's right.

The two most efficient offenses in the NBA right now are the Rockets and the Mavericks. They take the most threes. It's not a coincidence. The Rockets' offense is not the issue. Everybody wants to call in and talk about, well, more mid-range or more this or more Russell or more, I don't know, Ben McLemaklemore, more post-ups. I literally got a call for more Hakeem-A-Lajuan-style post-ups in the Rockets' offense. Hakeem-A-Lajuan's not walking through that door. It's not 1993-3 or 1994.

It's 2020. The Rockets' offense is not the issue. I got a lot of things we can quibble about with the Rockets. If you want to quibble about rotations and PJ Tucker playing too many minutes and fatiguing in the playoffs, I'm down with that. If you want to quibble about Russell Westbrook or James Hardin losing their man on the three-point line and they get wide open threes or easy cuts to the basket, I'm down with that. If you want to get upset about James Hardin not being a great perimeter defender,

but good in the post. I'm down with all of that. But stop coming with more mid-range. Stop coming with more post-ups. The offense is good. The offense is great. It's one of the best offenses in the league. It's not the issue.

Even when it doesn't shoot. I mean, the three-point percentage of rockets are probably in the lower third. But because they shoot so many of them and still at the end of the day, finish with 17 or 18, that's where they're winning basketball games. What they're not winning basketball games

is they're falling asleep at the wheel in the fourth quarter, especially on the defensive side. Yes. You couple that. When Dennis Schroeder is getting layups, that's what we need to be talking about, not James Harden taking threes. And Danilo Garnari having open three corners.

No, the Schroeder layup drill was the most frustrating thing. He looked like he was in pre-game warm-ups. And by the way, Chris Paul, second half, wasn't to be found. Chris Paul last year was not good. Chris Paul this year. I mean, as far as in isolation. Chris Paul this year is way better than last year's Chris Paul.

I don't know if he's playing with more fire or whatever. And by the way, anybody that wants to trade for Chris Paul? Chris Paul said yesterday, I'll come play for you, but I'm not going to give up my option to make $44 million next year. Give it that $40 million. $44 million next year. He wants his chicken, Matt.

What would you do with $44 million? I bust my ass for like $80,000 total. Imagine $44 million. It'd be nice. I would save, you know, 90% of it and then rest is hookers and blow. First of all, he's a great guy. He's a hardworking guy.

It's Matt, and he's back. Brings his lunchtime, Houston Sports Talk. Lunchtime, Houston Sports Talk. The Matt Thomas Show on 790. 250 on the Matt Thomas show. And we figured out who didn't vote for Derek Jeter for the Hall of Fame? It was Ken Rosenthal. I'm just kidding. I don't know.

Don't say that because if people were going to like that. I heard Ross say that. I was kidding. I have no idea. Listen to me. I don't know. And the Rockett's Offins is good. We have baseball riders on, football riders on, and basketball riders on all of it all the time.

Who are the biggest douche nozzles on the group? Believe me. Baseball guys. We don't even have that many baseball guys on because they won't come on and spend their time with us. And the ones we do have are snarky SOBs like Jake Kaplan. Yeah, Jake Kaplan's a snarky SOB. We still love him, but he's our snarky SOB. McTaggart's cool, like that goes out of the pillow.

I've known him since we were in college, so that doesn't even count. That's true. We do love some tags. And he listens to our shows. Yeah, he does listen. Texas all the time. It's good to have him. Jake's still snark.

We still like him, though. Of course. But they are the most self-righteous. They're the ones that are the gatekeepers of the sport. They're just like, they're like 10-year major league baseball players. They have their routine. And if you interrupt their routine, you know, some are, you know, use steroids, you can't get involved

the game. Some are, this is not the way you play the game. This is how you speak to us or talk to us before.

Oh, man, it's just a more pretension there, I think, than any others, for whatever reason. It's because I think they work incredible hours.

You just get cranky. Do you think so? Because they're at the stadium 160, yeah, it's the hardest beat, right? It's the hardest beat. They get there at 2.30, and they don't leave

usually to about an 1130 midnight. And you're on a plane, you're traveling. You get, you know, 15 days off in six months. Yeah, I mean, most newspapers

has split the beat now. But those papers that don't spend a lot of money on coverage, I mean, they send one guy out to do 150 games or something like that. All right, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe it or not.

And here's how it works. You'll call 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Printout your gift card for the gift of Reefs. relaxation, Houston, Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is, on the death of Mr. Peanut. All things about Mr. Peanut.

I'll reach you statement about Mr. P. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. Erroneous full of bunk. You'll say this. Two believe it or not that are all. Mr. P wins your prize.

Ross, what's the prize? I bet you didn't wake up this morning thinking this would be the believer in topic. No, there's no chance of that. Matt, how about some adamant, the friend or foe tour at the Revention Music Center or totally 80s, featuring the Motel. with Bow Wow Wow and when in Rome at the House of Blues on February 27th, both available at LiveNation.com. All we do is get you to concerts from people from 35 years ago. Dwayne on 790, ready to play, believe it or not?

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Thank God you play the game well. In 2006, planners conducted an online poll to see if Mr. Peanut should add a pocket watch, bow tie, or cuff links to his outfit. No chance won the vote. Believe it or not. Believe it? There you go. Congratulations. 281, 496, 3355. Please memorize that number if you're having problems in the bedroom.

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