The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-23-20

Episode Date: January 23, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/23/20You can't retroactively give yourself an award, Whitley Merrifield Rockets finally get a win Kobe Bryant thinks women could compete in the NBA Non Florida Stories

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas Show. 1203 in H-town. What's happening at lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show. I'm over here at Hobby Airport, leaving with the rockets in a couple of hours.

Sports RV you've already put in a, full hard-earned two-hour workday so far yeah matt see you later i'm out here do you need like a snack break in between or something no i'm i'm okay i'm chilling all right how was the trenches show today i didn't listen to word oh it was fantastic it was amazing uh you broke down uh the super bowl matchup between san jisco and kansas city uh we did not you got into uh why bill o'brien is still the head coach of the football team uh I guess somebody did call in about that. And you also ran through the qualities that make Jack Easterby,

one of the most powerful people in the Texans organization. No, Jack Easterby was not mentioned in the entire show, luckily. Fair enough. All right. It was mostly Eli Manning a little bit. Okay, so you had this debate. You have him in the Hall of Fame, right? Matt, check your text.

But, okay, I know. We had the debate. At the start of the show, at the start of the show, Indy Kalu was talking about how he was on the fence and he was actually legitimately on the fence. And I think there are a lot of people that are in Indy Kalu's boat where Eli Manning has the two Super Bowls, not only that, two Super Bowl MVP's, which I think definitely matters. But I mean, I think you look at the fact that he's 117 and 117 in his career. And quarterback record isn't necessarily everything, but I think it matters, especially when you played for 16 straight years.

if you had a losing record or you're, you know, 50 and 150, you probably weren't a very good quarterback. So, I mean, some of those things factor in. But to me, there was never any time or anybody had fear struck into them because of Eli Manning. There was hardly ever a time where he was even a top 10 quarterback year by year. So to me, he is not a Hall of Famer. Well, I checked Twitter before the show started when you put up your poll question today about it. And somebody on Twitter, I don't know who it was, said if you have to debate whether a guy is Hall of Fame worthy, and the answer is no, he's a Hall of Fame worthy.

I'm totally okay with that. He isn't a hall of very, very good. I mean, maybe even the best of the Hall of, I mean, when you win two Super Bowls, not that he did it by himself, but he does get to claim those as part of his resume. Yeah. He's in a hall of very, very good. I agree with that.

If you're like, if your score or whatever, like if there was some kind of algorithm where we had a score and we spit it out, and your score had to be like an, 80 to be in the Hall of Fame. He's like a 78. Yeah. It's almost like, you know, again, the seeing eye test is everything. And in some particular cases, it's the closing eye test. Yeah. Close your eyes. It's first and 10 at your own 20 yard line.

You got a minute 49 left to go and you got one time out. Can Eli Manning lead you on an 80-yard drive every time to win it? You know, like, you know how Joe Montana did in the Super Bowl to found John Taylor? You know how Tom Brady's done it for his career? Joe Montana. Yeah. Brett Farr. Even recently, Russell Wilson, I mean, Aaron Rogers.

Aaron Roger. I mean, there's a plethora of different guys. It would take you probably a good half hour to get Eli Manning's name of. Right. I agree. The whole of very, very good. We're on the same page. I feel like we're on WFAN right now doing New York Sports Radio.

Are you going to go, you're going to go Francesa on us and start yelling? Well, I think probably Francesa, isn't he involved with the Giants organization? He's probably stumping for Eli as we speak. Well, I know they carry their games, and he's got some of the guys on a weekly basis, but I don't think he works for the team directly. Actually, he's out of the business now. Oh, is he? He's doing like a podcast.

So that's what it is. What we can do, if we're going to do New York Sports Radio, is we can do like three hours of complaining about how the Astros should be basically taken out of the American League, should be never allowed to play a baseball game, contracted, and that every game that the Astros lost, especially if the Yankees, or the Astros beat them, should be given back to the Yankees so they can claim at least two more World Series championships.

If that's what we're going to do New York Sports Radio today. No. No, we're not going to do that. We're going to do any of that, Matt. We do have an absurd take from someone of the Kansas City Royals would get to the show today. I saw that.

We're going to have to discuss this. And here's the problem on this, because I do want to get to the Rockets here during the course of the show because they did win yesterday. Everybody in their mother, Ross, is now coming out and wanting something back from 2017. Right.

The L.A. City Council wants the Dodgers to win the World Series. We have people wanting this title strip. We want people losing MVP votes. We want hits taken away. We want Wednesday. I mean, enough is enough on this. The Astros got a lot taken from them in the future. Public embarrassment is a pretty invaluable piece of punishment.

Also, four draft picks, two first and two second. Pretty big in baseball. $5 million fine. Money doesn't grow on trees. Well, maybe if you're winning a World Series, but that's not here nor there. And you lost a general manager and a manager because of it. Maybe one of the most highly regarded general managers in the business. And certainly one of the most well-respected managers.

So enough with this, let's go get a burn them at this, you know, what would you call when you're, like, I'll go to your Game of Thrones. episodes. What do you do when you have a bunch of guys holding up a fire and they want to burn people on a hill or something? Yeah, at the stake. That's exactly what they want. Okay. We're looking for hide here. It has to stop. It has to stop. It sucks. They cheated. They got caught. They got punished. The players, as Bleacher Report reported yesterday, Ross, which is the worst hidden secret in the world were given immunity for spilling their beans, telling them everything they got. They were going to be protected.

What else do they want, Ross? Do they want the roof permanently taken off a minute-made park? So if we go to watch Astros games in the summertime, we're going to melt because it's so damn hot here? They want orbit to hit the guillotine? Do they want ticket prices to go up 40% so no one can go to the games anymore? Do they want dollar hot dog nights to be $24 hot dog nights? Sheriff Blaylock to get his badge taken away?

I don't think he's around anymore. Oh, that's unfortunate. What do they want? Do they want the Astros to go to the plate without helmet batting helmets on? I mean, this is absurd. And we'll give you another example of such, again, of people and players of other teams going after the hides of the Astros on the program today. So we'll get that for you.

We have non-Florida stories coming up. And Ross, my story comes out of Philadelphia. It involves a mascot, and it's not me. Philly's always getting a little wild. It almost feels like if we were going to go to a part of the Northeast that could always give us a good juicy story, it's the Philadelphia metropolitan area, right? I think so.

They're pretty wild and crazy up there. So we got that for you. Rockets last night, get a win. The losing streak is over. Now, granted, if you're a Denver Nuggets fan, you didn't recognize any of the players. Well, you didn't recognize many of them. Although, Nikola Yokic, by the way,

you know everybody around the league when i when denver makes it on national television ross it becomes like this oh he is the greatest center he's mr triple double machine blah blah blah blah blah he's soft against clink capella he is fade away i'd rather take a time i mean rossie he's built right he's like seven feet right yes he doesn't look like he's got a lot of body fat on him i mean he's a hulking character. Sometimes he looks a little doughy. You've got lunch lady arms every now and then. But yeah, I agree.

He was looking strong last night. That's a sense of time. Well, yeah, it's not bad as like Kyle Lowry's lunch lady arms when he was here. But he is Mr. Fadeaway jumper. And Clint, who has trouble against some centers, doesn't have it against Nikolai Okic. And the Rockets last night, despite many injuries on the Denver side of things, were able to pick up a victory and snap the four-game losing streak. I hope Coach Dan Tony's in a better mood today.

I would imagine he is. He was rascally yesterday. Yeah, I liked that. Yeah, he was like, hey, everybody's acting like the sky is falling. The sky's not falling. We're going to be just fine. And I think I agreed with most of what his sentiments when it came to that. And you got to win.

Yes, it was against a team with five people not on the roster or on the roster that weren't in the game. But the Rockets have been struggling in those types of situations. And I was even talking with our producer, BT. He was like, I don't know. I'm scared that five people are out because sometimes the Rockets take teams lightly and they didn't do that. So credit to them. Yeah. All right. So if you want to get in some Rockets chatter, we'll do that early on. Kobe Bryant believes there are at least three women that could play in the NBA.

As basketball players? As basketball players. Okay. I would say this, Rossi. Oh, by the way, I just said the Denver Nuggets just flew literally over my office here at the airport. So the Nuggets have left for New Orleans. Is that a good sign? Well, I mean, they're obviously safely in the air.

Speaking of the Pelicans in New Orleans, Zion Williamson made his debut yesterday. What a fourth quarter he had, and I'm still not sure, Rossi, that his body type and who he is is going to last long term in the NBA. We shall discuss. We can argue that. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Rockets, Astros, a lot of bitterness around sports. It's Kobe Bryant, Zion Williamson, Jeff Bannister, Gary Kubiak. A conversation piece. And not in Florida Stories. It's the Matt Thomas show, and this is Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Eric Gordon. Gordon for three in the lead.

Matt Thomas is my favorite voice in Houston. EG for three. You're listening to the flagship. Sports Talk, 790. Homer the Rocket. Ross, I said that a lot yesterday. What do you have six three-pointers in the game? Yes, six of eight from three.

Eight of 11 overall? 25 points. Rockets really didn't shoot a whole lot of three-pointers as compared to previous game. 29 and they shot 45 against the Thunder on Monday. So you're telling me there were some in-team adjustments made prior to this game against Denver. Perhaps, but as Craig Ackerman was pointing out on the radio broadcast, the Nuggets are a team that tries to take away three-point shots. So some of that could have factored in as well.

Yeah, but I bet you if I could go find some old Rocket Nuggets box scores of the Rockets could be in the mid-30s comfortably, right? Probably. Yeah. Denver's a good basketball team. Just won the same team that we normally see with all their guys out. But, you know, Will Barton 3rd was still out there. Malik Biza was making his shots. Nikola Yokic is the triple double center machine.

Rockets took care of them. Again, every team goes through injuries. Every team has guys that are out. So, you know what? Yeah, it wasn't a full-throthal Denver team, but frankly, it was a time the rocket probably could have used a situation like that. They took 34 against them on the December, on the New Year's Eve game, and then 29 last night.

Yeah. So, I mean, a little less than they normally would, but by no stretch, a crazy number. Okay, Ross, in the history of the Matt Thomas show with you and me, how often have we talked about Royal Second Baseman Whitmerfield? Rarely, if ever, Whitmerfield. Now, Whitman, all right, cue the music, because you tried to put

Dusty Baker in the Saloon. Nope. No. No. I think so. No, he's a prospector in the gold rush. Fair enough. Play some music and see we get some Whitmerfield going here. Okay.

Waiting for Nick to play this. Yeah, it's fine. He's working on it. Give him some time, Matt. Guy's a grinder. Producing multiple shows in the station. Looking, searching. Continue to search. Follow SportsMT. Wait a minute.

I don't know what you guys were after. Oh, he wasn't Civil War War Me. You know what? Just go ahead and put my computer up and then we'll be fine. Yeah, 713212.5-790. Go ahead, Rossi. Quit Merrifield. He was a local haberdasher

in Dodge, Kansas. He came to an unfortunate end when someone robbed his store and stuck a revolver in its belly. and threatened. They threaten, I'm good, okay. May I steal the sentiment in the accent? Whitney Mary.

Is it his full name? Is it full name Whitney or what? Who knows? Whitmerryfield says he believes the illegal size. Oh, Whitley David-Marifield. This is perfect. Whitley-David-Marifield. Okay, for the sake of this segment.

He was a man of principal. He had 17 children. all with biblical names. Nine of them had the swine flint. For a lost their teeth. Whitley Merrifield says he believes the illicit sign stealing operation cost him a spot

in the 2018 All-Star game. Quote from Whitley-Maryfield. I'm going to consider myself an All-Star for that year with all this stuff that's gone. because an MLB player Astros cheating kept me from being an all-style that game. We'll put an asterisk by 2018, and on top of that, we'll go ahead and ready, it will throw in a silver slugger for good measure. What?

You're on crack, Whitney. Crack, I tell you. Even 1875 crack you're on. That's the lamest. I think I've ever heard. I consider myself an All-Star. I'm going to call myself an All-Star.

Okay, and what sense? Are you going to put it on your resume? How? No one's doing this. Are you going to put it on your LinkedIn profile? No. You're going to put the shirt in the Whitmerfield, 2018, All-Star.

Suppose it All-Star. Should be an All-Stars, what he should call. Should be a Silver Slugger Award winner and should be an All-Star. Because Jose of Jose. Give me a break. Look, we have been very hard on our local baseball team, Ross. You cannot hide what they have done. But you cannot recreate World Series championships,

and you cannot give yourself a spot on an All-Star game that was two years ago. You just can't. You can't retroactively name yourself an All-Star. You cannot retroactively give yourself an award either. God bless it. Is he going to go to like the local trophy store and make himself a Silver Slugger Award? I mean, I'm not kidding, Houston, Texas. This is getting out of control.

What's, I mean, seriously, if you have some Gibroni, who by the way, was an all-star last year, I think that led the American League in hits or hits by second base, it doesn't matter what he's done. He's fine, but he's a royal, so he automatically sucks, okay? So if this is going to happen every day, when is this going to stop? What I would like for Whitney to do is I want Whitney when the Astros and Royals to play each other's. I want him to go to the dugout or in the clubhouse for the game and say, Jose, I need to speak to you for a second. You know how affable Jose is, Ross, right? He's a sweet fella.

He's a sweetheart. He's going to walk a Jose is like, hey, what's going on, dude? I've just decided that I'm going to take your spot in the 2018 All-Star game. And by the way, can you bring that Silver Slugger Award next time we play you so I can have it? So I can scrape off your name with a pocket knife and then etch in my own name like it's a tree stump on Lovers Lane. I got a quick question about your Silver Slugger Award. Do they use a racer made across the front there? Can I just put my name?

Can I use a piece of masking tape with a sharp ring marks a lot marker to put my name over? We've got to go get a soldering iron and write his own name in there. Rossi, this is out of control in its own. going to get worse because every city somebody's going to have something new to add to this. It's fine. It'll keep happening for a little bit. It's just not going to affect them. We can talk about this on the radio,

but this is not affecting the bottom line of the Astros right now. I'm just telling you. Whitmerfield being an idiot is not going to affect the on-field performance of the Astros. Would what Maryfield had the stones to go to Jose Al-Tube and tell him when he just told that reporter whoever he told? No. The answer is no. He wouldn't. It's ridiculous.

It's comical for this radio show, but it's ultimately ridiculous take. Let's go to Corey in San Jacenno City on the Matt Thomas show. Corey, how are things? Oh, good. How are y'all doing? Good. And yeah, I'll just say, I want to tell what's his name all been talking about, Manaford? Whitley, Whitney Menerford. Okay. I just want to say I make more money than him. Why? Because I want to. So I'm returning him. That's good. But I've also named myself the Nobel Peace Prize winner of two. There you go.

But I want to get to the whole hypocrisy with all this, because everyone's saying, oh, the title, take the title away and take the title, you know, the MVP. I mean, if we go down that list, we can just strip everything. I mean, the Yankees with their dynasty in the 90s, half of them were on steroids. So, bye-bye titles. And how about Sosun-Bonds winning the MVP awards? I don't hear no one talking about stripping those. I was saying you got to go down the list and strip everything if you're just going pick and choose.

And it's all hypocrisy. It's just crazy. Well, it's just the start of things, Corey. Thank you for the phone call. I appreciate listening. Maybe we should just burn all the record books and start over. Would that make everyone happy? Well, I mean, I don't think we necessarily to burn the books.

How would we just keep them right where they are and have a little bit of common sense? Far too logical. Whit Merrifield actually said, you know what, I'm going to find a reporter, and I'm going to give him this gobbly goop, and he's going to write it down, and he's going to put it out there for the whole entire world to see via the worldwide interwebs. I mean, seriously, I thought Ross, the City Council of Los Angeles, wasted time. This cat is trying to work out getting ready for his season, and he wants a retroactive spawned the All-Star team, and he wants a retroactive award.

It's ridiculous. I mean, I don't know what's next. What is next? This is a, did Whitmeryfield go to A&M? Because you know how they picked up national championships and Big 12 championships? Oh, that's below the belt. Aggie fans at Sports RV, not me. I love your school.

I have zero problem with you paying a coach $10 million a year to go seven and five year after year. Seven and a half million. Seven and a half million. And adding national championships to your ledger when you didn't earn them. You know, I'm not going to Kyle Field since I read did that. that Hall of Honor or Wall of Fame or whatever. I mean, that's kind of a running joke right for the Aggie fans. They don't legitimately go, man, look at all these championships we won.

In 19, they only had the 39, and they added like two more pre-war. I mean, thank God this radio show doesn't embellish college success. Yeah, this is a show where the main host has a school that gets wins vacated. In my mind, they were never, they were always there. the NCAA tells me. I celebrated seven wins that year, did you? Of course you did. Not really.

Yeah, everybody did. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790s. How You Reach Our Show. Rockets snap the losing streak. And Whitley-Marryfield. Is it Whitley or Whitney? Which are we going with, Ross?

With an L. Whitley. Whitley-Wittley-Merry. Like Forrest Whitley. All right. So does, I mean, why isn't Hank Aaron calling for the whole time home run record? Or is he? Maybe that was a bad example there. He's not.

He can claim whatever he wants. Barry Bonds is the home run champ. I'm not going to argue. Real Texans talk H-Town Sports all day. On Sports Talk 790. No other radio station set on my precept. Home of your rockets, your Astros, and your talk. 1233 on the Matt Thomas show here from Hobby Airport.

Rockets on their way to Minneapolis later on today. We got non-Florida stories coming up at 130. We have you at 713-213-2-5-790. So again, Denver had a lot of injuries yesterday. But huge sigh relief, Ross. I mean, you and I were not hitting the panic button, so to speak. There were some grumpiness around Rockettville. I mean, you can't hide that.

Yeah. You just, you know, but three and one road trip could fix a lot of that, frankly. It's going to be tough, especially the back-to-back in the altitude. But as far as, I think I had, the more I had thought about it, I think the day off after the, after the Thunder game, where it was the afternoon and we were taking all these calls and everybody was upset and pissy and saying blow up the team and fired Antonio. I was upset too. Now, not to the level of, you know, fired Antonio or anything like that, but I was just thinking in my head. head, like, is this season slipping away? And I think when you have these types of things happening, you just have to look at the trends and what's happening and good things that are

happening in losses. And one of the things that and the good things that I was thinking about is the fact that Russell Westbrook in the last two games, well, those last two games, not counting last night, had only taken one three-pointer. He was getting to the basket. He was efficient. And what was going wrong? James Hardin was shooting poorly. And James Hardin is, we know who James Harden is at this point in his career, right? He's not going to shoot one for 17 every single night, or he probably might not even go one for 17 again this season, or maybe even in his career. That's just one of those crazy, crazy nights of shooting that is so poor. So knowing that, knowing that he's eventually going to start hitting shots, and you can't necessarily control that

to some extent. You're just going to have some slumps here and there in the season. That's how it's going to go. But what you can control is the style of play. And what Russell Westbrook can control is his style of play. And now that he's getting to the basket and he's been efficient and he's shooting 58% from the field over the last three games and this is the first time in his career over three games, he's only had one three point attempt. I am actually, I'm feeling good about this team going forward. Let me ask you this question because I don't know Russ well enough because I mean I've watched 98% of his career from a distance. This is the first season obviously is a rocket. Do you think he's doing this to show everybody, you know what, I can change my game. And oh, by the way, if I can

change my game, James, my good friends, as we've been 10 years old, you can change yours too. I'm not talking about taking different types of shots. I'm just taking about taking different types of shots at different games, not feeling like you have to play hero ball, not like you have to dribble the ball 20 to 24 seconds. And again, if you dribble 20 to 24 and it results in points, who cares? It's a possession that involves in points. I've never been, I've never, you've never heard me say that but i do believe that russ by his all the sudden new found efficiency ross we're talking about some of the most efficient basketball that russ has probably played in his entire career it does show you that you and again i hate to go to the cliche card but you can't teach

an old dog new tricks because what one of the things he doesn't do anymore is shoot a lot of threes he attacks the glass he knows on a night where the team is needing help and rebounding he did that last night was 16 was it 16 rebounds i think he had I mean, he rose to the occasion. And I hope that that rubs off a little bit on one of the most polarizing athletes the city of Houston has ever had.

I think it kind of reminds me a little bit of when LeBron James went to the Miami Heat. And remember, Duane Wade couldn't hit a three to save his life. And LeBron James was still the primary ball handler when they played on the court together. And you're just sitting there saying to yourself, well, how is this going to work? They're going to play off of Dwayne Wade.

and they're going to let him shoot threes. And eventually, I mean, Dwayne Wade is one of the trickiest guys that getting to the basket and all that type of stuff and a great finisher and a great passer. And so you just have to kind of utilize that and not have him take those threes. And it can work. It worked there.

I think it can work here. Even with James, which I would like to see some of when they're on the court together, maybe starting some sets off with Russell Westbrook and letting James take the back seat. But I don't know how much that's going to happen just because this is James team and that's the way it's been. but if it's going to be that way what I'm seeing in these last few games

and over this last month it can definitely work because Russell Westbrook is probably with the ball in his hands the quickest basketball player I've ever seen. Ross, I continue to tell you this over and over again. His zero to 60 is just phenomenal. It's amazing. It's great. And they're also running more post-up sets for him

and there was one last night where he found I can't remember, was it Eric Gordon or somebody on a basket cut? Yes. So, I mean, this is working, and the postup against the Thunder, he was eating Shea Gilligan's lunch on Monday in some of those post-up possessions and just getting easy buckets. So, I mean, that's adding variety of the offense.

And so if you're getting him to the basket and making him a playmaker with his back to the basket, as long as he's not shooting fade away 15-footers in these post-up sets, I'm okay with that. So all in all, I actually am encouraged over the last. what we're seeing from Russell Westbrook, and I think you get him, Russell Westbrook playing the way he has, you get James Harden on track, making shots,

and then if Eric Gordon is going to shoot hot from three, look out. As Mike Dantone said in postgame last night, this team's going to be pretty dangerous. Yeah, and you've just got to see more of that on a consistent basis, because Eric's had a down year. I think the knee was a large part of that, but you're not expecting six Eric Gordon three is a game, but four or five, help the cost.

You're going to need him. If you're winning a championship, Eric Gordon is going to have to be huge. And we've seen it from him. I mean, the Utah Jazz Series last year where he was shutting down Donovan Mitchell and then knocking down threes. That's exactly the kind of stuff

you're going to need from him night in, night out, and especially in the playoffs. And frankly, I mean, of a team that's not built on a lot of pure shooting, he's probably the pure shooter they have. Right. I think so. If you have one guy wide open from three, all in the rockets right now.

You're going Eric Gordon? I'm going Eric Gordon. I'm not saying that. even off of what he did last night. Now, if I need a contested three, yes, it's James Harder. Of course. But if a guy's going to be wide open,

I think I'm with you. I want Derek, I want Eric, Derek, his brother, Derek, I want Eric Gordon taking the three. Jeb's at Angleton at 1240 in the Matt Thomas show. Jeb, what do you have this afternoon? Yes, sir. I was just wondering what your thoughts on the U.S. basketball game tonight are.

and follow up what you think. Or do you think Quentin Grimes, maybe this is the game where he takes off? Well, I don't understand, and thank you for the phone call. I don't get why Quentin is so up and down. Maybe that's part of the transfer. Maybe that's just the way that, you know, his three-point shot just isn't very good.

And I think, you know, I don't know if it's a case of he's got to take some better shots, whether it is a situation where he loses confidence early if it's not falling down. Nate Hinton and Fabian White Jr. are playing some good basketball, especially in White's case. He's really picked up his scoring numbers. If they can get Quentin Grimes going and do any kind of shooting beyond what he's in the last handful of games,

that's a three-headed monster. It's going to be pretty dangerous. Jereau's been playing very well as well. But I'll say this. As a positive, they've been able to win basketball games with Quentin Grimes still struggling from the floor. So if that is the case, that's a good scenario, just imagining how good it's going to be and how deep they could become tournament time if he gets going. I just looked at the numbers. Quentin Grimes this year from three-point range, 29%.

Ross, I've always felt like this, no matter who the player is. I'm just generally leery of transfer players. Some work out beautifully. Other times it's just a guy falls out of rotation. He's upset. He wants to go play somebody else, and he becomes a stat pattern. That's not what Clinton Grimes is. I'm just, because this was a kid that was so highly recruited coming out of high school.

I mean, everybody and their mother wanted a piece of him. And now he goes to Kansas. They don't have a scholarship format because they thought he was going to turn pro. He comes here and 29% from three, especially in college basketball, is not going to be worthy of Calvin. Calvin Samson is not going to let him shoot, period. End of story. So I hope that he can get his shooting run out of the way because if he can get going,

not that he needs to make seven or eight per game, but if he can be a reliable three-point guy because defense, especially good ones are going to allow him to shoot it. If he starts knocking him down, the Cougars will have four legitimate scorers that can give them double-digit points, get rebounds as well, block some shots, and of course the defense, which was so good against Wichita State.

Thank you for the phone call. 713-212-5-7-90 is how you reach our show. If you want to get in today, we're with you until 3 o'clock. I'll be with you until a little before 2. Then Chris Gordy's going to step in for the final hour with Ross. We have non-Florist stories coming up at 1.30. Ross, I have a very simple question for you. Would you like an endorsement of anything from Jerry Jones?

Yes, an endorsement of a large check. I wasn't thinking that kind of endorsement. Jerry Jones has given someone a ringing endorsement. We'll tell you who it is and what he said next. 713-212-5-790. This is DECISA tackle, DJ Reader. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Real Texans, talk here.

Matt Thomas with you at 1249 on Sports Talk 790. We have a lot to get to today. And Ross and Gordial finished the last hour up with a plethora of topics, including the Rockets win last night against Denver. Kobe Bryant, we've not addressed this. We'll get to this in the top of the next hour. Plus Zion Williams. How much did you see of the Zion game, Ross, after the post game?

I got home to watch about half of the fourth quarter. Really, it was about the last minute that Zion played and the rest that he didn't play in. I watched the, well, I had it recorded. So I watched every minute that he was on the floor and then I kind of fast-forwarded through everything else. It was impressive, the 17 points in the fourth quarter. You can't possibly argue that. But help me out. And if you think I'm wrong, tell me.

Yes. I don't know if the body is going to be able to do it. What do you mean? What, I, I, he, he's already missed a lot of time already. He had injury issues at Duke. They're going to treat him with kid gloves. How long is that going to last? Do you envision who he is, how bulky he is at his size, playing 38 minutes a game in the NBA?

I'll say, yes. I'm not a doctor. I don't know. No, you can say, no, no, no. How can I know? No, you can't. When Yao Ming was the first. pick in the draft, I was one of the only Houston sports caster that said, guys, this isn't

going to last. He's going to play too much, and there are too many guys at his size and his weight that have had foot issues, and it's going to preclude him from having a long, long career. And I was right. Now, I get a lot of things wrong. That one I got right. Yeah, but Yao Ming was seven foot six. I mean, that was a different, there's a whole different ball of wax, in my opinion. What are his measurables right now? He's six foot six, two 85. How many six, two 85 players in the NBA? I think he's probably the only one. The only one for a reason. How many?

I mean, how big was Charles Barkley? 6-4 and like 2 what? Especially at the end of his career? No, PJ plays, I think it's 6. PJ Tucker plays at 6.5 and 2.45. So it's an inch shorter and been 20 pounds heavier. Again, I'm not a doctor on this, just as you said. But there are parts of him that I watch and I'm like, man, no wonder people thought he was just the great

or the next great. But for a guy that has already had two pretty significant injuries in his young, you know, his long, young basketball career, forget about NBA career. I know, is part of his charm, his fluidity, but yet the ability to go in there and bang if he has to? But is a part of it is,

does he have to lose 15, 20 pounds to go through the rigors of an 82 game NBA schedule? I mean, I don't know. At least looking, I mean, does he have a gut or something? looking at him, he looks muscular. He looks fit. But where is that going to go ultimately for him? I mean, you know, I don't know. I just, there's something about him that I already believe the New Orleans Pelicans are probably feeling.

You know, again, it was his first game back. So maybe we should table this conversation for 25 games from now. He doesn't look out of shape. But most... He looks big. He looks like something we've never seen before. He's got a unique body for sure. Here's the rigors of basketball. Do middle linebackers, could middle linebackers?

That's what he looks like, right? Or maybe like a defensive end. Okay, even better. Could you imagine defensive ends going up and down the floor, 94 feet, carrying 265 pounds at 6-6? I think so, yes. I don't know. And he's not the first guy in the history of the NBA with a meniscus injury. But for as much as he's gone through in the short period of time, I'm just saying, I don't know if 265.

can carry at his height. I think, yeah, you don't know and I don't know. I think, I mean, I guess history will bear this out. We won't, we don't know. Yeah. We'll see. I will see. He's electrifying.

You know the Thomas family loves him because he went to Duke for a season. And he was such a monster in college. And it's not like you're wishing him harm. You're not. You're actually wishing him success. Oh, no. Are we wishing to success? He's in the same division as the Rockets?

No, not really not that much success. I will say this. He does, did you see him getting up and down the court? I was saying this to Indy. He looks like the old man at your pickup game that's like in full sweats. Like he's got matching like blue and blue sweatpants and blue sweatshirt from like jerseys. And he's wearing a headband. And you're like, okay.

And he kind of just, he's got an old man type of shuffle. He does have a weird, funny gate when he gets up and down the floor. So I will say this. Let's put it this way. Could, and this will grow as he grows. I mean, how old is he? 19? We've got to be, right? Maybe 20? He's going to need to become a more fluid.

And I think Matt Bauer was talking about this yesterday when he was on with the with Adam and Wex, or Clinton and Wexler. Fluidity has to be part of his game. You can't treat an NBA game like you're going up and down a mountain. To your point about how he was kind of maneuvering himself there. Again, I think from everything I've been told and watching some of the interviews, he looks like a guy that you could easily root for. but there's just something, and I can't put my finger on it because I got him on a doctor.

But 6-6-265. 280-fe. How much is he? 285. He's 6-6-285. Yeah. I'm going to be an amateur doctor on the radio and say that 6-6-285 is going to be hard for him to carry in the NBA long-term. Let's go to a phone call before the top of the hour.

Let's say hi to Lee on the west side. Hi, Lee. Oh, Matt, you're on the money today, sir. It's not just the injury concern. I watch Zion in the Summer League before he was even out for a while, and he's sucking heavy wind early in the game after about five, six minutes of exertion. He's a superstar already. It's obvious.

No one can stop him. He's too big, too strong. But he would still be too big, too strong if he lost 30 pounds and got down to 255, 250. If he does that, there's nothing that could stop him. the injury concerns will be mitigated. This is very similar to Charles Barkley when he first came into the league. It's too much weight, not only for injuries, but also just for his cardio up and down the court. It's not just that he missed games.

That's why he was so tired. He was doing the same thing in the summer league. This is not a big deal if he can get his diet under control. The man must eat like a horse to do all the cardio vascular work in the NBA and still be that big. It shouldn't be a big deal for him to get down at $2.50, $2.50, $2.000. 245, 255, somewhere around there, and just completely dominate. I think they were talking about that at Duke. It's just all up to him.

But no, I don't see it as a big concern if he just drops the weight, but he has to not only for injuries, but just for the idea that he could play a full game because right now he can't. He couldn't even play a full game in the Summer League. So as great as he is, that's the only concern I have was not out. Yeah, I don't know what his body mass index is, how much fat he carries, honestly. And you know what, Ross? I will never find out.

Thank you, Lee, for the phone call. But just on the limited looks that he has had as a summer leaguer and as a guy in training camp and working out, 6-6-285 doesn't feel like that's going to be able to be sustained for a long period of time, especially because it is such an aerobic sport. It really is tough and physical, but there is cardio and heavily involved in that. Second hour of the Matt Thomas show, I told you that Jerry Jones gave an endorsement in the last couple days.

We'll tell you what that exactly is. In a moment. 713, 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. KBMEE Houston and I-HartRadio station. The Astros. Astros baseball. The Rockets.

Basketball. Your home for your home teams. This is Sports Talk 790 from the classic Chevy Sugarland Studios. Find new roads. Win a thousand dollars now. Hey, it's Matt and Craig from Rockets Radio. Text a nationwide keyword run. R-U-N to 200-200.

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Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal, Nick Lowe, our producer. Nice to have all to be with us. here on the second hour of the show. Ross, I owe you a story about Jerry Jones endorsing something, but I just saw something on Twitter that I might be an idiot that I didn't realize this. There is a video surfacing

of James Corden and Justin Bieber in a carpool karaoke film session. Okay. James does not drive the car. It's on wheels. Most cars are on wheels, Matt. You know what I'm talking about.

extra set of wheels on top of the vehicle. You mean a trailer? He's really not driving the car. So it's being towed. Correct. Am I supposed to have known this already? It doesn't surprise me. It's Hollywood.

Wherever they filmed the show. No, it's in Los Angeles. I mean, you don't need that guy singing at the top of his lungs and also driving in L.A. traffic is horrible. That's true. There may no way he would survive. without getting at least one car crash. It would be great for the show if he did get in a wreck during it, though.

Like carpool kick? I mean, nothing serious. Why do you want that? Wait, wait, stop. Stop, just a second. Why would it be great? I'd like to hear this. Just a little fender bender with, you know, Elton John in the car.

That'd be awesome. Yeah, let's get Elton John's head ramming into the... Yeah, you want Elton John to suffer a broken leg and blood clots in a car accident. That makes perfect sense, Nick. Sure. You're on second suspension. You're not allowed to speak until 1.30 when we do the non-flority stories. All right, here is Jerry Jones.

He was in town a couple of days ago. I don't know what for, but he was in town. And was asked about Cal McNair. Here's the quote, Ross. I presented to you without commentary. Although we will have to comment on this because that's what we do. We've talked about things. Cal is extremely competent.

He's so educated on the comings and goings and evolving of an NFL over the last 20 years. He's a great owner. Yep. He's our guy. Okay. Well, apparently, Cal McNair spoke a little bit at the Houston Sports Awards. Do we have that? What are you talking about?

Why Bill O'Brien's sell his job? How he's given Jack Esterby just as much power as any general manager the Texans have ever had? I'm pretty sure he just talked about his. father. Oh, that's cool. Do we have that somewhere? I would like to hear. I don't even know what Cal's voice sounds like. Oh, you do too. No, I don't. What does he sound like Sam Elliott? No, he doesn't know. Why don't you guess? And when you get close, I'll tell you what he sounds like. Bob McNair.

Wow, we're on a right side. Yeah, he's got a southern draw to him, for sure. But he's not Sam Elliott. We're going to get in there with the ox. You don't think he sounds like James Earl Jones, do you? Uh, no. Do you think he sounds like Martin Short? Maybe. Do you think he sounds like Bill Clinton? Hmm.

Rupal? Uh, no. No, he sounds like, um, just a southern gentleman? Southern gentleman, like he is going to the green bra. Well, that's where he used to take the Texans for a couple of years until it become cost ineffective. It turned out it didn't really help much.

Oh, no, it did help. Yeah, cooler weather, being able to practice outside and the elements, I'm worried about the heat. It did pay off, Ross. In what way? They were a fresher team in December. Were they? Well, didn't they run off 11 in a row at one point? And then what happened?

Well, it lost in the wild card game. Oh. That's out of here and there. Okay. Well, I think that is here and there. That's actually true. All right, so if Jerry Jones gives you an endorsement... We do have Cal McNair, the audio of him speaking at the Houston Sports Awards to Mark Berman.

Okay. And this is him speaking about Jerry Jones. He's an awesome guy who's a good friend of dads for a long time. They enjoyed each other's company. Shared a lot of the same things. But he's been a good friend with dad for a long time. And it's really pride and honor that he's here to share this with us tonight. That's cool.

Well, there you go. So what do you think he sounds like? Like a normal man. I think he's like. Yes, I'll just, yeah. He sounds like a normal person. Yeah, you know, we don't, you know. He doesn't saw like Matthew McConaughey.

No. He's not going to. Or Jim Neighbors or anything like that. Now, he looks like, you know what he looks like is in the smoking the bandit movies. Pat McCormick? We're in a sheriff's hat. Okay. Yeah, somebody tweeted that.

Yeah, I only know what you're talking about now because I saw somebody tweet that. That's what he looks like. That's easy. And by the way, he's one of the rare men in Houston pulling off a stash right now. Stashes largely aren't in play in 2012. It's him and Phil Garner. That's about it. Who else?

Dan Tony's not rocking the stash anymore. No, Dan Tony hasn't worn the stash since he's been in Houston. the day he got hired. Didn't Adam Clinton say, where's your mustache? Did Adam ask him that? I think he was. Like, where's the stash? Like, what's going on here?

Yeah, let's forget your offensive philosophies and how you like the roster. What's going on with your stash? Yeah, how bad was it coaching Dwight Howard? Because remember, he was still a part of the organization at the time? That was supposed to be the team. Remember it was like Kobe, Dwight, Nash, and was a pal still there? I think so. They had like a big four, and they just crashed and burned.

Now everything's nice and calm. Houston's got 200 regular season wins in three and a half years. Congratulations to him. It's not all nice and calm, though. Well, we're going to get there, hopefully. A nice three and one road trip could certainly help that. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

So we will get Cal to speak about the team at some point, right? I mean, talking about that is cool because Bob was obviously the lead dog in getting Houston professional football again. And say what you all about the last couple of years of Bob. Bob's life, Bob should still be remembered for way more positives than anything negative. He might have said towards the end because he's been extremely charitable. He brought football to this town. He was a good civic leader.

He was generally spoken, you know, spoke highly of his team, his players team. I mean, if Andre Johnson liked Bob McNair, that's good enough for me, right? I think so. I don't think Bob, I don't think Andre Johnson's a lip service kind of guy. Well, the Wayne Brown had some issues. and now he's wearing Seattle Seahawk here. Sometimes things do work out for different people. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. All right. Speaking of Kobe Bryant-Ross, first blush, when he said yesterday, a matter of fact, we have the audio of this, Nick, if you could play this, and I want y'all to hear this, and then I want y'all to react to it coming out of the break if you'd like. Kobe Bryant was on CNN recently and the topic of females playing in the NBA.

And Nick, do you have the sound bite ready to go for the audience? Yeah, I got it. Here it is. You recently said your daughter, Gigi, got you back into watching a lot of NBA. You've taken into a bunch of games this year sitting courtside with her. As you watch games with her and coach her through her basketball journey, I wanted to get your take on if you think a woman could ever play in the NBA one day. I think there are a couple players that can play in the NBA right now, honestly.

There's a lot of players that have a lot of skill that can do it. Diana Tarasi, Maya Moore, Ella Deladon. There's a lot of great players out there, so they can most certainly keep up with them. Agree or disagree. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Would this be a scenario? I'll give you my answers.

We'll get Ross your thoughts. 713212-125 790 or on Twitter at SportsMT. The time is 111. It's the Matt Thomas show, and this is Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Jeff Blum. Blum fact number 14. I was on the White Sox in 2005. Yeah, sorry about that sweep, H-Town.

But we're all good right now, right? World Series champion. Back to your lunchtime champion, Matt Thomas. Okay. see, I think I've had a slight philosophical change on the top of we just brought up about whether or not women will ever play in the NBA. Matt Thomas said 20 years ago would have said no chance, no way, no how, never going to happen. 2020, somebody, maybe not 20, 20, I don't even know if there's a year. Somebody's going to get a chance.

Really? Here's what I'll say. I don't envision them making a team. I envision them going to a training camp. I envision them playing in a whoever the women is. It didn't really matter who it is. I envision them going to training camp. I envision them getting into a preseason game.

I envision them playing in the fourth quarter when the game is out of hand. And I'm not trying to downgrade women. I'm just trying to say there's just a real obvious difference between the women's game and the men's game. The NBA is way more perimeter friendly than it was 25 years ago. Would you agree with me on that? Yes. So you could have teams that. will leave a shooter open and that player and that shooter could be a woman so at the end of the day

the most incredible female athlete probably isn't playing rotation time in the NBA it could be in a 12th spot on the 4th on the team 13th 14th whatever but I could see it potentially happening or I would have put it at 0% in say 2000 I put it at 20% in 2000 20. That's kind of a Mamby-pambi answer, but that's just how I feel. Because again, the league has become so much more permanent, with all these teams shooting threes,

and leaving guys and girls, in theory, open. It's not a game where they have to go in the lane and they have to worry about Joe L.NB trying to block the shot. I think you're thinking about the wrong side of the court. You've got to play defense, too. And

Elena Deladon and Maya Moore and whoever he named, they're all really skilled in good, Dianna Tarasi. they're good players. I want to say the tallest of that lot is Elena Deladon and she's 6'5. I mean, is she going to be guarding guards? No, she can't stay with them on the perimeter.

Is she going to be down low, banging with the center? No, she's not going to be able to do that. No, they're not going to be a complete sieve on defense. I think that's to me, yeah, can Elena Deladon and sit back on the corner or the wing or whatever and jack up threes? Sure. So I think in that situation it can happen and they're skilled enough that way. I just think defensively and when it comes to rebounding and all that type of stuff,

that's where it's just miles ahead of where they are on the men's game. And we've talked about, I mean, for years, like high school teams and high school level players or lower level college just have practice and played against WNBA teams. There's actually WNBA teams will bring in males and they will, they will beat the women. And so now if you're talking about just one woman against a team of men, I guess, like you said, it can be okay offensively. But when it comes to the physicality and the defense and the rebounding and all that type of stuff,

it's just it's going to be, you'll be at a net negative no matter how skilled they are on the offensive side. I will agree with all of what you said. I'm just saying that if a team really wanted to be a trailblazer, not the Portland Trailblazers, just a trailblazer in general, you could put a you could you could put a woman on your roster as your 15th player and she can play four minutes a night on nights or games that just don't matter I mean if you really want to do that but then at that point does the woman want to be that mascot because that's what it would be and I don't want to use the word mascot but you know

I'm saying it would be just as an example more so than a than a real player the question would be then is is she taking a spot for some of it for a male that deserves it or does she really have the qualifications because again Ross go look at the rosters of the 15th player on each of the 29 you're not saying there's not at least one spot that one really talented perimeter offensive player there's a lot of bad defensive players in the NBA there just are defenses to find great defensive players especially in the back third of an NBA roster is very hard to find I'm not I'm not

pushing for it. I'm not saying that it's inevitable. I'm just saying that my philosophy, because the game has changed, and you're right, on the defensive side, it would be a mess. But I'm also going to not be naive to say that there are a lot of defensive players, a lot of players that are the 13, 14, 15 guys on a roster, all of a sudden are these defensive gems out there that can stop people too. But they're going to, even the worst defensive player on the NBA, I think is going to be better than any NBA player. Because here's a thing. here's the argument I have made in the past. I'll go get five amazing high school basketball players in Texas, Ross,

and they will beat five women on the floor. And I've said that numerous times, and I've had other people back me up and like, yeah, you're right. But I'm not asking for that. I'm asking for one or two special women that would be able to at least make a roster and at least be able to give you a, if you needed something. And, again,

I don't think it's going to happen, but I went from zero to 20%. Will I ever get to 50%. I doubt it. But I hold out at least a, okay, it wouldn't be the most preposterous thing ever. Again, that player better be so awesome, Ross, that, like when women golfers go on the tour. Who was the, Anna Kosovoinsdam, right? Yes. Yeah, she's the one that was playing with the men for a little bit.

You know, could she hang for a little while? Yeah. Was she going to be able to compete on the tour full-time against him? No chance. Yeah. I don't think the NBA needs it per se. No. I just think this is Kobe Bryant who has a daughter that wants to be able to provide and say,

hey, if you're dreaming goals to be the best women's player on earth for you to get a glimpse at playing on an NBA franchise, don't let old stodgy men stop you from doing that. I think it would be a gimmicky thing. I think it would be cool and it would make a sensation and all that type of stuff. I would just about guarantee you. There wouldn't be a woman who would have an actual NBA career for like a decade or something like that. I completely agree. Bill and Cinco Ranch on 790.

Hello, Bill. This Dwayne. No, but, Matt, everything that you guys said, you know, you kind of throw my thund on everything I want to say from the college rank to the high school. If you could put together the five-best NBA, let's say W&BA, I'll start against some high school guys on. No, I'm in high school or junior high or whatever. But like I say, you know, you guys nailed everything that I was going to bring up. But when you give Caitlin Jenner, I mean, I'm sorry, Brittany Griner a shot. No.

She get pushed around. She could pushed around. Okay. Back in the day, at the 24th, I just paid against Cheryl Schultz and 50s all the time. They got hanged for a little bit, but when it got crunch time, like you said, had to get fiscal and had to score. Of course, we kind of, you know, put it to them. But I think the Kentucky Cooper and Sheriff and Brittany Griner was at least get a shot. I hang up a listen.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you, Bill, Dwayne, whatever you want to call yourself today. No, Ross, Brittany Grimer actually would further my example. Brittany Grimer is a post player, correct? Griner, yes. Griner. A Nimitz Cougar, great.

Brittany Grimmer. How does she shoot from the perimeter? Do we have any stats on her? I don't know. I know she's six foot nine, but I can, I guess she's going to find her three point percent? No, no, no. don't need to do that.

No, she couldn't hang in a low block. There's just no chance. All right, one more call before we get to our non-Florida stories. Let's say hi to Cinco at 125 on the Matt Thomas show. Cinco, what do you have today? Hey, man, what's going on, fellas? We're good. You know, I think that we'll be allowed to play in the NBA,

and here's why. Because of the emasculation of males. When I grew up, boys were brought up to be men. Now boys are brought up to be males. There's a distinct difference. So because of that, will eventually be emasculated enough for the competition level is brought down low enough where the women will be able to compete. Now, that might sound like a whole bunch of anti-PC stuff,

but it's just the truth in the way that it's going. and if it keeps going that way, I even believe that eventually they'll emasculate it enough to where they'll play in the NFL. Your thoughts, gentlemen? No, I have zero thoughts on that. Zero.

I didn't realize we were bringing up... What do you say? Amasculating or emasculating men or emasculated, Matt? They are? We're bringing them, but we're not bringing up our men to be men anymore. No, that's completely absurd. We turn soft. Why are you sound like you're from Kentucky?

I don't know. You sound like Jim Adler. Mr. Peanuts dead. I'm still recovering from Mr. Peanuts' death. Bywood, did you see what our friend Desiree said on Twitter that she thinks is going to happen on Super Bowl Sunday? What's that? He's going to have a commercial. Mr. Peanut becomes Miss Peanut.

Oh, you think so? He's going to self-in-law? No, I didn't think so. She thinks so. Oh. Remember when IHop went to I-Ber? A hob? Yeah, but they didn't even change.

That was just a gimmick. That's what this could be. No, that's exactly what this is. What we've been talking about Mr. Peanut or doesn't believe it or not, Mr. Peanut yesterday if he was dead? Not a chance. It wasn't dead? Not a chance.

All right. Before I get out of here, we got one more segment with me, and then Gordy and Ross are going to take you the rest of the way. We've got non-Florida stories coming up. Mine involves a mascot in the city of Philadelphia. Ross, where does yours come from? TBD. Good.

I'm glad you prepared it. Nick's got audio with his, which means he's probably going to try to have the best story of the week. Astros, buddy, you of H grad, Tex-Mex connoisseur. Well, is there anybody more Houston than Matt Thomas? No way. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Time now for our non-Flority Stories. Every sports radio, every top 40 music station gives you Florida stories.

We try to do something a little different. give you stories from outside the Sunshine State. Ross, I'll go first. You will go third. Nick will go second. I will start with a topic out of Philadelphia. Chris Greenwell, ladies and gentlemen, is a season ticket holder for the Philadelphia Flyers.

He was invited by the Flyers to take a picture with him, his son Brandon, and the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers, Gritty. The Flyers invited Greenwell as part of an exclusive. event for season ticket holders. But after waiting in line for about an hour behind dozens of fans to get Gritty, a picture with him, something shocking happened, according to Greenwell. Gritty punched Brandon the son in the back.

So says Greenwell. According to Dad, Brandon playfully patted the mascot on the head after the photo was taken. As Brandon walked away, Gritty got out of his chair, took a running start, and punched my son as hard as he could. I don't mean to laugh, but come on now. Officials at Comcast Spectator, the company that owns the flyers, told Greenwald there is no video footage of the incident because the, quote, cameras in an area of the center are focus on other locations.

The company declined to identify who was playing gritty that day. It said it conducted an investigation that included interviews with that person and couldn't verify Greenwell's account. So says the flyers. We took Mr. Greenwell's allegation seriously and conducted a thorough investigation that found nothing to support that claim. Greenwell took his son to see a chiropractor

about a week after the incident. The chiropractor noted that Brandon suffered from mild pain and diagnosed him with a back bruise or a, quote, contusion to lower thoracic spine with sublexation. The dispute has crossed from he said gritty set into the realm of law enforcement. A part a month after the alleged punch, Comcast Spectator and Greenwell could not come to an agreement. The investigation, according to Philadelphia Police, is active and ongoing.

Guys, I'm calling complete BS on this. Where there were plenty of people around, apparently the way to take a picture with the mascot was an hour long. there's nobody else willing to cooperate and say I was an eyewitness of this it sounds made up agree or disagree innocent until proven guilty I'm on I'm on Gritty's side

no matter what if Gritty punch that kid that kid deserved it you don't know that I'm on Gritty can do no wrong in my eyes why do you want to attack Gritty all he did with the wait a minute we don't even know what Gritty did that's what I'm saying

the true self shall say gritty free. So you think that this dad, why would the dad make this up though? How much is he suing for? I don't know. I didn't say. But I do actually do believe that he made it up.

But it's just, how weak is that? Why would you as a 13-year season ticket holder for the flyers? You get a rare, I can say a rare. You get an opportunity to interview. You can take a picture of the mascot, and that's how you leave it. Your son is scarred for life, I tell you. You shouldn't mess with the people in costume. That's true.

I wanted to, when I was in a promo and radio in Austin and I had to dress up as a cow and kids were pulling my tail, I wanted to punch them. Wait a minute. You have buried this story for that long? I told this story before. No, you've never told us about you dressing up as a cow. Oh yeah, I was in promotions in 2008 in Austin, and there was Case 101, you know, the country station up there, Matt. And they had the Case 101 Cash Cow. And when I was in promotions, sometimes I had to dress up as the Cash Cow. Is there any pictures of this?

I don't think so. That suit stunk, by the way. Oh. Well, it's got to be dry. It's not like, no, it smelled like Lysol. They would just spray it down with Lysol and go on your day. And that's my non-flour-story story. People would be wearing that in Austin.

It'd be like 95 degrees and people are out there in the cash cow costume. And I was a little too tall for it. This feels like another non-for-a-story for next week. Nick, you're next. Well, mine happens to sort of relate to your. mine comes from San Jose and but mine is a story of heroism not of any little kids getting punched or anything but I'm going to let Ken Bastida of Channel 5 KPIX San Antonio tell the story for me well some video of a bizarre scene on the streets of San Jose several people who'd been attending

Furcon Friday night came to the aid of a screaming woman inside of a car. One man dresses a pink dinosaur, another as a tiger, and several more. Help pull a man out of the car who've been assaulting a woman. They then sat on him and held him for police.

Suspect arrested for domestic violence. Two heroes. A pink dinosaur, and it looks like a bright red tiger, if you want more specifics on that costume. But yes, the trending Furcon, the convention for furies, Are you familiar with furies, Matt?

Never been to a furcon. I've been to a Comic Con, but not a Furcon. Furries are disgusting people that dressed up like animals and have sex with each other. How do you know this? It's been on the Internet. Fair enough. Nick, thank you for your contribution. You're welcome.

Apparently they're good people as well. I'm sure they are. Gentle. And law and citizens that were willing to people put people under arrest if necessary. Ross, your story. Well, my story has to do with a young lady. And, you know, I don't know where she was because she was posting on the internet. That's what this story starts out.

Apparently, a woman was supposed to get married and she had purchased a wedding dress for about $2,000, quote, out of my pocket. So, unfortunately, she didn't get any help with her parents. And she had her wedding canceled. Why you ask? well the groom was at his bachelor party and he cheated on her with a stripper

ooh so she found out about that and of course canceled the wedding and then she had this dress and she didn't know what to do with it and she's a seamstress so she decided to

quote take her power back and began altering the dress oh no she started to alter the dress and make it less weddinging and she had a beautiful gown that she could use for other things.

Well, after posting on her Instagram, how she had altered her dress to, quote, take her power back. Apparently, her sister got really mad at her because her sister wanted to use the dress for her wedding. She was upset about this, and she said, I think it's pretty insensitive for your sister to expect to use your wedding dress,

and now her and her sister are not talking, and that's the story. So how did she alter the dress? How bad did she alter it? She just made it look like a regular evening gown, apparently. Okay. So you have sister mad at other sister because she can't use the wedding dress she was going to use, but then her boyfriend or fiancé basically ruined the wedding by hooking up with a stripper at the bachelor party.

Yes. Okay. That's frankly sad. I can't comment much on this, right? No, you want to make, you want to even more sad? Sure, why not? While she was altering the dress, she said, I'd been very depressed since every. happened because I felt it was somehow my fault for not being sexy enough or not wanting to give him what he wanted.

Damn. By way, what is a protocol on the ring on that? If you give her the engagement ring and you cheat on her during the Bachelorette, Bachelor party? Yeah, he might have to take the L on that ring. Do you, do you, does she have to give the ring back? I would like it. I would have liked it back. Wait, what?

That's why I wasn't involved in this story. But if I was in his shoes, you probably want it back, but you probably would probably. understand if you don't get it back. Yeah, how do you politely ask that? Hey, yeah. You're over there at your apartment, getting your stuff. Right. You're taking some of your clothes, some of your belongings, maybe your iPad, whatever.

Correct. Yeah. Do you have that ring, by the way? I'm going to need that bad. Smart woman would have pawned it already. Yeah. She probably did. Because look, there are some people that you've all known that have decided to end engagements.

And it's because they mutually decided to it. I don't think the girl wanted to end their engagement, but he did clearly because he had relations with the stripper. This is where we need a good legal advisor to the Matt Thomas show to step down on these times. That's true. All right, those are our non-flora stories this week. Gritty, we will keep you updated on Gritty situation, right? We need like action news updates.

So everybody, if you all see any updates on Gritty, let us know. Because at this point, it sounds like the season ticket holder is trying to sue or get some money. from the Philadelphia 76ers because, or the Philadelphia Flyers, excuse me, because his son has some back pain that obviously gritty impose on him, but there is no eyewitnesses to such event. This sounds like the hot dog lady and the Astros. Remember that? Wasn't that the Astros?

Excuse me? The lady got the hot dog away. Where was that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She broke her finger. It was a hot dog cannon or whatever. Yeah, no, that wasn't the Astros. Hot Dog Cannon was somewhere else.

What was the Astros one? There was an Astros one. It was the T-shirt gun. The T-shirt gun. The actual doesn't have a hot dog cannon. Can a hot dog break a finger? Can a flying T-shirts break someone's finger? The hot dog cannon, where was that?

Let me tell you about bronze roofing. You tell the audience up of that where it is. Good morning, strippers. Shower with the Matt Thomas show. Wash off the glitter and daddy issues. We've got some very important information from Steve and Katie here. I was telling this story last week. Hi, welcome back.

Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas. As he is now jet-setting off to Minnesota with the Houston Rockets as they go off on a four-game road trip. They got Minnesota. Then it's a back-to-back in altitude with Denver and Utah. and I believe Portland is the fourth leg of that road trip. So Matt Thomas out with them, and it will be with you with me and Nick Lowe. It's 713, 2,1, 2,5, 790, 7.1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 570. Talking in the last segment about apparently there was a story where there was an engagement broken,

and Matt and I were speculating and just thinking out loud, what happens with the ring or with the engagement ring, which now, by the way, men are getting engagement rings, right? Who was it? Was it Lindsay Vaughn who got? Got her man, an engagement ring? The guy after Tiger Woods? Yeah. P.K. Subbin or Subbon, I don't know how to pronounce his name because I don't watch hockey.

But yeah, what if they break up? She bought him an engagement ring. I mean, do men want engagement rings? I mean, I'll sell it. So how rolling it's, I guess you could sell it. And why do you get an engagement ring and a wedding man? That's always confusing me. But first of all, let's get to Steve, who has the wedding ring situation. He has the perfect answer for what should happen. Steve, go ahead.

not going to take credit for it. Joan Collins had a column 40 years ago, and the question is, Joe and I broke up with my boyfriend. Should I give back the ring? And the answer was, yes, give back the ring. Keep the diamond. I'll listen to your own. Ah, okay. I like that. Give back the ring. Keep the diamond. No, sell the ring and the diamond. I think she should sell it. What should really happen, though, Nick? well the problem is a lot of people say whoever is the one that broke it off should not get to keep the ring and whoever didn't break it off should get to keep it the problem is take this particular situation who broke it off the engagement you don't know made you know that he wanted to work through it i mean it was at his bachelor party right you think he was like look look i hooked up with this stripper at my bachelor party yes at his bachelor party

I mean, he might have still been down to get married. He probably was. So technically, he didn't break it off. She did. Okay. So he should get the ring, right? But she broke it off because of something he did, Nick. That's irrelevant.

I think that's completely relevant. What if you mutually agree? You're like, is there ever a mutual parting of ways and relationships? Or is it always like at least one person really saying, hey, you know what? Let's get this done with. Like, like, when Alex Cora with the Red Sox, and they say they have mutually agreed to part ways. Or Carlos Beltran with the Mets, we have mutually agreed to part ways.

It's clearly mostly one person's fault. We really know it was the Mets and the Red Sox. So we're like, okay, you've got to get out in your ass or we're going to fire you. And they're like, oh, yeah, you know what? Yeah, let's mutually agree to part ways. Is that how it is in most relationships? I would say most of the time, it's far more one person's fault than the other. But, I mean, if you both just hate each other,

then I guess you could come to a mutual agreement that you made mistake. Yeah, what a few, like, has there ever been a time in human history where they both, both the wife and the man have said at the exact same time? I want a divorce. That's a good question. I don't know. Probably. I figure it would happen at some point. But, yeah, we, I just, I think that the man should get the ring back because he spent the money on it.

That's not her property. That engagement is saying, hey, well, first of all, why does an engagement ring even happen? What is the intent of an engagement ring is to say, you are going to marry me, here is this ring, hang on to this until we get married. And if the engagement is revoked, give me my ring back. This is my engaging rings are stupid to begin with. Engagement rings are very, I mean, isn't jewelry in the first place? I mean, all of this. I mean, I was looking, I just Googled engagement ring.

First of all, I said, do you give back your engagement ring? That's what I put into Google during the break. there is a $30,000 Cardié engagement ring it's free shipping by the way $30,000 and $800 free shipping

what if FedEx loses your $30,000 engagement ring you got to insure that bad boy right insure it before they ship it to you I hope so this cardiac this cardiac engagement ring

it's got flowers and diamonds all over it it's 30 thousand yeah engagement rings in the first place are a scam because why do you even get one You know why you get one so a woman can show it off to her lady friends, right? Is that the only reason engagement rings even exist?

Yes. Are engagement rings just an American thing or British? Like, where did they even get? I need to get to the bottom of this. I don't know when they originated, but I think it goes back a ways. Well, I think they're ridiculous and a complete waste of time and money. All right. If women want to play in the NBA, they have to give up the engagement ring thing.

We have to make a deal. This is like a whole thing. you want to get in the NBA, no engagement rings for anyone ever. You've crossed that barrier and we're all good. You think so? I think that's fair. Yeah, we were talking about that earlier with Matt. I just, I understand it's fun to think about like a Lina Deladon or Diana Tarasi who's six foot and them scoring and all that type of stuff and shooting up threes. I think they could do it. I just think on the defensive side is where you're going to get absolutely mauled and when it comes to rebound and you're not going to be able to box.

I mean, how is Diana Tarasi going to be able to box out anybody on the low block in the NBA? I mean, in their defense, there are some pretty useless defenders in the NBA. That's true, but I think even they would be better. I think even who is the worst defensive player you can think of ever? Mugsy Boggs? Yeah, that's pretty bad. He's not a good one. I mean, I think even for the most part, you're going to be a lot better than what you're going to get from a

NBA player. I don't know, just my opinion. Okay, we're going to take a quick break here. It is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. If you want to get in, 713, 2,1, 2,125. 790 is the phone number 7-1-3-21-5. 790. We've still got a lot of stuff to get to. We talked about Eli Manning. Does he deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? Whitmerfield had some strong comments to say about the 2018 season and him proclaiming himself an All-Star. I have proclaimed myself the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, so we got all that to get to here. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show as we go along here on Sports Talk 790.

Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas show. Straight up here on Sports Talk 790. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, because he is traveling with the rockets as they set on a four. a game road trip after winning last night against the Denver Nuggets, even though Denver Nuggets didn't have all of their horses, but that's okay. The Rockets still got a win, and Matt Thomas is out for the remainder of this hour,

and now I'm joined by one Chris Cordy, Chris. How are you? What's going on, Ross? Are you still basking in the glow of the LSU greatness? I am, and our next guest is doing the same as well. But, you know, we've been talking a lot by the Astros and the sign stealing thing and all this, and obviously every day there is some new bit that comes out. Like today, the dude from the Royals, Whitmerfield came out and said he thinks he should have been the All-Star in 2018 instead of Jose Al-Tuvae.

All this other crazy stuff. Didn't the Royals fans like crazed Royals fans vote everybody in? So why didn't he get in in 2018? He should have just got more votes. It's getting a little bit ridiculous. But anyway, I wanted to get this guy in as a former big leaguer himself who could kind of look, I think there's a lot of misconception out there on what exactly sign stealing is, what went into all this, when it happened. and all that kind of stuff. So I wanted to get our buddy Ryan Tario in here to kind of shed some light on all this stuff.

But before we do that, I got to ask Terrio. Terrio, what's up, man? What's happening, guys? Hey, so first off, I heard you last week talking about eating soggy nachos at sporting events. When you were a player, did you ever eat any of the concessions when you were playing in the big leagues? Yeah, I mean, we'd suck down a hot dog every once in a while. like if you really servant or, you know, have the clubies run up and grab something. But, hey, look, more importantly, let me just get this out of the way before we get going.

Zion Williamson is back, people. He's back, and the Rockets better watch out, and I cannot wait for this showdown to happen, and my tigers are on top. Yeah, well, speaking of nachos, though, if we put some in front of Zion, he's going to miss the game, Ryan. 100%. They said he was 285. I mean, come on. It's more like 315.

Maybe his upper half is $2.80. And why does he walk like the old man at 24 hour? Why does he like just shuffle? Like I love the fact that he can jump out of the gym. But watching him go up and down the court, it looked like he was like that old man, like let me get them shots off, Pottenham. He looked like that guy at the 24 hour. Oh, dude, he's absolutely overweight.

But it's great, man. I mean, the set shot was the best last night. I was cracking up laughing because I used to guard that guy at the health club over here in Baton Rouge growing up, you know, the 50-year-old that couldn't really jump. Like, he's got a grown man, like, old man health club set shot, and he's just draining him. It's great. You always got to watch the little dude in the corner with the backwards cap that looks like he can't play, and then he goes seven for ten from three.

Like, that's always the guy to watch at the wreck. Yeah. So, Terry, so look, man, we've been talking about this Astros thing since last week, and I actually went back and reread Rob Manford's statement this morning just to see if I missed anything in there because basically, everybody around the league now is just finger pointing at the Astros going you guys cheated, you suck, you should give up the title and all this stuff.

And so I kind of wanted to get you as a former player, first off, talk a little bit about what goes into stealing signs. Because as we've heard, like this goes back to, you know, decades upon decades to, you know, when a guy gets on second base, he's looking in on the catcher to see what goes into it

and what can you really take away? I mean, is it you're just looking, oh, every time he throws down the one, he's going fastballer, like what goes into the signs from the catcher and what exactly can you steal from seeing what he's throwing down? Yeah, I mean, look, it starts at an early age. I mean, I've got a, you know, one of the companies that I'm one of the owners in down here, you know, we sports performance physical therapy, but we also have a baseball academy,

softball academy, and this is it, you know, the second the catcher starts putting down signs at 9, 10 years old, you know, the opposing team or the opposing coach is trying to get them. You know, you're either locked in on the coach giving the signs to the catcher because he's an idiot and doesn't know what he's doing, or you're locked in on the catcher because he doesn't have his legs closed tight enough when you see the sign. I mean, this is something that these players have done since they started playing the game, you know, and it's the cat and mouth, okay, hey, one is going to be a curveball rather than a fastball now. And then you can trick them.

I mean, so it's not something that is pulled out of the air that these guys are just inventing. You know, it is part of the game to a certain extent where you're trying to gain a competitive edge. And it was always gained by human error, if that makes sense, right? You know, never using, obviously, technology, but if the coach was lazy with the signs or if the catcher was. setting up bad or if the pitcher was maybe tipping his pitches, flare in his glove, you know, we would lock in. I'd watch video on pitcher's facial expressions, truthfully. Certain guys would open their mouth on breaking balls.

Or, you know, they put air in their cheeks when they were throwing a fastball. And it was pretty consistent. I mean, you do everything you can to get an edge. So the interesting part, Ryan, was what I read in the findings, was the first thing the Astros were doing was basically they would get a guy on second. he would look in and once he saw a signal, once they deciphered it, they would be able to tell him, okay, now this is what's coming, and they could kind of talk about it in the dugout and all that.

That stuff seems legit. I mean, that seems like legit science stealing. But then what started happening was one of the lower tier guys were going to the video room, and he'd be looking in, and then he'd run into the dugout and go, hey, I think one is a fastball. But what we found from this and what we've kind of heard is that a lot of stuff wasn't an exact science, and sometimes it was off.

And the whole reason it says the Astros stopped doing it in early 2018 was because some of the guys were like, this isn't helping me. You told me it was fastball and they'd throw a curveball. So if we're talking like was it such a significant competitive edge, I think you could argue it might not have been. Yeah, I mean, look, the human error involved in that is probably pretty, you know, pretty substantial. You know, and guys make it smart and screw it up.

Look, I was one of the guys where I never wanted to know what pitch was coming. Now, I would like to know location, you know, but my approach at the plate, I also never sat on pitches. I would sit location. Everybody's different. And certain guys, you know, when I played with Albert and St. Louis, would sit on pitches. And boy, did he hammer them, you know. Barry Bonds was a guy that would sit on pitches, certain pitches.

You know, I never did that. just wasn't very good at it. So I would kind of look either outside or inside. Unfortunately, you know, that's something that happens pretty late. So very rarely do you know where that catch is setting up. If it's exact and perfect, it's a giant advantage. I don't think there's any disputing that. You know, and, but to your point, I had a guy in high school, you know, everybody does it in high school, tries a relay sign. You know, and he relays the wrong sign. I end up punching out and got pissed off. And then after that day, I'm like, all right, I don't want to know. I don't care if you have them. I don't want to know what's

coming. You know, let me just, let me just do it the way I've always done it. Do you think most players, like, what is the breakdown do you think? Do you think most players are like you? I don't want to know. Obviously, there are some that they wanted to know because these schemes keep popping up over various teams and various eras and all that type of stuff. What do you think it is, like the numbers? Like, if I give you, if you give me the 20 major league players, how many of them want to know what's coming? So if it's an exact science, I think every single one of them would want to know. I mean, they'd be lying if they said they didn't want to know. I mean, if I knew that it was going to be

right, of course I would want to know. I mean, it's freaking batting practice for Christ said. You know, I mean, go watch a major league batting practice and watch how far and hard the balls are hit. Well, what's the difference in batting practice in the game? They know what's coming in batting practice, you know. So I think everybody, if it were an exact science and perfect science, now, of course, they're going to say, you know, we stopped doing it because it was screw. I mean, that's a good thing to say there. But I don't know how it could be messed up if you got a guy with the video and it's all happening at fast. I mean, I could see how it probably, you know, maybe could.

but I mean, come on, dude. Like, you're telling me you wouldn't want to know if Kershaw is throwing the slider or the basketball, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just the amount of the amount of competitive edge it's gained from that is it's tremendous. It really is, truthly. The timing of it too, Ryan, is what really intrigued me because I said there's no way in real time, even in real time video, you can let you can.

relay that message that quick because it just seen the catcher throws down a finger boom and depending on what the pet you know some pitchers work slower than others but for the most part that pitch is coming within the next three to four seconds so you know you hear the bang bang from the trash can in the dugout but even still that batter in his mind like you got to have such quick reaction skills to register oh he banged twice that's that's slider i mean like just the science behind this made me doubt one how they were able to do it but also two how effective it could even be. Well, you've got to realize, though, I mean,

split second, that decision's being made from the second, you know, from the time we started playing the game. And I don't know what the number is or how long it takes to identify a pitch. I know it's something stupid. But it's actually an eternity, really, and truly, you know, for a batter to get off the fastball and on to the breaking ball or vice versa. You know, I don't really think. that that's an issue per se of them being able to come off certain pitches. But also, I mean,

think about this. These are major league hitters, man. These are guys that are really, really good. They probably already have a decent idea of what might be coming at that count during that count anyway. You know, I mean, they've done the legwork in the video room. They know what pitch Kenley Jansen throws in a two-one count most of the time. So they already have an educated guess of what may be coming you know, and so having the, this information, you know, maybe it gives them a little bit more confidence, you know, because there are times where especially late inning guys, two pitch guys, closers, setup guys, if you can eliminate one of those pitchers, then you generally have a lot of success. And so offensively, that's what you try to do. You try to take away one pitch so you can only worry about the other one. And the way to do that is to watch video and figure out. and which counts that pitchers throwing certain pitches, you know.

And so, and I don't know, the question for me really more than could it happen or is it effective because I'm pretty, have a pretty strong feeling on that. I would have loved to have known what's coming. I might have hit more than 17 career homers. I mean, geez. But more, the better question for me is, like, I have to think if one team was doing it, then a lot of teams would. I mean, I really, you know, it's like the steroid thing, guys.

I mean, come on, you know, you got my childhood idols getting crucified in front of Congress. But really, I mean, is that the ones that were doing it? You know, I mean, come on. Let's really be honest. Well, even if it's as simple as, you know, every dugout was set up with the video replay was now set up with these video monitors in the dugout. Like, it's tempting for anyone to go, hey, why don't we just go look at that monitor in there? It's fake focus on the catcher's glove, and let's go try to see what we can, what we can decipher.

here. So you're absolutely right. And maybe we'll find out, I mean, it was not just the Astros and the Red Sucks. That said, look, I'm willing to accept the Astros did something that was against the rules. They, they, and they're being punished for it. But what I can't live with, man, is all this, I mean, everybody is on their high horse now going take away the title. Look, Ryan, the video footage that came out of them banging the trash cans, every clip I saw was like a Tuesday midweek game against the Orioles or the Mariners where the stadium's half empty. If anyone really believes, we were at the Minutemade Park for those playoff games when it was sold out, if anybody really believes they could hear our trash can banging with a sold

out ballpark, everybody on their feet screaming like, get real. So for anybody to think that, oh, they must have cheated their way to it. They were a better road team that year. They hit better on the road than they did at home. So that in itself speaks to they were just a more, they were that talented of a club that deserved to win the World Series outside of whatever they did here. There's no doubt about that last statement. They were a more talented club.

I mean, Jeff Luna, who's a friend and was in St. Louis with me, you know, orchestrated, put together just, I mean, look, I was jealous that I wasn't able to participate or be on a club. The team was loaded. The personality and culture was off the charts. You could see it in the dugouts. you know, when they would play and you've got all these young stars and blah, blah, blah. I mean, I could go on and on.

You know, the loudest stadium that I've ever been in baseball-wise was, I can't remember the exact year. It was early in my career. It might have been 05, like, beginning. But I faced, we were playing Houston, and I think they were, they crunched the playoffs maybe that day. But I was the last batterer of the game. I ended up popping up in the infield. and you couldn't hear yourself think. Like, there's no way you're hearing anything.

So to your point there, absolutely, 100% agree with that. All right, Ryan, and before we get you out here, a couple of more questions. First of all, I wanted to ask you, what do you think about A.J. Hinch getting, of course, suspended is fine, but then he got fired. Do you think, I mean, there is a story, of course, that he had destroyed the monitor a couple of times. How much authority does a manager have to wear, I mean, how much does a guy let things slide or say, how much should A.J. Hinch have done that much more and kind of said, cut this out and make everybody stop? Or do you think it was kind of, would be commonplace for a manager to try to turn a blind eye and let the players do their thing? Oh, man, I really hate it for A.J. I hate it for Cora. You know, I think that's two of the best young minds. in the game. And, you know, so it sucks.

It sucks just like it sucked for all the steroid guys, you know, because of what they did on the field. And, you know, I don't know, man. I mean, that's a great question. Excuse me. I think that him taking the fall and Jeff's taking the fall for that, I think is unwarranted. I don't believe they should have been suspended.

excuse me. I do believe they had to be suspended. You're the CEO of the company, so I get it. But the fired thing, man, just I don't know. I mean, it's unfortunate. I know why they did, and we can sit here and talk for hours about the MLBPA and the strength and the union and how that plays into this. You know, and you've got some pretty big names, man, that are associated with this.

You guys know, I mean, the future of the game walking around in Houston, right? So do you want to directly implicate anybody and what does that do to the game when everybody already thinks it's fragile, which I don't agree with? But that's the general consensus of people that don't understand the game. You know, somebody's got to get punished. Somebody's got to take the fall. It's just unfortunate for those two. I don't think it's fair, man, for those two guys. I really don't.

You know, but it is what it is. It sucks. You know, I would love to, I would love for, and this will never have. happened, but for somebody to come out and say, no, man, it was me. Actually, I kind of started this thing, you know. But, of course, that'll never happen. Well, one last one for you, Ryan, before we get out of here, the Astros are obviously interviewing managerial candidates.

They need somebody to come in and kind of write the ship. You know, one of the early names that came out, which I would have loved, is a guy that you played for, and obviously won a World Series with was Bruce Bochie. But some other guys, I think Dusty Baker was a guy you came into the league with with the Cubs. His name's been out there, John Gibbons, Jeff Bannister, who was with the Rangers recently, Buck Showalter. Just kind of a thought on some of those names, and who do you think would be the right guy to step in? Because this roster is obviously still loaded with talent. They just need somebody to come in and write the ship.

I mean, Bochie would be the obvious guy. I mean, if he's willing to do it and he wants to continue to manage, I mean, I think it's votes for sure. Just one of my favorites, I was very blessed, man. I had Tony Larusa and Joe Torrey and obviously Dusty and Boch and, you know, so it's a pretty good list of guys. But for me, Boch is a players manager. He commands or spitz. When he walks in the room, people turn around and listen.

You know, he looks a little bit like Shrek so he can be intimidating, right? You know, kind of mumbles when he talks. But he's a, he's a, for me, he'd be a great fit. think Dusty would be a bad fit either. Either one of those guys are going to command respect. It's a young team. Right now, they're thirsting for leadership. Dude, you lost your gym and you lost your head coach, right? So a young manager without a lot of skins on the wall is not the right guy right now. I mean, you need somebody that can come in and really kind of assert themselves as the authority figure, you know, get everybody back on the same page. I mean, I would say,

Boch first and then probably dusty right after, man. Awesome. He is Ryan Terrio, former Big Leaguer and a former World Series champion and a diehard LSU fan who's still basking in the glory of LSU winning their title game a week ago. Ryan, thanks for the time, man. Really appreciate it. We'll have to do this again real soon. Hey, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, Matt, Ryan, Terryo there. We need to grab a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show, Chris Gordy and Rossville. He'll be back right after this. No fear. No worries. And no.

Hair. It's the Matt Thomas Way. Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas Show. Matt Thomas Show continues here on Sports Talk 7.9. Until 3 o'clock. Without Matt Thomas, Ross via Real, Chris Gordy, with you. Thanks to Ryan Terrio with some good conversation there. He's all pumped up about Zion Williamson. He is, yeah.

I got to be honest. Once the Rockets, you know, look like they had their game in man, I flipped over. I was like, let me see a little bit of the eye. And he was not good in the first three quarters. Just look fat, slow. Turn the ball over a lot. Turnovers.

And then that fourth quarter, it just started to click. Yeah, he went white hot. Yeah, we can talk about that as we go along, but also got a couple of you guys on the phone lines here at 713-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. You know what? Let's go ahead and get Brian in downtown here. Brian, go ahead. Hey, sports, everybody.

Hey, guys. How's it going, Chris? Hey, you know what? But, man, I just thought you guys might want to hear what it felt like, you know, right now with the Dodgers caught about, they want the trophy and this is some other fans. You know, I grew up bleeding Dodger Blue. I grew up in L.A. My grandparents had season tickets, and my sister and I practically lived the Chavez Rene growing up. And you know what?

Now this is all happened, and I'm really a diehard astro fan now, I'm almost more embarrassed for the Dodgers than I am the Astros because these guys call them. trying about a trophy that they never won. It's ridiculous. And I just thought I'd throw that out there. Explain to me. Explain to me. They were saying that game seven of the World Series A year was at Dodger Stadium, correct? Yes, sir.

That's the game that they torched, what's his face, the former Rangers pitcher. And he was supposed to. Yeah, you Darvish. And he was supposedly tipping his pitches. They wouldn't have been able to use technology at Dodger Stadium to tip the pitchers, right? And they lost that game fair and square, guys. There was no cheating or nothing that could have even happened, and it was ridiculous. And for them to be crying, to me, is this absurd.

That's why I think it's important to differentiate here. If everybody just wants used blanket statements ago, the aster's cheated the whole season, every at bat, no matter what. Like, no, let's pin it down to what exactly the commissioner found that they did. It didn't say anything that they stole any kind of signs or did anything on the road because it didn't have access to that technology. have a video room to go into when they were on the road. So for that matter, all those games, the Dodgers lost at their home ballpark. I'm sorry. You lost to a team that just was better than you.

Besides that, I mean, I played high school baseball. I was varsity shortstop in high school. Look, man, knowing what's coming is not that great of an advantage anyway. Because you think you know what's coming, but it's never the pitch you think it is. I mean, the whole thing is kind of ridiculous and blown way out of proportion of the former player and hitter. I'm really, I'm really adamant about that. Anyway, I wanted to hear what you guys thought.

All right, Brian. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, the L.A. City Council can issue all the kind of doctrines and all that type of stuff and talk about the MLB all they want. It's just sour grapes. It's going to be fine. And the Dodgers should just be embarrassed. I think I only think Dodgers fans should be embarrassed of themselves, especially if they're going to have a convoy of them going to Anaheim that's watch Angels games and boo the Astros.

I'd encourage anybody because like I said, when the findings came out from Manfred, I'd kind of skimmed through it and was, you know, I was more like, oh my God, he's suspended Hinch of Luno for the whole season. And then obviously later that day, we find out that they were both terminated. But I went back and reread the whole thing over again today. And I had to say, I took a step back and went, wow, like he clearly says here, they have no evidence that they did anything in the 2019 season. Yes. And basically early in the 2018 season, they did away with whatever they were doing too. They felt like it was, I think the words were distracting and not at all helpful.

And this is why you tore down your entire franchise for something that probably didn't even help. And the John Boy videos that came out on social media that he was breaking down, go back and look at those games. Those were midweek games against crappy opponents where Minutemate Park's half full. And yeah, you can clear his day here banging on a trash can. But again, like all those playoff games, against the, what the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Dodgers,

those are all on DVD and YouTube. Go back and watch those games. And by the way, Fox and MLB TV and TBS, they had microphones everywhere in that ballpark. Go back and watch those games and tell me if you hear anything banging in those postseason games. Right. Nobody's found any yet.

So, okay. Just for the point of record, like, if we want to say that postseason tainted, well, I'm going to need some evidence that it was tainted. Okay, they're not going to take anything away. So the fans can, it's basically out of the MLB, they're not going to do anything. Fans want to say it's tainted. They're going to have wrong perceptions about everything.

And in 2019 and buzzers, just read the report. Nothing happened there. And unfortunately, it's for something that probably didn't even help that much. Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas show continues here on Sports Talk 790 without Matt Thomas.

He is traveling with the rockets as they set on a four-game road trip that ends in Portland and begins tomorrow night in Minnesota. Couple of you guys on hold at 7-13-1-2-125-790. So let's go out to the phone lines and talk to Sean in the Woodlands who wants to talk about engagement rings. We were talking earlier. There was a story where a guy had cheated on his fiancé with a stripper at his bachelor's party. She broke off the engagement, blah, blah, blah. We were wondering what happens to the ring. Sean, do you have an answer for us?

Hi, how you doing? First off, I just want to say, you guys are awesome and you're so good to like your callers compared to like 610 who you've now got me from. I don't like 610 anymore. Just wanted to say that. That's a smart idea on your choice. Smart choice on your part, if I can speak. Sean, go ahead.

Well, they did. They made me wait an hour and a half and didn't even answer when I wanted to talk about Bill O'Brien, which if you want, I can mention later. But as far as what we were talking about, the wedding ring. So I had an interesting, I was married, so it wasn't like before, you know, and we got a divorce, and I didn't really want a divorce, but it was my, choice. So, you know, she had lost the ring probably three months before we got divorced. And the insurance paid out like 12 grand. And I was going to, I asked her if she wanted me to, you know,

buy her another ring. This is while we were still married, you know, something nice, even nicer than the last one. And she said no. So I ended up, you know, benefiting 12 grand from that. Nice. You know, it's nice, right? But that's my point. Like, it could go either way. It just depends on, you know, the relationship. And in my case, it was kind of an interesting, you know, benefit to my, you know, divorce payout.

All right, Sean. And did you want to make a point on Bill O'Brien? I did. Well, I was trying to make it on 610 when some crazy men ran me off the road. And that's another story. But, yeah, Bill O'Brien, so they were talking about Bill O'Brien not being able to make the right call and not having the ready play and saying, well, you know, maybe he'll get better if he hires another coach or whatnot. And I think that's just ridiculous. The guy can't pull the trigger.

He's not a chess player. He just can't handle the pressure. So regardless if there's another guy, if it comes to Bill O'Brien making a decision. decision. He just doesn't have that that ability. And I think that they just kind of missed that in their talk. And also with your talking about the Ryan and the Strow's, I thought Ryan made a good point. He brought up the batting practice that they don't, sorry to go through so many different things. I just had it all in my head while I was waiting. But the batting practice, he said that they know what pitch is coming? Why is that? Why don't they do bad in practice without knowing what pitch is coming? Wouldn't that help them practice

better? And I don't know if you want to hear the story about why. That's good, John. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate you getting in. And thanks for making a call. A lot of stuff to get to there. First of all, in Al-Briand, yeah, he has an offensive coordinator. It's Tim Kelly. So, I mean,

I understand he's making decisions and all that type of stuff, but I'm definitely a guy who thinks that Bill O'Brien probably has a little bit too much on his plate. I think he needs an offensive coordinator who calls plays. But Tim Kelly doesn't do that, and Bill O'Brien calls the plays. And we've seen the results. It's mixed. Some of the play calling is good.

But I think when it comes to crunch time, when it's two-minute drill, when it's what do I do here and there? And that's when the mistakes start happening. Beginning of the game, and it's first in 10 on your own 30, Bill O'Brien's fine. But when it comes to making quick decisions and making the right decision, I think that's where Bill O'Brien struggles. 713, 2, 1, 2, 157.

Struggles in many factors. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. So we were talking about the Zion thing with, I'm sure you watched, I know you're, are you, do you consider yourself a Pelicans fan? No, I'm a Rockets fan. Okay. Then how come you had a Pelican, how come you had a New Orleans Hornets jersey, and you were all excited when you got the number one pick that landed you, Anthony Davis? Because that was 2012. Okay.

I lived here like a week. Okay. I'm just asking. And the Rockets weren't at that time in 2012. They didn't even have Hardin yet. I think they got him in 12, right? Later that year. Anyways.

So what do you think about? Obviously, a lot has been talking, is Mark Jackson was upset, and people were saying Mark Jackson is fat-shaming Zion Williamson. I mean, I think you look at him. I understand he's 6-6-285, and he's one of only like three players in the NBA that's 285 or more. But he doesn't look like he's fat. He just looks like he's thick.

And he looks very muscular, certainly in his arms and shoulders. He's still a little, he's got a little pudge on him. So look, I think the guy has not been able to practice or play basically since, you know, Summer League.

I think once he gets out there and starts playing a couple games a week and they start ramping up his playing time and all that, he's going to start. to shed those pounds. Like when he's practicing all week and then playing in real games, he's going to start to shed that weight. And honestly, look, we only saw about, you know, those like, what was it? That, that good

stretch of five minutes last night in the fourth quarter where he went off. That's scary. It's scary from a standpoint of a Rockets fan that we're going to have to deal with this guy in the division for the next handful of years. And Luca Donchich. Well, yeah, him. I mean, and then the Memphis kids, the John Morant is already outstanding. Like, it's a little scary of where this division could be in four or five years from now. If all those guys are becoming superstars and, you know, let's be real.

Harden right now is one of the best in the game. But where is he four years from now, five years from now? You know what I mean? Like when all these youth movement of these 19, 20-year-olds killing it as rookies, it's just a little scary. You hope the Rockets sustain, you know, strong success for many. And again, as long as Hardens here and playing at this level that he is, and possibly Westbrook's around a long time too,

they're a great one to punch. But it's like I said, the Rockets have had the benefit of the last handful of years that this division's not been lights out. Like we've seen kind of the end of the error of the Popovich crew with Manu and Tony Parker and all them. We've seen the Mavericks really be down in those, you know, those down-lean years of the final years of Dirk. Memphis has not been good since the grit and grind kind of ended.

So, rockets have really had the benefit of the doubt and whipping up on a lot of these teams. And the Pelicans have not been good either. Pelicans are going to, I think they're going to be real. I mean, you've got Zion, Brandon Abram is a borderline all-star. Yeah, I mean, he's after 25 a game. He's dropping 50 every now.

If they lock him, and don't forget, all those assets they got from the Lakers, like those future first-round and second-up picks, like, that's a lot to play. with him. I mean, Reddick, Drew Holiday, Derek Favors. I mean, Lonzo Ball is shooting well from three this year. That's a, I mean, Jackson Hayes, the great former Longhorn great. Yeah, is that why the Longhorns are struggled in this year? Because they lost Jackson Hayes. They lost Jackson Hayes. Yes, they're really struggling. By the way, a big one on Saturday. Oh, gosh. LSU had to talk about it. Take on. Shocker Smart with three first round picks and zero

tournament wins. So good stuff there. We'll have that game for you right here on sports talks. That's right. 1230 ahead of the sports RV show starting at 11 a.m. You want to do a special local pre and post game for that one? No, I do not because I don't think that's going to go too well, but that's okay. All right, we've got to take a break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. That's Chris Gordy. I'm Ross V. Real. Nick Lowe along the way, final segment of the Matt Thomas show next.

Stop that wave. Busting the wave since the stroves were in the dome. Who are you going to call? Wave Busters. Houston Sports Talk continues. the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas show continues here on Sports Talk 790 without Matt Thomas. He is traveling. He'll be back tomorrow here on Sports Talk 790.

Ross via Real Chris Gordy with you. And Gordy, how closely you've been following the slow deterioration of Antonio Brown's career even after football? So now he's probably not going to be with another team considering all this stuff that's been happening. The day he was recording the music video with all the women. in at his house is the day I checked out and said I don't care what the hell happened. I mean, he finally got dropped by Rosenhaus, which, I mean, come on, Drew Rosenhouse needs as many big name clients as he can get. So for him to wait that thing out all the way to the very end and find it before dumping him, that's, yeah, I saw, I've seen some of this crap about what,

he's been accused of assault or whatever. Assault and battery. So apparently, so the story is he had some stuff stored. in California, presumably when he was in Oakland Raider, he had some stuff over there. He's living in Hollywood, Florida, home of Josh James, a birthplace of Josh James, and he's having the stuff shipped there, and apparently the shipping company told him it was going to be $4,000. He said, okay, whatever. They shipped the stuff over there. The driver is supposed to collect payment.

He says, I'm not paying you, so the driver says, okay, I'm not unloading the truck, and I'm going to drive off. As he's driving off, Antonio Brown throws a rock at his truck. damages it somehow. I don't know if he hit the cabin or if he broke a window or what exactly Antonio Brown did. Then he gets on the phone with the moving company, agrees to pay $4,000 plus $860 in damages and extra labor for the driver. So the driver goes back and then refuses to pay the 860. He says, I'm only playing $4,000. And as the driver is going to try to drive off, apparently he and his personal trainer, Antonio Brown and his personal

trainer, went into the cabin, beat the dude up, took his keys, and then unloaded the truck. But apparently we now, the newest information is we have the 911 call. This is the, is this the delivery driver? Yes, this is the driver of the truck calling the police. He called the police when the truck first got damaged. So is this after he got his ass kicked or this is after? This must have been after the initial confrontation. But before the ass kick.

Let's hear the 911 call. Broward County Regional Communications. May I help you? Yes, ma'am. I have a situation here. I'm making delivery. I'm a truck driver. I'm making delivery. I'm making delivery. And the guy is high. He's smoke. He's threatened me. He's trying to fight. He throws stones in my truck. And this company's truck. So I need the policeman. I need to make a report. so he's he's high he's throwing stuff and he's trying to fight me he says about Antonio Brown it's always Broward County isn't it how often is it something crazy happening here you guys always do the Florida stories yeah exactly the Florida story is something not bad is always going down in Broward County imagine being this driver though doesn't it feel

like he's got to hit like he's got to end up in jail hit rock bottom for this to finally try to write the ship I think he I think he's legitimately got to screw loose I I think he needs mental hospitalization. Like when I heard from my buddy who works with the Saints, he goes, yeah, Saints were bringing in a bunch of guys to work out that morning. They said, hey, Antonio Brown, why don't you come by? One of like five or six receivers they brought in. They said, all right, look, when you get here, just don't bring anybody with you, just come

by yourself. He shows up with an entourage. They go, look, just don't take any pictures or anything. He starts shooting video and pictures once he gets in the locker. They're like, they takes out a picture, takes a picture of the agreement and tweets that out there. Like, what part of follow the rules did you not understand? Like, yeah, didn't he, didn't he say he got, then he'd gotten mad at somebody for quote unquote leaking it. And he was the one that leaked it. He posted his waiver on Instagram, correct? You're, like, the Saints were like,

you're the one looking for the job here. Like, we don't, we're done. Like, see you late. And then he wouldn't leave. They said he went to the cafeteria and, like, took a picture. He's like eating with everybody. He took a picture with Zion Williamson. Really? They share the facility with the Pelicans and the Saints. It's like, dude, leave. You're done. Your workout is over. That's funny. He's just trying to stay and hang out. Hey, guys, so what are we doing tonight? What?

What are you still doing here? Yeah, Antonio Brown has got a screw loose. And then I was talking with Inde about how he had posted those texts that Drew Rosenhouse had sent him and acted like they were damning and called him a fraud. And all the texts from Drew Rosenhouse were like, hey, man, let me help you with this. I will always help you. Even if you're not my client, I'll help you with your grievances against the Raiders and Patriots. Just let me help you. And then he posted that and acted like he's some kind of fraud.

I think Antonio Brown has obviously got to screw loose. And the person I feel sorry for, how do you feel if you're this truck driver? Like you go cross-country and you're moving and you're an 18-wheeler driver or whatever. I don't know how much stuff Antonio Brown had. If you had like a small U-holesworth or what kind of property he had, you take it all the way cross-country. And maybe even he knew who Antonio Brown was. He's like, oh, cool, I'm going to meet Antonio Brown. This is awesome.

And you go there and you're getting rocks thrown at your truck. and then you're getting your ass beat by him in the trainer. I would feel great. You think he's going to get some money out of this. Oh, yeah, that's payday. I'll take an ass beating for that payday. Real quick, we've got some news out of Las Vegas. Uh-oh.

Today, the Raiders officially became the Las Vegas Raiders. They had a big ceremony yesterday at Allegiance Stadium. It was proclaimed Las Vegas Raiders Day, and Mark Davis announced the Raiders. We'll be making a big donation to the state. Nevada and all this stuff. So they're ready to go. The stadium is ready to go.

And now whenever you refer to them, no longer Oakland, no longer drop all that. Yeah. It's Las Vegas Raiders. Las Vegas Raiders feels right, though. Just the name of the team and what they represent and all this crazy stuff that's happened in the organization. Oakland probably felt pretty good too,

but Las Vegas feels like the right place for the Raiders. So there's a lot of people who travel to follow their NFL teams during the season. You know, like when the Texans schedule comes out. Typically, like this season, they open this season with the Saints in New Orleans on Monday night football. A lot of Houston fans, wait. You know what? Let's go to New Orleans. We'll make a weekend out of it.

We'll go Saturday, Sunday, Monday, stay for the game. The one destination city that's going to pop up for everybody now is Vegas. If your team is playing the Raiders in Vegas, that's the one that you put a circle around and go, yep, that's the that's why me and Matt have said we need to invest in season tickets for the Raiders and get in the secondary market. You will always have a market

for your tickets. They should sell out. every single game. You want to link up with the traveling Texans? You can go in all the road games? I don't know if I want to associate with those people. Some of those people scare me. But that's okay. Which ones? The guys with the masks on where you don't see what they look like.

Clearly, they've got a lot of disposable income. So maybe I do need to be hanging out with them. All right. Before we get out of here, do you see what Scott Boris said today? What did he say? Said the Astros players do not need to apologize. Of course he did. How many of them are his clients?

He said, well, Altuvase definitely one. He has McCullors. I think he has a couple more. said, quote, I'm doing what my organization's telling me to do. You installed this. You put this in front of us. Coaches and managers encourage you to use the information. It's not coming from the player individually.

It's coming from the team in my stadium installed with authority. He compared it to the speed limit. He said, a man driving 55 and a 35 mile power zone only believes he's spinning if the limit is clearly posted. If it's not posted 55, I don't know. There was a memo from Ron Manfred. And apparently, AJ Hinch talked to the players about it and tried to stop them. Sorry, Scott Boris, you're off base on that one.

On that note, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. Ross Virio. And I want to say thanks to you for listening, calling, tweeting, being involved in the show. Thanks to Chris Gordy for showing up for the last hour hanging out. Thanks for Ryan Terrio being our guest. Thanks to Nick Lowe for producing, doing a great job. It is now time for the A team. Adam Wexler, Adam Clanton.

Next on Sports Talk 790, you don't want to miss it.