The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-24-20

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/24/20Good Morning Strippers! Anything Goes Friday!Saints Allegedly helped Archdiocese cover up child abuse (9:55)Brad Ausmus now in the running for Astros Manager job (40:54)Brian T. Smith on the Astros : "Casting a Wide Net" (1:21:00)

Much larger than life Yeah You sir Lunch timers Is the Matt Thomas show 12-03 Look that's about all I can do I can't do it as good as Matt Thomas

Matt Thomas I'm sorry That's not going to be acceptable There he goes See I just can't do it Matt If you can't belt it out like you I don't have the skills By the way I wish our engineering department

And they're great people would stop experimenting with things at noon. Okay. All right. Well, I'm sorry they have to accommodate fancy mad jet setting all around the country. Minneapolis would not be jet setting. Yeah, it would. Prince lived there.

26 degrees, cold, snowy. By the way, get the music started again. We've got to get people off to Ogre. Home of Prince and Lizzo. All right, hold on one second. 12.04 in H-Town. God! They're wiping their water off their parts of their body.

You usually just nudge them in the ribs and say, hey, you got to go. Do you all say, what does that tat say? Oh, what does that tat mean? Yeah, that's exactly what did you say. Rossi, how are you? Why do you have angels wings on your back? Yeah. They're just trying to get through college.

They're doing it. Yeah, they're just trying to pay off their tattoo artists. Yeah. How are things back in H-town our sports RV? And Simulak. Everything's good, Matt. Weather's good, 60 degrees, beautiful, sunny. We're not in, we're not freezing ourselves off in Minneapolis like you are, but that's okay.

You're used to that. You're a Minneapolis boy. Yeah, I'll tell you what, it's actually, it's like in the 30s here. It's normally in its low 20s like teens. We're catching a break a little bit. Not that it's great, not that you ever want to live here for a long period time. It's a wonderful city. It's just ridiculously cold.

Ridiculously cold. Like unfair cold. But thankfully, all the downtown buildings are connected through skywalks and what went. and we're at one here today. So if you want to take a look at my Twitter account, I am literally in a skyway connecting a mall to the target center. So in Crunch, the Wolf's Mascot just ran by. Man, this is a strange place I did these shows from.

But it is what it is. It's like anything goes Friday here on the Matt Thomas show. And thus anything does go. Ross, explain the essence of the audience. What 7132125790 will do for them on anything goes Friday? Yes, Matthew. Well, on Monday through Thursday on our phone lines here on the Matt Thomas show, at 713, 2,1, 2,1, 2, 5, 790.

We get the longest leash in the biz, and on Friday, it gets even longer. If you want to talk about the Rockets' grudge match against the Minnesota Timberwolf tonight at the Target Center, we can get to that. If you want to talk about the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge, we can talk about that. If you want to talk about the Super Bowl and preview and talking about the total of 53, I think that's a little high, but we can get to that. Radio Row is next week. If you want to get your ideal all-star list of guests, I believe Carl Mecklenburg is going to be available, along with Vince Popoli.

Ed Too Tall Jones. Head Two Tall Jones. Harvey Martin. Jay Lucas. Jay Lucas will be on to this talk to concussions. Oh, Ray Lucas. Same thing. Jay or Ray.

I think it's his second cousin. Cleo Lemon will be available as well. Well, you know, here's the thing. I'm not going to be able to babysit you next week. because I'll be on the road here with the Rockets. Whoa, whoa, what do you mean babysit? Well, I feel like I take your game, at least from an interview perspective to the next level. Really?

So I'm going to be listening as a consumer, as a listener of the show, as you conduct these interviews and how you weave the corporate angles slash how can I make them great radio interviews? Well, I have one word for the job I'm going to do. That is? Masterful. Okay. I was thinking modest, but that's fine. So here's the thing.

Confidence is key, Matt. Yeah, that's right. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you will be in Miami. I will be on the other end of this world. In the Mountain Time Zone is the Northwest Tour of the Rockets Road Trip will continue. That's right. We're going to have you covered from all different perspectives here on Sports Talk 790. And we look forward to it.

All right. How do you reach our show today? 713212-5-790 is how you reach the show. 7-1-3-2-5-790. And I've decided that if anybody comes by, here and stares at me for more than five seconds, I'm going to take a picture of them. Okay.

Either they'll embrace it or they'll run quickly to their next location. Now, last time I did the show in this glass room here, James Hardin came by. So I'm going to try to get a selfie with James before the end of the show today. You're going to ask him for a selfie? Well, I don't think dudes say the word selfie. Yeah, here, let me get a selfie. Yeah, dudes do say that in 2020.

Do they really? Yeah. How about a quick pick? No. Some people will say, it is what it is, Matt. Don't hide it. Don't cover it up. Call a spade a spade.

If you're going to get a selfie, call it a selfie. Why would you hide that if you're going to want to take a picture of yourself just so you can parade it all over your Facebook and Twitter and put my close personal friend James Hardin? And don't forget Instagram at SportsMT. Right. Slow City climbed to 1600. Yeah, we're all over.

The Matt Thomas show is a social platform. But we don't, I don't over, I don't take millions of pictures of myself saying, here I am here doing this. It's on the relevant stuff. That's why you should follow all the social media platforms because I don't inundate you and overwhelm you with too much social media coverage. And that's the obligatory sell for the various platforms of the show.

Just follow adsports MT, please. How's the climb to 30,000 going? It's slow. We're almost at 25,000. Oh, that's good. Which means we're going to be halfway to our trip to Las Vegas sometime in late 2021? Well, five sixth of the way. That's good.

All right. Sport. Look, so I got the room yesterday after going to dinner last night. Your hotel room? Yeah. Your fancy one? It's nice. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you.

And I watched my cougars come back and beat Yukon yesterday. Wonderful. But the last 30 seconds. Do you know, REM? I must have been upset. The last 30 seconds of the game, I mean, if I had here, I would have pulled it all out. They get a, they miss free throws. uh, Jiroe gets a technical foul. And then they get called for a five second giving like,

uh, uh, uh, UCon five opportunities in the last 45 seconds to tire win the basketball game. Thankfully, they didn't do so in the Cougars prevail after overcoming an eight-point deficit late in the second half. Wow. Oh, oh, no. What?

Oh, what happened? Oh, the orchestra, my own segment? The orchestra got warmed up. That's crazy. Crazy? Well, there's what I'm going to say. I'm not going to make this a U of H conversation piece today. You can't orchestra my own segment. I think this may be the second time we've ever done that. I'm just going to tell you a blanket statement about not U of H, okay, about college basketball. It really sucks. At the end of the day, college basketball is brutal. The referees blow their whistle every five seconds, and I wish I was kidding.

it's every five seconds Ross there is no fluidity to it there's no pace it stop here stop here stop I mean and yesterday the last 45 seconds to a minute of that U of H game versus Yukon took about an hour and a half it's very weird it's a different game

for sure I mean just the level of skill and then yes the fouls and the pacing and the offenses it's it's very it's almost it's not of course it's not a completely different game from NBA basketball, but it's about as close as you can be. Well, I can tell you right now, I don't know, and I love March Madness because there's a bracket and there's fun and there's rooting for your team to win a national championship,

but I fully understand why collectively we as a sports society could give two blanks about college basketball from, say, November 1st to March 1st, because it's a brutal sport. Yeah, the tournament is so good because you got eight games on at once, so one or two of them is going to be pretty good. There's going to be some drama, and you love the underdog being the heavily favored team. All right. Anything goes Friday on the Matt Thomas show, 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790, if you'd like to join us. Scott Boros, how powerful would you say Scott Boros is Ross in the world of baseball?

Boris? He is the most powerful agent in sports? He's probably more powerful than half the leagues, right? Yes. He's more powerful than Rob Manfred. Is it him or Rich Paul? Rich Paul's kind of upstart. Scott Boris chimed in on the Astor situation, and you're not going to be surprised what?

what he said. I'll read you the quotes next. Anything goes Friday. Rockets and Wolves here in Minneapolis. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. We're going to have some fun today. Brian T. Smith with us at 2 o'clock as well. 713-212-5-790. If you'd like to join us on Twitter, it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro Nick Lowe. We appreciate listening to the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk, 790. This is Craig Ackerman. And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you. Good gracious. Good gracious. You're listening to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790.

Matt Thomas Show continues here on Sports Talk 790. Ross Villarreal with you. Matt Thomas is in Minneapolis. I think he's busy taking a selfie with a bunch of Minneapolis superstars. Well, Prince is dead. Who's the most famous person from Minneapolis right now? You got me. Jesse the Body Ventura.

Is that where he's from? He was a senator up there. I don't know if he was from there. Got to be Lizzo. She's from Houston, but she kind of came up in Minneapolis. So we'll go with that. 713-21-25-790 is the phone number here on Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

So Nick, I was scanning in Mark Wuljit in just a second. I was scanning the top headlines of the day. What's something we can really sink our teeth into? And now we have Matt. Matt. Yeah. So I'm looking at all the top stories of the day. And this is what we have.

We have saints are involved in some kind of Catholic church sex scandal. Correct. Kareem Hunt cited for speeding marijuana found in car. Yeah. Antonio Brown released after posting $110,000 bond. Yeah. What's going on today? It's a criminal Friday here on the Matt Thomas show.

We had a conversation. I don't know if it was with you or something. somebody else within the last five years. And we try to figure out... I believe it was me. I think it was. You know what I'm going with this, don't you? Yes.

If athletes have a greater percentage of crimes compared to the average individual in America. There have been some, you know, studies, and they're not foolproof done on this. And they're actually, I believe, lower. Usually because a lot of times they're higher income. And so, I mean, lower income people are normally prone to crime because you got to feed your kids or you got to take care of yourself whatever. Correct. Correct. App to Rob Steele and all that. Well, the thing that the reason why we did the research on this was because it was because that when an average person gets involved with a speeding arrest

or drug position, you don't hear about it. The only time when you hear an athlete or a celebrity get involved, you think every one of those athletes and a lot of celebrities do it when it really the percentage is actually smaller than the average person. Right. We're not hearing about the 90 people a lot of the $19 out of 100 that aren't having anything done. And I think a lot of times, I mean, back in the day, like Matt, like back when Greg Cook was out there and acting crazy in Fayetteville and Green Bay and stuff and something would happen, a lot of times a relationship with the reporters was, hey, we'll just sweep this under the rug, we don't need to talk about this, we'll cover up for you.

And reporters would cover up for the athletes. And now it's turned to everyone wants to expose the athletes. Yeah, I can tell you this. I was in a weird situation back in the middle of 1890s. I was working in sports media young. I was also finishing up my education at University of Houston because, as I said before, it took me eight years because I was going to school part-time and going to work full-time. And there were some problems, nothing severe, but involving some athletes at the University of Houston.

And it was like, you know, a minor in possession or maybe somebody had a joint of some sort. I mean, nothing severe, nothing like you heard what was going on at Baylor, or, you know, any sort of massive robberies. Just little simple stuff. And the local police, whether it be the councilable down the highway or somebody at UBA, to be like, all right, just never let this happen again. You know, just get, you know, get away from it, behave yourself, and I don't want to find you here again.

I don't think that's ever going to happen again. I think any little thing that any athlete does from here on out is going to be talked about tenfold because not because we're an anxious group of people that want to see our athletes fall Ross. I just think the amount of media between 1980 and 2020, how many, how many more social, I mean, how many more avenues are there for publications? There's TV, there's radio, there's satellite, there's magazines, there's websites, there's blogs. You're just not going to be able to hide anymore, the little little stuff. And that, I'm not saying that you should, that's justifiable. I'm just telling you that any little thing that the athlete does, you're now

going to get caught and you're going to be on some sort of social platform and you're going to have to address it one way or the other. And that's why I think when you went to your ESPN headlines today because there were no great games going on that stuff like you just brought up now becomes page one material

on the website. Yep. I totally agree with you. It's just more more media, more exposure and more of I guess more of an attitude of let's find out what's happening and what's wrong with everybody and sensationalism. I think I would put it.

Yeah. Like the TMZs of the world trying to put all this stuff out there and get it out there to the public. And honestly, one of the reasons they put it all out there is because we eat it up. So it's our fault, too. Well, the thing of it is is that we ended up because there's nothing else to get into. Like yesterday, I mentioned U of H versus Connecticut. There was a couple of NBA games last night, but they're not going to register with the general sports public. There's probably a little bit of preview towards Super Bowl.

but we're just kind of in a, I wouldn't say a haze, but there's just, it's a downtime, right? On the Astros front, it's gone a couple weeks since we've had the results of the investigation. Rockets are not playing great, and so they're not going to be top of mind, hey, I can't wait for the playoffs to start. And the Texans just do what the Texans normally do in January, so there's really no positive push on that. So any little thing might grab a little attention. I don't know how much you've read about this situation involving the same. Saints. Not a lot. The Catholic Church. And look, there's probably a lot more to be read.

I'm only simply going off of a five-paragraph bit in the ESPN. But, man, oh, man, you're talking about a professional sports team trying to get involved in the cover-up of a sexual abuse charges involving those involving the Catholic Church. I mean, what a twisted, twisted story this may wind up being. And again, we're very much in the infancy on it. But if any of you take a look at it, ESPN, what the hell? is anybody in the Saints doing I don't care what the boss tells you you cannot hide problems within your church and hope that hitting the delete key off an email is going to save everything and not saying you know and not giving not the information so people can

can can convict and and hold accountable those that did some heinous things to people in that community I mean what a mess what a mess I don't get apparently the Saints have statement and Nick Lowe has that. Go ahead. Do we need music for this? You know, probably not.

Not in this particular case. Okay. It is a lengthy statement. Uh-oh. Well, can you paraphrase? Let me read through the whole thing. Give me a second to paraphrase. Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah, let him make his own cliff notes, I guess. Yeah, I mean, we don't want to read eight paragraphs. I mean, again, I really, I mean, Nick only just told me about it when I was walking in. I hadn't seen it. So I'm not exactly sure what's going on. But it doesn't sound good. No, it sounds like the Northern Saints, because of the leadership of that organization. And this is also the Pelicans, too. I mean, this is the team that owns the two different sports franchises in the city are basically covering up for improprieties within the Catholic Church. Okay, I can paraphrase now. Go ahead. Basically, they're saying that the advice that they gave to the archdiocese was, quote simple and never wavering direct open and fully transparent while making sure that all

law enforcement agencies were alerted in quote so they're saying that yes they gave the archdioces advice but didn't commit any sort of crimes or hide any sort of you know evidence or anything like that okay in other words they they are claiming they are innocent of any wrongdoing uh well um i'd be very careful in putting that out there so quickly. We have seen problems where teams have been attacked for a variety of things and put out statements that were not, in fact, accurate. Like I said, I don't know how much it resonates on sports radio, but what I would suggest everyone do is read the story for themselves. And maybe more importantly, just kind of wait a couple days to see what more comes out of this.

But again, the initial blush, first part of this story is that there is a cover-up involving improprieties within the Catholic Church in New Orleans and the Saints knew about it and chose to do nothing about it. So now that we're clearly depressed on it, that's why I didn't want to go to the story too much because it's disgusting, it's sad, and it kind of brings a show down, Ross. Can we bring the show back up? When we come back,

we will do that. And we'll do that. Your hoops. The Houston Rockets. Your hits. And the Astros. And your honest opinions. All in for Houston all day. This is. Sports Talk 790.

Time is 1232. It is the Matt Thomas show, and anything goes Friday. It's 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to get in. Some news from Scott Boris, the agent that is probably the most powerful agent. Do you know Rossi's already negotiated a billion dollars in contracts this off-season? Is that right? That's sick. Damn.

If he gets, let's say he gets one and a half percent of that, that still makes him a very, very rich man. Yeah, I'm sure he's doing okay for himself. I mean, he's got his own hats with logos on him. I've heard. That's true. We certainly saw that not like after game seven, didn't take long. All right, we'll give you some Scott Borough's comments momentarily, but you have an interesting caller you said on line one. Is that correct?

Yes. Mark and Braisewood want to talk about the passing of Mr. Peanut. Hello, Mark. Hey, Matt. Yeah, I'd be interested to know how the Matt Tom. the show on Sports Top 790 plans to address the passing of Mr. Peanut. I think it's, frankly, it's nuts. The guy was 104 years old and a little shell-shocked that it has not been brought up to your major media market audience there.

Well, frankly, I'm a little upset with you because we honored Mr. Peanut on, believe it or not, was it what Ross on Wednesday? Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Thanks for listening, Mark. Yeah, thanks, Mark. So what do you want to say to that? Do you want to apologize?

I will apologize. It's a new year, new me, and I'm still 24 days in the 2020. But yeah, since I think we're done to cancel culture, I'm going to apologize, and I will continue to listen closely. We're a little salty about it, Mark. Yeah, happy New Year, by the way.

Thank you, Matt. Thank you. I'm staring out your window right now. You better not be. What the? I don't see anybody. you didn't have to roast like that

he's just a shell of himself that was a nutty call I'm running out of things to say okay Matt you're very pee-brained does that count no no

I'm not giving that one thank you no peanut head yeah was that a crunchy or a smooth call Nick is being very judicious

okay try again By the way, the first lurker of the show here from the Skyway, Jonathan Fagan of the Houston. Oh, really? Why don't you get him on the show? It's very busy. Okay. I've only got a single mic input here so it doesn't have to cause, unfortunately.

All right. So you're ready to hear some Scott Boros comments? Sure. All right. So here's what he says. This is so player-friendly, Ross, and this is so lawyer-y of him. Because all these guys are typically a lawyer. not surprising on either front.

Right. He described the mindset the astro players should have in this particular situation. The situation is that I think that earlier this week, Jim Crane said the players will come out and officially apologize for something at some point during spring training. Here is what Scott Boris told the athletics Ken Rosenthal. I'm doing what my organization is telling me to do. you installed this you put this in front of us coaches and managers encourage you to use this information it is not coming from the player individually it is coming from the team in my stadium installed with authority he is saying do not ross apologize just say we were given we did what we were

not necessarily told to do but we were given information and we and we used it but we're not the installed the camera. We're not the ones that created this system. They were just following orders. Basically, these guys are mindless. They have no thoughts of their own. And all by the way, he does actually add one more statement that I want to pass along. It was clear, this is Boris talking, not me. It was clear, and the fans need to understand that this specific ruling and guideline was an action from MLB, but not communicated to the players. Therefore, their perception was that there was no specific rule or guideline but that this gray error existed.

The reality of it is that the apology from the people who had noticed that who the apology should come from. Basically, if you are, the apology should come from anybody in the front office and not from the 25 players. Didn't somewhere in the Manfred, report he say that AJ Hinch told the players about the memo? Yeah, no, Scott's never going to let the information or facts stand in his way in a good

statement. Okay. I'm not telling you that he's, I'm not telling you he's right. I'm just telling you what he said. If Scott really had players of the utmost 100% integrity, he would have said, I had my players when they found out about this, create a massive uproar. shut the door and not let anybody in until you all decide we're getting rid of these cameras and we're never letting this happen and we're never going to allow such any sort of activity

ever to happen within our clubhouse. But the players didn't do that either. Yeah, this is Scott Boris, I mean, why does he even have to do this? Is he released a statement or did he get in front of microphone somewhere? Ken Rosenthal called him and said, hey, you've got players on your team. I mean, Garrett Cole, Jose Al-Tube, Marwin Gonzalez at the time, those are all Boris clients, right? I'll say at least those three. So he's trying to protect his clients because right now, if you've noticed Ross in the last, say, 48 to 72 hours, there are a lot of players around baseball and there are obviously executives and other people that are in the media that are basically asking,

they're saying, man, these players now need to start being held accountable for this and they need to face a similar type punishment that A.J. Hinch and Jeff Leno have suffered through. But what these players don't seem to understand is two things. and I mentioned this before and I'll say it again. One, the information that Rob Manfred would have received would not have been nearly as open and honest if these guys didn't get some sort of amnesty. And maybe that's not the word I should be using, but you know what I'm saying.

Immunity, yeah, from any sort of punishment. They were forthcoming because they were promised if you spill your guts, we will not come after you. And secondly, and the most important thing of these players around Mangelink Baseball understand is you all are a part of a union. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to be, uh, you agree with every single thing a person does, but a union, in theory, through times of suspension and through times of trouble, are supposed to stick together, especially when if Major League Baseball was to go to other baseball teams

and try to find out what dirt these other teams did and what illegal tactics they did. So I think it's a little hollow that these. some major league baseball players are coming out and saying they should have been punished the same way when in fact if they were put in the same situation ross they would have asked for the same amnesty immunity whatever you want to call it so they wouldn't have been personally punished okay here's the line from the report many of the players who were interviewed admitted that they knew the scheme was wrong because across the line from what the player believed was fair competition and or violated MLB rules yeah

Scott failed to bring that up. Scott's basically saying you guys don't admit to anything because you did nothing wrong. You were just told to do something with the information that was provided. It's just mean old AJ Hinch and Alex Coro were saying, hey, you guys are going to do this

no matter what and we're going to do this and you're going to hear the banging no matter what if you wanted or not. We are forcing this upon you. That's what happened? Scott Boris. Okay. Yeah.

It's hollow. It's just hollow. But it's again, it's an agent. trying to back his players and that's what he has to do. Could you imagine if Scott Boris would have said the opposite, Ross? Yeah, I can't wait for these guys come out and admit what they've done wrong. I can't, you know what?

They are certainly culpable for what they've done and they should face the penalty. No chance. He's a, he lawyered up is what he did. He went to the lawyer cliche card. He did everything to defend his client, whether the client was guilty or not. But I just thought it was interesting that the most powerful man in baseball was able to get his two cents in on this. 1241 of the Matt Thomas show. It is anything goes Friday.

It's 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I'm going to ask all of you to do one thing for me this weekend, and I ask you this to do this one time per year, and it never seems to make that big of a difference. But I want you to do something and not watch something this weekend. I'll tell you what that is when the Matt Thomas show continues. It's 7-1-3-21-5-7.

here from Minneapolis. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. And we appreciate you listening to Anything Goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Carmelo Anthony. The Matt Thomas show continues on your home of the Rockets. Sports Talk 790. Yes. There is no other show in the marketplace.

It gives you fresh up-to-date liners than this one. That's now Portland Trailblazer Carmelo Anthony, who we will see on the end of this road trip. Matt Ross, Nick with you on Anything Goes Friday here on Sports. Talk 790, 1247 is the time if you'd like to get in. 713-212-5-790, 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-90 at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro-Niclo. Ross, I've asked the audience each of the, I think almost 10 years you and I've worked together for you not to do something this weekend. Do you know what that is?

Not to do my own taxes? That's good because you probably would fudge them. that's not what I'm looking for, but that's not a terrible way to start things off. Try one more guess. Not to go try to take care of your kids. Oh, I don't want you nowhere near my children, that's for sure. What I'm asking all of you to do. I know what you're going.

You don't want to watch the Pro Bowl. Don't watch it. Why not? Because it's stupid. So what? Because I don't want, I want it to go away. I want, I'm not, it's not hurting you. It hurts me when it's on.

It could be something else could be on. On ESPN? What's on ESPN on a Sunday afternoon? You're missing your bowling? Give me a good NBA game. Are you missing the Cornhole Championships? I'll take a good, I'll take a good, you know, American Athletic Conference matchup. Those don't exist.

I just, I don't want to be get off my lawn guy, but why, when I was a kid, I loved the All-Star games. Now they're just, I'm not even fan of the NBA All-Star game. Like James got elected again to start. I think it's what six years in a row, eight times overall, whatever the case may be, he's been an All-Star. And I have, I'm ambivalent to it. What has happened to me, Ross? Why wouldn't I, as a kid who loved watching Kareem on the same team with Elijah Juan? And why would I love that Larry Bird and Robert Parrish and Isaiah Thomas were on the same floor?

Why did I love that? Why did I love as a kid when Joe Montana would throw a deep pass down the field to say, I don't know, James Lofton? Why did I as a kid love these All-Star games? And now I can't turn off the television fast enough. Because you're an old cynic. I don't believe it to be the case. No, it's because they don't try as hard. So it's not as entertaining.

But, I mean, look, what do you want them to do? You want to go out there in the Pro Bowl and crush each other's skulls in and get hurt? Do you want Deshawn Watson to tear it to rip a knee out? trying his hardest trying to run out a first down on the Pro Bowl. So if I don't want that, which I clearly don't, then in reality, they shouldn't play the games anymore. Yeah, I mean, that's, it's fine. But I mean, they get ratings on it every single year. And they go up. Yeah, the ratings have been going up. And even if it's not as as much as obviously, you know, an actual game that matters, it's more than whatever else they're

going to put it on a Sunday night. So they may, that's why it's staying because people watch and makes money. And it doesn't if you don't want to watch it, just turn it off. It's not going to hurt you, Matt. Yeah, I know. I know. You don't have to tell us how to live our lives. Well, I don't do that. Actually, I'm one of the fewer talks to a host that don't tell you what to do and not to do. But in this particular case, I'm just saying,

let's not give this game any more push. I'm going to be watching it. I'm going to put eye black on and face paint. I'm going to get a whole party together with Caso and Buffalo Wings. Let me tell you, you're really going to have a watch party for the Pro Bowl. Does anybody ever do that? Probably family members

of Pro Bowlers, right? Like first time Pro Bowl or something? No, they're all there. They're there. Yeah, that's true. They're at the game. Is it in Miami or Hawaii this year? I think it's in Orlando again. Orlando? Yeah. That's confusing. I know. Here's the thing. I think the NBA All-Star game is worse.

It's pretty bad. Tell me when you see any defense played. Any. Never, but you don't want them to get hurt either way. They're treating it like a, like a chair. pick up game, which I'm totally okay with too. Frankly, if James and I had a good relationship, I'd say, James, take the week off.

You play every single game. You don't load management. He's relaxing on All-Star weekend. You're probably right. It's funny, you don't hear the PA announcer chant, defense. No. Whenever they have it in Houston, are you going to do that?

Defense? You should do it with a questioning. Like, a little defense? Guys, defense? How about this one? A defense. A defense. People are going to think you're sneezing. That's true.

But in reality, there's a certain thing with the population that when they're watching the NBA All-Star game, they're like, I want to see a 200-point game. Has there ever been a 200-point game? In the All-Star game? I mean, it's gotten close. Yeah, I want to say the one like three or four years ago was really high-scoring. Like somebody scored like an 80-80 or something. 182 or something like that. Yeah.

I'm just saying that, yeah, as a PA announcer, you can't chant defense because I think every player would turn their neck and stare at you and go, what are you doing? You want us to play defense in this ultimate pickup game? Yeah, it was 182 or 192 to 182. In 17, in 16, it was 196 to 173. Damn, that's, ooh. The last two years have been a little bit lower scoring.

that's when they switched to the Team X versus Team Y where they drafted people. You know, if you really wanted to do something interesting to the, and I don't know what you do in the NFL, maybe on the NFL side of things, you could play three downs, I guess.

I don't know. I mean, that's where I would really experiment on things that you would like to do. Like, for instance, if you really wanted to make the NBA All-Star game a little bit more of a challenge, you know, make the goals, you know, 17 feet. 17?

Yes. Nobody's dunking on that. Well, they are experimenting in the Pro Bowl. They're doing no kickoffs. Okay. So that's, you know why they're doing that? It's not because they want to experiment for new rules. They want to just want to add another touchdown to each quarter. So the game is 7265. Yeah, here's what you do. Go to an 11-foot goal, 12-foot goal. Wouldn't that make it a little more interesting? It's fluky. It would never be done in a regular season game, but at least it would separate itself from just a normal Blase, regular season NBA game, put the goals at 12 feet.

Guys that are still super athletic and still dunk, it would be a little more of a challenge. But you wouldn't see these passes at half court that are, aka three-point shots. Oh, Blake is coming in with a good point. The Rockets play on Sunday afternoon. There you go. Oh, yeah, I'll be in Denver calling it.

That's a great point. Yeah, Sunday at 2 o'clock, Pro Bowl starts. You can just slug through that, and then at 2.30, the rocket start. On 790. If you really wanted to watch the Pro Bowl, You can watch the Pro Bowl and listen to me on the radio and call it even. We're good.

Okay. I'm sorry, just kidding. Listen to 790. Thank you. And the Rockets Launchpad and Rockets Wrap with Michael Connor. Okay. And check out fighting Texas Longhorn basketball at some point this weekend. As they look to remain relevant in the world of the Big 12 college basketball.

A big game against LSU. A couple of players missing, but that's okay. Oh, no. You're going to lose again to LSU twice in the same game? Are you going to bring that up, Matt? Oh, by the way, congratulations to Ed Orgeron, got a new seven-year contract. I thought this- They didn't give them the lifetime joint?

I thought Louisiana was broke. Well, unless they need to play their coaches. $42 million guaranteed for Ed O'Jeron. Wow. For a state that probably has closed hundreds of schools in the last 10 years, fair to say? I don't know. I can't say I can't say I've been keeping up a lot. Louisiana politics.

I go over there to drink and gamble and smell trash juice. And people vomiting and takes a 12-hour and clean up. Yeah. How about less money for Coach O and more money for cleaning trucks between I don't know, you know, because if you ever got in a. They only clean between 2 and 6 a.m.

How about we get those bad boys out at, say, four in the afternoon? And they don't do a good job of it. No. They just spray a bunch of water on and say, clean streets. I swear there was a trash strike. One of the times I went there, like, three, four years ago. There was just piles of trash bags, like mountains of trash bags in Bourbon Street. Yep.

You will get those still a part of your New Orleans visits. But hey, I still love the town, though. You will not get them picked up because the money that would be going towards trash pickup is now into Ed O'Jaron's piggyback. Hmm. National. You know, probably Louisiana doesn't care. Like, we would rather have a national championship than have clean streets.

Clean streets. highly overrated. 1256. The second hour, the Matt Thomas show starts up in a manner of moment. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is in anything goes Friday. Ross, did you wake up this morning to the Cyprus explosion? I did. Kim did, too, and we live in Kingwood. Yeah, I mean, it was felt everywhere. It was, I am not super far from where it happened, And my entire apartment building shook for a solid two seconds, which doesn't sound like a long time.

But when your building is swaying back and forth, it feels like a lifetime. And I was kind of scared. Did it? So you are honest in saying it flipped you out a little bit. Yeah. I was like, I didn't know what I was like, did we have some kind of earth? I thought it was, my first thought was earthquake, but I heard a loud boom first. Right.

So I thought it was something my downstairs, I thought something like my downstairs neighbors blew something up. It's funny. Kim called me this morning and said, she thought something. exploded in our house. Yeah. I thought, I was like, what did my neighbors doing? And then I kind of sat and listened. I didn't hear screaming or anything.

So I was like, okay, I don't know. What are the cross streets of the explosion? What was it? It was 4,500 Gessner. I'm not exactly sure where that is. Is that Cyprus, though, right? Or far northwest? And we live in King, which is about a 45-minute drive.

And you live in the city. I mean, what a, who thankfully, What do we know on injuries? Well, there's been two confirmed fatalities. That's really sad to hear. But honestly, it could have been probably a lot worse. It's like Gessner and West Park Tallway.

So, yeah, it's only a few miles away from me. Wow. All right. Second hour, Matt Thomas show coming up in a matter of moment. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. With Ross and Nick Back in Houston, I'm Matt here in Minneapolis for the Rockets and the Wolves. That among topics to discuss between now and three.

clock here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. 102 on Sports Talk 790. It is the hour number two or three here from Minneapolis. Ross and Nick are back in our Houston studios. We'd love for you to visit with us at 713-212-5-790. Have you been watching Ross this Antonio Brown saga? Yes.

I think a little bit. Let's just run through the entire year of his life. Okay. And if I'm forgetting anything, please insert the missing pieces. He doesn't finish out last year with Pittsburgh, right, the year before. He then, does he get traded to Oakland or do they pick him up as a free agent? Now, they trade him, don't they? Yes, he gets traded to Oakland.

Okay. Where he gets there, and he puts himself in one of those freezer things to, relieve the aches and joints and pains of his body, and he forgets to cover up his feet, so he's got terrible, what do they call it when you have freezing toes? Frostbite. Frostbite, that's it, thank you. And didn't you miss when he threw stuff out of a hotel window

and almost killed somebody? Oh, yeah, that's what I don't remember that. I don't either. What was that incident? Okay, so we have that. We have the toes. Cryotherapy, that's what he was doing. Cryotherapy.

And then we have on top of that, we have the, my helmet doesn't fit me right. Yes. If I don't get the right helmet, I'm going to retire. So then he goes and he practices a little bit during training camp. And he ultimately pisses off Mike Mayock, the general manager and the coach. And they just flat out release him, right? And I think that at some point they were not going to pay him and they wanted the money back.

And so there was then a thought of, Did he ever play for the Patriots or am I making that up? Yes, he did. Like how many games? Not very many, right? I'm going to say two. One. Oh, is it one game?

Okay. So he plays, he goes to the Patriots. He's given a, if you're going to go in the World of Cats, a ninth live, maybe even a tenth here on this one. Oh, I thought you're going to talk about the musical. No, no. So he does that. And he goes, and he goes from a bad franchise to a great one. and he screws that up and they release him and just it's kind of

and then it's just one odd thing after the other and now then he goes on Instagram and destroys everybody and old teammates and teams and how mistreated he was yes to then getting involved with yelling at the police yelling at police then he starts throwing things at a car and eventually gets arrested and when he gets arrested

Nick you should explain what is on the blog on sports 790.com we have a photo of what he looked like, correct? Yes, it should be appearing momentarily. I just posted it. But apparently when he turned himself in, he was wearing, it seems to be a jacket that he had used in the past

at some sort of NFL award show, but it was like a baby blue tuxedo jacket. And they've got him going, a picture of him going in, and then there's also video of him walking out of jail after his bond was posted. and he just looks ridiculous at all times, I think. Now, the baby blue, are we talking like dumb and dumber baby blue suit?

Very much like that. Ross, you think we could pull that off if you and I ever going to invite to a holiday party? Or a Halloween party, we should go as dumb and dumber? Yeah, okay. I'll wear the light blue you go with the pink, yes? Oh, it's orange. Orange, okay. I knew it was one of those colors.

It's like Tennessee orange, though. I don't really want to wear that. Yeah, because it would remind you of what Rick Barnes is doing in Tennessee and out of Texas. All right. all right then i'll go orange and shaka we trust you're not going to trust him you're not trying

you've been long done trusting him we got to do it right though i've seen people wear those costumes and they wear like cheapo ones that don't really look good yeah but i don't know if i want to shell out a bunch of money for an actual nice one though well i would rent it but i wouldn't want to buy a suit like that and how and how do you get the teeth the tooth separator you know how jim carrie had his

middle two teeth oh you want to have a gap in your tooth yeah I mean, if you're going to go something old school, you might as well go all the way. So today's kids understand what you're talking about. Mm-hmm. All right. So this Antonio Brown, we now go full circle with him.

Let me ask you this. And I don't mean to stereotype Ross. But you will. But I'm going to a little bit. And I've asked you this probably once per year. Why are wide receivers such bat-blank crazy? It's got to be a different kind of cat to be a wide receiver and being on that island, I guess.

I don't know. Let me throw you some names, okay? On one hand, you have Larry Fitzgerald. Classy, classy. Yes. Jerry Rice. You have our own DeAndre Hopkins here in Houston. Andre Johnson was basically a choir boy as a Houston Texan.

I mean, he got a little sideways with the team with negotiations, but that doesn't make him a diva. It just makes him a guy that had bad representation. Okay? So we have the salt of the earth people in that category. And then let's go to the other side. Now again, none of these guys, well, Antonio is now in the category of a man that's been accused of a crime.

But you have some really, really bizarre animals. You have Antonio Brown. You have Chad Ocho Cinco. You have Terrell Owens. Steve Smith, I was deathly afraid of. Who else would be along the lines of Super Diva Wide Receive? You need most of the big ones. Andre Bad Moon Horizon.

Is that what they called him back in the day? Well, yeah, that's what Chris Berman did when he was talking about. The Reed. I thought that was like his nickname. No. Like Bad News Barnes of the NBA back in the day or something. It was off a CCR song. Oh, geez.

Bad News Marvin Barnes. Oh, just to verify. I did look it up. Yeah, April 2018, Antonio Brown involved in multiple lawsuits over hurling furniture out of a hotel window, nearly hitting a grandfather and a toddler. Wow. Come on, Antonio. So what I want to know is, why are wide receivers so different than any other position of the football team?

Because you would think if you were going to have headcases and ridiculous super divas, it'd be at the quarterback position or the running back for that matter. Why have the wide receiver category brought up so many? Breaking news, Matthew. Yeah, we have some breaking news. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, has tweeted out that Brad Osmiss is now being considered among the candidates for the manager of the Houston Astros baseball team. Oh, I thought you were going to say he was the manager. No, he's just...

He's going to interview. Yeah, he's going to interview. Okay. Sure. Let's get you excited. He got fired midway through the season with the Angels in the first year of a three-year contract. Correct. He did.

I mean, you know, look. He is in the international Jewish baseball Hall of Fame. Or is he? Or sports hall of fame, I mean. Okay. So let's do this. Let's table this wide receiver diva conversation. He received zero votes on the National Baseball Hall of Fame 2016 election.

That's a sham. No, he was a very good defensive catcher for this team. He doesn't deserve a whole of him. But he is not the only one. I mean, there have been lots of great Astro defensive catchers that have not been able to hit their weight. Frankly, the one... Well, it was kind of difficult for Tony Usabio to hit his weight.

Well, he did have the longest batting shriek in Astro's history. I think he still does. At one point, no. It's Willie T. Willie Tavis has it now, I believe. Doesn't really. I think. Well, let's take a look at the catchers.

Craig Pagio, but I don't even really. really count him as a catcher. Can't. Spent more time out of the catcher stands than he didn't. Alan Ashby was my astro buddy, so that goes without saying how awesome he was. Brian McCann could pop, but we didn't get the Brian McCann of when he was 25. You know, Willie Tavaris 30 games in 2006.

Who could forget? Mm-mm-mm. Well, you know who Lance never forgot. It was like his favorite hitter of all time. The Astro Clipper, Tony Usabio. Yeah, he was, I love Tony Usabio. well. Loves a strong term.

No, I loved him. How could you love a guy that played once? There was that one year. I was so, no, I'm serious. When I was like, I was like 13 or 14 and Tony Usabio finally got his shot to be the everyday

catcher. I was so happy. I was over the moon. I loved me some Tony Usabio. He was, I used him and my online poker screen name was Tony Usabio. How could you love somebody that played once a week? I told you.

Yeah, 1999. He got a shot to be. He played a hundred games. He played in 1995. He played 113 games. He hit 299 that year. And in 1999, he hit 272.

Now, of course, they're all slapped singles, not a whole lot of power. But he was getting on base. What was his slugging? 250. It was 356. Okay, same difference. That was my guy. I don't care what you say, Matt.

I had a former radio partner mine that could never pronounce Breed Osamas's name right. You know how I always get Benardric McKinney always wrong? Yes. He's calling Brad Awesimus every time. Well, he thought he was great. I don't know if he did it intentionally or not, but for like five years after Brad

Oscemus not stopped playing, I kept calling him Brad Awesomeus. Because you rubbed off on you. Yes. So he rubbed off on you. Okay, so let's do this. Let's reevaluate the candidates on the Astros managerial search. What's Tony Usabio doing? Let's get him in there.

What's he in the Dominican? I'm going to Google Tony Usabio update. It's funny. When we have Astros Legends Weekend, we never hear from him. Yeah. I mean, is he a lie? He needs to be in the Astros Hall of Fame. Let's get that man this Orange Blazer.

No, he's not getting in the Hall of Fame. He's in my Astros Hall of Fame, Matt. Well, you got a very limited hall. You get them no good looking jackets. Anytime people put out like a, hey, what was that one athlete that you really just loved that wasn't great or anything or very small or it? and it's always, it's Tony Eusebio. So for you, it's Tony Euseb. Absolutely.

I'm going to think during this quick time out of the show who my one guy is. Yeah, a guy who wasn't very good, wasn't an all-star level player, but you just, you just loved the guy. And it's in baseball. Yeah. I think maybe probably that's Marwin Gonzalez for a lot of younger people. But the thing is, I don't think that counts because he get one of the most important hits in the history of the Houston Astros franchise. I think you have to downgrade. Even more nondescript.

Yeah. Yeah. Just like, I mean, lucky to have a major league uniform. Hey, this is Gerald Green. Sports Talk 790 is your home for Houston Rockets basketball. And the Rockets here in Minneapolis tonight starting a four-game road trip against all Northwest Division cities. Tonight it's Minnesota. Sunday afternoon, it's Denver, Monday, Utah, and then we'll wrap up the road trip Wednesday in Portland against the Trailblazers. Ross and the crew will be heading down to Florida starting Tuesday afternoon. and our Super Bowl coverage Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from Miami. 713-212-5-790.

Ross, I'm going to have to hold on a little bit to figure out who my favorite, nondescript, very ordinary Astro was. A lot of folks have already sent in Adam Everett was one of their favorites. That's a great example. Good defensive player, never hit, never going to make an All-Star, never going to be a guy that was going to be a hero of your team. But that's a great example. you say you say it's a good example too.

I just can't do it because there's just too many of you that just are on the Tony should be in the shrine and baseball Hall of Fame and I just think it's absurd. I wonder if he got any votes. He should have. He has my vote. Well, thankfully your vote means bupkins. 14-year-old me thinks he's

the greatest. Greg and Spring on the Matt Thomas show. Greg, thanks for holding good afternoon. You know, Flack McBag in Bourbon Street. Wouldn't you take five years of plastic bags of the National Championship? Absolutely. I don't blame Louisiana spending the money.

Somebody should have checked out Budweiser. They probably had 40 trailers a day, minimum, coming out of Houston, Budweiser over there, going to airline drive over there next to the Saints practice facility for the warehouse for Budweiser bottles. What? What? 40 trailers a day to replenish the Budweiser supply in New Orleans in the area. Okay.

It would be a good investigation to how many trailers came out of Budweiser in support of the Houston economy. I will get right on that. What's that? I'll get right on that. And then there's plastic bags probably all the way to up to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and over Shreveport, Menden, Louisiana. that's where a quarterback family hailed from. Thanks a lot, I got to go. Thanks, Greg.

No, thank you. Is he the first caller ever to hang up on us, Matt? No, we've had people hang up us all the time. You say, you know what? Yeah, I'm through talking with you guys. Bye. No, I mean, first of all, our buddy from Magnolia does it all the time. And we had the guy that called me stupid.

Oh, PD from Magnolia? He does you. All right, bye. Yeah, PD hangs up on us all the time. The guy that called me stupid. Which one? The one that I said that James Hardin doesn't travel. He got really mad at me.

Technically, the one guy that wanted the Trump, all the Trump people would be involved in. Remember that color we had? It was blaming Trump. Yeah, but he was like cutting us off. He was like, all right, guys. Yeah, I got to go. Okay. Well, let's recap his call.

Go ahead, Ross. I'll let you do it. There's a lot of beer. I mean, there's Budweiser that they make it on I-10, and I guess they ship it out. I guess there's 40 trucks that go out to New Orleans. So basically, LSU, you're going to the national championship help the Houston economy. Hmm.

Is that what he was saying? And that people of New Orleans generate a ton of trash. Oh, do you want to hear from the guy Stan who got really mad at you? Sure, why not? Let's go to Stan and Cyprus on 7-90 at 1255. Hi, Stan. Hey, how you doing? Good, buddy.

What's up? I called him, Frank. Yeah, just about Hardin. You know, obviously, Curry's a favorite, and Rose is a still good story, you know, so he's getting the vote. Those are all fan votes. But from a guy, you know, I'm 50. I hooped all my life, grew up in it. Watching James Hardin play is painful, and he's painful to all my hooping buddies.

We're old school, man. Number one, he's huge. He's massive. Sorry about that. He's massive, but he plays. plays like he's 5-11, flopped around like a little Euro soccer player. And that stepback that they love, the fans of Houston Rockets, love that step back.

It's a travel, period. It's not a travel. It's not a travel. No, it's not a trap. Stan, Stan, Stan, Stan. I'm going to be calm about this. Stan, he does it. He's done it.

You're an idiot. It's a travel. Yeah. He's right. He is stupid. You're an idiot. I'm an idiot. You're an idiot.

Thank you. Can I tell you something? We had that caller. Was it about a year ago, Giver Tank? I think it was 2008. No, it was, no, I think it was, I think it, yeah, it was about a year ago. Oh my gosh, man, I'm not even kidding. What? It was a year ago to the day.

That guy called the show? Yes. It was a year ago today. So I'm glad we played that. Yeah. Just peeling the current little back, in back a little bit. He said easily. Ross, the NBA looks at every game.

they look at every play that James Hardin's in. Have you noticed there are very few teams that are now bitching and moaning about whether or not James Hardin travels? It's a travel. Do you know why? Because first of all, they've declared it every time he does it, he doesn't travel. And secondly, I know, Stan. But secondly, how many guys down the league are doing the exact same thing that he's doing?

A lot of them. Look at Donchitz, Trey Young. Dane Lillard has a step back. Daniel House has picked up a step back. Daniel House is done, yeah. I'm sorry, it's not Daniel. He says Daniel in our intro to Rockets launch pad. He said it himself.

Sorry. No, I'm going by what he says. I'm overriding what he says. You can't override the man saying his own name. You hear me say a basket. Daniel House Jr. Okay, I'm going to start calling you Mate Thomas. Jimmy on the west side.

Our time is 127 on 7.9. Jimmy. Hey. You guys want to talk to... Jimmy. You got us, Matt? Anything there? Matt, can you hear me?

Okay, I think we're having connection. Jimmy, you just go ahead and hang on. We're time for a break anyways. So we'll reconnect with Matt Thomas and Minneapolis. Ross via Real here, we'll take Jimmy. If you guys want to get any look, it's anything, goes Friday. All right, we've taken calls on Mr. Peanut. We got one on Bill O'Brien.

We got one on Astros. We're also talking about favorite Astros players or any sports player that wasn't all-star level, but you just loved them for whatever reason. 713-212-5-790. The phone number 7-13-213-125-79. Matt Thomas Show continues after this short break. Craig Ackerman here.

When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Clearly, Ross, Daniel House is not happy with the way I pronounce his name because he disconnected my return audio. I like that. A lot of Gremlins in our office this week for some reason. I know what's going on, but I'm not happy about it.

But the show must go on. Thank goodness you're there. Let's try Jimmy for a second time on 7-90. Hi, Jimmy. Did he leave us now? Hi, go ahead. Go ahead, Jimmy. Jimmy, go on.

Let's go. Hi, here we go. Hey, I met Colin earlier. Texans, Chiefs. Do you think Bill O'Brien was watching the Chiefs, Titans' playoff game? do I think he I would probably think yes

okay do you think he was somewhat amused or interested in the chief's first 13 plays being 12 of them passing one running do you think Bill O'Brien

was maybe thinking they can't do that they have to run a balanced attack what do you think Bill O'Brien was thinking when he saw that and saw how successful the chief war was putting the ball in their star quarterback's hands to let them run high percentage play

instead of handing off to their running back. Well, honestly, coming into the game, one of the things we thought the Texans could take advantage of was the subpar running game of the Chiefs, defense running game, and that you could mix it effectively because I don't think the Texans, from an offensive standpoint, can throw the ball 12 consecutive times and effectively lead a team to a high-scoring game. I mean, there's just, I mean, look, the Kenny Stills pass was great early on, and obviously having DeAndre Hopkins is a benefit, the tight ends have been good. But for the Texans to win a Super Bowl, to be super effective,

they're going to have to be able to not be, you know, one-sided type of football team. They've got to be able to show some diversity. So do I think that Bill O'Brien was impressed with what he saw? sure the answer is yes who wouldn't be impressed but it doesn't necessarily mean that every team should play the same way because frankly kansas city's offense you know much more proficient tennessee had a great has a much better ground game so there'd be very little i would take away from either's team's offense in that game and go well if we would have done that we would have won the football game the reason why the houston texans lost that football game and that

divisional playoff matchup was their their defense was completely an utterly attractive atrocious, and you had a terrible, terrible fake punt called. You had a coach that was saying one thing about being aggressive and was doing another. You had all that together, and that's a reason why they were. Real quick. Yeah, there was just no chance they were going to win. They weren't going to win the game. You know what the two plays were before, the three plays were before the fake punt?

Not off the top of my head, no. What were they? First down, Carlos Hyde, run for one yard. Second down, Carlos Hive, run for one yard. Third and eight, incompletion, punt, then fake run. So, or fake punt. It's just the, when you put the ball, when you don't give your top player the ball and a chance to be successful with that, you're going to find that your success rate goes down.

Andy Reed Smart gives the ball to the home. maybe O'Brien can figure out that you need to get the ball and at least give him a chance. Well, I think he's doing that. To throw the ball four or five, six times in a row. But I don't, Ross, help me out here. Am I missing something? I mean, the Texas don't have enough offensive weapons to do that right now. They have to be able to use the, at least as currently put together.

They have two running backs that have given this team some help over the course of the year. I mean, Carlos Hyde ran for 1,000 yards. Duke Johnson has been a very effective receiver out of the year. the backfield as we thought he was going to be. But the Kansas City offense, it has many more targets. It has a super elite tied in and Travis Kelsey. They have Sammy Watkins. They've got Tyree Kill.

There's just much more to throw and have fun with and show some diversity than what Houston's offense is. You can't compare the two offenses. I think it comes down a lot of it to talent. And basically, you're talking about the chiefs are playing to their strength and Andy Reed. and then the Tennessee Titans, and they're playing to their strengths.

Their strength is the running game with Derek Henry, so they run the ball a lot. The Chief Strength is passing with Patrick Mahomes and letting him make plays down the field to Tyreek Hill. And we know Travis Kelsey was quite a tough cover for the Lonnie Johnson and the Texans secondary. So they go to that. And the Texans, honestly, the way Deshaun Watson is playing right now, he hasn't been. I know that we here in Houston try to act like he's an all-world quarterback, and I understand that. But he's not to the level of a guy like a person. Patrick Mahomes. You don't want him dropping back, throwing 50 times, first of all, because the

offensive line can't handle that because they're not very good. So I'm okay with Bill O'Brien's offensive philosophy. He wants to establish the run. Maybe I wouldn't like him to do it as much, say, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which had the best run defense in the entire world. Maybe you can even still work play action, even if you're not running the ball well. So, I mean, he likes to establish the run. He likes to play play play action because when the running game is going, gives Deshaun Watson more room to operate because for all the great plays that he makes and the improvisations and all that type of stuff, he's not at this point of his career, a guy who you want dropping back 50 times a game and he's just not going to, he's just not

that type of quarterback right now. No, and here's the thing, gang. There's a lot that you watch Deshaun Watson that you get very excited about. Rossi, the ability to escape multiple sacks in multiple games and turn. 10-yard losses into 21-yard gains is amazing. The play in the Wildcank game to Buffalo, where he escapes the two Bill's rushers and he finds the running back down the field.

I mean, that's where legends are made of. Why did he have two guys on him in like three seconds, or less probably? Yeah. Because the offensive line wasn't good, and they didn't switch their protections, and they're not good. And some of that's on Deshaun Watson as well, and getting the ball out early as well. So if you have all these things, if you have issues with setting protections, you have issues with the talent that is protecting the quarterback.

If you have issues with your quarterback getting rid of the ball quickly, you're going to run the ball. It's not rocket science. So, I mean, I don't really have a problem with Bill O'Brien trying to make the running game the engine of the offense. And here's the thing. Guys, and you know this because y'all are smart people. DeShon's amazing. but unfortunately the quarterback in Pitts Patrick Pat Mahomes is better he just is doesn't mean he can't get to that level can't mean there's not a lot of separation between

the two but right now Pat Mahomes greater than Deshawn Watson offensive line greater than the Texans offensive line receivers greater than tight end greater than the only situation frankly they're better at probably its running backs so if there's a lot of things to be critical about Bill O'Brien on, it's not how I'm going to split the offensive and how the run pass ratio. Because the formula of how Kansas City got to who they are is just not the same as what they are for the Texans. 713-212-5-790.

Look, there's a lot of things that Bill O'Brien needs to learn. And, you know, Ross, I shouldn't even say learn. He'll never learn. He's who he is. Do you understand that, Ross? Do you understand that Bill O'Brien is not going to change who he is? He's been doing this for, what, six or seven years now? Yes.

There's no changing who he is. He's not going to learn. He's not going to bring in people that are going to be guys that are going to challenge what his philosophy is. He's had an assistant coach with Tim Kelly, who's worked with him for a long time, that he doesn't trust, ultimately. there is... I think it's more he wants to be in control than not trust. Yeah, so this whole thought of, well, he's going to change for the better.

That's just not true. Rightfully so. He is who he is and clearly Cal McNair has zero problem with who this person is. Because he's bumped two general managers for him. He's basically firing one of the greatest assistant coaches in the history of the NFL.

Maybe it fires too strong of a term, reassigning or retirement. this is we're stuck with him until at some point Cal says I've got to find somebody better that was good that worked out good and at this point Cal doesn't have any interest in changing that five four three at two the Matt Thomas show continues

three corner nothing but on sports talk seven night Melo! Rockets in Minneapolis here tonight to take on the Minnesota Timberwolf six a clock with the launch pad 630 the network join and I'll have the call here from the target center at 7 o'clock. Brad

Osmiss Ross is the latest candidate to be meeting with Jim Crane and the Astros. First blush. I know you hate to hear that phrase, but first thought. Who wasn't it that can I complain about you saying first blush? It wasn't me. Somebody on Twitter that just hates. It just hates everything. Oh, that's not very nice. It is what it is.

Okay, so first thought on Oh, it was Nick. Oh, it was Nick. What did I do? Yeah, you're on segment suspension. Great. That's my favorite new bit is you suspending Nick. It just feels right. Yeah.

He deserves it most of the time. All right. First thought on Brad Osmus. Okay. No track record of success is mine. Yeah. I mean, cool.

He's young. I mean, he seems relatively intelligent. I don't know what went wrong with him. With the, he had one really good year, right, when he was a manager somewhere? Can I just tell you?

Here's, yeah, I mean, here's the thing. We're supposed to have these fiery hot takes on everything. Yes. I told you this other day. I don't have a particular take on who the new manager is because I'm not in the interview room. I don't know what Jim Crane wants. I don't know what the clubhouse wants. I don't know anything about what this team is because Ross, it is in such foreign territory.

How in the world am I supposed to know what manager fits best? Old school crotchety, Buck Showalter, old school Dusty Baker, new school Jeff Bannister, new school Brian Osmus. What do they want? Oh, wow. I went to his managerial record site on basis. They got all kinds of analytics on his, they got his challenges overturned percentage, stealing second percentage, sack bunts percentage, intentional walks percentage.

This is interesting. Well, I'll say this. He is one of the more beloved Astros of the last 25 years. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of Cougar-type ladies who were swooning over Brad Austin back in the day. Well, that's neither here nor there. So some of them will be happy. Well, I'm just saying, you know. He is a handsome man.

He is a handsome man. I got zero problem with that. I'm just saying, I got to trust Jim on this. I mean, why are we the ones that ultimately judge this manager? candidate. Because for instance, if Bill O'Brien

gets fired today, I know what I want tomorrow. I want a coach that that is not so damn stubborn he thinks he owns the room.

I want a coat. You know what I want? I want Sean McVey is what I want. I want Sean Payton. Whatever that is, Ross, I want. I don't want

Bill Belichick Light here because Bill Belichick Light hasn't given me an AMC Championship. game yet. He's given me a plethora of embarrassing AFC divisional losses and wildcar losses. But he keeps on winning, Matt, four years out of five, AFC South Champions. We'll talk to Brian T. Smith at the top of the hour about such a topic. Ross, where we going on the phones, my friend?

Let's go ahead and talk to Joseph in Pearland and wants to talk some texts with us. Joseph, go ahead. Hello. Hello? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, listen, the most funniest thing happened to me today. On my wife's job, everybody wears sports gear. And she asked me, if she left the house, can she wear the Texan? And I'm sorry, man, but I bust by laughing.

So she wound up putting the rockets off. So let me ask you a question. Do you beg our whole apology? I hang up and listen. No, you can wear whatever gear you want. I wouldn't expect because the Texans lost the way they did for people to all of a sudden say, I'm done being a Texans fan. That's stupid. Some people could.

Now, I do want to, let me tell you this. I'll say this, Ross. I do want to call out Larry and Stafford. Why? Because he's repeating himself every year. In what way? He hates Bill O'Brien. He hates his team on Kirby, always lets him down. But he's the first one in late July that can't wait if I start a training camp.

you can still be excited about your team and support your team and not be happy with them. Yeah, but his Twitter feed is firing brimstone. Oh, I don't follow him on Twitter, so I don't know. Okay, I'm telling you, I do. Good call to the show, a friend of the show. He's firing brimstone. I can't, he always spells the swear word with a different lettering. You know what?

I'm not down with that, by the way, in general. Mispelling swear words? Do you want to say anything goes Friday? You want something that's been sticking in. my crawl for a minute, Matt? I'll go with that. How come people misspell curse words? Like, for the most part, we're all adults on Twitter, right? I mean, there are some kids. But, Matt, what percentage of your followers would you say are under 18? 0.1%? Oh, my, because I have 20, almost 25,000. I probably have 100. So whatever that number is. You think you got 100?

Of under and under 18? That's weird. Maybe 50. I don't know. It's small. I have more porn than I have under 18. What? More porn stars? Yeah. Or more porn bots? Probably A, B. I mean, most of those get blocked pretty quickly.

Yeah. But are, or, you know, cleaned out by Twitter. But anyways, like, if you're on Twitter and you're putting a curse word, and I, like, I just use, I don't normally curse a lot on Twitter anyways. But if you put S-H-A-asterick, then finish the word, can I say that? T. Well, here's what I'll ask. Like, Y, and then the last one. like we know what you're saying

I know what you're saying you know what you're saying anybody who reads it knows what you're saying even if it's a 14 year old so who are you protecting? Yeah why do you do that? Just go ahead and curse it's okay it's a platform for adults for the most

part and even if you're misspelling it and putting it a fake it's like even the kids know what you're saying nobody's going to read and go oh he is cursing on Twitter. I'm going to report him.

Can I come full circle with you on this? Yeah, go ahead. I have a fairly foul mouth. Yes. I mean, I'm not in like the upper third, but I'm probably top 50% on the Americans. Oh, no, you're, uh, no, yeah, you guess you're, your top, your, your 70th percentile. Okay. I do not swear to my parents.

Mm-hmm. Maybe less than five times of my entire life. It depends on how many beers I've had. I do not I try to avoid swearing to my children in all circumstances even when I'm really mad at them I do not like it when they swear at me although one is 19

117 you've been sweared at not directly but they'll just say oh the blank are playing like blank I don't like hearing it really it comes like you stop being a prude you're you're one of the worst talkers it's true and I'm like okay that's right but there's just something strange about yeah I don't like my kid's swearing

I don't swear at them and I don't sort my parents and vice versa. And I also don't swear if you looked at my tweets, how many have I had in my life here? I don't know. 40,000 or something? How would I know my in the number of tweets account? You can just go look on your account. It should be right on there. Okay, it's about 32,000 point, 32.3,000.

Okay. Of the 32,300 tweets I put out in my entire life, I probably have sworn less than five times. I don't know. I just, I feel like that I, that. people would judge me if I've said a swear word on Twitter. Is that weird? I mean, you can fully say it is weird, man.

You can fully say that. Thus, anything goes fronting. I don't curse a lot either because, I mean, it's just, I feel like it's more of a work, somewhat of a work account for me.

So if it were just me in a personal account and I'd work on radio, I'd probably curse a lot more. Just because that's what I do in my life. But yeah, you have to have some levels of decorum. But I'm saying if you're going to go ahead and do it, do it. step, right? You're either going to either curse or don't curse. Don't just give us this half on

the fence misspelled word where we all kind of, we all know exactly what word you're going for. That's Ross's Twitter advice to you on a Friday. If you're going to swear, Ross's pet peeve of the week. Yeah, be big or go home. Right. Either either do it or don't do it at all. Don't half step. All right. We have another call before we get to Brian T. Ross. No, I think we're time for a break. Okay, let's do that. Let's talk to Brian T. Smith. We'll see if we can get him to swear on his Twitter account in the next handful of minutes. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Brian T with us. Ross, what is, believe it or not today coming up in just over an hour or less than an hour? Go ahead and hit my crickets, Nick. Thank you. I get the crickets trained up now. It's almost on cue when I say, what's coming up today? What do you want it to be?

Um, what's, what's Corrine Hunt's weed bust? No. Saints and Catholic scandals. Ooh. Eli Manning. Yeah. There it's it.

That is it. He says, I did it my way. That's what he said in his final press conference. Well, McCleine on his story in the Chronicles, like he's going in the Hall of Fame. He's going. I just don't think he should. It's going to take him a while too, right? Huh.

Some people say Twitter is suspending you for cursing. I've cursed a number of times and I haven't been suspended. Yeah. Now, you probably got suspended for threatening somebody. Me? I've never been suspended. No, not you. I'm talking about these people tweeting me. Like, if you're threatening people, I think if you just curse and say, you know what, this is B. Like, this Astros thing is BS. I don't think they're going to come after you. If you tweet at Ken Rosenthal and say you are BS, that's probably different.

I got you. Like, stop threatening people on Twitter. Do not threaten Brian T. Smith. He is next on the Matt Thomas show. Thomas show. 203 on the Matt Thomas show. Our Friday visit with Brian T. Smith is always one of my favorite segments of the show of the week. BTS, Brian McTaggart, MLB.com reporting a few minutes ago that Bright Osmus is next on the list for candidacy for the managerial spot for the Houston Astros. And I told the audience about 50 minutes ago, I don't know what Jim wants because Jim's not

calling you or me and telling me the type of manager. he's had a variety of different samples of old school, new school, metrics, former player, long-time manager. So I'm just going to throw it out to you. If you were to bend Jim Crane's ear, what kind of manager do you think the Houston Astros should have in 2020? You need a combination of everything, Matt, because AJ Hinch was 99% a perfect combination of everything. And I said this last week on TV. I've written in The Chronicle. the Astros had the perfect manager, right?

And the perfect manager was A.J. Hinch. And so now, because of all of this, you have to replace them. Whether that was Manfred's decision, whether that was Crane's decision, whether Cranes' hand with force, whatever it is, he fired A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luno in one franchise-changing, era-changing suite. And so once you make that decision, you've got to get it, you've got to get the follow-up decision, right? You know, the Astros used to all they used to do is screw up.

I mean, they had the prospects and they had the plan, but they mostly screwed up, and everything changed for this organization. Not when they hired Jeff Luno in terms of winning. He had the plan. He had the process. He had the process before the 70s sisters had the process. It changed when A.J. Hinch came in to Minutemey Park and said, we're winning. You know, I don't care what the plan is. I don't want to talk about 2016 or 2017.

I want to talk about 2015. That immediately connects with Jose Altuvae. get El Tuvae on board, who was the best player at the time, every mouse followed. So when they make this decision, it's going to have to be a combination of everything. I mean, you've got to have somebody who understands the obvious modern value of analytics. Just because Luno leaves, that's not going to disappear,

and everybody's followed, the Astros lead with that. You've got to have somebody, Matt, who can handle the endless media storm. It's not going to so much be local. We've already asked all those questions, and they'll be asked to get at spring training. But we know when they go to Arlington, when they go to New York, when they go to Boston, when they go to L.A., it's never going to end. So you've got to have a manager who can, like A.J. did all the time, wear it

and stick up for his players and have that presence. And then you've got to have somebody who can keep the clubhouse together if this team starts rough or if they hit a rough spot in June, and A.J. always did that. So it's a huge combination. and the one thing Crane has done right with this is he's getting

he's getting as much input as he can. And I like that they're casting a wide net and it hasn't been an immediate decision. They didn't just promote a Spada. They're doing it right. Now they've got to make the right higher. Is there any

one of them that's more intriguing to you personally than the rest? There are several that are intriguing to me. I'm not personally attaching my name to any of these people because they, you know, they all have some issues. But, and I don't want to mention him first because of the Arlington thing, but Jeff Bannister is intriguing. Brad Osmiss should be,

but Brad Osmiss, I don't want to say it's failed, but, you know, he's been fired, what, twice now. The angel situation just never worked with him. The Tiger situation was a mess. Brad Osmond, though, he fits a lot of things. I'm not crazy about the idea of Dusty Baker. You know, Buck Schollalter makes sense on paper for one second, and then you think about him, you know, not getting along with some of the players, and there's immediate division a couple months in,

and that's not going to work. It's a really tough hire because your roster's built to win now. Your lineup is loaded. You have Verlander, you have Grinke, you are not rebuilding, you're not trying to win 90 games, you're trying to get back to the World Series. There aren't a lot of managers in baseball who can fit all those requirements, and the couple of the ones that can Matt, they've been fired in the last couple weeks. Well, I think Jim himself is making it hard for us to predict because, as I talk to you, there, I mean, you have, you have won into the spectrum from Dusty to Eduardo Perez, who was only a bench coach winning. AJ was out here, who's now a broadcaster to a couple of managers who are recently been fired because of losses, but they're new school.

I mean, that's why I think unless you're just a sizzling hot take person when the decision is made, there should be nobody outgoing. What in the world is you thinking? Because some of them have all had tremendous success, but yet every single one of them at one point had been fired in their major league careers. Yeah, and you look at Vennel and you look at Perez. I'm not crazy about the idea of the Astros hiring Edward or president. Everybody that's mentioned that's probably the one because there's a lot of backstory with him and the 13 team. And maybe if he gets the job, I'll get into that as a Chronicle. I'm not saying he's a bad guy.

There were some things that happened back then that weren't really how you want to, you know, build a team, win a pennant. But I'm sure he's evolved and changed, and it was a rough time back then. When it came to the Astros, everybody was getting fired and everybody was constantly. thinking, you know, they had to do something to get the next job. Yeah. Dusty Baker doesn't make sense at all, but he does if you want the veteran presence who's been through the fire, who can shoot the bleep with the media all the time. I mean, you know, Dusty is one of the most well-liked and respected names in the game.

Joe Walter would be tough, but, you know, you have to be afraid that he's going to also constantly be at it with play. because he's had that issue before because he can be too tough. It's not a easy decision. And if you're crane, like I said, the one thing that he's done this far is there's no type. It's not like he's going for a type. And so you have to think, Matt, they're interviewing so many people that when he has the one, just like AJ, he'll know it's the one.

You know, they'll have interviewed 10 people. Every type, young, bold, veteran, analytics, inexperienced, whatever it is. And when they finally nail it down, you have to. A, hope it works, because there's some luck involved, and B, they'll have cast such a wide net that they won't have anyone else to look at. Other topic involving the Aster's this week was Jim Crane said that earlier than the week he was going to have some sort of, and it was kind of vague, but I'm assuming press conference media availability, where he is going to have his guys go up, whether it's three, five, ten, or twenty, and basically try to put this to bed through a real voice

and saying some things as compared to what they said at Fan Fest where Alex were just repeated himself and Jose was speaking rather vaguely. There has been a lot of public conversation about that. Astro fans that call this show don't feel the need to apologize. You have national folks that are saying, yeah, it needs to be done. Then you have another segment of population, maybe a mixture of Houston, and maybe a mixture of Houston, and maybe a mixture of national fans and media that say,

you know what, this is just a opportunity for Jim to try to mend fences when maybe these players don't want to apologize and it may be half-hearted, it may not be sincere. What do you come in on the, will the Astros and should the Astros get to spring training and try to as much as they can open their books a little bit? Yeah, it's really, I mean, it's absolutely fastening before. This is all unprecedented, right? we've never been through this in baseball history

the asters have never been through this in franchise history Jim Crane's ever been through this Altuve Verlander McCuller, Springer, etc. At some point and I believe it should have already happened but it's the off season we're not even in spring training everyone's met together Burlander Grinky

maybe what happens let's just be honest maybe Zach Grinky just takes the mic and says everything that everyone's been bonding to hear and Zach Grinky is the spokesman for the use of the approof. There is no chance in the world what you're saying, and you don't even believe it as it's leaving your mouth. Here's the thing.

This is on the players. I mean, Hinch was fired, Aluno was fired, but if you go off the report, and this is coming from the commissioner of baseball, and apparently the most thorough investigation in baseball history, I still find that hard to believe that it was more thorough than the Mitchell report, and everything went down with steroids. That being said, that's what baseball said.

the players are mentioned. The players have barely spoken. I mean, Lance McCullors was sort of contradicting what Crane said. And as I just mentioned, you know, Burlander hasn't been around. Grinky hasn't been around. Springer hasn't really been around. So I'm at spring training every year. You're there, Matt.

You know what it's like. I mean, it's different. It's supposed to be fun and new. And the guys are getting back together. And it's everything you love about the Astros. It's going to be so different this year. So I truly believe it's going to come down, the players. And, you know, Verlander is going to be in the Hall of Fame one day. Altuves on that

track. These guys have been through so many things. What do they want to say? What do they want to do? At some point, it's not about Jim Crane. The new manager isn't going to have any type of real feel for these guys. He's going to be on the job for two weeks. The players have to own it. And if they want to say something, say something. And if they don't, that's fine to get ready for a year of questions. And just because they some say something at spring training, they're still going to get the questions everywhere they go. This is not going to end this year. Yeah, and Ross and I have debated this a little bit.

You don't want to put somebody in front of a microphone and they don't mean it. But the question is going to be if you don't have, if you have one person taking the wrath of the entire team, does that mean the other guys don't believe it or the other guys don't have the stones to come up and say something? I mean, there's a lot of ways to discuss this issue one way or the other. I would have to, at the end of the day, believe that silence will not be golden.

If you just pretend it doesn't happen and you pretend to give the same cliche, if you don't address it in somehow some way, then it's going to make things even worse than already what you're going to be having to deal with in every single time you go to during the course of the regular season. Yeah, and look, normal PR would say you come out, you address it, whatever, you get ahead of it, you have your statement, you stick by it, and you don't move from that statement. Again, that's PR 101, just like firing, Luno and Crane was because you're protecting the brand and you're protecting your financial investment. But it's not going to be that simple because they can come out and they can open the book.

Well, if you start opening the book, you know, you're going to start pulling on those threads. And oh, did so-and-so cheat? Did this lead to so-and-so getting an award? They shouldn't have. I mean, that stuff will be endless. So I don't know. I don't have an answer right now. I don't think the players do.

I don't believe that if Crane has one, it's going to be the correct answer. So there's no correct answer for this. And ultimately, Matt, this is what will happen. It'll be a local divide and a national divide. There are some very, very, very – I get the emails. There are some very, very frustrated, hurt, saddens fans. But you can already start in the field like a huge part of the Astros fan base is, like screw the national media, screw, you know, all the other teams.

They're out to get us, blah, blah, blah. That's already starting to build because you already have that backlash. they're tired of it. Hey, let's move on and play baseball. But the national, that's never going to go away. I mean, the Astros will have to win the World Series this year and be clean to even start to turn the tide. And I fully believe it's going to take five, ten years for this thing to go away,

just like it did with McGuire and steroids or Barry Bond being close to the Hall of Fame. It's going to take five to ten years for this to really get out of the conversation. And that's much more national than it is local in terms of fans. and the hate that a lot of people have to the Astros right now. Great insight, as always. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next week, my friend. I appreciate it, Matt.

Thanks for having me on. You got it. That's a Brian T. Smith from the Houston Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter at Cron Brian Smith. Tyler White here. Back to Matt Thomas. And it is gone. And sports talk, 790.

Home of Astros baseball. 220 on the Matt Thomas show. From Minneapolis, Ross. Lance McCunner, boys yesterday in the afternoon. What did he had to say? Yes, he did. Lance McCullors joining the A team, Adam Wexer, and Adam Clanton here on the Sports Talk

790. And to my knowledge, Matt, it hadn't been a whole lot of interviews from any of the players on the team. So, this was some good stuff from them yesterday. You can find the full conversation. SportsTalk 790.com, but one of the topics so we'll play a little bit of the conversation for you guys. First of all,

obviously, the biggest story, the fact that Jeff Luno and AJ Hinch are out Lance McCullors reacts to that. It really just sucks, honestly. It's a tough situation. And obviously, the owner of the club decided he was going to do what he thought was best for the organization in his opinion. So, you know, we're still searching.

I know AJ and Jeff both very well. I think they're amazing men. And I'm hoping that, you know, they get back to doing what they love and enjoy soon rather than later. And as far as our managerial search, I know about that. as much as you guys know, but those names that are floating out there are all good names. And so we just got to focus on winning and we've got to focus on 2020. And, you know, you can't change. It's happening in the past.

Can't change, you know, kind of the topics that have been being discussed by us. All we can do is roll in the spring, come together as a group, which I know we will. And, you know, went about 100 ballgames again. I'm just concerned about the dog. As a dog must be upset, too, that they lost. Yeah, he's big into animal rescue and all that type. stuff and dog adoption. So it sounds like he had someone that was, or one of his

dogs was, I don't know, just barking it up. You know what that was right there? That was sincere Lance McCullors, it sucks. That's what I, I mean, he's one of the, I mean, I think this team is full of straight shooters, Matt, and it started with AJ Hitch, and I think Lance McCullors

is one of those guys, and he said, you know what? Owner did what he had to do, and I love those guys, and they're great, but they're gone, and we're going to have to try to move forward, and I like at the end, win a hundred games. All right, anything else relevant from that visit yesterday? Yeah, let's go with him talking about the players, of course, Jim Crane saying the players are going to eventually apologize and speak.

So he was asked by Adam and Adam, what is he going to say? What does he expect other players to say? So what will they be talking about when the formal apologies are made? I think everyone is going to talk about it as much or as little as they want. You know, I'm speaking to you guys a little bit about it. you know, really more just because we were talking about the charity stuff, but it's not something I'm going to talk about a lot. And I think everyone is going to, you know, speak for themselves and have their own opinions on how they want to address it. But, you know, I'm coming off a season, like you said, where I didn't get to play.

I'm coming off of a season where I had to watch a lot. And I've been very patient and I've been waiting to get back on the field. So my focus and my comments and my intentions are going to be, on moving forward because like I said, you can't say anything right about whatever the report has said or what people will continue to say. You know, people every single day come out with new conspiracy theories. So I'm just going to just lay low. And I think a lot of the other guys are going to do the same. We just want to play baseball again.

Okay. So here's what I deduce from that. You tell me if I'm reading it properly or not. There's going to be some availability where you're going to be able to go. and talk to these guys and it's going to be you know what let's just lay out as much as each individual player wants to some may be really forthcoming same may some may be just giving speaking vaguely and in just in generalities but I think the end game is going to be you come talk to us about this we're going to get this off our chest and then we're not

going to talk about anymore this year that means in Houston Texas that means on the a Thomas show. That means at the All-Star game. That means on a road trip in New York or in Boston or in Cleveland that you're going to get one opportunity to question, puzzle us, throw things out of us, and we're going to choose. Each individual is going to have a chance to choose what they do and do not want to say. And then after that, we're moving on the 2020. That's what I can. And again, not that Lance is speaking on behalf of the team. But that quote right there makes me think that there will be a not a, Stern talking to from Jim Crane to say, you must say you're sorry. You must tell them what you can tell them without getting in trouble from the Players Association or from Ron Rant-Manfred. But you are going to have to face the music and you're going to have to tell people, no, I'm done talking about it and that we're not going to do anymore. Did you get that or am I reading too much into that quote? I mean, I guess, I don't know what the setting is going to be. He's kind of vague.

I don't know exactly what it's going to be. Maybe he doesn't even know. Yeah, perhaps. I mean, we speculated on that and what they're going to do and what's going to happen. And is it going to be a panel and we can just shoot questions at everybody or how are they going to format it? I don't know. This is probably going to take if I were the Astros, and not that they've asked my opinion, but there are PR firms, Ross, that deal with all sorts of crisis,

whether it's an Exxon spill, oil spill, whether it's a catastrophe, whether it's a business going out of, you know, going into bankruptcy. There's PR crisis firms. I would take this scenario, go hire a PR firm and say, look, we've got a very, we're going to walk a tight rope on this. If we say nothing and just continue to say, say we're not answering questions about it,

more and more national people are going to make the Houston Astros even a more hated team than they are now. But they also Ross on the other hand of it, they got to flip it and say, if they give out too much information, then they're basically going to, those that are pushing

the envelope to suspend these players are going to have more ammunition than they ever had before. Them not saying right now gives them the amnesty of them not having to face suspension. So that's why I say, I think you hire a PR firm. I think you hire somebody that says,

okay, here's what you do, here's how you say it, here's how you give the information out, while at the same time, not letting this become a recurring act to every road trip you go to during the course of the record season. I guess, I mean, you have to have the players have to have a meeting and say what are we going to say and what we're going to not say. Or if the PR firm is involved,

then all the players have, they all have to have their story straight is basically what I'm saying. Like, how much are we going to talk about this? Or we're not going to say, you know, Jose L. Too, is now going to come out and say, you know what, hey, those are all Evan Gattess. Screw that guy. They're not going to be, there's not going to be a lot of bus throwing, I don't expect. So they're all going to have to probably have, like, bullet points, and they're all going to divulge the same amount of information, which isn't going to be a lot. And not that the Astros isn't of a good PR team, but frankly, this is probably too big for a team that normally handles day-to-day communications of an Astros baseball team. This is such, because what's going to happen is when the.

Astros say come see us, Ross. It's not Sports Talk 790, although we consider ourselves a decent station. But it's going to be CNN. It's going to be at Fox. It's going to be ESPN. It's going to be, it'll be a media day type deal if they want it to be that way.

It's going to be way bigger than just a normal, as Brian said, a relaxed atmosphere in the middle of February or March in Florida when guys just getting their working, go play golf at 4 o'clock. It could be one of those massive media scrums.

You're right. If one guy, they gotta stick to a common message. Because if they don't, then they might inadvertently throw a teammate or a friend of theirs under the bus. 2.28 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. We've got another two segments to get to. Another one for calls.

If you guys want to get anything out of your chest on anything goes Friday, let it be heard right now. 7-13-212-5-7-90 on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsR. at Pro Nick Lowe. I'm here in Minneapolis for Rockets and Wolves tonight right here on Sports Talk 790. And how about Lance McCullors? Hey, it's Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas. Turnball swinging a mid-strike three on Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. All right, we've got four calls that are online. Let's get all of you in this segment. So get your comments in and then Ross and I'll comment. We'll get to each one of you here in this segment.

We'll start with Eric in Midtown at 235 on the Matt Thomas show. Eric, good afternoon to you. Hello, sir. Go ahead. All the morning, Jim Crane was thinking about hiring Judge Vigio, which we'll follow him as a manager. Doesn't want to, or he's happy way of that? I don't know. I think it would be a good manager.

All right, thank you, Eric. Vigio has been talked about more from fans than anybody else. I know that Vizio, Berkman, and Bagwell have all gone to Jim and said, we're here for you, whatever you need. And I said this before Craig, or Ross, let's mention again. I think if Craig Vizio is ever going to manage, it's not going to be in a turbulent time like this. He wants a clean opportunity. I'm just not sold that Craig ever wants to be a manager full time.

He's enjoying retirement life. His son, Cabin is playing with the Blue Jays. He's got plenty of money. He's an advisor. There's really no need at any court of stress to his life, especially what should be a, at least turbulent start to the 2020 season. Yeah, I would imagine if he were interested in the job that maybe he would get interviewed, but I mean, he doesn't, he coached high school or he was a manager for his boys at high school, right? Right. That's why your son chose his high school, right?

That's right. But what is his other managerial or coaching or anything experience outside of that other than, I mean, playing the game at a Hall of Fame level, which, as we've seen, doesn't necessarily qualify you for being a great manager? I mean, off the top of my head, how many Hall of Fame players were great, long-time successful managers? Usually it's guys who were journeymen or kind of got a taste of the big leagues and catchers or just good.

Yeah. I'm trying to think of the last, let me think about this, and we take some other calls. The last awesome, awesome, awesome player that was an awesome, awesome, awesome manager. That's going to be a while. It was, uh,

Was Frank Robinson a good manager at all? No, he's not a good manager. Hall of Fame player, not a good manager. Let's go next to Larry and Galveston of the Matt Thomas show at 237. Hi, Larry. MT, how are you doing, bud? Good, buddy. What's up with you?

Well, I'll tell you what. I understand where Jim Cranes coming as far as the apology type thing. but personally, I am not in favor of the players apologizing because Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred has already run their course and done their investigating into the Astros. And, you know, so they came out, they fined the Astros. They took draft choices away from us. They suspended our general manager and our skipper for a year. And I really think that we just really need to just go on and move on because we got a great team.

Personally, I don't think that it affected all that much in 2017, but some people, people obviously do. But let's just move on and play ball in 2020. That's all I got by. Thank you, Larry. I don't think people are going to, this is not going to dominate every single day forever in baseball and certainly for us as Astros fans and observers and media. But until there are games to be played, and this is still, you know, and again, Ross and I

do not come up and go, hey, let's figure out a new way to spin this. I'm not going to do that. What I'm going to do is if Scott Boris speaks like he did a couple days ago, we're going to mention those quotes. Lance McCuller is coming on our show yesterday. And the fact that there's another managerial candidate, I mean, there is some astro news. But at the end of the day, this is going to carry a lot of the conversation,

Ross, until we get real games. Because we do want to see if this turbulent offseason does affect the team that should be, I still believe, the considerable favorite to win the American League West this year. I agree with that. And yeah, it's January 24th. They're not going to play games right now. It is what it is.

I want them to play games. You want them to play games. We all want it to happen, but you have to wait. We don't get to decide when the season starts. So this is what we're going to talk about. When they get ready for opening day and when they start traveling around and when Dodgers fans start showing up to Anaheim, we'll start talking about that. We'll start talking about the games.

We'll start talking about the rotation and whoever the manager is. And did he pull this guy too fast or why is he doing this with his lineup card? We'll get into all of that. when the season starts. Yeah, Boston are going down, and at less than a month, on a spring training, we'll do three days of shows from there. We'll hopefully have a new manager to speak to, a general manager, and some of the players.

This two shall pass. But right now, you have somebody new in Major League Baseball every day willing to pontificate on it, and it's at least our jobs as a conversational piece to bring up who says things and what they say, sometimes as absurd as they are. Let's go to Jay in Sugarland at 240 on the Matt Thomas show. Jay, what do you have this afternoon?

Well, on this, anything goes Friday question, I want everybody's opinion except Matt Thomas. Well, on days when Matt Thomas is not here, Ross names the show, the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. That's a long title for a show, 10 syllables. So why not just say the Matt Thomas no show? Straight to the point, six syllables. More concision, yes. Listen, why mention Matt Thomas named twice when he's not even there? Right?

Well, your solution implies that there's no show. Well, we love you, Matt Thomas. Bye. Yeah, that answer would imply that there is no show grammatically. The Matt Thomas No Show. Well, Matt Thomas No Showed. That's true. That, frankly, was a perfect way to end.

Anything goes Friday for that call right there. I like saying it just because I think it's funny. I think it's very funny. And I think it demonstrates. I mean, it's letting people know. This is still the Matt Thomas show. Because sometimes when we'll get fill-ins with whoever, with any show, people calling, hey, where's Matt?

What happened to Matt? Always. Or when it would be, you know, Adam or Sean or anybody or I would fill in for, I don't remember, some guy named Josh we had in the morning. People say, is Josh gone or whatever? So I just want to make it clear. It's the Matt Thomas show. Just without Matt Thomas.

He's out. He's doing whatever. So I kind of feel like maybe I don't know if I even do it too much, Matt. I feel like I do it just because people are always listening and people are always tuning in at different times. Got to let him know. Matt Thomas, okay. He's just out having a shrimp cocktail and on private jets and at five diamond hotels. Yeah.

It's almost like we're not allowed to have a vacation day. You know, if I'm gone for two or three days in a row, is he, is he still employed? Right. Well, I'll say this. Next Thursday, you're going to be in Miami. Yes. I'm going to be traveling back to Houston.

Uh-oh. It will be the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Uh-oh. I'm going to say it 50 times. It'll be Ross Villanreal with a bunch of medium to potentially great guests. More in the long lines of medium guests. I haven't heard from this guy in 25 years. and he's trying to sell me some free dose.

How about this, Matt? How about I just call it the sports RV show the whole time and tell people you've been fired? That's don't confuse. Now, some may applaud it. But Jay still like me. He did say Matt love you. Yeah, that was nice and he did that.

That's important. There are others that would love to see me gone. That's fine. I'm glad you're here, Matt. Maybe we should just extend it further and say the Matt Thomas show with no Matt Thomas, special guest host, Ross Villa Real, a Niccolo production. Oh, I love that even more.

I like that. Hey, guys, that carries at least five minutes of airtime between noon and three. It's a good way to kill time. Ross, what is today's topic on hell yeah or not? It is Alicia Manning. Alicia Manning? Yeah. Am I supposed to know who that is?

You don't know who that is? Alicia. Is that... He just announced his retirement today. Why we call him Alicia? That's his name. No, it's not. It's Elijah.

It's got to be Elijah. E-L-I-S-H-A Nelson Manning the 4th. Or is it? Hellier-N-H-N-E-N-A. You're going to make that one? I figured that was widely known, but since you... Let's make that question number...

Let's make a question number five. Okay. So we'll have a nine question, Hellyer and out. All things Eli Manning. Next, 244 on Sports Talk 790. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. It's your home.

Foster's baseball. Stephen Huffman before we say, Hell yeah, not on Sports Talk 790. Steve, good afternoon to you. Thanks for holding. Hey, Matt. I was going to make a small little request of Dan Tony since you're up there around it, but I'll save that for another day. Okay. With everything, this is one hell of the baseball team at the end of the day, that's not going to change.

You know what I? Here's my take. Team, I think it's so goddamn irritated and pissed. I think they have a right to be in a lot of cases. And I think this is going to do nothing but Calvinize this team we've never seen. It would surprise me if this team wins 120 games this year. And pose the World Series and wins it hands down. Just to stick at the end up. MLB. Okay. I would love that. Thank you for the phone call.

120 is a little aggressive, frankly, especially because I think the Rangers are going to be a better baseball team this year. The A's don't ever go away and hide. And the Angels just picked up Anthony Rendon. But it doesn't mean they still can't win 95 games and win the American League well. I'm going to, Matt. I think why not 125? What am I going to do with you?

What? Love me? The Astros are going to go 125 and 37. So you're telling me there's a chance. They're going to lose 1.1 time per week. It's going to be a great squad. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it Monday through Thursday. Believe it or not. But on Fridays, we call it a hell yeah or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Hellier, not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spouse.

Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston WoodhouseSpos.com. The category today is all things about Eli Manning. I'll read you statement about Eli. The statement's completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this. Hell yeah! If it's erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you both say this. Not.

To Hell yeah, Arnott's in her own. All things about. about Eli Manning, winning a prize. Ross, what's the prize? Fantastic news. Matt, I got a four pack of tickets and pre-event pit party passes for the first Monster Jam of 2020, Saturday, February 8th at NRG Stadium. Don't hurt yourself. It's a Friday, you're fine.

Well, you're calling a game. Oh, that was a big mistake. Get some hot tea. Ross, who's playing? Let's go. Okay, let's go first up, is Todd. Here on, believe it or not. Todd, you ready to play Hell yeah or not?

Hell yeah Walt Ole Miss Eli Manning beat out BJ Simmons with a starting job Simmons eventually transferred the Texas Tech where he started for one year

hell yeah or not not and Ross I lost the audio back to the station so my man you have to carry it the rest of the way okay Todd question number two Archie Manning's number 10

was retired at Ole Miss then unretired so that Eli Manning could wear it and then re-retired following Eli Manning's graduation Believe it or not. Or hell yeah or not? No, I'm sorry. I made that one up.

This is much more satisfying when I'm reading the questions and they get it wrong. All right, let's go next to Bill here on hell yeah or not. Bill, you ready to play the game? Hell yeah. All right. Eli Manning is seventh, all time in touchdowns thrown. And 12th, all time in interceptions thrown. Hell yeah, or not?

No satisfaction. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. That is correct. All right, question number two for the win, according to their NFL combined measurements. Eli Manning is just a quarter inch taller than his brother, Peyton. Hell yeah, or not? They both got them long ahead and four heads.

God damn. Hell yeah. Oh, I know. That's unfortunate. Sorry, you got that one. All right, let's go next to Matt here on Hell Yeah or not. Matt, you're ready to play the game? Hell yeah.

Eli Manning's full name is Alicia Nelson Manning the fourth. Hell yeah or not. Not. If we're just listening literally eight minutes ago, you would have heard that. All right, let's move along. Let's go next to Eddie. Eddie, are you ready to play?

Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah. All right, Eli Manning made it to four Pro Bowls. For two of those, he was used as an injury replacement alternate. Hell yeah, or not? not yeah talked about that

yesterday on in the trenches with ND so if you're listening you would have picked up on that one let's keep it going with Corey

Corey you're ready to play hell yeah or not all right Eli Manning appeared on a season 21 episode of the cartoon series The Simpsons

hell yeah or not hell yes he did he was also with Cooper and Peyton Manning on that episode It was called Oh Brother Wear Bartow.

All right. Last one for the win. In 2017, Eli Manning was involved in a lawsuit where memorabilia collectors alleged he gave them bogus game-worn helmets and gear. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah.

Absolutely correct. That happened recently, but I totally forgotten about that, Nick. Yeah, I remember that. Do we have Matt Thomas back? It's easy to you still can't hear us. Okay, well, apparently Matt, well, can we just communicate him to talk. So, well, you know what, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show. I guess thanks to Matt Thomas.

We had a couple of issues there in Minneapolis, but we got through the show as normal. It is now time for Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler here on the A-Team on Sports Talk 790. I want to thank all of you for listening to the show and being with us. We appreciate you very much, especially those you called, tweeted, got involved in a show in any way. Thanks to Nick Lowe for producing doing a great job as always. My name is Ross v. Real. You know what? Matt's not here. Shameless plug.

Sports RV show tomorrow, 11 a.m. here on Sports Talk 790.